The only thing that makes a good day better, is volleyball.
~ ~ ~ ~
"Morning mom, hey dad." I greeted my parents as I walked in to the kitchen.
"Morning sweetie, how was the party last night?" My mom asked.
I shrugged, "It was okay, Mya did more of the drinking, " I explained, "even though I thought it would be me instead of her."
My mom laughed. Some parents wouldn't be okay with their child drinking at a party, but my parents believed that as long as their child told them their whereabouts, are honest about what they're doing, and are safe, they don't have to worry about anything. Obviously there's a line drawn at some things like hard drugs, but they understand that teenagers are going to come in contact to things like weed and alcohol while in high school. They want their child to at least experience things like this so that when they get older, they'll know what to expect.
"Well, how's Mya taking everything?" Right when my dad asks, Mya comes in.
"Everything hurts," She complained. I handed her an Advil and water, while my dad set a cup of coffee in front of her. She took the pill first, then drank the coffee, "Remind me to never drink again. I call becoming the designated driver from now on."
"As wonderful as that sounds, you know you can't do that."
She chuckles, "Yea, you're probably right." She put her coffee down, "So, how about after this killer headache is over, we go to the Kroc?" I nodded my head.
The Kroc Center is a community center that gives a place for the young folks to play basketball, swim, etc. It's not just for young kid though, everyone is welcome.
"Yea sure," I said grabbing a plate. I stacked my plate with pancakes, bacon, sausage, and I had a bowl of oatmeal. I poured a cup of orange juice and sat down.
"Damn, Iz. You eat more than me." Mya joked, I rolled my eyes.
"Language Mya." She put her hand up in defense
"My bad Mr. H."
After breakfast, Mya heads home to get ready to go to the Kroc Center, and to tell her parents where she's been all night.
When I got upstairs, I made sure to call the rest of the girls, so they could meet up with us. Since it's six of us in total, we would almost always find a group who would want to play against us. Sometimes we won other times we lost, but they were always fun games.
I took a quick shower before I got dressed in grey spandex, a random shirt, with some black sweats. I packed my bag with my volleyball shoes, knee pads and other things, and headed out the door.
I called Miracle, "Hey, you on your way?"
"Yea, I just picked up Liana, and Marcey got Ali, so we're all on our way," She explained.
"Okay cool, just meet in the locker room." I said.
I made it to the Kroc Center in 20 minutes. I met the girls, and we changed into our clothes, and headed to the gym.
We got there and there was already a net set up and a group of boys playing. I huffed in annoyance as I watched them play sloppily. One of the boys noticed, smirked and tap his other friend who also turned around; there were 6 of them. Perfect.
I walked over, "Can we play with you guys?" I asked, not intimidated in the slightest bit.
"I don't know. Do you think you can handle it?" The taller one spoke up, smirking.
"Why? You don't think we can?" Marcey asked. They gave her a skeptical look, "Let's play then." She grabbed a volleyball, "It's like a regular scrimmage, except the score goes to 30, and there's no ref, so you must play fair." she narrowed her eyes, "No going easy."
We hated when guys go easy on girls. I can admit they are stronger, so their hits are a lot harder, but it just makes us better at our game.
We all got in our positions, except Ali and I switched places, so I'm playing middle and she's playing outside.
The Hispanic one rolled the ball under the net, "Ladies first." Mya picked up the ball, doing her pre-serve routine, and served a short ball, catching the boys off guard.
The long haired boy got the ball up a little bit, but it went into the net, giving us the point.
"Lucky shot," he said, throwing the ball under the net. Angry much?
Mya served again, this time deep. The blonde haired boy, passed the ball smoothly to their setter.
My eyes followed the ball. The ball was set, to the right side. I did the quick approach, and went up for the block. I felt the ball touch my hand, but it still came over.
"Touch!" I yell.
Liana came up behind me getting the ball back up pretty high in the air. Not wanting to take any chances, I tipped the ball back over, throwing the boys off. They scrambled trying to get to the ball back up, but failed giving us the point again.
2-0
*
We ended up losing the game 30-28, but we played pretty well. Liana and Mya had some good digs, Ali, Marcy, and I had some good kills and blocks, and Miracle, had some amazing sets and dumps.
