I woke up the morning of the competition feeling great. We had arrived in China late last night and I had finally managed to sleep off the last of my jet lag, so I felt like I was ready to take on the world! Well not really but you know what I mean.
Grace, being the freaky person she is, had already been up for an hour. She was currently in the process of curling her hair when I finally rolled out of bed.
"What the heck are you doing that for?" I complained as I eyed her suspiciously.
"Well duhh! There are a lot of martial artists here and some have them have GOT to be cute," she said, not taking her eyes off the mirror.
I rolled my eyes and shuffled to the shower. I sucked in a breath as the first cold drops hit me, but it warmed up quickly enough. I hurriedly finished my shower and brushed my wet hair back with my fingers. I changed into my yellow and black karate gi and decided that I looked presentable.
I stepped out of the bathroom and turned around to face Grace, who was currently in the process of picking out her outfit.
She chose a white dress and a pink dress and turned around for me to see.
"Which one do you think-," she started to say before she got a good look at me.
"OH NO NO NO NO NO NO!" she yelled disapproving as I raised an eyebrow at her.
"There's absolutely no way that I'm letting my best friend look like that in front of all those cute guys!" she said already plugging her blow dryer and curling iron back in.
My eyes widened and I took a step back, I had seen Grace in a fashion craze before, and trust me, you don't want to be within 10 miles of one.
"Come on Grace! I look fine! I'm going to be fighting the whole time anyway," I said just about to head downstairs to grab a quick breakfast.
In a flash, she was ahead of me, locking the door. I breathed a sigh of exasperation as she dragged me toward her torture instruments.
Many burns and screams later, she turned me around to face the mirror. I gasped in shock and moved closer to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.
Grace had completely transformed me. I was looking at a girl with light, luminous, natural-looking makeup; ten times better than I could've done it. She had shiny blonde hair that cascaded down her shoulders in soft curls. All in all, that girl looked pretty dang good.
My best friend smirked in satisfaction as she started putting away her fashion instruments.
"Oh my gosh, Grace! How the heck did you manage to do that?"
"'Two things, honey. I have mad skills, and you're already gorgeous!" Grace said while changing into the pink dress.
I blushed slightly and said, "Come on, Grace. We both know it was like 99% your skills and maybe like .5% my looks."
Before she could reply I grabbed my duffel and said, "Well we better get down there! I'm not fighting on an empty stomach!"
Turns out, that just as I grabbed a muffin, Sensei called us to start loading into the bus that would take us to the Great Wall. Groaning, I crammed the rest of my muffin in my mouth as I shoved my bag into an empty seat and slumped down next to it.
Grace squeezed in next to me as the door closed and the bus jerked forward. The ride only took 10 minutes; I had absolutely no idea that we were so close to the Wall.
I've always wanted to see the Great Wall of China so I was practically bouncing in my seat with excitement.
"Is that nervous bouncing, or happy bouncing?" Grace asked, looking over at me.
I had to think about that one. "Yes," I stated simply, before resuming my bouncing.
All the other martial artists were in the same hotel as us, so there was another bus behind us, carrying the rest of them. Grace was busy scrutinizing the rest of the people in the bus, and I realized I was doing the same thing, but for totally different reasons.
I was scoping out the competition, seeing who looked like they knew what they were doing. There were a couple of people like us, just sitting casually and talking. But there were also a couple of people with ramrod straight postures with their eyes boring a hole in the seat in front of them. I could tell that those were the real masters here. I swallowed nervously as I noticed their concentration.
On the other hand, Grace, being the little airhead that she is, was checking out the other guys. She kept looking around, but her gaze kept landing on a Latino that was laughing with one of his friends.
"He's cute," I whispered.
She smiled but she didn't say anything. The brunet chose that moment to look over at us. Grace immediately blushed, but managed a smile that could be classified as nothing less than dazzling.
He grinned back and winked at her, before turning back to his friend.
"I knew my extra hour would pay off," she crowed triumphantly, tossing her hair.
I just looked at her.
"Oh don't worry! Some guy will be banging down your door, as soon as he gets a good look at you!" she said good-naturedly.
"Well I prefer my door closed. And locked. With one of those huge padlock thingies. And maybe a guard dog," I muttered, looking out my window.
She rolled her eyes and turned back to the guy.
Ten minutes later, we were standing on the Great Wall of China. All the pictures, videos, and satellite pictures in the world never could've prepared me for this moment.
I felt like I could see America from here. As far as I could see, there were green rolling hills, bursting with life. I could make out the town that we had parked our bus in. The air smelled fresh and clean, something you just don't get anymore.
I shook my head, if I started thinking about the environment and what people were doing to it, my head would explode.
All too soon, Sensei herded us into the structure that the matches would be held in.
There was a sparring mat set out in the middle with chairs and bleachers ringing it. There was also a judge's table, where three ancient people stood perfectly still. I could totally see Sensei up there, being all judge-y and professional.
A young Asian guy in a white karate gi showed us where to stow our bags for the day. And get this; we had our OWN locker room! Well we had to share with some other dojos, but still!
I locked my duffel in my designated locker and followed the stream of people to what I hoped was the warm-up room.
