The Best Bat Page 3

  Rhino took a deep breath. The pitcher wound up into his motion.

  Whack! Rhino connected solidly and the ball soared toward deep center field. Everyone in the bleachers stood to watch. The Mustangs players erupted with cheers.

  Rhino rounded first. He heard another huge cheer.

  The Bears’ shortstop leaped with his fist in the air. The second baseman let out a whoop.

  Rhino glanced to the outfield. The center fielder was holding up his glove. The ball was tucked inside.

  Rhino stopped running and stared at the outfielder. The Bears were shouting and jumping.

  Game over.

  If I had my bat, that would have been gone, Rhino told himself. Six more inches and it would have been a homer.

  Rhino walked slowly to the dugout. No excuses, he told himself. Still, he couldn’t help thinking that his own bat would have made the difference. A loss in their first game.

  Rhino felt a tug on his sleeve. He turned to see Carlos looking up at him. “Nice hit,” Carlos said in a shy voice. He held up his palm and Rhino gave him a high five. But Rhino felt awful.

  Coach congratulated them on a tough, well-played game. But how could Rhino be the team leader after a game like that? He’d made a big mistake on defense and a near-miss in his final at bat.

  Bella smiled at him. Rhino looked away.

  “Here,” Bella said, holding out a fresh water bottle. “Take a drink.”

  “No, thanks,” Rhino said. He followed Cooper out of the dugout and didn’t look back. Bella looked down at the ground and kicked a rock across the infield dirt.

  “There’s another game in a few minutes,” Cooper said. “Want to watch?”

  Rhino shrugged. “I guess,” he said. Then he realized that he’d left his sweatshirt in the dugout. He ran back for it and met Cooper over in the bleachers.

  Rhino was frustrated. He didn’t say much through the start of the game.

  “Thirsty?” Cooper asked after two innings.

  Rhino nodded. “Let’s get a soda.”

  He reached into his sweatshirt pocket for some money. He pulled out a folded sheet of paper. It was another note.

  Rhino read it out loud. “Clue three: Pay more attention and your bat will come back.”

  Pay attention to what? Rhino had no idea. He always tried to stay focused. “Any idea who wrote this?” he asked Cooper.

  “Somebody on the team, I guess,” Cooper said.

  Rhino nodded. “Somebody like our pitcher, I think.” His thinker told him not to accuse Dylan again without evidence. But this time, Rhino thought his thinker was wrong.

  “I’ve got some homework I need to finish,” Rhino told Cooper. “I should get home.” Cooper and Rhino slapped palms and pointed at each other. It was their handshake. Rhino started walking home.

  * * *

  Later that afternoon, Rhino sat with Grandpa James on the porch and told him about the game.

  “Sounds as if you played well,” Grandpa said. “Sorry I missed it.” C.J.’s game had been at the same time. “I can only be one place at a time,” Grandpa said with a grin. “I’ll be at your next one.”

  Rhino told himself that he’d play better when Grandpa came to see him.

  “You hit the ball hard,” Grandpa said. “No one gets a hit every time. And for your first game at a new position, you did great.”

  “Except for that one play,” Rhino said.

  “That was a tough one,” Grandpa replied. “But remember that even the Major Leaguers make errors. It’s part of the game, and you will continue to learn from your mistakes.”

  Rhino nodded. He felt better. “Next time,” he said.

  “You’ve got a whole season,” Grandpa said. “You’ll have plenty of chances. Keep working hard, keep learning, keep your spirits up. And have fun.”

  “I will.” Today’s game had been fun. It was tough to lose, but they’d have another game in a few days.

  Think positive, Rhino’s thinker said. Leaders take the good with the bad.

  Something else was nagging at Rhino, though. “You’ve been working hard in the backyard,” he said. “Expanding the garden, huh?”

  Grandpa smiled. “I want to see more growth.”

  “It looks like there won’t be much room to bat.”

  “We’ll see,” Grandpa said. “We’ll see.”

  Rhino nodded, but he felt sad. Did Grandpa think Rhino was too old for playing in the yard? Rhino loved being on a baseball team, but he enjoyed those hours in the yard with Grandpa just as much. Maybe more.

