Chapter Text
"I thought you hated baseball?" Brody said, sounding perplexed.
"I do-" Violet replied, shoving her books into her locker, "-but someone asked me to come and watch, so I thought I'd give it a try."
"Someone, huh?" Brody smirked, "does this someone have a name?"
Violet frowned at her friend, slapping her lightly on the shoulder with the back of her hand.
"I know what you're thinking, so stop thinking it."
"I'm not thinking anything. All I'm saying is, someone convinced you to watch a sports game, thats a huge deal in my book." Brody grinned smugly.
Violet scoffed.
"You watch too many of those true crime shows. Not everything's a conspiracy, detective."
"Fine then, keep your secrets." Brody rolled her eyes.
"You wanna come to the game with me though?" Vi asked genuinely.
"Sure, maybe I'll get to meet this mystery person." She teased.
"Oh my god, leave it alone." Violet groaned.
***
Violet pulled open the flimsy screen door to her house. It was filled with so many holes that it was rendered completely useless for keeping bugs out. She was careful not to let it creak and announce her arrival.
The sound of the TV in the living room was blaring, so she knew that her father was home.
Violet tried to sneak by without alerting him, but a creaky floorboard gave her away.
The ratty old armchair squeaked as her father leaned around to scowl at her. Not that anyone would notice if he miraculously did smile. The deep set lines on his face practically locked him into the same expression. His bushy beard was dotted with grey hairs and held the crumbs of food he hadn't yet bothered to clean out.
"What are you doing here, ain't you got school?" He grumbled.
"It's four o'clock, school's finished." Violet rolled her eyes.
"Right-" her father said, "-make yourself useful then. There's dishes in the sink, need washin'."
He turned back to the TV, sloshing around a half empty beer bottle before taking a gulp.
Vi glanced into the kitchen and saw the stack of dirty dishes.
"Those are from last night, why didn't you wash them? You were home all day." Violet retorted.
"Because it ain't my job, that sorta' thing's for women to do."
Violet inhaled sharply. How this man had managed to avoid repelling her mom away long enough to have a kid was beyond her. She stared daggers into the back of his head.
"What is your job exactly?" She said pointedly.
Her father whirled back around, the sudden movement made Violet flinch.
Despite the fervour of his turn, he didn't bother to get out of his chair.
"Don't you speak to me like that, god damn it!" He snapped, "get in there and do as you're told."
As much as she wished she could, Violet concluded that it was in her best interest to not argue the point any further. Her dad wasn't a reasonable person, even less so when he drank. She hastily scrubbed the dishes and put them on a rack to dry before escaping to her bedroom and shutting the door.
Violet's bedroom was plain to say the least. It was tiny, she barely had enough room to move past the bed. Then again, their entire house was tiny.
The outdated 70's wallpaper was faded and peeling at the point where the wall met the ceiling.
She had tried to make the best of it, covering the ugly patterns with posters and art, but it didn't do much to quell the dingy look of the place.
Vi jumped backwards, landing on her bed and bouncing a little with the impact. She splayed her arms and legs out and breathed a long sigh.
After resting for a few moments, she sat up and opened the drawer to her nightstand, retrieving her MP3 player and popping in her headphones.
Her thumb traced the circumference of the control dial, scrolling down the list until she found a song she was in the mood for and then clicked play.
The deep thrum of the bass line kicked in and Violet closed her eyes, letting herself be enveloped by the music:
'Rosemary
Heaven restores you in life
You're coming with me
Through the aging, the fearing, the strife
It's the smiling on the package
It's the faces in the sand
It's the thought that moves you upwards
Embracing me with two hands
Right will take you places
Yeah, maybe to the beach
When your friends they do come crying
Tell them now your pleasure's set upon slow release...'
Vi craned her neck to check the old alarm clock on her nightstand. It was nearly six, if she wanted to make it back to school in time for the baseball game, she had to leave now.
Not feeling much like dealing with her dad again, she put on a jacket and a beanie, opened her window, and climbed out.
