We didn’t get to talk much because the rest of the class and the teacher came out of the locker room all at once, and class was on.

After a brief, guided warm-up routine that left most of us breathing heavily, Mrs. Staudenraus -- Coach Carole, as she preferred to be called -- made an announcement that had much of the class smiling. “Volleyball, today, I think. Nothing strenuous. Everyone’s here, so four teams of four.”

She looked out over the assembled students, and then down at her clipboard. “We have a few people that haven’t been captains in a bit, so let’s have Katy, James, Leonora, and Amy come forward. And you’ll choose in that order.”

Now there was a double-edged sword -- have the one boy in the class choose the girls for his team. No matter who I chose, besides Mika, someone was going to read something into it. By now, after all these years, whatever they read in to that particular choice was already baked in.

Katy was one of the trio of freshmen that had already been in the gym when I arrived. She chose one of the other girls of that trio. Then it was my turn.

“Mika, of course.”

Coach Carole shook her head ruefully, “I keep forgetting to separate you two. Mika was going to be a captain as well. Oh well, too late now.”

As Leonora and Amy were choosing, I was trying to decide who I wanted on my team. If we were going to be actually competitive, there were plenty of good volleyball players in my class, but the teacher had specifically said it was “nothing strenuous.” So people were generally picking their friends rather than who might or might not be the best addition to a four-person team.

Katy chose her other friend, and it was back to me again. “Chelsea, I think.”

The chosen girl looked up, startled. She was perhaps the least athletic of any of the students in this class and wasn’t really part of any circle of friends that I had seen, so she was generally chosen last or close to it. “Huh? Are you sure?”

“Sure am. Come on, join our little squad.” Mika gave me an approving nod as I gestured for Chelsea to join us. “I know volleyball probably isn’t your favorite thing, but it can be fun if you don’t worry too much about missing the ball.”

“He speaks from experience, Chelsea,” Mika said.

“Sure do,” I nodded. “I’m not real good, not like my sister or Mika, but this isn’t the Olympics, so we’ll do fine. We might not win, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun trying.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Th-thank you,” she stammered and blushed as she joined the group.

While we were reassuring Chelsea, the other captains had chosen their next members, leaving just three girls waiting for a team. I looked them over, quickly. “Monica? You haven’t been chosen yet? Do you want to join our little squad?”

“Oh, I thought I would be chosen last this time,” the cheerleader laughed as she joined us, but that’ll be Alexis since Leo will choose Gwen.”

“You?” Chelsea boggled in disbelief. “Why would you be chosen last?”

“Katy was choosing other freshmen, her friends. That group always sticks together if they can,” Monica pointed out. “And Leo and Amy were both choosing friends or girls with volleyball experience. We’re friendly, but not friends, so ….” She gestured wide. “Anyway, here I am.”

“Now that the teams are chosen,” Coach Carole said, “I have another little announcement to make. Tomorrow, we start our Mini-Olympics. These will be your teams for the next few weeks. Remember, this is Personal Fitness Improvement,” she stressed the first and third words in the class title, “and your grades will be based three-quarters on how you’ve improved from your benchmarks earlier this year. But the other quarter will be based on how well you’ve helped your teammates improve themselves.”

Several students in other groups groaned, and Chelsea looked apprehensive. “Oh, that’s not fair. Your grades shouldn’t suffer because of me.”

Monica, with her effervescent encouragement, spoke up before either Mika or I did. “Who said anything about suffering, Chelsea? You might not be athletic by nature, but after three months of Coach Carole’s classes, you’re already in better shape than you were at the start, right? So you’ve already improved. That means you’re probably already getting a good grade in the Mini-Olympics, right?”

“I suppose,” she said, but fell silent when the teacher started speaking again.

“There will be prizes for the winners of each event, the overall winner, and the top three most improved students,” Coach Carole said. “Nothing fancy, not on a teacher’s salary, but a little bit more than just a gold star. I do have those, too, of course,” she laughed, and a lot of the rest of the students laughed as well. Coach Carole’s laugh was contagious. “We’ll alternate free day, competition day, free day, competition day, and so on. Your team can do what you want on the free days - gym, track, weight room, aerobics mats, whatever -- but you’ll do so as a team. Remember, you’re going to be helping each other improve. But for today, let’s have some volleyball! James and Amy, take your teams to the far side. Katy and Leonora, you gals are over here.”

We lost, of course. 25-7, 22-25, 25-18. Neither Chelsea nor I were up to the levels of Mika and Monica, so it was an uneven team. But Amy’s team only had one player down at our skill level, and the other three were at Monica’s level if not Mika’s.

The first set we lost quickly, but almost by unspoken accord, the other team stopped trying to score against Chelsea and me. It still happened, but almost more happenstance and not by malicious design. That’s not to say that they were malicious in the first set, but they had been playing to win. They switched more to a “play to have fun” style when it became apparent that we were a bit mismatched. And, by the end of the third set, Chelsea had opened up enough to laugh at her and our mistakes rather than trying to apologize every time.

And I counted that as a win.