The teens were walking around the college fair that their school was hosting during lunch. Lee walks away from the Caltech booth with a large smile. She has wanted to go there since she was a kid. Her dad was an alumnus there. When he went to be a guest speaker in a business class, he had brought her along. She thought the campus seemed magical.
She met up with her friends in the middle of the room as they planned. "All of our trials and tribulations of nerdom have finally come to this. We're the belles of the ball." Demetri was in his element here.
"Is that what we are?" Miguel was amused by the phrase.
"Oh, yes, my friend. They are fumbling around our dresses trying to cop a feel of our tantalizing brains." He pretends to be slipping his hand under the invisible girl's skirt.
"Don't be crude." Lee didn't like the weird visual that she was getting.
"Okay, that's where I leave you." Sam didn't want to hear how the speech ended.
"I'm sorry." He kisses her goodbye.
"Good luck." She knew what an excited Demetri could be like.
"Thank you." He smiles at her back as she leaves.
"These vultures are wasting their time. Eli and I have had our sights set on MIT for years." Demetri put his head down like he was mourning for them.
Eli gave a half-hearted nod. "Are you applying early to Stanford?" He looks at his friend who only had one brochure in his hands.
"Yeah." He looks at the paper like it is a daunting task. "But I should look into some safety schools too. Stanford's pretty expensive." He opens it up to show them the prices.
"Hey, Fam." They turned to see they were in front of the booth for College of the Valley. "You bros and chick looking to post up at a college a little closer to home or what's the word?"
"Well, Gary, the word is we'll be taking our brodeo on the rodeo. But, thank you for all your bro-ventures." Demetri found it dumb that he was trying to use slang to appeal to him. It proves that this wasn't the college for him.
He nods in respect. "Alright, bet. But safety schools get a bad rap. They keep you closer to home, set you up for a big school later, and take the weight off Mom and Pop's wallet."
Miguel grabs a brochure off the table. "Thank you."
Lee took one too. "That is smart. It's a great way to save money."
"Your dad is rich." Demetri squints at her.
"Shut up." She hisses.
Lee, Demetri, and Eli went with Miguel to take a tour of College of the Valley. "Over here, you'll see our multi-level library, the fourth largest in the San Fernando Valley." The tour guide points to the building.
"Fourth, that's not bad." Lee nods.
"What are we doing here?" Demetri was disgusted to be in a place he considered beneath him. "If the University of Phoenix isn't online, it'd be this."
"No one made you come." Lee glares at him.
"Chillax, okay?" Miguel rolled his eyes. "I need to keep my options open."
"The chemistry lab was rebuilt in 1993." The guide was telling them about the history of the building when he got knocked over by a familiar face. A few people taking the tour went to check if he was okay.
"Oh, sick grab, bro!" Kyler did a bro hug with Brucks. They celebrate him catching the frisbee like someone wasn't groaning on the ground in pain.
Lee was convinced they didn't notice him until Kyler leaned over the guide to yell, "You just got Brucksed!" He got helped up by someone getting a tour. "You welcome, homie." Kyler slaps his chest. The tour group went on without a few people.
"Is it an honor to get Brucksed?" Lee tilts her head.
"Never felt like it when it happened to me." Demetri scoffs.
Kyler and Brucks were laughing about it until they noticed them. "Oh, what's up guys?"
"Kyler, you go to school here?" Miguel asks.
"Nah, it's more like this school goes to me. You know what I mean?" He laughs.
"What's up, Brucks?" Eli nods to the guy. The last time he saw him he was bloody on the floor because he smashed his face in. "You… you look good, man."
"Thanks, man. All new teeth." He smiles big. "Swallow the old ones when you…" Lee looks between the two. She didn't want a fight to break out.
"Yeah, I'm sorry about that, dude. I was in a bad place then and…" He apologizes.
"It's all good, buddy. I had it coming. I bullied you for years and I talked crazy about your girl that day. Anyone would have snapped." He nods to the girl whose hand Eli is holding. "And it helped me get my life on track. Ad meliora, Towards better things."
"Sick." Eli was happy that some good came out of it.
Brucks throw up a shaka at them. "See you at the house?" He nods to Kyler.
"Bet." He fist bumps with him.
"Let's go." Brucks ran back to the group they were playing with.
