The Final Game of the Season
Admiral Biscuit
Most of the time, coach Big Bell waited until after the team had changed into their practice clothes and come out on the court to give a pep talk or announcements; this time she was waiting in the locker room, sitting on one of the changing benches. She was still on her cell phone when Sunset walked in, and motioned for her to wait.
Not that she needed any hand gesture; all the members of the volleyball team that had arrived thus far were standing around awkwardly. Once she’d put on her uniform, High Winds grabbed Sunset in an unwanted hug. “Sorry about your partner.”
Sunset didn’t reply, she didn’t know what to say.
It was five minutes after practice normally would have started when Big Bell finally spoke. She sighed and shifted on her seat, then cleared her throat. “Right. So I’m sure everyone’s heard the news. If you somehow haven’t, or if you’ve been listening to someone who’s gossiping and doesn't have all the facts, here’s the deal. Kerfuffle got hit by a car on her way home from the game yesterday. I was just on the phone with her parents, and the good news is that the hospital has just upgraded her status to ‘stable’—”
Chatter immediately started among the team, quickly dropping off as Big Bell crossed her arms—as effective a signal as blowing her whistle would have been.
“—however, she’s got a long road of recovery ahead of her, and I don’t expect her to return to the team when she does come back to school.” Big Bell sighed. “Besides a lot of bruising and lacerations, she lost her left leg in the accident.”
The coach gave them a second to process her words—some people already knew that, others had heard it whispered through the grapevine, and a few were completely blindsided by the news.
“Tomorrow, I have Principal Celestia’s blessing to take a bus to the hospital during morning visiting hours—that would be during third period and into lunch—we’ll all meet here in the gym and go as a group. I encourage everyone to participate, but if you’re uncomfortable with the idea, it is not required."
“Either way, when she comes back to school, I expect that all you girls will support your teammate.” Big Bell sighed again, and ran her hands through her hair. “As for practice today . . . well, I honestly don’t think we’ll get anything accomplished. We’ll just run through drills, but if you don’t feel up to it, I understand.”
“Is she still going to be on the team?”
“She’s on the team until she tells me she wants to quit, Cloudy. If she decides she wants to take a position on the court, I’ll figure out a way to make it happen.”
Sunset grimaced. What was more tragic, Kerfuffle losing a leg, or her coming back for a game or two in a wheelchair? How would that even work?
She should come to our world. Some years back my younger brother got invited to try out a wheelchair rugby team.
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I'm not sure having one wheelchair in a field of normally-abled girls would work out (I'm also not sure it wouldn't, though), but there are certainly leagues for differently-abled folks. Probably some games lend themselves more to it than others.
By the high school athletics rules in Michigan, as long as Kerfuffle is approved by the athletics board to play with a prosthetic leg, she would be allowed on the high school team. Off the top of my head I can't think of a reason they'd ban her, but I didn't do a lot of research into what types of medical appliances people were using in high school volleyball in Michigan.
Here's a news video about an Idaho girl playing volleyball with a prosthetic leg:
Towards the end they mention that she can spike the ball, too. . . .
As I started to reply to this, I realized that you left out the closing quotation.
It is very bad to avoid grief; it leads to breakdowns later when one suddenly realizes that the loved one is gone forever.
The inevitable announcement of her sins to all her world, while being the only one who knows the truth is a tragic irony. Big Bell seems to have picked up on something but it is not clear. The reveal of Kerfuffle being Sunset’s partner hits ever so harder, even if implied by the description. I'm glad Kerfuffle managed to heal quicklyish. The further paradox of being in a sports team rather requiring two leg adds more weight to her both girl's sudden burdens.
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She doesn't know the whole truth, but she thinks she does.
For the benefit of people who didn't read the blog post, it's possible for someone to recover from this kind of injury and be on a prosthetic on the timeline presented in this story, but it's taking all the best possible cases.
And yeah, her being Sunset's go-to volleyball partner makes it even worse for Sunset.
Based on some post-publication research I did (to answer another comment), there's at least one high school girl in Idaho (at the time the video I found was posted) who plays volleyball with a missing leg, and she can spike. So it's not like Kerfuffle could never play again, although of course she faces a lot more challenges when she's not playing on her own two legs.
EDIT: turns out the video's a couple comments above this one. :P
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Correction made; thank you!
Yes, I agree. How a person deals with varies by person, though; I don't think that there's a method that works for everyone. If there is, I'd sure like to know.