Street Fighter

Reigning Confusion

As the bell rang for the end of school the next day I was thrust out of my daydream and into the real world once more. I groaned, burying my head in my hands.

I had gotten no sleep last night, despite going onto the roof. Even once I returned to my room I could not escape this world that night and tossed and turned into the early hours of the morning.

Burned in my mind was the image of the strangers piercing blue eyes, and the note from the old man which was still safely tucked into my pocket, unopened.

'What do they want with me?' I wondered to myself. Raising my head I realised that the classroom was now empty and I was all alone. As I collected up my books and attempted to stuff them into my bag I sensed another presence entering the room.

Lily...

Snapping my head up I let my eyes burn into her bowed head as she cautiously made her way over to me. There was no teacher in the room as he had gone to collect his stuff from his office.

I did not want to speak to her, especially in my current state of mind. Besides if I was late to this training Ash would seriously flip out at me. My first fight was tomorrow and she had been relentlessly conditioning me.

Rudely shoving past her and pretending she was not there I headed straight for the door. "Wait" I heard her voice, barely more than a whisper call out after me.

Ignoring it I continued my stride right out the door and into the still crowded hallway full of students trying to exit this hellhole. Using my dominance and height to my advantage I ploughed my way through the crowd.

It was only after I had left the double doors that I realised I had a couple of tag alongs who had trailed behind in my wake and escaped with me.

I just smiled at them and continued on to my car. Opening the drivers seat door, I flung my bag into the back and started the engine not bothering about balancing the clutch and relishing the sound of the exhaust as I floored the accelerator and perfectly executed a hundred and eighty degree turn in order to exit the carpark. As I drove my mind was racing with everything I had to remember. I would be graduating in a couple of weeks, my first fight was next week, I had a compulsory check up with a doctor the day after graduation and I had promised I would help out in the garage over the weekend.

Great, I hated being overly busy.

Pulling up in front of the gym I noticed several other cars parked alongside the entrance. Opening the gym doors I heard a loud commotion coming from downstairs, along with a lot of yelling orders.

Jogging over to the stairwell inside of the gym and pulling off the cover a huge plume of dust rose to met me and I started coughing and spluttering. All of a sudden the ruckus stopped and Ash's voice called out to me "is that you Rogue?"

Once I had recovered I managed to confirm that it was in fact me, and within a couple of seconds she was walking up the stairs to meet me. I stood up and embraced her in a hug, even though she was absolutely covered in dust and filthy. "Come on down and help" Ash said as we seperated. I cocked my head at her confused, and she just laughed.

"The fights start again tomorrow remember silly?" she said still laughing, "and unless you plan on fighitng the dust bunnies I suggest you pick up a broom and start cleaning!"

Several hours later and well into the night we were able to sit down on the floor and eat our dinner without worrying about moving slowly so as not to raise more clouds of dust. I wouldn't go as far as to say that I would eat off of the floor but it would certainly do for the fights.

"Be here at 9:30pm tomorrow night okay Rogue?" Ash said and drew my attention to where she was sitting with one of the other trainers. I nodded, my fight wasn't until 10pm so hopefully that would give me some time to warm up.

My next problem was figuring out how to get out of the house without anybody realising I was breaking curfew. But hey, everybody else does it and are still alive, I should be fine. Its not like I haven't done it before.

The next day went fast, school was blur and I had managed to sneak into the dance room during my lunch and recess break to practice. I used the mirror in there to critique my style and perfect my moves. By the end of break I was hot and sweaty but none the less nervous.

The last lesson of the day was chemistry and luckily we were doing a practical, hopefully that would take my mind off of things. I completely zoned out while the teacher was calling out our partners and so I was very surprised when a new guy walked over to me. "Hey umm, my name is Luke. I think I am supposed to be your partner?"

Snapping out of my stupour I looked up at him. He was reasonably tall, had shaggy light brown hair and bright gray eyes. "I'm Bryn" I said standing up and walking past him and over to our bench.

"That's a nice name, have I met you before? I'm sure I would remember a pretty face like yours" he said as he walked over to join me.

"Nice try new guy, but those kind of lame pick up lines don't work on me" I shot back and began setting up on the  bench, now completely ignoring him. "Oh, playing hard to get are we?" he whisphered, his breath fanning across the back of my neck. I had no idea that he had moved in behind me and  before I could stop myself I had ducked down and launched a punch at his nose.

Catching myself I managed to stop before I actually hit him but I was only inches away and I watched in satisfaction as his eyes widened in surprise. "Don't mess with me" I hissed before turning back to the work at hand.

Luckily he didn't bother me for the rest of the lesson but I could see that he was unhappy with  how the situation had turned out. Sure I felt a little bit sorry, I mean he was kinda cute but I wouldn't allow myself to get distracted and lose sight of the goal at hand. 

At the end of the day as I got into my car I got the feeling like somebody was watching me. Spinning around to see who it was I saw a figure quickly run around the corner of the building. Shaking my head I jumped into my car and drove home.