Caught Up

Chapter Seven

Caught Up

Chapter Seven

School was awful.

Not only was it safe to say that Duke was ignoring me, but today was the first volleyball game of the season, and Aimee Brothers, whose vertical was higher than my head, was at home with a fever and hives. Oh, and that's not it. Some idiot had screwed with one of the toilets, and the entire goddamned locker room was flooded. At least Kaylin was back and feeling better than ever.

But you know what? It's cool. I'm composed. It doesn't matter. Nothing matters except for winning the game tonight. Beating Western Yell would be tough without Aimee but not impossible, and it had to be done.

It was an hour and a half long bus ride to Western Yell, but I slept most of the way, and I felt pretty refreshed when we got there. It was 4:00 when we got there, and the game started at 4:30, so we hurriedly got dressed, had a quick locker room chat, and managed to pray together before we ran out onto the court with just enough time to warm up for a few minutes before beginning.

On the court for the first whistle was me, Cierra, Kaylin, an Indian hitter named Vestianna, Courtney Balinski (who didn't like me at all and was filling in for Aimee), and a short, blonde-haired girl named Saige. The first period was over too quickly, and it wasn't looking good for us. Western Yell couldn't serve too well, but, damn, they were fast. The ball hardly ever got past them, not that it really mattered because we hardly ever managed to get it over the net.

I tried to set Courtney up the way she needed it, but her timing was all wrong, and she just couldn't manage to jump high enough fast enough to hit the ball over. It slammed straight into the net every time.

In her defense, Courtney wasn't a hitter. She'd never been a hitter, and that's what we needed right now. Sitting on the bench, I rubbed my temples as I listened to Mo. She pulled Courtney out, telling her to grab some water which caused Courtney to roll her eyes. Sarah Hammond went in instead, and I slapped her hand as she sat down in the seat behind me.

Sarah didn't play often. She was a large, six foot tall senior, and she barely had to jump at all to reach over the net. The problem with her was that she tired out easily, and she didn't move her feet very quickly. The scoreboard buzzed loudly, and we called it up before running back onto the court.

This time, we actually looked like a group of girls that played volleyball. Sarah spiked it over at least six times in the first four minutes, and the rest of us sped around the court to make sure all areas were covered. My sets were up, and our serves were on. It was beautiful. Hell, I even seen Mo smiling. We won the second period by six.

Courtney had to go in for me halfway through the last period when I dove and busted up my elbow pretty bad, but I wasn't worried. Courtney was a good setter, and everyone on the floor was busting their asses.

The game finished with a dangerous spike from Vestianna- it was so pretty that it gave me chills just watching it, and the cheers were echoing off the walls in the locker room. We'd done it.

We'd won.

The bus ride home was much more exciting than the ride up there with everyone talking animatedly about different possessions and highlights. I was so pumped that I even high-fived Courtney, and she was so excited that she actually meant it when she told me that I did a good job.

To my surprise, I got a text from my dad a few miles from the school that said he was there waiting which made me smile even harder.

Now if our boys can just win the football game tomorrow. I wasn't too sure about who they were playing, I think Glenwood Central, but when Dawson, Connor, and Duke were talking about it during health today, they were sounding pretty confident.