The following day was that beach party that Freddy had told Reina about. She put her camera into her bag as she was about to leave.
"Hey, mama, I'm going to the beach with Tina." Reina tells her mom, who was getting ready for her shift at the hospital.
"Oh, mija, before you leave." Lydia speaks up as she walks up to her daughter. "I'm working a late shift tonight. I'm not getting back until later." she begins to explain to Reina.
"Remember, curfew is at 11 and I need you to go straight to bed when you get back." Lydia further elaborates, to which Reina nods back in understanding.
"Oh, and cariño (honey)..." Lydia was about to say. "Mom, I need to go." Reina reminds Lydia. "Have fun." Lydia concludes, placing a kiss on her forehead as she lets her daughter leave the apartment.
Reina makes her way across the complex grounds and once opens the gate to see her best friend in her expensive Volkswagen Beetle.
Christina Lancaster, better known as Tina, comes from a different background as Reina. Tina is a member of the Encino Oaks Country Club and lives in a very nice house with her parents, who are very well off, up in Encino Hills. All of the luxuries that the Lancasters can afford made Reina very insecure about herself and her living situation. In addition, Tina is also the captain of the cheerleading squad at her school.
In most cases, Tina Lancaster and Reina Solis shouldn't be friends. However, their differing personalities (Tina being the social butterfly that she is and Reina being the intelligent and shy photographer) is what made them click.
In their Freshman year of high school, Tina and Reina have been paired up for a project in their History class, and they have been best friends ever since. Never once did Tina judge Reina for the two bedroom apartment that she was living in and Reina had never made Tina look dumb because of a stupid stereotype that most people link her to.
"Hey, before you get in, you have to promise not to be mad at me." Tina tells Reina, who is walking up to the car.
"Christina Lancaster, what did you do now?" Reina asks in amusement as she gets into the front seat of the car.
"Susan, Barbara, and Ali are joining us." Tina tells her. "They're meeting us at the beach."
Reina groans. "Great. So looking forward to getting judgemental looks." she claims, sarcastically.
Though Tina doesn't judge her for living in Reseda, it is not the same for everyone else. While Ali didn't pay any mind to it (in fact, their interactions have been rather friendly), her friends, Susan and Barbara, on the other hand, think the opposite.
However, despite all of that, it doesn't dampen Reina's spirit.
She doesn't care about anyone's opinions about her. There are only two exceptions: Tina's and her mom's.
"Look, Ali is going through a really rough time, so she really needs us. Rumor is that Johnny Lawrence got so wasted that he forgot Ali's birthday." Tina tells her as she begins to drive to the beach.
Reina's eyes widened in shock. "What?" she asks in disbelief. Reina knew how short-tempered Johnny can be, so that was a definite forewarning for her.
"But, hey, at least we don't have to worry about him and the rest of the karate cult." Tina also points out, causing Reina to quirk up an eyebrow. "And why is that?"
"Because I made damn sure that they are not invited." Tina states, adamantly. "And I know that his right-hand man Bobby is your boyfriend and all…"
"T, he is not my boyfriend!" Reina hisses out, eyes bulging out of her head and her cheeks heating up.
Yes, Tina Lancaster is knowing of the very obvious crush that her best friend has on the Cobra Kai member that she can tolerate.
Like any best friend would do in her position, she teases Reina into oblivion and never lets her live down the fact that she has never once approached him.
Arriving at the beach, the girls grab their stuff as their shoe-covered feet hit the coarse sand.
"Tina! Over here!" Reina hears the voice of Ali Mills call out. Tina grabs Reina by the hand and leads her over to the trio that is Ali, Barbara, and Susan.
Ali greets Tina with a hug and her eyes lighten up when she sees Reina. "Reina, hi!" she greets her, excitedly, as she gives her a hug.
"Hey." Reina greets back, softly. "I don't want to stir the pot, but Tina told me what happened. How are you doing?" Reina tells Ali, who gives her a sad smile.
"I'm fine. It wasn't good for a while, so it needed to happen." Ali confesses to Reina.
"Hey, you have to do what's best for you, okay. And if it means breaking up with Johnny, so be it." Reina reassures her.
While at the beach, Ali is playing music on her radio while the girls are all socializing. Reina, who is now in her blue two-piece with yellow and pink flowers, is conversing with Tina, clad in the pink one-piece, when sand is now getting kicked around them. Reina looks up to see Daniel, Freddy, and Freddy's friends. Tina furrows her eyebrows when she sees Daniel.
"Look, Rei, I know I'm not crazy, but I haven't seen him before." Tina whispers to Reina.
"New neighbor. Just moved next door yesterday." Reina clarifies to Tina, who just nods in realization.
Reina also notices the looks that Ali and Daniel are giving each other. It is obvious that the both of them are interested in each other.
The new kid even tried to impress her by juggling the soccer ball with his knees.
Reina takes out her camera and makes her way towards the ocean, where the waves are brushing up against her feet. She focuses on the waves crashing against some rocks and takes a picture of that.
Even when day turns to night, Ali and Daniel cannot keep their eyes off of each other. Reina, who notices this, nudges her.
