Meet
D is more than half way through his second season of high school diving. He’s really enjoying himself, and the practices for two hours 4 days a week does him a lot of good.
When dive season started he mentioned that his father had texted him and wanted to know about the meet schedule. D told him it could be found online, but that he wouldn’t be participating in the first half of the season due to grades. His father wanted to know why. D replied “Its complicated. You can ask Mom about it.” Of course he never did. (The high school now sees fit to put kids on ‘probation’ for a sport if they are failing 2 or more classes. They can practice but not compete for the first half of the season. They get their grades checked and if they are failing fewer than two classes, they can compete for the second half of the season.)
Before D’s first meet that he’s be participating in he mentioned that he would like to invite his dad, and wondered if I would stay home. I said, “No. There is more than enough room for everyone at the Y.” D agreed and that was the end of the discussion. D’s meet came and went. We didn’t see his father.
He had a meet on Saturday. On Friday night D messaged me that “Dad is probably coming to Saturday’s meet so….Maybe you can sit at the far end of the bleachers?”
“No. I can’t see the board from the far end of the bleachers. I’ll sit where I normally do.”
“Ok.”
I’m not gonna lie, it was like a punch in the stomach. Immediately, I was worrying. I didn’t want to see that jackass and his stupid gf. I didn’t want to have him anywhere near D. I kept wishing he would just die. Or vanish. I’m so tired of feeling like this.
Warm-ups started at 3 and the meet started at 4. There were 9 divers in total, doing 11 dives. So every 10 minutes or so D would have his turn. They’d call his name, call his dive, he’d go out there and do his thing, get scored, then wait for his turn again.
It was about twenty past four when meet actually started. No Dummy. No Gf. D went first, then the other kids took their turns. Dummy showed up with Gf a little before 4:30. They sat at the far end of the bleachers. They stayed for the next 7 of D’s dives. Gf kept standing up and looking for D over the deck. She’s only met him one time before, about 3 or 4 years ago. I heard her say “There he is.” Dummy never got up to look.
I don’t know if any of you have ever seen actual diving, but its terrifying. I watched every move D made. Husband was recording the dives, but when D would do his thing he said that Dummy and Gf would just sit there, scowling. He said he didn’t see them smile. He didn’t see them looking impressed at how great of a job D was doing. They just seemed really put out to be there. Then they left before it was over. On their way out Gf made a point to make eye contact with me so she could glare at me. Just like the time I saw her at the football game. D is doing totally amazing and fantastic things on that diving board! How can anyone not be astounded at his ability?! Granted, he’s not going to the Olympics any time soon, but to leave early!? Sheesh!
D ended up getting disqualified for two failed dives and wasn’t able to finish the meet. So, he was nice and cranky for the rest of the evening. He didn’t say if he saw his father. He was just angry about the meet. Maybe he was angry because he wanted to do perfectly to impress his dad. Maybe he was angry because they left early. Maybe D didn’t notice if they were there or not and he was just angry because of the mistakes. Who knows.
Here is a link to the dive he was disqualified on. He did one and a half twists instead of one.
Looking Forward 