Chapter Fourteen: Best Friends Best Enemies

…

"He was acting like a fake douchebag at a party he forced me to go to," Robby threw his backpack into his room and almost shouted angrily at his father. "It's pretty obvious he stabbed me in the back. What did you expect me to do?"

"Exactly what you didn't do. Use your brain, why would Luke ever try to do something like that to you?"

"For clout and girls, that's all he seems to care about now. From what I can tell, that's all he ever cared about."

Johnny shook his head. "I know you kid, I know that's not why you fought him. This is completely unlike you, just tell me. Tell me why, why Robby?"

"Dad, he didn't stand up for me. All of today, people were talking crap about me behind my back and he was nowhere to be found."

Johnny frowned at this, but he said nothing.

"I don't care what other people think about me. But Demetri, and Eli? They're great people, and because of what Luke did, they couldn't talk to me." Robby sighed, turning around and walking out near the living room in Johnny's Reseda apartment. "There's no one I know who could and should tell Mack Chu what she needed to know today. I struggled so hard to find a school where I could be accepted after everything that happened."

He shook his head. "If you don't get that, then there's really nothing I can explain."

"Look it's not that I don't get why you're mad at him, trust me, I wanted to kick my best friend's ass in high school more than I can count."

"The bald preacher?" Robby snorted.

Johnny ignored the allusion to Bobby Brown. "What I'm surprised at is how badly you went after him. You challenged him to a fight on the last day of school surrounded by everyone you knew. That's."

Johnny trailed.

"That's so unlike you that I don't even know, if it was really you acting then."

"It was me. Dad everyone at West Valley's gonna know me as an accident from now on, and all of it is Luke's fault. And the fault of a bunch of girls who he was messing with this whole semester."

Johnny shook his head. "But, you're not an accident."

"Tell that to my entire high school!"

Johnny was slightly surprised at how Robby raised his voice. He basically never did.

Robby scoffed, glancing at his feet then his father. "How could you take his side?"

"I'm not taking his side. I just think you took this way too far, there's no chance Ali's kid would ever just ruin all that for you."

"No chance? How would you know?" Johnny paused, watching the way Robby shook his head. "Ali's kid right? Is that what he is to you?"

"Robby you don't have to like him after what happened at this party. But it's over, let it go, and stop blaming him for it. I know Luke Schwarber, he's not a snitch, not like that."

"If he didn't tell everyone then who did?"

Robby watched as Johnny was silent again.

"And what am I supposed to do now? This isn't like back in your day dad. Everyone on social media can speculate and talk about me all day long. I don't think you know what Instagram even is."

"Of course I know what that is, it's like the Facebook."

Robby raised his voice again. "I have to either find a different school. Or spend the next few years with this asterisk hanging around everything I do. And then, you take Luke's side, and I think I know why you do it."

"Why?"

"Because he's the kid you wanted to have with Ali. The kid you wanted to have to begin with."

"How?" Johnny shook his head, scoffing. "Luke's not perfect. But he stood up for you when no one else would. You robbed him kid, you robbed him at his beach country club and then he helped you. You're my son, not him."

"And now I know why he did all that. To feel better about himself."

"Robby-"

"He's worse than a bully. At least they're honest about their shittiness. Luke was acting like friends with people I know he's beaten up, just to get with girls, to get drunk."

"Is this, his normal behavior?"

"I don't care," Robby's face changed into a very disgusted grin and he snorted again, shrugging. "Not my problem."

"He's your best friend, it was clear he was going through something."

"Then maybe he should've said something." said Robby. "And now, I'm saying something. You want to trust Luke despite what he did after all that happened? Fine, do that, but I'm not going to be here to watch it."

"Robby!"

He brushed past him, and in the blink of an eye, he was on his skateboard likely going back to his mother's house.

"Hey kid-"

Robby Keene was gone.

Sighing, Johnny looked off in the direction he went.

John Kreese's top student was returning from buying some groceries for his family.

"Well what're you looking at?"

Miguel Diaz merely shrugged at him, and Johnny just closed the door behind him.

However, a third teenage boy appeared shortly on his doorstep about a half hour later.

"Yeah?"

He opened the door and frowned slightly, although he nodded. "Hey kid."

"Hey Sensei Lawrence."

It was Lucas.

