The Pursuit of the Ivory Poachers (12 page)

He got up and, with the help of Tim, a thirteen-year-old boy who sometimes assisted him, showed the class how it was done. When the demonstration was over, the instructor told everyone to find a partner. Richard and Charlie nabbed each other first, which left Jack alone, but not for long. Charlotte, the girl with the orange belt, turned up in front of him almost instantly.

“Wanna be my partner?” she asked.

Jack looked around for another partner, but everyone had already paired up. He never liked practicing with girls. He didn't like the thought of hurting them.

“OK,” he said reluctantly. “Shall we get started?”

Jack and Charlotte bowed to each other. As Jack reached for Charlotte's sleeve, she moved quickly. She grabbed his right arm, twisted in towards his body, lifted him up on her back, then grabbed his trouser leg and threw him on the floor.

THWACK!

Jack's body hit the mat hard. He'd never been thrown by a girl before. He looked up at Charlotte, who was standing above him, arms crossed, with one of those know-it-all grins on her face. Hopefully his friends hadn't seen what had happened.

Pretending that it didn't bother him, Jack got up and coolly said, “I let you do that.”

He and Charlotte faced each other for another match. As they tidied their
judogis
, Jack was going through the moves in his head. Just as they were about to begin, Mr Baskin shouted for everyone to find a new partner. Without saying a word, Charlotte flicked her ponytail and strutted off with her nose in the air.

Before Jack could think about getting back at Charlotte, Adam stepped in front of him. He and Adam were in the same class at school. The two of them bowed
to each other, and after a pretty good wrestle, Jack threw Adam to the floor. Then they repeated the move and Jack let Adam do the same to him.

They practiced over and over, so that by the end of that session, Jack was pretty good at performing the
harai goshi
. Now all he had to do was find Charlotte again. He'd throw
her
this time round. But unfortunately that wasn't going to happen – at least, not today.

“Gather up!” yelled Mr Baskin, motioning for everyone to sit in front of him in a row.

Jack and the rest of the students sat on their heels across from Mr Baskin, who congratulated them on their hard work. As soon as they were dismissed, Jack, Richard, and Charlie gathered up their things and walked outside.

While they were waiting for their mums, they talked about lots of things, like whether they were going to enter the next judo competition. (Richard was, Charlie wasn't, and Jack thought he might.)

When Jack's mum pulled up, Jack said goodbye to his friends and climbed into the car, which was filled with groceries.

When he got home, he helped his mum put away the food and then played a car-racing game on his Xbox. Sometime after dinner, he kissed his mum good-night – his dad was working all weekend again – and made his way upstairs to his room.

As he got to his door, Jack flipped the
sign outside to “
KEEP OUT
.” Although he loved his mum, he didn't want her just barging in. After all, top-secret stuff happened in there. And it was nearly 7:30
PM
.