On the court the next day, she was looking over the net to see the coach. He had decided to play her before practice. "It'll limber me up for the boys." he said. It made all the sense in the world to Anna. On the flipside, he would not be able to use the team's practice on why he lost. Anna was up to serve first. She always hated serving. It was her weakest part of the game. Weakly getting it over, she was sent all over the place to track the ball. She got a bit of credit for putting a topspin on the ball. Still the first game of the match was lost. On his serve, she was much more confident. It took a while, but she clawed back a game to tie it up. They boys were interested now. If it was a blow out, none of them would care. Deciding to go all out, Anna actually managed to serve an ace. It took her up 30-15 in the game. Seeing it worked once, she tried it again. Anna angled it to the opposite corner this time. He was flat footed. 2 aces in a row was crazy. She played it safe and got the game under her belt. She was up 2 games to 1. The coach stopped taking it easy on her. Lobs and drop shots came.
Anna was no quitter. She picked her spots and stuck it out until they got deep into the tiebreaker. The boys were still engaged. They all were used to being trained by the alpha male coach. They were also used to alpha males dominating the betas. Seeing Anna, a beta female, holding her own was something no one could see coming. He also seemed to be impressed in a way. "Who was your coach, little lady? I would love to recommend you to the girls' coach. You would be really great on the team." he asked Anna. She smiled and said "I'm not from around here. It's been a bit since I've had to play." He nodded his head and got ready to serve again. They went back and forth until the very end. Anna was able to squeak out a victory. It was a long and hard fought battle. If she had a higher level, this would have been so much easier. There was silence all over the tennis courts. She had won. He had lost. A beta female had defeated an alpha male. Walking to the net, she reached her hand out. "I hope you can keep your side of the deal." she said. He looked at her. "I will. Leave us!" he said.
Leaving was not something that she wanted to do. Still, it would not be good to antagonize the man. She walked over to the edge of their courts and stayed there. If she did all of that just for him to go back on the deal because it was not going his way, that would suck. There were times that you simply had to accept yes as an answer. He was defeated and give his word as a coach. All the boys on the team saw the match take place between them. It was all in the open. She would stay where she was to observe the team's practice. Anna did not care about his word. She wanted to make sure the promise was kept. Chet, Chad, Brad and Thad did get to leave the bench. It did look like they were happy about it. They got to stretch and do the drills. They were segregated to the farthest court from the others. Chet and Chad were on one side of the court. Brad and Thad were on the other. They already were great at doubles at competitions. They all got to practice against each other. Each of them were pretty pleased with it. At the end of practice, Anna went over to see the 4. Anna smiled wide.
