Blood in the Dirt

Chapter 9

Andrea walked into the backyard for another training session. She stared at the elevated beam that was set up. What was it doing there?

She looked over at her father and saw he was holding a paddle-like object.

"It is time for a new skill, balance." Aldo said.

Balance was Andrea's least favorite skill. She wished she could go back to being pelted with rocks every day.

The first thing she had to do was get onto the beam, walk across, and not fall off. It was easy enough, but the next time she walked across, Aldo threw a paddle at her.

She felt it come close to her skin and tried to dodge it, but in her attempt to avoid it, she fell off the beam. She landed on her back, the air shoved out of her lungs all at once.

"You need to learn to dodge while staying balanced and in control." Aldo explained while helping her off the ground. "Or you can learn to shell off the pain and keep moving."

"Are you mad? How am I supposed to do that?"

Aldo gave her a small whack on her shoulder before answering, "Focus!"

She got back onto the beam, and looked at the task before her.

The end of the beam seemed so far away now.

She tried to ignore it, but the fear of injuring herself was growing.

She felt it build up in her gut, making her hesitate when she took a step forward.

"Wash away your fear. You will be able to perform better if you are relaxed." Aldo said. His tone was kind and reassuring.

Andrea took a deep breath, and tried to calm her nerves.

She began walking forward at a steady pace.

She heard the paddle whistle through the air as it came towards her.

She knew it was coming towards her midsection, so she leaped up, bringing her knees to her chest. It flew underneath her, and she landed back on the bar.

She walked to the end and stopped, turning to face Aldo.

"Well done. You focused."

She smiled with pride, and waited for him to give her the next instruction.

Her training continued like that for a while. She would walk into the yard and a new skill would be introduced, and all of the old skills would be practiced.

Each day she became stronger, not only from the skills she was mastering, but from all of the push-ups she was forced to do when she struggled.

The kids at school still hadn't started their training, and always seemed to look at Andrea differently. They were all nice to her, but they all seemed very distant.

Except for Daniel.

Daniel was in most of Andrea's classes, and always sat beside her. She didn't like it at first, since he always found a way to distract her from her work, but she got used to having him at her side.

They worked well together. Her logical mind mixed with his out-of-the-box thinking always managed to impress the teachers.

They sat together at lunch. Andrea was scared to at first, since Daniel had so many other friends who sat with him as well. They were all much older than her, and she felt excluded from most of the conversations.

But Daniel was always there, making sure she had someone to talk to.

She didn't know why he cared so much about her. She guessed it was because she did well in school, and he wanted to be around intelligent people.

He made her do things she never would have done herself. Climb trees, jump from building to building and do somersaults down the hill. He was obsessed with doing strange things, but he could never do them alone.

"I need someone to do it with me, otherwise I'll look like a weirdo."

"You will still look odd; I will just look odd with you."

"Exactly! The more, the merrier!"

It was strange. All the crazy things he did, all the dangerous situations he put her into, seemed to help her with her training.

She never realized how much she enjoyed being around him until he wasn't by her side anymore.