Black Widow | Cobra Kai

12. Stuck

Black Widow Chapter Twelve: Stuck

"I miss one class and suddenly we're supposed to meet at some construction place at 5 in the goddamn morning?" Sloane complained as she walked onto the grounds. She had to miss yesterday's lesson because she got stuck at the bank when she thought she could just quickly deposit her cheque before class. Apparently, it was weird for a 16-year-old to come in with a cheque for 12.5 thousand dollars and they needed to thoroughly go through her papers to make sure she was actually emancipated and not just trying to keep money from her parents.

"We were just messing around and then Sensei got mad out of nowhere," Miguel explained.

"I think it's that old guy, what's his name? Kreese?" Eli stated. "I mean, why is he even here? Sensei said he's like an observer or something, but it makes no sense to me."

"Guess we'll see soon enough. He has weird methods, but we always get there in the end, right?" Sloane offered. Though, she feared she was about to eat her words when she saw bags of cement stacked to her waist. She was glad she was wearing some old sports clothes when they were put to work, though. And she earned a newfound respect for construction workers because that stuff was heavy.

"Don't add too much water. You wanna make it nice and thick," Sensei Lawrence instructed while the kids worked on mixing the cement.

"Sensei, why are we mixing cement?" Miguel questioned. Right about now he was regretting wearing a hoodie in this heat. The exercise combined with the sun were awful and it was only early in the morning.

"No questions. Keep stirring!" Johnny ordered.

Sloane worked alongside the guy who had held the door for her on her first day after the tournament. She had briefly introduced herself and learned his name was Chris, at which Eli interrupted and said it was actually Douchebag.

Chris/Douchebag poured the cement into the wheelbarrow and added water while Sloane mixed it with a shovel. Her pants were covered in dust and half-dried cement, but at least she had gloves on to protect her hands a little.

Out of nowhere, a cement truck came riding onto the lot while honking its horn. Sloane stopped mixing and tried to find a reason why the hell they were mixing cement just to pour it in some truck for someone else.

"Line up!" Johnny told them, which they promptly did. "You think winning the All Valley gives you the right to goof off? Well, I got news for you. Winning one championship don't mean squat! A true champion never stops training. You gotta keep moving forward or else you could get stuck exactly where you are. It's like the cement in this truck. If that drum doesn't start turning, the cement inside will harden and get stuck. Is that what you want to happen to you?"

"No, Sensei!" they responded.

"Good. Then climb up, get inside, and make it spin," he said.

The Cobra Kais looked around, whispering amongst each other how he couldn't possibly be serious. "Sensei, we're sorry for messing around," Aisha pleaded.

"We learned our lesson," Eli insisted.

Sensei slammed the ladder of the truck down. "Get in!"

"Sensei, this seems kinda dangerous. I mean the fumes alone-" Miguel tried.

"Quiet!" The old man Miguel and Eli had told Sloane about, Kreese, yelled. He stepped forward, addressing the teens. "This man led you to the mountaintop, and you question him? Look at you. Look at all of you. I can't believe this pathetic pack of pussies competed in the All Valley and let alone won. It's an absolute miracle. And who's responsible for that miracle? Johnny Lawrence, the best student in the history of Cobra Kai. My student."

"You were Sensei's Sensei?" Eli asked, seemingly impressed by the man all of a sudden.

"You better believe it, kid. And I tell you, I've never trained a tougher student in my whole life," Kreese said. "So if you know what's good for you, you better listen to every goddamn word he says."

Sloane looked at Sensei Lawrence and nodded. This wasn't just a matter of following orders. It was a matter of trusting him, and she did, so she stepped forward. "No time to waste, then. I'll go," she said and walked to the ladder. Johnny gave her a nod as she passed him and patted her shoulder.

The inside of the mixer was exactly what she'd imagined: scary as fuck. But she made a commitment and she was no quitter. She climbed inside and slipped and fell right onto her butt right off the bat, covering her joggers in the grey mixture. She tried to find her balance and was soon joined by Miguel, then Eli, Bert, Chris, and Mitch (AKA Douchebag and Assface).

Johnny peeked inside. "Don't just stand there. You wanna get stuck? Move!" he told the kids, which was pretty much their only good option now that they were inside the damn thing.

They started pushing against the side of the machine, but the wet cement was so slippery they barely got a grip. It felt like they were just pushing themselves down. "Come on, you gotta walk while you push," Sloane told them like she had any knowledge of how this thing worked.

Slowly, when they all pushed together, the tube started to spin. It was tough, but as they kept pushing and pushing, it kept going faster. It didn't matter that they slipped a bunch of times and were covered in cement, because they just picked each other up and kept on pushing. It got to the point where they were nearly jogging inside the thing. There was nothing quite like the threat of danger to awaken the team spirit.

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Once Johnny was satisfied with them, he pulled them out of the mixer and lined them up to hose them down with water so they wouldn't have to try to pull dry cement off their skin later. "You should all be proud of yourselves. I know I'm proud. Your parents would be proud too, if you were to tell them what we did here today, which we won't. You pushed forward like champions. Never stopping. Never being satisfied. Never giving up. And if you keep pushing and keep moving forward, you're gonna go to places you never even dreamed of."

In that moment, Sloane felt it. She felt the pride, the feeling of being invincible. She could imagine it was only a fraction of what Miguel must've felt at the All Valley. She craved more. She craved that feeling of being on top of the world. And being here, she knew she was on the right track.

Johnny gave them the hose to clean the rest of the cement off of them before they went home. Sloane grabbed the hose and pointed it right at Eli, spraying him down from head to toe. "Let's see what that mohawk looks like flat," she grinned.

 "Oh, yeah?" Eli said with a smirk and started approaching her as she slowly backed away, trying to aim the water at his face so he couldn't come closer. He ran straight through it, though, and took it from her, wrapping one arm around her to hold her still as he started hosing her down with the water instead.

Sloane laughed. "I am not taking you back covered in cement," she stated as she tried to wrestle the hose back from him. She was soaked from head to toe, but at least the cement was coming off.

The statement gave him an idea. "Try and stop me," Eli countered. He let her take the hose and suddenly started sprinting to her car, having stolen her keys while wrestling with her. 

"Eli Moskowitz, don't you fucking dare!" Sloane yelled. She dropped the hose and started chasing after him. As he tried to unlock the car, she jumped onto his back and wrestled him to the ground to get her keys back. "Give me that," she muttered as she climbed on top of him and tried to pry his hand open to get her keys. 

"Should we break them up," Miguel asked as he approached the two.

"I'm not getting in the middle of that," Aisha replied, shaking her head. What she did do, however, was take a picture for her Instagram.