Chapter 10

Scar

After dinner, we went to the training room where there were more obstacles. Wow. It looked like a life-size PE room. It was twice the size of the one in the school but it always had the same apparatus. "Will we be using all of these?"

"We will, Angel, but not today."

"Why?"

"Cause we are using that." He said, pointing to the boxing ring.

"Oh." I said, stunned.

We were never allowed to use one at school. The boys had their own boxing ring, which I found sexiest. If they had taught us boxing, I might have been able to defend myself against Josh. I just hope Caleb will be okay. I know they are best friends, but he knows me and Caleb are together. I know Caleb will always be friends with him though he and I are an item, and he tries his best to protect me, but there's only so much one person can do to protect another. So, you have to take it upon yourself to protect yourself, because that person isn't always going to be there for you forever. I don't hate him for being Josh's friend, but the exact opposite. I can't choose his friends for him and he can't choose mine either.

Scar clicked his fingers. "A lot to take in angel?"

"Sorry I zoned out. It is a little yeah. We weren't allowed to use a boxing ring at school."

"Well, as you can see, we're not sexiest here and nine out of ten girls here already know how to box, so we encourage it, even for beginners like you."

I nodded.

"Come on angel, let's get kitted up and I'll help you learn how to fight. First off, we will teach you how to use your fists."

"Will we use boxing gloves?"

"Eventually angel, but for now, just put on finger gloves with padding."

"Like weight lifter gloves."

"Near enough, come on."

I followed him getting kitted up with the gloves and gum guard. Wearing a top, shorts and boxing boots, I looked ridiculous. He smirked, trying to contain his laughter. "You look stupid too."

"Take that back, angel."

"Never!' My turned into smirk.

"Your just like your brother."

"Good to know."

"Cocky too. I'm going to enjoy this."

We smirked at one another. "Let's start."

"We're fighting."

"We are."

"Bu ..bu you said."

"I changed my mind, I want to see that cockiness of yours come out of you as well as all your anger and hatred in your punches."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive let's start."

I nodded, we crashed my fists and soon we were punching, ducking, diving, left jab, right jab, gut jab and fucking blowing the wind out of me. Fuck that hurt, tears were steaming down my face as I found it hard to breathe. 'I'm sorry Angel, guess I don't know my own strength.' He said, pulling me to him, talking calmly to me as I started to get my breath back. "You okay now angel?"

I took the opportunity to jab him in his side. He buckled. "That's dirty fighting angel."

"And that's for winding me up."

He held his hand in the air like defeat. "Good call. I will be more careful next time."

I smiled.

"Well, that's it for today, we resume at eight am on the dot, then breakfast."

"Sure."

We changed and left the gym. "You did really good today angel, I'm proud and surprised."

"Well, Jax and I always used to play fight."

"You should've used some of that to stop what that prick was doing."

He was right. Why the hell didn't I? "I just guess it was through pure shock. I know I let my mouth run away sometimes, but I never expected him to hit me either and he never gave me a chance to register."

He nodded. "We'll work on your reflexes so he won't know what's hit him."

I nodded. I hoped so. I can't go on like this anymore.

Joshua

It's been four fucking weeks, four fucking weeks since she left him, her fucking brother. I'm going in fucking sain. I've been working out at the gym constantly, fighting anyone who ever dared to fight me. I've got stronger and quicker. I've been doing my self-defence more and more and my reflexes have improved dramatically. I've got to be ready for when she returns home, fuck knows what they've put into her head, what shit they've filled it with. But I know that she will bow down to me when I show her who is boss. "Ergh." I scream in frustration as I throw what I can across my room until it shatters into tiny pieces. I've punched many holes in my walls, so my dad thinks I'm going insane. He may be right cause I'm going insane because she's not here and I can't torture her like I always do cause he took her away from me.

"Whowh, dude, what the fuck happened in your room? It looks like a bomb went off."

I scowled at Caleb. He knew not to disturb me when I was like this, yet he still did.

"Go home Caleb, you shouldn't be here."

"Your dad invited me over."

Of course he fucking did.

