Firstly, HUGE apologies to anyone who got fakeout update notifications this week. I decided I didn't like writing in present tense and went back and edited all the chapters to be in past tense which is why all of a sudden it may look like I updated all the chapters...really sorry about that...and if you didn't get the notification, please ignore this message. :-) And if I happened to leave any verb tenses in present, my apologies.
Next order of business, you may notice I spell some words with the letter u for example: favourite, favour, colour, tumour. There is a good reason for this, I'm Canadian and that's just how we spell such words, I hope if you aren't used to seeing that extra letter you can look past it.
I still do not own Twilight, this chapter however does own some flavourless pieces of Hubba Bubba that I chewed while writing.
This chapter was not beta'd all mistakes are mine.
Chapter 5: Clash of the Tornadocane
"He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life." ~ Muhammad Ali
After my revelation in the parking lot of Carlisle's office, I played and re-played what I had dubbed The Apple Incident in my mind the entire week. Analyzing each thing Jasper had said, how he said it, the way his face looked while he said it. Each time I did, I would come up with an entirely different conclusion. It was confusing and frustrating me to no end.
At one point while teaching one of my beginner yoga classes, I was so wrapped up in my own mind that I had the class holding the Downward Dog position a good minute longer than I normally would. It actually took someone falling over after losing balance to break me out of my Jasper haze. That was when I drew the line and had to barter with myself to only think about it when in private. Which then resulted in my mind jumping into the nearest gutter. I even rolled my eyes at myself for already giving the guy the leading role in my fantasies. It was a vicious cycle of "He loves me, he loves me not" minus the flower and petal pulling.
To be completely honest, I wasn't sure how he did it. With most guys I was able to ignore or shrug off their blatant advances using my busy schedule at the gym as an excuse. But not for Jasper, the fact that he was training at the same gym just made him that much more appealing to me. He would understand my obsession to train and my ridiculous hours devoted to obtaining my goal. He also didn't chase me around like the other guys. Was it his lack of flattery and fawning that gave him the appeal? It couldn't possibly be that. We only had two thirty second encounters and one five minute conversation where we may or may not had flirted. I couldn't allow my girly bits to get all worked up over a brief interaction with the guy.
Maybe it was the enigma of Jasper; the mystery that seemed to follow him. I hardly knew a thing about him outside of his name and that he rode a Harley. Yet, I couldn't stop obsessing about him. It didn't help matters that every time I saw him he'd seem to get better looking than the last time; again, I'd only laid eyes on him three times, but who was counting? I couldn't imagine how he'd be looking after a few training sessions. Which would get me started on the idea of a hot and sweaty Jasper. It was safe to say I'd become completely obsessed and desperate for answers by the end of the week and I hated myself for the amount of time I spent thinking about him.
I hadn't realized my constant analysis had been so obvious to outsiders until Angela, one of the other yoga instructors, brought up my lack of focus and general disconnect at the end of the week.
"You alright, Bella?" Angela asked as she walked into the staff lounge after one of her classes.
"Hmmm?" I replied, breaking my unfocused gaze and looking up at her. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine, why do you ask?"
"No reason really. You know, besides the fact that every time I see you, you've got this pensive look on your face or you're blushing like a virgin on her wedding night," she smiled at me while lifting one eyebrow knowingly.
"It's nothing, really," I offered lamely. Her look of disbelief had me quickly retracting my previous statement. "Ok, fine. I've just been a bit pre-occupied thinking about how I'm going to make up for a week's worth of training sessions down at the club once Carlisle gives me clearance tomorrow." My quick lie and half truth sounded believable even to me. But before I could mentally pat myself on the back, Angela continued to dig for answers.
"Well, that explains the pensive look, but doesn't shed any light on the blushing. Care to share with the rest of the class?"
"Not really."
I didn't miss Angela's frown and renewed determination. She would not let this go until she got an acceptable answer. And from past experience, I knew she wasn't above going to Emmett and snooping around there, which would only lead to more questions I wouldn't know how to answer.
