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  Copyright

  Text copyright © 2005 by Matt Christopher Royalties, Inc.

  Illustrations copyright © 2005 by Michael Koelsch

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

  Little, Brown and Company

  Hachette Book Group

  237 Park Avenue

  New York, NY 10017

  Visit our website at www.HachetteBookGroup.com

  www.twitter.com/littlebrown

  First eBook Edition: December 2009

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Matt Christopher® is a registered trademark of Catherine M. Christopher.

  ISBN: 978-0-316-09445-0

  Contents

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  The Animal Stances of Kung Fu

  CHAPTER ONE

  “Hey, hey! It’s your birthday! Hey, hey! It’s your birthday!”

  Mark Goldstein heard his friends before he saw them. Xavier “X” McSweeney, Charlie Abbott, Savannah Smith, Belicia “Bizz” Juarez, and Jonas Malloy were singing at the top of their lungs as they trooped in to the kung-fu kwoon where Mark took lessons. He wasn’t there for a lesson this Saturday, however. He was having his birthday party at the martial-arts school.

  “Over here, guys!” Mark called. The kids greeted Mark’s parents, then surrounded Mark.

  “This is going to be awesome!” X said, rubbing his hands together.

  “You bet it is.” Sifu Eric Hale, Mark’s teacher, came out of his office. He led the children to a large, open room with red mats on the floor and mirrors along one wall. He motioned for Mark to step forward.

  “At our school,” the teacher said, “more experienced students help out those just starting to learn kung fu. Today Mark is the one with experience and you are the beginners. All set, Mark?”

  Mark got into the horse-riding stance — feet wide apart, toes pointed out, knees bent. He pulled his elbows tight into his sides, his fists turned upward.

  “Four punches, left-side kick, right block, leg sweep,” Sifu Hale said.

  Mark’s fists jabbed forward, one, two, one, two. His left leg flashed sideways. His right arm flew up to knock away an imaginary punch. He dropped to a crouch and swept his right leg around as if to trip an opponent. Then he hopped back up and returned to the horse-riding stance.

  “That was totally fluid!” Jonas cried. The other kids laughed.

  “Totally what?” Sifu Hale asked, smiling.

  “Fluid. You know, smooth, like waves in one of those wave-machine things!” Jonas rolled his arms up and down.

  As everyone laughed again, Mark glanced at his teacher. He knew Sifu Hale didn’t like kids clowning around during class. Of course, this isn’t class, it’s a party, Mark reminded himself.

  Sifu Hale interrupted them. “Actually, fluid is just what you want to be when practicing martial arts. Each move should flow into the next.” He motioned for them to stand. “Okay, time for the rest of you to be fluid, too. Copy Mark’s stance and try the punches first.”

  With Sifu Hale and Mark watching closely, the five friends did as instructed.

  “Not bad,” Sifu Hale said, “but, Bizz, put your thumbs on the outside of your fists. If you were really hitting something, they would be broken by now.”

  Bizz hurriedly shifted her thumbs to the correct position.

  “I did the same thing the first time I tried punches,” Mark admitted. She gave him a smile.

  “Next move: the side kick,” the teacher said. “Mark, show them again, in slow motion, please.”

  Mark went through the move in four parts: lifting his knee up in front of him to the chamber position, thrusting his leg out sideways, chambering it again, and putting his foot down. The others followed suit.

  “Good. Practice a few more times, then try to put the punches and the kick together. Nice and slow, then pick up momentum,” said Sifu Hale.

  For the next few minutes, the room was silent except for the sound of cloth moving — and of X murmuring “punch, punch, punch, punch, kick, get ready” over and over.

  Mark was doing the moves, too, when he heard Sifu Hale say, “Totally fluid, Jonas. You seem to have a knack for kung fu.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Mark looked at Jonas’s reflection in the mirror. He tried to remember if his teacher had ever told him that he had a knack for kung fu. He was pretty sure he hadn’t.

