ATP Kindergarten (Chapter 5)
Title: ATP Kindergarten
Main pairings: Djokovic/A. Murray, Gasquet/Gulbis, Nadal/Del Potro
Other characters: Roddick, Querrey, Federer, Tursunov, Cilic
Rating: G
Warning: Possible destruction of innocence
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters and this is a fiction.
Summary: Richard and Rafael's new castle brings trouble to certain lovebirds and Sam can't be more pleased about it. Coach Andy finally gets his dream dinner while Richard forgets about something important.
From the previous chapter:
Coach Andy had taken Richard out of school at snack time, not aware of the fact that the whole school, including Roger, had been alarmed at the boy’s disappearance. Thanks to his good karma, Roger had misunderstood that Andy had saved his son from further danger and Andy had asked Roger to have dinner with Richard and him.
Chapter 5: The power of karma
Many different sounds are audible in a day in ATP kindergarten but it has always been the same sound that the kids enjoy the most. Even the classic music Tim put on for the boys at lunch time wasn’t a match to this short yet delightful sound.
R-ring.
“Huh, they really like it better than Match point!.”
Dmitry shook his head as he saw his students spring up from their seats. In three seconds, not a single soul was near his desk. If anything was different today, it was the fact that some of the kids were headed to the door.
“Can’t wait to pee?” The Russian teacher chuckled at Novak and Andy who were busy moving their short legs.
Both kids stopped walking and gave Dmitry a stare.
“What? You’re not going to the toilet?”
“We’re going to see Rafa, Richie, and Gael’s new castle.” Novak kindly gave his teacher the heads up, who seemed to lack the ability to catch up with the actualities of the school.
“You can come with us if you want.” Andy offered, aware of the rumor that said Teacher Dmitry had wanted to marry the heiress of LEGO but was dumped when he had cheated on her with the one from Playmobil.
The rumor wasn’t exactly false, given the passion that Dmitry had for LEGO bricks. He had tried other sorts of bricks and blocks and had come to the conclusion that LEGO had no such thing as a rival. It was one of the best things for him, working in a kindergarten. There were blocks everywhere.
“Uh, it’s fine. I’ll just go get water.” Dmitry smiled, planning to take a peek at the castle while pretending to get Tim’s opinion on how to teach students about multiplication.
The two boys didn’t really believe that their teacher was telling the truth but they didn’t have time to deal with such trivial matters; their break only lasted fifteen minutes each.
“Don’t mind him. Let’s just go check the Ass castle.” The Scottish boy nudged his boyfriend towards the door, completely ignoring poor Dmitry.
Meanwhile, some kids from class P were already in class A, admiring the magnificent castle.
“Whoa…” Juan Martin looked at his roommate with eyes wide-awake. Apparently, the Spanish boy not only knew how to earn special cookies but also knew how to build castles.
“It’s really nice.” Ernests smiled at the bridge that was attached to the front gate which opened and closed under Richard’s fingers.
“I also like this cart.” He pointed at a brown cart that had a lot of fruit in it.
“Aww, you like that one? I can make you a cart.” Novak had just arrived in time to see the cute boy drool over a simple cart.
“Really?” Ernests’ twinkling eyes pinched the Serbian boy’s heart and he put together some blocks with such ease that even Marin looked a little surprised.
Right next to Novak, Andy had his arms firmly crossed over his chest, wondering what the heck his boyfriend was doing right in front of his piercing eyes.
‘Bah, it’s just a cart. No big deal. He’s just being nice.’
He thought that he should act all generous and rather be proud that he has such a nice boyfriend.
“Can you make one for me too?” Andy asked after kissing each of Novak’s cheeks.
“But you know how to make it.”
The Scottish boy looked at the spiky head with his jaw dropped. He didn’t appreciate either the answer or the tone.
“But I still want one.” He insisted.
Novak glanced at his beloved half with a weird look. As far as he knew, Andy wasn’t into something so common and boring like a fruit cart. He and Andy had an awesome spaceship in their own classroom.
“Okay. Wait.”
Novak looked around to find the right pieces to make another cart, but there weren’t the enough brown left. Most of them had been used to build the gates and towers.
“Uh… Andy, I don’t have enough brown.”
Snap.
“Get more brown then.”
Normally he would have been cool and kept his usual “whatever” posture with his legs crossed, but he really wasn’t in the right mood at this moment.
“Andy…”
“Go get them from our class.”
Novak wondered what was wrong with his boyfriend and was about to say something back when Rafael cut in.
