Fallen

Chapter 8

Breakfast was wonderful. Karly did a good job once someone walked her through the steps. I could tell though; she was not the cooking type. She was more of the bug you until you cooked something for her type.

I was fine with that. I loved to cook, and I loved to cook for her even more...

When we were done with breakfast Joshua came in and set a book on the table in front of me. It was a gunsmithing guide for the AR-15 rifle. I looked at him in wonder, "Have you read this?"

I shook my head, "No sir."

His eyes narrowed. "You still interested in what we discussed yesterday?"

I nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, sir!"

He smiled at my youthful excitement, "Then start by reading this cover to cover. I expect you to understand the diagrams and to be able to describe the actions covered in the book. I will be quizzing you on the processes described in this book. You will be able to describe what you see in this book before I ever let you see the rifle and begin work. Understood?"

I nodded, picking the book up, "Yes sir."

He smiled at me and nodded. He started to turn away, and then turned back, "One other thing. Because I know you well enough to know you will be worried... That book is yours now. Call it payment for the driveway. If something happens to it, you're not harming anyone..."

I nodded in embarrassment, knowing he was right, if I had damaged the book I would have insisted on replacing it...

"You two get moving, you'll miss your bus if you don't!" He shooed us out the door.

Karly gave me a look as we got to the car, "What was that about?"

I told her honestly, "Last night I asked him to show me some stuff about gunsmithing..."

She looked at me as she started the car, "Oh, I see, you're just using me to get to my dad..."

I shrugged, "He's an awfully attractive man... think I've got a shot?"

She smacked me, I was getting the feeling I was going to need to start getting used to that, "Thanks for that mental picture..."

I leaned over and kissed her, "I'm not just using you for your dad... I'm also using you for sex..."

She smiled and giggled a bit, kissing me again, "Okay, as long as we're on the same page, cause I'm just you using you for sex too..."

I smiled with her, enjoying our little shared joke and with that out of the way we started out to meet the bus. I was nervous and fidgety on the car ride to the school. I always got jitters before a big tournament, and this one, with scholarships on the line, and my future with Karly tied directly to those scholarships... I was a mess.

I knew coach would have my back whether or not I did well in the tournament. Problem was, colleges wanted winners. If you can't win when the chips are down, doesn't matter how good you look in a demo tape, or how many guys you beat at how many tournaments. If you can't show to a big tournament and walk away with good placing, they were simply going to think you weren't able to compete when the big lights came on.

That meant, I had to do well. I had scholarship deals on the table right now. I needed more. I needed to be able to get into any school that Karly could get into. She was whip smart, and her parents had money. I'm sure her grades were going to open a lot of doors, and the doors that wouldn't open for her alone would open once Joshua got hold of them. He didn't strike me as a man that was told no easily.

If I couldn't get into a school Karly wanted to go to... it would mean not going to school at all. There was no way I was walking away from her for four years, and there was no way in hell I was letting her walk away from the school she wanted to chase me.

That meant I had to do well. This tournament was a huge tournament. The brackets were 128 man brackets. That meant a minimum of 7 matches, 8 in the loser's bracket and 9 with wrestle backs. There would be state champions and future state champions in every weight class. There would be wrestlers from pretty much every Western state in the US there, and considering the cost of transport and entry, people weren't bringing their B team...

I had done the math. Consider that not every team on the West Coast would be going... and the heavyweight bracket most likely wouldn't be completely full. I figured a placing in the top 5 would on its own open a lot of scholarship doors for me. Add to that coach throwing his weight behind me, and a good placing at the State tournament this year and I had a good shot at writing my own ticket...

Karly took my hand, "Stop fixating teddy bear."

I looked at her in surprise. I was still amazed at how often she was inside my head. "I'm not fixating... I'm just thinking about what I need to do."

She looked at me and raised her eyebrows at me. She had fuzzy eyebrows that were so expressive... I could usually tell what she was thinking just by looking at them. Right now, they were telling me to shut up...

"Not fixating?" She called me on my bullshit. "Stop worrying. If you do well, you do well. If you don't, fuck it. Stop trying to do this for me, and start trying to do it for you." I started to argue, "Shut up. I'm making one of my patented wise speeches."

I smiled at her.

