Chapter 24

LANA AND DENNIS, assisted by several interested girlfriends, examined the labels and care instructions for the various uniforms. It turned out that the cheer uniforms and the basketball uniforms were made of the same material and care instructions permitted them to be washed together as long as the colors were similar. They started with the white home uniforms since those would be needed on Monday.

It took the rest of the afternoon to wash and iron the uniforms with various girlfriends taking turns at the ironing board.

“Whose underwear did you get?” Lana whispered, nudging Dennis.

“Um ... not sure. It’s really pretty, though. I feel bad about girls spending money for pretty undies and then wearing them once and giving them to me. And what am I going to do with them all? After I appreciate the gesture, they end up shoved in the drawer with all the others,” Dennis said.

“The condom drawer?” she giggled.

“Um ... Yeah. I guess. But really, what am I supposed to do with them?”

“We’ll have a little meeting and discuss the matter together. I bet we can come up with a clever idea. Maybe we can wallpaper your room in them or something,” Lana suggested. Dennis groaned.

Word had gone out that Peg was singing each Sunday in Advent and little Trinity Lutheran Church was packed Sunday morning. Because of the number of people already in the church before Dennis and his girlfriends arrived, they ended up scattered in four different pews with other members of the basketball team and cheerleaders.

Peg looked wonderful in the new dress Dot bought for her. But she was radiant when she stood to sing.

Come thou long expected Jesus
Born to set thy people free
From our fears and sins release us
Let us find our rest in thee.

The church sat in silence when she finished, each member of the congregation transported by her voice to his or her own center of worship. Daniella and Roberta bracketed him this Sunday and leaned against him as he held their hands. Outside the church, the first light dusting of snow fell, heralding the winter along with the holiday season.

“She has such a beautiful voice,” Roberta sighed as they left the church. “It seems sad that she is limited to this little church.”

“I don’t think so,” Daniella said. “This setting is right for her. Do you think she’d be happy singing in some cathedral or on television for a megachurch?”

“I suppose you are right,” Roberta said. “I just think about how many people would love to hear her sing.”

“We’ll need to get to church a lot earlier next Sunday,” Dennis said as his sister and his other girlfriends caught up with them. He hugged Peg and whispered how beautifully she sang.

Monday night’s game was at home, so Dennis was able to lead conditioning exercises for the JV, the wrestlers, and the non-athletes at 3:30 before heading to the locker room to start taping the girls who needed it.

The roster was looking pretty stable. Even Ardith was surprised that none of the girls dropped out. She hadn’t let up on them in practice and Dennis’s conditioning exercises were pushing them even more. She looked down the roster to pick the evening’s starters for the game against the Bearcats. She wasn’t making the mistake she’d made Saturday of putting in weaker players to start the game. She hated to start all three Armor girls and both Longs, but they were the strongest players she had. She handed the chart off to Dennis and he took it to meet the scorers and officials while she gave the team a pep talk.

“The varsity is pretty smug right now because they have a better record than the Angelines,” Ardith said. “We can’t do anything about that. They play their game and they win or lose, just hoping for a winning season. We know a secret they don’t. What is this game?” She waited for an answer and called on Natalie, this year’s first captain. The second captain from the sophomore class was Judith.

“This game is the championship game,” Natalie spoke out strongly. “We have a 0-0 record going into this game. It’s the only one that counts.”

“Right. And what are we going to do?”

“Beat ‘em!” The girls knew the rest of the routine.

“How are we going to do it?”

“Run, run, run!”

“Who are we?”

“Angelines!”

The team headed for the gym and started their quest for a win.

The first quarter looked like a shooting match between the two schools. Nearly every possession resulted in a score. At the end of the quarter the score was tied at fourteen. Ardith made some strategic changes, moving Daniella under the basket at right forward, replacing Diane. Rosie went in at center. Judith came out and Leanne went in at point guard, moving Natalie to breaking guard. And the team broke loose. Daniella snatched the first rebound of a Bearcat shot and threw the ball hard downcourt where Natalie picked it up, took one step, and laid it up and in. Nat was determined that she’d match her taller sister’s feat of being able to dunk the ball, but she wasn’t quite there yet. Nonetheless, the shot was what the Angelines needed to show their power. They outscored their opponents by seventeen points in the second quarter.

