❝ i need to tell you something. ❞

―

EMERY STOOD IN A JUNKYARD SURROUNDED BY OLD CARS.

It was early in the morning on a Saturday—a day that Emery usually spent sleeping in and not worrying about the stress of school. But Sensei Lawrence had wanted everyone to meet there for some sort of special training. Emery had to get a ride from Hawk and hadn't even bothered to tell her parents where she was going.

Dash was supposed to cover for her and she hoped he wouldn't end up cracking under pressure like he always did. All it took was one look from their mother and Dash would end up telling her everything.

"You've trained hard. You've gotten stronger, tougher, faster," Johnny said to his students, standing on top of a van. "You've done your best. You're ready for this tournament, am I right?"

"Yes, Sensei!" Emery and the rest of the students shouted.

"Wrong!" Johnny shouted as he threw his can of beer at their feet. "Your best ain't shit! If you wanna win the All-Valley Under-18 Karate Tournament, you gotta give me better than your best. Which is why from now on, you're gonna get my worst. Do you understand?"

Emery scrunched her eyebrows together. What the hell did he mean by that? They haven't seen his worst already? All the names he's called his students, the way he's treated them, and the constant putting them down. All of that wasn't his worst?

"Yes, Sensei!" everyone but Emery said.

She looked around at them which a confused look on her face before looking back at Johnny.

"Are you losers?" Johnny asked.

"No, Sensei!"

"Are you nerds?"

"No, Sensei!"

"Are you sure?"

"No, Sensei!"

Emery rolled her eyes, shaking her head at her fellow teammates. She glanced up at Johnny, seeing him smack his hands over his face. Emery sighed, on the exact same page as him.

A few minutes later, Johnny guided them over toward two rows of tires, explaining to them that he wanted them to run through them. Emery stood behind Hawk in a line that was led by Aisha. They went around the tires, starting to get the hang of it after tripping over the tires what seemed like ten thousand times. They weaved their feet in and out of the tires. Emery cracked a smile, happy that they were finally getting the hang of it.

"Move those feet! Go! Go! Go!" Johnny shouted at them.

But then, Aisha tripped and causing a chain reaction. Miguel fell on Aisha. Hawk fell on Miguel. Emery fell on Hawk and Bert fell on Emery. She groaned in pain, pushing the small boy off her back.

"Sorry, Emery..." Bert apologized.

Emery sighed. "It's okay, Bert. Don't worry about it."

They all stood up and tried one more time before they moved onto the next activity.

Now, they stood in front of Johnny carrying various items resembling baseball bats in their hands. Some of them held metal pipes and broken pieces of furniture. Emery clutched what appeared to be a metal rod that used to belong to a bed frame of some sort. Over each of their eyes were a pair of protective goggles that Johnny had handed them.

"Your enemies are all around you," Johnny told them. "Destroy them!"

As she smashed the windows of a car, Emery had to admit, the feeling was actually kind of exhilarating. She never would have thought that she would be swinging a metal rod into the window of a card, smashing it into a million pieces. She felt like she was having the time of her life. She could just hear the disappointment in her mother's voice if she ever found out.

Emery stood in front of a large window on the second story of one of the buildings. She helped Hawk and Miguel lift a rusty old car door. The three of them threw it out the window, watching as it fell and hit the cat below. The three friends laughed, giving each other high fives before Johnny called them all back out into the junkyard.

He instructed them to line up in front of a metal bin full of sharp metal and shards of glass. Emery thought he had lost his mind when he wanted them to be walk across a thin metal plank. Miguel went first, holding out his arms to maintain his balance.

"Come on princess," Johnny called out. "Let's go! Move that ass!"

Next up, it was Hawk's turn. Emery stood behind him, watching as he started to cross the beam.

"There's nothing to fear except fear itself," Johnny said. "That, and falling into sharp metal and broken glass, so don't do that!"

Emery's eyes widened in fear as she saw Hawk's foot slip. She breathed a sigh of relief when he caught his balance and made it across. Emery stepped onto the beam, staring down at the metal and glass below her. She gulped and inhaled a deep breath before she held her arms out for balance. Emery slowly started to walk across the beam, praying for dear life that she didn't fall.

