A/N: Yes I know yet another Jori story and I am letting my other ships slip... Jori is really easy to write. This however might end up not being a fan fic at all because it has nothing to do with Victorious but the names. So if you read it here and you like it here and it gets published out there... well maybe I will do something special for you those who favorite review and follow it through. Thanks a million to my readers I love you all so much you keep me going.
Tell me what you really think.-S.K.
The Pro
Love At First Sight
She's magnificent. I know I'm just a kid. I'm skinny and awkward, but when I came to this club with my parents and my sister and looked out onto the tennis courts, I was transfixed.
See, there's this girl. She was about my age and she played with a fire that I had never seen before. Okay, so I never really watched anyone play tennis before, but now I was. "Mom, can I have tennis lessons?" Mom and dad looked at me and then looked out to the court.
"Oh wow!" Mom said as she registered what she saw. "That's Jade West!" she exclaimed.
Dad looked out and shielded his eyes against the sun. "Oh yeah, there are a few pro-camps held here at the club. Sure kid, you can have lessons. Are you planning on going pro?"
"I want that coach." I said hoping that I get to work with that girl, Jade West.
"Hold up a minute Tori, you don't even know how to play. You can't just get a pro coach." Trina said. "If she is going pro I want in too.
I sneered at her. I really just wanted to do something without her for a change. My family walked on and I look back at Jade. She was breathtaking.
I stood there mesmerized until she hit the ball that came flying at my face. I screamed as the ball hit the chain-link fence in front of me. When she heard me, the glacier blue eyes met mine and glare graced features.
"All right, let's take a break." The coach said, and Jade stormed out of the court staring me down as she passed by me. Her coach turned to me apologetically.
"She's wound a bit tightly," he offered me an explanation.
"Can you teach me how to play like that?" I asked.
"Like her?" He said more than asked looking at his charge. "No… That's all anger and natural talent. Do you play?"
"Not yet… But I want to," I answered. "I am Tori Vega."
"Erwin Sikowitz. Two-time doubles grand slam winner." I guess I should have been impressed, but I wasn't. I mean, what was the grand slam anyway? "How old are you Tori?"
"16…" I said.
"Oh, that's kind of old to be starting out. Let me see what you got."
"Uh… Okay," I look down on my jeans and Converse. Not the ideal to play in, but it was worth a shot. "What do I do first?"
"Let me see you serve." He demonstrated how to do it by tossing the ball up into the air then hitting it with the racket. I imitated him, and he made me do it ten times.
He shook his head, "impressive."
Sikowitz went to the corner and pulled out a machine that looks a little like a gun. "Okay, what is that?" I asked nervously.
"I want to see how you volley." He turned it on and stood back and the balls started flying at me. I hit as many of them as could. I had to… or they were going to hit me.
I hit them, until I saw HER standing next to that Sikowitz dude glaring at me. The last ball hit me on my elbow and I immediately dropped the racket. He reached to turn off the machine, and I heard her say, "She's good… Make sure you don't ignore me pro tournaments are coming up." Then she walked away again.
What did she mean? The coach came up to me and said "I could have you winning tournaments in a year." He handed me a card for mom and dad. "You, have some serious natural talent. I hate for that to go to waste."
I looked down at the card then back up at him and smiled. "You really think so?"
"Absolutely! You could be the next Serena Williams, or Jade West. You could go to the Olympics; If you train hard. Have your mom and dad call me, I'll find you a room in the Academy."
Sweet and to think I never even thought of tennis until this very day. Now I couldn't imagine not ever doing it. "Thanks!"
"The pleasure is all mine."
Jade
Why do I even bother with these stupid club tournaments? I want a grand slam trophy, not some stupid regional trophy. I want to get into the Pro tournaments. I look to my right at my biggest competitor Petra. This Pratikova chick thinks she is in the pros. She's not; she's just another stupid 'Ova'. Just another Russian wannabe Kournikova. I know I'm pro material. I'm not scared of her.
I look out at the press conference; they had us both up, asking the dumbest questions. "Now Jade, You're up for consideration for the pro leagues, how important is this tournament for taking that next leap." I looked at the stupid reporter from the LA times and generated that generic answer she is looking for.
"Every game is important. My goal is not to make it to the Pros, though I would love to make it. It is about getting to play the game that I love. "
"Jade, " another reporter asked, "Petra Pratikova has never lost a game since she was ten, are you nervous?"
"Well… I haven't lost a game since I was born…" I looked at the 'Ova' next to me and smirked. "No, I'm not intimidated one bit."
"What have you to say Petra?" They asked.
"I say, Game on." Yeah, game on bitch.
We walked away from the press, and I literally ran into Sikowitz's new girl. "Ow…" she said as my elbow connected with her breast.
"Watch where you're going." I spat out, and kept moving.
"Sorry…" she said then turned on her heel to follow me. "Hey, Jade! I'm Tori, I'm a big fan."
"Well good for you." I said in a mocking tone.
She stopped short for a moment. "I don't talk like that."
I looked over my shoulder and smirked as I walked into the court Sikowitz had reserved. "Well, how would you know? Can you hear yourself?"
