Chapter 31

Becky said, "That sounds like a pretty easy password. What if somebody figures it out?"

"It's not like it's going to be there forever," I told her. "I'm planning on having all the permission slips by day after tomorrow and then I'll take out the password."

"But then anybody will be able to get into and change whatever they want to."

"Beck, it doesn't work that way. There are different levels of protection. This one is so nobody sees it until your parents say it's OK. My admin password is going to be a lot more complicated than that. Jack and I don't want to have to answer 15 phone calls because none of you can remember the password."

Jack said, "We could always use the one Mel Brooks used in Space Balls."

"What's that?"

"1 2 3."

Annie said, "Nah. That one's more for the cheerleaders."

Beth said, "OK. Let's settle down. Our class period is almost over. Is there anybody who can't stick around for a bit?"

A couple of girls had to get away within the next half hour but most were willing to stay an hour or two if they had to.

Beth said, "OK. What do you two need from us?"

I said, "I guess I'll go first. I haven't had a chance to look at what you gave me, Coach. Is everything I need to do the playoff page in here?"

"I found the schedule of all the games and how the matchups are determined. As long as we can find out who wins over the weekend, you can keep it up to date."

"OK. We need to figure out how to get the scores but we've got a few days to do that. Next is your page. Did you include what you want there?"

"Yeah, I printed up a page of information. If it's too much, take out what you want. I put a couple of pictures in there but after what Jack said, I don't think you should put the swimsuit picture up on the site."

"All right, I won't use it. I can't guarantee Jack won't use it as a screensaver, though."

"Yeah, right. With you around? And you said he doesn't give himself enough credit in some areas? What else do you need?"

"I've got the playoff stuff and I know enough about the team to do the home page. The only thing I need is anything you guys want on your own pages. I can always put what year you are and the position you play on the team. If that's all you want, I won't need anything else from you. If you want more information than that on your page, I either need you to give it to me today or you can email it to me before 8 tonight. I'm not going to guarantee that it will go up if I don't get it before then."

Beth said, "Jack, what are you going to need?"

"First off, I want a couple of team shots. I'll also want some shots of you guys on the court like you're playing a game. Then I'll start taking pictures of each of you for the thumbnails on the home page. I figure we can use a little larger version of that same picture on the personal page and put the name, class year and position next to it. Any other information and pictures can go below that. If we have time, I can try to get some other shots for the personal pages of anybody who wants them. Maybe something in street clothes."

Annie said, "How about in lingerie?"

Jack held his hands together in front of his crotch, looked down and shuffled his feet. "I'm not 18 yet so I don't know anything about that. Besides, do you really think you're going to get an OK from your folks for a picture like that?"

She giggled. "Probably not. Besides, the school probably wouldn't like it. That reminds me. Are we going to have a link from the school web site?"

I said, "I'll take this one. The answer is no. This is a web site I'm putting together under the supervision of the coach of the girls volleyball team. Each of you has some choice in what goes up, especially on the personal pages, so you're a part of it, too. It actually has nothing to do with the school. I'm going to use facilities from the JC to do it, using their free web hosting in particular, but most of it will be done on my kitchen table. That's why it's a dot com address instead of a dot edu or dot gov. If they want to incorporate it into the district web site next year, they can do that. But if I had to get approvals from the principal and the board and everybody else, there wouldn't be a site before next year's season, provided they'd let us do it."

Jack asked Beth to start lining the girls up near the bench for the team shots and called me over to him.

"What have you guys got? Home and away uniforms?"

"No. Why?"

"Then how come you don't match everyone else?"

"I'm the libero."

"What's that?"

"I'm a defensive specialist. I replace someone when the team needs someone in the back row to dig up and set the ball. I have a contrasting jersey so that the team doesn't get penalized for improper substitutions."

"Oh, I see. Kind of like a designated hitter?"

"Sort of."

"Cool. Go ahead and line up with the others." He swatted me on the butt to get me moving.

We all stood in front of the bench in a couple of rows, some of us stood in front of the bench while the others kneeled on it, some of us sat while the others stood behind us. I could see that Jack wasn't happy with what he was getting as he reviewed them on his screen every time we changed positions.

"OK, Girls. I'm not real thrilled with these pictures. We've got some we can use but I want something more. I may have you try again after a while."

He turned to Beth and said, "Coach? Jill says you were doing a drill yesterday where you set up as two teams on the court, then hit the ball to one player, then the next, all the way around the court. Can you set up the same teams you did yesterday?"

Coach blew her whistle and told everyone to hustle to the same places they were yesterday. Jack looked through his camera at both sides, then whispered something in Beth's ear. She grinned at him and nodded, then said, "Come on, Jill. You go over on that side next to Becky." As I was doing that, she found her own place on the other team.

She got us going and we started hitting the ball back and forth, always aiming for a particular person, going around in a big S. There were some great saves on both sides and the ball was going back and forth, faster and faster. We were shouting out names of who the next target was and yelling to the person we set the ball up to and cheering at each shot that made it to the right place. I really got into what we were doing and didn't pay any attention to what Jack was doing.

After about five minutes, I saw movement on the edge of the court and looked over to see Jack waving his arm in the air. Coach blew her whistle about the time I saw him. I saw Jack look at Beth and lift his finger to his mouth, asking her to keep quiet.

