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The fact that no one had bled out or broken some limbs two months after the school year had started was a great win for west valley high school.
Of course it was, with all the crazy karate wars that was happening between the students.
Cobra Kai and the other dojo that didn’t have a name yet seemed to been able to cohabit for once.
But the war had left a lot of the “soldiers” traumatized.
Kenny Payne was one of the most obvious examples for that.
After the revelation of who Silver really was and after he quit Cobra Kai the freshman was living his life like a ghost.
He didn’t talk to the other students anymore, he realized how stupid he was to hang out with Kyler in the first place, but now he didn’t really feel like playing any video games either. He was walking from one class to the other with his head down, regretting a lot of his life choices and where he went wrong.
It didn’t help to see that everyone else seemed to be moving on. Kyler still hung out with the rest of the cobras even when they weren’t part of the dojo. A lot of the students from the main dojo found a new place at Miyagi do, one of them was Devon.
Kenny, felt like he and Devon were in a similar paths at cobra kai, they were both being groomed as the next champs, after all it was the big kid’s last tournament. Soon Diaz, Moskowitz, Robby and Tory would be too old to compete. And now Devon was hanging out with her former enemies exchanging karate secrets and desserts at lunch.
And then there was the queen Cobra herself.
Tory Nichols made him feel better. While everyone else were moving on it was him and her that seemed the ones to do it more slowly.
Tory wasn’t part of Miyagi do or eagle fang. She didn’t become besties with her former enemies. But she was talking to them, she even was sitting at lunch with them. She seemed to hold back and just let things happen around her. From what Kenny knew about her that was so out of character.
But he figured she did it for Robby.
Robby…
That was another one of Kenny’s big regrets. The man had acted like a mentor towards Kenny but he had still failed the younger boy. And Kenny had failed him as well. So now seeing Robby Keene the king of Cobra Kai being homies with Diaz and Hawk didn’t sit right with him. They seemed to be together all the time too. The golden kids of the school. They were laughing going from one classroom to the other, acting all carefree like they hadn’t make each other bleed.
Robby had tried to talk to the kid but he didn’t hear him. Multiple times that had happened until he gave up all together.
And now he found himself following with his eyes the one person that seemed to experience the same feelings as his. And sometimes just following.
Kenny didn’t know how it started. Well, he did actually. He and Tory had the same class. Part of getting suspended and losing so many hours meant she had to retake a freshman course. She was silent but always ready to answer any question. It had surprised him, Tory Nichols was a good student…
Anyway they greeted each other most times and he felt like he could talk to her if he wanted it to, but for some reason he couldn’t make himself do that.
Instead he watched her from afar as she was sitting at lunch always next to Robby, she smiled at their jokes, occasionally she would speak up about her opinion, hang out with Devon but otherwise she was silent. And somehow Kenny found himself following her from school one day. He didn’t know why he was doing it, he didn’t think he had something to say to her he didn’t want to hurt her he wasn’t into her.
So he didn’t know why he was being a creepy stalker but he was.
He followed her to her job, and all the way to where she picked up her brother and went back home. He followed her the next day too, she went to another job, he remembered her mentioning something like that, then she picked up some food and her brother and went back home. The third day she walked to a playground, there was no one there so she just started training. She used the monkey bars instead of bench press, and she did pushups instead of dumbbells. Kenny was terrified that he had almost gotten caught when Robby arrived. They sparred for a good half hour and then they were both gone.
He didn’t follow her the day after that. Next time he couldn’t help himself was the week after. She was once again at that playground. She had just done a set of pull ups when he heard her voice.
“You’re a major creep you know.”
Kenny looked around panicked, there was no one there.
“I see you, Payne. I’ve been spotting you all last week, you might as well come out here.”
Kenny knew there was a risk to what he was doing. But he didn’t actually expect to get caught. He rushed to come out of his hiding spot and towards the playground.
Tory looked at him up and down. If she knew that he was following her for so long why wasn’t he all bruised up by now? That’s what the cobra queen would do.
He just kept looking at her then at the ground.
“Haven’t you had enough of staring at me all week? How about you speak to me.” Tory crossed her arms.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean any harm.”
Tory snorted but didn’t comment any further.
“Why are you following me?”
Kenny kicked a little stone that was by his feet lightly. “Honestly, I don’t know.” He mumbled.
“Payne, I know you have a voice much louder than that. Speak up.”
“I don’t know.” He said louder. “I don’t know why. I’ve asked myself the same question every day last week.”
“Have you been following other people?” he contemplated lying, but that wouldn’t help anywhere.
“No, just you.”
Tory dropped her weight to her other leg and looked at him a little softer.
“Is this a crush thing?”
