LIKE YOU MEAN IT
CHAPTER FOUR !

            AFTER SPREADING THE WORD of the self defence club to as many of the girls in the school that they possibly could, they had managed to convince a small number of them to actually consider joining up. There Nell and Hazel stood, smiling down in appreciation at the girls who had joined them in the gym.

            "I really think this'll help us, you guys." Nell commented happily. Though there was only a few girls to turn up, it was better than no one at all. Better some knew how to defend themselves that no one.

            A gentle tapping upon her shoulder caused the Hewitt girl to glance over at Hazel. The blue eyed girl gestured to the entrance to the gymnasium. "Eleanor, look." Hazel uttered before beginning to walk over, unconsciously gripping on the fabric of Nell's sweater and dragging her over to the arriving Josie and PJ.

A genuine grin of glee pulled at the Callahan girls lips as she shuffled up next to the two. "What's up, lads?"

PJ looked extremely put off. Her gaze bounced back and forth between Nell and Hazel as her nose turned up and she whined, "What the fuck? These girls are ugly."

"I don't think you can say that." Nell breathed out, her voice dripping with disbelief. She couldn't believe that PJ said something so rude. She almost felt like laughing, that's how in disbelief she was.

PJ groaned lowly, her eyes rolling as she continued her whining. "Where's Stella?"

            "She was booked for a car convention." Hazel simply replied.

            PJ's brows furrowed in annoyance at this revelation. "What? It's a Monday."

            Josie shuffled on her feet causing the rubber of her shoe to squeak against the linoleum floor. Her voice was slightly shaky as she suggested, "Um, maybe we should go before someone cool shows up."

            At that moment, yet another girl who had been invited to the club walked in behind them. It was Slyvie, the girl who had been afraid that they'd all be 'porked' by Huntington. "Hey, Hazel. Thanks for invite. I love David Fincher." The girl uttered in excitement.

            The four girls watched as Slyvie walked away, her friend following closely behind her. A heavy sigh escaped from PJ as she fought back the urge to kick something. She wanted the hot girls! "Well, I guess Slyvie's cute if she lost her braces and stopped huffing paint!"

            Josie shook her head. "She'll never stop huffing paint."

            "Yeah, it's basically part of her identity now." Nell commented while shrugging her shoulders. Her eyes trailed back over to where Slyvie was getting comfortable upon the gym floor. Her body twitched slightly which wasn't that big of a surprise.

            Ready to move on to bigger and more important matters, Hazel smiled brightly as she whipped out her notebook from her pocket. She quickly began to shuffle though the pages while she spoke. "So, Nell and I were talking and we thought that we should start—"

            The blue eyed girls efforts to search for the itinerary and to keep things moving was ruined in seconds by PJ who pushed past her, sending the notebook flying up which caused it to hit Hazel in the chest. A low groan tumbled from Hazel's lips at the impact.

            "All right! Listen up—" PJ aggressively yelled. She swung her backpack from her shoulders before slamming it down hard against the floor.  "You cunt sucking pieces of shit!"

            "Welcome to our fucking fight club!"

            As she continued to boisterously bellow at the top of her lungs, Hazel and Nell moved to sit down amongst the other girls on the floor. The hard surface beneath their bodies did little to help them sit comfortably, instead they had to shuffle every few seconds to avoid cramping in their butts.

             Josie awkwardly shook her head in disagreement with PJ's statement. "Um, it's a self defence club. It's not really 'fight.'" She corrected, though she might as well have not even bothered.

             "So, as we know, Huntington is on the prowl and they're picking on the weak and defenceless. Meaning all of you." PJ broadly gestured to the group of girls sitting on the floor. "So we're gonna teach you how to not take shit. We're gonna start with dropkicks, tackling, a little bit of knife play."

            "Then, punch bucket. Which is when we throw you in a bucket and we punch you until you bleed!" Each word that fell from PJ's lips was enunciated with a tone of toughness, one that she certainly didn't exude on the daily.

