To a New Life

Chapter 1

I breathed heavily as my opponent swung a punch at me. I cocked my head to one side and smirked. She glared at me even more. We stood there eyeing each other, waiting to see who hits first. The audience around us cheered wildly outside the cage. Seeing that she wasn't going to attack, I swiftly punched her in the face. She stumbled back a little. Sensing that I was in dominant, I begin to continuously punch her. She kept backing up and used her arms to block her face. I pushed her against the cage and trapped her with my legs while I punched her in the face again and again, blood was dripping down her nose. The referee came over and yanked me away from her. She fell to the floor breathless. I was panting and my heart was beating fast. My opponent stood up again, not giving up. I brought my hands up to my face, ready to attack again. I felt the adrenaline pump through my veins. My opponent ran over and jumped on me. My knees buckled and I fell. This time she smirked. She was sitting on top of me. She tried punching my face, but I instantly brought my arms up to block her punches. She began punching harder and harder as I thrashed under her. She managed to move my arms out of the way and punched me a few times. I knew I was going to lose soon at this point, so with all my strength. I bucked her off of me. She fell flat on her back. I took this opportunity and became the dominant again, the first thing that Coach had taught me. I pinned her down and hit her continuously until she almost passed out. I was once again yanked from her by the referee. I stood at the other side panting. The referee counted to ten seconds and my opponent didn't get up this time. The referee walked over to me and lifted my arm up, naming me the winner of the night. "Mackenzie Sanchez, our winner of the night!" I tried smiling, but winced. My mouth was torn and bloody on the inside from being punched a few times, but I was still happy. Not only did I just win five thousand dollars, but also this was my sixth win in a row. My coach was going to be proud of me, maybe he was going to finally let me go this time. I walked over to where my coach was and he gave me a hug. He gave me a hug and whispered in my ear, "Good job Mack." I nodded. He helped me take off my boxing gloves. I opened my mouth and took out my mouth guard. I spat blood out and winced as pain shot through my mouth. I rubbed my cheeks a few times to ease the pain.

I snapped out of my thoughts as I felt someone coming towards me. I smiled at him. He waved at me. I leaned against the lockers. "Come on James, hurry up, I want to go eat lunch." I said impatiently.

"Okay, okay. Hold on. Let me put away my books first." he said while trying to unlock his locker.

"Can't you do it later, I'm dying of hunger here." I complained while drumming my fingers on the locker playing a beat.

He looked at me funny and unzipped his backpack to get out his books.

"I'm going to count to ten, if you are not done by then, I am leaving." I leaned against the lockers waiting for him.

"What?! Ten seconds! At least give me.." he argued.

"One!" I counted.

"Come on Mack!" he whined.

"Two!" I continued counting.

He looked at me with a 'really' face. I shrugged and he quickly took out his books and shoved them into his stuffed and messy locker. He zipped his backpack, and then locked his locker.

"There, I'm done. Happy?" he said sarcastically.

I pinched his cheek. "Thank you James."

He swatted my hand away and said, "Don't touch my cheek."

I stuck my tongue out at him and looped my arm with his.

"Yay, let's go to lunch now!" I cheered.

I pushed the big metal door open to the cafeteria. I took out five dollars and handed it to James. "You're buying my lunch today."

He frowned. "Why? You have two perfectly fine working legs, move your butt and go get your lunch by yourself like a big girl."