Awkward Tennis (Charlie)

[Amos Freeman]

The gym was bustling with movement as the small group of students disbanded and began splitting off into pairs. They were playing tennis today. Amos looked around rather helplessly; he frequently missed out on gym class, and for good reason.

He spotted a lean, short-haired girl a few feet away. She looked like she didn't have a partner yet, so Amos approached her somewhat sheepishly, wielding his tennis racket in his left hand with no enthusiasm whatsoever.

"Um," he began, trying to catch her attention. "Would you like to be partners? I mean, I feel like I should apologize in advance, because I'm really crappy at this game, but...."

He gave a half-hearted laugh at his own self-deprecating not-really-joke.

[Charlie Mander]

Ah Gym class. One of Charlie’s favorite subjects perhaps her best subject. Today they were playing tennis, which it wasn’t her favorite but nonetheless she could adapt to it and have fun. Charlie spun her tennis racket in her left hand and watched as people quickly partnered up. She had a slight reputation in the class for being competitive and apparently no one wanted to partner up with her that is until a boy’s voice caught her attention.

“Hmm..”she said as she turned around to face the boy. She didn’t immediately recognize him seeing as he missed out on gym class a lot so apparently he didn’t know about her competitive nature. “Um sure.” She said not like she had much of a choice. “Just try you best and you’ll do fine” she said with a smile although she already knew that since he said he was bad at the game she would probably be covering most of the court. “Do you want to take the front or the back first?” she asked. She secretly hoped he would take the front so that any balls that he did miss she could easily pick up and it actually gave him a chance to place since if he took the back she’d do her best not to miss any of the balls. “Just have fun with it okay?” she said with a smile.

[Amos Freeman]

"Oh... yeah, thanks," Amos said, smiling awkwardly.

He wandered over to the nearest empty court before looking back at Charlie, giving the back of his scalp a pensive scratch.

"I don't really know," he admitted. "Um, wherever you'd like me to start, I suppose."

He took a few paces back from the girl and gave his racket a few experimental swings. His wrist protested, and he winced a bit.

"My name's Amos, by the way, just in case you need to, um... scream at me in rage, or something," he chuckled dryly again, sniffling a little. His sinuses were really acting up today.

[Charlie Mander]

Patience was thankfully a virtue that Charlie somewhat had. And she had a feeling she was going to need it with this boy when he said he didn’t really know and wherever she wanted him to start. “Okay… just stand over there in front of the net.” She said pointing with her racket.

“I’m Charlie. Well Charlene but I prefer Charlie, or CJ or Char. Just try not to call me Charlene alright and we should get along fine” Charlie said. She blinked as he sniffled. “Are you alright? You getting sick, you sure you don’t want to sit out?” Charlie asked concerned about the well being of her partner. She didn’t want him getting sick on her. Or worse sneezing on her. Ew…Gross. “Don’t worry I won’t yell at you. You’ll do fine besides your paired up with someone who’s pretty good at sports so you should do fine. As long as your okay” Charlie said.

[Amos Freeman]

Amos obediently went to stand on the spot that Charlie had indicated with her racket. He made a valiant attempt to appear like he understood what was going on.

"Oh, no, I'm fine," he said a bit hurriedly. "Um, it's just sinus trouble. You know, my power. Well, no, you wouldn't know, but..."

This was one of those moments where Amos realized, rather dully, that he had talked himself into a hole that he had no way of escaping from.

He cleared his throat.

"If I sit out any more this semester, I'll totally fail gym, so I'd probably better suffer." He gave her a brave half-grin.

"So... I guess you're gonna serve now, right? Or should I do that?"

He knew the basics of tennis, like where the ball was supposed to go when you serve it and that you were supposed to hit it when it came near to you again... he just wasn't good at executing any of those particular things.

[Charlie Mander]

Charlie sighed. “Oh believe me I’m lucky if I don’t know. My power is empathic mimicry. I can’t always control when I copy someone’s powers based off an emotion. It sucks sometimes cause I have to deal with all the negative side-effects of the person I copied for a good while afterwards usually and end up with a massive headache as well.” Charlie said. “Well you wouldn’t want to fail gym. I mean it’s the easiest class to pass you just have to show up and try your best.” Charlie said.

Charlie grabbed a tennis ball as the other team set themselves up. “Yep. I’m going to serve you serve when your in the back if they ever score a point and it comes back to us or the next set depending on how long it takes” Charlie said bouncing the ball on the tennis court.

“Just promise me one thing. When it’s your turn to serve do not hit me in the back of the head with the tennis ball.” Charlie said as she tossed the ball up in the air and tested the high of it before letting it drop and bounce once.

“Question. You ever play tennis before Amos?” she asked as she used a rocket serve on their opponents sending the ball soaring so fast it was practically a blur.