  Jonas caught Mark watching him. He grinned and did the punch-kick combination — then added the arm block and the leg sweep. Each move was perfect. Mark looked away with a funny feeling in the pit of his stomach.

  While they worked on the moves, Sifu Hale set up an obstacle course with tunnels, stacks of mats, and stationary punching bags. “Courses like this challenge you to quickly adapt your movements to new situations,” Sifu Hale explained. “Let’s see how you do.”

  One by one the kids crawled, hopped, and punched their way through the course. “I never knew it could feel so good to hit something!” Savannah cried as she pummeled the bag.

  X held up his hands in mock terror. “Just so long as the bag’s your target, and not me!” he joked.

  Savannah struck a fighting pose. “Don’t tempt me, X-man,” she growled playfully, pretending to jab at him.

  “I’ll protect you, X!” Jonas bellowed. He jumped in between X and Savannah.

  “My hero!” X trilled in a high voice.

  As Mark watched his friends goof around, the knot in his stomach loosened. So they don’t take kung fu seriously, he thought. Big deal. They don’t know what really goes on here.

  After they finished the obstacle course, Sifu Hale had everyone line up against the back wall. He took out a huge body ball and bounced it a few times. “You kids have heard of dodgeball, right?” Before they could answer, he flung the ball toward Charlie and X. They darted out of the way and the ball hit the wall, bouncing back to the teacher. He hurled it again, this time at Bizz. She, too, got out of the way just in time. On the next throw, Charlie wasn’t as quick and had to take a seat against the back wall.

  They played three rounds of dodgeball. Bizz won the first round; Jonas, the next round; and Charlie, the third. Mark came in second each time.

  “Okay, one more activity before you hit the party room,” Sifu Hale said. He took out a long foam noodle, the kind used in swimming pools to help people float. He told the kids to get in a circle around him. “Let’s see how quick your reflexes are. If the noodle taps you three times, you’re out. Ready?”

  He held the noodle at the height of their heads. “Crouch low like a snake in the grass!” He spun around. Laughing, the kids ducked to avoid being tapped.

  “Now jump like a leopard pouncing!” This time Sifu Hale whipped the soft noodle around at floor level. Savannah and X were too slow and got bumped, but the others cleared it. Sifu Hale continued to call “crouch!” and “jump!”, tapping the slower players until at last there was a single person left in the circle — Jonas.

  “To the one with the best reflexes goes the prize,” the teacher said. He handed the noodle to Jonas and bowed. Jonas accepted the prize and returned the bow.

  Like a fist to the gut the
funny feeling returned to Mark’s stomach.

  CHAPTER THREE

  The party ended soon after the cake and ice cream were gone. Mark’s friends had given him a lot of cool presents and he made sure he thanked them all when it was time for everyone to head home.

  Mr. and Mrs. Goldstein collected Mark’s gifts. “We’ll help you finish cleaning up after we put these in the car,” his mother said.

  Mark nodded. One of the kwoon rules was that students help keep the place clean. That meant party rooms, too, so after his parents left he picked up a broom and started sweeping.

  “Happy birthday, Mark! Can I give you a hand?” Mark looked up and was surprised to see Mr. Malloy. He thought Jonas had already left.

  “Uh, no, but thanks anyway, Mr. Malloy,” Mark replied. “I guess Jonas is around here somewhere.”

  “He’s in there, talking with your teacher.” Mr. Malloy jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

  Mark looked into the office. Jonas was sitting across from Sifu Hale. As Mark watched, Jonas gathered up a pile of forms, shook Sifu Hale’s hand, and walked out with a big grin on his face.

  “What’s going on?” Mark asked as Jonas joined them.

  “I’ll tell you what’s going on!” Jonas fake punched Mark in the arm. “I’m signing up to take lessons. Say hello to your new kung-fu buddy!”

  Mark nearly dropped the broom. “You — you’re going to be taking lessons here?”

