CHAPTER 7

"Nope! Sorry! No! Not doing it!"

Sam paced up and down the backyard in Miyagi-Do, shaking her head furiously.

"Oh well." Robby thought to himself. It had been worth a try. They had explained the entire situation to Sam, or at least what they knew of the situation, and by the end, Sam had adamantly declined.

"Look, ask me to help anyone in this dojo and I'd be there in a heartbeat. But not her." Sam murmured.

"Sam, she's a member of the dojo now." Miguel pointed out. "She's one of us. She helped us take down Cobra Kai."

"She's also the person who tried to kill me! Multiple times! She allowed us to think we lost the tournament, and then led Cobra Kai through its massive expansion!"

"Tory's made mistakes. We all have." Robby murmured. "But she needs help right now."

Sam slowly drew her pacing to a halt, and stared at the two boys.

"Why me though?!" Sam exclaimed. "Why can't someone else help her?!"

"Because she doesn't have anyone else. At least nobody who understands what she's going through." Robby replied. "You're the only person who could possibly relate to whatever she's going through!"

Sam put her head in her hands and took a deep, calming breath. Even just thinking about the girl caused all of those horrible flashbacks to come rushing back. She was transported back to the school, back to the home dojo in their house, back to the mats of the All-Valley tournament, and most recently back to Miguel's compound.

"I'm sorry." Sam eventually whispered, tears threatening to creep into her eyes. "I wish I could. I really wish I could. But I can't."

"Why not, Sam?" Miguel asked, gently. "She's no longer the enemy. She's an ally."

"I just… I just can't." Sam stammered.

"Why not though?" Miguel asked again.

"BECAUSE I'M SCARED OF HER, OKAY?!" Sam yelled at him. "I'm scared to even be around her in training, let alone have a conversation with her! I can't help it! Even if we're not fighting anymore, that doesn't mean I've forgotten about everything! I spent more than a year fearing for my life every time I even so much as heard her name! You two have no idea what it's like! Neither one of you went completely out of your way to target each other. Neither one of you ever held a deadly weapon to the other's head. Those feelings… they stay with you! There's nothing I can do about it!"

Robby and Miguel glanced at one another, feeling horrible. Sam was right. They might've figured their rivalry out, but that didn't mean everyone else had reached the same point. With all of the things Tory had done, or tried to do, to Sam, it was only natural that Sam needed a little bit longer to adjust to Tory being around before she was willing to help her. Them trying to push her to do so had been pretty insensitive on their part.

"I'm sorry, Sam." Miguel murmured.

"Yeah, same. I didn't know." Robby added. Sam wiped a few stray tears that had trickled down her cheeks.

"Trust me, I take no satisfaction in what Tory's going through." Sam said. "If Tory's having nightmares, in my experience, the only thing that makes them lessen is time, but they never really fully go aw…"

"UM… WHAT?!"

A much louder voice suddenly erupted from behind them and Robby closed his eyes, groaning in annoyance as he recognized the voice instantly. He knew exactly who it was, and he knew that they most definitely weren't going to be pleased about the fact that Robby had exposed intimate details about her, especially to her bitter rival.

He slowly turned around, only to find himself face to face with his livid girlfriend.

"Hey, Tory." He murmured, but almost as soon as he finished saying her name, he felt a vicious slap cracking across his face at the hands of the blonde.

SLAP!

"YOU TOLD THEM?!" Tory yelled at him, fury emanating through her in an incandescent way. Robby slowly nodded. Nothing to hide now.

"Look, I'm sorry. I just wanted to help you." Robby said. Not that Tory could even hear him at this point. She was positively shaking with rage.

"And so you told THEM?! Of all people?!" Tory shouted. Both Miguel and Sam were about to saw something supportive, but a shooting look from Robby immediately warned them to be quiet and fade into the background. Anything they said now, no matter how kind or sensitive it was, Tory wasn't going to hear. Robby knew her well. In her mind, all she was going to hear was two of her bitter enemies pitying her and treating her like some charity case, which was bound to set her off even more.

"Tory, I didn't mean to offend you. It's just… they have experience being in these types of situations. I thought maybe they could help." Robby said. Tory shook her head vehemently.

"You said you weren't going to tell anyone! I trusted you, and you lied to me!" Tory spat. Robby had to hold back a mirthless laugh.

