Chapter Sixteen
CALL ME BY MY NAME
When Mara woke up the next morning she immediately got on the floor and started to do push-ups. Ever since Robby had told her that she relied on her legs too much she had made sure to start focusing on fighting with her full body. If she wanted to be the best she had to train like it.
She finished her workout and decided now would be a good time to go on a run. Just because she wasn't the best at Cobra Kai didn't mean she had to lose her spot as the best on the track team. She passed by Ryan's room and knocked on his door. "I'm going on a run if you want to join!"
"I'm coming! Hold on a second." She waited a few moments and Ryan came out in a sleeveless shirt and shorts. "Sorry I was taking pictures for...actually never mind."
Mara just looked at him weirdly and walked into the kitchen to grab her water bottle. "I was thinking 5 miles today."
Ryan nodded. "Did you dye your hair again?"
Mara smirked. "Yeah. Thought I needed a change."
"It looks badass. Send me the name of your stylist."
"You're going to dye your hair?"
"No, Miguel is."
"Miguel told you he wants to dye his hair," Mara asked him in disbelief.
"Not exactly. I think he would look hot so I'm proposing the idea to him."
"Miguel is not going to dye his hair. Not even for you."
"I can be very persuasive." Ryan winked.
Mara just snorted. "Good luck with that lover boy." She grabbed his water bottle from the fridge and tossed it to him and they left the house to go for their run.
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Hawk watched from his window as Ryan and Mara jogged down the road. He didn't understand why she wasn't speaking to him. Was she mad because he found someone? To him, there was no problem with it. She told him she liked someone else so what was so wrong about him finding someone else too?
"Eli! Come down for breakfast!"
He sighed and left his spot by the window and went downstairs to eat. His mom had a stack of chocolate chip pancakes set out on the table. His favorite. "Thanks, Mom."
He sat down and started to eat and his mom frowned at his glum face. She sat down with her coffee in front of him. She had pretended not to notice his personality change when he decided to change his look, but she had never seen him look this sad since the change. "Why don't you invite Mara over? I haven't seen her in a while."
Eli shook his head. "She's not talking to me."
"Why? You guys are best friends."
"I don't know. She's been so upset with me lately and she won't even tell me why."
"Maybe you can invite Demetri over then?"
Hawk cursed to himself. He hadn't seen Demetri let alone spoken to him since the victory party. He had been so wrapped up in Cobra Kai and getting Mara to speak to him he completely forgot about the boy. "I don't think that's an option either. I'm just going to head to the dojo."
"Oh ok. Well be safe and text me when you get there."
"Ok, mom."
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After their run Mara and Ryan came back home. Ryan decided to go lounge at the pool again and Mara left for the dojo. When she got there the dojo was already full and she noticed that they had a lot of new students.
She noticed Bert, Aisha, and Hawk standing in front of the boys from yesterday. "Did I say you could speak," Hawk yelled at the dark-skinned boy.
Mara noticed their scared faces and walked over to them. "They're just messing with you."
Miguel came from beside her and placed his hand on her shoulder. "Yeah. Everyone knows your names are Assface and Douchebag."
Mara laughed at the boy and went into the backroom to put on her Gi. When she came back out she noticed Sensei talking to an unfamiliar man. He noticed her behind them and smiled. "Like the new hair short-stack. Looks badass."
She crossed her arms. "Can you quit calling me short-stack? I've grown 3 inches since I've met you."
"Well, what do you want to be called?"
"How about my name?"
The man beside Sensei chuckled and Mara looked at him for a second before walking off. Kreese turned to Johnny. "She has fire. I imagine she's one of your best students."
Johnny didn't know what Kreese was up to, but he still didn't fully trust him. "Yeah, she's a talented kid. Probably my best right behind Miguel and Hawk."
Kreese nodded and looked back at the little girl who was now talking to another student.
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Mara walked away from the two men and looked around the dojo at all of the new students. She noticed a girl standing by herself away from the rest of the class. It was safe to say she came here alone and didn't know anybody. "Hey, I'm Mara. What's your name?"
The girl took Mara's outstretched hand. "Georgia, but my friends call me Gia."
"Nice to meet you, Gia. There aren't a lot of girls in the karate world so we gotta learn to stick together. Come on I'll introduce you to some of my friends."
