Power

Training

Saturday went pretty normal. I spent most of the time in my room, doing homework and texting my friends (I was afraid they were gonna ask me a lot of questions, but they just wanted to know if I was feeling better- thank God). The Avengers said they were busy with conferences, so they weren't around that much. I went to bed pretty late that night, after taking a long bubble bath in the huge tub. It even had jacuzzi, so I knew I was gonna be in there for hours.

                                                                                               ****

I was sleeping peacefully when I heard a loud knock on the door. I startled, my heart rushing in surprise. It was dark outside, but I had no idea what time it was.

I heard the knocks again, even louder, like someone was trying to break down the door.

"Rise and shine, Hannah!" I heard a voice shouting.

I headed to the door, stumbling, and I opened it, just to see Nat standing there, smiling and full of energy.

"...What time is it?" I asked in a croaky voice, rubbing my eyes.

"6 am. Change into your workout clothes and do something about your hair. It's your first day of training and, starting today, you will be training everyday".

I yawned and groaned.

"Mmm...but it's Sunday...that's God's day, you know" I pointed out.

"You will train everyday if you want to be able to fight in at least 3 weeks".

"What if I wanna fight in 4 weeks?" I asked.

She did not appreciate my joke.

"Clothes. Now." she said, walking away.

"And what is wrong with my hair??" I shouted after her.

                                                                                           ****

I'm standing in a cold training room, wearing spandex shorts and a workout bra. I start shivering.

"I-I'm c-cold" I say, gritting my teeth.

"You'll warm up" said Nat. She was wearing pretty much the same outfit, but she wasn't close to turning blue like me.

We do some light stretching before getting into the workout. The stretching was terribly annoying, standing next to Nat who was really flexible, while I could barely touch my toes.

We go over to the punching bag and she teaches me some good punching techniques which I'm now planning on using on my future enemies.

She hits the bag hardly.

"Woah" I said. "You're strong".

She smiles softly.

"You're turn" she says.

I stand in front of the punching bag. A technique she taught me was to think of bad memories before hitting, so I would get angry. I thought of the girls in my dorm. The way they hit me. The way there were too many of them and I couldn't fight back. I felt the anger rising inside of me. I got really heated, my face burned, my teeth clenched. I pictured their face on the punching bag and I hit as hard as I could. Again and again and again. All I could hear were the satisfying thumps as my knuckles hit the leather.

Sweat was pouring down my face, but I didn't stop. It was like I forgot anything or anyone else. All I wanted to do was hit the bag, so I did. I would sometimes groan in anger and hit harder. 

When my knees and hands were to weak to function anymore, I collapsed on the floor breathing heavily. I felt exhausted, but better.

I forgot Nat was there. Gee, I wondered what she was thinking about me right now. That I was a danger because of anger issues? Probably.

"Good punch" was all she said before we moved on to lifting weights.

The training was really hard and intense and it lasted for about 2 hours. I was sweaty and tired and my whole body felt sore, but I felt happy inside. Like I had just cleared my brain of thoughts and became stronger.