"YOU KNOW, YOU COULD have just told Miguel that Hawk and the other Cobras stole the money, right? Like any normal person? It seems a bit counterproductive to jump him," Demetri told Dylan as they walked down to the lunch room. He wasn't even all that fazed anymore with her antics.

"Sure, but I really wanted an excuse to do what I did, Metri," Dylan claimed. "Besides," She turned serious, "I didn't want to break it to him that his friend is a total asshole yet. Diaz has enough on his plate without our problems," She told him sadly. Demetri stopped her.

"Hey, you know it's okay to let people know how you're feeling right?" He questioned her in concern. "I know you've been strong for a while, but you really don't have to keep your burdens to yourself. Miguel's gonna find out at some point anyways, and don't you think he'd want to know that one of his best friends has been violently and verbally harassing one of his other best friends?" He asked softly. Dylan looked away from him, vulnerability taking place on her face. "I'm not your only friend. Miguel's your friend too, and I think he'd beat himself up if he wasn't aware of what's going on," He said seriously.

"I'll tell him later, okay? Is that what you wanna hear from me?" She tried to convince him.

"Yeah, that's exactly what i wanted to hear," He finished. Demetri wasn't letting that go, and she could tell. "I'm gonna make sure you follow through."

"I'm sure you will," She grumbled, though she was glad that someone was there for her, checking in on her.

"Hey! You ready to rock . . . " Demetri walked over with Dylan by his side to the lunch table that had Yasmine and Moon sitting down eating lunch at it. He was carrying his science project and Dylan had to admit, it looked great. "Our earth science presentation?" Yasmine glared at him and Dylan was ready to come to his defense at any moment.

"I'm ready to go back to a world where we don't have to talk on a regular basis," She told him with a fake smile. He rolled his eyes.

"Watch it," Dylan warned. Yasmine stared at her bruised knuckles on display from the night before. Demetri had been furious when she called him that morning telling him about it. He'd been sent into a fit of worry, though she'd assured him everything was fine.

"Hey, hey, hey! My popularity's on the rise, while yours is steadily declining. But, uh, maybe we can meet in the middle, like a sexual Venn diagram," He said with a cheeky wink in the blonde's direction. Dylan rested her face in her hands in embarrassment. Demetri clicked his tongue as he made a circular motion with both hands. Moon chuckled and Yasmine looked over at her in annoyance.

"Ew."

"So what's under the sheet," Moon asked. "Did you help with it, Dylan?"

"Yup, all while watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at 2am on a Tuesday morning. Rough night but it was worth it," She told Moon.

"I bet," She responded.

"I'm glad you asked, Moon," He said. Demetri whipped the sheet off in one fluid motion. "Behold! What scientists believe to be the Valley when dinosaurs roamed the earth." He looked so proud of his creation that Dylan couldn't help but feel happy for him. Even Yasmine seemed to be impressed. "Go ahead, press the hadrosaur egg."

"Oh yeah, this is my favorite part," Dylan commented with a small grin. Yasmine did so, and the structure began to spew smoke from the volcano, and the sounds of birds chirping sounded from tiny speakers.

"Not bad!" Yasmine said, biting her lip as she looked at it. Moon laughed gleefully. All three of the girls sitting there were impressed with Demetri's work, and Dylan had watched him test it out over fifty times. "My parents may not have to pay for my A this time."

"Oh, your parents will never have to pay for an A again," Demetri said confidently.

The fun came to a quick halt however, when a soccer ball crashed into Demetri's project, destroying it and leaving a pile of legos, felt, and what was left of a volcano in its wake. Dylan's head shot up to look at the culprit.

"Ah, I'm sorry man," Hawk said, a look of disappointment on his face. "Looks like my ball just got away from me."

"That took me three weeks to build," Demetri told him red faced. He looked like he would burst into tears at any moment. "Do you have any idea how much time Dylan sacrificed to help me late at night and nurse me back to health when I lost sleep over it?" Demetri asked him, voice raising in volume. Hawk looked over at Dylan's face of shock as she stared at the ruined project.

