"When we all line up it has to be in the order of our grade, so you won't be able to stand next to me and the other yellow belts, sorry. Oh, and when the instructor says 'Charyot! Kyong-ye!', that means you have to put your feet together and bow..."

Leah hadn't a clue how her daughter would react when she broke the news – but whatever she'd been expecting, it certainly wasn't this reaction of complete and utter delight. Seeing the way Molly's face lit up, Leah had wondered why she hadn't suggested it months ago.

Oh yeah, that's right – maybe because she didn't fancy making an utter fool out of herself in front of a roomful of people?

Leah's conversation with Tristan had affected her far more than it should have. She knew it was completely stupid, but for some reason his words had been playing on a continuous loop in her head all week. You'll never know unless you try, he'd said.

And so, in a moment of complete and utter madness, Leah had decided to take up Tae Kwon Do.

Molly's persistent chattering the entire car journey there had helped somewhat in quashing the simmering feeling of sickness in Leah's stomach – but as she pulled into the entrance of the leisure centre car park, it took an enormous amount of self-control to stop herself from dropping Molly off and driving straight out of the exit. How in a million years had she ever managed to convince herself that this was a good idea? Absolute insanity; that's what it was.

But as Leah regarded her daughter again, and saw how her face shone in eager anticipation, she began to re-evaluate the situation. She couldn't remember the last time Molly had displayed this much enthusiasm at the prospect of spending time with her; who knew when such an occasion might arise again? One thing was for certain, though: if Leah let Molly down now, she faced the very real possibility that her daughter would never trust her again.

And that was a chance Leah was certainly not willing to take.

So, with a heavy sigh of resignation, Leah shut off the ignition and dragged herself out of the safety of her car, following Molly's bounding steps into the sports centre to meet her fate. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad – hopefully she could get away with hiding at the back the entire time.

Any attempt at feigning invisibility was short-lived; within seconds their arrival was noticed by Tristan, who instantly weaved his way through a throng of blue belts to greet them. Cameron, however, was noticeably absent – instead Tristan led a tiny girl of about six along at his side, who appeared to be clutching his hand like a lifeline as her frightened blue eyes darted anxiously around the room.

"Yuck, that must be Rosie – Cameron's little sister," groaned Molly as they approached. "What's she doing here? Cameron says she's boring and whiny, and scared of everything."

"Never mind what Cameron said – you'll be polite," hissed Leah out of the corner of her mouth, terrified that Tristan might have already entered earshot.

"Hi, Tristan!" she greeted him, in a rather falsely bright voice quite unlike her own. "How's Cameron doing?"

"Not great," replied Tristan. "His nose is broken, so he's not allowed to train for the next month – which, as you can imagine, didn't go down too well."

Leah made a sympathetic face; she could only imagine the uproar if Molly were ever prevented from going to Tae Kwon Do training.

"Still, I thought it would be a good opportunity to bring Rosie," added Tristan, indicating the timid child at his side. "She's been too apprehensive to come along with us until now, so I figured it would be best to try it out while big brother isn't around to cause trouble.

"It's going to be lots of fun, isn't it?" he addressed his daughter, who looked about as uncomfortable as Leah felt.

In the brief pause that followed, Leah found herself once again reconsidering her decision to go through with this madness. If she backed away now, she could probably make it over to her usual spot on the bench before the lesson started, and forget this crazy idea ever occurred to her...

"It's Mum's first training session today, too!" announced Molly suddenly.

Dammit!

"You really decided to start?" asked Tristan eagerly, though he looked slightly surprised.

"I guess so," replied Leah, going for a pleasant smile which probably ended up as more of a painful grimace.

"That's great! See, Rosie – there's nothing to be scared of. Leah is new too, so you can both stick together."

As little Rosie's imploring blue eyes turned themselves towards Leah, she gave a sigh of resignation – there was simply no way she could refuse now.

And so, although every instinct told her to turn and bolt, Leah found herself approaching the terrifying instructor to stutter something about her intention to take up the martial art. To her surprise, the instructor seemed delighted, informing her that she shouldn't worry if it all seemed a little overwhelming at first. These things took time to get used to, Master Hurst said – but Leah had a feeling all the time in the world couldn't get her leaping and kicking like the others in the class.

This feeling was only intensified by the end of the warm-up, which had left Leah thoroughly humiliated, defeated and exhausted. Though she'd always admired Molly for the gusto with which she approached the exercises, Leah had never quite appreciated how physically demanding they must be – or maybe she was simply very unfit. Nobody else, after all, had completely lost their breath after only about twenty star-jumps. She was pretty sure everyone else, too, had managed at least one press-up – even tiny Rosie.

