Chapter Twenty Four
Primadonna

SYDNEY WAS NOT mad at Miguel. She knew he didn't do it. He was too nice to even think about something like that but he was apart of Cobra Kai and they didn't know who reached the dojo yet, so she decided to be mad at all of them. She was so mad that she spent her morning cleaning up the Miyagi dojo in the burning heat.

"I really hope you guys know how much I love you.  I'm covered in sweat and trying not to throw up." Sydney complained and fanned her face.

Sam grinned. "Thank you for helping, Syd."

"Are you mad at Miguel?" Robby asked.

"Course not," she shook her head breathlessly. "He's like a little puppy. He's not capable of something like this. Plus, he knows I would murder him. For now, I'm choosing to be mad at all of them."

Demetri nodded. "You're a good friend."

Sydney blinked in surprise and smiled a pretty, genuine smile.

They moved on to try and lift the large rock that had fallen over. Sydney wasn't strongest person and nearly pulled her neck trying to lift the stupid thing.

"Listen, about the other night,"  Robby said quietly to Sam.

Sydney furrowed her brows.

"Nothing happened.  So, there's no reason to feel uncomfortable, right?" The brunette said and played off a smile.

Sydney looked at them weirdly and went back to trying to lift the rock. When she felt her lower back start to strain, she gave up. "Okay, I'm too young and good looking to have back problems. This thing isn't budging."

"Are you guys lifting?"  Demetri questioned.  "Because I feel like I'm doing nothing here."

"You aren't."  Sydney glared.

"Forget it,  all right?  It's too heavy.  We're gonna need a forklift."  Robby gave up.

"How'd they even knock it off?"  Sam asked.

"It's a lot easier to knock something down than it is to lift it up."  Daniel chimed.

Sydney whistled.  "That was deep."

"Uh,  excuse me."

Everyone turned around to see a group of boys had entered the back yard.  Sydney recognized one of them as Chris,  a boy from Cobra Kai.

"Is this Miyagi-Do?"  Chris asked.

Robby and Sam shared a look.

"Yeah!"  Daniel replied.

Robby stormed toward them angrily.  "Come back for another beating?"

"Hey,  Robby."  Daniel intervened and stopped him.

Sydney crossed her arms in interest. 

"Robby!"

Robby listened to him and stopped in his tracks.  "This is one of the guys who was beating on Demetri."

"What?"  Sydney snapped,  making them all look at her.

All the boy's eyes widened.  "Aren't you Miguel's girlfriend?"  One of them asked.  He was a small boy with tan skin and black hair with glasses.

"And what about it?"  She asked smartly.

"Probably helped trash the dojo." Robby added.

"We didn't have anything to do with that." Chris immediately denied. He looked behind him at Demetri. "But I am sorry about what happened at the mall."

Demetria gaze fell to the ground, making Sydney feel bad.

"We just wanna learn Miyagi-Do karate."

"I'd be careful about this, Mr. L," Demetri warned.   "Letting the Cobra Kai's into Miyagi-Do. It's like letting the wildings behind the wall."

Sydney understand the reference but still groaned. "Oh, you are such a nerd."

"You have Cobra Kai's girlfriend here, though," said another one of the boys and he pointed at Sydney. "Who's to say she didn't do it?"

"Uh oh." Sam muttered under her breath.

Sydney's face darkened and she stormed up to them.  "I have been here been here since seven this morning picking up the mess that your dojo created,  sweating my ass off,  nearly pulling a muscle in my back and ruining my perfect posture,  and I've been doing it all with a smile on my face—"

"Sort of."  Demetri mumbled.  Sam quickly nudged him.

"And you're trying to tell me I did this?  Do I need to karate kick some sense back in your head because I so gladly will."  She finished.

All the color drained from their faces.

Daniel slowly walked forward and grabbed her shoulders. "Thank you, Sydney. I think they get the point."

"They better." she said and glared at them, walking back to where Demetri and Sam were.

"She's not a student, right?" Chris asked in fear.

"She can be." Robby shot.

Daniel quickly changed the subject. He turned around and looked at Demetri. "Didn't the wildings help Jon Snow win the battle of the bastards?"

