Orphaned at the age of 5, Aria Drakos is taken in by her parent's friends Charlie and Renee Swan. Shortly after, Renee leaves with their 4-year-old daughter Bella, leaving you with Charlie. But that is fine with you, since you not really 5 years old...
We are a small group, only six of us in the martial arts class. That's to be expected though, a combination of being in a small town and in an advanced group. Honestly, I'm surprised there are even this many of us. So, we do the combination again, just as asked. It is a great class today; I love the days where the class gets to learn new things.
Of course, I'm cheating since I already know so many combat methods from my first two resurrections. But hey, whatever gives me a leg up in each world, I take it.
"Aria, ease up a bit, I'm gonna bruise or break if you keep hitting me that hard!" Alan, one of my best friends, whines at me. He is currently on the receiving end of the new combo I am giving him. I may have been spacing out and accidentally using a little too much force on him. But, that doesn't stop the wicked grin from forming on my face.
"Oh come on, that just means you need to defend better. Or go get the arm pads that the beginners need to use. Either way, you're still getting beat up by little old me." I tease him in my naturally husky, slightly accented voice. My accent is mostly American, but still carries a faint trace of my old British accent with a little bit of the Greek accent my father in this life used to have.
Alan scoffs at me, we both know I'm better than him at martial arts, and he usually has to remind me to ease up on him. Which always makes me laugh, because even though I'm 5'6" and still growing, he is already 6', and has a good 50 pounds on me of muscle.
These conversations we have always remind me of training back with my little brother Tim from my second resurrection. Timmy was stronger and taller than me, but always whined at me to ease up on him when sparring.
"Alright class, that's enough for today!" Sensei says. We all stop and turn towards him and bow out of respect to the teacher.
"So, what are you doing the rest of the day? Lily has band practice until 6, you wanna come over and hang out until dinner?" Alan asks. I often go over to his place after classes, which are twice a week at the local martial arts dojo. We have been in classes together for the last 10 years, so we tend to create some routines with each other during that time.
"Can't, sorry. I'm heading over to the res now to hang out." I inform him happily, excited to see my boys soon. "I already finished up that paper for English earlier, so I'm spending the afternoon on the beach with my boys before it gets too cold and rainy! I'll catch you at school tomorrow though." I say as I wipe off the sweat from the class.
We both get changed and head out then. I hop on my bike as he walks to his car he shares with his twin sister, Lily. It seems I'm always destined to be around twins, it happens in every life. I'm best friends with both Lily and Alan, and have been ever since 1st grade here. I remember, I had spotted them in the crowd on the first day and target locked on them, laughing that I always needed some twins to hang out with.
"I'll see ya later then! Have fun!" Alan says getting into his old SUV.
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