"I don't even go to school here!" Ham complained slumping in his chair outside of the Coach's office. "You've got some real cowards on your team."

"You ran too." Benny said not exactly knowing why he was defending them. "You just can't run fast or far."

"I stayed didn't I?"

Squints sat forwards resting his elbows on his knees. "Why are we the ones getting in trouble?"

"The other guys are too, they just all took off before O'Niall could stop them." I said holding onto my arm, it hung limply at my side yet again and was getting waves of pain shooting up to my shoulder every now and then. "Besides he doesn't know who you guys are, a bunch of random people on the field is grounds for some penalties. And I let you guys in."

Benny placed a hand on my knee. "Hey you're not the only one to blame here."

"I have the keys." I reminded him.

"Well it's not like he can call your parents and get you in trouble." Smalls said. "The rest of us are dead if he calls our parents."

"You're eighteen Smalls he's not gonna call your mom and get you in trouble." Ham said. "But trespassing—"

"Shut up Ham!" Squints snapped. "Look we aren't gonna know what's gonna happen until it does so we might as well—" He was silenced by the door to O'Niall's office opening and he called me inside.

I shot one last fleeting look at Benny before I went inside.

"Sit down." He said and I did as instructed. "How;s your arm?"

"Hurts." I said simply too embarrassed to say anything else.

He sat down across from me and sighed deeply. "I thought I was clear on the rules."

"You were. And I'm really sorry."

"We have these rules for a reason Toni, the field is locked and closed to the public to make sure that equipment isn't stolen, the field isn't ruined and so that we cannot be sued if any injuries occur." He nodded towards my arm again.

"This was my fault."

"Yes it is." He agreed. I slumped down in my chair feeling a bit defeated, it was one thing to admit when you made a mistake but when someone agreed with you it usually meant the worst of situations. "But the team knows the rules as well. Therefore you're not fired, I can't dismiss you without having to dismiss the whole team because they did the same thing you did. I can't get rid of the whole team so I have an idea."

I sat and waited for some kind of horrible punishment as he stared at me. It was as if he was running the decision he had made over and over in his head again before he finally made up his mind. "You, Toni Spena are the Eagles new assistant pitching coach."

I didn't think I heard him correctly. "What?"

"You are the new assistant pitching coach." He repeated. "On top of your duties of keeping the ground and equipment clean, you'll be rather busy."

"Um." I sat up and tried to process what he was saying. "I don't understand, this is a punishment?" I checked with him and he laughed.

"Believe me, working as a coach as well as working your regular duties is going to be plenty punishment for you. But I've seen how the boys have reacted to you being around and giving you a higher level of authority will be lots of punishment for them." It made sense the boys hated having me around and refused to listen to anything I said, with a larger role on the team they would have to listen and it was going to be torture for them.

I shrunk back a little bit. "So that's why you're promoting me. As punishment to the boys."

He looked at me for a moment and sighed again. "I didn't stop you the moment I saw you on the field. I watched for a few minutes." There was a silence as he continued to look at me. "Why didn't you tell me you could pitch like that?"

"I. . . I thought I did, or rather I tried."

"Not many people can throw a 101 mph pitch, though it's going to be hard to prove to everyone that you can. Not with that arm." He nodded to my throbbing arm that I was still holding in pain. "You'll assist with pitching, you will teach them what you know and you will not throw another baseball until that arm is healed do you understand me? I will not have you getting injured on my field and having the board on my ass even more than they are, understood?"

I nodded. I was dismissed and Kenny and Benny went in, turns out they were both on probation which I understood. Kenny and Benny hadn't had a history of spitting in a teammates eye and they were two of the best players on the team.

"Sunshine you need to get over this, it's a good thing! You're a coach, a real coach!" Smalls said.

"And in a shitload of trouble." I grumbled. "More responsibility, still the same amount of respect from the team."

"They're jerks." Squints said.

"Yeah yeah and they're gonna have to expect you, you're a coach you can bench them."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not that powerful, I'll tell them what to do and they'll ignore me and when we lose they will blame the coach."

"Sunshine stop looking on the downside of this, you're a coach! You are a coach for a college team!"