“Hey, you can use black instead, no? It will look great.”
“Yes, it really will! Black carts are true carts.” Richard hurried to grab all the black blocks left and handed them over to the Serbian boy.
Only Ernests didn’t feel the tension, too busy playing with his new cart.
“Broong! Apples!”
Sam had been observing a castle guard’s helmet while trying his best not to laugh like an evil witch. There was trouble in the Murray/Djokovic love nest, which could only be a good sign for him.
‘Good. Maybe he won’t feel like hitting with Novak today. I could ask him to practice with me! Heehee…’
Already on cloud nine, Sam happily patted the guard on the head and placed him back in front of the main gate. It seemed that he was going to have a lovely day today.
The dreamy boy had still been sure that today would be a day to remember until he had worked up the courage to ask Andy to practice with him. He had kept an eye on Novak and Andy’s lunch table and the two hadn’t exchanged any pecks on the cheek or had fed each other a spoonful of jelly for dessert. They were still on speaking terms but Sam could hear the sweet sound of disharmony.
But everything changed when he started warming up with his dream boy. Andy was on edge and couldn’t care less about his practice partner. After five minutes of quite a nervous warm-up, the scary practice had started.
So here he was, running all over the court, chasing down balls that Andy sent back over the net with almost an eye closed. For some reason, all the annoyance and frustration was making Andy play better than ever. Sam couldn’t have chosen a better time to practice with him.
“Andy… can we take five? Please?” Sam sat flat on the court, panting heavily.
“Sure.” Andy answered and walked over to his bench, having no intention whatsoever to help his friend get up.
He had no idea why he was so pissed off. It wasn’t like Novak had invited Ernests to their sacred lunch table or had kissed him on the cheek or had taken a nap with him. His bad mood didn’t make any sense. He knew that he wasn’t upset over a stupid cart. He was just upset.
Andy gulped down his sports drink and looked over at Novak who was struggling with Rafael’s balls.
Snap.
If there was another thing that he hated other than Novak being a little too nice to another kid, it was seeing him lose against one of the Ass boys. It was unacceptable. He and Novak had talked about two goals for the new school year; giving each other more love and pocketing more wins over the Asses, especially over Rafael and Richard. Today, neither was working so far and Andy could feel steam rise through his hair.
“Come on, Novak!!”
The Serbian boy’s ears were pricked up by the familiar sound. His boyfriend was cheering for him. After flashing a wide grin at his best fan, Novak put on his game face properly. He didn’t quite understand why Andy had been in such a bad mood but if this was his way to make peace with him, he wasn’t going to say no. He had missed his Andy during lunch, and the nap afterwards hadn’t felt the same.
“Yes! Crush him!”
As Novak hit a sensational passing shot, Andy and his hair jumped in ecstasy. His boyfriend looked stunning, backing up his brilliant performance with an awesome backhand down the line, his signature shot.
“Ajde Nole!!”
Andy felt better enough to cheer in Novak’s language. It was a Friday today and he really didn’t want to spend the weekend being pissed off at something that started with a stupid fruit cart.
Meanwhile, Sam was staring at Andy’s back with sad eyes and pouty lips. He thought that if there was ever a day to get between those lovebirds, it would be today.
“Andy…” He called out weakly, checking the time.
Five minutes had already passed. In fact, ten minutes had passed but somehow he couldn’t bring himself to walk to Andy’s side and tell him that the break was over. The Scottish boy was cheering like mad for his boyfriend, leaving Sam discouraged.
“Andy Murray! Get back here and finish your practice!”
Luckily for Sam, Roger got his practice partner back for him.
“Thank you, Coach.”
“No problem, Sam.”
Roger patted the boy on the cap and moved on to check the next court while Andy came back in a clearly better mood.
“Sorry. I didn’t know five minutes had passed so quickly.”
Sam wanted to point out that it was actually ten precious minutes that he had lost but decided to drop the issue. He was glad that Andy wasn’t frowning anymore. Whatever the reason was, it was still nice to see him smile.
“Ready to practice again?” Sam smiled back and picked up his racquet that had been sunbathing on the court, abandoned by its owner.
“Yeah. You can serve first.”
“Thanks!” Finding the gesture very gentlemanish, the American boy joyfully skipped towards the baseline.
However, half an hour later, he still found himself in the same position, running from this side of the court to that side of the court.
“Ack…”
Now that Andy was feeling great after making up with Novak, he was hitting the balls with such easy power. In fact, Sam could almost swear that he even heard Andy hum between points. He could have heard the hum much clearly if he wasn’t too busy hearing his own panting!
