The next day, the warmup is just as crummy as Sensei makes plenty of snide remarks to the new recruits. He walks to the front and looks over in Eli's direction.
"Hey Lip!" Sensei says and Eli looks up at him.
"Yeah you, the one with the freaky lip. Who do you think I'm talking to?" Sensei says.
I facepalm. For some reason, I don't like him making fun of Eli. I laugh when it's the other students, but him messing with Eli rubs me the wrong way.
"Excuse me, uh, Mr. Lawrence." Demetri says.
"Sensei! Lawrence!" Aisha corrects.
"Oookay," Demetri says putting his hands up.
"You really shouldn't make fun of someone's physical appearance," Demetri follows up.
"Oh is that so?" Sensei says amused at Demetri's comment.
Demetri nods.
"So, I'm not supposed to mention his lip at all?" Sensei says sarcastically.
"Well... y-yeah," Demetri responds as if it's obvious.
"Yeah maybe that's what they teach you in school, but in the real world, you can't expect people to do what they're supposed to do. Alright? You hear that Lip? If you can't handle someone making fun of you, how you gonna handle an elbow to the teeth?" Sensei responds.
"By... calling the police?" Demetri answers slowly.
I put my head in my hands in embarrassment.
"Dude, knock it off," Miguel says annoyed with Demetri.
"What?! He does realize the nazis lost the war right? Why should I be scared of him? Because he's got a snake on his wall? It's not like he's a teacher who can give us a bad grade. We're paying him. He works for us. It's not he can actually hurt us," Demetri says in his Sheldon voice.
I'm just covering my face out of humiliation. I don't know why I'm embarrassed. I'm just cringing super hard. Sensei looks amused and annoyed. Miguel just squeezes his eyes shut as Sensei walks up to Demetri.
"Are you done?" Sensei asks getting in his face.
"What?" Demetri mutters.
"Hit me. Go ahead. Strike me right here," Sensei says pointing to his jaw.
Demetri throws a half assed punch and Sensei smacks it down effortlessly.
"Harder," he orders Demetri.
Demetri tries again and Sensei smacks it down. Demetri grunts in pain.
"Is that all you got, Princess?" Sensei asks challengingly.
Demetri finally throws a full punch and Sensei flips him over with one arm. When Demetri lands on his back, Sensei holds up a fist and let's out a "hiyah!"
Sensei stands up and looks around the dojo.
"Let that be a lesson to all of you," Sensei says pointing around the room.
The rest of the class doesn't dare speak out against Sensei Lawrence and the lesson goes on as usual. I help out the noobs and Sensei focuses more on the higher up students. That night, the eight of us from the woods are hanging out at Ashley's house. Melody and Eli are upstairs "talking," and everyone else is playing Asshole (a drinking card game)
Authors note: Asshole is an extremely fun card game to play with friends. Most of the time people play it when they are drinking. Google it if you don't know what it is. I highly recommend it for a kickback or close friends hangout.
Amelia and I are smoking a joint outside.
"Well Mr. co-sensei, how would you rate my performance today?" Amelia asks biting her lip.
"Well when you slammed Virgin into the mat, you telegraphed," I taunt.
"It sucks that Demetri quit," I follow up.
"Yeah, but he's a lover, not a fighter," Amelia says.
"I should probably talk to him. Help him feel better," I say.
"No enough taking care of people. They can handle themselves. I know cause I feel the same way with my friends. Always have to take care of everyone," Amelia says.
I look through the window at everyone laughing and Miguel's face pinching as he was the asshole this round and someone made him take a shot of fireball.
"Hey, focus on you," Amelia says grabbing my arm gently and looking me in the eye.
I stare into her blue irises and her sunkissed complexion. I know she spends a lot of time in the sun because her natural tan and nose freckles from the sun so attractive. She'd be pale as a sheet without the sun, but even then, she'd probably still be a gem.
"Ok so you just admitted that your the group mom," I tease and she punches me in the chest.
"Okay, I see you. Looks like your getting better. You're a natural cobra," I say smiling.
"Let's see what you got," she says getting in a stance.
"When I get back next Monday, I'll show you a thing or two," I taunt.
"I'll go easy I promise," she says.
I give in and we lightly spar. She eventually grabs my neck and forces me to look at her.
"Got you," she taunts with a smirk as her pearly whites glisten in the moon light.
We lock eyes and my mind goes blank. Before anything happens, my phone starts buzzing. I take it out of my pocket and see none other than Moon's contact. Amelia frowns and shakes her head, but I can see the pain in her eyes. I look at her sympathetically.
"Sorry—" I begin to say.
"Go on take it," she says in her usual confident voice, but she's doing a horrible job of hiding her pain.
Hmm, I thought she and Moon were on better terms. I wonder what the problem is.
She walks inside and closes the sliding door. I answer and Moon's face lights up the screen.
"Hey," I say as I smile brightly.
"Hey," she says then giggles.
"To what do I owe the pleasure?" I tease.
She laughs.
Event since we had lunch we've been texting constantly. She came over when I told her about my diagnoses and she set me up on a whole diet plan. Her cousin had diabetes so she knew all the ins and outs. Thanks to her, I won't need as many visits to the physician. Despite the fact that we weren't together, we almost kissed like four times. We even watched a movie after getting dinner and sat a little too closely on the couch. I was still deeply in love, which made things complicated because we are trying the friend thing. Every day, it gets harder and harder to act like just friends around her.
"I was gonna ask about the party on Thursday," Moon says.
"Oh yeah? Still going on if that's what your wondering," I say.
"Well obviously. I was wondering if I should bring stuff," Moon says.
"Uh yeah actually. The more alcohol the better," I say.
"You got it," she says smirking.
