It was later on in the day, an hour or two since Rae left the water park.
Johnny had been working all day. All sort of jobs : rideshares, food delivery, you know, stuff like that. Rae was planning on chilling at home for the rest of the day, scrolling on Instagram and texting her friends. But Johnny made her come with him for his work. In his words, "Why not do all of that stuff in the car, spend some quality time with your old man. Hash brown yolo."
Rae was sat in the car outside a pawn shop where her dad had gone in to deliver some food. Eventually he came out, an annoyed yet enlightened look plastered on his face.
"Can we go home now?" Rae pleaded.
"One more. Come on." Johnny stated before pulling out of the car park.
They arrived at a house, a nice looking one. A man wearing a jean jacket clambered into the back of the car and began conversing with Johnny, leaving Rae to silently spectate.
All of a sudden, Johnny pulled out his phone and dialled a number. After several moments of ringing, someone picked up.
"Hey, can you hear me? I'm calling from my car phone." Johnny began.
"Yes, I can hear you. And no one calls it a car phone." The recipient answered. Rae identified the voice to be that of Shannon Keene, Robby's mother, aka the same woman she saw in her house that morning.
"Listen. About Robby. I want him to stay with me this summer." Johnny paused. "I'll do whatever I have to to make it work."
"Are you sure you can handle that?" Shannon's voice questioned.
"It's what I should have done for him and you long ago. I quit too many jobs 'cause I didn't like 'em instead of considering what's best for all of us. I wasn't man enough to know it then, but thanks to Rae, I do now. I'm sorry I sucked, Shannon." Johnny vented, prompting a silent chuckle from Rae.
"It's okay, Johnny. We were both young and dumb. But I'm glad Robby gets to stay here now and see this side of you." Shannon sighed.
"I won't let him down." Johnny grinned.
"I was about to pick him up from the water park. But if you wanna go tell him the news..."
"Hell yeah." Johnny exclaimed.
"Okay, Johnny. I'm happy for you."
"Thanks."
"Whoa. Dude, did you just miss my stop?" The passenger questioned
"Crap. Hold on."
Rae laughed at her father's error. Once they dropped the guy off, they headed back to the waterpark. Rae kept her head down as she didn't want to see any of the Cobra Kai kids after the events of earlier.
They were parked up for a few minutes before Rae noticed Robby and Miguel were arguing right in front of the car.
"Uh, dad." Rae caught her fathers attention.
"Ah, shit." He cursed before getting out of the car.
"Hey, hey! Stop it." Johnny exclaimed towards the two teenage boys.
They both looked at Johnny incredibly confused as to why he was there.
"I want you to get along. We're all friends now." He said sternly.
"No, we're not friends." Miguel denied.
"We never will be." Robby added.
_______________________________
The car ride home was incredibly awkward. As soon as they arrived, Robby walked straight to his room. It was right next to Rae's, so she was planning on annoying him at some point. Maybe by blasting annoying music all night.
"Rae. Sit down with me for a sec. I have a plan." Johnny said to his daughter.
"What is it dad?" Rae asked, clearly intrigued.
"Well, I was thinking. We'll force Miguel and Robby to hang out. You know, because of - " He pat his stomach, referring to the baby. "So, I need you to talk to Miguel and invite him to this address." He passed her a note. "Instabook him or something."
"Alright Dad. What about Robby?"
"I'll sort him out."
"Great. Okay. I'll go round to see Miguel now."
Rae sat outside Miguel's front door and texted him, asking to go out on a walk. A minute later, he arrived outside, and they began walking.
"It would've been cool if we hung out more today." Miguel sighed.
"Yeah, I guess."
"Who did you stay with?"
"Little LaRusso. Anthony wasn't as annoying as the other members of the family. Wait, shit, sorry. Forgot about Sam. How is she? I saw you two talking today."
"Oh, uh, yeah. She broke up with me."
"What the shit? Actually?"
"Yep."
"Even after the necklace??"
"Mhm."
"Well, crap, sorry bud."
"It's fine."
"Hey, how'd you like to get brunch tomorrow?"
"Sounds great."
"I'll send you the address." Rae smirked.
They were walking for hours, and probably did about 20 laps around the Reseda area. Eventually Rae noticed the time and dismissed herself, going to get some food.
When she got home, Rae noticed Johnny and Robby were on speaking terms, which was a good sign. She couldn't wait for how it would be in 24 hours, would Miguel and Robby be friends or would they hate each other AND Rae and Johnny?
YOU ARE READING
STRIKE FIRST - A COBRA KAI STORY
ActionRae Lawrence was a normal girl with a normal life. Well, normal-ish. She never knew her mom so her dad single-handedly looked after her, even if that meant he had to work several jobs. Home life was a bit of a struggle, but at least school was okay...
