AN ABSURD AMOUNT of time was spent in the apartment complex in Reseda. It was grueling work, too, in some ways. Dylan struggled with some of the test questions but she had it in the bag. Johnny held out flashcards in front of her.

"Okay this one's the most important. If you get it wrong you're cleaning up my dojo for a week." Johnny pointed at his beers. "You also owe me a six pack of beers. Hope you're ready," Johnny said steadily. She stared at him, waiting for the final question. "What genre . . ." He paused for effect. "Is Die Hard?"

"That's literally obvious," She said, like anyone knew that. Seeing how this was Johnny Lawrence and he definitely had something else in mind. She began to sweat. Then she thought about it. "Oh, you're waiting for me to say it's a Christmas movie, right? Because it is," She responded with ease.

He stared at her for a long moment while Miguel third wheeled with his chin in his palms.

"Dammit." He turned to Miguel. "She's too good at this."

"Yeah but that's not even a question with a solid answer. It's all opinion based. She could have said anything," Miguel said like Johnny should have known that.

"Yeah, whatever. No takebacks," Dylan said before either of them could say anything else. "What would you have even had me do if I lost? Fake my age and buy you alcohol?" She asked him. Johnny was out of his mind if he thought she could pass for twenty one.

"Don't you have a fake?"

". . . No?"

"What? When I was your age I did. All my buddies did to. Your generation is so lame," He remarked like it was obvious.

"You're also the guy that beat up Mr. LaRusso in high school so I'm not really sure you and your friends were that great either," Dylan crossed her arms.

"How do you know about that?" Johnny demanded. "You know the LaRussos too?"

"Sensei, everyone does. Sam and Dylan know each other from school too," Miguel answered for her.

"You can't exactly avoid them, Johnny. Besides, I babysat Anthony once like three years ago while they were at a convention. Kid sucks but the money was good. They're kind of loaded," She commented.

"LaRusso's daughter wrecked my car," Johnny revealed to her. Dylan's eyes went wide at the revelation. It made sense considering he currently had a car that was definitely way too good for his payroll. Johnny wasn't exactly swimming in dough like Miguel said he once was.

"She apologized!" Miguel exclaimed. "Besides, she wasn't even the one that did it."

"You know what they say, Diaz. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree," Johnny sneered. "Stop protecting your ex anyways."

"Honestly I think this whole thing is really funny." Dylan looked down at her nails. Johnny scolded her for putting her feet up on his chairs even though they looked like they were about to fall apart anyways.

"If you keep saying shit like that you're cleaning up the dojo anyways," Johnny warned.

"Yeah, sure. Keep telling yourself that." She stood up from her chair. "You got anything besides hot pockets in there and expired yogurt?" She pointed to the fridge. Johnny shook his head, about to go off on her for asking.

"No, no, no. I'm not letting you eat me out of house and home. I already have Miguel is here half of the time anyways, I'm not taking anymore charity cases. My apartment is off limits to any more poor kids," He stood in front of the fridge with his arms out, blocking her.

"In that case, Miguel, I will see you at some point, hopefully not moping around about Sam," He glared at her jokingly. "And Johnny, I'd say I hope I don't see you around but sadly I see you all the time and I don't think that's gonna change," She concluded with a fake frown.

"Yeah, yeah, get out of my place."

       AISHA TEXTED HER later in the day, once she'd finished practice. There was something about a new girl beating Miguel's ass in the dojo and wanting to know if Dylan could come along to the country club that her family belonged to to go swimming.  Dylan knew enough abotu Aisha to know that she wasn't overly fond of the beach club, especially because she mainly just went because her mom wanted her to.

"I feel like I haven't seen you in ages." Aisha smiled at her, coming in to give her a hug. "Thanks for helping in the demo, even though I know Sensei just wanted your help because you guys have beef or whatever," The girl joked.

Dylan looked past her and saw another girl there as well. She gave her a questioning smile when she realized she came with Aisha.

"Hey, I'm Dylan."

"Tory," The girl introduced herself.

"Tory's the one that totally kicked Miguel's ass," Aisha laughed when she told the story. "Dylan and I've been friends for about a year. I felt like you guys would get along."

"I thought you were Sam for a second," Tory confessed. "It's why I didn't say anything sooner."

"You know Same LaRusso?" Dylan asked her in confusion. She definitely hadn't seen Tory around before.

"Nah, but Aisha said she was having some issues and I thought you might be her," She responded. "Glad you aren't."

"Yeah, Sam's just upset about the Cobra Kai bullshit that's been going down. Bit of a rivalry between you guys and the LaRussos," Dylan explained. "Honestly, I don't know the full story but it's probably something drawn out and boring."

"You guys wanna go in?" Aisha asked them. Both girls nodded and they walked through the doors. It was a nice place for sure.

