Alexis thinks her face must be as crimson as her red hair in its twin braids, and she tries to ignore the unsettled words of her teammates as she swings her bat a few times and reposition her feet—gives herself more time to figure out how not to be so entranced by the elusive pitcher before she has to look in her direction again. But Silver seems to know that she's the cause of Alexis's distracted state, because this time, the look in her eyes is amusement instead of curiosity, and below that gaze is a small smirk—a subtle little upturned twist of her lips that is playing with Alexis's emotions just right the longer her eyes linger there, when, in fact, they shouldn't be lingering at all because…

"Strike!"