  He wasn’t ready to give that up.

  Over the weekend, Rhino and C.J. went to the park to throw around the football. It was a lot of fun having his brother to himself for a while. C.J. could throw bombs, and Rhino would have to dive to try and catch them. But the entire time Rhino was distracted, thinking about those clues. Pay attention? The answer is right? He couldn’t figure it out.

  After he found another note in his school desk on Monday, he still had no idea what the clues meant.

  That sounded familiar. He thought and thought, and finally he remembered. Dylan had said, “It’s up to you” when Rhino went to bat in the last inning of Saturday’s game.

  Maybe someone else was writing the notes for Dylan so his writing wouldn’t be recognized.

  This has gone on long enough, Rhino decided. My bat isn’t lost. Someone has it. And that isn’t fair. Rhino’s patience was running out.

  He decided to take this up with Dylan as soon as he saw him. That would make Rhino feel better. He tried to put it out of his mind until then and concentrate on his classwork.

  Midway through the morning, Rhino saw Dylan walk by the classroom. Rhino put up his hand and asked for permission to get a drink.

  “Ryan, it’s nearly lunchtime,” Mrs. Imburgia said.

  “I’m very thirsty,” Rhino said.

  “All right,” the teacher replied.

  The hallway was empty except for Dylan. Rhino called to him.

  Dylan stopped and turned. Rhino read the words SURF’S UP on his T-shirt.

  “Hey, Mustang,” Dylan said.

  Rhino walked over and kept his voice at a whisper. He showed Dylan the new note. “Do you know anything about this?” he asked.

  “I already told you I’m not involved.”

  “Listen,” Rhino said. “You want to win, right? Well, I’ll hit better with my own bat.”

  Dylan shrugged. “The bat doesn’t matter so much. A lot of them are alike.”

  “That’s not the point.” Rhino stepped closer so he was just a few inches from Dylan. He leaned in and raised his voice. “It’s my bat.”

  Dylan spoke louder, too. “And it’s your problem. Not mine.”

  “You’re the problem!” Rhino said.

  Rhino turned when he heard his teacher’s voice. “What are you boys doing?” Mrs. Imburgia said from the doorway.

  “I was minding my own business,” Dylan said. “Rhino started this.”

  “It’s finished now,” Mrs. Imburgia said. “And if I hear you two arguing like that again, you’ll both go to the principal.”

  Dylan blushed and walked away.

  Rhino swallowed hard. Grandpa James would not be happy if he got a phone call from the principal. That might be the end of baseball for a while.

  Mrs. Imburgia’s expression seemed to be half a smile and half a frown. Rhino had never been in trouble in her classroom.

  “That didn’t seem like you, Ryan,” she said.

  “Dylan’s on my baseball team,” Rhino mumbled. “He can be a pain.”

  “We’ll leave it at that this time,” the teacher said. “But I don’t want to see that kind of behavior again.”

  Rhino nodded. “Sorry,” he said. “Thanks for not sending us to the principal’s office. It won’t happen again.”

  At least not in school, Rhino thought. I’m not done with Dylan yet. I want my bat back.

  At lunch, Rhino sat with the dinosaur group, but his mi
nd was on his bat. He chewed his PB&J sandwich, munched on his BBQ chips, and didn’t speak for a long time.

  Bella asked, “What’s wrong?”

  Rhino unfolded the new note and showed it to her. “How can it be ‘up to me’ if I don’t even know where the bat is?”

  Cooper reached over and picked up the paper. “I vote that we talk about this note instead of stegosaurs,” he said. Cooper had been shy at the lunch table when they first started sitting there. Now he had no problem talking in front of his new friends.

  “That’s fine by me,” said Kerry.

  Rhino told everyone about the other three clues.

  “Pay attention to what?” Kerry asked, reading from the note.

  “I don’t know,” Rhino said. “These clues don’t make sense. I’ve thought about them for days.”

  “This is getting us nowhere,” Bella said. “The only question we should be thinking about right now is ‘What did stegosaurs eat?’ ”

  “We need to help Rhino,” Cooper said.

