4

Jenna's resentment of me boiled over one day in mid-October. We had a match that afternoon, and as was customary, we wore our tennis skirts to school to promote school spirit. In the halls between periods, I bent down to get a drink from the water fountain. As soon as I did, I felt a hand slip up and under skirt from behind and squeeze my bare ass.

I stood bolt upright and wheeled around in shock. Behind me was Jenna's boyfriend, Todd, trying not very hard to feign a look of surprise.

"Shit, sorry," he mumbled as he stepped away. "Thought you were Jenna."

I could hear his friends laughing further down the hall.

"Those skirts," he said, smirking as he walked back to join them. "They all look the same from behind."

I stood completely still and said nothing. I had no idea what I was supposed to say. Plenty of guys, including Todd, had made verbal passes at me in the weeks since school started, but none had ever been bold enough to grope me. His brazenness left me speechless. After a few seconds of stunned silence, I gathered my things and walked to class as if nothing had happened.

This turned out to be a mistake. That afternoon before the match, as I was getting changed in the locker room, I heard Jenna's voice.

"Where is that slut?!"

I turned around and looked at her. She was bright red, with her face drawn tight and her fists clenched.

"What kind of SLUT," she said, raising her voice on the last word, "goes around bending over for OTHER PEOPLE'S boyfriends?"

I looked around at the other girls. They were staring into their lockers, awkwardly pretending to ignore the confrontation unfolding around them.

"I asked you a question, bitch," Jenna spat, walking towards me. "What kind of slut are you?"

This was the first time I had ever been called a slut. It would not be the last.

"Jenna," I stammered, "I didn't do anything."

"Oh really? Because I heard you gave Todd quite a show today." She was shaking as she spoke.

"No, it was an accident. I was just getting a drink of water, and-"

"Don't bullshit me, Lola." She pointed to the underwear hanging in my locker. "You don't put on a little thong like that without planning to show it to someone."

"Jenna, it was seriously a misunderstanding. He thought I was you, and so-"

"Shut the fuck up!" She screamed, stamping her foot on the tile floor. I had six inches on her, so I knew she didn't want the situation to become physical, but she was barely able to restrain her rage. "You really think he got us confused, you dumb bitch? I find that hard to believe since one of us is white and the other just pretends to be."

One of the other girls gasped. Before I could react, someone finally spoke up.

"Jenna, you need to chill. It isn't Lola's fault that Todd is an asshole."

"Really, Courtney?" Jenna wheeled around. "If some random guy put his hand up YOUR skirt, what would you do? I bet you'd slap him in the face, wouldn't you?" But this bitch..." she turned back to me. "This bitch didn't do ANYTHING. Didn't SAY anything. And you wanna know why?"

She looked me dead in the eye.

"Because she's a slut, and she fucking loved it."

With that, Jenna spit on my bare chest. Then, she turned around and walked out onto the court as her saliva disappeared into the valley between my breasts.

...

The next day, Coach Matthews dismissed Jenna from the tennis team, appointing another senior girl, Candice, as the new captain. Unlike Jenna, Candice had no aspirations to be the best player on the team, so there was no reason for us to be rivals.

After making the announcement to the team, Coach Matthews invited me back to her office for a private conversation.

"I'm really sorry about what happened, Lola," she sighed. "I heard from the other girls that Jenna said some pretty hurtful things."

"It's okay, Coach. Thanks for looking out for me."

She leaned forward. "I know it's hard being the new girl at school, especially as a senior. There's some good news, though," she said, cracking a smile. "You'll be done here and onto better things before you know it."

"Thanks, Coach."

"I'm serious, Lola. I haven't known you that long, but long enough to tell that anyone who says anything bad about you is just jealous of the places you're going." She reached across her desk and put her hand on my arm. "You put your head down, work hard, and you're going to get that scholarship."

"H-how did you know I was trying to get a scholarship?"

"I talked to your Mom. You know she really wants the best for you, right?"

I nodded.

"So, here's what we're going to do. The reality is, none of the girls here are good enough to push your game to the next level, but there's someone at this school who is." Coach Matthews picked up a picture frame and turned it towards me. "I don't know if you've met my younger son, Caleb. He's only a sophomore, but he's far and away the best player on the boy's team."

The picture showed two boys in bathing suits at the beach. These must be Coach Matthews' sons, I thought. Her index finger was pointed towards the younger one, a smiling, freckle-faced boy with lanky hair, braces, and wiry limbs that looked just a little too big for his body.

"If you want, I can pull some strings and make sure the two of you have a free period together two or three days week. I think it will really help you with your pace to play against a boy. I know he looks like a kid, but you'd be surprised how much heat he can put on his serve. Plus," Coach Matthews said, lowering her voice, "he's a little shy, so I think it would do him some good to try interacting with a girl every so often."

I stifled a laugh.

She smiled. "Sometimes I wish he had a big sister like you to look up to. It hasn't been easy for him growing up in his brother's shadow."

I turned my attention to the other boy in the photo, though calling him a "boy" was hardly fitting. They may have been related, but they barely looked like the same species. Caleb's brother towered over him, a dark, broad-shouldered mass of tightly wound muscles. His blonde hair, blue eyes, and bright, white smile stood out against his tanned, golden skin.

"I can imagine," I mumbled.

"I'm sure you can," Coach said, giving me a knowing wink. "So, shall I set things up with Caleb?"

I paused for a moment, still gazing at the photo. "Sure," I said. "Sounds like a plan."