Test 2 Part 2

I looked at the sandwich I had put away in haste earlier.

It was still a fabulous PB&J, and it looked good enough to have been made fresh.

As I took my first bite, Kari spoke up.

"How did you move like that?" she cautiously asked, "I mean, like- I know you read her moves, but I mean how did you move like a game character?"

I swallowed the bite I had taken, "What do you mean by game character?"

"Well, your moves were so well connected that they looked like a fighter in a video game that was following an input combo," she explained, "That is the closest analogy I have, but I just want to know if you like, planned all that out."

"Well," I said after I swallowed another bite, "I didn't plan it out, but I did practice one part of it over, and over again until it became second nature."

"Was it the move where you grabbed her leg?" Kari interjected, "Or was it the one where you kicked her like a soccer ball?"

"The former," I said, and then I took another bite of my lovely sandwich.

"You practiced grabbing legs over and over until it became second nature?" Ariel asked with a mischievous smile on her face.

Her naughty remark had her friends grow nervous smiles, but I didn't care.

"Yes I did," I sneered, "I did it so that I can throw them into a combo like that. You're always welcome to experience it if you want."

"I'll save that for later," she said with a nervous yet mischievous smile.

"Okay," I said before I went back to eating my half-eaten sandwich.

"Why didn't you use your left foot?" Juliana quietly asked.

I paused before I took my next bite, "Why would I use my left foot?"

I took another bite as I looked at her. She seemed to have noticed that something was up with my foot at some point. Right at the moment I could taste the jelly on my tounge she seemed to have found her eyes brightened.

"Well," she started, "During the other test you always used your left foot."

"During your jumping tests, you used your left leg to jump four-feet," she semi-confidently explained, "And in your 100m test, you used your left leg to push off."

"Interesting," I said with a calm face, Why the hell is she watching me that closely.

"I guess you figured out which foot I normally jump with," I said as I took a bite of my sandwich.

"Yeah, and that's why it's weird," she continued, "To jump into that kick, you used your right foot."

How closely was she paying attention to me, I was astounded. I didn't know somebody would be grilling me for every action I took in that fight.

This was making me want to say, I didn't jump with my left foot because it hurt. 

But I couldn't because she was obviously looking at my foot before this, and could tell that it wasn't injured, so to get her off my back I said, "I just wanted to change it up a little."

"But that's ineff-," Juliana tried to say before Kari--the one sitting next to her--put her hand over her, and dragged her away for a second.

Ariel then swapped with her, and quickly asked me a question, "What are you eating?"

I had just taken a bite of my sandwich, so I held up a finger to ask for a minute, and she patiently waited as I finished eating my bite.

"This is the third peanut butter & jelly sandwich that I made for today," I said with a smile on my face.

"Oh, chunky or smooth peanut butter?" she asked before I could take another bite.

"There's a chunky peanut butter?" I asked in amazement, "I have only seen the smooth peanut butter."

"So you like the smooth peanut butter?" she asked, "I have found the chunky peanut butter to be an interesting change up to the classic PB&J."

"That sounds like something I'll have to try later," I said with a genuine smile on my face.

I was curious about what she did, so I decided to ask my own question, "Do you like making your own food?"

"I don't really make my own food because it normally ends in disaster, but the last time I made something edible I liked it," she quickly replied.

"Fight 23 needs to happen, so can I get Juliana Sage and Hubert Johnson to come on down," the old man said in a bored tone.

"Oh, Juliana is up," Ariel said, "Let's see how this goes."

Kari came over now that Juliana was going down.

"What were you guys doing while I was gone?" she asked with a slightly annoyed tone.

She seemed somewhat that she had to deal with Juliana, and I judged that I could make the situation worse, so I kept my mouth shut.

Thankfully, Ariel was ready for Kari, "We were talking about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but now we are going to watch Juliana's match."

"Do you think she'll struggle Kari?" Ariel asked the blonde who took a seat next to her.

"Nope," Kari said as she stared at the stage with a listless expression.

I looked over at the stage, and saw Juliana look back over at us.

