Wild Little Dreams

23

As it turned out, Kamryn was amazing at volleyball. She was a taller one in the group so she was usually upfront and did a lot of blocking and a lot of spiking.

Their first scrimmage was great, the second one didn't go in their favor but it was finally time for the games. It was a home game so luckily Jay, Hailey, and the team were able to make it.

Kamryn ran up to them before the game started, kissing their cheeks and getting hugs for good luck before she ran back down and warmed up with her team. They circled up right before the game started, doing their team chant before they started.

They then went to their positions and got started with the game, yelling to each other as the ball went over the net. They were winning for the first half of the game before the other team came back with a vengeance and somehow got the upper hand on them.

They ended up losing the game and it was mostly due to Kamryn missing a block, which made her blame herself for losing the game.

"You did great honey," Hailey told her, hugging her as soon as she came out of the locker room.

"I sucked Mom," She sighed, walking out with her mom and dad to the truck. "I should've been able to block that one ball. I should've seen it coming,"

"You did not suck Kam. You missed one ball out of the whole game. The other team just went crazy on you guys but it's not your fault that you lost the game," Hailey told her as she took the bag and put it in the truck.

"Are you sure? What if they all blame me?" She asked, showing her parents that her insecurities were building at her young age.

"Then they aren't a real teammate. You guys are a team, if one of you fails, then all of you fail. You win and you fail together," Jay spoke up, looking into the back seat as they all got in the truck.

"Okay," She nodded, staying quiet for the rest of the ride and really the rest of the night.

Hailey went to check on her after she'd showered and saw that their girl was already asleep before she went out to Jay and sat on the couch next to him with some case notes.

"Do you think this is gonna really affect her?" She asked as she put the paper she was looking at down, "I don't want her to have self-esteem issues or feel like she's not good at the sport because she missed one block,"

"I think she'll be fine Hail. She's unfortunately at that age where it's inevitable that she's going to have some of these confidence issues,"

"I don't want her to go through that," She sighed.

"I don't either but it's middle school and then high school. Kids are mean and we're lucky to have a good kid but that doesn't mean she's gonna be immune to this," Jay sighed, putting his arm around Hailey, "She'll be fine. It's just gonna take some getting used to,"

"I know, I just worry,"

"I know you do, but she's our kid. She's gonna be fine," He reassured her before they went back to working on the case.

After they finished what they wanted to do for the night, they both went upstairs and checked in on Kamryn who was sound asleep still before they headed to bed for the night.

——————

The next day, Jay actually drove Kamryn to school instead of her taking the bus so he could see how she was feeling about the previous night.

"Why did you drive me?" She asked as she looked over at him.

"I figured we could have a talk about last night and how it went,"

"I really don't feel like reliving it Dad," Kam sighed as she looked out the window, "It was my fault, thats the end of it,"

"It was not your fault Kam. You can't put this on yourself because it's not gonna make anything better. It's just going to bring you down and make you feel like crap," he told her, pulling into McDonald's drive-thru line, "Don't tell mom I fed you McDonald's,"

"Dad, you can't keep secrets from the woman. She checks your checking account 70 thousand times a day," Kamryn chuckled, "can I have a sausage biscuit and a hash brown?"

"What do you want to drink?" He asked, looking at her as they drove up to the speaker.

"Can I have a Coke?" She asked, picking up her phone and starting to play a game.

"As long as you promise to do your best about forgetting that you missed the block," he told her, looking over at her.

"Fine," she nodded, sitting back in her seat as Jay drove up and collected their food.

He drove to the school and parked in the parking lot so they could eat before watching Kamryn walk into the school.

She made it through the day unscathed and went to the locker room quietly after class. She didn't say anything to anyone, hoping that they all did the same.

"Hey kam," the coach said as she stuck her head out of her door, "Can I talk to you?"

"Uh. Yeah," she nodded, setting her bag down before she went to the office.

"What's going on?" Her coach asked as she shut the door, "Be honest with me,"

"What do you mean?"

"Your mom emailed me that you were being pretty hard on yourself after last night. So what's going on in your head?" She asked, sitting beside Kamryn.

"I don't know. I just feel bad that I missed it and I lost for the team," she shrugged.

"You didn't miss anything. It was a simple block that was just too hard to get. You tried and yeah, it was a miss but they're not always going to be hits Kamryn. You're not always going to make it, but you're always gonna be appreciated for trying,"

"Really?"

"Yeah, Kam. Now let's get out there and have a good practice. We'll work on the blocks,"

"Thanks, coach," she nodded, both of them getting up and heading out of the office.