Chapter 1: You Can Dream Your Dream

Try to be best, cause you're only a man. And a man's gotta learn to take it.

Daniel woke from what could only be described as one of the most intense sex dreams he had ever had in his young life. Cold beads of sweat slid down his lower back, over his bare hips, and touched down on his pale blue sheets.

Intense. That was the closest word he could relate to the experience fresh in his mind. Hot, sweaty, and intense. His breathing slowed to normal, no longer forced out in quick pants. He closed his eyes.

It was over. Whether or not he wanted it to end, it was over. Daniel opened his eyes, head turned towards his bedside table. There, lit by the meager early morning light filtering in through the window, was a silver framed photo. In the photograph was the girl he had given his heart to. The girl that he had told he loved.

But what was not in the photo, was the star of Daniel's recent dream-state escapade. That place was held by someone that was so much stronger than Daniel. If love was a battlefield like they said, then Daniel never wanted to get in a fight. If he were to, he might not survive the war.

Try to believe, though the going gets rough. That you gotta hang tough to make it.

School was never really a good thing, especially when Daniel couldn't walk two steps without running into at least one of the Cobra's. More often than not, they traveled in packs... a much more intimidating enemy. Not that seeing any of them alone would be any less intimidating. Daniel held no disillusions, he knew that any one of the Cobra's could quite easily kick his ass if they wanted to. They were snakes after all. Poisonous to Daniel.

Especially Johnny Lawrence.

All of the Cobra's could easily be labeled as evil, or at least have had evil training them. Evil in the form of John Kreese, Cobra Kai's dojo sensei. But for Johnny Lawrence, there seemed to be more than the others. Some sort of personal vendetta against Daniel.

In the beginning it might have been assumed that this outright hate had stemmed in some way from Ali, even though she was no longer with Johnny. Daniel had nothing to do with that. He hadn't even met her until after they had broken up in the previous school year. In other words, there was no way that Ali was related to the other boy's anger towards Daniel.

But no matter what the reason was for Johnny, it didn't stop him from trying to inflict as much pain as possible on Daniel. And as often as he could at that.

And often, just so happened to be right then.

Daniel froze in the courtyard of West Valley High School (1). Across from him, closing in, were all five of the Cobras. He frantically looked around for some means of escape. Unfortunately, this time, no teachers were present. In desperation, he decided to try and walk past them quickly with his head down. Hopefully they wouldn't recognize...

"Do you really think we are that stupid LaRusso?"

Daniel froze, willing himself with every fiber of his being to not turn around. He didn't want to face his nightmares come to life.

"No teachers here to save you this time, is there Danielle? No one else to hide behind!"

Slowly, with as much confidence as he could muster, he turned to look the snakes in the eye. They all stood shoulder to shoulder, arms crossed in front of their chests. Fire in their eyes.

"What do you guys want?" Daniel spat, "Didn't your sensei make you promise not to hurt me until the tournament?"

Daniel waited for a response as the Cobras continued to smile white and venomous. Johnny in particular had a gleam in his eyes. Daniel saw something... predatory in that smile. Like a snake hunting a mouse and Daniel definitely felt like squeaking.

"How would our sensei know if we did or not? Do you see him anywhere?" Dutch jeered, cracking his knuckles intimidatingly. Daniel stepped back in fear, his heart beginning to thud against his chest.

"Look at him backing away! That's the smartest thing he's done yet!" Tommy laughed. The other four Cobras joined in, missing the sound that Daniel heard vaguely over the noise. The dismissal bell! This was going to be his one chance to escape. He had to make it just right.

"Actually I do see him. Right there." Daniel said, pointing behind the group of boys in front of him. He didn't think they would actually fall for it, but to his amazement all five looked over their shoulders. Fear in their eyes. Fear did not exist in that dojo, except in the form of sensei Kreese.

Daniel wasted no time whatsoever, as soon as they were distracted he turned heel and raced back into the hallway he had been coming from. People flocked in every direction, hurrying off to the bus, or getting last minute things from their lockers. Soon there would be no cover for him; soon the snakes would be on the hunt. A thought occurred to Daniel... He didn't have to run away. He could hide in plain sight.

History repeats itself, try and you'll succeed.

Before he could talk himself out of the stupid plan, Daniel turned and threw himself into the first empty classroom that he saw. He vaguely realized that it was one of the art department rooms. The ones with the huge closets in the back to store all the supplies. Perfect. No way that they would ever think to look in there.

The last bell rang, the one that signaled the absolute end of the day. All students off school grounds. Every student except for Daniel... and possibly the Cobras.

There was no way that the Cobras would think to look in this exact room, but still Daniel slid across the room into the back closet in the dark. He sat there waiting for something to happen, breath slowly calming to a slow pant. He must have sat there for ten, twenty minutes. It was too dark for him to see his watch to really tell. He had to try and make a break for it; there was no way that the Cobras were still here. They had probably thought that he had taken the chance to blend in with the crowd and work his way home... At least, that's what he hoped.

He stood up blindly, accidentally bashing his head on one of the hanger poles. "Damnit!" Daniel hissed holding the back of his head with one hand, applying slow, but steady pressure. His other hand reached out to the handle, just as he heard voices directly outside.

"Come on Johnny, what are you going to do? Check every nook and cranny for him? I don't think he's even here..." Tommy's voice got louder with every step. A thought crossed Daniel's mind.

Had he closed the classroom door all the way?

"Shut up Tommy, he's here. I can feel it. He must be hidi..." the noise stopped. Daniel didn't have the best sense of direction while crouching in the dark, but he had a pretty good feeling the voices had stopped right about in front of the door.

The door slammed open. Daniel's hand that had been gripping the door handle, flew to his mouth stifling a scream. Two of the Cobras were no more than twenty feet from Daniel. They were in a closed down school, with no one around. And the worst part? One of the two boys was Johnny!

"We know you're in here Daniel. Don't make us look for you. Come out and we might even take it easy on you." Daniel knew this was a lie. There was no way that Johnny was going to let this all go by so easily. He was going to make Daniel pay for whatever it was that made Daniel such a torment to him.

Daniel knew that Johnny and Tommy weren't going to take it easy on him, but they would find him eventually either way. With as much courage as he could muster, which wasn't much considering he was confronted with two of his enemies at once, he grabbed the handle and opened the door to his fate.

Never doubt that you're the one. And you can have your dream.