Flash Back Friday: Chapter 2
Before I knew it, the summer was over and it was time to start a new chapter of my life. It was a surreal experience walking through the same halls my siblings walked through, as well as my mom so many years before them. Everyone I knew was excited about the prospect of being a high school student. I, on the other hand, was more nervous than anything else. I wasn't sure what to expect, and trying to navigate a school I had never been in before to find my classes was really all that was at the forefront of my mind. I had a lot of the teachers my siblings had previously, and I was picked out easily by all the teachers because we all looked alike. I don't remember much about my first day of school, but apparently I missed the first day of cross country practice and Steven went nuts about it. He made sure I was at the next practice and that I never missed another practice again. Even though he wasn't supposed to, he drove me to practice and home from practice.
I remember being anxious and nervous about practice. I didn't know what to expect, and there were a lot of faces there I didn't recognize, but I was relieved for the ones I did. The Manthei sisters were a fun pair. I had known them most of my life due to being in the same Girl Scout Troop growing up. I felt like I had a bit of an advantage knowing them just because they made me feel much more at ease and I trusted them to help me figure out the ropes of this new sport I was thrown into. The park itself where we practiced wasn't unfamiliar to me. I had gone there for summer camps and field trips a couple times before, and the muddy lake in the middle of the park was where I first experienced my fear of fish (fish totally creep me out). Our coach pulled up in his little black truck after we were all dressed in our running attire. He stepped out of his truck with his bucket hat and carried the cooler of ice cold water over to the stone picnic tables that sat under one of the pavilions. Coach Coleman was his name, and I found out that he was actually a sprinter in his younger days and was gifted with "cat-like agilities," whatever that meant.
I could be skewing numbers, but I think we were told to run 5 laps around the park. I went with the other girls so I could learn the course and to pick their brains about everything. I think I only made it 3 laps that day before I decided I couldn't (or probably just didn't want to) run any further. I remember clearly using the excuse that I couldn't breathe and that my sides were hurting. I sat down on the benches under the watchful gaze of Coach Coleman who looked more disappointed than anything else in me for stopping so soon. After I sat down for a few minutes, I realized I could have finished if I had really wanted to. I came to terms with myself that I was being a pansy, and I vowed to never tell my coach that I couldn't finish what he asked me to do again. Even if I had to walk for a few minutes on a long run, I wouldn't stop. I can honestly say that I stayed true to my vow, and the only time I never finished a workout was when I was told by my Coach to stop. I never wanted to be a disappointment, even if I had no desire to do what I was being asked or told to do.
Our team quickly became close knit. We did everything together, and I mean just about everything. My freshman year we had a 10 minute break in between our first block class and our second block class. We wold all find each other in the middle of the atrium and hang out before the bell rang to go to second block. Stinky would always be with me as well, and she brought some of the volleyball girls with her as time went on. Break was probably my favorite part of the whole day. We would always talk and laugh, and some of us would play with a hackey sack (not me though, I'm very uncoordinated). I remember this one girl who would come around us a lot. I can't remember her name, but I knew she had a huge crush on Steven at the time. She made it fairly obvious about her feelings for Steven and made it super awkward for all of us who were standing around him. I'd always get annoyed when she came by just because I felt as though she was interrupting the fun we were all having because it was difficult to act like ourselves when she was around. Maybe I was jealous, but I don't think that was an emotion that had registered on my radar yet for this guy.
On the weekends you could usually find me at Stinky's house. It was easily one of my favorite places to go. Her family had a bigger house than mine did, and they had a bunch of land so we spent most of the time outside riding the horse or driving around on the golf cart (when it worked). One particular day we got a phone call from some of my teammates about meeting up to hangout. We called Tim to see if he and Steven were going to go, but Steven had a girlfriend at the time and wasn't really interested in going. I went on a rampage. I was so irritated with him for ditching us all the time, and I let him know how I felt about it. He never hung out with us when the team got together to do things on the weekends, and I think I even called him lame for it. He didn't hang out with us that time either, but my rampage worked, because guess who showed up in the parking lot the next time we all met?
