Hello again! Here's chapter 2. Not too long, but I'm working hard and hoping to get them longer and longer as I go along.

Please bear in mind that Paul in my story is not a reference to the Paul in Twilight. It's just the name that I think suits my character best.

Don't hesitate to R&R guys. I'd love to hear what you think

Enjoy

M

Chapter 2

As I entered the building or clubhouse if you will, I looked around and it looked just like I'd remembered it from my trials week here a month ago. To my left was a large living room type of space filled with black leather couches, tables, chairs and even a TV. I had branded it the lounge as during trials I noticed everyone would spend breaktime there, eating lunch and resting before the second part of the training session.

To my right was all the training equipment such as baskets of balls, spare rackets, cones and even smaller nets for the younger players. When I first came to the academy I was immediately impressed with how much eqipment they had and how prepared they were for the sessions. They seemed very... professional. Finally, straight ahead in front of me was the kitchen/bar and in front of it another lounging area that the coaches seemed to use more than anyone else. The kitchen had a bar installed onto the front of it and from what I noticed as much as it was mostly for players to use (e.g. heating up our lunches in the microwave and filling our bottles with the water from the tap) the academy also occasionally sold bottles of drinks and snacks to random bypassers.

Right now as I was getting closer and closer to the bar opposite the door I could already see the two head coaches that I'd met in the summer - Daniel and Christina. Daniel was approaching his fourties soon and Christina was still in her mid twenties. She had been a player herself and he coached her to a ranking of 500 before she got a neck injury that disabled her from continuing her training. When I first found out that Christina used to be a player I was very excited. Even in that moment when I was walking up to her I was very happy to be in the presence of someone who had pulled off what I'm trying to do, and I was hoping that her guidance would be something that could give me an edge over the other girls on the tour.

Next to the coaches were three players, two of whom I'd met during my trials - Paul and Eva, and a third player who I'd never seen before.

"Well hello Bella!"

"Nice to see you're here ten minutes early. However, there are still few players that are on their way so why don't you take a seat over there and we'll let you know when it's time to go out to the courts." Christina said to me gesturing towards the bigger lounge area. I took this as a sign that they were having a private conversation that I'm not meant to be a part of and went to sit on one of the coaches in the direction she point towards.

Within a few seconds Paul, Eva and the young girl that was with them came over to where I was, I'd assumed they were told to just like me.

"Hi," I said to them, trying my best to let my outgoing personality out and to not start off my time here like a shy idiot.

"Oh Bella! Hi!" Eva said happily. We had quite a fun time during trials week and she was the only person there that I could at least say was on the way to becoming my friend.

"How are you? Did you enjoy time with friends in Utah? It must be sad to say good bye" Eva said in slightly broken English. When I first met her I learned that she was actually originally from Greece and had only moved here three months ago.

"Good. Yes it was sad to leave, but this is for the best and we are going to have fun here aren't we?"

"Opa! Of course!" Eva replied in what I had quickly come to know as her usual cheery and party-like tone.

"So how did you guys spend your summer then? Was there lots of hard core training here in the summer?" I asked motioning to both Paul and her and trying to not be rude. However, as soon as I looked him in the eyes I regreted my move. I'd realised that Paul had not said a word and was just looking at me with a small smirk and in a very 'I'm better than you' kind of way. I remembered him well from trials week because of how tall he was and his very blonde hair, but I didn't remember speaking to him much. He always hung out with the other older guys and the only time I'd heard him speak outside his group of comrades was when he tried ,and I literally do mean just tried, to have a flirty moment with Eva by calling her baby or something along those lines. It was such an awkward moment, with me standing there next to her, that I just did my best to erase it from my mind completely.

"It waz good. Very hard training though. This new coach from Canada is very hard on us in fitness. And he speaks more French than English. You will see.", Eva answered whilst Paul just kept his smirk on and didn't react in any way to my words. In order to avoid conflict I just ignored it.

Soon enough everyone arrived and we were ready to go outside and get started. Christina motioned for us to go and some of the other guys took the equipment out onto the court whilst I grabbed my racket and drink from my bag and followed suit. Christina, Daniel and a third man I didn't recognise stood by the net and in the usual 'tennis manner' whilst we stood in front of them in a semi circle awaiting instructions as well as introductions.

"Hello. As you know my name is Daniel, this is Christina and next to her is our guest coach Claud. He is from Canada and so are his three players so their french will be better than their english. Bear that in mind, especially if you do know some french. Now, there are seven of you now and hopefully by the end of may there will still be seven of you. We plan our training daily and will split you into twos and threes now. However, we may switch you around at any time during the sessions so none of this is in any way permanent!" Daniel explained to us.

"Alright, let's have Paul with Louise and Marc - off you guys go to court one. Then we'll have Bella and Eva, you can go to court two, and finally that leaves Max and Julian. Wonderful, alright let's pick up the pace guys. Onto your courts!"

