As soon as I arrived at the school gym, I saw a note hung against the door entrance that read: "For girls pick up your gym uniform in the girl's locker room on the left side of the gym and boys pick up your gym uniform from the boy's locker room on the right side of the gym."
Upon entering the locker room, I was a bit surprised to see how small it was. In all the years I had been here, there hadn't ever been a reason to enter the locker room before. I could see that some of the girls must've gotten here much sooner since they had already changed into their gym attire.
I headed over to the coach who was handing out all of the gym clothes. She was an incredibly tall woman who towered over me, I had heard from other girls that she was difficult to deal with. "Your name?" she said, her voice was quite a powerful one. Although, I can't say I was very surprised by that.
"Oh it's Ashley Garza," I replied, probably sounding a bit frightened. That may have to do with the fact that I was in fact a little afraid of her.
I watched as she checked off my name on the clipboard for attendance. Before she started to search through the pile of clothes for the ones with my name. As soon as she found it she made a face, glancing back and forth between both me and the uniform.
"I don't think this is going to fit you very well. Are you sure you're a size small?" She said, sounding confused. Although I could completely understand her confusion, I was definitely not a small.
"Uh, no I'm a large actually. Could you just give me a large instead and give someone else the small?" I said, hoping that she would just do me this small favor. It was my fault, my mom had insisted on filling out all of the paperwork when I was enrolling for the school year. And I know that she often forgets that I'm not a little kid anymore and that my body has changed. I can't believe I hadn't remembered to check everything over before we submitted all of the paperwork.
"No. You're already a senior. You should know better by now. Next year you'll be off to a university. Do you really think that behavior like this will be tolerated?" She said curtly. It took all of my willpower to resist the urge to say something I'd regret.
"Yes, of course. I am so sorry it was an honest mistake but I promise nothing like this will ever happen again. I'll submit the order to get a new uniform today so that I can wear the uniform starting tomorrow. For now, I'll just wear my regular clothes," I responded, before grabbing my bag so I could leave the locker room.
"You will get a zero for the day if you refuse to dress out. It is your fault and you must deal with the consequences. And, since you decided to neglect to do your paperwork properly, you should be aware of the fact that your new uniform won't come in for 5-14 business days from the time you put in the new submission." She responded with irritation seeping into her voice.
"Oh, of course. I'll make sure to dress out and again I'm sorry for my actions. I'll do better in the future," I said, trying my absolute best to contain my anger. I know I made a mistake but I feel like she could have at least attempted to have some sort of compassion. Whatever, it's fine, I'm sure class won't get any worse.
As soon as I slipped on my gym shirt and shorts I was reminded why wearing clothes too small is not a common practice. It felt like the sleeves were cutting off my arm circulation, the fabric looked like it was clinging on for dear life and the shorts were so tight my thighs were flushing pink. This was not a look. I guess I should count my blessings that it was unlikely anybody I knew would be in this class.
I glanced myself over and tried my best to make the outfit as flattering as I could but to no avail. I mean who cares right? I'm an independent woman. I don't need anybody's validation. Can a woman not just exist in peace without others trying to put her down for something so inconsequential? I mean some may say that I'm using intellectualization as a defense mechanism, but those people would be wrong. I would never do something like that, right?
Stepping into the gym made me feel all sorts of nervous. It seemed like most people hadn't arrived yet so I stood around awkwardly while I waited for everyone to shuffle in.
My breath hitched a little in my throat when I saw Mike step into the gym. This made no sense to me. Why is he even here? He's on the football team, he already met his athletic requirements. Unless he actually enjoys this and he's choosing this as an elective? Do people actually do that? I thought that was just a lie people spouted off in movies. But yet here he was, looking unbothered.
I suddenly became acutely aware of how I was dressed again. Being so bored in here and adjusting to the blood pooling had somewhat subdued my thought process but now the reminder was back. Oh god. Could I hide behind someone? I am pretty short. And there are tons of tall guys to hide behind. Forgone were the thoughts of earlier about embracing my independent womanhood.
