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**justmedk** · March 14th, 2022, 06:54 PM

Listening to Daniel explaining what he was doing brought both tears and a smile to Ciri. And the tears weren't because she very clearly grasped the implications of what "certain disciplinary issues" meant. No, what made her tear up was the background info: "when a girl is born, their father....".
She had never had a father. Well, Geralt and Vesemir had had that function, she figured, but she hadn't been with them very long and she suspected that they saw themselves more as trainers, instructors than anything so familiar, even if she herself had had a different feeling deep inside.

Here it was plain that Daniel felt about her the same way that she felt about him, and she was overwhelmed with emotion. She sniffled, trying to hide a tear by wiping it away, before she gave up all pretenses to be "cool" for the moment and threw herself in his arms, not really caring at the moment that they weren't inside.

"I....I'll....I'll do my best to....to be....to be a good niece to you...", she managed, her voice breaking up a bit. She didn't know how long she stood like that with her arms wrapped around him, but eventually the embrace did break and she blushed a bit, looking down, before she cleared her throat and tried to pretend that the past few minutes hadn't happened.

"Ahem...Well, I had a meeting with Mr Cermak and got out of Chemistry on that behalf" she grinned. "Legally!" she quickly interjected, her mind reminding her about the "disciplinary issues" he mentioned before. "I got a note from the principal and everything, see?", she showed him the note. She wasn't about to risk getting in trouble if she could help it. "And yeah...he said that the routines were working great and that we might even go on to the national championships!", she said exitedly, "Perhaps even international!". Ciri didn't have much of an idea yet about international sports, but she HAD, of course, figured out for herself that since there were other coutnries than the one she was in, it would stand to reason that people there had the same sports. So she could put two and two together and realize that if the regional championships were a big deal, and the national championships were a bigger deal, the international would be the BIGGEST POSSIBLE DEAL.

"He said that the coach of "the national under-15-team" would be seeing the tournament on Saturday!", she added. "So perhaps my training isn't completely worthless after all?", Ciri finished with a grin.

**guesswho** · March 14th, 2022, 07:27 PM

At first, he thought Ciri took offense to the hazel being planted, but things clear up real fast, and only then he realizes just in how much trouble he is. Daniel always thought Ciri's stance on this whole thing was more along the lines of, well, I'm here, might as well survive, but apparently, she's been taking him as a father figure. And while he somewhat automatically assumed the job, he never thought it's this important to her. It's clear she's trying to hold it together, to always look strong and so on, but currently, there only appears to be a cat watching them. She might as well let go. So when she hugs him, Daniel responds in kind and waits until Ciri lets go. If she needs a hug, he's not going to be the one to break it.

"Well, couldn't wish for a better niece anyway." Daniel grins, and when she calms down a bit and starts about her school successes, he listens attentively, but still does his best to fill in the hole and plant the plant.

"Nice, good job. National, eh? I'm proud of you." By the time she finishes, he's more or less done, so he just stamps the ground down a little bit and looks at the result. The hazel is a bit grown already, but it'll still need more time. And he'll never forget where the bottle is.

"Oh, your training is definitely not worthless. Even outside sports. Frankly, I can't imagine you holding down an office job. There's plenty of sports for you to try and be great at. It's on saturday? Okay, I'll come and watch, if you want me there."

**justmedk** · March 15th, 2022, 06:56 PM

When she heard him say he was proud of her, Ciri felt like she'd grown a full feet! She nodded eagerly

"Of course I want you there" she said as if he'd just asked if 2+2=4. There was no one she'd rather have there. Not even Denisa, though of course it'd be cool if she was there too. But if she had to pick between the two of them - definitely Daniel.

"I'm gonna be spending a lot of time this week practising", she said. "So I'll.....I'll be home a lot later. Mr. Cermak has said that he'd drive me home since I miss the bus and all", she chuckled. "He must want to win this tournament badly", she grinned as she headed for the house, then opened the door, took off her jacket and shoes, took her least favorite book - chemistry - out of the bag and plopped down on her stomach on the couch with a sigh. She might have gotten out of attending the class, but she wouldn't get out of doing the work.

Then a thought occured to her, and she thought it out loud:

"Oh....damnit...she might not appreciate that she can't get angry at me for not being at her stupid class!", she said, but then shook her head. She'd cross that bridge when she came to it.

_____________________

That point turned out to be already the next day, as the chemistry teacher "at random" asked Ciri many more times than was statistically likely if choosing at random. Ciri had made a point out of studying extra hard after having realized her strategic mistake, so while she still didn't get all of the terms right, her answers were satisfactory enough that the teacher couldn't fault her....which seemed to just annoy her even more.
At the end of the lesson, Ciri was barely holding back her anger at being singled out.

"Finally" she grumbled to Renata as the girls left their seats to head for lunch. "I swear, she has it in for me. What did I ever do to her??"

