My Best Friend's Crazy Fat Sister Ch. 01

"Oh look at the time, I think it's time for swimming lessons," said Adam.

"And after you've had your lessons and I've taught my class, we'll go for low fat frozen yoghurt," Emily promised her son and daughter, still euphoric that her hated house guest would be gone by the end of the day.

Connor and Rose looked as excited as if their mother was taking them out for ice-cream. "Yay!" the brother and sister shouted in delight, Emily having her kids well and truly trained into eating healthy like she did.

"Now come on kids, to the car," Emily directed her son and daughter. She turned to me. "Thanks a million Sean, you have saved me from going insane." She then turned to Adam. "Make sure Zoe doesn't turn the power back on when Sean is working and cause him to get electrocuted."

Emily and the kids left, and I heard her reversing her small white hatchback car out of the driveway, far more calmly and safely than she would have in her bad temper earlier.

Adam turned to Zoe. "How about you make a start on packing up your stuff while Sean changes the power-points?"

Zoe smiled smugly at her brother, clearly not about to get off the couch. "Or how about you do it if you and that wife of yours want me out of your house so fast?"

Adam was clearly not impressed with his chubby, pajama-clad sister as she sat barefoot on the couch mindlessly texting on her phone but the thought of getting rid of her was too appealing so with the greatest reluctance, he went to make a start on packing her things.

"Oh, and Adam?" Zoe called.

Adam gritted his teeth. "Yes Zoe?"

"Don't touch my bras or my knickers when you pack my clothes, I'll pack my own underwear. We're brother and sister, it would be weird and sick if you did it."

"That's something we definitely agree on, Zoe," Adam grimaced.

*

From knowing little about Zoe other than that she was 40-years-old; lived at her younger brother's house to the displeasure of his temperamental wife who considered her a mooch; had two kids with different fathers who lived with their maternal grandparents; was overweight with a history of alcohol problems and erratic behavior and took little or no responsibility for anything in her life, one might assume that this was always the way it had always been. Adam, the younger sibling was the good kid while the older Zoe was the bad kid. However, this assumption while logical would be wrong. Aside from the fact that Adam had indeed always been responsible as a kid and then an adult, it could not have been more different.

Back in 1999, it was the turn of the millennium and Adam, Emily -- then Adam's girlfriend of just over a year and a 20-year-old science student at University - and I were celebrating the end of 1999 with friends at a party. As we counted down the last twenty seconds of 1999 and with fireworks lighting up the skies of Melbourne, the clock ticked over to midnight, January 1 2000 and I half-expected the much feared millennium bug to strike. All of Melbourne's bright lights would go out, plunging the entire city into darkness and chaos, with the same thing happening in all of the other cities on Australia's eastern seaboard. Happily, no such thing happened, and apart from a few minor hiccups in the late 1990s such as small children receiving letters congratulating them on their century birthday milestone, the millennium passed with no issue. However, if there was a Y2K bug it seemed to strike in one place -- inside Zoe's brain.

This of course, is an exaggeration. Zoe was not completely normal at 11.59 on 31 December 1999 and completely crazy by 12.01 on 1 January 2000, not that Adam, Emily and I could have seen anyway as she was not at the same party that night,. However, the millennium always stuck in my mind as the time Zoe's fall from grace began.

To fully understand Zoe, one has to go back further to her childhood, and to the younger years of her and Adam's parents. Zoe and Adam's father Tom was a footballer and cricketer of some note, but while he played Sheffield Shield cricket for Victoria and Australian Rules football at the highest level in Victoria, the two things he had coveted most eluded him. These were playing test cricket for Australia, and playing in a premiership team in football.

Similarly, Zoe and Adam's mother Pam was a great swimmer who represented Victoria at state-level, but the things she wanted most from her sport -- selection to represent Australia in the Olympic and Commonwealth Games (or Empire Games as they were known back when Pam was competing) -- never happened.

