--playing Cruel Summer by Bananarama--
[Daniel Larusso opens his locker, beside Ali Mill's locker] "Hey, you were at the party last night, right?" [Ali Mills says as she turns to Daniel with a friendly expression. Ali leans her shoulder on her locker with her book to her chest]
"Yeah, what's your name?" [Daniel asked as he shoved books into his locker and looked over to Ali with an equally friendly expression. Scarlette -who is just a couple, four, lockers away from them- listens into their conversation, just like Daniel had done to her and Johnny this morning. She pushes her curtain bang away from her eyes and watched the two, secretly in a way- although this was nothing near stalker behavior]
"I'm Ali with an I" [She said, Daniel couldn't help but smile at Ali as he responded]
"I'm Daniel- with an L" [Daniel smiles jokingly, Ali giggles]
"Where're you from, Daniel with an L?" [Ali asked as they laughed together, Scarlette cringed at this sight. She gripped the textbook that she was putting into her locker with a feeling she'd never felt]
"I-I don't care, we just met." [Scarlette whispered to herself, reassuringly and in denial. She shook her head and looked away from the two flirting in front of her and ignored them stubbornly]
"Newark, New Jersey." [Daniel replied, still smiling at Ali]
"Well, If you need any help finding where to go, I can walk you to your class or something." [The girl offered, Daniel nods and shrugs]
"Sure." [Daniel replied, closing his locker]
"Ok, come on." [Ali signalled Daniel to follow her and the two began to walk. Daniel looks behind himself at Scarlette and almost sighs as he sees she's not even looking at him. He seemed to care so much, he longed and desired being beside her. Scarlette closes her locker and begins to walk to the very same class, trying not to look at Ali and Daniel because she doesn't want to care- she looked down at her white sneakers as she walked behind the two. Little did Scarlette Sevem know, Daniel was still looking at her and even wishing that she's look back] "So which class do you have first?" [Ali asked and startled Daniel, making him turn back around to look at her. He looks down at his schedule and then looks back up at Ali]
"Oh, I have science-" [Daniel says as he squints at his schedule] "Ms. Blaire." [Daniel said as he read the paper in his hand- Scarlette still walked behind the two and finally looked back up and to Daniel and Ali]
"Right over there-" [The bell rings as Ali points to Daniel's classroom] "I have to go now, I'll see you later, Daniel." [Ali begins to step away and towards her next class, she waves goodbye to Daniel]
"Bye." [Daniel smiles and waves at Ali as she walks to her classroom. Daniel looks behind himself at Scarlette as he walks into his class, Scarlette follows behind Daniel as they had finally made eye-contact. Ali was the "hottest girl in school" so it wasn't a surprise to Scarlette that Daniel would probably be interested in her, but Scarlette Sevem didn't think that it would bother her- one again, she never cared this much and she stubbornly turned this confusion into frustration. Daniel pulls the chair for Scarlette to sit down beside him as she enters the classroom. Some wave of relief rushes Scarlette as she looks Daniel in the eyes, taking her seat as class begins. The boy from New Jersey makes a small smile at Scarlette as she sits down, she smiles back but immediately makes the same serious expression afterwards]
--class ends--
[The bell rings and the students exit the classroom. Scarlette and Daniel gather their things to head to their next period, which they also had the same class] "So, you met Ali." [Scarlette says as she gathers her books for her next class, she sounded the smallest bit of rude in her tone- perhaps even jealous. Daniel nods]
"Yeah.. that's right," [Daniel said in an off tone, he feels Scarlette is acting strange. Although, he doesn't know her very well, so he won't bring attention to it. Daniel changes the subject] "C-can you help me find my next class?" [Daniel asked, stuttering as he squinted at his schedule once more, his sunglasses still over his black eye] "It's Italian, Mr. Moore."
