Rattlesnake Ink II
By A.J. Brown
A sequel to Rattlesnake Ink


**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**

"ID."

Preston looked at the African American siting there on the stool looking at
him with a tough guy look. At 45-years-old it had been a long time since
Preston had been ID'd walking into a bar. The bouncer stared him down with a
tough guy look. As Preston pulled out his ID, he thought about how a
roundhouse kick to the head would take that look off this thick guy's face. He
handed him the ID, the bouncer looked at Preston, and then wouldn't look at
him when he handed it back to him. Preston walked up to the bar and checked
out the ass of the bartender in the tight black pants that she had on as her
back was towards him while she washed a pint glass. As he had a seat he
checked out her ass more carefully, perfectly content to wait until she was
done before he got served.

"Oh my God, you scared me!" she said when she finally turned around. Preston
hated it when people that weren't paying attention acted like they were
startled when he came along, but this girl in her early twenties was so cute
that it didn't bother him at all.

"Didn't mean to," he said, much nicer than he would have if the guy who had
checked his ID had said that to him.

"It's all good, I've been working like crazy today," she said. "What can I get
you?"

He tried not to be obvious that he was looking down the front of her low cut
shirt as she leaned forward. "I'll just take a Pabst draft." She smiled and
started pouring for him. "I'm Preston," he said.

"Hi Preston, I'm Haley," she said as she set his cup on the bar with her left
hand and they shook hands with their rights.

"Slow day?" he said as he looked down the bar. Only two other patrons were
there, two old men, talking closely in what looked to be a deep conversation.

"You just came at the dead time," she said. "We were busy earlier for happy
hour. Will pick up later on around ten. I'll be off shift then though."

"Won't be seeing me here at ten o'clock either," he said. "This old man needs
to be in bed after a couple of beers."

"Oh please, you're not old," she said, intentionally making her voice quieter.
"We had plenty of old guys in here earlier, trust me." She put her elbows on
the bar and looked at him like she was going to chat for a bit. He was
cautious about getting signals from female bartenders knowing they were
working off tips but he couldn't help but think he was getting a signal from
her.

"So what do you do, Preston?" she said.

"I'm a karate instructor," he said after he had taken a swig of his beer.

"That's your profession?"

"Nope. But my profession is boring." Maybe she'd think he did something smart
by saying that. He'd much rather talk about karate then the fact that he
worked on cars. Two things he observed that bored women quickly were college
sports and cars.

"I've always wanted to get into karate," she said. "I'm a dancer so I feel
like I could get the form down."

Preston liked the way this chick thought. "I'm trying to build my school up
again. Right now I only have one student. You should come by sometime, see if
you like it. I'll give you your first class for free."

She smiled looking embarrassed like he had just hit on her. "Wow, I never
thought a guy would actually want me doing karate with him! When it comes to
sports, the guys don't normally want the girls around as anything other than
spectators."

"I've trained with plenty of girls and trained plenty of them. I've often seen
them do better than the guys just because they have better form and
discipline." It looked like Haley was starting to blush. "And if you're a
dancer I think that would really help you out."

"Hey Tony," Haley said as she looked over Preston's shoulder. He turned his
head to see the bouncer standing there. "You want to join a karate class?"

"I don't need no fucking karate," he said. "I can handle myself."

"Afraid to come down and train with us?" Preston said.

"I ain't afraid of nothing!"

"Well then come to my dojo and try a class. I'll give both of you the first
class free. You don't like it, no sweat. I bet the two of you could both be
really good, though."

"What about your cousin Najee, Tony?" Haley said. "You should bring him along
too."

"He already takes karate," Tony said. "He's a black belt."

"Bet he hasn't tried my style yet," Preston said. "You should bring him along
see if he can handle it."

"Yeah, he probably would like that," Tony said to Preston's satisfaction.

**

Haley's tits looked a lot bigger than the shirt she was wearing at the bar had
him thinking. Her legs were up and wrapped around his ribs as his cock
penetrated her hard. She was a moaner and hearing how he pleased her as he
looked down at her perfect body made it so this couldn't be any better. He
felt himself cum and when he was done he lay down next to her.

"Looks like a martial artist and a dancer make a good combination," he said.

"So if you're going to be my karate instructor we can't do this again," she
said.

"I don't have any policies against that with my students," he said smoothly.
"It's karate class, not college."

"It's against my policy," she said with a smile. "I don't hook up with
managers, teachers, or anyone I'm under the authority of in any way. So I had
fun tonight but I also want to join your karate class. Just want to let you
know in advance. I'll let you pick which you'd prefer."

**

Dallas walked into the dojo thinking maybe there would be one additional
person in there so he was caught off guard when in addition to Preston he saw
two black guys in there and a hot chick, all wearing gis with bright white
belts around their waists. He hadn't expected Preston to be building back up
this fast. Last class hadn't been fun having to practice some fighting again
but if had just been him and Preston he could deal with it. Even one more
novice he could live with but these black guys looked tough and he didn't
really want a hot chick seeing him struggle either.

"Everyone, this is Dallas, he's been training with me for a while," Preston
said, as the new students looked at Dallas. "He's great at kata so if you need
help with your kata he's a great resource. Dallas this is Haley, Tony, and
Najee."

The guy Preston pointed to, 'Tony' just gave Dallas a bit of a tough guy
upward nod and looked away from him. It was guys like Tony that Dallas hoped
to avoid when he learning karate, not the kind of guy he wanted to be training
with.

"Hi, it's nice to meet you," Najee said, sounding very well-spoken, and a big
smile on his face, the exact opposite of the look that Tony gave him.

"Hi, I'm Haley," the hot girl said as she held out her hand and he shook it.

"Alright, well let's get started," Preston said. "There's just four of you so
you can line up in a row. Dallas is first in line since he's the highest rank.
The rest of you are all equal right now so it doesn't matter what order you
line up in."

They lined up and did their stretching and when that was done, Preston had
them partner up for drills. Dallas already missed getting to go work with
Preston and he watched Haley quickly grab Tony as her partner.

"So we'll work together," Najee said to Dallas, and Najee had a friendly,
nerdy sounding voice.

"So this your first time doing karate?" Dallas asked him.

"Oh, no, no, no," he said with a laugh that seemed friendly enough but Dallas
could detect a bit of cockiness in it as well. "I have a black belt in
Taekwondo."

It wasn't what Dallas wanted to hear after he had just got beaten up by a
bunch of women who were new to karate, now working with a male black belt.
Najee's experience showed immediately as he was swiftly blocking everything
that Dallas threw at him and then throwing good punches and kicks at Dallas,
making sure to stop perfectly right before he was about to hit him. As Najee
showed Dallas up during drills, Dallas felt the frustration of always feeling
like the weaker one, regardless of the situation. When they finally stopped
doing drills and Preston taught the first kata to everyone, he was relieved.

"Alright, let's partner up for sparring now," Preston said when kata was over.
"Hope you all brought pads like I asked you to. You can start off partnering
with who you were working with."

"Um, you want me to go over and work on kata?" Dallas said to Preston
nervously.

"Nah Dallas, you're ready to do some fighting again," Preston said.

Dallas looked at Haley and Tony already partnered up and as he watched Najee
get his pads on he tried to think of any excuse he could use to get out of
this. Nothing came and he got his pads on as well. As he and Najee squared
off, Najee let out a laugh that Dallas couldn't tell if it was friendly or him
laughing knowing that he was about to beat Dallas up.

Once Preston told them to go, the smile on Najee's face went away and he got
suddenly serious. Dallas put his fists up just ready to play defense. Najee
threw a jab that hit Dallas in the cheek. Dallas protected his face and Najee
followed up with a hook to the side of his head. Dallas threw a punch back
that Najee easily brushed away, looking more like he was doing a drill then
fighting.