“No, no, no.” he rushed to say.
“Jeez, way to make a girl feel special.” She raised her eyebrows.
“No, look you’re hot and all, I just…” Kenny started mumbling and Tory made a pained expression with her face.
“No, no, no. please stop, I was just teasing but now that’s becoming traumatic.”
“I’m sorry.” Kenny mumbled again.
“For a cobra you apologize a lot.”
“I’m not a cobra.” He snapped.
“Is this it?” she questioned. “Is this why you’re following me? Because of cobra kai?”
“I don’t know, Tory, I already told you that.”
“Then tell me something you know.” She spat back, making the boy angry.
“All I know is, that this sucks. This whole…situation sucks. I didn’t have any friends before but I was happy, now I have all this anger inside of me and I can’t do anything about it. I can’t do anything about it and yet everyone else can just joke around and be friends with everyone. Like nothing happened. BUT IT HAPPENED DAMN IT.”
He was full out screaming now and Tory was just listening to him. “It happened, and it’s like only you and I remember it. Everyone else are friends now. Like Hawk didn’t break Demetri’s arm, like Robby didn’t shave Hawk, and I’m so sick of tired of it. I just want things to go back to normal.”
“So this is why you followed me.” Tory seemed like she wasn’t even fazed by his outburst. He just blinked at her.
She walked to the nearest bench and took a seat. “Come here, sit with me.”
Kenny felt embarrassed, he didn’t mean to shout, he didn’t meant to say all those things. But he had been keeping them in for so long he couldn’t help himself.
“I’ll be honest, it sometimes still weirds me out how we’re all friends now.” Kenny wasn’t expecting that from her.
“But I just remind myself that I don’t have something to lose or share with any of them.”
“What do you mean?”
“Kenny, why were you fighting miyagi do?”
“Because they were the enemy.”
“Why were they the enemy?”
“Don’t give me all that bullshit, Tory. Larusso and his friends tormented me before I came into cobra kai.”
“And I get that. You wanted revenge. But at what point do you stop?”
“I don’t.” It left Kenny’s mouth before he could think the answer.
“That’s what’s wrong with Cobra Kai now. If you don’t stop you become exactly like them, even worse.”
“He deserves it.” he barked out without any hesitation.
“Do you deserve it?”
“What?”
“Do you deserve to feel all this anger? Do you deserve to be the bully?”
“I’m not the bully. It was just payback.”
“You choked him in a toilet seat full of shit Kenny, this is hardcore bullying.”
He just shook his head.
Tory sat up straighter. “It took me a long time to realize this but forgiving people, letting things drop once in a while will help with the rage.”
Kenny was clenching his teeth and jaw so hard.
“You know about the high school fight, right?” Kenny nodded, of course he knew about the legendary karate fight.
“Do you know how it started?” he shook his head.
“I was dating Miguel at the time.”
“You and Miguel?”
“Yeah so what? I like them strong and goofy.” She joked and he smiled slightly.
“Me and Sam had problems from the moment I met her, she judged me and she called me a thief. Just because I was a poor girl at a rich place.” Tory shook her head and got back to the point “So you can guess how angry I was when I saw Miguel and Sam kissing.”
Kenny’s gasp made the blonde roll her eyes. “Yeah, so I stupidly called Sam out by the school radio and I attacked her. Then everyone started fighting.”
“You had to, she took your boyfriend.”
“No, see. Miguel wasn’t an object she can just steal. And this stupid fight caused me to get on probation, which will cost me in the future I’m sure. It cost Robby juvie time also probation and he’s not going to get a high school diploma with his friends. And you know about Miguel.”
“So you regret it?”
“From all the stupid things I’ve done this one I regret the most.”
“I don’t regret anything I’ve done.” He knew he was lying.
“You should.”
“Damn it Kenny, I’m not good at explaining things. But basically what Silver was doing was taking the anger we had and telling us to lose control. That’s not the real world. That’s the war, that’s prison, but it’s not the real world.”
Tory’s voice for the first time was going up “Striking first has consequences. But they didn’t tell us that. They told us to channel our anger but they didn’t taught us to use it for our own good. She was losing control and she knew it so she stopped and took a deep breath “Why do you fight, Kenny?” she asked much more calmly.
The boy looked at her. “Why do you fight? What’s the reason?”
Kenny kept just staring at her. She pointed to him. “That’s one more problem. You can’t control your emotions and you don’t know what you’re fighting for.”
He wanted to answer but he couldn’t find what to say. “Robby tried to teach us miyagi do but he forgot one big thing. Balance.”
“How do you know it then?”
“Miguel told me.” She shrugged and went back to the point she was making. “You need to know who you are, what you’re worth and then you can balance that with your emotions.”
