The Fastest Finish

by Catherine Hapka

  Jasmine sat up straighter. “Wait—​are you talking about Noah Dhawan?” she said. “Tall, skinny Indian kid, right? I know him! He was in that production of Mary Poppins I was in last year.”

  “Was he?” Their mother tilted her head to one side, the way she always did when she was trying to remember something. “Did he play your brother?”

  “No. He didn’t have a speaking role or anything.” Jasmine shook her head. “He was just in the dance corps. But his mom was the director.”

  “Really?” JJ thought back to the play. His parents had insisted that the whole family go every night it was on so that they could support Jasmine. He remembered it pretty well. “I thought that red-haired lady who came out at the end was the director. That’s Noah’s mom? Is he adopted or something?”

  “No. His dad’s Indian,” Jasmine explained. “Stella moved to India to marry him, actually.” She frowned. “Which is too bad, since it’s probably the reason she’s not a movie star right now.”

  JJ took another sip of his drink. “What do you mean?”

  “Stella’s acting career was just taking off when they met,” Jasmine said. “She was starting to get national commercials and even had a walk-on part in some big TV sitcom.” She shrugged. “But then she moved to India for like ten years, and by the time they moved back here, she couldn’t get much work anymore.”

  “How romantic,” JJ’s mother said. “She gave up her career for love.”

  “I guess.” Jasmine didn’t sound impressed. “Anyway, Noah’s a great dancer. I wonder why he’s bothering with this ninja stuff, though—​he’s pretty busy.”

  “Maybe because it’s fun?” JJ said.

  Before his sister or mother could answer, the door opened and JJ’s dad hurried in. “Ah, there you are.” He pointed at JJ. “You know Mr. Wolfe, right?”

  “Sure—​from the coffee shop?” JJ knew that his father and uncle had been working on Mr. Wolfe’s renovations for the past month. The two of them were contractors—​no job too big or too small.

  “Uh-huh. We’re wrapping up the job tomorrow, and the ribbon cutting’s the day after.” Mr. Johnson grinned at JJ. “And he asked if the town’s newest ninja superstar would do the honors.”

  “Huh?” For a second, JJ didn’t understand. “Wait—​you mean he wants me to cut the ribbon? You’re joking, right?”

  “No joke, son.” His father stepped over and ruffled JJ’s short blond hair. “You’re a local celebrity now, you know. Why get the boring old mayor to do a ribbon cutting when you could get a real-life ninja?”

  “Wow.” Jasmine looked almost as surprised as JJ felt. “I’ve never been asked to do anything like that.”

  She sounded a little envious, which made JJ feel kind of weird. He was pretty sure his smart, multitalented older sister had never been envious of him in their whole lives. But he decided not to worry about it. His sister was always winning all different kinds of awards and honors. Maybe it was time for him to get to do something special.

  His father was still watching him, smiling. “So what do you say, son?”

  JJ grinned. “I say get me some scissors! Hey—​maybe I can even convince the rest of the team to come, too!”

  Ten

  “Push through it!” Coach Tara yelled. “Go—​you can do it!”

  Izzy gritted her teeth and tightened her grip. Tara was making them climb the big, ceiling-height cargo net without using their feet. Izzy’s arms were burning, her hands raw from the rope. But finally she made it to the top.

  “Good job,” Tara said. “Noah, you’re up.”

  Izzy climbed down—​using her feet as much as possible this time—​and collapsed on the floor beside Kevin.

  “He’s good, isn’t he?” Kevin said as he watched Noah tackle the cargo rope.

  “He’s fit, that’s for sure,” Izzy said.

  She still wasn’t sure what to think about Noah. Ty wasn’t happy about the newcomer—​he was making no secret of that. But the others seemed to be okay with him. And so far he was keeping up with the rest of the team, even though Tara was working them pretty hard. He’d made it up the Crazy Cliff on his second day and was starting to get the hang of the Loco Ladder.

  He’s good, I guess, Izzy thought. I just hope he doesn’t mess up the team spirit thing we have going on. She sneaked a look at Ty, who was scowling as he watched Noah scale the net.

  After Noah finished, it was JJ’s turn and then Mackenzie’s. Finally Tara seemed satisfied. “Water break, everyone,” she said. “We’ll pick up in ten.”