Najee kicked Preston in the stomach hard enough for it to hurt. Dallas threw a
kick back that Najee easily brushed away. Now Najee had a confident look in
his eyes like he knew his opponent was much weaker and he was going to take
advantage. He threw a backhand that hit Dallas in the side of the head, kicked
him in the stomach again, and now Dallas was backing up. That nice, friendly
look that had been in Najee's eyes to begin was now completely gone as Najee
looked like he was at best trying to show him up if not hurt him. Dallas's
lack of experience compared to Najee's was evident as he kept backing up
further, now just trying to avoid taking a punch or a kick that really hurt.

"Time!" Preston called. "Get a drink and get a new partner."

"Good one," Najee said and Dallas could see how sweaty the guy's bald head was
as he gave Dallas a fist bump. Not wanting to have to go against the meaner
looking Tony right after he went against Najee, Dallas didn't even bother
getting a drink and he went over standing close to Haley as she got hers. When
she turned around, he pointed at her then him to suggest they pair up.

"Alright, so this is my first karate class ever!" she said with a nervous
smile. "And here you are a green belt. So you're gonna have to go easy on me."

"Yeah, no problem," Dallas said, feeling relieved.

"We all ready for Round 2?" Preston said. "Remember, we're just sparring,
we're not trying to kill each other here. We all need to go to work in the
morning. Go!"

Prepared for a light round like he had had against Veena, Dallas but his fists
up loosely. Similar to what he experienced sparring with Najee, he watched the
smile leave Haley's face and change to a look of intensity once Preston said
Go. Even being much shorter than him, she lunged at him, and punched him hard
in the chin. Looking like she was fighting for her life, once Dallas put his
guard up high, she threw a front snap kick with the kind of form that made it
looked like she had been doing this for years, and the bottom of her bare foot
connected with his stomach. His frustration grew quickly as he had to back
away again. Haley got more aggressive as she kicked him in the stomach again,
a kick hard enough that would have knocked the wind out of him if he hadn't
backed up. She kicked at his stomach again but this time he backed up in time
to avoid it, though he still didn't like being completely on the defensive,
feeling like he was losing. Now looking confident and aggressive, Haley lunged
at him again, giving him two hard punches in the chest, and Dallas put his
hands up.

"I thought we were going easy!" he said with annoyance.

"Oh sorry," she said, breathing heavily as she spoke, a look on her face like
she wanted more. "Tony just went like ballistic on me and I didn't want to go
through that again. But you're OK to fight as hard as you want."

Dallas looked at this cute small girl who just told him she was afraid of the
new guy but not him. He thought about how Najee had just beaten him easily,
how Brando had bullied him, and how all of those girls that had been in this
school before Haley had also beaten him. He was sick of this and he wasn't
going to let this new girl push him around.

He threw a hard backhand at her face and although she looked surprised and
scared when it was coming in, she swiftly got her arm up to block it.
Frustrated already, Dallas threw a straight jab at her face that she blocked
out of the way. He lifted his leg and threw a front snap kick with so much
anger behind it that he didn't realize how much he had forecasted it. She
grabbed his leg and when he tried to pull it back, he couldn't. He tried with
more effort, the frustration on his face obvious that he could pull his leg
away from a girl's arms. While keeping a good hold on his leg, Haley charged
forward. Off-balance and unable to do anything, Dallas just had to take it as
she pushed him on the floor, his tailbone hitting first and him feeling the
pain right in that spot, then his entire upper body flopping so he was lying
flat on his back.

Feeling shaken up, he didn't try to get up right away. Before he knew it,
Haley put the bottom of her bare foot right on his face and pushed down. He
could feel how soft and girly it felt pushing into this face and the little
bit of dirt he could smell and taste from the dojo floor seemed like it was
just serving as a coating for the foot that actually smelled fresh otherwise.

He tried to lift his head but she pushed on his face harder holding it down.
Trying to turn his head to the side didn't work either as she kept her foot
pushed on his face. Now not just angry but humiliated, he grabbed a hold of
her ankle with both hands and tried with all of this strength to pull it to
the side. His hands couldn't overpower her leg the way she had done to him,
though, and the bottom of her bare foot remained firmly pressed on his face.

"Time!" Preston called.

She took her foot off of his face and for the first time since he lost to
someone, Dallas wanted more. He sat up looking ready to fight but Haley had
already turned and walked away from him.

"Me and you now," Haley said to Najee, sounding much more relaxed than she had
when she was about to fight Dallas.

He watched her talking to Najee, his opportunity had passed, and he was going
to have to go home that night and look Betsy in the eyes knowing that he had
just gotten beaten up by a girl at karate who had just had her first class and
then put her foot on his face. He decided right then that he was going to get
his revenge the next week and he knew he wasn't going to sleep well until that
was done.

He walked up to Tony ready to partner up and despite the intimidating look on
this guy's face, Dallas wasn't going to be afraid anymore. He had been doing
karate for months now and he had more experience than this dude. He let Najee
and Haley beat him but now he was determined, not feeling scared as he looked
at the tough guy look on Tony's face.

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

Dallas raised his fists ready to just go ballistic, throwing rapid punches at
Tony that the newbie wouldn't be able to handle. As he started throwing his
first punch he saw Tony's gloved fist coming at his face so fast that Dallas
was unsure whether he should try and block or continue with his punch. He
didn't get any more time to consider that because Tony's fist clocked him
right in the side of the head. Dallas felt brief pain but it went away when it
felt like his brain was shaking around in his head and he suddenly barely knew
what was going on. Everything seemed to go dark although he still could see
blurriness around him. His entire body felt like it wasn't able to support him
and he just dropped on the floor.

**

"How was big, bad karate, cute boy?" Betsy asked when he walked in the door.

He said nothing. Some nights he played along with her playful mocking of him
when he got home but tonight he wasn't in the mood. The only reason the
headache he had wasn't worse was because of his adrenaline thinking about how
he had to wait a whole week to get revenge on Haley. She had said Tony had
been rough with her but he bet that he hadn't been that rough. It knocked him
out of commission for the rest of class but he ended up getting up and driving
home. He bet Haley wouldn't be able to after taking a hit like that. He didn't
look at Betsy and just went right to their bedroom, not seeing the annoyed
look on her face.

**

He showed up at the dojo a half hour early for the next class, practicing his
katas, and just warming up on his basics. Just wait until sparring time came,
Haley, he had no intention of going easy at all this time. He partnered with
Najee again for drills and despite his increased adrenaline, Najee was still
showing him up. But when kata time came, Dallas's were as fiery as ever and he
knew he looked much better than everyone who were all just doing their
beginner kata for the second time. This was one area they weren't going to
catch him.

"Let's partner up for sparring now," Preston said. Dallas walked right towards
Haley who this time was walking towards Najee. He felt Preston tug his gi from
behind. "Why don't you go practice your kata some more," Preston said.

Dallas looked at him with disbelief. "I'm OK to spar."

"Nah, I want you working on your kata some more before you spar again. You're
doing great but you're not quite ready for sparring yet. But you'll get
there."

He watched Haley standing across from Najee as the two of them got ready to go
at it while Preston and Tony did the same. For the first time he felt left out
instead of relieved for not taking part in the sparring. He sat there
practicing his katas that he felt he had already mastered, frequently looking
over at the other 4, looking like they were enjoying themselves as they
toughened up. Preston didn't call Dallas over until it was time to do end of
the class breathing.

"Dallas, great job working on your katas today," Preston said, once the
breathing was done, making him feel temporarily good. "The rest of you, you
all did a great job with your sparring, I'm noticing a lot of improvement,
even after only two classes. The gym's still open for an hour after we leave
and no one comes in here so if any of you ever want to do some sparring with
each other after class for extra practice, you're always welcome to. I'll see
you all next week."

