Chapter Ninety Seven
Primadonna

  
THE DAYS LEADING up to leaving for Barcelona blended together into one big blur. Sydney couldn't think about anything but her fight with Tory. It kept happening over and over again that that would finally be in a good place and then something would take it away from them. Were they meant to be friends at all? she kept asking herself. Sydney wanted to believe that she needed Tory in her life and that Tory needed her. They weren't that different. But Tory didn't want her in her life, she didn't want to be her friend. She couldn't shake off the hurt she was feeling.

Her parents accompanied them on the trip to Spain, Alexander insisting that he didn't want to miss the tournament. Him and Caroline sat together at the front of the plane drinking whatever the flight attendant brought them.

Sydney stared out the window, loving the view but she was still in a saddened state of mind. Miguel, him sitting beside her, nudged her with his elbow. "You can't spend the entire time we're gone being sad, y'know?" He told her.

"Says who?"

"Me." He emphasized and she turned her head to look at him. "You've been so excited about this trip. Don't let what happened with Tory ruin it for you."

"Do you remember when the Cobra Kai's broke into Sam's house and Charlie showed up?" Sydney questioned and he slowly nodded. "How did that make you feel?"

Miguel formed a frown. "Betrayed." He muttered in response, realizing what she was saying.

"I'm not angry with Tory, I'm just upset. I want to be there for her and she won't let me." She expressed sadly and leaned her head back on the seat, her eyeing staring at the top of the plane. "Is this what I get for finally having a heart?"

Miguel laughed slightly. "You've always had a heart, you just learned how to use it correctly."

"Yeah, well, now I don't want it." She grumbled.

"Aww, don't say that." He teased and leaned over, kissing the side of her head. "I think you have a beautiful heart."

Sydney looked at him again with soft eyes. "Only because you have a beautiful heart. It kinda rubbed off on me, ya know?"

He smiled at her.

When they finally landed in Barcelona, Sydney felt her spirits rise and she thought about how absolutely beautiful it was. "Oh my gosh, it's stunning!" She squealed happily and looped her arms through Demetri and Eli's. "Have you ever seen anything more beautiful?"

"Yeah, my girlfriend." Hawk answered.

"My lady is quite beautiful, I'll say." Demetri agreed even though they still weren't talking to each other. But they were both of her best friends so she was their middle ground.

Sydney rolled her eyes. "Well duh, but, what else? This is going to be the best trip." She squealed again and looked at Hawk. "I'm so glad you got to come."

Eli grinned. He glanced at Demetri but he still avoided eye contact.

She looked between them and sighed. "Everything would be even greater if you the two of you would get over yourselves and take up." Sydney continued, mostly looking at Demetri.

"I'll get over myself when he apologizes," said Eli.

Demetri scoffed. "Not likely." He said back and walked away from them.

"Oh, come on." Sydney complained.

"Just face it, Syd. He's not gonna let it go." Hawk said with a sad sigh.

"He will eventually, I promise." She told him and rubbed his arm. "Everybody's just been on edge lately. Hopefully once this damn tournament's over, maybe things can go back to the way they were before."

He didn't look convinced. "I wouldn't count on it." He muttered.

Sydney tilted her head. "Then at least be happy to be here with us. I know I am." She tried to uplift his spirit. When he was awarded the open spot on the team, Sydney was over the moon because it meant he didn't have to miss out on the trip with them, but her thoughts were still heavily clouded with her argument with Tory.

She was in Barcelona with all of her friends and she would be competing as captain with Sam. Everything should have been perfect but something was missing. Tory was missing.

After checking into their hotel, Alex giving the Senseis a very detailed discussion before they left about the boys and girls not needing to share rooms (considering Robby and Miguel already lived in their house) Sydney, Sam, and Devon went to their designated hotel room. "Oh my gosh, this is so cool!" Devon exclaimed and ran to the bed that was closest to the window.

"My dad said they have a pool and a hot tub." Sam told them and put her suitcase on the bed in the middle. "I mean, I have a pool but not a hot tub."

