Scales [ON HOLD]

Chapter Forty-Five: Second Encounter

   I stood up and walked with Logan to court number fifteen, the court he always plays, and wins, on. Knowing I was going to lose anyway, I stood on the left side of the court and awaited his serve. He threw the ball into the air and hit it with his tennis racket. The ball whizzed past me and bounced just within the lines before hitting the back fence.

   "Fifteen love." He smirked. I suddenly felt a surge of energy and a want to beat him. Correcting my stance, I prepared myself for his next serve. As he threw the ball in the air and hit it, I hurried to the service box and let it bounce. Hitting it back to him, I smiled.

   However, the streak of luck didn't last long; he hit it back to me, and I misjudged the length of the racket. I swung it, but it just went straight past me. I frowned a little as he called out his new score.

   "Thirty." He sneered. I mocked him a little as I threw the ball back to him. As he caught it, he bounced it on the ground twice before gently tapping it over the net.

   Running towards it, I hit it back over to him. We began to volley it for a while until he hit it near the rear of the court. Of course, I am not Quicksilver, and so I couldn't get to it in time. As he was about to call out the score, I threw the ball back at his face. He lifted up his hand and whacked it away from himself. It bounced away from him and rolled to the other side of the courts, landing in the grass.

   "Good reflexes." I muttered to myself. Logan smiled and gave a quick salute.

   "Why thank you, Octavia." He smiled. I looked at him.

   "Good hearing too!" I said a little bit louder. It didn't look like Logan was going to get the tennis ball, and so I did. I dropped my racket on the ground and walked over to grassy patch.

   I bent down and picked up the tennis ball. Picking some grass off it, I threw it in the air and caught it. As I went to go back, I felt a hand wrap around my ankle. Nearly tripping over, I looked down to see a black gloved hand gripping me foot. I followed the arm back to its owner; Lydia.

   She was lying down on the grass with her two pigtails spread out around her. Her eyes were closed and, to be honest, she looked like she was dead.

   "Octavia," Her mouth barely opened. She began to stroke the grass with her other hand as her head twitched to look at me, her purple eyes opening. "what did I tell you?"

   "Lydia, can you let go now?" I asked her. Her grip tightened as she sat up.

   "I told you Ronan was mine," She stretched out her legs and dropped her head to the side as if she was a doll. "and yet you continued to pursue his heart." She whispered.

   "W-Why would I do that?" I tried to wriggle my foot out of her hands. She looked to the side of herself and picked up a flower. The petals had already been picked off and the stem was snapped in half.

   "You broke one of my flowers..." She trailed off. She genuinely looked sad about what had happened to the flower. I bent down a little bit to see it, and noticed that it was the flower that I had torn apart. How on earth did she find that?!

   "Octavia, you alright?" Logan called from the courts. I looked up and saw him walking over to where we were. I nodded and smiled at him and tried to walk away. Lydia let go of my leg and stroked the broken flower in her hand.

   I was absolutely mystified as to why someone would care that much about a flower, I mean, there were at least one hundred others just on that little bit of grass, and yet she cared that I picked the petals off one of them. 

   "You always take petals off plants, Lydia." I told her. She looked at me and blinked.

   "You don't deserve to say my name. Don't say it again." She told me. I wanted to slap her across that innocent little face of hers. She took in a breath before closing her eyes. She picked up a different plant and began pulling the petals of it. "The plants don't mind if I take their lives... I always find a way to bring them back."

   "Octavia, let's go. Oh, hey Lydia!" Logan tapped my shoulder before waving at Lydia. She just looked at him blankly. "Nice to see you're responsive... Come on, Octavia!" He smiled and began to march off to the court again. 

   I quickly hopped away before she could grab my leg again. When we reached the court, he took the ball off me and threw it in the air.

   "I'll go easy on you!" He smiled from the other side of the net. I knew that his version of 'easy' would in fact be my version of 'expert'.

   And I was right. Even if his serves were slower, they were still as difficult. After about ten serves, we both gave up. I sat on the floor and picked little bits off my racket, flicking them away from me. Logan sighed playfully.

   "You're so... lame." He smiled. I stood up and put my hands on my hips, sticking out my tongue.

   "You shouldn't play like a pro, that's why I lost." I crossed my arms and looked away from him.

   "Flirting, are we?" A new voice came from the left of the court. We both turned and saw a boy sitting on the grass bank next to the court, holding a small card in his hands.

   "Oh, uh... hey Sam." I said awkwardly, scratching the back of my neck. I blushed a little bit and smiled.

   "Yeah, Jack was chasing me to get the licence back," he held up the small card in his hands, smiling at me. I was a bit puzzled. He was acting as if nothing had happened, and that kind of annoyed me. He stood up and walked over to the net. "I just outran him. He still hasn't taken it from m-"

   "SAM!" Jack yelled from across the road.

   "Blyat!" Sam cursed in Russian, running over to the right side of the court.