First Day
Prompt: “You'll wish you never asked me that.”
Warnings: minor physical violence, slight spoilers for Fox Hunt
Mabel sighed as she gazed over the property creek. It was exciting to have actual friends for once, especially since moving to Dallas and into a new gymnastic circuit.
But could she really do what they were asking of her?
“What if one if you gets badly hurt?”
Rica rolled her eyes. “Then we say we were practicing our contest floor routines.”
“How would that cover a black eye?”
Jules spoke this time. “We were all practicing at the same time and lost track of where the others were. We collided, maybe took a knee or heel to the eye.”
Mabel glared now. “How long have you two been planning this?”
“Since you took down those three bullies!”
“That was my first day at the gym!”
The incident occurred over a month ago. Her first rehearsal with her new team had just come to a close when she headed to her car in the parking lot. No one stopped her to talk, not that she expected anyone to. At sixteen, most of the performers weren't looking for new friends and only interested to see if the newcomer was talented enough to keep them from their Olympic dreams. Mabel had learned to control her own natural abilities to the point of fronting a false show of amateurism and lackluster performance, keeping the Olympic hopefuls off her back so she could focus on true strength gain.
She had just thrown her gym bag into her trunk when she heard heckling from across the lot. Her father's training ensured stealth as she snuck around a building wall, stooping down to be hidden by a dumpster. There were three male voices she didn't recognize from the gym but the two female voices she remembered from her new team.
“Don't you three have a puck to be chasing?”
“No, Jules,” -- that was the one called Rica-- “that's for actual hockey players, you know? Not wannabe benchwarmers.”
The ensuing scuffle was unmistakable. A gym bag fell to the ground with a thud and the rustling of windbreaker warm-ups told her someone had just been shoved to ground.
“Hey!” Both girls shouted at once.
Mabel scaled to the dumpster’s top and launched herself upon the trio. She hooked a leg around the torso of the nearest boy and used the momentum of the fall to slam him into another boy, sending them both rolling across the pavement. The third stood frozen and wide-eyed at the display as she paced the distance to the two girls who had been shoved into a wall, offering a hand to each.
“I think you and your friends should get to chasing that puck.”
That got the boy's feet moving as he backed away to run after the other two who were already scrambling to their feet and dashing around a corner.
“We are now. Thanks.” The Latina was first to accept Mabel's hand before turning to help her friend off the ground. “Why is it always your mouth that gets us into these situations?”
“Hey, they've never touched us before! How was I supposed to know that would happen?”
“You've ran into them before?” Mabel questioned.
“They love making fun of all the gymnasts when they can.”
“But this is the first they've actually followed us and did anything like that. I'm Juliana by the way, everyone just calls me Jules. Sorry we were late today and didn't get to meet you.”
“And I'm Rica, the reason we were late.”
That first round of laughter turned into a milkshake run and Mabel driving them home when they would have otherwise walked. Over the next several weeks, it surprised her to learn how many things there were to do outside her normal routine. Jules and Rica weren't daughters of career military generals like she was and looked forward to movies and shoe shopping instead of gun ranges and muddy forest hikes.
But now they wanted Mabel to train them as her father had taught her?
She glanced back out over the creek while her hand ran through her hair. “Are you sure you want my kind of training? My family has been doing intensive military exercises for generations and I still have a long way to go.”
Rica's brow arched with more attitude than if she had vocalized her usual ‘try me’ line. Jules simply shrugged. “We’re gymnasts, too. How hard could it be?”
A bark of laughter escaped Mabel. “You'll wish you never asked me that.”
