Chapter Twenty-One
TAKE A RIGHT

     Moon was practically speeding down the road to get to Mara's house. The girl's voice sounded frantic on the phone and it scared Moon. The blonde girl pulled into Mara's driveway and jumped out, not even bothering to lock her car door. She grabbed the spare key from underneath one of the flower pots in their garden ( which was only maintained because their neighbor across the street tended to them ) and quickly opened the door.

The first thing she noticed was all of the glass on the floor. She carefully stepped over the shards and made her way down the hallway to Mara's room. The doorknob to Mara's room had blood on it and that terrified Moon. She tried to open the door but it was locked. "Mara?" Moon banged on the door. "Open the door."

     There was no response and that scared Moon more. "Mara you're scaring me. Please open the door." There was still no response and Moon kneeled down and looked underneath the small space beneath the door. She saw a shadow sitting in front of the other side and so she sat down and put her ear to the door. She strained her hearing to see if she could hear any sound coming from inside the room and all she could hear were small sniffles from the other side. "Mara? Please let me in. You can lock the door again once I'm inside."

She didn't think Mara would answer but there was a click and the door creaked open slightly. Moon quickly stood up and entered the room closing the door and locking it again. She looked down at Mara who was sitting right beside the door with her knees pulled up to her chest. There were tear tracks down her cheeks and she was staring blankly ahead of her.

     Moon slowly walked over to the girl and bent down in front of her. The girl didn't acknowledge her presence and Moon realized that whatever had happened earlier was replaying in the girl's head. It must have been traumatic for her to react this way. Moon gently wiped some of the tears from the girl's cheeks and smiled sadly at her. "Can you tell me what happened?"

     Mara's eyes slowly drifted to meet Moon's and tears started to fill her eyes. "H-He. He—" The girl's breathing started to pick up as she struggled to get the words out. She was clearly in distress so Moon carefully sat herself down beside Mara and gently pulled the girl into her arms, holding her tightly. She could feel Mara relax slightly and rest her head on Moon's chest.

     Moon just pulled her face to look at hers. "Breathe for me ok? In and out. In and out. Good. Just copy me." Mara watched her and soon her breathing started to even out, but then the tears came. Months of holding back her tears were let out in a heartbreaking sob and Moon pulled her closer. "It'll be ok. You can tell me when you're ready. I'm right here."

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     Moon rubbed Mara's back as the girl laid in her arms. Mara had been sitting there in the blonde's embrace listening to the sound of her heartbeat to try and calm down. Moon could feel her shaking and she wanted to know what had troubled the girl so much that she physically couldn't talk about it.

     "My dad." Moon looked down at the girl who was still staring straight ahead. "I came home and he was drunk. H-he started yelling at me, calling me pathetic and worthless. A-and then he threw a bottle of vodka at my head."

    "Oh my God. Mara, I'm so sorry. I can't believe he would do that to you."

     "You shouldn't be sorry. You're not the one who did it."

     "No, I should. Even if I wasn't the one who hurt you today I've hurt you before. I contributed to your pain by believing that stupid rumor Yasmine spread and I'm sorry."

     Mara looked up at her and Moon moved a strand of hair out of the girl's face. "Why didn't you ask me about it instead of kissing my best friend?"

     Moon looked down ashamed. "I didn't even realize he was the same kid Yasmine and I bullied until a few weeks ago. I feel so stupid."

     "You know I was going to ask you out that night? I had stayed up all night thinking about it and I was so excited because this was the girl I had a crush on when I was 10 and I was finally getting the chance to be with her."

     "And I ruined things." Moon realized that she had been stupid. "Hawk and I never liked each other Mara. We had made a deal that we would pretend to date so we could make someone jealous. We just didn't know we were both after the same person."

     Mara chuckled shortly and Moon smiled at the sound. "You both are idiots. That's the worst way to try and get someone to like you. It just does the opposite."

     Moon nodded agreeing with her. "I realize that now."

     "I talked to Hawk already and we're friends again."