"He thinks your losing it bro."

"Well, as you can see, I am not. I'm just letting out a little steam."

"She'll be back in three weeks."

"Who said it was her making me do this?"

"Isn't it?'

It was, but I wasn't going to tell him that. "No," I said bluntly.

"Whatever. So, how's about we get out of here for a while and get your mind of what ever it is that's making you trash your room."

"I'm fine, Caleb, as you can see, this is therapeutic."

"It won't be on your dad's bank balance. Come on, bro, we can take the bikes to the track and you can burn some rubber. It will make you feel better."

What the hell? "Sure whatever."

He smiled and we both headed out.

"So you're finally out of your room?"

"I am. Dad, me and Caleb are going to the track."

"Sure, enjoy yourselves."

"We will."

"And try not to trash your bike like your room, okay.'How the fuck did he know what my room looked like."

"Sure dad."

"I'll see you boys later we're going out for dinner."

"Sure dad."

"Later Mr. K."

"Bye Caleb." He said, shaking his head.

"Later dad."

"Later son."

We headed out and closed the door behind us, getting out scramblers, heading towards the track to spend a few hours on our bikes and getting dirty before we had to head home to change before we went out for dinner. At least riding across all the uneven track helped me forget how angry I was and to forget about her.

Hope

After I woke up and dressed, I headed outside to meet Corporal Stevens. "Come on angel, we're going to go into the woodland, everything is set up ready."

"Okay.'

"It's okay to be cautious, Angel. We're going to be learning something new today and you've been doing well over the past few weeks combating your fear of heights."

He was right. It had taken me two more weeks, but I managed to do the assault course in twenty minutes, which had pleased him, and I'd gone into the second part of the assault course of climbing up and down some weird looking pyramid. This through tyres, going under nets and walking over a log. Water which I have fallen into a few times. That was when I met a bulldog, a scary dude with tattoos, one of a bulldog on his left shoulder covering his entire muscular arm. I guess that's why they called him bulldog.

He was tough and stern now. Now I was to meet Dom, who was the martial arts instructor, but today we were using weapons, not our bodies. Scar had gone through everything that was going to happen today as we walked towards the woods when we finally came to the centre of the trees that covered us from any sunlight. This was going to be fun. Another large intimidating male with a tattooed neck. Did all these guys have a thing for tattoos? The mats were laid out on the lawn with all types of weapons. What the fuck were they teaching here at this camp?

"Angel, this is Dom, the martial arts instructor. He will help and guide you through the next couple of weeks and your reflexes will get stronger and more observant. Dom, your new trainee, Hope Evans."

"You must be Hope?"

"I am."

"Let's hope you learn as quickly as your brother."

"I will try my best."

"Just watch me and Scar first, then I will teach you how to use everything here, okay."

"Anything you say."

"You were right, she's cocky."

Scar smirked

He smiled, they took his shoes off and got onto the mat. They positioned their stance. "Ready Scar?"

"As ready as I'll ever be. Ready. Dom."

He nodded and they began fighting each other, throwing at each other. I stood shocked they were so fast and so well trained.

"Weapons," Dom instructed.

Scar nodded

He threw him a wooden stick. He caught it and Dom then picked one up. They took their stance again and began crashing them together, spinning and hitting the bats together. I stood looking at my mouth wide fucking hell. I watched as they changed their weapons fighting. I'd never seen anything so brutal. He fell to the mat, the three blades of the two knifes either side of both of their heads. They nodded, pulling themselves up. They both bowed. He beckoned me over.

"You need to listen to everything that I say and do are we clear."

"Yes."

"Yes what?"

"Yes Sensei."

He nodded.

We took our stance on the mats and he guided me through everything that I'd seen between him and Scar. I was truly impressed that most people would get mad at me if I did something wrong, but he kept his shit together and his head on and guided me through step by step.

He threw him a wooden stick. He caught it and Dom then picked one up. They took their stance again and began crashing them together, spinning and hitting the bats together. I stood looking at my mouth wide fucking hell. I watched as they changed their weapons fighting. I'd never seen anything so hot. She fell to the mat, the three blades of the two knifes either side of his head and hers at his neck. He smirked.

