doomsday.
chapter one.
the wagon wheel.
March 12th, 2002.
One day before the plane crash.

         " The Stroboscopic effect— the Wagon Wheel effect, for those of you who won't be able to remember a word that long. " Professor Castillo declared as he gestured to the whiteboard behind himself, looking out towards the lecture hall of maybe 25 students with the pleasure of taking his Literature and Philosophy class. Pictured behind him was a rather detailed (given the fact it was done in Expo marker) drawing of said wheel, with notes scribbled beside it that were so messy, they had to have been done on purpose so they couldn't read ahead.

" Usually, we see this in films: a wheel of some sort appears to be spinning slower than it actually is, or it looks like it's going in the opposite direction. " He further elaborated, taking a few steps across the floor as he continued to survey the gazes of the college students before him, gauging if they were following along with him or not. " We can apply this to philosophy, though, too. What is an interpretation of deeper thinking you think of in relation to the Wagon Wheel Effect? "

Silence filled the room then, with no one looking particularly eager to answer. It was like that most days in that specific lecture, since Professor Castillo was almost always looking for a specific answer, even though he used the word 'interpretation' like it was going out of style.

Eventually, someone bit the bullet to prevent him from standing there in silence for the next fifteen minutes, waiting. A girl with warm skin and thick brows lazily threw her hand into the air, earning a quiet sigh from the man when he noticed she was the only person to volunteer.

" Yes, Miss Graham? " He asked, though the look on his face said he already knew that whatever she said wasn't going to be remotely close to what he wanted to hear.

        Her hand dropped back down to her lap as she leaned back in her seat, a mischievous grin appearing on her face as she pointed her pen at Professor Castillo, " Pay attention to if you're going in reverse or not. Have to remind Liza about that all the time when she's driving, that wagon wheel can be a real danger on the road. "

         " Right, well, though I'm sure Miss Check is in fact a danger to any one with a license, that's not quite what I was looking for. " The man offered a worn smile while a few other students stifled chuckles.

Fortunately, Violet was seated in the row behind Octavia, so she was free to roll her eyes without consequence. It was mind boggling to her that Liza Check seemed to be at the top of everyone's mind, all the time, even when she wasn't even in the lecture.

" Miss Feng, what about you? What do you think? " If it had been anyone else, any other professor or peer or even a family member, Violet would've assumed that they were referring to her half-sister, Hazel. But Violet knew that Professor Castillo was talking to her that time.

From beside her, Hazel lifted her head from the awkward angle it was craned at her notes. She looked from Castillo to Violet, registering that he in fact wasn't speaking to her given the way he was practically beaming in Violet's direction. One of Hazel's brows lowered, but she said nothing as she watched Violet shift in her seat before she answered.

" Take everything at face value because things that look like they might help you, could really hurt you. " Violet stated, affirmed, as if there was no possibility in which she'd be considered wrong.

Violet wasn't great at many things. When it came down to it, she was average at best in lots of hobbies or skills she tried: she sprained her ankle in her first practice for cross country, she nearly set her lab parents on fire in the chemistry club, and her hands couldn't seem to stay steady when she tried taking pictures for the Brieham journalism group, either. But this— philosophy, metaphors, reading too far and in between the lines —that was what Violet excelled at. Her sister could be praised up and down for her softball stats, winning treasurer in the class officers nominations, and simply for being well liked, but Violet would always have philosophy.

         " Perfect. " Professor Castillo smiled genuinely that time, even admirably, as he gave a short nod to Violet after a far-too-long session of eye contact. He cleared his throat quietly, almost unnoticeably, as he turned towards the rest of the lecture, " Anyone else have an interpretation or are we going with Violet's? "

         Octavia coughed obnoxiously loud, " Shocker. "

          Violet rolled her eyes again then, harder, if that was possible, but it wasn't her or Professor Castillo that spoke next.

