Power Pros Forum

E since it is the only musically-themed choice

“A rap battle? Sounds cool,” said Anthony, “let’s do that!”

“I’d rather not,” said Ollie.
“Yeah, I don’t really like rap, and that doesn’t sound all that fun,” Tommy agreed.

“I’d honestly rather go swimming,” Grayson said. Christopher nodded in agreement.

“The stargazing thing sounds cool,” Zack said.

Matthew piped up. “I’m good with either swimming or stargazing,” he said.

“I’m good with whatever,” Jackson said as he ran a hand through his shaggy brown hair.

“I’d rather play capture the flag,” Xander said, and Danny instantly agreed with him.

“SO, uh, it actually sounds like we don’t want to do the same thing,” said Xander.
“Thanks, Captain Obvious,” Jackson teased back.

—————————————————————————————————————————————

Thurgood was also upset because the vacation would take place during the weekends of the Panthers’ first two tournaments, and if he made the team, the coaches probably wouldn’t be too pleased with him missing such a big chunk of time.

In any case, he still had the rest of the week to make a good impression on the coaching staff before he and his family left for Syria.

“Stubbs! Take second!”

Thurgood snatched his glove and jogged out to second base, a position he had only started working at at the urging of his Walker Grove coaches, and hadn’t played in a game since first or second grade.

The first batter was Joey, who hit a slow roller to the left of the pitcher’s mound.

What do you do? (LetsGoMets77)

A. Charge the ball and throw to first
B. Charge the ball but don’t risk a throw
C. Let the pitcher (a coach) make the play
D. Let it roll to you
E. Get in the runner’s way

A all the way baby

Thurgood charged the ball, scooped it up into his glove, and fired an off-balance laser to first base, nabbing the runner by half a step.

“*(censored)* you, man,” Joey growled in Thurgood’s ear as the two passed in the dugout after the six-out “inning” had finished.

“Nice play!” remarked Coach Williamson as he took some notes on a clipboard.

(Thurgood: XP +3)

Matthew Simpson and the other POs didn’t really have anything to do, so they found an open spot in the facility and started a game of pepper. One of the coaches walked by and helped the boys with their bunting.

(Matthew: XP +1, GD Bunt acquired)

Harold, meanwhile, was filling whatever position was open for him on defense in the scrimmage. So far, he had played third base, right field, and spent an inning in the dugout, during which he batted against Coach Williamson. The first pitch he got was a batting-practice fastball right down Broadway.

What do you do? (Baseballteen9500)

A. Swing hard
B. Swing soft
C. Bunt
D. Take the pitch???
E. Lean in?!?!?

—————————————————————————————————————————————

Ultimately, though, the group decided to stick to their original vote to do something together, but also decided to roam from activity to activity in an effort to please everyone, starting with a few minutes at the stargazing spot. After Zack and Matthew showed off some of their astrological knowledge, they moved on to capture-the-flag. Xander and Danny eagerly jumped into the game on the red team, and the other boys eventually were persuaded to join them. Danny made a run up the right side of the wide field to try and capture the blue team’s flag, but was tagged and trudged back to his team’s side with a glum look on his face.

“I really thought I had it,” he groaned.
“Come on, dude. You didn’t even touch the flag,” Xander said, shaking his head.

Next, the boys changed into their swimsuits and cooled off in the pool. Anthony got his wish and convinced Xander, Danny, and Jackson to trade short rap verses with him. The only question when it was Xander’s turn was how to open his verse…

That’s it, I’ll go with a classic then.

“It was all a dream, I used to read Word Up magazine,” Xander spat before beginning to freestyle. “Surrounded by the cream, like the cash that is so green. Call these camp raps, because I’m still pretty childish. Lost in the sauce? Nah, I just grab that mild-ish.”

“Weak like the seven days, I go for the Cholula. Willie Mays a genius, I get bank and head like Tallulah,” Jackson rapped, sending the other three boys into a frenzy.

After that, the ten cabinmates just hung out in the pool for a while — nearly an hour, in fact. They started by racing each other from one end of the pool to the other. Then they found a little football and started tossing that back and forth. As they began to grow fatigued, the boys started to play less and talk more, until they finally got out of the pool so they could go up to main camp to shower and get ready.

