Anther boring two weeks has passed and i felt fit to return to school and sat in front of the library. A bunch of school student’s two grades above me approached me. They all wore uniforms but it was the way they all walked and I tried not to laugh at them. There was about ten of them and the guy in the front walked up the stairs and stopped in front of me but I ignored him.

‘What’s your name?’ he asked when I looked up at him.

‘What is it to you?’ I asked feeling like a little bit of attitude starting to come out of me.

‘Do you know about the hierarchy of this school?’ He asked me like we were having a coffee together and I looked blankly at him.

‘Can you fight?’ he asked me and put his hands in his pockets

Can you back off?

‘What do you mean, can I fight’ I asked rudely

‘A person rules every grade. Right now Justin is the leader of your grade, you get him down then you rule your grade. ’ he looked around the school as if breathing in the sight through his eyes. ‘I’m Anthony by the way, leader of year ten and if you want to be the leader of this school you fight the leaders of each year, but to fight a leader of each grade, you first have to be the leader of your grade’ He finished then waited for me to say something.

‘As in work your way up you mean? So what, you think I can do that’ I snorted loudly and patted down my skirt. It was a signal to show him that I wasn’t interested so he could go away now.

I don’t know, depends on you’ he shrugged his shoulders and gestured to his friends to walk on. ’

‘Wait’ I shouted he stopped then walked back to me

‘But I'm a girl and his a boy. Is that possible? I asked

‘Listen, in this school, age doesn’t matter and who you are doesn’t matter. It’s how you fight that matters’ he shrugged his shoulders and walked away

I bit my lip really hard and thought really hard about it.

Can I do it? What would happen if I lose?

I followed behind them and saw the whole school was in the gym all waiting in anticipation. A huge Podium was put on all sides of the gym and I saw a boy a little bit shorter then I walked in, Blake he was young but his face showed determination.

I knew that he was a grade younger and was always walking around the school by himself but I wasn’t sure who the other fighter was.

‘How long does this go for?’ I asked the boy sitting next to me but he dismissed me and turned rudely back to the front.

I felt someone tapping me from behind and I looked back.

‘Where the hell have you being?’ Chul-Moo said moving down to sit next to me but she had to press in a spot that wasn’t even half a space getting a annoyed look from the guy I talked to.

‘What are you looking at? You wanna say something?’ Chu Moo barked at him so he ignored her and moved away.

Someone must have signaled the fight to start because the two boys was staring each other down without doing anything, they went around like this for a few seconds before Blake who was all calm put down his hands and stood his ground. This surprised the other guy but when he pretended to hit him, Blake didn’t move a muscles so he ran at him, his intentions to hit him for real but Blake suddenly spun around cleanly and jumped on one leg and kicked with his other on the other guys chest making him fly back a couple of meters.

I almost screamed when the whole crowd around me jumped up in madness, it took me a second to see that they were egging him on and they wanted more.

The other boy struggled to get up and after awhile he was on both feet and was very firm. I knew this was dangerous but I couldn’t take my eyes of them. The other boy attacked Blake again and this time they were punching and blocking each other and I realized that they trained for this.

‘This is crazy. What makes people do this?’ I shouted over the noise to Chu Moo but I didn’t take my eyes off the fight.

‘The same reason we eat because we’re hungry or we drink because were thirsty- or maybe just wanna get wasted. But fighting, I don’t know its something we grow by. ’ I watched her face as she said that and what I saw was admiration and respect for what they did but something about it made me get chills so I turned back to the fight.

I saw punches to the face and chest that could have knocked someone out but I had to give it them, they were quick and good. One minute their on the ground next minute they’re ramming into each other, finally after about ten minutes and a broken nose and black later the other boy fell back and I watched in surprise as Blake slammed his bloody fist onto his stomach so hard that the other boy coughed out blood and stopped moving.

‘So how do you like the first fight’ Chu Moo nudged me

I watched with horror as Blake looked around at the crowd and smiled a deadly smile that didn’t suit his small form. The body of the other guy was examined then taken away by ‘helpers’ and they mopped up the floor, dried it. All this was done by probably ten people and done under two minutes then summoned for the next fight.

‘So how does this work I asked waiting to see what happens next.

‘The winner waits and sees who else want to fight him if no one comes then the next grade come in.

We waited and no one was coming into the middle so I watched as Blake walk off smiling and looking not so small anymore.

‘So I guess our grade is next’ I said dryly

‘Yep’ Chu Moo said drawing out the word. ‘now watch this’.

The next fight was called for and a recognizable boy with a bowl hair cut and braces walked into the round of the crowd. I realized I was eyeing him up but I stopped myself after realizing there’s nothing I liked about him.

‘That’s Justin, our grade leader’ Chu-Moo whispered to me like a secret.

‘Is he any good?’ I asked looking strongly at Justin. He started flexing his hands while looking out towards the crowd for his opening fighter.

