Online Love, Offline Hate

Chapter Two: Amy

Amy Exner spun the volleyball around in her hand, an action that was entirely subconscious. After playing volleyball all through middle school and up to her final year of high school, these actions came naturally to her.

She tossed the ball up, ran and jumped, hitting the ball across the court in a perfect jump serve. The ball hit the mark perfectly but she felt she needed to add more power to the serve.

Picking up a ball from the floor, she went for another try. Perfect, she reminded herself. It has to be perfect. The serve toss, the approach, the hit, the landing. It all had to be perfect. She needed to be perfect.

The summer break was well under way but Amy had not gotten over the way the last school year ended. The female volleyball team of Pristine High had gotten to the final eight of the nationals. It was a record for them. The year before that, they had only managed to get to nationals and were eliminated in the first round.  

This time around, they were going for gold. The girls knew how strong they had gotten. They were confident that they could challenge for the Female Senior High Championships. Their quarterfinal matchup was not at all favourable. They were up against the defending champions but they felt like if they didn’t make any serious mistakes and with consistent point scoring, they would win.

That was until they played the match. They lost the match 2-0, unable to win even a set against their opponents. The scoreline looked acceptable to anyone who hadn’t seen the match.

Those who did described it as murder. The Pristine Female Volleyball team had been completely destroyed. Serve after serve, spike after spike, block after block. They were completely crushed. At first, they didn’t make too many mistakes, it was just that their opponents were better than them. Then later, as the point difference began to widen, they lost confidence and began to make ugly errors.

In the first set, they lost 25-16, unable to get into the 20s. in the second set, they lost 25-8, unable to even get into the 10s.

Amy played as a wing spiker and with every spike that was blocked and every serve she missed, she felt herself downward spiral. She knew she had to pull herself out of the slump. Before she could adjust her mindset, however, the match was over. The opposing team was just too good.

They had lost. Losing was a normal occurrence in competition and the Pristine team was used to it. But this was the first time they had lost in such a manner. There was nothing they could do about it except to accept it.

Life went on. The seniors retired and there was a small party to send them off. While Amy didn’t like parties, she felt at home with her volleyball club. There was laughing, storytelling and a bit of crying. The evening ended with the announcement that Amy would be the new captain of the team. The pressure she felt increased.

Perfect, she repeated.

She tossed the ball high up in the air and hit it once again to the water bottle she used as a mark. Amy observed the way the bottle fell over and felt the power and precision was perfect. She looked around for a ball to try again but all the balls were on the other side of the court.

“Here.” Someone said and tossed her one of the white and red balls littered around the court.

“Thanks.” Amy was surprised but she caught the ball. “How long have you been here?”

“Long enough. I know the answer but I’ll ask anyway. Had lunch yet?”

“No. I was hoping to get another hour of practice in.”

“You’ll burnout before we even start the season.”

“I need to get better. To get better, I need to practice. It’s simple.”

“How about this? I’ll help you practice but only for thirty minutes. After that, we eat.”

Amy looked at the cocky grin that accompanied the proposal and felt like refusing. But she knew that even twenty minutes of paired practice was better than one hour of solo practice. This wasn’t because paired practice was better than solo practice. It was because of the person she would be practicing with.

Thera Johnseinne was the vice-captain of the Pristine Female Volleyball team and in Amy’s opinion, the best player on the team.

“How did you know I was here?” Amy asked.

“Well, you weren’t at the school gym. You weren’t at the sports center either. This was the only other place in the city you could be at.” Looking around at the abandoned court, Thera added, “Although, I don’t know why you keep coming here.”

“No, I mean, how did you know I was practicing?” Amy had avoided all the places Thera mentioned earlier because she didn’t want anyone, including Thera, to see her practice. Her reply was a rolling of eyes.

“I know you’re still blaming yourself for the last match. I know you’d tell yourself you need to get better and to get better, you need practice. But instead of practicing with the rest of the team, you’ll practice alone so no one can see your desperation.”

