Hit Like A Girl

1 - Greer

Lights.

Camera.

Action.

These words are the only ones running through my head as I stepped from the curtains. The crowd screamed louder, I watched as my trainer and his assistant walked ahead of me. Body guards on either side of my shoulders, and two more behind me. Spotlights zoomed towards us a record speed, cameras panning back and forth.

"Ladies and Gentlemen..... Greer Steel!" The announcer called into the microphone.

Let me back it up, I am not a movie star. I'm a kickboxer. I don't preform to entertain, I fight to entertain. Sixteen years in the business got me this far, and will get me even farther if I keep pushing myself.

Back to the fight though. Championships, the hardest yet most exhilarating thing I've ever had to do. Year after year I found myself at these tournaments waiting to take another trophy home with me.

"Ready kid?" Dave, my trainer, gripped my shoulders and asked. I only nodded not ready to talk. I tightened the tape on my knuckles and shuffled my energetic feet. Just waiting to kick my opponent in the head.

"You listening to me kid?" He laughed.

"I'm twenty-one, Dave. I'm not a kid anymore," I gave him a smile as the assistant, Spencer, gave me my gloves.

"You're the first fight," he explained to me, "This is your chance to set the bar for the rest of the damn boxers here, got it?"

"Got it," I nodded starting to get anxious and hopping back and forth on me feet.

"Good, you have fifteen minutes, get a good look at your opponent." I did as I was told and peered around the ring.

The girl I was looking at had a few inches on me, maybe 5'6? Her dark, brown hair was pulled back into a tight french braid, bright red strands of hair woven into it. Her red sports bra was in harmony with her black and red shorts. I continued to examine the way she practiced with her coach so I could see her plans. I wasn't thinking too much of her until she turned to face me.

Her dark eyes searched the arena and my breathing stopped.

Ezra?

•
"Just get in there it'll be fun," my uncle coaxed me onto the mat full of other five year olds. Foley's MMA gym was the best place to train in town. Well, according to my uncle any way. I was five, I didn't know anything.

These gloves were too big for my hands and my shirt was too long for my body. I didn't know the first thing about fighting, I would rather just stay home with Auntie Gina and watch my uncle fight on the TV. Compared to the other kids my age, I was by far the shortest, tiniest, and most confused one of them all.

I aimlessly wandered out onto the mat and watched as my peers ran around or tumbled into eachother.

"Hey kid," a friendly, yet bold, looking man said. "I'm Dave."

"Hi," I glanced down at my feet.

"What's your name?"

"Greer..."

"So, Greer, you'll be partners with Ezra today. Yea?"

I looked up to see a shy girl in the corner of the mat. Her brown eyes were wide and afraid, scanning the room with intense curiosity.

"Yea," I told my new instructor and wobbled my five year-old body over there.

"I'm Greer," I said and stuck out my tiny hand.

She gave me a dim smile, "My name is Ezra."

Little did I know, she would mean everything to me for the next 6 years.
•

"Dave!" I shot over to my instructor, I was about to talk to him when a bell rang through the arena, signaling the first round. I was pushed and shoved up into the mat. Spencer popped the mouth guard into mouth before they all scrambled off the ring.

"Round One!" The announcer called out. "Fight!"