Lynn sighs as she paces back and forth, waiting around for her sisters. Francisco insisted that she talk to her sisters, and she was willing to give it a try, but after thinking about it for nearly a month, she is beginning to have second thoughts. Yes, she's upset that they didn't show up for her Thanksgiving, but she can already imagine that they'll tell her to get over it since it happened months ago. However, Francisco made a compelling point and she isn't doing herself any favors by avoiding the problem.

She looks over at Francisco, who is sitting at his desk looking over some paperwork, "Did you really not trust me to do this?"

He looks over at her, "I trust you, but I want to get in some hours, so I figure that today is a good day for that."

"Why do you want extra hours?"

He gives her a smile, "That's a surprise."

She looks at him, hoping for more, but when he doesn't say anything, she says, "Really? You aren't going to tell me?"

"Work some extra time so that you can ask for an extra day off."

Lynn scoffs, "That's dumb. I'd rather call in sick."

He rolls his eyes, "Well, we can't both do that."

"Just tell me when and I'll let out of a few coughs the day before," she says as she pretends to cough.

Francisco chuckles, "Okay, Lynn, whatever you say."

She walks back to the door and looks towards the entrance. Lynn notices her sisters arriving, and it's time to make her move.

Lily spots Lynn walking towards them. She smiles and moves over to let her sister sit next to her, "Hey stranger, we haven't seen you in a while."

"Actually, it has been approximately–"

"Lisa, no one cares exactly how long it has been," the youngest sister interrupts. She turns over to Lynn, "What happened to you?"

"You're just now wondering?" asks Lynn, as she takes her seat.

"No, but father hasn't mentioned you being missing from work, so we assumed that you have decided to spend your Saturday mornings at home with your boyfriend and his daughter. Also, considering your occasional history of not mentioning any changes until the last minute, the possibility of you forgetting to tell us anything was rather high."

"Which would have been nice so that we wouldn't have had to wait for nearly an hour," Lily says.

She shrugs her shoulders, "So what's been new with you guys?" asks Lynn, in an effort to ease herself into saying what she wanted to say, but also put it off.

The conversation was a lot easier when she was only thinking to herself, alone, in her bedroom, away from anybody else, but as she looks over at Lily, Lisa, and Lucy, she is beginning to lose her nerve. Talking about emotional things was never easy for her to do, to her, it meant exposing weakness, and Lynn Loud is not about exposing weakness to others. However, being that stubborn is the reason that she started drinking, and why her family didn't know for years, so unless she plans on taking a step in the wrong direction, she has to open up.

Lisa is speaking, and Lynn finally begins to listen again, "I've been working on experimental pain medication–"

"Pain medication already exists," says Lily, in her classic knowing smile.

"This novel medication," Lisa stresses, "is meant to help patients that cannot take traditional medication. At the moment, we are currently in Phase 2, and we aren't expecting our medication to go out at least for another couple of years and until we run more trials."

Lynn looks over at Lucy, "What about you, Luce? Anything new?"

The sisters look at each other, Lucy already brought Lynn up to speed, but they should have expected that their older sister was going to stop paying attention, especially if she hasn't had breakfast yet.

Rather than go too in-detail, Lucy opts to give her sister the short version until her sister has had her breakfast, "I'm working on another novel at the moment, though I've been struggling with inspiration."

Lily raises her hand, "I wouldn't mind reading it when you're done."

Lucy hasn't asked her sisters to read her work in a while; Lynn has been busy with the restaurant and Lisa with her experiments. While it isn't ideal, she knows that at least her youngest sister has plenty of time to read compared to her other sisters, "Sure, I could use the help."

"Yes! Finally included!" Lily cheers.

"I fail to understand why you would want to participate in reading such manuscripts."

Lily looks Lisa straight in the eye, "Let me have this, I like being included in stuff that my big sisters do," she says in a childish voice. "Speaking of," she says before turning to Lynn, "when are you going to throw us that party from Christmas?"

Lucy is confused, "What party?"

Before Lisa is able to explain, Lily answers, "A Christmas party that Lis and I went to at Lynn and Francisco's. We all played a game, and whoever found the baby in the cake has to throw a party for the other guests. Guess who won?" she asks, while pointing at Lynn.

Lucy looks over at Lynn, who looks over at Lily, "Are you actually going to show up or are you going to go to Lana's again?"

The three younger sisters look over at Lynn. There wasn't spite in her voice, but they knew that Lynn hasn't gotten over what happened a few months ago. They sort of hoped that she would have forgotten, but it's clear by the look in her eyes, that she wants an explanation for their absence.

A waitress walks over to the table, "Hello ladies, what can I get started for you today?"

Lynn hands over her menu, "Can I get a coffee and the Triple Breakfast Melt?"

The waitress writes down Lynn's order before taking her menu. The rest of the sisters opt to put in their orders and silently wait to see what Lynn is going to do. Honestly, they were sort of surprised that she waited so long to bring it up; she was never the type to bide her time.

Lily can't stand Lynn's silence and she finally breaks down, "Fine! We knew that you were going to the Lions game and we couldn't do it. Going to sporting events with you is…hard. All your superstitions and cheering is draining! I could not spend a whole four hours like that," She sighs, happy to finally get it out in the open.

Lisa speaks up, "Not to mention, none of us find much enjoyment in sports."

"This coming from you?" exclaims Lily, "You coached her football team."

"Which is different from being on the stands with her while watching a game," Lisa points out. "It was mathematics."

Lynn speaks up, "How did you know that it was a Lions game?"

No one answers.

"What if I decided to throw a regular Thanksgiving at my house, huh? What then? We would have just been waiting around for no one to come."

Lynn takes a deep breath. She can feel her heart racing as she waits for her sisters to say something. The whole reason that she avoided them was because she was afraid of what they would say, but now that it's out, she can feel a weight being lifted off her shoulders.

