"Very good, girls!" Riley congratulated them. "Now, take five while we wait for our volunteer. Remember to rehydrate!"
"Yes, ma'am!" The four girls said in unison, before walking to the water fountain.
"God, I'm fucking tired of push-ups." Vivica complained. "When are we going to actually kick someone's ass?"
"Don't be crass, Vivica, but yes. I'm sure that they should be here by now." Alicia looked at her watch. "Sally, are you sure it's going to pan out? Who did you get to come help us with this?"
Sally grinned, evil. "You'll see. He'll be here at any minute."
Alicia sighed. "This had better work, Sally. Or else Riley's going to ask yet another of her military buddies to help and we'll get wiped again. If we blow it this time, we'll never manage to finish the course."
Vivica muttered, "I still think we should have used Casey."
Alicia turned and glared at the redhead teen. "We are not using your brother for this! We're learning self-defence, not going on a vendetta!"
Felicity loudly whispered, "She's sore because we can't beat up her brother, you know?" to Vivica.
Alicia stared at her. "Et tu, Felicity?"
It was then that Sam chose to come through the gym door, looking surprised to see such an unorthodox group of girls there, all dressed in loose workout clothes.
"Hey, Alicia. Felicity. Vivica." He greeted, feeling rather out of place.
He looked around, though, and soon found the reason he was there in the first place.
"Hey, Sally. What's up with this?" He asked, confused.
Sally, in turn, gave him a vicious smile.
"Thank you for coming, Sam. This is the Committee for Female Empowerment and Self-Reliance. We aim to promote security and gender equality in public spaces through information and physical training of women." She explained. "This is our Advanced Self-Defence class, and we need someone to act as our training, er, partner."
"Victim." Vivica corrected.
Felicity stepped forward, hoping to be the mediator, since she was the one who is closest to the football player.
"We need somebody to beat up, Sam." She said, point-blank. "Someone on whom we can practice hitting, and throwing, and kicking. If you start this, and then back out, we will fail the test, so we really need you to stick through the whole thing once we start. Are you in?"
Sam nodded. "I'm in."
The blonde cheerleader pointed toward a bag on the floor. "Okay, there's some protective padding in there. You can put it on while we warm up."
"Oh! I get padding?" Sam looked surprised.
Alicia stared at the large young man. "You were going to do this without?"
Sam shrugged. "If I was able to dish it out back in my bullying days, I should expect to be able to take it."
"Oh, the volunteer has arrived! I thought they would run scared!" Riley said, acknowledging the boy that has come to their fold. "He's just the right size, too. I'm glad that you've managed to find this one, Sally. Now, you stand there and, on my sign, you tackle as hard as you can. Girls, let's get violent!"
"Woo-hoo!" Vivica shouts and it begins.
The next three hours passed in a painful blur for Sam, but a few particular images stuck out in his memory.
His first demonstration, approaching Alicia with a plastic knife, only to find it knocked from his hand just before he was thrown across the gym. The venomous smile on Vivica's face when she got ready to take him down with a staff, and her cry of triumph when it slipped through a gap in his padding to strike unprotected skin. Felicity's exultant shout when she finally completed a successful throw after several attempts. The feel of Sally landing on top of him after a leg sweep knocked him to the mat.
Most importantly, he came to the realization that he was using his physical abilities for a good cause, for a change.
"All right, we're done! Congratulations, troop, you've all passed the test with flying colours!" Riley proclaimed proudly. "Next week, we're going to work techniques on armed assailants. Come prepared!"
"Yes, ma'am!" They responded.
"Hey, teach? May I talk to you for a minute?" Vivica reached for their trainer and off they went.
Felicity, then, turned to a very exhausted Sam.
"Thank you so much for your help, Sam. We really couldn't have done this without you." The blonde girl said, charming. "Are you going to be okay?"
He smiled ruefully. "I'm used to it, 'cause of football. I'll be sore, but that's about it. Just a couple bruises."
Seeing that the rest of the girls was all gathered around Riley, she asked him quietly, "So what did Sally promise you for doing this? She wouldn't say."
The boy smirked. "Hopefully, you'll know by next weekend."
Flick looked at him, confused. "What's next weekend? Oh, the dance? Did you ask her to the dance, Sam?"
"It's not my place to say. Right now, I'm atoning for previous offenses." He responded, purposefully vague.
The teenage girl's clear eyes narrowed judgementally as she looked across at the former bully. "That's a lot of atonement."
Sam chuckled, humoured. "You guys hit me a lot of times."
Felicity nodded. "That we did. Good luck, Sam."
"Thanks. I think I might still need it."
Sally lay back in her bed that night, trying not to move so as not to exert overworked muscles.
What do I do for the third penance? Do I want him to succeed at it or fail?
She was not sure. For all her talk that he did not really pay much attention to her before asking her on a date, she had never really contemplated Sam either.
For the longest time, he had been more of a nuisance, a bully to avoid, rather than a potential partner, even a casual friend. However, while it did surprise her at first, she had long noticed that he had a keen brain, which he would carefully act to keep concealed. It had only been through a series of minor slips that she had been able to figure it out in the first place.
She had not said anything to anybody about it because it did not concern her, and if Sam wanted to purposefully underperform at school, for whatever reason, it was his prerogative. In fact, considering how he and his friends treated the other "nerds", she can even see his point.
Now that he had turned that brain toward wooing her, however, Sally is forced to give more of her own thoughts to the whole situation. Which was flattering in its own way, but mere flattery was far insufficient for her to actually agree to date him. She could not be sure why he wanted her, specifically, and not anyone else, and that is a problem.
If, against all odds, the football player could be a kindred spirit. somebody with whom she could talk about philosophy and literature... Well, then she is ready to take him in a heartbeat.
She'd been missing one of those sorely. Her only "brainy" friend was Kato, but he is so stressed-out about his goal of becoming a doctor, the only subject that he is usually willing to talk about outside school was tabletop gaming. Likewise, she had met plenty of people whom, like Riley, were more than willing to teach her valuable skills, and she is grateful for them. They were her teachers, though, not her friends, and that distinction is important.
Outside that, she is also glad to have managed to gather the Committee for Female Empowerment and Self-Reliance, and she is always engaged in their discussions, but their struggle for rights is not the only subject that she has an interest in, nor she wants to be the sort of person that turns a fight, as good as it may be, in their only concern.
She wants a full life, and she does not mind taking a walk on the other side to get it, she wants to know what Sam can bring into her existence and point of view.
Sally, then, realized that she had already made her decision. She now had to find something suitable to determine if this may be a viable relationship, because some part of her, deep down, really wanted it to be.