Drowning

Workin' at the Car Wash

Friday was the last day of the basketball tournament and Finley's team had won. They had only lost one game in actual tournament play, and the team in second had lost 3. Soccer would be their next unit starting on Monday, and soccer was one of the few sports that Finley genuinely sucked at. Maybe it was because it involved foot-eye coordination which she severely lacked, or maybe it was because it involved so much running. Regardless, she sucked at it and had never gotten better at it over the years. But for now, soccer skills didn't matter, karate skills did. Specifically- wax on, wax off.

The car wash was in full swing and there were a ton of people that were bringing their cars in to help support the cause. All of the Miyagi-Do students were there, plus Moon had gotten the cheerleaders to come out and help wash cars... in bikinis, so obviously they were helping bring in a lot of business. Finley stuck with Demetri as she didn't really know anyone else other than Nate, who was collecting the money, Chris, who was hanging with some of his other Miyagi-Do friends, and Sam, who was walking around supervising everyone.

Finley was using sponges to clean the hood of the car while Demetri was busy cleaning the windshield, using a spray bottle of window cleaner. She was honestly having more fun than she thought she would be considering she was cleaning cars. Everyone around her was having just as much fun and goofing off while still getting the work done. They all had the same goal of just wanting to raise money to help the Diaz's be able to afford Miguel's surgery. They had been at it for hours already, and there was still a line of cars around the block waiting to be washed. The entire community seemed to want to help out the boy too, even if they hadn't met him. There had even been a news crew there earlier to film a little segment to try and get more people to come out.

Sam was making her rounds, checking in on everyone to make sure they were doing okay. Her eyes caught on Finley's technique and she walked over to her.

"So, actually it's left circle and then right circle."

Finley glanced up at the girl. She wasn't Miyagi-Do so who cared how she cleaned the car? But she could see in Sam's face that she was only trying to help so she just simply nodded her head.

"Okay."

"Demetri why don't you show her?" Sam smiled at the boy before walking away.

Finley glanced over at Demetri, her eyebrows raised. "Well?"

He blinked in confusion. "Wait, you want to learn?"

Finley shrugged. "It's better than her constantly nagging me to do it, so why not?"

"Uh, because you've stated on multiple occasions that you don't want to do karate."

"Well this isn't karate. This is chores."

"You do realize that's half of what Miyagi-Do is right?" Demetri questioned as he wiped away the spray from the windshield.

"And what's the other half?"

Demetri paused his cleaning for a moment so that he could look at her, a very serious expression on his face. "Breathing exercises."

Finley let out a loud snort, unable to contain it. She sucked in her lips in a vain attempt to hold back her laughter, but she failed miserably and the laughter bubbled over. She ducked her head, pressing her mouth into her shoulder to hide her ever growing smile.

"You're allowed to smile you know." Demetri walked over to her, setting his spray bottle on the ground. "It makes you almost... tolerable."

Finley looked over at him, eyebrows raised. "Tolerable?"

"Yeah." Demetri placed his hands next to Finley's on each sponge. "Just because you show emotion doesn't make you weak or whatever."

Finley glanced over to her left at the boy who was right beside her, her head having to tilt back to see his face. "That's got nothing to do with it."