House of Cards (8 page)

Jennifer wiped her hands on her pants. “Can we just settle for a training session now? Put the drama on the backburner for a few hours?”

“Sure.” The concession burned Rae’s gut coming from Jennifer, but she couldn’t see how she could have possibly turned anything to her advantage after her outburst anyway. Rae set the broom inside the garbage can and pushed it against the wall. “What do you want me to do?”

Jennifer tossed her a package, which Rae easily caught. Inside was a pair of gloves, minus the fingers. “Put those on and let’s start at the punching bag.” Jennifer wore a similar pair. “Have you ever tried one of these before?”

“Never.” The small balloon shaped bag looked easy to hit the first time, but from what Rae had seen in the movies, keeping the hits connecting would be next to impossible.

Jennifer squared her feet and began punching the bag. Her fists found a rhythm while she hit. It barely made any sound. “The speed bag is an indispensable tool. It’ll improve your hand-eye coordination, quicken your reflexes – though I believe those are quite fine-tuned right now. More than anything, for you, it will increase arm strength and endurance.” She stepped aside and caught her breath. “It’s a great cardiovascular workout as well.” She adjusted the height of the bag slightly. “It can be a little difficult at first, but I think it won’t take you long.” She rolled her eyes, as if trying to make an effort to be friendly but not being very successful. “You can then dazzle your tatù friends with your lightning speed.”

Rae walked
over, standing slightly away from the bag. She looked at Jennifer.

“Face the bag with your feet shoulder width apart. Your whole body… No, the whole body from head to toe
has to face the bag. Yes.” She moved Rae’s shoulders and checked her distance from the bag. “Be close enough that you don’t need to extend your arm more than a few inches to hit it. It’s the same when hitting someone or making contact to protect yourself. With the bag you have to be close enough to make solid contact, but far enough so you don’t hit your head on the rebound.” She stepped back. “Now hit it.”

Rae made a lousy attempt at hitting the bag. It swung wildly.

Using both hands, Jennifer stopped its motion. “You need to keep your fists at chin level, or just slightly lower. Also have your elbows parallel to the floor.”

Rae tried again, hitting it two times in a row.

“Try circling your fists as you hit. Circle them down and back up again to hit the back. You’ll find a rhythm and when you do, it’ll click. Then you can start changing hands or hitting the bag a different way. Now go!”

Her fists couldn’t find a rhythm. Rae wasn’t about to let Jennifer know that her store of tatù abilities was low after her fight with Kraigan. She had a feeling it was something she would have to admit eventually but for now, she just couldn’t face showing any more vulnerabilities. She switched to Julian’s, hoping a bit of fore knowledge would
help. It didn’t. When Jennifer sighed, Rae took a step back and shrugged. “It’s not going to happen today.”

“Yes it is. Focus. Concentrate on the bag and connecting with it. Drop everything else from your mind. When you were talking before and getting angry, you managed to hit the same brick consistently. Nobody does that without having skills. Try it again.”

Rae closed her eyes and stepped forward again. She tuned her ears to the sound of the metal slightly grating as the bag swung. The sound seemed to tell her brain that everything moved in slow motion for that moment. She searched for the frustrated anger she had felt earlier and tried to bring the feeling to her core. The tatù sent a shiver up her spine as it came forward when she needed it. Eyes squeezed tightly shut she began hitting the bag, two times one fist, two times the other. She let the speed increase faster and faster, switching hands or just using one hand and when it got tired she switched it to the other. She pretended the bag was every person who had managed to disappoint or frustrate her. There were a lot of them.

Sweat collected near her hair and ran down her cheek. She grew warm and finally gave the bag one final hard hit before opening her eyes. The bag swung at break-neck speed back and forth on its hinge. She grinned, proud of herself.

“Well done.” Jennifer clapped her hands. “Do you switch tatùs as you punch?”

“I just used one.”

“Which one?”

“Devon’s.” Rae’s face grew warmer. She cringed, waiting for the tears to
start.

