by Keya Jay
Chapter 12
“That was supper fun Zell you should try!” Nay- Nay said bubbly. “Maybe Nicky can teach you,” she offered.
“No thanks.”
“It’ll be fun,” Nicky said.
“Yea I know, Llorel said the same thing and I told him maybe next time,” she said.
“You chippin away that iceberg?” Nay-Nay asked. Azalea winked at her and they both started laughing.
“Alright Nay let’s get you back,” Nicky said.
“Can Azalea walk with us?” she asked her brother hopefully.
“If she wants to,” Nicky said grabbing onto his sister’s hand.
“Do you?!” she asked hopeful. Now how can I possibly turn her down?
“Sure,” she said giving her a very genuine smile.
“Well shall we?” he said cocking his head and holding his hand out for Azalea. She rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand and they walked hand in hand back to the house. They stopped in front of their door and Nay-Nay dropped Nicky’s hand.
“Are you leaving today?” she asked sadly.
“Yea Nay I have to go back tonight,” he said just as sadly.
“But I’mma be all alone, Tosh is leaving tonight too.”
“Llorel will be here,” he reminded her.
“Yea but he’s no fun.”
“Well what about Azalea?” he said bumping into her with his shoulder.
“Ok!” she said a bit happier.
“Good night Nay,” he said kissing her forehead.
“G’night. I’ll see you tomorrow right Azalea?”
“Right, but because I have an early training tomorrow I might have to pick you up around 3 can you wait till then?”
“Yup,” she said running into her arms.
“Good night Azalea!”
“Good night Kiddo.”
After Nicky made sure that Nay-Nay was all tucked and ready for bed he met Azalea back outside.
“So training huh?”
“Yea.”
“Well you don’t sound too excited about that.”
“Oh I am, I can’t wait to wake up at 5:00am to fight complete and total strangers and work until my bones screams for me to stop but my mentor screams even louder to keep going until I nearly pass out. So much fun I can barely contain my excitement,” she said turning around and heading back to the field.
“Wow if I was in the same position as you I’d be just as excited as you seem.”
“The only fun part about it is getting to kick Llorel’s ass,” she smiled.
“I can see how that can be tempting.”
“So why are you leaving tomorrow?”
“School,” he answered simply.
“Oh,” I said forgetting all about school. He didn’t really cross her as the type of guy old enough to still be in school, college maybe.
“It’s not like your ordinary school,” he confirmed.
“Oh” she said again.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go riding with me? It truly will be as fun as Nay-Nay and Llorel said it would.”
“No thanks but maybe you can ride off to school on a horse, I’ll see you off. I would just love to see that.”
“Deal.”
“You’re not serious are you?”
“Dead, I’d never ridden to school on a horse before but It’s quite tempting, but remember you promised to see me off,” he said stopping at the door to her side of the house.
“Fine but how early do I have to get up? I already have to get up at 5:00 for training.”
“You just have to come down to the house at 6:30.”
“Alright I’ll meet you then but first I have to get permission.”
“From who? Your trainer?”
“Yea I have to ask Llorel.”
“Llorel’s your mentor?”
“Yuppers,” she said sadly.
“What is he like one of those military trainers?”
“I’d like to think of myself as a very good trainer wouldn’t you agree Azalea?” Llorel said meeting them at the door.
“Umm sure,” she said stretching out the word.
“That’s my girl, now what is it you have to ask me first?”
“I wanna be there to see Nicky before he leaves tomorrow but he leaves at 6:30 but I’ll be in training, So I was wondering if you’d let me take about 15 minutes out of training to see him off?” He squinted at her first and then as if flipped by a switch his expression softened.
“Yea, yall don’t mind if I tag along. Besides I’ve decided that it’ll only be me and you tomorrow.”
“Wait Bre, Caleb and Casey won’t be there?”
“Not this time, there’s something that I want to do… with just you,” He said nervously.
“Well yea bro you know I don’t mind if you come,” Nicky insured.
“Well it seems to be settled I’ll see you both tomorrow at 6:30. Good night Azalea. I’ll see you later Llorel?”
“Sure” he said before turning away into the house.
“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow Nicky, Good night,” Azalea said following Llorel into the house.
