"Klein come over here for a second." I was dragged by my older brother, Jace who was pretty tall for his age, some would say he was defiantly handsome being a half-Asian and half-European mixed person.
You know one of those people you'd find at the airport and had a crush on, that you'll never meet in your life again. Yeah, those kinds of people.
But hey I wasn't so bad looking myself. I was quite attractive just like my brother. Sometimes people would call us princes but that was ironic. We were the opposite of that. Very poor.
I plopped myself onto the ragged old couch we owned in our small apartment that our mum and dad owned. It wasn't much but it did the job I was grateful for that.
Jace turned on the small TV that we had that had barely any noise coming out from it, but I could see what was going on, with the TV. We both watched the Olympics being held. The best fencers representing their country versing one another. I was amazed at how smooth and confident there were on the real stage. I clenched my pillow, in excitement at the entertaining duel in front of us.
Jace placed his arm on my shoulder as we continued to watch.
"Hey, Klein."
"Yes, my annoying older brother?" I did my best to keep my laughter in after saying that.
"Well, what-" Jace had realised what I had said and I accepted my fate as it was no use trying to escape him now, as Jace caught me in a headlock ruffling my light brown hair.
"What'd you say you little punk! You think you're getting older you can just say that?" Jace was smiling as he continued to hold his headlock on me.
Okay, this was way too much fun. It was these types of moments that you enjoyed with your older brother. Brotherly love. I tapped on his arm calling for time out as he released his headlock on me.
We both took time to regain our composure as we continued to watch the duel in front of us.
"I got scouted." Out of the blue Jace had said that as he looked at you with a small smile on his face.
"Scouted!? Do you mean like scouted, scouted? To where?"
"I got scouted by Protege De Arts Highschool." He stated.
"Wait you mean that powerful upper-class high school where all the royals, snobs and rich go to for fencing?" I questioned him.
"Yeah, that's the one."
"That's strange, no offence why would a prestigious school like that would want to be around commoners around us?"
"They noticed my talent far outweighed our poor living standards, and in doing so gave me the invitation to enrol to the school." Jace looked down at his hands which were trembling. I knew exactly why.
"I'm sorry," Jace muttered lowly.
"Sorry for what?" I chuckled trying to make the atmosphere brighter as he looked up at me.
"I'm sorry for everything. . . I'm sorry the reason why we're so poor is because of our mother and father spending so much money on me having lessons from the top fencing coaches in the world that we can't even afford basic things anymore. I'm also sorry that you never get the spotlight from mum and dad they are always too focused on me to pay attention to you. I'm just sorry that I don't spend enough time with you or teach you anything from those elite coaches." Jace took a deep breath as he clenched his fist.
I patted his shoulder, reassuring him that everything would be alright in this silent apartment of ours.
"You don't have to be sorry about anything at all. If anything I still think you're the best older brother I could possibly ever have. What you said about not spending enough time and not teaching me, you actually do. Me just watching you, whenever you secretly let me watch those sessions when I'm not suppose to was more than enough to teach myself the skills that you learnt, so thank you I really do appreciate that. But once you enrol at that school just promise me two things." I raised two of my fingers, as Jace raised his eyebrow at me.
"Anything for you." Jace smiled at me.
"Well, the first request is I want to see you become the best fencer at that school and the second thing is to get a girlfriend while you're at it. I haven't seen you with anyone in forever. You're just wasting the Ruez genetics." I snickered.
"If I had to be honest I think that 2nd request of yours, is going to be a lot more harder than the first one, but I'll try my best."
The duel between the two fencers had just finished on live television it was both an intense and tough duel. Jace pointed with his finger at the TV.
"That's it. Just watch Klein by the time I graduate high school I'll make it to the Olympics just wait."
I nodded excitedly at the idea of Jace making it to the Olympics for fencing.
"Say, Jace, doesn't that school every year produce 10 players to represent their country in the Olympics?"
"I think that's right no one ever really knows how things go down in that elite high school. All we do know is that they produce the best of the best to go into the Olympics and win gold medals for their country, if that says anything it says that the high school does work." Jace noted as he took a sip from his water bottle placing it down back on the wooden table that looked at any moment It was going to collapse in an instant.
"Klein how about it? Let's have a duel just like they did on live television. I'm interested in how good you are at your abilities. After all, you did say that you did pick up on things just from taking quick glimpses of the sessions I have with the best coaches. Let's put it to the test." Jace stood up from the couch as he gestured for me to follow along, and so I did. It didn't long before the both of us went to a nearby park.
