So this was a whole other version of nerves, not the kind of nerves right before the big exam or the kind right before the big date. This was excitement filled with raw passion, and I Leilani Sans-Tover was experiencing these nerves for the first time. My friends are probably laughing at me right now, my bestfriend Liyah (pronounced Leah) received a photo of me in my new GI set and laughed for about ten minutes at the ridiculously stark white colours against my skin-tone. Clearly medium skin doesn't suit bleach white, but my hair was another matter entirely, I had tried to braid it to look professional but stylish at the same time, unfortunately the eight month old regrowth decided that it didn't want to look like a simple braid. It wound up being my gamer-brother calling me a 'noob' and ruffling the braid out of place, a simple push of the Xbox power button solved that problem and he soon went back to hating me. Ah, sibling love.
Anyway, back to my nerves, it was my first MMA lesson and yes I was extremely nervous for obvious reasons. The only time I have experienced MMA is watching it on YouTube and then obsessing over the sport for two months before my parents caved and let me join a class. I wasn't fat, but I wasn't exactly what you called 'athletically blessed' either, I just had an average body with short legs or was it short torso? Either way, I was only 163cm in height, yay for midgets. "Name please." Ugh, her voice sounds horrific! Something about nasal voices just made me cringe, but bad breath just sends me over the edge. Is that Garlic and chilli I smell? "Leilani Sans-Tover, the only girl in this class, see my name? Right there at the bottom of the sheet." The girl finally saw my name and ticked me off before turning to a gentleman beside her and helping him with his pose. I looked around the room trying to find the instructor to introduce myself like she told me to the night before on the phone, Sensei Zera was her name, a beautiful and powerful woman of Asian decent. "Lani, darling, over here." I could hear the smile in her warm voice as she greeted me with open arms, her almond brown eyes were full of glee and mischief while she stared at me.
Unfortunately she wasn't the only one staring, three other boys looking to be around my age of sixteen, were also watching me from their positions on the mats. "Boys, meet our newest member and already a close friend of mine, Leilani. She'll be taking the pink mat from the back room, Travis would you mind grabbing it for me?" A tan boy with the greenest eyes I've ever seen rose from a pastel green mat and marched to a door at the back of studio, he emerged with an also pastel mat but this time in a powder pink colour. He strode back to where I was standing and gently shoved the mat into my hands with a soft, "welcome to the family." Before taking his seat again, waiting for his next instructions. Why did he seem so familiar? But I'm sure if I'd ever seen that face before I would never forget it. He was gorgeous and he knew it. It was something about his eyes, I remember seeing those eyes somewhere before, the answer is gonna haunt me until I wake up at four in the morning and have the answer right in front of me.
"Leilani this is Mason Starkwhether, Samuel Jense and this is Travis Oliver, you may have heard of his father? Thomas Oliver?" Zera was almost bursting with pride over Travis' father, he was a teacher at Reefside High School, that I knew and that he sometimes taught Martial Arts at the studio. I had watched some of his fights and was thoroughly impressed with his abilities. "That's where I know you from!" I shouted at Travis who seems to have a slight pink in his cheeks at the sudden attention. "I've seen your dad fight and saw you on the sidelines with your mum and sister!" All of the Oliver's were genetically perfect and beautiful. I would kill to have perfect babies. Travis' head snapped up at the word mum and a glare crossed his features. "That woman is not my mother. She's a distraction until my mother returns. Katherine Hillard is an imposter." He marched over to the punching bag and began repeatedly punching it with such a force I've never seen before, pure hatred oozed from him in waves and it made me feel sick to my stomach.
Okay, stay away from the mummy subject, touchy. I looked back to the others only to find them part-way through an exercise, curious glances towards my direction worried me. "Leilani, dear, come over here I'll run through a routine with you to get you warmed up and then you can follow the boys. Travis are you finished now? I need you to help with Lani." Grunt. Sigh. Travis made his way over to myself and Zera, a storm still raging in his eyes but a cool expression upon his face, Travis was the leader of this group it was obvious now, but he still had to rein in his emotions, too much emotions not enough control.
Travis locked his hand around my wrist and gently guided me behind the others, he placed our hands together on my own stomach and I suddenly felt nervous, his deodorant was mixed with sweat and his breath was distinctly feeling fever hot on my neck right now. "I want you to breathe in and out, just slowly making sure you feel it in the bottom of your lungs, in the pit of your stomach." I closed my eyes and tried to slow the rapid beating of my heart, could he feel that? That feeling of electricity that lingered on our skin where we touched; like fire was spreading through my veins.
"That's good, keep breathing like that while I go through the movements." My breath hitched in my when I made the mistake to look at him; his eyes were like two green fires blazing at me. He leant towards me, staring intently at my eyes and then his gaze would venture to my lips, his eyes lingered there longer than normal. "You're supposed to me breathing. Start again." His breath smelled delicious and all I could do was stare while he chuckled and began the movements without even looking at me.
Had that just happened? Or was my imagination greater than I thought? The feeling of recognition didn't leave me, the way he brushed his hair away from his eyes or the way he stretched his toned arms felt as if I'd watched him do those things a hundred times. Throughout my entire lesson every time I tried to remember my brain just went fuzzy and I got a splitting headache. But no matter what, I will come to the bottom of this, I like knowing everything, I like answers and Travis Oliver is going to give me all of them.