The next day was the first day of training after the Christmas holidays. I had met some of Sharlet's friends but she wasn't close with them. She confessed that she didn't exactly like them; they were just a handful of the very few girls here. But Sharlet assured me that she actually liked me.
I had met Alex' friends and enjoyed their company, excluding the teasing about my height, of course. They were all tall and muscular. They constantly asked me for a fight because they hadn't seen it yet but I refused, telling them they would see soon.
Sharlet and I were walking down the halls in training clothes. I was wearing three quarter black leggings and a black spaghetti strap singlet. I put my hair in a bun so it wouldn't get in my way and wore a plain black headband. I also had my new white and blue sneakers on.
"How can you look so good in training clothes? It's so unfair." Sharlet complained.
I laughed. "Don't worry. I'm just talented." She shook her head as we entered a huge gym room. One half of the room was just covered in a blue mat, the other half was filled with all sort of exercise things like treadmills, weights, boxing bags, that sort of thing.
"Awesome!" I exclaimed. Sharlet chuckled.
"Yeah." Sharlet admitted. The place was underground so we went down the stone staircase and reached the bottom where other teenagers were waiting. I spotted Alex and some of his friends. There were four. Two were identical twins. The twins had flaming red shaggy hair and freckles, but were six-foot. Their eyes were bright blue. Their names were Jayden and Hayden. One of the other ones, Will, was Asian with black shaggy hair and dark grey eyes. The last one was Remon, he was African-America with black hair and chocolate brown eyes.
"Hey, guys!" I greeted them. They all looked up and grinned simultaneously.
"Good morning, Shortie!" They yelled back in unison. I narrowed my eyes.
"You better hope you're not with me for fighting." I muttered to myself. Sharlet laughed and said she was going to go and talk with her other friends. I politely said I wouldn't join because they weren't my favourite people. She just laughed and walked off.
"So, you wanna join us again for a prank?" The twins asked together. I got used to them always knowing what the other was about to say or what they were thinking. They reminded me of the Weasley twins from Harry Potter.
"Sure!" I said instantly. I loved doing pranks. They were so fun. They both laughed but as a huge bulky guy came down the stone staircase, they silenced themselves. The bulky man was at least six-foot seven and was nearly one hundred percent muscle. He had slightly tanned skin and dark brown shortly trimmed hair. He looked very intimidating.
"Okay! It comes to my attention we have a new person here! Raise your hand!" He barked loudly. People visibly jumped. I raised my hand and kept my chin held high.
"I'm Madeline Fray." I said in a bored voice. He narrowed his eyes at me.
"Okay! Show us what you got! Phillip! You'll be versing this girl at fighting on te mat! Go!" He barked out. We hurried to the mat and everyone else followed, eager to see me finally fight. There was a smaller square line created on the mat and we took opposite corners.
"Go!" The bulky man barked out again. I rolled my eyes and went forward. Remon and I started circling each other. He came at me and I got on the balls of my feet and pushed myself off, flipping straight over Remon's head. He turned back around and I smiled smugly. He came at me again and I ducked, grabbing his right leg and pushing it up, making him fall to the matted ground. He groaned and stood up again.
"You lost your touch, eh?" I taunted him. He narrowed his eyes in frustration and came at me again. I analysed his moves and he went for my left side. I knew he was going to go for the right side though and grabbed his left arm with my right hand and elbowed him in the jaw with my left arm. He groaned and clutched his face. I took this advantage and put both my hands behind his head, clutching them together and I kneed him in the stomach, and then slammed his face against my leg. He fell to the ground, groaning louder than before. He clumsily got back up and stumbled at me, probably trying to attack me. I tilted my head to the side. He got a ruler length away from my face when I whipped both my hands up and smacked both of my palms against the sides of him head as hard as I could without giving him brain damage. He fell down to the mat, unconscious. Clapping erupted from the sidelines of the mat. I walked back over to them, slightly puffing. I smiled at the bulky man.
"Who's the best here?" I asked him. He gaped.
"Uh, Alex." He stuttered out. I turned and grinned at Alex.
"Up for a challenge, little boy?" I questioned. He smirked.
"Bring it!" And he shrugged off his jacket. He was wearing a black singlet with trousers. He nearly made me drool. I swallowed. This is no time to admire someone's gorgeous looks, I scolded myself. We got into the corners of the square and I crouched, grinning evilly at Alex. He stuttered a smirk back. I shook my head at his feeble attempt to frighten me.
"Go!" Bulky man barked. I was really getting sick of him barking like a dog. But, nevertheless, we went at each other. I had this strange need to not hurt Alex, though. He inched closer slowly. We circled each other, getting closer to each other as we did so. We were a meter apart when he lunged for me. I rolled my eyes and ducked, sticking out my arm. As he was still lunging through the air, I grabbed his leg and with as much force as possible, I pushed him, flipping him through the air. He landed with a thud on the mat. He got back up quickly. I could tell by his tensing muscles that he was about to turn around and pushed off the balls of my feet, propelling through the air over top of Alex's head. Alex had spun around by the time I quietly and gracefully landed behind him. He seemed to realize what I did by the time I had my hands around his neck, lifting me off the ground. I stuck my knee in between his shoulder blades. He shouted out. I pulled my hands towards myself, forcing him to arch his back. He lost him balance as he yelled and flailed through the air, towards the padded ground. I, of course, being on the bottom, got hurt the most. But I managed to twist myself a bit so he hit the ground on his side. I was careful not to break anything. He shouted out curses and I giggled, pinning both his hands behind his back.
"Okay! Okay! You win!" he shouted out, defteated. I grinned widely and jumped off him, doing a vicotry backflip. Alex was still lying on the ground, groaning. I skipped over to the gobsmacked people at the edge of the mat.
"Is he really the best you got?" I whispered loudly to Bulky Man. He was still staring at me.
"Uh. Well, yeah, uh, he is..." he stuttered out. I rolled my eys and stepped towards him.
"Do you mind telling me your name, Sir?" I asked, sticking out my hand. He took it and shook it.
"Saio Manton." He said and dropped his hand. Alex limped over.
"Damn it, girl! You got one hell of a knee." He grumbled. I suppressed a smile.
By all the students, Saio was called Manton, so I just went along with it.
"Okay!" he barked out, "I want a circuit! Two people at each station. A minute at each! Go!" We all scurried to a station. I shared with Alex. We started at weights.
Alex had taken it upon himself to try and beat me. But he had yet to win. We were at the treadmills and I was going at level sixteen, the highest possible. I ran with all my might. Alex was on level fourteen, not being able to run fast enough for fifteen. Manton blew his whistle loudly and we hurried off the treadmills and to the next station. Running again. We had to run from one side of the gym to the other wall. I was sprinting, absolutely pushing myself to the limit. Alex was panting loudly once we moved on to bench presses. I kept pushing myself, harder and faster.
The whistle blew again and we jogged our way to the boxing bags. We slipped on the gloves clumsily and started punching as hard as possible. I could hear Alex panting hard. But my breathing was controlled, a little laboured but not full out panting. Sweat was dripping from my forehead every few seconds, coating my whole body with it. My underarms were sweaty too along with my back and chest. Sweat was running down between my cleavage as I punched the boxing bag, hard. The whistle blew again after a minute, but this time it was long and final. We all made our way to the matted area and collapsed to the ground, panting hard. I moaned as I laid flat on my back.
"Damn! Was that one hell of a exercise or just my imagination?" Sharlet wondered aloud.
"You're right." I panted to her. She gasped out a laugh.
I wondered what lesson was next?
