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Book 4 Sample Content: Chapter 1: The Pine Hills Flames win the Junior League Section championship. Once the girls each have a chance to run around the field and take pictures with the Section Championship banner, Coach Matt folds it up and puts it away to make sure it stays safe and doesn’t get ruined. The team has just won the Long Island Section championship and will move on to play in the New York State championship tournament! This is the highest level the Flames and the team’s captain – Penny Porter, can compete in while playing in the Junior League. Penny is Coach Matt and Coach Margo’s daughter. Their team – the Pine Hills Flames is now the best team on Long Island in their age group. Coach Matt gathers the team and their parents together, “Our team did something really special today, and everyone should be proud of themselves! Once I have some more information from the league, I will let you know what the plan is and the next steps. Players should get some rest as we are going to be playing in the New York state championship next week!” As Penny and her friends had hoped, the Stone family invited everyone over for a pool party. The families all arrive within a few minutes of each other, and the parents take up seats around the glass tables with giant blue and white umbrellas in the center. The players and most of their siblings drop their towels, shoes, and other items all over the ground and jump in the pool seemingly without a care in the world. The players all gather together in the shallow end of the pool and joke around with one another. Their siblings mostly swim nearby. Some decide they want to dive into the deep end of the pool and run over to the diving board. Coach Matt begins the parent meeting, “OK, let’s get started. First, I want to thank everyone for coming today. I know everyone is busy, especially this weekend, since we haven’t had much time to tend to issues at home with all the games we’ve been playing. My lawn is starting to look like a jungle! I reserved a block of rooms at the Excelsior Suites Hotel in Niagara Falls. Everyone will be staying on the same floor. I will email you the contact information and phone number to call later – you need to call them tonight and grab a room out of that block. Each family is responsible to pay for their own room. If you don’t call, they will release the reservation tomorrow morning and you won’t be able to stay at the same hotel. I was also able to negotiate a discount since we are traveling as a team. The room will only cost $129 per night. This includes a buffet breakfast. They even upgraded our rooms to full suites, which is great for traveling families. We leave for Niagara Falls Tuesday morning. Everyone will meet at our house…..” Coach Matt points to Coach Margo and then continues on, “We will travel as a caravan as much as possible. That means all of us will try to play follow the leader from Long Island to Niagara Falls! That should be fun. The kids will be our communications experts. They will setup a group chat and group video thingamabob… whatever they call it so they can all talk together. Here is the schedule for the week in Niagara Falls: Tuesday is a travel day, just like we discussed. We will arrive at the Excelsior Suites and check in. Everyone checks in separately. Each family is on their own for dinner that night. That way, no one has to rush around to make a group dinner. Some people like to rest up or wash up after traveling. Others like to unpack. Others like to dump their bags in their room and go explore. Whatever you need to do, you have time, and can then get dinner on your own. On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we will play one pool game per day. After Friday, the tournament director will rank the teams from one to fifteen in order of how they did in the pool play games. Some teams will have the same win-loss record we do, so it’s important to give up as few runs as possible, so we seed well. If we have the same ‘runs allowed’ stat as another team, then they will use the ‘runs for’ stat. This is how many runs the team scored in the entire pool round. If there is still a tie, then they use a coin flip to decide who ranks higher.” There is a large splash from the pool as one of the kids dive into the deep end. The parents with their backs to the pool, turn around to see what caused the large splash. Once they see it is just one of the kids diving, they turn their attention back to Coach Matt. Matt clears his throat and continues, “Wednesday begins with the opening ceremonies at 12 noon. The opening ceremonies are supposed to be a big deal. We get to represent all of Long Island. The tournament director