Always Been You- Eli Moskowitz

Chapter 27- New Dojo

"To understand another person,

you must swim in the same waters that drowned them."

-Anoymous

~~*~~

Today was the day. Miguel's official first day back since his near death experience. If he was in any way nervous or excited or even scared, it was hard to tell. He looked the same as usual. He looked like himself...pre-accident i mean.

But he was nervous. He was just hiding it from Michelle to avoid her being all worried about him. He was extremely nervous. Things were different now. He was different, Michelle was different, Eli, Johnny, Tory. Hell, even Sam. But they were still figuring out whether or not all of the changes were good or bad.

Nonetheless, into the school he walked, with his sister by his side. A sister who's excitement could not be contained even if someone paid her for it. Her smile and genuine happiness could not be ripped from her no matter the circumstances. Her brother was back.

Soon enough, the students took notice of the total legend that walked through the front door of the school and the cheering began. Everyone who knew Miguel and everyone who had heard of what he had been through cheered and clapped and welcomed him back in with open arms and fist bumps. Michelle even took a step back from where she had been standing next to him to give him the spotlight and join in the cheering. He sure deserved it.

"You're like the Mexican Michael Jackson dude," Michelle laughed and patted his back as everyone started to disperse and head to their classes.

"Ha ha, very funny," Miguel rolled his eyes in amusement.

"El serpiente!" An excited Eli proclaimed as he made his way over to them. "Welcome back man."

Michelle simply stood to the side and pretended she wasn't there as they both avoided eye contact. They hadn't had a chance to speak about what they would say to Miguel about their newfound relationship but Michelle was comforted by the fact that they silently agreed to keep it to themselves for the time being.

"Feels good to be back," Miguel replied.

"Did they give you bionic legs or some shit like that?"

"No, same old, boring, human legs."

"Oh yeah? Can you throw down? Gotta defend that title," Eli said while sending soft jabs toward Miguel. " Gotta get through me first. Dude, Cobra Kai is crushing it right now."

"I've actually been meaning to talk to you about that," Miguel started. Unfortunately for him, the bell rang, signaling a 2- minute warning for class to start.

"I'll talk to you about it at lunch," Miguel finished as he rushed off towards the front office to pick up his new schedule.

Since he had been gone for so long, the school rebuilt his schedule to accommodate for the classes that he missed so that he could catch up. Meaning that, him and Michelle no longer had any classes in common other than lunch.

Bummer.

Eli waited until Miguel turned the corner of the hallway before grabbing Michelle's hand and pulling her into a quick hug.