𝘛𝘙𝘖𝘜𝘉𝘓𝘌. Eli Moskowitz

five

"MAMA?" Violet asked, surprised. Her mom usually wasn't home during these hours. "Aren't you supposed to be at work?"

Judy chuckled, grinning broadly at her daughter, "Well, I got someone to cover for me tonight. I figured we haven't eaten dinner together in a while, and after dinner we could look for your Halloween costume . . . ?"

"Really?" Violet was nearly bursting with excitement. She understands that her mom was a busy person, but she still missed having dinners with her. Johnny wasn't bad company, but it wasn't the same.

"Mhm," her mom hummed. "And I got your favorite!"

Violet rushed towards the kitchen table and nearly screamed with joy, "Thank you, you're the best!"

The mother and daughter duo ate their dinner while Judy listened to her daughter rant about her daily life, leaving out the bullying, as usual.

"Oh, and I'm learning karate now."

Judy raised her eyebrows in interest, "Really? I thought you hated exercise. Where?"

"Well, it's grown on me. Kind of, I still hate running," Violet said with a frown, thinking of the laps she had to run, before brightening up, "But I'm learning at Cobra Kai! Johnny's teaching Miguel— you know, our new neighbor— and me."

"Well, that's fantastic, sweetheart," Judy gushed. "I need to remember to thank Johnny later."

"I can tell him for you," Violet offered.

"No, no. I should thank him myself. He's done so much for us." Violet nodded in agreement. "Now are you finished? All the Halloween stores will be closed if you take any longer!"

"Hey, you don't happen to have any friends who wanna learn karate, do you?" Johnny said, glancing up at Violet and Miguel. "Oh, what am I saying? You don't have any friends."

Violet looked at her Sensei, offended, "Hey, I have friends!"

"Sorry," he shrugged, not sorry at all.

"Hey, Sensei, when am I gonna learn to do some kicking?" Miguel asked. "I was watching this YouTube video of this guy breaking boards and it looked badass."

"Yeah, no shit," Johnny scoffed. "Kicking is badass, but you're not ready. Besides, if I don't get more students in here, I'm not gonna be able to teach either of you anything."

Violet exchanged a look with Miguel, "Have you thought about advertising?"

Johnny paused, "Yeah, duh. Of course."

". . . So you haven't."

"Zip it, Huang."

"Cyberbullying is no laughing matter," Councilor Blatt droned on. The whole of West Valley High was rounded up in the cafeteria, "listening" to a lecture on cyber bullying. You know, if being immersed in your phones counted as listening.

Violet was only half paying attention. Partially because she wanted to be polite, and possibly also because she was too busy trying to not-creepily stare at Eli without being caught. Although, unfortunately for her, Miguel had seen her doing it for the past couple of minutes and managed to snap a picture of her mid-stare without her noticing.

". . . crying after some kids online made fun of his facial deformity."

Violet's head snapped up. Everyone in the room was suddenly unashamedly staring straight at their table. More specifically, straight at Eli, pointing and whispering things like "That kid!" and "The one with the weird lip!"

Humiliated, Eli slowly covered his scar with his hand. He wished more than anything in that moment for the ground to swallow him whole. His day, no, his week, was officially ruined. And someone had the audacity to— Oh.

Originally, he thought that someone had kicked a stray piece of food or trash at his leg. It wouldn't have been the first time.

But it was Violet. She had gently hooked her left leg around his right one in an act of comfort.

She gave him a questioning look, silently asking, Is this okay?

Eli gave her as much of a smile as he could muster at that moment.

And then, for the first time, Eli wondered if maybe all the times he'd caught Violet staring at him wasn't because she thought his scar was weird. Maybe she wasn't judging him like he thought. Maybe, he had a chance.

"You know, if you're tired of being bullied, our dojo's looking for new students," Violet told Eli. He perked up in interest, until Demetri said, "Yeah, right. You hear that, Eli? A little karate training and you're gonna kick some major ass."

Eli had to restrain himself from giving Demetri a dirty look for shooting Violet's idea down, but she didn't seem bothered.

"I'm serious, Demetri," Violet pressed. "I've only been doing karate for a little bit, and it's helped me a lot."

"Our sensei's the real deal, and I'm sure we could get you both discounts," Miguel added in.

But Demetri was set, "As enticing as that sounds, I think we'd rather spend our afternoons playing Crucible Control than getting hit in the face."

The girl was a little disappointed, but she didn't blame Demetri. She probably would've said something similar a few months ago.

"It's fine. Just think about it."

"Oh, and one last thing," Blatt announced. "While we're all looking forward to the Halloween dance, let's make sure our costumes are culturally sensitive. For example, instead of 'sexy nurse,' maybe try 'gender-neutral hospital employee'."

"Good thing I was planning on being a sexy waitress."

"Wait, really?"

"No, you perv."