"Come on in." Johnny looked around before letting him in.

…

Lucas sat in his wooden living room table, glancing back at the picture of an elementary school age Robby Keene in his soccer uniform.

"So," Johnny sat down across from him and cracked open a Coors Banquet for himself. "I've started to piece together everything. But what brings you here exactly?"

"I wanted to give Robby a proper apology for everything that happened. The um, dick, that lives across the hall from you might not see reason for another nonsense rivalry. But, I know Robby will."

Johnny smiled oddly.

"What?" asked Lucas.

"You're so much like your mother sometimes." Johnny didn't explain further. "Look Robby just needs some time to cool off. He's with Shannon now."

"Is, Shannon there now? Is she okay?"

Johnny clearly did not have enough information to give a proper response.

"Why don't you text her and ask?"

"Text?" Johnny was confused.

"I thought Robby got you a smartphone?"

Johnny sipped his beer. "Luke. Robby isn't here, you and LaRusso need to figure out what to do next."

Lucas was silent.

"What?"

"That's, that's just it." Lucas looked very upset. "I don't know how to talk to him after all of this."

"Was Sam involved in the um, in the thing?" Johnny squinted slightly.

Lucas sighed. "Besides the fact that she was. I won the All Valley better than everyone ever did, and Mr. LaRusso was there for me. He's like, he's like more than a karate teacher to me-"

"Then go talk to him kid, I can't help you, not in the way you're looking for.

"I can't tell him anything without telling him the truth."

"The truth about what?"

"About why things got so fucked up." Lucas said plainly. "A little bit ago, Pops told me if I didn't quit karate after this next tournament. He'd send me back to Denver with my mom."

"He- what?"

"He told me I needed to leave his house if I was going to keep doing karate. He said, medicine and karate couldn't mix."

Johnny chuckled. "Son of a bitch never changed."

"The thing is, he's not completely wrong. It is dangerous, and the rivalries and fights that come from it can all be fixed with a solid conversation. But I like it here, I think I can learn a lot, and maybe one day even become a karate Sensei, or a doctor. But I can't do that if I get sent back."

Johnny smiled at Lucas. "Let me tell you something about your Pops. The guy sucked, he was one of the reasons why Ali and I started having problems."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah, he was way too strict on your mom. He was a nice guy, but he was just so strict, everything he said, we had to do. He approved of me being rich and from Encino and all that, but I only tried introducing him to Dutch and Tommy one time."

"Okay."

Johnny frowned, rubbing his face slowly. "And that was the time he never allowed any of my friends at his house ever again."

Lucas blinked.

"Your grandad means well. But he shouldn't be the mentor you need."

"Then who should be? You?"

"LaRusso should." Johnny admitted without a hint of jealousy or remorse in his voice. "I know all of this long enough that you trying to switch now will only result in more of this same nonsense. Fighting, misunderstandings. Soon enough, there's no going back."

"Back from what?"

"Kreese will get what he wants. At this tournament, he can get the recognition he wants for his team to become legit in USA karate. And from there, his crap can only grow."

Johnny threw his nose to his apartment's front door. "That kid across the hall? He has no idea how much an ass kicking you and Robby can give him in a legit tournament. Dozens like him will come from everywhere to learn from his Sensei, I've seen it happen because I was just like him."

Lucas' expression changed. "Now we're talking about karate."

"Of course we are. That's how this has to be settled, and in my opinion, you'll win."

"I will." Lucas deadpanned.

"Beyond a shadow of a doubt." Johnny didn't care that he was talking about his son at all. "Robby's great, but when it comes to points. You're just a cleaner fighter, not by much, but you are."

Lucas listened.

"Bobby, Dutch, Tommy, Darryl Vidal, heck even LaRusso. You have that same touch when you're in the ring, that same fire, that same edge. Robby has it too, but he's just a tiny step behind you."

Lucas shrugged. "So why tell me this?"

"Because you need to train seriously for this upcoming tournament. Because you're fighting against someone who needs to prove something against you. You're not fighting for, you're fighting against."

"Against, against who?"

"Against yourself. You have nothing to prove at this tournament Luke." said Johnny quietly. "You've got everything Robby doesn't now. Money, grades, a career path, girls, friends."

Lucas frowned.

