--playing Too Young to Fall In Love by Motley Crue--
[Scarlette Sevem lays in the California sand with an aching body and bleeding nose. She was so angry that she couldn't focus on standing back up. Of course Johnny was her sensei's best student, but she didn't expect him to defeat her so quickly. She eventually stands up and walks to Reseda under the cover of darkness, after laying in the sand and sulking for half of an hour straight. On the way, she dared not shed a tear, but store her anger and sadness as power for the next fight. Once she gets to Reseda she sees Daniel sitting outside of his apartment, looking at the sky like he was when he and Scarlette had done hours ago. Scarlette closes the gate behind her and steps up the stairs- she has enough guilt to hang her head low with her hair somewhat in her face. Therefore, Daniel is unable to see her black eye and bloody nose, the same facial conditions he currently has as well. Daniel looks over at Scarlette, unable to see her face clearly also due to the dark night and lack of lights in their complex. Daniel groans and tries not to look at Scarlette. Scarlette is at a loss for words as she walks nearby Daniel Larusso] "What am I supposed to say after that? It's done. It's already over. I can't say anything." [Scarlette thought to herself as she looked at Daniel behind her reddish brown locks. She steps into her apartment, without making eye-contact with Daniel the entirety of that interaction. Daniel just sighs as he continues to sit with his back against the wall between Scarlette and his apartment doors]
"Where the hell did I go wrong? I was just trying to help. Some first day." [Daniel thinks to himself, confused and frustrated, as he watches the door of Scarlette's apartment after it closes. Daniel doesn't know whether he should blame himself or the girl he just met. The boy stands up, he struggles to do so with his stomach still hurting from the fight, and walks up to his apartment door. Daniel sneakily walks inside his apartment, he doesn't want his mother to see his black eye]
--the next day--
[Daniel steps out of his room wearing a dark and somewhat oversized pair of aviator sunglasses. His mother sits at the table beside the door eating her breakfast in her robe] "How was the party?" [She asked kindly]
"Okay." [Daniel replies, hiding his black eye- trying to avoid explaining what really happened last night]
"Must've been more than ok. I didn't hear you come home last night. Any friend material?" [Lucille asks as her son is already rushing out of the apartment, opening the door]
"Some. I gotta go." [Daniel opens the door, before exiting his mother interrupts]
"Eat first." [She insists. Daniel rolls his eyes behind his aviators]
"I'm not hungry, ma." [Daniel replies immediately. His mother senses something is off, she stands up]
"Take off those glasses." [Lucille points]
"Why?"
"I wanna see your baby browns." [Lucille says with a smile and her son cringes and shakes his head]
"C'mon, ma-"
"Why are you hiding your eyes?" [Lucille asks, her suspicion grows as Daniel refuses to remove his aviators]
"I'm not hiding my eyes." [He lies, his mother knows he isn't telling the truth]
"Then take off the glasses."
"Ma-" [Daniel combats but his mother insists once more]
"Now!" [Lucille raises her voice firmly at her son, her tone becomes more serious. Daniel shamefully takes his glasses off and his mother shrieks at the sight of Daniel's black eye as she rushes over to him. Meanwhile, Scarlette hears her father's snoring as she tiptoes into the kitchen to get breakfast, he must've gotten home later than she did last night. She grabs a piece of toast and walks out of her apartment. She looks over to Daniel also exiting his apartment, their eyes lock and they both look away. Daniel huffs and continues down the stairs as Scarlette does the same behind him. Daniel Larusso is reminded of how he has already had a bad start when he sees Scarlette walk beside him, although they try to avoid eachother. The boy from New Jersey sighs as he walks behind Scarlette and adjusts his large aviators. At the entrance of the apartment complex, Johnny pulls up in a brand new car, honking his horn twice- he would usually pick Scarlette up and take her to school. Scarlette opens the gate and gals at the sight of Johnny Lawrence, Scarlette Sevem was definitely one to hold a grudge]
"Hey stranger." [Johnny smiles at Scarlette but she just glared and looked away, continuing her way to school. Daniel walked through the gate behind her and stood in the gateway for a moment. The boy from New Jersey examined Johnny Lawrence, a blonde boy just a bit taller than Daniel, who was dressed preppy yet he wore the same red leather jacket that he did the night before. Daniel hadn't witnessed Johnny and Scarlette's fight last night and he had not noticed Scarlette's black eye. Therefore, Daniel Larusso had no idea as to why Scarlette was upset with Johnny] "Scar, please. Can't we just move on?" [Johnny asked, becoming slightly annoyed that Scarlette was ignoring him. Scarlette continues to walk away without looking behind her. Johnny turns his car off and locks it- tossing the keys into the vehicle as he catches up to Scarlette with a small jog. Daniel watches from afar trying not to be seen. Daniel walks his bike just far enough behind the two for nobody to notice]
"Maybe it's this guy's fault Scarlette beat me up yesterday, this guy seems like an asshole." [Daniel thought to himself, already disliking Johnny Lawrence and believing that Scarlette's actions last night might've been at least somewhat justified] "Whatever had happened last night between them must've been why Scarlette didn't want me to stay at the beach around this guy." [Daniel thought as he continued to watch the drama before him]
"Can you just listen to me, Scarlette?" [Johnny asked, becoming annoyed- but he stays persistent]
"Why should I?" [Scarlette finally replies, she stops walking and turns around to face Johnny. Daniel still couldn't see Scarlette's black eye due to how dark his aviators were]
"Because."
