Out of Place [Cobra Kai OC x Robby Keene]

130 - Fortress

TW - trauma, talk of trauma, spiraling

I didn't make it into MIT... it's been my dream from the moment my mamá was diagnosed with cancer... I worked my ass off all through middle school and my years of high school leading up to now... and it wasn't enough... my best wasn't enough... I've long considered myself to be a smart person... just like I've long considered myself to be good at martial arts... so if my best in school wasn't enough, how can I be sure my best in karate will be for the Sekai Taikai?

I haven't heard back from Stanford yet. I made it into all my safeties, but if I want to go big... then Stanford is all I have left. Demetri was heartbroken when I told him I didn't make it. He keeps telling me to reapply. I don't see the point. It'll all be the same... unless I were to be a captain for the Sekai Taikai and win... anyway, I still celebrated him getting in with him. I'm just glad one of us could make it in. I'm beyond proud of my honorary older brother.

"Parker," Tory says from behind me. I turn to face her. She looks excited.

"¿Qué tal?" I ask, interested to see what's making her look so happy.

"They lowered my mom's medicine dosage. She's getting better. She even made me and my brother dinner the other night," she says, "and get this: she asked me for the recipe for those cookies you always make for us. She remembered you by your baking; she said she's been dying to ask about them for a long time but didn't think it mattered since she didn't have the strength or energy to make them."

I light up right along with her. My mom never got better. Some days were worse than others, but her condition never showed signs of lessening. It just got progressively worse until- yeah... so to hear that her's is? It's a wonderful feeling that I never got to feel.

"That's amazing- all of it! Ay dios, I'm so happy for you guys," I say, "and usually I'd say the recipe is top secret, but for you and your mom? I'll make an exception."

"You'd really do that for us?" she asks. I really normally wouldn't. My mom hand wrote almost all of her recipes before doing so was too strenuous for her. They're one of the last physical memories I have of her since our house was demolished. I hold them near and dear to my heart.

"To make a recovering mom and her kids smile? Without hesitation," I say. She just looks at me for a moment, then pulls me in for a hug out of nowhere. Oh! Okay, this isn't bad.

"Kreese tried to get me to rejoin Cobra Kai," Tory says in my ear. My heart drops all the way into my stomach, dread filling in the empty space. I don't break the embrace in order to make things seem normal, despite the pure state of panic in my brain.

"I thought he was in jail,"

"He escaped. The police are looking for him. He wants me to fight for Cobra Kai at the Sekai Taikai,"

"What did you say to him?"

"I told him no. This is my team. I'm not gonna go fight for a psycho like him," she says. I finally step out of the hug.