Chapter 13 First Day of School Part I (1/2)
Monday. 4 January 2010
A year later
It was a big day. It was their first day in school. A real school. A school that was outside of the house.
In their entire 7 years of life, before this day, they had always been cooped up at home. On the really rare occasions that they were allowed out, it was always with a whole team of bodyguards. You can't really do or see much when they had to be encircled by those darn bodyguards wherever they went.
Imagine being two short kids walking about and all they could really see were the butts of the bodyguards walking in front of them. They were squeezed together so tight with only the most minimal of gap in between each guard made Kyle think they were tied together by an invisible string or something.
Going to the zoo? It was like a circus. Instead of being able to see the animals, they were the ones that were being looked at and being pointed at. Going shopping? Puh-lease. People had to avoid their weird circle formation of people and that caused inconvenience.
In the end, it wasn't enjoyable at all, so what was the point then of going out?
Their house was being fitted with all the latest gadgets and electronics such as a huge-screen television, game consoles, a small movie theatre (just for the family), a kitchen that had a 24hr chef on standby to meet their every demand, a comprehensive library with children books and encyclopedias and even a huge backyard. Also, they had each other so they weren't lonely …
But it still wasn't the same as actually going outside.
Which was why this morning, at the God-earthly morning time of 5am, Kay was busy jumping about and skipping around Kyle. Though it appeared like she was merely playing around, it certainly took a lot of energy and endurance to be able to continue that repetitive action for 20 mins.
She could hardly contain her excitement but she didn't disturb Kyle in his morning routine. As for Kyle, he wasn't really bothered by the bundle of energy going around him. He had on a peaceful expression on his face as he focused on his morning routing exercises.
He started with some warming up, followed by push-ups, sit-ups and the horse stance. He then did about 15 minutes of ninjutsu patterns, concentrating and channelling his energy, making sure that each punch and kick was done with a burst of power. As it was early morning, he merely synchronised each punch and kick with a short burst of hiss through his teeth, rather than a shout. Both still used power that he took from his gut.
These were the basic patterns that Master Shifu had told him to do, and he incorporated them into his morning exercises. Master Shifu believed in forming a firm foundation, and these repetitive actions would become instinctive.
Kyle had actually started some basic psychomotor and stretching exercises since he was two years old to hone his reflexes, develop better motor skills and flexibility. From the age of four, he slowly started adding resistance exercises to develop strength and endurance; and upgraded the stretching exercises to gymnastic movements such as flips and somersaults.
As his body was still growing, he knew how to listen to his body and not push himself too much, and he would not be doing any weight lifting until his teens. Doing any such weight lifting would only stunt his growth and that was not something he wanted.
For now, he does about 2 hours of exercises daily which were spaced out during the day. In fact, other than his daily morning routine of 30 minutes, his exercises were actually designed to look like play so that his parents wouldn't suspect anything amiss.
Climbing trees, swimming, playing tennis (small version, of course) all appeared 'normal' but was in reality, to him – exercises. Since he started ninjutsu classes, of course the exercises were incorporated as well but while before he did them secretly, he could practice them openly in the backyard. As a result, Kyle was very fit for a boy of his age, with fast reflexes.
Kay wasn't that far behind either.