Aspen woke up early the next day, ready for another day of training. When she reached over to turn off her alarm on her phone she was surprised to see dozens of messages that had come through. Somehow she'd ended up in a group chat with her new friends with messages spanning from the middle of the night.

578+ messages

Miguel
can't wait to beat demetri
again today !! gonna be a
good day

Demetri
it's 7 am. i do not need to
be made aware i'm getting
beaten up today.

Hawk
don't be such a wuss

Demetri
i'm going back to sleep.

Sam
aspen is going to hate
you guys when she wakes up

Demetri
sorry aspen 🤥

Aspen smiled to herself as she read through all of the messages she had missed, a part of her heart ached as she realised this was what she'd been missing out on the whole time she'd been homeschooled.

Sure, she wasn't completely friend-less, she had a twitter fan account for her favourite tv show and she had a few people she fangirled with but it wasn't the same.

Getting up and ready today, Aspen opted for a loose fitting white tee and black cycling shorts. Reese was hoovering the hallway when she walked passed her, "sneaking out again?"

Aspen laughed, "it's not sneaking out if there's no one here to stop me."

Reese shrugged, "have fun." She was secretly happy for Aspen, she'd never seen the girl go out for more than an hour to go buy necessities, but the fact she'd stayed out the whole day yesterday made her happy for Aspen.

Aspen could drive, but she despised it, everyone else on the road gave her anxiety with the thought that they could crash into her at any time. She was much happier getting an Uber or lifts from other people.

When she joined her friends at the back of the Miyagi-do dojo she noticed there were two Sensei's standing together, discussing something.

She knew straight away the guy besides Daniel LaRusso was none other than Johnny Lawrence. She liked to keep up with all of the latest karate news in the Valley despite not actually being present for most of it.

"Alright class, line up!" Johnny yelled, making Aspen flinch.

Miguel noticed and gave her a reassuring smile, "don't worry, he sounds mean but he's a good teacher."

"Today... I am going to teach you how to disarm your opponent if they are holding a weapon." He said, glancing at Sam before looking around at the rest of the class.

Aspen spared a glance at the girl who took a shaky breath, "it's a long story, tell you later." She heard her say under her breath.

"Pair up and choose which one of you will hold the weapon and who will attempt to disarm you." Johnny said as he walked up and down the rows, he stopped in front of Aspen.

"I heard you beat Hawk yesterday, it's a shame I missed it." He gave her a smile before he moved along the line.

Sam stepped towards Aspen, beating Hawk, "wanna pair up?"

"I'd like that." Aspen agreed, as Miguel paired up with Hawk instead.

"Do you want to take the weapon or should I?" She asked, glancing along the array of weapons set out for them.

"You go ahead." Aspen encouraged her.

Sam avoided the nunchucks entirely and went for a long wooden stick.

"A challenge," Aspen raised her eyebrows, "interesting."

As they stood opposite each other, Johnny called out, "now... you may think the person with the weapon has the advantage here, but just remember you can just as easily take it from them."

"Or you can disarm them using techniques I have taught you using miyagi-do." Daniel intervened, Aspen sensed a rivalry between the two teaching styles but the lessons were definitely interesting.

"Begin!" Johnny yelled.

Sam circled Aspen for a while before she lunged with the stick that Aspen barely managed to dodge.

She observed her movements for a while, getting to know what side Sam favoured, where she struck and finally Aspen made her move.

When Sam lunged for her again she grabbed hold of the stick catching the other girl off guard and she kicked her leg from under her and managed to grab the stick and throw it to the side as she pinned Sam down on the grass.

"Well played, Miss Wilder. You calculated her movements and then struck when she wasn't expecting it, interesting." Mr LaRusso praised her.

Aspen gave Sam a hand up, "so, what was that look Johnny gave you before?"

"There's this girl in Cobra Kai... you know about our rivalry right?" Aspen nodded, "her name is Tory, she broke into our house and attacked me with nunchucks."

Aspen gasped, "wait I didn't know it was that personal, I'm so sorry Sam that sounds scary."

"It's okay, we're going to beat them at the All Valley and show them who's the best." Sam said, standing up straighter.

"We will." Aspen agreed.

"Wait, we?" Sam asked hopefully, "you're staying?"

Aspen nodded, "if you'll have me."

Overhearing them, Mr LaRusso joined their conversation, "we'd be honoured to have you join us, Aspen."

"Thank you, Mr LaRusso. I appreciate this opportunity a lot more than you'd expect." She admitted as he smiled, something about the look in his kind eyes felt like he could see straight through her and why she was grateful to be there.

"Say, how do you feel about joining us for dinner tonight? I'm sure Sam would appreciate the company." He asked.

"I would love to." She glanced at Sam who looked elated.

"Okay students, that's all for today! Don't forget tomorrow we're meeting at the forest, don't be late." Johnny said, putting the weapons away.

As Aspen walked with Sam towards her car, Eli bounded up to them, "hey Aspen, you looked great out there today!"

"Thanks Eli, so did you." She replied, she had caught herself watching him one too many times as he fought Miguel.

"See you tomorrow?" He asked hopefully.

"See you tomorrow." She smiled at him as he walked off, grinning to himself.

When she got into the car Sam was staring at her with raised eyebrows, "you looked great out there today??" She mimicked Eli, joking around, "he totally likes you."

"He's just being friendly." Aspen shrugged, looking out of the window as Sam drove out of the dojo parking lot, facing away to hide the blush on her cheeks.

"Sure." Sam giggled.

"So what do you like to eat? My dad makes these amazing quesadillas..." Sam suggested once they walked inside of her house, Aspen was in awe of how amazing her house was.

Sure, she had a nice house too but Sam's felt so homely.

"Quesadillas sound amazing right now, I'm starving." Aspen said.

"Great! I'll let him know, then we can go and chill in my room." Sam replied, heading to find her dad.

Aspen smiled to herself, she finally had friends and here she was having dinner with one of them — her birthday wish was finally coming true.

♡

:)