THALIA STOOD in front of the doors of what she hoped was Cobra Kai. She swiped her tongue across her teeth before pulling the door open and stepping inside.

She was immediately hit with the smell of sweat as she moved her beat-up Converse across the floor.

"Um, hi." She called and sent a small wave toward the two older men who stood in front of the group of students.

Everyone turned to look over at the 5'3 girl with nothing but seriousness written on each one of their faces.

Thalia licked her lips and brushed a piece of her blonde hair from her face as she brushed past some of the students.

"Is this Cobra Kai?" She asked.

"Yeah, who's asking?" The younger of the two men asked.

Thalia raised her brows slightly, taken aback by his tone but held her small smile regardless of it.

"Just... curious." She smiled. "Saw you guys at Valley Fest and became... intrigued."

Thalia turned and held her hands clasped behind her back. Each of the students stood in a position, but all their eyes had been on her.

Thalia sent them all a small as she made her way back towards the door. She waved at a few of them but paused in her tracks when she saw someone with a colorful mohawk.

He turned his head slightly to look a her and a smirk was planted on his face.

She lifted her hand, gesturing towards his hair, and smiled. "I like that. It's different."

She continued her walk towards the door and sent one final wave over towards the crowd before stepping outside.

"So?"

Thalia looked over at her sister Tory. She gave her a curt nod before gesturing towards the door.

"Yeah, this is the place. So go in there, do your thing, and kick ass."

Tory sighed as ran her hands over her joggers. For years, it had always been Tory, Thalia, their little brother Brandon, and their sick mother and as the eldest, Tory wanted to protect everyone from everything, but this Cobra Kai thing was for her. She wanted to find an escape and this would be it.

She, along with Thalia had seen them at Valley Fest as mentioned before, and were wowed by their performance. They had truly upstaged the others.

"You got this." Thalia smiled.

Tory nodded and watched Thalia slip into the driver's seat of the family's 2011 Kia Forte.

Soon, Tory stepped inside and didn't come back out until the others did. To Thalia, that was a good thing. They liked Tory and she liked them.

Tory gestured towards the convenience store and Thalia nodded from the car and continued to wait for her sister.

Soon, Tory stepped out of the store with another girl following close behind.

Thalia furrowed her brows and rolled down the window as Tory approached the driver's side window.

"This is Aisha." Tory said. "She's invited us to the country club with her mom."

"Oh!" Thaila exclaimed. "Um, oh- okay. Yeah, that's fun."

Aisha nodded. "Just follow behind us."

Thaila only nodded and watched as Aisha got into the car with her mom. Soon after, Tory climbed into the passenger seat.

"Did you like it?" Thalia asked.

Tory nodded, pulling out a bag of chips from the bag. "I totally kicked this dude's ass." She smiled, biting into the chip. "Are you sure you don't want to join?"

Thalia laughed and followed by Aisha and her mother. "I don't do that anymore."

"You were good at it."

"I was good a defending myself." Thalia said. "That's all I ever need to do, right? Be able to defend myself and my family. I don't need any more training or whatever Cobra Kai is for."

Tory smiled, passing a chip over to Thalia. "I'd think you'd like it. I know this was just a me thing, but doing it without you is weird. I thought could do it on my own."

"And you can." Thalia reassured. "And you will because I will not be stepping foot in the place ever again."

"Never say never, babe." Tory smiled.

The drive wasn't very long. Thalia pulled into a nearby parking space and the sisters followed Aisha and her mother inside the country club.

Once inside, the Nichols sisters took in their surroundings. They hadn't seen anything so... lavish, ever. This place was equivalent to the castles in the stories their mother told them.

"Hey," Thalia called. "I think I'm gonna find a place to sit and finish my book."

Tory chuckled. Out of all the places to read, Thalia chose the one place she probably wouldn't see again. But she (no matter how often she did it) wouldn't judge her sister on this occasion.

"Okay." Tory nodded. "I'll be with Aisha, just call me whenever, okay?"

Thalia nodded and made her way down towards the pool chairs. The water that waved in the pool was crystal blue. It looked clean and warm.

Thalia sighed to herself and found an open pool chair next to a boy. She slowly approached, tipping her beat-up, red baseball hat down on her head.

"Hey, is this seat taken?"

The boy looked up. He had mid-length, shaggy hair and was fit, that Thalia could tell from miles away and it didn't help that he was easy to look at.