“It sounds like a bag full of crap.”
She chuckled. “Yeah, I thought so too, at first.”
“So what changed?”
“It all came back to why you are fighting.”
“Why are you fighting?”
Tory smiled shyly. “I fight for me. I fight every day to make my life better, and I fight for my family, to make sure we have everything we deserve. Karate was and still is the one thing that no one can take away from me. Not a rich kid, not a deranged sensei, no one.”
“You and me, we started karate for the same reason; to protect ourselves, now I do karate to clear my head, to ground myself, to prove myself, to protect myself and yes to look badass too. But I’m not in it to win a war. Not anymore.”
“So what about the way of the fist? You can’t expect me to go all defensive now.”
“It’s a shame you didn’t spend any time at John Lawrence’s dojo. The guy is a weirdo but he took Cobra Kai’s lessons, that destroyed his life by the way, and he fixed them. Strike first, strike hard, show some mercy, and have honor.”
“It doesn’t sound so good.” He crooked his mouth.
“Not cult-like enough for you?” she threw back at him but continued. “I choose to fight that way though.”
“Why aren’t you a part of their dojo then? Why do you keep practicing here?”
“Because, I’ve trashed LaRusso’s house, I’ve threatened their employees and I’ve hurt their daughter multiple times. I can’t go back there. There’s too much history.”
“But I’ve seen you hanging out.”
“Well, yeah we’re at the same friend group but we’re not besties.”
“So all this balance’s bullshit, you’re not happy.”
“The hell, how did you jump to that conclusion?” She exclaimed.
“I know you Tory, I’ve seen you with the cobras I see you with all of them together. You’re not the same, you barely even speak, you just stay close to Robby.”
“This stalking thing is deeper than I thought then?” Kenny’s cheeks flushed. “I need to earn my place,” she started explaining either way “I’ve done enough damage to almost every single one of these kids. And they all have this history with one another while I only have history with the ex cobras. So I’m taking my time to fit in, they make sure I do. They make sure I’m invited to make me feel good. And I spend more time with Robby because he’s my boyfriend and I barely spend any time with him as it is.”
“Well, it’s not the same for me.”
“Of course it’s not, you doofus. You snap at everyone who talks to you, Robby has ran out of ideas to approach you.”
He pierced his lips. And she gave him a moment to think about it. She pulled out her phone and texted someone.
“I texted Robby not to come. You’re my sparring partner today, let’s go.” She stood up and he followed her.
They went through some drills and then they went through a couple rounds. All the while Kenny’s mind was occupied. He was trying to take in everything that Tory had said.
“So what do you suggest I do?” he asked in between rounds.
“About what?”
“About everything. I told you I want things to go back to normal again.”
“Can we establish that normal isn’t being at war and hating on someone?” he smirked.
“Yes, we can.”
“Then I’d suggest, you forgive Anthony.” She shrugged like it was obvious.
He closed his eyes. “Are you serious?”
“Yes, I am. You need to move on from that hatred.” He wasn’t ready to do that, but he was sick and tired of feeling stuck and miserable.
“Okay.”
“Then you need to apologize to him too.”
“WHAT?” She had had to be kidding.
“And I repeat, you, choked, him, in, shit.” The older kid said with plenty of sass.
“Fine.”
“Then you need to accept that you were a bully.” Blondie was on a roll.
“I was not a bully.”
“I don’t like the same thing multiple times, shrimp.” Kenny started thinking that maybe he should fight her and forget about miyagi do.
“You’re not that tall.” He tried to tell her instead. Truth was she was taller than almost all the girls at school.
“How’d you know? You can’t see that far up.” She grinned.
“I hate you.” She chuckled.
“On the contrary, you’ve been stalking me, you think I’m hot. I’m pretty sure you’re in love with me.”
He groaned and she laughed out loud. “You’re not gonna let this go anytime soon, are you?”
“I’d count on never. I’m never letting this go.” She continued laughing until she teared up.
“Okay and one last thing. Join a dojo,” he winced “Or if you don’t feel comfortable yet, you can train with me and Robby here for a while.”
“Can’t I just train with you?”
“You are NOT stealing me from my boyfriend, Payne.”
“Oh fuck me.” He breathed out at her relentless teasing.
“You wish.” She was smiling so big, she was so amused.
“I’m never speaking to you ever again.” he tried to hide the smile that was coming up.
“Robby is your friend, he wants to help you.” she said in a serious matter again.
“Yeah but…”
“And I’m not hiding this from him. So I suggest you come here next time I’m practicing. I suppose you know my schedule, right?” her shit eating grin was enough to convince him.
Yeah maybe Tory Nichols wasn’t Cobra queen now, but she could be his friend.