Chapter Ninety Five
Primadonna

    SYDNEY STOOD ALONE, still very angry, but then she saw Devon also standing alone looking very scared. She dropped her arms and went to her. "You look on the verge of vomiting." She spoke bluntly.

Devon looked at her. "That obvious?" She responded discouragingly.

"You think too much."

"Well what do you expect?" The younger girl asked quite hostile. "Nobody thinks I can do this. I don't think I can do this but I really, really want it."

Sydney felt for her, she really did. Devon was young but she was a fighter. Sighing, Sydney turned her head and glanced at the other boys waiting to go into the woods. "I get it. Believe me, I do." She told her while nodding. "Girls always get the shit end of the deal a lot of the time, especially when it comes to sports. But you're strong, Devon. You've proven yourself. You just gotta go out there and not give up on yourself. If you want something, fight for it, and don't let anyone take it away from you."

Devon was nodding along, her words of wisdom lifting her spirits. "You're right. You're totally right." She smiled. "Thanks, Syd."

Sydney patted her on the arm. "Good luck, love."

Soon, the remaining four fighters stood together. Sydney clapped for them when they passed by but she avoided eye contact with Demetri. But when Hawk walked by her, she smiled and patted his arm. "Good luck out there."

He smiled back. "Thanks." Hawk's eyes cut to Demetri for the quickest of seconds. "You know he didn't mean to snap like that. He's just pissed off." He told her.

Sydney nodded. "Yeah, I know. But he can be pissed off at somebody else. I didn't do anything." She gave him another pat on the shoulder and she squeezed it. "Go kick some ass so we can have fun in Spain."

Hawk laughed.

Mike yelled for them to go and everybody clapped as the four sprinted off into the woods. "This is gonna be fun to watch." Charlie commented, standing tall behind Sam and Sydney.

Sydney walked off and went to sit on one of the picnic tables. She sighed and slouched over.

Miguel walked over with his hands in his pockets. "Hey," he said shortly.

She only half smiled.

He sighed. "Please don't be mad at me."

"I'm not mad at you. I don't even think I'm mad. I'm just annoyed."

Miguel sat on top of the table with her. "What even happened?" He asked her, resting his elbows on his thighs.

Sydney sighed and looked at him. "Eli confessed that he didn't apply to MIT and Demetri and I freaked out, but I was trying to be understanding," she emphasized and pointed at herself, "Demetri just completely went off the rails and then he yells at me saying that I shouldn't even be involved in the conversation, like we're not all best friends!" She groaned loudly, catching the attention of some of the others. "I should drop kick him again just for that."

Miguel cracked a small smile. "I'm sorry, babe. He probably didn't even mean to say it. It was just the heat of the moment."

"So?" She scoffed. "He should know by now that I don't take people's shit."

He nodded. "You're right, you're right. You want me to say something to him when they get back?"

Again, Sydney sighed and she frowned. "No, no need for that. It'll be okay. Hopefully Eli'll give him a firm kick in the ass for me."

Miguel chuckled. "We're okay though, right?" He asked, motioning a finger between them.

She stared at him blankly. "You should've told me."

His face fell at that. "I'm sorry. Believe me though, I was shocked when he told me. I think I just knew how upset you'd be." Miguel explained.

"Of course I'm upset. MIT's one of the best schools you can get into and he deserves it!" Sydney expressed. "I just want all of us to get exactly what we want."

Miguel slowly grew another smile. "Awww, look at you caring." He said and squeezed her cheek.

She rolled her eyes and slapped his hand away only for him to lean over and kiss her cheek. She couldn't help but smile.

They waited around a while longer for one of the four to return. Charlie was trying to get them to place bets. "I got twenty on Demetri and Hawk." He put in.

"I got twenty on Kenny." Robby followed along. He tapped Miguel's arm with his knuckle. "What do you have?"

Sydney rolled her eyes.

"We're not betting on our friends," Sam took her side.

Tory scoffed. "Says who? I'll put twenty on Hawk."

