Fit to be Thrown

Once upon a time I was in a Fit for Life class. It was required for graduation, and basically, I hated it.

Not that I have anything against being Fit for Life, or being physically fit or against exercise period, although these things tend to get between me and my sleep. And that makes me cranky.
But in this Fit for Life class we were required to do various physical things like pull-ups, ultimate frisbee and Running a mile and a half in Fifteen Minutes Or Less.
I think it was fifteen minutes? (For the boys it was twelve?)

And lo, it came to pass in those days that I could not a run a mile and a half in fifteen minutes to save my life. I know, because I tried. Three times. And I failed, three times. Then I gave up and walked three miles in 45 minutes so I could save my grade. It wasn’t bad, really, because that got me out of playing kickball or softball or whatever the class was playing, and I hate organized sports even more than I hated running.

Our teacher made up these bogus games with teams and balls and “take two steps then throw!” techniques every single class period. I swear every game was the same, only with a different ball.

Fortunately for me, I had a partner in my hating-fit-for-life club. And she was in my class. It didn’t take long before our teacher knew he had Trouble on his hands, and he started making new rules directed to us.

“Jackie and Rachel, opposite teams!” (We guarded each other.)

“For every two boy-passes, you have to throw it to a girl!” (There were like 4 girls in the class. Somehow we were never open.)

At least Jackie could run.

One day we played hockey with foam-tipped hockey sticks and a ball for a puck. Jackie and I slid our goals together, sat facing each other, and made up a fencing routine. That one lasted quite a while, until
“Girls, go play with the rest of the class!”

Oh - and we also played tennis. I say “played” because that’s exactly what Jackie and I did. We didn’t care about technique, number of volleys, getting the ball over the net? Honestly? We laughed more than we hit, and that was just fine with me.

One night during the school year a group of my friends decided to play tennis at the high school courts. Jackie and I joined them, but we sat and tossed balls at each other, naming them as we went. Then we started throwing them at the rest of our friends who were actually trying to play. It was totally the best part of the night.

Let me tell you how much I wanted to throw balls at Slice yesterday.
But somehow, I knew it wouldn't be funny to him.