Work of Art

𝐃𝐞𝐮𝐜𝐞

𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟖- 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲

The crowd began to take their seats as the umpire started to announce the players going head to head in the challenger. Lucas was intrigued about the women's tennis match as he hadn't had much time to observe and connect with other players around campus. His dad was visiting for the weekend and as he is equally interested in tennis he decided to bring him along. Patrick Zweig. Former national tennis champion, joined his son in the crowd, passed him a cup of lemonade and lowered his sunglasses from the top of his head to the bridge of his nose before the match began.

" Playing today we first have Lacy Alderman, , a junior here at Stanford and women's champion for the past 3 seasons. "

Lacy strutted onto the court , her auburn hair in a white bow, she was wearing Nike tennis set and was encouraging the audience to cheer her on. She was confident, maybe overly so.

" playing against her is Juliette Donaldson. "
Patrick sat up slightly and craned his neck to get a glimpse of the girl. 'Surely not' he thought. It couldn't be, or could it?"

The umpire continued " A Freshman here at Stanford but already making a very strong impression in the tennis world."

Jules walked onto the court, she had her hair in slicked braid , she was wearing an adidas tennis skirt and matching top with an emerald green sweatshirt wrapped around her shoulders . As he saw the girl for the first time Lucas also sat up slightly, now both father and son leaning on the edge of their seats before the match had even started, staring at the Donaldson girl in awe.

She didn't interact with the crowd much , more so just exchanged a few smiles but she was too focused and in her own world. She couldn't let them distract her.

It was Lacey's serve first, the ball came flying towards Jules and with a relentless , powerful backhand swing, her racket ricocheted the neon ball back in the other direction. After 35 minutes the match was at a Deuce. There another rally of grunts, serves and bad language from Alderman, gaining Donaldson an advantage which gave her a surge of adrenaline and ambition to hit the ball right past Alderman for the last time and resulting in her winning the challenger.

The crowd cheered and Lucas smirked, impressed by the fresh talent he was witnessing first hand. Patrick turned to his son. " she's good." Lucas agreed with a nod. "almost too good" Patrick continued, his voice laced with suspicion and speculation. Lucas didn't know what he was hinting at so simply replied. " she's a natural." But by her performance alone, regardless of her last name, Patrick knew that she was a legacy. A born descendant of a tennis legend. Her agility , speed , her level of experience. That was no novice player.

After she had collected her trophy and shook hands with Alderman, Jules was by the drinks station sipping an iced cold lemonade, aiding her dehydration after a strenuous match. Then she was approached by two men, with slim faces, dark curls, and definitive smirks. They were undoubtably father and son. Patrick pushed Lucas slightly in front of him edging him to speak to the girl. " Hey! You were really good out there." He started, this caught Jules attention and she pivoted on her heel to see the two men in front of her.  She smiled at him modestly " Oh, thank you so much." she replied. As he saw her much more close up, Patrick could tell that she was the child of his rival. Her similar slim face shape, sharp features, freckles and blonde streaks running through her hair. She was unmistakably the daughter of Art Donaldson. Yet something about her made Patrick want to get to know her a bit better, hopefully see if she would mention her family.

She had no idea who these two were or how much they were about to change her life. " Lucas" the boy stuck his hand out waiting for the girl to introduce herself. "Jules. Do you go to Stanford too ?" she cocked her head to the side in curiosity. "Uh, yeah I'm a sophomore." Patrick noticed the girl staring at him with a raised eyebrow, so he subtly tapped his son who looked up at his dad, made an O shape with his mouth in realisation and started. " Oh this is my Dad, Patrick. He's coming to watch the challengers matches this weekend because he used to go to Stanford too. " Patrick extended his hand out to the girl. " I have to admit Miss Donaldson, I have seen my fair share of female tennis players but you are in another league entirely! It must take a lot of practice to be as good as you were out there." She chuckled slightly and sipped her lemonade after shaking his hand in return. " I was raised with tennis, so its always been a constant in my life, I guess I've just improved over the years. " The two smiled. Patrick then decided to try and prompt the girl but was unsuccessful. "Well your parents must be very proud of you." The word 'parents' suddenly gave Jules a slight homesick feeling in the pit of her stomach but she couldn't decipher whether it was her father she all of a sudden missed or her mother. She didn't know how to reply to this so she settled on a small smile and a brief nod of the head, Lucas was drinking his lemonade and Patrick then cleared his throat noticing that the conversation was beginning to turn stale. " Well I'll leave you two too it, I just spotted one of my old coaches, lovely to meet you Miss Donaldson. Luke I'll be on the field." He walked off and Lucas took a deep breath before speaking at a fast pace. " I don't know if you'll be interested but maybe we could train together sometime after classes, and maybe go for a drink afterwards. " He was looking at her with hopeful eyes. Jules found it very cute and couldn't help but want to spend more time with his boy, he had a magnetic energy and an unpredictably that intrigued her. He was either going to be the best thing that ever happened to her or the biggest mistake.

"yes." She replied smiling. The two exchanged phone numbers and went their separate ways. But from that day onwards the pair spent every single day together. By December they were official and very content. So a couple days before Jules went home for spring break, they were playing on the courts and Jules told Lucas pretty matter of factly " I'm gonna tell my dad about us." This took Lucas by surprise and he dropped his racket. She had told him how overprotective her father was due to her mothers absence. Lucas had told Patrick all about their relationship since the moment the two first met, he would call his father and deliver him updates weekly. Patrick was a fan of the girl and thought it was about time that he met her parents too. Lucas still hadn't seemed to mention to Patrick that Jules only had a dad, but he was soon to find out.