When she had reached the machine and turned it off she sighed and dropped down to the ground and propped herself up against the machine. She was tired. She had been hitting tennis balls for over two hours. She almost felt like she had just played a real match. Dana took a moment to contain her breathing and then repositioned herself so that she was sprawled out on the court looking up at the clear sky unable to see the beauty of it because her thoughts were so determined to be dealt with. Dana closed her eyes and layed her palms against the cool asphalt beneath her. Spreading her fingers until her hand was flat against the surface of the court It was her favorite court to play on. Her statistics said that she was best on clay, but she preferred the pace of a game played on a hard court. It was the court that she had learned on. The one that she was most comfortable with. The one that she spent most of her time training on. And the one that she had taken out every single one of her frustrations on since she was old enough to hold a tennis racket. The sound of the ball bouncing off of her racket and onto the court had always been able to hypnotize her into forgetting whatever was bothering her. The game had always been able to usher her out of turmoil and into a very high zone of concentration that centered only on hitting the little ball back over the net. But for the first time in her life the game had failed her. Because this time she was about to lose Alice. And that was something that not even her passion could help her through.

Dana had always been shy and slightly awkward when it came to talking to people and making new friends, but she had money and she had always been stunningly beautiful so she had never really had to worry about being alone. But after everything that had happened with Stephanie, Dana had thrown herself into her sport and closed herself off from everyone around her. It was easy, playing a sport that didn’t require any team mates. Not having to trust anyone, and not wanting to. The tennis camp incident, which became a definitive moment in Dana’s life, had prompted her to hide her true self. She had repressed everything that she had felt. All the innocence had seemingly been drained from the young athlete when she had seen the disapproving disgust in everyone’s eyes the day that Stephanie had been yanked harshly out of her life. Over the next few years she had become very angry and closed off and was on the verge of losing herself. Dana had built her walls so high that people rarely even attempted to scale them anymore. But then she had run into a, then brunette, stranger that had changed everything for her.