Chasing The Good Girl

Corps-à-Corps

13 years ago, Jordan at 5 years and Emmaly at 4.

Jordan and Othniel were playing with his tennis ball when Othniel threw the ball over the fence.

"You threw the ball. Go get it" Jordan said.

"What did mummy say about guests? When they are at your home you are their servant. And clearly this isn't my house so," Othniel grinned.

"Next time I come over I'll make sure my dog poops on your X box" Jordan frowned at Othniel before skipping off.

He crept out of the gate so his nanny didn't see him and ran off to where the ball must have been.

Luckily, it didn't enter the neighbor's house so it was going to be easier for him to retrieve the ball.

Or not.

Those bullies in 7th grade had picked the ball up before he had noticed they were even pedalling towards him with their bikes.

"Hey that's my ball" Jordan muttered, trying to reach for it.

Someone shoved him back and he stumbled before regaining balance.

"What are you going to do about it? Tell Mommy?" One of the chubby boys laughed, his face smudged with ice cream.

"I won't. Just give me back my ball and we can go our separate ways" Jordan sighed, trying not to burst into tears.

He didn't like to talk much to other people and they were getting into his personal space.

"Alright take it" one of the boys said, handing him his ball.

Jordan reached for it but they put it over his head and shoved him back once more.

The 7th grader bullies burst out laughing and Jordan's eyes watered, upset at the boy's treatment.

"Look he's about to cry! You should be wearing a skirt you big baby" they laughed all the more.

"Hey! He doesn't want any trouble he just wants his ball back" a feminine voice said.

Jordan's watery eyes widened as he turned towards the voice.

It was the prettiest girl in their grade!

Every boy and girl wanted to be her friend because she was pretty and the teachers said she was smart.

To him, she was an angel.

He'd seen the school play she was in earlier this year and she had those pretty white wings behind her,a smile on her perfect white teeth.

She had beautiful Strawberry blonde hair, the most beautiful big brown eyes he'd ever seen and she was tall, taller than most girls in their grade and sadly taller than him.

"And what are you going to do Barbie?" One of the chubby boys said.

"I was going to ask nicely but because you're such big bad bullies I'm going to have to call the cops" she frowned at them, bringing out a phone from the pocket of her skirt.

The 7th graders widened their eyes and flung Jordan's ball back to him then turned around and pedalled away.

"I wonder why they act like this when they attend the Sunday school! I'm going to report them to the teachers" she frowned.

Jordan stood there dumbstruck, his cheeks flushed with pink.

He had always imagined saving the prettiest girl in their grade but instead, she was being his hero.

She walked away from him and he just stood rooted to the spot as she picked his ball and pressed it into his palm.

"Hey I'm Emmaly, I see you around a lot but I don't know your name" she smiled at him.

"Uhm I'm Jordan" he blushed.

"The Bancrofts?" She widened her eyes apologetically.

"Your house is exactly behind ours." She smiled.

"R-really?" He blushed, trying to pretend like he didn't know.

"Yeah. At 8pm you can stand by your window and you'll see me in front of mine" she said.

"Do you really own a phone already?" he couldn't help but ask.

"No silly" she giggled.

"It's my Barbie toy phone. But I call it my Wonder woman phone. You know, I'm a hero"" she smiled.

Wonder woman?

To him she was an angel.

His guardian Angel.

"My mum is probably looking for me. I'll see you around Jordan" she pecked his cheek and ran off.

Jordan was completely red.

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"Stupid ass bi-yatch!. Every boy thinks with their d***s but this asshole thinks with his f*****g anus! The stupid p***y-"

"Mercedes-"

"I'll make sure he sleeps with Aimee so he can get STDs and so my dad can dissect his balls off in the surgery room!"

"Mercedes please-"

"Ha! If dad doesn't do it amma sneak as a resident nurse and do it discreetly! Maybe I can empty the sperm from his balls and put paint in it. Have fun having the Smurfs for children!" Mercedes cackled, scaring the other girls in the locker room.

