Chapter 66

Peter was gone for roughly fifteen minutes, giving Dan plenty of time to get his short rest bonus while the others chatted about various season related things. While Ben had been a dick prior to his, er, lesson with Peter, apparently, he’d had a complete change of character since. Meaning, he was getting along with the girls much better than Dan had seen in the past, and they were actively talking about their various chances with going to Nationals, as well as their upcoming matches.

Ben, being on Varsity, and the number 2 slotted member of the boy’s team, was set to play singles in the next tournament. Peter, obviously, was the number 1 spot on the team, and he was always lined up, apparently, to be the final match of the day. The competitions against other schools were a best out of 5, and it started at the bottom, and consisted of two doubles matches, and three singles matches.

Peter was an assured win, and Ben had quite the track record of winning as well, meaning the odds were generally in the favor of their school when playing. Two guaranteed matches out of five already put them extremely close to victory, unless both doubles teams, and their third singles player, lost.

Interestingly, from the conversation, the team formats and such for a competition were more so decided by the coach, rather than individual players. They could petition, obviously, to play singles over doubles if they were in the top seven Varsity players, as those were the ones who competed at the competitions. However, it was ultimately up to the coach to decide.

For the girls team, while Sophia was actually the third best rated player on the team, from what Dan was able to gather, she actually played doubles instead of singles, pairing with Ashley, who, not surprisingly, was lower, sitting at sixth out of the seven varsity players. Their other doubles team combined the seventh and fifth rated players, with singles including the fourth, second, and first rated players.

Dan found the fact Sophia gave up her singles slot, in order to play doubles with Ashley, as a rather interesting point of the conversation. While she was a great player, it seemed she actually preferred doubles over singles. Something to do with her mental state when she played singles. Additionally, she and Ashley had been friends for a long while and had played tennis together for their entire time in high school. Which further solidified their closeness and proved another fact Dan needed to consider regarding becoming Sophia’s doubles partner for Mixed Doubles at Nationals.

He was actually building up the nerve, to broach the subject of mixed doubles at nationals, considering everything regarding cross school play seemed to just be boys versus boys, and girls versus girls, when their rest was suddenly interrupted.

“Oy, hope you all know I’m going to expect more intense play after the break you just got.” Peter’s voice drew everyone’s attention to him as he stepped back onto the court. The Senior was grinning, his shirt loosely hanging about him, showing he’d been jogging, at the very least, to wherever it was he had been going. Across his shoulder he had a bag, though it was different from his normal, massive bag of ‘won’ racquets.

This bag was smaller, and Dan recognized it immediately. It was a bag that held some of Peter’s personal racquets. Not the bag he’d brought with him to the special, weekend tournament he’d taken Dan to, but the bag he carried his racquets in that he used for practice around the school.

“Honestly, after that cooldown, I’m expecting more a pulled muscle.” Ben said with a chuckle, and he started stretching. Had he not been magically empowered; Dan would have thought to stretch as well. He’d been sitting for most of the time Peter had been gone, and doing that, after how hard he’d been playing on the court, would surely have given his muscles way too much time to rest, and build up acid.

But, he had magic, and he knew, as long as something drastic didn’t happen, he’d be fine. Though, his right arm, shoulder, and upper back, still burned with an annoying amount of pain. The sooner he slept tonight, the better.

“If you get yourself injured before our match, I’m going to petition for Danny to take your spot.” Peter said with a laugh. “Especially after that serve of his. He’s hands down already JV level, and I’m sure in a week or two he could start giving the lower ranks of Varsity a good run for their money.”

“You just want him on the team so you can have your pet with you when you’re stuck playing in the matches.” Ashley said. Her tone though, was more joking than normal. Another change Dan had noticed, likely due to his charisma bonus and his interactions with her. While she saw him as a rival with regards to Sophia, the animosity had died down into more a friendly type of competition. Which, while welcome, also felt strange to Dan. The Charisma skill, definitely, was scary powerful.

