The Catfish of Court Three

The first week at Laguna Vista Country Club, I learned three things:

1. Padel is basically tennis's cooler, smugger cousin

2. Everyone here actually says "no cap" unironically

3. I, Jordan Martinez, am terrible at both

I'd been playing baseball since I could walk, but that didn't translate to hitting a fuzzy ball off a glass wall. My first padel lesson ended with me somehow twisting my racquet into a pretzel and Coach Dave staring at me like I'd personally offended his ancestors.

"Natural talent," I muttered, crawling to retrieve the ball from under the bench.

That's when I saw the cat.

A scraggly orange tabby was sitting by the pool fence, watching me with what I swear was judgment. Every afternoon for a week, the same cat appeared. I started calling him Señor Orange because I'm original like that.

Meanwhile, the actual reason I'd agreed to this padel torture—Maya Lin—kept showing up to swim laps while I humiliated myself on Court Three. She'd glide through the water like some kind of aquatic creature, not even looking my way while I whiffed balls and said bro way too much.

"Your form's getting better," she said one day, dripping pool water and holding this tiny kitten.

"Wait, that's—"

"Señor Orange's kitten," she grinned. "His actual name is Cheddar. My family's been feeding him since he was a baby. He brings us gifts. Dead bugs. Mostly."

I died inside. A whole week of bonding with her cat through a glass wall, and I'd called him something stupid.

"Want to meet him?" she asked.

And that's how I ended up sitting poolside with Maya and Cheddar, my baseball cap backward, explaining that I only played padel because someone said she might be impressed, which was the most mid thing I could've admitted, and she laughed—actually laughed—and said her backhand was terrible too, and maybe we could just ditch the pretentious sport and go swimming instead.

"No cap," she added.

"Honestly," I said. "That would be based."

We're still terrible at padel. But Señor Cheddar thinks we're cool, and honestly? That's enough.