**

The next class went the same for Dallas as he had plenty of extra self-kata
practice while everyone else was sparring with each other at the end. The
following weeks continued with the same pattern and every time Dallas got fed
up enough where he felt ready to say something, Preston would reassure him by
telling him he was doing some of the best kata he had ever seen for his level
and to keep it up.

"Alright everyone, huddle up close together," Preston said after a couple of
months of all the newbies being in the class.

As everyone did as they were told, Dallas felt some excitement that all of his
hard kata work was paying off, remembering how good it felt last time he got
his green belt for his impressive katas. This time he was in front of the
huddle instead of the back and he wondered if the other 3 felt weirded out by
this the way he had his first time this happened.

"Everyone put your heads up," Preston said and Dallas felt bitterness and even
a little deceit when he saw Preston was holding a green belt in each hand.
"Najee and Haley I want you to come up." Dallas looked at the big smile on
Najee's face and even though Haley wasn't really smiling, it annoyed him even
more to look at her. He was supposed to be the head of this class other than
Sensei but now these two newbies were his equals. "Both of you have been
working extremely hard. I'm seeing it in your kata. I'm also seeing it in your
sparring. You've made the progress necessary to take the next steps in your
journey. And I'm honored to help see you through all of the way. Now take off
those white belts and put on your new belts."

Dallas looked over at Tony also being left out and that was the only thing
that made this not quite as bad. Still, seeing these two newbies, especially
Haley who he never had a chance to get his revenge on putting on green belts
was not a good feeling. He never got his revenge but Sensei had mentioned that
they could challenge each other after class.

"There's something I need all of you to know before we leave today," Preston
said. "There's another dojo around here. They think they're the best. They
think they're better than us. They're not. At all. Some of them used to train
under me and they think that they're better than me and this dojo now. We're
going to show them that we are the best dojo. There's a local martial arts
association that hosts tournaments and different dojos can challenge each
other at any time. We're going to do some more training but we're going to
challenge this dojo soon. So with these promotions, I need the two of you to
get ready to step it up a notch. Dallas, you are doing a phenomenal job with
your katas and I need you to keep it up. Tony, you're one of the toughest all
around dudes I've ever seen, don't change. But I'm going to need to know that
you're all on board. You all on board?"

"Yes Sensei," Najee and Haley said simultaneously. Dallas and Tony didn't
respond but Preston didn't seem to care. "That's good. Now everyone go home
and get some rest. Be ready for a more intense class next week."

Dallas watched Haley making her way towards the exit. If he didn't do
something now he was going to regret it and might not ever do it.

"Haley," he said to her from behind and for some reason he felt the same
nervousness he would have felt if he was about to ask her for a date. She
turned her head to him.

"Yeah?"

"Remember Sensei said we can spar after class? I want to challenge you. Right
now." Once the words came out of his mouth he thought he sounded like an
idiot.

"What??" she said, making him feel even stupider. A hot girl like this
probably had other things going on after class as opposed to doing extra
sparring. "I already whooped your butt."

"We never finished that. You don't think you can back it up?"

"No, I know I can, I'm just surprised you want to do it. Sure, I'll spar with
you."

"You sticking around here, a little?" Najee said to Haley when he was about to
walk out.

"Yeah, looks like it. I'll see you next week."

"You two have fun," Najee said as he walked out.

Dallas stood across from Haley, the two of them the only ones in the dojo now.
This was the chance he had been waiting for. He looked at her cute face and
her petite body. A win against her wouldn't be anything to be overly proud
about but he needed his redemption. He watched her get in a fighting stance
that looked awfully good. He still had plenty of height on her and he had to
use that.

He threw a punch at her face and it seemed like it was happening in slow
motion as she lifted her arms and wrapped both of her arms around his,
trapping it, before he could connect with the punch. He tried to pull away but
she had clenched it so tight that her arms felt stronger than his. He could do
nothing as she started twisting his arm and as she bent it behind his back it
felt like she was breaking it.

"Ah, let go!" he screamed. "This isn't karate! This isn't karate!"

He feared that she could keep doing this to him and there would be nothing
he'd be able to do about it but she let go immediately. He turned back to face
her and she had already started backing off.

"I saw that coming and it was so easy to grab your arm," she said, almost
apologetically. "I won't do it again."

She got back in her fighting stance and the first thing that crossed his mind
was that even if he beat her, he had already whined for him to let her go. He
kept himself focused, telling himself that was even more reason for him to
win. He looked at her in her stance, looking for an opening. He lunged at her
and threw a punch at her head. She blocked it but she backed up a step. He
threw another punch at her head that she also blocked but she backed up
another step. He started feeling confident as his height and aggression were
helping him. He threw another punch at her that she blocked and caused her to
step back again. He followed up with a series of punches that she started
blocking every one of and now she wasn't backing up anymore. As she stood
there blocking every punch he threw she started laughing with a girly laugh,
and he felt his confidence quickly go away as the humiliation kicked in.

She threw a kick and as the bottom of her girly foot pushed into his stomach,
the pain made him immediately back up. She followed that up with another kick
to the stomach that hurt just as much and now he was backing up more rapidly.
As he saw that soft, girly bare foot of hers coming in for another kick he
knew that he should be able to block it but feeling the pain from the last two
kicks made him afraid to do anything other than back up more.

When her foot kicked him again he turned his side to her to avoid another kick
to the stomach but the kick to the side of the hip hurt just as much. In worse
position to defend himself and in no position to throw any kind on an attack
as the now aggressive Haley kicked him in the side hitting his rib cage. He
felt like he wanted nothing more to do with this already but she was just
getting started. Her next kick to his rib cage made him bend down and her
gloved fist punched him in the face. He tried to block but she was finding the
openings as she punches and kicked him in various parts of his body.

When she got closer to him she managed to grab his gi with her gloved hand,
pull him towards her, and her punch to the face knocked him over on his back.
As he tried to get himself together, she pushed the bottom of her bare foot on
his face, frustrating him that she liked to do that. He tried to quickly turn
his head to get her foot off of it but she kept her foot pressed on it. He
listened to her giggle as she turned his head back and forth more rapidly and
he had to do that 7 times before he finally turned his face from underneath
her foot.

"Cut it out!" he said.

"Give up?" she said, as she rubbed her foot in his cheek.

"No," he said stubbornly.

"Then you get more," she said as she rubbed her foot back in the center of his
face and he could feel the softness of it, behind some floor dirt that was on
it. He had to work to move his face back and forth some more before he got his
face free again.

"This isn't karate!" he yelled out.

"I'm training you in self-defense. Use the karate you know to stop this." She
started slapping his face with her foot.

"Stop!" he yelled.

"Give up?" she said with a chuckle as she slapped his face a couple of more
times then rubbed the ball of her foot in his cheek some more.

"Fine!" he said and she stopped.

"Told you I can kick your ass," she said as she walked away. He sat up and
could still feel the impression of her foot against his face. The fresh smell
of her feminine foot with that little bit of dirty seasoning to it, had left
an imprint on his smell and he felt like he could still smell it. He hoped
those feelings would go away before he had to go home and face Betsy knowing
he had just had a foot forced in his face.

**

"Dallas, out by yourself for this one," Preston said when they were at class a
couple of months later.

Dallas went out to the center of the dojo as everyone watched him do his kata
alone. When he was done he began to walk away until Preston told him to stay
out there and he saw Najee holding a kicking bag. Najee looked Dallas in the
eyes with a look like he didn't like him.

"Let's see you kick the bag," Preston said. "Two minutes."

He looked into Najee's eyes and felt some extra adrenaline knowing that Najee
wasn't going to be kicking him back. He gave the bag what he thought was a
good side kick but Najee didn't even budge. Looking at Najee's arms still
locked up behind the bag, he gave it what he thought was a harder kick but
Najee still stood his ground, now with a bit of a cocky smirk on his face.

