Panda was out attempting to sell newspapers for the first time. It wasn't as easy as it looked. With her creative imagination, fake headlines weren't a problem, but for her, yelling them out was almost like trying to breathe when you've gotten the air knocked out of you. She knew she was physically able, but for whatever reason, she couldn't make herself do it. She would choke on the words like she was swallowing a wad of glue everytime she opened her mouth. A few people seemed to think she was sick, and bought a paper out of pity.
Another problem was extreme shyness. She actually had to wake up almost an hour ahead of everyone else in order to prepare, and convince herself to go out and do this.
Such as every day for the past week, she was out by by herself,(Pup, not trained well enough to experience the outside world quite yet.) like she wanted. But also as with every day for the past week, Race seemed to meet up with her within a half hour or so of the time she left. She wished he would stop acting like her big brother, because seeing as how he'd only known her for a few months, it was starting to get sort of annoying. She knew he was concerned, but she didn't like the extra attention. She didn't even see why she would deserve any attention at all, she was only a nuscience. Race stopped and stared at a nearby fight, entranced, wondering whether he should place a bet on the next one or not.
Panda stared, transfixed for a different reason. "It must be nice", she thought "to be able to do that so effortlessly. To be able to fight and defend yourself with such ease."
They watched the fight, and it was a good one. The guy in the blue won by judges decision. Panda stayed and sold papers until everyone was gone.
Race walked up to her and said "I'm gonna go right ova dere and get a drink real quick" Panda gave him a quick nod, and rolled her eyes.
Panda looked around and spotted the man in the blue talking adjatatedly with another older man, probably his trainer. She inched closer to hear what they were saying. The older man was talking now "Yeah! I know ya won! And dats good an all" he said with a thick New York accent "But ya gotta understand dat ya could always be better. He didn't get KOed, and ya won by decision...barely."
"Fine then!" said the man in blue, both confidently and irritably "What'd I do so wrong"
"Well," said the other man, unfazed" for starters, you let your hand drop on the uppercut, You swing too wide on your hook, and don't recova fast enough, your jabs aren't even close most'a da time, ya might as well not even use dat one! An' worst of all, ya don't like to square out till its too late, and ya end up getting hit most'a da time anyways!"
"What!"said the blue one "I don't know what your talkin about! I do not"
"Ya do too!" siad the older man "And any kid on the street knows how to avoid a punch! But you! do you know how to? Noooo! Ya want me ta prove it? Well I will" he looked around "Hey you dere" he called out to Panda "Come'ere a sec, will ya" As an almost panic stricken Panda walked slowly over, the man nodded satisfactorily to himself.
Panda walked up to the man, her head bowed, not knowing what to expect.
"Do ya fight?"
Panda shrugged, to panic stricken to do anything else.
"Good, well, dis heah guy oveah heahs gonna throw a pnch, an you gotta make it miss. Got it?" he asked, not bothering to ask if she would do it.
The man in the blue, upset and embarrassed, went up to the girl, and swung at her as hard as he could. And Panda made no move, the swing connected with her jaw, and she fell down immediately, unconcious (authors note:have you ever noticed that poor Panda takes an awful lot of beatings?)
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She awoke just a few minutes later, to the sound of Racetrack, arguing loudly with the man in the blue. "Whaddaya mean she was supposed ta duck!?!"
"Look, its not my fault if shes too dumb to-"
"Don't ya call her dumb! Your da only dumb one I see around heah!"
"Listen kid! If your lookin for a fight, den dat can be arranged!" he said menacingly.
"Ya knocked out da goil! Whattya expect me to do!?! A dance?!"
At this point the older man stepped in, "I'm sorry, its my fault, I told him to, I thought she'd duck. I was just tryin ta proove a point. Guess I got carried away."
Panda sat up slowly before Race could say anything. "Sorry Race" she said quietly "It was my fault, I was to stupid to move."
"Don't say dat" said Race, trying to decide whether to help her to her feet, or tell her to lay still. He finally decided she was ok, and helped her to her feet.
Before Panda could say anything, Race huffed off, dragging her with him.
