John’s change when Stanley made into his life – 02

“Huh.” Stanley leaned in, close enough that I could feel his breath brush my hair. An odd tingle went down my spin. “Ever thought of joining the class?”

“What? This class?”

“Yeah.”

I laughed and stood up. “Why would I want to do that?”

“Because it’s fun.” Stanley shrugged. “And because if you are going to start fights, you should at least know how to finish them.”

“I can finish any fight I want.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah!”

Stanley’s eyes began to twinkle as he leaned in close to me. “I may have to take you up on that challenge sometime.” He breathed in deep, giving me the oddest feeling he was smelling me. “Until tomorrow, Tiger.”

I watched as he walked back through the dojo to a little room in the back that I assumed was the class’ locker room. There was something weird about that guy. He made me uneasy, but in a good way, oddly enough.

The next morning was dismal with rain pouring down like there was no tomorrow. I vaguely wondered if there was a row boat somewhere nearby I could catch a ride with to head over to the dojo as my shoes sloshed through the puddles. I was soaked by the time I got there ten minutes early, a first for me.

Even my Starbucks mocha didn’t cheer me up. I still didn’t understand why I had to go to this stupid Karate class. I wasn’t enrolled in it. What gave that stupid teacher the power to enforce this? Crap, sometimes I hated my life. Okay, so I generally hated my life as a rule to live by, but this was pushing things!

Students were ambling in, taking off their shoes and headed for the locker room at the back, laughing and talking with each other. Several threw me odd looks as they headed back, no doubt wondering what the hell I was doing in their class. I was tempted to shout that I didn’t have the foggiest idea, but thought that might be a little dramatic this early in the morning.

“Hey, glad to see you made it, Tiger.”

I rolled my eyes and turned to look at Stanley who was looking sickeningly dry as he shook out his umbrella. “I’m only here under duress.”

A smirk tugged at his mouth as he looked me up and down. Somehow, it felt oddly dirty and took way too long. “Just a tad wet there, aren’t you?”

“I got to take a shower and do laundry at the same time. What’s not to love?” I bent down and began to take off my shoes, wishing he would follow the other students soon.

“Um, since I can see puddles forming around your feet, better take off the socks, too. You won’t be needing them, anyhow.”

“Ah, John. I’m glad you could join us.”

I glanced up at the teacher with barely concealed venom as I finished peeling off my socks and stuffing them in my shoes. “Yeah, as if I had a choice.”

“The world is full of choices. No one made you come here today. You just did not like the consequences of the other option so you chose to come.” The bastard actually smiled at me. “The choice was always yours.”

“I love it when he manipulates people!” Stanley laughed.

“Stanley, please take our newest student to the back and get him a gi. Class will begin soon, see to it that he is ready.”

“Yes, Sensei.” He grinned at me, looking altogether too pleased with the situation. “Ready, Tiger?”

“Would you please stop calling me Tiger? My name is John, ass wipe.”

“John, you just earned yourself thirty minutes extra training today.” The sensei smiled and walked back to his little office. “Remember to play nice, boys.”

“Dick.”

“Who? Me or him?”

I glared at Stanley and headed back to the locker room, carrying my soggy shoes with the socks stuffed in them. “I’m beginning to think about both.”

The back room looked like a kindergarten class with cubbies! Where the hell were the lockers? Did people actually think this was safe? What if someone kidnapped my Venti White Chocolate Mocha and held it for ransom? I just might have to kill someone before the day was through.

“Here, put this on while I find you a belt.” Stanley tossed a plastic covered white gi, the packaging saying small.

I frowned down at the garment in my hand. He hadn’t even asked what size I was. I didn’t look that anorexic, did I? I stripped down to my briefs and unceremoniously began ringing out my clothing on the floor. I wasn’t going to shove it into the cubby just to sit in a puddle of water. Without even attempting to fold the mass of wet cloth, I shoved it into the nearest empty cubby, gingerly setting my mocha in front of it after taking a loving sip.

Okay, the pants part of the outfit was fine. One leg, then the other. It was the top I was having problems with. For some reason, my sleep deprived mind could not seem to wrap itself around how the four ties hanging off of it were supposed to go together to get the damn thing to close. With a growl of frustration, I’ll admit it was childish, I grabbed the strings in each hand with a vicious yank and kicked the nearest bench.

“Fudge buckets, froogle frat!” Didn’t know I had a tendency to make up my own cuss words, did you? Well, now you know.

With my big toe throbbing, I hopped up and down holding my foot. Just as Stanley came around the corner with a white belt in his hand, a look of curiosity as to what all the commotion was, the foot I was hopping on found the damn puddle I’d made when I was ringing out my clothes. In the span of two seconds, I was flat on my back, the air knocked completely out of me as I stared up at the ceiling.

Stifling a laugh, Stanley rushed over and knelt beside me. “Are you okay?”

I bit my lip and counted to ten. It was either that or very rapidly became uncivilized. A deep breath in, I tried to ignore the fact that he was still trying not to laugh, whereas other students still in the locker room weren’t quite so restrained. “I should have known. I’m sure if you look at the paper and read my horoscope it would say not to leave bed for today. It will be hell otherwise. The rain should have been my first warning.

Then the fact that Starbucks had to remake my mocha three times before they got the damn thing right. But no, I blew all that off, ignored that little voice in my head that said today was not going to be my day, and I came here.” I raised my arm to look at my watch and sighed. “Oh, look. It’s hardly even nine yet. Goody. That means I still have several more hours of Chaos before this day will officially end. Who knows? Maybe I’ll get lucky and a bus will hit me early so I don’t have to suffer the rest of the day. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

No longer trying to hide his laughter, Stanley rose up, grabbed my arm and hauled me to my feet. “Optimistic guy, aren’t you, Tiger?”

Yanking my arm from his grip, I glared at him. It was prudently apparent I was not going to get him to stop calling me that ridiculous pet name. My friends never gave me a nickname, so I wasn’t sure why this guy felt compelled to do so.

With a sigh, I realized my pants were now damp from landing in the puddle. Oh, yes, this day was certainly looking up. “I couldn’t figure out how to get this damn thing tied and things went bad from there. How optimistic should I be?”

“Well, you didn’t crack your head open, that’s a plus, right?” As the students started heading out into the dojo, Stanley stepped closer to me and grabbed the ties, a smile still on his lips. “Here, let me help you.”

I was on the verge of pulling away and telling him I wasn’t a toddler that couldn’t figure out how to tie their own damn shoe when I realized that’s exactly what I was. It would just be foolish to push away his help. But that odd fluttering in my stomach was back. Man, I hoped I wasn’t going to hurl. That would really just top off the moment for me.

“This one goes here with this one,” He pulled a string on the left over to the inner right, his fingers brushing across my abdomen, making the muscles jump. “Ticklish?”

“Um, no not really,” I said, staring at the ceiling. Oh, that was far from a tickle I’d felt. What the hell was wrong with me? I hated this guy (not to mention the fact that he was a guy) so fluttery feelings were not welcome! I really needed to cut back on the caffeine.

Before I knew it, he had my top tied. “My very own ninja pajamas, just what I’ve always wanted.”

On a snicker, Stanley began to put the belt around my waist. “Now watch. One square knot is all you need and there you are! All set.”

“Great,” I said without much enthusiasm.