Chapter 7: The Boffer Club (Part 4)

Sam’s brain stopped working for a moment when she heard Mary’s cry. In that instant, Mike disappeared from her eyes and her sword disappeared from her hand. The next thing she knew, she was crouched at her side.

“Mary! Mary!” Sam cried. She’d taken a nasty fall. Trying to avoid Mike’s sword, she had stepped in front of a large boy who hadn’t been looking where he was going, and he barreled right over her. Immediately the worst possibilities flooded into her mind. Broken bones? Muscle tears? Paralysis? Even…

Mary sat up slowly, looking a little woozy. Everyone was rushing over to see what was wrong, but Sam didn’t care about any of them.

“Are you okay?!” Nothing looked broken. She wasn’t crying in pain, but maybe it was just shock? Or maybe she’d gotten lucky…

“Mommy, no wanna play monster truck rally no mo…” Mary mumbled out.

Shit! Sam hadn’t even thought about a concussion. She waved her hand in front of her eyes, but Mary just stared at her with a blank expression.

The large boy who'd crashed into her approached with a face filled with worry. “Are… Are you okay?! I didn’t- I didn’t mean to-“

“Back off!” Sam snapped, silencing him with a glare. She was seething right now, why hadn’t that punk been looking where he was going? What would he do if she was seriously hurt? And what the hell was Mary doing coming out here in the first place?! And how on earth had Sam just let her? This was her fault more than anyone’s damn it, she couldn’t believe she’d made such a-

“Let me take a look.”

Sam seized up, glaring at Cain. The fuck was he doing here?!

She was about shout him down, but the serious expression on his face kept her quiet. He crouched down next to her and placed his hand on Mary’s shoulder.

“Hey, what are you-“

“It’s fine. I’m pre-med.” He pulled a flashlight from his pocket and shined it in Mary’s eyes. She winced and pulled back. Sam sighed in relief. Good. No concussion. That was-

“Wait, you’re fucking pre-med?! Are you fucking serious?!” How the FUCK was a thoughtless prick like this aiming for medical school?!

Cain ignored her. He let out a relieved sigh of his own and stood up, helping Mary to her feet.

“She’s alright!” He announced to the anxious crowd. “She’s just a little stunned from the fall, that’s all. But nothing serious. Come on, let’s get you somewhere you can sit down.”

“…M’kay…” Mary nodded obediently as he guided her over to the bleachers.

Sam sighed and flopped back on the grass, feeling like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders. That had almost been really bad.

Well, hopefully she learned her lesson. It may have not been a big deal this time, but if she keeps up with stuff like this, she could seriously mess herself up… Now that she knew Mary was going to be fine, she pushed herself out of “panic mode” and got back to normal.

Then Carly’s whistle made her spring up in surprise.

“As you guys just saw, we take safely very seriously around here,” she said, her voice also uncharacteristically serious. “Yes, our weapons are safe. But there are still a lot of ways that you can get injured. You need to be careful out there, or else you could hurt yourself or someone else. Do you guys understand?”

Sam rolled her eyes, that should have gone without saying. She stared with a dubious gaze at the mountain who’d squashed Mary like a grape. The fair-haired boy looked horrified, and rightly so! What the hell’s your problem, not looking where you’re going like that?

Reckless and stupid, those were two of Sam’s least favorite traits.

“In the meantime while we wait for Mary to feel better, I think this is a good opportunity to take a little break and get to know each other!” Carly led the others over to the bleachers, and they all formed a circle on the grass.

Ugh. This was the part Sam had been dreading. Introductions. She’d come to beat people with foam swords, not spread gossip. But she held her tongue and sat down on the bench next to Mary.

The blonde looked up and gave her a tired smile as she held ice on her shoulder. She was really trying her best, the poor thing.

“How’s the arm?” Sam whispered.

“It’s, um, it’s fine,” Mary winced. “Still a little sore-“

To Sam’s horror she lifted her arm, and she exploded.

“Don’t move it! Are you stupid?! That could be a muscle tear, wait until we can get you to a doctor first before you-“

“Ladies, would you like to go first?” Carly called, raising her eyebrow. Sam felt her face heat up and she sank down.

“Th-That’s…”

“Thought so. Well, I’m happy to start! Hello all! As I’m sure you guys saw from the email, I’m Carly Davis, and I’m one of the co-presidents of the Boffer Club!” Carly wore a bright smile like what had happened to Mary hadn’t happened at all. “For introductions, I think we can just say our full name, why we came to the club tonight, and a fun fact about ourselves! Now for me, I joined because I took fencing in high school, and this seemed like a lot of fun! As for fun facts… hm… oh! I’m a theater major, and in a few weeks we’ll be doing a production of ‘The Horsetamer’s Daughter’, so make sure to check it out!”

A theater major? That made… a crazy amount of sense, actually. But wait, wasn’t Westbridge’s theater program like, incredibly hard and time-consuming? And she balanced that running a club, too? Sam was actually pretty impressed.

Carly passed the baton to her fellow co-president, Mike.

“Hi there,” he said, smiling a little. “I’m Michael Hirata, but you can just call me ‘Mike’, and yes, that’s a Japanese name, my parents are from Japan. That’s a fun-fact right there, I guess. Also, I’m the other co-president, we both joined up at about the same time. What else… oh, right, the reason I joined… well, I’ve been learning iaido for a while now, and I thought that this club would be a good way to train, if that makes sense.”