"Ok. This is not the beach," Tory said in awe, looking around.

"Oh yeah, the first time I came here I was surprised too. I'm poor so I don't really get to do stuff like this often. Aisha and I have gone together sometimes within the past year though." Aisha smiled at her and Tory laughed.

"You too, huh?" Tory asked her in response to hearing about her financial status. "I guess you're either lucky or you aren't in California," She concluded. She looked around again and Dylan almost got hit in the face with a beach ball. "Where are the homeless dudes on rollerblades and the guys shoving shitty hip-hop demos in your face?"

Aisha and Dylan laughed at that.

"Not far. Some guy gave me his mixtape once and wouldn't let me leave until I gave it a listen. It was a soundcloud rap though so it was even worse," She confessed.

"Don't worry, they'll come after they pass out the hors d'oeuvres," Aisha joked. "Dylan played that stuff for me and I can in fact conclude it was terrible."

They all laughed at that.

"Hey, Aisha," The girl in question looked over at her and so did the new girl, Tory. "Don't look now but Sam's staring at you," Dylan said to her friend, awkwardly making eye contact with Sam LaRusso.

"Who's loverboy?" Tory asked when Aisha walked away from them for a minute to avoid seeing her ex-friend.

"That, is Robby Keene. Pretty sure there's some drama between him, Sam and Miguel. Honestly there's so much to catch up on and I'm not even sure where everyone's standing," Dylan said honestly. Tory stared at Sam, who noticed them looking back at her.

"Yeah, I can tell. She dated Miguel right? The kid I fought?"

"Yeah. How'd you do that well by the way? I heard about it from Aisha when she texted me earlier? You box?" Dylan was suddenly really interested in the fight.

"Yeah. Well, I've taken some kickboxing lessons. Just a few," She answered.

"Dude, that's awesome. I used to box all the time. Ran out of money to pay for the place I was taking lessons though and couldn't end up continuing. I quit about two years ago." She watched Aisha come back to them, looking frustrated. "Let me know if you ever wanna spar. I haven't in a while."

"That would be sick," She agreed.

"I can't believe Sam," Aisha jumped in when it was clear Tory and Dylan had just about finished their conversation.

"If it's cool with you guys, I'm gonna go see what drinks they have here," Tory excused herself and Dylan nodded at her as she left. Aisha turned to her.

"I mean, I want to be friends with her again, really, but she just doesn't get how much karate means to me right now. There isn't anything wrong with Cobra Kai, Dylan," She explained. Dylan agreed with her for the most part.

"Yeah, even though I hate karate I can agree. For me, at least, I get why you like it so much. It's been beneficial and I'm happy you found something you enjoy, Aisha." Dylan didn't have to have high regard for everything the Cobras and Johnny Lawrence did, but it wasn't as black and white or right and wrong when it came to the dojo.

"Thank you!" Aisha stressed out gratefully. "It's refreshing being around people who understand me, you know?"

Tory came back with a bottle of what looked like vodka or something. Dylan's brows rose as she saw it in the girl's purse. She noticed Sam standing by them as well, watching the whole thing. Aisha and Sam had definitely made up a little bit a few minutes ago but it was clear that something wasn't about to go well judging by the look on the brunette's face.

"Where'd you get that?" Aisha asked Tory.

"I swiped it from the bar." Aisha gave Sam a conflicted look, while Dylan just stood there. It might not have been right but it wasn't the worst thing in the world either. Dylan wasn't about to crash someone's party.

"You should put that back. You'll get in big trouble," Sam nudged her way in next to Dylan and Aisha, looking at Tory. The taller girl immediately got on the defensive.

"And you are?" She chuckled with a smile.

"Oh, Sam this is Tory. And you already know Dylan," Aisha introduced the two girls and gave a bit of a reintroduction to the girl who wasn't as involved as she'd like to be. Sam flicked her eyes over to Dylan, giving her a look that didn't exactly fit the nice-girl vibe she tried to give off most of the time.

"Oh, the Sam," Tory said in recognition. Sam let her guard drop for a minute as she gave a little smile, probably thinking that it was a good thing. Dylan felt her stomach churn for a minute because shit was about to hit the fan.

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

"You shouldn't steal anything," Sam said seriously.

"Relax Sam. I'm pretty sure it was a joke," Dylan gave the LaRusso a relaxed smile. Sam's expression fell into one of irritation at the girl who had finally addressed her.

"Yeah, what are you? A nun?" Tory joked once again. "Come on. Are we gonna drink or not?" Tory tapped Aisha on the shoulder and included Dylan in her questioning. Aisha took a minute to say yes, while Dylan answered for herself.

"I'm good guys. Thanks for offering though," She thanked Tory coolly, who seemed satisfied with that answer.