  “Won’t it be great? We can practice all our moves together. It’ll be cool.” Jonas tugged on his coat. “Hey, get back to your broom, bro. I want this place

  spic and span for my first lesson on Monday!” He gave a wave and followed his father out the door.

  “Yeah. Right.” But Mark didn’t immediately start sweeping. Instead, he closed his eyes and took slow, deep breaths. When he opened his eyes again, he felt better. He got to work.

  Sifu Hale came out of his office. “Did you have a good time today, Mark?” he asked.

  Mark nodded. “It was great, Sifu.”

  “Your friend Jonas has a lot of energy,” Sifu Hale went on. “I’m sure he’ll be able to use it when he starts next week.”

  Mark swept up the last of the cake crumbs and emptied the dustpan into the trash without saying a word. He could feel his teacher’s eyes on him.

  “Everything okay, Mark?”

  “Everything’s fine,” he said.

  His teacher started to leave the room, then turned back. “By the way, I’m having an open house here next month. You know, to show people in the community what our kung-fu school is all about. I need two students from each level to demonstrate different moves. Would you be interested in helping out?”

  “Sure!” Mark said.

  “Great. Have your parents stop in before you leave to sign the permission form. Then I’ll call to let you know when practices are.”

  As Mark put the broom away and turned off the lights to the party room, his heart felt light again. Well, what do you know! he thought. (If he wants me in the demonstration, I must have some sort of knack for kung fu, after all!

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Monday afternoon, Mark and Jonas got to the kwoon at the same time. Class began when all the other beginner students arrived.

  Sifu Hale had them stretch out and do some jumping jacks to warm up. Then he broke them into two groups, one made up of new students, the other of advanced beginners. Jonas was in the first; Mark, in the second. Sifu Hale went through basic moves with Jonas’s group. Another instructor ran Mark and his bunch through more complicated combinations.

  Mark watched Jonas out of the corner of his eye. Sifu Hale corrected Jonas’s position a few times, but after that Jonas seemed to do everything just right. Mark tried not to remember how long it had taken him to learn those same moves. Even now he sometimes faltered.

  At the end of class, Mark found a place to sit on the mats. This was his favorite part, the time when students were asked to close their eyes and quiet their minds. Usually he had no trouble doing that. But today, it took him longer because the person behind him kept fidgeting. He had finally managed to block out the noises when Sifu Hale announced that class was over.

  Mark glanced behind him to identify the squirmer, but whoever it was had already gone.

  Over the next few weeks, Mark was busy with homework and kung-fu lessons. His spare time was spent preparing for the demonstration. He was so wrapped up in those preparations that he didn’t even have time to spend with his friends — except Jonas, of course, whom he saw at the kwoon regularly. Jonas was making great progress. In fact, his moves were better than those of a few students who had been taking lessons for months. That included Mark.

  Other than Jonas, though, Mark didn’t see much of anyone. On the Friday a week before the demonstration, X pulled Mark aside.

  “Dude, you have been missed at the skatepark. Two weekends and no show! Come tomorrow morning, okay?”

  “I will,” Mark promised.

  True to his word, Mark met up with his friends when the park opened at ten the next morning. Alison Lee, the teenager who supervised the park, bumped fists with him as he entered.

  “My uncle Eric tells me you’re in the demonstration at the school,” she said. Sifu Hale was Alison’s uncle. She had introduced him — and kung fu — to Mark back in September.

  “You are?” Jonas was right behind Mark. “Flow come you didn’t tell me?”

  Mark just shrugged.

  “Well, maybe later you can show me what you’ll be doing for it.”

  Mark stepped onto his skateboard and kicked off. “Maybe,” he said as he rolled away. But don’t plan on it, he added silently. He knew Jonas would want to try the moves. And knowing Jonas, he’d be better at them.

