Better Off Dead Than Alive In Here

The class was finished at 11. The guys and I picked everything up, and then we went to lunch. Andrew had made chicken sandwiches, which were delicious. I ate at a table with Zack, Anna, Mikayla, and a lot of their little friends. Zack and I joked around with them and listened to their stories about the day.

After I finished my lunch I sat down with Alex, Travis, Gabe, Rian, Elliot, Danny, and Ryland. We had the volleyball court with the Platinums until 2:30. All of the counselors decided to have a volleyball tournament with the kids.

I saw Pete grab Gabe a few minutes before we left. He was smiling when Pete pulled him aside, but when he came back he was frowning. I looked over at him and caught his eye. He forced a small smile at me and then turned to Nate and whispered something. I saw his face fall also and he whispered something back to him. I turned my attention away from them and looked back at the rest of the group.

Georgia and Kara came walking over. They talked to their respective boyfriend and then sat down on either side of me.

"I heard that there's volleyball tournament going on today," Georgia said.

Kara smile, "and we have some ideas..."

They both leaned in and whispered their plan. It was awesome, and would be really fun.

"We both played on a club team for a few years," said Kara.

"Me too!" I exclaimed.

We all laughed and perfected our plan. Finally, Alex got all of the Golds together and we walked off to the sports complex. The sports complex was a HUGE area that had a football field, tennis and basketball court, a baseball diamond, a swimming pool with a diving area, and 3 sand volleyball courts. BCD used it as their home fields, so many of the kids were familiar with it.

When everyone was at the courts we had all of the kids sit down and all of the counselors stood up in front of them. Gabe, Rian, Alex, Elliot, Suarez, Danny, Travis, Ryland, Georgia, Kara and I were standing up and joking around, until Alex pushed me forward to talk to the kids.

"Okay," I started, "well today we're going to be having a volleyball tournament. Our official judges are Danny, Suarez, and Elliot because they are really bad at volleyball."

"Hey, I resent that!" said Danny.

"It's the truth," said Ryland.

Danny look confused, "Well...I still resent that!"

"All right Danny," I laughed. "You all should form groups of six, counselors included, but no more than 3 counselors on a team. Once you have a group of six go sit on one side of a court and then we'll go from there."

There was a scramble of kids as I grabbed Mikayla and Anna and ran to where Georgia and Kara were already sitting. I saw a girl in Gold who was wearing Hollister, but looked kind of lost.

We needed one more player, so I grabbed her and said, "You want to be on my team?"

She nodded and flashed a grateful smile. We were all sitting down on one side of the middle court. We started a game against the other team and played at a normal skill level, but we made sure that we won. Mikayla, Anna, and the Hollister girl, who's name was Sara were actually pretty good.

We kept playing at a skill level that no one really noticed, but made us win. We got to the Semi-finals and we were facing Cindy and her team. She gave me a death glare and I knew it was time to put our plan in action.

Our team huddled up and I gave some instructions, "Anna, you play libero. Mikayla you are going to be right side. Kara go to middle hitter. Georgia and Sara, outside hitters. I'll set. I know that ya'll have been holding back, but now I really want to win, so do your absolute best, okay?"

Everyone smiled back and nodded. We did our cheer and then set up on the court. I taught the kids about the base defenses, so they knew where to go when the ball was on the other side. I also taught them our cheers for a kill, ace, block, and when another team made a mistake.

Cindy's team had the ball first. I got into my position, ready to receive. She served the ball over with some fore, but Mikayla received it with ease.

The ball came sailing at my head while I heard Georgia call out, "Outside!"

The ball reached my hands and I pushed it back out to a spot right in front of Georgia. She quickly took her approach and smacked the ball down right in between two girls who didn't even see it coming at them.

I turned around and our team shouted, "Aayyyyyyyyy ba ba boom!" When we said 'ba ba boom' we made 2 small handguns and shot twice, and then threw our hands up like and explosion. When you have played club volleyball for over 6 years you don't really get embarrassed shouting out cheers.

It was my turn next. I walked up to the line and looked at the other teams positioning. There was a huge gap between Cindy and one of the other followers. I waited for Danny's whistle and then threw the ball up. I took my steps and jumped up into the air. I smacked the ball and ran to my spot. The ball hit right in the gap and I turned back to my team.

This time we shouted "Uno Dose Tres, Ace Baby Ace!" All of our cheers were under 10 seconds long; it was annoying to everyone if they were a minute long. I walked back to the serving line and waited for Danny's whistle. Again I hit at the same gap, but one of the girls got the guts to step in front of it and pop it up. They free balled it over, and Sara passed it right to me.

I heard Kara call out "Middle," so I set it right in front of her. She took a graceful approach and tipped over the head of the one brave blocker. It landed in the ground with a small "thud".

The game went on like this. We would make a few good serves, then lose it on purpose, and then receive it and get the serve again. The game was over in 20 minutes. We all cheered and gave the other team a high five. Everyone's hand seemed to magically miss mine. I smirked and walked over to the other court where the 2 other semi-finalists were playing.

The ball hit the ground just as I walked up, which apparently won Gabe, Mike, Michael, Adam, Andy, and William the game. I smiled, this was going to be a great game.