❪    𝓕𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆    ❫      🐍 ˖   ׁ ⁩  𓂃
𝙰𝙲𝚃 𝙾𝙽𝙴  ⸻  ✸ 🥋⭑.ᐟ
𝐒𝟏 : 𝐄𝐏𝟕         ❛ 𝖠𝖫𝖫 𝖵𝖠𝖫𝖫𝖤𝖸  ❜

✦ ╮ 𝟎𝟔, ❛ 𝗜 𝗠𝗜𝗦𝗦 𝗬𝗢𝗨  ❜ ── .✦
❛ 𝑖 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠 𝑚𝑦 𝑏𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑. ❜
──────          ୨ৎ             ──────

     ❝𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐃𝐎 know that you're supposed to be out there with the rest of the class, right?❞ Johnny walks into his office, raising an eyebrow at Laken as she sat at his desk, feet kicked up onto the wooden surface of his desk.

"You do know that I know more about karate than then, right?" Her eyes don't leave the magazine she's reading as she flips the page.

"Fair enough." Johnny shrugged, pushing her out of the way and sitting in the other rolling chair, grabbing a magazine of his own, "Fifty bucks for some nun chucks? They're out of their minds."

Laken looks over at him, "Get dad to loan you some cash. He'd be happy to know that you got Eli out of his comfort zone. He's been trying to do it for years."

"I already owe your dad money that I can't pay back." Johnny sighed, turning the page to ready that there was going to be an All-Valley tournament on May nineteenth.

"Hey, Sensei, I need to ask you something." Miguel walks into the office with a sigh.

"First aids under the counter. We got a bleeder?" Johnny tells him, Laken pointing over to it.

"No. I mean, well, yeah, we do. There's a lot of blood, but this is about something else."

"What is it?" Johnny questioned, looking up at Miguel.

"Well, there's a girl at school . . . ,"

Laken quickly looks up at Miguel's words, a smile breaking out on her face.

"Is she hot?"

". . . . and she's super smart."

"Hot?"

"Funny and cool."

"Hot?"

Miguel chuckled, "Yes, she's hot. Super-hot."

"Nice."

"I think you'd really like her. She likes karate, and-,"

"Wait. Likes Karate? You're not talking about Laken, right? Cause she's practically already married to - never mind." Johnny grunts out as he doubles over in pain from the elbow he took to his ribcage.

"No, it's not Laken. No offence, you're really pretty, but . . . that would be weird."

"No offence here." Laken shrugged.

"Good. Anyway, I wanna ask her out, but I just don't know."

"Don't know? What's there to think about?" Johnny stands up from his seat, "She's hot, and all those other things."

"Well, yeah, but what if she says no?"

Johnny now stands in front of Miguel, "Never accept defeat, Diaz. There is no "no".

"Yes there is."

"Pretty sure no means no."

"If things are getting physical, no means no, but if you're just asking her out . . . you're a Cobra Kai. All the babes wanna date a Cobra Kai."

"Not really."

"Be quiet, Laken Reese!"

Miguel reaches down to take the opened magazine from Johnny's hands, "Are we entering this tournament?"

"I don't think we're ready yet." Johnny says just as "ooh's ring out of the dojo.

Eli, or whatever he was now calling himself, laid in the floor, holding his nose.

"He's okay!" Aisha's voice follows.

"I'm okay." Hawk groaned, standing up from the floor, "It's just a tooth."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

          ❝𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐆𝐎𝐓 this, okay?❞ Laken leans against her closed locker, Miguel pacing around in front of her, "You are gonna ask her out on a date, she's going to say yes, and the two of you will have the time of your lives."

"You think so?" Miguel asked the blonde, turning in her direction.

Laken laughs, nodding her head, "Yes, Miguel, everything is going to be fine. And if you need a getaway driver or a made-up excuse to ditch her, I'm sure Metri, Eli and I can think of the perfect one to get you out of it."

"What is she-,"

"There she is!" Laken calls out, shoving Miguel right into the LaRusso girl, "Sorry!"

"I am so sorry! Laken, she-," Miguel trails off as he looks behind him, Laken nowhere in sight, "Man, she's fast. Anyways, glad I ran into you. Um, I've been thinking about you a lot lately. I mean, not "a lot" a lot. Just the normal amount that someone would think about someone else."

Sam laughs, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, um, I mean, I was . . . do you wanna go on a date with me?"

"Oh! Um . . . Miguel, that's really sweet. I mean, I would like to . . . but with everything that happened with Kyler, I'm taking a break from dating right now." Sam tells him.

"Yeah, no, I get it."

"But I'll see you in class?" Sam questioned him.

