The next two days went by pretty much as the day before had. Except him and Lena had no where they needed to be in the morning which meant that he had training with Clarice.
The longer they had been training, the more time she ended up spending at the estate. She refused the princess's offer to move in to is if the guest rooms for the part of the week she was training Samuel, but she did enjoy the chance to catch up with everyone.
She was another one that Samuel determined was close enough to be considered family to them even though she hadn't been around for a few years.
Samuel was actually starting to enjoy training more as it got beyond him just trying to hold his own and make sure his form was right. He was not close enough to being able to land a hit back yet, but he could hold his own for more than a few seconds.
Clarice was honestly surprised. She had good students in the past, but it had been a while since she had one who could improve so quickly over such a short period of time. It was a good sign he had potential though it was probably going to be more focused in specific fighting styles rather then diverse like she was.
Training was the one time Samuel also tried to not let his mind wander during. He knew that he had to make a decision soon as to whether he wanted to talk with J or not.
He had still been texting with his parents since the call he had gotten, but he hadn't called them because he knew that he wouldn't be able to refrain from asking his mother about J or what was going on.
The thought that his mother was hiding something still weighed very heavily on him. Depending on what it was, he didn't know what kind of affect it would have on their relationship.
Was it worse than be pushed into an arranged marriage with a mafia princess? If it was, that worried him.
Samuel winced when Clarice managed to land a hit on his shoulder and push him back. At least that time it was his shoulder and not his face.
"That was close, but your timing was off by a few seconds." Clarice commented, taking a step back to let the other adjust his position.
"Next time you can't keep your focus, it won't be a soft touch like that. Anybody who's intention is to hurt you isn't going to wait if you lose your focus for a second." He knew she was right, but he also wasn't at the level where he could react as quickly to actions as she could.
"Right sorry, my focus is bit off today." He apologized as he took a deep breathe to help recenter himself. Focusing on his breathing was one of the techniques that Clarice had him working on.
She said it was necessary to help him better focus and relax his body so that he could move more freely without letting his emotions or other distractions throw him off.
"Why don't we take a five minute break so that you can fix your focus and just breathe?" She suggested as she relaxed her own poise.
She didn't mind training him when he was distracted, but she noticed his great potential came out when he was fully focused.
It only happened three times when they were training so far, but each instance that Samuel was perfectly focused on his goal of improving his self defense and working on reaching Lena's, his ability to keep up with her movements and react was amazing. It was by no means perfect and wouldn't be enough to defend himself yet if he needed to, but he had potential that she didn't see often.
"Okay." Samuel replied as he went to go and sit down in one of the chairs that had been brought in. Clarice had added a few things to the training room to allow for a comfortable resting place for when they took breaks or wanted to talk before training.
Clarice had him working on focusing his breathing and tuning other things out in the morning and evening regardless of if they had training or not.
As she had explained to him it was something he couldn't just pickup as they were sparing and working together, he needed to do it in different environments to learn how to do it when dealing with a large array of sounds.
Morning was easier for him to keep up with than evening as by the time night fell he had too much on his mind to be able to easily focus.
"What has got your focus off today?" She asked handing him a water after he had a few minutes to recenter his breathing with his eyes closed for better focus. Though it didn't really help much this time.
"Everything?" He replied. He knew the one major thing that was bothering him but it was true there was a lot of other little things he needed to focus on as well.
"You aren't getting cold feet about the engagement, are you?" Clarice teased as she sat down in the chair across from him. He shook his head at this question.
"Not at all. Although I did get her a surprise I'm hoping she'll like for the engagement party."
"Oh? What kind of a surprise would that be?" She asked generally interested.
"It's a promise ring, something until we get officially married that she can wear." He replied. Clarice's eyes light up when she heard this.
"Aww. Aren't you such a sweet one and you even managed to get it without her finding out too." He felt his cheeks heat up in response to her reaction.
"I'm hoping she'll like, but you can't tell her. The only other person who knows about it is her father and that's only because I needed to ask him for the money to buy it." He explained. Clarice didn't purposely let secrets slip, but she sometimes would offhandedly mention things that she forgot others didn't know.
"I won't say a thing to her about it and I'm sure you'll manage to keep it a secret until your engagement party." She reassured the younger man.
"But that isn't the only thing on your mind, is it? Because that's a lot to be distracted by for the mistakes that you're making." Clarice had worked with enough students and spent most of her life around people to learn when people were hiding something.
Samuel looked down at the water bottle that was in his hands. Of course that wasn't all that was on his mind. It was J, Lena, her family what they had going on that he didn't know about, whatever was going on with his family, and trying to figure out how he fit in around all that
"It's family stuff too. Trying to figure out who should come and how that would work." He replied, taking the cap off the bottle to drink.
"I don't mind that Lena says she doesn't want my uncle and aunt to come. I'm kind of disappointed my grandparents won't be able to make, although it would allow them to help watch my younger siblings since I'm not sure it would be safe for them to come considering how the event will be." He explained to Clarice who listened patiently.
Samuel paused after saying this, taking another drink as he considered what to say next.
"I'm also realizing that I don't do well with people keeping big secrets from me." He told Clarice, looking up at her as he continued speaking.
"I understand in some situations that there are important or personal reasons to keep them, but I don't think it's right to keep secrets when it could impact other people. But, I'm not sure hoe to approach such a situation or what I'd do if I found out it was something serious and it ended up changing the perspective I had of them." Clarice made a hum sound as she listened to what he said.
"Is it something that you won't be able to let go of until you found out?" She asked. Samuel was quiet for a second as he thought about that question.
"I don't think so. Not if it's something big or that might come out later." He replied back.
"Doesn't that give you your answer then? If you can't let it be or forget about it because it weighs on you, then why not just deal with it?" She recommended.
"It's better than festering about it and losing your focus when you should be working on getting ahead. What am I supposed to tell the princess if I end up hurting her adorable fiance because he loses his focus one too many times and I can't keep being soft on him?" He knew that she was joking when she said this, but she also had a point.
Samuel didn't think he would be able to forget about whatever J thought he should know because it involved his mother. The one of two people he had full trust in. He would ask J about it and see if he was telling the truth or not. Then he could talk with his mother afterwards and hear what she had to say about it.