Poor children....

"Oh wait! He won't have children! And it will be all my doing! Mercedes Bellamy! They might put me in juvy but Thank God I still have those papers that show I'm mentally ill. But I'm batwoman! They don't know that s**t yet" she smiled at me, reaching for her hair dryer and passing it to me.

"You're so crazy" I laughed, drying my hair.

"But seriously, Jordan is an obsessed maniac! What if he kidnaps you and keeps you away in a cabin where he'll gag you and chain you to the wall and oh my God my eyes!" She put her hands over her eyes, a horrified expression on her face.

"Mercedes that's enough!" I giggled, slapping down her hands.

"You'll drive me crazy with your thoughts. Now we have a class to attend to"

Mercedes had gotten splashed a bit and she nearly lost it on a teacher but he gave us both passes and here we are.

"I don't want to go to class! I like the peace and quiet here, you know. No Jordan, no unicorn, no Aimee," she growled out the last part.

"And no A's in our classes. We've got to go" I dragged her hand and we left the locker room.

I was trying not to show Mercedes how pissed I was because she was definitely going to prank him back and me? I wasn't ready for that.

It was only going to fuel his rage and show him that I give two pins about him. Moreover, I was class president/ Student representative of our year. Doing things like that was going to jeopardize my position.

I felt like I needed to speak to him, pacify him maybe and know why he was doing this to me. Why he hated me so much.

And when I put my mind to do something, I was going to do it.

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Okay, relax.

You can do this.

Jordan is just a human.

A normal human who certainly didn't scare the life out of me.

He was leaning against a sleek black car, with a girl in front of him.

They were probably making out.

Bitch it's now or never...

Wait that doesn't sound like me!

"I told you I'm your cheerleader" a familiar voice laughed.

I shrieked and turned around, before putting a hand on my chest.

"You shouldn't scare me like that Mercedes" I huffed.

Her grey eyes twinkled with mischief before she wiggled her eyebrows.

"I know you want to confront Jordan and that's why you wanted to go home alone. I really don't support you because I have a feeling he'll lock you in his car and throw you off a cliff-"

"Then he'll abduct you so no one knows what happened then dump your body in a river" I interrupted wryly.

Mercedes widened her eyes and looked at me like I was a naked Greek god.

"So it is contagious!" She grinned, a knowing look on her face.

"What is contagious?" I furrowed my eyebrows questioningly.

"Sarcasmic disorder"

"That isn't a thing" I rolled my eyes while she snorted rudely.

"Now I've got a mission to accomplish. Wish me luck" I grinned, then turned around and stalked towards Jordan who was at the other end of the parking lot.

By now, he had already kicked open a car door and was sitting inside, the girl straddling him easily as they made out heavily, the sounds of smacking of lips way too audible like it was on a microphone.

Isn't that Daphne from Class D?

D means dumb.

But it wasn't my words! Mercedes said so...

Wait what is wrong with me?

"Ahem" I cleared my throat nervously.

Now I'm starting to think this was a bad idea.

I turned on my heels but Mercedes used her index finger and made a rotary movement, her nose scrunched up.

My shoulders slumped and I turned around once more, only to see Daphne adjusting her clothes with a scowl on her face.

Then she glared at me but I ignored her and focused my gaze on Jordan.

He was adjusting and fixing back the buttons of his shirt, his breathing heavy from what he was doing.

I was never going to marry a man who did these kind of things.

There was a visible hickey on his neck and I couldn't help but shudder at it.

Jordan glared up at me, his eyes stone cold and his expression unreadable.

"If you had manners you'd figure it's not very nice to interrupt people"

Who did he think he was?

"If you had manners you wouldn't be doing what er- you just did with Daphne in public" I scowled, my nostrils flaring.

"I don't have time to listen to you judge me, what do you want?" He sneered impatiently.

"I want to know why you're bullying me" I muttered, rocking back and forth on my loafers.

