chapter thirteen,
back to black

    "What do you think, Shithead One and Shithead Two?" Eli asked, as him, Aisha and Mackenzie stand together.

    Aisha scoffed, "I was thinking more Mary-Kate and Asshat."

    "Well, I was thinking we should learn their names instead of being a bunch of idiots." Mackenzie spits, giving a look towards Eli and Aisha.

    Eli and Aisha quickly glance at each other with a straight face before shaking their heads, "Nah." They say in sync.

    "Well, I'm Chris-"

    "Did I say you could speak?" The boy in blue shirt opened his mouth but was immediately caught by Eli.

    Miguel sneaks up behind Chris before giving him a high five, "Guys, they're just messing with you."

    "Thanks." The boy in the blue shirt began to relax his shoulders.

    "Besides, everyone knows your names are Assface and Douchebag." Miguel laughed.

    Mackenzie threw her head back, "C'mon, dude."

    The bell door rang as an unfamiliar man walked inside with a brown leather bag. He looked around at the place, then the students.

    "Who's that?" Eli asked. "I don't know." Miguel responded.

    Mackenzie furrowed her eyebrows, wondering the same question as Eli. Who was that man? Then something inside her brain clicked.

    "Wait, I think I recognise him.." Mackenzie squinted her eyes, "I think that's Sensei Lawrence's Sensei."

🥋 ⋆⭒˚｡⋆

The students all stood in formation, "Class, we have a visitor today. This is Mr. Kreese. He's just an observer, just pretend he's not even here."

    Bingo.

    Over the weekend before she joined Cobra Kai, she did her research as she always did. She found a few articles about the All Valley Karate Tournament back in 1984. And in that tournament, Cobra Kai was banned from competing because of Mr. Kreese and two other men. In the end, Daniel Larusso defeated Johnny and that's how their feud started, and how Mr. Larusso became champion of the competition.

    "Mr. Diaz, warm them up." Johnny instructed Miguel to do, the boy walks up to the front and Miguel took over.

    He bowed over to the students, them copying the same move. "Fighting positions! Front kick, Yuh!" Miguel yelled.

    Mackenzie followed his orders, she kicked her left leg like the rest of the students. "Forward strike. Yuh!" She jabbed her right fist ahead of her.

    "Side jab, Yuh!"

    As Miguel joked, and everyone dabbed and laughed at the joke but Kenzie noticed how tense Johnny had gotten ever since his former Sensei showed up.

    He glanced over at Miguel with a stern looked, "What the hell was that?"

    "We were just messing around." The boy turned around, still smiling til releasing how serious Sensei Lawrence was acting. "I mean- we have like eleven and a half moths until the next All Valley."

    The silence inside the dojo was loud. Mackenzie stood there awkwardly, looking down at the ground.

    "Yeah, besides we already know how to kick ass." Eli smirks, interfering with the conversation making Mackenzie forcefully nudge him with her shoulder.

    "What?" He whispered, trying to act innocent.

Mackenzie didn't answer the boy, she just shook her head with disappointment. But that's what was now expected with this new Eli. With Hawk.

"Oh, yeah, really, huh? So, you know everything. There's nothing left to learn, huh?"

As Sensei Lawrence began to talk, Aisha started laughing mid sentence of Johnny. Which made his even angrier.

    "What's so funny, Ms. Robinson?"

    With a slight shake of her head, Aisha grinned. "I'm sorry, Sensei. You just wouldn't understand."

    "Try me."

    "It's a snake-do." Aisha burst out laughing, and everyone in the room laughed too. Mackenzie casted a sidelong glance at the girl and scowled.

It wasn't like Kenzie didn't like the girl anymore, it was that she was different. She had known Aisha since middle school, when her and Sam used to be best friends.

But now.. now she had changed.

    During that lesson, Mackenzie had blanked out. Barely paying attention to the conversation Johnny and the students held.

    "5:00 am tomorrow morning. Corner of Fulton and Raymer. You don't show, and you're off the team. Class dismissed."

🥋 ⋆⭒˚｡⋆

Mackenzie Alexopoulos was not the girl to get her hands dirty. But, she also wasn't the type of girl to sit out and sulk.

    So when Johnny told the class that they were going to mixing cement, she was in some form of confusion. She didn't understand what mixing cement had to do with karate.

    It only five minutes in, and she had already thrown her hair in a bun and got wet cement of her cheek and her graphic tee that she stole from Demetri.

"Don't add too much water. You wanna make sure it's nice and thick."

She overheard Johnny saying with his hands resting on his hips. And the strange man from yesterday stood behind him.