"Yeah, follow me." [Scarlette says in a somewhat serious tone as she stands up and leads the way to Mr. Moore's classroom and Daniel follows. They arrive at the classroom but before they enter, Ali walks by, spotting Scarlette's black eye, reminded by what happened at the beach party last night. She never got to thank Scarlette, so she catches up to do so. Daniel stood near the door and leaning on the wall beside it as he waited for Scarlette and watched the interaction]
"Scarlette, wait-" [Ali says as she walks up to Scarlette and taps her on the shoulder of Scarlette's jean jacket. Scarlette turns around, still looking serious] "I never got to thank you about last night-" [Ali began, Scarlette's negative expression became more neutral and friendly]
"I-It's nothing, really." [Scarlette said as she waved her hand in denial, but it felt strange that she was just feeling somewhat jealous of Ali and now Ali was thanking her]
"I'm sorry about your eye-" [Ali looks up at Scarlette's shiner, which she didn't even bother hiding- Scarlette didn't care much of what others thought about her. Daniel squints in confusion as he crosses his arms, listening to the conversation between Scarlette and Ali]
"What does Ali have to do with Scarlette's black eye?" [Daniel thought]
"I'm sorry about your radio." [Scarlette replied, she didn't care much for "battle wounds", she was more concerned/confused about how she felt recently. She felt guilt after she hurt Daniel, an emotion that she wasn't familiar with]
"You should've just let him have it-" [Ali said as she clenched her books to her chest, but Scarlette interrupts]
"Well it wasn't his." [Scarlette smirks and crosses her arms, making Ali smile and laugh. The smirk on Scarlette's face made Daniel blush, he uncrossed his arms and hid his smile by biting his lip and tilting his head down slightly. Scarlette looks over Ali's shoulder and makes eye-contact with Daniel, still smirking. Scarlette looks back at Ali as Ali responds]
"That's right, it wasn't-" [the late bell rings and Ali backs away towards her classroom] "Well, I'll see you around, Scarlette." [Ali waved as she walked off]
"Bye, Ali." [Scarlette waved back as she walked into her classroom, Daniel followed behind her]
"That's so brave of her, to stand for Ali like that." [Daniel thought as he and Scarlette just looked at eachother with no words as class began. Smiles just grew on their faces. Scarlette broke eye-contact with Daniel and looked back down at her desk and opened her italian book- Daniel did the same actions. He smiles and chuckles at the butterflies in his stomach which made Scarlette have a big smile on her face, the last sound before the teacher begins to speak and the class begins]
--after school--
[Daniel removes his sunglasses from his face and places them beside his backpack, he wasn't allowed to wear glasses during his soccer tryouts. He enters the soccer field and waits for his turn to play, his head slightly down as he tries to keep his black eye hidden. Scarlette Sevem stands near her friends Bobby, Dutch, and Tommy- She wasn't trying out for any teams, she was only hanging out with her friends. Johnny is across from them, he keeps looking over at Scarlette, they still hadn't made up]
"So how was your day with the new kid, Scar?" [Dutch asks as Scarlette smiles. She tries to hide it, knowing they'd take her expression out of proportion]
"He's cool." [She replies calmly with a casual yet serious look]
"Ooooooh!! She likes him!!!" [Bobby jokes laughing- Everyone but Scarlette joins the laugh]
"I barely know him." [She calmly denies with a wave of her hand as she then crosses her arms]
"That doesn't mean anything!" [Bobby says, trailing off of the laughter]
"Yeah, you're not sly!" [Tommy yells laughing with the others. Scarlette shakes her head with her arms still crossed]
"But be honest, Scar, we won't tell anyone if you don't want to-" [Dutch says, trying his best to sound convincingly serious- Scarlette interrupts with her stubborn statement of denial]
"I know that's a lie." [She said, looking Dutch in the eyes firmly]
"I'm serious." [Dutch says as he continues to try to be convincing- Bobby and Tommy shook their head laughing. They both know that Dutch would tell everybody if he got the answer out of her- Scarlette knew this as well]
"No you're not. I don't like him anyways so it doesn't matter if you gossip. Can we move on now? Change the subject?" [Scarlette somewhat aggressively states. She doesn't trust them with her secrets, she doesn't trust anybody]
"Fine." [Dutch nods as they continue the conversation upon another subject]
"He is kind of cute, though.." [Scarlette thinks to herself as she looks over at Daniel. He waves with a goofy smile and Scarlette smiles back and laughs, looking down at her chunky white sneakers. Daniel then notices four boys approaching him kicking a soccer ball, he recognizes them from the party, they were Freddy and his friends]
"Hey it's the karate kid, show us your moves!" [Toby laughs, pointing]
"Yeah the only move he knows is to get his ass kicked!" [Rufus laughed with the others as they roughly surrounded the poor new kid from Newark. Daniel frowned, he had hoped that the four ere approaching him in a friendly manner but it seems they had just came to make fun of him]
"Yeah, I already know that one." [Freddy says as they all run off laughing. Daniel sighs with his head down, trying to hide his black eye in embarrassment and shame. He bounces a soccer ball on his legs and knees as he still waits to be called for tryouts]
"How do you do that?" [Ali startles Daniel, appearing right beside him in athletic clothes, she was trying out for cheer]
"Oh, this?" [Daniel does the soccer trick again. Ali laughs at him showing off]
"Yeah, is it hard to learn?" [She asked]
"Not really." [Daniel sid as he stopped doing the soccer trick and looked at the pretty Ali Mills]
"Can you teach me?" [She asked kindly. Daniel smiled, he was very happy that somebody finally wanted to talk to him without making fun of him, and somebody so kind and attractive as well]
