Lee was standing with Eli and Demetri in the middle of the dojo. "Why did I let you talk me into this? This goes against everything I stand for. It's like extra gym class for no reason." Demetri complained.
"Let's give it a chance. You saw the fight. Miguel kicked ass." Eli sighs.
"Yeah, besides maybe you'll love it." Lee smiled.
"And if I don't?" He cock his head to the side.
"Then it's one afternoon." She shrugs.
"Quiet!" Johnny yelled, making everyone freeze.
"Got to go." Lee moved off the mat to watch from the sides.
"What you're not joining," Demetri called after her but didn't get an answer.
"Face front." He orders. Everyone turned to face him. He walks around to get a look at every one. "Nice shirt." He nods to Demetri.
"Thanks." He looks down at his new shirt.
"I'm joking. It sucks." He left behind an offended Demetri to walk up to another girl. She smiled at him. "Word of advice. If you got shit for teeth, don't smile." She frowns as he moves onto a small redhead boy. "God, makes me feel like a virgin, just looking at you."
He yelled as he walked to the front of the room, "When I look around this dojo. I don't see Cobra Kai material. I see losers, I see nerds. I see a fat kid with a funny hat with his tits popping out. But, in my short time as a sensei, I've also seen some miracles." He looks over at Miguel and Aisha. "So, maybe there's some hope for you yet. But, first, I need to see where you're at. So, everybody falls in!" When no one moved and just stared at him, he explained himself. "That means line up." Everyone moved to stand behind Miguel. "No, not… not line up in a line. Lines get in lines."
"You mean like rows," Demetri asked. Johnny let out a frustrated sigh.
"I got this." Lee walks in the front. "Four line up behind Miguel. Four line up behind Aisha. Five line up right here. Another here." She got everyone to line up. "Not right behind, give yourself an arms-length distance from the people in front of you and to the sides." She moved a small boy with glasses back. Bert blushes at her hands on him. "Ready, sensei." She moves back to the side when she is done.
"Fight position." Everyone got into the stance. "Jab punch." Some moved before they were told. "Nope, wait till I say go…..Hiyah!... Hiyah!... Hiyah!" He yelled as he moved around to get a look at everyone's natural movements.
"Come on. Stand straight. Plant your feet in there…. Hiyah!" He corrected a boy before getting them to punch again. "Are you sure you're right-handed? Hiyah!" He moved on to the fat boy in the front. "Come on, Tits, you can do better than that. You got weight, use it. Ready? Hiyah!" He yelled a few more Hiyahs as he walked around.
"Hey, Lip." He nodded to Eli, who stared at him confused. "Yesh, you. The one with the freaky lip. Who do you think I'm talking to?"
"Sensei, his name is Eli," Lee told him.
"You really shouldn't be making fun of someone's physical appearance," Demetri adds on. Lee sighed, wondering why he couldn't let her handle it.
"Oh, is that so? So, I'm not supposed to mention his lip at all?" He nods to Eli while looking at Demetri.
"Well, yeah." He nods.
"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. You hear that, Lip? If you can't handle that someone makes fun of you, how are you gonna handle an elbow to the teeth?" He looked at Eli who was beginning to twitch.
"By calling the police." Demetri stretches out his words.
"Dude, knock it off," Miguel warns.
"What? He does realize the Nazis lose 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 like he can hurt us." Demetri looks around the room.
"Demetri, shut up. You sound so gross right now." Lee glares at him. Her eyes soften when Johnny walks towards him with a blank face.
"Oh shit," Miguel and Lee said under their breath.
Everyone moved back to give Johnny and Demetri space. "You done?"
"What?" Demetri asked.
"Hit me!" Johnny orders. When he didn't move, he went on. "Go ahead, hit me. Strike me right here." He pointed at his face. Demetri got in a stance and threw a weak punch that Johnny slapped away. "Harder." He throws a harder punch to get smacked down. Demetri let out a quiet noise of pain. "Is that all you got, princess?"
