Inevitable Poem by Imaanah Saleem

The balls. The kids. The teacher …. I knew this was going to be hell the moment I heard the word. "Dodge ball! " My gym teacher said it with so much excitement, and my classmates went wild. It's not one of my favorite sports because I can't see worth a damn. Still, I'm in the game. "Uuuf." I'm in it to lose. The kids here have their determinations. My teammates run circles around me, grabbing balls they can, throwing them, and dodging the ones that are coming our way. I walk around on our side, picking the moments I should pretend I got hit. "Ahhh! " It would be nice if the balls would come flying my way. Afterall, that was the plan at first—to actually get hit. "Run! Run! Run! " I'm not running. I'm not dipping or jumping out of the way. There is no effort of saving lifelines being put forth here. I'm like a deer that roams into the street to get hit by a car, but I picked the wrong day to die. Everybody's alert, and nobody's interested in ruining their good cars. "Aww man! That was cheat! "