“I’m not desperate.” Amy rebutted, her voice full of desperation. “And I failed last match. You can’t deny that. If I had focused a bit more…”

This was the reason Thera had tracked Amy down here today. Since their disastrous match, they hadn’t spoken about volleyball because Thera could see Amy was subconsciously avoiding the topic. She knew Amy blamed herself for the loss. She also knew the fact that Amy was chosen as the new captain would only exacerbate the issue further.

Thera walked to her best friend and put her arms around her.

“You didn’t fail. We all did.”

“But I…”

“No, we all did.” Thera felt Amy shake her head and squeezed even more. “We all did. You can’t fail alone in volleyball. Our opponents were too good and we lost our confidence. We need to work harder, yes, but together. And the team needs to see you.”

Amy sighed. Everything Thera said was something she already knew. She blamed herself but it wasn’t solely her fault. You can’t do everything in volleyball alone. And she missed the team too. It just seemed like she needed to hear someone say it.  “Where have you guys been meeting?”

“In the school gym. We go to the sports center occasionally if we want a change in scenery. The next practice is tomorrow.”

“I’ll come. I want to see the girls.”

Thera let go of Amy and seeing that her mood had improved, didn’t say any more on the issue. “So you wanna have lunch now or still wanna practice?”

“Practice. And you promised to help out, so let’s go.”

Thera chuckled and said, “Why are you so eager to get beaten?”

Amy smiled and felt her competitiveness rise. “Get beaten? Oh, I don’t think so.”

“You do think so.”

Amy knew Thera was better than her but that did nothing to dim her spirit. It just made her more excited. “So how should we do it? Serve-receive?”

“Yeah, you were working on your serves, right? Let’s continue.”

“Okay. I’ll serve first.”

The point of the training was for one person to practice serving from different points of the court while the other person tried to receive the ball from the different spots and return it to the right position, the setter. When they started, the scoreline was level but as time went on, Thera’s superior skill began to show.

Thera was able to receive all Amy’s serves while Amy could only pick up seven of ten. And she knew two of them were a bit of luck.

It was now Amy’s turn to serve and Thera’s smirk had only grown wider. Amy wanted to say something to wipe the smirk off her face but couldn’t think of anything. She was losing, after all, and the thirty minutes were almost up.

Athleticism, power, reflexes and precision. The only area Amy was better than Thera was precision. She was going to use that to win. She noted where Thera was on the court, took note of her distance to the setter position and found a perfect spot to serve to.

“What are you smiling about? Serve.” Thera called out from the other side of the court.

Amy took the serve. She served the ball close to the net, diagonal to where Thera was.

It was a very tight angle. Amy was confident Thera wouldn’t be able to get the ball. But with an Olympic-level roll and jump, Thera arrived in position, stretched out a fist and received the ball. Amy watched as the ball landed at perfectly at the position the setter would be.

“How was that?” Thera asked with her signature smirk on.

Excellent. It was simply excellent. Everything. The roll, the jump and the receive. It was simply excellent. But Amy wasn’t about to tell her that.

“Tch. Show-off.” said Amy. She turned to find another ball to try again.

With Thera’s skill, she really was suited to wear the number one jersey but…

Bam! A ball smacked Amy in the rear as she bent to pick a ball.

…her antics destroyed her suitability for the role.

“When will you learn to behave yourself?” Amy said as she rubbed her butt.

“Why do I have to behave myself?”

“Because you’re the vice-captain now. You’re meant to act like it.”

“There’s you. You can whip up the new recruits into shape. Speaking of new, do you think we’ll be getting any new members from the scholarship students?”

Amy shook her head. For a student to receive a scholarship to Pristine, it meant that the student was exceptionally smart. It was rare to find a student that good at studying that also played sports. And to find one who was a volleyball player. And female. The chances were very low.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought too. So we’ll be getting the snotty ones. Ugh.”

Amy laughed. It was true. Most of the new recruits would come from students whose parents were rich enough to afford the school. And they were snotty.

“Maybe we’ll find some good ones. After all, we found you.” Thera said.

Amy laughed again. “And you?”

“Oh no. I’m very snotty.”

“Lunch’s on you, snotty girl.”