Rattlesnake Ink
By A.J. Brown
A prequel to 'Pink Pads'


**Note to my readers: I write Custom Stories for those who enjoy my work that
would like a personal story written for them. Please email me at
ajbrown2005@yahoo.com if you would like more information on my Custom
Stories**

Dallas walked up to the bench press. There was a 45 pound plate on each side
of it. It had been like that for a while so he figured it was safe to use. He
figured he should try bench pressing before he left since there were four
benches and everyone seemed to be using one at one point. Most of the guys
were benching with at least two 45 pound plates on each side so he thought
just one on each side would be something he could handle his first time.

He looked at it. It still looked like a lot of weight. He felt too afraid to
ask one of these bigger guys to spot him so he figured it was better just to
start light and work his way up. He pulled the one plate off, it feeling a bit
heavier than he expected, and he took off the other one. He put a 25 pound
plate on each side.

He lay down on the bench. This really intimidated him, much more than any of
the other exercises he had done. He thought about that dude at the bar who
couldn't have been older than 22, throwing him down on the ground in front of
Betsy. She always told him how cute he was and he had pulled off the whole
cute, innocent thing around her for a couple of years. She didn't show any
embarrassment after the incident at the bar and even had sex with him that
night so all seemed good. But he still couldn't allow that to happen again.

He lifted the bar off of the bench and he was able to do his first rep but it
was a lot harder than he expected. He thanked God that he didn't try benching
that initial weight. He did another rep that was even harder but he managed to
do it. He did one more and thought he might be able to do another but he
wasn't taking any chances. He racked the bar thinking that bench pressing was
going to be a project for him.

When he sat up, standing there looking at him was that dude he had noticed
earlier. The dude was the only one in that gym who was close to Dallas's size.
He had muscular arms and a big chest and he thought he looked similar to what
Dallas would look like once he started lifting weights for a while. He had
been glad to see this dude because looking at all of the other guys in there
with their muscular, steroid looking bodies covered in tattoos made him feel
like he didn't belong in here. But now the dude was staring him down.

"I was using that bench," the dude said, a tone like he was trying to bully
him. Dallas had to start somewhere standing up for himself and he was just
glad it was this guy he had to and not anyone else in here.

"I-I had been watching it for a while and I didn't see anyone using it."
Dallas couldn't help but sound nervous. He was glad Betsy wasn't here to see
this. She didn't even know he had gotten a gym membership yet.

"Those weights that you took off. That means someone was using it. Now put it
back the way it was and beat it."

Dallas looked at the guy's body and could tell for sure that he looked just as
skinny as him at some point which made him a lot less intimidating. He could
tell he was trying to be tough like he had always been the smallest guy at the
gym but was finally getting his chance not to be.

"You weren't here for a while," Dallas said. "I can come find you when I'm
done."

The dude grabbed Dallas by the wrist and when he started twisting his arm
behind his back, he discovered that this guy has a much greater strength
advantage than Dallas had initially guessed. He was overpowered having no idea
how to fight back against this and as he started to whine he realized he was
going to have to give up.

"Hey!" he heard a guy say. "Let him go, Brando."

Dallas looked up expecting to see a gym employee but all of the ones he had
seen had been wearing a black collared shirt with the gym's name on it. This
guy was wearing a black t-shirt with a trippy looking skull on it and a pair
of brown shorts. He had to be 6'5 and he was fairly thin for a guy that tall.
He had wavy hair and long, thick sideburns.

"Why don't you mind your own business, Preston," Brando said to the tall guy.
He loosened up a bit but still held Dallas's arm. It was almost more
humiliating for Dallas just being casually held like that.

"Why don't you leave the guy alone?" Preston said.

"Guy took my bench!" Brando said defensively. He twisted Dallas's arm more but
it almost seemed like he was doing it out of nervousness. "I had my weights on
there."

Preston stuck out his chest a little bit. "I saw you, you were working around
on other machines and left this one open for a while. You can't just hog it
like that. Unless you want a nice kick to the gut, you better let go of him
and walk away."

Still feeling Brando twisting his arm and watching Preston step towards him
looking ready to go at it, Dallas feared being in the middle of a brawl,
almost wondering if he preferred getting his arm twisted a bit longer. But
then he felt his arm get released and thought he heard Brando backing off
behind him.

"You keep doing your karate," Brando said and Dallas turned his head to see
him starting to walk away. "Wait 'til I've been doing these a few years, I'll
throw you right through that wall."

"Love to see you try that any time you think you're big and strong enough,"
Preston said.

"You're not getting any younger either old man," Brando said. Dallas didn't
think Preston could be older than 45. "You just wait."

"If I'm still alive when I'm eighty I'll still be able to fuck you up. Muscles
get weaker. Karate stays with you forever."

Dallas didn't think that this would actually be over until he saw Brando
finally walk away.

"Ya alright?" Preston said to him gently.

Dallas's eyes watered up a bit, something that often happened to him the rare
times that someone showed concern for him.

"Yeah, I'm good."

"Don't worry about that dude. He's been coming here a couple months, thinks
he's tough shit because his bench press has improved a little bit. He only
started with you because he's finally found someone he's bigger then. You just
start lifting?"

"Yup," Dallas said, feeling a bit embarrassed to be told he was smaller than
the guy Preston was just talking down a bit.

"Just liftin' ain't gonna make you any tougher. Doesn't work for skinny dudes
like you and me, anyway. I run a karate class that meets here every Tuesday.
We train in the aerobics room back there. You should come check it out
sometime. Only five bucks a class if you have a membership here. I tried
getting your friend Brando there to join a couple weeks ago but he didn't want
to hear it. You train with me for one year I bet you'll be able to take on
over half the dudes in this gym."

"That sounds pretty cool," Dallas said, hoping this would be the end of it.
"Probably not ready for anything like that yet. I'm just so small right now I
really want to focus on putting on some muscle. Especially before I start
trying to work out with a bunch of karate guy experts."

"You don't gotta be strong. Better that you're not, so you won't be tempted to
use it. Right now it's just a bunch of girls I'm training. Just regular size
girls but they can kick some ass. I'm pretty good at teaching small people how
to fight." Dallas said nothing, not wanting to insult this big guy by telling
him he had no interest in training with a bunch of girls. "I know it doesn't
sound too badass training with a bunch of chicks." Preston spoke gently still,
and it was almost like he had read Dallas's mind. "But if I can make them
tough I can make you a fucking machine. Give me one month, that's four
classes. If it's not for you, totally cool, you can go back to doing this and
you won't hear a word about it from me again. But I promise you, if you're
looking to get tough, you'll have a lot more luck training with me than
lifting out here with these roided up goons. Just give it a shot."

Being a wimp made Dallas not very good at saying no, especially to someone
bigger than him that obviously wasn't going to take no for an answer. Training
with a bunch of girls didn't seem all that bad when he thought about it.
Better to be one of the tougher ones in the class than being the wimp joining
a karate class with a bunch of guys that would probably just rough him around
the entire time. Plus, being around a bunch of chicks shouldn't be so bad. He
loved Betsy. He planned on marrying Betsy. But he didn't see harm in having a
few other options, just in case.

**

He tried to play it cool as he walked in the front door. Betsy was obviously
going to notice right away and he didn't want to have a smirk on his face when
she did. He wished he didn't even have to wear a tank-top showing it off but
the tattoo artist suggested he give it as much time to breathe as possible.

"Hey cute boy," he heard Betsy say once he was inside. Her back was turned to
him at first and he wondered if he could sneak right by her without her
noticing. But she turned around. "What is that?" she said, a little curious, a
little accusingly.

"A rattlesnake," he said, as he pointed to his right upper arm, trying to play
it off cool.

"You just decided you wanted to get a tattoo?"

"I've been thinking about it for a while." That was true, though it hadn't
been something Dallas had been really serious about it, so he had saw no
reason to mention it to her. But just about every guy at the gym yesterday was
inked up. If he was about to join a karate class with a bunch of chicks he
wanted to walk in there with something that made him look a little tough. None
of these girls knew him and the t-shirt he wore at the gym the day before
covered where his new tat was so Preston wouldn't know the difference either.

