Battles of the Mind

"You know you can't win." He spun his weapon in his hands like it was already the award. I rolled my eyes and prepared to strike, he wouldn't win this one.

"Is that really what you think?" I asked, bringing my sword down upon his. They collided with a satisfactory clang. It made my ears ring, but it was glorious and reminded me that he couldn't win.

"It rings true every time, you know that Skylar." He swung at me again, this time striking my armor at my waist. I grunt and step backwards. He takes it as an opportunity to strike again, but this time I meet his blade with mine once more.

I try to predict his next move, but it fails and he strikes my breastplate. He smirks and steps back, clearly satisfied with himself.

"You can't win." I say, more to myself than him. He cocks an eyebrow.

"And who says you can?" He swings again and I meet his sword with mine, a metal pinging ringing through the forest.

I throw my force into my next strike and land my blade between his two plates of armor on his chest. My blade pierces flesh and bone on his collar.

He cries out in pain and throws his weapon down, taking a few steps back. I don't let down my guard. His sword was not his only weapon. I can see blades glinting from his boot and sleeve.

He puts a hand up to his wound and stares at me with a violent look in his eyes. I can tell that our battles will never find an end.

"Are you surrendering Gavin?" I ask, still defensive.

"I will never surrender." He says, venom dripping off of his words. "You are just a girl and I will never lose to you. You do not belong in an army. Go back home!" He pulls the blade from his left sleeve and throws it.

I dodge it as best I can, but it still grazes my cheek as it flies by. I don't feel it, the blade is too sharp, but I can feel the liquid warmth of my blood dripping steadily down my face.

"Now that we are even, we will postpone this to another day. I will not lose to you." Gavin says, "Until next time, Skylar." He picks up his weapon and hurries off through the woods.

I stand there dumbfounded. Gavin has never backed out of a battle on his own. It's a strange feeling, this feeling of victory, however temporary it is.

I hurry off in the opposite direction, towards the trail to town, to tell everyone of my victory against Gavin. Of course no one will believe me, but it will still spread like wildfire and ruffle Gavin's feathers enough that he comes back earlier.

"Skylar!" I'm snapped out of my daydream by a screeching voice from the front of the classroom. Miss Dolores is staring at me, her hands on her hips, and a new word on the board. I guess I was supposed to be doing something with it.

"Yes ma'am?" I say, fighting to keep the grogginess out of my voice. It still comes out thick and tired, but she'd never notice it.

"You were supposed to define this word and use it in a sentence." She says, pointing to the board with her chalk-tipped wooden stick.

I nod and turn my attention to the word scrawled in messy chalk handwriting. I'm surprised I can read it.

Environment

I almost roll my eyes. Everyone knows this word, what's the point of defining and using it in a sentence? I mean, I get that it's helpful to remember it for the Spelling Bee next week, but it won't help me remember.

Either way I do as she says and finish with a flick of my hand. Miss Dolores isn't impressed, but that's to be expected.

"Excellent. Now, don't go off into your head again girl. Is that clear?" She asks, pointing her chalk stick at me like it was a finger or an extension of her body.

"Yes ma'am." I say, and do really try to stay out of my head and focus on what's going on. But as usual, I miss out on half the practice and live a whole different life that's more exciting than mine.

"Momma' you'll never believe what just happened!" I say, running in through the pasture. She's sitting near the fence adjusting the saddle on our best horse Rose. She barely looks up at me as she replies.

"I'm certain I won't." She says flatly. "But tell me anyway." She still doesn't look up at me.

"I beat Gavin in a fight earlier." I say, standing on the other side of Rose and petting her soft hide. "He backed off first this time." My mother scoffs, clearly not believing me.

"No one beats Gavin. You know this." She says, "You probably lost but he let you believe that you won." Her voice becomes cheerful at the thought of me losing, again, to Gavin. I should've not told her. My post victory pride and joy was disappearing.

"Well, I'm telling the truth. If you don't want to believe me then don't. But I don't like to be laughed at." I pat Rose once more and trudge to our farmhouse to put on clothing more suitable for town.

"Skylar stop daydreaming!" Miss Dolores shouts at me again. "Do you really want the reining champion to beat you?" She asks.

It's true, I'm finally going against the state champion this time. If I beat them I'll get the title, and I'll finally be appreciated on the team.

"No ma'am." I say, sitting upright in my seat. She nods in approval.

"Practice is over anyway, Skylar." She says, "You're all dismissed, see you in two days for the tournament."

We all grab our things from the coat racks and file one by one or two by two out the door. I meet up with my friend, Victor, outside the school.

"Hey." He says, adjusting his basketball bag on his shoulder.

"Hey." I say, falling into step with him.

"How was practice?" He asks, starting down the road to our neighborhood. I shrug.

"I missed half of it, but the part I didn't miss was okay." I say. He laughs.

