The next day, I woke up and groaned. My arm still ached a little. Plus, I had just realized that healing wiped me out. I fell asleep before we got to Kel's room, where they had to put me because they didn't have time to find anywhere else. And around midnight I found out about a slightly negative effect with the healing: I pretty much got the stomach flu.

I looked around. Kel was practicing her glaive excersises. I decided not to interrupt. When she finished, I was amazed. I thought that using the glaive would be sort of like the long bamboo rods some of my tae kwon do instructors used for another sport. Wrong. Anyway, when Kel finished, she noticed I was up.

"Good morning," she said, in an annoyingly cheery voice.

"Kel, no morning is a good morning," I told her sourly.

"Why? Are you one of those people that hate mornings?"

"You betcha."

"Why are there so may people that don't like mornings?" she asked no one in particular.

"Kel, honey, we're teenagers. It's in our nature to party all night and then sleep till noon."

"Why?"

"Ask a mad scientist, cuz I don't know. Uhggg!" I said as Neal, Faleron, Owen, and Merric came in. "Aren't any of you NORMAL teeenagers?!?"

"What do you mean by that?" Owen asked, glaring at me.

"I don't want to deal with Sir Crybaby at the crack o' dawn!" I said, throwing my pillow over my head.

"Sir Crybaby. I like that one," Cleon said as he walked in.

"Would you all just LEAVE ME ALONE?!?! I've got to fight your training master in what, five hours, I was up half the night barfing, and my arm still hurts! Go away!" I screamed.

"Laurie's not exactly a morning person," Kel explained.

"Neither are we," Neal said. "Kel, it's ten o' clock."

"WHAT?!?!" They all looked at me as I shot out of bed. "I'm sparring the idiot at noon! I have to take a shower and stretch and--"

Kel slapped her forhead. "How could I forget, with everyone talking about it? Calm down! Boys, could you leave for a little?"

"Sure," "Course," "See you later, Kel," they all muttered, most of them trying not to laugh.
Kel turned around. "First of all, where's Lalasa? We need to get you some fighting clothes. Lalasa!" she yelled.

"Yes, my lady?" Lalasa asked, coming out of the privy room, where I had spent half the night.

"Could you take Laurie's measurements and get her some things at the tailors'? Just to borrow?"

"Of course, my lady," Lalasa took out a knotted cord. She used it to get my measurements (duh), and then left. Kel looked at me. "Why don't you go take a bath? There's soap in there," she said.

"Sounds good me," I said, and left.

After my bath, Lalasa had come back and gave me some thin pants and a shirt. I put that on with my own underwear, socks, and tennies. I pulled my hair back with a scrunchie and began doing stretches while Kel and Lalasa watched.

After I did the regular warm-ups, I went through and did ten of every kick I knew, each leg, starting with the easiest. That took me awhile. Normally I only did five of each, each leg, except when I was doing a really big sparring match. Then I went back and did ten more of each of the most important counter kicks. Then I did punches, upper cuts, blocks, throws, and sidesteps. After that I collasped on the bed.

"Tired?" Kel asked.

"Like, totally," I answered.

"I was wondering....if you've ever got time, will you teach me some of that? We don't learn nearly that much."

"I'd be happy to," I told her truthfully. "On one condition: you teach me whatever you're learning in weapons practice."

"Deal!" We shook hands on it, just as the boys came into the room.

"Stretched out?" Neal asked, pulling Kel off the bed.

"Yep," I said with a smile.

"Good," he said, helping me uop. He frowned. "What?" I asked.

"You're tired," he said.

"Duh! I was just doing kicks for like, an hour!" I told him.

"Can't have that," he muttered, concentrating. Then I wasn't tired anymore.

"Whad you do?" I asked.

"Healer's Gift, remember?"

"Oh, yeah. Thanks."

"Anything for the girl who's attempting to do what I've always wanted to do to the Stump," he said loftily.

"Whatever. Let's just get to the practice courts. I'm ready to kick some Wyldon butt!"





When we got to the pratice courts, Wyldon was already stretched out. He handed me some padded junk, like the sparring gear I wore at home: helmet, chest protector, mouth piece, arm guards, and shin guards. I put them on, and we went on to the fighting arena as some dude read the rules. Basically, any move was legal, which was a change, and another change was that the fight would go until someone gave up. Normally the matches lasted one or two minutes, four at the most.

"Ready--Begin!" the man shouted. I didn't budge. It was never a good idea to make the first move. So Wyldon did. I turned, blocking his kick, and landed on of my own. He countered, stepping out of the way.

The match went on like this for fifteen minutes or so. My face was calm, I knew, but inside I was screaming. *Thank you, Mom,* I thought, *for teaching me the perfect poker face.* The longest sparr I'd ever been in lasted three and a half minutes. Right now, I was in trouble.

I was thinking about giving up. It seemed like the best idea, I'd lasted this long against him.

"What in the WORLD are you thinking, Makensri?!?!" I could almost hear my tae kwon do instructor, Mr. Barns, right in front of me. "What, you think you'll go all prissy and scared-in-front-of-a-mouse-girl on me? No way, girl, not when I've got you to second-degree black belt! Do you remember how long I worked on that flyiong side kick with you? You're not giving, not if I can help it!"

It was like a slap back to reality. *Thanks, Mr. B,* I thought. *I needed that.* I noticed what Wyldon was doing. He was getting ready to launch a round house kick. I was going to need energy for what I was planning. I reached deep inside of me, searching for something to keep me up. I had only done this once before, right after Dad had died. I found it, and sent whatever it was all over my body.

Just when Wyldon launched the kick, I ducked, swept his other leg out from under him, and quickly pinned his shoulders. "I forfiet," he said after a minute, when he realized there was no way out. "Laurie Makensri is the winner." I helped him up, and he said, "We shall have to see about hiring you as a martial arts instructor."

"Can we talk about this later? All I want to do is go to sleep," I said, and so Faleron and Kel helped me back to her room, congraduating me all the way.

When I got there, I didn't even bother taking my tennies off, and fell instantly asleep.


Author's Note: Okay, here's an explaination for my name. I'm sure you all get the "Evil-roger-ralon-ozorne-joren" part, but some people don't get the rest of it. Cleon's in there because I WANT KEL TO END UP WITH NEAL!!!! Don't flame me for it, it's just the way I am. You-know-who and Malfoy are from the Harry Potter books, and I don't like either of them. To understand Eidon, you have to watch Dragonheart, the BEST movie in the world. Arwan is the bad guy in The Prydain Chronicles (great books, read them). And Charles the Seventh is the IDIOT of a king who didn't even TRY to help Joan of Arc when she got captured by the English (stupid, stupid, stupid, STUPID! He killed a SAINT, for cryin out loud!) I was going to add in Christina Aguilara, Britney Spears, Ricky Martin, and Leonardo Di Craprio (yes, I meant to spell it like that!) but they wouldn't all fit. So see ya!