Chapitre 12: Tennis Match

It was after school and a bunch of people where gathered around the school's tennis court. At one side stood the arrogant Aldrich wearing his white tennis uniform, on the other side was Alex still wearing his school uniform and black leather shoes.

Alex accepted the challenge without even thinking about it. His classmates who were there when he accepted the challenge were confused. It was obvious that Aldrich had the upper hand in this challenge being the school's tennis club's ace, but Alex still accepted. Could it be... Alex was actually good at playing tennis?

The question of all the students was immediately answered when Alex asked Rachel "What is tennis?" The guy didn't even know what tennis was, then why did he accept the challenge so confidently?

Rachel explained the basic rules of tennis to Alex. She already knew based on logic that the more experienced Aldrich would be able to beat the inexperienced Alex hands down, but something was telling her she needed to believe in Alex.

"Alex you better not lose." Hearing Rachel sounding like she was giving an order, Alex reflexively saluted.

"Roger that."

Alex with a racket at hand stood at the other side of the net. Aldrich on the other side of the net was smirking and at the same time irritated by how close Alex and Rachel were to each other.

One of the students became the unbiased umpire. "This game is an unofficial match, the first one to win seven sets is the final victor. Let the match begin."

It was Aldrich who had the first serve,

SWOOSH!

As expected of the ace of the tennis club the tennis ball was going 95 mph and once it hit the ground it twisted towards a different direction and headed towards Alex's face. The tennis ball was heading towards Alex's face yet with one hand Alex caught the tennis ball.

"15 - love"

The crowd got excited both at Aldrich's twist serve and Alex's barehanded catch. Rachel, on the other hand, got angry and shouted at Aldrich.

"What are you doing?! Are you deliberately trying to hurt Alex?!" Rachel was angrier than she thought.

Aldrich was still a bit shocked by Alex's ball catching when he heard Rachel's complaint. He looked at Rachel and shrugged. "It was not my intention to hit his face, the ball just twists like that when I try that serve."

Aldrich went back into position without bothering with Rachel anymore. This time his serve reached 105 mph, not yet accustomed to using the racket Alex reflexively hit the tennis ball with the hand that was closest to the tennis ball, which was his empty hand.

When Alex hit the tennis ball with his palms a loud smacking sound was heard. The tennis ball was returned, it was even faster than the serve of Aldrich.

"Out, 30-love" Yet even though it was amazing it was still out. Aldrich stood there dumbfounded by what just happened. 'He hit the ball with his bare hands and it was even faster than my best serve!'

Everyone was super excited by what they just witness.

"What the hell was that?! He just smashed the ball with his palm!"

"Doesn't that hurt? Yet he looks like it did nothing to him!"

"If he can hit that strongly with his bare hands imagine what kind of shot he would make with the racket."

Even though Alex was losing, the surrounding students were already thinking that if Alex could get used to the racket then victory will be his without a doubt.

Oliver had his eyes wide open as he looked at Alex, he had seen that stance numerous times in youtube. That was a Baguazhang stance the way Alex did the move was so natural. Was he a practitioner? Oliver got a bit confused, if Alex Baguazhang was at this level, then what was the grappling move he used? It was similar to an aikido move... 'Well Alex did say his dad was a martial arts enthusiast, he might have learned it from him.' Even though there were many loopholes in this idea Oliver simply accepted it.

'I already knew he had abnormal fighting ability since I saw the way he restrained Aldrich... But is he some kind of martial arts master? Is this a plus or a negative? I'm going to put this as plus points for becoming my possible official boyfriend. The ability to protect one's girlfriend from external dangers is definitely a plus.' Rachel was grading Alex as he played.

The first set went to Aldrich easily, but this time it was Alex's service game. He was observing Aldrich's form and the way he served. Alex threw the tennis ball upwards, with the same form as Aldrich, Alex's smashed the tennis ball.

SWOOSH! BAM!

Aldrich couldn't react, everyone else including the umpire was shocked by that one serve of Alex, they couldn't see it at all. Aldrich wanted to know how fast that ball traveled, but they didn't prepare a speed gun for the match since he thought he was facing an amateur. Once they saw Alex's serve some of the tennis club members ran to fetch the speed gun.

The umpire finally regained his senses and announced, "15-love"

Alex got ready to do another serve, this time Aldrich was fully concentrated. The other tennis club members had the speed gun ready. Aldrich then smashed the tennis ball with the same form as before.

SWOOSH! you could practically hear the ball cutting through the air. "BAM!"

Once again Aldrich wasn't able to react at all. He looked at his fellow tennis club members and waited for them to tell him the speed of the serve. The surrounding students were curious as well. The tennis club members looked at the speed gun dumbfounded, they stared at the number displayed not believing what they saw.

Alex just stood there waiting for the umpire to tell the score so he could continue serving, but the umpire was also interested in how fast Alex's serve was, so he couldn't say the score yet.

"Hey tell us how fast his serve was already?!" One of the students couldn't wait anymore and shouted at the tennis club members. The tennis club members got their bearings back and answered.

"The serve was at 157 mph!" When everyone heard the number the group of students got excited.

"Shit isn't that like the super fast! Even at the pro level, only some people can serve as fast as that!"

"Wasn't Alexander an amateur?!"

"Damn how good will his serve be if he practices? He might actually take the world with his serve!"

The group of students were excited as they felt that they were watching the birth of a legend. Aldrich, on the other hand, was burning red in embarrassment. He challenged Alex to a tennis match to show Rachel how much better he was. Yet not only was he losing in his own specialty, but he was also losing to Alex a complete amateur who just recently held a tennis racket for the first time.

The match after that couldn't even be called a match, when Aldrich's focus broke he couldn't even keep his service game. The match was won 1-6 Aldrich only won one set.