The waitress returns with their meals, and the sisters begin to eat. As Lynn eats, the three younger sisters figure that they'll get a few short minutes to think of their words carefully. They know that what they did wasn't ideal, but it hasn't been a secret that they don't enjoy watching sports with her. They don't know what possessed their older sister to think that they would want to go, but they still don't have a good explanation.

Lynn quickly finishes her breakfast sandwich, and when no one says anything, she asks, "So that's it? I'm such a nightmare to be around that you guys flaked on me? That I wasted my time trying to do something nice for you guys?"

When none of the sisters say anything, Lynn decides to get up from her seat, "Whatever! It was your loss, Francisco and I had plenty of fun without you guys!"

As she walks away, her sisters look over at her, but she doesn't look back.

'There! I said what I needed to say, it's over.'

As Francisco looks over some party venues, he hears his door open and Lynn quietly entering. He looks over at her and sees that she's still frustrated. He can't imagine that it would have gone poorly, but she wouldn't look the way she does if it went well.

"What happened?" he asks.

She looks over at the floor, and angrily mutters, "Nothing."

He doesn't know what to say. In his mind, he pictured that things would have worked out between the sisters, that they would have talked and Lynn would get a chance to air her frustrations, but it appears that she isn't feeling any better with them.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Lynn groans. She is sick of talking, "I'm in the mood for a meatball sub," she says as she stares up at the ceiling to avoid his gaze.

"You just had breakfast," he reminds her.

"Who cares?"


Juan watches the baseball game on tv. Alicia is bored, she is not interested in watching the game, but her husband is refusing to change the channel. Every weekend evening is typically the same – the same reruns of her Alaska shows, the same home improvement shows, the same extreme weight loss shows, and the same telenovelas. Normally, she wouldn't mind something new, watching baseball isn't it, and with her husband controlling the remote, she can either stay put or go elsewhere.

Alicia gets up, leaving Juan alone to watch the game.

Francisco walks into the living room with his toy cars and begins to play on the floor. His brothers kicked him out of their room, and with nowhere else to go, he settles on joining his dad, who is watching another baseball game.

The four-year-old looks up at the screen. He knows that his dad was been watching these games for the last couple of nights, but he has never stopped to see what has him so interested.

"¿Que estás mirando?"

"Béisbol." Juan tells his son.

Francisco doesn't know what to expect. He had seen his dad and brothers watch the game before, but he never stopped to see what the big deal was. He stares at the screen, and sees a man in a gray and red uniform. When the man on the hill throws the ball, the man with the stick hits the ball and runs from where he was onto the little white square behind the man on the hill.

The boy didn't understand why that happened, and he asks, "¿Por qué corrió tanto?"

"Porque los otros jugadores no tenían la pelota para paralo."

Francisco pretends to understand and goes back to watching the screen. Another man with the stick appears, and he hits the ball, but before he can get to the first square, the ball is thrown gets there before him, and while the second man was running, the first one ran too. A third player appears and he hits the ball. While the players in white and black try to catch the ball, the two players in gray and red move.

"And a groundball through the right side makes it one to nothing – Boston, as Ortiz knocks home Ellsbury."

The first player claps as he finally makes it back to where he started. His teammates are patting him on the back as he walks over to where the other men in gray and red are.

Another player walks up, but he isn't able to hit the first ball, which is nearly thrown to the ground. He is thrown another ball, but he misses it entirely. He is given another chance, and while he hits it, he doesn't move.

"¿Por qué no se movió?" asks Francisco.

"Porque pego la pelota detrás de la línea," Juan explains. "Te lo enseño cuando la vea."

The player hits the next ball, but a player on the other team catches the ball and throws it to his teammates.

"¿Qué paso?"

"Los sacaron," answers Juan.

The players in gray and red are now on the grass and the other team has a bat. As the game progresses, Francisco is trying to make sense of what is going on, luckily for him, he has his dad's help.

Three innings pass, and neither team scores.

However, despite the slow progression of the game, Francisco is beginning to take more of an interest; ignoring his toy cars and opting to watch the game like his dad.

Juan notices his young son looking over at the screen, ignoring his toys. A smile begins to form on his face. None of his other sons were interested in baseball the way the little boy appeared to be; Chuy didn't like watching sports, except for soccer, and Kiké didn't appear to enjoy it as much as Juan hoped.

He takes his cap and places it on his son's head, as they continue to watch the game. Francisco can't see with the brim over his eyes. The boy pulls the oversized hat off of his head and looks over at his dad, who is smiling at him. He turns the cap around and places it back on his head as both silently watch the game.

The next season, Francisco searched on every channel to find a game. According to the news, the season started on Monday and he and his dad missed the first four games of the season. Ever since the last game they saw together, the boy has taken it upon himself to learn as much about the game from books in the library, now he's ready to properly enjoy the game without having to ask as many questions.

He flips the channel and he can see the announcers talk about the game. Francisco calls out to his dad, but he is met with silence.

Chuy walks over and sees his baby brother looking around for something, "What are you looking for?"

"Dad. Baseball's gonna start," he points to the tv.

Chuy points out towards the window, "He's outside."

Francisco walks over to the window and spots his dad with his cousin. The two are sitting down as they talk and drink. It's a common sight ever since the family moved to Michigan, and the boy is used to it, but like other instances of when his dad is with his cousins, he needs a reminder of the time.

The boy walks outside, and tells his dad, "El juego ya va empezar."

Juan sets down his beer, "Pancho, saludale," he reminds his son, as he points towards his cousin.

Francisco lightly waves his hand towards the other man before turning back to his dad, "¿No vas a ver el juego?"

"Ahorita voy, nomas déjame terminar mi cerveza."

