Anyone for Hockey

Gemstone

Here for the Journey
I always hated hockey and would do anything to get out of it – that is until I found that hockey sticks could be pretty useful for getting your own back.

“Not another excuse Gemma,” said an exasperated Miss Adams as I handed yet another “Please excuse” note to her. Without reading it she tossed it onto the desk, her eyes rolling to the ceiling and her arms rising in a hopeless gesture.

“No Gemma. Not this time”. She picked the note up and waved it under my nose. “It’s not even convincing”. She shook her head and glanced again at my carefully written note. “Get your PE things on immediately and I want you on the field before the warm up. DO YOU UNDERSTAND!”.

Oh yes, I understood alright. I had to put on my PE top and ridiculous divided skirt and, legs covered with goose-bumps from the cold October weather walk across the field to the hockey pitch where Clare Burton and her friends were waiting to win at all cost. The cost was usually visible on my legs at the end of the game.

The game began with a bully-off and bully was just what Clare Burton was. Not only was she good at hockey, she was also skilled at using the stick in many ways not specified in the rules.

As I dragged my heels across the field, trailing my hockey stick behind me a thought suddenly occurred to me. If Clare Burton could use her hockey stick as a weapon so could I. That wicked thought spurred me on and my step lightened as I neared the pitch.

The warm up had already begun when I got there and I joined in with gusto, not even caring when Winifred Jones giggled behind me and made some sort of comment when I bent down.

To my delight I found myself engaged in a bully off with Clare. The ball sat on the grass between us and we both raised our sticks. I concentrated hard. Sticks at the ready we waited for the signal to begin. “Bully” shouted Miss Adams. Clare went for the ball and I did just what Miss Adams said, I went straight for Clare’s ankle!

Clare dropped to the ground, her face twisted in pain. For a moment I felt sorry for her and then I thought of all the things she had done to me. I raised my hockey stick over my shoulder and looked at the group of girls, wondering which one was about to spring to Clare’s defence. No-one stirred. Even Winifred Jones was quiet!

© July 2008
 
I wish I'd thought of that when I had to play hockey. I too was the one on the receiving end of a bully with a stick!
 
Haha.... Me too Taz. That's why I tried to get out of it as much as possible. I did begin to enjoy hockey eventually though. x
 
Was that an "excuse not" or for real. I had so many TOTM according to the notes (my real TOTM happened around every 5 weeks). x
 
Well I DID have bad knees which my doctor called growing pains and I have since found out it probably wasn't! But yeah, I would have found any excuse to get out of PE. It wasn't easy to get my mum to write the notes though, I guess she must have loved it when she was at school and didn't know why I hated it so much!
 
Taz - Don't be too hard on your mum about this. My mum didn't know how I felt about PE at school because I didn't tell all. Maths, however, was a different matter - I couldn't do it because the teaching wasn't accessible to me (I'm fine with it now). My dad, however, used to do maths as a hobby (?)!!!! I never could understand that and he couldn't understand why I hated it!!!
 
I loved maths but me and my friend got bored cus we got ahead in with our work and the rest of the class used to mess around a lot so we never seemed to get anywhere with it. I used to want to be an accountant but now I think it would bore me to tears!
 
Accountant? Oooo... No Missus - not me!!!!!
 
As anyone who has read my story "Our Mavis" knows, I started my working life in an office. We did have some fun but most of it was dead boring. I worked in several offices and did quite a lot of temping around the City but the only thing that really kept me going was the nomadic part of it - knowing that I would only be there for a while, then move on somewhere else. I did all kinds of office work but the nearest I got to accounts was typing invoices and cheques. x
 
I love my job because I'm not staring at the same 4 walls all day, that would really do my head in!
 
nice one gem :) hockey was always a killer for me too. and there was always a group of us 'underdogs' left together in a team. for a few weeks running though, for some reason, we kept winning. it was awesome :D ha. made me actually look forward to it. we always played when it was freezing cold in the winter too. and you weren't allowed to wear tracksuit bottoms. just those gym knicker shorts things. and when that hockey ball hit you on the thigh, as it always did, by god the pain was incredible. as was the bruise...

but whenever i think of school hockey i always remember those few glorious weeks when we beat the bullies, ha. i bet nobody but me remembers it :) the things that make you feel better when you're bullied half your life, ha. well, more than that for me actually.
 
That's what picks out the survivors from the victims abz. You remember the times when you were a winner and build on that. x
 
Nothing wrong with remembering the positive things - not enough people do x
 
i can't agree with that more. desperate for my next shake. think i'm going to have a hot vanilla... it tastes like custard :D

abz xx
 
with apple and blackberry crumble - yum!
 
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