The Manthei's had a big van, but it was essentially a bus. I literally cannot think about the Manthei's without picturing that van. Sarah was the oldest of all of us, so she volunteered to drive to the Beachwood movie theater in Athens to go see Napolean Dynamite. I'm not entirely sure she should have had that many people in the van with her at the time, but none of us were going to rat her out for it. We rode all the way to Athens with the windows down, blasting music the entire way there. I spent most of that time hanging out with Stinky and Tim, and it was the same when we got to the movie theater. We all purchased our tickets and then went inside to wait for everyone to be ready to go find seats. Tim went to the gumball machines and stuck in a quarter, and he was greeted with his prize of a plastic, red, ring. He didn't want it, so he gave it to me and I remember it being my absolute favorite ring to wear. In fact, I wore that ring until it broke, and I was devastated when it did. After we saw the movie, Stephen Noble and a few others decided that we needed new cross country t-shirts and that it needed to say "It's pretty much my favorite sport" on it, modeled after one of the quotes from the movie. The whole ride back to the high school that evening consisted of laughter, a trip to sonic, and lots of chatting about the new-found t-shirt idea. Somehow on the way back I ended up in the seat next to Steven.
Car rides make me tired. I can't help but to fall asleep as soon as the car starts rolling down the road, unless I'm driving of course. That night riding home was no different. As I started drifting to sleep, I remember falling slightly over to the left. I wanted to let myself fall all the way over onto the shoulder of the boy I didn't know I liked, but who I was curiously drawn to in that moment. I knew it would probably be a silly thing to do, so I made sure to not let myself fall completely asleep. When we got back to the high school that night to reunite with the adults who would be taking us home, I remember feeling a little sad that I never did fall onto Steven's shoulder, but also a little confused. Why on earth would I want to put my head on the shoulder of some guy I barely knew, let alone some guy I didn't even like in that way?
One afternoon after school instead of heading out to cross country practice, some of us loaded up in an SUV that Coach Coleman borrowed from one of his family members. We were headed to Berry College to watch a cross country meet that a few of Coach Coleman's former athletes were racing in. I had to call mom to make sure it was okay, and when I got the green light from her, I piled in with the rest of the team who were going. It was such a fun time riding up to Berry. I never wore shorts unless I was at practice because people used to make fun of how long and skinny my legs were, so I was in jeans and my favorite pair of high-top, baby blue converse shoes that had been specially colored by gel pens during band class. Since I was sitting in the very back of the SUV, it was more comfortable for me to swing my feet up over the back of the seat in front of me so that my legs weren't so cramped. Steven and Tim were there, and Steven seemed to be in a bit of a silly mood that day. He was sitting in front of me, so I tried to annoy him with my shoes being in his face the entire ride. Instead of getting irritated with me, he decided he was going to act like he was making out with my shoe. What a total weirdo, but I just laughed about it. When we got to the meet, we all piled out and caught the rest of the women's race. Steven and I walked along together and I asked him questions about the race and how things were scored. Of course he could talk anyone's ear off about running, so I used this to my advantage to learn a little more about this foreign sport. When the meet was over, we all met back up with Coach and joked around a bit. Coach Coleman and I started acting like we were fighting each other with kung fu moves and he totally punched me in the nose! It was an absolute accident that caught all of us off guard, but most of all him. I couldn't help but to laugh and tease him about it because he's so good-natured that he would never hurt a fly. He felt so awful about the whole thing, but he'd probably claim to this day that I stepped into his fist and he didn't actually punch me. 😂
I don't remember much about the trip back, but something changed a little bit on that trip between Steven and I. I felt like we had broken down a barrier and had started to become friends. He had never paid so much attention to me as he did on that trip, and I was grateful for a new friendship on the team. From that moment on we talked a lot more with each other at practice and on the way home from practice, through AIM, and even email. I can't deny that our friendship wasn't as instantaneous as the friendship I had with his brother, Tim, was, but fast forward a couple of months where electricity and sparks would start flying when our hands held onto each other for just a little bit longer at the ring of the bell to move us on to second block class.
