sweep the heart | cobra kai

quiver

The new Cobra Kai students chatted. Miguel, Aisha, and Hallie practiced hits, the only three students in gis.

Hallie's dad finally walked out of the office.

"Okay, today we begin..." he started, but the room didn't quiet down. "Quiet!" He shouted. "Face front."

The students obeyed. He started roaming through the crowd, studying the people there.

"Nice shirt," he said to a nerdy-looking boy with black hair wearing a pi shirt.

"Thanks," the boy said.

"I'm joking. It sucks." He approached some kid with greasy hair, smiling. "Word of advice. If you got shit for teeth, don't smile." The guy frowned as Hallie's dad moved to a younger boy. "God, makes me feel like a virgin just looking at you." He raised his voice to speak to the entire group. "When I look around this dojo, I don't see Cobra Kai material. I see losers, I see nerds. I see a fat kid with a funny hat and his tits popping out. But in my short time as a sensei, I've also seen some miracles. So maybe there's some hope for you yet... but first I need to see where you're at. So everybody, fall in!"

No one moved. A few people whispered, confused.

"That means line up."

The students nodded and started lining up behind Miguel and Hallie.

"No, not... not line up in a line," he called. "Lines. Get in lines."

"You mean, like, rows?" The nerdy kid with the ugly shirt asked.

Hallie's dad sighed, exasperated. Eventually, he was able to get them organized and teach a basic punch. He had Hallie demonstrate it on Miguel - a particularly funny part of an otherwise mediocre session.

"Fighting positions," he called. The students obeyed. "Jab punch. No, wait till I say go. Hiyah!"

He kept walking through the rows of students, calling out commands and watching their jab punches. He corrected a few kid's stances, being sure to insult them in the process.

When he came to the front of the room, he stopped. "Hey, Lip."

One of the students with a scar above his lip looked at Hallie's dad, nervous. She had seen him talking to the nerdy boy with the ugly shirt.

"Yeah, you, the one with the freaky lip. Who do you think I'm talking to?" He continued.

"Excuse me, uh, Mr. Lawrence," Ugly Shirt Nerd spoke.

"Sensei Lawrence!" Aisha corrected.

"Okay," he chuckled. "You really shouldn't make fun of someone's physical appearance."

"Oh, is that so?" Hallie's dad asked. "So I'm not supposed to mention his lip at all?"

"Well... yeah."

"Maybe that's what they teach you in school, but in the real world, you can't expect people to do what they're supposed to do," he looked around. "Alright? You hear that, Lip? If you can't handle someone making fun of you, how are you gonna handle an elbow to the teeth?"

"By calling the police...?" Ugly Shirt Nerd furrowed his brow.

"Dude, knock it off," Miguel said.

"What? He does realize the Nazis lost the war, right? Why should I be scared of him? Because he's got a snake on his wall? It's not like he's a teacher who can give us a bad grade. We're paying him. He works for us. It's not like he can actually hurt us."

Hallie's dad slowly walked up to Ugly Shirt Nerd. The students around him nervously stepped back.

"Oh, shit," Miguel groaned under his breath.