"Harder!" Preston yelled. "Come on!"

Dallas wound back up and gave it what he thought was his most powerful side
kick ever, hitting it right dead center. He thought Najee was just being a
tough guy now as he did not move. Dallas had put a lot of energy into the
first few kicks and already could feel himself losing breath. His next two
kicks were weaker and he wondered how much time he had left.

"Harder!" Preston yelled, frustrating Dallas as he didn't know if he could go
harder after all he put into already and doing it all right after a hard kata.
"Come on!"

Dallas looked at Najee looking so pleased and Dallas would have loved nothing
more than to knock him on his ass. One of the things working against him in
all of his fights was that his strikes were forecasted but with Najee unable
to block this time it didn't matter. He pulled his leg back again and put as
much force as he could into it as he drove it forward, yelling out a loud
'ya!' as he did. He connected with the center of the bag and he saw Najee
shake a little though his feet remained planted. That was OK, though, a couple
of more of those and he was going down.

"Time!" Preston called and Dallas immediately thought how much faster the time
went when he didn't want it to. The smug look on Najee's face made Dallas want
to hit in him as Najee turned and walked away. Dallas rarely sweated but he
could feel it pouring down his face and he had to bend to his knees to try and
catch his breath.

"Let's see your next kata now, Dallas," Preston said.

"Just give me a minute," Dallas said, sounding so out of breath that he
thought there was no way Preston would deny it.

"Come on, stand up," Preston said calmly but firmly. "This is karate class,
gotta push your limits."

Dallas looked back at the other three looking at him, thinking about Najee's
cocky look, Tony knocking him out, and Haley humiliating him like he had never
been humiliated. He found a bit of adrenaline as he stood up and Preston then
started counting his kata. Kata had never felt so hard and he felt like he
could keel over with every move. He pushed him through it and when he started
to dread was next he couldn't imagine that Preston was going to keep him going
until he looked to see Tony holding a bag.

"You're not done yet," Preston said and Dallas felt like he was in hell. "Two
minutes. Go!"

Partly because he feared him because he had knocked him out and partly because
he had nothing left in the tank, Dallas wasn't able to go after the bag with
the same kind of intensity with Tony holding it. He was giving it the best
kicks he could but there was nothing behind them. Tony stood there casually,
sometimes even looking away, with no fear that Dallas could miss or hurt him.
Dallas tried to kick with everything he had but with nothing behind it, he
lost all motivation. Time was going slow again as he stood there in front of
everyone looking like the biggest wimp kicking it with no force as Tony stood
there holding it like it was nothing.

"Time," Preston finally said and Dallas prepared for being told he was going
to have to do another kata. "Get a drink Dallas."

Dallas did so and Preston then told everyone to huddle in. Tony had just held
the bag for Dallas and Dallas was now sure that Tony was going to be the next
one promoted so they all had green belts and Dallas wasn't going to be ranked
higher than anyone. Then more time would pass and they'd all get promoted
ahead of him so he was the lowest rank, even that cute girl that could beat
him up. He wondered why he even bothered with all of this.

"Everyone up," Preston said and as Dallas moved up and he saw Preston holding
a brown belt, he briefly got a little hope, until he figured it was probably
going to Najee. "Dallas, come on up."

He was getting it. He moved towards the front to accept this promotion that
other than the two black belt instructors, he had only seen one other person
receive. But he was about to be a brown belt in karate. He accepted the belt
from Preston, gave him a firm handshake, and tried his best not to smile as he
took off his green belt and started wrapping the brown belt around his waist.

"Dallas, you've worked harder on your kata than anyone I've ever seen,"
Preston said. "Karate isn't just about fighting and if you can do a good kata
it means you are understanding all of the fundamentals of what we are doing
here. You continue to master kata the way you are and you're going to be one
of the best in the area. I'm honored to promote you to this belt."

"Thank you Sensei," Dallas said.

"I have important news I need to discuss with you all other than this,"
Preston said as Dallas made his way back to sit down. "I had talked to you all
about the other dojo in town, the one that we need to take down. Well you all
are ready now so there isn't any sense waiting around any longer. This
Saturday at 5 p.m. we are going to take them on. And we need to win."

"I just need to check with my wife and make sure that time works," Najee spoke
up.

"It needs to work," Preston said to him calmly and sternly, looking Najee
right in the eyes, showing no sign of looking away. "I don't care what any of
you have going on, I need you all to be there."

"Yes Sensei," Najee said.

**

Preston felt the cool night air as he walked through the dark parking lot
towards his car. Najee and Tony were tough dudes and even without the karate
they could have taken on any white belt or green belt that Samantha had. They
had to know his style of his karate to make this work though and now they did.
It had been tough giving up the chance to bang Haley but seeing the way she
had progressed in karate made it all worth it for him. The chick could move
her body like no martial artist he had ever seen and he was feeling confident
that she could win as well.

He was startled out of his daydream when he looked ahead and saw Najee
standing in his path. Najee was normally a friendly, unintimidating looking
guy. But he normally had a smile on his face and now he stood there looking at
Preston seriously, his dark skin almost blending in with the dark night sky
behind him.

"Sensei, can we talk?" he said.

Preston looked around, nervous, waiting for Haley and Tony to pop out of the
dark. Preston was confident he could take Najee - his taekwondo training
definitely didn't toughen him up the way Preston had - but it still wasn't
something he would have wanted to do. Losing more students because of Dallas
was something Preston definitely didn't want, especially less than 4 days
before the showdown.

**

"What's up?" Preston said.

"I respect you a lot, Sensei. You've helped me learn more about karate in the
last few months and I had learned in years prior. But can you please explain
to me why you promoted Dallas to a brown belt? I know he had good katas but he
can't fight at all. Even Haley is a better fighter than him. I've just been
working so hard and I could take him easily in a fight. I just can't figure
out why you would give him a brown belt over me."

"Look, I'll be honest with you," Preston said, already feeling calmer. "We
have this tournament on Saturday. They have one brown belt in their school.
She's as tall as Dallas but she's been training in our style for a long time.
We're going to need to have a brown belt to go up against her. You're doing a
great job so far but just being completely honest, you wouldn't stand a chance
against her. I need to set you up for success."

"And you think Dallas can beat her??" Najee said, now fired up. Preston knew
he had hit his ego and regretted the way he had said it. But no one was
perfect.

"Dallas doesn't stand a chance against her. Dallas wouldn't stand a chance
against anyone in their school. He's a sure loss anyway so it makes more sense
to put him against their highest non-black belt to give the rest of you an
easier matchup."

"OK Sensei."

"Something's still bugging you."

"So you're going to put Dallas up against someone you know is going to beat
him up. I mean ... " Najee looked nervous. "Is that responsible?"

"Dallas and her are never going to fight. We have five people in our school.
They're going to throw five against us. Whoever wins three matches wins the
tournament. They'll start with the lowest ranked belts first. You, Haley, and
Tony are going to whoop all of their white and green belts. Once we've won
three it will be over. Dallas won't ever have to fight."

Preston watched Najee processing this. He was a doctor. He should get it. "Oh
OK, Sensei. That makes sense." Preston could tell Najee was going to have
questions for him again in the future. He seemed OK for now and that was good
enough for Preston.

**

Dallas opened his front door feeling pretty good about things. Getting that
brown belt was the coolest feeling he had ever felt. Of course nothing for him
that felt good ever stayed that good and once Preston delivered the other
news, Dallas was able to figure out that he was going to have to fight
Cheyenne and he wasn't feeling so excited anymore. But Preston had asked him
to stay after class.

"Just pretend like you're doing your kata," Preston had said to him. "Only
difference is now you're going to be hitting a person instead of the air. And
let me tell you, it's a lot cooler hitting a person than it is hitting the
air. You don't know it yet but you've got all the fundamentals down. I just
want you to go into that fight pretending like you're doing kata the same way
we've been doing for months now. I think you're going to be surprised at what
a badass you are now."

