Hatred With Passion

Chapter 1: At The Diner

"Three...two...one...KICK!"

I gathered all my strength and flexibility and sent a kick right at Ewan's head, and he immediately swooped low and dodged my attack. He'd been dodging almost all my attacks for the past hour, and I wouldn't let him keep it up any longer. I brought my leg to his right knee and before his mind could predict what I would do, I swiftly changed the position of my foot and sent a kick to the back of his knees.

"Argh!" He fell to his knees and I clasped his hands behind him, and pushed him forward, sending him face first into the sand. It took all my effort to keep him pinned to the ground, but if I did for 5 seconds, the fight would be over. My father started the countdown.

"Five!"

Ewan started desperately kicking sand into my face. I coughed, and looked the other direction.

"Four!"

Ewan still kicked, but soon noticed I had stopped coughing, and his tactic wasn't working. So he stopped.

"Three!"

Ewan now began wriggling like an animal struggling to free itself from its captors, but I didn't let go.

"Two!"

Ewan resolutely kicked this time, and tried unclasping his hands, but I would not let go.

"One!"

Ewan gave up.

"And we have a winner!" my father cheered.

I immediately released Ewan, and fell on the sand next to him, exhausted. He quickly sat up, and started dusting the sand off his face and hair, as he broke into a coughing fit.

"That was a struggle, Melodi, but a well-deserved victory. Keep it up! You two, Ewan. You do merit the title of my best student. Practice is over for today!" My dad said, as he left us to catch our breaths.

I glanced at Ewan, who was still coughing, and couldn't retain my giggles. He was a great fighter after all, and this was one of the rare occasions I had taken him down in a duel.

"Are you okay? Should I get you some water?" I asked, in between laughs.

His cough subsided after a little while, then he took a deep breath and looked at me as if about to say something serious, and I know Ewan long enough to know it was more likely to not be anything important.

I stopped laughing.

"What?" I asked.

"Don't ask the adversary if he's okay," he said, feigning an intimidating tone. I resumed laughing.

"And most importantly, laughing at your BFF has terrible, terrible repercussions," he warned, lowering his voice to add to the effect.

"Like?" I asked, amusement lacing my voice.

"Would you like a demonstration?" he asked, smirking.

"Stop pretending it's a big deal."

"It most certainly is!" he yelled, as he threw two handfuls of sand at me.

"Hey!"

I noticed he was gathering sand and putting it in his pockets, so I took off running. In a matter of seconds, I was being followed by him, in my parents' huge compound.

"Mother! Help! Mom!" I cried for my mother, that I saw at my bedroom's balcony, while I ran, giggled, and was struck by sand sometimes. She smiled down at us.

"Don't you two get tired?" she hollered.

"Mom! Please - aaah!" I screamed, as a ball of sand landed straight in my black hair. I slowed down, as I shook my hair to get the sand out of it. My hair was a mess now, and some of the strands were in my face, obstructing my vision. I stopped running altogether, and plopped down on the grass. Ewan quickly caught up to me, fist raised with sand inside.