Not What She Seems

Yaeman's National District Schools Fighting Competition Round II

  I will never tell her. I won't tell any of them. They will never find out. She might find out, but who knows. If she does, that's good. I want her to know how special she is. Not just to me, but to the world. But the real question is how this happened. I thought this wouldn't happen. I never expected this. If I tell them, she won't be able to do anything. I want her to be able to live.

*****

  I wake up to hear birds chirping. When I can finally see clearly, I find myself lying on Relvin's chest. All of a sudden, I get hit with a pounding headache. My whole body is sore. Geez, what did we do that killed me last night? I wonder. I manage to escape Relvin and freshen up. I walk out of the bathroom and kick Relvin awake.
  "Like.....30 minutes." Relvin whines.
  "Why are you so lazy? Get your fat self up." I say, sitting on him.
  "I find that very hard to do when you're sitting on me." Relvin remarks.
  "It's possible. Don't you lift? It'll be the same thing, except I'm like.....120 pounds. At least. I think. I'm not sure maybe like 125?" I ask myself. After struggling for a bit, he manages to get up with me still on his back.
  "Nope, you're definitely 200." Relvin states.
  "Hey!" I exclaim, hitting him on the shoulder. He bursts out laughing.
  "Ugh, I'm so sore...." Verlynn whines, getting up.
  "Me too." Relvin adds.
  "Same here." I say, working my way up so I'm sitting on Relvin's shoulders.
  "Why are you guys sore? Wouldn't it of been gone by now?" Verlynn asks.
  "I don't know. My arms hurt a lot." I state.
  "But not enough to stop you from climbing on my back." Relvin says. 
  "Yeah, you must hurt. Those last moves looked like they really were gonna take a toll on your body." Verlynn states.
  "Eh, not really. I'm used to performing those type of moves." I answer. Then, I remember what happened last night.
  "Oh, last night is probably why we're so sore!" I exclaim, recalling our crazy party last night. I remember me falling asleep because of...oh! Ruech! Ruech is a type of drink that is very similar to wine, but for people less than 18 years of age. Ruech makes you really sleepy sometimes.
"Wow. Ruech is powerful." Relvin comments. I get off Relvin and allow them to go freshen up.
"There are five hundred fighters participating in YNDSFC. So...that's like what? Nine more days for us to start doing round two." Relvin states.
"Yep. Nine more days until round one is completely over." I state. This'll be a long nine days.