He wasn't sold that he'd be able to beat Cheyenne but even thinking about the
chance of doing so excited him. How cool would that be if he did? If not, no
one from either school would be surprised and in a tournament it wasn't like
she'd be able to hurt him that badly. He thought this would be a good time to
try.

"How was cute-boy karate class?" Betsy said when he walked in the door.

"Fine," he said.

"Hey Ariana and Todd want to have dinner with us Saturday. I told them it
should be fine but that I'd check with you first."

"No, I can't," he said sharply and a bit defensively. He could tell by her
reaction that she noticed the sharpness. "I have a karate tournament."

"A karate tournament! Why didn't you tell me?"

"I just found out about it tonight," he said, already wanting this
conversation to end quickly.

"Cool, so I can finally watch you do karate?"

"No!" Now he really snapped at her. He could live with his classmates seeing
him lose to Cheyenne if that happened. Betsy, he could not. But he saw the
look on her face and knew he had to calm down a bit. "It's not that kind of
tournament. It's just for us and the other dojo, no spectators or anything."

"You're having a tournament with no spectators," she said and the disbelief in
her voice about his lie got him starting to feel riled up again.

"It's not for people to come watch," he said, mumbling a bit like he did when
he was trying to blow someone off. "It's just for us to compete. I know you
don't get karate, but that's how it works."

"OK." She said it in a way that made him feel bad but there was no way he was
going to change his mind.

"We can do dinner with them next weekend," he said, speaking much gentler now
that he got his way. "I'm gonna go take a shower. I love you."

"I love you," she said.

They kissed on the lips. He did love her. So much. After this tournament it
might be time to start ring shopping.

**

Betsy sat at the top of the bleachers, a New York Yankees hat on her head,
pulled down over her eyes. She knew her boyfriend was lying when he said there
would be no spectators but there were also much more people here than she
expected. So she figured she'd blend in without Dallas noticing her but she
kept the hat down over her eyes just in case. At first she had been annoyed
that he didn't want her at his tournament. It was already unlike him to be
joining a karate class but the fact that he didn't want to include her in it
or even talk to her about it had been bothering her. But she knew what he was
like and after sleeping on it, she didn't let it bother her that he didn't
want her at the tournament. He was a self-conscious cute boy, she knew that.
But she still wasn't going to miss him in his first tournament. She told
herself it wasn't stalking that she followed him to this in her car since they
were in a relationship, and if he decided he wanted to propose to her any time
soon, she was ready. She wouldn't mind if he ended up seeing her in the
audience, if he got mad about it he'd have to get over it, but she wanted him
to at least have his match before he noticed her so he wasn't distracted.

She loved looking at him looking adorable in his karate uniform with his brown
belt on talking to the other people in his class. She was surprised to see him
wearing a brown belt. There was one tougher looking guy wearing a green belt,
maybe green was higher than brown even though she didn't think so, but she
knew that brown was a higher rank than white and there was another tough
looking guy wearing a white belt. Had her wimpy little cute boy toughened up
this fast? She was really curious to see.

All of the coolness of this quickly went away from her when she figured out
what this was. They were challenging just one other karate class - and it was
full of girls. Was that what this karate class did was challenge girls to
fight? She had known him for years, watched him cower against bigger guys, and
watched him get pushed around by bigger guys, always afraid and incapable of
doing anything about it. Never once did that bother her. But watching him try
to look tough by beating up girls wasn't something she was sure she could deal
with. As they prepared to begin, she began to watch with more interest.

**

"Hey, no pads," Preston said to Haley as he saw her start to put her pads on.

"What?" Haley said, sounding surprised.

"We're not in class anymore, we're in a real tournament. Don't use pads in a
tournament."

"OK," Haley said as she kind of threw her gloves down, not looking the
happiest about this news.

"No direct punches to the head or the face either," Preston said to all of
them. "You want to do a straight punch, you gotta do it below the neck. You
see an opening above the neck you gotta go a backhand or a hammer fist. If you
can kick that high, you can throw any kind of kick you want above the neck.
That's the only rule. Any other karate is legal."

**

"Welcome everyone to the Center City Dome!" the Asian man said into the
microphone to as the audience cheered. "It's been a while since we've had a
tournament here. But tonight we have two dojos that are ready to compete. We
have Sensei Preston's dojo. And we have Samantha Rodgers's dojo. Each dojo has
five representatives competing. Whichever dojo wins three matches will be the
winner."

**

Tony stared Shawntay down as they stood across from each other preparing to
begin. Dallas looked at Shawntay, looking at how young she looked and now that
he wasn't fighting her or going to fight her, she looked even younger than the
time she had thrown him on the ground. He couldn't believe he had allowed this
girl to do that to him. He told himself that she wouldn't be able to do that
to him now but he was still glad he wasn't going up against her right now.
Tony looked a lot tougher than Shawntay did but he wondered if Shawntay's
extra experience would help her prevail in this fight.

"Ready?" the referee said as the two of them approached each other, Tony
walking with his chest out, and Shawntay looking a bit nervous. Dallas
couldn't help but feel a little bad for her. "Fight!"

Shawntay backed up a bit in a fighting stance as she looked up at Tony
directly in his eyes. He was so much bigger than she was but his arms were
down at his sides. Dallas started feeling worried for Tony. Yes, Tony had
knocked Dallas out but as much as Dallas hated to admit it, Shawntay was a
better fighter than Dallas was and Tony just using his strength against this
girl might not work as well as it did against him.

Shawntay led throwing a backhand up at Tony's head. Dallas watched her hand
moving towards his head and since his arms were down at his sides, Dallas
thought for sure she was going to connect. At the last moment, without moving
the rest of his body, Tony caught the skinny girl's wrist mid-air. As she
tried to pull away, Tony yanked her towards him and backhanded her right in
the face.

Dallas felt like he could feel the hit from where he was on the sidelines. He
hadn't seen anyone take a karate punch without gloves on and it disturbed him
watching Tony hit a girl like that especially as he watched Shawntay
immediately drop to the mat. She rolled over on her and immediately covered up
her face, with both hands making Dallas wonder if she was crying. Tony stood
above her, his arms at his sides again, looking like he was ready for her to
get up so he could do that to her again. But the referee stepped in and put
out a stiff-arm for Tony to back away, which he did. The ref kneeled above
Shawntay and looked like he was saying something to her. He raised his hand,
stood up, then lifted Tony's arm up declaring him the winner. Samantha shot
Preston an evil look before walking in to check on her student.

**

Haley and Laurie stood across from each other, both about the same size, both
with well-pedicured feet, Laurie with a shiny dark blue toenail polish on and
Haley's was red.

"Fight!" the referee said.

Both women got in their fighting stance and moved around a bit. Laurie charged
at Haley but Haley lifted her leg and threw a front snap kick that hit Laurie
in the side on the way in. Laurie winced and backed off and Haley immediately
started to look more confident. Dallas felt embarrassed that he hadn't been
able to do that to Laurie when she had charged him and knocked him on his ass
multiple times.

Both women moved around in their fighting position some more. Laurie threw a
side kick at Haley's stomach. Haley caught her leg in the air and Laurie was
barely able to pull it away, now starting to look frustrated. Laurie was now
creeping back as Haley crept towards her. Haley threw an awkward looking
backhand at Laurie's head that Laurie easily blocked. Haley followed that up
with a hook punch towards Laurie's ribs. Haley connected but Laurie caught
Haley's arm with her arm, pulled it in, and trapped Haley's arm to the side of
her body. Haley tried her best to pull away but Laurie started spinning her
body around and she swung a flailing Haley with her.

