003 - happy new year

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≪ ◦ ❖ ◦ ≫CHAPTER THREEHAPPY NEW YEAR≪ ◦ ❖ ◦ ≫

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CHAPTER THREE
HAPPY NEW YEAR
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NEW YEAR'S EVE AT THE SANTIAGO'S HAS ALWAYS BEEN A SPECIAL TRADITION.

Every year they would come back early from the Dominican Republic just to celebrate the beginning of the new year with their closest friends.

The LaRussos.

Mercy and Sam aren't in middle school anymore, so the once with excitement filled air is stale now, with no oxygen left for their friendship to survive on.

The dining room reminds her more of the atmosphere of Venus than of it's usually cozy state. But at least their parents are thriving.

They try not to talk about karate during their dinner. It has been a tradition forever, as far as Mercy can think back, the LaRusso's have always been at their house to start the new year.

And back then, she loved this day even more than Christmas and her birthday combined.

But everything changed in the summer before ninth grade and then everything changed again once Cobra Kai came around.

And now she hates this day and this stupid tradition even more than flying (and that certainly means something).

If she had the choice she would still be rotting on her mattress in her grandma's house, stalking Miguel's and Sam's Instagram accounts while listening to her cousin Oriana call her boyfriend for the fourth time in two hours.

God, how miserable she felt looking at the photos of her ex boyfriend and ex best friend. How pathetically and silently she cried at night because it was the first anniversary of her breakup.

She doesn't understand how they do it. Talking and laughing right after telling them about their security system. Daniel LaRusso doesn't blame Diego and Isabella Santiago for anything.

Mercy isn't even sure if he blames her for anything. She didn't trash their dojo, she didn't participate in the fight at their house. Sure, she is in Cobra Kai and hates Sam's guts (more or less obviously), but that's about it.

Sam is sitting across from her, seemingly concentrated on cutting her steak, so she doesn't see the fury in her former best friend's eyes.

The enemy is in her house. And it takes all her self control to not explode into a supernova.

It is one thing to drop someone for cooler friends once high school comes around. And another to stop talking to someone because you can't handle their grief.

But just letting these rumors about her spread so that even people in East Valley hear them is another thing.

Not to mention that she keeps smiling and nodding along to their parents' conversation, acting like everything is fine, when she has stolen Miguel from Mercy again.

THE BRIGHTSIDE, robby keeneWhere stories live. Discover now