by B. F. Simone
“Just remember not to cross your legs. You do that a lot—Stay loose. You move better when you’re loose. Or angry.”
How did he know that? They’d only been practicing for four days if she counted the unsupervised session at the park yesterday. For four days, all he did was show her a move and beat her up. She laughed at the thought. She’d just spent four days straight getting beat up by the guy who was checking her pads.
He jerked a little and she could tell he was trying to pretend he hadn’t heard that.
“You talk to much,” he said. She pretended to punched him and he brushed her hands away. “Don’t waste your energy.”
“How do you do that?” He was too good.
“Are you ready, Katie-san?” Steve Sensei asked abruptly. It took a second for Katie to realize he was talking to her. “On the mat then.”
As Katie took a deep breath she heard Lucinda and Will cheering Allison on in her match.
“Stay loose.” Tristan said. Katie looked back at him. Easier said than done.
Adam. It was the guy who’d asked her if she was a new student. He was the guy she had been a complete turd to. He gave her a small smile. Maybe he had forgotten. Maybe he was nice, if he weren’t wearing a helmet and sizing her up. They shook hands and it started.
He got the first hit immediately, but she moved fast enough for him to miss the second.
“Come on Katalina, quicker than that,” she heard Tristan say. She flexed her hands. If she could hit Tristan she could hit this guy.
Adam moved in for the second hit and Katie tried to side step. She crossed over one of her legs and Adam hit her with a kick. She fell to the mat.
“Katalina, if you want to lose have the decency not to do it on your back.”
Katie got up. Was Tristan trying to motivate her or kill her self-esteem?
“Move faster or lose faster. Stop wasting time,” Tristan said.
“Come on man, she’s new,” Adam said, looking at Tristan. Katie took Adam’s momentary distraction as an open and punched him on his left arm.
“Sorry,” she mumbled.
Adam’s dad yelled for him to hurry up and finish her. What a gentleman. Katie readied herself for another move, but Adam was moving before she could dodge and he landed a kick on her right leg. She at least caught herself before she fell.
Steve sensei called the match. Adam won. Tristan smiled. It was a real smile. She smiled too. She hit him. She got one hit. Granted it was a cheap shot while he wasn’t looking, but still she hit him.
“Doesn’t matter. A hit is a hit. Never take your eyes off your opponent unless they’re dead.”
Katie shifted her eyes. Tristan had a way with words.
Katie didn’t have another match for forty-five minutes. She watched Tristan fight four times. The matches never lasted more than a minute and each time he’d push the other person to the side and hit them. His fourth fight was with Brian. Katie had found a seat next to Will and Lucinda. She wasn’t the only one who didn’t want to watch it.
Tristan changed. His eyes burned, and for the first time that day Brian didn’t open his mouth to laugh. Brian circled the mat hesitant to approach Tristan. Tristan waited patiently watching Brian. When Brian made his first move, Tristan blocked his hit and punched him in the chest so hard he hit the ground.
“Come on Brian,” Will said. Lucinda reprimand Will.
“You know—”
“Lucy, they have to fight it out sooner or later. Might as well be now.”
Brian got up and moved in quick. Tristan dropped down and kicked Brian’s legs from out under him. Brian landed flat on his back with a single thud.
Almost everyone was watching this match the gym was quiet except for a few yells and the sound of feet hitting mats. She could feel an electric pulse in her. It was like a burning fire. It was feeding on her soul. She wanted to break Brian—
Katie chocked on her own breath. Tristan. She could feel him, his violence was overwhelming her. This was what anger felt like. She should say something. Stop the match. Brian was no equal for that. What if Tristan wanted to really hurt him.
It was too late. As Brian stood up for the final time, Tristan moved in, spun Brian around and smacked his back. Brian hit the ground and it echoed.
“Tristan!” Lucinda shouted, but Will held her back.
“You go over there and Brian will never get up.”
“Foul!” Steve sensei said. “One point to Brian-san.”