          " The reverse could be true, too, by that logic. " It was Hazel, whose chin was planted lazily in her hand then, her gaze off somewhere, unfocused, before it pulled back over to Professor Castillo. She suddenly straightened a little before she elaborated, " Something that looks like it might hurt you could help you. "

          " Well, yes, you're right, Hazel. " Processor Castillo agreed after a moment of delay— surprise, it was apparent on his face —then he nodded again, more firmly that time, " Both are true, I suppose what we're really saying is to not judge a book by its cover, as stereotypical as it is. "

        Suddenly, the squeak of a chair being dragged against the tile floor stopped any conversation, dragging the attention of everyone in the course to see Octavia on her feet. She was quick to shovel her things into her bag, seemingly unbothered by those around her staring at her, including a mildly annoyed Professor Castillo.

" Miss Graham, in a rush? " He called out dryly, but the dark haired girl didn't even look up at him as she continued gathering her belongings.

" Yeah, actually. It's 4:15 on the dot, which means we're free, and some of us have a game to prep for. " She insisted, pointing at an imaginary watch on her wrist before she slung her bag over her shoulder. Finally, she met the man's eyes and grinned from ear to ear, winking at him, " Wagon wheels, gotta turn in the right direction right now. C'mon, Hazel. "

The younger Feng sister was slower to stand, even though the other students had begun to follow Octavia's lead in gathering their things. Hazel's head whipped from Octavia to Professor Castillo, an apologetic look on her face.

He let out a loud, dramatic sigh and raised a hand to gesture it dismissively, " Whatever, go on. We'll pick up here tomorrow. Good luck, ladies. "

" Thanks, but we don't need it! " Octavia chirped, throwing her arm over Hazel's shoulder once she finally joined her. They could hear Professor Castillo chuckle in response, though he said nothing more.

At least, not to them.

" Violet, can you stay after class for a minute? "

Slowly putting her notes away, having intended on being the last person to leave anyways, Violet bit back the urge to smile as she raised her head up to answer, " Yeah, of course. "

xxx.

        Alex stood on one of the toilets in the girls' locker room, holding the small window open with one clean, freshly polished hand and a burning cigarette in the other. The airflow was close to null but the slim stream of smoke coming from her lips still managed to snake its way out of the bathroom. Usually she would just do this outside, but given the fact that on Thursdays the boys' baseball team was forced to run on the track for conditioning, she'd likely get caught and slapped with a violation for smoking on campus.

      Also usually, this would be her moment of peace. Between Liza and her boyfriend— maybe situationship? Alex wasn't sure anymore —sitting behind her in chemistry, constantly giggling to each other like idiots when she was trying to actually take notes, and having to listen to bickering of her teammates at practice, she only ever really got one break in this reoccurring journey of testing her patience.

     But of course, why would she get that today, before a game, and before they got on a 13 hour long flight the next day?

     Just as she had spotted a ladybug crawling along the screen of the window, the door to the bathroom flung open, and Alex found the physical form of annoyance standing in the entrance.

       It wasn't that June— Ducky, as Alex had oh-so affectionately nicknamed her the first day she met her —was necessarily the most annoying person she'd ever met. Really, most of her irritating actions came from the fact that it was abhorrently obvious that she just wanted to be liked, to be included. She tried too hard to fit in, always trying to be a mirror of whoever she was standing next to, and that was a personal pet peeve of Alex's.

        Bugs bothered Alex, boys bothered Alex, Ducky wasn't worth saying that about. She was more like a pesky fly that had a million lives even after being squashed. She barely even noticed her until she was trying to buzz around in her face.

And maybe it was bad of her to feel that way, because while most people found Ducky to be a bit strange or awkward, she usually was trying to act like everyone else, in whatever unusual way she thought was normal. But Alex could barely listen to her speak without wanting to slam her head into a wall, and she wasn't quite sure why, but maybe part of it had to do with the fact that Alex would not just cold shoulder her, no matter how rude or mean she was to her. Alex was not shy to being mean unprovoked, but even she, who nearly everyone had some sort of grudge against, couldn't get Ducky to understand that she did not like her.  Or, maybe she did, and she just didn't care.

" What—are you smoking in here? " Was Ducky's first words out of her mouth: astonished, in shock as if it was the most outrageous thing she'd seen.

