LS: The Beginning (31 page)

She ran to the end of the court and stroked the green-coated ball with her tennis racket, sending the ball
back at an unreachable angle.

“Because you suck,” she said.

“Oh, I see. Handle this one then.” I served again, but this time supersonically.

Again, s
he controlled the serve with her incredible speed, sending
the ball back to me at a less difficult angle than before. Lisa was a delightful competitor. I always had to work my best to remain on the same level as her. Most times I failed, but on the rare occasion I won.

When we finished the
game, Lisa dropped her racket on the floor and jumped up in the air in jubilation.
She was sweating immensely. As she reached for her towel
that was lying on the nearest cane chair, her phone rang.

“Hey, Catherine,” she said.

“Hey, Lisa, what’s up?” Catherine replied. I could hear her clearly from where I stood.

“I’m okay, you?”

“Great,” Catherine responded. “What are you guys up to today?”

Lisa turned to look at me. She knew I was listening, so she
tilted her head
seeking permission for her next words. I nodded in approval.

“Nothing really, we’re free, what’s up?” She moved closer to me.

“Sharon and I would like you guys to come hang out with us. We’re planning on
seeing the basketball game, and then we could go eat somewhere.”

This time Lisa withdrew the phone from her ear and placed her hands
over the speaker. “What do you think?” she asked.

I took a deep breath. “Yeah, it’s cool. We aren’t doing
anything anyways.”

“Yeah, it’s cool
with us. So what time's the game?” she asked.

“The game starts at 6. Say we meet outside the court then,” Catherine suggested.

Lisa glanced at her wristwatch. “Brilliant, we’ll be there,” she said,
and hung up the phone
.

Catherine Jones was Sharon's childhood friend. She'd returned to Sloutenville at the beginning of the year. Sharon had said she transferred to our college because she didn’t get along with her new home in New Jersey. Her mother believed coming back to her home town would help her, considering her best friend would take good care of her. Catherine was part of the changes that had occurred – a good part though. Thanks to her, Sharon wasn't lonely and I wasn’t feeling guilty anymore. Everyone’s a winner.

Lisa dropped her phone down on top of her towel and returned to the court,
where I'd already removed the tennis net, ready to play basketball.

“Do you want to play?” My entire palm griped the ball and stretched it toward her.

“It depends. Do you want to get beaten again?” she asked.

I tossed the ball to her as she stood on the other side of the court.

“Trust me you can’t beat me in this game.”

Generally, being the only two players one would think we'd use half of
the court, but then our speed made the whole court seem smaller.

“Hey, remember: ladies first.” She giggled, passing the ball back
to me.

“Nice one.” I nodded, returning the ball to her for play
to commence.

The game lasted longer than I’d expected, due to Lisa’s unending will to
win the game I could play better. I enjoyed playing with her more than
her brother. Although she wasn't in a basketball team, she was more competitive than her
younger brother, who was a forward in his high school team. During the game, Lisa would often throw the ball toward the sky, run
toward me, then jump over my head to catch the ball and make a dunk while still in the air. It was her signature m
her
ove.

“Hey, they’re back,” Lisa said.

I turned to look towards the gate. “Yeah, I know. Go take a shower before they get here.” She was the one soaked in sweat. I didn’t have a bead of sweat on me. It took a lot to make me sweat, which was kinda cool.

She went to her room as I began fixing the net back to its former
position, knowing Ben and Lisa’s father would want to play tennis with Calvin.

It was getting cooler as evening drew in, thus I had to
go put on more protective clothing. Lisa's parents had given me a room in the house,
since I was virtually living in their house. The room was smaller than Lisa’s,
but I loved it exactly the way it was. It gave me a feeling of belonging,
like when Susan showed me my own house.

After changing, I went straight to the front yard where Lisa waited
for her parents’ arrival. Unlike me, she wore a less body-covering outfit;
although this was the right time of the year to wear such clothing.

The gate opened
and
a jet black tinted SUV entered the estate. Her parents were seated in the
backseat of the car. Lisa went to open the door before the driver could leave his
seat. Since there were two people in the back of the car, I moved to the other side and opened the door for Ellen, her mother.

“Welcome back, Ellen,” I said.

