CHAPTER 13

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

Miguel blinked sleep out of his eyes and smiled widely. He had just woken up and brushed his teeth, before walking into the living room and seeing his family standing in the dining room, holding Happy 16th Birthday banners.

"Wow!" Miguel murmured, still waking up, as he gave his family hugs. It was February 26th, finally the date of his 16th birthday.

"Happy birthday, Miggy!" His mom exclaimed, kissing him on the forehead. "I can't believe you're 16! Okay, I know you're going out with your friends later but I thought we could have breakfast before you go and give you your gifts."

"Thanks, mom. That sounds great." Miguel said, appreciatively, as Johnny, Carmen, Miguel and his yaya sat down together for a delectable feast that Miguel's yaya had made. It was a combination of all of Miguel's favourite food: pancakes, waffles, crispy, juice strips of bacon, and vats and vats of dulce de leche. It was an absolutely divine meal, and the day only went uphill from there. After breakfast, Miguel was given presents from his mom and from his sensei. His mom and grandma gave him their combined gift first. Miguel held the small wrapped box in his hands and shook his head gently.

"Now, how did you get a remote control fire truck inside of here?" He joked.

"Stop!" Carmen laughed.

"A train set?" He joked.

"No. Open it!" She exclaimed.

"Hmm. BB Gun?" Miguel joked again.

"No. Better." She said. Miguel nodded and started to unwrap it.

"Okay. I don't know what's better than a BB Gun though." He remarked. He finally unwrapped the gift and opened the box. He gasped when he saw the gift staring back at him. It was an incredible, handsome watch.

This wasn't a boy's watch; it was a man's watch. It was black and silver, with a stainless steel strap and a large black face. Miguel looked at his mom, in shock. A gift like that couldn't have been cheap, and Miguel knew better than anyone about his family's financial troubles.

"Wow, um… mom… this is amazing!" Miguel exclaimed.

"It was your abuelo's watch." Miguel's yaya explained to him in Spanish. "He wanted you to have it when you turned 16."

Well that made more sense. It was his grandmother's husband's watch (his grandfather's), and it had been passed down to him. Miguel absolutely loved it. He put it around his wrist and hugged his grandmother and mother.

"Thank you so much, you guys." Miguel said, as he gazed at the gift on his wrist.

"Ok, my turn." Johnny said. Miguel looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"You got me a gift?" Miguel asked. "You didn't have to do that."

"Of course I did." Johnny rolled his eyes. "So I got you one big gift and one small gift."

"Jesus, that's a lot, Sensei." Miguel remarked. "You don't need to get me a gift. You do enough for me as it is."

"Too late." Johnny stated, before walking into the other room and returning moments later with Miguel's All-Valley trophy in his hands.

"Wow, Sensei…" Miguel was lost for words as he stared at an identical trophy to the one he hated himself for breaking that night. "How did you…"

"It wasn't much." Johnny said. That was a lie. He had painstakingly tracked down the company that had made Miguel's first All-Valley trophy, and had begged them to remake their old, last-year trophy model so it would look exactly like Miguel's trophy from the championship. Johnny had originally tried to piece together Miguel's broken trophy after he smashed it against the ground a couple of weeks before, but gave up on that after a day when he realised how many miniscule pieces there were. Instead, he had driven 2 and a half hours to Victorville, California, and bought the new one.

"Thank you so much, sensei!" Miguel exclaimed, giving his Sensei a hug. Johnny smiled at him. After everything that had happened in his relationship with Robby, spending so much time with Miguel and his family truly made him feel like he had a son.

"It was no problem, kid." Johnny replied. "And hey, that wasn't even your big gift from me!"

"It wasn't?" Miguel asked, confused. Obviously, Miguel had grown up in poverty so he wasn't used to such extravagant birthday presents, or birthday presents at all actually.

"Of course not! Your big gift's outside!" Johnny exclaimed. Miguel, perplexed, stood up and followed his Sensei outside. When he stepped outside, he looked at his sensei, confused. There, in front of him, was Johnny's old Dodge Challenger, that used to have the Cobra Kai paint on it. However, now, the Cobras and the snakes on the car had all been painted over: it was now just a matt black car, and it looked incredible. Miguel didn't think too much of it though. He just assumed Johnny had finally managed to track down his old car and was sick and tired of driving his '93 Dodge Caravan that he had stolen from the Larussos.