      That was it. That was what Alex believed to be the real Ducky, but if she gave her two more minutes, she might've flipped a switch and suddenly began acting as though she was totally fine with it, just to appease Alex.

" What the fuck, Ducky? " Alex cut her off, eyebrows knitting together as a deep scowl came across her tan face. She let the window close harshly, knocking the ladybug off the screen, and dropped off of the edge of the toilet. When she pushed the stall door open, her unpleasant expression remained targeted on the other girl. " The bench doesn't need warmed this early. "

" Well, I-I thought no one else would be in here, so I could— "

" So you could, what?  " Alex again interjected first, effectively shutting down whatever excuse or explanation Ducky was about to give. She took another step towards the short, mousy girl as she smothered the end of her cigarette against the sink. She was nearly a foot taller than Ducky, or at least it felt like it when she tilted her head down to question, " Snoop through everyone's shit? "

" What? No, I wasn't— I wouldn't snoop through anyone's stuff. " Ducky insisted, actually looking surprised that Alex would suggest that.

" Weird, I'm pretty sure I remember Coach having to tell you not to wash our uniforms for us, without us knowing. " Alex replied, tossing the useless cigarette into the trash can as she moved past Ducky, her shoulder barely but purposefully nudging her. She didn't bother turning around as she called, her voice echoing against the walls of the locker room, " Don't stick around too long, Ducky, the wrong girl might catch you snooping. "

She left before Ducky could respond again, leaving her face in a small glare and stammering to say something while the ladybug crawled around on the tile floor.

xxx.

            " Nuñez, let's go! Stick your tongue down boys' throats after the game! " Coach Dawson called, blowing a shrill whistle to catch the attention of the younger woman from where he leaned against the side of the locker room wall; he was outside, of course, only permitted inside when Coach Pierce said the coast was clear of sports bras and the occasional tampon trash stuffed in one of the lockers.

           His task until then was to make sure all of the team was rounded up inside the locker room and to get a headcount on who was there; the last thing Coach Pierce wanted to do was chase anyone down. Unfortunately, that meant he often had to see Dana Nuńez and her boyfriend, Johnny, do their weird, juvenile ritual by the gate before every practice.

         He knew Dana rolled her eyes without even being able to see her face, though he watched as Johnny laughed back at whatever she did. Coach Dawson blew a quiet exhale out, giving them their last few seconds until Dana swiftly turned around and walked over towards the locker room. Before entering, she shot a look at the dark haired man and insisted, " Don't make it sound like that. "

         " Like what? " Coach Dawson questioned without much thought, his arms crossed across his chest as he turned his head to look down at her, wisps from his bun falling down in the humidity.

          " Boys plural, like I'm a some kind of— "

          " Out of the way, Nuńez! Don't need your STD to spread before we get to the locker room! " Cory was a flash of black clothes past Dana and Coach Dawson, smacking one of the posters of the team that were posted against the wall. Octavia was close behind her, laughing at her stupid jab. A few of the other girls trailed into the locker room after them, but Dana stood still, eyes narrowed into a scowl as she looked back up at Coach Dawson.

" Thanks a lot. " She remarked, annoyed as she headed into the locker room, too, leaving the man a bit confused as to how what Cory said was at all his fault.

" I didn't even.." His reply trailed into oblivion as he simply sighed and shook his head. Coach Dawson's attention was redirected when he saw the next player to approach the locker room was Theo, her head hung low, which wasn't an entirely rare sight recently.

           " Hey, Prince, how you doing? I haven't given you a ride for a few days, you been making it to classes on time? " He asked, his voice softening as the girl stopped her pace.

           Theo nodded before anything else, rubbing the side of her face when she looked up at him, " Yeah, yeah I've been fine, T.K.'s been giving me a few rides. "

          Coach Dawson was mildly surprised by that, given T.K. didn't seem like the type to go out of her way to do a favor for someone else, but he wasn't going to question it. He didn't want to pry either, so he just accepted that answer as enough and gestured towards the door, " You should probably head in, I'm sure Coach Pierce will be expecting you all to be ready and on the field. "

         " Right, thanks, Coach. " Theo muttered, offering him a weak excuse of a smile before she pushed the door to the locker room open, disappearing inside.

