LITMIR.BIZ

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to modify downstairs.”

      Sona shrugged. “I want a cut of the royalties if it becomes famous and Dolce & Gabbana wants to make it in bulk.”

      Ash had to laugh. “Do you even know what royalties are? Do you even know who Dolce & Gabbana are?”

      “Dad was watching Project Runway reruns all afternoon.”

      Ash rolled her eyes. “Dad needs to get a job.”

      “Royalties?”

      “How about, five laps around the gym if you’re not ready in five minutes?”

      “Let’s not go today.” Sona rolled over onto her back. “Let’s just stay here. Let’s make microwave s’mores instead.”

      Ash sighed, putting her hands on her hips. “Do you want to ever get your green belt?”

      “I don’t want to break a board in half.”

      “It’s not that hard.” Ash didn’t understand how Sonali could be satisfied with her white belt after two years of training. Ash had sailed through the belts and now taught the more junior students with her brown belt.

      “Why does no one understand that I’m a pacifist?” With a huge sigh, Sonali rolled to her feet. She started grabbing her gloves, helmet and uniform out of the closet.

      “It’s about to become ten laps. And why do you know that word?”

      * * *

      Ash was assigned to lead three junior students in their sparring in class that evening. As a brown belt, she was allowed to use body contact in her sparring, though the white belts never were. Her job was mainly to make sure they used full force to throw their kicks and jabs, but always stopped short of actually killing each other.

      Ash circled around Sonali, a timid, moppy eight-year-old named Jacob and a fiery little twelve-year-old girl with hair as bright as carrots, who was eyeing Sonali in a way Ash didn’t like.

      “Okay everyone, the next move all of you should do is the jumping front snap kick.”

      All three of them stood there and stared at her.

      “That move sucks,” complained the little red-haired one.

      “Let’s keep our opinions to ourselves and do the move,” Ash suggested.

      They still just stood there.

      “I mean today. Now. Do it now.”

      All three halfheartedly hopped in the air, then threw out their right feet in the air in front of them.

      “At someone. You’re hardly ever going to have to fight thin air in the real world. Here, Jacob, you throw a kick at me. Sona, throw a kick at...” Ash gestured toward the red-haired girl.

      “Angela, duh.”

      Ash resisted an eye roll. “At Angela Duh.”

      “It’s just regular Angela. Duh.”

      “Sona, throw a kick at Regular Angela.”

      “That’s not my name!”

      Everyone got into their positions.

      “Okay, let’s circle.”

      The four of them circled one another in pairs, Jacob and Sona throwing out timid jabs toward their opponents. “Now, jump snap kick. Go!”

      Jacob’s little foot brushed the air near Ash’s hip. “Good job, Jacob!”

      Ash looked to see if Sona had done the move yet. She hadn’t. She was still circling Angela.

      “Come on!” Angela whined. “You’re so lame!”

      Sona tilted on her side and did a tentative kick.

      “Wrong kick, Sona. Jump and kick. Come on, just one,” Ash called out. Where was her sister’s head today?

      “God, you suck.” Angela folded her arms. “Everyone is going to get their green belt before you, loser.”

      Jacob did another jumping front snap kick gleefully as if to prove Angela’s point.

      “Sona, the eight-year-old is doing better than you. Let’s see a real kick,” Ash said sternly. She was not going to let that bratty Angela get away with insulting her sister.

      Sonali hopped back and forth, hands in a defensive posture, but staring at her feet.

      What was Sonali’s problem? Ash was going to make her do the kick before the night was over.

      “God, why don’t you just give up? Why are you even in here?” Angela dropped her defensive stance and stood with her hands on her hips. Ash could tell she was going to be a real pain in a few years.

      “Sona, for the love of—” Ash started toward her sister.

      Bam! Suddenly Angela went flying backward.

      Sona stood there looking shocked. Jumping front snap kick success.

      Ash didn’t know whether to applaud or scold. Sona had never, ever initiated contact in class before. Now, Angela sat on her butt five feet away, her face crumbling.

      “Uh, no contact, Sona,” was all Ash could think of to say.

      The head tae-kwon-do instructor blew the whistle. “No contact! Now back to circling.”

      Wow. Ash was stunned by her sister’s sudden aggression for the rest of the hour.

      After class, the sisters headed back to the locker room to change and wait for Josh to come pick them up. He didn’t like them to walk home from the studio after dark, and he certainly didn’t like for Ash to take Sona as a passenger on the Vespa.

      “Did someone do something to you? Is that why you won’t walk home the normal way?” Ash asked as she sat down on a bench and started running a comb through her hair.

      “Are you spying on me?” Sona slammed her locker shut, piercing Ash with an accusatory stare.

      “Clearly! Because I have nothing else to do,” Ash snapped back. “I saw you come through the backyard. It’s like you were dodging the other kids on your bus. Were you? Is that where all this aggression is coming from?”

      Sona gave her a suspicious look and started shoveling her uniform into her gym bag. “No.”

      “God, I hope I sound more convincing when I lie.”

      “You don’t.”

      “Who’s messing with you?”

      “I’m handling it, okay? In my own way. You don’t need to interfere in my life.”

      “I never interfere!”

      Sonali snorted.

      “Yeah right. Like you never interfered when you beat the shit out of that Billy kid who was messing with Sebastian.”

      “Sona! Language!” Ash was hardly offended, but she knew if Sona used that kind of language around Laila, she would be in deep trouble and be blamed for being a bad influence.

      “It’s true, though. Remember how he used to trip Seb in the shower in gym class and call him a dirty—”

      “Sona!”

      “I wasn’t going to say it.”

      Ash doubted it. “Why do you know all this, by the way? You were seven.”

      “Seb told me.” Sonali went back to packing away her helmet and gloves. “He told me that somehow you just knew. He never said a word to you about Billy, but you just knew what was going on.”

      It had happened at the end of eighth grade. Sebastian had grown quieter and quieter the whole year, starting when Billy Walters had transferred to their school—and to Seb’s gym class. Sebastian had always been

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