Demetri throws another punch that he put his weight into. Johnny grabs his arm and twists, so he would fall into his back. "Hiyah!" Johnny kneels down to throw a punch that didn't reach his face before standing up. "Let that be a lesson to all of you."
Lee sighs, knowing this wasn't going to be good for their attendance.
"You're not going to quit are you, Eli?" Lee asked her lab partner.
"I don't know." He shrugs, cutting open the fetal pig as their teacher instructed.
"You can't, look I know Sensei is harsh but he's not wrong." Eli turned his head sharply when she said that. "Every other adult is bullshitting us when they say it's going to get better. But, Sensei always tells the truth. He's right, there's always going to be assholes like Kyler out there. You have to gain the confidence to not let their words get to you. Sensei can do that for you."
"Has he helped you?" He wonders.
"Yeah, he helped me. I have all those cute skirts and shorts that my mom sends and I never wear them because I don't like my legs. I didn't want Yasmine to call me thunder thighs again. But, now I say fuck it. I live in California and it's hot. I'm wearing my shorts and I don't care how anyone else feels about it. If they're gross-out, they can look the other way." She ran her hands over her jeans shorts.
"Well, I think you look great in them." He blushed as he looked away.
"Thank you." She looked to see if the teacher was looking before leaning over to kiss his cheek. Eli swears that he would follow her anywhere, even to a dojo with a craze Sensei, to feel her lips brush against his skin again.
"Okay, everyone falls in…. Where is everyone?" Johnny walks in to see a dojo that was filled but not crowded like it was yesterday. "Crater face? Nose ring? Slingshot?"
"They quit, Sensei," Miguel told them.
"Attendance is cut in half." Lee held up the clipboard.
"Are you serious?" He made a face before looking around the room. "I mean, good. That was a test. I wanted to see who the quitters are. Not you guys. You're in it to win it, right? You could be at home playing your iComputers, playing your video games, eating candy. Instead, you're here, doing pushups, learning how to fight. Lip, look. Even Lips tougher than those guys. He's no quitter." He pointed at Eli.
"Can you please not call me that?" He barely spoke above a whisper.
"Excuse me, what?" He asked.
"Could you please not call me that." He spoke up.
"Um, I'll warm them up, Sensei." Miguel offers.
"No, Lip has something he wants to say." Johnny put his hand up. "Sorry, speak up Lip. Or is your tongue messed up too? Are you one of those challenged kids?" He walks up to him.
"Um, the doctor said I could be on the spectrum," Eli told him.
"I don't know what that is, but get off it pronto. Alright? If you don't want me to call you Lip, don't have a weird lip. Can't you get surgery?" Lee cringed at him thinking spectrum was a drug.
"I was born with a cleft lip. This is the scar from the surgery." Eli explained.
"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." He pointed at his scar.
"Can we just please change the topic?" He asks.
"You don't think I want to? It's right in front of me. You wanna be something other than a nerd with a scar on his lip, you gotta flip the script. Okay. Get a face tattoo or gouge your eye out. We'll call you patch, alright? No, don't do that one, you'll still look like a freak." Eli ran out of the dojo, not wanting to cry in front of him.
Lee ran after him. "Eli, Eli Stop. You're not a freak."
He turns around and yells at her. "Yes, I am. You said it yourself that Sensei always tells the truth."
"I know I said that but..." She got choked up seeing his tear-filled eyes.
"But, nothing. I'm a freak. You might want to bullshit me because I'm your friend but that's what I am." He shouted. Lee wipes the tears from her face as she watches him walk away.
Lee stayed in the office the next day. She had been trying to contact Eli all day. He didn't come to school and he didn't answer any calls or texts for her, Miguel or Demetri. She listened as Johnny started his lesson. "Since you joined Cobra Kai, I have been hard on you. I've called you names. I've humiliated you. Some of you I've hit. And for that, I don't apologize. Cobra Kai is about strength. If you're not strong enough on the inside, you can't be strong on the outside. And right now, you're all weak. And I know that because I was you." Lee perked up in her seat at hearing that. She couldn't imagine Johnny not being the incredible force of violence and confidence that he is. "I used to have no friends. Used to be the weird-o kid. Not that weird, I hooked up with babes and all, but the point is, I wasn't always the badass sensei I am today. Just like a cobra, I had to shed my loser skin to find my true power. And you guys will too."
