⊱ ────── {⋆⌘⋆} ────── ⊰

"I swear aunt chris, you took the best pictures ever." ashley smiled as she, aiden, and stevie looked over her photos in her photo albums. "i refuse to believe that these pictures were taken in the 80s. the quality is just – wow."

"believe it, honey." chrissy said as she looked up from her laptop. "that's from graduation. after the ceremony, we went to the beach to take pictures, your dad and uncles hated me for it but i didn't care."

"yeah, just like everyone hates stevie for taking pictures of everything." aiden teased as stevie playfully rolled her eyes.

"yeah, she gets it from me." chrissy laughed as she placed her laptop aside. as ashley looked through the photo albums, stevie smiled as she found a photo that chrissy had taken of bella while she was pregnant, wearing a van halen t-shirt that belonged to johnny.

"if i ever get pregnant, i wanna look as good as mom looked." stevie said, passing the picture to the twins. "this picture also shows the last time i had a good nights rest."

"she's glowing!" ashley smiled as she held the picture in her hands. "auntie bella is so photogenic, even on a bad day."

"i remember this. she was about 6-7 months pregnant with stevie." chrissy smiled as she looked at the photograph. "we were all having breakfast back at their place in van nuys when i took this. she hadn't slept very well the night before and she had just woken up. she would always steal johnny's band tees and used them as maternity clothes. your dad didn't care because he thought she looked "so hot" wearing them."

stevie laughed as she and ashley continued to flip through the photo album and looking at pictures until they came across a photo of chrissy, bella, and ali on the beach. "wow, aunt chris, i'm loving the hair." ashley smiled as she held up the picture.

"yeah, that's the 80s to you." chrissy laughed as she looked through another photo album, finding a picture of her and johnny. "if you wanna talk about 80s hair, take a look at your dad's hair, stevie."

"oh-ho-ho! sweet mullet!" aiden chuckled as he held the picture in his hand and passed it to stevie.

"it's been a long time since i've seen a picture of dad and his mullet." stevie smiled.

"not anyone can pull it off but, uncle johnny really pulled it off." ashley laughed. "and this was in high school?"

"nope, that was summer after high school. we had graduated by then and we had all gotten jobs at the country club." chrissy said. "i worked in the front desk with your dad, while your uncles bobby and tommy worked as waiters and your uncle johnny and aunt bella worked the pool."

"dad was a lifeguard? with mom?" stevie laughed. "no way! i do not believe that."

"believe it." chrissy smirked as she handed stevie a photo of johnny and bella. "i remember we would all hang out in the break room, just listening to music and we would also hang around the pool after closing. i took this picture at a staff party we threw that nobody knew about."

"and nobody got caught?" aiden laughed.

"nope, nobody knew. only the staff, which we were a bunch of kids fresh out of high school." chrissy said. "that was the 80s for you."

"seeing pictures of mom and dad after high school is so surreal." stevie smiled as she continued to look through the photo album. "all they would ever talk about was how they met in high school."

"how did they meet anyway? we never got to hear that story." aiden said.

stevie and chrissy looked at each other and chuckled. "i've heard only mom's side of the story." stevie said.

"let's just say that both stories involve your mom, your dad, and a cup of cherry coke." chrissy smiled.

⸻

it was a little past 5pm when stevie walked into the dojo, as she threw her phone in her purse. as she walked through the glass doors, she was surprised to only find miguel in the dojo. before walking into the office, she was greeted by her father who was walking out of the office.

"why is miguel the only one here?" stevie asked as she placed her purse down on the desk chair.

"where the hell were you?" johnny replied.

"i was at chrissy's. ash, aiden, and i headed over there to have lunch with her." stevie said, reaching into her purse to grab a hair clip and pinned her hair up. "thanks for taking care of lola, but next time, don't have her chase the kids around."

"who told you?" johnny said.

"a little bird." stevie replied. "anyway, what's the plan for today and why is miguel the only one here? did everyone else quit?"

"let's be honest, he's my only shot at winning this thing." johnny replied as he looked out the dojo office window.

"dad, c'mon. everyone else is doing good, just give them a chance." stevie sighed. "you took a chance on miguel and look at him now."

she watched as her father exit the office and walked up to the teen. stevie sat down and organized the paperwork and bills by the due date. taking her water bottle, she stepped out to the main dojo.

"so how's it going kid?" stevie smiled, taking a sip of her water bottle. "you're getting better and better every day."

"apparently, i'm sensei's best student." miguel smiled as he walked over to his backpack and grabbed his phone.

"don't flatter yourself. have you seen the others?" johnny replied as the teen boy looked to his phone, laughing. "what's so funny?"

"oh, nothing." miguel smiled. "just this funny picture my girlfriend posted."

"so you and that girl from your "non-date" are together now?" stevie smiled as miguel proudly nodded. "ah, congratulations! i'm happy for you!"

"wait a sec." johnny said as he snatched the phone from miguel as he recognized the girl in the photo who was the girl who crashed into his firebird. "is that daniel larusso's daughter?"

"yeah? you know samantha?" miguel asked.

"oh, shit." stevie muttered to herself as she nervously bit her lip.

"you're dating a larusso?" johnny said, as if he took offense.

"yeah, why?" miguel said as he turned over to stevie. "is something wrong?"

