I made my way down the staircase to find a full gym complete with free weights, nautilus equipments, punching bag and a sauna. I trotted carefully across the matted floor and watched in amazement as Nicole worked out her frustrations on the heavy bag suspended from the ceiling. My fear dissipated when something caught my eye as Nicole’s leg swung around and connected with the bag. “You’re not distributing your weight properly.” I said matter of factly.
“What!” Nicole snapped angrily as she turned to me with a feral gleam in her eyes.
“Your balance is all over the place.” I commented not feeling the slightest bit fearful of the anger in her eyes. The anger disappeared knowing I had called her bluff.
“Whatever.” She shrugged and I handed her the bottle of Gatorade. “Thanks.” She accepted my offer and drank down the blue liquid quickly. She set the bottle down and unstrapped her sparring gloves. “So how’d you end up drawing the short straw?”
“Maybe I just missed you.” I answered causally.
“Should Allison be worried?” Nicole teased.
I just shrugged once again ignoring her. “Nice staffs.” I commented as I noted the collection on the wall. “So who’s the expert with them?” I made idle conversation hoping that she would take the bait. If she possessed half of the competitive streak her sister did it wouldn’t take long.
“Both Ally and I.” Nicole answered trying not to reveal anything.
“Tae Kwan Do?” I inquired.
“Yes.” Nicole was beginning to become more interested.
“Who’s better?”
“I am.” Nicole asserted.
“Really?” I baited her.
“Yes.” Nicole answered strongly. “I have better control over lowering my center of gravity.”
“Huh.” I snorted.
“I do.” She protested.
“Not from what I just saw.” I toyed with her.
“I was upset.” Nicole flared. “Gotcha.” She blew out an exhausted breath and hung her head. “Very good. ” She said finally. “I lost a patient last night … suicide. Twenty Seven year old kid who couldn’t understand that things can get better. It hit me hard and I needed to blow off some steam.” She admitted sadly.
“I’m sorry.” I comforted her.
“Thanks.” She smiled slightly. “Oh and for the record I am better than Allison.”
“Since you’re a big ole straight girl I’m going to assume that we are still talking about staffs.” I teased her as she flashed me a cocky grin. “You little fence hopper you.” I gasped knowing I had hit the nail on the head.
“You lesbians always have to put a label on things.” She chided me playfully. “So you ever spar … with staffs I mean?”
“Once or twice.” I lied.
“Uh huh.” Nicole wasn’t buying it. “Grab a staff.” I smiled as I made my way over to wall and selected a staff and carefully weighed it’s balance. Nicole selected a staff as well and went through some basic warm up moves. I could tell by the ease and grace she maneuvered with that she would be a formidable opponent.
I just smiled sweetly as she got into position. “You’re going to kick my ass aren’t you?” She said plainly. “Who me?” I said innocently and batted my eyes for effect. “Oh yeah I’m in trouble.” Nicole laughed and I was pleased to see she was trained well enough not to let my size fool her. The match started out evenly enough and I had to admit that Nicole was good. “So have you and Allison ever gone after the same girl?” I asked as I deflected one of her blows.
“Nope.” She grunted as she went on the defensive and blocked my advance. “Most of the time I’m attracted to men.”
“Good to know.” I answered as I spun my body and blocked her swing on my right. “It is a little upsetting to come out at my age to find that my girlfriend’s sister has slept with more women than I have.”
“These things happen.” Nicole teased as she faked a move to my left and spun quickly in the opposite direction.
“So do these.” I grunted as I read her move and dropped on one knee and spun my staff catching her by the ankles and taking her down in one fluid move. I stood and spun my staff triumphantly and held it above in victory.
“Damn.” She groaned.
“What are you doing?” Allison’s angry voice bellowed from the other side of the room. “Stephanie is picking on me.” Nicole said in jest as I helped her up.
“Nicole you know better than this?” Allison rushed towards her sister.
“Allison?” Nicole protested. “She started it.” Allison just sneered at her younger sister as she placed a protective arm around me. “She did.” Nicole argued. “She called me a name.” Nicole whined. “She called me a fence hopper.” Nicole pouted.
“Well you are.” Allison retorted. “Hey where did you learn that?” Allison asked me curiously.
“I think I have a boo boo.” I changed the subject holding up my finger, which she kissed gently to cure my imaginary injury.
“Ugh.” Nicole groaned.
“You’re not out of the woods yet.” Allison warned her.
“But …” Nicole stammered as I stuck my tongue out at her.
“Nicole you know better than to spar with a beginner.” Allison fumed. “Not at your level.”
“Beginner?” Nicole scoffed. “Allison she beat me.”
“Right.” Allison pulled me closer.
“Allison she beat me.” Nicole repeated more carefully.
“What?” Allison stammered in disbelief.
“Here.” Nicole handed Allison her staff. “You try. Thanks for everything Stephanie I need to get cleaned up and get back to the hospital.”
Allison stared at me with her mouth hanging open and I simply wiggled my eyebrows at her. “It was the only sport where my age didn’t matter.” I explained proudly. “Want to spar?” I suggested. “I don’t think so.” Allison laughed. “See that wall over there?” She pointed to the other end of the room to a wall covered with trophies. “Those are Nikki’s.”
“Yeah a got a ton of those myself in storage.” I waved it off causally. Then I pulled Allison closer to me. “She lost a patient last night.” I explained. “It hit her hard and she needed to blow off some steam.”
“Wow.” Allison sighed deeply. “I don’t know how she does it?”
“She loves what she does.” I said bluntly letting her know in my own way to just let Nicole do what she needs to do.
“Come on breakfast is ready.” Allison nudged me.
The rest of the weekend proceeded in much the same fashion. We spent time with the family. I was beginning to feel more and more at ease with the Kendell clan although their brutal honesty could be shocking at times. Growing up the person closest to me was my grandmother and she and I never really talked about anything. I did make one observation as a group the Kendell’s shared almost everything but individually without the security of the family they could be very guarded with their emotions. I began to understand that their openness with me stemmed from the fact that I was viewed as a member of the family. It pleased me and yet frightened me as well.
I did score some extra points with Jefferson during a friendly game of touch football. Jefferson insisted that I be on his team so he could teach me more about the sport. Then when I proved that I could actually throw the ball he was thrilled beyond belief. Our team, which consisted of Jefferson, Pauline and myself, crushed Nicole, Allison and Jon-Michael, Pauline’s brother who had dropped by one afternoon. We also played board games at night. I learned quickly not to play trivial pursuit with Allison. The woman was a wealth of useless knowledge. At bedtime each night Allison and I would rip each other’s clothing off and drove one another to the brink of insanity. I felt like I was living in a dream world.