A/N: Hey guys! Here is another chapter! Enjoy!
It had been two weeks since Emma had returned from New York. David Nolan had offered to allow Emma to take time off from work to take care of her well-being but the blonde felt worst being cooped up at home. After three days she was back at work. However, the CEO did not allow Emma anywhere near the training area and was instead assigned to do paperwork with him.
After a couple of days of Emma's incessant whining of how dull the task was, the owner of Believe finally relented and allowed the blonde to go back to conducting training but only to the beginners' classes.
Lily was in charge of Beginners classes. The learners only learned basic punches and kicks. The trainer to learner ratio was one trainer per pair of learners. The classes rarely exceeded ten learners. This was a perfect arrangement to ensure somebody keeps an eye on Emma.
Lily and Emma were the only full-time trainers for the Beginners class. The other trainers were volunteers from the advanced classes that had expressed interest to be trainers in the future.
Emma Swan had not taught the Beginners class for some time but she welcomed the arrangement nonetheless. It was better than the mindless digitising of documents David had Long put off.
He was more of a hands-on person and preferred connecting with the at-risk youths than to sit at the computer all day documenting each of their progress. He would have hired more staff but the business was not making a lot of profit. The gym was dependent on donations and he would rather have the money go towards helping the youths.
The learners assigned to Emma were a pair of pre-teen twins named Ava and Nicholas Zimmer. Their mother had died during childbirth. Nicholas, the younger of the two, almost did not make it. An emergency caesarean was performed to deliver him before he died along with his mother. Their father raised them by himself but when the children were twelve years old, he had abandoned them. They had no other living relatives and resorted to theft in order to survive.
They had recently been sent to Believe by a social worker for them to have a sense of purpose. They had been a handful for Lily to handle and she was glad that Emma agreed to train them. Lily explained the twins' backstory prior to the class to mentally prepared the blonde.
At one glance, Ava reminded Emma of herself when she was that age. She could see a child forced to grow up too soon; a distrust of any adult. Hope was not lost and the need to survive was of utmost importance.
Nicholas, on the other hand, had a smaller frame from his sister. It was clear that he wasn't as brave or had the same survival instinct as his sister. On his own, he would never have made it on the streets.
Emma smiled at the twins. "Hi! I'm Emma Swan."
The twins looked at her but said nothing. Emma knew that the way to break the ice was to connect to Nicholas and gain Ava's trust.
"Let's see what you've learnt so far," Emma said.
She knelt down in front of the siblings and held her punching mitts up.
"Nicholas, why don't you go first?"
"Okay." He answered nervously.
The boy stepped forward in front of Emma in a guard stance ready to punch.
"Let's start with something simple. Left jab."
Nicholas gave a weak punch.
"Once more. I want you to give it your best shot."
The boy turned to look at his sister, unsure if he was allowed to try. Emma read the exchange.
"Look at the target." The trainer instructed.
The boy followed the instruction.
"Good. Now imagine the things that make you angry. Imagine this one punch will destroy them."
Nicholas focussed on the mitt and punched it as hard as he could.
"Awesome! Now do the same with your right hand." Emma said.
"What's the point? Are you seriously expecting all of our problems will disappear if we punched it all away?" Ava argued.
"No. Your problems will always be there. But you can either let that dictate who you are or you can push back and say 'No I decide who I am'. That's what I did." Emma explained.
"How can you even understand what we are going through?!" Ava shouted, drawing attention from the entire class.
"If you don't want to do this class you can sit at the sidelines for the next hour until your social worker picks you up."
"Great! Come Nicky." Ava motioned for her brother to follow but the boy did not budge. He looked between the two blondes.
"I think I want to learn. It's kinda fun!"
Emma smiled at the boy.
Ava rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath.
Lily drew attention away from the twins and encouraged the rest of the learners to continue with the lesson. The other learners were easier to manage as they had attended the classes for months. She has had experience with difficult children and youths but the Zimmer twins were the most challenging. She was sure that Emma had everything under control. The blonde was always good at these things.
Emma and Nicholas carried on with the lesson. Ava saw her Brother smiling and enjoying himself. She couldn't help but feel jealous of her brother's happiness.
That jealousy did not go unnoticed by the blonde trainer. She continued to compliment Nicholas's efforts.
"Are you having fun?" Emma asked the boy.
"Yes!" He answered enthusiastically. "You should try this, Ava! It's so cool!" The boy said excitedly to his twin.
Ava couldn't help but feel curious if she would actually enjoy it.
"Oh don't bother, Nicholas. Ava prefers to be bitter and miserable." Emma said just loud enough for Ava to hear.
Emma and Nicholas carried on with the lesson while Ava pretended to not have paid any attention to them.
Some time had passed and it was time for pairs of learners to take turns practising their moves on the punching bags.
The bitter twin was bored out of her mind. She did not want to keep waiting at the sidelines anymore. She grabbed a pair of gloves and joined her brother who was unable to find somebody to partner with.
Emma knew that Nicholas wouldn't have a partner. With Ava out of the class, there was an odd number of learners. Usually, when there was an odd number of learners, one group will be made up of three children. Usually, the instructors would arrange this but the experienced trainer knew that Ava couldn't resist pairing up with her brother whom the other learners are ignoring. Emma walked away from the class, pretending she needed to get something from the staff locker room.
She peered behind a wall and observed what she had expected to happen, Ava partnered up with her brother at the punching bag. Nicholas offered to hold the bag for his sister to punch first. She started punching a few jabs. She clearly enjoyed how that felt and proceeded to punch rapidly and enthusiastically.
Lily caught Emma's presence in the peripheral vision. The smile on her best friend's face was the first she had seen since the blonde's return from New York.
The lanky brunette walked over to Emma, making sure to glance over at her class every once in a while.
"I don't know how you always manage to get the tough ones to participate." Lily complimented her roommate.
"I knew Ava wanted to join in but she has trust issues. Their father abandoned them. That's gotta be tough"
"That's true. I'm glad you're smiling again."
"What?"
"That thing on your face? Is a smile." Lily teased.
"So?"
"So… you've been in a slump for a while. I think you've found yourself a new project that has woken up the Emma I know."
"You're right. It's been so long since I felt so relaxed."
"Come on. Let's get back to class before these kids start a riot." Lily joked.
The brunette walked over to the class first. Emma thought about Lily's observation of her. She's no longer feeling depressed. The match was two weeks away. There was nothing she could do to change the fact that it was going to happen. Her life should not be put on pause waiting for the inevitable.
She let out a sigh and joined the class. She has a lot of work to do with Ava and Nicholas.