Out of Place [Cobra Kai OC x Robby Keene]

84 - Always Another Angle

I had to take my hair down to cover up the hickeys, but honestly, it's the least of my worries right now. Mr Lawrence isn't here yet, but Mr LaRusso is already in full gi and headband, practicing a kata I know well. They can't fight... this team up has to work...

"Mr LaRusso..?" I ask from the doorway to get his attention. I feel small, like I'm just a little kid again... I'd be lying if I said I don't feel like I did when I was ten years old, learning that my mom had terminal cancer. Small... unsure... afraid...

"Parker? What are you doing here? The fight is gonna start soon," he asks. I bow, then actually walk into the dojo.

"I'm surprised more people aren't here already," I say, looking either down, or at various points on the wall so we don't make eye contact, "do you have to do this? There has to be another way, why can't we all just work together?"

"We've tried that, and it hasn't worked,"

"But it did, we were all tolerating each other, we were learning things we wouldn't have learned if we didn't have each other, things we need-"

"Parker!" Mr LaRusso says, cutting me off, "I know you want this to work, but it just doesn't... it's nothing you did wrong, it's nothing any of you did wrong, but now that Cobra Kai has Silver, we need to focus on Miyagi-Do style training. It works, you have to trust me."

"I trust you..." I say quietly, giving in. There's no use in arguing with him. He's dead set on fighting Mr Lawrence... and there's nothing I can do to stop it... his expression softens and he puts a hand on my shoulder.

"It's all gonna be va bene soon, I promise," Mr LaRusso says.

"Promise?" I ask, trying to fight back tears.

"Promise," he returns. With that and a final squeeze of my shoulder, he returns to his kata, leaving me standing on the side. I don't linger for too much longer, instead opting to wander out into the training yard, aimlessly walking around the decks and plants and the rock until I find myself fixated on the koi pond. I bend down to look more closely at the koi fish. The orange and white scales seem to shimmer like gemstones in the dying evening light. Miguel told me about how he managed to catch one- by circling until they were all congregated under the board and then grabbing one from the concentrated mass. Circling... it's Miyagi-Do's tried and true technique... it worked against Silver... I was really happy for Miguel when Mr LaRusso gave him the headband- it looks almost identical to mine, but the pattern on mine is just slightly different. Something about it and the fact that I jumped in Mr Lawrence's lesson made me feel like we were all starting to become one dojo. Like we had our different sides and methods of fighting, but in the end, we would all be one... I guess I was wrong.

A few small ripples in the water disrupt my reflection and my thoughts. Even in the distorted view, I can tell that my face is splotchy. Tears... I touch a gentle hand to my cheek. Yep... now is not the time. I have to be strong. My karate family is falling apart... and I have to be the wire on the bonsai. Why are all of my families so dysfunctional? My immediate family is a train wreck to say the least, my extended family on my dad's side is only willing to offer help when it makes them look good- except for Abuelita, my extended family on my mom's side didn't reach out after my mom's death until literally today, my Miyagi-Do family fell apart when Robby ran away, and now this family is slipping through my fingers as if I'm trying to grab handfuls of smoke...