Girl Punches Out Page 4

  Amanda was quite pretty and had enjoyed the attention of all the boys in that part of the alphabet for a few years. Until Emily transferred in, that is. She wasn’t prettier than Amanda, though more exotic around the eyes. Also she radiated the sort of self-assurance that was hard not to notice. The boys certainly did. And so did Amanda.

  “Don’t worry, Amanda,” she replied, turning to look behind her. “This is the last one I think I’ll need.”

  Emily smiled ambiguously as she said this. Amanda looked into her black eyes and seemed a little disconcerted. What had she seen there? Generosity, an implicit offer of friendship, or a vague, unsettling menace? That was in Emily’s eyes, too. It was always there, but it coexisted with her kindness. Amanda wasn’t the first person to discover how odd an experience looking into her eyes could be. They seemed to be a touchstone of sorts. People seemed to see in them something analogous to the sentiments they peered in with.

  After morning announcements, it was off to Chemistry class, then World History, English, PE, then lunch. Two essays were due today, one she had written on The Scarlet Letter, and the other on the rise of the Tokugawa Bakufu. Emily was fascinated by the life of the first Tokugawa shogun, Ieyasu, who outmaneuvered his rivals to achieve the supreme power in feudal Japan. She was also intrigued by the story of Hester Prynne, the heroine of Hawthorne’s novel. The consummate outsider, a sinner and an outcast, she managed to turn her isolation into a source of power and ironic moral authority. Emily could hardly miss the similarity, imperfect though it was, to her own life. She occupied the margins of her high school, but found in her devotion to the martial arts access to an inner power that became the basis for something like authority, at least among her friends. But unlike Hester, this was a role she felt events had thrust upon her, rather than one she had elaborated out of her own handicraft.

  She found Tokugawa Ieyasu even more interesting because of his striking combination of caution and boldness. He was famous for “winning the empire by retreating.” In other words, he led his rivals to believe they had forced him to accept a weaker position, which he then used to destroy them. He subsequently became shogun in 1603, and his descendants passed the office down for another two and a half centuries. She saw in him an expression of what she and Sensei called go no sen, the initiative that holds itself in reserve. Holding in reserve is not passivity, as Emily well knew. In fact, she had come to think of go no sen as the primary form of initiative. But she also knew that there were situations in which it was better to force the issue by attacking first (sen sen no sen), or to “attack the attack” simultaneously (sen no sen), so to speak.

  There was a new teacher for fourth period PE, an emergency replacement hired just a week earlier. She introduced herself to the class as Hana Park, though in her mouth it sounded more like “Back.” She was quite pretty with bleached blond hair, which looked even more striking since she was clearly of some Asian extraction. Rumor had it she used to be a gymnast, maybe even had an Olympic tryout a few years ago. The kids on the cheerleading squad were obviously thrilled, and the rest of the athletic set, too, kids like Amanda and her friend Melanie Birdwell. But Miss Park took a personal interest in Emily right away, which didn’t please everyone.

  “I heard about the tournament,” she said. “Congratulations! I wish I’d been there to see it. I hear you took on some pretty tough guys.”

  “I suppose. But how are you doing,” Emily asked, changing the subject.

  There had been talk of a broken engagement and an abusive boyfriend. Emily had offered to give her self-defense pointers.

  “I’m okay, I guess,” she said quietly. “Like a weight’s been lifted, you know.” She sounded just a little shaky. “I don’t think I’ll ever forget that feeling.”

  “I suppose not. You really should come to the dojo one of these days.”

  This was not the first time Emily made this offer. But Miss Park had yet to take her up on it.

  Today’s activity was archery, one of Emily’s favorites. On camping with her father, which used to happen most weekends in the spring and fall, they would practice in the woods with all sorts of weapons: slings, arrows, throwing knives, rocks, etc. She was pretty accurate with all of them, but best with the bow. Something about the flight of the arrow, its nearly silent, parabolic passage, responded to the trajectory of something deeply quiet inside of her.

