Out of Place [Cobra Kai OC x Robby Keene]

116 - One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

"How did so many people get here..?" I ask Robby, Miguel, and Eli quietly. I thought it would be just Miyagi-Do, Eagle Fang, and our friends. I invited Cameron with Robby and Miguel's permission, mostly because I want to tell him all about how we got into the Sekai Taikai. There are a lot more people here than I think any of us are friends with...

"I think Moon invited some people from school or something," Eli says, "makes sense though, this is a kick-ass party."

That's one word for it. I'm not used to this atmosphere. And I also don't like the smell of beer... it's like it triggers a sense of panic in my brain, but since nothing aggressive is happening, I just feel kinda on edge, but not full blown panicked. It's weird. I'll never drink alcohol. Robby and I have been drinking apple juice the I picked up from the store while Eli was using his fake ID to get beer.

"Damn, I can't believe you're partially behind this," someone says, coming up behind me. Cameron! I roll my eyes at him as I turn around, but then smile. "Thanks for inviting me, Kata."

"Woah woah woah, 'kata'?" Eli asks. Ay dios.

"Does nobody else call you that?" Cameron asks me in return. Oh come on.

"Not here," I say. Almost all of the older kids at the dojang call me Kata, but Cameron is the one who does it the most. The younger kids usually start when they rank up to red belt and join the higher rank class. Apparently they think of it like a right of passage sort of thing. It's cute because some of the kids that rank up are younger, so they'll still call me 'Miss Kata' and it is thoroughly adorable.

"You're so lame," Cameron says to me before turning to my friends, "Parker is always doing patterns at the school and saying she shouldn't compete in sparring because she's better at patterns, so I started calling her 'Kata', and somehow, she hasn't killed me yet."

Miguel, Robby, and Eli all chuckle.

"Don't worry, you'll always be 'La Reina' to me," Miguel says. Nice to know. I smile.

"Translation?" Cameron asks me.

"'The Queen'," I answer.

"Alright, adding it to the list, how do you spell- okay, okay, got it," Cameron says, pulling out his phone and adding 'la reina' and its english translation to a note in his notes app, "so what's the occasion? I know you wouldn't invite me without a reason"

Right! This is so exciting.

"So you know how the other day I came in talking about the-"

"Sekai Taikai?!"

"Yeah-"

"And the presentation?! How did it go?!"

"Let me finish, Walker," I say, "so the representatives told us that Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Fang were too evenly matched to just pick one right then and there, so we had to fight for it. One male fighter and one female fighter from each dojo. So Eli and I fought against the Cobras and Eli's opponent played dirty and the ref was shit so Cobra Kai was up with that one, but then I won against my opponent, but it wasn't Tory, which was weird, but anyway, they ended up choosing Cobra Kai... but then they admitted us too! So now we're here, celebrating."