Wow, you guys are horrible. Forcing me to post two chapters in one day. XD jk. I love you guys, thanks for reviewing. :3 So here's Chapter Three:
Chapter Three: Gym Class
Amy's POV
Fourth period was gym. I turned out that Jen, Ian, and I actually had the same block together again. After lunch, I was feeling way less nervous around Ian, but I still wasn't totally comfortable. I was genuinely curious about gym. Would it be the same for me before? Or would it be surprisingly easy for me because of the rigorous training that I had undergone as a Madrigal agent? Well, only one way to find out, I thought as I took a seat in the bleachers next a spaced-out Jen and a gently smiling Ian, who appeared to be edging away from a group of girls drooling over him. "Who's our teacher?" I inquired.
Ian gagged, which was downright hilarious, coming from a Kabra. "Teacher?" he said with mock amazement. "Pro wrestler is more like it. Coach Morber's got as much bulk as Eisenhower Holt. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if he turned out to be a Tomas."
I shuddered at the thought of "big daddy Holt". "Anything I should, umm...avoid doing?" I asked. Just to be on the safe side.
Jen answered for me. "Just stick with 'Yes, Coach Morber. No, Coach Morber. I'll kick butt, Coach Morber, sir.' And whatever you do, do not, I repeat, do not, under any circumstance, step into the field when Coach Morber is giving a demonstration."
"Right," I mumbled. "Thanks for the warning." If I had one consolation, it was that Ian seemed to be trying to keep things friendly.
Suddenly, the bleachers started to vibrate. "Omg, it's an earthquake!" I panicked.
Jen cleared her throat. "Amy? That's not an earthquake. It's -" Jen shut her mouth immediately as a terror walked in through the door.
Oh, my, gosh. This dude was most definitely a Tomas. Probably a direct descendant, too. This guy was huge, he made the Incredible Hulk look like a little boy showing off his underdeveloped muscles. Well, okay, maybe that was a bit exaggerated, but he was definitely bulky. He had so much muscle all over, it was almost too gross to look at. Fortunately, he had on ripped jeans anda T-shirt (probably an XXXXL), so we could only see his arms, legs, and head. I swear, the bleachers rumbled whenever he opened his mouth.
"ALRIGHT," he boomed. "COACH MORBER'S IN THE GYM, WHICH MEANS NO FOOLING AROUND. ONTO THE FLOOR, GET A MOVE ON, YOU NINNIES."
Everybody rushed out of the bleachers and hurriedly sat on the sides of a big mat that was spread across the entire gym. I followed Jen and Ian and took a seat at the edge of the crowd.
After doing me a thankfully quick introduction, Coach Morber swept his gaze across the crowd before announcing with a huge smile, "Today, we will be doing mat wrestling. We will have a tournament with individual, 1-on-1 matches. I will select the match-ups. Boys and girls will NOT be separated. Last one standing wins. You must pin your opponent to the ground for 10 seconds. There are no rules."
There was no reaction among the crowd, probably because they were all afraid to direct a single sentence at the coach. Ian whispered sarcastically to me, "He's probably just bursting with happiness at this chance to share his profession with us." I giggled for about a second before abruptly cutting it off.
Then, I realized something. "Hey, you're not complaining. Do you like mat wrestling?" I asked.
"No," Ian replied immediately. "But it's not as if I can object. I have influence over many things, but a 1000-pound mass of muscle is not one of them. Besides, fath - I mean, Vikram and Isabel had me trained in hand-to-hand combat along with my other studies. I don't suppose you've had much experience in this, though. Or was that included in your training as well?"
"As a matter of fact, it was," I replied smugly. "Not to mention that I'm now highly skilled in it." But I stopped when I noticed Jen looking at me suspiciously.
Coach wrote the match-ups on the whiteboard, crushing two Expo markers in the process. Great, I thought, as I found myself on the mat first with a boy named Todd. He stood with his legs apart, in a stance which he apparently thought was a professional and threatening stance. I stood there with my arms crossed, looking bored.
"BEGIN!" Coach roared.
I steeled myself into battle mode. Todd flung himself headfirst at me. Poor boy. I nimbly sidestepped and watched him stumble and fall flat on his face. He didn't stay down for long. He growled, literally, and approached more cautiously this time. We circled each other, with Todd in that ridiculous stance and me looking relaxed, but all tensed up. Finally, I said, "This is taking too long."
In a single smooth movement, I was in Todd's face, and my fist made contact with his chest, sending him flying backwards. He groaned as he tried to get up, so I walked over put my foot on him to keep him down.
