IX.                                              Heartbreak Weather

      Odessa didn't understand relationships. She was never in a proper one. The first boy she ever took interest in ruined her reputation and every boy she liked beyond that didn't like her the way she thought they did. The only true love she ever had in her life was with her father, and now he was gone. She thought to herself everyday how a father could leave his daughter so easily. Did he not love me at all? Was I even a daughter to him? Why was it so easy for him to chose drugs over me? She thought every boy that came into her life would eventually leave like he did, so she just stopped trying.

But Eli was different. He was patient. He was kind. He was funny. He was caring. He didn't see her as the school slut and he only saw her as Odessa. He was allowing her to slowly open herself back up, allowing forgiveness and patience back into her heart. She was a person who loved with everything she had but forgiveness was something she struggled with.

"Fighting positions!" Johnny shouted while walking along the rows of kids. He kicked Eli's front foot forward causing him to stumble a little. "Stabilize your balance, Hawk."

"Yes, Sensei!" Eli yelled back and jabbed his fist forward. "Hi-ya!"

He walked through the rows until he got to Hailey, who fists were too close to her face. "Don't hold your hands so close to your face, Cooper. Oliver, stand up straight!" His eyes went to Odessa and he noticed her posture was slumped over. He grabbed her shoulders and straightened them back. "Beaumont, what have told you about your posture?"

"Sorry, Sensei," she muttered. She was aware she had really bad posture due to her chest size. She had always been a big chested girl.

Johnny walked up to a smaller kid and got in his face, causing him to flinch. "Did you just flinch, virgin?" He asked, not believing what he was seeing. He went up to a kid in Eli's rowand he flinched as well.  "Holy shit, we got a room full of flinchers!"

"Yes, Sensei!" The class chanted.

"Losers." Oliver said under his breath.

"That was not a question!" Johnny shouted. "Raise your hand if you've never been punched in the face."

Everyone except Miguel, Aisha, Oliver, and Hailey raised their hands. Johnny sighed. "Put your hands down! All your lives you've been avoiding fights so you don't break your nose or lose a tooth or break a nail. So, there's only one solution and that is before you leave this dojo, each and every one of you is gonna take a punch, very hard, to the face."

Odessa eyes widened and immediately turned to Miguel, who could only shrug.

"Miss Robinson, Miss Cooper, and Mr. Benson, line them up and unflinch this group."

Hailey raised her hand.  "Can I punch Dess? I don't trust anyone else with her."

He looked at the lonesome blonde who was standing innocently with her hands behind her back. He sighed and gave in. "Yeah, go ahead."

"Don't mess up her face, Hails. She's too pretty to have a broken nose." Said Oliver.

"I second that!" Eli shouted from across the room before getting a punch to the face by Aisha.

Hailey rolled her eyes and stood in front of her friend. "Hi,  Dessi," she greeted with a smile.

Odessa looked nervous. "Hi,  Hailey."

"I'm not going to hit you hard,  okay?  Just enough to make it believable," she said and received a nod in response. Hailey stood in her fighting position and gave the girl an apologetic smile punching her in the face.

Grayson's eyes widened before receiving a blow to the face by Oliver. Hailey and Oliver grimaced at the sight of their friends on the floor,  holding their faces in pain. "Are we bad friends?" He asked.

"Maybe a little." She answered and they quickly helped them off the floor.

Miguel came over and saw the swelling already showing up on their faces. "Holy shit,  are you guys okay?"

Grayson popped his jaw back into place.  "I think my teeth are loose now."

Eli held an ice pack to her face. "How does it feel?"

Odessa winced. "Like someone threw a huge rock at my face."

"I need somewhere romantic but not too romantic."  Miguel complained as he was trying to think of ideas to take Sam out on a date.

"You could take her to get tattoos,"  said Eli.

Everyone turned and looked at him. "That's romantic?"  Hailey questioned oddly

"Totally." He nodded and stood up to untie his gi. "I know a guy,  just hooked me up with this bad boy." He spun around and showed them a huge hawk tattoo that stretched from one side of shoulder to the other and had the same blue hair that is mohawk did.  Odessa felt herself drop the pack of ice in her hand.

Oliver and Grayson's eyes widened.  "I was just kidding before but that's sick as fuck!"  Grayson announced.

"That is badass!"

"Right?  Fourteen hours in the chair,"  Eli praised as he flexed his back muscles in mirror.

"How do your parents feel about that?"  Aisha asked him.

His eyes went wide and he started retying his gi.  "Oh,  they have no idea.  Definitely gonna have to wear a T shirt till college.  Probably longer.  Please don't tell them."  he begged with a small voice.

