Fall Arc: Volleyball

I couldn't get it out of my mind. As I drove to the school in the blistering August heat in my fitted and taut spandex, all I could think about was senior year; this season; my life. Volleyball, that was about it. And partying, occasionally.

I pulled into the parking lot and stepped out onto the worn gravel for the first time since the school year had ended. I had beached, tanned, and toned since then. I had let my white hair grow out. When it's just you our there, the center of attention at the net…you definitely do not want to be displaying your flab to the entire student body.

I walked confidently through the front door, smiling and reestablishing relations from months prior with each smile I shared with the members of the basketball team. I looked around at the guys, randomly dispersed in the gym lobby just waiting around for their rides home or their friends. Each face I passed was drenched, fur and hair a wet, sweaty mess.

For the basketball team, the season never really ends. They train year round, hanging out with their coaches and working out excessively in hopes of finally attaining that championship trophy the next year. I would like to say that they are a complete bother…they invade the gym, and take up our valuable practice time to prepare for a sport that's months away. I would like to say I wish they would leave, but I just can't.

The team is too cute. That's why all my girls show up looking their best—hair in place, kneepads fitted just right. If they can use these few weeks before school starts to catch their guy, they wont have to worry about much on the first day.

Me? A guy? Well…I'll give you this. This school, well, lets just say it is dominated by sports. If you don't play, and you don't play well, you might as well give up on your hopes of a really high social standing here. Of course, people break the mold, but you miss out on almost everything unless you live at the gym year-round.

The whole sports community is a big part of life here. Being a private school, we don't have much in the way funding. Limited room sizes, limited facilities, limited anything and everything. Plus uniforms. The only redeeming factor is the gym, the floor of which probably costs more than the actual school building, all the teachers' salaries, and yearly maintenance combined.

Anyways, the only thing more important than participation in sports is becoming the captain of one. I was JV captain two years straight, only being held back from being varsity captain last year by the 'seniors only' rule. This is my year, as it better be; there's another captain I'm after who I won't get until I hold this title.

In the next five minutes, giddy girls of all years, both old and new, poured into the gym. Some yelled and squeaked and looked at friends with wide eyes, as if this was some crazy high school reunion. The others, mainly freshmen, stood awkwardly around the outskirts of conversations and tried to look involved or just completely lurked around in the shadows, questioning why they thought coming to this was even a good idea at all. I saw Fiona, my closest friend on the team, walk through the sorry crowd and do her best to greet each person she passed.

That's just Fiona; she's always been the friendly one. A far shot from me, the up-front, easily-annoyed one.

"Hey Rouge," she greeted, immediately strapping on her own kneepads, "basketball captain?"

My lips curled into a pleased, mischievous grin "It's who we expected."

Her thin eyebrows raised slightly in interest, and her small fists clenched together with the feeling of victory. "This is so exciting. And you?"

I tilt my head. "Is it even a competition? The only possible person who could beat me is you, and you don't even want to be captain."

"Ehhh…" she started, "not that I don't want to be it, I'm just already committed to, you know, something else."

Fiona was, of course, referencing her position as captain of the tennis team. It's a shame tennis isn't a big sport here; because we don't have a court of our own, no one can see just how wonderfully she really does play.

"If you would rather lead some glorified badminton team, that's fine by me" I teased.

She rolled her pretty aqua eyes at me, and we began our traditional pastime of observing the school newbies that rolled in every year.

In walked Amy, the slightly annoying junior who was captain of the JV team last year. She always looked way to cheerful for my tastes, and could be downright irritating in some cases. Fiona took much more kindly to her, possibly because they bonded over their hatred for a common ex.

"Hey, guys!" she chirped as she bounced over to us. Her walk was so springy I was often shocked that she didn't launch herself into the ceiling. She waved her fingerless black gloves at us, eliciting small waves back.

"Hey, Amy" we both replied. She sat herself right down and adjusted her spandex, turning around to whisper quietly.

"How long do you two suppose these new guys are gonna last?"

Well, at least we got back on topic fairly quickly. I noticed one girl in particular, drawing more into the shadows than some other girls twice as homely and twice as young. She wasn't a freshman, and looked rather old. "What about her?"

I motioned to the purple cat, who was turned away as Amy and Fiona looked behind to see her. "Blaze. She just transferred into my class. She's from really far away and doesn't know a soul here." Amy said, nodding her head. "Now I'll be right back, I have to go start recruiting these freshmen to join the softball team."

"Why so early?" I asked.

"Because," the slightest flash of sadness passed through her eyes "with last year's seniors gone, we may not even have enough people for a team this year." She frowned. "This was my year to be captain; no team means that can't happen."

I almost laughed at how genuinely upset she felt. The softball team is the laughingstock of the whole sports community; they haven't won a single game since their star pitcher left two years ago. The only reason people come to see their games is that their team has some of the most attractive girls in the whole school on it.

"It really wouldn't be too much of a loss," I said, mockingly putting my hand on her shoulder and giving her an arrogant grin. She rolled her eyes at me and gave a sarcastic frown, obviously taking my truth as a joke.

A tall purple wolf with graying hair walked over to our group, a loose silver whistle hanging from her slender neck. I smiled. Oh, coach.

"Okay, girls! Great season ahead! I am your coach, and, for those of you who do not know me, my name is Lupe. Now, most teams start off with some sort of ice breaker…but if you know me you know I'm not taking part in any of that junk. You want friends? You figure out a way to make them!"

I smiled at her unrestrained personality. When I was a freshman, I was so weak; just a few days with her made me the cocky SOB I am today. "Now," coach continued, "find partners for bumping and warn those arms up!"

