Kamikaze & Freshman Gym Class.

It is strange when I think back to my high school days. There is so much I can't actually remember. The main things I remember about high school are: my older boyfriend (he was around for most all of it so I can't really separate those memories), my youth group (he was there too), my friend Stephanie (partners in crime - LOL) and crazy stuff like this freshman gym class I was in. In our school we had to take gym our freshman and sophmore years. You had to have those two gym credits to graduate. I am not sure why the school scheduled it this way but half of the girls in my class were freshman girls and the other half were sophmore girls who had flunked gym the previous year. Those girls were scary! I can't remember everyone in the class but it is crazy how many I actually do remember ( Stephanie Norris, Debbie Rowe, Brooke Benedict, Heidi Morrow (rip), Dee Speckheart, Stacey Webb, Sandy Mills...) I know there were a bunch of other people I just don't remember who. Either way...it was a cut throat kinda class. I feared for my life. Seriously. When we played basketball I went home with bruises and scratches. It was full body contact basketball. The teacher was this nice lady we called "Winnie". Her husband was a math teacher and she was what you would expect of a woman gym teacher. (I can't believe I just said that). I never saw her as very feminine but thinking back it would be difficult to be girly in a gym suit. Anyhoo....in this class we would play this game called "Kamikazi". Let me explain. They put us in the "wrestling room". It is a smaller room with wrestling mats. I don't know if all schools have a special room for wrestlers but ours did. A friend of mine did dirty things with her boyfriend in that room (that is a story I don't need to share). The mats were rolled up and off to the side. I can't give you even an estimate of what size the room was but it was probably the size of a classroom. So we were put into teams and divided on either side of the room. Then the games began. I forget how many balls we were given - I think 2-4. We played "dodgeball" at close range with multiple balls. Isn't that insane? Do you know how bad it hurt when a ball hit you? I can still feel the sting. I HATED it. Looking back I am not sure why I didn't just try to get out right away but I didn't. I always tried so hard. I wasn't very good at it. The mean girls were great. I think they liked it. They would look at the freshman girls and point at who they were going to hit the hardest. Okay, maybe that is a slight exageration but that is how I want to remember it. There was this bully in the class. She had been a bully back in middle school too. She was always threatening to beat me up. I was so scared of her. I went out of my way to avoid her because she was out to get me. No matter what I did she hated my guts. Well, she was always yelling at someone in that class. Each week she would pick someone new to threaten. One day she was yelling at one of the girls in the class. I remember I was looking at a Sassy magazine with Debbie Rowe and I heard the bully just yelling at this girl while she was getting dressed. My blood was starting to boil. So...I stood up and I yelled at her. I told her I was sick of hearing her pick on someone new every week. I figured my week was coming up soon so I might as well get a head start. I said, "you have been threatening to beat me up since I was in 7th grade and you have never done a thing about it - and you are always threatening someone. So, either do it or shut up!" She was so shocked that anyone (especially me) would stand up to her. I heard someone say, "Winnie - Delilah is going to beat so-in-so up" so I decided to leave the locker room. When I turned the girl hit me in the back - with a girl punch at that.... I was a little stunned and turned but the teacher was already there (at that point I thanked God because I still didn't want the girl to beat me up). She ended up getting suspended. I got nothing. She never bothered me again. I don't even remember her later in High School. She may have moved for all I know. But I have thought of her over the years. I wonder what was going on in her life that made her so angry. Now that I am all grown up - I know she did not have a charmed life. She acted that way - always picking on someone - for a reason. I kinda feel sorry for her.