LiamTheYoshi

I like surprises too. However, I would rather say that Alex is SUPER at tennis.

mariobroultimate

For now, Mario doesn't know that Alex is replacing him, but he'll learn eventually.

StarlitDuck

Well, now you know the basics of tennis. All of that training will pay off for Alex.

8C - Two Against Two

It's 3:02 PM on November 19, 2004: the sixth day of Alex's training for the rescheduled Round 3 match of the tennis tournament. As soon as Alex arrived at Mario's Pad, he saw Luigi standing next to the dining room table, upon which a huge red and white box sat.

"Is that my gift?!" Alex asked with excitement.

"Just as I promised," Luigi replied. "Open it."

Lucky for Alex, the tape covering the top of the box was loose enough for him to rip off before opening the box. He decided not to look inside immediately after opening it and looked straight ahead while taking out his gift.

To Alex's surprise, he received a red racket similar to Mario's with a red "A" symbol on the net, a red polo shirt with the "A" symbol on the front, a red visor that had the "A" symbol above the visor's bill, white gym shorts with blue stripes on either side, white gloves, blue socks, and red and white tennis shoes that also bore the "A" symbol.

"YAY! YES!" Alex cheered as soon as he saw his tennis outfit and racket. "THANK YOU, LUIGI!"

"Do you love it?" Luigi asked with enthusiasm.

"I LOVE IT!" Alex high-fived Luigi with both hands before looking at his racket. "Wow! You got the first letter of my name on it!"

"And the 'A' is on your tennis outfit too!" Luigi added in.

"Can I wear it today?" Alex requested.

"Sure, you can! I have an outfit like yours, but it's green with the letter 'L' on it."

"Where is it?" Alex asked.

"It's in the living room. Let's change into those outfits before we leave." Alex waited in the kitchen while Luigi took his personalized tennis outfit and went into the bathroom to put it on.

Alex's face lit up as soon as he saw Luigi wearing his tennis outfit, which was similar to Alex's with the color green in place of the red color and the "L" symbols in place of the "A's".

"What do you think, buddy?" Luigi asked while showcasing his outfit.

"I feel like I'm your little brother now," Alex commented, making Luigi giggle for a few seconds. He went into the bathroom and changed into his outfit too.

Right when Alex walked back into the kitchen, Luigi cried tears of joy and cupped his hands over his mouth.

"M-mamma mia...! Y-you r-really ARE m-my little b-brother...!" Luigi trembled while smiling.

"Are you okay, Luigi?" Alex asked with a concerned look on his face.

"Y-yeah... I'm j-just...s-so happy...!" Alex hugged Luigi to calm him down before both were ready to head off to the country club. They arrived at the parking lot 44 minutes after departure.

"Where are Aqua and Daisy?" Alex asked.

"I don't know. Maybe they're at the court already," Luigi answered. After driving to the hard courts, Alex noticed Aqua and Daisy practicing on the right-side court. Alex speed-walked ahead of Luigi as he was eager to see Daisy and Aqua again; both were wearing their typical athletic outfits.

"Aqua! Daisy!" Alex called out while hurrying toward them.

"Mario?" Aqua and Daisy asked in unison while turning to see Alex; they assumed it was Mario until he got closer. Eventually, Aqua recognized Alex's face.

"Alex!" Aqua exclaimed while holding her arms out. Alex ran up to Aqua and hugged her tight. "How are you, amico? (How are you, buddy?)"

"I'm so happy to see you and Daisy!" Alex replied with glee. Luigi approached the three while wiping tears from his face.

"Wow. That's the most heartwarming thing I've seen in a while," Luigi remarked while Alex hugged Daisy too.

"You were crying?" Aqua asked Luigi.

"It's the second time today. I was crying when Alex tried on his tennis outfit earlier. He looked exactly like Mario, except it was my number-one buddy I've known for a long time."

"I love your outfit, Alex," Daisy said while looking at Alex's outfit.

"Thank you, Daisy," Alex thanked Daisy before turning to Aqua. "Aqua, what does 'amico' mean?"

"It means 'buddy' in another language," Aqua explained. "That's my nickname too, but it's actually 'piccolo amico', which is 'little buddy'."

"Cool."

Luigi gathered everyone in a circle and explained what the session will be about, "Today, we'll be doing a 'doubles match', which means a team of two playing against another team of two. One feature of the match is one player stands on the back line while the other stands on the middle line before serving."

"I want to serve first, but I'll let you go first," Alex said to Luigi.

