Higher, Faster, Stronger

In life sometimes you feel a fine line between disappointment, anger, and rage. None is easy to control or hide. I'll get back to that in a bit.

Sunday came and then Monday. The school week accelerated to a Thursday night, a game night. Second one of our current schedule. We were all prepped to go. Nate and I had recovered from both of our mental anxieties and we hit practice on Wednesday going all out. The look I got from Glacier Boy clearly said, "This doesn't change anything," though.

After Wednesday's practice I hit the showers, cold and simultaneously sweaty. Coach had us running the entire practice. I was tired and hungry. As I was putting my gear into my bag to head home, my cell rang. It was Mom.

"Hey sweetie. Practice is done, right? Listen, a client wants a meeting tonight. Totally last minute, but can you get supper on your own?"

"Sure Mom. And go get them." I could imagine her frazzled expression over the phone, running to get her things ready and run out the door. I snapped my phone shut, thinking. I hated eating alone. I reopened my cell and tried Hannah's cell. She picked up on the second ring.

"Hey, it's me. Want to get dinner out tonight?"

"Hm…I need to ask my father. Hold on a second," she replied softly. A short time later she got back on. "He said it's alright. Anyone else coming?"

"I was thinking of calling Iz. How about that restaurant a few blocks from school, the diner in an hour?"

"Sure, Sarah. Call and tell me if Isabelle is going," she said quietly. I could tell she was happy. We ended the call and put the ok through to Iz.

Exactly 53 minutes later we met up in front of the place.

"I usually don't go out on school nights, but since you guys asked so nicely," she called, getting out of her car.

"Yeah, and you love us," I replied.

We got our table and a waitress would be with us shortly. I couldn't help but noticing the letters on the jackets of some of the guys a few tables down. They were the team we were going to play the next day. Of course, they fit the jock football stereotype. Big guys with a good deal of muscle but the amount of brains of a corpse.

Iz immediately noticed something. She could read people like a book.

"What's wrong?" she asked quietly.

I gave a discreet point to guys a few tables down from us. "We're playing them tomorrow." Our conversation was cut short by the waitress, there to take our orders. Once she was gone, Iz and Hannah turned back to me.

"Don't worry about them. They got killed last year by us anyway," Izzy said, leaning over the table towards me. "I remember that game, one guy nearly starting crying. It was pathetic."

I smiled and we started talking about school and normal girl stuff. Most of the way through our meal, we started hearing snippets of their conversation. I abhor people who end up shouting like morons in public places. Strike one.

"I hear Kelowna's got a special player on their team this year," Idiot 1 smiled.

"Oh yeah? Who?" Idiot 2 joined in.

"A girl!" announced 1 like it was the funniest thing in the world.

Laughter broke out between the three of them. My face clenched and I could tell my eyes had narrowed.

"What happened, did everyone good graduate that they had to resort to girls?" Idiot 3 joined the conversation.

"How pathetic. They won the Championships last year and now they are worried about breaking nails. What's next, male cheerleaders?"

Strike 2.

Hannah called for the check as they kept laughing. We laid our money down hurriedly and started to leave.

Now, I'm pretty sure all of us were beginning to regret our wardrobe choices. Izzy was in a black skirt and boots with her varsity jacket on. I had a Kelowna High sweatshirt on with jeans and Hannah wore a bracelet with our school's name on it.

As soon as we passed the moron's table we got a loud howling of cat calls. What animals.

"Hey blondy, there's a seat right here for you!" Idiot 2 was calling out to Iz. One of them was reaching toward Hannah, who quickly side stepped out of reach.

"Hey Pinky, is that your favourite colour? Oh, and I promise to go easy on your boys in football tomorrow."

Strike 3. No one calls me Pinky. I wound up like a pitcher and punched the moron who was calling to me right in the eye.

Hannah rushed to aid Iz, whose arm was ensnared by Idiot 2. She, with two rigid fingers, hit him in three spots. He howled and released her.

We ran outside to our two cars, (I drove Hannah), and accelerated out of there. I turned into the parking lot of a coffee place two minutes away and we got out still shaking.

We turned our attention to Ino first.

"Did he hurt you?" Hannah asked quietly. She shook her head no.

"What was that thing that you did, though?"

Hannah smiled. "Neil taught me some self defense moves. In case people tried to hurt me. I just hit his pressure points, Sarah, Isabelle." I smiled. Hannah was sticking up for herself. I was proud of her. Underneath everyone has anger and aggression. She was long overdue for showing some.

Iz hugged the tiny girl tightly. Hannah blushed at the positive attention. Iz turned to me.

"You're going to kill them tomorrow right?"

"It's a promise."

I bristled the entire next day thinking of what had happened. God forbid I tell Neil though. Hannah was guarded more securely than Fort Knox, I thought sometimes. It was cute though, that he wouldn't let anything happen to her. I think one of the reasons he 'let' me hang out with her so much is that I could try to defend both of us in a situation.

At the appropriate time, I pulled my pads on and ran past the cheerleaders, who were just starting to head into the locker room. Izzy clapped me on the shoulder as they went to go put on their uniforms. I nodded to her.

My customary knock let me into the boys' locker room for the team talk. He kept it short and sweet and led us out onto the field. We ran and stretched and ran some drills. The opposing team got there, clad in green and black. They called themselves the Warriors. Some were, I noticed. There were a few big guys, but there were some that didn't look like they could stand up in a breeze. Nate cracked his knuckles besides me and we headed out.

We won the coin toss and the game started. We soon learned which ones were the ones that we had to worry about. Their quarterback was 300 pounds, one of the biggest in the league. There were about 6 others that were considered power players: strong guys that knew their positions front and back. It wasn't an easy game. They lived up to their name by keeping all the strong players in, only putting a few iffy ones in at a time. At halftime Keegan slid up to me panting.