     "I'm happy for you guys. He was miserable without you you know? "

     Mara looked up at her and smirked. "Who wouldn't be?"

     Moon laughed and nodded. "If you let me, I would really like a second chance. Not at a relationship but just at being friends again."

     Mara nodded. "It's only fair since I forgave Hawk."

     Moon pulled her closer. "And maybe in the future we could try at a relationship again?"

     Mara just shrugged. "Maybe."

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     The next day at class Mara was feeling slightly better. She was friends with Moon and Hawk again and that was all she needed right now. The only person she still felt weird about was Miguel. She felt like the boy was keeping something from her. He had acted weird towards her the day of Valley Fest and then he just pretended nothing happened the next day.

     Said boy was currently fighting Hawk as the rest of the Cobra Kai students watched. Mara was standing in between Tory and Aisha while she studied the boys' movements on the mat. Miguel ended up winning and Sensei Lawrence congratulated him before telling them to go again. The two boys bowed to each other but everyone's attention had moved to the door that had been yanked open by no other than Daniel Larusso.

     "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Sensei scolded him.

     "Like you don't know."

     "Take your shoes off the mat. You're disrespecting my dojo."

     Mr. Larusso glared at him and moved closer. "You're seriously gonna talk to me about disrespecting dojos after what you just did to mine?"

     "I don't know what the hell you're talking about. I didn't do anything to your dojo."

     "Just like you didn't slug one of my employees, huh?"

     Sensei just shrugged which led Mara to believe he actually did attack an employee and didn't care much about it.

     Mr. Larusso chuckled. "You know, part of me actually felt bad for you at one point, but you make it so easy to remember who the bad guy is in all of this. You call yourself a sensei? You don't even know what a sensei is. A sensei mentors. A sensei elevates. He doesn't teach destruction and disrespect!"

     Sensei Lawrence got in Mr. Larusso's face and gave him a stern look. "I already said I don't know what you're talking about LaRusso. And you don't know what you're talking about either."

     "Yeah, well, I know you don't. You don't earn the Medal of Honor by stealing it." He turned to the students band pointed at Sensei. "Let me tell you something about your sensei. He might teach you how to fight, but he doesn't know a thing about what it takes to truly win at life. If you want to help yourselves before it's too late, the doors of Miyagi-Do are wide open."

     "You think you can come in here and poach my students?"

     Mr. Larusso smiled and open his arms up challenging Sensei. "And what are you gonna do about it? You know, I'm not gonna strike first."

     Mara waited in anticipation for Sensei's next move. She was slightly disappointed when he stepped back. "I'm gonna be a bigger man."

     "Yeah," Mr. Larusso breathed. "We'll see about that." He took one last look at Sensei before walking out. Movement caught Mara's eyes and she looked over to see Douchebag grabbing his things.

     "Where do you think you're going," Sensei asked him. Douchebag just kept walking and Assface called out to him. "What the hell, Chris?"

     Chris turned around to his friend. "I never liked it here." He walked out and other kids started to follow him. Mara watched in disbelief as students left. How could they just betray Cobra Kai like that? She thought everyone had left but she was surprised to see one more student grab their things.

     Gia.

     "Gia where are you going?"

     The girl turned to Mara with sad eyes. "Cobra Kai isn't the same anymore. And neither are you, Mara."

     "Don't you walk out that door, Gia."

     The girl looked slightly taken aback by Mara's tone but she just shook her head and left. Mara turned to Sensei Kreese and the man just nodded at her. Mara turned and glared at the door Gia had just left out of. Miyagi-Do had officially declared themselves the enemy.

     And Mara was angry.

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     Mara breathed heavily as she continued to do push-ups. Her arms were starting to get tired but she refused to show any weakness.

     "This all could be over in an instant. The decision's yours! Who trashed the Miyagi dojo?"

     Mara felt bad that their dojo was destroyed but after Mr. Larusso came in and tried to poach their students she felt less sympathy for them. Of course, she felt bad about the medal of honor. That wasn't something you stole without earning.