The boy nods his head and walks inside, ready to wait for his dad. The game begins and over the next two and a half hours, the five-year-old quietly watches as the Tigers lose to the White Sox.


Lynn tosses and turns in bed. She is bored and can't sleep. If there was ever a time that she would want a ball to bounce against the wall or up the ceiling, it would be now, but Francisco made it clear that he doesn't like it.

She turns to him, "How can you fall asleep?" she asks the snoring man. "Seriously? What is your secret?" she sighs loudly. She sits up and crosses her arms. Lynn looks over at the clock and then at the door leading into the hallway.

She looks at the clock again, and when she notices that only one minute has passed, "Seriously?!" she complains as she lays back down on the bed.

Francisco snaps awake, "Wha-What? What's wrong? Do we need bats or bullets?"

"Neither," she sighs, "I can't sleep."

He looks up at her and then looks at the clock besides her. It's almost one in the morning, and Lynn appears to be wide awake. He's tired and against his better judgment, he turns over to his nightstand so that he can hand her something to help her sleep.

"Here," he says as he offers her a tennis ball. "Just don't make too much noise," he requests, before going back to sleep.

The last time she was allowed to bounce a ball this late at night was when she started spending her nights here instead of at her apartment. Since Francisco found the noise annoying, he barred Lynn from bouncing balls against the wall at night, but he is desperate to help her fall asleep. She tosses the ball across the room. It bounces onto the ceiling and she catches it, starting the cycle again.

Francisco hears the constant bouncing, and opens one eye. He spots her bouncing the ball, and silently wonders to himself when she is going to stop, but it doesn't appear to be happening any time soon.

'C'mon ball, do your thing,' he pleads.

Lynn bounces the ball one more time, but it accidentally hits the doorknob. It bounces back towards Francisco's face and he angrily wakes up. Lynn can tell that he isn't happy about being hit with the tennis ball, and he immediately takes back the ball to put in his nightstand drawer.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to hit you," she says in an annoyed tone. "I didn't think that it would hurt as badly as a cricket ball."

He sighs, "It's fine. I just want to get some sleep. Can you try again, please?" he asks desperate to get himself back to sleep before they have to go to work tomorrow.

"Alright," she says, despite knowing that she can't get herself to sleep as quickly he can.

The room is silent. She knows that Francisco hasn't fallen asleep yet since he hasn't started snoring, but the silence is beginning to get to her. Lynn begins to toss and turn, Francisco can feel her tapping her feet against the bed, and he knows that she's still awake.

"Why do you struggle so much to sleep?" he asks.

She shrugs her shoulders, "I don't know. Just always have."

"There has to be a reason…"

"Ask my parents, maybe they'll know something I don't."

He closes his eyes in exhaustion. Francisco figures that her parents might know something, but maybe not enough if she has struggled to sleep all her life. As he tries to think of possible reasons for her insomnia, his mind becomes foggier and he can feel sleep about to take him.

A thought comes to Lynn and she asks Francisco, "Hey, can you remind me to get buy some tickets for opening day? We should probably get them soon before they sell out; I mean who wouldn't want to be there for the first game of the season…"

Lynn continues talking about the game and in an effort to get her to stop mentioning anything else about the tickets, Francisco decides to surprise her and give her the tickets that he already bought, "One step ahead of you," he says.

Lynn quickly takes them from his hand. He knows that she's probably going to talk, but there is also a chance that by having the tickets, she'll have some sort of peace of mind.

She looks at the hologram on the tickets, "Are you serious?" she pulls him into a tight embrace, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

He sighs, "You're welcome, now will you please try to go to sleep again?"

"How? I got opening day tickets!"

Francisco opens eyes, "Then call it an eight hour time skip or I'll put you on the bench, rookie," he moans.

She laughs, "It's not gonna work like that, coach."

He looks up at her, with clear exhaustion in his eyes.

Lynn decides to take the hint, "Fine, I'll try again, but I'm not making any promises."


Lynn takes a deep breath and enjoys the smell of the spring air. After being cooped up in the classroom, she is ready to kick back and enjoy a little baseball practice with her friend. She grabs a ball out of the bucket and looks over at her opponent – the only boy who can't strike out.

"It's the top of the first, Lynnsanity is on the mound for the first time this season. She glances over at the Tiger King of Royal Woods–"

"I didn't agree to that nickname!" Francisco yells from home plate.

"Well I can't call you Mr. Tiger, now can I? C'mon, let's see how behind you've fallen since last season," she jokes.

In an effort to tease her, the thirteen-year-old reminds her, "That's rich, considering that every time you're on the mound and I'm at bat, I end up getting a hit."

Lynn begins to see red. She may like him, but she isn't going to let him get away with badmouthing her. With all her strength and fury, she throws the first ball, "Strike one!"

"You got lucky."

"I'll show you lucky," she mutters under breath. She knows what she has to do – break out her good luck rituals. Usually, she doesn't resort to performing more than three for one opponent, but Francisco isn't like most players, in fact, she hasn't struck him out since that first time last year. Yes, she respects him for being as good at the game as he is, but it's also frustrating that no matter what she does, he succeeds over her.

She throws the ball again, but this time, the cracking sound of bat making contact with the ball let her know, that once again, she did not strike Francisco out. It shouldn't bother her as much as it does, heck, he hasn't struck her out in a long time either, but she's going to – eventually.

Lynn watches where the ball lands and then turns back to Francisco, who is smiling, "We'll count that under home run," he tells her.

"Yeah, right," she scoffs. "The ball didn't…" a thought runs through her head and she immediately runs towards the ball. It's a long shot, but she isn't going to miss out on another chance to get him out.

