Volleyball Dreams Read online

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Chapter 1: Better Luck Next Time

  Chapter 2: Bad News

  Chapter 3: The Protest

  Chapter 4: The New Girl

  Chapter 5: Ace

  Chapter 6: Fun in the Sand

  Chapter 7: The Big Match

  Chapter 8: The Suit Guy

  Chapter 9: On a Roll

  About the Author

  About the Illustrator

  Glossary

  Discussion Questions

  Writing Prompts

  Beach Volleyball Facts

  Copyright

  Back Cover

  Chapter One

  BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME

  “Focus, guys,” I yelled, trying to keep my team on track.

  The ball flew over the net and spiraled over to our side. I bounced back, my eyes on the ball. My hands were clasped together and my arms flexed.

  I glanced ahead of me and saw Scott and Teesha in position. When the ball fell toward me, I bumped it with my forearms.

  So far, so good, I thought.

  Scott jumped and set the ball to Teesha. All she had to do was spike it over the net, and we’d still be in the game.

  But as the ball came toward her, Teesha took a step back. She flinched as she looked up at the ball. Then she held out one hand and gave the ball a little slap. It fell against the net and rolled back onto our side.

  The Tigers cheered. They needed only one more point to win. I sighed and shook my head.

  Beach volleyball was my favorite sport, and winning the match meant everything to me. My secret dream was to play beach volleyball in the Olympics.

  But if my team, the Lakers, couldn’t even beat the Tigers, how would I ever make an Olympic team?

  I looked around at my five teammates. In official games like the Olympics, beach volleyball teams have only two players. But since this was a coed summer league, we played with six on a team.

  I moved into position next to Teesha. “Why didn’t you spike it?” I hissed to her.

  Teesha shrugged. “The ball was coming at me so fast,” she said.

  “That’s the point,” I said. My voice was getting louder. “This is volleyball! The ball should come fast.”

  My brother Jack gave me a pat on my shoulder as he jogged past. “Cool it, Ramona,” he said. “It’s not over yet.”

  I looked over at Coach Kayla, who was giving me a warning eye. She knew how frustrated I could get sometimes.

  “Come on, Lakers!” I yelled. “Let’s make Lakeview proud!”

  No one yelled back. In fact, I thought I heard one of my teammates snicker.

  The Tigers launched the ball over the net. Jack bumped it to Scott. But this time Scott didn’t do what he was supposed to. He tossed the ball right into the waiting hands of the Tigers, who volleyed it back easily.

  I could see that no one on our side was ready. I dived forward, but I was too late. The ball plopped onto the sand.

  My teammates stared down at it as the Tigers cheered. Only Jack looked disappointed.

  “Do you realize that we just lost?” I demanded. “That was the Tigers’ fifteenth point!”

  Scott shrugged. “Oh well,” he said. “The Tigers are a good team. We’ll have better luck next time.”

  “Luck?” I asked. “It’s not about luck. It’s about skill.”

  Teesha giggled. “I think it’s all luck with me. I don’t have any skill.”

  “You’re not even trying,” I said. I turned my face so no one could see my tears.

  We shook the Tigers’ hands. “Good game,” they said. But I knew they were just saying that.

  “Come on, Ramona. Let’s go home,” Jack said.

  But I was too angry. “Why are you even on this team?” I yelled at Teesha, Scott, Zac, and Avery. “You don’t even care about winning!”

  Avery turned to me. “My parents made me join,” she said.

  “Mine did, too,” said Scott.

  Great. So no one even wanted to play. And in a few days, we’d be playing our biggest rival, the Hilltop Hornets. How on earth would we ever win when no one even cared?

  Chapter Two

  BAD NEWS

  Coach Kayla called us together for a huddle. She looked just as disappointed as I was. I thought she’d yell, but she didn’t. Instead, she said, “Sit down on the grass, everyone. I have some bad news.”

  What could be worse than losing five games in a row? I thought.

  “Okay, listen up, everybody,” Coach said. “A new plastic factory is coming to Lakeview.”

  Jack and I frowned at each other. What did a factory have to do with beach volleyball?

  “The factory will create new jobs,” Coach went on. “But there is one bad thing. The factory will be built here. In the park.”

  “What?” asked Teesha.

  “No way!” said Zac.

  “What will happen to our court?” I asked, jumping to my feet.

  “Everything in the park will be gone,” Coach said. She looked at me. “Even the volleyball court.”

  “No!” I yelled. “It can’t be gone. Where will we play?” Hot tears simmered in my eyes. No one understood what volleyball meant to me.

  We had moved to Lakeview last year, and I’d been sad to leave my old friends. But then I joined the beach volleyball league. It was the one thing I was good at, and I made new friends. When I played volleyball, I forgot all about my sadness. What would I do without it?

  “Well, construction starts a week from Monday,” Coach told us.

  “But the season won’t be over!” I exclaimed. “What will we do?”

  Avery and Teesha looked at each other, shrugging. “No more volleyball, I guess,” Avery said.

  “Maybe I’ll join a kickball league instead,” said Zac.

  “Is there anything we can do?” Jack asked Coach Kayla.

