The Serpent Queen

The Moment of Truth | Part One

After thinking for a long while about his decision, Demetri finally made it. Everyone kept asking when he would sign up, so today was the day. Slight peer pressure could be a bitch and he wanted to get everyone off his back about joining and he felt like the odd one out. His best friend (who seemed to become a completely different person that he didn't like), his cousin and his other best friend all hung out with the other teammates and he didn't have any friends because of Cobra Kai. If you can't beat them, join them. At least he'd actually have friends to hang out with if he did.

Before any of the Cobras arrived for the morning class, he knocked on the main door to the dojo, the door bell jangling as he walked in. Seeing the space completely empty, he said, "Hello?"

John Kreese walked out of the office holding some paperwork. He heard the door bell and wondered who it was as it was way too early for Johnny or the other Cobras to arrive for class. Seeing a random teenager, he set the paperwork down.

Demetri sighed, "Thank God. I was a little afraid you'd be the other guy. He's a little unhinged." He took his backpack off and set it on the floor. The need was about to step onto the mat when he remembered something. His shoes. He took them off and proceeded to cross the mat in his socks. "Saw your little demonstration at Valley Fest. Couple of the guys have been requesting I come join the club. So, uh, I feel like it's time to give it another go. But I've got some ground rules. I prefer to take a flag football approach to my karate training..." He rambled on.

Kreese had a blank expression on his face and he just crossed his arms.

"...Ideally, learning to hit and kick without actually being hit or kicked. Part and parcel with that, I have a bit of a thing about personal space. The other Cobras are just gonna have to accept that." Demetri looked at the man and noticed a large tattoo on his right forearm. "Wow! That is quite the tattoo." He walked right over to Kreese. "Ooh... Ah... Not to nitpick here, but I'm not sure it's anatomically correct." He began touching the tattoo. "You see, the hood of the Indo-Chinese spitting cobra is much smaller and their pupilsmare actually round, not the vertical type your artist opted for. So, uh, you know, probably an easy enough fix to correct the..."

Kreese gave him a very annoyed and quite angry glare without saying a word it made the boy stop talking and become very nervous.

"...Pupils."

The old man took his fist and took the boy completely off guard by punching him in the face.

Demetri landed on the hard mat a hard this by the force of the hit. He scrambled up from the mat, grabbed his shoes and his backpack and ran out of the dojo, the doorbell jangling as he left.

He clutched his bloody nose and continued running, "Shit. Shit. Shit."

—————————————————————

At the Miyagi-Do dojo, Robby stood in front of the white punching bag in the sweltering heat punching and giving it an occasional kick. He turned his head to his right for a second to regard Daniel's only other student, "Maybe we should take a video of us sparring and post it on Instagram."

Sam sat on the wooden decking with her leg out stretching, "Everybody already saw us at Valley Fest, no one cared."

The boy stopped punching and held the bag, "You know what the problem is? Miyagi-Do's all about defence."

"Defence wins championships."

"Yeah, but people show up for the offense. That's why Cobra Kai is more popular. All right? We need to show them we can fight, too."

"So, what exactly are we supposed to do? Go to the mall and pick a fight? Record us defending ourselves?"

"It's not the worst idea."