The Boxer (editing)

Chapter Twenty Three

Chapter Twenty Three

Ray chased me when I arrived fashionably late. Since everything I did was fashionable. Peasants.

"Late again!" He chased me with jump ropes like a whip, Alex cheered for my coach. I couldn't help but smile anyway, my quirky boxing family almost replaced the others. The other fighters laughed at me and pushed me around. The fighters in my gym treated me like a little sister, and that filled me with a sense of home.

"Charlie's a slow driver!" I lied to defend myself, slamming into Charlie's arms, the big monkey was big enough to defend me.

"I am not!" Charlie huffed humorlessly.

My life was weird.

I couldn't believe I'm in the finals. For fucking nationals. 

Ray screamed at me until I trudged to the treadmill for a quick two miles. After that, my favorite warm up, two hundred roundhouse kicks and two hundred pushups. Just kidding, that sucked. The burn from the quantity gave me a little rush, and it loosened me right up. 

Next was three hundred squats while holding fifteen pound weights to the side and moving my arms in mini circles, my own personal hell.

My heart dropped. My oppenent has arrived.

She is bigger than Sheila. Approximately six feet, broad, muscular in a way that was not appealing on a girl and a hard cold glare that didn't look like my charming personality could change. How come I had to be so short? My height definitely worked against me. Just by sizing her up in that quick second, I knew something I had to do. I had to get in closer to her when we were squared up. My legs were a lot shorter than her, so I needed to be close to reach that far.

"Ray," I clutched his arm as I warmed up, "Give me the run down on her." I worked the speed bag as a way to stop myself from shaking. Pre-fight nerves are the worst. 

"Dee, calm down. Sam is trying not to launch at her and attack her now," We both snickered when we saw the look in Sammy's eyes that only meant danger. Oh Sammy. I knew she was a sweetie inside.

"She's from Chicago, Asia Boggs. Boggs started her training in freshmen year, and I know what you're thinking, I've been training for years, but I'm gonna lose. You won't lose to her, people only lose to her because they are afraid of her size. But Boggs only fights with her emotions, not strategy. She gets pissed then wails, the flaw in that is her technique." Ray shrugged with his keen eyes trained on my opponent. "What have I always told you?"

"Fight with your heart but think with your head." I nodded robotically. That was how I was trained to think. If you think with your heart, you'd lose yourself to anger and pain, thinking with your head ensures you'd fight right, fighting with heart. Logic beats emotions in this case.

My head swiveled to watch Asia as she practiced footwork in the ring, we observed for a moment more, then when Ray opened his mouth to speak again, I held my hand up to stop him to notice something.

Everytime Asia would start to punch she shuffled her feet a little and licked her lips. A tell, a sign! Everyone fighter had a sign for when they fought. Ray hassled me for years until I stopped with mine. My shoulders would hunch and sometimes my hands would bob, it ticked Ray off to the max.

Queen Sadie could actually win this match!

"Do you see that!" I breathed swatting his arms jumping a little, "She shuffles and licks her lip when shes about to attack."

"Ray," Asia's coach boomed, "Let's go." 

"That dude's a dick." We did a handshake that I'd done since I started training with Ray. Coach Goals am I right?