  The skatepark wasn’t busy yet, which was fine with Mark. He wasn’t the best boarder. And since he hadn’t ridden for a few weeks, he was pretty sure he’d be worse than usual. So while most of his friends moved toward the ramps and rails, he decided to warm up on a flat surface first.

  Helmet, wrist pads, and knee pads securely in place, Mark practiced boarding in one direction, spinning around on his back wheels, and then boarding back to his starting spot. Once that was going smoothly, he tried adding an ollie midway through the run. He landed the first few jumps easily. Feeling more confident, he attempted a kick flip. His board

  popped up nice and high, but when he tried to spin it with his toe he caught the board wrong and fell.

  As he picked himself up and dusted off his pants, he heard a whoop from the rails. He looked over to see Jonas ride a rail on his skateboard, land cleanly — and do a perfect kick flip.

  “Figures,” Mark muttered.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Just then, Mark heard X call his name. He reluctantly boarded over to the rails.

  “Savannah is about to do her first fifty-fifty grind!” X cried. He turned to Savannah and yelled, “Go for it, girl!”

  Savannah stepped onto her skateboard and rode hard at a low rail. When she got close to the rail’s end, she popped an ollie. The board’s trucks landed squarely on the rail. Arms outstretched, Savannah slid down the rail’s length. At the end she stuck a clean landing and boarded a few feet, then turned and stopped.

  “Yes!” shouted Bizz.

  “All right!” cheered Jonas.

  “You did it!” cried Mark.

  Savannah was grinning from ear to ear. “Bizz has been helping me all week. You should see the bumps and bruises I’ve got!”

  “They can’t be any worse than my paper cuts,” Bizz said.

  “Paper cuts? Why do you have paper cuts?” Mark asked.

  “We’re studying Japan in school and the teacher assigned us an origami project.”

  “What’s origami?” X wanted to know.

  “It’s the ancient Japanese art of paper folding,” Savannah explained. “You can make all kinds of cool things just by folding special paper the right way. It’s easy.”

  Bizz snorted. �
�Maybe for you. For me, it’s torture! If it weren’t for your help, I’d still be trying to figure it out.”

  “Learning to do that grind was torture, too,” Savannah admitted. “Well, now that I’ve done it, I’m ready for a drink break. Come on.”

  Mark joined them on the soft grass. He took off his pads and helmet, then grabbed a juice box from his backpack, stuck in the straw, and took a long drink.

  “Hey, Mark and Jonas,” X said suddenly, “show us what you’ve been doing in kung fu!”

  Mark almost choked on his juice, but Jonas scrambled to his feet.

  “Watch this!” he said. He got into the horse-riding stance. Then, with a blur of movement, he threw a series of punches, blocks, and kicks. Each move looked perfect.

  X and the others applauded.

  “Thank you, thank you,” Jonas said, bowing theatrically. “Now, for my next trick, I need a volunteer from the audience.” He held his hand out to Mark. “How about you, little boy?”

  “Uh, I don’t think so. Choose someone else,” Mark mumbled.

  Jonas shook his head. “No one else here knows kung fu,” he said. “I wanted to show them how we spar with partners. C’mon!”

  “Yeah, c’mon, Mark!” the others urged.

  Even though he really didn’t want to, Mark got to his feet. “You know, you’ve only been doing kung fu for a few weeks,” he said. “I’m not sure you’re ready to spar.”

  “What, are you chicken, or something?” Jonas said with a grin.

  Mark glared at Jonas. “No. I’m just saying it might not be smart. But if you really want to …”

  Jonas and Mark stood face to face and bowed. They both got into a fighting stance called the snake. Their feet pointed sideways, but their upper bodies were turned toward one another. They raised their arms chest high with their hands flat.

  “Ready?” Jonas asked. Mark nodded.

  Jonas came at Mark with a right-hand punch. Mark blocked it cleanly, but before he knew what was happening Jonas tapped him in the ribs with his left hand. “Gotcha!” Jonas cried.