Disclaimer: I do not own The Karate Kid, any of it's characters or any of the screenplay. I'm just borrowing them to play with and add my spin on things.

As he thought back, he couldn't remember the first time he had really noticed her. Sure, he'd been friends with her brother since they were kids. They were best friends, as a matter of fact. He'd spent countless amounts of hours at their house and vice versa since they lived across the street from one another. She had always been around. She was the little sister that followed her brother almost everywhere.

But now that they were older, she certainly had his attention. She was a year younger than him and her brother even though she was in the same grade as them. She had skipped a grade in elementary school, the principal had explained to her parents, "She needs more of an academic challenge.".

"Hey stranger." A female voice broke Johnny Lawrence out of his thoughts. "Haven't seen you around much lately."

Johnny looked up from his bike to be met face to face with the target of his thoughts. "Hey Kellie."

"Where ya been? You and Dutch having a lover's quarrel?" she teased.

Johnny made a face. "Nah, just been busy all week."

A brief look of disappointment crossed her face before she spoke again. "That's too bad."

This time, she had his full attention. He looked at her. Her dark blonde hair was messily pulled into a pony tail and her green eyes stared straight at him. She was almost a foot shorter than him with a slender build and curves in all the right places. His eyes glanced over her body.

"Why's that?"

"No reason. Just used to seeing you around a lot," she said lightly as she chewed on her bottom lip. A habit, Johnny noticed, she did a lot, especially when she was nervous.

Johnny turned his attention back to his bike as he picked up a wrench and started to change out the spark plug.

"You and Ali broke up?" Kellie asked randomly.

"Yeah."

"Sorry to hear that." She said.

"Thanks."

"Summer's almost over. Ready for school?"

Johnny chuckled, "As ready as I'll ever be." He finished screwing in the part on his bike before looking up. "What about you?"

"In a way I am, but at the same time I'm not. Hard to believe we're seniors this year."

Johnny nodded.

"You're sure being really quiet, usually you talk to me more." She said disappointed in his lack of communication.

When he didn't reply she decided she would just try talking to him later, he obviously had other stuff on his mind at the time. "Well, I guess I'm gonna go back home. See ya around," she said as she walked off toward her house.

Johnny glanced up from his bike as she walked away. "See you," he called after her. She briefly turned and smiled as she waved.

Johnny watched her until she disappeared into her the house. He quickly finished up his bike before retreating into his own house for a quick shower. He had plans to meet all of the guys at Golf n Stuff.

"Johnny, man, where ya been?" Tommy asked as he stood up off his bike.

"Got a little tied up at the house." Johnny replied as he took his helmet off and hung it on the handle bar before he dismounted his bike and walked towards the entrance with the rest of the guys.

"Man, I can't believe school starts back next week. Seems like summer break is getting shorter and shorter."

"Don't remind us!" Bobby quipped from the back of the group.

The guys walked on into the arcade, scoping out the scene as they looked for something interesting to do.

As they rounded the corner of the arcade, Bobby spotted Ali.

"Hey Johnny, there's Ali. You gonna go talk to her?"

"No. What's the point?" Johnny questioned, frustrated. He thought back to the last time he'd tried to talk to her. She'd yelled at him and thrown a glass of water in his face. Maybe after she'd had a little more time to cool down he would try to talk to her again. For now, he'd leave her alone.

Truthfully, at this point, he wasn't really sure he wanted her back. Maybe they really weren't any good for each other, but you didn't just get over that long of a relationship in one night either.

"Your sister stopped by earlier." Johnny said to Dutch as the two of them wandered off towards the air hockey table.

Dutch cocked his eyebrow, "Yeah? What for?"

Johnny half laughed, "She said she dropped by to see why I hadn't been around much lately."

Dutch laughed and clapped his buddy on the back. "She's got a crush on you."

"No way, man."

"I'm serious." Dutch said as he attempted to put on his most serious face.

Johnny ignored his best friend as he started up the game, sending the disc flying past Dutch's defense into the goal, effectively scoring his first point. As the game went on his mind started to wander again. What if Kellie did actually have a crush on him? He thought she was cute but she was his best friend's sister. He'd known her since she was eleven. He also had to admit they were pretty good friends themselves. He could talk to her about stuff he could never talk to Ali about. She seemed to always understand him, and they had a lot of the same interests.

Johnny was once again broken out of his thoughts. "Hey you alright?" Dutch questioned as his brows furrowed together.

"Fine," was his only simple reply.

"You seem off. This whole Ali thing really is getting to you."

"It's not that."

"Well, what then?"

The conversation was cut short as the rest of the guys joined back up.

The rest of the week went by fairly uneventfully. It was the day before school started back. The guys had all decided to go do some trail riding before the new hectic school year started back.

They headed toward the beach, Johnny in the lead. As they pulled up to the hillside overlooking the beach Johnny stopped and waited for the rest of the group to catch up. Tommy and Bobby pulled up on either side of him with Dutch and Jimmy bringing up the rear.

"Brew time." Tommy said as he pulled a beer from his bag.

"Pass." Johnny declined, followed by Bobby as Tommy popped the tab and started drinking.

"You're still the ace degenerate." Tommy pipped up at Johnny.