*****

9 days later...
"Welcome, folks, to round two of Apermae Academy Fighting Competition! I'm excited to see what'll happen now that half of our starting fighters are gone! We started with 500 fighters, now we have 250." the referee announces. The crowd goes wild.
  "Our fighters' positions are the same as last time. If your child or friend or sibling was first on the second day and won, they'll be going against the first person on the first day. So, we need Yavara Cyvaira and Myrani Silias to change and enter the ring." the referee says, calling me up. I change and this time I wear a black t-shirt, white shorts, and black and white socks with the same fighting gloves I wore yesterday. I shake Myrani's hand and smile.
  "I feel bad for you, having to live with Maj. He's a real pain." I say, shaking her hand.
  "All you have to do is have a bag of marshmallows on you constantly. Don't worry, after this I'll give you a bag." Myrani says, returning to her side. I return to my side too.
  "Alright, you know the rules. No one spot hitting, no hitting sensitive spots, no unsportsmanlike hits, meaning if someone extends their hand out to help you up, you can not flip them over." the referee clarifies, putting me on the spot.
  "And....go!" the referee shouts. Myrani tries to hook me with her foot, but I dodge it. I hook her in the side and it knocks her off balance. I punch her in the stomach, but not hard enough to really hurt her. Myrani manages to regain her balance and tries to punch me in the stomach too. I block it with the back side of my hand. I kick her on her right shoulder with my left foot so she can't use her left arm for a while. I then punch her cheek and use my foot to stop her from falling. She punches me with her left and it grazes my jaw. Her vision. She can't focus in on me. She's seeing double. I realize. I stop to let her vision return back to normal.
  "Huh? What's she doing? Why isn't she taking the chance to win!" I hear someone from the crowd ask.
  "Dude, don't be heartless. Something's clearly wrong with Myrani. She's stopping to give her time to heal." a boy answers. Myrani lifts her head up and tries to punch me in my stomach and I don't bother to block it. I don't bother to block it because if she can hit me, that shows the boy and the rest of the audience that she's alright. I punch her again on her other cheek and uppercut her. Then, I low kick her, which throws her balance off for a bit. I use this chance to straight kick her up her jaw, but not hard enough any teeth could fall out or serious damage could occur. I never really try hard with the people I fight except for Relvin because I know he's powerful and he'll give everything he has to try and beat me. I hook kick her over with my right leg on her left shoulder and I feel my heel strike her back. She takes the opportunity to try and flip me over. She flips me and the whole crowd goes "Ooooooo....". My reflexes are quick, so I do a backflip and safely land. I charge at her and hit her in the arm, she take a step backwards and I punch her again. Myrani falls down.
  "10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1! And she's down! Wow! There's just a second left on the clock! That was a very thrilling fight! The result of the first match of round two—Yavara Cyvaira versus Myrani Silias—is Yavara wins!" the referee exclaims. I shake Myrani's hand.
  "Good game, Myrani. Also, if you're lying about the marshmallows, just know you'll be going to your brother's funeral awfully soon." I warn her.
  "Oh trust me, I'm not. I would've did the killing for you if I was lying." Myrani informs me. She smiles and we both exit the ring and go to the dressing room to change. I throw on my white sweatpants and put back on U.B.E.M.. Then, I pick up my duffle bag and leave the dressing room. Myrani catches up to me and hands me two bags of jumbo marshmallows.
  "I forgot Maj is fat." Myrani states. I take the bags and put them inside my duffle bag.
  "Thanks, see you around." I say, waving her goodbye. I take a seat on the bleachers and see Relvin getting ready to go.
  "Hey, je veux vous voir passer au troisième tour. Essayez fort et essayez de ne pas perdre, Mikhail." I say in French.
"I'll try." he answers, walking away.
"You better." I mumble.
"Why do you guys speak in French?" Verlynn asks.
"Hm?" I ask for clarification.
"Why do you guys speak in French? Is it for privacy or....." Verlynn clarifies, trailing off.
"How are you so sure it's French?" I question.
"I heard you guys talking a while back in the middle of the night. You spoke in French. What tipped me off is you said je t'aime. Je t'aime is French for I love you, which I find kind of interesting. You say you guys aren't dating, but you said "I love you.". No one would say that unless they're dating that person." Verlynn reasons. I remember.
"What makes you think that for sure?" I ponder.
"Well, there're rumors going around that you guys are dating, so I kind of don't wanna talk about it here. Can we go somewhere else?" Verlynn asks.
"Really? Sure then." I say, getting up and leaving. We walk a little bit before Verlynn decides it's safe enough to talk here.
"Well, there is the time that you shared your strawberries with Relvin, then there were the times where you only allowed Relvin in your room and not me, and then there was the time you allowed Relvin to pick you up and put you on his lap, again, there was the time where you put your head on Relvin's shoulder, finally, there was the time where right after you guys were finished talking during the night, Relvin wrapped his arms around you and said he loved you. I don't know about you, but those really seem like things lovers would do." Verlynn states. I look at her, shocked. She really paid attention to all of that? I thought she wouldn't notice!
"That doesn't mean anything, we're just close friends." I defend.
"Close friends? Because close friends wrap there arms around their friends and say I love you and kiss each other on the cheek." Verlynn remarks.
"What're you on about, I'm just telling you the truth. Relvin and I are just friends and nothing more." I say.
"I really find that hard to believe." Verlynn responds.
"What? Seriously! We're just really, really close friends." I state.
"That doesn't explain why you kissed him on the cheek once." Verlynn states. Of course. She was spying and saw that.
"What do you mean? I kiss everyone on the cheek." I remark.
"I haven't seen you kiss Markus on the cheek, or Allister, Maj, or your baby brother." Verlynn responds.
"His name is Alton. Anyways, Verlynn, listen to yourself, Markus? He won't even get a pat on the back from me." I say, laughing.
"Oh, that's so true. Stop trying to change the subject though." Verlynn says, quickly getting back on topic. I need to think of a plan, and fast. Oh! Perfect!
"Fine! I'll tell you, but you have to really, really, really keep quiet about this. I don't want anyone to know, especially my mother. She'll kill me if she finds out." I say, worried. Verlynn raises an eyebrow.
"What is it?" she asks.
"I have a crush on Relvin, okay? He's just so nice and kind and cute! How could someone not like him!" I exclaim, but at a whisper. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Relvin peeking around the corner. Verlynn appears shocked.
"You're lying." Verlynn says in denial.
"No, I'm not, but seriously, please don't tell anyone I don't want them to find out." I say, serious.
"Fine. I won't tell anybody." Verlynn says.
"Good, dang, we took so long we missed Relvin's fight," I say, hearing the crowd's cheers, "well, you better go. You have a match to win."
"Fine. See you later." Verlynn says, waving me goodbye and leaving. A few seconds after she leaves, Relvin comes.
"Aww you missed watching your lover awesomely defeat a dragon while hula-hooping and reciting the German alphabet." Relvin says, over exaggerating his win.
"Mm, that's too bad." I say.
"So, you have a crush on me, eh?" Relvin says, smirking.
"Don't get to happy, I was just lying to her. If I can get her to believe that, then that means if something doesn't go her way and it's my fault, she'll most likely spill it. If she spills it, that just shows me I can't trust her even one bit with the real secret." I explain.
"Mm, that's a really good idea." he says, agreeing with my idea.
"I know it is. If she doesn't spill it by the end of the summer, it shows that I can somewhat trust her." I state.
"Hmm, ok then." Relvin answers.

*****

2 hours later....
Relvin returned to his dorm room, so it's just me and Verlynn left alone. Verlynn didn't crack yet, so that's good. I sit on the couch with my laptop playing games before I finally decided to go to my room. I already took a shower, so I change into some pjs and throw myself onto my bed, exhausted. Almost immediately, I fall asleep.