Cochlear | A Cobra Kai Fanfiction

63

"Pathetic."

She missed Kyler. She missed her friends. She missed her expensive Starbucks and nanny that cooked for her.

She missed her hearing.

Her hands desperately failed at wiping at the sticky mud covering her and her tears melted into the slick ground. The pain slowly molded into a dull throb inside of her burning chest and in that moment Jessica Park wanted nothing more than to wipe that smug grin off of her aunt's face because most of she missed...

Being the strongest.

The one standing above.

Being on top of the food chain.

Horror filled Jesse and she quickly turned around and examined the raging Sam in front of her. Her heart raced and suddenly the need to be on top died violently inside of her. An image of a pained Demetri thrown to the ground in front of her by her brother passed over her and another memory of a horrified Eli with milk over his head below her... her hand closed.

She could feel the carton in her hand.

Distracted by the seductive pull she had just felt, Jesse had no idea the match had started and just barely blocked the fist to the face with a sharp intake of breath. Her mind whirled and acted instinctively to prevent harm on her body, dodging and turning, grabbing and blocking, frantically trying to gain a second to figure out why she was here-!

An opening to Sam's side appeared and Silver's grin flashed in front of her with her dad's expecting eyes locked on her from thousands of miles away.

Jesse's attention left the open zone and instead took a retreating step back, letting Sam's fist graze against her arm in a point and both girls paused briefly for the point to be called and Sam to be given the-

No light.

No point.

And Sam was back on her and Jesse couldn't help but take in the obvious facts of the night with a nauseous stomach and put them next to Silvers. That should have counted, Sam should have been declared the inner, and yet the strike was ignored as if she never had gotten close-

Jessica's lips twitched into a smirk, her fists clenched tighter.

Ah.

The decision was sudden and instinctive. As they engaged again, she purposefully slowed her block, leaving her solar plexus exposed. A well-placed hit from Sam that was clear for everyone and the score was tied. As they separated for a brief respite, Silver's smile was replaced with a frown, his anger evident. He started to bark orders at her, but Jesse shrugged and pointed to her ears, a smirk on her face.

"Sorry, can't hear you," she said, her voice ringing clear across the silent dojo before she turned her back on him and re-entered the ring to wait happily for her opponent to come back.

For a moment, Jesse found Demetri and her heart nearly shattered as their eyes made contact. A small friendly nod was sent her way before he turned back to his team and Jesse licked her lips as her attention fell upon her other unlikely nerd friend.

Eli did more than a nod as his lips lightened into a smile and his hands laced in and out into a simple you got this. And that was all Jesse needed to lift her chin up and watch Sam LaRusso walk onto the mat.

Jesse watched it.

The strike that Sam knew Jesse would block in an attempt to open up the girl's lower body for an easy win. The knuckles aimed at Jesse's nose and we're sent with all the vengeance and anger that the blonde had saved up, her other hand moved forward to follow up with a punch to the solar plexus and-

"Winner: Samantha LaRusso!" The judge's call was met with a roar of approval from the crowd. Jesse laid on the mat for a moment, grinning up into the bright lights that bled on her as blood dripped out of her left nostril and stained her teeth. Her chest heaved for a moment in the silence thinking back to the last time stage lights shined so intently over her and the punishment that no longer mattered. The punishment that may await her didn't matter.

It was a blur in front of her as the medics on site appeared before her and carefully assessed the situation with questions she couldn't hear and pressure she hated to feel. It felt like a blink of an eye as she was lifted onto a stretcher and locked eyes onto the blonde staring at her as her team celebrated around her. Jesse grinned and broke the stare with a scream that she didn't care if it sounded garbled and slurred.

"Kick her ass, LaRusso!"

She could feel the road around her as she was rolled off with a napkin over her face. She ignored the stares and the glares, instead sighing and leaning back, eyes closing with a soft smile bleeding over lips. For the first time that night, she felt content, truly deaf to the world and its noise, and entirely at peace with her choice.

Hers.

A giggle bubbled out of her as she thought of what Silvers must of looked like when Sam hit her face, taking the point, because Jesse had run into it. It counted. It was a point.

Jesse had ended up on the ground below her opponent and instead of shame she felt... content. Her dad could take her Switch, her manga, comics, computers, even her implants, but he wouldn't take her choice.

And at that moment Jessica Park chose to lose and to exist peacefully in a silence she once feared.