Typical Day
Beep-beep-beep…Beep-beep-beep…
Carla Batsy's alarm clock sounds off at 5:45AM. Some students had probably just rolled into bed a couple hours ago. Good thing Carla went to bed at a reasonable hour.
Carla throws back her covers and jumps out of bed. She's wide-awake and already full of energy. It was almost unnatural. "Hailey, wakey-wakey." She shook her roommate's shoulder. "Let's go! The weight room waits for no woman."
Any other person would think Hailey to be dead. They'd check her pulse and maybe contemplate calling an ambulance. It's a good thing Carla knows Hailey so well. Hailey, simply, is not a morning person.
Carla picks up her metal bat and begins to swat at Hailey's bed playfully—a dangerous maneuver indeed, since Hailey's fluffy down comforter gave absolutely no indication of sheltering a human body underneath it. Unfettered, Hailey groans and pulls the covers over her head. She was up late studying for her sports psychology midterm, which she had to take later in the morning.
"I don't wanna," Hailey complains. Her voice is muffled by the blankets. ''Mhewlbfsbim,'' she continues. This is blanket-speak for, "I'm tired. This bed is warm and it loves me. Five more minutes."
Carla laughs and skips to the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth. Eventually, Hailey gets up. With dark circles under her eyes and her hair sticking out every which way, Hailey looked like a very toned zombie.
The girls pack their textbooks, a fresh change of clothes, headbands, and snacks for the day. It's Wednesday, so they'll have to make a mad dash from practice to classes and then to lunch. They need to be prepared.
Breakfast consists of some energy bars made from nutritious, high-fiber Superglue. Delicious. "I'm so tired," Hailey grumbles as she gnaws on her meager breakfast. "You know, stress impacts performance. I learned that in sports psychology."
"You know, complaining impacts your shoulder with my fist," mocks Carla. She playfully punches Hailey on the shoulder. Hailey ignores this nonsensical wisecrack.
"A 6:00AM workout is totally not helping my stress levels. What if I push myself too hard at the gym and end up flunking my midterm?" she continues.
"Just pace yourself with some slower reps and a steady run and you'll have plenty of energy for that test later," Carla replies. She stopped listening at "6:00AM workout." She instead thinks about what she needs to work on today, which is basically everything from the waist-up.
Carla's a freshman pitcher eager to take the mound. She knows she won't start this year, but she wants to prove to Coach Weathers that she's ready for the job. I'll up my weights in my bench press today, she thinks to herself. Then, tomorrow I'll double my reps.
Before they know it, they're at the gym and sweating like pigs.
Hailey takes her sweet time with her bicep curls, while Carla pushes herself to the limit (she's in it to win it). By the time she drops the free weights to the floor, her arms shake like Kermit the Frog's after four shots of espresso.
Carla glances around the gym and locks eyes with Sabrina, who gives her an enthusiastic thumbs-up from the corner of the gym. Sabrina's the star pitcher and Carla's personal idol, so with a grin, Carla moves onto the track to stretch before the running drills.
Today's one hundred-yard sprints, and Carla knows she needs to work on her speed. As she pulls her knee up to her stomach in a hamstring stretch, she looks around for Hailey and can't find her. She worries about her roommate for a moment, but then Coach blows the whistle. Carla can't afford to think about anything except turning into Sonic the Hedgehog.
Gotta go fast.
Carla finishes her sprints. Her calves feel like they had been lit on fire, but she feels energized and ready to take on the rest of the day. Or at least, she would be once she gets a full-body ice pack. Carla begins to wonder if they even make those as she re-enters the weight room.
Inside, Hailey is sitting on the table with her knee wrapped in an Ace bandage and plugged into a TENS unit, a little machine that sends electrical pulses into her muscles to help them relax.
"What happened?" Carla cried. Her heart sank.
"Trainer thinks it could be a sprain or maybe a torn ligament. My quad is really tight, too, so we're trying to loosen things up. Looks like I'll be sitting out on tonight's practice." Hailey tries to grimace, but it comes out looking more like a relieved smile. She does need a break, after all.
After morning classes and lunch, Carla works with Coach Weathers and the pitching coach in an individual session. Her pitches run up into the high 50s. Impressive. Coach Weathers nods her head and makes notes, and the pitching coach praises her form.
After practice, Coach Weathers tells Carla, "Great job today. You're looking really locked in, and I've seen a lot of improvement over the season. You keep this up, and you just might be starting next year."
Carla practically skips to team practice. Starting pitcher. That would be a dream come true. She puts in a special effort at practice, trying to let the Coach know that she had taken those words to heart.
Still excited about the possibility of starting, Carla blasts through practice, dinner, and study hall. She practically crawls back to her dorm. When she gets in, she finds Hailey sitting on her bed with her knee wrapped up tight and a pair of crutches by her side.
"How're you doing, roomie?" asks Carla. She collapses onto the floor and drags out her laptop in preparation for her long-awaited date with Netflix. Her homework's done, practice is over, and she's ready to be lazy.
"Well, my knee is throbbing, which is a major bummer, but I think I did okay on my midterm," replies Hailey.
"I'm sure you'll be back on the field in no time," Carla said, trying to comfort her injured friend.
"Yeah, I dunno." starts Hailey. "I'm actually pretty relieved that I can finally take a break. My mental health was hanging by a thread."
"Yeah," responds Carla. "Well, I still hope you get better soon." She scrolls through her Netflix homepage in search of something nice and relaxing to watch. She laughs at the ridiculously specific categories, like emotional independent dramas for hopeless romantics, dark road-trip movies from the '70s, critically acclaimed buddy cop movies…softball movies featuring a strong female lead.
"Ah, perfect."