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If this was a story, then in the fifth round I would have lost to my cousin, but with the tournament down to three people, I would have gotten to fight her a second time, win, and have the whole tournament down to me and the third person who had already beaten her for her first loss.

This would have been so much more satisfying.

Instead, I lost my next match to a girl named Indara Singh who was representing the school of Five Rings.

I was faster, stronger, tougher, but she had three more years of training at the same level of effort as me.

She was just plain old better than me when it came to fighting. Not by much I don’t think, because I got plenty of punches in, but better enough to win.

I got knocked down and she followed me down to punch me in the face as I tried to sit up, knocking the back of my head into the stone floor of the square.

The next thing I knew Uncle Dave and my Dad were lifting me and carrying me out of the arena, with Dad trying to reassure me that I had done good, and Uncle Dave giving his head a slight shake when I looked over at him.

Then I was sitting on one of the benches focusing my chi on my head while sipping some water from a porcelain bottle my Grandmother had handed me. “Huh? Grandma?”

She smiled and reached out to hold her hand to my forehead. "The Benito family is no longer a danger to you. Focus on your head darling."

That's when I mentally caught up, "Crap. I lost."

There was an exchange of concerned looks over my head from the adults standing around me, and I had to lean around to see the current fight between the girl, Indara, who had beaten me, and a skinny guy with a length of chain with weights on the end who was doing better against her then I had.

I’m not the best… Yet.

I grinned, “But it was still fun.”

Uncle Dave gave me a thin lipped nod and a grunt of approval. “There is another tournament in Hong Kong in two months. As well as a side tournament for those with less to prove." He glanced at my parents. "With your permission?"

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My Dad started to speak before Mom cut him off. “We’ll talk about it. Later.”

I caught the last of the matches between the last six, then headed up to where everyone from the school was watching, with the banner with my name rolled up.

Before anyone else could say anything, Austin made a dismissive sound at me. “You got beat by a girl.”

My jaw dropped open as he shook his head sadly and crossed his arms, then I rolled my eyes and laughed as Ryan began beating his friend over the head with a program and the other teens pelted him with popcorn.

My stomach growled, and Neal handed me the remaining half of his paper sack of salty, buttered, incredibly unhealthy kernels.

Which I demolished before the last round even started.

Elise fought against a tricky guy who used a form of Brazilian and monkey style, but she focused on just snapping out simple punches and kicks to keep him from setting up any fancy moves.

Then she went right into a fight against Indara.

“Kick her ass Elise!”

Everyone in my group in the stands looked at me. I shrugged. “Cousin.”

They nodded, then jumped up and started cheering for Elise as well. The girl didn’t look up, but she seemed to blush a bit.

She still lost.

Indara went on to demolish flippety floppity chain guy. Then she got a breather before she and Elise got a rematch to settle the Tournament.

“Excuse me guys, I think I saw something that I want to pass on.”

Down in the south hallway, I approached Elise’s family with a nod and wave of my hand to dismiss her father’s look of recognition that quickly turned dark. “Sorry, I don’t know what happened between you and your father, but that’s between you and him. Me? I'm here to speak to my cousin."

Uncle Dave's father looked a little bemused at that, but he let me slip past him to plop down on the bench next to Elise. "Hi. I’m Sara, a cousin on your Dad's side. I don't know if you picked it up, but she goes off balance just before those punches of hers come flying in out of nowhere. I'm thinking you could focus on putting her even more off balance when she tries it."

She frowned, more in concentration than offense. "That sounds, right. At least enough to try."

I nodded at her. “I’m sure I’m not the first person to notice, so she just about has to have a backup strategy. Also, I've been informed that me and a bunch of people from my high school are signed up for some volleyball games this afternoon. There are more than two teams, but I don't think it's as organized as a tournament. We have more people than we need for one team, so we could use a few extra people to field a second team if you're interested. See ya."

Elise looked startled then let out a laugh as I ran off. I wanted to get back up in the stands before the last fight.

My Grandfather had spent the same break between rounds dragging off Ryan and Austin to help him carry back a tray full of hot dogs, there were even two left for me by the time I got back.

"Thanks, Grandpa, but I only need one to hold me over for lunch."

He nodded at me. “I know.” Then snatched up the last hot dog. Biting into it as several of the other werewolves gave him looks of betrayal.

Elise knocked Indara sideways and broke the other girl's leg as they went down to the ground. Whatever plans Indara had for after her trick stance was caught out looked like it relied on having two working legs.

She still dragged the fight out for another half a minute, before one of her group finally stepped up on the square to call the fight, even with Indara glaring at him, and beating her fist on the ground.

Elise Tolliver was declared the winner of the first tournament I got to participate in. Disappointing on one level, but still, at least it was a family member that won.

And I was going to have a tape to watch over and over to study how to beat her when our time to fight each other finally came.