Chapter 21: Work Out

It was nine-thirty when I woke up, and the first thing I did was go over to Ms. Clare's room and see if she had come back. I opened the door gently, but once I peeked my head out I saw that she wasn't in her bed. I closed the door and checked the rest of the apartment. She wasn't in the training room, kitchen, bathroom, coat closet, or outside the front door. I started pacing back and forth, getting worried that something might have happened to her. Would I have to go out and look for her? No, I'll stay here and wait. She'll be back here in no time. So I got myself a bowl of cereal and sat on the couch to watch TV, trying to keep my mind distracted. Once ten-fifteen came around, I knew I couldn't wait any longer. I got up, put the bowl in the sink, put on my going-out clothes, and was reading to head out and find Ms. Clare. I was about to open the door when I heard a slight groaning coming from the other side. The door opened and Ms. Clare came waking in, looking tired and sad. "Hi, Ms. Clare. How'd your date go?" She groaned and went into her room, slamming the door shut. "Now I'm not the brightest knife in the crayon box, but I don't think her date went well." I walked over to her room and slightly opened the door to see her laying on her bed, face first in her pillow. I walked inside, "Ummm, Ms. Clare, are you okay?" She turned her head to me with a very emotionless expression, "Look at me. Do I LOOK okay?" She said, turning her face back into the pillow. "Well, what happened? Did something not go right with your date? Where have you been?" She sighed deeply into the pillow and flipped her whole body around, staring at the ceiling. "I've been in the gutter since last night. He didn't show up so I left the restaurant, headed to the nearest bar, got drunk, and slept in my car." Tears began to run down her face, "That's what happened Ferral," Her voice became shaky, "My failed love life. THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED." She grabbed her second pillow and started crying really loud into it.

I didn't like seeing Ms. Clare crying, it made me sad. So I walked over to her and lay next to her on the other side of the bed. "Don't cry Ms. Clare, everything's fine." She removed the pillow from her face, "No, it's not fine. I'm a grown woman in her mid-thirties crying into a pillow because I can't find the right guy." She took a napkin from her purse and wiped her eyes, "I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. Nothing ever goes right, they all SUCK. I've even tried dating other women for a while and that still didn't work. WHY DOESN'T ANYONE WANT TO BE WITH ME?!" She threw the pillow off at the wall. "I wanna be with you," I responded and she looked at me, "I like being with you. You're kind, funny, you make my food. Ever since our first meeting you've treated me with kindness…even the others you've been nice too. Now, I don't know anything about dating, but I do know that anyone would be lucky to have you in their life. I know I am." She didn't say a word, just looked at me with widened eyes. Then she sat up, giving a small smile, "Oh Ferral, that's the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me." I sat up too and she patted my head, "How did I get so lucky to have gotten the nicest person on the planet? Thank you. Leave it to you to always make me feel better." I smiled, "You're welcome, Ms. Clare. I always enjoy seeing you in a good mood. And you know, I know another way to make you feel better." "I'm not really in the mood for food at the moment." "Food? Oh no, I was gonna suggest you train with me." "Oh. Well…I suppose letting off a bit of steam wouldn't hurt. Plus I didn't turn that guest room into a workout room for nothing. Sure, I'd love to." "Cool! I'll invite Leona too, she's usually my training buddy, but now I have two.

I went over to Leona's apartment building and was greeted by Ezekiel and Belle in the hallway. "Hi, guys." I waved to them. "Oh hey, Ferral." Ezekiel responded. "Hi, Ferral." Belle said, "What brings you here?" "I'm going to train with Leona. You guys wanna join?" "Nah. We don't do the whole punchy punchy thing you and Leona do." "Yeah, we study aikido." I looked at them confused, "What's that?" "It's a type of martial arts" Ezekiel replied, "We can teach ya if you want." "Maybe another time." I waved them goodbye and headed over to Leona's room which was at the end of the hall. I knocked on the door and I heard footsteps coming toward it. She opened the door, "Hey Ferral, what're you doing here?" I didn't answer, I was too busy staring at her. She was wearing a black small shirt, only covering up to the middle of her stomach. Wearing these black pants and had bandages wrapped around most of her hand. She was breathing heavily and sweating, so she had seemingly already started training. Gosh, she looked so pretty, "I, uhh. I, umm." I shook my head to focus, "I was wondering if you'd wanna train with Ms. Clare and me." "Really? I had already started, but I guess I wouldn't mind having some partners. Give me a minute." I nodded and she closed the door. I stood in front of the door waiting, still thinking about what she wore. So pretty. Then she came back out with a small bag, "Grabbed some extra weights, now let's go." We left the building and got to Ms. Clare's, once we got there we saw that she was already in the training room. "Hi Ms. Clare, we're back." She turned around and greeted Leona. I noticed Ms. Clare changed her clothes, she was wearing something similar to Leona, except the shirt went all the way down, and her shirt and pants were pink. She also had her hair in a…ponytail I think she calls it. "I see you copied my style, Ms. Clare." Leona said. Ms. Clare looked at her clothes and laughed, "Yeah, this is a very popular brand of fitness wear. Of course, I don't wear a sports bra….I'm kinda self-conscious about my stomach." "Ahhh, I'm sure I could help you get a six-pack in no time." "Heh, I'm sure you can. What's your regimen?" "Whatever they taught me at the facility. It's pretty standard stuff, I use most of my time focusing on my fighting style." "A fighting style?" I asked. "Yeah, all the experiments were given a specific fighting style," Leona replied. "Well, what's yours?" Ms. Clare asked. "Street fighting. I and other lionesses were taught it." I couldn't help but think about the fact that there were more Leonas at the facility. Hmmm…maybe I SHOULDN'T have left.

As we worked out, I was using the punching bag while Ferral and Leona were sparring with one another. They were aggressive, almost as if they were in a real fight. Ferral blocked one of Leona's punches and socked her right in the jaw. "Oh my god, Ferral." I said. He looked at me, "What?"  He asked. "I thought you two were sparring, not fighting to the death." "We are. It's just…UGH!" He groaned as Leona punched him in the stomach, "Stop getting distracted!" Leona scowled at him and the two continued their back and forth. I could never get to where those two are, they're so fast and powerful. While their blows seem intense to me, to them it's probably like they're doing light jabs. I was actually astonished at how hard they were going at each other, but they seem to be fine so who am I to judge? After two hours of work out, we took a break; both of them were bruised and panting heavily. I myself was exhausted, so I went into the fridge and grabbed the three waters I had put in there earlier for us to drink. I came back, handed them each one and they chugged them both down. Saw that coming. I sat on the floor with them and decided to make conversation. "So Leona, can you have any part of your body turn into an animal, or does it have to be a full body?" "No, I can pick an individual body part and transform it." "Huh?! We can do that?" Ferral asked in disbelief. "Sure, they teach it to you as part of intermediate training. Here, watch this." She grew out a pair of lion's ears, "Ears? Ta-da. Tail?" Her ears turned back to normal and she sprouted out a lion's tail, "See? It's hard the first time around, but you get the hang of it." "Wow, that's so cool. I gotta learn that skill." Ferral responded. It was nice having a workout session, especially with people I could talk to. I even feel better emotionally, so that's also good.