"I know what I'm doing tonight then," Sydney said and laid on her neck, sighing at the ceiling, "I need a stress release before tomorrow."

"Are you still upset about Tory?" Sam asked, sitting cross crossed on the bed.

"I'm trying not to be. There's more important matters at stake," she explained, her eyes still on the ceiling, "but I feel really bad for her. I literally don't ever want to imagine losing one of my parents. It would kill me."

"Tell me about it," said Devon and she came and sat at the end of Sam's bed. "But I haven't seen Nichols that undone since the All Valley. I think she was actually trying to hurt you."

Sydney tore her eyes away from the ceiling and looked her way, her eyebrows slightly furrowed together. "She wouldn't. I mean, we got past all of that, remember?" She claimed.

Sam looked uncertain. "I don't know, Syd. You remember the two of you at the All Valley. She gave you a panic attack." She brought up.

Of course she remembered. Sydney thought about that day more often than she liked to but it was an event that left an impact on her. Her chest hurt when she thought of it, how badly Tory had hurt her, both physically and emotionally.

But they had grown from it, or at least she thought they had. But maybe she was wrong. Maybe Tory did want to hurt her, Sydney thought, or maybe she was so hurt herself that she needed to take it out on somebody else.

There was a knock at the door. "I'll get it." Sam said and got up from the bed. She quickly went and looked through the peep hole, seeing her father. "It's my dad."

Daniel entered the room and smiled at them. "How are you girls settling in?"

"Really good, Mrs. Larusso." Devon answered.

"Hows your room? Seeing as you have to share with Johnny." Sydney asked and smirked a little.

"W-We'll make it work," Daniel answered, obviously not happy about it. "We're planning a team dinner for tonight so don't snack too much downstairs. And please don't cause too much chaos while we're here. I already had to tell Johnny that."

"Don't worry, Danny. We'll behave." Sydney insisted, casting the girls a side eyed look.

He held his hands. "Just making sure." Before he left, Daniel faced them again. "Oh, and another thing, absolutely no sneaking into the boy's rooms tonight. Johnny's giving them the same talk."

("And if you're going to have the girls in here tonight, wait till Larusso goes to sleep. And no orgies." Johnny told the boys, all three of them giving each other wide eyed looks.)

"Dad!" Sam said with wide eyes.

"Don't dad me. I'm serious. This is a karate tournament, not a personal vacation."

"We promise, Mr. L. No sneaking out." Sydney promised him, holding up her crossed fingers.

"Good." The man said and with a final nod, he left the room.

Sam looked her way and raised her brows. "You definitely would." She started.

"Oh yeah, of course I will." Sydney said and smirked. She lied back down on the bed.

On the morning of the tournament, Sydney felt nauseous. She'd woke up earlier than scheduled, taking some time to her self by going downstairs of the hotel and drinking tea (she was on her third cup). She was sitting alone at one of the tables when Eli appeared. "Morning," he greeted her.

"Good morning," she said back kindly and sipped her tea. "Why are you up so early?"

He sat at the table with her. "Why are you?" He reciprocated.

"I'm nervous for today."

Hawk nodded. "Yeah, same." He tapped his fingers on the table. "Is it weird I feel like I shouldn't be here?"

Sydney frowned. "Why would you say that?"

"I-I don't know," he said and shook his head. "It's stupid really."

"Don't say that." She slid the cup of tea his way. "Here, have this."

"No, it's yours—"

"It's my third cup this morning. I've had well enough I think."

Eli chuckled and took the cup. "Okay, thanks. Uhhh. . .I mean, I'm here cause Tory dropped out. What does that say about me?"

"You should have been considering to be on the team in the first place," Sydney said quickly. "But you're not just here because of Tory, Eli. You're one of the best fighters on the team. You make us better."

Slowly, he half smiled. "Thanks," he muttered. "I used to be scared of you."

She slipped out a chuckle. "What?" Then she thought about it. "Oh yeah, I can see that. Sorry."

"No, it's alright. I mean, you only picked on me, like, a handful of times since the seventh grade."