"Robby has to completely redeem himself. No one respects him anymore at school, he doesn't have friends anymore. And the only ones he might make are in Cobra Kai, which, neither of us like. But you? You need to beat Robby, because he thinks he's lost it all."

"You want me, to beat your son in this next karate competition?"

Johnny shrugged. "Not to add any pressure to you. But you need to, Robby needs to realize this as soon as possible. This nonsense at your school, it's literally a walk in the park next to how tough life can really get."

Lucas nodded slowly.

"I won't tell him this after he cools off and comes back to training with me. But your life can't be redeemed or changed based on what happens on the mat. I needed to know that when I was your age, and now Robby needs to know that. It took me decades kid, but the real way I got over your mom wasn't after I lost."

Lucas listened.

Johnny finished his beer. "It was after I met you. That's how hard it hit me that she completely moved on, and I was still stuck in the past, even now. Don't let Robby stay stuck in the past, he'll follow the same path I did unless you beat him. You came here looking for advice? Here it is."

Lucas nodded yet again.

"Talk to LaRusso, tell him absolutely everything, he'll have to forgive you if you tell him the truth. Then, you train with him, learn everything he did to beat me when we were kids. Afterward," Johnny lifted his hands behind his head and lounged out a little. "You win the entire tournament for a second time next May. Prove you were right."

"Right about what?'

"That you never stopped being Robby's friend, you never stabbed him in the back, and you always wanted to help him. You're half the reason I was able to ever talk to Robby again. These things happen so we can grow from them, without them, I'd still be the same punk kid on a dirtbike I was back in the eighties."

"Would that have been so bad?"

"From what I gather?" Johnny looked around his apartment. "Yeah, yeah it would've."

…

Johnny opened the door and spoke to Lucas as he stood on his doorstep.

Johnny sighed deeply, rubbing his forehead. "Forget all the shit they'll say online or at your school. Only two things matter here, that Kreese doesn't get what he wants. That'll ruin everything for everyone. And what I told you about Robby."

"Out of curiosity, what did you tell him about Robby?"

Daniel LaRusso walked into the small courtyard between Miguel and Johnny's apartment.

"How'd you get here without a car?" Daniel asked, glancing at Lucas.

"I took the bus."

Johnny chuckled. "I told him what he needed to know."

"I heard what happened." Daniel said. "Robby attacked Lucas at school today."

"Then that's not what happened." said Johnny angrily, closing the door behind him.

"Maybe we should leave-"

"You shouldn't." Johnny walked up to Daniel, looking at him up and down. "Never blame myself or Robby for what just happened. These two settle it on the mat at the All Valley, then it's finished."

"Oh it's finished?" Daniel frowned, shrugging slightly. "Honestly Johnny, this is never finished. But if you want to finish it, how about you apologize for letting Robby team up with Cobra Kai?"

"He didn't." Johnny said flatly.

"He basically did." admitted Lucas.

Now Johnny's expression changed, and he looked over at him. "What're you talking about?"

"I was trying to leave the cafeteria, get as far away from Robby as I could when he wanted to fight." Daniel nodded in approval at this. "But all of Kreese's people boxed me in, they practically hit me back in there to fight him."

Daniel smirked at Johnny. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Yeah well you should be. That doesn't mean Robby and them started ganging up on him. This doesn't mean anything."

Lucas shrugged. "I had no reason to fight him, Robby and the Cobra Kais didn't give me a choice."

"Listen," Johnny said. "Robby's a good kid, this was just a huge misunderstanding."

"It could've gone way better if Robby just didn't want to fight."

"Exactly." Daniel glanced from his student over to Johnny. "You mean well right? But your first instinct, is to always start punching isn't it? It's funny, you haven't changed."

"Now hold on-" Lucas was interrupted.

"You haven't changed either." Johnny said. "This never would've happened if Luke had just told you the truth."

"Whoa, what truth?" asked Daniel.

"You and his grand-dad made it so hard for him to communicate this all happened. And who knows what else that party could've caused."

Daniel still looked lost.

"This nonsense is still going cause you are who you are LaRusso, and the fact that I trust either of you." Johnny nodded a bit. "It just ended."

Right after Johnny slammed the door to his apartment closed, Lucas was forced to follow Daniel back to his car. It was not the best idea to get a bus back to Encino at 9 PM.

