"Again!" The director demanded of Aubrey and Richie as they stood up on the stage after finishing one of the bigger scenes that they had together.
Aubrey nodded as she fought to catch her breath after singing for four minutes straight. She glanced over at Richie who just patted her back supportively before getting into his place for the top of the song.
This would be the third time that they had run the song and Aubrey was losing her mind. If she had to sing about a made up phantom one more time after this, she might just scream and/or cry about it.
As she made her way to get back into her place her eyes glanced up towards the back of the theatre. Siting in the far left seat was a man staring back at her while wearing a floral shirt.
Aubrey shifted uncomfortably before getting back into character before her director yelled at her to do so. She pushed past the uncomfortable feeling and hunch that he was one of Silver's lackeys and assumed that he was just a friend of the director.
Richie noticed her shift in mood but pushed past it to also avoid getting yelled at. He knew what brought on the change in mood. He saw the man as well and wondered what the hell he was doing here.
Finally, after running the song for the fifth time, Aubrey was finally able to leave. She first got called back to the dressing rooms to try on one of the costumes. Just putting it on made her smile. It was the final costume she got to wear.
It was all white with lace covering the top of it. The dress had long sleeves that were covered in small lace plant designs. Her favorite part was the cap sleeves that went over the sheer long sleeves.
Aubrey stared at herself in the mirror with a small smile on her face. For the first time in a while she felt pretty. She felt elegant in the dress. Like she was royalty or someone of high class. The last time she felt like this, it was prom but that had ended horribly for her so hopefully this dress and the performance would end better.
Eventually she had to change back into her regular clothes and her day dreams disappeared. Aubrey pulled one of her old Colorado hoodies over her shirt before she walked out of the dressing room, only to be met with Richie waiting right outside.
"Creep." Aubrey joked with a light smile as she grabbed her bag that he was holding for her.
Richie rolled his eyes at her response before he grabbed her arm, stopping her from exiting the theatre, "The dude is waiting out in the hall."
Aubrey sighed and lifted her bag higher up on her shoulder, "Did he say anything to you?"
She was started to get a little worried about who and why the man was still waiting in the theatre. Silver wouldn't send someone to attack a teenager, would he?
Richie shook his head, "Just stood there." he replied, "Maybe we should leave a different way."
"No." Was all Aubrey said before she pushed open the door and stepped out into the hallway, standing in front of the man, "Who the hell are you?"
The man smiled a little at the girls response to him, "Aubrey Mills?" He asked, instead of answering her question.
"Yeah? And I'm going to ask again, who the hell are you?" Aubrey was getting tired of the man playing games. Her hunch that he was working for Silver was getting stronger. The part that worried her was that she had no connection to karate at all, besides who she was friends with, so why would the man go after her?
"Chozen Toguchi." Chozen pointed to himself, finally giving Aubrey the answer that she wanted. "Nice to meet you Aubrey, I've heard a lot about you from Johnny Lawrence."
Aubrey raised an eyebrow, what the hell was going on. Who was Chozen and why was he talking about her with Johnny.
"Yeah, nice to meet you." Aubrey muttered, "How do you know Johnny?"
"Through Daniel LaRusso." Chozen continued on with a smile.
This conversation was driving Aubrey mad. How did he know her two former sensei's and what was he doing here talking to her about it.
"Okay." Aubrey nodded, trying to figure out what his true intentions were. "Um, what are you doing here?"
"Proposition." Chozen nodded, "You are certified taekwando instructor, are you not? Along with Colorado karate champion?"
Aubrey didn't like how much he knew about her. She figured Johnny must have blabbed about her entire past to this man, but why? What was so important about her past in martial arts?
"I quit, but yes." Aubrey glanced to the side, "Why?"
"Lawrence and I want to offer you the position of instructor at our dojo with Daniel." Chozen continued on, "He said you were the best option that we have despite being a child."
Moving aside from the insult that he said at the end of his sentence, Aubrey was caught up in the position that he had offered her. She didn't know what to think. Her, an instructor? No way. Not after the past she had with hers in Colorado.
"You can tell Johnny that I say no." Aubrey shook her head, "I'm done with karate and I have been done with taekwando long before that." she said, holding her head high to prove her point even more.
"He said you would say that so what if I tell you-" Chozen tried to explain before getting cut off by Aubrey.
"My answer is no." Aubrey stated, "So go tell him that the child will not be joining this dojo." she sighed and turned around trying to walk away.
"You wouldn't be joining, you would be leading!" Chozen called after her, he wasn't used to someone younger then him having this much attitude.
