¸„.-•~¹°"ˆ˜¨the wrong path¨˜ˆ"°¹~•-.„¸

【SEASON 6 EPISODE 4: PART 3】

Jules tugged on the sleeves of her hoodie as her and her team walked into the woods for the final round of choosing students for the Sekai Takai. She let out a small huff, the condensation on the air making it look like smoke was coming out of her mouth from how cold it was.

"Good morning! At least for now. Gather around. Is everybody here?" Sensei Barnes yelled from on top of a picnic table, making all of the students, plus Johnny and Daniel turn to him. Eli, standing behind Jules, noticed her slight shivering and grasped her shoulders. He started to run his hands up and down her arms, hoping to give her some warmth.

Daniel looked over all the students before he turned back to Barnes, nodding his head as a confirmation. "Yeah. This is everyone." He said and Barnes gave the man a single nod.

"Good. Last night, I reviewed my notes. Made sure the remaining five got a fair shake." He said, looking at Johnny at his last sentence. He looked back to the students and clasped his hands together in front of him. "I've decided it's too close to call. So... you're all gonna get another opportunity to prove yourselves."

"You will follow this path." Barnes explained, pointing to the path behind him that went through the woods. As everyone looked past him and to the path, Barnes continued. "It will split and it's up to you to decide which path to go down. Down each path, is one flag. The two who brings them back wins."

Eli's face scrunched and his hands dropped from Julianna's arms. "Wait. That's it?" He asked and Lexi next to Jules had the same confused look. "What if two of us find a flag at the same time?" She asked.

Barnes slowly looked down to Lexi and she could've sworn a shiver went down her spine at the emotionless look on his face. "You fight for it." He answered.

Lexi gulped, looking behind her to Demetri and Eli. The three all gave each other nervous looks. They knew for sure at least one of them wouldn't get a spot and having to fight for it would definitely be hard.

"Are there refs out there?" Daniel asked from the end of the crowd. Barnes's eyes left Lexi and moved to Daniel. "No, they're on their own." He answered and Daniel shook his head. "But how–" "It can't get any more objective. Even Barnes isn't judging this one." Johnny said, getting tired of all of Daniel's follow up questions.

"Winning is everything, plain and simple. Take ten minutes, stretch. Use the restroom. Call your mothers. When you get back, it's go time." Barnes said and the students slowly started to disperse. Joey turned to Lexi beside him, a small smirk on his face.

"Want me to call mom?" He taunted and Lexi rolled her eyes. "Oh, shut up." She muttered, walking away to go stretch.

Lexi laughed as she made her way towards Jules, who had a nervous look on her face. "You look more nervous than me and you already have a spot." She laughed out and Jules nervously bit her nail. "I'm just... trying to figure out how to congratulate two of you guys for getting a spot without making the one who didn't get a spot feel bad." Jules rambled, her words a little muffled with her finger in her mouth.

Lexi raised her eyebrows smiling as she stretched. "You really think two of us are getting that spot?" She asked and Jules immediately stepped closer to Lexi so no one else could hear her next words.

"I mean... a lot of this now is luck, but you guys are some of our best fighters. You can take underclassmen." Jules whispered and Lexi smiled.

"Well, at least I'm not an overbearing control freak! Your obsession with MIT is so freaking annoying!"

Jules and Lexi froze at the sound of Eli's voice. Julianna's face visibly paled and her jaw fell. "Oh no..." She muttered as she and Lexi slowly turned to where they heard Eli.

They looked at Demetri and Eli glaring at each other and slowly, Jules leaned towards Lexi, her eyes still glued onto Demetri and Eli. "You think Eli told him?" Jules whispered as if the two boys were right in front of her and not twenty feet away.

Before Lexi could answer, Demetri's jaw clenched in anger and he nodded his head. "Annoying? I'm... Okay, all right. Well, I promise not to annoy you anymore. How about that?" He asked, patting Eli on the shoulder.

"Yeah... I think so." Lexi cringed out. Jules turned to face Lexi, shaking her head slightly as she sighed. "Horrible timing. Way to sike each other out. Jeez." Jules muttered before noticing Lexi's eyes widen looking past her.

"Oh! Shit! He's coming over." Lexi whispered and immediately, Julianna's eyes widened. "I'm out!" Jules muttered, spinning around to face Lexi. "Good luck. I love you." She said as she quickly pulled Lexi into a hug. Just before Lexi could hug back, Jules had already let go and was heading for Eli.

