Holland Tech Vignette: Episode 6

We used to go to school during summer break to practice basketball. We had just finished the seventh grade and were all happy to be with each other during the break. When my friends and I played basketball, our coach would sometimes take us to places to play, and on this day, he decided to take us to Emmanuel College to play basketball with other girls of all ages. 

On our way there, we found out that we were going to have to take the MBTA bus. When I heard that, I was low-key upset because it was kinda chilly that day, but I pushed through and stayed quiet. As we waited for the bus, I heard Soni complain to Paris, saying, “Bro, it’s mad cold out here, and I don’t wanna be standing out here.” In my mind, I agreed with her so finally the bus came and it was surprisingly not full. I was able to get a seat. It took a little while for us to get there, so once we made it there, I said ‘’finally’’ quietly to myself. When we walked into the place, it looked big and kinda fancy. We made our way up the stairs, where we saw a lady sitting at a desk checking people in. 

This took a while so the only thing running through my mind was how I was ready to eat. After my coach and the lady figured things out, it was time for us to go inside. When we walked in, I let out a big breath of air and began looking at the gym. There were bright orange rims and dark blue walls with nice tan wood flooring.

Once I got a little look at the gym, a lady yelled, “Come in, put your stuff down, and walk to a station.” I guessed she was one of the coaches for the girls. “Ok, this don’t look so bad,” I said to Jari. When I walked to my station I knew I was already ready to go home. Some people were shooting hoops, while some were jump roping, and some were dribbling. After we were done with our stations they told us to go wash our hands and get ready for lunch.

I found out that lunch was all you can eat, and that made me really happy. After lunch, they tell us they have an announcement to make, so the room gets quiet while we wait to hear it. “When we go back to the gym, we will be having you guys go into groups and challenge each other, and the loser has a consequence.” That made me really nervous. “We hope you didn’t eat too much,” they laughed as they told us to get in a line to go back to the gym silently. 

We were going to be going against each other, and the losing team had to run. Safe to say my team lost, so we had to run, and as we were running, we could hear the other team laughing at us. That made me mad, but I had to keep running. As we started running, I heard a boom and clap, which caused me to turn around and all I saw was Spirit on the ground with one shoe on. I remember dying of laughter while trying to still run.