Read Online Swap Over by Margaret Pearce - Free Book Online Page A

cheerfully.
    â€œWonderful,” Maddy said bitterly.
    â€œHer goody-goody pose doesn’t slow down her fearsome serve,” Katrina warned with a grin as they went through to the third court.
    â€œRight,” the coach said. “Bronwin and Katrina are the strongest players, so Linda and Bronwin play together against Katrina and Maddy.”
    â€œWell, one thing, Maddy Walton,” Bronwin sneered as soon as the coach turned away. “You can’t cheat at tennis, so let’s see how good you are.”
    Maddy clenched her hand more tightly around Jennifer’s beautiful, expensive racquet. Just because this was a posh school didn’t mean that she wouldn’t give Bronwin a well-deserved punch on the nose!
    â€œSo let’s get started,” Katrina shoved Maddy nearer the net and moved back to the base line. “I’m serving.”

 
    Chapter Ten
    Â 
    Katrina was a good tennis player, very good, Maddy thought with respect. Why had she assumed she was just some younger kid who hung around with Rowena, and not realized how very smart she was?
    Although she was small, she was fast, darting backwards and forwards across the court returning balls. Maddy swung wildly when the ball came her way and missed! She heard the thud behind her as Katrina ran across and managed to return the ball. She was accurate too, returning the ball to the most inaccessible spots on the court to where Bronwin wasn’t, and Linda was too slow.
    As Katrina had predicted, Bronwin had a fearsome serve. If Maddy had been the sort of person who discouraged easily, she would have given up. Bronwin’s serve was fast, powerful and nasty, and Maddy kept missing the ball.
    She was fast enough, but her aim was wild and more often than not, when she hit the ball it was always in the wrong direction.
    The game was really between Katrina and Bronwin. Linda was neither accurate nor fast. She and Linda were only on the court to handicap them evenly.
    â€œFifteen love,” Bronwin jeered, as Maddy missed her nasty serve. “Love thirty,” as Maddy swung for the next ball and sent it out of the court.
    â€œAnd deuce,” Katrina’s high-pitched voice rang out as she slid the ball over the net to where Linda wasn’t waiting.
    â€œIdiot,” Bronwin snarled at her partner.
    Despite Katrina’s efforts, Bronwin and Linda won the first set. During the next set, Maddy started to get the hang of how to handle the racquet. It felt odd to swing at a ball and still miss with such a large area of racquet. She had always thought of herself as pretty good with bat and ball.
    During the second set, Maddy started to connect the racquet with the ball. She became more confident and put more force behind her swing, trying to copy Katrina and aim the ball into the court where Bronwin wasn’t.
    She had three disastrous net balls, which lost them the set. The knack of skidding the ball just over the net was tricky, but she had it by the third set.
    Serving straight and hard was much easier. She threw up the ball and swung the racquet with all her force. She gloated when she was serving to Bronwin. How did Bronwin like being on the receiving end of a fast, hard serve?
    Bronwin missed several of Maddy’s serves. The more sets she lost the nastier she was to Linda. Linda was nearly in tears from Bronwin’s muttered abuse.
    What a poor loser, Maddy thought to herself in disgust. She felt sorry for Linda, though. She could hit a ball accurately enough, but there was no strength behind her swing, so her ball always arrived in their court in a perfect placement for a sneaky shot back. She was clumsy and slow-moving and never managed to arrive at the right place in time to return the ball. Bronwin yelled at her every time she missed a ball.
    â€œYour serve is something else,” Katrina said as she ran past.
    Maddy glowed. This was high praise indeed, coming from the expert Katrina. There was nothing