"Because what?" [Scarlette's eyebrows pointed and she angrily clenched her teeth and crossed her arms. Daniel really was quite curious as to why she was so upset]
"Because," [Johnny never was very good at explaining things or even knowing why he did something-] "because." [Johnny continued- Scarlette rolls her eyes at Johnny's childish "explanation"]
"He could've at least apologized." [She thought as she spoke to Johnny again, losing some respect for him] "That's not a very good reason, Johnny." [She says, still looking Johnny into the eyes with her arms crossed. She then began walking away from him once more]
"Please." [Johnny steps in front of Scarlette and stops her from continuing to walk, she crosses her arms again]
"Fine Johnny, I'll listen to you after you broke Ali's radio and kicked my ass!" [Scarlette yells with sarcasm, her hair bounces as she stands on her toes with anger. Johnny is frustrated at himself but his "winner" personality won't allow him to apologise to Scarlette and own up to his mistake. Daniel walked his bike much closer to Johnny and Scarlette, he stood stationary and continued to watch] "Now, get the fuck out of my way!" [Scarlette demands]
"Kicked her ass?" [Daniel whispers to himself as Scarlette tries to storm off again but Johnny grabs her arm. She is unable to escape his grasp. Daniel's surprised expression becomes more upset as he sees Scarlette trying to squirm out of Johnny's grasp. Johnny lets go of Scarlette as he hears the noise of Daniel's sunglasses falling to the concrete. The aviators had fallen off of Daniel's face because they were too big and he had blown his cover. Scarlette and Johnny turn around and Daniel sees Scarlette's black eye, it looks worse than his. He nearly gasps and makes his way to Scarlette- letting go of his bike]
"What're you looking at, New Jersey?" [Johnny asked aggressively as he turned to Daniel. Daniel is still a little phased about Scarlette's black eye, he's worried for someone he barely even knows. He wasn't even listening to Johnny, he was too pissed off at him to listen. Scarlette still stood beside Johnny, she wasn't going to hide behind Daniel- she could fend for herself]
"Leave her alone. She doesn't wanna talk to you!" [Daniel yells at Johnny aggressively, he then turns over to Scarlette] "Did he do this to you? Is that why-" [Daniel looks at Scarlette and points at her wounded face- her black eye -Scarlette nods but she spoke for herself]
"Daniel, I can handle this myself-" [Scarlette says firmly to Daniel but is interrupted by Johnny, who shoves her behind him as he takes off his backpack]
"You want another black eye, Daniel?" [Johnny asked aggressively, stepping towards Daniel intimidatingly, Daniel flinched but he stayed glaring at Johnny. Scarlettes buts in, nudging Johnny to get his attention]
"Johnny, are you gonna do this again?" [Scarlette asked in annoyance. Johnny turns back around to continue to reply to Scarlette]
"What am I doing?" [Johnny asked shrugging]
"You're pissing me off." [Scarlette says as manages to quickly get around Johnny and stand beside Daniel. Daniel questions what he should do, he doesn't want to get his ass kicked again and he doesn't want to walk away from a fight either. Before he can make his decision, familiar motorcycle noises come from behind them- the rest of Cobra Kai has arrived just in time]
"C'mon Johnny we're gonna be late for school." [Bobby says, still sitting on his motorcycle. The three teens, Scarlette, Daniel, and Johnny, looked over at Bobby, Tommy, and Dutch on their motorcycles]
"Yeah, you can kick his ass later." [Dutch says, laughing with the others for a minute. Johnny turns around to pick up his backpack. Johnny looks behind him as he walks to his friends, he locks eyes with Scarlette and doesn't know what to say]
"What am I supposed to say after that?" [Johnny thinks to himself. He doesn't want to lose her to Daniel- whether it be friendship or something else, yet his jealousy and rage was stronger than his care for Scarlette]
"So, how'd it go?" [Tommy asked Johnny with a laugh, knowing damn well that it didn't go well]
"Shut up, fuck-face" [Johnny said to Tommy, only making Tommy laugh more, as he stepped into his car and closed the door]
"Scarlette are you comin'?" [Bobby asks as he looks over to Scarlette, she wore a Van Halen t-shirt and acid-washed mom jeans, as well as her signature black headband under her voluminous hair. Scarlette looks at the Cobra Kais, shaking her head]
"Not today-" [Scarlette replied, glancing over at Daniel then back over at the Cobra Kais] "I'll see you later."
