Severity, Miguel Diaz¹

― chapter 41.

Ayane tightened her grip around her backpack strap and continued walking in the other direction.

Demetri and Chris were coming around the corner just then. Ayane went up to them, and they looked fairly happy to see her.

"Hey, you're back!" Demetri said, smiling.

Ayane glanced around, nodding a little. "Yeah. I miss anything?"

Demetri shrugged, looking to Chris who also shrugged.

"Just Cobra Kai kids turning into bigger assholes," Chris replied.

"What was that?"

The three of them turned around, finding Hawk and the other two little Cobra Kai brats facing them.

Hawk looked at Ayane for a long time, then looked to Demetri and Chris.

"Got something to say?" Hawk continued, crossing his arms.

Ayane was in no mood to start this. She glanced down, not replying.

"Check out my new Lit book," Chris said, holding up his textbook. "It's a lot of hard hitting shit in here if you know what I mean."

Ayane cracked a smile, looking back up and being startled as Counselor Blatt appeared out of nowhere.

"Is everything alright over here?" she asked, giving them all stern looks.

Ayane nodded her head, mustering up a smile.

Demetri put his arm around Hawk and replied, "Yes ma'am, we're just hanging out!"

Ayane raised an eyebrow, finally walking away from the boys. Demetri and Chris were currently her only friends, being that Ayane had no idea where she stood with Sam.

She realized she was standing on the stairs, in the exact same spot where Miguel had been. Ayane almost teared up, already on the verge of a breakdown and she hadn't even been here ten minutes.

Ayane continued up the stairs.

Everywhere she went, there were people whispering. But it was not like the whispers when there was a rumor about her being spread around.

These were whispers about how Ayane was crazy, and there was evidence to support their claims now.

She made it through the day alright. No one bothered her, at least. Demetri and Chris and some of the other Miyagi-Do kids still talked to her, and were willing to defend Ayane if needed.

But the only person Ayane wanted to see was Miguel. Without him there, she just felt completely empty. She had a lot of regrets about what happened before the school fight.

Ayane couldn't let herself live down the guilt over not believing Miguel about Tory. He had told Ayane that Tory came onto him, which made perfect sense of course. But Ayane had felt so hurt seeing it, and she let her emotions get the best of her and refused to hear Miguel out.

That was why she blamed herself.

The last bell for the day rang, letting the students out. Ayane packed up her stuff and went to find Sam, but then she stopped.