─── ∙ ~εïз~ ∙ ───

"thanks for the ride." gioia spoke, her eyes on the boy in the driver's seat. once he had parked the car, hawk glanced over to her and smiled. "don't mention it. consider me your personal chauffeur."

"oh, i already do." gioia nodded, making him chortle. "are you sure you don't want to come?"

"a hundred percent. the tension between sam and tory is enough to suffocate me." hawk explained. gioia just rolled her eyes. "you are so dramatic. b-but that's fine, i'll just take my other boyfriend."

hawk's face fell. "other boyfriend?" he questioned. the first thing that came to his mind was wyatt. while he trusted gioia and tried his hardest to conceal his jealousy, hawk was still sceptical around the guy.

gioia nodded. "yeah—" before she could continue, a finger knocked on the passenger seat window. seeing who it was, hawk let out a sigh of relief. "of course." he chuckled, pressing the button to pull the window down.

"hello, my favourite couple in the whole world." mickey grinned.

"what's up, mickey." hawk greeted her. "is it alright if i borrow your girlfriend for a few hours?" she questioned, pulling the door open as gioia unlocked her seatbelt.

"as long as you two stay out of trouble." hawk shrugged. "no promises." gioia giggled, climbing out of the car. the boy just chuckled, not expecting anything less from them. "okay. hey, hold on."

"yeah?"

"i love you."

gioia smiled, blowing him a sweet kiss. "i love you more."

"you two are so cute that it makes me sick." mickey shook her head. she took gioia's hand in hers and used the other to wave at the boy. "bye, hawk."

the girls entered the arcade, giggling and chatting with one another as they did. they were hit with illuminating lights from every corner, the noise of other people conversing and loud beeps from the machines. "where are they?" gioia questioned, her eyes darting around the room.

mickey pulled her phone out of her jeans pocket and scrolled through it. "last message from sam said they were at the boxing machine."

"over there!" gioia exclaimed, pointing to the opposite side of the building. she dragged mickey through crowds of people as they made their way over to the four. "hey guys!" miguel greeted once they were close enough. "glad you could make it. you just missed robby's rather average leg strength."

gioia glanced between the two with perplexity. "i don't know what that means... but good job, robby!" he snickered at her confused words, "thanks, gioia."

as the blonde girl spoke to the two boys, her date moved over to samantha larusso and tory nichols. "hey guys, what's up?" she questioned. miguel had told her all about the plan to rekindle all of their friendships and she thought it was a brilliant idea.

tory was surprised that mickey was also talking to her. the two weren't as close as she and sam were, but she thought the effort mickey was putting in was a nice gesture. "good, thanks." tory spoke first. "what about you?"

mickey smiled at her, "yeah, i'm okay." she said, before turning to sam. "you?"

"i'm fine." sam nodded, "how've you and moon been?" mickey's grin widened at the mention of her girlfriend, "really good! thank you for asking."

"no problem."

robby turned around to face them, the conversation with his siblings seemingly over. "all right, who's next?" sam and tory's replies were instant, the boredom evident in their voices. "i'm good." "me too."

"okay." miguel nodded, attempting to stay positive. "what about the, uh, batting cages? i heard there's a new fast pitch."

"sure."

"sounds fun." tory said in a monotone voice before stepping away. robby winced at her expression and immediately went after her. miguel leaned over to mutter something to sam and the duo started to stride behind them.

mickey and gioia lingered behind the couples, their fingers interlaced and their arms swinging as they walked. "nearly you and hawk's anniversary." mickey spoke, nudging her in the shoulder.

gioia nodded. "but it falls during the sekai taikai. so, we said we'd go out someplace nice, wherever the tournement takes place."

"what better way to spend your one year anniversary than on an international country?" mickey exclaimed. "i'm jealous."

"we can have our own little date after." gioia suggested. mickey nodded, liking the idea of that, "deal."

"how's things with your dad?" gioia questioned. "did my tran-transcript do him any good?"

"good?" mickey questioned. "gioia, it was incredible. i'm pretty sure he shed a tear and i haven't seen him cry since... in ages! he thinks your journey back into speech was incredible, he showed it to some of the speech therapists in the area and they thought it was truly inspiring."

gioia placed a hand over her heart at the words. "thank you. i hope it helps him in his meeting next week." mickey mentioned to the girl a while back that her father was a physiotherapist, who thought miguel and gioia's recovery after the school fight was impressive.

thomas omar ended up having a conversation with the two and they gave him consent to write down what they were saying. wanting to help a little more, gioia wrote him a statement about her traumatic brain injury and all the medical support she received for it.