Oh, wow. Sam didn’t have a clue what “iaido” was but she guessed it was probably some sort of Japanese sword style or something. No wonder he’d cut everyone down like he was in a samurai movie, how the fuck was she supposed to compete with shit like that?

More people introduced themselves, and Sam mostly tuned them out. She was staring at Mary’s shoulder the whole time, trying to tell if the redness meant a serious injury to her muscle, or just a small bump, or a result from the cold of the ice.

Her own shoulder began to ache in sympathy and she winced. Hopefully the poor thing would be okay…

Then Mary stood up, startling her. Was it her turn to go already?

“I-I’m… Mary Masters, it’s nice to meeb you all!” She spoke so fast she bit her tongue. Her face was as red as a tomato. “I, um… it’s not exactly a ‘fun fact’ but… I went to an all girls boarding school for junior high and high school! And, um… the reason I came to the club today, was… well… I-I wanted to meet people and make new friends!”

Any friends, Sam silently corrected her.

She sighed as Mary hastily sat down.

Great. Her turn.

“I’m Sam Jones. Hi. Not ‘Samantha’, not ‘Sammy’, SAM. S.A.M. SAM.” She was glaring at Cain while she said this, but he just returned her gaze with an unreadable smirk.

“…Anyway. I’m not really that into stuff like this, I just came because my roommate dragged me here,” she continued, jabbing her thumb towards an aghast Mary. “Only fun fact about me is that I’m not the kind of person who tells people fun facts about myself. That’s it.”

She crossed her arms in front of her chest when she finished.

Everyone stared at her for a second, feeling a little awkward. Then the girl sitting next to her started, and Sam checked out again.

There were a few more people left to go, including the boy who’d nearly turned Mary into ground lamb. She learned that his name was Daniel, and like Mary he’d also joined the club in order to meet new people.

Introductions were finally, wonderfully over, and that meant it was time to get back to boffer. Sam rose from the bleachers to follow the others when the painful cut of fingernails into her arm stopped her.

She glanced down at Mary, who was staring at her with a horrified expression.

“What?!” Sam hissed, before following her gaze to see Daniel approaching the bleachers.

Ah. No wonder she was terrified.

“What do you want?” Sam snapped, glaring at him. It was written all over the boy’s face that he felt horrible for what he’d done, but she was in no mood to let him off easy.

“I, um… hi,” he mumbled out, wilting under her gaze even though he had a good six inches on her. He turned to Mary. “Um… are… are you okay?”

Mary ducked down behind Sam and squeezed her arm tighter.

God. Did she REALLY have to do this?

“She’s fine.”

“Oh! Okay, that’s good. I’m, um… sorry to just… yeah, I’m just sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going, and…” The poor guy was floundering, clearly nervous that the girl he was trying to apologize to wouldn’t even show her face.

Sam sighed, staring past him and out at the field. They looked like they were having fun out there, and it was guaranteed to at least be more enjoyable than playing “Oz, the Great and Powerful” to the most cowardly wizard in the world.

“Let me stop you right there,” she cut his meager attempt at an apology off. “Mary here, she’s one of those high class girls, see? She doesn’t speak with boys unless they’re at least within her social station, so you might as well-“

“SAM!?” Mary exclaimed, leaping up with a look of horror on her face. She frantically turned to the other boy. “I’m not, I swear, I’m not someone like…!”

Her voice trailed off as she realized what she was doing, and quickly ducked back into hiding.

Sam scowled. This was going nowhere. And her arm was starting to hurt from Mary’s dagger-like nails squeezing it white.

“Okay, Mary, Daniel here is trying to apologize. Do you accept his apology? Break the surface of my skin once for yes, twice for no. Sound good?”

One squeeze.

“Yeah, little miss ‘I need to snort this shirt like pixie dust’ says you’re fine. Now get lost.”

Startled, Daniel quickly ran off, leaving Sam alone with a less-than-pleased Mary. Not that she was in a much better mood herself.

“How could you say that?!” Mary wailed, finally letting her go. “Now he’s going to think I’m some sort of weirdo!”

“Me?! Look at my arm! I’m lucky I’m not bleeding! Trim your fucking nails!”

Sam calmed down and caught her breath. Don’t lose it. Don’t lose it. At least Mary didn’t seem injured. That was the important part.

“Hey, at least he apologized. If he really thought you were a weirdo he probably wouldn’t have bothered.”

“…Yeah…”

“And look on the bright side, you said you wanted to run into some cute guys, right?”

“I DIDN’T MEAN LIKE THAT!”

“Well maybe next time a boy runs you over you can talk to him without using me as a human shield.”

“Use you as a human shie-?! YOU FED ME TO ZOMBIES EARLIER!”

Sam smirked. Mary seemed a lot more spirited than she had been just a few minutes ago.

“Well, it seems like you’re making a remarkable recovery. Are you feeling better?”

“…Huh?” Surprised, Mary glanced at her arm, realizing it wasn’t so sore anymore. “Y-Yeah, I am.”

Sam sighed in relief. “Good. Then if you don’t mind, I’m going to-“

“Hey, Sammy, are you going to stay over there forever, or are you going to come play?” Cain cheerily called from the field.

She clenched her fist.

“S-Sam… you look scary…” Mary whimpered.

But Sam didn’t hear her. Seeing red, she screamed in frustration and grabbed her sword, practically jumping off the bleachers. If it was the last thing she did she was going to pound that prick into the dirt.