Head games — Foreigner

EVEN THOUGH SHE WAS STILL VERY ADAMANT about not doing karate again, Cyn decided it was best to join the lessons on the sidelines, to make sure Johnny and Daniel wouldn't kill each other. She knew all of this was a long shot but, almost everyone she cared about was involved in karate, and she was going to do her best to make sure that they could continue doing it. Even if she had to play mediator.

Which was going to prove to be hard, knowing both sensei's.

"Hey, dad. I'm ready to head over to Miyagi-do whenever you ar—" Cynthia felt her heart leap out of her chest when she seen the woman standing next to her dad.

From her long brown hair, to green eyes, and full lips, it was her mother in full flesh and blood.

"Oh, I am not doing this today. Absolutely not." Cyn shook her head, walking around the pair who looked like they had been crying. "She doesn't get to do this today, not of all days."

"Cynthia, maybe you should hear her out, you forgave me." Simon reached out to his daughter but, she instantly jerked away, placing her fingers on her temple.

"I forgave you because you came back and apologized, you left because she didn't want you home anymore and you had no money. She dropped me off here a year ago and never fucking called!" the Sari girl felt anger bubbling up inside her as she slammed her fist on the table harshly. "There's no excuses for that, because that's not what a mother does to their daughter who loves them."

"Honey, that's not fair. I had to have time for myself, to cope with it all. With your father and I breaking up and—"

"No, this isn't happening." Cynthia shook her head and opened the front door. "I'm getting an uber, have a great life, Penelope."

She made sure to slam the door as hard as she could, to prove a point, of course.

CYNTHIA SIPPED ON HER GATORADE AS SHE watched her friends stand up entirely straight. Theo stood between Sam and Miguel, Hawk and Demetri stood side by side where they belonged, and it made the girl smile. She was nowhere near forgiving the Moskowitz boy but, she was glad Demetri did.

They needed each other.

"Ready?" Daniel spoke, looking around at everyone.

"Let's begin." Johnny shouted even louder, and unnecessarily if Cyn had anything to say about it.

Everyone looked awkwardly at each other, not exactly sure what they were "ready" for or what they needed to "begin". It was obvious these two men didn't exactly have a plan for what they wanted, or needed to do, and Cynthia shook her head. If they couldn't agree on warmups, would they be able to agree on anything?

"Uh..." Demetri awkwardly raised his hand. "Begin what, exactly?"

Johnny and Daniel exchanged a look, both of them not quite understanding either.

"Begin a new era, many of us used to be enemies." As the Larusso man began his sensei speech, Sam and Cyn both smiled lightly at each other. "... but rivalries, don't need to last forever. The All-Valley tournament is just a few months away and this year, the stakes are even higher than they've ever been. We know Cobra Kai is gonna use every dirty trick in the book. There's only one way we're gonna be able to—"

"By kicking their asses so hard they shit themselves!" Johnny interrupted, catching everyone by surprise. "We gotta take things to the next level. Gonna teach you an aggression stronger than anything Cobra Kai can throw at us."

Both sensei's began to go back and forth, their opposing views obviously clashing.

"Okay, guys." Cynthia stood up, lightly shaking her head. "I'm really gonna need you guys to like focus here, and remember what we are trying to do."

"Maybe we start with warm ups?" Theo questioned from where he was standing. "Since you know, that's what everyone does."

"Oh, shut it." Johnny and the Antonetti boy had an odd relationship but, it worked, and in a weird way, they cared for one another.

"I agree. We can just start with some simple warm up exercises." Daniel spoke, nodding his head towards his fellow sensei who let out a frustrated sigh.

"Alright, warm ups. Line up!" The blonde yelled, everyone getting into an orderly and neat line up.

Cynthia smiled lightly, hoping this would be the end of the chaos with the joining of dojos but, it was not.

  IT WAS SAFE TO SAY THAT THE FIRST DAY OF PRACTICE went absolutely terrible in terms of getting anything useful done. It was absolutely frustrating for Cynthia to think about. It was always the adults who couldn't get their lives together, and in turn, the children were suffering. It was a long circle that just continued to repeat itself.

Over, and over, and over.

"Cynthia!" Daniel jogged lightly to the girl, catching up to her with a smile. "I would like to talk to you, about your father."

"What about him?" Cyn lightly cleared her throat, and defensively, folded her arms over her chest. She loved her father, and ever since all those months ago, when he came back for her, she had loved him more than ever.

... but she didn't know what to think with her mother back here after all this time.

"I know that you and him both believe I had something to do with Sari Auto group losing business..." the older man sighed as he seen the look on the young girls face. "I'd like to offer him a job, he can work in our main dealership with Louis, and Anoush, and maybe make enough money to get you guys into a bigger place."

"Do you really think that my father, of all people is just going to take a handout from you, Mr. Larusso? He doesn't hate you but, his ego wouldn't let him take a job from the place that shut him down." Cynthia explained, shrugging her shoulders. She didn't want to get her hopes up that her dad could bring in some good money, not when everything in her life usually went awry.

"You'd be surprised what a man would do for his child." Daniel looked back towards where everyone was walking out the gate, Sam coming out ahead of the pack. "I'm going to talk to him about it but, I wanted to let you know, i'm offering this to him because if it weren't for you keeping us together in practice today, or helping us come together, Cobra Kai would be ruling the valley."

"Thank you, Mr. Larusso." The Sari girl smiled lightly, all the hate for the man going away.

She respected him now.

"Hey, what's going on?" Sam questioned with a smile as her, Theo, and Miguel came up to the pair.

"Nothing, I was just asking Cynthia tips on how to make practice a little better." Daniel lied, and if she was honest, the Sari girl appreciated it. She didn't want everyone to know about what they had talked about, not yet. "She gave me a mouthful."

"Hey, sensei doesn't call her mouth for no reason." Miguel joked, earning a glare from his girlfriend.

"Way to land in the dog house, bro." Theo pat his shoulder and shook his head.

"Well, the three of us will see you later, we have some dinner to cook, don't we?" Daniel questioned, Theo and Sam exchanging shy glances.

"Yes, sir." The Antonetti boy nodded, and the trio walked away, leaving Cynthia with her boyfriend.

"We have a dinner too, Bianca and Johnny are cooking, remember?" Miguel spoke, looking absolutely terrified. "If we die of food poisoning after all the injuries we've gotten, that would suck, huh?"

"I really wish we could skip it." The Sari girls lips turned into a pout as she remembered earlier on in the day. "My mom came back, and I don't know if she's gonna be there."

"Why didn't you tell me?" The Diaz boy placed his hands on her shoulders lightly. "That must've sucked."

"Yeah, I just hope she took the hint." Cynthia let out a sigh. "If this ends up bad can we get slushies and then stay at your place?"

"We can do that no matter how this dinner turns out." Miguel smiled brightly and put his arm gently around the girl as they started to walk.

Cyn knew she could go to him for any problem, cause he felt like home.

AUTHORS NOTE —
I know I said there would only be 10 more chapters but i'm so obsessed with this book...

Title ideas for book two?

Hope you enjoyed!