CHAPTER THREE:
BILLIE'S BACK IN TOWN..

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DANIEL'S ARM WRAPPED AROUND BILLIE'S SHOULDERS AS SHE HELPED HIM UP, TRYING HER HARDEST NOT TO HURT HIM MORE IN THE PROCESS. She'd already caused Daniel enough pain, and didn't plan on causing him anymore.

  "You ready to start walking over to the parking lot?" Billie asked, throwing a concerned look over her right shoulder at Daniel's slumped-over state. He let out a sigh and titled his head towards Billie, showing her the black eye that was forming on his face.

  "Yeah, sure," he replied shortly, probably do to the hit he took to his stomach. Billie could guess that he was still recovering from getting the air knocked out of him, as his breathing was abnormally rough.

  Billie gave him a small smile for encouragement and began slowly walking towards her motorcycle and the parking lot, taking note that all the others that attended the party had left. It would have been ignorant of her to not notice the fact that nobody but her had actually attempted to help Daniel—which honestly surprised her. She had at least thought that Freddy and his friends would have at least tried to help him up from the sand, but apparently they cared more about their popularity than their morals. Shallow assholes. Billie cursed them in her head as she gazed forward at the parking lot.

As they approached the bike, Billie couldn't help but find herself taking long glances at the boy slouched onto her shoulders; even when he was beaten and battered, Daniel still managed to look absolutely adorable. And for the likes of her, Billie just couldn't understand why. Maybe he put me under some sort of curse. She tried to conclude, almost rolling her eyes at her reasoning.

Silence had taken over the air surrounding Billie and Daniel as they made it to her motorcycle. It wasn't awkward, per say, just quiet. Billie liked the quiet sometimes—most times—but she couldn't help but feel oddly inclined to eliminate it. So she did.

"So, uh, I wanna thank you—"

"That's your motorcycle?" Daniel suddenly piqued up, removing his arm from around Billie's shoulder and staring at it in awe.

"Yeah, it is," Billie answered proudly, smiling down at her orange bike with glowing eyes. "The orange didn't come on it, though. I painted it myself."

"Wow, I've never met a girl with a motorcycle before—or really anybody our age with one as big as this one," Daniel said, turning his bruised face away from the bike and back at Billie. "Who bought it for you?"

Billie snickered. "Myself. Saved up three years working a part-time job to get it."

Daniel cracked a smile for the first time since Johnny happened. "Shit. First you play soccer—and are damn good at it too—and now you own your own orange motorcycle. You just can't get any better, Billie."

Billie felt a blush creep up her cheeks as she met Daniel's dark chocolate gaze. "Actually, I think I can. You just have to stick around long enough to witness it."

"Then I guess you'll be seeing a lot of me, Rodriguez."

"I guess so, LaRusso."

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  BILLIE HAS NEVER HAD A BREAKFAST AS TENSE AS THIS ONE. After taking Daniel back to his place—which surprisingly turned out to be the same apartment building her mother lived in—and cleaning him up, she arrived home pretty late; which meant that Diego Rodriguez was quite livid with her.

  Billie definitely understood why; she'd stayed out way too late and had forgotten to tell her father where she was going the night before. But still, Billie felt like he had no reason to be trying to parent her. He'd failed miserably at even gaining an ounce of Billie's respect, so to have him trying to scold her just wasn't cutting it. In fact, it just pissed her off.

"What the hell made you think you could just leave the house and stay out till 11:00?! I'm still your father, believe it or not. You have to respect me and my rules when you're at this house!" Diego boomed angrily, glaring at Billie from across the dining room table.

"Yeah, okay. I'll respect your ass when you respect mine," Billie retorted, rolling her eyes and continuing to prod at her eggs. Diego Rodriguez never made good breakfast. That was something she had thought she would get to leave behind, but apparently not.

"Hey! Don't you dare speak to me like that! And I do respect you. A lot, Billie-Jean. A hell-of-a-lot."

Billie scoffed. "Sure you do. You really showed it when you invited people over to your house the first night your child—who, by the way, you have a shit relationship with—was back in your house after five freaking years away!"

  "Alright, listen here, Billie-Jean—"

  "Nah, I don't think I will, Diego," Billie cut him off. "To be honest, I don't even have time. I've got school." Billie grabbed her backpack that was sat by her chair and stood up, throwing it over her right shoulder.

"Hey! You will address me as dad or father! Not Diego! Do you know how disrespectful—"

"I'll get yours right when you get mine right, Diego." And with that, Billie charged out of the house, ignoring her father's yells for her to return.