"Um… Sensei… what am I looking at? You found your old car? Ooh, can I drive it sometimes? Is that my gift?" Miguel asked, excitedly. Johnny suddenly pressed something into his hands and Miguel looked down to see that it was the car keys.

"It's not my car. It's yours now." Johnny replied. Miguel's jaw dropped. His mind was whirring at hundreds of miles an hour.

"Um… what?" Miguel asked. "You're giving me the car?"

"Yup." Johnny nodded. "After the school fight, I lost it and I had no idea where it was up until like a month ago. Then, somehow, by a miracle of luck, it got towed to Larusso's dealership. He recognised it and called me. I knew your 16th birthday was coming up so I decided to get the car ready to give to you today. I got it re-painted obviously, and Larusso replaced the engine as it was broken when I got the car back, and he apparently had his men make some extra adjustments to the horsepower and speed of the car for you as a free bonus. The car's yours now."

Miguel was speechless. In fact, tears sprung to his eyes as he was comprehending what Johnny was telling him.

"Wow, um… Sensei… I… I don't… I don't know what to say." Miguel stammered, still unable to string words together. Johnny looked at him and noticed the tears in Miguel's eyes. He groaned.

"Damn it, Diaz, don't get all emotional on me!" Johnny remarked. Miguel didn't respond. He just threw his arms around his sensei, and Johnny's tough exterior immediately melted. He eventually put his arms around his student and returned the hug.

"Thank you so much, Sensei. Thank you." Miguel murmured as they broke apart.

"No problem, kid. Happy Birthday." Johnny said. Miguel smiled and turned to his family.

"Thank you so much, you guys. Best birthday ever." Miguel said, hugging all of his family members, before heading back into the apartment to quickly change out of his pajamas, ready to drive his new car.

"Day's about to get a whole lot better, kid." Johnny murmured to himself, before pulling out his phone and dialling a number.

"Hello?" The man answered the phone almost immediately.

"Hey, Larusso! Hearing's in a couple of hours. You ready?"

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"DUDE! What the hell?!" Hawk exclaimed as Miguel pulled up outside his house later that day in his new car. "You got a freaking car?!"

"Yup. Birthday gift from Sensei Lawrence." Miguel laughed, revving the engine mockingly at Hawk as his friend clambered into the passenger seat of the sports car.

"No fair! How come he doesn't buy me a car for my birthday?!" Hawk whined.

"Well, first of all, you already have a car, dumbass." Miguel remarked. "And second, you go through what Sensei and I have been through in the past year, and I guarantee you he'll buy you a frickin' plane!"

Hawk laughed.

"So, how fast can she do?" He asked. Miguel shook his head.

"You know, I really don't know. Apparently Mr. Larusso's mechanics made some free tweaks to the car to speed it up, but I haven't gone flat out yet."

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Hawk asked. Hawk and Miguel looked at each other and grinned, before Miguel sped away towards an abandoned road, preparing to flatten the pedal and test the limits of the car…

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"120! 140! 160! HOLY SHIT MIGUEL, SLOW DOWNN!" Hawk screamed like a little girl as Miguel ripped his way down an abandoned road, watching the speedometer reach 165 miles per hour before finally slowing down. He could tell the car could do more, but he didn't want to risk crashing so he slowly slowed to a halt and turned to his friend.

"So, what do you think?" Miguel grinned. Hawk laughed.

"Dude, you have gotta let me drive!" Hawk exclaimed. Miguel sighed and got out of the car. The two boys switched places so Hawk was in the driver's seat and Miguel was in the passenger's seat.

"One scratch on this car and I kill you." Miguel threatened, jokingly. Hawk laughed.

"Okay, MOM. Let's ride!" Hawk stated, before ripping his way back down the road and back towards the city. They drove for around 20 minutes before Hawk parked the car and Miguel looked at him, confused. They were meant to be going to the movies that night with the rest of the Miyagi-Dos, but this wasn't the movie theater. This was the All Valley Sports Arena, the venue of the All-Valley Karate tournament.

