CHAPTER 45

The next two hours flew by. Their uber had arrived within about 40 minutes but rather than leaving, Miguel wanted to stay. He couldn't leave without talking to the gorgeous girl who was singing at the front or he knew he would regret it. So George happily left the diner without him, extremely excited that his friend was finally interested in a girl after nearly 6 months. Miguel then got absolutely lost in this girl's beautiful music. She had something in her voice that made it absolutely irresistible, each individual note felt like it warmed his heart. Everything about this girl seemed perfect. Miguel just needed to gather the courage to go talk to her.

Eventually, at almost 2 in the morning, the mystery girl finished singing and at this point, everyone else in the diner had gone home. It was 2 in the morning after all. Normally at this point, Miguel would be struggling to keep his eyes open as after all it was like 5 am in New York, but strangely Miguel didn't feel tired at all. The nerves of talking to this girl kept him wide awake.

After the girl was done singing, Miguel watched from his corner booth as she packed up her guitar, before starting to flip all of the chairs in the diner onto the tables. At this point, Miguel stood up and walked over to her, her back still to him. He tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hey, can I help you with this?" He asked. As he tapped her on the shoulder, the girl jumped into the air and shrieked in surprise, but she immediately relaxed when she saw him.

"Oh, my God! I'm so sorry! You scared me! I didn't realise you were still here! I thought you and your friend left." She said.

"He did, I didn't." Miguel replied, causing the girl to raise an eyebrow, confused.

"He left without you? He ditched you?" She asked, holding back a giggle. Miguel shook his head.

"Nah, I volunteered to stay. What can I say? I just love stacking chairs." He joked. She smiled at him and nodded.

"Well in that case, be my guest. Lot of chairs around here." She remarked. "I'm Emily by the way."

"Miguel." He replied.

So the two continued to stack all of the chairs on the tables in relative silence, working well together. As they did, Miguel stole side glances at her, seeing that she was even more beautiful up close, and little did he know that she was stealing glances at him too. However, she wasn't stealing glances in a good way. No, she was trying to figure out where she knew him from. She knew she had seen him somewhere but wasn't sure exactly where from.

Soon, they finished and walked back to the center of the diner, where Emily turned back to him.

"All right. I'm going to lock up the restaurant now. Do you have everything you need?" She asked. Miguel took a deep breath. Now or never.

"No, actually, I need one more thing… you." Miguel commented, causing Emily to let out a small giggle in sympathy.

"That was… bad." She laughed. "First time talking to a real girl, pinocchio?"

Miguel shook his head.

"Look, this might sound crazy but you and I are going to date. And we are going to fall in love." Miguel stated confidently, the belief in his voice taking Emily aback.

"Excuse me?" Emily said.

"I honestly don't get it either. But ever since I came in here and saw you, I've been running dozens of scenarios in my head and they end with us together." Miguel stated, his heart pounding and feeling a lot more nervous than he sounded.

"Wow…" Emily was rendered temporarily speechless. "I have heard some lame pickup lines before, but that one…"

"I've air-dropped my contact info to your phone. You just tap to accept it." Miguel said. Emily sighed in pity and shook her head.

"Yeah, uh… I'm sorry I'm not going to do that."

"I think you will." Miguel continued, not giving up. He thought back to what Johnny had told him more than a year ago. Never accept defeat. There is no no. Although at the time that sounded like dumb, bordering on offensive, advice, Miguel channelled it. "There are forces in the universe that we don't understand. Measurable forces that can't be explained, but they can't be denied. That's what this is. I don't get it, but… I know that it's real."

Emily looked slightly unsure at this point, on the fence between yes and no. On one hand, he seemed like a really sweet guy. But on the other…

"Look, I'm sorry. You seem nice, but…"

"No, no but! What's the problem?!" Miguel exclaimed. That line had never not worked for him. He had used it plenty of times and it had a 100% success percentage. Well, until now.

"But… I'm not about to go out with a random guy I just met in a motel. I literally don't know anything about you." She continued. "And you look real familiar but I don't know from where."

"Yeah, I was that, um… I was that coma kid in the papers. The All-Valley karate champion who broke his back last August." Miguel admitted. Upon hearing the word Karate, Emily then realised where she had seen him before and her eyes widened, suddenly shifting around a lot more uneasily.

"Oh, my God! I just remembered where I know you from! You were that guy who was screaming at a poor kid and threatening to kill him in an Applebees about 2 months ago, weren't you?!"

"I, um… I…" Miguel was tongue-tied. It felt like ice-cold water had been dumped over him. She had been there that day when he had his confrontation with Demetri. That probably ruined his chances with her.

"Look, it's late. I need to lock up and get home. It's best if you go now." She said. Miguel shook his head.

"That was the old me." Miguel said. Emily internally rolled her eyes at the weak-ass excuse, not believing any of it.

"Mm hmm. And let me guess… you just suddenly in the past 2 months became a much better person?" She commented sarcastically. Miguel shrugged.

"Well… kinda, yeah." He replied. "Or at least I'm trying to be."

"Right, well I wish you well on that journey. Have a good night." She said bluntly. Miguel raised his hands in defeat, about to leave when suddenly an idea came to his head. For some strange reason, he felt more drawn to this girl than he had anyone else in his life, and he was going to get that date with her, for as long as it took to convince her.

"Wait. What if I convince you I've changed and become a better person?" Miguel said. Emily sighed.

"Wow, you're relentless. It's almost like you've never been rejected by a girl before." She remarked, before seeing his facial expression and realising something. "Oh, my God. You've never been rejected by a girl before, have you?"

Miguel reluctantly shook his head.

"No, I haven't. Which is why I want to know... why are you so convinced that you and I wouldn't work?"

Emily sighed.

