CHAPTER ONE:
THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF WREN LARUSSO..

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  WREN LARUSSO WOKE UP TO THE FANTASTIC CACKLE OF HER YOUNGER BROTHER AND THE JOLTING FEELING OF WATER DRIPPING DOWN HER FACE. Leo was stood to her right, and as Wren's drowsy eyes focused in, she found a water bottle sitting in her brother's hand.

"You little—"

"Uh—breakfast will be ready soon? Bye!" Leonardo rushed away, sprinting full speed down the hallway and downstairs. Wren groaned, wiping some water out of her eyes.

He's lucky he also inherited Mom's athletic abilities. Wren thought in distain. And that I just woke up. Or otherwise he would be dead by now.

Sitting up with a huff of pure annoyance, Wren yawned, stretching as she pulled her covers off her body and swung her legs around. Today was going to be a long long day for Wren. First, she had school (Which was tiring enough in its own right.), then she had a whole two hour longer-than-normal basketball practice after school (In preparation for their first game.), and lastly, Wren and her family had to head to the airport to pick up Mari, since she got a week off college and decided she wanted to spend it in the Valley.

Wren sighed, getting up and opening her bedroom door to head to the bathroom that she shared with Andie. Sleepily walking down the hall, Wren was, through the crack of her sister's door, met with the sight of her younger sister, Naomi, practically tearing her room apart looking for something. Whatever she was looking for had to be important, since Naomi LaRusso had never been a morning person. In fact, normally Wren was the one going around waking up her siblings—but apparently today she'd overslept for some odd reason. Wren guessed it was just lack of rest, since her basketball practices had been running later and later, but something in her told her that wasn't the case.

Continuing down the hall, Wren finally got to the bathroom and carefully opened the door, only to be met with Andrea on the phone; bent over the counter as she applied her makeup routine.

Normally, Wren would have been more than pleased to see Andie, but lately, Wren could only say the reverse was true. Andie had stopped hanging out with Wren and their old friends about the end of last school year, in exchange for the rich, popular group. The same rich, popular group who went around bullying and tormenting anyone who didn't fit their standards of who and how someone should be. They'd always been people Wren and Andie veered away from, despite coming from a well off family who definitely could have fit in with them if they ever desired to. But they'd been taught to be way above bullying and flaunting—and she means way above.

  Daniel and Billie-Jean LaRusso made sure that all five of their children understood that bullying—in any form—would not be tolerated by any means; and that meant hanging around people who participated in the activity. So Wren couldn't fathom why in the world her sister had a change of heart.

"Morning, Andie," Wren said, brows pulling together as she looked at Andie's phone on the counter; reading the name that was on the screen: YASMINE. Yasmine? Really? At 6 in the morning? Wren thought in annoyance. Yasmine was one of the worst of them—rich, blonde, pretty, and stuck up—she was someone who Wren couldn't stand. Probably because Wren was the complete opposite of her—personality wise. Wren had no clue how Andie dealt with her—especially since she'd inherited their mother's hotheadedness—but, in all honesty, Wren was convinced that all of the LaRusso kids had.

"Wren? What are you doing here?" Andie questioned, annoyance dripping from her voice.

"Uh—getting ready? You don't own the bathroom, you know. I have a right to use it too—"

"Oh! Is that your sister, Andie? Ugh—why do you even bother with her—she's so boring. She's such a bitch for not hanging out with us." Wren nearly grabbed Andie's phone and threw it at the wall. What the heck did she do to Yasmine to get her to call her that? I don't even think we've talked at all since like last year. Wren thought, eyes wide and brows furrowed. Maybe I looked at her wrong? I don't know.

  "Yeah—hey, uh, Yas? I gotta go—I'll talk to you at school, kay?" Andie said hurriedly, not waiting for Yasmine to answer before hanging up.

  Wren just stared blankly at her. "That's who you abandoned me, Sam, and Aisha for? A snobby, stuck up, rich girl who just called your own flesh and blood a b?" Wren didn't actually say the word, since she was really not the biggest fan of cursing; but maybe it would have gone over better with Andie if she had.