    "Sensei, why are we mixing cement?" Kenzie couldn't help but ask.

    "No questions." He replied firmly.

    As she brushed off his response, she continued to mix the cement using a big shovel. Eli stood by Mackenzie, his eyes drifting to the graphic tee she was wearing. He smiled faintly.

    "Nice shirt. Is it your boyfriend's?"

She knew what he meant. She knew who he was talking about. She knew what he was doing.

"No, it's Metri's."

    The sky smirk slowly fades away after the realisation. "Oh.."

    Mackenzie looks behind her as a horn blasts, she raises her hand up above her eyes to reveal a cement truck driving towards them.

    Before the truck had come to a complete stop, Johnny had already approached them. "Alright, everybody! Fall in." Sensei Lawrence announced.

    The students formed a line and waited behind Johnny Sensei waiting for his next set of instructions. As they waited, some of the guys looked at the truck in awe while the others began to feel a sense of dread.

"You think winning the All Valley gives you the right to goof off?" He asked. Most students not daring to make a noise.

"Well, I've got news for you. Winning one championship doesn't mean squat. A true champion never stops training. You keep moving or you get stuck exactly where you are. It's just like the cement in this truck. If that drum doesn't start moving, the cement will harden and get stuck. Is that what you want to happen to you?"

"No, Sensei." Everyone says in unison.

"Good. Then climb up, get inside and make it spin."

Mackenzie seemed to share a similar look with her peers. The look of confusion and embarrassment.

"Sensei, we're so sorry for messing around." Aisha pleaded with a frown.

    "We've learned our lesson!" Eli added, he winced at the idea of the punishment. Trying to change their Sensei's mind before actually going through with it.

    "Get in!" Sensei Lawrence demands in his usual manner when trying to grab everyone's attention.

    That's when Kenzie decided to talk, "Sensei, this seems kinda dangerous." Being aware of the situation.

    "Quiet!" Mr Kreese yelled, startling the girl. The man continued to speak but Mackenzie toned everything out, not in the mood to be lectured.

    "If I get sick or hurt from this, I'm suing."

    One by one, the Cobra Kai students stood on the sides of the truck and climbed into the back. Some helped each other and others struggled.

    It wasn't long before Eli was the last one in the lineup. He tried to climb, but his efforts were in vain. He just couldn't get up and he couldn't understand why.

    "Need a hand?" The boy heard a familiar voice ask. It was Mackenzie.

    The new Eli didn't like it when people helped him with anything, let alone her. He looked up at her hand offered to him and then back at her. He wasn't sure if it was a genuine act of kindness or a trap designed to make him feel even worse.

    Without saying anything, he took her hand and let her help him. He didn't thank her though.

They climbed inside, Mackenzie almost slipped over as she tried to walk next to Miguel — who previously fell into the wet cement.

Mackenzie, who was standing beside Eli, looked at him cautiously. It looked like he didn't want to be near her, but they were stuck together.

"Don't just stand there!" Johnny barked, startling Mackenzie, "You wanna get stuck? Move."

And that's what they did. The students out there hands to the side, covered in cement. Everyone began to pick up the pace and the cement truck started to spin.

"Yes! We're do it!" Kenzie exclaimed with excitement before slipping over. As she wiped the wet cement off her face, she heard Hawk laughing at her.

"Ha–" He grabs his stomach beginning to laugh before also falling flat on his ass.

🥋 ⋆⭒˚｡⋆

    The brunette girl walked out of the steamy bathroom with a towel wrapped around her head and body. Relieved to take a shower after that day's long journey.

    As she sat down on her bed, her phone chimed. It was an unknown number that had 3 missed calls and 1 message.

⚪️
1-452-***-****

1-452-***-****
Hey

mack
helloo?
who is this??

1-452-***-****
It's hawk
I meen eli

mack
i don't think it is
yours.. or eli's number is saved in my contacts
bye bye scammer

1-452-***-****
No
it
reely
me

mack
sureee

1-452-***-****
moon got me new phone

NAME CHANGED
'demetri's binary bro 🤓'

mack
okay eli
what the hell do you want

demetri's binary bro 🤓
Meet us at the beach tomorrow

mack
isn't moon going to that?

demetri's binary bro 🤓
Yeah
So

mack
isn't moon going to that?
soo,
won't she b mad that i'm hanging out with you?
like last time??

demetri's binary bro 🤓
No she's happy for u 2 come

mack
okay... i'll be there

— leila's notes !

cannot fathom how much i hate how this chapter ended BUT i think it's funny and a lil cute

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