Free A Girl Between by Marjorie Weismantel Page A

are at a distinct disadvantage.  Tall people always
have to lord it over us in volleyball.  It makes me feel so ineffectual.  What’s
their point?  We know they’re tall.  I try to just let it go, but sometimes it
really pisses me off.  My game doesn't improve when I get pissed off.
    Here we go.  One of Tonya's male friends was in this class.  I
saw him this morning hanging around her.  He wasn’t a bad looking guy but
something about him exudes creep.  The creep, Jimmy, turned out to be a pretty
good player.  He was tall and aggressive, basically smashing back any ball
within a six foot radius.  Unfortunately, he was opposite a skinny, geeky
looking guy so, you can picture the scenario.  Jimmy kept on smashing the ball
right on the little guy's head.  You could tell he was whamming it with all of
his might for kicks.  Then, he would let out a loud guffaw like it was a big
joke.  I didn't care about the score, but did he have to be such a jerk?  He was
even making the other tall kids uncomfortable.
    Finally, a guy from the back pushed the skinny kid aside and
got the ball back over and we got to serve.  Everyone took a turn and the team
gradually shifted around, so here we were again at the same deadly lineup!  Bully
Boy started hammering on the geek again.  Where was that guy with the fat head,
the teacher?  Couldn’t he blow his whistle or something?
    By now, I knew the poor kid's name was Nathan.  Someone
yelled, "Come on, Nathan. Don't just stand there.  What's wrong with you?  Hit
the ball."  Nathan couldn’t help it.  He just wasn't too coordinated.  He
was trying but when there was a big dope that's twice your size hammering at
you it's tough.  It wasn’t exactly a confidence builder.  
    FINALLY, the teacher, Fat Head, came out of his office and
blew his whistle.  Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and took off to the
locker rooms.

13.  Robotics
    I almost changed my mind about going to the Robotics meeting
at the end of the day.  Surviving my classes today zapped me of energy.  It was
hard to relax when people viewed you as “the one who fought Tonya and lived”.  As
a new person, there’s not a lot of room for error, so the pressure was on.  Everyone
was watching me, waiting for it to happen.  It was exhausting.  I was looking
forward to Robotics by the end of school so I figured, why not?  Maybe I’ll
make some friends.
    I found myself in room E-4 after school.  The first person I
saw was the volleyball failure, Nathan.  And Annie was right.  I was the only
girl in here, but that was OK.  I'd always had plenty of guy friends.  Everyone
was working on a big contraption that was connected to a pulley and wench.  It
took a minute for them to realize that I was standing there, watching them.  All
action stopped and they just looked at me.  I knew what they were thinking.  They
couldn’t figure out why a girl was standing there.
    A short dumpy man abruptly cleared his throat and approached
me.  “Can I help you?"
     I lifted my chin up and smiled broadly at him.  "Oh,
hi, my name is Tess.  I just started school here a couple days ago.  Thought
I'd come by and check out what’s going on here.”
    "Oh, REALLY?”  His eyes lit up.  What am I getting
myself into?  “We LOVE having new members.  Please join us.  I'm Mr. Kenney,
the advisor to the Robotics Club.”
    The boys weren’t as thrilled to see me.  They looked at me
like I was an alien invader.  I knew I'd have to prove myself to them.  That was
fine.  (Although why else would I be here?  It's certainly not just for the
GUYS.) One boy in particular looked at me suspiciously.  He was the first one
to speak. "So do you have any idea what we're putting together here?"
    I did a cursory exam before answering, "I think so.  It
looks to me like you've built a mechanism for lifting and moving objects.  Is
it working OK?"
    Mr. Skeptic loudly explained (like I have bad hearing!), "We're
having some