When Aspen woke up the next morning she had a relaxing shower and changed into a matching pink work out set.

After she tied her hair in a pony she grabbed her phone, she wasn't used to checking her messages but she had a few from her Mom, Sam and the miyagi-do group chat.

Mom
i know you said i'd meet
Sam's dad at the LaRusso
car dealership but you didn't
say her father was Daniel LaRusso!

Mom
obviously i couldn't say no to
him, i'm happy for you to have
as many sleepovers with your
friend as you want. she can sleep
over at our house too if you
want her to. love you, see you later.

A smile spread across Aspen's face as she read her Mom's messages. She didn't think it'd be this easy for her to let her have more freedom.

Aspen opened Sam's messages to let her know the good news.

Sam
let me know how it goes :)

Aspen
it's all good!!

Sam
phew! so how about friday?
the boys are coming over
for games night and then
when they leave we can
have a girls night :)

Aspen
sounds good :)

Aspen headed downstairs as she scrolled through the group chats messages, most of them were just the boys teasing each other and she rolled her eyes putting her phone in her pocket. Grabbing a protein bar from the kitchen and her car keys she headed to the garage.

She felt like testing her comfort zone so she decided to take a drive to the beach and exercise there today.

After parking up she got out and looked around at the mostly empty beach, it was 11am on a Sunday and luckily not many people had decided to venture out yet.

Putting her air pods in she pressed play on her favourite playlist and started jogging along the wooden planks that ran straight across the beach.

Lost in her thoughts she didn't notice someone running up behind her as she slowed down a tad to catch her breath, someone fell into her and they both ended up tumbling into the sand.

"Oof!" She heard as her air pods fell out onto the sand, she looked over and saw a familiar purple hawk.

"Eli?!" She exclaimed, sitting up and looking over at him, "are you okay?"

"Aspen?! I should be asking you that. I'm so so sorry, I was running behind you and I didn't expect you to slow down, I was just running at the same pace." Eli sat up next to her, slightly out of breath.

Aspen burst out laughing catching him by surprise, somehow her laugh made everything okay.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" He asked, slightly worried.

She stopped laughing and smiled, "I'm fine! It's a good thing the sand was here to break our fall."

Eli chuckled slightly, "definitely." He scratched the back of his neck nervously, "so, uh... do you want to continue your run... together?"

"Sure." Aspen smiled.

He stood up and offered her his hand which she accepted and allowed him to pull her up.

Aspen grabbed her phone and air pods and joined Eli to run the rest of the way along the beach in silence.

"Are you going to game night on Friday? It's kind of our tradition now, when we're all free we get together at someone's house and play board games all night."

"I am! It sounds so fun." Aspen replied as they slowed down, making sure to check behind them first.

"I'm glad." Eli smiled shyly.

They headed back down the beach towards Aspen's car, Eli looked like he wanted to ask Aspen something but he kept closing his mouth to stop himself.

"Do you want a ride to karate?" Aspen asked him as they reached her car.

"It's okay, my motorbike is over there..." he looked behind her and nodded towards his bike.

"Oh." Aspen smiled softly, she didn't want to rush to leave even though she knew she'd see him again in a few minutes just not alone.

"Can I ask you something?" Eli finally said.

Aspen nodded, looking at him expectantly.

"Are you still going to keep getting home schooled?" He asked.

She wasn't expecting him to ask that, she thought for a moment, "probably, I don't know if my mom would go that far to let me enrol... but who knows."

"Would you want to?"

"I don't know, it'd be kind of nerve wracking going to a public school after being the only student for my whole life... also I'd have to see you everyday so I'm not sure about that." She joked.

Eli's mouth dropped slightly, then he composed himself, "that's a shame."

"We should probably get going." Aspen said.

"Yeah." Eli replied, his voice not as perky as it was earlier when they were on the beach. Aspen wasn't sure why his moods changed so quick, she'd have to ask Sam about it.

In a matter of minutes they both arrived at the dojo, Miguel spotted both of them and waved them inside as the others were sitting inside the dojo today.

"We're starting with some meditation today before we do anything else." Daniel announced to his students who were also sitting cross legged on the floor. Aspen joined Sam at the front whilst Eli sat at the back with Miguel and Demetri. Sam raised her eyebrows at Aspen noticing who she walked in with but she didn't say anything, thinking she'd save it for later.

♡