The Boxers Daughter

Hand wraps and Velcro

The lights in the stadium were bright, even from where I sat in the box. It was a ghost town. No cheering, no screaming, no loud announcer shouting through the mic. Just silence.

That's when I liked coming here the most. As a little girl I would watch my pop in the ring with other guys double his size and imagine what it would feel like to be the one who the audience cheered on. Other than eating Sunday dinner with my family, being in that ring is the only other time I feel at home.

I glanced down at my watch. I had an eight o'clock class, which was about to start. Shit.
The training room is in the back, and I'm glad I left it unlocked. A line of angry students isn't something I wanted to deal with. With a few minutes to spare I looked at the large ring again.

This was my home. And I loved it.

"Is there something I'm supposed to be looking at?" A voice whispered in my ear. I grinned.

"Hi." I turned my head to look at Cason. He was smiling when his lips met mine.

"Hello beautiful." He said when he pulled away. I took a deep breath and turned back around.
"Don't you have a class in... two minute?" He asked after looking down at my watch.

I shrugged. "I was just about to go. Want to walk with me?" I smiled up at him again. A light appeared in his brown eyes that made me melt.

"Yeah. Come on." I stood and grabbed my duffel before taking his hand.

Cason Bane, Hillcrow's highest ranking male boxer and: my boyfriend. He was a softy outside the ring, but when his focus was inside that ring... he was wild. His opponent didn't stand a chance.

"Are you coming to the match tonight?" He asked as he pushed open the door to the training room. I rolled my eyes. "When do I ever miss a match Case? Especially one of yours?"

He grinned and grabbed my wrist, pulling me against him. "I remember a time when you missed a match. It was the State Championship's last summer..." My laugh cut him off. A slight pink covering my cheeks. "If I remember correctly, you skipped that match so we could-"

"I have a class, Cason." I laughed again, trying to pull away. He chuckled and kissed me. I finally shoved him back and headed for the students already warming up. I might have swayed my hips a little more than necessary.

Sometimes he stayed back and observed until I kicked him out, or I used him as an assistant. Either way, I didn't mind his company.

"Alright, suit up!" They started wrapping their hands, so I made my way to the giant stereo against the wall and hooked up my phone. Music blared and I grabbed my own wrappings.

When I was fifteen my Pop said I needed to get a job. I told him the only place I wanted to work was here. He didn't argue, and I knew it was because he wanted me to work here as well. It was my Ma who had a problem with it. "A girl shouldn't swap spit buckets and mop up blood for the rest of her life." She said. Ma knew it was my dream to stay in this business with my dad, and she always gave me heat about it.

So, in light of trying to cheer up Ma, he gave me this job. Boxing classes with a bunch of early-twenty-year-old-adrenaline-fanatics. A few students from my school came every once and a while for a class, but it was mainly adults. Thank god for that.

I went around the room and fixed wrappings, fitting hands into gloves, helped people put in their teeth guards, and strapped on head gear.

Sometimes it shocked me at how little people knew about boxing. But then I had to remind myself that they hadn't been raised around it like me.