Hawk and I's stare down was broken up by the shop bell ringing when Sensei Lawrence walked through the door. Miguel immediately walks up to him and they start talking. I turn my attention to Amelia and offer a small smile.
She barely smiles back. No doubt she was still mad that I punched Tory in the face yesterday. I honestly understand why, but I was just so frustrated that it just surfaced in the heat of the moment. No, I have to stay focused and make sure this ends today.
I'm not gonna try and talk Hawk into coming clean. It won't work. I am gonna beat it out of him though. Either I hurt him badly enough to where he tells the truth, or I hurt him so badly that he's incapable of speaking.
Miguel pov
Sensei gave a rather generic answer when I asked how the funeral went.
"So how'd it go around here while I was gone?" Sensei Lawrence asks.
I pause for a second. A LOT had changed and for worse.
"I-it.. it was fine. Except…" I stammer out, but pause.
Sensei raises his eyebrows then looks at Kreese questioningly. I turn my head to look at Blake who's spaced out in the corner of the room.
"Except what?" Sensei says breaking the silence.
My eyes widen for a second.
"N-nothing. Nothing, it's just… Sensei Kreese is tough but uh… he knows what it takes to win," I answer.
Sensei nods slowly. I know for a fact that he didn't buy my bullshit, but he chooses to let it go for now. He turns and walks into the office. I decide to talk to Hawk. I'd kept my distance from Blake especially, but I've been spending so much time with Tory that I haven't really had a chance to catch up with Hawk since Blake beat him up in his backyard.
"So… how've you been?" I ask awkwardly while tapping my hands on my sides in anticipation.
Hawk looks at me.
"Chillin, what about you? How's Tory?" Hawk asks with a small smirk.
"Good," I answer.
Hawk glances at Blake, but looks away when Blake's eyes narrow at his.
"Still that bad?" I ask.
Hawk just shrugs.
That was the part of me dreading whatever Coyote Creek training was. Blake would come for his retribution. I still didn't fully understand his vendetta against Hawk. No one knows who trashed Miyagi Do and we've all moved past it. Why can't he just move on? I mean, whoever stole the Medal of Honor needs to give it back, but we've yet to figure out who has it. While I've never seen Blake at the peak of his anger, I have heard of a few things he's done. Both Rory and McCarthy got to experience first hand what happens to those who get on the top of Blake's hit list.
"All right, get your gi's on! Training starts in five minutes!" Sensei Lawrence causally barks walking out of his office.
Blake pov
I raise my eyebrows in confusion at Sensei Lawrence's instructions. I guess Kreese never told him that we planned to go to Coyote Creek. Everyone else shares my confusion. We all walk up to the senseis not knowing what to do.
"Yeah what's wrong?" Sensei asks furrowing his brow.
"Nothing, but I thought we were going to the woods for special training today," I answer gesturing to Sensei Kreese.
Sensei Lawrence turns to look at Sensei Kreese.
"Whats happening in the woods?" Sensei Lawrence asks.
"Well, I thought it was a good time to separate the men from the boys," Kreese answers.
Aisha, Tory, and Ames fold their arms and give Kreese a look.
"A-and the girls to I suppose," Kreese stammers out without a single hint of remorse.
Both senseis begin to whisper and we hear Sensei Lawrence question if we're ready.
"We're ready Sensei. We want to prove ourselves," Hawk pipes up.
For once I agree.
"Gonna have to agree," I respond which shocks some people.
I look over at Hawk with no emotion and he raises his eyebrows and looks away. My eyes narrow again and I look back at Sensei.
"It's up to Sensei Lawrence. If he says it's okay, then, and only then, is it okay," Kreese responds.
Sensei looks around the room at our puppy dog eyes. Once he lands on Miguel, he gives the go ahead. Figures.
It's always Miguel. I know Sensei Lawrence cares about us and everything, but he's so obviously playing favorites with Miguel. The rest of us work just as hard as he does even though we're not as good, but it's always Miguel this, Miguel that. I forgot about how annoying that was while he was gone.
That would change today. Whatever game Sensei Kreese had planned, I would be the winner, Hawk would be counting his missing red quills and Miguel would be defeated. Then Sensei Lawrence would see that I was number one. Maybe he'd learn to treat us equally like Kreese did. At least with him, you earned his respect, it wasn't just being his neighbor got you privileges.
We shuffle out. Hawk's goons file into his Sentra, Miguel gets in senseis car and I hop into mine and we head to the woods. I don't really know where to go so I follow Sensei's Cobra Kai colored car. It's difficult as he speeds toward the woods weaving in between cars, but I'm able to. Finally, we reach the woods and huddle up.
"Alright, Sensei Lawrence and myself are gonna select teams," Kreese announces.
They flip a coin to decide the first pick, Kreese wins the toss.
"Mr. Murphy," Sensei Kreese says almost instantly while looking at me.
I smile and stroll over to Kreese's side. He hands me a red headband and I tie it around my head.
"Alright, Mr. Diaz!" Sensei Lawrence barks and Miguel walks to that side and gets a black headband.
