Deuce

[xylophonefairy†]

((Acacia Salinger continued from We've Got Spirit, Yes We Do.))

Acacia jumped up and down on the tennis courts, spinning her racket around in her hand. She'd just got the handle retaped in a neon pink colour which was actually exhilarating her somewhat, she felt especially inclined to play. Which was strange as it looked like it was about to rain. For someone who had been brought up in southern Indiana, Acacia reckoned she had quite a good tolerance for the rain and cold that plagued Minnesota for most of the year. She bounced a ball, and hit it down with her racket so that it bounced into the air, then caught it neatly in her left hand, grinning at her own success in this specific move. It was smooth, she liked to do it when it was her turn to serve in a match, it always grabbed the interest of anyone who might be getting bored with watching.

Talking of matches, they had a doubles coming up in a week or so and Acacia was fairly sure that she and Charlene could do with some practice since they hadn't played together for a while. They'd arranged to meet in about five minutes time, but her class had been let out early due to a guy in her class having a spontaneous asthma attack. Which was unsettling but he'd looked okay when the paramedics arrived and Acacia was fairly sure that the only reason they'd been let out early was because Mr Leason knew that they wouldn't focus for the rest of the period. On the subject of paramedics, she could feel herself becoming slightly dizzy and lightheaded.

"Oh for God's sake," Acacia muttered, she was never great at timing. She tried to think about what she'd eaten that day, a good healthy breakfast, nothing in the morning break. She'd gotten waylaid and never eaten the mini pack of cookies that were probably crushed at the bottom of her bag now that had been specifically intended for the purpose of not letting her blood glucose drop. She sat down against the wire fence and pulled out her testing kit, jabbing the side of her left ring finger with a practiced hand, and fed the testing strip into the machine. It bleeped a few times then gave her a result. 43. "Bugger," she muttered, that was concerningly low, normally she started to feel symptoms before that point.

She felt about in her bag for the familiar shape of a lucozade bottle, and retrieved it. It was fairly rare that she actually had to resort to her glucose source, normally she was very good at controlling it. In one fell move she gulped roughly half of it down, then paused to wipe her mouth, and sat forwards a little bit, closing her eyes. She took another couple of mouthfuls, then put the bottle down on the ground. Within a couple of minutes she started to feel better, and was relieved that it had happened before Charlene got there, she didn't want the girl doubting her ability. They were very closely matched, and Acacia couldn't help but wonder sometimes if she felt that she should have been captain. There was no way she was risking the captaincy based on a mini hypo.

She reached over for her tennis racket, and picket it up, bouncing a ball on the strings with her eyes half closed, figuring that she would be fine now.

[decoy73]

((Charlene Norris continued from High Gloss Highs))

Charlene practically ran as she checked the clock in her cell phone. Come on. Why does statistics have to be so hard? She stashed the phone into her bag and pulled out her racket. She knew that she was cutting it close with Acacia. Not only were they the #1 doubles team, but they switched between the #1 and #2 singles spots constantly. Any slip-up meant losing the top spot. Also, tennis practice and matches were, weirdly enough, the part of the day when she got to relax. When she was playing, nobody was talking or trying to feel her up or anything like that.

"Stupid t-statistic," she muttered. Charlene had to cut things short with her tutor because of that subject. She never got math. Hell, she never got academics in general. She didn't really see the point of how The Iliad, or the formation of the Warsaw Pact, or all that stuff helped her actually do things, and the tutoring to keep her GPA up robbed her of a period of relaxation. It was times like this when she wondered why she didn't just change before the tutoring session and risk being late there instead. Most people didn't take that long to change to and from their gym outfits. Of course, most people didn't have to actually look for a bra that fit. It took her slightly longer to get her sports bra on because of the size of her breasts. Am I the only person in the school who has actually thought about having breast reduction surgery?

