Team Captains

Chapter 19

~Chapter 19~

Kennedy's Game

Today was the day of the game and I was even more nervous than I was yesterday.

This game determined whether or not we'd win the championships or not and most importantly, whether or not we were the best.

The anticipation kept me from concentrating in the classes. Each class basically went by slowly as I watched the clock slowly tick. It seemed like time had stopped altogether.

"Kennedy," Mr. Baba called out. I finally snapped back to reality and looked at him with a confused look on my face. He sighed. "I know I'm a pretty laid back guy but you have to pay attention."

I nodded sheepishly and tried my best to focus on the subject being taught. To be honest, I had absolutely no idea what we were learning in class today. And I'm pretty I failed a quiz that we had in history.

That's what usually happened to be every time before an important game.

When it was finally lunch, I didn't eat anything. I was too nervous and I was afraid it would mess up my ability to play.

"You've got to eat," Daniel told me, handing me a sandwich that he had brought.

I nodded absentmindedly and took his sandwich. "Thanks," I smiled, opening the plastic bag that the sandwich was held in and began eating.

"No problem," he winked. "Wouldn't want the captain to be weak right? You've got to have the most energy out there."

I rolled my eyes at him but chuckled nonetheless at his successful attempts to motivate me.

The rest of the day passed by in a blur. I couldn't focus as usual but now it was finally the end of school.

"Coach said we'll be having a light practice before the game and that she would drive us all," Katie told me, running around probably to spread the news.

"Thanks," I thanked her, pulling on my backpack and carrying my volleyball duffel bag on my shoulder.

I headed towards the gym to change. I was wearing spandex underneath my shorts today because it was hot. I wore spandex because it made sure that no one saw my butt in case my shorts rode up my leg.

I changed into our team jersey to get comfortable in it and put our team t-shirt over it.

The girls in my team began arriving in the gym and after we were all done changing, Coach Melody told us what we're going to be doing.

"You'll do some hitting lines and serving. Then we'll do some passing and the setters will practice their setting. You have long breaks so use them," she instructed. "We'll be packing up and leaving at around 4:30 for our game at Bridgewood's home court at 6:30."

We were playing our game at Bridgewood's home gym because we had never won to them before so they had the home court advantage.

But I was confident in my team that we could win. We had all improved greatly since our last game and I was certain that we could pull it off.

We started practicing. I thought this was a good idea because sometimes we barely got any time before the game to warm up so this extra practice was very useful and I intended to use it wisely.

After awhile of practicing I felt pumped up with energy so I decided to take a break before we headed to our game. I took a slug of water and wiped the little swear on my forehead and face with my towel.

"Okay we're heading out now girls. Get dressed. You have ten minutes," Coach Melody instructed, packing the balls away in a bag.

I put on a pair of sweatpants to stay warm and a sweatshirt. I replaced my volleyball shoes with a pair of Uggs and headed towards the parking lot where Coach Melody was already loading the trunk with volleyball stuff.

There were two vans there. Coach Melody was driving one car and Brady was driving the other one.

We all piled into separate cars. The ride there felt like forever. As if we were going in slow motion.

Once we finally arrived at the gym, we all piled out of the car and went onto the gym to change.

The girls of Bridgewood were already warming up since they had the gym before us. We all quickly changed and got onto the court to warm up.

I looked at the bleachers and saw the whole football team here with Coach Greg. They were holding up posters and banners. Daniel had a poster of my face, name, and jersey number.

The buzzer buzzed indicating that our warmup session was done and the game was beginning. When we were introduced to the crowd by the speaker, the audience roared with cheers and screams. A lot of our friends and family came to support us.

"This is such a turnout," I said to my team mates with a smile trying to mimic the guy from the mathletes before their competition in Mean Girls.

A couple of my team mates that got the joke laughed as the whistle blew and we were to get on the court.

The anticipation was really starting when the ref was checking our lineups.
Everything seemed to go by slowly before the game.

The ref blew the whistle indicating that the game was beginning. He blew the whistle. They had the serve this set but I didn't mind. Good teams didn't need the serve first to win the game.

The ref blew and signaled to the other side that they could serve.

Let the game begin.

***

The game flew by pretty quickly and before I knew it, it was the second set.

25-26

We had resulted in a deuce and they had won the first set.

Valentina served the ball with so much force that someone could've mistaken it for a bullet. The other team didn't know what hit them and we won that set.

The ref blew the whistle signaling there would be a tie breaker set.

The set started and I was back in my daze of playing volleyball.

***

15-16.

Another deuce.

We were in the lead.

The other team served the ball and the round began. We were having a rally going. The other team hit the ball over and Josie passed the ball in a perfect arc to Katie who set the ball towards my direction.

I kept my eye on the ball and did my approach and jumped perfectly in the spot I was supposed to. I slammed the ball down with all my might.

The whole crowd was cheering but I still didn't see what happened. I had closed my eyes to concentrate more on my hit instead of my surrounding.

My teammates ran towards me and carried me up and that's when I realized.

We had won.