"You got a gym membership, now you got a tattoo. What else you have going on
you're going to surprise me with?"

"Joining a karate class."

She laughed, but not in a mean way. "Wow. What brought that on?"

"Guy that runs the class goes to the gym too. Told me about it, figured I'd
check it out." His incident with Brando and the fact that it was all girls in
the class other than the instructor were both details he knew he needed to
leave out.

"My little cute boy turning into a badass." He stood at 6'1, 8 inches taller
than his beautiful girlfriend, before she still weighed about 5 pounds more
than him and often called him her little cute boy. He had pulled off being
called cute and little by her for years. He knew it was a nice way of calling
him a wimp but it worked for them. He normally liked it when she said that but
at that moment he didn't.

"Very nice tattoo, baby," she said genuinely. "But I still love those
eyelashes about you the most." She moved in and gave him a kiss. He loved this
girl so much. He needed to get up the courage to ask her to marry him soon.

**

He walked inside the dojo, the tank top he had on showing off his new ink
making him feel a lot more confident entering than he would have been
otherwise. He saw Preston working with one girl and the instructor had been
right. Him and Preston were the only males in that room. He looked around at
the girls that were in there warming up, some working in pairs, others alone.
None of them paid any notice to the new guy walking in as they were all
focused on their karate. He saw maybe 6 women in there of all different ages,
races, and levels of attractiveness.

"What's up, Dallas," Preston said as he approached him with a smile. "Glad you
were able to make it." They shook hands.

"Appreciate you having me."

"Forgot to tell you that you'll need to get yourself a gi. We've got some
spare ones in that closet. They're all clean. You can go grab one and put it
on for this class. Grab a white belt too and put it on."

Dallas did what he was told, a little bummed he was covering up his new ink,
but then walked back to Preston.

"The girls are just doing a bit of warming up now before we get started. Those
two girls right there are Cheyenne and Shawntay."

"They just kids?"

"They're younger, they're both eighteen. Gotta be at least eighteen years old
to train in this dojo. Over there is Laurie. That's Alison. That's Veena. And
that's LaChalle."

Dallas was extremely good with names and he was confident he'd remember every
one of them. He heard the dojo door open again and saw another girl walking
in. The other girls all either wore white or green belts, except Cheyenne who
wore a brown belt, but this girl walking in wore a black gi like Preston did
and she also had a black belt. Unlike Preston's which had a lot of stripes on
it, probably indicating all of his accomplishments as a black belt, this
girl's belt was just straight black. She had a brutish look on her face as she
looked forward, paying no attention to anyone. She looked to be in her early
twenties. She held a bow in one hand and a motorcycle helmet in the other. Her
bare feet were thick but they looked surprisingly soft.

"That's Samantha," Preston said, pointing to her. "She's your other
instructor." He turned away from Dallas. "Alright everyone, line up!" he
called and then looked back at Dallas. "Make sure you line up in the back
since you're new. We're just going to warm up with some stretching. Once we're
done with that, we'll pair up for some drills. I work with you for those."

They lined up with Preston and Samantha facing the class with Cheyenne
standing in a line by herself in front of the rest of them. The green belts
were in line in front of the white belts. Dallas ended up behind the green
belt Laurie that looked to be in her mid-forties. When they were doing a
stretch he saw her leg kicked out and noticed that she had really sexy looking
feet for a middle-aged women, small, soft, and she wore dark blue toenail
polish. Being in a room with this many females was turning him on a bit but
with all of them wearing gis covering up most of their bodies, feet was all
that he had to look at.

Drill time was called and they began walking up and down the dojo paired up
with each other, one partner throwing punches at the other who was throwing up
blocks. "Come on, a little harder than that," Preston said. "Don't worry,
you're not going to hurt me."

Dallas did his best to throw harder punches and was glad to get a breather
when they had walked up to the wall. As Preston called out tips to the class,
Samantha observed the young girls Cheyenne and Shawntay. Cheyenne had to be as
tall as the 6'1 Dallas. She had a pretty face with extremely stunning eyes and
long blond hair. Shawntay couldn't have been more than 5'4 and both girls
looked thin. As Preston spoke, Dallas watched Cheyenne start punching Shawntay
on the top of the head. She smiled and played it off like she was playing
around but even though she wasn't hitting the girl with full force, her
punches looked hard. Shawntay had her hands up trying to protect her head but
the much taller Cheyenne was able to just look down at her and find different
opening where she could punch. When Dallas saw that Shawntay's eyes had
watered up he felt it to be quite the disturbing scene watching this tall,
beautiful white girl who also struck Dallas as the kind of girl that came from
some money, picking on a shorter black girl.

Preston called for everyone to go back the other way and now Dallas had to
walk backwards as he did his best to block Preston's punches and kicks that
weren't coming in at full force but enough where Dallas had to be on his toes
because he knew if he took his eyes away for a second he'd eat a hard fist or
foot to his body.

As class progressed, they worked on some different drills. At one point
Preston called for everyone to line up to do their kata, a term that Dallas
wasn't familiar with. Preston took him aside to teach him his first kata while
Samantha counted kata for the rest of the class. Learning kata was Dallas's
favorite part of the class up to that point as he liked getting the workout
and learning the moves without the physical contact.

"Alright, everyone get your pads on!" Preston called out and then he looked
down at Dallas with the look on his face like he didn't know what was going
on. "Forgot to tell you to get yourself some pads too. We got some of those in
that basket over there you can use this time."

"Uh, what am I supposed to do?" Dallas said nervously.

"Just put on some pads and partner up with someone. Do your best. We're just
doing some basic sparring, not trying to kill each other. Incorporate the
stuff that we learned in class today the best you can. See how you do."

Dallas's preference would have been to partner with Preston for this like as
well but when Preston walked away from him, he could tell that wasn't going to
happen. He walked over to the basket which was filled with light gloves, foot
pads, head gear, and even a couple of chest protectors. He got ready to gear
up but when he looked at everyone else and saw no one was wearing anything
other than gloves, he didn't want to look like the wuss so he just put the
gloves on as well. Once he did, it seemed most everyone had a partner.
Cheyenne walked up to him now looking like a shy 18-year-old, a half-smile on
her face.

"Sensei told me to partner with you," she said with her voice girly and she
was speaking so quietly he could barely hear her.

He looked at the pretty look on her face, her long hair that was in a
ponytail, her girly bare feet, with long toes making them look like they were
probably a size 11. She wore a brown belt but she definitely didn't intimidate
him the way one of those guys out in the gym would if they were wearing a
brown belt and he was about to fight them.

"So we're just lightly fighting with each other?" Dallas asked.

"Yeah, just sparring," she said, still speaking so quiet and shy that Dallas
couldn't believe he was in a class with that was supposed to be toughening him
up, about to spar with this girl. "Just punch, kick, and block. It's OK if you
make contact, we just try not to hit each other too hard though."

"Alright, everyone ready?" Preston called out and Dallas saw that he was
partnered with Veena. He looked at everyone else getting in their fighting
position. "We'll do a two minute round. Fight!"

Cheyenne raised her fists up in front of her face looking like she was
disinterested. Dallas raised his fists and the two moved around a bit. She
lifted her leg and he didn't know what to do when her long leg began extending
and the soft bottom of her bare foot was coming right at his face. The
practicing with Preston hadn't prepared him at all for the kick from this
long-legged girl. The best he was able to do was back up a bit. Her soft sole
just barely pushed into his face but it still felt like it pushed his jaw out
of place a little bit.

This girl wasn't messing around. He raised his fists to protect his face
better. He looked into her eyes, they looked so pretty, but now looking into
them he could see that this girl was totally OK with hurting him. He was going
to have to really fight here. He threw a punch at her face and when she
blocked it and their forearms collided, her thin arm hurt his a lot more than
he ever would have thought it could.

