I turn to my right to find my mom and two sisters lounging in tranquility on the navy blue blanket placed on the ground, basking in the sunshine. Kayla is to my right taking practice swings with her new 2010 Louisville Slugger bat; she struts like a peacock as she takes each fierce swing. I sit on the sturdy bench in the dugout while the mouth-watering smell of burnt barbeque chicken dances around my nose. The sound of children laughing and parents cheering on their teams is a sound of music to my ears; I missed the sights, sounds and smells of Opening Day. The scorching sun blinds me as I step out of the dugout to cheer on the batter; I pull my bright red visor down to protect my eyes.



Kayla and I trot over to the metal fence anxious for our team to score, I look over at her to see her staring back at me, her teeth clenched, sweat on her face and desperate baby blue eyes glaring right through me. We are losing by two points and realize that someone needs to score soon or it’ll cost us the entire game. In the distance, over at the opposite teams dugout I spot my old friend, Ashley Watrous, I didn’t recognize her at first but knew it was her once she waved back at me. She used to be my best friend a few years back when I attended school at Pequea Valley, she definitely changed since the last time I saw her and it bothered me because she didn’t look the same. She was heavier and had gained a lot of weight; I couldn’t help but judge her because she was different.


“Look over there,” Kayla laughed as she pointed over to Ashley skipping to the batter’s box, “Look how big she is, this will be funny to watch her strike out, easy out!” I couldn’t help but agree with her, I mean she was very large and we really didn’t talk or hangout together anymore so I wasn’t really “judging” right? She took the first pitch as a strike, everyone laughed at her but she didn’t seem to notice. The second pitch came flying toward Ashley and what do you know she smacked that ball right over the fence and didnt even flinch when her bat split in two. She sprinted around each base as if she were floating on air, she had to be the fastest runner Ive seen in my life.


Kayla and I both learned our lesson that day and that is to never judge a book by its cover. Im surprised we didn’t get smacked in the face with a ball as karma just for laughing at her while everyone else knew that she was the most talented player on the team. We actually apologized to Ashley at the end of the game because we felt so bad for laughing at her. The score of the softball game at opening day ended up being 11-8, Pequea had beaten us by three points because of Ashleys famous RBI. Im glad we lost that game because it taught me a valuable lesson in the end.