"You trusted me?!" Robby exclaimed. "Bullshit! You've kept me in the dark about absolutely everything!"

"Because it's none of your business, Robby!" Tory shot back.

"None of my business?! It's none of my business to see someone I care about unable to even sleep without being plagued by horrific nightmares?! It's none of my business that you can't even open a door with your right hand without literally crying out in pain because your hand is so damaged it looks like it was run over by a car?! You're clearly in pain, Tory. I don't know how you expect me to just sit around and do nothing to try and help."

Though what Robby had said made sense, Tory definitely hadn't heard a word of it. It had all gone in through one ear and out through the other in her fit of rage. Tory's uninjured hand curled into a fist so tight that her fingers had turned white. She was about to raise it and strike, but as she saw Robby standing there opposite her, genuine hurt and concern in his eyes, all of the adrenaline drained from her, and her hand slowly unclenched. However, she still raised it Robby's way, instead pointing at him with her trembling finger.

"Screw you, Robby." She spat, before turning on her heel and storming out of the dojo…

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

As Marcos walked into the room, it was exactly what he had expected of the room of a rich teenage girl, and yet it was like nothing he had ever seen before. All of the bedrooms he had seen back where he was from, you were lucky to even have a bed in the room. More of than not, it was a worn-down, tiny mattress without a bedframe, or even just a pile of blankets on the cold, hard ground. This was completely different. The walls had been painted with an intricate, gorgeous design, illuminated by the beams of sunlight that streamed in through the custom-designed curtains. Her room also contained a king-sized bed that looked like a cloud, it was so comfortable. The desk was decorated with a plethora of small framed photos. The room also contained a bookshelf, a sofa, a TV and a chest of drawers, none of them containing so much of a speck of dust. Of course. Of course this extraordinarily wealthy family were paying a cleaner to keep this room spotlessly tidy. It was weird… all of this really fancy stuff, and Marcos preferred his old community in Brazil any day of the week. This house felt like a life-size representation of toy house - it was spotlessly neat and tidy from the outside, but on the inside, it just didn't feel like a home. It lacked the feeling, the aura that most homes had.

As Marcos glanced around the room, looking for the girl that he'd be tutoring, all of a sudden a door at the side of the room opened. Marcos figured that it was a walk-in closet or something, but it turned out that it was a whole bathroom! From the bathroom, out walked a teenage girl, presumably the person Marcos would be tutoring. However, as she walked into the room, Marcos became painfully aware of the fact that she wasn't wearing a shirt, and had clearly just walked out of the shower, dressed in only a bra and her leggings. It didn't take long for her to see him too, and she shrieked in shock, diving to grab a shirt to cover herself up with.

"What the hell are you doing in here, you creep?! Who are you?!" The girl shouted. Marcos, desperately trying to cover his eyes, was torn between turning to face the other way and looking her in the eye as he explained himself.

"I'm so sorry! I'm… I'm your tutor! Your dad told me to come up here." Marcos stammered. The girl, who was panting for breath after the sudden scare, slowly calmed down and nodded.

"Next time, knock." She snapped. Marcos was about to point out the fact that he did, but decided against it. He didn't need this argument dragging out any longer than it already had.

"Noted. I'm sorry again." Marcos murmured. The girl nodded, and collapsed on her desk chair, gesturing to the chair opposite for him to sit in. As he did, the two stared at one another in detail for the first time. Now that they were no longer in a frantic panic, they were able to truly study the person opposite. Although he already strongly disliked this girl and her family due to the way they had treated him since he had walked into the house, and the pompous, privileged aura they all excluded, he couldn't deny that this girl was beautiful. Like really beautiful. She was radiantly gorgeous. Marcos had seen many stunning girls in Brazil, and had even dated a few as he was a decent looking guy himself, but none as beautiful as the girl sitting opposite him. Her blonde hair looked like it had been kissed by both honey and gold. Her dark green eyes looked like pearls picked straight from the ocean floor. And the most intoxicating thing about her… she had a smile so radiant, so infectious that it lit up the entire room.

"I'm Sarah by the way." Sarah broke the silence.

"Marcos. Marcos Oliveira." He replied, nodding in greeting.

"So… you're the one who's going to be teaching me Portuguese?" She asked him.

"You don't sound too thrilled." He commented. The girl sighed.

