GOOD HEART, BAD TEMPER - keene, robby

fourteen

"You gotta understand that Mogadishu in the '90s was a hellhole." Kreese says. "Warlords controlled whole swaths of the city. My team and I were charged with cleaning the place up."

"How many warlords did you kill?" Hawk asks.

"You keep track of every ant you stomp?" Kreese asks, and Rory's eyes widen.

"Badass." Hawk tells him.

Kreese continues to talk and Rory sits down by Miguel so she can stretch. The entire time, Hawk and Rory couldn't stop
looking at each other.

"What's going on?" Miguel leaned over, grabbing the girl's attention. "You guys haven't been able to take your eyes off of each other in days."

"Oh." Rory laughs. "Nothing. We just finally had sex."

Miguel's eyes widened. "I could've sworn Demetri said we'd never lose our virginity's before college."

"He was talking about himself." Rory winks before looking back at Hawk.

"They we're outgunned, we were outmanned. I tell you... Rwanda was no joke." Kreese says, and Rory and Miguel's face scrunched up in confusion as they stood up.

"Don't you mean Somalia?" Miguel asks.

"Mogadishu is in Somalia." Rory tells the older man.

"Yeah, Rwanda's a whole different country." Miguel says.

"Of course, Somalia." Kreese laughs. "I've spent so much time in the sandbox, it all kind of bleeds together, you know?"

Miguel and Rory look at each other before their attention turns to Johnny.

"Listen up!" he yells. "I see we've got some new recruits. Everybody, fall in! In neat rows and lines. Time to see what you're made of."

Johnny begins to walk in between the students. "Straighten up ginger twins." he says before walking down the line. "Sorry, parents can't stay for class. It's an insurance thing."

"I'm not a dad. I... I am here to kick some ass, sir!" the man says, and Rory's looks back in confusion.

"Do I know you from somewhere?" Johnny asks.

"Oh, yeah, the um... I sold you the mirror. We kind of bonded, talked about rock bands." the grown man tells him.

"Look, you're a little old. This is a class for teenagers." Johnny says.

"Well, I... I can take them." he laughs, and Rory straightens her stance as she looks at them. "I'm not afraid of kids, sir. And my mom, she doesn't charge me for rent, so I just... I got a lot of cash to burn."

"Yeah..." Johnny takes the money. "We'll consider this a trial run. I thought my last group of recruits was pathetic. But if you do what I tell you to do, you'll at least have a chance of becoming a fighter. But to do that, you gotta fight. So, which one of you has the balls to take on the champ?"

No one says anything. Rory was about to say something before someone else beat her. "I'll take him on." a girl with blonde hair and dark roots spoke.

"Oh, you will, huh?" Johnny asks.

"I saw your little demo at Valley Fest." she says. "You guys can put on a show. Can you actually fight?"

"That sounds like a challenge." Johnny tells her.

She straightens up. "I like a challenge."

"Mr. Diaz, show Little Miss Hotshot here what Cobra Kai is all about." the older man orders.

The rest of the class step to the side as Miguel and the girl take their spots on the mat.

"Look, are you sure that you wanna do—"