said they are really making into a big deal. It sounds nice. After the ceremonies, we have an afternoon game versus the Olean Owls, followed by a team dinner out. This will be a full day! We have a lot going on. Thursday is a morning game versus the Kingston Knights, followed by a team activity. We will decide on what that is when we get there. The area has lots of activities and things to do, so it shouldn’t be hard to find something interesting and fun to do. I think the kids will have fun even if we only go to the movies. We’ve never done that as a team before. Friday is another morning game versus the Rochester Rockets, followed by a visit to Niagara Falls. We will only have the afternoon there, so we will need to schedule something quick and fun, but I really would like to get the team to explore the Falls. Saturday morning are the quarter-finals. If we make it past those, then we play in the semi-finals. If we make it past that then we play in the championship game on Sunday morning. Even if we lose on Saturday, the plan is to stay and see the championship game. I think the girls will learn something by watching…. But hopefully, we are playing and not watching! We will all need to get up early on Sunday morning to pack up and check out of the hotel. The championship game ends after checkout time. Any questions?” Bobi Rogers, mother of Alyssa Rogers, the team’s shortstop, asks, “What time are we leaving on Tuesday?” Coach Matt answers, “Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that. We leave at 7:00am. That means that we all meet at my house at 6:30am. My bathroom will be available for anyone who needs it before we take off on our caravan journey. Anyone who doesn’t make it by 7:00am, will be on their own, unless they can catch up to the caravan. The speed limit increases once we get upstate New York. I plan on traveling right around the speed limit. No reason to take any chances on speeding. Factoring in some quick pit stop breaks, it should take about ten hours to get to the hotel. This doesn’t include any unforeseen road closures, accidents, bad weather, or any other things that may slow us down. That means if all goes well, we should arrive at the hotel around 5:00pm or so. That gives us plenty of time to check in, unpack, and grab some dinner. Any other questions?” Al Carson, father of Jenny Carson, the team’s center fielder asks, “Matt, what are we going to do if the caravan gets split up?” Coach Matt nods his head and answers, “Another great question. If it’s a minor split, then we will slow down a bit and wait for the others to get caught up. If it’s a major split, then the first part of the caravan will pull off the road and wait for the rest to get caught up. That way we all try to stay together. The kids will be our communications network. They can relay info from their parents to the rest of us. So… if you get stuck or separated, make sure your daughter lets the rest of us know. That way we know to wait for you. The key thing here will be communications.” As the temperature starts to climb in Pine Hills, all of the players and their siblings jump in the pool. Sue goes over to the pool cabana and checks the thermometer that is mounted to the cabana but not in direct sunlight. The thermometer reads almost one-hundred degrees. Penny, Jenny Carson, Alyssa Rogers, and Taylor Meyers – Penny’s catcher, are all gathered together on the pool steps. Penny is mostly out of the water, with her face positioned upwards toward the sun. The team parents can be heard talking in the background. The smell of sunscreen, chlorine, and lilac from a nearby bush are all mixed together in the smells of summer. She has her eyes closed and is thinking about how the team will do in the New York state tournament. Suddenly, her nose wrinkles up and she asks, “Do you guys think we are going to do OK in this tournament? I’m like……really nervous!” No one answers right away. Then Alyssa blurts out, “Of course, we’re going to do OK. We won the Long Island championship, didn’t we? Penny sits up and opens her eyes. She looks at Alyssa who is in a red and white striped one-piece bathing suit. Penny argues back, “All of the other teams will have won their sections too. Won’t they be as good if not better than we are? What if we’re the worst team there? What if we don’t even win a single game?” Taylor joins in, “What if we’re the BEST team there and not the worst? What if we win every game? What if we come home as champions?” Jenny adds, “Have any of you thought about anything besides softball? School starts in a little over a month! We are going to be middle school seniors! Finally!” Taylor replies, “Yeah, I heard that 8 th grade is much harder than 7 th grade, so I’m not really