Chapter 4.2 - Focus

Dear Conor,

I hope you’re still getting my letters. I know that you don’t always know where you’ll be on a given day, and you haven’t written me back in a while, but until I know for sure, I’ll keep writing to you. Things are good here. At least, they’re as good as they ever are. Felix graduates next month, which is really exciting. There was a while when I wasn’t sure he would be able to keep his grades up, but he’s committed to his goal. Flora’s been growing like a weed. I know toddlers are supposed to grow fast, but I’ve taken to buying her clothes a couple of sizes too big so that she can wear them for more than a month. Marissa… well, I haven’t really seen Marissa in a while. She hides upstairs for most of the day. I don’t know how long it’s been since she went to school. Sometimes I hear her and Felix shouting at each other when I get home from work. I don’t know how Flora sleeps through it, but I’m glad she does. She shouldn’t have to hear that. As for me, I’ve been doing fine. I got promoted recently, which means I’m doing less teaching and more actual sparring. I actually kind of miss the teaching, but I still get to do some of it. The kids are the best. They remind me of when I first got started. A lot of them are really angry, but I get to help them work through it. I feel like I’m giving back. It’s a beautiful feeling. As always, I wish you were here.

Love,

Willow

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Willow loved her job, and not just because it was an escape from the tension of the house.

No, Willow loved her job because it allowed her to share her passion - martial arts - with the world. She loved sparring, and she was very, very good at it, but teaching other people to love it as much as she did was her favorite part of the job.

“Try to get your leg up a little higher. A little more… that’s it!”

“If you hold your hand like that, you’re liable to break a bone. Try it like this.”

She loved seeing her students improve, and knowing that she was helping them.

That said, there would never be any substitute for the rush of sparring.

When she was facing off with an opponent, nothing else existed. Her world narrowed to just the two of them, their movements, the elegant dance that sparring against a skilled opponent became.

She couldn’t worry about anything: not money, not Felix and Marissa, not Conor, not Flora. None of them mattered when she was in the midst of battle. None of them even existed. Just her and whoever she was sparring against.

Every night, Willow came to work and spent a couple of hours tutoring new pupils, and even some of the more experienced students sought out her help with difficult moves. Some of them told her that she was the best at the center. Some of them told her she was the best they’d ever seen.

She didn’t really take them too seriously. She knew she was good, but she was too young to be really spectacular. You had to polish your art for years to become a true master.

After the tutoring hours were over, she moved on to sparring. She’d joined the local competitive ring recently, so she sparred against opponents both from the training center and from elsewhere. She won most of her matches. Her skill level was high, and her focus was unrivaled.

Still, it was a shock when she was approached after her match, not by a fan from the training center, but by a man she instantly recognized.

“Willow Doe? I’m Reuben Shields, the regional recruiter for the Sim Nation national martial arts team. I think you’d be an excellent fit for our Sim Fu division.”

Willow couldn’t do anything but stare at him. She’d seen him before, of course, but she’d never thought that she’d be recruited by him. “You’re sure? You want me?”

“You’re the best I’ve seen spar in years. We’d love to have you on the team.”

“In that case, what do I have to do?”

“Well… we want you to go to China.”

Author's Note: On the one hand, I've had Willow's storyline planned for months, and I actually wrote these first few chapters in August. On the other hand... I picked a really bad time to write about travelling to China (or anywhere really... but especially China). Still, it is the Sims, where we go to escape from real problems, so I'm not going to stress too much about it. In other news, I forgot to mention last chapter that Flora is our first heir candidate for Generation 5! The kids of this generation will be getting a lot more plot than those of previous generations, partially because they'll be born earlier and partially because Willow's plot is pretty low-key. Next time: Willow goes on her (poorly timed) trip to China!