The long haired one held out his hand, "I'm Calvin by the way," I politely shook it, "and this is Jason, Leo, Carter, Michael, and Kevin."
I nodded my head, forgetting everyone's names almost instantly , "So, do you guys play club or something?"
"Yea, we play for Powerhouse, what about you guys?" I think it was Leo who spoke up.
"We play for Chicago Juniors."
"Cool, but we have to get going. See you around?"
"I guess." I shrugged.
*
As soon as I got home, I took a shower to get rid of this disgusting feeling of sweat.
I got out, finished my hygiene things, and went to my room to relax but that came to an end pretty quick.
"Izzy!" My dad called, "Can you run to the store? I forgot the ice cream!"
"Sure," I yelled back. I rolled my eyes and put on some black leggings, a tank top, my UNLV hoodie, and my black Converse. I left my curly hair hanging to dry down my back. I grabbed my keys and headed out the door.
"It was nice to, nice to know ya, let's do it again
How we did it on a one night stand
Boy, I wanna be more than a friend to ya
Nice to, nice to know ya, let's do it again
How we did it on a one night stand
Boy, I wanna be more than a friend to ya
Let's do it again!"
I was singing Do it Again by Pia Mia. I didn't like the song at first, but after hearing it so many times, I can't not like the song.
'Beep Beep'
I look into the rear-view mirror, then ahead to see the light was green. Oops.
I got to the store and it was pretty crowded, "Great." I mumbled. Not in need of a basket, I went straight to the ice cream aisle.
Just as I opened the door, it was shut closed. Now who in their right mind thought it was okay to do that?
I turned to see Adam looking down at me, smirking.
I rolled my eyes as I turned my body around, "Can I help your, sir?" His hair was down today and messy.
"Nope," he smiled
"Well move your arm, I'm trying to get ice cream."
"Nope, and I'm kinda liking this position," I raised my eyebrow then shoved him out of my way to open the freezer.
"Damn girl, you feisty as hell." I shrugged and pulled the butter pecan ice cream out of the freezer and closed it.
"Just try not to be annoying, and we won't have any problems. Got it?" Adam sighed and nodded his head and walked away. I'm not gonna lie I feel kind of bad about how rude I was, but in my defense he was being annoying.
I shrugged it off and made my way to the register so that I can pay for the ice cream. I had to pay for it myself since my dad didn't give me any money but I don't mind.
As soon as I got home, there was bunch of mail on the table; most of it was for me though. As I looked through it I realized it was mail from a bunch of colleges, but one piece of mail stood out. I looked closely and I realized it was a letter from the coach at the University of Southern California.
'Dear Miss Hooker,
I have been watching you over the past four years, and I've noticed your improvement over these years as well. I know this is your senior year and you're about to experience the whole college process, but I'm just letting you know that if you're planning on playing club, I will be attending the 2015 "Recruit Me!" Tournament at Energy VBC. Although I am interested in recruiting you, the competition is tough out there so make sure you stand out.
See you then!
Emily Knapp
USC Recruiting'
I grinned as I finished reading the letter. I can't believe USC is interested in me, Izzy Hooker. What's shocked me the most is that she's been following me for four years and she's noticed my improvement over the years.
"Mom! Dad! Look what I got!" I yelled as I ran up the stairs to my parents room. Their lights were off which means that they're about to go to sleep... or they were sleeping. I busted in their room anyway not caring what they would say, "Guys I got a letter from a recruiter at USC."
That woke them right up, "That's great honey what did they say?" My mom asked in a sleepy haze.
"Well, they're interested in recruiting me and they're coming to the Recruit Me tournament in October to watch me. And of course to watch other people, but me specifically." I explained.
My mom sat up, "Well first of all, do you have them on your list of schools to apply for?"
"They weren't at first because I didn't think they'd be interested in me, but now they are. I need to visit the school too."
"Alright well just make a list of the schools you plan on applying to and which schools you still need to visit."
"Okay, I'll do that now." I turned off their light, closed the door and headed back to my room to make my list. I put a star next to the ones that I still have to visit, but thankfully it was only one.
UT - Austin
LSU
*USC
U of I - Urbana-Champ
XULA
UNLV