AUTHOR'S NOTE: Just so y'all know- there is a little bit of a season 4 spoiler in case you haven't watched Season 4! Soooo read at your own risk!
CHAPTER 44:
THIRD PERSON POV
The days drag on with a wordless Zelena drowning in her own sorrows, spiraling deeper and deeper, intentionally dodging her boyfriend without a single explanation. A buzz against her thigh awakens the mind she swore she lost, but to ensure it wasn't her uncle she was ignoring, her fingers turn over the phone she'd stuffed beneath her thigh.
I swear if I get one more message from Hawk, I'm going to lose it.
Her head tilts back, suddenly annoyed with her boyfriend for bringing an outside force into this. For bringing Aisha into this when Zelena had intentionally left her out so she could enjoy the life she'd created for herself outside of this war zone between dojos. Her left thumb slides across the screen, tapping view, and begins to type a message back. Before absently sending it, her conscience forces her to read it. This only ends in a deletion of all typed words and a heavy sigh that passes through her lips.
A couple of rings trill on the other side of the electronic device and then the heavenly sound of Aisha's voice triumphs, "What happened? Why aren't you talking to Hawk?"
"Hi, Ish. Nice to talk to you too. I'm doing fine today. Thanks for asking." It drips in friendly sarcasm she's tucked away the last 120 hours since the restaurant disaster and the slightest of smiles cracks through her tough exterior. Only Aisha could do such a thing.
A soft chuckle sounds. "Yeah, yeah. Sorry. It is good to talk to you. But there's clearly something you need to talk about." Rustling of footsteps in the background remind Zelena that she is in fact in a house full of people and most likely has friends over.
Aisha can hear Zelena's hesitation from the other end of the line before her voice rings through, "Ish, I- You don't need to hear any of this."
"No. Don't do that to me. No shutting down. It's just my Aunt and cousins. I'm not busy right now and have nothing to do except listen to you about this."
The brunette girl shoves her head against her free palm in frustration about the whole ordeal, talking herself into thinking it's perhaps an overreaction on her part. Maybe she hadn't needed to storm out or ice out her boyfriend and Sensei after all. No, they acted like complete idiots and actually got into a fist fight that could have gotten either of them in jail. Besides, Robby already has a record and wouldn't be so lucky to get a detention center this time. A heavy sigh escapes her lips. "Robby texted me to take me up on that offer I made him when I went to see him at the detention center."
"Mexican food offer?" Aisha inquires, ensuring she has all the information correct before the story gets as juicy as she thinks it will get. Zelena never did ice someone out without reason.
Zelena hums in agreement, earning a soft 'continue' in response. "I," Her hand runs across the back of her hair on her head, following an
erratic spur of back and forth ruffling, surely messing her locks up. "I took Eli and Johnny with me this time just in case something happened. Johnny drove us and everything was kind of alright when we got there. Obviously he wasn't happy to see his dad or Eli, but it wasn't like I'd done it totally without reason." Aisha nods her head, though their line of communication didn't allow for it to technically show. She 'mhms' instead with a sheepish smile.
A lightbulb goes off in her head, "Do I need to beat Robby's ass, Zel? Because I certainly can and will."
The light upward quirk of her lips grows into a small smirk. "No, Ish."
"Good." Aisha's body lowers into the white, plastic bar stool she's seated on. "I've always liked Robby. Kinda thought you and him would end up together until Sam started dating him."
An image of Robby and Zelena on a date pops into her head and a shiver of disgust runs down her spine. "Yeah, not happening Aisha. But it turns out Robby had invited Ryan Carter to dinner too."
"Ryan Carter as in your father who just got released from jail without you knowing Ryan Carter?" Zelena hums to answer Aisha's blunt inquiry. "Yeah, see. I'm going to have to exchange some unkind words with Keene."
Zelena appreciates her long distance friend's interest in her life and tears up, missing the actual warmth of being in Aisha's presence. Misses her in the here and now. Actually seeing the flame in her eyes instead of just hearing it burn in her voice. Even FaceTime couldn't ever do it justice. "Well, um, basically he said I should talk to Ryan Carter. And I told that man that I didn't owe him anything and wasn't ready to have that conversation. We got ready to leave because it was just too weird to sit at a table I had very little interest in conversing with."
Aisha swirls the spoon in her milk around a few times, watching the red syrup mix with the white liquid until the entire cup becomes a Hubba Bubba stretched out shade of pink. "And then he had the audacity to say Eli is bad for me because Sensei called him Hawk and apparently he knows all about that." Her fingers run across her own hair, jaw slackening in surprise of the odd occurrence. "Sensei got involved to tell him to fuck off more or less and then the pair of them got into a literal brawl." Metal clangs against the side of the porcelain mug in absolute surprise. Absent dad versus absent dad. "I told Eli I wanted to leave and instead of helping he got into it with Robby and all of the noise got so loud," She can hear her best friend's voice get shaky on the other end of the phone. "I was taken back to those bad moments and had a panic attack."
