Double Life - Book 1 of the Vaiya Series by Vaiya Books Read Free Book Online Page A

of fine silk,
drawing the attention of several people.
    Smiling brightly at them, Hazel walked
gracefully over to an Italian leather couch as if she were a fairy
floating on air and sat down next to her cousin Darien, who gladly
moved over to make room for her.
    After whispering something to Darien, she
stood up and silenced everyone. Once everyone had quieted down, she
spoke in her informal voice: “It’s time for some ping pong.” Her
light blue eyes danced with playful joy, as she added, “And I think
we should have a tournament--what do you think?” More than half of
the people nodded their heads in satisfaction, including those
currently playing their own games of ping pong, and those involved
in other games.
    Pleased, she added, “Great. Just wait a
second while I determine the challengers.”
    Once she’d given it some thought, she
assigned all twenty-four people their opponents for the first round
and the tournament began with her merely being a spectator. It
didn’t seem to bother her though.
    After five minutes into each game, it was
clear who the best players were as most games were completely
one-sided. Some people, like Valerie Sandler, Coach Sandler’s
middle daughter, and Eddy, played so poorly that they forfeited
before their rival had even won; while others, like Darien and
Kenn, played so skillfully that they had their audience captivated
from the start.
    After the first round was over, there were
only twelve people left. After the second, there were only six:
Darien, Jason, Kenn, Samantha, Amanda, and himself.
    Hazel assigned teams again. “Jason, you’ll be
challenging Samantha; Darien, you’ll be challenging Ian; and Amanda
you’ll be challenging Kenn. May the best players win!”
    As the two ping pong games started
simultaneously, Kenn and Amanda’s game temporarily postponed, Ian
glanced at Darien, who was smiling wistfully.
    “Hey, Darien,” Ian murmured, rather confused,
as they hit the ping pong ball back and forth gently. “You’re not
even trying. Do you think I’m too easy for you?”
    “Perhaps,” replied Darien indifferently, as
he hit the ball so softly that it just barely slipped over the net.
Ian wasn’t fast enough to get to it. “You’re not bad though.”
    Stretching his arm across the table, Ian
scooped up the ball, and refocused, before serving a spin shot to
Darien. But it didn’t catch him off guard, and he returned it with
such ferocity that Ian hit the ping pong ball way off the
table.
    The rest of the game went pretty much like
that, with Ian only scoring eleven points. Although in the past
he’d only ever gotten eight points against Darien, this three-point
record did little to salvage his pride. Though he’d always known
Darien to be the better ping pong player, in public it felt more
real. It hurt.
    Shaking hands with Darien after he’d lost,
wanting to seem courteous, Ian saw a grin arise on his friend’s
face.
    “Three point improvement.” He laughed, as he
tossed his long black hair to the right side of his face. “You’re
getting better.”
    “I feel like a loser,” he mumbled, not a bit
amused, as he sat down on an empty bench beside Darien, who waited
for the other match to end. “The other game’s not even halfway done
yet.”
    Darien shrugged. “Don’t take it so hard. I
practice every day.”
    “Yeah, but it still hurts to lose though.”
Pausing, he shook his head around, irritation in his voice, as he
whispered to his friend, knowing that Hazel would be deeply
offended by his words if she heard them, “You know what, Darien … I
honestly wish we didn’t even have this tournament.”
    A grin edged across Darien’s face. “Don’t say
that. If you’d have beaten me, I’m sure you’d have loved it.”
    Hating to admit that his friend was right, he
merely shrugged his shoulders, a growing habit of his when he
didn’t want to talk, and muttered, “I’m going upstairs to get a
drink.”
    “But there are drinks down here.”