A. Swing away on that cookie

Apologies for the long wait, I've been working on and off on the next update and I hope to have it done and up by the weekend

Harold threw a big leg kick into his swing, and threw his hands at the ball with all his might. The ball exploded off the bat with a loud ping!, and only a strong gust of wind blowing in stopped it from clearing the fence. Instead, it bounced short, and Harold made it to third as the outfielders struggled to get a hold of the ball and get it back in.

(Harold: XP +5)

Ug Li was also with the group of pitchers working on bunting, but a coach walking by saw him and pulled him aside for some extra work. After grabbing another kid to catch, the coach directed Ug through some pitching drills to improve his form.

“They must really see something in you, if they pulled you aside like that,” Matthew told Ug after practice was over.

(Ug: XP +3)

—————————————————————————————————————————————

The next day, the James family went to the airport. After going through security and waiting for a while, their flight was finally called for boarding, and the seven kids — plus their two parents — boarded together, taking up three full rows at the back of the main cabin.

The flight was about 14 hours long, which was enough time for Jimmy to take a long nap and get some reading done. He had only started reading the first book on the list, while several of his classmates had already knocked out that book and moved on — like Stanislaus, who had already finished four of the twelve books on the list.

Cody Tibbits was also struggling to find time to read, as his and his brother’s hockey practices were taking up a lot of their free time. But they finally had an afternoon off that Wednesday, and Cody decided to dive into The Hunger Games for the first time. He had seen the movie when it came out several years before that, but had forgotten most of the plot…

—————————————————————————————————————————————

Back at the camp, the boys had finally gotten all of their stuff together and had just started to walk up towards the main camp when a younger boy came running in the other direction and slipped on a rock, falling hard on his left side.

“Ow!” the boy yelped in pain.

“I got this,” Tommy said as he knelt down next to the boy, whose left arm was cut open and bleeding. Tommy calmed the boy down and got him to stand up again. “Let’s get you up to the nurse,” he said, and the pajama-clad fifth-grader sniffled and nodded.

The other cabinmates trailed behind the sobbing boy and his new companion as they marched on toward the main camp. Christopher lowered his voice to a whisper to point out a group of girls going the other way back towards the cabins, but the other boys were all either too tired to do anything or already ignoring 99% of the rowdy sixth-grader’s actions, as they all would inevitably come to do.

Once they had finally reached the main camp, Tommy and the fifth-grade boy — who had introduced himself as Christian and had started to smile as Tommy continued to talk to him — went in the nurse’s office while the other nine boys fought over who would get the first showers.

The bathrooms weren’t enormous, but they did have enough room for a double sink, two urinals, two toilet stalls, and three shower stalls, each of them behind a white door that ensured privacy for whoever was showering — at this particular moment, only one of the stalls was occupied, and Matthew quickly started to work out a plan to schedule their showers, asking each of the boys whether they took shorter or longer showers.

“Okay, so since Jackson, Anthony, Grayson, and I take short showers, we can go first,” he started, after he had gotten an answer from everybody. But Christopher and Xander had already bolted into the two vacant stalls, leaving the other boys in their dust.

Matthew sighed. “Never mind then,” he said, resting his chin in the palm of his right hand.

When the third stall opened up, though, it was Jackson who went in next. Anthony followed him in to take Xander’s place, then Grayson took Jackson’s spot, then Matthew took Anthony’s spot… but Christopher was still in the shower.

“Dude, you gotta hurry up,” an increasingly impatient Danny hollered toward the shower stall.
“*(censored)* off,” was Christopher’s reply.

Christopher then turned the water off, but refused to get out, taking his sweet time drying off and changing into the boxers and T-shirt he would wear to bed (if he ever got out of the shower, and if he made it past his infuriated cabinmates in one piece). As Tommy (who was the last boy to shower, as he had walked Christian back to his cabin after he had been bandaged up) got out of the shower and walked back toward the other kids, he shook his head. “I don’t know what we’re gonna do about him,” he muttered as he passed by Xander.

“Wait, where are you going?” Xander asked.
“Back to the cabin.”

Xander shrugged. “We’ll be there soon,” he said. But Christopher was showing no signs of budging, and most of the boys followed Tommy down to the cabin.