I remember being anxious and nervous about practice. I didn't know what to expect, and there were a lot of faces there I didn't recognize, but I was relieved for the ones I did. The Manthei sisters were a fun pair. I had known them most of my life due to being in the same Girl Scout Troop growing up. I felt like I had a bit of an advantage knowing them just because they made me feel much more at ease and I trusted them to help me figure out the ropes of this new sport I was thrown into. The park itself where we practiced wasn't unfamiliar to me. I had gone there for summer camps and field trips a couple times before, and the muddy lake in the middle of the park was where I first experienced my fear of fish (fish totally creep me out). Our coach pulled up in his little black truck after we were all dressed in our running attire. He stepped out of his truck with his bucket hat and carried the cooler of ice cold water over to the stone picnic tables that sat under one of the pavilions. Coach Coleman was his name, and I found out that he was actually a sprinter in his younger days and was gifted with "cat-like agilities," whatever that meant.
I could be skewing numbers, but I think we were told to run 5 laps around the park. I went with the other girls so I could learn the course and to pick their brains about everything. I think I only made it 3 laps that day before I decided I couldn't (or probably just didn't want to) run any further. I remember clearly using the excuse that I couldn't breathe and that my sides were hurting. I sat down on the benches under the watchful gaze of Coach Coleman who looked more disappointed than anything else in me for stopping so soon. After I sat down for a few minutes, I realized I could have finished if I had really wanted to. I came to terms with myself that I was being a pansy, and I vowed to never tell my coach that I couldn't finish what he asked me to do again. Even if I had to walk for a few minutes on a long run, I wouldn't stop. I can honestly say that I stayed true to my vow, and the only time I never finished a workout was when I was told by my Coach to stop. I never wanted to be a disappointment, even if I had no desire to do what I was being asked or told to do.
Our team quickly became close knit. We did everything together, and I mean just about everything. My freshman year we had a 10 minute break in between our first block class and our second block class. We wold all find each other in the middle of the atrium and hang out before the bell rang to go to second block. Stinky would always be with me as well, and she brought some of the volleyball girls with her as time went on. Break was probably my favorite part of the whole day. We would always talk and laugh, and some of us would play with a hackey sack (not me though, I'm very uncoordinated). I remember this one girl who would come around us a lot. I can't remember her name, but I knew she had a huge crush on Steven at the time. She made it fairly obvious about her feelings for Steven and made it super awkward for all of us who were standing around him. I'd always get annoyed when she came by just because I felt as though she was interrupting the fun we were all having because it was difficult to act like ourselves when she was around. Maybe I was jealous, but I don't think that was an emotion that had registered on my radar yet for this guy.
On the weekends you could usually find me at Stinky's house. It was easily one of my favorite places to go. Her family had a bigger house than mine did, and they had a bunch of land so we spent most of the time outside riding the horse or driving around on the golf cart (when it worked). One particular day we got a phone call from some of my teammates about meeting up to hangout. We called Tim to see if he and Steven were going to go, but Steven had a girlfriend at the time and wasn't really interested in going. I went on a rampage. I was so irritated with him for ditching us all the time, and I let him know how I felt about it. He never hung out with us when the team got together to do things on the weekends, and I think I even called him lame for it. He didn't hang out with us that time either, but my rampage worked, because guess who showed up in the parking lot the next time we all met?