***
While Vi enjoyed watching girls run around sweating in cute uniforms, this was vastly different to her usual Wednesday night affair.
Actually being in the stands while they were full of people was unlike anything she'd experienced. The excitement was palpable, the air electric.
Everybody's cheers and shouts were infectious.
She was never usually one to raise her voice unless she needed to and sports usually made her want a brick thrown at her head, but when the crowd stood up and yelled, she found herself yelling right alongside them.
Finally, Clementine stepped up to the plate, turning the ball over in her hands. She made furious eye contact with the rival batter.
Clem raised the ball up to her chest, supporting it with her gloved left hand.
The away team's batter squared her feet and adjusted her grip on the bat.
In an instant, Clementine raised her knee and pivoted. The force of her pitch made her spin on the spot, stretching out her other leg for balance.
She straightened her arm and the ball was launched from her grip.
Violet watched it zip straight past the batter, who had no time to react. It flew into the mitt of the catcher behind her with an audible smack.
Half the crowd exploded in cheers, Violet included. Clem wiped the sweat off her brow and stretched her arms across her chest.
Vi's heart jumped a little when she caught a glimpse of the brunette's toned biceps peeking out from underneath her sleeves. The next twenty minutes or so were solely occupied by watching Clementine send the ball ripping across the field and seeing the batters struggle to keep up with her speed.
"That girl's got a really good arm." Brody said, having to raise her voice over the crowd.
"She's got a really good everything..." Vi mumbled to herself.
"What?" Brody asked, screwing up her face in confusion.
Vi's eyes went wide.
"What?"
Clementine once again tossed a fastball at the batter, but the girl was ready and intercepted it with the bat.
There was a loud crack and the ball was sent airborne across the field. The girl dropped her bat and broke into a sprint to first base.
One of the girls on Clementine's team dove for the ball, but just missed catching the batter out. It bounced out of her reach and continued rolling to the outfield. It was down to another girl to scoop it up and throw it back.
The ball was caught by the team captain, Minerva. She began running as soon as the ball made contact with her mitt.
By now, the batter was almost at third base.
Minerva pushed and pushed, and when she was close enough, dropped to the ground and slid on the sand.
Her foot touched the base a split second before the batter got there and she held up the ball.
The umpire balled his fist and swung it sharply down, prompting a cheer from the crowd and Clementine's team.
Vi assumed that meant the batter was out. The umpire put up both hands and shouted "Time!"
An explosive roar spread through the crowd, judging from everybody's reactions, Clem's team had won.
Vi was swept up in it, contributing to the cacophony.
The look on Clementine's face was one of pure elation.
Violet smiled too, that was until a certain redhead appeared and scooped Clementine up in a hug, spun her around, and then kissed her cheek.
Vi's face burned and she suddenly wanted to hide.
She was hit by a wave of embarrassment crashing over her, like everyone in the crowd knew exactly what she had been thinking coming here.
How stupid she'd been.
"Vi, you okay?" Brody asked, having to lean in close to cut through the yelling of the crowd.
"Yeah no, I'm fine-" Violet lied, "-I'm just gonna go get some air."
Vi manoeuvred her way through the crowd and out of the stands, hiding away behind the small brick building that sat adjacent to the baseball diamond.
Of course.
Of course she had been her usual, pathetic self and assumed that a girl simply talking to her and being nice meant that she was interested.
All it took was the tiniest bit of attention and - yet again - she was already obsessing over another girl she barely knew.
She pulled out a cigarette and fumbled for her lighter.
"Can I bum a smoke?"
Vi jumped and turned around, she somehow didn't notice the girl in an orange and blue baseball jersey approaching before.
"Please?" The girl asked.
"Sure. Sorry you scared the fuck out of me." Violet admitted.
She handed a cigarette to the girl and lit it for her.
"You play for the away team, right?" Vi asked.
The girl nodded and stuck out her hand for Violet to shake.