  She shook her head. “I don’t think so. There was already a meeting with the city commission.”

  Scott jumped up. For a moment I thought he was getting angry too, but then he said, “My dad’s here. Gotta go.”

  And one by one our team wandered away, until just Jack and I were left with Coach Kayla.

  “No one even cares about volleyball,” I said, plopping down onto the grass and putting my head in my hands.

  “I care,” said Jack.

  “So do I,” said Coach.

  I wiped my tears and looked at Jack and Coach Kayla. “So, what are we going to do?” I asked.

  “I got it!” Jack said with excitement.

  “Got what?” I asked.

  “We should have a protest,” Jack said. “I saw it on a show once and it totally worked.”

  “That’s a great idea,” Coach said.

  “I’ll try anything at this point,” I said.

  Chapter Three

  THE PROTEST

  Jack and I spent all night making signs that read “Save Our Park” and “Leaf the Trees Alone!”

  The next morning, we called everyone on the team to tell them about the protest. However, no one else seemed to care.

  “Mmmhmm,” said Teesha sleepily. “I’m busy.”

  “I’ll try!” said Avery cheerily.

  “I can’t,” said Zac.

  “We’ll see,” said Scott.

  But the next day, Jack and I were the only ones at the protest. We stood at the corner of the park and waved our signs at passing cars. A few cars honked and waved. But most sped on by.

  After a while, Jack threw down his signs. “This isn’t working,” he said. “We should just go home. How are the two of us going to convince anybody?”

  “You’re right,” I said with a sigh. “I guess my volleyball dreams are over.”

  “Maybe they aren’t ove
r,” Jack said. “They’re just on hold for a while.”

  “Same thing,” I said as I grabbed our signs and started to walk home.

  That night, I couldn’t sleep. Outside my window, stars glimmered like grains of sand. And the full moon looked like a bright round volleyball.

  I sat up, turned on my lamp, and got out my computer. “Dear Lakeview City Commission,” I began to type.

  I wrote for an hour, telling the commission all about my beach volleyball dreams. I told them how beach volleyball had helped me get through tough times after we’d moved to Lakeview.

  I told them that my greatest sports hero was Kerri Walsh, Olympic gold medalist in beach volleyball. I even told them how I dreamed of playing in the Olympics someday.

  I ended the letter by saying that beach volleyball was the only sport that my brother and I played together, and that destroying the park was like destroying our family.

  If Jack ever read the letter, he would tell me how dramatic I am. But I knew what I’d written was true. I printed the letter out and set it on my desk.

  In the morning, I read the letter again. What good will this do? I wondered. It’s not like they’ll listen to a kid. I crumpled up the letter and threw it in the garbage.

  Chapter Four

  THE NEW GIRL

  We had one more practice to go before our game with our biggest rivals, the Hilltop Hornets.

  “I’ve been looking forward to this practice,” I told Jack as we were walking to practice. “We need to get the team back on track. We have a lot of work to do.”

  Jack couldn’t help laughing. “You’re so dramatic. It’s supposed to be fun, remember?”

  As we rounded the corner to the park, what I saw made me stop and gasp. A giant yellow monster was standing at the far end of the park. Well, it wasn’t a monster exactly. It was a bulldozer.

  “No!” I cried. I ran up to Coach Kayla. But she wasn’t listening to me. She was on her phone.

  She waved me away and kept talking. When she finally clicked her phone off, I started in.

  “The bulldozer! What should we do? I thought they weren’t starting until next week! What about the —”

  But Scott interrupted me. “Hey, Ramona, look around,” he said. “What do you see?”

  I looked around, confused. There stood Zac, Teesha, and Scott.

  “Avery isn’t here!” I said.

  “Avery quit,” said Teesha.

  “But we can’t play with five people!” I said. “It’s against the rules.”

  “Avery did quit,” Coach said, “but I have a solution. And she’s running this way!”

  A girl with a long blond ponytail was running toward us.

  “Am I late?” she asked, breathless.

  “Who are you?” I asked.

  “Don’t be rude,” Jack whispered.

  The girl smiled. “I’m your new teammate!” she said.

  “This is Bella,” Coach Kayla explained. “She’ll be playing with us for the rest of the season.”

  “The rest of the week, you mean, until they kick us out of the park to build that stupid factory,” I muttered.

  Teesha stepped forward to shake Bella’s hand. “Hello, new teammate!” she said. “I’m Teesha.”

  “And I’m Scott!” Scott said, stepping forward, too.

  I peered at Bella closely. “Wait a second,” I said. She looked familiar. Very familiar. Then I knew where I’d seen her. “Aren’t you a Hornet?” I asked, frowning.

  Bella laughed. “I used to be,” she said. “But we moved to Lakeview, so here I am! I guess now I’m a Laker!”

  “Okay, everyone. Enough talking. Let’s get this practice started!” Coach said. “We have a lot to teach Bella.”

  “I’m ready to learn!” Bella said. She shrugged off her hoodie and threw her bag to the ground.

  Then I saw her T-shirt. It read “Save Lakeview Park!” On the back was an outline of the park, complete with its trees and our volleyball court.

  “Hey, cool shirt!” said Zac.

