The Goofy and the Not

[Angela Knight]

Tag: Caleb Parker

Angela did not like to admit it but she kept tabs on her recruits. She may not seem like she gave much interest in them at first, but truthfully, she knew how alone it felt when she first arrived to the academy and how she wished there was at least someone looking out for her. Hey, you gotta be someone who you wished had been there for you.

So with her last recruit, Mike, she found out he got himself a self defense instructor. Considering how shy and timid he had been, she supposed that was a smart thing to do. Off she went to the gym in search of the instructor, Caleb Parker. She knew the name and the person. He was only three years older than her, she saw him around the academy often.

Angela's tracks stopped not long after she entered the gym. She had not counted on a class taking place right now. But no matter, she sat down on one end of the bleachers and waited. At one point, she waved when he looked in her direction. "Hey, Caleb! Just wanted to talk, uh later when you're free and done with class," she added quickly.

[Caleb Parker]

One on one defense classes had been upping Caleb's game lately. While he still had his course and taught a large group at times, he'd been asked for private lessons fairly frequently and he never turned them down. Private lessons were more effective to him anyway, it was how he'd become such a strong fighter to begin with. The previous instructor had taught Caleb everything he knew, and helped him become strong in more of a sense than just physically. No longer did he get bullied or pushed around because he had bulked up and didn't take shit from anyone. So when someone asked him for the same kind of guidance, he felt that it was only right that he offer the same kind of support.

As he jabbed at his current student, the boy ducked and swiped his leg out with the intent to trip his instructor. Caleb jumped over his legs and grabbed the boy by the arm just as he heard someone calling his name. He looked over his shoulder and gave his co-worker a smile and a nod. Not long after, the student grabbed his arm, twisted so that he hooked Caleb's arm around his shoulders and flipped Caleb over onto his back on the mat.

Caleb huffed and groaned out a forced laugh, "Ouch. Damn, that was smooth!" The boy offered his hand to his instructor and Caleb took it standing up. "Way to use my minor distraction against me, man. You're getting really good. Nice strong core. Hey, next week I'll show you something that'll really eff up your opponent!" He patted the boy's back and waved as he left the gym. Caleb grabbed his towel and wiped the sweat from his face before walking over to where Angela was sitting.

"Hey, what's up!"

[Angela Knight]

Oops. Seeing Caleb getting taken down by his student, the girl knew calling out to him probably had contributed to that. She smiled and gave another small wave as he came over. "Hey. Your student seemed really good," she commented, referring to what she saw earlier.

"I hope you didn't cut your class short because of me." Part of her did feel guilty if that was the case but she would be lying if she said she was not glad that the lesson ended not long after her arrival resulting in her having not to wait long. "Cause what I wanted to see you for isn't urgent. But okay it is important. To me. Important to me." She shut her mouth and her fists clenched as she tried to form a proper sentence.

"Okay, let me just start again." She inhaled and exhaled before she spoke again. "I heard that one of my latest recruits got you as a self defense instructor. His name is Mike, and he's a pretty shy boy actually. Ermm so do you remember him?"

[Caleb Parker]

"Oh no! Not at all, we were wrapping up. I told him if he could take me down, he could go. Lo and behold, he took me right down," Caleb was still breathing a little heavily, but he laughed. "He is doing really well for someone who was afraid to even look at me when we first started sessions!" Caleb did often try his hardest to make his students feel at ease. He'd joke, and jab, let them kick his ass a time or two. It usually eased the students into being open to his instruction and allowing for him to teach them better. Those who he didn't have a solid foundational friendship, so to speak, with often didn't do as well with him.

Caleb watched her as she tripped over her words. Not one to judge, since he often did the same, he waited patiently with a friendly smile on his face. Once she finished her thought he nodded, "Oh absolutely!" As an instructor of fewer students than most of the teachers and recruiters seemed to have, Caleb made it a point to know his students, the ones he had for training or just self-defense, by name and on a pretty comfortable level. The boy was shy, something again, Caleb was more than understanding of. To force yourself into a class to defend yourself when it isn't exactly a comfortable situation takes a lot of guts. It was what Caleb had done when he first came to Bellefonte as well.

"Yes, yeah, I remember Mike. He's doing really well, Ange! Still a bit on the quiet side, but I'm sure that'll ease with time. It did for me, ya know and once he gets more comfortable with what he's doing and how his body reacts to things, I think he'll be really good. Did you suggest the class for him?" Caleb didn't suspect that she would, but either way it didn't matter. Just friendly conversation.