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The next day, Race was on"business" in Brooklyn, so Panda wasn't interrupted in her selling. Other then the fact that her jaw was sore, and blue, she suffered no ill effects. She sold her papes. at the fights again, wanting to see the boxers again. The same trainer was there, but with a different fighter. This fighter won with no trouble at all. It seemed his opponent was way outclassed.
As after the other fight, the trainer stayed till the people were gone, talking to the fighter. "Scott, ya were great! Da only thing ya have ta work on is keepin your hands up! Don't let'em drop." unlike the other guy, this man, Scott apparently, have this serious thought, and threw a few punches to make sure he got it right.
"Yeah Frankie, ok, I knew there was somethin wrong"
"Yeah ya just gotta-" Frankie stopped when he saw Panda. "Hold on a minute" he said to Scott "Hey goil!" he yelled to Panda "Can ya com'ere a sec?!"
Panda once again walked over slowly, only this time making up her mind to run if he tried anything.
"Listen," he said when she got over there "I never got a chance to apoligize, and I see ya don't got your guard dog, so, I'm sorry, I get carried away, and I really thought you'd duck...why didn't ya duck? Dontcha know how ta fight?"
The question was supposed to be rethorical, but she didn't realize it, so Panda shrugged and shook her head slightly.
"For real?" he asked, incredulous "Ya live on da street, your a newsie right?"
She nodded
"Den how can ya not know how ta fight?"
She shrugged
"Hey Scott!" he called out "Get oveah heah, will ya?"
Scott came jogging over "Yeah?"
"I want ya ta help da goil for a minute"
"Sure" he looked at the girl, held out his hand and smiled "Hey, I'm Scott"
Panda smiled hesitantly, and shook his hand lightly with a trembling hand, saying nothing. This was what happened when she was out in public...espically arond young, good looking guys.
Scott looked puzzled, but turned to Frankie "What'dya want?"
"Well, member da little fight thing yesterday? Well dis is da goil."
"Kinda figured as much" he grinned and gestured at her swollen cheekbone
"Well anyways, were gonna teach'er to duck"
"To...duck?" asked Scott slowly "We're gonna teach her to...duck?"
"Ta duck, she says she can't fight."
"How can ya be on da streets an not know how ta fight?" he asked as incredulously as Frankie had.
Panda once again shrugged.
"Ok," said Frankie "So get in fightin position"
Panda looked at him bewildered
Scotts eyes got wide at this "Your sayin ya don't even know dat?"
Pandas face fell at this, even more if possible.
"Well hey." said Scott noticing this "Its not bad, its just...weird"
She shrugged.
"So" he said turning to Frankie, after giving her one more reassuring smile "How do we teach her to duck if she doesn't even know how to stand?"
"Well..."said Frankie, stumped "We could..."he thought for a minute, then he turned to Panda "Ok kid, stand like dis" he squared his stance out, and held up his hands"Now dis is a boxers stance, most kids like you make up dere own, by trial an error ova da years , dey don't really worry about form, its whateva woiks. But since ya don't have anythin else ta go by fa whateva reason, you can just use a boxers stance."
Panda clumsily positioned her hands and her feet in roughly the same position.
"Good, good!" said Frankie, aware that Panda was glancing around nervously, not liking the attention she was getting from people. When, just a moment later, a few dozen people noticed, and had stopped what they were doing to noticibly look at Panda ant the two men, Panda gave up all semblance of concentrating, and dropped her hands, trying to look inconspicuous, then giving up all semblance of trying to look casual, she turned, and practically ran from the middle of the gathering circle of people.
Scott, more puzzled than ever, started to go after her, then stopped, then started again, then stopped, and looked at Frankie, who was just as bewildered as him, but motioned for him to follow her. Scott caught up, and fell into step beside her, not saying anything, because he didn't really know what to say. Panda was acting as if he wasn't there, and trying to compose herself. He could see several different emotions on her face. Fear, anger, pain, and a few others he wasn't to sure about.
