Rhonda Grows Up
This is a stand alone story with no ties to any of my other stories. I hope you enjoy it. As usual I ask you to please vote and leave comments. Thanks for reading and I hope you and yours are all safe.
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Here I am walking home in the dark, again. By myself, still. Quite possibly, forever. Way to go Rhoda she thought to herself, nice way to cheer yourself up.
She actually had nothing to bitch about today. It had gone well from the start. Her mom had a fruit smoothie waiting for her at breakfast. Her brother was running early so offered to drop her at school on his way to work. School was good, she had gotten an A on her algebra test and a B+ on a history quiz. Lunch was great in the fact that she had a table to herself and no one harassed her.
Her after school gymnastics practice had gone very well. Her new balance beam routine was coming along and it was going to be great. She had worked out long enough that she was the last one there. That meant no one left to tease her about her body in the shower. And that was probably the best thing that had happened to her today. For a gymnast she had an almost perfect body, an even five feet and 100 pounds. For a senior in high school it was a disaster.
Especially for a 19 year old senior. Her birthday was September 1, which would have made her one of the oldest in her class. But when she was 14 she got mono. No biggie, most teens get it, but she had complications, she got splenomegaly, which meant her spleen was twice the size it was supposed to be. She couldn't go to school and even had to be careful at home, a bump or a fall could have ruptured her spleen. Between the mono and the liver she missed four months of school and had to repeat eighth grade.
Another complication was that she had quit growing. The doctors weren't sure why but that was the only thing they could think of to explain it. They had talked about HGH treatments but her coach and her advisor for the National Gymnastics Team thought it might change her body so much she would not be competitive. They left it up to her of course, but what gym rat doesn't dream of the Olympics?
In the end she had just missed making the team. She was disappointed but had been State champion last year and probably would be again this year. She already had offers from some of the so called gymnastic colleges.
So another late practice explained walking home alone. Schoolwork, practice and competitions didn't leave much time for a social life so that explained being alone in that regard also. She would have liked a close friend but felt awkward around most people. They were all so tall and well, meaty. Big tall folks that didn't seem to even notice she was down there. It was pretty intimidating except for at the gym.
She would have also liked a boyfriend. She had gone out with a few boys in junior high. School dances and other school activities mostly. She had kissed a couple of the boys and one had even tried to feel her boobs but he had given up after he couldn't find them through her thick sweater. But when everyone else had kept growing and she had not she stopped getting asked out. She wasn't sure why, but it added to the feeling of not being noticed by the tall people.
She finally reached her house and let herself in. She plopped her backpack on the kitchen table and pulled out her homework. Her mom heard her and came in from the den.
"Hey Rho," she said giving her a hug, "how was your day? How was practice?"
Rho, she thought to herself. A short nickname for a short person. It actually was fitting, rho was a letter in the Greek alphabet. It also stood for 100, another fitting description. And Rho was better than her brother's name for her of Pix, for pixie.
"Actually both were pretty good. Balance beam is coming along," she replied. She went to the drawer for utensils as her mom pulled a plate of meatloaf, green beans and mashed potatoes she had been keeping warm for her from the oven.
"Thanks mom, where are the males this evening?" she asked.
"They are over at Ed's garage putting the finishing touches on the Homecoming float," her mom explained.
Her dad was a foreman at the local window and door plant and even though her brother was nearly 21 he still had the old school spirit, they had been bonding over the annual football Homecoming float for about 8 years now.
"Homecoming is this Friday, you going?" her mom asked.
Rho nodded, "Yep, command performance, all the athletes in school have to attend the big game. School spirit, show of force, united we can't lose, God bless America."
Her mom shook her head and smiled, "I think it's a good thing. You'll have fun."
"Oh yeah, standing on the sidelines freezing and trying to look interested, so much fun I can hardly stand it," was Rho's sarcastic response.
