#walucia

Dear Student Council,

While I would love to be a part of making this school a better place, I am afraid that I will have to reject your offer to reign supreme as Ultimate Forever Empress of the school.

Why I thank you for your offer of starting a coup or forcing Sara to resign so that I may take my rightful place, I’m afraid I just don’t have the time to manage it right now.

I might apply again next year, or decide to drop in occasionally to see how you’re all doing, but for now I have to decline.

Forever yours~

Walucia

She sent the email, sure the student council hasn’t actually given her that offer or contacted her and she wasn’t voted in (she wasn’t even in the runnings. She voted for herself anyway) but it would probably happen and she wanted to nip that idea in the bud while she could.

She looked at the clock, crap, Tennis tryouts were in 10 minutes! She ran down the halls pushing her way past students (how many kids did Mr. Onceler have?) before arriving in the locker room. She quickly changed and went to line up with the other girls outside on the court.

The Coach raised an eyebrow, “Mrs. Walucia Wario?”

Walucia flipped her pigtail, “The one and only.”

“End of the line.”

What? The end of the lineup? How was that fair?! Yes she was late but really why should she have to be the last person to try out?

“Coach… Uh-“

“Just Coach.”

Walucia shuffled, “Right well, I think I should be able to go first. I know I was a bit late and I may not look like much but I swear I will be the best tennis player this school’s ever seen.”

The Coach rubbed her brow, “The pair ups are in alphabetical order.”

Walucia blinked, “Oh.” The collection of giggles that followed her to the end of the line were humiliating. But she’d show them! She’d show them all!

She watched as the other kids went down the bracket. B o r i n g. She sat cross legged so she could hide her phone from view- she really needed to unfollow Spamton Junior already half of her posts were incomprehensible- then she heard the coach call out a name she didn’t expect to hear.

“Lucia Mario, you’re up!”

Lucia, gave small shuffly walk onto the court. Walucia’s eyes narrowed. Lucia. She’d never really seen the girl who was supposed to be rivals with until now. She could tell Lucia was about the same height as her but they way she held herself made her look half as tall.

Walucia snorted, hm, would it be better to watch what she was almost certain would be an absolute travesty, or would it be more fun to keep scrolling through Insta?

Insta won out.

She breezed past the other tennis players during her rounds, but that was to be expected tennis practically ran in her blood. She looked across the court, ready for the final pair up.

“Walucia Vs… Lucia!”

Walucia blinked, that couldn’t be right. But lo and behold the girl moved onto the court, her braided ponytail dragging behind her ball in hand to serve.

“Um, hi.” Lucia said, it was only barely loud enough to reach across the court. “I just wanted to say… Good luck and I hope you don’t take this personally.”

Walucia’s eye twitched. Good luck? The arrogance! Acting like she even had a chance- much less was going to win. “Take this personally, I hope YOU don’t take it personally when I pulverize you and leave you crying on the court WAHAHAHA!”

She looked nervous at that. Good. She should be, facing the greatest tennis player to ever grace this court.

“Thank you Walucia, that was deeply inappropriate and a terrible display of unsportsman like behavior.” The coach said, but she didn’t care enough to actually do anything. She simply blew on the whistle and motioned for Lucia to serve.

The minute Lucia jumped to hit the ball; Walucia felt a shift. The ball grew neon in the air and there was an audible boom when Lucia’s racket hit it.

But Walucia managed to focus on where the ball was headed and return it. But that was only the first volley. It only got harder from there, despite Walucia matching her first move’s intensity Walucia managed to perform a Slice shot. The low shot danced barely avoiding the net Walucia dived trying to hit it but watched it bounce.

Once. Twice.

“15-Love.”

Walucia slowly rose from the ground. Her opponent hadn’t even broken a sweat. Who was this girl? Was it the same one with a voice that could barely reach her? Who seemed to fade easily into the background? Her eyes glowed with an intensity- a fire that she didn’t expect.

Was she going to-

No, of course not! There was no way she was going to lose this!

She dusted off her clothes, “Nice first move luck! But trust me, you won’t catch me off my guard like that again! Wahahahaha! You don’t stand a chance now that I’m getting serious.”

She threw the ball jumped and hit it with all her might!

”30-Love!”

Walucia blinked as she watched the ball roll on the ground near her feet. What… What just happened?

No matter, it wasn’t like-

“40-Love!”

This-this wasn’t-

“Match!”

Lucia walked across the court smiling. “Great game Walucia!” She reached out her hand to shake it.

She was mocking her. That tiny, stupid girl just beat her 4-none and was now pretending that this was a fair game. That it was good. She cheated. Walucia didn’t know how, she didn’t know what she’d done but clearly she cheated. There was no other explanation for why the coach was putting that silver Junior Captain pin on that green shirt.

She shook her hand anyway, “Good game! I think we’re going to make a great team.”