She came back with a punch and even though they were the same height, her
limbs seemed really long when they were coming in. Her fist connected with his
face hard enough where he was glad that she had the glove on. Her other fist
came in and right after it struck his nose he saw the smirk on her pretty face
which made him hate her at that moment.

When was this two minutes going to be up? Sensei had told him to use what he
had learned during their drills but his mind was drawing a blank. As he saw
Cheyenne throwing a hammer fist at his head he instinctively raised his arms
in an x-block just like Sensei had taught him. He felt Cheyenne's arm hit the
center of the X he had created and it hurt like hell. But he had blocked it.
One of the moves Sensei taught him had worked at it felt good.

But Cheyenne kept pushing down at his arms. He didn't know where her skinny
arm was getting that strength from but with that one arm she started pushing
him down, his skinny legs shaking as he tried to keep himself on his feet. Now
as she was forcing his knees to bend he saw her standing above him, looking
down at him and looking powerful. He continued to try and resist but she
managed to force him down on his knees.

She finally pulled her arm away but she looked down at him with a glare like
she knew she had defeated him. He started to get up looking humbled that he
was 28-years-old and had just gotten beaten by an 18-year-old girl. Once he
was up, she raised her fists again. He raised his with any confidence he may
have had going away. She threw a crescent kick at his head that he was just
barely able to back out of the way of. She kicked his side and he started to
back up. Now he watched those size 11 bare feet of hers keep coming at him as
he backed off. After taking a few kicks and having no idea how to defend
against them, he really wanted to be out of here.

"Alright, time!" Sensei called, much to Dallas's relief. "Grab a quick drink
and find a new partner."

Dallas got some water and made sure to stay away from Alison who was also
about the same height as him but looked like she had a good 30 pounds on him
as well. He saw the woman Laurie, who only stood at about 5'2, didn't have a
partner yet. She looked like a nice one to play it safe with. He got his body
in front of her and pointed at her then him.

"Sure," she said.

She had light brown straight hair showing some hints of gray. Her face was
attractive for a woman her age, though she had a serious, somewhat bitchy look
on it. She looked like the kind of woman who was hard to joke with, impossible
to flirt with, and one that you wouldn't ask on a date unless you were
prepared to really kiss her ass. He looked down at the top of her soft feet
and thought how if he was just looking at her feet he would have guessed her
to be probably 15 years younger.

"Everyone ready?" Sensei said. "Fight."

Keeping the straight look on her face, Laurie raised her fists, and she didn't
look to have any fear of sparring with this tall new guy that she knew nothing
about. He thought how Cheyenne had used her long limbs to beat him and being
almost a foot taller than Laurie, he should be able to take advantage of the
same to beat her, even if she was a higher belt.

He threw a kick at her and quickly felt how his legs didn't have the
flexibility that Cheyenne's did, feeling a weird, painful twist in his leg as
he did. Laurie looked awkward as she did it being so short but she pushed on
his shin, pushing his leg back down. Looking at how much shorter she was, he
threw a hammer fist at her head. She raised her arm up to block it fairly
easily but he did push her back a couple of steps.

She backed up a few more steps making him start to think he was in control.
She then charged at him grabbed the sleeves of his shirt, and the small woman
felt a lot stronger than he would have guessed. He tried to pull his arms
free, unable to, and she kicked her left leg forward and used it to sweep his
legs from behind. As she did that, his taller, flimsy body felt helpless. He
flopped backwards and the back of his whole body hit the wooden floor hard.

The first thing he saw when he looked forward was her soft, mature feet with
the dark blue toenail polish on them. He looked up the legs of her gi, passed
her green belt, not having to look up very high before he got to the face of
this woman, almost a foot shorter than him, looking down at the guy she had
knocked down.

He looked around at everyone else fighting on their feet and he jumped to his
feet. Laurie got in a fighting stance and still feeling the pain on the back
of his head from the impact, he was hesitant to move forward. Laurie charged
at him again and he planted his feet trying to stand his ground. She grabbed
him again and he had to assume the gi hid that she was thicker than she looked
because he could tell she was stronger than he was. She swept his legs out
from under him again and threw him back on the floor.

He did a quick glace of her soft feet before looking back up at her face and
the uninterested look like she didn't care and wasn't surprised that she was
able to do this to him bothered him more than if she had been laughing at him.
He jumped back to his feet and got a fiery look on his face, hoping that would
scare her a bit, but he was unable to fluster her as she stood her ground. The
look on her face now suggested that she was actually a bit angry that he was
fired up which angered him more.

He charged at her and even though she flinched and took a step back, she stood
her ground. He grabbed the sleeves of her gi at the shoulders and could feel
how strong her body felt when he tried to take her down. He kicked his leg
forward then swung it back, trying to sweep her. His calf was pushing against
hers trying to take her down and it looked like they were dancing as they held
each other and had their legs locked trying to sweep the other one. His
frustration increased when he couldn't do it.

After their legs swung back and forth a bit more, she put more into it, swept
his leg, and threw him to the floor again, his shoulder hitting first and it
was especially painful. Looking at her looking down at him made him feel
pressure to get up even though he didn't want to after that. He slowly got to
his feet feeling pain in various parts of his body.

He watched Laurie get in a fighting stance, the gloves on her hands, and those
soft bare feet of the woman that was beating him up. He put his fists up,
reluctant to attack, and the two moved around a little. He saw her charging
him with full confidence now. As short as she was, he just didn't know how to
defend against this. She grabbed him, swept his leg, and threw him down with
ease, his eyes now watered up as he looked up at the woman that had taken him
down 4 times now.

"Alright, time!" Sensei called, much to Dallas's relief.

Laurie simply walked away while Dallas got up from the floor to get himself
some water. This time he was going right for the easiest one he could find. He
walked towards Shawntay who was maybe an inch taller than Laurie but she
definitely looked thinner. Most importantly, she was also a white belt, and
since he saw her getting pushed around by Cheyenne, he felt confident that she
wasn't tough.

"You wanna?" he said as she got in front of her and pointed to the both of
them.

"Aight," she said.

They both got in their fighting position as he tried not to be embarrassed
that he had to focus so hard to fight this small, young girl. Preston called
for them to start. He threw a punch at her and she threw up a successful
block. When she blocked his next punch he wondered if his height advantage was
actually a disadvantage against these women. He didn't have enough confidence
to throw kicks at them and punching any lower than their heads was too much of
a reach so it seemed like they could block his punches easily.

She punched back, he barely blocked it, he punched back and she blocked it,
and she connected with her next punch in his ribs which hurt enough to send
him back a couple of steps. She moved towards him and as he was about to throw
a punch, she reached up put her hands on his shoulder, and put her leg behind
his. She didn't feel strong like Laurie had but she pushed on his shoulder at
the same time she swept his leg, not doing it with much force, but doing it
with a swiftness that immediately sent him on his ass.

The fall didn't hurt nearly as much as when Laurie had thrown him on the
ground but it was plenty humiliating and when he saw her shiny white teeth as
she smiled at him, he jumped back up. He through a quick punch back at her,
feeling frustrated when she blocked it, and just as she did, she put her other
hand on his shoulder. Before he knew it, she swept his leg, pushed him, and
knocked him down on his ass again.

Against Laurie he had just been trying to survive but with the way he was
getting pushed down by a smaller girl who didn't even look like she was
putting much effort into it, he found himself really hoping that no one else
was watching this. He got up carefully, afraid she might knock him down before
he was standing up all of the way, but she respectfully let him up. Once he
was on his feet, with no hesitation, Shawntay went at him the same way and she
was so smooth about it at this point that even though he saw it coming, he
couldn't stop it and she sent him back on his ass. When he got back up, he
looked very hesitant.

"I won't knock you down again," she said in a friendly way that made him feel
touched and embarrassed at the same time.

"Thanks," he said humbled.

The two then began throwing light punches and kicks at each other, some of
them getting through, some blocked, but none of them were painful. Dallas
started to think that this was how he thought sparring should be when she
extended her skinny leg with a rather aggressive kick towards his stomach. He
was able to back up from it a little bit but there was enough connection for
it to hurt. Shawntay now seemed to be getting excited as she came at him with
another kick, forcing him to back up more, and the white belt had better kicks
for a beginner than he did.

