Stories to be Rewritten: Elisabeth's Stories :Book 1 Lavenders and Pomegranates

Chapter 1

'It has been four years.

Four years of hard work, misunderstanding, trials and errors. Four years of broken trusts, mended faith, and newfound allies.

Everything has changed. People, places, the sky, the earth, everything. It seemed only a matter of time before the people who refused to change were going to have to.

But I swore I will never change.'

"Hey! Cupcake!" Elisabeth looked up from her notebook, a towel wrapped around her neck and her long, honey brown hair tied back in a messy bun. Sweat was glistening off her skin as she tried not show how hard she was breathing. "Breaks over! You going to keep writing or we going to get back to learning?"

Elisabeth grinned wide and brightly at who had spoken at her, flicking the towel onto the rest area ground like an old rag. Her father's old friend, who also turned out to be a daughter of Ares, was standing in the middle of the boxing arena. She was just as sweaty and twice as strong as Elisabeth was, but it didn't really matter. They always trained together, the wiser and older demigod teaching the younger everything she ever knew. Every dirty trick, every defensive counter, anything she could think of that would save the Aphrodite girl in the future. "Ok ok! I'll be right there, Mrs. Rodriguez!" The woman groaned and pointed a tapped up hand at her.

"I told you to calm me Clarisse, Cupcake!" She bellowed, punching her fists together. "Do I got to punch your lights out again to make you remember that?" Elisabeth laughed as she put down her notebook and mechanical pencil replacing them with a roll of sports tape that she started wrapping her left hand in as she made her way to the area Clarisse was at.

Clarisse and her we the only two people in the gym, due to how early in the morning it was and the fact that the gym wasn't even open yet. Both of them were wearing just their sports bras and some spandex shorts, Clarisse in her usual red and black ensemble, and Elisabeth in her black and white one. They had been practicing for hours, before the sun had even started rising into the sky. First with stretching for a half hour, then with weigh room reps for two hours on all the machines, then a cool down jog around New York as the sun started to peak up over the horizon. It was 6:30 am now.

Elisabeth slipped through the bars and stepped into the arena, tape already covering her one hand. She started putting some on her other hand when Clarisse started the lesson. Elisabeth dodged a left hook and a jumped back, out of her reach as she horridly finished with her other hand and threw the tap over the bars and onto the cement ground. She dodged another left hook, jumping as she saw Clarisse's legs go in to sweep out her legs from under her. There, just a split second, was an opening in her defenses, and Elisabeth took advantage. Still in midair, she kicked forward, pushing into Clarisse's exposed shoulder, and the teacher fell backwards onto the ground.

"Not bad, Cupcake." She mused as she got up, a evil grin on her face. "You've been practicing."

Elisabeth didn't take it as a complement, not at this moment. In the past, the minute she let her guard down, she would end up on the ground with the wind knocked out of her. She made that mistake three times, and the third time was the charm. Instead, she moved forward and kicked at her trainer's kneecap. The daughter of Ares easily dodged the attempt, but found a fist in her side. Elisabeth punched her again, aiming for the other side. But she bent out of the way as a fist almost hit her in the face, and she ducked low when a roundhouse kick came at her.

"Good! Good!"

Elisabeth, not focused on her words, took a second to breath while leaving her guard up. There was another opening in her defense, but Elisabeth knew it was a trap. How? It was in the same place as the last one. She jumped over Clarisse, landing and delivering a kick to her side as she turned to face the daughter of Aphrodite. They went on for hours, Elisabeth not letting her guard down, and Clarisse taking the beating. But Elisabeth learned too late that that was the trick today. And she learned it the hard way.