Always Us

first game

a tiny fluff piece inspired by a TikTok I saw. this would be gold on screen 🥺

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Olivia bounced her hip lightly, pointing out at the field. "Look over here, SiSi. Look who it is."

Eyes wandering, the one-year-old took in the vast stands, the fans trickling into their seats. She blinked towards the field, the large men warming up.

Digging her fingers into the #11 printed on her baby's jersey, Olivia tried to elicit a smile. A giggle. Anything. Instead, Sienna sighed and dropped her head down on her mom's shoulder.

Olivia pouted. She had been so excited for this day. So much so that she had ordered three potential outfits for her baby girl. She even had a disposable camera and mini pom poms tucked into her bag. But every time she tried setting the almost toddler down for a picture, Sienna would just shuffled her feet and wave her hands to be picked up again.

This was life with her baby. Nothing ever went as expected.

"Daddy's coming," she whispered into her baby's ear, "look, baby girl."

Wearily, Sienna raised her head to look, and finding that her mom was in fact telling the truth, she stretched her arms out to Spencer.

"What's up, mama." He smiled, taking Sienna and leaning over to give Olivia a kiss. "Hi, baby."

Sienna wrapped her short arms around his neck and laid her head to rest once again. Olivia hovered, worried that she'd missing any inkling of a reaction if she as much as blinked for too long.

"You having fun at your first game?" Spencer asked.

Sienna stared out into the distance.

"You want to walk around the field?" Spencer tried, crouching to stand his daughter up.

Her knees buckled and she whimpered, begging to return to his arms.

"Maybe she has to warm up to the idea," Olivia said, defeated. Giving up on the possibility of a smile, she took out her camera and started snapping away anyways. The best she could get was Spencer grinning at their baby and Sienna at least looking at the camera.

"How about a good luck kiss?" Spencer murmured, lowering his cheek to his daughter's reach.

Sienna pecked his cheek weakly before slumping back onto his shoulder.

He laughed. "Good enough."

After saying goodbye to Spencer and hiking up to their seats, Olivia once again tried offering the pom poms, the blue and yellow shakers, a foam finger. But all Sienna would accept were snacks and her plushie.

Halfway through the game, she passed out on Olivia's chest, and the mother squeezed her little bundle in her arms.

As her daughter snored quietly, Olivia rubbed a hand mindlessly up and down her back. "We'll try again next week."