CHAPTER

ONE

Megan’s Point of View:

It was my first day on

this court. I didn’t know how to react. I knew most of the fans were excited to

see me, and believe me, I was excited to see them too. I would have given up a

long time ago had it not been for them. They keep me pushing.

“Megan, are you alright?”

My coach, Jane, asked.

I forgot to add, she was

one of the reasons I did not give up either. I had met her a few years ago

after one of my many bar fights. The first words she had uttered to me were,

“Such wasted gifts and talents.”

“What did you say?” I

asked, wanting her to repeat herself if she dared to.

“Such wasted gifts and

talents,” she repeated emphatically.

I had decided to go over

and teach her to mind her own business when one of my friends, Josh, stopped

me.

“Meg, you don’t want to

do this,” he said.

“Get out of the way,” I

warned.

“Meg, I have never lied

to you before, and I will not start now. Just trust me, it’s all you need. Come

on now, let’s get out of here,” he insisted.

Thinking about what he

said, he did sound right. Perhaps it was all for good. He had better have a

good explanation for this.

“Thank the heavens that

today is not the day for you to learn your lesson,” I finished before storming

off with Josh.

“What was the meaning of

that back there? You had to let me embarrass myself by walking away and you of

all people know that I never run from a fight,” I started to say when we were

out in the clear.

“I promise you, I saved

you a lot more respect than you would have had you decided to take her on,” he

maintained.

“What do you mean?” I

asked, perplexed.

“Just tell me what you

have been on about,” I added.

“Take a look at this,” he

said, handing me his phone.

“I don’t want to be looking

at videos, man. Just tell me already, so I’m getting out of here,” I warned.

“Just take a look, that’s

all. I promise it will be worth it,” he assured me.

“Well, let me see…” I

agreed and stretched out my hand to get his phone.

“Say something, Meg,” he

chided me when he saw I had suddenly become speechless. Something inside of me

wished I should not have seen that video in the first place.

All my life, I had been

told I was very talented and was the best at what I did, and I had believed

that too. For a very long time, I never saw anyone who could stand or come

close to a one-on-one with me. Now, that belief and self-esteem had just been

crushed.

I was looking at one of

the most if not the most brutal fights I have ever seen. And it was her, the

lady from earlier. As much as I hated to admit it, Josh was right. She was

indeed better than I was, and she would not even break a sweat had she taken me

seriously on my challenge.

She fought like she was

hungry. A hunger neither I nor any boxer I have seen had. It was like she

needed it to breathe, to live, and to survive. Such hunger, something that I

clearly lacked.

“You get my point now?”

Josh inquired.

“Yes. I guess I should be

thanking you for saving my life, right?” I asked with a scoff.

“Well, for starters, that

would be the most appropriate thing to do, don’t you think?” he retorted.

“But knowing you as much

as I do, I doubt I would ever be hearing that from you, seeing as you would

rather…” he was saying before I interrupted.

“I would rather die,” I

stopped him just before he finished his sentence.

“Unlucky me,” he added,

shaking his head.

A few weeks later, I’d

run into Jane again in another one of the bar fights, and she had convinced me

to come work with her and put my gifts to better use.

She would only tell me a

few years later that she knew I would be a star from the first time she saw me

at that bar.

“But how? I didn’t have

your passion or power,” I said to her.

“But you had the

strength, the power. In some successful boxers who were lucky, that’s all they

ever had, their strength. But, I can put the hunger and passion in you,” she

had said, and boy did she.

The speakers immediately

brought me back to reality.

“Tell me what bothers

you,” Jane chided.

“Nothing ever bothers

me,” I said with a convincing smile.

“Do not try to fool me

with that smile. You might fool others, but not me. Had I not known you any

better, I would have thought that you were scared or nervous about your

opponent, but we both know that that’s not true. You will tell me what it is,”

Jane insisted.

“Not now, please. There’s

so many people here,” I begged, knowing Jane would stop at nothing till she got

what she wanted out of me.

“If you cared so much

about the people here or what they think, you would do better and not keep your

face like you are scared to death of your opponent. If I were you, I would be

more worried about what the bloggers would write about me in a few hours with

that look on my face and spreading all the sought of misinformation about the

fight. I know the fight would be a walk over for you, but we cannot afford to

have any negative energy now,” she explained.

“I will behave,” I

promised as I flashed a smile to the cameras.

It was now time for me to

step on the weighing scale. Thank God it will finally be over soon. I hated

weigh-ins because of the long interviews and sometimes, boring opponents.

Nothing has interested me that much in the last 3 years of my career.

Just as I stepped on

the scale, something, whether metal or wood, I could not tell hit me on the

head. Next thing I knew, I felt my knees going weak and then,

it was all black.