I Spy With My Little Eye

Chapter 19

Grace:

Okay, maybe, just maybe, Eli had a point. What I did was stupid. What we did was stupid. Though it was necessary to find information out about… it. I decided, it didn’t have a gender because it couldn’t be human. There was no way. Now we just needed to find a time to meet when Eli wasn’t going to walk in on us. I wasn’t sure when this would be because apparently it was normal for the boy not to sleep. I sighed in frustration as Eli came into my room apparently having no regard for privacy.

He looked at me, eyes wide, lips drawn into a tight line, and hands jammed into his pockets. It took me a little while to realize he was holding his breath. He had lasted a whole thirty minutes before he felt bad. I was impressed. I had a two-hour rule. I wouldn’t apologies for two hours. I frequently broke this rule but never after thirty minutes.

“Breath Eli.” I said trying to sound bored. He let out the breath he had been holding his shoulders relaxing slightly.

“Grace.” He said and paused I waited patiently but pretended I wasn’t really listening by picking at my nails. “I… I just wanted to say… I shouldn’t have snapped. I was just… worried.”

“About your job?” I asked trying to sound cool and distant.

“No… well… yes.” He stumbled and I glanced up at him briefly, “but… no, I was worried about you. I don’t want you to get hurt.” He sucked in another breath and held it and waited for my response. How could I stay mad at him when he looked like that and apologized? He also looked like he was going to hold his breath until I answered. I couldn’t let him suffocate.

“It’s okay Eli.” I said with a small smile, “I shouldn’t have let them leave without you knowing.” He sighed again and smiled.

“weeeeel.” He said looking to the side, “I want to make it up to you.” he gave me a sly smile. I looked at him questioningly.

“If you plan on attacking Amber again, you need to know how to fight a little bit.” He said with a shrug and I couldn’t help but smile. He was going to teach me how to fight. I had asked daddy a million times to let me take a few classes, but he had always said that nothing would ever happen where I would need it. I now understood that he meant my bodyguards had better not let anything happen.

“What do we start?” I asked excitedly bouncing up and down and looking up at him with a huge grin on my face.

“Now.” Cammi said popping up from around Eli, “You’re going to train with me.” she smiled at me and I couldn’t help but feel a little disheartened.

Cammi saw my face and quickly brightened, “Eli can’t hit girls.” she explained. That made sense but still. I didn’t understand why I was disappointed, but I was really hopping he would be the one to teach me.

“I’ll still be there, Cammi is just going to be your practice dummy.” He beamed at me, “she’s a black belt so she knows what she’s doing.”

“Oh.” I said looking down. I was confused, was he teaching me or not?

“What’s wrong Gracie?” He asked in a soft voice coming to sit beside me. I looked up quickly. He had called me Gracie twice today. He had managed to not call me Gracie for so long it was weird when he did.

“I’m just confused.” I said truthfully, “Who’s teaching me?”

“We all are.” Eli shrugged, “we all have different fighting styles, and we all have different specialties.” okay that made more sense. “Cammi is just closer to your size so for sparing you would be pared with her.” He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me against him, “And Izzi tends to get a little crazy in a fight and doesn’t think about control.”

“Come on.” Cammi said bouncing up and down on her toes, “You two get dressed so we can start.” Eli smiled at his sister and pulled away from me. I smiled at him suddenly hesitant to learn how to fight. What if I wasn’t any good at it? What if I was incapable of learning? What if I disappointed him? The last thought left me with a bad feeling in the pit on my stomach as I changed into a pair of sweatpants, a sports bra, and a tang top. I figured that would be suitable attire for fighting right? I walked out of my room to have them all waiting for me. Izzi still looked pissed. She kept glaring at Eli. Levi smiled at me as I made my way into the living room.

“ready princess?” Eli asked holding open the door for me as we headed to the lobby floor of the hotel where the exercise mats were. I nodded weakly and Eli chuckled a little bit, “Don’t worry, Cammi and d**k aren’t going to hurt you.”

“I thought you said you would be teaching me?” My voice came out high pitched and squeaky. I hated it.

