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Chapter 5- Training: reworked

I screamed,
“Eric, don’t go!”
but it was too late. He had already left. I collapsed on the couch, my legs leaden, as I had danced four hours straight. I remembered the pounding beat, and strobe lights, making a pattern of energy. The sweating bodies pressed together. My apprehensiveness of going into a group of people. I had voiced this fear to Eric, and Eric and smiled comfortingly, and said
“Love, this is a 21 and older nightclub. None of your school friends will be here.”
“Then how will get in?”
“I have my ways.”
I remembered his flirting smile at the bouncer, who happened to be a woman, who was checking ID’s, his voice saying
“Clarisse, how nice to see you. How’re things going with Danny?”
“Wonderful, thank you Eric. And who’s this?” referring to me.
“Another friend of mine, Nicole.”
“Ah. And I supposed that you want me to let you and your little friend Nicole into the club as a favor from your brother’s girlfriend?”
“You were always the smart one, Clarisse.”
She turned her head, smiling, gesturing for us to going in. I looked at Eric in amazement. I didn’t realize what a charmer he could be. He grinned back, and we danced the night away.
Now he would be gone. He would be taken away, all because of me. If I had just resisted more…he wouldn’t have been seen by the cameras. I showered slowly and climbed into bed, grief- stricken.
The next morning, I climbed out of bed forgetting all that had happened the night before. I rode to the gas station, and received an unpleasant surprise. Eric wasn’t there. I remembered all that had evolved, and nearly broke down right then and there. I asked some of the guys that were there and asked
“Anybody seen Eric?”
I got no’s and a few
“No, but how’d your guys’ date go?”
I mumbled a fine, and moved on the next person. I weight-lifted, ran, and practiced punching and kicking. I finally practiced all the flips I had learned, phasing through it all solo, not even paying attention to what I was doing. I left at the normal time, until at 9 o’clock I went back to the gas station to find out where Eric was. Danny was there, just as I expected, and he was very surprised to see me. I walked right up to him and demanded
“Where’s Eric?!”
He replied with a cracked voice
“I don’t know. He never came home last night. I thought he might’ve spent the night at your house, but he’s never done this before.”
“No!” I cried, collapsing on the bench. Luckily, none of the trainees has shown up yet for the nighttime routine.
“Do you have any idea what happened?” he asked.
“Your brother has been taken by the FBI because of me, Danny.” I said in a monotone. He said, surprised
“He told you I was his brother? He never admits that to anyone!”
“You’re missing the point, Danny.”
He sighed and said
“He was warned to stay away by you, and it’s his fault he didn’t listen. He’s always been stubborn.”
Seeing my surprised look he said,
“Yes, I know all about you. Eric can’t seem to stop talking about you. What I don’t know is why the FBI is watching you.”
“My parents have been taken by the FBI because of a stupid mistake; the FBI put cameras around my house. A camera caught Eric on film. I assume they took him away even before he hit Main Street.”
“And you have to fight to get your parents back?”
Again, seeing my surprised look, he said
“I’m not as dumb as I look, Nicole. You are driven to train, and only someone that has something to lose has that drive.”
“Oh…you just completely changed you personality.”
“You actually believed that? That’s beside that point right now. How long were you given to train?”
“5 months. I have about 3 months, two weeks, left.”
“I will train you personally from now on. You need to win, for the sake of my brother. Come at your regular time tomorrow.”
I nodded and left, still crying. Michael and Josh didn’t come out, as I was hoping. I decided after not being able to sleep to call my mom’s cell phone again. As I expected, an FBI agent answered.
“Hello?”
“Where did you take Eric? He didn’t do anything wrong!!!” I screamed into the phone.
The agent replied calmly,
“Eric is with us. He is being treated as your parents are being treated.”
“But he didn’t do anything wrong!”
“Actually, he is a suspect in a few risky drug deals.”
“But that isn’t enough to take him!”
“It is for us.”
I began crying again, tears running down my cheeks.
“How are they being treated?”
“As if they were living in jail, except they are separated.”
“Can they speak to each other?”
“Yes.”
“How much do you know about who I am with?”
“You have been quite adept in hiding where you go during the day. We were careful that Eric was showing so much interest in you right in front of us, and you parents, I might add. We have a t.v. in front of their cell.”
I hung up on them, not being able to stand that cruelly malicious voice any longer. Had it been the nice man with the sympathetic voice, I would’ve asked more questions about them. I sat there and held back tears, afraid if I cried, that I wouldn’t be able to stop.
I went to training the next day, circles under my eyes, skin pasty. I looked horrible. When I got there, nobody else was. I stood patiently in the middle of the floor, waiting for Danny to show up. Finally, he appeared and drawled
“Well you look your normal charming self today.”

“Shut the hell up. I’m not in the mood for sarcasm.” I snapped.
“I’m not the one who got Eric taken away.”

“I’m not the one who told Eric to get lost when he was just ten.”

“You have no right to speak to me that way!” Eric exclaimed angrily.

“I could say the same to you.”

Danny crossed his arms, opened his mouth, thought better of it, and closed his mouth with an audible click. He grimaced and asked politely

“What did Eric teach you?”

I answered automatically

“He taught me punches, kicks, and flips. He had me weight-lift, and run for hours at a time.”

