Just Try It

Chapter 4- What's His Problem?

Sunday, February 12 8:30am

Swisher Park Public Tennis courts

Moe looked around at his teammates as he waited for Korbin to arrive.  Jamie would probably be with him.  He wondered if the girls had played anymore Truth or Dare after he left.  Before he knew it, he was thinking about Sondra again.  Moe sighed and shoved the thoughts of Sondra away again.  The one thing he knew for sure was that it wouldn't work for long.  After all, every thought led back to Sondra in one way or another. She was too much a part of his life for it to be any other way.  He had more luck focusing during tennis than in school at least. 

Sondra had been his study buddy, but when he had backed off, studying had become difficult, especially once he found out about Aaron.  It hadn't helped that he had been trying to earn some extra money at that time too.  Moe shook his head in self disgust as he thought about the poor state of his grades. 

Reading and Language were okay.  Even though he had been really far behind in reading before joining his uncle and aunt's family and Sondra had basically taught him to read, he could lose himself in stories for awhile.  Math was fine too.  Math had always been easy, at least after Sondra had helped him get the basics down.  Besides, he could finish that at school.  Chemistry and Social Studies weren't going as well though.

When the teachers talked, he zoned out thinking about Sondra.  He could hardly remember a word that the teachers had said in the last few weeks.  Things had gotten better since Aaron was gone, but there had been quizzes yesterday in both classes, and he was pretty sure he had bombed them.  He hadn't felt so stupid since elementary school.

With some effort, he focused on tennis.  If possible, he didn't want to ruin that the way he had his grades.  Besides, if he didn't do his best, he would be running even if it was a Saturday practice.  Moe went back to serving and hoped Korbin would show up before their captain noticed he was late, otherwise Korbin would be the one running.

A quick glance showed that Terrence was busy playing Ivan, and hadn't seemed to notice Korbin's absence yet.  Hopefully, playing against Ivan would distract him enough for Korbin to arrive a few minutes late without having to do extra laps.  When anyone played against Ivan, they couldn't get distracted, not even Terrence.  With Ivan's ability to read the smallest cues, he almost seemed to read people's minds.  This not only made him very hard to beat, but also made most people avoid him.  However, Captain Terrence saw how valuable his ability was, and relied on his opinion for team decisions.  He also considered Ivan to be his best friend.    

With Ivan's pale blond hair and faded blue eyes, and Terrence's dark brown skin and black short hair, some people gave the friends strange looks.  To Moe, they actually both seemed very alike.  Both were super responsible and dedicated to the team.  Neither even tried to personalize their school uniform.  If anything, Terrence took it step further by refusing to be seen without an undershirt in even the locker room.  No one dared to make fun of him for being body shy though.  It wasn't that he would beat them up... though he was definitely strong enough to.  He was just that respected by everyone.

Even though Moe liked to tease, he would never have tried to tease Terrence about his reluctance to go shirtless.  In fact, he was actually grateful.  He had his own reasons for keeping his back covered, and the captain having the same quirk kept people's attention off of him.

When Ivan murmured something and Terrence's dark gaze swung his way, Moe went back to serving before they could comment.  There was no way that he wanted to run.  He would leave that to Korbin, because he was now sure that they had noticed his absense.  After only a few serves, Moe heard a hiss from the next court.  Moe deliberately ignored the annoying noise for several minutes, until a tennis ball whizzed by his head.   

Then, he couldn't help but grin over at the next court.  Samuel was smoothing down his straight dark hair while scowling at Finn,  but Finn was already darting over to retrieve his ball. 

"Where's Korbin?" Finn asked as he conveniently jogged past.

With a shrug, Moe waited quietly instead of answering.  Even if he knew, Moe wasn't sure he would have answered. It was just so much more fun to keep tiny bits of information from finn.  Maybe it was his red floppy hair, but seeing how quickly he would explode with curiosity was always entertaining.  To Moe's disappointment, Samuel hurried him back over to play.  Keeping Finn on task was one of Samuel's most difficult duties.   That's what he got for being best friends with Finn though.

Thinking about best friends made Moe wonder where Korbin was again.

Just then, Moe spotted Korbin and Jamie running toward the court at a fast pace.  Korbin was pushing himself even more than usual.   As Korbin got closer, Moe realized that he wasn't just rushing because he was late.  Something was wrong.  Korbin was scowling.  With his dark hair and skin, from his Asian mother and the green eyes, height, and muscles from his father, his scowls could be piercing.  The scowl had been his usual expression, until Jamie had come into the picture. 

Before Terrence could say anything about him being late, or Moe could get out a greeting, Korbin barked, "Let's play."

Moe frowned and looked over at Jamie doing lunges, sit-ups, and push-ups with a vengeance.  She wasn't smiling either.  He hoped they weren't arguing.  When they had first started going out, Moe had just been happy to have a chance to tease Korbin about a girl.  It hadn't taken long for him to realize that even though Jamie looked delicate, but she could be scarier than Korbin.  In his opinion, there couldn't be a girl more perfect for his friend.

When Korbin's serve zipped past only inches from his face, Moe realized that with Korbin in such a dark mood, paying attention had become necessary for his physical well being. Not only did Korbin have a lot of power, but he also had some wicked spin.  Moe had been working hard on returning his snake shot, a return with monstrous spin, and but Korbin had recently improved the spin on his serves.  Moe's goal usually was to return the snake shot, but today, his goal might just be to keep from being nailed in the face.  Moe barely saw Jamie start another lap of the park, and totally missed seeing a couple of girls watch from a nearby hill.