"Still no!" Aubrey yelled back, not bothering to turn around. She was furious now. She had made it very clear to Johnny that she had wanted no part in karate ever again. And the fact that he didn't even come and ask her himself, only made her angrier. If he really wanted her to work with him and the other two sensei's then he should have asked her himself, or was he that afraid of rejection from a child?
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"Open the door Johnny!" Aubrey demanded as she banged on the door of the mans apartment.
Her anger had only sky rocketed on her drive over. It was a mix of the offers she had received from Tory and Chozen and the fact that the entire valley had suddenly begun to fall apart in her eyes.
Karate had only made everything worse and she refused to be apart of the destruction of the valley, like Johnny wanted her to be. She had already lost enough friendships and relationships because of it. And she wasn't just talking about the valley.
Johnny took a breath before opening the door to a very angry teenage girl. He opened the door all the way and allowed the girl to storm in, immediately starting her angry rant.
"How dare you!" She turned on him as he leaned up against the door to his apartment, "I think I made it very clear in my 'I'm quitting' speech, that I had left all of martial arts behind me! So do not think that you can send some stranger after me to convince me to join as an instructor for your new dojo! Because I am done with all of this war bullshit!"
"I know, but Mills, hear me out." Johnny raised his hands in defense, "Silver is trying to take over the whole valley and we need to stop him. The solution is combining all of our styles to take him down, mine, LaRusso's, Chozens and taekwando. You are the best person I know to teach them. You can help end the war and be done with the bullshit."
Aubrey shook her head listening to him. All he was doing was making his case worse. His words only brought back memories of her old dojo. The training that she was put through made her turn away from ever being an instructor or a sensei at any dojo of her own. She wouldn't put anyone through the same torture that she was put through.
That was her fear with becoming an instructor. That whatever power it held would go to her head and she would turn into her instructor and push someone to the breaking point like she was pushed to.
Aubrey's last days at the dojo was filled with tears and screams that all came from her. It was an experience that she would never share with anyone, at least not until now.
"Even if I wanted to, I can't." Aubrey shook her head, "I'm sorry but Johnny, I can't."
"And why not?" Johnny asked as he watched her sit down on his couch.
Aubrey sighed as she pushed away the flashbacks that were going through her head, "Is Robby here?" if she was going to tell Johnny, she wanted it to be done in private. No one else needed to know this much information about her past.
Johnny shook his head sitting down in the chair next to her. He noticed that her leg was bouncing up and down erratically and he wondered what was going on inside of her mind.
"As you know I didn't have a good relationship with my instructor back at my old dojo..."
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Miguel had watched Aubrey enter Johnny's apartment hours ago, and he was beginning to wonder if she had killed him. Her anger was clear on her face when she first marched in and he had no clue what had happened to make her so upset.
He sighed and made the split second decision to leave his own apartment and walk over to Johnny's. Miguel knocked on the door and hoped that his old sensei wasn't dead.
Aubrey exchanged a look with Johnny as a knock was heard at the front door. She had finished her story ten minutes ago and the two had been sitting in complete silence ever since then.
"Who is it?" Johnny called out, not breaking eye contact with his former student who had opened up about a dark part in her past. He didn't blame her for not wanting to be an instructor, not after what she had told him.
"Miguel?" Miguel answered, Johnnys response made him question what was going on inside of the apartment.
Johnny raised an eyebrow at Aubrey, asking for her permission to allow Miguel into the room. Aubrey nodded a little and looked down at her hands, where one of her fingers was now bleeding after she picked so harshly at the skin.
"Come in!" Johnny ordered Miguel, keeping his eye on Aubrey just in case she broke down again.
Miguel opened the door and looked over at the two in the living room space, "Hey." He waved weakly at the girl. He could tell just by the look on her face that something was seriously wrong with her. Miguel noticed that she was hiding one of her fingers on her left hand which made him worry even more.
Aubrey cleared her throat so that it wouldn't come out all cracked, "Hi Diaz." She smiled a little at how awkward he was being.
"What's up Miguel?" Johnny asked, leaning back in his chair.
Miguel paused for a moment as he thought about what to say, "Um," He thought long and hard about his response, only to say something so incredibly lame, "I learned a new karate move."
Aubrey and Johnny both exchanged glances of confusion. That was obviously a lie, and a bad one at that.
"Good job?" Johnny said, trying to figure out how to respond to his awful lie.
Aubrey snorted and shook her head, "Do you want to demonstrate the move for us Diaz?" she teased, hoping that he would come clean about his lie.
Miguel shook his head, "Not really." He stuck with his lie, not wanting to come clean just yet.
