"So? How'd it go?" Aisha nudged Delaney.
"How'd what go?"
"You're date with Jordan?" Miguel asked, a teasing smile on his face. "Did it go alright? Do I need to beat him up?"
"No. You don't need to beat him up. And it went good," Delaney shifted away from the topic, Aisha and Miguel glancing at each other suspiciously.
"Good?"
"Yeah," she nodded, giving a tight lipped smile. "Good."
"That's it? That's all you're gonna give us? I told you everything about my date with Sam," Miguel whined.
"I know. Even details that I didn't even ask for," she avoided eye contact.
"Come on. Sensei's still not here yet so just give us more," Aisha pressed on.
"If you want to know everything then ask Jordan yourself."
Miguel tilted his head. "You sure it went good? Because you're acting like it didn't go good."
"Yes, it went good. But I don't have to tell you anything. Dates are meant to be private. Kept between the ones on the date," Delaney reasoned. "Now, drop it."
"Hey, guys," Jordan weaved his way through students in the back, stopping by Delaney. "Hey, you."
She looked up at him. "Hey ⎯ "
Suddenly, he draped his arm on her shoulder, pulling her closer, and leaned down to plant a kiss on her lips. "Sorry I didn't text you. Dad was on my ass all morning."
Delaney nervously chuckled, glancing from the corner of her eye to see Miguel and Aisha looking at them with dropped jaws. "It's okay."
"Did you just ⎯ " Miguel pointed at him. "Did he just ⎯ "
"He did," Aisha breathed out. "Oh my god, he did."
Jordan looked at them confused. "What? You guys okay?"
"You just kissed her!" Miguel exclaimed. "He just kissed you!"
"Yeah," Jordan said slowly with furrowed eyebrows. "She's my girlfriend. Why wouldn't I kiss her?"
"Girlfriend?" they both said at the same time.
"Since when?" Miguel asked.
"You guys went one one date!" Aisha said right after.
"Yeah, well," Jordan chuckled. "A lot can happen on one date."
Delaney gave him a sharp elbow to the stomach, making him grunt. "Shut up."
Miguel gasped. "You guys slept together?"
"No! Mig!" Delaney gave him a look of disapproval. "We just kissed, and then talked and now we're together."
"Who's together?" she clenched her eyes together, immediately knowing who that voice belonged to.
"Jordan and Delaney are finally dating. About time," Aisha revealed, crossing her arms over her chest.
Delaney reluctantly turned to Hawk, seeing an unreadable emotion swirling in his eyes. "Oh. Congrats."
"Thanks, man," Jordan gave him a pat on the chest. "Wouldn't have happened without you. Thank you for convincing her to say yes to the date."
"Yeah," Hawk scoffed out a laugh. "Anytime."
"Alright! Listen up!"
Delaney let out a breath of relief. She had never been so happy to hear the voice of Johnny Lawrence. "You've trained hard. You've gotten stronger, tougher, faster. You've done your best. You're ready for this tournament, am I right?"
"Yes, Sensei!"
"Wrong!" he slammed down his can of beer at them. "Your best ain't shit! If you wanna win the All Valley Under-18 Karate Tournament, you gotta give me better than your best. Which is why from now on, you're gonna get my worst. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Sensei!"
"Are you losers?"
"No, Sensei!"
"Are you nerds?"
"No, Sensei!"
"Are you sure?"
"No, Sensei!"
Johnny facepalmed.
✸
Delaney felt a little silly as she adjusted the safety goggles onto her face, holding a pipe with a sharp object taped to it onto her shoulder. She felt like a humid mess, overwhelmed with fatigue.
"Tired?" Jordan asked, breathing harshly.
"Understatement," she said, taking deep breaths. "My legs feel like their on fire. You're giving me a massage later."
"Fun," he sarcastically said before grabbing her hand. "Come on. Lots of more car windows that need to be busted in."
She let out a groan but let him drag her away.
As the training day went on, they had to walk across a wooden plank to work on their balance, run through the middles of tires, and smash objects into car windows. It was a great way to let out any excess anger, but it got really tired and painful quickly.
"Is this what military training feels like?" Delaney turned to Hawk, who nodded, just as breathless as her.
"You wanna win? You gotta be hungry. You guys hungry?" Johnny handed them each a piece of beef jerky, which they immediately began to chew.
The blonde man took a bite of his own. "Good. 'Cause so are they." He then blew a high=pitched whistle, and the sound of dogs barking cause them all to pause and turn. About a dozen dogs were coming straight at them.