“We’re not going to let up in the second half,” Ardith said. “Everyone make sure you are warmed up and loose. We’ll be doing lots of substitutions. I won’t change that unless we start slipping. You freshmen have the opportunity to show your stuff this half. Let’s get out there and show them how we win!”

It wasn’t quite the break-away in the third quarter that it had been in the second, but the Angelines held a commanding lead. In the fourth quarter, Ardith had a few minutes of playing all four freshmen who were dressed, rotating Daniella, Natalie, and Roberta into the lineup with them to keep them organized. They expanded the lead by eleven more points to end the game 69-33.

Since they were at home, the girls showered, dressed in street clothes, and got into the boys’ game midway through the first quarter. They were having a tougher time controlling the varsity Bearcats and ended the half three points behind in a low-scoring game. They came back in the second half, though, barely strong enough to eke out a win, 44-42.

Everyone’s focus shifted Tuesday. Students, the community, local churches, and the school board prepared for the evening meeting regarding suitable sports attire for students. Members of the Disciples of the Pentecost Church were active early enough to picket at the conclusion of classes, not obstructing traffic, but holding up signs and singing gospel songs like “Onward Christian Soldiers.” The signs were mostly excerpted from scripture.

“Women should adorn themselves in modest apparel. –I Timothy 2:9”

“Let beauty not be in fancy clothes. –I Peter 3:3”

“Clothe yourselves with humility. –I Peter 5:5”

“Be clothed with strength and dignity. –Proverbs 31:25”

Dennis was called out before conditioning exercises to see the pickets as they walked somberly to and fro. He made the decision to leave the workout to the cheerleaders as he went to his computer to adjust his presentation slightly. He worked straight through until the time to go to the meeting. His girlfriends brought him dinner before the meeting.

He went into the multi-purpose room and connected his computer to the projection system as people packed the room.

“We have asked the student committee on athletic dress codes to present their recommendations. We find them incredibly simple and have asked their chairman, Dennis Enders, to explain what this simple statement means. Dennis, if you would take the podium.”

“Thank you, Superintendent Jones. Members of the School Board, teachers, parents, and fellow students. The committee on athletic dress codes felt the simpler the rules, the less subject to misinterpretation they would be. We have summarized them thus:

Athletic uniforms are prescribed by individual sports’ rule books. They are acquired by the school according to those rules and student athletes agree to wear the approved uniform when representing the school in competition. Practice clothes, workout clothes, and gym clothes—unless mandated by the high school athletic association or governing body—are a matter of individual choice for the participant and are worn for comfort, flexibility, safety, and personal taste within minimal guidelines. Minimal guidelines are described as: Shirts or tops must cover the nipples and lower pectorals, including the lower hemisphere of breasts. Shorts or bottoms must cover the buttocks, commonly referred to as butt cheeks, including exposure of the cleft between, commonly referred to as the butt crack, and genitalia, including anus, penis, testicles, vulva, vagina, clitoris, and any forward rise or cleft commonly referred to as the mound or Delta of Venus.

“We of the committee find that describing workout wear more specifically than this removes a degree of freedom of expression and choice that is protected by the Constitution of the United States and unnecessarily complicates the selection of personal athletic wear commonly available in athletic clothing stores. We believe that given their choice in the matter, students will choose appropriate clothing for the activity in which they are engaged.

“We know that various religious sects cite holy writ in enforcing specific modes of dress. We have some Amish students in our student body who daily dress more conservatively than other students. Two Muslim students wear head coverings. These are fine for those students who participate in that particular religion and most sports have made allowances in athletic uniforms for students of those religious beliefs. When a religion attempts to force their standard on all members of the community, we see bloody results, such as the suppression of women by the Taliban in Afghanistan. It is that which we oppose.

“We have students of many different beliefs, denominations, and religions in our school. We encourage those who oppose this standard based on Christian modesty to review the words of St. Matthew in the Christian Bible:

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.
Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.
If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?”

“I have provided the following video clip of the students here at Bartley High School engaged in a normal workout. This workout precedes our team sports practices each day and is joined by an additional twenty-five or more students who are not currently on any athletic team, but participate to enhance their good health and well-being. Represented here is nearly half of our student body. I challenge you to spot anyone who is distracted from their workout by the clothing of someone else. We’re serious about this.