It’s On like Donkey Kong

Moonpie took tennis lessons last fall, and while she enjoyed it, she didn’t insist that I sign her up for more once the session was over. It looked like she was having fun, but she didn’t exactly excel at it. So you can imagine my surprise when the coach called me last week and asked if she wanted to be on a team this spring. I said, “Uh, she’s not exactly…I mean she has trouble with…You remember her, right?” He laughed and said that yes, he remembered her and that she should do fine. That she had done well in the lessons, it’s a beginning team, and another girl on the team, (let’s call her HELEN) was also in the 4th grade at Moon’s school. How nice for her to have a friend on the team.

So yesterday, I took Moon over to the park to pay the team fee. As we were pulling into the parking lot, Moon says, “Mom, I saw Helen today at school and she said, “I was disappointed to hear you’re going to be on my team cause you’re not very good.” Yes, girlfriend went THERE. So Moon said, “Really? Well I was disappointed to find out you were still here. I thought once the nativity scenes were packed away I’d see a lot fewer asses!’

Okay, she didn’t say that, but how awesome would it have been if she had! Or at least, “I’m disappointed you’re on MY team cause you’re not very nice, so pfffft!” But no, Moon just stood there, like she always does, just smiling and being nice. Where did I go wrong??? Does sarcasm skip a generation or something? Geez.

Well, Kittens, you can guess how Team Tyre took Miss Smellen’s criticism. We’ve played tennis for the past two days, bought new balls, gone to the park, watched inspirational video’s, checked in on the Australian Open and practiced and practiced our serves, backhand and forehand strokes.

The coach is not going to know what hit him when Moonpie steps up to the service line and unleashes all of her pent-up competitive fury on the opponent. And by “opponent” I meant Helen, but you probably already knew that.