Jordan stood up from his car seat and shut the door of his car before stalking towards me, his stance angry.

"You're a b***h. There you go" he snapped.

"I'm not a female dog" I retorted, looking down so he wouldn't know I was affected by his insult.

"Female dog? What is this the 1800's?" He said incredulously.

"Drop the f*****g act Reeva. Stop acting so high, holy and mighty. You're just a stuck up b***h-"

"Je n'en peux plus! (I've had enough!)" I snapped, rage fueling in me.

"I want to know why you keep hurting me when all I've ever done was good to you!"

If I thought Jordan was pissed before, then I think he is highly outraged right now.

"Bien? (Good)" He thundered.

"Tu as bien fait? (You've done good?)"

In all my life, I had never seen him so angry.

I'd never seen so much violence, fire, anger and hatred in anyone's eyes in my life.

His chest was heaving uncontrollably, his fists clenching and unclenching as he debated whether to beat me up or leave me be.

"You f****d my life! Angel you messed up!" He bellowed.

Did he... Did he just call me my pet name in a fit of rage?

"If I'd known that in return of that f*****g tennis ball you helped me get back from those fuckers, you wanted to destroy my life then I would have let it go!"

"Jordan..."

"Don't!" He growled, his tone going down.

"Don't you dare call my name"

"I didn't do anything-"

"Of course you did! And I'm going to revenge! Why the hell would I even be back in France on the Second semester of Senior year?" He asked rhetorically, his lips tipping up.

Jordan's smiles were amazing but this one made me want to vomit.

He moved towards me and I shrunk back cowardly, uncontrollable tears falling down my eyes and streaming down my cheeks.

"You f****d my life Emma," he breathed, caging me in his arms while I leaned on his car.

"Now watch me while I destroy yours"

Then he stepped into his car and drove away while I just stood there, staring at the fumes that were going to deplete the ozone layer.

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I bristled as I put on my long socks and breeches with suspenders.

Then I kicked my shoes away.

Why?

Today was Wednesday and unfortunately for me, Mercedes pranked Jordan.

She bought hundreds of porn magazines and placed them in his locker. Everyone was laughing at the weird and low budget magazines but when he banged his locker so hard I'm sure the walls shook, everyone knew he wasn't finding the prank funny.

Mercedes was having a good time laughing but I wasn't Because I was afraid for my life.

And I was right to be scared.

"For a good girl you know you really stooped low today" Jordan said, sauntering into the girl's locker room.

"I don't know what you're talking about" I muttered, attempting to move past him.

His hand circled around my wrist and he drew me back to him way too fast I crashed into his chest with a loud oomph.

"This is outrageous Bancroft! You better leave me and get out of here" I hissed.

I wasn't even in a good mood and seeing him today was one thing I definitely didn't have time for.

"What is outrageous is the fact you'd put that kind of s**t in my locker" he growled lowly, his grip on my wrist tightening.

I couldn't afford to bruise it because I was fencing today.

"I didn't do it. Find the culprit and manhandle him instead" I tugged my hand away from his grip

"So you made one of the students do it? What did you do to cajole them anyway? Tell them that burgling my locker and putting that s**t inside is missionary work for God?"

I slapped him, and hard.

"You're lucky it wasn't thunder that struck you instead" I hissed, walking away and silently thanking God he didn't move.

Later that day, Jordan placed glue on my seat.

Lucky for me it was the last class of the day so Mercedes helped me get my spare skirt from my locker.

I was still very angry though.

And so right now, I'm not even feeling up to Fencing because I might just abandon all the rules and throttle my opponent.

Taking deep breaths and telling myself I shouldn't hold onto anger like this, I picked up my adidas sport shoes and donned them on my feet.

I put on my plastic chest protector, plastron(under arm protector), put a jacket with a strap that goes in between my legs and picked up my Lamé just in case we were doing saber or foil fencing today.

I put on my mask with the bib and back strap before stepping out of the dressing room.