"I think he's interested." she tells Ali with a smirk.
"Maybe. He is cute." Ali tells Reina. "Then make a move." Reina encourages.
Freddy then lightly kicks a ball in their direction. It landed in Susan's lap, but she tossed the ball to Ali.
Ali then gets up and walks over to Daniel, who in turn walks over to her. While the two were flirting, Tina and Reina heard the rumblings of motorcycles. Tina looks up and rolls her eyes. "Of course they came. After I specifically said that they're not invited." she scoffs.
Reina looks over where Tina is looking and sees that Johnny and his friends are parked on top of the hill that overlooks the beach. Ali, who also notices their presence, punts the ball away, so Daniel can come get it, and it wasn't because she's not interested, it's so that Daniel doesn't get himself in the aftermath of Johnny and Ali's break up.
"T, it's fine. We can find someplace else." Reina, who is known for avoiding conflict and confrontation, tries to reassure Tina.
As Reina and Tina were about to leave, Johnny led his friends in driving down to the beach where Ali is. Reina looks over to a confused Daniel. She excuses herself and makes her way towards him.
"Look, it's probably best not to get into the middle of that." Reina tries to advise Daniel, but he just ignores her to tend to Ali's radio that Johnny just threw to the sand. "Daniel, don't!" she hisses.
It was too late. Daniel LaRusso has already caught the ire of Johnny Lawrence. "Don't touch it, punk!"
Daniel tries to give the radio to Ali, but Johnny just snatches it out of his hands. "What, are you deaf?"
Daniel was trying to ease the tension, but Johnny just shoves the radio into Daniel's chest, making him fall down as well.
"The hell is your problem?" Reina asks out loud. Without looking, Johnny shoves Reina into Bobby's arms.
Reina froze when she was staring into Bobby's ocean blue eyes and her cheeks became hot. In a similar way, Bobby was frozen too when realizing that Reina was in his arms, with his cheeks becoming a faint shade of pink.
Bobby and Reina seem to be stuck in this trance, for what seems like, forever. The trance was broken by Reina when she saw Johnny deliver a harsh kick to the gut.
"Stop! Stop! Just leave him alone!" Reina begs. Johnny ignores her as his attention was solely on Ali.
"Look, you started this. All I just wanted to do is talk to you." Johnny tells her, but Ali doesn't buy it.
"Well, just leave him alone and we'll talk." Ali tries to compromise.
"Where did I hear that before?" Johnny asks before turning his attention back to Daniel.
"Johnny, you lunatic, just leave him alone!" Reina snarls at him. All Johnny did was shoot her a smirk before diverting his attention back to Daniel.
Reina tries to lunge at Johnny, but Bobby's arms tighten around her waist, making sure that there is no way that she is intervening.
"What about you, hero? Had enough?" Johnny taunts, but all that does is Daniel sucker punching him in the nose.
While Daniel tries to tell Johnny that they are now even, that just fuels Johnny's rage as he beats Daniel vehemently to a point where he is on the ground.
While Johnny and Ali were arguing, Reina broke away from Bobby's grip. She looks at Johnny and his group of friends with eyes filled with disgust before making her way to check up on Daniel.
"Daniel." Reina squeaks out before kneeling beside him to make sure if he's okay.
Ali has the same mindset as Reina as she kneels on the other side of Daniel. "Are you okay?" Ali asks.
"Just leave me alone." Daniel groans out.
Ali tries to help him out, but Daniel groans out the same thing that he told her. When Barbara comes up to her, Ali looks over Reina, who just nods, saying that she'll help him.
"If you're expecting me to leave, that's not what I'm gonna do." Reina tells him as soon as they are left by their lonesome.
"Reina, please…" Daniel groans out, but Reina is not giving in.
"No. Just let me help you out. It's the least that I can do." Reina tries to persist. "Look, I just know of them. They are hardly considered my friends."
That last statement from Reina was partially a lie. Aside from her crush on Bobby, last year, she did tutor Jimmy when he was failing Physics and she helped him out in passing the class.
Just by Reina saying that, it was enough to have her neighbor have her help him out.
Reina and Daniel were making their way to Tina's car when they found Dutch relentlessly flirting with Tina, with the flirtatious remarks always being rebuffed. Tina looks over to see her best friend helping out her neighbor.
"Rei…" Tina is about to say, but Reina isn't having it.
"Look, I'm not gonna abandon him as if he's some kind of untrained animal, okay? You already know where I live, T." Reina tells her.
"Fine." Tina sighs, giving in. As Reina was helping Daniel get into the backseat of Tina's car, Tina bravely went up to Johnny.
"Hey, asshat!" Tina calls out to Johnny. "You know the kid that you beat down. That's Reina's neighbor. Have a good senior year, because there's no way in hell that she'll tutor you now."
Reina heard all of that when helping Daniel in. After he gets into the car, she rushes over to Tina and grabs her by the arm.
"Tina, let's go before you get us killed." she hisses at Tina as they go over to her car.
Unbeknownst to Reina Solis, her long-time crush, Bobby Brown, was looking at her with a hopeless look in his eyes.
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