Aubrey admired the fact that he was willing to keep making a fool of himself but she decided to be nice and end his suffering, "If you came over here to make sure I didn't kill Johnny, then congratulations you are a hero." she practically read his mind with that sentence.
"It was my destiny." Miguel responded sarcastically as he shrugged a little. He tried to figure out another lie to get her alone so he could talk with her but before he could open his mouth, she spoke first.
"I'm sure it was." Aubrey said as she stood up from the couch, "I should probably get home, Ali wants to talk to me because I apparently have been ignoring her."
She turned to face Johnny and gave him a small smile. Aubrey appreciated that he had listened to her about her past. He had his faults but he was really a good person and she was glad that she had him in her life.
"Bye Mills." Johnny said as Aubrey left the apartment. He turned to look over at Miguel, "Are you going to go talk to her or are you going to show me the new karate move you learned?"
Miguel gave him a tired look before pointing at the door. He waved a little and exited the apartment.
Aubrey was outside leaning against her car. She looked over at him with a small smile, "And that is how you lie."
Miguel rolled his eyes and walked over to her, "Okay, maybe that lie wasn't the best one I could have come up with."
"Oh you think?" Aubrey laughed at him as he leaned on her car door, next to her. "Let me guess, you want to know why I was so angry when I walked into the apartment?"
Miguel nodded a little, "I just want to make sure you're okay."
"I am now." Aubrey sighed, "I was offered a position at Johnny's new dojo to be the taekwando instructor. He says I am the most qualified person he knows. But that's probably because I'm the only certified instructor he actually know."
"He asked you to be a sensei?" Miguel stared at her in shock. He had already known about Johnny opening up a dojo again, so that part wasn't a surprise to him, the surprise came from Aubrey.
"Instructor." Aubrey corrected, "In taekwando we don't have sensei's."
Aubrey began to pick at her skin again, only to have Miguel reach over and grab her hand away without saying anything.
"What did you say?" Miguel asked her softly.
Aubrey raised an eyebrow at him, "I said no, obviously." She laughed a little. She had figured that her answer would have been obvious to him after he had heard her speech about quitting at the tournament and the multiple times after she repeated that she had quit.
"Why?" Miguel whispered, triggering something in her.
"Why?" Aubrey laughed loudly, she turned and stood directly in front of her, "Why? Because I am not meant to be an instructor or a sensei. You said so yourself at the tournament to never become one and I agree with you. I am not the type of person to help teach others. I know that somehow I will go wrong and more people will get hurt because of me."
She wanted to tell Miguel more about her relationship with her own instructor but she couldn't bring herself to doing so. It was hard enough to tell Johnny.
"I was wrong, and so are you." Miguel told her with a shake of his head. He remembered what he had said at the tournament to her and he regretted it because he knew that it was false. Aubrey out of anyone he knew, had the heart to be a teacher. Even after she had quit she still took care of her friends. He saw it in Mexico and he saw it at the water park. "Aubrey, you are more than qualified to be an instructor and I'm not just talking about you having the title. You are the type of person to help teach others and protect others. I saw it firsthand in Mexico when you came after me and we had that fight on the beach. At the waterpark, you still helped stop a fight even after quitting. So I think you should change your mind and say yes."
Aubrey stared at him with tears in her eyes. She wanted to believe what he had said but after the bulling at her own dojo and the manipulation at Cobra Kai, she couldn't allow herself to believe it.
"I don't know if I can do this." Aubrey whispered to him.
"If anyone can do this, it's you." Miguel whispered back as he moved a stray curl out of her face. "I know you can."
Aubrey smiled a little at his words. A small part of her mind had changed with what he had told her but a large part of her mind stayed the same. She just didn't know if she could make the commitment to helping teach people.
"Thanks Diaz." She muttered, staring up at him with the smile still on her face.
Miguel nodded, "So tomorrow, am I going to see you standing up there with everyone else?"
"Maybe." Aubrey responded, with a small sigh.
"Your maybe's are normally yes's." Miguel teased before pulling her into a tight hug.
Aubrey hugged him tightly, allowing herself to lean in closer to him, her head resting on his chest. If he believed in her that much, then maybe, just maybe she could actually do this.
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i promise that one day we will find out about aubrey's past, but that day is not now.
anyways this chapter is leading into just one of the most dramatic moments that i have planned. but for now i just leave you with aubrey's choice of maybe becoming an instructor or just leaving it all behind.
i also want to say happy new year!!!!!! 2022 has been wild and i'm excited to see what 2023 brings.
thank you all so much for reading, commenting and voting!
-xoxo m <3