It was the last day of the Schools Sports Tournament, and Sophia was in Mia’s limousine, opening and closing her fists as a warmup.
Mia was staring at her hands and warned her, “You will get your hands tired if you keep doing that. You better relax your muscles and meditate for a while. It always calms me down.”
To her surprise, Sophia stopped, closed her eyes, and took slow, deep breaths. Emma Pearson was finding it strange that Sophia was doing what Mia said, and it was more surprising when she heard her crazy friend asking, “Do you mind being in my corner in the ring? I think I will need a trainer, and my father has no idea how boxing works. For him, boxing is just a means to hit someone with the least effort possible, even if he uses deadly force. Which is not allowed in boxing matches.”
Mia raised one eyebrow slightly and asked, “Me? Are you sure you want me in there with you?”
“Of course, I am not sure, but considering how much we sparred and how many times I knocked you out, you are my obvious choice for today.”
“I don’t know if I should be honoured or offended! You kind of complimented me and insulted me in the same sentence.”
With an awkward smile, Sophia opened her eyes and said, “Pretty, please?”
“I guess I can have an opening in my extremely busy schedule to help you today. But if you, for even one moment, are rude to me, you don’t need to worry about your opponents, because I will knock you out!”
“Sure, you will try, and you will fail. As always. And thanks. Means a lot.”
Mia bit her lower lip to disguise her happiness. Jack pretended not to notice it and said, “Sophia, that is not the proper way to ask for help or thank someone when they agree to help you.”
“Alright, I know it already! Thanks, Mia. I will make a speech in the end to thank you, and I will give you my medal as thanks.”
“No, the speech will be more than enough. Don’t forget to praise my wisdom and my training in that speech! I want everyone to know how much I helped you!”
“You are pushing your luck, lady!”
With a grin, Mia stared at the stubborn little girl, only for her to sigh. “Fine, I will do that. Not a lie, but you were a very good sparring partner. I only hope you will be a good partner for my father, or I won’t rest until I kill you.”
“All right, I can agree with those terms. Now, shut up and meditate! I want you calm and focused! And don’t forget to say that you are grateful that your new mommy helped you train!”
“I won’t do such a thing! You have much to prove to me to accept calling you that! You just started dating my father, for crying out loud!”
“I know that, but I want to hear you say it. And make it believable! Cry with happiness! That should work!”
Sophia snorted and said, “Now you are just mocking me, aren’t you? Is that a weird strategy to distract me?”
“It is working?”
While closing her eyes, Sophia answered, “Not really. Meditating will work better, I hope.”
When the limousine stopped in front of the school, Emma exited first with her parents, with Jack Cross joining them.
Sophia stayed in the limousine with Mia waiting for her. When she finally opened her eyes, Mia opened the door and said, “Let’s go. We need to get you ready.”
The students who were also at the gate stared at the serious Sophia, who walked past them without even looking around or saying a word.
She guided Mia to the girl’s changing room, and upon entering, all eyes were on them. Without even bothering to check who was also getting changed, Sophia went to a bench near a locker and put her bag on top of it.
As she was changing into her shorts and t-shirt, the other girls stared at her, noticing that she was wearing a sports bra and that her back, stomach, and arms had too many muscles for such a young girl.
Mia sat on the bench and took from a pocket in Sophia’s bag two rolls of bandages and started to unwrap them, ending with two long, straight bandages over her lap.
When Sophia sat next to her, Mia carefully began wrapping her hands and wrists in the bandages and asked, “How are you feeling?”
“Calm.” After looking at the other girls, she grinned and raised her voice enough to be heard in the entire room. “None of them will give me a proper fight. I will win this easily. Maybe there is a boy in the other schools who can put up a fight, but they will all lose as well.”
A girl on a bench nearby said, “You seem overconfident. Better if you make sure you are not all talk, and you end up losing your first match. No one ever saw you training boxing in gym classes, probably because you have no idea how to fight, and you only beat up Eliza and her friends because you caught her by surprise.”
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While staring at the hands of the girl who spoke, Sophia asked, “Do you know why I am wrapping my hands and wrists instead of putting them in my gloves without anything like you are going to do?”
“I don’t really care. You are going to say what? That you saw boxing on television, and you are imitating them?”
“No, moron. Boxers wrap their hands and wrists so that they can punch really hard without breaking their bones or spraining their wrists. And if you are unfortunate enough to be in the ring against me, you will see how strong my punches are, because unlike you and all these morons here, I didn’t come here to pass my time; I came to win. I am used to fighting without gloves, helmets, or mouth protectors. All these protections that they make us use? They won’t save you from me, but go ahead, keep annoying me, make me angry, and you will wake up tomorrow morning in a hospital bed!”
The girl went silent, and Sophia opened and closed her hands, testing the bandages. She nodded at the serious Mia and waited for her to help her adjust the helmet.
