The Karate Kid

The Maintenance Man

The walk to school was a breeze as we just chatted and laughed with each other. Neither of us mentioned last night, even thinking about it was painful. I knew that we would have to face the music sooner or later, though. We both looked a mess for our first day of school, but at least I wasn't alone in this.

We reached the school, walking through the entrance and we started to get used to our surroundings. It was a pretty basic school, nothing special, but that's how I like it. On our way into the classroom, we both noticed a group of boys next to motorbikes.

Those people were the boys from last night. The Cobra Kai. Johnny was in the middle of the group, looking smug as usual. Luckily, none of them noticed the both of us as we passed. They were too busy flexing their muscles and talking. We walked as quick as we could to the changing rooms for our first lesson...which happened to be sports. I said bye to Daniel as I entered the girls changing room and he entered the boys changing room.

Now I felt alone, like it had only just dawned on me. Daniel was my only friend at this school, and even though it was only a few minutes before I saw him again, it felt lonely. I got changed into my grey shorts and green shirt...the uniform for the sports class at the school. Some of the girls were wearing sleeveless sweaters, some were wearing long grey trousers.

We were instructed to go outside by our sports teacher, Miss Pearson. She was a tall woman with her blonde hair tied up into a neat bun. I could tell that this was a woman not to be messed with. We all got up from the benches in the changing rooms and went through the doors to the field. Miss Pearson followed, taking some soccer balls out of a large bag and placing them on the grass.

"I want you all to get a ball, apart from one of you, and try to get it in the football net. The one person who will not be getting the ball will be the keeper. You will be trying to stop the balls from going into the net" Miss Pearson told us, throwing a ball up into the air and catching it repeatedly as she spoke.

All of us apart from a girl with short brown hair grabbed a ball and began to aim them into the net. I was quite successful with getting the balls into the net. I actually surprised myself a little because I hadn't done this sort of thing for years.

I could see that the Cobra Kai were coming out of their changing room and Daniel was among them. He saw me and smiled, walking over to me with a football in his arms.  He looked happy enough, but he obviously wanted to keep his distance from the Cobra Kai. So did I.

"Hey Autumn, how are you getting on with your sports lesson?" he asked me. I was a little taken aback by his question; it made me feel like I couldn't go twenty minutes without him being there. Nevertheless, I shook that idea out of my head and realised I was being stupid.

"Yes, I'm fine thanks Daniel" I replied, rolling my ball across the grass with my feet.

"After school would you come with me to ask the maintenance man if he would fix the faucet at my apartment? I asked him yesterday before you came but he was kinda busy" Daniel said. I hadn't met the maintenance man yet, so I thought I'd go with him.

"Sure, no problem. I think our shower needs fixing, so I can ask him about that while we're there" I responded, and Daniel nodded as he went back to his sports lesson.

~~~

The day at school eventually came to an end, and all I learnt from that day was that there was a Halloween party very soon. It sounded fantastic; there was going to be a DJ and it was a fancy dress party. Daniel didn't think much to it, but I eventually convinced him to go. Daniel talked to the girl from last night called Ali. She seemed nice, and we talked a bit too.

We finally got to the apartments and Daniel had to drop a few things off at his own apartment. We decided that we would go to Daniel's apartment before we went to see the maintenance man around the corner.

We opened the door to the apartment and what we saw was quite a coincidence. There was the maintenance man, stood next to the faucet and looking to see what the problem was. Daniel looked relieved to see the old man and gestured for me to come inside.

Once inside, we walked to the maintenance man. On the side I saw a karate book and wondered what Daniel was doing with it.

"Daniel, why do you need a karate book?" I asked politely. I didn't want to seem rude, and I knew he probably wouldn't want to answer it. Surprisingly, he did answer my question.

"I'm just learning karate after what happened last night" he said, quite quietly. I could tell he was a tad embarrassed about it. I could feel his pain; and I wish there was a solution to it. I realized that a book wouldn't be able to teach him all that much, but I could see why he was doing it.

"You learn from book?" I heard the maintenance man say. It was a surprise to both me and Daniel as he was quiet before now. He nodded and looked at the maintenance man. I could hear the maintenance man muttering and he carried on with his work.