I'm just a kid — The Simple Plan

CYNTHIA RAN A HAND THROUGH HER HAIR AS SHE stared deeply into the bathroom mirror. Contemplating her life had been something she was doing these past few days, and it was no different this morning. She started feeling more alone than she had felt in awhile, and it wasn't a good thing.

"Cynthia, we need to talk." Without knocking, Bianca entered the room with a frown on her face, directing her attention to her niece for the first time all week.

"Yeah? What about?" The Sari girl never let her eyes leave her reflection, letting out a sigh as she brushed through her hair.

"Your father, he's getting remarried." The older woman knew her news would be devastating for the one person she had actually cared for in a long time, and she had been working up the courage to tell her.

Cynthia felt her heart sink into her chest as her aunts words replayed over, and over again in her head. It couldn't be possible, she had only been living in Reseda for a few months which is when her parents had split up in the first place. This was all too much to handle, especially with all the other added problems on top.

"Can you please say something, honey? I feel like you just had a heart attack or stroke or something and I don't know what to do." Bianca never liked dealing with others feelings, so, now when she wanted to, she just... couldn't.

"I'm happy for him." Cyn put on the fakest smile she ever had, closing her eyes. "But I have to go do some stuff for the dojo, if i'm late i'll get kicked out and I can't—"

"There's no more money for you to keep doing karate." The older Sari woman blurted out, placing her hand on her face. "Your dad was giving me some so I can take care of you but now that he's getting married—"

"Now that he's getting married, i'm fucked." Tears welled up in Thia's eyes, pushing them away as she grabbed her clothes, lazily throwing them on. "I guess this is my last week of practice."

"I'm so sorry." Bianca wore a frown, running a stressed hand through her hair. "I can drive you there.."

"No, I need a walk." Cynthia waved her hand. "We can talk later, okay?"

So much for wanting things to be good that day.

  CYNTHIA'S ARMS ACHED AS SHE DID THE WORK THAT HER sensei told her to. Part of her though this was all pointless, she'd be off going back to her regular karate free days soon, but, part of her also didn't want that to be real. She wanted to wake up from this haunting dream and be over it all.

"Hey, uh, are you okay?" Miguel questioned, looking at the girl who simply did her job, mixing cement with a shovel.

"Yeah, you've been acting really weird." Hawk noted, pouring more of the mixture into the barrel the trio were using.

"I've been acting weird." Cynthia mumbled to herself, rolling her eyes as she aggressively mixed the cement together, their sensei coming up behind her.

"Sensei, why are we mixing cement?" Miguel questioned, fighting the urge to not pressure his friend any longer.

"No questions." The man answered simply, not even giving the slightest inkling of what lesson they were learning.

"All right." The group went back to stirring as their sensei walked away, the girl coined as "mouth" sighing as she concluded that she needed to give the pair an answer.

"I have to quit karate." She finally spoke, a few moments of silence becoming thick with tension.

"Wh—what? You can't quit!" Miguel shook his head, almost dropping the shovel in his hand. "You've been doing so good, you've even beat me before."

"He's right, when are we going to hang out?" Hawk's eyes looked sad but, he'd let the rest of the dojo see him that way.

"I don't have money, I can't." Cynthia lightly cleared her throat, biting the inside of her cheek. "Please, just don't tell anyone."

"We have to tell sensei, i'm sure he'd work something out. You are one of the best people in Cobra Kai." Miguel was practically begging for the girl to find a solution, being that she was his best friend and he wanted to spend all the time he could with her.

"Listen, I—" she was cut off by the sound a horn going off, the group all looking to the side to see a cement truck pulling into the area. "What the fuck?"

"Are we seeing this?" Hawk questioned, looking between the two people around him.

"Yup." The last letter was popped as Cyn spoke, furrowing her brows slightly.

"Alright, everyone! Line up! Now!" Johnny yelled, all the teens dropping their tools before they lined up in front of him, allowing the blonde man to speak. "You think winning the All Valley gives you the right to goof off? Well, I got news for you. Winning one championship don't mean squat. A true champion never stops training. We gotta keep on moving forward, or else you could get struck exactly where you are. It's like the cement in this truck. That drum doesn't start turning, the cement inside will harden and get stuck. Is that what you wanted to happen?"

To be honest, it seemed like that was happening already.

