╭━━━━━╯⁰⁰, 𝑪𝑯𝑬𝑴𝑰𝑺𝑻𝑹𝒀 𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑫𝑺 .ᐟ
𝑅𝐸𝐴𝐿 𝐿𝐼𝐹𝐸 ୨ৎ

✦ ╮ 𝟬𝟬𝟮, ❝ 𝑑𝑦𝑠𝑙𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑎 𝑏𝑖𝑡𝑐ℎ  ❞

 ﹙𝗧𝗢𝗢 𝗦𝗪𝗘𝗘𝗧﹚  🥃 ˖ ׁ ⁩ i      think      i'll take      my      whiskey      neat      𓂃
𝟸𝟶𝟷𝟽  ⸻  ꕤ 💌 𖤓

❪ 𝚂𝙴𝙿𝚃𝙴𝙼𝙱𝙴𝚁 𝟷, 𝟸𝟶𝟷𝟽 .ᐟ ── .✦ ❫

          𝐈𝐓 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍 a week and two days since the family dinner where William had practically begged his niece to audition for Cobra Kai, and ironically, she and one other girl got called back to do chemistry reads with potential actors for the roles.

Of course, William had told the blonde how their already had half of the cast picked out already, they were just having a hard time picking between the two girls to play Laken, but he had also reassured her that he and Ralpha (who her dad was still friends with to this day) had been keeping their ears peeled for a decision.

Natalia follows her uncle into the building where the call backs were being held, him and Ralph being allowed to sit in on chemistry reads to give their honest feedback and opinions on people.

The blonde stops in her tracks, her nose turning up at the sight of a familiar redhead who she always seemed to have problems with back when they were both on Disney channel. "Seriously? She's who I'm going against?"

William shrugged, "I didn't tell you 'cause then you would've backed out and not came back."

"Her mom bought her way into that movie, and we all know it." Natalia scoffed, "You don't see me pulling the whole 'do you know who my uncle is' act."

"That's what--,"

"No, you came into my house and practically guilted me into auditioning."

"I did not!"

"The hell you didn't! I have witnesses!"

"Just sit down. Go over the lines they're making you do." William ruffled her blonde hair, pointing to an empty chair as he walked towards the backroom where he was needed.

Mumbling curses at her uncle under her breath, Natalia sat in the chair as she focused on the paper in front of her, hoping to keep herself distracted so that she didn't have to talk to the girl across from her.

"Natalia! Hi!"

Gritting her teeth, the blonde looks up to send a fake smile towards Bella Thorne, who had looked up just to see the familiar blonde sitting in front of her.

"Hi, Bella. Long time."

"I know! It's been so long! I didn't know that you were going to be the girl I was up against for Laken." Bella smiles, "But I see why you are, considering your uncle was a big part of the karate kid franchise and will be on this show for his role of Johnny again."

Natalia tilts her head to the side, not noticing the way the three guys sitting a way away from them looking between the two girls as if they were watching a tennis match, "My uncle mentioned my name to the producers, and I agreed to audition. Me getting this far has nothing to do with the fact my uncle is my uncle."

"Hmm, I'm sure."

The door to the room comes open and Josh, one of the creators of the show, pokes his head out, "Bella, hi. You're first. We're gonna have you read some lines with Ralph and Billy first." 

The redhead stands up and turns to the blonde with a fake smile painted across her lips, "Well, good luck, I think you'll need it. I'm pretty great at these types of things."

"Thanks. Good luck you, too." Natalia watches as the door shuts behind them, "Dyslexic bitch."

A laugh leaves one of the boys' lips, causing heads to turn to him as he slapped a hand over his mouth, "I ── I'm so sorry. It's just ── she seemed nice when she was talking to us earlier. I'm Jacob Bertrand. I'm gonna be playing Hawk."

"Natalia Zabka." She moves down to sit with them, shaking his hand. "I promise, my uncle just asked me to audition, he didn't get me this far."

"No, we believe you." One of the other guys tells her, "I'm Xolo Maridueña, I'm Miguel."

"Tanner Buchanan, I'm playing ──,"

"Oh, shit! Charlie Gardner!" Natalia points at him with a laugh, "I thought you looked familiar!"

Tanner groaned, "Are you going to call me Charlie Gardner every time we see each other now?"

Natalia smirked, "If I got the roll, that is, I wasn't going to but since you said something . . . ,"

────୨ৎ────

          𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐌 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐑𝐀𝐋𝐏𝐇 exchange looks while Tanner stands next to the redhead, reading over her lines in an overly cheery voice, then boy being the last of the three boys outside to have to read lines with the redhead.

Ralph leans forward, "Does it seem like she's doing a little . . . too much?"

"Yeah." William nods his head, lowering his voice some more, "She and Tilly don't really get along either. Something happened a few years ago, and there was this big fight that split their friend group in half. Some people stuck with her and most of them picked Natalia."

"Ooh." Ralph shakes his head as the two teens turn toward the table.

"Okay." Josh smiles, "Bella, that was great! That was the last person for you, so we'll be in touch."

"Thank you so much!"

"I'll walk you out." Ralph stands up and heads with the redhead towards the door.

Loud laughter fills the air as soon as the door is open, and everyone looks over to find three teenagers spread on the floor, barely breathing as they laughed hard, a phone laying in the middle of them.

"You ── I can't believe you fell that hard!" Xolo cackles, holding his side.

"I forgot the steps were there and missed completely!" Natalia laughs loudly, bringing her hands up to wipe the tears falling from her eyes.

"Uh, hey, guys." Ralph smiles down at the three, gaining their attention, "Natalia, you're up."

