It’s Friday night, and time for the weekly
high school football report!
Our Ridge River Raiders were visiting
Meadowvale today, and though we only had a small group of supporters at the
game; they were vocal and had a lot to cheer about. I hadn’t been to Meadowvale before now, and
while it is only about forty miles east of here, it’s fifteen miles out on the
other side of the highway up to Crystal Springs and a bit south; so I’ve only
passed near it on any of my limited travels since moving here. It is a mice place from what I saw while we
were there, and reminded me that I really do need to find some time some day to
get to know my neighbors better.
Going to our first away game as
cheerleaders has been quite an adventure; starting with the need to load up and
head out shortly after we were finished school for the day. We had to get all of our gear together first,
and then we had two volunteer drivers with minivans to take us to Meadowvale
while our football team had to make the trip in a school bus to have room for
all of their gear and supplies. We – the
cheerleaders – had extra spots in those minivans; so Rebecca hitched a ride
with Jenny so that she could go to the game too. That’s something that Jason Johnson noticed
right away and wasn’t happy about; since Rebecca had never been interested in
doing that during the month or so that they’d dated last fall. Lucas had been thrilled, though; and made
sure that Rebecca knew how much he appreciated her support.
Before I get to the game report, I’ll also
mention that Vanessa came to the game too.
There must be some entertaining scenes going on with the Sparks and
Reynolds families – particularly since Paul’s father is one of our
teachers. I will guess that Vanessa must
have decided that she really likes Paul to ask for a ride to the game with his
father – particularly since he had been going to the game with Paul’s and
Vanessa’s younger brothers. Mr. Sparks
occasionally seemed to be amused with the situation while we were all at the
game; but he also seemed to be happy to see Paul and Vanessa attracted to each
other. Teen drama can make life very
interesting, and I can tell you for sure that even a few weeks ago; I wouldn’t
have ever pictured Rebecca and Vanessa sitting together with some of the other
player girlfriends at an away football game while Rowen and I were busy
cheering for our team with the rest of the squad.
Then again, when Rowen and I were getting
ready to try out for the cheerleaders; we also didn’t think about what that
would be like when it’s cool and damp like it was tonight – though at least we
didn’t actually have any rain falling during the game. It’s not as though we didn’t know there would
be cold, wet games – it’s just that we didn’t expect that to be an every week
thing for either rain or cold. At this
rate, we’ll have snow games by mid-October!
I really don’t want to go there, so let’s
move on to the game news. We won the
game convincingly by a score of sixty-one to forty. As with our first two games, Meadowvale was
not ready for a team that was offense-centric instead of defensive; and they
were unable to adjust to defending against Michael and Tim in particular. That’s why they had five of our seven
touchdowns along with some other big plays while Caleb picked up the other two
touchdowns after the adjustments that the Meadowvale coaches did make just
opened up the run game for us. We only
kicked field goals on our last four drives to keep the score from getting even
more lop-sided; but also kept at least that twenty-one point lead for safety.
Being at an away game meant dealing with
some things that were new to Rowen and me – with one of the biggest being the
attention from a lot of local guys that Michael and Tim did not appreciate at
all. It’s not as though I haven’t
noticed the guys at home taking an avid interest in the visiting cheerleaders
at our home games, but it’s a lot different to be the object of that
interest. Jenny and some of the other
girls love the attention while Rowen and I didn’t really like it at all. That meant having to smile and be
enthusiastic and happy while deflecting the unwanted flirting and even a couple
of fairly crude offers. For me, it was
even stranger thanks to being able to hear and see more than the other girls
can. Even the empathic vibes can be
overwhelming with big crowds – especially in high-emotion situations like
sports events can be.
While dealing with that was the most
obvious teen weirdness tonight, there were other things that will take me some
time to get used to – like using change rooms and showers at other
schools. For that, I’ll readily admit to
being spoiled. Our school is
comparatively new, and our facilities are modern and kept sparkling clean. That’s definitely not the case at other small
town schools, and while Jenny assured us that Meadowvale was actually better
than most, and it was clean enough; it was also a sixty or seventy-year old
building that reminded me too much of certain kinds of teen movies from decades
past and had me looking around for peep holes in the shower room.
Yeah, I know, but in this day and age with
cameras on phones and social media; a girl can’t be too careful. For the record, there weren’t any; but I did
notice several wall repairs that strongly suggested that there had been a few
in the past – though I wouldn’t be able to tell you how long ago without more
study than I could do without being obvious.
One other thing that was different tonight but unrelated to the novelty
of being at another school was that the shower time was needed to help us get
warm again as well as to clean up after hours of exertion on the
sidelines. I can tell you that we were
all glad to be going home in minivans instead of a drafty school bus, though if
the guys minded doing that; they didn’t complain about it to anyone tonight.
It was late by the time we got back to the
school, and Rowen and I stayed and helped with both our gear and the football
equipment too before having our boys walk us home. We didn’t hang out together, but while Rowen
and Tim did their own thing; Michael stayed with me and we had a bakery bedtime
snack and cups of hot chocolate; cuddled on a sofa in the living room for a
while; and then he went home to get some sleep while I came up to my room to
get started on my bedtime computing.
That was more than two hours ago, and while
I could do more work; I’m just too tired to do anything else tonight. Dad’s in the city next week, and has a lot to
do to get ready for that this weekend; so I’m going to be doing more of the
chores tomorrow to help him out. While
that isn’t going to be particularly exciting, Michael’s going to be busy too;
and I really don’t mind helping Mom and Dad – especially since I’m not helping
out as much as I should during the week when I’m busy with everything else I
have on the go right now.
Anyway, I really have had enough fun for
the day, and am ready for some nap time; so, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
