Her Last Game

CHAPTER 2

On the fifth period was our physical education class and the sun had awoken from its sleep. Miss Matthews told us to play outdoor and we raced to the school's only badminton court. I sat on the bench near the court to tie my shoelaces when suddenly, I heard shouts from the court. The seniors had arrived and were looking smugly.

"How many times do we have to tell you? This is our court," the guilt stood and full of pride among her group. "But Miss Matthews.." "Miss Matthews here and Miss Matthews there," the red haired girl snapped at Fleur.

  The guilt pointed her finger at the field and shouted at them to run thirty laps around the field. I went to seniors with an unreadable expression whilst my classmates ran to the field.

The red shrieked at me, "Jo, this is the girl that humiliated me yesterday!" The guilt whose name was Jo gazed steadily at me and the red threw a handful of insults but halted when Jo raised her hand. "Aren't you the kid that won the Junior Badminton Championship for five times at Lincoln?"

I nodded and tried to look tough when suddenly, the red jabbed her finger at my shoulder and challenged to a game. We went to the court and she was shooting daggers at me all the time. I let her served first since she was older.

Jo told us to play a game of 10 points only. The red hit the shuttlecock and I hit back at her and it zoomed past her as she failed to retaliate. "5 love!" Jo shouted. The red yelled in anger, "Why 5?". A blonde girl who stood beside Jo replied, "So that we don't have to wait all day for one of you to lose."

The red scowled at me and served again and I slammed it. She ran to it but stumbled upon a stone and fell hard and missed the shuttlecock. "10 love! The junior wins," Jo clapped her hands insincerely.

  "Senior Ron wasn't really good in badminton at all," one of my classmates said loudly. Ron, the red haired girl, got up and glared at me as she limped to a near bench near the court. "You look happy," Jo grinned from ear to ear. "How about I challenge you to a 20 points game of badminton?"

Jo offered to lend her racket as I examined thoroughly. It is odd for someone to lend such expensive item to people like me. But the racket looked fine as her friend gave Jo another racket. I glanced at her and felt suspicious as she walked to the right side of the court. She served first and I smashed it hard. Only, it did not flew back to her.

"5 love!" The blonde girl shouted. I looked at the racket and saw that it had broke into two. My cheeks flushed and at the same time, Fleur handed my racket and I passed the broken one to her. Jo smirked and allowed me to serve.

I hit the shuttlecock as it darted to her and she slammed it whilst I ran forward to retaliate. All of a sudden, I slipped and slid on the ground and missed my chance to slammed it in her stupid face. "10 love!"

We played on. Once, when the shuttlecock flew nearer to me, I swung my racket but somehow it went somewhere else. It had moved by itself and I thought I was crazy. Jo yelled "15 love!"

But I did not gave up. I served and she smashed it back to me, directly in my face. I fell down hard for it pushed me with force to the ground. The shuttlecock seemed powerful.

Just as I recovered, objects in the shape of balls came landing on my face and my nose started to bleed. I opened my eyes and saw that they were tennis balls. "20 love!"

Jo walked up to me with Ron and both looked satisfied. "Looks like the five time champion isn't a champion at all."

Ron stepped on my hand and crushed them, "This is what you get for playing stupid with us!"
Then, Jo took my racket and broke them using a pole that held the net and threw it near me. "50 laps!"

I did as told and hoped my nose would stop bleeding in time. After a tiring round of 50 laps running, I headed back to them and Ron told me to pick up the scattered shuttlecocks and tennis balls that I assumed they messed it up on purpose.

At first, I stared at them coldly until Ron tugged at my hair and threatened about me getting hit by the tennis balls. I obeyed and Jo said to my classmates, "If any of you dared to help her, you will know what happened."

Days after days, I was being treated the same. Whenever I felt satisfied, I would challenged Jo and ended getting hurt. I knew that that was the most easiest way to get hurt or worse, to die. Yet, it was freaking bad idea.

When I went home, my parents would asked me about the bruises and bleeding nose. But I answered cooly like I hit a lamp post or felk down after tripping on my shoelace. I lied to them. I lied to the teachers. I lied about everything for fear it would get worse. 

Everyday I practiced hard at my personal badminton court at my house with my dad since he was my coach. He told me that I had improved a lot lately. But that never explained why I kept losing even if Jo passed a simple shot. It was like she had cursed anyone who darted to challenge her.

I never tried to ditch P.E.. I did not want them to think I was a foolish coward. But then, even if I did, I would not get hurt everyday. I would not walked to home with a scar or bruise. They bullied me all the time, even outside the school.

They would threw tennis balls and slammed shuttlecocks in my face. They would tripped me up and kicked my books away from me. They would force me to run 50 laps every day and would increased it whenever they wanted to. They punched me when I reported the case to the teachers. The teachers of course, did not believe a word I said. All because Jo and Ron's father were rich and donates money to the school.

I never told this to my parents. I never wanted to take revenge and never even tried to kill myself. Whenever I felt hurt, I spend most my days playing badminton after I done my homework.

Until one day, my history changed. It all happened when I was putting an ice cube on my bruised eye. Laurie went over to me and nudged playfully at me. "I can help you to win." I nearly dropped my ice while crying,"Hell no!""No, it's true," she said. Immediately, she told me everything.

"I was walking my way home yesterday and heard Jo and Ron talking at the court and Ron was pouring something on the floor. Jo said something about expecting you would trip again and then mumbled something," Laurie scratched her head while I waited for her answer. "Never mind, but by the way, I think I now know the reason why you keep failing."

She told me the dirty tricks the dumb seniors had been playing on me which definitely made me angry. No, more than angry.