TW !: mentions of physical punishment from teacher to student

FORTY FOUR.
( and autumn comes when you're not yet done. )

"Hey, these snake bites are fire! Can't stop eating 'em. It's like crack," Kyler walked over to them, and Emmy slowly straightened up from her stretching.

"Bro, they're pure protein. You're only supposed to eat one or two," Kenny informed him.

"Oh, for real?"

"Yeah," Emmy looked at him in concern and backed away. "You might want to stay in the bathroom for the next hour or two."

"Man, I gotta charge my phone up too," Kyler complained before looking behind her shoulder. "Yo, look who's here."

Emmy turned around, and her face dropped. She turned to Tory, who had the same look on her face. They both then walked over to her, stopping her in her path. "What are you doing here? I thought you quit."

Devon scoffed. "You beat me on the mat, but I only lose if I give up."

"Miss Lee, why don't you go check in with the receptionist," Silver and Kim came up from behind them. "She'll set you up with a pass in case you want to train after hours."

"Oh," Devon turned to Emmy. "I definitely will."

And she walked away. Emmy almost wanted to scoff in disbelief, but she couldn't blame Devon.

"I have to hand it to you," she turned to Silver. "Miss Lee reached out after class yesterday, asked if she could join the flagship dojo. Apparently, she wants to learn more from you. I'm very proud of you."

"But she failed the test," Tory pointed out. "She ran away."

"The test was not for her. It was for you," Kim's eyes went to Emmy. "I wanted to see how much strength you had in your heart to accomplish what you need to do."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Emmy asked.

"Something greater than you could ever imagine," Silver cryptically said.

Emmy turned to Tory, who turned to look back at her. The latter could see the confusion on her best friend's face, but it was mixed with something else.

Fear.

✸

"I don't know how much more I can take of this."

Emmy rubbed her hands together nervously, feeling them get sweaty and clammy. "Silver is literally breathing down my neck and Tory is slowly getting pushed out of their vision, and I'm gonna be all alone. And yesterday at the mall, they dunked my brother's head into a dirty toilet and I couldn't even do anything about it because I'm scared of what's gonna happen. Please tell me I don't have to do this for much longer."

Kreese stared at the red and purple marks that littered her knuckles and were peeking out from under her hoodie sleeve. He could take a pretty good guess at what they were doing to motivate her to keep going.

"Hang in there," Kreese began. "My plan had a slight tumble but it's back on track. I just need you to keep doing what you're doing."

She let out a shaky breath, pulling her sleeves down to hide her hands. "I'm doing this so Silver can go down forever but I don't know if I can keep doing this. I haven't spoken with Robby in weeks and I feel like I'm losing my mind."

"Don't let Silver get to your head," Kreese stated. "You have him right where I need him to be. We need that extra mile, and you can say goodbye to him forever."

"Can I have your word on that?"

"Of course. When have I ever turned my back on you?"

✸

"The world is made of two kinds of people. Leaders and followers. Cobra Kai, like a military unit, needs both to function successfully. So... we're gonna divide you up into pairs."

"The goal of each pair is to score a point against an opponent who outmatches you. Only strong leadership will allow you to prevail."

"Sensei Kim will take the girls. Boys, you'll stay here and spar with Sensei Odell. All right. Split up."

Emmy sighed, going over to Tory. "One of us is no doubt gonna be paired with Devon."

"Probably you," Tory snorted. "She's been trying to outmatch you since she got here."

"Like I'd let her win," Emmy played with the bandages on her hands. "I talked to Aisha yesterday."

"Really?" Tory lit up. "How is she? We haven't seen her in forever."

"She's actually doing really well," the two took their seats on the mat. "School's going well, her parents are great, and she said that she might come visit soon."

"Oh, I've been dreaming of another girl's day," Tory smiled. "I miss her."

"Me too. I think about her all the time," Emmy chuckled, almost forgetting that they were at karate training.

"LaRusso."

Her head snapped up, and she saw Sensei Kim looking straight at her. "You are no use in this challenge. You're gonna be up here with me."

Emmy furrowed her eyebrows, slowly getting to her feet. "Can I ask why?"

Kim smirked. "I've heard all about your Cobra Kai activities. I see no reason why you should participate in this challenge when you have proved your leadership skills time and time again. I'd like to work with you today."

Emmy was shocked at how nice Sensei Kim was being to her since her legs were covered in red marks from the day before during after hours training. "It would be my honor, Sensei Kim."

The woman hummed. "Lee. Nichols. You're up first."

✸

Emmy bounced on her feet anxiously as she knocked on the door, eyes on the familiar welcome mat and simple plants on the steps that she had walked by a million times.

The door swung open, and her head snapped up. "Hi."

Eli paused. "Emmy. Hey."

She licked her lips. "Can I come in?"

"Uh," he glanced over his shoulder. "Yeah. It's just me by the way. My parents are at work."

"I know. I saw them earlier," she said before walking into the house.

Eli quickly shook off his shock and shut the door behind them, seeing Emmy stood in the middle of the living room. "Haven't been here in awhile."

"Yeah, well, you chose Cobra Kai. That's not exactly a convincing reason to invite your best friend over for dinner," Emmy had a ghost smile as he called her his best friend.