"Wait, so you and Brucks both go here. That makes sense." Demetri looks at his friends amused. Eli had a blank face on. Miguel and Lee were glaring at him.
"Excuse us for a moment." Lee grabs his arm to drag him away from the group.
"Aw, aw, ouch. You are very strong. Your nails are digging in." Demetri whines.
Lee didn't let go until they were out of hearing distance from the group. "Why the hell are you acting like such a stuck-up prick?"
"I don't understand why we're here. People go here when they can't get anywhere else. We are all Ivy League-level smart." He felt like they were wasting the day.
"How out of touch are you?" Demetri opened and closed his mouth not knowing how to answer that. "Miguel's family is…." She punched him when he went to turn his head, making the lanky male yelp in pain. "Don't look at him. I don't want him to know we're to talk about him. His family is in a different tax bracket than ours. He might have to go to a college like this to save money before moving on to Stanford."
"Okay," He slowly nods. "I'll start saying positive things."
"No, that would be suspicious or come off as patronizing. Don't give any more opinions about this college." She took a deep breath to put on a smile. "We're going to go back and have a good time."
The three guys watched the two that left the group. "She is cursing him out." Kyler let out a low whistle. "I've been there before. Not a good time."
"Arguing is their bonding," Miguel assured him it wasn't a big deal.
"It never gets physc-oh.." Eli gasps when she punches him.
They look at each other when she turns to walk to them. "Hi guys, we're back. So Kyler, does Brucks go here too?"
"No, he's visiting. He goes to MIT." He told them.
Lee laughed while looking at Demetri. "MIT. That's something."
"Brucks going to MIT." His jaw dropped at that news.
"He's killing it there." He nods. "So, what's up, guys." He pulled Demetri under his arm. "Are we hanging out or what?"
"What better way to know if you want to go here than seeing the life of a student?" She looks at Miguel.
"No way I can think of." He shrugged.
Kyler took them to the frat house he was pledging at. He went off to do some duties leaving his guests to watch Brucks party. "I can't believe Brucks got into MIT. And was he speaking Latin earlier?" Eli was confused. He thought of Brucks as a big idiot who followed Kyler around.
"I don't know. Maybe your fists unlocked his dormant brain." Demetri couldn't believe it either.
"Eli hit Demetri so he can get in." Lee teases. He gave her an unimpressed look.
"Even after everything Kyler lands on his feet." Miguel watches him hit on a girl, who seems to be into him.
"Hey, shitbreathe." A loud voice broke through the crowd. A guy, who looked like the stereotypical frat jerk, shoved Kyler against the bar. "Did I tell you, you could drink my beer, bitch boy?"
"No sir, Mr. Zenker." He stutters.
He took a sip to gag. "That shit is stale. Go make me some jungle juice."
"Yes, sir, Mr. Zenker." He walks through the crowd to go upstairs.
"What the fuck? The one time he should punch someone in the face." Lee thought it was more strange that Kyler would let someone treat him that way than Brucks getting into MIT.
"I'm going to see what's going on." Miguel went in the direction that Kyler did.
Lee glares at Zenker picking up the girl that Kyler was flirting with. "I can't believe she is into him after seeing that. That's some fake ass alpha bullshit."
Eli smiles, hoping she is over the bad boy phase. "Miguel's going to handle it." He looks at people having a drinking contest. "I say we own this party." He walks over to challenge the winner.
Demetri and Lee followed him. After emptying a cup, Eli would put it on a spike of his mohawk. Soon, the crowd took notice of him. "Spike! Spike! Spike!" They chant.
"Chug that shit, Spike!" Someone became a fan in the crowd.
"Yeah!" Eli put another cup on his spike. Someone quickly gave him another.
Miguel joins them on the sidelines. "I'm seriously considering a new haircut." Demetri watched in amazement at how easily he got the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand.
"Hey, what's up Bro?" A guy came over to shake hands with someone. That's when Lee noticed Zenker was in front of them.
"Hey, where's shitbreath with the jungle juice?" The guy asks.
"I don't know." Zenker forgot about him while watching Eli.
"If he wasn't doing all the bitchwork. I'd say we ditch his ass." The guy looked annoyed.
"We're ditching him once pledging over. Someone like him would only get into this Frat over my dead body." Zenker and his friend laugh while doing another bro hug.
"You know, what I just noticed." Lee looks around at the pictures on the wall.
