Just Picture It

Chapter 15- Play Time and Gossip

Saturday, January 28th

Lincoln High School Tennis Courts, 1:45PM

When Jamie got to the courts she noticed that several other kids were watching the matches. There were two girls close to her age hanging with a boy that was a bit younger. They seemed harmless, and they were ignoring her for now. Something about the guy that was watching from the shaded corner made the hair stand up on her neck. She couldn't see him very well, but he appeared to be tall and lean. If she had to guess, she would have said that he had classic looks of a clean cut blond, and he appeared to be a junior or a senior. Jamie wondered what it was about him that made her warning system go off. When he didn't make any threatening moves, Jamie wondered if it was only his position in a shaded corner. Just then she heard Terrence divide up the players, and they separated to start playing, and she moved closer to have a better spot to watch.

Finn and Samuel were paired against Ivan and Terrence to practice doubles. Korbin was playing against Moe again.

As she watched, Jamie overheard the younger boy chatting continuously about tennis. The girls with him didn't seem to be listening. They just nodded and made noises every little bit. Jamie figured that he must be a little brother. It was interesting to her, but they had probably heard this all before. There was a slight hill just a little behind them that would make her workout harder, and allow her to listen to him ramble. She could do some sit-ups and push-ups, and still see while listening in. She tried to be unobtrusive as she worked herself into position. If the kid knew what he was talking about, she would able to learn the correct words for the different shots by listening to the boy, and pick up some interesting gossip from listening to the girls. She decided to focus on the tennis for now, but filed the other information away for later.

Samuel was covering the back of the court and Finn was bouncing all around in the front half. They seemed to know each others moves and covered for each other very well. Samuel had a lot of power and speed on his shots, and also a high deep topspin. He did one shot that had topspin and landed right before the back line. The kid watching sounded excited and called it a moon ball. Jamie enjoyed watching Finn move. It reminded her of a ferret that had been given caffeine. He was constantly moving and twisting in unlikely angles. The fast reflexes seemed necessary to work close to the net. He was doing what the kid called a half volley, where the person hit it shortly after it bounced, or a volley, where he hit the ball before it bounced. Jamie was looking forward to trying those shots against Korbin.

Terrence had some interesting shots too. He did a serve that bounced toward the other person's face because of the spin. Jamie learned that was called a kick serve. Most of his shots had spin, but he could volley just as well as Finn. Ivan confirmed her guess that he was a great planner by how he played. He always seemed to know where the shot was coming, and how it would bounce, on top of the knowing where Terrence would be and what shots he would need to take himself. He didn't seem to have any trick shots, but seemed to wait for the other person to make a mistake, and was good at placing his shots. Terrence and Ivan worked together well, but so did Samuel and Finn.

After Jamie watched them play for a while, her attention shifted as one of the girls started cheering loudly for Moe.

That girl was tall with dark curly hair that came halfway down her back. She looked strong, athletic, and confident. When she turned around Jamie saw that she had eyes the same unexpected color as Moe's. The other girl was pretty in a more delicate way. She was much shorter and looked like a strong wind would blow her away. She had long blond hair that came to her waist and large dark eyes that seemed to hold lots of secrets.

When Moe grinned and bowed their way after scoring a point, the tiny blond girl scowled and hissed, "Danica, he keeps looking over here. Will you stop yelling?"