"Fine," I huffed at her as she sat down beside me on the couch, looking very much like one of the gossiping old ladies at a church function. "There's a new guy that joined the club this past week. I don't know much about him, so don't ask. However, Jimmy's decided he wants us to train together for a bit," I finished looking up at her.
"That's fantastic, Bella. It's been so long since you've been interested in a guy. What's his name?"
"Wait, I didn't say anything about being interested," I corrected, looking over at her. Angela rolled her eyes at me still expecting an answer to her question. She was more perceptive than I'd given her credit for.
"Jasper, his boxing nickname is The Major."
"The Major, huh? I wonder how he got that name? Maybe something to do with his anatomy?" I could tell Angela's joke was an attempt to lighten up my mood, but she'd only succeeded in reminding me of my previous dirty thoughts. Shaking my head and giving a light laugh, trying not to appear affected by her comment.
"No, Ange. Boxers don't generally get their nicknames from what's under their cup, you perv!"
"Hey, I'm just saying what you were thinking. I know you too well, Bella. You give off this sweet and innocent vibe to anyone who even tries to put the moves on you. I've also seen you fight; I know that other side of your personality, the feisty girl who's hungry for a challenge."
"Yeah, yeah…whatever you say." I deflected her correct assessment of my double personality and pulled myself off the couch. "You done for the day, now?" I asked effectively closing the subject.
"No, I've got one more class left. Which reminds me, can you cover next Sunday morning's Mommy Fit session for me? Ben and I want to get away for the weekend to this cute little B&B down in Westport."
"Yeah, sure, I love seeing all the little babies."
"Great, I really appreciate it! I'll let Gianna know about the switch before I leave for the night and she can call the moms."
"It's no problem, just remember this when I'm gone up to Canada for a tournament next month and Emmett and I decide to say a few days afterwards for a much needed mini-vacation," I replied smiling back at her.
"Of course. Maybe by then it won't be Emmett you're staying behind with. Maybe it'll be Jasper." She elbowed me and wagged her eyebrows looking much like a female version of Joey Tribbiani after saying 'How you doin'?'.
"I highly doubt that, Ange," shaking my head as I grabbed my bag from my locker and made my way toward the hall. "I'll see you next week, right?"
"I'll be here. And I'll expect and update on the latest Jasper gossip!" I groaned while Angela laughed at my expense. She just couldn't let it go. Angela was worse than the church ladies in her quest for juicy gossip.
''*"
Saturday morning brought a light drizzle and a nervous anticipation filling my insides leaving no room for breakfast. I was anxious to get the weekly club meeting and training session started. I didn't know what would happen with Jimmy or Jasper for that matter.
Jimmy I was confident I could handle. He was very much a creature of habit. He would expect us at the club by 8:00am where he would re-cap the previous week's fights. I had yet to be on the receiving end of one of his "This is what we're gonna do for ya" lectures. The lecture itself would be a joke, I already knew where things went drastically wrong and what I could do to fix it. It was called being an imbecile and actually putting to use all the skills I'd worked so hard to finesse. He would then finish the team meeting discussing the up coming fights and the out of town tournament planned for next month. Provided Jimmy didn't deviate from his usual meeting agenda, I'd be able to handle him.
Jasper on the other hand, I was more concerned about. I couldn't seem to get him out of my mind. This was becoming an unhealthy obsession. Maybe once Jimmy paired everyone off for sparring, I would be able to focus my energy on hitting something and give my brain a rest; letting muscle memory take over the controls. That would be refreshing.
It would be so much easier to hate Jasper. If I had only kept my mouth shut and not offered to fetch him from the parking lot on Monday for Esme. Before The Apple Incident, I was sufficiently annoyed with him and itching for a reason to dislike him more with plans to avoid him as much as possible. Instead he had to be all concerned about my restrictions, and let me know he actually did notice instead of shrugging me off like I had thought the morning we were introduced.
And that fucking smirk. Pre-Apple Incident Bella would have rolled her eyes and wanted to do painful things to remove said smirk from Jasper's face. Post-Apple Incident Bella wanted to shake some sense into Pre-Apple Incident Bella for being an idiot. That smirk was causing an internal war and right now; those in favour of the smirk were winning the battle and I couldn't decide which team to cheer for.
