Lover and a Fighter

Chapter 1

*ding dong*
"Kenna please go answer the door for me. It's your dad's friend he invited over to practice jujitsu," my mom yells over to me from the next room.
"Oh yeah, that Ace guy?"
"Yes, thank you."

As I walk to the door I'm thinking about what this person will look like. My dad is a big jujitsu fanatic. It's kind of my family's thing. My brother, Patrick, is in to all that stuff too. My dad always invited this 16 year old dude over to go to seminars and to practice with him. My dad owns a homeschooling business and he teaches kids in a building we had built in our backyard and a room at the end of our house that we made into a classroom. Ace is one of his students. One nice school day they just so happened to come across the topic of jujitsu- and well, they loved each other ever since. But what I keep asking myself is, what 16 year old boy wants to hang out with my 40 year old dad? Kinda weird.

"Hey you're Ace?" I say as I open the door- trying my best not to be awkward.
"No I'm Dylan," he says with a grin on his face.
I stare at him unsure of what to say. I've never seen eyes like his before. They are so many different colors I wouldn't know how to identify them. There is a blueish outer ring, then it turns more green, then a yellowish color. On half of the yellow part there are little splotches of orange. His eyes are beautiful and they are staring right back into mine. The way he is smiling makes me notice the chip in his left front tooth. He is a little under 6 feet tall (so still towering over all 5 feet of my short self). His dark brown hair is lightly moving from the wind outside. The few freckles on his cheeks and nose make him look younger.
"I'm kidding," he says as he breaks my few second pause and steps into my house.
"Where's Doc?" He asks me.
"Uh Doc? As in my dad? You can go meet him and my brother in the classroom. They already set up the mats."
I watch him walk to the classroom at the end of our house. He's wearing a tight black rash guard shirt for rolling and red and black, weird, flowy fight shorts.

I meet my best friend, Heather, back in my room. Before I was interrupted with meeting Dylan/Ace I was getting ready for a girl's night event at church.

"What you go do?" Heather asked as she swiped mascara onto her lashes.
"My mom wanted me to go open the door for my dad's friend."
"Oh yeah, isn't it that 16 year old dude?" She asked while chuckling but trying to move as little as possible so she wouldn't mess up her make up.
"Yeah, Ace. When I opened the door he told me his name was Dylan, so I just stood there really confused looking at him for a second. Dude I hope my face wasn't red. He probably thinks I'm an awkward freak," I say laughing at myself.
As Heather laughs at me again, I plug in my curling iron and wait for it to get hot.
"Wait," Heather starts, "you're talking about Ace Watson?" I nod at her while putting the first curl into my red hair.
"Oh my gosh I know that guy - well kinda. He had a thing with my old best friend. They like made out at a party or something. He used to be ugly and was known for being bad, but now I friended him on Facebook and he's all about Jesus and he looks a hundred times better."
"Well maybe I'll actually use Facebook for the first time in months and go creep on his page. I need a Jesus guy," I say laughing. The way I said this made it sound like I was kidding- but heather and I both know that I'm low-key boy crazy and he is a legit possibility in my mind now.
Heather looks at me and says, "so how are all your other boyfriends doing?"
"Oh they are the same. Richie is still stupid. Nick is still talking about how we should totally talk in person one day at school - as if he can't talk to me first or something. Trey is still flirting with me even though he is dating Hannah what's her face. Austin is still a boring texter and he's super flirty. Daniel is still texting me like everyday and we actually talk about stuff. He likes rock music a lot like us sooo I found that interesting. Uhhhh, who else? Oh, Cameron is still majorly flirting even though he is dating Alyssa. And it pisses me off to be honest but I'm gonna keep texting him because I'm stupid."
"Literally Kenna, that is like so many people I don't know how you keep up. It's like a joke. But hey, before I started dating John I was the exact same way so I can't blame you."
"Yeah exactly. If I had one awesome, loyal, trustworthy boyfriend then trusttttt me I'd stop talking to all these people. I feel like everyone cheats now-a-days and no one actually, genuinely cares about people enough. Like all people want now is sex and money hahah. But maybe this Jesus-loving Ace guyyyy," I say hinting that I'll try to talk to him.
"Hey you never know, yall could get married one day."
"Yeah right. I'm gonna marry my dad's fighty friend. Now that sounds bad," I say as I think to myself it's still a possibility.