My name is Max, it's short for Maximilian, or at least it was until recently. I was the star pitcher for the Gem City Gemini's. I was also pledging the most prestigious Frat House in the country, Beta Pi Phi. My Father, Dr. Jin Amado thought that giving me an "American Name" would help me fit in, but it didn't. Rich Dad or not, I had to work my ass off to be accepted. Joining Beta Pi Phi was just another step to a shining future. I was majoring in Law, and the Beta Pi Brothers were mostly business majors, so I needed an in.
That's where America's favorite pastime came in. The Gemini's were campus celebrities, and they had just lost their pitcher, Stephen Mears, last semester. Nobody really knows where he went, he just sorta dropped off the face of the Earth like eight months ago. That didn't matter, because I could pitch with the best of them. The rest of the Gemini's didn't believe me at first, but Baseball's a big fucking deal in Japan. My Father played in Med School, and didn't hesitate to push me into the sport as soon as I could wear cleats. I made the team by smoking the best hitters they could put in front of me. After try-outs, I was approached by Beta Pi and asked to pledge. My fastball won me fast friends and even faster slam-pieces from our "Sisters" at Delta Phi. At my first party I learned the real reason they called themselves the DP Girls. That was the most important part. I'm not saying I'm a horndog or anything, but sex is definitley my main motivator. I mean, why bother trying to be popular if it's not to get laid. I worked out to get laid. I played sports to get laid. I lived to get laid.
At first, I only got to watch. Pledges have to earn that shit, even if they are star pitchers. Things improved as the season went on. Soon, I was pulling snatch constantly. Everything was going great, my game performance kept me out of the rougher parts of pledging and had me drowning in pussy. It even scored me a nickname, "Maximum Outage". I was the campus King-in-waiting. In line to be top dog. I had almost everything, until I lost it all.
It was the night before the Beta Pi Phi pool party, and it was also the biggest game of the year. The Gemini's had been cleaning house all season, and my fastball was hot gossip among scouts and students alike. It wasn't a championship game or anything, but it was far more important. An away game against Northside, our long-time rivals and usual betters, if I'm being honest. It all came down to that night, and I was golden. I was on fire. I was pitching the best game of my fuckin' life. They were incredible, but we kept it locked up tight, neck-and-neck, inning after inning. Halfway through the night, we started building a lead. I pitched a no-hitter and you could almost see their moral start to crack. Bottom of the eighth, it all went to hell.
I tried a two-seamer and heard my shoulder 'click' like a revolver dry firing. I'm a pitcher, definitely the best one on the team, possibly the best one on the West Coast. MLB included.But I'm not an outfielder. Which is unfortunate, because once the Coach realized I'd fucked my shoulder, that's where he put me. I'm not saying I can't catch, I can catch well enough even with a bum arm, but I'd rather be pitching. Pitching is about control. Pitching is proactive. I'm proactive. I don't like to surrender control in anything. I like to do things, not have things done to me. The Northside Nomads started gaining ground after I went down, but we held in as best we could, no thanks to me. At the end of the ninth inning, it was all tied up again and the same thought was on every Gemini's mind. If we could just stall them out, we could push into extra innings and take the win.
That didn't happen. The Nomad's relief hitter, a kid named Jerry Barton, stepped up to the plate and hit a homerun that soared right past my head. I didn't even see it so much as hear it whistling past me. My mitt went up a half-second too late, and the Nomads went home victorious once again. My shoulder was killing me, but the shame hurt far more.
The coach was an old friend of my Dad's, and he blamed the shoulder for me missing the catch. I think he was just trying to help me save face, but it didn't help. He sent me straight to the Team Doc as soon as we left the stadium. By the time the bus dropped me off at the Doc's office, "Maximum Suckage" was trending on Twitter, and I could hardly breathe. I pressed the ice-pack into my shoulder and wished it could freeze my heart. Wished I could pull a Stephen Mears and just disappear. I went into the Doctor's office hoping against hope that she'd find something tremendously wrong with my arm. As if a doctor's note could excuse me from the vengeance of my Frat Brothers. I didn't have to wait long at all to be seen, Coach had called ahead.
The Doctor, a young woman named Bethany Reid, was the textbook definition of Bombshell. A tall leggy blond with a heart-shaped face and brilliant blue eyes. She looked me over, and pursed her pillowy red lips.
"Helloooo Nurse..." I sighed, flashing a practiced smile and looking her up and down.
"Do you wanna skip to the part where I turn my head and cough?" I asked, hoping my campus fame hadn't died yet.
"I'd rather we didn't, Mr. Amado." She responded coldly, glancing at me and then looking down to the clipboard in her hands.
"In fact, I was hoping we could skip to the part where you go home and take some aspirin." She continued, not looking back up.
"Well that was rude," I quipped, narrowing my eyes at her chest "You sure you don't want to rub me down with a topical solution or something, I'm real achey."
"Mr. Amado, I'm a lot like a home run, in that I am not something you can get your hands on." She said, flashing a cruel smile.
"If you want though, I can get you a bottle of topical burn ointment." She said, her smile fading and her eyes going cold.
It stung, being dissed by the team doctor, but what stung worse was the knowledge that this was the least of my torment. My phone was still buzzing from people tweeting "Maximum Suckage", and even my best friend, Marcus, had gotten in on it.
"You look really down... I'm sorry I ragged on you." Bethany said, clearly forcing a smile.
"I am really down, but you could cheer me up you know." I said, trying a smile again.
She stared at me quietly for a moment, her cold blue eyes impossible to read. She flipped through a small manila folder with my name on the outside, and then looked at me again.
"You know, I think I have just the thing..." she said, walking over to a cabinet and pulling out a small vial of pink fluid.
"This is an experimental supplement, that might just help you earn back that stellar reputation of yours, or at least help you forge a new one." she continued, filling a syringe with the pink liquid.
It almost seemed to almost glow in the too-bright fluorescents. She compared a paper covered in complex formula to my chart, and looked at me again.
"All of this information is correct, yes? Blood Type O, and you have a twin sister?" She asked, stepping towards me with the syringe.
"This'll fix me right, Doc? I'll be able to play ball again?" I asked, wincing as I saw the length of the needle.
"Oh, this will absolutely fix your problem. That I guarantee, just sign the release and we'll begin the treatment." She said, that strangely cruel smile curling her lips as she pushed a clipboard into my face.