Chapter Text
"Ok, Pickles! Gather round!" Coach Dan kneels down and tells everyone when they all sit down scattered together about under the big tree.
"What about me, Coach?" Noname asks him. "Do I gather along with you guys?"
"Sorry, son. You're not a Pickle," Coach tells him, which makes him feel a little sad. "But you can sit by that bench over there." He points towards a wooden bench that's sitting a foot away by the tree. "Wait. You're still floating. Right. Uh... could someone take him over to the bench?"
"Sure thing, Coach," Rochelle replies.
Rochelle then takes Noname by the hand over to the bench with his bottle of water in his hand.
"Thanks," he says to her.
"No problem," she replies. "And don't try to get any ideas with me, Noname."
"Oh no. You got nothing to worry about. I'm serious," he tells her as she lets go of his hand.
He looks over towards the team gathering and drinks his water while she goes back over to her spot and sits down.
Thank you, Rochelle," he tells her, giving her a pat on the back. "Now where were we?" He looks on his clipboard and points something out. "Oh right. Well done, team! Boy, that was a tough game, wasn't it? Those Tots almost had us there, but you guys stayed focused! You guys stayed determined! And most of all, you guys stayed a team and I am proud to be coaching you all."
"And because of that, we're on our way to the State Championship!" Tom exclaims happily.
"Yes, Tom. We are going to that State Championship. And are we going to win next week? Maybe. Maybe not. Does it matter? Well, in this case, I suppose it does." He chuckles a little. "But hey, if you guys don't win, that's alright. You wanna know why? Because as long as you guys stick together as a team through and through, all of you are winners."
Everyone claps at that little speech, including Noname. Even though he's over by the bench, he still heard every word that man said. That felt like it was probably the most inspiring speech he's ever heard. But, he wasn't the only person that felt really touched by what Coach Dan said...
"That was... really beautiful," Laurie says to herself quietly with her eyes are sparkly with a tear coming out of one of them. "It's like he's... speaking to me."
Oh yeah. A very moving speech. And he's speaking to all of us. Too bad he made a tiny bit of an error in that: you're not a winner.
"H-huh?" She reacts surprisingly, wondering who said that... in her voice. Did she say that herself? Did anyone else notice? Apparently not, because her teammates are still paying attention to their coach's talk.
I know you can hear me. You're not a winner.
"Now, every player here has their role. There are no weak links. You all did great today. But..." Coach pauses, either for dramatic effect or he doesn't know how he's gonna tell his team what he's gonna say next. "There is one person who did the same level as all of you, but just better. Boys and girls, give it up for... Kai, who helped save the game, got us right here right now and just paved our way towards the big game!"
The entire team turns towards Kai, who's just sitting there with a big shock expression on her face.
"What? M-me?" She reacts shockingly, trying so hard not to smile but ends up smiling ear to ear.
"Yeah! You saved our butts back there! If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be able to play next week!" Yuwen tells her. "You know Laurie would've screwed us up."
"I'm pretty sure she would've gotten it... if she didn't fall," Terrence says.
"Again," Tom adds.
Oh yes. I'm pretty sure you would've gotten it too if you wasn't so clumsy all the dang time.
"Please stop talking to me..." she says to herself.
Upon hearing all this talk from her team and seeing her best friend just staring sadly at her helmet, Rochelle gets upset. "Can you guys stop talking about her like this? Laurie didn't mean to do all those things! I'm sure she tried her best!" Rochelle defends. "Sure, she fell trying to hit the softball and yes, she did fall backwards trying to catch the ball, but-"
"But the point is, despite what has happened, we won together as a team and that's what matters most," Coach Dan interrupts. "Anyway, here are three stars to congratulate our little superstar." He hands three sticker stars to Kai, who then puts it on her helmet.
"Thank you, Coach," she replies.
Everyone applauds and cheers for Kai for earning those stars, while Laurie sadly looks down on her helmet, which has no stars on it.
