CHAPTER ONE
science class

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for all of diane's life (which was only fourteen years so far) she had always felt that things were missing. not in the way you forget where you put your keys or phone, but in a way something didn't feel right; parts of her being empty. it was like she was a puzzle with missing pieces, each one crucial to finishing the puzzle.

diane did understand she had only lived fourteen years, but when you're budding into a teenager you feel everything so deeply and those missing pieces of herself felt like cracks she needed so desperately to seal.

the only problem: she had no idea what they were or if this was even something she should care about. it was probably normal. nobody told her this feeling would suddenly appear after her thirteenth birthday and never go away, drowning her in a never ending pit of self-denial and confusion.

so here she was, walking down the cafeteria, lunch tray in hand, heading to the table full of nerds after a week-long suspension because of the first-day-of-school-school-fight. this day technically counted as her second day of highschool. great.

now diane wasn't that much of a rebel. yeah, she did sometimes enjoy borrowing a couple things from the aisles of a store and walking around the rules but it never cost her a week long school suspension. her brother was more of a troublemaker than she ever was. wonder where he was.

"your brother should be in jail," a random boy walking near her spat. diane gave him a scowl and flipped him off as she brushed past him. she slouched down onto the empty seat at the miyagi-do table, everybody there staring at her as if they had never seen her before.

the mood of the miyagi-do karate student friend group had definitely changed a lot since that first day.

she shot them a weird look back, then examining her lunch tray which she spent two dollars on. a dry hamburger, wet lettuce, and a small almost spoiled carton of milk. how she has missed this. living at a rich man's house for three months really seemed to make her entitled for growing up in a beat-down north hills apartment.

"so?" nate, the small korean boy with pin-straight black hair and small glasses said. he broke the silence between the group. he's a freshman like diane and sat parallel to her.

"how's, um, everybody's first day back at school?" demetri, the tall, lanky sixteen year-old boy asked. he was the awkward type, even more now that he's not sitting next to his best friend. eli, hawk, or whatever you called him, resided at a new lunch table now.

"i hate it here," diane muttered. "i wish i got two weeks like sam."

"don't treat it like a vacation! it's on my permanent record. forever. there goes ucla, harvard, and even yale," demetri whined dramatically like his usual self.

"hey... how's the robby situation holding up?" nate asked. it was clear he hesitated before asking, knowing it was sensitive.

"nothing's happened," diane replied quietly, using a fork to pick at her so-called salad. "no leads. he's still... gone."

"'least most of the crew's back together," chris said. he was bigger than the rest, with dark skin and the second tallest next to demetri. he was the oldest of the group, still just being a junior like demetri and sam.

samantha larusso, known as the sam. she's the daughter of the one and only, daniel larusso. two-time all valley karate tournament winner and massive car dealership founder. he's also the one and only sensei of karate dojo miyagi-do karate.

"do you think we missed out on a lot of work while we were suspended?" the red haired boy, nicknamed little red (lil red by diane), asked worriedly. nobody actually knew what his actual name was. "i asked some of the teachers but i'm afraid i'll need to catch up."

diane scrunched an eyebrow. "how did i end up at a lunch table of five guys that are all coincidentally the school's biggest nerds?"

"you really gotta do me like that diane?" chris said, slightly offended by that title.

"sorry chris. you probably have better grades than me anyway..." diane trailed off. "would sam even sit here?"

demetri shook his head. "she'd be sitting..." he twisted in his chair and pointed to a certain table with a bunch of girls. "there."

"so when she comes back, i'm stuck here, without her?"

"what's the big deal? we're not that bad," nate replied.

"but, you're not... you know?" diane said, gesturing with her hands to try and make out what she meant. it was hard to understand, but, that was the point.

"what, a girl?" nate said. diane nodded her head.

"hawk's been eyeballing us for a while now," little red chirped. the miyagi-dos all turned to stare at the cobra kai table. their table was actually not that far away from the miyagi-dos. rival karate schools, straight out an 80's film. fun fact: their beef did start in the 80's.

and indeed, hawk was giving quite a nasty look to all of them, especially demetri. at the table was, hawk the guy with the spiky red mohawk, bert, the small dude the same size as nate but caucasian and blond, and some other cobra kai dudes. they were missing two specific members, the same way miyagi-do was missing sam and robby.

miguel and tory, the two most prominent members of cobra kai. they were a couple, the same way sam and robby were. all four of them were all wrapped up in the school fight. it wasn't just any school fight, it was a karate school fight.

to summarize: two rival dojos, two girls, two boys, one valley, one staircase. it wasn't just sam, miguel, robby, and tory in the fight. it was all of each dojo going head to head with each other. it was absolutely crazy. each student involved got a week suspension excluding the main four. for those, their consequences were unknown to diane except she knew sam got two weeks.

the one staircase? robby, diane's older brother, was throwing hits at miguel on the second floor until he was under an armlock by miguel. then, some kicks happened and everything fell silent as miguel fell. that was how it was told by sam to diane, as she wasn't there. then, robby sprinted out, never seen since.

geez, that was a lot to unpack. diane didn't even take a bite of her burger. it was probably for the better anyway. school lunch isn't appetizing one bit. the warning bell already rang and she had to go throw her food away as fast as she could to make it to class on time.

she sprinted out of the cafeteria and made it to the classroom right on time. most people were already in their seats, so she safely sat down at an empty one in the back.

