Proud to Be Yours

“Ack!” 

I parry her attack with my blade and follow up with a riposte to her upper collarbone. I did not stab her with much force, but she made that noise when I hit her. But I’m pretty sure it was more out of frustration than out of actual pain. “Don’t be so hard on yourself, Grace. That was a good attack.” 

“No, it wasn’t.” She sighs, lowering her blade to the ground. “I’ve hardly been able to land an attack on you all day. I think I’m getting worse at fencing.” 

“You’re doing just fine for your skill level.” I reassure her, lowering my weapon and stepping closer to her. “I just have years of experience while you only have a couple months. You’ve improved a lot from the rookie class.” 

For context, I am the armorer of the Fencing Club. Two times a week, all the members practice in this small gym room with crimson walls and polished wooden floors to practice our blade work, footwork, and strategies. I have been a part of the club for 3 years and am one of the leading officers in the club, while Grace is one of the rookies who joined this year. We offer a rookie class to people for the first six weeks to teach them how to fence, me being the person to teach them this year, and then the rest of the year consists of practicing and going to tournaments. At the beginning of the year, we usually have a lot of members and then we gradually lose members who are busy with other aspects of their lives. In the end, we usually only keep a few rookies and Grace just happens to be one of two who stayed. 

Grace shakes out her arm and comes into her En Garde stance, which is the beginning stance you take when you are ready to fence your opponent. I can see the determination in her eyes as she focuses on me through her mask. “Again!”  

I mirror her, my forearm parallel to the ground as the tip of my blade is positioned right between her eyes. My front leg was forward while my back leg was pointing off to the side, my knees slightly bent.  

I slap my thigh to indicate the start of the fight. I took two advances toward her and then retreated. She only took a baby advance before retreating away from me. She was still scared to face me. Sure, I was a big guy at six-foot seven, but she was not going to score any points against me if she refused to come at me. I make a beat attack on her blade to try and get her to do something, but she did not take the bait. Grace was being too defensive. I could still easily circle around her blade and attack her, getting the point, but that was not what I wanted to do. Instead, I took a few retreats and lowered my blade slightly as if to indicate to open some area on my chest.  

That’s when she acts. She charges at me with a row of advances until she is the right amount of distance away. Then, she lunges forward. And she would have gotten to point if not for two things. The first thing is that I saw her attack coming from a mile away. Her footwork needs some work, otherwise she is going to have a hard time making her attack less obvious against better opponents. The second thing is that she lunged towards the part of my chest that she always tries to extend towards. Expecting that, I did the same thing I did last time and parry riposte before she has time to react. 

“Dammit!” Grace curses as the tip of my blade lands just above her breast. She lets out a frustrated groan and straightens into a normal noncombative position. “That’s the same exact thing you did last time!” 

“I could say the same for you.” I tell her, taking a few steps back and moving into the En Garde position. “I could tell when you were going to attack. You came at me like this.” 

I start with a small advance and then start galloping towards her. She lets out a small giggle, “I was not that bad.” 

“It was pretty obvious.” I respond, stopping so I was about two feet away from her. “Also, don’t be afraid to try other target areas. There’s a whole quadrant of target areas for you utilize to get a point, so you don’t need to keep going towards the same area every time.” 

“I know, I know.” She lowers her head, her shoulders slumping down in the process. “But it’s hard to do that because you always cover those areas pretty well. At least the fourth and sixth quadrants. And going towards the seventh and eighth quadrants just don’t feel natural.” 

“I understand how weird it feels.” I take off my mask so I can look at her directly without the metal mesh getting in the way of what I want to express to her. Grace shortly does the same as I continue. “Believe me, it took me a while to get used to going for other target areas. But as a fencer it is good to have more than just one plan in mind.” 

She lets out a wry giggle. “You say that as if I have a plan. I’m honestly just trying to score a point against you; I’m not thinking much about what I’m doing.” 

“Well, you should have a plan. Or a couple. You don’t know what your opponent may throw at you so it's good to have some strategies in your arsenal so you’re not just relying on the same attack every time.” 

“Right,” she nods with a crestfallen expression on her face, “I understand.” 

“You’re doing really good though.” I admit to her. “When I finished the rookie class, I wasn’t nearly as good as you were. I had a lot more improvement to work on at that time than what you have now. It’s going to take a lot of practice, but I’m sure you’ll get the chance to pass me pretty soon.” 

She shakes her head. “I doubt that.” 

“I mean it though. You’re putting more work into improving more than anyone else in the club.” I insist, giving her a small smile. “You payed more attention in the rookie classes than anyone else who was there.” 

“Of course,” Grace responds, looking up at me, “I wanted to make you proud of me.” 

...Huh? I blink at her a few times. That was not something I was expecting her to say. 

“You always seemed so apprehensive whenever you were teaching us.” She explains with a small bashful smile tugging at the corner of her lips. “Like, when you were not sure what part of fencing you wanted to teach that day, or when you couldn’t think of a way to explain how to do something. And, often, you seemed tired when you were trying to teach us something new. Not that you were actually tired, but your voice sounded tired. I don’t know, I just kind of had the feeling you didn’t want to teach it some days.” 

“Well, if we’re being honest, I was really nervous about doing it.” And it’s true. This was my first year teaching it since the person who usually taught it moved away. And since no one else in the club was going to teach it, I knew someone had to. “I didn’t think anyone would really listen to what I had to say.” 

Grace tilts her head to the side, puzzled. “Why not? You’re practically the instructor here! People would be stupid not to listen to you! Look at how far I’ve come in the small amount of time you’ve had to teach me! Sure, I’m really awful-” 

“You’re not awful,” I interrupt her. “And I’m always proud of you.” 

“... but I still have a lot to learn.” She continues as if she didn’t hear me. “I really like learning from you though. You’re my favorite officer to work with. I’m not sure if that’s biased or not since you were the one who worked with the rookies the most, but I mean it. Casey can be a little too harsh with his criticism to the point where I feel like I’ll never improve. Katy is overly supportive of my efforts to improve, but she doesn’t really know a lot about how to help me improve. You’re like a perfect mix of them both and that’s exactly what I need.” 

I feel my face grow warm. That was incredibly sweet of her to say; it’s just another reason why she was always my favorite person in the rookie class to work with. “I’m glad I can be of help.” 

“Thank you for everything, Keith.” She smiles warmly at me and I feel all my worries and insecurities melting away like snow under the bright rays of the sun.  

I glance up at the clock and am shocked to realize we’ve lost track of time from our conversation. “Do you want to do a few more bouts? We only have a few more minutes left before practice ends.” 

“Sure,” she nods. She backs up to the En Garde line, our close proximity from before becoming lost and leaving me feeling cold. Despite that, I do the same and get back into our usual starting stance.  

I had no idea Grace had that much confidence in me, and that’s what is going to push me to help her become a better fencer. It’s a hard sport but, even when she has confidence in me, I have even more confidence in her. With a slap of my thigh, I promise myself to help her out in any way I can like I know she would do for me. Just like how she did for my own insecurities. I am proud to have her as a friend, a fellow fencer, and months later I would have no idea how much she would change my life for the better.