The Divine Twelve (Urban-Fantasy)

Chapter one: Disoriented

"Nicely done Penelope." a brown-skinned male praised. "Now I'm going to come at you with this imitation knife."

The group of women cheered as Penelope watched her instructor pull a toy knife from his bag. She readied herself, pushing her curly black shoulder-length hair from her face. As he charged at her Penelope moved forward slightly, grabbing hold of his wrist and knocking the weapon from his hand. She then turned to her side, throwing her elbow into his chest.

"Oh, ight then...you've improved from where you were last year." The mentor stated while rubbing his chest. 

"Well, it's all thanks to you, Mike," Penelope replied looking up at the man, smiling slightly.

"Don't be modest you've come this far on your own... right class?" Mike asked, prompting the women to agree. "Alright class that will be all for today."

Penelope sighed before walking off toward the changing rooms in the studio. Once inside she noticed women walking around, removing their clothing and revealing their bodies.

"Why is everybody here right now?" Penelope questioned, squeezing past two girls. 

"Ugh, everyone is so much smaller than I am." Penelope thought as she walked to her locker, grabbing her bag inside. She went to find a suitable corner, and sat on the bench, pulling out her phone. She spotted a text from her mother.

"When you're finished with your self-defense class go get Sahir from his taekwondo practice so ya can get those school supplies ya needed. Cause it will be yall's first days at these new schools and I want ya to be prepared" the message said.

"Got it. Did you put the money in my bank account?" Penelope replied. Within moments her phone vibrated.

"Girl, didn't I just tell yo ass to get the supplies?" Her mother said.

"Okay okay, I was just making sure... sheesh. You ain't say you deposited the money," Penelope replied looking up to see that she was alone in the room. She stood quickly and was hit with a wave of dizziness. 

"Dammit Nel why the fuck did you stand that fast? Stupid low iron." Penelope thought to herself. When she got herself together she proceeded to change out of her training attire. She pulled on her pair of black ripped skinny jeans, sucking in her stomach to button them. Penelope then put on her plain black T-shirt and began to rub lotion into her light caramel-colored skin. After moisturizing her skin she exited the locker room and exited the building. 

Twenty minutes later Penelope walked into a gym a few blocks away from her mentor's studio. She walked in to see the entire class seated against the wall. Penelope looked over to see her brother standing before his taekwondo master. 

"Sahir it is my honor to present you with your first-degree black belt." The master said as he held out a belt for Sahir. The deep brown-skinned boy grabbed the belt and shook the hand of his teacher. 

"Thank you sensei." Sahir grinned, putting his fist to an open palm and bowing. He raised his head and excitedly took the belt from his teacher's hands. The class clapped and Sahir tied the belt around his white dobok. 

"We'll meet tomorrow at 4 PM. You all start school tomorrow, and you all know I encourage you all to focus on your studies." The head of the dojo said. "You all have a good night. And good luck with the first day of class." 

Sahir pulled out his sneakers from his book bag and began putting them on as the class filed out for the day. Penelope walked up to him and grinned. 

"Oh? So we're a black belt now are we?" She said in a teasing tone, running her hands through his mass of kinky curls. Sahir shook his head before smiled up at his older sister.