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chapter twelve ━ caroline gillespie and the past ( original chapter )
❝You became a black belt when you were six?!❞
"𝐎𝐊𝐀𝐘, 𝐆𝐔𝐘𝐒, 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐎𝐃𝐀𝐘, we're going to do something a little different," Rudy said to his group of karate students. He looked up when he heard the door of the dojo open. "Ronnie, you're late. That's not like you."
"Sorry," she mumbled quietly, sliding into her seat on the other side of her friends. "Lost track of time while studying."
He nodded and continued with his lesson. "Okay, as I said, we're going to do something different. We won't be training today—"
"Yes!" Jerry cheered and Veronica rolled her eyes at the boy.
"—but we'll have a different kind of lesson," Rudy finished, looking at the boy before letting out a breath. "When I was around six years old, just beginning as a karate student, there was a girl about nine years younger than you who became the youngest black belt in the country."
"How come we haven't heard of her before?" Kim asked, crossing her arms. "I mean, a girl being the youngest black belt is pretty rare, isn't it?"
Rudy nodded. "It is," he confirmed. "But the reason you haven't heard of her is because she's been displaced of the title. In fact, the youngest is sitting in this room right now."
At those words, everyone looked amongst themselves before turning their heads and looking at the brunette girl who sighed. "It's you?" Jack exclaimed in surprise. "I mean, Kim always said you were good, but I didn't think you were that good."
"How come you never told anyone?" Milton asked.
She shrugged. "Just didn't want to..." she replied quietly, playing with her locket with her fingers. "It was a lifetime ago."
"Ronnie... you—" Kim was scrolling through her phone before looking at her best friend. "You were six! You became a black belt when you were six?!"
She nodded wordlessly. "How old was the girl she beat to get the record?" Milton asked Rudy.
"Seven," Veronica replied, glancing at the black television screen for a moment. "And you're about to watch her."
Rudy nodded. "Karate runs in Ronnie's family," he said, finally able to continue his lesson. "And not just with me. In fact, the only reason I began karate was because my big sister did it first. Carrie was seven years old when she got her first black belt and, at the time, she was the youngest in the country. Displaced only by her daughter."
She smiled softly at him. "Fortunately, Carrie had all of her meets recorded—not by choice, of course. It was part of gaining that record. Everybody wanted to watch her. Ronnie was kind enough to find some of them so we could watch them for our lesson today."
