New Message From: Eli📚
Eli📚: Hey. Did you get home okay yesterday?
Flossie🌸: Yeah. All good. You doing okay?
Eli📚: I'm fine.
Flossie🌸: Kyler's a loser.
Eli📚: I guess.
Read at 6:43 AM.
7:24 AM
Eli📚 added Demetri🧝🏼♂️ to the chat.
Eli📚: You guys wanna come over after school?
Demetri🧝🏼♂️: Yeah sure. I got a new chemistry set so we can blow shit up.
Eli📚: Don't ruin another carpet. My mom will kill me.
Demetri🧝🏼♂️: 🙄 Whatever.
Eli📚: Flossie? You coming?
Flossie🌸: Sorry guys. I have to do something after school.
Eli📚: Again?
Demetri🧝🏼♂️: 😐😐😐
Demetri🧝🏼♂️: Stop acting like you have other friends
Flossie🌸: Shove off. I'm a busy gal.
Eli📚: You still want a ride to school, right?
Flossie🌸: Please. I think my bike's fucked up. It keeps drifting to the left.
Demetri🧝🏼♂️: That's what you get when you buy a bike for 20 dollars.
Flossie🌸: Don't talk to me today.
Flossie sighed, rereading the messages with her two best friends. She wished she were at Eli's right now, "blowing shit up" but she had other things on her mind too.
Her mouth— her wit— was sharp, but her fists couldn't follow through. Miguel had finally convinced her. If she wanted to defend her best friend then she needed the right training.
The bell chimed as she stepped into the karate dojo, glancing around nervously. Miguel jumped up at the sight of his friend, happy she actually turned up.
"What the hell?" The older man said. "No yoga till 5:00."
Flossie looked down at herself, questioning what made him think she was here for yoga. "Um," she started unsure. "Yeah, no. I'm actually here to kick Miguel's ass."
Miguel snickered at this, looking between his friend and his Sensei. The man looked at her confused so she continued. "Miguel told me you were looking for new students, and I want to learn how to fight," she stated, making a fist in anger as she thought about her reasons for coming here in the first place.
"I appreciate you coming in, but there are no girls in Cobra Kai," the man said sternly, looking away.
Flossie scoffed at this. "Yeah, right," she bickered. "And why is that?" She questioned him.
Miguel got nervous, glancing at his Sensei again. He knew that Flossie wasn't one to take shit, especially from someone who —legally— couldn't kick her ass.
"Same reason there aren't women in the Army," he said simply, shrugging his shoulders.
Flossie got mad, as she had often nowadays, and stepped onto the mat. "What so women are just supposed to pretend to be weak and fragile so that men can feel superior?" She questioned fiercely and then scoffed. "That's insane! If women don't learn to stand up for themselves then men will control the world!"
Miguel nodded in agreement. Sensei Lawrence didn't appreciate this though. "Don't give me that "sexist" bullshit," he stated coldly.
Her friend cut in now too. "The same kids who pick on me pick on her too," he approached his Sensei. "They pick on all of our friends."
It seemed Sensei Lawrence had a soft spot for Miguel because he sighed, like he realized that the kid actually cared about this girl. "Okay, take off your shoes. Hop on the mat. Okay, after further review, l've decided to allow female students," he decided.
Flossie did just that, but he continued anyway. "But if you want to be in Cobra Kai, you can't act like a girl."
She almost laughed at this, "what? And I have to act like a guy? Take showers once a week, bottle up my emotion and explode on the first person that tics me off—-"
"Quiet!" He yelled, and she shut up suddenly. "My student tells me you've been harassed at school."
Flossie nodded, unsure of what to say. "I guess, mostly online or anonymous notes taped to my locker," she confessed.
"And what do you do?" He questioned her.
"I don't know," she shrugged. "Sometimes I say something, but most of the time I just eat lunch in the bathroom."
Sensei Lawrence looked at her baffled. "We're you dropped on your head?"
Flossie smirked, readying her sarcastic reply. "I mean yeah," she lied. "But everyone had the good grace not to mention it until now—-"
"Quiet!" Sensei Lawrence had enough of her comments for one day. "You have a trash mouth. You can talk a lot of bull, but you can't back it up."
Flossie wanted to roll her eyes, obviously, that's why she was there. "When l'm done with you, you're gonna be sending a message back, only it's not gonna be with your words. It's gonna be with your fists," he stated firmly. The girls blood started pumping, adrenaline coursing through. Maybe now she could finally make those dickheads pay for all the shit they put her and her friends through.
