It feels weird to write that…if you aren’t familiar with volleyball than that probably sounds really weird.
Peppering with someone means you stand across from each other and bump, set, spike back and forth in a controlled manner. Like this:
It’s just to warm up the muscles you’re going to be using.
In eighth grade I was the new girl at the school. I didn’t have very many friends. Rebecca Stanford was always my partner. She was nice, but she was an outcast too…a rocker girl. Totally hip, but a little scary. She colored her hair different colors and hung out with the ‘tough crowd’. She skipped school a lot and had ‘older’ friends.
Rebecca Stanford was also overweight. I felt terrible when I saw how she was teased, but she always acted like she didn’t care. Rebecca Stanford didn’t seem to care about anything. She was a hard ass. If she made a joke I was sure to laugh extra hard so as not to give her any reason to doubt my loyalty to her.
One day before a volleyball match I was peppering with Rebecca right in front of the bleachers. Students from the rivaling school heckled her about her weight, but we both ignored it. I was a little irritated with Rebecca because whenever it came time for her to ‘spike’ the ball at me she always blasted it. She put some serious heat on that ball and I always missed it and had to go run it down so we could start again.
This bothered me because for two reasons,
1.) because peppering is supposed to be about control and just keeping the ball going (at least that’s what I tell myself)
and 2.) because I looked like a fool every time I missed the ball.
Maybe Rebecca thought she looked tough by hitting the ball that hard. Perhaps she was hoping the hecklers would notice how strong she was and leave her alone. I don’t know. What I do know is that I was fed up. I grabbed the ball and decided two could play this game. I was at war with Rebecca in my head and I started hitting the ball as hard as I could right back at her.
What happened next was really an unfortunate mistake. I hit Rebecca right in the head. She fell over and I apologized…I felt really bad, but deep down kind of hoped she got the message.
When Rebecca stood up she didn’t look right. She had that crazy look in her eyes Lloyd and next thing I know she’s seizuring.
…Or maybe she just fainted?? I don’t remember, but it was a BIG deal…for the sake of the story we’ll say she was seizuring.
SHE WAS SEIZURING!!!
Everyone went into emergency mode. Our coach was also the health teacher, which means nothing, but Rebecca was surrounded by adults…people were calling for help…and I stood there looking on with the ball, my weapon, held to my side.
When the paramedics arrived Rebecca was stable, but weak. They wanted to know if anyone knew about Rebecca’s medical history, did anyone know why this might have happened?
I stepped forward. I was Rebecca’s friend. I knew. I told the paramedic that Rebecca had been hit in the head with the ball while we were peppering.
Was there anything else?? Did I know if she was diabetic? Did she ever tell me anything that might reveal if she was prone to seizures.
This was hard.
I did know something.
I didn’t want to tell on Rebecca, but these were important people and they needed to know the truth. We needed to help her.
I took a deep breath.
“There is something you should know…” I said.
“What?? What is it!?!”
I nervously bit my lower lip and let out a big sigh.
“It’s just that….Rebecca……wellllll….I’m pretty sure she smokes a lot of marijuana.”
GASP!!!!!
Was that a patronizing look I saw sweep across the paramedics face? Was he hiding a grin?
This was HUGE. We’re talking about drugs here…..
Sigh.
Seizuring is not funny. And neither is fainting, which might be what actually happened. And neither are drugs.
Just say no.