"Cyberbullying is no laughing matter. Sending a cruel message to someone online can be just as hurtful as saying it to their faces. I'm not gonna name names, but the other day a mother called me up because her son was crying after some kids online made fun of his facial deformity," Counselor Blatt spoke into the microphone in the cafeteria.
Delaney scoffed from the woman's poor attempt of keeping the son she mentioned anonymous, and without thinking, she took Eli's hand in hers, which made her instantly heat up and slip her hand away.
"Sorry," she muttered, placing her hand in her lap.
He shook his head, his cheeks dusted with pink from her sudden action. "No, it's okay. That was nice of you. Thank you."
She sucked in a small breath, eyes softening and turning dreamy as she looked at him.
"You know, if you're sick of getting bullied, my karate dojos looking for recruits," Miguel's words peaked Delaney's interest enough to make her look away from Eli.
"Karate?" she knew all about the All Valley tournaments that took place back in the day, and was heavily interested in them. She'd find old, staticky videos of them online and just binge them for hours on end. It made her wonder what it would be like if she were up on those mats. She'd be her very own Mulan.
Demetri letting out a scoff of his own brought her out of her mind. "Yeah, right. You hear that Eli. A little karate training and you're gonna kick some major ass."
"Be quiet," Delaney hissed, putting her entire focus on Miguel. "When does your dojo open? After school?"
Miguel nodded. "Yeah. You can come with me after school if you want."
She grinned at him and wrapped an arm around his shoulder, scooting their chairs closer. "I might just have to take you up on that offer, new kid."
Demetri cut in again. "As enticing as that sounds, I think we'd rather spend our afternoon playing Crucible Control then getting hit in the face."
Delaney rolled her eyes at him. "Maybe if you did karate you would stop getting hit in the face."
Before he could defend himself, Counselor Blatt cut him off, "Oh, and one last thing. While we're all looking forward to the Halloween dance, let's make sure our costumes are culturally sensitive. For example, instead of sexy nurse, maybe try gender-neutral hospital employee."
Delaney snickered, making Miguel curiously look at her. "What's so funny? What are you gonna be?"
"Probably what she's been for the past four years," Demetri sighed. "Princess Belle from Beauty and the Beast. She's her favorite Disney princess."
"And there is absolutely no shame in that," Delaney defended, leaning over and pinching her brother's back, making him yelp. "Plus, I think it's amazing that I can still fit into it."
"Or you just haven't grown in 5 years," Miguel added, smirking when she glared at him.
✸
"Oh, skeleton. Classic. Nice," Demetri commented once Miguel walked up to him and Eli.
"Thanks. I like your sorcerer costume," Miguel complimented back.
"Sorcerer?" Demetri spoke in an offended tone. "Please. I'm a necromancer."
"What?"
"Didn't you see the amulet?"
Miguel then turned to Eli. "So, are you a regular doctor or ⎯ "
"Plastic surgeon. I fix lips."
"Nice," Miguel then noticed the very obvious absence of a certain girl. "Where's Laney? Didn't she catch a ride with the two of you?"
Demetri shook his head. "Nope. This guy in our grade, Jordan Lyle, asked her if she wanted to go with him and his friends. She said no at first but when she found out that Eli was only catching a ride back with me, she agreed. My own sister likes my best friend more than me."
Eli shyly turned his head to the side when Miguel smiled in amusement at him.
"Well, where is she? My sensei actually drove me here and he's putting up papers to advertise his dojo, and I think Laney would be interested in them."
"She's by the snack bar with Jordan," Demetri nodded his head to the table that was at the center of the party. There, Miguel spotted a yellow dress wearing Delaney laughing at something a guy, who he guessed was Jordan, said, and another girl was standing with them. "Huh, I actually never knew those two were friends. It's been hard to keep up with all of them."
"They've known each other since 7th grade," Eli spoke up, slightly furrowing his eyebrows. "He was at her 13th birthday party."
"Hm," Demetri hummed. "I don't think I was there for that one."
Eli shrugged. "I was."
"Whatever," Miguel waved around his hand. "Let's just go get her."
The three then pushed through the crowds and groups of people, ignoring the curses being thrown at them whenever they accidentally bumped into someone a bit too hard.
"Laney!" Miguel exclaimed over the loud music, making the girl stop her conversation with the two people and turn to him.
"Hey, guys!" she smiled. "Jordan, Molly, you guys know Eli and Demetri. Um, this is Miguel. He's new this year."
Jordan flashed a charming smile, sticking out his hand for the Diaz boy. "Nice to meet you, man. Hope things are going well so far."