            An anxious, tight-lipped smile formed upon Josie's lips. Her hands stung together, flesh pulling against the bone as she spoke up. "Before that, perhaps stretches, icebreakers and trust falls."

            "Is that what happened to you in Juvie?" One of the girls spoke up, wondering if they'd all be learning how Josie and PJ had fought in Juvie.

            "No." The two girls muttered. PJ dismissively shook her head.

            "Juvie was way crazier. One time this girls punching me in the rain. Fall to my knees, it's muddy. I get up, I'm blind. Punch her right in the middle of her face. Broke her fucking nose." PJ expertly lied to the group. Her gaze shifted to her best friend. "Josie? Care to share?"

            Josie eyed up her friend for a moment. "Yeah, alright. Juvie was insane. Once a girl tried to kill me with rat poison, so I took her outside and I punched her until she died." She finished up with yet another tight-lipped smile paired with a shrug. It was clear that she was trying to act indifferent to the act of murder!

            The story was just so preposterous that Nell had to physically lift up her hand and pressed it firmly against her mouth to stop herself from laughing. Biting on her bottom lip would do nothing to muffle her amusement. The very fact that everyone around her, minus PJ and Hazel, believed the absolutely ridiculous story from Josie had Nell thinking that maybe they deserved to be mislead.

            Annie's brows furrowed. "So, you killed a girl?"

             As though she were a malfunctioning robot, Josie stalled for the briefest of moments as she attempted to free herself of the title of murderer. "Uh, no. Because the ambulance came and revived her and we actually had a really productive conversation when she came back to life, so..."

            PJ shot Josie a look of bewilderment, the girl surprised at how she had broken someone's nose in her story but Josie had just straight up murdered someone. The slightest tone of hesitation filled her voice as she spoke. "Um, since Josie literally killed a girl—"

             "She came back to life."

             "Mmm, but I remember her being dead for at least a couple minutes." PJ retorted with a slight smirk. She knew that Josie couldn't exactly explain her way out of the situation. "Josie is gonna start by showing you all how to effectively throw a solid punch. Josie, if you'll step forward."

             The curly haired girl shook her head in reply. "No, I don't wanna do that."

              "What's the problem?" PJ inquired, feigning concern for her friend.

            Nell found herself glancing over at Hazel who looked back within a few seconds. Both girls sent each other a look of total amusement at the situation they had found themselves in. Here they were, sitting on the floor of the school gym, listening as their friends lied out of their asses about killing girls in Juvie, all to attract women.

            It was honestly amazing how no one had called them out on their stories yet. Perhaps the girls that attending the club wanted to believe in the stories so badly that they refused to see how ridiculous they sounded.

            As they turned their attention back to the disagreement before them, Josie continued to refuse the suggestion of her demonstrating how to throw a punch. "No, they don't wanna see it."

            "They wanna see. Look at them. They wanna see the punch." PJ uttered confidently. She broadly gestured to the group of girls on the floor, all of whom stared up at them in anticipation.

            Josie's pupils dilated as her gaze hardened upon her best friend. "Who am I gonna punch?" She asked in annoyance.

            How exactly could she demonstrate a punch if there was no one to punch and who would be stupid enough to offer themselves up?

            "How about PJ?" The Hewitt girl proposed with a cheeky grin tugging at her lips. Though PJ began to look alarmed, Nell didn't back down. "You know, since you guys were in Juvie and all, you're probably used to the pain."

There was a pause. An expression of fear flashed across PJ's face for mere seconds before it was replaced by a look of determination. "Uh, yeah. Punch me, just punch me."

"Punch you?" Josie inquired seriously. The more PJ pushed her, the more Josie found herself actually wanting to punch her. Honestly, the desire was building inside of her, on the verge of erupting.

"Yeah, come on."

"I can punch you." The desire was tittering on the edge.