"What?" Demetri asks.
"This whole frat is white." She looks at the party. "Everyone here is white."
"What are you trying to stay?" Demetri didn't think that was enough to prove they were racist.
"He knew the second Kyler pledged they weren't going to let him. They wanted to dangle a chance to join their boy's club in front of an ethnic kid." Miguel sneered when he started to notice it too.
Demetri, still not fully convinced, decides to let them handle it. "I'm going to get Eli and talk to Brucks." He grabs the party boy to find out more about MIT.
"I don't know anything about Stanford and Caltech but this place is lit," Kyler told Miguel and Lee. "When you get here next year, Rhea, I'm going to have it on lockdown. Lee can visit whenever she wants."
"You sure you're getting into this frat?" Miguel knew he needed to tell him, if he didn't Lee would. With how work up she was getting he wasn't sure it would be nice.
"Sure? Bro, does the Pope shit with a funny hat?" He laughs.
"Kyler, I got to tell you something." He couldn't let him keep getting degraded.
"Where's my vacuum?" Zenker walks around yelling.
"He cleans in the middle of a party." Lee was surprised.
"Oh shit." Kyler tries to hide behind Miguel.
"Yo, vacuum. Clean this up." He points to the mess on the ground.
"Nah, man I'm good." He didn't want to be humiliated in front of people he knew.
"Hey!" Zenker got everyone's attention. "Listen Shitbreath. You want in, get on the ground, and be a vacuum." He points to the ground.
"Is he getting in?" Miguel tilts his head.
"How about you stay out of this?" He glares at him for even speaking to him.
Kyler pushed Miguel back. He got on his hands and knees. Zender grabs his legs. "Suc.." He didn't get to finish because Lee pushed him to the side.
"No. No. This is not happening. Get off the floor, Kyler." She grabs his hand to help him up. She turns her heated glare to Zender. "You've had your fun. You got to have the Asian kid run around being your bitch. Now, be honest with him. Or, I'm going to tell him anyway."
"I guess we had a good run. The truth is that you are never and I mean never going to get into this frat." He smirks in Kyler's face.
"Your Loss." He grabs a solo cup from a girl passing by and pours it on his head. Lee laughing, along with others, made Zander throw a punch but Kyler sidestepped it and grabbed his arm. "Bitch, don't you know I know karate?" He throws a right hook and slams his face into a pillar. Miguel threw a spinning kick to the guys trying to attack him from the back.
"Is this frat full of no balls bitches?" Lee kicked one in the balls that ran at her. "Well, it's going to be when I'm done with it." She let out a crackling laugh when she flipped one guy over her shoulder onto the one holding his balls on the ground.
"Who else wants some of this shit?" Kyler was ready to beat the crap out of all these frat guys. Brucks ran to tackle a few guys that were trying to attack Kyler's blind spot.
Eli ran to help Brucks who was taking on ten guys. They went back to back to take them down. "I love this kind of party!" Brucks cheers.
Everyone that came with Kyler became a target. Demetri ran around the beer pong table from three frat guys taunting him. He grabs a beer to throw it in their faces. While distracted he jumps across the table to kick them to the ground. When he was on the other side of the table he punched a guy to see he was not affected. Lee comes from the side to kick him through the beer pong table. "It's almost too easy!" She decks a girl who came running at Demetri with her claws out.
Zender grabs a bottle off the shelf to hit Miguel with it but Kyler grabs his arm. Miguel kicked it out of his hand for Kyler to catch it and hit Zender over the head with it. The older male fell to the ground.
They looked at each other when all the frat guys were on the ground. "Yes!" Lee threw her hands in the air. She ran over to Eli who spun her around. Demetri joins in making the couple laugh. Miguel and Kyler did a bro hug before heading over to them.
"Where's Brucks?" Eli asks. They looked around, not wanting to leave without him. They turn when they hear his angry yell to see him pick a guy up and throw him through a beer pong table.
"Get Brucksed!" He throws his hands in the air while his friends cheer for him.
"Someone should call campus security." A girl's shrill voice broke their celebration.
"Bitch, don't make me fuck you up." Lee sneered, making the girl flinch. "You can call whoever you want in 15 minutes, don't make me find you." After the girl agrees, she turns to her friend. "Come on, Kyler. After a girl defends your honor you have to take her out to eat."
