with Logan propped over me. I feel my face redden for what seems like the millionth time today.
Logan gets up and reaches down to help me up.
“I found out that Ryanne is very ticklish.” I stand up and take a couple of steps away from him, covering my stomach. I look around the room and see David and Tom with amused expressions. Emma is staring at David and Colton is glowering at Logan.
“Once Ryanne is finally able to breathe again, we can start weapons training,” says Tom.
“We get to train with weapons today?” I ask, suddenly excited.
“Yeah, but first we’ll just spar. Emma and Ryanne, you can spar each other. It’ll be a little more fair that way. Emma knows martial arts,” Tom says to me, “and Ryanne knows gymnastics and basic self-defense techniques,” he tells Emma. “David, you work with me. Colton and Logan, you two spar together. Go.”
Emma and I walk to the back of the training room and get into defensive stances, each of us waiting for the other to attack first. I hear grunts and hits throughout the room, telling us that the others have already started. We both turn and see everyone sparring. Logan and Colton seem especially into it. David and Tom aren’t as aggressive. Turning our attention back to each other, Emma swings her arm out, aiming for my head. I deflect her blow, hitting her in the stomach with my other arm. She leans forward and grabs her stomach. Giving me a serious look that says, oh it’s on, she runs at me again.
This time, jumping in the air, foot outstretched, she aims at my chest. Her foot connects, sending me backward, knocking the wind out of me. She attempts to hold me down, but I roll out of the way, placing my palms down on the mat beside my head. I arch my back and kick my feet up, giving me enough momentum to flip over and stand, facing Emma again. I take a few steps back, distancing myself. I run towards her, before jumping straight into the air and lunging forward. My hands connect with the mat and I swing my feet over my head into a flip, rotating twice in the air, before successfully landing in front of her. Without missing a step, I drop to the ground and swing my leg out, knocking her down. She connects with the mat and stays for a second, before jumping back up and facing me.
There is hair pulling, punching, and kicking. We continue sparring for a while; neither one of us gaining any leverage on the other. When I can tell both of us are getting tired, we hear a whistle. We stop what we are doing and turn in the direction of the noise, meeting four sets of eyes. Logan, David, and Colton are all staring at us with their mouths hanging open while Tom seems really proud.
Tom says, “I think that is enough for now. Let’s take a ten minute break.” He walks towards Emma and me with bottles of water in his hands. We each take one and thank him before opening it and drinking half of it right then and there. We are both breathing heavily and sit, well more like fall, on the ground worn out.
I turn towards her, “I’m sorry if I hurt you at all during that.”
She grabs her shoulder, wincing. I’d kicked her there at one point. With a smile, she adds, “Don’t worry. I retaliated just as hard.”
“Yeah,” I laugh. “I think you pulled out a fistful of my hair.”
We fall into a comfortable silence, drinking our water and trying to catch our breath. The guys walk over and sit across from us, still staring.
Emma speaks first, “What the heck are you guys staring at?”
David looks at me first, but his eyes linger on Emma, “You guys were great. We couldn’t concentrate on our own sparring, because we saw both you doing flips off the walls and stuff.” He turns and looks at me again, “It was better than watching you kick Colton’s butt the other day.” I laugh remembering the surprised looks on both of their faces the first time I pulled out my gymnastics training.
Colton jokingly punches his brother, “Hey, hey. She beat you too!” He hits my leg, “I can’t believe that you learned some of that a couple days ago.
“It was very impressive,” says Logan. I smile at him and continue drinking my water. I tip the bottle