first in life. Female lips. How did she find them mine - in the dark? Their owner departs, and I, blinded in the darkness, never considered it. All the darkness took no more than a minute while the girls somehow got dressed, and Polina handed me a couple of towels found to the touch. Olya and Lena threatened to hit the door, and soon the guys who started this joke stopped holding them and released ...

I, already dressed in an empty boy's dressing room, blushing as if scalded, asked classmates not to complain to Inna Alexandrovna, our “cool” one. I tried not to meet the girl's eyes when they surrounded me as they did in the schoolyard. It was hard for me. I would be burned with shame, if the “cool” would give this incident a course, Stas and his friends would discuss at the teachers' council, of course, throwing it in well, but I would have looked like a victim to the whole school. I can't stand pity for myself. The girls understood everything, promising not to say anything. Only then did I find out that one of them did break the promise.

After a week I enter the class, hurrying to the first lesson. Almost all classmates were already in place. Suddenly I notice in my chair a big black bag. What it is? I open it and take out what I would never have expected to find in the classroom. Boxing gloves!

All turned in my direction. From the gloves on the floor card falls and flies under the desk Olka. She picks it up, filled with curiosity, turns and reads aloud aloud:

- “Sasha! Congratulations. I wish to remain kind and become strong. This gift is for you. Waiting with love. Your P. "

Hearing this, someone whistled, someone giggled, whispered, but the whole class had a reaction. I pulled the postcard from Olka out of my hands, and the whole situation probably would have received further discussion, including ridicule, but then the door to the class opened, and Inna Alexandrovna, our class teacher, teacher of language and literature, entered. A young beautiful girl, Inna, not so long ago graduated from the institute, and our class was her first teaching experience. She loved me for reading and for the beautiful, in her opinion, writings. All sat down.

- And before starting the lesson, let's congratulate our traitor - Sasha Suchkov!

No one except Inna and the mysterious "P." knew or wanted to know about my birthday today. At the “cool” command, everyone applauded, even Stas!

- We wish him success in school, be a good friend and a strong man!

She learned about the bullying of classmates over me, I decided then.

“He already wanted to be strong today,” someone with the guys suggested with a chuckle.

“Well, that's fine,” answered Inna Alexandrovna, defiantly flashing her bright brown eyes. - And now we are writing an essay.

She writes the names of three literary topics on the board - to choose from.

- We write everything except the birthday! - continued "cool." - For him - a separate issue.

Pupils stared interestedly at the "classroom." I tensed. Inna displays the text on the remaining quarter board for me.

“How I will be strong” - everyone reads. For some reason, I corner our girls with a corner of my eye. I open the notebook ...

... The next day after class, I go to the city school of boxing, with donated gloves on my shoulder. With a request to take me to the section, I receive from the coach a look that evaluates my small, slim figure, the question of age and the subsequent chuckle. Well, do not surprise me with ridicule. I insist on my request.

- You will be checked up on a bar four times - we will see, - the trainer, a young and strong man, announces his verdict. I flew off the crossbar after the second time. The coach was about to send me, but I continue to object to him. Gloves, donated by an unknown fan, as if inspire me with confidence and push me forward. The idea that "P." bought them in vain, I can not accept.I will not back down.

- Stubborn guy - sounds behind me.

A man in a tracksuit, already at the age, examines me from head to toe. "Senior coach" - flashes in my head.

“Viktor Petrovich, he is not impressive to me,” explains his position as “young.” "Senior" does not seem to hear him, calls me to the hanging punching bag.

- Well, hit her right. Bay that have power.

I imagined Stas' face. I swung and slammed my fist into the pear. She swayed, and her fist burned at her own blow. All the anger for their humiliation, I put in this blow.

“A slamming strike, nothing like that,” the older one said approvingly.

“It’s not enough power, Petrovich,” continues to criticize the “young one”.

“Normal power for its weight,” Petrovich argues, and is already turning to me. - So you want to train?

“I want to,” I answer confidently.

- The set is actually finished. But you pull yourself up four times, accept you right now, ”Petrovich repeats the task.

I look at the horizontal bar again, where minutes ago nothing happened. “This gift is for you. Waiting with love. Your P., ”I recall, and cling to the crossbar with my hands.

- One ... Two ... Three ... Four ... Well done!

I give up and fall down ...

* * * *

I give up and fall down.

- One two three four...

The body from a blow seemed to shattered into two parts. In these seconds, lying in the ring, the first part of it listens to the countdown of the referee, inexorably leading to the announcement of the knockout, the second presses on the first - “get up”! The most difficult thing is to force yourself to fight when it seems that everything is over. I stand on my knees, the veil from my eyes subsides, and they quickly turn on in what is happening, setting the brain to continue the fight. Now, the main thing is not to interfere with one's will - the strong, that is in a man. She will do everything herself. Drives away the pain, mobilizes the body and turns on the feeling of anger. And my will is doing well. At the expense of "nine" I am already focused and ready to fight. I hear Petrovich’s hints behind my back. The rival is German, and still does not understand Russian. Beat the gong, and we continue. The sixth round, and everything is just beginning. We move in the ring, beat and do not regret each other under the roar of the ailing crowd. Here the opponent opens, and it took me a moment to catch this moment. The fist smashes the German into the jaw, knocking out a splash of blood from it, the second one enters the stomach, and after a second the referee considers it already above my opponent. I relaxed, only to hear the score "ten."

- And the contender for the fight for the title of continental champion according to the WBO version becomes Alexander Suchkov! - reaches me. I raise my hand, but I myself am ready to fall from exhaustion and happiness. Petrovich hugs me first. The next fight will be for the champion title, I deserve it. Not bad for twenty-five years, they think everything.

- How did you get in the knockdown? - asked Petrovich, wiping me with a towel. Coach is a coach. Even at the moment of victory, he is interested in my mistakes.

- Thought it out.

- About what? - Petrovich displeased. He has invested eleven years of his coaching life in me and now he is trying to understand what his pupil can distract from while fighting in a candidate duel.

“I remembered who gave me my first gloves,” I replied with a grin, twisted from a broken lip. Congratulations, flashing me photographers. Through the ropes of the ring, girls fanciers burst into the long-awaited autograph of the rising star. Come on, I'm waiting for you, dear!

Suddenly the spotlights and short skirts of the fans disappear. Everything happens in a flash, and I plunge into darkness. As then, in the school women's locker room. Not understanding anything, rubbing my hands with desperate hands.

- Petrovich! - I call the trainer dissolved in a gloom.

- What, Sasha? - I hear a voice nearby.

I say what I do not believe in myself.

- I see nothing.

... I am 25, and I believed that life is infinite, like the universe that created me as its center. I do not have a wife or even a beloved girl, because I am sure that I will have time to start them, choosing the best in the world. Growing fame, a successful transition to professional sports and the prospects of becoming a world champion gave me strength and faith in time. Time ... Read more →