"Yeah I know how to take a punch." PJ bragged though inside she was shitting herself. Somehow, she managed to maintain a calm and collected persona. "Something people would always say, 'PJ knows how to take a punch.' Come on up."

Eruption! Josie's closed fist slammed hard against the tip of PJ's nose. The ridges of her tightened up fingers dragged against the skin of PJ's nose causing the girl to cry out in an instant.

"Ah, fuck!" PJ exclaimed in utter agony. As though her legs had turned to jelly, her entire body flew out from under her as she collapsed hard against the rigid gymnasium floor.

Everyone rushed to their feet in concern for the girl. The sight of thick, crimson blood dripping down from her nostrils caused them all to cringe as they gathered around her, watching as PJ struggled up from the floor into a sitting position.

Annie chose this moment to speak up. "Will there be an advisor for this club cause we'll be suspended if there isn't." She wasn't wrong. They would definitely need someone to vouch for them if they wanted to keep the club up and running. But who?

"Well, who's gonna be dumb enough to endorse a club where we punch each other in the face?"

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            APPARENTLY THERE WAS SOMEONE dumb enough to allow them all to keep a club where they punched each other in the face up and running. That very someone being Mr. G. According to Josie and PJ, the two had managed to convince him of the club's importance by playing into his interests.

He needed a new hobby and being the club advisor was that new hobby.

            The next club meeting came around in no time at all. Everyone at the previous meeting plus maybe 2 or 3 more girls had shown up, all of them giddy to get started with learning to best ways to defend themselves from two former inhabitants of the juvenile system. Little did they know.

            "I'm kinda scared to get punched." Nell lowly muttered. The girl wished to keep her voice low to avoid attracting attention from the girls that surrounded her. She didn't want to seem like a wimp. "That makes me sound like such a chicken but look at PJ's nose. I'm not sure if I want that."

            Hazel took a moment. For a second she looked so deep in contemplation before she shrugged. "I don't know, a broken nose could be hot on the right person."

The Hewitt girl absentmindedly nodded along before realisation kicked in and her eyes widened in surprise. From beside her Hazel seemed completely unaware by what she had said, the short haired girl instead staring off at Josie and PJ who had just walked into the gym.

"Wait, what?" Nell fumbled over her words. Her hands began to perspire as she wondered what Hazel had meant. Did she mean that a broken nose would hot on her or was she saying that in general a broken was hot on certain people?

            Did Hazel not see what she was doing? What she was capable of? It's as if the Callahan girl was oblivious to the effect she had on Nell, the way her glowing smile caused harsh beating of Nell's heart. The way her gentle touches and words lit a fire within Nell's loins. At this point, if Hazel asked her to jump from a rooftop, Nell was confident she would actually do it.

            She joked about PJ and Josie being pussy-whipped but really, she had zero room to talk.

            Before she could receive any semblance of a reply from the blue eyed girl, an unexpected visitor showed up. In jogged Mr. G, their new club advisor and who was supposed to not bother attending. "Hey, ladies. Let's get it poppin' in this motherfucker." The man greeted with a expectant grin.

            Mostly everyone remained distracted by their own thoughts and surroundings, many remained focused on conversations leaving them all ignorant to the fact that Josie was attempting to speak to them. Not Nell, though. She was well aware and remained completely focused upon the stuttering Josie and the determined PJ, who strutted over and grabbed a mop.

            Boom! Boom! Boom!

            "Everybody shut the fuck up!" PJ bellowed out as she slammed the wooden end of the mop against the floor. The thuds reverberated off the walls, echoing throughout the gymnasium. "This isn't a little hangout, okay?"

           "Oh, it's not a sleepover, playtime. There's serious rules that we need to establish, 'kay?" One by one, PJ got into everyone's face in an attempt to intimidate them. "First. Listen. Second, Be. On. Time. Yeah."

