Sunday is mostly quiet. Only a few people came in since most of the students were hungover after Jake's party. Jack walks in hoping that his half drunk comment about Lindsay doesn't ruin his friendship with Carson. They just made up on Friday so it would be a bust if he stopped talking to Jack entirely. However, Carson smiles at him so maybe he isn't mad?

Or was that a grimace? He did get drunk yesterday so maybe he has a slight hangover or something...

Carson approaches him while he is in the locker room, packing up his duffel bag inside the locker. He doesn't say anything up until Jack turns around. "She wanted me to stop being your friend."

Jack frowns, "What?"

"She said that in order for me to date her, I had to stop being your friend," Carson repeats. "She didn't like your comment I guess, but I defended you. I knew you were drunk and that you didn't mean it. I told her to lose my number if she really felt that way, and even though it hasn't been 24 hours, I haven't gotten anything."

Jack blinks a couple times. Carson took his side, even though he wasn't too drunk to forget what he said. He just didn't like the way Lindsay was on Carson, neither did he like the way Carson was enjoying making out with her. It's not jealousy, he tells himself. "I'm sure she'll call you."

"I don't think so," he shrugs. "If she does, that's fine but if she doesn't I can always move on. I'm not exactly gonna give up just yet."

Jack tries to hide his contempt over Carson getting back with Lindsay. He could have anyone other than her, he thinks. "Are you sure you wanna date her again if the chance comes? Because there are other cute girls out there. And uh...you can date boys too…" he stammers a little and then curses himself for stammering. He doesn't know what's happening but all of these weird feelings have been there since yesterday after Carson's fight with his ex-girlfriend.

"True," Carson smirks, watching as Jack's cheeks become red. "I'll keep looking...maybe the one for me is already here and I don't even know it." With that, Carson exits the locker room, leaving Jack a completely flustered mess.


When Monday comes, it's a very interesting day. Since the black dragons won instead, everyone gets bragging rights, much to the chagrin of Jack's former dojo. What also happened was that Lindsay kept glaring at Jack up until their physical education class, where she confronts him before the teacher shows up. "I don't like you," she growls.

"Tell me something I don't know," Jack says sardonically, and rolls his eyes.

"But...I like Carson," Lindsay continues, ignoring Jack's sardonic comment. "And...if that means getting along with you, then fuck it, we should get over this stupid thing we used to have and at least ignore each other. Although i'm not sure why I would still forgive you after you implied that I had an STI."

Jack grimaces. "Yeah, well, that was very unlike me to say and i'm sorry. I'm willing to forget what happened in the past and move on."

Lindsay doesn't believe him. There's something deeper going on and she doesn't like it. "Fine then."

"I still don't think you dating Carson is a good idea," Jack points out. He will never like Lindsay dating Carson. He just couldn't trust her. "But...who am I to impose? Just let it be known that i don't want you hurting him."

Lindsay furrows her eyebrows as she watches Jack open his mouth but then close it, as if he wants to say more. "I'm not gonna hurt anyone."

Jack can barely believe her, but decides against saying that. "Good."

Lindsay smiles falsely, and turns around only to curl her lip in disgust and roll her eyes as she walks away from Jack. He watches her disappear, and shakes his head. If he didn't regret keeping Lindsay away from Carson then, he regrets it now.


Carson is on his way to his car when he receives a text from Lindsay. He has half a mind to ignore the text considering that she wants to separate him from Jack but he's already opening it. It only says she'll be available by the mall so he drives over there, stopping when he sees her in front of the door. He waves her over instead of texting her and she enters the passenger seat.

"I talked to Jack today," she says after a moment of uncomfortable silence. "We've settled our differences. And i'm sorry for trying to sabotage another important relationship of yours."

Carson nods a couple of times, with his hands on the steering wheel. "Ok."

"I know it sounds like i'm not genuine, but I am," she continues. "I like you, and it's not just because you look good. I like you because you care, and you listen to me, and you're not just a brick wall. I actually want to get to know you better."

Carson smiles a little. "That's genuine enough for me." It makes the both of them laugh. "How about we start over and go on another date? Maybe on Saturday?"

"Sure," Lindsay answers, blushing a little. She really did miss that effect Carson has on her. "But this time, a place where no one from school would be at."