After mounting her bike, she gave her father's house one last glare before backing up and racing off, smirking slightly at the morning winds racing through her hair.

It wasn't long before West Valley High School came into Billie's line of sight, with its bright yellow school buses and cars parked all over the place. It hadn't changed much since Billie saw it last—expect for a few small, new upgrades—it looked just the same.

Billie pulled up beside a pack of dirt bikes, parking her bike and jumping off. She fixed her wild brown hair as much as she could before she slumped her backpack over her shoulder and headed off around a bush; white nikes clicking against the ground and orange leather jacket gleaming in the sun.

She turned around the bush, eyes being met with the more than infuriating sight of Johnny and his friends standing around talking with each other. Billie sucked in a frustrated sigh and tried to ignore them, not wanting to draw attention to herself and have to deal with Johnny's shit at freaking 8:00 in the morning. But apparently, Billie's luck had run out. As she was almost out of their line of sight, she heard the forever annoying boom of Johnny Lawrence's voice.

"Lookin hot, Billie-Jean! I really like those jeans on you! Makes your ass look good!"

Billie's ability to refrain herself completely disappeared, so she whipped around, now walking backwards.

  "Suck it, Johnny! You hear you me? Suck it!" she yelled, giving Johnny two middle fingers and also mouthing F you, before turning back around and storming off.

She choose to ignore the stunned looks her classmates were giving her; as at the moment, she couldn't bring herself to give a crap.

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THE AMOUNT OF RELIEF BILLIE-JEAN FELT WHEN IT WAS FINALLY TIME FOR PE WAS ALMOST EMBARRASSING. She'd spent the whole day trying to avoid Johnny and his gang, but since they were just so adamant on annoying the hell out of her, she'd barely gotten away with it.

  Only thanks to Ali, Susan, and Cassidy's uncanny ability to hide her, was she able to escape their assholery. Now, Billie was juggling a soccer ball beside the cheerleaders, since both Ali and Susan offered to let her hang out with them. Cass had to skip PE today, since she got put into the wrong math class and had to go hash out her schedule with the school counselor.

"Hey, Billie!" Ali yelled, waving her over with her hand. Billie yelled out a "yeah?" before jogging over to the blonde, looking at her with narrowed brows.

"Billie, isn't he that boy from last night?" Ali pointed to the tall, lanky form of who Billie could only guess was Daniel, juggling a ball determinedly not too far from where Billie and Ali were standing.

"Yeah, it is," Billie replied with a slight smile, watching as the ball bounced from one of his thighs to the next.

"Well, you gonna go talk to him or just ogle at him all day?" Ali urged Billie, nudging her in the shoulder gently.

"Fine—fine! I will. Gosh, Als. When did you get so invested in my love life?" Billie asked sarcastically, and only got an eye roll and a "just go!" from Ali.

  Billie listened to Ali's urges and walked over to Daniel, stopping in front of him.

"So, did you beat it yet?"

Billie watched in amusement as Daniel lost control of the ball and nearly toppled over, before he awkwardly straightened himself again and sent Billie a charming smile.

"Well—uh—no, I didn't. But I was just really close—in till you rudely interrupted me," Daniel said, rolling his eyes and grinning.

  "Rudely, huh? I'd say that smile gives away the truth that you're very happy that I interrupted you, Danny," Billie remarked with a smirk, gazing up at the tan boy with a teasing glint in her eyes.

  "Really? I am that transparent?" Daniel joked and Billie let out a giggle; the first time she had laughed since the Johnny incident.

As a quick silence set over for a second, and Billie's gaze caught the purple and blue bruise that painted over Daniel's left eye; now an even deeper-color than the night before.

Daniel seemed to notice the worried look in her hazel eyes, as he reached up and touched the side of his face. "You don't have to worry, Billie. It's nothing."

"If you say so." Billie sighed as a pang of guilt rang through her; she still couldn't shake the guilt that came with knowing that Daniel had gotten beaten up because of her. Normally, she wouldn't care this much. After all, she did just meet Daniel yesterday. But for some reason—some stupid reason—she cared a whole lot about it—and even if she wouldn't admit it—him as well. "You know, I never did thank you."

"Oh, no. You don't have to. Any decent person would have done that."

"Maybe you're right. But there were plenty of "decent" people there last night, and you were the only person who did anything about it. So, I'd say you do deserve a thank you, Daniel," Billie convinced, grinning as a slightly smug smirk formed on Daniel's face.

  "If you insist."

  Billie simply rolled her eyes and hopped up on her tippy toes, placing a soft kiss on Daniel's cheek. "Thank you, Danny."