As she passed Demetri, Jules pulled him into a quick hug, hoping to maybe make him feel a bit better and to give him some faith. "Good luck, Dem." She whispered as she felt Demetri hug back. When they pulled away, Demetri gave her a small smile, not being able to look her in the eyes after his interaction with Eli. "Thank, Jules."

Trying to act casual, Lexi grabbed her backpack off the ground and lifted it to the bench beside her. As she took her water bottle out of her bag and started to open it to drink, Demetri was by her side.

"We need to come up with a plan." Demetri said, making Lexi put her water bottle down before she could take a sip. She looked up at Demetri, eyebrows furrowed as she shrugged. "What do you mean?"

"Two flags." Demetri said before he pointed in between himself and Lexi. "Which means two spots. For us." He said, sitting on the bench right in front of Lexi. "We can't go down the same path or else we won't be going to the Sekai Takai together."

Lexi nodded, finally understanding what Demetri meant. She smiled, tilting her head. "I'll go left. Since that's my good side." She joked, playfully flipping her hair.

Demetri smiled up at Lexi with a dreamy look in his eyes. "Every side is your good side." He said, making Lexi blush before he continued. "But, right is my dominant side so I am not complaining." Demetri said, not realizing that right beside him on the bench, Devon was listening in.

From across the site, Jules slowly walked up to Eli, a small frown on her face. When he saw someone walking towards him, he looked up at Jules and she tilted her head. "You okay?" She asked and Eli sighed.

"I told him." He muttered and Jules sighed. "He'll cool off. It'll be okay." She muttered, bringing her hands up to cup Eli's face and move his head for him to look down at her, noticing his eyes were moving to everywhere but her.

"Hey." She whispered and Eli finally looked down at her. She could see the stress in his eyes and she rubbed her thumb gently across his cheekbone. "It will be okay. Right now, you get that flag and you show Barnes how badass you are."

Jules could almost see the gears turning in his head before he nodded. She watched, a small smile growing onher face, as Eli took a deep breath. Once he calmed down a little, he gave Julianna a small smile. "To Barcelona?" He asked and Jules smile, a small snicker leaving her lips.

"To Barcelona." She whispered back, going up on her toes and pressing her lips to his. As she started to pull away, Eli's lips followed hers, not wanting the kiss to end. He opened his eyes to Jules smiling up at him. "You've got this."

...

As soon as the race started, Lexi fell behind, struggling to keep up with everyone else's pace.

Devon was ahead of her, but far enough where she couldn't see the girl and Demetri was right ahead of Devon.  As Devon tried to pick up speed to pass Demetri, she noticed a small path coming on her left that was blocked by rocks so no one would accidentally mistake it for the official split and run down it.

Devon's eyes widened as she remembered Lexi telling Demetri she'd go left when they reached the split and a guilty idea popped into her head. She already made sure Kenny was off the board, it wouldn't hurt to make sure one more person wasn't there for her to fight.

Nervously, Devon turned back, her eyes scanning the trail behind her. Lexi was nowhere in sight yet. Devon quickly turned back to the blocked path and moved the rocks aside to make it look like the real split.

She stood there frozen for a second, asking herself if she really wanted to do this. Lexi was so sweet to her. She took her under her wing. Should she really betray her like this?

Devon didn't want to do that to Lexi. Besides herself, Devon thought Lexi should be the other person to go. She bent down to put the rocks back in front of the path she opened when she started to hear Lexi catch up.

Devon gasped. Not wanting to get caught, she spun around and bolted down the real path, her heart racing with a mix of adrenaline and guilt.

By the time Lexi reached the fake split, she barely slowed down as she turned left, trusting her and Demetri's plan.

...

Jules stared at the path any of the five could come out of, waiting for the someone to walk out with a flag. Her foot tapped under her anxiously and Miguel noticed.

He looked back and forth between Jules and the path as he walked towards her. "You okay?" He asked and Jules sighed. "Just nervous." She responded.

Wanting to calm her down, Miguel chuckled, moving to stand in front of her and block the path from her eye line completely. "So who do you think is winning?" Miguel asked and Jules laughed, leaning forward a little.

"You're crazy if you think I'm gonna actually answer that." She muttered, bringing her thumb nail up to her mouth to bite it, a nervous habit.

Miguel sighed, grabbing her wrist and pulling her hand down. "How about you eat some food instead of your nail, yeah?" He asked and Jules rolled her eyes at the phrase Miguel has been saying since he first caught onto her habit.