The Manthei's had a big van, but it was essentially a bus. I literally cannot think about the Manthei's without picturing that van. Sarah was the oldest of all of us, so she volunteered to drive to the Beachwood movie theater in Athens to go see Napolean Dynamite. I'm not entirely sure she should have had that many people in the van with her at the time, but none of us were going to rat her out for it. We rode all the way to Athens with the windows down, blasting music the entire way there. I spent most of that time hanging out with Stinky and Tim, and it was the same when we got to the movie theater. We all purchased our tickets and then went inside to wait for everyone to be ready to go find seats. Tim went to the gumball machines and stuck in a quarter, and he was greeted with his prize of a plastic, red, ring. He didn't want it, so he gave it to me and I remember it being my absolute favorite ring to wear. In fact, I wore that ring until it broke, and I was devastated when it did. After we saw the movie, Stephen Noble and a few others decided that we needed new cross country t-shirts and that it needed to say "It's pretty much my favorite sport" on it, modeled after one of the quotes from the movie. The whole ride back to the high school that evening consisted of laughter, a trip to sonic, and lots of chatting about the new-found t-shirt idea. Somehow on the way back I ended up in the seat next to Steven.
 |
| Me with Tiki (dog), Blaze (cat), and my favorite red ring |
Car rides make me tired. I can't help but to fall asleep as soon as the car starts rolling down the road, unless I'm driving of course. That night riding home was no different. As I started drifting to sleep, I remember falling slightly over to the left. I wanted to let myself fall all the way over onto the shoulder of the boy I didn't know I liked, but who I was curiously drawn to in that moment. I knew it would probably be a silly thing to do, so I made sure to not let myself fall completely asleep. When we got back to the high school that night to reunite with the adults who would be taking us home, I remember feeling a little sad that I never did fall onto Steven's shoulder, but also a little confused. Why on earth would I want to put my head on the shoulder of some guy I barely knew, let alone some guy I didn't even like in that way?
One afternoon after school instead of heading out to cross country practice, some of us loaded up in an SUV that Coach Coleman borrowed from one of his family members. We were headed to Berry College to watch a cross country meet that a few of Coach Coleman's former athletes were racing in. I had to call mom to make sure it was okay, and when I got the green light from her, I piled in with the rest of the team who were going. It was such a fun time riding up to Berry. I never wore shorts unless I was at practice because people used to make fun of how long and skinny my legs were, so I was in jeans and my favorite pair of high-top, baby blue converse shoes that had been specially colored by gel pens during band class. Since I was sitting in the very back of the SUV, it was more comfortable for me to swing my feet up over the back of the seat in front of me so that my legs weren't so cramped. Steven and Tim were there, and Steven seemed to be in a bit of a silly mood that day. He was sitting in front of me, so I tried to annoy him with my shoes being in his face the entire ride. Instead of getting irritated with me, he decided he was going to act like he was making out with my shoe. What a total weirdo, but I just laughed about it. When we got to the meet, we all piled out and caught the rest of the women's race. Steven and I walked along together and I asked him questions about the race and how things were scored. Of course he could talk anyone's ear off about running, so I used this to my advantage to learn a little more about this foreign sport. When the meet was over, we all met back up with Coach and joked around a bit. Coach Coleman and I started acting like we were fighting each other with kung fu moves and he totally punched me in the nose! It was an absolute accident that caught all of us off guard, but most of all him. I couldn't help but to laugh and tease him about it because he's so good-natured that he would never hurt a fly. He felt so awful about the whole thing, but he'd probably claim to this day that I stepped into his fist and he didn't actually punch me. 😂
I don't remember much about the trip back, but something changed a little bit on that trip between Steven and I. I felt like we had broken down a barrier and had started to become friends. He had never paid so much attention to me as he did on that trip, and I was grateful for a new friendship on the team. From that moment on we talked a lot more with each other at practice and on the way home from practice, through AIM, and even email. I can't deny that our friendship wasn't as instantaneous as the friendship I had with his brother, Tim, was, but fast forward a couple of months where electricity and sparks would start flying when our hands held onto each other for just a little bit longer at the ring of the bell to move us on to second block class.
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