…

"What truth was he talking about?" Daniel asked as he drove.

Lucas shrunk in the passenger's seat.

"I can't train with you anymore." Lucas said quietly. "Not unless Pops is gonna send me back home."

"Because of what happened with Cobra Kai?"

"Because of everything."

Daniel chuckled. "Your grandad never changed one bit from the eighties."

"What are we going to do?"

Daniel shrugged. "Ali should decide where you need to stay, at least for a little while."

"When should she do this?" Lucas looked at Daniel.

"As soon as the tournament's finished."

He was shocked. "So you are sending me back?" he scoffed in disbelief, looking away.

"This is the responsible thing to do Lucas." said Daniel. "I can't let karate get inbetween your family. Again. I made that mistake when I was in highschool, and luckily it didn't harm the relationship between your mom and grandfather too badly. Now."

Daniel sighed loudly.

"If there's one thing Mr. Miyagi taught me, it's that family comes first. You, Ali, and Frank need to figure this out on your own. It's selfish and out of place for me to get involved."

"Aren't you my family?"

Daniel braked softly before the red light.

The turn signal on the LaRusso Auto family car he used clicked softly repeatedly.

"I will always be your family Lucas. But I'm starting to realize something."

"Which is?"

"I can teach you everything I can about life and karate, but the fact is. Your mother, your real family, is still very much alive unlike mine was. That's the main reason why I could learn all this the way I could once. Mr. Miyagi was the father I never had."

"My actual one is worse than my mom, I promise."

Daniel nodded with a tiny bite of his lip. "That I don't doubt. But there's a reason why you keep acting out, you keep getting into fights, keep starting drama, all that. And it's not because you're a bad kid Luke, it's not because you're an angry or disloyal person."

Lucas frowned.

"It's because you're confused. You want from me what Ali and Greg never gave you, and it's wrong for me to try to replace them when all you need to do is go and talk to them."

Lucas exhaled quickly. "That's so wrong. I'm not confused, it's Cobra Kai and Kyler that're just acting like dicks."

"Then why fight them? Why cause problems with them? I've taught you better than that, and you are better than that."

"I couldn't run from the fight today, I just said why."

"There shouldn't have been a fight in the first place." explained Daniel. "You and Robby get along perfectly, until you start hiding things. And honestly, you and I do too."

"Now you want to talk about Sam."

"Sam isn't the problem, it's you Lucas. You need to start asking yourself why you wanted to seek a mentorship from me in the first place. Why exactly you'd ever let a friendship, especially one as meaningful as the one you had with Robby Keene get the way it did."

"What if Mom came to live here, could I still do karate?"

"That's up to you and your family to decide when and if you could." said Daniel instantly.

Lucas was silent as Daniel began to pull up to the Mills Manor.

Lucas unclicked his seatbelt. "So, can I see you this weekend for regular kata?"

Daniel actually needed a second to respond.

"Yeah."

Lucas and Daniel couldn't say anything else to one another before Daniel drove away.

…

Amanda watched as Daniel was so upset he couldn't say a word when he got home.

All he could do was toss his car and house keys into a bowl in the front entrance of the LaRusso home and put a few dishes away.

Amanda watched him quietly from nearby in the kitchen island. "Are you okay?"

"What am I going to do with him?" Daniel glanced at his wife.

"You're acting like Luke's your son."

Daniel closed the dishwasher and turned to her. "I've realized that's been the problem this entire time."

"So, what did you talk about with him? What happened today?"

Daniel gave a very exhausted sigh.

"Sam wouldn't tell me the details of this um, party. But somehow rumors were spread about one of their friends, Robby Keene. Then there was a very nasty fight, and now Frank might send Luke back home to Denver."

"Oh my god." Amanda said. "Is he okay?"

"I don't know anymore." Daniel frowned. "I've tried so hard to teach him everything the Miyagi-Do way. To make him honest, clear, and responsible. But maybe it shouldn't even be up to me anymore."

"And why not?"

"Because Mr. Miyagi had an obligation I never did." said Daniel. "Lucas is no longer in any danger from Cobra Kai, or anyone, he has a mother, father, and grandparents to help him. Everyone in the Valley knows how well he fights, and Robby, from what I understood, was hurt quite badly from what happened today."