Man her face is perfect. I wanna talk to her about potentially getting back together, but I don't wanna ruin everything we've built back. You know what, tomorrow. I'll tell her tomorrow at the party.
"Oh yeah. Wear Christmas gear. Go completely crazy with the Christmas drip," I say.
She laughs out loud and nods.
"I'll see you Thursday," I say warmly.
"See ya," she says and stares at me through the camera for a second before hanging up.
The next day, things are going smoothly until Sensei starts making fun of Eli again. Go fucking figure. When Miguel brings up the quitters. Sensei points to Eli.
"Lip! Look! Even Lip's tougher than those guys. He's not quitter," Sensei says to Eli.
"Could you please not call me that?" Eli says in almost a whisper, but in the most innocent voice I've ever heard.
"Excuse me, what?" Sensei taunts.
"I said could you please not call me that," Eli answers a bit louder.
I look down because I dread what Sensei is gonna say to Eli.
"Um, I'll warm them up Sensei," Miguel says trying to change the topic.
"No, Lip has something he wants to say," Sensei challenges.
"It's alright, speak up Lip. Or is your tongue messed up to? Are you one of those challenged kids?" Sensei jabs.
Come on Sensei. Leave the poor kid alone. You want to lose any more students?
"Um, the doctor said I could be on the spectrum," Eli answers.
I remember Eli telling me about how the doctors think he's autistic. I felt bad when he told me, but remember saying "who cares man. You're still you and my buddy whether you have autism or Aspergers." He corrected me because they're the same thing and I lightheartedly told him to shut up.
"I don't know what that is, but get off it pronto. If you don't want me to call you Lip, then don't have a weird lip. Can't you get surgery for that?" Sensei asks sounding like an idiot.
"I was born with a cleft lip. This is the scar from the surgery," Eli answers.
"You mean it was worse before that? Or did the doctor just screw up? Because if this is the after photo, that sucks man. You should sue," Sensei says and Eli just looks at the ground in shame.
Miguel and I exchange pained glances.
"Can we just... please change the topic?" Eli pleads, his voice starting to break a little.
"You don't think I want to? It's tough when it's right in front of me. If you wanna be something other than a nerd with a scar on his lip, then you gotta flip the script," Sensei says.
"Ok?" Eli whispers.
"Get a face tattoo or gouge your eye out. We'll call you patch all right? No, don't do that one. You'll still look like a freak," Sensei says nonchalantly.
Freak.
My eyes go wide as I look at Sensei. Ok I get small jabs toward all of us because you wanna make us tough, but calling anyone a freak is just too far and uncalled for. Eli is near tears and storms out of the dojo before anyone can see him cry.
"Oh great, really? Another quitter?" Sensei says condescendingly.
"Hold on," I say and follow Eli.
I go through the storage room and out the back door to see Eli walking far up ahead. I jog to catch up with him.
"Eli! Wait up man," I say and he walks faster.
I jog faster and grab his shoulder. He swivels around and shoves me hard. I stumble back and almost fall down. More than anything I'm just shocked. Innocent Eli almost put me on my back.
"Woah," I say.
"What?!" He yells as tears flow down his face.
"Dude, you're pretty strong," I say in awe.
"Just SHUT UP! I DONT NEED YOU FUCKING SYMPATHY!" He screams in my face.
"I'm not here to give you any! Ok I was gonna tell you to ignore him, but instead I'm gonna tell you about my first days at the dojo. Sensei made fun of my scars also," I say.
"Oooo. Big deal. Someone makes fun of the great BLAKE MURPHY! You just show up out of nowhere and everyone instantly likes you. Kyler and them didn't even make fun of you. THEY WANTED TO HANG OUT WITH YOU! IF YOU EVEN TRY TO TELL ME THAT YOU KNOW WHAT ITS LIKE TO SUFFER EVERYDAY FOR 15 YEARS. THEN SO HELP ME GOD ILL...!" Eli screams at the top of his lungs in a blaze of fury.
"Yeah they did want to hang out with me. I didn't want to hang out with them. They're assholes. As soon as I dropped them, they humiliated me. Look Eli, I don't know what it's like. My fucking cousin gave these scars to me! SO BEFORE YOU TRY TO TELL ME HOW BAD SHIT IS FOR YOU AND HOW GREAT IT IS FOR ME, WHY DONT I TELL YOU A STORY YOU CAN PROBABLY RELATE TO! HUH HOW DOES THAT SOUND?!" I yell losing my temper.
Eli just gives me a mean look. I tell him my entire backstory. About the mafia, my family, and how every place I walked into I'd be the face kids were afraid of.
"At least yours look cool. Three huge gashes across your nose," Eli says throwing a pebble against the fence.
"It doesn't matter how they look. All I'm saying is at the end of the day, I chose to control it, not let it control me. You don't have to let the scar define you. Eli, I know there is someone deep underneath all that insecurity. I've seen that guy every time we all hang out, ive seen him around Mel, and I saw him just now. If you think about it, I had to flip the script also. I chose not to care what others thought. Defined myself, by trying to be known for something else. It's time to let confident Eli out to play. Work up something in that really fucking intelligent brain of yours. You don't have to do anything physically. Cheat the system and mentally flip the script. Well it's up to you. Only you can be the change you want to see," I say.
He just nods and smiles faintly. A lightbulb must go off in his head as he gets up and begins to walk away.
"Where are you going?" I ask curiously.
"Secret," he says and his lip curls into a half smile.
I smile brightly.
"Ok then. See you tomorrow!" I say and go back inside the dojo.
After the class, I wait outside the dojo for Miguel while he talks to Sensei. When he changes and walks outside in street clothes, we leave and talk about the party the whole ride home.
