FIFTEEN.
( I punch my wall, stay out at night, and I do karate. )

Emmy had never felt such sweet satisfaction in her life. 

Watching Cobra Kai storm in during Miyagi-Do's demo, and seeing the look on her dad's face was a feeling she wished to relive over and over again. 

Emmy and Moon cheered loudly together as Johnny punched through the cement blocks that had been topped off with a flame. That was her idea.

"This is so cool!" Moon giggled, her arm wrapped around Emmy's waist. 

"Right?" Emmy laughed. She caught the students on stage start to walk off in the crowd, and she grabbed Moon's hand so that they could find their friends. "You guys!"

Hawk, Miguel, and Aisha spotted them, and Emmy immediately wrapped Miguel into a hug, squealing as she felt him lift her off the ground and spin. 

"You guys did so good," she grinned, squeezing him a moment tighter before pulling away. 

"Thanks, Em," he smiled. "I wished you were up there with us though."

"Aw," she cooed, lightly pushing his shoulder. "Me too, but there was no way I was going to choreograph a fake karate fight and do one. But you looked great. I see you took my advice."

"Straightening my arm and mind?" he chuckled. "It helped a lot."

Emmy just laughed again, jumping up and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I'm so happy for you!"

He laughed and hugged her back. "Thank you. I really couldn't have done it without you."

Her smile grew wider, and pulled away while her hands were interlocked by the back of his neck. She then leaned in, giving him a strong kiss on the cheek. 

Miguel's eye widened, immediately feeling the heat rush to his face. 

"Now, let's go fully enjoy your first Valley Fest," she said, grabbing his hand. "Come on!"

Miguel let himself be dragged to a random food stand nearby, eyes staying on the back of her head.

✸

"You gotta understand that Mogadishu in the '90s was a hellhole. Warlords controlled whole swarths of the city. My team and I were charged with cleaning the place up."

"Did you kill anyone?" Emmy couldn't wait to ask, looking like a little kid. "How many?"

"You keep track of every ant you stomp out?" Kreese said. 

Her jaw dropped, and she turned to Hawk and Aisha with an excited grin. "So cool."

Kreese took this as his sign to continue. "They were outgunned, we were outmanned. I tell you...Rwanda was no joke."

"Don't you mean Somalia?" they all turned to Miguel who had finished stretching. "Mogadishu is in Somalia, Rwanda's a whole different country."

"Of course, Somalia," Kreese chuckled. "I've spent so much time in the sandbox, it all kind of bleeds together, you know?"

"Totally understand," Emmy reassured him. "I'm not one to really pay attention to geography."

Hawk snorted. "Yeah. Cause you had to retake it."

"Shut up!" she told him, smacking his arm. 

"You had to retake geography?" Aisha giggled. "Isn't that like the easiest class?"

"Yeah," Emmy grumbled. "The teacher was hot."

Hawk scrunched up his face. "Mrs. Anderson is, like, 50 years old."

"So? So is Sensei," Emmy gestured to Johnny's office. "And everyone thinks he's hot."

"Listen up!" Johnny walked out of his office, and everyone straightened up. "I see we've got some new recruits. Everybody, fall in. In neat rows and lines. Time to see what you're made of."

"Hey, did your dad ever find out about you telling Sensei about his demo?" Miguel asked Emmy as they walked to their spots in the front.

"If he did he hasn't told me," she sighed, tightening her belt. 

Johnny then began to case around the new students, eyes going over every single physical feature he could see. "Straighten up, ginger twins. Sorry, parents can't stay for class. It's an insurance thing."

"I'm not a dad. I... I am here to kick some ass, sir!"

"Do I know you from somewhere?"

"Oh, yeah, the, um... I sold you the mirror. We kind of bonded, talked about rock bands."

"Look, you're a little old. This class is for teenagers."

"Well, I can ⎯ I can take them. I'n not afraid of kids, sir. And ⎯ and my mom, she doesn't charge me rent, so I just ⎯ I got a lot of cash to burn."

The man handed Johnny the cash, to which the blonde man snatched out of his hands. "We'll consider this a trial run."

Emmy glanced back in amusement. 

"I thought my last group of recruits was pathetic. But if you do what I tell you to do, you'll at least have a chance of becoming a fighter. But to do that, you gotta fight. So, which one of you has the balls to take on the champ?"