"No." He answered. "All yours."

Thalia smiled and sat down on the chair, placing her tote bag down beside her as she swung her legs over to lean back in the chair.

"I'm Thalia by the way." She said, holding her hand out.

The boy looked over, gently taking her hand and shaking it. "Robby."

Thalia held her smile as she took her hand back and turned to focus on her book. She'd, once again, had been reading The Great Gatsby. She loved the book dearly and would find herself reading it over and over again as the movie version played in her head.

Thalia loved to read. She adored it. She had multiple hobbies lined up. Reading, writing, study the law. That's what she wanted to be. A lawyer.

It seemed impossible for herself, especially when she knew she would have to rely heavily on scholarships just to get by.

But, she wouldn't dwell on that right now. She had time to apply for scholarships. She had time to relax before college came barreling towards her.

She had time.

Thalia tipped her baseball cap down some more, hoping to be able to see the words on the page, though she knew the book like the back of her hand.

She sighed, closing the book and turning her attention back onto the boy who sat beside her.

"Robby, you said?"

The boy turned. "Yeah."

Thalia smiled. "Do you like it here?"

"Do I like the club or the Valley?"

Thalia smiled, not really sensing the joke, but chuckled nonetheless.

"How long have you been a member here?" Thalia asked.

Robby hesitated. He could tell the truth, especially when he was on this new path of self-discovery or he could like like he always did.

"I'm here with a friend." He answered.

Thalia nodded. "Me too... Kind of. I'm new in town. So, I'm still meeting people."

Robby nodded, but before he could speak, the two of them shifted their attention towards the balcony as Tory called out for her sister, sending her a quick way and pointing towards the snack bar.

Thalia smiled. "I should go, but it was nice meeting you, Robby."

Thalia shoved her book into her tote bag and waved the boy goodbye before joining her sister's side. Aisha was nowhere around and Tory held a plate in her hand.

"Here, put this stuff in the bag." Tory muttered.

Tory would pile food on the plate and shove food into Thalia's bag when she believed that people weren't looking.

"Are you sure we can just take it?" Thalia asked.

"This place probably makes a million bucks a month." Tory reassured. "Don't worry about it. Besides, they don't have our names. Everything is free range."

Thalia sighed heavily and began placing food in her tote bag and soon enough, she and Tory had stuffed their bags enough to where it wouldn't be noticeable that they had taken anything.

Was Thaila proud of this? No, she never was, but she felt like she had to, at least until she found a job and made enough money to help out around their new place.

Soon enough, Thalia and Tory joined Aisha's side again. The girl told them a story about how she'd given this girl a wedgie from the front. Which sounded very painful.

"Hey." A voice called.

The trio turned, seeing a brunette girl of shorter stature standing in front of them, but the girl's attention had been focused on Tory.

"My mom's missing her wallet."

Tory smiled. "Sucks for her."

However, the girl didn't find that funny at all.

"You wouldn't know anything about that?" She asked.

Thalia tilted her head to the side. "Are you accusing her of stealing?"

The girl sighed. "Just give me the wallet and I won't tell Security."

"Are you freaking kidding me?" Tory scoffed.

"What gives you the right of accusing her of something like that?" Thalia asked.

"Because she stole a bottle of vodka."

Thalia knitted her brows, looking over at Tory. "You stole a bottle of vodka?"

Tory rolled her eyes. "Listen, I didn't rob your mom, bitch."

Thalia watched as Tory stepped forward, looking down at the girl slightly as she pressed forward.

"Tory," Thalia called. "let's just go, okay? It's not worth it."

Tory glared at the girl once more before turning, and following Thalia.

Tory felt a tug on her tote bag and with quick succession, turned and shoved the girl to the ground, telling her to get off.

But once Tory's hands touched the girl, she was flying towards the ground and a table of food. The short brunette now covered in various desserts.

Thalia clasped her hand over her mouth in shock but managed to find Tory's hand and rush the two of them out of there.

Thalia sighed, resting her head on the seat as Tory sat down in the passenger's seat.

Tory turned her head, looking over at Thalia. Her hands rested over her face as the two of them sat in silence.

"Do you think I stole it?" Tory asked in a mutter.

"No." Thalia answered.

She removed her hands from her face and began making their journey home. It was a silent ride between the two of them, not because Thalia was upset with Tory but because she knew Tory wouldn't do anything like that.

