The chapter opens with a description of the due date for a master wong's academy of karate. It's now August, and the balance is still unpaid. Mr. and Mrs. Kreutzer are worried that their son is going to have to pay back the money, but he assures them that he's going to pay it off. He pulls out a bunch of stuff from his bag, including a basketball, a tennis ball, a comic book, and an action figure. He figures out that he has twenty-seven cents left in his allowance, so he figures he can pay the rest of the bill with his savings. He looks at the newspaper and notices an ad for a kids' karate contest. The prize is five hundred dollars. He's thrilled to win, and he runs to sign up for the contest. His dad laughs at him, saying that he sure is something other than a karate instructor.