Francisco wonders where she is going, until he notices that she is running for the ball. He can't believe that she's actually going to try to go for it, but he figures that he can beat her to first base. As she runs for the ball, Francisco casually walks for it, until he hears her huffing and puffing towards him. He kicks it into high gear and runs for it.

Both teens have their eyes on first base. Francisco figures that there's one way to ensure his streak; he slides into first. Lynn can see what he is doing and runs a little faster to gain enough momentum so that she can leap onto the plate ahead of him.

When the dust settles, Francisco looks at where his foot is and where the ball is. She missed by a fraction of an inch. He looks over at her and with a knowing smile, tells her, "Safe."

Lynn looks at the ball and then at him. He can't tell what she is feeling, until she starts to laugh. Francisco is confused, but rather than fixate on it, he joins her.

"I still can't get you out," she laughs. "How the heck do you do it?"

"What can I say? I know how to get a kick out of my rival," he casually answers.

It's true. Francisco knows how to push Lynn's buttons, not that it's a secret, but if there is anyone worth calling a rival, it is her. From what he has heard announcers and classmates say, she has been playing since she was a little girl and every year she is getting better as a player. He knows that if he himself wants to get better, he has to keep up with the hyperactive athlete and hopefully one day, surpass her.

Lynn gets up to her feet and wipes the sweat off her brow. She lends him her hand to help him to his feet. As they walk back to the mound, Lynn asks him, "So I'm your rival? You've got good taste, if only I had one," she teases.

"If your head keeps on inflating like that, I'll lose mine soon enough."

She punches him in the arm, "Shut up, you know that you're my rival too."

He holds onto the spot where she punched him, "Good to know that you think about me."

As soon as he says that, he regrets it. He can't believe that he said that! They are just friends and nothing more, no matter what everyone else says. Besides, Lynn isn't one of those girly-girls who would be into romance and why did he even think about it like that, she probably isn't, but if she did, she'll probably punch him again for what he said.

Francisco prepares his arm for another impact, but nothing happens. He looks over at her, but she is staring straight at the ground.

He clarifies, "You know that I mean it as friends, right?"

He can't imagine that she would have interpreted the way he did, but he can't tell if that's what's on her mind. Lynn isn't exactly the easiest person for him to read, most times, he's sure that she's in a sports-filled fantasy world, but at the moment, he's at a loss.

She keeps her eyes away from him. She doesn't want him to risk him seeing her nervous at what he said. It's not like she even likes him, but Lynn cannot risk him thinking that. After all, they're only friends, and nothing more, she tries to convince herself.

"Yeah, I know that," she scoffs, "like I'd ever be into that romance junk." She punches his arm, "Some friend, you should know that," she jokes.


Francisco quickly looks over at Lynn. He can tell that she is excited. They've been to games before, but it's been a long time since they've gone to an opening game. Usually, they could never get the time off from work due to other coworkers needing their days off, but he planned ahead, and now the couple gets to enjoy the game.

When he pulls into their parking spot, Lynn jumps out and makes a beeline for the park entrance. Francisco, prepared for her excitement, runs to catch up to her.

"C'mon! Let's go!" she yells back at him. "I'm not gonna wait for you, you know."

"You're gonna have to, I'm the one with the tickets," he reminds her.

Lynn stops in her tracks, and runs back towards him. He sees the look in her eyes – she wants to steal the tickets off of him. Francisco analyzes Lynn's movements and before she is able to reach him, he dodges her.

"What the? How did…"

Francisco begins to make a run for it. He knows that Lynn will eventually catch him, but he wants to make the best it and having fun is definitely a step in the right direction.

He can see the gate, but Lynn is quickly catching up to him. Francisco knows that he's going to have to stop to get their tickets checked, but he isn't going to give up that quickly. Lynn manages to reach him, and as she passes by him, she grabs his arm and drags him forward.

"C'mon! Dig deep! Only a few more yards and we'll beat that crowd to the front of the line."

"They're already in line," he tells her, as he tries to keep up.

Lynn scoffs, "What's the big deal? Besides, we're all trying to watch the game in the same stadium."

Predictably, the people in line did not take kindly to Lynn trying to jump the line. He can't believe that she actually thought that it would work, especially since she would have thrown the same fit that the crowd threw her, but they're early and the line is moving fast enough that Lynn can wait without getting impatient.

Once they are past the gates, the couple gets in one quick ride on the carousel and a bunch of snacks to last them through the game. With the start of the game quickly approaching, they make their way to their seats to get settled and see the players getting warmed up.

Lynn looks over at the players, she points at one of the Tigers players, "We're going all the way this year! I can feel it!"

"You said that about the Lions, and the Pistons, and the Red Wings," Francisco reminds her.

He can't blame her; she has pride in her teams and thinks that they're the best thing to ever grace their television screens, even when it is clear that they might be struggling.

"Well you can't call them all, besides there's always next season," she assures him.

Francisco looks over at her, "Remember those words in case the Tigers don't make it. The living room walls can't take another hit after the Red Wings lost."

"I wasn't that bad! And way to have confidence in your team," she reminds him.

He has confidence in the Tigers, but he also has confidence that Lynn will once again punch a stud hidden in the wall like she did last time when Detroit was knocked out of contention for the Stanley Cup. While Lynn is right that compared to how much worse it could have been, she still hurt her hand because of the loss.

While the players are practicing, some of the fans stand around by the walls, all of them donning gloves ready to catch foul balls.

Lynn looks over at Francisco, "You wanna go see if you can catch a toss-up?"

He can see the excitement in her face, and decides to join her and the other fans, who are waving out towards the players in hopes of getting a ball. The pitcher tosses one towards the fans and Francisco catches it with ease.

"Alright! First ball of the night!" Lynn happily exclaims. "Bet I can get more than you."

Francisco chuckles at Lynn's predictability, "Alright, but don't get mad when I beat you."

