ATP Kindergarten (Chapter 30)
Title: ATP Kindergarten
Main pairings: Djokovic/A. Murray, Gasquet/Gulbis, Nadal/Del Potro, Federer/Roddick
Other characters: Henman, Cilic, Monfils, Ancic, Safin, Ferrero, Querrey, J. Murray, Chardy, Tursunov
Rating: G
Warning: Possible destruction of innocence
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters and this is a fiction.
Summary: Andy checks his credit card bill while Tim has a surprise for the kids. Marat tries a different method to impress Juan Carlos and the boys get to see an angry Tim.
Author's note: Betaed by sweet crystaleyesd. Please remember that I'm always grateful for your help :)
From the previous chapter:
Juan Martin had witnessed an interesting scene between Coach Marat and Teacher Juan Carlos and had learnt from Novak and Andy that the Russian liked the Spaniard. Rafael, Novak and Marin had won the singles titles while Tim had arranged for Juan Carlos to get a ride from Marat on his way to the vet’s.
Chapter 30: All the things Coach Andy has to do (I)
“What? No way!”
Two sparrows that were about to get comfortable on Andy’s windowsill flew away in surprise. Someone was upset early in the morning.
“Roger paid for all our meals! How come I’ve got another big, fat bill?”
The American rubbed his eyes and counted the number of zeros on his computer screen. His credit card website must be out of order.
‘Let’s calm down. This can’t be right. Apart from those animal robots, I’ve been pretty careful!’
Throwing his rubber stress ball against the wall, he took two deep breaths before laying eyes on the screen again. Except for the two robots, nothing seemed to have done too much damage on its own.
‘What could’ve possibly brought up this huge number? Let’s see… A Winnie the Pooh wristband, two boxes of cereal for me, a Lacoste kids’ umbrella, ten boxes of condoms on special discount, pop-up children books with 3D glasses, Roger’s peanut cans, more food for me, more adult stuff for us, a hand-knitted kiddy winter cap, 2+1 edible briefs, eight packs of beer, Smurfs coloring books, crocodile mittens, tighter jeans for me, penguin mittens…’
“Geez! This list is endless!”
Andy swallowed hard as he scrolled down. As far as he could tell, they were all necessary purchases. If God asked him whether he regretted buying any of them, he wouldn’t hesitate for a second to say no.
‘I can’t go on like this. Perhaps I should get a smaller flat. I don’t need all this space anyway. And, maybe I put too much money in my foundation. How does Roger manage? He obviously pays for all the other stuff for the kid and sends Mirka alimony and runs an academy back home and has a foundation as well.’
Then, it hit him hard that unlike himself, his boyfriend got to keep his coaching job throughout the year.
“That’s it! I need a permanent job!”
Feeling like Archimedes yelling ‘Eureka’ in his bathtub, Andy pumped his fist in the air and called out the name of his savior.
“Tim Henman!!”
Knock-knock.
A couple of hours later, Andy was in Mario’s office, opening the door for the first patient of the day.
“Good morning, Gael. How can we help you?”
The boy looked up at the American coach, wondering what he was doing here.
“Morning, Coach. Mario’s not here?”
“I’m here, sweetheart. Come in and have a seat.” Mario chuckled from his desk and the sound only got louder as he saw Andy fetch a glass of orange juice for the kid.
“You got a nurse, doc?”
“I didn’t have a choice. I’ll give you the story if you give me yours. What happened to your ankle?” Mario noticed that the boy had trouble walking straight.
“I like snow. And, I like to dance.”
“So you danced on snow on your way here?”
“Yes. Well, I thought it was snow but it was ice. I was dancing until BAM! You see? BAM!!” Gael slammed his fist on Mario’s table to show the two men just how hard he had fallen.
“We got your point, sweetheart. Nowhere else hurts? What about your butt?”
“It’s okay. Only my right ankle.”
“Okay then. Let’s see that ankle.”
Gael nodded and took off his right shoe.
“Let me help you.” Andy volunteered to take off the boy’s sock and put his right leg on the stool where Mario could examine it.
“Can I still play tennis? I wasn’t in the final. I want to be in the final at spring.”
“Aww.” Andy patted the eager tennis player on the head, happy to see such enthusiasm in a young boy.
“You shouldn’t move too much today. I’m going to tape your ankle, and I know how much you hate tapes but it’s only for half a day. Come back to me before you go home and I’ll take it off, okay?”
“Bah, tapes are annoying.” Gael muttered but didn’t move his leg as Mario proceeded to tape his ankle.
“Here, drink it up. You’ll feel better.” The nurse handed over the glass of orange juice that had been patiently waiting on the table.
