Chapter 27

The bell rang while I was on my way back to Trig. I still had to go there to pick up my books. Jack carries his around in a backpack, like most other kids in high school. I've never liked that idea so I bought a wheeled carry-on bag like the airline flight crews use. It's got plenty of room for my books and the handle snaps open or closed in a second. It's a lot easier to wheel that thing around than struggle with a half ton of books on my back. Sometimes I wonder how Jack even gets his on.

Annie Henderson was in the classroom, packing her stuff. She smiled when she saw me come in.

"Hey, Jill. Anyone tell you about practice?"

"Uh uh."

"Coach Donahue wants to hold practices today and Thursday after school until six."

"Oh, Jeez. What makes her think we need practice?"

"You know Coach D. Basics, Basics, Basics."

"Yeah. It's strange we made it to the playoffs without having to do any special practices. Thanks for telling me."

"You're welcome. I figured you were busy with your boyfriend yesterday and hadn't heard about it."

"Nah, I sent him to school. I spent the whole day with his sister hunting down her boyfriend."

"Sounds like fun. Gotta go or I'll be late for class."

"OK. See you in gym, Annie."

Annie and I were the only freshmen on the volleyball team last year. She has a mean spike. This year we had a couple of new freshman and a junior who had transferred from Fernmont replacing the three seniors who graduated last year.

I went to my next class, then headed on over to the cafeteria, hoping to find Wanda. She has first lunch period and I have second. I lucked out and caught her in the hallway.

"Wanda. Wait up a minute."

"Hi, Jill. What's up?"

"I have to stay late for volleyball practice today so I won't need a ride home. But can you come get me around six and take me over to the college?"

"Sure. What are you going to do till seven?"

"I can just hang around. It won't be that long by the time we get over there. There's not enough time to go home for dinner."

"Oh, that's right. What are you going to do for dinner?"

"I don't know. Maybe I can get something from the machines while I'm waiting."

"If I bring some meatloaf, can you find a place to eat it?"

"Yeah, but I don't want you to go to a lot of trouble for me."

"Don't be silly, Jill. I'm making it for dinner. It won't be any problem to bring some with. You were supposed to be eating with us tonight, anyway."

"OK. I have to stay late Thursday, just so you know. We'll have to do this again."

"All right. How long is this going to go on?"

"Probably until we finish post season play. Coach is kind of anal sometimes."

"Well, it can't hurt to practice."

"She just chaps my ass. We're not going to get any better throwing in a couple of extra practices all of a sudden. It's not like we aren't practicing already. We've got a real team going now and we can take anyone they put up against us. All we need is someone to get hurt because Coach want us to be better than we are."

"God. I hope that doesn't happen just before the playoffs."

"Me too. Oh, I almost forgot. Make sure you keep some clothes on when you answer the door for the next month or so."

"All right, if you say so. Any particular reason or are just trying to spoil our fun?"

"Ms. Evans has indicated she has some interest in Daddy and I wouldn't put it past her to stop over at the house with a question or two she needs answered. I told her he was seeing somebody but I didn't say who it was or that you are living there."

"Lizzy Lessie Evans? She's probably interested in him for his wallet."

"It sure didn't sound that way this morning after he left her office. I think she's interested in something in his pants besides his wallet."

"I don't know. It's hard to believe old bean flicker Evans would be interested in John."

"Oh, come on, Wanda. Has anybody ever come up with real proof that she's gay?"

"No. It just one of those things everybody knows. Politicians are crooked, you can get away with anything if you've got enough money, Evans is a rug muncher."

"Damn, you're gross, Wanda. Everybody knows a bunch of shit that isn't necessarily true. I bet it's a rumor some senior started years ago when Evans told her she needed to pay more attention to school than her boyfriend's dick or she wasn't going to graduate. Something like that. Just because she doesn't have a ring on her finger, everyone thinks she's gay."

"I don't know. You're going to have to work pretty hard to convince me she's not a vagitarian."

"Believe what you want. Don't come crying to me when you find her with Daddy's prick halfway down her throat."

"Now, that would convince me. Don't you have a class or something?"

"Yeah, English."

"Well, I'm gonna go. I'm hungry. I'll see you tonight. Regular place?"

"Yeah, that'll be fine. See you."

My talk with Wanda made me late for English. Mr Perkins was his usual witty self.

"How good of you to join us, Miss O'Hara. As far as I know, you haven't completed the requirements for this course yet."

"No, Sir. Sorry, Sir."

My first reaction was to get mad at him but then I thought about it. He was trying to run a class and I walked in late. Pretty rude, when you weren't thinking like a spoiled brat. The comment about completing the class bothered me, though. Nobody had said anything about it yet but it probably didn't make sense to let everybody in on what I was doing. I could imagine every student with a B average trying to skip a couple of years of school while still getting a diploma. I wondered if the powers that be had considered that. Jillian O'Hara. Student precedent.

I ate lunch with Annie, Becky and Roberta from volleyball. Becky and Roberta are both seniors. They've gone out for volleyball every year, but they were marginal, to put it nicely until last year. The whole team was marginal, as far as that's concerned.

It didn't take long for Annie to come to me asking for help last year when she saw the difference in my play from the rest of the team. Let's just say that our girls' volleyball team was treated more like an alternative to girls' gym than a competitive sport. There were non discrimination laws that made the school provide some kind of sports for girls and that's probably the only reason they bothered.

Is it conceited to say I'm good when I am? Last year I was rated the third most valuable player in the state. That's as a freshman, against all high school students in California. All right, all female high school students. Nobody else on the team got a trophy, so I guess that makes me a better player than the rest of them. Anyway, Annie saw the way I was hustling and making shots that nobody else would even try and she cornered me one day after practice. The result is that I started working with her, both at practice and at lunch. I don't mean our lunches were spent playing volleyball but I'd go over something every couple of days or so, maybe strategy or a way to block, and we'd put it into play later on the court. I also got her on some exercise routines that I'd gone through when I first started and we built up her leg muscles and her endurance.