            A fast paced movement in her peripheral vision caused the Hewitt girl to glance over to her side. Hazel's hand was in a hurry to jot down every single word that PJ uttered in her notebook. A crease appeared in between Nell's eyebrows as she stared curiously over at her. "Are you writing this down?"

           Hazel nodded with a gentle smile, her eyes darting up for a second at the Hewitt girl before falling back down to her notebook.

            PJ glanced over at Mr. G, gesturing to the man with a dismissive wave of the hand. "Except for you, you come whenever you want."

            The area around PJ's nose was completely broken. The appendage was totally swollen, dark hues of blue and purple stained her skin. "What time is it?"

            "Three-thirty." One of the girls chimed in.

            "Three-thirty!" PJ reiterated the time with a yell. "Club starts at three-fifteen. Not three-sixteen. Not three-seventeen. But the doors close at three-fifteen. No exceptions!"

            Her voice dripped with attitude as she snarled at the group of girls. "I don't care if you like 'oh but I had to go to extra help for math because I need to get a full ride because my mom lives in a trailer and she loves her boyfriend more than me.'"

           She continued to mock. "Blah blah blah—shut up! Okay? My dad left me and I'm incredibly punctual."

            Unknown to PJ, the gym doors opened up and in walked the two very girls that she and Josie had started the club for. Their high heels, which were totally inappropriate footwear for school, clinked against the floor as they halted to a stop. They observed PJ from afar. Slowly, the realisation that no one was looking at her settled in for the girl with the broken nose. This caused her to hesitantly spin on her heel.

"Um, hey guys. Come on in." The words slipped from her tongue at the sight of Brittany and Isabel. She gestured for the two to move further into the room. "We're just getting started here so um—today I think we're gonna start with some body contact. We're gonna do some wrestling. I think I need a volunteer. Brittany, you're close to me, you wanna—"

            Annie piped up from the back, effectively cutting PJ off. "I'm sorry, I though we weren't allowed to be late."

            "Yeah, the double standards." Nell scoffed in amusement. They were such hypocrites. Frankly, she didn't care very much at the rules but the double standards were insane. If any of them were 'hotter', there's no way in hell that they'd be treated that way.

            "That's not true." PJ uttered in response as Josie shook her head and replied, "That's about next week."

           Yet again, Annie spoke up, just as confused as before. "I'm sorry, I just wanna make sure, this is a self defence class, right? Where we can learn to protect ourselves from like, football players?"

            "And Huntington because they're gonna pork us." Slyvie somewhat frantically said. Her body shook slightly, her pupils vibrating wildly within her eyes. "They're gonna pork us."

            "I thought we were fighting each other for money. There's a cash prize, right?" Stella-Rebecca questioned, her head innocently tilted to the side like a curious puppy.

            With her hands clutched tightly in front of her body, Isabel spoke up for the first time since she had arrived. "I thought this was to be part of like a local, underprivileged female community."

            Multiple sets of eyes darted over to Brittany who quite monotonously said, "My identity is completely attached to hers so I just kinda go where she goes." She finished her sentence off with a shrug of the shoulders.

            There was a brief silence before Josie spoke up. "Everyone's here for a good reason. So, you know, like why are we nitpicking reasons?"

            Desperate to pull the attention away from their double standards, PJ swiftly agreed with a grin. "Yeah, how about this? Let's jump in."

            "I'll go." Annie enthusiastically volunteered, souring the grin that PJ had been sporting and replacing it with a scowl.

            "Great, yeah." No sooner had the words left her mouth till PJ reached out and gave Annie a great big shove, sending the girl plummeting to the floor with a thud. A round of gasps filled the room at the sight of Annie splayed flat across the ground.

"Hey, hey, hey." Mr. G all but jumped to his feet. "I don't know about this shit."

Annie struggled back to her feet, the girl stumbling slightly as she stared up at PJ in annoyance. "What the hell? You didn't even warn me." She complained.

