"What is wrong with me? I shouldn't be backing down from a fight, showing mercy," thought Tory as she leaned back in the driver's seat in her "borrowed" silver convertible. Ever since her mother got sick, she'd learned to fend for herself. She was used to medical bills stacking up near the door and barely scrounging up enough food for her family, let alone herself. Most people called those things complicated (which of course they were), but she had become so accustomed to dealing with them that it seemed like more work to complain than to actually provide the resources. But the things she was feeling now were more difficult to deal with than anything she'd faced before.

And to think I thought for a whole two seconds that the world was actually going to let me live my life for once!

She pressed her head roughly against the car's leather headrest. She needed someone to talk to, someone who could help her sort out her priorities without just pretending to care. Robby would have originally been her first choice because at the least, he never judged her. He'd been absent for several days without mentioning to her where he'd gone (not that he needed to). Miraculously, she'd gone looking for him yesterday and found him at his dad's apartment.

Has he always been working with the enemy?

She didn't care if he kept secrets (all people do, even the ones who are just lying to themselves), but she could clearly tell that he had things he needed to sort out himself.

She'd go to Amanda for help if she didn't already know she had such a bias against Cobra Kai.

To be fair, her husband literally ran the competing dojo. She pulled out her black sparkly cased phone and checked her contacts.

"There are probably more people blocked in here than actually saved," scoffed Tory to herself as she passed by Miguel's, Johnny's, Hawk's, Bert's, and Mitch's names. Her favorited contacts (excluding Robby and Amanda) consisted of Kenny Payne, Kyler Park, Piper Elsworth, and Sensei Silver. There was no way she was asking Silver for help considering he was the main cause of her problems and the rest of them were nothing more than just allies from Cobea Kai.

If I can't figure this out then there's no way any of those idiots will be able to.

Just as she was preparing to put her phone away, her eyes wandered upon her emergency contact number, Sensei Kreese. She must not have changed it since he went to prison a few weeks ago. Even knowing that he may have tried to kill Stingray (Silver clearly isn't known for his honesty), he still felt like the right person for her to talk to.

It's not like going to prison makes him a bad person.

The only problem was that she wasn't eighteen yet, so to visit him, she'd have to be accompanied by an adult, which seeing as Amanda was the only adult other than Kreese she trusted, wasn't going to happen. But she could try calling him?

Worst case scenario, he just doesn't pick up.

Waiting music played softly as the phone rang, unanswered.

"Hello? What do you want?" responded a gruff male voice through the phone.

"I wanna talk to John Kreese," stated Tory, impatiently.

"Woah, the guy's in here for less than a month and gets more visitors than I have all my life. I'll see if I can patch you through," answered the worker, dramatically.

Tory rolled her eyes. She always hated when people felt sorry for themselves.

Complaining is for the weak.

She clenched her fists angrily as her ears rang with a constant shuffling partially masked by cheesy hold music. She was half-tempted to hang up when a voice finally broke through the music.

"You have five minutes," instructed the worker before transferring the line.

"I have to say, I'm surprised to hear from you, Mz. Nichols," sounded John Kreese's low voice through the phone.

"Yeah, well, I needed someone to talk to," admitted Tory, openly.

There's no need to dance around the question.

"About what?" asked Kreese, a hint of curiosity lingering in his voice as he spoke.

"I need to know if I can trust Sensei Silver," explained Tory, sighing.

She knew she shouldn't believe what his answer was considering he "supposedly" tried to kill a man, but for some reason, a part of her felt that if he told her Silver was telling the truth, she'd at least be able to consider the possibility.

"Why would you have any reason to question Sensei Silver?" pushed Kreese.

"Because, (it took all her effort to say this) I didn't actually win the tournament. He bribed the judge."

An uneasy feeling slowly started to spread across Tory's body as silence filled the line. Had she made a mistake by telling Kreese about her distrust of Silver?

What if he thinks I'm no longer loyal to Cobra Kai?

But then again, was she?

"Never question your sensei, Mz. Nichols," reprimanded Kreese before suddenly hanging up the phone.

His answer didn't instill trust into Tory's mind like she had expected, but at least she'd gotten a second opinion.

For whatever it's worth, I trust Sensei Kreese.