Chapter 10: Second Night (Part 1)

Sam was surprised by how eager she was for Friday to come. Her schooldays before the Boffer Club had been filled with working out and studying, but now she had something else to look forward to every week. It almost felt like old times…

…Not that she actually thought it was fun, or anything! Certainly not! No, the only reason she was looking forward to it was because she would finally get her revenge. She’d been watching all sorts of videos on Youtunes of fencing, kendo forms, even a few of that “iaido” thing that Mike had been talking about (not that she could see any difference).

Yes, tonight wouldn’t go like last time! She was going to wipe that smug smirk off that Cain’s face once and for all!

But while Sam was looking forward to going to club tonight, her roommate was as anxious as always.

“No, I want to go!” Mary insisted, no matter how much her body language screamed otherwise. “It’s fun, and I can make friends, and…” She shivered. Not exactly convincing.

“Just be careful,” Sam warned her as the two walked to the soccer field. “Don’t exert yourself, or you could get hurt again.”

“I won’t! Besides, after those workouts, I’m way tougher now!” She lifted her arm and flexed, but as far as Sam could see, the limp noodle was still a limp noodle.

They’d been to the gym a grand total of twice that week, and it wasn’t like she’d had a lot to start out with. At least she was eating regularly, Sam figured, plus her complexion had improved a little.

But she had a long way to go.

When they arrived, Sam was surprised by how few people there were compared to the week before. She could only see, like, a dozen max. She checked her phone.

“Are we, um, early?” Mary anxiously looked around, tugging her sweater down over her tights like people were staring at her.

“Sam! Mary! You came back!” Carly jogged over to greet them, her grin as bright as always. “That’s great!”

“Yeah, we’re here, where is everyone?” Sam asked, scanning the field.

Carly’s smile vanished and she sighed. “…Yeah, happens every year… folks show up all excited for the first day, and then they never come back. It sucks, but what are you gonna do?” She shrugged.

“Oh… but it’s so fun…” Mary mumbled.

Carly’s mood picked up quick, and she beamed at the two of them. “To be honest, I had you both marked down as no-shows myself, what with that nasty fall of yours last week and your, well…”

Her eyebrows knitted into a scowl and she crossed her arms in front of her chest with a humph. “’I’m not really that into stuff like this, I just came because my roommate dragged me here’,” she said in a deep voice. Mary burst out laughing.

Sam was less amused by the impression.

“But yeah, I’m glad you both decided to come back!” Carly grinned.

“Of course they did,” a familiar voice called from behind them. “Sammy here wouldn’t run away from a challenge, would you Sammy?”

Sam felt her skin crawl, and she whirled around with her fist clenched, ready to throw a punch.

“Yikes, that’s quite a glare!” Cain laughed as he approached the girls, unfazed by her frustration. “It’s good to see you too, Sammy!”

Carly kneaded her forehead. “Cain, I swear…”

Fortunately he’d only dropped by to say hello. “See you out there tonight,” he said as he walked past, winking at Sam.

She clenched her jaw so tightly it hurt to muffle her scream.

“Yeah, I get it,” Carly groaned. “Just… don’t let him get to you, okay? He can be real pain…”

“I fucking hate that guy…” She seethed, opening and closing her fists. Stay calm. Stay calm. If you punch him you’ll get in trouble. Breathe… breathe…

She finally stopped seeing red. Exhaling, she turned and walked over to where the bags of weapons were.

With so fewer people here today, there were a lot more to choose from. Sam wondered if it might be better to try out something new, and her eyes landed on a rather… strangely shaped spear just as Mary blurted out, “is that a big-?!”

She clamped her hands over her mouth and turned bright red as she realized what she was about to say. Sam just shook her head. Yeah, the pink color and the curved point, it did look like a giant-

“Ah, the Penetrator!” Carly chuckled, both girls jumping. They turned to look at her, flustered.

“Who in their right mind would ever design something like that?” Sam demanded, glancing suspiciously at Nick, the equipment manager. He quickly shook his head.

“It was left to us by the last club leadership,” Carly sighed, shrugging her shoulders. “This club’s been around for quite a while, and those guys left some doozies.”

“Like you’re one to talk,” Nick muttered under his breath as he began unzipping one of the long bags and taking more weapons out.

“Oh, speaking of, how’s, um… ‘that’ coming along?” Carly asked, her eyes shining with a wicked look that made Mary shiver.

