CHAPTER 49

DECEMBER 23RD

December 23rd. Finally, the day had arrived. For once, the thing that was on the minds of every Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do in the Valley had nothing to do with Karate. What they were all thinking about was that today was the final day of school before the long Christmas holiday. They were in line for 3 weeks without school, time not only that would be used to train, but also would be used to give them a much needed break from school and everything else they had going on in their lives.

The first term at West Valley High had been… hectic, to say the least. They were in their senior year, so it wasn't just about classes anymore. On top of their extremely stressful courses, there was also the ongoing topic of next year's plan, university in particular. The vast majority of the students in school had gone through the long, arduous process of sitting the SATs, and then sending applications out to a variety of schools across the country, and even universities in other countries entire. It all depended. There were some students applying to Harvard, Stanford and Yale. There were some students applying to local community colleges. There were also some students - Robby and Tory included - who hadn't applied anywhere at all. Besides the fact that neither had the money for college (Robby's mom had little to no money saved having spent it all, and Johnny had to spend pretty much all of his very thin savings on his incoming baby), it just wasn't feasible for them. Most people used community college as a bridge between high school and college, but given that both Tory and Robby were almost certain that college wasn't an option for them at any point in the future, they didn't see the point in spending extra money and being forced away from their other commitments (in Tory's case, that was taking care of her family) all for nothing.

However, all of the uncertainty that was going through all of their minds eased up as they went into their Christmas break. They couldn't help but relax a little, let all of their troubles get pushed to the back of their minds. After all, it's Christmas! The most wonderful time of the year! They shouldn't have to worry about Karate, about school, about college, or about anything else other than relaxing and spending quality time with their friends and family.

None embodied this idea more than Sarah, who couldn't help but walk into school with a massive smile on her face, and a massive Santa hat on her head. They had all been training so hard at Cobra Kai that she was thoroughly looking forward to a holiday, where although they would still be training, at least they didn't have school to think about on top of it. She had always loved Christmas. In past years, Sarah and her family had often gone to a cabin they owned in Lake Tahoe, California, and they normally spent the entire holiday skiing and hanging out there. However, this year they had decided to spend the Christmas holiday at home in L.A, and Sarah couldn't have been more delighted about that. It meant that she would get to spend more time with all of her friends, and especially Marcos.

Things between Marcos and Sarah were better than ever. Now having been together since the end of August - 4 months now - Sarah knew without doubt that she was in love. Sure they were young. Sure they hadn't been together for that long. But Sarah knew. How else could you describe the feeling where you miss someone the second they leave a room? The feeling where hours together feel like mere seconds? Although neither of them had said it yet to each other, Sarah was fairly sure that Marcos felt the same way. Or at least she hoped he did.

However, when Sarah walked into her homeroom on that Friday morning, to her surprise, she could not see Marcos in his usual seat beside her. In fact, he wasn't in the classroom at all, and that remained the case for the entire day, which dragged by agonizingly slowly for all of the students, as they waited to be dismissed for their Christmas break. Eventually, at 3 pm, they finally were allowed to leave for the break, and Sarah found herself practically being shoved out the doors of the school as the wave of students came pouring out of the building, all eager and excited to get their breaks started. 3 weeks of relaxing, putting their feet up and not batting an eye.

Well, not for the Karate students. Both Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do would still be training, so Sarah made her way over to the Cobra Kai dojo, hoping to find Marcos there. He wasn't, and that only increased her concern and curiosity. Marcos worked like a clock. He was a man of habit, a man of routine. Everything from the time he slept, to the time he woke up, to the time he ate, to the time he left for school… Everything he did was planned to the minute. It provided him with a sense of order amid all of the chaos that was his life, and he loved it. The fact that he was breaking it by not showing up for school or training was slightly worrying.

Kreese, who knew Marcos almost as well as she did right now, was equally concerned about this. With all of the extra time Marcos spent training privately with Kreese, the pair had grown a genuine bond. Kreese had come to sincerely care about the boy as a person, not just as his champion, something that in 40 years, had only happened with 2 other students. Given that only Sarah and like 2 other students had shown up for training on that Friday afternoon, due to the fact that their Christmas break had just begun so many of them were out with friends, Kreese had decided to cancel training that day, and that allowed Sarah to then drive to Marcos' house to see if he was there and see if he was okay.

As Sarah parked in Marcos' small apartment complex and walked over to the door, she couldn't help but feel nervous, and she didn't know why. If she had to be honest, Sarah still felt pretty out of place here. Even 4 months into dating, Marcos was still reluctant to bring Sarah to his apartment, especially when his dad was around. While there was an open invite at her house from her parents that Marcos could come around anytime he wanted a free meal, Sarah had not met Marcos' dad for longer than a 5 minute conversation when Marcos and Sarah had walked into the apartment and Marcos' dad hadn't left yet for work. That was it. Nothing more than that. It was almost as if there was something Marcos was hiding from her. That he was afraid, if they spent too long in the apartment with his dad, his dad would reveal it or something.

Marcos' dad wasn't home though as Sarah slowly walked inside the dark, empty apartment. He was at work, which meant that only his son was home. If he was even at home. By the looks of how dark the apartment was, it seemed that there was a good chance that he was out. It was only the faintest of sounds coming from Marcos' room, behind a closed door. He was clearly in there, but that only made Sarah more hesitant to open the door. Who knows what she would find in there, behind a closed door in his apartment? That didn't stop her from knocking and slowly pushing the door open.

What she found in Marcos' room was definitely not what she had expected, but if anything was more concerning than any of her fears. Marcos was sitting on the floor in the corner of his room, his back against the wall, a small photo in his hands. And as he looked down at it, Sarah could see tears trickling down his cheeks and his shoulders moving up and down as he silently sobbed. Marcos didn't initially notice her walk into the room, but he looked up just as he saw her rushing over to him and pulling him into a tight embrace, one that he immediately fell into, tears staining her shirt's shoulder as she knelt opposite him and hugged him tightly.

"Shhhh. It's okay. It's okay." Sarah whispered calmingly, slowly running a hand up and down his back, as her eyes flickered over his shoulder at the picture that he had discarded beside him. She recognized it instantly, as it was one of the photos that used to be on the mantle in the living room of the apartment. It was of Marcos and his mom, both smiling widely at the camera as they stood on the beach back in Rio. It was the photo Sarah probably asked about the most, intrigued to hear more about his mom, but it was the one that was met with extremely vague answers. In fact, any time that his mom was mentioned, it was almost like Marcos built an invisible barrier around the subject, answering questions in the most vague and unhelpful way possible.

It took Marcos a while to control his emotions and stop crying, and when he finally did, Sarah sat back on her heels slightly, still holding his hand comfortingly, a mountain of worry evident on her face. He knew that he owed her an explanation. About everything. It wasn't fair that he was keeping her in the dark about such a huge fact about his life. About the thing that had haunted him every night for 5 years without fail. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes…