Nom Nom and the Tournament

Panda yawned as he used his phone to go online. He had an alert from Nom Nom's channel and went to check it out. His eyes went wide as Ice Bear put down his breakfast and Grizz entered the room.

"Hey guys, Nom Nom was selected for a celebrity tennis match. The first round will be livestreamed this afternoon," Panda announced.

"Wow, good for him," Grizz said with a hint of sarcasm. Ice Bear delivered Grizz's breakfast and he thanked him.

Panda scrolled through the comments of the video, "Hey, this is a huge deal. It's for a charity, but it's going to have standard tennis rules. A lot of people don't think Nom Nom will pull it off."

"They're probably right. He'll get mad at a call, have a tantrum, then get kicked out of the game. The little dude gets angry too easy," Grizz said, shaking his head, "and I will not help him again."

"Hey, I'm with you, but isn't it rude to tell someone they can't do something?" Panda asked.

"Ice Bear agrees. Nom Nom will fail miserably."

Panda groaned, "Yes, I feel the same way, but some of these people are being really brutal. Some of them think he shouldn't even be in the tournament."

"Well he has a reputation, plus I've never seen him play tennis before, like, EVER, so yeah, I bet a lot of his haters showed up just to let people know. Even Nom Nom's true fans should know this isn't going to work. It's seriously that obvious," Grizz said, taking a bite of his food. When he was finished chewing, he smirked, "So, when's that livestream? I'd love to watch."

"It starts at one but the match isn't until one-fifteen," Panda replied flatly.

Grizz laughed, "I'll be there for it! I better make sure the laptop is doing okay."

"Ice Bear will bring popcorn," he said before tying on his apron and moving into the living room to vacuum.

At one o'clock, the brothers gathered on the couch. As promised, Ice Bear got bowls of popcorn ready for each of them. They watched using Grizz's laptop as Nom Nom greeted his opponent, a popular actor from an even more popular TV show.

Grizz laughed, "Man, Nom Nom doesn't have a chance! I haven't seen much of that show, but the one episode I saw, that guy was playing tennis against a real tennis pro AND he was holding his own."

"Aww, poor Nom Nom," Panda groaned. "I can't watch!"

"Look, he said he'd do it and here he is. Look, look, that's him," Grizz pointed to the stands, "That's the professional player the guy played against. Man, he showed up to cheer him on. How nice."

The actor waved to the crowd for the camera, then pointed to the professional, "I'd like to thank my idol for coaching me over the last few weeks. It's been a real honor working with him again."

"And Nom Nom, how did you prepare?" the reporter asked, the camera looking around for the grey monster. He was already on the court with his tennis outfit and gear waiting on the match to start.

It was a long fifteen minutes to wait, and Panda looked on nervously as Nom Nom got more and more impatient. The stands were still filling up, and as they did, the actor waved to newcomers to welcome them to the match. This only made Nom Nom more angry and it showed. By the time the match started, he was fuming.

Grizz shook his head, "See, he's so mad he can't even serve."

Panda had to agree. Nom Nom won a coin toss and went first, but his first serve ended horribly. The first ball was lobbed behind him, and his second barely made it over the net when he hit it.

The problem? The actor was pretty much a pro, and despite a bad hop, he returned it with a professional grunt.

The brothers followed the ball with their eyes. It went over Nom Nom's head, causing a whistle to blow. The actor had the first point, and Nom Nom was unhappy. He argued with the ref, saying things the brothers couldn't hear.

When he was done, the actor served the ball. It bounced perfectly in front of Nom Nom, but he swung and missed. That left the second point to the actor...and Nom Nom was raging.

"HE'S CHEATING!" Nom Nom screamed, a cry that echoed through the stadium. A few people laughed, and several more booed as Nom Nom once again argued with the ref.

"Man, if he keeps up like this, he'll get kicked off the court," Panda whispered.

"He deserves it at this point. The guy isn't cheating. He's playing tennis. Nom Nom is too busy being angry to actually play the game," Grizz argued.

"Ice Bear has no sympathy."

"Well I do. It's not an even match," Panda cried.

"It's a celebrity match with no real purpose. I bet the losers get prizes for their charities too. What charity is he playing for?" Grizz asked.

Panda used his phone to look it up, then to look up what the charity was about. He found a Wikipedia article and raised his eyebrow as he read through the information.

"It's his own charity," Panda said, turning to his brother, "but they've been under investigation for fraud and tax fraud ever since it was created. There's barely even anything to show for their efforts. See? That's the only recipient of help," Panda said, showing Grizz the phone.

"Whoa, I know that guy. He's a family member of Nom Nom's, some cousin. They did a few videos together a while ago, but I heard the cousin is in jail for something," Grizz said, turning back to the game.

While they talked, the actor got five more points, and now Nom Nom was going nuclear. He launched his racket into the stands, narrowly missing hitting a woman in the face. Her husband angry pointed to Nom Nom and screamed something that looked a lot like "SECURITY!", but there were too many other screams to tell.

Nom Nom was done, but so were the fans. If that's how he was going to act over losing, he had to go. And the ref agreed, blowing his whistle and gesturing. Suddenly two buff guards appeared, and even more showed up in the stands.

Cheers erupted as Nom Nom was dragged off the court. The actor won by default, and the brothers watched as he thanked his fans and mentor again at the end.

Then an announcer said exactly what Grizz expected: If Nom Nom had actually stayed in the match, he would've received ten thousand dollars per round for his charity. This was much less than the million-dollar grand prize for winning the final match, but it was still something for his recipients.

Instead he was barred from future celebrity sporting events, and the lady he almost hit wanted a lawsuit. The brothers missed this, however, because they decided to go play tennis themselves. As they expected, as long as you were patient and kept trying, you could play the game decently.

~end

Theme 106: Sportsmanship, Theme 101: Tennis, Theme 105: Losing. Themes from my Infinite Theme List. See my deviantArt profile for the full list.

One-shot 19 of 100 for 2017.

I think this is officially my first We Bare Bears fic (that I've posted). I wrote a longer fic for NaNo 2015 but never posted it, namely because it's still unfinished, so this is now my first. I love this show so much, but I obviously can't stand Nom Nom. He reminds me of so many bad celebrities, and I could see this happening with one of them though I had no one in mind when I wrote this, even for the actor that played well. It entertained the brothers though, and I hope this entertained you all as well. Thanks for reading.