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"Wait, where's sensei? The tournament's gonna start soon." Hawks voice brought Frankie back into reality. She wasn't "in the zone" working on her punches like Miguel; she was thinking about her fight with Demetri at the canyons the night before.
Frankie blinked, turning to Hawk and Aisha beside her. "He'll be here." Aisha said. Her eyes moved to Frankie on the other side of Hawk and her face softened. "You okay?"
Everyone turned to her at Aisha's question and Frankie's eyes widened when she realized everyone was looking at her. She quickly nodded her head, licking her lips nervously. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay." She breathed out.
Aisha and Hawk didn't believe Frankie, both of them knowing her longer than the others and knowing her tells when she was lying. But they also knew not to question her about it more in front of everyone else.
"I don't know if Sensei's showing up..." Bert muttered, taking the attention off of Frankie.
Frankie's face scrunched as she turned to Bert. "What are you talking about?" She asked, nervously crossing her arms over her chest. Bert looked up at Frankie before turning to the rest of his team, shrugging casually.
"I saw him last night at the mini mall. I was buying..." Bert cleared his throat and looked to the ground. "A carton of milk. When I heard him in the parking lot drunk and yelling."
Aisha looked to Frankie in shock, confused on angry that Bert hadn't brought this up earlier. She turned back to the younger boy and shook her head crazily. "Why didn't you tell us this earlier?" Aisha whisper yelled and Bert started to shrug his shoulder in defense. "I don't know. I guess I'm just so used to seeing him drunk, it didn't seem like that big a deal." Bert practically blurted.
"Well, we're here, and he's not. So it's officially a big deal." Aisha snapped like a reprimanding parent. Frankie's eyebrows creased and she looked up to Aisha nervously. "Do you think something happened to him?"
Aisha squinted at Frankie, shaking her head slightly. "Like what?" She asked and Frankie frantically looked to the ground, shrugging her shoulders in a panic.
"I don't know!" She said, her voice getting higher the more she started to think about it.
Hawk could tell Frankie was panicking and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her into his side. Frankie immediately rested her head on the boys shoulder and Hawk started to run his hand up and down Frankie's arm.
"Whatever. I mean, we're here. We're gonna have to do it without him." Hawk said, starting to get stressed not just about his sensei's whereabouts, but the competition as a whole.
"Do what without me?"
Frankie let out a relieved breath at the sound of Johnny's voice. Her eyes shut in relief and she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Sensei, we didn't think you were gonna show up." Frankie breathed out.
