"Those of you that were just going to sit around being lazy lumps on a log can run laps for the rest of class!" The students jumped in to action. Asher, Art, and Jane all started to run too not wanting to end up in trouble. "Not your three!"
Coach Winters was looking at them with a sharp gaze. "I saw that you two were the masterminds of this little game of tag. You definitely looked used to playing as well. Explain." She was not as happy as she could have been but they knew that they weren't in trouble.
"It's a game we made up to practice our footwork and level changes. We were training over the weekend and even learned some new moves." Before Asher or Art could reply Jane jumped in with an excited tone.
"Just a game you all made up on your day off? And tell me, how much do you all train a day?" Coach Winters tone seemed to have changed, there was less steel in it and more of a genuine curiosity.
"Well Asher and Art workout in the morning before school and I work out before bed. But we all practice out moves separately like shadow boxing. Art showed me on his phone. We also practiced moves the other day and tried to learn how to leave change. It's a lot of fun!" Jane answered so honestly it was painful.
'Jane, you're great but you are telling this torturer all our secrets.' Asher knew that if coach Winters knew all this she might find a way to add on to their workouts somehow. It would be much tougher is she found a way.
Coach Winters looked at each of them for a while. "I will allow you three to take out one of the demonstration videos from me every weekend. You two will get extra credit for getting the class moving. Lat year when I pretended to be late I needed to kick the whole class out. The principal was pretty angry but I reserve the right to kick out those who don't have the right to learn." She turned to Jane and looked at her with a hard expression. "If you have been on time I would be giving you extra credit too, but you were late. I expect a one page apology and explanation for tomorrow. However you are definitely the most advanced with foot work here."
Jane hung her head in shame. She knew she was going to be late and was ready for the consequences but at this moment she felt really bad about it. 'Thankfully she only assigned me more homework and didn't give me detention or remove points from my grade.'
Asher and Art were surprised to hear these things from coach Winters since they believed she would always be ruthless and try t torture them more. "Come on and choose one to study this week since you will all be at the camps later. Just give it back Friday." She led the three to a closet full of different video tapes. They were all labels with martial arts basics or competitions from champions. "I will give you the basics of reading an opponent." She handed a video that read ''Basics of reading your opponent''
"I have heard of this, Art told me that reading an opponent means that we can see how they will move." When Jane spoke coach Winters looked at Art a lot more seriously.
"You seem to do a lot of research on these things? Any particular reason?" Her gaze became thin as she suspected something ominous.
"I want to be a hero and I need to know as much as possible. I also need to beat my brother out for control over the family so the better I am the sooner that will happen." Art was afraid to lie to coach Winters so he just blurted out the truth. She nodded with his words as if she knew exactly what he was talking about. There was no doubt on her face any longer. Asher could swear that coach Winters had prior knowledge of such family matters
"Now get put of here before the bell rings. If you're late to your other classes I wont take the hit for you." The usual cold attitude returned as coach Winters sent them away. The three changed and found that they had an extra five minutes before class.
"We have to watch this tonight and practice!" Jane was already thinking of after school even though they had two more classes left to go.
"We have it for the whole week, we could get out other home work done first then focus on it." Art spoke about doing home work early.
"Dude are you sick? You just said you wanted to do home work early…" Asher looked at him like he had been replaced by another person.
Even Jane was looking at him weird, well her mask was facing him. "No I just want to be able to focus on getting stronger and the home work will be in the way." He looked like he wasn't fully focused, his mind was elsewhere.
"Well sure, let's do that then. If we can get it done early then we can watch the videos and practice on it tomorrow. You guys can take it with you since we will all watch it at Asher''s anyways." Jane handed the video she had taken to read back to Art who stored it in his back pack.
"I definitely think it was weird that she was testing everyone though. Asher had felt this way since coach Winters had said it.
"Oh yeah, super weird."
"I think it sounds normal. She had to get the people who were just there for what they thought was an easy grade. If they had stayed in class they could have hurt our learning. It was for our best." The boys were still not sure how Jane's brain worked when it came to coach Winters.