Demetri paused and looked down in defeat. "Should've kicked a different analogy."

Sydney made a small reference with her pointer finger and thumb.

Daniel grinned and looked back at the new guys. "We're happy to have you. Nice to meet you."

Chris smiled and shook his hand. The rest came up and shook his hand as well.

"Come out front with me. We'll start you first lesson."

Chris and Demetri locked eyes. Both the looks on their faces were somewhat sad. Sydney looked between them. She could tell that Chris meant well but her friends came first. Carefully, she put a hand on Demetri's arm, making him look down at her.

She gave him a small smile. "If you need me to threaten them with my heels, just let me know."

His face brightened. "Thanks Sydney."

Samantha smiled at her kindness.

When Miguel texted Sydney to let her know that he would be at the dojo all day,  she responded that she was at the Miyagi-Do dojo helping them clean up the mess.  It made Miguel frown.  It wasn't that he didn't like her being at the Miyagi-Do dojo,  because Sydney was best friends with Sam.  He didn't like the fact that she was most likely learning Miyagi-Do karate instead of Cobra Kai karate.

Sydney made her own decisions.  He knew that.  He in no way shape or form would ever make her choose between them but he wished that she showed interest in learning karate with him.

Miguel sat down on the bench while talking a break from the intense workouts they were doing.  He stared down at his texts,  reading the messages between him and Sydney.

Seing the look on his face,  Tory walked up to him.  "Why the down look?"

Miguel shook his head tiredly.  "It's nothing.  It's just Syd's at the Larusso's house again."

Tory's expression darkened.  "She's still friends with Sam?"

Miguel nodded.  "They've been friends for a long time."

"That's stupid.  She's too good to friends with someone like her."

Not wanting to get involved in that drama,  Miguel just shrugged. 

"Are you mad that she's there?"  Tory asked and raised an eyebrow.

"Mo,  it's not that.  It's just Syd always says that she's not interested in karate but she's always at the
Miyagi-Do dojo."

Tory smirked.  "Ahh,  so you're jealous?"

Miguel narrowed his eyes.  "What?  No.  No,  I'm not jealous."

She gave him a look.  "Teally?  Then why do you care?"

"Cause I feel like she does like karate but she acts like she doesn't.  I kinda wish she would take interest in karate with me instead of them."  Miguel admitted.

Tory nodded.  "Well,  I don't know her as well as all of you do but I can tell if she did take an interest,  you'd be the first person to know."

Miguel cracked a grin.  "I know.  I don't know,  I just. . . I don't want this rival that sensei has with Mr.  Larusso to reflect on us. Especially since she's best friends with his daughter."

"You're worried that she's have to choose sides one day?"  Tory asked when she started to realize.

Miguel didn't realize that's how he was feeling but he slowly nodded.  "Y-Yeah,  I guess I am."

Tory pursed her lips.  "Sydney really likes you.  Trust me,  she won't let it get that far."

Miguel only half grinned.  "I really hope not.  Cause that would suck."

Tory nodded and her eyes looked across the room at Charlie.  He was looking down at his phone and taking small gulps from his water bottle.  "Yeah,  it would."  She muttered.

Sydney sat across from Sam on the doc and they were refilling the plants with dirt and soil.  Sydney noticed the way Sam's eyes would flicker to Robby occasionally,  who was training with Demetri and Chris.  "Are should going to tell me what's going on with you and green eyes?"

Sam seemed startled.  "What do you mean?"

Sydney gave her an obvious look.  "You think I haven't noticed the tension between you two? Or the staring? I can smell the sexual tension from across the yard."

Sam's eyes widened and she smacked her arm. "Sydney!"

"You know I'm right," Sydney laughed. "Now tell me."

Sam clicked her jaw and rolled her eyes. "Okay. We. . . We almost kissed last night."

Sydney gasped. "Samantha Larusso!"

"Shhh!" Sam shushed her quickly. "I know, I know. I don't know what happened. It just, it felt right in that moment."

"Well, what stopped you?"

"We kinda stopped each other," Sam said sadly. "He stopped because of my dad. He doesn't want something between us to ruin him living here."