"i'm sure it will." mickey nodded. "he wants to express his gratitude by buying you your favourite flowers."

"sunflowers?" gioia questioned, her face brightening with excitement. mickey smiled back at her, "sunflowers!"

just as gioia was about to squeal, miguel and sam had stopped walking and she ended up bumping into their backs. confused on why they suddenly halted, she peeked over miguel's shoulder to see what they were gawking at.

kenny payne was stood at the basketball toss game, playing alone. "he's still not talking to you?" tory asked her boyfriend. robby shook his head with sadness. "no. i've gotta give it another shot. he needs to know there's another way besides the shit silver was feeding him. at least here, he can't send my call to voicemail."

mickey patted his back with encouragement, "that's the spirit." robby sighed, clearly nervous about how kenny would take his words. "thanks, mickey. i'm gonna be right back."

∙ ~εïз~ ∙

miguel had suggested getting ice cream, so the five sat around a wooden table with a large sundae in the middle of them. miguel and gioia seemed to be the only two enjoying the cold treat, while sam and tory sat in silence and mickey texted her girlfriend underneath the table.

"this is really good." gioia spoke after eating another spoonful. "you guys sure you don't want any?"

"i'm fine."

"yeah."

"so... what's everyone's favourite ice cream flavour?" she questioned. "i'll go first, mine is birthday cake!"

"you know... that's not a real flavour." miguel shook his head. "it's just vanilla ice cream with sprinkles." gioia looked up at him and glared. "why'd you always have to poop on my parade?" she challenged.

miguel snorted at her words. "you've just mixed up 'party pooper' and 'rain on my parade'." he chuckled. gioia couldn't conceal her simper at her mistake, "really?"

"yeah." miguel nodded. the two shared a good laugh at her slip of tongue, sam and tory too couldn't even hide their smiles at gioia's demeanour. "but my favourite is cookies and cream. sam, what about you?"

the girl shrugged, "strawberry."

"sweet." miguel said before turning to the other girl beside him. "you, tory?"

"i don't know... cookie dough?" she stated. gioia nodded with agreement at her answer. "i love cookie dough ice cream. especially the one that has like a-a cookie dough core, so it feels like it's never ending."

"yeah." tory gave her a small smile. "yeah, me too."

"mine's mango." mickey finally spoke up. "cool!" miguel replied. "so, i mean, it's our senior year, right? college right around the corner. kinda crazy."

sam perked up at the new topic. "yeah, i mean, it does feel just like yesterday that we were dissecting fetal pigs, and now we're planning our futures between training every day." she turned to gioia. "didn't you meet hawk during a science project?"

"yeah." she replied. "well, we had already met at lunch. but we were partners in chemistry, had to make a potato clock."

"but you guys spent all your time watching movies." miguel chimed in. "didn't he end up completing the whole project alone in return for you to dye his hair?"

gioia's smile slightly faltered at the reminder, she couldn't help but miss the old days. "yeah."

"is that how you doing his hair started?" mickey asked, placing her phone face down on the table to give them her full attention. "that's so cute. well, i for one am excited for college."

"same, there are just so many good schools to choose from." sam stated, making tory look away, unable to relate to her words. "i'm-i'm just a little overwhelmed if i'm being honest. but you know, it'll be easier once you've heard back from stanford."

miguel smiled, crossing his fingers over his forehead. "fingers crossed." he said, making gioia quickly mirror his actions for some extra luck. "what about you, tory?"

"it's kinda hard to get in anywhere when you spent almost a year on probation." tory stated in a half-joking tone. gioia nearly choked on the ice cream in her mouth with surprise at tory's straightforward response.

after patting her chest to settle her coughing, she pivoted to face tory. gioia placed a reassuring hand on hers, making tory slightly flinch back with surprise. "well, you've still got a bright future ahead of you and you don't really need to g-go to college to achieve that."

tory grew slightly emotional at her words. while their bond wasn't as strong as it once was, gioia still really cared for the girl and she was finally starting to see that. "thanks, sunshine. that means a lot."

"of course." gioia nodded, drawing her hand away. miguel and mickey shared a glance, glad that at least one part of their plan was going well.

