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I made it through the rest of the day without further incident. I felt like everyone was watching me, not sure if they were or not, maybe the video hadn’t circulated yet.

I was nervous to go back to my locker, too. Not because I was afraid of Winnie, just because I didn’t want to deal with her.

I went home, took a shower and got into my comfy clothes, I didn’t’ feel like going out with my one new friend tonight, as sad as that was.

I supposed I should prepare for tomorrow.

I picked up the flier from Coach Saunders. The headline read “Lakeside Armadillos Wrestling Team.” Under that were promotional images of two boys on the left and two girls on the right in letter jackets, no names attached to any of them. At the bottom were the boys and girls team schedules, with TBD listed next to several tournament dates and times, probably done a few months ago with the last known information. The girls schedule was far shorter than the boys, in fact only listing three dates in total: an away dual meet, a tournament, and a home dual meet. Maybe there were more now that the season was closer to starting.

I got on my laptop and looked to see if there was a team webpage on the school’s website. There was, but not much of one, and it probably hadn’t been updated since it was created two years ago.

I did find a few articles from the local newspaper. Four out of five were covering the boys’ team, but there was one covering a girls’ dual meet, and a girls-only tournament. It appeared that both the boys and girls teams were pretty good, actually.

I decided that trying to find more information before tomorrow was a rabbit hole, and was just going to make me tired in the morning from not sleeping. So, I picked out something to wear and went to bed while I could.

I left my house at 11:30 to give myself plenty of time to get to school, I did not want to be late for detention-practice. I gave my mom a pretense of shopping easily enough, I didn’t figure she needed to know and I didn’t want to answer questions.

I parked in the school lot at 11:40 and sat in the car for a few minutes before taking a deep breath, grabbing my bag, and heading in to the auxiliary gym with ten minutes still to spare.

The gym was smaller than the main gym, but still had room to contain two full size wrestling mats, albeit there were support poles running right through the middle of one of them. Concussion hazard for sure. There were four, no, five, girls already there, three sitting and chatting in a makeshift circle, one up and about stretching and jogging, and one overachiever doing a drill.

I picked a spot near the wall to camp my coat and gym bag. Several of the girls had on their wrestling shoes, which I figured might be the case. I got out a pair of too-small lightweight sneakers that I had neglected to return to the store, I figured they would do in a pinch and forced them onto my feet.

Coach Saunders came in and passed out some stapled-together papers, a syllabus among some other forms. I dug around in my bag and discretely stretched in case we got started with practice right away, I was trying to figure out the protocol on the fly. A couple more girls that seemed to know what they were doing straggled in over the next few minutes, and Coach Saunders gathered the girls around right at noon.

“Welcome to practice everyone,” she said as she paced in front of the gathered group. “I know most of you, she smiled, but if you’re not here for wrestling you might be in for a big surprise.”

Everyone giggled at that, me nervously, but no one seemed to be in the wrong place.

“Let’s go around and introduce ourselves,” Coach Saunders said, looking to a girl in front and to her left to take the lead.

“Hi, I’m Molly,” she said simply, waving to the group.

“And …,” Coach said, wanting her to give a bit more bio. I started to come up with something to say.

“And …” Molly said, “I’m a sophomore. I was at 119 last year, same this year I think.”

“Okay, next,” Coach Saunders said.

The girl next to her started to speak softly …

“Louder!” Coach Saunders said, cutting her off.

“My name is Jody!” the girl hollered, taking the coach’s instruction in good humor. “I’m a junior!”

I guessed she was slightly heavier than Molly. Jody had been on the team last year as well.

Next to her in a pink warmup top was Jazz. “This is my first time, so go easy on me!” she joked. Jody had recruited her to join this, her junior, year as well.

“At least for the first official practice,” Coach said, winking.

The girl in the blue tank top was next. “Hi everyone; Annabeth,” she said waving to me and Jazz, the only two girls whom she didn’t know.

Paige was next, in the yellow outfit with a long ponytail.

Faye in the red shirt, was a freshman, but had wrestled on the boy’s team in junior high.

Sitting next to me was Mariah, the only senior other than me, and evidently our biggest girl.

“And last but not least,” Coach Saunders said, turning to me.

“H…,” my voice cracked, I cleared my throat. “Hi, I’m Karli Faust.” I chided myself, ‘dork, why the heck did I say my last name?’ “I’m a senior.”

“Have you wrestled before, Karli?” Coach asked.

“Yeah, I said. It’s been a few years though, I grew up doing club in Oklahoma.”

Coach Saunders turned back to the group. “Technically, this is supposed to be a tryout day, but … congratulations, you all made the team!”

The group clapped for themselves a little sarcastically.

‘Yea’ I thought. The other girls didn’t know this would be my only appearance.

“We’ll do some warmup, and then go over some basics for the newcomers.”

We warmed up with some jogging and stretching before running through a few procedural items.

“Okay,” coach said excitedly, “time to get down and dirty.”

With a wry smile, “Jody and Molly, can I have you up here please.” Everyone else around the outer black circle.”

Coach looked at her watch, “two minutes on the clock, you ready?”

Jody and Molly picked up on her meaning, and got down into their starting stances.

“Go!” coach said, and the two girls started circling, grabbing hold of each other’s heads and arms. Molly was the first to go in for a takedown, but Jody ended up on top.

Coach was explaining things as they occurred, what points would have been awarded and why.

I realized my own heart was racing.

At the end of two minutes coach gave a mouth whistle and tapped the grappling girls on their backs, “time.”

The two girls fell onto their backs, breathing hard.
“Thank you girls,” Coach Saunders said. “That was one period. I won’t make everyone do that today, but be prepared starting Monday, we don’t have a lot of time before our first match.”

