The day I (almost) ruined my sister's v'ball career

So I've been meaning to post this since last Saturday, but I had to ensure that Kayla was truly fine after our weekend mishap before I poked fun of it on my blog (because that's what an nice sister would do) :)

Kayla entered the world in 1993. I was 15. My dad had just recently re-common-lawed (is that a word?) and I was super pumped to have gained Lori (my step-sister), who conveniently was 1 year older, a "cool" girl, hilarious, and really NICE to me! That's a huge score in grade 11 (plus, she was friends with the boy I was crushing on - double score!) This all happened pretty fast - our parents moving in, having a baby, and hoping/expecting us to function as a family, given Lor and I had grown up as only children. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, right? Thank God it just somehow worked. We were the "functional dysfunctional family," and now that I'm an adult, I can't imagine my life without Lori and Kayla.

Lori is now married, living in PA, working as an Orthoptist (eyes) and has 2 super cool kids - they are hilarious, waaaay more advanced than any other children I've ever met :) and just solid, good kids.  Kayla is now 17, attending the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon....and a middle for the U of S Huskie Volleyball team (How cool is that? Lor also played college v'ball in the states - that must be a gene that I don't share). Kayla's confident, enthusiastic, positive, and smart. Plus she's super attractive (haha, she looks like me, poor girl) :) I'm so proud to have these girls as my sisters.

Me, Kayla, and Lor: functional dysfunction

Kayla was home for the weekend and has repeatedly commented on how stoked she is that I'm longboarding. I told her she should come for a ride. She borrowed her buddy's longboard, grabbed a helmet, and away we went. My stepmom wasn't super pumped about it, "Don't get hurt." Little did I know the next time I would speak with my stepmom I would be questioning whether or not I was responsible for the decimation of Kayla's volleyball career. At the time, we brushed off her concern, "No worries. We're steezy," replied Kayla (yes! she's reading my blog!) So we set out behind St. Francis School. Kayla picked it up quickly - all limbs, mind you, but she was holding her own, carving down the path quite nicely.

I saw some boys rippin' out tricks on their longboards by the playground and had to go over and check them out. Kayla followed reluctantly, repeating, "Oh my god I'm so embarrassed."
"No, it's cool. Longboarders are cool. It will be fine."

"Hey."
7 apathetic teen boys stared at me blankly, likely questioning whose mom I was and what the hell I was doing wandering the streets in a helmet.
"Hey, can you guys do any tricks?"
"Yep!"
7 teen boys broke off and with as much enthusiasm as a 14 year old boy dares to demonstrate, they fired off slides, shove-its, front mannies, back mannies, and flippy floppy 720's (made that last one up).
"Cool! that's awesome! Can you guys do the Tiger Claw?"
One of the kids (who I later found out was "Jake") lit up, "Hey, you're that girl that's working with Randy - I heard about you!"
"Yep, that's me." I shrugged it off like it was no biggie. Inside, I was screaming, "PA celeb! PA celeb! (with the teen boy longoarding community, nevertheless, but you gotta start somewhere)
"Ya, it's going well - just having a tough time dropping the acid, you know?"
7 apathetic teen boys stared at me blankly.

This just in: It is NOT "dropping THE acid," nor is it "dropping acid." It is the "ACID DROP." Randy texted me, "ACID DROP. STOP DROPPING ACID!" Oops. I'm so embarrassed.


At least Kayla was impressed. Yep, I KNOW people. haha. We headed off and noticed one of the boys' moms heading out quickly to speak with the group. I'm pretty sure she was scolding the boys, "Stranger Danger!" with tales of 32 year old ladies who prey on teenage boys. Shit. Must contact lawyer immediately for damage control.

Wind at our backs and steeze on our side, Kayla and I cruised down the Rotary Trail without a care in the world. I noted a slight slope to our trail and warned my little buddy, "Use your foot break."
"My what?"
"Your foot..."
(Too late, Kayla crashed to the pavement)

Huskie down! Huskie down!

Huge rip in jeans (people pay money for a clean rip like that), Kayla shrugged off the fall, claimed she was fine, and wiped some blood off her knee. We carried on.  


Fast forward 1 hour later when I got the phonecall from my stepmom,
"Kayla is in emergency getting an IV!"
"What happened? Did she suddenly become dehydrated?"
"No. From the longboarding. She hurt her knee badly and is in the hospital!"
(Huh? Did I miss something? Something important, evidently).
"I'll head to emerg right now!"

I sped to the hospital. Mind whirling, I tried to piece together how the h Kayla went from laughing off a minor wipeout to requiring an IV in emerg. Oh frick. I mean, she walked away from that wipeout. No tears. No major complaints. Perhaps she was in shock? She was kind of goofy. Wait, she's always kinda goofy. Oh F. I ruined her volleyball career. Shit. And she was so awesome. Damn. Probably too late to contact my lawyer.

I entered emerg in a panic, only to spot my little buddy seated (intact) in a chair, looking highly unimpressed and a tad sheepish.

"Oh my god, I'm so embarrassed."
"WHAT is going on?"

As it turned out, Kayla's mom encouraged her to head to a walk-in clinic, as her cut was bleeding pretty badly (both Kayla and her mom HATE the sight of blood). Kayla was lucky enough to see Dr. Overreactmuch who prescribed an IV antibiotic in ER to prevent the possibility of infection. Are you serious? Anyone who works in healthcare knows that an oral antibiotic taken for a few days would have done the trick.

So, side-by-side, my little buddy and I sat in emerg, IV antibiotic infusing.
"So, wanna meet Lor for dinner when this is done?" I inquired.
"Suresies."
"Think you'll ever play volleyball again?"
"Pretty sure it'll be ok."
"Awesome."
"Hey, Kirst, let's longboard to the restaurant."
bahaha. Right on.


Update: Kayla is currently on the court, playing middle for the U of S Huskies V'ball Team. She reports that everything is "cool."