"do you want to go to college?" tory questioned. gioia shrugged. "i know i want to study mental health and counselling, but i don't know where yet. my top picks are boston university, uc berkeley, and ucla."

"that's nice. that's really nice."

"what about you, mickey?" sam asked. mickey sat up, glad she was finally queried. "well, i've always known i want to work in a hospital. so i could follow in my dad'a footsteps and do physiotherapy... but i've had my mind on radiology at uc davis for a while."

gioia gave her a sympathetic smile, knowing why radiology held such a special place in her heart, her mother. "ice cream's done. and robby has been gone for a while, should we go find him?"

"yeah."

"yes."

they all stood up and left the table, walking is silence as they tried to locate robby. they finally found him talking to a tall boy. as the five arrived at the scene, the unfamiliar boy walked off with kenny. "you know that guy?" miguel questioned.

"it's kenny's brother. met in juvie." robby informed them. "he told me to leave kenny alone."

"you're not gonna listen to him though, are?" tory asked him.

"do whatever you need to do." sam spoke up. "we'll have your back."

the group of six glanced at one another,  nodding in agreement. "okay." miguel concluded. "we're there for you, man."

"i'll be a few steps behind, but i definitely will be there too." mickey added for clarification. robby chuckled. "i wouldn't expect anything less from you, mickey."

∙ ~εïз~ ∙

ironically, they ended up at the batting cages during their search for kenny and his brother. robby went in to chat with them and the other five stood on the other side of the fence, waiting to intervene. they watched as shawn payne shoved robby back and just as tory was prepared to run forward, gioia pulled her back.

"hold on." she muttered, having faith in robby's abilities. her faith diminished when they saw robby being thrown onto the fence, his body rebounding off of it and landing on the ground.

without hesitation, miguel rushed into the fight, preventing shawn from getting another hit in. as the four brawled, mickey picked up a metal bat. sam gave her a look of confusion and the girl just shrugged, "what, it could come in handy—"

"mickey, look!" gioia exclaimed, "the pitching machine is on." she pointed to it. mickey quickly entered the batting cage and swung the bat over a crouching down miguel. he heard the sound of air whistling over his head as mickey's bat slammed against the hurling ball, redirecting it elsewhere.

"thanks." miguel panted, standing up straight and defending himself from kenny's incoming attack. from the ground, kenny reached for his own metal bat to use in the fight, but tory quickly stepped on it.

"really?" she challenged. kenny scrambled to his feet. "out of my way, nichols. i don't wanna hit a girl." he threatened.

sam stepped forward. "that's sweet. but don't worry. you won't." he charged ahead, but sam seized him by his arm and threw him back. "kenny, you have a place at our dojo. everyone has a home at miyagi-do. it doesn't matter what happened in the past."

"it matters to me." kenny seethed, ready to push through them, but they didn't let him. "we're just trying to help you, kenny." sam explained as he pushed her arm back. he eventually managed to get past the two of them, only to come face to face with gioia.

"gioia?" he questioned.

"kenny, i know you're probably scared. but sam's right. we can help you, only if you let us." gioia said to him. for a second, it appeared like he was taking her words to heart. but unexpectedly, he ran forward at her. not wasting a second, gioia pushed her leg out and side-kicked him in the stomach.

kenny's body slammed back into the metal fence of the cage. he swiftly got up to his feet, ready to attack again, but his brother put his arm out. "that's it, little bro. let's go."

"what?" kenny asked with disbelief. "no, no, i'm not going anywhere."

"yes, you are. security's coming." shawn pointed behind them. "we're done." he grabbed his brother's shoulder and pulled him out of the batting cage.

as they left, robby dramatically threw his arms up. "well, that could have gone better." miguel smiled, shrugging. "could have gone worse." he pointed out.

mickey twirled the baseball bat in her hand. "i think i did pretty well." miguel nodded in agreement at her claim, sending her a high five. "i think so too. if karate doesn't end up working for you, they'll definitely take you for baseball."

"i know you're joking... but i'm taking that seriously." mickey hummed.

"you picked up miyagi-do pretty fast." sam said to tory. the blonde glanced over to her. "yeah, well, i fought you enough. i guess some of it must have rubbed off." she joked, making sam laugh.

⎯ ❃ jania speaks!
so i was rereading the chapters that include mickey's backstory and i said she moved from california to encino with her dad 😭😭😭 not realising encino is IN california?? why did no one stop me