[SEASON ONE: EPISODE TWO]

The next couple of days was a sort of rough house to say the least. Ethan was helping Johnny set up his new dojo and after spending many hours setting things up, painting the walls, putting down the mats on the floor.

But luckily it will be all worth it in end, as would be Ethan's first Karate lesson, about Cobra Kai.

He stood in front of Johnnyon the day of the lesson. They were staring at one another for quite some time, and he was getting very impatient by the minute.

"So, are those pajamas?" The boy joked.

"QUIET!" He yelled, making him stand up straight.

"Okay, geez."

"The student only speaks with spoken to. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir."

"Always address me as Sensei, is that understood?"

"Oh. Yes, Sensei." He yelled simultaneously.

"These aren't pajamas. This is a gi. And you'll get one when you earned it. Ready to begin your training?"

"Yes, Sensei." Ethan replied, as Johnny immediately grabbed him and tossed him down on the floor.

"Lesson one; strike first. Never wait for the enemy to attack."

"You've couldn't have give me like a warning before doing that?" He complained, as he began to stand back up.

"QUIET!"

"We do not train to be merciful here. Mercy is for the weak." Johnny said, as he circled around Ethan and the boy began to breathe heavily as he pulled out his inhaler and took in two big inhales.

"Here on the street. In competition, a man confronts you, he is the enemy. An enemy deserves no mercy. What is the problem,
Mr. Williams?"

"There's no problem, Sensei. You punched me, and I have asthma, so...." Ethan started, as Sensei grabbed his inhaler and launched it across the wall.

"Not anymore. We do not allow weakness in this dojo. So, you can leave your asthma and your peanut allergies and all that other made up bullshit outside. Understood?"

"Yes, but those are real medical problems. I was...."

"Yes, Sensei, understood."

"Cobra Kai isn't just about karate. It's about a way of life." Johnny said, pointing to the words up on the wall, behind them.

"Take that first lesson. Striking first is the initial step towards victory." He stated, but Williams looked really confused.

"Okay Like when you're at a party, and you see a hot babe. You don't wait for some other guy to talk to her first, do you?"

"I mean I've never been to an actually party, besides birthdays party, so...." The boy shrugged his shoulders.

"Big surprise. All right, look. Striking First is about being aggressive, all right? If you're not aggressive, then you're being a pussy, and also you don't wanna be a pussy. You wanna have balls."

"Don't you think you're being a bit genderizing?" Ethan questioned, with a raise eyebrow.

"What? No! What the hell, you are talking about?"

"Well, my guidance counselor tells me that certain amount of words perpetuate the sexist world view that can trigger—"

"QUIET!" He shouted.

"From now on, you won't listen to your counselor. You're gonna listen to me. Is that understood?"

"Good, now stop yapping like a little girl and give me fifty push-ups on your knuckles." Johnny instructed, as Ethan got to the far side of the room and started to do push-ups.

"All right, good. Now do some crunches. Don't you have gym class or something?" He asked, and the boy got into a crunching position. Suddenly, a man in a white suit walked inside the dojo.

"Howdy, uh.... Mr. Lawrence." He looked at straight at the Sensei, at the student, who looked like he was really struggling.

"Oh, it's Sensei."

"Be quiet, boy."

"You. You a customer, here?" The man asked, pointing straight at the kid.

"Oh no, that's just an intern. I picked up this morning. He's helping me set up."

"I don't need to know all that. My job is just to make sure this place is up to code."

"You don't want a scabies outbreak like that yoga place over on Tujunga."

"Wait, wait. So, I have to have all this crap before I even open?" Johnny asked, and glanced down at the list of papers.

"No, you need to do all that to get the certificate that's required to have an insurance, you need to open."

"But you knew that when you signed your lease, right?"

"Right, yeah." He replied, making the impression to act like he knew what he was talking about.

"I'll drop in next week for another inspection." The man said, walking towards the front door and stopped in front of the Cobra Kai logo.

"Huh, cool rattlesnake."

"It's a cobra." Johnny corrected him.

"Oh, right. I'm suck a idiot. Cobra Kay." He said, then walked out of the dojo.

The next following day, Ethan was working hard at cleaning the mats in the dojo. Johnny had finally decided to a few words from the inspector very seriously, which meant a lot of work and moving stuff around had to be done.

"Looking good. Make sure to get both sides."

"After you're done with that, you can take care of these exposed wires. That's gonna a lot of work."

"And Why does any of this have to do with karate, Sensei?" Ethan asked, as he seemed to be getting annoyed. Then, the blonde man came out of the office room with a beer bottle in his hand.

"Do not question my methods."

