Althena Book 2

1. Teams

I wear a short tight dress with heels. Drogon and Conner wear suits. I can't believe I'm actually going back to school.

We go to the office and Conner gets his uniforms. Then Drogon gets mine and we walk to the gym. I stand off to the side of the open door and peek in. They have 2 volleyball games going. Drogon was right, they're in regular shorts and t-shirts. They have knee pads on though. I don't have those. They keep yelling stuff too. I don't know what they're saying.

"Hi sweetie. My name is Betty. I'm an assistant coach. Did you want to tryout?"

I grab Drogon. She came out of nowhere. "I've never played before."

"That's ok. You want to join the tryout and see if you like it?"

"I didn't bring anything to wear."

"I got her bag." Conner shoves a gym bag in my arms. "Go play."

"I don't have those knee pads."

"We supply those." The lady smiles and motions at the door. "You'll be fine."

I pull Drogon with me and make sure Conner comes too.

Everyone in the gym looks at us. I hear some whispering and try to back up. Drogon holds me tighter and keeps going.

A bigger lady with a whistle blows it loud. "WHY DID EVERYONE STOP? HAVE YOU NEVER SEEN A BOY BEFORE?"

The games start again and Betty walks us up to her. "Coach Jamie, this Althena. Althena, this is Coach Jamie. Althena has never played before but seems interested."

"Am I calling you Althena? And you cannot play in those shoes."

Conner looks up from his phone. "I packed her other shoes."

"Just Thena."

"Nice to meet you Thena. The locker room is over there. Change and come on back. Coach Betty, can you grab her some pads?"

"Of course. I'll show you where the locker room is too. Come with me."

Drogon kisses my head. "Bring me your jewelry. Do not leave it in the locker room."

I try to pull him and he shakes his head.

I'm the only one in the locker room. Some of the lockers have locks on them. I'll tell the boys I need one. Conner actually thought of everything. He even grabbed me a hair tie. I take my stuff to Drogon and Betty brings me the knee pads.

Then coach Jamie calls us all to the middle of the gym. "Welcome to the tryouts for volleyball. If you're trying out for basketball, you're in the wrong gym. Go find the other one. This year I have 3 teams to fill. 3 different leagues. 36 girls. 3 team captains. Your grade does not place you in a team or in a league, your skills and attitude will."

There's a big crash and Conner falls out of the bleachers. Then he jumps up and runs out. Drogon stares at him, shaking his head. Then he goes back to his phone.

"We're going to go over the basics quickly. Then I want to watch you play. Hold your hands together and hit the ball with your arms. That's called a bump. You want to bump the ball high and to the setter. She will set the ball. The person she sets it to will spike it. Hanna, Sophia, and Emma demonstrate." We watch them do it 4 times. "Remember, bump, set, spike. Live by that. Do your best to get that, every single time. Now I will break you up into groups of 6. You're going to play against each other."

The girls I get paired with seem to be new. 2 of them are afraid of the ball. Coach Jamie and another one play against us. They smack the ball over in different spots and tell us who was supposed to get it. It's more complicated than how they made it sound. But I get it after an hour.

By the time we get done, Drogon is laughing with the counselor.

I run over to them. "Did you see me?"

"I watched you, baby. You did well."

"Where did Conner go?"

"Ice rink. He saw they offered ice hockey and ran out the door."

"I'll let you track the other one down. I need to speak with the coach."

Drogon shakes his hand and leads me to the ice rink.

"Do you think I'm good enough to be on a team?"

"Yes. You were doing really well out there. You got a few good hits." He kisses my head.

A bunch of boys are on the ice. "Are they racing?"

"Probably. They need to prove they can ice skate before they do anything else."

"Conner is good on the ice."

"Yea, he's doing good out there."

"Hi Thena, I'm Coach Tadita. I'm the head coach for the cheerleaders. Mr. Penn told me you're interested in joining?"

"I've never done it before."

"That's fine. Can you do any jumps or flips?"

"I can summersault, but it's mostly by accident."

She laughs and stands up. "You want to come with me, and I'll show you a few jumps? You can get some practice and decide if you want to tryout."

"Yes." I jump up so fast, I nearly fly off the bleachers.

"I'll be right here, baby."

Another girl appears out of nowhere. "Are we having practice, coach?"

"No, Lila. I'm going to show her a few jumps. Did you want to assist?"