"Tory," Sydney scoffed while Charlie slipped out a "Hell yeah!"

Robby laughed. He looked over and saw Kenny emerge from the woods and his eyes widened. "Holy shit. Hey, Kenny won!" He announced.

"Damn it, I should've taken the bet." Miguel groaned.

Everyone started to congratulate Kenny as he ran back to them. Sydney saw him holding his stomach. "Uhh, is he okay?" She wondered out loud.

He started running to the porta potty. "Oh shit. . .literally." Charlie joked and cackled, causing Sam to slap him on the arm.

Miguel snorted and hid it with his fist.

"Oh, that poor lad. They're never going to let him lobe that down." Sydney said sympathetically.

"One down, three more to go." Tory declared.

"Last chance to place your bets, ladies." Charlie said and slung his arm over Sam's shoulder.

She rolled her eyes. "Why do I like you again?" She asked sarcastically.

"Because I make you laugh." He answered and poked her left cheek.

"I think Devon has a good chance at winning."

Sydney half smiled. Apparently, Sam was a psychic because when she saw Devon emerge from the woods with a flag in her hand, she gasped. "Devon!"

"Guys, it's Devon. She won!" Sam said with a large smile.

"Oh my lord, she won!" Sydney said to Miguel.

He looked completely in shock. "Yeah, she did." He responded, obviously not thinking she was going to win.

"Wait, so that means. . ." Charlie trailed off.

Realizing that Demetri and Eli were left, Sydney frowned. She'd been saying all along that she wanted the two of them to come out on top and now only one would be able to win. "Shit."

"So does that mean I only have ten bucks left?"

They all turned to Charlie with the same odd stare. He raised his brows. "What, wrong time?"

Sydney felt more nervous now than ever. With Demetri or Hawk, they had a great team. They were all strong in their own ways and she didn't have a doubt that they could win the tournament, but now it came down to who the final eight would be. Both of them deserved it.

"Guys," Tory spoke when she saw Demetri come out of the woods. "Look."

Sydney's jaw dropped. "Demetri?"

At first, he walked with his shoulders slumped over, his body language indicating that he had lost. But then he held up the flag and everyone started clapping.

"Yes!" Charlie cheered and threw his fists up.

She noticed how upset he looked when he should've been proud of himself. Sydney went up to him. "You did it!" She said brightly, forgetting that she was supposed to be mad at him.

"Yeah, I did." Demetri nodded, confusion and hurt written all over his face.

She shook her head, also looking confused. "Why don't you look happy then?"

"I–" he went to say and then paused. Demetri shook his head. "It doesn't matter. I'm sorry I was a dick."

"A huge dick."

He nodded again. "A huge dick. I give you permission to punch me." He said and spread out his arms.

Sydney just rolled her eyes. He was such a dork that it was hard to be mad at him for that long. "Just come here, you wanker."

Demetri smiled and they hugged. Sydney rubbed his back. "Be proud of yourself, D and celebrate. Charlie bet on you winning."

"He did?" When she nodded, Demetri pulled away and smiled again. "Awesome!" He said and walked away to talk to the others.

She grinned. Sydney saw Hawk walks down the path, his hands in his pockets and a face full of sadness. "Hi." She said to him.

Eli lifted his eyes and smiled sadly. "Hey." He said shortly.

"What happened out there?"

He parted his lips to explain but Eli found that it was hard to. He only shook his head.

Sydney frowned again. She wrapped her arm around him and laid her head on his shoulder in a way to comfort him.

The talk about college has Sydney's nerves going all over the place as she had yet to hear anything about CALArts. In her mind, it's where she was going no question. She was preparing herself for he. But none of it mattered if it wasn't confirmed that she was going.

Aisha got into UC Santa Cruz, having told both her and Sam in their group chat. Sydney was more than proud of her. Miguel, like her, had yet to hear from Stanford and it was driving them both insane. "I mean, what if both of us don't get in? Are we going to be that couple that doesn't go to college? I don't want to be that couple." She expressed nervously the next day at training.