She took a sip of her water, put her bag down on the bench and grabbed her racket. I sat on the sideline and watched as Tori started to practice her serve. It was Hard and fast, I wish I had a speed gun. Sikowitz has one but he's late as always. Her serve is going to be hard to return as soon as she learns to control it. As it stands, it is really hard to return because it is unpredictable, but she goes out of bounds way too often. That will be where her game is set.
Her serve. She will be an Ace queen.
Just like my game, because my game is about the Aces. I want to break Serena Williams Record of 102 Aces per tournament season. No one hits more Aces than her, and I want to beat her. But I have to get in the Pros first.
Just then, Petra walked up to the gate. She stepped into the court and took Tori's hand that held the ball. "You hev gud arm." She stated in her accented English, "just… control." Tori turned to face her and Petra turned her back around, "I show you." Petra said guiding Tori's left arm. Petra is sick. She has her hands all over Tori, like she's some sort of Lesbian, and Tori is eating it up. I had enough of this when Petra's other arm came around and held the right arm, which held the racket and demonstrated the swing. She dropped her hand on to Tori's hip and her Chin kind of lay over her shoulder.
"Why don't you two just get a room?" I said walking out of the court. I've had enough Tennis for the day.
"Jade, where are you going?" I looked behind me and smiled.
"Hey Kitten, I'm leaving, Sikowitz is not here and I don't feel like watching his new trainee make out with my mortal enemy." I said walking on.
"No way! They're making out?" Cat asked turning to look at the court I had just come out of.
"No Cat!" I exclaim pulling her along with me. "But Pratikova is really rubbing me the wrong way, and her in all of the right places."
"Eww… you're so graphic." Cat said. "So what are you going to do now?"
"I'm going to go home, and soak in hot water. Then go to sleep because I have a stupid game tomorrow."
"Aw, come on, let's go out, It's Saturday night." Cat begged.
"I can't we're in season Cat. Maybe after I get into the Pros."
"Hey, wait!" Tori said running up behind us. I stopped and turned to face her. "Sikowitz just got here, He wants to talk to you." Finally she noticed Cat, and took in her bright red hair and friendly brown eyes and smiled. "Hey."
"Hi… Jadey I'll wait for you just go do your thing." Cat said and I groan returning to the court.
"Jadey?" Tori questioned Cat. The latter just giggled in response. "I'm Tori."
"Cat… I've known Jade since before she was a Tennis star."
I rolled my eyes and pushed through the gate of our court. "Jade, there you are, you've met Tori I'm assuming."
"Sikowitz, I'm here let's get on with it." I said dropping my bag and grabbing my racket. I put my fingers through the strings of my rackets make sure they are taut then head out to the court.
"Okay, the one thing with your game that you need to work on is that you hug the baseline. You need to be able to work on your net game." Sikowitz started. I moaned. I hated it because if you couldn't hit the ball hard enough to make it past the baseline you were a weakling and you have no business being in the pros. Pros hit hard and play hard.
"Okay lets do this."
"Now Tori, have a seat on the bench and watch her swing." He said and I kind of froze. I never had some one in the courts with me watching me while I practiced. I didn't like people analyzing my weaknesses. I missed five balls thinking about the fact that Tori was looking at me. Then I finally lost myself in the game. Shit I love this game. I ate, lived and breathed this game, and I hated to lose.
When the Machine ran out of balls I took a deep breath, and I smiled. It was so satisfying. I felt her eyes on me, and soon I was conscious that someone has stood back and analyzed the weaknesses in my game. I glanced at Tori, but the look in her eyes wasn't analytic, it was awestricken. Mesmerized even. She bit her lower lip and then there was something I had never seen before, on anyone… well except maybe Beck, he was always hounding me to play mixed doubles with him.
"Excellent!" Sikowitz said as I walked off the court he grabbed the ball basket and began to pick up tennis balls to load the machine back up for Tori.
I sat next to the girl, and drank my water. "Jadey that was so good!" Cat said hugging me. "Eww you're all sweaty."
"Whatever…" I answered taking another swig of my water.
"Those balls were much faster than he's ever let me practice with." Tori said.
"Because He is going to start you off in tournaments with kids much younger than you that have no power in their swing. " I answered and looked at her. "Maybe you need to apply yourself more,"
"I like your nick name. Wild West, I don't have one yet—" Started but was interrupted by a tennis ball to her arm. "Ow!"
"Get on the court!" Sikowitz yelled. Tori grabbed her racket and ran out to the middle of the court while Cat played ball girl and returned the ball that had hit her to the man so that he could load the machine.
When the balls started to fly, Tori seemed determined to hit as many of them as she could with as much power as she could put in them. I guess telling her that her swings had no power had pushed her to prove me wrong. But she missed more balls than she hit as the machine started to oscillate and throw the balls in different directions.
Her footwork was sloppy, and slow, kind of like a turtle. Tori the Turtle I thought and smirked at my own cleverness. Once she was done she came back to the bench and dropped down hard. "What did you think?" She asked breathlessly as she chugged her water.
"I think you need to slow down or you'll get stomach cramps from that water." I answered. I stood up and grabbed my racket.
"NO I mean about my game so far?" She asked.
"Honestly?" I asked. She nodded. "You would do fine but you will never win unless you get faster. You aren't sure footed and you move slow, kind of like a turtle."
"Well… Thanks for that." Tori said
"You're welcome Turtle." I ran out to center court and waited for my volley to begin.
