Happy Kid! by Gail Gauthier

Author:Gail Gauthier
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2006-11-10T22:00:00+00:00

“How was it?” Dad asked me when he picked us up in the parking lot after class. His voice had this sense of dread in it, as if he hated to hear what I had to say but felt he had a fatherly responsibility to show an interest.

“It was terrible, of course,” I said in a low voice from the front seat while Luke and Ted sat in back and discussed how soon they could try breaking boards with their feet. In order to avoid going back into the locker room, I hadn’t bothered changing out of my dobok. It was so wet with sweat that when I got outdoors, the cooler air made the cloth cold. I couldn’t bring myself to lean back against it in the car, so I sat hunched forward against my seat belt.

“It’s like being in the army or something. The teacher tells us where to stand and how to stand. If we don’t have one of the positions just right, one of the black belts comes over and tells us ‘bend your legs more’ or ‘keep your back foot over to the right more.’ And then we just stand in lines and kick at nothing. And we have to bow to anyone with a black belt. And we have to call them all ‘sir’ or ‘ma’am.’ ”

“Oh. Well, that doesn’t sound too bad,” Dad said.

“And on top of everything else, there were an odd number of white belts there, so sometimes I had to stand in front of a mirror and fight with myself.”

“It won’t always be that way,” Luke said from the backseat. “There’s some woman white belt who comes sometimes. You’ll be able to train with her.”

“Her daughter used to babysit for my brothers and me,” Ted added.

“She’s old enough to have a daughter who used to babysit for you?” I yelped.

“It doesn’t really matter who you train with,” Ted explained. “We’re not supposed to talk, anyway. It’s not like you’re there to make friends or anything. You get to change partners off and on during the lessons. And Mr. Goldman really doesn’t like it if people complain about who they have to train with. We’re all supposed to be equal in the dojang.”

“That’s why the black belts have to help teach us and help clean the dojang after class,” Luke said. “They aren’t supposed to think they’re better than anyone else.”

“We can’t talk? I noticed it was quiet, but I didn’t think it was because we couldn’t talk!” I could not talk to Chelsea at school. I didn’t need to go to a special class to not talk to her.

“Can we get our money back?” I asked my father.

“Your mother signed a three-month contract.”

“Three months! It will be Christmas before I can quit.”

“There’s going to be another testing period in December. Maybe you’ll be invited to test for your yellow belt then,” Luke suggested.

“Is that supposed to be something to look forward to? Being invited to take a test?” I demanded.

Dad reached over and patted my knee as if I were some kind of wild dog he was trying to calm down.

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