Ayana's POV
We pulled up to this big old brick warehouse looking building. Skai parked in the large garage.
"We're here." she said.
"Are you sure we're at the right place?" I asked as I got out.
She laughed. "I'm sure, this is it." she said handing me my bag.
"If you say so."
I followed her through the dim parking garage to entrance door. We walked inside. The walls were a muted green color and infront of us were a fleet of stairs. We went up them and turned a corner. The walls in this hallway were brick, rustic Brooklyn brick. The hallway was long and there were various rooms lining it. A boxing room, 2 dance studios, a workout room, female and male bathrooms, and finally we got to a door that said "Senshi No Hi Karate Dojo".
"Senshi No Hi?" I read.
"It means Warrior Fire in Japanese." she said.
"Oh okay."
We walked inside. (See in picture at the top ^^) The room was bigger than I expected. There were a good number of students, all of them were teenagers. They all were sitting on the wooden floor in 5 neat lines. Skai and I put our water, bags, and shoes together against the wall then came and sat with everyone else. A few people turned around and whispered "Hey Skai". She smiled and said hey back to them. In front of us was a tall, middle aged, built, light brown skinned man pacing back and forth. His hair was dark and wavy in a bun and his eyes were slanted.
"So today is our first class from our break and I understand we have some new students joining us. I'll introduce myself. My name is Sensei Satoshi but you all will just call me Sensei and I'm 35. I've been teaching Karate for 10 years. I was born and raised in Japan, then moved to the states when I was 19. My Mother is African American and my Father is Japanese. Karate is an ancient martial arts style that originated from the Ryukyu Kingdom. It was brought to Japan in the early 20th century and was originally called Okinawan. Today we'll be working on basic stances, punches and kicks." he said. "So stand up."
We all stood up at the same time. He pointed to spots in the front row. "Jeremiah, Shamar, Aiko, Skai, Jay and Nina, front row." he ordered.
They went up and formed the first row. "Layla, Hiroshi, DeAndre, Tim, Yael, and Kalani, second row." They went straight to their spots, forming the second row. He called some more names and they formed the third, forth and fifth row.
"Okay and all the new people, form the back row." he told us. We formed a straight line.
"Good... Now, you all are lined up by rank. The front row are the most skilled and experienced, they're the black and brown belts. If you're new, pay close attention to them. The second row are red and purple belts, they are the second most experience. The third row are green and orange belts and the forth row are yellow belts. Lastly, you all.." he pointed to our row. "... are the white belts. The better you become, you'll graduate from a white belt to all the way to a black belt. The various colors represent your skill level."
He clapped his hands together. "SO, let's get started!" he said. He then lead us in a quick warm-up with many stretches I was new to. "HAIGHT!!!!" he yelled.
Everyone, except for me and a few other people immediately jumped into a position with their knees bent, their arms out like they were holding sand buckets and their hands in fist. I looked around the room surprised. They stood completely still until he said "SHEIYIN." Then they dragged their left foot up, then put their hand to their side in unison.
He demonstrated how to do that particular stance, he said was called the "horse stance". It was pretty easy for me, until he made us stay in it for 5 minutes straight. He showed a couple more stances, then he moved onto punches.
"Shamar could you come up here and demonstrate a correct punch please." he asked someone in the front row.
Some tall, muscular, dark skin guy, with two french braids walked to the front and got in horse stance. He looked about 17 and his eyes were droopy. He reminded me of a guy I knew at the orphanage. His name was Fernando and the rest of the boys used to pick on him. Him and Shamar were almost identical, except Fernando had short hair.
"Watch closely everyone, this is how you punch." said Sensei.
Shamar formed a fist and pulled his arms back. He punched the air fiercely with his right then left.
"Good." said Sensei.
Shamar walked back to his spot next to Skai. She high fived him when Sensei looked the other way. Sensei had the rest of us punch the air in unison a few times. It took me a minute to get the hang of it, but I finally got it.
"Okay, good. All of you come over here to the punching bag and make a single file line in front of it." he said. We did as he said.
"Now that you all are in one line, you're each going to punch the punching bag twice." he said.
Everyone started, and then it got to my turn. I balled my fist and punched the bag as hard as I could.
"We're gonna have to work on your power..." said Sensei with his arms crossed. I nodded and walked to the back of the line.
I thought that was powerful.. Hm, I guess not enough. He told us all to go a second time. When it was my turn again, I pretended the punching was Nicole. I started to get angry just thinking about her. I punched..."Whooa, much better!" said Sensei.
"Thank you." I said. I must really hate Nicole. Afterall, the girl was really wicked to me.
<< <O> >>
He let us have a 3 min water break, everyone rushed to their bottles, including me. I snatched my blue bottle and chugged the water down.
Skai walked up to me with her bottle laughing. "Thirsty aren't you?" she asked.
I put the bottle down and coughed. "Yeah." I said out of breath.
She laughed some more. "It definitely is intense, that's for sure. You like the class so far?"
"Yeah it's great, I'm learning a lot already. I can wait until I'm able to stand up and kick Nico--" I caught myself. "ehh... kick Nicklewood in half."
"What's Nicklewood??" asked Skai.
"A tough type of wood found in the tropics." I made up on the spot.
"Oh really?? Wow.. yea that'd be impressive if you could break that in half." she said.
"I would be..."
"BREAKS OVER!" yelled Sensei putting his water down. We all got back into our lines. "SKAI, come up here please." she walked up there. "Demonstrate a front snap kick for us please."
She bent her knees and held her fist up in a fighting position. Then in one motion, she lifted her leg, still bent, then kicked it and put it back down. That kick looked like it could've of killed somebody and she did it so effortlessly. "Very good." said Sensei.
"Thank you Sensei." she said as she went back to her spot. I saw Shamar give her a low five.
He had us all do 20 front snap kicks in a row. "SHEIYIN!" he commanded. We dragged our left foot up and put our hands to our side.
"Good job class! That is all for today. Make sure when you get home, you practice. We'll pick up next Thursday." said Sensei. He put his hands together and bowed. We all did the same.
<< <O> >>
The sun was just then setting, but it was still light outside as Skai and I drove back. "Turn left on Jark Baldman Rd." said the GPS.
"Jark Balman?" said Skai. She laughed.
"Who's naming these streets?" I said laughing.
"I don't even know. But whoever they are, they're fried!"
We both cracked up laughing.
"You're really good. You weren't lying when you said you were a black belt." I said.
"Thank you! I've been going for a long time."
"Has that Shamar guy been going a long time too?" I asked.
"Oh Shamar? Yeah! He's a black belt too. I love him to pieces. He's like a little brother to me."
"Little brother?! Little? Isn't he like 17?" I asked baffled.
She laughed. "Noo, he just a 7th grader."
"WHAT! YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT MAN IS ONLY 13!?"
"Yup." she said.
"That's wild."
"I know! His voice is deep too, puberty hit him like a truck. He's told about 18-20 year old women hitting on him."
"I believe it, he looks almost grown."
<< <O> >>
The GPS led us safely to my house. "Thanks for taking me with you." I said.
"No problem, I'm glad you enjoyed the class. I'll see you at school tomorrow." she said unlocking the doors.
I got out and grabbed my bag. "Okay, I 'll see you! Bye!"
I went inside and she drove off.
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This one took a while y'all, sorry. <3 <3 More is on the way so stay tuned. Keep voting!