He spots a little boy, who is in the crowd of fans, probably hoping to catch a ball himself. He walks over to the kid and offers him the ball, which he gladly accepts.

Lynn watches him, and as Francisco walks back to her, she asks, "What was that?"

"What? Kids love getting balls as souvenirs."

She smiles, "You're a good guy. I'm gonna get you a foul ball, and then one for me," she says in a playfully competitive tone.

"How about you get one first, then you can talk," he teases.


Lynn runs out of the car. It's the first home game since school let out and she is excited to see the Tigers go up against the Athletics in her first home game of the season. It would have been better if they were facing against the White Sox or the Indians or if she could have gone to a game on her birthday, but there wasn't a game this year and ever since school let out, the Tigers have been on the road.

Bud yells at Lynn, "Loud! Get back here!"

She turns around and spots him by his car, "Are you serious?" she asks before running back to him. Lynn grabs his hand and pulls him towards the stadium, "C'mon! How can you be so slow?"

"Wait a couple of decades, it'll happen to you too," he tells her as he takes her arm back from her. "Jeez Loud, you act as if the game has already started. We got forty-five minutes until the game starts."

"Yeah, but what about snacks and souvenirs? I wanted to get a new jersey," she tells him, as she walks behind him and pushes him forward.

"I thought that you would have wanted to see the carousel."

"We can do that too, but first, souvenirs!"

Before they head out to grab some food, Lynn runs in the direction of the souvenir shop. She has her eyes on the season's new jersey, and she is going to get it. She looks through the racks, grabs one in her size, puts it on and heads to the register to pay for it. Lynn has been saving her allowance since she heard about the jersey change, and now it's finally going to be her's. When she walks up to the register, she pulls off the tag, and hands it to the cashier to ring out. Lynn puts her hand in her pocket to grabs her money, but she can't feel it. She turns her pockets inside-out, but nothing falls out.

"What the?"

She knows that she put the money in her pocket last night; it couldn't have disappeared like that.

"Give me a sec," Lynn tells the cashier as she searches around on the floor for her money. She gets down on all-fours and retraces her steps. She doubts that anyone would have picked up the money, she hasn't been in the store for that long.

Lynn, who is currently in mission-mode, continues retracing her steps until she accidentally steps out of the shop.

"Hey!" calls the cashier. "You gotta pay for that jersey."

"I know! I'm good for it," she tells him.

Bud finally spots her at the souvenir shop, "About time I caught up to you, Loud."

"Hey G-Man…you wouldn't happened to have seen some money on the floor, have you?"

He sighs. He should have known that something like this would have happened. In all the years, that he's known Lynn, she has been the forgetful type. Sure, she can remember any piece of sports trivia, but ask her where she left a half-eaten sandwich and she'll probably forget that she lost it in the first place.

"Did you have it before you left the house?" he asks.

"Yes! I had it!"

"Don't go getting mad at me," he sternly reminds her. "Do you think that it might have fallen out of your pocket?"

"I don't know!"

Bud sighs, "Give me a minute and I'll go search the car," he says.

The cashier calls out in his direction, "You can't leave without paying for that jersey!" Bud turns around and sees Lynn following him.

"Stay here, I'll be right back."

She groans, "Fine, but hurry up, the game is about to start."

He heads towards his car, but unfortunately for Lynn, the money wasn't in the car. Bud sighs. He doesn't know what to do, the jersey is too expensive, but it isn't like he can't get the money back eventually.

Bud sighs and heads back to the souvenir shop where he sees Lynn pacing back and forth as she waits for him. He doesn't look at her and instead walks over to the cashier and pays for Lynn's jersey.

"You found my money?" she asks.

"Nope," he says.

Bud walks out of the shop and Lynn follows him. Without any money, she won't be able to get snacks or anything, and there is no way that she's going to be fine going the whole game without at least a few snacks to munch on.

The two approach the concession stand and Bud begins to order. Lynn looks at everyone's food with hungry eyes. She had this whole day planned out and that included trying the new concession food, now she is going to have to go the whole game without food, which she hasn't done since she first started watching sports.

Lynn steps out of the line and waits for Bud to get his food, "I'll be fine," she tells herself, until her growling stomach reminds her that she didn't eat much before coming to the park, "Dang it…"

She surrounded by temptation all around her – chocolate and hazelnut egg rolls, donut ice cream sandwiches, brisket and cheddar stuffed cornbread muffins, porchetta sandwiches, hot dogs covered in brisket chili and habanero cheese, knockwurst, nacho burgers, and grinders.

"Why did I have to lose my money?" she asks herself.

Bud notices the Lynn isn't in line and he calls out to her, "Loud! Get over here! I can't carry all this food myself!"

She walks over to the front of the line and is surprised that he ordered enough food for the two of them. Lynn didn't expect that after buying her the jersey that she wanted, but as he hands her food to carry, she doesn't have time to think before the smell of the foods overtake her.

Lynn is about to sneak a French fry, but Bud looks over at her, "Nice try, Loud, those are mine," he tells her.

"Fine," she says.

When they get to their seats, the two look down on the field where the players are getting ready for the game.

"I have a good feeling about this year," she tells Bud.

"You say that every single time, Loud," he reminds her.

Bud understands her enthusiasm though; he gets the same feelings too. However, unlike Lynn, he doesn't say them out loud without a care in the world.

He hands her a hot dog, "Thanks for the jersey the way, and the food," she mutters, shy to admit needing his help.

"Don't worry about it, Loud," he tells her, while silently making a note to either charge her or her parents for the unnecessary expenses.

Upon hearing that, Lynn refuses to let the jersey go without some sort of repayment; she wouldn't be able to live with herself. She doesn't want to carry the debt for long, and would much rather get it over with before she incurs more debt than she already has.

