The next week I started my new shield training program. It was grueling. Every hour, I would extend the multi-field shield two feet from my body and hold it for as long as I could. I even set my phone to buzz every hour so that I wouldn’t forget. The first few hours were ok, because I was just coming off a good night sleep, but by lunchtime I needed a nap. I managed to sleep for about 20 minutes leaning against the elm tree while Eva and James ate lunch and watched over me. The nap was a big help and I managed to get through to the end of the school day, but my holding time had dropped to a mere two seconds by the end. Even those seconds were tough.
I eventually made the executive decision that I would change the new training program to stop when school ended. The rest of the day, I’d just work on extending a single field out at least ten feet from my body. I was surprised at how easy it was to do that now, in comparison to the multi-field. I was pretty sure that I’d be able to project the field out much farther in just a few days.
Wednesday night Kung Fu class finally arrived. I’d been so looking forward to it and I went to Uncle Magnum’s studio right after school. Uncle M was working with the younger kids, so I just went upstairs to relax and have a snack before the adult beginner class.
My special guest arrived early, as I’d requested, and I showed him where to change and then I took him to wait in the conditioning room, as it was rarely used and was therefore the best place to hide him. Shortly after that, Margaret came in to pick up Jeremy and say a quick hello to Uncle Magnum. Given the I would probably lead the adult class tonight, they’d have a bit longer than usual to talk.
Margaret and I talked for a bit, planning her trial class for next week, and then Eva and James came in. Eva looked excited, as she was for any class, and James looked resigned to the fact that he was about to be tortured, again. Eva already knew the drill and she took them off to the changing rooms to get ready for class.
Uncle Magnum finished off the kids’ class with a few minutes of ‘hit the kids with a pool noodle while they try to block it’ followed by their ending salutes. As he said goodbye to the kids and went over to chat with Margaret, I got Bobby from the conditioning room and brought him in to start class.
Eva and James were just lining up for the salutes and didn’t notice him right away. With them being the two most junior students, they were at the end of the line and I brought Bobby just past them, as he was even below them in terms of seniority and rank. The rest of the class formed up according to rank and I led them through the salutes. Eva actually missed one of the salutes, when she saw Bobby in the mirror. James didn’t react as much, but I could see his eyes were glued to Bobby’s reflection. Bobby kept his whole focus on following the salutes and not making eye contact with Eva or Bobby.
After the salutes, we went right into horse stance. The best part of leading a class with beginner students was that I didn’t have to do it the exercises. I had to instruct them in how to do it. I have to admit that it’s also always so much fun to watch them get into position, let them get comfortable, and then tell them that we’ll be staying in that position for four minutes. They all get the same look of shock and assume that I’m just joking. Watching their faces as they slowly realize that I’m serious and that the pain is going to last a lot longer than they thought that it should always made me smile. I guess I did have a little of Uncle Magnum’s sadistic streak in me.
Bobby was no exception to the four-minute surprise. He gave an ‘are you serious’ expression and fought through the pain as best he could. He didn’t do too badly. He lasted a whole minute before he had to stand up and shake out his legs. Of course, I immediately reminded him that the had to get back in position and he gave me the usual ‘I hate you’ look that I get from most new students. James wasn’t having an easy time for it either, but I didn’t pick on him.
I walked around and corrected positions before getting into horse stance position for the remaining two minutes. The whole time, Eva was trying to catch my eyes. She wanted to know why Bobby was here. I just smiled at her and focused on my horse stance.
With the first torture over, we did the rest of the warm-up and finished off with five minutes of straight-arm plank on the knuckles. I showed Bobby the proper technique and settled in between him and James.
“This is my favorite part”, James said sarcastically.
“Mine too.”, I said and then followed that up with, “And since you like it so much, I think we should do a bit extra. How about two extra minutes?” I heard the groans throughout the class and Eva told James to shut up.
Bobby was not enjoying himself at all. He was a very good football player and considered himself to be a fine physical specimen, but this class was kicking his ass so far and it was only the warmup. When I invited him to do a class as part of breaking the ice with Eva and James, he liked the idea. He hadn’t considered that he’d need to work out a different set of muscles than the ones he was used to working. He made it though plank, but he’d gone on his knees quite a few times and he’d only lasted 20 seconds on his knuckles.
After the warm-up, Uncle Magnum rejoined the class and took over the training of the beginners, while I worked with the more advanced group. He showed Bobby and James the proper stances and how to punch and kick and spent most of the class working on that, interspersed with time on the punching bag and the dummies. Meanwhile, I led the rest of the students through the different forms, followed by sparring exercises, where I mostly offered advice and stance corrections.
Throughout the class, I listened closely to the beginners talk and although it took longer than I thought it should, the moment that I’d planned for finally came. It started when Bobby complained. Not in a whinny way, more like in a ‘remind me again why I’m here’ sort of way. Bobby was sweating and out of breath and Uncle Magnum was asking for more effort out of him, and from Eva and James as well. It was normal. That was the reaction of most of the beginners. What got me excited was that James answered him.
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“It’s all Abby’s fault. She’s the one that got us to come here.” And just like that, the ice was broken. The three of them spent the rest of class plotting their revenge. I didn’t care. My job was mostly done. As a bonus, I had a feeling that Bobby would come back on his own after football season was over. Despite his complaining, I could see that he was enjoying himself and that he like the challenge of Kung Fu.