"Yeah. Perfect, okay. See you in class." Miguel goes to walk away, but Johnny's voice pops into the back of his head, causing the boy to turn back to Sam who was going through her locker, "What if wasn't a date? What if it's just two people, hanging out at the same place, having fun separately, but together."

"That sounds like a date." She chuckled.

"Really? It wouldn't be a date."

"If it's not a date, then I guess it sounds like it could be fun." Sam smiles at him, "We can even invite Laken and all your other friends."

"Oh, uh . . . . ," Miguel glances up, eyebrows coming together in confusion as he takes notice of Laken standing behind the LaRusso girl, a notebook in her hand the words, 'PLANS! THEY ALL READY HAVE PLANS!', written in thick, black, sharpie. "The three of them already have plans together . . . um, boardgames."

Laken holds a thump up before disappearing.

"Okay. Sounds fun."

"Great!" Miguel smiles widely at her, "What about tonight?"

Sam chuckled, "Pick me up at eight."

"Yeah! Totally! Okay! Oh . . . I have a bike." Miguel tells her.

"Uh, okay, then . . . I'll pick you up."

"Okay, yeah." Miguel smiles watching as she walked away.

"Awe! Miggy has a date!"

A girlish scream leaves the boys lips as he turns around, hand on his chest, "You have got to to stop disappearing like that!"

Laken sends him a sheepish look, "Sorry . . . ,"

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

          ❝𝐈 𝐍𝐄𝐄𝐃 somewhere romantic, but not too romantic. ❞ Miguel stretches his legs out, his three friends doing the same as they say on the matted floor of the dojo.  

Hawk smirked, "You could take her to get tattoos."

Aisha laughs and Laken shoots her cousin a confused look.

"What?"

Hawk grunts as he stands up from the floor, untying the top half of his gi, "I know a guy . . . Laken knows a guy . . . just hooked me up with this bad boy." He turns around to show off the large hawk tattoo that he had gotten, a blue mohawk to match his own.

"Oh!"

"Oh, shit."

"That is badass." Aisha nods her head.

"Right? Fourteen hours in a chair." Hawk smirked, flexing in the mirror in front of him.

"Wait. Are your parents okay with that?" Aisha asked the question that everyone wanted to know.

"Oh, they have no idea." Hawk puts his gi back on, "Definitely gonna have to wear a t-shirt until college. Probably longer. Please don't tell them."

"Hold on, you know a guy?" Miguel turns to look at Laken, head titled to the side. "You have a tattoo?"

"I'm surprised you haven't noticed." Laken chuckled, pulling up her sleeve and pushing the few bracelets on her wrist to the side to revel a small sun tattoo that you would have to really be looking for to actually see it. "It's a little sun, you know cause my personality is basically sunshine."

"She's not lying." Hawk shrugged, "She's always got a happy expression on her face."

"It was a sale for matching, a sun and a moon."

"Well, we're the moon?" Aisha asked, "On the other wrist?"

"No." Laken shakes her head, brushing her thumb over the tattooed sun, "Ro - I have someone that I haven't seen in a while that has the moon."

"Okay, back to the topic." Miguel shakes his head, "Uh . . . any other suggestions?"

"Don't look at me. Sam and I used to be friends." Aisha shakes her head as Miguel glances at her. "We're not friends anymore."

"Don't look at me either. Sam is a nice girl, but we've never been friends. I hang out with mostly guys." Laken tells Miguel as he turns to her next, "Moon is an exception because our moms are friends."

"Okay, but I need somebody's help."

"Fine." Aisha sighed, "Um . . . I know that she likes chocolates and astronomy."

"I could work with that?"

"Banned?! What are you talking about?!"

Miguel and Laken look at each other before they stand up, walking towards Johnny's office where he's on the phone.

"Who the hell are you yelling at?" Laken asked him.

"No, you don't ban me. I'll ban you!" He yells, standing up and hanging the phone up.

"Sensei, what's going on?" Miguel asked.

"There's a lifetime ban on Cobra Kai from entering the tournament." Johnny tells them.

"What? How is that fair?"

"Because of the old jackass Sensei." Laken rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest.

Johnny sends her a warning look as he sits back down, "It's not fair. There's nothing I can do about it."

"What happened to "never accept defeat"? There is no "no"?"

"That was girl advice. This is different." Johnny says to him, "This is the real world. There are rules."

Laken snorts, "Since when do you care about the rules?"

"We don't take no for answer. You said that! You gotta fight this."

"You know what? You're right." Johnny stands up, "I'm gonna go down there . . . and beat their asses!"

"Yeah."

"No, no, no!" Laken shakes her head, moving to block his way out of the small office, "That is not what he meant. Maybe there's a different way to approach this. You know, a more delicate one."

