what's with all the racquet? || shadow only

It was a very sunny afternoon and with the rather unfortunate location of the school, the 50 degree weather was balmy for a spring day in North Dakota. Verona had thus decided to take advantage of whatever warmth she could grasp and took to the tennis courts. Now, Verona was known for being an overly competitive, busy body, but it had been a long while since she had played a match of tennis. Actually she had been meaning to pick the sport back up, but it wasn't until she had been at the thrift shop and found "the most adorable, little tennis dress ever" that she had made up her mind to head over to the courts when the weather finally grew warm again. Now here she was, looking clad in a navy and white ensemble of a tennis dress (click) and an old white racquet.

However, it wasn't until she had trekked all the way to the courts that she realized she had one minor problem. Never had Verona heard of a tennis game played by only one person; unless the person could duplicate themselves, but Verona had no such ability. So an idea sparked in her head, she'd save the trouble and just make one come to her. And she knew just the one, so with a sigh the girl pulled her phone out of her bag and sent a text to none other than the same NPC I keep using. Sure he kissed like a dog, but damn was he easy to manipulate. And he was cute, which was a total bonus. So as predicted, the boy strolled over and in a matter of 15 minutes the two were already in an intense match of tennis. Verona was really horrible at the sport, but luckily due to her gift (and just the pure fact that she was a girl) the boy was so distracted by her looks that Verona was in the lead. One more good swing and she'd win the point, but she misjudged how hard she had to hit the ball and with one swing the ball was up, up, up, and over the fence surrounding the court.

Of course, at that perfect little moment with his perfect little timing, Richard just happened to be walking by on his way to get some food until the tennis ball came down with a loud thump as it bounced off of the ground not three inches away from him, causing all of him to halt and almost fall backwards from surprise. Never had he actually known anyone to be out here on the courts, and each day when he passed them, he had never seen a soul until he looked to see where the ball must have come from... to see the one person he just didn't want to see. And look, she had her boy toy with her too. Just perfect. "So you're into tennis now, huh?" he called out to her as a look of annoyance crossed his face at the fact that he just knew that she was the one who had hit it over the fence. He didn't actually see it, but he just knew. You could call it instinct... or that gut feeling. Maybe intuition.

Verona tossed her racket around in her hand, impatiently flicking her ponytail over her tan shoulder. Her green eyes flickered from the large boy on the other side of the net, who was now drooling over her appearance and she let out a scoff. The girl shook her head and then, because he always seemed to be looming around, she spotted Richard. Despite the rather unfortunate fact that he was here, Verona couldn't help but snicker as she spotted the luminescent green ball inches away from him. As bad as it may sound, Verona seriously hoped that it had hit him. That would've been priceless. She reckoned that it didn't, he didn't look pissy enough to have just been hit in the head by a tennis ball, but the visual was hilarious. "You say it like you're surprised," Verona mused, making a visor on her forehead with one of her hands. Even though she couldn't see him well because of the sun's rather unfortunate position behind him, Verona could tell he was annoyed. Ugh, he got annoyed so easily. "I can't imagine that you play tennis." She added, flashing him a challenging smile.

He shook his head at her question and even gave her a small, sarcastic smile to go along with it. It was definitely a smile more out of the annoyance that he felt rather than amusement. It was like she wanted him to play tennis. He was pretty sure she hadn't ever really played either, but he wasn't going to fall for that. He wasn't going to let her win this time. "Actually, I don't. I've never played tennis in my life." In some ways, he wanted to see how disappointed she would have looked when he said no. But honestly, he didn't really know what to expect. He didn't really want to stand there, but if she could make a fool out of herself playing tennis, he wasn't going to pass that up.

"Figures," Verona called out to him. "You don't really look like you play sports." She tried to keep it casual, but her tone had an edge to it and her smile looked more sour than sincere. The brunette flipped the racket around in her hands and turned her gaze flickered towards her tennis opponent. "Do you want to play another match?" Verona asked him with a grin spreading across her lips. She flipped her head over her should to look back at Dickie. "I'd ask you to play, but if you've never played tennis before I don't want you to get your ass handed to you." With that Verona pulled out a tennis ball, tossed it up into the air and hit it hard, but it wasn't aimed over the net, instead it was aimed towards Richard and depending on his placement, the ball had a good probability of hitting Richard pretty hard.  Verona feigned a look of shock and called out, "Oops!"

At first, Richard began to roll his eyes at her because he just knew she was trying to get on his nerves, but it was the "oops" that suddenly made him look back in her direction only to see a bright yellow tennis ball flying toward his face pretty darn fast. Without even having time to take in a sharp breath, he dropped to the ground as fast as he could, ducking out of the way of the ball, but it still slightly caught the top of his head. He didn't even have time to react with his power-- he barely knew how he had time to get out of the way. As the ball soared behind him, he turned to watch it bounce alone the ground and pretty much out of sight before he turned back to Vera.  "Are you crazy?" Richard asked her. "You almost hit me with that thing!" He could only guess that was her intention, but that thing was fast. Oh well. Calming down, he went right back to how he was before she had even tried to hit him. No sense in getting upset. He wasn't going to let her win. Nope. "I didn't know you were so terrible at this game," he sneered.

Verona looked at him with wide eyes, but she was slightly unimpressed. That wasn't the reaction she had been hoping to evoke. She was at least anticipating a few choice words, but all he did was get a little ancy. Vera gasped and covered her mouth with her hand, in attempt to look apologetic, really she was unaffected. "It was only an accident Dickie, no need to get your panties in a twist." Verona scoffed, looking over at the NPC for backup. He just nodded along and narrowed his eyes jealously at Richard. But the brunette wasn't done, and it appeared that Richard wasn't done either, Vera narrowed her eyes. "Excuse me Dickie? I don't see you up here." She challenged, a competitive gleam in her eyes. "I'm serious, there's a racquet over there, show me if you think you can do better."

That was a challenge. You know what? Fine. If that's what the queen wanted. "Alright, fine. I'm sure this game isn't that difficult to play," he said as he quickly grabbed the racket she had pointed him to and got onto the court. He didn't even bother with little what's-his-face that had been playing with her before. He didn't even bother with wherever he was headed off to. Whatever. He was just going to play a quick game and go. Nothing more than that. Getting into the only stance that seemed comfortable for him to play in, he looked at Vera waiting for her to start the game. He looked a little awkward, but he also looked pretty determined. "I'm ready when you are."