The eudaemonia of love -Anthony Larusso

chapter 6

STILL ANTHONY'S POV

•••

I was scrolling through y/n's instagram. Curious about what posts she had. As soon as i looked at her instagram page, i was shocked.

"She is so pretty." I thought. But my thoughts were cut off pretty quickly by my dad who was walking down the stairs. "Hey, Anthony? Hey. I found something in your room you need to explain." My dad said. I immediately put away my iPad. "Oh, uhm... uh, yeah, I..." i said stuttering over my words. He held up Kenny's cobra kai's hoodie.

"If this is you trying to seem cool at school or rebel against me or something-" my dad started. "No,no,no,no. It's not mine. It's.. uh.. I'm holding it for a friend." I lied. He looked at me not believing, me. I sighed, "think Anthony Think." I thought.

"Okay, um, there's this kid in school who's, uh, who's in cobra kai. You know he's been giving me a hard time recently." I lied again hoping he'd fall for it.

"Wait, wait. Giving you a hard time? Are you okay? What did they do?" He asked me. Shit. "Oh, uh, you know, just messing around, uh, name calling." I said. "It's, uh, no big deal." I added.

My dad sat down next to me and sighed. "Anthony, I'm so sorry. You have to deal with this. Listen i know what it feels like." He said "shit.shit.shit.shit" i thought. "I promise I'm not gonna let cobra kai hurt you." He said. "It's.. It's not that bad. Honestly, i-" i started but he cut me off "No, no, no. I thought there might end up a problem like this. I should've... you're not a little kid anymore." He said.

"It's time. Go on up, get changed." He said. "Shit, what have i gotten myself into?" I thought. "F-For what?" I asked my dad.
"Just go upstairs, get changed." He said, my smile changed into a confused expression but i got up anyways.

•••

"Okay, this is pretty cool." I said to my dad, motioning to my sister and her friends who we're practicing for the tournament.

"I thought you'd like it." My dad said. "You never said i'd get to use weapons." I said looking at Sam who was showing Demitri some knives. "You don't." I looked at him, weirdly before he added "not yet."

I nodded, "When Mr.Miyagi first showed me this place, i was like you. I didn't know what to make of it all. Definitely didn't appreciate it. I just knew i needed help defending myself. I'm not gonna lie to you, Anthony. Learning karate isn't easy. It takes a lot of work." My dad said.

"Yeah." I said, "but listen, think of it like a video game. It might not be exiting at level one when you're learning the controls, but the more you play, the more skills you get, and before you know it, level 12. You're hooked. Plus, I'll give you some cheat codes along the way. Come on." He said.

I followed him while holding my phone, but noticing there wasn't any WiFi. "Hey what's the WiFi?" I asked my dad. "What? There is no WiFi. Put that thing away." He replied. I put my phone away "There are no distractions at Miyagi-do. Just you, your heart, and your mind. So get ready to enter a world so much more exhilarating than anything you will ever see on that phone." He said coming to a stop.

"Are you ready to begin this journey?" He asked me. "Uh, yeah, yeah." I said, he pointed at cars which was full off bird shit. "Oh my god." I said.

"As you can see, I forgot to put the covers on when i left last night." My dad answered. "It's like a Jackson Pollock painting." I said. "Anthony, get ready for your first Miyagi-Do lesson." My dad said.

"Today we call it "Soap on, crap off. I'm gonna show you exactly how to do it, then you're gonna clean the cars while i help Mom at the dealership. How does that sound?" He asked.