"How many college coaches date the players?" They stared at me in confusion. "I'm dating Benny you guys, and while I am sure there is no rule against it I doubt anyone is going to agree that it's okay that a coach is dating a player."

"Sunshine, I'm not a pitcher." Benny said putting his arm around me. "We were dating before we were both part of the team, and you're 17 not 40 dating a player."

I didn't want to argue with him, Benny had a point but I knew that things were just going to get harder now that I had the title.

"So are we taking you to the hospital. . ." Grover asked lighting up a cigarette.

My eyes widened. "No!"

"Toni-"

"No, if we get another hospital bill on top of the now court bills that need to be covered Clara will skin me alive. Look I'll rest, and it'll be fine."

"Okay." Ham said. "I guess it's for the best, now we can start the party sooner rather than later."

I gave him a confused look. "We don't a place to have the party."

"Not true." Grover said. "Some kid named Owen said we could have it at the trailer park where he lives. He told us when you were talking to the coach."

"But I thought it was just going to be all of us?"

"It was before we had a place to go." I didn't want to mention that it was the same place in which I had spit on Adam and had lost my position. With finally being rewarded with a better

position I was worried about doing something stupid again and getting demoted or even fired.

I wasn't expecting it to be a private party with just us when they said it would be at the trailer park, but I wasn't expecting for everyone there to be invested in Squints Bachelor party.

Drinks were flowing, games were played, and to my enjoyment no strippers arrived.

"I don't know if you've noticed." Someone said from behind me, I turned to see Owen smiling down at me, leaning against the railing of the patio. "But you're the only girl here."

"Well it is a bachelor party." I said taking a sip of drink Ham had made for me before pouring it out. Too strong.

"That was my way of asking you why you're here." He said, his smile still going strong.

"We've been best friends since we were twelve."

"Then shouldn't you be at the brides bachelorette party?"

"The bride is back in LA." I felt bad for being so short with him, I was on edge since I had arrived and it was making me not the best part guest or the best conversationalist but Owen continued to try anyways.

"So best friends since you were twelve? All of them?" I nodded. "How did that work?"

"We played on the same baseball team together, it worked out well."

"And now here you are, Kenny and Benny living the dream of playing college ball and you're a water boy."

I choked back my anger and turned to face him fully. "Actually I—what's that?"

"What's what?" He asked. I pointed to his arm. "A tattoo."

"A tattoo of what?" I asked grabbing his arm to get a better look at it. "Did you have that last time I saw you?" Despite pouring out Ham's drink I did have a few others flowing in my veins.

He smiled again. "No, and it's a Raven carrying a snake."

"Are you sure?" It looked very poorly done, as if it has been done with a simple needle and ink, and it was swollen and puffy making it hard to see what it even was and the skin looked ripped and torn.

"Yeah, I mean it's not like I had a professional do it or anything, a friend of mine did it."

"It looks infected." I dropped his arm quickly

He shrugged. "It'll heal. I've been cleaning it with Whiskey all night." He laughed at the grimace on my face. "So I hear you're looking for a place to live."

"What?"

He gestured over to where Yeah Yeah stood holding onto someone to keep himself upright. "Beer makes your friend really chatty."

"I'm surprised Ham didn't tell you?"

"The big guy? He's been wrestling people for money for the last hour."

"Of course." I sighed knowing that at some point someone was not going to be happy when they lost and hoped that they weren't playing for money.

"So. . ."

"So what?"

"What are you gonna do?"

I shrugged. "Dunno."

"We have a few trailers available." Being unable to stop myself I scoffed. "What you're too good for a trailer park?"

"I'm not too good for anywhere." I said back. "But I'm not leaving that house."

"You sound confident about that, your mom—'

"Step mom."

"Fine, your STEP mom is still the owner of that house and I doubt she'll want you in there when you turn eighteen. It happened to almost everyone who lives in this park. Parents kick them out and they have no where else to go."

A crash from behind me had me looking over to see that Yeah Yeah had finally fallen down. "Excuse me." I said. Owen nodded and watched me leave.

Yeah Yeah was laughing, now covered in the beer he had split. "Alright come on buddy." I said helping him to his feet.

"Sunshine, I'm good I just fell."

"I know, but it's the fact you need help getting up that concerns me. Come on lets get some water." I led him back into the trailer and to the sink where I poured him a glass of water and he sat in a chair and smiled at the people walking around him.

