Karate-Ballerina Master

“No!”

“Yes.”

“I will not go in there.” Stella argues.

“Yes, you will. Payback.”

“Oh, for what?” Stella sighs. 

I raise an eyebrow at her. Really? “For making me take dancing classes with you.”

“It wasn’t that bad. And you totally enjoyed it.”

“Whether I enjoyed the classes or not -which I definitely did not- just imagine how embarrassing it is to tell your friends that you took dancing lessons. Dancing!”

“Listen, Alexander. I won’t participate in your stupid Karate.” Stella argues.

I eye her outfit. She was already dressed in Karate clothes and has a belt tied around her waist. Her hair is up in a bun, not surprising, considering she’s a dancer. 

“Yes you will. We’re already late, and because of you I don’t get to participate in today’s lesson.”

Stella shows me her puppy eyes. “I’ll never make you dance again, I promise! I don’t want to do your stupid Karate.”

“You’re right. I won’t ever dance again. Go.” I open the doors and push her through.

Stella stumbles a bit but dusts herself off quickly. She turns around to glare at me, but quickly spins back around and puts on a huge smile. She stands off to the side as everyone else stretches. I know she can do this because, after all, how different can Karate be from dancing? It’s all jumping and stretching anyway. Stella’s just being stubborn. Everyone gets in row as the Sensei enters the room, and wait for instructions on the new lesson. 

It kind of surprises me when Stella gets in row. In a few minutes I realize that I’ve spoken too soon. The Sensei instructs warm-ups of his own, burpees. But instead, Stella starts to do leg lifts. This continues for the rest of the warm-up. I figured Sensei would have commented on this, but he just ignores her. 

It’s only when the rest of the class starts practicing does Sensai come up to her. The two of them quickly engage in a conversation. Stella is waving her hands around and a comical expression on her face changes every few seconds. Sensei is speaking calmly, though, and manages to persuade her to do something. Then, he shows Stella how to do a Roundhouse Kick. She practices a few times, and then he leads her to a guy practicing by himself. 

The guy -who I recognize as Michael- is moving toward her doing a series of kicks. Stella moves back doing a simple Roundhouse kick. But she gets scared and starts jumping the other way, shrieking and laughing as she does so. I imagined she’d hate this and I’d enjoy watching her hate it, but instead, I’m hating to watch her enjoy it. This was supposed to be my payback for her making me dance amidst 20 girls. But no, she’s not even mad about it anymore. 

Her belt is poorly tied, and she’s had to retie it about 14 times in the past 30 minutes. I counted. When the lesson is over, Stella pushes the door open and jumps out, spinning in the air before landing.

“New person who dis? I’m now a ballerina and a Karate master.” Stella says. I just shake my head at her.

“I thought you hated Karate?”

“Oh, no. Not anymore. Sensei told me to try it out. Apparently, he could see it in my eyes that I was mad. He said that it’d get the anger out of me. And it did. You know what, maybe I might start doing that. Karate, when I’m mad. And then go back to being the perfect ballerina that I am.” Stella replies.

“You do know you were running away from Michael, right?”

“Who?”

“That was your partner.”

“Oh. Sure. But you have to admit, I was pretty awesome in there.”

I sigh and pull her out of Karate Klass. That is the name of the place.

---

I haven’t spoken to Stella in a few days. It’s not like we are friends or anything. The only reason we spoke was because we had to do an assignment for school- try something new with a new friend. Pretty ridiculous, but we are in our senior year of high school, and it’s already May. Just two more months to go and we’re done with high school, and off to college next year. Our school sees no point in handing out hard assignments for the seniors, so we get to graduate easily. No missing assignments or final tests hanging on our backs.

And that’s how I ended up with Stella being my partner; everyone had already chosen. None of my friends are in this class, so I wasn’t in a group. Stella was in the bathroom at the time and came back when all our classmates were partnered up and discussing the assignment. She sat down next to me, and announced that I’d be doing what she loved to do. I figured it was just shopping or gossiping, or something of the sorts, so I agreed.

She told me to arrive at GreenPark Lane, 206th Street. Maybe an unknown mall, I thought? Painting? Boy, I couldn’t have been more wrong. It was a dancing class. Ballet, to be more specific. All girls. In tutus. And buns. 

A pair of leggings and a white T-shirt were thrust into my arms, and I was shooed into a dressing room. I reluctantly changed clothes; even if it was a silly assignment I needed to get a good grade. When I came out Stella was waiting for me, smiling. She dragged me over to a chair and seated me, then proceeded to comb my hair. It was very short, a crew cut. There wasn’t much to comb. I started scrolling on my phone when I felt a pull on my hair. I looked in the mirror and saw my hair in a mini fountain style at the very top of my head, like toddlers’ hair. 

I was absolutely mortified. I don’t know what was more humiliating: me in a ballet outfit or that little fountain at the top of my head. I started to pull it out but Stella slapped my hand away. She looked at me through the mirror and said, “Ms. Riffer said to try something new. If you don’t do this, I’ll tell her you didn’t complete the assignment. Yes, I’ll go so far as to tattle on you. This is ballet, and in my world, you need to tie your hair up. So.”

“Yes, but there’s barely anything to tie up anyway. Can I just let it down?”

Stella stared at me.

“Are you trying to embarrass me in front of all your ballerina friends?”

