Tennis Ace by Spidercrawlus
The pounding of the ball against the backboard echoed loudly into the still night. The hard pop would reverberate in a smooth rhythm, preceded by a slight grunt before every powerful and precise swing of the racket. Melanie would come here almost every night to perfect her technique, which would explain why even as a freshman, she was the best player on the team. She had loads of natural ability, but she put in the extra work it took to be a winner. The other girls on the team were envious of her. They were all upper-classmen, and here was this new girl wiping the courts with them. She didn't pay attention to the catty looks and mean comments whispered under their breath, Mel was focused on her game and getting better all the time. Even though she carried a full course load and worked a part-time job in addition to the long team practices, she would come to the empty courts behind the athletic complex and put in more time at the backboards, honing her skills and focusing her shots with precision.
It was therapeutic for her, a time to be alone and blow off steam, just pounding that little ball repeatedly into the wall. It was getting late on a Friday night, and it was unusually warm for Southern California this time of year. There was never anyone around at night, so Mel had taken off her tank-top and was just wearing her sports bra and shorts. She looked great, with an athletic build on her 5'5", 107-pound frame. Her wavy brown hair was soaking wet, and she had it pulled back into a ponytail that swung heavily as she danced around the court tracking the ball. Her tan body glistened under the overhead lights, bathed in a steady stream of sweat. Although to most who saw her she was a knockout, Mel had one major insecurity about herself. She was covered in peach fuzz, soft, down-like blonde hairs that blanketed her arms and body. It was especially concentrated on her firm, flat stomach, a thick line that ran down from her chest to her belly button, with smaller hairs covering the rest of her torso. Her deep tan intensified the blondeness, providing a glowing effect. Her insecurity must have come from the childhood teasing of her sister and her friends, calling her names like "furry girl" and "baby gorilla". If she had any idea that a lot of guys found that fuzz extremely ****, she wouldn't give it a second thought.
It was getting late, and Mel was getting tired, but she could get some sleep this weekend, so she kept pushing her workout. Her rhythm was broken when the lights over the backboard went out, so she stopped and took a little break, stretching and catching her breath. She started to go to the other court to check the timer and turn the lights back on when she saw four silhouetted figures enter the darkened court. It was Mandy, the team captain, and three other girls from the team. Mandy was the biggest b###h to Mel, probably because she felt the most threatened by her. She had always been the top dog on the team until this little freshman came around and would destroy her in straight sets.
"Well, look what we have here ladies, it's Martina Hingis." The other girls laughed at Mandy's barb, and Mel felt uncomfortable and irritated that they would dare come bother her while she was practicing alone. She could tell by the way the girls talked and stumbled around they had been drinking and knew they were here to dump their jealousies on her.
"Hey, do you guys mind turning the lights back on please, I wasn't finished yet?" Mel spoke in a firm, unintimidated tone, hoping they would see they didn't rattle her and would just leave. Mandy walked right up to Mel, pointing at her for dramatic effect as she tried to dress her down.
"Listen, *****, we're all a little tired of your snotty attitude, these were our courts before they were yours, so you're finished when we say you are." Mel nervously eyed the girls who now had her surrounded and re-thought her strategy.
"Look, I'm not snotty, I've tried to be nice to you guys, but you obviously don't like me, so why don't you just leave me alone, I don't ever bother you."
Mandy was stopped cold by the reality of these words. She knew the girl was right, but she couldn't say the real reason she hated her, that she was so much better than the rest of them. Her face wrinkled into a sneer as she drew even closer to Mel.
"You are bothering us you little *****, you think you're such hot ****." This was ridiculous, and Mel was just wishing they would disappear.
"I don't think that you just don't like me and that's okay, if I'm so bad why don't you just leave, and then you won't have to be around me." Mel's words rang with simple reason, and Mandy knew she had no reply, so her envy and primal instinct took over, and she answered with a fast, hard straight right punch in the center of Mel's flat stomach.
"OOUUFF!" Mel was in great shape and had toned firm abs, but she didn't see it coming and it caught her by surprise. She dropped her racket as she bent forward, her right hand covering her stomach as she tried to catch her breath.
"What the ####......??!!" That was all she could get out before Mandy was on her again, grabbing her ponytail and pulling her up, and delivering a backhand slap across her face.
"AAHHH!!" Mel's head snapped to the side as the force of the blow registered its stinging presence, and she stumbled backward and down to all fours.
"Get the *****!" Mandy barked the order, and the other girls swooped onto Mel, grabbing her and carrying her over to the chain-link fence that surrounded the courts. Mandy tore Mel's tank top into strips, and they used them to tie her hands above her head, secured firmly to the fence. Mel was now panicking, she felt so vulnerable as the girls stood in front of her. She was defenseless, just a human target at their mercy.
Mandy eyed her fuzzy stomach right as she delivered left and then a right, two powerful uppercuts to each side of Mel's torso, just underneath her ribs at her obliques. "HHUUULLLGGG!!"
"UUUOOOGGHH!!!" The pain was intense, a burning swell taking over as the thudding sound of flesh hitting flesh echoed into the still night air.
"Oh my god, stop it!" Mel managed to squeak out between coughs and gasps. Mandy loaded up and dropped a left hook just above Mel's navel ring, digging deep.
"OOOOUUUUGGGHHHHH!!!!" Whatever air she had left was now gone, her restrained wrists the only thing keeping her from falling to the ground. Mandy let out a drunken laugh as she gazed at Mel's convulsing, reddening torso. She stepped to the side as another girl took her turn, busting Mel in the curve of her lower stomach, just below her belly button.
"OOUUGGHHH!" That was the worst blow yet, as she felt it radiate all the way down to her very femininity. The girl must have sensed this, as she unloaded a knee thrust directly into Mel's crotch.
"HHHUUULLLGGG!!!!!" Mel was on fire, and she dry heaved as the pain of the blow rushed through her body like a volcano erupting. She hung there helplessly, unable to even beg for mercy. After letting her suffer for about a minute, another girl took out her frustrations on the young tennis ace, pounding her belly with heavy, thudding shots at 5-10 second intervals. The shock of pain would sweep into Mel right as another blow would come, as the girl worked her way up and down her bruised gut. I
n terrible agony and unable to breathe, Mel felt herself passing out, but before she could sink into unconsciousness she was shaken by another thunderous right to her solar plexus. She gasped, coughed, and heaved, thinking she might just die on that fence. She had never experienced agony like this and was on another level of suffering.
Even in her drunken, vengeful state, Mandy knew they had done more than enough. Mel was breathing weakly as her battered belly expanded and contracted irregularly, trying to correct its natural rhythm. She signaled the girls that they were finished with their lesson, and they untied the beaten girl, who immediately dropped to the clay courts and doubled up into a ball, both hands hugging her horribly violated stomach. Mandy leaned down and whispered in Mel's ear, her alcohol breath making its way to her nose.
"Don't be such a prissy little ***** from now on, and this won't happen again. And don't even think of ratting us out, or we'll really kick the **** out of you next time." The girls left Mel lying there in a crumpled heap, where she lay for what seemed like an eternity until she stumbled to her car and recklessly made it to her apartment.
Mel made-up a story that she got mugged, which seemed plausible as there had been several mugging/beatings on campus that semester. She hated lying but knew she couldn't tell the truth. She stayed in bed for most of the next week, the throbbing pain turning into an almost ****** soreness. She would lay there, rubbing her purple and blue belly, pulling lightly at her fuzz, and she felt, in a weird way, that this was the most unique trophy she ever won. She was so good at her sport, this was the only way anyone could show their superiority, and even that took four of them.