Way of the Warrior Kid 3: Where there's a Will... (A Novel)

by Jocko Willink

“Yes, it is, Danny! Nicely done. That is a tough question.”

  “Thanks Mr. Oglethorpe.”

  HOW DID HE KNOW THAT? I COULD BARELY EVEN REMEMBER ISTANBUL, WHICH IS THE MOST FAMOUS CITY IN TURKEY!

  And that answer got some of the class cheering for Danny. I even saw that Kenny and Nathan were impressed with that answer. Now the pressure was on.

  “Okay, boys,” Mr. Oglethorpe said, “it is now two to one with Danny in the lead. If he gets this one he wins. If you get it, Marc, there will be another question. Here we go. The next question is a math question. What is the name of a triangle where each side is a diff—”

  “Scalene!” I shouted, “a triangle where each side is a different length is called a scalene triangle!” I knew it! The class cheered.

  “That’s right, Marc. Excellent! Two to two. All tied up,” Mr. Oglethorpe said. The class clapped and hooted. “Okay, okay, quiet, quiet,” Mr. Oglethorpe told the class, getting them to settle down. I looked at Danny. He was still smiling. I knew I wasn’t. I wanted to win. I was focused. And there was Danny, with a big smile on his face! I didn’t get it!

  Finally, Mr. Oglethorpe spoke. “For the last question, we are going back to science. Ready?”

  “I’m ready,” I told him. “Yes, sir,” Danny said.

  “Okay. What do you call a single-celled organism with no nucleus, no mitochondria, and no—”

  “A prokaryote,” Danny cut off Mr. Oglethorpe. “A prokaryote is a simple, single-celled organism that doesn’t have a nucleus, no mitochondria, and no organelles.”

  I had no idea. I don’t think anyone in the class knew either, because they all looked at Mr. Oglethorpe to see if Danny was right or not.

  “That…is…CORRECT!” Mr. Oglethorpe said. The class cheered and Danny just sat there with a big smile on his face. Now even Nathan and Kenny were cheering. “We have a winner, our new student, Danny Rhinehart! Great work, Danny!”

  And that was it. The class all stood up and we began talking. Kenny and Nathan came over to where Danny and I were standing.

  “Nice work, guys,” Nathan said.

  “Yeah,” Kenny added, “I don’t know how you guys knew all that stuff!”

  “Yeah. Parokry…pyrokar…what was that thing?” Nathan asked, unable to pronounce the word.

  “Prokaryote,” Danny said. “I got lucky on that one. I happened to remember a picture we had to memorize at my last school. It was hard for me to pronounce it, so I had to study it extra hard. I think that is why I remembered it.”

  Here was Danny, of course being all nice to everyone and saying he was just “lucky”. For some reason, this just made me really mad.

  So I said, “Well you wouldn’t get so lucky on the jiu-jitsu mat.”

  Now Nathan and Kenny smiled. They knew that even though Danny might win a silly trivia contest, I could still tap him out on the mat!

  “Jiu-jitsu?” Danny asked.

  “Yes,” I told him, “It’s fighting. I’ve been training for three years.”

  “Wow. That’s awesome,” Danny said with his typical big smile.

  “Yes. It is awesome,” I told him. It felt good knowing I could beat him on the mat.

  Until he said, “I love jiu-jitsu. I have been training since I was eight! A little over four years! I have been wondering if there was a school here so I can go. What is the name of your school?”

  I couldn’t believe it! Danny beat me in pull-ups, then the run, then in the class quiz game, and now he trains jiu-jitsu and has even been training LONGER THAN ME! WHAT THE HECK?!?!?

  “We train at Victory MMA. You should come,” Nathan said.

  “Yeah,” Kenny added, “we have a great time there.”

  “Awesome. I will talk to my parents today. We can

  train all summer long,” Danny said, still with his BIG SMILE.

  I couldn’t believe it. The final thing I thought I could beat Danny in—and it turned out he would probably be able to beat me. And now he was going to be training at my academy ALL SUMMER LONG. MY SUMMER WAS RUINED BEFORE IT HAD EVEN STARTED.

  The good thing was that my Uncle Jake was coming. Maybe he could help.

  CHAPTER 4

  I was super excited when Uncle Jake arrived. But I was also nervous. I knew he expected me to be doing awesome in everything. After all, I have continued to live the Warrior Kid Code that I wrote after he taught me how to be a Warrior Kid.

  It says:

  1. The Warrior Kid wakes up early in the morning.

  2. The Warrior Kid studies to learn and gain knowledge and asks questions if he doesn’t understand.

  3. The Warrior Kid trains hard, exercises, and eats right to be strong and fast and healthy.

  4. The Warrior Kid trains to know how to fight so he can stand up to bullies to protect the weak.

  5. The Warrior Kid treats people with respect and helps out other people whenever possible.

  6. The Warrior Kid keeps things neat and is always prepared and ready for action.

  7. The Warrior Kid stays humble and stays calm. Warrior Kids do not lose their tempers.

  8. The Warrior Kid works hard, saves money, is frugal and doesn’t waste things. The Warrior Kid always does his best.

  9. I am the Warrior Kid and I am a leader.

  When Uncle Jake finally arrived in a taxi from the airport, it was awesome to see him. He looked even stronger than ever!!

