ANTI-KARATE 《cobra kai 》

-1.0 hawk

"Hey, Alex. Where's Noah?" asked Robby. Mostly, whenever he sees Alex he sees Noah, seeing as how the two were practically inseparable. Alex holds up a finger, making him pause. Clipping the tree one last time, she put the tool down and turned to Robby; wiping her hands on her jeans.

"Oh, he has piano lessons today," she informed him, making him nod in understanding. "His parents are super strict about that sorta thing."

"Yeah, I get that. So, Seth told me you got in a fight today- are you okay?"

"It wasn't even really a fight," she responds, running her hand through her dark, curly hair. The place under her eye was more swollen and discoloured now than it was at lunch. She was almost sure that her wrist was infected because of how she hadn't been able to properly clean the wound. "Just me and some other girl having a minor disagreement."

Robby scoffed, giving Alex's face a once-over before nodding sarcastically, "Yeah, cause that bruise looks like a minor disagreement."

"Oh, shut it," she laughed, shoving his shoulder playfully. The boy chuckled, picking up the clippers up off the table. He paused, though, looking up at the noirette with genuine concern.

"But seriously, though are you good?"

"I'm okie dokie," she responds, grinning. "but thanks for the concern, new guy."

"Yeah, no problem."

"So I heard you were taking karate lessions from Mr. L," begins Alex, tapping her foot as she awaited the return of her boss. She was kind of surprised when she heard, though, because she figured that one karate group was enough- only to find out that Mr. L is teaching a student of his own. It made her uncomfortable; all of the violence that was now spreading. Sure, they just wanted to take up for themselves, but weren't there more peaceful ways to do that?

"Yeah, it's actually pretty cool. At first I thought it was a scam to get me to do extra work, but it ended up being some kind of muscle memory," he explained, then paused. "Why? Are you thinking about joining us?"

"Oh, no. Definitely not," she shuts the idea down quickly. "I was just asking. But yeah, have fun learning how to kick ass."

Robby chuckled and the two didn't talk much more after that. The boy seemed to be struggling to get a good start on the bonsai; making Alex laugh to herself, remembering how terrible she was to begin with.

Daniel walked in not long after, sending Alex a small smile and an icepack for the swelling on her face. She gave him a grin and a quiet thanks, to which he shrugged it off, "Hey, you two! How's it going?"

"I'm sorry," stuttered Robby, holding up his hands in frustration. "I suck at this. I don't know what I'm doing. I just- I don't get it."

"Don't worry," reassured Daniel with a tiny, nostalgic grin. "I didn't get it either at first. Mr. Miyagi had to teach me."

"Mr. Miyagi," repeats Robby, clearly having had heard the name before. Alex had only heard of him a few times, usually from Mr. L talking about his teenage years. "That's the dude who taught you kata, right?"

"Yeah," nodded Daniel. "He was a pretty special dude. He taught me a lot. And what you've got to do is close your eyes, get everything out of your head. The only think you can see it the tree. Think only the tree. The you visualize what you want the tree to look like, and you make it happen. That's it."

Alex smiled nostalgically. She remembered when Daniel gave her this talk; she had just turned thirteen and was sleeping over at the LaRusso's house because her mom had run her off and it just happened to be one of the few times California got snow. Even though it was freezing outside, she was hesitant to knock on their door and ask to stay. Daniel and Amanda had taken her in immediately, giving her hot chocolate and a blanket. Daniel and Sam had been cutting bonsai trees when she'd arrived, and they'd welcomed her to join. She was terrible at it at first, but with help and a little practice she was able to get the hang of it.

"There you go," Daniel told Robby, Alex turning in her seat. Robby was, in fact, cutting the tree successfully.

Robby laughed, "So this is obviously some kind of metaphor. The tree is, like, my feelings or something."

Alex laughed loudly from beside him, making the them both turn to her. She quickly covered her mouth with her hand, stifling the chuckle. "Sorry," she muttered quickly, before giggling again. "I'm sorry."

"Well, you are the tree, Robby," started Daniel, giving a look to Alex as well. "You have strong roots- you both do, and you know who you are, right? So now all you've got to do is visualize what you want your future to look like. Then you make it happen."

Alex thought about thst; was it that simple? Would you really be able to make your future turn out however you want? If it were up to her, her future would include her mom getting cured. The two would get a house and they'd be paying for a new X-box and not hospital and doctor bills. Her mom would come to her soccer games and cheer her on, and the two would get victory pizza after she wins. She can't make that happen.

Daniel left a moment afterwards, patting Robby on the shoulder and giving Alex a nod before exiting the room. Robby's phone dinged a moment later, his face dropping as he looked at the screen.

"You good?" asked Alex, standing up from where she had sat. Her shift was about to end, so she grabbed her stuff from the countertop next to her. Robby looked up, grinning convincingly.

"Yeah, I'm good."

a/n: oh wow, I actually really dislike this chapter. hope you liked it, though! the plot will be starting to pick up more and Mya will begin to go on a more severe antagonistic road, which I'm excited to write. why do you think she hates Alex so much? and why do you think they know so much about each other? lmk what you're thinking in the comments.

have a wonderful day/night!

~chloe