"You have scholarships on the table, right?" She looked at me and I nodded.

"Good schools?" She asked, I nodded.

"Then if worse comes to worst, we'll take one of those. I'll get in. We'll study something, and then when we get out, we'll start building a life together." She eyed me and I could tell she was serious...

"Besides, you wrestle like shit when you stress yourself out." I started to argue and she again silenced me, "I said shut up. I've seen you. You get fixated on winning and you block yourself out. You make small mistakes and then you fixated on those and pretty soon you're wrestling like shit. You lose your edge. You start to hold back, and you start getting behind in the match because of it. You never quit, but you stop wrestling in the moment. That's when you lose." She poked me in the head with her finger, "You start losing right her. Stop that."

I smiled at her. I was ashamed because I knew she was right. Her eyes pinned me as we sat at a stop light. "You aren't going to do that this time. You want to wrestle for me?"

I smiled at her and nodded enthusiastically.

Her eyes hardened. "Then you don't wrestle to win. You don't think about what you're going to place. You promise me, from this moment on. You'll never give up. You don't care about what the score is. You don't care if the guy you're facing is better than you. You push yourself and you wrestle till the last second. Can you do that?"

I met her eyes and nodded my head once.

She ran her fingers down my face, "Than you've already won in my book."

Then she pointed a finger in my face, "Now you promised me. Remember that!"

The car behind us honked letting us know the light had turned green.

I remember my promises....

Coach caught my eye as we got to the bus. He saw me walk up with Karly and almost instantly, he motioned me over.

I handed my bag to Karly and headed over to him. She must have waved at coach while my back was to her because he gave her a shy little waive. When I got to him he looked at me with an intense look, "Are you ready?"

I gave him a curt nod, trying to convey to him that I would not let him down.

Coach's eyes went to Karly, then to me. I could tell what he was thinking.

She won't be a distraction." He informed me. It wasn't a question. He was making it clear that he had expectations of me, and I had no choice but to meet them.

I nodded, "She won't be. We've talked about it. We're on the same page."

Coach looked at me and nodded. I could tell he was giving me the benefit of the doubt. "So, the two of you are what, off during the tournament?"

I gave him what I think was a dangerous look, "No sir. She's my girlfriend and I won't do that to her for any reason, not a scholarship, not to impress someone, and certainly not for some fucking tournament. We just understand that my attention right now needs to be on wrestling and doing well. Before, after the matches start, we're boyfriend and girlfriend. During the matches, she's running stats for you, and I'm getting ready for my next match."

He smiled at me. "Good answer." I started to turn and he caught me, "One more thing?"

I turned back to him and smiled. "Yeah?"

He looked embarrassed. "You set an example for the team. A lot of the guys look up to you, especially the younger guys..." That was something I had never realized before...

"You need to be a good team mate too. If you're running off each night to be with your girlfriend, they'll notice. They'll understand, but they'll notice. If you're sneaking out at night, after lights out..." He hedged.

I must have looked panicked when I told him, "Not a problem coach!"

He smiled, realizing the thought hadn't crossed my mind.

I ran to the bus on got onboard. There were two other stat girls on board and Karly sat in the furthest seat reserved for stat girls. I looked around the bus and realized that most of the guys hadn't arrived yet. I looked to see if Joe was there and noticed he wasn't.

I noticed Sep about mid-way into the bus and nodded. He was sitting, taking a whole seat to himself, his back to the window. He gave me a lazy wave and just sat there. I had noticed him getting really cool in his attitude to me lately, especially since I had gotten together with Karly. In fact, he was being a dick.

I pointed to the seat behind Karly, indicating where I had planned on sitting. "I'm gonna sit up here by Karly, you want to come up and with us?"

He shook his head, "You do what you gotta do..."

See... he was being a dick. I shrugged at his attitude and climbed into my seat, pushing my bag, sleeping bag and pillow on the floor. Karly had already set me up in the seat behind her, which was nice. I leaned against the seat and peeked at her over the top. She was getting her phone set up and putting her headphones on. She noticed me peeking and with a yelp I dropped down below the level of the seat.

I could hear her move back in the seat, and then I felt her looking over the top of the seat at me. "What are you doing weirdo..."

I whispered at her, "Can't talk, hiding."

