Chương 19: Sportsball

For all of the areas Olivia excelled in, there was one in particular that had always been her achilles heel—sports. Not physical activity in general. Despite her current body's lack of muscle and general frailty, she'd always been fairly good at running. The coordination required for marching and its associated choreography had also come relatively easily. But anything beyond that, like throwing, catching, and swinging a tennis racket? She'd always been fairly hopeless.

Time and necessity had brought with them improvements, given how much George and Cash loved sports. But those improvements still barely brought her up to an acceptable level of physical ability. Even before getting sent back in time, it had been a cause for celebration whenever she managed to catch a casually thrown water bottle from Jason or a baseball from her sons. All that was to say Olivia was not particularly looking forward to PE.

But if there was a silver lining to this situation, it was that she wouldn't need to act. Her clumsiness would shine through all on its own. Opening the door to the locker rooms found her faced with a gaggle of teenage girls chatting and laughing. Locker doors squealed open as clothes were stuffed inside and exchanged for the gray shirt and red mesh shorts of Ridgeview High's gym uniform.

The smell of flowery perfume and body spray assaulted her nostrils, their artificially sweet scents attempting to smother the undercurrent of acrid sweat. Olivia slid between rows of lockers to find her own. Spinning the clunky combination lock, she retrieved her own fresh and unused set of gym clothes and examined them. The school's racoon mascot growled fiercely across the shirt's front, baring its teeth above the letters "RHS" imprinted in bright red. She just chuckled. Seriously.

I can't believe anyone got on board with making our mascot a raccoon. Then again, I suppose they didn't foresee raccoons being dubbed trash pandas. They really should have expected some sort of joke though. The nickname wouldn't come about for another couple of years, from what she remembered, but it would take the school by storm. And result in quite a few trash-related senior pranks that the school administrators were none too pleased with.

Ironically, she'd never actually seen one of the critters in person until college. They'd been an unofficial mascot over there, simply due to the sheer number that called the campus their home. It seemed like every evening lecture would have her passing by one or two sticking out of trash cans, greedily hunting for whatever tasty morsels the student body had discarded that day. Given that they tended not to bother anyone, the students had always treated them more like adorable neighbors rather than actual pests.

Although she was rather certain that the janitorial staff would disagree with that characterization. Pulling on the clothes, Olivia escaped the claustrophobic locker room and moved toward the grid of numbers laid out on the gym floor. Only a handful of students had gathered by this point, lounging about and calling over to each other in conversation that echoed through the space. She paid them no mind. Instead, she began to plan out her approach to the class.

For the most part, she remembered PE being more or less a waste of time. She'd hang around, keeping out of the way as much as she could manage. Not necessarily from laziness, but more because it was in everyone's best interest. She'd always been well aware of her limitations. Her trying to participate felt as though it would drag her team down even more than just staying back. Especially when tennis came around. I remember that one being particularly embarrassing. Olivia winced at the memories.

Before long, the rest of the class filtered into the gym, filling up the numbers one by one. She managed to pick out a few familiar faces—one of the baritone players that she'd never recalled having spoken to, a towering boy that might have been on the basketball team, and a couple of faces that she vaguely recalled from classes she'd have in her sophomore and later years. There was also more girl that caught her attention. Huh. Apparently Trisha's in this class as well, Olivia noted with interest.

The girl strode into the gym with confident grace as though she owned the place and was immediately sought out by the other popular girl types. If she noticed Olivia, she didn't show it. Though that was nothing unexpected. They'd only talked once, and given the nature of that interaction, calling them loose acquaintances or business partners might be more accurate. Eventually, their gym teacher appeared. Another fixture of the school, Mr.

Wolfe's gray hair and whiskers called to mind images of his namesake, especially considering the straight-backed confidence that belied his age. His polo strained to contain massive inflated biceps as he inspected a clipboard.

"All right! Listen up as I call your names. Gotta make sure everyone didn't forget how this works over the weekend. Mark Aarons?"

"Here!"

"Trisha Atwood?"

"Here!"

"Chrissy Bennet?"

"Here." On and on it went, the teacher running down the line of numbers. It was a bit redundant, seeing that their entire purpose was to make attendance as easy as glancing at the gaps. But it made sense to verify things for now, when some kids were still getting shuffled around between classes.

"Olivia Miller?"

"Here!" Her response came more quickly and naturally than it had last week. Even if it still felt deeply, deeply wrong. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. The teacher finished calling attendance and nodded.

"All right. Let's get to it. Welcome to your first real day of PE. Now that we've got the admin stuff out of the way, we're starting off with something simple—volleyball." A few groans rose from the assembled students as Mr. Wolfe chuckled.

"We'll be playing in groups of four and switch opponents every five minutes. I'll even let you all choose your own groups today, so no whining. Boys on that end, girls over there!" With that, the class got to their feet and immediately began separating and breaking into clusters. Most of them started as pairs that quickly began merging with each other, though there were a few rare trios as well. Olivia quickly scanned the class. Four, eight, twelve… Thirty-one girls in total.

Looks like we'll have one group of three with these numbers. It wasn't guaranteed that she'd end up as part of that trio. But it was pretty likely. Especially given that her strategy was to simply wait by the edge and let herself be picked up by whoever. The groups didn't take long to form. Most kids knew at least one other person here, turning the team construction phase into a frantic and honestly fascinating crystallization of the class's social structure.

