Chapter 59

Dan spent the rest of the weekend practicing tennis. Peter, surprisingly, had given him Sunday off, stating he had some things to take care of, and Dan was too embarrassed from his slice serve attempts on Saturday to reach out to anyone on the team to practice with. Instead, he decided to solo practice, going back to the courts both Saturday evening, as well as most of Sunday. By himself he was able to manage his stamina and chasing the next level up even better in his skills kept him motivated as he practiced.

Between everything that had gone on since that Saturday morning practice, Dan had felt his passion towards Tennis grow even more, and he wanted more than anything to get as good as he could, as quickly as he could.

Because of this, between practicing his serves, he incorporated various exercises, as well as repetitions with his racquet, going through 100 or more practiced, steady swings to work on his different types of strokes. He was slow and methodical with them, watching his movements, trying to focus on everything Peter had drilled into him, trying to make sure each one was perfect.

That had been something Peter had talked to him about. He’d begun to develop habits that would have taken away from his skills later down the road. Such as not finishing full over his shoulder, or not turning enough. Also, Dan worked on his distance between himself and the ball. Keeping at the perfect distance, to maximize his swing, hitting the ball just in front of him, and making sure he didn’t bunch up. All of these things he tried, over and over again, to get just right.

Doing so, he noticed something interesting as he practiced. Before, when he was working on his skills, he just gained experience over time. But as he worked through each skill, as he methodically practiced, he realized he’d gain varying degrees of experience, dependent on how well he executed the skill.

A perfect flat serve, for instance, offered three or four times the amount of progress towards the next level, as did a crappy one. And a failed serve, while still giving him progress, was negligible at best. Best guess was that upon leveling up his powers, they’d begun to give him a wider range of growth opportunity. Which was why he had begun focusing on executing it perfectly each time. Even if the power wasn’t in it, if he went through the motion exactly as Peter had shown him, but at say, 50 percent speed, he’d gain a lot more experience than a mess up at 100 percent speed.

Combined with his Aptitude, which had hit level 20, Dan was making record progress on his skills. And at the rate he was going, he was pretty confident he would have everything in the 20s by the end of the week, and some skills even into the 30s. Meaning, with the higher stats, as well as his auto-battle, he could truly begin to make a name for himself on the courts. Dan’s personal goal was to earn a proper spot for himself on the team the next time the did try outs for positions.

Then, from there, it was a matter of securing enough confidence and a high enough position, that he could become Sophia’s partner for nationals. Given the timeline, Dan had to improve quickly.

According to Peter, they needed to win enough matches by the end of the semester to qualify for Nationals. The first month of the season, there weren’t any official matches for the teams to play, as they were focused more so on training up players and figuring out their teams. So instead, schools would just offer non tournament official friendly matches.

The second month of the season, which they were moving into, began actual matches and tournaments. The matches were either one or two a week, against just a single other school. Tournaments were once a month, and those incorporated more schools, and were longer events. As they got closer to the end of the semester, the tournaments would get larger, and they’d need to place higher to keep climbing.

As it stood, Dan couldn’t try for a spot until the end of the next month, meaning he was going to miss out on an entire month of matches, and the first tournament. But that was fine. Because all that time, he would be growing, and when his time came, he would secure a position.

Sophia, and Ashly for that matter, were Varsity players on the girls team. So while Peter had told the truth about Dan being able to play with girls on a mixed doubles team at the tournaments, if he was only on the JV team, he could only pair with the JV players. Which was fine and dandy, but meant he needed to secure a Varsity spot if he wanted to be Sophia’s partner at Nationals.

All of these facts, of course, had not been mentioned the first day Peter and Dan had met. The Senior had failed to mention just how tall a task it would be to pair up with Sophia for nationals. That being said, the circumstances, the situation, were playing out in a way that Dan was confident, pending anything crazy, that he could reach those heights. It would have been impossible for a normal person, but with his special powers, he knew he could do it.

And that was why he pushed himself so hard that weekend. Because he needed to grow. He needed to race ahead, to become the best player he could as quickly as he could. Well, that, and one other reason. One other reason why Dan was out there till nearly dark on Sunday, why he’d pushed himself so hard that even with his breaks, even with his shoes decreasing his stamina drain, he was nearly down to 25 percent of his stamina by the time he finished.

Apparently, he’d missed a call during practice Saturday morning. A call that, while he’d expected it, still caused a cold feeling to seep through him. A feeling he was using tennis to chase away.

The Military, once again, had come first. His dad’s time away had been extended, and while he was supposed to be coming home in just a week or so, now, he was going to be away for another month. And that feeling, the feeling that his dad’s career had once again come between family, had caused emotions to well up within Dan that he didn’t want to deal with. Emotions that he’d dealt with time and time again. Emotions filled with questions. Questions Dan didn’t like to try and figure out. The largest one being, whether his mom would still be around, if his father’s career hadn’t kept them separated for so long. Whether or not, had his dad been around, they’d have caught her symptoms early enough, that should could have been treated. Questions such as, if she’d hidden her own illness behind a smile, so her husband could focus on his career, and would worry. Questions such as, if not for his dad’s job, his mother would still be there.

Questions, in other words, that Dan really, really, really, tried his best to bury.