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Sweet Valley Sophomores | 6: Hit Me with Your Best Shot
Title: Hit Me with Your Best Shot
Fandom: Sweet Valley High
Universe: Pre-canon (sophomore year)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Rating: T
Word Count: 4,615
Summary: Bruce Patman plays to win.
Links: DW | FF.net | AO3
Written for the "white diamonds" prompt on my 2015 Summer Mini Challenge table.
aka the Lila/Bruce/tennis OT3 fic - combining three of my very favorite things about the Sweet Valley universe :D
I've always sort of loved the fact that tennis is the sport of choice in Sweet Valley - almost every character plays the game at some level, and of course one of the major minor characters (in the form of Bruce Patman) is the star of the high school squad. Hell, there was even a D-list character spotlight book about an aspiring tennis player! Considering the relative popularity of the sport in the US, even at the height of the 80s when Americans ruled the game, this is quite the remarkable feat.
Tennis is my sport, so it was only a matter of time before I managed to work my love of the game into my fic, and SV fic seemed like the most natural choice. Rereading the classic canon of both SVH and SVT has given me a greater appreciation of the "bad" characters - Jessica, Lila, and Bruce chief among them. As I grow older, I find these characters much more interesting than Elizabeth's staid squad, whom I related to when I was reading these books the first time around. Jessica definitely got into a lot of interesting scrapes, and usually Lila was either right in the middle of it with her, or ready to bail her out.
And, of course, SVH #3 Playing with Fireis an absolute classic in the Jess/Bruce canon.
But Lila/Bruce? That was definitely an appreciation I only picked up as an adult.
I even devoted a day of the shipping meme to them, and to what I felt made them work: their similarities in background, expectations, and style. They had lots of great snark in SVH, and of course had a long-term relationship in SVU when they finally managed to get out from under their father's thumbs.
There was some hinting at the beginning of the series that Lila and Bruce had a pre-canon fling, and that Lila considered herself somewhat of an expert when it came to her arrogant neighbor. That is just too juicy of a scenario not to play with. They have such an enemies-to-lovers vibe that it is rather obvious that something happened - but what?
A tennis match, that's what - one that Lila wins.
If there's anything we know about pre-canon Bruce, it is that (1) he's conceited, (2) he considers himself the best tennis player in the world, and (3) he hates to lose. Any time something doesn't go in his favor, he has a ready excuse or explanation for why. In this case, he blames Lila's inferior court. Lila, of course, doesn't take any of his guff without dishing up plenty of her own, and it was fun to write their snarky exchanges during their set.
Tennis is a beautiful game, but it's rather difficult to describe in text. The tennis-centric SVH book does a laughably terrible job at this, but I knew that if I really went into a lot of detail I'd bore any potential readers to tears, so I tried to keep things vague but exciting. I did put quite a bit of thought into each character's style of play, and hopefully some of that comes through in the intro of the fic. I see Bruce as a classic grass court player, a style of play that is actually very uncommon these days. Lila is more of a baseliner, emulating the biggest names in the game from the early 80s - Chris Evert, Tracy Austin, Martina Navratilova. Their contrast of styles is perfect for play on a hard court, which would not favor either one of them over the other.
Bruce hates to lose, even in a friendly single set, and he manages to turn the tables on Lila with the impulsive suggestion that they "go for a swim" to cool themselves off. Given his reputation in early SVH canon for loving to get his targets out of their clothing, he of course suggests they swim in the nude, to which Lila balks, finding it terribly gauche. She doesn't have much of a chance to protest before she finds herself in the water anyway, having been pulled in by Bruce before she could stop him. (Not a bad way to work in a classic SVH pool-push, LOL.)
Lila just wouldn't be Lila without some ridiculously inappropriate accessory, so I gave her a relatively common one - the tennis bracelet. Tennis bracelets actually have nothing to do with the sport itself; before the infamous 1987 incident that gave them their nickname, they were called eternity bracelets. They are simple yet elegant, a uniform row of matching stones, usually diamonds. Lila's bracelet is made of white diamonds and set in platinum, so it would be study enough for her to wear on a daily basis for years. Her constant fiddling with the clasp, not to mention the sudden impact from basically being thrown into the water, would be enough for it to break and slip off her wrist without her noticing. Considering the simplicity of the bracelet, it would indeed be difficult to find on the bottom of a pool, especially if the water wasn't absolutely crystal clear. The only thing worse than losing it in a swimming pool would be losing it in the ocean.
Lila and Bruce understand each other, so he drops the sarcastic act when she tells him what the bracelet means to her, and he's determined to find it. It's his way of apologizing for causing her to lose it in the first place. He actually manages to get out of apologizing to her (so typical of him), and pretty much ends up with the upper hand when she throws herself at him in thanks. He might've lost the set, but he walked away from Fowler Crest with a whole lot more than he arrived with that morning!
I think these two would've had a torrid, forbidden fling the summer before the start of SVH canon, one that they hide from everyone in the world, including their friends and families. It would not have ended well (neither of their egos could've handled a sudden breakup), which would only feed into their supposed dislike of each other, but that latent attraction is always there, and it will come back out when they are in college together.
I tried to bring in some other elements from canon. My current re-read of Sweet Valley Twins is probably obvious, given the color of Lila's court (and some of Bruce's jokes about it), but there's also a hint of Bruce's fascination with Elizabeth, the Wakefield that hates him, and his dismissal of Jessica, the one he'll actually date first. I can definitely see him being well aware of Jessica's crush and using it to his advantage even before SVH #3. I don't think he'd respect her very much because she makes it way too easy for him, and she was too easy to break. Liz fights him at every turn (except when she's walking around in a fugue state after the motorcycle accident, in the infamous "warm wine in paper cups" incident) and I think he'd enjoy that more. He doesn't mean to insult Lila when he compares her to Liz, because he enjoys the fact that she doesn't just fall all over him. Even playboys enjoy the occasional challenge, after all :D
As for Lila - well, she finally understands Bruce's magnetism after getting up close and personal with him. I can see her fighting her attraction to him because of her own self-image. Nobody breaks Lila Fowler with nothing more than a grope and a coy look, after all, so she'd be at her haughty best when dealing with him. There is passion between them even more there's attraction, and that's pretty much why these two are my endgame OTP. There is enough of a foundation for them to build something on, but not until they're older and more mature.
In high school, they only have raging hormones...which can be fun, too =)
The title of this fic was the last thing, for once - I actually had to google around for "tennis songs," and when I found this one suggested (admittedly as a joke), it all coalesced :D Talk about a perfect song for these two!