“Pah, you just miss when you were that pet.” Peter shot her a wink, and Ashley’s face flushed red. Yup, they definitely had a history. And a quick glance at Ashely’s information confirmed it. She wasn’t listed as a Lesbian. She was Bisexual, for her current sexual orientation, and Dan had a rather strong suspicion Ashley and Peter had been a thing, at one point in time. Though, judging by how Peter acted, he’d had a lot of ‘things’ over the past few years.

“So,” Sophia cut in between the two, “did you bring back a racquet for Dan? Or are you planning to play?” She motioned towards Peter’s bag.

“As much fun as it was last time I took the both of you at the same time,” Peter paused for a moment, eliciting a furious reaction from Ashley, before he continued. “On the court,” he finished, flashing her a smile and a wink, “today is about the four of you, not me.” He set his bag down and unzipped it. “But, being the benevolent mentor I am, I decided, to ensure Dan could keep going today, that he could use one of my racquets, before we order him a proper racquet of his own.”

There was a visible look of shock on all three of the other player’s faces at Peter’s statement.

“You’re going to let him use one of your racquets?” Ben asked, mouth agape. “Like, your RF?”

Peter nodded as he pulled out the racquet. It was all black, save for the strings, which were almost the color of cream. Along the side of it, Dan could make out, in dark lettering, the brand, Wilson. The make said Pro Staff, and as Peter brought the racquet towards Dan he could see the outlines of a signature inside the throat of the racquet. Roger Federer.

“Given Danny boy destroyed the first Wilson I ever let him use, obviously this isn’t going to be the final racquet we decide for him. But it’s the best for the day, that’s for sure. And like I said, he earned the right to use a big boy racquet with that serve he did.”

“But.” Ben’s voice went soft, “you never let people even touch your racquets.”

Peter shrugged. “People change. You used to be a massive prick, and now you’re not. So, me letting him use one of my practice racquets isn’t all that big a surprise, is it?” Peter handed the racquet to Dan. Just holding it, he could immediately tell the racquet was on a different level than the Babolat Pure Drive he’d been using. He mentally pulled up the information on the racquet, even as he did a couple test swings with it, marveling at its feel.

Wilson Pro Staff FR97: +3 power per 10 (max 15), +2 spin per 10 (max 10), +2 backhand slice per 10 (Max 10), -10*% stamina drain while in use. *Wilson Natural Gut Strings: -5% stamina Drain

Dan blinked at the words crossing his vision. The Babolat Pure Drive gave him a boost a of 1 power per 10 in that skill, and 1 spin per 10 in that skill. This racquet not only granted greater buffs to both those fields, but unlocked buffs on his backhand, and decreased stamina drain. And that was without his special grips or dampener. The fact the strings even amplified the bonuses on the racquet was even crazier. It was something Dan had never even considered.

“I, are you sure?” Dan asked as he looked from Peter to the racquet. Something like this, especially if he had his special items applied to it, would greatly step up his game. It was crazy the difference between what he was guessing was a beginner to intermediate style racquet, to a professional style racquet, was.

“Yeah, just for today though.” Peter said with a smile. “I’ll restring your broken racquet for you tonight, and then we can chat about ordering you a special racquet all of your own.”

“If you say so.” Dan said with a smile. He glanced at his stats as he swung the racquet once more.

Power (36), Spin (37), Backhand (One Hand Slice) (32).

Changing the racquet, alone, had increased his power 7 points, his topspin 3 points, and his one handed backhand slice by 4. If he’d had his grips added on, that would add another 2 to both his backhand slice, and his spin. Which, would put him 1 point away from Spin, which would amplify his bonus from the racquet even more… The possibilities made Dan’s mouth water. It also made him wonder, what a magical racquet would be able to grant him. And, more importantly, what he would have to do to convince Syn to give him one.

“Oh, I do buddy.” Peter said with a grin. “I really, really do. Just, ya know, don’t get this racquet run over by a truck, yeah?”

“Deal.” Dan said. “Well then,” he looked at the others, his confidence and excitement growing. He really wanted to test this racquet out. “Shall we?”