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This is the second term into 6^th year, so self-defence right now consists of finding a partner, grabbing a mat and attempting to pin your partner down in less than 20 seconds.  As always, Erinn and I are together.

“So,” We always talk as we fight... We always talk in general.  She’s way better than she was last week. She has more moves and her reaction times have improved drastically “How many hours have you actually spent training this week?”

I strike twice more.  She blocks both and grins, “Savannah Williams!  Are you actually admitting defeat?”

Finally, with a quick kick of my foot against the right part of her ankle she’s off balance, making it easy for me to strike just below her rib.  She keels over momentarily. 

“I never admit defeat, I’m just asking because your reaction times are better than they were a few weeks ago.”

I’ve let my guard down, giving her enough time to pin my arms behind my back.  She’s definitely improved.

“I dunno, I guess I’ve trained around 5, 6 hours a day?”

A brisk elbow strike to her pelvic bone and my arms are free, we’re face to face again “Cool, I can tell”

“Stop it!”

“Stop what?”

“Acting like that wasn’t hard for you!  Admit it �" I’m getting better than you.”

Over a year ago, before it all happened, Erinn didn’t care about trying.  She was the girly one who barely passed self-defence, but could get away with it because she has the looks to flirt with anyone that she needs to defend against, get them to trust her and then strike.  She and Marcus were the two that didn’t care, they would laugh about it with each other when monthly rankings came in.  Marcus would say;

“Hey, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger �" at this rate, we’ll be the strongest in this dump!”

He was the light hearted one.  The one that made us all feel better about ourselves.  He turned any problem we had into a small issue that we could joke about. 

When the person that makes problems disappear is gone, every small issue becomes something that you need to drastically change, so as soon as Erinn looked at the first monthly ranking after the incident, she immediately threw herself into extra work, determined to be the best of the best.

“I’ll admit to the fact that you are definitely improving,”

And I’m on the floor.  I don’t know what she did, but after I said that, I felt my feet leave the ground and my head smack the mat with an almighty thud.  Erinn’s standing over me grinning.

“Erinn!  Ouch!”

“Savannah!  That’s the point of the assignment!”

She’s standing over me, eyebrow raised, smirking.  This is the first time I’ve been pinned down by her, she’s always the one that I pin. 

“Whatever, just help me up please?”

“You know, maybe if you ate something and actually had some weight, you wouldn’t be as pinnable”

“Erinn, subtlety has never been your strong point, just help me up!”  

Author's Note

not sure how well the present tense is working. Thoughts?