**guesswho** · March 15th, 2022, 11:08 PM

Looking at how she beams when he says he's proud of her, it's clearly something he'll need to say more often. Note taken. He's not entirely sure about the PE teacher driving her home everyday, but it'll probably be okay.

"Okay, just...drop me a message you're okay ocassionnally and let me know if you need a drive home for...well, whatever reason." And he surely could hardly ask for a more dilligent kid, as she actually goes and studies for her least favorite class without urging from him.

__________

While Ciri is getting the worst from chemistry teacher's assault, the rest of the class can sit and watch, in some cases rather admiringly, how she can actually answer most questions correctly. And the fact they're all mostly ignored by the old bitch for the class seems to win her some favor, at least from a few classmates.

"You're new. You're good. She wants you to know who's boss." Renata sniggers. "Except she's not, never was, never will be. She's just an old bully whom nobody likes. She will get you in trouble sooner or later, though." Renata leans back, enjoying her lunch. "As soon as you make a mistake, she'll blow it out of proportion, get you a headmaster's note and so on. Probably will have Daniel called to school as well. Might be a good idea to get ready for that. She shouldn't be teaching anymore. Just talking to her is borderline necromancy..." Her dad explained it to her, after she had her parents called to school. Renata is not entirely sure she understood, and certainly has no way of relating the mindset to current century, but he said she's still living in the old days when she had absolute authority because of her connections and status.

"I do, however, know the password to her information system account. You know, where they fill in grades and notes and stuff. She has it on a sticker on screen in her office." A number of older teachers do this, and all she needed was to come to their office for consultation about something class related and take a photo surreptitiously. Younger ones...well, they seem to grasp the basic idea one should not have their password written on a piece of paper, but the older ones still consider computers something of a devil's machine.

**justmedk** · March 17th, 2022, 07:06 PM

Ciri's eyes widened at the mention of the password-access, and then they narrowed, just as her mouth did in a mischievious smile.

"C....could you get away with tampering with them?", she asked. "Our grades, I mean. Because...I mean.....honestly, she shouldn't get away with giving anyone grades they didn't deserve, simply because she doesn't like them?"
The rest of the day went away too, and Ciri said goodbye to her friends at the end of the day. She still had practise routines with Mr. Cermak to do. Not that she thought she needed to, but she'd been wrong about such things before, and there was a definite difference between confidence and hubris.

So she willingly showed up for the practise. The only thing that truly bothered her was the skimpy nature of her outfit, but she didn't get any bad vibes from the teacher at all, so it wasn't because she didn't feel safe. She DID feel exposed, however. But realized the need for it: She needed as much freedom of movement as possible.
An ice-cold thought struck her like lightning, out of nowhere, as she was doing a routine:

What if.....what if I get in trouble before having to put this on??

Having observed the damage a couple of times after having had a conversation of the unpleasant kind with Daniel, she knew that the skin would be red for quite a while.
And she knew she'd absolutely just DIE, quite literally, if that became public knowledge.
The thought distracted her long enough for her to lose her footing and fall, but her instinct kicked in and prevented her from spraining her ankle, or worse, by her making a dive roll and get back up.

"I...I'm okay", she said, mentally kicking herself for being distracted. This COULD NOT happen on Saturday!
She got back up and did the routine again, this time flawlessly.

________________________________________________

On Saturday, Ciri was very nervous. She was standing in the wings ready to come out when her immediate competitor had finished. She had been a nervous wreck all morning, the last couple of days to be exact. She realized she'd come close to crossing the line a few times, and praised herself lucky that she hadn't managed to, not knowing how much of her luck had been because of Daniel's patience, and much had been her restraint.
It didn't matter right now. Right now all that mattered was winning. And given the results just delivered by the loudspeakers, that was....not ridiculously hard, but she could not afford any lapse of concentration. She needed every moment to be perfect. Not only to win this particular tournament, but also because the "national u-15 coach" was present. And she had gathered very early on that it was a big deal.

Then her name was called:

"Ciri Jezek!"

She took a deep breath, and entered the "arena", as she thought of it. Time for glory! Or so she hoped!

**guesswho** · March 17th, 2022, 08:45 PM

Renata shrugs, when Ciri asks about grades. "You could, but it's risky and she puts them on paper anyway." There are other things one could do with it, but all in all, it's mostly just bragging rights. One can make some adjustments, but doing outright changes to grades would be dangerous. She could change password, and what then?

_______________________________

He's been watching Ciri come home late everyday, getting more and more nervous as the competition comes closer. Despite everything, he didn't really have to exert all that much extra patience. He'd seen the skimpy dress and put two and two together, deciding that no matter what, there's to be no spanking before the competition. But while she did come close to being informed he'll deal with her afterwards a couple times, almost miraculously never crossed that line.

And so now, on saturday, he's sitting here, watching, admittedly, not very interesting sports competition, waiting for Ciri's turn to show 'em what she got. And finally, her name is called. Now this should be interesting. Daniel leans forward to watch Ciri make moves he couldn't even imagine his body going through without leaving parts behind. It's fascinating what a human body can be persuaded to do...

