Just Your Average Girl

Chapter 12: Tres

The little Andalusian ratter jumped up onto my lap and licked my hand. "Tres,stop it! Haha! Stop!" I giggled as I stroke her fur. "Hey Tammy, does she need to go for a walk?" Tammy was in the kitchen cooking breakfast, and Greg was sitting at my leg playing Call of Duty, yelling into his headpiece to some guy named SeismicKiller99.

"Dude, duck! I'm gonna shoot over you!" He grunted as he frantically hit the buttons on the controller.

"Tammy!" I called over the noise.

" Huh?"she replied from the kitchen.

" Does Tres need to go for a walk? She's been sniffing her leash and jumping onto my lap for a while."

"Oh, sure. Please make sure you take a bag."

"Yeah, yeah." I grabbed a plastic bag from under the sink and fitted Tres into her leash. I was used to taking Tres for a walk, since I used to dog-sit her on the weekends when the Morrises visited their grandparents.

Tres bolted as soon as she was outside, dragging me along. We headed towards my house, where Tres stopped and yipped at our gate. I bent down and petted her to calm her down. When I looked up, I was glad to see Jacob.

"Morning, Jake," I said as I stood up. My smile vanished when I saw who was standing behind him. Richelle ws crossing her arms and leaning against Damian. I tried to act a bit normal.

"Morning, Damian, Richelle." I leaned against the gate and whispered in my brother's ear, "What are they doing here?"

"I don't know. Mom let them in. I was actually going to get you, so you could figure it out." I sighed and turned to pick up Tres's droppings. Jake opened the gate and I walked past our guests, into the kitchen, and dumped the feces. Tres hopped up on the dining room chair and curled herself up. I walked into the foyer and asked, "Are you guys coming in or what?"

Richelle and Damian seemed surprised and quietly followed me into the living room. Jake came in and told me, "I'm heading to work. Mom may be coming in and out today 'cause she's got to prepare for that dinner party, 'kay? And bring Tres back home."

"Alright, alright, I get it. Don't give yourself a hernia." He mussed my hair and headed upstairs. I turned to Damian and Richelle, who seemed confused by the way "Genius Marleni Madison" acted outside of school. "So why are you guys here?" I asked as I brought my knees to my chest.

"Well, I came to apologize for yesterday. I don't know why Richelle came," Damian answered. Richelle rolled her eyes. "I wanna see her fight." We both looked at her puzzled.

"You wanna see me fight?" I repeated.

"Did I stutter?" She snapped.

"Fight who?" Jake came downstairs in a dress shirt and tie. I reached over and straightened his tie. "If you're gonna fight, go to the ring in town. We don't need you leaving them bloody on the carpet," he chuckled.

"Can you give us a ride?" I asked.

"Sure, it's on my way to work." I followed him to the door. Then I realized we were the only ones there. I went into the kitchen and picked up Tre, then turned into the living room. I leaned against the doorway, waiting for Richelle to get all her stuff into her purse.

"You comin' now, or are we gonna wait 'til tomorrow?" Tres began to wake up in my arms and licked my cheek. I petted her soft fur and sighed. "Today is already a mess. How bad can it get?" I thought to myself.

Finally, Richelle was ready and we climbed into Jake's truck. He stopped in front of Tammy's house, and I got out to drop of Tres. Greg answered the door and let Tres in. "What's going on?" he asked.

"You know Richelle and Damian from school?"

"Who doesn't? What about them?"

"They're going to watch me fight at the ring."

"Cool! I've got to see that. Let's go!"

"I didn't say you could come." I sighed.

"You act like that makes a difference." He gave me a wide grin.

"Ugh. Just get Tammy and come on."

"She went out to get some dress with Enrique."

"I'm gone for less than an hour and this happens? Come on then." I reluctantly agreed.

He ran back inside, let Tres out the back, grabbed a camera, and shut the front door.

"What's the camera for?"

"Posterity."

I shook my head and we got into the truck. We took a while to get into town, and we had to wait for fifteen cars to pass before we could cross the street into the parking lot. The giant sign above the door read: "Olympian's Ring: Boxing, MMA Wrestling, and UFC Training." I headed to the front desk and waited for the huge, relatively good looking guy to look up.

"Marquel Thompson! I know you see me standing here!" I called into his ear with his New York colloquialism.

"Red!" he rubbed his big dark hand into my hair, "How've you been? What brings you here to this part of the Valley?" His big deep voice seemed to echo throughout the air as I answered,"I haven't been in the ring in a while."

"A while? You've been out for a year, " he stated as he peered behind me out the glass door. "I see that J-man is back, and you brought Lil' G too? And who're ya friends?"

Damian, Richelle, and Greg walked in as I introduced them. "This is Damian and Richelle, they came to watch." He nodded slowly and looked to Greg. "It's nice to meet y'all. And what is up Lil' G? You ain't been around in a while."

"What's up Marquel! It's been like, three weeks!"

"Yeah man, and your sparring partner quit on you. He moved to Riverston."

"Seriously? He didn't tell me nothin'."

"Yeah, man, sorry. Phil's gonna take his place though, don't worry."

"Phil's scary strong. I'm gonna die!" He mocked dread.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Can we go in, now?" Richelle interrupted impatiently. Marquel gave her a dirty look as he scanned her with his dark brown eyes. He snorted and continued his conversation, "So what's up with the camera, Greg?"

"How often do you get to see Marleni fight? This is gold!"

I felt myself redden a bit. "Marquel, can we please go in?"

"Sure, Red." He took out his key card and swiped it in front of the scanner, unlocking the door.

"Thank you."