A couple of seconds lie between the pair, just for good measure on Aisha's part. She didn't want to rush the conversation or interrupt Zelena if she had anything else further to offer. "And you are icing Hawk out because you really needed him and he had his head so far up his own ass, thinking he was protecting you by fighting Robby that he really left you out to fend for yourself." Zelena breathes out slowly in relief. She wasn't crazy. Aisha completely understood.
"Yeah."
"Okay so Hawk and Sensei Lawrence are idiots so why are you avoiding everyone else too? I've been getting texts from Sam and Miguel about why you're being so distant."
Zelena runs her hand across her hair again. "Same friend circle. Besides, if I talk about it Sam tells Mr. LaRusso about me seeing Ryan Carter and then my uncle finds out. If I tell Miguel- well he's sworn to honesty with Sam so by default he'd tell her and same thing happens."
"And not going to practice?"
"To avoid everyone and the growing shadow that is Kreese preparing to slaughter all of us at the tournament with that sick, evil smirk of his."
Aisha swallows hard, recalling the monster of a man she knows strikes fear into Zelena no matter how fearless she could sound and look. "Z, did you ever look into that therapist?"
"I looked into a therapist, called, got told I'd be put on a waitlist and never called another one." The pair of them know this honest revelation of information isn't good for Zelena, but neither of them says anything more about it. Aisha had told her a handful of times to go, especially following the unspoken trauma of her beating from Tory. "I know, Ish. I'm trying."
"I know, Z. But shutting them all out when you're going through something like this isn't good for you."
A softened sob escapes Zelena's tightly pressed together lips. "I- Eli reached for me in the car and I flinched away. All I could hear- all I can hear- are the chants and yells and scream, the chaos followed by an immediate, haunting silence. I feel like chaos just follows me." Aisha parts her own lips to say something else, but is interrupted by another cry from the other end. "I don't know if I flinched away from him because I was trying to protect myself from him or protect him from me. Both terrify me." Her body shakes and suddenly she's enveloped in a pair of arms that feel unfamiliar and familiar all at once.
"I think I have it from here, Aisha." The male voice suggests, having taken the phone from Zelena's hands.
As much as she appreciated the intervention of someone who could physically be there for her best friend, she wasn't entirely trusting of his capacity to handle her in this deep of a hole. "Are you sure? I don't mind staying for-"
"I've come a long way. Give me some credit." The line goes dead and Aisha pulls it away from her ear, staring at it incredulously as if it had actually been the one to hang up on her. With a huff, she places it face up in front of her just in case of emergency.
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In all her years of having been Demetri's friend, never once had he ever initiated any physical touch, let alone a version of a hug. His arms gently wrap around her, albeit awkwardly, but still well enough to press her slightly against him. "Am I doing this right?"
Zelena doesn't have the heart, nor the mind, to tell him his arms should definitely be tighter around her. His hug brings warmth to her with the knowledge that he is trying to ease her by something he wouldn't do. She cries a few moments more, becoming more and more aware of how tense he is getting. Her body slightly pulls from him to remain in his arms, but relieve him of sobbing absorption duty. "How much of that did you hear, Dem?"
"Enough to know that Eli and Sensei Lawrence were being assholes. But also enough to know you're being an asshole to yourself." He watches the way his best friend's eyebrows furrow in absolute confusion. He can practically hear her thinking 'the audacity this boy has' and he smiles to himself. "Yeah, you're being an asshole to yourself. You're not a monster, Zelena. Never have been. And the chaos isn't following you. It's following Kreese."
Her head tilts the opposing direction from where she knows he could view her face too easily. "I'm not so sure anymore, Dem." The look on Robby's face paints itself in Zelena's conscience.
"Well I am. And I'm sure enough for the both of us." His shoulder playfully knocks hers. Though a little sting resides, Zelena grins at this side of Demetri she'd never seen before. Yasmine really is doing wonders with him. His head tilts towards hers with a smile on his own lips, "So what did Eli do to be in the doghouse?"
"He got into a fight with Robby."
"And you're avoiding us because he was an idiot?"
Zelena's head moves side to side. "I'm avoiding practice because Sensei Lawrence was fighting Ryan Carter."
"Ryan Carter as in your father no one knew you knew. The same one who killed your mother?" There's a tension that rises in her muscles upon noting the stare Demetri was giving her. Still, her head bobs up and down slowly to answer his question. "Why didn't you tell Sensei LaRusso? Or your Uncle?"
