fall ↠ hale | 1

six

the city - the 1975

" you got pretty eyes but I know that you're wrong "

"McCall, I don't know why but your pain gives me a special kind of joy," Coach Finstock said as the gym erupted with laughter. Scott and Allison had been climbing the wall, but Scott had mysteriously fallen. By the look on Allison's face as she came down gracefully, I figured it wasn't an accident.

I was anxiously waiting my turn next to Lydia, who had already been. She did pretty well and said it wasn't as daunting as it looked. She was so calm about it. I, on the other hand, was terrified.

"Who's next?" Coach's hand hovered around before landing on his next two victims. "Rose and Danny. Let's see what you've got, new girl,"

Shit.

I nervously made my way over to the wall and got strapped into my harness.
"Don't be nervous, it's really not as bad as it seems," Danny said, giving me an encouraging smile.
"That's what Lydia said,"
"Girl's got a point. Don't worry you'll be fine. If worst comes to worst, you're strapped in so you can kick off safely. Just don't pull a McCall," I giggled as we finished strapping in and looked over at Scott. His face indicated that he was still nursing a bruised ego.
"Alright, let's go!" The coach shouted, blowing his whistle. Danny was off like a rocket, leaving me in the dust.
Guess I'd better get going, I thought. I took the first step and got the hang of it pretty quickly. It was way easier than I thought it would be. By the time I really registered what was happening, I had passed Danny and was reaching up to ring the bell. I looked down and saw that he was slowing down as we watched in confusion and awe. The rest of the class were too.
The bell clanged and I kicked off, bouncing to the group.
"Well, that was, uh...unexpected, to say the least. And...hell, that's the best time today! Congratulations, new girl!" Coach clapped me on the back harder than he intended to and I stumbled forward, making my way over to Lydia and Allison.
"Rose, that was amazing! How did you do that?" Allison asked, amazed.
"I don't know, I just climbed. I didn't really realise what was happening until I got to the top. I just zoned out,"
"Uh, I would call that 'just climbing'. Danny's normally one of the best at this and you overtook him easily!" Lydia said.
"I guess I must have done a lot of climbing when I was younger,"
"Oh shit," Allison said quietly, looking towards the wall.
"What's wrong?" I asked, turning around. Stiles and a girl called Erica had been selected to climb next. Stiles looked fine but the girl looked like she'd rather jump in front of a car than climb the wall.
"That's Erica Reyes. She's got really bad epilepsy and anxiety,"
"What? Why is he making her go up there? It's not safe!"
"Don't worry," Lydia said. "She'll be fine. She's got a harness,"
"Okay, if you're sure,"

But they were wrong. Erica got about a quarter of the way up before she started shaking. Stiles was already at the bottom when I heard a wail.
"Erica? Dizzy? Is it vertigo?" Coach asked as we moved to the front of the crowd, sounding baffled. Wow, he really was clueless about pretty much everything.
"Vertigo is a dysfunction of the vestibular system of the inner ear," Lydia chimed in, earning her plenty of surprised looks. Clearly not everyone knew about her incredible intelligence. "She's just freaking out,"
"I'm fine," Erica called but her voice was shaking like crazy.
"Coach, it's not safe. You know she's epileptic," I said.
"How do you know this? You've only been here a week! Why does nobody tell me this stuff!" He huffed. "Erica, you're fine, just kick off the wall. There's a mat to catch you,"
She looked at the ground, terrified, before shutting her eyes tightly and dropped. She made it to the ground and I sighed with relief. She began to make her way to the back, looking defeated. That's when they started to laugh.