If someone would have told her a few months ago that she'd be walking across a metal beam with a bunch of scrap metal below her, she wouldn't have believe them. Yet here she was halfway across the beam, her heart racing in her chest. The entire experience had felt like something out of one of those YouTube videos her dad watches about daredevils. If he could see her now, then he would be so proud, but then she thought of her mother and it didn't seem so exciting anymore.

When everyone else had gone—luckily none of them falling—they stood in a line as Sensei Lawrence passed out beef jerky. "If you wanna win. You gotta be hungry. You guys hungry?"

Emery grabbed a piece of beef jerky from Miguel. She turned her head to look at Hawk, watching as he bit off a piece of his.

"Yes, Sensei!"

"Good," Johnny responded. "'Cause so are they."

Emery looked around to see what he was talking about and then turned to Hawk. He shrugged as Johnny blew a whistle. Emery turned her head when she heard a bunch of dogs barking. At first, like the rest of the group, she just stood there with no idea what was going on. Then she looked down at the piece of beef jerky in her hand and her eyes widened.

"Oh shit!" Aisha exclaimed as she started running.

Emery and the rest of the group started running every which way to avoid the dogs. Emery screamed as a dog came running after her.

"Don't be afraid! They smell fear!" Johnny shouted.

Emery quickly jumped on top of the hood of a car and then jumped up to a nearby truck. She threw the piece of meat, causing the dog to go chasing after it.

She watched as everyone else ran away from the dogs—jumping on top of cars, over scrap metal. Then, she looked over at Hawk who was struggling to climb on top of a truck. Emery couldn't help but cringe as she watched one of the dogs bite him.

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The next day, Emery went to a movie with Hawk, Miguel, and Aisha. She wasn't paying attention at all. She was too busy watching Hawk throw his candy at a group of girls sitting in front of them, trying to land it in their popcorn bucket.

She nudged Hawk in the side and he turned to look at her with a confused look on his face.

Emery shook her head. "Stop doing that. You're going to get in trouble."

He didn't listen. The second he turned away from her, he continued doing it. Emery sighed and rolled her eyes. To say that she was jealous would be a major understatement.

Emery turned her head, looking at Aisha and Miguel who sat next to her. Miguel stared off into space, paying no attention to the movie screen in front of them. Emery tapped Aisha's arm. When the girl turned to her, Emery pointed in Miguel's direction.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Aisha asked.

Miguel sighed. "I can't stop thinking about what Sensei told me about Sam's dad."-

"So Sensei and Sam's dad have some beef. What's that have to do with you?" Aisha asked Miguel.

"Do I have to spell it out for you?" Miguel replied, looking at Aisha in confusion. "Sam's dad hates Cobra Kai. I'm a part of Cobra Kai. So by the transitive property, Sam's dad is gonna hate me."

"Jesus Christ, you're such a nerd."

Emery smacked Hawk's arm, causing him to turn and look at her. "Shut up."

Emery directed her attention back to Miguel as he continued to speak.

"I'm telling you, it's not just on my mind," he continued. "Sam was acting weird the other day when her dad walked by."

"Hmm," Aisha hummed. "Listen, I've known Mr. LaRusso since third grade. He's a really nice guy. You just have to talk to him."

"I haven't even been invited over yet," Miguel scoffed. "She's probably too afraid to introduce me."

"Dude, just go over there," Hawk suggested. "It's an Alpha move."

Emery rolled her eyes at him as he threw a piece of candy. Except this time, it hit a man sitting in another row in the back of the head. He stood up and turned around.

"Who the hell did that?" the man asked.

Emery smirked and crossed her arms as she leaned closer to Hawk to whisper in his ear. "Told you so."

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After the movie was over, Emery was walking through the mall with Hawk. Miguel and Aisha had gone home. The two of them decided that they didn't want to go home yet. Emery was enjoying spending time just the two of them. She hardly ever got the chance to have one-on-one time with him since they were usually always around Demetri and Dash. While she didn't mind spending time with their entire group, sometimes it was nice to spend time with just Hawk. It didn't happen often and she was going to relish in every second of it.

