( chapter six ! )
𝟢𝟢𝟨． 𝗊𝗎𝗂𝗏𝖾𝗋
Among the students, Mackenzie turns to Eli. "This is so boring. Are you sure you actually want to learn about this?"
"I'm sure." Eli says, glancing around at the other people inside the dojo, as eager as him. "Okay." She mumbles.
Kenzie looks around at the kids who were waiting outside, all were filled with excitement. As her eyes wondered along the strip mall area, Miguel had arrived.
"Sup' guys." He smiles to the trio, his confidence level higher than ever. "Someone's happy." Demetri laughs.
"No shit." Mackenzie smirks, "Who's this?" She adds eyeing the familiar face of the older blonde man.
"This is my sensei." Miguel says. "He doesn't look like one." Demetri looks at him up and down, not impressed.
"Just shut up." The girl rolls her eyes and the students start making their way into the small dojo.
As everyone entered, Mackenzie scanned around the place. There wasn't much to it. It was a basic set up with the words 'Strike First, Strike Hard, No Mercy.' On one of the walls.
"Nice. This looks... legit." Mackenzie exhales sarcastically, turning to Eli with a smirk plastered on her face.
She watches as Miguel's senses steps into the centre of the room, "Quiet!" He shouts, his voice booms across the room.
Everybody freezes at his act, "Jesus." Mackenzie says under her breath.
"Face front." The blonde man instructs and everybody does what they're told. The man's eyes scan the room, looking for prey and stops on Demetri, "Nice shirt."
"Thanks." Demerit brushes off with a smirk. "I'm joking. It sucks." The sensei scrunched his face with disgust.
The man continues to find his next victim to insult, "Word of advice." He says stopping in front of a boy, "If you've got shit for teeth, don't smile." The boy's smile fades.
The sensei ignores any emotions and continues to insult the kids, "My god, makes me feel like a virgin just looking at you." A smaller boy lowers his eyes.
Mackenzie wasn't the one to act out, but she had to resist the temptation of screaming at that man. The things she could say about his appearance were infinite but she held back and kept calm.
"When I look around this dojo, I don't see Cobra Kai material." He walks about, "I see losers, I see nerds. I see a fat kid with a funny hat with his tits popping out."
The kids looking back and stare at the saddened boy, "But in my shirt turn as a sensei, I've also seen some miracles."
Sensei Lawerence looks over to his right at Aisha and Miguel, giving them a smirk.
"So, maybe there's some hope for you yet." He looks backs at the kids in the dojo.
"First I need to see where you're at." He sighs, "So everybody fall in."
The man waits for the kids to follow his instructions but they all look around at each other dumbfounded.
"That means line up."
Knowing full well that they weren't actually supposed to line up in that way, Mackenzie follows after all the kids. She observed as everyone gathered behind Miguel and Aisha.
"No, not — not line up in a line. Lines. Get in lines." Mackenzie throws her hand to her forehead with disappointment and embarrassment.
"You mean like rows?" Demetri says sticking head out of the line to correct the older man.
The man drops his head pulling the same expression as Mackenzie.
🥋 ⋆⭒˚｡⋆
The next day, Mackenzie stood place in the dojo with a red cherry slushy in her hand as she watched the kids learn karate.
"Fighting positions." Sensei Lawerence instructs, "Jab punch."
Everyone gets their fists ready but some actually do the action, "Nope, wait till I say go."
Mackenzie laughs to herself as she watches the students make so many mistakes which then makes the Sensei wonder why he even chose to open the dojo back up.
"Come on. Stand straight. Plant your feet in there." He guides a smaller kid with his posture.
Mackenzie continues to stand in the back of the dojo, simply just watching the students.
"Hey, Lip." The older man calls Eli out, "Yeah, you. The one with the freaky lip. Who do you think I'm talking to?"
Mackenzie finally stopped being in her own world, and glanced over to the situation. Her body began to tense as she over heard what the older man would say.
It wasn't like she had this massive crush on him, it was just that she felt defensive when someone would make fun of Eli's appearance.
"You know you really shouldn't make fun of someone's appearance like that." Mackenzie interrupted.
"Oh is that so?" The man turns to Kenzie's way, "So, I'm not supposed to mention his lip at all?" Everyone's eyes begin to glance over to the girl.
"Well isn't that point of not making fun of someone's appearance." Mackenzie says holding her slushy in one hand.
"Maybe that's what they teach you in school, but in the real world, you can't expect people to do what they're supposed to do."
