by Keya Jay
***
“ALRIGHT GIRLS, YOU’VE SEEN HOW THE BATTLE WENT DOWN YESTERDAY. ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN AND YOUR JOBS ARE TO MAKE SURE IT DOESN’T,” Aaron said as he looked at every girl individually.
“ONE OF OUR VERY OWN DIED YESTERDAY BECAUSE HE DIDN’T LISTEN TO MY GUIDLEINES. I DON’T SAY THESE THINGS FOR MY HEALTH SO IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU HEED MY WARNINGS. GOING HEAD FIRST INTO AN OPONENT LIKE THAT BOY-WHO-SHALL-NOT-BE-NAMED DID LAST NIGHT WAS A BIG FAT NO-NO! YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO ME I’VE BEEN AT THIS TOO DAMN LONG SO I KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!”
Aaron walked around toward the front of the warehouse they were practicing in.
“DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?” he yelled.
YES SIR,” was his collective response minus the one ‘yes Aaron’ coming from Ryder.
Aaron was glad to see the boy was back but he was just as stubborn and disrespectful as ever. He missed practice two days in a row and the big battle so he had to attend both the boys and the girl’s practices.
Aaron gave Ryder a subtle nod to let him know that he had acknowledged his presence.
“NOW THAT WE HAVE ESTABLISHED THAT, RYDER WILL PLACE THE MATTS DOWN AND WE’LL GET TO WORK,” Aaron said as he looked at Ryder urging him with his eyes to do this one thing for him.
“Hey coach,” Christine said as she came up to him. Her hey coach wasn’t one of greeting it was one that bad news would soon follow.
“What is it Christine?”
She opened her mouth to answer but Ryder beat her to it.
“AARON ALL OF YOUR MATS HAVE BLOOD SMEARED ON THEM!” Ryder announced so that the whole class could freak out.
Thanks a lot for that like I didn’t have enough trouble calming them down, he thought as he walked toward the back.
Aaron covered his face in his hands and let out a huge sigh. This was most likely Richards promise to him.
Let the stupid fuckin games begin, Aaron huffed.
“Just try and clean them the best you can could you?” he asked as he walked away not caring what Ryder’s answer was going to be even though Aaron knew it would be something like I’m not your T.A Aaron why don’t you get one of the girls to do it? If Aaron ever wanted to get on with practice getting a couple of girls to help was exactly what he was going to have to do.
By the time all of the mats were free of blood they only had 45 minutes left of 2 hours to practice and Aaron used every single last one of those minutes.
When he got home his wife was obviously upset but Aaron was not in no way shape or form ready for the argument her being angry would lead to. One look at his wife’s face told him she knew exactly what happened too and no doubt Sidney did as well.
“What did you see?” he asked as he plopped onto the couch which he seemingly did a lot of after a hard day of training.
“I didn’t see anything I felt it Aaron,” she said though her face was calm her voice was angry.
“What did you feel Ciana, I’m not in the mood for guessing games?”
“I felt…chaos, destruction its coming Aaron and it’s going to be hand delivered,” she said as her voice shook. “When Sidney came home she said she felt dizzy and that she thinks she might be coming down with something, she felt it too Aaron!”
“Honey she’s an Espy she’s supposed to feel it, we might not have known it’d be this soon but we knew it was coming,” he said trying to calm her to the best of his abilities.
“How do we tell her?” she said as she plopped on the couch heavily.
“It’s not the birds and the bee’s speech honey, don’t be so stressed about it,” he said as he rubbed her back.
“Don’t be stressed? Aaron how can I not be stressed my daughter…she’s…changing,” she said as she held her head in her hands. “All her life she thought she was human she thought I was human,” she said as she broke down.
“It is ok honey, I’ll talk to her ok, but not tonight she’s not the only one feeling a little dizzy,” Aaron said as he placed a kiss on her head and went upstairs to his room.