Tennis PV Virgil Lee Closed

Quite the sunny morning, today, Virgil Lee thinks, wearing nothing but a simple black T-shirt and jeans, his hair messier than ever due to the chaotic night he had, as he makes his way through the courtyard, eyes looking around, in search of his friend, Adlai Rod. He runs his hands across his arms, trying to distance himself from the memories of winter break. The past is past, his father usually says, in that wise tone of his.

It'd best for him to ignore the words his mother used when talking about his friends because Virgil has been told that he tends to ruin different occasions whenever he has his mind stuck into something not-so-pleasant. And so he does. He pushes the thoughts aside, focusing solely on making his way towards Adlai once he stops her. Though it's only been a few weeks since the last time they met, it still feels like months had passed.

"H-Hiya, Addie," the boy says, ignoring his voice crack when he's close enough. Not wanting to push any boundaries, Virgil waves and smiles, not as awkwardly as he used to be whenever the two of them were alone. Even those memories are starting to feel distant, come to think. The passage of time truly is a funny thing, isn't it? Virgil continues, "Am I late?"

@Adlai Rod

“H-Hiya, Addie,” Adlai heard from behind her.
“Am I late?” turning around Adlai saw it was Virgil. She jumped up to hug him.
“No not all!” She said as she backed up and took him in. After a month apart she wanted to know if Virgil changed a little. She knew she had.
But from what she could see Virgil was the same. However, he did look a bit tense.

Nonetheless, Adlai picked up the two rackets she had brought with her and showed them to Virgil.
“I hope your ready.” She said smiling revealing her metal lined teeth.
Over the break her parents made it one of their missions to have braces installed before it was to late. She wanted to surprise her friends thus she mentioned nothing of it in her letters to them.
To wizards even have braces?- she thought, unsure if there was a spell to align ones teeth. Even if there is her parents would have her get braces anyway. After all what would they say if one of their relatives asked why her teeth were so straight all of a sudden?

Luckily for her, her braces weren’t as painful as she thought they’d be. The first week of having them were tough since all she could eat were soft foods, but now she barely notices that their there. However, every break when she returns home she’ll have to go for a quick check up.

@Virgil Lee

Virgil's not surprised when Adlai attacks him in a hug (he was expecting it, to be honest), but he lets out a weak 'oof', anyways, once he hugs her back. Once she lets go of him, he takes a good look at her, in search of any differences. At first, she doesn't look much different (not that he was expecting any big changes in less than a month), but when she smiles, Virgil notices something covering her teeth, that he recognizes as braces.

Despite not having braces in the wizarding world, Virgil knows what they are. Being a big fan of muggle culture, he was bound to find something he'd recognize sooner or later, thankfully. (Not being able to recognize things is starting to hurt his pride, frankly). He's never seen them in real life though, but, not wanting to look weird, the boy doesn't stare at it. He focuses on the rackets that Adlai shows him, instead.

He smiles awkwardly as a response, reaching to grab one of them. He gives it a look and stands there, as awkwardly as he can be (which is a lot, mind you).

Virgil has no idea what he's supposed to do, obviously. Anyone in that school can tell that he's not a sportsperson. And, he doesn't feel like embarrassing himself in front of his friend today. No, thank you. But it's because he knows that tennis is one of Adlai's passions that he sighs and makes sure to have a brighter, more excited smile on his face, as he says, "Ok, I'm ready. Teach me."

@Adlai Rod

“Alright!” Adlai starts as she sets her racket down and holds one out to Virgil. She then goes on to explain how to hold racket. Of course for those who are new to tennis the art holding the of racket is deemed a rather silly do the body not being used to the position it must take.

While teaching him something as simple as this. Adlai thought it’d be nice to strike up a conversation.
“How was the rest of your break?” She asked, knowing that Virgil had gotten into a bit of a quarrel with his mom about being friends with Isaac and her.

Adlai knew that your blood had something to do with the way some people treat you in the wizarding world but still she didn’t know how far that could go. So hearing how upset Virgils mother was over him being friends with a Dhampire made her rather confused. When Adlai told her mother about her new friends she merely smiled and said “that’s nice dear,” though her smile did look rather strained while she could have swore she heard her father choke on his drink.

