"I don't know about this. I mean, whose to say that someone won't punch me right in the face right now?"
"Dem, we aren't even in the building yet," Delaney looked at him oddly, raising her hand to gesture to the door in front of her.
He shifted around nervously. "You never know what could happen. You can think that you're safe but then all of a sudden, you're hit on the back of the head and being dragged into a white van."
Eli eyed him, leaning towards Delaney. "I think you should take off that true crime channel on the TV."
"Agreed," she whispered back, leaning away as a heat crept up her neck. "Dem, just go in. We already look weird enough standing out here like we don't know where we are."
Demetri shook his head. "I'm not going in first. What if someone yells at me? I tear up when people yell at me."
"We know," Delaney rolled her eyes. "Eli, open the door, please?"
The Moskowitz teen immediately listened, grabbing the handle and pulling the door open. Delaney sarcastically smiled at her brother. "In. Now."
He thickly swallowed, eyes wandering around the room. "I can't. You go first. You seem like you know what you're doing."
She deadpanned at him. "Why did you even agree to come if you're gonna be a pussy about it? Even Eli's more confident than you. And he's, like, the most introverted person I've ever met. Get your ass in there."
"If you raise your voice just a little bit, I'm gonna start tearing up," Demetri looked her up and down, as if he was challenging her.
"Are you asking me to?" Delaney raised an eyebrow.
There was a beat of silence.
"I'll go in," Demetri quickly walked past her and through the door that Eli was still holding. She hummed in satisfaction, turning to Eli with a cheeky smile.
He chuckled as he shook his head. "He thinks you're really scary."
"Do you think I'm scary, Eli?"
"No," he immediately answered. "You're the nicest person I know."
Her cocky demeanor came crashing down, and a shy smile replaced her cheeky one. "Thank you. You're the nicest person I know too."
Eli's face grew pink, and he nodded into the dojo. "Ladies first."
She laughed. "See? Nicest person I know."
Delaney then grabbed onto his hand, pulling him along with her. They made their way over to Demetri, who had found an open space for them.
"Why did I let you talk me into this?" Demetri asked Eli, looking up from his phone. "This goes against everything I stand for. It's like an extra gym class for no reason."
"Let's just give it a chance," Eli replied. "You saw the fight. Miguel kicked ass."
"Understatement of the century," Delaney snorted. "Everyone hates Kyler. Miguel's West Valley High's new hero. Everyone in this room wants to be him. Myself included."
"Why would you want to be Miguel? Everyone already likes you," Demetri scrunched his face.
"I have to restore my rep among the freshman," Delaney winced. "I don't think I'm gonna survive high school without at least one person who likes me."
"I like you," the voice made the girl jump around, a hand on her chest.
"Jordan!" she exclaimed, giving him a punch on the shoulder. "You scared the shit out of me."
He grinned at her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
Demetri eyed them weirdly. "You invited him?"
"Yeah," her eyebrows lightly furrowed. "Remember? The Halloween dance? We all talked about coming including Jordan?"
"Hm," Demetri looked back down at his phone, and Delaney lightly scoffed at him.
"I think it's cool to have you here, Jordan," Eli said.
Jordan smiled at him, patting him on the shoulder. "Thanks, man. You were always the cooler one out of the two of you."
Demetri glared at him.
"Quiet!"
Delaney jumped again, turning around with Jordan to see an older blonde man standing in a doorway. Her jaw dropped. "Holy mother of god. He is gorgeous."
"Laney, he's probably old enough to be your dad," Jordan grimaced down at her.
She merely shrugged. "That never stops anyone."
"Face front."
Everyone immediately turned to face him, Delaney pulling away from Jordan and moving to stand next to Eli. They watched as the man began to slowing walk around them, eyes scanning over the teenagers in his dojo.
"Nice shirt," he said to Demetri.
"Thanks," he said, surprised.
"I'm joking. It sucks."
Delaney choked out a laugh, her hand immediately going up to her mouth to contain it.
"What you laughing for, shortstack?"
She instantly stopped laughing, dropping her head in embarrassment.
