One sunny day in Los Angeles, California, a seventh grader named Dominic Scandoval woke up in his bed having the sun shine upon his face. It was a Saturday. He woke up at about 10:30 a.m. and could hear his big brother Darrell playing basketball in the backyard. As he woke up he went to the bathroom and after that he went downstairs. When he went downstairs his mom was cooking some breakfast.
“Did you eat breakfast yet Dominic?” his mom asked.
“No, not yet, I just woke up,” he said.
“Well then here, go eat, I made you some pancakes, eggs, and bacon,” his mom said to him.
As he was eating he asked his mom why his brother was playing basketball so early.
Then his mom said, “Well he has a big game today.”
“What time?”
“At 6:00. So you have to get ready because I’m going to go do yoga at 4:30,” his mom said.
“Okaaay,” he said tiredly.

After Dominic ate, he went outside to watch his brother practice.
“Could I shoot a basket?” Dominic asked.
“What did you say?” his brother Darrell asked him as he was taking his headphones off.
“I said, can I shoot one basket.” Dominic emphasized.
“Okay just one, and hurry it up, I have to practice because our rivals from San Francisco is coming and playing against us today, and I heard they are pretty good.” His brother said.
Then Dominic shot the ball and swished it, Darrell rebounded it, put his headphones back on and practiced more. After that Dominic went back inside and went out through the garage to ride his bike. He was riding his bike for a long time. He went to the park that was really close to his house. After that he went back home. As he was going home he saw this older kid playing with this toy that he never saw before. So he pedaled back home quickly and parked his bike back into the garage. He rushed to his bedroom and turned on his computer. He went on Google and described the toy he saw.
He found what he was looking for and said to his self, “I really want to try this.”
So then he went on the website where you can purchase it and he ran down stairs to ask his mom to buy it, but his mom wasn’t home.
So he went upstairs to his brother’s room and asked, “Where’s mom at?”
“She went to some yoga class or something?” he said.
“Oh yeah!” he remembered.
So then he waited for his mom to come home. As he was waiting, he got ready for his brother’s basketball game at 6:00.
And Dominic yelled out, “Finally! You’re here!
Then the mom said, “Yeah I am. Did you get ready for your brothers game.”
“Yeah I did mom. And I have to ask you something,” Dominic said.
“What is it? And why do you have your computer with you?” she asked.
“Well I saw this guy playing this toy outside and I was wondering if you can get me one of those toys. And here its right here. It’s called a Kendama I guess, it’s just 21 dollars,” he told her.
“Okay. Only if it is free shipping,” she said
“Yeah it is.” He said
“Here let me buy it,” she said
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” he said excitedly.
So then they went to Darrell’s game, but unfortunately he lost his game, but it went to double overtime and he lost but 2 points from a three point buzzer beater from the other team.
After the game they went to a restaurant to go eat.
Then the next day they had their whole family to wake up early to go to church early in the morning. After church they went to watch another movie.
Then the next day, Darrell and Dominic went to school as well as the parents going to church.
Dominic waited the whole week for his Kendama to come. Then it was Friday and it was an early out for school. Dominic’s brother picked him at his middle school.
Dominic asked, “Could we check the mail really quick?”
“Do you have the keys?” Darrell asked.
“No I thought you had it?” he said
“I’m just kidding, I actually have it,” Darrell said.
“Oh, you scared me. I really need to check the mail. I am waiting for something and it feels like this week is going down very long.” Dominic said.
So they went to the post office to check the mail and his Kendama did come in.
“Is that what you’ve been waiting for Dominic?” Darrell asked.
“Yeah!” Dominic said with excitement.
“Gosh. Grow up!” Darrell said.
“Gosh. Grow up.” Dominic said mimicking Darrell.
Then they went home and Dominic tried his new toy. The toy had instructions of how to use it. It was a Japanese toy that is made out of wood, it has three cups, a spike, and a ball with a hole attached to it by a string. It has a big cup, a small cup, and a bottom cup. There are many varieties of tricks you can do.
Dominic tried to play it, but it was hard for him. He made the ball on the big cup a few times. Then he started to make it on the small cup, but he couldn’t make the ball that has a hole on it land on the spike. A few weeks later, he was getting the hang of it. He figured out you can hold the kendama in many ways. You can hold it by the wood part, and can hold the ball. He made it on the spike a few times and made it on the spike holding the ball. All of these tricks have different names for these tricks.
Holding the wood part which is called the ken and making the ball land on the spike is called “Spiking.” Making it on small cup, then the big cup, then spike is called “Japan.” Making it on big cup, small cup, then bottom cup, then spike is called “Around the world.” Holding the ball and swinging the ken the make the spike go into the ball is called “Airplane.” Lifting it up and balancing the bottom to the cup to the ball is called “Lighthouse.” There were many different other tricks you can do. These were just the basics.