"Of course." She smiles at me. "I'm Lila. I'm a junior. What grade are you in?"

I look at Drogon and he winks at me. "You're a junior."

She takes my arm. "We have the best grade. Do you like cheering?"

"Never tried it."

"We'll have so much fun."

"Turn girls. We're going to the gym."

"What are those things around your ankles?"

"Knee pads for volleyball."

"I don't think you're wearing them right."

I stare at her for a second. "They slid down."

She nods and pulls me into the volleyball gym. It's empty now.

"The first jump is the pencil jump. Arms are straight up. Point your toes and jump straight up."

I watch Lila and then copy her.

"Good. Next is T. Same position of your feet. Arms straight out."

Half an hour later, I'm actually surprised. I can do all of them, even the toe touch. All that yoga paid off.

A group of guys come into the gym and sit in the bleachers. I see Conner and wave. He winks at me and I wiggle.

"Instead of doing a toe touch. Keep your legs in the same position but arms in a v."

I watch Lila and then do it. "You know all the jumps."

She watches the boys too. "I've been cheering since 4th grade. It's my favorite thing. Some of them are cute."

I smile at Conner, and he blows me a kiss.

Lila giggles. "I see you got yours picked out already. I need one now."

"Girls. Focus. Thena, have you ever done a handstand?"

"No, ma'am."

Lila shakes her head. "It's Coach, not ma'am."

"Sorry."

"It's fine. Lila show her a handstand please." Lila puts her hands on the ground and pushes her feet straight up. "Very good form. You want to be as straight as you can and point those toes. Give it a shot." I do it with no problem. "Perfect. Lila show her a front flip."

She puts her hands on the ground and bounces all the way over to her feet.

"Go into a handstand first. Then flip your feet over."

I put my feet over, then my brain stops computing. I land flat on my back.

Half the boys crack up laughing. I flip them off, then lay there.

I hear Conner say, "It won't be the last time."

Lila smiles at me. "Your feet need to land before your ass."

"Good tip. Thank you."

She smiles and seems so pleased with herself.

I pry myself up and Coach stands beside me. "I'll spot you. Your body needs to learn the movements."

It doesn't take too long and I can do a front flip, backflip, and a cartwheel. My body took to them easily. She gives me a movie to watch. I guess it's some of the cheers. I'm supposed to learn them before tryouts.

I thank her and run over to the boys. I sit by Conner. Lila squeezes in beside me.

"Girls, you are not on the ice hockey team. These boys will smash you."

One of them says, "Hell yea we will." They crack up laughing.

"BOYS."

Tadita comes over. "Hi coach. Who do you have here?"

"Varsity team and 2 of yours. I think they're lost."

She nods. "Girls, go somewhere else. They're having a meeting."

"I lost Drogon."

"He's in the ice rink."

Lila pulls me up. "I know where it is." I go with her and we barely get out the door.

The boys' coach yells, "GIRLS, IT'S THE OTHER WAY."

She spins around. "My bad. I know where it is."

She points out Drogon a couple of minutes later and some other girls run over to us. I ignore them and go sit by Drogon. "I can flip."

"You'll have to show me later, baby."

"She gave me movies to practice."

"We can move the tables, and you can practice in the living room."

"Who are those boys? I thought Conner was on the hockey team?"

"That's the ice hockey team for a different league. Varsity is the best league. Conner's on that. JV is junior varsity. It's the league right under varsity. MV is minor varsity. It's usually for first-year students or new students to get used to everything."

"So, I'll be on MV?"

"It depends on so much stuff. How many people try out. How good they are. Stuff like that. Like, ice hockey is in 2 leagues this time. They don't have an MV team. Not enough kids tried out to make the 3rd team."

"I wonder what I'll get?"

"Each sport you try out for may send you an offer. You can accept or reject it. Like volleyball may offer you a place on the MV team. Cheerleading may offer you a place on the JV basketball team. We'll figure it out. You have to be careful about games too. MV has games on Mondays. JV is Wednesdays. Varsity is on Fridays. If you get an offer for JV volleyball and JV cheerleading, you will have to pick one."

Conner plops down. "I'm the captain of the varsity team."

"Are you going to try out for anything else?"

"No. I have to be the alpha for Dark Moon first. I've never played hockey on a team. I wanted to try it."

Drogon cracks up laughing. "How are you captain?"

"No idea."