"She's talked a lot about you," Molly chuckled, taking a sip of her punch. "It's nice to meet you in the flesh."
Miguel raised his eyebrows in surprise, not expecting them to be so nice. "Nice to meet you too and they are, thanks to Delaney."
The Lyle teen chuckled. "Yeah, once you become friends with her, high school becomes more bearable."
"What are your guy's costumes?" Miguel asked.
"Oh, well the group found out that Laney was going as Belle, we wanted to do group costumes," Molly smiled. "I'm Babette and Jordan is Gaston. He wanted to be a human Beast but Mikey already called it."
Eli glanced at him from his spot, then glanced at Delaney only to see her looking at him already. She immediately adverted her eyes, turning around to pour herself a cup of punch.
"Okay, well, Laney, my sensei put up some papers for our dojo if you wanna come look at them?" Miguel pointed behind him with his thumb.
"Yeah! Of course. And I'm sorry I couldn't check it out earlier. Jordan, the girls, and the other boys wanted to get ready together and we needed all the time we could get," Delaney took a sip of her drink, her face turning into a grimace. "Oh, that's spiked."
"Wait, dojo? As in like, a karate dojo?" Jordan tilted his head in interest.
"Yeah. You like karate?" Miguel was quick to ask, feeling the hope of recruiting more students for Sensei Lawrence building up.
"Uh, yeah. My dad did a bit in the 80's but then his dojo shut down. It'd be cool to see what his experience was like."
Delaney gasped. "Hey, I was thinking the exact same thing! Well, except, my dad wasn't in karate but doing karate would be so cool."
"Um, okay then," Miguel happily laughed. "Let me show you the flyer."
"You guys go," Molly waved them off. "Karate isn't my scene."
"Aww, okay," Delaney leaned up, planting a sweet kiss on the girl's cheek. "Bye, Mama Molls! Let me take you out next week!"
Molly grinned, waving the girl goodbye. "You're buying!"
Miguel lead them back through the crowd.
Somewhere not too far away, Daniel Larusso decided to chaperone the Halloween dance, wanting to make sure his daughter, Sam, wasn't getting into any sort of trouble. Counselor Blatt approached him with a cup of punch, and began to start talking about hir previous high school relationship. It was obvious to everyone that she was trying to flirt with him even though he was obviously married.
His eyes then naturally looked away from her, landing on a group of five that were just about to walk by him. He then felt his entire world stop. Daniel's eyes were stuck on Miguel's skeleton costume, which looked all too familiar. He remembered that night where Johnny Lawrence and his karate gang gave him a beat down in that same costume.
Everything seemed to be made worse as Miguel was showing the other four a yellow piece of paper that had been taped onto the wall, which had the words Cobra Kai placed largely on it.
Fuck, he thought. This can't happen again.
✸
"Wait, backtrack a second, you gave your brother a purple nerple?"
"Mhm," Delaney proudly hummed, turning to look at Jordan who was in the driver seat. "Talk about my Belle dress too and I'll gladly give you one."
He raised his hands up in surrender, letting out a laugh. "Alright, note to self. Never talk bad about Delaney's princess dress."
Jordan had put the car in park 15 minutes ago, but Delaney was too into telling her childhood stories and he didn't want to force her out of the car.
She gasped out a scoffed. "That was totally a jab at my dress."
"No it wasn't," he shook his head, failing to hide his smile.
"So was!" she smiled, shoving his shoulder.
"Okay, okay," he leaned away from her, his hand gripping onto the steering wheel. "I'm sorry or making fun of your dress."
"Thank you," she squinted her eyes at him before giggling to herself.
Jordan smiled to himself.
"Oh, I should probably go back into my house, huh?" Delaney looked out the window and stared at the front porch of her home.
"If you want."
She looked to him in amusement. "Staying in your ugly car is an option too?"
He gaped in a offense. "My car is not ugly!"
Delaney opened the passenger side door, shaking her head while laughing. "It so is."
She shut the door, and he rolled down the window to yell, "My blue car is beautiful!"
"Maybe choose a different blue next time!" she yelled back.
He shook his head at her while she just laughed. Jordan didn't drive away until he saw her go inside.
✸ AUTHOR'S NOTE ! BAM another chapter
VERY VERY VERY SPECIAL CAMEO OF MOLLY PRESTON WHO IS MY AMAZING FRIEND EMILY'S COBRA KAI OC!!! f4brays
im having sm fun writing this story and i hope you guys are enjoying reading it!!!
let's just have a moment of silence for who laney was in season 1