A/N: My second fanfic. Like I mentioned in the summary, I'm going to delve more into the character of Lara and why she doesn't want to go to Cascadia.
Theodore "T.K" Kennedy gripped his tennis racquet tightly in one hand, a ball in the other. He needed to nail this point to stay in the game. He faced his friend, Gabriel Dawson and served the ball. Gabe swung his own racquet and smashed the ball with a mighty backhand, hitting it back to T.K. T.K ran as fast as he could to meet the ball and swung. He missed.
"Game to Gabe."
Gabe's sister, Riley sat up in the judge's chair where she had been calling the game. It had been a good thing they were only playing on the back court because that had been the worse game he had ever played.
Gabe ran forward and jumped the net, landing on T.K's side.
"That completely sucked, T." Gabe said. "No offence or anything."
"I deserved that. My head's just not in it right now."
Riley had gotten down from the judge's seat and Chase Dubois and Maxine West, two more friends, had gotten up from the bench where they had been watching.
"Well, you had better get your head into it." Max said. "The Bellerophon Tournament starts in two days."
"And if you don't at least come in the top 15, you're demoted to Group B." Chase finished.
"And-" Riley began.
"Come on, guys." Gabe said, cutting of his twin sister. "There's been talk about the tournament for days. I'm sure T.K doesn't need reminding."
"Damn straight." T.K said, bending over and breathing in and out.
There had been talk about the tournament for days now. It was important because it was the first real tournament Cascadia was offering. It was hard to believe they had been at Cascadia for two weeks now. The five friends had grown quite close over the past fortnight and T.K appreciated their concern about his performance. Even if it drew close to nagging. Because all 5 were in Group A, they automatically qualified for the Bellerophon Tournament.
T.K wasn't even sure why his game had gone off over the last couple days. Gabe was the highest ranked player at Cascadia so there wasn't any shame in losing to him but T.K was one of the higher ranked players and he usually got at least a couple games or even a set when playing his friend.
"Well, we'd love to stay and chat," Max said, grabbing Gabe's arm. "but we have an assignment to work on."
Gabe groaned loudly. Gabe and Max had been assigned to be partners in an assignment given out in Science class. Gabe, however, had kept making up excuses, saying he couldn't do it and now it was due in two days. T.K, Chase and Riley had all finished theirs.
"You promised that right after your match, we'd work on it." Max said, pulling on his arm slightly.
"Fine." Gabe said, grumpily. "Later, guys." He said as Max dragged him away.
"Well, no assignments and no practice." Chase said, watching Gabe and Max disappear behind the wall. "I'm thinking the lake?"
"Sounds good." Riley said, looking at T.K. "T, you in or do you want to stay an practice?"
"Yeah, sure. I could use the break."
Very few people went to the lake. They all preferred the giant televisions in the open rather then the magics of nature. The Open was okay but the lake was a lot quieter.
A/N: For those of you who don't know, Bellerophon was a Greek warrior who killed the chimera monster. I honestly have no reason for picking him as the name for the tournament. I just thought it sounded cool.