"I know a place." He nods, leading them out.
"This one's going to need an ambulance." She points at the guy who is bleeding from his crotch. They walked out of the house, following Kyler off campus. "I thought I was going to make it without breaking anything."
"I think you also broke that guy's ribs that you kicked through the table." Demetri points out.
"Don't think I forgot about you. You owe me two drinks: one for the beer pong guy and two for the tiger chick." She put up two fingers.
"That's not fair, no one wanted to come at you after you kicked that guy in the balls." He huffs. "And friends should not charge friends for helping them."
"Don't be cheap." She shook her head.
Lee was buying her second drink with Demetri's money at the bar that Kyler took them to. "Hey, you're the girl that stops the jerks at the Theta Omega house?" A guy in a blue and white striped sweater leaned against the bar next to her.
"Yeah, we came to visit our friend. I didn't like the way he was being treated." She noticed the Greek lettering on his shirt. "It's a shame. He was hoping to find a community there but…"
"I think I can help him with that." He nods to the bartender. "I'll pay for this one."
"Then come on, I'll introduce you to Kyler." She grabs the drink to go back to the table. "Kyler, someone wants to meet the guy who kicked Theta Omega house's asses."
"Those guys are assholes who deserve it." He nods to him in respect. "Did someone knock out Zender?"
Lee and Miguel pointed at Kyler. "Yeah, man say less. That was me."
"Dude, Legend." He gave him a bro hug. "Listen, man. If you're looking for another house, you're in. No hazing, just as long as you can be that badass all the time."
"Kyler doesn't know any other way to be." Lee leans on the back of his chair.
"Yeah? I used to kick this guy's ass all over the Valley. Tell him, Rhea." He nods at him.
"It's true." Miguel shrugs.
"You should come by tomorrow." They do a handshake on it.
Lee and Eli were in her room making a list of the colleges they were planning on applying to. "Wait, so Bruck in MidWest Industrial Training. MIT." Lee got a good laugh at that twist. "They say get a job that people are always going to need. People will always need fridges."
"I can't believe I thought that he got into MIT." He joined her in laughing.
"I can't believe how good I feel for helping Kyler out." She wouldn't have been able to leave him at that frat.
"These past couple of years have been a lot of changes for us." He nods.
"I know when I think about it. It's crazy how different we all are. We should get Miguel a good present." She thought of the friend that changed their lives.
"It was a rough journey, but I'm happy where I'm at." He smiles.
"Alright, don't get us off track." Lee grabs the paper in front of him to exchange it with hers.
"The University of Georgia, Florida State University, Tulane University… What is this? These are good colleges… I just never heard you mention these colleges before." She was surprised by the list.
"Getting that tour yesterday showed me that I want a good social life along with an education." He felt in his element at that frat party.
"MIT is not on the list." She scanned it twice, thinking it was a mistake. "I thought that was your childhood dream."
"No, that was Demetri's. I was too scared to go anywhere alone." He had the confidence now.
"Are you going to tell him? He has been mentioning MIT like a hundred times a day." She was getting sick of it.
"I know I got to. I just don't know how." He sighs. "I feel like I let Demetri down a lot this year. I don't want to do it again. Maybe I'll apply and see."
"No, if you don't want to go then you shouldn't waste the application money. It'd be more insulting if you get in and tell him you're not going. College is a decision we should make without anyone else's influence. Demetri will understand." She almost believes that.
"Eventually he will." He trails off, not believing it either. "Caltech, Stanford, Berkeley…. Are you not allowed to leave the state?" He reads her list.
"I'm not as confident to be on my own. It's not my fault. I'm scared. I don't know how to do anything. I can't do laundry, make a meal, or clean anything. I can wash a dish but if there is grease then I might as well throw it away." A maid came once a week to do the chores around the house. They eat out unless her grandma is over.
"Do you want to go to Caltech, because it's a 40-minute drive and you could live at home?" He raised his eyebrows.
"No, it's a big bonus but I do like the programs. But, maybe I haven't thought of other options because of the comfort." She admits.
"I think we have to look over the other's list and see if we want to apply to any of them." He thought she needed it more than him.
I made another story called Burning Love. I'm shipping Presley Cole with other people from the Cobra Kai universe and other fandoms. It will be in the form of one-shots, short stories, and drabbles.