Power Pros Forum

Various other sports held similar meetings over the following week. Most players decided to cross-train in one way or another by doing a number of other activities and sports, but Matthew Simpson wanted to focus completely on baseball, and decided to spend the off-season working out and training to become a better pitcher. While he did improve significantly, his mom worried about him burning out and told Matthew that she was concerned.

(Matthew: TOP SPD +1, CTRL +5, STAM +5, CCHG +1)

Jimmy James decided to join the swim team. He had been swimming a lot over the summer, and had improved his form to the point that he was confident enough to join. He signed up for the 50m backstroke, 50m butterfly, and 200m IM. At the meeting, he met another swimmer named Cody Childress who claimed to be the best in the school at the individual medley (IM). Jimmy wondered if he should talk back or let his swimming do the talking for him.

What do you do? (Kungfupandacam)

A. Talk back to Cody
B. Make a friendly wager
C. Try to befriend Cody
D. Stay quiet
E. Drink a three-month-old carton of milk

D. My swim coach said let the water do the talking. Also, I LIke popcorn

Jimmy decided to shut his trap and leave Cody alone, which proved to be a good decision as Cody quickly got in a loud argument with another swimmer who had challenged him.

(Jimmy: XP +2, STAM +1)

Stanislaus and Anthony both wanted to run, but in different capacities, as Stanislaus preferred sprinting and Anthony wanted to improve his stamina by running long-distance. Therefore, they joined separate programs, with Stanislaus joining the track team and Anthony signing up for cross-country.

(Stanislaus: RUN SPD +1)
(Anthony: STAM +2)

Xander decided that between baseball and skateboarding, his schedule wouldn’t permit him adding another sport to the mix, but he did commit to going to the gym and working out once a week with Brady, who also decided not to play another sport due to his commitments with baseball, skateboarding, and surfing competitions.

(Xander: PWR +1, SP +1)
(Brady: PWR +1, SP +1)

Johnny, inspired by the Kurtis Blow song, decided to sign up for basketball. He actually turned out to be pretty good, draining a half-dozen threes in the team tryouts the next day, although his passing skills weren’t quite up to par and he was placed on the B team.

(Johnny: ARM STR +1)

Harold Henderson decided to play football for the first time since third grade, and despite being a very good athlete, was only offered a spot on the B team as a backup linebacker after tryouts. However, there was a need on special teams, as the team lacked a long snapper and also needed another player for the kickoff and return teams.

What do you do? (Baseballteen9500)

A. Accept your role as backup linebacker
B. Accept your role and ask to play special teams
C. Just play special teams
D. Ask for a position change (specify position)
E. Grab a football, punt it as far as you can, then walk off the field

B. Sad thing is I used to be a Dline and long snapper go figure

Harold sighed and accepted his role as a backup linebacker, but after practice talked to the coaches about playing on special teams. He decided to tryout as a long snapper the following day, and ended up being good enough in that role to start on the A team.

(Harold: XP +6)

Finally, Lake signed up for golf, figuring it would be a good way to pass some time and get some exercise in the off-season. While at registration, he met two other baseball players, sixth-graders by the names of Harris Potts and Tanner Davis.

(Lake: XP +2, SP +3)

The rest of the week went by quickly, and suddenly it was the weekend. Most kids had the weekend free, but Xander had his first skate competition of the season, and Brady decided to tag along to support him (and to watch and learn from the skaters). Also busy was Anthony, who had planned out an elaborate date for himself and Caroline that involved dinner, a movie, bowling, and hanging out at Caroline’s house on Sunday.

What do you do? (Kungfupandacam, dustyfarmer, GoTwins24, Baseballteen9500, dishnet34)

A. Practice baseball
B. Practice another sport (the sport you selected)
C. Go to Xander’s skateboarding competition
D. Go swimming at the public pool
E. Hang out at… (the beach, the park, the mall, a really shady part of town)
F. Study
G. Be lazy

Practice baseball

Stanislaus will:
F. Study

I will practice baseball as well.