As Matthew Joyce strikes out, Lynn gets a bright idea. It isn't the best way to repay Grouse, but she knows that a game ball will mean a lot to the man, all she has to do is wait for a foul ball to come their way.

With each player stepping up to bat, Lynn keeps her eye on the ball, looking to see who will hit a foul ball towards the duo.

"C'mon one of you guys has got a hit a foul ball towards us," she mutters at the team.

Then, as if her request was answered, a ball flies towards the stands where Lynn and Bud are seated. This is her chance. She gets up from her seat and begins to follow the ball. She doesn't care who gets in the way, they are not going to stop her from getting her sports buddy his souvenir.

Lynn jumps over feet, climbs over seats, and stretches out her gloved hand amongst all of the other spectators, who are also trying to catch the ball.

She feels the ball land in her glove, and Lynn screams with joy, "I caught it!" Lynn runs back to her seat, and hands the ball to her buddy. "Here you go, G-Man."

He's confused, "What's this for?"

"For the jersey and the food."

Bud takes the ball, "It'll cover the food, I guess," he answers in a thankful tone; though, he still expects the money from the jersey.

"What if I get it autographed? Pick whoever you want and I'll get it."

Bud points to the pitcher, "Get Jiménez's autograph and we might work out an agreement."

Lynn looks over at number 77, "Really? Him?"

"I got a good feeling. I bet he might even make it onto the All-Star team."


When the game commences, the couple stand in the aisle for the first inning as they wait for foul balls to come their way. However, the first inning isn't going as planned, as the teams hit the baseballs into the field.

By the third inning, Francisco decides to take a seat to rest his back. He watches Lynn as she and the other fans wait around for a foul ball to come their way. With so many people in the stadium for opening day, the competition for foul balls is fierce, but that never seems to stop Lynn.

She walks back to their seats and slouches, frustrated that she hasn't had any opportunity to catch a ball. Francisco can see that she is feeling a little down, "Do you want some bitbits?" he asks, offering her the bagged candy.

She nods her head, takes the bag and proceeds to eat most of the bag, "I didn't think that I would be three innings in without something to show for it."

"You could enjoy the game, the Tigers are doing pretty good against the Royals," he tells her.

"I guess, but I wanted something to take home – a piece of the game."

He wraps his arm around her shoulder, "Just be patient, and before you know it, you'll get your opportunity."

Right as he said, a ball goes flying towards their side of the stands. Lynn keeps her eyes locked on the ball and begins to chase after it, no matter how many rows she has to jump over and how many people's way she gets in; she's going to get that ball.

Spectators are visibly annoyed, but Lynn doesn't care. As the ball begins to descend, she extends out her arm and makes the catch, "Yes! I caught it!" she yells grabbing the attention of everyone around her.

Francisco looks up at the Jumbotron, and sees a happy Lynn surrounded by other fans. As he watches her smile, he can't help but smile too. It's moments like these that can make them both forget their troubles and feel like they're kids having fun like the good old days.

Lynn heads back to her seat with her prized foul ball in hand, "I finally got one! I can't wait to get another," she happily says before noticing Francisco's eyes looking over at a little girl looking over at the couple. She turns her head, "What are you looking at?"

"C'mon Lynn, don't you remember being a little kid and wanting a ball to take home from a game?"

"Yeah, but I didn't always get one, if I wanted it, I had to get it myself."

"You can spare one ball, Lynn."

"What if I just catch another one, then she can have it?"

He sighs, "Fine, Lynn, do what you want."

She can see that he's disappointed in her, and to stop that look in his eyes, she decides to signal the girl and throw the ball to her.

Francisco notices, but rather than bring up too much attention to the action, decides to offer her some more bitbits as they continue to watch the game.

After nine innings, the game is over and neither one has a foul ball to take home, the two make a quick stop at the souvenir shop to celebrate the start of the new season and the first win.

"I'm telling you, the Tigers are gonna be a force to be reckoned with this year. I can feel it!" she assures him.

"You say that every year, and about every team," he jokes. "I'm surprised at this point you haven't considered it bad luck to say that they'll a force to be reckoned with."

She rolls her eyes, "Alright, so the Lions didn't win the Super Bowl–"

"They didn't even make it to the post-season."

"and the Red Wings could have gone further."

"I sort of miss the beard," he remarks as he passes his hand across his smooth face.

"Me too," she says as lightly pats his back.

"Well, I do enjoy not worrying about upper back pain."

She rolls her eyes, "and the Pistons weren't on fire like I thought they would be, but the Tigers are already doing better than all of them!"

"It was one game," he reminds her.

She grabs his by the shoulders and looks him right in the eye, "And we won! We should buy season tickets! The Tigers winning was clearly a sign from the baseball gods that we should be here for all their home games, maybe even some of their closer games, like when they face the Reds, or the Indians, or the White Sox, or the Cubs, maybe the Pirates or the Brewers."

He can see the fire in her eyes. Heck, he would love to be at every home game, but he has more pressing money issues at the moment, so unfortunately for him, season tickets are out of the question, as well as tickets to the other 'nearby' stadiums.

"One day," he sighs, "what about for the 2043 season? It'll be a fun way for us to celebrate our forti–"

Lynn is visibly upset. She doesn't want to think about turning forty. It's bad enough that she's going to have to do a speech again in front of her family, but being that close to another milestone birthday is making her panic. She is currently middle-aged and this year, she's going to be right past it, and she still feels like she's still behind a lot of people, so getting older is not exactly a happy ocurrance for her.

Rather than dwell on it, Lynn takes his hand and begins dragging him towards the truck, "C'mon! The day's still young and I wanna go do something else."

"Fine, just so long as it isn't food. I've had my fill already."

"Don't worry, by the time we get there it won't be a problem."


