A broken spirit and a soul to match

Chapter 2

"Alright boys, let's line it up!" Jay announced, walking around the arena. "Carlos, you're with me. Let's go." he said as Carlos stood up. "Ensemble." Jay ordered. Everyone stretched their swords in front of them. "Salute." he stated. The team held their swords up straight. "Now go and deploy." The guys pointed their swords at the ground. "Masks down." Everyone put their mask down and I saw Lonnie sneaking in from the side. "Engarde." Jay ordered. And with that, everyone began to fight. I followed every movement. For someone who has never seen a swordfight before, it must've looked like completely random moves. But I knew better. Every move was chosen by the opponent's fighting style. For example, James fought extremely offensive, which is why Chad was fighting defensive.

Then, Lonnie jumped in and began to fight Jay. The guys took off their masks, including Jay. "Get him, Jay." Carlos cheered. Lonnie was the only one still wearing a mask as I looked at her moves impressed. All these fights she had with Maere and I really paid off. "Get him, girl." I muttered under my breath. After a while, Lonnie had Jay's sword and he had to dodge her moves. She allowed Jay to take his sword back and took off her helmet, her long, black hair slightly curled. "It's Lonnie." Jane smiled. "Well done, Lons!" I exclaimed, cheering. "Not bad." Jay chuckled. "You should put me on the team." she stated. I climbed down from the balcony, walking to Lonnie's side. Jay shrugged.

"Hey! Wh-what? Nonono." Chad said. He mumbled something to Jay. "...and what's gonna happen next? We'll have girls playing Tourney?" he scoffed. I coughed. "We all know you got in because of your daddy." Chad sneered. "Is that so? If I recall properly, I was the one who led our team to victory." I said, slithering towards him. Lonnie threw me her sword and I caught it. I made a swift movement and I cut off a lock of his hair. He gasped, looking at me offended. "Kathy's right." Jay stated. "Have you not read the rule book?" Chad asked. He took the rule book from his pocket. "Section two, paragraph three, eleven dash four. A team will be deprived of a captain and eight MEN." he read, showing me and Lonnie the book. "It's in the rule book..." Jay mumbled.

"Yeah, but you're down a man. I mean, since Ben had to leave and do all that king stuff." Lonnie yelled enraged. "Exactly. We're down a MAN." Chad said. "Jay?" I tried, looking at my friend. "I'm sorry. Coach trusts me. I'm not gonna stay captain if I just throw out the rule book." he said to me and Lonnie. I scoffed and handed Lonnie her sword, before I cut Jay.

"If my mother thought that way...she would've lost the war." she sneered. Chad snorted and shrugged. I climbed back to Jane, who smiled at me sympathetically. "You did all you could." she reassured me. "I could've beaten all seven of them in a fight..." I mumbled, looking down to the arena. "...is over, let's go." Jay said. Jane walked off. "You coming?" she asked. "I'll be right with you." I smiled, grabbing my notebook. I began to walk off when I heard someone shout my name.

"Kathy, hey!" Carlos said, standing on one of the blocks. "Hey, Carlos, how's everything?" I asked, smiling slightly. He looked behind him, where Dude jumped onto one of the blocks as well. "Uh...pretty good. You?" he questioned. "Not so well. Jane and I decided to go with the blue and golden banner for Cotillion, but now we can't seem to find the right blue and we have to change everything." I groaned, leaning on the balcony. "Oh yeah, no. That sucks, that's a bummer...um...speaking of Cotillion..." he mumbled.

"Don't even get me started. It's like the entire world just stopped and now all everyone can focus on is Cotillion. Like, have you never been to one before?" I ranted. "Uh...I haven't...actually..." Carlos said awkwardly. I stood there, mentally face-palming myself. "Oh...I'm sorry...well, you're lucky. I always end up fixing Maere's or Irene's dress in some way. And now I agreed to take part in the decorating committee with Jane 'cause Audrey's on holiday with Flora, Fauna and Merryweather." I rambled. "Kathy, maybe we should just..." I cut him off. "Get it over with? Or even better, skip the entire thing. If only that was an option...it's so amazing to have a...friend...who just gets me." I said. I paused before I used friend, because over the last six months, I've actually grown to care for him. But like my dad taught me, 'don't show any emotions or you'll end up getting hurt'.