Chapter Nineteen
TORY WITH A Y

Mara was on her daily run when her phone started to ring. She answered it and was immediately met with Demetri yelling. "Mara your Sensei is crazy! Both of them! He punched me in the face! I had to get stitches!"

"Did you deserve it," she asked as she kept running.

"Did I deserve it? Who deserves to get punched in the face?"

"Sometimes I want to punch you in the face. What did you say to him?"

"All I said was that he should get his tattoo redone because it wasn't anatomically correct! I was just being helpful."

"Annoying. You were probably being annoying. Look Demetri I'm sorry he did that to you but you have to toughen up if you want to join Cobra Kai. You can't get scared because you were punched in the face one time."

"That's what Eli said."

"Well, Hawk was right."

"His name isn't Hawk. Why are you calling him that?"

"We might not be on the best terms right now Demetri but I still respect him. The name makes him confident so we should support it."

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."

Mara sighed. "Bye Demetri." She hung up and turned her music back on to finish her run.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

     Mara made it to practice at a reasonable time after her run. She had gone 10 miles today and had been running all morning. When she walked into the dojo Sensei Kreese was in a conversation with Hawk and Aisha. "Morning, Sensei."

     Kreese looked a little upset at the fact that she called him Sensei but he quickly hid it and smiled at her. "Morning Mara. How was your run?"

     "Pretty good. Got a good 10 miles in." He nodded and she walked into the backroom to get changed. She put her hair into a ponytail and walked back out into the dojo.

     "Listen up! I see we've got some new recruits." Sensei Lawrence walked up to the front of the room. "Everybody fall in! In neat rows and lines. Time to see what your made of."

     Mara took her place at the front of the line farthest to the right. Gia was behind her as always and Aisha was beside her at the front of her own line. Sensei Kreese stood beside Sensei Lawrence.

     Sensei started to walk down the aisles between lines and examine the new students. "Straighten up, ginger twins. I'm sorry parents can't stay for class. It's an insurance thing."

     "I'm not a dad." Mara furrowed her eyebrows. That did not sound like a kid's voice. "I am here to kick some ass, sir!"

     Mara looked behind her and saw Sensei talk to a chubby man in blue. "Do I know you from somewhere," Sensei asked him.

The man looked around at everyone staring at him and then looked back at Sensei. "Oh, yeah, I uh sold you the mirror. We kind of bonded, talked about rock bands."

"Look, you're a little old. This is a class for teenagers."

"Well, I can take them. I'm not afraid of kids sir. And my mom, she doesn't charge me rent, so I just...got a lot of cash to burn."

Sensei snatched the money from his hand and walked back up to the front. "We'll consider this a trial run. I thought my last group of recruits was pathetic. But if you do what I tell you to do, you'll at least have a chance of becoming a fighter. But to do that, you gotta fight. So, which one of you has the balls to take on the champ?"

Everyone was quiet and Mara realized that none of the new recruits were brave enough to take on Miguel. Sensei wouldn't like that.

"I'll take him on." Mara turned around to see who belonged to the voice. It was a girl with dyed blond hair. She looked confident and Mara wondered if she knew what she was getting herself into.

"Oh you will huh?"

The girl nodded at Sensei. "I saw your little demo at Valley Fest. You guys can put on a show, but can you actually fight?"

Mara was surprised at how bold this girl was.

"That sounds like a challenge." Sensei told her amused.

"I like a challenge."

Sensei nodded and walked away from her and back up to where Sensei Kreese was standing. "Mr. Diaz. Show little Miss Hotshot here what Cobra Kai is all about."

Everyone moved to the side and let Miguel and the new girl take the mat. "Look." Miguel said to her. "Are you sure you wanna do—"

She cut him off by kicking him in the stomach. Miguel caught his balance and sent a smirk her way. "All right. Game on." The girl started to throw punches at him, Miguel easily blocking and dodging them.

     Mara could tell she liked to play offense. "Close the gap." Tory went to kick Miguel but he grabbed her leg and threw her to the floor. The girl just rolled backwards and stood up easily. She went to punch Miguel again but he continued to block all of her advances. He kicked one of her legs out from underneath her. "Don't let me see it coming."

     The girl tackled him to the ground and stood up. "Did you see that coming?" Miguel flipped himself over and trapped both of her legs between his pushing her to the floor.

     "Maybe." He stood up and offered her his hand. "Name's Miguel."

     "Tory." She grabbed onto his hand and quickly twisted and threw him over her back. She placed her hand on his face pushing it into the mat. "With a y."

After class Sensei Kreese pulled Mara aside to talk to her. " I think you're real Cobra Kai material. I see potential in you to be the best Mara and I don't like to see natural talent wasted. You're a natural talent, but all you need is to develop a killer instinct. How would you like to take private lessons with me?"