"Ahhh!" Haley yelled as Laurie spun her faster and then threw her on the mat.
Dallas looked at Laurie standing above her with that look on her face like she
wasn't surprised at all at what she had done, looking the same way she had
looked when she had knocked him down. He could feel his hatred for this woman
as he looked at her. Haley sat on her butt looking reluctant to get up.

"Get up!" Preston yelled.

Haley jumped to her feet with a look on her face like she had gotten a second
wind. The second her bare feet were flat on the mat, Laurie kicked her in the
stomach with a front snap kick that made Haley scream again. But getting
beaten up by Laurie seemed to fire her up more. She threw a hard back fist at
Laurie's face. This time Laurie wasn't able to block it and Dallas could feel
the smack of Haley's fist hitting Laurie's face from where he was. Haley
back-fisted Laurie in the face again causing her to back up and causing
Preston and Najee to cheer. Laurie responded with a direct jab to Haley's
face.

"Hey, watch that!" the referee warned. "Do that again and you will be
disqualified."

As the referee stood between the two women, Laurie looked like she was now
hesitant to keep fighting and Haley looked eager to make Laurie pay for that.
When he stepped out of their way, Haley threw another hard backhand at
Laurie's head but Laurie ducked out of the way of it. Laurie straight punched
Haley in the ribs but Haley didn't look bothered by it. When Laurie stood up
again, Haley threw two backhands at Laurie's head that were both blocked. With
Laurie's arms up guarding her head, Haley swept Laurie's legs and Laurie
flopped down on the mat.

Preston and Najee cheered more as did the audience that was much larger than
Dallas had expected it to be. Laurie got up slowly and as Dallas watched Haley
standing above her waiting for her, his shame that Laurie had beaten him up so
easily increased. Once Laurie was up, Haley started throwing rapid backhands
at her head. Laurie blocked the first two and got hit with the third. But
Laurie then threw a snap kick at Haley that connected with her stomach and
sent her back a step.

Laurie threw a back fist at Haley's head that was blocked. Haley struck back
and had her punch blocked while Laurie retaliated with a hard backhand right
to the center of Haley's face. Haley looked pissed off now but fired up.
Before Dallas knew it he was watching them both looking like they were in a
catfight throwing aggressive punches and kicks at each other rapidly, most
getting blocked but some getting through. Haley looked like she had the
advantage seeming to be more on the aggressive while Laurie was doing more
blocking than striking, but it was difficult to tell. But then Haley fired off
3 backhands in a row that all hit Laurie in her cheek. Haley looked ready to
put Laurie away.

"Time!" the ref called.

He quickly stood between the two women then escorted them to the center of the
mat. Everyone watched as he stood between them shoulder to shoulder and held
Haley's left wrist and Laurie's right. He lifted Haley's arm, declaring her
the victor.

"Yeah!" Preston yelled.

He ran out onto the mat looking at this girl that had looked so hot in her
bartender attire when he first met her, now wearing a karate gi, winning a
fight because of his training. He wanted to pick her right up off of the
ground and squeeze her, but he resisted and gave her a couple of hard pats on
the shoulder.

**

Najee stood on the mat looking across at Alison who had a few inches on him
and a good thirty pounds. He looked at her with a bit of worry in his eyes
while she looked indifferent.

"Ready?" the referee said as Najee got in a serious looking fighting stance
and Allison casually raised her fists. "Fight!"

Alison looked loose, while Najee's body looked tense as he moved around a bit
looking like he was thinking of how he was going to attack this bigger girl.
Alison then just charged at him. Before he could get any kind of a guard up,
her body was pushing into his and forcing his smaller body backwards. Najee
looked helpless in a pushing war with this big girl as she pushed him back
more and out of the circle.

"Come on!" Preston called out in objection. He looked at Samantha who just
shrugged.

"Hey!" the referee said to Alison as he pointed his finger her in a warning
motion. "This is a karate tournament. Stick to using karate."

Alison back-stepped towards the center of the mat with a cocky look on her
face like she didn't care what the ref had said and knew she had just gotten
the better of Najee. Najee moved back towards the center of the mat with a
look on his face like he was more nervous now despite the ref's warning.

Once they were ready, Alison charged at him again. This time instead of just
trying to run him over, she came in throwing wild punches towards his head in
legal form, and at some hooks down at his ribs. Najee couldn't deal with her
size and he started backing up again. Alison connected with every punch as she
backed him up out of the circle again.

"Hey, warning!" the ref said to Najee this time. "You need to stay in the
circle."

"Najee," Preston said quietly, trying to say so as discreetly as possible, as
Alison made her way back to the center, looking dopey and like she wasn't
paying attention to them. "When she charges you again like that, just give her
a quick front snap kick."

Najee started to move towards Preston, his back to Alison. "Not sure I want to
do that," Najee said sounding uneasy. "That could really hurt her the way she
is charging in."

"So??" Preston said forcefully. He had to do whatever it took at this point.
Alison could not win. "Do you have a PROBLEM with that?"

"No Sensei," Najee said a bit nervously.

"What are you doing, get back in the circle and fight!" Samantha yelled.

Preston looked at his worried looking student and gave him a nod like he
better do what he was told. "No mercy," Preston said.

Najee got back in his fighting position and Alison did the same. She charged
at Najee like a bull and Preston thought for sure his student was going to get
bullied right out of the circle again. He looked at Samantha with that brutish
look on her face, knowing she could beat him up. She was going to beat him up
and humiliate him and his school in front of everyone. What was he thinking
getting into this?

With quickness that impressed Preston, Najee managed to get his foot up. It
all happened so quickly as Najee's foot went into Alison's stomach and the big
girl went down on the mat. She lay there holding her stomach, trying to get in
air, as drool was coming out of her mouth. The referee scooted down to tend to
her and Samantha did the same. Preston looked at his former student, the girl
who had gotten picked on plenty in her life because she was too big, the girl
who signed up for his karate class because she wanted to learn how to stand up
for herself, the girl who had no clue how to throw a punch at her first class,
now lying on the mat hurting because Preston had recruited a black belt of
another style to come fight as a green belt and beat her up. Preston quickly
forgot about all of that when the referee stood up and raised Najee's hand to
declare him the winner.

"Yeah!" Preston said excitedly.

He ran out to Najee and gave him a good smack on his ass. Haley followed as
she jumped up in the air and gave Najee a hug while he laughed as he worked to
keep his balance. Dallas ran out there excitedly and Preston thought about how
proud he was for how far he had come with his kata. He even loved Tony for who
he was right then as he stood there with his arms crossed at his chest, giving
the group his own little look of approval.

"The winner of this tournament!" the announcer announced. "Sensei Preston's
dojo!"

"Let's go fucking celebrate!" Preston said.

As he started to walk away he felt a tight tug on his gi He turned around to
see Samantha looking at him with a serious look on her face. He felt so good
right then that he opened his mouth to tell her it was a good tournament and
suggest that they bury the hatchet. But she spoke first.

"Don't take off yet," she said, with a tone that suggested she wasn't quite
feeling the happiness that he was. "We have two more matches to go."

"It's best three of five," Preston said. "We already won."

"Your dojo won. But the two highest ranks in each class didn't get to fight.
Let's see whose best are the best. I'm sure everyone would want to see that."
Preston turned to his people. Najee was the one he kept eye-contact with.

"Do it Sensei," he said. "We don't need to back down from any challenge from
them."

**

For the last few months he had not only been spending much less time with
Betsy but even when they were together he carried this attitude like he was
now better than her. The possibility had crossed her mind a couple of times
that he had been cheating on her, though she didn't think that was likely. It
was still strange to her how much this karate class had changed him. After
being such a cute, sweet, innocent boy for the whole time they had been
together, could a few months of taking karate really have changed him this
much?