So two talented but ultimately unsatisfied athletes met, fell in love, got married and in 1976 welcomed their daughter Zoe into the world, their son Adam following two years later. I remember hearing the story about the magical day in 1979 that Zoe's amazing talent was discovered. It started out as an innocent family picnic at St. Kilda beach, where Mrs. Xavier was preparing Adam's bottle, while Mr. Xavier was playing with Zoe, handing the little girl a tennis racquet and slowly throwing a tennis ball in her direction. When their daughter showed incredible skills at hitting the tennis ball that several years of tennis lessons from a Grand Slam winner could not teach an older girl, Mr. Xavier's attention was fully captured, as was that of Mrs. Xavier. I can only presume that Adam screamed in his carrier for his bottle while all this was going on. As Zoe hit a ball back to her father with her natural talent unmistakable, the fates of both her and her brother were set as Mr. and Mrs. Xavier decided that their daughter would scale the sporting summits both had failed to reach, as an international tennis champion.

Growing up in suburban Melbourne during the 1980s and early 1990s, as I observed the dynamic of Adam's family I was glad of one thing, and that was that neither I nor my sister Susan, younger than me by a year, showed amazing talent at a sport, the performing arts or academics otherwise we might have ended up like the Xavier kids. The entire focus of Mr. and Mrs. Xavier was into turning their daughter into a tennis champion. Adam was good at sports too -- I played football and cricket with him -- and he was also good at swimming, which was to be expected given his parentage, but it was obvious that he was not going to be an elite level Australian Rules footballer, a Sheffield Shield cricketer or an Olympic swimmer. Maybe it was better this way, otherwise Adam might have been subjected to the same regime as his older sister was. Green-housing I think is the term used now, although not back when Zoe was a kid.

Zoe's life revolved around her tennis schedule, and she was trained intensely almost every day by professional coaches to ensure she stayed focused and on track to attain her parents' dream of becoming a tennis grand slam champion. There was no treat food at all, Zoe was on a strict diet from early childhood to keep her at maximum fitness and optimum weight. There was no play with friends except for practicing tennis with girls also training in the sport at elite levels. She was sent to one of Melbourne's most prestigious -- and expensive -- private girls' schools as it had an excellent tennis program. In contrast, Adam attended the local high school along with me and Susan, but at home he was placed on the same strict diet as his sister, to maintain fairness according to their parents.

I felt bad for Adam growing up, but if it bothered him that his sister was the center of his parents' world and he was pushed to the sidelines he never said anything, perhaps not knowing anything different. Likewise Zoe did not seem to know anything other than intense training and a life that revolved around a sport her parents had chosen for her. Some might have described her as spoiled given how much attention her parents gave her over her brother, but this was not true or fair. Zoe was not a princess but a pawn in her parents' lofty expectations.

One incident to clearly demonstrate this was when Zoe was aged eleven, and Adam and I nine. Adam and I caught measles and passed it onto our respective sisters. But while Adam, Susan and I didn't have too many problems with the illness, the older Zoe became so ill from her high fever and constant vomiting that she wound up in the hospital. I asked Mr. and Mrs. Xavier how she was out of concern for Zoe's welfare, and they said they hoped that the month's rest from training ordered by the doctors so she could fully recover from being sick would not impact her fitness too much. It struck me at the time despite my young age that Zoe was more a means to an end for her parents than a daughter.

Zoe's upbringing ensured that she was an aloof girl to the point of being cold, and almost robotic in the way she conducted herself. Zoe was completely focused on her tennis training and not a girl to show her feelings. One rarely saw her show emotion such as anger, amusement or sadness. I would go to their house to hang out with Adam, and would try to talk to her. But Zoe was not all that interested in talking to me, and would usually only respond in monosyllables, 'yes', 'no', and the like. She would say hello and goodbye when I arrived at and departed the Xavier house, but usually only if I spoke to her first. Otherwise she said nothing and ignored me. She never said much to her younger brother either; a loving big sister to Adam Zoe most certainly was not.

Natural talent and the intense training program ensured Zoe remained on track to become an international tennis champion, and the girl won one junior title after another as a teenager. To the credit of Mr. and Mrs. Xavier, they did take note that some players who went out on the professional tour too young burned out early and insisted that she remain at school until she graduated at the age of 18 in 1994, but after that it was onto the professional tour and the lofty heights she and her parents had dreamed of; Grand Slam singles titles, thousands of dollars in prize money, prestige and a ranking in the Top Ten, perhaps even World Number One someday.