“Ah…”
Feeling the need to hit endless aces to give himself some time to catch his breath, Sam grabbed his racquet with sheer determination.
‘I can hit aces. I always hit many aces a day. I will hit all those aces right now!’
Ready to fight for his poor legs and throat, Sam tossed the ball and served.
Bang.
It flew into the net and Sam was getting nervous. He didn’t want to hit a normal serve and let Andy make him run like a hungry dog again.
‘We’re not playing a match here. I don’t have to worry about double faults. Let’s just try another ace.’
So he put all his power into the tennis ball once more, which ended up flying way out of the court.
“Come on, Sam. Give me something to hit.” Andy unintentionally put pressure on Sam’s serve and now all Sam wanted to do was to hear Coach Roger shout “Let’s take a quick break!”.
Apart from the stretching, running and warming down all together at the end, Roger liked to let the students hit at least seventy minutes per day. He was aware of how young the kids were, so he gave them a five to ten minute break in between and allowed them to change partners if they wanted to.
That was exactly what Andy was going to do right now. He didn’t have anything against Sam but hitting with him wasn’t that much fun. He always liked to hit with his own boyfriend for at least half the tennis time each day. The two had matching skills and their rallies usually got great comments from their coaches. They applauded every great shot that one another made and showered together to end their perfect tennis class.
“Coach, I’d like to hit with Nole.” Andy pulled at Coach Andy’s shirt.
“Alright. Novak, one of the good looking Andys needs you here.” The American coach shouted out and Novak was quick to get his gear and join his boyfriend.
“Hey…” Novak gently squeezed one of Andy’s arms.
“Hey. Ready for another awesome practice with me?” Andy almost whispered near Novak’s words as if they were a super secret.
“Yes.” Novak beamed, taking the Scottish boy into his arms, happy to have got his boyfriend back.
Later in the evening, well after school, another Andy was happy, sitting in an Italian restaurant. He had counted days after days, wondering why Friday wouldn’t come already. He was hoping to have dinner on Tuesday or Wednesday, but Roger had told him that Richard had to sleep early on school nights.
Originally, Andy had plans with Dmitry today, but thankfully, his friend was more than understanding and was willing to move it to the next day. Well, it wasn’t like Andy would have gone out for that drink even if his friend hadn’t agreed to postpone it, but he was grateful that he had a decent friend.
‘Okay, it’s just another date. And, even if the food is delicious, I won’t wolf it down in five seconds. I’ll take my time, make some sharp comments about the actualities and mix them with my unique jokes.’
Things went smoothly throughout the meal and Andy found himself falling even more for Roger. He was gracious with his words towards the person who had saved his son and the conversation was as pleasant as it could possibly be.
“Om nom nom, this ice cream is so yummy!”
It was already time for dessert and Richard was busy digging into his chocolate ice cream.
“Haha, it’s that good?” Roger picked up his napkin and wiped off the brown stuff that dared to linger around his son’s mouth.
“Yes, it’s even yummier than that one I had the other day!”
Andy tensed immediately. The two visits out of school were supposed to be a secret.
“The other day? What other day?”
Roger tilted his head, clearly aware that he hadn’t bought his boy any kind of ice cream in the past few weeks. After the awful trip to the dentist in the middle of the summer, Roger had made sure that the boy stayed away from ice cream and sweets.
Splash.
“Oops! Sorry. I hope it didn’t reach your arm.” Andy had accidentally knocked off his glass of water.
“No, I’m fine. And, it’s not even hot water anyway.” Roger smiled and Andy was sure that he had forgotten about the ice cream issue until…
“Oh, yum! Really, much better than that one.”
“Right. That’s what we were talking about. Sweetie, when did you have an ice cream these days?” Roger was back on the topic.
Richard’s eyes grew wider.
‘Eek!!’
He had lost himself in the wonderful taste of ice cream that he only remembered now that it was supposed to be a secret between Coach Andy and him. Also, he was supposed to stay away from ice cream for as long as possible, but then, his dad was letting him have ice cream right now, so he couldn’t see any harm in telling the truth.
“Coach Andy bought me one.” Richard beamed, hoping that Roger wouldn’t get mad at his favorite coach.
“Ahahaha, I don’t even remember when that was. Wasn’t it before summer vacation?” Andy decided to play dumb.
“No! It was the day when the police came to school!” The Swiss boy had to show off his good memory.