I'd never really been an indecisive person. I knew the day Emmett came over to show me his shiny new boxing gloves that afternoon the beginning of ninth grade that I wanted to do it as well. Then when my mom, Renee realized it wasn't just a passing phase she tried to convince me that boxing was a boy's sport and introduced me to "the more feminine art of yoga" as she'd put it. Instead of choosing one sport over the other I kept up with both, much to Renee's vexation. My father, Charlie didn't mind it so much, he liked having something in common we could talk about. Boxing was one of the many sports he watched on the flat screen. It was Charlie who took turns with Mrs. McCarty driving Emmett and I to and from boxing practice twice a week until we were old enough to drive ourselves.
When we graduated high school, it was an easy decision to forgo post-secondary education choosing instead to become a Certified Yoga Instructor. It offered the flexibility I needed to pursue my boxing training. Not to mention ever since I'd started doing yoga it helped with my perpetual clumsiness.
I didn't even bat an eyelash when Emmett suggested we move to Seattle from the sleepy town of Forks so we could find a coach that would train us both; me for my ambitious dreams of Olympic glory and Emmett for his desire to turn pro. I did however draw the line at living together; Emmett settled for living in the same complex, across the parking lot from each other. We'd been living in Seattle for just over five years in a pleasant bubble of comfort and predictability.
Yep, making all of those decisions had come easy to me. I could always spot the wise choice and follow through. I hadn't been able to do that for a week. Every bad decision was like Six degrees of Jasper Whitlock, they always ended up back at him. It needed to stop.
Ihad decided the best plan of action when dealing with Jasper would be to remember my ultimate goal, a spot on the Olympic Team. Once Carlisle gave me the go ahead today, I'd focus my time and energy to think of nothing else. My new mantra would be if it didn't help me get closer to my goal, it wouldn't register on my list of things to do. I would no longer allow myself time to obsess.
I wanted to blame my need to be a hard-ass on the fact that I wasn't allowed to train. Usually I'd work myself hard enough that by the end of the day I was too tired to think past what I would eat for supper. This last week of inactivity left me with ample time to over think all things Jasper. Idle hands really did belong to the Devil; his playground was my mind and it was time to kick him out.
My plan would remain much the same as before, with three simple steps. Avoid Jasper when at all possible. Power through the training sessions Jimmy wanted me to do with him until I could go back to Emmett. And finally, push aside all thoughts of Jasper including digging for answers to the questions that were currently burning a hole in my mind; the no thoughts rule would most definitely mean no more fantasizing.
It should be simple, easy even.
It was a pipe dream, and I knew it. Should was a word in my volcabulary that always lead to disappointment and disaster.
Saturday mornings were the only day of the week when I didn't run to Kellington's, we trained hard enough during the group session that adding an extra two hours of cardio was too much, even for me. Emmett and I usually took turns driving, alternating weeks. Today, it was his turn which also meant he was required to pay for the coffee we always stopped to get. Aside from when Emmett spoke to the voice box in the drive-thru, we were both content with the silence and didn't feel the need to fill our ride with inane chatter.
Emmett pulled up to Kellington's and parked in the side parking lot. My eyes quickly scanned the area, looking for a familiar Harley. Disappointment bubbled in my stomach when I didn't spot Jasper's bike. I wanted to be relieved that he wasn't here yet but was unable to fabricate the emotion. We grabbed our gym bags and coffee and walked the short distance to the front of the building.
As we walked in, again I couldn't stop my eyes as they scanned the handful of people that had already arrived, looking for the tall guy with blond hair. I heard my namebeing called and looked over to see blond hair but it was all wrong, short and straight not long and wavy. Trying to squash the increasing dissatisfaction I made my way over to Carlisle, forcing a smile on my face.
"Morning, Carlisle. Here to check on your favourite injured boxer again?"