Her feet kept coming at him and he was helpless to do anything about it as she
was too quick and he was having trouble blocking them with her legs being
stronger than his arms and the one block he did get off causing him more pain
then when he just backed up from the kicks. She now had a smile on her face as
she was throwing one kick after and backing him up. He felt his back hit the
wall and he saw her getting ready to kick him again, with him having nowhere
to go.

"Time!" Sensei said.

"Good job," Shawntay said with a laugh that seemed somewhat like a friendly
laugh and somewhat like she was laughing at him.

"Last round," Sensei said which made Dallas feel some relief. "Grab a quick
drink then grab a partner."

Dallas saw Samantha approaching him. "I'll work with you this time," she said
with a bit of a smile. "How's it going so far?"

"Not too bad," he said, feeling a bit relieved to be partnering with one of
the instructors that would actually teach him and now just beat on him.

"Let's see how well you know how to fight," she said. Shaking out her body a
bit as she did it, she raised her fists and the way she moved she just looked
a lot more natural at this than the other girls had. He looked down at her
soft, kind of chunky, bare feet and her toenails without any nail polish on.

"Fight!" Sensei called.

Samantha moved around and behind her fists that she had covering most of her
face, Dallas was able to see a look of focus on her face that the other women
hadn't had. She moved around and he could tell she was waiting for him to do
something but he didn't feel confident he was getting a punch by that blockade
of her arms and fists.

Thinking his only shot was if he got closer to her, he moved in. She lifted
her leg and used the bottom of her bare foot to push him away from her. He was
able to feel the strength in her leg when she did it. He moved around a bit
and she used the bottom of her foot to push him back a bit more. Feeling his
ego bruised that she was using her feet to push him around he tried to move in
closer. She started kicking him more rapidly, just playfully pushing on his
body with the bottom of her feet. It prevented him from getting too close and
he feared that if he tried getting more aggressive then she would and those
kicks would start to hurt more. She spent a bit more time toying with him
using her feet just to keep pushing him back and changing his direction.

"Come on, hit me," she said, her feet finally looking like they were going to
stay on the floor. He threw a punch towards her face that she brushed away by
just swiping her arm aside like it was a windshield wiper then rotating it
right back in front of her face. The pain in his forearm seemed to be on a bit
of a delay this time as it started to worsen. She had been so mechanical about
that first one that he didn't have any kind of motivation to try and hit her
again.

"Hit me!" she said in a forceful way that made him feel like he was getting
disciplined by the instructor and he better listen to her.

He threw a harder punch and this time he felt the pain right away when their
forearms collided. She extended her right leg pushing the bottom of her bare
foot right into his stomach hard and forcing him to back-step a few steps,
feeling awfully close to falling. She threw a kick where she was able to wind
her foot past his hip and she kicked him in the butt. She then did the same
thing on the other side.

Her fists still protected her face and he backed up more, looking humiliated
as she dominated him with her bare feet. She continued to deliver those kicks
past his hips, kicking him in the butt over and over again, and he had no idea
how to defend against it, looking lost. She threw him off, kicking him in the
front of his hip which got him to turn to the side. He felt his shoulder hit
the wall, not even realizing he had been close to it, and with a better angle
now, she started kicking him in the ass repeatedly.

He randomly did a quick look around the dojo and saw a few standing punching
bags lined up against the wall in another part of the dojo. He felt like one
of them as Samantha's foot was just coming at him like it was practice for
her, and he just stood there taking it like one of the punching bags would.

He looked at the smug look on Samantha's face as she kicked him, looking like
she knew she could do this, and looking like she was pleased about it. He had
had enough and he lunged at her. He had hoped he would catch her off-guard but
as she swiftly repositioned herself when she saw him coming, it was like she
knew it was coming before he did it. He was still lunging as she had her arms
out, there was no turning back. She caught him once he was close to her and he
felt her arms around him, embracing him. She then bent down and slammed him.

He felt his shoulder blades hit the wooden floor first but then immediately
felt the back of his head and the rest of his body slam against the wooden
floor. His entire body shook and he felt like he could feel his skeleton
rattling around underneath his skin before the pain shot throughout his body.
It wasn't just pain but a disgusting feeling as his body had never been rocked
like that before.

He got ready to scream for help, terrified of this woman, and wanting Preston
to come save him the same way he had from Brando. But he then got distracted
as he saw Samantha's bare foot coming towards her face, not like she was going
to kick him, but like she was going to push it right on his face.

The thought of this put Dallas's pain in the back of his mind, although he
could still feel it. There was no way he was going to let her degrade him by
putting her foot on his face so he turned his face away from her and her foot.
He lay there hoping it would stop but then saw the sole of her bare foot,
above his face so close that he could see some little pieces of dirt from the
floor on it. He turned his head back towards her and she moved her foot back
above his face again.

"Kiss it," she said. He wanted to scream, now feeling bullied to a level he
never could have imagined. He lay there, feeling the pain she had already
caused him from head to toe, not even sure if he was going to be able to stand
up whenever this was finally over with, and preparing for that inevitable
moment that he was going to have to kiss her foot to add insult to injury.

"Time!" he heard Preston call, much to his relief. But he quickly discovered
he wasn't as safe as he thought as Samantha pushed the bottom of her foot into
his face, giving him the full experience of that soft, meaty bare foot, that
had collected some dojo dirt on it from about 90 minutes of karate.

She pulled her foot up and he looked up at the satisfaction on her face,
knowing that she could get away with this while he thought that as a black
belt in the class she should have shown more maturity. The fact that he
couldn't do anything about that bothered him more as he had to look at her
feet for a bit longer before she finally walked away.

"Everyone line up," Preston said and from the ground Dallas watched Samantha
go to the front of the group, feeling distaste for her. He slowly started to
get up, his entire body in pain, and he felt a headache as well, worst in the
spot where the back of his head had hit the floor. Not wanting to be whining
for Preston's help in front of all of these girls was the only thing that
motivated him to push through the pain, get up, and walk over to the group.

"Kneel down," Preston said to the class. "Close your eyes. Breathe. Focus on
your breathing. Get everything from today out of your system. And just
breathe."

As Dallas looked at the blackness behind his eyelids and felt the air coming
out of his nose, still feeling the parts of his body that had been punched,
kicked, and knocked on the wooden floor, he thought about how all of that
happened to him at the mercy of a bunch of women. Losing to Samantha didn't
bother him too much though the fact that she had dominated him with her feet
the way she had made him feel violated in a weird way. It was the other 3, two
girls that were still teenagers, and a middle-aged woman had easily beaten him
up. He didn't want to come back here and experience that again, yet it was a
wake-up call that he had to.

"Open your eyes," he heard Preston say, and he did so. "We'll see you all next
week."

**

"How was karate class, cute boy?" Betsy said soon after it walked in the door.
He could still feel the pain in his body but the end of class meditation and
his drive home seemed to have relaxed his body to the point where even though
the pain was very much there, it felt like his mind was tuning it out. "You
all tough now?"

"Still got a little ways to go before that," he said, hoping the subject would
get dropped before she started trying to get too much information from him. As
she approached him with her beautiful smile with her arms out, he was pretty
sure that wasn't going to be an issue.

"I bet you have a long, long ways," she teased as she embraced him. As they
kissed he thought about Laurie throwing him on the ground, Shawntay telling
him she wouldn't push him on the ground, and Samantha kicking him in the ass
before body slamming him. He wished Betsy would stop with the teasing.

**

Dallas walked in the door doing a quick scan of the dojo but he didn't see
Preston anywhere. He did see Samantha sitting on the floor. She wore her black
gi pants but on the top she wasn't wearing her gi, just a skin-tight black
tank top. Her arms and shoulders looked thick and strong. Instead of being
barefoot this time, he had on navy blue fuzzy socks. She was talking to
Cheyenne and Shawntay about something. Getting busy over the past week,
getting a gi had slipped his mind. He told himself that getting to walk into
the dojo one more time wearing a wife-beater and being able to show off his
tat to the girls wasn't the worst thing but for some reason, seeing all these
girls in here without Preston here, made him want to be in a gi as soon as
possible.

