SURPRISE!!! I am so sorry I have been away for so long... Season 5 kinda was saddening- like a let down tbh. And it kinda killed my vibe for this story. However, after rereading this and a few other stories, I've rekindled that fire for it! ENJOY!
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CHAPTER 45:
The boys jump in surprise as my palm smacks against their tabletop for 'extra support' as I lean forward on them. A soft breath leaves both their lips in relief when they turn to see me. "Oh don't be relieved. Just because it's me, doesn't mean grief isn't coming your way." Nate raises his brow while Bert, who is closest to me, swallows hard. "Who the hell are you two to be picking on an eighth grader? Let alone anyone when you both were bullied like 4 months ago."
Nate bows his head while Bert awkwardly looks away, unable to look me in the eye. "I AM waiting for an answer to the question because I genuinely don't understand how you'd think it is perfectly fine to tease a thirteen year old when you're seventeen, about to be eighteen."
"We shouldn't be." Bert whispers.
I breathlessly laugh. "Damn right you shouldn't be." I lean in closer to the pair, "Did it make you both feel good? Make you feel powerful like those assholes who bullied you felt?" I remove my hands suddenly from the cleared surface, leaning back on the balls of me feet instead of the tips of my toes. "Because if it did- Congratulations. You just became them."
"Zel," Bert tries to reach for my hand, but I pull it out of his fingertips' reach. "We're sorry."
I picture Hawk standing there, the first time I'd caught him acting like Kyler and confronted him about it. The same look in their eyes battling what is right and what feels good. I stare at both of them, swaying my head side to side. "I'm not the one you should be apologizing to." I swallow hard, debating on the words leaking onto my tongue from my heavied conversation. "And only my friends, who would NEVER place their hands on or intentionally intimidate anyone, call me Zel. You can tell your partner in crime that too."
Instead of sitting in front of them, I sit in the seat down the aisle beside Parker Michaels that is left empty by a transfer out of district. The blonde jock glances backwards at the two shorties from over his shoulder before glancing at me as my body comfortably seats itself while lowering my bag to the ground. "Trouble in paradise?"
"You could say that." I huff out, fumbling through my bag to find my pencil bag.
Soft clattering echos from the table so I turn my head to look at him inquisitively. "You know, those people seem to cause you an awful lot of trouble and here you are being friends."
"I could say the same about your friends too. Especially since you aren't a drinker or smoker for that matter."
He leans forward on his forearms, whispering, "My friends don't try to kill me." He cracks a smile, joking entirely about the situation.
Finally someone who wants to not have a serious conversation about the serious thing that happened. I position my pen in my hand to prepare to write, "I beg to differ. Drinking and driving records would say otherwise." My head turns to steal a peek at the gawk on his face. "At least my friends have the balls to do it to my face." He nods thoughtfully at this with a growing grin on his face.
He clears his throat slightly, reaching forward for a pen at the top of his desk. "I didn't take you as a dark humor person, Bloom."
"Well after all I have been through, dark humor seems the most appropriate method to cope with it." After the absent admission leaves my lips, my entire body sits up straight in my seat, suddenly on edge about the possible responses I could receive from him following my harsh words. "I'm sorry." The apology spills from my lips smoothly, realizing I had just jumped on him without invitation.
His hand falls on top of mine with the most gentle of grins that reminds me of pre Cobra Kai Eli. His fingers squeeze the sides of my hand reassuringly. "It's okay, Bloom." My eyes lift from the desk, back up to his face for a quick reading of his expression. "You don't need to apologize."
"Thanks." There isn't much else for me to say.
"It's the least I could do for West Valley's resident sweetheart savior."
Immediately I remove my hand from beneath his, playfully, allowing it to thud against the table top. I point my index finger at him, jokingly narrowing my eyes. "Don't EVER call me that again, Michaels."
He mischievously grins at me, "Why? I think it's befitting."
"Not even close."
