Psychotic Kids '-' Eli Moskowitz

You Got This

Hawk and I had been at the dojo every day of the week, now it was the end of the week. We even came here on days we didn’t have karate. I was happy that Hawk was determined, it made him more willing and I didn’t have to try so hard to get him in the cold pond. Then again, my jean shorts and sports bra combo was pretty good motivation. Now we're just back to the original exercise Mr. Larusso had given us all, catch a fish with your hands. Progress was indeed slow.

“Damn it!” Mitch exclaimed “How do they make it look so easy on Hillbilly Handfishin?”

“Ah shit! This is impossible!”

“Patience” Mr. Larusso reminded “You’ll figure it out”

I sighed, pulling my hand away from the water, I was losing feeling in the tips of my fingers. I stared at the fish swimming around, part of me felt bad for scaring the shit out of them but….. At least they weren’t being eaten. I watched as they swam under the floating circle to hide from us, and suddenly it clicked in my head.

“I have an idea” Miguel and I chorused, instantly staring at each other the next second

“You can’t let me have this one?” Miguel snickered, looking over at me

“Half and half?” I smirked

“Fine” Miguel sighed

I chuckled, mirroring Miguel as the two of us slowly got in the water together on opposite ends of the circle, everyone else was looking at us completely confused. 

“Come on, get in” I ordered

“What the……”

It took them a couple seconds, but soon enough everyone was in the water up to their waists, and we all slowly started moving in a circle.

“Follow my lead” Miguel told everyone “Walk in a circle”

We all did as Miguel and I instructed, moving slowly, and at the same pace. Sure enough, also slowly, all the fish started to retreat further under the circle, until we had them all curralled underneath.

“Hey it’s working! They’re going under the board!” Hawk exclaimed

We circled for a little longer, until finally Miguel’s face opened in shock and he held up the fish securely in his hand. The look of pure joy on his face was worth millions, and the look of pride on Mr. Larusso’s face was just as priceless.

“We have a winner! Good job Miguel” he praised

The rest of the guys were understandably upset, but they were mostly happy for Miguel. He had been trying so hard to impress Mr. Larusso, he deserved this moment. All the guys got out of the water, but I pulled Hawk back in before he got too far.

“Harley wha-..... Oh no” He sighed

“Come on, no better time than now” I encouraged

“I-..... I dunno if I can do it” he whispered, his eyes darting around to make sure no one was listening

“You’ve done it just fine at least ten times” I chuckled, which wasn’t as inspiring as I hoped it would be “Hawk, you’re the quickest learner I’ve ever known, you got this”

Hawk thought about it, before giving me a stern, determined nod. I smiled, leaning over and pressing a happy kiss to his cheek before moving over to the other side of the circle. I pulled my t-shirt over my head, knowing I would focus better without the baggy wet fabric hanging on me.

We both slowly pushed ourselves on top of it, as everyone came back over to watch us. Jeez, no pressure.

“What’re they doing?”

“Sensei?”

“Just watch” I heard Mr. Larusso say

"Wait, that's where the other tattoo is!?" Miguel shouted, almost making me fall over.

I looked at him confused before looking down, realizing that you could indeed see the tattoo just under the line of my sports bra. It was small italic handwriting that read 'Princess' with two red hawk wings on either side of it. 

"Aye! Eyes off her, man" Hawk shouted, making me giggle.

The two of us called ourselves, we stood across from each other on the circle, it was crazy how much you could feel standing on that thing. It was a new level of connection, I could feel every twitch that Hawk made. We got in position, Hawk gave me a gentle nod, and we started the routine. We went slow, because we were still a bit shaky, but we managed to make it through the routine two times before falling in! It was amazing! We were completely in sync, every movement was perfect! When we rose back out of the water everyone was cheering, including Mr. Larusso. I swam over to Hawk and wrapped my arms around him, seeing the joyous look on his face was my gold. Satisfying. That’s the best way to describe it.

~~

Later at the end of practise, Mr. Larusso called Miguel up onto the sparring deck, he had a funny looking bandana in his hands, one that matched his own. Miguel looked nervous, but Mr. Larusso was smiling, this was a good thing.

“Mr. Miyagi once told me, that this represents perseverance, courage, and strength. It also does a pretty good job of keeping the sweat out of your eyes” 

We all smiled proudly as Miguel and Mr. Larusso bowed to one another. I felt a hand on my shoulder, I assumed it was Hawk but he was standing on the opposite side of me. I looked up seeing Demetri standing there, ah, dad’s back- oh shit. I spun my head around, seeing dad standing a ways away, looking over at all of us. Boy was he pissed. Miguel had really become like dad’s son, I didn’t mind, because Miguel was like a brother to me. This was like a kick in the balls to his ego….. Not good.

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