"Sure-" [Daniel says, nodding with a grin. Scarlette looks over at Daniel again, frowning to see that he's talking to Ali again. Her light-hearted smile had fallen into a serious expression/glare, jealousy. Daniel soon makes eye-contact with Scarlette Sevem, but she looks away and back at the friends in front of her. Once again, the happy mood has been brought down for Daniel. He should be happy right now because of Ali, something nice had finally happened but he still cared about Scarlette so much and he still didn't know quite why. Scarlette didn't know why either, her normal life usually brought her enough fulfillment but it seemed that she was starting to see through the cracks, which is why she fought Johnny last night. And yet his existence had brought her the pains of jealousy and confusion. Yet, both teens ignored these feelings and continued their routines apart from eachother..the cheer captain's whistle blows]
"I have to go, teach me some other time." [Ali says as she begins to walk off and wave goodbye]
"Ok, see ya around." [Daniel waves and Johnny watches from afar, with his fists clenched. His friends, all except for Scarlette, laugh at his frustration. Scarlette didn't think that Johnny's anger issue and jealousy was humorous, she saw it as a treat. Johnny gives them a serious look and points at Daniel- Dutch laughs and nods, giving Johnny a thumbs up. He whispers to Bobby and Tommy, planning something that Scarlette now realized was 'evil']
"This won't be fucking good." [Scarlette thought as she crossed her arms again] "C'mon, guys! Don't do this shit-" [Scarlette pleads. She doesn't want to ruin anything else for Daniel]
"I thought you didn't like him." [Bobby taunts as he swiftly breaks from the huddle then rejoins it]
"N-not romantically, he's my friend!" [Scarlette said aggressively but the three continue to whisper. Scarlette pulls them and tries to shove them, attempting to break the huddle, but they won't budge] "Guys!" [She exclaims, trying to get their attention and stop them from doing anything to Daniel- She couldn't just stand and watch him get humiliated again, it'd be her fault twice. Tommy breaks the huddle again and pushes Scarlette lightly away from them]
"Stay out of it, Sevem." [Tommy said]
"Yeah we're just messin' with the new kid a bit." [Bobby says with a chuckle as the three go back into the huddle and Scarlette rolls her eyes with a groan. Her anger and impulse takes control, as Scarlette kicks Tommy in the legs and shoves him harder. He falls down but gets back up and kicks Scarlette in the stomach hard- just as Scarlette had kicked Daniel the day before. The boys scoff at Scarlette again, she was bold but somewhat weaker than them. She falls to the grass and the boys resume their huddle. Scarlette sat in the grass on her knees, struggling to stand then making her way over to Daniel before it's too late]
"Hey, Daniel, I need to tell you something-" [Scarlette said in a slightly urgent tone]
"Are you alright? What happened?" [Daniel asked, concerned, he notices her holding her stomach]
"Yeah, I'm fine-" [She said, trying to get to the point and warn Daniel]
"Are you sure-" [Daniel asked, still concerned, putting his hand on Scarlette's back calmly]
"Listen, this is important-" [She began to explain but it was too late because the soccer coaches' whistle had blown. Daniel Larusso inches over to the coach and players, including Tommy, Bobby, and Dutch. The three had a hard time holding a straight face as they anticipated the upcoming events]
"Tell me after." [Daniel says as he walks off. Scarlette reaches for Daniel's shirt, trying to grab it to keep him near so she can tell him what's about to happen but had already Daniel run over to the coach and players. He starts playing and all Scarlette Sevem can do now is watch. Daniel has the ball and is tripped by Tommy. Daniel angrily pulls Tommy down as well and climbs on top of him to punch him in the face, he then is pulled off by the coach]
"We don't allow that kind of playing around here! Get out!" [The coach yells at Daniel, thinking that he started it. Daniel tried to explain himself but the coach wouldn't listen]
"This school sucks, man! It sucks!" [Daniel yells back to the coach as he storms off the field Daniel runs off the field. Dutch, Bobby, and especially Johnny, laugh. Tommy holds his hurt face in his hands but laughs as well]
"Nice work." [Johnny says as he gives Dutch a thumbs-up and continues to laugh. Scarlette gives them all a dirty look]
"Congratulations dickheads, you've done it again!" [Scarlette yells to the Cobra Kais as she catches up to Daniel with remorse] "Fucking assholes.." [She murmurs to herself, looking back at her 'friends' once more with face of disgust and a deep feeling of disappointment. Daniel holds his sunglasses in his left hand as he angrily slaps his backpack onto his back. He goes over to his bike, chained to the front of the school and begins to unchain it to go back to South Seas, Reseda] "I-I tried to tell you, Daniel." [Scarlette says to Daniel, still holding her stomach. Daniel didn't even notice Scarlette following him. He turns around and doesn't know what to say, he's embarrassed but also surprised that Scarlette had followed him. Yet this somewhat pleasant surprise still cannot bring him to be calm yet] "I-I can walk home with you." [She suggests with a tone as if she's asking a question]
"It's fine. J-just leave me alone." [Daniel said in a negative/annoyed tone with his back still to Scarlette and as he began to walk his bike. Scarlette stayed put but didn't remain silent]
"No you're not." [She said with her brows pointed in an aggressive manner, making Daniel stop in his tracks] "A-and I'm not leaving you alone!" [Scarlette said with the same tone, she then catches up to Daniel and faces him, looking him in the eyes closely] "They're fucking jerks, I know it. A-and for some reason, more than usual.. Just let me try to call you down." [Scarlette said firmly as she puts her hand on his shoulder and rubs his arm soothingly and doesn't break eye-contact. Daniel nods and licks his teeth, turning back around and putting his aviator sunglasses on]
"C'mon, slugger, let's go." [Daniel says with a smile, Scarlette smiles back and the two walk to the South Seas apartment complex]