He observes her derivative behavior she absently engages in via running her hands over one another and pacing her tongue between her lips to put distance between him and her thoughts. "I," There is a pause that Demetri feels in the deep pit of his stomach while he observes Zelena's breath getting stuck in her throat. Panic rises in her irises, darkening them with shades of glistening tears. His arms yank her frame back against his side, much tighter than he had them before.
She listens to his heartbeat that's quick like hers, leaving her restlesss and searching for comfort in him which she knowingly could only find in her boyfriend. And although her conscience knows that, her evil bitch of a subconscience continues to play this small video of what she'd presume their future to be should she bring all the adults in her life into a personal battle left untouched for years by her and Ryan Carter. Absolute chaos. Unhinged. War. M.A.D.- mutually assured destruction. Most likely someone's absolute ruin- their death.
A flash of the school ceiling as her body free falls crosses her conscience and her entire body shudders at the instant change of sensation in the present. That same peace momentarily seeps across her skin, into every fiber of her being. Her body shoots up to her feet and her expression twists into a wince she prays Demetri doesn't see. More panic than before drowns her, thrashing her mentality around similar to that of a rag doll. She swore she'd been past this. Thought she'd worked whole dangerously okay with dying thing mentality.
" Zelena-" She doesn't think twice, pushing past Demetri and jogging down the staircase to the first floor to escape thr concern beginning to fade into his features. Anyone's sympathetic concern would only result in her further downward spiral.
Her hand habitually pats her thigh for her phone. Her fingertips only run across the flat yellow denim of her jeans, fitted to her thigh thanks to the empty space of her pocket. She repeats her search on her other thigh then both back pockets simultaneously only to come up empty handed. She mentally retraces her steps, starting at the phone call with Aisha and then recalls the takeover by the person she is trying to avoid.
Settling for a heavy sigh on her lips, her feet begin to carry her body once more toward elsewhere in the school for a moment of actual peace. Further down the way, a head of freshly dyed purple hair spiked by gel, catches her eye. She observes the laughter and smirk on his lips while Nate and Bert follow behind, patting his back in happy acknowledgment. Unease squeezes her stomach at the sight of that smirk. One she saw at all those fights, at Sam's house when he'd darkly called her Angel. At the previous tournament. At the party when he wanted to beat up Demetri before the cops showed up. At the school fight.
Nothing good ever follows that smirk.
A dark skinned boy in a tshirt a familiar shade of fiery red stumbles out of the bathroom as Zelena comes to from her bitter daze, absently nearing it. His chest stutters with shaky breaths she knows all too well. One hand stuffed into his pocket while the other clenches into a fist at his side. The sudden urge to throw up washes over the brunette girl especially as she noted the tears in his waterline and the desperation shading his irises.
Her hand softly lands on the top of his shoulder before he can walk away. His entire body swings around, partially frightened, partially angered. Both destructive tendencies. Her eyes land on the logo she had presumed would be plastered on the front of the tee yet she withholds any immediate thoughts. Especially considering her boyfriend and dojo acquaintances had obviously done something to him in very poor judgment.
Both her hands raise slowly to the side of her head, palms outward in a total show of her down guard. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."
"You're the first." He mutters beneath his breath, eying her warily though his shoulders soften their extremely straightened posture. The coil in her stomach tightens even more, replaying his admission in her head. Nate and Bert would get a good talking to because who the hell are they to be picking on anyone, let alone this middle schooler. "What did you want anyway?"
His guard is up but weakens at the observation of her own posture and the guilt on her genuinely concerned expression. Something about her is warming him-melting the iciness Robby had taught him to put on. "I-I saw those boys walk out of the bathroom-" Her stumbling over the words on her tongue registers rather quickly in his head. 'Ah. That's it.'
"Friends of yours..." He tries to process the odd information that doesn't entirely make much sense to the kind aura she's been sending off to him and yet her head bows guiltily. "So you wanted to apologize for them? Or pretend to until you saw them so you could make fun of me all together?" He snarls, angered more by his own indecision about his feelings for her. She looks honest- vulnerable even. But if she was friends with that purple haired prick and the other two- there's no possible way she's being 100% with him.
Her head shakes side to side. "Not to apologize for them. Just to check in on you." He watches the way her eyes flutter away from him and off to the side to look distantly at something behind him. "Unfortunately those two smaller idiots are my acquaintances and the big idiot with the Mohawk is my boyfriend. Although he's already on thin ice with me." Her arms have crossed absently beneath her chest, rethinking the whole incidents of the last couple weeks before completely recognizing her flaw. Realizing she's just over shared her relationship, her head jolts to the side and her eyes shoot to read the boy's face. "Enough about that." A suddenly shy chuckle escapes her lips and her cheeks tinge a light pink. "Sorry. I just saw the look on your face and wanted to see if I could help you. Preferably by giving me all the info on what happened so I can tell at those asses later."