  Miss Park asked her to demonstrate proper technique for the class. With her shoulders lined up with the target, she fitted the arrow to the string, raised the bow to eye level and drew the string back a little more than half the length of the shaft. One of the feathers of the fletching brushed her cheek. The string sang out and the arrow flew in a gentle arc to the target, sticking in one of the outer rings. Amanda and Melanie giggled together on the side of the gym.

  Miss Park organized the rest of the class opposite the row of targets. Emily drew an arrow out of the quiver hanging from her shoulder and in a single, continuous motion pulled it across the bow string and back past her ear, the full length of the shaft, released the string and sent it in a fast flat arc to the center of the target. She sent two more arrows to the same spot in quick succession. With a little smile of satisfaction, she put the bow and quiver aside, went over to the bar on a side wall of the gym and did twenty pull ups.

  “Pretty impressive, Miss Tenno,” Miss Park said. “I don’t think I can do more than two.”

  “Well, that’s probably two more than any of them can do,” Emily snorted.

  The other girls had lost interest in archery by this time and began to wander off, except for Amanda and Melanie who were whispering together a few feet away. Miss Park noticed and blew her whistle.

  “C’mon, ladies,” she shouted. “If archery’s not your thing, let’s try some fitness exercises.” She brought everyone to the end of the gym where three ropes were hanging from the ceiling. “Form three lines, ladies. Everyone climbs to the top of the rope, does ten push-ups and one pull-up.”

  Lots of moaning ensued. Most of the girls would not be able to complete all three tasks, especially the pull-up, and they dreaded being forced to fail in public.

  “Do we have to?”

  “Amanda, demonstrate for us how to climb the rope,” she said, breaking through the collective whining. “Melanie, you’re in charge of the push-up line. Emily, you help people with their pull-up.”

  Amanda climbed the rope quickly and efficiently, showing the class how to wrap the rope around one foot and lock it with the other. She was fit and strong, and obviously pleased to show off in front of the class. Most of the girls were able to make it to the top. The ones who couldn’t, failed to control the rope with their feet and had to rely mainly on arm strength, of which they did not have enough. The success rate for the push-ups and the pull-up was less inspiring. Amanda and Melanie were able to finish all three, as, of course, was Emily.

  But Emily was in a whimsical mood on the rope, and maybe she just wanted to annoy Amanda. Instead of using the foot-lock technique, she let her legs dangle as she climbed the twenty five feet from floor to ceiling hand over hand. At the top, she trapped the rope around one foot, surveyed the room from on high, and then allowed herself to slide down slowly, only regulating her speed with her feet. She seemed to hover at various positions. All eyes were fixed upon her. At the bottom, there was a lot of hushed whispering. Most of the kids looked like they had just seen how much fun climbing could be. Some clamored to climb up again.