“Of course! Now, let’s just get it over with, shall we? It’s just a few plié’s and pirouettes, nothing that bad.”

I stared at her with horror written all over my face. I had no idea what any of that meant. 

“Come now, I won’t be late because of you.”

I sighed and got out of the chair, toying with the little fountain. It was kind of fun to play with, although I would never admit that to her. It would only give Stella the satisfaction that she wanted. When we entered the room all her friends pointed and swallowed down their laughs as best as they could. 

I don’t know how I made it through that class, but somehow, I did. I should get an award for surviving through that. I was sad to find out that only one partner had to try out a new thing. But then, I convinced Stella to join my Karate class. Maybe it was the guilt, maybe she actually wanted to try it out. I didn’t know, but I didn’t care. 

And now I’m kind of missing her, but I guess we won’t be speaking for a while unless another assignment comes up. I hope one does, I really do. 

---

“Good afternoon, Sensei.” I bow slightly then bring myself back up. Sensei nods at me. I get in row and start with burpees, like everyone else does. 

As I’m finishing up ankle bounces, the door swings open and in runs a person. Probably one of Sensei’s assistants is late. Sometimes that happens. But the person who just came in gets in row behind me. 

“Ah, my new student.” Sensei says, surprising me a bit. “Students, please stop what you’re doing now, and meet the new student. Stella, introduce yourself.”

Stella? I stop doing ankle bounces immediately, and whip my head back. My eyes are playing tricks on me. This is a boys only class, so how can she be here? I glance at a few of my Karate friends, and notice they’re all wearing the same confused expressions. I’m more shocked than confused.

“Hello! My name is Stella Osborne, and I’m a new student here at Karate Klass. Alexander introduced me two weeks ago. I’m actually a ballerina, though.” Stella says. I frown. 

“Stella will only be joining us 2-3 times a month. The rest of her time will go to ballet. Anything else you’d like to say, Stella?” Sensei says. 

“Oh, right! Osu!” Stella squeals. She says it in such a funny way that she sounds like she has a Russian accent.

“Back to work, students.” We are told, and I start warm-ups again.

Soon enough we are in pairs again, and I am paired with Stella. I jump in her direction, multiple moves mid-air, and she responds with a Roundhouse Kick. She does it pretty well. From what I experienced in her dance class, her class jumps much higher in the air than my class does. Her kick still looks a bit like a twirl, though.

“What are you doing here?” I hiss at her as I back away.

Stella jumps forward, hissing back “Practicing Karate.”

“You’re a ballerina! You’re supposed to be pliéing and sauteing, not fighting.” I move forward.

“Is that not what I’m doing? And it’s pirouettes, FYI.”

Stella runs away from me. “Same difference. Why are you here?”

“Because I want to be here. I like Karate now. Thanks for making me try it out.” She smiles a bit, and jumps forward, but runs away just as fast. It’s pointless to practice with her.

“This class is for boys only. There’s different classes that are mixed, and for girls only.”

“I don’t care. I wanted to join this one, and Sensei didn’t mind. So, ha.”

We continue like this for the rest of practice until new partners are decided, along with new moves to practice. Stella does the same Roundhouse Kick over and over again. I have a feeling she’s going to be doing it for a while. I watch as my classmates do complex moves, getting better. On the other hand, my practice has slightly failed since Stella joined. She’s messing up my game.

When practice is over Stella sautes out the door, and her belt falls to the floor. I can’t help but laugh. I was going to argue with her for messing me up, but this forgives all.

---

Over the course of the last two months of school, Stella has participated in my Karate Klass sessions 7 times exact. We’ve also been pairing up in Ms. Riffer’s class more often, so I’m glad about that. Maybe her taking up Karate isn’t a bad thing. After all, we’ve become good friends.

Today is graduation day and I’m nervous about my speech. Stella goes up before me. I have to wait until the principal, Mr. Winefour, gets to the T’s. Stella’s speech is nice, but I’m surprised when I hear she’s included me in it.

“And a big thank you to Alexander Trevor, who introduced me to Karate. Now I’m a Karate-Ballerina Master. New person, who dis?” She uses the same line as she did with me, and the crowd laughs. “Truly, these 4 years of my life were amazing. I couldn’t have chosen a better way to spend them.”

I sit in my seat in shock until it’s time for me to go up on stage. I clear my throat.

“Hello everyone. We’re finally graduating! What a relief, right? Yeah, not really.” I start off my speech. I have a feeling no one is going to appreciate my goodbye to the school. “After this we have 4 hard years of college, and after that, those of us  who choose to, will have more school to go to to become specialists. And we likely won’t see each other again for a long time.”

“So, I’m going to shoot my shot.” This gets the crowd interested. They lead forward in their seats. “Karate-Ballerina Master, will you go out on a date with me?” I was not expecting to say this; this wasn’t planned at all.

Everyone gasps and turns to stare at Stella. Her face reddens. For a few minutes, the hall is silent. Not a single sound is made. Some people look at me in pity and sympathy. Until… 

“New date, who dis?” Stella shouts.

The gathering of students, teachers, and parents start applauding, and soon, start screaming. It takes Mr. Winefour 10 minutes to get everyone settled down. Then, he escorts me off stage with my high school diploma. I find Stella’s smiling face among the students, and know exactly where our date is going to be. 

At Karate Klass at midnight.