I made it, Ma

v

The months passed by and she had (finally) learned about her being pulled up into the minors. Her family was full of rare bitches, her brother having gone straight out of high school into the majors and her being a switch player, female as well, getting into the minors. This was the time when she became huge, her name suddenly appearing everywhere.

"Is this the next ultimate break?"

"This girl may become the first female pitcher in the major leagues"

And the cherry on top of all of this?

The hate. She'd always had problems facing hate, and often projected herself to it from her own mind. She wasn't wonderful when it came to her shaking things off, but it became much, much worse through the minors.

She played for the GCL Marlins, after being scouted at the try-outs. There was a small battle between the Marlins and Brewers, but eventually got sent to the Marlins.

There she pitched for a few games, but it was a horrible experience.

Without naming names, a coach (he was nicknamed Coach A by her, which means Coach Asshole) would constantly be on her ass.

He was the pitching coach, but he was utterly disgusting. For the few short games she played, he was constantly blaming shit on her.

"That homerun was on you!"

"If you'd just jumped you woulda caught it!" This was when she played in the outfield for a few innings, where the person hit a homerun that was at least twice her own height.

"Just try and field it!"

"If you could pitch as good as-" she wouldn't name anyone else, "- then you could get better!"

"You shouldn't be here, women can't play in this league and you sure as hell won't get very far,"

"Give up before you're too far, you won't want to embarrass yourself,"

"This is a mans sport, why you got brought up into this league is confusing to me,"

It was barely three games in and she'd already gotten the terrible habit of bringing herself down every time something happened.

"God damnit Skayler! Go somewhere and learn how to-"

"You know what? You are a fucking bastard! I don't give a shit what you have to say, I can not sit on this team and let you beat me down everytime your precious little fucking son makes a mistake! Go fucking die in a hole, you don't fucking deserve to coach anyone, let alone adults!" She screamed, only through two innings of the game.

Everyone was silent, and he was silently fuming. His face was beet red, and he looked to almost explode. Had it not been for some of the players, he probably would have punched her.

"Hey, hey, calm down," Yelich, who she had grown quite close to (whether or not it was because they both had recently joined) had tugged her from the dugout. She was in tears, the thoughts running rampage in her mind.

She gripped him tightly. "I can't fucking stand that bastard, god damnit!"

He hushed her quietly, seeing the manager start yelling at the asshole before turning so his body blocked their view of each other. "Alright, I know he can be a bastard, but it can't honestly be that ba-"

"I've started blaming everything on myself. Even shit that is in the outfield when I'm sitting, I can't help but think 'what the hell did I do to cause this?' And you wanna know why? That bitch has buried that shit deep into my head, and I can't take this anymore. I've stopped loving this game. If I'm blaming everything on myself, it doesn't... I can't," she broke down. She couldn't breathe but she wasn't paying attention.

Her breaths came in short gasps, her mind racing with thoughts of What did I do?

"Hey, hey, listen to me," he made her look up. "You need to breathe. Calm yourself down, it's alright. Need'ta distract yourself, yeah? Uhm," he looked around, trying to find anything to distract the panic attack she was having. 

He pointed out.

"Focus on the lights, try'n see how many there are, yeah?" She nodded, her breath deepening, though it was still spotty. 

"Skayler?" Their manager walked over, leading the pitching coach out of the dugout. "Listen, I'll trade you over to Wisconsin, closer to home, yeah?" Christian left the two to talk it out.

She nodded softly. "Yeah, 'm sorry I freaked out," he shook his head.

"Had I known about him attacking you like that, to make you blame yerself, I woulda kicked him off, but I can't really do that now. I'm going to figure out what I can do to make a trade with the Rattlers, but I'm not sure," he rubbed her arm slightly. "Think you can finish this game?"

She nodded.

"Yeah, thanks," she whispered. 

She had, in fact, finished the game with some really nice pitching, going three innings without any hits or walks, and had been traded over to Wisconsin, but to their Class A advanced Brevard County Manatees. 

She was sad to leave her friends, but extremely happy to get out of such a toxic environment.