“Did you get anything you really wanted for Christmas?” She asked knowing how significant gifts can be for some during the winter holidays. All Adlai knew that Virgil had gotten were the gifts she had bought and made for him.

@Virgil Lee

Listening and paying attention to Adlai's explanations, he holds tight to his racket, trying to follow even though he considers the whole thing rather silly. Virgil knows he shouldn't. If the girl's taking her time to explain it to her, it's because it's important. The same thing happened in his first flying lesson, and, not caring much about he was positioned in his broom, he ended up falling and embarrassing himself.

Well, he's Virgil Lee, of course, he's always gonna embarrass himself, his anxiety comments on the matter, which he ignores, not needing that negativity at the moment. No matter how he holds the racket, he's bound to fail anyway. Virgil sighs loudly and grips harder at the racket, then, he hears Adlai's voice asking about how the rest of his break went. It doesn't make him relax, at all. He gives her a look, then lowers his eyes to his shoes.

"It was something..." says Virgil, not commenting any further on the matter, taking a few steps away from her, slowly, so she wouldn't notice. Then, Adlai asks about gifts, to which he's very thankful for. He doesn't want to make things awkward, and shifting the topic of conversation to anything that could revolve around his mother is ideal at the moment.

He continues, "Uh, Trent gave me a Pokemon plushie. His friend helped him and they chose my favorite. I have it in my trunk. It helps me go to sleep when I'm not tired." He smiles and looks at her, "My father was there, so that was the best gift I could ever get. What about you? Well, I don't know if you do give each other gifts..." Virgi scratches the back of his neck. "Did you get any?"

@Adlai Rod

“Trent sounds like he’s more of a brother than a cousin to you. It’s nice to know you have someone looking out for you.” Adlai said before answering Virgils question.
“I did. But they were more like ‘welcome home’ gifts. I’m not complaining though, everyone was really nice. My grandparents, on my moms side, they brought a really nice brooch for me. I’m a little scared to wear it though I don’t want it to get ruined.
I also got a new poster! I hung it up in my room before it was time to go to the train station. My little sisters and I made bracelets together so I have that to.”
She said smiling as she looked back on all the fun times she had with her family.

Her great aunt, on her fathers side, was a bit more cheerful this time around. Though Adlai was sure it was because of her new boyfriend. She had nothing against him though, he was nice to her and her sisters and was very polite to her parents. Never before had she seen any of her great aunts significant others call her parents and grandparents by ‘Mrs and Mr’. Thus, Adlai hopes he’d stay around.

@Virgil Lee

Seeing Virgils snarky smile Adlai said,
“Alright then.
I taught you how to hold the racket,
now let’s see if you can swing.”
She then proceeded to draw an outline of a tennis court into the ground. She explained how if the ball touched the ground on his side, she’d get a point and if the ball touched the ground on her side, he’d get a point.

“Would you like to serve first?” She asked as she held the tennis ball out to him. She knew he wouldn’t be the best player at first but neither was she. In fact her dad liked to joke that tennis was the reason she needed braces in the first place since when she first started she got hit the face a couple of times with the ball.

The courtyard had been mainly empty all year. A few students would be sitting on benches reading a book, doing homework or just socializing. So she thought this would be good place to hold a small game since the quidditch team practices relentlessly so the field would be taken and anywhere else she was afraid that possibly Virgil would break a window...
Nonetheless she had absolute confidence in him.

Ok. Ok. Right. Sure. Easy.

Virgil nods to everything Adlai says, trying to wrap his head around it, shaking all his insecurities away. He knows he's not gonna be the best player right now, but he's known for giving up quite easily, so if this all turned out to be a big disaster, it's very likely that he won't play tennis ever again. Be positive, Virgil tells himself.

He positions himself in what he considers his side of the court. Looking at the racket, he copies the swing movement he has in mind, before nodding to his friend's suggestion of him being the first to set, taking the tennis ball she was handing to him. It's green and almost the same size as his hand. Virgil sighs internally, feeling more aware of his lack of height.

Sucking in some breath, shaking his shoulders, jumping to get a little more excited, Virgil tosses the tennis ball to the air and swings the racket, barely hitting it, but, at least, making the ball go in Adlai's direction. He takes a step back, already feeling his legs shaking, scared he might be hit right in the face.

Sorry for the late reply. I just now saw your post