Raena Gauge
By: Rae-Ann LHI
Hiya! I'm Raena and I just got to Copper Canyon about like, what? 3 months ago? …yeah around that, I haven't made any friends-YET- but I have made a few acquaintances, none of which I think actually wanted to talk to me at the time but that's okay, as long as I'm on the badminton team, I'm good.
To make things even better I'm heading for the final round with my partner Michael right now! He doesn't talk to me much but we get along as partners quite well and he's amazing at playing badminton which makes us a nearly perfect doubles team.
I entered the gymnasium with Michael and headed for the middle court where our opponents were practicing their lunges and smashes in the air, they didn't intimidate me one tiny bit, I looked at Michael who had a confident smirk on his face I gave the same look back to him then stood on the left side of the court, like always.
They hit the birdie up and it landed pointing to us, meaning we have first serve, I really think this will start out easy enough. I got the birdie and prepared to hit it close to their front line as possible, so close that they won't bother to hit it! Muhaha! I took a deep breathe and focused on the line.
*fwap!*
NO! A bad serve! I didn't it hard enough! It ended up tapping the top of the net but almost like luck was on our side it JUST landed on their line, they had shocked faces just like I did. The crowd in the back cheered and awed while the other team hit the birdie back to me while me and Michael switched sides for me to serve again. Getting into ready position once more and still looking at their line.
*fwap*
Dammit! This time it was too far back and the girl was able to hit it back but Michael was able to hit it back to them and he nearly smashed it into the other guys face! The birdie bounced off his racket and tapped the net, it rolled over and I jumped and tapped it up before it could hit the ground. IT WENT OVER! YES! I served again and a full out battle ragged between our teams.
The crowd behind us cheered as our teams bounced around our courts catching the birdie trying to hit it away from each other, both teams fought for dominance on the court for three whole minutes! we went non-stop the tension was high and the crowd became silent and all four of us on the team watched as the birdie flew from one side to another over and over, it was becoming very tiring and frustrating!
They tried to pull a trick move but we always deflected it and no matter how much I and Michael made them run across their field and no matter how difficult we made the shots they still got them! I was getting tired and so was Michael and I could tell by the look in his eye he wanted to get this over with.
That's when our chance arose when the girl accidentally hit the birdie too high and it came down to Michael as his arm came up.
*SMASH!*
He hit it so hard it went past both of them and landed inside the court and in response the crowd behind us the crowd from our school cheered but the tournament wasn't over yet the score is only 5, for us, to 4.
Once again I was on the left side getting ready to serve. The game went on for nearly 2 hours before we were both at 20 points each just 2 more points and either of us could win.
It was their turn to serve, half the crowd was gone, Michael and I were very tired but still on full alert and the adrenalin was pretty much the only thing keeping me from taking a full breathe, I was so tense that I didn't feel like breathing just focusing on my main target, which was the boy, he had a temper on him and that will be their down fall.
Sure enough, I smashed it to him nearly taking his eye out if he didn't have that racket at hand, the birdie bounced but hit the net then Michael took the birdie again and served it perfectly, sadly the girl was able to tap it back just going over the net, both me and Michael went for it.
He didn't make it and it was close to the ground until I slipped my racket beneath and tapped it back up and to them the same thing happened.
I thought they had hit it and it went over but when I looked back at our court there was no birdie, I looked over at them and turns out it had landed on the guys head, both of them laid there confused, I helped up Michael and looked back down at the two of them still dazed, I helped them up too then I burst into laughter, although I didn't mean to gloat, I did anyway besides I couldn't help it! WE WON THE TOURNAMENT! YAY!
Michael nudged me away then walked into the crowd from our school, they cheered for us on the bleachers while the teachers came over with gold medals, Michael looked more relieved than happy but he still came back to my side and accepted the medals that the teachers congratulate us. Later I met up with the two team players, shook their hands and told them they are a great team up then I got on the bus with the rest of the students from the badminton team.