"I'll make an effort," Carson replies, chuckling as he starts the car. He decides to take her home before going to the dojo. She lived further from the dojo, but he didn't mind much; his mind is focused on where to take Lindsay out on their redo date. Not even the upcoming snarky comments from Kai could ruin his mood.

Maybe this time he can stop thinking about his feelings for someone else, and maybe actually develop feelings for a person who likes him and isn't taken.

After dropping Lindsay off, he turns the car around and goes towards the dojo. However, the whole front of the dojo is crashed, with all of the students standing at the parking lot, shocked and a little angry. Carson steps out of the car and runs over to Jack and Kai. "What happened?"

"Those Wasabi idiots ran a monster truck to our front door," Heather answers instead. "Ugh, that means we have to train at their dojo for now!"

Carson frowns deeply. He did not want to go back to the Wasabi dojo for any reason, not even for a competition. "Out of all the places we can find here?"

"No other dojo is within five miles," Jack speaks up. "Plus, it was Rudy who offered...albeit reluctantly, just so he can stop Sensei Ty from suing."

"I'd rather sue," Carson grumbles. "So, should we start heading there already or what?"

"Indeed," Jake replies. "Our sensei isn't gonna stop us from training, especially now when Heather's training for a black belt and Sabrina's trying to get a green belt."

"Oh, yeah." Heather decided after the tournament to take Jack's advice and start training for a black belt, which will happen because she's strong and she definitely has moves. Same for Sabrina getting training for her green belt, but only on everyone else's insistence. Jack is training Heather on certain techniques when neither sensei Ty nor Ryan can help her, while Sabrina is getting help from Jake and Sloane, getting the same technique help. It might take years for them to get their belts (minimum was a year for a black belt and four months for a green belt; anything below the minimum is considered cheating) but Jack is excited and kind of proud to hear that his friends are taking initiative. "Still, I thought I would have to die first than to ever set foot in that place ever again."

"Alright guys, we should get going," Sloane speaks up, after approaching her fellow students.

Carson waves both Jack and Kai over to his car, while Jake takes Heather, Sloane, and Sabrina. Ryan willingly takes both Brody and Elliott, since no one else's cars were big enough. Sadly, Carson just came from the mall not too long ago so he has to waste even more gas to go to the mall, where his old dojo is at.

It's a short ride, and it's also quiet, but that's because everyone is either shocked or disgruntled over the accident. Carson had to keep in his excitement and gratitude to himself until later, which may be hard to do. Everyone gets to the mall at the same time and goes to the dojo as a group, with their sensei standing right behind them. It's even more quiet than the ride here.

It seems like Rudy was already preparing his students for their impending arrival, because once they walk in, two of his students sigh angrily. "Yeah, we're not happy to be here either," Heather snaps, dropping her duffel bag on the bench.

"Are you sure they can't train in their parking lot?" Kim inquires, gesturing towards the black dragons for emphasis. "It's big enough."

"The real question is, what the fuck were you losers doing on our turf at the time?" Sabrina inquires back, crossing her arms and glaring at Kim. Despite being only thirteen, she towers slightly over the blond. "We could instead kick you out and we can train here, because I got a green belt waiting on me."

Kim snarls at the younger orange belt. "You got a lot of mouth for an orange belt."

"Yeah but I can pack a punch, you wanna test that theory?" Sabrina retorts, and almost lunges for Kim until Jake pulls her away.

"Where are we supposed to put our stuff?" Kai questions, growing impatient.

"You can leave it outside where you came from," Milton suggests, but he cowers once Kai glares at him harshly.

Jack rolls his eyes. "Follow me," he demands. Everyone follows Jack to the locker room area. He points to the other side for the girls' locker room, and he goes to the boys' locker room. Nothing changed about this place, not even the mold, or the questionable stain in the corner of the locker room. "I see nothing has changed."

"Yeah," Carson agrees, clearly disgusted. "That mold's been there since the place opened."

Once everyone has their things packed away, they go back to the mats where the small amount of Wasabi students move to the other side of the dojo. "There's so much space you can use to practice," Sloane points out, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah but we're not gonna share the same space with any of you," Kim spits back.