"Just be thankful you're not a sumo wrestler. Those guys have to wipe their Sensei's asses." He said, and the boy scrunched his arm, before turning his attention to a box of old trophies.

"Clearly, I don't know you were a karate champion Sensei."

"You don't have to call me, Sensei every time."

"I'm sorry, Sensei.... uh, I'm sorry."

"I won a couple of All Valley Tournaments. Didn't lose a single point in my whole junior year."

"All right! What happened in your senior year?" He asked, but the Sensei looked like he really didn't want to talk about it. Anyways, Ethan already knew about what really happened that day because Daniel told him.

"This isn't 20 questions. Get back to scrubbing." Johnny said, and when the boy was just about to start, his phone started ringing.

"Oh, just a sec." Ethan said, pulling out
the phone, and answered it right away.

"Where's that garbage coming from?" He asked, looking around the room for the source of the noise.

"Sorry, yeah. Hey! Yeah, the book club running a little late. Uh, okay. Love you too, mama."

"Don't tell me you have a girlfriend."

"That was my mom actually.... I told I joined the book club because she didn't approve of violence." Ethan replied.

"Yeah, what about your dad? Is he okay with you getting your ass kicked up and down Reseda Boulevard?"

"Oh, I never, really knew my dad and my mother hardly ever spoke about him, so....." He said, as Johnny gave him an apology look, because he never knew his own father.

"All right, well, stop standing there. Get back to training." Sensei said, and Ethan quickly started scrubbing the mats again.

"And change that ringtone. Get some Guns N' Roses or something."

"What's Guns N' Roses?" He questioned.

"I'm gonna pretend you didn't say that." Johnny said.

Meanwhile, at the LaRusso's house, on the first day of West Valley High, Sam hosted a big party at her house, knowing her parents wouldn't know about it. She invited almost all of the class to celebrate.

"Ok, you were totally right. This is so much fun."

"I told you. It always better to be the one throwing the party."

"And Kyler has been eye-banging you all day." She said, as the three girls looked over to see Kyler talking to his friends while, looking at Sam, who cause her to shyly smile.

"Hey, Roy. Do that flip again, I wanna get it for my channel." Moon said, before standing up, then the boy bounced on the trampoline, and backflip high in the air, then slashed down into the water.

"Hey, hey."

"What the hell is going on here?" Daniel asked, as he just arrived in the backyard.

"All right. Everybody get out of here right now!"

While Sam had kept arguing with her father,
the rest of the kids rushed out of the pool and got back home.

"They're not strangers. They're my friends." She yelled towards her father.

"Yeah, some friends." LaRusso scoffed.

"Is all of you wearing my bathing suits?"

"All right, party's over. Let's go, take the suits off." He said, as everyone else walked out of the LaRusso's house, and then he gave Sam an apology look.

The next day was the first of West Valley High School, and someone had to show Ethan around the building, as well as where his classes were located.

After looking around in the cafeteria at what felt like hours, trying not to catch Kyler's eyes in the process, he finally found a table where only two boys were sitting at.

One boy looked shy and had a viable scar on his lip, the other looked very snarky, but nonetheless, Ethan decided to sit with them.

"Is it cool if I sit here?" He asked.

"Sorry, table's blowing up right now. I could put you on the wait list, but it's probably gonna be next semester." The snarky boy responded.

"Okay." He said, before turning around to leave, but the boy stopped him.

"I'm kidding, sit."

He pulled up a chair and sat down next to the shy boy.

"Ethan."

"Demteri. This is Eli. He's a man of few words." Demteri said, gesturing over to his friend. Eli started to play around with his fingers and looked away from him. He didn't really like all the attention on him.

Suddenly, two girls walked over to their table, Yasmine and Sam, as Ethan looked towards them, then started staring.

"Dude, don't torture yourself. Those are
the rich girls." Demteri said, and noticed him looking towards them.

"Do you ever talk to them or...." He started, continued to stare but mainly at Sam, and noticed by her appear of how much she's changed since the last time he saw her.

"Oh yeah! All the time. We hang out after school, make out, give each other hand jobs." The boy sarcastically said.

"Eli here is homecoming king. Gets laid more than anyone. Isn't that right, bro?"

"Talk to them? You realize what table you're sitting at, right? You've pretty much signed away all hopes of losing your virginity before college." Demteri nodded his head. And before anyone could respond, then Eli spoke for the very first time.

"Oh, shit, Yasmine looking at us. Probably making fun of me." The boy said, covering up his lip.

"I don't think she's really making fun of you. Just because they're hot, doesn't mean that they are complete jerks.