"please don't tell me this has to do with daniel larusso, again." stevie sighed. "so he's dating sam, big deal."

"we need to talk." johnny sighed. "you might wanna hear this too. bring drinks."

"do i have to?" stevie sighed, as she rolled her eyes. as stevie grabbed a beer for her father and a coke for miguel, she grabbed a beer for herself too, as she closed the fridge and headed outside. stevie had heard this story before, many times. it was the subject of arguments between her parents and her mother always brought up how her father still held a 30 year grudge over a karate tournament and how "ridiculous" this whole thing was.

johnny and miguel sat on the curb as stevie handed the guys their drinks. "i've heard this story plenty of times, since i was born practically." she said with slight annoyance in her tone.

"you don't know this one." johnny said as he opened up his beer can. "the summer of '82, rocky 3 had just come out and my buddy dutch was a huge mr. t fan so we went to the local theater to check it out."

miguel and stevie listened intently as he continued to talk. "sitting in front of us was this group of cute chicks, eating popcorn and dutch decided to throw milk duds at them." johnny said as miguel and stevie chuckled.

"that sounds like uncle dutch." stevie laughed as she took a swig of her beer.

"wha – why would he do that?" miguel said, softly laughing.

"it's an alpha move, man. babes love it when you treat 'em like crap." johnny said as stevie rolled her eyes. "anyway, they got so pissed off, one of them stood up and started yelling at us. that's when i saw her for the first time."

"saw who?" miguel asked.

"ali." johnny said, softly smiling.

stevie had heard a little about ali. she was chrissy and her mother's best friend since middle school and high school. ali was also her father's ex-girlfriend, before he met bella. "ali, as in mom's best friend ali?" stevie chuckled.

"yeah. she dumped popcorn all over dutch, got butter all over him. i could tell right away this chick was a firecracker." johnny chuckled.

"did you ask her out?" miguel asked as stevie took a swig of her beer.

"yeah, i hit on her a few times until she gave me a chance. went to golf n' stuff for our first date, kissed on the ferris wheel, we were madly in love. we dated for 2 years." johnny smiled. "for valentine's day, instead of rings, i bought her a pink jelly bracelet and she gave me this."

stevie smiled as her father grabbed the black karate headband he used and held it in his hands. "so then what happened?" stevie said as she held the beer can in her hands.

"summer before my senior year, we got into a fight. i figured we'd work things out eventually, but then daniel larusso came to town." johnny said.

"and there it is." stevie muttered to herself.

"next thing i know, he's hitting on her. i see the two of them flirting with each other–"

"so what'd you do?" miguel asked as stevie listened.

"i walked over to have a civil conversation with ali, but larusso kept butting in, told him to get lost and mind his own business. out of nowhere, the guy sucker-punches me." johnny explained.

"what an asshole." miguel said as stevie took a swig of her beer.

as she listened to her father keep telling miguel the story, she remembered about how her mother would always complain and talk about how he was always fighting. bella hated whenever he got into a fight and as a result, they would argue about it for hours in the living room and she even remembers one night where she heard her mother plead her father to stop fighting, "for stevie's sake".

"so then what happened at the all-valley?" stevie said.

"we decided to settle things at the tournament. i didn't have much of a cheering section because everyone was cheering larusso on, but there was this one girl who did." johnny said.

"who was it?" miguel asked.

"her name is isabella monroe." johnny said with a smile as stevie smiled as well. "y'know, after ali, i was upset and i didn't think i'd find anyone like her again, but then i met bella."

"how'd you meet her?" miguel said as he took one last sip of his soda.

"one night, i went to golf n' stuff with my buddies to try and take my mind off the breakup. that same night, ali was there. i walked over to her to try and talk things out, but it didn't go so well." johnny said. "i figured i'd give her some space to cool off so i left. as i walked away, i bumped into this girl and she spilled her cherry coke all over the floor, i think a little bit got on my shoes."

miguel and stevie chuckled as johnny continued to retell the story. "so? did you two end up dating?" miguel smiled as johnny proudly nodded.

"i followed her around, annoyed her a little bit. i figured she wouldn't give me a chance after everything that had happened, but we eventually started dating." johnny smiled.

"what happened to bella? what happened after high school?" miguel asked.

"they had me." stevie chuckled. "bella's my mom."

"woah - bella's your mom?" miguel said in shock. "sensei's bella?"

"we continued dating, lived in new york while she was in college. after she graduated, we came back to the valley." johnny smiled. "after that, we had stevie and got married."

"so are you two still together? or what happened?" miguel said.

"we eventually split up. she left to miami, modeled for a bit, eventually became a designer." johnny sighed. "i saw her from time to time, but it wasn't the same, y'know?"

"wow, she sounds great." miguel softly smiled. "is she still around, like around the valley?"

"she comes and goes from time to time." stevie sighed. "but right now, she's in town."

"have you seen her yet, sensei?" miguel said, turning to face johnny, as the blonde looked down at his beer can.

"yeah and she's still as pretty as the day i first saw her." johnny smiled.

"it sounded like a pretty eventful summer." miguel softly chuckled. "and bella sounds like such a great person."

"it really was." johnny smiled. "aside from everything, i had bella. that girl was something very special."