Wearing the Right Shorts

Back in the days when I wore shorts, before I switched to pants (for ease & comfort), & before, as I currently do, where running skirts, I was back there in high school (at cross country practice) awkwardly attempting to wear shorts. They never hung correctly. They were uncomfortable. They, plain & simple, didn't work out for me.

Then junior year happened. A bunch of my teammates were happily & contentedly wearing the same pairs of plaid shorts to run in. Once again I was totally out-of-the-loop on all things "cool" & "in-style". I rolled with it as best I could. I asked my closest friend, who happened to be familiar with the team members wearing these plaid running shorts. (My friend paced with these team mates & so was therefore "nearby" them often throughout daily practices.)

My friend found out about the shorts, though it was still confusing. We learned from which retail store they'd purchased the shorts, & even though Mom & Dad didn't head to the stores all that often, I did mention these "winning" shorts a few times around the house so Mom helped me check out the racks around the store when we had a chance to stop in.

We had no luck. We searched the department high & low. Nothing. Nada.

This is where the joke comes in. When I explained about my shopping fail to my friend I learned that these shorts weren't from our department. The teammates were purchasing these in the smallest size. How was I to know?! I wasn't. I simply wasn't to have a clue. And I didn't.

My friend was a friend to me & went back to that same retailer with me to help me find my way right to the rack of them. The store only had four pairs in stock in the size small enough to fit us. Two were the same shorts. We both picked those, leaving two pairs left on the rack. I only had enough money to buy two pairs & she already owned a pair or two, so she was ready for the register. I picked another from the remaining two options & then I also was ready to head to the register.

I excited wore these shorts for our next practice, a ten mile run down a local main street. When most runners head out to improve their performance, or should I say believe their performance should improve, they typically head out to pick up the best of these. That's apparently not my style 😂; I aim to improve my running technique by purchasing the latest high school teammate fashions. At least I had a I running high for the day (or maybe the week!).

The joke ran on me through the season. I hadn't realized how, well, not-low-key I'd been about getting in on the team training shorts. Our team's annual end-of-season banquet proved this point. It stood as tradition that team's senior class would receive a memorable gift from the rest of the team as led & presented by the team's junior class. The team's senior class would present gag gifts to the rest of the team. This worked the same for both the men's & women's teams; we all practiced together & celebrated together, though the gifts were presented/received accordingly by men's or women's team, not the overall high school. We were all at one big banquet together & watched the presentations of each other's teams.

So when it came time, with me as a junior, to receive my gag gift, there it was. They said something about how I'd been asking about the shorts "all season", & they gifted me with a pair. They weren't a pair to really wear, though the joke remained in tack. When I asked my friend (because I really had thought I'd been subtle), she responded, as kind as she could for us being high school students, that I'd indeed inquired a lot about those plaid shorts.

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