"Today is the day," Frank whispered as he looked at himself in the mirror. He adjusted his shirt and smiled slightly. Today was indeed the day. He would pick his next fight. Frank had only been in two fights so far, but he was eager for his third one.
"Today is the day," Frank repeated as he stepped out of the locker room. It was only a minute or two after lunch ended. The others would still be finishing up their routines and heading back to the gym. Frank knew everyone's schedule by heart.
Reyna would eat her lunch with the others and then spend the rest of their break time with her earbuds in. Frank wasn't sure if she was meditating, listening to an audiobook, or just sleeping, but she always seemed a little less tense after their lunch.
Hazel always spent her lunch with Frank. The two of them talked about anything and everything. They had spoken to each other about their pasts, but they only brushed on the surface. Hazel knew about Frank's mother, and of course, she had met his grandma. His grandma seemed to like her as well.
It didn't matter that they talked every day or how many times they shared the same story. Frank never tired of hearing what Hazel had to say. He enjoyed all of the time that he spent with her. Part of him wondered if they could be more, but he couldn't afford to distract either of them from their careers.
Even though Annabeth had only joined their team the week before, Frank was pretty sure he had her routine down. Annabeth would eat her lunch, either a sandwich or something that Frank made that day, eat an apple, and then read an architecture book.
Frank liked Annabeth. She was wise and knowledgeable, but she was also approachable. There was plenty of times where Frank felt like an idiot when it came to approaching Reyna or Lupa and asking them a question that he should already know the answer to. With Annabeth, she didn't judge him. He just had to ask how Annabeth would do something.
Normally, he waited for someone to correct him. It wasn't that Frank wanted to do something wrong, but he just felt like an idiot for asking questions. He knew how far behind the others he was, and questions would only make him seem worse than he was.
Frank walked towards the lunchroom to get a water bottle. He saw Hazel and Annabeth were having a conversation about something, but he couldn't quite tell what it was. Octavian was standing next to Reyna and talking to her. Reyna wasn't so much talking back as she was rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and nodding to make it seem like she was listening.
Piper stood behind Octavian and listened quietly. It seemed like she was happy to be there, but Frank hadn't spoken to her. He regretted it and would find the time to go talk to her soon. Frank just hoped that Octavian didn't scare her away. The guy was nice enough, most of the time at least.
"Are you even paying attention?" Octavian questioned. He crossed his arms and turned his head. Upon seeing Frank, he motioned for him to walk over. Frank slowly did.
"I heard you when you said the same thing this morning," Reyna muttered. She rubbed her eyes and sighed tiredly. Frank knew that Reyna stayed late the night before to take care of the things that Lupa normally did. Lupa only trusted Reyna or Octavian to handle those things.
Speaking of Lupa, they hadn't heard anything from her since she rushed out two days before. Reyna had stepped up in her absence and was doing a good job. She had Frank training with Hazel as they both practiced their submissions. It was something neither of them was good at, and Reyna spent half of her time with them.
The other half was spent with Annabeth. Frank watched the two closely, as he could tell Reyna didn't particularly like their newest addition. He missed Gwen too, but it wasn't like Annabeth ran Gwen out. Gwen decided to retire on her own.
Annabeth had ditched the soccer ball the day before and was now going through a full set of evaluations with Reyna. A smile came to Frank's face as he remembered his time starting. Lupa tested how many punches he could throw before he was too exhausted to move. Then, it was how many he could throw in thirty seconds. After that was him specifically targeting parts of training dummies and punching bags.
If there was one thing that Lupa believed, it was that stamina was the key to winning a fight. Exhausting yourself in round one was a great way to end up on your back in round two. Lupa always told them that if they wanted to unleash a flurry of offense, it should take out their opponent. Otherwise, they just lost the fight.
Annabeth seemed to have a decent amount of stamina, but she would get better with training. Frank also knew that speed wasn't Annabeth's forte. She was amazing at finding out the weaknesses of her opponent and exposing them. Frank wanted to learn how to do that.
Frank knew he wasn't particularly great or even that good at anything. Speed was not his forte. Grappling was something he was getting better at, but he still felt like a clumsy oaf. Annabeth was probably the best at grappling and submissions. Reyna was great at everything. Hazel was the fastest, and Frank was Frank.
"But this is important," Octavian insisted. Reyna sighed and pocketed her phone. She motioned for Octavian, and he started to walk. Piper followed behind, and after Octavian motioned, Frank took up the rear. The four of them left the room.
"You couldn't have waited two minutes to wake me up?" Reyna questioned. Octavian gave her a look and opened the door to his office. Reyna walked inside and sat in a chair. She leaned back and closed her eyes. Frank slowly sat next to her.
"You can't bear losing two minutes of sleep," Octavian countered. Reyna opened one eye and studied Octavian. Then, she closed her eye again and muttered something under her breath. "Piper, this is how we choose our fights. Sometimes, the league will approach us with fights. Other times, one manager will reach out to another. When an agreement is made, they go to the league and get official approval for the fight."
"Managers have reached out for fights with both Frank and Reyna. We have profiles on everyone in the league. That was why I had you making the profiles on all of the fighters joining from the Delian League. We'll hand those off to the fighters making the choice. Lupa is usually here for this. She'll help advise on the fights," Octavian explained. Piper nodded and seemed to be listening closely.
"Show them," Octavian ordered. Piper handed a stack of ten files to Reyna. A small smirk came to Reyna's face, and she flipped through the files. Three files were handed to Frank, and he almost smiled. For his last two fights, Octavian had to reach out to the other manager for fights. Now, they were coming to him. "They narrow down their choices, and we go from there."
