Boxing Competition

"Damon," I said settling on the grass in sophomore garden and leaning against the tree whose shadow was saving me from the sunrays.

"You are free?" He asked uncertain. I gazed at the green land in front of me and answered him.

"Well, I'm answering your call so I'm."

"Oh, yeah." He responded.

I continued looking at the flowers and the trees surrounding me not knowing what else to do.

"Anyways, I called you to ask you, are you coming to gym today?" I listened to his guarded voice asking me slowly.

"Of course, I'm." I told him with a sad smile remembering his chatter before this sudden event of mom's death in my life.

"But why are you asking me that?" I said again trying to make some effort as I did not have anything else to do, or might be my mind would go again running about Jason and Marie.

"Oh, you know that today is competition between the beginners, dad arranged?" He asked me.

"Oh yeah," I said recalling.

"So, it's going to start at 2 here," he stopped for a moment and again said, "it's 12 right now, so what do you think you can come here by 1:30?" He inquired hopefully now.

I calculated my time and thought about the classes I had to attend.

"I will be there at 1:30 I have one more class to attend as I'm free from there I'll come straight to the gym, I don't have anything better to do anyways." I mumbled last part.

He maybe listened to it or maybe not but he decided to not pull it any longer and started to talk about other things.

When I remembered that I was the one training those guys, but I did not go to gym for few days and that would have disturbed their training how are they going to fight on their own?

"Shi*," I called out aloud.

"Uhh, what?" Damon asked in a low tone.

"Umm, Damon I was the one training beginners and I was not their to train them. What is going to happen? What if our club lose? Your dad is going to be mad at me. I should not have been uncareful. I should have put more attention to it. What will happen now?" I kept on blabbing when he cut me off in a hasty manner.

"Stop, stop Alicia!" I zipped my lips suddenly and waited for him to say something.

"Good," he said in breathy voice. "I have been trying to stop you for five minutes now. "

"Sorry," I said embarrassed.

"So, I took care of their practice don't worry about it. And I did explain to dad yesterday about everything so stop overreacting. Okay?" He asked in a stern voice that was a new for me though.

"Yeah," I cut myself shortly.

"Okay, so I have somethings to take care of, I'll see in few hours right?"

"Okay, Bye." I said and hung up.

I had just put the phone back in my pocket when I heard bell ringing signaling the end of the lecture.

"Let's get this over with," I muttered standing up and moving to the class.

_____________________________________________

I stopped by a food stand on my way and bought myself some hotdogs to eat since I had not had any breakfast in the morning and my stomach was having some serious hunger pangs now.

I took the last bite of my hotdog and opened the door to the gym.

I walked in the gym to see boys warming up here and there with some unknown guys. I decided to go meet Damon and ask him about other teams.

"Hey," I said in a loud tone when I saw him standing near two guys and guiding them about their rounds in the loud noise of audience in the stands.

"You gotta be precise with your opponent he is fast but I have seen his movements are not very smooth," he told a brunette who had boxing gloves in his hands with his hair falling on his forehead in a messy way. His piercing grey eyes were calculating and dangerous. He Was Here to Win.

He nodded his head at Damon. Damon gave him a small pat on his right shoulder and turned to me with his usual cheery smile.

"You are finally here," he declared. I gave him a small smile, the guys took it as their cue and left us to talk for awhile.

"Yeah," I said observing the arena now.

"Who is going to fight first?" I asked him when I saw the announcer getting on the stage, aka his father was in ring now.

"Chris, " he motioned to the guy who was standing here when I arrived and I nodded in acknowledgement now. "And he is going against Daniel." He indicated a hunk with jet black hair. I could not see his face properly from where I was standing right now.

But he was well built and his back was entirely covered with tattoos.

"He seems strong." I said.

"He is," Damon said looking at him now.

"He was the winner of tournament last time. He is fast and strong, but he had some accident I heard because of which his movements are not very precise as I have seen them. That should be in our favor." He explained analyzing him.

I was about to say something when I heard.

"Hello everyone!" cheers erupted from the crowd.

"Are you ready to see some great fight?" He yelled in the microphone and more screaming started.

