That summer

Chapter 3 - Badminton

Author note - This chapter may be cheesy and a little rushed.

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Sammy had brought over a boy. And to Addison's surprise, it was the boy she had seen on the playground the first day. The cute guy who kept glancing at her. How could she forget?

The boy smiled at Addison and then Samantha pushed him forward. 

"Guys! This is Aaron! He's willing to play with us."

Addison smiled back.

"Hey. I'm Addison. Nice to meet you."

The boy nodded and said, "Yeah, nice to meet you too."

Everyone saw the way Addison and Aaron were staring at each other, so finally Sasha asked, "Hey do y'all know each other?" Addison looked away slightly flustered at the question. "Uh, no. I have seen him around...but we're not really friends I guess Haha." Aaron nodded. "Yeah, I've seen her around." Sasha giggles. "Ookay! I totally believe you! But anyways, how about we start making teams?"

 They all started talking about teams. That's when Addi decided to confess that she didn't know anything about playing badminton. 

Everyone agreed to teach her and began playing. As Addi had never played badminton before she was playing very badly but soon enough, she started getting the hang of it. Aaron, on the other hand, played very well. His team won very easily. 

Soon they started playing singles. Everyone in the group played quite well. Addison groaned as her chance came up. She was going against Aaron, the best player there. She picked up her racket and stood in position waiting for his serve.

They began playing. Addi was playing much better than she had been playing in the beginning. She was acing her shots and surprisingly the best player was losing against her! After every successful shot, she was jumping up and down happily. Aaron laughed as he saw her acting so joyful. 

After some time, Addison started getting suspicious of Aaron. How can a player who was playing so well just 10 minutes ago, start losing so badly? The points were 17 vs 12. Aaron was down by 5 points! And Addison just needed 3 more to win. 

"Hey dude? Why're you playing so bad? Is it on purpose??" Addison yelled to him.

"huh? On purpose for you? Ha! Why would I?! Just continue the game!" Aaron yelled back.

"don't you want to win????"

"Yeah I do!" Aaron says as he serves.

Addison gets distracted and misses it. "Hey! That was an easy one!" Aaron laughs.

 "shut up!" Addi mutters.

They continue playing and Addi realizes that maybe Aaron was playing bad on purpose and letting her win against him. Because now he was back to wanting to win. The scores were now 19 vs 19. 

"Damnit!! How the hell did you catch up so fast?!" Addison screams.

Aaron bursts out laughing. "Your serve Parker!" He says passing her the shuttlecock.

Serving was Addison's weak spot. "Ugh! Why can't you???"

Aaron shrugs as he chuckles.

Addison got into position. She served, and it was a very easy serve. Addison knew that Aaron would definitely deflect it back to her but to her great surprise he  completely missed it. As soon as Sam announced her win Addison started leaping and screaming. "YES, YES YES!!! I did it!" Arabelle and Sasha joined in her victory with sweet praising. 

All the while Aaron just stood there staring at her, watching her jump around and yell in happiness over her victory with a smile on his face. He finally walked up to her and shook her hand. "Heh. Congrats. You really are a fast learner ha-ha."

"Thanks!" Addison says.

He nods then smiles at her before walking away, leaving her in a slight daze.

Sasha shakes her "Dude!! What happened? WAIT. Do you like him?!"

Addison's attention then snaps to her friend and her face flushes. "No, I don't! I told you! I like this other guy in school!"

"Oh yeah! I forgot. But... if you're not in L-o-v-e then why do you look at him like that?"

"Like what?"

Sasha just giggles. 

Addison rolls her eyes as she gets the message.

"Shut up..."