I couldn’t believe it! Chet, at the Rising Phoenix? It made no sense. Chet’s a great guy and all, but he’s not exactly brave. Or strong. Or athletic. And right now, he stood in front of the class blinking furiously with one eye and making weird faces.
When Sensei Huang raised his hand and did a lunge punch—his fist flying straight at Chet’s face—I almost ran up there to stop him. I mean, it was Chet! What could he do to defend himself?
But when Huang’s fist got close to his head, Chet brought his arm up in a blocking move that kept Huang from hitting him. Next, Huang spun and kicked Chet in the chest. This time Chet went down. Still, even as he hit the ground, I could see he wasn’t hurt. In fact, it seemed like Huang’s foot had barely touched him. Just like that first punch had seemed designed to hit the air in front of Chet’s nose, rather than actually hitting Chet.
I breathed a sigh of relief. Huang was doing all the real work. All Chet had to do was show off one basic block, then fall down. And I knew from years of experience with Chet that he was good at falling down.
Everyone in the dojo gasped. Chet climbed back to his feet and bowed at Huang. The other kids all clapped as if that had been some serious karate. Obviously they hadn’t been watching as closely as I had.
I shot a glance at Joe. He nodded. He’d seen what I’d seen.
“Thanks, Chet,” Huang said.
Chet grinned from ear to ear and practically bounced back into the group of students. He was still blinking, but he headed toward the back of the dojo, looking proud of himself. I noticed the one girl in class smiling at him, her eyes shining. She stepped up really close to Chet as he walked by her. Now, I’m not too comfortable around girls. My brain just shuts off and I tend to act like a total dork. But compared to Chet? I’m Brad Pitt.
Chet doesn’t just act dorky around girls. He acts oblivious. As if he’s not even aware that there are girls on the planet. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him talk to a girl in our whole lives—and today was no exception. Chet noticed the girl smiling at him and he took off, fleeing back into the hallway that led to Huang’s office.
“That’s it for our orientation,” Huang was saying. “If anyone has questions, I’ll be happy to answer them one on one. Otherwise, I’ll see you all on Tuesday.”
I caught Joe watching me and shrugged. We both knew we should be talking to Huang. He’s the one we were here to investigate, after all. But we also both knew that we just had to talk to Chet ASAP. We had to know what he was doing in a martial arts school!
Joe and I left Huang fielding questions from two of the other kids. We took off after Chet and caught up to him in the locker room changing out of his gi.
“Hey, Chet,” I said, patting him on the back. “What’s going on?”
He jumped, then grinned when he saw us. “What are you guys doing here?” he asked, shoving his glasses up higher on his nose.
“Didn’t you see us in the beginners’ lecture?” Joe asked.
“No,” Chet said. “Were you there? I couldn’t see much. I can’t wear my glasses during karate. Too dangerous, you know? They might get cracked.”
“How can you do karate if you can’t see well?” I asked.
“Oh, I usually put in contact lenses. But I washed one down the sink before. So I had to do the whole demo with only one lens in.”
That explains the bizarro blinking, I thought. Poor Chet had really bad luck.
“I can never get the stupid things in right,” Chet muttered out loud. “I don’t understand why everybody loves them so much. What’s wrong with glasses?”
Joe clapped him on the back. “You did a pretty impressive job up there, considering you couldn’t see.”
“Yeah. What are you, a brown belt already?” I joked.
Chet blushed. “I hardly had to do anything,” he admitted. “Sensei Huang does all the work.”
“He must like you,” Joe said. “He said you’re one of his top students.”
Chet puffed up like a peacock. “I am a fast learner,” he said. “You guys will be joining my class, I guess. I’m kinda surprised you’re here.”
“How come?” I asked.
“Just, you know, the two of you always act so sure of yourselves. I wouldn’t expect you to take a class like this.”
“Well, I thought we were just learning karate. I didn’t expect all the self-esteem stuff,” Joe complained.
“Yeah. Sensei Huang has a pretty unique approach,” Chet said. “Do you want to meet him?”
“Definitely,” I said.
Chet led us out of the locker room and back into the hallway. The girl from class was hanging around near one of the office doors. Her whole face lit up when she saw Chet.
“Hi, Chet!” she chirped.
“Oh. Um, hi,” Chet mumbled. He seemed shocked that she was talking to him.
“You know, we didn’t really meet in class,” Joe said, smiling at her. “Why don’t you introduce us, Chet?”
I nudged him with my elbow. Poor Chet was obviously uncomfortable with this girl. Why did Joe have to torture him like this?
