Tennis Tournament

[Friday, Lesson 3 - PE]

"I just have to ask. Why is it 2 against 1?"

"Listen, Owen. When it comes to tennis it's only fair that you are on your own. Sean and I aren't as good."

"I'm not good with rackets." said Sean as he stood beside Ethan on the other side of the tennis court.

"See, Sean isn't good with rackets and I'm just bad at sports overall."

I feel as if we've played tennis before. I don't remember why we stopped playing it though.

"Ok, Sean. You know the rules. Just stand behind me and serve."

Although it was two vs one I wasn't worried. At first, I was, but that quickly went away after I watched Sean throw the ball up to serve, only to give up on swinging halfway through.

"Sean, What are you doing?" I asked

"I'm practising my swing."

"You have to actually swing to practise your swing. At this point, you are just playing catch with yourself."

"Owen. Please don't distract my teammate. I don't want you getting in our heads and messing with us just so you can win."

"Whatever. Just hurry up already." The memories were coming back to me, I had nothing to worry about.

"Alright! Here I go!"

Sean threw the ball up into the air and connected it with the centre of the racket, launching it straight into the back of Ethan's head.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? DO YOU WANT TO FIGHT?"

"Ah. Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to"

"LOOK! DO IT RIGHT NEXT TIME!" Ethan said as he returned to his side, rubbing the back of his pained shaken head.

"Ok...Ok… I'll try again."

Sean prepared for another serve. He bounced the ball a few times before throwing it up and smacking it with the racket. I was prepared for this one to succeed so I started to look professional.

The ball rocketed from Sean's racket and hit Ethan directly in the back of the knee, crippling him as I tried to hold back my laughter.

"PLEASE STOP HITTING ME!" He cried in pain.

"My bad. Although this is kinda funny."

"THERE IS NOTHING FUNNY ABOUT MY MISFORTUNE!"

Isn't your misfortune what we make fun of 90% of the time?

"OK. Owen, I give up. You serve."

"DON'T HIT IT OVER! PASS IT OVER!" Ethan screamed.

Sean handed me the ball over the net and went back into position. I wanted to aim for Ethan's face just to add to the pain, but I also want to play tennis.

"Ok. Ready?"

"YUP!" They both exclaimed.

I threw the ball up and connected. The ball flew passed the net and bounced right in front of Sean who goalie-dived over the ball in an attempt to hit it.

"Damn. So close."

You were nowhere near.

"Damn. Sean, you were so close as well." said Ethan, having not seen what had happened behind him and only wanted to compliment his teammate out of spirit.

How do these two think tennis is played?

"Ok. I'm going to serve again." I said.

"Tsk… good luck. You just saw how good we were. This time you won't get passed us."

It was a good thing Ethan is optimistic but there is no chance that happens.

I hit the ball over the net. The ball flies past Sean without any reaction from him. 10 seconds pass before he started to swing. His brain was lagging and his body was slowly moving.

"Damn… So close."

It was like watching real-life lag from a video game.

"Damn. Sean, you were so close as well."

"You two are bad."

"Owen, we don't need your negativity what matters is that we are having fun. You clearly aren't having fun."

-WACK-

"Ow. What did you hit me with? Did you just throw your phone at me?"

"I hope you haven't broken this one. I just got it."

"It's your fault for hitting me in the head with it." said Ethan.

"Here you go, Owen." Sean said as he rushed over to pick it up "Here is your phone back."

Sean took my phone from the floor and smashed it with the racket.

"NO DON'T!"

His accuracy was perfect and the phone flew at Mach 1 into my hands.

"WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT? I BET IT'S BROKEN NOW!"

I didn't want to look at the screen. I knew that if I was to turn it over it will be smashed.

"Oh… it's not smashed. Well, that's lucky."

"How does your phone break on my head but not when hitting it with a tennis racket? What are you trying to say about my head?"

"It's as thick as tungsten." I muttered.

"Come on guys. Let's get back to the game. I want to try and serve again. I'll try not to hit you in again, Ethan."

"Go for it. But afterwards, I want to try and serve."

Sean lined up the ball and hit it with full force. The racket pierced through the ball as if it was made from paper. The ball fell to the ground disappointingly as we all watched it slowly roll around like tumbleweed.

"Well… that's something. I'll go get another racket."

"Well, he failed his serve so it's my go."

Ethan picked up the ball and began his serve just as Sean returned.

He threw it up in the air and swung, missing the ball completely as it landed on his head like a bird's gift from above.

"Everyone. Please ignore what you just witnessed. I'm embarrassed just thinking about it."

Ethan's voice shrank as I could see he was holding back the tears.

"Ok. I'll imagine nothing happened. Please serve again." I said trying to hold back the laughter.

Ethan lined himself up. Looking up and forward checking that everything was perfect. He stuck his arm out and looked down at it as if he was working out the angle he needed to hit it at to hit me straight in the face.

"Ok. I got this." He said to himself.

He threw the ball up a few hundred feet into the air. I would say it is impressive but I have no idea when that will come down.

"Well, what do we do n-OW"

Huh. It came down quicker than I thought. He's such a good shot, I don't know how he manages to consistently land it on his head.

"Should I just serve from now on?"

"No. We got this. we can serve without your help!"

Sean took another attempt to serve, He smashed it straight into the net.

Ethan quickly followed by missing the court entirely and hitting it into one of the matches going on next to us.

Sean attempted but kept hitting Ethan in the back of the head. Ethan thought he wouldn't get hit if he could see the ball coming so he decided to face Sean as he served. If only he could have reacted quick enough.

"Well, Tennis was fun," Sean said.

"Yeah, but I didn't want to spend it with a bloody-faced Ethan."

"I blame Sean for this." Ethan kept repeating.