The only other kids left at the main camp now were Danny, Xander, Anthony, and Ollie, who took a moment to discuss their plan for getting Christopher out of the shower.

“I’d rather not get the counselors involved,” Danny said.
“Yeah, but we might have to,” Ollie replied.
“And do we really want him in our cabin?” Xander asked. “I mean, if he’s gonna be like this…”
“What do you think, Anthony?” Danny asked.

What should you do about Christopher? (PowerPro Jr)

A. Leave him there
B. Ask a counselor for help
C. Try talking to him
D. Try to bust the door down
E. Call his bluff, sit there and wait for him to come out

Hmm

A gives him exactly what he wants, C doesn't look like it'll work given prior events, and D seems like it'll get my character in trouble.

So between B and E, I'll go with E.

“I think we should call his bluff,” Anthony said.

“Really, dude? You want us to just sit here and wait for him to come out?” Danny questioned the plan.

“I mean, yeah. Leaving him here won’t do us any good. We’ve already tried talking to him. I don’t know how much help the counselors would be,” Anthony explained.

Ollie nodded. “Maybe if we play a game or something, he’ll be drawn out by that?”

“I’ve got a deck of cards back at the cabin, I could go get that and we can play a game,” Xander said.

“Sure, let’s do that!” Anthony agreed.

Xander ran through the night in nothing but his underwear and some cheap flip-flops, and returned a few minutes later with a deck of playing cards.

“Nice!” Danny said.

“What do you guys wanna play?” Anthony asked the group as Xander handed him the cards to shuffle.

“Have you guys played BS before?” Danny asked.

“Yeah, I love that game!” Xander said.

“Yeah, let’s play that,” Ollie nodded.

Anthony finished shuffling the deck and dealt the cards out to everyone, and after a brief pause started the game.

“One ace,” he said, putting down the four of clubs.

Anthony’s ears perked up as he heard the pitter-patter of footsteps coming up behind him.

“Bullshit,” Christopher said with a smug grin.

Dear Diary,

Today was the first day of camp, and I’ve already had a lot of fun here. There’s been a lot of different stuff to do, like swimming and stargazing, but the biggest adventure (I guess) was when this kid named Christopher made us wait almost an hour for him to get out of the shower. We were pretty mad when he finally came out, but I think most of my cabinmates have already decided to just block out whatever he does or says, ‘cause he’s kinda immature. Anyways, I better get some sleep now, the counselors said we might get to go horseback riding tomorrow!

Ollie looked around, gave a sheepish shrug, and slammed his diary closed. He didn’t normally keep a diary, but his mom was making him do it for the summer to document his various adventures. As long as none of my friends find out, I’m good, Ollie had thought.

—————————————————————————————————————————————

Ok so I don’t feel like doing a bunch of research and writing out a bunch of updates for the vacations so let’s just skip to the good parts. (note: not chronological in any way)

Jimmy’s vacation to Seoul went well. He had a lot of time to bond with his brothers, and while the baseballs he had brought never made it out of his suitcase, he did manage to get in some light lifting in their hotel’s fitness room.

(Jimmy: TOP SPD +1, PWR +1)

Thurgood’s trip to Syria somehow went okay enough. He survived for about a week, but the trip was cut short when Mr. Stubbs came down with an illness and insisted that they return to San Diego for treatment.

(Thurgood: STAM +2)

Lake also eventually took a trip of his own to Myrtle Beach, where he got to hang out and see a couple Pelicans baseball games. Lake paid special attention to the pitchers in the first game he attended, who were their teams’ respective aces and thus good role models for a young pitcher like himself.

(Lake: CTRL +2)

Stanislaus would later travel to his grandparents’ farm outside of Prague, where he got to spend a lot of quality time with two of his biggest fans and role models. He also learned something from his grandpa, who told the young boy that he had been a semi-pro baseball player in his early 20s. “Don’t be afraid to follow your dreams,” his grandfather told him.

(Stanislaus: XP +2)

Johnny also travelled with his family, going to France and exploring various parts of the country. His favorite part was when he got to climb to the top of the Eiffel Tower, which also gave his legs a good workout.