“Um . . . uh . . . Frank and Joe Hardy, this is Liz Campbell,” Chet stammered.
Immediately my brain clicked back into ATAC mode, and I could see that Joe’s did too. “Campbell?” I asked. “Are you related to Finn?”
Liz nodded. “He’s my dad.”
“That’s cool,” Joe said. “He must be psyched that you’re into karate, huh? I mean, he obviously is, or else he wouldn’t work here.”
Liz’s smile vanished. Suddenly she looked more like the sullen girl we’d first seen in the dojo. “Not really,” she said. “I mean, he isn’t that excited about me taking lessons. He’s afraid something will happen to me.”
I shot a look at Joe. Why was Finn afraid? Did he know something about the students who’d gotten hurt?
“I don’t care, though. He can’t tell me what to do. Sensei Huang said I could take lessons.” Liz stuck her chin in the air defiantly and walked off to the girls’ locker room.
Chet was sweating bullets. He looked relieved that she was gone. Of course, Joe took that as a cue to tease him.
“So that’s your girlfriend, hmmm?” he asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
“No!” Chet yelped.
I pushed Joe in the shoulder, and he responded by dropping into a boxing stance and doing a few fake jabs at me.
“Looks like you two already know how to fight,” Paul Huang’s voice broke in.
I spun around, startled. I hadn’t heard him come up. He was gazing at Joe and me with a strange look on his face.
“Sensei, these are two of my best friends,” Chet said eagerly. “Frank and Joe Hardy.”
I held out my hand, and he shook it. His grasp was firm, and I noticed a small tattoo on his forearm—a Chinese dragon. When I looked into his eyes, I got the feeling that he was trying to read me, see what I was all about.
He did the same to Joe.
“You boys go to school with Chet?” Huang asked.
“Yep. Ever since second grade,” Joe said.
“And are you in the same clubs and activities?” Huang pressed. “What did you tell me, Chet? Science Club and the debate team?”
“Frank and I are more into sports,” Joe said. I wanted to kick him—obviously Huang didn’t want jocks here. We were the only students in the whole place who didn’t seem athletically challenged.
“Hmm. In that case, you’re not the kind of students I usually attract,” Huang said, confirming my suspicions. “I’m more interested in finding teenagers who feel that they’re not good at sports—kids who think of themselves as clumsy or uncoordinated. Those are the ones I like to help. Whenever I can teach someone a skill to be proud of, I’m happy.”
Joe looked panicked, so I stepped in. “Sports are really more Joe’s thing,” I said quickly. “I’ve always been a little embarrassed when I try to play. I . . . uh . . . drop the ball a lot in baseball. That kind of thing.”
“And he’s a terrible hitter,” Joe agreed.
I’d get him for that later!
“I guess what I mean is that I don’t think I’m a bad athlete. I just get self-conscious when I know people are watching me. And that makes me klutzy.”
This was hard, pretending to be insecure. One thing our parents always drilled into Joe and me was that we could do anything we set our minds to. I was starting to realize how unusual that kind of self-confidence was. Suddenly I felt lucky. But I also felt like we might have blown our chance to go undercover here at the Rising Phoenix.
Did Huang buy my story?
He studied me for a long time, then smiled. “I think you’ll find that karate gives you a certain inner balance, Frank,” he said. “It will keep your focus on what you’re doing, not on who’s watching you.”
I smiled gratefully. I kinda thought that was a good opportunity for us to get out of there and let Huang forget about us for a while, but Joe pushed on.
“Sensei, what is your training?” he asked. “Did you go to school here?”
Huang looked at his watch. “I have extensive training, Joe, but unfortunately I don’t have time to talk about it right now. Maybe another time.” He gave us a farewell nod and disappeared into his office.
“Isn’t he cool?” Chet said as we headed back into the locker room to grab our stuff.
“Yeah. He doesn’t talk about himself much, though,” Joe commented.
On the way outside, Chet pulled me aside. “I never knew you felt self-conscious playing sports, Frank,” he said.
I felt bad for lying to my friend, but what could I do? We were here on a mission, and that meant lying sometimes. “Not as self-conscious as I feel around girls,” I joked.
“I hear you.” Chet gave us a wave and walked over to his mother’s car. She was parked near the curb, waiting for him.
Joe and I hopped on our motorcycles and pulled on our helmets. “What do you think?” my brother asked before we took off.
“I think Huang is a little too weird for me,” I said. “I don’t know what he’s up to, but I get the feeling it’s something we won’t like.”