It sounded hypocritical because it was, but Tory wouldn't just steal from other people like that. She stole from the country club because it could easily be replaced. They wouldn't miss one bottle of a half-empty bottle of vodka and they would miss a couple of sandwiches.

Once home, Thalia began wrapping the country club's food and placing them in the refrigerator. She sighed to herself as she made her way into her room. She gently shut the door and threw her tote bag on the bed.

Thaila wouldn't leave the room until nightfall.

She grabbed her keys from her tote bag and slipped out of the front door.

She found a nearby park and sat down on the playground. It was short in stature, but the slide that was attached to it made up for what it lacked.

Thalia shut her eyes and pressed her back against the metal bars of the playground.

It was quiet. Almost too quiet, but she liked it that way. She was able to think when it was quiet like this. All she heard was the sound of the surrounding bugs and the few cars that drove past, the small steps of feet hitting the mulch.

Wait... The small steps of feet hitting the mulch?

Thalia shot her eyes open and didn't hesitate to chuck her phone in the direction of the footsteps.

"Jesus Christ!"

Thalia slid down the slide, but before she booked it, she saw a boy standing- more like crouching, in his place. His hand covered his eye as he ground in pain.

Thalia threw her hands over her mouth and moved closer to the boy. "I'm so sorry! I thought you were, like, some murderer or something!"

The boy began standing upright, but wobbled in place. Thalia lunged forward and gently wrapped her hand around his bicep.

"I'm so sorry!" She apologized.

She helped guide him to the swings, helping his sit down as she removed his hand from his face to check out the damage she'd caused.

He held his one eye shut, fearing if he opened it he would only see the color black, but as Thalia gently lifted his head up, he opened his eyes.

And thought it was dark out, he could tell she had big, brown eyes. Ones that reminded him of deers... baby deers.

"Hi." The boy muttered, his voice laced with pain and surprise.

Thalia's cheeks flushed as she realized the gravity of her actions. "I'm so sorry."

The boy chuckled, wincing in discomfort. "It's fine. I would throw something at an unexpecting person too."

Thalia chuckled as she gently tapped the area around his eye and as she did so, she finally recognized who he was.

"You're the boy from that dojo I went to earlier."

He shifted his eyes towards her once more and she finally began to look familiar to him.

He nodded gently. "I'm Miguel." He said softly, his eye still throbbing from Thalia's accidental attack.

Thalia smiled sheepishly. "Thalia." She said. "I'm really sorry-"

Miguel grabbed her hand and laughed. "It's fine I swear."

Thalia nodded and began to play with her fingers. She took a seat next to him on the vacant swing.

Miguel blinked slowly, his hands grabbing the chains of the swing. It still hurt and would for a couple of hours, but he managed to blink and see just as before.

He chuckled, looking over at Thalia. "Your phone is still over there."

Thalia scratched the nape of her neck, looking over at her phone that sat face down in the mulch.

"It- It'll be fine until I go get it." She managed to say before looking back at him.

She didn't know what to say. All she wanted to do was apologize over and over again and Miguel seemed to catch on to it.

"I'm fine, really." He reassured. "Or I will be. Trust me, I've been hit worse."

Thalia raised her brows. "I don't think that's a good thing."

Miguel chuckled. "It's not, but with karate you never know."

Thalia nodded. Right, karate.

"I assume you know girl that came in shortly after you."

"My sister." Thalia answered.

Miguel nodded. "And you have no interest in joining? You've got a nice throw. I'm sure you'd be a natural."

Thalia laughed as she twisted in her seat. "No, no, that's- that's Tory's thing."

"With a Y."

"With a Y." Thalia nodded as she laughed. "I'm really sorry about your eye."

Miguel looked over at her with a small smile. "It's fine." He reassured. "What are you doing out here anyway? I- If you don't mind me asking."

"It's quiet." She whispered. "I like the quiet."

Miguel nodded, looking up at the sky before drawing his attention back over at Thalia.

"Wha about you?" She asked.

Miguel smiled. "It's quiet. I like the quiet."

- lucy has something to say !!

a new fic from me WOAHHHHH crazy i know

anyway xolo is so short irl don't talk to me about it (i met him i would know)

i remember seeing peyton on screen for this show for the first time and was in shock... let's not talk about her wig

season two seems to move very quickly because miguel and tory kiss in the next episode after knowing each other after like... four days ????

bye :))))