𝐂 𝐎 𝐋 𝐋 𝐈 𝐃 𝐄

𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐄

BOSTON.

OCTOBER 5TH, 2021.

sophia looked at the yankee's lineup card, confused at what she was seeing. usually she'd show up to the games and submit the lineup herself, but the lineup was already there — and it sure as hell was not hers.

of course, they'd been injury-plagued but the batting order was super jumbled. they had rizzo leading off for whatever reason instead of judge. joey gallo was batting fourth instead of gleyber.

sophia quickly took a photo of the lineup before making her way into the clubhouse to find aaron boone. it was probably just a mistake.

the girl walked into the away-manager's office, finding aaron boone leant back in his chair watching the dodgers vs cardinals game.

"hey, i think you submitted the lineup by accident." sophia said.

"oh, no i did that myself. i know it's your job but we really need this and i think maybe i should take it from here on that sort of stuff."

sophia frowned, "look i'm not here to pick a fight but that's not a wildcard lineup. i know your the manager but it's gonna be rough if you put that team out there."

"sophia, i'm sorry but you need to back off. i'm already taking the chance on gerrit tonight because you said so."

sophia shook her head. she was told to know her place but this was her place. her job was to make the lineups and match up pitchers. boone obviously approved them... but he didn't full on take them and make them!

the girl let out a long sight before leaving the office. aaron boone could tell soph was bothered by this but this was his team.

after leaving the office, sophia found her way to the field. new york was always freezing, but the chill in boston was unsettling because it was her sworn enemy since birth.

"ready for a win?" gio urshela asked, giving her a pat as she stood there alone and gazed into the green monster.

"yeah. i'm ready."

"sounding a little unsure there."

"just play your a$$ of, k?"

"aye, aye."

✦

"fcking christ." boone muttered under his breath.

2 run homerun xander bogaerts... bottom of the first.

"way to go, cole." he continued, chewing his gum more aggressively like he always did when he was mad.

"it's only the first." sophia tried to assure.

"in boston. against the red sox. it's gonna take something big to come back."

"we have a giancarlo."

"yeah, and they have a bogaerts."

"chill out. your negative energy is gonna be the death of us."

"oh, sure, sophia. good vibes and laidback attitude is always the way to go!"

"i'm not saying to not care. i'm saying to pretend. chill out before you freak everyone else out. you already got in gerrit's head and look where we are now."

boone shook his head, removing his eyes from his bench coach and focusing back on the game.

the next inning came up and gerrit cole came back to the dugout a little shaken.

"gerrit don't let those losers shake you up." sophia said to him quietly as he sat down on one of the benches.

"i won't."