“Wardell’s?” Jennifer pressed her lips tight and nodded to herself. “I can see that. Good choice.”

“I didn’t actually choose it,” Rae said honestly. “My body automatically picks the tatù I need before I can even decide what’ll work best. It wasn’t like that in the beginning.”

“Interesting.” Jennifer tapped a finger against her chin. “Aright,” she said, clapping her hands together. “Let’s get working on the next drill. I just set the punching bag up because I figured you needed it. When I’m stressed, I find a good ass-kicking releases the frustration. When the bad guy’s not around to de-stress, I use the punching bag. I suggest you set one up at your place.”

Why does that not surprise me?
Rae liked the idea though. It made sense to her. “I’m still in the dorms. I’ll have to check with Madame Elpis if I can put one up. It’s not a bad idea.”

“I forgot you’re still in the dorms. There’s no living quarters onsite with the Privy Council so you should start thinking about where you want to live in three months. With the car you’re driving you are going to need a place with a garage.”

“It’s Julian’s car.” Rae followed Jennifer to the trampoline and watched her stack plyometric boxes on top of each other on one end. “Can I help?”

“I’ll be done in a sec.” Quick as a cat, Jennifer climbed the tall tower and placed one more box on top. “It’s a bit rickety, but just focus on balance as you climb up.” She climbed to the top box and pointed to the trampoline. “Then I want you to jump.”

“Why don’t I just get on the trampoline and start jumping?” Rae put her hands on the edge and started to lift herself up.

“No! I want you to do this…” Jennifer jumped and landed in the center of the trampoline. Her jump arced away and she flew through the air toward the other side of the gym. She spun around in two perfect flips and straightened to land on her feet. “Just like a cat.” She grinned at Rae. “Your turn.”

“No way! I can’t do that. I’ll break a leg!”
Or worse, my neck and end up paralyzed.

“Get up there. This isn’t a request.” Jennifer’s face hardened.

Rae started climbing, fear curdling her stomach as she went. At least she had a healing tatù to use – hopefully before she killed herself. Rae made her way up the stack of wooden boxes and stood precariously on the top. She looked down and closed her eyes.

Big mistake.

The boxes trembled and shook with her loss of focus on her balance. She shifted and spread her legs a little further apart, her eyes darting open and frantically looking around. Jennifer stood motioning her to jump. Rae gave a small shake of her head.
Not going to happen.

She didn’t have a choice. The boxes began to give way. She leapt off before the meager tower toppled and managed to land on the edge of the trampoline. Her body flew into the air, her arms and legs flailing in every direction. She went twice as high as Jennifer, at least it felt like that, and headed straight for the wall. The leopard tatù activated and just before she hit face first into it, she managed to get her feet running in front of her and pushed off the wall with both of them. She back flipped and finally landed on the ground, with her feet and hands. “L-Like a c-cat.”

Jennifer’s mouth hung open and her eyebrows had disappeared under her bangs.

Rae straightened and wiped her sweaty hands on her pants. She grinned. That had been freakin’ scary, but she’d landed on her feet. She had to admit, it had felt kind of thrilling.

“Why don’t we call it a day?” Jennifer blinked rapidly, her eyes still huge.

Rae wanted to laugh but held it in. It must have looked a lot worse than it had felt.

“I’ll clean up. We’ll meet tomorrow afternoon. I’ll text you the time and place.”

“Sounds good.” Rae jogged over to grab her jacket and bag. She glanced to see Jennifer’s hand press against her temple as she surveyed the mess.

Depression

Rae left the gym and headed back to her dorm room. As she drove, she couldn’t stop running the session with Jennifer over and over in her head. She wished she could hit stop and switch to a different train of thought, but it seemed impossible. Back at the dorm she slipped into her room and grabbed her toiletries. In the shower, the hot, hot water didn’t erase the tension in her shoulders.

