Family Business

Chapter 3.

4 November 2027.       9 years old

I look up from breakfast, groaning as my tutor walks in. Mama gives me a look and I sigh softly. "Hello, Mr. Donovan."

He sits down, setting his briefcase on the table. "Hello ma'am," He says to Mama, "Hello Aria."

I look at Mama. "I want to go to school... Real school!"

"Well, you can't. Not after what happened to Ryker." Apparently, he got in trouble for being naughty.

I sighed softly and went to sit next to Mr. Donovan. "Gimme your worst," I mutter and he slides the sheet of problems across the table to me. I grab a pencil from his briefcase and start writing out the necessary equations.

I had just turned nine last week, all I wanted to do was go out and explore. Apparently, all my brothers had gone to school up until Ryker was in 9th grade when Draven was a junior, and Fletcher in 7th when he was jumped by the Violante boys. Despite my requests for real school, my father refused, hiring out well-educated private tutors for me instead.

I finished up with Mr. Donovan then went to combat training with Jasper. We train with our trainer who was a brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Jasper was much better than me since he had been training since Viv's death, but now I was nine, I got to train as well.

I tie my hair into a tight ponytail and we listen to our Sensei, Patrick Mendes, tell us about how we need to work on our gripping. "Your strength is all in your hands... As you get older, you will become stronger and even more so with training. You also need to make sure that you are gripping so that your arms do not tire. If your arms tire while holding the clothes, you lose. You have to know where to grip or you will lose. You want to grip at the joint... where the body has the most leverage, like a wrist, an elbow, at the collar, down at the hips, ankles..."

He pulls me over next to Jasper. He demonstrates to me how to grab the clothes at the wrist, at the elbow, or up at the collarbone. "Grip, show me." I grab Jasper. "No, you want to grab it with your fingers. Tightly now." I change the position of my hand and readjust my grip on his sleeve. "Good." He nods. Then, we switch places and Jasper is now the one gripping my wrist.

"Now, Jasper knows this and has heard me say this a million times... Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a conversation. An argument where you need to know exactly what you are going to do next."

We square up on the mat and begin to spar. Jasper is bigger and stronger, but I am smaller and quicker. I evade him and manage to grab his wrist, kicking his legs out. He rolls us, pinning me down, winning. I groan, glancing at our sensei.

"Not bad... Aria, next time you want to effectively use the bridging technique I showed you last session... Show me." I lay on my shoulder, using my feet to propel me in a circle, keeping my hands up, ready to grapple. He nods slowly, "Good.. faster." I grunted and kept trying but could not seem to move my body.

He continues to coach us until we finally hear the bell for lunch. I am sweaty, tired, and hungry. I walk with Jasper down to Greta and wash up in the bathroom. "I'm going to be your bodyguard when I get older," Jasper says.

"My what?" I frown.

"Your bodyguard... I will protect you from getting hurt." He nods.

"I can learn just fine on my own." I huff, sticking my tongue out. "I don't need you."

He dries his hands and kicks the back of my leg supporting the majority of my weight. I scream in frustration because he always does that, throwing water at him as he runs away. "You sure about that?" He grins back at me.