But now it was confirmed that he had been taking karate the entire time. The
only possibility of cheating was with the girl in the class but Betsy could
tell quickly that wasn't happening. She was way out of his league and she was
pretty sure there was something going on between her and the sensei just by
the way she saw them interacting.

Betsy would have preferred him cheating on her to what she was witnessing. All
this time he was away and she was wondering how this karate class could be so
great that it caused him to spend less time with her, she had images of her
little cute boy finally toughening up and being so proud of himself that it
was going to his head. She didn't like her images of that, in fact, she kind
of hated them. But as she watched them all jumping around like they had just
won the Super Bowl because they had a couple of tough looking guys that had
just knocked out a couple of girls, she wished, she so wished, that the
scenario she had imagined would have been the case over this.

Now Dallas was going to fight a girl that was skinnier than he was, however
that was possible, and on top of that she barely looked like she was 18. Betsy
knew it was an 18 and over tournament but this girl still had to be in high
school. She already knew Dallas was going to come how with the smug look on
his face saying how he won his tournament, leaving out the details of who he
had beaten. She'd be asking him some questions tonight and it wouldn't have
surprised her if he outright lied.

"Fight!"

Betsy watched the two of them begin and immediately noticed Dallas had his
fists up awkwardly in front of his chest leaving his head wide open. As skinny
as this girl was, she was as tall as him, and Betsy was thinking if this girl
had any skill whatsoever she could go right after his head right there. She
had her fists up in a much better position. Even where his fists were, they
were spread apart so they weren't even protecting his chest. This was Betsy's
observation with no martial arts experience.

The girl swung a back fist and Betsy watched her long arm thrust forward and
whack her boyfriend across the side of his face. A few months ago if she had
watched someone hit her cute, precious boyfriend like that she would have
found some sort of an object and when she got the opportunity she'd hit the
person over the head with it. But things were different now.

The girl threw a back fist with her left hand now and from where Betsy was she
felt like she could have gotten her arms up to block it. But Dallas winced and
cowered backwards when he saw it coming giving the girl a wide open shot where
she hit him right across the side of the head again.

Dallas now had both hands up at his face guarding it and the way he was making
a point to cover his entire face, Betsy couldn't tell if he was just terrified
to get hit by her again or if he was hiding tears. The girl lifted her leg and
seeing how long it was when she extended it to kick Dallas made Betsy jealous
as she thought about what this girl must look like in a bikini. Seeing how
soft and smooth the bottom of the girl's foot looked even from far away, made
Betsy more jealous, missing the days her feet looked that good before they had
experienced some wear and tear.

The girl drove the bottom of her bare foot into Dallas's stomach with a front
snap kick. His hands immediately went down to his stomach and his head shot
forward like he was going to projectile puke. The girl was smiling now, her
smile so pretty, as she whacked Dallas in the head hard. His head shot
backwards and he backpedaled a bit, making Betsy think he was going to fall,
but he managed to keep his balance.

His arms were now just flailing all over the place and as the girl lifted her
leg to set up a side-kick she had all of the time in the world. As Betsy
watched the girl's foot come in again, she looked at Dallas standing there,
not in any kind of defensive position. The girl's foot drove right into his
stomach and Betsy wasn't sure if she had completely knocked him out when he
went down. She was briefly worried when she could tell he was gasping for her.
But when he finally did manage to get in a breath, he started bawling, showing
no pride in not trying to stop it, and having the entire gym see him.

Betsy watched the ref quickly get on his knees to check on him, then watched
his sensei slowly walk over to check on him almost like he had been expecting
this result. The girl that just kicked his ass stood above him, completely
unfazed, as she looked down at her victim showing no remorse. When the sensei
finally got down on his knees to check on Dallas, the referee stood up and
declared the girl the winner. The sensei managed to get Dallas to his knees.
His face was beat red and tears were pouring out of his eyes. Out of all of
the men in this world, this was the one that Betsy was in a relationship with.
This was the one she was thinking about marrying. She had decided she had seen
enough and it was time to go home.

**

Preston managed to get Dallas out of the circle where he still lay down
holding his ribs. It was getting hard to feel bad for him and there was
nothing he could do for him other than let him lay there until he finally
decided he could get up on his own. He stood up, turned around, and there was
Samantha looking up at him.

"I'm going to kick your ass in front of your students and every person in the
audience," she said at a volume that only he could hear, with the audience
making enough noise. "This time is going to be even worse than in the parking
lot. When everyone sees what I'm about to do to you, they're all going to
forget who the technical winner of this tournament is. All they'll remember is
who has the toughest instructor. Let's see if your new students stick with you
after this."

"Alright, let's go!" the referee said impatiently.

Samantha shot Preston one more smirk before she made her way to the center of
the circle and looked at him with her serious fighting look. Preston slowly
moved into the circle as well. She wore her black gi but he imagined her with
that top off, wearing that tight black tank-top of hers under it, showing off
her powerful arms and shoulders. He knew damn well he couldn't beat her up and
his plan that he thought was so genius to defeat her dojo without having to
actually fight her was now about to blow up in his face. He looked back at his
students. Other than Dallas who was still on the ground, they all watched
without any kind of expressions on their faces but he knew what they were
thinking. They were expecting their sensei to do the job that 3 of the 4 of
them had been able to do. Would they really abandon him if he lost to
Samantha? He hated to admit that that was a real possibility.

"You two ready?" the referee said and Preston turned back to face her, now in
her fighting stance and waving her hands all around in an exaggerated way to
intimidate him. "Fight!"

Preston got in his stance, now focused, and thinking how he could attack.
Samantha charged him and before he knew it, her strong body was pushing into
him. His thin body couldn't do anything and she was easily forcing him
backwards. As great he as he was in martial arts, he couldn't win a pushing
match against someone as strong as her and he continued to backpedal.

As she pushed him she kneed him in the thigh, coming from that strong leg of
hers, it hurt like a bitch. Preston wasn't even sure that was legal but he
looked at the ref and from the angle they were at he wasn't sure that he saw
it. She kneed his other thigh, and now he was really starting to backpedal not
wanting to take another one of those. As the strong girl continued to force
him backwards by shoving her body into him, she elbowed him in the face he
felt the bottom half of his jaw move the way it wasn't naturally supposed to.
He backpedaled a few more steps but thought there was no way that could be
legal. Direct punches to the face weren't allowed so direct elbows shouldn't
have been either.

"Warning!" the referee yelled and Preston felt glad until he looked at the
referee and saw him pointing at him. "Don't step out of the circle again!"

Preston looked at Samantha walking backwards, moving her hands all around, and
staring him down like she was trying to hypnotize him with those eyes. He
couldn't bring himself to look back at his people as he felt even less
confident that he could win, still feeling the pain in his jaw and his thighs.
He walked back to the center with his chest out, doing his best to ignore the
pain and continue to look confident.

Samantha charged him again and he tried to stay strong but it was tough seeing
someone you know is stronger than you charging you like that. He took a couple
of steps back and tried to throw a kick but as he was lifting his leg, she
just shoved him back a few steps with her hands. Seeing he was close to the
line he ran back to the center to avoid a disqualification.

She charged him again and being flustered, he had to back off. She jumped in
the air and came at him with a jumping front snap kick. He had immediately
backed up once he saw her jumping which ended up saving him from getting
knocked over when her bare foot connected with his chest. She charged at him
again, firing rapid kicks, and his only defense was to run backwards again. He
kept his eye behind him as he did to make sure that he didn't step out and
that left his guard down to take two kicks to the stomach from her. When he
was right on the line, he started running along the line to avoid her. With
her chest out, she walked back to the center of the circle, looked at him, and
motioned with her hands challenging him to come forward.

"Sensei!" Najee said to him and he turned around knowing that Samantha
couldn't hear over the cheering. "Do what you told me. If she charges you
again, just hit her with a front snap kick when she gets close. Your legs are
a lot longer than hers so it won't be hard."