"Ah, somebody help me up!" The blonde holds her hands out in the air, Jacob quickly standing up to help the blonde up from the floor, "Thank you, kind sir." She curtsies at the boy.

Jacob bowed, "My pleasure, fair maiden."

────୨ৎ────

          𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐀 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐒 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 her uncle, both of them holding the scripts in their hands as they went over some of the dialogue between Laken and Johnny.

"I knew I'd find you here."

"What are you doing here?" William asked.

Natalia shrugged, "Thought I would come check on you after the whole Robby thing."

He sighs, "Yeah, well you see how that went. I've screwed over Robby's life enough. I don't even know why you and your parents still have me around."

"Well, if it's any consolation, you make a pretty awesome self-proclaimed godfather." Natalia shrugged, the two chuckling, "Which is why . . . if you can convince Miguel's mom to let him join Cobra Kai again . . . I guess I can participate as well."

William stares at her with a straight face before a smile breaks out on his face, "I knew I could convince you!"

"Ah! I said if you could get Miguel's mom to let him join, then I would." Natalia holds her hand up.

────୨ৎ────

          𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐀 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐑𝐀𝐋𝐏𝐇 sit in two chairs since the scene they were going over would be between their characters at the All-Valey. "Hi, Mr. LaRusso."

"Laken? What are you doing over here?" Ralph turns his head to look at her.

She sighs, "It wasn't Robby's fault, okay? He was just trying to get back at Johnny. Look, the two of them don't have the best relationship, they never have. Robby wouldn't betray your trust if he was on his dad's side."

"How do you know all of this?" He asked, "How do you know Robby?"

"My dad is best friends with his dad, we share a birthday. We've been best friends since literally day one. And even though we've been fighting since before school started back up, he's still one of the post important people in my life. He's a damaged kid who just wants someone to look up to. Johnny has never given him that but you . . . you did."

Ralph smiled, holding his fist out to the blonde, "Good job, kid."

"Thanks." She laughed, hitting her fist against his.

────୨ৎ────

          ❝ 𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐂𝐊 𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍. ❞ Hayden looks at the blonde from where she stands next to Jacob, them having decided that they wanted to see something between the characters that were going to be cousins.

"Yes?"

"How do you feel about pink hair?"

Natalia shrugged, "It wouldn't be the first time. I dye it in October every year for breast cancer."

"Okay, good. Let's do Eli and Laken talking outside of the dojo."

"Eli! Eli, hey!" Natalia grabs Jacob by the arm as he has his back turned to her, "Come on, don't quit yet."

"Did you not hear what he was saying to me?! I just wanna go home." Jacob makes his voice sound sad as he tries to pull away from her grip.

"No! No, we're gonna do what he said."

"Get a face tattoo?" Jacob turns to her in confusion, "Gouge my eye out?"

"No." Natalia smirked, pretending to drag him towards the invisible car in the room. "We're gonna flip the script. And . . . possibly get a tattoo."

"Alright, let's do one more scene between the two of you." Jon tells them.

────୨ৎ────

          𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐀 & 𝐗𝐎𝐋𝐎

          "If you're sick of getting bullied, my karate dojo's looking for recruits." Xolo reads from the paper in his hands.

"Yeah, right." Jon spoke Demetri's lines, "You hear that, Eli? A little karate training, and you're gonna kick some major ass."

"I'm serious, Demetri. My Sensei's the real deal. I'm sure I could get you both discounts."

Natalia snickered, "Yeah, I'm sure he's the real deal."

Xolo squints his eyes at her, "I don't like the tone of your voice?"

"Really?" Natalia smirked, "'Cause I love listening to myself talk."

"Let's do the running scene. Uh, Miguel and Laken don't really have much of an interaction in season one." Josh tells the teenagers.

"She's good, right?" William leans forward to talk to them.

"With Jacob and Xolo, yes." Hayden nodded, "Let's see how she's gonna do with Tanner, that's gonna be the deal breaker 'cause I think we're going to end up putting their characters as a couple if we get picked up for more seasons."

────୨ৎ────

           𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐀 & 𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐑

          "What are you doing here?" Tanner walks up to the "dealership desk" as he grabs Natalia by the wrist, pulling her away.

"I'm having a tea party." Natalia crosses her arms over her chest, "I'm in a dealership, I'm getting my oil changed, dumbass. What the hell are you doing here?"

"I work here."

A scoff leaves her lips, "Of course you would pull some stupid shit like this."

"I'm not pulling anything, Lake."

"Okay, then please tell me what you are doing here."

Tanner looks down at his feet.

"Seriously? What? Daddy doesn't appreciate you so you run into the arms of his enemy? That's low, even for you, Robby."

"Why do you care? Huh? You wouldn't pick up my phone calls. You won't answer my text."

Daniel leans towards William, "Your niece would make the perfect Laken. She fits more into the character than Bella did, huh?"

"Of course." William crosses his arms with a smile, "That's natural born talent right there."

"Because you said that you needed some space! Because you told me that I was clingy! Because I was around too much!" Natalia raises her voice slightly like the script tells her, "All I was doing was making sure that you were okay. That you had a place to sleep when you needed, making sure that you had something to eat with your mom was on her benders!"

"You chose my dad over me!"

"I didn't choose anybody! And even if I did, I would've chosen you!" Natalia points at him, "I would have picked you, but instead of talking to me about it, you said that you needed space. you found new friends and you left me all on my own. So, I am so sorry that I'm just doing what you wanted!"

"That was great, guys! Okay, Natalia, either your uncle or Daniel will let you know if you get the part." Hayden smiles at the blonde.

"Thank you for having me."