"Thank you, Alex," Luigi thanked Alex. "Anyway, the number of points you need to win is eight, but for this training, it'll be first to six because I don't want this to take too long."

Luigi took two tennis balls before walking to the bottom end's center line. "Alex, you stand on the middle line in front of me. Aqua and Daisy, you two go to the top end."

"Sure," Aqua responded before she also got two tennis balls and took her place with Daisy. Daisy stood on the center line with Aqua on the service line.

"Luigi?" Alex asked after turning to Luigi.

"Yes, Alex?"

"If I make a mistake, please don't look at me angry," Alex requested, referring to Luigi's "death stare".

"I promise I won't," Luigi answered. "The last thing I'd want to do is accidentally scare you."

Without further ado, Luigi made the first serve of the doubles match. Alex didn't know how to curve his shots, so he let the ball fly straight every time he hit it. To everyone's surprise, Alex was running at almost the same speed as Aqua's running speed. That helped Alex and Luigi win the first two games with Aqua and Daisy at zero.

"How am I running like Aqua?" Alex asked.

"It just happened out of the blue," Aqua replied before smirking. "Get it? Blue's my favorite color." Everyone laughed at Aqua's joke before the match resumed.

As always, most of Luigi and Daisy's shots curved 20 and 45 degrees respectively. Alex couldn't get himself to return Daisy's curved shots, leaving Luigi to help him. By now, the score was 3-2 with Luigi and Alex in the lead.

"You're doing great, Alex!" Daisy praised Alex. "Keep it up!" During the next game, both teams reached a deuce before Luigi and Alex got their advantage. At this point, it was Alex's turn to serve.

"Come on, Alex..." Alex said to himself before starting his serve. Suddenly, he found himself jumping toward the ball and making an ace, awarding him and Luigi the next game.

"You did it, buddy!" "Great job!" "Awesome!" Luigi, Daisy, and Aqua cheered respectively before high-fiving Alex.

"What did I do?" Alex asked.

"That was called an 'ace'," Luigi explained. "It's a special kind of serve that bounces off the end of the court, but stays in play." Luigi became excited and high-fived Alex again. "And you helped win the next point for us! Yay!"

"Thank you, guys," Alex thanked Luigi, Aqua, and Daisy. The match resumed shortly thereafter with the score standing at 4-2. Luigi and Daisy started to tire out, but Aqua and Alex stayed active at full speed. The two teams each won the next two games, making the score 5-3.

"This is it, buddy!" Luigi said. "You and I are gonna win this game!"

"Unless we catch up," Daisy butted in.

"No, you're not!" Alex retorted before Aqua made the next serve. Again, due to Luigi and Daisy's curved shots, everyone reached a deuce.

"You can't beat us!" Alex excitedly boasted. He and Luigi got their advantage within the ten-second play before Daisy made the last serve of the match. Seconds later, Aqua hit the ball toward Alex, who returned it down the middle. Luigi barely saw the ball coming in hot and moved his head out of the way before Daisy and Aqua missed the ball.

Immediately after dodging the ball, Luigi briefly visualized himself playing with Mario, Wario, and Waluigi at the Pipe Land Court during the Round 1B match.

"WE WON!" Alex shouted, snapping Luigi out of his flashback. Again; Luigi, Daisy, and Aqua cheered for Alex making the victory shot and grabbed him before throwing him in the air three times.

"That was the coolest tennis game I've ever played!" Alex exclaimed while high-fiving everyone.

"It sure was, buddy!" Luigi agreed. "I've never seen a kid like you play tennis like that! It's like a miracle come true!"

"Yeah! I know you and Luigi are gonna beat Yoshi and Donkey Kong!" Daisy added in.

"You know what? Because you did so good today, how about we all get ice cream?" Luigi offered.

"YES! I WANT ICE CREAM!" Alex squealed.

"Me too!" "Good idea!" Aqua and Daisy said respectively. Everyone wasted no time and drove Luigi and Daisy's karts to Sam T.'s Ice Cream Place in Toad Town. Alex got a cookies and cream waffle cone, Luigi got a pistachio cake cone, Aqua got a strawberry sugar cone with sprinkles, and Daisy got a banana split.

Over the course of the next two days, Alex and Luigi won a second time and Aqua and Daisy won a match of their own. Despite him and Luigi losing, Alex was okay with accepting his loss because of how excited he was when winning the first two matches.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Only three days remain until the Round 3 match! I hope you're enjoying the story so far. Feel free to leave a review and favorite the story if you'd like.