  “Don’t scare me like that,” cried Miss Park, laughing and shooing everyone to the locker room.

  ~~~~~~~

  Lingering in the corner, Amanda fumed, huddled with her friend Melanie, who looked more bemused than angry. At six feet tall, she towered over Amanda. She was a big girl, and playing on the basketball team showed her first hand what athletic discipline looked like, and how to appreciate it when she saw it in others.

  Most of the girls hurried out of the locker room, perhaps not entirely comfortable wi
th the idea of dressing in public. Emily either didn’t notice or didn’t care that she was usually alone in the shower. Today, she also didn’t appear to notice Amanda lurking in the vicinity with her cell phone. Anyone else would have seen she was trying to take a picture. It was perhaps not as clear what Melanie’s role in this adventure was supposed to be. She just looked uncomfortable standing by the lockers. It was steamy, and Miss Park was hovering. Melanie was clearly having second thoughts, despite Amanda’s making impatient faces a few feet away. Finally, she spoke up as Emily was getting dressed.

  “Hey, Emily, have you put on weight?” she asked, in an insinuating tone. The point must have been to trick an embarrassed look out of her.

  “Gee, I hope so,” Emily replied, with a curious smile.

  This definitely wasn’t the reaction Melanie was expecting. There were no questions in her eyes, no doubts about her appearance. Just serenity. Was there an offer of friendship too? She also saw something else, something darker lurking at the bottom of her eyes, a flash of something unsettling. Is this what Amanda was always complaining about, the weird look in Emily’s eyes? Whatever it was, Melanie saw it all now, and she was taken aback by it, perhaps even a little ashamed.

  She smiled nervously and turned quickly towards Amanda, effectively blocking her view. Amanda huffed and growled as Melanie pushed her out of the locker room.

  “What are you doing, Mel,” she said as soon as they were around the corner.

  “This isn’t interesting anymore. I’m hungry. Let’s go eat.”

  “What? So now you’re on her side?”

  “No,” Melanie insisted. “But why do you hate her so much anyway? What’s she ever done to you?”

  Amanda said nothing.

  By the time they settled on a table, Melanie fully regretted the whole episode. Maybe she could get Amanda to delete the photos. Just then her phone vibrated. Phones around the room went off and the rest of the table was snickering. She looked at the pictures. There was a blurry one of a girl in the shower. Thankfully the face wasn’t recognizable. A second one clearly showed Emily smiling in her underwear, pulling on her pants. Melanie hung her head and let out a sad sigh. The text purported to be a forward of a lurid message Emily had sent to Danny.

  “This is BS, Amanda.”

  “What exactly is your problem, Mel? It’s not my fault if she’s a slut.”

  Melanie stood up abruptly and walked out on the patio. She found a bench in the corner and looked again at the pictures. Something caught her eye about the second one. When she zoomed in, several dark bruises became clearly visible on her arms and legs. She hadn’t seen them before because Emily wore sweats in class. But now they were unmistakable. She found the sight disturbing.

  ~~~~~~~

  By the time Emily made her way to lunch, Danny, Billy and Wayne were waving her over to their table. Wendy arrived a few seconds later. She took one look at Emily’s bento box and was already trying to work out a trade. Emily just slid it across the table to her. Wayne eyed this transaction hungrily, but said nothing. He was biding his time.

  “Hey, guess what, guys,” Billy crowed. “There’s a new video of the tournament on the web. It’s even better than the one I took. Check it out!”

  Billy pulled out his phone and found the video. It was a montage of various matches with a soundtrack. But most of it was just Emily’s matches with the last three guys. They all watched it, with Wayne hooting and Wendy saying “Oh my God!” at various points.

  “When that guy hit you before the match started,” Wendy said, “I mean you just looked at him. That was so cool.”

  “What did you say to him there?” Danny asked, obviously unaware of how uncomfortable Emily was with this conversation.

  “Put that away, guys,” she pleaded. But then she looked at Wendy and relented. “I asked him if he wanted me to hit him as hard as he tried to hit me.”

  “Well, you hit him pretty hard the first few times,” Wayne said. “When you stuck him in the chest with your elbow, I thought he was done right there.”

  “But what did you say to him at the end to get him to forfeit the match?” Wendy asked.

  “He hit the floor pretty hard there. I just asked him if he was okay,” Emily replied. “I think he was embarrassed, and maybe a little ashamed.”

  “Well, you really cleaned his clock,” Billy said. “I don’t see how he was gonna be able to continue, no matter what.”

  “Guys, can we talk about something else?”

  Wendy was holding Billy’s phone when she noticed a text message about Emily. Without thinking, she tapped on it, then stared at the phone for a long moment. Finally, she turned and glared angrily at Danny.

  “What the hell is this?” she demanded, jamming the phone under his nose.

  All three boys leaned over it. As it dawned on them what they were seeing, they all looked stricken.

  “I have no idea…” Danny sputtered out. Billy and Wayne were speechless.

  “Give me that!” Wendy snarled as she snatched the phone out of Wayne’s big hand.

  Emily looked at her with arm extended. Wendy hesitated, reluctant to comply, but finally passed it over. Emily looked at the pictures for a moment. A weary, sad expression crept across her face.

  “Em, I swear I had nothing to do with that,” Danny whimpered.

  “I know. Amanda must have taken these in PE. I thought she and Melanie were being extra furtive.”

