Eli used to really like dogs. As a kid, he had always wished he'd been allowed to have one as a pet. Maybe a labrador or retriever. Something about the idea of having a companion that depended on him entirely and would love him loyally and unconditionally appealed greatly to him. However, his dad was very allergic to animal dander, and didn't want to get a monthly shot for it, so such an option had never been on the table; the closest thing he ever got was a goldfish. But any time Eli had been able to interact with a dog, he did. He loved petting them, he enjoyed the simplicity of their displays of happiness, how their tails would wag wildly while they licked his hand.
He used to like dogs. Now Hawk wasn't so sure about them.
Sensei Lawrence had finished handing out bits of beef jerky to his students, telling them, "You want to win, you gotta be hungry. You guys hungry?"
"Yes, Sensei!" they all answered, some of them eating the dried meat they'd been given without a second thought, assuming their Sensei was just passing out snacks as a reward for their hard work that day in the junkyard. They probably should have suspected something was off at that point; when had Sensei ever passed out snacks before?
A cocksure grin curled on the edges of his mouth as Johnny bit into a piece of the jerky himself. "Good. So are they," he said ominously, before blowing into a dog whistle. A moment's confusion crossed the kids' faces up until they heard the echoed barking coming from around some of the junk in the scrapyard. Then they saw them, two large, ravenous dogs darting out and hurtling right towards them. All of the kids immediately scurried off, as fast as their feet could carry them.
"Don't be afraid! They smell fear!" From where he stood to the side, watching the chaos he'd created with a smirk on his face, Sensei Lawrence saw the students scramble in every which direction to get out of the paths of the angry dogs. He spotted Aisha darting away to hide behind a pair of old rusty cars, packing herself tightly between them so the dogs would have no space to reach her. Miguel and Bert both jumped on top of a couple of the busted vehicles to get out of the reach of the barking canines before they could get bitten.
Johnny couldn't help but swell with a bit of pride, impressed by their quick thinking and fast reflexes in the face of fear. They were getting better. Maybe they would have a real shot at placing in the All-Valley Tournament after all, if they kept improving at this rate.
But then he heard a shriek, and when Sensei Lawrence followed the noise, he saw Hawk's last desperate efforts to climb on top of a car fail before one of the dogs jumped on him and bit down hard on his posterior. Johnny cringed a little, watching uneasily the next few seconds as the attack transpired in front of him.
Hawk screamed when he felt the dog's sharp teeth puncture through his jeans and break the skin underneath. He heard the canine's horrible snarling as it pulled and tugged him to the ground, and Eli tried to scramble away from the animal, but it kept its firm hold and ripped into him. Instinctively, he reached around with his right hand and did his best to push the dog off, but then it just launched itself on top of him, wrapping its jaws around the arm that had tried shoving it away, knocking Hawk on his back with its paws. All Eli could do was stick out his left hand to protect his face, crying out while the dog continued to maul into his right arm.
The whole thing didn't last longer than a minute before Sensei Lawrence ran over and tried to put a stop to it. He blew on the dog whistle in his hand and wagged a piece of jerky with the other, getting the dog's attention away from Hawk. He tossed the meat far to the side, so the mutt would stop attacking the kid.
He'd never expected the dogs to actually nab one of them, he'd just wanted to give them a good hearty scare to test their agility. A twinge of guilt tugged at him, making him uneasy. He hadn't meant for his any of his students to get hurt during this practice. Well, maybe a couple cuts, scrapes, or bruises from all the exposed glass and metal would build some character in them, but he didn't want to see any of them seriously injured.
At that moment, though, Johny couldn't focus on any feelings of regret for how he'd carried out his karate lesson. Right now, he just needed to keep the kid from going into hysterics.
Trying to sit up, Hawk winced with a groan when he felt how sore his ass was, and he could only imagine what the damage must have looked like; it certainly felt awful. He sniffed hard over and over, and bit down on his trembling bottom lip, trying to keep himself from crying. He could already feel the eyes of the other students all over as they looked across at him from their safe perches on the tops of the vehicles in the junkyard. Had Miguel seen what happened? Had Aisha?
Hawk sucked in a deep breath when his red-rimmed eyes fell on his shaking arm, at the pink raw flesh that was seeped with blood. His stomach clenched, and the color drained from his face. Oh God, he was bleeding. He could see the bite marks. This was nothing like the chipped tooth he'd suffered in class when Aisha had unflinched them. It truly sunk in. Holy shit, he'd been mauled! That dog had tried ripping him to pieces! Eli had to bite down on his lip harder to keep from shrieking again at the sight of the injury.
He almost didn't even notice his Sensei kneeling down on a knee beside him to make sure he was alright.
Grimacing at the wound on the kid's arm, Sensei Lawrence gave Hawk's shoulder a quick couple awkward pats and tried assuring him, "It's, uh, it's alright. It looks worse than it is, don't be a baby, okay? When you get home, just wash it off, take some Tylenol, and put some ice on it, you'll be good." Johnny hoped the kid wouldn't tell his parents how he came about those injuries, because he knew for a fact that his insurance wouldn't cover this. The last thing he needed after everything lately in his life was a lawsuit.
Even as upset as he was, Hawk was aware that ice wouldn't be enough. And there was no way to hide this. How was he possibly going to explain this to his parents? Eli knew if he told them the truth, they'd lose their minds. They'd probably call the police on Sensei Lawrence, charge him with negligence or assault or something. They'd definitely do everything in their power to keep Sensei from teaching karate again if they knew he'd gotten him hurt through sheer irresponsibility. And Hawk didn't want that, he didn't want to be the pansy dork responsible for getting Cobra Kai shut down. His friends would hate him.
So he thought of a lie. He'd been walking home from the dojo after practice had wrapped up, strolling down the streets of Reseda and minding his own business, when all of a sudden a random dog jumped out of the bushes and mauled him. Yeah. Yeah. That would work. His mom and dad would believe that. He'd always been a pretty honest kid, they'd have no reason to suspect he was lying.
God, he felt so embarrassed. The shame washing over Hawk as he let Sensei Lawrence help pull him back up on his shaky legs almost felt worse than the actual bleeding wounds themselves. The humiliation twisted at his gut so much, it almost made him sick. He limped away, self-consciously trying to position himself so none of the other students would see where the dog had bitten him on his posterior; what if they saw the Superman boxers he'd haphazardly thrown on that morning without thinking about it?
Why couldn't he have just gotten on top of the car like everyone else?
"Hey, man, you okay?" Miguel checked as he slid down off the truck he had climbed on to save himself from being attacked by the dogs, peering over to check out the scope of the damage. He winced in sympathy.
The last thing Hawk wanted was to look more like a idiot in front of Miguel. "Y-yeah," he stuttered, giving a small shrug of his shoulder, still holding his right arm close to him. "I-I'm fine. No big." Sensei Lawrence was right, he couldn't be a crybaby about this. He would just step out of the junkyard, walk down a few blocks, and then call his parents to tell them his cover story so they would come and pick him up. They would then take him to the doctor to get checked out, and the whole thing would eventually blow over.
He'd be fine.