They both looked around to see what stretches the other pairs were doing and followed along with them. When they finished, Ms. Todd and some other staff members had wheeled in some volleyballs in carts and two nets, one for each of the two courts. Volleyball was Zoe’s favorite sport. Josh could see Zoe’s eyes light up at the sight of the net, poles, and volleyballs. He rolled his eyes at Zoe and she saw that. “What, now you roll your eyes?” Zoe said sarcastically.
“Well, volleyball? Guys don’t play volleyball,” He replied.
“Sure, they do. But let's see how good you are at it,” Zoe poked fun at Josh.
With a few minutes, the staff had the nets set up and Ms. Todd was ready to tell us what to do. “First, as a pair, you can choose which side of the gym you want to be on. Then the staff will coach you on some partner exercises. Okay, go!”
Josh made eye contact with some of the other vampire guys and moved to join them. Zoe didn’t oppose Josh’s choice, as he was the more dominant person between the two. All Zoe wanted to do was play volleyball. She couldn't care less if it was with a vampire. When Josh and Zoe were in position, the staff brought over two volleyballs, one for them and one for the staff, to show them what they wanted them to do. Josh and Zoe were made to stand about five feet apart and told to practice passing, by tossing the ball to one another and when they could pass the ball with control then they could continue to pass it without tossing it to each other. The ball which was in Josh’s hands was tossed to Zoe, and she passed it back perfectly to Josh. Then Josh tossed it to Zoe and Zoe tossed it to him. Josh passed it, but it didn’t go to Zoe, and he had a blank expression that said, ‘well, what did you expect’?
Zoe ran over to the ball and returned to her spot and tossed it to him to pass again. And again, Josh couldn’t return the ball to Zoe. She knew what was wrong with Josh’s passes, his stance was bad, and his arms weren’t held straight. Until he asked her for help, Zoe felt that she shouldn’t tell him what he needed to do. So, she returned the ball to him asking for a toss, and when he tossed it again, she returned it perfectly. Josh wasn’t the only guy having problems. The male humans and vampires were all having problems. But some of the pairs were able to work through it, mostly the female vampire and male human pairs. Josh noticed Zoe looking around to see the other's progress, and when he did too, he gave up and asked Zoe if she could teach him how to pass.
“Hey, Zoe, could you teach me how to do this?”
“Yeah sure. So, when the ball comes towards you, you want to step into it, while your knees are bent, and your arms always stay straight. Like this.” Zoe said while demonstrating with big motions what she was saying.
Josh got the technique down easily after that and was passing to Zoe with no problem. Now Zoe was even more excited because she could pass more and more since they didn’t have to toss the ball as much. Eventually, all the pairs figured out how to pass. The staff then came around to show them their next task, passing and setting. The setting was Zoe’s favorite part of volleyball. At first, Zoe felt that the best thing for Josh was to see if he could set the ball, so she tossed it to him, high but not too high above his head. Josh caught the ball and didn’t even push it back to Zoe. That caught Zoe off guard and made her laugh. Josh was not pleased either. He didn’t know what to do with the ball. He looked at Zoe, with eyes that were seeking some form of help. Zoe obliged and walked over to him for some setting teaching. She stood in front of him about two feet away and asked him to hold the ball over his head. Josh was tall, so it was too hard for Zoe to reach his hands to reposition them into the proper position.
“Um, you are too tall. Could you squat a little bit and bend your arms, so I can move your hands into the right position?” Zoe asked.
“Sure, is this better?” Josh replied.
“Yeah, stay like that.”
Zoe grabbed Josh's hands, which were far apart on the ball, and moved them to the bottom of the ball closer together, making them form a triangle with his thumbs barely a centimeter apart.
“Done. How does that feel?”
“Well, it kind of feels like I can’t hold the ball.”
“It will feel weird, but you aren’t supposed to hold the ball. You use this hand position to push the ball. It’s kind of illegal to hold the ball, so it should come off as soon as it touches your hands. Now that you know what your hands should do, I’ll show you how the push looks. And make sure you bend your knees.”
Zoe asked for the ball from Josh’s hands and tossed it to herself just above her head. She formed her triangle above her forehead and when the ball came down, she bent her knees and pushed off with them and her bent arms to shoot the ball a few feet above her head. When the ball came down again, she stepped back and caught it in her hands. Then she gave the ball to Josh for him to try. He took five or so tries before he could smoothly get the ball to fly off his hands in a controlled way above his head. When he was able to control his setting, Zoe returned to her spot and Josh was able to set the ball to her. Zoe smiled proud of her teaching accomplishments. In no time the pair was setting and passing with no problem. But in the back of her mind, she was growing worried about spiking. She knew Josh was much stronger than her and male humans. Even a human guy’s spike could probably be painful to return, and that scared Zoe.
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