"I've never seen guys like that. They were horrible last year."

I took my mouth guard out and frowned grimly.

"Welcome to the future. Hope for a miracle."

Coach grimaced.

"From what I've seen, this team has two objectives. They're trying to run up the score to try to intimidate us. They're also trying to get rid of any good players we have and force stupid plays." He ranted for 3 more minutes and let us chill in the locker room for the remainder of the time.

"Coach! I called. I have an idea." Keeg took notice and stood besides me. I knew Thompson was listening nearby.

"Call a Hail Mary to make them think they have us scared. After that," I went on to distinguish what I meant.

Keegan rounded on me. "It'll take a miracle for that play to work!"

I smirked. "That's why it's called a Hail Mary, boys!"

Coach filled in the rest of the team and we ran back out onto the field. A Hail Mary is throwing to a bunch of receivers to try to score a touchdown. In our case, it actually worked and resulted in a complete turnover. Third quarter was our time. Steve pulled out some of his more brilliant plays, ones that focused on out-witting the other team, rather than out-manning.

If we had tried to out man them, we would have gone down in a blaze. Nate and Neil, for instance, were faced down with some pretty big guys. Some of our other boys were luckier. Nate, however, just kept hitting him until his body gave out. Neil somehow scared the crap out of the guy he was facing down. I think it was the eyes. They scare lots of people.

The third quarter ran down and the fourth started. The other team was visible livid. I loved it.

In one particular play, I got the ball and started to run. I didn't get far from the huddle at all. A dog pile of 5 guys tackled me. Now, keep in mind, that's a lot of pressure. The resulting force threw my helmet clear off my head.

And what luck I had, but to find the guys from the diner the previous night, two of them anyway, looking down at me, smirking.

"Hey, it's Pinky, guys! I'm sorry, did you break a nail?"

I tried to ignored them, but most of them weren't moving. I could tell from his position in the huddle he was a defensive back. My team started to show up and pull them off me. One followed me as I went to retrieve my helmet. It was the moron I gave the black eye to.

I was getting irritated. Even as I walked back towards my side, he followed me, taunting. I jammed my helmet back on my head and he started knocking on it. When I didn't answer him, he grabbed my shoulder and turned me around forcibly. Derek was there in an instant, holding him up by the throat.

My eyes must have been as wide as a pool float. Derek was holding him up by his throat eyes full of rage. He threw him a yard away and said squarely, "Don't ever touch her again."

He stalked off towards the benches, already knowing the consequences. The referees finally stepped in and called two personal fouls, one for the idiot and for Derek. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Coach talking to him, accentuating every once in a while by waving his arms or clipboard. Steve even looked up from his computer in shock. The cheerleaders looked horrified.

Nate ran to me in anger.

"Are you ok, Sarah? I can't believe he did that."

"Me either. Tell your guys to block better, they're going to blitz after him the rest of the night." Derek rejoined us soon enough. This just added fuel to the fire. I was right about the blitzing though. Right after the incident, a lot of them seemed compelled to go after me too. I was only one person; I could only take on so many. Neil gave me a hand up after I ended up on my back for the x th amount of time that night.

"This isn't the Kama Sutra; I'm not supposed to end up on my back!" I hissed. I was going to be in pain the next day, I could tell. Anger however is what fueled us. We got another touchdown and in a clumsy move, the opposing team fumbled the ball. One of our boys picked up and ran with it to the end zone. By the time the clock ticked down, we lead by 17 points. I sat down on the bench wincing. As Thompson filed into the locker room I called out to him.

"Thanks. You didn't have to do that."

"Hn." Was all I got as a response. I guess that was the best he'd do. Nate told me later that a lot of guys were ticked off about what had happened. Personally, he would have tried something worse. I believed it.

As the boys filed out of the room towards their vehicles, the opposing team was boarding their bus back home. I was parked near it. As I bent down to put my gear in my trunk, I felt a hand reach out and touch, no, not touch, grope, my butt. I was livid. I turned around and punched, for the second day in a row, the idiot who called me Pinky. He had been grinning. He wasn't now.

Where he landed, Derek rushed out of no where. He held him by his throat for the second time that day and hissed, "I thought I told you to stay away from her." He held him with his left hand up against the yellow bus. Most of their team was watching in shock. No one wanted to mess with him.

The idiot was squirming in his grasp. I dropped my gear on the ground, shocked. His right was back, ready to pummel him. I had to do something, he couldn't jeopardize himself like that.

Just as he tried to hurt the kid, I pulled back on his arm.

"It's not worth it! Just the moron go. It's not worth it." The same choke hold he held me in once upon a time, he was using. One more repetition of the words, seemed to shake the barbarian from him. He dropped the idiot in a heap and started to stalk away. I followed after him. He nearly reached his car when I caught up to him.

"Thank you doesn't really seem to cover it." I called. I caught him by the shoulders. His eyes were livid in anger. "I'm ok and he's just an idiot. Don't get mad. Calm down."

He removed my hands from his shoulders and leaned up against his black car. He was breathing heavily and was trying to control it. After a minute of watching him, he glanced my way.

"Try not to do something that reckless again." I said. It was true. He could have had the police called on him or worse.

"You're welcome." In one fluid motion, he unlocked his car and got in. My mouth must have been hanging there. He backed out and left. I shook my head and headed back.

That anger and disappointment that had welled up during the game had gone away. People still couldn't respect a female in this game. I'd prove them wrong. My heart was still fluttering a little bit. I told myself it was simply adrenaline. Even if he was confusing the crap out of me.

Nate caught up to me.

"What happened?"

I glanced down the street.

"A miracle."