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The bell rings, effectively ending class while it also ends Parker's and I's rather intriguing conversation about the basic laws of inertia from eighth grade in relation to our new given assignment. Quietly I collect my things, shoving my notebook into my backpack while the aforementioned classmate's eyes seem to trace every one of my movements. "So partners another day or were you just using me this once?"
"Depends on how long it takes to fill that seat beside you. I've heard it's awfully difficult." My eyes glance over my shoulder at the two shorties that are halfway out of the classroom. "I just needed a breather from my friends."
I stand out of my chair, pulling my backpack over my shoulder in sync. "It was nice to actually talk to you. You're a hard girl to find and even harder to find when you're NOT doing something."
Retrospectively I want to snort at the admission of this outside observer. I'm in over my head and constantly everywhere all at once even while being nowhere. The things the mind does. "Thanks." I offer him a smile. "It is nice to talk to someone who is outside all the karate madness." We both head towards the exit, partially having been stopped by the crowd of students filing out too.
"So you were mad at your two friends for karate?"
"They were picking on an eighth grader alongside my boyfriend."
His lips form an 'o' shape before sucking in a sharp breath, nodding his head. "That'll piss off our resident sweetheart savior." My eyes narrow and I nudge him with my elbow. "Moskowitz is one lucky man. I don't quite understand how he got you. But I also don't understand how Demetri got Yasmine so.."
I laugh, "Yasmine and Demetri throw everyone for a loop." He chuckles. "But Eli is sweet and thoughtful. At least when he uses his head."
An arm wraps familiarly around my waist, but harshly tugs me towards the left. I stumble over my own feet, falling against a firm side and surrounded by the strong scent of lilac, jasmine, and mint. Warm lips I've admittedly miss, press gingerly to my left cheek.
Parker steps away from the space where I'd just been, most likely due to Eli's narrowing eyes targeting him specifically. The arm around me tightens and his hand slides across my hip, dipping into my front pocket just for his fingertips to rest against the top of my thigh. If I weren't so upset at him pushing around Kenny for a sticker on the kid's shirt and the way he's treating Parker who has only been nice to me, I would melt completely beneath his touch. "Don't you have something better to do than hit on my girlfriend?"
"At least he isn't hitting on a helpless eighth grader." I bitterly mumble, giving my classmate the opportunity to scurry away from this mess. Eli's arm slacks and his hand slides up my body, just to roam around the curve of my hip. He firmly holds the fat covered bone and spins me to face him. A lost look plays in his eyes over the anger lingering beneath. "Don't give me that look, Eli." He keeps his gaze steady as my sternness bubbles to irritation. My index finger jabs into the center of his chest. "You know exactly what I'm talking about."
The slow batting of his eyes quickly transforms into a group of rapid blinks when he realizes I'm not believing a single emotion on his face aside from his anger. A familiar expression of annoyance intensely outlines his features. "He was wearing a Cobra Kai shirt." I scoff, removing my finger from his chest while simultaneously trying to lean back out of his hold. "And I didn't hit him."
"So it makes it okay to put your hands on him regardless of technicalities?" He glances away from me, softening his own expression as he guiltily swallows. He only feels guilty because he got caught. I remind myself. "What happens when the Cobras find out about you picking on one of them?"
"We'll be fine."
"Eli," My hands raise to cup each of his cheeks to force him to look me in the eye again. "That isn't the end of the conversation. This is dangerous Hawk behavior and somewhere deep down, you know it. Even if you don't want to hear it."
His eyes roll, opposing the darkening of fear in his irises. "You are overreacting." His hand leaves my hip, meeting his other hand mid-air as they both raise through the air. He maneuvers his arms around mine and mimics my position, holding my face between his palms.
Words stick in my throat, clogging the way for any possible sentences to flow. Each passing second our eyes stare into one another's is another piece of clarity that unclouds my partially fogged judgement. There's nothing left to say to a person who doesn't want to change.