Funny. Charlie's my best friend, but I'm spending more time with Acacia recently. Must be our schedules. Charlene smirked at the thought. Charlene and Acacia were the only two seniors who took both cheerleading and tennis, with Acacia just winning the spot of tennis captain. Meanwhile, Charlene and Charlie had known each other since they were seven, and now they were practically side by side at most parties. To top it off, Charlie was the only person who knew that Charlene was bisexual.

Coming up to the tennis court, she saw Acacia there already, bouncing a ball off her racket. Charlene opened the door leading into the court, closing it behind her with her left hand, while spinning her racket casually between the fingers of her right hand, like those rock drummers did when they started a show. "Hey, Acacia. What's up?"

[xylophonefairy†]

Acacia looked up as Charlene entered the courts. Their domain as she liked to think of it sometimes, though few people could deny that they spent a lot of time there. Her eyes opened wider and she tried to look awake, though secretly she was cursing inside; she'd actually hoped that the girl would be late, she didn't feel completely recovered. At least she wasn't violent when hypoglycaemic. A girl she'd met at clinic once told her about a time she'd thrown her boyfriend against a mirror when her sugar levels dropped. That had put things into perspective, at least she wasn't throwing her racket at Charlene's head.

"Hey," she smiled from her position on the floor, feeling small as Charlene loomed over her almost. She indicated the lucozade bottle and meter that were still out by the side of her as if this spoke for itself, which she hoped it did. Generally, Acacia was pretty open about being diabetic, she didn't exactly shout it from the rooftops, but the people that needed to know, knew, and her doubles partner was definately one of the ones who needed to know. "Give me a minute, just felt a bit dizzy is all," she patted the floor beside her, indicating for the girl to sit down. Acacia unscrewed the lid on the lucozade and gulped down the last mouthful that was left in the bottom of it, then looked at the side of the bottle critically. "Jeez, I'm gonna have to pee soon," she muttered under her breath to herself, looking at the volume of liquid she had consumed.

"So, good day?" Acacia said in an attempt at conversation.

[decoy73]

Charlene shrugged lightly as Acacia motioned to her bottle and meter. She'd found out about Acacia's diabetes back when they had become doubles partners. Charlene knew that it meant that Acacia's body didn't produce insulin, and that was it. She didn't even know what insulin was or what it was supposed to do, just that it wasn't a joking matter. Charlene leaned against the wire where Acacia was, taking a ball out of her bag and bouncing it on the floor while Acacia regained her bearings, chugging from her bottle.

Charlene looked out at the tennis court, and back to the sweatshirt she was wearing. It was a Survival of the Fittest one, with the sleeves up to the elbows taken off, and a big picture of Steve Digaetano on the front. Shouldn't there be a lot more people here? We do have a match in about a week. She came back to the real world as Acacia asked her a something.

"Oh, yeah. Same old, same old." Charlene sighed. Someone actually insulted me at a party. That's a first. "Now that the year is over, I guess everything's becoming a little ... boring."

[xylophonefairy†]

"I know what you mean," Acacia said, shaking her head in agreement with herself, resuming bouncing the tennis ball lightly on her racket. "I have such a bad case of senioritis, it's like, I got a confirmed place in college, so what's the point in high school any more?" It was true, her parents had even gotten her in extra tutoring as her grades had started to slip in the past couple of months, which was extremely annoying as it cut down on her practicing tennis/cheerleading/shopping time, ezpecially in math and chemistry. She didn't know exacctly why she hated those subjects, just that she did. They seemed pointless to her. Acacia always considered herself to be more the artistic type.

She glanced at Charlene's shirt and couldn't help but raise her eyebrows. While she was equally as fascinated by the Survival of the Fittest... thing... as everyone else was, she couldn't imagine actually wanting a sweatshirt with the face of one of its contestants on. She indicated it with a vague motion of her hand.

"Never realised you were such a big fan," she said, a very slight teasing edge to her voice. "Sometimes I think I'm the only person not totally obsessed by it..." she added, though admittedly she actually knew quite a few people who either didn't care, or despised the programme.

[decoy73]

"I know what you mean. I have such a bad case of senioritis, it's like, I got a confirmed place in college, so what's the point in high school any more?"

