Cards of Our Fate

The Training

I woke the next day to the smell of frying bacon. My body seemed to be on its on accord as I made my way down to the cafeteria. I was still hungry from not finishing my meal yesterday. 

Seeing Maybelle in line, I stepped forward to  approach her, but when Maybelle turned, I saw Lila. There wasn't a mark to tell she had been in a fight, unlike me, who carried a bruise on my cheek. Lila smiled a little, quite proud of the mark she had made. She glared at me under the smile, in an almost smug fashion. She seemed to be tempting me, seemingly wanting to make our fight public, She wanted to mark her territory, but I was the bigger man, and simply chose to go sit. I waited for the line to die down. I guess I still had a little Spades left in me.

A heavy hand fell on my shoulder, I looked up to see Matt. He smiled lightly down at me. I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could say anything, Matt set a plate full of bacon and flat cakes-like pancakes but made with different batter.

"Eat up!" Matt said, sitting down with his own plate of food, "I'll be training you, self-defense." He said before digging into his food like a pig, well, in comparison to what I always saw eating as. I was wondering what normal, or at least not Spades, eating looked like, when Matt slammed his hand on the table.

"Ah!" He said, before rubbing his stomach, "Good eating-well, for me." He said, eyeing my plate, "Eat faster or that's all your eating. We're on a strict schedule." He said, before becoming seemingly bored while I scarfed down the rest of my food.

"Okay, where to?" I asked, pushing my plate away, a worker came over and snatched our plates away. I watched as she dumped our plates out the window. I grimaced, I hope they aren't just piling garbage out there, I thought. I brought my attention back to Matt.

"Shad showed you yesterday, right?" He asked, leading me out of the room.

"The fighting ring? Yes, he did." I followed him as we went down the stairs-well, I did, Matt stomped down. He wasn't a big man, so I guessed he just did it for...effect?

"There's where we're going, kiddo." He pushed the door open and headed right to the boxing ring. 

I glanced at it before noticing something falling towards me. I looked up right in time to watched breakfast dishes fall towards me. It took only a second for them to reach me, and right before they smashed into my head, they turned to dirt. It ended with me getting dirt in my mouth and all over my face.

"Does it still taste like bacon?" Matt asked while losing his mind laughing. I spit out the dirt and shook my head, half to get the dirt off, and half to tell Matt, that it did not, in fact, taste like bacon. Kinda tasted like dirt.

Matt picked himself up from the ground after almost peeing himself. It took him a good minute to get the rest of the laugh out of him. He finally threw on the straightest face he had, a slight grin, before walking over to the training equipment. He leaned against the punching bag.

"Alright, cookie, punch it." He said, patting the bag, as if reassuring me that it was the bag he wanted me to punch, not him, or anything else.

"Um, ah, okay..." I said, giving the bag a little punch, nothing to be proud of, or even on to give any acknowledgment.  Matt blew out air, clearly unimpressed.

"Please, my four year old could fight better than that." He said, then patted the bag again, "Punch like a man." And thus I gave another pathetic punch, "Again," punched a little harder, "again," little harder, "again," little bit more, "AGAIN." hesitated, harder punch. This time Matt hung his head in shame of me, "Okay, I'll show you how to do this."

"Hold tight to it," Matt said, after pointing me behind the bag. He assumed the basic boxing stance, "Now, this is the fighting technique you'll be using, or the kind I'll be teaching. This is boxing, meaning punching and dodging. Do you understand that?" I nodded, "Good, now notice that you should always be moving, at least hopping a bit. Just hold you're fists in front of you, like I, then you'll be doing jabs." He proceeded to show me a jab, just a quick punch, but it still was powerful enough to move the bag a little. He stood normally.

"You try." He said, giving me the spot in front of the bag. I tried to stand like him, then tried to copy how he did the punch, he sighed. "Well, it's still an improvement."

We trained out there until lunch time, and by then I was hot, sweaty, and hungry. I didn't even wait for Matt when Maybelle came to bring lunch. I ate my sub immediately, and was drinking my water when Maybelle and Matt started chatting.

"So, how's training going?" Maybelle asked, sitting on the boxing ring like Matt and I.

"We have to start at the bare minerals, but she'll get it in no time." Matt said, elbowing me lightly in the shoulder. I involuntarily groaned, then immediately regretted it as Matt lost it, "Don't worry!" Matt said through his laughter, as he started to calm himself, "After lunch is stamina, like running, weight training, all that good stuff." I kept in the groan that time, wishing I had stretched my lunch break.

-

After doing all the exercises Matt had promised to Maybelle, I ate dinner in the cafeteria, where I just happened to bump into Warner. 

"Oh, hey there, can I sit?" I asked, indicating to the seat next to him.

"Hmm, oh yeah, sit down." He said, motioning to the seat next to me, seemingly lost in thought.

"Thinking 'bout something?" I asked, starting to eat the porridge that they had the night before. I thought back to the memory of the fight, but I was too sore to put much thought into it. 

"Oh, nothing important." He said, waving his hand as if to wave away his thoughts. "Anyway, how did training go?"

"Would it be well if I were sore all over?" I asked, before rubbing my shoulder for emphasis.  Warner chuckled a bit, before staring into his drink.

"So, what did you do?" Warner asked, before taking a long drink from his glass.

"We worked on my fighting, punches, then worked on my stamina...ah, hey are you listening?" I asked, as Warner started looking off into the distance, "Ah, hey, pilot to Warner." I said, waving my hand in front of his face.

"Oh. Sorry, I was just getting lost in my mind." Warner said, getting up from his seat, "Sorry to leave like this, but I've got to go now."

"But, wait..." I tried to say to Warner, but he got up and left before I could get him to listen to me. For a moment, I just sat there, wondering what was up with Warner, what was going on in his mind. I shook my head and left the cafeteria. 

I made my way to my room, I did a double check for Warner before going in, though. Just in case he wanted to tell me something, or explain the reason for his cold manner.

I went to bed with an uneasy feeling about Warner, or at least the way he was acting.