CHAPTER 53

"Alright, guys! Training has started! Get your lazy asses over here!"

Miguel heard Johnny shout to the whole dojo as he stood at the front of the backyard, so the rest of the group joined him and stood opposite him.

"Hey, sensei." Miguel murmured to Johnny as he walked over. "What did you end up deciding on for training?"

Johnny smirked.

"Coyote Creek." He responded confidently. Miguel furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"Coyote Creek? I thought you eliminated that as an option for today." Miguel remarked. Johnny grinned and nodded.

"I did, which is why this isn't going to be the Coyote Creek drill you remember. I'm changing the rules a little. Now come on, everyone. Get in your cars. We're going on a trip…"

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After a 20 minute drive, all of them pulled up to the meeting point in Coyote Creek. It had been a long day at school for all of them as it was their first day back after the break so they were hoping for a more chill, relaxed training session, but Johnny had no such plans. Him and Daniel were the last to arrive at the rendezvous location, and as soon as Johnny stepped out the car, he started barking out orders. The whole dojo was instructed to fall in and face the front as Johnny explained the drill.

"Alright! For those of you who don't know, this is Coyote Creek!" Johnny shouted. "For those of you who were in Cobra Kai before, you know exactly what we're doing here. This is the time for you to put into action everything you've learned into training. We have split you guys into teams. You all get a headband. You fight to take off other people's headbands. You do whatever it takes. If you lose your headband, you're dead."

"Look, act responsibly guys. This isn't the Hunger Games." Daniel remarked. Johnny shrugged.

"Sure, but at the same time, this is supposed to train you for your fights against Cobra Kai, and you know that Cobra Kai definitely aren't going to watch control when they fight you, so you need to be prepared to face that. So put all of your strength, all of your energy into the drill."

Miguel and George smirked at each other. They had done another Coyote Creek drill with Kreese a couple of months back, and it had been absolutely awesome. Most of the time, given that George and Miguel were similar skill level and quite a bit stronger and better than the kids that they trained with, they were always sparring against each other. However, at Coyote Creek they were actually put on the same team so they got the opportunity to fight side by side for once. And it. Was. Awesome. They just prayed they got put on the same team again.

"What are the teams?" Miguel asked, curiously. Johnny smirked and rubbed his hands together.

"Well… this is where we're changing the drill from the one some of you remember. Rather than having two big teams, we're changing it to have teams of two. Your only teammate is the man beside you. And to make it even harder, you are going to be handcuffed to your partner. You're going to need perfect communication with them if you want to succeed at this drill or you're pretty much screwed. Oh, and if you take the handcuffs off before we say you can, you get thrown into the freezing cold lake."

Miguel and George secretly fistbumped each other. We've got this in the bag, they thought to themselves. Nobody in the group had better teamwork than the two of them.

"No! Come on, this is so unfair!" Demetri exclaimed, glancing over at a triumphant looking Miguel and George. "If you let people pick their teams, some teams are going to be too overpowered!"

"Jealous no one wants you on their team?" George remarked. Johnny glared at him.

"George, shut up! And Mouth, we talked about this. Stop being such a whiny bitch or I'm going to do that baseball drill on you again!"

At this, Demetri IMMEDIATELY stopped talking. One of the drills Johnny had done with Sam and Demetri was a drill where one of them had to wear protective pads, while Johnny and the other student had to throw baseballs at them as hard as they could. Needless to say, Demetri still had the bruises to remind himself of the experience, so he didn't want to have to go through it again.

"Yeah, we figured you guys would have issues with picking your own teams."

"Bunch of babies." Johnny growled under his breath.

"So… instead, we're going to make random teams for you." Daniel finished.

"Yeah, when you hear your name, go stand with your partner." Johnny called out, taking out a crumpled sheet of paper from his pocket. "Alright! George… with Samantha."

Miguel couldn't help but snicker quietly as those two names were read out. Although he wanted to be teamed up with George, watching George be forced to team with Sam would also be really entertaining. He knew how much George disliked Sam so that team was bound to spark some fireworks.

"Next team… Mitch and Chris."

Well that's odd. Mitch and Chris hated each other just as much as George and Sam, so the fact that Johnny and Daniel had decided to put the pair together, as well George and Sam together, was kind of fishy.

"Third team… Bert and Nate."

Okay, it was really obvious now what the senseis were doing. Miguel's heart dropped as he realised something. If this is what the senseis were doing, that meant that chances are, he was going to be with…

"Miguel and Demetri."

Yup. That was about right. FUCK! Miguel internally swore as he trudged over to an equally annoyed Demetri. Though the two were no longer trying to fight each other, they were still far from friends.

