Play With Fire || Daniel LaRusso

6. "It's Comin' Around"

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IT WAS TIME FOR THE DANCE AND DANIEL WAS STILL TURNING THE OTHER DIRECTION AWAY FROM HER WHICH HURT BUT WAS UNDERSTANDABLE SO SHE JUST ASSUMED HE WASN'T GOING TO THE HALLOWEEN DANCE. Still, she helped prep and decorate the gym hours before and went with Susan, Barbara and Ali. She went as an angel, her hair was done up in a Dutch crown braid, she was wearing a short white dress with silver ballet flats and small angel wings on her back.

She was there for almost a half an hour, sipping punch when she saw costume like...a pink and white polka-dotted shower wonder into the gym and onto the dance floor. She couldn't see who was inside but it made her smile.

She walked back over to her friends. "Look, guys, it's Daniel," she said, happiness underlying her tone.

Susan looked around. "Where?"

"The shower," she giggled.

"How do you know?" Ali asked with a chuckle.

"I just know, it's something he'd come as," she said, plucking off the fake daisy off of Barbra's suit before walking over to the shower. Through the curtain's small crack she saw Daniel's blue jersey which made her grin, sticking the daisy in the 'shower'. "Help me, sir, save my little flower, she needs water."

Daniel pulled back the curtains with a smile. "Hey, you've come to the right place, stranger."

She giggled as he stepped aside for her to get in before closing the curtains. "This is such a cool costume idea. I've never danced in a shower before."

"Oh yeah, a friend of mine made this," Daniel answered. "Isn't it great?"

"So cool, props to them for creativity," she giggled. "So where've you been hiding?"

"Well, I haven't been hiding," he replied.

"I just mean I haven't seen you around a lot," she mumbled.

"You've been lookin'?" he asked with a small smile.

Her cheeks turned red slightly before she nodded in response. "Yeah," she admitted softly. "I just wanted to see you and I guess I thought you were still mad at me..."

"Why?"

"Well, because of what I said last time, trying to make you confront..."

"Oh no, I've been thinking about that a lot."

She sighed. "No, but still, I should just learn to mind my own business and you should move at your own pace."

"No, I think you're right about facing things head-on. I mean, I feel the same way." His hands moved down to her wrists, moving them up to rest them on his shoulders. "Just kind of forgot for a while. Thanks for reminding me."

She smiled, moving his own hands around her waist before moving her own back behind his neck. "You're welcome, I guess." Daniel pulled her more into his arms, making her smile even more as she rested her head on his shoulder. "I really want to hang out with you and Johnny makes it impossible because he thinks he can do whatever he wants to people. I love him but I'd love to see him get a taste of his own medicine."

"Well, you know what goes around comes around," he replied.

"I better be there when it does," she mumbled.

"Me too," he agreed, still holding her close. "By the way, you look really beautiful."

She grinned, pecking his cheek before hiding her red face in his shoulder. "Thank you, bubba," she mumbled softly. Once the flushing in her cheeks calmed slightly, she spoke, "Probably already know the answer to this but you wanna step out of the shower."

He pulled back to look at her. "...You talked into it."

She giggled. "Yay."

Together, they both pulled back the curtains ever so slightly to see a guy in a chicken costume, clucking and dancing around with eggs in his hand. "Check out this chicken, he's wild," Daniel laughed.

She gasped in surprise as he saw the chicken pick up some guy's hat, smashing an egg on his head. "Oh my God, he's using real eggs."

The chicken started heading their way causing Daniel to exclaim, "No! No-"

An egg broke on top of his head immediately causing Bethany to break into a fit of giggles. "S-Sorry," she mumbled, still laughing as yolk dripped from his hair.

"Yeah..." was all he said.

She pushed his hair from falling in front of his eyes. "Probably should go wash it out."

"Yeah, maybe," he mumbled. "I'll be right back."

"Okay," she said with a smile as he headed towards the boy's bathroom, joining her friends again.

"That's the most I've seen you smile all night," Ali told her.

"Forget all night, in days," Susan replied.

"I can't help it, he makes me laugh and he's cute," Bethany said, still smiling.

"In love and hiding away from your brother, sounds like another version of Romeo and Juliet," Barbara remarked.

She cringed. "Gross, Romeo and Juliet is disgusting. Don't compare me to that."

"Only thing I can think of."

"Still, gross. And Johnny just doesn't happen to be around right now." She looked around for the familiar skeleton costume.

Then suddenly, Daniel quickly ran out of the bathroom, past Johnny's Cobra Kai friends, pushing past everyone.

She rushed over to him. "Daniel, what happened? What's wrong?"

"It's comin' around," he quickly told her, rushing past her.

She looked back at the boys bathroom to see a soaked Johnny chasing after him. As he ran close to her, she grabbed Barbara's long magic wand, quickly using it to trip Johnny, making him fall and his friends did as well, tripping over him. She wanted to give Daniel a fighting chance.

"Get up!" Johnny yelled at them before he quickly stood up, running after Daniel.

"Leave him alone!" Bethany called out, about to rush after them but the crowd of people was now blocking her way. "Fuck!"

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