  “There’s nothing we can do,” Bella replied. She turned to Rhino. “Whoever has the bat will give it back,” she said. “Maybe you did something wrong, and they’re waiting for you to make it right.”

  “I didn’t do anything wrong,” Rhino said.

  Bella raised one eyebrow at him. “Are you sure about that?” she asked. Then, turning to the group sitting at the table, she said, “Stegosaurs! I read that their brains weren’t any bigger than a golf ball.”

  Others chimed in with more stegosaur facts. Rhino read the new clue again and stuck it in his pocket. There was no sense wasting a good lunchtime worrying about it. “I heard that they ate rocks,” Rhino said.

  “No way,” said Kerry. “Why would they do that?”

  “Someone was messing with you, Rhino,” Cooper said with a laugh.

  Rhino shook his head. He’d read it in three different books. “Birds do it, so why not dinosaurs?” he said. “Having rocks in their stomachs helped to grind up the food. You can look it up. I’m serious.”

  “Like a chicken’s gizzard?” Cooper asked.

  “Yeah,” Rhino said. “Scientists think lots of plant-eaters did that.”

  “Pretty weird and gross,” said Kerry. She glanced at the clock. “Almost out of time. Everyone find out more crazy dino facts for tomorrow.”

  “Bring a tasty lunch, everybody,” Rhino said. “No rocks.”

  Bella got up and walked away from the table first. Rhino watched her walk away. Could I have done something wrong and not know it? Rhino thought. He grabbed his book bag and left the cafeteria with everyone else.

  Rhino and Cooper ran all the way to the field after school on Tuesday. This would be their first practice session since Saturday’s game.

  “Slow down a little,” Cooper said. “You don’t want to tire yourself out.”

  “No chance!” Rhino said. “I can’t wait to get there.”

  Coach Ray and Bella were already at the field. Bella waved to him, but Rhino just ran past her. She didn’t even want to help me solve the clues at lunch. All she wanted to do was talk about dinosaurs. He scooped up a baseball and threw it to Cooper, then ran to catch the return throw. Cooper threw it high in the air toward second base.

  “Throw it here!” Bella said.

  Rhino glanced over, but he tossed the ball to Cooper instead. “Here comes Manny,” he said to Bella. “Throw with him.”

  Coach soon clapped his hands and yelled for the players to gather in the dugout. Rhino saw Dylan scrambling over the right-field fence, late as usual. Dylan sprinted across the field.

  “We’ve been doing some good work on the baseball field,” Coach said. “But we have work to do off the field. Some of you still forget that this is a team.”

  Rhino shifted his feet. Coach wouldn’t know about his argument with Dylan at school. But he did know about their quarrel before the last game.

  Coach pointed to Cooper’s feet. “No cleats today, Cooper?” he asked.

  “I forgot,” Cooper said.

  Coach pointed to Manny. “What about your cap?” he asked.

  “I left it at home,” Manny said. “Sorry about that.”

  Coach nodded. “As I’ve said before, show up ready to play. That means full equipment.” He turned to Dylan. “And just as important, show up on time. As athletes, we need to take responsibility.”

  There was that word again. Responsibility. Rhino’s thinker had done a lot of work on that. But was he living up to it?

  “More important than any of this is teamwork and sportsmanship,” Coach said. “Each of us needs to treat the others the way we’d expect to be treated. If I see players arguing again, their playing time will be cut.”

  Rhino gulped. He knew Coach was referring to him. His stomach felt squirmy.

  “Even if they’re the best players on the team,” Coach added.

  Rhino glanced at Dylan, then looked down. Coach probably noticed that Dylan had been mean to Carlos, too. Rhino wished Coach had seen him stand up for his teammate.

  Coach smiled. “Most of you are new at this, so I know you’ll make mistakes,” he said. “Now, let’s get on the field and prepare for the next game. I watched the Falcons play on Saturday, and they’re very good.”

  Rhino walked quickly to first base. He wondered if he should apologize to Dylan. After all, Rhino had started both arguments. Then again, maybe Dylan had started it all by taking the bat.

  I’ll wait and see, Rhino thought. If it turns out Dylan is innocent, I’ll definitely apologize.

