To France With Love

When we sat down in the gate to await our fight. I put down my Longchamp purse and smaller version of the duffel bag I had already checked down on the floor next to me. I honestly couldn't believe that I had fit all of my stuff into two bags, I mean, I was going to be in Paris for a whole month!

It was May 10th and the tournament started on the 26th. We had just gotten off of our flight from DC to New York. We were due to leave from here in about 20 minutes. We were going to meet Maria and Yuri at the hotel when we arrived in France.

Our plane had already arrived in the gate and people were starting to get off. I was really excited to get to Paris, but I wasn't really looking forward to the seven and a half hour flight and not to mention France was running six hours ahead of us. That was going to take some getting used to.
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"Are you excited?" Asked Tyler as he grabbed my arm. We were just about to take off.

"No." I said sarcastically, forcing an excited laugh out of him. The plane started moving forward and gaining speed. I was pushed back against my seat as I felt the familiar lurch and incline that meant we were up in the air.

When the pilot came on over the intercom and announced that our electronic devices could be turned on, Tyler looked at me and gave me the weirdest look. I totally knew what it meant. I unzipped my bag and pulled out my iPad, unlocked it, and scrolled to and opened the most used app on the thing. I looked over and Ty had done the same thing.

About a year ago Ty and I were at a tournament I was playing in, and the match before mine had been delayed for like two hours, and everything was behind. We found this tennis app that let us play matches against each other. It was so dumb, but so fun.

We started our first match and I won the first two points. "You know all this losing isn't helping you. I'm a level ahead of you, and if I win this, it'll be two." I said.

"What makes you think you're going to win this?" He asked.

We killed two and a half hours on that game, that's when we both decided our obsession with it was unhealthy and that it needed to be put away. For now.

I spent the rest of the ride sleeping, listening to music, and playing about a million virtual tennis against Tyler, but after seven hours, we finally made it!
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When we got to our room it was 4:30 in the evening. We had left New York at 7:40 pm, but don't ask me how that worked. I never understood time zones.

I put my bags down and flopped on one of the two beds in the room. Suddenly I heard a door open, I looked over, but it wasn't the front door or the bathroom door. I sat up and looked to the back of our room. Oh. It was a joint room. Maria peeked her head in through the door.

"How was you flight?" She asked.

"Good." I said

"Long!" Added Tyler from the other end of the room.

"Tonight we get dinner with the other players who are here. I introduce you to everyone" Said Maria while giving me a huge grin. "Then tomorrow we sleep in to ten then we practice. Then there's an event at night that you can come to."

"That sounds great. I totally need a shower though." I said.

"Okay." She laughed. "You guys shower and we meet at 7:30." She winked then slid out the door that separated our two rooms.

"Dibs on first shower!" I called to Ty. He groaned.

"Ya know what? I don't even care. Shower first." He said. I laughed.

"Okay then I will." I said mockingly as I stepped into the bathroom and closed the door behind me.
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"Come on, I'm starving!" Moaned Tyler as I put on my earrings in the bathroom. I rolled my eyes.

"I'm almost ready." I said. I looked myself over in the mirror one last time. I was wearing a pale pink chiffon shirt tucked into my rolled white jeans with a gold belt, matching gold wedges, and of course, gold earrings. My hair looked good for being on a plane for seven straight hours. I just wore it straight tonight, then again, I usually wore it straight. It was really long and the longer hair gets, the harder it is to style, but I really liked how my hair brushed my lower back. I had been growing it for a while.

I walked out of the bathroom and into the hall where Ty was waiting with Maria, Yuri, and someone else. "Sorry for keeping you waiting." I said. Ty hadn't mentioned that everyone was waiting for me.

"Its fine." Said Maria. "Emelie, Ty, This is my fiancé, Alex." We shook hands. I already knew who he was, I mean, it was Alex Ovechkin number eight on the Washington Capitals. He had dark brown hair and blue eyes. He was also huge.

We all walked down to the dining room to eat. It was filled with people and players. I saw so many people I knew. Novak Djokovic, Maria Sharapova, Sara Errani, and even Rafael Nadal were all here.

There was a huge buffet of all super healthy foods setup. According to the itinerary in our room, today and tomorrow were when all the players were getting here. We found a round table for us to sit at and made our trip to the buffet. We ate and talked for a while, but when we were done Maria brought me to meet everyone.

All the players were very civil to each other off court, many having known each other for many years. They chatted amongst themselves. Maria's first stop for me was a group of people surrounding Maria Sharapova.

"Maria!" said Maria catching Maria Sharapova's attention. She broke away from the people, mostly press, that were surrounding her.

"Thank you." Said Maria. "I needed a break from that." Both Marias laughed.

"This is Emelie." Said my Maria. "She here to be my warm up partner and watch the tournament. She very good. I think she could play here next year."

"Really?" Said the other Maria. "How old are you now?"

"I'll be nineteen in a few weeks." I answered. Wow, I just said something to Maria Sharapova, and it wasn't stupid or just weird mumbling, like I did when I normally got nervous. I actually spoke like a human being!

"That's a good age." Said Maria Sharapova. She looked over her shoulder at the press people who had not moved from where she left them. "Maria, it's so good to see you, but they're not gonna leave until I go talk again. I'll see you at the dinner tomorrow though."

"Bye." Said Maria as Maria walked away. I grinned at Maria.

"That was so cool!" I said. Maria laughed.

"Just wait for who we gonna talk to next!" Said Maria.

We were walking around the room when I saw him. Rafael Nadal, the epitome of tennis players. He was standing by himself, and Maria obviously saw me staring, and decided to do something about it.
“Rafa!” She shouted across the room, waving him down. He walked over and gave her a hug. I can’t lie. I was a little jealous.

“Who's this?” He asked looking at me. I took a deep breath.

“I’m Emelie.” I said. “I’m here to be Maria’s practice partner and watch the matches.” I looked up. He was smiling down at me.

“That’s awesome.” He said. “Can you beat Maria yet?” I laughed.

“I don’t think so.” I said.

“She’s getting there.” Said Maria.

We all chatted for a while, until it got really late and we decided we should go to bed. I was on cloud nine! I had talked to Maria Sharapova and Rafael Nadal, and I was going to help Maria Kirilenko get ready for the French Open tomorrow morning. Could this honestly get any better?