What I remember most,
Was what we were wearing.
Spandex shorts with mesh over them.
It was the style,
For sporty girls like us
Young enough to rip our jeans playing,
But old enough to know better
We were on the girl’s soccer team,
Middle school
7th and 8th grade.
I was in 7th,
Proud to picked out of the 50 girls
For a team of 20.
We had a bond on the field
That didn’t exist during school.
In school,
We were outcasts,
Girls who did sports,
Had no boyfriends
Because sports came first.
And boys
Didn’t like
Coming second.
On that fateful day,
We were on the football field
Boy’s track wasn’t practicing
So we were alone on that field,
With our male coach.
The school was deserted
Except for the roof,
Where the construction workers
Were replacing our roof.
Like any other day
We started stretching
While coach was talking
What drills we were running today,
What we did wrong last game.
Downwards we bent,
Our backs to the school.
And then we heard it
“Just like that baby!”
Our heads snapped up,
Looking for the track boy who said it.
But the track was empty,
The call had come
From the roof.
To our coach we looked,
Waiting for him to say
Something,
Anything,
He didn’t.
He just kept talking drills.
So we continued,
Stretching forwards and backwards.
Then it came again
“That’s how you do it!”
“Yeah, get ready for me!”
And then laughter,
Coach kept talking.
Our cheeks burned,
Just like when the boys at school
Told us that
We’d look cuter
With our uniform shirts
Unbuttoned just
One more
And our skirts a little
Higher.
A wolf whistle sounded,
And we stopped.
The shame burning,
In our bodies.
Knowing that something was wrong,
But not what it was.
This was what happened in school,
So this was normal
Right?
Our captain,
Decided that we were done stretching.
Coach didn’t notice that
We had stopped sooner.
So we ran drills,
And scrimmaged,
And trained,
And ignored the hoots,
Hollers,
Words of perversity,
That echoed in our ears.
When we were done,
It was past 5.
The crew had left,
The sun was setting,
And we went home.
I hopped on my bike,
And ride home alone.
A little faster that normal,
But not knowing
What I was running
From.
The next day,
We had practice
And coach was late.
He came to the field
With our vice principal
She had something to say.
She heard what happened yesterday,
And it was not ok.
Those men were removed from the site,
And won’t be back.
What happened wasn’t right
That was ****** harassment
And that’s against the law.
No one
Should ever be allowed
To talk about us,
Like we’re objects
Incapable of responding,
Of feeling,
Of being in control,
If it ever happened again,
Come to her office
Tell an adult.
And with that
She was gone.
In that moment,
We were empowered,
We were strong.
And with that power,
Practice began.
With our heads held high,
We stretched
Bending down farther.
And from the roof
Was silence.