"I think that is enough for one day angel. I think we need to work on your posture and attack mechanisms."

"Okay. Thanks for today, Dom."

"No need to thank me angel. I'm here to help you learn and develop your mind, body and soul. You'll learn a lot during these last few weeks and you'll be going up against the rest of the camp the last few days of your stay."

I looked at Scar. He nodded. "Next week you'll be training with the rest of the camp, so make friends, but try not to gain enemies."

Easier said than done. My mouth always got me in shit.

~

For the next two weeks, Scar had me training with the rest of the teenagers there. I'd made friends, though some were still very wary of me and thought it was unfair that I'd got to train one to one with the most popular corporals there. They had all been told that it was ordered by my brother that I had learnt from the best and the Sergeant-Major had agreed who I was yet to meet. I was told he was the last person I was to go up against on the last day of the tournament. Among all of the teenagers in the camp who were never left standing was to face the sergeant-major, whose name I haven't quite grasped yet, but I will eventually maybe by the end of next week, before I return home. Something I did not want to do, but Scar had told me to keep my head high and act as if what he had done in the past didn't bother me and what mattered was what would happen in the future and how I handled it.

He knew with all the training I could pretty much handle anything. All I had to do was prove myself over these last two weeks, because there would be many bullying tactics that would be used once we got to stage two, which would begin on Monday, and by Friday the last one standing would go up against the Sargent, major who we'd all heard was no saint and pushed harder than all these guys out together and he was a bully back on his day, just fucking great another Joshua if I ever got to the end of this tournament.

I have very few friends here. Most of them were boys.

I seemed to attract them; Sawyer was my best friend, followed closely were Skylar and Kyro. We were like peas in a pod who were all getting bullied by our siblings, to be more precise; our brothers, but one was older and one the same age as mine was. I knew eventually I would have to go up against these guys and I've seen them in action and believe me when I say that they are good.

They'll give my brother a run for his money. Let's just hope it's sunk in so we can use it when we return home to show those fuckers were not scared of them and show then that we are no longer scared of them and show the a big FUCK YOU! In their faces and we no longer stand for their shit. Because come September we'll all be going to college. Well, I hope. Scar has been sorting all that out with my brother so I can begin as soon as I return.

The tournament is about to start. My fight is third in line with a girl called Lilly who is a right bitch and she has the biggest crush on Scar, as if he would look at her twice. Besides, he's nearly twenty-five, why would he initiate a relationship with a sixteen-year-old? And a girl from camp eww.

The fights were intense. There were so many strong boys and girls here. I'm sure I won't make it to the end of the tournament. Sawyer, Skylar and Kyro were in the categories below me. Why do I know they fight better than me? So they were up in the next few days. There were ten fights a day and, like I said, mine was up third. The second fight ended and me and Lilly were up.

We picked up the wooden sticks and took our stance. We both bowed to the sensei, and to each other, taking out a stance before we began crashing the sticks together, spinning and hitting the bats together. We changed from sticks to weapons fighting. It was soon over when she stumped and I caught her unawares pining her down after a spinning kick.

The flag went up and everyone cheered.

"We'll done Hope."

"Yeah you really showed her."

"Yeah congrats Hope she deserve it."

"We'll done, angel, we're all proud of you. In the next round you'll be going up against one of your friends, then one of us before the Sargent, if you get that far." Dom winked.

"I'm proud of you angel.' Scar praised, at least he wasn't as cocky as Dom."

"Congrats shortie." Bulldog said, ruffling my hair. I slapped his hand the way he knew I hated that shit.

He laughed hysterically. "I hope you're all going to stay to watch the final fights. You need to know everyone's weaknesses, so if you come up against them you know where to attack."

"We will, Lieutenant."

He smiled, nodding, Bulldog was a man of few words, just actions.

We all stayed and watched the last of the first ten fights, then went for supper and said our goodbyes before retiring to our rooms to sleep. It had been an all round busy day and I, for one, was exhausted knowing we'd have to watch the fights for the next week and a half.