**justmedk** · March 17th, 2022, 08:59 PM

Ciri almost felt like it's in....a dream or something. At least an altered state. Her focus was 100% on the task. When the signal was given for her to begin, she was an artist, and her body was the canvas. With small, perfectly timed movements, she managed to not only execute the move better than her closest competitor, but quicker and more sure-footed, too. Once she had landed again after having finished all routines, there were a few moments where she didn't know what was going on. Why were everyone silent? Had she managed to fuck up somehow, anyway?

It had felt like time stood still, though in reality it'd likely only been a few seconds, before deafening roars of applause were heard, and Ciri blushed, jumping off the beam and doing a polite curtsy towards teh judges and a bow to the audience, heading over to the couch to await the result.

She did not have to wait long. A perfect 10 from all judges, except one who made it 9,9. Ciri would later find out that that particular judge never gave 10 as a matter of principle, because 10 was perfection and no one was perfect.
But still, it was miles beyond what her closest rival had gotten, and Ciri was intelligent enough to figure out the result as soon as the judge's numbers were in. She completely lost it, first breaking down in tears of joy, and then pacing around for a few moments not knowing what to do with herself.

When the small trophy was handed to her, Ciri sniffled again and held it close to her heart.
After she'd eventually showered and changed into normal clothes, Ciri rushed out of the changing rooms to find Daniel. She was completely on cloud nine now! When she saw him, he was speaking with someone she didn't know, and she kept in the background a bit. Didn't want to intrude. But she was definitely very, very happy and very, very exited!

**guesswho** · March 17th, 2022, 10:18 PM

The result is just as expected, and of course he applauds. He's quite happy about the whole situation, and of course, will need to think of some reward for her, apart from what she already gets here. Which isn't exactly irrelevant. When all is said and done, competition finished, it's time for him to pick up Ciri. Apparently, the organizers already want to discuss her future in regards to this specific sport. He can see Ciri, loitering in the background, so he finishes the talk quickly, exchanging some contact details and, importantly, account number. When they're done, he shakes hands and turns to Ciri. Other girl and their parents are already leaving. There doesn't seem to be much bad feeling all around, there really can be no dispute at this point.

"Well hello there, good job! One doesn't see a show like that often." He hugs the girl and then proceeds to their car. Looks like a very nice weekend, no matter what happens next. "Quite a win there, I'm pretty sure you'll be contacted for national team soon enough. Looks like we might be traveling in a couple months." Which is not something he looks forward to especially, but well...what he wouldn't do for Ciri? As for today, Daniel's all smiles and visibly proud of Ciri.

"I think a reward is in order, what would you like it to be?" Daniel asks, when they're in the car and ready to start journey to...well, whatever she picks, really.

**justmedk** · March 18th, 2022, 07:04 PM

Ciri eagerly returned the hug, clinging to him for a moment.

"Thank you for....for everything", she said, her voice breaking a bit before she regained her composure and smiled widely. She did notice the look of intense pride on his face, and got emotional herself because of it, as they headed towards the car. The words sprinted around in her head. National team. She had a feeling that it was a much bigger deal than she thought, and the way he'd spoken of it confirmed it. She was going to make sure that if she was selected for the national team, she'd win....whatever it was they were gonna compete in. She owed no less to him. To this place that had provided for her. Her new home.

When he offered a reward to be determined, Ciri's eyes widened, as did her smile. But she was momentarily at a loss, feeling like a kid in a candy shop. Well, half right there, anyway.

"Uhmm...I....I dunno....", she said as he pulled away from the parking lot. "I....uhm....well, I haven't been to one of those "movie theatres" I keep hearing about yet?", she suggested. "Or....or maybe to one of those "football matches" we sometimes watch on the...."TV", she said, tasting the word like a foreign object, even though she was definitely starting to get more used to it. She thought for a while, and had a feeling that the football match was likely to be much more expensive, so she met his eyes in the rearview mirror "Movies", she smiled. "Though....don't quite know if there's anything worth watching....we could go and find out?"

**guesswho** · March 19th, 2022, 07:49 AM

He nods, of course, movies won't be a problem. There's many of them around here and there's always something good in them, so why not. Daniel turns the car towards city center then. The city will be full and parking will be hell, but he'll figure something out. Though they might be in for a walk as well.

"Okay, let's go to the movies. The football match...well, look. I'll be happy to take you, of course, but that's something we need to know up front. They don't happen every day and you need to buy tickets couple days before. But in the villages and towns around us, there're always local teams playing something low level, so you just need to find out when and where something's happening." He explains. It's quite popular here, especially during warmer months, so this won't be a problem in future.

"I'm driving and you have a phone, so look up what you wanna see and we can go and see it." He lists some of the movies theatres he knows and how to get to their sites. If she just wants to go to the movies, the reward will still come way cheaper than he expected and was ready to spend on her. Although popcorn might be another thing altogether.