“I will be later, but first Izzi and I have to work out a few things.” He winked at me. I felt like he was being overly nice.

“I thought you can’t hit girls.” I said glancing over at Izzi.

“I can’t hit most girls.” He clarified, “Izzi and I grew up wrestling and beating up on each other all the time. And I won’t hit her. She’ll hit me.”

“You’ll be careful.” I looked up at him knowing I sounded whinny but not caring. He laughed out loud then. I swear this boy was bi-polar.

“No promises.” He said as we are walking into a ballroom with a bunch of gymnastic mats. We split into groups and I glanced over at Eli and Izzi as they took up fighting stances. Izzi was the first to throw a kick. Her long leg gracefully arched up above her head as she kicked his square in the chest. Eli stumbled back a little. He threw a punch, which she blocked. They danced like that for a while. Izzi always making hard contact with Eli’s body but Eli only gently tapped her to show her he had gotten the hit when she didn’t block. I also noticed that Eli wasn’t trying to block her. It was like he knew if she didn’t get to beat him up, she wouldn’t go back to being happy. I wondered if the mood swings were a family trait. Except Cammi didn’t have that trait. Or didn’t seem too.

“Alright, first thing we need to teach you is a basic low block.” d**k said drawing my attention to Izzi and Eli’s fighting. I turned and smiled at them.

“Don’t smile.” Cammi said shaking her head, her face serious. Okay I take it back about the mood swings. “You’re fighting for your life, you don’t smile.” at that moment I heard Izzi laugh. “Or laugh.” Cammi amended, “unless, that is, you’re crazy.”

“Okay, show me your best fighting stance.” Levi said. I stepped back in what I thought was a fighting stance. Cammi rolled her eyes and went about correcting my stance. She made it wider, so my right leg was stretched far back behind me and my left leg bent at an almost 90-degree angle in front of me.

“turn your right foot forward a little more.” Cammi said and I did as tell, after figuring out very quickly Cammi changed from the cute little fifteen-year-old to all business and kind of scary. “Perfect.” she beamed, “now this is a formal stance, it’s not very comfy but it’s necessary.” I nodded.

“Now stand like this.” Cammi said hopping into a stance, her back leg was slightly bent with her foot turned out to the side. Her front leg was also bent with her toes resting lightly on the floor with most of her weight on her back leg. I mimicked her stance and she smiled at me happy that I got it right the first time.

“That’s really good for your first time.” she said, “we’ll work on getting you into a lower stance later but for now that’ll do.” I nodded.

“alright.” d**k said, “Now stand like this.” He got in a stance that reminded me of sumo wrestler, so he was turned to the side but was facing us. I quickly changed stances and mimicked him. Cammi nodded her head thoughtfully.

“We’ll work on making your stances lower, but you need to build up leg muscle.” she said, “Now those are all formal, you’ll develop a natural fighting stance over time but for now stick with these.”

“Why don’t you just use the same stance?” I asked. Cammi looked at Levi, and Levi looked at Cammi like they were sharing some secret.

“I believe a demonstration is in order.” Levi said. Both of them jumped into a stance that was a slightly more relaxed form of the first stance I was shone. They yelled bringing their hands up and smiled at each other. That was when the fight began. I soon realized they fought differently than Izzi and Eli. Their fight was all about tactic and analyzing each other’s style. Izzi was all offence when she attacked Eli while Eli was defense though most of his fight. Cam and Levi had this smooth motion of give and take. Sometimes one would be on the offensive, other times the defense. It was beautiful to watch. I noticed how they changed stances. Sometimes they were in the wide last stance, others the formal first stance, and rarely in the second stance and they moved easily away from each other. In a little while they stopped and bowed to each other and turned back to me.

“Let’s practice transitioning stances.” Cammi said, “I’m going to come at you, and I want you to step back and alternate between stances.” I nodded and stepped into the first stance. For two hours we practiced. We didn’t just work on stances, but they were constantly correcting the way I was standing. I learned a few different punches, a couple kicks. Four or five different blocks, and how to get out of two grabs. By the time we were done I was sweaty and feeling really gross. Eli and Izzi came to join us. Eli’s eyebrow was bleeding, as was his lip. He had a few bruises forming, while Izzi was perfectly fine and beaming. She hugged her brother and kissed his cheek.