Francisco walks into the abandoned weight room. He had heard rumors about the hidden room where the high school stored the old weights that they weren't able to sell, and he's counting on the school staff to have forgotten about the hidden room. As he turns on the lights, he is met with the sight of dusty equipment, "This will work," he tells himself.

He walks towards a bench. Ever since he was told to stop playing hockey, Francisco decided to place more emphasis on getting better so that he can continue with his baseball career. Unfortunately for him, his back has not been making it easy, and he's had to spend a lot of time trying to walk without pain before he can consider harder exercises.

He takes a deep breath. Dust flies into his nose and he begins to sneeze. When he stops, he asks himself, "How long has this stuff been down here?"

Lynn, who is startled by the loud sneeze, runs over to him, "What the heck was that?!"

Francisco is about to answer, but the dust irritates his nose one more time, and he sneezes, surprising Lynn.

"Are you done?"

"I think I have a few more left in me," he jokes.

She rolls her eyes, "Then help me find something to dust everything off in here."

As she looks around for a discarded rag, Francisco decides to take his sweaty gym shirt off instead. He and Lynn only have a short window of time before the school closes and their families expect them home, and he has a clean shirt in his backpack that he can change into later. He begins to clean off some of the equipment and when the bench and some of the nearby dumbbells are cleaned, he gets himself settled.

Lynn finds an old rag and calls out to Francisco, "I found a–" she stops when she gets a look at him.

He looks over at her, "That's good. We can use it some of the other equipment," he says.

"Yeah…" she says. "Just, uh…give me a minute to…" she can't remember the word.

"Stretch? I guess that would be a good idea so that I don't get even more injured. Can you help me out?"

"Y-Yeah, just let me…"

She turns around and takes a deep breath. She can't believe how flustered she is being, she thought that she moved past getting nervous around him, instead she's speechless like a love-struck school girl. In a way, Lynn is happy that she isn't bah-ing like a sheep, but can't imagine that Francisco hasn't taken notice of her looking at him. Her cheeks begin to warm, and she has never been so thankful for the darkness to shroud her.

Lynn begins to do some stretches, unaware that Francisco is attempting to copy them to the best of his abilities. Most of the stretches he can imitate pretty well, until she inadvertently starts showing off the moves that probably helped her do well in gymnastics and cheerleading.

As she does a pirouette, she begins to do a full turn and notices that Francisco is making an attempt at mimicking her, despite struggling to get his leg up. She quickly finishes the stretch and walks over to the bench.

He follows after her and prepares to lift some weights. Before he was a great all-around player, but with his running skills dramatically lowered, Francisco now has to rely on being a power hitter to make up for it.

Lynn looks down at him, "You ready?"

He nods his head. Francisco grabs the barbell and begins to lift. As Lynn gives him some words of encouragement, she looks away from him, nervous that he might see her blushing like an idiot. She can't help it, she still likes him, and seeing him lift that barbell isn't doing her any favors.

After finishing the first few sets, Francisco makes another attempt at lifting the barbell for an extra set, but Lynn notices that he is struggling. She helps him finish the last rep, but he angrily groans at his failure.

This isn't where he expected to be, especially with the new season starting in few weeks. Normally, he'd be running, hitting the batting cages, and practicing with his teammates, but he has fallen behind with his attention focused on physical therapy. He hates the pain in his back, he hates struggling after years of hard work, and he hates feeling useless. For months, he has had to adjust to the changes in his life, and baseball is one of the last things left – he can't lose it!

Lynn places a hand on his shoulder and he looks over at her. She gives him a soft smile, and tells him, "Good job, you're on your way."

Francisco sighs. He wishes that he could believe her when she says that, but all he can see is how behind he is after losing so much time trying to recuperate from the accident. It's tough when he has a constant reminder bothering him all day long, he can't forget it, except for that brief period when his pain medication is working.

He looks over at Lynn, "Why are you so worried about me?" he asks with sincerity.

She shrugs her shoulders, "You're my friend. I care about you."

Francisco looks away from her so that she doesn't see his face turning red. Even though she said friend, it still means a lot to have someone to cares about him.

"Besides look at all the progress you've made. A few weeks ago, you could barely open your own locker, now you're getting faster, stronger, and you know that you're gonna be the smartest guy on the team. I mean, you already were, but now you get to prove it to everyone. They'll all see you as an underdog, but you're gonna prove them wrong, because you're gonna be a beast on the field! You're gonna combine your smarts with your skills. I know that you'll be fine, no wait, you're gonna kick ass and come back better than before," she assures him.

Francisco can feel his cheeks begin to warm and he looks away from her. It's Lynn's gift to bring up athletes around her, and he's happy to have her helping him get through this. She's right, he'll find a way around this. He can't let himself get in his own head, he won't be doing anyone any favors, just dragging the team down.

He quietly tells her, "Thanks, I appreciate it."

She smiles, "You're welcome, now c'mon! I know that there's an athlete buried inside of you, let's get him out!"


Francisco looks around to where she is leading him. She has been driving for a while, but they are already outside of the Royal Woods city limits and still driving further away. He looks down at his watch, they lost some time getting through the traffic from the game, but the sun is going to set soon and Lynn doesn't look like she's going to stop.

"Lynn, where are you taking me?"

With a smile on her face, she assures him, "Don't worry about it," she places her hand on her heart, "I promise you're going to like it."

He doesn't know what to make of that. On the one hand, he trusts her to do something that he probably wouldn't have thought to do, but he can't imagine how far ahead Lynn has thought about what they are about to do.

"Okay, so long as we're back home before it gets late, we have work tomorrow," he reminds her.

"Don't worry about it. Besides, we can always call out again."

They can't, but he isn't going to bother trying to fight Lynn's logic without knowing what they are going to be doing.

