DREA/LEO

Drea carried her bag over one shoulder, following her dad into the dojo. If she hadn't been waking up at four-thirty most mornings of her childhood she might be tired, even cranky about it. In fact, she hadn't slept well. Nightmares of a sword-wielding panther hybrid, her dad in her face, and black vans with broken taillights kept her rest fitful at best.

But there was neither time or space for her to be less than her best when facing a test with her Uncle Leo. As she'd lay tossing and turning throughout the night something became clear through the haze of nasty. Teaching these girls was important. She wanted this and she was going to succeed at it.

She followed her dad into the main room of the dojo, the biggest training room, where the large classes were held. Uncle Leo was in seiza, Uncle Mikey and Scout facing him, in the same formal posture. Drea placed her bag alongside her cousin's, then took up the formal posture beside her. Her dad next to her.

Uncle Leo signed and spoke at the same time. "Mikey, Raph, Scout, you will work in here. Andrea, come with me." He stood, bowed to them all then headed for the door she'd just entered through, down the hall to one of two of the family's private rooms.

After walking to the center of the room, Leo turned to face Drea. "I already know where you stand in terms of technique, conditioning and strategy, so we'll cut to the chase. I need to know that you can pass that knowledge on safely, responsibly and effectively. Mistakes with what we teach can result in serious harm to both our students and the people they come in contact with. So... teach me." He offered the challenge with a smirk.

One of Andrea's eyebrows popped up as she crossed her arms. "That's a wide-open challenge, Uncle Leo. You can't just say teach. An instructor has to have a plan and prepare their lesson. Even though my students won't get to plan against their would-be attackers, it's my job to make sure they have emergency basics in-hand then build on that foundation into scenarios. If you tell me to teach you, I need a plan as to where to begin. Now if you tell me teach you emergency escape tactics and rudimentary self-defense first, I have somewhere to start. Which is where I would start with these girls. And I'd be sure they understand what it is I'm showing them. I might even tailor the tactics to their physical stature, using more pressure point based techniques for smaller students with less physical strength." Her mouth formed a smirk resembling his own. "So, I ask you, what do you want me to-" she made air quotes, "teach you?"

Leo crossed his arms and screwed his face up in a childish pout, only the mirth in his eyes revealing how much he was enjoying this.

"I signed up for self-defense and now I wanna learn how to punch bad guys. Make me awesome." He demanded almost petulantly, throwing a couple of sad, Hollywood-inspired punches at the air for effect.

Drea stared at him, her face expressionless. "I hardly think these girls are going to-" she waved a hand at her uncle, "do all that. But if I'm going to play along, you'd break your hand and potentially wrist or elbow throwing a punch like that. But before we even get into punches you're going to have to correct your stance. If you're a righty put your right foot back, and if you're a lefty put your left foot back." She tapped various places on her uncle, guiding him into a solid foundation. "Think of your stance as home base, giving you the most stability and a place to regroup before making your next move or blocking your opponent." She reached for his hands. "As for these," she folded his hands into fists, "one arm goes up here extended, the other at your side, when your extended arm comes back the one at your side comes forward. As you extend you rotate your arm." She demonstrated, then guided his arm through the movement. "If you don't rotate you can hurt your elbow."

She tipped her head to the side. "Any questions so far, Hollywood?"

Leo's attitude of entitlement underwent a subtle shift to one of unbridled enthusiasm. "You mean like this?"

Intentionally filtering out a good portion of her excellent advice, he unnecessarily wound up and started launching a punch that would unbalance him. Letting the force drag him out of proper stance, he knew full well that his uncontrolled momentum threatened not only to topple him, but to topple him into Drea.

"Uh, not exactly." Drea reached out, instinctively supporting her uncle, counterbalancing his absurd movements before he knocked them both over. No easy feat with him towering over her. She managed to stabilize them both, adjusted his positioning again and decided to have a talk with her 'student'. "While I appreciate your enthusiasm, you're going to have to slow it down and take care in each movement or someone could end up hurt. This isn't the movies, and if you can't take this seriously then I'm afraid I'm not the right teacher for you."

