Third Weekly Observation Entry:
November 10, 2014 #BeautifulDay
On Tuesday, October 29th
was Lubdigs’ last home game. They played Carson. It was at 3:45 as usual, but
today was different. I typically go to her game right after school and wait for
an hour, but instead I went to the boy’s soccer game in the meantime. I didn’t
have money so I hopped the fence. I wasn’t paying attention and ended up having
to run to the gym.
I made it just on time.
I saw her on the court. But she
couldn’t see me yet. They were warming up for their game. Her hair was in a
ponytail. She twisted the front part of her hair to the right side like she
always does. Her blonde tips were in loose curls dangling over the tip of her
spine. She looked short. But she’s taller than me by about half an inch. And
she’ll never let me forget it. While examining my little sister, I noticed how
brown she is. Compared to the girls on her team, she was the darkest of them
all. And suddenly, as I was pondering this random comparison, I caught a
glimpse of her face.
For the first time, I saw worry in
her darkish-lightish brown eyes. She thought no one was going to show up for
her big game. The tension in her glances at the crowd made me feel like the
worst sister ever. But soon after, my entire family piled into the gym and I
felt a sense of relief disperse into the air around her. I scurried to our
little cheering section and the buzzer buzzed, indicating the start of the
game. My cousin looked at me and said, “It’s
about… To go… Down.”
I painted my face that day. I had one
of my friends draw her name and number with eyeliner. It was weird, since no
one really does anything special for freshman teams. (Especially if they
haven’t won many games.) But I love my sister, and I hoped to have proved it
that day. She smiled at me when she saw it, so that was a good indicator.
Lube is number 32. She plays in the
back row as libero. The libero is the person who digs the balls. My family
nicknamed her “Floor Whore” because she’s always sliding on the court and
stealing her teammates balls. But she’s okay with it because it suits her well.
Especially that night, she really gave it her best.
I’ve never seen her dig so many balls
before. She was everywhere. Her team really pushed themselves that game. I was
cheering her on more than usual that day. I almost lost my voice, but she say’s
she doesn’t recall hearing me at all. (Goddamn vocal chords aren’t strong
enough.) But I was very proud of my sister. Even though they lost in 2 sets, it
was a very close game. I was even more proud about how she handled their loss.
On our ride home, she usually gets out all her emotions about their loss, and
how disappointing it was, and how it could’ve been better. But today, she was
content. Her actual words were, “You know, I think we played pretty good today.
I’m not even mad that we lost.”
I was shocked to hear the world’s
biggest critic actually feeling proud of what her and her team had done. And it
wasn’t just a great day for her; it was a pretty great day for me as well. For
the first time ever, she hugged me after her volleyball game. In front of
civilians!
All in all, Tuesday, October 29th
of 2014 was a beautiful day.
You're a fine storyteller.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the story o kept thinking your sister played in a basketball and at the end I realized it was a volleyball game. I'm not good at sports and I don't know what positions they play. Good blog I can imagine your sister playing with her ponytail.
ReplyDelete