In a Moment's Notice (WIP)

Reference

Katie was leaving in three days for Western Style with the boys. Coyote has set it up for them to say for two weeks, allowing her to have two guests coming going throughout. It was nice to know the owner personally. Juliana and Patrick would be there most of the time; she was planning on inviting Drake for at least one day.

Their double date with Juliana and Bill went well. But Julian had said no way to anything further. He was way to jockey for her. She didn’t see how Katie put up with Drake’s male macho ego. He was too cute, too popular, and too perfect for her. Bill was Drake’s understudy, took his cues from Drake. Juliana wanted someone who knew what he wanted on his own. Katie, however, was quickly becoming enamored with Drake. Although, there was something, and she couldn’t quite put her finger on it, that she didn’t like. But for now, he was fun. He liked Patrick, whom a lot of her boyfriends didn’t, and he wasn’t on top her all the time. Giving her space as well as not being physically demanding.

Katie was getting ready, Drake had promised to giver her a tennis lesson. Initially, she hadn’t wanted to learn, but he had convinced her, during their double date, that it would be fun. A major appealing attribute of learning the game was the travel feature. According to Drake, you could travel anywhere in world, and find someone to play with you. Thus, there was a ‘tennis family’ Katie wanted to travel, and this sucked her right in. His other reasons weren’t as important to her. An excellent way to stay in shape. Why should she have to worry about staying in shape? She was sixteen years old. Who cared about being thirty? Thirty was light years away from her. Being able to play tennis you’re your whole life. While this was nice to know, who really cared? What was it Drake said, ‘It’s a lifetime sport, unlike football, or ice hockey, you can play tennis your entire life.” Like she was ever going to play football, well, other than tackle with Patrick now and again. And ice hockey…no thank you. She wanted to keep all her teeth.

“Hurry up guys?” Katie called to her nephews. “We gotta go”

Sue had hurriedly dressed the boys. They were excited. They got excited going to Wal-Mart. Patrick planned on tossing the ball around with them while Drake gave Katie her private lesson. Patrick played for his school, number two doubles. So he knew the game.

The guys were already on court when she arrived. The boys tore out there to meat them. Drake had borrowed rackets from his family. Patrick had some spinners, or speedballs; they looked like nerf big tennis balls to her. Apparently, they help speed up the learning process. Drake was a different person when he started.

“Okay juniors!” he bellowed like he was coached for years. “Let’s warm up. Drop and give me twenty!” His authoritative voice so strong, Skyler and Scottie dropped down on the green cement to do their pushups. Katie wasn’t as easily convinced. Drake laughed and said, “Just kidding.” He looked over his students, “We’re jogging. Not racing, but jogging.” He led the way. “Stay in the red.” He told his class. ‘Jog really slow.” Patrick played caboose and brought up the tail.

Once warm-up, the group separated. Pat taking the little guys and Drake taking Katie. She was nervous. It would be embarrassing making a fool of herself in front of Mr. Tennis Himself. She wondered what had she gotten herself into. Drake began with a small lecture, to her relief, telling her there were five major strokes in tennis; forehand, backhand, overhead, volley the serve. Each stroke was used depending on where the ball came back over the net.

“It’s easy to do your forehand. All you have to do is shake hands with your racquet.” Kate bent down, picked up her racquet and shook hands with it.

“You don’t need to choke it.” He reached over and gently slid her hand down to the end of the racquet. At first, she swung her racquet at a pretend ball. Feeling silly, she looked over towards the boys. They were having fun. They were bouncing down their nerf balls and walking across their court. Poor Scottie, he kept loosing control of his ball. She smiled.

Drake had her step on the baseline, (the back line of the tennis court. He fed her nerf balls from the net. She had trouble remembering to step across and load on her left foot, point with her left hand, loading up her racquet. There were too many things to think about. But Drake made it easy and she soon forgot her embarrassment and concentrated on learning her new sport. She squealed with delight the first time she actually hit the ball, even though it went flying high into the air. “Whoa…a home run! “ Even Skyler and Scottie froze from their lessons to watch Katie’s ball fly over the fence and land into the parking lot. “Yay Katie.” They clapped.

Drake explained Get under the ball and then go over the ball, hitting in net didn’t get under, over the fence means you didn’t get over the ball.

After two hours, Katie had drilled her forehand, backhand, and then even hit back and forth across the net. She was tired, her muscles didn’t want to move, but her feet made her because she wanted to get that ball over the net. Her lips were chapped from licking them, a childhood habit meaning concentration. Her arms felt heavy. Her breathing was labored. But she did not want to stop.

Patrick had the boys rallying. He was on one side and they were on the other. He let their ball bounce twice before they had to hit it back. She was surprised to see they were progressing. They could play too.

Later, they sat on the sidelines and watched Patrick and Drake play a game. To learn scorning. After points, they would stop and talk about scoring, and what they did right and what they did wrong.

Tennis was a fun game.