Chapter 16

"So this is where we'll be next year," said Bobby to Sammy. They were walking into the gym of the high school with Barbara, who had driven them there.

Patty had called a few days earlier to suggest that for her weekly date with Bobby, that they meet to watch the girl's volleyball game tonight. She mentioned that she was friends with "a few" of the girls on the team.

Patty was hoping to introduce Collette to Bobby. How she would eventually tell Bobby about their relationship, she hadn't even begun to figure out! At lease it was a step in the right direction - she hoped.

When Sammy had heard they were going she asked to go as well. She knew several of the girls on the squad, from playing with them when they had been on middle school sports teams together.

As they entered the gym they scanned the stands for Patty. They were surprised by a booming male voice calling out, "Hey Taylor, over here y'all!" Standing together and waving were Patty and David Simpson, Bobby's catcher from Little League. They were sitting a few rows in back of the home team's bench.

Bobby and David greeted each other with a bear hug. They hadn't seen each other since Bobby had moved to his new school. "How you doing man?" asked Bobby.

"I'm okay. It's great to see you! How's the new school?"

"It's okay. I'm starting to find my way around. I even know where the buses leave from now," he said with a teasing glance at Sammy.

"Bite me," said Sammy cheerfully.

"How are you doing Mrs. Taylor?" said David to Barbara respectfully. Barbara had been "Team Mom" for the Little League Loyal Reality boys for several years, bringing snacks and coordinating logistics with the kids and parents. John's death had been hard on all the players as well.

"I'm doing well, Dave; it's good to see you again!" She gave Dave a hug, making him blush, before moving on to hug Patty in greeting as well.

"Do you remember Sammy, Dave? She stole about a hundred bases on you the last couple years."

Dave grinned ruefully. "Yeah I remember you. Fastest thing on two legs I've ever seen!"

Sammy just grinned back. "Just lucky I guess," she said modestly.

"So what are you doing here?" Bobby asked Dave.

"My big sister's on the team. You'll probably recognize her - she came to a lot of our ball games. We've always cheered for each other like this." He turned and pointed to where the girls were warming up. "That's her there — the blond on the backline practicing sets."

Bobby and Sammy followed his pointing finger. "Yeah, she does look familiar," said Bobby.

Patty offered, "Collette's in my pottery class, and we remembered each other from watching you all playing baseball. She has a car, and she and Dave gave me a ride tonight."

It was now about 5 minutes until the game was scheduled to start. The teams finished their warm ups and gathered around their coaches for some final instructions. Dave and Patty scrambled down to be immediately behind the bench to wish Collette good luck.

They were all somewhat surprised to see cheerleaders stand up from the front row and proceed on to the court to lead the crowd in a few quick school chants.

Barbara commented, "Hey, now that is really cool. When I did sports in high school, the cheerleaders only showed up for the boy's games that had big crowds. It's nice to see they're supporting the girl's teams now too." She joined in the cheers the girls called out, somewhat embarrassing Bobby and Sammy, but she had fun with it regardless.

Sammy noticed Bobby looking closely at the high school girls swinging their pompoms and making suggestive wiggles to the small crowd. "Geez Bobby, your girlfriend's gone for a minute and you're already checking out the cheerleaders," she teased. Barbara giggled at him.

"I'm taken, but I'm not actually dead yet," he replied with a sheepish grin.

Sammy laughed. "Well it's true you should probably be looking at the cheerleaders instead of the players. I know several of the girls on the team, and you're not exactly their type, if you know what I mean."

Barbara raised her eyebrows while giving Sammy a knowing look. Bobby looked back at her blankly. "How would they know I'm not their type? I don't know any of them," he said quizzically.

Barbara giggled again. Sammy looked at him and rolled her eyes. "Clueless," she said simply. Barbara nodded, looking at her son in loving pity.

"What are you all laughing about?" he said, beginning to get irritated.

"What she's getting at, honey," said Barbara patiently, "is that some of the girls on the team are not into boys. They're into other girls."

"Or both boys and girls," added Sammy.

Bobby looked back at them wide eyed. "Oh," was all he could muster, which caused another spasm of giggles from the two females.

Bobby looked down with renewed interest at the girls huddled around their coach, with Patty and Dave standing close behind. "So like, which ones?" he asked, with an exaggerated whisper.

Sammy grinned and replied, "Well, I don't know all of them. I do know that Dave's sister has been known to, uh, play both sides of the net sometimes. She's mainly into guys though."

"I think this is what's called 'too much information!'" complained Bobby, shifting on his seat to adjust what to him was an inexplicable hardening of his dick.

"Hey, just trying to help!" laughed Sammy.

About then Patty and Dave returned and the game got underway.

It turned out that the home team was short several players due to the flu that had been going through the city's school system. They won the first two games rather handily. However, lacking substitutes, the girls began to visibly tire.

They lost the 3^rd game by just two points, then the 4^th by 10 to even up the match. As the 4^th game came to a close, one of the girls was limping with a slight ankle sprain, and Collette, who had played every minute of every game, was hobbling with leg cramps. But she obviously didn't want to come out and leave her team short handed.

Sammy noticed that the team trainer had to spend all his time re-wrapping the ankle of the girl with the sprain. Lacking any other option, it looked like Collette was trying to get as much liquid down as she could to fight the cramps in her calf muscles. Sammy knew that remedy would likely take hours to have any affect.

She turned to Patty and said, "Come on. Collette needs some help to stretch out." The two girls scrambled down the stands to the sweating teenager.

"Hey," said Collette with a breathless grin when they reached her.

"Lay down on the floor Collette, we'll stretch your calves out for you," said Sammy, taking charge.

"Oh god - thanks y'all." Patty found a couple towels to spread out, and Collette painfully lowered herself down until she was flat on her back. They quickly stripped off her shoes. Then Sammy kneeled at her feet. She picked up her right foot, placing it so her toes were at Sammy's collarbone, then putting a hand on her knee to keep the leg straight, she leaned her body weight forward and upwards to push Collette's toes slowly back towards her face, stretching the calf. With her other hand she firmly rubbed the calve muscles, trying to work out the knots.