"Here in the right side we have DANIEL who is the champion of our league last year." The crowd of people went crazy when he entered the ring and took a round of it huffing his chest dramatically.

"And in left corner we have CHRIS who is known for his calculations here," a few cheers were heard when he entered, but he did not let that get to him and came to the ring with an aura of victory and determination. Even though I was not sure about the winners yet and from what I have heard Daniel was great.

But I was rooting for Chris because he screamed from his eyes, and not many people can.

"Let the game begin," He shouted in the microphone again and people eager to watch some crazy thing sat on their seats.

The bell rang indicating the start of a fight, and I was eager to see myself what was going to happen.

Both of the opponents circled each other and Daniel suddenly marched at Chris who was still circling without knowing his sudden attack, that gave Daniel a plus and he hit ribs quite hard.

Chris fell back head first from the blow.

"Shi*" I heard Damon cursing.

Daniel again charged at him, but he moved away from him just in time and stood up.

This time Chris did not give him more of chance to think and hit him hard on his left bicep.

He then charged at his ribs but that resulted in Daniel attacking him with his left leg and both of them fell back.

Since Daniel had an advantage of speed he recovered quickly and kicked Chris in his ribs where he had hit him first. Chris hissed in pain but stood up again in few seconds.

Both of them stood their watching each other. And this time Chris charged at him, I saw Daniel limping when Chris attacked him on looking closely. He was fast enough that, it was not very much obvious to everyone. But that could be used against him.

Daniel again hit him in the legs now and he fell hard.

The clock hit the mark indicating the interval of first round. Both of the guys moved away from each other and croquet stopped cheering.

"The results for the round are DANIEL: 4

CHRIS:3" The announcer yelled at which the crowd started yelling victoriously.

Damon ran to Chris who was breathing heavily now. I looked at Daniel who was drinking water on the other side with his coach now.

"You are doing okay," Damon said to him handing him a bottle of water. "The lead is not very high but we got to be more focused, stay attentive.." He said at which Chris nodded.

"Attack his left side," I added suddenly.

Both of the guys looked at me confused for some description.

"He is limping from this side now, that's his weak spot. I think your previous blow was strong there and it could be used in your advantage. And attack him don't give him any time to think of an escape. He is fast, but his defense is weak. Keep going this way and you would win." I declared in a dead-set tone.

"Are you sure about it?" Damon inquired.

I nodded looking at the announcer who was in ring again, showing the start of the round again.

Chris looked at me once at which I offered him a reassuring nod, and he entered the ring again.

The bell rang again and people starting screaming the names of fighters once again loudly.

Chris looked at the scoreboard for a second and attacked him with a heavy stroke on his left side.

Daniel was taken by surprise at this. He moved his right leg to hit him, but Chris blocked it successfully and attacked him again with his leg now on his left side again.

It caused Daniel to fall again. Chris moved forward and hit him continuously with punches not allowing him to stand.

"That's my boy," I yelled excited.

Daniel managed to move out of his grasp and stood up. But he was breathing heavily now.

"Wow, it's working." Damon gushed in excitement.

Chris took a few steps back and moved to attack him again. Daniel tried hitting him but his punch was sloppy and did nothing to stop Chris's kick in his stomach that caused him to fall head first.

The crowd erupted with Chris' name this time. So did I yelled his name again.

The clock ticked the time and bell rang.

The announcer came in the ring in seconds.

Both the fighters stood side by side with their hands in Damon's dad's hand.

"And the winner for this match is Chris. With 8 against 6." And raided his hand in air.

"Wow, we did it." I yelled fist bumping in air.

The air was filled with Chris's name as he rounded the ring victoriously. He then came down and stood in front of me. I watched as he rubbed his neck slowly and said,

"Thank you, your perceptions and observations are great." and moved away.

I looked at his retreating back, as he moved towards the crowd of his friends.

"Wow, you get popular quite easily." Damon said slowly looking at Chris.

I looked at him confused.

"This is the first time he has ever said Thank you since he came here for training. And that was an year ago." He explained.

"What can I say I'm just praise worthy like this." I shrugged humored.