"8, 9, 10! AMY IS THE WINNER OF THIS ROUND," Coach announced.
Huh, I thought, as I allowed myself to melt back to normal. That wasn't too bad. Boring, maybe, but not bad. Maybe I should make my punches lighter. Don't want to cause an accident.
I looked over the sea of faces, and suddenly felt nervous again. I might have been great on the mat, but I stillcouldn't handle crowds. Everyone's eyes bulged and their jaws had dropped to the floor. I looked over at my friends. Jen's mouth was wide open, and Ian was looking at me with a new respect in his eyes.
Coach cleared his throat. "Well, ON TO THE NEXT MATCH!"
I watched the matches. Most of them were boring. It wasn't even real wrestling, considering the fact that none of us were heavy enough to actually pin someone down. Some people lost on purpose so that they wouldn't have to face the tougher opponents later on, which I found particularly amusing. Jen had an interesting fighting style. She focused mostly on defense and using her opponents' strength against them. Ian was...well, Ian was just plain amazing. He knocked down all of his opponents with well-aimed blows, and he didn't even have to keep them down in the end.
Finally, after I fought three more matches, I was facing off against Ian. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw money being passed between some people. I couldn't believe it. They were actually betting on the winner of the match.
"START THE MATCH!"
Neither of us moved. I narrowed my eyes. "You can have the first move, Ian," I teased.
Ian looked uncertainly for any weak spots. He threw a punch at my stomach. I raised my hand to block it, but he suddenly kicked at my jaw instead. I landed on the mat with a grunt. Some girls screamed. I stood quickly. No way was I letting a Lucian beat me. I did a flip over his head, landed behind him, and attempted to trip him. No such luck. I transitioned into a corkscrew attack. I advanced on him with a whirl of kicks and punches, carefully placing my balance on the mat. It was a risky move, because I could easily become unbalanced, but it usually worked, and that was the case this time. I could hear people cheering. I pushed Ian back to the edge of the mat and suddenly, we were face-to-face. I kicked him to one side, and he punched me to the other side. We each took a few seconds on the mat to recover our breaths. Ian recovered first, and he came to pin me back down as I attempted to do the same. I pretended to struggle hopelessly, and just before Coach reached 10, I kicked up my legs, launching Ian into the air. I met him on the ground with a spinning kick that sent him face-first into the mat. We struggled wildly as a desperate attempt to defeat each other before we ran out of energy. I could hear chants of "IAN! IAN!" and "AMY! AMY!"
Finally, after what seemed like days, Coach finally yelled, "TEN! AMY CAHILL IS THE CHAMPION!"
Ian and I collapsed on the mat, completely exhausted. Ian looked over at me and grinned. "Not bad for a Cahill," he said.
The words hit me like an avalanche. Those were the same words he had spoken to me back in Korea. When he had... I shook the thought out of my head and managed a smile. I gave him the reply he probably expected. "You're a Cahill, too."
Our eyes met. I found affection in his amber gaze. I wondered what he saw in mine. But just then, a crowd overwhelmed us, with cheers and congratulations. Jen was all over me. She kept saying things like, "Where in the world did you guys learn to fight like that?" and "You guys are totally awesome." Everyone finally gave us enough space to stand up and brush off our clothes.
"Good match, Ian," I said.
"That was a wonderful victory, Amy," he replied. He kissed me softly on the cheek. In front of everybody. I silently cursed my inability to control my blushing. The horrible thing was, I couldn't really object.
Not so cliche anymore, is it? Well, I guess the last part sort of was...but that was completelynecessary. XP Nice fight, right? By the way, in case you're wondering:
1. It is NOT OOC, Amy is just very different when she is fighting. And the reason she's so good is that she was trained as a Madrigal agent.
2. And why is Amy suddenly acting like she and Ian are BFFs? Because she's trying to build a friendship. Same with Ian, supposedly.
Okay, more questions:
1. Should Ian and Natalie move in with Amy, Dan, and Nellie?
2. Do you guys also want me to throw in a Dan/Natalie? (Frankly, I would rather not, but, you know, just getting some opinions.)
3. Should I just keep it as (Amy's POV) and (Ian's POV), or do you want someone else's perspective, too?
4. Is it...still too cliche? *wince*
Remember, I'm still open to any suggestions that you guys might have. And also, the only reason I've been able to write so much lately is because of winter break. I'm going back to school in two days, so I won't be able to update nearly as much as I would like to. But, as always, I will try.
And last but not least, HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Lovely Out! ~`'~