Amy Mah - A Bad Hair Day Everyday

Knowing Jilly was again just behind her and this time slightly to her left, Abbey spun as she stooped down slightly to give extra power to a forward kick, but she was hit full force by Jilly’s hair, which had been flicked to meet her as she turned and was enough to blind her to the punch that landed very firmly on her solar plexus. She slumped to the ground and decided to stay down.

“The ability always to know where one’s opponent is during a fight will take you halfway to beating them; you just ruin the benefits that gives you with poor fighting skills and holding back. Not using your true abilities fully is just an insult to me, so we will fight again and again. I cannot improve if you do not use everything you have against me.”

She looked over to the Coach.

“With the Coach’s permission, the real training starts tomorrow night.”

Analysis

Unbeknownst to the girls, the Companion was very interested in this new girl. It liked the way the animal—again, another female—moved and reacted. She would make a perfect second handmaiden to the Host.

They were alone in one of the training rooms, and Zoe was mad.

“How dare she trick me like that! I really did have her, and that trick only made it look as if it was all planned. I’ll give her ‘crass stupidity,’ whatever ‘crass’ is supposed to mean! Can’t she even talk American?”

“Zoe! Your Hair!”

Abbey quickly checked that they were alone.

“It’s moving in time with your speech! Emphasizing your speech the same way your hands do!”

“Stop that, Capillus!”

Zoe spoke out loud, and the two braids of golden Hair unbraided themselves and fell loosely to either side of her face.

“Sorry, Abbs. We both get carried away at times.”

“You call your Hair Capillus? Why?”

“Because that’s his name, silly! I really don’t know why you are always fighting with your Hair! You two should really get on better; it’s not as if you can ever leave each other!”

With that, she took out a mirror, held it in front of her face, and stared at her reflection. Lots of golden strands took the mirror out of her hands while she searched her bag for something; eventually, she took the mirror back from Capillus and showed him what she had taken from the bag: a small pack of chocolate drops, which she carefully opened and fed to Capillus.

After a couple of minutes, she said, “Oh, sorry! Where’re my manners?”

Then she popped one in Abbey’s mouth and offered the rest to Abbey’s Hair. It reminded Abbey of a frenzied piranha attack!

“Forget my Hair!” Abbey flicked it back in place. “So what are we going to do about that bitch, Jilly?”

Zoe passed a pair of batons to Abbey.

“What are we going to do? We are going to practice, babe! We are going to practice till perfect! I want to be ready for her next time!”

Abbey sighed. “Okay, but I am sure that this is just what the Coach wants us to do.”

To herself, she reflected, “Oh, well. We now have a normal relationship. Just like any normal relationship, it all starts off with hugs and kisses, and then you end up fighting!”

The Thrill of a Good Fight

Abbey arrived late for the training as she had had to catch up on the latest gadgets the nerds had on show tonight; she just did not have time for everything she wanted to do, let alone the school work that got harder every year. She also needed to finish off a project tonight, which she should have handed in on Monday.

She just did not have the time to train every night with that bitch Jilly! Looking around the training hall, she saw that both Zoe and Sue were sitting in the corner looking as though they had just walked away from a car crash. Zoe came over and told her she was so out of it that she was going to go straight home tonight for a nice long bath and then an early night.

She squeezed Abbey’s hand and whispered,

“Be careful with the bitch tonight. I’m sure she has PMS from hell—and it goes so well with her normal happy nature!”

Sue finished packing her sports bag and also left. She had an impressive number of bruises covering her face and arms from where Jilly had pointed out her slow defensive skills. Sue had finished all her anger-management training courses weeks ago, and now, from all the bruises, she looked as if she needed to be part of a child protection program! Everyone knew she had requested to be let back on the soccer team or have the school provide her with extra medical coverage.

She watched Jilly, still full of energy, throw a couple of towels over the CCTV cameras and say,

“That’s better. I can change now without being watched by pervy teachers!”

Watching Jilly remove her tracksuit, Abbey couldn’t stop herself from correcting her.

“They are just standard school CCTV. No one looks at them,” she said. “It just records to a hard drive that no one can look at and is automatically overwritten every 30 days.”

Jilly finished changing into tight-fitting sports skins, strapped on a couple of leg pockets, and laughed.

“If you believe that, then I will remove the towels, and we can fight naked!”

She laughed again. “Then we can take bets on how long it will take to turn up on one of those internet porn sites!”

Abbey removed her own tracksuit but didn’t answer her as the bitch was probably right. She didn’t have to get Daddy to buy her expensive sports skins. A single thought changed her underwear into black half skins, which were far superior to Jilly’s in every way. Her skin was almost an organic Kevlar. With just a thought she could make the skin anti-cut and slash-resistant. She slowly stretched and smiled at the idea of fighting naked, as that was in fact what she was doing right now!

“You will not insult me tonight.”

It was a flat statement without any emotion from Jilly as she prepared to fight.

“Nor will you continue to treat the noble arts with such contempt. If you do, tonight there will be a forfeit to pay!”

“I don’t know what the hell you are talking about,” replied Abbey.

A cold smile slowly formed on Jilly’s face as she spun a kick that forced Abbey to move back.

“Number one: The Coach is blind to your skills. You could make one of the best in the country, but you do not even try!”

A leg blocked Abbey’s arm with such power that it forced her to somersault backwards.

“Number two: I have spent years of painful training to do what I can do, but you are different, perhaps some incarnation of a great warrior. Your body produces moves that no one could have shown you, yet you do not make use of them!”

A flying double kick missed as Jilly stepped to one side and watched Abbey hit the floor and roll.

“Number three: You hold back all the time you are fighting me! You will run around until you can pretend I have beaten you! At least Zoe puts some real hate in her attacks. I know with her that if she knew how to use a killing blow, she would use it on the very first attack, but you…”

A fast-moving leg was only a decoy, as a fist winded Abbey as it sank into her stomach.

“Number four: You teach Zoe excellent moves, which you do not bother to use yourself.”

A foot on its way to meet Abbey’s face was blocked, which made her arm tingle.

“Number five: You can move your chi to different parts of your body. That is a skill that should take years to master, but you can do it instinctively. Without it, that last block would have broken your arm!”