         Voices were bouncing off the lockers, joined by the sounds of rushing water from the sinks and the clanging of metal when a softball bag hit the door, creating quite the symphony of chaos as Theo entered. She was relatively unfazed, though, making a beeline to her locker without so much as a glance at any of the other girls that were running around, braiding each other's hair, or struggling to lace their cleats.

          She dropped her bag on the bench, digging through it as she searched for a hair tie; Coach Pierce had few rules, but one of them was that no one was allowed to play with their hair down unless they had a buzz cut, and since Theo had taken to changing at home before games, all she had to do was pull her short hair up. However, that would prove more difficult than she thought it would, given she dug through each pocket, nook, and cranny in the bag, coming up shorthanded save for an old Gatorade bottle and eye black that had been well loved.

           " Here. " Theo's head was quick to turn to the voice, though she saw their tan hand extending a black hair tie before she saw their face. When her pale eyes reached theirs, she was met with warm brown irises and a halfhearted smile, " I always keep extras for this very reason. "

          Hazel held the hair tie out with a strange poise, as if she were handing over a priceless ring. Theo pressed her lips together momentarily, as if there was a real reason to not accept it other than her desire to speak to as little people as possible unless she had to. She knew that the entire team knew about the incident she was involved in four months prior, Coach Pierce and Dawson had to explain her absence from practices and games eventually.

Theo, her mother, and her unborn brother had gotten into a car accident, hitting a rail that was preventing them from crashing into the river off the road. They'd done just that, completely submerging them into the water. Theo's mother had struggled to unbuckle her own seatbelt after breaking the window for Theo to get out, and by the time any help had shown up, all they found was Theo sitting on the bank of the river, telling them that her mother was still under the water.

Since then, everyone seemed to operate scarcely around Theo; they didn't try to have small talk with her or include her in plans, which she didn't really care about since she wouldn't have indulged, anyways. Her father was a shell of himself, unable to move on from his wife and son's untimely deaths, leaving Theo to struggle on her own as she tried to keep their house in one piece and attend her classes enough that she wouldn't lose her scholarship.

Coach Dawson had picked up on her struggling after she either showed up to practice late or completely missed some days, and offered to take her home one day instead of her walking. Theo tried not to talk about it, even with him, because she didn't want people to pity her, honestly, she didn't want people to talk about her situation at all: she never got to stop thinking about it.

            " Thanks. " Theo eventually took the hair tie from Hazel, who hummed in response. The taller girl loosely crossed her arms then while Theo hastily pulled her hair back into a short ponytail, the fringe of her dark bangs falling. When Theo was done, after fixing some of the front pieces in the mirror on her locker, she turned to look at Hazel, following her gaze further into the locker room, " What are you staring at? "

            " Them. " Hazel nodded in the direction of Cleo and T.K., who stood near the bathroom stalls, both of their faces contorted into expressions of irritation— not a rare sight at all for either of them. Still, Hazel's brows knitted and she let out a quiet sigh, " They've been arguing for, like, fifteen minutes. "

              " Shocker. " Theo remarked plainly, raising her own brows at Hazel, as if to ask 'so what?'. It wasn't unusual for T.K. and Cleo to bicker: T.K. was a bitch, for the most part. She thought she was better than pretty much everyone else, and she didn't care to say it, and Cleo was no different.

            Theo was more surprised that Hazel was still talking to her than she was at the other two's argument. She spared another glance at the taller girl, watching Hazel's face as she continued to look at her teammates with weariness. Theo was quick to avert her gaze with Hazel's head shifted back to look at her then, making the shorter girl's eyes drop to her softball bag in her hands as she pretended to look for something else.

            " Why do you care, anyways? " Theo asked after a moment, maybe coming off harsher than she meant it to.