[Angela Knight]

Her face brightened when he showed indication that he knew of her recruit. At first she was not sure, not knowing the number of students Caleb had and trained with. It could be plenty and her shy recruit Mike might have just disappeared in the mass of people he saw everyday. It was nice of him to remember. Then again, with his personality, Angela never pegged him for someone who did not pay a lot of attention to his students.

She liked what she heard. At least the boy seemed to be doing progress and that was the important part. When he asked whether or not it was her who suggested the class, she quickly shook her head. “Oh no! It was all him,” said Angela. “He’s a smart kid. Took the initiative to like put himself out of his comfort zone. Brave.” For such a timid boy, he sure had a lot of courage. She had to give him that.

“You said it did for you? You were once the quiet type?” Angela asked with an arched brow, not easily believing it. Caleb, quiet?

[Caleb Parker]

Caleb nodded, as he suspected. Perhaps it was a guy thing, not particularly enjoying the feeling of being so vulnerable and, well, weak. He himself had been frail, gangly and scrawny growing up, an easy target for anyone, boy or girl, large or small. He'd been timid, quiet and uncomfortable with himself. The only time he felt comfortable was with his sister and after being taken away from her, he'd had to find a way to be comfortable without her. His trainer had also been the instructor for self-defense at the time and was the one who had pushed Caleb in this direction of teaching. He wanted anyone who had ever felt the way he did to never feel like that again. He wanted to be their motivation, their support and their example. Mike had definitely reminded Caleb of himself at that age.

Her incredulous response to what he'd said had him laughing and he shrugged, "Hey, why do you sound so surprised!" He laughed again and nodded, "But yeah, I mean, I was the scrawny, short kid that everyone bullied when I was younger. I got thrown around a lot and then, ya know, I cocooned myself in self-defense class and emerged a buff butterfly." Okay, that came out a lot stranger than he intended, but the metaphor still applied! He chewed on the inside of his cheek and shrugged again, "No biggie, really."

He stretched his arms up over his head and winced a bit from the bruising he felt after the flip he'd just suffered through, "So what about you Angela? Ever take a defense class? You look like someone who could probably kick some serious ass!"

[Angela Knight]

“I… I just never imagined you to ever be the quiet type to be honest,” she replied without missing a beat. She believed she only started noticing Caleb around school during her final high school years, college years and now well they were work buddies. He’d been that buff butterfly. Angela could not stop the laugh from coming after hearing his choice of words. Buff butterfly? That probably sounded better in his head.

“M-me?” she muttered, a bit caught off guard by what he asked but quickly she recovered from it. “I think the last defense class I took was in high school but had to take a few more when they trained us to be recruiters. I don’t know about some serious ass kicking though. Why, did you want to test theory of yours?” Angela said challenging, surprising herself that she actually wanted to do it.

[Caleb Parker]

Caleb laughed, she wasn't entirely wrong. Most people looked at him now and wouldn't ever connect him to the awkward gangly kid that he had been. Though, he wouldn't say he was necessarily the quiet type. "Maybe not quiet, but I was awkward and not well-liked. Mostly because, uh, well, I've always been a spaz," He shrugged. In all fairness, he'd done a decent job at getting himself together after being taken away from his family, and he never let anyone else treat him like dirt for being who he was. A crazy, colorful and weird guy who liked to work out and teach people to protect themselves. Of course, there was more to it than that, but not often did he like to get into his personal life.

Her challenge caused him to smirk, "I'm sure you could do it. But yeah, let's test this out. Take it easy on me though, I did just get flipped by a student." Maybe that would give her a boost of confidence. If a student half his size could take him down, surely a recruiter who had taken more classes than the kid could take him on. Caleb took a step back from her and raised his arms up like he was preparing for a fight. He gestured for her to come at him, a smirk dancing on his lips. "Gimme your best shot, Ange."

[Angela Knight]

A delighted Angela stood up then and shrugged off the jacket she had on. She was not exactly in the proper attire but it was not like she could swap her jeans for something else right then. She would just have to make do.

"Me? If that's your way of giving me confidence, Cal, nu-uh. I do remember the reason you got flipped over was because you were distracted," she said with a pointed look. Tossing her jacket onto the bleachers, came closer to him, reminding herself not to underestimate her opponent. After all, he was a teacher for self defense.

-----

Thump. Ouch. Angela groaned as she was pinned down on the gym floor and basically got her ass kicked. Okay, so maybe her fault was for overestimating her skills. "Oh look, there goes my plans to tell the my security team Caleb got beaten by a chick," she said playfully, looking up at him.