Head to Head (3 page)

“But I won’t have a partner for the throws!” Mark blurted out. The minute he said it he wished he could put the words back
in his mouth. Jenna had looked simply disappointed before, but now she looked guilty
and
disappointed.

Sifu Hale stood up. “I’ll see if I can find someone to take Jenna’s place. Meantime, Mark, can you get an ice pack?”

Mark was wrapping the pack in a towel when the door to the school opened and Jonas walked in.

“Good, you’re here!” he said when he spotted Mark. “Listen, I — ”

“Jonas!” Sifu Hale came out of his office. “Just the boy I wanted to see. How would you like to take henna’s place in the
demonstration?”

The ice pack slipped from Mark’s hands and fell to the floor with a crash.

“But, Sifu, the demo’s in a week,” Jonas said. “Do you really think I can learn everything I have to do by then?”

“You can if you put your mind to it,” Sifu Hale said. He glanced up at the clock. “I’m afraid practice is over for today,
however. There’s an adult class coming in. Mark, do you think you might be able to show Jonas the set at home?”

Mark knelt down to pick up the pack. “Sure,” he mumbled. “Let me get this to Jenna first.” He hurried out of the hallway and
back into the studio.

“Whoa, what happened? You look more bummed

out than I do.” Jenna reached for the ice pack. “Is everything okay?”

“
(Yes!”
Mark suddenly exploded. “Man, you’re, like, the tenth person who’s asked me that today!”

Jenna pulled her hand back with a hurt look. Mark immediately felt bad about his outburst. “Sorry,” he said. “And I’m sorry
about your ankle, too.”

Jenna opened her mouth to say something, but she didn’t get the chance.

“Hey, Mark, I’m ready when you are!” Jonas bounded into the studio and struck a fighting pose.

Jenna’s eyes went from him to Mark and back again. “My substitute?” she asked.

Mark nodded.

Jenna sighed. “That was quick.”

“Quick?” Jonas echoed. “You want to see quick? I’ll show you quick!” His arms punched the air eight times. “Now
that
was quick!”

Jenna rolled her eyes. “I think I hear my mom calling,” she said, sliding off the bench and hobbling
into the hall. “See you, Mark. Bye, Jonas.” Mark waved good-bye, but Jonas was busy watching himself do blocks in the mirror.

“I can’t believe Sifu Hale asked me to be in the demo,” Jonas said. “Is that cool, or what?”

“Yeah, real cool. Listen, we should get going if we’re going to have time to practice before dinner.”

“Sure thing,” Jonas said. “Let’s go outside and tell your mom to pick you up at my house in an hour. My dad can drive us home
and we can practice in my basement, okay?”

Mark’s mother agreed to pick him up at Jonas’s house. Ten minutes later, the boys were in the Malloys’ basement.

Mark stood in front of Jonas. “I guess we should warm up first,” he said.

“Nah. I’m ready already.” Jonas hopped from foot to foot impatiently. “C’mon, just show me the moves!”

Mark sighed. “All right.” He got into the horse riding stance. From there he moved forward slowly,
one foot at a time, blocking first with one arm, then the other. Next he turned to one side and threw two punches.

“Now you try,” he said, returning to his starting point.

“Piece of cake,” Jonas said. He held the stance for a moment, then shot forward like he was speed skating and jerked his arms
up into the blocks. He spun and jabbed out the punches. “How was that?”

Mark wasn’t sure what to say. Jonas had done the moves just fine, but much faster than Mark had shown them. “Um, that was
good, except Sifu Hale wants us to do the stuff slowly.”

Jonas crossed his arms over his chest. “Are you kidding? None of the other students in the demo are moving slow, are they?”
Mark shook his head. “I’ll bet Sifu Hale just doesn’t think we can do our stuff fast. It’s up to us to show him we can! I
guarantee you he’ll be psyched when he sees us. And the audience will totally love it, too! So I say, let’s do it fast and
surprise him.”

Since Jonas wasn’t listening to anything he said,
Mark didn’t bother to explain why they were supposed to go slow. He simply got into starting position.

Jonas did, too. Mark called out the moves one by one. Blocks, punches, kicks, stances — Jonas whipped off each one with precision
and speed. Next to him, Mark felt clumsy and awkward. And all the while, the same questions nagged at him: What if Jonas was
right? What if the real reason Sifu Hale had told Mark to do the moves slowly was because he didn’t think he could do them
at full speed? What if his teacher had asked Jonas to be Jenna’s sub because he knew Jonas would do everything right?

With these thoughts whirling in his brain, Mark lost his concentration. He flubbed the set halfway through and had to start
from the beginning again. It didn’t help that Jonas watched him as he worked painstakingly through each move.

When he finally got it right, Mark was exhausted. He was more than ready to leave Jonas’s house — and Jonas.

“One more time, okay?” Jonas said.

Mark groaned. “Not right now, Jonas. I’m beat,” he said. “Besides, my mom will be here any minute.”

“So let’s use that time to practice some more. C’mon, what do you say?” Jonas stepped toward Mark and elbowed him playfully
in the ribs. “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon.”

“Jonas, cut it out.”

