I'm All Yours- Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz

Chapter 15

We stood in the dojo, listening to Kreese's stories about the army. Now, I'm not one for listening to stories about the army, But If I'm being honest this one was pretty interesting. 

"You gotta understand that Mogadishu in the '90s was a hellhole. Warlords controlled whole swaths of the city. My team and I were charged with cleaning the place up." He told me, Hawk, and Aisha. Miguel was on the floor stretching, obviously not interested in his story. 

"How many warlords did you kill?" Hawk asked him, looking at him in admiration.

"You keep track of every ant you stomp out?" He replied, obviously implying he killed a lot. 

"Woah, You're like, totally cool." I smiled up at him, nodding.  Miguel turned away and shook his head, rolling his eyes. He obviously wasn't believing his story. 

"Badass." Hawk looked at me and nodded, agreeing with my statement.

"They were outgunned, we were outmanned." Kreeese continued with his story. " I tell you, Rwanda was no joke." 

Miguel got up from the floor, done with his stretching. "Don't you mean Somalia?" He corrected him. "Mogadishu is in Somalia, Rwanda's a whole different country." 

Kreese turned to him, obviously annoyed by him interrupting. " Of course, Somalia." He chuckled. "I've spent so much time in the sandbox, it all kind of bleeds together, you know?" 

We nodded at him, Still looking at him in admiration. 

"Listen up!" Johnny yelled, walking out of the back. "I see we've got some new recruits." Everybody stood up from the floor, ready for instruction.

"Everybody, fall in." He instructed. Everybody went to their designated spots on the mat as told. "In neat rows and lines. Time to see what you're made of." 

"Straighten up, ginger twins." He told two people who had ginger hair, walking up to them. 

He walked up to a big chubby dude who looked too old to be under 18. "Sorry, parents can't stay for class. It's an insurance thing."

"I'm not a dad. I am here to kick some ass, sir!" He informed, looking away from him. 

"Do I know you from somewhere?" Johnny asked.

"Oh, yeah, I sold you the mirror." He finally looked at him, pointing to the mirror in the back. "We kind of bonded, talked about rock bands." 

"Look, you're a little old. This is a class for teenagers." Johnny informed him.

"Well, I can take 'em." The man chuckles, looking around at all of us. "I'm not afraid of kids, sir. And my mom, she doesn't charge me rent, so I got a lot of cash to burn." He pulled some money out of his pocket, holding it out for Johnny to take.

"Yeah." Johnny took the money. "We'll consider this a trial run." He walked away, returning to the front. "I thought my last group of recruits was pathetic." He looked around at the new people.

"But if you do what I tell you to do, you'll at least have a chance of becoming a fighter. But to do that, you gotta fight. So, which one of you has the balls to take on the champ?" Johnny looked around at everybody.

"I'll take him on." I looked over to see a girl about my age, who had blonde hair.

"Oh, you will, huh?" Johnny asked her, walking closer to her. 

She nodded. "I saw your little demo at valley fest. You guys can put on a show, but can you actually fight?" 

"That sounds like a challenge." He tilted his head.