So we were officially allowed at the All Valley tournament. Dad said he was taking us on a special training trip, whatever the hell that meant. But we ended up at an old abandoned junk yard. After the movie night incident Hawk avoided all eye contact with my dad, and dad would purposefully stare at him just to put him off. I found it funny how Hawk had to try and keep a straight face and pretend it didn’t bother him. Not to mention Miguel had decided to tell everyone at the dojo about it, and now everyone is determined to get us together.
“You’ve trained hard! You’ve gotten stronger, tougher, faster. You’ve done your best. You’re ready for this tournament am I right?”
“Yes sensei!” we all shouted
“Wrong!” Dad through his beer can on the ground in front of us “Your best ain’t shit! If you wanna win the All Valley under-18 karate tournament, you gotta give me better than your best! Which is why from now on, you’re gonna get my worst. Do you understand?”
“Yes sensei!”
“Used to it” I smirked, mumbling to Hawk
“I heard that! Harley 20 push up on your knuckles, now!”
“On the gravel?” I questioned
“25!”
“Okay- alright” I sighed, dropping down to my knuckles, standing the push ups.
“Are you losers!?”
“No sensei!”
“Are you nerds!?”
“No sensei!”
“Are you sure!?”
“No sensei!”
I lost it, falling off my knuckles and laughing. My dad’s face collapsed into his palms.
“Alright Harley that’s enough. Everyone fall in a line. I wanna see high knees through these car tires” my dad pointed to rows of tires.
We all got into a line, of course me, Hawk Miguel and Aisha were first.
“Move those feet! Go go go!”
Later we were all given hatchets or pickaxes and what not. I was starting to wonder if this was a training session or if dad was just letting us all blow off some steam.
“Your enemies are all around you! Destroy them!”
We all spread out, finding old cars and smashing the windows, or dropping things out of windows. It was honestly just a shit ton of fun. Sure things were heavy and our arms were sore after the day, but in all, it was a really fun day. At one point we had to walk across a beam covered in glass, which makes it a lot more slippery, but I made it across easily. There was definitely a lot of window smashing. And ya know, being casually chased by dogs. I only got bit a few times luckily, and nothing serious.
~~
Miguel had been working himself to death, mostly because of my dad. Dad found out that Miguel and Sam had started dating and was pissed. Miguel re told me my dad’s story, I really need to teach my dad how to actually treat women.
I remember the story of the day dad met Mr. Larusso, they were both hot headed jerks, both in the wrong, my dad has anger issues just like me and my brother and that was one thing, but he should know better. They were both petty, guess some things never change.
I was sitting in my room at night, smoking a cigarette to see if I could fall asleep. It wasn’t working but ya know… worth a shot. I started hearing clunking around in the living room, at first I thought we were being robbed.
I snuck out of my room, peering around the corner to see… dad was cleaning up?
“Dad-”
“Jesus! Harles don’t sneak up on me like that!” he exclaimed, grabbing his heart “God you look awful, are you sick?”
“What- I- no-... What’s going on?” I gulped, quickly changing the subject
“I was invited over for diner at Miguel’s, I would’ve come and get you but, I figured you’d already eaten because it’s late” at least I didn’t have to eat “She just- said something and I decided to clean”
“Okay...” I was so confused “Well… I’m gonna try and get back to bed- uh- don’t throw out anything that’s mine”
“Yeah sure hunny- you really do look awful, sleep sounds like a good idea” my dad advoiced
I sighed, nodding my head softly before rushing out of the living room. Instead of going back into my room I ran to the bathroom. I leaned over the sink, staring at myself in the mirror. God I can’t stand my face, I’m still chubby, and I’m so fucking pale. I’ve been working out so much over the past few weeks, why do I still look like a skeleton? My arms are flimsy and I can wrap my fingers around my forearm. I knew because I did it when I thought of it. My stomach is too big, I shouldn't have eaten that sandwich today. That must’ve been what dad meant.
I leaned away from the sink, kneeling down over the toilet, expertly hacking up the sandwich from earlier. I hated the taste of puke, but If I get everything out of my system then I’ll shrink and dad will be able to look at me. Maybe even Hawk will notice that I look especially small tomorrow. It’ll be better.
~~
The four of us decided to go see a movie. I was sitting in between Hawk and Aisha, but Miguel hadn’t been focusing on anything all day, I was worried about him.
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
“I can’t stop thinking about what sensei told me about Sam’s dad” he mumbled
“So sensei and Sam’s dad had some beef. What’s that have to do with you?” Aisha questioned, shoving me back over to my seat and inadvertently into Hawk.
“Hey there” he smirked down at me
It wasn’t fair. Hawk was short, but I was still shorter.
“Hey” I giggled, sitting back up properly
“You want some” Hawk offered me some popcorn
I just shook my head, and then I got the look. Eli’s ‘I know something’s up’ look. Only this time Hawk really knew what was up. He shifted a little closer to me in his seat.
“How about, you eat… 5 pieces, okay? Just 5, and I’ll eat 5 with you”
I was taken back a bit. 5 small pieces of popcorn couldn’t be that bad, and if Hawk was doing it too… maybe it wouldn’t be so scary. I sighed, cracking my neck and nodding my head. Hawk grinned, picking out 5 medium sized pieces of popcorn, they weren’t doused in butter either, which made me feel a bit better. Hawk put the pieces in my hand, taking 5 of his own.
“Ready?”
I nodded. We both threw our heads back, munching the popcorn. I tried not to think too much of it. Dropping my head into my lap didn’t exactly help, but what did, was Hawk booping my nose, completely throwing me off.
“What- why?”
He just shrugged, chuckling quietly and started throwing popcorn at some people a few rows away from us.
“She’s probably too afraid to introduce me” Miguel’s sulky voice caught my ears again
“Dude just go over there” Hawk advised “It’s a alpha move”
Hawk threw another piece, hitting a large tall man in the back of the head. He rose out of his seat looking back.
“Who the hell did that?”
Hawk quickly went cold faced, watching the screen and shoving popcorn into his mouth. I had to bite my lip to stop from laughing. Once the guy sat back down Hawk looked back at me with a wicked grin, but froze and stared at something. I let go of my lip, looking at him confused.
“Earth to Hawk?” I giggled
He snapped out of it, turning red and facing the screen again. What on earth was he looking at?
-'|'-'|'-'|'-
YOU ARE READING
Psychotic Kids '-' Eli Moskowitz
FanfictionHarley Lawrence has been screwed over her entire life. Her family has put her through hell, and so far it doesn't seem like it's gonna get any better. Thankfully, she's got a band of crazy karate delinquents to back her up, and Harley finds her calm...