"Good morning to you too, Bella. Yes, I'm here to check on you and a couple of others," Carlisle smiled warmly at me and walked into Jimmy's office to give us a few moments of privacy while he checked me over and asked the same questions as before. Satisfied with my answers and exam, he could not site any other reasons to continue my restriction and gave me the all clear. A genuine smile spread across my face as I walked out of Carlisle's make shift exam room in Jimmy's office.
"You must have gotten good news to be wearing a smile that big, Cricket," Emmett smiled at me as I made my way over to him where he was standing with Tyler and Paul.
"Carlisle says I can go back to kicking your asses again, boys! Better bring extra padding," I laughed.
"Whatever you say, Swan. You know we just don't like to hit girls," Paul retorted.
"Oh no, my friend. That is not what happened if my memory serves…I'm pretty sure she knocked you flat on your back last time you two went toe to toe," I smiled at Emmett, always my protector and defender.
"You girls discuss this amongst yourselves, I'm gonna get changed before Jimmy's ready for the meeting." I said over my shoulder while walking toward the change rooms.
Someone must have said something funny because all I heard was raucous laughter and then a course of "Hey!" as I pushed open the door the the lady's change room. I changed into my regular training attire of Lululemon shorts sports bra and tank top, today I had chosen red. I secured my hair at the base of my head making sure to have it low enough that it wouldn't get in the way of the protective head gear I'd need to wear when sparring. After lacing up my short boots I grabbed my hand wraps, and coffee returning to the gym to wait for Jimmy to get the meeting started.
Walking through the changing room doors I looked up to see everyone was gathered around, sitting in chairs and waiting for the meeting to start. There was a single chair left for me to sit on in the semi-circle. It did not escape me that the chair I was expected to sit in was wedged between Emmett and Jasper. He must have arrived while I was changing. How am I supposed to avoid him when I'm being forced to sit beside him? Is this a test of my will power?
I sat down, draping my hand wraps across my legs. I looked over at Emmett with a frown, he offered a shrug and no explanation. Sliding back in my seat a bit, I focused my eyes on the white Starbucks cup in my hands; taking a sip, trying in vain to appear unaffected. Jasper shifted in an attempt to get comfortable. From the corner of my eye, I saw him crossing his arms at his chest, the leather of his jacket making a noise as it rubbed against itself. His legs were stretched out in front of him, crossed at the ankles. Along with his standard leather jacket, he wore dark denim jeans and Doc Marten boots. Just as I silently wondered if that was all he owned for clothing Jimmy walked up, clipboard in hand, ready to start the meeting.
"Pink Lady," Jasper whispered quietly angling his body so that he could speak without drawing Jimmy's attention as he began the meeting. Surprised, I looked over at Jasper. He was holding an apple in his hand waiting for me to take it.
"Huh?" My reply was not at all in keeping with Jasper's hushed tone causing all eyes to turn in our direction. The sudden attention was unwelcomed and I could feel my face warming with embarrassment.
"I owe you an apple. Pink Lady apples are my favourite," he handed me the apple and turned his attention back to Jimmy; resuming his previous position, legs stretched out and arms crossed over his chest. I was so confused. Turning the apple in my hand, I saw the little round sticker, the white a sharp contrast to the pink-red color of the fruit. Closer inspection of the sticker revealed the small script identifying that the apple was indeed, a Pink Lady.
I stared at those two words looking for the answers to all my questions. Why would he feel like he owed me an apple? Was this because of Monday in the parking lot at Carlisle's office? I was the one who dropped the apple, not him. Although, it was Jasper's question that had startled me thus causing the situation. He obviously felt guilty about the apple and felt the need to replace the one I'd dropped. Had he been obsessing over The Apple Incident as much as I? Or maybe he was just being nice. Nice people brought others apples, right?
I was vaguely aware of Jimmy talking while I debated the reasoning behind Jasper's actions, but it was a mention of my name that brought me back to the conversation going on around me.
"Swan, did you hear me?" Jimmy called. I stopped my staring contest with the apple and looked up, again all eyes pointed in my direction; it was starting to get old.
"Sorry, what did you say?"
"I said, we were going to skip analysis of your match from Saturday since we've already discussed it in private. That is, unless you'd like to rehash it again?"