            " I don't, really. " Hazel admitted with a small shrug, " It'd just be nice for everyone to get along, even for a few minutes. "

            Theo snorted, " Yeah, well, keep dreaming. Over a dozen college girls getting along, no drama? Long shot, Feng. "

             " Even the moon and sun align once a year, Prince. " Hazel replied with a cheeky grin, but a split second later, her lips whirled to the side, " Or is it the earth and the sun? "

             Across the locker room, T.K. and Cleo's squabbling was going relatively unnoticed by the other girls running around, trying to complete the finishing touches on their uniforms before heading out of the locker room. Cleo's arms were crossed tightly over her body like a physical barrier, lip gloss wearing thin on her pursed lips as she glared up at T.K., who appeared more relaxed, though in a patronizing sort of way.

            " Look, just make out with your new loser boyfriend on your own time, not when we're trying to prep for a game. " T.K. said it as if she were scolding a child, rolling her eyes as she finished tying off one of her braids, tossing it over her shoulder; T.K. was one of few girls on the team that knew how to actually braid, yet she refused to do anyone's hair but her own.

           " Dana's with Johnny every fucking minute of the day until she physically steps into this locker room, why don't you say this to her? " Cleo questioned sharply, inching closer to T.K. as her scowl remained glued to the other girl's face, " You only have a problem when my boyfriend is around. "

           " Dana is a benchwarmer that only has to worry about running based like a fucking rabbit, so yeah, I don't care what she does. " T.K. confirmed, no longer bothering to look at Cleo as she spoke. There was a beat of silence after her words before T.K. added, " I also think Dana actually likes her boyfriend and isn't just doing it for attention. "

          " Oh, please. " Cleo scoffed with a short laugh of disbelief, " You think I want attention? After everything that happened with that stupid volleyball shit? "

          " I don't know, do you? " T.K. asked in response, finally turning her head to meet Cleo's heated glare. T.K.'s eyes observed her for a second before she said, " Any press is good press, right? Something to cover up that 'volleyball shit', and what better way to do it than to take up the slut stereotype? "

         " Fuck you, Tavia— " Before Cleo could get much further into her insult— verbally or physically, Liza appeared in between them suddenly, like a guardian angel. A golden glow might've even shined behind her as she wore a nervous smile.

         " Ladies, can we not do this today? Just once. Cleo, you look ready to go, so let's head out to the field and leave T.K. to finish up, yeah? " Liza suggested, sitting her hand on Cleo's shoulder gently; she could practically feel her simmering as she continued to scowl at T.K., who simply wore a smug look on her face.

         " Whatever. " Cleo muttered and finally stormed off, tugging her arm out from under Liza as she left the locker room, picking up her bag on the way and letting the door loudly slam shut behind her.

         Liza watched until the door closed again, then let out a small exhale. She turned towards T.K. with an expected look of disappointment, to which the dark haired girl frowned, dryly saying, " Not my fault she can't get her shit together. If we lose today, I'm blaming her. "

         " We're not blaming anyone, because we're not losing today. " Liza insisted, to which T.K. just gave her a pointed look before she swung her locker shut.

          With that situation defused before it could get much worse, Liza turned away from T.K. and observed the rest of the locker room, which had started to grow emptier just as quickly as it had gotten fuller. Most of the team was heading out to the field then, with ten minutes to spare before warm ups officially started, but Liza knew there were always a few stragglers that she'd have to drag out by their ears to get them outside on time.

         One in particular walked past her at that very moment, careful to not bump her or so much as spare her a look, but Liza stopped and turned to call out to her, " Si-Woo, you coming? "

Si-Woo stopped like she really didn't want to. Her back remained facing Liza, allowing the blonde to see the uneven cut of her layers of hair that laid at her neck, just below the collar of her jersey. HAK and the number 16 were plastered on her white jersey in bold blue font, crinkling a little when she rolled her shoulders back. Si-Woo turned her head an inch, just enough to barely see Liza from her peripherals.

