Chapter One Hundred Seven
Primadonna

      SAM NEVER TALKED about what happened between her and Kyler. She never brought up the assault. She didn't even like to think about it. But Sydney thought about it all the time. She thought about when she held her crying friend in her bed room after the assault happened and she thought all the time about the rumors that spread around school after. Sam's heart was broken and when people messed with Sam, Sydney got violent. Now the same thing happened with Robby and Sydney's mindset was violent.

Everybody began to gather in the arena. Miguel pulled Sydney to the side so they could talk. "Are you gonna tell me what that was back at the hotel?"

Sydney didn't speak a word after leaving the hotel. Most of them were afraid to ask her what was wrong. The only person who understood was Robby. She sighed. "It's not for me to tell," she answered with a simple shrug.

Miguel pinched his brows. "You're not gonna tell me?"

"I'm sure when the time is right, you'll be informed, but for right now I need you to listen to me," she spoke calmly. "I know you're upset that you're not a captain, and believe me, you damn well deserve it,"

He straightened his shoulders.

"But right now, Robby really needs our encouragement. I know he's been struggling but instead of being angry at him and trying to show him up, be there for him. Inspire him. You're good at that." Sydney grabbed both of his hands. "You two are practically brothers at this point, so do what a brother would do for his brother, and be on his side."

Miguel was still very confused at what she was insinuating but he decided not to question it any further. There was truth to what she was saying. He nodded silently and she responded with a smile.

The team all stood together around the mat where Gunther stood with his microphone. "Over the course of the tournament, you have each proven yourselves worthy of your place atop the leaderboard. And after today, only the best will gain entry into our tournament of champions,"

As he talked, Sydney eyed the crowded. She watched Axel and Zara stand in sync like two robots. She watched the other dojos appear smug, something that annoyed her. What caught her eye was Silver, his presence chilling her bones.

"Now, here are the rules of this round," Gunther continued. "Each team will face three opponents, determined by random draw, in an all-dojo tag team competition!"

The crowded room erupted with cheers. Her ears perked with interest and she shared a look with Sam, growing a smirk.

"Two fighters inside the ring. One from each dojo at a time. The other ten fighters remain outside, waiting to be tagged in by their teammate."

Sydney leaned on her hip and brought her thumb nail between her teeth, falling in deep through. It didn't sound like a difficult challenge, they just needed to be smart and work together. As a captain, it was her job to get them there.

Once Gunther's announcement was over, the team gathered together. "Alright guys, the trick is to always be on your toes and be alter," Charlie led the conversation.

"Charlie's right. Whoever's tag in can't hesitate," Sam agreed with her boyfriend.

Robby and Sydney eyed each other from a cross the gathered circle. They nodded to each other. "We have to work as team on this, okay? No bullshit anymore." She told them in a firm tone.

"No bullshit," said Robby, nodding along.

Sydney looked at Miguel, her eyebrows raising. His game face was already on. "We can do this." He declared.

"Okay. . .how do we decide who goes first?" Eli questioned, eyes shifting between all of them.

There was silence. "Rock, paper, scissors?" Charlie suggested.

"I'll go first," Sydney stated, her wondering eyes staring harshly at the Iron Dragon team.

He slowly dropped his hands that were prepared to play the game. "Oh, sure. Yeah."

They separated and the two teams circled around the mat. The lucky draw was Furia de Panthera. Sydney and Maria met each other in the middle. "Hola," she greeted with a cocky smirk.

Sydney only smiled sarcastically and she raised her fists. Maria came in with a front kick and she backed up, only for the her to do another kick. Sydney blocked her extended foot with her wrist and then she ducked under her lifted let, pressing her hands to the mat and she brought her leg back, kicking her in the abdomen. Maria stumbled back and Sydney swiftly stood back up, staring at the girl with a blank yet intimidating stare. Bringing her fists back, she shuffled forward on her feet and Maria dropped down on one of her knees, attempting to take her legs out from under her but Sydney jumped, missing her legs and she spun around, kicking Maria across the face.

"YES!" She heard Johnny shout as the ref announced her point.

"Syd, tag me in!" Eli said from behind her.

Sydney's eyes locked with Zara, who stood there watching with her arms crossed over her chest. Smirking, she blew a kiss in her direction and backed up, tagging Eli's hand so he could go in.

He went in first with a front kick as the boy from the other dojo hit his foot with his fist.

Sydney sat her hands on her hips and inhaled a breath, now feeling nervous.