  Izzy climbed to her feet and wandered over to her gym duffel. She grabbed her phone along with her water bottle, checking her texts.

  Her eyes widened when she saw that there was one from Jess. A couple of days had passed since they’d run into each other, and Izzy had just about decided that Jess was finished with her. But maybe not. She clicked the text open and scanned it.

  Hey, you’ve heard about the big LD party down at the quarry, right? Wanna go?

  Izzy turned away to hide her grin. She didn’t want the others to see how psyched she was or to start asking questions. She was pretty sure that none of them would get an invite to this particular party. Not until they were in high school, anyway. Besides, she’d have to sneak out to go, and she didn’t want too many people knowing about that, just in case.

  The quarry party was legendary. It happened every year to celebrate the end of summer on the Friday of Labor Day weekend.

  Labor Day weekend. Suddenly Izzy’s heart sank.

  “Oh, no,” she mumbled.

  Mackenzie glanced up from her water. “What? Did you say something, Iz?” she asked.

  “No, nothing.” Izzy quickly clicked off her phone and shoved it back in her bag.

  The Friday of Labor Day weekend—​that was the night before they were all leaving for the finals. Their flight to the West Coast left at some ridiculously early hour on Saturday morning. How would she manage that if she was out all night at the quarry party?

  Mackenzie was still watching her. “Are you all right?” she asked.

  “I’m fine, okay?” Izzy snapped.

  The younger girl looked slightly wounded, but Izzy hardly noticed. Her head was spinning as she tried to figure out how she was going to make this work. Because if she didn’t make it to that party, Jess would probably never invite her to anything cool ever again.

  Eleven

  “This is so cool!” Mackenzie exclaimed as she climbed out of the Fit Kidz van with her teammates and Tara. “It’s like we’re real celebrities!”

  She smiled and waved to the crowd gathered in front of Wolfe’s Coffee Cup. At first, when JJ told them about the ribbon cutting, everyone thought it was a joke. Everyone except Tara, that is. She told them it was pretty normal for someone who’d appeared on TV to get asked to do stuff like that. Once, she had even been asked to help welcome a new giraffe to the local zoo!

  “I’m not sure cool is the right word,” Ty grumbled, swiping the sweat off his brow with the back of his arm. “It’s like a heat wave out here.”

  All five of them were wearing the same outfits they’d worn on the show. As soon as they appeared, a couple of photographers stepped forward to take pictures of them. A crowd had gathered to watch the ceremony, and several people cheered when they spotted the kids.

  “Ninja champions!” a young man yelled, pumping his fist.

  “Yeah!” Ty yelled back.

  JJ’s dad bustled over. “Ready to get started, kids?” he asked.

  “Sure!” Mackenzie said. She liked JJ’s dad. He’d helped to adjust the equipment at the gym for the new ninja team, and she had enjoyed joking around with him while he was there.

  JJ’s dad led the ninjas over to the coffee shop’s entrance. A huge red ribbon was hanging across the front of the building, and Mackenzie snapped a few photos with her phone. She wanted to put this on her blog later.

  “Over here, Mayor!” Mr. Wolfe called, waving to a
slender woman in a red pantsuit.

  “Is that really the mayor?” Kevin asked.

  “Sure.” Mackenzie waved to Mayor Fuentes. “My birth mom went to high school with her. She’s really nice.”

  “Hello, young ninjas!” The mayor was all smiles as she joined them beside the ribbon. “I saw your show. Some of those stunts made me tired just watching them!”

  All the adults standing nearby chuckled.

  “It’s really fun,” Mackenzie told the mayor. “You should come to the gym and try it sometime.”

  “Oh, not me!” The mayor winked. “I get winded just walking from my office to the car!”

  “I used to say I was allergic to exercise,” Mackenzie told her, “but being a ninja isn’t like most exercise. It’s a blast!”

  Mr. Wolfe cleared his throat. “Shall we begin?” he asked, mopping his brow with a handkerchief. He snapped his fingers, and a young man hurried over, holding a giant pair of scissors. He handed them to the mayor, but she turned to smile at the kids.

  “Who wants to do the honors?” she asked.

