Hey Ermie,
I’m sorry I haven’t written in a while. Every time I start an email, a kid runs into my office with an emotional crisis and a sword.
You’re right; it feels strange that I’m here and not back home. Of course I want to live closer to you. I miss you all the time. You’re my big sister! I want to meet up for coffee every weekend and help you train Bruno not to eat the potted plants.
But I see something at this school that I haven’t seen in fifteen years of coaching.
You’d love Connecticut if you visited. Kings Row is on a hundred acres, with woods you can get lost in and a lake the boys are strictly forbidden to go near. All the buildings are rambling redbricks from the 1800s, and they still teach Latin. The school was established a century ago to teach boys how to be “proper young gentlemen.” Which meant those young gentlemen, as a natural part of their education, learning the blade.
Trouble is, their team has never won a state fencing championship. It’s been decades since they even got close—decades of boys with dreams, chasing gold they could never win.
But something is different this year.
Yeah, this team is rough. They’ve never fenced together before, and some of them are complete newcomers to the sport. Our captain, Harvard Lee, is solid—he has a heart of gold and is the kind of kid who shoulders everyone’s burdens. But his best friend is the school flirt, Aiden Kane. You may recall him from the times I have screamed into your ear, “Don’t talk to me about Aiden Kane!” Do you know how many boys I’ve seen absolutely wipe out because they’re heartbroken over him?
And then there are the freshmen. Nicholas Cox is a kid who’s had no formal training. He sticks out at this school like a sore thumb. The kids around here don’t know what to do with his undercut hair or his lower-class slang. At the other extreme, there’s Seiji Katayama, the perfect fencer. He’s lived and breathed nothing but the sword since he was five years old. He and Nicholas couldn’t be more different, and when they’re in a room it’s like a cat and a dog forced into a bath together. But on the piste…
… On the piste, they have potential. They all do.
So I’m not coming home. I’m staying at Kings Row, because this year we’re going to win the state championship. I want to see these boys pull together and become a true team. I know they can do it.
They’re good kids. Even Aiden.
And I have a plan to prove it.…