     Mara thought about it for a second. She did want to get better and he was giving her a chance to do that. Sensei Kreese had been more invested in her skills this summer than Sensei Lawrence had been her entire time at the dojo. How could she say no? "Sure."

     Kreese smiled at her. "Good. We can start in a few days. Until then keep doing what you're doing."

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Mara walked into the mini-mart to get some apple juice after her talk with Kreese. Aisha and Tory were in there when she arrived and the two girl looked at her when she walked in.

"Oh," Aisha said. "This is Mara. Mara this is Tory."

Mara smiled at the girl. "Hey. You were really good in there."

Tory nodded. "Thanks. I uh like your hair."

Mara smiled at her. "Thanks. I like your bracelet. It's really cool."

Tory looked down at her bracelet and smirked. "Oh this? It's not just for show. Some creepy guy at the mall tried to grab me once, but I managed to block him and give him a gift he won't ever forget."

Aisha chuckled. "You seem like you already know how to kick ass pretty well. What do you need Cobra Kai for?"

     "I've had a couple kickboxing lessons, but I've always wanted to smash boards blindfolded."

     "Oh you saw that? The secret is poking little holes in the blindfolds."

     Tory laughed. "Cool. Plus everyone loves a badass. And you Mara you're pretty badass." Tory smirked at her and Mara felt her cheeks turn red.

     Tory started to walk away and Aisha called out to her. "Hey. You guys wouldn't wanna go to the beach with me, would you? It'd be nice to have some backup."

     "Guess I could suffer through a day at the beach. Mara?"

     "Yeah, I'll come. Ryan and I still have our memberships anyway. Is it ok if comes along? He'll kill me if he doesn't get to eat any of their chicken fingers."

     "Yeah, sure. Ryan would've invited himself anyways."

     Mara laughed at that. "The horny idiot needs to get out of the house."

     Tory laughed at that and smiled. "I like her."

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Ryan pulled his pants back on and looked back at Miguel. "Why do you think somethings up with him? I mean maybe he really did get his countries mixed up. He's a war veteran so there's a lot of mental trauma there."

"There's just something off about him. He gives off bad vibes."

     Ryan sighed and pulled the covers off of Miguel. He grabbed his arms and pulled him up. "There is nothing wrong with him, ok? You're just being paranoid. Now get dressed so I can bring you home. I'm going to the beach."

     Miguel grabbed his shirt from off of the floor and pulled it on. "The beach? With who?"

     Ryan opened his drawers and pulled out his swim trunks. "Mara, Aisha, and some girl named Tory."

     "Tory? She just joined Cobra Kai. How is she already getting invited places? I only get invited to lunch with Sensei and your bedroom."

     Ryan turned around and wrapped his arms around Miguel. "And you should be honored that I invite you into my bedroom everyday." He tapped Miguel's nose and placed a kiss on his lips. "Now come on. My chicken tenders are waiting for me."

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

The girls and Ryan entered the club and the twins looked around. They hadn't been here in a long time. Ryan saw the food table and immediately ran down towards it. Mara just snorted at him and turned to Tory and Aisha. The former was looking down at the club in confusion.

     "Ok, this is not the beach. Where are the homeless dudes on rollerblades and the guys shoving shitty hip-hop demos in your face?"

     Aisha snorted at her. "No, don't worry. They'll come after they pass out the hors d'oeuvres."

     Mara laughed and nodded. "Well I'm going to find my brother and make sure he doesn't eat all of the food because he will if you leave him alone for too long."

     Ryan was sitting at a table eating his chicken tenders when Mara sat in front of him and took one. "Hey! That's mine."

     "Well it's mine now." She took a bite and laughed at his mad face.

     "Why don't you go talk to Sam?"

     Mara looked around. "Sam's here?"

     Ryan nodded and pointed at another table where Aisha and Sam were putting down their plates of food. Mara was still upset with Sam about the whole commercial problem but it was time she started communicating with people again.

     "I'll be right back."

     Ryan shook his head and swallowed his food. "You might not want to come back for awhile. Miguel made me promise to take pictures by the pool."

     Mara made a grossed out face and left him to eat. She approached Sam and Aisha and the Larusso girl's smile dropped when she saw her. "Mara. Look about the whole commercial issue. I'm sorry i didn't tell you guys but I didn't think it was a big deal my dad was opening a dojo."

     "It wasn't about him opening the dojo Sam. It was about him dissing Cobra Kai. But I get why you didn't think you were obligated to tell us."

     "Hey, look what I got." Mara looked over to see Tory coming up to them. She pulled out a bottle of vodka and Mara's mouth started to water.

     "Where'd you get that," Aisha asked.

     "I swiped it from the bar. Oh relax. All the adults are getting wasted. No one's gonna notice if we have a little fun."

     "You should put that back. You'll get into big trouble," Sam told her.

     Tory looked at her and chuckled awkwardly. "And you are?"

     "Oh. Sam, this is Tory. Tory, Sam."

