Third Strike Rule

The Missing Link

GUYS!! I am so so stupid apparently this chapter never posted and I'm sure everything was extremely confusing because of this! I'm so sorry hopefully y'all will go back to read it, but I gotta change the order. This happens between the Underground and the Game that Nolan takes Lena to...

Viv sits in her dad's usual seats behind home plate and waits for Nolan to join her. Nolan had been on the field while his dad was celebrate for being inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame. Cody definitely deserved it and Viv had been sure to tell Nolan that time and time again. She also didn't mention that her dad had been inducted years ago before she was even born. Seemed a little glib in her opinion.

The MLB World Series game one was taking place in Los Angeles against the Dodgers and the Yankees. The predictions of who would take the series was up in the air as the one time the teams had seen each other the Dodgers had barely won the series 2-1 and that was before MJ Trout had joined the team. Cy Bellinger was fighting for his chance to win MVP and MJ was up for it as well after an insane rookie season the year before.

For probably the first time in her life Viv was rooting for Cy to make an absolute fool of her ex boyfriend.

Cody Bellinger throws out the first pitch and all the pregame antics take place as Viv watches Nolan quietly follow his dad around. It was always weird to her that Nolan tried so hard not to be noticed by his dad. It was weird because she could see how much Cody loved his son and how hard Cody pushed Nolan to be on top. Ever since she had started hanging out with Nolan it became more and more obvious that both Cy and Nolan had almost be smothered by their father's attention and neither of them wanted to be in the spotlight of "being Cody Bellinger's son".

It was strange to her because all she had ever wanted was for her dad to tell her she was doing amazing and that he was proud of her. Viv wanted people to stop comparing her to her mom and just wanted to do her own thing. Viv had expected to be good her whole life and when that natural talent of being gifted with the ability to do well in sports and school she never really had to try. Even in college Viv had managed to breeze through without a lot of effort. The last time she really had to try was in the NCAA beach volleyball national champion game that she lost.

"Hey scoot over," CJ says snapping Viv out of her thoughts.

Viv looks at her brother and frowns barely managing not to throw a fit seeing who he's with, "No fuck off."

"Come on Viv," CJ pleads knowing that his sister was about three seconds from a meltdown.

"No seriously fuck you dude. You're such a piece of fucking shit CJ why the fuck would you bring her here? Like are you dumb or are you stupid?" Viv snaps at her brother and barely offers Lena Mayfield a glance.

CJ sighs knowing he had definitely fucked up, but also knew he couldn't pass up the chance to go on a date with Lena he had always thought she was super hot, "Viv, you're the only person in the family who is still mad about it... you guys were friends for a long time before it happened..."

Viv's eyebrows shoot up at CJ's incredible statements, "Seriously fuck you sometimes I wonder if you even give two fucks about me, your blood sister. You have no fucking clue about what happened after that national championship."

"You lost the game because you don't focus and don't give a fuck about your sport? You fucked around all season, skipped practice, skipped class, didn't go to lift and relied solely on the little talent you had to win a game?" Lena asks somewhere from behind CJ.

Viv's mouth drops slightly at Lena's audacity, "You literally had 21 errors in that game while I had zero. I was playing the best ball I had played all season and you were the one who was too distracted by your boyfriend breaking up with you for cheating on him to focus on the game!" Viv counters Lena's statements with her own.