"Hey where have you been?" Benny asked coming up to us.

"Outside. Where have you been?" he gave me a quick kiss.

"Oh there's some dude giving a guy a tattoo in the back room I was watching."

"You didn't get one did you?"

He smiled. "I'm not that drunk. Listen I'm gonna check on the boys and then I'll come back and we can see about getting out of here, everyones just drunk and not really celebrating anymore."

I nodded and with another kiss he took off in search of the rest of the boys.

Curiosity got the better of me and I found myself making my way to the back room. I knocked but with the music so loud I couldn't hear anything and I opened the door to two very angry

looking boys. "Hey!" The one with the needle in hand called out.

"Sorry, I knocked." I said they ignored me and went back to what they were doing.

"What are you doing?"

"Getting a Tattoo." the boy said rolling his eyes.

"What are you getting?"

"None of your business." He hissed at me.

The other one smiled. "Don't be rude, it's a lady you're talking to." The continued on with the tattoo and I slowly made my way over to the bed they were sitting on.

"What are you getting?" The one doing the tattoo looked up and smiled at me.

"A raven carrying a snake." I was taken aback and he seemed to notice. "What?"

"How common of a tattoo is that?" I asked, I doubted that some guy giving free tattoos in the back of a trailer got requests for the same tattoos, especially when it came to something so specific.

"Uh, not too common, but I guess common around here." He smiled as though he were keeping a secret from me and I just wasn't smart about to understand it. The boy getting the tattoo glared up at me.

"It's for Scoundrels."

"Scoundrels?" I repeated.

He rolled his eyes at me. "The gang."

I froze with confusion, a gang? When I thought of gangs it was filled with violence and drugs and drinking and criminal activity. The Valley didn't have gangs per say, I mean Phillips team was probably as close to a gang as we would ever see but when I lived in the city I had heard about gangs all the time. We had learned about it in school and had been warned about joining but the initiations and the jail time but we had never really thought about it because it wasn't something that was common in the valley.

In my mind Gangs were older men with guns and tattoos and were mean and rude and hated everyone. Not teenage boys with a needle and some ink claiming to be a gang.

"You're.. . you're in a gang?" I asked carefully.

"You don't need to look so scared. You weren't scared of us a second ago." the one with the needle said. "It's not a big deal, there are a lot of gangs in these parts, just like a family you can always count on."

"That fight." I clarified.

He sighed. "Listen, I know you're probably not from the rougher parts of town but around here you need to have someone to have your back, people will take anything from you. They'll treat you badly just because you don't have someone looking out for you, it's protection."

I didn't want to know about the gangs around these parts, I didn't want to know anything that could possibly result in me getting involved. I quickly turned and left the room closing the door behind me and heading outside looking for Benny.

"Whoa slow down." Owen smiled down at me as I bumped into him on the way out the door to the patio.

"You didn't tell me you were in a gang." I snapped.

He frowned at me. "Well it's not something I usually outright tell people."

"You brought me and my friends to a place run by a gang?"

"Okay Toni, I think your suburban lifestyle gave you a very stereotypical outlook on gangs. We're not criminals dealing drugs and shooting guns."

"They just told me that you guys create gangs for protection, that means that you're not safe—"

"Yeah, not safe from people so desperate for money they'll do anything to get it, or an older brother who likes to fight when he drinks too much. We're not out here shooting everyone just for talking to us."

I walked past him not wanting to stand and argue with him. We had dealt with enough issues with Phillips and Clara and my parents and everything else the last thing we needed was getting associated with any gang no matter how innocent they claimed to be.

It didn't matter if we weren't part of the gang, we were spending time with them and this wasn't a party where the entire school was in attendance it was a party for someones bachelor party. It was a personal event, they would think we were close with them and I wasn't having it. I wasn't going to risk anything happen to Benny or Kenny after they made it onto a college team.

I had had enough drama for a lifetime.

Authors note: I apologize to everyone for the delay and thank you for your patience. Life got in the way of my completing some writing but I will be doing my best to update more regularly. Sorry its not the most entertaining chapter but it is a filler chapter needed to keep the story going.

Thank you all have a great weekend!