All the freshmen scrambled to find partners. Fiona insisted on welcoming the new girl, asking the shy junior to pair up as I paired up with Amy. I hoped she would warm up quickly; I have no patience for shy people. Luckily, if anyone can get her to open up it's Fiona.

However, I did not expect her to be this terrible. She was punching the ball with her fists, and had no idea what to do. Even when Fiona tried and tried to show her, she didn't seem to be improving. She repeatedly hit Fiona in the face, profusely apologizing each time in a quick, quiet whisper. Her face turned so red that she excused herself to get a drink, but did not come back for a few minutes.

Amy and I ran up to Fiona, who held her pain off until the girl was out of sight. Her nose was bleeding slightly, and even though she was hurt we couldn't help but laugh at her.

"She. Is. Terrible," Fiona heaved. Amy and I grinned at her. "But…she could possibly…"

"No. She sucks, and with any luck she wont be walking back through those doors" I said.

I would much rather have clumsy, pitiful Blaze walk into the gym than the disgusting creature that slunk in instead.

"Oh, Rouge, look." Fiona motioned to the bane of my existence, walking right towards our happy little group right as we spoke.

I stuck the volleyball in my hand loosely under one arm, while my other hand rested on my hip in as menacingly of a way possible. She walked similarly, making sure those manly, long, white and blue mesh shorts swished as loudly as they possibly could and those expensive court shoes squeaked with every step she took. The whole world seemed to stand silent for a moment as we came nose to nose.

"Sally" I sneered. Her short boy-hair managed to fall into her eyes, even though the majority of it was held back with some hastily-tied prewrap.

"Oh, hey, Rouge. Didn't get the schedule?" she grinned in that perfect little smart-ass way of hers.

"I hate to break it to you, but absolutely no one follows your dumb little schedule."

She frowned slightly and cocked her head, raising one eyebrow in mock surprise. "Well, it might just be worth checking out." Holding a suspicious-looking paper in front of my face, she reveled in the disgusted shock that I displayed. Dropping my ball to the ground, I immediately stood over her threateningly.

"If you think you can just bust in here and demand the gym, you're dead wrong. We've had this place set since school end, and were not about to let you basketball brats kick us out!" I yelled at the smug squirrel.

She stepped back at once, smoothing her hair down and brushing some invisible speck off her one-size-too-small tee shirt. "Just watch me get what I want, anyways." She gave me a bitchy smile before tearing off to go talk to coach, already holding out the paper as she was halfway over to her.

"Oh, no you don't," I ran over past her, trying to grab the paper out of her hand as she continued to rush forward. "Coach! She's lying! Coach! She's…" I almost went to slap her, but at that point she had reached coach and was handing the slightly torn paper to her.

"I am so sorry, Ms. Wolf, but the girls' basketball team has had our schedules set for every Monday from 3-5 since the end of the schoolyear. I really feel bad about asking to take the gym away from you guys, but we really need…"

Coach carefully looked it over, ignoring Sally's pathetic pleas. I could tell from her expression that she was just smelling the same BS I was. But coach is way too professional to stoop to Sally's level. Whereas I'll jump to action, she tries and talks her way out of things, first.

"Dear, I'm sorry but this can't be right." I smiled in victory at Sally as coach read over the schedule. The little goody-goody looked nervous for a moment. "I set the practice times with the athletic director in the middle of last year; I even checked to make sure all the times were available" Coach said.

Sally shook her head as dumbly and innocently as she could. "He had to have all the coaches re-do theirs because of some mess up. Didn't you get the call-back, Ms. Wolf?"

She did not just question Coach.

My ears twitched in hatred, and my nails dug in to the flesh of my own palm to hold my anger back. Coach look genuinely confused for a moment; she is way too mature to try and question a child, and always tried to be as trusting and understanding as she could. I couldn't hold it back.

"Oh please! Oh, please! Coach, Sally is a pathological liar. For all we know," I ripped the paper out of her hand "this could be a fake! WE have an upcoming season! WE deserve the gym. Now, Sally dear, do us all a favor and go find a nice little parking lot up the block somewhere where you and your little group of bi—"

"ROUGE!" Coach shouted, facing me fully. "Mind your manners, young lady! How dare you treat a fellow athlete with such disrespect!" She glanced at Sally, shaking her head dismissively at my behavior as she continued to stare me down with disapproving eyes. My ears immediately flattened, and I looked down at the floor, ashamed.

No one can make you feel so bad about doing the right thing as your coach can.

"Now, go set up the net outside and gather the girls, I'm going to talk to the director about this" she added quietly to me.

She turned once again to the grotesque fusion chipmunkish creature.

"Sally, you and your team may have the gym today; I must have messed something up. I'll see if we can all get this all smoothed over."

"Oh, thank you so much Ms. Wolf! I knew I made the right choice in voting for you in the Coach of the Year Award last spring" she smiled in a purely fake, sickening way. And coach was buying it.

I stood there, dumbfounded, unmoving at what I had just observed. "Well? Go, Rouge! Come on now, hurry up!" Coach barked.

I scrambled to get the others, but not before Sally waved at me, "Thank you so much for your cooperation, Rouge. See you around."

I winked back, smiling and waving until coach walked out of sight. I turned then, casually flipping the bird and smirking at her outraged gasp as she angrily stomped away to gather her teammates.

Hello there! Just a quick note about the story, here. Rouge is not the only main character, and many other sports will be covered. Each chapter or every other chapter, I will change the POV to a different captain of a different sport. Different arcs lead to a new set of characters, so check back to see if one of your favorites is included. If you enjoyed my story or have any suggestions, please leave a review. Thanks for reading!