The expression on her face was a kind of bored face, and she seemed to be looking at us, but where her eyes looked at me, she turned away, and focused on her opponent.

He was an Orange Grade, so I assumed that Juliana would win this match.

Their match started faster than mine because both of the people took less than a minute to get to the arena, and the old man didn't stare at either of the two contestants for a long period of time, but this time he had a slightly excited face.

I don't know why, but when he looked a Juliana, he had a weird smile on his face.

"Ew," I said, and the two girls looked at me in shock.

I turned to them, "What, the old man has a creepy grin on his face while looking at a minor."

They turned to look at the old man, and nodded in agreement.

Then the old man started the match.

And people started cheering.

It hadn't happened for other fights before this, but it seemed that Hubert had some friends.

Hubert started with a strong charge at Juliana.

He then summoned some rocks, and threw them towards her, and her right side which all missed because she had dodged to her left. 

Surprisingly, Hubert had summoned a few bigger rocks which he threw towards her as she was running left.

He had charged to the middle, and was forcing her to move to how whims.

Some of his fans were loving it, "Come one Hubert, you're doing great!"

"Great moves man, keep it up!

That's a pretty good strategy, I thought as I watched him throw rocks towards Juliana as she ran around the edge of the arena.

The rocks he used were just large enough to be able to knock someone out when hit in the head, so every shot he threw was something she had to at least avoid confronting with her head, but none of it seemed to bother Juliana because she just kept running.

Hubert seemed to be running out of steam, so he made a last ditch effort, and threw most of his summoned rocks at her.

Then when she dodged he made a small earth wall appear.

Her foot got caught on the wall, and then she tumbled onto the ground which didn't end well because Hubert threw a rock right at where her head landed.

But the rock didn't connect because she just pulled her head a foot off the ground in a motion that made her look like a seal.

After that she got back onto her feet, and charged straight at Hubert who had to summon new rocks.

He kept on the move, and didn't let her catch up easily because of the rocks he was throwing at her, but somehow Juliana kept sidestepping all of them.

She just kept on making her way forward

Hubert would throw a rock towards her, and she would just go to the left.

When Hubert threw one at her, and another to the left she would just go right.

Hubert would then move in the opposite of where she went, but she would just follow him like some robot that set out to hunt.

Juliana just kept running forward while dodging, and eventually got within a step's reach.

Then Hubert threw out three rocks that would cover all the paths she could take, and instead of dodging, she just flipped over them.

During her flip she transitioned into an axe kick, and smashed Huberts face with her heel. 

A crack resounded around the room, and Hubert collapsed on the ground.

All the cheers stopped, and Hubert lay still on the ground.

Suddenly Juliana kicked him out of the arena, and the medical staff quickly transported him over to the beds, and hooked him up to some monitors.

They checked his vitals, and came out nearly a minute later, and gave a signal that looked like some weird J in sign language to the old man.

"Students," the old man hollered, "This was a very close call, and I hope that this happens like this every time."

"Juliana gave a serious injury to Young Hubert, but instead of letting him stay seriously injured, opted to kick him through the barrier which very nearly could be the reason he is still alive," the old man rambled, "However, if you have the ability to comfortably win your match without doing this, please don't do it."

"Juliana is the winner for this match, and Hubert is okay and will recover, but don't try to test our medical staff," the old man concluded, "You won't want to test their skills. We will be taking a break to make sure he is okay before we continue with the first round."

While the old man was talking Juliana had already made her way back to her friends and me.

She went up through the route she left, so I didn't have to move for her to get in.

"You did pretty bad there Juliana," Kari said with a sneer, "Imagine falling face first mid combat."

Her friends also didn't give her back her seat, so she was the furthest away, but she wasn't focusing on that.

"I didn't know that he was capable of thinking that well," Juliana said with a slightly red face, "I thought his whole plan was to try and hit me."

"I didn't know he would try to trip me," She said while hiding her face.

The sight was slightly funny.

The girl who had just cracked a boy's skull was no sitting here crying about getting tripped, truly ironic.