And with that we all scurried off to our courts. I was glad to be put onto a court with Eva since I knew her the best, but also because she was seventeen and not only did I enjoy older mature company, but I thought that I could really learn a lot from her and look up to her like with Christina. It was great to see some potential for girl power at the academy despite having a lot more male players than female.

So as it turned out, we had a whole court and a basket to ourselves and it seemed like it was going to work just like during trials. Eva and I will alternate hitting, so one would feed the other a basket and then we'd switch, whilst the coaches went around and worked with us on our shots.

Eva offered to feed first so that I could hit and as I was stepping onto the service line I saw Christina walking towards our court with a big smile on her face.

"Okay Bella. Now as we said a month ago, we plan to change a lot of things about your game. It might all feel bad and wrong at first, but I promise it will feel better in a couple of months. You've really got some potential kid, and so as soon as we fix up those shots of yours we'll be able to put you into the big tournaments - not the junior rubbish you wanted to play, but the big stuff - professional adult tournaments! I'll have to tell you all about my international experiences one day, but let's get to work now and turn you into a pro!"

And after hearing those confident and encouraging words directed at me how could I not be happy to be there and happy to train hard? These coaches already seemed amazing and I was back on track to becoming a tennis superstar!

So we trained and trained really hard and did at least twenty baskets each in those two hours before our hour long lunch break. There was an overall sense of relief when after two gruelling hours we were told to collect the equipment and make our way into the clubhouse for lunch.

Everyone settled on the many couches in the lounge and started talking about how their summer had passed and what they were up to. I spoke mostly to Eva and noticed that the Canadians kept to themselves mostly, other than to laugh at the occasional loud joke that either Paul or Max made. Eva seemed to have gotten to know Max and Paul well over the summer as they were all really friendly and in no time the four of us were having a conversation of our own. I found out that Max was 19 years old and Paul 18. This actually made me quite happy because I liked hanging out with boys who would just chill rather than act all girly, but I also liked that they were older boys and much more mature. During our conversation I was also told that another four players will be joining us on the court after lunch. Two of them were apparently Paul's best friends and the other two were brothers that went to school with them (which was also the reason they all came at 1pm to train rather than at 10am). They were still in a regular High School and so had to go to school in the morning and then come straight to tennis. I only knew one of the boys who was coming because he was there in trials, Mike. He was about my height, with unusual bright orange hair and a pale face covered in freckles. Not bad looking in my opinion, but not particularly attractive to me either.

The other three I was yet to meet and I felt excited because I liked large groups of people and thought that together we could all make a great crowd. It was my perfect scene - mostly boys and all in all mostly people who were older than me. Not only did I always like hanging out and training with the 'older ones', but there was a lot less pressure on me if I ever had to play them in a match.

So we talked and talked and laughed, and before we knew it the hour had passed and it was time to go out to the courts again. The other four had arrived minutes before we were to go out and so there was no time for introductions. I looked them over briefly as they ran out to warm up and they seemed alright, quite average. Except for one that is. One whose brown and bronze hair looked like the strangest and most exquisite thing I'd ever seen in my short life. There was also another thing that made him more intriguing than others, at one point I could swear I saw him wink at me before continuing on with his warm up.

We 'huddled' around the coaches again, like in the morning, and I suddenly started thinking and panicking. Crap! What if I have something on my face? What if my breath smells from lunch? What does my hair look like? Crap, crap! I should've gone to the bathroom for a look over before coming outside. Now who knows what I look and smell like? It's not like I know Eva well enough to ask her that - girls can be very cruel and bitchy if you're not careful.

I was so engrossed in my thoughts that I hadn't even heard what Christina had said until she mentioned my name and pointed towards court two again. Thinking it's a safe bet, despite the fact that I don't know what the hell we're doing and don't want to let anyone know I'm quite distracted, I walked over there. When I got to the court and started looking around for whoever was meant to be joining me I almost jumped back in suprise. Eva and the sex hair guy were walking towards me. Crap! Well, it's just my luck isn't it? I might as well be friendly now and try to push the attraction away, after all we all know the main rule at this academy - no boyfriends, not girlfriends and no hook ups of any sort!

So they set up the exercise we were meant to do (since I'm completely clueless and on another planet - well more like cloud) and we began practicing it immediately.

A few baskets later whilst we were picking up the balls I heard a noise behind me and rapidly turned around.

"Hey, hey. You okay?" Sex hair guy said to me in a slightly worried tone. Oh crap! He's said something. Wait? What did he say again?

"Mhmm, yeah o-okay," I answered cautiously.

"What was your name again?" he smiled his stupid stupid dimpled smile at me. Oh does he have to have a great face too?

"Bella. It's Bella. And yo-yours?" I managed to stutter back at him.

"Edward, Edward Cullen is my name."

Hope you likeed it! Do R&R and let me know what you think. Much love x