chapter four, you can throw one hell of a punch

"why did i let you talk me into this?" demetri said as he looked at eli and luna who stood before him. "this goes against everything i stand for. it's like extra gym class for no reason."

"let's just give it a chance." eli said looking at demetri. "you saw the fight. miguel kicked ass."

"definitely." luna added.

luna turned around as she heard the chatter of two familiar voices. she saw these kids that she once sat with for lunch for a month but decided they were way to weird. they were whispering to each other and looking over at someone. luna turned around to see who they were looking at to see kody and cory talking to each other on the other side. "hey cory, don't think we forgot when you used to bully us, you shouldn't be here."

"leave her alone." luna mumbled.

"and why would we do that?" the red head said as they both turned around to look at who had just spoke to see luna. the red head began to walk closer to her laughing slightly. "someone like you will never be good at karate."

maybe its the fact that she just watched one of her friends absolutely kick ass yesterday and knew if she messed up what she was about to do, she wouldn't be harmed that much or its the fact she can't stand to see someone getting bullied after she has been her whole life, but luna quickly threw a punch knocking him to the ground as he held his now broken nose. "shut up." luna said.

everyone turned around as they heard the pained moans of the boy on the floor, everyone gasping as they didn't expect that from the shy girl.

"oh my gosh." cory said quickly as she watched luna come to her defence.

"yes!" a voice called out making everyone turn around to see an older man walk out with a karate gi. "you can throw one hell of a punch!"

luna looked at him shocked by the sudden presence, "thank you?"

"you're what cobra kai's been looking for!" johnny yelled out as he looked around at the room. "not you pansy's, at least not yet."

luna smiled to herself as she looked down at her slightly hurt fist.

"alright everyone fall in" he said as everyone looked around confused whispering to each other.

"what's that supposed to mean." kody whispered over to luna as she turned around just as confused. she gave him a quick shrug before looking back at the grown man.

"that means line up." he said as they all began to line up behind miguel and aisha making sensei lawrence groan in annoyance. "no, not... not line up in a line. lines! get in lines."

"you mean likes rows?" demetri said raising his eyebrows.

"jab punch." johnny called as they all did it listened. "hiyah!"

he continued to yell at them as he slowly corrected them.

he made his way to the front before looking over at eli. "hey, lip!"

eli looked over scared by the taller man slowly walking closer to him. "yeah, you. the one with the freaky lip. who do you think i'm talking to?"

"excuse me, uh, mr lawrence." demetri cut in quickly coming to defend his best friend.

"sensei lawrence!" aisha corrected him from the front making luna look at her strangely.

"ok." demetri chuckled putting his hands up slightly in defence. "you really shouldn't make fun of someone's physical appearance."

"oh, is that so?" johnny said staring at demetri. "so, i'm not supposed to mention his lip at all?"

eli looked over at demetri as he continued to talk to the new sensei, "well, yeah."

"maybe that's what they teach you in school, but in the real world, you can't expect people to do what they're supposed to do." sensei lawrence said looking around at everyone. "you hear that, lip? if you can't handle someone making fun of you, how are you gonna handle an elbow to the teeth?"

"by calling the police." demetri said responding for eli in an obvious tone.

"dude. knock it off." miguel said as everyone looked over at him.

"what? he does realise the nazis lost the war, right?" demetri said continuing on annoyed at the older man. "why should i be scared of him? because he's got a snake on his wall? it's not like he's a teacher who can give us a bad grade. we're paying him. he works for us. it's not like he can actually hurt us."

luna shook her head slightly knowing this wasn't gonna end well. sensei lawrence began to walk over to demetri as everyone began walking backwards clearing his way knowing something was about to happen. "are you done?"

"what?" demetri asked as he looked around at everyone.

"hit me." johnny encouraged as he stood in front of the teenager. "go ahead, hit me. strike me right here."

demetri slowly got into a weak fighting stance before throwing a punch with no force. johnny knocked his hand away. "harder."

demetri pulled his jumper down before getting into a fighting stance again and throwing a punch straight away but with more force but yet again, johnny slapped it away. "is that all you got, princess?"

demetri looked at luna slightly before sighing and getting into a fighting position again and throwing a punch again with all his strength. johnny grabbed his arm and flipped him over, onto the floor making luna cringe slightly at the sight. johnny stood up as he looked down at demetri before looking up and turning as he pointed at the group of kids around him. "let that be a lesson to all of you."

"i just wanted to thank you for what you did back in the dojo." cory said as she grabbed some snacks from the convenience shop at the strip mall. "it looked like it hurt."

"yeah it did a bit." she replied laughing quietly as she grabbed a packet of sour patch kids. "its no big deal though."

cory smiled over at the taller girl. "i'll have to repay you sometime."

"seriously it's no big deal, no need to pay me back for punching a bully. honestly i've never punched anyone before so i'm kinda shocked that i did." luna mumbled.

cory smiled over at the girl again before handing over some snacks for kody to hold. "it was pretty cool though."

"thank you kody." luna said before looking at the floor trying to hide the blush that began to appear on her face.

cory giggled quietly seeing how luna reacted. "see even kody agrees."

"just being honest" he shrugged smiling over to the smaller girl stood next to his best friend. "well we're gonna go but it was nice talking to you, hope to see you next training."

"you better be there." cory said before following behind the taller boy.

"yeah i will be." luna mumbled quietly.

"ok, everybody. fall in." johnny said walking out of his office as he looked at the much smaller class. "where is everyone? crater face? nose ring? slingshot?"

"they quit, sensei" miguel licked his lips as he looked at the floor avoiding eye contact with the older man.

"are you serious?" johnny looked in disbelief before noticing everyone staring. "i mean, good. that was a test. i wanted to see who the quitters are. not you guys. you're in it to win it, right? you could be at home playing your icomputers, playing your video games, eating candy. instead, you're here, doing pushups, learning how to fight."

he looked over at everyone before looking at eli in the crowd and pointing at him. "lip. look. even lips tougher then those guys. he's no quitter."

"could you please not call me that?" eli said looking at the older man then towards the floor.

johnny looked at him confused. "excuse me, what?"

"i said, could you please not call me that." eli spoke again, a little louder.

"um, i'll warn 'em up, sensei." miguel spoke trying to save his friend from what his sensei was going to do next.

"no, lip has something he wants to say." johnny said staring at the boy as he waved off miguel, johnny began walking towards the scared teenager stood before him. "sorry, speak up, lip. or is your tongue messed up too? are you one of those challenged kids?"

eli looked at the floor, "um, the doctor said i could be on the spectrum."

"i don't know what that is, but get off it pronto. all right? if you don't want me to call you 'lip', don't have a weird lip. can't you get surgery for that?"

"i was born with a cleft lip. this is the scar from the surgery." eli said.

"you mean it was worse before that? or did the doctor just screw up?" johnny asked staring at the scar while luna looked over to cory both giving each other a look of disbelief at what the grown man was saying. "because if this is the after photo, that sucks, man. you should sue.

"can we just please change the topic?" eli asked as he tried not to cry in front of everyone that was looking at the two.

"you don't think i want to? it's right in front of me." johnny argued as he stared down at the boy. "if you wanna be something other than a nerd with a scar on his lip, you gotta flip the script. ok? get a face tattoo or gouge your eye out. we'll call you 'patch', all right?" no, don't do that one. you'll still look like a freak."

eli looked around a bit before walking off the mat and walking out of the dojo, luna stared at the door feeling bad for her friend as she thought if she should follow after him or not, she was about to before she heard the booming voice of the sensei again. "oh, great, really? another quitter?"

haillie speaks

well goodbye to quite little luna