Always Been You- Eli Moskowitz

Chapter 5- Practice Makes Perfect

"The more you bleed in practice, the less you bleed in battle."

-Anonymous

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Miguel's alarm went off early that morning, waking Michelle in the process. As she was getting up, Miguel came into her room half asleep himself, hit her in the face with a pillow and walked  back into his own room without saying a word. Michelle was sure that he hadn't even noticed that she was already awake. She took a second to stare up at the ceiling before getting up and starting her morning workout. The twins decided that since they were allowed to start training again, they would try their absolute hardest to improve in every way so that they wouldn't come home bruised and bloody ever again. Every morning before school without fail, they would get up early and work out.

Every day after school, they were at the dojo. Johnny challenged them in ways only he could. Sometimes Michelle thought that his teaching techniques were borderline torturous. For example, today he had the twins stand in front of a ball throwing machine. The goal was for them to block the balls as they came at them but they were too fast. The twins simply could not keep up and kept getting pummeled by the baseballs. Between exercises and drills, they would each stand in front of the machine until finally they were able to block each one with ease.

The twins were stronger and faster than ever. They took every lesson that Johnny taught them and applied it to their real life as well. Strike First. Strike Hard. No Mercy. It was towards the end of their lesson and Miguel was on the mat fighting with Johnny. He had successfully knocked him to the ground and had turned to Johnny for praise, when Johnny simply pressed the button on the ball machines remote, causing a ball to hit Miguel in the ear. Miguel fell to the floor grabbing his ear and panting in pain.

"That wasn't fair!" Miguel said, still holding his ear.

"You want a fair fight? Dream on. Your enemies wont always play by the rules. You have to be prepared for everything," Johnny replied. Michelle hated to admit it but he was completely right.

A group of hippie looking ladies came walking in the front door. Johnny scoffed and rolled his eyes as the twins looked at each other confused.

"Its five o clock. Twilight is upon us," one of the ladies says. They all started dropping their yoga mats on the ground and two of them started to hang a banner right on top of the cobra kai logo.

"I had to sublet the dojo for a few hours, just until we get more students," Johnny said as he watched them setup.

We have to get more kids in the dojo so that these hippie freaks don't keep coming back, Michelle thought.

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It was the next day and the twins were once again at the dojo. Today, Johnny was sparring with Michelle so that she could incorporate some of the new moves he had taught them into a fight. Miguel had already mastered the lesson and was standing off to the side observing. Suddenly, the bell to the dojo rang, stopping them in their tracks as they looked in the direction of the door.

Standing there looking nervous was Aisha, the girl who sat in front of her in English class. Sam's ex best friend. Michelle smiled kindly at her as Johnny yelled out, "No yoga till five no matter how bad you need it."

"I'm actually here for karate. I saw your website. It said that there was supposed to be a session today," she said.

"Well i appreciate you coming in but there are no girls in cobra kai," Johnny replied. The twins looked at each other confused as ever while Aisha looked between all of them.

"What am I?" Michelle asked. Johnny turned to look at her with a look of surprise on his face.

"Oh, shit," He said. He turned back to Aisha.

"Take off your shoes and get on the mat," He told her. He stood in front of her, looking her up and down like he had done to the twins on their first day. After talking with her briefly, Johnny made Miguel and Aisha spar to see if she was cobra kai material. This ended with Aisha slamming her knee into his his chest as he lay on the ground in pain. Michelle could not stop laughing at him the rest of the day.

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About a week later, Michelle was happy that there was finally another girl in the dojo. She loved her brother and Johnny but she needed a girl that just got her, you know. She even started sitting with them at lunch.

Michelle and Aisha had just taken their seats next to Eli and Demetri when the commotion started. They heard a lunch tray clashing to the ground. Everyone turned in the direction of the noise and their eyes fell on Sam standing in front of Kyler with her arms crossed and an angry expression on her face. Apparently, they had went on a date to the movies and Kyler was telling everyone who would listen that Sam had gone down on him during the movie. Michelle could tell by the look on Sam's face that none of it had been true.

After Kyler had gotten the attention of everyone in the cafeteria with his disgusting remarks, Miguel set his tray down at their table and walked over to Kyler. Oh shit i forgot that Miguel has a major crush on her, Michelle thought. She started to stand from her seat slowly. Eli grabbed her by the elbow and yanked her back into the seat.

"Why don't you shut the hell up and stop being such an asshole?" Miguel yelled at Kyler. Michelle watched as she bit her fingers.

"Want another beat down Rhea?" Kyler shoved Miguel in the chest. Everyone at Michelle's table got up and moved out of the way. Michelle tried to stay close until she noticed the guy from the dance staring at her from behind Kyler. She swallowed hard and looked at the ground as someone pulled her slightly behind them. "I'm ready for your lame ass karate this time," Kyler said while shoving Miguel in the chest again.

"Its not lame ass karate," Miguel says as Kyler lined up to punch him. Miguel blocked him and grabbed his arm. "Its cobra kai," He finished by punching Kyler straight in the face.

Michelle looked up from her shoes and noticed that Eli had pushed her slightly behind him when she froze. She watched as Kyler and his goons ganged up on Miguel. There were more of them but Miguel was faster and was easily able to block and land hits on them. Michelle walked up to the table in front of her grabbing an empty tray and tossed it to Miguel who caught it and landed the final hit on Kyler by hitting him in the face with it. 

Miguel looked around the cafeteria as everyone cheered. His eyes landed on his sister who now stood right in front of the table he was standing on. She was grinning ear to ear and clapping along with the rest of the students, Eli, Demetri and Aisha alongside her. Michelle was impressed to say the least.

After school that day, the twins went to the dojo where they recounted the events from lunch. Johnny was so impressed with Miguel's ability to take what he learned and apply it to a real life scenario that he gifted him a gi he wore in his first ever tournament in 1981.

The next day after school, the twins stood in front of the door to cobra kai. It seemed that Johnny was running a bit late. Only when he arrived, he was met with tons of kids from the school waiting outside talking about the video of Miguel in the cafeteria that went viral.

"Looks like we're in business."

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Double update today! This chapter was really short but the next one will be longer. Let me know how you're liking the story so far.
Word count: 1,365