Katie held her breath. She had hoped it was over. She could feel sick satisfaction at watching him stand up. It made her heart quicken a little— No not hers, Tristan’s, but she couldn’t tell the difference. It was hard to separate her emotions from his. Was this how it felt for him? Like an alien invasion.
Brian stood up, but Katie silently begged him to stay down. She knew what was coming. Brian screamed and charged Tristan. What had he hoped to do? Tristan wasn’t even going to use much effort. That’s what was so pathetic and made Tristan elbow him in the ribs, smack his head with the same arm, and kick him flat in his chest in three quick movements.
Brian flew off the mat with the wind knocked out of him. Everyone felt it.
As Will grabbed Lucinda’s arm, Katie tried to push Tristan out of her mind. His hate burned her.
Steve Sensei helped Brian to the bleacher.
“You wanted to see your son beaten like that?” Lucinda spat.
“Better it be Tristan, in a room full of guardians than a werewolf, or a vampire who won’t show him mercy,” Will spat back. They stared at each other. Lucinda yanked her arm away and went to Brian.
Katie looked between Brian slouched on the bleacher and Tristan. She wasn’t the only one. Even Allison, standing on the other side looked sorry for Brian. That wasn’t a match, it was a slaughter. Had it been revenge for stabbing Tristan? Tristan was looking at her from the mat. She couldn’t read his face or thoughts.
Katie had one last match. If she could beat the girl named Jenn Black then she would qualify for another. As soon as Katie saw who Jenn Black was she knew she’d lost, and she wasn’t wrong. It was the girl who she shot in the head. She still had streaks of yellow pant in her hair. Jenn made sure Katie knew what it had felt like to be shot in the head.
It was over before it even started. Jenn hit her on the same spot three times.
In thirty seconds.
“I think she actually tried to hit me here,” Katie said, rubbing her head.
“No, she succeeded.” Tristan said, helping Katie off the mat.
The last match before the final rotation was between the two undefeated fighters. Allison and Tristan. Katie could hear everyone murmuring. Would he do to her what he did to Brian? Does this kid have a point to prove? Where did he come from?
Katie knew different. Tristan looked as bored as ever, even though Allison was flexing and throwing quick practice shots. If anything, she was worried that Allison might go berserk when she lost.
It wasn’t a quick match. When Tristan blocked, Allison would block his counter. It wasn’t until she got one hit in that Tristan started to look alive. The one hit was all Allison did manage, but it was more than anyone during all of his matches.
They finally moved on to the last event. Katie felt a glimmer of hope. Swimming—it was the one thing she could do well. They had three chances to dive and collect as many weights as possible. They went in five different groups, again Katie was in the last group, but it didn’t bother her. This time she’d know how much weight she’d have to collect to score high. As soon as it was Tristan’s turn he forfeited. Gasps and shocked expressions drifted from around the pool.
“You do realize,” Mr. Right said, “That this means you definitely giving up the top spot.”
“Yup,” Tristan sat on the benches before Mr. Right could say anything else.
As all the groups went, Katie realized something. The only thing that mattered was if she could use her legs fast enough. Most people lost weights before they
could surface because they couldn’t swim to the top fast enough. It was deep. Twenty-feet, so the push off the ground would only help about half way. The boy she fought, Adam, brought up the most weight. Forty-five pounds total. Katie only needed one more pound to place first. She was going to go for it.
She stood on the edge of the pool and curled her toes over the edge. This was it.
She dived.
Getting to the bottom wasn’t hard, she had strong legs, and she was fast. She grabbed seventeen pounds on the first dive. One ten-pound bag, one five-pound and one two-pound. It was hard, but she knew she had to do the hardest tow on the first dive when she had the most energy. Like she thought, the push off the pool floor only propelled her a little over half way. Holding the bags meant she had to kick harder and faster before she lost momentum. She kicked the last foot running out of breath.
She surfaced and flipped on to her back to preserve energy and so she didn’t need her arms to swim to the edge.
