Free Tell Me If the Lovers Are Losers by Cynthia Voigt Page B

“and like you, they said yes.”
    Niki snorted, shook her head either in amazement or affection. Ann wasn’t sure.
    â€œBut,” Hildy continued, “my mother does not dress me. I dress myself.”
    Days went by, weeks, and Ann continued to wonder About Hildy. And Niki. And Ann.
    â™¦Â Â Â â™¦Â Â Â â™¦
    They met people, they ate and slept and washed their faces, they read and wrote and sometimes thought; while around them the fall deepened its colors and brought variety to the landscape. Later, all this blurred together in Ann’s memory, while the volleyball games remained vivid.
    Ann did sign up to take volleyball. The freshman volleyball class met three times a week, as did all freshman sports classes, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, from four to five. They shared the gym with the sophomore volleyball class. They also shared the instructor.
    The instructor was a graduate student from the Education Department who knew, or so she said, “not much about volleyball but lots about teaching.” On the firt day of class, she was joined by the chairman of the Physical Education Department, Mrs. Franklin, who coached juniors and seniors. Mrs. Franklin explained the volleyball ladder, its system of challenges and the time allowed for responses. All classes played within the ladder for the ten-week sports semester At the end, the top freshman team would hold the Freshman Cup, the top sophomore team the Sophomore Cup, and so on.
    Niki raised her hand. “The team on the top of its ladder. Can it challenge a team from another class?”
    â€œYes,” Mrs. Franklin said. “You can challenge one step above you. Although I should tell you, such challenges are seldom successful, not even in some of the more popular sports, where the contest can be quite close. For example,many preparatory schools now offer good training in hockey and tennis, but even so, cross-class challenges don’t succeed. And volleyball—well, it isn’t the kind of sport taken by those who take athletics seriously, is it? Or by competitive girls. I’m not insulting anyone, am I?” She nodded her smiling face around the circle. Hildy raised her hand.
    â€œYes?” asked Mrs. Franklin.
    â€œWhat?” responded Hildy.
    â€œYou had a question.”
    â€œNo, I didn’t.”
    â€œWhy was your hand raised?”
    â€œYou asked if you were insulting anybody, and I raised my hand,” Hildy explained.
    The circle tittered. The chairman’s face grew pink. The graduate student entered the conversation: “I’m sure Miss—”
    â€œKoenig,” Hildy said. She raised herself to her knees and extended her right hand. “How do you do?”
    â€œMiss Koenig meant no disrespect,” the assistant addressed the chairman over her shoulder, as she leaned to shake Hildy’s hand.
    â€œOf course not,” Hildy said. “I would not mean disrespect. I meant to answer the question.”
    â€œAh. Has the disrespect come home to roost?” Niki employed her stage whisper.
    â€œWell,” Mrs. Franklin said, her eyes searching the group.
    â€œDoes that answer your question about the ladder?” the assistant hastily asked Niki.
    Niki nodded her head.
    The chairman left them then and the assistant instructed them to form themselves into four teams. This they did, with five people left over. The assistant placed those five people on one team or another and tossed two balls toward the two courts. “Go ahead and play,” she said. For good measure she gave a toot upon her whistle before turning her attention to the sophomore teams, who had a game in progress.
    Niki’s face gleamed with laughter. Ann, pulled into a team from the sidelines where she had been quite content, stood uselessly by a pole. Eloise was there, and the lovely blonde, Sarah, and Carol the redhead. Ann greeted Trudy Wallenbach, who had earned the