AYANA

Chapter 14- Karate Class

Ayana's POV

We pulled up to this big old brick warehouse looking building. Skai parked in the large garage. 

"We're here." she said.

"Are you sure we're at the right place?" I asked as I got out.

She laughed. "I'm sure, this is it." she said handing  me my bag.

"If you say so."

I followed her through the dim parking garage to entrance door. We walked inside. The walls were a muted green color and infront of us were a fleet of stairs. We went up them and turned a corner. The walls in this hallway were brick, rustic Brooklyn brick. The hallway was long and there were various rooms lining it. A boxing room, 2 dance studios, a workout room, female and male bathrooms, and finally we got to a door that said "Senshi No Hi Karate Dojo".

"Senshi No Hi?" I read.

"It means Warrior Fire in Japanese." she said.

"Oh okay."

We walked inside. (See in picture at the top ^^) The room was bigger than I expected. There were a good number of students, all of them were teenagers. They all were sitting on the wooden floor in 5 neat lines. Skai and I put our water, bags, and shoes together against the wall then came and sat with everyone else. A few people turned around and whispered "Hey Skai". She smiled and said hey back to them. In front of us was a tall, middle aged, built, light brown skinned man pacing back and forth.  His hair was dark and wavy in a bun and his eyes were slanted.

"So today is our first class from our break and I understand we have some new students joining us. I'll introduce myself. My name is Sensei Satoshi but you all will just call me Sensei and I'm 35. I've been teaching Karate for 10 years. I was born and raised in Japan, then moved to the states when I was 19. My Mother is African American and my Father is Japanese. Karate is an ancient martial arts style that originated from the Ryukyu Kingdom. It was brought to Japan in the early 20th century and was originally called Okinawan. Today we'll be working on basic stances, punches and kicks." he said. "So stand up." 

We all stood up at the same time. He pointed to spots in the front row. "Jeremiah, Shamar, Aiko, Skai, Jay and Nina, front row." he ordered. 

They went up and formed the first row. "Layla, Hiroshi, DeAndre, Tim, Yael, and Kalani, second row." They went straight to their spots, forming the second row. He called some more names and they formed the third, forth and fifth row. 

"Okay and all the new people, form the back row." he told us. We formed a straight line.

 "Good... Now, you all are lined up by rank. The front row are the most skilled and experienced, they're the black and brown belts. If you're new, pay close attention to them. The second row are red and purple belts, they are the second most experience. The third row are green and orange belts and the forth row are yellow belts. Lastly, you all.." he pointed to our row. "... are the white belts. The better you become, you'll graduate from a white belt to all the way to a black belt. The various colors represent your skill level."

He clapped his hands together. "SO, let's get started!" he said. He then lead us in a quick warm-up with many stretches I was new to. "HAIGHT!!!!" he yelled. 

Everyone, except for me and a few other people immediately jumped into a position with their knees bent, their arms out like they were holding sand buckets and their hands in fist. I looked around the room surprised. They stood completely still until he said "SHEIYIN." Then they dragged their left foot up, then put their hand to their side in unison.

He demonstrated how to do that particular stance, he said was called the "horse stance". It was pretty easy for me, until he made us stay in it for 5 minutes straight. He showed a couple more stances, then he moved onto punches.