"Hey guys." Gracie said in a good mood strolling out of her room and into the kitchen. "Ready to go get em' I've been thinking about my backhand and I think I'm gonna try and angle myself more this way so I can just hit the ball at a better spot you know? I think it will give me the space I need to get it safely in the box, so I can try and avoid losing any points." Gracie explained eagerly.
"Gracie, honey can you come and sit down for a minute?" Hailey asked. Her eagerness and happiness for her upcoming game was making it even harder to have to do this. Hailey hated the thought of making her sad again.
"Is everything ok?" Gracie asked noting that their facial expressions were a little different than they had been last night when they were talking about the game.
"Uh..." Hailey hesitated unsure how to begin the conversation.
"Gracie, I got a phone call early this morning and it was your Grandma's home." Jay began to explain.
"Is she ok? Does she need anything?" Gracie asked and Jay continued.
"I got the call because they went in this morning to go wake her up for her morning meds...I'm sorry Gracie but she didn't wake up." He explained.
"She passed away last night honey." Hailey reiterated making sure she had understood what was said.
"You're lying! Everyone lies to me! She's not gone, she can't be gone! We only saw her yesterday she was fine! She was fine!" Gracie said distraughtly tears immediately coming into her eyes.
"Gracie..." Hailey said gently trying to comfort her.
"No i gotta go, I gotta go." Gracie said picking up her phone and some money out of her wallet and putting it into her zip jacket pocket.
"Wait, Gracie..." Jay said and him and Hailey followed the teen who ran out of the door of the apartment and out of the building onto the sidewalk.
Despite how fast Jay and Hailey were from having to chase offenders everyday, they had started a little later than Gracie so were still a few paces behind.
"Gracie!" Jay yelled from behind in concern.
"Grace stop!" Hailey shouted as they tried to catch her up.
"She's gone honey." Hailey said voice still raised so Gracie could hear but they had closed the gap a little.
Gracie was suddenly out of breath her lungs burning from crying and running out on the street. She collapsed onto her hands and knees skidding slightly on the concrete sidewalk. She shook a little as she sobbed, tears running down her face.
"Hey, hey are you ok did you hurt yourself?" Jay said kneeling down in front of her and gently taking her hands in his. He turned her palms to face him, having seen them skid along the harsh concrete. There were a few cuts but nothing major, he put is hand between the side of her neck and face, his thumb stroking her cheek comfortingly.
"She's gone Jay." Gracie said tearfully as if she had a moment of realisation.
"Yeah honey she is and I'm really sorry about that." Jay responded softly, by this point Hailey had kneeled beside her and pulled her into a hug. The teen closed her eyes for a second in disbelief, tears continued to roll down her face she turned and sobbed into Hailey's embrace.
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Hailey and Jay had gotten Gracie back to the apartment.
"D'you think...d'you think she was in pain?" Gracie asked looking down at her hands that Hailey was just finishing wrapping bandages around her palms.
"No I don't think so. The doctors said she wouldn't have been she passed away when she was sleeping. Her heart just stopped." Jay explained and Gracie nodded.
Gracie sniffled a little and quickly wiped her eyes with her bandaged hands, before getting up out of her chair.
"Where you going sweetie?" Hailey asked gently as Gracie got out of her chair.
"I'm gonna be late for tennis." Gracie said walking towards her room.
"Honey you don't have to do that today if you don't feel up to it. People will understand you've just lost someone really important in your life." Hailey responded sympathetically.
Jay walked up to a broken looking Gracie and put a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. "Gracie listen to me, you have nothing to prove to any of us alright? We love you and we're proud of you already and so was your Grandma." He reassured.
"So I can't stop now. Please Jay I gotta prove something to myself and Grandma liked it when I played. Before she got sick her and Mom used to come watch some of my matches. After Mom died she still kept coming for them, cheering me on. She was the only person that ever cheered me on and I'm not gonna let her down." Gracie said strongly determined to carry on despite the fact that she felt the worst she'd ever felt since her Mom died.
"Ok." Jay said nodding in agreement. "If you wanna go, we'll drive you ok?" Gracie hugged Jay trying not to cry again.
"Thanks." Gracie said gratefully. He wrapped his arms around her returning the gesture exchanging a look of sadness with Hailey who struggled to not let a few tears go herself at everything this poor kid had had to face.
A few seconds later the teen went to her room and got ready for tennis. Shortly after, Gracie re-emerged into the living room dressed in her LMWHS tennis polo shirt and shorts which she was thankful the school opted for over tennis skirts.
She carried her duffle that was already packed with her practice tennis balls, water bottle and towel as well as her racket poking out the top. Hailey walked up to her when she came back into the living room/kitchen area of the apartment and handed her her zip up hoodie and cap which also had the school letters on.
"You all set?" Hailey asked and Gracie nodded.
"Yeah I think so, thanks." She said and Hailey patted her on the shoulder with a smile.
"Here put this in too." Jay said and threw her an orange from near the kitchen area. "Tennis champs, they've gotta keep their strength up." Jay added and Gracie smiled gratefully at him.
"Come on let's go get in the car, we don't wanna be late." Hailey said and they all left the apartment and drove to the courts at the high school.
"You nervous?" Jay asked. In his own head he knew that of course she was nervous, she had worked really hard to do well in this tournament and she wanted to do well in honour of her Grandma and Mom but he asked anyway to try and make the situation seem as normal as possible.
"Yeah." She said minimally not having spoken much during the car journey. She thought for a few seconds before speaking up. "What if...what if all that training I missed when dad didn't let me go and when I was in the hospital what if that shows?" Gracie asked nervously, taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself as she saw all the other teams arrive at her school.
"Gracie..." Hailey started and Gracie looked over to Hailey from Jay to listen to what she had to say. "We know that you're gonna do well, but we are proud of you however this goes ok? You have come so far and put up with so much going on in your life. We're gonna be right up there sat on the bleachers the whole time cheering you on."
"Thanks." Gracie responded with a slight smile. "Hey, I gotta go."
"Sure we'll be right up there ok honey?" Hailey said and the teen nodded in understanding before grabbing all of her stuff off of the back seat next to her and running to her coach and team.
Hey guys sorry this update has taken so long. This update is actually one of two though so if you swipe up then you should already find the next chapter available. Thanks for reading! :) EQ x