Private School Kings

Duels and Daring Pt. 2

I've seen fights before. Pretty intense fights. Boys at Lamoni got into them every now and then, sometimes girls did too. Not me, and I didn't make a point to watch them, but I didn't look away when they were happening right in front of me.

That's why I thought I had a pretty good idea of what the Lord's battles would look like, boys pushing each other and scrambling around, exchanging half punch half slaps until someone uncle. All my expectations flew out the door when the half naked Lowell twins entered the ring. Cooper and Connor were both wearing boxer shorts, but neither one had gloves. One of the twins was wearing red and the other blue, but I couldn't figure out which was which for the life of me. They had matching six packs, and judging by their shimmering skin it looked like maybe they had oiled up ahead of time. One of the twins, the one in blue, looked out at the crowd with squinting eyes. The spotlight must have been blinding. He looked not afraid exactly, but definitely unsure. The one in red on the other hand looked like he was out for blood. He grinned with flame in his eyes and pounded a fist into his palm. I could hear the hard thump it made. That meant the stage was mic'd.

My heart skipped a beat and the words no mercy echoed through my mind. I wasn't sure I was ready to watch the fights anymore.

"Murphy?" Came a voice from behind me, and I tore my eyes away from the ring. It was Heather, dressed in a long, dark red, dress that pulled tight on her figure, making her look curved where she was supposed to be and impossibly slim everywhere else. "What are you doing here?" She asked, face full of venom.

I tugged nervously on my ear. Heather had seemed to warm on me in the past few weeks, but now all the goodwill I'd managed to earn seemed to have vanished, replaced by pure rage.

"Tim invited me." I answered, and I couldn't stop my voice from quaking.

"Tim invited you?" Heather asked in obvious disbelief.

I nodded.

"Tim Watson?" I nodded again and watched Heather's face morph in front of me. For a moment her jaw clenched so tightly I thought I could hear her teeth grind, and two spots of pink appeared on her cheeks. Then, like she'd replaced a mask, her face went blank. There was no emotion, no passion, just a small, condescending, smile. "Oh." She said.

Before I could respond, a voice boomed over the gym's sound system. It wasn't Tim. I saw another senior at the sound booth, Bodi Clark. I didn't know him well, but his pale thin frame and dark curls made him popular with the other girls. He was know as sort of the dark to Tim's golden boy routine. Though, after what I'd seen and heard of Tim I didn't think you could get much darker.

"First up," Bodi said, "The Lowells. Connor in blue and Cooper in red!"

Heather's gaze snapped back to the ring and I followed suit.

"Three," Bodi boomed, "Two," My heart hitched. "One."

With that, both twins launched forward, blue who I know knew was Connor was a little slower than Cooper. There was no pause before their fists began to fly. For a moment, the air was full of the sound of skin hitting skin and then the crowd caught on. Jeers and cheers became one as the twins hit the floor. Their bare torsos made it easy to see when each blow connected, skin rippled like water with the force, stomachs hollowed, jaws hinged. Connor was on top, pinning Cooper down and going straight for his head with a flurry of punches. I saw blood blossom on Cooper's lip, and even though I didn't particularly like him I felt bad. Even from where I was I could see how slack his face looked, but then as one particularly nasty punch made contact, something took over his expression. It was animalistic and ferocious, like a cornered beast. With a growl that boomed from the speakers Cooper managed to wrest his leg from underneath his brother's knee and brought it between Connor's legs in one strong kick.