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Watson laugh. “Bad?” he said. “Bad is when you miss the base with a throw. You missed the whole stinking
field
, dude.”
    There was nothing for Nick to say back. Even if he had had Gracie there getting in his ear and telling him what to say, giving him some smart comeback, Nick knew he still wouldn’t have said anything. He had read enough about sports to know how rookies were supposed to behave, how they were supposed to know their place.
    How they were supposed to keep their mouths shut.
    Nick did that now. As he walked past Gary and back around home plate, he found himself looking all the way down to the other end of the upper fields at Hayworth where the JV team was. He could see Coach Leeman in the distance going into that goofy full windup of his.
    In that moment Nick couldn’t believe how much he wanted to be down there catching him, wanted to be back with
his
team in the worst way.
    The JV team, that was his baseball family.
    Nick could tell that already.
    Already he was hoping that Bobby Mazzilli was a fast healer, maybe the fastest in history.
    Nick Crandall’s first varsity practice never did get any better.
    When it was his turn to hit, Steve Carberry strapped on the gear and went behind the plate. And when Nick, after a few weak grounders and some wild swings and misses, finally managed a weak fly ball to left-field, Steve said, “Shoot, I lost the bet.”
    “What bet?” Nick said.
    “The one with Jack that you couldn’t get the ball out of the infield.”
    “Sorry,” Nick said.
    Then as Nick was walking away, he heard this from behind him: “Quit now.”
    It could have been Steve, could have been somebody over near the bench on the first-base side of the field, Nick wasn’t sure. When he turned around, all he saw was Steve settling into his crouch, waiting for Coach Williams to pitch to Joey Johnson.
    “What?” Nick said.
    Now Steve turned. “You talking to me?”
    “Yeah.”
    Steve flipped his mask back, and when he did, Nick could see the big smile on his face. “I didn’t say anything,” Steve said.
    By then, it didn’t matter whether he had or hadn’t. His message, and Gary Watson’s, had already been delivered loud and clear.
    When Joey had finished taking his cuts, Coach Williams told Nick to get his equipment back on while everybody took a water break.
    Nick went to the end of the bench, alone, put his knee pads on first, the way he always did, then slipped his chest protector over his head. When he was finished, he saw that Coach Williams had come over to sit next to him.
    “I know this has been a rough day for you,” he said.
    “I can’t do
anything.
”
    “Today,”
Coach Williams said. “You can’t do anything today. You must feel like this is your first day at school all over again.”
    “More like I’m
getting
schooled,” Nick said.
    “It will get better, I promise.”
    “No it won’t.”
    “Sure it will.” Coach Williams gently turned Nick around a little bit on the bench, so Nick was facing him. “Look at me,” he said.
    Nick did.
    “It’s gotta work,” Coach Williams said. “And I’ll tell you why: Because if you look bad, so do I.”
    Nick said, “No, no, no, this is on me.”
    “Now, that’s where you’re
really
wrong,” Coach Williams said. “Because this deal is on both of us. For however long we’re together.”
    Nick settled down a little bit after that. He still wasn’t throwing the way he knew he could, still hadn’t nailed a single guy trying to steal. There was too much air underneath most of his throws, but at least he was getting them to second and third on the fly, wasn’t skipping balls past his fielders or shooting them so far over their heads they would have needed brooms to knock them down.
    Still, when Coach Williams announced that Conor Bell was going to be the last batter of the day, Nick was relieved. Usually he didn’t wantpractice to end. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to get home, now that he had a real home.