"Why so bitter, Kimberly?" Heather inquires, her voice laced with sarcasm and taunt. "You used to be one of us, remember? We used to be tight, remember? We shared the same fucking sparring space, remember?"

"Like she wants to be associated with cheaters," Jerry replies, stretching his arm towards Kim's side to protect her.

"Go fuck yourself," Heather growls at Jerry and Kim.

"Alright," Kai groans, interrupting an impending argument. "It was your fatal decision to play with a monster truck on our parking lot, and now you have to deal with it."

"Yeah, i'm pretty sure we'd do the same—"

"No, we wouldn't," Kai interjects, stopping Elliott from finishing that sentence. "Come on, we got to practice for belt upgrades. Jack, keep training Heather, and Jake, help Sabrina. Everyone else...stay out of trouble."

Heather takes Jack's wrist and pulls him towards a worn out sparring dummy. She's still pissed off about earlier, and is certainly more pissed off about sharing a dojo with someone she despised. "I hate her," she mutters, and punches the dummy so hard that the head comes off.

Jack backs up before the head flies towards his face, and then softly glares at Heather. "Seriously?" He questions, gesturing towards the broken dummy.

"I don't know how you dated her," Heather argues. She turns around and grabs the sparring gloves, and tosses them to Jack. "She's a total bitch. She thinks she's better than us now that she isn't with the 'cheating side' like….ok? I get it, we cheated a couple times but now we aren't? At least when Kai started showing up! And like...she used to be with us so we aren't that different?"

Jack allows her to rant while he blocks her punches. He understands where Heather is coming from; being in this place is making him remember the day that his friends took his cheating ex-girlfriend's side (well in retrospect, Jerry was already gonna take Kim's side since they're together, it was only Milton and Rudy and well...look what happened). He wanted this to be over so that he can go back to the black dragons dojo and train there, and never have to worry about his ex-friends, even in school.

"What makes me even more upset is that we used to be friends, you know?" Heather says, suddenly feeling out of breath. "She always pushed me to go further with my training, and I did. I wasn't ok with her deflecting, but i'd still be her friend if she didn't villainize us. Despite our seedy reputation, we still treated her with respect and we made her feel home. It wasn't until you showed up that she started to think we were the ultimate evil."

Jack frowns a little. "Did you hate me?"

"No," Heather replies. "Part of it was because you were cute. I didn't blame Kim at first to be honest. Another part of it was because I knew it was wrong. I was probably the only person who thought that way."

"Well, luckily, we're not cheaters anymore," Jack points out, making Heather crack a smile.

"You're right." The conversation is dropped immediately after, and they start practicing again.


Practice takes the rest of the day. Everyone keeps their distance, but that's ok with Jack because he wanted nothing to do with his old dojo. Neither did Carson, either. Once they both exit the locker room, they notice they are the last of the black dragons to be here, especially since no person wants to be here in a dirty, moldy martial arts dojo.

"Well, if it isn't the traitors," Jerry calls out to them, causing both Jack and Carson to whip their heads around and glare at him. Jack doesn't want to say anything and hopes Carson would turn back around and pull him out of the dojo, but he knows that isn't the case. Carson fully turns around and glares at Jerry.

"Traitor? I was kicked out, remember?" Carson laughs. "And you're the one to talk, when you decided to go behind your best friend's back and engage in a secret relationship with his girlfriend."

"Carson, let's go," Jack frowns, but Carson ignores him.

"Don't you think you're wrong for that? Pretending that you give a shit about Jack when you don't?" Carson argues, his anger rising after remembering how broken and distraught Jack was after the initiation ceremony. "Don't you ever assume that we're traitors, when you're a bigger one."

"Oh please," Jerry scoffs. "You cheated just because you wanted to beat Jack. He was better than you, and you couldn't handle it. That's why you cheated, right?"

"Shut up," Carson growls.

"Why are you even defending him anyway?" Jerry inquires. "He hates you."

"Because he's my friend," Carson argues back. "Something you're clearly not. You betrayed him, and you don't even feel sorry for yourself. You're making out with Kim at every corner of this goddamned dojo to make your point across...for what? He moved on from her, and he definitely doesn't need you to be a friend for him anymore.

"Oh?" Jerry smirks, and looks at Jack, who is still facing the other way. "Is that right, Brewer? He's your friend now? Heh, never thought you would be friends with this asshole."