He chucked a stick at me which I instinctively grabbed due to my reflexes. If I had to be honest the park was not the best option to have a duel at, as now all the kids and parents were watching the scene unfold in front of their eyes, as we got into our stances.
"You ready Klein?" Jace tightened his grip on the stick.
I nodded my head slowly.
FOOSH!
BOOSH!
WOOSH!
Jace swiftly without hesitation lunged forward with a straight thrust aiming at my abdomen with the stick. I wasn't as skilled or talented as Jace but I was a quick learner when it came to watching people, after all that's all I did in my life.
Watch.
Always in the background, but I liked it. It had a sense of peace and humility for me.
I parried the attack away, as I jumped backwards creating space between us.
"Your reflexes are sloppy Klein. . . you barely managed to block that thrust of mine," Jace smirked at me. I took a quick glance at our surroundings and I noticed that no one was
"Maybe I'm not trying. . . have you ever thought of that?" I chuckled, which seemed to piss Jace off to the point where it felt like his grip on the stick was going to completely crush it.
"Then try harder then!"
WOOSH!
The stick was coming right at me, I did another parry but that was what Jace was hoping for as he quickly turned his trajectory of the stick that was once aiming for my chest, landing a hit that he was trying to attempt last time the abdomen.
"Guh! Damn that hurts. . . you didn't have to hit me that hard." I groaned as I knelt down on the ground, coughing at the impact that the stick had left my body with.
"That was a feint I did, you should be able to read this, after all, you have seen my movements right?" Jace questioned me as he supported me back up, with a bright smile on his face.
"Yeah, yeah I should've known to read that my bad." I scratched the back of my head.
"Enough of the negatives, let's focus on the positives you're only 12 and you could somewhat keep up with your older brother who's only 2 years older than you. It's pretty impressive that you can keep up with a person who trains every day with the elite coaches, so congratulations on doing that, but you still need to touch on your skills." Jace noted to me.
"There's still two more rounds right Jace? So let's do it again then." I started as I grabbed the stick, gripping it tightly, as Jace simply nodded heading back to his position.
"Are you ready once more Klein?" Jace said.
"I am."
This time the round started slower than usual none of us was confident to make the first move, and when I meant by us, I only meant me. I didn't what he was going to do, but it felt as though he wanted me to strike first and so I did
TOOSH!
FOOSH!
WOOSH!
I thrusted the front leg of my fencing stance forward and moved my arms and body along, by using the explosiveness of my back leg, to in which surprised Jace smiled at seeing this move I had attempted on him to his chest of his. His natural instinct was to parry that move away from me, using his stick to stop my attack, but I escaped this parry of his as my blade slipped under his blade, hitting his shoulder of his.
"Nicely done Klein! I guess you did learn something after watching me." Jace chuckled as he repositioned himself for the final round.
"Come on Jace let's be real, it was obvious that you went easy on me, you let me hit you," I whined, as Jace put his hand up in surrender chuckling.
"I'll admit, I did go easy on you but this time I'll be going full out."
I nodded in glee as I was about to see a taste of his fullest potential.
"Are you ready?" Jace said with a serious tone.
"I'm ready."
"Good."
WHOOSH!
And that was it, I had no time to react whatsoever. I could see the moves so clearly but at the same time, I couldn't. I couldn't even react, my body wouldn't react at the speed at which Jace came right at me, fair play to him. I didn't know exactly where he hit me, but I knew that my body we telling me that I had been hit by him.
"Where did you hit me? What did you even do, I felt the hit but it was so. . ."
"Quick? I get that a lot. Listen Klein what's the point of me telling you where I hit you if you couldn't even tell what happened. . . You have to learn that for yourself. . . and once you do maybe then you'll rival me." Jace walked up to me, as he did the usual brotherly support he would always do after beating me in a duel, which was to ruffle my hair. I had to be honest I never knew why he ruffled my hair, maybe he thought I'd be pissed at him for beating me every time, but in fact, it was quite the opposite. My admiration grew more and more every day watching him defeat his opponents with such ease. My brother was the best fencer I saw in my life no one could match him in terms of raw skills and talent, I meant every word.
"I'll surpass you one day! Count on it." Jace chuckled at my response.
"I know. . . I know you will."
"Jace, what are you doing over there? It's time for your training session with Coach Capucine." Our mother had interrupted our brotherly moment as he winked at me.
"Coming! I'll be there." Jace ruffled my hair hugging me once more as he grabbed his duffel bag with all his equipment, heading off to the car that his mum was currently in.
Little did I know that this would be the last time I saw him until I had arrived at the high school. And who would've thought that the high school could be so ruthless?
Everything in that high school was about. . .
Talent.
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