Charlene chuckled at that statement. Charlene herself was going to the University of Connecticut on a tennis scholarship. She had no idea of what she was going to study, just that she was going to play tennis and go to a bunch of the parties. "I know. Especially since the last two years were simply an attempt to get into college. Now that we're in, the only things worth doing are prom and graduation."

"Never realized you were such a big fan. Sometimes I think I'm the only person not totally obsessed by it ..."

Charlene looked down at her sweatshirt. The black sweatshirt was the only one of its kind in her wardrobe: a hoodie. She hadn't actually been looking for a specific shirt when she had bought it. It was winter at the time, and she needed something that kept her warm while she was exercising. She'd seen as much of that show as almost everybody else.

"You're not the only one. This is my only SOTF shirt. Hell, it's my only hoodie. I only bought it because I needed something that kept me while I was working out. This specific shirt I picked up because Steve was actually a babe." She pushed herself off the wire fence, spinning her racket between her fingers again. "You ready?" She asked.

[xylophonefairy†]

Acacia grinned at Charlene's mention of Steve Digaetano being a babe and chose not to comment, instead nodding at the suggestion that they got going. She took a grip higher up on the fence and pulled herself upwards. No light headedness occurred on her resuming a standing position, which firmly suggested that she was well and truly recovered. She took a short stroll to a bin and tossed the now empty lucozade bottle in it, figuring that if she didn't play as well as she usually did she would have something to blame it on. She spun her racket round in her hand as she walked back towards Charlene, feeling tempted to put a false wobble in just to make the other girl feel awkward, then decided against teasing her for her own amusement. They needed to be on each others good sides right now. While they were doubles partners, there was always that little edge to their friendship driven by competition.

"We should practice our serves," Acacia said, heading for the far end of the court, after picking up a few balls from her bag and stuffing them into the pocket of her short sleeved hoody. She stroked her oddly shape bump as though it were a baby, then took all the balls out and put them on the floor beside her, and cupped her hands around her mouth to call back to Charlene.

"You wanna go first?" she called. "I'll try and hit them back."

[decoy73]

Charlene watched as Acacia got up and walked to the other side of the course, suggesting that it would be best to start on serves.

"Yeah. Seems like a good idea." Charlene hollered back. She took two cans of balls out of her bag, set them on the ground beside her bag, and picked up the ball she had been bouncing. She looked at Acacia, who seemed ready enough. She then scanned the court, looking for the ideal place to serve the ball to. I can't just serve directly to her. It would be too easy. But if I go too far away from her, she won't be able to hit it at all. She looked around, and saw the perfect spot: a few feet in front of Acacia, just inside the singles sideline.

"I'm gonna tell you right now: I'm not going to pull any punches!" Charlene called out as she launched the ball into the air, and whacked the ball towards its intended target, half hoping Acacia would hit it back, half hoping she would miss.

[xylophonefairy†]

Acacia managed to lunge forwards and just about tapped the ball. It fell just short of the net, and she nodded approvingly at Charlene, spinning her racket round in her fingers and heading to retrieve it. She picked it up and tossed it back over the net towards her partner.

"Nice," she said, giving a thumbs up with her free left hand. She walked back over to her side of the court. "Though I still hit it. Try and make it to this corner, really fast, ace it basically," she said, tapping the front right corner with the head of her racket, indicating the exact spot Charlene should aims her serve to. This was one of the weird perks of being captain - getting to boss around someone who was pretty much her equal. The downsides were that she was the one who had to come up with strategies and then teach them to other players (not just her partner, even the freshmen who had never picked up a racket before coming to high school either).

"Go again, I don't want to be physically able to hit it this time. The more points we can score on serves the less tired we get!" she called, getting into position, crouching slightly and shifting the weight on the balls of her feet from side to side.

((If Charlene does a great serve feel free to godmode Acacia into missing it next time, otherwise this could start getting tedious haha! Unless it's an Ace or something pretty awesome, odds are she'll hit it. Course there are exceptions but I'll RP that - it's fun ;D ))

[decoy73]

((GMing of Acacia Salinger done with permission from xylophonefairy. Also, sorry I'm late on this, but Mass Effect 2 is epic. EPIC.))