His clipped reply was

“Demonstrate.”

I moved to the punching bags, and did all the punches and kicks I knew. Really boring, to tell you the truth. After that, I moved to the wall and flipped across the floor, determined to prove that I was good at this. Triumphantly, I stood in front of him after finishing with perfect form. He was stony-faced, and asked quietly

“Did he have you fight?”

I blinked, and said
“What?”
“Did he have you fight others in the training groups?”
I shook my head. Danny said
“He should’ve. If you know that much, then you are ready. But for today, I’m going to have you practice everything you normally practice.”

With that, Danny left me on my own. I ran through my normal routine until 4 o’clock. I said very loudly

“I’m leaving!”

Because I didn’t know where Danny disappeared to, I nearly shouted. I heard a disembodied voice say

“Same time tomorrow. Have a better attitude!”

I bit my tongue before I made any smartass remark that I would regret later. I went home, and finished my last government books, prompting me to go to the library. For some reason, I wasn’t worried at all someone would see me at the library, so I wasn’t as cautious as usual. I returned my books without incident, and went to the corner of government books. I stood stunned for a full minute before a librarian came up behind me. She asked politely

“Is something wrong, sweetie?”
“All of the government books are gone.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, honey. We were prompted to get rid of them because few people were checking them out. We just don’t have the money for such a liability.”
“Who prompted you?”
“The government, the ones who give use federal funding.”
“Where are the books now?”
“In the back, waiting to be shipped to another library.”
“I’ll buy them.”
“How could you have enough money, dearie?”
“Trust me, I’ve got it.”
It’s lucky I brought my FBI card. It’d better work for this.
“Where do I pay?”

**********************************************************
I arrived home, 10 boxes of books in my car. The frickin’ FBI had tried to impede my learning with the books, and I used them to get the books back. How ironic. I slowly unloaded the books out of the car, and stuck them in my dining room. As if I used the room anyways. I was too upset to read tonight, so I just took a shower and went to bed.
The next morning I woke up, fully awake, for once. I hopped out of bed in a surprisingly good mood. I got dressed in my training clothes and left on my bike. Again, when I arrived, I was the only one there. Instead of standing in the middle of the floor like an idiot, I began stretching and doing warm-ups. Danny walked in, and extremely good looking guy behind him. He looked like Orlando Bloom, I swear. Danny said

“You look much better today. And before you can ask, no, that wasn’t sarcasm.”

My mouth shut with a click. The man behind Danny laughed, a really nice laugh, I thought dreamily.

“This is Stewart.” Danny said, interrupting my very important thoughts.
Stewart grimaced and said

“I know my name is horrible. Most people just called me Stew.”
“You will be fighting each other today.” Danny said, ignoring Stew.

Stew looked as appalled as I was. How could I mar that perfect face?

“I can’t hit a girl!”
“This is no ordinary girl. She’s being trained personally by me.”

Obviously that meant something to him. I shrugged and Stew faced off with me. Reluctantly I fell into my natural fighting stance. He made the first move, showing his idiocy. I knew from experience you never make the first move if you want to win. As he lunged for my legs, I used his shoulders, and flipped over him. I knocked him to the ground while he was still off balance, and it was over. I blinked, thinking it would last longer than that. I helped Stew up, and both of us turned to Danny to see what he would say. We waited and finally I said impatiently

“Well?”

Danny replied

“Very impressive, Nicole. I should not have told Stew to hold back.”
“What?!” I exclaimed
“This was a test to see if you could hold your own at all in a fight. While you practice, I’m going to give Stew a few tips on how to beat you, and he won’t hold back this time.”
“But that’s not fair. It’s cheating!” I said unhappily.
“Life’s not fair, babe. And do you really think the FBI won’t cheat when it comes down to it?” Danny hissed in my ear. I looked down, ashamed for acting like a two year old, and said quietly
“You know they will.”
“Exactly. Now go practice while I give Stew, here, some tips.”

I did what he said, reluctantly. I kept practicing until Stew came running at me, with absolutely no warning. I wasn’t expecting this, but I recovered from shock quickly, reflexively dodging out of the way. I went for his back, hoping to knock him down, but he grabbed my arm. I kicked him in the shins, and he went to the floor. I twisted underneath his arm, forcing him to let go of my wrist, then kicked him again in the stomach. I put my foot on his chest, and waited for the signal that the fight was over.
“Now that was impressive.” Danny said momentarily. He continued
“Stew, you may go home. I’m going to give Nicole some real fighting skills based on what I’ve seen so far.”
Danny went over strategies for the rest of the time, mainly using my swiftness to my advantage. Nothing in particular happened for the next two weeks. Everyday I fought a new guy, each fight a little harder than the last. The day before my 2 month ‘anniversary’ I said to Danny
“I’m not coming in tomorrow.”
“Why not?”
“I’m going to take one day off each month. Tomorrow’s it.”
“I strongly suggest you come in.”
“I’m not coming anyways.” I said willfully.
Surprisingly, he smiled.
“You are so passionate, it’s almost funny.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I inquired curiously
“Nothing, dear one.” He replied, bending down to give me a hug, which of course completely flabbergasted me. He was so strange sometimes…but I would finally get to enjoy a day to myself. Tomorrow. Tomorrow I had the day off.