Dominic practiced those tricks for weeks then got the hang of it. He practiced and practiced and mastered them. So then he started to watch Youtube videos for new tricks and they were very difficult. There were many tutorials for beginner tricks to advanced tricks. He watched videos that were from Kendama USA. When he was watching those tutorials, there were other videos too. There were kendama edits were you do kendama tricks and you add music to your video with edits to your video.
Dominic said to himself, “I really need to step this up.”
So then he practiced those hard tricks. The next year later, he mastered a lot of the hard Kendama tricks, but not all of them.
He watched a lot of videos of Kendama USA and it showed a video that said, “We are having a Kendama Fest this summer in Las Vegas and there are many competitions and you can battle yourself to join our Kendama USA team. If you make a Kendama edit that is the best then we will send you a ticket to join us at the Kendama Fest. We will take the top 10 contestants whoever makes the best Kendama video. You have untill the start of summer to finish your video.”
Then Dominic really stepped it up and took videos of himself doing Kendama tricks and he put music with it and edited the clips to put them together. It took him many tries that frustrated him a bunch of times.
After that, Dominic’s video was ready and he really took pride in that video. So he put it on Youtube and tagged “Kendama USA” to the video.
“Dominic! Dinner’s ready!” his mom shouted.
“I’m coming! Hold on I’m just doing something!” Dominic shouted back.
“Okay! Just hurry up your food is getting cold.”
Dominic rushed down the stairs and finished what he was doing.
“So what’s for dinner mom?” Dominic asked.
“Ummmmmm, I forgot what it’s called. Ask your dad he was the one that cooked it.” His mom said.
“It’s okay, I’m just going to eat it.” Dominic said.
“So you’ve been busy lately. Huh Dominic?” His dad said.
“Yeah, I’m making a Kendama video for this Youtube thing,” Dominic said.
“What is it about?” his dad asked.
“Okay, it’s for this competition, where if you have this best Kendama video, you get a free ticket to Las Vegas,” Dominic said, breathing heavily.
“Did you ask us for permission first? I mean you can do it, it’s just, you need to ask before you do something like that,” his dad said.
“Oh, sorry I didn’t know. I’ll do it next time,” he said.
“You better,” his dad said.
Then a few months past, school ended and it was time to announce who made the best video. Dominic rushed home, opened his laptop, went on Youtube, and watched the new video about Kendama USA announcing who the 10 contestants made the best kendama video.
“The contestants who had the best kendama videos are John Paul from Los Angles, California; Adam Irving from Cleveland, Ohio; Alexis Curry from Oakland, California; Nate Harden from Houston, Texas; James Delavandova from Cleveland,Ohio; Julieanne Durant from Oklahoma city, Oklahoma; Kayla Bryant from Los Angeles, California; Michael James from Cleveland, Ohio.”
As those names were getting called, Dominic was getting so nervous that his name wasn’t going to get called, but then, “ The next people going to Vegas for our kendama fest is Dominic Sandoval from Los Angles, California and Toven Rose from Chicago, Illinois.” Kendama USA Announced.
Dominic burst out cheering, that he gave the news to his family.
When the tickets came in the mail, his mom bought Darrell a ticket to supervise Dominic. They went to the airport and met up with the contestant at a hotel. They met the professional kendama players at the hotel. The next day later they got bus ride to the kendama area.
They gave everybody who was there a free original kendama.
Then the battle started, whoever made a spike stays in the competition. Two people didn’t make it so they had to just watch. Dominic made it, it was so easy for him. Then as it went past to the other tricks people started to get out.
Dominic made it to the last three, it went to the difficult moves. They all had to do space-walk, where you toss the ken around into a circular motion and you have to catch the ball and spike it. Dominic missed it, but luckily all three of them missed it.
So then the one of the kendama USA staffs changed the rules where you have to play a game called DAMA. DAMA is just like the game of horse for basketball.
Then the Dominic beat one of one of the two guys and he had to play against the last guy and he was one of the best kendama player.
Then they played DAMA and Dominic started off weak and gave him D-A. Then Dominic did tricks that he couldn’t even believe he made, so then he made caught up.
Dominic had to do just one more trick, Dominic did a combination of Space walk, airplane, and spike. Then he missed it!
Then the kendama USA staff gave the other guy a 10,000 grand prize with 5 kendamas. He is also a part of the kendama USA team, but luckily they also announced that the people who were in the finals made it to the kendama USA team as well. So it was a win win to both of them. Also at least all of the contestants got to see all of the professional kendama players.