Zoe's professionalism and dedication to her sport were beyond reproach, and she became a well-known Australian sportsperson on the international tour throughout the mid to late 1990s. A very beautiful blonde with a distinctive name (how often does one encounter a woman whose names start with Z, Y & X) she was marketable too, and did numerous photo publicity shoots all over Australia. There were posters of Zoe posing at many major Australian landmarks, such as the Harbor Bridge and Opera House up in Sydney, and with numerous Australian native animals.

With such grace and style and always dressing in white when on court, Zoe was much like a female lawn tennis player of yesteryear, and that she was quiet when playing a match, with none of the screeching and grunting increasingly blighting women's tennis meant she quickly became a crowd favorite. Her star was clearly rising.

However, as the 1990s drew to a close one thing was missing from the dreams of Zoe and her pushy parents, and this was a much-coveted women's single title at one of the four Grand Slams; the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. Zoe was talented -- very talented -- and won quite a few singles titles at lesser known tournaments as well as both a Grand Slam mixed doubles and a women's doubles title, but in every grand slam tournament there were 127 other very talented women in the singles draw, and while Zoe would frequently win to the quarter finals and semi-finals, she had not broken through for an appearance in a Grand Slam singles final.

The year 2000 was the year this would change, and this would start at the Australian Open in January. Demolishing every opponent to easily win a lead-in tournament in Brisbane without dropping a set, Zoe went into the Australian Open fit, focused and in devastating form, carrying the hopes of Australia's first win of a women's singles title at this tournament since 1978. And when Zoe drew a 16-year-old Japanese wildcard in her opening match, the game was scheduled so Australia's beautiful, marketable star would start on center court at Melbourne Park on national television.

Everyone expected a one-sided contest with the seasoned 24-year-old trouncing the inexperienced teenager, and a 6-1, 6-0 demolition in less than an hour was the result. But the dismayed crowd sat stunned as it was Zoe Xavier that was thrashed mercilessly by the unknown Japanese teenager. And Zoe was not about to be a good sport about it, hurling away her racquet in a fit of temper when aced at match point, then storming off court without shaking hands with her opponent or the chair umpire.

This showed another side to Australia's sweetheart of tennis, and away from the court I saw several weeks later that this was not a one-off. It was Adam's birthday, and we were having dinner at a restaurant in Melbourne. Zoe was drinking heavily -- way more than was good for her -- despite urgings from her parents and brother to slow down, Emily and I both wishing we could vanish. Then disliking her meal and the fact that she was denied even more alcohol, Zoe staggered up to the counter, engaging the manager in a huge argument about it as Mr. and Mrs. Xavier tried to get Zoe to calm down and shut up. But their demanding daughter was having none of this, and the diva-like words 'Do you know who I am?' were spat from her mouth at the long-suffering manager.

After this, Zoe's tennis career was marred by problems on the court and off it. Over the next four years, not only did Zoe fail to make let alone win a singles grand slam title, but she was no longer winning titles at other events on the tour either, not in singles nor in doubles.

There were spats with other tennis players and disputes with officials, bad sportsmanship when playing matches and stories abounded of difficult and diva behavior off the court, not to mention problems with alcohol. Injury problems also began to kick in. While not unusual for a professional tennis player to suffer a back injury, Zoe injured her back not from over-reaching for a ball or a training mishap. It occurred when she was in New York for the 2001 US Open and got so intoxicated she fell over and went down a flight of stairs, her skirt ending up around her waist showing everybody her knickers.

Recovery time for the next three months back home in Melbourne saw Zoe use the spare time to drink heavily, often mixing alcohol with painkillers - a bad cocktail. One time while in the city on a Saturday afternoon, Zoe was so drunk and doped up on painkillers that she could barely walk and vomited off the Princes Bridge. In theory Zoe's sick should have just hit the muddy waters of the Yarra River, but in a classic case of bad timing a boat was coming out from under the bridge at the exact same moment, and passengers sitting out enjoying the fine weather were splattered in it.