Emmy looked at him with wide eyes. "What?"

Johnny looked at her with a shrug. 

"I didn't agree to this!" she whisper-shouted. 

"I'll take her on."

Emmy turned around, watching people step back to reveal a tall girl who had been in the back. And almost immediately, Emmy felt her face heat up. 

"You will?" Emmy spoke in a small voice, swallowing thickly. 

"I saw your little demo at Valley Fest," the girl said. "You guys can put on a show. Can you actually fight?"

Emmy just stared at her with wide eyes and rosy cheeks, mouth slightly agape.

"Ms. LaRusso."

She snapped out of whatever trance she was in, and looked at Johnny. "Yeah?"

"Show Little Miss Hotshot here what Cobra Kai is all about."

She hesitantly nodded, seeing everyone stand at the edge of the mat so they could give the two girls some space. 

"You know, we really don't have to do this ⎯ " suddenly, Emmy yelped and stumbled back as she was kicked in the stomach.

"Okay then," Emmy breathed out, getting into her fighting position, quickly shoving away a punch that the girl had thrown her way. Emmy then ducked when she swung with her other arm right after. The girl then raised her leg, narrowing missing Emmy as she jumped out of the way of the kick. 

"Holy shit," Emmy said out loud. The girl then charged at her with a grunt, but Emmy acted fast, grabbed onto her leg, her own circling her other one as she pushed her down onto the mat. 

But she didn't give up, rolling backwards and got back up on her feet. She began to swing at her again, throwing punch after punch and elbow after elbow, all which Emmy blocked or dodged. 

Emmy figured she was done defending and dove in, kicking the girl in her gut. But then fear rose in her when the stood again, charging at her and Emmy's back hit the mat. "Did you see that coming?"

Emmy looked at her for a moment, before flipping over and caging her legs between hers, straddling her knees. "What's your name?"

"Tory," the girl breathed out, before grabbing her shoulders and flipping Emmy over. Her hand slapped against her face as she held her face down, restraining her arm in the process. "With a "Y." Yours?"

Emmy then grunted, lifting up her lower body, wrapping her legs around Tory's neck and pushed her down, pushing herself up. Her foot laid gently on Tory's neck, and the two breathed heavily. "Emmy. Also with a "Y.""

There was a tense moment of silence, before the girls both smiled at each other, and Emmy removed her foot from Tory's neck, offering her hand instead. 

✸

"Your parents want me to go with you? I thought they hated me," Emmy browsed through the candy options, glancing back at Aisha. 

"I actually think you're growing on them. Or maybe it's because they don't trust the boys around girls in bikinis," Aisha snorted. 

"I'll choose to believe the first one," Emmy grinned, grabbing a small bag of Sour Patch Kids from the shelf and the two began to venture down the cereal aisle. Aisha's phone then dinged for the third time since they got to the convenience store, and she let out a groan. 

"Let me guess. Dick pic?" Emmy let out a small gasp, stopping to see Tory walk past them. She felt her face get hot again. 

"No," Aisha sighed. "My mom has been asking me to go to the beach club with her."

Tory grabbed a red Gatorade from the drink fridge. "Oh my God, that sounds so miserable."

Aisha gave a small smile. "No. It's just... This girl Sam's probably gonna be there, and she and I are not on good terms."

"Wait, what?" Emmy turned to her. "You didn't tell me that."

"Whatever," Aisha waved her off. "I'm Aisha, by the way."

"Tory."

Emmy then raised her hand. "Emmy."

"Hey, that's a cool bracelet," Aisha pointed out. 

Tory looked down at her wrist, raising it. "Oh, this? It's not just for show. Some creepy guy at the mall tried to grab me once, but I managed to block him and give him a gift he won't ever forget."

"Oh, wow. You seem like you already know how to kick ass pretty well. What do you need Cobra Kai for?" Aisha questioned. 

"And she's not telling you to quit Cobra Kai or anything," Emmy quickly cut in with a nervous laugh. 

Tory looked at her oddly. "I've had a couple kickboxing lessons, but I've always wanted to smash boards blindfolded."

"Oh, you saw that," Aisha giggled. "The secret is poking little holes in the blindfolds."

"Cool," Tory smiled, before beginning to walk away. 