     "Y'all know I'm no fan of LaRusso's, but that sort of bullshit we don't teach in here. At least not anymore. So, I'm gonna ask you again. Who trashed Miyagi-Do?"

     Chubs stood up panting. "It was not me, Sensei. I would never disrespect another man's dojo--"

     "Shut your cakehole, Chubs. I'm not looking for excuses. I'm looking for answers!"

     "Sensei, we really don't know who did it," Miguel tried to reason with him. The boy honestly thought he had more stamina than this but he couldn't take it anymore.

     "Somebody knows something," Kreese told them all as he watched them struggle. "Question is who's gonna break?"

     A phone started ringing and Sensei started to walk away to answer it. "Keep going. We can do this all day."

     Assface when up to Sensei Kreese out of breath. "Sensei we need a water break."

     "Two-minute break!" Everyone sighed in relief and went to grab water. "Get your bearings."

     Mara picked up her water and drank some. She didn't want to drink too fast since she always got cramps when that happened. Hawk came over to her and she smiled at him. He seemed nervous about something and she was caught off guard when he grabbed her hand and pulled her closer to him. He looked around before bending down so their faces were close together. "It was me."

     "What was you?"

     "I'm the one who trashed Miyagi-Do," he whispered. Her eyes widened and she looked at him confused.

     "Why would you do that? I mean I'm not mad at you or anything but you couldn't have left the medal there?"

     "I just saw it and picked it up and by the time I realized I probably shouldn't have taken it, it was too late to bring it back."

     She nodded. "I won't tell anyone. Does Sensei Kreese know?"

     He nodded and looked back at the man before turning back to his best friend. "He said he would take care of it."

     "Well then let him. You can trust him. He knows what he's doing." She put her water down and grabbed his hand. "Since we're confessing things I have something to tell you too."

     "What is it?"

     "There was an incident with my dad yesterday. He found the bottle of Vodka under my bed and threw it at me."

     "What? That absolute peace of shit. I'll teach him a lesson."

     Mara just snorted and Hawk looked at her confused. "What are you going to do? Poke him to death with your mohawk? He's literally 4 times your size."

     Hawk just shook his head at her, but he couldn't help but laugh at her joke.

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     Gia was nervous, to say the least. She had gotten the courage to leave Cobra Kai and now she was on her way to Miyagi-Do. She was walking next to Chris as they entered the outside area of the Miyagi dojo. She saw Mr. Larusso bent down fixing some plants and 3 other kids were trying to lift a giant rock.

     "Uh...excuse me," Chris called out to them. "Is this Miyagi-Do?" Gia recognized the tall-dark-haired boy from some of Mara's old pictures and she knew Sam from the movie night she had come to at Mara's house, but she didn't recognize the long-haired boy that was glaring at them.

     He started storming up to them and Gia found herself backing up. "Come back for another beating?"

     Mr. Larusso was confused and so was Gia. They had never done anything to this kid. "Hey, Robby. Robby!"

     "This is one of the guys who was beating on Demetri." He angrily pointed at Chris and Gia was confused. When had he beat up a kid? "Probably helped trash the dojo."

     Gia stepped forward but slightly cowered back at the glare Robby sent her. "We didn't have anything to do with that."

     Robby glared at her. "And who are you?"

     "Oh uh Georgia, but people usually just call me Gia." She stuck out her hand for him to shake but Robby just glared at it. "Awkward," she said retracting her hand.

     "Look I'm sorry for what happened at the mall," Chris confessed. Gia could tell he genuinely meant it. "We just wanna learn Miyagi-Do karate."

     "I'd be careful about this, Mr. L, letting the Cobra Kais into Miyagi-Do," the lanky kid called out, Demetri, Gia remembered his name was. "It's like letting the wildlings behind the Wall."

     Gia looked confused. "But the wildling helped Jon Snow win the Battle of the Bastards."

     Mr. Larusso pointed to her and looked at Demetri with a smile. "What she said."

     Demetri thought about it for a moment before looking down. "Should've picked a different analogy."

