CHAPTER 21

The rest of the morning dragged by for Marcos. He knew there were a million places he'd rather be right now than in a chemistry lesson, struggling to even read the worksheet let alone answer the questions on it. For him, school was less about learning and more about surviving. And sure enough, he had managed to get through the entirety of his first two classes without having to say a word in class. It was now lunchtime, so at least he had 45 minutes of relief before he was thrown back into the fire again.

Robby, who had continued to sit next to Marcos even after their conversation (couldn't hurt, right), regarded the Cobra Kai champion curiously, though he didn't have time for any more conversation than the one they had had before class. When the class started, it began thick and fast. There wasn't an introduction, any time for calm before the storm. Senior year had officially begun, and their chemistry teacher clearly didn't have time for anything less than going from 0-100 in 3 seconds. A year and a half out of school, even with the little Robby had done in juvie and the little he had done to prepare towards the end of the summer, he was still very much behind. The teacher might as well have been speaking Japanese with how little Robby understood about ionic compounds, covalent compounds and all of that. He tried his best to keep up, but by the end of the 90 minute lesson, the bell was a welcome relief.

It was not just the first day at West Valley for Robby and Marcos though. It was also day 1 for an entire class of freshman, two of whom were already very familiar with each other, having been on opposing sides of the Karate War all summer. Anthony Larusso's morning had gone well enough. The entire summer, he had been dreading school restarting. School restarting meant that all of Miyagi-Do would be splitting up for the day, and he wouldn't have the protection of the other members of the dojo to ward off Kenny. He knew that there were many places, many times when it would just be him and Kenny without anyone to interfere. Thankfully though, he hadn't seen the Cobra Kai bully all morning, so he was able to get by his first two classes unharmed and out of sight.

That luck, however, ran out as he walked into the crowded cafeteria for lunch. As he picked up a tray of food from the line, he turned around and almost immediately walked into someone. He wasn't looking up, so all he could see was the person in front's hoodie. It was jet-black, with an eerily familiar serpent at the front. Upon seeing it, Anthony's head snapped up and sure enough, it was him. The bully who had tormented him all summer. And if that wasn't bad enough, he was flanked by all of his Cobra Kai lackeys - Kyler and the rest of them.

Anthony immediately tensed up and braced himself for whatever was about to come, knowing that he wouldn't be able to fight them all off. But that blow didn't come. At least, not yet, as Cobra Kai seemed intent on playing with him beforehand.

"Look who it is! Miyagi-Do's newest loser!" Kyler exclaimed gleefully, cocky as always.

"How's it going, LaPusso?" Kenny snapped, his voice dripping with venom. Things had not been going well for Kenny at all. He felt like he had been abandoned by absolutely everyone around him, everyone he had put his faith and trust into: Shawn, Robby, Sensei Silver, and now the latest person: Sensei Kreese. Rather than trusting him to represent Cobra Kai in the Taikai, he had called upon a stranger and completely overlooked him, already giving this stranger preferential treatment. So Kenny was already in a horrible mood going into that day, and seeing his former bully standing there alone in the cafeteria provided him with an opportunity to take out his anger on someone.

"Come on, guys. Can't you just leave me alone? It's like a 5 on 1." Anthony stammered. Kenny chuckled.

"Leave you alone? You mean like how you and your friends left me alone, right?" Kenny remarked sarcastically. "No, you didn't give a shit about it being a 5 on 1 when you were part of the 5, and now neither do I!"

"If you hit me, you're going to get expelled." Anthony told them, trying to channel any semblance of authority and confidence in his voice. He wasn't fooling anyone though. Kenny laughed raucously in his face.

"I don't need to hit you though, do I, LaPusso?" Kenny remarked. Suddenly, Anthony's plate of spaghetti bolognese, that was previously on his tray, had been snatched by his rival. And before he could react, Kenny threw the entire plate of food over his head. Anthony felt the sauce and sticky pasta trickle down his hair and onto his chest, seeping into his hoodie and clothes. He was FURIOUS! The entire cafeteria had just seen the events unfold, having gone dead silent, and it was absolutely humiliating! Anthony wanted nothing more than to strike back, but he forced himself to hold back. He knew there was little to no chance he could even beat Kenny right now, let alone Kenny and his entire gang. That said, he couldn't keep himself from muttering an insult under his breath.

"Assholes." Anthony muttered quietly, but unfortunately for him, it didn't go unheard by the other Cobra Kais. They all gasped in shock, before putting on faces of bloodlust and aggression as they stared down at the freshman.

"Ooh. You're going to wish you didn't say that." Kenny remarked, before getting into a fighting stance, all of Cobra Kai and Anthony doing the same. Shit! Shit! SHIT! This was not good at all. Anthony's head whipped around the dining hall, searching desperately for the other Miyagi-Dos, but it didn't look like they had arrived yet. Kenny noticed this too, and he grinned widely at Anthony. "Yeah, that's right. Your friends aren't here to save you this time."

