CHAPTER 10 - "The next day"
Cindy woke up with the sound of the clock beeping. She saw it marked 7.30 AM. At her side, totally wrapped in the sleep bag was Jimmy. She smiled when she saw him.
"Jimmy? Wake up, it's time to practice" she said, shaking Jimmy kindly and talking to him in the most sweetest voice possible.
"No, mom, I don't wanna go to school. The other kids make fun of me. Specially, Cindy and-" Jimmy mumbled in his dreams.
Cindy rolled her eyes and she sighed heavily, and her face turned to disgust.
"Wake up, Neutron!" she screamed to his ear, as she shook him violently. "C'mon! You got to practice! Remember?".
"HUH...? Oh, yeah! Sorry!" Jimmy said. "Geez! You gotta find another way to wake me up!". Cindy rolled her eyes again. "Well, what do we do now?" he asked.
"You have to increase your strengh punching the ball. Now let me show you how" Cindy explained.
She got up from her bed and walked to the punching ball. She punched the ball several times.
"Remember to count, ok?" she suggested. "1...(punch)...2...(punch)...3...(punch)...4...(punch)... see, it's easy? And look at my position. It's very important. Your legs have to be positioned in an angle of 90 degrees. Your hands, one protecting your chest, and the other protecting your face".
'Wow! She's good!' Jimmy thought.
"Ufff...! Ok, now you try!" Cindy said.
"Ok" he said.
"I'll bring the breakfast. So, try to do your best for now" she said, as she opened the door of her room.
"I got it".
Cindy closed the door and she went downstairs. Meanwhile, Jimmy tried to punch the ball. He wasn't as fast as Cindy, but he decided to continue trying.
"1...(punch)...uff...2...(punch)...3...(punch)...4...(punch)...5...(punch)... Ok, so this is how this thing works, huh?" Jimmy said.
Cindy returned with the breakfast. She entered her room and she had a look at Jimmy.
"Good! You're doing good! Keep working! Concentrate! Never give up!" she suggested tomake Jimmy have more confidence.
"That's good stuff! Ufff...13...(punch)...14...(punch)...15...(punch)...16...(punch) WHOA!".
Suddenly, the punching ball returned the punch and hit Jimmy, sending him a few inches away and to the floor. Cindy rushed to help him.
"Are you ok?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'm sorry... It's just me" he replied.
Meanwhile, at the Candy Bar, 10 AM, Sheen, Carl and Libby were sitting together, drinking and eating donuts. Carl, specially, eating donuts.
"Hey, where's Jimmy?" Carl asked.
"Yeah, and where's Cindy?" Sheen asked.
"Cindy said she's training Jimmy to become a Karate fighter... and he's going to learn Tai Chi... or something like that" Libby replied to both.
"Wow! Jimmy a Karate fighter? I got to see that!" Sheen yelled.
"Yeah, me too! Wait! Karate isn't something like chineese food?" Carl asked, confused.
"No, you fool... it's... it's... tell him, sparkling shine!" Sheen said.
"I told you not to call me like that, Sheen!" Libby warned. "Karate is a martial art, like TaeKwonDo or Kung Fu. Tai Chi is meditation. A lot of it. And with that you can increase your strengh, balance and stamina. Includes prevention of heart attacks".
Sheen and Carl looked at Libby speechless, with their mouths opened and their eyes in shock.
"Wow! How do you know all that stuff?" Sheen asked.
"I read it from a pamphlet a while ago" she said, as she blushed.
"Oh... but wait! Balance? How can Jimmy will keep balance with the size of his head?" Sheen asked.
"I'm sure Cindy will take care of that" Libby replied.
"Yeah, I hope the TaiKwonKarateFu will work on Jim" Carl said.
"No, no, it's TaeKarateKwonfused... errr... need some help here!" Sheen said.
"Tai Chi Chuan!" Libby corrected.
"You see? You don't know either!" Sheen yelled.
Libby glared at Sheen.
"What? It's the truth!"
Libby sighed heavily. "Nevermind... I say we leave the two love birds alone until Monday. I'm sure Cindy know what she's doing".
"Yeah" Sheen and Carl said in unison.
Meanwhile, after some punches to the ball, Jimmy was more confident and Cindy was watching every move he did.
"Ok, leave the punching ball. Now, let's do some stretching. Look at me" Cindy said.
She went to one of the walls in her room andraised a leg in front of it. Then, she put pressure with the weight of her body to go over her leg.
"See? This is stretching. But if you don't feel pain is because you're doing it wrong. Remember: no pain, no gain. Now you try" she explained.
Jimmy tried to do the same. But something went wrong. Extremely wrong. TRIP! .
"Huh..." he said, blushing furiously. "I think I need another pants...".
Cindy burst out on an uncontrolable laughing. "Hahahaha! Oh, you look sooo funny! Let me take you a picture, please!" she begged, still laughing.
"Yeah, yeah, very funny..." Jimmy said, but Cindy already took the picture with her camera.
"Libby must see this!" she squealed.
"Hey!" he said as he sighed. "You show her that later... So, this is the way I got to do this?". Jimmy imitated Cindy pressuring the weight of his body go over to his leg. "OW! That hurts... OW!".
"Good, that means you're doing it correctly! Stay like that for a couple of minutes. Later you will have to do the same with your other leg. Your legs will get used to it. And then you will do more stretching and be able to keep balance with no problems at all" she explained.
"OW!".