Eliza Bing Is (Not) a Star by Carmella Van Vleet

Author:Carmella Van Vleet
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Holiday House
Published: 2018-09-24T16:00:00+00:00

It was chilly at the community center on Wednesday night. I was glad I wore a long-sleeved shirt under my dobok. The stage at school was usually hot. I felt like Goldilocks because it was hard to find clothes that were “just right” for both places.

I liked being busy, but doing taekwondo and the play was tough. Homework piled up and I ended up doing it in the car or on the bus. And I had a bunch of episodes of Sweet Caroline Cakes to catch up on. On top of that, I was tired, which made it extra hard to concentrate.

After warm-ups, Master Kim divided us into groups to work on poomsae, or “forms.” Forms were a way to practice kicking and punching with an imaginary opponent. They needed a lot of concentration. When I was a white belt, my form was called kicho il bo. The name meant “basic form No. 1,” which was boring. So I added cha cha cha in my head because then it sounded like a dance.

My new form was called kicho ee bo (cha cha cha) and it meant “basic form No. 2.” Which was a boring name, too. The later forms had more interesting meanings, like “great principle of heaven,” or “great principle of happiness.”

Kicho ee bo wasn’t too hard to learn. That’s because it followed the same I-shaped pattern that my first form had. I didn’t get the whole pattern thing at first. But one day Master Kim pulled out these plastic disks and laid them out on the ground in the shape of capital I. When he did the form, I could see how it traced the lines.

Master Kim called the yellow belts to the center of the room so we could practice. “Shijak!” (That meant “Begin.”)

I went over the steps in my head:

Turn to the left, face block in front stance.

Step, still front stance, face punch…

When we were done, Master Kim said, “Bah ro, return to starting position. Shool, rest.”

Everyone turned around to face the front, bowed, and stood at attention.

“Nice job. I saw several strong front stances.” I wondered if he was talking about mine. “We are going to go through the form again. This time, I want you to show me your best effort. Imagine you are at your test.”

This time, the white, gold, and orange belts and the black-belt helpers sat along the wall to watch. My heart picked up a little, but I focused on my stance. (Just in case he hadn’t been talking about mine earlier.)

I got through the beginning and the middle just fine. But when I got to the second-to-last turn, I saw Master Kim out of the corner of my eye and my brain stopped working. I waited for my arms and legs to remember what to do, but they weren’t much help, either. It took watching everyone else and stumbling around a bit to figure out what to do next.

Applesauce.

When we were done, Master Kim had us return to the starting position and wait at attention.

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