He had started making his way over towards the basket when Samantha popped out
of nowhere. She stood to his side and when he tried to walk by, she lifted her
leg and extended it so her blue fuzzy socked foot blocked his path. He tried
to walk in a different direction but she shifted and used her other foot to
block him. He tried moving in another direction but she was shifting too
quickly as she blocked his progress with her socked foot again.

"Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do," she sang, singing the chorus of 'Tom's Diner' as
she continued to move around and block his progress with her socked feet. He
looked to see Cheyenne laughing as she did it which made him want to get away
from Samantha even more. But she was too quick and she continued to block his
path with her socked feet as she sang, while Cheyenne watched and laughed. She
finally stopped and walked away, looking proud of what she had done. Seeing
Cheyenne laughing didn't make matters any better for him.

"You don't gotta take that from her," Shawntay said popping out of nowhere
once Samantha and Cheyenne had walked away. "She's got good karate but you're
still a man and you could take her if you had to. After class you should go
kick her ass in the parking lot for doing that to you."

Just the thought of confronting Samantha outside alone in the dark parking lot
without the safety of Preston and other gym staff around made him feel a
cowardliness that he would never admit.

"Alright," he said, almost in a mumble, knowing he had no intention of doing
so.

"Heh-heh, I'm kidding, don't do that," she said. "You don't want to mess with
her. I've seen some tough people in my day and Samantha's tougher than all of
'em." She stared in his eyes and he couldn't tell if she was waiting for a
response or just trying to see if she thought he believed her. "All of 'em!"
she said more forcefully. "She wants to humiliate you with her feet like that,
you just gotta take it."

"Everyone ready?" Dallas heard Preston call out and he wondered how long he
had been in there. "Line up!"

**

After over an hour of working one-on-one with Preston, Dallas was feeling good
about himself. He would have been fine with strictly working with Preston the
rest of the way, he was feeling quicker and like the moves Preston had been
showing him made a lot of sense. He thought about Preston, Samantha, and
Cheyenne doing katas earlier and how much better they looked at them than the
rest of the class. Preston's moves looked especially swift and Dallas could
totally see himself someday being one of the ones in the front of the class
with just a smooth, badass looking kata that the rest of the class looked up
to. Whether he got tough in the process or not, he thought that would be
pretty cool.

But that portion of the class was over now and now it was time for everyone to
start partnering up for sparring. He knew that he did not want to partner with
either Laurie or Samantha so he made it a point to not even make eye-contact
with them. He thought Shawntay wouldn't have been a bad one to partner with,
even though she beat him, at least she showed the courtesy not to rough him up
too much. But when he spotted her he saw that she was already partnered with
Cheyenne with Cheyenne playfully punching her on the top of the head, making
him wonder why Shawntay would want to partner with her.

He saw Veena hadn't partnered with anyone yet and since her name wasn't Laurie
or Samantha he moved towards her. "You want to?" he said to her as he waved
his finger back and forth between the two of them.

"Sure," she said sweetly and quietly. The fact that her gi and white belt also
looked fairly shiny and new made him feel fairly comfortable about this. The
Indian girl had a little thickness to her but she didn't look very strong. Her
innocent looking smile made it hard for him to think she could be too mean to
him.

"I'm Dallas," he said, and he started to reach his hand out to offer to shake
hands, then awkwardly retracted when he remembered they both had their gloves
on.

"Veena," she said so quietly with a mumble. He definitely wouldn't have been
able to make out what she said if he didn't already know her name.

"Get ready, everyone," Preston said. "Fight."

Dallas could tell that Veena was going to be less aggressive than his prior
opponents just by the casual way she raised her fists and the fact that she
still had a bit of an innocent smile on her face. The two of them moved around
a bit and when Dallas could see how reluctant she looked to throw a punch, he
also figured that he looked the same. When some time passed with neither of
them throwing a strike, he threw a jab at her face. Being used to his previous
opponents, and still a little fired up with the speed he was developing doing
kata, he felt his fist drive right into her face.

"Oh, sorry!" he said instinctively.

"It's OK," she said nicely, and it looked like it genuinely didn't bother her.

They moved around some more and she looked like she wasn't going to throw a
punch. He considered just moving around like she was until the time ran out
without any punches being thrown but then he thought that was too passive even
for him. He threw another punch at her face, this one a bit softer, and he
paid for it by having her block it. The fact that she was still smiling
humiliated him a bit and he threw a punch a bit harder that also got blocked.

The two danced around some more. This was a weak girl but he could feel his
first sparring 'victory' coming and he had to capitalize. He threw a punch at
her ribs, thinking he'd throw her off, and he felt proud of himself when it
connected. His next punch came in a little higher. He felt bad when he felt
his fist push into her breast but she looked like she actually liked it a bit.

But then he was caught off guard when her fist came right back and he felt it
strike him in the nose, making his eyes water a little. "Oh sorry," she said
genuinely.

"It's alright," he said, trying to show as little weakness as possible despite
having his eyes watered up.

The look on her face suggesting she had gotten over it already and her
fighting stance now looked a bit improved. She threw another punch at his face
and when he felt it connect he thought about how bad his defense was. He fired
back with a punch, this time throwing it right at her boob thinking if it
worked last time it would work again, but this time she was ready and blocked
it easily. He saw her face looked wide open, threw a punch there, but she
quickly got both hands up to block. She fired back with a punch at his face
that she didn't put much force behind, but the form of it was so excellent
that it still looked like it was coming in hard to block. Her fist went right
between his arms as he brought them up and she punched him in the mouth. He
was able to get his hands up to block her next punch but it was hard enough
where it sent him back a step. The next punch of hers that came in that he
blocked sent him back two steps. He was now off-balance and in full defense
mode, not quick enough to block her next punch which hit him in the chest
enough to hurt. Her next punch hit his ribs and the next hit his chest.

"Time!" Sensei called, much to Dallas's relief. "Get a quick drink."

"Good one," Dallas said as she offered his glove for Veena to fist bump. He
meant it too. He could take losing as long as the opponent wasn't going crazy
on him trying to hurt him or throw him on the ground.

"Thank you," she said, sounding bashful like she was being complimented for
the first time in the class, as she reciprocated with the fist bump.

Dallas went over to get a quick drink, thinking how he'd be fine with working
with Preston every class, and then doing a little sparring with Veena. When he
was done with his water he saw Veena had partnered with Shawntay for the next
round and Preston had partnered with Cheyenne. He saw Laurie looking around
for a partner and he quickly looked away from her. When he saw Samantha
looking at him he looked away even quicker and knew he had to find a partner
fast. Alison was still standing there available. Like Cheyenne, Alison stood
as tall as Dallas was, but unlike the skinny Cheyenne, Alison looked like she
had a good thirty pounds on him. She had long brown hair and her sleeves were
rolled up and she had a few tattoos on her chubby forearms. Dallas quickly
made his way over to her to secure this white belt as a partner.

"Go!" Sensei said.

Once Alison raised her thick arms up, Dallas thought he may have jumped the
gun too fast rushing to get her as a partner. He hadn't seen this combination
of thickness and height yet and as he looked at her he thought that even
without and karate she could just charge at him and knock him on his ass.

He tried throwing a hook punch around to the side of her head but she very
mechanically moved her arm over and blocked it, not using any speed, but her
mechanics being good enough where she didn't need it. She calmly moved her arm
back to where it was and even though she was just standing there, she looked
like someone who was going to be very difficult to attack.

He threw another punch at her head that she blocked so easily, she looked like
she could have done it with her eyes closed. The gis made it tough to tell
what kind of bodies most of these women had underneath them but even with the
gi on, Dallas could tell that Alison had a flabby belly, enough flab to soften
any punches he threw down there.