Description

I made it through the rest of the day without further incident. I felt like everyone was watching me, not sure if they were or not, maybe the video hadn’t circulated yet.

I was nervous to go back to my locker, too. Not because I was afraid of Winnie, just because I didn’t want to deal with her.

I went home, took a shower and got into my comfy clothes, I didn’t’ feel like going out with my one new friend tonight, as sad as that was.

I supposed I should prepare for tomorrow.

I picked up the flier from Coach Saunders. The headline read “Lakeside Armadillos Wrestling Team.” Under that were promotional images of two boys on the left and two girls on the right in letter jackets, no names attached to any of them. At the bottom were the boys and girls team schedules, with TBD listed next to several tournament dates and times, probably done a few months ago with the last known information. The girls schedule was far shorter than the boys, in fact only listing three dates in total: an away dual meet, a tournament, and a home dual meet. Maybe there were more now that the season was closer to starting.

I got on my laptop and looked to see if there was a team webpage on the school’s website. There was, but not much of one, and it probably hadn’t been updated since it was created two years ago.

I did find a few articles from the local newspaper. Four out of five were covering the boys’ team, but there was one covering a girls’ dual meet, and a girls-only tournament. It appeared that both the boys and girls teams were pretty good, actually.

I decided that trying to find more information before tomorrow was a rabbit hole, and was just going to make me tired in the morning from not sleeping. So, I picked out something to wear and went to bed while I could.

I left my house at 11:30 to give myself plenty of time to get to school, I did not want to be late for detention-practice. I gave my mom a pretense of shopping easily enough, I didn’t figure she needed to know and I didn’t want to answer questions.

I parked in the school lot at 11:40 and sat in the car for a few minutes before taking a deep breath, grabbing my bag, and heading in to the auxiliary gym with ten minutes still to spare.

The gym was smaller than the main gym, but still had room to contain two full size wrestling mats, albeit there were support poles running right through the middle of one of them. Concussion hazard for sure. There were four, no, five, girls already there, three sitting and chatting in a makeshift circle, one up and about stretching and jogging, and one overachiever doing a drill.

I picked a spot near the wall to camp my coat and gym bag. Several of the girls had on their wrestling shoes, which I figured might be the case. I got out a pair of too-small lightweight sneakers that I had neglected to return to the store, I figured they would do in a pinch and forced them onto my feet.

Coach Saunders came in and passed out some stapled-together papers, a syllabus among some other forms. I dug around in my bag and discretely stretched in case we got started with practice right away, I was trying to figure out the protocol on the fly. A couple more girls that seemed to know what they were doing straggled in over the next few minutes, and Coach Saunders gathered the girls around right at noon.

“Welcome to practice everyone,” she said as she paced in front of the gathered group. “I know most of you, she smiled, but if you’re not here for wrestling you might be in for a big surprise.”

Everyone giggled at that, me nervously, but no one seemed to be in the wrong place.

“Let’s go around and introduce ourselves,” Coach Saunders said, looking to a girl in front and to her left to take the lead.

“Hi, I’m Molly,” she said simply, waving to the group.

“And …,” Coach said, wanting her to give a bit more bio. I started to come up with something to say.

“And …” Molly said, “I’m a sophomore. I was at 119 last year, same this year I think.”

“Okay, next,” Coach Saunders said.

The girl next to her started to speak softly …

“Louder!” Coach Saunders said, cutting her off.

“My name is Jody!” the girl hollered, taking the coach’s instruction in good humor. “I’m a junior!”

I guessed she was slightly heavier than Molly. Jody had been on the team last year as well.

Next to her in a pink warmup top was Jazz. “This is my first time, so go easy on me!” she joked. Jody had recruited her to join this, her junior, year as well.

“At least for the first official practice,” Coach said, winking.

The girl in the blue tank top was next. “Hi everyone; Annabeth,” she said waving to me and Jazz, the only two girls whom she didn’t know.

Paige was next, in the yellow outfit with a long ponytail.

Faye in the red shirt, was a freshman, but had wrestled on the boy’s team in junior high.

Sitting next to me was Mariah, the only senior other than me, and evidently our biggest girl.

“And last but not least,” Coach Saunders said, turning to me.

“H…,” my voice cracked, I cleared my throat. “Hi, I’m Karli Faust.” I chided myself, ‘dork, why the heck did I say my last name?’ “I’m a senior.”

“Have you wrestled before, Karli?” Coach asked.

“Yeah, I said. It’s been a few years though, I grew up doing club in Oklahoma.”

Coach Saunders turned back to the group. “Technically, this is supposed to be a tryout day, but … congratulations, you all made the team!”

The group clapped for themselves a little sarcastically.

‘Yea’ I thought. The other girls didn’t know this would be my only appearance.

“We’ll do some warmup, and then go over some basics for the newcomers.”

We warmed up with some jogging and stretching before running through a few procedural items.

“Okay,” coach said excitedly, “time to get down and dirty.”

With a wry smile, “Jody and Molly, can I have you up here please.” Everyone else around the outer black circle.”

Coach looked at her watch, “two minutes on the clock, you ready?”

Jody and Molly picked up on her meaning, and got down into their starting stances.

“Go!” coach said, and the two girls started circling, grabbing hold of each other’s heads and arms. Molly was the first to go in for a takedown, but Jody ended up on top.

Coach was explaining things as they occurred, what points would have been awarded and why.

I realized my own heart was racing.

At the end of two minutes coach gave a mouth whistle and tapped the grappling girls on their backs, “time.”

The two girls fell onto their backs, breathing hard.
“Thank you girls,” Coach Saunders said. “That was one period. I won’t make everyone do that today, but be prepared starting Monday, we don’t have a lot of time before our first match.”