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Odessa had been calling and texting Tory the rest of the day but each time, she didn't answer. She tried keeping a strong face for Robby when she saw him but on the inside, Odessa was confused. She was concerned. Maybe Tory was just taking a personal day like she said, maybe a mental health day. In that case, she understood completely that she'd want space. She just wanted her for answer one text.
She and Hailey decided not to train together so they would be surprised on the day of their fight. After school, she went home with Eli and Grayson so they could train together. "Nothing being thrown at you guys, no koi ponds, just the safety of our own backyard," Christian told them.
Grayson pointed at the pool. "If I end up in there somewhere, I'll officially declare myself as a merman."
"No bro, you're just accident prone," said Eli and he laughed.
He scoffed at their laughter. "I am not."
"Oh please. Remember that time on my mom's birthday when we sang happy birthday to her and you slipped and dropped the cake?" Odessa brought up, Eli bursting out laughing.
Christian broke out into an amusemed smile. "Really? You did that?"
"Okay, fine. I'm accident prone. Can we just train already?" Grayson grumbled.
"Sure thing, Aquaman," Eli answered and he and Christian high fived.
Odessa smiled and laughed to herself.
"Now I could be like Johnny and teach you the hard hitting stuff right off the bat. And there's nothing wrong with that. But the approach I always liked to take when I would fight is make my opponent see me as weak before I show them all of what I can do," the man explained to them.
"Did it work?" Eli asked him.
Christian grinned. "It won me my first ever All Valley," he told the boy. "Kata works in the beginning—" he started demonstrating kata, slowly folding his arms in front of him and steadying his breathing.
Odessa inhaled a breath and folded her arms in front of her body, bringing her left arm back and keeping her right one in front of her. Then she switched them.
"And then slowly, you can transition—" Christian brought both of his arms back to him, keeping his elbows locked in. Then, he punched hard with his right fist. "–into the fury."
The three teenagers mimicked his movements. Odessa threw two punches and mimicked her dad's side kick with his left leg.
"That's good. See? Both methods can work in a fight," Christian said once he faced them. "Gray, come on up."
Grayson stepped forward with one long stride and they stood in front of each other.
