STRIKE FIRST - A COBRA KAI STORY

C H A P T E R F I F T E E N

Rae was awoken to the sound of someone banging on the door.

"Dad, who's here?" Rae groaned. "It's like 10am."

Nobody heard her. Due to these circumstances, she stayed in bed for several minutes, scrolling on instagram. She eventually got herself up and changed into a vest and a pair of shorts before leaving her room for the kitchen, going to get herself some cereal.

"Morning Dad. Hi Mrs Keene." Rae greeted whilst reaching for a bowl.

"Hi there Rae." Shannon, Robby's mother, awkwardly smiled.

"Morning kiddo." Johnny grinned.

"I'll let you two continue. Just pretend I'm not here." Rae allowed them, sitting down with her overfilled bowl of lucky charms.

"Well, there's a lot to figure out. Still have to tell Robby and Miguel." Johnny paused. "Carmen had this dream about us. There was a house and a yard."

"Well, yards aren't cheap. Can you afford a kid on your part-time sensei salary?" Shannon asked.

"I'm not a sensei anymore."

"Hmm?"

"Lost a bet."

"Long story." Rae added. The adults looked at her weirdly. "Not here. Sorry."

"Okay, that's why you're job hunting. Got it."

"Last time I looked for a job, nobody wanted me. I'm not a suit-and-tie type of guy."

"What if I told you there was a way you could earn real money without being scammed and without a tie?"

I tried that after high school. Some of the women got a little grabby."

"I'm talking about the gig economy. You know, rideshares, food delivery. But you will need a real phone for that." Shannon sighed. "I'll make this easy on you. There are these tech guys. They show up to your door and set everything up."

She began typing something into her phone.

"Dork-to-door service, huh? Never thought I'd see the day."

As their conversation continued, Rae got up and began to exit the house.

"I'm going out. Bye Dad!" She said before leaving with her bag.

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Rae arrived at the water park and placed her stuff down on a sun lounge next to Hawk and Miguel. As soon as she got settled, Hawk wanted to see his girlfriend, Moon, so he dragged Miguel along with him. Rae didn't go with them because Moon was sat with Sam LaRusso, who Rae strongly disliked, so she stayed sat down.

"Hey." A kid walked over to her. He wore a blue wetsuit jumper and had dark, curly hair.

"Hi." Rae smiled.

"I'm, uh, Anthony." He introduced himself.

"Cool. I'm Rae." She said.

"Do you wanna hang out and stuff?"

"Sure, Anthony."

"Oh, cool."

He sat down next to her and they began talking. Despite him being a year or two younger than her, they had quite a lot in common and got on very well. They even got each other's number.

"I'm gonna go down to the pool, you wanna come?" He asked.

"Oh, yeah, sure. Give me a minute and I'll meet you down there."

"Great!" Anthony smiled before walking off.

Rae checked her messages quickly. She saw Demetri messaged her : 'At work. Helping out your dad?? Literally in your house??? Help.' She shrugged it off then went to find her new friend. She spotted him and began, only slightly, speeding up. Until some guy walked into her.