Salty Licorice

Chapter 81

Avery's POV

Last night I had another nightmare and this morning was pretty embarrassing to be honest after realizing not only did I wake up Marisa who actually helped me fall back asleep as she usually does, but Mateo and her father woke up. Luckily neither came to check on me, which brings in the deep embarrassment that they have learned with in the past few weeks of my little sleeping problem. Normally if I distract myself before I sleep I can avoid those dreams but lately my parents seem to be on my mind a lot. But that's just where things get weird because I know I shouldn't miss them but I can't help but wish they were at my tournament or that I could tell them that we won. Maybe they would finally be proud of me.

But I can't think about all of that right now. The whole school has already congratulated me and the team on our win last week so I'm finally able to take a breath. Or I thought so, now Spencer is walking up to our lunch table in a rush.

"Have you seen this?" Spencer shoves her phone in my face aggressively.

"Probably not, I'm still grounded," I grumble, taking her phone and holding it a proper distance.

"Grounded? Didn't you move out of your parents house?" Spencer ponders out loud.

I watch the screen of some video that started with multiple footage of my spikes and some serves from the games from the tournament. Honestly I find the compilation to be pretty cool and smile slightly. But my grin falls as the videos fade and a series of photos start to pass across the screen.

"Avery Sullivan or better known as Sully by her teammates and competitors is one of the next up and coming volleyball players for the division one Georgia tech team. Her recent signing caused a bit of confusion across the NCAA for women's volleyball." A photo of me standing while biting into a sandwich outside of the concession stand appears and Spencer's chokes on a laugh from over my shoulder. "So we decided to get more information on Avery Sullivan, the recent nobody in the world of women's volleyball. First thing we noticed was her strong spikes and consistent serves. You couldn't tell right away but in the beginning of the tournament she wasn't using her full power in her spikes but as the teams grew more advanced in her league the stronger they came. At one point she hit a spike so hard the ball almost made it back up in the stands. It was pretty clear she was a strong offensive player and heavily depended upon player for her team seeing as even when tensions were high on the court they never pulled her from the game, even when they started losing points because of her lack of focus. Luckily with a little help from a fan in the stands Sully got back in the game for the last 2 sets and stole the show once more."

I smiled slightly at the picture of Lizzie talking to me as she was leaning over the railing. I remember exactly what she said and it gave me a funny feeling in my abdomen just thinking about having her in my arms moving to some random song. "But in an interview we learned some amusing facts, she got into volleyball because she didn't make the basketball team in her youth and she eats a banana before every game. But what's more shocking is what she didn't say, or didn't confirm. After a series of questions one stood out and it was in reference towards her romantic life. Whether or not she was in a relationship with a girl, or more specifically this girl," a photo of Lizzie talking to me after a game come in the screen before fading to a photo of just her in the stands with her back to the camera revealing my name on the back of my jacket she was wearing. "The identity of this girl is not yet revealed, but that's not important. The real question is will we have a new LGBTQ athlete joining the NCAA next fall or is this all just a misunderstanding? Subscribe and like to follow more on recent news in the volleyball world," the narrator says before the video ends with one last picture of me yelling victoriously after I landed a spike, the last spike I made during the tournament giving us the victory over the now second best team at regionals.