Jay and Erin had gone without Clementine on their trip to the wrestling school. They wanted to see it for themselves and have a talk with the owner before agreeing to book any lessons, and they didn't need Clem there getting her hopes up if it wasn't going to work out.
Price was one of the main things that needed to be discussed. Erin's upcoming promotion would give them a little more financial wriggle room, but they had a lot of debt to pay off. They couldn't go spending a fortune that they didn't have on wrestling lessons, no matter how much Clem wanted to do it.
"Uh, I think this is the place," Jay said, pulling his car into a small parking lot. There were several cars there, leaving only a couple of spots open. He backed into one of them.
"Yes, this is it," Erin said doubtfully, looking through the windshield at the building. It had a black steel roller shutter door with a regular door beside it. Above the shutter door was a sign with 'JWS' in big letters, and underneath that 'Jordan's Wrestling School' in smaller letters.
"Doesn't look like much, does it?"
"No, but Michael spoke highly of it."
Michael Acevedo was that father of Clementine's friend Ruth. They were to drop his name to Jason Jordan, the owner of the wrestling school. Michael had said he would call ahead and call in a favour, for Erin and Jay to be looked after. Often in life, it wasn't what you knew but who you knew. Jay was more than willing to take advantage of that if the opportunity was there.
"Let's go in then, and see what there is to see," he said.
"Jesus Christ," Erin said as they got out of the car and the cold hit her. Chicago winters could be vicious. It was only just December, yet the temperatures were regularly well below freezing.
"Yep. Let's hope they have it warm in there."
They hurried over to the building's entrance door and Jay pushed the door open. They discovered that it opened right into a fairly small warehouse-style unit. There was were some gym mats on the floor at the end closest to the doors. At the back end there was a single wrestling ring. There were two doors back there marked 'Office' and 'Locker Room'. None of the kit looked new.
"At least it's warmer than outside," Jay muttered. His first impression wasn't great. He didn't particularly want Clem training in a dump. But Michael had spoken highly of the place. Jay reminded himself that the quality of the training was what mattered, not whether the equipment was brand new.
There were three well-built men standing around the ring, and another three in it. Two of them were wrestling, while a third shouted instructions. Jason Jordan, Jay realised. He was looking at a black man with a very impressive physique. He looked to be around forty.
"Looks like we might be interrupting," Erin said quietly as they walked over to the ring. "We may have to wait until the class is over."
Jordan noticed them coming over. "Jay and Erin?" he guessed, calling out to them.
"That's right," Jay replied.
"Give me ten minutes to finish this session, then I'll be with you."
"Take your time," Jay said.
"You can take a seat over there if you like." Jordan pointed to two wooden benches off to one side of the ring.
Jay led Erin over there, and they sat down to watch up close what Clementine wanted to get herself into. Neither of them had seen wrestling in person, as WWE had only been to Chicago once since Clem had been into it, and she had ended up going to see it with Michael and Ruth that night.
One of the competitors picked up his opponent and slammed him back first to the mat from nearly head height. The crash of the impact took them both by surprise. Jay had the idea in his mind that the landings in wrestling had to be pretty soft because they didn't really hurt each other, did they? Now it seemed that his preconception was wrong.
Over the next ten minutes, the truth became apparent. They were watching hard, physical action to say the least.
"This pretty intense, Jay. Do we want Clem getting into this?" Erin asked.
"We said we'd look into it for her, Er. We both know how much she wants to at least try some lessons. Who knows, maybe she won't like it? Or maybe she'll be a natural."
"I don't know which to hope for," she mumbled.
"Hey, look over there. It's your best friend," Jay said, pointing. Across the room there was a notice board. Pinned to it were several flyers about various charity events and such. Also pinned to it was an outdated campaign poster for Bayley Martinez from the gubernatorial election. Beneath a picture of her with a smile on her face was the slogan 'Vote Martinez. Vote for a better future.'
"Ugh," Erin groaned. "Can I go anywhere without seeing her ugly face?"
Ugly certainly wasn't accurate, Jay thought, but he understood the sentiment. The elevator incident hadn't done much to soften Erin's attitude to the governor-elect.
"Okay, that's it for tonight! Hit the showers!" Jordan called out to his students. The men dispersed, laughing and talking to each other about what they had been doing. The atmosphere at the school seemed quite good, Jay thought.