Leo shifted again, becoming rigid and sullen. "It's not working. Why isn't it working? What am I doing wrong?"

He threw out another set of experimental punches, this time following most of her earlier suggestions while incorporating new errors.

"I'm doing what you said and it's not working." He huffed in frustration.

Andrea couldn't help but laugh. "Okay, Uncle Leo are you serious? How much longer are you going to keep this up?" She tried to stop herself, but to see his normally graceful, flawless execution of technique morphed into this sad impersonation of his most trying students was hilarious.

He kept up his facade, insisting that his punch was more or less broken.

Struggling with the giggles, Drea corrected his positioning once more. "Okay, okay. I'm not sure I even understand how it's not working when you're the one doing it." She almost snorted as she tried to collect herself. "Fine. Allow me to introduce you to muscle memory. Practicing good technique will bring good habits. The skill improves by repetition and practice, it doesn't just 'work'. And we build upon the basic. Good stance, correct punch, we will then add shifting of the hips to put force behind your blow. For now, you just repeat the basic drill. Try to make each movement slow and deliberate, smooth." She demonstrated again, then helped guide him through the movement. "Smooth and correct. Your muscles will come to remember it and it will improve."

Still smiling, she stepped back. "What else have you got for me, student, Leo?"

He frowned and all the confidence of a moment before seemed to deflate into uncertainty. "So, this?"

The next attempt was hesitant, faltering, too slow and clumsy. "No. That's not right. I just can't do it. Maybe I should give up."

Andrea frowned. "Give up? In here, those words don't exist. They're like curse words. We can leave them outside with 'I can't' and 'I'm just not getting it'. Because you can, and with practice you will." She sighed. "It can be hard to keep going when everyone around you is better. When you feel like that, you have to remember why you're here in the first place. Is it because you need to know how to defend yourself? In which case, your attacker isn't going to hold back just because you 'give up' or 'can't' or 'aren't good enough.' Or are you here because you love the art? I know I'm not the best in this dojo, but I'm still here because I love it." She hadn't meant to fall from his scenario, but if one of her students wanted to give up she'd tell them the same thing. Swallowing an unexpected well of emotion, she motioned to him. "So, keep trying."

Holding back a deep swell of pride, his expression turned sly. "How about skipping all this baby stuff and showing me some real techniques? All these basics are boring. I want to skip ahead."

"Yeah and I want to wake up a prodigy, but it doesn't work that way. All those flashy moves you're fantasizing about, they're dangerous. We start with the basics and build on them. If you attempt something you're not ready for then you or someone else could get hurt. This isn't a game. Think of it like starting school. You're in preschool. Only in this school you have some say in how fast you move up. The more you practice, the more you condition so your strong enough to execute a skill, the more time and effort you put in to building a strong foundation, the faster you move along. So, if you want those tricks, you're going to have to work for them." She shrugged. "Or once again, I'm not the teacher for you."

Leo grinned. "Nicely done. You handled each case very well. Although I can't say I'm entirely surprised. I always thought you'd be good at it."

He clapped an encouraging hand on her shoulder. "Your Uncle Don has approved the names you sent, so drop off your curriculum plan and time slot request sometime today and we'll set you up with a space."

He started for the door feeling better about the future of the school than he had in a good long while, but paused and turned back, smiling. "I know it sounds like you're doing this class as a public service, but if you're interested in running more courses, let me know and we'll get you on the payroll."

Andrea's smile was as megawatt as one of her Uncle Mikey's as she bounced on her toes, barely suppressing a squeal. "You're offering me a paying job? Teaching! Seriously?"

Before Leo could answer Drea leapt up, throwing her arms around his neck. Unable to contain herself she near yelled in the side of his head. "Thank you, Uncle Leo! I love you, you're the best!" Then she rushed by him so fast he nearly spun. "Best! Day! Ever!"

She ran down the hall to the big dojo where her dad, Uncle Mikey, and Scout were working, just stopping herself from interrupting. It took her only a few seconds to see the look on Scout's face to know things weren't going as well in here as they had for her. Bowing in she grabbed her duffle, bowed out and turned for the door hoping no one noticed. She could share her news with her dad after school.