Miguel shook his head. "Any other suggestions besides tattoos?" He asked the group.

"You can take her star gazing," Hailey suggested.

Odessa beamed. "With a lot of blankets—"

"And food—"

"Watch a movie—"

"Is this just stuff you guys want to do?" Miguel interrupted them.

The girls looked at each other. Hailey shrugged. "Maybe."

He pursed his lips and turned to Aisha. The girl shrugged. "Don't look at me. Sam and I used to be friends. We're not anymore."

"Okay, but I need your help!"

She groaned and gave up. "Fine. um, I know that she likes chocolate and astronomy."

Hailey gasped again and hit him on the shoulder repeatedly. "Stargazing!"

Odessa leaned against Eli. "Hey, are you busy tonight?" She asked.

Eli looked at her and smirked. "i'm never too busy for you." He responded cheekily.

She shifted so that her was sitting in front of him  and their knees were touching. "Would you want to come over to my house and have dinner with me and my mom?" She asked.

"You want me to have dinner with you guys?" He repeated with his eyes widened in the slightest.

She nodded with a smile.

Eli tried his hardest to forget the boy who was bullied all his life for looking different. He went to the extreme to make sure he never came back but he would always be that shy, quiet kid who developed a soft spot for the girl. That's the part he never wanted to forget. He grinned at her. "I can arrangements."

"He has a mohawk, sweetheart."

Odessa groaned. "But he's so cute that you don't even notice it!"

She was sitting on the couch watching her mom clean the living room. "His name is Eli and he goes by Hawk now?" Thalia questioned as her daughter explained the dynamic to her.

She tilted her head. "Well, that's what Sensei Lawrence calls him and it just kind of stuck—" she shook her head. "Regardless, he's so sweet mom. I promise."

Thalia paused her cleaning and cracked a grin. "So my daughter's dating a boy with a blue mohawk and a tattoo who goes by the name Hawk?"

Odessa winced. "More or less?"

She threw her hands up. "Oh, what the hell. Can't wait to have him over."

"Mom, please!"  The girl groaned out loud. She froze. "Wait, you said yes?"

Thalia narrowed her eyes. "Was that the wrong answer?"

"No, no, of course not!"

"Baby, as long as he treats you the way you should be treated and respects me and my house, he could have a split tongue fit all I care." Thalia began to walk into the kitchen before pausing and looking back at her daughter. "Actually, ignore that last part. That's weird."

Odessa observed herself in the mirror while she was getting ready for dinner. The dress she was wearing emphasized her chest size and she thought about the way her shoulders always slumped over at the dojo and how Johnny always had to correct her about it. She got boobs in the fifth grade. She was the first girl in her grade to grow arm and leg hair. She was the first girl to get her period. As she got older, her boobs got bigger and her posture got worse, creating a terrible pain in her back. By the time she was fifteen, they had grown to almost a double d. Puberty was a beautiful and cruel thing. Men would never understand. How could they? They didn't bleed between their legs. They didn't have to worry about shaving. They could take off their clothes in public and not get judged for it.

A girl's body that was supposed to be a symbol of human creation now seemed to be portrayed as a play thing in the hands of teenage boys.

Odessa remembered every pinch, pull, tug, and grope she received over the years. The crude words they would say about her body. They insults about her past. She wasn't a girl to them. She was a toy. An animal. 

When she heard the doorbell go off, Odessa checked herself one last time before running out of her room. She opened the front door and Eli stood on the other side wearing blue jeans and light purple button down that matched the color of her dress. But what caught her eye was his hair. The mohawk was flattened down to a middle part and the blue overtook the soft brown. She smiled brightly. "You're hair!"

"Yeah, I know. Figured I'd tone down for tonight," he said with a small smirk and ran a hand through it.

She pointed between their lilac outfits. "Are we matching?"

"You said your favorite color was purple." He recalled and pulled out of bouquet of purpose roses. "Hailey told me they're your favorite."

He watched her smile take up her entire face. She grabbed the flowers from him and his hand. "Thank you so much. Come in!" She urged him into the home. "Mom, Eli's here!"

Thalia came into the living room and her eyes widened. "Oh, you look like a completely different person!" She said, feeling amazed.

He smiled shyly at her and Odessa smiled at him.

"It's nice to see you again. . . Hawk." The woman teased. She clapped her hands. "Come on, let's eat. I worked hard on this dinner."

She went into the kitchen and Eli turned to the blonde. "You told her my nicknames Hawk?"

Odessa just shrugged. "She said it was okay as long as you don't have a split tongue."

He narrowed his eyes. "What's a split tongue?"

"You don't want to know. Let's go eat." She took his hand and dragged him into the kitchen.