“Thanks, Nurse Andy.”
The French boy giggled before facing Mario. “So Teacher Tim made you work with a nurse?”
“Ah, right. I said I’d tell you about it.”
The physiotherapist explained how Tim had called him while he was having breakfast and had told him with a shaky voice that Andy needed a job in the school, otherwise he would have to go back to the States and get a job there where it was far, far away from his beloved boyfriend and the boy whom he already considered his stepson.
“He was about to cry.” Mario pointed out.
“Ah, you had no choice then.” Gael understood how hard it was to say no when the headmaster was about to shed tears. It just made him feel bad and feeling bad wasn’t cool.
“I’m going to do a lot of things, Gael. You’ll see me everywhere.” Andy winked and Gael winked back. Winking was cool.
“Don’t run in the hallway today. I’m serious.” Mario pinched the cute boy’s cheek and gave him a sweet from the top drawer of his desk.
“You don’t have strawberry?” Gael asked with hopeful eyes.
Andy was quick to open the drawer again and picked up the strawberry flavored one in mere seconds.
“Cool nurse!” Gael happily traded his orange sweet with the new one and ran out of the office.
“I said no running, Gael!!” Mario yelled but it was too late. The fast kid was nowhere to be seen.
‘Hmm, perhaps this one is more scalp-friendly.’
Roger was in the teachers’ room, busy on his computer, looking for a new shampoo for his little boy. Hair was a matter that couldn’t be taken lightly in the Federer household and even though he thought it was the winter wind that had caused it, Roger felt a little worried that Richard’s hair didn’t have enough strength as it should.
‘Am I not feeding him well? Should I talk to Aida and see what kind of food is good for hair? Yes, I should do that.’
The worried father was about to pick up the phone when the door slammed open.
“It’s here! It arrived earlier than I thought!” Tim’s giddy voice roared in the room.
Juan Carlos had almost spilled precious coffee on his English teacher’s book and Dmitry had nearly fallen off his chair while dozing off.
“What’s here?” Roger asked, wondering what he had been missing. The notice board on the wall hadn’t included any particular information.
“The giant trampoline! It’s here! Or should I say ‘they’? We have three of them! Yay!”
Tim pulled Roger’s arm like a happy child and Roger had no other option but to run with him to the tennis hall.
“By the way, did Roddick tell you I hired him as the school manager?” Tim asked as he opened the doors to the hall.
“I wasn’t aware that we had such a position at school.”
“Well, we have now. I couldn’t say no after listening to his tearful story.”
“What tearful story?” Roger raised his eyebrows but Tim had already run towards the trampolines in the middle of the hall.
“Hey there, Rog.”
“Good morning, Andy. So a school manager has to unwrap trampolines?”
“I’m glad you heard! I do hundreds of things, actually. I clean the snow that might cause any injuries, I help Mario with the kids, I wash the dishes in Aida’s kitchen, I arrange boys’ stuff in their dormitory rooms, and I take care of the nets on court and etcetera, etcetera.”
“Why are you doing all of that in the first place? Is it because of everything my boy cost you?” Roger had tried numerous times to talk Andy out of spoiling his kid but the American never seemed to listen.
“It’s not Richie’s fault. I like to see that cute face all bright and happy when I get him stuff.”
“Thanks to that, now you’re doing crappy work here. I thought you were going to visit your family this winter.”
“Hey, there’s no such thing as crappy work. All occupations are equally honorable. And, don’t worry about me and my family. I’ll get on a plane around New Year’s Day. I figured I’d be more useful here than hanging out on my couch.”
“If you want a coaching job during the winter, you’re always welcome at my academy, you know.” Roger offered.
“But it’s in Basel! You and Richie are here!”
Roger found the childlike protest somewhat touching and sweet. The American deserved a kiss.
“Good luck with your new job then.” He said as he pressed his lips against his boyfriend’s while Tim was busy trying out one of the trampolines.
“Thanks, hon. I’ll bring home the bacon.” Andy chuckled and heard the school bell ring.
“I’ll get these ready, Tim. Go teach.”
“Thanks, Andy. Make sure there’s nothing that might hurt the kids.”
Tim ran out of the hall while Roger noticed with glee that the hall was empty.
“I suppose I can give you a proper kiss now.”
“I thought you wanted me to do my job well, Rog. Kissing me will get me distracted.”
“Since when do you turn down a kiss?” Roger pretended to be hurt.
“You could kiss me after helping me check these. I really need this job!”
“Fine. Let’s see if there’s anything sharp.”
Roger picked one of the trampolines and checked the round edges. They could do something more than kissing if the inspection was over fast enough.
