𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐄́ ─ 𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐛𝐲 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐧𝐞

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞

"Do you realize the first thing you did this morning was stick your head in the freezer? You didn't say 'good morning' or even attempt to clean yourself up." Marissa changed her tone to that of near plead before speaking again, "Did you even remember my audition?"

"Oh, baby..." Alana attempted to smooth down her hair with tears nearly in her eyes. "How did it go? Were you great?" Her words sorry and sympathetic.

"I can't believe you," Marissa whispered coldy. She rounded the kitchen table, picked her jacket off the hook by the door and left the apartment with a slam. It wasn't time for lessons to start so she caught a bus to the one person who could make her feel better.

***

ENCINO WAS THE PART OF CALIFORNIA WHERE THE SUN WAS SHINER AND THE GRASS WAS GREENER. Everything was slick and clean and had a polished look about them regardless of what it was. The garbage cans had less garbage, the corners of streets held business offices opposed to drug stores. Churches were accompanied by big parking lots and not liquor stores.

Even the air, inhaled and exhaled, cleaner.

Finding Samantha LaRusso's house was like finding a hay in needle stack...it stuck out. It was big and grand and had about four different doors that could be used as an entrance. The pool could be seen from the front and the well-manicured lawn had not one leaf or petal out of place. It was, essentially, absolutely, perfectly, perfect.

Getting over the residual shock, Marissa picked up the doorknocker and pounded it against the door five times before stepping back. Within a second, the door opened and the one and only, Daniel LaRusso stood behind it.

"Hi," she began carefully. "I'm Marissa Van Camp."

"Hi, are you interested in Miyagi-Do?" The famed greeted her, although a stranger, with a hoping smile. Definitely not the same person from the day before.

"No, I'm, uh, already apart of a studio. Two, actually." She spared the name for sake of him turning her around. "I came to see Robby. We're friends. We used to live in the same apartment complex."

Daniel nodded his head in understanding and pushed the door back as a gesture for her to come inside. The outside was nothing compared to the inside. The only time Marissa has seen a house like this was in her dreams and on a road trip.

That's gonna be our house one day, Moon.

Stop it. She willed herself to block her father from her mind and she had been doing amazing for the last year. That road trip was just another excuse he used to run from his mistakes. He was just a liar.

"He's out back." Daniel's direction pulled her from her thoughts. As she made a move to go, his voice stopped her again. "How long have you been taking karate lessons?"

The question caught her off guard. "Uh, about three weeks. Almost a month."

"That's great, you know, it's never too early to start learning balance and self-defense."

"Sure..." Marissa trailed along in awkwardness.

"You look familiar."

Marissa now found no point in sparing the dojo name. "Yeah, I'm apart of Cobra Kai. I saw your agruement with Sensei Lawrence."