"No, Sensei!" The group yelled loudly in response.

"Good. Then climb up, get inside, and make it spin." Johnny instructed, each of his students uttering out a few confused mumbled.

They all looked around at each other, none of them daring to move.

"Sensei, we're sorry for messing around." Aisha spoke up first, Cyn keeping her eyes on the ground.

"Yeah, we learned our lesson." Hawk added on.

"Get in!" Sensei Lawrence demanded, pulling down the latter that led to the inside of the truck.

"Sensei, this seems dangerous. I mean, the fumes alone—"

"Quiet!" The man from the previous day yelled, obviously feeling more confident around the students. "This man led you to the moutaintop, and you question him? Look at you, look at all of you. I can't believe this pathetic pack of pussies competed in the All Valley, and let alone won. It's an absolute miracle. And who's responsible for that miracle? Johnny Lawrence. My student."

Cynthia felt her first form into the ball simply because of the way this man spoke, her teeth clenching as Miguel took her hand, holding her back from doing anything stupid.

"You were sensei's sensei?" Hawk asked, his voice full of surprise, and not at all insulted by the older mans words.

"You better believe it, kid." The Kreese man turned around to look at his former student. "And I tell you i've never trained a tougher student in my whole life. So, if you know what's good for you, you better listen to every goddamn word he says."

"Will you do it with me?" The Diaz boy questioned, gesturing his head towards the cement truck.

"Let's prove this fucker wrong." She whispered back, both their eyes narrowing as they stepped forward, making their way to the ladder.

Cyn carefully made it into the long tomb, her boyfriend helping her inside as them and their friend tripped around the cement. It was hard to keep still with all the sludge beneath the girls feet but, she managed, making her way to the wall.

More students filed in quickly after them, nobody wanting to disobey their sensei and get kicked out of the dojo.

"This is weird." Miguel commented, swishing his feet around the cement beneath them.

"For sure." Hawk confirmed, taking his girlfriends hand into his own as they stood there, not knowing what to do.

"I might be better off without cement at this point." Cynthia mumbled, lightly shaking her head.

"Don't just stand there." Johnny speaking up practically scared the girl out of her own body. "You wanna get stuck? Move!"

The group all slowly made their way over to the opposite wall, deciding to place their hands on it and push the cylinder in sync. Cynthia pushed, and pushed, yet, part of her felt like it would never move. Then, once they all worked together, it did move.

Her team was what kept everything together, they kept her together.

  AFTER A GOOD HOSE DOWN AND A LOT OF THINKING, Cynthia decided that she was going to talk about her sensei about her financial problems. He had became the only male figure in her life, and she knew that was a lot to carry for one person but, it was true. He had become someone that all the students looked up to, and she admired that.

"Can I come in?" The girl knocked lightly on the door, mentally cursing at herself when she seen Kreese sitting on the chair across from Johnny. "I'd like to talk to sensei, alone."

"This must be the girl mouth you were talking about. She's tiny." Kreese noted, standing up from his seat. "I've got to get a few things handled, i'll be back later."

As the old man walked past her, Cyn shivered in disgust. He had an aura to him that just made her sick to her stomach. It was like he was worse than her dad, or Johnny, or even Daniel.

"This is really important, I wouldn't have come otherwise." The Sari girl laughed awkwardly, shutting the door behind her.

"Don't worry about it, I was sick of talking about the same stuff anyways." The Lawrence man sat up. "Is this about earlier today? Because I told Bianca if she has a problem with my teaching she needs to say it to my fac—"

"No, it's not that." Cynthia quickly shook her head, taking a seat across from him. "I can't afford to train here anymore but, today you made me realize this is home, and my family is here and I don't know what I can do to stay."

The words caught the blonde man by surprise, and he stayed silent for a few dreadful moments.

"You can work here." Johnny nodded his head slightly. "You clean all around this place for free, i'll let you keep coming to class but, I know how much you talk so let's just not share this with anyone, got it?"

"Got it." Cynthia quickly nodded her head, jumping up to her feet. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

She kept repeating those words on her way out of his office because, she was more than thankful, she was happy.

AUTHORS NOTE—
But y'all, am I on a roll or am I on a roll? I have a month before season four so i'm hoping to finish by then! Season four will be the last part of this book.

Do you think Theo will side with Cobra Kai or Eagle Fang?

Hope you enjoyed!