(Johnny: PWR +2)

Xander would later travel to Florida; Miami to be specific, where he hung out on the beach and managed to catch a Marlins game while they were in town. Before the game, he went down to get autographs and got one from Ichiro, who gave him a bit of base-running advice.

(Xander: Base Running 4 acquired)

—————————————————————————————————————————————

The next day at practice, Coach Williamson set four buckets of balls down on the infield grass and told the kids to just do whatever they wanted.

Joey took this as a chance to goof off with a couple of his friends, while Maddie decided to shag fly balls in the outfield. Dax wanted to start some infield drills, but couldn’t find enough kids to start a drill.

“What should we do?” Matthew asked the group of four Walker Grove students.

What do you want to do? (LetsGoMets77, Tdud123, Baseballteen9500)

A. Goof off with Joey and his friends
B. Shag flies with Maddie and the outfielders
C. Join Dax’s infield drills
D. Hit in the cages
E. Play catch

B. Better than flies than grounders

D get those cuts in

yeah whatever I'm just gonna move on without Tdud

—————————————————————————————————————————————

Unfortunately for Ollie, he had slammed the diary a little too loudly, waking Danny from his sleep. “What the heck was that?” he whispered to no one in particular. But the boy’s fatigue soon took back over his body, and Danny went back to sleep with a blanket over his face.

The next morning, Xander was the first to wake up, and he decided to take a short walk to collect his thoughts before diving into their first full day of activities. He put on some jeans and a blue and green striped T-shirt before heading outside, where he almost immediately bumped into Jaxon. The two friends walked and talked all the way up to main camp, where they were greeted by a friendly counselor. “Breakfast will begin in about five to ten minutes,” the counselor, a young woman named Hannah, told the boys, who both sat down on the same bench, facing out toward the cabins so they could watch everyone else coming up.

Back at the cabin, Zack woke up, stretched, and yawned, rubbing his eyes as he looked around the room. He quickly got dressed, then tried to figure out who all was and wasn’t awake yet. It appeared that only Christopher, Grayson, and Xander were not awake and dressed, although Xander didn’t appear to be in his bed either.

“Maybe he’s taking a piss,” Jackson suggested.

The others nodded and agreed that this was the best possible explanation. But when five minutes had passed and Xander still hadn’t shown back up, they began to wonder.

“I bet he’s already up at main camp,” Danny mused.

Matthew shrugged. “Let’s just wake these guys up and go up there ourselves.” His stomach growled.

Getting Christopher to cooperate was not as hard when food could be used as bribery, and he and Grayson were up and at ‘em quite quickly after the words “breakfast is served” rolled off of Zack’s tongue.

—————————————————————————————————————————————

Matthew wanted to play catch, and a boy named Josh Harris was happy to throw with him. Josh was a second baseman by trade but had been working on his skills behind the plate in hopes that it might get him a spot on the Panthers’ travelling team. Of course, there was always the practice squad, but Josh wasn’t signed up to just come to practices every now and then and suit up for only those games that were in town. He was there to make the team, and he would do just about anything to achieve that goal.

The others, meanwhile, took forever to make up their minds. At long last one of them spoke.

“I’m gonna go shag flies with the outfielders,” Harold said. “See you guys later.”

Thurgood looked around. “I guess I could use some hitting practice,” he said, leaving Ug alone. After an unbelievably long pause, Ug finally decided to goof off with Joey and his friends.

(Matthew: XP +3, CTRL +1)
(Harold: XP +3, E RES +1)
(Thurgood: XP +3, PWR +1)
(Ug: XP -3)

The boys finally got going and made the trek up to main camp again.

“Toldja he’d be here,” Danny teased the others.
“Shut up,” Grayson retorted with a playful shove.

As everyone ate breakfast, many of the tables tittered with excitement over the potential for horseback riding that afternoon. But before any of that could come to reality, the counselors informed everyone that there would be a two-mile hike before lunch, as well as a few team-bonding exercises after they ate. And then, maybe, they could ride the horses that grazed in the pastures far to their north.

Or maybe not, as the sky parted and gave way to a particular sort of clouds — nimbostratus — that drenched everyone in their constant downpour as they stomped around the campgrounds. Of course, the hike continued on, despite outcries from nearly half of the campers.