“Sorry.” she mumbled stepping away from him. I seethed. I knew she was his sister but why did she have to hurt him. I mean jeez! Take it out on a punching bag!

“We need to work on your control kid.” Eli said with a chuckle. Izzi stepped closer to Levi, blushing.

“I really didn’t mean to hit so hard.” she said looking at the mats below our feet.

“We should get you cleaned up.” I said moving closer to him. He nodded and winced.

“Izzi stay down here with d**k and work on not actually hitting someone.” He said, “Cam? What are your plans?” He turned to his younger sister.

“I’m going to work on forms.” she said with a shrug and turned to go to her own little corner. Eli nodded and turned to me.

“I’ll come with you.” I said grabbing his wrist. And pulling him out of the ball room. We walked out of the doors and to the elevator.

“You’re seriously going to let her beat up on your best friend.” I grumbled looking up at his bleeding face.

“She has control issues” he said with a shrug, “we never could get her over it, but then d**k and she started sparing when he came to get me last time and she never once hit him. I keep thinking if she makes a habit of it then she won’t make contact when we’re sparing.”

“You didn’t even fight back!” I exclaimed, “I mean isn’t this some form of abuse?”

“Nah.” he made a face and winced, “she doesn’t mean to and she doesn’t always hit people so… intensely. Sometimes it’s once or twice. Sometimes it’s every strike. It’s great for real life combat.”

“But this isn’t a real-life situation.” I complained as he followed me down the hall to our door.

“No, but if it was?” He questioned raising his bloodied eyebrow as we entered our room.

“Okay you have a point, but she can’t just hit you like this.” I said pulling out a clean rag and running it under warm water. I hopped up on the counter and motioned for Eli to stand by me. I was too short to have his sit on the counter. I would need a step ladder to get to his face. I held his chin as I cleaned off the blood. He hissed and jerked away as I pressed the rag to his eyebrow.

“You have to understand Izzi I guess.” Eli shrugged at let me work to get him to look relatively decent. He still had a horribly swollen lip, and his face was starting to swell with the bruising. I didn’t understand Izzi. She seemed nice enough. Maybe a little cynical, and abrasive but nice enough. She seemed to love her brother and hate Levi, yet she hurt Eli and wouldn’t touch Levi. She perplexed me and I wondered what went through her head on a regular basis. I quickly went to the bathroom and pulled out a band aid. I placed it over the cut on his eyebrow along with some Neosporin and wrapped my arms around him in a hug. His eyes were dilated, probably from being kicked in the head more than once. He probably had a mild concussion.

“We should get your head checked out.” I said looking up at him as he wrapped his arms around me in return. It was like hugging a teddy bear with muscles and a deep laugh. I secretly wished there was an actual teddy bear like that. I laid my head against his chest and listened to his voice reverberate through him.

“Naw, I’ll be okay.” He said soothingly rubbing his hand up and down my back. I wasn’t sure why I was hugging him, I guess I just felt bad and I knew how much he seemed to hate pity.

“You probably have a concussion,” I said worry lacing my voice, “you should lie down.”

“You not supposed to sleep if you get a concussion.” He said with a soft chuckle and he grasped my shoulders and pulled me away from him. I reluctantly let go and looked up at him, chewing my lip nervously.

“Are we friends?” I asked suddenly. He looked at me a little startled by the question.

“Yes.” He said slowly, “you could say that.”

“You really should lay down.” I said after a pause.

“I’ll rest when d**k gets back with the girls.” He said matter of factly. I nodded reluctantly.

“Want to watch a movie?” I asked turning from him quickly and exiting the bathroom. He smiled at me a followed me into the living room where I got out the Lion King and put it into the DVD player. I hopped he liked Disney movies. We settled onto the couch where I pressed myself against his warm side relishing in the still teddy bear like feeling of him. How could I be so conferrable with someone when I hardly knew anything about them?