  Mr. Wolfe suggested that the ninjas and the mayor all cut the ribbon together. Mackenzie pressed forward with her teammates, reaching out to put a hand on the handle of the giant scissors.

  “One . . . two . . . three . . .” the mayor counted.

  SNAP! The ribbon broke as soon as the scissors touched it. The crowd cheered, and Mr. Wolfe beamed as the photographers took more pictures.

  After that, a bunch of people came forward to talk to the ninja team and their coach. Some of them had questions about certain obstacles or what it was like to be on TV. Others wanted to ask for the kids’ autographs or to take selfies with them.

  Mackenzie felt like a real celebrity now. She signed her name so many times that her hand got sore. She also posed for lots of pictures with her fans. It was fun at first, but it was an awfully hot day. After half an hour or so, Mackenzie was starting to feel sweaty and tired. Still, she tried not to let her fans see that.

  “So girls can be ninjas too, huh?” a middle-aged woman asked, glancing from Mackenzie to Izzy to Tara.

  “Um, sure,” Mackenzie said.

  “No, we’re all actually boys in disguise,” Izzy snapped at the same time.

  The woman looked startled. Tara cleared her throat. “She’s joking,” she told the woman with a quick smile. Then she put one hand on Izzy’s back and the other on Mackenzie’s and steered them away from the woman. “Maybe it’s time to wrap this up,” she called to JJ’s dad.

  “Thanks for coming, everyone,” he called out. “Let’s have a hand for our young ninja champions!”

  “And Wolfe’s Coffee Cup!” Mr. Wolfe added as the crowd cheered.

  * * *

  Noah was doing chin-ups when Mackenzie and the others walked into the ninja room a few minutes later. Ty’s mother was there, spotting him.

  “Wow, he’s hardcore,” JJ commented.

  Mackenzie wasn’t surprised that their newest teammate was taking this seriously. Daddy Jim had told her once that Noah took four or five dance classes every week and practiced for hours every day.

  “Whatever.” Ty sounded cranky. “I need to hydrate.”

  As Ty and the others went to grab sports drinks from the cooler by the door, Mackenzie wandered toward Noah. “Hi,” she said. “I guess you got a head start today.”

  “Uh-huh,” he said, dropping to the floor and flexing his hands. “How was the ribbon cutting?”

  “Fun. You should have come.”

  “It’s okay.” Noah glanced around the room. “I want to make sure I’m ready to kill at those tryouts. And the finals after that.”

  “Wow, you sound confident!” Mackenzie exclaimed, a little surprised. “I mean, you always seem kind of, you know, quiet and shy. But you don’t even seem nervous about this!”

  “Oh, I’m plenty nervous,” Noah responded with a smile. “But that’s normal, right? Anyway, my favorite dance teacher always tells me to visualize doing it right. So that’s what I’m doing.”

  “Cool.” Mackenzie made a mental note to remember that tip. “If it helps, I can totally visualize you killing it on that tryout course—​just like you always kill it onstage.”

  Twelve

  “Ready for this?” Coach Tara asked.

  Noah nodded and looked around the crowded North Creek gym. It was the day of the wildcard tryouts, and he felt pretty confident. He’d been working hard at Fit Kidz every day, focusing on conquering every obstacle he might face on course. It was similar to learning a new dance routine—​practicing the different steps and movements one at a time and then putting them together.

  “Thanks for coming with me to tryouts,” he told Tara.

  “Of course.” She smiled. “I wouldn’t miss it.”

  Noah smiled back. He liked Tara—​she reminded him a little bit of his favorite dance teacher. They were both tough and focused but also peppy and positive.

  “It’s pretty crowded, huh?” He glanced around again. “Was it this bad at the first tryouts?”

  “Almost.” Tara dodged to avoid being run into by an anxious-looking kid dressed in a karate outfit. “I’m not surprised it’s packed today, since the show has been such a big hit.”

  Noah nodded. He’d watched the second episode of JNC a few nights earlier, and there had been an announcement at the end about the wildcard show. He figured Tara was right—​it had brought lots more wannabe ninjas out of the woodwork, just the way an open audition for a show always did.

