Spirit Day and the first time I played

3rd of October, Friday

Today was amazing! One of the best days I've ever had. The theme for the whole school was black and gold, the official colours of our school. It was Spirit Day, the last day of the Spirit Week. I've seen some pretty awesome costumes today as well. I wore a black T-shirt with a yellow scarf and a gold skirt. There was glitter and feathers everywhere on the floor, everyone was excited and having fun.
  At 7, the seniors had a quick breakfast, this happens once a year as well. Then we went to our classes. We wrote a test on AP Psych, I didn't study, but I wasn't anxious. Question 10 demonstrates how humorous our teacher, Mr Frisa is (picture below).
  We watched a movie on AP English and History. On Creative writing, we, seniors were called out, and we took our senior class picture in the gym. About 300 kids in one picture. It was difficult to contain that black and gold croud!
  Then the pep rally began. It's an American tradition for high school students to gather together bedfore the big games (homecoming), and cheer together for all the teams that compete.We changed  into white (I put on my warmup sweatshirt from volleyball), and hid behind the door of the other side of the gym, in a really small passageway. We were waiting until the rest of the high school filled the gym. (Both viewing stands were pulled out, so there was just enough room for everybody.).
  Our signal was the SpongeBob themesong playing. We ran out, jumped up and down and shouted at the top of our lungs. We sat down, sang a song from SpongeBob, and went to our places at the gym. Everyone was super hype, and excited. We cheered for everything.
  The teams ran out into the middle. Our volleyball team too, it was great. We went back to our places, and the homecoming kings and queens were announced. There was one from every grade.
After celebrating our "school royals", the races began. Previously, you could sign up to participate. 5 boys and 5 girls from every grade teamed up, and completed challenges like running in a potato sack, skateboarding and running with flippers on. The seniors won most of the challenges, but the final scores will be announced next week.
  The we had a shouting contest. The cheerleaders of the school organized a lot of the pep rally, and they asked every grade a question: "What is your cry?". And the class had to shout as loudly as they could: V-I-C-T-O-R-Y. The class that was the loudest, won. And this year the seniors did! Yep, we were pretty loud. So still drunk from our victory, the whole school rushed home for the weekend. Not the volleyball team. We had a home game we forgot about. Good thing I brought my uniform! So after hanging out with Dube till 3:30, we went to the gym.
  We were playing the Arcadia Titans. This was our homecoming game, and we didn't let ourselves loose to this team! We did very well in warm-ups, and in the first game too. We won by approximately 10 points. So we took the lead at the second match as well. We left them far behind.
  The match was at about 19 points, when the coach comes up to me, and says:
"You ready?"
"For what?" - I asked.
"You're going in the next game".
I was absolutely out of my mind! I wanted to play for so long now, but I was really nervous. So next time there was a change, Coach P walked me up to the side of the court, and called Michele off. Middle hitter position, in Michele's place!!! That's really tough, Michele's an amazing player. When my teammates saw me walking there to get on the court, I heard gasps, and everybody started cheering! My very first time on the court, and I felt happy, overwhelmed and really confused. I had no idea where I should have been. My head was spinning, I overconcentrated on the game. Good thing Brooke was there to help me, she told me where to stand and where to run. And my friends helped me with the passes and sets. They took a risk by setting a ball for me to hit on the weak side. Sarah later told me she was really hoping I'd at least get the ball across, It was risky, and I knew it. But I didn't think about it. I just hit it, and it was so hard it was almost a kill!
  We won the second game right after that (I went in when we were at 22). I was so happy! My friends shouted and hugged me, and cheered. Everyone congratulated and said how proud they were. Everyone knew it wasn't a big thing, but it was for me. They certainly made this night memorable. I was so moved that I actually dropped some tears of joy. The adrenaline was still pumping when the third match began. I cheered again, and I was absolutely satisfied with myself, my life and the world. By the end of the third match, Herb arrived, to witness the second time I played on the court. It was also at the end, when we had a huge lead. I didn't hit the ball this time, but I did send it back. We won the third match too, and won the game. It was awesome. It worked out well, for us to win, and the coach could put everyone in, even me. A lot of people congratulated me, and I was hype. I was so nervous, and afterwards, I still felt energetic.
  The whole team was proud of themselves. It was the girls who won this game, I just took the show by playing for the first time ever.
  I told everybody in my host family about the game, and we chilled for the rest of the evening in front of the TV. I feel so lucky to have found this group of people with whom I play volleyball with. They're great! And now even the exchange student who doesn't understand a lot of the game has a record, and happy memories of the first time she played.