Jonas kicked Mark lightly, then bobbed away. “C’mon, what are you afraid of?” he said. He nudged Mark with his foot again.

Suddenly, Mark grabbed Jonas’s leg with both his hands. Still holding the leg, he spun away from Jonas on one foot. His other
foot swung around and connected with Jonas’s standing leg.

“
row!
” Jonas cried as he fell to the floor in a heap. He stared up at his friend in shock. “What — what was that?”

Mark picked up his backpack and slung it over his shoulder. “That was a preview of the next lesson.” Without another word,
he walked up the stairs and

out the door. When his mother rolled into the driveway a moment later, Mark didn’t even look back to see if Jonas had followed
him.

“How did Jonas do?” his mother asked as they drove home. “Were you able to teach him what he needed to know?”

Mark thought about Jonas lying on the floor. A small, satisfied smile crept across his face. “You know, Mom, I think maybe
I did.”

After breakfast the next morning, Mark decided to head for the skatepark. Even though it had felt good at the time, now he
was feeling a little guilty for how he had surprised Jonas the day before. He figured Jonas would be at the park and he could
explain why he’d done what he did.

But when he arrived, Savannah was the only one there.

“Where is everybody?” he asked.

“Let’s see.” Savannah ticked off each friend on her fingers. “Bizz is finishing her origami project. X is at his brother’s
baseball game. Charlie had to help his
dad around the house. 1 thought Jonas would be here, but 1 haven’t seen him yet.”

Mark didn’t say anything, but he had a pretty good idea why Jonas hadn’t shown up.

“So it’s just you and me,” Savannah said, “which means I can take it nice and easy instead of doing all those tricks Bizz
is always trying to get me to do.”

Mark adjusted his helmet. “Don’t you like learning those things?”

Savannah shrugged. “Oh, sure, sometimes I do. But other times, it makes me feel bad — and I’m not just talking about the bruises
I get from falling.” She fiddled with her elbow pads before going on. “If you want to know the truth, sometimes I’m jealous
of Bizz. She’s so good at sports and stuff. You know what I mean?”

Mark knew exactly what she meant. How could he not? He’d been feeling the same thing about Jonas for weeks now.

Savannah stood up and stepped onto her board. “Well, what do you say? Ready to roll?”

Mark kicked off. “Nice and easy!”

He was still thinking about what Savannah had said about being jealous when he entered the kwoon that afternoon for another
practice session. Jonas was already there. As Mark watched him fool around with some of the other students, someone laid a
hand on his shoulder.

“How did Jonas do yesterday?” Sifu Hale asked.

“He did great,” Mark admitted.

“Good,” Sifu Hale said, nodding. “He certainly seems to have learned the moves quickly. Now if he can just learn the other
part of kung fu, he’ll be well on his way.”

Mark turned to look at his teacher. “What do you mean, ’other part’?”

Sifu Hale didn’t answer. Instead, he motioned Mark into his office. When they were both sitting down, he leaned across the
desk. “Your friend Jonas is very coordinated, and he’s a fast learner. But so far kung fu, for him, is all about kicking and
punching. He hasn’t begun to learn the other stuff, focus and

discipline. He’s barely able to control himself long enough to sit still during the five-minute meditation each class. Until
he does, he won’t go far in martial arts.”

Mark flashed back to the person whose squirming had bothered him. Now he realized that it could have been Jonas.

Sifu Hale smiled at him. “Do you know why I chose you for the demonstration?”

Mark shook his head.

“It’s not because your moves are perfect. They’re not. But with practice, they’ll get better.” The teacher steepled his fingers.
“When you do kung fu, Mark, your focus shows in your face. I can tell just by looking at you that you are concentrating fully.
It takes a lot to distract you. I think the audience will be able to see that. That’s why I chose you — to show people how
important focus is to kung fu. And perhaps,” he added, standing up and coming around the desk, “there are others who could
learn by watching you, too.”

Mark left the office feeling better than he had in days. Only one thing was still bothering him, and he knew just how to get
rid of it.

He marched into the studio and up to Jonas. “I need to talk to you.” He pulled Jonas to a bench. “I’m sorry about tripping
you yesterday,” he said. “You weren’t ready for it. It was unfair.”

Jonas gave a sheepish grin. “Well, I may not have been ready for it, but you know what? I deserved it! I was acting like a
jerk at my house. At the skatepark, too, actually. That’s why I showed up here yesterday — to apologize for making you spar
me.”

Mark grinned back. “While we’re busy apologizing,
I better say I’m sorry for giving you the cold shoulder at the skatepark. I — I guess I’ve been a little jealous of how quickly
you’ve picked up kung fu. You do the moves way better than I do. I wish there was a way I could do them as well.”

They sat in silence for a moment. Then Mark stood up. “So, you wanna get practicing?”

Jonas caught his sleeve. “Wait. There’s something else.”

Mark sat back down. “What?”

“You say you’re jealous of my moves, right? Well, I’m a little jealous of you, too. I wish I had as much self-control as you
do. But man, it’s the hardest thing in the world for me to sit still after class.” He looked at Mark. “Do you think maybe
we could help each other out somehow?”