Life as Shania

Chapter 27: Monday (Part 3)

After homeschool was wrapped up, Shania quickly ran into her bedroom to change into her tennis wear. Excited to meet Marcus.

She chose a baby blue cropped tank top along with a white tennis skirt. From her room, she could see that Marcus was already in the pool house chatting with Chris. She exited through her balcony door and brisk walked to the pool house.

"There you are," Chris turned and exclaimed as Shania was entering the pool house.
"Naya!" Marcus stretched open his arms as Shania ran over to get hugged.

"I haven't seen you since my last visit to Singapore 2 years ago!" Marcus pushed Shania away to take a good look at her.

"Okay, you'll be seeing each other at least twice a week. Have fun with tennis, I'll see you both for dinner later!" Chris ruffled Shania's hair and left them.

Marcus started out the lesson with stretching before running around the court to warm up. He then focused on Shania's footwork.

The sky got dark and Shania was sent to pick up the stray balls around the court. There must have been about 80 to 100 balls strewn around the court.

"It's okay, I'll pick it up after dinner," Shania told Marcus.

Marcus knew Shania was not going to come back to the court after dinner and it was an excuse to get out of having to pick up balls. 

"Naya, go pick the balls up," Marcus spoke in a low stern voice pointing to the court.

"I said, I'll do it later! I already picked up the balls six times in the past 2 hours!" Shania replied slightly raising her voice.

Marcus stood his ground and put his hands on his hips staring angrily at Shania. She stomped her feet, muttered under her breath and took her tennis racket back to the court. 

She swept the balls with her racket towards the net but since she was using so much force, the balls went all over the court. Marcus simply stared at her as she continued to angrily sweep the balls to the center net and then tossing them to the empty basket.

Marcus simply stood at the side of the court watching Shania throw a tantrum.

When all the balls were in the basket, Shania pulled the basket towards the store room at the other side of the pool house but Marcus took the basket away from her. He unlatched the buckle and started throwing all the balls out of the basket all over the court. 

"What is your problem?! What are you doing?!" Shania yelled as she tried to pull the basket and block his throws.

"Let's do this again. Go pick up the balls and put in the basket," Marcus pointed towards the court. 

"No! What is wrong with you?!" Yelled Shania.

"Pick the balls up," Marcus repeated as he made himself comfortable on the bench.

Shania stomped her feet and did the same thing as before to fill the basket up with the balls. After 20 minutes, Shania was sulking and angry. When all the balls were in the basket and Shania started pulling it towards the store room slightly stomping her feet as she walked. 

Marcus took the basket and threw the balls all over the court again. By this time, Shania was just standing not trying to stop Marcus. She was tired, sweaty and crying. 

"You know the drill," Marcus turned his back on Shania and returned to the bench.

"I'm sorry, okay?" Shania shouted.

Marcus looked at her and grabbed his phone and started using it mindlessly.

Shania turned and went to the court to pick the balls up.

By this time, it was getting late and dinner was about to get served so Chris came to the court to check in on the duo. 

"Hey, dinner starts in 15 minutes. You guys were supposed to be showered by now," Chris passed a bottle of Pocari Sweat to Marcus and sat beside him. "What's going on here?" Asked Chris as he nudged his chin to Shania's direction. 

"She was throwing a fit about picking up the balls and I am punishing her right now," Marcus told Chris as he took a big gulp of the isotonic drink. Chris nodded.

When Shania was done filling up the basket with the tennis balls, she has tears in her eyes while she dragged the basket with her and brought it towards the store room. Marcus did not stop her this time.

She walked towards the bench where her brother and coach were seated at and looked down at her feet as she stood in front of them.

"Do you know why I made you pick the balls up multiple times?" Marcus asked.

Shania nodded.

"Naya, use your words," Chris reminded her.

"You made me pick the balls up multiple times because I disobeyed you," Shania replied.

"That's right. I might watch you grow up and you may see me as a brother. But at the court, I am your coach. I do not tolerate tantrums and disobedience," Marcus told Shania as he lifted her chin up to look at him.

"I'm sorry," Shania apologized. 

"Apology accepted. Besides the balls, I would like to commend you for today's training. Your form was great but we would work more on your backhand swings and fine tune your serves, but today is only day one of training. I expect to see improvements." Marcus stood up and ruffled Shania's hair.

Chris then stood up and wiped Shania's tears with his clean tshirt and also ruffled Shania's hair.

"Go take a quick shower and we'll have dinner," Chris pushed Shania's towards the direction of her room.

—

After 20 minutes of waiting at the dinner table, Papa Lee decided to go to Shania's room to check in on her. He found her sound asleep on her bed with her hair still up in a towel. Papa Lee then kissed Shania on her cheek, drew her curtains closed and switched the lights off to let Shania sleep the rest of the night.