Lee had collected all the film she could from the worst first day of school ever before reporting it on the social network. The day started normal, she was in World Literature when Tory came over the intercom calling out Sam for kissing Miguel. It was an all-out war from thereon. She watched Hawk getting kicked into a trophy case, Mitch getting smacked in the face with a textbook, Sam getting her arm sliced open. The scene that made her feel like puking was Miguel falling from the second floor to land on a railing. The way his back unnatural bent kept replaying in her mind. It felt like hours before the ambulance came to get him.
Tom Cole came over to close her laptop. "You're going to go crazy watching that."
"You know what the dumbest part of Robby and Miguel's fighting is?" She took the coffee he handed her.
"That they were fighting over a girl that they had only dated for a few months. And it was LaRusso's daughter, with those genes she can't be that great." He laughs.
"Dad!" She scolds.
"I'm sorry, go on." He waves for her to continue. She opened her laptop to play a few clips for him. "They were fighting each other off to try and stop the fight between their girlfriends. Boy, they're stupid. In my generation, we men had an understanding of you grab your girlfriend and I'll grab mine."
"All of this could have been avoided so easily." She sighs.
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about." Tom took a deep breath. He liked being the fun dad. That's why when her room would get too messy or she got behind on her schoolwork, he would invite his mother over and let her straighten it out. But, when it came to matters of her safety he was willing to be the bad guy. "I don't want you around Cobra Kai anymore. When I say no more Cobra Kai I don't just mean going over there. No keeping up with the website, no paperwork, and no Cobra Kai boyfriend or friends." He held his breath waiting for the screams that it was the other dojo's fault but it never came.
"Okay." She nods.
"Okay? Are you humoring me and planning to go behind my back? I'm serious, Presley. If I find out about you going back to that dojo then you're grounded. That means you only leave the house for school, which will be the only time you get your phone. You'll only get your laptop for homework. There will be no anime and manga." He needed her to understand that it wasn't going to be a slap on the wrist like it normally was when she broke a rule.
"I'm serious too. This hospital is filled with kids because of some stupid rivalry that should have stayed on the mat at All Valley. Cobra Kai was the one that took it off the mat first. My best friend is fighting for his life right now, because of this mess. I was planning on giving Eli the ultimatum of me or Cobra Kai. But, I don't think it's gonna be me." She had to hold back the tears that she could feel coming.
"Then he's an idiot." He kissed her forehead.
"Thanks, dad." She closed the laptop and put it on his lap. "Watch this for me." She got up and walked to the hospital room that Hawk was in. The doctor was taking out small pieces of glasses from his face and checking if he had a concussion. The door opens before she could enter, Hawk and his mom walks out.
"Hey babe, good news. There isn't going to be any scars and no concussion." He pumps his fist in the air.
"Can we talk in private?" She looks at his mom.
"I'll check us out." She walks to the reception desk.
"Did you hear anything about Miguel?" He thought that would be the reason for her frown.
"They're preparing him for surgery. But…" She was going to transition to what she needed to talk about.
He cut her off not wanting to hear any doubt that Miguel wasn't going to pull through. "You don't have to worry, he's going to get through it. He's a fighter."
"I know, that's not what I wanted to talk about." She took a deep breath to try and gather the strength to approach the hard topic. "I'm not going to deal with Cobra Kai anymore in any way, shape, or form."
"What?" He pushes his eyebrows to meet in the middle.
"Can't you see that what happen today is because of this stupid rivalry?" She crosses her arms over her chest.
"No, what happen, happened because Sam is a slut." He sneered.
"Sam cheating doesn't explain the fight between you and Demetri or any of the other fights today. I can't encourage this senseless violence anymore. I don't want to be with someone who thinks it okay." She finally bite the bullet.
He leans over to whisper in a harsh tone. "If you want to be a pussy and back out of Cobra Kai then fine. It's not like we need you anyways. Sensei Kresse isn't some clueless idiot like Johnny, he knows how to do paperwork and the website. If you're going to break up with me then do it because I am not leaving Cobra Kai."
She flinches at seeing the maliciousness in his eyes. "I'm breaking up with you." She hated the small voice she used and that she could barely get it out.
He out a bitter laugh. "I'm not going to wait for you to come to your senses. I'm going to be fucking a lot of other bitches. And when you do, it'll take a lot of begging but I'll let you be part of the rotation. You're going to have to fight to be the main girl though."
The thought of him being with someone else filled her up with a bitter rage. "Then I'll just have to fuck all those bitches to show them real pleasure. Lord knows, you never pull the noises out of Moon that I did."
He punches the wall next to her head. It took every muscle in her body to not flinch. She held her head high and kept eye contact with him. "I don't care if it's a boy or a girl, I'll beat the shit out of anyone you get with. You want to be responsible for their pain, go ahead. You're about to find out that there is no one for you but me." He pushes himself off the wall and walks away. When he was out of sight, she slid down the wall and put her knees to her chest to cry.
Lee was walking down the school halls with Moon and Yasmine. If you told Lee this time last year that she would be with these two girls talking about her boy troubles then she would have told you it was too late to get off of whatever drugs you were on because they already fried your brain beyond repair. Yet here she was giving them a play-by-play of what happened with Hawk. "Don't worry, no girl is going to want to be with a bedwetter who got his ass kicked." Yasmine let out a chuckle that Hawk thought he was going to have a line of women.