Being distracted by looking down at her stomach and considering it, he wasn't
ready when her fist came swinging at his face, and he was barely able to back
out of the way of it. He wasn't as ready for the next one and her big fist
bopped him on the head. Feeling dizzy and like his off-balance would cause him
to fall at any moment, he was surprised he was staying on his feet, and even
when her next punch in came and knocked him in the head, he still managed to
stay on his feet.

He looked at this big, younger girl standing there casually like beating up an
older guy wasn't a big deal for her and for some reason that look on her face
made him angry. He looked at her trying to think about how he was going to
attack but there was something about her big body with her thick arms out in
front of her that made her look really intimidating to throw a punch or a kick
at.

Not confident enough to strike, he had a random thought, and he just bent down
and bull-charged her, thinking that maybe he could catch her off guard and
tackle her. And if anyone told him that wasn't part of karate he'd bring up
how Laurie had thrown him on his ass multiple times the last class. When his
shoulder rammed into her hip he felt like he had run into a tree as he felt
her big body shake just a little bit but her bare feet didn't move.

Frustrated that that didn't work, he started to pull away but before he could
get too far he felt Alison's thick arm wrap around his neck in a guillotine
choke. Immediately feeling the desperation, he tried harder to pull away but
now she had him tight. He pulled on her arm as she started to choke him out
but it wouldn't budge.

He started to panic as he was really pulling hard trying to free himself, but
couldn't, and then he felt her punch his back. He felt her arm starting to
choke him out and realizing that he wasn't going to be able to pull it off of
her, he just started to put his fingers between her arm and his throat to
create a little distance just so he could breathe. Her fist punched his back
again and that one really hurt. He could feel his eyes starting to water up as
he was fighting so hard just to prevent himself from getting choked out while
he took another punch to his back. He couldn't see her but he imagined her
just standing there with her dopey look as she held him and punched him and
just the image of it upset him more.

His fingers had been doing a decent job creating some space for some air but
her arm was tightening more and breathing was getting more difficult. When he
felt her punch his back two more times he had to try something different. He
took a risk and pulled his hands free, immediately feeling her arm tighten,
and knowing that he had to get out of this quickly. As she really started to
choke him out and kept punching his back, he wrapped his arms around her legs
and tried to pull them out from under her. But just like when he ran into her
and he felt like he had run into a tree, trying to pull her thick legs out
from under her felt like the equivalent of trying to pull a tree out of the
ground. He then tried to lift her up and although her feet didn't leave the
ground, it hurt his back a bit. He felt her punch his back again.

"Time!" he heard Preston call.

He was relieved to be done but she didn't let go of him. Her arm tightened
around his throat enough where she was cutting off his breathing and it also
felt like she was crushing his throat. Time was up, he had sucked it up, this
was supposed to be over now, but she was still going. Where was Preston to
tell her to stop?

Finally she let go, and as he started to stand up straight with his eyes
watered up, he looked at her back walking away from him, a cockiness in the
big girl's walk like she had no doubt that she would have been able to do that
to him and didn't care. He quickly turned his back to her to get his water,
mainly to give his eyes some time to dry up. He regretted taking his time to
do that when he turned around to see just about everyone had partnered up with
someone. Standing by herself, looking in a different direction than Dallas was
with an uninterested look on her face was Laurie.

Everyone else was standing with their partner looking like they were about to
get going. Not wanting to stand there by himself, Dallas couldn't help but
make his way over to Laurie to partner with her. As he approached her he
thought she had to feel him coming but she still didn't look in his direction.

"You want to partner ... " he began and was going to say more but she shook
her body like he had startled her, a move that he thought had to be an act.

"What?" she said with a rude tone that made him want to go sit this round out.
"Oh, sure."

He looked at the smooth, attractive face of this middle-aged woman then looked
down at her soft feet with the navy blue nail polish on them, thinking that he
still couldn't believe that she beat him up so easily. He thought about how
Shawntay had agreed not to knock him down.

"Can we just stick to karate this time and not be throwing each other on the
floor," he said, fully not expecting her to agree.

"Alright," she said with no emotion in her voice.

He watched her start to get in her fighting position and looking at her short
arms and legs, he thought that even if he just started kicking his legs at
her, his leg length alone should be enough to get kick her a few times. As he
looked into her eyes and saw an almost bitchy look, it made him want to beat
her that much more.

"Everyone ready?" Preston called. "Fight!"

Dallas looked at Laurie with her fists ready to go and even though she had
agreed not to throw him on the floor, he was having flashbacks to when she had
the previous time and it made him reluctant to attack. He backed off when she
came at him and her kick with her short leg wasn't able to reach him. The
second he saw her start to make her next move he backed up and her side kick
also wasn't able to reach him. She started moving closer and he backed up
more. She threw another kick that also didn't reach.

Now she backed up a bit with a look of a bit of frustration on her face.
Dallas reluctantly started to move a bit closer. He threw a backhand towards
her face but he threw it from such a distance that she was able to just back
her head away. He passively took a step closer and threw another backhand
towards her head that she easily blocked.

"You have to stand your ground a little," she said, making him feel
embarrassed he was taking advice from a small, middle-aged woman. "You're not
going to be able to hit me like that."

Still nervous to do so, Dallas moved forward, knowing that he didn't have a
choice at this point. He threw a hammer fist trying to hit Laurie on the top
of the head with it but she raised her arm with a head block that they had
practiced in drills, easily blocking his punch. He was about to complain that
doing what she said didn't work when her leg lifted and with a side kick, she
drove the bottom of her bare foot right into his ribs.

The pain started in the one spot she connected at and then shot throughout the
rest of his body like no pain he had ever felt before. He tried to take in a
breath and when he felt that he wasn't able to he dropped right to the floor.
The pain got continued to shoot everywhere, feeling worse by the second, and
although he was having trouble breathing, the more effort he put into
breathing caused him more pain. He was finally able to breathe a bit through
panting and that was when he couldn't help himself - he started bawling. He
heard footsteps running towards him but then opened his eyes to see Laurie's
pretty bare feet just standing there right in front of him.

"Man, what happened over here?" he heard Preston say. He saw Samantha's soft,
thick bare feet walk into his view as well.

"I threw a kick thinking he'd make at least some effort to block it or move
out of the way," Laurie said. "I'm sorry, but I didn't want to throw a weak
kick and have him grab my leg or something, I was not expecting him to not do
anything to defend it."

"I told you all that we need to start wearing pads on our feet," Preston said
with frustration.

"It was all the bottom of my foot anyway. Pads wouldn't have made a
difference."

"Pads are not the problem here," Dallas heard Samantha say.

"Come on man, let's get you up," Preston said.

He felt Preston help him to his feet, getting up hurting his ribs even more,
but he knew he had to get out of here. As Preston started escorting him away,
Dallas opened his crying his. He looked around to see every woman in the class
nearby staring right at him as the sensei assisted him with walking as tears
rolled down his face from getting beaten up by a woman. The walked seemed to
take forever between the pain and the humiliation until Preston finally got
him to the corner of the dojo, on the opposite side of the room from the exit.

"I really need to get to the hospital," Dallas said, weeping as he said it.
"I'm having trouble breathing and my ribs really, really hurt."

"Nah man, we don't need that kind of attention here. You just took a bad shot.
I know it hurts like a bitch but it happens. That's the way you're gonna
toughen yourself up. Much rather you take a shot like that in here when we're
practicing. Now when you're out on the street and some big goon starts a fight
with you, you'll be more ready to protect yourself against his kick. And worst
case if you do get hit by him, now you know what it feels like and you're
ready for it. This is why we train."

Dallas thought that if a small woman like Laurie was able to hurt him this
badly with a kick, the last thing he wanted to do was be fighting some big
goon out on the streets. He would have been fine just to run away from a big
goon, rather than risk someone a lot bigger than Laurie hurting him.

The women had gotten back to business and were sparring their next round. He
looked at Laurie and Veena partnered up and he watched Veena throwing weak
punches at Laurie that she was easily blocking but also watching Laurie not
showing any aggression towards Veena at all.