‘Yea, his alright and- oh nice his going to be fighting George’ she chuckled at an inside joke I didn’t get.

‘What’s so amusing?’ I asked

‘They’re best friends’ she chuckled again shocking me.

What the hell are they doing fighting each other if they’re best friends!

I would never ever fight Mimi, even if i was forced to. The fight was signaled to start and straight away they were on top of each other punching and kicking like little kids that made me embarrassed to watch. Even the grade younger was better. They rumbled across the gym floor and pretty soon blood was starting to cover their faces and uniforms.

‘I still don’t get it. Why are they fighting for if they’re friends?’ I asked Chu-Moo.

‘Easy. Because they had a disagreement’ she said it like she explained why we had gravity, why is the sky blue?

I started watching the way Justin threw his skinny arms around-weak I thought. His composure was too off for him to make strong and quick movements making him hit upwards.

It wasn’t that strong but it was strong to get someone to the ground if he moved his arms quickly enough.

The other guy fell down sweat and blood dripping slowly down his forehead. I thought he was done for but he pushed himself up to a standing position as quickly as he fell, shaking off the pain he must have felt.

I could tell he wasn’t going to last long from his face expression and that He was already drained from this fight.

Justin tripped him over by going onto his knees and kicking his legs from under him I watched it, my mind playing it in slow motion and liked it. I should practice that move.

Thinking it was finally over when George fell down that Justin would back off but Justin had different ideas- Too late.

I watched as Justin grabbed George by his head and slammed it against the ground.

I stood up so quick that Chu-Moo flinched and scold at me to sit back down and not embarrass myself but I didn’t budge. What the hell happened? Someone could have died.

Finally the other boy fell to the ground and stayed down. This put the whole gym up in a roar as Justin stood up and wiped the blood from his cheek like it was sweat - and it’s not like he slammed some poor boys head onto the gym floor - nah not at all.

‘Who’s next’ he screamed on top of his lungs. He moved to the side when two guys came checked and dragged the other student’s body out.

I looked around the crowd and caught Anthony’s eyes and he caught mine. He nodded his head at me then to the bloody circle and I looked back to Justin.

‘Hey what’s wrong, it’s not like your gonna go next are you?’ Chu-Moo said lightly

I'm thinking about it’ I said seriously glancing back at Anthony

‘I was joking,’ Chu-Moo quickly stood up and forced me to face her. ‘You can’t be series’ she said lightly touching my arm.

‘You saw what he did!’ I lashed out, ‘that’s not far what he did. George was on the ground and he still had to go on and slam his head on the ground. You said they were friends’. I pointed out.

‘Are you going to fight or not’ the boy who sat next to Ashley said. It was quiet understandable he was listening on our conversation and was tired of us quarreling next to him.

Chu-Moo did what Chu-Moo did. She punched him. I was surprised she knew how to punch and then she turned back around muttering something about butting into people’s conversation.

‘Yeah but they are boys. Boys are like that. ’ she said trying to reason with me again.

‘Yeah well maybe they need a girl to teach them something. ’ I said making my way down the podium.

I felt like kicking myself with stupidity when I walked to the middle circle and stood in front of Justin kind of hoping that Chu-Moo had tried again to stop me because I was starting to get edgy.

I almost fell off the podium and someone tried to lift my skirt up when trying to get here so this better be worth it.

He was looking past me for a second when he realized that I stopped in the middle of the circle.

‘Are you series? A girl wants to fight me’ he looked around the crowd for anther boy to beat up.

Ok I better win this or else imma complete and downright loser.

‘What, you scared a girl might win’ I asked delicately only for him to pay attention to me. I pulled my hands out of the pockets of my skirt and straightened myself up.

‘Ok I see you have a mouth on you, get ready to eat hospital food. ’ he flexed his hands and moved back getting ready to fight again.

I was watching the way his arms flexed and remembered the way he was with the boy before me. I didn’t want to get blood on me; it was disgusting so I had to make it quick.

I saw his leg flex just before I saw him kick out. I waited for right moment then I almost kicked him back but I remembered that I was wearing a skirt so I stopped his kick by slamming my foot on his knee making him flinch but he rapidly recovered himself. Damn. I caught hold of his leg when he kicked yet again. Geez this guy was so predictable. He was in mid air and I slammed my other hand onto his chest making him fall back coughing out blood from the hard impact.

He fell back head first cause I was still holding onto his feet and I let go and moved back dusting off my hands.

‘This is so much easier then I realized’ I said smiling at him like I couldn’t believe it

‘Oh trust me. Its only just started' he said before he got back up

Ok. Maybe this wasn’t working out. I was making him angry by the second and he didn’t look like he was going to go easy on me. Who cares?

Fine by me.

I saw him come towards me in slow motion and I moved my head to the side as his arm flew right next to my face and I turned slightly and cleanly punched him in the abdomen and almost gagged when blood flew out of his mouth and onto my cheek.

Ouch!