Dylan let Aisha and Tory go and have their fun, taking some time for herself. She tried to at least, until Sam confronted her.

"What, you're just gonna let that girl Tory do that?" Sam confronted her. Dylan stepped back, looking at Sam like she was crazy.

"What are you talking about?"

"She stole that and you're not doing anything about it. And, she'd corrupting Aisha!" Sam raised her voice. Dylan laughed humorlessly at that, immediately turning nasty. She'd kept her cool the whole time thus far but this was going overboard.

"I never said I agreed that she should do that. But it's really not like she'd corrupting anyone. Aisha can make her own decisions, Sam. She wasn't peer pressured," She defended her friend. "You need to calm down. You guys aren't even friends anymore anyways. She got a new one. Deal with it," She shrugged.

Sam glared at her.

"What's gotten into you?" She said, betrayed. Dylan laughed again at that like it was something hilarious.

"Sam, we barely even know each other. We weren't friends then and we definitely aren't now. Don't act like you know anything about me just because we were partners once." Dylan left Sam in the dust, scoffing at her as she did so and leaving to go back and find Tory and Aisha.

Sam needed to get a grip.

"Wait, I'm sorry, you gave her a front wedgie?" Tory was asking Aisha in shock at what the girl had just revealed to her when Dylan met back up with them "Oh, hey Dylan. You hear about Aisha's front wedgie story?"

"Of for sure. One of the highlights of her career. Sadly I couldn't be there to see it," Dylan said disappointed. "Not much of a partier. Maybe I should get more into them if that happens often."

"I split that bitch in two," Aisha bragged.

"Yasmine deserved it. She was rude to me all the time and awful to Aisha and some of my other friends." Tory nodded at Dylan sympathetically.

"Oh my god . . . " Tory had her arm around Aisha as Dylan walked with them on her other side. Sam came up behind them angrily.

"Hey!" All three of them turned around to face her, Tory looking especially confused as Dylan looked away from the girl. "My mom's missing her wallet."

"Sucks for her," Tory said without a care. What were they supposed to say anyways?

"You wouldn't know anything about that?" Sam started to accuse.

"You have to be kidding me Sam." Dylan started with a glare. "I was with you arguing and when I wasn't, I was with them. No way was it Tory," She continued.

"Wait," Aisha looked between them, confused but seeing what was happening. "Wait, what are you saying?"

"Just give me the wallet, and I won't tell security," Sam tried to negotiate. Only there wasn't even a reason to negotiate anything.

"Are you freaking kidding me?" Tory bit back. The girl's smile dropped.

"Sam, she didn't steal your mom's wallet," Aisha defended her friend.

"Right. And she didn't steal a bottle of vodka. And you wouldn't steal half the silverware in here," Sam recalled what Tory had talked about when they'd first gotten to the beach club.

"Listen, I didn't rob your mom, bitch." Tory came closer to Sam. She motioned for Aisha to follow her, while Dylan was already walking away, annoyed with Sam. "You know what, let's get out of here."

Before Dylan could process what was happening, Sam was yanking Tory's bag away from her and into her own hands, and Tory had flung her into the dessert table with a single push. All four girls stood with dropped jaws, even Tory who looked like she hadn't meant for that to happen.

Tory walked away without another word while Aisha hesitated.

"Sam, listen, I really didn't have much against you before. But you didn't have proof tory did anything. You just accused her of stealing from her mom, which doesn't even really check out," Dylan started to explain honestly. "You don't have any right to do what you just did." She looked around for the other guy, Robby, that Sam was with. "For all you know it was Keene. Hold everyone to the same standard, Sam."

Dylan followed after Tory, making sure she was fine, only to see the taller girl fuming in anger.

"I don't know why she was like that. Things have escalated recently," Dylan tried to see if she could diffuse the tension.

"She's crazy. If she does that again I won't hesitate to knock her down," The other girl said quickly without looking over. Dylan nodded. It was fair, to be honest.

Her phone buzzed.

"Listen, tell Aisha when she comes out that I have to go. Something came up," Dylan said while looking at her phone apprehensively. Demetri had texted saying that something was urgent and they needed to talk.

He was still typing up a response when she asked what was wrong. When it sent, she had to read it over twice.

She was definitely gonna have a word with Johnny Lawrence.

What the hell was John Kreese up to, whoever that was?

authors note —

So Tory has been introduced. I'll be honest, I think I'll still be keeping in the love triangle from the show for a while. But I'm not gonna make it super weird with Dylan being involved as well. I'm not gonna make there be some stupid fights over a guy unless absolutely necessary because there's enough of that between Tory and Sam anyways. And there's Robby. Bless him.

Will dylan and tory stay chill with each other? Maybe. Who knows?