You know, it's a shame really. You've been playing softball ever since you started middle school and you have received not one star. Yet this girl comes through while you're still here, wins one game and now, she's proclaimed a superstar. What type of crap is that?
"Well, she's more skilled than me, so she has earned them," she tells herself. "N-nobody gets those stars unless you have truly proven yourself."
Are you really gonna tell yourself that? Everyone on the team has a star, and some of them don't even play! So that's bull crap right there!
"Alright, team. You conversate amongst yourselves. I'm going to go find your parents," he tells the team as he gets up from his knee and walks over to the school.
As soon as he left, everyone starts to talk amongst themselves. Laurie sees Yuwen getting up and walking over to her with his phone in his hand
Oh great. Here comes the 'Jokemeister'. What does he want?
"Hey Laurie, you wanna see this sick video that I made?" He asks excitedly.
Laurie, not wanting to be a spoiled sport, nervously agrees. "S-sure, Yuwen. What did you make?"
"I made this." He shows her what he made: an edit of Laurie's triple-spin to the ground.
Both Laurie and Yuwen see her triple-spin as a ball bouncing from one dolphin to another, then as a planet orbiting the sun, and finally turned sideways, as a bowling ball going down the alley towards some pins. She hits all the pins and an animation pops up flashing "STRIKE!"
"So what do you think?" Yuwen asks her after they both finish watching the video. "Is this comedy gold or what?
"Uhhh..."
Now this is what you were made for: quality entertainment for the whole family to laugh at and enjoy. Isn't this funny? It's funny, right? Well, go on ahead and laugh. Just laugh like you really mean it. Because you do mean it. Laugh. Laugh. LAUGH!
Laurie awkwardly laughs hard with Yuwen looking at her all weird. "Dang, I knew it was funny, but I didn't think it was that funny," he says.
"Yep," she says through her fake smile. "It's really funny."
"Glad you think so, too. Because I had already sent the video to everyone! You're going to be an internet sensation all over Peaks Valley!"
Everyone is on their phone watching Yuwen's video, laughing and chuckling at Laurie's embarrassing triple-spin edit.
Wondering why everyone is laughing so much looking at their phones, Noname asks aloud, "What is everyone laughing so much for?"
Tom walks up to Noname and shows him the video. "Yo, this video Yuwen made is so hilarious! It's so funny!"
Noname looks at the video and he chuckles a bit. That is, until he notices something.
"Wait, isn't that girl... Laurie?"
"Yeah," Tom answers, still laughing. "Before you landed here, we were playing and Laurie kept trying to hit the ball and she missed. Then that last strike was a doozy for her as she spun three times and fell to the ground. It was funny then too, but this video makes it even funnier!"
Noname's expression changes to seriousness as he hears this. "So... what? A video of pure mistaken embarrassment to that of just embarrassing comedy? Of your own team? How could you do that to her? You know how hurt she could be?"
"I didn't do it. He did," He points over to Yuwen, who's still talking to Laurie about that video laughing while she fake smiles and laughs awkwardly. "He does this type of stuff all the time. And I'm sure he doesn't mean to mean to do it out of spite. It's all in good fun-
"Good fun? Fun for who? You guys?," Noname asks, starting to get upset. "I thought you're a team. Aren't teammates supposed to like support one another or something like that? Why are guys laughing at her like this when she obviously didn't mean to triple-spin into space?"
"Because she's funny," Tom answers. "That's why. Nobody has fallen or failed as much as Laurie has, and because of these videos, Yuwen makes it 10x funnier. And look," he says with both Tom and Noname looking over at Laurie. "She's smiling. And laughing. She doesn't seem offended by this at all."
"Laurie might not be offended, but she looks like she is." Noname points over to Rochelle walking angrily over towards Yuwen.
"Uh oh," Tom says worryingly. "Tell you what. I'll hang back with you if that's alright. Thanks."
"And I will too," Ira adds, who shocks both Tom and Noname.
"How did you get here? We didn't even see you walk up to us!"