She giggled and I heard her rummaging around in the seat. Finally, her head peeked out from around the side of the seat. She looked around conspiratorially, "What are we hiding from...?"

I looked at her and narrowed my eyes, "I was checking out the hot girl sitting in front of me... I think she might have caught me!"

She smiled, a look of pure innocent joy on her face. "That bitch?"

My mouth made an O. "Don't talk like that about her, I think I might be in love with her..."

She made a face like she was grossed out, "Ewww.... You're way out of her league..."

I made myself look hurt. "No way...!"

She narrowed her gaze at me, "How do you think she feels about you?"

I shook my head, "I don't think she even knows I'm alive..."

She held up a finger. "Just a second, let me check with her."

I forced a look of horror on my face, "No!"

Her face disappeared from beside the seat. I could hear her whispering in the seat in front of me. Finally, her face appeared from the side of the seat again... she shook her head sadly, "Sorry. She says that she thinks you're out of her league too..."

I popped up and looked over the seat, she leaned up and looked with me, our eyes meeting and our faces almost touching... I wanted to kiss her so bad...

I didn't notice Joe get on the bus. He smacked me in the side of the head to say hi... it hurt.

"Get a room you two..." He muttered. He threw his stuff in the seat behind me and I looked at him.

"Dude, you don't have to sit up here with me. You can go sit with Sep if you want. I tried to get him to come up and sit closer but he didn't want to." I told him.

"Scoot over." He ordered me.

I scooted over and let him sit next to me. Karly leaned over the back of her seat conspiratorially. "Fuck Sep." Joe told me, "He's been being a dick lately and I'm sick of his shit. He wants to throw a fit he can sit back there by himself. I'm tired of his bullshit."

I looked at Joe shocked, "What the fuck, man. What brought that on?"

He looked at me, "That's right. You didn't hear, you weren't at practice. He laid into me because I asked Robin out. Apparently Jess got all twisted up about it. She doesn't think I should be seeing Robin. She thinks if there's a problem it will cause problems in the group."

Karly got a nasty look, "Fuck her, and fuck him with a wooden dildo." Her fierceness surprised me...

She continued, "What, they're the only ones that can be happy? Robin likes you, and you like her too. That's all that fucking matters. It's no one's business besides the two of you."

Joe and I shared shocked looks, finally he said... "Uh... thanks."

I sprang on him and put him in a headlock, which he fought valiantly... I started giving him a noogy and Karly just rolled her eyes... "Men," she muttered.

Joe laughed and hit me until I let him go and then he settled into the seat behind me. I looked at Karly and watched her put her headphones on. That was my queue apparently to spend some time with my friend... I kissed my fingers, and smacked the kiss onto the top of her head.

She smiled and looked at me, "Uh... thanks I guess?"

I leaned over the seat and gave her a much bigger kiss...

"Shawn!" I heard coach's voice boom in the small confines of the bus.

Instantly I dropped back into my seat, a look of total innocence on my face. "Coach, it wasn't what it looked like!" I pleaded.

He put his hands on his hips, "Oh, it looked a lot like you were making out with one of the stat girls on the bus. What exactly was I seeing?"

I pointed at her, "Ms. Kay has an extremely rare type of asthma... sometimes she requires mouth to mouth in order to stay conscious..." Not bad... I told myself, especially not for on the spot.

I saw a glint of humor in coach's face before he managed to master it again, I pressed on, "Really, coach, we're lucky that I got to her in time, she might have fainted..."

Karly threw her hand over her face, jumping in to help, "Oh, he's my hero, coach... I might have swooned if not for him!"

Everyone on the bus was laughing hard, including coach.

He finally nodded and said, "Well if she's that ill maybe she needs to come sit up here by me?"

I looked at him like I was surprised, "Well, I mean I guess that works but if something goes wrong you'll have to give her mouth to mouth... I'm not sure that's appropriate..."

The intensity of the laughs increased, but I could tell that coach was starting to get a little peeved. I held up my hands... "I'll be good coach, sorry."

He raised his eyebrows, "Okay, but don't think I'm going to forget your little oversight..."

Ouch, I told myself. That wasn't going to be fun...

I put the thought out of my mind and settled back into my seat, chatting with Joe over the back of the seat.