𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃𝐄𝐍

twenty three

『 twenty-three 』

It was a Tuesday. 

She had lived out of Kate's closet and resources for the past half week. 

Hawk was out of the house for school by 7:30. Jackson and Leila were both out of the house by 10. Hawk was back no earlier than 4. Jackson and Leila got home relatively around 5:30 each. 

Natalie swung by the house to pack essential items for the next couple of weeks for her stay with Kate. She checked herself out of school after lunch.  She was to fully move into Kate's bedroom that afternoon. Until then, it had just been like a sleepover. Now, it was to be official. Natalie was neither excited nor upset about it. 

Leila was so insistent on keeping things peaceful, she called Mrs. Abbott the night Natalie left to sort out arrangements for the next several days. Kate's mom had no problem with it. She hadn't even asked why Natalie left home in the first place. 

Things were awkward at school. 

Natalie and Hawk had two classes together; they had planned that at the end of last year. She did her best to keep out of bad situations he and the rest of his Cobra gang struck up with lowerclassmen. It was difficult. Natalie wanted to help the younger students in the fresh territory. She did the best she could separate times. 

But she refused to give Hawk the satisfaction of knowing he was getting to someone. 

Hawk was becoming the bully. Incredible how people could change in the span of one simple year. She had changed too, no denying it. But she still had a moral code. She couldn't tell where his had gone. She wasn't the bully they both had sought to defeat at the same time last year. 

Demetri wasn't handling any of this well. He was still good friends with both of them. One Friday afternoon he had described his relationship with the two of them as a constant tug of war, with him being the piece of tape in the middle. 

Natalie felt for him. She really did. But at the time, neither of them could come up with any good solution to solve their problem. So they changed the subject to talk about Star Trek. 

Aisha offered no better advice. Her parents had moved her out of the school and were now searching for a home outside of the west valley area. She could no longer be any more help, at least not from the inside. Natalie was going to miss Aisha. But what was there to be done? Some things in the world were simply out of your control. 

Aisha was still finding time to sneak into Cobra Kai, though. Her parents forbade it, which meant she was now paying for her own lessons. But Aisha found a way. Natalie admired her for that. 

Natalie was hopeful everything with Hawk would blow over soon enough. A part of her knew she was being petty. But for the time being, she could not stand to spend mornings and evenings in the same house as him, where she would constantly be at risk of his wrath. Their parents could only stop him so far. Natalie had already gotten into one fight with him in that household. She wasn't willing to repeat that in front of her mother again. 

But the first order of business: visiting Miguel. 

He had been open to visitors for almost an entire week. Everyone from school who knew him in the slightest had visited him by then. Everyone, except Natalie. She hadn't had the time between schoolwork and freelance gigs to earn some solid spending money. 

Natalie was a little afraid to apply for a full job until she was sure the LaRussos wouldn't be calling her. She didn't want to leave another job acceptance up to a coin toss (a true story she did not want to repeat again). Amanda had seemed interested in looking into her as a tutor for Anthony. From what Natalie could tell so far, Amanda was a fairly easy woman to read. She seemed to show genuine interest.