  “That little bitch,” Wendy exclaimed, as she took the phone back and deleted the text. She looked at the other guys and demanded their phones.

  “I guess they’re all over the school now,” Emily sighed.

  She seemed rather more disappointed than angry or embarrassed. Kids around the cafeteria were looking at their table. At least, that’s how it felt to Wendy. She stood up and tried to get the attention of the room. Billy whistled loudly and Wayne bellowed “Listen up, everyone.”

  Emily got up abruptly and walked off. She pushed through the double doors at the end of the cafeteria and walked over to Melanie. The bench was long enough for her to sit a few feet away. They looked at each other for a few seconds. Neither of them spoke.

  “If any of you just received some pictures on your phone,” Wendy shouted, “you should know they were sent by Amanda. She took them a little while ago in PE. Do the right thing and just delete them.”

  The room was silent for a moment as the news was digested. Then the buzz of conversation returned to fill the silence. Wendy couldn’t tell if it had done any good, but she couldn’t miss Amanda glowering at her from across the room.

  “So, what’s the big idea,” Emily asked sharply.

  Melanie shuddered at the sound of her voice. They sat in silence for another long moment. Melanie turned to say something, but nothing came out. She stood up, hesitated for a second, then ran back into the building.

  -back to top-

  Chapter 6

  Popularity

  It had been a mere two weeks since the tournament in Norfolk. Emily won the black belt kumite, fighting in the men’s division, since there were no other women competing at her level. Her victory, her total mastery of her opponents, had been little short of amazing to everyone there. Of course, there were videos of her matches, lots of them, circulating on the web. They would go viral soon enough. A few kids in school had already seen them. Eventually everyone would see them.

  Emily had no idea what the impact of the videos would be, but she had a feeling it wouldn’t make her any new friends. Even before the tournament, she had been a lonely figure in the high school landscape. As tantalizing as the prospect of watching a young girl beating up grown men might seem, the reality of it would likely prove disconcerting to most kids. As would some other videos of her circulating on the web.

  There were lots of nuances to the social life of teenagers that Emily had yet to learn. But one unmistakable change even she noticed. Ordinarily, the football team enjoyed an unrivalled ascendance on campus, and
within this group the seniors on the varsity squad occupied the pinnacle of high school society. Various badges and other talismans marked this distinctiveness: jackets, t-shirts, patches and assorted jewelry. Respect was also enforced, sometimes ruthlessly, by the seniors themselves, with the tacit support of the rest of the team.

  This year, however, the droit des seigneurs—or right of the seniors—was not being so carefully observed, even within the team itself. Of course, some falling off was to be expected once football season was over. But this was more precipitous and more narrowly focused than might ordinarily be expected. In fact, it seemed mainly to concern two players in particular, Emily’s friends, Danny and Billy. They were regularly being hassled in little ways by a few sophomores and juniors on the team, and these were some of the larger players. It hadn’t broken out into the open yet, but she was certain things were tenser than usual.

  There had been the little things. Being shoved against a locker in the hallway crush between classes, cutting in front on the lunch line, resentful glances, angry whispers. Perhaps these were only ambiguous bits of evidence. But they rankled all the same. And there were some bigger things, like the episode with Marty and Jeff in the dojo.

  ~~~~~~~

  Wayne rounded a corner one day by the shop wing when he saw Jeff shoulder Billy against his locker door, with Marty right behind him. It looked like one of those accidentally on purpose kind of moves. Danny was standing next to Billy and reacted instantly, shoving Jeff back across the corridor. He and Marty were much larger than either Danny or Billy. If this came to blows, it looked to be a lopsided affair.

  From down the hall Wayne let out a growl and moved to insert himself into the middle of the fracas. Until he felt a hand on his shoulder gently pull him back.

  “This fight’s not for you, big guy,” a voice from behind him said.

  He turned and found himself looking directly into Melanie’s face. She was one of the few girls in school who came even remotely close to his eye level. Her smile was curious. Did she know something about this? Was it some sort of setup designed to entrap his friends? Or did she just understand the way athletes think better than he did?