The Woman On Stage

Even after 3 hours, I was still extremely tired. I had about 4 hours of sleep the night before due to an unexpected problem down at "The Ring", where one of the other fighters had gotten into an accident involving a portal. The fighter was a recovering addict, and he had been doing pretty well thanks to my manager, but unfortunately he relapsed. He got unbelievably high and decided to try and use a blocked portal to, attempt to at the very least, escape the local police who had been on his tail for around half an hour. When he entered the portal with the car, the core of the car had a instantaneous reaction, causing causing a massive explosion that left a 20 foot wide crater in the ground. He was completely vaporized, there was massive property damage , and 3 police officers lost their lives. It was a huge tragedy which, I didn't know until later, was a shockingly common event not only in my area but nation wide. I had never really paid attention to the news so I wasn't really aware of these issues. The roads probably wouldn't be open for months after this.

After learning of this, my manager called me down and asked me to take the guy's place in that night's fight. I said yes, though I didn't think it would be much of a hassle since I was the only one within a 15 mile radius that actually had any formal training. I didn't know much about the guy I was supposed to fight, but I just assumed he was another drunk dickhead my manger threw into the ring for a quick buck. Turns out he was a retired Heavy-Weight Champion. I went into the ring off guard, underestimated my opponent, got beaten to hell, got in the swing of things, finished the fight after 17 rounds, and got healed up by my manager. He chastised me, spent way too long lecturing me about how I've gotten cocky, and told me to go home and rest. He was right of course, I had gotten cocky and I knew I needed to be taken down a few pegs. It just didn't feel good. Both my ego and my body was severally bruised. I couldn't let myself think I was invincible, the moment I do, I'd slip up and start to fail. I followed my manager's instructions and I went home, fell asleep, and after four hours my alarm went off. So you can imagine how I was feeling during third period History, when my teacher had begun yelling at me, trying to get my attention.

"Raphil. . .RAPHIL!", Mr. Daniels screamed.

My head jolted up from my desk in response. I was relatively awake in that moment but my brain was still trying to catch up with everything going on around me.

"Ugg. . .Uh-mm, Umm, Yeah, w-what's happening" I said in a groggy voice.

I knew there was no point in trying to pretend I was awake since he had clearly been watching me sleep for, well the entire class. Before my brain could process anything, he began yelling again

"Did! You! Complete! Your! Project! You know, the one thing that I assigned to you all year! Did you finish?"

'Shit', I thought, 'I had two things left to do. I completely forgot.'. Bracing for impact I began my answer, hoping that I would survive to see the next period.

"Ohhh...yeah...so about that. I got called in late for work last night, and one of my coworkers died so I had to cover his shift an-"

Just as I was in the middle of explaining the situation in the best possible light, the door slammed open.

"Raphil, your needed"

"Oh, thank god", I said as quickly and quietly as possible so no one would hear me. " I get to live another day" I stood up from my desk and said as loudly as possible, so Mr. Daniels would hear me specifically, "Welp, they need me, gotta go". I ran quickly out the door before he could say another word.

The Vice-Principal and I started walking down the hall. Once we got a bit away from the classroom door I asked, "So what did you ne-" she stopped me before I could finish my question.

"Raphil, why didn't you finish your project". Her slight British accent made her sound more concerned than she actually was. I knew that she just wanted to make the walk a little less awkward since it would take about 10 minutes to get to the first floor.

"It's mostly finished, I just got a couple things I need to do, I was gonna do them last night but I got called in late for work, so I ended crashing immediately after I got home"

"You got a job? Where do you work?"

"...I'm a Contender."

"Ahhh. . ."

As a contender, my place of work changes every night. We do this so that fights can't get leaked out to the public before there set up. If the place is kept secret until the last minute, it gives us time to plan the event out and make sure the Ring doesn't get overbooked. However, it also gives the place an aura of mystery. Most people tend to think that these places are secret drug smuggling schemes, but there not, and the occupation is perfectly legal. Still I liked to keep it under wraps from other students so they wouldn't get the wrong idea. Some of the teachers too. However, I knew that the Vice-Principle wouldn't care. As long as your getting your work done, she couldn't care less about what you do outside of school.

We walked in silence for a couple of minutes before I asked the question again.

"So what did you need me for?"

Her face changed from that of an emotional nothing to that of a little girl trying to keep a secret from a friend.

"You'll just have to wait and see"

We walked for about 10 more minutes until we finally reached the gym. We walked inside and there in the center of the surprisingly small gym for a school of its magnitude, there were about 40 other kids sitting in metal folding chairs arranged in rows of 10 A few teachers were standing around the walls monitoring them, making sure the kids didn't break any rules. Most looked incredibly annoyed, as if they had something better to do. I looked around in the crowd trying to find a seat and spotted my friend, Douglas, in the back row. There was an empty seat right next to him so I started to make my way towards him. He spotted me and waved for me to sit down. I smiled and hired over there

"Hey dude, what's up. You're here too, huh"

"Yeah, I'm here too, as you can clearly see since, you know, I'm standing right here." He laughed, once again acknowledging that I am obviously great at comedy.

"You know what's going on?" I asked.

"Nope, but something tells me we're about to find out.", he said as he pointed towards the stage. As he said that, a lady dressed in a freshly bought suit began climbing on stage. As she did that I noticed that there was something hidden behind her, behind curtains that under no circumstances had ever been allowed to be closed. The school didn't want anyone messing with them as they were antiques from a bygone era.

Just I began to, at least attempt to, figure out what was going on the lady spoke.

"Hey, alright everyone I need your attention" you could tell she wasn't used to speaking to kids as soon as she said that. I have yet to, even to this day, meet a teenager who would respond to 'I need your attention'. She waited a minute for things to quiet down. They didn't. She then proceeded to yell in the loudest voice that I have ever heard.

"HEY, SHUT UP!"

Immediately, there was dead silence as the whole gymnasium stared at her. I mean, how could one person go from this timid person to this ear shattering loud beast. It was insane. She proceeded to clear her throat and compose herself. Once she got a grip, she then cleared her throat calmly, stated:

"Great, now that that's settled, let's begin"