looking forward to that. I’d rather just go on enjoying my summer, thank you.” Penny laughs and adds, “Ummm….I’m taking a couple of honors level classes. Those classes count as 9 th grade classes - which count toward my high school GPA.” Alyssa asks, “What’s a GPA? Never heard of that.” Penny answers, “Really Alyssa? You never heard of a GPA? It’s a grade point average. That’s how they determine how well you did in school, from ninth grade through twelfth grade – and in some cases like honors classes, a few in eighth grade also count. If you do well you can get into a lot of colleges, and maybe even get a scholarship.” Alyssa makes fun of Penny, “What’s a scholarship, professor?” Penny chuckles at her friend, “That’s where the college pays you to take classes there. Let me ask you geniuses something else – have you done your summer reading yet?” They all join in, “No!” Alyssa says, “Nope. Not gonna do it either. Last year, I read all their stupid books and it didn’t count for anything. Besides, what if you’re on vacation the whole time? Maybe traveling around the world. They can’t make you read while you’re traveling. What are you supposed to do, carry all those books with you? Say you and your family are traveling to Greece or somewhere over there. There’s no way you would have room in your luggage for those books.” Alyssa giggles and continues, “I’d rather get detention for not reading than waste my time again on boring books that don’t mean anything. That reminds me – I need to go back to school shopping. I need a new wardrobe. Maybe wear something chic from my trip to Greece and Italy – ya know, with all that shopping I did in Rome!” Alyssa winks at Penny. Then, Penny adds, “Yeah, I think I need some new clothes too.” Alyssa, who is always the troublemaker of the bunch says, “Penny, all you ever wear are tournament shirts and leggings. You don’t have any REAL clothes. Just sports stuff. Do you even own shoes? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear anything besides a softball-related t-shirt, sneakers, and your hair up in a ponytail. Penny considers what her friends is saying. She has a flash of resentment, but quickly gets over it and responds, “Ya know Alyssa … sometimes, you can be … so … right. I don’t have anything but softball sporty clothing. Maybe you can help me shop for some better clothes?” Alyssa overacts surprised and starts to blush, “What? Really? Me? Sure, I can help you go shopping. I mean I’m no fashionista or anything, but I do know how to shop for real clothes.” Penny giggles and says, “Hey, maybe I can talk some sense into you about doing your summer reading and why it actually is important.” Later that night after Penny makes a list for what she needs to bring on the trip, she is sitting at her desk in her bedroom thinking about school starting soon. After a while, her mind drifts off and she realizes she is staring at a woven bracelet hanging from her lamp. After a moment, she breaks her trance and realizes that the bracelet is similar to one that Will was wearing earlier in the summer. Will was a boy she met over the summer at a pool party. Penny wonders what Will has been doing. She suddenly gets the idea to find out. I know … I can text him and see what’s up. Penny grabs her smartphone, goes into the texting app, and finds the last text she received from Will a few days ago. She begins typing, Penny: Hey Will, you there? Will: Yeah, Penny, what’s up? Penny: So, we won our Long Island Section championship! It was pretty exciting. Now we get to go to Niagara Falls. Will: Oh wow. Cool. Sorry I couldn’t make it, but I was in a karate tournament. Penny: I know. That’s OK. So, how did you do? Will: Actually, I got my butt kicked by some giant. The guy was like seven feet tall. I had no chance. But I did make it to the first playoff round. Penny: Ouch!!!! Will: I know. It’s hard to compete against a giant, so I don’t feel so bad … So, what about you? When do you leave on your big trip? Penny: We leave on Tuesday morning. I’ll be gone most of the week. The tournament ends Sunday morning, so we should be back late Sunday night. Will: Do you think your team can win it? Penny: Who knows? We have no idea how the other teams look. They could all be better than we are, or they could be worse, or it could be a combination. We’ll know more on Wednesday when we have our first game. Will: Wow. Sounds like a lot of pressure! Penny: No more pressure than having your butt kicked by a giant! Will: I guess so. LOL Penny: Alright. I gotta go. I just wanted to check in. Will: Well good luck. I hope you guys win it all. Penny: Thanks, Will. I’ll text you over the trip and let you know how we’re doing. Will: Cool. Talk to you then. Bye Penny: Bye