R-ring.
As the bell announced the second period of the day, Juan Carlos pushed in a DVD into the DVD player
“Okay, students. Today we’re going to watch the highlights of the singles final of 2000 ATP Masters Paris.”
As usual, Juan Carlos had edited the originally long match into thirty minutes and was about to press ‘PLAY’ on the remote control when one of the finalists himself marched into the classroom.
“Hello, boys. The rumor says you young champs are going to watch me play against good, old Mark. Is that true? Ah, what a long match it was.”
To nobody’s surprise, Marin was the one of the few boys who paid attention to the detailed weekly timetable that his teacher gave out every Friday.
“Yes, Coach. You played Philippoussis.” The Croatian boy answered.
Marat wanted to tell the whole class P that he had come out as the winner after five sets - the final had been five sets, back then - but he feared that a certain Spaniard would murder him if he told the kids who had won.
“Good. I’m here to talk you through the match, boys. That’s more fun than just watching quietly, right?”
“Yes!”
Juan Carlos wanted to yell ‘Get the hell out of my classroom’, but the students seemed to be happy to see Marat, and as he pondered about it, Marat’s idea didn’t sound that bad for once.
“Let’s welcome Coach Marat with a big applause then. Juma dear, could you fetch him the chair right behind you?”
“Yes, teacher Juanqui.”
Juan Martin got up from his seat and soon, Marat was sitting in front of the DVD, explaining various things about the match.
“When the crowd roars, does it echo? It sounds like thunder?” Ernests asked, wondering what it would feel like to stand in the middle of a packed stadium.
“Why didn’t you see that dropshot coming, Coach?” Marin asked as well, remembering from numerous ‘tennis video’ classes that the Russian coach had lost countless points when dropshots were involved.
“How many times did you take bathroom breaks that day? You said it was a long match, no?” Juan Martin also had questions of his own and Juan Carlos had to admit that Marin’s question was his favorite.
‘Eh, I just came to help him out. I didn’t see all these questions coming.’ Marat thought as he glanced at the teacher who had a look on his face that seemed to say, ‘Oh, you didn’t see the questions coming just like you didn’t see that dropshot coming?’.
“Ask any questions you would like, boys. It’s not every day we have such a busy coach in our humble classroom, is it? Feel free to ask everything that’s on your mind. I’m sure he will answer them all with great care.”
Juan Carlos slammed the nails into the Russian’s coffin and returned to his desk. He could enjoy his cup of coffee while watching the live comedy show.
“Eh, why are we not playing football today?” Rafael asked, disappointed that he wasn’t going to play his second favorite sport during the extracurricular activities class.
“I don’t know. Teacher Tim said he had a surprise for us.” Novak told him.
“But we have this class only once a week! I want to play basketball!” Ernests whined as he followed the other boys into the tennis hall.
“Come in, my dear children. Take a seat in the stands, please.”
A dozen boys shuddered at the headmaster’s voice that was even more cheerful than usual. It wasn’t like they minded seeing Teacher Tim so happy, it was just that sometimes, he could look a little bit creepy; like a cartoon character that died early in the story for smiling in front of a scary character at the wrong time.
While Juan Carlos did the usual head count, the students exchanged guesses as to what could be underneath the huge grey covers.
“It’s round. Must be a giant hula hoop.” Gael said.
“What? That’s not possible. Nobody can be that fat.” Sam chuckled.
“I think we need many people to use it. Not just one fat person, Sammy.” Jamie thought Gael was right.
“That’s funny. But I think it’s a giant baby pool.” Ernests hoped that it was one of those pools which he used to have in the front yard when his dad had been around.
“Ooh, maybe it’s a Jacuzzi.” Richard said, remembering how there was one at his mom’s place.
“What’s a Jacuzzi?” Juan Martin asked.
“It’s a large bath that has thingies to make the water move around.” Andy showed off his knowledge and earned kisses from his boyfriend.
“Jacuzzis are nice. Mom still wants to buy one. Dad keeps saying no.” Marin hoped that his mother would have bought one by now, because he didn’t think he could stand another one of those Jacuzzi songs.
“Yeah, it’s warm to sit in it. My grandma has one! Maybe Teacher Tim knew we were cold.” Novak looked at the headmaster with hope in his eyes.
“So, are we all ready to discover a new world full of adventure?” Tim clapped his hands excitingly, urging the boys to clap along.
“Yes, we’re ready!” Gael squealed, knowing that only such a lively reaction would make Tim speed up the painful process of taking off the covers.
“We so are!! Yippee!” Novak joined the club and saw the British teacher gesture towards the other two teachers.