On the girls' side, the most in-demand teammates weren't those with obvious athletic abilities, but friends and popular figures. Securing a spot on someone's team was pretty much a public declaration of their closeness—regardless of whether that closeness was forged from years of friendship or a desire to climb the social hierarchy. Olivia watched events unfold around her. To her surprise, Trisha wasn't immediately flooded with a deluge of teenagers eager to get on her team.

Only a half dozen or so dared approach, from which she had her pick. The fact confused Olivia somewhat until she noticed the glances that a few other popular-type girls snuck that way. Oh, I get it. There's a few would-be ringleaders who want to start their own competing groups. And ones who want to go over, but aren't confident enough in their standing to risk rejection. Interesting.

Given the deals being struck and various negotiations breaking out around the gym, there seemed to be far more nuance to the situation than she initially assumed. More scheming as well. Though maybe that wasn't so surprising. High school girls had a reputation for being cutthroat, after all. Her attention drifted toward the handful of others who hadn't made any overt moves to join a team. A few of them were picked up by more extroverted friends or tacked on to a trio to round the group out with a familiar face.

Even then, Olivia noted three others who remained near the periphery like herself. A scowling girl with piercings, a freckled redhead, and a familiar blonde with eyes hidden behind her long bangs. Luna. The flute shifted uncomfortably off to the side, doing her best to blend in with the background as usual. Olivia had realized they shared a class, of course. She'd seen her fellow flute around last week.

But between her own shy act and Luna's actual shyness, they hadn't so much as made eye contact more than a few times. The last group of three began casting around for a final member. The girl who seemed to be their leader looked across the gym until her eyes found Piercings. The girl's scowl intensified as she crossed her arms. The leader quickly passed her over and began evaluating the other three, her gaze lingering on Olivia.

Before the leader could open her mouth, another one of the group called out to the redhead.

"Hey, Ashley! Want to join our team?" The freckled redhead blinked.

"Uh… sure? If you don't mind…" The leader glanced over, then shrugged noncommittally. The trio turned away and began moving to join with their final member. Olivia nodded. It was what she'd expected. When it became clear that no one else was budging, she began walking toward Luna.

"Seems like there's only three of us left."

"... Yeah." The girl fidgeted slightly. When she didn't continue, Olivia gave a small internal sigh.

"Come on." She gave a reassuring smile.

"Let's go talk to our other teammate."Olivia turned, gesturing toward the still scowling girl at the other end of the gym. Luna followed after a moment of hesitation, and soon they found themselves heading toward the still clearly defensive loner. Piercings still had her arms crossed in front of her protectively, a relatively redundant gesture given that every other girl was already giving her a wide berth. Her scowl deepened as Olivia and Luna crossed the unspoken barrier the girl had erected.

"What?" A mixture of suspicion and blunt accusation filled her voice. Clearly the rebellious sort, likely a bit of a social outcast as well. One that was probably trying to lean into the persona, too, given her overt aggression and the combat boots that clearly weren't meant for any kind of exercise. Olivia didn't take offense to the girl's tone, though.

"Just coming to ask if you'd join our team. Since we're the only ones left and all." Piercings snorted.

"Does it look like I want a team?"

"Nope." Olivia admitted dryly. But I somehow doubt that Mr. Wolfe will just let you sit out whenever there's a team sport. The girl scanned the gym as though looking for any other available options. When it became clear that there were none—though Olivia doubted any other team would have taken the girl anyway—she sighed.

"Fine."

"Great." Olivia smiled patiently.

"I'm Olivia. This is Luna." The blonde bobbed her head, the motion revealing just the slightest flash of her blue eyes from behind a curtain of hair. Piercings mumbled something under her breath. Olivia could just make out a "Miranda" at the end of it.

"Miranda. All right. Nice to meet you." She clapped her hands together.

"I'll be the first to admit that I'm not particularly good at sports. So if you were hoping I'd carry the team or something, well, I'm sorry to let you down."

"... Same." Luna admitted sheepishly. Miranda just shrugged.

"Well, then. I guess we're playing for fun, not glory." Olivia joked.

"At least we're on the same page." Miranda snorted just as Mr. Wolfe's voice rang out across the courts.

"All right! Girls teams, line up here! Boys, over there!" Mr. Wolfe quickly went over the basics and the groups began meandering dutifully toward the volleyball courts. As she led her two teammates toward one of the courts, Olivia found herself frowning to herself. Wait… what am I doing? I'm supposed to be keeping to myself. How did I end up leading these two? It hadn't been intentional. She'd simply pulled the team together out of necessity, since it was clear that the other two wouldn't do it.

Well, it's not like I'm the de facto leader or anything. And I haven't done anything that wouldn't have happened anyway. But I probably should have waited for Mr. Wolfe to stick us together or something. They ended up across from the team that had picked up the redhead earlier. Their teacher passed out balls to everyone and signalled for them to get started. Their opponents served first, messing it up a few times before finally getting the ball over the net.

It sailed toward Luna's portion of the court, but rather than putting her arms together like they'd been taught, the girl yelped and ducked away from the ball before it made contact.

"S-sorry…" The girl's ears reddened as she chased the ball down. Olivia just winced. Hoo, boy. This… might be rough.