Returning to the tour, Zoe hadn't learned anything. She was still a diva, under-achieved significantly and was much disliked by other players, her problems with alcohol continuing. On the court, Zoe would make herself even more unpopular by crossing to her opponent's side of the court to argue calls, a major taboo in tennis. When paired with a young 18-year-old male tennis player for mixed doubles, Zoe constantly criticized and yelled at him during the game, openly blaming him for losing the game when she was the one who had played badly, and incurred time code violations for taking too long during a bathroom break.

In Zoe's mind, she was never to blame for her poor performances. I remember Adam cringing when his sister, in tears at a press conference after losing yet another first round match in inglorious fashion at Wimbledon, blamed the terrible game she had played on being on her period at the time, snapping at a male journalist to 'try being a woman for a month and see what it's like'.

By the time of the 2004 Australian Open, Zoe's chances of being the Grand Slam champion her parents had dreamed of were just about gone. Leaving aside her obvious personal problems, she was older now and vulnerable to younger smaller faster players, and no match for the taller, stronger, hard-hitting female players emerging on the tour. It was at this event that Zoe set her sights on something other than the trophy and this was a handsome young African-American boy, who had just celebrated turning 18 and was a rising star in the world of tennis.

About six weeks and two missed periods later, Mr. and Mrs. Xavier were informed by their daughter that she was expecting their first grandchild, and the boy's parents were informed of the same. The young man's father -- a church minister in Atlanta, Georgia who had his own TV show that was popular among the African-American community -- was furious that his son had knocked up a white, much-older, washed up Australian tennis player on his first international tour, the man's anger mostly directed at Zoe for seducing his son and then having unprotected sex with him. While he did not like the notion of having a half-white Australian grandchild one bit, the man was no fool. He could see that a famous TV preacher and his tennis champion son shirking their responsibilities towards a child would look bad, so generous maintenance payments, to be sent to Melbourne monthly, were arranged.

More worrying, however, was Zoe's attitude towards becoming a mother, and serious alarm bells were ringing when at six months pregnant, Zoe was arrested for a DUI, speeding on a wet freeway at more than twice the legal blood alcohol limit. When her son was born three months later -- one look confirming without doubt that the father was of African origin - Zoe was clearly out of her element.

Zoe may have had the necessary anatomy to have children -- two X-chromosomes, ovaries, fallopian tubes, a uterus, cervix and vagina, but what she did not have was any natural mothering traits. This was not her fault, for one she had been raised to be a tennis champion, there was no playing with dolls, no playing house with her friends as a little girl. She had never had a pet to teach her responsibility. Or there was the chance that she lacked maternal instincts anyway. Zoe was not the first and definitely not the last woman to fail to bond with her baby, but in her case there was no choice but for her parents to take custody of Zoe's son Jake, and the maintenance payments from America were redirected to them so that Mr. and Mrs. Xavier could raise their grandson. Zoe's contribution was expressing milk from her breasts until her son was weaned, but otherwise she seldom showed any interest in her child.

Her tennis career fizzling out after her pregnancy, Zoe meandered through life for the next few years, drinking heavily -- including a second DUI and getting arrested for obstructing a tram in the center of Melbourne one day - living off her prize money won back in the 1990s and discovering social media, which led to more problems. In 2008, however, Zoe received an invitation to Beijing, and a reunion of a team that had won a tennis title there ten years earlier.

One thing about Zoe was that she failed to learn from her mistakes. In Beijing, Zoe met an 18-year-old Chinese tennis star, the son of a wealthy businessman, and the 32-year-old thought how good it would be to take the young man into her hotel room, let him get into her knickers and insert his penis into her vagina. The boy thought getting into the panties of an attractive 32-year-old blonde Australian woman and inserting his penis into her vagina was definitely something he wanted to do. But like four years earlier, Zoe did not think at all of what the consequences could be of taking off her knickers and spreading her legs two weeks after her last period and two weeks before her next and allowing a young man to fuck her without a condom.