little bird // r.keene

xiii. lip.

Wren stood with Eli, Demetri and Miguel in the middle of the dojo floor. She had never been in a dojo before and it was pretty much exactly as she had imagined.

"Okay everybody fall in." A voice told them and Wren looked over to see a blonde guy, wearing a black gi and matching headband. "Where is everyone?" He asked, sounding disappointed. "Crater face?" He asked, "Nose ring? Slingshot?"

"They quit Sensei," Miguel said firmly from beside her, Wren looked from him back to Lawrence.

"Are you serious?" He asked. "I mean, good." He gave them all a small smile, his attitude changing. Wren wanted to laugh but kept herself composed. "That was a test. I wanted to see who the quitters are. Not you guys. You're in it to win it, right?" Wren paused to look around at the people around her- none looking entirely impressed or captivated. Miguel being the exception.

"You could be at home playing your iComputers, playing your video games, eating candy." His teen stereotypes made her want to laugh even more, Wren almost felt sorry for him. "Instead you're here, doing pushups, learning how to fight." He raised his finger and pointed to Eli.

"Lip. Look. Even Lip's tougher than you guys." Eli looked from the mat up to the blonde guy standing in front of them, "He's no quitter." Despite him trying to compliment Eli, Wren's ears pricked up at the nickname and she couldn't help but swallow hard, her throat felt like sandpaper.

"Could you please not call me that?" Eli asked from where he stood next to her, his voice was low and timid.

"Excuse me, what?"

"I said, could you please not call me that?" He repeated and Miguel stepped forward.

"Um. I'll warm 'em up, Sensei." Miguel chimed in but Lawrence didn't break his eyes agway from Eli.

"No, Lip has something he wants to say." He took a step forward, Wren felt her heart pick up its pace. "Sorry, speak up, Lip. Or is your tongue messed up too? Are you one of those challenged kids?" Wren clenched her fist but Demetri put his hand on hers as if to tell her to back down and not get involved, she threw him a look and Demetri shook his head gently.

"Um, the doctor said I could be on the spectrum." Eli told Lawrence, they were now standing face to face on the mat.

"I don't know what that is, but get off it pronto. All right? If you don't want me to call you 'Lip', don't have a weird lip. Can't you get surgery?"

"I was born with a cleft lip." Eli told the man, "This is the scar from the surgery."

"You mean it was worse before that? Or did the doctor screw it up? Because if this is the after photo, that sucks, man. You should sue." Lawrence pointed his finger at Eli and Wren took a step forward but Demetri shook his head, mouthing 'don't'.

Something clicked in Wren's head- Demetri was scared of this man.

"Can we just please change the topic?" Eli asked, his eyes flickering from Wren to the man in front of him, his voice trailing down in defeat causing Wren's heart to sink.

"You don't think I want to? It's right in front of me. You wanna be something other than a nerd with a scar on his lip, you gotta flip the script. Ok?"