"When I look around this dojo, I don't see Cobra Kai material. I see losers, I see nerds. I see a fat kid with a funny hat with his tits popping out."
Delaney's mouth dropped, turning her head to see Jordan trying to hold in a laugh.
"But in my short time as a sensei, I've also seen some miracles," he looked to Miguel and Aisha, who gave him their small smiles. "So, maybe there's some hope for you yet. But first, I need to see where you're at. So everybody, fall in!"
There were confused whispers.
"Fall in? Like does he want us to fall?" Delaney whispered to Jordan.
"I don't know but I can't think of anything else," he whispered back.
"That means line up."
That was when the class started to move, forming lines behind Aisha and Miguel. "No, not ⎯ not line up in a line. Lines! Get in lines!"
"You mean like rows?" Demetri asked from his spot.
Johnny's hands moved up to his face, and he let out a groan.
✸
"Fighting positions! Jab punch. No, wait till I say go. Hiyah!"
The students threw straight punches.
"Hiyah!"
They threw another punch.
Delaney didn't want to admit it, but she felt a tad bit silly.
There were multiple kids in one singular room, thrusting their fists back and forth in sync. An older man was walking around, observing the way they pushed and pulled their fists. Even giving a small kick to those who stance was off. But, maybe that's just what karate was.
"Hey, Lip!" Johnny suddenly shouted, and Delaney didn't need to be told who he was talking about. "Yeah, you. The one with the freaky lip. Who do you think I'm talking to?"
Delaney got out of her stance, her posture straightening up as she felt herself grow defensive from her Sensei's comment. She guessed Miguel could feel her irritation growing, as she made eye contact with him and he shook his head.
"Excuse me, uh, Mr. Lawrence," Demetri beat her to it.
"Sensei Lawrence," Aisha quickly corrected him.
The boy raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Okay. You really shouldn't make fun of someone's physical appearance.
"Oh, is that so? So, I'm not suppose to mention his lip at all?" Johnny countered back.
Delaney then shared a glance with Eli, eyes softening as she saw the embarrassed look on her face. She silently prayed that her brother would stop talking.
"Well, yeah," it was wishful thinking.
"Maybe that's what they teach you in school, but in the real world, you can't expect people to do what they're supposed to do. Right, you hear that, Lip? If you can't handle someone making fun of you, how are you gonna handle an elbow to the teeth?"
"By calling the police," Demetri continued on.
"Dem, if you know what's good for you, shut up," Delaney muttered to him.
"Knock it off," Miguel added.
"What? He does realize the Nazis lost the war, right?"
"He wasn't even talking about Nazis," Delaney whispered shouted. She then look to Eli. "Can you shut him up, please?"
"Why should I be scared of him? Because he's got a snake on his wall? It's not like he's a teacher who can give us a bad grade. We're paying him. He works for us. It's not like he can actually hurt us."
Johnny's eyes were trained on Demetri, and he began to advance towards him. A kid got out of his way, and he stood close to him. "Are you done?"
"I'm getting really scared for him," Delaney said to Jordan, who nodded in agreement.
"What?" Demetri wasn't as confident anymore.
"Hit me. Go ahead, hit me. Strike me right here."
Delaney turned to Miguel with a confused look, only to get a shrug back.
Demetri sluggishly got into the fighting stance, weakly thrusting his fist forward, but Johnny slapped it away. "Harder."
The teen attempted again, only for his hand to be slapped away harder. "Is that all you've got, princess?"
The Alexopoulos boy tried one last time, before Johnny grabbed his arm and flipped him onto the mat. Ooh's rung out from the students, all watching as Demetri withered in pain on the ground.
"Sick," Jordan mumbled with a smirk, and Delaney smacked him in the chest.
"Let that be a lesson to all of you."
✸
Delaney, Miguel, and Jordan walked alongside Demetri in the school halls, talking about what happened with him and Johnny.
"Yeah, but you can't quit," Miguel pleaded with him.
"I got yelled at, got my ass kicked, and then gave him my money. You know who lives like that? Hookers," Delaney scrunched her nose at her brother's comment.
"Dem, let's not compare what happened to hookers. That's just weird," she adjusted her backpack, waving to a group of girls in the hall. Jordan did as well.
