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  I braced for it. This was my third strike, right? It was time for my exit.

  “Listen to me,” he said. “In six weeks, our club is going to participate in a parkour demonstration. You will both be there. We will see your moves. Maybe, if you’re good enough, you’ll get a free T-shirt or something. Until then, you call a ceasefire.”

  I glanced at Jayden. He looked up at the same time and smirked. It made me angry again. I needed more than ever to show him he couldn’t intimidate me.

  “You guys seem to need a measuring stick to see who is better at this stuff,” Coach continued. “Maybe the demo day will show you who is boss. Then you can stop the fighting.”

  Coach reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a stack of colourful brochures. He peeled two of them from under a rubber band and handed us one each.

  “Read this,” he said. “Write the date in your calendar. I expect you to be prepared. Maybe, just maybe, it will also teach you what you’re doing here. You’re missing the point of parkour. It’s not about seeing who is best. It’s about testing yourselves and overcoming barriers. I’m hoping you will figure that out for yourselves.”

  I grabbed the brochure. But I didn’t look at it. I was still angry. As far as I was concerned, I might not make another six weeks of this.

  “Okay, Patrick, go home,” Coach said.

  I looked up, stunned. Jayden had a wide-eyed look too. The smirk was gone. Coach waved me out of the office. I jumped to my feet, and bolted through the door. I didn’t bother looking behind me. I turned a corner and nearly ran into Parker.

  “Tricky,” she said. “What happened?”

  “Nothing, really,” I said. “But Jayden’s still in there.”

  “I told Coach what I saw. That Jayden and his buddies were up to something. That they knew you were going to fall and were ready to film it. That I saw you run into them. I said you stuck up for yourself, but didn’t throw a punch.”

  That left me speechless, which was rare for me. “Thanks.”

  I really wanted to hug her. I wanted to run out the door with her before Jayden left Coach’s office. Instead, she reached for my hand. I started to get really nervous, and then she grabbed the brochure. I had forgotten that I was still holding it.

  “This looks amazing!”

  I hadn’t even read it yet. She handed it back to me and I unfolded it. I scanned it quickly. I saw the date for the Healthy Habits Day event. It was the day that ended the twelve weeks I had promised Coach Jack. I read the part about “hundreds of kids and parents in attendance.” The thought of performing in front of a crowd made me queasy.

  “You need to come with me this weekend to the Bank,” Parker said. “It’s this totally cool park we’ve found to train. You have to start practising outside. It’s totally different outside.”

  Jayden appeared just as Parker was talking. I saw his head snap up when she mentioned practising together.

  “Yeah, for sure, thanks. I’d love to go with you.” I admit it, I said that loud enough that Jayden heard me.

  We watched Jayden sneak past us to his shoes and jacket. Parker placed her hand on my forearm. We looked each other in the eye for a few seconds. It might have been the best few seconds of my life.

  Then she looked at Jayden.

  “We’ll talk more on Friday, okay, Tricky? My mom is here. I gotta go.”

  “Sure.”

  She followed Jayden as he pushed open the front door. “Jayden, wait . . .”

  I didn’t care if they left together. Even though I knew she was going to make sure he wasn’t kicked out of class. Really, it didn’t matter to me anymore. I could finally stop worrying about what Jayden was going to do to me, now that I had a girl like Parker on my side.

  10

  Catch Me If You Dare

  The girl didn’t look like Parker. I’d arrived where we’d planned to meet. I spotted someone doing what looked like a backward cartwheel. Her back was to me. She suddenly jumped back and flipped head over heels. Just like that, she was standing on her feet again. It was Parker.

  “That was cool,” I said.

  “Thanks,” Parker said. “We used to do them all the time in gymnastics. I wasn’t sure I could still do one.”

  “A cartwheel?”

  “It’s called a back handspring. I could teach you.”

  “Maybe some other time,” I said.

  She laughed and touched my arm. We walked together into the park. A cloudless sky meant the sun reflected into our eyes. I didn’t need my jacket, so I unzipped it and left it on the ground.

  My arms felt a little cool. But I knew in just a few minutes I’d be warm enough.

  “What are back handsprings for?”

  “My floor routine,” she said. “You know the one where girls run from one corner of the mat to the other, jumping and spinning? You’ve probably watched it on the Olympics.”

  “Oh, that one.”

  We didn’t have a TV when I was younger. But I didn’t want to tell her that. And I don’t remember ever wanting to watch the Olympics when we did get a TV. The Games always seemed kind of silly to me.

  “You still do gymnastics?” I asked.

  “I gave it up last year. It made my mom really mad.”

  “That’s why you’re doing parkour?”

  “Totally. Everyone is so chilled out. We try and help each other. In gymnastics, it seemed like some girl was always angry or crying. I had been surrounded by basically the same girls since I was four. I needed a break from all the drama.”

  I felt kind of bad when she said that. She saw lots of drama when Jayden and I started pushing each other around.

  She must have been thinking the same thing. “Well, I thought parkour was chill,” she said. “Then you arrived, and all of a sudden people are getting all aggro.”