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Book 4 Sample Content: Chapter 1: The Pine Hills Flames win the Junior League Section championship. Once the girls each have a chance to run around the field and take pictures with the Section Championship banner, Coach Matt folds it up and puts it away to make sure it stays safe and doesn’t get ruined. The team has just won the Long Island Section championship and will move on to play in the New York State championship tournament! This is the highest level the Flames and the team’s captain – Penny Porter, can compete in while playing in the Junior League. Penny is Coach Matt and Coach Margo’s daughter. Their team – the Pine Hills Flames is now the best team on Long Island in their age group. Coach Matt gathers the team and their parents together, “Our team did something really special today, and everyone should be proud of themselves! Once I have some more information from the league, I will let you know what the plan is and the next steps. Players should get some rest as we are going to be playing in the New York state championship next week!” As Penny and her friends had hoped, the Stone family invited everyone over for a pool party. The families all arrive within a few minutes of each other, and the parents take up seats around the glass tables with giant blue and white umbrellas in the center. The players and most of their siblings drop their towels, shoes, and other items all over the ground and jump in the pool seemingly without a care in the world. The players all gather together in the shallow end of the pool and joke around with one another. Their siblings mostly swim nearby. Some decide they want to dive into the deep end of the pool and run over to the diving board. Coach Matt begins the parent meeting, “OK, let’s get started. First, I want to thank everyone for coming today. I know everyone is busy, especially this weekend, since we haven’t had much time to tend to issues at home with all the games we’ve been playing. My lawn is starting to look like a jungle! I reserved a block of rooms at the Excelsior Suites Hotel in Niagara Falls. Everyone will be staying on the same floor. I will email you the contact information and phone number to call later – you need to call them tonight and grab a room out of that block. Each family is responsible to pay for their own room. If you don’t call, they will release the reservation tomorrow morning and you won’t be able to stay at the same hotel. I was also able to negotiate a discount since we are traveling as a team. The room will only cost $129 per night. This includes a buffet breakfast. They even upgraded our rooms to full suites, which is great for traveling families. We leave for Niagara Falls Tuesday morning. Everyone will meet at our house…..” Coach Matt points to Coach Margo and then continues on, “We will travel as a caravan as much as possible. That means all of us will try to play follow the leader from Long Island to Niagara Falls! That should be fun. The kids will be our communications experts. They will setup a group chat and group video thingamabob… whatever they call it so they can all talk together. Here is the schedule for the week in Niagara Falls: Tuesday is a travel day, just like we discussed. We will arrive at the Excelsior Suites and check in. Everyone checks in separately. Each family is on their own for dinner that night. That way, no one has to rush around to make a group dinner. Some people like to rest up or wash up after traveling. Others like to unpack. Others like to dump their bags in their room and go explore. Whatever you need to do, you have time, and can then get dinner on your own. On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we will play one pool game per day. After Friday, the tournament director will rank the teams from one to fifteen in order of how they did in the pool play games. Some teams will have the same win-loss record we do, so it’s important to give up as few runs as possible, so we seed well. If we have the same ‘runs allowed’ stat as another team, then they will use the ‘runs for’ stat. This is how many runs the team scored in the entire pool round. If there is still a tie, then they use a coin flip to decide who ranks higher.” There is a large splash from the pool as one of the kids dive into the deep end. The parents with their backs to the pool, turn around to see what caused the large splash. Once they see it is just one of the kids diving, they turn their attention back to Coach Matt. Matt clears his throat and continues, “Wednesday begins with the opening ceremonies at 12 noon. The opening ceremonies are supposed to be a big deal. We get to represent all of Long Island. The tournament director