Charlene listened as Acacia suggested a spot to ace the serve. It was weird. Given how the fight for the #1 spot was a back-and forth battle, Acacia had just about as much right to tell Charlene what to do as Charlene to Acacia. She watched the ball bounce as it was thrown over the net, bouncing one, twice, three times before Charlene caught it with her left hand. Service line, deuce court? Now she's expecting it. She aimed, but instead of going for the corner that Acacia advised, she aimed a couple feet in front of the spot, throwing it up into the air experimentally to get that perfect spin, so that it would bounce lower and go slightly inside at a slower speed than expected. She didn't know how it happened, and had only managed to perfect it midway during her senior season, but it was incredible watching her opponents gawk as they missed the ball by a good two inches. She'd never tries it on Acacia, though.

Charlene smiled at the thought as she threw the ball into the air, giving it that perfect spin, and whacked the ball as it arced down, sending it careening towards her spot, landing about two inches back from where she had intended (though from her perspective, it was more or less dead on). Her eyes were more focused on Acacia's racket, which seemed to almost go into slow motion as it swung toward the ball and missed Though Charlene couldn't see it from her angle, Acacia's racket had almost brushed the ball, just barely missing. Charlene tried to hide the fact that she was pleasantly surprised at this, cracking a bemused smirk.

I can't believe she fell for it.

((For the record, I am assuming that "right front corner" is to Acacia's right/Charlene's left, on the service line. Please correct me if I'm wrong.))

[xylophonefairy†]

Acacia realised at the last moment what Charlene was going to do. Rather than obey her instruction, which seeing as Acacia was captain she was supposed to, she would hit it closer to the net. A classic; while she had never actually been on the receiving end of one, she'd watched Charlene play tennis a couple of times and knew that her partner pretty much had it down to a T. There was no specific need to practice it. She was pissed off for two reasons, the first was for the blatant disregard for her instruction, the second was because she missed it. She'd been complacent that it would be hit where she'd pointed and that she could just stop it with her racket, and instead she'd had to make a dart forwards and barely skim the ball with the rim of her racket.

Fuming silently, she went to retrieve the ball. She had another in her pocket but wanted to delay giving Charlene the pleasure of a reaction as long as possible. Picking it up from where it had nestled against a tuft of grass that pushed through the wire fence, she threw it up and caught it in her left hand, before returning to the net. She returned it across the net with more force than she had intended, and it sailed wide. She really wasn't in the mood to be messed with, there was still the faintly residual nauseous and headachey feeling from the hypo that was just accenuated with her feeling grumpy. Acacia forced a sunny expression onto her face, with a fair amount of success. Pretending to be happy was something she was good at.

"Again," she said loudly, resuming her position in the service box, pushing a loose strand of hair from her face.

((Acacia Salinger continued in Decisions, Decisions))

[decoy73]

Charlene tried to catch the ball as it sailed towards her, but it went wide, and into the fence. It didn't really matter to her as she ran and got it, nestled in the chain link fence. The bounce trick worked. But could it work twice? That was the question. Acacia had almost hit the ball last time. She was good enough to know where it was going to hit, or at least she could react to the unexpected, so there was no way being slightly off was going to prevent her from hitting this time. She looked at the spot where the ball was going to go. Service line, deuce court. She bounced the ball on the ground with her left hand, spinning it in different directions while she did so, finally settling on one. She closed her blue eye, aiming with her green eye. She spun the ball while she threw it it up and hit it to exactly the spot Acacia directed. Come on. Please don't see this one coming.

This time, the ball flew to exactly where Acacia wanted it to go, bouncing in the corner, but bouncing slightly higher than would be expected (due to the spin). Charlene watched as this time, Acacia swung, and just brushed the ball with the her racket, sending it spinning out of bounds. She never knew how that worked, but damn, she loved spinning the ball.

((Charlene Norris in The In Crowd))