"Um… dude, what are we doing here?" Miguel asked, confused. Hawk shrugged and got out of the car.

"Come on. Let's go. We don't wanna be late." Hawk said.

"Late for what?!" Miguel asked. Hawk didn't respond, and Miguel followed him into the arena where he had won the All-Valley tournament 8 months ago. However, they didn't walk towards the various courts, gyms and karate mats. Instead, Hawk led him up to the top floor of the building, which was taken up entirely by offices and conference rooms. Outside one of the conference rooms were Sam, Daniel and Johnny.

"Hey, happy birthday, Miguel!" Daniel said.

"Yeah, happy birthday, babe!" Sam exclaimed, kissing him quickly. Daniel averted his eyes. Although he wasn't happy his baby girl was dating anyone, if she had to date someone, let it be someone as sweet and kind as Miguel and not someone like Kyler. "I've got your gift in my car. I'll give it to you after this. Hopefully everything goes well."

Miguel was even more confused now.

"Okay, what is this? What on Earth is going on?" Miguel asked.

"You'll see. Here, wear this!" Johnny remarked, before reaching into his bag and tossing Miguel's old arm sling at him. Miguel caught it and basically gave up on asking questions and did as he was told. Moments later, the whole group walked into a conference room. Sitting at the front were four adults, and Daniel quickly joined them. Johnny and the teenagers, however, sat in the seats at the back of the room.

"Miguel, just sit down, shut up, and if anyone asks you any questions, be sure to milk the arm injury, okay?" Johnny whispered to him.

"Sensei, what's going on?" Miguel whispered back, desperately. Johnny grinned at him and didn't answer because one of the adults at the front of the room began to speak.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let's bring this All-Valley Karate Championship meeting to order." A bald man announced. Miguel was confused. All-Valley tournament? Then why was he here? He couldn't even compete? It was too soon and his arm wasn't healed yet. "It says here that we have a request to shift back the date of the All-Valley, filed by one John Lawrence?" The man continued. Suddenly, Johnny stood up and walked towards the adults. Miguel's eyes widened when he realised what was going on. Johnny was trying to push back the date of the All-Valley tournament so Miguel would be able to compete!"

"Yeah, hi, I'm John Lawrence." Johnny said, before pointing at Miguel, who had his sling on again. "Sitting over there is my student…"

"Miguel Diaz! The reigning champ, in the flesh! You ready to defend your title?!" An African-American man exclaimed, cheerfully. Miguel recognised him as the announcer and commentator of last year's tournament.

"That's exactly the problem." Johnny stated. "He can't defend his title. Our rival dojo sabotaged us and ambushed him, mangling his arm."

"Oh, my god, that's horrible!" An asian man on the panel exclaimed. "We need to disqualify that team immediately! Which dojo was it?"

Johnny took a deep breath. This next bit was risky. He needed to tread the line carefully. He wanted more than anything for Miguel to be able to compete, but at the same time, he couldn't get Cobra Kai banned as it would ruin their bet with Kreese.

"I can't say." Johnny eventually responded. The panel members, other than Daniel of course, gasped in shock.

"You… you can't? Why not?" They asked.

"Because I can't get them banned from this tournament or it would violate an agreement we have with them." Johnny replied. He could tell he was losing the attention of the panel, and he needed to turn things around quickly. "But I'm not going to waste time talking about how awful the other dojo are. I want to tell you guys how amazing my student is! Miguel Diaz is the strongest person I know. You think that sling around his arm is bad? Well, less than 6 months ago, he was waking up from a 2 week coma, told by several doctors that he was permanently paralysed from the waist down and would never walk again, let alone fight. But in the course of three months, despite everything this enemy dojo put him through, he managed to get his ass out of his wheelchair and back on his feet. He relearned how to walk. He relearned how to stand. He relearned how to fight, all to be able to defend his title in the All-Valley tournament this June. But suddenly, when things were finally starting to look up, everything came crashing back down. Look at my kid's arm! It was mercilessly broken by these vicious students! It was a pathetic act of pure cowardice, and it put him out of commission for the time of the competition! All I'm asking, begging you is to give us one more month. Push back the tournament until July 19th. Give this kid a ray of hope in a life that God has done nothing but shit on!"