“The entirely unfeasible, unusable, ridiculously unwieldy prop gag that you pissed away your money on? The one that I guarantee is going to break within five minutes of you using it because it has the structural integrity of styrofoam?”

“…Yeah, that.”

He sighed and rolled his eyes. “Like… two weeks? Maybe?”

She frowned. “Fiiiine, whatever… oh! Is that the new sword?” She quickly changed the subject, her eyes shining as a flash of blue came out of the bag.

Sam leaned in curiously, a little interested in spite of herself. The sword was… was it even a sword? She wasn’t sure at first, because it wasn’t shaped like any sword she’d ever heard of. It was… well, “wavy” was the only word she had to describe it. The sword was straight, in the sense that if you went down the side from the tip to the hilt you would make a line, but the surface of the blade was warped. The edges stuck out like raised hills, or like the sword was made up of three big circles stacked on top of each other with a point at the end.

It the most bizarre thing she’d ever seen.

“Yeah, now that’s what I’m talking about!” Carly cackled, taking the sword from him and flicking it back and forth. “…Wow, it’s balanced great, too, you really outdid yourself.”

“I’m still testing the curves out,” Nick said, looking rather pleased with himself. “But yeah, they should work just like we thought.”

“Nice, nice,” she mused, stroking her chin thoughtfully. Then her face lit up with a wicked grin. “I think I’ll call it ‘Ribbed for Her Pleasure’!”

“No you’re fucking not,” Nick scowled, swiping it back. “I made her, I get to name her, and her name is ‘Tempestia’!”

“What is that, a pasta? Lame!” Carly rolled her eyes. “Come on, my name was WAY better than that.”

“Your name was gross! Tempestia is…”

“Well my name was…”

Sam watched the seniors bicker back and forth like a couple of five year olds and felt a little bit ashamed that she’d been so interested.

She turned to take another look at the weapons, and finally decided to stick with Golden Rose; she’d done fine with it before, no sense in getting all worked up over a sword.

Mary had already picked up the two swords from last time, and she could actually hold them straight! Whether that was a sign that their weight lifting was actually making progress or just the fact that she was feeling more confident tonight was impossible to tell.

But enough of that, now that Sam had a sword in her hand again, she was feeling antsy and wanted to get some practice in before the games started.

“Head’s up!” She called, swinging her sword at the anxious girl. Mary screamed and hit the deck, flinging her swords away and curling up into a ball.

…Well, that answered that. It probably wasn’t confidence.

Blushing with shame, Mary picked herself up off the grass and hung her head, retrieving her weapons. “Don’t… don’t just scare me like that!” She protested.

Oh yeah, if she wanted to stay in this club she was gonna have to make some changes.

Writing Mary off as a lost cause, Sam looked around the field for someone to fight. Besides Carly and Nick, she also saw Mike, who was talking with two boys. Were they freshmen like her? They both had swords and it looked like he was showing the two how to fight with them. Meanwhile, some bigger boys were duking it out with shields and bulky spears that they swung around like pencils, and a ways away there were two girls in a sparring match of their own while a boy watched on the sidelines.

Then her eyes landed on the perfect prey. The one she’d come here for in the first place. Cain’s back was towards her as he talked to a starry-eyed redhead, who was nodding to everything he said like an idiot.

She crept up to him, turning her sword into a thrust. Then she lunged forward, eager for the feeling of foam gouging into that jerk’s back.

But she pieced nothing but air as he stepped out of the way, neatly dodging the supposed surprise attack. Sam slammed on the brakes hard to keep from crashing into the other girl, which resulted in her falling flat on her face. She was lucky she didn’t pull anything.

“Nice job, Sammy!” He applauded her. “You were really quiet!” He turned back to the red-haired girl. “So you see, even if you don’t think you’re ready to go up against someone in a head-on fight, you can sneak up behind them when they’re distracted and try to get a kill in. Of course, you need to walk quietly, like a kitten, or they’ll hear you coming.”

He grinned down at her. “Right, Sammy?”

She saw red, and it wasn’t the ginger’s hair. With a scream she jumped to her feet and swung wildly, but of course he ducked, of fucking course he ducked! Why couldn’t she fucking hit him?!

She choked down another scream and swung again, and just like last time he blocked it with that fucking knife.

This was going to be a long night.