"Fine, dad." She muttered sarcastically, walking towards her backpack. Miguel laughed, following after her. "I can get your dad if you want. You know he hates that habit more than anything." Miguel called after her, but Jules ignored him.

She sat down at the picnic table, her backpack beside her as she searched for the strawberry poptarts she packed.

Miguel took the seat across from her and his face scrunched at the food. "That's it?" He asked and Jules looked up at him with an unreadable expression as she opened the packaging. "What'd you expect? A peanut butter sandwich? This is the only to-go breakfast food I can think of that won't send me into anaphylactic shock."

Miguel tried to think of any to-go breakfast Jules could've packed that wasn't a poptart or any kind of a peanut butter sandwich and drew a blank. He let out a small hum, realizing Jules was right. He leaned forward, hoping to take one of the poptarts out of the sleeve, but Jules slapped his hand away, muttering a small "no."

...

As she ran further down the path, Lexi realized something was wrong—she expected to run into someone, anyone but there was no one. She didn't run into Hawk, Devon, or Kenny.

The farther she went, the more unease bubbled up inside her, but she kept going, telling herself that maybe all four of them went right and she was the only one that went left. That would've been some amazing luck on her part.

It wasn't long before the path she was on curved. Lexi followed it still and her steps slowed when she realized she had somehow ended up back to her team, walking out on the groups left instead of in front of them.

Miguel noticed someone walk out of the woods out of the corner of his eyes and turned his head. A big smile grew on his face when he saw Lexi walking towards them and he threw his fists into the air. "Guys, Lexi won!"

Everyone turned at the sound of Miguel's cheers. They all started to run up to the girl and congratulate her before they noticed the confused look on her face, the fact that she came out of the wrong path, and she wasn't holding a flag.

Jules walked right up to Lexi, frowning as she shook her head. "Lex, what are you doing? You came out of the wrong path." She said, pointing to the path she was supposed to return from. Joey moved to stand beside Jules and looked his sister up and down, his eyes narrowing. "And where's your flag?" He asked as he and everyone else started to crowd around her.

Lexi's heart dropped, looking around nervously at all the eyes on her. "...I never saw the flags." She admitted, her voice small and her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

Barnes frowned, turning to Daniel and Johnny just as Daniel and Johnny turned to him with accusing looks. Immediately, Barnes shook his head. "I made sure the paths were obvious. There was no way to mess up." Barnes said and Johnny glared at the man, raising his hand to gesture to Lexi. "Well, obviously there was some mess up! How the hell did she end up over there?"

Before Johnny could answer, Robby noticed Kenny running down the correct path. "Holy shit. Kenny won!"

Everyone turned at Robby's yells, watching as Kenny ran towards them, his hand gripping his stomach. Jules cringed at the sight of him, slowly shaking her head. "Oh... he doesn't look good." She muttered just as Kenny pushed through the crowd, making a bee-line to the porta-potty.

He tried to open the door, but it was locked. Jules was scared to watch as Kenny tried his hardest to open the door, yelling and begging whoever was inside to let him in.

"I don't think he's gonna make it..." Daniel muttered as Kenny banged on the door.

"Open up! Please! I gotta go, please!" Kenny yelled before he couldn't hold it in anymore.

Everyone gasping and groaning told Jules that Kenny didn't make it to the bathroom and she frowned, still not daring to turn and look. From beside her, her dad laughed. "Somebody just got their brown belt." Johnny chuckled out.

Jules whipped her head up to look at her dad and whacked him on the arm. "Dad!" She scolded, making Sam turn to look at the father daughter duo. Just as she was about to laugh at their bickering, she noticed Devon run out of the woods, a flag in her hand.

"Hey, guys! It's Devon! She won!" Sam yelled and Julianna's eyes widened. That means the only two left were Demetri and Eli. One of them wouldn't go, There was no way Lexi and one of the boys didn't get a spot in the Sekai Takai. Two of the three of them were supposed to get a spot, not one.

The team erupted into cheers for Devon, but Lexi frowned. She stood there, numb and shocked. She quickly realized it was unsportsmanlike to not support Devon and she started clapping for the girl but she was in her own head. She had been so sure she was on the right track, and now, she felt like a fool.

Daniel noticed how out of it and shaken Lexi was and turned to Johnny, shaking his head. "Something's not right about this... We should do a rematch, just to be fair. Something must've happened in there for Lexi to miss the path."

Johnny shook his head. "Nah, if we do that, it'll only make Devon and one of the boys feel bad. They got those flags, they'll feel like we don't think they deserve to go." Johnny said, nodding his head down the path Eli and Demetri should be walking out of any second.