The shop bell jingles. "Welcome to Cobra Kai."
"Eli, what happened?" Miguel asked. Lee got up from her chair and ran out to the dojo. Her jaw dropped at seeing her friend. She almost didn't recognize him for a second. It was like she was looking at a stranger and not the boy she knew all her life. He had on a blue mohawk that was a few inches tall. Along with the hairstyle came a new wardrobe that was more in style. Instead of grandpa's sweaters and jeans, he was wearing a pair of shorts and a gray hoodie. In 24 hours, he went from being a cute shy kid to a hot-looking stud.
"I'm flipping the script." Lee never heard his voice so loud and assertive before.
"Wait. Are you the kid with the lip?" Johnny walks over to him. "Nice cut, bro." He nods in approval. "You see that. Doesn't matter if you're a loser, or a nerd, or a freak. All that matters is you became a badass." He walks to the front. "Hawk, fall in." He nods for him to join.
Eli kicked off his shoes and walked onto the mat. "Fear does not exist in this dojo, does it?" Johnny asked him.
"No, Sensei!" He put his hands behind his back.
"Pain does not exist in this dojo, does it?" He moves to Aisha.
"No sensei." She shook her head.
"Defeat does not exist in his dojo, does it?" He walks up to Miguel.
"No, Sensei." He shouted.
He went to the front of the class and turned his back to them. "Class, are you ready to learn the way of the fist?"
"Yes, Sensei!" They screamed.
When the lesson was over, the kids surrounded Hawk. "Man, that's so cool." Bert raises his hand to touch the mohawk.
"Don't touch." Hawk smacks his hand down.
"You had a good practice today." Aisha nods.
"Thanks." He looked around the room for the person he was most excited to see. He smiled when he spotted Lee standing in the doorway of the office. She blushed when he kept eye contact with her. He has never done that before, he would normally glance away whenever they made direct eye contact. He definitely never looked at her with such intentness.
Her eyes went wide as he pushed his way through the crowd to walk over to her with a swag that made her weak in the knees. "I'll be picking you up at 7, Friday tonight." He leans in to give her a peck on the lips. He pulled back to give her a wink before walking back to his friends, who were cheering loudly.
"So, Lip...Hawk was the guy you liked?" Johnny brought her out of her shocked state.
"Yeah." She nodded, not taking her eyes off of Eli. She felt like if she looked away he would turn back to his shy self-conscious ways.
"Good going kid, I'll make sure it's good." He went over to pull Hawk to the side.
Miguel rushed over to her. "So, you got your crush."
"I know." She gushed, still not believing that he worked up the nerve to ask her out.
They shared a hug as they cheered. "You can be such a girl, Miguel." Aisha stares at him sternly.
"Whatever, you haven't been through the highs and lows of her trying to get out of the friend zone." He let go to scoff at the girl for questioning his masculinity.
"You know you don't have to drag me." Hawks pulled himself out of Johnny's weak hold on his collar.
"Not my style." He shrugs. "So, you're taking Miss. Moneypenny on a date?"
"Are you talking about Lee?" He tilts his head.
"Same person." Johnny looked at him like he stupid. "Now, where are you taking her?"
"To the movies." He told him making Johnny scoffs. "Is something wrong with that?"
"Yeah, you can't bond during a movie. You bond by playing games, winning her a stuffed animal, eating a meal." When Johnny saw Hawk's confused face, he sighed. "Take her to Golf N Stuff. And no getting fresh on the first date, she's a lady." He punched the kid in the shoulder for good measure. Hawk held in the whine from his shoulder screaming in pain.
