Always The Quiet Ones

Chapter Seven

I wasn't able to have my editor go over this chapter before posting it so if there is any typos or mistakes I apologize.

Let me know what you think.

The song for this chapter is 

Trouble is a friend-Lenka

Chapter Seven

The women in my mother's family have a history of being strong willed. If my mother was any indication, then I would hate to be against us. Knowing this I had decided to wait til after our self-defense classes to even broach the subject of my “date” this weekend.

Mary Johnson was the name my mother had chosen for herself. It was common, and would hide us well. I wasn't sure I cared for it, even though I'd lived with it for years now.

Our local gym offered self-defense classes twice a week. We were here every time. Mom was insistent. We began stretching and warming up.

“Mrs. Johnson?” our instructor called my mom and asked her to demonstrate the escape move. This was our third year so we had already learned all the basics. I paid attention long enough to see which one we would be working on today.

Our instructor spoke with mom, she nodded and got down on the floor on her back. Looks like we would be practicing the rape escape. I shuddered at the thought of ever actually having to use this. Glancing around at our class, which had already begun to pair up to practice. Counting heads I realized there wasn't enough people, and I had ended up the odd man out.

“Sloan,” my mom called from the front, ever the mother hen, “did you need someone to partner with?” I shrugged, it didn't really matter to me either way. My mood wasn't entirely up for this. “You can partner with my assistant. If he ever get's here.” Our instructor, Alex added.

Assistant? This was new. He'd never had an assistant before. It would be nice for sure. That way everyone could get a chance to understand what was going on. I decided to go back to stretching while I waited. I had just put my head down stretching my lower back when the door to the room we were using opened.

“I'm sorry! I'm sorry! My mom got locked out of her car and I had to go get the spare key from our house.” A frighteningly familiar voice apologized, while jogging to the front of the room. “Alright, at least give me a call next time.” Alex sighed.

I kept my head down. Please. Please. Please. I prayed. Slowing lifting my head up I looked up to the front where Alex had begun introductions.

“Everyone I would like to introduce my assistant, Zane Wolfe.” Alex patted him on the shoulder. Zane smiled to everyone and bowed. Fortunately I was at the back of the class so I was mostly hidden by everyone.

Alex continued, “Zane has a black belt in karate and jujitsu, and has taught self-defense in Utah for two summers. We thank him for joining us.” Everyone else clapped. I was silently panicking.

“OK enough of that, everyone rejoin your partners and lets start class.”

Alex turned back to my mom, who was as happy as everyone at the new assistant. My nervous breakdown levels were approaching critical. Taking deep breaths I tried calming down.

“Sloan you still needed a partner right?”

Oh, Crap.

The class looked back at me and separated so I could be seen. If I weren't so freaked out, I might have enjoyed the look on Zane's face when he saw me. Utter shock. I nodded mutely. His face quickly transformed to mischievous. He walked back to where I was.

Looking anywhere but him, I paid an unnecessary amount of attention to class. “Are you not going to look at me?” he whispered loud enough for me to hear from where he was standing next to me. I shook my head no. He chuckled. “You do realize that you'll have acknowledge me at some point.” I don't hardly think so.

Of course that plan was shot to heck come time to practice the escape move. Also I would have to be up close and personal with him. Oh sweet Jesus

“Okay everyone go ahead and start practicing.” Alex announced after having demonstrated each step. I hadn't participated in the step by step practice. I already knew how to do it, but that wasn't why I wasn't practicing. I would have if my partner was anyone else. It had to be Zane didn't it?

“Sloan?” My mom walked to the back of the class to me. “Why aren't you practicing?”

Cause that smoking hot boy right there. I wanted to glare like a child.

“I remember how to do it.” I cringed at my lame answer. “You have to practice until it becomes muscle memory. Practice Sloan!” she gave me the maternal finger point. UGH!!!

“Yes ma'am.” I flopped onto my back, resigned to my fate.

“OK,” Zane moved over to begin. “um...do you...I mean...uh...” he tried, but was clearly failing to communicate. I started laughing. I mean full belly laughing. He was just as nervous as I was. The revelation was a relief. At least I wasn't the only one.

Everyone in the room looked at me like I had lost my mind. I mouthed sorry. They went back to what they were doing.

Zane grinned. “Alright, so this is going to be incredibly awkward. Let's just say that right now.” I grimaced in agreement. Putting aside all thoughts of how uncomfortable it was, somehow we managed to get through.

He even gave me a few pointers on how to improve. All in all it wasn't as horrible as I had imagined. I would have even chalked up the whole evening to a success if it hadn't been for one little tiny thing.

We were helping Alex clean up the mats. The majority of it was done. Mom and I had just wiped down the last mat and were folding it up, when Zane came over to help us carry it.

“Was there anywhere you wanted to go in particular this weekend?” he asked casually. The end my mother had been carrying hit the floor. I closed my eyes and braced for the explosion.

“What is he talking about honey?” my mother's voice was calm and collected. Which to be honest was scarier than her yelling.

“Well...” I drew a blank. I couldn't come up with anything. I looked at Zane pleading. His eyebrows raised, as if to say “What are you getting me into?” Just as quickly he answered “To study. We've got a class project together, and I wanted to know if she was wanting to meet at the coffee shop or the library or something like that.”

Her eyes narrowed. I don't think she's buying it. “Really?” she looked at me. Daring me to lie to her. “Yes.” I assured her.

“What class?” she began the interrogation. “History.”

“What's the project on?” Her arms folded. “The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire.” I'm not entirely certain where that even came from.

“Hmmm...Fine. I guess you can go, but I want to see a copy of this report. It sounds interesting.” Oh good. That's just great.

“Sure thing mom” My teeth were clenched so hard they're probably gonna shatter. Also I may be struck by lightning for lying to my mother.

 Between my friends, Zane, and my mom by the time Friday came around I was one unexpected noise away from needing a straight jacket. I'd never had to lie to my mother before. For some reason everyone else was one thing but my mom was something entirely different. It made me sick to my stomach. I wasn't sure how much more of this I could take.