"And isn't getting your ass kicked the whole point of karate? I'd say you got five star treatment," Jordan joked, seeing Delaney continuously fidget with her backpack. "Here, give it to me."
She looked at him gratefully. "Thank you. My back has been killing me all day."
Miguel and Demetri looked at them with scrunched faces.
"Yeah, but, he's not that bad of a guy," Miguel went on. "You gotta give him a chance. I mean, you like him, don't you, Laney? Jordan?"
"Oh, hell yeah. The guy's awesome," Jordan immediately answered.
They then turned to Delaney. "Yeah! Yeah, totally."
Miguel gave her an exasperated look and she rose her hands up in surrender. "I just met the man."
"You guys don't know him like I do."
Demetri sucked in a breath, pointing his finger. "That's ⎯ that's hooker talk."
He suddenly yelped when he felt a pinch on his back, turning to glare at Delaney. "Will you stop that? Besides, I don't need to learn karate when I have you."
He then nodded his head in front of him, making the other three turn in that direction. Kylar was walking in the halls, his face still bruised. He made eye contact with the four, clenching his jaw before turning the other way. "See? No one's gonna mess with you."
"He's right, you know. Everyone has seen videos of the fight. You're like Superman now," Delaney laughed and they continued to walk.
✸
"Okay, everybody. Fall in," Johnny emerged from his office, immediately noticing the number of students had decreased. "Where is everyone? Crater face? Nose ring? Slingshot?"
"They quit, Sensei," Miguel quietly said.
Johnny looked shocked. "Are you serious? I mean, good. That was a test. I wanted to see who the quitters are. Not you guys. You're in it to win it, right? You could be at home playing your iComputers, playing your video games, eating candy. Instead, you're here, doing push-ups, learning how to fight."
He then looked to Eli. "Lip. Look, Even Lip's tougher than those guys. He's no quitter."
"Could you please not call me that?" at the sound of Eli's voice, Delaney snapped her head to his direction, wondering if she was hearing right.
"Excuse me, what?" Johnny questioned.
"I said, could you please not call me that?" the teen repeated, his voice now louder. Delaney couldn't help the proud grin that made its way onto her face.
Not wanting a sequel to what happened to Demetri, Miguel took a step forward. "Um, I'll warm 'em up, Sensei."
"No, Lip has something he wants to say," Johnny stepped closer to Eli. "Sorry, speak up, Lip. Or, is your tongue messed up too? Are you one of those challenged kids?"
Delaney's jaw dropped, and she moved forward only for Miguel to grab her by the arm and pull her back. She whispered, "Are you seriously trying to hold me back right now? He just asked Eli if he was a SPED kid. You don't just ask someone that."
"Just leave it. Eli can fend for himself," Delaney looked at him with disbelief and shrugged off his hand.
"Um, the doctor said I could be on the spectrum," Eli replied.
"I don't know what that is, but get off it pronto. All right? If you don't want me to call you "Lip," don't have a weird lip. Can't you get surgery for that?"
"He was born with a cleft lip," Delaney cut in. Everyone turned to her. "The scar is just from the surgery, which is a totally normal thing."
"You mean it was worse before that?" Johnny scoffed. "Or did the doctor just screw up? Because if this is the after photo, that sucks, man. You should sue."
"Can we just please change the topic?" Eli pleaded but the blonde remained persistent.
"You don't think I want to? It's tough when it's right in front of me. If you wanna be something other than a nerd with a scar on his lip, you gotta flip the script. Ok? Get a face tattoo or gouge your eye out. We'll call you "Patch," all right? No, don't do that one. You'll still look like a freak?"
Eli then stormed off. "Oh, great, really? Another quitter?"
Delaney scoffed, shaking her head. She made a move to go after Eli, but Jordan held her back. "What the hell are you doing? Let go."
"You're only gonna make things worse for him if you go," he advised.
She turned to Miguel, who nodded his head in agreement.
"This is bullshit," she grumbled.
✸ AUTHOR'S NOTE ! i love this story with my whole heart omg
delaney is johnny's biggest hater and fan