  I could feel my cheeks getting red. It wasn’t my fault, I wanted to say. Jayden was the guy who flipped out for no reason. Sure, I pushed him around. But he was the one who took a swing at me.

  We sat there for a couple of minutes without saying anything. I could see why Parker called this park the Bank. There was a statue for each of the provinces. The taller ones kind of looked like bank machines. The park wasn’t very big, with a path through some flowers and a couple of sculptures. A fountain sat in the centre. A low stone wall circled the whole thing.

  “I didn’t want any trouble,” I said, finally. “I guess I just kind of snapped.”

  “Jayden can be kind of a jerk sometimes. But he’s always been nice to me. We started parkour at the same time. You know, he used to be in martial arts. Actually, I think he could’ve done a lot worse. I’m glad it didn’t go any further.”

  Her words felt like a punch to the stomach. The old Tricky from Red Rock would have probably left right then. If she was such good friends with Jayden, why was she here with me?

  I decided Red Rock was a long time ago.

  “Let’s stop talking about it,” I said. “We’re here to, what did you call it again? Trace?”

  “Yeah. Do you know what it means? I wasn’t sure the other day.”

  “Not really, I guess. Do you? Like, for real?”

  “You’ll have to catch me to find out!”

  With that, Parker was off and running along the edge of the stone wall. She jumped to the grass and rolled. I followed as quickly as I could.

  It felt different, just like when I got through the playground at my building. At the gym, I’d land on a soft mat if I fell. Outside it was dirt and rocks. The wall was only about a metre off the ground. I jumped between some shrubs, rolled and sprang up on my feet.

  Parker was far ahead of me. But I could see her path. I turned right and took three big strides toward a handrail for a speed vault. I planted my left foot and kicked my right foot high in the air. I grabbed the rail with my left hand. />
  I chased her up some stairs. The park opened into a central courtyard. In the centre, the ten stone statues formed a half-circle.

  We vaulted over the first one. We jumped onto the second and climbed on top of it. Then we did some precision jumps from statue to statue. I crouched down to build tension in my legs. I stretched out my arms above my head and forward. I jumped and brought my knees up into my chest. I went from Saskatchewan to Manitoba to Ontario. Quebec and Ontario were the tallest. When Parker landed on Quebec, she placed her hands along the edge and let her legs drop over the side. She jumped off, landed on the balls of her feet, and kept running. She hardly made any sound at all.

  I decided to also skip the smaller Maritime statues. But instead of jumping across to Quebec, I wanted to try something different.

  I put my hands on the ledge of Ontario. Quebec was less than two metres away. I jumped for it, letting my feet contact the rough stone first. I grabbed the top of the statue and let myself fall to the ground. It wasn’t far and I was able to hit the ground running.

  When I caught up to Parker she was sitting on the edge of the fountain. It was dry, though, and I could already see it would be our next obstacle.

  We continued like that for another thirty minutes. We would run from one part of the park to another, trying our moves and coming up with new ways to get around the obstacles.

  It was the best day I’d had since moving to the city.

  “That was awesome, thanks,” I said. We’d finally stopped and were sitting on B.C.

  “You’re welcome,” she said. “Jayden and I come here all the time. It’s great practice.”

  And, just like that, there was his name again. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever get rid of that guy.

  11

  Training Days

  A weird energy greeted me my first day back at the gym. It felt like I was in a bubble. But I could see and hear everyone talking at the same time. Healthy Habits Day and the parkour demo were only six weeks away. It was all I could think about and all anyone seemed to care about.

  “What path are you going to take?”

  “I wonder if they’ll have eight-foot walls.”

  “I bet they will have ten-footers.”

  “I heard Jake Diamond from Montreal is coming. He’s the king.”

  I didn’t know what any of it meant. I really didn’t care, either. I just wanted to hang out with Parker and have some fun at the gym. During the warm-up, Jayden was walking around with a silly grin on his face. He always started class with his martial arts routine. He would jump into the air and spin. He would punch the air and throw kicks.

  Thankfully, Coach gathered us for the warm-up drills so I didn’t have to watch much more of that. The drills were always hard work. We had to work on our upper-body strength and our core muscles. That meant a lot of exercises that kind of looked like push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups. But they were always just a bit different and a bit harder.

  “You’ll never get anywhere without training and working,” Coach yelled. “You need to be strong to do parkour. We have six weeks before the demo. So get ready. It’s about to get a lot harder from here.”

  Coach was the strongest person I’d ever met. His muscles had muscles. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what his “harder” workouts would be like.

  I found out anyway. After a couple of laps of running, we moved to the vaults. There were four vaults, with three of us stationed at each. All we had to do was walk up to the vault, put our hands on top of it and pull ourselves onto it. It would have been simple just once. Even doing it five times was manageable. But doing two sets of ten dips was harsh. We had to “snap to the top” and slowly lower ourselves back down again.

  “Keep your elbows in and your chest over the top of the vault,” Coach instructed. “If you are having trouble, use your toes to help you get up.”

  I was having trouble. After the dips, my arms felt like jelly. A two-minute break was not enough for them to feel any better. I grabbed a drink at the fountain and jogged back to where Coach was standing.

