String of Fate

Chapter Nineteen

Harry got up off the ground and sighed. I couldn't help but smile as I waited for him to do so. He hated being beaten by me but I always managed to beat him. We were the two top guys in our kendo club and sometimes I let him beat me – usually after about five straight wins and faking tiredness. He knew that I let him win, too – and that just made him angrier. "I'm sure you're not meant to beat me that easily considering how small you are."

"I'm not that much smaller than you!" I exclaimed, getting angry with him for mentioning my height. I ended up putting my wooden sword in the sheath at my belt and folding my arms across my chest to scowl at him. Fair enough that I came up to his shoulder – and he was only a few months older than me – but I definitely wasn't the shortest guy in the club, let alone in the entire school.

"Hey, guys, we got to get out of here. Come on. Practice is now over for today." Our coach said. He was standing near to the door with his arms folded over his chest. We obviously needed to get out of the room because practice should have finished over ten minutes ago. All the other guys had already changed and were leaving. Harry and I started heading out of the room and back to the changing room. "Billy, do you want to move to the advance class? You need better opponents."

"Not yet, thanks. Maybe once I've finished school. Until then I should concentrate on my studies. I hope you don't mind that." I answered the coach, following Harry from the room. The coach did seem to think that I was one of the better people in the class, but I refused to move out of the class without Harry. Not that I would ever tell him that. We headed to the changing room and I felt Harry looking at me weirdly while we walked. I needed to change the topic of the conversation. "Any sign of your string yet?"

"No. Not yet. It will appear when it is ready, though. Until then, all I can do is wait for it." He replied, quickly glancing in case it had appeared in the last hour, which wasn't likely. It looked like it hadn't appeared yet since he shook his hand again, then he looked at me. "Billy, you do need to go into the advance class, and you know it. You're not learning anything anymore. In fact, you're starting to train the newer kids. You need to train against better guys."

"I know I need to move on, but I like being in the same class as you. Besides, it won't be long until you will be ready to move on, too, so we can just move on to different classes together." I admitted after a moment as we walked through the changing room door. I grabbed my clothes and started to change out of my kendo uniform and back into my jeans and t-shirt. "Look, when you get offered a place in the advance class, we can join it together. Then I will agree to join it. You are just as good as me but the coach only offered me a place. That's not fair."

"If you say so." Harry explained, probably not believing me. I didn't know why but I didn't think that I could do anything without him, anyway, so I wouldn't move onto the advance class without him. I put it down to the two of us being raised like brothers, growing up next door to each other, going to the same school and even joining the kendo club at the same time. Harry let the subject drop and we were quiet as we changed. He slung his bag on his shoulder and looked at me once the two of us had finished changing. "Shall we go then?"

I nodded and we headed out of the building, starting the walk home together like we usually did. For some reason, we didn't talk much on our way home together. I was glad that the silence didn't become uncomfortable as we walked. Still, Harry wanted to break the silence when we weren't too far from home. "So, Billy, are you going to be doing anything for your birthday tomorrow?"

"Not thought of anything just yet. I wasn't sure of what to actually do since it was my sixteenth. Do you want to come over and play the Xbox all night? It's Saturday tomorrow, so, mum can't really complain at us since it's my sixteenth and the weekend." I offered. Then I thought of the new film that I had bought yesterday. "Or we can watch that horror movie that I bought the other day? It's been ages since we've watched a scary movie today."