Hawk had to leave Cora the night prior, not being able to stay the night due to his parents, along with Cora's, getting home earlier this morning. Despite it, she was still up before they were. Only getting a few hours in, she set an alarm to wake her before the sun was rising. She raced to her closet, looking for anything that was practically yelling Hawk. She wanted to get his attention, wanted to dress and look the way he would want her to.

Cora scrubbed her entire body, washing her hair, straightening it. She lathered up in lotion, struggled terribly to get a pair of leather pants on her legs, pulling a red long sleeve, with a black collar, over her head. She coated her lips in red, using a red eyeshadow to line her eyes under the coats of mascara. She did it three times before liking it enough, deciding if she was him, he'd like that she was in red, to match his hair. She decided if she was him, he'd like the leather because it was badass, and he seemed to be into that.

"You're up early." Dutch looked from the couch as Cora came down. "Rocking a red lip, I see?"

Cora cracked a grin at him. Despite not being close with her parents, she had been with her uncle. That could probably be because he lived with them and was extremely immature for his old age. "Does it look weird?"

"No, like a super-star." he gave a point as she hurried toward the kitchen table to get her project, that she did end up finishing after her late night visitor left. "The parents are unpacking if you wanna peak in."

"Gotta get to school to bring this in early, so i'm not carrying it around all day." Cora shoved a jello into her backpack, pulling her hair loose from under her backpack. "How was the Reseda building?"

"You know, Reseda-ish." Dutch said back, sitting up with an inhale as his bleach hair, like Coras, stood out as the sun started to rise a little. "Your moms pissed it's not doing well."

Cora shrugged. "Maybe people don't like real frozen yogurt. You know, it's usually just a word to make people feel better about eating ice cream."

"That's what I tried to tell her." he rose his hands with a shrug.

Cora headed to the door, stopping with a faint look. "Do you think i'd be good at karate?"

Dutch frowned his eyebrows. "Sure thing. You've kicked my ass a few times."

"Yeah, but you go easy on me." she pointed out, messing with her fingers slightly as she thought about Hawk and the rest of Cobra Kai, and they'd definitely not go easy on her. "Do you think i'd do okay?"

"Duh." Dutch flashed her a smile. "Your mind is your biggest weapon. And you've got a pretty weird one of those."

Cora grinned, grabbing the door. "See ya."

"See ya." he threw a peace sign her way, falling back on the couch as she headed out the door. Cora got into her car, setting her project to the side as she pulled her phone out. She knew he said he didn't like getting up early, but Cora could imagine Hawk got up pretty early to do his hair the way he did. She took her chances.

To Hawk: Good Morning. Sorry, if you're not awake.
From Cora.

She stared at it for a solid minute, her heart thumping when she saw the three bubbles appear on the screen. Cora bite the inside of her mouth, taking little breaths. Her face fell when she saw the dots disappear, her shoulders dropping in pure disappointment. Her negative thoughts were cut off by a picture coming through instead, Hawk with his tooth brush in his mouth. The text under it said good morning back.

Cora gave a mini cheer, because it was on a rare occasion she'd actually talk to a guy after the night before. Despite them not really even doing anything, she'd still gotten overly attached in the few hours they spent laying together, letting him slowly start to feel comfortable touching her again. Cora positioned her phone over her steering wheel, fixing the hair around her face, pushing at her bangs slightly to get them to flow. She checked her lipstick, making sure it hadn't gotten on her teeth, snapping the picture and sending it back.

She debated on a caption, not finding a decent one. The bubbles appeared again, her leg was tapping on the floor of the car anxiously. Cora gave a little yell of joy when he sent her back two heart eyes, flying back in her seat with a large grin, sending a little smily back before starting the car, knowing she really needed to get her project their early.

"Thank you, Cora. It looks very nice." Miss Bradley smiled as Cora laid her AP Biology project on the table where the rest had been. "Will you be presenting it today?"

Cora's face flooded in red. "Presenting?"

"Yes, it's half your grade." she said back, seeing the panic across her face. "You'll just need to give a summary on what you did, and why."

Cora knew what a presentation was, a horrible fear in her mind. She hated standing infront of everyone, the horrible anxiety in her chest building up so bad, then the over analyzing afterwards on all she did wrong. Not to mention, the way everyone was clearly talking about her the entire time she was up there. The blonde forced a little smile, her voice came out weary. "Of, course. I must have forgot."

Miss Bradley gave a small smile as Cora grabbed her bag, the bell ringing above her as she headed down the hallway. Her locker wasn't too far from AP Bio, her home room at the end of the hallway as well. She stuffed her books into the locker, inhaling and trying to calm herself down. Bio was her last class, she knew she'd be panicking the entire day and wouldn't be able to shake this feeling. She debated faking a sickness to get out of it, but even if she did, she'd still have to repeat it tomorrow, only alone this time.

Her head turned, and she felt relieved to see Hawk coming down the hallway. She felt like she could tell him what was wrong, he probably didn't have trouble with presentations. Cora's face lit up as he walked, hadn't seen her yet. She hoped the red lip, the eyeliner, the pants, all of would get his attention, that he'd like it all enough to bother to stick around a little bit longer. Cora wasn't use to guys ever actually waiting around with her, she'd never even had a solid boyfriend for more then one night, when they'd ask her to be their girlfriends, then say it wasn't gonna work out the next morning.

Her entire face fell, as well as her heart hitting her feet, when he walked straight past her.

Cora put her face into her locker, feeling like crying, feeling like just leaving. She was embarrassed and felt what she felt every time there was a new boy. The sadness that was crushing her now, really wanting to walk out of school and shrivel up.

Math rolled around, and the last thing Cora had expected was for Hawk to sit infront of her. "Hey."

She blinked, looking up from her paper. She tried not to seem so desperate and relived, because she actually hated how she could go from crying over a guy to just being glad her spoke to her. "Hey."

"I like your eyes." he nodded to her liner. "Make you look badass."

Cora smiled, because he was the first guy that compliment her when she perfected herself to get their attention. "Did you not see me this morning?"

"This morning?" he looked at her in confusion. "Where you in the cafeteria?"

"No, the hallway." her face fell slightly. It was a crowded hallway, easy to miss someone. But she saw him immediately, she wished he'd did the same.

"Oh, no. You could have came up and said something." he suggested, looking at her pencil pouch. "Can I use one of your pens?"

"Yeah, just give it back. I've got a presentation to do next period." he could sense the dread and panic in her tone. He use to get that way, it was his way to tell.

"You don't seem excited." Hawk grabbed his paper to turn back, sitting it on her desk to write, but stay talking.

"I'm just not good at presenting." Cora bite at the skin on her lips, stopping when she remembered she had the lipstick on today. "I get nervous."

"Just talk really fast, it'll go by quick." his fingers grazed hers.

"It's not that." the blonde sighed, her face was flushed. "Everyone talks about me when i'm up there."

"Talks about you?" his eyes met hers in confusion.

"Yeah, about, like..." she was trailing off, but he pieced it together for her with a nod. "Just distracts me and then I loose my train of thought."

"So, kick their faces in and tell them to stop talking so much shit about you." he said back casually with frowned eyebrows, Cora gapped at him. "Don't look at me like that, i'm serious."

"Just drop my presentation and knock their faces in?" she laughed, and he cracked a grin. "I'll be sure to take your advice."

"I'm just saying, if you don't like them about you, a good hit to the face will shut them up." Hawk said back to her with a knowing look. Their teacher walked in, making him send her a wink. "Think about it."

Cora stared at the back of his head when he turned back around.

•

kylie speaks

dutch mcqueen.