After a minute or two of near jogging, Panda stopped, and slowly turned to Scott "I'm sorry, I don't want to do that, thank you anyways, theres too many people, and-well-just forget it...um ok, thanks"she turned to walk away.
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The two men were attempting to teach Panda something, even if it was only how to duck, which for all intents and purposes was something she should have known anyways. To be honest, she did know how, but she couldn't make herself do it. She froze when anyone came at her. Then those guys were making her stand in fighting stance in the middle of a park, and people started to notice. She started to stiffen, then as she noticed more people start to notice her, it became difficult to breathe, and she stopped trying to do what they told her. People continued to stare even so, and thats when sheer panic took over. She left at a fast attempt at a casual pace.
She walked along thinking "You are sooooooo stupid! You can't do anything right!" Then she heard someone come up beside her, and to her suprise, it was the one who introduced himself as Scott. She didn't say anything, and neither did he, until she finally turne and said she was sorry, and told him to forget it.
After this she wanted to make a quick exit, but no such luck. He pulled a pencil and a piece of paper out of the pocket of the shirt he had thrown on after the fight. He wrote something down, "This is the address of da gym I'm at. I fight, but I train beginners too. If you wanna stop by later tonight, I'll be there, and I can finish up what we were tryin to teach ya before. Its called, big suprise, Frankies Gym. There shouldn't be a lot of people in there tonight, so I'll give ya a free lesson" he grinned "To make up for the eye."
Panda shrugged saying nothing in either direction. Scott seemed to take this as a yes because he grinned and smacked her on the back. "Seeya!"
Panda watched sadly as Scott walked away, knowing that despite the invitation, she would never end up going there. She would just feel too weird.
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It was about seven o'clock that night, and Panda was having trouble concentrating on anything. As much as it scared her, she would have loved to go, and see what he could probably end up doing with her.
"Not much most likely" she thought.
All of the sudden, Panda was struck with an idea. She'd go look, she wouldn't go in or anything, she'd just go look, and see what it was like, and maybe see what she was missing.
So soon after, she set out towards Frankies Gym.(She knew it because she passed bt it every day on the way to the park) She took Pup with her because it was dark, and she didn't want to be out alone.
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When she got there, Panda stood on the other side of the street, in the shadows of a large building. She had no idea why, or exactally what she was doing, but she felt strangely guilty. She tried rationalizing with herself. "He said I could come, and so I am, I'm just not showing him I'm here." Panda looked at the outside of the slightly ramshackled building, for close to ten minutes. Then she decided it was about time to leave. She motioned to Pup, and he obediently fell into step beside her. She was busy talking to him softly, her hand resting on his back as she had formed a habit of doing, as she walked down the street. Panda wasn't paying attention to anyone really, lost in her own thought.
And unfortunatley, neither was the young man, running towards Frankies. He was about ten minutes late for an appointment with a certain street kid that couldn't fight. To his suprise, he ran right into her, literally. "Oh, hey! Were ya leavin? I'm sorry I was held up, well no matter, come on back in wit me now, and well just start a few minutes late. Kay?" he asked, not really waiting for an answer, and taking her arm.
"Wait I-" said Panda quietly.
It was then that Scott noticed the dog. That was because the dog, vey firmly placed himself between Scott and Panda. "Oh wow! Is that your dog? Hes great!"
Panda shrugged, and started to tell him that he'd better not get to close to their large, white, overprotective dog, but at the exact moment Panda opened her mouth, Pup flopped onto the ground, and rolled on his side, waiting for Scott to pet him. Panda was amazed, Pup never trusted anyone like that.
Scott, however laughed and bent down to pet the large white dog. "Hes gorgeous, is he purebred?"
Panda shrugged, having no idea.
"Well, come on then" said Scott getting up.
"Well I can't really-"
Oh, don't worry bout the dog, whats his name?"
"Pup"
Scott laughed, "Well, you can just take'em in with ya, Frankie likes dogs, he won't mind." He thught for a minute, "Well, ya might have ta tie him ta somethin, we wouldn't want him getting upset and goin after someone when they were working with ya...Right?