Daniel's tanned cheeks reddened as Billie fell back onto her feet; trying to contain the whirl of butterflies zipping around her stomach.

"Billie! Stop flirting and get back over here! Cass is back from the counselor! She's saying that she now has math with Landon! Isn't that terrible!" Susan called from where her, Ali, Cassidy, and the rest of the cheerleaders were standing. Billie let out a sigh, chuckling softly to herself before looking back into Daniel's oddly warm, dark brown eyes.

"Must be a big deal. Math with Landon, huh?" Daniel said in an amused tone.

"Yeah, probably. I think he's Cassidy's ex—though don't quote me on that because I'm not entirely sure."

"Don't worry. I won't."

  Both beaming, Billie sighed again and sent a small look at her friends; who were still waiting for her. "Well, I gotta go," Billie said as she turned back to look at Daniel again.

  "Yeah, you better not keep 'em waiting. Besides, I've gotta get back to soccer tryouts anyways," Daniel agreed, tossing the soccer ball back and forth in his hands.

  "Oh, yeah! I wanted to tryout, but apparently this shithole doesn't have a girls soccer team. Which means track is my only option," Billie vented angrily, remembering when she asked the PE coach earlier that day. "So I guess you'll just have to play for the two of us."

  "Oh, no. That's a lot of pressure. I don't think I can live up to the Billie-Jean Rodriguez's soccer talents."

  "Maybe if you can beat that record, you will."

  "Well alright. I'll get to it."

  The two erupted into giggles before both Susan and Cassidy yelled at Billie, making her roll her eyes and wave Daniel a reluctant goodbye.

"Bye, LaRusso. I'll see you soon, right?" she said as she walked away.

  "If that's what you wish, Rodriguez!" Billie heard Daniel exclaim as she jogged back over towards Cassidy, giving her a 'What's so important' look.

"Hey, don't give me that look. He would have had to get back to tryouts anyways," Cassidy reasoned sassily, crossing her arms against her chest as she watched Ali, Susan, and the other cheerleaders practice.

"I know. I just got caught up talking to him. He's—"

"You like him a lot. Don't you?"

"Well I just met him, Cass."

"So what? I saw the way you two were looking at each other. He's totally into you." Cassidy nudged Billie's shoulder softly; smirking with delight.

"Hey! Don't you give me that look, Cass. I don't need all my friends all up in my business," Billie scolded playfully, pointing her index finger at Cassidy accusingly.

  "But that's exactly what friends are supposed to do, Billie!"

  "You're hopeless."

  "And you love it."

  Billie just rolled her eyes nudged Cassidy back, earning a teasing scoff and a herd of giggles from Cassidy.

After Cassidy finally laid off, Billie found her eyes trailing over towards the soccer tryouts, and trailing on one specific boy. Daniel currently had the ball and was dribbling down the field, softly guiding the ball with the inside and outside of his right foot. He's a righty. Billie thought. Just like me. She continued watching as one boy in red sweats stepped up to try and stop him (Who looked suspiciously like one of Johnny's friends who had held her back at the beach.), which resulted in Daniel almost getting past him before the red sweats kid stuck out his foot and tripped Daniel, sending him rolling on the ground.

  Billie's eyes widened in shock as Daniel angrily tackled the sweats kid; making them both roll on the grass for a little while before Daniel was able to get a few punches in at his head. Daniel was then thrown off of the sweats kid by the PE coach; who started yelling at him. Billie's hazel gaze couldn't help but trail over to Johnny and his friends, who were laughing and (From what it looked like to Billie.) making fun of Daniel. Oh, you little shits. Billie thought in anger. You did that shit on purpose.

  Now pissed the actual hell off, Billie observed on in rage as Daniel yelled back at the coach, trying to reason with him. But, as the coach shoved him forward and Daniel started walking away, Billie knew it was to no avail. Something in her stirred as she locked eyes with Johnny for a few seconds, disgusted by his stupid-ass smirk he always wore. Then, out of nowhere, she got an idea. Oh, this'll piss him off for sure.

  Billie suddenly took off, jogging quickly so she could catch up to Daniel, who was stomping towards the hill. On her way she once again gave Johnny the finger; attempting to hide the prideful smirk on her face, but failing. Eventually, Billie reached Daniel; placing a soft hand on his shoulder to let him know she was there.

  "Huh?" Daniel spun around. "Oh! Billie? What are you doing over here—wait—did you see that?" he asked, looking surprised and slightly embarrassed.

"Yeah, I did. I'm sorry they keep messing with you. If anything, they should be messing with me; not you," Billie said apologetically, letting her hand down from Daniel's shoulder.