It was inevitable that we'd be on different teams. We were the two best so it was pretty obvious. Hawk swoons from left to right thinking Kreese will pick him next. However, Kreese picks Aisha instead which causes Hawk's jaw to drop for a second. I look up at him and he subtly winks at me.
He was trying to put Hawk and I on different teams. I wanna mouth a "thank you" at him, but decide against it.
"Hawk!" Johnny barks and Hawk grins and saunters up to get his black headband.
He and Miguel dab each other up as they stand opposite Aisha and I. After about five minutes, the teams are fully selected and we stand facing each other. I lucked out as all of Hawk's boys except Edwin were on the other team so I'd have the opportunity to make mince meat out of them one by one. I could deal with Edwin, he was always the nicer one out of his goons. Mitch was never rude to me, but God DAMN was he a coward. He'd be my first blood. A warm up round.
Tory was also on the black team while Ames and Aisha were on red with me.
"Gentlemen, ladies, welcome to Coyote Creek. You've been split into two teams, red… and black. The goal, is to capture as many headbands as possible from the other side," Kreese instructs.
Miguel and I smirk at each other. It's friendly. The first brotherly gesture we've had in a week. I ignore Hawk.
"Today, the people across from you are not your friends. They're not your brothers. They are the enemy," Kreese summarizes.
I look over at Hawk who, for once, has the courage to look me in the eye as his black headband mixes well with his red spikes. We glare at each other.
"Last team standing, wins," Kreese instructs.
"How do we get the headbands?" Miguel asks.
"By any means possible, no rules," Kreese answers.
"Use your judgement, this is just a training exercise," Sensei Lawrence says.
Sure it IS just a training exercise, but… accidents happen. I'm snapped out of my thoughts by Kreese's response.
"Correct, but remember, this is your life," Kreese interjects and holds up the red headband.
"You lose it… you die," Kreese ominously states.
Suddenly, we're all snapped out of our focus on Kreese when Chubbs walks up.
"Hey guys, sorry I'm late," he confidently remarks.
Out of everyone in the dojo, I talked to chubbs the least. He was a grown man in a dojo full of teens. He'd tried talking to me, but I mostly blew him off besides a nod or fist bumping him back when he held it out. I didn't have anything against him, but I just never saw a reason to befriend him.
"Traffic on the 118 was a real bitch. Put Coyote Creek into the nav, nothin came up," he remarks trying to sound cool.
Aisha and I look at each other sharing the same thoughts.
Then I notice his "costume."
He wears sunglasses, a black denim vest with patches and a stingray pin. Last, but not least, he trimmed his beard and braided the tail to look like some kind of animal. I couldn't quite put my finger on it.
"What have you done to yourself?" Sensei Lawrence asks.
"Oh th—…. You know what I just decided to flip the script, Hawk style. Respect. Here two four, you can refer to me… as stingray," he remarks taking off his glasses and looking at Hawk.
I chuckle slightly and Aisha lightly elbows me so I stop.
Authors note: cue "Quiver" for a few short seconds before…
"Yeah alright chubbs. He's on your team," Sensei Lawrence dismisses and tells Kreese.
"Terrific," Sensei Kreese sarcastically remarks then begins delivering more instructions.
"Alright, we're giving you all a five minute grace period to spread out through the woods. Your options are endless: make alliances with other teammates, tail an easy target," Kreese looks at Bert "or… find a good place to hide," Kreese remarks looking at Chubbs.
"Alright go! We'll yell when the grace period is over. Move it!" Sensei Lawrence barks.
Everyone begins to scatter and I simply turn and jog away from the group. My first mission was to stalk Mitch who's currently trying to talk Hawk into an alliance. However, I decide to make myself scarce for now.
I had to be on the lookout for anyone trying to blindside me. Thankfully, the crunching of leaves made stealth nearly impossible, but it didn't take an all star fighter to simply hide behind a tree, waiting for someone to walk past them. They had to get the headband not win the fight. That meant I could lose my headband to anyone if they snuck up on me and grabbed it.
I stroll through the woods causally while looking over my shoulder constantly and even in the trees, but see no one. I hear Sensei Lawrence bellow that the grace period is over.
This is it, welcome to the All Valley Hunger Games.
Authors note: this was a very short and boring chapter. However, I have a surprise for everyone. (First of all, Merry Christmas and happy holidays to those celebrating anything other holiday). The next few chapters will be EXTREMELY brutal. No extreme gore, but lots of blood and fighting. Next chapter will be called "All Valley Hunger Games" and be a third person pov chapter where Blake is more of the ambiguous threat on the loose that everyone's watching out for versus a chapter through his eyes.
A lot of these fights are honoring Mark Haynes and the series "Super Mario Bros. Z" (original and reboot). Check it out on YouTube if you haven't. I highly, HIGHLY recommend it. It was my childhood.
Also, today is the anniversary of "A New Cobra Comes To Town." Christmas Eve one year ago, I posted the prologue and the first chapter of my season 1 story. As a celebration to that, I've decided to post not just this chapter, but also another one today. It will come out later this afternoon. As for now, I'm going to bed. Good night (or morning, its 3am here) and see you later today when the new chapter drops.