When Sophia got up, Mia grabbed the gym bag while holding in her hand a small plastic box with Sophia’s mouth protector, and as they were leaving the changing room, Mia looked at the other girls, each of them with a friend or a parent helping them to get ready, and said, “If you enter the ring against Sophia, you will lose. She never holds back her punches. She knocked me out a few times when we were training for this day. You all see this as a fun event, and your parents came to enjoy this competition, but she sees it as a way to punish everyone who didn’t help her when Eliza and her friends were bullying her. You still have time to drop off and avoid getting hurt.”
Mia turned to the door and joined Sophia outside, who was already looking at the board with the list of matches and the participants. With a grin, she said, “Nice, I am going to fight a boy right in the first match. That will work as a means for me to input fear into my next opponents, and many of them will for sure give up.”
While walking side by side to the ring that was set in the middle of the gym, Mia said, “Try not to go all out right from the beginning. It will be better if you can hide your cards and not show all your game right in the first match. Remember, this is light contact, so you can’t punch too hard, or you will be declassified for excessive force. So, try to avoid direct hits on the face. Only the chest, stomach, arms, and sides of the face. Better not to aim at the chin either.”
“Bah, that will be darn boring! I want to break a few noses!”
“You can’t.” As she was raising the top rope for Sophia to enter the ring, Mia continued, “Light contact is that: hitting and not hurting your opponent too much, and winning by points. We talked about that, Sophia. You are too focused on your revenge, and you might lose your goal. Win. That is what you have to do today, just that.”
With a sigh, Sophia said, “A friend told me recently that maybe I have too much piled-up anger. There is nothing I can do about it, because when I see all these morons around us, I can only remember what I went through, and they didn’t do a thing to help me.”
“Nothing of that matters now. Leave that rage outside the ring. Aim for points and follow the rules today. You got this.”
Standing still, Mia waited for Mia to help her put the helmet and the gloves on. The noise of cheering called her attention, and she looked back to see who her opponent was, and a familiar voice greeted her: “We meet again, gorgeous! Is it now that you are going to tell me your name?”
Sophia faced Mia again and opened her mouth to get the mouth protector. Mia then left the ring and stood in her corner of the ring, and Sophia leaned on the ropes, staring at her opponent and punching both gloves together.
The referee called them both to the centre of the ring, revising the rules with them. Eric Bates was smiling, and Sophia remained serious.
Both of them hit the gloves against each other as a greeting and went back to their corner.
The referee gave the signal, and the bell rang. Both fighters walked to the middle of the ring with lowered bodies, both gloves on the sides of their faces, and measuring each other.
Eric attacked first, with Sophia evading the punch straight to her chest. Every time he tried to throw a punch, Sophia would take one step back or to the side, skilfully avoiding every punch. Even when he tried to do a faint, she evaded.
The bell rang, and the referee told them to get back to their side of the ring. Sophia walked backwards, never stopping looking at her opponent.
Mia entered the ring, took out Sophia’s mouth protector, gave her a bottle of water for her to take a few sips, and warned her, “You are losing by points because you are only evading. You need to throw a few punches as well.”
“I know. You said that I couldn’t show my game! What do you want now?”
“Hit him, but hit him hard and just one time. In the stomach, as soon as he throws a punch at you. It doesn’t matter if he hits you as well, but make sure he falls and can’t breathe.”
With one single nod, Sophia opened her mouth again for the protector, and Mia left the ring.
The bell rang, and Sophia almost ran against her opponent, with him barely having time to put his gloves up.
She immediately stopped at fist range, and he threw a punch at her chest that she didn’t even try to avoid and retaliated with a punch in his stomach that made him bend forward and another punch in his forehead that made him see stars, even with him wearing a helmet that protected most of his head and face.
Sophia took a few steps back and waited, with the referee checking if Eric could continue. He then walked to Sophia when he saw that Eric was having difficulty in breathing and asked her, “Why did you hit him so hard? This is light contact!”
Without a word, Sophia raised her t-shirt and showed the referee the red mark right in the middle of her chest. She spat the mouth protector into her free glove and asked, “And what about him? He hit me first, so I gave him what he deserved! Why don’t you start the counting? Or did his parents also pay you to close your eyes like Eliza’s parents did to the Principal?”
The referee, the gym teacher of Eliza’s class, gulped and went to Eric to start the count.
Ten seconds later, he was declaring Sophia the winner, and Eric approached her with an awkward smile and said, “Guess I earned that punch. Did I hurt you?”
“You? As if! You couldn’t hurt me even if you trained for twenty years! Get lost, kid; I have more things to worry about than some random kid who doesn’t know what is best for him!”
“Okay, but I still want to say I am sorry. Best of luck in your next match!”
While showing him his gloves, Sophia said with a grin, “I have these. I don’t need luck.”
While Mia was raising the top rope for Sophia to leave, Eric Bates stared at her. As he was leaving the ring as well, he kept looking at her back and mumbling, “She is so cool! And tough! And she has quite a punch! My belly still hurts, and I am feeling about to throw up!”