As soon as I spotted the nearest tall guy I immediately went behind him to hide. I would just stay here the whole class, no problem. I can handle that. The bell rang out loudly and I turned my attention to the front of the gym where there were now two coaches. The woman with whom I spoke earlier and a man whom I was not familiar with.
"Alright everyone listen up! Today you will be playing dodgeball. It will be boys versus girls. Boys go to the wall on the right and girls take the left. When I blow my whistle you will start, once you get hit you're out. I don't want to see any sore losers in here." The male coach shouted, before setting down a bunch of dodgeballs in the center of the room.
Well, this shouldn't be too bad. I'll just get hit and call it a day. I suck at sports, it will by no means hurts my feelings that I have to sit out and watch most of the time. If anything, that's just another positive.
As if he had a radar for detecting my happiness, Jake strolled in to snuff it out. Great. Just what I needed.
"Jake, why are you late today?" I heard the coach I spoke to earlier ask, well this should be interesting. I can't wait for her to put him in his place. Maybe today is working out the way I wanted after all.
"I'm sorry coach, I lost track of time," he said smoothly, not even the slightest hint of fear in his voice. Well, time for that cocky bastard to be put in his place.
"No problem at all Jake. I'm glad to see you here again. Just try your best to not be late next time. Go over to the boy's side, we're playing dodgeball today," She responded warmly with a smile. What the hell? Just because he used to be on the football team he gets special treatment? Ugh. Typical.
As soon as he got to the boy's side and spotted me from across him his eyes narrowed at me in a scowl. Well damn. It's not like I wanted to see him either. Off the whistle sounded. While everyone else seemed to rush forward to grab a ball, I stayed back. Like I said, it's not like it mattered anyway.
Instead, I focused my attention on Mike. I have had a crush on him for years. He was always such a great guy but he and I never really hung out. Wow, he just looks so hot right now, If only I had the confidence to just go up to him and we could talk. Maybe then he would-
I was immediately snapped away from my delusional fantasies when a dodgeball smacked me in the face. What the fuck? I felt a searing pain and touched my lip which now felt swollen, only to realize I now had blood on my hand.
I looked up to see Jake looking directly at me, and for a moment it seemed like I almost saw regret in his eyes. But of course, that demon has no feelings and he immediately cracked a smile and shrugged. "Oops. My bad," he said coldly while staring me down.
"You did that on purpose you fucking asshole!" I shouted, before realizing my outburst had caught the attention of everyone else in the gym who were now watching us in silence.
"That is enough out of you Garza! I realize that Jake accidentally hurt you but that is no way to speak to another student in my class. Count this as your last warning because you're going to the front office next time. By the way, you're getting a zero for the day. Now go to the nurse, I don't want you dripping blood all over my gym floor," she said while seeming to show no sympathy for me.
"But that isn't fair! I wore my gym uniform and everything, please I didn't mean to lash out. I'm just in pain,"
"You have a lot to learn about the real world, Garza. There are no second chances. Now go to the nurse and I'm going to have another student escort you down. I don't trust you to not wander off." Before turning her attention back to the rest of the class, she said, "Mike, could you please walk Garza to the nurse? Don't worry about making it back before the end of class, just grab your things for the next period. I don't want you to be late for your next class."
Oh come on, could this day get any worse? I mean sure I wanted to talk to Mike in general but not now. Not when I had a bloody lip and embarrassed myself in front of the whole class wearing clothes that were way too tight for me.
A/N: I know that I'm taking a long time to get through the first day of school, but I do feel like it's necessary to establish both who Ashley is and how/who she interacts with others in her circle. And don't worry, most days I write about won't take so many chapters to get through a single day lmao
I just really wanted to make sure that I started off everything right. I hope that you guys are really enjoying this because it has been fun for me to write it thus far. I will try to upload the next chapter tomorrow and maybe even today. It depends on how my schedule goes and how much time I have left after finishing stuff for my courses. Writing this has been pretty easy for me to do and relaxing so there's a good chance it'll be done today. But again, if not, it for sure will be tomorrow. Hope you guys have a great day regardless!
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