"good afternoon," the teacher started, "today's warm-up, and i know we're still pretty fresh to the school year, we're gonna be writing about something that's meaningful to you. i'll hand out the paper, have fun with this one. at least a hundred words and explain why you care about it." she walked along the desks, placing a sheet of line paper on it.

diane stared down at the paper. no ideas crossed her mind at all. as she looked down she noticed a drawing in pencil on the desk. it was a messy sketch of a tree. it reminded a bonsai tree, the logo of miyagi-do karate. she thought of it and all of the miyagi-do training she had done.

the drawing somehow started gears in diane's head and suddenly her page was full. yes, her hand writing was messy and basically non legible, but it was about karate. it was even odd to herself. she had never seemed this passionate about karate before. but it was just so easy to write about. her experience and connection to it. how it helped herself.

she was actually a little disappointed when the paper was taken away for grading. for the first time ever, she was sad she couldn't complete school work. for the rest of class, diane was spaced out and didn't hear a single word the teacher spoke. the bell ringing woke her up to reality.

"woah, don't be too excited going fifth period." demetri bumped up beside diane in the hallway out of nowhere. her expression was a dead giveaway she wasn't having a good day.

"i wanna go home." she exhaled gloomily.

"only two hours left," demetri reminded.

"easy for you to say."

"oh and there's trig! talk to you later, sadness." demetri slid into a classroom, leaving diane on her own. she trudged to science class where she met nate.

"lab partners?" she grinned. he scrunched his nose, looking doubtful

"only if you swear to do the work. i'm not doing this all alone. you know, eighth grade, bert was so focused on cobra kai i had to do all the work myself." nate complained.

"c'mon. you promised."

"i've done a lot of favors for you diane."

"you went roller skating with me once so i wouldn't have to be a third wheel... we even paid for your rental skates," diane reasoned. "plus, you shouldn't break a promise like that."

nate gave her a stare before sighing. "fine. also i figured out we're the only two without partners and this class splits evenly."

"great! so it's destined for us to do science together." diane perched down onto a stool at the table. after the teacher explained what they were learning and handed out the worksheets, it was work time. "honestly, i'm surprised we're even at the same science level."

"like i said, don't ever trust bert... what were you thinking of extracurriculars?" nate asked as he scribbled words down.

"nothing. haven't thought of them," diane said mindlessly, peeking over at nate's paper discreetly.

"there's a ton of sports. wrestling, basketball, all that stuff," nate said.

"i'm not joining another sport, ever."

"my mom really wanted me to join debate but i just want to do karate. she banned me, but, still." nate put down his pencil and looked over at diane's paper, reading the copied sentences. "i'm gonna work solo from now on."

"c'mon! eighth grade i finished science with a c-. what else am i gonna do?" diane groaned as he turned away. she knew he'd give in if she complained enough. nate could never hold a grudge so long.

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the following day went pretty smoothly and english class had finally ended. it seemed like everyday that class was being dragged on until the end of time. just the bell ringing somehow released a tiny bit of dopamine.

just when she was leaving the classroom, diane was stopped by the teacher. "i have a question for you." the teacher said. diane froze, her eyes darting around. her first instinct was that she got in trouble. what was the warm-up again? what did she do this time?

"how would you like to join the debate club? i know this seems out of the blue but i know that debate's starting today and their a couple members short." the teacher rambled on. diane gave the teacher a puzzled look.

"why me?" diane asked in a very blunt tone. she didn't mean for it to come out so disrespectfully but the genuine confusion in her face gave that message.

"as you may or may not know, one of these year's debate argument's is 'should karate be banned to learn in the valley'."

"sorry, but, why does that matter to me?" diane tried her best to sound polite.

"well, i was just thinking about it after i read your paper from yesterday. it was good. just a question." the teacher replied. "i think the points and connections you gave really stood out."

"um." diane didn't know what to say. "thanks. i'm gonna go."

"keep it in mind!"

deep down, she felt a little weird after that interaction. that teacher (she never bothered to ask for a name) seemed sincere but she couldn't help but think that that teacher was thinking about her relation to karate.

"you got invited to join debate? by ms.williams too? you're so lucky." nate said. it was now science class again and they were doing their normal work.

"i wasn't invited. she told me to join. something about me liking karate," diane spun her pencil using her fingers. "she liked the paper i wrote yesterday."

"what? you wrote an essay?" nate asked with a skeptical look.

"no. like eight sentences. just about karate."

"no way," he said in disbelief.

"i wasn't even trying."

"oh. you should join, that means she likes you so maybe you'll get a better grade." nate then paused. "never mind you'd never be good for debate."

"what?" diane almost shouted dramatically. "i'd be great!"

"you can't hold an argument and you laugh in every sentence." he pointed to the tray beside diane. "hand me the malleable metal."

"what's that?" diane gazed over to the small blue plastic tray full of assorted science metals and minerals.

"see? you don't even know basic vocabulary. the gray sheet of metal." nate said sternly, holding his hand out.

diane picked up the piece of metal and placed it onto his hand. "i'm gonna join debate and prove you wrong."

"you swear?"

"i swear."

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a/n
it's been almost two months!!!!!!
i finally wrote the chapter...

i actually hated the old version so much