"Are you ready?" Miguel asked Eli, Demetri, and me as we stood outside Cobra Kai
"I guess so" I mumbled and the two boys nodded
"Alrighty then let's go," Miguel said smiling, we had gotten there early to practice, "Sensei these are my friends," Miguel said and I almost gasped when I saw who our Sensei was, I had completely forgotten that Robby's father taught Cobra Kai.
"You," Johnny said jabbing a finger at me "I know you, you live in our apartment complex" I had no idea why he didn't mention Robby but whatever
"Yep, that's me," I said nervously looking at the ground "by the way I'm not a jackass" I added and Johnny glared at me obviously remembering our most recent encounter.
"Whatever," he said walking to the door and letting more students in, we all stood around for a bit while Johnny went to put his karate robes on.
"Fighting positions" Johnny instructed and we all followed Miguels lead "jab punch, not till I say go....YA" we all punched the air "YA" we punched again, this continued to go on for a while until Johnny walked to the front of the class and spotted Eli.
"Hey lip" he yelled and Eli looked up "yeah you the kid with the freaky lip, who do you think I'm talking to" Eli looked sad standing there
"Excuse me, Mr.Lawrence," Demitri said
"Sensei" Aisha corrected him
"Ok, you really shouldn't make fun of someone's physical appearance, " Demitri told him
"Oh is that so, so I'm not supposed to mention his lip at all?" Johnny asked
"Well yeah," Demetri said, I moved to Eli's side and gave him a hug, I hated how much I still cared for him, sometimes it was in a friendly way and sometimes more than that.
"Yeah well maybe that's what they teach you in school, but in the real world you can't expect people to do what they are supposed to do, right ya hear that lip if you can't handle someone making fun of you how are you going to handle and elbow to the ribs"
"By calling the police," Demetri said
"Dude cut it out" Miguel hissed
"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 pay him he works for us it's not like he can actually hurt us"
Johnny walked dangerously close to Demetri and Miguel sighed, I pulled Eli away and he held onto me tightly
"You done," Johnny asked Demetri "hit me, go ahead strike me" Demetri flung his fist "harder" Johnny commanded so Demetri tried again "is that all you got princess?" Demetri flung his wrist as hard as possible and Johnny slammed him to the floor "let that be a lesson to all of you" he said "CLASS DISMISSED"
For some reason, we all went back on Thursday to try again well not Demetri he had told Miguel and me that he didn't want to live like a hooker which I didn't get. "Where is everyone?" Johnny asked "crater face, nose ring, slingshot" Miguel rolled his eyes
"They quit Sensei"
"Are you serious?" Johny said "actually good, this was a test, I wanted to see who was a quitter, you guys are in it to win it, even lip is still here lip is no quitter" I wanted to die, poor Eli looked like he wanted to die as well
"Could you please not call me that?" Eli asked quietly
"Excuse me what?"
"I said could you please not call me that," Eli said a but louder
"I can warm them up, I announced"
"No no, lip has something to say and I need to talk to you after class miss..."
"Aella stone," I told him
"Ok, lip speak up, or is your tongue messed up too, are you one of those challenged kids"
"My doctor said I could be on the spectrum," Eli told him
"I don't know what that is but get off it pronto, if you don't want me to call you lip don't have a weird lip, can't you get surgery for that" I rammed my head into Miguel's shoulder who covered his face with his hands, we both were feeling very bad for Eli
"I was born with a cleft lip, this is the scar from the surgery" Eli admitted
"You mean it was worse before that cause If that's the after photo then that sucks man you should sue," Johnny said
"Can we please change the topic?" Eli asked
"You don't think I want to, it's hard when it's right in front of me you gotta flip the script get a face tattoo, or gauge your eye we'll call you patch, actually don't do that you'll still look like a freak.
Eli walked out of the dojo and I ran after him, "Eli don't go" I yelled and he turned around to face me
"God wake up Aella, I'm a freak I'm never going to get a girlfriend because I'm disgusting and the one girl I did like picked some other dude" he cried
"Eli, you are not disgusting," I said pulling him into a hug "and whoever this girl happens to be she is an idiot for not liking you and she isn't worth your time" he pushed me away from him
"Aella open your eyes, I like you" he yelled "I've liked you since the moment I met you and you picked Robby Keene, he may not be your boyfriend but you kissed him"
"Eli, how did you know about that?"
"I saw his text on your phone last night and I'm sorry but I deleted it because I wanted you to choose me" he sobbed and I had no idea what to say to the broken boy in front of me
"I do like you Eli" I mumbled "it's just I like Robby too"
"Well you can't have both of us you have to make up your damn mind" he yelled
"I can't decide on the spot Eli," I told him and he scoffed
"Fine but make up your mind soon," he said and stormed away, I walked back into the dojo trying not to cry.
"Aella my office please," Johnny said and I followed him in "so are you and Robby dating?" he asked
"uh it's complicated," I said and he nodded
"can you just not mention that I'm his father to anyone"
"Yeah, I wasn't going to" I walked out of the room still very down about what had happened at Eli. That night he wouldn't text me back and I was worried. I still hadn't heard from him in the morning, he skipped school and when I got back to Cobra Kai he wasn't there. I felt so bad and I wasn't listening to what anyone was saying.
"Aella" Miguel whispered
"What?"
"Look" I glanced up at some kid with a mohawk and shrugged at Miguel
"Should I know who that is?" I asked but he didn't respond, I was suddenly engulfed in a hug and I looked around for who it was and mohawk was there, I was so confused but then I saw his lip.
"Eli?" I asked
"Well basically yes but I think I'll go by Hawk now," he said still giving me a hug, there was always something different about hugs from Eli, even before he was this new changed person it always made me giddy and excited.
"Do you like the new look?" he asked
"Yes" I laughed and he hugged me tighter, this was a random burst of confidence he was having but I'm not complaining
"I flipped the script" he whispered