rainy days [a short story]

Fight For Your Right (Chap. 1)

Chapter 1

"Begin," my father yelled at me. I tired not to show my discomfort and repeated the drill and. Jab, punch, duck, punch, jump, punch, uppercut, side kick. One. Jab, punch, duck, punch, jump, punch, uppercut, side kick. Two.

I knew that drill almost better than I knew how to spell my own name. Every time that I misbehaved, I did this drill. Every time I talked back, I did this drill. Every time that my dad had a bad day at work, I did this drill. Every time that my dad wanted to work out, I did this drill and more.

My dad, for some unfathomable reason, wanted me to be a fighter like him. I was only fourteen and I already had a black belt in Karate, Tae Kwon Do, and Jujitsu. I had been learning to fight ever since I was three, and my dad taught me everything that he knew, and for anything that he didn't, he took me to someone who did.

I hated fighting. I didn't like intentionally hurting others; I found it barbaric and unforgivable. I had begged him thousands of times to let me quit, to let me do normal sports that all the girls at school did, but it had always ended up with him making me do this drill.

I made eye contact with my father for a second. "Fifty times for side," he said, answering my silent question. I breathed a sigh of relief.

I know what you are thinking, that's a lot, but that was relatively short compared to what he usually made me do. "Father," I said, restarting the conversation that had gotten me to do the drill, "please, I don't want to fight anymore. Please, I hate it and I don't want to so it anymore, I'll do anything else you tell me to do."

Jab, punch, duck, punch, jump, punch, uppercut, side kick. Twenty-eight. Jab, punch, duck, punch, jump, punch, uppercut, side kick. Twenty-nine.

"Lily, you will do what I tell you to do, when I tell you, no questions asked, no complaints." I wanted so badly to tell him off on how horrible of a father he was being, but I held my tongue.

"But Father-"

"No, what I say is final, and talking back just earned you an extra fifty per side. Now, go, go, go, do it with more intensity. Come on."

I'll show you intensity, I thought, imagining the large wavemaster I was hitting was my father and my hits got about three times as hard.

"Good, keep it up. No dinner and no breaks until you are done," he talk me heading up the basement steps.

I doubled my speed and finished the rest in less than five minutes. I cleaned up the exercise room and trudged my way up two sets of stairs to my bedroom. "Derek," I gasped into my cell phone, "please tell me you are free."

"Oh, hey Lil, uh sure, I am not doing anything, just playing some guitar the usual. SO let my guess, the talk with your dad didn't go over so well?"

"Hell no."

"The Drill?"

"Uh-huh."

"I see. Need a shower before I come to pick you up?"

"It would be most desirable."

"'Kay, I'll be over in a half an hour, if you aren't done with your girly things by then and I happen to find your diary in your room, no hitting me if I can't contain my curiosity and start reading it."

"Shut up Dee."

He laughed. "Remember, five-thirty. No forgetting Lil."

"I won't, thanks Derek, you are such a lifesaver."

"You know it! See you soon."

"Bye," I said then hung up. I grabbed jeans and a tee-shirt, and went into the bathroom to strip off my workout clothes. I sighed when the cool water washed over my fatigued muscles.