"He's a better friend than you'll ever be," Jack growls.

"Oh yeah?" Jerry cackles, and steps closer to Jack. Carson stretches a hand over Jack, protecting him innately. "Takes a traitor to know a traitor. You probably cheated on Saturday too, didn't you? You're clearly with the black dragons, and you know they're disgusting cheats. You could've been with us, and you decided to deflect just because your girlfriend liked me better than you. How pathetic."

Jack clenches his fist and feels the tears stinging his eyes, and immediately leaves the dojo. Carson glares at the latinx teen once again before leaving the dojo and chasing after Jack.

"Hey, Jack…"

Jack doesn't stop. Instead, he leaves the mall entirely and keeps going, passing Carson's car and goes towards the path to his house. Carson sighs, getting inside his car and decides to follow Jack. He rolls down his windows. "Jack!"

"I just need to be left alone," Jack replies, with his teeth grinding in anger and once again holding back tears.

"Yeah, I don't think that's such a good idea," Carson replies, scratching the back of his neck with one hand and the other steadily holding his steering wheel. "Don't listen to him, ok? He's an asshole."

"But what if he's right? I mean...how long did it take me to find out that my ex was cheating and for me to leave one dojo for another?" He argues. He stops in the middle of the sidewalk, gives up his fight on holding back tears and faces Carson. "I joined another dojo, barely two hours after finding out about my ex having another relationship behind my back and freaking the hell out about it, when all I could've done was get over it and beat your ass?"

Carson frowns deeply, but doesn't reply just yet. He knows Jack has a point, but if that was him, he would feel uncomfortable being in the same room as his ex-girlfriend and his ex-best friends training their lives away. After swiftly killing the engine, he gets out of the car and storms towards Jack, fighting the urge to wipe Jack's tears with his thumbs. "Yeah, but...would you feel comfortable being around a cheater and an asshole?"

"It's better than being on a team who cheats all the fucking time," Jack argues, his anger rising. "I would've gotten over it, trust me. I've been in bigger fights and i'm sure we would've been friends again."

"Really," Carson replies, with a cold sneer. "You would rather yourself to be depressed looking at your ex-girlfriend be with someone you thought was your best friend. I don't get you, Jack Brewer. You push away your own feelings over being angry just because you want to prove to the world that your dojo is better. No, there's a fucking reason why I hate that place, and Rudy kicking me out doesn't even scratch the surface!"

"You don't know shit!" Jack yells, and pushes Carson harshly. Carson stumbles, and resists the urge to deck Jack in the face. He knows that Jack is just angry and he surely isn't over his ex dating his best friend, so he isn't allowing this to truly get angry at him. In other circumstances though…

"I don't know shit? I was a fucking Wasabi warrior before you even existed in this fucking town," Carson spits back, his voice higher than Jack's. "Yeah, they might be great people, but they're not. They have a holier than thou attitude that's no better than the black dragons and a sensei who is a selfish prick. You, of all people should know that he puts himself first before the safety of anyone. That mold in the bathroom is the reason why i'm still wary to go inside the locker rooms. There's still a bunch of disgusting shit in there that should be illegal, and it's only gonna get worse. The dojo is named after a washed out, obese, white martial arts star who appropriates the Japanese culture. Yeah, I may have gotten my black belt there, but that doesn't mean I'm proud of it, and I only got better by getting the hell out of Seaford for a while."

Jack huffs, staring at Carson incredulously, but having nothing to say.

"You may not notice it, but you don't need them, not now and probably not ever," Carson continues, his voice leveled. "I've watched you slowly get over what happened and become friends with all of us, even repairing things with your cousin. You may not be completely over what Kim did to you, but you still kicked their asses on Saturday. If you're gonna allow that prick to dictate your decisions like that without knowing your motives, or blaming yourself or us for whatever happened between you and Kim, then you are not the person I thought you were...and trust me, even before our rivalry a year ago, I've always admired you."

Jack still doesn't say anything, which makes it even more unsettling.

"Do you still want your space or—"

"Can you take me home? Please?"

Carson nods immediately. "Sure." He leads Jack to his car, and as soon as Carson enters the driver's seat, Jack starts crying. Carson frowns even deeper and pulls Jack in his embrace.