  "Hey! She's entitled to her own opinion, Wren. Just because someone doesn't like you doesn't mean you have to get all defensive," Andie retorted, rolling her eyes and getting back to her makeup. "Look, just stay out of my shit, and I'll stay out of yours, alright?"

  Wren sighed. She hated it when she and Andie fought. "Fine. I'll leave you alone. I'm sure Mom and Dad will let me use their bathroom to get ready." Wren then leaned over and grabbed her bag full of her toiletries off of the counter and left Andie alone.

Fast walking down the hallway, Wren walked downstairs and into the kitchen; immediately being met with her father at the stove (Probably cooking breakfast.), her mother right behind her father, hugging him from behind, Leo sat at the dining table playing on his tablet, and Naomi sat on the couch with her phone in the air, probably texting one of her friends.

Wren's gaze settled on her parents; watching as Billie laid her head on Daniel's back whilst he stirred what Wren could only assume were eggs around in a pan.

  If you were to ask Wren who the most in love people in the world were, she'd say her parents. Somehow, some way, her parents were a practically perfect couple. They barely disagreed (If they did it was always taken care of in a mature manner.), always made time for one another, and had this weird, uncanny ability to understand each other; in ways that nobody but them understood. They were basically her blueprint for what a healthy and happy romantic relationship should be. If she didn't have what they have with a someone, she didn't want it.

  "Hey, Mom, Dad. Can I borrow your bathroom this morning?" Wren asked, watching as Billie let Daniel go and they both spun around.

  "Yeah, of course, Re Re. Why so?" Her mother questioned, leaning back against the counter.

  "Uh—me and Ans just had a small altercation. Nothing we couldn't handle though. We're just taking some. . .time apart. . .to cool down." Wren tried to dance around the full truth of what actually happened, but she knew her parents weren't that dense.

  "Time apart—to cool down, huh? You sure you just had a small altercation?" Daniel crossed his arms against his chest, looking at his daughter with curiosity dancing in his brown eyes.

"Yes. . .I'm sure. I'll be out in sec—I've gotta get ready. Please don't mention this to Andie, okay?" Wren said whilst she started walking away.

  "Got it. Our mouths are zipped, Birdie!" She heard her mother yell from the kitchen, shaking her head in amusement at the nickname. Birdie was what practically everyone called her, since like seventh grade. Some kid (She didn't remember who.) had randomly come up with it one time—and it had just sticked. Though, most of the time her family just settled for Re Re. Andie had come up with that when they were little. She used to pretty much only call her that—but that was a while ago. Andie hasn't said it in a long time.

  Wren sighed, walking into her parents bedroom and over to the bathroom, sliding the door open with ease. Placing her stuff down, Wren looked in the mirror; big, normally bright, dark brown eyes staring at back at her through the mirror. Everyone says she has her father's eyes—and she agrees. They were just as big and round and as brown as his—even her Grandma thinks so. She's always called Wren "Baby Browns 2.0."

   Andie has always been compared to their mother. And it makes sense—she's feisty, cusses a little too much, has hazel eyes, and has a huge temper. But one thing—one trait that Wren wishes she had that Andie and her mother have—was the ability to pretend. To pretend that she wasn't bothered by something—to pretend that everything was alright. Wren guessed that she'd taken after her father on that one. She couldn't lie to a tree if she tried. But neither can dad. Wren thought with a small chuckle. Especially not dad.

Wren just guessed that being as translucent as glass was just something that ran in the LaRusso side of her family. It definitely seemed so.

Hopefully her cover up was convincing enough for her parents—hopefully her translucent glass was fogged today—because she really didn't feel like letting anyone in.

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  WREN'S FIRST FEW PERIODS SEEMED TO SLUG ON SLOWER THAN USUAL. Of course, she could have simply just been tired, but she would prefer to blame it on school rather than herself. After all, who wouldn't be tired when they are forced by the law to wake up at 6 am every morning five days a week.