"Eh, took my ball three seconds to destroy," He said, about to walk away with a small smirk on his face. Dylan stood up slowly.

"And it'll take three second for me to cut off yours," She told him, one hand in the pocket of her cargo pants and the other holding an exacto knife. "It's small but uh . . . " She looked down at his shorts. "There isn't much ground to cover anyway." Moon let out a gasp of surprise at her insinuation.

"How'd you get that past security," Demetri questioned her in surprise. The knife was small, but it could do some damage, that was for sure.

Everyone knew of the metal detectors. She didn't respond, though she'd taped it to the top of her locker on the last day of school the year prior. Things went to shit after that, but Dylan would try her best to come out on top by planning ahead. It was a blessing and a curse.

"I really wouldn't do that, Oakes," He taunted. He held up her school ID in his hand. Her smile dropped. "You know where I found this?"

"Give that back, dickhead." She lunged for it, but he wrenched it away from her. "I'm serious. Don't forget which one of us has a knife right now."

"You pull any shit with me, I'm telling the cops about the shit you pulled last night. You're not getting away with that, by the way. I'm coming for you Oakes, and I'm not gonna play nice," He told her lowly.

"I'll still cut off your balls, and possibly leak info to the entire school you don't want anyone to know. Demetri got you good with the bed-wetting story, but there are a lot more stories than that and you know it, Moskowitz," She threatened. He glared at her, biting back another retort as they stared at each other, waiting for one of them to look away.

He looked away first and she smiled in triumph. He stormed off, back to his friends, and Dylan turned back to watch Yasmine ask Demetri if he had another project somewhere. He gritted his teeth, and against Dylan's judgement, followed after Hawk.

"Another week, another pissing contest. I shouldn't be surprised since you love pissing so much," He said, making fun of Hawk and egging him on.

"You landed one kick."

"And I can see how much Dylan landed," He responded. "Nice hair. It's really 'smokin, Eli."

"Both of you guys got lucky," He said, looking over at Dylan with the most menacing glare he could come up with. "We'll see how you can take a whole crowd of cobras."

"Better back off," Sam told him, "Or you won't be lucky."

He scoffed at her.

"Yeah, like you'll start anything princess," He looked over at counselor Blatt, and Dylan knew he was trying to egg Demetri and now Sam on. She put a hand to her temple with a small frown. Even sitting down at the table she could tell what was happening. "Actually," He was talking to Sam, but was staring Dylan down across the room as he murmured his next words. "Why don't you sleep around with someone new, break his heart. Isn't that right, Dylan?"

Sam shoved him, and Blatt intervened.

"What's going on here, Ms. LaRusso?" She asked the girl, disappointed in her and already prepared to come to Hawk's defense. "You know our new guidelines against physical contact. Did she enter your personal bubble without your verbal consent?" She asked him like he was a poor five year old who'd fallen off his tricycle.

"Yeah, she definitely triggered me in my safe space," He told her innocently, putting on another facade that made Blatt sympathize with him.

"I'm gonna kill him, Moon. I swear I will," Dylan told her friend.

"I won't stop you," She responded. "Even though I don't like violence."

"What are you talking about? He started it by destroying my science project!" Demetri told Blatt, pointing at the wreckage. "Dylan and I spent weeks on that and he ruined it on purpose!" Blatt looked over at it, and at Dylan, who tried to fake a look of meek innocence and sadness.

She was succeeding.

"That was an accident," Hawk lied. "You probably shouldn't bring your toys to school anyway."

"I don't want excuses, I just want you to respect each other," Blatt explained to them.

"She's right guys. We should stop the aggression. Micro and macro."

"Oh, give me a break," Sam gritted out.

"Hey! Consider this a warning Ms. LaRusso," Blatt told her, warning them all of possible consequences if it happened again. Hawk failed to hide a smirk. "And get these legos off the ground. Someone could get hurt!"

"For you pansies, no space is safe," Hawk threatened the two of them, and nodded at Dylan.

"Oh, and this reminds me," Blatt said, scaring the three of them and forcing Hawk to turn it down a notch. "Check in with your friends okay? I want you all to watch out for the Oakes girl, alright?"

