"Country Club Baby Girl"
A Law & Order Fanfiction
Written by Kate "SuperKate" Butler
She zigged and zagged and her Reeboks pounded the pavement.
When she'd been a girl and struggling to pick out a sport to play – because all country club baby girls played at least one white-bread sport – her first instinct was to choose basketball. Her favorite uncle was a die-hard, season-tickets type Knicks fan, and at family gatherings, he could always be found in front of the television watching the NBA games. She'd sit at his feet, the smell of his beer a stark contrast to her mother's Merlot and father's scotch, and found herself mesmerized by the ball bouncing down the court, and the sweaty bodies of the toned players chasing it.
The sport she played all through high school and college ended up being tennis.
The rim shuddered and the net swished quietly, a success, and she scooped up the ball and brought it back to the top of the key, dribbling expertly. Right hand, left hand, hand-to-hand, through the legs, behind the back. The rubber thumped on the pavement and the memories flooded through her mind as she ran a hard lay-up, missed the basket by a few scant centimeters, and then finished with a perfect rebound.
Few people understood her love of the game, and she didn't entirely blame them. Bleach-blonde, country club baby girls with baby-blue eyes and perfect Swedish background, born and raised in an uppity suburb and sent to all the top-notch schools just did not love basketball. They did not attend every Knicks game they could procure tickets to. They did not watch the NBA when they arrived home from work, still dressed in their gray business suits and fifty-dollar high heels. And they certainly did not spend every free afternoon or extra spare time chasing a slightly deflated ball around the neighborhood basketball court, bleach-blonde hair pulled up into a ponytail while sweat dripped into those baby blue eyes.
Not at all.
She threw a long shot from outside of what would have been the three-point line were there actual lines on the blacktop, and the net whispered her success.
She caught the ball and she ran with it, dribbling up and down the court, evading invisible opponents, darting around defenders only her eyes could see, the sun warm on her face and the cool breeze ruffling her sweat-damp t-shirt. She danced over the blacktop, zigging and zagging, Reeboks slapping the ground, her mind filled with the wasted time she'd spent practicing her backhand instead of her lay-up.
She bent her knees for an easy two-pointer from the makeshift free-throw line someone had scribbled in with yellow chalk.
"Serena."
The ball nicked the rim and then fell like a brick, bouncing a few times before it rolled into a pair of loafer-clad feet.
She smiled sheepishly and brushed a strand of hair from her face. "Hi, Jack," she greeted, watching as he bent down to pick up the ball. "Jury in already?"
"A short verdict," he nodded, passing it back to her. He eyed her briefly, in her sweaty t-shirt and knit work-out shorts. "Can you be ready in fifteen minutes?"
She nodded, tucking the ball under her arm. "Of course," she replied, jogging over to join him. His eyes searched her one more time before they started together towards the nearby One Hogan Place, and she somehow managed to keep smiling at him.
Bleach-blonde, baby blue-eyed country club baby girls with killer backhands may not have played basketball, no.
But then again, Serena was fairly certain that she'd never really been a country club baby girl to begin with.
Fin.
Disclaimer: Law & Order belongs to NBC and Dick Wolf, not to me. Though I will take some of it if they're feeling burdened.
Author's Notes: The other night, I was watching a rerun in which Serena talks about being a tennis player. And I'm sorry, but I could not see it. At all. So imagine my surprise when I woke up a few mornings later after having a dream in which Serena was playing basketball.
And suddenly, I had a fic.
Besides, she's so totally not a tennis player.
April 9, 2005
7: 22 p.m.