She dived again. Fifteen-pounds.
Before the last dive, Mr. Right announced the amount of weight each student had. Katie, thirty-two. A girl next to had just twenty-pounds. The boy next to her thirty-pounds. She had a good lead, she even beat out a few of the students who’d already went. But she wanted to win. Badly. Just this one event. She was good at swimming. Her arms felt heavy and sore. Her legs burned.
She hoped onto the edge and prepared for her last dive. She bent her knees and leapt. Before she entered the water she knew it wasn’t strong enough to send her to the bottom. She had to kick more than half the way. Big mistake.
She grab a ten-pound bag and a five-pound bag. Her air was running out and she was twenty-feet under water. She propelled off the ground as hard as she could.
Ten-feet. She was nearly out of breath. Her legs were on fire. She couldn’t get them to swing right.
Five-Feet. She couldn’t hold her breath anymore. She had to make a choice, let go of a bag and use her arms, or nearly drown. She tried to stroke with the bags in her hand. They were pushing her down.
Push. You can do it. Katalina, Push!
She snapped her legs back and forth as hard as she could. Just as she took in a mouth full of water, she surfaced. She held the bags to her chest. She couldn’t let go of them now.
“COME ON KATALINA!”
“KAY, YOU GOT IT”
“KATIE! KATIE!”
She flipped onto her back still choking on water. Her legs barely worked, but she kicked to the edge. As soon as her bags touched the edge of the pool, people were pulling her out of the water. She was coughing up water still clutching the bags.
“Did—I—get—the—most,” she coughed.
Mr. Right took the two bags. “That makes forty-seven-pounds! That is the most collected all day. Just shy of the record forty-nine. Well done.”
There was clapping, but Katie didn’t hear it. Not as loud as she had heard Tristan. In her mind. Words. He spoke to her in her mind. Katie was laughing, but not for the reasons everyone else thought. Only Tristan, the boy who was smiling at her, knew why.
CHAPTER NINE
When the scores were announced Katie finished thirty-seven out of fifty. It was nice, considering she’d planned on finishing last. Brian finished thirty, Tristan third, and Allison first. Allison said she was happy, though every time someone would congratulate her on her huge trophy, they’d ask where her dad was and she’d smile the way Katie knew she smiled when she was being overly polite.
Katie wandered outside and sat on the steps. There were too many people in there talking about too many things. She wanted to think quietly.
“You surprised me at the end there,” Tristan said, appearing from nowhere. He did that too well.
“It’s nice to know your faith in me goes so deep.” Katie couldn’t help but think, “You surprised me too.” There might have been a slight smile on his face. If there was, it was gone now. “We could totally cheat on test this way.”
“You are the saddest person I’ve ever met.”
“Really? I’ve been told I have a cheerful look about me.” Katie smiled as if to make her point.
“That smile right there, it’s a smile that would scare even the bravest of men.”
Katie felt a pang of disappointment. She’d meant to be silly, but to say her smile was something so hideous that it scared people went a bit far.
“I never said it was ugly.”
“I know what you meant,” she scowled.
“I mean what I said.”
“Just when I thought we were getting along, you start with the riddles and ‘ohhh I’m shady Tristan, look at me I’m all mysterious and cool because I never make sense and I always leave people wondering what the hell I’m talking about’.”
“I don’t sound like that.”
“I don’t sound like that,” Katie said.
“You’re so annoying.”
“You’re so annoying.”
“Are you done?
Katie stood up, she didn’t have to sit there and listen to that. Tristan grabbed her hand to pull her back down. As soon as their hands touched he snapped his hand back as if he’d never meant to do it. She stood there not sure what to do. His face made it harder to decide. He looked like he’d just been caught.
She sat back down. “If you want to be friends you can’t be such a dick.”
He didn’t say anything, but she knew he got the message. They sat in silence, or thought, or however they sit in because technically it’s never silent between them, not for him anyway.