But Lexi wanted to fight. She didn't know what happened or how she got sent down the wrong path, but she knew it wasn't fair. What she saw was an obvious split in the path.

"Senseis, I–" Lexi's words were interrupted by the students cheering again. Lexi turned her head and she froze when she saw Demetri standing with the team, holding up the other flag in the air.

Lexi's eyes glued on her boyfriend and the smile on his face at his victory. Daniel looked to Demetri's victory before he turned back to Lexi, leaning a little closer to her in hopes it would get her attention. "Lexi?" Daniel asked, but Lexi didn't move.

Johnny rolled his eyes and punched Lexi's shoulder. "Gomez!" He snapped, making Lexi turn back to her senseis.

The words she was previously wanting to speak were stuck in her throat. She was so proud of Demetri and she wanted him to be able to win but if she fought for a rematch, he might lose his spot.

Her vision blurred and she shook her head, deciding to put Demetri's feelings before her own. She took a shaky breath and forced a smile. "It's okay. The mess-up was probably on my part." She muttered, her voice wavering a bit

Daniel opened his mouth to protest, but Lexi turned away, walking towards the huddle of students surrounding Demetri so her sensei's wouldn't see the tears building up in her eyes. The laughter and cheers of her team stung her ears, and as the tears finally broke free.

She quickly wiped it away, hoping no one would notice as she lined up to face Sensei Barnes.

"I give you Miyagi-Do's Team Sekai Takai. Miguel, Julianna, Sam, Robby, Tory, Joey, and now, Devon, and Demetri." Barnes announced, the students walking one by one up to the front when their names were called.

Demetri's smile fell when Barnes said Devon and not Lexi. He looked into the crowd and his heart sank when his eyes locked with Lexi's tear-filled ones.

Even though she was crying, the girl smiled and continued to clap for her boyfriend and friends. Demetri's eyebrows just furrowed, confused in how Lexi didn't get a spot. She could definitely take Devon in a fight. He knew how much Lexi wanted this. She wanted it way more than him. She deserved it way more than him. How was he supposed to go to Barcelona without her? He couldn't! He didn't want too.

Demetri wanted to speak up, to give up his spot and give it to Lexi, but it was like the girl could read his mind. Lexi shook her head, silently telling him to not do anything before she gave him another smile, blinking away the tears from her eyes.

Two people away from Demetri, Jules also didn't feel too happy standing up there in front of everyone. She was dreading the moment Eli would come back and she couldn't bring herself to smile knowing Lexi was in the crowd. She knew no matter what someone wasn't gonna make it out of the three of them, but she didn't expect two of them to not get a spot.

As the group started to disperse, Jules finally saw Eli, covered in dirt, walking out of the woods, his head down sadly. He looked up and when his eyes met Jules's, standing just a few feet away, his steps quickened.

Jules's eyes softened when she saw the look on his face. She didn't wait for him to speak or explain; the moment he was close enough, she pulled him down into a hug, wrapping her arms tightly around him.

Eli buried his face in the crook of her neck and his fingers clung desperately to the back of her shirt, not wanting her to let go. He squeezed his eyes shut, and Jules held him tighter, one hand rubbing his back, the other resting gently on the back of his neck.

"Hey, it's okay." She murmured softly, trying to offer some comfort. Eli took a shaky breath. "I told myself one of us wasn't gonna make it anyway. I'm proud of Lex and Demetri, though." He muttered and Jules hesitated for a moment before she finally spoke. "Lexi didn't win."

Eli's head lifted, his brows furrowing as he moved to look at Jules. "What? Who did?" He asked, shocked that Lexi didn't get a spoke. Since he was stuck with Demetri, he was sure Lexi was able to take Devon and Kenny in a fight.

"Devon." Jules answered before she shook her head. "Lexi never found the flags."

Eli's grip tightened slightly on her shirt. He looked past Jules and to Lexi, who was getting comforted by Demetri before he turned back to Jules. "How?" He asked and Jules shook her head, her shoulders raising in confusion.

"I'm not sure." Jules whispered, her thumb brushing softly over the back of his shoulder blade. Eli exhaled slowly, still holding her close. Even though he thought something was definitely up, he pushed those thoughts down for now and instead, grieved his own loss. He pulled Jules back into him, his head going right back into the crook of her neck.

—my apologies for the long wait i actually didnt know how to write the part where kenny shits himself without outright saying that he shits himself

BUT MY BABY LEXI💔💔💔

what will happen?? no one knows (i know)