  He scanned the room, wondering who his competition would be. Some of the kids standing in line to sign up didn’t look very athletic. Some even looked older or younger than the ages allowed. There was a boy made up like a clown with the words BOZO NINJA emblazoned on his T-shirt, and a girl wearing a mermaid’s tail. Plenty of anxious or excited or bored parents and friends were hanging around while local reporters recorded the whole chaotic scene.

  It took a few minutes to sign in and get his number. Then Noah and Tara passed through an arched doorway into the main part of the gym. The course was set up at one end, with a warm-up area at the other.

  “Why don’t you start your warm-up while I check out the course,” Tara suggested. “We can go over it together in a few.”

  “Sounds good.” As Tara hurried off, Noah found a free mat and did a few stretches, doing his best to ignore the chaos surrounding him. After all, it was no worse than being backstage on opening night.

  “Noah! Oh my gosh, is that you?”

  Noah glanced up at the sound of his name. A pretty girl with a reddish-blond ponytail was rushing toward him. For a second he didn’t recognize her. Then she came closer, and he realized it was Chloe O’Neal. She was a dancer and an actress who had played one of the younger daughters in the recent production of Fiddler on the Roof. She was fairly new in town, so Noah didn’t know her that well. But his mother already adored her, saying that Chloe reminded her of herself when she was thirteen.

  “Hi,” Noah said. “What are you doing here?”

  “What do you think? Auditioning, just like you!” Chloe let out a tinkly laugh and tossed her ponytail back over her shoulder. “This is crazy, right?”

  “I guess.” Noah glanced at the girl’s outfit, which consisted of white capri pants and a fluttery pale-blue blouse. “If you’re trying out, you should probably change clothes.”

  “What?” Chloe looked down at herself. “Oh, no. This should be fine. This color looks really good on me on camera. This same outfit helped me land an ad for a local pizza place!” She giggled. “Besides, I don’t do sweatpants.”

  Noah didn’t say anything, returning to his stretching. He wasn’t sure that Chloe realized what kind of tryout this was. Did she even know anything about being a ninja, or had she just heard this was a chance to be on TV?

  “So a little birdie told me you’re trying out for Beauty and the Beast next month,” Chloe singsonged. “Is it true you’re going for Chip?”

>   “What?” Noah blurted out. “Where did you hear that?” Chip was a major role, with solo lines in a couple of songs. Besides, the part didn’t involve any real dancing at all! Why in the world would he want to try out for it?

  Chloe smirked and pantomimed zipping her lips. But that was okay. Noah was pretty sure he knew exactly who was telling people that he was trying out for a major role in the next play . . .

  Just then Tara hurried over. “Ready to walk the course?” she asked Noah, not seeming to notice Chloe standing there.

  “I’m ready.” Noah jumped to his feet. “Let’s go.”

  Thirteen

  “There he is!” Mackenzie cried, jumping up and down for a better view over the heads of the spectators crowded around the tryout course. “Noah! Whoooo!”

  Noah had just stepped onto the start mat. Tara was talking to him. But at Mackenzie’s shout, they both looked over, their faces startled.

  Mackenzie grinned and waved, thrilled that she’d surprised them. She’d convinced Papa Kurt to drive her over to support Noah in his tryouts. It was fun to be back in the North Creek gym—​it was even noisier and hotter and more crowded than she remembered from her own tryouts, but she loved it! This course was a little different from the other one, just as the producers had promised. Mackenzie wished she could try some of the new obstacles, especially a cool balance obstacle called Wall to Wall. Instead, she’d settled for taking lots of pictures to show her teammates later.

  “This is fun, right?” she said, elbowing her father, who was beside her in the crowd of onlookers. “I wish some of the others had decided to come.”

  For a second, her sunny mood faded a little. She’d invited the rest of the ninja team to join in her surprise. But all four of them had said no.

  Papa Kurt shot her an understanding look. “Don’t worry about it, Mack,” he said. “I’m sure it means a lot to Noah that you’re here.”

  “Yeah.” Mackenzie bit her lip, glancing at Noah. He was still on the mat, watching the ninja before him, a lanky boy with a fauxhawk who was a couple of obstacles into the course. “And I guess maybe JJ would have come if he wasn’t busy meeting that client of his dad’s who saw him at the ribbon cutting.”