Kaya’s job wasn’t something her father would have approved of in a million years. It wasn’t becoming of a young woman to go around teaching other girls how to throw punches, but Mr Langley failed to understand that Kaya’s love for her job was so far from being on founded on brainless violence. She’d suffered at the hands of someone who liked to smack down a woman just because it made him feel bigger, and so she strived to keep other women (and some men too) out of that same situation. It was the closest thing she’d ever come to saying fuck you to someone in her life.
But it was the final straw for her father. He had been frustrated when she’d left home, changed her name and not married Clark when Reuben was born out of wedlock. He’d wavered on how much his daughter meant to him when she’d thrown around ‘mindless’ accusations of Clark, his favourite employee, laying a hand on her, but apparently Kaya deciding to kickstart her own career outside of the family business had been what really pushed him over the edge. The money sent to Kaya to support her was cut and not a penny was sent his grandson’s way, even at Christmas time. An envelope sometimes arrived with twenty dollars from Kaya’s mother, but those occurrences were few and far between. It had been hard at first, but Kaya was ultimately happier when she realised that standing on her own two feet wasn’t totally impossible. She could do it, and had continued to do so for the next six years after leaving Clark and raising Roo on her own.
Her walks to work (when she wasn’t being robbed of a donut) were filled with purpose and an eagerness to meet her class. She’d become more popular in the kickboxing circles over the years, possibly because she wasn’t a large man screaming at people to hit the damn punch bag.
Unzipping her hoody as she walked into the gym she dropped her duffle bag by her feet and peered around at the women waiting for her. She recognised a lot of familiar faces that attended her class every week, but there were some newcomers too. She stood with her hands on her hips, Pink Power Ranger shirt on display, and was about to call the room to attention when an ex-boyband member got the job done quicker.
Her eyebrows shot up quickly as she looked around for the source of the noise, only to see a dark-haired teenage girl crouched over her bag, frantically trying to shut off the noise on her phone. A few chuckles rumbled around the room and Kaya ducked her mouth behind her hand to hide her own.
The girl returned looking embarrassed and red-faced and all Kaya wanted to do was scoop her into a hug and reassure her that everything was okay. Some people were prone to messing around in her class, a lot of girls preferring to take selfies in their cute gym gear instead of getting down to business and concentrating on their moves – but Kaya had never had the heart to scold any of them, least of all a genuinely apologetic looking girl who’d done nothing wrong.
“I just wish it had been ‘Carolina’,” Kaya grinned, winking at the girl before her eyes bulged wide. “Oh! Maybe that can be our first song! All in favour?”
The majority of the women in the class raised their hands. Understandably. Kaya skipped over to the old boombox the gym had and plugged her own phone into the auxiliary cord, turning up the volume so the gym was filled once again with Harry Styles’ voice.
“Okay, everyone! Get into pairs, please! Directioner, you’re with me,” she called, turning to her newcomer with a smile and making her way over.
“I’m Kaya, by the way,” she introduced herself. “What’s your name?”
Mona was mortified. She already stood out like a sore thumb within the current gaggle of people gathered and waiting for Miss Langley's arrival, but the second their instructor had shown up she'd made a complete moron of herself. Right in front of a woman who could probably throw her over her shoulder with about as much ease as JP Sullivan threw a football. Taking a deep breath, she turned slowly on the spot, all eyes on her as she screened a call from Bertie – who, no doubt, was probably only phoning up to tell her about the 800th cute thing that 'my boyfriend Gerard Cole' had done today – and averted her gaze to the floor. It was probably just the icing on the cake, her refusal to even look Miss Langley in the eye, but her cheeks were burning a frightful red by now, and she was too humiliated to say anything more. Her apology was more than enough, and so she would patiently wait for her instructor to berate her and then, as she deserved, to order her to leave her class.
Truth be told, Mona wasn't exactly a stranger to being told off. She was always getting trouble at home. Mona and her father bickered back and forth on a daily basis, always getting into disagreements, and the two of them rarely saw eye-to-eye, so it wasn't as though she was unaccustomed to a raised voice here and there. And she liked to think that she was pretty thick skinned, too. She stood up for the things she believed in, and she tried to defend the honours of those a little more tentative in the face of confrontation. Mona wasn't a mean person, and she was by no means a bully, but quite the opposite in fact. She stood up to those that were cruel and unjust as often as she could manage, but this situation didn't really call for that side of her personality. Not least when she was the one in the wrong. Plus, she wasn't going up against some snooty so and so in Potts n Pans who'd taken Joy for granted, but a literal boxer who could kick her butt.
Her nerves were misplaced, however, as the second that she stepped in front of Miss Langley and waited for her telling off, the woman immediately worked to calm her. Shooting a wink her way and offering up her own insight into Harry Styles' gorgeous discography, Mona blinked, before a gentle smile flitted across her features. She didn't want to push her luck and started grinning ear-to-ear at the woman, knowing that their training class was no place for fun but for action, but even so, she couldn't help the giggle that fell from her lips at her words.
“I'll change it to Carolina just for you,” Mona assured her with a smile. Soon enough, however, she was hurriedly clarifying her meaning, “After class, of course.”
Mona knew that her cheeks were still flushed a frightful red as she stood there in the middle of the class, all eyes on her. She wouldn't allow it to get to her, though, and knew that the best thing to do would be to stand tall and embrace the attention. She wasn't a particularly vain person, but there was no sense in her getting flustered under the eyes of her classmates, knowing that the situation was under control. She'd only set herself up for failure that way. She smiled delightedly as she spun on the spot, making eye contact with a few of her classmates who shot her friendly smiles. Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad!
As Miss Langley called everyone to attention, the air filling with Harry's voice, Mona faltered. She didn't know anybody, and everyone was pairing off so fast already, and– oh. Wait. Miss Langley wanted to pair with her?
Her smile was warm, which was a relief, and Mona hoped it wasn't some kind of test. She wondered if she'd only been luring her into a false sense of security, testing her to see what she could make of her. After all, maybe this was all part of channelling your own inner strength and making sure you had your guard up for all potential threats.
Y'know, or she was just really nice.
“Mona! I'm Mona, but you can call me MoMo, or MK, or anything, really... Some people call me Canoe, but that's because they have no idea how to say my last name and it's really embarrassing because it's not even hard–” she broke herself off, freezing as her eyes blew wide at having already made an embarrassment of herself. Twice. Maybe Joy's flair for rambles and word vomit was rubbing off on her? She didn't have time to laugh at the thought, though, as she lifted her head to meet Miss Langley's – Kaya's – gaze. “Sorry. Um. Where do you want me?”
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