The children all rushed around in anticipation. Cries of excitement filled the air and squabbles began to break out by the dozen. Luckily, Stephen seemed well prepared for this and he called out in a loud, steady voice, "Hey! Come on! Do you want to get started or not?"
That got their attention and everyone froze. One by one, they all sank out of the various position of combat and gradually slipped away from each other. Soon enough, every child had a space around their body, proving that they would cause no trouble and couldn't even if it was desired.
Stephen, a wide, silent grin on his face, walked out among the sea of children. He was still a pillar above them, sticking out of the crowd like a giant. Shoko stared up at him with amazement, wondering what magical things he would teach.
"Everyone get in lines!" he called out, the stern voice bouncing around the silvery room. As Shoko watched, all of the boys fell into line and Shoko scrambled to match them. In the corner of her eye, Shoko could see Stephen surveying their arrangement.
"Good, now before we start, there is a newbie here with us." He said to the grid of children, "Shoko, and she is going to need someone to help her out, at least until she can get caught up. Are there any volunteers?"
All at once, Shoko felt three dozen faces turn toward her, appraisingly. Most of them turned away immediately upon confirming the possible error of the sentence. She. Most of the others looked away after a few more moments.
In the end, there was only one hand in the air for Stephen to choose.
"Yes, Tommy, you want to help her?"
Shoko could see the boy nod and smile his toothy smile. She felt herself smiling as well, at the mere sight of his foolish grin.
The idiocy of that occurred suddenly to Shoko and she was disgusted with herself. Shoko shook herself violently and forced her mind into thoughts of adventure, mountains and caves, wide empty skies and the unmistakable sight of new stars. That managed to calm her down and distract her from… ugh.
Before she knew it, though, Tommy was approaching her. He led her to the side of the group, into a slightly vacant corner of the room. Shoko heard Stephen talking to the rest of the children, explaining something complicated.
"Okay," Tommy said, trying to come up with a curriculum off the top of his head, "So I know you can fight, but how well? What do you know?" At that question, Tommy proceeded to lead her through many different types of kicks. Low kicks, high kicks, sweeping kicks and straight kicks. Heavy, damaging kicks and kicks that were meant to knock the opponent off balance.
After a while, Tommy seemed satisfied with her mastery of the art of kicking the air. However, he did say that she needed to work on her balance. Shoko started to protest this, but Tommy immediately insisted wave her hand in a circle while lifting the opposite foot high in the air.
Shoko tried this and fell almost immediately, proving Tommy's stupid point. Despite her internal protests, Shoko found herself sulking at this realization. As Tommy explained the right way of punching things, Shoko caught a snippet of Stephen's lesson. That seemed much more interesting to her than whether or not she could stand on one foot or punch right.
Stephen was explaining all about navigation in the wilderness and how to find your way by stars and natural markers. Stephen said that the sun always rose in one side of the horizon and that it always set in the opposite. No exceptions.
Suddenly, Shoko felt her legs fly out from beneath her body. Everything spun around for a few confusing seconds until Shoko found herself leaning, dizzily, against Tommy's outstretched arm. He was glaring at her with an annoyed look in his eyes.
"Are you gonna listen or not?" he growled, "I'm trying to help you here."
"But… I know this stuff," Shoko said, "I'm more interested in what Stephen is talking about."
Tommy looked at her and laughed.
"Fight me then," he said with aggravation plain in his voice, "If you've got all of this down. Win and you can go train with Stephen."
Shoko scoffed at this, exclaiming that she'd fought both him and Peepers not ten minutes ago.
"It's not the same. That was wrestling, that was playing, this is fighting. Are you going to fight me, or will you start paying attention?"
As a response, Shoko threw a punch at the boy. Something in her mind had told her to always throw the first punch, no matter what. The logic behind this said simply that the element of surprise would be on her side. Once the first punch connected, Tommy would be dazed, at which point she could bludgeon him with kicks and punches until he relented and admitted that this was dumb.
Moving like lightning, Tommy caught this fist nimbly in one hand and stared at her coolly.
Something about him seemed different, as if all that excited, boyish energy had been drained and purified into a dangerous seeming confidence. Shoko could see his eyes darting around, but not in the way they had before. They appraised now, as if Tommy was ready to weigh any motion or movement she made.
"Oh yeah!" Shoko challenged, not being one to accept defeat easily (if ever), "That's not all I've got! You'd better watch yourself."
And with that, Shoko threw herself into a nonstop onslaught. Her fist blurred in a dozen attempts to knock Tommy down through the ground and out the other side.
I hope you liked this chapter. As the title states, it adds a little bit of tension, though not only one kind. Leave a review and let me know what you think, or maybe even where you'd like to see this story go.