‘Oh shit, I’m totally screwed.’ Andy thought as he saw Roger’s face turn into a stone.
Fortunately, Richard knew exactly what his dad looked like when he was angry. He knew that he had to say something.
“I… I saw the ice cream truck outside the school and ran out. Coach Andy found me and I asked him for an ice cream.”
Unfortunately, Roger knew exactly what his son looked like when he was lying. The kid was squeezing his spoon as hard as he could and was blinking his eyes at the speed of light.
“Is that so?” Roger looked over at his fellow coach.
“Sorry, Roger. We should’ve come back earlier. And, I should’ve told you more about what had really happened. Sorry.”
Andy tried his best to smile like an angel. He couldn’t ruin his dream dinner like this. He had waited so long to have a meal outside the school with Roger alone. Well, Richard was here too, but still, there wasn’t a Marat anywhere near.
‘Strange…’
Roger took a sip from his glass of wine to calm himself down and got his brain to work. It was pretty much written on the wall that Andy was with Richard when he had been worried sick but he couldn’t figure out why Andy had felt the need to take his boy outside. Richard had even lied to Tim that he was going to see Ernests.
‘Did Richie ask Andy a favor? Why would he ask someone else other than me or Mirka? Or did Andy have something to say to my boy? Richie hasn’t been playing bad these days. What could he have possibly said?’
The Swiss nodded at whatever his colleague was saying and got an idea.
‘Oh! Does he want to give Richie private lessons? I mean, my boy is super talented. No coach can resist the temptation to teach him more, right?’
The more he thought about it, the more it sounded probable. Andy couldn’t have talked about that in school where other students could have heard him and get hurt. And, Andy might have had to persuade Richard with an ice-cream because he knew better than anyone else that his boy was brilliant but didn’t want to hit another ball as soon as he walked out of school.
‘That can be the only reason. But then, why didn’t Andy come and talk to me first? Oh well, he knows what kind of a dad I am. He probably thought that I’d almost force Richie into saying yes, which might’ve been the case, really. I’m impressed at how he handles kids sometimes. It’s too bad that he and Brooklyn never had any.’
While Roger was happily dreaming about his son’s bright future and admiring Andy’s kindness to respect Richard’s opinion, Andy was practically beating himself with his fork.
‘He’s not listening. He’s just nodding. I should’ve known that since I didn’t come clean that day, it would act as a bad karma. But how could I have let that golden opportunity slip through my fingers? Anybody would’ve done the same thing in my place!’
Feeling dejected, he was about to close his mouth when suddenly, Roger grabbed his arm and gave him a dazzling smile.
“Roger…?”
Andy wasn’t sure if this was the right way the situation was supposed to be headed. Roger was smiling too widely at someone who had conveniently withheld information about his son’s whereabouts before the police had arrived. This wasn’t right.
“Would you mind giving Richie private lessons in our house once a week or so?”
“Huh?” He couldn’t have heard it right. But, if he had heard it right, all that charity work was really acting as a great karma.
“Of course, only when you’re around in this country. Or even just once in a while would be nice too. Everyone knows how busy you are.”
Andy couldn’t believe that the power of karma could be so strong. It was totally beyond his understanding, blowing him away. Since he was too amazed at getting a weekly invitation to the Federer household to form a proper, polite answer, he just nodded as firmly as he could.
“Great! Isn’t this so exciting, Richie?”
Roger pinched his boy’s cheek which had blown up like a blowfish with all the ice cream that he had stuffed in.
“What?”
Apparently, the boy hadn’t been paying attention to the conversation, deeply embedded in his personal heaven.
“He’s going to coach you in our backyard.”
The eager dad smoothed his son’s hair and smiled again. He was a father who cared about his child’s education like any crazy mom in the world. He would do almost anything to provide Richard better quality of education. And, since it was always hard to coach his own child, Andy would be a perfect teacher for the long hard court seasons.
“But Dad, we have a grass court and a clay court.” Richard didn’t want to offend Coach Andy but he still felt like pointing it out.
“Well, we can build a hard court next to those. Don’t worry about that. You just need to focus on your tennis. Daddy will take care of everything else.”
Yes, Roger was really turning into one of those monstrous mothers. But he knew how much sacrifice and investment were required to see a tennis champion grow up. He had high hopes of seeing Richard do better than him.
“You’re going to win sixteen slams.” Roger pressed a quick kiss on his son’s cheek. He was a proud father and was going to build that damn hard court as quickly as possible.