“Katie? Tristan? Oh there you are. Katie, Will says you had a duffle bag this morning what was that about?” It was Lucinda walking down the school steps toward them. Will wasn’t with her. Maybe with Brian? She hadn’t seen Brian after the swim, he only collected ten-pounds.
“Everyone has duffle bags, Lucy” Katie said, avoiding eye contact.
“Not filled to the brim. And don’t think I forgot about this morning. What is going on?”
“I—I sort of left home.”
Lucinda didn’t look surprised. Of course Will told her he’d spilled the beans to her dad. She must have been expecting a dramatic outcome. “When?” This time she looked between her and Tristan. The cat was out of the bag. The cat was screaming and scratching up the bag because it was violent and glad to be out of it.
Tristan looked at her.
“Technically?”
“Katie Watts.”
“Yesterday.”
Lucinda’s eyes bulged. “Where did you sleep yesterday?”
“Al—”
“Think about that lie before you tell it.” Lucinda rubbed her right temple.
“A park. But I technically didn’t sleep there. Maybe for an hour or two I—”
“YOU SLEPT IN A PARK?” Lucinda pointed at the school doors. “Get your bags right now. We’re going home. As soon as we get there, you’re grounded. BOTH of you are grounded.”
“You’re grounding me?” Tristan said the word like a foreign concept.
“YES I’M GROUNDING YOU. NOT ONLY DID YOU SLEEP IN A PARK BUT YOU ALSO BEAT UP MY SON IN A ROOM FULL OF PEOPLE. SO MUCH FOR BLENDING IN.” Lucinda was red in the face. People were staring, “Don’t you have teenage children? What are you looking at?” she said.
Katie and Tristan took her momentary distraction to slip away into the school.
“She can’t ground me,” he said, looking over his shoulder. “She can’t even ground you. You’re homeless.”
Katie laughed despite herself. They grabbed Katie’s duffle bag and book-bag. She congratulated Allison again and said her goodbyes. When Allison’s eyes drifted to the bulging duffle bag, Katie realized it would be hard to tell her best friend that she ran away, slept in a park, and spent entire day not telling her anything at all. One more problem to add to the growing pile.
When they went back outside Lucinda and Will were waiting in the truck. Brian was nowhere to be found. No one mentioned his absence so she didn�
�t bring it up.
“Katie,” Will said, talking to her directly for the first time today. “I called your dad on Friday to make sure he was handling everything okay. I didn’t know you hadn’t told him.”
Since when do you call my dad to see how he’s handling things?
“How about we ride over there and try and smooth things out?” Will said, looking at her in the rear view mirror.
How could she tell them that her dad blames them for everything and doesn’t want her to see them ever again.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Will,” Tristan said as if he was above the conversation. “He’ll just cart her off to an omitter and move away.”
“Tristan, how do you know that? Katie did your dad say something to you? Exactly what happened?”
Katie cleared her throat and looked out the window. “He doesn’t want me around you guys. He said he could make me forget you.”
The only sound in the car was the engine.
“It doesn’t hurt to try,” Will said, turning into her neighborhood. It was a few minutes past four. Her dad was definitely home and he wouldn’t react well to everyone showing up on his doorstep like they were hosting an an intervention.
Katie hesitated before getting out of the car.
“Worst thing that happens? He threatens to take you to an omitter or gets angry and throws you out.” Tristan shrugged, “It looks like that’s already essentially happened.”
“Thanks,” Katie said sarcastically. She closed the car door, but Lucinda opened it again.
“You’re coming too,” Lucinda said, waving Tristan out.
“I think I’ll sit this one out.”
Lucinda’s head snapped around. If they could, her eyes would have glowed red. “Get—out—now.”
Katie felt like that was a bad idea, but she wasn’t going to tell Lucinda that. Not with her eyes shooting out lasers and burning holes through concrete.
Will had already rang the doorbell when she stepped onto the porch.
Her dad answered the door and looked at all of them. “How dare you come here after what you’ve done.” Katie thought he meant her, but he was looking at Will.