The Player I Used To Be

Prologue: The Accident

I tied my sneakers and pulled up my knee pads. It was time for the girls volleyball regional championship game. My team was relying on me to lead the to victory. I pulled my dirty blond hair back into its regular braid and rubbed my volleyball charm bracelet. It was an anniversary gift from my wonderful boyfriend, Michael, and my good luck charm.

I jogged upstairs from the locker room to go warm up. I hugged my best friend, Mackenzie, and started to stretch. After stretching and sizing up our opponents, I gathered the team together.

"Ok, ladies. We're ready for this game. We have a good chance of winning. So, let's go out there and give it our all." I rallied the team.

They all smiled and we got into our starting rotation. I got down into ready position when I heard Michael scream something.

"Good luck, Zoey!" he yelled and gave me a thumbs-up.

I simply shook my head and smiled back at him. Mackenzie served the ball to the other team. I saw the middle back pass it to their setter and their setter set it up high. The outside hitter hit the ball toward me.

"I GOT IT!" I ran toward the ball and bumped it to our setter.

I got back to my spot just in time to see the volleyball head over to the other side. The game proceeded like that with varying degrees until both teams had won a single game.

The score was 24-20, with our team in the lead. I was playing middle back and Mackenzie had just served the ball to the opposing team. They set up the ball perfectly and their middle hitter jumped up to spike it.

Time seemed to slow down as she made contact with the volleyball. The ball came hurtling toward me.

"Mine!" I heard myself yell.

 I dove down to save the ball but I went down too soon. The ball came down full force on my skull. I felt a sharp pain and collapsed onto the floor.

"ZOEY!" Michael screamed and ran toward me.

And then, everything went black.