Today is the same drill as last practice. We take the track two at a time, the person in front hitting with her hips. This is perfect, because my hitting needs a LOT of work.
I jump in the drill without waiting for an invitation, taking hits very well and giving hits not so well. But I'm trying. This time, I hear the buzz about me first hand. As I'm going around the track, I hear the coach say to someone else, "Ramona is just so solid. It's like hitting a brick wall."
My heart skips a beat. Tears of pride prickle my eyes. Such a small comment but it means the world to me.
Throughout practice, I hear more people talk about my solidity. I get knocked down, but apparently not as much as one would expect. Then I find myself paired up with Haley. I consider her to be a good friend. I suspect, however, that she feels we coddle the new girls too much. (I tend to agree, actually.) Haley PUMMELS me. I assume she is holding back some, but not nearly as much as the others. She doesn't bump, retreat, let me recover, and then bump again. She slams into me and keeps pushing, shoving me towards out of bounds, pushing, pushing, pushing me. I struggle to push back against her, to stay in bounds, to stay on my skates. When I do fall or go out of bounds, there is no recovery time. Before I even see where she is coming from, she is there. Her rock hard shoulder digs into my side with a constant force. She slices her skates in front of mine to hold me back. I focus on the line around the edge of the track. I dig my skates in, lower my body, desperate to stay in bounds. My ankles scream. My bad hip seems to have given up and gone numb. Again and again I lose the fight, tripping out of bounds or getting thrown to the ground. I keep getting up. She keeps coming. I'm spent, but I honestly believe that if I do not fight with all I have left to stay up that I will die. She will knock me over with enough force to kill me.
Okay so maybe I'm not a god.
Towards the end of my second lap, the end of this delicious torture in sight, I hear it again. I'm pulling myself up off the floor for the 125th time. My skates hit the floor and I take off again. Haley heads for me. I steel myself. From the center of the track I hear, "When Ramona passes her test, I want her on my team!"
Yess!
I only get knocked down about twelve more times on the last quarter of the track.
Next we do something called Continuous Jammer. Everyone gets on the track at once. One person wears the jammer panty for two laps, then passes it to the next person. Everyone skates the entire time. I know I won't be able to keep up for long, but I jump in to try. I stay at the back of the pack. I don't try to block the jammer or do anything fancy. I'm just trying to keep up.
I'm doing it!
Jammer after jammer takes the pantry, and I am still skating. It gets toward the end of the drill, I realize that I'm going to be able to make it through the whole thing. Victory! I skated through a whole drill!
Then the unthinkable happens. I hear the call, "Who hasn't jammed yet?". Then I hear the reply, "Ramona hasn't!"
Beg your pardon?
I don't want to be seen hanging back, so I proclaim my terror but grab the panty. I spend a lap and a half trying to push and shove my way through the pack, bolstered by the yells of encouragement from my teammates. Everyone is telling me when to push, when to relocate, and how to find the hole. The term 'wall' takes on new meaning i don't see the individual girls in front of and beside me. They blur into a solid mass of spandex and tank tops. Hands behind my back, I throw my body this way and that, slipping on sweat and locking wheels. Panting through flames, I am determined to make it through my two laps. Coming close to the end of my second lap, however, the world is swimming and I know I am going to puke. Tossing the panty to the nearest girl, I shoot off to the bathroom followed by the sound of applause.
I don't vomit. I hitch a couple of times but reign it in. Good thing, too. I had frito chili pie for lunch, which in retrospect wasn't the best choice. I wash my face and emerge from the restroom, planning to watch some scrimmaging. Perhaps once I've had a rest, I'll skate 25 laps and see how long it takes me.
There is no scrimmaging, though. Everyone's taking their gear off. Practice is over. I had thought Continuous Jammer had taken 20 minutes. It turns out in actuality I had been skating for over an hour solid. Seriously. I can't believe it.
The girls cheer me again. Everyone congratulates me, and they all seem genuinely excited for me. I don't feel like I'm being pitied. I feel like it won't be long before I can hold my own. I really feel like part of the team.
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