After letting out a sigh of relief at the bell, Wren grabbed her bag and threw it over her shoulder; getting up and walking out into the busy main hallway. As she was looking around, her brown gaze caught the likes of Andie, Yasmine, and Moon; talking to Kyler and his stupid friends. Just yesterday, when Wren, her parents, Nai (Naomi), and Leo were coming home from shopping and a nice meal out, they arrived home to find that Andie had invited the whole "popular" crew to their house for a pool party. Needless to say, Daniel and Billie were both equally pissed, and Andie had gotten a nice scolding.

  At this said party, Kyler had been there, and Wren had unfortunately overheard Yasmine and Andie talking about how he was eye-banging (Don't ask Wren, she doesn't know either.) her twin sister. Which obviously met that Andie didn't just have a bad taste in friends; she also had a terrible taste in men.

  Kyler was basically the scum of the earth in Wren's eyes. Rude, mean, annoying, and not to mention a notorious bully—he was everything Wren avoided in a person. So, for the life of her, she couldn't understand why in the world Andie liked him of all people. She had plenty of options—so why him? Maybe she was stressing too much over this, but honestly, even though Andie had been an idiot to her lately, she still cared about her—and about what guys she was going out with.

While Wren was deep in thought, she didn't notice that their was someone in front of her. Before she could even react, her head was met with a whirl of red hair.

"Oh, crap! I'm so sorry. I wasn't paying attention—"

"It's fine," the girl spoke up in a quiet tone. When Wren finally straightened up, she got a better look at the girl. She was a redhead, with blue eyes that had a troubled tint and a scorned look on her face. Her clothes were tattered, as though she'd had them for a long while. Wren had never seen this girl around before, so she assumed she was new; or Wren really needed glasses.

  "Hey, I've never seen you around here before. Are you new?" Wren asked softly, sending her a kind smile. Wren has never had a lot of friends—not because she was antisocial—no—that wasn't the case. She just preferred to have a small, tight-knit group of people she knew she could trust; rather than a big friend group where trusting people proved to be more difficult. Also, there just tended to be less drama in smaller friend groups. Which was definitely a plus for Wren.

  "Uh, yeah. I am," she replied, that troubled look in her eye softening.

  "Well, I'm Wren. Wren LaRusso. What's your name?"

"Mickeala. With a K instead of a H. But normally people just call me Mick," Mick explained.

"I love that name. I've never met a Mick before."

"Really? Thanks." Wren finally got a smile out of the redhead. "I've never met a Wren either. Well—maybe I have—just not—you get it."

"Yeah, I do. Hey, do you wanna sit with me and my friends at lunch today? Or everyday—if you want of course—you don't have to—"

"I'd like that," Mick interrupted, thankfully stopping Wren's rambles.

  "Great! Come on. I'll show you where the cafeteria is." Wren and Mick headed off to the cafeteria, with Mick's initial shyness wearing out the more she interacted with Wren.

  "Here it is," Wren announced as they entered through the opened, but clearly heavy metal doors. West Valley High's cafeteria was filled to the brim with students; all hustling around trying to get food and a seat. Wren peered over at Mick and saw the intimidated look in her blue eyes. "You bring a lunch?"

  "Yeah, but it's not much. I was in a big hurry this morning, so I didn't get to pack what I usually like. All I've got are a bag of Doritos and a water," Mick said, her cyan gaze flickering towards the lunch line.

Wren's dark gaze followed hers. "How about you go get lunch and I'll meet you at that table over there?" Wren proposed, pointing towards a table where her cousin, Sam, and her best friend, Aisha, were seated.

"Yeah. That works," Mick agreed.

"Great. See you over there, Mickey."

"Mickey?"

"Sorry—I thought it made sense. You know—because of Mickey Mouse and—"

"I like it, Wren. No need to worry," Mick assured, flashing Wren a wide smile before walking towards the lunch line.

Wren returned the smile, whipping back around and making her way towards her friends—before she heard her name boom from another table.

"There she is now—hey, Wren! How are ya?" Wren would recognize that voice anywhere. It was Demetri; a boy who has been in every single one of her science classes since sixth grade. They'd been seat partners since he accidentally tripped her and sent her flying into the bin of beakers. Demetri was—to put it simply—an interesting person. He sometimes made odd comments and asked Wren weird questions—but honestly, overall he was a nice guy. So Wren didn't have much issue dealing with his antics from time to time.