"I don't know. I just walked up here," Ira then takes out his decorated telescope and shows it to Noname. "This is my telescope. You can see different universes through this baby and be anything you want to be," he explains to Noname. Then he asks him a question. "Do you... wanna see through it? There's something amazing waiting for you on the other side..."
Now that sounds ridiculous. A discarded toilet paper tube with all these types of designs that lets you see different universes and stuff? You gotta be kidding. Nobody's gonna buy that for a second. Unless, of course, there's someone out there that's really curious... or stupid.
"Uh, sure," Noname responds. "I wanna see something amazing."
"Yes!" Ira cheers happily. He hands Noname the telescope and he peers through it and look around, getting disappointed that nothing's really popping out to him.
"Uh... I don't see anything different."
"Well, keep looking, Noname. Something's bound to surprise you like this kid says," Tom says to Noname.
"Alright. Let me just turn over towards..." Noname, still floating, turns over with the telescope in his eye to where the team is almost gathered together. "Oh! I think I'm seeing something popping off. Looks like Rochelle
"I don't think he needs the telescope to see what's happening, right?" Tom whispers to Ira.
"I guess not," Ira whispers back. "But look! Someone else is actually using my telescope and not talking trash about me using it!"
"So what?"
"I think...," Ira pauses and then he continues. "I might've found my own best friend! And he's from out of this world!"
The Pickles and Noname see the people from the stands running towards them, all with an angry look in their eyes.
"Yeah. I think you're actually screwed," Kai tells me. "Good luck trying to tell our parents what you told us without getting stuff thrown at you or maybe even shot at."
"SHOT AT?!" The mystery kid gulps at the thought. "Uh... I think I'm actually gonna die this time..." he says worryingly.
Coach Dan looks onto the crowd with determination. "Oh no you're not, son," he says with a calm yet stern tone in his voice. "Just be open and honest with them just like you were with us. In fact, we'll support you, right team?"
Nobody says anything, like they're afraid to. And they are. Like who's really gonna stand up to their parents?
Rochelle speaks up. "I will support you. Come on, guys. We can do this."
"Nah. You can do that. I don't want to get in trouble with my mom."
"Neither do I,"
"Or us,"
"So much for being a team," "Fine. I guess it's just me and you, Rochelle"
"Count me in, too, Coach. I want to help support this kid's life."
"Frank! You too? Great! Alright, let's get this handled."
While the rest of the team and Ira back away, Coach Dan, Frank Brown and Rochelle Rodriguez stand in front of the way of where the people are heading towards, stopping everyone in their spots with the floating kid watching fearfully.
The fact that all of this is happening right now kind of makes these people wonder... what would've happened if they knew what was going to happen?
Most likely they would've had to postpone the game until next week or whenever the situation gets situated, meaning their kids couldn't come through to the field to play against the other team, win the game, and go on to the championship. Which also means the Pickles wouldn't be able to introduce themselves let alone even see this mysterious person. Or even the parents. Ever.
But, without any warning, as if it were just an accident, it happened. This mystery person fell thousands of feet from the sky and is floating before everyone without any rhyme or reason, leaving the people in a state of confusion, fear, and curiosity. All it took was a little bit of loud self-discovery to put that fear into motion as everyone, including the vast majority of the Pickles, ran and hid somewhere to get away from this alien who's unaware of who he is.
These people aren't used to seeing extraordinary beings in real life. Only in movies or on TV where a lot of aliens are shown as these weird-looking creatures that want to abduct, probe or eat people, and take over the planet. So the fact that what these people are seeing in real-time is believable, it's jarring enough to the point where most of them believe that's what this person's here for.
However, after a nice little chat between a brave and confident Rochelle Rodriguez and the confused but very truthful alien, he's good. No malicious intentions intended towards anyone nor anything. Not to mention, he's aware of God so he's very religious.
The whole team seems to take a bit of a liking towards him afterwards (except for maybe Yuwen), so that's a bit of good news. Unfortunately, that good feeling wouldn't last long for this unknown character for he feels he has to do the impossible: face a big angry mob.