"Ex degenerate, man!" Johnny said. "9 a.m. tomorrow I'm a senior. I got one year to make it all work and that's what I'm gonna do, make it work."

"Looks like you aren't the only trend setter Johnny. Take a right and look." Tommy laughed.

A flash of anger crossed Johnny's face as he pulled his helmet back on.

"Let it go Johnny!" Bobby warned as Johnny sped off.

"Thought they broke up?" Jimmy questioned.

"She did, he didn't." Tommy smiled as they all followed Johnny down to the beach.

Johnny dismounted his bike walked over and kneeled down in front of Ali as he set his helmet beside himself, "I wanna talk to you."

"Yeah well I don't wanna talk to you." She said as she turned on her radio, Johnny turned if off. "Why don't you just take your little Cobra Kais and get out of here?"

"Oh yeah, like that's gonna solve everything."

Johnny turned off the radio standing up and holding it where she couldn't grab it.

"Give me my radio!" She shouted at him.

"No."

"Give me my radio!"

"You promise to talk to me?"

"Yes, just give me my radio."

"You promise?"

"Yes." He handed over the radio and she turned it back on ignoring him once again. In anger he grabbed it throwing it to the ground. She shoved him backwards, "You broke my radio!"

Johnny caught movement from his left eye. "Don't touch it punk." He said in a warning. The stranger moved towards him and Ali with the radio. Johnny grabbed the radio from him, "You want it?" He asked holding it towards to guy. Johnny shoved it into his hands knocking him to the ground. He quickly got to his feet rushing towards Johnny. Johnny stepped to the side tripping him in the process and turning back into a fight stance ready for whatever came next.

"Just stop it Johnny! Leave him alone." Ali shouted.

"What? I didn't do anything!" Johnny said to her.

The kid charged at Johnny again, this time Johnny sent him to the ground with a spinning crescent kick to the stomach.

"You must feel like a big man now, huh?" Ali questioned angrily.

"Look you started this! All I wanted to do was talk to you." Johnny shot back.

"Well just leave him alone and we'll go talk." Ali pleaded.

"Yeah, where'd I heard that before?" Johnny walked towards the kid still on the ground. "How about you hero? Had enough?" At that time the kid punched Johnny in the nose. Johnny stepped back in shock as his hand went to his nose. He pulled it away, seeing the blood on his fingers.

"Ok now we're even." The kid said.

"No mercy, man." Johnny said coming at him with a front kick followed up by a crescent kick and then a back fist to the mouth. This time the kid fell to the ground and didn't get back up. Johnny stepped back towards Ali, keeping his eye on him to make sure he didn't try anything else.

"Let go of me! Why don't you hit me? Does that make you feel better, huh?" Ali shouted as she slammed her fist against Johnny's chest and pushed him backwards.

"It's your fault."

"My fault?" She questioned angrily. "Everything is your fault. Why do you always have to fight?"

"Bullshit. Get on your bikes guys." Johnny said waving his hand towards Ali in dismissal.

Johnny and the rest of the guys mounted their bikes and rode off.

"Hey, man, you sure you're alright?" Dutch asked as they pulled into their neighborhood. Johnny didn't answer right away, so Dutch spoke again. "Just forget her, she's nothing but trouble."

"You're probably right." He said finally. "I'm going to bed. See you in the morning."

Johnny pushed his bike into the garage before walking into the house. He wasn't sure if his parents were home or if they were off at some social event. Right now, he really didn't care. He trudged up the stairway heading for his room. He crashed down on his bed with a heavy sigh. He stared up at his ceiling in frustration. He didn't want Ali back, so why had he gotten so mad about her talking to some other guy? He shouldn't care what she did or with who she did it. That cocky little punk should have minded his own business, though. Who did he think he was butting in? He had deserved to get his ass kicked.

Johnny sat up and reached for his headphones on the night table., He slipped them on and pressed play on the tape player before he fell back onto his pillows. This time, his thoughts drifted back to Kellie. There was a girl he could see himself with. Question was, would she be interested? "Guess there's only one way to find out," he said quietly to himself before he drifted off to sleep.

Johnny jolted awake the next morning to the beeping sound of his alarm clock going off. He swatted at it, shutting it off as he squinted his eyes to see what time it was. Finally, after several seconds of pep talking himself to get up, Johnny finally rolled out of bed.

He quickly threw on a pair of jeans with a shirt, paused long enough to comb his hair into place and brush his teeth before he rushed out the door. Dutch was already waiting for him by the curb with Kellie.

"Morning," they all greeted as Johnny mounted his bike and the three of them rode off in the direction of the high school.

They were the first ones to arrive, shortly followed by Bobby, then Jimmy and finally Tommy showed up last.

They all stood in the parking lot talking until the first bell rang. Everyone separated, going to their own classes.

At the end of the day Kellie, was the first one back out to the bikes, followed shortly by Johnny.

"How was your day?" She asked cheerfully.

"Not bad. Yours?" he asked as he leaned casually up against his bike.

"Pretty good."

"So, I was thinking," Johnny began. "Maybe we could go grab a burger or something Friday night?"

Kellie looked at him surprised. "Yeah, sure."

Johnny smiled at her. "Pick you up at 7?"

"Sounds good." She smiled.

At that time the rest of the guys walked up.