Miguel laughed. "What happened to you being the confident one and me being the panickier?"

She gave him a look. "It's been weeks since we applied to CAL and Stanford and still, nothing. You already submitted your essay."

"They're big colleges, Syd. Think about all the applications they have to go through." He told her.

Sydney rolled her eyes. "I hate waiting."

"You don't say." Miguel said sarcastically and smiled again.

She laughed, equally as sarcastic. Sydney looked past him, watching how Hawk and Demetri stand apart from each other, neither looking in each other's direction. She frowned. She'd messaged them separately instead of their usual group chat and she learned the truth, which only made Sydney more sad because of the past the two of them had.

In a way, Demetri's feelings were valid after everything Eli put him through. On the other hand, Eli had worked really hard to change his ways and to fix their relationship. It was hard to pick a side (not like she was going to).

"All right. Circle up." Daniel announced when he and Johnny came out of the dojo. "The Sekai Taikai needs our final roster in three days. And now that we know who's going, it's time for us to name our male and female captains."

Sydney grew a smile.

"The captains are not just the leaders of the team. They're the ones that will be fighting in the finals if we can make it that far."

"Hell yeah we'll make it that far." Charlie declared loudly, all of them cheering in agreement.

"Plus, they get to fight on live TV. Who knows what comes after that?" Johnny continued.

"College, hopefully." Sydney muttered, her eyes cutting to Miguel.

"Hopefully." He agreed with her.

"Wheaties boxes, chop-socky lips, ZZ Top videos. Sky's the limit."

"It'd be so cool to do a commercial." Charlie said with an excited smile.

"Dream big, Stretch."

"You'll all get the glory if we win," Daniel returned, "but, yes, the captains will be in the spotlight. They need to represent the best that Miyagi Do has to offer. And Sensei Lawrence and I want to assure you that the decision will be completely unbiased."

Johnny nodded. "That's right. In two days, Sam will face Devon and Sydney will face Tory for the female captain spots—"

Sydney looked over at Tory and winked, making her grin.

"—Robby and Miguel and Charlie and Demetri will fight for the male captains."

"We all know you fought plenty of times before, but now that we're on the same side, this is still the best way for us to see who's progressed the most."

"All right, enough talking. It's time to train." Johnny pointed at his top eight. "You eight, get inside. I'm gonna whip your butts inside."

Sydney made a face. "Don't say it like that, ever."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "I didn't ask for the mouth, Frenchy."

Sam laughed. "No one ever does, but we get it anyway."

Sydney gasped and hit her on the arm. "As if we haven't been best friends since birth, practically." She said as they walked inside the dojo.

"Close, but sure."

"What do you guys think Sensei has in mind by "whip us into shape"?" Miguel air quoted.

"Nothing good, I assume." Tory said with a laugh. "Or legal."

Johnny came into the dojo and closed the door behind him. "Alright, like up." He said and walked to stand in front of them.

Sydney stood at the front with all the girls while all the boys were behind them. "What exactly are we doing?" Demetri asked him, slightly wary.

"Yeah, you're not going to make us kill each other, are you? Cause I'm still waiting for that college acceptance letter." Sydney added in.

"Can it, you two." Johnny snapped and they simultaneously shut their mouths. "Right now, we're just going to do some moves that I came up with to warm you guys up. Kata, or whatever."

"You came up with your own kata?" Charlie asked and laughed.

"Yeah, what about it?" Johnny snapped again and he went silent. "Okay, positions." The teenagers stood with their legs apart. "Big circle. Big circle. Breathe in. Breathe out."

Sydney followed his movements and focused on her breathing. She was surprised by how good of moves they were considering he thought kata was bullshit.

"Elbow to the face."

That makes more sense.

"The key to Miyagi Do is balance." Next, Johnny had each of them balance themselves in the middle of the deck. Miguel went first. "You gotta stay on your feet no matter what life throws at you."

He drank the rest of his beer and put the bottle in the machine. It flew at Miguel but he was quick to dodge it before it hit him.

Sydney's eyes widened. "Are you insane?" She almost yelled.

