This is an excerpt from my new two books series The Rise and Fall of Skye Wright. This excerpt is from the first book.

You can buy this series here!

     Skye had spent extra time at home out of sheer guilt.
     All of the cats had come at her with ear-piercing meows of hunger and protest because of her latest absence. She relented to letting them out on the landing, even though that meant quickly herding them back in as evening approached.
     Skye kept her workout clothes near her hand weights and one kettlebell that she had borrowed from Lee. She put on a blue wicking workout shirt. She double checked herself in the mirror after putting on running shorts.
     Leaving the house in her training shoes, the one pair of shoes she owned that were not black, she picked up Lee from her house. Lee directed her to a parking lot underneath a freeway overpass in North Oakland.
     Getting out of the car, Skye saw an open warehouse door that was surrounded by workout equipment. A group of women of various ages were milling about in running shorts and compression pants.
     “I feel like a lighted billboard in this shirt,” said Skye as she brushed her hair out of her eyes.
     “It’s not that bright. You’re just used to wearing black.”
     Skye looked around at the other milling gym members, just as a gold and white dog came running up to them.
     “It’s almost all women,” said Skye as Lee knelt down to pet the tail-wagging pitbull.
     “I can never get any of my male friends to check this thing out,” said Lee. “I’ve only talked a couple of women into coming along.”
     “Holy shit!”
     “What?” asked Lee as she stood up.
     “Is that our trainer?” asked Skye as she pointed at a muscular woman with long tied back blonde hair.
     “Yeah.”
     “Jesus. She looks like she could waste me with one hand!”
     “Of all the workout geeks I know, she’s probably in the best shape of them all.”
     Skye had to endure the tail wagging inspection of the pit bull for a few moments before she went into the gym with Lee, sticking close by her as a few of the milling people said hello to her.
     Skye distracted herself by eyeing all of the exercise equipment: a long stack of small to large to very large hand weights that were stacked along a wall, followed by another lineup of kettlebells ranging from tiny to back-breaking big.
     There was a large punching bag hanging from the ceiling near the door, and Skye felt the compulsion to hit it, but she did not know if she would be committing a faux pas by doing so, so she resisted the urge.
     The muscular trainer walked up to them. She pointed at Skye. “You’re Lee’s friend, right?”
     Skye nodded. “Yep.”
     The trainer pointed at Lee. “She should be able to show you all the exercises.” The trainer turned to Lee. “Can you do that?” she asked with a big smile.
     “Unless you have some sort of weird surprise for us yeah,” answered Lee
     “Weird surprise!” smiled the trainer. “Should I have a weird surprise?”
     Everyone started taking positions. Skye self-consciously followed Lee and stood by her. They were at the far end of the gym.
     “Okay everyone,” announced the trainer, “who’s never been here before?”
     Skye felt relieved when a few other people raised their hands.
     The trainer went right into the warmup routine. They started with air squats, and Skye bent her legs down as far as they could go, keeping her eye on Lee and mimicking her moves. Skye felt some sort of tendon tightening up right above her left knee as she bobbed up and down with the other bootcampers.
     Next was a series of arm movements, and Skye found herself waving her arms around, first across her chest and then holding them far apart and making circles.
     They proceeded to do back bends, front kicks, and more arm waving. Skye felt awkward doing the next exercise which were lunges. She almost tipped over as she lunged forward, keeping her eyes on Lee to make sure she at least appeared to be doing the movement correctly.
     After the warmup the trainer told everyone what they were going to be doing next and asked various members of the bootcamp to demonstrate the movements. Skye was already breathing heavy as she wiped sweat from her brow. She watched various gym people doing complex looking sit ups, lunges with hand weights, and a series of difficult looking jumping and diving moves for something called a burpee. Another gym member also demonstrated throwing a large and heavy ball against the wall.
     Skye tried to remember all of the moves but stuck close to Lee. The first move was weighted lunges. Skye put her foot forward while gripping the hand weights and almost toppled over again. She stood back and observed Lee who was moving back and forth much more quickly and elegantly than her.
     Skye tried a few more times, putting her foot forward, bending her back leg while lifting the hand weights. She felt a twinge in her left thigh.
     They ran through squats with weights, and Skye felt her blood running hot as she bounced up and down and pressed up her hand weights. Then everyone got on the ground on their backs and started waving their knees and elbows around as Skye wondered how ridiculous she looked trying to do bicycle crunches.
     Back to lunges, the trainer sided up next to Skye and showed her how to do them properly, how to bend her forward knee and get the back knee as close to the ground as possible. Skye carefully observed the trainer’s instructions and was glad for a chance to slow down as sweat from her brow started burning her eyes.
     They went through the next two movements and then started the burpee round. Skye followed everyone else’s lead, jumping up, then crouching down, then shooting her legs out straight back, and then feeling her shoulders burn with the push up.
     At the end of the burpee round Skye was trying not to breathe too heavily as she sweated profusely.
     “All right, is everyone feeling good?” shouted the trainer with a big smile on her face. “Grab a sip of water and relax for about sixty seconds and we’ll do round two.”
     “Fuck,” muttered Skye under her breath.
     During the second round of the same exercises, Skye felt herself starting to wane. She teetered on her feet during lunges, her thighs were burning during the squats, and her blood was pumping in her ears when she lifted the weights.
     Sweat on her brow was running into her eyes, and she was worried she would drop a weight because of her sweaty hands. Wiping her hands on her shirt, she reminded herself to bring a towel next time.
     The last round of burpees was difficult. Her arms and thighs were burning, all while her energy was running on a low ebb. When the trainer turned her back she neglected to do another required burpee, holding herself flat on the ground until the trainer turned around again so she could get a quick break.
     Staggering over to her makeshift gym bag, she gulped down water while wiping sweat out of her eyes. Her shirt was soaked and her legs wavered. She glanced at the clock and realized they were not quite halfway through with the hour.
     Skye looked around the room. The other bootcampers were chatting and wandering around. One short and thin middle-aged woman even went up to the punching bag and started punching it.
     Skye thought she must have stood out. No one else seemed to be sweating as much as she was, as she observed the scene with dazed eyes.

     “You have to carry me back to the car,” gasped Skye as she leaned on Lee.
     “I haven’t carried anyone back to the car since I stopped drinking.”
     The trainer walked up to them with a big smile on her face. “So Skye, how was your first bootcamp?”
     “I’m a little spent,” gasped Skye.
     “She’ll get used to it,” smiled Lee as she patted her on the shoulder.
     “You’ll be back, right?” smiled the trainer.
     Skye pointed at Lee. “She’ll make me come back.”
     The trainer turned to Lee. “Oh, are you the boss?
     “No,” stated Lee.
     “Yes, she is!” said Skye.
     Lee rolled her eyes. “I am not bossy!”
     “I didn’t say you were bossy. I said you were the boss.”
     Lee shook her head and looked at the trainer. “I can’t take her anywhere.”
     Skye went to gather her things. Just as she picked up her phone it buzzed with a text from Clark.
     “Want to come over for another movie?”
     Skye quickly texted back. “Why don’t you come over to my place. We can watch it there.”

Buy the Rise and Fall series here:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B3WBDZP2

Buy Stella Maris on Amazon, Skye’s story right before The Rise and Fall of Skye Wright. Free for Kindle Unlimited users!

Stella Maris is the sequel to my previous novel. Even though it can be read by itself, check out what Skye was up to before her adventures in Stella Maris!

https://www.amazon.com/What-Hell-Ever-Happened-Rozhenko-ebook/dp/B08WC4DK6G/