① 𝐅𝐥𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐅𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬|| 𝗵𝗮𝘄𝗸 𝘅 𝗳𝗲𝗺!𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿

𝟛𝟞.

"You've trained hard..."

Heh, hard. Ugh no, y/n- Shut up. As you can see, I haven't had a proper sleep schedule ever since forever, so mornings are a huge no-no for me. And to make things worse, I had to sneak outta the house once again to avoid my parents at all costs before they could confront me about the events that occured last week.

Thankfully, Karate did make it easier, because as the tournament neared, our training too got a lot more intense. As for things at home... Well, I guess business was booming, but this also resulted in my parents working harder and longer, spending lesser time at home.

And when they did, they were too tired to spend that time on anything other than sleeping. However, I think they did find out about me sneaking back home at 2 AM because one of their colleagues spotted me while returning home from the airport.

Of course, he was an alcoholic too, so it's pretty natural for my parents to be skeptical, but still. I don't wanna face any additional drama. Not until they return from their trip to Poland. They leave in a couple of days and most likely won't be there for the tournament. 

At first I was a little upset, but then I realized that if the beef between Larusso and Sensei was that serious, then I'm better off without them knowing. Like, they do know I go for karate. They're the ones paying for my classes after all... 

But I don't think they know which dojo it is that I go to, so I believe it's better off that way.

"You've gotten stronger, faster... Better." Johnny states, drinking his signature Coors on top of a shady mini-van, as the rest of us looked up at him, gathered around the junkyard. "You've done your best!" He announces. "So you must be ready for this tournament, right?" He figures.

"YES SENSEI!" We answer. 

"Wrong!" Johnny yells throwing his beer can at the ground, startling me but waking me up for good. "Your best ain't shit!" He declares. "If you wanna win the All Valley under-18 Karate Tournament, you gotta give me better then your best." He states.

"Which is why from now on you're gonna get my worst." He crosses his arms. "Do you understand?" He cocks up a brow. "YES SENSEI!" We all yell back, truly determined to win this thing.  "Are your losers?" Johnny questions. 

"NO SENSEI."

"Are you nerds?"

"NO SENSEI."

"Are you sure?"

"...NO SENSEI!"

Clutching his head, disappointed with our honesty, Sensei simply decided to cut the motivational speech he must've planned, short, and moved on with the training instead. The first one was kinda tiring.

We were made to jump in and our and tires, running behind each other without losing our balance, or we'd all fall pretty badly. "Move those feet!" Johnny yells as we move faster. "Go go!" He encourages as we finish several rounds. 

"Let's go, squirt." He cheers. "Good job, buddy." He tells me. "More footwork!" He commands. "More footwork." He repeats, noticing a couple of people slacking. "More footwork. More energy!" He chants, but instead of motivating us to go on, he ended up distracting Aisha.

"Fuck-" I groan as I feel someone elbow my ribs.

"Watch it, Diaz!" I snap, about to push the boy off before more people fell over him, pinning me down. "Hey, watch your hands, Virgin!" Aisha scolds. "Dude get your face away from my ass-" I hear Hawk exclaim, the disgust evident in his voice.

After taking a good 15 minutes to get up and hydrate ourselves, Sensei already planned the next workout for us all. Drowning in my own sweat, I removed my hoodie, allowing the fresh dumpster breeze to soothe my skin.

Wearing just a tank top and shorts now, I threw my hoodie at Sensei, who would hold on to it until it was done. A few more people did the same, making the man fall back as they all began tossing their shirts and jackets and sweatshirts and hoodies at him. 

"Hey Nips- Stop flashing your tits, man." Sensei scolds, tossing the shirt back at the boy.

"That feels very inappropriate to look at." He rolls his eyes, making us all laugh. For the next exercise, we had to walk along a thin plank of wood over a garbage bin full of car parts, broken glass and basically everything sharp you'd not want to dive into.

"There's nothing to fear except for fear itself." Johnny says as Hawk walks over to the other side. "And not falling into a bunch of sharp metal." He mumbles as I go next, almost tripping three times on my first try. "So DON'T do that!" He shouts.

"L/n, do you have a deathwish?!"