"Really, that's your question?" Said Devon.

Johnny made Sydney go next after Miguel nearly rumbled into the pond. She glared at him. "If you hit in the face, my father will hear about it." She threatened and ducked when the bottle came flying at her.

Demetri grinned. "Look at you embracing your inner Draco Malfoy." He said proudly.

Sydney quickly turned around and widened her eyes at him. "You said you wouldn't tell people!" Her voice went high. A bottle hit her in the back. "OW!"

The next part of his ridiculous yet somehow genius training method was that Johnny had gotten a bunch of punching dumped and put shirts on them with different countries. "Mr. Miyagi fought for America. You're gonna do the same. Foreign kids don't speak English but they do speak karate. You're up first Long Legs."

Both Charlie and Demetri looked at each other. "Uhhh, which one?" Asked Charlie.

"Which one of you isn't a nerd?"

Demetri looked offended.

Charlie stood in front of the dummy with Russia printed on the shirt. He grunted and kicked the dummy square in the chest, then he spun around and almost knocked his head off, making it fall to the ground. "Nice, Howard!" Johnny praised him.

Miguel was next. Johnny had drew a mustache on the dummy with France on its shirt. He got in a stance but then got out of it. "Uhh, Sensei, I-I can't."

"What? Why not?" Johnny said with furrowed brows.

He motioned to the dummy. "Well, he's French. That would be liking hitting Sydney and I-I can't do that."

Sydney smiled and the girls awed.

"What a sweetheart." Charlie whispered to Robby, mocking them, and he laughed.

"I'll do it, love. Don't worry." Sydney insisted and walked over. She brushed her hand along his back and Miguel went and stood with the others. She stood in front of the dummy and raised her fists. Grunting, she did a high kick and her foot his the dummy's face and then she leaned back on her other foot and side kicked its chest, the dummy falling back against the fence. As it came back forward, Sydney spin around and kicked it across the head with a loud yell.

When the training day was over, Johnny drove Sydney, Miguel, and Robby back to the house. "You guys did great today. I'm very proud." He told them sincerely. "That was a good lesson, I thought."

"Oh yeah, making Sam fall into the pond was great." Sydney said sarcastically with her eyes glued to her phone as she was texting Tory.

"And almost hitting Demetri in the face with a beer bottle." Robby added and they chuckled.

Johnny rolled his eyes. "Not my fault the kid can't duck. I mean he's got all that length and doesn't know how to use it."

"Hey, Demetri's a great fighter. He's just. . .delayed." Sydney defended her friend.

Miguel nodded. "Nice save."

Sydie
you can totally come stay the night
I'm not used to having
so many boys in the house.
gasp, we can watch teen wolf together!

"Well, it doesn't matter. You're all going to Barcelona. That's all that matters." Johnny continued his fatherly talk and glanced her way and then at the boys in the mirror.

"Ooh, I can't wait!" She squealed and looked over her shoulder. "They have some of the best museums in Spain. I can totally get my parents to let us stay a few more days after the tournament."

"An after win vacation? Sounds awesome to me." Miguel said with a big smile.

"Don't jinx us." Robby told him.

"You'll jinx us by saying don't jinx us." Sydney stated with a half eye roll.

"That's not a thing, Frenchy." Johnny said and he pulled into her drive way.

"Oh really?" She said, her eyebrows going up. "What happens in every movie? The one character speaks into existence and then the other character says don't jinx us and then what happens? Something terrible."

Miguel hummed. "She's not wrong."

Her phone dinged.

Tory with a y
I don't know about that
but I just have to drop
my mom off her medicine
and get some clothes

Sydie
you got it babe

They walked into the house and Sydney heard laughter coming from the kitchen. "We're home!" Johnny yelled, the sound echoing off the walls.

"Kitchen!" Alexander shouted back.

Carmen and Caroline and were making dinner while Alex was looking in the wine cabinet. "How was training?" Carmen asked while still laughing.

"Eventful." Sydney answered while Robby and Miguel went to the foosball table.