"No thanks, once is enough for me. Sorry," I said quietly feeling like a grade A ass for not paying attention. I was usually very attentive during these meetings, sometimes I actually took notes if I found it necessary.
"Right, so moving on," Jimmy held eye contact with me ensuring I was paying attention before looking down at his clip board again. "We have a new member to the club, his name is Jasper Whitlock. Some of you may have already met him. I'm sure you can figure out who I'm talking about since there is only eight of us here." Everyone turned toward Jasper with a chorus of 'hellos' and I was happy to not be the topic of discussion any more.
"Hey, nice to meet ya," Jasper's response was smooth and easy as he uncrossed his left arm from his chest and offered a half wave; seemingly unaffected by the attention I had cringed under.
"I want everyone to make him feel welcomed; we're a family and I don't want to hear anything about people giving him a hard time. Got it?" Jimmy looked around the small group, nodding his head in finality.
"Last thing I want to discuss before we begin the session are the fights slated for next Saturday. Weigh-in is on Wednesday, I expect you all here by 9:00am so Carlisle can do the formal checks and send them in. Also, since the majority of you have fights next week, we'll skip the weekly meeting here in the morning so you can get a proper rest. That means no going out the night before drinking and showing up with a hang over," Jimmy looked over at Paul and Tyler who were snickering at the memory of the time they not only went out drinking but showed up to the weekly session still drunk. Jimmy worked them so hard they both threw up. It was a lesson I did not wish to learn.
"What about the tournament up in Victoria next month?" Emmett asked.
"Vicky sent in the paperwork for everyone who wanted to attend. We'll hear back by the end of next week or the beginning of the following week with who everyone is scheduled to fight against for the first round. All the accommodations and such will be organized once we get confirmation of registration. Any other questions?" Jimmy looked around. With nothing left to discuss he ended the meeting.
"OK, let's start the session. I want the normal parings, with a couple of exceptions; McCarty, I want you with Tyler, he needs to work on his footing. Whitlock, I want you and Swan together; based on her last match, she needs help with blocking. That's all."
Jasper nodded his head to Jimmy and followed the rest of the guys who needed to change. I was left alone with my cold coffee and an apple. I threw out the coffee and went to put the apple in my bag. Until I could discern Jasper's intentions and knew it wasn't poisoned, I wouldn't be eating it. I grabbed my ipod and went to plug it into the sound system wired to the speakers around the club; knowing most everyone else liked to have something to listen to while training. It was too early for anything heavy, so I settled on Coheed and Cambria setting it to shuffle through the songs but starting it on the album "In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth". It was my favourite album and never failed to put me in a good mood, lest I started my training session with Jasper already annoyed which was rapidly becoming more of a possibility the longer it took for him to change.
After a few minutes of standing around I grew impatient and started to wrap my hands. It was a futile attempt and I settled on waiting for Emmett to come out so I could get him to do it for me. A couple of the guys, neither Emmett or Jasper, walked out of the change rooms, talking something about breaking hearts and pretty faces and laughing loudly. Huffing in annoyance, I began to stretch my muscles by doing a bit of yoga; also an attempt to calm my irritation. What was taking them so long? Were they sitting down and having a tea party?
Seven agonizing minutes later Emmett decided he was ready to get started. The only problem was that he was headed toward the opposite side of the gym where Tyler was waiting for him; he didn't even look in my direction. I started to walk over to get him to wrap my hands but was stopped dead in my tracks as Jasper finally stepped out of the change room.
Two things hit the floor, my hand wraps and my jaw. I couldn't be bothered to pick up either, I was too busy staring. I hated to admit it to myself, but if he showed up at my door selling a one way ticket to Hell I'd buy two just so that he could go with me so my staring wouldn't be interrupted.
His boots were the tall version to my shorter ones. He was wearing black shorts that stopped a couple of inches above his knees showing off his defined quadriceps as he walked. I wanted to watch his knees as the muscles moved with each step he took but felt it imperative to assess the entire package before I dedicated my attention to a single body part. His narrow waist widened up through a muscular chest and broad, powerful shoulders lead to tanned, well defined arms.