  As soon as I saw him I shook his hand and offered to take his bag up to my room, where he would be staying again.

  “That’s alright, Marc. I can handle it.”

  “You look like you are even bigger and stronger than before!” I said to Uncle Jake.

  “Yeah. I have been working hard. Really hard. And eating healthy. So, I have been able to get in pretty good shape. But I still have a lot of work to do,” Uncle Jake said. Then he asked, “What about you? How have you been doing?”

  “Great. I am still staying on the Path and living the Warrior Kid code. I studied hard in school all year long and got all “A’s” on my report card. I still exercise almost every day. I eat healthy and barely ever eat junk food. So it’s going pretty good. Of course, like you said, I have a lot of work to do, too!” I said with a smile, knowing that Uncle Jake would like my humility.

  “What about jiu-jitsu?” Uncle Jake asked.

  “Yes, sir! I am still training hard all the time. And there is the big tournament at the end of the summer that I am going to compete in again this year.”

  “Sounds like everything is going great, Marc.”

  “It is!” I told him.

  Then Uncle Jake got that serious look on his face he gets when he wants to teach me something important. “Okay. But you said you still had work to do. But what is it? If everything is going so great, what thing do you need help in?”

  Of course, I didn’t want to tell him about the whole situation with Danny Rhinehart. But I thought I could bring it up a little by talking about the one mile run, so I told him. “Running.”

  “Running?” Uncle Jake responded, surprised. “What is wrong with your running?”

  “Well,” I told him, “on field day at the end of the school year, we run a one-mile race. Last year I came in second to Iris Gardner. She runs cross country races all the time and is really good. But this year she couldn’t run because she hurt her ankle. So I figured I would win.”

  “And?” Uncle Jake asked.

  “And I didn’t. There is this new kid in school named Danny Rhinehart, and he beat me. I was winning for a while, but then he pulled along side me and I just couldn’t keep up. I felt like I was going to die.”

  “Danny Rhinehart, huh?”

  “Yeah. I’m sorry Uncle Jake.”

  “No reason to be sorry. Let’s see what we can learn from it. What was your time?”

  “My time?”

  “Yes. How long did it take you to run the mile?” Uncle Jake asked me.

  “I’m not sure.”

  “You didn’t time the ra
ce?” he asked, puzzled.

  “No.”

  “Have you ever timed how fast you can run a mile?”

  “No, Uncle Jake,” I said. “We just run against each other. If you win, you win. If you don’t, you don’t.”

  “Well, if we are going to get you better at running, we need to figure out how fast you can actually run.”

  “Okay. But….” I wasn’t sure that I should say what I was about to say, so I stopped myself. But Uncle Jake knew better.

  “But what?” he asked.

  “Well….” I was still unsure if I should say it.

  “Well what?” Uncle Jake asked.

  Now I knew I had to tell him. “Well, it’s just that I don’t really like running that much.”

  Uncle Jake was quiet for a moment. Then he looked at me and said, “I could have guessed that.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Because you aren’t comfortable when you run. It isn’t easy. You have to push hard when you run, and that hurts. It hurts to be uncomfortable. And you don’t like it. That’s why you should do more of it.”

  “Wait. I tell you I don’t like running, and you tell me I should do more of it?”

  “Exactly. If there is something that you don’t like doing, something that makes you uncomfortable, you should do more of it. It will make you better. And it will also make you more comfortable at being uncomfortable. So, let’s go for a ride.”

  That’s when Uncle Jake walked over and grabbed my mom’s car keys. I followed him. We walked outside and got in the car. He started up the car and we headed out of the driveway. When we got to the end, he reset the odometer to zero, and we started driving. He drove down three blocks from my house and then took a left on the road that borders the park. That part of the road went up hill a bit, and at the top of the hill, there was a little wall about waist high at the gate outside the entry to the park.

  “Perfect,” Uncle Jake said.

  “What’s perfect?” I asked.

  “From the driveway in front of your house to that little wall right there. That’s a half mile. Slap the corner of that little wall with your hand and then hoof it back to your driveway. That’s a mile. Got it?”

  “Got it,” I told Uncle Jake.

  We drove back to the house and pulled into the driveway.

  “Go get your running shoes. We are about to get you uncomfortable.”

  I went into the house and put on my running shoes. When I got back down, Uncle Jake was waiting with his shoes on.

  “Ready?” Uncle Jake asked. “I guess so,” I told him.

  “Being ready isn’t a guessing game. Are you ready?”

  That made sense. I was as ready now as I ever would be.