"I'd rather not talk about that," she sighed, suddenly being reminded of Robby. "How is he?"

Eli instantly knew who she was talking about. "Better, actually. He joined Miyagi-Do again."

Emmy had to stop herself from crying in relief. "Does he... does he ever talk about me?"

Eli gave her a sad smile. "You're all he ever talks about."

She huffed through her nose, flopping onto the couch and placed her head in her hands. Eli watched her for a moment, before noticing the covering on her hands. "You hurt your hands?"

She immediately pulled her hands away from her face, facing the backside to her. "Oh, just from slipping on the new dojo floors. Not used to them being so clean and shiny all the time."

He believed her without a question. "What are you doing here, Emmy? I haven't seen you in weeks."

"I know, I know. I just... I didn't know where else to go. And it's not like Robby's gonna take me back any time soon," she sighed, tucking her hair behind her ears.

"I think you underestimate how much he misses you," Eli told her, flopping down next to her. "Is everything okay? Why didn't you have anywhere else to go?"

She thickly swallowed. "If I tell you, you have to promise not to tell anyone. And I mean anyone."

He lightly furrowed his eyebrows in concern. "Emmy. What's going on?"

"So, I've been going out and visiting K ⎯ "

Suddenly, his front door swung open, and a loud voice was heard. "Eli! We've been waiting for 15 minutes! Where've you been?"

Emmy gasped as her head whipped over to the front door, freezing when she saw Demetri and Miguel standing by it, with an obvious group of people behind them.

"Shit. I forgot I had early training today," Eli said apologetically. "Emmy ⎯ "

"It's okay," she stood up from the couch, giving him a forced smile. "Thanks for letting me in."

Demetri and Miguel watched with wide eyes as she pushed past them and the rest of the teens to get outside. Everyone's eyes followed her, only to see her paused.

Robby and Emmy stared at each other for the first time in weeks. Guess it sucked that Sam was standing right next to him.

Emmy gave the both of them her best smile. "Have a nice day."

And then she walked off, feeling like her heart was going to beat out of her chest.

✸

"Wait, are you telling me stay?"

Emmy's eyes were wide with confusion as she stared at Kreese from across the table, her hands gripping the edge of it tightly. "But I thought the plan was ⎯ "

"We're not doing anything like that anymore," he simply told her, and she felt like the air was sucked out of her. "Nothing we do is gonna get me out of here."

"Are you kidding me?" she asked in disbelief. "I sacrificed everything for you, I'm following the orders of two fucking lunatics for you. I'm even visiting you in jail because I care about you! And that's it?"

"I've put you through enough," he grumbled. "The best thing you can do right now is look after yourself."

"You said that you would never turn your back on me," she narrowed her eyes at him. "I have done everything you've asked me to, and you're just gonna leave it at that? All of this for what? Did you even have any intention of helping me at all?"

He pressed his lips together, and she scoffed. "You're a coward. And a liar. And a fucking bastard."

She slammed her hands down on the table, getting to her feet. "I hope you rot in here."

She kicked the chair from behind her, causing it to slid across the room. Everyone turned to her and Kreese at the noise, and watched as she stormed off and out of the visitation room. 

Kreese huffed, leaning back in his seat while staring down at the table. What was this he was feeling?

...Guilt?

✸

Emmy felt stupid. She had never felt this stupid in her entire life. 

She couldn't believe that she actually thought that Kreese wanted the best for her. After all that he's done? She should've known better. She should've known better than to run back to him after he practically ruined her life. 

But he was all she could think about when she wanted advice or help. He was the only adult figure she had for over a year. He was, essentially, the only person she could go to for anything. And now? He was back to the man who was the root of every predicament she had ever found herself in. 

And for Emmy? It was like everything she had gone through and done was all for nothing.

She let out a frustrated shout as she kicked the dummy with such force that she knocked it over with a loud boom! But Emmy was blinded by emotion and she continued her attack on the lifeless object, grabbing a random object nearby and repeatedly hit its chest. 

With a short scream she stabbed the stick into the dummy's chest, letting out heavy breaths as the room fell into silence. 

"Guess I should be glad it's not alive, huh?"

She gasped, spinning around. Silver looked at her in amusement. "I'm surprised you're still here and not resting up for your fight. But, since you did run off last time, I'm glad you're learning."

Emmy sighed, wiping the sweat off her forehead. "I just have a lot on my mind."

"From your visit with Kreese?"

Emmy paused, slowly turning to him. "What?"

"Oh, yeah. I know all about your visits to him. I have eyes and ears everywhere," he shrugged, stepping closer to her. 

She raised an eyebrow at him. "You're stalking me now?"

"I'm just a concerned mentor," he defended himself. 

Emmy scoffed. "You're hardly a mentor."

He watched as she bent down, yanking the stick out of the dummy's chest and walked up to him. She shoved it against Silver's chest, glaring up at him. "You and Kreese can both rot in hell."

She made sure to jam her elbow into his side as she walked away, and Silver glanced over his shoulder. He smirked to himself, turning back to the dummy. "And you'll rot with us."

AUTHOR'S NOTE !

I KNOW you guys want more robby and emmy but please remember that this is EMMY'S story and i value that more but don't worry we will get out babies back