"Oh, shit!" Aisha exclaimed, and they all scurried off.
Delaney followed after Jordan, watching as he jumped up onto a car and turned around to help her up too. "Sensei! I like, highly respect you and shit, but this is seriously fucked up!"
✸
Delaney snickered as she and Hawk threw pieces of popcorn aimlessly at the people in front of them.
"Ooh! That blonde. Right there," she pointed to a girl in the row one down form them, and Hawk smiled, launching a piece of the crunchy food at her. They snickered to themselves as the lady looked around in confusion.
"Hey, what's wrong?" they heard Aisha ask, making them pause from their fun activity and look over to miguel.
"I can't stop thinking about what Sensei told me about Sam's dad."
"So Sensei and Sam's dad had some beef. What's that to do with you?" Aisha tried her best to get the topic off of the Miguel's mind, but Delaney cut in.
"If Sam tells it's gonna have everything to do with him."
"Plus, her dad and grandma were talking about how Cobra Kai is just full of bullies," Jordan added in taking a sip of his soda.
Delaney turned to him confused. "How do you know that? Were you at the Larusso's today?"
"Why? Jealous?" he teased, lacing their fingers together. She huffed. "Kidding. My dad had to drop some paperwork off before dropping me off for Daniel LaRusso and they offered me a hot dog. They are very loud talkers."
"See!" Miguel gestured over to the couple. "Sam's dad hates Cobra Kai. I'm a part of Cobra Kai. So, by the transitive property, Sam's dad is gonna hate me."
Delaney scrunched her nose. "Did you just use an example of math to compare that? What is with everyone using weird things to compare things?"
"I'm telling you, it's not just on my mind. Sam was acting weird the other day when her dad walked by."
"Listen," Aisha went on. "I've known Mr. LaRusso since third grade. He's a really nice guy. You just have to talk to him."
Delaney felt cheeky. "Unless you're in Cobra Kai."
"Butt out," Aisha threw some popcorn at the girl's face.
"I haven't even been invited over yet. She's probably too afraid to introduce me."
"Probably," Delaney commented, Aisha turning to glare at her. "What? It's the truth. Everyone knows that Kyler has been over at the LaRusso's before."
"Dude, just go over there," Hawk butted in. "It's an alpha move."
"Exactly. You're a nice guy, Miguel," Jordan nodded. "Cobra Kai isn't what it used to be. Just show that to Mr. LaRusso."
He, Delaney, and Hawk all simultaneously giving a final throw of popcorn.
This time, a man stood up and turned around at the impact. "Who the hell did that?"
✸
Later that night, Delaney decided to spend the night at Jordan's place since his dad was going to be working over night, and they were overdue for a movie night. But halfway through the movie, Delaney got a text and hadn't put down her phone since.
Jordan noticed, taking repeated glances at her to see if she would put it down, but she never did.
"'That Hawk?" he asked, Delaney not catching his tone.
"Huh? Oh, no. It's Miguel," she flashed him her phone. "He listened to Hawk and went over to Sam's but, he saw a guy he had never seen having dinner with the LaRusso's and he's sorta freaking out."
"Shit, really?" Jordan sat up straighter. "Does he know the guy?"
Delaney shook her head. "Nope. He just said that it was a guy with like a bob."
He raised his eyebrows. "A bob? Like the hair?"
"Yeah," she scoffed. "If Sam's cheating on him, I'm kicking her ass. I don't care if I get in trouble."
Jordan smiled at her. "You're hot when you're mad."
She looked at him with an amused look. "Not the time to be flattering."
"My bad, my bad," he laughed, placing his hand on her legs, which were laid across his lap. "Wanna get food tomorrow? I know a really good place. They have good smoothies."
Her eyebrows furrowed. "But we agreed to hang out with the others tomorrow."
His face lightly dropped. "We don't always have to hang out with them, you know. Sometimes it just being the two of us is nicer."
"Oh, Jordan. I would say yes, but, Miguel needs us right now. He's our friend. We have to be there for a our friend. Another day?"
"Yeah," he nodded. "Another day's fine."
She briefly held his hand. "Thank you."
Delaney went back to try to calm down and comfort Miguel over text, leaving Jordan to watch the movie. She couldn't see him staring at her with a clenched jaw, before he turned back to the screen.
✸ AUTHOR'S NOTE ! surprise surprise