Loser

by Train Lee 李春安

2005/4/7

“Good. It’s 15-30, and I have two break points. I just have to get two more points and I can get this set and it will be 6-1. The score of last set was 6-0. I only have to get this game and I can win this match. I will be the winner. Poor Jack. You knew you can’t defeat me. You should have known it. I am sorry for you, Jack. Ha.”

Jack is my classmate—and my friend. Is he my friend? Oh, I am not sure. Or maybe I should put it this way: I am his friend. Wearing a pair of glasses, he is a plain guy who is about five feet eight inches tall. His thick hair stacks on his head. It makes me think of pudding whenever I see his head. He is the kind of person that people won’t pay much attention to. That’s why I didn’t notice him until we play tennis together in our PE class.

I remember that it was my first tennis class, when the PE teacher was calling roll; I found that a guy from our department also took this course. Yes, that was Jack. I have to say that if he had not been the only person in our department to take this class, I would not have played tennis with him during my college life. It seemed that we came from different worlds. He looked like a dumb fool. On the contrary, I was a super star in tennis domain. When I played tennis with him, it seemed just like Roger Federer was playing tennis with a rookie in tennis. Even though it was boring to hit the ball through the net that would never bounce back, I still had to do this, because he was my partner. However, some girls would glance at me, I was sure. And this made it not so boring after all.

After my first PE class, our teacher came to me and said, “Hey, Tomposon, you play very well in tennis. Why don’t you join the tennis team in our college?” To tell the truth, I had been playing tennis since I was ten years old. I was not bragging myself but I really played very well in tennis. I was the captain of the tennis team in our senior high school. However, I turned my PE teacher down. “Well, could you please give me some time to consider it? You know, I am a freshman. I haven’t got accustomed to the freshman life. When I think it is time, I will tell you. Is it okay?” I was lying. That was not the real reason. The truth was that there were many pretty girls in our PE class and I wanted to pick one of them to be my girlfriend. If I joined the tennis team right away, I could not take regular PE class and I had to practice tennis with sweaty guys. Without girls around me, how could I live? I would participate in the tennis team, maybe I will, if I can get that pretty babe to be my girlfriend.

I glance around the court and find her in the crowd. “There she is. Look at her! She is really a hot babe. The slim legs, the hips and the bumping breasts—she is my goddess!” I wipe the sweat off my face with my polo shirt and take another glimpse at her. I know she is watching our game, or to be specific, she is looking at me. It is strange that she looks worried. “Hey, my cute girl, don’t worry, I am gonna win this game.” I look at Jack—my opponent. He wears a white Nike cap in the opposite side. He has never worn a cap on the court. “Who do you think you are? Lleyton Hewitt? Far from it!” I sneer. Lowering down my hips and crouching down slightly, I flip around my racket and swing my body with rhythm and wait for Jack’s second serve. He tosses the ball into the air and hits it softly. “Oh, come on, Jack, can’t you use all your strength to hit the ball?” I step forward, strike a cross shot with forehand and run to the half court. He hits the ball back. With single backhand, I volley the ball back into the right court. He runs up and tries to save the ball. But it is too late. The ball bounces on the ground before his racket touches it. The score now is 15-40. “Good, next point is match point.” I swing my head backward and comb my hair with my fingers and I know that she must be watching me. I can not help but smile.

She is really a charming girl, majoring in Foreign Languages. She is the prettiest girl I have ever seen. As soon as I saw her, I knew that she was what I want. She had never played tennis before. To get close to her, when the teacher let us practice what he has taught, I would walk to her and taught her how to strike forehand and how to serve. In this way, we become friends. It is normal that she and I became friends, but it is strange that Jack and she also become friends. I don’t know how they get to know each other. Maybe it is because they picked balls up together. In our tennis class, everyone picks balls up and puts them into baskets only when teacher asks us to. Strangely, she and Jack will volunteer to pick balls up into the baskets. Several times, I saw them talking to each other when they picked balls up. Last week, I asked her to go to a movie with me. “Hum…. Well, it is strange that only you and I go to the movie. Why don’t we find one more person? Let’s see…. How about Jack?” she replied. That’s why we three went to a movie together. She sat between us when we were watching the movie. As we saw the movie, I whispered at her ear when I found something interesting in the movie. She just nodded with a smile. However, she didn’t whisper to my ear; instead, she talked to Jack from time to time. After watching the movie, we went to a department store. As we walked out of the MRT station, someone was distributing fliers. I took it, glanced at it and threw it away. Jack picked it up, scratched his head with an embarrassed smile and said to me, “Tomposon, it is not good to throw something on the ground” “It’s no big deal, okay? All right, if you insist, I won’t do it next time,” I replied.

“15-40. Match point. It is your last chance, Jack.” Just like he always does, he serves a washy ball into the court. I hit the ball back. He tries to strike the ball back, but it misses the sweet spot. The ball flies high up in the air. I run up to the mid-court, stretch my left hand up in the air, crouch down slightly, and poise myself to get ready to hit the ball. Bang! I strike an overhead smash. The ball hits the ground just on the baseline. He misses it. I am the winner! I walk up and shake hands with him. “You did a good job, Jack. Nice play,” I say. “I wish you can get the title,” he replies with a grin. With a big shining smile, I say to him “By the way, the cap looks good on your head.” He smiles again with shyness. But that is not what I want to say, what I really want to say to him is: “You loser.”