‘Tae’-means to kick, ‘kwon’- means to punch and ‘Do’-means the way or the art.

Nothing of those statements I understood. The only thing in my mind was “I really need to get in the team. No matter what!”

6:00 in the morning, I was getting ready for school,

“Lighter check, cigarettes check, jogging pants check, extra shirt check, and wallet check and hmmm, where did I left my dignity? Oh yeah, I lost that I long time ago”

As t take my leave from my house to my school, the thought of cutting classes instantly came rushing through my mind.

“Shit, the power of laziness compels me, No! I need to join the taekwondo team; I do not want that girl to think I am a liar. “Must go to school.”

I struggled to go to school. It felt like I was tied to the ground, it felt like “life” itself is hindering me from accomplishing this task. Finally realizing I really need to go. I start my walk to school.

I light a cigarette while I walk.

The distance between my house and the school was not that far, it only took one taxi to get there. However, being the cheap ass I am, I always walked going there, I would take a short cut. The short cut I took was well known to be the hangouts of Yankees. That fact never bothered me, the first few times I passed by there, was troublesome. However, as time went by. The people there learned to know their place.

So when I passed there. A group of teenagers in uniforms were already there around five to six of them.

“I see school was already in session,” I thought to myself.

One of the teenagers strangely stared at me; he looked like he was going to beat my ass. He had a body that can be compared to a normal teenager, skinny, messy haired, pierced eyes and a menacing look.

He grunted and said “ohhhhh what we have here, ey boy give me ya money!”

As he said that, I could only do nothing but flick my cigarette at him. He was blocking my way like some kind of thug in those animes I watched. I thought to myself.”Fuuuuuck, what a hassle”

The group reacted to my actions by surrounding me. They said” ey ey ey, what the fuck are you thinking, you see your outnumbered here. Don’t act like some hot shot here”

I slightly lowered my head, and laughed. In addition, I said “Hahahahaha, well, what are you waiting for, whose going to go first?”

It seemed I was going to be in a fight until a store clerk saw us. He rushed in and shouted” OY, no fighting here, get the fuck out”

All the teenage thugs went running “fuck! Let’s scram, you remember this, if we see you again your dead”

I really did not hear correctly what he said, as my mind was distracted with the problem how that fuck am I going to sneak into school.

When the store clerk finally arrived in front of me, I quickly recognized him.

“Oh it’s you Mr. Santiago, Good Morning!”

“What the fuck are you doing?! Don’t get into fights early in the morning,” he said to me. As he smacked my head.

“Don’t you know the last group of kids you fought are still in the hospital, one of them still in surgery because you broke his rib cage, for Christ’s sake, Leon? I have known you for four years now, and every time you get into a fight. Someone has to go to the hospital, can’t you act like a normal kid for once”

“Sorry, it really wasn’t my intention to send them to the hospital or hurt them, it seemed like they had a problem with my faced, and so I fixed it by punching their faces”

While I was talking to Mr. Santiago, I check my watch; I was surprised to see that I was already late,

So I began to run.

“I need to go now, don’t want to be late!”

I waved bye to him and quickly rushed towards school distracted by the time, I did not notice a car was heading my way, I was ran over by car.

Falling to the ground, I quickly stood up and ran towards school; nothing was on my mind but to get to school. I shouted to the driver, “sorry for the bump”

“HEY kid! Are you OK?!” the driver shouted, he then went to see the front of his car, he was shocked to see a huge bump on his bumper.

“Holy fucking shit, what the fuck did I hit!” he said to himself

Still running towards school, I could feel that my head was bleeding. That did not bother me, good for me I did not wear my polo going to school, I kept it safe in my bag.

As I was near the area the school was, I cleaned myself up. With my handkerchiefs. Luckily, I always keep three of them in my bag. After I cleaned myself up. I began to hear the sound of the Anthem of our school being sung. “Shit, I only have 15 mins before I become officially late. Not on my watch, I ran so fast towards the gates of the school. The guards were already there standing by the gate, and the students who were late were already being lined up.

“Fuck, I am late!”

However, when all seemed shitty, I was a little happy and shock to see the girl I liked standing on the line.

I ran towards her side, looking not exhausted at all and cool. I said

“Yo? Bad morning?”

“Yeah, woke up late, hahahaha, it seems you also did”

“Apparently I did hahahaha” I smiled.

The morning assembly finally ended and the guard let us in.

She and I separated to go to our classes.

“See ya later!” she said.

I replied with “yeah, bye “

As I watched her go up the stairs. A sudden pain flowed through my body. Then I remember,

“I WAS FUCKING HIT BY CAR”

I did not show any signs of pain because the girl was still in my sight, as soon as she was already out of my sight. I collapsed on the ground. The teacher nearby quickly ran to my body, shouted for help.

Everything that happened while I was out was somewhat shady, apparently, I was fine, my body was just tired.

I woke up in the clinic of our school lying down on the bed. I checked my watched to see what time is it.

It was 9:00 already.

The clinic was not really a new sight for my eyes, I would always be sent to the clinic once or twice a week.

I would always get into fights. It was fine for me. However, the parents of the people I fought were mad at me.

“You should rest for a little while more” I heard a voice saying that to me. As a lift myself up, I saw our

School nurse sitting by the window reading something.

Her name was Rosemary Gonzales. She had a very big body. Having muscles on her arms like some kind of wrestler. She was very scary with her hair tied like a bun, and her glasses. Naturally, I would not be scared of girls, but with her, I was scared as fuck. However, she really was not that harsh. She was like bro.so my attitude towards her was like me treating another bro.

“Yo?! I need to get to my class,”

“Well that’s the first time I heard that from you.” She stated

 “Go back to sleep and rest!” the nurse shouted at me.

However, as she shouted I was already walking on the corridor. Heading towards my classroom. First I passed by the classroom of the girl I liked.

She was sitting at the back of the class, she looked like an angel, and I blushed a little, and then proceeded to my classroom. As I enter, there was no teacher, I quickly ran towards my sit. As I sat down, the teacher entered the classroom.

“Hahahahaha, right on time!” I said to myself.

Then the teacher started her lesson, obviously I did not listening. The only thing in my mind was I needed to get into the taekwondo team and impress that girl I liked. I prepared my mindset for what was going to happen after school.

I said to myself “I’m going to fucking join the team no matter what!”

When school finally ended, I went to the taekwondo room. The sound of kick pads being kick greeted me. As I stand at the front the room. I was nervous as fuck, but when I opened the door and first thing I saw blew my fucking mind.