"Eventful as in Johnny's style eventful?" Her father asked after finally picking out a bottle of wine.

"Am I that predictable?"

"Yes." They all answered.

Johnny rolled his eyes. "Anyone check the mail?" He changed the subject.

"Here, I'll go with you." Carmen said and the two of them went to go check the mailbox.

Sydney sat at the island. "Mum, can Tory stay the night?" She asked her mother.

Caroline leaned against the island. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" She asked quietly. "It already gives your father nightmares that you and Miguel are living here together, I'm not sure how he'd react about another couple."

"Oh please, they'd never do anything like that." She rolled her eyes. "I just really need a sleepover. There's too many men living here."

"You can't stay the night with her?"

"Well, I told her we could but she said she'd rather come stay here." Sydney explained. She clasped her hands together. "Please, please, pleaseeee."

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Oh, I hate when you do that." She said and leaned up from the counter.

Knowing that meant yes, Sydney smiled triumphantly.

Johnny and Carmen came back inside and he held a stack of mail. "Uhhh, Frenchy." He spoke.

They all turned to him. "Yeah?" She asked and turned in the chair.

Carmen was smiling widely while rubbing her growing belly. Johnny held up a large envelope. "This is for you." He said, trying to hide his smile.

Caroline and Alexander shared the same wide eyed look and Robby and Miguel paused their game of foosball. Sydney stood from the chair and took the envelope that he was holding out. Seeing the CALArts logo, her jaw dropped. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god."

"Is it from CAL?" Miguel asked her.

"It's from CAL."

"Open it!" Robby said enthusiastically.

"I can't. I'm scared!" She said back, starting to panic.

"Okay, okay, nobody panic. Ouvre la lettre, chéeie." Alex said and stood by her. Open the letter, honey

Sydney shook her head vigorously. "Je ne peux pas!"
I can't!

"Baby, it's okay!" Caroline said while also freaking out. She placed her hands on her shoulders. "We're all here, okay? Don't be scared."

"Open it, sweetheart." Carmen insisted.

Sydney looked at Miguel, her brown eyes filled with terror. He smiled big and nodded. "Come on, open it."

She felt like she could faint from his high her anxiety was. "Okay, okay." Sydney said and started opening the letter, her hands shaking terribly.

Caroline squealed and reached for her husband's hand.

Finally getting the letter out, Sydney eyed it. "Dear Sydney, we are pleased to inform you that you've been accepted into the California Institute of the Arts," she read and screamed.

There was a collection of screams. Caroline grabbed onto her, squeezing her tightly. "You did it, baby!"

"Vous I'avez fait!" Alex yelled and wrapped his arms around them both. You did it!

"Holy shit!" Sydney slipped out in complete shock, the latter still tight in her hands. "I'm going to CALArts."

"Syd, that's great." Robby said while laughing and he hugged her when her parents let her go.

"Oh my god." She exhaled again, her eye concentrated on the wall in front of her. When he let her go, Sydney turned to Miguel and he instantly grabbed her and lifted her off the ground. "Oh my god!"

"What'd I tell you?" He said, his words muffled into her neck, and he laughed. "I'm so proud of you, Syd."

Tears filled her eyes. It was like a weight had been lifted off of her and she was proud of herself. She started to cry.

"Congrats, Frenchy." Johnny said and walked forward, hugging her as well.

She wrapped her arms around his torso. "I can't believe I got in." She said breathlessly.

"I can."

When they pulled away, Carmen took his place and hugged her while squealing of happiness. "Congratulations, my girl." She said warmly.

Sydney was careful while hugging her not to hurt her belly but she was so happy that she hugged her neck tightly. She felt tears fall down her face. "Thank you." She cried.

Caroline was a crying mess and she joined their hug, saying how happy she was over and over again. Her dad came in as well, and then Johnny, and then Miguel and Robby, all of them either crying or laughing.

Please the way they're all just one big happy family 😭😭😭

I'm not mentally prepared for what's to come in the next chapter and I don't think any of you are either