And I laughed last

Shining red flames, screams, a terrible pain in her left hand, the walls collapsing around her, and then darkness. This was all Midnight could remember of the fire that killed her parents, and left her an orphan at age 13.

She woke up because of a loud noise, her bright red hair covered her face and she pushed it away to reveal two dark blue eyes and a very pale face. She looked at the clock around her wrist it showed seven in the morning. She knew there was no meaning in trying to get back to sleep because she had her first class at nine. Therefore, she walked into the bathroom and took a shower before getting dressed. After that she looked in the mirror and was instantly reminded of the accident as her left hand was from the writs and down covered in burn marks, she quickly put a leather glove on to hide the marks. Then she picked up her bag, and left. It seemed she wasn’t the only student awake at this time because when she entered the dining room she saw some of the other students sitting around one of the tables. After getting some food from the cafeteria, Midnight took her usual seat with the table in the far left corner. While eating her food Midnight took up a book from her bag, the book had the name “The ancient martial arts”. As she sat there reading more and more student entered the dining hall, after about an hour she put her book in the bag and started walking out of the dining hall. She checked her clock and saw she still had half an hour before her first class and the training room was not more than five minutes away from the since lab(which was where she had her first class of the day) so she headed there. When she had reached the door to the training room, someone shouted “Hey nerdy I don’t think that’s the door your where looking for the library is in the next corridor,” she turned around and saw James the schools bully. “No, this is the door I am looking for, but you must be completely lost the library is on the other end of the school, maybe if you headed there you would find your brain.” she snapped back and walked into the room. When she entered she saw Hawthorne her only friend in the entire school, together they trained karate for twenty-five minutes before heading to class.

The rest of they went as normal, they crushed it in the science experiment (making mice glow in the dark) and after lunch they had quite a good time training in gym class. However, a surprise was waiting, as the students got ready to leave the training hall after gym class the gym teacher came with an announcement. “This afternoon by request we are holding the school’s first ever martial arts competition. The students who wish to partake in this competition must talk to me before leaving today.” as he said it Midnight and Hawthorne looked at each other and smiled. There was no way they were not competing, they walked back to the gym teacher to sing up but someone was already there. James and his crew of bullies where signing up all five of them as a team (meaning they would not fight each other). When they were finished Hawthorne and Midnight walked over to sign up, as they came forward the room was almost empty except for them and the teacher.

“Ah, I should have known you two would sign up, best fighters I have seen, I bet one of you will win. Moreover, I guess you want to sign up as a team so you don’t have to fight one another?” he said. They nodded and signed their names. After they walked out of the room, they discussed fighting tactics and what best ways to play on their strengths. James and crew must have seen them sign up as he and his gang stopped them half way to the dining room. “You two aren’t seriously competing as a team are you?” James asked, “Yeah, we are. Do you have a problem with that?” Hawthorne answered. “No, I just thought someone with a past like hers would be better off away from fighting. In addition, two nerds like you fit better in at a science lab.” he answered with an evil grin. “You keep my past out of this, and anyway just because we are smart doesn’t mean we are weak, it is possible for people to be good at more than one thing.” Midnight answered. “Oh, I am sorry I was just talking about you know why you wear that glove all the time, you know I bet they won’t allow that at the match.” James answered and while he was talking, he reached out, grabbed the glove, and as she pulled her hand back it slid out of the glove and the almost completely red hand covered in burn marks was visible for a second before she covered it with her shirt. “Give it back!” she said in a loud angry voice, “Are you afraid to show it, are you ashamed?” he said in a teasing voice. “That doesn’t concern you, just give me back my glove!” she said her voice louder than before. As James started laughing Hawthorne snatched the glove from his hand and gave it to Midnight who put it back on. Then they turned and walked into the dining hall. After dinner they walked to the training hall to practice, all homework had been canceled for the day because of the competition. On a poster on the door, the names of everyone competing where listed, besides them and James’s gang three others had signed up. They walked into the room and started training by fighting each other (they had changed to training clothes before). They won two times each and got to practicing on the bags. After an hour, the gym teacher entered and they helped him set up the arena for the competition. “Professor, in the match can I still wear this glove, it’s for protective purposes?” Midnight asked him “Yes, of course you can.” he said.

The competition started not long after, the first two to fight were a blond girl named Jessica against one of James’s allies, Jessica won, but was beaten by James later on. The next people where a girl and a boy from James’s team, the girl won but James beat her later. The same happened to the next girl. Then Hawthorne fought a boy named Marcus who was on James’s team. Hawthorne fought very well and won after five minutes, after he was to fight James. After a fight between Midnight and the last one of James’s allies (a big boy who didn’t seem to know how to fight at all) the only people left in the competition where James, Hawthorne and Midnight. When Hawthorne was to fight James it was a dramatic fight both boys were equally skilled fighters, what cost Hawthorne to lose was that he fought fair, unlike James. After Hawthorne had knocked James to the floor, he held out his hand to help him up and thank for the match because that is fair to do, but James grabbed him and pushed him to the floor and punched him in the face. Making James the winner and gave Hawthorne nosebleed and almost knocked him out cold. Midnight ran into the ring and helped Hawthorne out “Are you ok?” she asked in a trembling voice as she helped him back to his seat and gave him a paper towel to hold for the nosebleed. ”Yeah, but it will be much better after you beat him. Remember you are much smaller than him, use that to you advantage.” he said smiling at her. She felt her cheeks blush a little. As her name was called, she walked into the ring and stationed herself in the corner opposite James. The start bell rang and James launched himself towards her but she avoided him by running under his arm and punched him in the back. He turned around and aimed a punch at her head put she ducked under it and kicked him so that he fell down. She heard the judge call out that she was the winner and as so, she turned around to see smiling faces, but then she felt herself being pushed to the floor. And managed to turn so that she was laying on her back just before James grabbed her arms and held her down. She heard people sigh in astonishment, and Hawthorne yell inn anger. And then James spoke and said “Ha, the person who laughs last laughs the loudest.”. He raised his hand and hit her in the face, she felt blood coming from her nose, and a pain in the back of her head from being forced to the floor. “Seems like you are just as weak and ignorant as your friend.” he said. That was the drop she could take him calling her weak and ignorant but insulting Hawthorne in that way after having won a fight against him by breaking the rules was too much.

The insult acted like a trigger, she used all her strength to push him of her and take the upper hand. After not more than seconds, she had pushed him to the floor and won the fight. The judge called out her name and as she walked out from the ring she turned around to face James and said “And I laughed last.”