"Cyberbullying is no laughing matter. Sending a cruel message to someone online can be just as hurtful as saying it to their face."

Frankie frowned at Counselor Blatts impromptu speech during lunch. She turned to Aisha beside her, and raised a single brow. Knowing what she was silently asking, Aisha shook her head and held back a laugh. "Oh, this one isnt about me this time."

Frankie's eyebrows furrowed. Most of the time, the woman's anti-bullying speeches were about Aisha and the comments she would get on her instagram. Frankie turned to watch Counselor Blatt as she continued.

"I'm not gonna name names, but the other day a mother called me up because her son was crying after some kids online made fun of his facial deformity."

Frankie's heart dropped and her eyes widened when she realized who her counselor. "Oh no..." She muttered, looking around the room to find everyone already looking at Eli.

"The kid right there!"

"The kid with the weird lip."

Frankie clenched her jaw as all the whispers echoing around the room.

"Oh, and one last thing. While we're all looking forward to the Halloween dance, let's make sure our costumes are culturally sensitive. For example, instead of sexy nurse, maybe try gender-neutral hospital employee." Counselor Blatt said but Frankie was hardly listening.

When she felt Aisha tap her shoulder, Frankie slowly took a deep breath to calm herself down. She gave Aisha a small smile, silently asking her what she wanted.

"I've got a great idea for our costumes this year." Aisha said and Frankie smiled. She already planned to go as Jennifer Check, but if Aisha looked and sounded this excited to do a duo one, Frankie was happy to hold off her own costume for next year and partner with Aisha. "Hit me."

"I was thinking I go as sodium, and you go as chloride. And when people ask what we are, we do this." Aisha grabbed the salt shaker on their table and shook some salt out onto their table.

Frankie was quick to pull her lunch away from all of the falling salt and looked at Aisha with wide eyes. "So cheesy." Frankie said, shaking her head.

Aisha's face fell, thinking Frankie hated the idea. Frankie suddenly had a big smile on her face. "I love it!" She gushed and Aisha relaxed, her smile coming back onto her face. "I call Sodium though!" Aisha blurted and Frankie groaned.

...

It was the last class of the week before the Halloween dance. Frankie and Miguel were working on their homework so they wouldn't have it over the weekend when Miguel turned to face Frankie.

"Hey, Francesca?" He asked and Frankie hummed, turning to look at Miguel.

"You excited for the Halloween dance?" Miguel asked and Frankie smiled, nodding her head. "Totally. What are you going as?" She asked, going back to her work but still listening.

"Deadpool." Miguel said and Frankie turned back to Miguel, her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. "Sick! I love Deadpool!" Frankie whisper yelled so their teacher wouldn't yell at them for talking and Miguel looked at Frankie in shock.

"Really?" Miguel asked and Frankie nodded her head.

"Yeah, I love him and the X-Men." Frankie said and Miguel's eyebrows furrowed. "No Avengers?" He asked and Frankie pursed her lips and squinted. "I like Spider-Man but that's really it. Too many movies." She said as she shrugged and Miguel nodded, understanding where she was coming from.

"What about you? What are you going as?" Miguel asked as Frankie finished up her homework. Miguel still had a page and a half.

Miguel gawked at Frankie as she put her homework into her folder, shocked at how fast she finished it. Frankie didn't noticed the boy and turned to face him to answer his question. Just as Frankie turned to him, Miguel quickly looked back down at his homework so she wouldn't notice his stares.

"Chloride." Frankie answered and Miguel stopped what he was doing. He slowly turned to face Frankie, his face scrunched in confusion.

"Like... the element?" Miguel asked and Frankie chuckled, snorting at the end as she nodded her head. "Yeah. It's a duo costume so my friend, Aisha is going as Sodium and I'll go as Chloride. So when people ask what we are, we'll say—" "Salt." Miguel interrupted and Frankie let out a relieved breath, glad at least one other person would get her costume.

"It's smart. You'll definitely confuse a bunch of kids." Miguel said and Frankie laughed, sending Miguel a playful smirk. "That's the plan."

...

As much as Frankie hated to admit it, she loved school dances. The food was always good, the music was... decent but she loved watching her peers attempt to dance and she could always count on the punch to be spiked so she wasn't on too much edge.

Frankie was at the snack table with Aisha, Frankie wearing a white dress with the chloride symbol in black taped to her chest while Aisha wore all black, the sodium symbol in white taped to her chest. Frankie had been mindlessly eating the reese's peanut butter cups in the bowl in front of her as she looked around for kids she recognized. After the seventh or eighth cup, the peanut butter started to get too salty for Frankie and she needed something to drink.

