A Life Stained by Scarlet

Chap. 14 - The fight

It was break and I had excused myself from the group saying I had work I needed to do. I wasn't lying, I had my school work, club work, and on top of that I needed to think about tomorrow and the fight today. Once I get to the room I notice Noah is in there. (Just my luck.) I walk to my bed and grab my school bag on the way. I sit on my bed and start pulling out my books and homework, making sure there isn't anything that would give away my age.
    "What's all of that?" Noah asked studying all the papers and books on my bed. *Sigh* "It's my homework for school." I start working on my geometry homework. "You're in college?" He turns back to his bed and grabs somethings. "Yup." "Ok, I guess I'll leave you alone then. See ya later." He walked to the door and opened it. "See ya." I say before he closes the door. I work on homework for a little more than an hour, then I start thinking of ways to avoid the disaster later. I look at the time and it reads 2:53 p.m.
    I put my things away and pull my hair back into a ponytail. As I walk out of the room I bump into someone and stumble back a little. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I wasn't watching were I was going." I bow and apologize. "Care to explain, Naomi?" (Come on, can't I catch a break for once!) *Sigh* I straighten up, "Good afternoon, Major Marshall." I give him a "I'm screwed" smile. "It was a good afternoon until I heard a rumor about you fighting Noah on my way over here." He sighs, "This is exactly why I didn't want you to do this."        
    "I know I messed up, but I'll fix it don't worry." He sighs again, "Fine but I have a message from some of us officers." I give him a puzzled look. "You left one of your bags on the jet, when we opened it up it was full of hair dye." (Thats were it went, I thought I forgot it.) "And before you ask, you are not getting it back." "But why!" I cut in. He glares at me, "We all agreed that you can't dye your hair anymore so you look like you did when we first met. Since tomorrow night you have to take on the roll you were given, there will be someone stopping by about this time tomorrow to remove the dye from your hair." I clench my fists as he turns away and starts walking, "Have a good day Naomi." "You as well, Major."
    I get to the training grounds a few minutes before we start. Richard starts explaining what we are doing. "We are doing partner sparring this time. It's similar to this morning but this time its more like a fight not just practice. You can pair with whoever you choose but I'm warning you know," His eyes dart around the crowd, "if any of you go to far, you will be dealing with me. You may start." I start looking for Noah but once I spot him I see there are two males talking to him.
    As I draw closer I hear them talking, "Noah how about we spar?" One of them asked. "Sorry Lee, I already have a partner." "If you want to Noah, you can spar with him. It won't hurt my feelings." I said lightly hitting his left shoulder. He looks at me with a bored expression, "You keep trying to get out of this. Are you starting to get cold feet?" He smirks, ticking me off a little. "No I'm just being polite, but your just bullheaded." "Whatever, sorry Lee, but this is my partner. Her names Crystal, but you can go with George." Noah said pounding to the other guy that was talking to Noah earlier.
    "Fine, but next time you owe me." Lee turns around and walks away. Noah turns to me, "Shall we start?" "Might as well." We both take fighting stance. Just then I hear someone shout my name, "Crystal!" I look over and see Luca, "What do you want?" "You said I could watch your match, and I want at least one match since we have 4 hours of this." "Whatever, just be quite." I turn my attention back to Noah, "Ready?" I ask. "I was just about to ask you that." He smirks and we get back into stance. "I'll have to warn you though, I took several martial arts classes, boxing, and did sports in high school." I smirk, "Good that will make this interesting."
    He's the first to move, I will admit that he's fast but this isn't my first rodeo. He gets behind me and quickly kicks, aiming for my side. In an instance I duck and spin around with one leg stretched out to trip him. I nock him off balance, not totally down but this gave me an opening. I got up and went for a quick and hard right hook. He blocks the punch but the shear force pushes him back a few feet. He looks at the marks left on the ground from his shoes. "Not bad, maybe I'll have some fun."
    He runs at me dodging quickly left and right. (Boxing) I smirked at the thought, I didn't take boxing specifically, but I wasn't totally new to it. Once he got within striking distance he started moving faster and was less predictable. I could keep an eye on him but I couldn't predict his moves like I was doing earlier. He through a quick uppercut, all I could do was block, and it nocked me off balance. Without giving me anytime to recollect he circled around behind me. He punch my back just above my hipbones. The moment I felt his fist touch my back I quickly summersaulted forward and stood up spinning to look at him.
