Derek’s head turned.
Jordan sat near the back in a borrowed gi.
He had finally begun joining regular class.
Only twice a week.
Thomas had asked privately.
Jordan agreed because Noah had stayed.
Derek spoke immediately.
“He’s seventeen.”
“So?”
Thomas asked.
“You’re putting him in mentorship?”
“Assisting.”
“He barely trains here.”
“He has experience.”
“So do I.”
Thomas looked at him.
“You already teach.”
Derek heard something else.
Replacement.
The exhibition planning became tense.
Jordan worked with beginners.
Noah improved.
Slowly.
He still backed away when nervous.
Jordan stopped correcting the retreat first.
Instead, he taught him how to reset afterward.
“You don’t need zero fear.”
Jordan said.
“You need a plan after fear.”
Nia trained beside him.
She was still clumsy.
Less disastrously.
One evening Derek watched Jordan helping Noah.
“You’re teaching him to run.”
Jordan ignored him.
Derek stepped onto the mat.
“If somebody comes at him, backing up gets him hurt.”
Jordan looked over.
“Depends what’s behind him.”
Derek scoffed.
“See?”
“This is the problem.”
“What problem?”
“You overthink everything.”
Jordan smiled.
“Coming from you, I’ll take that.”
Several students laughed.
Derek’s face changed.
Thomas saw from across the room.
“Derek.”
Too late.
Derek stepped close.
“You want to show him better?”
Jordan stood.
“No.”
“Of course.”
Derek looked around.
“Always advice.”
“Never demonstration.”
Jordan sighed.
“You need this really badly.”
“What?”
“To beat me at something.”
Silence.
Derek stared.
Jordan continued:
“I don’t know why.”
“But it has nothing to do with Noah.”
That landed.
Derek moved closer.
“You think you know me?”
“No.”
“Then stop talking.”
“Gladly.”
Jordan turned.
Derek grabbed the sleeve of his gi.
Jordan stopped.
Thomas’s shout came instantly.
“Hands off.”
Derek released.
The room had frozen.
Thomas crossed the mat.
“You’re done teaching tonight.”
Derek stared.
“What?”
“Go home.”
“You’re serious?”
“Yes.”
“Over that?”
“Over the last three months.”
Derek looked shocked.
Thomas continued.
“You’re suspended from instruction until after the exhibition.”
Parents murmured.
Derek’s face flushed.
“You’re choosing him.”
“No.”
“I’m choosing the standards this gym was supposed to have.”
Derek laughed.
“Who kept this place alive?”
Thomas said nothing.
Derek stepped closer.
“My family.”
Thomas’s expression hardened.
“My father wrote checks when you were begging people not to cancel memberships.”
“I know.”
“You think I don’t?”
“I know exactly what your father did.”
“And I’m grateful.”
Derek pointed toward Jordan.
“Then why does this kid walk in here and suddenly I’m the problem?”
Thomas looked at him sadly.
“You were the problem before he arrived.”
The silence was brutal.
Derek’s eyes filled with something between rage and humiliation.
Jordan wished Thomas had said it privately.
But it was too late.
Derek untied his belt.
Threw it onto the mat.
Then walked out.
The door slammed.
Thomas stared at the belt.
Jordan approached.
“That went badly.”
Thomas exhaled.
“Yes.”
“You should go after him.”
“No.”
“Coach.”
Thomas looked at Jordan.
“For twelve years I have gone after him.”
He picked up Derek’s belt.
“This time he has to decide whether he comes back.”
Derek returned three days later.
Not to class.
To the office.
His father came with him.
Richard Sloan.
Sixty.
Construction company.
Successful.
Expensive coat.
The man’s presence filled a room almost as aggressively as Derek’s.
Jordan happened to be helping clean equipment when they entered.
Richard looked at him.
“So that’s Hale.”
Jordan kept wiping pads.
Thomas stepped out.
“Richard.”
“We need to talk.”
“Office.”
The door closed.
Voices carried anyway.
Richard:
“My son tells me you humiliated him in front of students.”
Thomas:
“I disciplined an instructor.”
“You suspended your best competitor.”
“I suspended a coach who put his hands on a teenager after being told repeatedly to stop escalating.”
“Hale is seventeen.”
“That makes him a teenager.”
“He’s also a black belt.”
“That does not make Derek’s behavior acceptable.”
Richard’s voice sharpened.
“My company has given this gym seventy thousand dollars in six years.”
Thomas answered quietly.
“Yes.”
Jordan stopped wiping.
Richard continued.
“New roof.”
“HVAC.”
“Scholarship equipment.”
“You were happy to take it.”
“I was.”
“And now my son gets thrown out because some kid with a sob story walks in?”
Jordan’s jaw tightened.
Thomas’s voice became cold.
“Do not use Leon Hale’s death in this conversation.”
“Who?”
“Jordan’s father.”
Richard laughed.
“I don’t care who his father was.”
Thomas answered:
“That may be the first useful thing you’ve said.”
Silence.
Then:
“Jordan should not be judged by his father.”
“Derek should not be protected by his.”
The office went completely quiet.
Jordan looked down.
A minute later Richard stormed out.
Derek followed.
But at the door, Derek stopped beside Jordan.
“My dad wants me to quit.”
Jordan looked at him.
“Okay.”
“You’d like that.”
“No.”
Derek frowned.
“Why not?”
“Because then you don’t have to fix anything.”
Derek stared.
Jordan continued cleaning.
“You get to leave angry.”
“Tell yourself Coach betrayed you.”
“Tell yourself I took your place.”
“Never ask why a twelve-year-old flinches around you.”
Derek’s face changed.
Jordan expected anger.
Instead Derek whispered:
“Shut up.”
Jordan nodded.
“Okay.”
Derek walked out.
He returned alone the next evening.
Black belt in his bag.
Thomas let him train.
Not teach.
No speeches.
No apology yet.
Just class.
For a week, Derek avoided Jordan.
Then the winter exhibition arrived.
Northstar filled with almost two hundred people.
Parents.
Local business owners.
Former students.
Children wearing uniforms too large for them.
A banner above the mat:
NORTHSTAR WINTER BENEFIT
EVERY KID DESERVES A PLACE TO TRAIN
Jordan almost laughed at the slogan.
Nia punched him.
“Be nice.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You made a face.”
Thomas opened the event.
Beginner demonstrations first.
Nia performed.
Missed one step.
Recovered.
Jordan clapped the loudest.
Noah came next.
His demonstration involved a simple defensive sequence.
Block.
Step.
Front kick to a pad.
Reset.
The first time, he froze.
The room waited.
Derek stood along the opposite wall.
Noah looked toward Jordan.
Jordan did not tell him what to do.
He simply breathed visibly.
Four counts.
Noah copied him.
Then performed the sequence.
Not perfectly.
Correctly enough.
Applause.