Normally it would have been rough on Preston's pride to need one of his
students' advice to beat a girl but he knew that Najee was right. Running away
from Samantha wasn't going to accomplish anything. He turned around to see
Samantha staring at him and he wondered if she had heard the plan, even though
he didn't think so.

He moved a few steps closer to her and she charged him again. He stood where
he was and started throwing the kick as she got closer. He saw what she was
doing when she had her arm in the position but his leg was already up and
there was nothing he could do. She brought her elbow down on his shin and the
pain shot up and down the bone. He immediately fell to the mat, holding his
shin in pain.

Feeling like he couldn't move his leg, he accepted that she had beaten him. If
he lost his dojo because of that, so be it, he had tried everything he could.
If she was tougher, she was tougher. He looked forward and all he saw was her
bare feet that she had humiliated him with so many times in training. He
looked up her body and that smug look on her face, looking down at him,
knowing that she had beaten him. He looked back and up at his students,
looking down at the 6'5 sensei lying in the floor in pain. The ref got down on
the floor next to him.

"You OK?" the ref said to him. "Can you continue?"

"Yes," he said.

Preston sucked up the pain as he forced himself to start standing up and as he
heard his students cheering him on, the pain quickly started to go away. He
stood up the best that he could and looked at Samantha smirking and shaking
her head. Her previous smirks she had given him had shown pure confidence but
he saw something a bit different in this one - annoyance.

He moved at her quicker than she was ready for. He threw a crescent kick at
her head with his good leg. She barely ducked out of the way of a kick that he
knew would have knocked her out. When she stood back up he threw the same one.
This time she was ready and she put both of her hands up, blocking it
successfully.

He was discouraged but looking at that look on her face like she wasn't
intimidated or wasn't surprised that she was able to block it motivated him to
keep going. He was so sick of her beating him and he looked at all of his
former students standing behind her and wanting her to win. Samantha stood
there in her defensive position, he figured trying to let him tire himself out
a bit. He knew he didn't have much time before she attacked again.

His shin still hurting, he threw a crescent kick with her other leg and she
easily got her block up like it was nothing. He knew he should throw something
else but he wanted to keep firing them off without wasting even a second to
think so he threw another crescent kick with the same leg that was blocked
again.

She was quickly tiring him out and she looked like she was ready to attack. He
lifted his bad leg where his shin was still in an immense amount of pain and
he pushed through it when he saw she wasn't going to be able to get her guard
up on time. He let out a scream of pain once he got the kick up high enough,
trying to disguise it as just a regular karate kiai yell. He looked at the
look of surprise on Samantha's face right before the side of his foot
connected with the side of her head. As she went down he spun and when the
foot of his bad leg landed on the mat, his leg couldn't support him and he
went down too.

His nose hit the mat first and all he saw was darkness for a moment as he
heard the roars from the audience, although his former students and new ones
were the only ones there that mattered to him. He began pushing himself up and
had a sudden fear that he was going to see Samantha standing above him with
her bare foot hovering over him ready to stomp him if he moved.

Instead he saw Samantha lying on the mat looking like she was knocked out. The
ref was tending to her and all of her students stood behind her looking
worried. The ref looked at Preston, moved over towards him, and raised his
hand declaring him the winner.

Preston jumped to his feet, still feeling the pain in his shin, but it was a
good pain. He saw Haley running at him with an excited smile on her beautiful
face. As she jumped up in the air wanting him to catch her he could feel the
pain in his shin more and he thought there wasn't a chance that he was going
to be abler to hold onto her. She wasn't a heavy girl but she felt heavy
enough when he caught her as she did her airborne hug. The pain in his shin
was now worse than when Samantha had initially struck him. He thought for sure
that he was going to fall but his determination to not have that happen
allowed him to stay on his feet despite the increasing pain like he had never
felt.

He Haley in her beautiful eyes, their lips just inches away, and based on the
look on her face he thought he saw true love there. He felt it too and he
wanted nothing more than to give her a long kiss on the lips. Now was not the
time, though. He felt another strong hug and saw that Najee was giving it to
him. He felt a hard smack on his other shoulder, looked past Haley, and saw
that Tony had come along with as much of a happy smile that he imagined Tony
was capable of.

He looked past Haley's other shoulder. Dallas was standing there looking like
he wanted to give support but he could see the disappointment in his eyes. The
poor kid. Preston gave Haley one more squeeze before putting her down and to
the side then walking up to Dallas. He gave him a pat on his shoulder and kept
it there.

"We couldn't have done any of this without you," Preston said, more sincerely
than he had talked to most people in the past. "Your leadership in helping me
get this school started and doing your amazing katas have been a huge asset."
He could tell that Dallas was about to thank him and he didn't want to see
that so he turned to face the rest of the students again. "Now let's go
party!"

**

Dallas walked towards the front door, the small buzz he had making him feel
even better about what his school had accomplished. What he had accomplished.
When you were a team everyone played a part. Not every single person was going
to win. But he led the katas. He got the school going, Preston's very first
student, and he was still the highest ranking student in the class. It wasn't
like any of the rest of them could have beaten Cheyenne.

He opened the door and when he walked in the living room he saw Betsy sitting
on it with her bare legs stretched out across it, wearing a short pair of
shorts.

"How was your tournament?" she said almost instantly, and he noticed that she
didn't call him cute boy or anything like she normally did when he got back
from karate. He didn't like it when she did it but now that she didn't do it,
it felt kind of strange to him.

"Awesome!" he said excitedly even though his initial plan had been not to
discuss it with her. "We won."

"Really??" she said as she sat up and looked more excited about hearing about
karate than normal. "You won your fight?"

"WE won," he said, a little annoyed. "Our school won the tournament."

"I don't care how the rest of them did," she said and now she sounded more
genuine. "I want to know how you did in your fight. You each fought someone
individually, right? Isn't that how a karate tournament works?"

He hesitated. "You don't get how it works. It's a sport. Like anything else.
If you worry about individual results you're going to lose. Our school won the
tournament."

She looked like she was about to roll her eyes. He started getting ready to
yell at her if she was going to do that. "OK," she said and he started to
relax a bit. "How big was the guy that you fought against?"

"Huh??" he snapped back, his relaxation quickly going away.

"I'm just curious if the guy that you fought was big or not."

He looked away from her, grabbed his own hair on the sides of his head with
both hands, and started squeezing. He knew he looked foolish but she needed to
know how dumb her questions were. The beers had numbed the pain in his ribs
but it was starting to come back.

"Again," he said, and the way he was looking forward into nowhere grabbing his
hair on the sides of his head, he looked like he was having a migraine. "It
was a team competition. Our team won. That is ALL that matters." He looked at
her looking like she wanted to say something else. He didn't want to be in an
argument over the tournament, especially when he had been in such a good mood
just a few minutes earlier so he really hoped she would just shut up. But he
watched her starting to open her mouth again.

"OK," she said, quietly and looking timid. He felt a bad but it was better
than the conversation continuing.

He moved in to give her a kiss on the lips. She didn't exactly kiss him, just
kind of leaving her lips there for him to kiss. "I'm going to bed," he said.
"I need some rest. I love you."

"I love you," she said, and even though she still sounded quiet and timid, at
least she said it. Sometimes when they just had a fight, she wouldn't.

She didn't look happy but she looked content. That was enough for him. He
turned around to go to the bedroom. He had come home all excited about this
tournament that he told her she wasn't able to go to. He could see why that
made her feel bad and his eyes started to water a bit. Of course it had to be,
because there was no way he could have allowed Betsy to see what had happened
to him. She'd get over him yelling at her a lot easier than she would have
gotten over seeing what a high school girl did to him after all of his
training. Now that the tournament was over, tomorrow he was going to start
giving her more attention and doing nice things with her again. Tomorrow.

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