     "Oh, the Sam. Come on. Like anyone's gonna miss one bottle of vodka. I could swipe half the silverware in this place before anyone would notice."

     Mara wasn't paying attention to their conversation. Her attention was focused on the bottle peaking out from Tory's bag. Her heart started to beat rapidly in her chest and she looked around for Ryan, but noticed the boy had already left his spot at his table.

     "Mara? Mara!" Mara's head snapped up at Tory who was looking at her weirdly. "I said do you want a drink?"

     The girl looked around the club for her brother but when she couldn't find him she turned back to Tory and nodded. The girl smiled and wrapped an arm around her shoulders as they started to walk away from Sam.

     One drink wouldn't hurt.

    
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

     The girls found a spot on the beach under one of the boardwalks to drink. Tory put the bottle in the middle of their small circle and then pulled out three solo cups. She handed one to each of them and then poured some of the vodka in her own cup.

She hands the bottle to Aisha next and the girl pours some into her own cup. She then passed Mara the bottle and it took all of Mara's self control not to fill her cup to the top. She placed the bottle back in the middle of them and downed the small amount of liquid she had in her cup.

The girls easily fell into conversation of what had happened before Tory got here. Mara found herself re-pouring a small amount of vodka into her cup every couple of minutes. She was starting to feel dizzy but she couldn't stop now.

Tory noticed that the girl was going overboard and she suggested that they went back into the club. She picked up the bottle and put it back into her bag so Mara couldn't take anymore.

They all walked back inside and Tory noticed Mara's slight struggle. She wrapped an arm around the girl's waist and leaned in to whisper in her ear so Aisha wouldn't hear. "Are you ok?"

Mara nodded and closed her eyes for a second. Tory gave her a worried look but Mara just took a deep breath and followed after Aisha.

     "So what were you guys saying about you beating up someone?" Tory tried to change the subject but she still kept a close eye on Mara.

     "Oh Mara totally punched this blond bitch named Yasmine in the face. It was like a tag team. She kicked her over to me and I gave her the meanest front wedgie of her life."

     Tory laughed and wrapped her arms around both girls. "Wait, I'm sorry. You gave her a front wedgie?"

     Aisha nodded. "I split that bitch in two."

     Mara laughed along with them remembering Yasmine's face as she ran way from them.

     "Hey!" The trio turned around to see an angry Sam. "My mom's missing her wallet."

     "Sucks for her." Mara and Aisha both laughed, but Sam didn't find anything funny.

     "You wouldn't know anything about that?"

     Mara was confused. "Wait, what are you saying?"

     "Just give me the wallet, and I won't tell Security."

     Tory scoffed. Who did this girl think she was? "Are you freaking kidding me?"

     Mara stepped forward slightly stumbling but managing to catch herself. "Sam, Tory didn't steal anything except for the vodka. We would know. We've been with her the entire time. She didn't steal your mom's wallet."

     "Right. And she wouldn't steal half the silverware in here."

    "Listen, I didn't rob your mom, bitch. You know what let's get out of here." Tory turned around and Sam reached out to grab her bag. Tory was quick and turned around pushing Sam backwards into the table of food.

     She stormed away and Mara and Aisha just stood there in shock. "Real nice friend you've both made."

     Asian shook her head. "You shouldn't have accused her of something like that." She walked away and Mara was left in front of Sam.

     "Tory's cool, Sam. I don't know what gotten into you lately." She walked away from her and went to find Aisha and Tory.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Aisha had left with her mother and Tory and Mara were sitting down waiting for Ryan. Tory watched as the girl beside her twiddled with her fingers. "Hey Mara?"

Mara looked up at her. "Yeah?"

"I'm sorry if I'm overstepping but do you have a drinking problem?" Tory closed her eyes and realized how bad she worded that. "I mean I noticed you were going a bit overboard with the vodka."

Mara looked down and just nodded. "It started at the end of the school year."

"Can I ask why?"

"It just numbs the pain I guess. It's just easier to not feel anything at all sometimes."

"Mara it's not good to suppress your emotions like that. How about you try channeling it instead. Through your fighting. Any frustrations you have. If you feel sad, stressed, angry just use those feelings to make you better and not bring you done. It's what I do."

Mara nodded understanding what the girl was saying. "I guess that makes sense."

"Would you want to hang out sometime? Maybe what you need is a friend that will always be there."

Mara looked up and smiled at her. "I would like that. Ryan needs another friend too. The only emotion he knows how to feel anymore is lust."

Tory laughed at that and looked out at the beach that was visible from where they were sitting. "I think you Abrams will make great friends."

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

I wanted to get this chapter out for you guys since I'm not sure if I'll update this story tomorrow or not.

What do you think Tory and Mara's relationship is going to be like?

Tory and Ryan?

Also what predictions do you have for Mara for the rest of season 2 and season 3? We only have seven parts left.

As always if you liked this chapter vote and leave a comment!