After a short pause, Eli threw a punch and the boy blocked his hits with his forearms, shoving him backwards with his upper body. He then stepped forward with two kicks and then a full body spin. Eli quickly moved to the other side of the mat.

"Be ready!" She yelled at her teammates.

The fight continued and Eli kicked him in the back. They threw a couple more punches until the boy from the other dojo did a side kick, to which Eli grabbed a hold of his legs and punched him again. He rolled on the mat to his other teammate. He released a rather aggressive hell.

"Hawk, tag me in," Kenny told him from behind him.

"Eli, tag him in!" Charlie shouted.

He just stood there. "Mate, what the hell are you doing?" Sydney exclaimed, throwing her hands up.

"Hawk, tag in Kenny!" Ordered Sam.

They continued to yell at him until Eli made a decision. He ran and tagged in Robby, leaving him confused. "What are you doing?"

"Robby!" Sydney yelled, seeing as how he wasn't paying attention.

"Watch out!" Charlie yelled as the boy from the other team that got tagged in came in got with a leg sleep, taking Robby's legs out from under him and he fell to the mat with a harsh thud. Then he did a fast spin and punched him in the chest.

"Point!"

Sydney sighed heavily and rolled her eyes.

The boy ran and tagged in a girl opponent. Robby got up and missed her kick but his blocks were flimsy. Miguel shouted at him to tag him in but as Robby went to touch him hand, the girl tagged in another one of her teammates and he blocked it with his foot.

Robby blocked one of his hits and the boy brought his knee up, hitting him and then punching him in the chest.

"Point! Winner!" Yelled the ref.

"Team Panthera with an impressive victory. Miyagi-Do's loss puts them on the verge of elimination after their first match."

Sydney blew air out of her nose and her face darkened into a glare.

"Eli, why didn't you tag in Kenny when you had the chance?" Miguel scolded his friend.

Eli looked unfazed. "He just got here. You expect us to trust him already?"

"Trust me to what? Not get my ass kicked like you and Demetri?" Kenny shot back, glaring at him.

Charlie held up his hands. "Okay, guys, calm down," he tried to be the voice of reason.

"Oh yeah, like you'd do any better against Spanish Hawk," Demetri argued with him. "You completely disappeared after the Shittening and then you coincidentally come back the same time as Silver. You really want to tag in a mole?"

"Are you serious? I fly here to help us win, and you won't even give me a chance?" Kenny said angrily. "Now everybody done laughed say me in the woods, but somehow, I'm the bad guy, right?"

"See, he's still pissed. It makes sense he'd want revenge," Eli took Demetri's side.

Sydney had enough. She stormed up to them with a red face. "Okay, shut up, both of you. I don't know what's gotten into you guys but there is a fine line between being a genius and being an idiot, and you two are playing fucking jump rope with it!" She yelled at them both. "You are going to cost us this whole thing if you don't pull your heads out of your asses. So please, shut up and figure it out!"

She spun around and stormed off.

"Wait, Syd, where are you going?" Miguel called out.

"To kick something!" She yelled back.

After taking her anger out on a chair, creating a very loud ruckus, Sydney cracked her knuckles and took a walk around the upper section of the arena to clear her head. As much as she loved Demetri and Eli, she had the urge to pop their heads like a pimple. All this time they were arguing with each other and now they practically wanted to sabotage their chances moving to the live tournament.

None of it would be worth it in the end if they didn't work as a team.

She stopped when she saw a confrontation between Tory and Zara. "Zara's real secret is she's a two-faced bitch who doesn't give a shit about her karate sisters unless it's to steal their boyfriends," she said into her phone as Zara tried fighting her to give it back.

"Give me that!"

"Enough!" Sensei Kim yelled and got between them. "Leave," she said to Zara and the shorter girl quickly walked away.

She passed by Sydney, side eyeing her as the British girl smirked. She watched Kim lecture the blonde before walking off again, leaving Tory to stand there alone. She raised her eyes and saw Sydney standing there with her arms crossed, watching the whole thing.

Sydney slowly walked towards her, keeping a few feet between them. "You probably just ended all of her brand deals just now," she pointed out.

Tory scoffed. "Maybe she'll be able to focus on actually winning now."

She grew the slightest smirk. "May the best woman win, I guess," she stated and turned around to walk away.

"Syd," she called her name. Sydney paused and slowly turned back around. Tory swallowed. "If Robby did something terrible, would you tell me?"