Johnny's powerful speech had rendered the panel speechless. There were 5 members, so a majority vote would push back the day of the tournament by a month.

"Well, you've got my vote." Daniel said, nodding at Johnny reassuringly. Johnny showed a hint of a smile towards his former foe.

"I don't know. Seems awfully inconvenient." Another panel member remarked. "I mean, we're going to have to tell the vendors to reschedule. We're going to have to rebook the arena for a different date. Just seems like a lot of hassle for one student."

"Yeah, I agree." Another member said.

"Yeah, me too." Another member agreed. This wasn't looking good. As it stood, the date of the All-Valley would not be changed.

"If I may interject, guys…" Daniel suddenly interrupted, standing up. "The kid sitting over there has been through so much, and you guys just brushing his horrific, traumatic experiences aside like they're nothing is quite frankly very cold and heartless. This is not the All-Valley championship I love. This is not the Karate family my dealership invests extreme amounts of money in every year, so I would be more than happy to not donate a cent more to this competition if I continue to see this sort of heartlessness shown."

Johnny looked at Daniel, and nodded approvingly. Daniel's massive company credit card may be just what they needed to get Miguel back in the competition. The panel members looked at each other nervously before one of them stood up.

"Okay, if all of you could wait outside. The panel will now vote on the matter in hand: pushing back the All-Valley by a month so it would be taking place on July 19th, rather than June 19th."

Everyone nodded and left the conference room, waiting anxiously for Daniel and the others to finish voting. As the group waited outside, Miguel and Johnny paced around, trying to calm their nerves. They were by far the most nervous people in the group, but Hawk and Sam also hoped and prayed that Miguel would be able to compete. Johnny eventually turned to Miguel.

"Hey, Miguel, whatever happens, know that I'm going to do whatever it takes to get you to that tournament, whether it's in June and July." Johnny stated. Miguel nodded and smiled faintly.

"Thanks, Sensei." He murmured in reply, before the group lapsed once again into silence. Miguel sat down, his back against the wall, as he closed his eyes and prayed for a miracle. Around ten minutes later, Daniel walked out of the conference room and over to them, an unreadable expression on his face. Miguel leapt to his feet and faced him, and as did Johnny.

"So…?" Johnny asked, not knowing whether he wanted to hear the answer or not. Daniel looked straight at Miguel when he responded…

"So, Miguel…" Daniel remarked, a massive smile breaking out on his face. "You still interested in defending that All-Valley crown of yours?"

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That night was filled with celebrations. After the All-Valley was officially pushed back to July 19th, the group all went to a restaurant to celebrate together. They celebrated long into the night, before they finally went their separate ways, Johnny and Miguel going to their place, Daniel and Sam going to theirs, and Hawk going to his place. When Johnny parked the car and him and Miguel stepped out, they looked at each other, grinning wildly.

"You're in, man!" Johnny exclaimed.

"I'm in!" Miguel said, it finally starting to sink in.

"YOU'RE IN!" Johnny shouted. The two hugged in delight and Miguel felt a ray of hope flood through him. Maybe, just maybe, he could win that second All-Valley. Maybe he could help banish Cobra Kai from L.A, and save the teenagers who deep down, weren't bad people, but had been corrupted and turned by Kreese. BEST BIRTHDAY EVER. However, it was about to get a lot worse...

As Miguel brushed his teeth and got ready for bed at around 11 that night, his phone suddenly rang. Miguel looked at his phone in confusion. Who would be calling him at this time at night? It was an unknown number so he answered it.

"Hello? Who's this?" Miguel asked into the phone.

"Miguel! Happy Birthday, mi nino!" An eerily familiar slur drawled into Miguel's ear. Miguel's hands immediately started trembling and he started hyperventilating. Greeting him was the voice of someone who he hadn't seen in 4 years, and hoped he would never see again. Someone who had emotionally and physically abused him and his mom nearly to death, to the extent his mom and him fled the country to get away from him. Someone whose job poisoned millions of teenagers in Ecuador with narcotics. Eventually, Miguel got over his shock and slowly picked up his phone again, lifting it to his ear and attempting to stammer a sentence together.

"D-D-d-dad...?"