Chapter 33

“Aw look, Golden Boy’s missing his owner.” Dan wasn’t sure what he’d expected at tennis practice that afternoon, but this, was definitely not it. He’d just finished getting changed, and grabbed the ball machine from the shed, to practice on his own, like he’d been doing. However, everyone seemed to know Peter was gone from school, and it seemed, without Peter around, the other members of the tennis teamed acted quite differently. Though, as Dan thought about it, maybe not too big of, nor a surprised change. They went from their normal, neutral, somewhat cold treatment of Dan to abject distaste and bullying.

“Just ignore them.” Dan muttered to himself as he continued on his way. This was a downside of all the attention Peter had been giving him. It was something he’d expected, but something he’d been protected from, due to the fact Peter was always there for him. Dan found people didn’t handle jealousy well, and while they all were afraid of Peter, and couldn’t hold a candle to him, the special attention Peter was giving Dan rubbed them the wrong way. After all, why should Dan, who in their eyes was just a random nobody, get so much attention from Peter?

“Where do you think you’re going?” Another voice called out, and this time Dan glanced at them. He’d been doing his best to not make eye contact, but could sense they were approaching him. His sixth sense was also telling him this wasn’t going to turn out well for him. That much, was a given, considering to his dismay, the coach was nowhere to be seen.

“I’m just going to practice.” Dan said simply. “I’m not going bother anyone. Just, leave me alone, yeah?” Dan tugged at the ball machine and started walking again, just to have a tennis ball launch in front of him. He was pretty sure the person who’d sent the ball flying had been trying to hit him, but they didn’t have Peter’s accuracy. After all, no one on the team could even compare to Peter’s skills.

“Nah. Not today.” The original speaker said. Dan recognized him. The kid’s name was Ben, and he was one of the seniors on the team, and also one of the Varsity players. If Dan remembered correctly, Ben was actually good. He was pretty sure Peter mentioned he was roughly a 4.0 or 4.5 in skill level, which was impressive. But when compared to Peter’s legendary skills, still paled in comparison.

“Today, you’re going to play against one of us.” Ben said with certainty. “If you want to be a part of this team, you’re going to have to learn you can’t just hide away with Peter. You’ve got to prove yourself to us. And you need to learn where you stand.” The other boys all nodded in agreement as Ben spoke. Dan got it. He really did. There was a pecking order, and they were trying to establish it. Having someone like Peter around threw off the natural order of these things, and now that Peter was gone, they were trying to put Dan in his place.

Just because he got it though, didn’t mean he had to like it. It was bullshit. Completely pointless, and he didn’t care for it. He really didn’t care about any of their rankings on the team. All he cared about now with regards to tennis was his initial goal of becoming Sophia’s mixed doubles partner, and of reaching a point where he could live up to Peter’s standards. He was at neither of those points yet, and this macho bullshit was taking away from his precious training time.

“Come on.” Dan said, looking for an escape. The girls’ courts weren’t too far away, and he could see a few of their players glancing their way. However, he didn’t want to cause a scene, and he really didn’t want to seem weak here. “Just let me go practice. You know as well as I do that I’m not ready to play anyone yet.”

“Yeah, but it’s one thing to say that,” Ben replied, “but another to really experience that. You’re going to play against us, and learn just how big a gap there is between you and us still. Besides, we all know what Peter said about you the other day. His faith in you is wasted. And the sooner you realize that, the sooner he will stop wasting his time with you.”

That got Dan going. It was one thing to just pick on him. But the fact they were now casting doubt on Peter, really got to him. Especially because he was pretty sure he knew Peter better than any of these guys. He knew who Peter truly was, and what Peter really felt. And these guys trampling all over that. He just couldn’t let that happen.

“Fine.” Dan said firmly. He looked at the group around him. “Who do I have to play so you guys can leave me alone?”

Ben grinned and pointed his racquet towards a skinny blond-haired kid. The boy looked like a twig, and it was apparent he hadn’t fully grown into his limbs yet. “You’ll start with Jason. He’s the lowest of our JV players. If you can win a set to four against him, you’ll play someone else. If you lose though,” Ben’s eyes flashed dangerously, “you’re not allowed to use any of our equipment all week.”

That caused Dan’s heart to stop. Obviously, a statement like that wouldn’t fly if Peter was around. But without Peter, Dan had no doubt these kids would actually stop him at ever turn, and keep him from practicing. He didn’t put it past the high-schoolers to be petty enough to actually show up early, just to keep him from practicing. That was another thing Dan knew all to well about his peers. In middle school, and even more so in high school now, the degree of pettiness people would resort to, was obnoxious.

Granted, these thoughts had only been growing within Dan over the past few weeks, and he felt it was likely a result of his increased wisdom stat. He felt he was becoming more and more perspective about the things around him. Either that, or these things were just increasingly obvious.

“Fine,” Dan said after a moment. It wasn’t like he could back down now. If he tried to walk away without accepting their challenge, they would just keep him from practicing anyways. So he might as well go down with a fight. Besides, he was getting pretty confident in his skills. Maybe he could actually stand a chance. Who knows? After all, Dan still had a huge advantage on the kids here. He had magical powers.