Lisa
had opened the door for her father.
 
“Welcome back, Dad,” she said.

“Thank you,” both parents responded.

Her parents had traveled for a meeting in New York, so seeing them arrive home safely made Lisa and I happy. We helped them carry their suitcases into the house, leaving them to head straight to their room. Once we had placed them neatly in their bedroom, we went to Lisa's room.

“We should get going,” Lisa said, her hands searching her pockets for her car key.

I removed the key from my pocket. “Here it is.”

“Are you sure you want to watch the game?”

“Yeah, it’s okay. What’s the worst that could happen?” I said, tossing the key to
her. Her reflexes were remarkably quick, and she caught the key instantly.

On the way to college, Lisa switched off the car's stereo and turned to look at me.

“Am I making your life uncomfortable?” she asked.

I chortled. “Where is this coming from?”

“You haven’t told me anything about the girl you like. I’m starting to worry and I’m
pretty
sure you aren’t gay. So what’s the problem? You know you can tell me
anything, don’t you?”

“There’s no problem,” I said. “In fact, I do have my eyes on a particular girl.” I pointed toward the windshield. “Please, watch the road.”

She glanced forward for a second and then turned to look at me. “Do I
know her? What’s her name?” she persisted.

“Yes, you might know her. And about her name: I’d rather not say that yet.”

“Why?” she
asked.
“Are you afraid I’ll fire her?”

I laughed hard. “You should be a female rapper,” I teased, due to
her metaphoric use of fire. “But no, that’s not the reason.”

“Then what is?” she asked, looking fed up.

“I’m shy,” I said.

She grinned, and then playfully flicked me. “I know that’s not the reason. Come on,
you can tell me.”

“Okay. The truth is I don’t know if she feels the same way and I don’t want to get a
big
no
,” I explained.

“Hmm, I see, but how will you know she likes
you if you don’t ask her out?”

We reached the parking lot near the basketball court; the venue of
the match.

“I’ll think about it,” I said, as I opened the door and ran to open her door.

She climbed out of the car. “All right, tell me when you’ve made up your mind.”

"Okay, will do."

Lisa had tried to force
me to wear a yellow tee, signifying I was excited
about the match and also supporting the team, even though I wasn’t so excited.

“Is that Sh
ASSS
aron and Cat?” Lisa asked as we walked towards the sports hall.

“Unless Cat is blonde and Sharon wears glasses, then yeah, they're the ones,” I said.

She nudged my arm, causing me to wail in pain. Yeah. Lisa was that strong.

“Very funny,” she said.

“Stephen,” a soft voice called. I turned and saw Sharon and Catherine walking towards the main entrance of the hall.

“I found them – or, sorry, they found me,” I told Lisa, who was still looking out for them.

We strolled and met the girls standing next to a popcorn stand. After seeing the queue, Lisa and I shifted aside and allowed other people to queue up. There was no point in lining up for something we wouldn't eat. So we waited for Sharon and Catherine whilst they bought their snacks.

"Hey," Lisa called at them.

Catherine moved towards her and gave her a gentle hug. She looked a bit like Lisa, but with different color hair. Hers was gold and curly. Lisa's was black and straight. I hugged Sharon.

"Glad you guys could make it. Let's get seats before the game begins," said Catherine.

The game hadn’t started when we arrived. I kept thinking it was Catherine’s poor timing. Although it was an advantage, because we were able to find nice seats where we would really enjoy the game.

“Hey, I didn’t see your car parked outside,” I informed Catherine.

She had to bend her head to get a glimpse of me because of where I was seated – in-between Sharon and Lisa, and she was seated
at the right of Lisa.

“I took it in for repairs,” she said, looking sad. “We took the bus.”

Lisa turned to look at her. “If you had told us, we’d have picked
you girls up. It’s not like we were doing anything,”

But then
we wouldn’t have had the conversation about the girl I liked
, I said silently.

“We didn’t want to inconvenience you two,” Sharon said.

“Nah, you wouldn’t have. You could even have used Steph’s car. He's not using it at the moment.”

I felt she was rather selfish to assume I wouldn’t need my car,
although she was right. I
admired her caring personality; it made me wonder why she had no friends when I first met her.