Chapter 2

Classes have started.

Days passed.

Weeks had gone by.

Nathalie decided to try out for the Sports club.

Don had been voted to become the President of the Student Council.

But by this time, Nathalie had become too serious for her own good. Don noticed this, too.

"Joy!" hollered Don.

"Don't call me Joy!" yelled Nathalie.

Don grinned. He loves it when Nathalie gets worked on his taunts. He walked towards Nathalie's chair.

"What do you want?" said Nathalie when Don was only a few inches away from her chair.

"Wanna play badminton?" asked Don.

"No, I don't want to." replied Nathalie bluntly.

"Come on, loser will have to treat the winner with Cornetto."

"Fine. I'm in. What time will we play?

"Later at dismissal. I've already had the badminton court prepared."

"Okay. Later then."

~~--- O _ O ---~~

Don waited eagerly for dismissal.

He immediately answered every question a teacher asked him. One particular teacher wasn't exactly happy about this.

" My, Mr. VenGUa" said that particular teacher in her weirdly accented voice. "Isn'T yoo very eNThushaShTiK tuDei? I wunDeRR y iz thAt?"

Tsk, thought Don. It's Ma'am Soria with her grammatically wrong accent again. There's no way out of this one. Guess I better take a risk.

"Why, yes ma'am." Said Don almost mockingly. "It's because I'm enjoying very well."

"WhY thaTZ very fLAtTering, mR. VengUA." Said a happy Ma'am Soria, oblivious to Don's mocking tone.

Don shook his head when the teacher turned to face the board. He couldn't wait for later's game…

~~--- O _ O ---~~

At last, the clock read 4 pm.

Don took his badminton racket & shuttlecock and went downstairs towards the badminton court. He went in the boy's locker room and changed his school uniform with his sports attire and waited for Nathalie.

~~--- O _ O ---~~

"Sorry, I won't be coming." Said Nathalie to her classmates getting ready to go to the mall. "I promised Don that I'll play badminton with him later this afternoon."

Nathalie's classmates sighed and nodded.

"It can't be helped then." Said Lyra.

"Yeah." Continued Maan.

"Anyway, have fun with Don!" grinned Blessie while holding Tim's hand so intimately.

"R-right.." trailed Nathalie, rather unsure of what to say.

Nathalie bid goodbye to her friends and slung her bag over her shoulder. As she went downstairs towards the badminton court, she thought of some strategies to beat Don at the game.

~~--- O _ O ---~~

Don was drinking water when Nathalie came. She was carrying her school bag with her and headed towards the girl's locker room.

I'll have Butler to pick my bag down for me later, thought Don, realizing for the first time that he had left his bag upstairs.

After making a quick phone call to his butler, Butler, Don slipped his cellphone in his pocket and turned to see Nathalie already dressed up & getting her badminton racket on the bench.

Taking his own racket, Don began to swing it around as if to test it if it's light and easy to swing quickly. Feeling satisfied, Don went to his position in the court, opposite Nathalie who was already in her place.

Don sighed.

He just saw Nathalie's expression. She looked serious.

TOO serious in fact, thought Don. Okay, time to put this plan into action…

~~--- O _ O ---~~

Don's plan was this:

He'll play badminton with Nathalie in a carefree manner, which means that he will not use any strategies against her. This will force her to go with the flow and decide to not use any strategies as well, and she'll eventually loosen up her uptight character & finally have fun.

~~--- O _ O ---~~

"Come on, Nathalie!" yelled Don as he returned her smash successfully. "You've got to do better than that."

Nathalie clenched her teeth. She was now getting frustrated at Don's cheery and lighthearted attitude. All he does is hit and smash the shuttlecock from out-of-the-blue, and she can't get a pattern from his attacks.

Picking up the shuttlecock off the ground, she looked at Don's side of the court. Deciding to hit the farthest side away from Don, Nathalie aimed for the left side.

Still, Don caught it and flung it at here with utmost ease.

At this, Nathalie lost it.

Forgetting all of her planned strategies, she aimed the shuttlecock towards Don's direction directly.

At her attack, Don suddenly smiled. Nathalie wondered why.

~~--- O _ O ---~~

It worked! thought Don happily. Now she'll have fun as well! No more strenuous thinking for her at this game.

Just then, he felt something whiz near his right ear. Looking at his back, he saw the shuttlecock hit the ground and bounce a bit.

Wow, didn't notice that one coming, thought Don. I can't even read her next moves now. Looks like she's really enjoying herself now.

Turning around, Don saw Nathalie grin.

~~--- O _ O ---~~

"Yes!" said Nathalie gleefully.

She had finally won a point over Don. Now she needs only 7 points more to beat Don.

Just then, Don aimed and the shuttlecock went towards her right side.

As Nathalie caught it and aimed it back to Don, she felt unusual happiness inside of her, a feeling she hadn't felt in months other than the feeling of getting a perfect score in her tests.

Wow, thought Nathalie. I never thought that a simple badminton game like this could be so fun!

~~--- O _ O ---~~

An hour had passed and the final score was 12-to-10, in Nathalie's favor.

"Alright, I won!" said Nathalie with newfound happiness in her voice. Don noticed it, too.

"Great. Looks like you have really loosened up, huh?" said Don, who had returned with 2 cornettos in hand. As he handed one to Nathalie, he asked, "Do you want to know why I wanted to play badminton with you out-of-the-blue?"

"Hmm.. Now that you mention it, why did you ask me anyway?"

Don smiled.

"You see, these past few weeks, you had been too somber. You seem not to have any fun and I thought that you should loosen up a bit. Immediately what came into my mind was playing badminton, since you enjoyed playing it before you became too serious."

"Wow… I never realized that I was so staid. Did I really look THAT serious?"

"Yes. REALLY EXTREMELY serious."

Both Nathalie and Don laughed. Then, Don realized that he felt very happy inside. To this, he cannot find out why and therefore concluded (once again) that this must have come from the success of his plan. (AN: He is really dense, isn't he?)

"You know Nathalie, I –" began Don but was cut in midsentence after hearing Nathalie's cheerful voice.

"Wow vanilla! This is my favorite, thanks a lot Don!!" cried Nathalie with much delight in her expression.

I'll tell her next time, then. said Don in his mind.

~And so, they ended the day with more laughter and another round of cornetto. :))~

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