     Mr. Larusso turned back to them and smiled. "We're happy to have you." He shook Gia's hand first. "Nice to meet you."

     Gia smiled at Sam and the girl smiled back at her and waved her over. "I haven't seen you in so long Gia." The girl nodded and hugged Sam. "I figured since Mara and Aisha were upset with me you would be too."

     Gia shook her head. "I'm not. I barely even know what happened. Mara's been acting different lately. I'm worried for her."

     Sam seemed confused. "How has she been different?"

     "Just more aggressive. It all started when that new Sensei came to the dojo."

     "Well maybe if we show her how great Miyagi-Do is she'll realize Cobra Kai isn't good for her. I think a lot of their students have been brainwashed by that dojo."

     Gia nodded. She wouldn't say Cobra Kai was bad. It was just some of the teachings that were. Gia looked over to see Robby tending to one of the plants. Gia cringed at how rough he was being with them. "I'll be back," she told Sam before approaching the boy. "Uh, I'm pretty good with plants. I can do this if you'd like."

     Robby looked up at her and rolled his eyes. "Whatever." He walked away from her and over to Sam and Gia just sighed before kneeling down and taking care of the plant.

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     Mara sat on the floor as she watched Miguel, Tory, Hawk, Assface, and Chubs take their turns. They were all sweating and out of breath and she could tell they were getting irritated.

    "Keep going. I have all day," Sensei Kreese called out. Mara was confused about what his goal was. If he knew who trashed the dojo why was he still punishing them?

     "He's not gonna let up," Miguel panted. "We gotta figure out who did it."

     "I bet it was shit-breath." Tory glared at Assface.

     Assface got up and started to approach Tory and the girl got in his face. Miguel was trying to break them up when Sensei Kreese yelled at them. "Stop. Would you really like to know who did it?" Mara stood up along with the other students and stood next to Hawk. "It was Hawk." Mara's eyes widened and she looked at the man confused. "And it was Diaz. And Robinson. And it was Abrams, Nichols, Chubs, Red. When one of you makes a move, you all make a move. You live and you die with the consequences and the spoils. Because you are all Cobra Kai. Main dojo, five minutes. You're about to begin your real training."

     Mara agreed with his point. Whatever one person did reflected all of them and the dojo, so whatever consequences that person faced they all would face it. She was interested in what Sensei considered their real training. Had everything he had been teaching her during their lessons not important? She guessed she would find out.

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         "Assface and Ms. Abrams come center." Mara moved to the center of the mat and stood in front of Assface. "Face me. Bow. Face each other. Bow. Combat! Aits!"

     Assface sent a kick at Mara which she blocked and she immediately sent a punch in his direction. He blocked that and she tried to kick him but was frustrated when he also managed to block her kick.

     They started to circle each other and Assface tried to kick her but she blocked it and sent a quick, hard kick to his abdomen. He groaned and dropped to his knees and she just smirked in triumph.

     "Point," Miguel called out.

     "Hit him again." Mara looked at Sensei confused. "Do you have a problem with that? A fight isn't over until your enemy is finished. You show your enemy no mercy."

     Mara nodded and went to bring her knee up to Assface's face when Miguel called out for her to wait.
"This isn't what Sensei Lawrence has been teaching us."

"Excuse me?"

"There's no honor in being merciless. Mara scored a point. It's over."

"Sensei Lawrence is right of course. In a tournament, the fighting stops when you land a point. But in the real world, it's not about scoring points. It's about being a winner or a loser. And there are no losers in this dojo."

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     Mara walked into the small dojo to see Miguel kicking a punching bag. "You playing footsie or practicing your roundhouse? Think fast!" She tossed sparring gloves at him and told him to put them on.

     He started to block her kicks with them and Mara noticed the boy was thinking about something. "Today's lesson was crazy, huh?"

     Mara looked at him weirdly. "Not that crazy." She kicked the gloves another time and groaned when Miguel put them back down.

     "I mean don't you think that some of what Sensei Kreese is teaching us just...feels