| Master Fan
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 13,711
| Title FTMFW! And Betty 
Latest update so you don't have to go back and search for it: Quote:
“Ball 4!” Yelled Steve Holm, “Take your base.” He raised his mask and jogged out to the mound where Efron in the process of throwing what could only be described as a temper tantrum, throwing his hat and kicking at the dirt. “Hey man,” he said cautiously, “You walked 5 guys straight. Your shoulder bothering you?’
“No.” Zac spat, gripping the ball harder, “Never felt better.”
“So what’s the problem?” the catcher asked, “I haven’t seen you pitch like this since you first got here,” Steve paused, thinking the statement over. “No,” he added, “I take that back. You played better even then. You don’t get it together, you don’t start in Boston.”
“I know,” the struggling pitcher ground out, “I’ll get it.”
While the pitcher and the catcher were hashing it out on the mound, Ryne watched from third base as Chris ran in from right field. “Man,” he said as his friend approached, “I know this is practice, but it’s getting ridiculous.”
The outfielder nodded, “I haven’t seen Nessa around.”
“From what I understand,” Ryne agreed, “Neither has he.”
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
“So we’re settled then?” Vanessa asked, looking around at the assembled professionals.
“We’re settled,” George Bodenheimer said, shaking her hand, “And may I just say, Ms. Hudgens, welcome to ESPN.”
She beamed, “It’s always been a dream of mine! I’m sure I’ll see some of your people at Fenway in the next few days.”
The director of sports, her future boss, nodded. “And at AT&T Park when the series moves west.”
Vanessa nodded, “Looking forward to it, gentleman, ladies. Now I’m afraid I’ve got a plane to catch.” She bid goodbye to the conference room at large and gathered up her notes and briefcase. Fifteen minutes later, she was in a cab on her way to LaGuardia where she was going to catch a flight into Logan Airport. Pulling out her cell phone she scrolled through her contacts. She should call Zac, she thought, but he hadn’t tried to contact her since her tearful declaration of love three days ago.
She’d stood in her office, hands on his chest and he looked down at her once, turned and walked away. She went home that night, and waited for his arrival. At one point, she retreated to their bedroom and when she emerged the next morning she had seen the tell tale signs that he’d come home late last night and crashed on the couch in the den. And so the pattern continued until early that morning when she’d caught a cab to the airport. She arrived in New York at 10 in the morning, made it to ESPN by 11 and was off back to the airport at 1:15. There was a media dinner hosted by the RedSox that night at 7, followed by two more media packed days before the series started at the “home” team’s stadium.
She sighed and punched in her assistant’s number instead. A twenty-minute conversation and a few hours later, Vanessa arrived in Boston and headed to the Elliot Suite Hotel, which was about a half mile away from Fenway. She’d chosen it specifically because of the location and the fact that the team would likely be housed in a hotel across the river in Cambridge for games 1 and 2 that were held in Boston. Even so, when she entered her room, she was half expecting to be greeted with a large bouquet of flowers that had been “provided” by the hotel. Walking through her well-appointed suite, there was not a single flower in residence. Vanessa lay down softly on the king sized bed, clutched a pillow to her chest and cried.
Back in San Francisco, while Vanessa was crying her eyes out, Olesya was sitting through her first ever solo press conference. Lucas had offered to accompany her, but she figured she needed to become accustomed to doing this kind of thing solo since that’s what her job was for the next few weeks. She stuttered through her first question for the coach. When she caught sight of both Ryne and Chris flashing smiles at her, her confidence grew and she managed to get through the rest of her questions in a clear concise manner. She even raised her voice to be heard among the din and be recognized to as the last question that would be asked.
Punching in Lucas’ cell number as she made her way to the media lounge to type up her notes while they were still fresh in her mind, she started chattering as soon as he picked up the phone, “Oh, Lucas, it was so exciting! Having coach pause for a moment while he formulated a response to one of myquestions! And I actually got in the last one asked!”
Lucas chuckled as he listened to her excited voice babble in his ear, “That’s great, Lys. I knew you could do it.”
“Well,” she said lowering her voice, “It may have something to do with the fact that I’m hanging out with someone who does such amazing things with his voice - EEP!” An arm shot out of a conference room door and dragged her inside.
“Lys?” Lucas asked concerned.
“I’ve got pepper spray!” he hears her shout. Olesya takes a long look at her captor. “Never mind,” she says into the phone, “It’s just some jackhole who threw away the best thing in his life.”
“Efron?” he questioned and after receiving an affirmative grunt he said, “Give him a piece of your mind for me and call me in ten.”
“Alright,” Olesya agreed and snapped her phone closed. She fixed a glare on the taller man, “What the heck do you want?”
Zac held up his hands in surrender. “I deserved that. How is she? Where is she?”
Knowing that ‘she’ could only be one person, Olesya returned sarcastically, “Which ‘she’ are you referring to? The ‘she’ that just told you she loved you only to have you walk away? The ‘she’ who dropped everything and moved in with you without ever once hearing the words from your lips? Oh, I know, the ‘she’ who nearly gave up her dreams because of your sorry butt.”
“You know her then?” Zac grinned, hoping to dilute some of the well-justified anger directed at him.
“How do you think she’s doing?” Olesya exclaimed, “And if you thought about it really hard, I’m sure you could figure out where she is if I’m here.” She turned on her heel and flounced out of the room that was just a few doors down from her original destination.
He popped his head out the door, “Jackhole?” he inquired after her retreating form.