"Woooooooow. Random teams, huh?" Miguel remarked drily at Johnny and Daniel

"What do you mean?" Johnny asked, confused.

"Come on, Sensei. How dumb do you think we are? This is obviously you guys' idiotic way of trying to get us to like each other." George stated.

"Yeah, it's like in Daddy's Home. The two protagonists have opposite personalities and dislike each other so much but they are forced to work together." Demetri remarked.

"If it's like Daddy's Home, you're the fatass, white stepdad." Miguel commented, causing Demetri to scowl daggers at him.

"Fuck you." Demetri snapped. Miguel raised his hands in surrender.

"Sorry, sorry, I forgot. You're not the fat stepdad." Miguel said. "You're the wife."

"Alright, Miguel, that's enough!" Johnny shouted. Miguel nodded, quietening down. "Look, these are the teams. You have two choices: you can either work with the teams I've given you, or you can turn around, get in your cars, drive away and never come back. The choice is yours. Which is it?"

As expected, not one person turned around and left, though all were reluctant to use the stupid teams they had been given. Johnny and Daniel finished pairing off the rest of the dojo, before Johnny reached into his bag and handed each team different colored headbands, while Daniel then used zipties to handcuff the teammates together. Johnny came around to Miguel and Demetri, handing them both navy blue headbands.

"Hey, Sensei?" Miguel asked. "What's the penalty if I take off my own headband, and then use it to choke the fucker next to me?"

Johnny had to stifle a chuckle at comment, as he knew that Miguel wasn't about to do that. It was only to unnerve Demetri right before the handcuffs came on, and it worked. As Johnny zipped up their handcuffs, he looked at the terrified expression on Demetri's face and laughed.

"Jesus, Mouth, you look like you're about to piss yourself." He remarked, chuckling. "Miguel's not going to choke you. Because he knows if he does, I use him as unprotected kicking target practise for next class, isn't that right Miguel?"

Miguel sighed and nodded.

"Yes, Sensei." He murmured. Johnny nodded, before walking back to the front and facing the group.

"Okay, listen up! You have a 5 minute grace period to spread out before the games begin. The last team standing wins. Good luck everyone…"

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"Alright, so what's the game plan?" Demetri asked, as he and Miguel trekked up a hill to try and spread out from the other competitors. "Are we going super aggressive and hunting people down? Or are we just defending?"

"Well, step 1, we don't have to talk." Miguel snapped as he felt himself practically dragging Demetri up the hill, the skinny teenager not able to keep pace with the larger one. "They might be able to force us to be a team, but they can't force us to actually work together. So you just do your thing. I'll do mine."

"Yeah, kinda hard when you're handcuffed together though." Demetri remarked. Miguel scowled.

"Look, just shut up. And also, no way in hell we're hunting for people. We're losing the first fight we get. I can't fight with you tied to my arm and you… well, you just can't fight, period."

Demetri sighed.

"Oh, my God! What is your problem with me?!" Demetri exclaimed loudly. The sudden outburst caused Miguel's head to shoot up and face him.

"What?" Miguel grunted.

"What do you have against me?! Because correct me if I'm wrong but before you started karate, you and I were actually friends. What happened?"

"You just… you piss me off, okay?" Miguel growled.

"Come on, you're going to have to be a bit more specific than that!" Demetri laughed. "Why do I piss you off so much? What do I do that you find so fundamentally terrible?"

"Honestly? It's that you're so full of shit that it's practically spewing out of your nose and ears." Miguel stated.

"Excuse me?" Demetri asked.

"Well here's the problem. You shit talk so much, man."

"Ha, this is the pot calling the kettle black, isn't it?" Demetri remarked. Miguel shook his head furiously.

"No, no. Listen. The trash talking part isn't what I have the issue with. I honestly love doing it too. Getting into the mind of an opponent and playing games to throw them off their game. It's one of my favorite parts of Karate. But here's the difference between me and you… when I trash talk someone, I am ALWAYS ready to back it up and throw down in a fight. You, however, do not. You make yourself out to be such a big man but when it comes down to actually fighting, you don't do shit. You hide behind Robby, or Sam or any other Miyagi-Do to do the fighting for you."

"That's a load of bullshit. I don't trash talk that much." Demetri remarked. Miguel scoffed.

"Put it this way. Why do you think Hawk targeted you before and during the school fight, and in the arcade? And why did I target you at that Applebees? It's because we earned the right to talk shit. It was learn to fight first, and then earn the right to stand tall and talk confidently afterwards. We took our licks along the way like men, and became strong enough, and THEN started to trash talk. You, on the other hand, from the very beginning, felt like you had the right to talk shit, but then hid behind Robby and Sam and all of the other Miyagi-Dos when it came time to actually fight."