Frankie frowned, trying to swallow and clear her throat but nothing worked. She turned to Aisha and touched her neck to show she was thirsty. "I'm gonna get something to drink." She yelled over the loud music playing and once Aisha nodded, Frankie walked towards the punch bowl.

As she filled up her cup, she felt someone walk towards her. Frankie looked up to see who stood beside her and gasped when she saw Miguel in a skeleton costume, his face covered in black and white face paint.

"So... What Deadpool is this?" Frankie asked, looking Miguel up and down with an amused smile. Miguel groaned, shaking his head sadly. "It didn't work out but my sensei luckily had this to offer." He said, looking down at his own costume.

"Sensei?" Frankie asked, her head tilting a little as she took a sip of her punch. Immediately, she could taste the alcohol that spiked the drink and held back cringing, swallowing the burn. Miguel smiled at Frankie's question, thinking this was a perfect opportunity to get another student.

"Yeah, for karate? You should totally join! We need more members." Miguel said, and Frankie smiled, giving Miguel a small nod.

"I'll think about it." She whispered, a playful grin on her face that made Miguel's smile double in size. "Okay, perfect! Just let me know if you need any details." He said, walking around Frankie to get to the punch bowl.

Frankie watched as Miguel grabbed three cups and just before he could fill any of them, Frankie grabbed his wrist to stop him.

"If you're getting those for Demetri and Eli, I woudln't get one for Demetri. That punch is spiked and Demetri doesn't want to drink alcohol till he's of age." Frankie said, looking down at the cup instead of Miguel's eyes.

Miguel looked at Frankie with wide eyes. He didn't know Frankie and Demetri knew each other. He wanted to ask her about it but he took the fact that she wouldn't look him in the eyes as a tell that it was a touchy subject.

He nodded his head, putting back one of the cups and only filling two, one for him and one for Eli.

"I'll see you later?" Miguel asked, giving Frankie a small smile once both cups were filled and girl nodded, smiling back to him. "See ya."

Miguel walked away and towards Demetri and Eli. He handed Eli a cup and Demetri cringed watching the boy take off his mask to take a sip.

"I can't believe you two trust our peers enough to drink that. We have no idea what's in there." Demetri said but that didn't stop Miguel and Eli, the two of them still drinking the punch. Miguel did realize that Frankie was right though, Demetri didn't want a cup. He definitely was going to ask her about the two of them more.

Once the two of them finished their drinks and felt a small kick from the alcohol, Miguel sighed and turned to Demetria and Eli. "Okay, are we ready?" He asked and the two boys nodded.

The three of them looked into the dance floor, their eyes falling on three girls dressed as elves in the crowd. Miguel took a small step forward, ready to lead the three of them to the girls but he froze when another boy walked up to the girls and whisk one of them away.

"Shit." Miguel cursed under his breath, looking back to Demetri and Eli. "We just lost one to Doctor Who." He muttered sadly.

As the two boys groaned, Miguel looked back into the crowd and his eyes widened when he saw Frankie dancing with Aisha He turned back to Demetri and Eli, a hopeful smile on his face. "Hey, it may sound pathetic, but I can ask Francesca if she can dance with the three of us. At different times of course." Miguel said sheepishly, shrugging his shoulders.

Eli's eyes widened as Demetri's jaw dropped. "What?" Demetri spat, but Miguel didn't noticed the disgust in the boys voice and nodded reassuringly. "Yeah, I mean... She's really nice and besides maybe laughing at first, she won't complain."

Demetri frantically shook his head, looking at Miguel with wide eyes. "We are not asking Frankie to dance!" He yelled and Miguel's face scrunched. "Frankie?" He asked, only knowing her as Francesca.

"Francesca?" Demetri snapped as if it was obvious before he shook his head again. "Not happening."

Miguel looked back at the girl before turning back to Demetri. "What? Why?"

Eli sighed, making Miguel turn to him. "She used to be our friend, but Demetri didn't like that she was better than him and yelled at her." He muttered, nervously looking to Demetri incase the boy didn't like how he phrased it.

Demetri didn't. He spun around to Miguel and pointed at Frankie. "She was a snake that knew how important being the top of our class is for me and still purposely beat me." Demetri said and Miguel had to hold back looking the boy up and down.

"I don't know, man. I sit next to Frankie in one of my classes. She's really sweet." Miguel said, shrugging his shoulders. Eli straightened his own. He didn't know Miguel and Frankie knew each other. Maybe if Miguel was able to be friends with Frankie without Demetri being too upset, he could too.