Friday night rolled around and Rho debated on what to wear. It was going to be 50 degrees by game time. Way to cold to stand outside in her team warm up pants and jacket. Her usual wardrobe consisted of thick leggings with a skirt or shorts and over sized thick heavy cardigan sweaters. She thought about it and decided that two pair of leggings and sweat pants with the school name on them along with her letter jacket over a sweater would keep her warm enough. A school stocking cap and her normal thick rimmed glasses and she was set.
Her mom was forever trying to get her to wear her contacts saying, you have such beautiful blue eyes, but they were such a pain to use. The only time she wore her contacts was for competing. Of course no guys that were boyfriend material went to gym meets, so no one that mattered ever saw her eyes.
She met up with her teammates in the Food Lion parking lot. They found their place in the parade lineup and walked the route waving and throwing candy to the kids. They made it to the football field and took their place on the sideline at about the twenty yard line. The home team had a pretty easy time of it and by the start of the fourth quarter were ahead 28--6.
Rho and the people around her were not really paying attention to the game anymore. The Booster Club ladies had come by with food and hot cocoa so they were concentrating on that instead of the game. Rho had turned from the field and was passing her empty cup to Maria Henderson when Maria's eyes got huge.
Suddenly something smacked into Rhoda hard, she found her body was being picked up and carried off the sidelines. She was wondering what had happened when the arms around her set her on the ground and turned her around.
"You alright little girl, I didn't break nothing did I?" asked a very concerned voice.
Her glasses had gone flying when she got hit and she was a little dazed. She looked up at the voice talking to her and found herself tilting her back as far as it would go. The face looking down at her seemed a long way away.
Then the face was smiling at her and saying, "Why you're not a little girl at all are ya, yer just kinda petite. Are you OK darlin'?" he asked again.
Maria was there then handing her her glasses. She put them on and the person talking to her came into focus. He was a football player, well of course he is her muddled brain told her. But she was still confused as to why he hit her. Just then an EMT came up to them.
"It's OK Grant, I've got her," he reassured the player.
"I'm really sorry for hitting you like that," he said turning toward the field. Then he stopped and turned back, "What's your name honey?"
"Rho," she answered.
"Row," he asked puzzled, "like row your boat?"
"No you idiot," she said, "short for Rhoda."
The player winked at her and trotted back onto the field. Rho turned to the EMT and asked him if he had seen what had happened.
"Sure did," he nodded, "Grant, Grant Anderson, the guy that hit you had just caught a pass and the safety knocked him out of bounds. Grant just had time to drop the ball and grab you and carry you with him or he would have creamed you. He saved you from getting seriously injured."
Rho thought that over and frowned, "Why is he so big?"
The EMT laughed and said, "Most tight ends are built like him only smaller. He's bigger, and better, than most. He's 6-4 and goes 240." Then he shined a light in her eyes and checked her for concussion. By the time he was finished her dad and brother were there. The EMT assured them she was fine.
Her brother grinned and said, "Hey Pix, Grant carried you as easily as he does a football." Her dad said that was enough of that and led her to his truck.
She went to bed as soon as they got home. Other than a bruise on her arm and a big one on her back she was none the worse for wear. She took it easy and was fine by Monday.
She got to her locker and the football player was there leaning on the wall. He gave her a huge smile and then just stood there looking like he wanted to say something but didn't know how to start.
Rho decided she'd start, "What do you want, why are you by my locker?"
"I-I um, just wanted to make sure you were OK, that I didn't damage you permanently," he said taken aback.
"I hurt myself worse than that every week in practice," she said.
"Well I just wanted to make sure, I'll leave you alone now," he nodded and started walking away. He got about twenty feet down the hall then turned and said, "You're really pretty, why haven't I ever seen you before?" then turned and kept walking.
Rho just stood there with her mouth open. A couple of people were smiling at her and a few were chuckling. Red faced she grabbed her books and headed for class. At lunch she searched around the cafeteria until she spotted him, naturally, at the football jock's table.
She walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder, when he turned they were at eye level. "The reason you have never noticed me is because you never look down. What I was wondering was why I had never noticed a big ox like you stumbling around school," with that she turned and went to the food line. She could hear the other players giving him a hard time and laughing. Served him right for embarrassing her like that she thought.
