May third, the day before volleyball tryouts. I was excited yet nervous.

“Cole?” my mom called from the stairs.

“Yes?” I answered.

“I need to talk to you.”

“Okay, I'll be down in a minute,” I replied. I went downstairs trying to figure out what was going on. “Where's dad?”

“Thats why I called you down,” my mom explained quietly with a worried look on her face.

“Whats up? I asked nervously, not knowing if I wanted to know.

“Well Cole...” she stuttered and said, “This is difficult for me to say, but me and your father have decided to not see each other anymore and get a...”

I didn't want to hear anymore so before she could say that evil word I ran upstairs in my room and began to let out some tears. I thought to myself, no, why? How could this be happening? Mom and dad not together? I grabbed a picture of them in disgust and memorized everything about them as the picture got filled with droplets of my tears. “I have never felt so empty, so, so...” I stuttered as memories came back to me. Wow, all those family portraits are lies, lies! I thought to myself with hatred. I went to sleep, trying to avoid the memories and the situation i was in.

May forth, tryout day. Four more hours. I didn't know what to do now, breakfast without dad? I was a dead black rose when I found out.

When I arrived at the courthouse, it was a million degrees! Nervous sweat dripped down my forehead. After all the girls finally arrived I was nervous, very nervous. All the ninth graders looked big and mean compared to the small, skinny sixth grader, which was me. They all looked more mature, more grown up.

I was like a turtle, not coming out of my shell when we were stretching, not a single word came out of my mouth. We began practice serving after we stretched. The volleyball starred back at me in fright as I served it over the net.

When I came home from tryouts I thought that I didn't have a chance. I figured I was a virtuoso in volleyball, they sure made it look like I wasn't. Maybe a virtuoso at volleyball in my grade, just not in ninth grade level.

Shortly after we got home, I decided to shoot some baskets, to remember the times the family played together. The basketball hit the rim and rolled around the rim as it fell in and let out a “swish.” My long light brown hair got in my face when I decided to go take a shower.

After I got out of the shower, I heard the phone ring and let the machine get it.

“Hey Cole, I just wanted to congratulate you for making the travel team, hope to see you soon,” the machine said.

Throughout the season, we won four tournaments out of six. My parents still didn't get along but they were nice around me and my siblings.