"Ah, ah, ah." He said, holing up his finger to stop Miguel before he continued. "She'll make you think that she's sweet, and then she'll just take what you love and rip it away from you."

Miguel looked back to the dance floor, watching as Frankie spun Aisha around, the two girls giggling messes. There was no way Demetri was telling the truth or at least there was no way he had the full story.

...

"Okay, okay, okay." Frankie said as her laughter started to die down. Her and Aisha pushed themselves out of the crowd and headed towards the snack table. Frankie held onto Aisha's hand to keep herself from stumbling and turned to face her. "So I'm thinking we sleepover at my place, my parents aren't home, and we watch the scariest movies."

Aisha looked at Frankie like she was crazy and laughed. "Are you insane?" The girl screamed before she really looked at Frankie. The girl was stumbling and there was a tipsy smile on her face.

As they reached the snack table, Aisha had to hold back a laugh, raising her hand to the girls forehead to check her temperature. "Damn, how much punch did you have to get like this? Are you a lightweight?"

Frankie whacked Aisha's hand off of her face and rolled her eyes. "I'm fine." She said, her words actually sounding believable but just to be safe, Aisha nodded her head to the drinks table a couple feet away where there were a bunch of water bottles.

"Go get yourself a water." Aisha said. Frankie turned around to see where Aisha was pointing and groaned. Aisha laughed, gently pushing the girl in the direction of the table. "I'll be right here."

Frankie walked towards the table and grabbed a water, just as she was about to walk back to Aisha, her phone buzzed in her pocket.

She pulled out her phone and saw Yasmine had shared a video to the school. Frankie looked into the crowd of dancers and noticed the evil smirk on her face as everyone around her started to open the message.

Frankie clicked on it and she immediately grew angry at the video of Aisha at the snack table, a pig filter on her face as she ate with a caption, "THE BUFFET TABLE IS UNDER ATTACK!!!!!"

Frankie shut off her phone and shoved it into her pocket. She looked back to the snack table and saw Aisha, tears in her eyes as she stared at everyone laughing at her. She turned to Frankie, and just as Frankie was about to walk towards her, Aisha ran away.

"Aisha!" Frankie yelled, chasing after the girl. She followed Aisha towards the exit of the gym and guiltily, her eyes landed on a bright yellow flyer and she stopped.

LEARN TO FIGHT!
JOIN COBRA KAI

Frankie stared at the flyer, a small sparkle in her eyes. Knowing she had to get back to helping Aisha, Frankie ripped the flyer off the wall so she'd have the information and ran out do the gym and down the hallway she saw Aisha go down.

It didn't take too long to find the girl, Aisha always sat at her locker with her knees pulled to her chest whenever she was sad.

The girl was crying into her knees when Frankie got there. Frankie was quick to sit down beside her, wrap an arm around Aisha's shoulders and pull her into her side.

"I hate that they treat me like crap!" Aisha cried, hiding her face in Frankie's shoulder as Frankie ran her hand up and down Aisha's arm comfortingly.

Frankie felt her heart break at the sound of her friends cries. She rested her head on top of Aisha's head and shook it slightly, tangling her own hair a bit. "Then don't let them." Frankie whispered.

She felt Aisha stop crying. Aisha's brows furrowed and she lifted her head, making Frankie lift hers and turn to her.

"What do you mean?" Aisha asked, her voice nasally and shaky from crying.

Frankie gave Aisha a small smile and handed her the flyer she found in the gym. Aisha sniffled as she looked down at the paper.

"Found this in the gym. Figured we can learn to kick some ass so next time Yasmine has shit to say about you, you can rock her shit." Frankie said, nudging Aisha's shoulder with her own playfully. Aisha turned to Frankie, her eyes wide as a small smile started to tug on her lips.

"We?" She asked and Frankie smiled, her eyebrows furrowing a bit as if it was obvious. "Yeah, you're not going anywhere without me." Frankie said in a matter of fact tone.

Aisha pulled Frankie into a hug, making the girl laugh but hug her back nonetheless. "Frankie Wu, you are the best!" Aisha whispered and a smirk grew on Frankie's face. She playfully flipped her hair and shrugged.

"I know." She muttered coolly under her breath, making Aisha giggle and hit her.

emily speaks...
i'm getting so excited for this fic it's so bad for me I HAVE TOO MANY FICS TO WORK ON!! but it's okay😋🙌 i have all of season 1 planned i just have to work on it🫡

aisha and frankie actually mean the world to me