However, as soon as he spoke, things changed. One moment, Anthony was reluctantly standing opposite the Cobra Kais, desperately trying to find a way out, an escape from the situation. The next, he had been roughly shoved so hard he nearly fell over. For one horrible moment, he thought it was a Cobra Kai who had pushed him, that things had officially escalated into another first-day-of-school brawl. He was… right about that actually. It was a Cobra Kai who had pushed him over. But not for the reason he had expected. After Anthony had regained his balance, he looked up to see the new Cobra Kai student, their leader, now standing between him and the other Cobra Kais, staring at his teammates.

"Turn around. Walk away." Marcos ordered Kenny, Kyler and the other Cobra Kais. For a moment, Kenny and Kyler looked reluctant.

"You don't understand." Kenny spat angrily at him. "This kid…"

"I really don't care." Marcos replied in a calm, level tone, executing his authority and power over the others. "Turn around. Walk away."

By this point, the rest of Miyagi-Do had finally arrived, and Miguel, Hawk, Sam, Tory, Robby and Demetri immediately moved to stand in front of Anthony, pushing him behind them in case Marcos and Cobra Kai attacked them. That didn't seem like it was going to happen though. In fact, at this point, a civil war between members of the Cobra Kai dojo seemed more likely, as Marcos stared down coldly at the other Cobras.

"I'm only going to tell you one more time. I will not tell you again. Turn around. Walk away."

With one final scathing look, Kenny eventually did what he was told and stormed away, Kyler and the other Cobras following close behind. Marcos didn't say another word after that point either, and he also began to walk away. As he was doing so, he walked past the group of Miyagi-Dos, ignoring most of them, but nodding at Robby as he walked by. Although he was making no formal agreement to be in charge of keeping the Cobra Kais and Miyagi-Dos apart, he silently communicated to Robby that he would somewhat hold up the bargain, in that if he saw an ambush about to happen, he would put a stop to it. Robby was the one Miyagi-Do that Marcos had even a little bit of respect for, so he owed him as much anyways.

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"He pushed him over." Hawk snapped angrily as the Miyagi-Dos walked into their final class of the day: English. Unfortunately, in this class, the Miyagi-Dos once again found themselves sitting in the same room as that familiar Cobra Kai champion, though just like in chemistry class, Marcos had bigger worries than engaging with the Miyagi-Dos in any kind of confrontation. English was the class he most feared in the school day. It was the most likely class to expose his embarrassing secret to the rest of the class, and to a class containing his rivals at that.

So as Marcos sat at his desk, buried up to his nose in the book they were meant to be reading over the next month, the Miyagi-Dos sat on the other side of the room, murmuring quietly about the events that had occurred during lunch in the cafeteria.

"No. He stopped the fight between Anthony and Kenny." Robby calmly responded. He knew exactly what Hawk was doing. It was something Tory did as well. Something all of them did on occasion - even him, Miguel and Sam as well - to fuel them in their former rivalries. They would twist their version of events to build within them more animosity for their enemy. It would make them hate the person even more, and push them to fight harder and harder against them. But it also often turned them into assholes, and started more fights than they would've been in otherwise.

"By pushing over one of ours." Hawk shot back, before turning to Miguel. "You can't possibly be okay with our enemy doing that."

It had finally happened. Eli was well and truly gone again at this point. The All-Valley champion had reintroduced the Hawk during his Taikai qualification fight with Kenny. And although that fight hadn't gone his way, still over the past 2 weeks since, he had slowly been falling back into his Hawk persona. Because it wasn't just about his haircut. It was also about his personality, and that had been becoming more and more aggressive and impulsive by the day.

Miguel shrugged.

"Look, I don't like the guy, but it doesn't sound like he's done anything wrong here." Miguel responded. "Robby's right. He prevented a fight between Anthony and Cobra Kai. He protected him. I don't see why you're so angry about it."

"Right. Because you weren't upset about Robby having his hands on Tory during the school fight, were you?" Hawk responded, without even a sliver of hesitation. The atmosphere within the group turned cold as Miguel regarded Hawk. They all went silent. However uncalled for and out of pocket as the statement was, it was true. Miguel remembered the day like it was yesterday. He remembered seeing Robby - the enemy - with his hands on Tory and remembered how he hadn't stopped to consider Robby's intentions before anger set in. Well, he also remembered how that fight ended, so he shook his head.

"I was wrong for doing that." Miguel eventually replied. "I didn't stop to think about what Robby's intentions were. Just like you're not realizing the fact that right now, us and him have the same goal: to keep our dojos apart before the tournament."

Hawk shook his head though.

"No. I don't think you get it, man. I don't think any of you truly get what this dude is about." Hawk stated. "He's a snake."

"What?" Sam asked, almost tiredly.

"Think about it." Hawk told them. "He could've pushed over any of the Cobra Kais to stop the fight. But he didn't. He pushed Anthony."

