The holidays passed quickly and Tablo and I were always together but kept a distance whenever people were around. I kept my secret about my school from him for my own personal reasons and he did the same even though I tried to ask him but he changed the subject.

Walking back to school I felt right back at home. Random students came and had conversations with me and I soon became familiar with the school and battle fights. I stopped fighting for a while so my shoulder can heal but I felt like I was missing out when watching other grades.

‘So what you thinking about?’ a voice from my left said. I looked up and saw Baekje approaching me. He took off his school bag and hung it on the rail of the stairs and sat down next to me on the library stairs

Nah it’s alright. Don’t ask for an invite to sit down

‘Hi’ I said then went back to my thinking about clouds.

I think he was still waiting for a reply to his question but he was in for a long wait.

‘How’s your shoulder’ he said trying another attempt to make a conversation

Why don’t I break your shoulder then you’ll know how much it hurts

‘It’s healing slowly’ I shrugged

‘Listen, I was kind of wondering’ he was saying but I wasn’t listening. I knew where he was going and I didn’t want him to finish his sentence so I quickly thought of something to distract him.

‘So how long have you been going to this school’ I said

Is that the best you can come up with?

Baekje didn’t mind that I stopped him from chatting to me but he answered my question.

‘I started year seven. It was kind of hard to start. Especially with the type of students that go here. Instead of trying to find new friends on your first day, you had to look for places to hide’ he laughed like there was an inside joke.

I was suddenly interested in his story and wanted to know more and I started thinking of questions to ask him.

‘So how was it like?’ I asked concentrating on him

‘What was what like?’ he looked at me curiously

‘Your first day’ I said looking away from his stare

‘To be honest, I was scared but I got through once I found out I could fight. It was weird because there I was, all small and innocent and not knowing what was happening and ten minutes later I became the leader of my grade and I haven’t turned back since’ he turned to me and we stared at each other for a second. A really long awkward second before I looked away again.

‘Do you ever regret going to this school?’ I wanted to know badly because maybe I was making a bad choice and going down a one way street.

‘Every day I come here’ he said honestly. ‘I would have rather went to the strictest school’

‘Then why didn’t you?’ I asked him but he stayed quiet that maybe he didn’t hear me

‘It’s too late because I’m already in too deep.’ He put up his hands in defeat.

The library door opened behind us disturbing our conversation and we both moved to the side as a couple of students walked out of the library.

‘What’s in there?’ he asked after the students departed and I looked at him with a raised eyebrow

‘What did I say?’ he said but I just shook my head at him smiling.

‘Oh you have no idea’ I laughed when I realized he was been series. ‘Don’t worry. Anyway back to what we were talking about. What did you mean being deep in?’ I asked

‘I don’t know how to explain it, it’s like a good feeling but then you get a bad feeling’ he stopped talking then started to rethink what he just said then his expression went confused

‘I don’t get it’ I said with a blank expression

‘Don’t worry you’ll know what I mean soon enough’ but his words kind of sound like he was talk to himself as well.

‘Am I going to like it?’ I said humorously

‘I did. For a while’ he nodded to himself gravely and I couldn’t help myself reaching out and patting his arm for comfort and for one sweet second I imagine him as that little boy who didn’t know what he was getting himself into the moment he walked through those angry looking gates.

‘Can I ask you something?’ he suddenly said

‘Sure’ I could tell if he was thinking whether to tell me or not

‘I want you to fight me, I watched you and I have to admit you are really good. I just want to see if I’m better then you’

‘Are you kidding me, why would you even say that?’ I shouted but he knew I meant it in a different way when I started laughing.

‘I don’t get it’ he said leaning back.

‘No offence but I think I’m better then you’ I said and watched him smile which turned to a grin then turned into a kind of a choke laugh which made me laugh more.

‘I’ll think about it’ I said and punched his arm

‘Don’t think on it too long’ he said and gathered his bag and left.

I watched his back as he walked away and I realized that I was smiling and quickly shook myself out of it.

A week later I finally decided to fight Baekje and waited till the fights were on. I decided not to fight when my grade was up but I waited till Baekje grade started their fights then I got up. I waited a while till he got rid of his competition. Two guys before me tried to fight him but he quickly waved them away like flies.

If Baekje was taken aback when I stepped up in the centre of the circle next, he didn’t show it

‘Five bucks I win’ he joked as we stood there waiting for the indication to start the battle.

‘Make it ten if I win’ I smiled and we stood there smiling at each other until they signalled for the fight to start I could sense his moves straight away in slow motion, the way his veins were beating through the pulse on his neck.

The sweat dripping from his hair on his forehead onto the floor sounded like raindrops pounding on a tin roof, his rough breathing came out evenly as his left foot came up at my stomach and I twisted to the side and caught it,  lifted it upwards causing his to lose his balance and made him fall to the floor.

But when I thought that I was winning he twisted his legs between mine and I also ended up on the floor. I knew I grazed my hands but I didn’t have time to check it because we were both on our feet and were blocking and attacking at the same time this went on for probably ten minutes and we were both exhausted and trying to get in a couple of seconds of air.

I noticed that his left arm was not working that well from the fights before so I elbowed him on his arm and felt him lose his concentration. When I saw that I punched him hard on the same spot and felt bone and he cried out in raw pain.

