For the Love of Tennis | ✅

Chapter 05

Monday morning dawns bright and cheery, but it does nothing to lighten my mood as I trudge past the school gates. Students mill around in groups. I scan around for Kylie but I don’t see her iconic fringe anywhere.

Then, as I approach the lockers, I hear her shrill voice.

“Chandy!”

I turn. Her fringe is blonde today with a small strip of purple down the side. That’s the thing with Kylie; she’s so restless that even her hair can’t stay the same colour for a single week.

“Nice hair,” I say flatly as she approaches. Then, unable to resist, “Again.”

Her almond-shaped brown eyes fill with glee. “I know, right? I’m following right on trend this year. Or should I say the trend is following me.”

I blow air out of my mouth, rolling my eyes.

“What’s wrong?” she asks. “What’s happened to my Chandy-Pandy?”

I level my gaze with hers, but my eyes are still drawn to the obnoxious strip of purple hair. “I met a boy.”

Her eyebrows rise until they’re hidden. “A boy?”

“Well, we didn’t meet exactly.”

“And this is why you’re sad?” she splutters. “Because you met a boy?” Before I can reply, she’s off on a tangent. “But I swear boys are meant to make us happy—”

She cuts off short suddenly, eyes on something behind me.

“What?” I grumble.

She doesn’t reply. Instead, her eyes are still locked on something I can’t see.

I whirl around. Down the corridor is a sight that makes my stomach leap to my throat.

A girl and a boy burst through the doors. The girl saunters in first, flicking her sleek, black hair into the faces of others passing by. I catch a smug expression as she rests her eyes on me. Then, she turns to the boy and clasps his hands in hers. He takes it willingly, body slightly stoic as he sees me. His eyes cast to the floor, expression blank. Once they pass, a catch a whiff of her vanilla perfume.

“Megan and Dayson,” I hiss between my teeth.

“Sorry, girl,” Kylie says. “It looks like they’ve moved forward.”

I turn back to my locker and throw in a few books; my coat follows closely behind. Megan, that bitch.

As soon as Dayson and I ended all those seven months ago, she’d pounced on him like a cheetah on a gazelle. I couldn’t kid myself – she’d had an eye on him even before we’d started dating, but it hurt that she would attack so soon, and that now he’d respond. At first I’d thought it was just a crush on him but now it seems like it’s something indefinitely more.

"So all he did," I drawl, "is go with another tennis player."

"Hypocrite," Kylie snarls in the direction of Megan and Dayson. I can only smile. “Anyway,” says Kylie, interrupting my thoughts. “Where were we?”

I close the locker door with a slam. “Where were we what?”

“You’re not happy because you met a boy.”

“Yes, that.” I sling my bag over my shoulder. “Well, it’s not that. It’s just that I realised that I’m not ready.”

I can see she wants to stop again but I don’t let her. Instead, I carry on walking straight through the doors that Megan and Dayson erupted from. If I breathe in deeply enough, I catch a slight scent of vanilla.