Just then, a girl named Aisha Robinson entered the lunchroom, which caught Sam's attention and, started glancing over at her.

"I don't care if Yasmine is the meanest girl
in school. I'd kill the two of you just for her to spit in my face." Demteri said, looking over at the blonde queen.

"If you don't make a move, you'll never get a chance."

"True. But I'll also never suffer a humiliating rejection. And I'm at peace with my depression."

After a few moments later, Ethan rose up to his feet, which cause the other two boys to turn towards him.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"Striking first."

He made his way over to the girls table and caught Sam's eyes, she leaned forward to take a closer look at the boy.

"Hey, Sammy. Remember me?" Ethan asked, then she immediately recognized who the boy was.

"Ethan?"

"Yeah, It's me." He said replied, as the girl rushed out of her sit and ran over to him, pulling him into a hug.

"I've missed you, so much." Sam said, and kept a tight grip on him, never letting him go.

"You, were with me the whole time."

"So, are you back forever, or moving away again?"

"Well, you would be happy that I'm not moving and I'm staying right here, right where I belong with you." Ethan said, pulling her closer towards his chest. And just then, Kyler sat down in the chair next to Sam.

"Yo, what the hell are you doing?" The Asian boy asked, as the both of them let's go of each other.

"Oh, Kyler, this is Ethan." She introduced to them.

"Hey, man." Ethan said, sticking his hand out towards him, but the boy completely ignored him, he wasn't even there.

"Do you wanna sit with us?" Sam asked nicely, as the boy rubbed the back of his neck, and slightly turned around to look at both Demteri and Eli, who now consider his new friends.

"Um.... I'm good." He said, as walked back to
the table, and left her unhappy, then sat back down.

"How'd it go?" Demteri asked sarcastically, and he shrugged his shoulders.

"Alright."

After a very long day at school, Ethan went straight back to the dojo, and Johnny was showing him how to practice with a dummy.

"Can't strike first if you don't how to strike."

"The cobra strike is composed of two parts: the lunge, which requires the use of the whole body, and the bite, which is everything that happens after you make contact." Johnny demonstrated, by hitting the dummy during his explanation to Ethan.

"All right? You don't stop where the knuckle hits the bone. You aggressive punch though the bone, like the guy you really want to hit is standing behind this asshole."

"Strike here, you bloody the nose. Strike here, you break his teeth. Strike here, you could probably damage his trachea."

"But obviously, that's for extreme situations. All right, line up." Johnny ordered, and the boy stood in front of the dummy.

"Okay, focus, I want you to practice." Sensei said, as his phone started ringing. He was having a conversation to himself, but that was cut short due to the blonde yelling out loud.

"Robby, what the hell? You're doing drugs? You wanna flush your life down the toilet?"

"Like your the one to talk. Don't try to play dad now. Your a pathetic loser." A young voice stated, Johnny looked hurt as he said those things.

Sure, the guy had several problems, but what kind of parent doesn't. He really had a difficult time understanding what it truly meant to be a parent.

"I think I should try calling his mom."

"Yeah, good luck with that." He scoffed, before hanging up the phone, and walked over towards Ethan, who was gently punching the dummy in a jokingly way to see if the blonde noticed this, in which he did.

"Picture your enemy." Johnny said, as
the boy started to get angry, probably thinking about Kyler.

"You have a picture in your mind? What
are you gonna do?"

"Hyah!" Ethan shouted, striking the dummy, aggressively.

"Again!" He said, and the boy punched it a second time.

"Are you a loser?"

"No, Sensei!" The boy yelled, angrily punching the dummy over and over, showing no mercy, as Sensei was pleased at what he just learned.

Later, Ethan was cleaning up the windows, Johnny was in his office, filling out an insurance application form for the dojo.

"Hey, Sensei? Is there any particular reason way you want me to wash these windows?"

"No, I don't give shit."

"You know what? Why don't you go clean the toilet, and we'll call it night." He said, as Ethan walked back inside the dojo, then made his way into the bathroom.

"Do that while on your hands and knees!"

"Bathrooms are clean! Anything else, you want me to do, Sensei?" He asked, loudly. Then noticed Mr. LaRusso, so he backed up into the shadows to avoid him.

"Sensei? Really? Kid, I don't know what he's told you, but you shouldn't believe a word, his guy says, or you're gonna end up like him."

"You and I.... This.... We aren't done." The man said, and turned around to head towards
the door.

"I'm sorry if I interrupted, should I do fifty push-ups on my knuckles?"

"Right like you could." Sensei laughed, before eyeballing Daniel out the window.

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EDITED: 2/11/2024

SEE YOU GUYS IN THE NEXT ONE!!!!