"That's not true! I fought!" Demetri cried indignantly. Miguel raised an eyebrow.

"Did you? Let's go back to the Applebees fight. That was between me and you. JUST me and you. When we got into that alley, you could've told your Miyagi-Do friends to leave. I wouldn't have touched them. But no, you stayed silent and let them take a beating for you."

"I… I…"

"Now, let's go back further to before the school fight, when you and Hawk were feuding. You two exchanged harsh words. A real dick move on your part to expose his bedwetting thing but let's ignore that for now. That feud was just between you and Hawk. But no. When Hawk sought you out for a fight, you had Robby, Chris and Miyagi-Do blocking him. You fight with your mouth, Demetri, but it's always others cleaning up with their fists. And as someone who had to get beaten up countless times to get to where I am right now, the amount of trash talking you do and the way you act like you're untouchable because you have the protection of Miyagi-Do annoys the crap out of me. You ran from Cobra Kai after less than an hour in the dojo. TWICE. You've lost almost every fight you've had against me, Hawk, Tory and the other former and current Cobra Kais. What gives you the right to talk shit and then call us the villains for beating you up for it?!"

"So what do you want me to do? I'm sorry but I'm not at the level of you, Robby, Sam, Hawk, Tory and those guys! I'm just me! Skinny, nerdy old Demetri!" Demetri cried, his voice cracking slightly. Miguel sighed, strangely airing out his issues with Demetri doing wonders for the anger he had towards the boy.

"Look…" Miguel murmured a lot softer. "I'm not saying you have to become like Robby or any of those people. Everyone has their strengths. Chances are, you're going to grow up and get a job that makes more money than most of the people in both dojos because you're definitely smarter than most of us. All I'm saying is do what Chris or Mitch or Bert or Nate or those guys do: don't talk shit with the big boys if you aren't prepared to back it up."

"You don't get it, okay? I've been bullied my whole life. Karate gave me the strength to fight back. I'm not going to take shit from anyone anymore." Demetri replied. Miguel chuckled.

"Um… no, that would be what happened to me and Hawk. We took the long, hard, treacherous road up the mountain to learn how to fight and we eventually made it to the summit. You didn't do any of that. You just found some friends at base camp and relied on them for everything. Which, like I said, would be okay if you weren't shit talking as much as you do."

"So what do you want me to do?" Demetri asked. Miguel shrugged.

"Stop trash talking as much. Simple as that. And if you don't want to do that, you have two options. One is to get good at fighting so if you keep trash talking as much as you do and it escalates to a fight, you don't have to cower behind others. And option 2 would be when you do get beaten up for the things you say, don't make us out to be 100% in the wrong and act 100% innocent."

"I'll… I'll keep that in mind." Demetri murmured, nodding. And he meant it. He knew he talked a lot, but he had never realised how badly what he said and did could rub others the wrong way. Miguel raised his hands.

"Look, you don't have to listen to me. After all, I am a FAR from perfect person. I'm just someone who was bullied just like you were and whether we want to admit it or not, are fighting on the same side now so have the same interests at heart. But just don't expect me to clean up the messes that even if you don't start, fuel the flames to with your trash talk. Don't villainise me, or call me a Cobra at heart, or any of that shit if I don't choose to always stand between you and danger."

"Got it." Demetri replied. 'But if we're giving feedback to each other, you could definitely be less aggressive about everything!"

Miguel nodded.

"Yeah, I know. And I'm working on it." Miguel murmured. "And hey, I'm making progress! Haven't beaten you up since I joined Miyagi-Do! I've held myself back so far! Progress!"

Demetri chuckled.

"Yeah, progress." He replied. For a brief moment, the two boys smiled at each other, their bad blood temporarily put out of mind. Things were simpler, like they used to be.

"Alright, we've been chatting like bitches for a while. Let's go fight." Miguel said, standing up and helping Demetri to his feet too. "Oh, yeah. I should explain. Fighting is something we do where we use our hands and feet to punch and kick our opponents." Miguel joked.

"Fuck you." Demetri rolled his eyes, chuckling quietly. "You make it sound like I'm some damsel in distress who can't stand up for herself. I can fight, you know?"

"Well… with no disrespect, can you?" Miguel mumbled. "Other than against Hawk in the school fight, name one time in the past year and a half since this karate thing started where you have fought alone against an opponent without the rest of Miyagi-Do's help, let alone won the fight?"

"I… um… I… um… shut up." Demetri snapped. Miguel laughed. At that moment, the pair heard rustling coming from the trees behind them, and they spun around to see Chris and Mitch before them. Miguel looked at Demetri and smirked.

"Well, man, you're saying that you can fight. Now's the time to show it."

Demetri smiled and nodded.

"We got this…"