"Alright, see you at school." [Bobby said as he and his friends drove off. Scarlette waves goodbye, they were her friends after all, even when she was having a troubling time with Johnny. Daniel looks at Scarlette when the Cobra Kais had gone]
"Are you ok?" [Daniel steps in front of Scarlette to get a closer look at her face] "He did this?" [Daniel asked another inquiry, concerned with his eyebrows raised and his eyes slightly squinted]
"Yeah but-"
"Next time he comes around I swear-" [Daniel seems genuinely frustrated at Johnny. He points his finger angrily and paces the floor a bit. Scarlette chuckles at this, she thinks its cute that he cares so much, and cuts off his sentence]
"It's ok, Daniel. I can fend for myself." [Scarlette said chuckling as she stops Daniel's pacings, stepping in front of him. The two teens look eachother in the eyes and can't help but smile]
"Oh, I know you can. My eye knows you can, slugger." [Daniel says with a laugh and a smug smirk. Scarlette laughs as well and she scratches her head, the two teens begin to walk to school together, but Scarlette still feels shame for what happened the night before]
"I'm so sorry about that, Daniel." [She said, looking down at her white chunky sneakers on the concrete]
"It's alright-" [Daniel said with a wave in his hand, denying that Scarlette should be sorry. Daniel was just happy that he could understand why it happened, and more concerned for Scarlette than himself since she also had wounds. Daniel walks his bike beside him and Scrlette] "Where'd you learn how to do that?"
"Do what?"
"The," [Daniel does a pretend karate kick and chops] "karate stuff. Is there a good gym around here or something?" [Daniel asked, he had never been a part of a dojo before- but only took a few karate lessons at the YMCA in New Jersey. Scarlette chuckled heavily at Daniel's lack of karate knowledge]
"He's cute." [She thought as she finished laughing and just smiled] "I think you mean dojo." [She corrected with the same smile]
"Sure I do." [Daniel says as they then laugh again at Daniel's lack of karate knowledge, he had always been interested in karate but never got serious about it. Scarlette doesn't answer Daniel's question about her dojo. She doesn't want him to get mixed up in anything with Cobra Kai, at least more than he already had]
"Did your parents see your eye?" [Scarlette asked, looking over at Daniel who wore his oversized aviators once again]
"Yeah, I told my mom it was a bike accident. I didn't want her to get too worried."
"What about your dad? Did he buy the bike accident story?"
"My dad died when I was eight- it's been me and my mom since then." [Daniel said in a lighter tone, but he wasn't too phased or upset- his dad had been dead since 1974]
"Oh, I'm sorry-" [Scarlette said as he smile faded and she looked back down at her feet]
"It's ok, you didn't know." [Daniel waves his hand in reassurance- he didn't mean to make Scarlette feel bad]
"My mom died when I was three.." [Scarlette said, relating to Daniel- growing up with only her father, however her father barely raised her anyways]
"So it's just you and your dad?" [Daniel asked, with his hands in his pockets and looking back over at Scarlette. She looks back at him and shrugs with a small frown]
"Sort of.."
"Sort of? What- what do you mean?"
"I mean that-" [Scarlette began, sighing but not feeling upset] "my dad and I don't really spend time much, we never had." [She said, looking back down at her feet, Daniel nods with his hands still in his pockets. Scarlette's father barely raised her, he was out of the house for most of her life doing god knows what- drinking and working at low-end jobs. The closest things to a father Scarlette has had have been her past and current sensei]
"Oh, I'm sorry-" [Daniel said]
"It's ok, you didn't know." [She replied as the two teens approached the high school. Daniel chains his bike in front of the school and walks into the hallway beside Scarlette- heading to their lockers]