Chapter 5

The team was on cloud nine the rest of the day enjoying their new fame status. Felicia couldn’t stop talking about it. There were a number of videos uploaded on YouTube. Most of them had shaky views or were angled awkwardly, a few weren’t bad but it didn’t stop people from watching them as the hits were moving pretty fast.

“Did you see this? Whoa that was crazy. Here look at this.”

“Felicia, I was there.”

“Man that was crazy, did you see?”

“Felicia…I was there.”

“I know but you have to appreciate the video.”

“How many times have you seen the video?”

“Umm… I had to find the best one and there’s like a bunch of them. So…a lot.”

It was like that the whole car ride home. Felicia also went on how we were the talk of all the school and how much praise she attained from everyone. The others sent me messages pretty much stating the same thing. Even me, I got a lot of “Gabriel, that was amazing” and “Dude, that was sick” from classmates, but I was ready to move on. I wanted to get to the studio, start classes and be done with them, so I could see Emmalin.

It wasn’t going slow but it certainly wasn’t going as fast as I was hoping. Leon didn’t say much the entire time; he stayed within his office. Alec and Kyra showed up a bit later shortly before Jace and Donovan did. Craig was still a no show to classes. For the four of us guys it was more of stretch and warm up class for tomorrow’s tournament. We weren’t planning to do too much work.

The kids class was wrapping up as we finished doing races and the losing side was doing their push-ups. Class was dismissed and our class began, everyone was still on a noticeable good mood from earlier and as much as they tried not to affect the class it was hard not to. That’s when Leon came out; he didn’t say anything as we went through our oath and stretches. I did notice he wasn’t looking well. I noticed he’s been tired a lot lately, I imagine with everything going on there was a level of stress he was dealing with different from mine, I didn’t know but I made note to ask.

“Lines.”

We all ran to one side, I didn’t think much of it but some of the other guys gave questionable looks to me.

“Go” and go we did. We finished with the first set and lined back up.

“This time ten pushups at each line. Go” we went again, doing pushups at each line we touched. It went like this for quite some time, each time an additional drill was being added. It started out with pushups but then mountain climbers, burpees, lunges, squats, jump knees, and sit ups were added on. It’s been a long time since we worked out like this a day before a tournament. My uniform was getting drenched with sweat and I heard the others breathing pretty heavy next to me. Leon didn’t say anything except for what the next drill was. He must have read it in our faces because he eventually did stop. He stayed quite standing in front of us as we stood in attention. Then I heard it, it was faint but as he brought it out more I could hear the music from earlier today, the mix Frank had put together for us. It made sense now, we were being taught a lesson. No one made any notion when they heard the music but like me they understood just as well.

“Again.”

Class finished after about the fiftieth drill. I was covered in sweat and pretty tired. The others were sucking down water.

“Think he was upset?” Donovan asked

“My arms and legs are going to with yes.” Kyra answered. “Why do you think he was?”

“You think because we were showing off.” Jace said.

“No that can be it.” Donovan answered.

“Then what?”

“That’s a good question, I don’t know?”

Neither did I but Leon didn’t seem like he was in the mood to talk about it either. I will leave it alone for now but I was curious to know. I quickly changed checking my phone for Emmalin. She was done also and wanted to meet at Lindo, a Mexican restaurant we were both fond of, in twenty minutes. 

“Come on Felicia I need to go.”

“For your date?” She replied smiling.

“It’s not a date.”

“You’re meeting Emmalin at a restaurant…just the two of you right?” Alec came in

“Still not a date. Jace help me out here.”

“It’s not a date”

“Thanks, Jace.”

Everyone laughed.

“I will see you guy’s tomorrow.”

I dropped Felicia off while she gave me kissy faces. “Tell her I said hi” as she went inside. The restaurant wasn’t far away, making my way there with minutes to spare. Emmalin was already there sitting at a booth toward the back of the restaurant. Either she knew I wanted to talk privately or it was luck we were placed back here.

“Hi.” She said gleaming. Was she happy to see me?

“Hi, you’re in awfully great mood.”

“I am. I was going to say later but I can’t hold it in. The committee was so impress with today they are placing me in charge of decorations for the prom. How great is that?”

“Based on us?”

“Yes they said I showed creativity in a way that is outside the box.” Imitating members of the committee. She was glowing with the biggest smile on her face. It was nice to see I was able to help put that on her face.

“Congratulations, I am very happy for you. I may have to consider going now to see what you do.”