           A roll of the eyes was all Annie received from PJ, who seemed completely disinterested in appeasing the girl. Instead, PJ just drawled out her words. "Okay, we didn't get warnings at Juvie."

            "We can take it slower?" Josie suddenly suggested as she looked back and forth between Mr. G and Annie who was in the midst of picking herself back up from the floor.

            Mr. G slowly nodded. "Yeah maybe try that. Take that route. A little slower." He uttered while backing up and retaking his seat.

            PJ shook her upper body, stretching out her arms to prepare herself. "Look, you just use your natural instincts. Just come at me. Whatever you want."

            And she did. Annie placed her hands upon PJ shoulders and used all of her strength to knock her off of her feet. A pained grunt rumbled within PJ's chest as her body made contact with the floor. Nell winced at the echo that bounced around the room.

            "That's great. I say that we go again!" The last word came out harshly as she aggressively pushed Annie to the floor once again, this time the collision being so much worse than before. Everyone gasped in shock once again, a shared feeling of pity filling the gym.

"Fuck my back." Annie cried out at the impact.

Mr. G once again jumped to his feet, his pupils dilated and shaking with fear. "We gotta shut this down."

"We don't have to shut it down. She's fine." Josie responded. She was try to soften the situation to avoid the club being shut down before it even really began. She glanced over at Annie. "Are you fine? Are you okay?"

PJ didn't bother to wait for a reply from the girl before shrugging. "Yeah she's okay."

Mr. G shook his head. "Shut this shit down." He then attempted to lift up his whistle that hung around his neck and blow it only to be interrupted.

"Don't blow the whistle. Don't blow the whistle." Josie begged, her eyes blown wide as she intently stared over at the man. She swallowed hard before she continued. "I know that, you know this is a little messy right now but like, the only way that we can learn how to defend ourselves is by teaching each other."

Her gaze hopped back and forth amongst the group of girls, though it mostly lingered upon Isabel. "Huntington is coming. We need this. I know that things might seem scary but that's okay because...because—"

Sending her best friend needed help, PJ jumped back into the conversation. "Because you're gonna be fucking pros." She confidently stated.

Josie nodded. "Is what I was gonna say."

"Yeah right." PJ was on a roll. She had examples and she was gonna use 'em. "Crystal, I'm thinking of you. You are never gonna get assaulted on your birthday again."

"Lucky number seven!" Josie grinned while holding up seven fingers.

            Stella-Rebecca was giddy as she chimed in. "And I—I'm gonna finally reverse stalk my stalker."

            "Yeah, absolutely."

            "And for me. I'm gonna be able to kill my stepdad." The room's inhabitants fell mute. No one knew exactly how to react to Sylvie's admission.

            "Awesome." Josie croaked out, her voice wavering.

            "And if you believe in yourselves and you believe in us and you trust us, I'm like let's fucking do this." PJ finished up with a proud nod of the head. Her inspirational speech produced a round of applause from the crowd.

            "What a speech!" Nell cheekily cheered, a grin appearing upon her lips at the dirty look she received from PJ. Her hands clapped together in appreciation for the motivation that had undoubtedly enveloped those around her.

            The feeling of shoulders shaking from beside her caused the dark haired girl to glance over at Hazel, who was clapping along with the rest though biting down on her bottom lip to hold in a burst of laughter that threatened to escape. A feeling of self satisfaction swelled within Nell's chest at the idea that her words had Hazel fighting back laughter.

            "Yes! Yes! Yes queen, slay!" Slyvie screamed at the top of her lungs. Her sudden outburst caused the others to fall into an awkward silence. With fists clenched tightly at her sides and her eyes blown wide with excitement, she continued, "Yes! Yes! Slay!"

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jamielee's thoughts.
chapter four. not proofread.
pj complaining that the girls were ugly will never not be funny. y'all are not ready for what I have planned for the next chapter. I'm turning up the dial on sexual tension dudes! I hope you enjoyed :)