"What if it is a championship fight?" Piper questioned. "We usually had the league contact us directly for those."
"It's the same principle here," Octavian said. "There is a sort of ranking system based on wins. The more wins you have makes it more likely that the league will put you in a championship fight. There is also a chance that the champion's manager will reach out to the officials and tell them who they want to fight."
"Isn't that almost a double-edged sword? If someone knows that a fighter wants a match, can't they train early?" Piper asked. Octavian nodded.
Frank glanced over at Reyna. She was flicking through her files with a smirk still on her face. Frank looked down at his three files. The first one made him inwardly cringe: Ethan Nakamura. Sure, Ethan was a skilled fighter, but he also only had one eye. It was cheating. Winning wouldn't be a true victory. It wouldn't show how great Frank's was becoming.
The second one belonged to a man who went by the name of Dakota. Frank had met the fighter at a few press conferences. He was friends with Gwen and nice enough, but he was also drunk almost all the time. The only time he wasn't drunk was when they tested him. Frank wasn't sure how Dakota got away with it. Fighting Dakota wouldn't be much of a challenge.
The third man would be a challenge though, and it was exactly who Frank wanted to fight. Frank spoke, "Michael Kahale. That is who I want to fight."
"No," Reyna said. Frank looked over at her in surprise. Reyna was picking through her files and sorting them into two stacks. She didn't even look at Frank.
"What do you mean no? That is who I want to fight," Frank said. Reyna glanced to her side and seemed to look over the names.
"Fight Ethan," Reyna said. She went back to her files. Frank just stared at her. This wasn't Reyna's decision to make. Sure, she would help him train, but it wasn't like she was going to be the one fighting.
"I'm not fighting Ethan. I want to fight Michael," Frank said. He looked at Octavian. "Make the match."
"Frank, Micheal only wants to fight you because he knows it is going to be an easy win," Reyna said. "He lost his last fight for the title. This is going to be his bounce-back victory."
"What makes you think I would be an easy fight?" Frank questioned. He glared, but Reyna didn't even look over at him. "Reyna, look at me."
Reyna sighed and placed her files down. She looked at Frank and spoke, "You're not ready, Frank. You're not fighting him."
"Just because Lupa isn't here doesn't mean that you can just tell me what to do," Frank began.
"Lupa would say the same thing. You have won two fights, but they weren't victories. They were against some of the worst fighters in the league. You need to keep doing those fights. Don't try to fight someone you're not even ready for," Reyna said.
Frank looked down and felt tears of anger and hurt come to his eyes. Why would Reyna say those things? Frank knew that he was good enough to at least stand a chance against any fighter. And, those fights against the so-called worst fighters had been hard. Those two couldn't have been the worst.
"Reyna, why don't you back off of Frank," Octavian said. Reyna glared at him. "Frank, I think that Lupa would agree that fighting Kahale is not the best decision. Ethan or Dakota would make a better fight for you."
"But, I want to," Frank began. He looked in between Octavian and Reyna. There was a small smile on Octavian's face that looked like it was trying to be kind, but Reyna was impassive.
"And, you're not ready. Frank, you are not ready to fight him. Just listen to me," Reyna said. She shook her head and stood. "Lupa would agree with me."
"Lupa would give me the chance," Frank protested. He stood as well. "You can't just do that to me. You don't know everything."
"I'm not going to watch you get your ass kicked," Reyna said. Frank shook his head. Reyna sighed and reached out to grab his arm. Frank pulled away. "Wait."
"Octavian, make the fight," Frank ordered. He tried to sound as confident as he was angry. Frank turned and pushed past Reyna. He left the office. While he wanted to slam the door shut, he ended up only closing it without turning the knob.
Frank sighed and looked at the ground. He heard Octavian sigh angrily. Octavian spoke, "Why can't you just keep your mouth shut, Reyna?"
"I'm telling Frank the truth. Lupa would have said the same thing, and you know it," Reyna said.
"Lupa would not have said it as you did. She would have been much kinder, but I forgot that you don't know how to be kind," Octavian said. The room fell deadly silent, and Frank took that as his cue to go. He quickly walked away and back into their cafeteria. Frank made his way towards the gym and walked straight towards the punching bag.
Frank had just gotten his gear on when he heard Reyna walk back into the gym. She walked towards Frank and looked like she was going to say something. Instead, she just shook her head and muttered instructions for him. Then, she moved over to Annabeth.
Frank just focused on his punching bag. He rarely felt this angry, but there was something about Reyna just not believing in him that upset him so much. Reyna was there for all of his training. She saw how hard he worked, but she just said that Frank wasn't good enough to handle it.
Angry punches caused Frank to be off-balance and losing his technique. He took a shaky breath and felt someone grab his shoulder. Hazel spoke, "Don't be so tense."
"I know," Frank muttered. He looked over at Hazel. She was watching him in concern.
"What's wrong?" Hazel questioned. Frank moved his gaze towards Reyna. Then, he sighed and looked down.
"It's nothing," Frank said. Hazel helped him adjust his stance and rubbed his shoulders gently. Frank found himself starting to relax.
"I know that it's not nothing, but I won't press you about it. If you want to talk to me, I'm always here," Hazel promised. She smiled. "I should get back to training before Reyna makes me run another lap."
"Thank you," Frank said, and he smiled. Hazel kept her smile on her face before hurrying back to her punching bag. Frank glanced over at Reyna. He would have to talk to her later about what she said, but for now, he would just focus on his training and wait for Octavian to make the fight official.