The Setup at the Courts

Marcus stood at the edge of the padel court, his heart doing that annoying fluttery thing that happened whenever Jordan was within a fifty-foot radius. Jordan was currently laughing at something Tyler said, tossing their hair back like they were in a hair commercial instead of third period PE.

"You gonna stare all day or actually play?" Tyler called out, grinning like he knew exactly what was up with Marcus's sudden interest in racquet sports.

"Shut up," Marcus muttered, gripping his racquet tighter. He'd never played padel before in his life. The closest he'd come was that one time his dad tried to teach him baseball, which ended with Marcus getting hit in the face with a pitch and swearing off organized sports forever.

But Jordan played padel. Jordan played padel every Tuesday and Thursday after school. And somehow, through a series of events Marcus still couldn't believe he'd actually gone through with, here he was.

The game started. Marcus immediately discovered that padel was nothing like baseball except for the whole hitting-things-with-other-things concept. He tripped over his own feet. He swung at air. He hit the ball directly into the fence three times in a row.

"Bro, you're actually terrible," Tyler said, but he was laughing, not being mean about it. Jordan was too, and instead of feeling embarrassed, Marcus felt something weirdly okay.

"Yeah, I know," Marcus said, and he actually smiled. "This was a huge mistake."

"You should come back though," Jordan said, and Marcus's stomach did that flip thing again. "We need someone to make us look better."

Afterward, they sat on the bench outside the courts, drinking Gatorades and watching Marcus's dog Buster—a chaotic golden retriever mix who'd somehow escaped the backyard again—chase his tail in circles near the fence.

"That your dog?" Jordan asked.

"Yeah, he's a total escape artist," Marcus said. "My dad's gonna kill me."

"He's cute though," Jordan said, and Marcus felt his face heat up. "Hey, you want to come over later? We could study for that math test. Or watch a movie or something. My parents got cable finally, so we've got like a million channels."

"Yeah," Marcus said, trying to play it cool despite internally screaming. "That sounds... yeah."

Buster chose that moment to dash over and slobber all over Jordan's shoes. Jordan laughed, not even mad, and Marcus thought maybe embarrassing himself at padel, getting rejected by the baseball team, and having the world's most dramatic dog was all worth it for this moment.

Sometimes the worst setups lead to the best plays. He'd heard that somewhere. Probably from his dad, during that baseball disaster. But for once, Marcus thought the old man might actually be right.