She went still. Like awkwardly still. Like someone had hit the pause button on her still. “Umm…Emmalin?”

“Are you being serious? Don’t joke with me.”

“I am. This is big for you, so yeah.” She took a few seconds to look at me. It quickly dawned on me why. I couldn’t blame her for her doubt especially since I was consistent the past couple of years of not wanting to go. I will admit ever since last week when I did dance and the pain I saw in Emmalin’s face it made me really think about it. I even sat down and talked to my dad about it. He gave me his opinion, what would have mom thought about me if she what I was doing. You have fun dancing and this is high school. My mom in respect would probably be mad at me for not experiencing high school for all it was and not supporting Emmalin, she was like another daughter to her before she passed. I could almost hear her in my head.

Her eyes were looking at the bowl of chips at our table as she was playing with one of them “If you do go? Are you planning to ask anyone?”

“I honestly had not thought about going, let alone asking anyone, until just now. I want to see what you do.”

She gave a little smile. “I would like that.”

“Good. Now what about you? Any takers?”

She perked up nervously “I…uh…There’s a few who have been hinting on asking but that’s it.”

“Oh yeah?” Then I remembered Craig wanted to ask Emmalin to Prom. “I’m sure whoever you choose will be the luckiest guy.”

She again smiled nervously “Yeah.” She quickly changed the subject. ”So what did you want to talk to me about?”

Before I had a chance to start the food was coming out to our table. I wasn’t surprised; we come here so often they just bring the food out to us without question.

I took a deep breath and I went onto explaining my thoughts and I how I felt with everything going on, my reaction to how people were cheering about and how I didn’t feel the same way. I was scared during it all and just reacted. I did nothing more than protect myself and all of a sudden I’m like some celebrity. I have all this attention now and all I want to do is get away from it.

“Oh…then I’m sorry about the whole performance thing…”

“No don’t be, I did that because you wanted me to help. Believe me I would have done that for you regardless.”

She felt better after that but still I could see she was bothered by it.

I continued on how the others in the group find it cool, almost to the point it is something to strive for. I went on a bit about Craig and how he wants the attention, shifting over on our school mates and their sudden interest in me, and then news reporters and the constant need to want to interview. I went on for what was a pretty long time. Emmalin didn’t say a word; she sat and listened to everything I said with a few facial expressions here and there. At the end I sat against the booth winded.

She gave a little smile “You feel better?”

“I do, that was a lot to get off my chest and it’s not like I can just tell anybody.”

“What about Jace? I’m sure he feels the same way.”

“We have talked about it with Leon, not as in-depth, I’ve had a few more days to experience everything and have it all sink in.”

She sat back and thought for a second “Thank you.”

“Thank you? Uh…you’re welcome.”

She laughed “I mean Thank you for telling me this.”

“I always tell you.”

“I know, it just feels nice to know you do.” I was confused a bit but she continued on. “Gabriel, what you did was amazing. I was scared when I first heard of it but after everything calmed down and I saw you were okay it made me think how you were capable of doing that.”

“Do what? All I did was punch someone in the nose.”

“Yes you did, but the actions. How many people, especially our age, react that way? You did something special but you don’t want to admit it. I like that about you. You are just modest about it, but not everyone sees it that way.”

She had a point. To me it wasn’t something special but to everyone else it was. “I hadn’t thought about it that way.”

“And really you don’t need to. I like the way you are and if you were to let it get into your head then you would be just like everyone else.”

She did make me feel better letting out everything I had bottled inside so I told her about the dream I’ve been having with the robbery. How I have been having it every night since. I don’t wake up in the middle of the night anymore but it’s still as vivid and more details are caught. Emmalin wanted to hear the whole thing and I told her every detail.

“Did it happen like that?”

“I don’t know…I remember bits and pieces, more now than before, and it seems to be aligned with my dream. But it’s still hard to tell if it’s accurate.”

We talked more about the dream but after awhile our discussion changed and we were talking about random things. It was late by the time we realized how much time had actually passed.

“Oh shoot my parents are going to kill me.”

I laughed and asked for the check. After we paid I walked her to the car, we gave each other hugs and she left. What a week it’s been…things were finally looking better. I was finally able to relax, get my head straight and move forward with this tournament tomorrow. I wondered what tomorrow will bring, hopefully nothing, hopefully it’s just a day of martial artists trying to kick each other’s butt. I got in my car and made my way home.