"You really need to stay out of your head if you want to win this time." I flinch and he gives me an apologetic look. "I'm just being honest. You lost the last match and you really have to keep your head in the game this time. This time it's your pride and your title on the line." He says.

I nod, "Yeah, I know. I'll try my best." I say, "What about you, how was practice?"

He laughs. "It was the usual. Damien wasn't there and neither was Karlos. You know, our best offensive and defensive players. So we couldn't practice our new strategies and had to resort to having Logan and Hunter as our defensive and offensive best." He sighs. "It was a trainwreck."

I laugh, having no clue what he's talking about. "I'm sorry?" I say. He laughs and shakes his head.

"I'll teach you what it all means at some point." He says, "See you on Monday at the meet!" And he disappears into his house. I didn't realize how fast our walk went this time.

I shrug it off and wander into my house, my head in the clouds.

It's the day of the meet and we're all in our uniform polo's and waiting by the buses with Miss Dolores taking roll call.

"Jamie, Derek, Vicky," She marks us all off on a clipboard as she calls us one by one. I watch nervously for Victor and his family.

"Arthur, Skylar, Henry," Miss Dolores continues marking us off as the bus starts its engine.

"Alright, everyone on the bus!" Miss Dolores announces. I check the time on my phone and get on, finding my seat by myself.

I text my mother about where we're going and about what time we'll be back. At the same time I'm waiting for Victor to text me that he'll be waiting for me there.

Nothing comes until halfway through the meet, right before my turn. I got a phone call from his mom, which is unusual so I'm immediately worried. I answer with a shaky voice.

"Hello?" I say into the phone.

Victor's mom is frantic on the other side as she tells me that as Victor was driving himself to his meet that he got into an accident and is currently in the hospital.

"I was hoping to tell you after the match, but he said to call and tell you why he won't be there today. I'm sorry and I'll update you as the doctors check on him. Good luck Skylar." She says, and ends the phone call.

I'm hardly aware of my name being called and walking up to the podium.

"Now opposing Gavin Stewart, the State Champion, Skylar Brown!" The announcer says dully into the microphone. I walk with shaky steps up to my own podium and wait for the announcer to spit out some words to - Wait, what was his name?

Gavin? It can't be coincidental that his name just happens to be the same as my enemies to lovers Gavin in my head. I stare at him in awe, he looks exactly the same.

I keep my head focused on the words that he gets wrong so that I can have a chance to beat him.

"And now for Skylar Brown!" The announcer says. "Your words are: Depth, forgetting, educate, exchange..."

As he spits out the words I jot down the correct spelling on my small sheet of paper and focus on myself only. The audience, Gavin, Victor, it all disappears and it's just me, the announcer, and my pen and paper.

Once he finishes his words and I finish writing them down, I spell them out for him and watch as Gavin's eyes bug out as I get every. Single. Word. Correct. He could never beat me.

I smile as I beat my real life/fictional enemy.

After the match I pull out my phone and check for more messages from Victor's mom and how he's doing. There's nothing new so I updated my mom on how I did. The final standings will be told at the end of the meet after everyone's gone.

Just as I send my message to my mom, someone clears their throat behind me. I turn around to see Gavin.

"Oh, hey." I say, tucking my phone into my back pocket. He puts out a hand and I flinch back at how aggressive he was.

"Good match, I'm sorry to say that you beat me, but congratulations State Champ." He smiles rather brightly and I shake his hand. Pride swells through me, and something else but I choose to ignore it.

"Thank you. You did pretty good yourself." He smiles and a red color starts to creep up his neck.

"I was studying your profile on Bee Yourself Profiles to see how well you did. I thought that you were good, but I didn't expect you to know every word on the sheet." He looks away and pulls his hand back. I laugh.

"I didn't look at your profile, but you surprised me nonetheless." He looks back up at me.

"I don't mean to sound forward, but would you like to go out for coffee so we can talk more about the meet, or whatever comes up?" Now it's my turn to blush. I don't exactly know what to say. Thankfully, my phone pings with Victor's notification sound. Which gives me an idea.

"Why don't we exchange numbers so I can get to know you and be sure that you won't murder me in my sleep?" I suggest, checking Victor's message.

I'm fine, mom is upset. I hope you did well. If you didn't I'm still calling you State Champ.

"That sounds great! I super understand about me murdering you. I mean, not that I want to but I understand." He looks away, the blush creeping into his face.

Two Months Later

I'm not sure how the Gavin in my daydream is doing because I haven't had a daydream for a while, which is a good thing I suppose. Victor isn't crippled and his mom still fusses over him like he is. I've introduced Gavin to him and they became better friends than I ever thought. Which is also a good thing?

We took two months to start dating and life is great in the real world.

Oh! I forgot to mention, I'm the National Champion now! I still have to go against Gavin, and we're both competitive as ever, but I always win fair and square.