Even when I looked carefully I didn't see any of the dirt I could have swore was on her during her fight.

I looked down at my right knee because that is the one that made contact with the ground during my fight. There wasn't any dirt on it.

I guess that the barrier also cleans off all of the dirt, I realized, That barrier is really good.

"Zen, what are you looking at?" Kari asked, "We're supposed to be teasing the dirt-kisser."

"Again, I was caught off guard. Please cut me some slack," Juliana begged.

What is this weird relationship, I wondered as I observed the two girls bicker back and forth.

This bickering along with Juliana's extreme performance caught the eyes of everyone around us.

I didn't necessarily like to be under the gaze of more than 5 people, so I got up to go to the restroom for a quick breather.

"Where are you going?" Ariel asked as I stood up.

"The restroom," I replied as I started my walk down the bleachers.

"We can do that?" Juliana asked. Her and Kari both looked at me in disbelief.

I was a little shocked with all the extra attention, "I don't know. I was just going to try."

"Then let me come with you real quick," Juliana got up, "I need to get away from all these people."

I started to walk away, but Ariel called out to me, "No wish of good luck Zen?"

"Nope, you both don't need it," I said as I walked away.

Juliana and Kari both started to laugh at her, and Ariel tried tackling them both.

She successfully got Kari, but Juliana dodged, and started to scamper down the bleachers in an attempt to catch me, but about 3 steps down, she stumbled, and I ended up having to catch her.

She fell face first towards me, so I laid my arms out in a weird hold where I ended up holding her stomach and thighs with my forearms.

After making the catch, I righted her, and she stood on her feet.

I stood there for an extra second to make sure she wouldn't fall, and after seeing her stay stable, I continued down the bleachers.

After the bleachers, I walked back to the gym entrance, and found the woman from before just sitting at a desk, leaning back in her chair.

"ID?" she asked, so I showed her my ID, and exited the gym.

It wasn't until I was out of the gym, that Juliana caught up to me.

She didn't say anything, and neither did I as we made our way to the bathrooms.

Our school was lazy, so it had decided that building and installing two different bathrooms would be to hard or expensive, so there was just one big bathroom that had a selection of private stalls behind an area filled with sinks.

When you got there you would pass through a sink area, and then head into a hall that had separate stalls hidden behind walls and doors.

I walked through both areas, and went for the far back left stall, and leaned against the wall. 

I checked my pulse wave it was only 14:19M, and there was still going to be 4 more hours, if not more.

How the hell was I supposed to get through this trial of boredom?

After a lengthy thought with no evident solution, I just decided to move on.

System, are there any signs of new infections? I asked the silent thing.

(Yes, there is you worrywart)

(Remember Juliet?)

(Well, she's infected now)

That is the one I would be worried about if she wasn't, I telepathically said to the system.

(That makes sense)

Did the monitors register my bacteria, or did it slip bye, I inquired, And if you don't know just say you don't. 

(Well I don't know, and that is because you wouldn't know either)

(If you want to know next time, you should learn how to read them yourself)

Why are you so edgy, I wondered, When will the infection spread to the point that I can gain power from her? 

(You'll be able to do that within the week, but if you don't get to her after that, it will take longer for the power to reach you)

(I have already explained to you how the power is collected, and I won't do it again)

(And before you ask, yes your bacteria is reaching the people inside of the gym)

(It takes time to infect people, but Hubert should be next because they have him hooked up to a breathing machine)

Are you able to read my mind, I cautiously asked the mind-reading system.

(No, you're just insanely obvious)

I rattled my brain for my finest vocabulary and swore at the cursed system.

Trying to ignore the system--who started to insult me about how I was bland and easy to read--I left the bathroom, and went to wash my hands because I touched the disgusting bathroom.

I didn't see Juliana, so I headed back to the gym without her.

When I got back to the gym I could see Juliana with Ariel and Kari; additionally, I saw my seat left open for me. 

I quickly climbed back up to watch the rest of these boring matches, and win the whole tournament.