I lost concentration that second because I didn’t want to hurt him and he took advantage of that to grab my arm and pull it straight at the same time pushing my elbows in with his palms and I cried out as I felt my bone grinding against each other.

We pulled away from each other at the same time and he watched me ready to make a move. I went closer towards him and as I tried to punch him in the chest he moved his injured arm up to protect himself and I kicked him instead on his chest where his arm was and he fell back and struggled up.

I knew I had to stop but he looked at me from under his hair and I knew he was trying to tell me to finish it and finish it in a great way.

I grabbed his hair and my knee connected with his face the same time and I felt his nose break as blood came out and I kicked him on his gut so high that he flew meters away and didn’t get back up.

The crowds of students were in a screaming frenzy and I stayed to watch if Baekje was alright.

A couple of minutes of agony waiting for a sign, I could finally see him move and his eyes were open. I was so worried that I went to his aid.

‘Are you alright?’ I asked and thought he was going mental as well when he started laughing making little droplets of blood come out of his mouth.

‘You fight really well. I was just hoping when I was going to meet my match’ he tried to laugh again but started coughing hard instead.

I stepped back when a student everyone called Doc in Year twelve came and checked him over. I found out later that Doc’s father was a doctor and he trained his son well, only problem is his son doesn’t care about organs and surgery yet. Who would at the age of seventeen?

‘He’ll live. It’s only a few bruises, a cask on that arm for six weeks and he’ll be back as gold.’ He got out a few items from his shoulder bag and started cleaning up Baekje’s wound.

I felt like laughing at the way the guy was talking like he was treating a patient at the local hospital. 

I don’t know why but I waited around the station the next day nodding to a few school mates as they walked past with an interested look. I was hopeful to get a hint of  Tablo but he didn’t show up so I left for school in a sad mood but my mood soon changed when I saw Baekje and he gave me a hug and shook me. We formed a close friendship after the fight yesterday.

‘Why are you so sad today?’ he said and hugged me again. By the time he finished hugging me I was laughing at how weird he was because I never saw him acting like this before.

‘You should get a girlfriend’ I told him seriously and he looked away and said something I didn’t quiet catch.

A lot of people have tried to fight me for the leader of years eight, nine and ten and they have all failed terribly with a few broken limbs. It was mostly new kids from different areas and they all knew why I was the leader by the time they hit the ground. The last fight I had, I almost lost if it wasn’t for the fact that the girl pulled my hair, like I said. Never pull a girls hair.

Most of the newbies come to our school for the reason that they heard about us and our ways of running the school. They come with the thought that because our grounds contain no teachers, they can have the whole place their way. We got another new student today and I checked her out when she came past me. She was familiar but I couldn’t put a name to her face until someone called out her name.

‘Daniela’ then I remembered that she went to my primary.

I got Silla to do a backup on her and she appeared randomly when I was watching Daniela make friends with a couple of other girls a grade above me.

‘Well I checked the school files, don’t ask me how but that Daniela girl got expelled from her old high school for starting fights and threatened to shoot a teacher’. She waited for me to say something but when I didn’t she sat down next to me. ‘Is there a reason why you asked about her’ she asked watching Daniela with me.

‘Nah, just curious’ I said hinting for her not to tread any further on the subject.

She used to bully me the whole entire time I was in primary and I guess that’s why I wasn’t surprised when she singled me out for a fight. Guess it was my turn to teach her a lesson. She came to me one day in the library and wanted to talk to me privately.

‘So I knew you were going to be something big one day’ she said like we’ve been friends for years. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I looked at her straight in the eyes and said ‘ you’.

I left her staring at me shocked and she tried to grab my hand when I walked off and I turned around giving her a death stare. ‘You tortured me once before but I thank you cause without you I wouldn’t know things I would know today so take your hands off me before you lose them’.

She snatched her hands off me like she burnt them while stepping back and I walked off leaving her staring after me with open.

Baekje felt the tension in the air between me and Daniela but he didn’t say anything but I could tell he was watching me really closely trying to read me but I stared at him with a blank face until he looked away embarrassed. I don’t know why but I liked making him blush for the sake of it.

We were both used to each other and our ways and he knew I had a little crush on a boy and we both knew that I kept on harassing him to get a girlfriend but I didn’t tell him about Baekje because I liked keeping my private life private.

Mimi by the way knew there was something going on between me and Tablo but I always turned a blind eye on the faces she gives me when I talked about him.

I don’t know why but I get that feeling in my stomach when I’m with Tablo. When my friends had boyfriends they would always talk about how they love him and how they feel when they’re with them and I’ll sit there and think ‘what losers’. But I think I’m feeling what they’re feeling. It’s like a warm fuzzy feeling that makes me shiver and makes me grab at him.

I been seeing him for over a month and we have never been closer but it was still awkward between us because I still haven’t kissed him before and we were never alone for a long period of time to do anything.

Baekje asked me one day if I had a boyfriend and was surprised when I said yes.

‘You never talk about him you know’ he said caught off guard.

‘I guess you never asked and you’ll meet him one day’ I promised him but he doubted it walking away. I felt sad when he walked off. I had a feeling he was sad but I didn’t know why.

‘Hey Baekje’ I called out running after him, he turned around and took out his ear phones

‘Are you alright?’ I asked looking up at him worryingly.

‘He looked at me for a second before smiling and nodding and I watched him walk away for the second time with the feeling that he wasn’t telling me everything.