Street Fighter

Cars and Commitments

Early the next morning I quietly got up out of bed and got dressed, not bothering with a shower because I knew I would be sweaty again in no time at all.
Sneaking out the house not caring about leaving a note I grabbed my keys and walked out to my car. I had a old burnt orange torana which I had saved up for using the money I had earned from winning my fights and running errands for neighbours over the course of four years before finally having enough money to buy her.
Being the little mechanic that I am I was not satisfied with a stock standard car and over the years have slowly modified my baby.
She has a serious camber on all four wheels and a little drift pig at the back of the car and several stickers from various car clubs I have joined and raced for. I have replaced the exhaust at the back of the car and removed the muffler so now you can hear her purr.
Hopefully in a few years time I will be able to afford a supercharger for her when my licence will allow it. I also have a couple of my own mods inside the car, including a sub woofer and bass boosted stereo system, wrap around seats and a new shiny purple gear stick knob.

Okay so maybe looking at me you wouldn't think I had once wanted to be a mechanic or a drifter or race car driver but everybody has to have a hobby.
Obviously my car is not the sort of car you want to be drifting in but she can race, and she can pull off the quarter mile in a semi reasonable time. Then again all the races I participated in were racing against old cars that could be bought cheap and modified.
None of us were that rich and I wasn't able to participate in higher level racing until I earned more money and bought a more suitable car. It was only in my spare time anyway and using the garage at the local mechanics store.
I ran him errands and helped around the shop in my spare time and in return he trained me, helped me work on my car and provided all of the tools that I needed.

I slowly rolled out of the driveway trying not to make any noise which would wake the occupants of the household. Once out on our street I dropped the clutch and went screaming down the road.
Currently, since I haven't had any fights lately I had been trying to avoid driving my car since I couldn't really afford petrol. But since I had to be there so early this morning and didn't have the energy to run I chose to drive my car.
I had missed driving her, the freedom that came with just being able to get in the car and drive. I looked at the clock on my stereo as I pulled up outside of the door into the gym.
5:01am
One minute late. I jumped out of the drivers seat, grabbed my phone and my bag off of the backseat, quickly locked the car and with one last glance back at her I raced through the doors right into Ash.

She was standing there with her hands on her hips, glaring at me. "You're late" she stated, managing to make me feel like she was looking down at me even though I was a good couple of centimetres taller than her.
"My apologies Sensei" I said sincerely and formally bowing to her as a student does to a teacher. In these circumstances it was best to humble myself in order to avoid her famous wrath.
Glancing from my gym bag to my attire and back again she said pointing "get changed, I'll meet you in there in two minutes and don't be late again."
Sprinting off down the corridor and into the female change rooms I was shedding outer layers as I ran. My jumper, beanie, shoes and socks all came off in a flurry as I rushed around trying to get changed.

Rapidly swinging my bag as I was running down the hallway and into the room where Ash was standing in the centre, waiting for me.
Placing my bag down on the floor I got out the tape for my hands and boxing mitts and shin pads. By the time I was finished wrapping my hands and donning my protective gear used for training my heart had slowed down and I was ready.
"Took your time" her voice echoed around the wooden room, empty but for the training equipment. "Now, we are counting down towards your fight and you need to get back in shape" she said stalking around me like a lion eyeing off its prey.
"You will be here in the morning every working day and everyday after school. On Saturdays you will come in in the afternoon to train with the group and we will be rotating trainers and training schedules to widen your knowledge and techniques and give you a better chance."
I gaped at her mentally like she was crazy, but in reality I just stood there, firm and unmoving, nodding my head when it was appropriate.

"For your warm up, I want you to go out and run three laps of the block. Record your time and improve it by a minimum of one minute every day.
I wasn't stupid, I knew that three laps of the block was approximately five kilometres. In my current fitness I could probably run it in about thirty five minutes but if I pushed it out to about forty minutes the first time I maybe wouldn't die.
Then again Ash wasn't stupid either, she just looked at me with that knowing look. "I have known you for almost six years now do not think you can pull the wool over my eyes."
"Now get out there and run three laps of the block and I want to see you back in here again in half an hour or you will be doing burpees non stop for every minute you are late."
Groaning I trudged through the door into the cold, dreary morning air and started to pick up pace. Setting the timer going on my watch I jogged off letting my mind wander so as not to feel the pain that was to come.
Two and a half laps later I looked at my watch, blinking a couple of times to make sure I was reading the time right. I still had about three quarters of a kilometre and had five minutes to do it in.
Struggling to ignore the pain I jogged faster, constantly one foot after the other after the other. As I rounded the corner for the last time and could see the turn off for the gym I increased my speed once more.
I could mentally imagine myself having to push out even three minutes worth of burpees was a nightmare and was enough motivation required to push me over the door step and collapsing on the floor with two seconds to spare.
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