  “Oh, I almost forgot!” Bella said. She opened her bag and pulled out a stack of T-shirts. “Let’s all wear these!” she said. “Maybe it’ll help convince the plastic factory to build somewhere else.”

  Everyone grabbed a T-shirt, except me. “Don’t you want one?” Bella asked me. I snatched one out of her hand.

  “I guess,” I mumbled. Why hadn’t I thought of making T-shirts?

  “And I was thinking,” Bella said, “we could have a protest. We could make signs and march around the park.”

  “That’s a great idea!” said Zac.

  “And maybe we could make flyers and go door to door,” Teesha suggested.

  “I was going to —” I started, but no one heard me.

  I glanced toward Coach Kayla. But she was on her phone again. I turned back to the team. Bella was still chatting away.

  “Okay, team!” I yelled at the top of my lungs. “Let’s play!”

  Bella stopped talking and stared at me.

  “Don’t mind her,” Teesha whispered to Bella. “She yells a lot. And I mean, a lot.”

  Chapter Five

  ACE

  During practice Bella played with Jack and Zac against Teesha, Scott, and me. When she served the ball, it sailed toward my corner, heading out of bounds. I was so sure it would go out of bounds that I didn’t even jump for it.

  But it landed with a plop on the corner. In bounds.

  “Nice ace!” Jack congratulated Bella.

  It was a good ace. But I didn’t tell Bella that.

  Since they won the rally, they served the ball again. Zac served underhand, but his ball went nowhere near our side. It launched crookedly upward then fell to the side.

  “Come on, Zac!” I yelled. “We need to keep our serves in.”

  Bella walked over to Zac. “I see your problem,” she said. “You’re hitting the ball too late. Don’t wait for it to drop to your hand. Instead, swing your arm up to hit the ball halfway. Then you’ll get some height. And better aim, too.”

  “Try it again, Zac,” Coach said, nodding.

  “There wouldn’t be any do-overs during a real match,” I muttered.

  Zac served and the ball came straight toward me. I bumped it to Teesha, who spiked the ball hard. It almost went over the net, but fell to our side.

  “Come on, Teesha!” I groaned. “That was an easy spike.”

  Then Bella’s voice sailed over the net. “Great try, Teesha!” she said. “Just a little higher next time!”

  The next time Bella’s team served, I was ready. I launched the ball over the net and, even though Jack and Bella scrambled for it, it plummeted to the sand. Score one for us!

  “Excellent!” said Bella.

  “Excellent?” I said. “We just scored a point, and you didn’t. You shouldn’t be cheering for us.”

  “We’re teammates,” Bella said. “We should always cheer each other on.”

  I turned away, tossing the ball to Scott to serve. As we played, Bella’s smile got wider, and my frown got deeper. My team only scored two more points to Bella’s six more points.

  Finally Coach stepped up. “That’s enough for today,” she said. “I think we’re ready for the big game tomorrow, huh?” She winked at Bella.

  “Will you be at our protest this afternoon?” Bella asked me.

  “I guess,” I mumbled.

  “I thought you wanted to save the park,” she said.

  I shrugged.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Jack asked as we walked home.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “First, you complain that no one cares about volleyball,” Jack said. “But Bella cares. And you don’t like her.”

  “I never said that,” I muttered.

  “And Bella wants to save the park, but now you don’t,” Jack went on.

  “I never said that, either!” I said. “I just don’t like how Bella has taken over everything.”

  Jack was silent. T
hen he said, “You know, Ramona, you can’t play volleyball alone.”

  Chapter Six

  FUN IN THE SAND

  That afternoon, I taped together one of my beat-up signs from the day before. Then I walked to the protest alone. Jack was already there, along with Bella and the rest of our teammates. But they weren’t the only ones there. The whole park was filled with people and kids of all ages. Everyone was holding a sign.

  “Wow,” I said. Why hadn’t all these people come to my protest?

  I held up my battered sign and stood by myself at the end of the row of people.

  This time, nearly every car that drove by stopped. Some got out and joined us. But the entire day, I didn’t see Coach.

  After the crowd dispersed, I walked toward my teammates. “I guess your protest was a success,” I said to Bella.

  “Hi, Ramona!” she said. “I didn’t know you were here.”

  “Of course she was here!” said Jack. “This volleyball court is the most important thing in the world to my sister.”

  I turned to Scott, Teesha, and Zac. “Ready for the big match tomorrow?” I asked. “Get lots of rest. And fluids. Don’t eat too much before the match —”

  “Okay, okay,” said Scott.

  I knew I was being bossy, but I just couldn’t help myself. I went on, “And Zac, if you can’t get a good volley, set it up for someone else to hit. You always try for volleys you can’t make.”

  Zac turned red.

  “And Teesha,” I went on, even though Jack was tugging on my arm. “Don’t be scared of the ball —”

  Bella interrupted me. “But the most important thing,” she said, “is to have fun!”

  “No, it’s not,” I said. “The most important thing is to win!”

  “We can’t win if we’re not enjoying ourselves,” Bella said.

  I had no response. Maybe she was right, but I’d never admit it.

  “We’re going out for ice cream,” said Scott. “Wanna come?”