A Flower in War

Chapter Forty-Three: Mall Brawl

"You do punch pretty hard, sensei." Robby bows, still laughing.
"Stop it!" Cal chuckles, "I'm not a sensei!"
"You could be!"
"Doubtful. Not old enough or experienced enough. The last tournament I won was when I was seven!"
"Think you'll do All Valley next year?"
"I'd like to... just don't want to mess up or make Uncle Danny look bad." Cal explains softly.
"Hey," Robby holds her waist to stop her from walking away, "You could never make him look bad. You helped teach me and I got second place! If you mess up, you mess up. You're only human flower. Messing up doesn't make you look bad, only if you don't learn from the mess up - that's when you look bad."
"When did you become so wise?"
"I had someone believe in me before I ever believed in myself. She stuck by me through some of my worst moments, she showed me how to learn from those and make myself better, and I did. But I never would have been able to without her by my side cheering me on." Robby smiles, kissing her forehead.
"She sounds really great." Robby laughs, nodding in agreement.
"She is. I hope she'll take her own advice."
"Me too." Cal whispers, hugging Robby tightly.

"Come on, we should get home. Try to talk Mr. LaRusso off the edge." Cal laughs, agreeing before separating from the hug and walking off into the dojo and out to the car.

-

"Sammy! You came in today!" Cal exclaims, getting off the ground from beside Robby.
"Overheard the Demetri dilemma last night. I figured you could use another buffer." Sam smiles, giving her sister a hug.
"Thank you, so so much, truly!"
"Anything for you sis." Sam looks behind them at the pond, "Wonder if we could all fit on the deck?"
"Won't know if we don't try." Robby shrugs.

"Did you bring a change of clothes?"
"Yeah, I learned from the first time! No more algae clothes for me!" Sam chuckles.
"Found that out the hard way yesterday." Cal laughs.
"I heard."
"Ready to go girls?" Robby asks from the pond, waist deep in the water with his shirt now off.
"Yeah, let me take my shoes off!" Sam calls.
Cal heads into the water walking to the opposite side of Robby.

"Maybe a triangle formation?" Robby offers.
"Good idea! We just have to keep ourselves equidistant apart! We just need to find the three medians of our triangle to balance since we won't all fit in the centroid." Robby and Sam look to Cal with wide eyes.
"What? I suck at most math, just not geometry or financial math!"
"Dumb it down?" Robby begs.
"We need to all be the same distance from each other in order to balance on the deck. If we step off without the others, we will all be in the water. If someone falters, we all move to the center to keep balanced. Make sense?"
"Yes! Much more sense!" Sam nods.
"We're all gonna be in trouble with algebra II come fall." Robby laughs.
"Don't remind me." Sam groans.

"All right! On three?" Cal proposes, putting her hands on the dock.
"Yep!"
"Let's do it."
"Okay, one, two, three!" All three teens pull themselves onto the dock, wobbling slightly as they gather their bearings.
"Strong work everyone!" Daniel calls from the dojo, making the three smile.
"Okay, in a circle! Step one, punch two-"

The three go for it, still a bit wobbly due to the weight distribution but no one has fallen in yet so they all take that as a win.
"I don't know if we'll ever use this in a fight, but if we're ever forced into a dance battle, we're set."
Cal and Sam laugh, their chests falling forward, making the weight uneven again.
"Ooh!" They yell as they wobble.
Robby reacts quickly grabbing both of their arms to stabilize the dock.
"Uh, hey, are we doing shirts versus skins? Cause I prefer to be a shirt." Demetri stops, looking to Sam and Cal, "Not saying that you two have to be a skin. Uh... unless you want to! I support your right to choose." Sam and Cal nod, trying not to laugh.
"Demetri! Over here." Daniel calls, seemingly benefiting everyone who wanted to get out of that awkward conversation.