"No. I'd rather them mess around with me. I saw what Johnny was doing to you at the beach. I don't want something like that to happen again," Daniel reasoned, big brown irises softening as he gazed down at Billie. "So you really saw that, huh?"

"Mhmhm. Practically everyone did, Daniel."

"Oh god. That's so embarrassing," he complained bashfully, blushing as he retreated from Billie's stare.

"Hey, that's not embarrassing. If anything, it's embarrassing for Johnny and his asshole gang. Bullying another kid just 'cause some girl won't talk to you is some of the dumbest shit I've ever seen. And I've seen some dumb shit," Billie assured, chuckling to herself. She sure had seen some crap in her lifetime—that was for sure. Living in The Bronx for five years gives you plenty of—interesting experiences—to say the least.

  "Ah, okay. So I'm like the hero, right?"

  "If that helps your ego, Danny, then you're the hero."

  "I like it when you call me that."

  "What? The hero?"

  "No. Danny."

  "Why?" Billie asked, raising a teasing eyebrow at the boy beside her.

  "I don't know. I think I just like the way it sounds when you say it." Now, if Billie had thought Daniel was blushing before—he definitely was now. He laughed. "I walked right into that one, didn't I."

  "Yeah, you did," Billie giggled, grinning wide at Daniel's flustered-ness. "I'll make sure to keep that in my vocab, Danny."

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THE NEXT FEW DAYS WERE—INTERESTING—TO SAY THE LEAST. Billie had keep away from Johnny for the most part (He had catcalled her a few times in the hallway, but Ali, Susan, and Cassidy made sure that was taken care of.). Somehow, she'd survived the first half-week with her father—but not without even more issue.

  She'd tried her best to ignore his existence, but he was just so persist on them "spending quality time with each other" that it was quite difficult. Of course, Billie didn't really understand how they were even supposed to be around each other for more than five minutes—since they always ended up arguing, or Billie would completely ignore anything he was trying to say and they would end up just sitting in silence for the rest of the time. So yeah, you could say that she and her father were a very functional family—if you were drunk, high, or whatever else made someone delusional.

  Now, however, Billie was back in the comfort of her mother's new apartment, sitting at the kitchen counter while her mother cooked and danced around to a salsa radio station she'd found while Billie was at her father's house. Maria was making Billie's favorite: empanadas.

  While Billie's mother wasn't actually Latina or Puerto Rican (Her father was.), Maria absolutely adored Puerto Rican culture—and did her best to teach Billie what little she knew. Maria is actually Filipino, but she knew little to none about her roots, since her family wasn't really focused on keeping their culture alive—they were more so focused on survival, which Billie definitely understood. So, she learned what she could from Diego's family and came to love Puerto Rican culture as her own.

  "Hey, Mom? When's the empanadas going to be done? I'm starving," Billie complained, pouting whilst her hands were fidgeting on the counter.

"Patience, Billie. It'll be done in a few—Oh crap!"

"What? What happened—Oh shit!" Billie looked over the counter to see that the faucet had suddenly started leaking, and as Maria tried to turn it off it just sprayed more water. "What do we do?"

  "Go get the maintenance man. Hopefully he can fix this. Ugh—we just moved in and there's already problems!"

  "I'll get 'em, Mom. Just—try not to let water spill everywhere?"

  Maria huffed. "Just go, Billie!"

"Alright!" Billie yelled as she closed the front door. Racing down the stairway, Billie looked around, trying to figure out exactly where the maintenance guy was. She remembered being told by some old, Jersey woman—but that was last night and Billie's memory likes to pick and choose what it remembers. Billie walked across the courtyard and towards a little, stone hallway that looked like it possibly led somewhere. Walking through the hallway and around the corner, Billie was met with two turquoise doors—which she figured had to be the maintenance man's office; or this was about to get extremely awkward.

  Billie knocked on the door, pushing it open to reveal a medium sized office room, filled to the brim with trinkets, plants, and in particular, extremely small trees. Her gaze shifted to the middle of the room, where she was met with an older, East Asian man sat by a herd of the small trees. He had a pair of what looked to be scissors in his hands, and he seemed to be trimming the little trees. This has to be him.

"Uh, hello! I'm sorry to interrupt, but me and my mom just moved into apartment 21, and our kitchen sink—well, more like our faucet—just broke and started spraying water everywhere. So, we kind of need you—like now," Billie called out, trying to add a tone of urgency to her voice.

