chapter nineteen,
i think i talk too much

Mackenzie woke up with the goal of turning her miserable life around. She was sick and tired of always being hurt and the way she was treated by others.

"I still don't understand why you joined Miyagi-Do." Demetri told his sister.

Mackenzie shoved a spoonful of lucky charms in her mouth. "I don't need to explain anything to you."

"Oh, yes you do." Demetri replied. "You can't just switch dojos whenever you want." he teased.

"You literally did that!" She exclaimed.

Mackenzie stood up and walked over to the sink. "I'm not wasting my breath on you, Metri." She washed up her dishes before exiting.

"Awh come on, Macky. I'm just kidding!" he called out to her. Mackenzie ignored him and walked out the door. The fresh air hit her face as she walked over to her car.

    As she started the engine, a red corvette pulled up in the drive before she could pull out. Charlie stepped out of the car, "Hey, Kenzie." he smiled as he started walking over.

    Mackenzie smiled back and rested her arm on the car door. "Hey, didn't know you owned a corvette."

    Charlie smirked, "Yeah, it's pretty cool isn't it?" he said, standing next to her in front of the vehicle.

    Mackenzie stood up straight from leaning against the door. She looked at the corvette and was impressed. "It is cool, how'd you afford it?"

    "I've been working a lot, and my parents wanted to get me something nice for my birthday." Charlie explained.

    Mackenzie chuckled and rolled her eyes jokingly, "Of course your parents got it." she teased.

    Charlie smirked, "Hey don't act like your parents didn't buy you your car." he said, copying her sarcastic tone. "Plus I can't tell that your parents did because of this insane house you live in."

    Mackenzie laughed and playfully hit his shoulder. "Hey, this house is totally normal!" she defended.

As the two began talking, another car pulled up in the Alexopoulos's driveway. But this time, Kenzie could recognize the car.

    Her body tensed up immediately. It was Eli.. Hawk's car.

    Charlie noticed Mackenzie's body language change and questioned her. "You okay?"

    "Yeah.." she trailed off.

    The boy turned around as Eli got out of his car. Then realized. "Oh."

    Charlie could see the tension in the air as Eli walked towards them. Mackenzie's expression was cold as she stood still with her arms crossed.

    Mackenzie took a deep breath before speaking. "What are you doing here?" she said, trying to keep her voice cool but failed at it.

    Eli smiled smugly as he stopped in front of them. "I heard you left Cobra Kai." he smirked, looking directly at Mackenzie.

    "Yeah, I did. Thanks for noticing." Mackenzie said sarcastically.

    Eli shrugged and chuckled, "What, you think you're too good for it now?"

   Charlie could sense the tension growing between the two and shuffled awkwardly on his feet before speaking up, "I think I should go.." he mumbled.

    Mackenzie quickly turned her head to look at him, "No, stay."

    Eli looked between the two and mocked Charlie's statement, "Yeah, Charlie, stay." he said sarcastically. The tension between the three was thick as they stood awkwardly in silence.

     Eli let out an amused scoff then turned on his heel and walked off, back to his car.

     Mackenzie was left standing with a frustrated look on her face and let out a sigh of relief once he left.

     Charlie stood next to her awkwardly, then spoke up, "I uh.. I should go too."

     As Eli drove passed her, Mackenzie couldn't help but yell after him, "You're such a jerk, you know that?!".

     She then turned her attention to Charlie, "And you! Don't just leave me here to confront him next time!" she yelled before he drove off as well.

     Demetri stood by the front door, watching the whole thing with a smirk on his face. Mackenzie turned back around and saw her brother standing at the doorstep. She rolled her eyes annoyingly as he laughed.

    "Looks like you had fun." he teased.

🥋 ⋆⭒˚｡⋆

    It was hot. Like I'm melting hot and all of the Miyagi-Do students sat up against a tree where it was the slightest bit shaded.

    While Mackenzie was complaining about the heat, she managed to noticed that Charlie didn't show up for practice.

    "Oh god. It's so hot out." Demetri panted before resting his head on Mackenzie's shoulder. "I'm sweating in places I didn't even know I had pores."

    Mackenzie groaned as she felt the sweat on Demetri cling to her skin. "Gross!" She shoved him away.

    The students all had been waiting against the tree, hoping that this heat wave would pass quickly.

    Daniel clapped his hands as he walked over to the group of kids, "All righty, everyone get out from under that tree. It's time to get to work!"

    They groaned as they eventually stood up. "Hey, Mr Larusso, it's like 100 degrees out. Can't we take it easy today?" Robby spoke for everyone.

    "Are you kidding?" Daniel questioned, "This heat wave is a gift. Today, you are going to experience Shochu-Geiko."

    Mackenzie furrowed her brows, matching her thoughts. "Like the car insurance?" she slowly asked.

    "Shochu-Geiko is a Japanese exercise where you train duding the hottest days of the year. It's about pushing yourself to your limit. The fight isn't always gonna come when it's 75 degrees and breezy." Daniel explained.

    "Aren't we supposed to avoid fighting?" Sam spoke up.

    Daniel sighed deeply. "Sometimes you can't. Someday, the fight may come to you. And I wanna make sure you're ready. So, today, we're gonna see what Miyagi-Do is made of."

In the next couple of minutes, Daniel had set everyone up into a circle surrounding Robby. Kenzie stood on the opposite side of Sam as Robby was standing fists ready in the middle while the students awaited for Mr Larusso to call out a random number.

Mackenzie was not in the mood to be fighting today. Yesterday would've been a much better day to fight because of Eli and his interruptions but today is a different day. And as Mackenzie's goals were for her to stop hanging onto the past, she let it go.

    Kenzie was standing with a unamused expression as she watched Robby fight each person. The heat really had gotten to her.

    "Five!" Mr Larusso called out, meaning Sam.

    Sam and Robby had a short brawl, ending with Sam kicking his chest. When it was Demetri's turn, Kenzie had blanked out as she was almost about to let her body hit the ground.

    Mr Larusso noticed her dazed expression and quickly jogged over to her. "Whoa, Mackenzie. You okay?" he asked, concerned.

    "No. I'm not." She huffed, but breathing slowly to make sure she didn't take it out on Mr Larusso. "I'm sweating, profusely. Mr Larusso, it's way too hot out to be doing karate right now."

    Kenzie's words had made Daniel rethink his plans. He looked around at each student noticing how sweaty and tired they looked.

    Daniel looked around at the tired students and noticed most of them had their hands on their hips, some looked like they wanted to pass out, and a few were lying face down on the ground. He let out a long, deep sigh and looked over at Mackenzie, who was fanning herself with her hands.

    "You guys wanna cool off?" he asked. "All right. I think I can accomodate that."

    Daniel's idea of cooling off in this heat wave was nothing like Mackenzie's. In her mind, she thought about maybe going to a waterpark or to the beach or even going home – but no.

    So when Mackenzie had finished at karate, she was finally cold. And not in a good way.

Daniel had chosen to do a different style of karate called Kangeiko. It was a weird way of thinking but it all worked out in the end.

— leila's notes !

okay so fck you hawk, i want eli moskowitz back thank you very much.

last chapter of 2024! words cannot express the love i have for every single one of yous. thank you so much for all the support and can't wait to see what 2025 has for this book!