Yes

I had a couple of days before the taster session to chill with Megan and Zach. Surprisingly, Megan didn’t make as many jokes about fencing as I thought she would. She is always nicer when the others aren’t around.

Living with Zach hasn’t been easy. There’s nothing wrong with him which is the hardest part. I could barely stop thinking about him. The worst part is I’m too scared to masturbate with him in the house. What if he hears me moaning? Or worse, saying his name? Me being in the house doesn’t seem to stop them going at it like rabbits though. I would tell them to get a room but well, their room is right next to mine. Thursday couldn’t come soon enough!

Eventually it did swing by. I had a cheap sports shirt, sports bra and some tracksuit bottoms from when I thought I could go to the gym, but I still felt like a huge novice.

What if there aren’t many new people? What if they are all freshers? I don’t really want to date a guy one year younger than me. What if they all know how to fence already?

I took a deep breathe. I can do this.

I arrived at the sports hall a couple of minutes early. There were already about 20 people there. About half of those had bags of swords and helmets, but the rest all looked like me. T-shirts and trackies. I gave a sigh of relief. There were even a few there which looked cute.

The session eventually started after another dozen people came in. I tried to concentrate on what they were teaching, it was the basics like footwork and how to lunge and I really didn’t want to make a fool of myself. Someone did catch my eye though, He was a little taller than me, and had brown with green eyes. He was with all the freshers, but he seemed to be a little better at this than the rest of us.

After about 30 minutes, they gave us the safety talk and then let us get kitted up in the club kit. Finding anything that looked like it fitted was difficult, but I eventually found enough to make do. They then let us spar with each other.

You couldn’t tell who anyone was with their masks on. You could hardly tell if you were fighting a girl or a guy. After a few bouts, we took a water break. I slowly staggered to where I had left my bag. There was a guy sitting on the bench sipping on his water. I recognised him from earlier, this was the guy who I was looking at.

As I walked over, he gave me a friendly nod which I returned. I grabbed my water bottle and drank about half of it. Who knew fencing was so hard? And that’s when I heard a voice behind me.

“So, is this your first time fencing?” the guy asked.

“Yes! You? You looked really good out there!” I responded.

“Aw, thanks. This is my first time though. I wish I had joined last year but better late than never.”

“So you’re a second year?” I queried.

“Yeah, computer science. Yourself?”

“Second year physics” I said with a smile.

“I’m John, you?”

“Ella”

“Nice to meet you Ella”

At that point, the coach called us over to start sparring again.

“Do you want to fence?” asked John.

“Sure” I responded.

We fenced for another 10 minutes or so. He beat me but I was able to get a few hits on him. When the coach finally called halt, John took his helmet off, came over and shook my hand.

“That was some really good fencing there, well done!” he said.

“Thanks!” I replied.

“A few of us are going to grab a drink after this if you want to come along?” he asked as we started to de-kit.

Oh my god. He really wants to spend time with me? But I'm all sweaty and horrible, and I really don't know this guy.