She tried thinking about school. Had it only been yesterday she had classes? It felt like so much had happened in the past few days. Three months of school left and she would be done. Hard to believe.
Maybe Monday in the Oratory I’ll talk to Carter and see – Wait! The journal!
The Oratory reminded her of her father’s journal that she still hadn’t had a chance to read.

She jerked the shower handle to off and stepped out. Barely bothering to dry herself off, she shoved her clothes on and headed back to her room. She wanted to see what everyone wanted to see in that stupid journal.
Burning it in a fire might be the smartest thing to do. Then no one would ever know what was inside of it.

Molly crashed into Rae’s room. “Did you text him? What did he reply?” Her gorgeous mahogany hair swung side to side from the pony she had put it in. It seemed like the thick, wild mane was trying to escape. Rae had always envied her hair. She idly wondered if she could mimic it somehow now that she had a little power over hair?
Hmmm what would I look like with red hair though?
Rae’s mind wandered a little from the topic of conversation as she waited for Molly to take a breath and let her respond.

“Text who?” Rae pretended not to remember. The moment before Molly burst in, she had grabbed her father’s journal, hoping to have a look at it and then hide it in a very good hiding place. No chance of that now. She slid the journal between two textbooks on her desk as non-chal
lantly as she could. Molly was super-observant though, and she half expected to be called out on it.

“Luke, of course!”

“Oh yeah, I forgot.” She grabbed the top textbook and the journal and put them into her school backpack, zipping it up tight.
Better on me at all times than haphazardly hidden in my room.

Molly shook her head, her pony swinging wildly again. “Come on, Rae.” She held out her hand.

For one wild second Rae thought Molly was asking to see the journal and her heart rate kicked up as she wrapped her arm around her backpack possessively, trying to come up with a good excuse not to show Molly.

“Give me your phone.” She beckoned with her fingers.

Rae sighed with relief and plopped on the bed, tired from the crazy morning and suddenly hungry. The cafeteria had closed half an hour ago so she’d missed lunch. She would have to settle for the rest of her croissant and a bowl of cereal till dinner time. Rae pulled her phone out of the front pocket of her backpack and held it just out of Molly’s reach. “You’re not texting him.”

“Why not? You won’t.” Molly tried to grab the phone but missed. “I’d send you a zinger of electricity, but I did that to Nic this week and fried his phone.” Molly thought hard for a moment. It always amazed Rae how Molly’s mind worked. It barely took a moment before she snapped her fingers and pointed at Rae. “You let me text Luke for you, and I’ll give you the parcel which came in the post this morning for you.”

Rae sat up.
A parcel?
“You didn’t open it, did you?”

Molly pretended to look hurt. “I’m not
that
nosey! Really. It’s from your uncle. He shipped it from New York. It’s kinda heavy. I shook it but it wouldn’t move. It’s heavy and packed tight.”

“Where is it?”
Not nosey ‘eh?

“I’ll give it to you when you hand me your phone and Luke’s number.”

“That’s blackmail.”

Molly grinned mischievously. “Phone. Package. That’s the deal.”

Rae tossed Molly the phone and went to her coat to dig out Luke’s number. “You should work for the Privy Council in the negotiations department.” She glanced at her phone. “Please don’t say anything embarrassing. And DON’T tell him where we go to school!”

Molly ignored her, so Rae watched over Moll’s shoulder ready to rip the phone out of her hand if necessary. Molly put Luke’s number in the contacts and clicked on the SMS message link: HI LUKE, IT’S RAE and added a smiley face. She sent the message.

“That’s it?” Rae was puzzled. She tucked the phone in her pocket when Molly handed it back to her.

“Yup. Why write more? He gave you his number, now you’ve given him yours. The ball’s in his court.” Molly opened the door and dragged a box from around the corner into the room. “Here’s the parcel.” She sat on Rae’s desk chair. “If Luke replies back right away with some flirty message, he’s a womanizer, like he gives his number to every pretty girl he meets.”