"Face me. Bow," Sensei Lawrence commanded and the two obliged. "Face each other. Bow."
Flossie and Miguel stood, staring at each other, waiting for whatever they were supposed to do, when their Sensei finally spoke up. "Mr. Diaz, show her everything you've learned."
Miguel swallowed at this, looking shocked. "Uh, whoa, wait, I don't think this is right, Sensei," he commented, almost backing up.
"You don't think what's right?" Sensei Lawrence questioned confused.
"She's a girl, l'm not gonna..."
Their Sensei cut him off, annoyed with his protesting, "and? I thought you said women were equal to men."
"I did say that. I didn't mean it like that," Miguel said scared but Flossie was growing frustrated with all the conversation. "I meant that she—-"
Flossie cut Miguel off. "Miguel, what? Are you scared you're gonna get your ass beat?" She questioned fiery.
Miguel widened his eyes to her, wordlessly questioning if she were crazy, but Sensei Lawrence on the other hand smirked at her spirit. "All right, show her women are equal. Give her everything you got."
The boy still was protesting the idea, and Flossie planted her feet, preparing herself. "Stop bitching, like a girl, and fight me," she sneered, using their Sensei's words against him.
Sensei Lawrence was impressed with the girls toughness, and was even more interested in how she planned it fight the kid, so he looked at Miguel. "Are you ready Mr. Diaz?" He asked roughly.
Miguel nodded hesitantly and then the Sensei turned to Flossie. "Ms. Akridge?"
Flossie nodded sternly, taking a deep breath before putting her hands up. "Fight!" Sensei commanded. "Don't just stand there. Fight!"
The girl was still unsure how to approach the situation as the only fights she had ever been with were with her brother. She had been fighting him her whole life — more like getting her ass beat by her sibling 3 years older than her — but still that was the only experience.
"I'm sorry," Miguel said sadly before delivering a hard kick to her gut.
Flossie doubled over in pain, sprawling on the mat, but thankfully all those times her brother beat the shit out of her helped her gain some composure.
Like an electrical shock to her system, she felt a surge of confidence flow through her veins. All the shit she dealt with: her asshole brother, Yasmine's bitch comments and Kyler picking on her and her friends. It all piled up to fill her with rage. Rage that she unfortunately took out on Miguel.
"Oh my god," Miguel said toward her cowering figure. "Flossie, are you okay? I'm so sorry."
Flossie excepted his helping hand but instead flipped him onto his back and delivered a swift blow to his jaw.
Miguel was surprised and Sensei Lawrence was happily surprised. "Yeah!" He cheered. "That's what I'm talking about. Skip right to the third rule: no mercy. Good job, iron-fist."
Flossie couldn't even pay attention to her new nickname, she could only focus on what she just did to Miguel. The boy sat holding his jaw in pain, and Flossie held his shoulder scared. "Shit, sorry Miguel," she said quietly. "I didn't mean to hit you that hard."
Miguel shook his head, "n-no it's okay," he sat up in pain. "Good hit."
Sensei Lawrence stepped out for a moment to address the commotion outside, leaving them two in the dojo alone. Once Miguel collected himself, the two practiced their hitting on the dummy.
"So, you actually came," Miguel said between hits.
Flossie nodded, focusing in on her technique— punching through the dummies face. "Yeah," she muttered. "I'm sick of those pricks at school picking on Eli for his lip. The other day at the library, I couldn't even do anything," she said frustrated punching harder. "They remind me of my brother."
Miguel looked at her confused. "Your brother? I didn't know you had a brother," he inferred. "What's he do?"
Flossie almost laughed at this, delivering one last hit that made the weighted dummy almost topple over from the power. "He's an asshole," she stated simply, shrugging her shoulders. "He's in the marines."
"So he like.. kills people?" Miguel questioned.
The girl shrugged again, stepping back to catch her breath. "Guess so," she whispered. "At least it's better than him wailing on me all the time."
Miguel shuttered at the thought. "So you have fought your brother before, and he's a marine" he began. Flossie nodded her head and he continued. "So why don't you ever fight Kyler or anyone at school?"
She thought about the question for a second, considering how to answer. "Just cause my brother and I got into it, doesn't mean I'm any good. Plus they have a bunch of friends that could kick my ass too," Flossie told him. "I wanna get good. Do it right."
"For Eli?" Miguel questioned, remembering what she said before.
Flossie nodded shyly. "Yeah, for Eli."