Before I Forget

A Random Guy

And just like that, it was time for the All Valley tournament.

Sky wasn't really nervous, she felt rather stoic about it all. It had always been like that in her past Capoeira tournaments as well. Winning or losing just didn't mean so much to her, and as it had always been obvious that it would be Kat who won, or maybe Paulo - Kat's brother - if he participated, there had been no reason to be nervous. Now there would be no Kat to take the trophy, of course, but Sky was still in a similar mindset - she was pretty sure Miguel would win, or maybe someone from some other dojo. She had no idea how good the other competitors were going to be.

The only thing that made her a bit scared was the possibility of another flashback, but she hadn't had those since the last one at the dojo weeks ago. And it wasn't for the lack of trying - she had put Miguel through Hell every day, making him hit her so that it hurt, so that the tears were running down her face, and still, she hadn't fallen down that dark spiral.

So she could only hope it wouldn't happen today either.

She just wanted to get through this in one piece, to prove herself that she was finally standing on her own two feet again. And of course, she wanted to make dad proud.

Dad's excitement had been almost too much. He'd been wearing a Cobra Kai T-shirt and had prepared a huge sign that had said "Veni, vidi, vici! Sky for the Win!" and was so fucking embarrassing that Sky had put up a fight and plain refused to get in the car if he brought that thing.

The sign had been left at home, but it had done nothing to lessen Dad's excitement - and yeah, even if it was embarrassing, it also made Sky happy. It felt nice there was someone rooting for her.

Dad had already gone in to find his seat, but Sky was still hanging outside with the other Cobras waiting for their Sensei, who was running late. It was then that Bert opened his mouth and told them he had seen Johnny last night at the minimart completely wasted and urinating on his car.

"He did what?" Sky said, her brows furrowed, and Bert repeated what he had just said.

Aisha was clearly upset. "Well, why didn't you tell us this earlier?"

"I don't know, I guess I'm just so used to seeing him drunk that it didn't seem like that big a deal," Bert shrugged.

"Well we're here and he's not!" Hawk stated, his whole posture nervous and agitated. "So it's officially a big deal. What if something's happened to him?"

"Like what?" Bert asked, but Sky noticed he looked a bit nervous now too.

"I don't know, like he drove his car off a cliff, or he bought a gun and–" Hawk stopped talking mid-sentence, glancing at Sky as if realizing that talking about suicide or shooting people could maybe trigger her.

She took his hand in a reassuring manner, their fingers entwined.

"He's gonna be here, stop worrying," she said. "I'm sure he's fine."

"How can you know?"

"I just know. He wouldn't bail on us."

Despite the disturbing news about Sensei being even more wasted than usual, Sky had total confidence in him. Since their conversation at his doorway a couple of weeks ago, Sky had been sure of one thing - that he would get her back. Sensei had done everything in his power to make her strong, to make her tough, to make her confident - she knew he would not fail her now.

He was probably just hungover and late, but they still had plenty of time.

Hawk didn't seem convinced, but just as he started saying that they were going to have to do this without Sensei, Sky spotted someone in the crowd near the entrance.