Passing Through

Chapter 13: Struggle

The next morning, I headed out for my first actual training session with Jay.

Boy, this ought to be fun.

I showered fast and threw on some black sweatpants and a sky blue t-shirt with a silver tiger on the front. Pulling on my signature hoodie, I slipped on my sneakers and stood in front of the mirror. I looked ready. I felt ready. I was gonna exceed people's expectations. That was my goal for today.

I tied my hair up into a ponytail and flopped down onto my desk chair. Now was the wait. I mindlessly plucked out a pen from the cup on my desk. I doodled on my left hand, the pen tracing out graceful curls and lines across my skin. Okay, okay, you shouldn't draw on yourself, blah blah blah. Whatever. It was just pen. I would live.

Anyway, it looked pretty.

When I heard a banging on my door, I jumped, which resulted in the pen going the wrong way and slashing through my design. I sighed and got up, tossing the pen onto the desk before heading towards the door. So much for a nice drawing. The door opened before I could get there, and Claire poked her pretty head inside the room, giving me a gracious smile. "Good morning! You look up and ready, Skylar," she greeted me.

"Thanks," I said, returning her smile with one of my own, and followed her out into the hallway. "How's your morning so far?" I asked her as she handed me two warm croissants on a napkin.

"Nice enough, so far. Ash was being such a baby this morning. Sometimes, I still think he's nine years old. But otherwise it was great." I gave her an amused laugh and bit into the warm buttery bread in my hand.

Heaven suddenly came down to Earth.

I polished off my first croissant as we stood in the elevator, Claire sipping from her travel mug full of coffee. When the elevator doors opened, we stepped out, making our way towards the big double doors of the gym. As I finished my second croissant, Claire offered me her coffee, and I accepted it carefully. "It's hot," she warned me. "I know. Thanks," I replied, angling the mug the right distance from my mouth. Then, I slowly tilted the mug until a small stream of sweet, creamy cappuccino poured into my open mouth. After I had a nice amount, I straightened the mug and gulped down the hot liquid, hoping it wouldn't end up burning my throat. Claire watched me curiously as I handed her back the travel mug.

"I've always tried doing that, but I always end up spilling the drink onto my face," she said with an embarrassed smile. I patted her arm in a mock comforting gesture. "Don't feel bad. I've had years and years of experience," I drawled, putting emphasis on the words 'years'.

Claire laughed as she hauled open the gym doors. "Yeah, but I'm older than you, so I've had years and years and years."

As we strolled into the gym, Jay came out of a side door with a horrible scowl on his face. I immediately sobered up seeing his expression, and remembered my less than graceful face-first fall onto the gym floor, due to being the target of Jay's armchair pillow. It hadn't been fun, as I recalled the bleeding nose dripping blood everywhere.

Jay saw us and gave both of us a curt nod, and I wondered what could have brought Jay's irritatingly witty attitude down to this. I gave him a tentative nod back, and glanced at Claire, who's face mirrored my own curiosity. "Good morning, Uncle. Is there something wrong?" she asked him with a worried smile.

Jay waved her off. "No, no. Nothing, darling, for you to worry about." He attempted to smile back, but twitched his nose and looked past us, his expression turning serious again. I turned my head, wondering what he had noticed, but saw nothing else other than the gym doors behind us. I mentally shrugged to myself. He was a weird guy, after all.