"And you'd think that he had learnt his lesson that one time." Hans smirked, as he recalled a very amusing incident concerning Quen.

Q looked displeased as he huffed in annoyance, "Don't think that I don't get what you guys are trying to do. I see what's going on here." He jutted out his lower lip and furrowed his brows, giving him the appearance of a very hurt little boy.

"And what is that?" Nate questioned, biting his lip to keep from laughing.

"You guys are filling Alex's head to keep him away from me!"

Hans put a hand over his heart, and sustained a look of pure shock on his face as he turned to Nate, "Why! He found out our master plan. What in the world are we going to do now?"

Nate just shook his head, "We'll just have to move on to the next one. I'll inform Jake and Seth."

Quen just stuck out his tongue at his friends while Alex chuckled fondly. She really did enjoy their company. They were good friends, even if they got a bit carried away with their pranks sometimes.

"Um guys?" Alex questioned, when she saw they were walking in the wrong direction, "Shouldn't we be heading outside?"

"Don't you want to change first?" Nate questioned from ahead.

"As in the men's locker room?" Alex halted in her steps.

"Well yeah. Did you not change your uniform at your old school?"

Yeah! But in the girls' room, not boys'!

Hans put an arm casually around her shoulder, making her move with him. "What's the problem? Don't have your clothes yet?"

"Well no..." How am I going to avoid this?

"Here we are!" Announced Quen, and pushed her inside first, before coming behind her and exclaiming, "Hey guys!"

Jake made an attempt of covering his half naked body, "Q! What have we told you about not coming in before we all are properly dressed."

Quentin grinned cheekily. "And miss this?" He winked suggestively.

Jake gasped in mock horror, while Hans chucked and Seth shook his head, grinning at his friends' antics. Nate slapped the behind of Q's neck, before heading for his locker, while Alex was busy staring hard ahead.

Don't look anywhere, just stare at those damn grey lockers. Suddenly a boy with his assets whizzed past her, making her turn red. LOOK DOWN! Look down! Don't look up. Don't look up!

"What are you doing?" Seth questioned interrupting Alex's mantra.

"I... Well..."

"Come on Alex." Q pulled her along despite her dragging feet. "You can have the locker next to me."

"Hey! That's....." The boy shut up abruptly, taking in Seth's face.

Unbeknownst to this little exchange, Quen began taking off the buttons on his shirt, when he noticed Alex hadn't moved an inch, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong." She muttered under her breath.

"Are you shy? Do you need help changing?" Q volunteered excitedly.

"No!" Get your act together.

"Well then?" By now she had the attention of all her friends plus some.

Alex sighed as she brought her trembling hands up to her shirt. Once she was done with the buttons, she untucked it from her pant, and let it drop as a heap near her feet.

"What the?!"

"Seriously?"

"Why?"

The last one made her chuckle, "I thought it would be easier and save time." She said, finally having the guts to turn around.

Jake's horrified expression was priceless, "You wore your baseball gear inside your uniform to SAVE TIME?" He was practically shouting right now, "How long does if take for you to change?"

Alex just shrugged, while meddling with her zipper, head bowed.

"Well you still have to change your pants." Quen looked so hopeful, it hurt.

She just grinned, unzipped her pants and let them fall to her feet.

"Well that's just..." Hans began, hands over his head.

"Unfair?" Quen squeaked crestfallen.

"Well I was going for weird."

"Well I'm done," Alex said shoving her uniform into her locker, already getting wary of all the attention. The bell rang then. "Should I leave or are you guys going to hurry up?"

That finally snapped them to their senses, and the locker room was again bursting with activity as everyone tried to change before the final bell.

So far so good.

"Well," Quentin said, back to his usual cheeky self, as he joined Alex outside the locker room, "You'll eventually have to change back."

I spoke too soon.
______________________________________

"Alex baby!" Quentin shouted across the field, "Get over here! You're on our team."

"Great. Another queer." She heard someone say and turned to look at them. She gulped at what she say. Max stood there leaning against a tree, his hands in his pockets, the snake tattoo slightly visible. Although he looked relaxed, with his feet crossed at the ankles, the look in his eyes made her feel like his prey.

"Something wrong?" Jake came up behind her, glaring at him.

"No." Alex said shaking her head. Tearing her gaze from Max, she headed towards her group, pulling Jake with her.

"You should stay away from him," Jake looked over at her, his voice free from it's usual humor, "He's not exactly the best guy to be around."

"Believe me. I know."

That made Jake stop in his tracks, "Why? Did something happen?"

The event was on the tip of her tongue, but then she reconsidered, "No nothing liked that yet." Alex said walking ahead.

Jake looked like he didn't believe her, but thankfully he dropped it. By now they had reached their team. It was the six of them, a kid named Tom, Marvin who consistently rearranged his glasses and a chubby guy named Sam, about her height, who embraced her in a way too tight hug when he was introduced.

While the introductions were underway, Alex saw Jake head over to Seth and Nate, and watched them move back from the team to have a heated discussion. But before she could even contemplate to head over to them, Quentin handed her the bat and announced, "You're first!"
______________________________________

Alex was really good at baseball. And by the faces of her teammates, she knew they were aware of it too. When she had ran a full round home on her first swing, Quentin had fallen to her feet, while the others looked awe struck.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Hans was finally able to spit out, "What if we had let the other team have you?"

Nate had chuckled at that, "I don't think Q would have allowed it."

Seth and Jake had to work pulling Quen off her, whose hands had made the dangerous trek up her thighs.

It was now her second time to chance with the ball. She gripped the bat so tight it hurt, and rechecked her stance. The pitcher took his position rubbing his hand on the ball. Then moving his foot forward, in one swift movement he released the ball. She heard it collide with the bat, and then whizz across the field. Her feet sprang to life, desperately trying to reach the other base.

One down...

As she reached the second base, she saw the ball come for her from the corner of the eye. She jumped, and ball sailed away, uninterrupted.

Two down, one more.

Just as she was finishing her run after the third base, she felt something hard collide with her back, knocking the air out of her, and leveling her to the ground.

"Foul! Foul!" She heard Quentin scream.

"What the hell happened here?" The captain glared at no one in particular as he came to stand over her.

"Alex, are you okay?" Nate's head popped up to her right.

"I think so?" Alex tried to squeak, as she blinked back tears.

"What did you do that for?" She had to raise her head to see Seth seize Max up.

"That son of a b***** started it by flinging the ball towards me." Max tried to pry Seth off him.

"Please, he couldn't predict where the ball would end up! You hit him on purpose!" Quentin pitched in.

"Are you trying to imply I'm stupid?" He made a dash for Quen, only for Hans to come between them.

"That's enough all of you!" The coach bellowed, "Max you're off the team. Get back inside. And Nate help the boy to one of those stands."

Max shoved Hans out of the way, as he stomped off. Quen rushed to my left side, and Nate took the right.

Once I was seated comfortably, the Coach blew his whistle, so that everyone would get back to their positions. Then coming next to me, he ruffled my hair.

"Congrats on scoring another round for your team kiddo."
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A/N:

Hey everybody. Please don't kill me. Hope you enjoy this chapter. And I'm terribly sorry for the short hiatus I was on. I'm back and buzzing with energy! And hopefully will be more frequent with my updates.

Please do vote and comment. They mean the world to me. :)