said they are really making into a big deal. It sounds nice. After the ceremonies, we have an afternoon game versus the Olean Owls, followed by a team dinner out. This will be a full day! We have a lot going on. Thursday is a morning game versus the Kingston Knights, followed by a team activity. We will decide on what that is when we get there. The area has lots of activities and things to do, so it shouldn’t be hard to find something interesting and fun to do. I think the kids will have fun even if we only go to the movies. We’ve never done that as a team before. Friday is another morning game versus the Rochester Rockets, followed by a visit to Niagara Falls. We will only have the afternoon there, so we will need to schedule something quick and fun, but I really would like to get the team to explore the Falls. Saturday morning are the quarter-finals. If we make it past those, then we play in the semi-finals. If we make it past that then we play in the championship game on Sunday morning. Even if we lose on Saturday, the plan is to stay and see the championship game. I think the girls will learn something by watching…. But hopefully, we are playing and not watching! We will all need to get up early on Sunday morning to pack up and check out of the hotel. The championship game ends after checkout time. Any questions?” Bobi Rogers, mother of Alyssa Rogers, the team’s shortstop, asks, “What time are we leaving on Tuesday?” Coach Matt answers, “Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that. We leave at 7:00am. That means that we all meet at my house at 6:30am. My bathroom will be available for anyone who needs it before we take off on our caravan journey. Anyone who doesn’t make it by 7:00am, will be on their own, unless they can catch up to the caravan. The speed limit increases once we get upstate New York. I plan on traveling right around the speed limit. No reason to take any chances on speeding. Factoring in some quick pit stop breaks, it should take about ten hours to get to the hotel. This doesn’t include any unforeseen road closures, accidents, bad weather, or any other things that may slow us down. That means if all goes well, we should arrive at the hotel around 5:00pm or so. That gives us plenty of time to check in, unpack, and grab some dinner. Any other questions?” Al Carson, father of Jenny Carson, the team’s center fielder asks, “Matt, what are we going to do if the caravan gets split up?” Coach Matt nods his head and answers, “Another great question. If it’s a minor split, then we will slow down a bit and wait for the others to get caught up. If it’s a major split, then the first part of the caravan will pull off the road and wait for the rest to get caught up. That way we all try to stay together. The kids will be our communications network. They can relay info from their parents to the rest of us. So… if you get stuck or separated, make sure your daughter lets the rest of us know. That way we know to wait for you. The key thing here will be communications.” As the temperature starts to climb in Pine Hills, all of the players and their siblings jump in the pool. Sue goes over to the pool cabana and checks the thermometer that is mounted to the cabana but not in direct sunlight. The thermometer reads almost one-hundred degrees. Penny, Jenny Carson, Alyssa Rogers, and Taylor Meyers – Penny’s catcher, are all gathered together on the pool steps. Penny is mostly out of the water, with her face positioned upwards toward the sun. The team parents can be heard talking in the background. The smell of sunscreen, chlorine, and lilac from a nearby bush are all mixed together in the smells of summer. She has her eyes closed and is thinking about how the team will do in the New York state tournament. Suddenly, her nose wrinkles up and she asks, “Do you guys think we are going to do OK in this tournament? I’m like……really nervous!” No one answers right away. Then Alyssa blurts out, “Of course, we’re going to do OK. We won the Long Island championship, didn’t we? Penny sits up and opens her eyes. She looks at Alyssa who is in a red and white striped one-piece bathing suit. Penny argues back, “All of the other teams will have won their sections too. Won’t they be as good if not better than we are? What if we’re the worst team there? What if we don’t even win a single game?” Taylor joins in, “What if we’re the BEST team there and not the worst? What if we win every game? What if we come home as champions?” Jenny adds, “Have any of you thought about anything besides softball? School starts in a little over a month! We are going to be middle school seniors! Finally!” Taylor replies, “Yeah, I heard that 8 th grade is much harder than 7 th grade, so I’m not really