by
Christine
issie was the kind of girl you called a tom boy, but that was since she found being a girl dull. She hated dresses, she hated mooning over boys as all the other girls in her school. She hated dresses, pink, purple or even aqua. She hated all the teen magazines that girls carried all over school, and others as well. She dressed casual not caring about bellbottoms, flares or whatever was the ‘cool’ thing to do at school.The only girl she hanged with was Patty, a girl who wasn’t exactly a tomboy since she did carry around all the magazines, her favorite color was aqua and she did spend hours drooling in the latest clothes catalogs. But she wasn’t like other girls. She didn’t tease Lissie for hanging with boys all the time. Patty respected her and Lissie respected Patty. Lissie had hair orangy redish, bluish lavendarish eyes and a stubborn disposition that normally got the best of her. Lissie’s best friend was Aaron, a boy who was tall for his age, and the thing they both shared was they both loved basketball. He got in the team last year but she didn’t make it. This year she swore she would make it. Chapter 1: Why? (told by Lissie)
I woke up at six like every other day, and threw on a pair of pants, shirt and jacket, did my hair in a high ponytail and ran out the door like usual but only today wasn’t usual, today was practice for the tryouts. I ran to the bus barely made it and plopped down in my usual seat next to Aaron. He like usual was scurrying to finish up his homework. "Hey, worried about practice today?" I said casually. He looked up and said, "Not really. Hey um, what’s the square root of 89 and 72?" I sighed tossed him my calculator and he finished up. He was the object of half the seventh grade girl’s affection and it got annoying when girls ran up to me and asked me if I knew who Aaron liked. I sighed worried about practice today and wondering if I would make the team this year. I had practiced every day and lately eight games out of ten, I beat Aaron-the team’s star player. The whole day dragged on till practice where I got totally worried and stressed. I ran into the girls changing room where I changed into my gym shorts and shirt. I ran up to the coach and asked, "When do we start practicing?" He looked at me and said, "the cheer leading practice is over there," pointing to the other gym teacher on the other side of the gym. I put on an exasperated look and said, "No, I don’t want to be a cheerleader, I want to play on the team." I heard everybody laughing at me. I turned to them and stuck my tongue out at them. The coach started to laugh hysterically. "I’m sorry but I only take boys." I was shocked, I was hurt-I was MAD! "Why?" He looked at me stupidly as if I had asked what 1+1 was. He said, "It wouldn’t look right. Bye what-ever-your-name-is." He pushed me away as I glared at everyone around me-even Aaron. Then as I was going to walk away, I got an idea. "Mr. Warden(the gym teacher), can I have a one on one with any of your students?" He shrugged and said, "Aaron, your my best player. Show her what you have." I gave Aaron an evil look as he raised an eyebrow. We played fair and square and at the end I won. "Coach, can I join the team NOW?" I asked. The coach was still glaring at Aaron who he had counted on to win. "No. I already have enough players and I never said I would let you join. I only said I would let you play a one on one." He said. "Go now and let us practice you-um-girl." I was totally mad and I gave the teacher the worst glare I had and stormed out of the gym. A month passed. Needless to say, I didn’t make the team. (Aaron and me also made up for my glaring at him and him not paying attention to what I was saying that morning.) Chapter 2: Really?
A month later(give or take a few days) I was in the gym shooting hoops when the coach and a kid in the team were arguing, both were mad. The coach kept on saying that he had to move from a D- to a C- to stay in the team. Finnally the boy screamed that he didn’t want to stay in the team any more. That gave me an idea. I ran to my locker got out a baseball cap and hid all my hair under it, pulled on some sunglasses to hide my eyes and since my clothes looked just like something a boy would wear(jeans and an overly large T-shirt) I looked just like a boy. I slumped a little and walked to the coach and said in a low voice, "I’ll play for you coach." The coach and I played one on one.(I won.) Then he agreed to let me on the team. I pulled off my hat and sunglasses shook out my hair and said happily, "REALLY?" He gaped at me and then finding nothing to say he shoved a uniform in my hands and let me stay in the team. So now I am the star player-still disliking those Teen magazines.
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