Gia followed her over to where Aisha, Miguel, and Hawk were standing. "Guys this is Gia. Gia meet Miguel and Aisha." Hawk gave her a really look and she rolled her eyes. "And that's Hawk."
Gia nodded at them. "It's nice to meet you."
"Alright! Everyone line up."
Mara looked at Gia who looked confused on where she should go. "You can stand behind me." She patted her on the arm and walked to her spot in the front of the class. Gia stood behind her and nervously put her hands behind her back like the rest of the students.
"Class, we have a visitor. This is Mr. Kreese. He's just an observer. Pretend like he's not even here. Mr. Diaz, warm them up."
Miguel walked up and took Sensei's place. He bowed to the class. "Fighting positions! Front kick. Yuh! Forward strike. Yuh! Side dab. Yuh!"
Mara put her arms down and sighed as everyone else dabbed. This wasn't the time to mess around. They weren't thirteen.
"What the hell was that?"
Miguel turned to Sensei who looked far from pleased. "We were just messing around. We have 11 and a half months until the next All Valley."
"Yeah, besides, we already know how to kick ass," Hawk added.
Mara crossed her arms and grumbled, "If you could already kick ass you wouldn't have gotten disqualified for cheating."
Hawk turned to her angrily. "What did you say?"
"You heard me."
"Quiet! So you know everything huh? There's nothing left to learn?"
Aisha started giggling and everyone turned their attention to her. "What's so funny, Ms. Robinson?"
"I'm sorry Sensei. You just wouldn't understand."
"Try me."
"It's a snake-do." People started to laugh at her words which confused Sensei.
"What's a snake-do?"
Everyone made the shape of a snake with their arms and started to hiss. Mara giggled slightly. She had to admit it was funny.
"Quiet! 5:00 AM tomorrow morning! Corner of Fulton and Raymer. You don't show, and you're off the team. Class dismissed." Sensei stormed off to his office with Mr. Kreese following him.
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Mara drove Miguel to her house after practice. The car ride was silent and Miguel wanted to ask Mara what had been up with her lately. "Hey Mars?"
"Yeah?"
"What happened at the canyon party? You've been really upset and aggressive since then." He watched as her grip on the steering wheel tightened.
"Nothing important. It doesn't matter anymore."
"Come on. You know you can tell me anything."
She looked at him and turned back to the road. "I was going to ask Moon out. I spent all night trying to figure out who I was going to choose. And when I finally saw her, her tongue was shoved down Hawk's throat. All because Yasmine decided she couldn't let me be happy for once." Mara turned to Miguel again and Miguel frowned seeing the tears starting to build up. "I was happy Miguel and she ruined it."
The jeep pulled into the driveway of the Abrams' house and Mara waisted no time in turning off the ignition and rushing into the house. Miguel followed her slowly feeling bad for making her talk about it.
He walked into their house and saw Ryan laying on the couch. Ryan's head perked up when he heard them enter and he smiled at Miguel until he noticed the look on his sister's face. "What's wrong? What happened?"
Mara just ignored him and stormed into her room. The two boys flinched at the sound of her door slamming. Ryan turned to Miguel and gave him a questioning look.
"She told me what happened at the party."
Ryan sighed and ran his hand through his hair. He didn't want to pressure her into talking but he didn't want her to have to deal with everything alone. "I think maybe we should give her a little space. I'll talk to her in a few hours. Let her calm down a bit."
Miguel nodded and let Ryan wrap his arms around him. "Now. How do you feel about getting your hair dyed?"
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Mara was laying down on her bed with a box of tissues beside her. Why did she let herself break? Cobra Kais didn't cry like babies. She was supposed to be stronger than this. Maybe she just wasn't meant to be a Cobra Kai at all. She was weak.
She reached under her bed and pulled out the bottle she had hid there this morning. She opened it and took a sip. She noticed that everytime she drank the easier it went down. The burning sensation didn't bother her anymore. In fact it felt good. She took another long swig of the drink and layed back down. There was more than one way to get rid of the pain.
And she just found the perfect way for her.
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Mara sweetie, what are you doing? She's starting to turn into Johnny a little. Do you think someone will help her out of her slump? Who do you think it will be?
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