"Oh trust me counselor Blatt, I will," Hawk responded, not taking his eyes off of the girl staring back at him with equal intensity. "She's in good hands. Isn't that right guys?" Demetri glared at him.

Blatt nodded tensely at them all, and walked out of the lunch room, most likely to start patroling another part of the school.

"I'll kill you if you do anything," Demetri warned him. Hawk and his fellow cobra kais just laughed and shot them all confident grins and a couple glares. "You've put her through enough, Eli. Don't do anymore," Demetri pleaded with him, though his voice didn't waver.

"Believe me, I can do a lot more than hurt her to get to her," Hawk told him, violence flashing through his eyes. There was a subtle warning that Demetri and Sam both picked up on. Hawk knew there was no point in hurting her. Because he didn't have to.

He could go for one of her friends instead.

Demetri gulped, a flash of fear showing on his face. Everyone knew that Demetri Alexopoulos and Dylan Oakes were closer than anyone else.

       DYLAN WATCHED FROM THE sidelines as the cheerleaders practiced their routines on the field. Charlotte Daley waved at her in between practice for a specific routine. Her pom-poms flashed in the sunlight. Dylan waved back, before she turned with a small frown to the chaos she knew would ensue in just a moment.

"These gym shorts pinch in all the wrong places," Demetri complained. Sam turned to him as she tied her shoelaces.

"Come on, have a little school spirit," Sam joked.

"School spirit? Here? I'll be dead before that happens," Dylan said as she laid back on the top of the metal bleachers. It was a row of three, off to the side of the soccer field. Soccer. What a curse.

"Go Mountain Lions! Roar!" Demetri cheered with a blank look on his face.

Sam and Demetri watched Hawk and his friends walk with full confidence down the field causing both girls and boys to move out of the way for him. Dylan sat up, reaching her arms down to her ankles and resting them there as she tried to stretch.

"You'd think this was a Biblical reenactment, considering Hawk looks like he's parting the red sea," She commented.

"They even have the red jerseys and everything," Demetri piggy-backed off her joke. They high fived. It was the simple things that made that friendship work.

"Is it just me or is there rock music coming down out of the clouds?" Dylan asked them, putting a hand to the back of her ear and mimicking a listening motion.

"Must be God. He's telling them to let his people go," Demetri grumbled. Hawk made eye contact with them. "Guess it's not working."

"God talks in 80s rock music?" Sam asked them, silently judging their humor.

"Who knows? Maybe he does. The parents in Charlie Brown just say 'blah-blah-blah' so I guess it's not much different," Dylan referenced the cartoons. She finished tying up her laces. "Wait a minute, I don't even have to participate," She said, thinking back to the teacher letting her know that she should be sitting out because of her face.

"Lucky you. This looks like it's gonna be rough," Sam said, talking about the fact that the Cobras of course, were all on the opposing side.

"I wish we could do something about those cretins," Demetri told them both.

"We can," Sam said, not looking away from them.

"How? Counselor Blatt will give us detention just for breathing near them," He complained with a devastated look. "The only one with power here is Dylan and she's not even playing. Don't you think you'd be able to get away with pissing them off?" He asked her. She shrugged. "Blatt loves you. Thinks you're an angel."

"I guess. Maybe. Unfortunately the best I can do is maybe give you guys a few pity points when coach isn't looking. I'll ask to ref." She stood up. "Hope you're both ready for some fire commentary."

"I don't see Blatt anywhere, do you?" She asked Demetri as Dylan walked away. "Besides, what's soccer without a little physical contact." She spoke to all of the miyagi-dos that were there. "They think we're doormats. Let's prove 'em wrong," She encouraged them.

And so, Sam's plan came to fruition, and Dylan got to choose from their teacher's iPod what music she got to play from the boombox. The best she could do was energetic new wave music, but it seemed to set the mood.

Sam knocked a guy down and walked over him — literally. He clutched his stomach. Hawk scored a goal and jumped up and down in victory.

