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liked by lilianaspringer, lilspringer and 845 others sarai this city has my heart lilspringer you have mine lilianaspringer wow who took this photo it's so cool sarai @lilianaspringer it's commenting on my photo from both of your accounts for me view all comments
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You meet a lot of different people growing up in LA. Not many people raise families here or even see it as a suitable city to raise a family in. My dad's job is here so we didn't really have a choice but to raise me here. I grew up an only child, my mom leaving when I was young. My dad eventually found my stepmom who ended up raising me as her own. They were only just now going to be welcoming their very first child into the world. I was excited to be having my first ever sibling to say the least.
My dad was a UFC fighter before he retired and is now currently running his own gym in upper end of Los Angeles. He mostly trained celebrities and D1 college athletes, but for the few that could afford it, he offered teen nights weekly to train them to compete. He hardly actually trained anyone to fight, mostly just as a form of fitness and lifestyle.
My dad did make it a point to train me from the time that I was a child in self defense. I trained with him almost daily just for fun at this point in my life. He tells me that my stepmom and I share the title in half the business because we help him with the things he doesn't want to deal with, ie the paperwork, scheduling, PR, things like that. My stepmom is a total girl boss if I'm honest. She went to college for PR and business so this was her kind of thing. I just kind of helped out where needed, mostly running the social media.
I, however, wanted to go to college. To do what exactly, I'm not sure. My family had plenty of money and my dad always promised it would be there for me so long as I made a living for myself first. My current mindset was on going to college to be a physical therapist but I still had a year to think about it. I was in my second gap year and the last gap year I planned on taking so I needed to figure out quickly what I'd be doing for the rest of forever.
In the meantime I just spent time helping out at the gym.
"Heyo." I turned my head at the front door as I recognized my best friend's voice. I gave her a smile as she took a spot in the chair next to me behind the desk.
"What's up?" I asked her as I returned to filling out the calendar for my dad.
"When are you leaving? I wanna go do something tonight." Lili said to me as she peeked over my shoulder to look at the schedule for the month. She was always interested in who my dad would be training because the one week that my dad spent with Justin Bieber, Lili missed it and still to this day I don't think she's forgiven me. Oops.
"I'm doing a session with him tonight, so I don't know if I can go out." I replied to which she frowned dramatically.
"Are you ever not training?" She rolled her eyes.
"I don't know, I just like it." I laughed lightly. "You know it's free for you if you ever wanna join us."
Lili had been my best friend since middle school and my dad and stepmom considered her one of their own. Lili was a great help around the gym too when she wanted to be and she'd never say no to my parents either. Anytime they needed help, she'd be there.
"I'm good. My athletic days are behind me." Lili stood up from the chair and slung her purse over her shoulder.
"Did you see that whole TikTok vs Youtubers fight that's happening?" Lili asked.
"You know I don't care for anyone that's fighting." I laughed and rolled my eyes.
"I figured maybe one of them would try and get your dad for training." Lili said.
I ran my eyes over the schedule trying to find any familiar names, but then again I couldnt tell you if they did. I never kept up with the TikTokers or Youtubers nor did I know about any fight.
"I don't see anyone on here that looks familiar." I said.
"Like you'd even know." She laughed. "I'm coming over tonight if we're not going to go out."
I held my finger up as the phone rang and I picked it up to my ear. "Brandon Parker's office, Sarai Parker speaking how may I help you?"
"Hey, this is Vinnie Hacker's manager. I was calling to see if we could set up some training sessions over the next two months for the Battle of the Platforms fight." The voice said. I tried not to laugh and Lili gave me a questioning look.
"We're pretty booked for the next few months, do you mind holding for just a second?" I asked, and he sighed in agreement.
I picked up my cellphone to text my dad and stepmom about this so called battle of the platforms and this Vinnie Hacker that apparently wanted to train with my dad. My stepmom replied quickly and said to book him for as many days and hours that he wanted because apparently this TikTok/YouTube fight was hot in the media right now and having one of them would be great publicity. My dad agreed and I picked up the phone.
"Hello?" I said.
"Hi."
"Who am I speaking with?" I asked.
"Uh, Vinnie."
"I thought this was his manager." I asked.
"He thought you'd be longer so he went to do something real quick and gave me the phone." Vinnie said.
"Parker UFC would be happy to have you over the next two months. I'm going to email you some paperwork to fill out and we'll set up your first day and from there we can work out a schedule."
A few moments of working out the email and explaining to him some of the paperwork and fees, I hung up and looked at Lil.
"Well I guess you were right. That was one of the fighters participating. They want my dad." I laughed.
"Give me the tea, who was it?" Lili asked excitedly. She was far more into the TikTok boys than I was.
"Vinnie Ha-"
I couldn't even finish the boys name before she gasped and nearly threw my clipboard across the room.
