Growing up as an only child, home schooled and with only one working parent, Aspen Wilder had a lot of free time when she didn't have her head buried in school books. Her Father was out of the picture, and her mom worked all of the time so that Aspen could live the luxurious life her mom wanted to give her.

Aspen wasn't ungrateful for everything her mom did for her, but it didn't numb the pain of not having any friends. Since she was 10 she had taught herself karate from youtube videos, movies and books and she'd gotten so good at it that she entered herself into tournaments — winning all of them. One she'd never entered was the All Valley, entering a competition like that alone without a team and winning was rare.

Her mom didn't approve of karate when she started, and if Aspen was being honest with herself she knew she still didn't approve. She didn't go to any of her tournaments or let her display her trophies around their pristine house, they were simply left in boxes in their basement to collect dust.

On the night of her seventeenth birthday, Aspen made a wish on the cake their chef had made her, she vowed this would be the year she'd do something out of her comfort zone... what, she had no clue, but if it got her out of the house she would see it as an improvement.

Laying down on her bed, she let out a sigh as she opened up her MacBook. Her messages were empty, as always, she opened the Spotify app and started playing her favourite songs as she turned over to stare at the ceiling.

She wished she had wished for something else, all she really wanted in life was a best friend... or a boyfriend, but her mom would never allow that. Her mom wasn't exactly strict, she was just extremely protective of her — Aspen was surprised she let her leave the house at all to go to her karate competitions.

Speaking of competitions, an unopened email sat in her inbox from the All Valley subscribers list. The next tournament was going to take place a month from now, and they'd announced that there would be two winners this year. One male and one female champion. What a dream it would be to win that trophy, just to prove to her mom that her karate wasn't worthless.

Aspen ended up falling asleep with her music still playing and she was awakened by their maid knocking on her bedroom door.

"Aspen, are you decent? Can I come in and clean?" Reese, their young maid called. She was a young mom who worked for them, keeping their house clean and doing other house keeping tasks for them.

Aspen tried to keep her room as tidy as possible to make less work for her, she didn't understand why they needed a maid or private chef's or even a gardener — but her mom insisted on them. Secretly she thought her mom kept them around to keep her company whilst she was out working all the time.

Their house was hidden in the hills of the city, some would call it one of the 'rich' neighbourhoods of the Valley. Aspen wasn't phased by the money or the status her mom held, she'd do anything for a taste of a normal life.

"You can come in, Reese." Aspen replied, sitting up and tidying up her bed.

"You don't have to do that, Asp, it's what I'm paid to do." Reese said as she dragged a hoover into her room along with cleaning supplies.

"I know." Aspen grinned, making her way to her wardrobe to pick out something to wear for another day stuck at home. Stepping into the bathroom she got a quick shower and then changed into a pair of pink leggings and a sports bra, pulling a light jacket over it. She brushed her wavy, brown hair and pulled it into a pony tail.

She never bothered wearing make-up as she had no one to impress and no where to be. She plastered on a smile and headed out of her room to greet the staff who were like family to her now.

Their chef had prepared all of the meals for the day before leaving to tend to a family emergency he had. Aspen grabbed a stack of pancakes and took them to eat outside at her favourite place, her meditation rock.

Once she finished eating them she took her phone out of her jacket pocket and pressed play on her meditation playlist and crossed her legs. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, breathing in and out slowly for fifteen minutes.

After that she was ready to practice karate. She headed to the back of their garden to her own dojo she'd begged her mom for. It was surrounded by trees and plants, and even a pond. Despite not approving of her hobby it gave her somewhere to practice that wasn't in the house with breakable objects.

Elsewhere, deep in the Valley, the Miyagi-do and Eagle Fang dojo were discussing how they could win the next tournament with the new rules in place.

"We need more girls, Sam is our best girl fighter but it wouldn't hurt to add another one or two." Daniel was saying to Johnny as the group of teenagers listened to their conversation.

"Where do you think we're going to find one on such short notice? We're a month away from the competition, anyone who we recruit now wouldn't be ready in time." Johnny replied, slightly aggravated.

Amongst the teens were Miguel and Hawk, who, as the sensei's were speaking were typing away at their phones.

Miguel was scrolling through pages of google results when Hawk nudged his best friend, "hey, look at this! There's a girl who lives in the hills, self-taught and has won a ton of competitions... she doesn't belong to any dojo's..."

Miguel raised his eyebrows then grabbed Hawk's phone, getting up to show Danny and Johnny, "hey Sensei..." he said, as both of them looked toward's him he added a quick 's' on the end.

"Look what, or who Hawk found. Reckon she would join us?" Miguel asked as Danny scrolled through the article, his eyebrows raised as he continued reading.

"How are we only just finding out about her now?" He asked out loud to no one in particular, "there's only one way to find out. We'll get someone to go and find her and ask her to join, one of our best fighters... someone persuasive..." before he had a chance to finish Hawk stood up.

"I found her so I'll go." He volunteered.

Johnny glanced at Daniel before nodding, "if you don't come back here with an agreement that she'll join us..."

"I get it, I get it." Hawk said, raising his hands. He was no stranger to punishment, but this was a chance to prove himself to his Sensei's and his friends.

Miguel clapped Hawk on the back, "you've got this man."

"Thanks, Diaz." Hawk smirked.

Johnny raised his eyebrows at the boy with spiky purple hair, "well? Clocks ticking, go before one of those snakes poaches her."

"Right, sorry Sensei Lawrence." Hawk nodded before walking back through the dojo and hopping onto his motorbike, placing his helmet on and rearing to go.

Luckily the article included a rough area of where this girl lived, so hopefully it wouldn't take him long to find her and persuade her to join them.

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