Love At First Fight

Chapter Thirty Eight

Violet

A few days have passed since my mother decided to pay us a visit. Angie and I made up fairly quickly, the little girl surprising me by coming and apologizing to me first.

I've been hesitant on allowing her, or even myself, to go back to school right now. If my mom was right and Carlos did leave the house with my dad's gun then I can only imagine what his plan is to do with it.

Trevor and I have been getting along really well lately. The constant bickering is still there, but it's all in good fun now.

I don't know why, but Trevor's mom seems to have taken a keen interest with me. She never speaks a word to me, but she likes to just sit there and stare at me while I'm doing something. Trevor told me not to worry about it because she means no harm, but the way she stares at me makes me feel like I'm being constantly judged 24/7.

"Are you ready to go yet, Violet?" Trevor whines from outside of the bathroom door as I attempt to finish getting dressed. "We gotta leave soon."

"We'll make it there on time,"I roll my eyes at the impatient boy as I reach down to pick up my ski mask. "It doesn't start for another hour."

"I know, but I want to scope out the competition."

"What percentage of the competition do you believe are going to get there be there on time, let alone get there early?"

"The committed kind."

"Trevor and I are leaving to go to the first of three screenings that the Ring has before the actual tournaments in Florida. One can't just enter themselves into this sort of competition, but they have to truly prove that they are able to fight against people who may be much stronger than them. The screenings are like a smaller version of the tournaments basically. They go on for about three days and the way it all works is pretty basic. They randomly match you with other people and you keep fighting until you're one of the last people still standing. Because the tournaments in Florida are such a big event they only allow ten fighters from each state to enter.

Trevor has to be one of those fighters.

I finish putting on my little fighting getup, realizing that it's been a while since I've had to become Lioness again. I stare at myself in the mirror, a masked stallion staring back at me. It's crazy how I almost don't even feel like a fighter without my mask on, as soon as I pull it over my head I just feel this pool of self-confidence. Like I've truly accomplished something in this life.

Maybe it's not healthy to have any sort of alter ego. But I can't help but to believe that myself and Lioness are two completely separate beings to some extent. Or at least two different personalities. She's the state champion. One of the few women in this league, and the only woman to become state champ. And all of that at such a young age.

But as soon as I take the mask off I just turn back into Vilet. The girl with the terrible home life that probably should be mildly depressed but is holding it in for the sake of her little sister.

I smooth down the ski mask one last time before turning around to walk out of the bathroom. I look down to see Trevor sitting on the ground with his legs pulled up to his chest, obviously having waited the whole time for me to get out of the bathroom.

"Finally" Trevor groans and moves to get up off of the ground. "You were taking so long that I was beginning to worry."

"I was in there for ten minutes."