Drowning

Rumor Has It

Monday morning Finley headed to school. She wouldn't say that she was exactly grounded, she didn't do enough stuff for that to really mean anything. Instead, her parents were enforcing a strict update policy for the foreseeable future. Anytime she went anywhere, besides work and school, she had to text them every hour to let them know where she was and that she was fine.

Yesterday at church, she had explained to Anna and Belle why her mom had asked them if they knew where she was and the whole story that she remembered of Friday night. The great friends that they were, as soon as they realized she was fine, immediately began teasing her about Hawk being her knight in shining armor. Thinking back on that night, Finley had a lot of regrets with how she had acted at his house. She was over him, and just because he did the basic, decent human thing of stepping in in that situation, she had given him some points. Now in a more solid mindset, she would like to retract those points. But she was willing to excuse her behavior with the belief that in the heat of the moment, all she wanted was comfort, and he just happened to be the first one to offer it, it had nothing to do with him specifically. In fact, she currently had his sweatshirt stuffed in her backpack ready to give back to him the first chance she had today. She also had his sweater from last year that she planned on returning in a 2 for 1 special.

She had texted Miguel on Sunday with a profuse apology for vanishing without telling him. She explained the situation to him, and she knew he felt bad for not having kept a closer eye on her, but she told him it had all turned out fine. As she waited in the security check line, all she wanted to do was go in there and get back to normal.

Once she finally made it through security, she headed towards her locker to get her books for her first two periods. The door had just barely opened when a bang on the lockers beside her caused her to look over. There was Rickenberger in his black Cobra Kai hoodie, a dopey smirk on his face.

"Mikey already called dibs on taking you home tonight, but what do you say you and I do a little undercover exploration tomorrow night?" He winked at her.

Finley just stood there staring at him, so taken off guard that she didn't even have a sarcastic response. Her brain was still trying to wrap around his words when a new voice joined.

"Hey, stay away from my girl, Rickenberger!"

Finley turned her head and saw Mikey making his way towards them with 4 other cobras flanking him. What the heck was happening? Besides that time with Hawk, she had never been targeted by Cobra Kai when she wasn't around a kid from another dojo. She personally liked to think that it was her weird ability to be invisible, a fly on the wall.

"Oh come on, we can share her. If she's as easy as Hawk says, she's not gonna complain."

Her entire body tensed at his name. Why was he involved? Of course he was involved. He was the leader of Cobra Kai, everything went through him first.

"And if she does, all we have to do is give her a sip of beer and she'll be so suggestible she'll do whatever we want."

She was now completely enclosed by cobras. They formed a half circle around her and the hard metal lockers pressed against her back. Her heart was beginning to pound a little louder and her stomach was making its way up to her throat. Everything about this conversation was making her uncomfortable, which meant she had no sarcastic response to anything, which meant, for the first time, she was defenseless against the cobras.

She forced herself to keep her panic at bay, blocking their voices out as she focused on making her brain work. Piecing together everything that they had said, she came to the conclusion that Hawk had told them that when he had taken her home, he'd done more than just let her pass out asleep in his bed. Shoving her into a locker was one thing, but this? Blatantly lying and destroying any semblance of a reputation she had? She was pissed.