  “Drop and give me ten!”

  Great, push-ups. At least I was getting used to them by now. Normally, I could do ten push-ups without much worry. But this was not a normal workout.

  I glanced around at the other kids. Everyone was huffing and puffing. Parker’s face was beet red. Jayden was sweating so much his perfect hair was starting to look less perfect.

  “For your next ten, put your hands together.” Coach was kidding, right?

  Everyone groaned. We were all struggling now. Most kids had to put their knees on the floor to take some of the weight away. I refused to do that. I was going to finish without cutting any corners.

  I spotted Jayden looking at me. By the eighteenth push-up, we were the only two with our knees off the ground.

  “This looks too easy for our friends Jayden and Tricky,” Coach yelled. “So put your hands wider than your shoulders. Let’s see how many we can count to.”

  Just preparing for my first push-up in the wide position was super hard. I felt like I had no power at all. I could hear everyone struggling. I took a deep breath, let it out, and then pushed up. The chest muscles near my shoulders were on fire. I used every fibre in my body to do one push-up.

  As a class, we counted to four. Most kids dropped out, even with their knees on the ground. It was just Jayden and me left by the time we counted six.

  I had no idea how I would make it to seven. As I lowered myself to the ground I worried that I would not get back up.

  Everyone was up on their feet watching Jayden and me.

  “Come on, Tricky,” some kids yelled. “Come on, Jayden. You guys can do this!”

  “Who is going to get to number seven?” Coach shouted.

  I lowered myself, my arms shaking the entire way. I held it there for a second. But I knew the longer I waited, the harder it was going to be to push up again. I closed my eyes and tucked my chin down toward my chest.

  With all my strength, I pushed off the ground.

  “Yeah! That’s it, keep going!”

  The class was really cheering us on. I did not want Jayden to “win.” I clenched my teeth and then let out a deep breath as my arms straightened.

  “Seven!”

  Then I collapsed back down. There was no way my body was going to let me do any more. Sweat was dripping into my eyes, but I spotted Jayden in the same position.

  “Seven! That was awesome, guys. Great work,” Coach said.

  I let out a huge breath and looked up at Jayden. He wasn’t smirking or smiling anymore.

  Did I have his attention, finally? Was he going to stop bugging me? Or did this mean he was going to push me even harder?

  I stood and stretched out my arms. We were still looking at each other.

  “I guess you’re not going anywhere,” he said.

  It seemed like a silly thing to say. He was not going to scare me off.

  “I guess not.”

  12

  Ninja Trickery

  I had to go to the mall. It wasn’t to steal, either. I had never stolen anything before the headphones. And I was never going to again. But being banned from the mall made me see it as the most exciting place in Ottawa. It was the forbidden fortress inside the walled city. It didn’t help that Parker and her friends invited me. They were going to shop and then walk around the ByWard Market.

  I was stuck. The mall security had banned me for one year. They had my picture in the security office and everything. But hanging out with Parker was too tempting.

  I came up with a plan. I told Parker I had to study until five o’clock.

  “On a Saturday night?” she asked.

  “Yeah, my mom is really strict about that. I do homework every day until five. But then I’m free. I could meet you after.”

  It wasn’t a lie. My mo
m was strict about homework. She just wasn’t that strict about weekends.

  “I’m going to meet Parker and some friends tonight,” I told my mom. “Maybe we’ll grab a BeaverTail or something. She is shopping for something first.”

  “She? Ooh! Parker is a girl! You got any money?”

  I couldn’t help smiling at my mom. She knew my weak spots.

  “A few bucks,” I answered.

  She handed me twenty more and her cell phone. “Be home at a decent hour. Say ‘hi’ to Parker for me!”

  “Thanks, Mom.”

  I grabbed my shoes and coat and headed out the door before she started making kissy faces. Parker and I had planned to meet at six. But by the time I got there, Parker was nowhere to be found.

  I texted her: Hey, it’s Tricky. You here? Parker: Wow! You have a phone. Congratulations! Me: Mom’s phone. I’m at the BeaverTails place. Parker: Great. We are nearly finished. Meet us at Run ‘n’ Racket. I’m trying on shoes. You can help me pick.

  My guts started churning. I didn’t want to sneak into the mall. I was sure I’d get caught and Parker would see it all happen. But I didn’t want to stay outside. She might think something was wrong with me.

  I reached into my pocket and pulled out my baseball cap. I zipped up my jacket so the collar covered most of my mouth. I caught a glimpse of my reflection. There was no way anyone could recognize me. I kind of looked like a ninja.

  Still, I was breaking a promise and I hated myself for it.

  Just for a minute. Then we are gone, I thought.

  I crossed the market and headed into the mall through the same entrance where Coach first nabbed me. Dozens — probably hundreds — of people were coming and going.

  “Okay, I got this,” I said to myself.

  I had to stop right away. Two security guards stood talking to each other outside a coffee shop. I ducked behind a group of kids with baseball caps walking slowly past them. They were wearing “Confederation HS Basketball” jackets. I was just another player, although definitely the shortest one.