Panda half nodded, gazing at her shoes, and looking relatively sick to her stomach. Scott didn't notice, and walked into Frankies, motionoing for her to follow. So seeing no other alternative, she slowly trotted along after him. Right before she went in the door she glared at Pup. "Good for nothing dog..." She mumbled.
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Once inside, Panda was hit with a variety of things. She smelled sweat, and the leather of the gloves and the equipment. the scent of both contentedness and excitement was almost palpable. She looked around, and saw two rooms, and a few doors. In one room, there was an actual boxing ring, about five or six punching bags, a few of those timing bags things, a box full of tangled jump ropes, dozens of weights scattered around, and numerous other things. There were several people in this room. A pair were fighting in the ring, and three were on punching bags, one was on the timing bag,(If anyone knows what those things are called, then please e-mail me:) and Panda stared at his hands that were really nothing more than a blur. There was also a little man, lifting a 200 pound weight, almost effortlessly. She looked back at the two fighting in the ring. One was so heavily padded, she couldn't see what he looked like, and the other one seemed to be in his late teens. He had short black hair, and he was pretty small but with a very impressive build. Panda could tell this because he had his shirt off. She realized she was staring, and blushed furiously.
She wasn't sure if Scott noticed or not. She couldn't bear to look at him to find out, her eyes were glued to the terribly interesting floorboards. However when she heard his voice, it sounded amused "Just follow me", he said, leading her into the other room, it was basically the same as the first, only without the ring, and with not as many people.
Scott spent almost an hour teaching Panda, not only to keep away from the blows, but a few other helpful tips. Panda spent the whole time wondering why he was doing this for her. She certainly didn't deserve it. However she did try, and considering her lack of experience, she didn't do so bad. Scott told her this, and for the second time that night, she blushed brightly. She never took praise well. She'd have prefered it if people just didn't say anything, because she didn't know how to react when someone said something good. The class had been helpful, and she had fallen in love with the place. But she was very nervous, and rather wanted to leave. She still didn't feel comfortable. All the people and obvious violence scared her, but at the same time, it had the effect of drawing her in.
This whole time, Pup was sitting, tied to a hook on the wall, but he seemed strangely at ease, chewing on an old boxing glove that Scott had given him. This too was strange for Pup, because when he saw any of "his girls" in a situation like that, he would normally break the rope, trying to get to them. The fact that Pup seemed at ease, sort of made Panda feel a little better. Sometimes she thought Pup had ESP.
Just as she thought he was going to let her go, he said "Now for a test" Panda looked stricken, and he grinned "Not a real test, just so I can see what you learned. I can't judge it but so much unless I can watch without doin anything, ya know?"
Panda shrugged, not liking where this seemed to be going. She was scared enough of him, she certainly didn't want some stranger watching her!
Scott got a thoughtful look on his face, then, Panda thought she saw a quickly covered smile, but couldn't be sure. "Andy! Andy!" he yelled into the other room "Can I get some help over here!?!"
"Andy" came running over "Yes master?"
Scott grinned "Thats the spirit!"
Panda studied Scott closely, yes, there was definitely a look of amusement when he glanced over for Pandas reaction to the still shirtless, out of breath Andy. Panda looked at Andy, he was sweaty, obviously having just finished in the ring, and as was mentioned before, he was still shirtless. True, Panda had seen some of the newsies in a similar state of undress, but somehow that was different. She looked away quickly, and felt color rise in her cheeks. She struggled against this with all her might, and ended up in a sort of compromise with her body. She only turned medium pink. She was hoping this would pass as being from the heat.
She was definitely pissed at Scott. He was practically openly enjoying her discomfort. At this point he could probably tell that Panda was about to loose it and bolt, because she saw him look at her oddly out of the corner of her eye as he threw a shirt at Andy, then he grinned again.
Andy noticed him, and asked "Hey whats so funny?"
Scott's grin was more open now, "Nothin" he said shaking it off, and finally getting serious. "Can you spar with her for a minute?"
"Sure, what? The jab cross combo? Can I do hooks? Is she at the body cover yet? What about uppercuts? Whys she a girl?" He asked all in one breath.
