Hal's tennis ascension: ranked 4th U.S. / 6th continental at seventeen

timeline_event

texture · YDAU, as of 10/YDAU

When: 10/YDAU (October 2009); Hal is seventeen
What: State-change in Hal's status: once self-identified as "a lexical prodigy… plus a really good tennis player," he is now "being encouraged to identify himself as a late-blooming prodigy and possible genius at tennis," having made a "leap of exponents" rare at a post-pubescent age. Judged "the fourth-best tennis player under age eighteen in the United States… and the sixth-best on the continent." His head is "judged still level… unswollen." The tragic-ironic athletic peak that coincides with his hidden chemical decline.