Especially as he has done this all before and these lectures are nothing more than repetitive at this point. His thumbs soothingly run along my cheeks like windshield wipers while my hands stiffen against his skin. "I'm not doing this." I want to be there for him so badly and help him through this, but you can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped. "I'm not going to watch you spiral back into the danger zone especially when it's because you don't want to admit you're regressing." His lips part to argue but I cut him off before he can even begin, "The restaurant fight with Robby was intense and I know he started it. That Ryan started it. But the intensity was just like the school fight. But now, you struck against Kenny."
His head jerks out of my hands while his hands drop from mine, back to his sides as he processes my claim. "You know his name?" His eyebrows furrow in realization that I actually spoke to his 'victim'.
"He can't even match your skills."
"You know his name. How do you know his name?" His tone changes, growing more defensive with each word.
My arms raise in the air, "Because I spoke to him in the hallway after I saw you leaving the bathroom with dumb and dumber who were patting your back while you wore that stupid smirk of yours. He stumbled out of the bathroom a little after, frightened by what happened. And I wanted to make sure he was okay."
"He's a Cobra. He's fine."
"We were once Cobras. And look at us, Eli. We're NOT fine."
Eli pauses for a moment, the flame in his eye dwindling at the exasperated admission of truth. "Zel please-"
"Mr. Moskowitz, Miss Bloom- the bell has already rung. I advise you both to get to class now." Counselor Blatt advises, walking down the hall toward us.
I briefly glance back at Eli who has reverted back to annoyed. "Come find me when you are ready to take your dick out of your personality and put it back in your pants."
He scoffs at this. "I'll be at the tattoo shop later with Rico when you come to your senses and see I haven't done anything wrong." He lowly snips at me, shaking his head in disappointment as he prepares to depart from our current position.
I maneuver around him first, ensuring to childishly knock my shoulder against his to mimic the last words I don't have time to speak.
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THIRD PERSON POV
It had all played out according to the plan Robby had drawn out in his mind when listening to Kenny's story of the Mohawked jerk who had terrorized him at a school function. Three against one. Someone much more powerful against someone so much weaker than them only proved Tory and Robby right with their theory that it wasn't Cobra Kai that was fucked up- it was the people in Cobra Kai with their righteous attitudes. Like they deserved the world and everyone bowing down to them because they weren't associated with Cobra Kai. "I don't understand why she is dating him- let alone how he has a girlfriend." Kenny absently mentions as they clamber into the backseat of Kyler's car. It had been bothering the newest Cobra ever since she left him to Mr. Clover's watch.
Robby and Tory share a glance before questioning the boy seated between them. "Who?" Robby plays dumb, seeing how Kenny knows about Zelena and Hawk or if he'd only heard the rumors.
"Zelena. She's the opposite of Hawk. She was super witty and nice. But I didn't know she was the girl that was almost killed in the school fight." The car jerks with everyone's collective winces at their individual recollections of that day, hating the images that run through their heads. "But she wasn't angry about it. She seemed okay with it and accepted it for what it was."
"Zel was there?" Robby asks, attempting to place these additional pieces with the puzzle he had in his head of the bathroom incident.
Kenny's head bobs up and down. "Yes and no. Like she wasn't in the bathroom when the fight happened. She came some time after from down the hall, asking if I was okay. She was genuinely concerned." Kenny had grown up, observing everyone due to his inability to connect with people with the constant up and leaving whenever his father followed his military placement. He knew her expression was raw and not just falsified to give him fake security. "I even saw her during class tours, slamming her hands on the table of the two smaller ones, scaring them. She actually confronted them."
All the excitement in his voice as he speaks about someone both Tory and Robby love dearly, warms each of them. Her actions promised and taken when she thought no one was looking made them each wonder how much she'd gone to battle for them and how much she'd actually done for them when they weren't watching. "She even argued with Mr. Clover."