My only saving grace was that he was wearing a black muscle shirt; although, it didn't leave much to the imagination seeing as it was clinging to every line and groove drawing a map of each muscle. I needed to be exposed to his form little by little so that I didn't spontaneously combust. If he had come out shirtless like most of they guys, it would have been the end of me, I was certain. But what a way to die. I would only feel slightly bad for the person who would have had to clean up all the Bella bits around the gym.
I felt like a hypocrite. So many times, I had found myself annoyed at the boxer babes (as I had started calling them) for their obvious ogling and swooning at the guys during Amateur Fight Night. I was no better than those girls; gaping at Jasper like he was a statue to be studied. But right now however, I no longer cared because my eyes continued their feast and I noticed he had pulled his shaggy blond hair in to a ponytail at the top of his head. Never had something associated with females looked so masculine to me. I knew, the purpose of the ponytail, having long hair myself; gloved hands made it difficult to push your hair back when it fell into your eyes.
Speaking of eyes, his grey ones had darkened to the color of the sky during a thunder storm and they were looking directly at me, eyebrows knit together and then quickly rising up in sudden understanding. I had been caught. Shit. What's worse, I was pretty sure he knew exactly what was going on inside my head, causing a blush the color of my clothes to start at my chest and rapidly rise to my face. So much for my plan of not thinking about Jasper; the image of him right now would forever be burned into my memory. It wasn't fair he looked that good, it would have made things so much easier on me if he were ugly. Who was I kidding, that would be a sin against Mother Nature's hard work and I didn't want to insult her by suggesting she shouldn't have made him so sexy.
We were in a silent staring contest, my second of the day if I included the apple. It didn't matter that there was more than half of the gym between us, the way his gaze penetrated mine felt like he was standing directly in front of me. I wanted to break eye contact but my eyes wouldn't listen to my brain. Then, he smirked and instantly the spell was broken. Annoyed at myself for being caught I rolled my eyes and huffed. Jasper continued to advance, his gait confident and self-assured. As he passed by, he bent down near my feet. I couldn't move. Oh how I wanted to, but it seemed my entire body was no longer accepting direct orders from my brain.
"You dropped these," Jasper's tone was quiet and gentle as he passed me my hand wraps and carried on toward the area I had been doing my stretching in only minutes before. Watching him walk away gave me the mental capacity to remember where I was and what I was supposed to be doing. Had anyone seen my less than composed moment of weakness? I prayed to the boxing gods for mercy before turning around; a quick pass across the room and I seemed to be safe. I was grateful for Jasper's kind consideration; he could have easily said something to draw the attention of the others. But I was in luck, everyone had already started their sessions. Emmett was facing the mirror talking with Tyler and showing him some sort of stance while pointing at his right foot. I breathed a sigh of relief at having not been caught by anyone. Not wishing to draw any attention to myself, I decided to make due with wrapping my own hands instead of going all the way over to Emmett for help.
I fumbled with the material as I tried to get them started but it was useless. Every time I had managed to get it to wrap around my wrist as soon as I would pull to tighten it, the damn thing would come undone. I let out a groan in frustration at myself, I had been boxing for nearly ten years. How had I not figured out how to tie my own wraps yet? Everyone else could do it, why couldn't I?
"Here, let me help you." Jasper said while holding his hand expectantly for the hand wraps.
"I'm fine, I can do it myself," I replied indignantly. My hands refused to cooperate as I tried again in vain to get the wraps tight around my hand like Emmett always did for me.
"You sure about that? I'd hate for you to injure yourself, again." Before my brain could even form a suitable sarcastic retort, Jasper grabbed the long strip of cloth and unwound my sloppy work. With fast and accurate hands he had my right hand wrapped and had moved on to my left. I was stunned. All I could do was stare; watching the way the muscles in his forearms flexed and relaxed as he pulled on the material ensuring it was tight but not to the point of decreased circulation. When he was finished, his eyes met mine and a satisfied look spread across his face. Instantly, I was back to being annoyed with him.