"Hi, Demetri. I'm fantastic. How are you?" Wren replied as she trailed over to his usual table, where he was accompanied by Eli Moskowitz, his forever best friend who barely talked but was the nicest person ever, and two boys Wren had never seen before. One was Latino, with brown skin, darker hair, and bright brown eyes; and the other was African American, with dark skin, afro-textured hair, and dark brown eyes that had an odd shimmer to them as Wren's irises met his.

  "I'm wondrous! Thanks for asking, Birdie. But anyways—these two chick magnets are new and I was just informing them about you," Demetri explained, motioning for Wren to sit down with his right hand.

"Oh—okay. Well, I actually have to meet my friends at our table—but I guess I can stay for a moment," Wren said, sitting down next to Eli and saying a quick hello; to which he returned quietly.

"Wow. I thought you said no girls ever talk to you," the Latino said in surprise.

"Well—Wren's the exception."

"Exception? Wouldn't I be the one making the exception, Demi?"

"Yeah, yeah. Probably—I don't know. But anyways, this is Wren LaRusso in the flesh, newbie's," Demetri said. "My beaker-loving lab partner."

  "I wouldn't say I'm beaker-loving, but sure. We'll go with that."

  "Beaker-lover, this is Miguel and Ty. Both just started school today and made the unfortunate decision to sit at this table," Demetri introduced as both boys waved her way.

  "Oh! Well, I'm Wren. It's nice to meet you."

  "Yeah, I know," Ty spoke up, eyes widening as he embarrassedly chuckled. "That sounded wrong—sorry."

  "Wow. You two really have no game, do you?"

  "Like you have game, Demetri. Yasmine's been waiting since like seventh grade—"

  "Okay! No need to bring that up," Demetri cut Wren off, eyes widening in embarrassment. "But speaking of the popular rich girls—Miguel over here has got a big, fat crush on your twin sister."

  "What—no I don't—"

  "Oh, Andie? I wouldn't try with her at the moment, Miguel. She's going out with Kyler. Why? I have no idea," Wren explained, a tone a disgust coating her voice. "He's such a jerk."

"Yeah—tell us about it," Ty said, nudging Miguel. "We went to the store yesterday to get some Pepto-Bismol for Miguel's grandmother and got jumped by him and his gang. Luckily, though, our neighbor saved us with his karate."

"Karate?" Wren was stunned. Karate had been a dead subject in the Valley for years now. She had no idea there were still people who practiced it.

"Yeah. Now, me and Ty are taking lessons at his new dojo. It's called Cobra Kai," Miguel explained enthusiastically, brown eyes lighting up as he talked.

Wren's brows furrowed at the name. Cobra Kai. It sounded familiar—extremely familiar. She'd definitely heard it before. But where? She racked her brain, searching for the memory whilst her fingers began to tap on her thighs. Wait. She thought suddenly, remembering a faint memory from her karate days.

  A young Wren LaRusso was stood at the shore of a lake, watching as the water rolled out and in onto the sands. On her shoulder was her father's calloused but soft hand, holding her up with love. He'd been explaining his old karate days; when he was young, dumb, and according to her mother, incredibly handsome. Though, when he got to certain part of his story, Wren felt more obliged to listen.

  "Then Cobra Kai entered my world. I had just moved to the Valley from Jersey and had just met your mother for the first time. My new life was shaping up to be good—in till Johnny Lawrence, Cobra Kai's top student, beat me up for trying to help your mother. From there, it just spiraled. They pushed me down a hill on my bike, jumped me after the Halloween dance—though, I did play a little prank on Johnny, but he totally overreacted—, they even harassed your mother just because she refused Johnny Lawrence's advances. It was terrible. Luckily, Mr. Miyagi managed to strike up a deal with their Sensei, Kreese, but it still continued after that."

  "That's terrible, Daddy. Why would they do that?"

