8: check yes juliet - we the kings

= [unedited]

©assidy

I'd been looking forward to boxing. So much. But then my mum had to go and ruin it all. Sometimes I hate my mother. Really, really, hate her.

Two days before the first boxing session I met up with Michael and Ashton really early, before it got properly dark. I was back at around 10:30, and as I was sneaking in I heard dad on the phone. I went upstairs and was greeted by Rachel.

"He's on the phone to mum," she whispered.

"Mum?"

My dad hardly ever spoke to my mum. If he did, it was with me, Rach or Jules and it was on Skype. They were divorced, for crying out loud, we didn't expect them to be friends.

"Yes, Mum," Rachel rubbed her face. "I think it's about you. She wants you to move over there."

"Again?" I groaned. "I don't want to live there with her shitty boyfriend and his shitty son."

"Cassidy?" My dad's voice boomed up the stairs.

"Coming!" I yelled, pounding down the stairs.

"Where've you been? Your mother thinks I'm being a bad father because you were out. Why didn't you tell me where you were?" He scolded.

"I was just out jogging," I lied, shrugging my shoulders. "You told her that, right?"

"Well yes, I assumed you were, and I did tell her that, but I really wish you'd tell me," he sighed. "Cas, I think you need to tone it down on the whole sports thing. Your mother doesn't approve. She wants you to get a job, boyfriend and focus on your studies."

"I don't need my studies, I'm going to be a boxer," I argued.

"She wants you to be more social," dad continued. "She wants you to have... Friends."

"I do have friends!" I protested. Dad just smiled at me sympathetically. "I do! I see them all the time when I'm out... jogging."

"Really?" Dad raised his eyebrows.

"Yes!" I was getting a little angry now, because I'd predicted what was coming. "Michael and Ashton. They skateboard."

"Oh," dad's eyebrows furrowed but he smiled a little. "It's good you have friends, I'll tell your mother that. But still, Cassidy. Your mother only wants what's best for you, and I'm not doing this because I want to."

"Doing what?" I questioned, my voice getting higher.

"Cassy," dad sighed. "Your mother would prefer it if you just watched the boys boxing, not trained them."

"But you're not going to listen to her, right?" I felt tears coming to my eyes.

"Cas, don't make this harder than it is," dad said. "I don't want to take away something that you love. But it is important you focus on your studies and your mum says if your grades drop she'll have every reason to claim full custody of you and homeschool you herself. Which means moving away from here. And Cas, I don't want you to move away."

"It's not fair!" I yelled. "Julia is doing what she wants and no one ever stopped her. But I'm trying so hard to be a boxer and all you ever want to do is stop me!"

"Cassidy, that's not true," dad protested. "And with Julia, it's different. She was pushed into all that from a young age. It's the only sport your mother likes. She hates boxing, so of course she isn't going to want you to do it. But that doesn't mean she wants you to stop dreaming. Please, you can come along and maybe help in the demonstrations, how about that? And you'll still be my assistant coach."

"I hate this!" I shouted. "And I hate you, I hate mum, I hate Julia. I hate everyone!"

I didn't mean it, but that didn't stop me from becoming a mute for the rest of the day. I never spoke directly at dad, and by Saturday, the first boxing lesson, it was becoming tiresome for dad. He wasn't in the best of moods because he always got nervous when these things started up again, and I certainly wasn't helping.

When we got to the centre, I'd slammed the door shut and my seatbelt had got caught in it. It left a small scratch on the inside of the door, which usually wouldn't have mattered because my dad drives a battered old minivan, but of course I'd provoked him so he flew off the handle a little. When we got into the gym, he'd told me to stay in the office and sort through his emails. I deleted them all, not even bothering to look at them. Unfortunately, dad had a backup thing which means he'll be able to check them later, but it still made me feel a little better.

Only 14 boys turned up to registration, but I saw a boy try to creep in about 20 minutes into the lesson. He ended up knocking into a bunch of widgets, and he looked so comical sprawled on the floor that I couldn't help but laugh. Dad glared at the window to the office, but not directly at me because they're tinted in the outside. I can see out. It no one can see in.

Dad called me out of the office in an exasperated tone, so I sassed him a little just to annoy him. Also to impress the boy, because he was pretty good looking. Dad asked me to warm the boy up, which was contradicting everything we were arguing over. I told him this, which only made him even more annoyed with me.

"Shut up and do as you're told," dad said. Then he walked over to a pair of idiots who were trying to punch each other, even though this was clearly a warm up. I rolled my eyes at their stupidity.

The boy and I stood in silence for a few moments.

"What's your name?" He finally spoke.

"My name?" I said, glancing around the room with a bored expression. "My name is irrelevant. I'm about to become your new human punchbag, let's try not to get too personal, yeah?" I started putting tape on my fingers whilst he stared at me. "Do a few press ups whilst I sort this tape out. It's a mess."

Whilst he did the press up I felt kind of bad for him, because it wasn't his fault any of this had happened. I helped him up when he finished and smiled at him a little.