"Wait!" Emmy called out to her. Tory turned around, looking at her inquisitively. "Do you wanna come to the beach with us?"

"We could use the extra back up," Aisha added.

Tory looked at them for a moment, before her lips quirked up. "Guess I could suffer through a day at the beach."

"Great," Emmy breathed out, and Tory went to go pay for her drink. 

"Okay, what is up with you?" Aisha turned to her. "You've been acting weird since you saw her."

Emmy gave a shaky breath, leaning against a shelf for support. "I think I just had my gay awakening."

Aisha deadpanned at her, grabbing her wrist so that they could walk the store and wait for Tory. "You are so stupid."

✸

"Okay. This is not the beach."

The three girls stood on the balcony of the second floor, looking down at the pool. 

"Where are the homeless dudes on rollerblades and the guys shoving shitty hip-hop demos in your face?" Tory asked, leaning over to glance at everything around her. 

"No, don't worry," Aisha said. "They'll come after they pass out the hors d'oeuvres."

The three girls laughed amongst themselves, but unbeknownst to them, a girl lounging on a chair was looking up at them with sad eyes. 

"What's going on?" Robby asked from beside her. 

Her eyes flickered from him to the girls at the top. "It's Emmy and Aisha. Aisha and I haven't spoken since everything that went down at Valley Fest. And the last time I even saw Emmy was at the dinner."

"Do you miss her?" Robby didn't break his eyes away from the three girls. 

Sam sighed. "Of course I do. She's my sister. But, I know that it would be nearly impossible to try and convince her to come back. My mom has been drowning herself in work, my dad in karate, and Anthony will barely speak to any of us."

Robby thought for a moment. "I say go talk to her. Worst case, if a fight breaks out, we could record it."

She stifled a chuckle. "Who knows, maybe I'll come back with a couple of new Miyagi-Do students." She stood up from her chair and made her way to go talk to her friend and sister. 

"So," Tory began, taking a glance at Emmy as the three of them mindlessly walked around the top floor. "Are you seeing anyone?"

"Me?" Emmy pointed to herself. "No."

"Really? Cause I thought you and that guy with a blue mohawk were a thing. You guys seem close," Tory shrugged. 

Aisha snorted. "That's because they made out at a party."

Emmy's eyes widened. "Aisha!"

"Wait," Tory giggled. "You and mohawk guy made out?"

"One time!" Emmy exclaimed, the two other girls chuckling. "We threw a party and he had a huge makeover, he was hot, and there was just some sexual tension that needed to be released. That's all."

"I can totally see you guys being together in another universe," Aisha argued. "If you weren't so caught up with Miguel."

"Aisha!" Emmy exclaimed again. 

Tory laughed in shock. "You like Miguel? The Diaz kid?"

Emmy groaned. "Fine, okay. Yes. I do. But it's never gonna happen. One, he's my sister's ex, and two, he's too caught up in her to function. I've given up."

The two girls rubbed her arm comfortingly, before Tory spotted something and gained an idea. "Wait, I have just the thing to cheer you up. I'll be right back."

The remaining two watched Tory rush off in a direction. 

"Wanna go get some food?" Aisha wrapped an arm around Emmy's shoulders. 

"Sure."

Aisha guided the two of them over to the food table, each quietly conversing as they piled food onto their plates. 

Emmy then heard someone walking towards them, and instinctively glanced over her shoulder, only to freeze for a second before turning away and rolling her eyes.

"Hey," Sam awkwardly greeted. 

"Hey," the other two said back. 

"So, how's it going?" Sam asked. 

Aisha turned to her while Emmy ignored her. "You realize we're not okay."

Sam sighed. "What are you mad about? You guys are the ones who stomped all over our Valley Fest demo."

"Only after your father attacked our dojo. What were we supposed to do?" Aisha countered. 

Emmy was seconds away from slapping the shit out of her sister. 

"He didn't attack you guys," Sam tried to defend. 

"Seriously?" Emmy interjected, turning to her in disbelief. ""Snake in the grass"? Can he be any more obvious?"

"He's just trying to do the right thing," Sam's eyebrows slightly knitted together. 

"So, Cobra Kai is wrong?" Aisha asked her. 

"It's not wrong. It's just..." Sam gave a sigh. "What are we doing? It's our summer vacation. We're at the beach, and we're fighting about karate?"