Jason Jordan's attention was now for Jay and Erin. He got out of the ring and grabbed a towel from the corner, using it to dry his sweaty hands as he approached them. "Sorry about that, guys. Thanks for dropping in. I won't shake hands, but it's good to meet you."
"You too," Erin said with a smile as they both got up off the bench.
"Yeah, likewise," Jay added. "Your school comes highly recommended by Michael Acevedo."
"Known Michael for years," Jordan said, smiling. "He's a good guy."
"Yeah, he does seem it. His daughter is friends with our daughter, Clementine," Jay said.
"Clementine? That's a nice name. Is she the one you're interested in lessons for?"
Erin nodded. "That's right. She's enthusiastic about learning to wrestle. Since neither Jay or myself know anything about it, we thought we would come find out how lessons works and what the costs are."
"Okay, first things first, we often find out in the first couple of sessions whether A) the student enjoys wrestling and wants to continue, B) they're physically capable of wrestling, and C) whether they have any talent for it. So we start each new student by booking five sessions, each to be paid on the day. That means that if you guys or Clementine decide to stop the lessons, you can without paying for all five."
"Okay," Jay said. "And if the five sessions go well?"
"Then you start paying monthly, and Clementine comes twice a week. Our junior sessions are Wednesday and Friday evenings, 6pm to 8pm."
"What would that cost?"
Jordan listed his prices for the one off sessions, followed by his monthly rate. "I'll give you 25 bucks off that because you're a referral from Michael," he added.
"Oh, thank you," Jay said. The prices were not cheap, even with the discount. But he hadn't expected cheap anyway. You rarely got anything good in life cheap.
"You're welcome. Also consider that you need to buy Clementine some ring attire, including wrestling boots. Like I tell my students, no one who shows up without proper gear steps foot in my ring."
"Fair enough," Erin said.
"Would Clem train with you?" Jay asked. He liked Jordan So far, but he wasn't sure that he wanted his daughter learning wrestling from a guy no matter who it was.
"No. We have a female coach, Serena Deeb. She takes our women's sessions, and we both work junior nights. I get in the ring with the boys, and she goes in with the girls. She's an excellent coach, probably better than I am. But don't tell her I said that. Also, we have two lockers rooms back there, so you don't need to worry about your daughter's privacy."
Jay and Erin both felt reassured by that.
"Right. I do like the sound of this," Erin said. "If we want, can we come and watch the lessons?"
Jordan shook his head. "No. It distracts the kids, and they tend to try and show off instead of doing what they're being taught. I've had some parents who weren't comfortable with that, but that's how I run my school."
Jay accepted that. The reasoning made sense to him. Besides, Clem didn't need to feel like was being treated like a little kid in front of her fellow trainees.
"Can we talk about it for a minute?" Erin asked.
"Of course. I'll be in the office."
"What do you think, Jay?" Erin asked after Jordan walked away.
"I like him. Sounds like he knows what he's doing, and the cost doesn't seem over the top. We've said we want to support Clem to try and follow her dream. I get what you're saying about the danger, but our work is more dangerous, let's be honest. Let's go for the five sessions and see how she goes, I say."
"Yeah, I can't argue with that," Erin said after a moment. "I'm afraid of her getting hurt, but we can't wrap her in blankets for the rest of her life."
"Exactly. So, we're going ahead?"
"We're going ahead."
"Alright." Jay led the way over to the office and tapped on the open door.
"Hey," Jordan said. He was sitting at a desk with cluttered paperwork and a fairly old computer on it.
"We'd like to go ahead with the five sessions," Jay announced.
"Great," Jordan smiled. He already had an enrolment form ready for the eventuality. He picked up a pen. "So you're Jay and Erin..."
"Uh, Jay Halstead and Erin Lindsay. We're not married yet," he explained. "Clem's surname is Everett. We adopted her, you see."
"Ah, what an awesome thing to do," Jordan said while filling the form in. He took more details from them about Clem, along with their contact information.
"So we're set?" Erin asked when he was done.
"Yep. Call me when you've got Clem fixed up with some gear and we'll get her first session booked in. As I said before, you'll pay for it on the day."
Jay offered his hand, and they shook. "Thanks, Jason. Nice meeting you."
"You too," Jordan said with a smile.
Erin shook hands with him next. "I hope Clem enjoys it.
"Me too. I'll give you the day after her first session with Serena's thoughts on her. Take care, guys."
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A/N: Clem's wrestling lessons are booked. Do you think she will enjoy them? Will she have any talent for it?