"Sensei, I really don't think I'm cut out for this," Dallas said, almost
pleading Preston to let him out of their little agreement that Dallas would
try 4 classes."

"Nah, you're definitely cut out for it," Preston said to Dallas's
disappointment. "Karate works for everyone as long as you are being trained
correctly. I just need to figure out the best way to train you. So we're going
to change things up a bit. I'm going to pull you away from sparring for a
while. We're just going to focus on katas until you are a master. Once I get
you to that point we can look at what your next steps are going to be."

"I don't know, all I know is I'm just in a lot of pain right now," Dallas
said.

"Close your eyes," Preston said to him sparking Dallas's annoyance that he
wouldn't just let him leave. But he still did it. "Take a deep breath in
through your nose." Dallas did so even though it hurt his ribs. "Hold it for
four seconds. Then out four seconds through your mouth."

Dallas didn't enjoy the first breath, feeling the pain in his ribs, and just
going along with whatever he thought he had to do before Preston told him he
could go. He felt a little frustration when Preston had him repeat the act and
the breath was still painful. He didn't want to repeat it a third time but at
least he knew it was going to happen so it didn't surprise him.

By the fourth time he was in a rhythm and even though he could still feel the
pain there, it seemed more like something that was in the background, and not
something that was bothering him. He continued to breathe, feeling that pain
in his ribs as just something that was there, not good or bad, as he listened
to the rest of the women in the dojo sparring with each other, also sounding
like background noise, as if he was in a high rise in a busy city and all of
the noise he heard outside he could just drown out.

He kept doing his breathing, now without any guidance from his sensei and the
longer it went on the more he felt at peace with the pain in his body and the
background noise from all of these women, many of whom had beaten him up
already. He did the breathing on his own for a while longer and when he
finally opened his eyes on his own and saw Preston looking at him with all of
these women training behind him, Dallas felt like everything was good with the
world.

"Let's stay after class and do a little more kata," Preston said.

**

Dallas showed up at the next class, this time ready to go with his gi and
white belt on, confidently walking into the dojo knowing he was going to go
right to working with Preston and not worry about any sparring today.

"Ready to do this?" Preston said.

Something had clicked with Dallas when they had done kata after class the last
time and he had been waiting all week to continue. He started his kata with
the same energy this time, breathing hard when he was supposed to breathe,
putting power behind his air strikes, in a way most of the women in the class
who just seemed disinterested when they did kata, did not.

"Alright, everyone line up for kata!" Preston called. He put his hand out in a
welcoming motion for Dallas to go join the group, Dallas feeling as confident
as ever as he did with no hesitation.

Kata began. Dallas did what Preston had told him, pretending the air was his
enemy, putting power behind his strikes that would knock out anyone that was
in his way. At the points in the kata that he was supposed to yell he yelled
extra loudly. When that happened he could hear his deep voice above any other
woman in there doing it with him.

While he stayed focused on himself, he did casually look around the dojo at
the women. Cheyenne had great form but she wasn't doing hers with the power
and intensity that Dallas was. Most of the other women he observed were just
going through the motions, looking like they had just memorized the moves and
that was it. Preston and Samantha were the only two in the dojo that Dallas
thought were doing a better job than him. And this was only his third class!

**

He showed up at the next class ready to go and had already forgotten about
their deal to try for 4 classes. Dallas was going to be doing this long term.
He and Preston got right into it on their own, making Dallas feel special as
he got the one on one attention from the sensei while the rest of the class
worked in a group under Samantha.

"Awesome man, great job," Preston said as Dallas put even more energy into his
kata than he had the previous class. "That's right man, pretend some goon is
standing in front of you starting some shit and you're going to knock them the
fuck out."

When it was time to do kata as a class, Preston and Dallas went to join the
group, Dallas walking confidently with his chest out feeling like he was
better than every one of them. And he could feel the energy he brought to the
group as he was sliding across the floor with each move, breathing heavily,
and showing pure power with every move that he made. He could see that Preston
was looking at him with approval when he could. He saw Samantha look at him a
few times with distaste but he wasn't going to pay any attention to her.

**

It was Dallas's 13th class and by the end of it he was sweating, he had been
working so hard. Preston gave him his token fist bump at the end and Dallas
felt good.

"Alright everyone," Preston announced towards the end of the class. "Huddle
up."

Dallas hadn't been told to huddle yet and he wasn't sure what was going on. He
watched everyone getting in order like they normally did with Preston and
Samantha standing in front of the class looking at them, but this time all of
the students were on their knees and all in close to each other.

"You make sure you're last in line," Samantha said to Dallas with a bossy
tone.

"Everyone look down," Preston said.

Dallas watched the rest of the students individually cuddle up in a ball with
their faces looking at the floor and their arms over their heads like they
were in some sort of cult. Very uncomfortable about doing so, Dallas did the
same so all he could see was a little bit of the floor and all of the darkness
around him. He had a weird feeling about all of this and for some reason he
got this picture of Samantha coming up on top of him and just kicking him
really hard in the back.

"Everyone up," Preston said and Dallas was relieved when everyone put their
heads up but remained kneeling. "Dallas, come up to the front."

Dallas stood up, still a little nervous, until he saw that Preston was holding
a brand new looking green belt folded up in his hands. With a few white belts
who had been here longer than him, Dallas had never even thought this was a
possibility, especially since Laurie was a green belt and he wasn't anywhere
near as tough as she was. A green belt had seemed like an honor that he was a
long time away from, but there Preston was kneeling there, ready to hand it to
him with a smile on his face.

"We all work hard in this class," Preston said to everyone once Dallas was
standing next to him. "And when you work hard you get rewarded. Dallas has
been working hard on his katas for a few months now and it shows. I'm honored
to award you this promotion as you take your next step into your long karate
journey ahead."

Preston handed Dallas the belt with his left hand and gave him a firm
handshake with his right. Dallas thought he might get a round of applause but
when it didn't happen he figured that was a silly thing to expect in a karate
class.

"Shake Samantha's hand too," Preston said.

Expecting her to have a firm handshake, Dallas did so, but her feminine hand
had a soft handshake, almost like she was intentionally trying not to shake
his hand well as she wouldn't look him in the eyes. He took off his white belt
and wrapped his green belt around his waist in front of the class.

**

Preston walked through the dark parking lot, feeling so proud of his new
student. That day he had seen him getting bullied by Brando, Preston knew he
had had a project on his hands and that day Laurie knocked him down crying,
Preston thought for sure he was going to lose him. But Dallas had stuck with
it and now he was doing some of the best kata that Preston had ever seen from
someone who was so new. It was due to Dallas's hard work but Preston had to
give himself a pat on the back for finding the right training program for his
student. Dallas still had a long way to go before he stood a chance against
anyone in a fight but seeing how fast he had picked up his kata, Preston felt
confident about this new male he had taken under his wing.

"Preston!"

Hearing his name called startled him out of his daydream. Standing there with
that tight black top that she wore with no sleeves and a tight black pair of
pants on was Samantha.

"Hey, you scared me," Preston said.

Samantha walked towards him with her chest out and that brutish look on her
face, the one she carried when she had something on her mind. The girl always
had strong opinions. "You gave a green belt to Dallas? Are you serious?"

"You been watching him do kata?" Preston said, trying to stay calm despite the
fact that he knew an argument was forthcoming. "Dude's doing great."

"Who cares about his kata, he can't fight for shit. How could you give that to
him over Alison or Shawntay who have been here longer?"

"Both of their katas still need a lot of work. I can work with Alison next
week to fine tune her a bit."

"Oh cut the shit with the katas!" Preston didn't like being cursed at.
Samantha was a black belt but he was still a higher ranking black belt than
her and he didn't appreciate the disrespect. But the fact that she was doing
it meant she was especially heated. "I watched both of those girls kick his
ass. We're not doing this to look all fancy doing katas, we're doing this so
no one fucks with us. That's what you've been preaching the whole time. You
know what I think? I think you're just pissed off that you never could have
gotten this thing going without me. Yeah, you tried so hard getting your
badass karate class going but couldn't recruit a single guy to do it. This
whole school exists because of me and the girls I've brought in. You're so
glad you finally found a guy to join and even though he's the worst fighter
I've ever seen, you're promoting him because you're happy you finally found a
guy."

