𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃𝐄𝐍

thirty two

『 thirty two 』

BEGINNING OF JANUARY. 

Time was passing slowly, yet quickly. The days bled into one another. Sun up, sun down. It was all a mindless routine. There was no purpose, no reason behind the madness. Day after day. They woke up, ate, worked, and went back to sleep. The same sad, pitiful routine day after day after day. 

Natalie could feel the passage of time. She could feel herself aging day by day. But after a week, the only thing allowing her to keep track of the days was the kitchen calendar. New Years had come and gone. But 2019 felt no different from 2018. And so endless the cycle repeated. Wake, eat, work, sleep. Repeat.

Karate started up again. That seemed to be the only spark left in her daily life. 

Preparations for the All Valley were rising all around the area. Everywhere. Natalie could have taken an hour long drive in each direction, and every noticeable dojo would have the same motivations radiating from the welcome signs on their doors: it was All Valley time. Natalie hadn't realized how widespread and popular the sport had become until the past year. Dojos were like sleeper agents; hidden in plain sight, unnoticeable, but ready to make their mark at any given moment. 

The only dojo Natalie had seen that didn't sport a welcome sign was Cobra Kai. They used to have one back when Kreese was accepting new students. That was not the case anymore. 

After the fight he became more reclusive. He seemed to be content with his smaller, more acute band of students. He stopped showing himself in public at all. Natalie supposed that was for the better. She stopped seeing him around town - at supermarkets or on the highway. She didn't want to look at his face anyway. 

Cobra Kai certainly had been narrowed down since the fight. Natalie drove by the strip mall once or twice a week during hours. The number of cars parked in front of the dojo had been cut in half. 

Cobra Kai wasn't the only thing in the city losing it's quality. 

Leila was spending more and more time at the office, leaving just the teens and Jackson together for dinner. Jackson was never ever one for big family dinners around the table. As long as no dishes were left in their rooms when the washer was run at the end of every week, Jackson had no problem with Hawk and Natalie eating in their rooms while he sat in his recliner in front of the television. 

So that's what Natalie did every single evening. She got her plate without a word to her brother, closed the bedroom door, and turned on some Netflix. Natalie was revolving between the same two shows; one being horror, the other being a British baking show. The diversity was a way to keep her on her feet. And she was perfectly content with it. 

Day in, day out. Mindless, endless routine. 

When Leila was home, she was in her office. Natalie didn't know what she was doing in there, nor did she care. Paperwork, taxes... who knew? The mother and daughter had always used to be so close. It used to be only them against the world. Now one of them didn't have the time to bond, and the other didn't have the motivation. 

Hawk was the only one who noticed Natalie's distance from the family. And her distance from their friends. He and Demetri tried several times to get her out of the house, all of which failed epically. Super-nerd stuff out of town, drive ins with the rest of the gang by the beach. They tried anything they could brainstorm to get her back in the world. Anything Natalie from five months ago would squeal at. 

Their final resort was making up a scenario about Demetri going to the hospital. Needless to say, Natalie gave them the silent treatment for a week on end. But they weren't the only ones making an effort to see her.