542 Words

Chapter Seven

*flashback*

As I walked into Dynamic Divas in Defense Academy, I heard Instructor Shea Shavez talking to all the students. I quickly walked into the Academy and got my black leggings, white tee, and black combat boots on, so that I was ready for the training. I had been training under Instructor Shavez for 3 years. As I was putting my shoes on, my phone started to buzz. Pulling it out quickly I saw it read Ryan Krauf on the screen. My fingers hovered over the green accept button, until Instructor Shavez saw me, and called me over. I hit decline, telling myself I would send him a text later. As I walked into the room, the smell of sweat drifted toward me. I cracked a quick grin, and took my place next to my best friend, Evelyn Osgrove. She turned to me and smiled.

"Hey Woman!" She said to me, quietly. We both learned the hard way that, while Instructor Shavez might be a great teacher, she does not tolerate talking when she is talking. Thankfully, she doesn't hear Evelyn talking to me.

"Hey yourself!" I reply happily. She raises an eyebrow at me.

"Since when are you so perky, today?" She asks me suspiciously. Darn those best friends who know what your thinking, when your thinking it, and also seem to know ALL your emotions. I laugh at her suspiciousness.

"Oh, Evy. You'll know when you get a boyfriend!" I say wisely. "That is, if you ever get one." She shoves me over, and I almost knock into a the girl beside me. Instructor Shavez has her back to us, so she doesn't see the exchange between Evy and I. I look at her and then begun to laugh silently. I put my foot out as we do high-knees and she almost trips over. I snort, and then cover my mouth hoping it wasn't noticeable.

Instructor Shavez turns to us and says, "We are going to use the big punching bags hung from the ceiling. I want you to do 5 minutes continuous and then after you have done that, come over to where I am and we will begin the next exercise."

I went back to my bag and put tap on my hands to keeping them from bleeding and blistering. I walked back over to the red punching bag, Evelyn to my left on the green one. The different colors mean a different weight and size. I began to punch it, putting all my weight into it. By the time Instructor Shavez called time, I barely could feel my arms. I stretched a little as I walked over to where the group was gathering. Instructor Shavez to pick a partner and begin the simple blocking method. Evelyn and I stood a little ways out from the rest of the group so we could talk and practice at the same time.

"Did you see the news?" Evelyn asked me while blocking my punch to the face. "It turns out that the Russian Embassy was set on fire. They don't know the culprit yet, but I have a pretty good idea who it is."

"Oh god. It's Ryan." I groan and almost don't block her punch to the stomach. "He is so dense sometimes."

Evelyn laughs a short sound, muffled by the hard breathing of both of us. It is an extra hard workout today. Instructor Shavez calls time and tells us to come into the circle.

"We are going to work on going from a flip to a crouch." She tells us. Everyone groans, knowing this is the hardest exercise Instructor Shavez will teach us. She demonstrates for us and does it perfectly, unlike some of the other people in here. I have been working on this move for a year and it has come in handy a few times. I did it and landed in a perfect crouch much to the dismay of my muscles. Landing on already sore muscles is really painful, but I grit my way through the pain. I put my hand down to steady myself before leaping to my feet.

"Ms. Ashide." Instructor Shavez says to me. "Did I tell you to go yet?" She looks very stern and most people would believe that she is, but I have been with her long enough to know that look in her eyes. It is the look of pride and it shows in her eyes and all over her face.

"No ma'am." I say casting my eyes down in pretend shame. "I'm sorry ma'am." I feel Evelyn's shoulders shaking and nudge her. Evelyn is silently giggling to my left, her hand covering her mouth in order to keep silent. Instructor Shavez reprimands me, "Next time, wait until you are told to do something."

"Now, we will begin the drill. Everyone get into a circle. I want one person to go at a time, when I point at you, you will do the flip. Remember, I expect nothing less than perfect." Instructor Shavez tells us. We all get into a circle arms length apart and wait for the Instructor to point at us. Me, being close to the end have to watch everyone else do their flip first. I watch as Evelyn does a perfect flip, landing on her feet in a crouch without putting a hand down. As she gets up, I shoot her a thumbs up and mouth "good job" to her.

As the next person goes my mind starts to drift back to Ryan. I'm trying not to think to hard about him, "he always does these things" I tell myself sternly. I remember my mom telling me not to get caught up in boys and think harder about academics. I almost laugh if she was to see me now. I immediately sober up, noticing that it is almost my turn. Mom... Mom... Mom... I can't get her out of my head now. She haunting my thoughts with a simple smile, her hair flowing behind her as I chase her trying to get to the cake she just baked.

"Grace? Grace... GRACE!" I hear someone yelling at me, snapping their fingers in front of my face. I shake my head in attempt to get back to real life. Everyone is staring at me concerned. Evelyn is looking at me in a funny way. I turn to face the front and almost jump back. Instructor Shavez is standing right in my face, her eyes widened. "It's your turn..."

"What?" I say confused.

"You're supposed to do your flip now." She says impatiently. "I don't have all day, Ashide." I almost smack myself. Of course, the flip. How could I forget? I crouch down low, getting rid of all thoughts except for perfecting the flip. I launch myself into the air, do a perfect flip and land down in a crouch. My muscles start to give way, so I quickly stand up.

"Nice job, Ashide! You're learning qui-", She was cut off by a phone ringing. Evelyn looks down embarrassed. "We'll go on, please, answer it. It's getting quite annoying." Evelyn taps the green button and barks into the phone a hello. She turns pale and says something to me.

"It's Alec." She whispers.

"What? Why is he calling? Don't you have is number?" I ask quickly.

"He wants to talk to you." Evelyn says turning paler by the second.

"Um, okay." I say and take the phone. "What do you want, Alec. I'm in the middle of training."

"I think this is more important, Grace." He says gravely.

"What is it? I ask confused.

"It's Ryan." He says slowly, and I can tell it's not good. " We can't find him. We found some of his clothes and then a trail of blood that we're followi-" Alec gasps and the phone makes a loud smacking sound. I assume it's been dropped.

"Alec?" I ask concerned. "Alec, is everything okay?"

"It's Ryan." He says breathlessly between gasps of air. "He's... He's dead."

I drop the phone and run to the nearest bathroom. All the contents of my stomach come pouring out into the toilet. I wipe my mouth on a kleenex and return to the training center. Evelyn is looking at me concerned, her eyebrows are knit together. I can tell that she doesn't know what happened, but she has an idea.

As I pass her to get to my stuff I say in a low, hoarse voice, "Ryan's dead. Alec found his body." I hear her gasp and stumble back. Ryan was a big part of our group, and Evelyn knows that without him, we may not be able to keep doing attacks on buildings like we were. I go to my bag a grab my phone. I see three missed calls and two voicemails from Ryan and four from Alec. I can't listen to the voicemails from Ryan yet, hearing his voice would just be to hard. I put my phone back in my bag, and put on my coat. Grabbing my bag, I head out of the center, to go home a get more information.

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