He looked at her staring him right in the eyes. She didn't just look like she
wanted to argue. She looked like she wanted to physically fight him.

"I'm sorry you feel this way," he said. "You're not always going to agree with
my decisions."

As he started to walk away he saw Alison come out from behind a car. From
another direction he saw Shawntay, then Laurie, then LaChalle, and before he
knew it he was surrounded by every girl in the class, even Veena who he never
would have expected to get involved in anything like this. Without Samantha
there, he was confident that he could take on all of these girls at the same
time, a few crescent kicks would take care of them all. But Samantha was
there.

"What, you all gonna jump me?" Preston said in his soothing tone. He had
charmed many women with that tone over the years and had even calmed down
Dallas when he was bawling in the dojo with it. He wondered if it would work
with a large group of girls like this.

"Nope," Samantha said. "They're just hear to watch us fight and see who their
true leader is."

Preston watched Samantha kick off her sneakers, barefoot underneath, so she
just stood there wearing her tight black pants and that tight top that showed
off her powerful shoulders and arms that had defeated him in arm-wrestling in
the past. He had once heard Shawntay say that Samantha was the toughest person
she had ever seen. Preston wouldn't go quite that far but she was up there.

He watched Samantha put her open hands up in front of her face and start to
move them around like a mime, her entire body following the movement, the way
she did when she was ready to fight. Preston was rarely nervous to fight but
he could feel the nervousness spread throughout his body knowing that this was
going to be a brutal one regardless of who won.

This was happening either way so he put up his fists. Samantha swiftly moved
towards him without any fear. When he tried to move closer she lifted her leg
and pushed his hip with her bare foot. That knocked him off balance a bit and
she followed that up by using the bottom of her bare foot to push him a couple
of more steps back. He had to really balance himself to avoid falling. She was
so good with her feet. When she pushed her bare foot right into his stomach,
he had had enough of her toying with him and humiliating him like this. He
lifted his leg and threw a powerful crescent kick right at her head. As he saw
his foot getting closer, he knew this was going to be knockout kick and this
would end in a hurry. Once his foot was right next to her head, she ducked,
and he felt like there was very little air between the bottom of his foot and
the top of her head. He had to work to keep his balance after that kick as he
watched Samantha stand back up straight.

"We're definitely not messing around here," she said.

Now frustrated, Preston threw another crescent kick towards her head, but this
one wasn't as efficient and she backed out of the way of it so his foot went
right in front of her face. He looked at the look on her face, no fear at all
about it, and it worried him. He threw a right roundhouse kick at her head
that she swiftly blocked with two hands and when he threw a left roundhouse
kick she did the same.

"Ya!" he yelled as he threw another crescent kick at her head.

This was another good one but she was just so quick she ducked out of the way
of it again. This time he put too much power into it and in order to keep his
balance his entire body spun around so his back was to her. Knowing it was
coming, he tensed up his body, but that didn't do much as he felt the sole of
her barefoot powerfully drive into his back.

He turned back to face her and just the turning motion caused his back more
pain. She punched him in the chest and if she wasn't a foot shorter than him,
her fist would have gone right into his face and hurt a lot more. She punched
him in the chest again and it hurt enough to fire him up. He threw a front
snap kick at her and her elbow drove right into his shin before his foot could
get close to her which made him not want to do that again.

Trying to use his height to advantage so she couldn't punch him easily, he
took a couple of steps back, watching her move her open hands around her face
like a mime as he did. He threw a side kick at her stomach and when she
grabbed his leg he could tell he was in trouble. He looked at the satisfied
look on her face as he desperately tried to pull his leg away and she just
held onto it. Finally he pulled his leg free and when his foot hit the ground,
he decided he couldn't risk any more kicks. He moved in on her and threw a
desperate haymaker at her head that she easily blocked. She then moved in
closer to him and he felt those strong arms of her wrap around him. She lifted
the 205 pound 6'5 guy off of the ground and body slammed him on the parking
lot concrete.

He felt his entire skeleton rattle as he saw his vision go blurry. His insides
hurt as he tried to get up but Samantha's strong ass came and sat on his chest
so she could straddle him before he could get up anyway. He looked up at her
and they made eye-contact right before she punched him in the face. He put his
hands up but he knew he didn't have a chance at this point with this skilled
girl on top of him. Her fist punched him in the face again and then her fists
came in methodically punching him one after another while she just looked down
at him like it was business as usual. Preston tried to be tough but she was a
karate black belt and no one could be expected to be able to get out of this
position, being pinned down while being punched repeatedly. He felt blood come
out of his nose and when he felt the tears start to come out of his eyes he
put his hand up in submission. Samantha stopped punching him and skillfully
jumped to her feet. He started to get up but she held her bare foot above his
head.

"Stay right there," she said, and as he looked at the sole of her bare foot
ready to stomp his face, he didn't move. "You've disgraced our dojo and
disrespected all of our other students who have been working hard by promoting
someone that isn't qualified. To punish you for what you have done and as
justice to all of these students here watching, I am going to stomp your face
repeatedly. I'll definitely break your nose but do you think I can break any
other bones in your face too? Maybe I can give you a concussion. Maybe even
worse. Everyone is about to find out."

Preston considered reaching his hands up to try and stop her but knowing that
he didn't have a chance, he just braced himself for what was coming. He
watched the sole of her bare foot plunge down and as his entire body tensed up
he watched that bare foot stop right in front of his face. She wrapped her two
biggest toes around his nose and squeezed.

"Honk," she said.

She pulled her foot away from his face and as she sat up he saw all of his
student gathered around him looking down at him and laughing. Being humiliated
in front of his students was worse than getting stomped. He wanted to jump up
and make Samantha pay for what she had just done. But he knew he couldn't and
that drove him crazy.

"I'm taking all of the girls and we are leaving your dojo," Samantha said.
"We're going to train outside in the park until we find a new dojo to train
at. You can have the current dojo and your one wimpy student. Me and the girls
run this city for martial arts now. If by some chance you actually are able to
ever build your school back up again, feel free to challenge us at the Center
City Dome. We'll wreck anyone you throw at us."

Preston watched as Samantha turned away from him, picked up her shoes, and
motioned for all of the girls to follow her as she walked away barefoot. He
watched them all do so, watching the majority of his students abandon him.

**

Dallas walked through the gym with his chest out and his green belt on. Yeah,
he was a green belt now. All these fuckers, especially Brando, could sit there
lifting their weights but they could see that Dallas had a green belt. He
couldn't wait to talk into that dojo wearing his green belt so all of those
girls that thought they were tougher than him could see that he was now
wearing a green belt. He opened the dojo door and was surprised when he saw
just Preston standing there. He heard the door close behind him.

"There class today?" Dallas said a bit nervously.

"Yup. We got a good class planned today."

"Anyone else showing up?"

Preston paused. "We're done with those bitches. Don't need them anymore. Me
and you are going to build this school back up again. You ready?"

Dallas was happy to not be training with any of those girls. But there was
something about the way Preston was looking at him that made him think
something bigger was going on. He wasn't sure he was ready to be part of
something bigger when it came to karate.

"Yup," Dallas said.

"Good," Preston said with a look of satisfaction that suggested he would have
been very unsatisfied if Dallas hadn't agreed. "Today we're going to step it
up a notch. You've got the kata down but today you're gonna start learning how
to fight. Get in ready position." Dallas did. Preston pushed him at the
shoulder almost knocking him over. "Come on, let me see a real ready position!
Tighten your fists and bend your knees more. I want to see a good stance."
Afraid not to, Dallas tightened up and bent his knees as much as he could.
Preston shoved him again and Dallas was impressed with himself that his body
barely moved at all. "Good," Preston said. "Now we're ready to start."

**Email ajbrown2005@yahoo.com if you would like more information on my Custom
Stories**