She almost scoffed. "Something terrible like sleeping with someone else?" She jabbed, crossing her arms again.

Tory furrowed her brows. "You knew?"

"Robby told me. Said Kwan was pretty clear on the details."

Now she was more confused. "Wait, Kwan? What are you talking about?"

Sydney quickly dropped her arms again. "Oh come on, Tory, don't act dumb. You're not dumb. If you slept with Kwan, just say it," she almost snapped.

"Slept with Kwan?" Tory repeated with a disgusted look on her face. "Where the hell did you get that information?"

"Your boy likes to talk," she simply stated and started to walk off again.

"Wait, Sydney!" She said and quickly walked up to her. Tori put her hand on her shoulder, turning her around. "I didn't sleep with Kwan. I haven't slept with anyone."

Sydney pinched her brows together. "You didn't? Haven't?" She questioned, now feeling confused herself.

"No, why would I ever do that?"

"That's what Kwan told Robby."

"Why would Kwan do that?"

"Because it's Kwan!" Sydney's voice cracked. "He hates Robby. He'll say anything to try and get in his head. That's probably why—" she stopped.

Tory titled her head. "Why what?"

"It doesn't matter," she mumbled at a fast pace and tried to leave again.

"No, don't do that. Don't walk away from me."

"You're one to talk, Tory," Sydney replied and turned the corner.

Tory kept up with her pace. "I didn't sleep with anyone, okay? I'm the one who had to see Robby coming out of another girl's room. How do you think that made me feel?"

She stopped abruptly, Tory almost running to her back. Sydney tightened her jaw and turned back around, her eyes growing somber. "Tory, you don't know the whole story," she said leisurely, her words quiet.

She shook her head. "What whole story? What the hell happened?"

"It's not for me to tell—"

"No, okay, you can't just drop a bomb on me like that and then walk away!" Tory raised her voice. "Tell me what happened?"

Sydney swallowed a lump in her throat, the other go staring back at her desperately. She still found it so hard to talk to her after their outburst on the beach, but both Tory's name and Robby's name were lied on. As much as she wanted to clear the air, she couldn't. "I can't tell you, Tory, but believe me when I say this, Robby didn't mean to hurt you. If you don't believe anything I say, just please believe that."

She walked off and once again, Tory didn't stop her. She stared at the back of her head while taking deep breath, her head and heart now rattling.

Sydney eventually came back down to the lower level of the arena. She needed to talk to Robby. She carefully walked the crowd of people when she heard her name. "Sydney Benoist." Silver's voice gave her chills. He stood there towering over her and smiling at her creepily. "How great it is to see you again."

She hummed unimpressed. "Can't say the same," she said and awkwardly looked around her.

"Your moves have improved. You've been training hard. Though everybody knows you've always been the best."

Sydney didn't respond. She stared up at him with narrow eyes.

"And yet it seems like your dojo's falling apart right under your nose," Silver continued, shooting a look to Miyagi-Do. "Seems like they're dragging you down. I've always known how great of a fighter you are."

She scoffed. "Yeah? Is that why you cheated in the All Valley so I'd lose?"

The man chuckled. "To play ball, you gotta get a little dirty. But you're the best on the ball team and I guarantee my team would benefit from having the great Sydney Benoist join us."

Sydney felt like she was in a nightmare, the kind you have to be slapped in the face to wake up from. "Yeahhh," she dragged out. "Thanks for the offer. I'm trying really hard to see it from your perspective but unfortunately, I can't get my head that far up my ass. I don't compete for cheaters and sorry to tell you, I can't be bought. Have a nice day." She spun around on her heels and walked away to go back to her team.

Johnny saw her coming and he exhaled. "There you are Frenchy. Where'd you go? Don't tell me you kicked another tree."

Sydney grinned. "No, the trees are safe from me today. I think Silver just tried to poach me."

Him, Daniel, and Chozen all looked at each other. "What? Seriously?" Daniel said and turned his head, seeing Silver from across the room.

"What he say?" Asked Chozen.

"Said he thinks you're all dragging me down and that I'd benefit from being on his team," she recited and rubbed his chest with one of her hands.

"Yeah?" Johnny said while glaring at Silver. "What did you say?"

"That I can't be bought." She replied simply and she crossed her arms. "Winners don't buy trophies, gentlemen. They earn them."

The three Senseis looked at each other again but this time, they smiled. "That's my girl," Daniel praised and pulled her into a side hug.