Welcome to the jungle — Guns N'Roses

CYNTHIA UNCOMFORTABLY CLEARED HER THROAT as she looked up from her untouched plate. She watched as Hawk and her father laughed about god knows what, her brain feeling like it was thumping against her skull. She couldn't form any words, the girl had thought about the moment her parents would come back, and what she would say, but now that the moment was here, what could she say?

Screw you, dad.

No, no matter how much she wanted to, she loved the man too much.

"You haven't talked since you walked in the door." Simon Sari commented, pointing his fork in his daughters direction.

"Okay, i'll talk." Cynthia lightly cleared her throat, sitting up in place. "Since you never explained it to me, how about you tell my boyfriend why you abandoned me for months, then showed up out of the blue to completely disrupt my otherwise good life?"

There was an awkward silence at the table, the three other people sitting there all freezing in place. Getting that off her chest was all Mouth needed to relax, the girl doing the opposite of everyone else, letting her body untense. Maybe all she wanted was to be a little angry.

"Sweetheart—"

"No, don't call me sweetheart." Cynthia shook her head, feeling tears pool up in her eyes. "You left, and now you think you can come back and act like nothing ever happened? Screw you."

Maybe she wasn't calm.

Without another word, the Sari girl pushed herself up from the table, and walked out of the house, not knowing what to do.

A million emotions ran through her in that moment. Did she say and do the right thing? Should she have heard him out? She couldn't focus on one question at a time.

"Thia!" She turned to see Hawk barreling down the steps behind her, the girls eyes clouding up with tears. "What was that?"

"You wouldn't understand, your life is fucking perfect. You have parents who love you, and are still together, people do what you say with no question, you've had the same best friend your entire life, and you haven't gone through even half the shit that I have." Sure, maybe she was being selfish, but, in that moment, all Cynthia could think about was herself.

If she didn't, who would?

"So all that means that i'm not worthy of talking to about your problems? You're my girlfriend, you are supposed to tell me things." For a moment, it seemed like Eli was making his way through the Hawk facade, the boy inching forward carefully before he wrapped her into his arms. "I love you, Thia."

Cynthia's heart dropped at those three simple words, she was scared, so much so that she didn't respond.

THE SARI GIRL DECIDED TO SIT BY HERSELF at practice after everything that had transpired the day before. She sucked in a deep breath as she stretched, closing her eyes so that she could focus more on herself than the eyes of Miguel and Hawk staring at her. Stress was not even the word to describe what the girl had been feeling as of late.

"You see that bogus commercial your boy Daniel Larusso made?" The voice of Theo spoke up, hovering over the girl.

"No, and I want nothing to do with him or you so please get out of my air space." Cynthia replied with an annoyed smile.

"Listen, we are both on the same team. I only hit you because I had to, if I didn't win, my dojo was getting shut down." There was a silence that lasted on the Antonetti boys part before he continued. "We know how that turned out."

"Yeah, so basically, you were acting like an evil asshole for no reason." The Sari girl let out an annoyed sigh. "Again, there is plenty of space around here, no reason either of us need to actually speak, right?"

Theo awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck and nodded, turning away as he regretted trying to rekindle a friendship in the first place. The pair stopped being friends for a reason, and they needed to just stay that way. There was no need to relive old memories.

"Daniel LaRusso." Cynthia scoffed as she picked up her phone, going to YouTube before searching the man up. She clicked on a link for his commercial, and rolled her eyes as the man came on the screen.

He talked about the dojo's principals, shaded Cobra Kai like an asshole, and then finished the video off by explaining that Miyagi-do is free.

"Dick." The Sari girl tossed her phone on the ground as the commercial finished, her eyes closing to center herself yet again.

She needed a serious break from it all.

"Okay, everybody line up!" Sensei yelled as he walked out of his office, everyone lining up together and standing straight like they were taught.

Cynthia felt her hands shaking when she seen Hawk standing beside her, taking in a deep breath as Johnny began to speak.

"There's a lot of talk going around the Valley about free karate but, everyone knows that in life you get what you pay for." The Sari girl furrowed her brows as Aisha passed in front of her, holding a camera in her hand. "You really wanna kick the competition? Then you need to get over to Cobra Kai. Screw that lame meditation bullshit. What you need is bone-crunching, face-smashing, good old American karate. Enough about self-defense. Learn about self-offense. Don't be a pussy, join Cobra Kai, and let me teach you the way of the fist."

"... and cut."

Stupid commercials, and pointless rivalries? Not why she started doing karate.

IF CYNTHIA HATED ONE PERSON IN THE WORLD MORE than her father, it was Daniel Larusso. So, although she wouldn't be doing this if it was a different dojo, she joined her friends in taking over his performance at Valley Fest. She was completely ready to go as the lights to his stage turned off, the girl grinning slightly.

.. what had karate turned her into?

"Cobra Kai! Cobra Kai! Cobra Kai!" She yelled in unison with her dojo, Hawk in front of her, Aisha beside her, and Theo trailing behind. "Cobra kai! Cobra kai! Cobra kai!"

Their music started playing, and bright spotlights turned on as they walked to the stage, all of them standing tall and proud.

Cynthia and a few other joined in formation, each of them aggressively following each others movements as they demonstrated what they do in practice. The simple way the girl moved her arms relieved all types of stress, the yelling coming from her mouth genuine, and relaxing. This was why she started training.

"Hyah!" She screamed as she jumped, showing off a kick she had been learning lately, the sparks around her flying around.

"Cobras, show them what real karate looks like!" Johnny instructed, everyone turning to whoever had wound up next to them.

Of course, it was Theo.

Cynthia all too happily sent a kick his way, one the boy dodged, but, he didn't hit back. She then threw a punch in his direction, the boy jumping backwards, he seemed to dodge everything that she threw his way, yet never retaliated. Finally, she did a flip kick, and he fell backwards onto his hands before pushing himself up and off the ground.

Then Miguel came up, punching the boy to the ground like they had practiced, the Sari girl managed to get a fake punch in at her best friend before he "took her down" too, and the crowd roared with excitement.

Cynthia did not regret this takeover at all.

AUTHORS NOTE—
Me going crazy with the updates? Woah. Also, i'm pretty sure Tory shows up next episode. Sorry this was so short.

How do you think Tory and Cynthia will act towards each other? Opinions on Simon Sari?

Hope you enjoyed!