Sydney nodded. "That's understandable. What else?"

Sam paused pouring the dirt in the pot. "I really like Charlie."

"Uh oh, this is a bad case of the love triangle trope." Sydney sighed.

"Charlie's an amazing guy,"  Sam continued.  "He's so sweet.  We've been hanging out a lot lately."

"But Robby. . ."  Sydney trailed.

"Is also very sweet.  I don't know."

"Sam,"  the Brit started.  "Don't confuse attraction with romance.  You might be attracted to one of them,  but you have romantic feelings toward another.  They're very easy to confuse."

"The problem is I don't know which is which."  Sam muttered.

Sydney went silent and looked behind her,  watching the green eyes boy laugh at something Demetri said.  She looked back at Sam.  "Time can only tell,  babe.  Just don't play with their feelings,  okay?  Hurting both of them will only make things uglier in the future."

After Miguel texted her that the lesson was almost over,  Sydney said goodbye to everyone and drove to the dojo to pick him up.  When Miguel exited to the dojo,  she perked up.  He saw her car and immediately made his way over.  He quickly got in the car.  "Hey babe."

"Hi,  my love."  She replied happily and kissed him.  "Ew,  you're very sweaty."

"So are you."  He said and looked at her sweat coated arms.

She began backing out of the parking lot.  "I spent nearly two hours trying to lift a stupid rock that your team mates pushed over.  They're lucky I don't bash in their skulls with it."

Miguel knew she wasn't joking. "Who do you think did it?"

She shrugged. "Not you."

He grinned.

"Definitely not Charlie. He's too nice. Plus, he's totally into Sam and that wouldn't be a good look for him. Tory I could probably see but I don't think she did. Bert's too small.  He'd probably crush himself trying to move that rock. I'm not sure about any of the others. It was probably Hawk, honestly. His ego is as giant as that stupid haircut."

Miguel's heart fluttered at the way she said stupid, her accent emphasizing.

When he didn't say anything, Sydney looked over and saw how tired he looked. "You look exhausted. What did you have to do today?"

Miguel groaned. "God, it was horrible. We had to do burpees,  rope exercises,  sit ups. . . My heart felt like it was in my throat."

"I'm sorry love,"  she frowned and turned down a street.  "I can't believe Johnny had you do all that."

"Well,  it wasn't him completely. . ."  Miguel trailed.

"What do you mean?"

"Sensei got a call from someone and he had to leave.   He said it was an emergency.  He had Sensei Kreese finish the lesson."

Sydney tensed up when he said the name.  "Oh?"

"Yeah,  and then he said we're all responsible for trashing the dojo because we're a team."

She scoffed.  "That's rubbish.  Whoever did it should be kicked off.  You had nothing to do with it."

"I know,"  Miguel nodded.  "But then when Tory and I were sparring,  he said in the real world,  it's not about scoring points.  It's about being a winner or a loser.  Then he said there were no losers in Cobra Kai."

Sydney listened attentively.  "Do you think he meant something deeper than what he implied?"

Miguel only shrugged.  "I don't know.  Maybe."

"I don't like him.  He gives me bad vibes."  She shook her head.  "Didn't you said that he was really hard on Johnny?"

Miguel nodded.  "Yeah.  He didn't go into full detail."

Sydney shook her head slightly.  "I'll be damned if he acts hard like that on you."

Miguel smiled warmly.  "I like when you get protective."

"Well,  I'm not gonna let anyone fuck with my man,"  she said and looked at him.  "Besides,  I could probably take his ass down with a kick from my heels."

The boy chuckled.  "I have no doubt."

She winked at him and smiled,  grabbing his hand and kissing it.  "Wanna massage when we get to your house?"

Miguel almost cried and not just cause his body was sore and indeed needed a massage.

When Sydney goes from almost breaking Demetri's nose as kids to basically promising to protect him >>>

I feel like I'm creating a brotp with her and Robby and I'm gonna be really sad when the school fight comes and I ruin it  😭

sydney's high heels are her secret weapon

sam + charlie or sam + robby???🤔🤔🤔

miguel's basically foreshadowing the rest of this story and he doesn't even know it