          " I will. I need to talk to Coach first. " She always spoke so seriously, Liza wasn't sure if she had ever seen Si-Woo crack a joke. She'd smile, occasionally, usually when one of the girls slid horrifically ugly into home plate or when they got pissed that she switched the pitch she was throwing, but overall, she was a rather stoic person; that hadn't gotten any better since she was benched, either.

" Sure, I'll see you out there. " Liza agreed with a nod, and, as if she had been holding her hostage, Si-Woo suddenly continued towards Coach Pierce's office when she had been released from the conversation.

Si-Woo didn't knock on the door, she simply pushed it open and stepped inside, finding a woman with a warm complexion sitting at the desk inside, brown hair falling in strands out of the bun pulled messily to the top of her head— ironic, given her rule about the team's hair on the field. She didn't look up when she heard the door click open, she appeared to be scanning over papers: plays or notes from Sam's notebook, maybe.

" June, if this is about playing time again, it's really not— " Coach Pierce-Nuñez, Coach Pierce for short and for Dana's peace of mind, stopped herself when she finally lifted her head with a quiet sigh, her words falling flat when she saw who actually stood before her. Her heavily lined eyes darted over the girl's stoic face, then she spoke, " Si-Woo, what can I do for you? "

Si-Woo shifted on her feet, like she couldn't stand still for too long or that it was uncomfortable, though her face didn't show it. Again, she pulled her shoulders back, eyes sharp as she stated, " I want you to reconsider benching me. "

" We've already talked about this, Si-Woo. It wasn't solely my decision, the Brieham school board got involved, the Dean himself. " Coach Pierce repeated, as she had done a handful of times already over the past two weeks since Si-Woo's fight with a girl on a rival team, resulting in her being benched for the rest of the season. " It's out of my hands, I'd be risking my job to hear you out. "

" It's not fair. I was provoked. " Si-Woo insisted, brows lowering an inch, though Coach Pierce's face said she knew, but there was still nothing to be done about it.

            It had been the final inning of a game that had stretched far longer than it needed to; both teams had gone back and forth, throwing runs at each other in every inning until the last one, when the Crows were up by one. All they had to do was get three outs without letting the other team, the Vikings, score and run, and Si-Woo had struck one of them out herself, and they had just caught another trying to steal home.

All they needed was one more out.

Si-Woo stood a few inches from home plate so she could help Alex stand back up after throwing herself to the dirt to tag the girl they'd gotten out. The next batter was already waiting to get into the box, her face practically covered by her helmet's mask when Si-Woo glanced over at her. She couldn't see much, so she just switched her attention to the score board at the back of the field, standing on a wooden column just behind the fence.

        " Hey, you got this, alright? " Alex's voice pulled Si-Woo's focus back as the taller girl hit her gloved hand on her shoulder after pulling herself to her feet with Si-Woo's help. They locked eyes then, and Alex simply nodded, " Let's end this. "

         Si-Woo didn't reply verbally, she just nodded firmly in agreement. She clutched the neon yellow softball in her glove as she turned on her cleat, digging into the dirt. Before she could take a full step back to the pitcher's mound though, the Vikings' batter was suddenly much closer, enough to shoulder Si-Woo when she passed her.

         " Did they recruit you from that fancy softball camp in Japan? No way someone from Brieham throws like that. " The girl remarked, causing Si-Woo to turn halfway again to stare back at her, her expression unwavering. Apparently, the other girl didn't appreciate the silence to her bait, and stepped an inch closer as she called again, " Hello? Did you understand me, or did they just bring you here to throw balls? "

           From where she crouched behind the plate, Alex couldn't hear all of what was being said, but when the girl stepped towards Si-Woo, she began to rise back up to her feet as well. The umpire behind her shifted backwards, his forehead wrinkled behind his mask in a frown as he shouted, " Come on, ladies! "

            " Si-Woo, you good? " Alex called a beat after him, halfway standing as she lifted her mask to see their pitcher better.

