“Show me a cool kick.” He held out a pad. His hand was a bit shaky.

“All right,” I said. I thought I should try to one-up Mel and look cool.

I stepped back, measured the distance like she did, and moved forward. I threw a kick but somewhere along the line Mitch flinched and moved backward, causing me to overextend myself and fall to the ground. Everyone saw. It was awful.

“You all right?” Scarlett walked over.

“I’m fine.” I laid there for a moment. “Everything is wonderful.”

Everything was not wonderful. I got back up, and Mitch managed to mutter, “Sorry,” with his head down. I just shook my head at him.

At the end of class, I sat to the side of the gym filling my empty stomach with what was left in my water bottle. I had only eaten breakfast that day.

“Hey, superstar,” Mel said as she approached me with Scarlett. They had a certain vibe to their walk like they’d known each other for years when they’d actually just met. It was like they were on the same wavelength. I wished it didn’t annoy me, but for some reason it did.

“Mel did really great tonight.” Scarlett put a hand on her shoulder. “She’s stellar at kicking things.”

“I try.” Mel grinned. “Need help up?” Mel extended an open hand.

“I’m fine,” I said, feeling a bit frustrated.

“All right then,” Mel replied, looking confused.

I walked away and went straight to the washroom to avoid the locker room, then I realized I hadn’t brought any clothes to change into, so I stayed in there and sat on the toilet. I was very annoyed that Mel was there and that she suddenly became the class badass while I knocked myself over. I could hear Mel and Scarlett talking outside the door.

“How long ago did you stop training in karate?” Scarlett asked.

“About two years ago. I’ve been training since I was a kid,” Mel answered. “I always wanted to try to cross-train, but was recommended against it.”

“Ahh, gotcha,” Scarlett said. I walked out the door and butted into their conversation.

“You must be a bit rusty?” I interrupted

“Wait, you heard all of that?” Mel asked, a bit surprised. “And no. Everything felt super good tonight.”

Okay, maybe that looked a bit weird on my end. Maybe you shouldn’t eavesdrop on people and then intrude into the conversation.

“Anyways,” Scarlett interrupted. “Would you like a drive home, Mel? I usually drive your boyfriend, but we can fit another person in there.”

“Sure,” Mel said. “Just let me grab my stuff.”

As we walked outside, Scarlett and Mel were talking away about their different styles and training methods. As we got closer to the car, I called, “Shotgun!”

“Sorry, Adrian.” Scarlett looked back at me. “The front is for my new homegirl,” she said as she looked at Mel. Then the both of them broke out into laughter. I sighed and got into the back.