"Katie. Katie Ashfield." She said formally.
"Violet Adlon."
She shook her hand, Katie had an iron grip. Vi could feel the callouses on her palm from what was no doubt years of batting.
"So you were watching? That means you probably saw me get tagged out at the last minute."
Violet shrugged, not really knowing what to say.
Katie sighed and took a long drag.
"You know that red haired chick, the tall one? She punched me in the face last year, broke my fucking nose and chipped a tooth."
"Who, the captain?" Vi asked, "Why?"
Katie scoffed, puffing out a tiny cloud of smog from her nostrils.
"She said I skipped a base. It wasn't on purpose, I just stepped next to it instead of on it and kept running." She shrugged, "but that was enough for her I guess. She started yelling, I stared yelling, then I got sucker punched."
"Shit." Vi muttered.
"She takes this shit way too seriously, it's fucking baseball and she treats it like it's life or death."
Katie took another long drag, then she dropped the cigarette butt and stomped it out.
"I better get going, thanks for the smoke."
"Don't mention it." Vi said.
"I owe you one next time I'm in town." Katie chuckled.
She walked back towards the crowd of people that were starting to gather around the exit to the stands.
Violet took one last drag of her smoke and tapped it out against the wall. She was about to leave when a familiar voice stopped her.
"Violet!" Clementine called excitedly, "you came!"
"Yeah, I did..." Violet mumbled, trying to sound like she wasn't dying inside.
"So you saw us kick their asses?" Clem joked with a smirk.
"Yep. Saw the whole thing."
Clementine flashed a pretty smile, the kind that made Vi's heart do a frontflip.
"Thanks for coming, it means a lot, especially since you don't like baseball."
Vi's face dropped.
"How did-"
"Come on, it wasn't hard to tell you had no idea what I was talking about." Clem giggled.
"Ah, sorry..."
"For what? Like I said, I'm glad you came."
A few girls from the team left the brick building, which Vi now realised was the locker room.
Minerva stepped away from the group and walked up to Clem.
"Hey, you coming with us? We're celebrating at Cass' place."
"Yeah, I'll be with you guys in a minute." Clem said.
Minerva looked at her, then at Vi.
Her piercing blue eyes briefly looked her up and down, seemingly sizing her up.
Vi really hoped it wasn't for a fight, she would probably lose that one, especially given what Katie had told her.
"Alright." Minerva finally said, shrugging.
The redhead jogged over to the team and immediately began talking away.
"What's the deal with you two? Are you like... together?" Vi asked, once Minnie was out of earshot.
Clem's eyes widened. She adjusted her hat, pulling the brim down further, obscuring her face.
"What? Me and Minnie?" She said, "No, not at all."
"She kissed you though, I thought-"
"Oh that." She laughed, "That's kind of a sports thing."
"Kissing your teammates is a sports thing?" Vi asked flatly.
"Yeah, it's just a heat of the moment thing, we just won so emotions were pretty high."
"Mhm." Vi nodded.
"Clem, come on!" Minerva yelled from across the parking lot.
"Damn it. I better go before they drag me there by my ankles." Clementine sighed, "I'm sorry. I wanted to talk longer."
"Don't sweat it." Vi shrugged, "go celebrate, you earned it."
Clem grinned and before Vi knew what had happened, she was caught in a hug.
Instinctively, she tensed up. Once the shock had worn off, she reciprocated the embrace.
Clem let go and awkwardly patted her on the back, laughing a little.
"I'll see you around?" Clem asked, tilting her head to the side.
"Yeah, hope so." Violet smiled.
Clem got into the car with the rest of the team and Violet watched it peel out of the parking lot.
Just then, she heard a shuffling pair of footsteps run up to her.
"Jesus, there you are." Brody chastised, "I've been looking everywhere."
"Sorry, I was talking to someone." She apologised.
"Was it the mystery person you came here for?" Brody smirked.
Vi hesitated for a conspicuously long time.
"Maybe..."