Mackenzie frowns at his words. "Alright, you hear that, Lip? If you can't handle someone making fun of you, then how are you gonna handle an elbow to the teeth?"
Eli's face turns blank and looks down the ground with embarrassment.
"By calling the police.." Demetri explains. "Dude," Miguel sighs, "Knock it off."
"No, he does know that the Nazis lost the war, right? Why should I be scared of him? Because he's got a snake in his wall? C'mon guys, it's not like he's a teacher who can give us a bad grade. We're paying him. He works for us. It's not like he can actually hurt us."
Miguel throws his head back, "Oh, god."
Demetri was approached by Sensei Lawrence and everyone backs away. Eli gives Mackenzie a comforting smile as he turned to look at him attentively again.
"Are you done yet?" Demetri was asked by Sensei Lawrence. "What?" Demetri asks in shock.
"Hit me."
"Go ahead, hit me. Strike me right here." Johnny points at his face and as Demetri tries to weakly hit him — he sways away his fist.
"Harder."
Demetri sighs and throws another punch a little bit more harder. But ends up blocking his fist again, "Ah!"
"Is that all you got princess?" Johnny tilts his head to side, challenging the boy.
Demetri throws once last punch that resulted into him behind thrown onto the floor by his arm.
Mackenzie takes in a deep breath as the action moves quickly and her body tensed up again.
"Let that be a lesson to all of you," Johnny says, turning to face the remaining students, some of whom are terrified and some of whom are in awe.
Mackenzie speaks as the dojo is silent. After Mackenzie finished her drink, she declared, "My turn."
"What?" The bewildered Sensei asked with a frown, stumbled by the young girls words.
"I said my turn. I wanna see you kick my ass." Mackenzie confidently stated as she watched her brother groan while trying to stand back up.
"I wouldn't want to her hurt you little miss sunshine." Johnny laughed.
"Or you're just too afraid to lose to a girl. Or lose in general." Mackenzie smiles, walking towards the man.
Johnny was taken aback by the girl's bluntness. He hadn't met many teenagers who were so brazen, especially a girl.
He chuckled, a smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth. "You've got guts, I'll give you that."
He sized up the girl, taking in her confident demeanor. She didn't appear nervous at all, which only made him wonder how this would turn out.
"Fine," he said, "Let's see what you've got."
"Whoa." Miguel stops her, holding a hand on her shoulder, "Sensei, she did not mean any of that."
Johnny's attention shifted from Mackenzie to Miguel, his gaze narrowing as he spoke.
"Don't speak for her, Diaz," he said, his voice stern. "She's a big girl. If she wants to step up, that's her choice."
He turned back to Mackenzie, a hint of a smirk on his face. "You still sure about this, princess? Cause once we start, I won't hold back."
Mackenzie smirked confidently. "Oh, I'm sure," she said, her voice unwavering. Johnny raised an eyebrow, clearly impressed by her audacity. "Alright then."
He shifted into a fighting stance, his eyes locked on hers. "You know a few fighting positions, right?"
Mackenzie nodded, her expression serious. "Yeah, I do." She mirrored his stance, her arms raised defensively in front of her face.
"Good," Johnny said, circling around her. "Let's see what you've got."
Without warning, he lunged towards her, his arm extended towards her stomach. Mackenzie reacted quickly, shifting her body to the side to avoid the impact. She then retaliated with a swift kick aimed at his shin.
"You're quick," Johnny commented, impressed by her reflexes.
He then lunged at her again, this time aiming for her ribs. Mackenzie dodged his attack again and landed a punch on his jaw, causing him to stumble slightly.
As Johnny stumbled from the punch, he didn't expect Mackenzie to fight so well, and he was caught off guard.
Mackenzie took advantage of his momentary dazed state and quickly grabbed his arm, using it to throw him off balance.
As he hit the floor with a loud thud, she pinned him down with her foot.
"Looks like I win," she said with a victorious smile.
🥋 ⋆⭒˚｡⋆
As Mackenzie exited the dojo, she felt some sort of relief. Most of the weight she had on her shoulders had gone — all because of karate.
She couldn't even remember where she learnt all those moves. It just felt natural to her, being able to be in control of the situation.
It wasn't anger took over in that room and made her do that. Or at least that's what she told herself.
AUTHORS NOTE !
Does anybody else have Normal Thing by Gracie on repeat or is it just me?
riri202023 new chapter out!