“My Jordans will get wet,” one boy whined as he frantically tried to remove his shoes before they got too damaged. “I guess I gotta hike barefoot,” he muttered.
“My phone will get wet!” one girl exclaimed as she shoved the device down her shirt hoping to keep it dry, at least momentarily.
“What’s this about a phone?” one of the counselors said, and the phone was quickly confiscated. “No electronics,” said the counselor, wagging a finger at the huddled mass of kids.
“I’m gonna try to splash a bunch of people,” Christopher said, laughing as he leapt into a tiny puddle, soaking a few girls’ legs in dirty water.

—————————————————————————————————————————————

The next day, the final roster was announced for the Panthers.

OCEANSIDE PANTHERS ROSTER
(Name, Grade, Bats, Throws, Position, TRJ, CON, PWR, RUN SPD, ARM STR, FLD, E RES, TOP SPD, CTRL, STAM, Breaking Balls, Special Abilities)

Carlos Aguayo, 7th, R, R, P, 1, 2, 24, 3, 4, 2, 1, 57, 62, 33, CHG 1
Grant Alford, 6th, R, R, P, 1, 1, 18, 5, 2, 4, 4, 52, 58, 45, 2SFB 1
Brady Browne, 8th, L, R, P, 1, 3, 33, 3, 3, 3, 3, 68, 44, 27
Ug Li, 7th, S, L, P, 1, 4, 46, 3, 3, 3, 4, 55, 68, 37, CB 2
Wil Mathews, 8th, R, R, P, 1, 3, 39, 2, 2, 5, 2, 62, 86, 53, H-SLD 1
Nick Robertson, 8th, R, R, P, 1, 4, 26, 3, 5, 2, 1, 64, 61, 24, CB 1, CHG 1
Matthew Simpson, 7th, L, L, P, 1, 2, 41, 3, 5, 3, 3, 59, 91, 54, CCHG 1, GD Bunt
Thurgood Stubbs, 7th, R, R, P/2B, 1, 8, 43, 4, 3, 3, 2, 55, 68, 33, CCHG 1
Jace Williams, 8th, S, R, P, 1, 6, 23, 2, 2, 3, 2, 57, 99, 35, SPLT 1

Marcus Thorn, 8th, R, R, C, 1, 1, 68, 1, 5, 2, 3

Zach Anderson, 8th, R, R, SS, 1, 7, 58, 5, 3, 3, 4
Josh Harris, 7th, R, R, 2B/C, 1, 2, 28, 3, 4, 4, 3
Mat Jones, 8th, R, R, 2B/SS, 1, 4, 45, 4, 2, 6, 5
Joey Ross, 8th, R, R, INF, 1, 3, 63, 3, 5, 2, 1
C.J. Stewart, 8th, L, R, 3B, 1, 3, 39, 2, 6, 6, 5
Dax Wilson, 7th, R, R, 1B, 1, 4, 45, 2, 3, 3, 2

Owen Eldridge, 8th, R, R, OF, 1, 5, 62, 6, 3, 5, 3
Colton Lee, 8th, L, L, OF, 1, 3, 49, 5, 4, 4, 2
Jaxon Terrell, 7th, R, R, OF, 1, 4, 53, 8, 2, 3, 2

Harold Henderson, 7th, S, R, UTIL, 1, 3, 58, 4, 3, 4, 3, 55, 66, 31
Maddie Wallace, 7th, R, R, INF/OF, 1, 5, 22, 5, 2, 3, 2

A rough sketch of a depth chart was also unveiled alongside the roster:



Roughly a half-dozen players who hadn’t made the cut were asked to stick around and form the team’s practice squad, and the rest of the kids who had failed to make the team immediately got their stuff and left — including the boy who smacked into the outfield fence on the first day, who did so again.

“Sweet, I made the team!” Maddie exclaimed with joy. “I can’t wait to tell my mom and dad!”
“Starting first baseman!” Dax smiled. “Awesome!”
Harold jumped up to high-five Dax, but whiffed.

“Our first tournament is next weekend at the baseball complex in town. Meet here at 2:30 on Friday so we can load up and head over there for our first game at 4:30.” Coach Williamson said, dismissing the players.