Just Another High School Story!

As image conscious as Leah was, she took a deep breath, and walked over to Mindy, she told Mindy to move out of the way when the ball came towards her, and she'd handle it, everyone heard this and Leah told the girl, Sara, who was the centre in the back to help her maintain a good rally, Wilson's High was very famous for their volleyball teams, both boys and girls, and the boy boys had already soared with flying colours, they'd won two consecutive sets and were keenly watching the girls' game, Leah felt the pressure as she realised that the entire team was looking at her for directions, the seriousness of the situation had been realised even by the most careless, and everyone held their breaths as the match started, Sara served and sure enough the game began at a steady pace, after a while the match had reached its final point, the opposite team's score was 24 and so was the score of Leah's team. She was exhausted, Sara and Leah had been playing back and forth, and the smasher on the other side, Playa, was really terrified, she always let nerves get to her, so by now the game was basically riding on two people, Sara and Leah, but mostly Leah, because as she covered the entire court, she grew tired, her body was failing her, her stamina was bad, she couldn't run around anymore, she'd let herself become fat by binging and of course, consequentially, her body was acting up, she breathed a shallow breath as she looked at the scoreboard, this was it, she'd take responsibility for whatever happened, the judge called it for a second and told the teams to rest, apparently there were some accusations by the opposite team, every team pulled this trick, they'd object to long passed decisions because they wanted to rest a little, Leah saw Ethan standing there, still clearly mad at her, but he controlled himself, and called Leah over, he was all about business right now, "You do know the game is riding on you, so I won't reiterate the obvious, have some water, take deep breaths, and listen to me, very carefully--" by now Ethan's voice was tender, his anger subdued, his eyes, soft and filled with warmth, he saw how much Leah wanted to win, not just for herself, sport had made her more patient and selfless, she knew that if they won, Sara would benefit, their team could play regionals, nationals, and whatnot, and most importantly, she'd have done her job as a captain by not letting Mindy be embarrassed, everyone clawed at what they could get, if they lost this match, after blaming Leah for a while, for poor management, and whatnot, they'd unleash wrath on Mindy, if they were to be angry at Leah's, they'd unleash hell upon Mindy, they'd make her take all the blame, even though Leah hated Mindy, right now she thought about what it felt like to be blamed for something, that isn't entirely your fault, or something that you didn't do on purpose, she didn't want anyone to suffer the way she did, therefore, she sucked it up, and vowed to Ethan and to herself, she'd win this game, "I know you can do this!" Ethan praised and Leah immediately nodded, "I know!" she said, and then leapt to the court, she huddled around the girls and said, "We fly together, we fall together!" This was another mantra for her whole team, she wanted them to know that whatever happened, it would be okay, they'd all be responsible, she planned to take all the scolding the coach could possibly give her, if and if need arose, otherwise, she was sure, she had it under control, after all the tough get going when the going gets tough, Leah smiled to herself at this thought and braced herself, service started from the other team, and she built a steady rally with them, after back and forth hits, Leah finally took a stance for a smash, the ball was set for her, high, she furiously leapt up, and bam!!

Everyone registered what happened, the smash crossed the net, she'd scored an advantage, by this time, everyone was in high spirits, cheering, freaking out, Leah had to be calm, one mistake would ruin all the good of her past success, she got ready to serve herself and wanted to end this, she threw the ball into the air, and slapped it hard, just like that before she could see what happened, Ethan screamed, "Yay!" And everyone started jumping, correction, not everyone, just the people of Wilson's High, Leah smiled as she saw so many people working with her, this was a win for them all.

She felt everyone's eyes on her, and this seemed suffocating, as opposed to what she'd thought it would be, what was this feeling of nervousness, she felt nauseous, her stomach was acting up again, the players all lined up to shake hands after the match, as Leah shook hands with the captain of the opposite team, something stung, she felt herself totally blanking out, and then all she knew was darkness.

She woke up, after quite a while, and didn't know where she was, quite a frequent thing, don't you think? She was at a hospital, Ethan had offered to take responsibility for taking her to a hospital and making sure that she got home safely, Leah had forgotten about her bulimia, but her bulimia hadn't forgotten her for even a second, one moment she was flying and the next she'd sunk, so low again that she was befuddled. Was bulimia supposed to be so hard, so irritating and suck out her life like this. She didn't get to attend the award ceremony for the Inter-school matches, she'd worked her ass off and what she got in reward was an IV drip, again... she sighed heavily, and the air around her seemed dead. As if the musical wind was taking a break, but why was that break supposed to be now, when she felt like she was a nuisance, like her feelings were troubling to others. She hated being dependant, whenever she was sick, she'd taken care of herself, all her life, but now she was dead weight, thinking about weight made her wanna puke again, she got up and headed towards the bathroom, with each step she took, she tried to reconsider what she was about to do, but it felt like someone else was dragging her to the toilet bowl, she dropped to her knees, and tears streamed down her face, she argued with herself and contradicted those arguments, her heart was beating really fast, she'd not puked in a good while, but just like any other habit, giving up abruptly was hard, she was about to put her knuckles into her mouth, repeat the worst mistake of her life, and go spiralling into darkness again...