Third Strike Rule

Better Not

If you listen to better not by Louis the child you will be on a whole different vibe.

Viv quietly changed out of her clothes from the photo shoot and into the shorts and sweater she had come in. Nike had her, Nolan, Cy, and CJ show up on to Santa Monica at 6 a.m. the Monday of Spring Break to shoot the new campaign. There was a lot of staged "competition" between the two sets of siblings. Nolan and CJ had been pretty cool towards each other, but they had managed to be civil and had even carried on a conversation.

It was barely 9 a.m. the city of Los Angeles was still asleep and all the students were out of town on extravagant spring break trips while Viv was stuck practicing and preparing for the tournament in Hawai'i the week after her spring break. It was going to be a good tournament Stanford, St. Mary's, University fo Hawai'i, UCLA, and University of Florida were going to be in attendance. Viv would play more games in three days than she had all season.

While the thought of playing beach volleyball in Hawai'i was exciting to Viv, since her and Lena hadn't had a good enough record to travel to the Islands last year, the most exciting thing was that Nolan was going to be on the Islands at the same time. UCLA had a huge series against University of Hawai'i. The Rainbow Warriors had been making a lot of noise due to a new player on the scene: Will Sanders. The Hawaiian native had been absolutely raking and was expected to give Nolan some trouble.

Viv was hyped to find out all her matches were early morning and afternoon and Nolan would be playing all late night games. They also would have two free days because their coaches felt bad that the kids had to stick around during spring break. This would also be her officially visit to the university as she was still banking on her deal with her dad. Viv was set on transferring at the end of the semester and leaving Los Angeles for good.

"Hey V, I am heading out," CJ calls through the thin chanting tent walls. CJ had flown in the night before and was headed back to Oklahoma because of his own demanding schedule of balancing spring football and playing baseball at OU.

Viv stepped out and hugged her brother tightly, "miss you CJ."

CJ hugs his sister tighter. He hadn't realized how much he missed having her around, "Miss you too Viv."

"Keep doing your thing out there," Viv mumbles and lets him go.

"Keep raking," CJ says with a wink.

Viv lightly punches her brother, "GTFO before I starting crying."

CJ laughs, "alright love you Viv."

"Love you!" Viv calls after him. "See you in a month!"

CJ throws a fist in the air, "spring game baby come ready to party."

Viv laughs and then grabs the box of gear she had received from Nike and heads to her car. She juggles the boxes on her leg as she fishes around for her keys in her purse. She manages to click the button and pop her trunk.

"Here I gotchu," a lulling voice says and then a massive hand pushes her trunk open.

Viv drops the gear in and turns to Nolan a little out of breath, "thanks."

"No problem where you headed?" Nolan asks as he shuts the trunk and leans on her black Challenger.

Viv looks around, "did Cy bounce already?" Viv ignores Nolan's question way more concerned that Cy had left before she could force him to take her to eat.

"Yeah, he had to get back to Phoenix for spring training," Nolan says and awkwardly rubs the back of his neck. It still bothered Nolan that Viv was always so concerned with his other brother.