John woke from his slumber. He was wrapped up like some cheap burrito, in layers upon layers of covers. It was cold in his room. Winter had long wore out its welcome to him. He was sweating, but the air was freezing. He could see his breath. John looked over at the clock, 8 am.

Sigh "Time to get up and get the blood pumping. I'll be glad when I can afford to run the heat." He rolled out of bed and quickly threw on some sweats. He walked out from his room, which was located in the back of the strong style dojo. "Might as well get a workout in before I eat breakfast." It was so cold that John made sure to limber up before doing any explosive movements... he still has a nagging injury from pulling a muscle from throwing a heavy bag cold. John begins to do dynamic stretches to get the full range of motion in his body.

"Ah, I almost forgot..." John walked to the door and flipped the open sign. "Not like anyone is interested anyway. I'm content on training by myself for now."

After he officially opened the gym, and stretched out completely, John starts to lightly strike the heavy bag. The chains that hold it to the rack clang every time he struck it. CLANG CLANG CLANG. It sounded like it was Christmas time and Santa was in the house.

As the time went on John continued to strike progressively harder, especially with his kicks. He hadn't worried about putting gloves on at this point, because it was just a warm up, still he made sure not to bloody his knuckles. That was something a noob would do. John was experienced at this.

CLANG CLANG CLANG

"Ah, that should do for now, I don't feel cold anymore.. shew." John paused for a moment and wiped his brow with his sweat shirt. Steam was rising from his head.

Macy groaned, slamming her hand down on her ringing alarm clock. She threw her covers off her body, the cold hair hitting her hard causing small goosebumps. She yawned and stood slowly in her pajama shorts and her white v-neck. Macy looked over to her desk due to the buzzing of her cell phone. It was her dad.

Hey pumpkin, it's you dad. I got an email from your private teacher, seems as if you're growing up to fast. Have you been working out lately? If not, I know a few places you can go starting today. I want to see my baby girl fit like her dad. I suggest going down the street a block or two, a new dojo style place opened up. Talk to you later. -Dad

Macy couldn't help but laugh to herself. That sure was her dad. She crossed her arms and stood for a few seconds then smiled, changing into a black sports bra and black leggings. She sat down and slipped on her tennis shoes then grabbed a waterbottle, towel, and an apple then headed out the door. She walked for a couple of minutes down the street before coming to the place her dad had mentioned. Macy looked in the window for a second, eyeing a guy already there. Macy sighed and opened the door and stepped inside.

"Hello?"

John heard the bells on the front door jingle.. it startled him seeing as he hadn't had any visitors since he put a sign up on the outside.

"Well, hello! Nice to see a new face around here..." John still had steam coming off his head. "Welcome to the, uh well it's not much of a place right now, but I call it the Strong Style Dojo!." John motioned toward the worn mats, and duct taped heavy bags. "See, well as you can tell it's a new place, and I can't afford top notch equipment.. I can't even afford to heat the place right now." John looked a little embarrassed from this unfortunate truth...

"Anyway, my name is John Santel... do you need help with directions to somewhere, or are you looking to join? You look in shape, so I would love to have you on the team. I know it's not much, but I hope to win some money to improve the place soon."

John extended his hand with a smile

Macy let her bag slide off her shoulder onto the ground then she walked forward, shaking his hand with a kind smile. "Oh don't feel ashamed. You are just starting off, John." She let go of his hand and looked him over, he had a nice body so he must have been serious about his training. "Macy Cowan, and yes I'm looking to join you." Macy said sweetly then bent over, putting her hair up into a ponytail.

"I'm sorry if this is sudden. Usually I would call ahead but my dad just told me about this place this morning." Macy put her hands on her hips and looked around with a smile.

"I am glad to hear that." John said with a smile. He couldn't help but be happy that he had a girl in the gym.
"Um, well feel free to use the facility. I'm actually about to cook up some breakfast if you'd like to join me?"

"I don't see why I should turn down that offer." Macy smiled and stepped forward next to him and then adjusted the strap on her sports bra. "Lead the way." She looked up at him with raised eyebrows and a grin. She hadn't ever really done training with a boy so this should be a first.

"Awesome." John led her back to his tiny kitchen. It was clean, but small. He showed her the kitchen table and began to crack some eggs and fry up some bacon.

"So, what brings you to the Dojo? You look in shape, so I'm assuming you have previous training? I used to wrestle in school. I also have trained in muay thai for awhile. I had the privilege of learning under Billy Robinson. He's this old gnarly guy that shows you how to rip people's limbs off.." John chuckled because of the absurdity and truthfulness in this statement.
"He's the guy that taught Sakuraba. One of my all time heros... eh, I.dont want to bore you by talking about myself too much."

John handed her a plate of bacon and eggs along with silverware.. he smiled and sat down eager to hear about this mysterious girl.

Macy smiled and sat down next to him, biting a piece of the crispy bacon. After swallowing, she turned as faced him with a curious grin. "Well I did a lot of training too. My dad was in the military so he wanted me to be tough like him."