Tory recalls a brief conversation with Zelena about favorite teachers one night during a girl's night. She leans forward in her seat to look Kenny in the eye. "Mr. Clover?"
"Yeah. He called Robby bad news and she totally served him!" The young Cobra laughs with glee, picturing the baffled expression on his teacher's expression following Zelena's departure. He was stuck in the same position for a few moments, trying to still process her words to him. "It was great to see him be put in his place."
Robby clears his throat, adjusting uncomfortably in his seat with newfound hesitation to follow through this plan he concocted. All he'd put her through and she still stood up for his reputation of character. Everyone else he thought he could trust on the 'good side' of this karate battle had given up on him- even turned him in before he had a chance to process everything that had happened and how to make amends. And now he is in a car with her least- second to least favorite- person, heading straight for a tattoo shop where her boyfriend is, to get pay back for shoving a kid against the stall doors and verbally threatening him. How would he come back from this?
"She meant it all. And oh man! The fire in her eyes." Kenny dreamily sighs before lighting up, shoulders moving back as his posture straightens with the power of a new idea. "She'd make a great Cobra!"
Before Tory or Robby have to place themselves in the awkward position to tell Kenny there's a lot of history to unpack there, someone else pipes up. "She's one of the Miyagi Fang freaks." Kyler briskly interjects Kenny's thoughts with sharply spoken words, reminiscing about the look he could picture too well from Kenny's depiction. Both times she had beat his ass at fights he'd started. The fire of vengeance and precision as she struck in the right spots, at the right time, at the right- dare he say perfect- speed. "Besides, she isn't that great."
"She beat you three times, Kyler. By herself. Even when you had a whole crew." Tory reminds him, enjoying the crumbling of his ego and being able to put Zelena's reputation among them back into perspective for Kenny. He deserved to idolize her. Above all this drama and knotted strings tying everyone together, Zelena is a truly good person with great talents.
Kenny sits in awe even more of the girl he'd just met. He definitely had a crush. "But we're supposed to face her in the tournament?"
"Well technically, just me." Tory falls back against her seat, crossing her arms over her chest to conceal her own insecurities and concerns from the group. Recalling the last times the two had seen each other and how much she regrets those mistakes begins to settle in. Her decisions. From the corner of her eye, she can see Robby lean forward only a hair to offer her a glance of companionship- a partial to what Zelena would have done. Tory shakes her head to both clear her head and tell Robby to leave it alone. "Did she say anything else?" Particularly about me?
"Not particularly. Although she did say her boyfriend was already on thin ice. But didn't really say what happened. She seemed really hurt when it passed her lips though. Like it was fresh." Kyler grins to himself, pressing his foot on the gas just slightly more to prevent himself from saying anything to the group. He knew Kreese's prized students had their own weakness when it came to Zelena. But he didn't. Kenny's observation was perfect.
He plays it off, lifting his head to look at the trio in his backseat. "Hey. Why does it matter what she says anyway?"
Deep down Tory had wished she had been mentioned so Zelena would bat for her just like she had Robby. Instead she gestures to the boys, "Because he just told us there's less of a chance for retribution from her since it seems like her and Hawk are splitsville." A smirk crosses her lips though her heart twists in her chest. The part of her that adores Z, and partially Hawk, feels guilty for saying this aloud with a very believable glee in her tone. He made her happy. She deserves to be happy.
But Zelena had always been Hawk's weakness. Even when their friendship was on the ice.
The most genuine person she'd only ever believed to exist in folklores and fairytales, Tory found in Zelena. Never a traitor. Never a backstabber. Never a liar. Never spoke ill of anyone- with the exception of Kreese. Didn't gossip. Didn't cheat. Didn't break promises.
Tory snorts. Everyone's weakness.
The only person to believe everyone deserves a happy ending even if it meant sacrificing her own happy ending for them.
"How far are we?" Robby asks.