Shoreline (Robby Keene/Book 2)

The Trashed Dojo

The next morning, I had spent two hours walking around Miyagi-Do, picking up toilet paper strung up in trees, broken tree branches that scattered the grass and moving small stones to where they belonged. After the meet yesterday, We had all gone to the LaRusso house to celebrate because guess what? Both Nick and I were moving on to regionals.

After our little celebration, I drove in my car with Nick following me to my house. We stayed there and caught up. By the time we finished talking, we realized that it was 11, so he went home and told me he had to help his parents unpack the nest day and that he'd see me soon. I had woken up at 7 and driven to Miyagi-Do to find the place trashed. All done by Cobra Kai.

So now, I stood in the pond, picking out pieces of toilet paper, leaves and branches out of the water, and handing them to Demetri.

When we finished that, Demetri, Robby, Sam and I walked over to a rock with some Chinese engravings on it. Whoever trashed the place had somehow managed to push it over, so now we were stuck trying to lift it up and get it standing again. I looked up from my concentration to see Sam and Demetri pulling as hard as they could. "Look about the other night." A voice from beside me spoke. I turned to see Robby slacking and whispering to me.

"Nothing happened, I won't say anything." I told him and put my focus back on trying to lift the rock.

"That's not what I was going to say." Robby muttered quietly and looked back down sadly. I took my one hand away to move a few tendrils of hair out of my face, the rest of my hair pinned up in braid crown on top of my head. Looking back at him, he was wearing a light grey tank top and dark grey sweats, his hair tucked behind his ears. I sighed and realized I was staring so I quickly tried lifting the rock again, it wouldn't budge.

"Are you guys lifting, because I feel like I'm doing nothing here." Demetri said standing up, the rest of us followed.

I placed a hand on my forehead, wiping away some of the sweat I had built up. "No offense 'D but, with those arms, I don't think your doing anything either." I giggled, trying to bring joy to a shitty situation.

"Haha, very funny, I don't see you, miss muscle, doing much either." He retorts, causing Sam to smile.

"I never said I was doing anything." I point out.

"Let's just forget it, it's too heavy, we're gonna need a forklift." Robby says throwing his arms out.

"How'd they even knock it over?" Sam questioned.

"It's al lot easier to knock something down than it is to lift it up." Danial says from behind us where he knelt on the grass, replanting a plant. "Don't worry, we'll get it up again." He announced so sure.

"Uh, excuse me, is this Miyagi-Do?" A soft voice said from behind us. A voice that sounded too familiar.

I quickly turned to see boys from Cobra Kai, standing at the front of the backyard. The same ones who tried to beat up Demetri and I. I clenched my fists, digging into my already scabbed palms, drawing the tiniest bit of blood.

"Yeah." Mr. LaRusso said, getting up.

I started to walk over to them, cracking my knuckles as I walked, smearing the blood over my skin. I heard footsteps behind me and looked to see Robby walking behind me with the same realization. "You come back for another beating?" Robby asked, approaching me and coming to a stop when half of his body was flush against half of my back.

"Hey, Robby, Lydia." My eyes didn't leave the boy in front of me. He took a small step back, feeling the intense stares Robby and I were sending him.

"this is one of the guys that were beating on Demetri and Lydia." Robby explained, not bothering to hide his anger in his tone.

"Probably helped trash the dojo if you ask me." I felt the blood start to seep out of my fists and onto my knuckles. I tried to hide them behind my back.