  "I don't know, Re Re. I don't know. I don't think I'll ever know. Maybe they were jealous or something of that sort. But all I know is that what Cobra Kai taught was dangerous. Turned good kids into monsters. Turned promising people into failures. Almost got to me once too, but I had Mr. Miyagi, his teachings, and your mother to save me," Daniel LaRusso answered honestly, brown eyes creasing. "All I hope is that it stays dead. The Valley is better without it. Or really, the whole world is better without Cobra Kai."

Wren stilled. Her father's old words echoed like a wail in her head. The whole world is better without Cobra Kai. She didn't know how to react. How had it returned? Wren questioned. No. The better question is who returned it.

  "Who's your Sensei?" Wren asked, eyes darting between Miguel and Ty.

  "Oh, his name is Johnny Lawrence. What, are you interested? Because we are in need of—"

  Crap. Of course. Wren thought. Who else but the top student would bring back the hell that once endorsed him. "Uh—no. I'm good. I've got—Uh—basketball anyways. That takes up most of my free time."

"Oh, yeah. Demetri mentioned that. Actually—I was wondering. Do you have any games coming up? Me and Miguel don't really know many people—and I think it would be good to attend to get to know people. Also—you're supposedly the best player—and I'd like to see if that's actually true," Ty asked, stuttering a little through some of his words. He shot Wren a hopeful look.

"Yeah. I actually do. We have our first game tomorrow night. I'm sure we'd love some extra support," Wren said hesitantly, trying to word her words safely. She was very on the fence about making friends with Cobra Kai students. After all, if they'd been bullies in the eighties, what was stopping them from becoming bullies now? Maybe they've changed. Maybe Johnny Lawrence has changed. An optimistic voice piqued up in her head. She hoped so. It was only a matter of time before her father and mother found out. And when they did, she was sure Cobra Kai's peace would fly out the window.

As Wren looked over at Ty and Miguel again, her hesitation slowed edged away. These boys weren't bullies yet. They were kind, friendly, funny, and kinda cute. Wren had no reason to be suspicious. After all, they are innocent. They weren't the ones jumping her father in eighties. She could trust them. "I'd love to see some extra support."

  Ty smiled. "Great! We'll be there."

  Wren grinned back at him, sighing. "Well, I've gotta eat lunch with my other friends. I'll see you in science, Demi? And I'll see you two at the game?"

Three yups chorused from the boys.

"Alright—oh—and I'll see you, Eli, around?"

Eli nodded with the sides of his lips slightly upturned as Wren walked away.

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  AFTER BASKETBALL AND PICKING UP MARI FROM THE AIRPORT, WREN WAS WHIPPED. Mari's flight had been delayed over an hour—which meant that she and the rest of the LaRussos were at the airport in till 10 pm. Honestly, she had no idea how she would wake up tomorrow morning.

  Wren was currently squished between Leo and Naomi on the couch, listening to her family babble on and on about their days. Well, most of her family. Andie was in her room FaceTiming Yasmine and Moon again.

  "You'll never guess what I ran into today," Her father started, looking oddly unsettled. "Cobra Kai. Right in the middle of a little strip mall in Reseda."

  It was like all the color had been drained out of the living room. Her mother's eyes widened in shock and fury, fists balling up on her thighs. "What?"

  "I know, I know, Bills. That's what I said too. I don't understand why anyone would want that living hell back," Daniel said in clear distain, "I sure-as-hell don't."

"Actually, Dad. I think I may," Wren spoke up, drawing the whole family's watchful eyes onto her. "Johnny Lawrence is the new Sensei."

She'd never seen the amount of sheer anger on her dad's face like she was seeing now.

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' . ' . ANNA SPEAKS! . ' . '

Basically that was Wren the whole chapter lmaooo

Anyways,,,,so you may be wondering why the school scene happens before Daniel's discovery of ✨Cobra Kai✨ well, that's because I thought it fit better if it happened on the same day the school scene happened. I just think for this book, that makes more sense—so don't come at me, okay!!

Wren in this chapter is such a vibe lol. I hope I did a good job introducing her character and Andie's character—since they are both big parts of the story. Also, don't worry, Andie gets better. She's an asshole at the moment because she's just trying to fit in—so eventually—like Sam did in the original—she'll find her way.

Alright, that's it for now,,,love ya!!