   At this point some other rookies started watching the match along with Luca. It was amusing to them, a girl half the size of Noah was beating him, one of the people there on recommendation. "Your quick, I'll give you that." I wasn't joking he was, and if he had better fighting skills he would be even better. "And your agile like a cat, and it feels like you now my moves almost before I make them." He says with a smirk. (He's to quick to take head on right now so..) I smiled and bolted for him, but a few feet in front of him I turned my feet and slid on the dirt, kicking dust into his face. He braced for impact but it never came. When he opened his eyes I was gone. "Over here!" I shout running and sliding at him again. I disappear once more. "You shouldn't close your eyes for so long." Nosh looks in the direction that my voice came from but was met by another dust cloud.
    "Well I'm not the one being a coward!" He retorts. The dust clears and I'm just staring at him. "Coward? I'm just using my surroundings to my advantage. But if your gonna be a baby about it I'll stop with the dust for now." I smirk and lounge at him again. I was heading right for him not even pretending to weave back and forth to confuse him. When I was about two feet in front of him he swung his right arm, and I turned my feet. Noah was about to close his eyes thinking there would be dust but they shoot open when he saw what I did. Once I turned my feet I sprung into the air and twisted my body midair. I landed on his back side and without giving him any time to react I swung my left leg.
    I hit him in the soft part of his side, in between the ribs and hipbone. He slides 6 or so feet then falls onto the ground. "I was doing that the whole time but you never noticed since you closed your eyes." I state as he slowly gets up. "Thats cheap, Firecracker." He's standing dusting himself off a little. (That damn nickname again💢) "All is fair in war, so quite pouting." With that I lunge again. I'm heading right for him and he prepares himself. Once I'm in striking distance he prepares to block, so I plant my right foot, spin on it showing him my back for a second and with all my momentum hit him with a left hook. He slides a few feet again.
    "If you only prepare yourself to take a hit then give one back once your appointment stops, you are going to lose this match. You said it yourself I'm agile and can predict your moves. But if you would quite closing your eyes when you prepared to take a hit you would have saw that I showed you my back for a second." I lecture him and it seems to piss him off. He lunges at me for a change and I smirk as I prepared to counter his attack.
"War Maiden? What are you talking about dude?" (What, a War Maiden?) I lose focus at the rookies words. "Ya, I thought they were just made up but some of the soldiers who have been here longer were talking about two women who are called War Maidens. Although very few people actually know who they are. Supposable one is here, but there's talk of the second one being here too." I don't hear the rest of the conversation. (The War Maiden of the U.S-) My thoughts were cut off by a sharp pain in my side as my body was flung.
    "What happened, you were so cocky moments ago?" Noah questioned with a cocky voice at the fact he finally hit me. I slowly sit up reeling from both the hit and conversation I over heard. As I'm standing up I say barley above a whisper so no one heard, "No one truly knows the War Maiden, not even the Major. She's scary and cruel." I look at Noah with more determination then before. "Sorry, I just got a little distracted." I brush off some dirt. We both lung forward matching each quick punch with a solid block. After about 15 punches I was done playing around. I noticed he was slowing down and speeding up, I took the opportunity to kick him when he slowed down. It was an ok hit but it only nocked him off balance.
    It was enough for me to get around him and kick him to the ground quickly pulling his arms and putting them behind his back. I got on top of him pinning him to the ground, when Richard was explaining he said all we had to do to win was pin the other to the ground. But if your opponent could get you off the fight wasn't over. Noah struggled under me and got me off his back but I had a firm grin on his hands. When he tried getting up I twisted his arm a little and pushed his knees back to the ground.
"Just admit it Noah, I won." I said it in a cold and emotionless tone. At this point I wasn't even thinking about the match. The rookies words keep replaying in my head. (The War Maiden of the U.S.) "Fine, I admit that your stronger than I thought, you win." With that I release his arms and help him up. I smile, "It was fun, thanks for the match." "Ya I'll definitely have to get a rematch sometime. Although I have a feeling you've been in a fight before." He gives me a look of suspicion. "I did tell you I transferred because I kicked a guys ass, maybe I wasn't joking." I smile and walk away leaving him to think about what I said.
(The War Maiden's, their both here....)

A/N
  Wow, 2019 words without the A/N. I know this fight was way overdue but I wanted Crystal to interact more with the others before she has to take on her roll.