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.
~
Hope
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.