Baby - Anthony Reeves

1

Hey. I'm Mariah. No, not Mariah Carey, of course. I'm Mariah Fitz. Yes, like the teacher in the show Pretty Little Liars. To my peers, my life appears pretty basic: good grades, kind of normal group of friends, I have a bit of a following on social media because I blew up on TikTok, but other than that I'm just a regular girl. However, there's lots of things that people don't know about me. I'm a champion in motocross (undefeated if I wanna flex), occasionally I go to street fighting events and compete, that's only when we're really low on money though.

You see, my mother is the greatest woman in the world; she takes care of me and my younger brother Jada all on her own, because my scum of a father left us when we were little, however she doesn't have the best source of income. She works at a diner downtown. It's a cute little place, a classic '50s diner with pastel colours and tiled flooring and to-die-for milkshakes and burgers, but it doesn't pay the best. I'm not complaining of course. I love the diner, I spent most of my childhood there, the staff are like my family. All it means is that every now and again I have to step up and take some responsibility. Mum doesn't know where the money comes from, obviously. She would kill me. All she thinks is that I have a part time job where I save up for a while, until we need the money. 

As of right now, I'm laying in bed with my AirPods in listening to music (Oasis to be exact). my best-friends Avani, Cynthia and Madi are supposed to be coming over to get ready for my next street fighting event. They're the only people that know about my secret life. I told them when we were 14 (yes I know it's a young age to start competing but I was desperate). We're now all 16 and I'm much better than what I was. I never lost a fight due to my amazing trainer Charlie, but now I'm way more smoother when I fight. 

In through the door come in my three beautiful best friends. Avani had big brown eyes and dark curly hair that would dance in the wind. Madi and Cynthia were both blonde with blue eyes but you could distinctly tell the difference between them. You could tell that they had all put effort into their appearance, unlike me. Unlike most girls, we like to dress for ourselves. Madi has a boyfriend anyways so there's no point in dressing up for the likes of boys, when it comes to her. But the rest of us don't really care, I mean Cynthia is head over heals for this boy in our school Chase and always freaks whenever he's in sight but other than that we don't really care too much about boys. Obviously we do what every girl does when she see's a cute boy in the streets, give her friend "the look" and whisper to each other about how hot he is, even though he can probably tell that you're talking about him anyways.

"You ready to go Ma?" said Avani as she flopped onto my bed beside me, glancing down at the time on her phone. Seven o' clock it read. 

"yeah let me grab my mask quickly," I do that awkward jog-walk towards the closet and reach into the back where my mask is. It was nothing special. Just a beanie that stretched over my face, with holes in it. My hair was done in two separate plaits, as I usually do whenever I have a fight and the only makeup in wearing is mascara, because what's the point in makeup when its gonna sweat off anyways. I'm wearing black baggy joggers and a Calvin Klein sports bra, showing off my toned stomach. 

As we pulled up to the alley that the fight was taking place at, my manager/trainer was stood right where he said he would, just by the entrance of the warehouse that I'm about to fight in. he pulled us all inside and directed Cynthia, Madi and Avani to the safest place he could find for them, but also where they could see me kick some guys ass. When he had shown the girls where to go, he pulled me to the sign in desk. I put my name in, which wasn't my actual name of course  and went to where the man told me to go. He had a tall, muscular frame with a bald head and a moustache. He was intimidating but I could probably have him in a fight. I don't say that out of cockiness, I say it out of experience. I've fought many men before who were probably twice the size of him. 

After about 30 minutes waiting my 'name' was called up to the stage. Everyone had heard of 'Et Draco' before. No it's not a Harry Potter reference, 'et Draco' means the dragon in Latin. adrenaline was pumping through my veins, but I refused to show it. I remained calm and collected like I do every fight. My fists were balled up beside me as I walked into the ring, ignoring all of the chants around me. I breathed in and out for a few seconds and looked up at god, as if to ask for some guidance. They called the next name out as 'Silentium'. Most people use Spanish words as their fighting names so I was intrigued as to why he chose Latin, like me. 

The man who walked out, may as well have been a child. He had a tall slender frame and didn't look like he trained a lot. Although, that's probably similar to what people think of me, when I'm called up, so I refuse to underestimate him. he had a hoodie on that covered the top half of his face, so all I could see was his sharp jawline and his plump lips, that were upturned in a smirk. He's probably one of those guys who take one look at me and decide that they'd already won because I'm a girl. Misogynistic asses. 

The horn went off, signalling for us to begin. I remained calm and took the first hit right into that unusually sharp jaw and watched him stumble back, in either shock or pain.