The Agents

Chapter twenty-two

My eyes shot open, the last of the nightmare quickly fading away. It took me a moment to wake up, but when I did, I climbed out of bed and rushed over to my locker. I got dressed in shorts, a tank top, and a hoodie. Then, I silently headed over to the door to the main room.

I turned on the lights, illuminating the dark room and exposing the punching bags, targets, and other weight equipment from the day before. I set to work, knowing I had a lot to do to be ready for the day.

I put all the weight equipment away. The punching bags were next to go, being deposited in the storage rooms. Now that the entire room was clear except for the range and rack of weapons that stayed against the walls, I started setting up the equipment for today.

When I was done, I surveyed my work with a smile. This was going to be a fun day. After one last glance around, I left to make the wakeup call. Starting with the boys, I poked my head into the room and shouted, "Time to wake up. You have ten minutes to get ready!"

I turned to leave when Jaxon called out, "What are we doing today?"

Facing him with a smirk, I said, "We're sparring." I left the boys lazily pulling themselves out of bed. Then, I went to wake up the girls. "Rise and shine, princesses! It's going to be an interesting day."

After that, I grabbed a muffin from the kitchen and went back out to the main room. I sat down in a chair and ate my muffin, waiting for everyone to come out.

A couple minutes later, the boys' door opened up and they filed out, Austin in the lead. "What's all that?" Austin asked as he came out of the door. I didn't answer him, being too distracted. My eyes were locked onto the guy who came out last. His black, inky hair lacked its usual styling and instead hung down, framing his face and making his startling blue eyes pop even more. He was only wearing gym shorts and sneakers, leaving his chest bare and revealing the toned muscle usually hidden.

"Whoa, what's that?" Jennifer asked, coming out of the girls' dorms. I snapped my eyes away from Jaxon, not believing I had just been eyeing him up in front of everyone. I was really hoping he hadn't noticed, but a glance at Jaxon showed me his smirking face and told me he had definitely seen me ogling him.

"That," I said in answer to Austin and Jennifer's questions, "Is training for today." I stood up from my lounging position and made my way through the chairs set so they faced the center of the room. I came to a stop just in front of them, motioning for everyone to have a seat.

They did as I asked, and I continued, "Today, you guys are sparring. We will give you a demonstration, showing you how to do it, and then it's your turn. I will assign you a partner and you will come up and spar. You already know multiple moves. All that is left is to put them to the test and make sure you can actually use them."

With that, I shed my hoodie, throwing it onto an empty chair. I climbed through the ropes and stood on the mats in the center of the room. I faced everyone again and looked at Jaxon, Taylor, and Drake. "Taylor, mind being my partner?"

"Sure," she said, pulling off her own hoodie and putting it with mine before joining me in the ring.

"Ten bucks says Jay wins." Taylor and I dropped our offensive stances and turned to Jaxon and Drake. "No offense, Taylor," Jaxon added.

"No way man, have you seen Taylor spar? She's a genius," Drake defended.

"But Jay is merciless. She makes sure her opponents are out for the count," Jaxon explained.

"Twenty bucks says the fight drags on and Taylor wins," Drake challenged.

"Twenty it is." They shook on it, before looking back up at our disapproving faces.

"You two done yet? We are trying to spar here," I said, exasperated.

"Yeah, we're good. Continue," Drake said cheerfully.

I rolled my eyes and Taylor scoffed. We turned back, facing each other again. "I swear, those two bet on everything."

"Understatement," Taylor replied. We both laughed before facing off to each other again. Circling each other in the ring, we put our fists up and took an offensive stance.

We circled each other a couple more times. Each of us feigned moves, trying to sike the other out. After a while of us just circling, Austin muttered, "Well this is boring. They aren't even doing anything!" I smirked. Then, I ducked backward, putting a hand down on the mat to keep me from falling as I dodged Taylor's high kick to my head.

I pushed up off the ground, throwing a punch in her direction. She dodged it, coming back at me with a right hook. I dropped down to one foot, swiping my other leg out to knock Taylor's feet out from under her. She fell as I popped back up. I attempted to kick her in the side when she grabbed my foot. Choosing not to break my own ankle, I twisted with my foot. I landed on my hands and toes before letting one arm buckle, following it and rolling onto my back to avoid the foot coming towards me. I launched myself back onto my feet, brushing a couple strands of hair out of my face.

Taylor and I circled each other again, each of us looking for an opening. After a couple more minutes of this, I found my opening.

I jumped forward, tackling Taylor to the ground. We struggled, me trying to pin her and her trying to wiggle out of my grip. We rolled around the ring, trying to get the hold over the other. I finally got Taylor almost pinned. My legs were pinning one of hers and my hands were holding her arm and her other leg. She dug her nails into my bandaged hand and a muffled cry escaped me.

Without letting up on my injured hand, Taylor started pummeling me with her free hand, hitting me repeatedly in the face. Blood filled my mouth, and I spat it in Taylor's face.

"Ew!" she exclaimed. She stopped hitting me so she could wipe the blood from her face. I used her distraction to get a final hold on her. Spinning her around, I got her in a headlock. She struggled to get out, but after a little while, she tapped out.

I instantly let go, moving away from her. She laughed as she stood up, still trying to catch her breath. "You spit blood in my face," she said incredulously, still wiping it off. I chuckled, climbing up off the mat and following her out of the ring.

"That was awesome!" Aaron said with excitement.

"Yeah! How did you know when to duck and dodge?" Josh asked.

Taylor smiled before replying, "Instinct."

"I don't know about instinct, but that was incredible," Jennifer said.

I smiled, they were really excited about the sparring match. "Alright, you guys have a couple minutes to go get some breakfast while Taylor and I get cleaned up," I addressed the recruits.

They all got up and headed to the kitchen, talking excitedly about our fight. I chuckled and walked over to Drake and Jaxon. Jaxon had a victorious smile on his face and Drake looked very upset.

"Come on man! We made a bet, you lost. Now pay up!" Jaxon told Drake.

Grumbling, Drake pulled some bills out of his wallet and handed them to Jaxon. "It was a pleasure doing business with you," Jaxon said cheekily, pocketing the money.

I walked over to Jaxon and took out his newly found cash. Pocketing ten, I gave the rest back to Jaxon. "It was a pleasure doing business with you." I said with a wink.

"Hey!" Jaxon exclaimed. "What are you doing?"

"Collecting my commission." With that, I turned and walked away.