             " Si-Woo? Yeah, " The opponent laughed dryly, twirling her bat in between her gloved fingers as she stepped back towards the plate, " they totally plucked you out of there and put you on a plane to make their team better, huh? 'Just pitch the ball', right? "

            Alex shouted to Si-Woo again, and even the other players on the field were starting to straighten out of their positions, sharing confused looks with each other and their coaches, who stood in the dugout. Si-Woo couldn't hear anything though, just the mocking accent the batter put on her last sentence as she pulled the ball from her glove, her fingers tightening around the stitching.

            The batter scoffed, turning to look at Alex as she settled in the batter's box finally, " It's pathetic, really, that you guys had to get someone that can't even speak English for your team to be worth a— "

           Her next insult was cut off abruptly by the softball rocketing into her helmet, knocking her off her feet and sending her falling into the dirt as it ricocheted off with a loud thud. Gasps came from the crowd, both dugouts, and even some of the field players, followed shortly by the girl letting out a loud wail of pain. She threw off her helmet, clutching the side of her head, the umpire instantly going over to check on her before her own coach could come running out of the dugout.

          Si-Woo still couldn't hear any of it; the blood rushing in her ears was too loud, muffling the sound of the girl crying out. Instead of looking over at her own dugout, where her coaches were calling her name, or looking back where the other girls on the field were kneeling in the dirt with weary expressions, Si-Woo just stared ahead when she felt her feet carrying her forward. She carelessly kicked the girl's discarded bat out of the way and grew closer to her, intent on finishing what she started, and the batter looked up at her with disoriented, wide eyes.

          She could see the umpire's lips moving but didn't know what he was saying— likely that she needed to back off —but she didn't plan on stopping until something blocked her path; someone.

          " Si-Woo, wait. " Alex muttered, her mask completely off her face now, short brown hair wild with static and sweat as she stood face to face with Si-Woo. She held her palms up between them, effectively blocking her from the other girl as she insisted, " It's done, you don't need to go any further. "

          " She's fucking psycho! " The batter screeched from the ground, her coach and the school's trainer now knelt beside her, trying to check her for what Si-Woo assumed was a concussion from her head hitting the helmet as collateral of the ball.

           " She could've done a lot worse. " Alex quickly snapped over her shoulder, scowling down at the girl to shut her up before she turned back to Si-Woo, her expression softening the slightest. " We're done, alright? You don't have to prove anything to anybody. "

          And they were, done. Even though Si-Woo was calmed by Alex, whether she wanted to be or not, the game had ended there. The Crows were disqualified due to violence, and the Vikings had complained to Brieham's administration, effectively benching Si-Woo from playing in any games the rest of the season. She was given an opportunity to have her parents come before the Dean and discuss a lesser punishment, but Si-Woo declined. Her parents were so proud of her accomplishments in softball, and though they often never had time to come to games and watch, Si-Woo didn't have the heart to tell them what happened, so she took the punishment.

            Coach Pierce had originally scolded her for letting her emotions overwhelm her priorities, but the woman understood why she did what she did. And she was right, it wasn't fair, but not everything in life was.

            " I'm sorry, Si-Woo. You'll just have to wait until the summer season. " The older woman insisted in a much gentler tone than what usually came out of her. She cleared her throat quietly and gestured towards the door, " Now, go on and join the others. I'll be out in ten, I'm sure Liza is ready to start warm ups. "

            Si-Woo didn't say anything in her defense to push it, knowing it had been a long shot in the first place. She just silently exhaled and turned away, heading out of the office. When it clicked closed behind her, she simply stood there for a moment, staring at nothing in particular before she raised a hand to her face to pinch her nose.

            The sound of paper rustling from somewhere in the corridor made her look up though, finding Sam, the team's play writer, sitting in the hall. She was leaned against the wall, scribbling something fiercely in her notebook, brown coils curtaining her face when Si-Woo looked down at her. After a few seconds, Sam sensed Si-Woo's intense gaze and met her eyes, but neither of them said anything to each other.

          Si-Woo just walked down the corridor past her, and Sam held tightly on to her notebook when she did, as if she were nervous for her to see what was inside.

xxx.

I feel like all these scenes are underbaked but I don't want to overflow in unnecessary detail sigh