Another Mark 3

*CHAPTER SEVEN*

"Enough!" Pentecost yelled again. I stood and bowed in front of him, just like Mako did as Raleigh stood up. "I've seen what I need to see." 

"Me too." Raleigh sighed, standing up and coming to my side. "She's my co-pilot." I looked to him as his hand rested on the lower part of my back. Smiling and breathing heavily I was proud we where going to be partners. 

"That's not going to work." 

"Why not?" Raleigh complained. 

"Because I said so, Mr Becket. I made my decision. You will be partnered with someone else while Miss Ivory, you report to the Shatterdome in two hours and find out who your co-pilot will be." 

"Marshal, are you serio-" 

"Kristen, not now!" Pentecost then walked off with Mako by his side, keeping her head down. I looked to Raleigh but then turned away. Throwing my stick across the room I felt Raleigh looking at me. Grabbing my stuff, I exited the room, angrier then ever. It also didn't help that as I was leaving I saw Chuck.

Crouching in the hall right by me and Raleigh's rooms, I was tying my shoelaces when I heard someone call me. 

"Kristen." Raleigh said as he rounded the corner. I turned and saw him, my eyes still full of anger. Standing up he came to stand by me, but I backed away so I wouldn't burst out in anger. He however kept following until I was up the stairs to a room. "What was all that about? I mean, I'm not crazy. You felt it, right? We are Drift compatible." He cried happily. I smiled sadly at his behaviour. I closed my eyes as my smiled dropped and opened then again as I felt the anger leave them to be replaced with sadness. 

"Thank you for standing up for me. But sadly I cant do anything about it. Marshal's made up his mind and nobody can change it. I'm sorry." I then turned around and went to unlock the door I was standing in front of. I tried a view times but it didn't work. A small chuckle was heard as Raleigh spoke. 

That's my room." I turned around to see him smiling. 

"Excuse me." I said as we paced each other so I could get to my room. 

"I mean, come on. Is there no way we could try and change his mind?" Raleigh pleaded. 

"No, there is not."

"Kristen, this is worth fighting for." I reached my door but didn't open it. I waited a few more seconds to see if he had anything else to say. "We don't have to just obey him." He added. I then turned around, crossing my arms. 

"Okay, what do you want to do?" he smiled at me as he held his hand out. 

"Let me show you." He then said grinning, jerking his hand. I took his hand and he led me to our destination and all throughout walking, I felt my heart burn.

Up, down, left, right, up, up, slam. Raleigh was brought to the ground for the third time by the same attack I first took him down with. 

"Can you please, for the tenth time teach me that move." He begged as I tightened my grip on his foot. 

"But you already know it." I said, keeping my grip on his foot. 

"But people can block me, and I did that for the first time. Please." He begged. Laughing as I yet go I nodded, agreeing. 

"Okay, fine. I'll teach you." I replied. Helping him stand I thought of the simplest way to teach him. 

"Okay, stand here." I gestured next to me and he did so quiet quickly. "You're really keen on learning this aren't you." I smiled. 

"Yes, of course." He smiled back. I then brought my weapon in front of me, angling. Raleigh copied me and I laughed. 

"Surprisingly this move is really simple." 

"What do you mean its simple. Every time I try to block you, you pin me to the ground." We both laughed. 

"Alright, now pay attention." Raleigh then stopped laughing and watched me closely. "So, you've been fighting in with say, Chuck," Raleigh chuckled, "your going, right, left," as I was saying the movement I moved my stick and he copied, "then." I held the sick in front of me again, Raleigh looked at me, doing the same but a little confused. "You have to do this. Up, up." I looked to Raleigh as he payed close attention to what was to happen next after doing the movements. "Now, because your opponent, in this example, Chuck will be more focused on trying to apply pressure to bring it down on you, scoring a point. You on the other hand, when we battle tries to block although you did try attempt what I said Chuck would do in this situation. The problem is, when you go to block you have to be quicker then the mind. This is because the stick is not long enough for one, and two is you need to break the pressure to go though with the movement." Raleigh nodded as I explained. 

"So how do you get to pinning me to the ground?" 

"You just gotta duck, grab the thigh or ankle, bring the foot up and keep it there." I showed a quick example, but it wasn't very good. "Now, do you want me to do it on you or do you wanna try it for yourself?" I asked Raleigh. He made it look like he needed to think about it but I already knew he just wanted to take me down. 

"I want to try it." He grinned. 

"Okay, suit yourself." He then moved to be in front of me and we both held up our weapons. "Ready?" 

"Yeah, lets go." He replied instantly. We did exactly as I described, right, left, up, up, slam. 

"You actually did it!" I cried. Raleigh actually pulled it off. He did exactly as I told him, going for my thigh and pinned me to the ground, holding my ankle under his arm. 

"Yeah, I did!" he cried back. He then let go and held out his hand. 

"I think that's it for today." He sighed. I grabbed his hand, but as I stood he didn't let go. 

"Yeah, okay." My hand heated up and my heart skipped a beat or two. I don't know why but he seemed to weaken me whenever I was touching him. I looked at the clock that was on the wall behind Raleigh to see it was 10:30pm. We quickly packed up, put our shoes on and I placed my shirt on while Raleigh pulled his jumper on and grabbed his bag.

Reaching the hall we got to our rooms. We turned to each other and smiled. 

"You know, if you want we can talk for a while?" Raleigh strangely asked. 

"What do you mean?" I asked. Raleigh then rubbed the back of his neck. 

 "Well, I guess what I'm trynna say is I wanna talk." 

"Alright." I then walked past him to get to his room and he seemed to give a sad smile. He dropped his head and came to the door, unlocking it. As he entered, me following I was drawn to the wall with all his photos. I walked over to see a photo of him and his brother. 

"Oh, I see my wall has caught your attention." Raleigh said as he cameto stand next to me. I smiled and I felt a tear prepare to fall from myeye. 

"Yeah.Yeah it has." I coughed. I felt him place his hand on my shoulder. I quicklyshook my head, brushing off the feeling of my sister. "Anyway, why did youbring me in here?" 

"Well, I wanted to say thanks for teaching me that move." 

"I feel like there's somethingelse..." 

"Yeah, well I wanted to also, maybe, share a drink to celebrate. Notonly you teaching me but for us being friends." 

"We'refriends?" 

"Yeah, of course." He smiled. I nodded and he grabbed two small glassesand a bottle of something. 

"To friends!" we cheered. We clinked drinks. I stayed for a about halfan hour before leaving. To be honest it was really nice, spending time withRaleigh, but when I entered my room at 11 and got into bed I did something Ishould be doing every night. 

"Goodnight, Josie..." and the last thing I saw and the last thing myfingers touched was the last picture of the two of us.