Once Upon a Time in London

Chapter 9

I want to whack Rahul on the face with my racket.

Dot Point number 3 of things I don't have in common with Rahul:

3. I don't give people the cold shoulder no matter how tense things may be in between us.

It's stupid, childish behaviour. What's even more stupid is how bothered and hurt I am because of this.

He has all the right to ignore me and not speak to me, and it's my responsibility to not let that ruffle me. And here I am, very ruffled.

It's surprising how I am pretty much pining to hear his annoying voice, desperate times make us think desperate things. So it's a welcome surprise when he finally does talk.

His voice is sharp as he yells out to me, "Move, let me take the shots in the front, we missed that point for no reason."

I am giggling like a child on the inside at him finally speaking to me, but it doesn't take long for me to pull myself together and realise how annoyed he sounded. I roll my eyes at him, "Well maybe if we were communicating like we were supposed to, we wouldn't have missed that point."

He glares at me, I stare back at him, not looking away, he doesn't intimidate me.

He finally sighs and rubs his temple, "Ah fine, look I'm sorry, we'll communicate from now on okay?"

"Okay" I reply back, my voice audibly a happier note.

Rahul and I make a good team, that's something I had come to terms with ever since the debate. The very reasons that made me despise him, his arrogant behaviour, his superiority complex, the continuous strive to do better, to go above and beyond, they were, are, I admit things we both have in common. It's surprising how the very things that make us compete against each other are also what bring us together. They are ultimately what make us a good team, we both pull our weight. Whenever I work with him, I know that he's trying just as hard to do good, that I don't have to oversee everything because I already know that he cares about our performance just as much, if not more.

As we play more matches, the tension between us slowly dissipates. We both start laughing again and celebrating every point we get, the more matches we win, the more our confidence grows. So far we've been unbeatable, sure we've lost a match here and there with an opposing team out of the three matches we have to play against every pair, but overall, our victory streak has been untarnished, we've emerged victorious from every match, this is good for our ranking.

"You know you're not that bad at badminton after all I guess" Rahul shakes his head, suppressing a smile.

I laugh and look at him seriously, a hand on my chest, "I know, too bad I can't say the same about you."

"Ha ha" Rahul mumbles, shaking his hair out of his eyes.

I watch as the sweat beading his forehead glistens in the sunshine streaming through the skylight. His face is red from all the moving around, he looks so innocent like this.

"What?" Rahul cocks his head to the side, I feel my own face redden under his intense gaze.

"Nothing" I mumble, embarrassed at being caught looking.

Before Rahul can ask me again, our next opponents walk into the court. It's none other than Jai and Tina. Tina is limping onto the court though, wincing with every step. I quickly walk up to her. She lets go of Jai's arm and clutches onto my shoulder as I walk up to them, I can feel Rahul behind me.

"What's the matter?" I ask, concerned.

"Tina scraped her knee, the racket accidentally slashed her skin" Jai looks at us, worry etched in his eyes.