Chapter 5
"Hustle, hustle, hustle!" Wally yelled at the team. They were in pairs of two tossing a baseball to their partner.
"Dude, we've hustled for two hours already!" Christian sighed, passing the ball to David. "Can't we stop?"
"No! I'm destined to beat this poser!" Wally yelled. "Besides, we didn't work hard enough last time!"
Everyone stopped what they were doing. Both Raleigh and Kiki were hit with baseballs.
"What are you talking about, Sparkle Butt?" Abby asked.
"We sweat enough to fill a swimming pool!" David yelled.
"Just go back to 'hustling'! I wanna see you sweating enough to fill TWO cruddy swimming pools!" Wally ordered.
So that's what they did.
And they LOST their next game. At the house (this one got to be at Chase Field, so no hotel), Wally gave them a lecture about how they didn't work hard enough.
"Wally, we worked hard enough!" Kacey yelled. "The other team probably just worked HARDER than we did!"
"EXACTLY! We need to work so hard that NO ONE could ever be better!"
"What? We work hard enough! More than YOU!" Kiki screamed.
"ENOUGH!" Emma shrieked. "I looked at the tape from the Tornados' practice field, and they drank energy drinks. No wonder they beat us."
"Isn't that cheating?" Kiki asked.
"Nope. I checked the rule book."
"Dangit." She muttered.
"Well, if they wanna play hard ball, we can play hard ball." Wally said.
A their next game, the Hyenas tried their best, and pushed limits. And you'll never believe this.
They won. (OHMAHGAAAAAAAAAWD)
"YES!" Kacey and Raleigh fist pumped each other.
"IN YER FACE YOU BUTTUGLY SCHMUCK!" Kiki yelled at Sak.
"Oh, you kids wait..." Sak said. He went up to Megan. He picked up her hand, then wrote on it. Megan was confused, but let him go ahead.
After Sak left, Megan checked her hand. She facepalmed.
"What?" Kuki asked.
"His number." Megan showed her hand to everyone. In crappy handwriting, it said a collection of numbers.
Kacey squinted at it. "He never could write."
"Ugh, that guy is so weird." Megan said. She began to rub it off.
Emma came down from the box, seeing everything.
"Wait, Megan, maybe we could use it for something." She said.
"OOH! We could trick him into going into a closet with Megan, then we could have him kiss a pig!" Kiki said.
"Or we could prank call him! I know a good one!" Raleigh said.
"No, I meant we could use it to see how they're playing! Then we could devise our own way around their plan. We'd win for sure! These next two game decide who wins!" Emma said.
David's cell rang.
"Turn it off." Kacey told him.
Instead David answered. "Hello?"
"Hello, is Anita Bath there?" Raleigh asked on her cell phone from behind Kiki.
Some kids snickered.
"Anita Bath? (I need a bath) Nope, wrong number. Bye." David hung up.
The kids laughed.
Then, Emma smacked them both.
"You guys! Do you wanna win or what?" She yelled.
"Emma's right. If we beat this guy, we go into the Minor League World Series." Wally said. "We can't just blow away an opportunity like this."
"Wally, Wally, Wally!" Abby said. "We'll win against this guy for sure! I mean, he's 15 and hitting on Megan. There's SOMETHING wrong with this guy."
"How is there something wrong this guy hittin' on me?" Megan asked.
"He's THREE years older than you!" Abby argued. "I meant know offense."
"Listen! I want you guys to go work! And all your sweat DOES need to be collected in a swimming pool!" Wally said. "We're gonna practice at the Skate Park, above the ramp that's made to look like a pool!"
"What? We'd have to work like 4 hours of just freakin' RUNNING!" Kiki said. "I can hardly walk up to the TV to change the channel and back!"
"Too bad." Wally said. And instead of letting his team ride in the limo on the way there, he made them ride in the smelly old bus. And lemme tell ya, Christian and Abby needed window seats. (Does you know why?)
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When they were done practicing, Wally led them back to the hotel. (The rest of the games are at Fenway park) They had a huge room, a bed for everyone. And three TV's! So they were living it up.
"Y'know, Wally," Raleigh began. "For a mean coach, you sure are good at picking hotels."
"And hotel rooms." David added.
"Yes, and to pay for this room, you each have to chip in some of your pay from the games we play." Emma said.
"We get paid?!?!!?!!?!" Christian screamed.
"Yes, and you each make 200 dollars per hour on the field. And for this hotel room it's two thousand dollars. But, each of you has two thousand dollars anyway, so let me worry about the money. You guys worry about the playing." Emma said. She sat down on her bed and got out the calculator.
"I'm so buying myself a new video camera when this is over!" Kacey told Raleigh.
"Knott's Berry Farm POV's?" She asked.
"You know it."
"Hey, can you come with me in the closet Wally?" Kuki asked.
Everyone else went "Oooooooh..." or "AWWWW!!!!" or "Nasty."
"Shut up." Wally said.
They got in the closet.
"What did you want?" Wally asked.
Kuki had tears running down her face. The lit from the room was shining through the crack from the not completely closed door. Wally saw her.
"Oh, what's wrong?" He asked.
"Wally, I'm so sorry..." She sniffed.
"Sorry about what?"
"I can't take it anymore, Hun." Kuki wiped the tears away.
"David's weirdness? Raleigh's spazziness? Tell me, and I can fix it."
"Wally... it's.... your bossiness. You work us too hard." Kuki broke down.
"What? I..." Wally never expected it to affect anyone. Especially his girlfriend.
"I'm so sorry, but I'm quitting the team." Kuki said. She buried her head in Wally's shoulder.
"But- but-"
"And since I really like baseball, I'm joining Sak's team." Kuki said. She sniffed ad wiped her eyes.
"Kuki, I can fix this! You don't have to do this!" Wally said.
"I love you, but you're too bossy when it comes to sports." Kuki sniffed. She got up, left the closet, and told Emma. Emma sighed, but she went to go talk to Sak. Kuki tagged along.
Wally sighed. He had just ruined everything. He sat there for a few minutes. Then he realized something.
Kuki had said she loved him.