And it’s a totally boring blue color, not a deep navy or a pretty powder blue, but just this really dull blue, a dirty grayish blue, like the color of the sky on a drizzly day. Then there are the shorts, which balloon out on the sides like old-fashioned bloomers. Polyester makes me sweat more, which is the exact opposite of what I need in a gym uniform. For one thing, it’s half polyester, which is just itchy and gross. I am at war with my Park Street Middle School gym uniform. “That means I can get out of this uniform.” “Well, I am definitely glad it’s over,” I said. “Did you actually just say that?” I asked. “I almost wish gym wasn’t over yet,” Katie said, and I gave her a look. She jumped up, pretending to make an imaginary layup. “Can you believe I made a basket today?” she was saying as we walked toward the locker room. She used to hate gym more than I hate polyester, mostly because she used to get teased because she wasn’t good at sports. Half the time we’re standing around, waiting to play.” “But gym class is just not an efficient way to get exercise. “You need a healthy body to maintain a healthy mind,” she’d always say. She likes gym-mainly because she’s really good at it-but she just loves to criticize it. “What do they think? That we’re not as good as them?” she’d say.Īlexis is competitive, too, but mostly about academic things. She especially gets mad when the girls and boys play together and the boys don’t pass the ball to the girls. I think it comes from having three brothers.

We all have pretty complicated feelings about gym, though.Įmma is blonde, sweet, a little shy, and gorgeous-and, surprisingly, a competitive beast when she plays sports. We all have gym together, which is great. I jogged off the basketball court along with my friends Katie, Emma, and Alexis. All right, people! Hit the lockers!” called out Ms.

Mia's Recipe for Disaster by Coco Simon