Out of Place [Cobra Kai OC x Robby Keene]

33- Things are Getting Better

"You're the one who's weirdly strong for a girl, are you even lifting?"

"Demetri, say one more word like that and I'll drop this rock on your toes,"

The four of us- 'us' being Demetri, Sam, Robby, and I- step away from the fallen rock. We tried lifting it. We did not lift it.

"Forget it, all right? It's too heavy. We're gonna need a forklift," Robby says. He's right, there's no way we can lift that thing.

"How'd they even knock it over?" Sam asks. I mean, it's kind of like self esteem. It takes one bad comment to send me spiraling and like 10 good comments to bring it back to anywhere near base level.

"It's a lot easier to knock something down than it is to lift it up," Mr LaRusso replies as he works on planting something, "don't worry, we'll get it up again."

"Um... excuse me," someone says, "is this Miyagi-Do?"

We all turn to see who it is. Hey... that's one of the guys that was at the mall the other day! Robby storms over to them. Por Dios... I half-jog after him.

"Come back for another beating?" Robby asks.

"You wanna hurt them, you go through me first," I say, taking a guarding position in front of Robby and Mr LaRusso. Not today. Not again.

"Robby! Parker!" Mr LaRusso says, signaling for us to drop the guard.

"This is one of the guys who was beating on Demetri," Robby says, "probably helped trash the dojo."

"We didn't have anything to do with that," the boy in front says, "but I am sorry about what happened at the mall... we just wanna learn Miyagi-Do karate."

Wait... what? I don't know about this... they weren't there yesterday when I was at the Cobra Kai dojo... they could be lying.. they could be telling the truth. They seem genuine... but so would anyone who's playing the long game to get at our dojo again...

"I'd be careful about this, Mr L, letting the Cobra Kais into Miyagi-Do," Demetri says, "it's like letting the wildings behind the wall."

"Didn't the wildlings help Jon Snow win the Battle of the Bastards?" Mr LaRusso asks in return. Demetri curses to himself about how he should've used a different analogy.

"We're happy to have you," Mr LaRusso says. I don't think happy is the right term... or 'we'... they all shake hands and introduce themselves while Robby puts a hand on my shoulder, turning me away from the new additions to our team.

"I don't trust them," he whispers in my ear. Me neither... but everyone deserves a second chance.

"I don't either but... somos más que de donde venimos... we'll keep an eye out," I whisper back. He nods.

"Sam, Robby, you go work on replanting those two trees. You two, get that one over there. You guys take those potted plants, you and Demetri take those, and Parker, you clean up the balance board," Mr LaRusso instructs. Wasn't really planning on getting soaking wet today, and I don't particularly want to, but I guess I owe it to balance to fix up the thing that so often helps me find it.

"Yes sir," I respond, and with that, I walk off to complete my task.

——

I'm not entirely sure why Mr LaRusso gave me the most laborious task out of everybody, but he sure did. Everybody else is just repotting or planting plants whilst I'm over here having to get in the pond, get the broken pieces of pot off the balance board, clean the dirt off, repot the bonsais, then somehow rebalance them? I swear, the one time we actually put them back on after training and they have to come and destroy them. The good thing is that I'll be able to tilt water on the board to rinse it off and the dirt that I can't pick up can just go to the bottom of the pond.