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person: thanks for the input! I hope you will enjoy this cliffhanger-less chapters ahead!
The sound of her heels against the floor created a steady rhythm as she walked through the hallway with a red clipboard on her hand. She opened the door and inside, a group of students in already in karategi were crowding around a man who was their coach. On the bench at the side of the spacious room, a teacher in her thirties sat down quietly, correcting her spectacles. She approached the more senior teacher, "Ms Swann," she greeted.
She turned around and smiled, "I feel young every time I heard you calling for Ms Swann." She said, "Miss Kreiss."
Reine laughed. Now, Ms Swann was known by her married name, Mrs Sterling, but she would always be Ms Swann for her, and to some others who had known her before her marriage.
The group of students turned around at the mention of her name and crowded around her, "Hey, guys," she greeted casually. Miss Reine Kreiss was indeed known to be fairly casual to her students unless more formality was strictly required of her. The students peered at her curiously. "Oh, that's it!" someone exclaimed enthusiastically.
"What is it?" Reine asked.
"We've heard from Coach Braxton!" another replied, "Your new ring!"
Reine laughed and raised her left hand. A diamond ring was clearly visible around its ring finger. "You mean this?"
"To whom?"
"To my fiancé,"
"Like, duh, Miss Kreiss!" her student responded, "What kind of person he is? Is he nice? Is he good at karate like you are? Or can you kick his ass off easily?"
"Well…"
The door was opened, at the students cringed when they saw who was coming. It was their other coach. "Still idling around?"
The students hurriedly formed a circle and started their pre-training stretching. The second coach approached the teachers and nodded, "Ms Swann,"
Ms Swann smiled.
He then faced Reine. "Miss Kreiss."
Reine nodded in acknowledgement. "Coach Forrester." She asked, "How's the clinic?"
"As usual," he replied in the same curt manner. "Well, I put down a dog just now… cancer."
Reine patted his shoulder lightly. It was unnecessarily said that Neil had a certain sentiment for dogs… with cancer.
Neil Forrester was actually a veterinarian, but after some persuading from Rod, he agreed to coach Karate club of his alma mater after his working hours at the clinic. The two teachers in charge of the club agreed for this co-coaching since Neil would be a good balance to Rod easy-going attitude.
After the students were done with their warm-ups, they formed four separate rows, two boys and two girls, in front of their coaches. "Miss Kreiss," one of the girls asked. "Will you tell us the story after training?"
"Hey! It's training now!" Neil scolded. "Save it for later!"
"Come on, Neil, don't be so strict!" Rod exclaimed. "They were just curious about your wedding!"
"Coach Forrester is getting married?" a boy asked curiously.
"But we were asking about Miss Kreiss'…" the dots were then connected. "WHAT?!"
"Rod!" Neil exclaimed exasperatedly.
Reine laughed. "Oh, well, he does happen to be the fiancé you guys were asking about." She asked, facing the student who earlier was so curious about her fiancé, "Does that answer all your questions earlier?"
"Uh… yes."
"That escalated quickly… Coach Forrester had only been around for two months, right?"
"Now, now, both of them came from this club a decade ago, you know?" Ms Swann commented, laughing. "They were so cute!"
A long squeal came out among the girls as they imagined their younger teacher-in-charge together with their coach in their karategi, ten years younger.
"Ms Swann…" Neil wanted to protest, but the gleeful look on the woman he almost regarded as his own mother stopped him. He could never go against her.
"So they were dating this whole time?"
"But they were… so cold towards each other."
"That's called professionalism," Neil reasoned.
"Nah! You guys are just being too shy!"
"Shut up, Rod." He grunted.
After a few moments, Neil managed to restore order and resume the training, with the promise of answering their curiosity during the break.
Rod, forever having delight in teasing Neil, declared an early break. And of course the students agreed with him, with them now crowding around Neil and Reine. Neil swore inwardly that he would make Rod pay… somehow.
"Who confessed first?"
"Me," Reine admitted sheepishly.
"In the school hallway!" Rod added, which was responded with another squeal.
"But I didn't ask him out then, he asked me out some time later."
"When?"
"Inter-school championship." Neil replied, colour rose to his cheeks. "I asked her out before the finals."
"We can create a new legend!" A first-year said, "Couples who met in this karate hall and confessed during the championship will be blessed!"
"That won't do." Reine and Neil said simultaneously.
"Huh? Why?"
They were interrupted with a loud banging from outside. Reine immediately rose and walked to the door. A moment later, her voice was heard to the corners of the hall, loud and clear: "What the hell are you doing here?! Don't you have your club activities?!"
"Whew. Sometimes I forget how fierce she can be." A student said.
"She is much calmer now." Rod said, recalling a day when she beated all male karatekas in the club in a row after they said something about 'guys are stronger than girls' during her captainship. He shivered. "You've never seen her… went on a real rampage."
Reine came back with a silver-haired student, covered with bruises and cuts. The students jerked at the sight of that person.
"You were also involved in that gang fight two months ago, yes?" Reine asked.
It was Rod's trump card in bringing Neil as his co-coach. Two months ago, there was a huge fight in front of the school and Reine came out from the staff room to take care of it. When verbal method didn't work, and she was almost being hit by one of the students involved, Reine famously ripped the side-cutting of her long, pencil skirt and resorted to physical method to end the fight. The fight ended less than a minute after the skirt-ripping. Rod told Neil about this, who unsurprisingly decided to become a coach so that he could keep an eye on her although he would never admit he was worried.
"Yes, Ma'am."
Reine leaned in. "Skye Anderson. So you were thinking of joining us?"
"Yes."
"Any experience?"
"Dan 1."
Reine straightened her back, "Training starts at 4. Don't be late next time."
With that, she dismissed him and walked back to the students, who were now slightly angered. "Why did you let him in?!"
"That's that troublemaker!"
A male student, the current male captain of the club, stood up. "With all due respect, Miss Kreiss, as much tolerance you have to this… kind of people. I think it will bring the club a bad reputation if we let him in."
"He is involved in many fights, not to mention his bleached hair…"
He was cheered by his mates. Reine raised her hand, giving them a signal to quiet down. After the noise level subsided she began to speak, "A small quiz, what is Anderson's eyelashes colour?"
"Huh?"
Rod replied. "I bet it's as silvery as his hair."
"Yes."
The students gasped in shock. "Now some of you said my pink hair is cute, or your coaches' shades of blond cool, but to tell you the truth, it got me, and some others—" she glanced at Neil who curved his mouth slightly. "—into the detention room."
The students now fell into silence, some bowed down. "I know gang members bleach their hair, and Anderson's hair does look like one, but until you have a proof it's dyed, you better shut up. Anyway, what's so significant about hair colour, seriously, I'm sick of this attitude!"
She crossed her arms. "I want members of this club not to judge people from the colours of their hair! Better still, don't judge at all! You don't know what they've gone through!" she continued, "Instead, I want us to learn how to see people through their eyes. Brave yourselves to look closer, to look deeper, beyond the colour of his hair, because that's what matters the most."
Another silence. Reine took a deep breath and asked, "Any more objection of his joining?"
"No, Ma'am."
"Good. If I hear any problem arising from this, especially from your guys…" she glared at them, "You will answer to me."
"Yes, Ma'am."
Reine glanced at the two coaches. "Sorry for taking training time."
"Don't mention it," Neil replied. "Consider this a mental training for them."
Reine grinned. "You wished someone told Mr Gaston sooner about this?"
"Nope." Neil answered with a slight smile, "If he hadn't been so judgemental, we wouldn't have met in that detention room."