Secrets, Socials, and Seigaku

Chapter 7

I took a deep breath and threw the ball into the air. I watch the ball spin with a smile on my face. My racket went back behind my head as I jumped for it. And as I was nearing the ball my racket came forward from over my head and smashed into it. As I landed I smiled, and looked up to see no-name still standing in position waiting for the ball. disbelief, shock, anger, rage, and then blank, no-names face quickly went between emotions. He looked like his mind had shut off on him for a moment. The ball had just whizzed passed him. He hadn't even gotten a chance to move for it. I guess that’s what he gets for underestimating me.

 He raised his head and peeked up at me with hidden interest. He kept his eyes on me while moving over to the left side of the court. I didn’t have time to look at his teammates faces and truthfully I didn’t care about their shock. The only one on the court right now was no-name. Therefore, he had my undivided attention.

I moved to the opposite half of the base line and steadied myself for the second serve. I decided to make this one special. After all, I didn’t want him to get kicked off the team or something of the caliber  because of me. He would have to loose to my best shots or else the rest of his team would look at him as weak and not useful.

            I got into my serving position again except this time I moved a little farther away from the base line, which he probably noticed. I threw the ball up in the air so it would have a backwards spin on it and followed through with a jump. As I moved my racket to smash the ball I let it hit the left side of my strings and roll off to the right of it. As the ball moved over the net it headed for him. Of course that’s how it appeared to everyone. As no-name set himself up to hit the shot back to meI waited in anticipation. The ball bounced once and went straight around him. It was as if there were a bubble surrounding him. The ball continued down its path and went straight into the net on his side of the court. No-name stood there stunned, probably unable to believe what he just saw. He looked at me for clarification with a newfound determination in his light brown eyes. I smiled at him, a genuine one. I was glad he was taking an interest in my shot. Then I happened to hear the calls from the sidelines. Gakuto started shouting, “What the hell just happened? What was that?” 

I looked over to the sidelines to see all eyes on myself. Ootori, Gakuto, and Shishido looked at me in surprise, like they had never expected anything like that to come from me. My eyes slid to the two who were smiling, Atobe and Oshtari. Both of them looked at me like I was a new form of entertainment for them, which I didn’t like. I turned back to no-name with a smirk on my face. “I call that my circle serve. You could probably see why." I told him eagerly. I continued to explain, " I give the serve a backspin as I toss it into the air and let it slide over my strings as I hit it to give the ball a bit of a spin. That way once it gets to you it just goes around you and down into the net." I wracked my brain for a comparision. "It's almost as if you were standing in the center of a snowglobe. The ball follows straight around the perimeter of it." I told him. "If you were to hit it back without knowing what it was it would most likely bounce off in the completely opposite direction of what you had planned thanks to the spin.”

He looked to me with…a smile? No. I recognized that look becuase i had worn it too many times myslef. Anxiousness. ”It seems I’ve underestimated you as an opponent little girl, but even I’m not so stubborn as to say that what you just did wasn’t talented." He told me with determination. "But, that doesn’t mean it can’t be returned.” I really didn’t want to tell him that the only one who had ever returned that shot was Ryoma and his father Nanjiro, the world renound tennis player. If he thought he had the power to return my shots then hey, all the more power to him.

It was my turn to look at him in disbelief. He did just say that I was talented. I haven’t known him for too long, but I could tell that he wasn’t the type of guy to give compliments out easily. I took the compliment without a second to spare. ”Thanks, but don’t get all soft on me yet. I still have one more serve and I want you to give it your all. Try and return my shot, if you can, that is!” I told him with a smile.