Family Comes First

Chapter 22

- A m a r a  R u s s o -

"We have a volleyball game tomorrow! Remember to be prepared. Bring extra water, a pair of extra clothes, an extra few snacks, an extra few everything!" Mister A yelled when practice was over.

It was nearing Christmas, and life had gone back to normal. The voices haven't talked to me much ever since my therapy sessions with Salvestro have become once a week sessions, but in the back of my mind, I felt their overwhelming presence.

It was as if I was suffocating sometimes with their presence, but I ignored it and pretended that everything was alright when everything wasn't. The voices were giving me headaches half of the time, and my grades were suffering because of it. Salvatore was now getting suspicious of me, and I knew that I had to get my grades back up before he started interrogating me and I blurted out the secret I've been hiding from them.

Back onto more positive subjects though, I have managed to make it into the Volleyball Team, and the Art's Club, and I haven't been happier.

I've made new friends during volleyball, and although I would never admit it, Caroline and I have some sort of mutual respect for each other. We both never voluntarily talked to each other, but we managed to tolerate each other's presence, and that was a win for me.

Elena though, was a different matter. Ever since she found out that Caroline and I had become on neutral territory, she had become bitter but she still understood where I was coming from which I was thankful for. Our relationship had suffered for a few days before she realized that she was being petty and made up for it with a hang-out at her house on a weekend.

Tomorrow, I have my first volleyball game against seven other schools. The game would last for a long time, and trust me when I say a long time.

The game would start at eight in the morning, and would only end when there was only a winner left which could mean that the games could last all the way up to eight in the evening. Hopefully, it wouldn't come to that, but I had to admit that we and the other schools had pretty strong teams.

If the other schools were as strong as I've heard them to be, each of our rallies would be long as none of us would let the ball touch the floor.

Caroline obviously made the captain of our team of twelve, and she was in charge of the majority of the spikes that needed to be done.

This other girl, Caroline's friend Maria, was one of the best diggers I've ever known. She dived for the ball like it was her lifeline, and literally never let the ball touch the floor as long as the ball was within her reach.

Surprisingly, I also had an important role in my team, and that was the role of a setter. Since Mister A thought that Caroline and I were both amazing players but specialized in different fields that were meant to work together, he had the idea of pairing the two of us together.

At first, it was bumpy and Caroline would yell at me whenever I didn't set it to her in the right direction or at the right height. It took time, but soon enough, we managed to find some common ground and we both stopped yelling at each other for our own mistakes. Thankfully, we got past our difference because although Caroline wouldn't ever admit this to anyone, we made a pretty good team.

"You did good, Amara." Caroline commented when we entered the change room. It was the first time she had actually talked to me outside of practice.

Shocked, I turned to her and only managed to stammer a few words. "Uh, thank you? Y-you did good too."

She laughed and let her red hair down, it flowing down her back in smooth waves.

"Let's hope you can do as well as you did today for tomorrow."