"Man, we just talked about this." Robby grumbled. "He…"

"And at the dojo yesterday morning, he could've scored three points, beaten Miguel and left it there. But he didn't. He decided to drag it out until you literally couldn't stand anymore."

There was no response to that one, as they all knew that Hawk had a point. Hawk clenched his jaw and gritted his teeth in determination.

"I don't care what you guys think." Hawk snapped. "I'm going to expose him for who he truly is. And none of you are going to stop me."

As the Miyagi-Dos were about to argue further, the teacher entered the classroom and English class began. They were reading a book that pretty much every high school student had read in class at one point in time: the iconic Shakespeare play, Hamlet. If reading English wasn't hard enough for Marcos, he had to read quite possibly one of the most confusing versions of English out there. To make matters even worse for him, if that was even possible, the teacher decided to select a couple of people to read the book out loud.

"Mr. Moskowitz." The teacher called. "Ms. Johnson. Mr. Oliveira. Why don't you three start us off?"

Hawk and another girl in their English class both stood up and walked to the front of the room, but Marcos remained firmly in his seat, trying hard not to panic.

"Mr. Oliveira? Are you not going to stand up and join us?" The teacher asked. Marcos slowly shook his head.

"No, I, um… I can't." Marcos said.

"May I ask why?" The teacher questioned further.

"I… don't want to." Marcos came up with the weak lie to distract from the real reason. The teacher chuckled though.

"Well I'll let you get away with that one because it's your first day, but this is still an academic classroom, Mr. Oliviera. When I ask you to do something, I expect you to do it." The teacher stated. "Now, please join Mr. Moskowitz and Ms. Johnson at the front of the room."

Marcos slowly rose from his feet and walked to the front of the classroom, feeling the puzzled eyes of the Miyagi-Dos on him as he walked past them, and feeling his hands trembling around the book in his hands. He really didn't know what to do now.

He made it to the front of the room, and the teacher instructed them to begin reading. Unfortunately though, the character the teacher had assigned to Marcos was the person with the first line in the play, so it meant that Marcos was on the spot almost instantly. He stared intently at the words on the page, desperately trying to pull meaning from them, but he just… he just couldn't do it! It was fucking impossible!

"W-w-wh-h-o-s-s th-h-h…" The class were stunned into silence as Marcos struggled to even get through the first phrase of the play, possibly the most easy to understand. 'Who's there?'. That's all it was. That was the line, but Marcos couldn't read it to save his life. For a long while, nobody knew what to say, before somebody broke the silence…

"Oh, my God! You can't read!" Hawk exclaimed. Marcos' hand went limp, and the book slipped out of it, hitting the ground with a thud.

"What?" Marcos stammered.

"You can't read!" Hawk repeated, a gleeful expression on his face as he began to laugh. "Oh, my God! How's that even possible?! Seventeen years old and you can't do what children in kindergarte…"

"You want to continue that sentence?" Marcos snarled, walking up and standing face to face with Hawk, more than eager to strike down this cocky, mohawked piece of shit. He had truly lost his temper and his patience with the Miyagi-Dos at this point. He had tried to be nice to them and protect their friend from harm, and this was what he got in return?! Well, screw that.

"Go on. I'm not afraid of you." Hawk hotly responded, throwing down his own book and squaring up to the Cobra Kai leader. At that moment, the teacher's eyes widened in alarm, sensing a fight, and they rushed out of the room to call for help. It was part of their new protocol when faced with students fighting. All teachers and all students not involved in the conflict should evacuate the scene of the fight as soon as possible, to allow the teacher to quickly get help, and prevent more students from getting involved and turning a fight into a brawl. However, even after the teacher left, none of the other students in the class did. They were all intrigued, eager to see round 2 of the school fight. They were left disappointed though, as immediately the Miyagi-Dos sprung into action to pull the pair apart and separate them. Sam and Miguel managed to restrain their friend, and Marcos was about to fight the person trying to hold him back until he saw who it was. It was Robby, the one Miyagi-Do with enough patience to actually hear him out and be rational. Marcos slapped Robby's arms away from him, though he didn't go to attack the boy, nor the All-Valley champ that he was feuding with. At this point, the Miyagi-Dos formed a line opposite Marcos, so in case he did want to fight, he would not be able to target just one without being faced by all 4 of them. It was a perfectly representative image. Despite how much of an asshole Hawk had just been, his teammates were still standing side by side, shoulder to shoulder with him. Because in the end of the day, this was war. And in war, you side with your Army no matter what you personally believe is right or wrong.

Marcos was about to leave the room, but before he did, he decided to face them one more time, looking Robby right in the eye as he addressed them.

"Just so you know, that no fighting deal you wanted to make… done." Marcos stated. "You guys want to embarrass me? Fine. But karma's a bitch. Because when it comes time to actually fight, I'm going to embarrass you. All of you…"