Project: High School

Chapter 4 - "I put a hole in the bag?!"

None of the men on the screen make a comment, they just sink deeper into their chairs. Katy's grandfather glares at the camera, effectively making the men shift in their seats.

Finally, one answers. "No. I'm not proud of what has been done, and I'm certainly not proud of the part I played."

The other men on screen nod their heads in agreement, each with a version of guilt on their faces.

"Aye. Me too."

"Amen to that, brother."

"Well then," Her Grandfather places his elbows on the desk edge. "I hope that this is enough for you to second guess everything you do when dealing with her."

The screen fills with nodding heads but the General holds his hand up. "I'm not done."

He waits a mere moment before continuing. "I never want to hear from Katy or my wife that you have treated her in this way again. EVER. Do you understand?"

"Yessir." Each man nods in confirmation, backing up their words.

He leans back in his chair. "Good. Now, we have other matter to pick apart, starting with....."

-- In the Gym --

Katy's fist slams into the punching bag, sending it swinging back. She shifts her feet and kicks the bag as it comes flying toward her. With a grunt, she stops the flying bag with both hands.

"Why? Why is it always me?" She snaps her head up and slams her fist into the bag, effectively starting its swinging pattern again. As it swings back toward her, Katy lashes out with her left foot, then her right foot, and, finally, both fists at once.

The double fist punch sends the bag flying back and forth at an impressive speed. For the next few minutes, each breath is joined by a fist burying itself into the bag. Hatred releases itself with each hit and the few who are in the gym watched with a mixture of fear and fascination.

Katy stops the bag, her breathing ragged, her head slightly spinning as she stumbles backward a few steps and plops herself onto the ground. After a moment of sitting on the ground, her arms give out underneath her and she ungracefully flops into her back. The coolness of the ground under her seeps through her damp tank, her body moving with each breath.

"Feeling better, Maze?"

"Hello there, Richerson. I feel quite fine, thank you very much."

"Your bloody knuckles and the sizable hole in the punching bag tells me otherwise."

Katy jerks her head up, "I put a hole in the bag?!"

After staring at the literal hole in the outer layer of the bag, Katy sinks her head back to the ground.

"Holy shit. I put a hole in the punching bag," She mutters. Her head slowly shakes, disbelief written on her features. Richerson snickers and holds a hand out toward Katy. Katy gives him a look before taking the hand and yanking him down on the ground with her.

"The hell!?" Richerson attempts to get back on his feet, but Katy swipes his feet out from under him each time he tries.

"What's the matter, Richy? The ground is rejecting you as well?" Katy bats her eyes innocently, looking at Richerson through her lashes. She holds the look for a moment more, but then starts to crack up at the look on his face.

Richerson grinds his teeth together, frustration seeping out of every pore, as he looks at Katy laying beside him. An idea sparks in his mind, and he grins like a madman before rolling into his side. He loops his arms around Katy's waist and pulls her closer, whispering softly in her ear, "I thank you for letting me get this close to you, darling."

Katy grins and, after pecking him on the nose, says, "I bet 50 bucks that 5 guys in this gym got turned on just from watching."

Richerson narrows his eyes, "I'll take that."

"Good." Katy pulls her knees to her chest and plants her feet on his chest. With one shove, Katy sends Richerson sliding across the floor a good 17 feet backward. And with a twisting flip, Katy lands on the balls of her feet, her hair flying in all directions.

She turns to look at the men who were watching her and grins. "Now, I need all of you to be honest," She pauses for a moment of suspense. "Raise your hand if watching that turned you on."

Shocked silence echo's through the whole gym as everyone state's wide eyed at her. Katy simply raises an eyebrow and looks at her empty wrist as if there's a watch on it. A few hands raise very timidly, the faces of said hand hidden behind others.

Richerson quickly counts the hands in the air and grunts. "Damn it."

Katy skips over to stand next to Richerson. "It seems like I won again, and now you owe me a total of 50 bucks."

She waits for a heartbeat, waiting to see if he had any protests, but he doesn't. Katy raises an eyebrow at the silence. "Nursing your pride, huh?"

Richerson huffs and shoves Katy's face out of the way. He stalks toward the door and starts talking. "Come on Katy, I want to talk to you outside."

Katy is frozen for a moment but quickly shakes it off, skipping to catch up with him. "If it's any help with nursing your pride back to health, I would like to settle this debt with a lunch date. Me, you, Grammy, and Gramps on our next off-base day."

She turns around as she's walking so that she can talk and walk with Richerson. "Will that help the healing process for your pride?"

"For fuck's sake, Katy! No! Having to take you guys out to lunch on our off-base day is not going to help heal my pride! If anything, it's just going to wound it even more."

A chorus of laughter and light chuckling echoes through the gym as the guys there make their way back to whatever they were doing before the two of them started up their shenanigans. The sound of weights clanking and the protesting of some of the older treadmills fill the air once again as the pair exit the gym and walk through the cooling air. The two fall into step with each other as a group of recruits walk past them, nodding in respect.

"What could possibly be so important that you couldn't talk about it in the gym, Richerson?"

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Sorry 'bout the delay with getting this part out. Something went wrong with the saving thing for the writing function and I lost a whole 400 something words cause of it. And my Motivation went, to quote, "Bye Bitch!"

Of all the inventions of the last 100 years, the dry erase board has to be the most remarkable.