You Will Call Me Drog (22 page)

It was already kind of cool when I got to the dojo. I had just lined my shoes up and stepped barefoot onto the mat when I felt someone rush up behind me.

I spun to the left and caught the wrists of my attacker.
Whooosh! Whooosh!
In seconds we were standing side by side. Laughing. It was Wren.

What a great way to start the long night. She had attacked me as hard as she could. That meant she knew that neither of us would get hurt. She trusted me.

Wren looked down at my left hand, and her eyes got big.

“Parker!” she said. “Where’s your friend?”

She lost her concentration for a second, so I pulled down and threw her to the mat. She rolled easily and came up laughing.

I put my hands on her shoulders. “You’re my friend,” I said.

Expect nothing and be ready for anything
, Sensei says. But I wasn’t ready when Wren leaned forward on her toes and kissed me, a tiny brush on the cheek.

Suddenly my centered circle turned into a wobbly wheel. All I could do then was fall to the mat and roll.

Wren laughed again and gave me a hand up, and I told her all about Peoria.

“That’s great! So you don’t have to go to Bradley now, right?”

“No Bradley.”

She shut her eyes, and when she opened them again, she wiped one eye with the heel of her hand and smiled.

“Guess what? I found out for sure I’m getting the mouse for Christmas,” she said. “A boy mouse. Want to come over after school the day we get out and start working on his house?”

“Can’t, Wren,” I said, “I’m going to spend Christmas with my dad. And my sister.”

“You are? Wow, Parker. That’s really something.”

“Yeah, it is.”

A ripple of little nerves ran under my ribs just thinking about it. Dad would come to get me on Friday and take me to his house for Christmas, and that would be the beginning of—what?
One-point one-point
. We were so different. Could he ever understand me and be happy with me the way I was? I knew he was going to try. But what would I do if he couldn’t? I could only be me.

“How about when you get back?” Wren was saying. “I can keep
el ratón
in a cage until then.”

“Um ... el ratón?”

“That’s ‘mouse’ in Spanish. I looked it up.”

I laughed. “You would! Sure, let’s work on it when I get back. That’ll be fun.”

I looked down at the hand where Drog used to be and stretched my fingers. It gets easier with practice, Sergio had said. Did that mean he’d been through something like this
lots
of times?

Other students started coming into the dojo.

When Big Boy saw that Drog was gone, he grinned and punched my shoulder. Then the three of us knelt on the mat to wait for Sensei. If it was getting colder in the room, I didn’t notice.

I spread both hands out on my knees and relaxed. I could almost hear Drog saying. “You’re on your own, Fall Guy! First flame boys, then ninja girls, and now resident rodents! I’m quite sure I have a previous engagement!”

He was right. I was going to miss him, in a way.

THE END