  Cooper was pitching today, and Dylan moved to shortstop. Bella trotted past Rhino on her way to right field. She winked at him.

  Rhino smiled. Bella was always nice to him, and he knew he’d been ignoring her lately. Treat everyone the way you want to be treated. “Play great, Bella,” he said.

  “You too.”

  Rhino swung his arms to loosen up some more. Now, focus on baseball and have some fun, he thought.

  “Let’s get ready for a win on Thursday!” Rhino called.

  * * *

  Rhino stayed at first base for most of the practice session even though Coach shifted some of the other players around. Dylan moved over to pitcher and Cooper slid to shortstop. Coach gave Rhino more tips. The most important was to get a feel for where to stand in every situation. Rhino had to be able to field any ball hit close to his right or left. He also needed to be near enough to the base to get there in time for throws from the other infielders.

  Rhino knew that it was a very important position, and he liked the feeling of being involved in almost every play. I’m in charge of this infield!

  “The more experience you get, the more comfortable you’ll be,” Coach said. “First base takes a lot of learning.”

  Toward the end of practice, Cooper hit a high pop fly between first and second base. Rhino judged it, shouted, “Me, me, me!” and moved into position to catch it.

  “Smart call,” Coach said. He’d been telling the players all season to call for the ball to warn the others so there wouldn’t be a collision. They were starting to get it, but some of them forgot. Rhino always got that right. Grandpa James had taught him to do that.

  “Last batter!” Coach called.

  Rhino knew that was him. He tossed the ball to Dylan on the mound.

  Rhino ran to the dugout. He picked up a couple of bats and looked them over. Then he saw a familiar bat in the rack.

  It was his!

  Rhino didn’t care how the bat got there. He was so happy he could burst.

  He walked to the batter’s box with a big grin and tapped the bat on home plate. Give me your best pitch, he thought. It’ll be “bye-bye baseball.”

  Dylan looked intense. He went into his wind-up and fired the ball. Rhino followed it, timing his swing. With all his might, he took a powerful cut.

  Whoosh. The ball popped into the catcher’s glove. Dylan pumped his fist.

  Rhino let out a deep breath and looked toward t
he center field fence. One strike, he thought. No big deal.

  “Don’t overswing,” Coach called. “Meet the ball.”

  Rhino had heard that often from Grandpa James. He had plenty of power. He just needed to make contact.

  He lined the next pitch over Manny’s head. It dropped safely into right field, and Bella fielded it.

  “Take a few more swings,” Coach said.

  Rhino hit one deep into center field, then banged one off the fence in left. His bat felt perfect.

  Watch out, Falcons, he thought. Thursday night will belong to the Mustangs.

  * * *

  Bella pulled Rhino aside after practice. “Great hitting,” she said.

  “Thanks. My bat makes a difference.”

  “Did you figure out who took it?”

  Rhino shook his head. “I guess it doesn’t matter,” he said. “What matters is that I got it back.”

  “That’s the right answer,” Bella said.

  Rhino gave her a puzzled look.

  “Right,” she said. “As in right fielder.”

  “You took it?” Rhino was shocked. Bella was always so nice to him.

  Bella shrugged. “I just meant it as a practical joke,” she said. “I was going to give it right back, but then you started ignoring me.”

  “No, I didn’t,” Rhino said. “I was just distracted. Because of the bat.”

  “I’m really sorry,” Bella said. “I hope you’ll forgive me. I want us to be friends.”

  “Where did you hide it?”

  “After that practice, I put it under our car seat so my dad wouldn’t find it,” Bella said. “I told him all about it before practice today. He said I can’t watch TV or play video games for a week.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me before practice?” Rhino asked.

  “My dad wanted you to concentrate on playing first base today. That’s why he had you bat last. So you’d find the bat on your own.”

  Rhino laughed. “That was a bad practical joke,” he said. “Not cool!”

  “I’m sorry,” Bella replied.

  Rhino knew that he also had someone to say sorry to.

  This wouldn’t be easy, but Rhino stood proudly. It was all about responsibility and honesty. He’d been wrong to accuse anyone unless he’d been certain. Dylan knows how to be a big-mouthed bully, but he was right about one thing. He’s not a thief.