A. Practice baseball

Just waiting on KFPC now...

A. Practice Pitching.

Over the weekend, Stanislaus and Cody decided to stay in and hit the books, which turned out to be a very wise investment of their time as they had a pop quiz the following Monday — and aced it, unlike the majority of the class who hadn’t done the assigned reading.

(Stanislaus: XP +2, GPA +0.03)
(Cody: XP +2, GPA +0.03)

Among those who neglected to do the reading were Jimmy, Johnny, and Harold, who all got together to go to the batting cages and hang out. They all had a great time, and saw noticeable improvement in their power.

(Jimmy: SP +5, PWR +2)
(Johnny: SP +5, PWR +2)
(Harold: SP +5, PWR +2)

Lake and Matthew also practiced baseball, working on their pitching form. Lake worked especially on PFP and reading the ball better off the bat, while Matthew worked on spotting his fastball better.

(Lake: XP +3, FLD +1)
(Matthew: XP +3, CTRL +2)

After riding his bike over to Caroline’s house, Anthony was tired and out of breath, and thus needed a moment to regain the strength before they headed out to dinner. Once he had recovered a bit, Mr. Little drove the kids to the mall, promising to pick them up at ten o’clock — meaning they had five hours to do everything they had set out to do.

They knocked out two of those goals by eating dinner at the movie theater while plotting to sneak in to the six o’clock showing of Suicide Squad. Anthony was just a couple of months away from turning 13, and his voice had just begun to show the telltale signs of puberty by cracking every two or three sentences he spoke. Meanwhile, Caroline had matured past her age due to her parents’ divorce and her having to help raise her little brother. They decided that it was worth a shot. After all, if their plan didn’t work, they could always go see another G or PG rated film.

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Xander had already nailed his first four tricks to get into the finals, but the pressure was starting to get to him as he prepared for his fifth trick. He had been working on the McTwist that he had barely landed at his birthday party, but wasn’t confident enough to show it off here and now. It was time to reach deep in the bag of tricks and pull out something that he knew he could land, but also that would wow the judges and fans alike.

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The kid handing out tickets was young, probably just a year or two removed from high school (if that), but he saw right through their plan. Fortunately for them, however, he had sympathy on them and gave them the tickets anyways, and they trotted into the theater smiling wide.

They enjoyed the movie, and afterwards decided to wander around the mall for a bit before going bowling. The two youngsters ended up wandering in and out of several stores but finding nothing; and giving up, decided to head down to the bowling alley at the far end of the mall. The clock on the wall as they walked in read 8:44; if they hurried, they could probably get two or three games in before they had to leave.

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“*(censored)* it,” Xander muttered to himself, and taking a deep breath, he dropped in off the side of the bowl, rolling toward the ramp set up in the center. He glided smoothly up the ramp and took off, catching a ton of air and going for the McTwist after all.

The crowd cheered wildly as he executed the trick without a hitch, but Xander mistimed his landing by just a hair, and came down very awkwardly on his left leg. He managed to land the trick, and won the competition, but he was unable to walk to the podium to collect his gold medal, as the pain in his leg was simply too much to bear.

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“Ladies first,” Anthony sang as he picked out a ball from the rack. Caroline approached the lane — number 10, Anthony’s favorite number — and rolled the ball gently toward the pins. It wavered this way and that before colliding with the pins and sending them flying. But only six were knocked down, and Caroline could not pick up the spare.

Anthony, meanwhile, rolled a strike on his first try. “No fair!” Caroline whined, but vowed to get back in the game, and matched his strike on her next bowl.

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Xander sat upright in the bed, pain still shooting up his left shin and even into his knee and thigh regions — just not as much, probably more so due to the heavy dosage of painkillers he was on than due to an actual reduction in the severity of his injury.

“Yeah, so it looks like you’ve fractured your tibia, and there appears to be a slight amount of damage to both the fibula and the patella bones,” the friendly doctor told Xander.

