Blue Belt

Chapter 20

                                                               XX.

        I felt excited upon seeing Cammie again.  I had seen her once from a distance this past week, but as I walked into the dojo I noticed she was on the far side of the room talking with someone I only recognized but did not know personally.  I also noticed that only Charles had not arrived yet from my class, and actually that the others were also already out stretching before I went back in to get changed.  I quickly changed and joined them. 

            “Hey Matt.”  Cammie said as she walked right behind me as I was on the floor stretching.  She did not have her full uniform on at all, but only a white and blue tee shirt, and then her normal uniform slacks on below that. 

            “Hi.”  I said back calmly.  I felt a restraint come from within me the second I would have otherwise acted excited to see her.  After all, the least she could have done these last couple weeks is let me know what is going on and return my messages.  She should have said something. 

            Mr. Reeder entered the room and then so did Vargo and Brandon.  Pretty soon a long table was brought which would be set up in the front of the room.  It looked like there would be four places at the table for Reeder and other instructors to sit.  Some other people were sitting on the small bleachers, including Brett and Tomas’s roommate.  As I continued stretching I noticed Cammie over talking with Brett a couple of times.  Charles finally arrived on the scene as well.

            “Good of you to join us.”  Mr. Vargo said to him sarcastically as he entered onto the floor.

            “Okay folks, Peter’s going to get you guys stretched out, and then we’re going to start the exam.”  Mr. Reeder announced walking up to, but not onto the dojo floor.  More people began to enter the room as it was already obvious they made a much bigger deal of this than for the previous exams we had.  Cammie walked across the floor a couple more times but I made it look like I was too intent on stretching to really notice.  As we did a few last stretches from up against the far wall Mr. Reeder, Juan, Mr. Vargo, and Brandon took seats at the table.  I asked myself from under my breath what the heck Juan was doing here.  I did not want any bad signs, and I really did not know him well, but the last time I worked with him I did awful.  I noticed that Jed was there, and so was Cody.  They were standing just behind but off to the side of the bleachers.  Cammie had made her way onto the bleachers and was sitting by Brett.

            “Let’s get you guys bowed in and get going then.”  Mr. Reeder said.  We lined up, bowed to him and the others at the table, and stepped back.

            “I just want basic punches in a front stance.  Perfect implementations.”  He started us off with groups of the most basic moves, and we only had to do ten or twenty, depending on which one it was.  We were all quite intense.

            “Now I want to see a side kick, but hold it out there for twenty seconds.”  He tested our balance, and it was harder than usual to not wobble at least a little.  “Now ten of them, in unison, and keep them high as you can.  I have to see balance.”  All the work we did was paying off, especially since we were not doing a high number of repetitions in the exam.

            After that we went through all the moves specific to the green belt curriculum.  Again, I was surprised by the low number of repetitions that he had us do.  I did notice that some of us fell into a couple of the pit falls that happened during the review, but that Reeder did not correct us.  But outside of that, I felt we were doing well.  I could not get a read on what the “judges” were thinking, and from time to time I noticed Juan with a big smile on his face.  I took solace that it was great to have support from those watching, especially Cammie.