Lynn drives off the road and heads towards a wooded area. Francisco is looking around, but he doesn't see what they could possibly do in a forest. She parks the truck and turns to him, "We're here."

Francisco looks around, they are hidden away from sight, but he knows that Lynn didn't drive that far in for it be an issue. She opens the driver's side door and he can hear the faint sound of cars passing behind them.

He steps outside, and spots Lynn running further into the forest, "What the, where is she going?"

"Hurry up!" she calls out to him.

Francisco tries to catch up to her, and when he makes it to a clearing, he is met with the sight of an undisturbed lake. He slowly steps forward and looks around; there aren't any people or boats, or even a dock, just the two of them and the sounds of the water as it gently hits the shoreline.

Lynn runs towards the water, surprising Francisco. He calls out to her, "What are you doing?!"

Upon hearing that, she remembers her shoes and her cell phone, "You're right," she says, before kicking off her shoes and stuffing her socks and cell phone inside. Lynn then proceeds to jump in the lake without a care in the world.

That isn't what Francisco meant, but he knows that he isn't going to get through to her. Rather than fight it, he decides to have fun, and join her.

Lynn emerges from the water and is about to call out to him, when she notices that he is in his underwear and is neatly folding his clothes, "While I don't mind the view, what are you doing?"

He looks over at her, "What? I don't want my clothes to get wet," he tells her. Francisco runs into the lake and when he approaches deeper waters, submerges himself into the water. He quietly swims towards her and when he emerges from the water, Francisco wraps his arms around Lynn, taking her by surprise.

She blushes, and in a nervous panic, gets out of his grasp before splashing him with water.

Francisco laughs as he splashes her back.

The two haven't gone swimming at a lake in years, between work and everything that has been going on, they haven't made much time to stop and go for a swim. Before it was for a fun competition between the two, and a chance for Francisco to get back in shape, but now, neither one cares – they just want to let the water take their cares away.

As they float on the water, he asks her, "How'd you find this place?"

"I looked online for a lake that doesn't look too crowded. I found this place. I used to come by whenever I need to clear my head. I seem to remember someone telling me about the sounds of nature being nice and fun," she says as she flicks some water towards him.

He didn't think that she would remember that considering that she has never shown much appreciation for the quiet sounds of nature, but he's glad she's finally coming around.

Neither one says anything, afraid of spoiling the moment. They let the water gently carry them. The lake isn't as big as the ones that they were used to, but if what Lynn said was true, then they can enjoy their time alone.

Lynn looks up at the orange sky; she can feel herself bobbing up and down in the water as the wind hits her face. Today was fun, but like every day since that Saturday breakfast, she can't help but think about what her sisters said, or didn't say.

She takes a deep breath, and says, "I'm still mad at my sisters."

He quietly nods his head, despite Lynn not being able to see it. When Francisco told her to talk to her sisters a few months ago, he wanted her to get better, instead of bottling up her feelings. The talk, unfortunately, brought back how she felt that day after her sisters planned something else and it has been clear since that breakfast meeting.

Lynn gets up and looks over at him, "They told me why they didn't want to come to Thanksgiving…am I really such a bad person that my own sisters don't want to be with me?"

She's asked him that before, and he recalls her spiraling as she talks about these feelings. Lynn mentioned her family not wanting her around, being mad or annoyed with her, and how she felt that there was something wrong with her. Despite months passing since she told him that, he can't figure out what would be so bad about her that she would think there was something wrong with her.

Francisco gets up and takes her hand, "You aren't a bad person, Lynn. You tried to give them a great Thanksgiving; that makes you thoughtful. You put up with me when I was going through rehab and withdrawal. You are spontaneous; if it were up to me I would have gone straight home after the game, so we could add fun to the list. You are confident in yourself, you can be great under chaos, you're a good helper, you are always willing to try new things, you're persistent, resilient, tenacious. Look, I know that right now, you feel low, but I know that you're going to pick yourself back up, like the strong person that you are. I know it, Lynn, and you know it too."

Lynn doesn't know what to think after hearing that. She can feel something in her head, but she doesn't know how to describe it. She's heard people describe her positively before and sometimes, she's done it for herself in their place, but hearing him say those nice things about her was different, in a good way. She could sense how much he meant those words and how much he wanted her to believe them about herself.

She swims over to him. Lynn wraps her arms around him and quietly asks him, "Why do you have to say stuff like that?"

"Because I love you."

She mutters under her breath, but Francisco can't tell what she said.

"What did you say?" he asks.

Lynn mutters a little louder, but he still couldn't understand her.

"I'm sorry what?"

"I said 'I love you too'!" she yells.

Francisco is taken by surprise after she said that. It has been years since he told her his feelings, and he sort of expected her to have responded then, but he never pushed her to say anything – it wouldn't have done much good. Regardless, hearing her say that warms his heart.

He lifts her chin up, so that she can look him in the eyes before he pulls her into a kiss.


It's nice to get things out in the open, it didn't make things great between the sisters, but at least it worked out much better for Lynn and Francisco

Fun Facts - if you haven't already done the math with the info given throughout the chapters, today (June 21st) is Lynn's in-story birthday, even though the chapter takes place in April. Also, all the concession stand food that Lynn mentioned was actually offered at Comerica Park in 2018 when she and Grouse went to the Tigers vs Athletics game (June 25th), there was more, but I picked the ones that I thought she would like the most, bitbits are also sold in the park, the Tigers did lose the April 5th, 2008 game against the White Sox, the first game Francisco saw was the fourth game of 2007 World Series, Joe Jiménez did make it onto the all-star team that year, and if the Internet is right, the park is a good place to come home with a few baseballs, depending on how the team is doing

Anyway, I'm rambling, thank you very much for reading, and see you guys next time