always you || eli moskowitz

12

Yesterday, Dad gave Miguel and I two of us old karate gi's , so we were pretty excited to wear them today during practice.

When we got there, we noticed a couple other kids standing there.

"Those are the people from the video." I heard one of them whisper.

"Holy shit, we should fight people more often." I say to Miguel with a laugh. While we are standing but the door, more people start coming up.

Soon, there is a large group of kids wanting to take lessons. I look at the parking lot and see my dad pulling up in his car. When he gets out he looks at all the kids, and I notice he looks happy.

"Looks like we're in business." He says, unlocking the door and letting everyone inside

~~~

Miguel, Aisha, and I are standing in the dojo in our gi's, and everyone else is screwing around. I'm not mad that they're doing that, but I have a feeling Dad will be.

I look around at everyone and see Demetri and Eli standing together, so I walk over to them.

"I'm not gonna lie, I'm surprised you came Demetri." I say to him with a smile.

"Yeah me too, Eli made me." Demetri says, not sounding to happy about it.

"Who knows, you might like it. And if you hate it, at least you know." I say, shrugging.

"Yeah, I guess." He says to me.

"Ok, today we begin..." Dad starts talking but trails of when he realizes no one is listening. He looks around at everyone, annoyed.

"Quiet!" He yells at us, causing everyone to look at him and making it go quiet instantly.

"Face front." He yells again, and everyone does as he says. He walks through everyone, and soon he's by Eli, Demetri and I.

"Nice shirt." He says to Demetri.

"Thanks." Demetri reply's in a peppy voice.

"I'm joking. It sucks." He says and walks away again. When he turns I laugh a little at Demetri, who gives a look.

"Word of advice, if you got shit for teeth, don't smile." Dad says to the only smiling person in the room.

"God, makes me feel like a virgin just looking at you." He says to some poor boy.

"When I look around this dojo, I don't see Cobra Kai material. I see losers, I see nerds. I see a fat kid with a funny hat with his tits popping out." He says, walking back up to the front of the dojo. "But in my short time as a sensei, I've also seen some miracles. So, maybe there's some hope for you. But first I need to see where you're at. So, everybody fall in!" He orders us, but nobody moves because nobody knows what he means.

"That means line up." He clarifies for everyone. Everyone starts to form two lines behind Aisha and Miguel, but I stay where I am.

"No, not line up in a line. Lines! Get in lines." He says, getting frustrated.

"You mean like rows?" Demetri asks him, making him groan in annoyance.

~

Dad taught everyone some basic moves, which we're practicing now.

"Fighting positions." He orders, and we do as he says. "Jab punch." He says and we do it. "Nope, wait till I say go. Hiyah" We all do the move as he says hiyah.

He continues to say hiyah, and we continue to punch. He's instructing people and telling them what to do as he walks around everyone.

"Hey lip." He calls out to Eli, "Yeah you, The one with the freaky lip. Who do you think I'm talking to?" He says, making me glare at him.

"Don't." I say to my dad, giving him a warning look. When he makes eye contact with me, he gives me a confused expression.

"What?" He asks, not in a super serious tone.

"Excuse me, uh, Mr. Lawrence." Demetri says to him.

"Sensei Lawrence." Aisha corrects him.

"Ok... you really shouldn't make fun of someone's physical appearance." Demetri says to him.

"Oh is that so?" He asks, "So I'm not supposed to mention his lip at all?"

"Yeah, don't mention it at all" I say, extremely annoyed with him at the moment.

"Yeah." Demetri agrees with me.

"Maybe that's what they teach you in school, but in the real world you can't expect people to do what they're supposed to do." He says, looking around at everyone before his eyes land on Eli. "You hear that lip? If you can't handle someone making fun of you how are you gonna handle an elbow to the teeth?"

"By calling the police?" Demetri answers for him.

"Dude, knock it off." Miguel tells Demetri.

"Yeah, you might wanna stop talking." I try and warn him.

"What? He does realize the Nazis lost the war, right? Why should I be scared of him? Because he's got a snake on his wall? It's not like he's a teacher who can give us a bad grade. We're paying him. He works for us. It's not like he can actually hurt us." Demetri says, proud of himself.

"Dude, you shouldn't have said that. I tried to warn you." I say to Demetri. Miguel and I make eye contact while Dad walks up to Demetri. Everyone moves out of their way.

"You done?" Dad asks Demetri.

"What?" Demetri says, loosing his confident demeanor.

"Hit me." Dad orders. "Go ahead, hit me. Strike right here." When Demetri hits him, it's a weak hit.

"Harder." He says, and when Demetri tries to hit harder, Dad blocks his hand.

"Is that all you got princess?" He taunts. Demetri goes to hit him once again but this time Dad grabs his arm and flips him over, making him fall on the ground.

"Let that be a lesson to all of you." Dad warns, looking at everyone.