  "Hai, alright. Give one moment. Almost done with bonsai," the old man replied, clipping a small part of the right side of what Billie now knew to be a bonsai. "Okay. Let me get tools."

The older man got up and walked over to a table, collecting a few tools and placing them into a toolbox. "You know, you second person to have issue with faucet this week. Just yesterday had boy your age come and ask same favor."

"Really? What'd he look like?" Billie asked, genuinely curious. If she had to guess it was either Freddy or Daniel—she hoped it was Daniel; Freddy wasn't really in her good books at the moment, due to the whole Johnny thing and the fact he and his friends acted like punks and didn't even try to help Daniel. And yes, she was still pissed off about that. It sounds stupid, but Billie-Jean Rodriguez has always been able to keep a good grudge—especially on stupid boys who act like their brain got stuck up their ass.

  "Skinny, tan. Big eyes, brown hair. Oh, tall too," he recalled, walking over with a thoughtful look on his face. Oddly, this man gave off a warm feeling Billie just couldn't quite understand. It was weird. She didn't even know him, yet she felt at ease in his presence. What is it with magical men and me? Billie thought in amusement as she and the old man walked outside.

As they got to the stairs, Billie decided to make more conversation. "What's your name?"

"Miyagi," he answered shortly.

"Oh, that's a nice name. . .Miyagi?"

"You call me Mr. Miyagi."

"Got it, Mr. Miyagi," Billie corrected with a smile on her face. "I'm Billie-Jean Rodriguez. But you can call me Billie."

  "You have nice name, Billie-san," he kindly complimented. "Never heard before."

  "It's not something you hear every day. That's sure for sure."

  "Not common good. Means you not boring like the rest."

  "Yeah, I guess it does. I've never looked at it like that," Billie said, surprised. She really hadn't thought of it that way.

  "Our view too narrow. We get blind. Sometime, it's good to listen to others. They help see," Mr. Miyagi told calmly, following behind Billie to the apartment. Yeah. Billie thought. I guess they may.

  They finally made it to her mother's apartment, and immediately after Billie pushed the door open, Maria was right up in her face. "There you are! The drain has been clogged since last night—so the water is now on the edge of spilling out of the sink. Come on, Billie, get inside and out of the man's way!"

  "I'm coming, I'm coming!" Billie quickly walked inside and got out of Mr. Miyagi's way, not missing the amusement dancing in his hardened, but somehow soft eyes.

"Over here, Mr. . .?" Maria trailed off while trying to guide Mr. Miyagi to the sink.

"Miyagi."

"Miyagi," she corrected as they stood around the almost spilling sink. "This is our situation. I have no clue what to do—so me and my daughter will just step back and watch. Thank you so much."

"No problem. This easy fix. No take long," he assured, taking out a wrench and beginning to fix the problem.

  There was a minute or so of silence whilst the older man tinkered away at the faucet, but before it could turn awkward, her mother had spoken up.

  "So, Mr. Miyagi. You from around here?"

  "No," he replied, "from Okinawa."

  "Okinawa, huh? I've heard of there. I think my father may have been there once or twice," Maria said thoughtfully.

  "What about you?" Mr. Miyagi questioned, not wincing as a loud squeak erupted from the wrench and faucet.

"Oh, me? Well, both my parents immigrated from the Philippines with my grandparents to New York City. So they met growing up there, and of course had me," she explained. "My daughter, on the other hand, is both Puerto Rican and Filipino. Her father's parents moved from Puerto Rico to The Valley when he was just a baby."

"Puerto Rican, you say? Do you salsa? I always love salsa. One of favorite dances."

"As a matter of fact, we do! My ex-husband's mother taught me before she passed, and I passed it on to Billie," Maria babbled passionately; she loved taking about salsa. But Billie understood. Salsa was probably her favorite Latin dance, other than Bachata.

"Hai. Good to know. Don't normally met people who salsa," Mr. Miyagi said cheerfully. "Oh, and sink and faucet fixed."

"Wow, that was quick," Billie commented, looking at Mr. Miyagi in awe. Maybe this man is actually magical. Billie considered. I mean he salsas. That's magical enough to count for me.

"Thank you again, Mr. Miyagi. How much?" Maria asked, grabbing her purse from the dining table.

"Oh, nothing. Your kindness already pay enough."

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Me at Mr. Miyagi ^^^^

Anyways,,,,I hope you enjoyed this chapter!! It was definitely more filler than anything, but we are getting there!! Next chapter is the Halloween dance and that whole shebang—so get ready!!

Also, I just released the Cobra Kai sequel to this fic, New Legacy, Old History!!! So check it out!!

PEACE OUT !!! ✌️