Fight or Flight

Chapter 2: Sensei Lawrence

The next morning, Josie had left her apartment early to go knock on Miguel's door. His mom must have been at work already, because he answered the door. The walked outside, and started chatting about last night. Miguel had already gotten over his embarrassment, because Josie obviously didn't think there was anything to be embarrassed about.

"So," she said. "I didn't hear that guy come home last night, so he probably spent the night at the police station."

"Yeah," Miguel agreed. "I really want to talk to him."

They stopped for a second, so Miguel could check a text from him mom. Suddenly, they saw the blond man's car pull into his parking spot. They walked over to him, and Miguel said, "Hey, I just wanted to say thank you."

"Well," the blond man seemed uninterested, "you said it." He started to walk away.

Miguel followed, urging Josie to come with him.

"So last night, was that like Tae Kwon Do or jujitsu or MMA or something?" Miguel questioned.

The blond man rubbed his neck, not looking at Miguel and still walking. "It's karate. Old-school karate." He pulled out his keys.

Miguel asked, "do you think you could teach me?"

Josie elbowed him.

Miguel rephrased, "Teach us, I mean."

"What? No." the blond man opened his mailbox.

"Come on." Miguel pestered. "When school starts, those guys will make our lives a living hell."

"Not my problem." The man said bluntly.

"Look," Miguel continued, "if we just knew a little bit of what you knew, then we would be-"

"Forget it!" The man raised his voice and turned around. "I don't do karate anymore, all right? Besides, I need to find a job."

Josie chimed in, " Well, we could pay you to teach us."

Miguel said, " Yeah, you could open up your own karate school."

The man was unimpressed. "It's called a dojo."

Miguel rephrased. "Then you could open your own dojo."

The man continued, " Look, I'm not getting into this with you guys. I'm not even sure I'm allowed to be around kids right now."

Josie gave a small laugh. "Yeah, probably not."

The man gave her a look and turned to Miguel. "Look, you want my advice? Stop being so annoying, maybe you'll stop getting to ass kicked."

Then he turned to Josie.
"And you, stop following this guy around."
He promptly walked away.

"Ok..." Miguel looked disappointed.

"He seems like a nice guy." Josie said.

Miguel sighed. "Yeah, well I'm screwed for school."

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The next day, Josie had just went over to the Diaz's for lunch. Miguel's grandmother, Rosa, and his mom, Carmen, had immediately loved her. They thought her French accent was very pretty, and made sure she had plenty of food to bring back to Camille.

She had went back to her house to put some of the food in their fridge to save for her mom, then started to pile up cardboard boxes to recycle. They had finally finished unpacking, and now Josie really felt at home.