Ayesha's Fourth Lesson (with Penny)

PREVIOUSLY

Punching bags are terrible practice partners, Ayesha thought as she lay on the ground, her vision blurry and her ears ringing.

All she heard in her ears was the ringing, and some odd ups and downs of various octaves of background noises and the bag still swinging back and forth, almost like a mocking laugh. She could only give a defeated sigh at that.

After her getting hired into Lily Belle's stable and meeting and taking dance lessons from Anne Archy, the tough girl acting but actually rather nice former rocker, Ayesha had tried giving herself more dance lessons and in general, just trying to move herself more, get some flow going, rather than more strength and speed training. Though she could definitely feel her limbs slowly opening up and getting more easier to swing about, she knew she had ways to go.

Speaking of ways to go, she had decided to maybe use her newfound powers and try out something on a non living thing which couldn't kick her ass. And that was when she noticed the punching bags. She has tried giving em a few solid jabs and punches, but after those barely did anything, she instead tried shoulder bumping and shoving. The bag had indeed moved and swung, then swung back and flattened her in one hit.

Got my butt kicked by a punching bag. Let me add that to my failures list.

An orange haired girl known in the wrestling sport as "The Maiden" walks towards the gym while carrying her little sports bag, wearing her casual clothes with sunglasses. Once she entered, she could look around before going to change and what she finds is Ayesha having problems against the punching bag.

"Uh, are you okay? Should i call a medic?" Penny asked while getting worried, trying to help the other girl after dropping the bag.

Ayesha's ringing hearing heard the approach of someones footsteps. It took a few moments to notice this, but then she noticed someone enter her view above her. Or two? Her blurry vision cleared up and, yep, just one. A redhead this time!

On hearing Penny's question, Ayesha, feeling embarrassed at the fact this was probably the third time someone walked up to her asking if she was ok or needed help while she had been thrown around to the floor by gym equipment, sat up on her knees and gave a small shy giggle.

"Um...h-hi! No need to call the doctors, I've had worse." she then turned around into a sitting position, and looked at Penny.

She hadn't seen this person before. All right, she hadn't seen anyone before irregardless of reputation. Neither Angela Fedelmind not Lily Belle. But Penny's hair gave her a unique look that stuck out to Ayesha and she couldn't help but think Penny looked actually a lot cuter than the other two because of it.

"But thanks for the worry." She got up on her own, giving an embarrassed smile, "I was just uh....dealing with a punching bag!"

Penny smiled softly after trying to help Ayesha to get up, but noticed how embarrassed the other girl looked after getting down with the punching bag.

"And seems that didn't go well. By the way, i was here to do some exercise but since i saw you, mind if we do some sparring? I'm new here but i know some of this sport, yet i think i need an improvement." Penny said with a soft smile while picking up her bag, which inside has her wrestling gear.

After she was helped to her feet, and giving a quick "thanks", on hearing Penny mention the words "sparring", she froze immediately, her head not moving but her eyes looking in a terrified manner in Penny's direction.

She couldn't help but wonder if the words "FREE SPARRING BITCH" were written on her forehead or something because it felt like everyone who met her wanted to spar with her within 2 minutes of talking to her. As much as she had trained over the past month, she hardly saw herself as anything even remotely resembling "sufficient for a combat sport."

A terrified sweat rolling down her forehead, she decided to try to figure a way out of this. And the first thing to come up to her mind was-

"Um, why not we do some warm ups first!" she said abruptly and suddenly, her face still stuck between surprise and a bit of fear as she made a smile on her face, "You know. Get to uh...stretch out first. Break some ice. Slap some molds?"

Penny then noticed her expression, realizing that she didn't thought twice before asking. "Oh sorry, i got a lot been excited after we met, my bad. Of course, we can do some stretch and warm up." Penny replied, a little nervous and embarrassed, hoping not to ruin their first meeting.

"I'm going to change clothes in lockers, give me a minute." Penny picks her sports bag and walks towards there to swap clothes.

A fresh wave of relief washed over the orange skinned lass as she watched Penny enter the locker rooms.

Looking around in panic, she tried to take note of where the actual exit was in case she needed to make a run for it. Spotting the exit door, she kept a mental note of it's location, and sat down on the floor, wondering what would be a good starting stretch. She tried remembering the names of various stretches she saw on a video, wondering which one would be a good start. Actually could she even stretch? She remembered that thing Lily (the one she trained with) did with her own leg stretch....

Finding herself standing up, she tried to remember what were the instructions again. Something about putting as much distance between her feet as possible?

She carefully, slowly, tried to do that, remembering the flop that was the first time she did it. The phantom pain of that moment made her feel wobbly as she quickly just straightened herself up, wondering what was she doing.

Ayeshas mental panic and terror had been so great, she had completely failed to notice Penny clamber into the ring, her head and train of thought lost into the recesses of her own mental maelstrom.

She slowly tried to pull her legs apart, trying to do that stretch again that Lily had done though she couldn't quite remember the process, it had been a while (time sure flies these days!)

Slowly pulling her legs apart, she was increasing it inch by inch, until she felt her foot slipping.

And slipped.

She found herself again falling into a perfect leg split, her legs stretched at a full 180° and wide apart!