He started clapping his hands. "Come on, over here. Move it, Girls. You two. Right here, get down on your knees. Jill, over here, next to them. Annie get next to Jill. Come on, move it."

He kept directing us, even Beth. He got a row of us kneeling on the court and a row behind us, standing but leaning forward, both hands on the shoulders of the girl in front.

"OK, Girls. You did a hell of a job out there. Show me how proud you are."

He took a couple of shots, then checked them out on the screen.

"Stay where you are. Just like that."

He ran over to the volleyball that we'd left on the court and picked it up. He walked back to where he'd taken the pictures before and put it down in front of him, then focused on us once more.

"OK. Show me that pride!"

He started taking pictures, then all of a sudden he pulled his right foot back and kicked the ball straight at me, still taking pictures. There was kind of a team gasp as I grabbed the ball that was sailing over my head at Roberta behind me.

Jack stopped taking pictures and looked at the viewscreen. "OK. I think I've got what I need. Why don't you all take five minutes and get a drink, maybe splash some water on your faces and brush your hair a bit. When you get back we'll look at team pictures on the computer and then we'll start on the individual shots. Five minutes."

Jack went over to my bag and pulled out my laptop. I was going to upload the pictures for him but he insisted I go get cleaned up. I got a couple of bucks out of my bag and took off.

As a bunch of us were standing in front of the sinks, washing up and combing our hair, the general consensus was that we were a mess and we sure as hell weren't going to want those last few pictures on the web site. I promised not to use them since I had final say on what went on the page.

I stopped by the machine and got a couple of bottles of water on the way back. I'd guzzled half of mine by the time I got back to give Jack his. He thanked me and gave me a quick kiss.

Jack had the laptop set up. I could see the screen was full of thumbnails. He'd pulled a yellow pad out of my case and a pen, which he handed me. He had my mini mouse plugged in.

"All right. I've found some pictures I like but the final decision is up to you guys. We'll just go through all of them in the order we took them."

Jack knelt on the floor in front of the computer and we all gathered around him. He clicked on the first one of the team, half on the bench, half off. He went through them, two or three seconds at a time. When he got to the last one, he left it on the screen.

"Any comments? Anyone see anything you want on the web page?"

There was some mumbling but nobody really said anything. I'd been disappointed in them, too. I think Annie put all our feelings into words when she said, "They're OK, but they're like a class picture of everyone on the lawn in grade school. The only thing missing is someone holding up two fingers behind someone else's head."

There were a few snickers and general agreement.

Jack said, "OK. Let's take a look at the ones of you hitting the ball back and forth."

He went through those, staying a second or two longer on each one. They were all more interesting than the staged shots. There were three that I thought were outstanding. One showed Annie ready to spike the ball, the top of the net not quite touching her chin, her eyes almost shut in concentration and her right fist raised as it was coming down on the ball. I noted the picture number — 139. Next was a shot of Beth digging one out. Her body was parallel to the floor, maybe a couple of inches off the ground. Her hands were palm up, held together, the knuckles on the floor. The ball was about two inches above her hands. You could see several of the team bent over in support, looking at Beth, straining as if to give her strength to dig the ball out so they could return it to the other side. Picture 154. Number 176 was a study in triumph. It showed one team in an impromptu circle, everyone a foot or so off the ground, slapping hands together. It was the team from the other side of the net and I have no idea what they were celebrating. But, Boy, were they a team.

This time when Jack stopped on the final shot, we all cheered and clapped. Jack just got us settled down and then the noise started up again, everyone trying to tell everyone else their favorites. Finally Jack said, "I've got a few that I think show what the team's all about." He clicked on 139, the spike. Everyone agreed it was a great shot. Next, he brought up 176, the whole team doing their airborne high five. Again, lots of comments about how that one had to be on the page.

"I've got another one that I think is a great shot, but I don't think it should be on the main page." He pulled up 154, the picture of Beth digging the ball off the floor. "This one should be on your coach's page. Maybe 'Coach Donahue shows the team how it's done' as a caption.

Beth didn't want to use it, saying this was for the players, not her. Jack shut her up when he said "We can always use the one of you in the bathing suit if you don't want this one."

The reaction to the last set, the pictures of the team after we'd been playing for a while was the complete opposite of those for the first set. There were some 'Look at my hair' and 'God, I'm a mess' comments but they weren't complaints, more like horsing around. After four or five of them Beth said, "Jack, every one of these is a picture of a team, not a bunch of women posing for a camera." When he got to the last one, we all saw what a genius he is. I was looking up about 45 degrees above horizontal at the ball, my hands a split second away from grabbing it. It's hard to describe the look on my face. It wasn't really confidence, it seemed to be a higher harmonic of that; you could tell I was going to catch the ball and had no doubts of that happening. Roberta had started to straighten up but she still had her hands on my shoulders; she didn't need to block the ball with them. Everyone was looking over at me. I could see the encouragement, the oneness the sixteen of us were exhibiting. The cheers and the applause were louder than the last time and there were a couple of 'Oh my God' type comments. Beth summed it up when she said, "That's our team picture. I want that one on the main page of the site and I want a copy of it for the yearbook. I swear, it's like that one's alive."