Third Strike Rule

Nothing Chicken and Waffles Can't Fix

Nolan almost choked when he saw what was on his schedule the Sunday before he start his spring semester and officially started his sophomore season at UCLA. He then almost went into cardiac arrest when he saw who he was scheduled with...

Sunday- Physical Fitness Exams

Nolan Bellinger

Viviana Yelich

"You ready Nolan?" Jax asks his trainee who had be disturbingly quiet since he read the schedule on the door.

Nolan swallows and nods, "yeah how are you doing the PFE?" Nolan asks and glances over to the corner of the gym where Viviana was sitting stretching her hamstrings. She had on spandex and a sports bra, her chains were gone and her hair was in a high ponytail with a thick head band.

"The New Gauntlet," Jax tells Nolan.

"Fuck," Nolan curses knowing he's about to die. "Okay, lets get it over with..."

His trainer nods and waves Viv over. She rolls onto her back and flips over her shoulder in a backwards roll and onto her feet. Nolan rolls his eyes quickly in response to her extraness this morning. It was 5:30 a.m. no one should be moving that fast.

"Morning," Viv greets Nolan with soft smile.

"Uhh," Nolan fumbles not expecting Viv to be civil with him at all... It had been almost five weeks since her broke up with her. "Uhh, hi." Nolan finally replies and mentally slaps himself.

"Okay, anyway..." Jax trails off trying to eliminate the awkwardness. "The New Gauntlet is: one mile, 800 meters, 400 meters, 200 meters, 100 meters, 10, 40 yard springs, broad jump, vertical jump, bench, squat, and deadlift. AND! Now you guys get to wear these cool wires and shit and we can track all your vital and any inflammation, stress points, muscle strains and bone pressure!"

Nolan and Viv nod as they start to "wire" themselves up. They had both been on the wires when they took their entrance test for their respective programs. Viv presses the last sticky pad to her temple and got on her treadmill. It was one of those stupid body weight ones that she had to power herself. Viv was ready for the test she had been training for months to crush it this year. Last year she hadn't trained at all leading up to the test and had fallen in the bottom three in every category for her team.

Viv was always down to run and do it quickly. Running felt nice to her. Somehow her mind stopped racing when she ran and she could focus the goal at hand. She just appreciated the silence.

Nolan glances over he's barely going to make a 12 minute mile and Viv was going to get an 8 mile one. He didn't even want to know what her times were gonna be. It was going to be sickening to see him get absolutely owned by a girl. It just made it worse that it was Viv. He did have to give her credit... She looked amazing like she had been busting her ass. After her performance on the Sand Hill he knew she had been.

Viv didn't seem like the same person. If it was possible to be an entirely different person in five weeks Viv had done it. Physically she looked exactly the same maybe a little fitter, bigger quads, more defined abs, but her ally the same looking girl. Her energy was different. She didn't seem like she wanted to disappear as much. A confident tone in her body language. Viv just seemed independent, but not in the desperate to show it like she had been before the break. Independent in the I can rely on myself for everything and I don't need anyone...

Nolan tried to focus on anything, but Viv she was distracting him from the run, but also she was DISTRACTING him from the run. There were several other athletes in the gym. Cy was boxing in the ring against some other MLB player. The NBA guys were starring at Viv. The lone NFL player was working on hip mobility. And Nolan was getting his ass completely wrecked by a physical fitness exam.