"Him and his family can look out for him, they could've this whole time quite easily. Back in the eighties, I was miserable, I had nothing. No father, just an overworked helpless mother, no friends, and no way to defend myself living in one of the poorest neighbors in LA."

Daniel remembered him yelling at his mother and smashing his crumpled bicycle into a garbage dumpster.

"But Mr. Miyagi helped me, not just because he wanted to, but because he knew he needed to. Sam is getting involved with all these rumors at school, and soon, quite likely, if all this goes on, this mess with Cobra Kai and the fights will involve her too."

Amanda didn't see a reason to disagree.

"All of this was started because Luke couldn't tell Kreese and I what he really wanted." Daniel said in wide eyed exasperation. "It's not right to put my own family, my real family through this just because I feel I owe Ali a favor."

"Do you like teaching him karate?"

"At this point? No. It's not worth it."

"It's not worth it right now, but the look," Amanda paused. "The look in Lucas Schwarber's eyes when he won the All Valley, when he managed to get your forgiveness after your fight. When he learns from you, the pride and joy, and happiness I see in him from what you teach him."

Amanda shook her head, frowning.

"Daniel, our kids never had that, and I love them both with everything I have." Amanda said. "I don't know about Mr. Miyagi, or karate, Cobra Kai, or any of this. But the connection you have built and are building with Luke. That'll help him for the rest of his life."

"I don't think so." Daniel said very quietly. "I think it's hurting his life. The trouble he's getting into, the divide it's building between him and his family. If Mr. Miyagi knew that there was a very good chance that helping me actually would've meant hurting me, he never would've helped."

"Then be better than Mr. Miyagi." said Amanda plainly.

Daniel laughed. "No one, can be better than Mr. Miyagi."

"Then maybe you shouldn't even try to teach Lucas or anyone anything."

Amanda then walked off, and left Daniel in thought.

…

Sam put her phone away when Daniel entered her bedroom.

"Hey."

Sam said nothing.

"I heard what happened at school, I just want to know-"

"I'm fine Dad."

"I'm just worried about you is all."

Sam squinted at Daniel slightly. "Is Lucas leaving after next semester?"

Daniel answered honestly after a moment. "I don't know."

"Are you gonna help him at the tournament?"

"I don't know."

"Then what's going on?" asked Sam.

"That all of this nonsense with Cobra Kai and Johnny Lawrence should've been handled ages ago." Daniel said. "It's not right to drag you into it."

Sam shook her head, crossing her arms as she sat on her bed. "I've never seen you like this." she admitted from how upset and troubled Daniel looked.

"When I met Luke I didn't know what to think. He won an All Valley title unlike anyone who ever did, and is well on the road to win another during it's most important change in history. And from there, who knows what Lucas can accomplish in karate."

Daniel shook his head too, looking right back at his daughter. "But he wants more than just karate from me. He wants to look up to me in the same way I looked up to Mr. Miyagi."

"And what's wrong with that?"

"He has his own family to help him, in ways mine never could when I needed the same help."

"Again, why can't you help him?"

"Your mother said the same thing. But it's because I don't want to put you ahead of Luke, as wonderful as a person as he is, a karateka, a student, a-." Daniel sighed. "A member of this family and Mr. Miyagi's legacy I never could've imagined. Putting you in jeopardy over him when he's not technically my son? Isn't fair."

"You can do whatever you want dad." said Sam honestly. "But without your help, Luke would be a real piece of garbage. I can't imagine how all this stuff with Yasmine and the cheer team could've worked out if he was still Kreese's student."

"How is all that going by the way?"

Sam was silent.

"Dad there's no one left for me to be friends with at school after everything that happened."

"What about Robby?"

Sam merely looked at him until it hit him.

"Right."

"I had no friends for a long time. After Aisha joined Cobra Kai, it became, impossible to talk to her knowing what she was involved with. And you know, getting along with Luke or his friends, isn't the easiest. All I had left was to join Moon and Yas' clique."

"Really?"

Sam nodded sadly. "Cheer is the only way anyone can like me at school, it's the only way I fit in. I don't want to do karate, so it's all I'm good at."

"And why don't you want to do karate? You used to like it."

"When I was six!"

Daniel chuckled.

"After all the mess Luke caused, karate isn't right for me. Not yet anyway," said Sam.

"Do you like being on the cheer team?"