When class ended, we split up to go to the changing rooms and Eva finally had a chance to talk to me.
“That was quite the surprise. Abby, you have some ‘splaining to do?” Eva was leaning against the wall, with her arms crossed in front of her and staring right at me.
I walked into the washroom and started washing my hands. “Not much to it really. A few weeks ago, you told me how you and James and Bobby were all great friends and that you were sad about losing Bobby as a friend. I talked to him and found out that he was sad about it too. I set this up as a way for all of you to start talking again. Plus, I got you all to a Kung Fu class. It was a twofer!”.
“Just like that. You talked to Bobby and now we’re all supposed to go back to how things used to be?”
“Eva, that ship has sailed. You can’t undo the past. You can only move forward. If you want him as a friend again, you can be friends again. Both you and James will have to figure out if you can put what he did behind you. All I did was set up a situation where you guys can all talk to each other.” Eva was still standing there when I came out of the washroom and I started changing out of my uniform.
“How can I put it behind me when I don’t even know what happened the last time?” Eva looked at me shrewdly. “You know, don’t you?”.
“I do.”
“Well? Spill it!”, Eva insisted.
“Nope. That’s his story to tell. I can tell you that he knows that the only way that you guys have a chance to be friends again is if he tells you.”
“That’s very true. If you know his side and you still set this up, then you must think that we should be friends again.”
“Eva, I think he made a mistake, but I understand his reasons and for a twelve-year old boy they were good reasons. I’m not involved though. To me it’s just a story. You’re the one that will have to decide what you want to do. I just thought that he should have a chance to talk to you.”
“Ok. I’ll hear him out.”
“Great! Now get washed and changed. By the way, did you have a good time planning my demise during class?”
“Actually, yes. I’d forgotten how inventive Bobby could be. He’s a lot more vindictive than either James or me.” She had a Cheshire smile on her face as she said this.
“Hmmm. I think that I’ll invite Bobby to come watch a sparring class. He might decide that revenge isn’t worth it.”
Eva washed up and changed and we found the boys watching the advanced class working through their forms. Uncle Magnum came over to say goodbye and I thanked him for making the class extra hard for the three newbies.
“Wait. You made the class harder than usual? Why?”, Bobby asked.
“Because Abby asked me too. I usually don’t make new students do so many push-up and burpees, but Abby said that she needed you ready to revolt and to tell you the truth, I kind of enjoyed it.” Uncle Magnum was completely unapologetic.
Bobby turned to me and said, “I don’t understand. Why make it harder?”
I sighed like the answer was obvious, “So you’d complain, of course.”
With that explanation, we all left the studio and made our way to Big Julie’s. I had asked Bobby if he wanted me there when he spoke with Eva and James and he said that he did. I’d have preferred to be just about anywhere else, but if I could help smooth things over, then I would.
I expected the conversation to be awkward and stained and I was pleasantly surprised when it wasn’t. James and Bobby started talking about comics and superheroes almost right away and Eva soon joined in. It turned out that Bobby had kept up his interest in all things super and hadn’t had anyone to talk with about it for years. For the first time, I could see how these three had been such close friends and I had a feeling that Bobby wasn’t going to have such a hard time with his explanation and apology.
Taking a booth in a quiet corner of Big Julie’s, we all placed our orders and Bobby started talking. He stumbled a bit when he confessed that he started having feelings for Eva, but he got past it and quickly went on. As he explained, I saw Eva blush with embarrassment and James merely raised his eyebrows a bit, in surprise, I think. Like a child about to be reprimanded, Bobby kept his eyes mostly on his hands, that were clasped together, almost in prayer, and resting on the table and rarely looked up at Eva or James. He only stopped talking when our orders arrived.
Once the waitress left, Bobby finished with, “So even though I don’t have those feelings anymore, I honestly thought that you guys would never forgive me, and I was too scared and embarrassed to tell you guys the truth. I don’t even know if I could have done this if Abby hadn’t pushed me into it.”
“How did she push you into it?”, Eva asked. The mood at the table was tense. I could see that Eva was conflicted.
Bobby looked at me for permission to tell and instead I asked Eva, “Does it really matter or are you buying some time to think?”
“Buying time.”, she replied and then it got quiet.
The silence had lasted well into the awkward stage when James glanced up with a serious look on his face and said, “You know Bobby, you should have just said all this when we were twelve. We were all best friends. I’m really hurt that you felt that you couldn’t come to me with this. We could have found a solution. You were like a brother to me; I would have shared Eva.”
Eva sputtered disbelievingly and Bobby’s eyes bulged almost out of their sockets and I burst out laughing. I couldn’t help it. James’ deadpan delivery was perfect, and Eva and Bobby’s reactions were priceless. You also had to know James. He’s a quiet guy and in the few years that I’ve known him, I’ve never heard him talk about his feelings, except when we discussed Eva. There is no way in hell that he would share Eva with anyone, so I knew that he was joking around and if he was joking, then he had already forgiven Bobby.
Despite getting caught off-guard by James’ comment, Eva started laughing too. She tried to pretend that she was offended, but no one believed it. Bobby laughed along, mostly in relief, and we went back to our food. Bobby’s apology had been accepted and it wasn’t mentioned again except once. At the end of the night, Eva faced Bobby and said, “I want your promise that you’ll never ditch us again. No matter what, you can’t ever do that to us.”
Bobby promised and Eva continued, “Good, because if you ever do, I’m sending Abby to kick your ass.”