The room was huge, but with nothing in it, except for mats covering every inch of the floor. I headed to an open space with Grace. Kai had somehow appeared near us so I grudgedly gave up some mat room for him.
He winked at me and started some complicated routine, no doubt to show off. Some girls from another dojo pointed to him and giggled. He finished with a flourish and bowed in their direction.
I coughed, "Loser."
He turned and glared, but I was already stretching. He looked at Grace, and she just shrugged, trying not to laugh.
This was going to be an interesting day.
During my workout, I noticed two things. The first being that no one should EVER try doing the splits without stretching first. It's just bad, trust me. Second, I realized I was the only girl here.
Not literally, because they were plenty of girls from other dojos, but I was the only one actually fighting. The other girls were there supporting a guy from their dojo. This just made me more determined, but I also knew that it would make me a target. I mean come on; I've seen enough TV to know how sexist people get.
I finally finished loosening my muscles and turned to Grace… to find her nowhere in sight.
I frowned and did a 360, trying to find her perky face in the sea of people. I finally caught sight of her, talking up that guy from the bus. Typical.
I decided to go over to them and grab Grace. And if I embarrassed her in the process, well that's bonus.
"Hey Grace! Isn't this the 'hottie' from the bus?" I teased mercilessly as I skipped up next to her.
She immediately turned a furious red and shot a look at me. If looks could kill, I would be choosing my coffin right now.
But the Latino didn't look uncomfortable, he just gave her an easy, reassuring smile. He turned to regard me and recognition flashed through his eyes.
"Hey! You're that girl who's competing right?" he said, giving me a once-over, not in a perverted way, just sizing me up as competition.
"That's me," I said cautiously, waiting for a sexist comment that was sure to come.
"Oh, cool. I'm Jerry."
He stuck his hand out, and I stared at it dumbfounded. Grace elbowed me in the ribs to knock me out of my stupor.
"Oh right! Sorry," I said quickly as I grasped his hand. "I'm Kim."
"Nice name, Kim."
I smiled, I kinda liked this guy. I winked at Grace and said, "Thanks, yours isn't too bad either."
"So, Jerry, are you competing?" I asked curiously.
"Nah, the swagmaster is too cool for this," he said, "But, my friend, on the other hand, is competing. We're all here for moral support, or something like that."
Just then, then same dude who showed us in called out the names of the first match.
"Okay guys! First up, Dylan Gillespie and Kimberly Crawford! Please make your way to the sparring room to commence your first match," the guy read from a piece of paper.
Grace gave my arm a quick squeeze and pushed me toward the door. Just ahead of me, a tall guy with blonde hair broke free of the crowd. He turned and regarded me, before grinning and heading back.
"And you must be the famous Kimberly Crawford," he smiled, as he fell in step beside me.
"And you're the guy I get to beat up?" I said good-naturedly.
"You can try."
We had reached the door by then, and headed into the hallway.
I was about to ask where the guy had went, when I heard someone call my name. I looked around for the source but no one around me seemed to be looking at me. I shrugged and blamed it on my three cans of Coca Cola.
"Over here!"
We turned and headed in the direction of the guy with the clipboard. He waited for us to catch up, before turning and leading us back to the sparring room.
"Hey guys! My name is Austin, and you'll probably be seeing a lot more of me, since I'm volunteering in this division this year," the guy said conversationally as he led us to the sparring room.
"Great, I'm Kim, and that's Dylan," I introduced both of us. He gave us a smile and pointed to a hallway.
"Just go down this hallway and the second door on your right."
"Alrighty then," Dylan said, sauntering down the hall.
"I'm sorry to break it to you, but you can't pull off the cool look," I said, raising an eyebrow.
"You're just jealous."
I raised my eyebrow and got onto the sparring mat. The smooth, cool surface of the mat felt familiar under my bare feet.
I closed my eyes and tried to calm my jumpy nerves. I knew that I was good, but Dylan seemed pretty dang good too. Just because he was nice to me off the mat, it didn't mean that he'd cut me a break on the mat.
I felt a comforting hand on my shoulder. I turned around, and came face-to-face with my brother.
I raised an eyebrow, "You actually got up to come to my match?"
"Oh come on! Give me some credit, I do care sometimes you know."
I managed a laugh, but it came out small and squeaky.
He put both of his hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eye. "Look, I've seen you beat people up left and right, and these people don't look any different. You'll be just fine."
"Thanks, Luke," I muttered, feeling a little better. Luke didn't usually give out compliments unless he's trying to impress a girl. Or he actually means them.
He ruffled my hair and went back to sit next to my parents, who waved at me. I waved back and smiled, touched that my whole family was there to watch me. I breathed in and out, and readied myself.
Dylan was going down.
Don't kill me! Jack and Kim are going to see each other again soon, I promise! This chapter already got really long, and I had to cut it off somewhere..
To all the readers who caught the book reference, bravo! Not many people have heard of this book, but its called Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater! (btw the quote was in the last chapter) Give it a chance, I totally love it! I've read it like three times in a row(;
Oh and to the reviewer who asked about the quote, it was "You were swallowing her with your eyes! Leave some for the rest of us to see."
Reviews are like cookies! So gimme some cookies!
-Courtney(: