This short story will be about a group of people who play a unique sport that I, the author, played in 8th grade during gym time at school, in my hometown New Orleans. (Specifically Gretna, LA). The sport was called, "Cage Ball". I miss that sport DEARLY, & I don't think I will ever in my life get to play that sport again. It's my ULTIMATE favorite sport to play, besides volleyball & swimming. I used to run track in middle school. New Orleans metro area has Cajuns & Creoles.
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Versie has no children of her own, but only has a sister, named Carneese. Versie is single because she feels that the right man hasn't yet come into her life. However, she loves her 2 nephews & takes care of them, like as if they were her own. Carneese, a widow, has 2 sons who love sports. They're 6th graders, named Ulysses & Lorenzo. Ulysses is 11 months older than Lorenzo.
Ulysses failed 4th grade because he would sleep a lot in class from being on TikTok & YouTube all night. He learned his lesson, though, because he REALLY wanted to play this new game. Carneese has her boys enrolled in sports at their local park, named Pikedale Park.
Coach Tyson was announcing Fall sports for the park. The kids had a choice. Football for boys, volleyball for girls or a co-ed sport, called "Cage Ball" that was newly introduced. Or, boys' badminton or girls' badminton. The 2 boys chose Cage Ball. Every Friday, they would have competition with other parks, with their sports. Trying to represent (in real life, there was a thing, called Spirit Day, where our elementary school used to represent wearing New Orleans Saints football colors), so they represented their team on Fridays, wearing their park mascot colors, which was the same color as the New Orleans Saints, black & gold, while practice was Monday through Thursday.
With the cage ball, the girls competed against the boys. Everyone sat in a big square. 10 children on each side. 40 children total. 20 boys & 20 girls. 4 teams. The ball looked like a BIG giant, soft baseball. The children would have a number. 1-10 on each side. When your # is called, you crawl like a crab. You sit upright on your butt, & then crawl, sitting up, & using your legs & hands to run, while sitting down. (If that makes sense), & then while sitting down, kick the ball (sort of like a 4-way volleyball), kicking back & forth, until you successfully kick the ball over another team's head. Then your team wins a point. If it goes out of bounds, then your team loses a point.
Coach Tyson called #4, & Ulysses & Lorenzo both so-happened to be #4 on a team that day. But Lorenzo's team got the most points & won. Whichever team wins gets a small pizza party. Since the 2 boys are brothers, Coach Tyson secretly let Ulysses have some pizza, even though he wasn't supposed to have any. Their Aunt Versie came to show her support, while Carneese couldn't make it because she had to work. Versie loved the game so much that she offered to help co-coach. Coach Tyson fell in love with her, & she decided that he was her ideal man. They got engaged.
The 2 boys were loving that game, & were sad that the season ended.
The End