"So you're a professional boxer?" He asked, both pleasing and surprising me.

"One day, I hope." I looked down at my trainers. "But for now I'm stuck helping out in this stupid stereotyping gym with my stupid stereotyping dad who's been brainwashed by my stupid stereotyping mother," I sighed, realising I was getting worked up again. "Sorry, I shouldn't be ranting at you."

"It's ok," he smiled at me. "It's good to vent once in a while."

I nodded in agreement and thought about how true that was. I'm usually quite a happy person who never has a bad word to say, at least on the outside. But really I want to shout about how horrible mushroom soup is and cry over how much I hate the smell of wet grass. I snapped out of my thoughts when I remembered the boy was there. "I'm Cas, by the way."

"Nice to meet you Cas, I'm Cal." He grinned at me.

"Cool," I tilted my head and my pony tail bobbed. "We're going to do a quick warm up, then we'll join the rest of the group who should hopefully be starting some hand positions and health and safety, that sort of thing."

We did a few stretches and he asked me numerous questions. It was like playing 20 questions, except I didn't ask anything. When we were finished I noticed everyone else was still warming up. Cal looked around the room too, biting his lip nervously,

"So, is boxing fun?"

"Yes," I nodded, a smile spreading across my face. "It's the best thing ever. When you're in a boxing ring, all your worries fade away. It's just you and the other person, nothing else. Nothing else matters."

"Wow," he seemed impressed. "I thought I was gonna hate this, but you've made it sound appealing. That's kind of how I feel when I'm doing something I actually like."

"What do you like?" I asked him curiosly. "What do you do in your spare time?"

"I play video games, watch TV, play the guitar," he shrugged. "The usual, I guess. What about you?"

"I, well, I play sport," I tried to think of something un sporty that took up my time. "That's... literally all I do. Wow, I never realised that before."

He chuckled, but we got interrupted by my dad shouting everyone over. The majority of the lesson was spent going over the health and safety rules. I went back to the office until dad called me out and told me to watch over everyone whilst he 'nipped to the toilet'. Whilst he was there, the bell rang, signalling that the session was over, and everyone started filing out of the gym. I went to wait outside and watch everyone leave.

Cal came over and stood by me whilst everyone else got in their cars or started making their way home. I looked at him, slightly pink from the class, and took in what he looked like. He was really good looking, there was no denying it. If these are the kind of people that I could be socialising with, maybe I should get out more. He turned to face me and I blushed.

"Thanks for warming me up," he said, his eyes crinkling as he smiled.

"That's ok. Do you want to be partners next week?" I asked. Hopefully dad will let me properly join in next week. We should have made up by then; we can never argue for long.

"Sure, it seems everyone else is paired up anyway," he laughed. He seemed to spot his lift or something because his face lit up and he waved at someone.

A boy with blonde hair came jogging over to us and I wouldn't have recognised him if it hadn't been for the purple marks all over his face.

"Luke!" Cal and i exclaimed simultaneously. Both boys turned to me and gave me confused looks.

"I know you..." Luke waved his finger at me, "I know your face from somewhere..."

"Michael!" I said excitedly. "I found Michael! He's ok, he's with his friend Ashton? He's living there."

"Oh, you're the skatepark girl!" He exclaimed. "Wait, Mikey's ok?"

Luke beamed at me and I nodded.

"Calum, Michael's ok!" Luke yelled in Cal's face. So Cal is short for Calum.

"You know Michael and Ashton?" Calum looked at me like I was crazy. "Wait, you're skatepark girl? Oh my gosh, you're skatepark girl! The girl they hang around with at night time!"

"And you're the dude who's house they always go round!" Everything was making sense now. "They always invite me to come over..."

"You've been seeing Michael?" Luke frowned at Calum. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"We've both been grounded, Luke, how could I tell you?"

"I, I don't know," he looked at his feet. "Anyway, are we going for ice cream or what?"

"Yeah," Calum smiled at Luke then turned back to me. "I'll see you around, Cas."

I sure hope I see him around.

=

K when Cas asked Calum what he does in his spare time it reminded me of Spanish idk why but yeah so I wrote a Spanish reply lmao [k I'm bad at Spanish I'm sorry for mistakes]:

"What do you do in your spare time?"

"En mi tiempos libres, voy al cine con mi amigo. Se llama Luke. Me gustan mis amigos Luke y Michael. Jugamos los fútbol. Me gusta ver la television y navegar por internet. Me enchanta escuchar musica. Me enchanta musica," he said.

"Erm, yo quiero chuparte el pene?" I recited the only Spanish I knew. "Oh! Mes belle amis que s'appelle... Je ne pas un belle amis."

"The last part was french, but nice try," he chuckled. "And you want to suck my dick...?"

=

I GOT THE DICK PART FROM MY BAD BC THAT FANFIC IS LIFE OMG

Anyways I hate this so much omg too much speech EW ew no no