"You are not speaking like a lawyers daughter." Johnny points his finger at Laken.

"I'll break a loser's finger, you put that crusty thing back into my face."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

         ❝𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐏 𝐌𝐄!❞ Johnny turns to his couch where Laken is hanging upside down as she text in her family group chat with her parents and older brother.

The summer was coming up so that meant the annual Callahan family trip and Silas was coming home for the summer, which Laken was super excited about. Because while most brothers and sisters were not close at all, it was the complete opposite with the Callahan siblings.

The two of them were super close with one another and their parents couldn't be prouder of them.

"Ugh, I just sat down." She groaned, rolling over to get up, moving to help him tie the tie around his neck just as there was a knock on the door, "Come in!"

"You can't just say come in, this is my apartment. Come in!"

"Laken already invited me." Miguel shrugged, closing the door behind him, "Are you nervous for your meeting?"

"I'm not nervous, I'm pissed off."

"Be still!"

"You have to be nice to these people. So if you get pissed off, what are you gonna do?"

"I don't know. I usually just punch the guy." Johnny shrugged as Laken stepped away from him, admiring her tie tying with a nod.

Laken shakes her head, "I don't think that's gonna work out in your favor this time."

"How about this? How about when someone makes you angry, you . . . you make a fist like you're gonna punch them, but don't punch them?"

"Hold it it?"

"Yeah."

"That sounds like your safest option."

"I could try it."

"Yeah. Oh! Briefcase. What's inside?" Miguel asked.

Laken snorts, "He don't have a damn thing in there. He found it in the freaking dumpster."

"I found it in the dumpster."

"It's a nice touch."

"Thanks." Johnny smiled, "What about you? Are you nervous for your date?"

"Yeah, uh . . . a little." Miguel nods, "A lot."

"There's nothing to be nervous about. Alright? Just relax, be cool. When the time's right, you make your move."

"Move? What move?" Miguel asked, slight panic in his voice, "I don't have a move. What's my move?"

"Oh, come on man. You gotta kiss the girl."

"I mean, yeah, I'd like to, but I don't technically have to, right?"

"Are you not teaching him anything?" Johnny asked Laken before looking back at the nervous boy in front of them. "No, that's true. you could just learn how to braid her hair, talk about all the other guys who had the balls to kiss her on a first date."

"Shit!"

"Both of you are just disasters waiting to happen." Laken shakes her head as she walks back over to the couch to grab her phone from the cushion, "I have a date of my own. With my bed, a good amount of ice cream and the wonderful, loving face of Chad Michael Murry."

"Tell your mom I want some of her lasagna when I get us unbanned!"

"Whatever, asshole!"

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

     𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐒 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌, a sniffle leaving her lips as her phone began to ring, "Are you kidding me?" Wiping the tears away, Laken leans over to grab her phone from her bedside table and answers without looking at the caller ID, "Whoever you are, you are interrupting a very sad moment in my life."

"Laken . . ., "

"Bye, Robby."

"Wait! No, no, don't hang up!" Robby's voice pleaded with his best friend, making her pause just as she was actually about to hangup the phone, "I uh, I know I'm the last person that should be asking you for a favor but . . . I need a favor."

Laken sighs, pushing her covers from her legs and standing up, moving to grab her car keys and a pair of converses to put on, "Where are you?"

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

     𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐒 the air as the two teenagers sit silently, the radio turned down but the music being low enough to still be able to hear the music playing. Laken keeps her eyes on the road, knuckles turning white as she grips the steering wheel.

Robby, who had his head laying back as he looked at the roof of the car sighed, turning his head to look at the side of the pink haired girls face, "Nice hair. The pink suits you."

Silence.

"Lakie, come on." Robby sighed, "I'm sorry, okay? I should've never told you that I needed space and I never, ever, should've told you that you were clingy. I love that you want to make sure that I'm okay when my mom is gone on her trips with men. I also should have believed you the first time when you said that Trey and Cruz were people I shouldn't be hanging out with."

"Do you seriously think you apologizing months after the fact, that everything is just going to go back to the way it was? That I'm supposed to drop everything and just forgive you?" Laken asked, parking the car in the parking lot of his apartment complex. "It doesn't work like that, Robby."

"I know, I . . . . I know. I just miss my best friend." He smiles sadly, "I miss hanging out and I miss movie nights, I miss . . . I miss you."

Laken doesn't say anything, leaving the boy to sigh once more as he gets out of the car.

A sigh of her own leaves her lips before she opens her car door and gets out, "Robby!"

The boy turns around, letting out a grunt as a body crashes into his. He stays still for a moment before wrapping his arms tightly around the pink haired girl's waist, "What . . . ?"

Laken tightens her grip around Robby's neck, "I miss you."