Mixie Moxie (COMPLETED)

Bout 1

"Left!"
Thwack.
"Right!"
Thwack.
"Stick and Move to left uppercut!"
Shuffle shuffle POW!
Sweat piled on my lip, and I stared hard at the bag in front of me. Tension in my shoulders flexed away every time I extended. Jinx had disappeared into his trainer persona, where he didn't act sweet. He didn't touch me, talk me up, or softspeak. His voice echoed through the locker room, and the Wolves strung on every jab I slammed into the bag. We were like a well oiled machine that forgot the world around us.

"RRAH!" I grunted, turning clockwise just enough to hook-shot his padded arm from my right as he tried to ambush me. My rib twinged, but faded slowly as adrenaline took its place.

"Are you hurting?" He paused momentarily, crossing his arms as he asked. In between pants I shook my head.

"Nah I'm fuckin' pumped," I could feel myself smile as I slapped my gloves together. Behind us, the door opened and Cloudy came up to us with a manilla folder and his phone.

"Hey Blue Wolf," he jokingly called out to me while I wiped off my forehead. He pulled my curls into a messy bun for me ( first of all... the fact that he knew how to do that was impressive ) and gave me the folder. "This is who you're fighting today. His name is Saney, and he's our division rival," with his hand waved, he walked us to the match door, and we peaked just outside enough to watch him stretch with his team.

The man's stature would probably intimidate a normal person, with tattoos lining his arms and a build of a grown man in an 18 year old's body. His buzzcut had a boxing glove pattern in it. As he stretched, his men gassed his head, like,  "yeah bro!" and "Get that shit!" I rolled my eyes so hard I felt the sweat squish in my eyelid.

Cloudy looked over at me again, "So what you need to know is—"

"He's a bleeder."

"What? How do you know that?"

I watched his side profile, analyzing the light and barely-there ticks and marks ranging from right under his eye to ones on his lip— the marks of cuts from gloves that hit too hard to handle. "Look at his face," I told him, "he gets cut way too often." I felt Jinx's eyes on me, and when he nodded I knew exactly what I had to do.

"Brawler," Jinx mumbled. I nodded in agreement. I would have to be first, and stay on him. Yeah he was big, but he was fragile. If I could keep inside and keep him from clinching, I could break his guard.

"Oh!" Cloudy threw in while he watched the crowds file into the benches through the window. The judges placed themselves in the chairs with their scorecards. "Remember, Mix. You have to turn your underground mode off. No low blows... fluid movement and professional moves only. Jinx can't coach you out loud here, only after the first minute can you tap your gloves together to get a few words from him," I rolled my eyes again before giggling.

"Every boxing Sanctioning Body has similar rules, Cloudy. I got it I promise," he held his hands up in defeat, stepping back to give me way. Jinx's training persona faded back to his usual for a moment as he palmed my waist.

Stepping outside, the crowd quadrupled the sound of the underground tunnels of the train station. They jumped all over the place, screaming for the schools and teams— Wolves and Giants. South Motivation and South Pursuit. I felt the blood rush through my body, tingling like my whole body fell asleep. I  was so excited I could scream, and I hadn't even won yet.

Cloudy left to talk to the judges while Jinx toweled me down and wiped the sweat off my forehead. His eyes wouldn't leave mine. Our conversation was only in our heads while the crowd drowned out all hopes of speaking.

"Mixie," he started pulling me close to him as he adjusted my gloves. "Be careful okay?"

"You must not know who I am," I joked. He shook his head.

Cloudy had come back, "We got the blue corner, pad up."

The ref took the center of the ring, along with a pretty Puerto Rican woman with way too short of an outfit for a school event. The sign went up with the soon to start of the round.

As the crowd cheered, we all exchanged glances, smiled, and let out a unanimous howl that almost... just almost... beat the crowd's roar.