“I couldn’t decide which one you deserved more!” she shot over her shoulder>
Zac Efron leaned against the door jam and laughed for the first time in days. “Man,” he said aloud, “I am a jackhole.”
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Three days later, Zac sat in the locker room surrounded by his teammates. And not a single person was speaking to him. Chris had gruffly explained earlier that just like Vanessa was protective of her Giants, the Giants were protective of their Lady V. “Olesya told Ryne everything…and it just happened to be in the locker room while you were getting your shoulder wrapped.”
“Oh,” Zac responded, eyes downcast, “Can I ask you one thing? Why Lady V? I meant to ask her after her articles came out but never got around to it.”
“Because she can go from classy to bi-, um you know, and right back in the blink of an eye. Just like royalty.”
During that first game against the RedSox, Zac gave up two runs and loaded the bases before he was pulled. He could feel Vanessa’s eyes on him, wondering about his awful pitching. And to make matters worse, the Giants couldn’t pull out of the hole he’d put them into. The Sox won game 1 easy, 6 - 1.
They won Game 2 as well, when Zac couldn’t deliver when Boston had loaded the plates for him and the Giants just needed a base hit to bring one runner home. Zac stood at the plate with a full count and swung at a ball that he knew was high and outside, but he couldn’t stop himself.
Both teams traveled west for Game 3 as a bicoastal series and was another loss for the Giants. Vanessa stood in the mass of assembled reporters to view the post game press conference. Olesya at her side, Vanessa shouted out, “Bruce - the team has played exceptionally well for the majority of the season. What’s changed? Can you get it back with 4 possible games to go?”
“There’s been a shift in team dynamics, Ms. Hudgens, as I’m sure you’re well aware,” Bruce Bochy, the Giant’s manager said, “But these boys are strong and determined. I know you haven’t seen the last of them yet.”
And on that note, the conference drew to a close. She sent her assistant back to the news station while she headed off to the locker room to see if she could catch any last minute interviews. Before she arrived, however, she was accosted outside of the doors by Ryne and Chris. “What’s shaking, boys?” she asked playfully.
Instead of responding to the normal banter, the two men exchanged a look and turned back to Vanessa. “V,” Chris began, “You’ve got to go talk to Zac.”
“Yeah,” Ryne begged, “He’s killing us!”
His teammate nodded vigorously, “He knows he messed up, and we can’t punish him anymore than he’s punishing himself. He called every hotel in Boston trying to find you since no one at the station would tell him.”
“If he wanted to talk to me that bad, why didn’t he just call? It’s not like he doesn’t have my number.”
Her friends glanced at each other again, “No offense, Vanessa,” Ryne began, “But you’re rather scary when you’re mad.”
“And,” Chris cut in, “He figured you’d just hang up on him because you’ve yet to return his calls from a week ago - he thought he’d have a better chance if he saw you in person. He’s the only one in there right now. Talk to him. Please?”
Vanessa heaved a sigh and looked into the serious faces of the men before her. “Fine,” she grumbled, “But I’m only doing this for you.” She pushed through them into the locker room.
“Vanessa,” his gruff voice greeted her as soon as she crossed the threshold.
Tears pricked at her eyes as she took in his haggard appearance. She drew in a deep steadying breath, “Lose your game again, Efron?”
“Worse,” he said getting to his feet and crossing the room towards her. She held out a hand, indicating that he should stop but Zac kept walking. “I lost much more than my game. I’m afraid I may have lost the woman I love. The woman who I should have trusted and congratulated for having her dreams come true at such a young age. The woman who I should have taken into my arms and kissed when she told me she loved me. The woman who I was afraid didn’t need me anymore,” He drew to a halt just before her, “The woman who’s become my heart and soul.”
“Stop it!” she demanded, tears streaming down her face, “You’re not allowed to be nice right now. I’m still mad and hurt and you’re not allowed to go and say the perfect things to me.”
“Vanessa,” he said, finally taking her into his arms, “I’ve had a lot of time to think. We can make this work. It’s not like I don’t have money - I’ll fly to New York to see you when I’m not playing and we’ll have the off season together. We’ll have the phone and internet and sometimes you’ll be covering the same games that I’ll be playing,” he drew back and placed a kiss upon her cheek, “That is, if you’ll still have me.”
“Zac,” she said shoving against his chest forcing him back a step. His face fell as he took her in, certain that she was going to turn him down flat. “I didn’t take the job.” At his shocked expression, she continued, “I mean, I did, but I didn’t. I’m going to write for ESPN.com and ESPN Magazine. I’ll travel 4 or 5 times a month during the season to cover the most important games and cover the final playoff games and the World Series. They’re even going to install a permanent uplink at the station so I can be called in to offer my expert opinion. And I’m going to stay on at Action Sports as a back-up to Olesya.”
He stared at her. “Why?” he choked out.
“Because I couldn’t bare the thought of leaving you.”
She launched herself into his arms, kissing him as if her life depended on it. Neither one had much patience as they tore at each other’s clothes, stripping bare in a matter of moments. They came together in a fury with lips and limbs flying. That first time was over in matter of minutes, but later that night with the first urge satisfied, they showed each other how much they loved and missed the other.
“After a miraculous comeback, the San Francisco Giants have tied the series at three apiece. Here in Boston, the RedSox - and the nation - eagerly await the start of Game 7. Anything can happen. This is Vanessa Hudgens reporting live from Fenway Park, hoping to cheer our team onto victory. Back to you, Olesya.”
| __________________ *Insert Funny Signature Here* |
, oh this title kills
loving the title
trying to get up to date might take awhile....
thanks molly