The flow of her soft spoken answers rolling off her tongue in full passion decides his feelings about her for him. He softly smiles. "I'm fine. They made fun of me for Cobra Kai and your boyfriend pinned me against a bathroom stall door."
Zelena considers the information carefully to choose her next action very carefully. If she explained why the boys had been dicks about the Cobra Kai gear, though they had absolutely no right to put their hands on this kid, it would become a Hawk situation where the kid would go on the offensive and do everything possible to prove his dominance in this situation. Besides, Zelena knew Cobra Kai wasn't the issue- it was who teaches it that was the problem. "I swear- that boy." She mutters, shaking her head to choose to display her disdain for her boyfriend and dojo team mates. "I really am sorry that they did that to you. I mean, how lame for some juniors in high school to pick on a freshman."
"Eighth grader."
Zelena raises her eyebrow at the confirming information. Her boyfriend picking on and shoving a 13 or 14 year old when he was almost 18 is the absolute definition of shameful and just because he could. "So you're visiting from the middle school." The kid nods his head up and down. "Well, it'll be nice to see at least one other new face around here." Her hand extends out towards him and though he initially flinches at the sudden movement toward him, he slowly accepts it. "I'm Zelena. It's nice to meet you."
"Kenny Payne." He turns his head sideways to get a different look at her facial features, suddenly seeing a weird familiarity like he's certainly seen her somewhere before but clearly never having actually met her.
A shout of 'Mr. Payne' from down the hall captures both students' attentions, interrupting his closer observation of the brunette and her reeling mind that is trying to grasp her friends' actions. An older male, one of her old middle school teachers for Physical Science, stands taller than ever and is heading their direction. "Mr. Payne, where have you-" His rushed words of worry and authority die when his eyes travel to his new student's companion. "Zelena."
"Sorry, Mr. Clover. I found Kenny trying to find the bathroom and then we started talking about High School opportunities." He smiles fondly at the junior student he'd known from Elementary when he'd recruited her for the STEM program. "He's going to be great here. He's a smart kid."
The older man slowly nods his head in disbelief. The last time he'd seen her, it'd been because her photo had been plastered over the local news as the student who'd been fighting for their life after the karate battle. He hadn't known whether or not she had made it and how she had come out of it. "Yeah." He practically waves her dashing review of Kenny away with his words. "How are you? I mean after the fight, the news said-" His voice cracks with emotion he didn't know he had while Kenny lightens intently. 'Maybe that's why she looks familiar.'
His brother hadn't gone to this school but they'd lived here for the longest his family had ever lived anywhere. The fight had happened almost three months after Shawn had been admitted to the center. And according to his brother, Robby followed not long after. This odd sense of guilt fills the young Cobra. He'd been training with this sweet girl's almost killer.
"And that Robby Keene kid is bad news and back on the," Kennny's ears burned at his friend's name being trashed, but he bites his tongue in fear of retribution should he stand up for his temporary replacement of a big brother. Something miraculous draws his attention to his left with Zelena stands.
A raised hand, palm outward.
Simple. But it stops his teacher from running his mouth.
Zelena had been on the same page as Kenny, ears burning at the unkind words Mr. Clover shares on a teenager he didn't even know. "Robby is a good person. And whether you believe that or not doesn't matter to me because I know he is. And he made a mistake. We all make mistakes and unfortunately sometimes, those mistakes have much graver consequences than others. What does matter to me is you speaking on someone you don't know and who isn't here to defend themselves. So I will. Please leave Robby's name out of your mouth."
"He almost killed you!"
"Yeah and everyone won't let me forget it. But they've forgotten I lived it!" Her finger jabs into the center of her chest to enunciate that important part that SHE was the one who was affected and is very much aware of what he did. "So why hasn't anyone forgiven someone for something they did to ME when I have?" Her arms cross over her chest with a soft smile to hide the snarl she really wants to offer him. Kenny gawks at her in absolute awe. When she'd approached him he could sense her power, but he never thought she'd use it for this- to stand up to a teacher. Let alone leaving said teacher speechless in her path for a Cobra when her friends drew a clear line in the sand as to what they believed in.
She looks back to the awestruck teen staring at her with his own soft curl on his lips. "I'll see you around, Kenny. Enjoy the rest of your tour. I hope to see you next year despite our issues." She sends him a wink to hint at the initial issue which had brought the pair together. He nods in agreement while she turns slightly to look at her old teacher. "It truly was good to see you again, Mr. Clover." She always enjoyed him and his class.
With that her body turns the opposite direction as she heads off toward her Physics class that she shares with dumb and dumber.