Emmy clenched her jaw, no longer interesting in the conversation. "I'm gonna go find Tory. Would you mind?"

Sam opened her mouth to speak, but Emmy dropped her plate into her hands, and walked away without another word. 

Sam watched her younger sister walk with, looking down at the plate of food in her hands. "She really hates me, doesn't she?"

Aisha gave a tight lipped smile. "Sort of."

"I just don't understand what I did wrong," Sam put down the plate, staring down at the table. 

"You don't know?" Aisha furrowed her eyebrows. 

Sam looked up at her. "Know what?"

Aisha suddenly flew into a panic. "Nevermind! I was thinking about something else."

Sam looked at her oddly, getting suspicious and curious. "Okay."

✸

"Aisha! Look what Tory got!" Emmy had her hand wrapped around Tory's wrist, dragging her over to their table. 

Tory giggled, digging into her bag and pulled out a big bottle of vodka. 

"Where'd you get that?" Aisha asked in amusement. 

"I swiped it from the bar," Tory said calmly. "Emmy helped distract the bartender."

"How?"

Emmy chuckled. "I kind of ranted about how my karate sensei was an alcoholic and that I wanted recommendations for a birthday gift. He gave me a five minute lecture but it was so worth it."

Aisha and Sam gave each other wary looks. 

"Oh, relax," Tory told them. "All the adults are getting wasted. No one's gonna notice if we have a little fun."

"You should put that back. You'll get into big trouble," Sam warned her. 

Tory gave a chuckle of disbelief. "And you are?"

"Oh, Sam. This is Tory. Tory, Sam," Aisha introduced. 

Tory's eyes lit up in recognition. "Oh, the Sam. Come on. Like anyone's gonna miss one bottle of vodka. I could swipe half the silverware in this place before anyone would notice."

"You shouldn't steal anything," Sam lightly told her. 

"What are you, a nun?" Tory teased. 

Emmy snorted, hiding her smile behind her hand. Tory's words silenced Sam, who looked down with pursed lips. 

"Come on," Tory turned to Aisha. "Are we gonna drink or not?"

Aisha looked at Sam, who subtly shook her head. "Okay, one drink."

Emmy lit up with a giggle, grabbing and Tory's hands in hers. "This is gonna be so much fun!"

✸

"Wait, I'm sorry. You gave her a front wedgie?" Tory giggled, the three girls being slightly tipsy. 

"I split that bitch in two," Aisha laughed. 

"I so wish you were here when Cobra Kai first started," Emmy gave a dramatic sigh. "I just know you would have put that blonde bitch in her place."

"Doesn't mean I still can't," Tory grinned, making Emmy grin back. 

"Hey!"

The three turned around, still coming down from their laughter.

"My mom's missing her wallet," Sam said with an accusatory look. 

Emmy's smile immediately faded, catching what she was implying. "Sam."

"Sucks for her," Tory innocently chuckled, causing Aisha to chuckle as well. But Emmy was cursing her sister with her eyes. 

"You wouldn't know anything about that?" at that, Emmy stepped in front of Tory. 

"Wait. Wait, what are you saying?" Aisha asked. 

"She thinks Tory took the wallet," Emmy answered and then scoffed. "You really have some nerve."

"Just give me the wallet, and I won't tell Security," Sam glared. 

"Are you freaking kidding me?" Tory said in disbelief.

"Sam, she didn't steal your mom's wallet," Aisha said with wide eyes. 

"Right," Sam didn't believe her. "And she didn't steal a bottle of vodka, and wouldn't steal half the silverware in here."

"Listen, I didn't rob your mom, bitch. And in case you forgot, that's Emmy's mom too, and Emmy is my friend. Let's get out of here."

The three turned to walk away and leave, before Sam suddenly grabbed onto Tory's bag. Tory spun around, yanking her bag back and pushed Sam back. "Get off of me!"

Sam tumbled back, falling backwards onto a table full of dessert foods. There were gasps of shock around them, and Emmy's jaw dropped, frozen in shock. She felt Tory tug at her shoulder. "Come on."

She interlocked their hands, and the two quickly fled the scene.

AUTHOR'S NOTE !

definitely not the best chapter but we finally got my fav introduced

and emmy instantly being attracted to tory is so real