"No offense, but learning Portuguese isn't exactly at the top of my bucket list." She admitted.

"Then, um… why am I here? How come you agreed to learn the language?" Marcos asked her. She raised an eyebrow.

"You met my dad downstairs, right? Have a conversation with him and then ask me again." Sarah told him. Marcos wasn't fully convinced though.

"Still. If you really don't want to be doing it… quit. I'm sure he won't get upset for too long." Marcos remarked. Sarah chuckled.

"It's not that easy." She replied. Marcos nodded, thinking in silence for a moment. Eventually, he spoke up.

"Pull out your phone." He suddenly told her. She glanced up at him, confused.

"Excuse me?" She asked.

"Pull out your phone." Marcos repeated, and Sarah slowly reached into her pocket and pulled out a top-of-the-line, brand new iPhone 13 that her family had given her, a far cry from the beaten down, nearly a decade old Blackberry that Marcos had.

"Okay, now what?" She questioned.

"Now… go on whatever social media you like, for the whole hour that our lesson is supposed to be. I won't tell your dad. You're in the clear." Marcos instructed her.

"Pardon me?" Sarah was at a total loss by now. Marcos sighed.

"Look, you're not going to learn anything from me if you don't actually want to." Marcos commented. "That's just not how languages work. Why do you think some people are able to pick up languages within a few weeks of living in a foreign countries, whereas others who learn in a classroom spend a decade on it and still can barely make a sentence?"

"Well… I guess some people are just smarter than others, aren't they? Shouldn't that be part of your job as my teacher, to give me whatever extra help I need to get better?" Sarah remarked, a little bit of her privilege creeping into her voice. Marcos shook his head.

"No. There's no point. The only difference between those people who live in the foreign country and those who learn through a classroom is that those living away from home actually want to learn. They need to learn if they want to be able to get around. Those in the classroom have nothing to lose by not paying attention."

"So… what? You want me to just up and move to a foreign country?" Sarah remarked.

"Nope. I just want you to not waste my time. If you want to learn, I'd be more than happy to teach you. If you don't… I'm sure there's something on that phone that interests you more to do for the next hour."

Sarah looked Marcos right in the eye, thoroughly taken aback by his words and his attitude. She didn't know whether to be offended by his behavior or impressed. Her whole life, people had worked around her. She was the only child in an extremely wealthy family, so had been doted on from day 1. Her parents only supplied her with the best, and that upbringing led to her not really being challenged or confronted by any of the people around her. But this boy… he didn't treat her in that way. He treated her like he would anyone else, not showing any fear due to her status, and wasn't scared to be bluntly honest with her.

Internally, Sarah couldn't help but smile. The weirdest part was despite the fact that this boy was being borderline insulting to her, and definitely not treating her like the other people who her family had hired in the past (her old tennis coach, violin teacher, piano teacher and horse-back-riding teacher, to name a few), she kind of loved it. Because one thing about Sarah was that she had never truly loved the bubble-wrapped upbringing she had grown up in. Sure she was grateful for all her parents had done and all of the opportunities she had been given, but at a certain point, all of these "opportunities" had become more like chores than anything else. Like this Portuguese class for example. Sarah would've much rather have been out with her friends, or out doing something meaningful with her time, but instead her parents had forced her to take this class for her "IVY league universities applications." When did she even commit to going to an IVY league university?! When did she even commit to going to college?! Her whole life, Sarah felt like she had been swept up by her surroundings and carried along like a river. She knew that she wanted to try to find a way out, but honestly didn't know how. Maybe this could be a way, she thought to herself. Because as Sarah made eye contact with the boy, she felt something extremely peculiar… it was like she already knew him, despite having just met. Through his amber eyes, Sarah felt like she could stare right into his soul. And she could tell, just by looking at him, that this was someone most definitely not trapped in a candy-cane, bubble-wrapped life.

"Um… Sarah?"

Marcos' voice snapped Sarah out of her thoughts again, and she noticed him looking at her expectantly.

"I'm sorry, what?" She asked.

"I asked you whether or not you actually want to learn, so I know not to waste my time." Marcos told her. Sarah slowly nodded, her face breaking into a radiant smile.

"Yeah, I'd… I'd love to. Let's do it…"

A/N

So in case you haven't caught on yet, Sarah is the 2nd OC to be added to the story. These are the only 2 OC main characters in the story. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!