Psychotic Kids '-' Eli Moskowitz

It Didn't Work

Sam won her match against one of the other dojos girls, which was perfect. The three dojos all waring it out…… and me. For once I’m not Switzerland I’m my own fucking country! Hell yeah! Now I just have to make it to the semi finals.

“Our next quarterfinal match, will be Harley Lawrence, versus Piper Elsworth, of Cobra Kai”

I hopped up onto the mat, I was standing on my own now, but I heard the crowd cheering. I looked around, everyone was cheering. All the boys in Eagle-Fang, all the Miyagi-Do’s, Mr. Larusso, and even my dad! Robby wasn’t cheering, but he was standing away from the rest of his dojo with a proud smile. 

“Face me, bow, face each other bow”

I took position, staring into Piper’s eyes, waiting for the ref to swing his arm to start our match. As suspected, Pipe instantly jumped out to hit me, I dodged her easily and sent a counter punch which she blocked. We swung back and forth at one another until I hit the first point, and we went back to our sides. Second round started up and this time I struck first, which threw Piper off her guard and I got her easily after that, she wasn’t expecting it. 

When I got my second point Kreese called a timeout, I went on my knees waiting for them to finish. Before I had gone down I may have given Kreese a bit of a ‘haha I got you’ look, which in my defense was only natural. When the ref gave me the go ahead I hopped up onto my feet and spun around. I looked at Piper’s face, she actually looked scared, like- really fucking scared. What on earth? She had such a poker face before. 

We took our stances once again, I took a deep breath, took a moment to center myself, find my balance, and think of the first Metallica song that came to mind, which happened to be Enter Sandman. I was ready, I knew what was going to happen. She was going to immediately strike, probably for my head to get me to jerk away, something dirty. She's gonna throw every little thing at me because she knows I only need one more point. Kreese knows I only need one more point. He knows how good I am, dad was right only an idiot would deny it. 

I saw the ref's hand move, I watched in slow motion as Piper did exactly what I thought she would, she struck almost instantly, swinging her arm at my head, which I blocked with ease.

Suddenly I felt a pain shot through my leg like a lightning bolt. The room went absolutely silent, and I wasn’t sure if it was because the crowd was actually silent, or if my ears were ringing so loud I just couldn’t hear them. I fell onto the mat, my leg pulsing with bullets worth of pain every time I took a breath, every twitch and every muscle ache brought an avalanche of pain. I didn’t hear myself screaming in agony for my dad and- Robby, I didn’t hear the ref shouting that Piper had been eliminated for an illegal kick. Everything was just white noise to me until I saw my dad collapsed down beside me, followed swiftly by Eli, Mr. Larusso and a billion other blurry faces.

“Harley! Oh fuck Harley-”

“Gah! Dad! Dad my- my leg!” I screamed, my throat ached but I didn't know what else to do to get the pain to stop “It hurts! Dad, it hurts! Ah! Dad! Dad, it hurts!”

“I know- I know kid, I got you” Dad frantically scooped me up in his arms "I've got you baby bird, I got you"

The pain got impossibly worse as he rushed me off to the change rooms, followed by medics and anyone else who could push their way through. I curled my face into my dad’s chest, hiding my face away from everybody because I was crying. I didn’t care if I didn’t go back out, I didn’t care whether or not people cared. I didn’t wanna cry in front of an entire crowd of people and everyone else.

~~

I laid on one of the tables they had for injured people, my leg was still pulsing a little bit, but the rest and lack of movement made it bearable. I gave the ref and the nurse a half smile as they exited the room. As fast as they were gone, everybody and their dog tried to pile into the back room. Dad and Mr. Larusso made them all go away, so it was just me, Dad and Eli. I saw Mr. Larusso’s face when he looked at me, he looked like he had seen a ghost from his past in me or something.