Scott turned to Panda and rolled his eyes "Hes fightin tomorrow, so we loaded him up on carbs tonight, ya can tell, can't ya?" Panda shrugged, and he turned to Andy "Its just really basic self-defense, as in ducking, passing under, squaring out. She doesn't punch, I just want you to throw a few at her. And shes a girl, cause thats the way her mamma had her. If you mean why's she here, shes da goil Tom hit, and I'm tryin ta teach her a few things, she can't fight."
Shes the girl? Wasn't that girl a newsie? All newsies can fight!"
"Well, obviously not all" said Scott "And we have got to stop giving you all those power bars, this is what they do to you!"
"Yeah sure, ya say that now, but watch me win tomorrow! Anyways, sure I'll do it, I'm game."
Panda had gone from red to stark white.
"Hey, goil, you ok?" asked Andy, noticing he change. "Ya wanna sit down?"
Panda stared at him, her eyes almost glazed over, and she shook her head slowly to clear it, then shrugged, and shook her head no.
"Okaaay...fine" he turned to Scott with a raised eyebrow "Now what?"
"Well" said Scott thinking "Throw whatever you want, but go slow cause like I said, shes new to the whole thing.
"ok, like this?" he asked, throwing a lazy cross to her head.
First Panda froze, then she closed her eyes and ducked, almost forgetting everything she'd learned in the past hour.
"Good..."said Scott "But, ya might wanna remember to keep your eyes open
"Sorry"said Panda
"Its ok"
So they went back and forth like that for awhile, Panda doing what she was taught, and Scott, gently correcting her. Andy was relatively quiet, and did what he was told in amiable scilence.
Then Scott finally told Panda that was it, and she could go. Just as she got to the door however, he called her back"Ya did good, ya really did" then he said as an apparent afterthought "hey, how bout ya just come back tomorrow. Thats normally how long the free intro thing is, ya get two free classes."
Panda reluctantly agreed, nervously.
"Don't be so scared! Ya think we'll hurt ya?" he said jokingly, not knowing how close to the mark he really was.
Once again, Panda was almost to the door when Scott called her back. "Hey hold on a minute!" Then he turned around to Andy who was obviously also getting ready to leave. "Andy!" he called "Don't ya live near the Lodging House?" Then he turned to Panda again"That is where ya live right?"
Panda, once again, not liking where this was headed, shrugged
"I'll take that as a yes." he said smiling "Hey, Andy, thats where she lives, could ya just walk with her ta make sure she gets there ok?"
Panda mumbled to herself, like she had recently, due to her newfound voice, sort of developed a habit of doing "Yeah, and I'm sure the big white dog won't do anything for me right?"
Scott heard this, and smacked her on the back "Ya know ya don't mind that much"
Panda just looked at him in scilence.
"Oh, I can't believe I forgot, ya never told me your name..."
"Well," she said in her quiet voice, as Andy came up "they call me Panda, so I guess thats my name now."
Scott barely supressed a laugh at the names obvious roots, and Andy grinned broadly.
"Well, ya ready?" asked Andy a minute later, still grinning.
Panda nodded, untying Pup, and praying for the whole forced socilization thing to be over soon. When they got outside, Panda turned to Andy, and said quietly "you know, I'll be ok, you can go ahead if you want."
"No, I'm just fine" he said, as he fell into step beside Panda
"Really" she said a moment later "Its ok if you want to go." She was very nervous, around people, even her friends. And being with a strange guy she didn't know, at night, in the dark, wasn't exactally topping her "must do" list. Besides this, she felt a sort of unfair guilt. She didn't know why, but she was sure he had somewhere better he had to be besides walking along with her.
"Really" he said in something of a friendly, mocking tone "Its ok"
Panda shrugged.
A minute later he asked "You gonna be at the fight tomorrow?"
"Fight?" asked Panda
"Yeah, its at the ring where ya were when Tom hit ya"
"Oh that" she murmured absently fingering her cheekbone "I guess I'm famous" she said almost to herself "How many people know about that?"