I slammed my fist straight up at his jaw when he doubled over and almost gagged again when small metal parts of his braces flew out.

My knuckles damaged from the hard impact on his braces but I didn’t show it and could already feel it shaking from the pain.

I was in shock when he fell to the ground and started rolling around cupping his mouth in pain indicating for the fight to be ended.

The crowd was quiet for a second that you could only hear Justin’s sobbing then one by one they started clapping, followed by cheering. This fight was too quick but it hurts so much. and I looked down to my shaking hands and I looked around me looking for the crowd for Anthony and he smiled at me when I found him in the crowd.

‘Let’s hope your right about this’ i muttered nursing my knuckles.

Guess I was the leader of my grade now and I was starting to love it..

‘What are you doing? Chu-Moo said. i was starting to walk off and i stopped when she called out. ‘You’re supposed to wait for the next fight. ’

Oh great!

I was waiting for some big scary looking guy to come and fight me and i wasn’t looking forward to it. I had to stand Standing and waiting there to and wait to see if anyone wanted to fight me ‘What happened to the real Di?’ I asked myself. ‘What happened to the real Di?’ ‘Nothings happened she just decided to show her true colors’ the devil on the left replied back to me.

People started parting ways making space for someone coming down the stand but i couldn’t see because they were all standing up. Bracing myself for a bigger fight, I saw- A girl

A girl, the very same girl who annoyed me on my first day, she stepped into the circle. She had her hair back in a pony tail and her skirt was a length higher then mine.

Well at least this was going to be a fair fight- I think

She looked like she could fight but I looked lost when she was punching into thin air.

uh, Ok then’ I blinked then blinked some more. I backed away scared she might injure herself and she abruptly just starts jumping, and moving her arms around in a weird way. Ok I not a professional fighter but I could truly tell when someone just not a fighter. This girl is definitely not a fighter.

I didn’t know if this was a joke but they signaled the fight to start and I moved closer. I ducked when she swung her arm missing my face by ah, not that much maybe thirty centimeters.

‘Are you sure you know what your doing?’ I asked moving around to distract her.

‘Yea, are you dumb because I see it in movies. ’ she swung at me again and i backed away making her think I was retreating. - Wrong.

I came out from the side of her face just as she turned around slamming

my fist against the side of her face. I heard the crack and her bone shifting in her skull and her jumping stopped immediately and she started swaying from side to side with dizziness.

I stopped my pacing when i knew she wasn’t going anywhere and stepped back to watch her.

She was still on her feet but her body looked like it didn’t know if whether to fall over and sleep or stay up and sleep, so deciding that I should help her along, I pushed her a little with my finger on her shoulder and she collapsed not getting back up.

Even though the fight wasn’t all that good, it still made the crowd crazy for more. The cleaning and dragging away of the injured person was followed on but no one else wanted to fight me.

I was still confused why someone fights like that as I went to sit down and rest, the crowd made way for me and didn’t come near me but was still watching me with inquisitive eyes, even the boy that was annoyed by me moved closer towards me but was pushed back by Chu-Moo staring at him with a lethal stare.

‘I cannot believe you did that’ Chu-Moo whispered into my ear.

‘Well too late, it was bound to happen anyway’ I said suddenly realizing that I was right.

‘Well I hope you don’t regret it when you end up walking towards a bright light, ’she sniffed. ‘Just be careful, that’s all im saying’’.

I'm always careful’ I smiled warmly at her. i could tell by her voice that in Chu-Moo's standard that was a warm hug.

‘Well lets hope this isn’t a rebellious thing your doing. ’ she sighed and faced back to the front.

When I sat on a chair podium stands the entire row had suddenly disappeared and a couple of girls even mumbled and said sorry to me and sat somewhere else.

Feeling slightly embarrassed by all the unwanted attention i was glad that Chu-Moo liked me for me- eh and the guy sitting next to her still eyeing me. Oh well, you can’t always pick your friends right.

Anthony’s year was next to fight and I looked forward to it. I liked the way he fought, it was clean and quick. And he moved fast and didn’t make much of a mess. I was actually surprised.

Finally the bell rang and everyone left as quickly as they entered. Feeling that someone was following me i turned around slowly- and found my grade behind me.

They stopped in a halt when i turned around,

’what’s going on?’ I asked thinking there was anther fight was going to start.

‘Your our leader, we follow you now’

‘I need time for myself, so you guys can do whatever you guys do’ I noticed that my body needed to sit down from all the fighting so I walked myself to the library and once the doors closed behind me I reversed and peeked through the doors. My grade was walking to their classes and I heard a few of them asking where the classes were.

I was in the library nursing my cuts and bruises and I was thinking all sought of things. I don’t know if I could fight better then what I did today. Didn’t even know I could fight.

‘Could I do this?’ I sighed. I didn’t ever think I could ever rule a grade especially a whole school. I laughed into the silence of the lonely library and forced myself to get up once I made my decision.