I loved this. My best friend, Tommy, and I in the finals. We had been joking about kicking each other’s butts ever since he started learning Taekwon-do at a school across town from where I studied. And here we were. About to find out which one of us was better. Today, at least.

It was hard to talk past the mouth guard, but I managed to tell him, “I’m going to drop you, boy!” That’s when I noticed he wasn’t smiling. As a matter of fact, he looked pretty pissed off. Uh-oh, I thought. What’s up?

He quickly popped out his mouth guard and said, “I know you slept with my sister last night.” He readied himself.

With a loud “Si jak!”, the referee started the match. I never even heard him.

I don’t know what Tommy hit me with. One second, I was standing, then I was on my back, everyone gathered around asking if I was okay. I’d been out for almost a minute.

I looked at Tommy. “I never…”

“I know,” he said, looking a touch embarrassed. “But if I hadn’t distracted you, you’d have kicked my ass.”

I might, yet.