As they sat in the food court, Emery thought about telling him how she felt. Every time she thought about bringing it up, she would either chicken out at the last minute or Hawk would say something and interrupt her before she had the chance.

Emery closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She opened her eyes again and decided to just go for it. Strike first, right? Sensei Lawrence had said that it didn't just apply to karate. What was the worst thing that could happen?

"Hawk, I need to tell you something," Emery spoke up.

Hawk looked up from his food and nodded his chin up at her. "Shoot."

Emery took a deep breath and then exhaled. "I just wanted to tell you that I really li—"

"Oh, shit, look there's Moon," Hawk spoke over her. "You know, I think I saw her staring at me in math the other day."

Emery turned her head and looked at Moon. She was walking through the food court with Yasmine by her side. Emery sighed. How could she compete with Moon? She was so pretty and nice. She never said a mean word about anyone. Sometimes, Emery wondered why she hung out with Yasmine. Emery watched as the two girls entered a nearby store and were no longer in sight. Emery looked back over at Hawk.

He turned his head to look at her. "Sorry, what did you wanna tell me?" he asked.

Emery shrugged. "It was nothing. Don't worry about it."

Emery's eyes darted down at her food. She picked up a french fry and continued to eat. She wondered if Dash was having better luck telling Demetri about his feelings.

...

The answer was no. Dash was not having better luck. He hadn't even talked to Demetri that day. Dash was too afraid to. He had made up an excuse about being sick so he couldn't hang out.

In reality, he spent the entire day trying to figure out how he was going to tell him that he has a crush on him. Dash had always found that writing down his thoughts way easier than saying them out loud, so he got a notebook and a pen and started writing.

Dear Demetri, I have a crush on you.

Dash sighed and crumpled the piece of paper into a ball before throwing it on the floor.

Demetri, I really like you.

That didn't work for him either. He ripped the page out and crumpled it up just like the first. Page after page was ripped out of the notebook and thrown onto the floor until his bedroom floor was covered in crumpled up pieces of paper. Why was writing his feelings down so hard? Dash knew he was overthinking the entire thing. He just needed to stop thinking and write whatever came to mind.

Dash took a deep breath before grabbing the pen and placing it on the piece of paper. He kept it there for a few seconds before he started writing and didn't stop until he had written everything that he wanted to say, but had always been too afraid to.

When he was finished, Dash set the pen down on his desk and read the letter to himself.

Dear Demetri,

I know that this is probably weird, but I just wanted to tell you that I really like you and not in the friend type of way that I should. For a while now, I've had a crush on you.

I don't know why or how it started, but it did and now, no matter what I do, it just won't go away. You're the only thing that's on my mind anymore.

I just want you to know that I like you just the way you are. I like you for you and I never want you to think that you have to change for anyone.

You might be nerdy, dorky, and unpopular, but to me you were never any of those things. You were always special to me. You mean more to mean than anyone else and the fact that some people can't see just how special you are is one of the most heartbreaking things in the entire world.

You've always been there for me. When I'm feeling sad or down, you're there to comfort me. If I need a pick me up, you're there to make me laugh. I've never been more grateful to have someone in my life. It breaks my heart knowing that you'll never feel the same way about me as I do about you, but I just wanted you to know the truth.

Dem, I really, really love you.

— Dash

Dash reread his name over and over again before crossing it out, but then he rewrote it. He crossed that out too. Dash sighed. There was no way he could give him this letter. Dash looked down at the paper one last time and wrote Your Secret Admirer, but then he crossed that out too.

He ripped the piece of paper and crumpled it into a ball and threw it on the floor just like he had all the failed attempts. He could never tell Demetri how he really felt. He was crazy to think that he could just write everything down and have enough courage to hand it to him. Why does telling someone you're in love with them have to be so hard?

— EMILIA'S NOTES

and there you have it. the re-written chapter 8. it was mostly just expanding scenes & making them more detailed as well as some rewording.

i'll be working on chapters 9 & 10 as soon as possible!!