CHAPTER 2: “School Fight”
After class ended, Maya gathered up her books, placed them in her backpack, and exited the classroom. None of her classmates looked at her, introduced themselves to her, or made any mention of the tripping incident.
As she saw the other students walking to their next classes in small groups, laughing and sharing stories, Maya felt even more alone. She looked down at her schedule, checked her next room assignment, and began walking in what she hoped was the right direction.
As Maya looked for the correct room number, she heard a voice cutting through the laughing and babble of the rest of the school.
“You really should be more careful.”
Maya continued to her next class; she didn’t know anyone, so no one would be talking to her, right?
Maya then felt someone poke her in the shoulder.
“Hey, new girl. You deaf?”
Maya stopped, turned, and saw the dark-haired girl who had tripped her leaning against a locker with a smirk on her face.
“I said, ‘You really should be more careful’, new girl. So are you clumsy, or just a tard?”
Since it was her first day in a new school, Maya had no desire to cause any problems. She turned away, and continued to her next class.
Maya felt a tug on the straps of her backpack and was spun around, coming face-to-face with the dark-haired girl. The girl smiled in a way that seemed to say “I’m better than you.”
Maya remained calm, and simply responded, “Move.”
“Let’s get one thing straight, new girl. You don’t tell me to move; you move for me. Consider this your warning.”
Before Maya knew what was happening, she saw a fist flying at her. As if she were in a dream, she could remember the teaching of her old sifu, Sum Yung Gai: “While the mightiest of oaks can be felled with but a single blow, the willow that bends with the wind will always remain standing.”
Maya was already moving backward when the girl’s blow caught her lightly on the chest. Maya rolled with the punch, fell backward, landed flat on her back, pushed off with her hands, and immediately sprung back up into the sanchin-dachi position.
The dark-haired girl followed up her attack with an off-balance roundhouse punch. Maya lifted her arm and lazily blocked the punch. Once again, she could almost hear Master Gai whispering in her ear: “Pay no attention to those around you. Focus only on your opponent. There lies the threat, so only by studying them will you know of the danger.”
The noise of the hallway abated and everything around Maya, except for the dark-haired girl, seemed to blur and fade away. The girl was Maya’s sole point of focus and Maya studied her, waiting for an opening.
As the girl brought her arm back for another sloppy roundhouse punch, Maya lunged, and the flat of Maya’s palm caught the girl square in her chest. Just like Master Gai had taught her, she tensed at the moment of contact, minimized her follow-through, and transferred the full force of her blow into the girl, who flew backward into the locker, then fell to the floor.
Maya stepped forward and held her arm out with her palm up. She made eye contact with the girl, then waggled her fingers, as if inviting her to get up and continue. The girl declined, gathering up her scattered books and beating a hasty retreat.
As Maya’s adrenaline rush subsided, she gradually became aware of her surroundings and noticed Joey in the crowd. He had already gathered up her backpack and was looking at her with a newfound admiration as he handed it over to her.
“What are you looking at, Joey?” she asked.
“Maya, you just took out Amber Lynn Reed. She’s one of the nastiest bullies in the school.”
Maya took her backpack out of Joey’s hands, turned, and walked to her next class. “She started it.”
As the day went on, Maya noticed her classmates’ attitudes changing. Many of them made eye contact with her and she even got the occasional smile. However, the best message came at the end of the day as she boarded the bus for the ride home. As Maya walked down the aisle to sit with Joey she heard a number of whispers “That’s the girl who kicked Amber Lynn’s butt!”