Andy laughed, when he caught his breath, he said "well, whoever was in the gym when Frankie and Tom came in. They were yellin loud enough bout ya to attract quite a crowd. Congratulations" he slapped her on the back
"Gee thanks" she muttered.
"Well thats the life of a star I suppose..."
Panda almost glared at him, but she was to completely embarrassed to quite pull it off.
This look(probably combined with all the sugar running through his bloodstream) completely set him off. He laughed for almost five minutes, with Panda looking at him in horror.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" he said as they approached the Lodging House, blinking tears out of his eyes.
Panda just continued staring at him in scilence.
She might have said something, but about that time she heard "PANDA!!!!" Quips came dashing towards her. "You wouldn't believe it! Race actually WON" she yelled in her sarcastic tone "A whole quarter! I - Oh...hello..." she saw Andy, and looked at Panda curiously. Quips wasn't known for being the most tactful person, so she cheerfully blurted out"He your new guy?" She looked him over as a few others came tagging along from the direction she came. "Nice"
Panda glared at Quips sharply, and this time she had no problem pulling it off. "Quips! No hes not! He just goes to the gym!"
"What gym?" asked Irish smiling "Are you a boxer?"
It was supposed to be funny, but before anyone could laugh at the obvious improbability of dear, sweet,(borderline sarcastic here) Panda being a boxer, Andy threw an arm around her shoulder, and said in what looked like total seriousness "Yeah, she never told you? Not only is she one of the best boxers we got, shes a trainer. And a damn good one!"
Everyone looked at him in scilence, then Panda squirmed, more than a little uncomfortabe out of his grasp. "The guy who hit me was from there, and they told me to come for a free class."
"And you actually did?" asked a shocked Beaner
"Well I didn't really mean to" mumbled Panda
"What? You walked in there on accident?" asked Dusk sarcastically
"No, I just wanted to see what it looked like, and when I was leaving I ran right into-"
"Scott!" finished Andy suddenly realizing the truth "Ya didn't mean to come?"
Panda shook her head in a downcast manner
"Well your coming tomorrow right?"
Panda wasn't sure, so she didn't say anything
Andy seemed to get an idea because he said "If you don't show, I know where you live. I'll hunt you down, and drag you there myself."
"Why do you care?!" Panda suddenly blurted out.
Andy apparently gave the thought careful consideration before answering honestly "Your different, and ya don't seem to want to have anything to do with people. I don't mean it in a bad way, but it sets ya apart. Ya don't seem to like it, but ya don't seem to know it either."
All this time, everyone was silent, then Racetrack stepped foward "She'll be dere. I'll make sure of it."Then he mumbled "Heaven knows ya people owe her somethin, cash woulda been nice though..."
"And this must be the guard dog." said Andy, so only Panda could hear
Panda shrugged, but couldn't stop a small smile from appearing on her normally somber face.
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That night, when all the girls were in bed, almost asleep, Dusk called out "Hey Panda?"
"Hmmm?" mumbled Panda so softly she could barely be heard.
"Who was dat guy, ya neva told us his name?"
"Andy"
"Aaaandy!" said Beaner, Panda could almost hear her grinning.
"Hes old!" Panda protested
"Panda, hes like 20 at the oldest, and 20 is not old!" said Irish, laughing
"I meant in relation to me" explained Panda.
"Sweetie, your 16, not 12!"
Panda said nothing till Quips said "I saw them making out when I came around the corner!" (an:don't ask me what corner cause I don't know:)
"WHAT!?!" asked Swinger, who had just been about to drift off.
"Thats not true!" said Panda with a little more abnormal force than necessary.
Beaner laughed and said "Despite da fact dat I'd rather listen ta Quips, past credibility says we'd better believe Panda..."
"Fine then!" siad Quips, don't believe me den...nothin new dere"
"Hes cute" said Dusk spectatively
"What about Spot?" asked Quips
"I said he was cute not dat I was gonna leave Spot." I don't know wheah ya get some of dis stuff Quips!"
"Just readin between da lines..." said Quips
"Yeah well stop I don't like it!"
"Well den by all means..."
"Lets just go to sleep" said Panda, suprising everyone. more!