You don't know me — Elizabeth Gillies

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A LONG TIME CYNTHIA WAS feeling utterly and completely alone. She sat by herself in the middle of the carpet stretching as everyone talked in their own little groups. She remembered loving this dojo at one point but, not anymore, not the way it was now.

She glanced up and watched Robby mentor the young boy she had seen him with days ago. The girl assumed he had taken on a roll of a teacher in a way, and although it put him in a different light, she still couldn't trust him as far as she could throw him. She was however interested if she'd ever see him the way Theo was.

If he was a good enough cousin that Theo went to jail for him, maybe be could be redeemed.

The Sari girl glanced up again in time to see Robby walk away from the boy and sit down on the carpet not too far away from her. He seemed distressed by whatever they were talking about, and she assumed it must've been important. Maybe it was because he was Theo's cousin, or Johnny's son but, she decided to ask what was wrong.

"The kid okay?" She questioned, pointing her head towards where the young boy was hitting a punching bag.

"Why do you care?" Robby asked, giving her a short answer and not looking the girl in the eye.

"Just cause we're on different sides of things, doesn't mean i'm a bad person." Cynthia shrugged her shoulders. "and its not like anyone here's itching to talk to me, figured i'd start conversation."

They both looked towards where Tory, Kyler, and their friends were staring at them.

"I'm not on any side." Robby finally looked at her closely. "I don't think you are either."

"So what's up with the kid then, seeing as we're both in the neutral zone." Cynthia narrowed her eyes, not letting herself become intimidated by the Keene boy.

"Anthony Larusso and his friends keep messing with him, he wants to fight them... and I told him how all that anger builds up but—"

"He doesn't wanna listen, been there before." Cynthia nodded her head. "He clearly looks up to you, just give it some time. Even if he makes a mistake, he'll have you to count on."

Robby smiled a tad, looking a bit relieved, he was about to speak again, when the "sensei's" came in to start the lesson.

"Class, fall in." Kreese called out, everyone lining up.

Cynthia stood in the back, preferring to be in a spot where she could see anything.

"Today, before we start our lesson, we'd like to introduce someone you all may know to the dojo, Cynthia please stand in the front row." The two older men, who stood in front gave her the wickedest of smiles.

She stepped forward and felt the glare of almost everyone in the room.

"Now, we have a very important lesson for everyone, don't we sensei, Silver?" Kreese questioned, his hands behind his back.

"Yes, we do. Weakness." Terry looked Cynthia right in the eyes.

"Your opponents weakness must be exploited whenever possible." John added on, the two men going back and forth to teach the lesson.

As much as she hated them, they knew how to work together, and Johnny and Daniel could've been unstoppable if they did things similarly.

"At the tournament, you'll have to recognize that weakness and make no mistake, we all have one." As Terry said that, the air grew slightly tense.

She looked around the room, and hearing that everyone had a weakness clearly affected some students (and sensei's) more than others.

"Sensei Kreese doesn't." Tory concluded.

"Of course he does, we all do." Silver shrugged, and by the look on his face, Kreese wasn't a fan of him saying that. "Today, your goal is to find your opponents weakness and attack it. No points, you hit the mat, you lose. You got it?"

"Get ready to fight."

SEEING AS THE ONLY TWO GIRLS IN THE DOJO HAD just gone against each other, Cynthia assumed they'd make her fight one of the boys. She wasn't too nervous, compared to most of the people in Cobra Kai, she'd been training much longer, she knew different methods of karate. The girl was just curious as to when she would be picked, and when she'd fight.

"Sari, you're up." Silver spoke, motioning for her to stand up.

"Park, your turn." Kreese chose her opponent, an almost laughable one at that.

"I thought you'd at least try to give me some competition." Cynthia spoke with a scoff as she stood up, walking to Silver.

She couldn't stand the man but, he was her "sensei" for the moment.

"I see you're familiar with Mr. Park?" Silver spoke with a grin, raising his brow.

"We've had our fair share of run ins, yeah." Cynthia replies dryly, shrugging her shoulders.

"So, what do you think his weakness is?" Terry questioned.

"He's too confidant, you can tell what he's going to do before he does it." Cyn turned around to see Kyler stepping on the mat, jumping up and down.

"Good, now beat him." The girl didn't even finish letting the man keep speaking before she walked to the mat, steadying herself to fight.

It had been awhile since she actually fought someone one on one.

"You ready to lose, rhea's girlfriend." Kyler laughed stupidly, his body fidgeting back and forth obnoxiously.

"In your dreams." Cynthia got into a fighting position as she rolled her eyes.

"Ais!" Kreese yelled.

