Mimi at Sheridan School

by Anne Pence Davis

The first day of the tournament, Mimi led small groups on the side lines in cheers. The preliminaries were not very interesting as the competition was not keen. Dit mowed her opponent down without getting up a sweat. A free-for-all tournament had to get well under way before the players were fairly matched. Mimi and her group moved from court to court where the matches were the hottest.

Not playing that first day, Mimi kept her eyes open and learned tournament etiquette. She also had time to stir in her trunk and get out her white linen shorts with the red pin stripe which she had worn for “bests” at camp. She cut the sleeves out of a shirt and faced the arm holes. When she appeared on the courts for her first match, she could hear girls complimenting her costume. Then before them all, she pulled a navy bandana from her pocket and tied her hair back. She thought of Dottie’s beloved red bandana at camp and smiled. She wished Dottie and the other campers were here to root for her. However, she had a group of supporters—Madge, Olivia, Chloe, Sue and enough others to make considerable noise were huddled on the side lines of the number two court where she played and won her first match.

She won again next day and for three straight days, she moved up a bracket. This landed her in the quarter-finals. She couldn’t wait any longer to tell how well she was doing so she wrote Honky and Dottie both. If she had not written before the quarter-final match, she would not have written at all, for she was defeated.

At least Mimi did not cry like Jill did when she was defeated. Nor did she accuse her opponent of cheating. She was defeated fairly and squarely and went down smiling. She was pitted against a college girl who played rings around her.

Mimi was licked before the set was called. The girl across the net from her was taller, stronger and a far more experienced player. In the face of such odds, Mimi battled spunkily. The few times she did score—oftener by her opponent’s poor playing rather than her own good playing—Olivia and the other rooters whooped loud and long.

Mimi hated to lose at anything but when Sue put a sweater around her at the end of the match, she knew she had done her best.

“Nice match, girls,” Miss Bassett said in passing.

That helped but something else helped more.

The day Mimi lost out, Dit moved up to semi-finals. The next day she advanced another bracket and the day she played in the finals the whole school, faculty and all, turned out. Mimi had far more than half of them marshalled in her section to cheer for Dit. Sometimes she was so enraptured watching Dit serve and volley and chop that she forgot to yell. Someday she would be able to play like Dit. Dit was no happier than Mimi when after three grueling sets she was declared winner.

Mimi rushed up with her white sweater and threw it around Dit’s shoulders, shouting her congratulations. She took Dit’s racquet from her perspiring hands and put it in the brace. Then she retrieved the balls and put them in the box before joining the procession which trailed Dit in to the showers.