always you || eli moskowitz

14

"Fighting positions!" Dad yelled at us. We're in the dojo, and everyone has plain white gi's with our logo on the back now. It's makes us look more legitimate.

"Stabilize your base Hawk." He says as he kicks Hawk's front leg forward and demonstrates what to do. He turns and looks at the boy standing next to Hawk, and he flinches.

"Did you just flinch virgin?" He asks but gets no answer. He goes to the boy standing behind him and moved a little, as if he's going to go close to him, and that boy flinches too.

"Holy shit, we got a room full of flinchers." He says.

"Yes Sensei." Everyone except Miguel and I says.

"That was not a question!" Dad yells at us, making me laugh, but I hide it with a cough.

"Raise your hand if you've ever been punched in the face." He instructs us, and I don't raise my hand, but a lot of people do.

"Put your hands down." He says and starts to walk back to the front of the dojo. "All your lives, you've been avoiding fights, so you don't break your nose, or lose a tooth. This concussion nonsense. So, there's only one solution, and that is before you leave this dojo, each and every one of you is gonna take a punch, very hard, to the face. Ms. Lawrence and Mrs. Robinson, line them up. Unflinch this group." He tells us.

"Yes Sensei." We say at the same time. We turn around and face the group. She goes over to the left side of the dojo, while I stay on the right. The two people in the front of the rows are Miguel and Hawk. Fun. I go up to Miguel first, knowing I won't feel as bad punching him because I know him better.

"Sorry." I say to him before punching him in the face. "Sorry" I say again, as he's holding his face.

I look over to Hawk, and see that he's already looking at me. I walk over to him and stand right in front of him.

"I'm going to punch you now." I warn him.

"Good to know." He says with a slight laugh, but I can tell he's a little nervous. I punch him in the face, but I might've punched a little too hard, because he fell over.

"Oh shit, sorry." I say to him, and help him up. He holds his nose while looking at me.

"It's cool." He says, and plays it off as if it didn't hurt at all.

"Stop apologizing Cassie. Remember, no mercy." My dad yells from his office.

"Ok." I say back to him. I punch the rest of the kiss without saying anything. But I do feel bad when punching the younger ones, so I punch without as much strength.

~~~

It's the next day now, and we're back in the dojo. I'm sitting with Aisha, Hawk, and Miguel who is telling us about his date with Sam LaRusso.

"I need somewhere romantic but not like too romantic?" He asks us.

"Take her somewhere fun, not dinner or something like that." I tell him.

"You could take her to get tattoos." Hawk says, making us all look at him.

"Huh?" I ask him, and he looks at me then stands up.

"I know a guy, just hooked me up with this bad boy." He says, and he turns around and takes off his gi, revealing a giant hawk with a blue mohawk on his back.

"Holy shit." I say, my eyes wide.

"That is badass." Aisha says, and I nod my head.

"Right? Fourteen hours in the chair." He says, proud of himself.

"Hold on, how are your parents ok with that?" I ask him.

"Oh they have no idea. Definitely gonna have to wear a t-shirt until college. Probably longer. Please don't tell them." He says, sitting back down. I shake my head and laugh, and continue to stretch.

"Uh, any other suggestions?" Miguel asks us, bringing back the previous conversation.

"Don't look at me, Sam and I used to be friends. We're not anymore." Aisha says to Miguel.

"Ok but I need your help." Miguel says, but I stop paying attention to their conversation and look back at hawk.

"Are you going to change the color of the hawk's mohawk whenever you change the color of yours?" I ask him.

"Of course." He says to me.

"What happens when you get rid of the mohawk?" I ask him.

"Never gonna happen." He says with a smirk.

"Ok." I say, chuckling under my breath.

"Banned?" My dad screams from his office. "What are you talking about?" Miguel and I look at each other before getting up and going into his office.

"No, you don't ban me. I'll ban you!" He says and slams down the phone.

"Who banned you?" I ask him.

"The Valley tournament. There's a lifetime ban on Cobra Kai from entering." He says, still pissed.

"What? How is that fair?" Miguel asks him.

"It's not." Dad says and sits down. "There's nothing I can do about it."

"What happened to 'never accept defeat'? 'There is no no'?" Miguel asks him.

"That was girl advice. This is different. This is the real world. There are rules." He says to us.

"Since when do you follow the rules?" I ask him.

" 'We don't take no for an answer' you said that. You gotta fight this." Miguel says to him, and I nod my head in agreement.

"You know what? You guys are right." He says, standing up. "I'm gonna go down there, and beat their asses."

"What? No. No." I say, holding my hands up.

"Yeah, that's not what we meant. Maybe there's more of a delicate approach, Sensei?" Miguel says to him.

"The way of the fist is not delicate. Cobras are not delicate." He says to Miguel.

"Yeah, sorry I- forget delicate. I'm just saying, maybe there's a smarter way to fight back?" Miguel says, and I smirk.

"I have an idea."