It All Began With A Song [Editing]

Chapter 5: Flying Tennis Rackets

Thanks @hopethehydra for the cover above! :D

"Catch Nat!" Seth yells at me right after he slams his racket to the tennis ball, causing a fast powered speed-ball flying to my direction, just as I widen my eyes in shock.

Fast? Never mind.

Change it to horribly high-speed.

Don't just stare at it! Do something!

"I got it!" I yell as I run near it, careful not to get inside the box line. Unfortunately, sunlight only makes it challenging for me to look up in order to find the ball. Swinging my racket, I close my eyes and hope for the best.

Bam.

I felt it! I hit the ball!

Slowly opening my eyes, I look at where it is and couldn't help but frown in disappointment. There it is, sitting on the same side of the net I am.

Seth nods in approval before checking his watch, "Not bad. At least you hit something after forty minutes. Let's take a break."

We are currently at the park, practicing tennis. Today is actually my first day of practicing it, and try-outs happens to be tomorrow, which is Monday. Why, you may ask? I ended up a cold for two days straight because of "running in the rain to school." Well, I certainly learned a lesson from that. When someone offers you a ride, never, never decline it. I pant as I sit down on the bench beside the tennis court. Seth soon comes after retrieving two water bottles from his truck and tosses one to me.

"Thanks." I gulp down about half of it.

"You okay?" He questions, his chestnut eyes filled with concern, "Nat, we can change the challenge into another thing if you want to."

Although I am breathless, I laugh out loud, "Are you kidding? No way! I already started with this. I'm not changing it!"

"Okay, but if you don't get in the team, you know what's going to happen." He warns, bouncing the tennis ball softly on the ground over and over again.

Nodding, I reply back, "Yeah."

The rules for the challenge game is that if you fail, the person who started the challenge can order you to do anything for two weeks. However, if you win, it's vice versa. In this case, if I don't make it to tryouts, I have to dress as a clown and walk around the town square, which isn't so bad if you think about it.

Okay, it is very bad.

Seth is probably thinking why I'm not willing to change the challenge when I know that I'm probably going to lose anyway, seeing how I only have one day to practice. I did, in fact, consider changing the challenge, but then I changed my mind.

I guess it's because when I was little, my parents would sometimes play tennis with me. Of course, since I was a klutz even when I was only seven, I never hit anything. They had told me to never give up, to keep trying, but I gave up anyway. Now I realized that I'm using the challenge as an excuse for improving my sport skills.

Oh, and that I am a very stubborn person.

If I had to be honest, I would definitely say that my parents' reactions when I told them I was trying out for tennis during dinner was hariarious. My mom had asked me if my fever had gotten up again, while my dad simply stared at me as if I was the girl on fire. Well, I was, in a way, because of the fever. As for Makenna, she dropped her fork and asked me, "Nat, are you okay? You suck at sports!"

I have to show them that I can do this.

"Yea, I know," I repeat, peering over at Seth's watch. 5 minutes, that's more than enough. "Come on, break's over. Let's continue."