Panchu! (Chapter Three)

The bell rang and the spar began. Darren lunged at me, the first thing that popped into my mind was run, so that's what I did. I could tell Coach was upset with me trying to run away, and if I needed to impress looks like I'll have to fight. Great. I turned back to Darren, who threw a punch right at my face, so I ducked a bit, took a step forward, and punched him right in the gut. Darren was surprised by my punch, he probably thought of me as a chicken, and chickens aren't known to fight back. To be honest, I was surprised too. Darren turned to me, his eyes filled with pure hatred, it seems as if this guy didn't like to lose. How unfortunate."C'mon Phil! You can beat
him!" I heard Michael cheering me on in the background, I had to win, I needed to impress coach and everyone else in this room! Darren punched me in the side of my face, it hurt, but a singular punch wasn't going to bring me down. I punched him in the side before punching him once more with a punch right to the side of his jaw. The impact made Darren fall over, and I just stood there, about to finish the job, but the coach jumped into the ring and held me back as Ryan was helping Darren off the ring. "Well, Phil, when you first entered the ring, I thought you were a pathetic coward, but it seems as if you have something special, I'm looking forward to your progress." He let me go after telling that to me. "Go sit over on the bench and I'll get someone to get you a bandage for your face, because it's bleeding pretty bad." I nodded and climbed out of the ring, taking off the boxing gloves. I dropped them into the bucket and then sat on the bench. I felt a tap on my shoulder, and when I looked over, I was sincerely surprised, it was Meghan, holding a bandage. "My dad said you need this?" I nodded, I was having trouble getting words, "Yeah." I took it from her and put it on on my face. "You have a great punch, it does some damage. You're Phil, right? I'm Meghan." I was about to say, 'I know.' but that'd be creepy, she'd probably think I was a stalker or something. "Yeah, it's nice to meet you." She sat down next to me, "I'm going to need your strength, Phil." Need my strength? Why did something perverted just show up in my mind? There was no way Meghan was like that. "Okay, but what will you need it for?", "Boxing. I actually came here to scope out someone I could help my dad bring to the boxing tournaments, and I chose you. Which means, I'll be the one training you privately after school and even on weekends. You want to do it?" Yes! I would be able to be privately by Meghan, who wouldn't accept this offer, but I had to make it seem like I wasn't desperate, that'd just be weird if I blurted 'yes' like that.
"Yeah, sure. That'd be cool." She gave me a thumbs up, "Got it, looking forward to training you Phil. Meet me here tomorrow after school." She got up, and walked over to the coach and pointed at me before leaving. I had just officially met the girl of my dreams.

I walked home with Michael, it seemed as if our houses were in the same neighborhood which was cool. He was interrogating me the entire time about what Meghan was talking to me about, but I just ignored him, he'd find out tomorrow. When I arrived at home, my father was there, standing at the door, and he didn't look happy. "I heard you joined the boxing club." I tilted my head, "Yeah? So? What's wrong with joining the boxing club?", "I'm going to need you to quit." Now that right there was nonsense! There was no way I was going to quit boxing, and the current question on my mind then was. 'Why does he want me to quit boxing?' "Sorry, old man, but that's not happening, I'm going to the tournament, and the coach is going to train me." He looked crestfallen when I said that, I didn't mean to hurt him, but still, he's trying to make me quit, which was something I didn't want to do, how else was I supposed to get closer to Meghan? "Well, fine, but when you get seriously hurt, I don't want you to come crying or complaining to me. There's equipment in the garage, you can use it." Equipment? Boxing equipment? Why did he have equipment? "Thanks, dad.." I went into the garage, looking around for any boxing equipment I could find, there was a large box near the back, so I went over to it and opened it. Yep, it was the boxing equipment box. I took out the gloves, and was about to close the box when I saw something, a newspaper and a photograph. It was my father wearing these same boxing gloves in the ring. My old man used to be a boxer!?

What's going to happen next? Find out next time on Panchu!