My Golden Life

Chapter 37

The day of the competition had arrived, my chance to shine. I woke up bright and early, pumped, and full of energy. I had a lot of school work to get done beforehand, so I had made sure to plan out everything to get some time to practice. After breakfast, I headed up to the school grounds where Lucy was waiting for me. We were in the same maths class, so she insisted that we'd walk together; that way, I could remember for future reference where I needed to go.

"So you ready for today, Katie?" Lucy asked. 

"Yea you bet," I replied. "A little nervous, but it's understandable."

We quickly stopped by Lucy's locker, so she could get a few books she needed for the day. "Well, you're going to be in front of the entire school. You need to make sure that you're on your 'A' game."

"Don't worry, I will be," I sighed, leaning on the locker beside hers. "This sword fight is going to be a breeze."

"Wait, you're entering the competition?" a voice chuckled from behind me.

I turned to see two girls standing in front of me; one had a dark brown bob cut while the other had light brown bun hairstyle. It wasn't the same colour as mine though, more of a caramel colour. The girl with the bun hairstyle pulled out her lipstick and applied a generous amount onto her lips, puckering them with such force that any harder and her lips would have flown off her face.

"Please tell me that you're joking, " she laughed. "What are you? Some kind of weirdo or something?"

I narrowed my eyes at her. Where did this rudeness suddenly come from? I didn't even know who she was.

"Give it a rest Gwen," ordered Lucy. "Don't you have something better to do, like run your stupid Equestrian club?"

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realise that you losers had nothing going on. You're just jealous that I'm a big deal around here.

"Yeah totally." The girl with the bob cut added.

"And for your information," I said. "Yea, I am entering the sword fighting competition."

The two girls looked at each other for a brief second before erupting in laughter. Lucy and I just stared at them, our arms folded across our chests.

"What, are you a boy or something?" Gwen laughed. "What do you think Tiffany, she may as well be one if she's entering."

"No, I'm not a boy. I'm simply just Katie actually," I said, glaring at her.

"Katie? Never seen you around here before." Tiffany replied.

"I'm new here."

"Aww, a newbie. Well listen, Katie," Gwen gushed. "I'm pretty popular around here. I'm also rich too, so I'm way better than you. Don't mess with me, ok? Remember that and your time here will be fine."

"Totally." Tiffany laughed.

"Whatever," Lucy groaned, as she closed her locker. "Let's go, Katie, we're going to be late."

I nodded, and we both headed off in the opposite direction.

"Good luck," Gwen called out. "You're going to need it."

For most of my maths lesson, I was feeling not only annoyed but frustrated as well. There was no way that I was going to let Gwen bring me down. I would show her. I was going to win; whatever it took, I wasn't going to back down and chicken out. The rest of my classes went pretty quickly, but throughout the day, I did begin to hear whispers about me. My name wasn't said, but it was now clear that people had heard that a girl was 'rumoured' to be entering the contest. So much for a big surprise.

As soon as the school day was over, everyone began heading towards the jousting arena. I went to the participant's area to sign myself up, and the man registering people looked at me as if I had two heads.

"You sure you want to enter?" He asked. "It's no place for a young lady like yourself. Don't want you getting all bruised and injured."

"I'll be good thanks," I said. "I know what I'm doing."

"I hope you do." He mumbled.

I went into a different changing room and suited myself up; I wore thick brown trousers, a long sleeve shirt with a chainmail vest, and a helmet. Once I had changed, I headed out into the arena, and all eyes were glued on me. I could hear murmurs and whispers, but I shrugged it off and sat with the four other challengers, all as I suspected were guys. They all seemed puzzled by my presence and were snickering to one another.

"What? You all haven't seen a girl before?" I asked.

The sound of an orchestra of trumpets rippled through the air, and everyone began to cheer and scream in excitement. Principal Pynchley and the P.E teacher then walked across the field, both holding a megaphone cone in their hands. They waved at everyone before the principal brought the megaphone to his mouth.

"Welcome students to our annual competition," His voice boomed. "Once again, we have some brave souls who seek to claim the infamous title from our mightiest and undefeated champion...Lancelot Du Lac!"

There was another round of cheers as from a distance I spotted someone riding on a house towards the centre, waving and blowing kisses to the screaming girls in the front bleacher seats. I guess that was Lancelot making his grand entrance, and boy was he milking it. After his five-minute showcase, he got himself prepared to fight. As I watched him get ready, I spotted someone handing him his sword, and Lancelot was treating him like trash. I straight away figured out who it was.

"Artie." I thought. "I wish I could help him."

However, there was nothing I could do at that moment as the time had now come. Fight time had finally arrived.

"The rules are the same as always," the P.E teacher announced. "Best of three points wins. Let the competition commence with our first challenger...Boswell Jackson."

With that, it began. I'm not going to lie, Lancelot was a great swordsman. He had excellent skills. However, it was showing me that I may have bitten off more than I could chew. He was good. Too good, in fact. To the point where the first two challengers only lasted three minutes and lost. The third one, five minutes. Fourth... Ha, two minutes. Every single person had failed to defeat him, and by the time it finally got to my turn, I was beginning to feel funny, and my hands were starting to shake.

"And now for our final challenger and oh boy, it's a going to be good." Principle Pynchley yelled through the megaphone. "For the first time ever in Worcestershire history, we have a young lady who feels as though she has what it takes to win, here is our final contestant... Katie Clavell!"

The sounds of cheers grew louder and louder, I looked up and spotted Merida, Lucy and Isabel waving and chanting my name. A smile began to grow on my face, my confidence was building up again. Walking up to my post, I spotted Artie giving me two thumbs up, smiling and nodding at me. I gave him a short nod back and made it to my starting point. I closed my eyes and listened to the sound of my heart, controlling my breathing to relax and getting my heart rate at a steady pace. The calm wind blowing on my cheeks, my eyes snapped open again.

Yea, I was more than ready.