How was it that he could elicit such an emotional tug of war from me in such a short period of time? It was worse than watching a tennis match volleying between annoyed, turned on and the one time substitution of grateful.
"Thanks, Emmett usually does it for me, but he took too long to get changed and then I didn't want to interrupt him," nodding my head in what I hoped was Emmett's general direction. Why did I always say more than I wanted to around him? A simple 'thanks' would have been sufficient. I couldn't control myself around him while I seemingly had no effect on him. Jasper merely shrugged my appreciation and began to stretch.
Although I had already stretched out, I felt the need to try and re-center myself and get a tighter hold of my flighty emotions; closing my eyes and doing a few more yoga positions and began deep cleansing breaths. The anxiety was slowly seeping out of my body and washing away my embarrassment from moments ago. I had only been holding The Triangle pose, a forward lunge with my right hand on my right ankle and left arm stretched toward the ceiling, for about thirty seconds before a throat cleared very close to me. I opened my eyes looking at the source of interruption; Jasper was looking down at me, expression indifferent but eyes still held that stormy grey.
"Ready to start?" He asked, no longer holding eye contact. I slowly released my breath, not wanting to break my rhythm or say something to show my annoyance at being interrupted. I broke the pose and stood up nodding at him that we could begin.
"I know Jimmy wanted me to work on your guarding, but I don't think that's your problem," Jasper said as he handed me my head protector. I tried my best to cover my shocked expression as I pulled it on and fastened it under my chin.
"And what exactly do you think my problem is?" I was curious, he didn't know me from Eve. How did he think that after seeing one match he knew what my abilities were. Especially if he was basing his assessment on a match I had thrown.
"First of all, your feet are fast and you have this innate sense of where you are in the ring at all times. You were dancing circles around that ring like a caged animal. Yet, you let her come to you and didn't initiate any attacks. You were holding back, Bella. There were so many times you could have knocked out that other girl, yet you didn't. I could tell it was bothering you to not let her have it, what some might have perceived as frustration was actually irritation. I just haven't figured out why you didn't let go and have your instincts take over for you."
I was stunned. Jasper had me pegged; I was the round block easily put into the round hole. I didn't know how to respond, I couldn't respond. Jimmy didn't even pick up on what I had done and he had been my coach for as long as I lived in Seattle. I wanted to tell Jasper he was wrong, that I was having an off night, that Lauren had bested me but he wasn't finished enlightening me with his analysis.
"You have great form. You know technically what to do. When you do it, you execute it flawlessly and with great force and minimal effort. You're a strategist and pay attention to your opponent. You can spot their weakness and exploit it to your advantage," I realized Jasper was no longer referring to my match from Saturday.
"How do you know so much? You couldn't have gotten all that information from one match; a match I'll remind you, I lost."
"That's because it wasn't from just one match. Despite what you may think about yourself, you have a reputation amongst the female fighters for being extremely focused and a challenge for anyone who fights you because they can't touch you. You know what they call you? They call you the Flying Swan, pretty accurate if you ask me." Jasper was a relentless in his verbal assault. He was telling me things I needed to hear regardless of whether I wanted to hear them. I hadn't known I held such a reputation, was that why the other girls seemed so stand-offish? I always assumed they didn't like me, it was not like I really talked to anyone. I tried to keep to myself and usually only spoke with members of my club during the fight nights and I was the only girl member so I didn't really participate in the friendly banter the other girls had in the change rooms before fights. Jasper interrupted my revelation to offer another shocking piece of information.
"Besides, you didn't really think I'd make my decision to join Jimmy's club based on one night of fights, did you? No, I was planning on switching coaches for a while but wanted be sure of who I wanted before making it known to anyone, including my old coach." If I thought I was stunned before, now, I was gob smacked.
"Why did you leave your coach?" I asked without thinking, breaking yet another important part of my plan. At this point, I had managed to go against all of my self-set rules. My question hung between us like a dead weight, waiting for someone to pick it up and decide what to do with it.
