As soon as I returned to my room from practice, I collapsed onto my bed.  My legs felt like anchors.  I didn’t even have enough strength to pull them completely on the bed, so they just dangled off the sides.  I stared blankly up at the ceiling, too exhausted to move and too exhausted to sleep.  Coach had added an extra two hours of practice because we were “getting sloppy with our shots” and my aching muscles felt every second of it. 

I don’t know how long I had been laying there, just resting, when I heard a knock on the door.  There was no way I could muster up enough strength to open it, so I yelled for whoever it was to come in.

“Hey, Spence!”

I recognized Cindy’s chipper voice.  I hadn’t yet lifted my head to look over to the door.

“Hey, Cindy.  What’s up?”

She walked over to stand above me so I could see her.

“Damn, Spence, you look beat.”

“We just had a practice that’s as long as most people’s work days.  I’m trying to figure out how you’re even able to stand up right now.”

“One, unlike you, most of us only half-ass it during these practices.  There’s no way you can go at it full force and not end up …well, looking like you do right now.  And second, I’m too excited to be tired.”

She didn’t explain, so I took that as my cue to ask.

“And why are you so excited, Cindy?”

“Karen invited us to go to the club with her!” she nearly screamed.  This bit of news got me to sit up.  “This is going to be so much fun, she says it’s this hot, new club, about half-an-hour away and she’s driving all of us.  That’s actually why I came over here.  You have a black jacket I want to borrow.”

I knew she was asking me something, but I was too busy trying to process the first part of what she told me.

“Wait, who’s ‘us’?  Who did Karen invite?”

“Um, me, Amanda and Rebecca,” she replied, opening the door to my closet.  She pointed to the clothes inside it and I gave her a slight nod.