Page 97 of A Follow-Through in Faking
She wins one of her service points, but when she loses her second service point before it switches back to Frederica, I see her confidence crumbling.
She loses another point.
Then another.
It’s four points to one, and Catalina’s hands seem to be shaking as she picks up her towel to wipe her face.
She loses both of her service points.
It’s six points to one for Frederica.
My heart stops beating when I realize it's a set point and not for Catalina.
“What the fuck is happening?” Ori whispers to me, and as much as I’d love to reply, I don’t have an answer.
I wish I did. Cata thinks I can read her mind, but I only know what she’s thinking sometimes because of how well I know her. No matter how long I’ve studied her playing, it’s hard to look into her head during a match.
But I know for certain that right when she misses the next point, giving Frederica the first set, that her heart drops into her stomach in the same way mine does inside of me.
Fuck.
Chapter 41
Catalina
I’velostthefirstset.
I’m losing the second set four games to zero.
All Frederica needs is to win two more games, and the title is hers.
It’s a good thing I have my emotions under control, otherwise, I’d be bawling my eyes out on the court right now. I’m frustrated with myself. The way I’m playing? I don’t deserve the title. I don’t deserve to become number one. I don’t deserve—
“Catalina,” I hear my older sister call out as I wipe my face on the towel. “You have nothing left to lose. Take risks. Play the lines. Forget what’s at stake. This is for fun,” she says, and it takes another piece of strength to keep the tears at bay because that’s exactly what Mamá would tell me.
She’d urge me to forget everything and rediscover why I fell in love with the sport in the first place. I fell in love because it made me feel happy. It brought me the kind of joy I had never found inanything else, and losing was never meant to take that joy away. Mamá always told me there is beauty in losing, too, in learning from your mistakes so you can be better next time.
And yet, the words that come out of my mouth are, “No puedo.”
“Sí, Catalina.Tú puedes. Puedes hacer todas las cosas que quieres,” my father says with his thick English accent butchering the words, and the tears finally spill into my eyes.
“You got this!” Sami chimes in.
“We believe in you, Lina,” Hernanda adds.
“The score doesn’t matter. Focus on every point,” Charlie reminds me.
“You can do it,” Ness calls out.
“Vamos, Catalina,” Sage cheers.
“Youarethe best, Cata. You don’t have to win for that to be true, but you will anyway,” Santi says, but I have no time to linger.
Breaks between games when the score is an even number are very short, and I’m the one serving. I don’t want to get a time violation.
So, I let my family’s words bounce around my head as I grab the balls from the ball person. It’s impossible to win this, no matter what my family says, but for them, I’m going to give it my all.
I’m not a quitter.