"Sup, front wedgie." Nathaniel nods to Yasmine as he walks past her. Chris along with a few others that heard laughed.
She froze before turning to Moon. "What happened to this place? I go to Paris for one summer and the losers are running the school. I mean, she is with us." She nods to Lee. "She might have a good fashion sense but she is still an anime freak."
"I'd be a little nice. Half the kids in school know karate now." Moon advises her friend.
"Yeah, you wouldn't want scars like Sam." Lee glares at the blonde.
"Does that make Aisha Queen Bitch?" Yasmine scoffs.
"You didn't hear? After the fight, her parents moved her to a private school. They put their house up for sale." Moon informed her.
"At least there is some good news." She smirks.
"Aisha wouldn't have gone down that dark path if you didn't bully her." Lee knew Moon wanted to help her friend become a better person but Yasmine was getting on her last nerve.
"If it wasn't me it would have been someone else." She shrugs.
"What about Sam? I feel bad for her. They have been friends since they were little." Moon brought up.
"Such good friends, she ditched her the first chance she got at popularity. They weren't even talking towards the end." Lee rolled her eyes.
"I think we could be friends." Yasmine nods to Lee.
"What a privilege to be considered." She scoffs.
"It is." She and Lee shared a stare before smiling at each other.
"I love the friendship I see blooming." Moon pulls them pull into a hug.
"Too soon," The two girls grimace at touching one another.
"Now girls, we have to be there for Sam." She knew it was going to be hard on Sam to come back to face the place and mean teens.
"We were friends for one summer." Yasmine whines.
"I was never her friend." Lee reminds her. "Her dojo can take care of her."
"Come on, you guys. Lee, you know what it's like to lose your childhood friend. It is hard no matter the circumstances. Yasmine, you know what it's like to have the whole school making fun of you. We can't let her go through it alone. I didn't let you guys do it alone, did I?" She put her hands on her hips and stood in front of them.
"Alright, we can let her sit with us again." Yasmine sighes. Moon cheered as she pulled them into another group hug.
It was lunchtime and Lee forgot her money in the car. She went out to grab it. She was going through the metal detectors and security. Sam was in front of her. The girl seemed to be in a daze as she went through the motions. Lee almost ran into her back when Sam stopped in the middle of the walkway. She went right up to a group of girls that were giggling. "If you have something to say then say it to my face." She screamed.
The girls froze in fear as security was approaching them. "It's fine, nothing happening here." Lee wrapped an arm around Sam as she waved off security. "Girl, you have to calm down." She pulled her away.
Sam shoved her away. "Don't touch me. Don't tell me to calm down. I'm sure you're the one that is leading this turn against me."
"You're talking crazy and I'm not even a part of Corba Kai anymore." She put her hands up in surrender.
"Bullshit." She hissed.
"My best friend in the hospital fighting for his life, because of some stupid rivalry that didn't even start with him. Why would I continue to be a part of that?" She put her hands down when she saw Sam relax.
"How is he doing?" She asked.
"The surgery went well, now we're waiting for him to wake up from the medically induced coma. When he does it going to be a lot of physical therapy. I believe he going to be fine. You should too. The way the doctors talk about it, it's like Tinkerbell. We have to believe in the dixie dust." She forces a small smile.
"You don't blame me?" Sam thought Lee would be the maddest after Tory.
"Did you kissing Miguel start the fight? Yes, but that brawl yesterday was inevitable, so was someone getting seriously hurt. Every one of us has a part to play in what happened. I shouldn't have encouraged their behavior. I wish I never help Cobra Kai get popular." Lee looks down at her feet.
"You couldn't have known. Besides all the bullying that was going around, they would have found Cobra Kai some way or another. Especially after that fight between Miguel and Kyler." She remembers how everyone was flocking to them after that. Every misfit wants to defend themselves against the bullies after seeing Miguel in action.
"What's done is done, so there is no point in dwelling on the past and what-ifs? Let's go eat." She figured she'd make Moon's day. Sam smiled as she followed the girl but stopped when they passed the staircase. Lee turned around when Sam left her side. "Sam!" She made sure not to touch her arm but to pat her back. "Come on, lunch is going to be over soon. If I have to go to Japanese II on an empty stomach, I'm not going to be able to concentrate."
"Well, then let's get some food." She speeds walk ahead, not looking behind.
"Okay, too fast." Lee ran to catch up.
Lee stops in the doorway at Miguel's room in the ICU. She took a deep breath before sitting down by his bedside. "So, your mom put me down as a cousin? That way I can see you whenever I want. I got the school work you've missed." She put it down on the table. "I would wake up soon because the stack is only going to get higher."
She listen to the beeping of the monitor that was tracking his vitals. She grabbed his limp hand to squeeze it. "You have to keep fighting. Don't give up. You can't give up." She repeated it like a chant.
The beeping got uncomfortably fast making her run out the door. "Something wrong." She yelled. A group of nurses and the doctor rush in. She looked in from the window as they work around him. Tears ran down her face as she prayed she wasn't watching his last moments. Her emotions change in a fraction of a second when Miguel's eyes open and he gasps for air. She jumps around as she pumps her fists in the air.
"Abuelita, Abuelita." She ran to the hospital chapel where she was praying. "Abuelita." She throws open the doors. "Miguel despierto." She repeated the Spanish word she looked up in case this happened. The ladies hugs and scream in joy at their loved one pulling through.