"Don't change the subject, Bella. We're talking about you and what you need to work on. The only thing I feel you could actually use help with is learning to take on a southpaw. Lucky for you, I happen to be one." It didn't escape me that Jasper had avoided my question and brought the conversation back to me.
But he was right, I had never fought against a left-handed boxer and all the other guys here were right-handed. If I wanted to be as good as I could be, I would have to work with Jasper and listen to his instructions because eventually I would come across a southpaw and I didn't want to have that being my only weakness as a boxer. I'd be a sponge and take the opportunity to learn what ever I could from him.
I wouldn't forget what Jasper had said about his old coach either. Knowing what I knew now, only reinforced my curiosity and reignited my desire to figure out his story. It was a stupid idea to think I could avoid Jasper. I should have been creeped out by his admittance to having watched me and the others so closely, but I didn't have the capacity to harness the energy to care at this point. My mind was a tornado of swirling thoughts, one particular tidbit working it's way to the top, ready to be thrown out of the vortex. With a deep breath, I let it fly to land wherever it wanted.
"You lied." I accused. Jasper quirked an eyebrow waiting for me to elaborate further. "Before, when I asked if you were stalking me and you said 'No'. Why did you lie?"
"I'll never lie to you, Bella. I only said you needn't worry about me and didn't need to get a restraining order. I'm here for the same reason you are; to be the best boxer I can and the way I see it, Jimmy can do that for me."
"I don't get it, why Jimmy, you must know about his history, right? I mean, if you have sponsors and are a pro, why not go with some high profile coach instead…" I trailed off realizing I was showing my cards a bit premature. Admitting I knew more than Jasper had offered or Jimmy had told us when introducing him earlier was a dangerous move. Jasper's face hardened and the storm eyes were even darker now, a hurricane approaching my own tornado and I braced myself waiting for the impact.
"You really shouldn't believe rumours, Bella. While normally, I don't feed into the propaganda, I'll clarify things for you just this once. I'm neither a professional nor do I have sponsors." I tried to stutter an apology for assuming what I had been told was fact but something told me to let it go. I nodded my head in understanding, hoping I didn't ruin my chances to learn from him. Jasper seemed to be of the same mind, "Now, can we get started or is there something else you'd like to discuss?"
His harsh brush-off was to be expected and I felt bad for getting our first session off to a bad start. He'd offered his honest opinion of my skills and all I managed to do was prove to be an ass with my assumptions. I wouldn't make that same mistake twice.
"If you're still willing to help me with fighting against a southpaw, I'd really appreciate it, Jasper." I said, using his name in the hopes of smoothing things over. When he had said my name, even though it was said in anger it lessened the blow some and I wanted more than anything for it to have the same effect on him.
"Of course, let's get started. We've already wasted ten minutes standing around like a couple of neighbourhood gossips," his face relaxed minutely. However, his tone left no room for discussion; The Major had taken control of things now and I was a willing member of his army. My stomach did a flip of excitement at this new side of Jasper. I was certain I'd weather the storm just fine because once I committed myself during a training session determination and perseverance were the only two things I knew and I wasn't willing to give him a reason to back out on me now that he had committed to helping me.
Thanks to everyone reading, reviewing, and alerting my little story!
I have yet to start writing Chapter 6, sadness, I know. But I have a very good reason for the delay, I've signed up to be an author for the Fandom for Preemies Fundraiser and was busy writing the one shot I plan to submit for that. Please check the my profile for the link on how to get over 100 different one shots, side shots and original stories. I toyed with the idea of submitting a Golden Gloves Jasper POV for the compliation but decided it was too soon to share all of his secrets just yet. Besides, he already let slip some info in this chapter without my permission! Plus, it's hard to say no to Jasper when he's determined to get something he wants.
For anyone interested, here is the summary for Fandom for Peemies One Shot with the working title; The Silent Watcher: She watched him silently for two years...and when she finally decided to take a chance, would it be too late?
Of course it's centered on my favourite paring, Bella and Jasper. It's quite different from Golden Gloves but the couple of pre-readers I've sent it to have told me they loved it!
Hopefully I won't keep you waiting too long for the next chapter!
~Christie.