Of course, Kyler was the first to jump forward, his fists balled. Cyn moved to the side as he punched in her direction, the two now switching where they had originally been standing. The Sari girl cracked her neck and steadied herself once more, waiting for the next attack.

After a few moments, Kyler ran forward way too slow, giving the Sari girl enough time to do a spin kick, hitting him right in the face.

He fell backwards and right on the ground then it was point one Sari, Cobra Kai, nothing.

  TERRY SILVERS HOUSE WAS NOT HOME TO Cynthia but it was what she was forced to live with for now. The entire place was completely impersonal, and looked more like a museum than a house. That, and the chefs, and maids felt really weird because her family was well off before but this was a whole new level.

The only thing she had really enjoyed about this place was the ocean right in the backyard, it was soothing in a way.

Currently, she was listening to music and watching the waves go up and down.

"Shit." She practically jumped out of her chair as someone tapped on her shoulder, catching her attention. She paused the song playing to hear her mother who was standing behind her.

"Hey." Penelope spoke awkwardly.

"Hi." Cyn replied before turning away and looking back at the water.

Her mother sat in the seat next to her doing the same.

"I didn't want to have to force you to live here." Penelope finally said after about a minute of silence, her daughter letting out a sigh.

"Well, you did, so.." Cynthia shrugged her shoulders. "Don't pretend to feel bad about it."

"I don't feel bad and i'm not going to pretend I do. I'm a mother who got custody of her daughter, nothing wrong with that." The Silver woman shrugged.

"Did you care about custody when you were gone for a year?" Cyn sat up straighter but took a deep breath, trying to not get too riled up.

"I needed a break from it all, you don't understand everything—"

"You're right, I don't understand how a woman could cut off contact with someone she supposedly loves for a year then come back like nothing." Cynthia shook her head. "I am never going to trust you the way I used to, ever. I'm here right? Take your win and leave me the hell alone."

"You and your father have been my life since I was twenty five. I hadn't had anything to myself since then. Now, I have everything and I wanted to include you in that. Until you are a mother you will never understand how hard it is to raise a child." Penelope's voice was filled with anger, and annoyance.

"Well, i'm not a child anymore and I most certainly do not need you so, consider yourself daughter free." Cyn replied maliciously, knowing it would hurt the woman.

Penelope stood up and walked away without another word but, Cynthia knew this wouldn't be the end of their conversation.

  SURPRISINGLY SCHOOL HAD BECOME THE ONLY place where Cynthia was happy now. She got to see her friends and boyfriend, Penelope and Silver were nowhere around, and it seemed to be the only place she could breath. Her and Sam walked together down the hallway side by side, going to meet up with the boys.

"What's going on with you and Theo? Things seem pretty tense." Cyn noted, tucking her hair behind her ear.

"We're still together... we just haven't really spoken one on one for like over a week." Sam replied with a frustrated sigh, regretting how she had been going about things.

"What happened?" Cynthia knew she was nosy but, she also wanted to help her friends at the same time.

"I kissed him in front of Tory to make her angry, and he figured it out." The Larusso girl clutched onto her bag. "He thinks i'm just using him to get to her and thats not the case."

"Maybe you should just talk to him, it couldn't hurt. He's an emotional guy but if you just have a conversation things will be okay." The Sari girl shrugged. "Not much else you can do."

"You're right, i'll talk to him—" Sam's eyes widened as she pointed forward. "Do you see that."

Up ahead, in a clearing in the hallway, a sign saying cynthia sari, will you go to prom with me? In big, bold, and colorful letters was hung on the ceiling.

Scattered down the hall was all the boys from Eagle Fang, and Miyagi-do holding out roses.

"Did you know about this?" Cynthia held a hand over her mouth as Sam nodded proudly.

The girls continued down the hall, Cyn taking the roses from each of the boys.

"If you don't say yes to him, this is going to be really embarrassing for us all." Demetri spoke as he handed the girl a rose.

"Thanks for that, Dem." Cynthia smiled brightly and patted her friend on the shoulder.

The next one holding a flower was Eli, and she inhaled a deep breath before walking to him.

"You deserve all this, Thia." He smiled at her as she took the rose. She smiled back lightly, and passed by him, taking her last one from Theo before she made it to the end where Miguel was knelt down beneath the sign holding the biggest rose.

"Will you go to prom with me?" The Diaz boy asked, holding it up towards her.

"Of course I will." Cynthia took the boy by the collar and pulled him upwards, as he stood up, she stood on her toes and pressed a kiss on his lips.

It was no surprise that she felt at home in school.

AUTHORS NOTE—
I just know Eli was singing if When I Was Your Man in his head bye.

What are some songs you could hear Cyn listening to?

Hope you enjoyed!