One for the Record Books

Chapter Two

Start of the 2nd Quarter

Joanna Moore didn't know what the hell she had been thinking initially when she'd left Oklahoma City for Nashville, Tennessee. Sure, in her heart she believed she'd been making the right decision—accepting a scholarship from a division one college in one of the premier collegiate conferences in the country to play baseball while also getting a damn good education. But she was moving thousands of miles away from her dad, leaving him all alone, selfishly. Of course, her father never saw it like that, even if it were true.

Her freshman debut was put on hold in a very unfortunate event. She was rounding the bases in a little scrimmage game when her foot caught the corner of third awkwardly and she tumbled. Agony ripped through her knee, drawing a pained cry from her lips before she could stop herself. She wasn't going to show weakness in front of her teammates. She had to show them that she was tough.

"Jo!? Jo, are you all right? Jo!"

She had wanted to be okay, desperately, but she wasn't. The MRI confirmed her worst fears with a torn ACL. She was granted a red shirt, and was forced to waste away her first year in the SEC on the bench, watching Oklahoma Sooners basketball games on her dorm TV whenever she could. Blake was blowing up everywhere.

Joe was there, she found out, watching in the seats next to his parents.

"You're going to his games?" Jo had asked one night while they video chatted on Skype. It was the only way they could see each other's face being so far apart.

"Oh yeah, Jojo," he'd replied with the biggest grin. "He's phenomenal. You know how OU's been in the past. Basketball season's just been a little distraction til fall rolls around. This team ain't good yet, but they're sure as hell getting there."

"How is Blake?" Jo asked. She tried to sound nonchalant, but it didn't much work.

"What do you mean, 'How's Blake?'" Joe asked his only child. "Haven't you two been keeping in touch? You're best friends for goodness sake!"

"Hey now, Pops, calm down. Sure, we text and stuff but it's easy to hide behind a keyboard. How is he really? I just wanna know he's okay and doing well."

"He's doing good," Joe told her. "He's adapting to Norman and college life. He says it's easier, because his parents are right down the road and he can go home whenever he wants. He never would've made it hundreds of miles away like you."

Joe sounded a little sad as he said it. Jo felt a pang in her chest. "Daddy, you know why I came here."

"Education and baseball," Joe mumbled. "I know, I know. How's everything going, by the way? You healing?"

"Healing as well as I can be." Jo looked down at her leg, locked in a complicated, robotic looking brace and propped up on a soft pillow. "I'm just so annoyed that I'm losing an entire season to this stupid injury. I've never gotten hurt like this, Dad."

"Sweetie, you aren't losing anything. You're getting the red shirt. You're still going to have four years of eligibility to play. Don't stress too much. Everything's going to be okay."

Jo looked down at her lap where a notebook was opened to her general chemistry class notes for her Kinesiology major. After a lot of debate and thought, she'd decided to pull a double major in Kinesiology and Journalism. She didn't know what exactly she wanted to do if her dreams of becoming a professional baseball player didn't happen, so she wanted to explore the possibilities of maybe becoming a doctor and working as a trainer for a sports team or becoming a sports' journalist. Both held a lot of interest to her, because they dealt with one of the loves of her life.