looking forward to that. I’d rather just go on enjoying my summer, thank you.” Penny laughs and adds, “Ummm….I’m taking a couple of honors level classes. Those classes count as 9 th grade classes - which count toward my high school GPA.” Alyssa asks, “What’s a GPA? Never heard of that.” Penny answers, “Really Alyssa? You never heard of a GPA? It’s a grade point average. That’s how they determine how well you did in school, from ninth grade through twelfth grade – and in some cases like honors classes, a few in eighth grade also count. If you do well you can get into a lot of colleges, and maybe even get a scholarship.” Alyssa makes fun of Penny, “What’s a scholarship, professor?” Penny chuckles at her friend, “That’s where the college pays you to take classes there. Let me ask you geniuses something else – have you done your summer reading yet?” They all join in, “No!” Alyssa says, “Nope. Not gonna do it either. Last year, I read all their stupid books and it didn’t count for anything. Besides, what if you’re on vacation the whole time? Maybe traveling around the world. They can’t make you read while you’re traveling. What are you supposed to do, carry all those books with you? Say you and your family are traveling to Greece or somewhere over there. There’s no way you would have room in your luggage for those books.” Alyssa giggles and continues, “I’d rather get detention for not reading than waste my time again on boring books that don’t mean anything. That reminds me – I need to go back to school shopping. I need a new wardrobe. Maybe wear something chic from my trip to Greece and Italy – ya know, with all that shopping I did in Rome!” Alyssa winks at Penny. Then, Penny adds, “Yeah, I think I need some new clothes too.” Alyssa, who is always the troublemaker of the bunch says, “Penny, all you ever wear are tournament shirts and leggings. You don’t have any REAL clothes. Just sports stuff. Do you even own shoes? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear anything besides a softball-related t-shirt, sneakers, and your hair up in a ponytail. Penny considers what her friends is saying. She has a flash of resentment, but quickly gets over it and responds, “Ya know Alyssa … sometimes, you can be … so … right. I don’t have anything but softball sporty clothing. Maybe you can help me shop for some better clothes?” Alyssa overacts surprised and starts to blush, “What? Really? Me? Sure, I can help you go shopping. I mean I’m no fashionista or anything, but I do know how to shop for real clothes.” Penny giggles and says, “Hey, maybe I can talk some sense into you about doing your summer reading and why it actually is important.” Later that night after Penny makes a list for what she needs to bring on the trip, she is sitting at her desk in her bedroom thinking about school starting soon. After a while, her mind drifts off and she realizes she is staring at a woven bracelet hanging from her lamp. After a moment, she breaks her trance and realizes that the bracelet is similar to one that Will was wearing earlier in the summer. Will was a boy she met over the summer at a pool party. Penny wonders what Will has been doing. She suddenly gets the idea to find out. I know … I can text him and see what’s up. Penny grabs her smartphone, goes into the texting app, and finds the last text she received from Will a few days ago. She begins typing, Penny: Hey Will, you there? Will: Yeah, Penny, what’s up? Penny: So, we won our Long Island Section championship! It was pretty exciting. Now we get to go to Niagara Falls. Will: Oh wow. Cool. Sorry I couldn’t make it, but I was in a karate tournament. Penny: I know. That’s OK. So, how did you do? Will: Actually, I got my butt kicked by some giant. The guy was like seven feet tall. I had no chance. But I did make it to the first playoff round. Penny: Ouch!!!! Will: I know. It’s hard to compete against a giant, so I don’t feel so bad … So, what about you? When do you leave on your big trip? Penny: We leave on Tuesday morning. I’ll be gone most of the week. The tournament ends Sunday morning, so we should be back late Sunday night. Will: Do you think your team can win it? Penny: Who knows? We have no idea how the other teams look. They could all be better than we are, or they could be worse, or it could be a combination. We’ll know more on Wednesday when we have our first game. Will: Wow. Sounds like a lot of pressure! Penny: No more pressure than having your butt kicked by a giant! Will: I guess so. LOL Penny: Alright. I gotta go. I just wanted to check in. Will: Well good luck. I hope you guys win it all. Penny: Thanks, Will. I’ll text you over the trip and let you know how we’re doing. Will: Cool. Talk to you then. Bye Penny: Bye