On the whole, lining up at the back of the hall to spend another fifty minutes embarrassing herself trying to punch and kick was just about the last thing Leah felt like doing after that ordeal – but she didn't really think leaving would be acceptable, somehow. For one thing, she certainly didn't feel like telling the scary instructor that she quit – Leah had tested Molly on her theory before the last grading enough times to know that 'Perseverance' was supposed to be one of the five tenets of Tae Kwon Do. Giving up just ten minutes in, therefore, would hardly go down well.

Just one hour, Leah told herself – just one hour of hell, then it would be over. She could tell Molly it wasn't for her, then go back to safely spectating from the side-lines, where she belonged.

This mantra was still doing its rounds in Leah's brain five minutes later as the instructor approached her and Rosie in their back row, having already set exercises for the rest of the class. Again Master Hurst surprised her, neglecting to mention Leah's completely abysmal performance during the warm-up as she launched into teaching Leah and Rosie their first technique in a no-nonsense manner.

"The first thing we must learn in Tae Kwon Do is how to punch," she announced, her barking tone sending Leah right back to her schooldays.

"Now, in Tae Kwon Do, a punch is a twisting movement of the arm, which comes from the waist out in a straight line. The twisting of the arm is what helps us generate power – it's not just big, strong people who can perform powerful techniques."

Master Hurst proceeded to demonstrate a punch, with a satisfying snap from the material of her training suit as her arm twisted.

Leah blinked in bewilderment; although Master Hurst couldn't be much more than five foot, her punch had the force of a six-foot bodybuilder. Maybe the crazy lady was right, thought Leah excitedly – maybe she could look as awesome as that!

Five minutes later, Leah realised this was not to be the case. She and Rosie were now having a go at punching, in a very strange position called sitting stance, which basically involved squatting with your feet about two shoulder widths apart. Master Hurst had made this position look strong and sturdy – but Leah was sure she just looked like she was sitting on the toilet. Leah's punches, too, felt weak and feeble, as she wildly flung her arms out and hoped for the best.

When they moved on to another technique five minutes later, Leah was frustrated; she didn't feel as if her punching had improved at all. Master Hurst, however, simply smiled in amusement.

"You don't want to spend the entire session practicing punches," she told Leah. "Don't you worry – you'll have years ahead of you for that if you carry on training. It's not until you get to black belt that you're expected to have mastered all the basic techniques – and even then, there's still plenty of room for improvement. Besides, that was a perfectly good attempt for a first session, so I shouldn't worry."

With that one sentence, Leah's spirits lifted considerably – maybe this Tae Kwon Do business wasn't so bad after all.

By the end of the session, Leah and Rosie had learnt two blocks, and another, equally peculiar position called walking stance. Each time Leah felt like she was getting the hang of the technique it was time to move on to a new one, but Leah tried not to mind; Master Hurst had said they would go through it all again next week...

Next week!

Leah started at the direction her absent-minded thoughts had taken. Had she actually just been considering training again next week?

It had been probably the toughest workout she'd had in her life – her thighs, triceps and stomach would all be screaming in protest when she tried to get out of bed tomorrow – and also pretty mind-boggling, attempting to coordinate all her limbs at once. But for some crazy, unknown reason, Leah had actually enjoyed herself. It wasn't enjoyment in the 'watching a good film with a box of chocolates' sense; more of a sense of satisfaction, and challenge. While she'd been busy trying to remember where her arms were supposed to go for the different blocks, Leah was offered some rare respite from barrage of negative thoughts usually filling her mind.

So when Master Hurst asked Leah at the end of the session if she would be returning next week, she found herself saying yes.

"And what about you, Rosie?" Master Hurst asked the timid little girl.

Rosie had seemed completely intimidated at the start of the lesson, not even attempting to try the exercises. The instructor had been lovely with her, though, patiently encouraging her to give it a go – and eventually the Rosie had joined in, with a surprising amount of gusto. Leah was pleased to see Rosie give the smallest of nods now, affirming that she too had been bitten by the Tae Kwon Do bug.

Leah couldn't help but wonder what had caused Rosie to become so timid. The child had stuck to her like glue throughout the lesson; far clingier than Molly had ever been. It was odd, too, that Rosie's mother hadn't come along...

Here Leah stopped herself; thinking of Tristan's partner made her feel far more uncomfortable than she had any right to be.

Instead she focused on Molly; her sunny smile that had been so absent recently. Seeing Molly this happy made all the effort of the past hour more than worth it; for the sake of her daughter's happiness, Leah would go through so much more.

But really, she wasn't just doing it for Molly. Although Leah was reluctant to admit it to herself, the past hour had revealed to her the very real possibility that she might end up enjoying Tae Kwon Do as much as Molly did.