As ordered, at 5am in the goddamn morning, we were all up and… well I wouldn’t say completely awake. I was as awake as I usually was of course. It turned out that we were meeting at a construction site, and were helping them with cement… shit i don’t know what to call it. Dad was drill sergeant-ing us all day, and it was starting to get on my nerves. It was hot, and sweaty, It was all because of Kreese, and I knew it. Dad was embarrassed that we were still human beings, unlike him and all his friends from school.
“Don’t add too much water. You wanna make it nice and thick” Dad controlled
“That’s what he said” I whispered, making Hawk and Miguel burst out laughing.
Our laughter however, came to a gruff stop when dad walked over, all awkwardly continuing to mix cement.
“Sensei, why are we mixing cement?” Miguel asked
“No questions”
“Alright” Miguel panted
“Keep stirring!”
I sighed as I brought another bag over to Miguel and Hawk. I looked up to see Kreese staring me down. He’d been doing it all morning, and it was really freaking me out. What was he staring at? Had I gotten a new zit I didn't see? Did he think I looked fat in this shirt- hold on, wait. He’s like- a 50 year old man, if he’s looking at me like that- ew- no. Oh god.
“Hey Harles you okay? You look sick” Hawk nudged me, getting his attention.
“Huh? Oh yeah I’m fine” I waved off, quickly walking away to grab another bag of cement.
If Kreese really was checking me out, I couldn’t tell anyone. One: who would believe me? Two: I didn’t want to bother my dad. Despite him being an evil dick, some twisted part of my dad still looked up to Kreese. Oh that just makes it so much worse.
Suddenly a large cement truck came rolling onto the street we were on. That’s weird, what are we doing here then? We all watched carefully, looking around at each other confused. We all gathered around, dad stood in front of the cement truck.
“Dad uh- what the fuck?” I sighed, wiping sweat off my face
“You think winning the All Valley gives you the right to goof off?” my dad didn’t pay me any mind “Well I got news for you. Winning one championship don’t mean squat! A true champion never stops training-”
I looked over at Kreese again, smugly leaning against the truck, still keeping his beating eyes on me. It put me off, honestly. I wrapped my arms around my chest, wishing I hadn’t decided to wear a tank top today, even if it was baggy and felt like 100 degrees.
Why did he have to stare at me? What in the hell did this twisted pedophile see in me!? I had become so bothered by keeping track of Kreese’s eyes, that I didn’t notice the rest of the group move until my feet got swept out from under me, and I was on my back in the dirt.
“Get your head out of the clouds Harley! Any more cheek from you and you’re out of Cobra Kai, is that understood!” my dad shouted
“What-” I looked up at my dad, he was dead serious, holy shit “.... yes sensei” I sighed
“Good” Dad nodded. Hawk held a hand down, him and Miguel helping me to my feet “Now that you’re all present. Climb up, get inside, and make it spin” he pointed to the cement truck
We were all in shock at that. I was enraged, he had officially lost what was left of his cracked marbles.
“Are you out of your!-” A hand went flying over my mouth, someone had pulled me against their chest.
Three guesses who. I pulled against them of course, but Hawk held me close and tight, keeping a hand over my mouth.
“You wanna get thrown off the team?” Hawk whispered.
“Sensei, we’re sorry for messing around” Aisha sighed
I tugged against him once more, he just wrapped his arms tighter around me until I had mostly calmed down.
“We learned our lesson” Hawk assured
I sighed, leaning back into him, shutting my eyes and pretending this wasn’t happening. Hawk slowly let go of me, he kept one arm around my shoulders though, I don’t know why, probably for precaution.
“Get in!” Dad shouted
“Sensei this seems dangerous, I mean the fumes alone-”
“Quiet!” not dad… Kreese shouted “This man led you to the mountain top” he pointed at dad “And you question him?” He walked over to us. He stopped in front of me, staring me down “Look at you” I shifted uncomfortably in Hawk’s arms, Kreese smirked wickedly “Look at all of you” he took his eyes off me “I can’t believe this pathetic pack of pussies, competed in the All Valley, and let alone won. It’s an absolute miracle” he chuckled “And who’s responsible for that miracle? Johnny Lawrence”
“Giver take” I mumbled under my breath
“The best student in the history of Cobra Kai, my student”
“You were sensei’s sensei?” Hawk asked
“You better believe it kid” Kreese nodded “And I’ll tell ya, I’ve never trained a tougher student, in my whole life” he was buttering him up so he’d trust him again, how could no one see this!? “So if you know what’s good for you, you better listen to every goddamn word he says”
Miguel was the first to step forward, which honestly didn’t surprise me.
“I’ll do it sensei”
He went up first, and of course Hawk followed after him, those two being best buds in all. Hawk looked back at me before he went up the ladder. I growled, rolling my eyes and following after him.
“If he dies” I mumbled so no one else could hear but my dad “I’ll kill you without a second thought”
With that I went up after the guys, followed by Aisha and Bert, and a few others. We couldn’t fit everyone in here. We went in, all the walls were covered in wet cement, the rest of it at the bottom was high enough to go mid thigh for me, poor Bert was almost up to his hips.
“Don't just stand there. You wanna get stuck? Move!” Dad called inside.
“For fucks sake” I groaned.
“Uh- Harley” Miguel looked over at me “What do we do?”
Everyone looked at me after that. Had I really become the leader out of all of us? Miguel and Aisha were far better leaders than me, even Hawk… but they were all staring at me, so I took charge.
“Alright, everyone stand on this side, plant your feet as well as you can, put equal weight on both feet to help” everyone did as I said “Lean forwards, press against the wall” We all did so, getting ourselves completely covered in cement “Distribute your weight evenly across your whole body or-” One of the boys slipped, landing chest hard in the cement “Or you’ll slip” I sighed
“Okay- come on get pushing” Miguel spoke up
“Let’s go guys move it!” Dad shouted from outside
“I’m gonna kill him” I muttered
“Come on, all of you, go” Miguel encouraged
“Come on assface, don't just stand there!” Hawk grumbled
“Hey, work together guys” I tried to keep everyone calm.
Suddenly the mixer started to turn, we felt our hands falling forwards.
“Push!” Miguel shouted
We all started slowly walking, and the cement mixer started to turn. I actually smiled, as ridiculous as it was I was proud of everyone for getting it over with.
“A little bit faster!” Dad shouted at us again
“We got this guys! You’re doing a great job just keep going” I encouraged
“Thanks Harley” everyone chorused genuinely
I smiled, shaking my head fondly. As we pushed harder the roller started to spin faster, as soon enough we were completely covered in cement, falling over and tired, but we picked each other back up, held onto one another and kept going. As if our limbs weren’t already killing us.
“Come on guys! We got this!”
“We’re doing it!” Hawk cheered “Faster! Faster! Faster!”
Soon enough it was going fast enough where it was getting hard to keep up. We could hear people outside cheering, even my dad. I was proud of us.
~~
A few minutes later we were back outside, being sprayed down with hoses before the cement stuck to us and we’d all have to go to the hospital.
“You should be proud of yourselves” dad proclaimed while hosing us down “I know I’m proud. Your parents would be proud too, if you told them what we did here today, which we won’t”
“Little past that point” I chuckled
“Yeah” Dad actually acknowledged me “You pushed forward like champions. Never stopping. Never being satisfied. Never giving up… And if you keep pushing, and keep moving forward, you're gonna go to places you never even dreamed of”
I smiled softly. Despite being under a lot of stress and pressure, dad had still managed to give us an inspirational and proud talk. Maybe he was growing too.
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