Sydney groaned. "Don't make me feel bad, please."

Eli laughed. "I just mean that I never imagined us becoming friends. Like, ever. I thought I was too uncool to your friend."

She frowned again. "Eli—"

"But you changed my mind!" He quickly added. "I mean, you even knocked me back into reality when I went all nuts in the brain. You're pretty much like a sister to her now."

Blinking multiple times, Sydney smiled warmly. "Really?" When he nodded, her smile widened even more. "Aww, I love you."

By that time, more of the team came downstairs. Miguel and Charlie came down and walked over to their table. "Morning children." Charlie said bubbly and sat down, propping his long legs on the table.

Miguel kissed the top of her head. "Good morning." He said sweetly.

"Who else feels like they're going to vomit today?" Charlie asked and raised his hand.

Sydney raised hers and he reached over, high fiving it, causing her to look at him weirdly.

"Less of vomiting, more of anxiety inducing butterflies." Miguel explained.

"I'm just ready for it to be over so I can enjoy the rest of the trip." Sydney said with a groan. "I couldn't even enjoy the hot tub last night because it's all I can think about."

"I definitely enjoyed it."

She smirked his way.

Eli and Charlie looked at each other. "It's too early for this." Charlie said with a gag and he got up from the table.

"Yeah, I second that," said Hawk and they left the couple alone.

Sydney felt overwhelmed by the amount of teams at the Sekai Taikai, people her age from all around the world. She held Miguel's hand as they followed everyone to the building. Johnny caught up with the couple. "Frenchy, your mom asked me to give you these before the tournament," he told her and pulled her bottle of anxiety meds out of his pocket. "She also gave me an inhaler. We don't want a repeat of last time."

"Yeah, that was smart." Sydney said and took the bottle from him. She popped one of the pills into her mouth. "Thanks, Johnny."

Walking into the building, she thought of the All Valley again and her stomach filled with butterflies. "Oh dear," she said and eyed all of the teams standing around the edge of the mat.

"You can say that again," Demetri said from where he stood in front of her.

Devon had a giddy smile on her face. "How cool is this?"

"Jesus, look at all these guys," Robby spoke, eyeing all of the people.

Sydney continued to look around the room when she saw another team walk in. Her face, along with her stomach, dropped drastically when she recognized the solid black gi and it was solidified when she saw the Cobra symbol on the back. "You've got to be joking." She said out loud.

"Damn, we can never catch a break, can we?" Charlie said with a dropped jaw.

It was a whole new team she observed, all of them looking really tough and smug. Sydney thought of how smug all of the Cobra Kai members used to be and she thought in her head that she could handle them. But then she saw that there was only seven of them and she felt confused.

Then, she felt sick to her stomach like she would actually vomit. In fact, every part of her went completely numb. When Tory showed up, declaring herself the eighth member, every gut wrenching, physically painful feeling she had been feeling since their fight came back all at once and suddenly the anxiety pill wasn't enough to keep her from shaking.

They were all in complete shock. Charlie's eyes widened drastically upon seeing her and he looked down at Sam, her eyes trained on her as if she was seeing a ghost. Each of them seemed to be going through a different emotion: them in shock, Robby in denial, Miguel anger, Hawk and Devon confused, Demetri accepting that they might be toast, and then Sydney looked betrayed. She felt betrayed.

She cried over her. She gave her all to her because she wanted them to be friends. She put her heart on the line so that Tory would understand that she wasn't alone in this world. Sydney tried so hard for her and every time, Tory disappointed her. They'd been here before on opposite teams, both wanting the same thing but willing to go different lengths to get it.

Every ounce on guilt, worry, and even doubt Sydney had felt washed away and she felt herself darken. Her shakes of anxiety became shakes of anger. She didn't look at any of her teammates or senseis or anybody else on any of the teams, she only looked at Tory, and she sent her a message with her eyes, that she wanted to win and she would stop at nothing to get it, even if it meant completely ruining the person she worked so hard to become.

oh y'all are not readyyyyy

okay but prime Miguel and prime Syd in action? It's giving villain couple and I love it