“On my count. One! Two! Three!”
The three teachers took off the covers from each trampoline and the boys’ eyes grew wide.
“Um… that doesn’t look like a baby pool.” Ernests was confused.
“What is that?” Juan Martin asked his boyfriend. It was good to date someone older.
“It’s a trampoline.” Rafael answered, happy to see one. He loved jumping.
“A trampoline? What a long word.” The Argentinean boy didn’t like to learn long words but he would have to learn this one if Rafael already knew it.
“Can we try it?” Gael raised his hand and asked.
“Sweetie, you have your ankle taped.” Mario reminded him.
“Can’t hear you! You’re standing too far away!”
Gael got up from the stands and other boys followed his lead as they all jumped on the trampolines.
“Waa! This is fun!” Ernests hung onto Richard’s arms as he jumped up and down with him.
“Catch me if you can!” Andy bounced through a group of boys and Novak made sure he wasn’t too far behind him.
“Oops! Careful!” Marin yelped as Jeremy almost fell on his butt.
The French boy couldn’t resist the temptation and was on the trampoline with one leg.
“You have to stand closer to me, Marin! Or I’ll fall and hurt my other leg too!” The five year old jumped higher.
“But… I’m already standing quite close.” The four year old blushed.
“Come closer. Put your arms around my waist.” Jeremy instructed.
“Wha… what? Like hugging?” Marin could feel that even his toes went red.
“Yeah, you’re just helping me out here. You want to help me, right?”
Unfortunately for Marin, Jeremy seemed to know how to get through him.
“Uh… sure! I want to help you. You’re injured.”
“Good. Then come hug me already. We can jump together.”
Worried that his heart might fly out of his throat, Marin shut his mouth tight and put his arms around the French boy’s waist.
Thump-thump.
He wanted to believe that his heart was racing because they were jumping so high but he suspected that there was another reason behind it.
“So what do you think?” Tim asked Mario who had been the one to tell him that the students weren’t getting enough exercise because of the cold weather outside. They still enjoyed ball games and randomly chased each other in the tennis hall but according to the physiotherapist, they weren’t moving enough for young athletes.
“I think it’s fantastic. They love it.” Mario smiled, pleased to see the boys jump up and down, giggling and clapping their tiny hands.
“It must be really nice to have such a simple mind. They’re all laughing as if they don’t have a single worry in the world.” Roger observed right before he heard a loud noise coming from the other side of the hall.
Clatter.
“Oh, boy.” Dmitry frowned as he saw forks scattered all over the floor. Andy must have been carrying the fork tray until he bumped into Marat.
“Ffff…fork! Look at what you’ve done! This is all your fault!” Andy glared at the annoying Russian.
“What? You were the one who dropped the tray.”
“I told you to leave me alone but you still pushed me!!”
“I didn’t push you! I was just urging you to move faster!”
“Then you could’ve carried the forks yourself so I could go get the spoons, you moron!”
“Don’t call me moron! You’re the one stupid enough to drop forks. Now you’ll have to clean all of them so the boys wouldn’t have to eat with their hands!”
Andy lost it and swung the empty tray. Marat had been bothering him with all sorts of childish moves and words ever since he had been getting the lunch tables ready.
Bang. Bang.
“Ouch! Stop hitting me with that!!” Marat pushed Andy’s chest and the American fell on his back.
“Did you just push me?”
“Yes, I did. What are you going to do about it?” Marat snorted.
“Oh, dear Lord.” Tim closed his eyes as the two adults started to wrestle on the floor.
Roger muttered a scary German word under his breath before taking a step forward.
“No need to get your hands dirty, Roger. Use balls.” Juan Carlos suggested and Roger knew what he meant.
Borrowing a student’s racquet, the greatest tennis player of all times served one ball each to the big babies’ heads.
“Ack!” Andy got hit on the back of his head.
“Ahh!” Marat was less fortunate and had to rub his forehead.
“Will you two gentlemen immediately follow me to the main building?”
For once, Tim had a face that could even make grown-ups shudder, and Andy saw his new job fly out of the hall.
‘Meh, I’ll lose my job and get an earful from Roger.’
The Swiss looked both furious and disappointed, which gave Andy heartache.
“Oh no. Now they’ll have to write down what they did wrong and read it in front of Teacher Tim.” Jamie rubbed his face.
“I haven’t seen Teacher Tim look that scary.” Sam swallowed hard.
“I’ll be a good boy today and eat all my veggies during lunch.” Andy said to himself.
“Boys, let’s get back on the trampolines. It’s not lunch time yet.” Juan Carlos took control of the situation and soon enough, the boys went back to jumping on their new toys.