Macy giggled and nudged his elbow with hers "I took karate and jiu jitsu." She smirked and glanced at him with raised eyebrows "I bet I could kick you butt...but I won't because that's not how you make friends." Macy looked away and laughed, biting her bacon again.

John almost choked on his breakfast.. he swallowed then realized he needed something to drink.

"Spunky one! I like that. Definitely looking forward to training with you here in a few minutes..." John got up and grabbed some orange juice.. "Hope you like OJ." He handed her a glass and poured himself one.
"It's Macy, right? I'm horrible at remembering names... but I'm excited to make friends."

"OJ is the best." Macy smiled and took a sip of the delicious juice. She finished off her breakfast and stretched her arms with a giggle. "Yeah it's Macy." She smiled and stood up, putting her dishes in the sink then walkin back over and holding her hand out for him, the other on her hip.

"I'm glad my dad told me about this place." She brushed her hair out of her face and winked.

Guy mummbled to himself as he was rudely awoken again, his head to the ground and his feet in the air. He looked at the clock and let out a moan as he spun to his feet. He never woke up at a time like this, it felt wrong and degrading. Still he went to his bathroom and brushed his teeth and washed his face. He looked like a mess,and was so. He looked at his one room apartment. Bottles bags, plates, tissues and magazines scattered the ground. Carson pored himself a cup off caffeinated tea. He put on a flogging molly shirt his cup, and sweat pants and walked out the door after downing the drink and began to take a walk, stretching the whole way. He had heard of a school teaching mma around his block and was eager to learn from the man, he may have been skin and bone, but he was a great fighter, and hoped who ever worked there would be kind enough.

As he walked in he began curling up, putting his shoulders as high as the could and hunching his shoulders, he walked to the man talking to a girl, but quickly steped back, seeing as they were talking.

The door jingled again.. "oh another visitor.. let's get out of the kitchen and go sit on the mats."

John lead them to the wrestling mats "no shoes on the mats please, unless you have wrestling shoes of course." John sat down with the 2. "So, welcome to the Strong Style Dojo! My name is John, this girl right here just came in about an hour ago as well, so we all can start from square one. What are you looking to get into? Nice to meet you by the way.. and don't be afraid of training with this girl.. she's out for blood this one." With that John laughed.

"Actually feel free to start stretching out right now as we all get acquainted with each other." John starts to get loosened up again.

Carson flinched a little at the description of the girls blood lust, but still proceeded to take his loafers off and step onto the mat.
"um, w-what are we doing" he said as he looked at his opponent afraid. Not that he didn't think hit a girl was wrong in this instant, but he was afraid of anyone who challenged him, and treated any fight as if it were a fight to the death.

Still in his fear he bowed and put his glasses in his pants.

"my name is Jackson, and I am your opponent who are you" he said as he set his hands into there stance,making a right angle, and bending his legs as well as standing on his toes.

Macy laughed along with him and sat down on the mat, stretching her legs out as she looked at the new guy. "My names Macy. Don't treat me any different just because I'm a girl, I'm just as tough as you boys." She smiled and laid back, stretching her arms. Macy glanced at John and smirked.

"I'm not going to hurt you Jackson. Don't look so scared." She flashed him a kind smile as she tightened her ponytail.

"Hey bud, I didn't catch your name. We're not sparring yet, so no worries. You can be comfortable here with us, and you don't need to bow to me. I'm just a coach. I don't expect you to do any of that ancient respect bullcrap. Just be respectful of me and your teammates and everything is golden." John smiled at the guy.

"Man, I used to be just like you. You're gonna fit right in."

Guy let out a deep breath and tightened his fist as hard as possible and looked at the girl with curiosity. Why was she so cool minded? How could she keep her mind at ease at a time like this? Jackson's legs began to shake, as they always did. Finally he bent down and touched his toes holding it for a minute. Jackson proceeded to yawn as the sleepiness began to come back to him.

"My name is jackson sir, And what is yours" he said and he twisted his his torso

John glanced back over at Macy and recognized she was prepared for whatever came her way.
"Man, it's finally starting to get warm in here." John took off his sweats and revealed his rash guard underneath along with his vale tudo shorts. He quickly grabbed his wrestling shoes and knee pads from his locker and began to suit up.. all the meanwhile listening to his new students/teammates.

"Did you say your name was Jackson? I'm just making sure so I'm not being rude.. anyway feel free to stretch out and get warmed up by hitting the heavy bag some. Do you have any boxing gloves? If not I have some right here." John handed him the gloves. "They stink really bad, but they're better than hurting your hands."

"Oh and My name is John Santel. Nice to meet you Jackson."

Carson pulled a pair of fist wraps out and began spinning them around his fist.
"Do I really need them? I never needed them till now, and yes sir mt name is jackson"

He looked at he heavy bag and smile, realizing how much fun it looked like. Thought he was trained in styles of boxing, he had never used on before, it was always either a training dummy or a wooden pole. Still he was sure that the heavy bag was the same, but still looked fun.