"And there goes Mohawk Moskowitz, M&M for short, doing his little ants-in-his-pants dance moves again," Dylan said into the microphone, pressing the button and yelling into the cone-shaped device. She sighed in boredom, even when he looked her way and rolled his eyes. "Hey! Eyes on the ball, not your ex!" She yelled when he winked at Moon, who didn't so much as smile at him.

Moon flirted with the boy next to her, and Dylan tried not to smile at Hawk's expression. He knocked down a kid a second later from Sam's team, and the whistle was blown.

"Low blow! I hope you trip over a knife that's been carefully laid out for you!" Dylan yelled. Sam and Demetri watched as their teacher came over and started to lecture her on the use of 'kind words.'

Demetri said something to Hawk, before shoving him and sweeping his leg.

"Get 'em D-dog!" He looked up at the horrid nickname. "What? I've used everything else already!"

Hawk kicked the soccer ball high into the air, making it hit Demetri in a way that couldn't pin the blame on anyone but chance. Dylan groaned into the microphone.

"Apparently I've been told to kill you all with kindness, but I'm only giving you a ten second head-start once this is over before this microphone gets lodged up your a—" She yelled at everyone in the red. The teacher came over, and the students all watched while they played as the microphone was wrestled out of Dylan Oakes' grasp. She fought to get it back, yanking it back and forth.

The fighting continued on the field, with each team getting in their hits before thir teacher finally called it off and made them go inside. All of them got called down to the principal, except for Dylan, who got let off with a warning. Apparently Blatt had told the teachers just to give out warnings before actual punishments. It was something about her anger issues she was dealing with after the school fight. Dylan didn't know how she felt about where Blatt's sympathy had gotten her.

She went down with Demetri, Sam, and the others anyway.

The Cobras stood on one side of the door outside of Blatt's office, while the Miyagi-Dos stood on the other side of the door. Dylan stood there, watching both of them from the sidelines in the middle. They waited.

Finally, Hawk came out, sporting a face with various red marks and roughed up skin. Blatt called out to the other Cobras.

"Caldwell, Johnson, Rickenberger, the three of you and Eli are free to go," She told them.

"Unbelievable," Demetri said.

"You've gotta be kidding me," Sam exclaimed angrily. "What about us?"

"The rest of you will be receiving rehabilitative, not punitive, Saturday detention," She explained their punishments to them.

"Detention? Oh great, there goes another blemish on my permanent record," Demetri said sadly. Dylan walked over and pat him on the shoulder.

"This is bullshit!"

"Miss. LaRusso, that is not how we express ourselves here! I think you need two weekends of rehabilitative detention."

Sam gasped, her chest rising and falling in anger. She slammed a hand on a locker.

"This school sucks!"

"I don't know her that well . . . " Demetri tried to pass off. Blatt looked at him and the others sternly.

He sighed.

"You coming, Dylan?" Her friend asked her. Her shoulders slumped. She started to walk with him.

"Oh, and Miss. Oakes?" Dylan turned to face Blatt. "As the school counselor, I'd like to help you with your mental health journey. So in order to do that, I'd like to meet with you on Saturday mornings," She told Dylan with a smile, as if she was doing something. "You won't have detention or anything like that. Just weekly meetings so we can check up on how you're doing. I heard you had a bit of an outburst in gym class."

"That wasn't anything—"

"It's alright, Dylan, I understand. You've been through a lot. But I'd still like to meet. Saturday morning, okay?" She made sure that Dylan understood. And what was there to do but plaster on a smile and nod?

Hawk and his friends walked away with smirks on their faces. Because Dylan and Friends had lost today. Her phone went off in her pocket as she and Demetri walked away together. Sam had already burst through the doors of the school and disappeared.

"Who's that?" He asked her as she pulled it out. Her eyes widened.

"Miguel."

"What's it say?" He looked over her shoulder.

MIGGY SMALLS! 🐍

i need you right now for something. a wild sensei lawrence is harassing me.

author's note —

i hope you guys liked this chapter. miguel will be in the next one! i loved this episode and i think i added some more good lines and hopefully good humor to it.