Xander’s brother Thomas, an aspiring doctor himself, translated for Xander and his father. “You broke your shin and hurt your knee and the other bone in your lower leg,” he told them.

It would be a long road to recovery for the poor young boy, who would undoubtedly miss the rest of the competitive skateboarding season, not to mention the entire baseball season.

But he sure as heck wore that gold medal proudly when he finally returned to school the following Friday, after missing four days of school while recovering from the injury at home.

(Xander: CON -1, PWR -5, RUN SPD -1, ARM STR -1, FLD -1, E RES -1, injured (broken leg), out for season)

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Anthony ended up winning the first game by a narrow margin, but the second game was much different. Caroline dominated from the start, and beat him fair and square, rolling an impressive 160 to Anthony’s 82. They wanted to play a third game, but realizing the time was already 9:55, they decided to pack up and leave instead, not wanting to piss off Mr. Little by making him wait.

(Anthony: XP +1, SP +6, CTRL +1)

Meanwhile, the first rounds of games in other sports were beginning in the weeks ahead, with each team preparing with a handful of non-district games before advancing to competitive, tough district play.

The hockey team, a thin squad led by Cody on defense and sixth-grader Colby Lemieux (the legendary Mario’s grandson), lost its first three games of the season due to its lack of an experienced goalie. The poor kid they threw back there was a scrawny sixth-grader who had minimal experience skating, let alone playing hockey. On the bright side, the offense was clicking, with Colby scoring five goals and assisting on two more in the first three games and Cody chipping in with an assist of his own while playing hard-nosed defense. (Cody: XP +3)

The golf team was also thin. Led by its lone eighth-grader, Ian Wellerby, the team took fourth place in their first tournament of the season — fourth out of four, that is. Lake, Harris, and Tanner all made the cut for the travel squad, but only Harris (an experienced golfer) shot under par. (Lake: XP +2)

Jimmy led the swimming team to a victory in its first dual meet, setting personal bests in the 50m backstroke and 200m medley. (Jimmy: XP +1, STAM +2)

Stanislaus and Anthony cheered each other on as they went into their first track and cross country meets, respectively. Stanislaus blazed past the competition in the 100m, and anchored the 4x100 relay team to a gold-medal finish as well. Meanwhile, Anthony posted a personal-best time, finishing tenth out of 97 runners in the 2-mile meet. (Stanislaus: XP +2, Anthony: XP +3, STAM +1)

Johnny helped the basketball team split its first two games, scoring a total of eleven points and collecting eight rebounds off the bench. (Johnny: XP +2)

Harold had a terrific game on special teams, sending back perfect snaps all game, which helped the team’s kicker make four field goals and two extra points en route to a 32-27 win. (Harold: XP +3)

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The baseball team, meanwhile, rebounded from the losses of three of its players (the missing Thurgood and Ug, and the injured Xander) by picking up a transfer from a private school as well as an international student from Australia.

The transfer kid’s name was Mason Phelps; he had transferred after being bullied throughout his fifth-grade and into the beginning of his sixth-grade years despite being one of the sweetest and most humble kids on earth. He had continuously been teased about his faith and his parents’ divorce in particular, and was ready to start over at a new school.

Peter Royal, the exchange student from Australia, was unsure how long he would be in California, but was ready to soak up knowledge of American culture. He had enrolled late due to a family emergency, and was rather disappointed to find that Walker Grove did not have a rugby team — but he would settle for soccer, and joined that team as a reserve midfielder.

After a few weeks of school, it was time for another long weekend for Labor Day, leaving everyone scrambling to make plans.

What do you do? (Kungfupandacam, dustyfarmer, PowerPro Jr, GoTwins24, Baseballteen9500, dishnet34) -- Choose two, you can pick something twice

A. Practice baseball
B. Practice your other sport
C. Go swimming at the public pool
D. Hang out at… (the beach, the park, the mall, a really shady part of town)
E. Study
F. Be lazy

A and E, please

I will also do the ol' A&E.