“What’s that?”
“I thought you wanted to go to Latin Scribe High School so that you could play baseball,” Mr. Rose said, looking confused.
“I do,” she quickly said.
“But this essay is–”
“More important.”
Chapter 31
“Are you nervous?”
“No,” Sebastian lied.
He was terrified. They’d stayed up until three this morning studying and he wasn’t sure that it was going to be enough. He’d never been this nervous about a test before, but the funny part was that he wasn’t worried about himself. If Mikey didn’t get a high enough score…
They’d just have to keep studying and take the test again, hoping that the schools would be willing to wait for her score before they made their final decision. In the meantime, they’d just continue applying for scholarships and hope that they were able to get enough to cover her tuition. But just in case that didn’t work, he had a backup plan.
Over the past month, he’d been searching for videos of Mikey playing baseball. He’d managed to find video clips of Mikey from when she was an adorable toddler throwing oranges at her Uncle Eric’s head to last year when she’d managed to pitch a perfect game at the state tournament.
With his Aunt Charlie and Aunt Melanie’s help, he’d been able to create a video highlighting Mikey’s baseball career to help convince schools to give Mikey a chance, and hopefully, a full athletic scholarship. He planned on attaching a copy of the video with her application, and because he wasn’t about to leave anything to chance, he was also sending a copy to every coach at the schools where she was applying, as well.
“What do you miss most about school?” Mikey suddenly asked him.
“Going to class,” Sebastian admitted, making her squish up her face adorably.
“Really?”
“Really.”
“There is something seriously wrong with you,” she said, nodding solemnly.
“But you knew this,” Sebastian reminded her as he glanced at the door marked, Quiet Please. Testing.
“I really did,” she admitted, making his lips twitch as he looked around, taking in the rest of the kids that were here to take this test, noting just how nervous they looked and then looked back at Mikey to find her sitting back, looking completely relaxed as she rolled a baseball between her hands and–
“You’re not nervous at all, are you?”
“Nope,” she said, letting the word pop.
“Why is that?”
“Because everything will work out for the best,” Mikey said, shrugging it off.
“You really believe that?” Sebastian asked, curious.
“Why wouldn’t I believe that?” she asked, frowning in confusion like she really couldn’t understand what the big deal was.
“Because of everything that’s happened,” he pointed out.
“And that’s why I believe it,” Mikey said, shrugging it off as she continued to roll the ball between her hands.
“Explain,” Sebastian said as he sat back and placed his arm on the top of the bench behind her.
“Just look at everything that my mom went through. My father died of cancer before he was sixteen, leaving my mom widowed and pregnant at fifteen years old. She could have easily given up and no one would have been surprised. They’d all expected her to end up like my grandmother, but my mother refused to do that. She got her GED, worked multiple jobs to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads, and worked her butt off to make her cooking website a success. She ended up marrying the man of her dreams, has five wonderful children, me obviously being the favorite–”
“Obviously,” he said dryly, earning a wink before she continued.