"I'll be honest, you seem really attractive. But from what I saw in Applebees 2 months ago…"

"Look, the person I was back then is not the same person I am now." Miguel said confidently. "And let me prove that to you. What days are your shifts here?"

"Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday why?" She asked.

"What times?" Miguel continued.

"8pm to 12 am I waitress here. And then 12 am to 2 am I sing." She replied. Miguel nodded.

"Okay, sounds good. So I'm going to come here every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday from 8 pm until 2 am and I'm going to sit right here." Miguel pointed to a high chair at the front of the diner. "You and I can get to know each other during your waitressing shift and you can see that I've changed. And I'm going to keep coming back every day you have a shift until I get a date with you."

Emily laughed, disbelieving. She assumed he was making some empty, hail mary promise to try and get a date with her.

"Sure, you do that." She giggled. Miguel raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, you don't believe me?" He remarked. "Okay, well, today's Sunday so I'll see you tomorrow night then."

"Yeah, sure, I'll see you." She chuckled. Miguel then walked out of the diner and into the night, determined to come back here in less than 24 hours. That girl was special. He didn't know what it was but she was really, really special. And he wasn't just going to let her go.

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"So, yeah. That was it. I left and went home."

Miguel finished recounting the story to George the next afternoon as they met up at Miguel's compound, the temporary location for Eagle-Fang training until Johnny found them a permanent dojo.

"Ah, well. Good effort, mate. Can't knock you for trying. I'm sure the next girl is right around the corner." George raised. Miguel looked at him, confused.

"Woah, woah, woah, what do you mean next girl?" Miguel asked. George raised an eyebrow.

"Well, you're not actually going to go back tonight, are you?" He said.

"You bet your ass I'm going back!" Miguel exclaimed. George sucked in air and winced.

"Look, I know you like this girl. Why you do, given that you don't even know her, I have no clue."

"I don't know what to say, man. She's just special." Miguel said. George shrugged.

"I'll take your word for it. So you like her a lot. By going to her place of work every time she's there, aren't you worried about coming off kinda desperate?"

"Not particularly." Miguel replied, nonchalantly. "Not to sound like a prick but I could probably get nearly any girl in the Valley I want."

"Jee, I wonder why she didn't want to go out with you? Arrogant cock." George remarked drily.

"But I don't want any of them." Miguel continued, ignoring his friend's remark. "I want her. And I'm going to show her that, to hell with all the dumb mind games and manipulation that comes with high school dating. And if that makes me look desperate, so be it."

George nodded.

"Well as long as you're happy. Good luck I guess." George said. At that moment, Johnny walked out of his apartment and over to the entrance of the compound.

"About time!" Miguel exclaimed as he saw his sensei walking over to them. "What took you so long?! Period cramps make you take longer to get out of bed this morning?"

"Shut up, Miguel." Johnny snapped. "You know I never thought I'd say this but what happened to the pussy, nerdy Miguel I used to teach a year ago? I miss that guy."

"He died. Stabbed to death by the badass me." Miguel replied, jokingly. Johnny rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, well I might need to kick this Miguel's ass a couple of times to teach him some respect." Johnny said. Miguel chuckled.

"Haha, like you could beat me up." Miguel joked.

"Okay, correction, I definitely need to kick this Miguel's ass." He stated. Miguel and George laughed.

"Alright, what's going on with training today? Where's everyone at?" George asked.

"Oh, yeah, you guys don't know. We moved Eagle-Fang's location." Johnny said. Miguel's eyes widened.

"You found us a dojo?!" Miguel exclaimed.

"Of a sort." Johnny replied, cryptically. "Now come on, we're going to be late. I told the others to meet us there."

So George, Miguel and Johnny got into Johnny's car and the sensei pulled away. He knew that all of his students weren't going to be happy about the dojo merge, so he couldn't just pull up to the Larusso house. Because of this, he told all of his students to meet him about a 5 minute walk away and they would walk together to the Larusso house. There was less chance of the Eagles leaving if they didn't have their cars to do so!

They arrived in Encino about 15 minutes later, and when Miguel got out of the car to meet with the other Eagle-Fang students and realised the neighborhood they were in, he wolf-whistled.

"Damn, Johnny, you got us a dojo in Encino?" Miguel asked, surprised.

"Kind of." Johnny responded, equally puzzlingly, causing Miguel and George to look at each other, perplexed. Johnny was clearly hiding something, but what?

Miguel and George would find out soon enough. The group of 7 students and their sensei set off on the short walk to the 'new dojo', but as they arrived, everyone but George realised where they were and they began to protest.

"Sensei, what the hell are we doing here?!" Miguel snapped, glaring at the house before him. Johnny didn't answer, but instead opened the door and practically shoved his students inside, where Miyagi-Do and Daniel were waiting. As the two factions saw each other, tempers immediately flared, with the two gearing up for confrontation almost instantly.

"Everyone, listen up!" Daniel called, but with all of the arguing and protesting going around the room, nobody heard him.

"QUIET!" Johnny bellowed at the top of his lungs, immediately shutting everyone up.

"Thanks, Johnny." Daniel murmured.

"What the hell are they doing here?" Chris snapped, glaring at Mitch. Daniel took a deep breath. He knew things were extremely frosty between the two sides, even after fighting side by side in the house ambush against Cobra Kai. If anything, tensions had grown since then as the Eagle-Fangs who were in town were PISSED that Miyagi-Do called them to come help them without informing them that there were 8 Cobra Kais, and they had already destroyed most of Miyagi-Do's defenses. Miyagi-Do had walked them into an ambush and a brutal mutilation.

"Look, we know you guys aren't fans of one another. But for the next little while, you're going to need to learn how to suck it up. Because Eagle-Fang, Miyagi-Do, our dojos are teaming up…"