Andre's fencing hall was the perfect place to take fencing because he didn't treat anyone better than the other.

He believed we were all equals whether boy or girl and that's why he made us wear our masks while we were in his class so he didn't know which was which.

I'm his favorite anyway.

"Today we're going to be doing Espee fencing. But still wear your lamé because the jury isn't around today"

The jury was a group of four people that usually watch for hits and touches in a bout. They call hits by raising their hands for the director of the bout or assault.

The lamé was an electric conducive jacket worn on the body of fencers to score hits electronically.

"I'm going to be picking at random so divide yourselves into a group of two. Ten by my left ten by my right. We're doing it one at a time so we can learn from the mistakes of each other. I want each bout to be better than the last. You have three minutes each and the fencer who scores five hits first is winner. If there's a tie after five minutes then thirty seconds extra"

The first group of people made it to the centre and I watched them closely, while some chatted animatedly.

Apart from cooking, my other hobby was fencing.

Scratch that.

Cooking and fencing weren't just hobbies to me, they were a passion.

From turning raw ingredients that came from the soil to tantalizing and edible cuisines and also by holding that Espee in my hand and slicing it in the air made me feel- alive.

It brought out something in me and I'd often found myself smiling while doing the things I loved.

Soon enough, everyone disappears around me until I'm the last person standing. I looked over to the fencer that was definitely going to end up as my opponent and grinned.

He( I knew it was a he because he was tall and I could see the broad shoulders and the outline of his muscles) was above Six feet and these were the kind of people I loved to fence with.

They'd think they had the upper hand because of my size and while they were gloating, I was finding their weakness.

We made it to the centre and circled each other before hearing Andre.

"En garde! ( On guard)" He said.

I pushed my back leg down so my ankles were asymmetrical to my knee.

"Pret (ready)"

I narrowed my eyes at my opponent, looking for weaknesses.

"Allez! (Go)"

My back leg was straight and leaning into the attack by 45 degrees and my front leg was bent to the point where my knee was over my ankle.

I lunged at my opponent but he parried easily, making me frown and riposte(answer). I had a feeling this was going to be fun.

We fenced for minutes, my opponent expecting my every move as I did his.

Then he took me by surprise.

Just I was about to score one touch, he moved back and took his blade under mine. It was so fast and in that span of time I was able to realise he was playing one of the sneakiest and dangerous techniques.

Disengage.

It was a disguised attack and just when you'd be sure he was going to hit your left side and you were already moving to block it, the tip of his blade would be hitting your right side.

I figured that out when his blade moved to my left side.

My opponent was good and if I could rate him, I'd say he was a black belt.

And I just figured he never underestimated me. It's like he knew my potential.

So I allowed myself to fall down but quickly regained balance as my feet hit the stairs.

He fought furiously, making me climb up the stairs but we were still displayed to everyone.

This wasn't just fencing.

It was like there was this air between the two of us, some kind of tension and passion all mixed together in one. It was like he understood what fencing meant to me.

I didn't even want to stop Fighting.

Wasn't it already past 15 minutes?

Hadn't we scored more than 5 hits?

Because I was already at a dead end.

I tried to maneuver my way somehow but yet I found myself pressed against the railing of the stairs, my blade falling down near my feet with a loud clank.

His body was pressed against mine and his breathing was heavy, heavy like mine was.

"Corps-à-Corps!"

A term meaning body contact between the two fencers, illegal in Foil and Saber fencing.

But not in Espee fencing.

Body heat, way too much body heat that isn't supposed to be shared with people who were just 'fencing'.

His cologne seemed to lull me into him, made me want to take of that mask and see who it was.

The tip of his blade was pressed against my breast and Goosebumps spread across my skin, the hair at the nape of my neck erect as well.

That wasn't the only thing standing at attention...

"Arrêt! (Stop!)"

Then he tossed his blade to the side and took off his mask, running his hands through his hair before pinning me to the rails with his aquamarine eyes.

"Who the hell are you?"