"Practice is fun, but everyone there is so fake, so mean to Aisha, Eli Moskowitz, to everyone. They act like they want nothing to do with guys, but thirst over Miguel and Luke endlessly."

"That made everything complicated didn't it?" asked Daniel.

"If I quit cheer, I won't have any friends. And after what he did to all my friends, I don't think I want to be Lucas' friend either."

Daniel nodded. "I get that. All I want, is what's best for you Sam. Just, stay away from all this karate nonsense until I figure it out."

"So you don't want me to do it?"

"Of course not."

Sam laughed a bit. "Thank you, I almost thought you were here just to ask me to do karate again."

Daniel stopped chuckling too. "Good night."

"Night dad."

…

Lucas was staring at the trophy in his bedroom, the 49th All Valley Under 18 Karate Championships, listed 1st Place.

He checked his phone, scrolling through his contacts.

Demetri wasn't responding to his messages. And neither was Sam, nor Eli, nor anyone he knew.

"I'm such an idiot."

There was a knock at the door.

"I already patched myself up Gramps, thanks."

"Luke, it's me."

Lucas almost never talked to his grandmother, Mrs. Mills, Ali's mother Olivia, was knocking on Lucas' door.

He opened it and she reached out, cupping the side of his face.

"I'm fine." he moved his head away.

"Thirty years later." Olivia sighed. "And boys are still almost hospitalizing each other over karate," she said realizing how ridiculous it sounded.

"I said, I'm fine."

"You're clearly not. What happened at school today?"

"Robby and I had a fight."

"Looked more like a war."

Lucas ignored the joke, sitting down on his bed and putting his trophy on the nearby bed stand.

He waiting for his grandmother to leave, before he looked at her and said. "What?"

"Make it count."

"Make what count?"

"This upcoming tournament, it's going to be your last ever."

"No, it probably won't."

Olivia shook her head. "Either your mother figures out a reason and a way to move here. Or you'll find karate in Denver. Or this will be your very last tournament ever Lucas."

Lucas was silent for a moment, checking his phone again before speaking very sadly.

"I know Nana."

Olivia sat down on Lucas' bed next to him. "When your mother was, about four years younger than you, I kept seeing a boy. A boy riding around the neighborhood on his bicycle, he'd ride it out there." Olivia pointed through Lucas' bedroom window to the street outside.

Lucas listened.

"He was blonde, always listened to his walkman, very very sniffly boy. Scraped his knee riding his bicycle once, I heard him crying all the way up in my bedroom from the sidewalk."

Lucas smiled, laughing with Olivia.

"It was Johnny Lawrence wasn't it?"

"It was." Olivia said. "A few years later, I find out my one and only daughter is dating a karate champ. I thought it was, absurd at the time, she'd find a new boyfriend soon. And she did."

Lucas watched as Olivia looked off at the wall, as if she was imagining the 80s.

"Dan and Johnny, the amount of passion and happiness they put into that mess. I never understood it. But I never saw Johnny Lawrence, happier, calmer, or stronger, than the day he invited us out to dinner to celebrate a trophy just like that one." Olivia gestured to Lucas'.

He nodded a little bit.

"Forget those two." Olivia said. "They're not the ones who matter now. You matter, I personally, like karate even less than your grandfather."

"So you hate it?"

Olivia shook her head sweetly, smiling. "I love it, I love it for you. Luke when I met you, you didn't like anything. You didn't like writing and soccer, despite how good you were at both, and you hated school."

Olivia paused. "But you dedicated yourself to karate the year you arrived like nothing I've ever seen. I can only describe that as one thing."

"What? Obsession?"

"Love. You love the martial art, the sport, all of it. It is a deep, genuine, and true love. So make this tournament the best you've ever done, enjoy every second of your training. Because when it's over."

Lucas nodded. "I don't know what'll come next."

"Lucas, it doesn't matter what you do in your life as long as you're sure you're passionate about it. You do that, and these very odd, bad days, they'll just be a memory. You'll make your comeback."

"Become the comeback kid?"

"Daniel LaRusso did it once, and he had a much tougher situation than you." said Olivia. "And you're learning from him personally now. But it's really not about the trophy or proving anything, it's about having fun. Enjoying something you love."

"Thanks Grandma."

Olivia pecked her grandson on the temple and left.