  “Yes, Uncle Jake, I’m ready.”

  “Okay then,” he said pressing some buttons on his watch. “When I say ‘Bust ‘em’” we go. Got it?”

  “Got it, Uncle Jake.”

  “Standby…BUST ‘EM!” Uncle Jake barked.

  I took off running. I thought that Uncle Jake was going to take off ahead of me, but he didn’t. He stayed right next to me.

  “Pick up the pace,” he said. I ran faster. We made it to the first block. I was running pretty fast.

  “Go harder,” Uncle Jake told me. “Step. It. Up.” He was breathing hard, but not as hard as I was.

  “I’m trying,” I managed say between my breaths.

  “TRY HARDER,” he replied sternly.

  By the time we got to the third block, I was really hurting.

  “Push through it, Marc. You have to push through it,” Uncle Jake told me. “You have to push through that pain.”

  “I…am,” I whispered through gasping breath.

  “No, you aren’t.” And with that Uncle Jake took off ahead of me. He sprinted around the left corner and took off up the hill. When he got to the top, he slapped the corner of the wall and sprinted back down past me on the way back home.

  He didn’t say anything as he went past me. He just ran.

  I kept going up the hill, slapped the corner of the wall, and then made my way back home. With Uncle Jake out of my ear, I slowed down a little bit.

  Finally, I got within sight of my driveway. Uncle Jake started yelling at me. “Finish strong! With everything you’ve got!”

  I ran a little faster and made it to my house.

  “Seven-o-nine,” Uncle Jake said.

  “What?” I asked him.

  "Seven minutes and nine seconds. That was your time."

  "Oh. Okay."

  Uncle Jake let me catch my breath a bit. Then he said, “Not okay. You don’t know how to really push yourself yet.”

  “I pushed myself!” I protested. I was wondering how he could say that when I was standing there breathing so hard.

  “Yes. You pushed yourself. But you didn’t really push yourself. It’s okay. You’ll learn, Marc. You’ll learn.”

  With that, Uncle Jake walked back toward the house and I stood out there in the driveway, wondering what it was I had to learn.

  chapter 5

  Well, today was TERRIBLE. Summer started and I went to jiu-jitsu class today. I was looking forward to it. Since I had been training for almost three years, I was one of the better kids at my jiu-jitsu academy, Victory MMA.

  Plus, since I was one of the better kids, Coach Adam had me help out with classes, meaning I was like a junior instructor. On top of that, Nathan and I still helped clean the academy so that Nathan could train there for a little lower cost, and Kenny usually helps us out too because, well, I guess he doesn’t have anything better to do.

  So with everything that I did at the academy and as much time as I spent there and with my friends being there, Victory MMA was like my second home. I loved being there.

  And I have to admit, being one of the best students there also made it fun. I was sort of a leader there and I could feel that the other kids looked up to me a little bit. That felt pretty good.

  But today didn’t feel good. AT ALL.

  When I showed up, guess who was already there, wearing his gi? Yep, DANNY RHINEHART! And he was a yellow belt with four stripes—meaning he was almost an orange belt. That’s the way it worked.

  You started off as a white belt and got stripes, or degrees put on it. Once you had four stripes on your white belt, the next belt was gray. When you trained hard and learned new moves, you got stripes on the gray belt. Once you got four stripes on your gray belt, the next level was yellow belt, which was what I had. But I had only just gotten it and didn’t have any stripes yet. And there was Danny with four stripes.

  But the stripes and the belts didn’t mean everything. In fact, Coach Adam always told us not to worry about what color your belt was or how many stripes you had. Uncle Jake said the same thing. What matters is how hard you trained and how well you could do the techniques. And just because someone had a higher belt didn’t mean they could beat you. There were times when lower belts beat higher belts. It didn’t usually happen, but it did sometimes happen. I was hoping it would happen with Danny!

  “Hi, Marc!” Danny said with a big smile on his face. He was always smiling and being so nice. For some reason, it was really kind of annoying.

  “Hey, Danny,” I said back to him. I don’t think I was smiling though.

  “Thanks for inviting me to your academy. This place is awesome!” he said.

  I didn’t invite you, I was thinking. At that point, Coach Adam walked over.

  “Hey, buddy, how’re you doing? I’m Coach Adam. Where you coming in from? It looks like you have trained before,” Coach Adam said, as he pointed at Danny’s belt.

  “Yes, sir. I just moved here. But I have trained jiu-jitsu for about four years. Ever since I was eight.”

  “That’s great. Did you meet Marc here?” Coach Adam asked, pointing over to me. I started to nod and say yes, but Danny cut me off.

  “Yes, sir, we have met,” Danny said. “We met at school and he invited me to come and train here. I really appreciate
it.”

  “Well, it’s great to have you. We can use all the good people we can get. The better students we have here, the better everyone can get. You guys can go spar while we are waiting for class to start.”