Chapter 2: Practice
In a martial arts arena, me and Tommy Oliver were sparing with the coach yelling at us, telling us what we were doing was wrong.
"Come on, Jamey. Focus, Jamey, focus!" The coach instructed. I went to kick Tommy, but he blocked it and went to attack me. "Tommy, Tommy! Follow through! Your follow through!" The coach yelled.
Tommy backed off of me and we went at it again. "Jamey, get back in there. Let's go! All right! Watch your form! Get in there, get in there! Watch your hands. Come on, move!" The coach said as he watched. "Jett, get in there!" The coach yelled again. Jett Mock did a flying kick and got between Tommy and me. "All right! Get in there!" I then tried to kick Jett, but I missed. We all took a break, Tommy and Jett getting a drink and I looked at the coach.
"Jamey, Jamey! Spinning heel. Kick my hand." The coach instructed. I did as I was told and missed the coach's hand, falling on my back on the mat. "No. Now, look, you're trying too hard."
Bea Frost and Melissa Blood were on a bus, heading to the arena where me, Tommy, and Jett were practicing for the martial arts competition coming up, if we won, the money would go to the Little Angel's Haven shelter. Bea was singing "Row, row, row your boat" with every kid singing along, except one, Justin Stewart. Bea saw this and stopped in front of him.
"Come on, Justin. I know you know the words." She encouraged. "Come on." Justin replied by smiling. "There's that smile." Then she continued singing with Justin joining in continuing to sing.
Back at the arena, Jett looked at me and said "Hey, Jamey, maybe we are trying too hard."
I rotated my shoulders and looked at my coach. "Maybe we're not trying hard enough." I said. I then did another spinning heel kick and hit my coach's hand, but flew over the ropes and landed on the ground, hitting my back. Luckily, I used my tail to soften my landing.
Jett, Tommy, and our coach rushed down beside him.
"Whoa, Jamey, are you okay?" Jett asked me.
"Yeah. I'm fine. Nothing broken." I said as I got back up.
"I don't know how you do it." The coach told me. "The last guy that did this ended up in the hospital."
"Yeah. I heard about Rocky." I said to him.
"But, you…" The coach said. "You always seem to get back on your feet."
The kids from the shelter arrived just as I was talking to the coach and Justin saw me.
"It's my motto to never stop 'til it's over. I never give up." I said, which was true. "I always get back up. Especially for my friends."
"That's good to hear." The coach said. "Come on, let's get back to it."
We all then got back to work on practicing for the tournament. I didn't know it, but Justin looked at me with curiosity on how I managed to land on the ground without breaking my back.