Tom let out a low whistle when Lee came into the living room. She twirls around to show off her outfit. She was wearing a pink Hisoka crop top, high-waisted skinny jeans, and black flats. She had on one gold dangling heart earring like the character on her shirt. Her hair was in a high ponytail with her bangs framing her face and her makeup was pink. "I still can't believe you're going on the date we've been waiting years for." He cheered.
"I told you, Sensei Lawernce knows how to build confidence." She swung her Luna from Sailor Moon purse over her shoulder.
There was a knock at the door. "I'll get it." Tom jumped up from the couch to open the door. Lee was at his heels. "Holy shit, is that you Eli?" He was surprised to see a high mohawk on his doorstep.
"I prefer to go by Hawk now." He told him.
"That's badass." Tom nods in approval.
"Well, we'll be going now." Lee squeezed past her dad to grab Hawk's arm and pull him to her car. She got into the driver's seat while he got into the passenger seat. "So, where are we going?"
"Golf n Stuff." He said, making her laugh. "What?"
"It's just obvious that Sensei talks to you." She pulled out of her driveway to make her way to the place of his choosing.
"Why?" He asks.
"Sensei told us how it was the big hang-out spot when he was a teen. He has charmed many women there." She thought it was sweet how fast Johnny had taken Hawk under his wing. Johnny had two reasons for doing so, one, the kid was a natural at karate, and two, so the kid would feel comfortable coming to him with his relationship problems. That way he would know if he was going to try anything on his innocent secretary.
"We can go somewhere else if you want." He said, even though he went there yesterday to practice on the games so he could impress her.
"No, we can go there. It'll be fun." She made a turn to park in front of the building.
After getting out of the car, Hawk threw his arm over her shoulders. He held his head high, as he walked into the building feeling the most confidence he has in his whole life.
Lee let out a scream as Hawk squirted her with his water gun from his bumper boat while slamming into her. "Not my face." She didn't want her makeup ruined.
"Come on, babe. You're not even trying now." He laughed.
The pet name made her blush, more reason for her to hide her face behind her hands. She let out a breath of relief when the worker told them their time was up. She steered her boat off to the side and got off. Hawk's arms snake around her waist as they went back inside. They went up to the prize counter. Lee turns her purse upside down to turn their tickets in. She picked out a large plush fox. "He's so cute, thank you." She smiled at him.
"It was both our tickets." He shrugs.
"Yeah, but more than half the tickets were yours. I had no idea you were so good at that shooting game." She hugs the plush.
"I have many hidden talents." He winks.
"I know, you've taken to karate like a fish to water." She pulled him to stand in line to get food.
"I never thought I'd be a natural at anything physical…. I'm hoping I'm a natural at other physical activities." He winks.
"I don't know, you're decent at soccer." She innocently shrugs. After getting their food, they sat down at a table.
"So, how are you liking Hawk?" He asked.
"I like him, he's like an improved Eli." She nods.
"He's heads above that guy." Hawk didn't want to be compared to his old self. As far as he was concerned he used to be a wimp who didn't even deserve to be in the same room as the girl across from him. She deserved who he was now, a guy who could protect and take care of her.
"Eli is great, he just needed a backbone." She corrected him.
"He's got that and more now." He licked his lips as he looked her up and down.
The Porsche was parked in front of Hawk's house. Lee was sitting on his lap with their lips connected. "Sensei says I'm not supposed to be getting fresh with you on the first date. I have to treat you like a lady." Hawk disconnected with her to breathlessly tell her.
"Screw being a lady." She attacks his neck in nibbles and kisses making him tilt his head back to give her more access. He let his hands roam along her body, taking time to squeeze the areas he always fantasizes about.
A knock on the window made her move back to her seat. She rolled down her window to see Mrs. Moskowitz. "Hi, guys. I know it is an exciting first date for you two, but it's time to call it a night." She had been anxiously watching from the window for her son to come in. After half an hour of the Porsche sitting there, she decided to go out and get him before she became a grandmother.
"I'll be right there, mom." He told her.
"Alright," She looked hesitant, but she went back into the house.
"I want to be clear that you're my girl." He looks over at his childhood friend.
"I've always been." She nods.