Heartbreak Weather, Eli Mosko...

XV.                                            Heartbreak Weather

      There's something haunting about thinking something terrible will happen after something good happens. It eats you alive, gnaws itself at your bones, bends your jaw until it feels like it'll break; being hurt does that to a person. It's like standing under the sun and never feeling it's warmth. Odessa asked all the time why she didn't feel happy. Why she was always scared to be happy. She was hurting, constantly hurting. How much strength does it take to hurt a little girl? How much strength does it take for the girl to het over it?

Odessa was very young when she cracked open. Some thing you should let go of, others you shouldn't, she keeps ahold of everything because it's hard to let go of. Her whole life, the only thing she's known is disappointment. She was hurt. Hurt people don't see the good in life when it's standing in front of them.

But Eli was good. He was the light at the end of her tunnel. He didn't disappear, he didn't run away, he was right in front of her, greeting her with a smile. He was real. Nothing bad was going to happen.

"Hi, beautiful." The boy greeted her at the dojo.

Odessa smiled as his arms wrapped around her neck. "Hi." She giggled back and wrapped her around his torso. She leaned in and kissed him. She took notice of the scooters him and Miguel were riding. "Nice scooters."

"We won't have them for long. Don't worry." He told her and one of his arms remained over her shoulder. He walked between her and Miguel. "I get my license next week. My mom's gonna give me her Sentra. I'm thinking about putting a blue racing stripe down the middle, hood to tail."

"Subtle. I like it." Said Miguel.

When they turned the corner of the strip mall, they were saw a group of new kids standing by the entrance way. "Looks like we got some new students." Miguel stated.

Eli grew a smirk. "Fresh fish."

Odessa scoffed lightly hit his chest. "Be nice."

They watched her walk towards them. "Look, it's the champ!" One of the new kids shouted out and pointed to her.

Odessa smiled as they all looked at her with excitement. "You can just call me Odessa." She said and held out her hand.

He immediately shook it. "Hi, i'm Chris."

"I'm Mitch." Said another boy beside him and he held out his hand.

Odesa smiled and shook it. "It's nice to meet you guys."

Eli and Miguel watched the interaction. "Check this out," Eli said and walked off.

"No, don't!" Miguel interjected with a small grin but followed him nonetheless.

Eli came and stood beside his girlfriend. He grabbed her hand. "Hey, mouth breathers. Move it." He demanded.

"Sorry about that—"

"I'll get the door," Chris quickly offered and held the door open for them.

Odessa rolled her eyes at his attitude and gave them another smile. "Thank you." She walked in first and waited by the door

"So, you guys wanna be Ccobra Kais, huh?" Eli asked
before pretending to throw a punch, making the boys flinch. He smirked. "You two got a long way
ahead of you."

He walked inside the dojo and Odessa peaked her head outside again. "Ignore him. He gets a mohawk and suddenly acts like he's the president."

They smiled at her.

Hailey came walking by with Grayson and Oliver and she smirked at the new kids. "Welcome to Cobra Kai. My name is Hailey and this is Grayson and Oliver. I advice you to keep your mouth shut and listen and not to disrespect Odessa because either one of us here at Cobra Kai will beat the shit out of you."

The couple walked inside and Oliver trailed behind them, jerking his head forward and causing all of them to flinch. He walked inside the dojo with a rating laugh.

"What the hell happened here?" Miguel asked while looking around the messy dojo.

"Sensei must have thrown a party." Aisha guessed.

"Must of been a pretty sick of fire got involved."

Oliver threw his hands up. "I told y'all he would be fun to party with. I'm definitely inviting him to my birthday party."

They went about with their conversation, until a very loud, "QUIET" shut them up. Johnny stood at the entrance of his office. "The dojo's closed to new students today." He announced to the new kids that walked in.

"We just wanted to sign up after we saw the tournament." Chris explained to him.

"Do I need to say it again? Get out!"

Odessa flinched at his tone.

Mitch quickly nodded.  "Yes sir, Sensei. Come on let's
go."

"Move it! Come back tomorrow and bring your check books." The man ordered. Once they were all out,  Johnny turned towards his students. "Everyone, fall in!"

Hailey and Odessa exchanged the same nervous look nervous as they walked to the front of the class. "Must've been a rager,  sensei,"  Eli quipped as he went and stood beside his girlfriend.

"Were you celebrating all weekend?" Miguel asked,  standing beside Eli.

Johnny looked unimpressed by them. "Celebrating what? My students are a bunch of pussies." He sneered. Their faces immediately fell. "Diaz, Hawk,  Beaumont! Up front!"

Feeling very confused, Odessa glanced at her friends and stood in front of Johnny. "Hawk, did you purposely attack your opponent when his back was tuned and injured him?" The Sensei asked while circling around him.

"Yes, Sensei." Eli answered with hesitation.

He moved to Miguel. "Diaz, did you know your opponent was injured but competed against him anyway?"

"What is this?"  Odessa blurted out, not understanding what he was trying to prove.

He ignored her and continued looking at Miguel, who nodded and answered yes. Johnny stood in front of Odessa and almost glared. "Beaumont, did you go soft on your opponent because you knew of his injury?"

She looked at him like he was crazy. "You literally told me to—"

"Yes or no?"

"Yes!" She answered loudly out of frustration. She quickly cleared her throat and her eyes flickered downward for a split second.

Keeping his eyes on her for a second longer, Johnny backed away so that he was standing in front of the three of them. "You think that makes you badass?" The teenagers looked at each other, not knowing what to say. "What's the matter, question too tough?" He taunted them. "Maybe you need some help. Miss Robinson!"

Aisha was startled. "Yes, Sensei?"

"Two cobras in the jungle. One kills the strongest lion,  the other kills a crippled monkey. Which cobra do you want to be?"

"The one that kills the lion, Sensei." She quickly
answered

Johnny hummed. "And why is that? Mr. Benson?"

Oliver stood with his arms crossed, looking at him in disbelief. "Because it killed a stronger animal." He answered, knowing what he wanted him to say.

"Correct!" He shouted. "Cobra Kai is about being badass. And the baddest badass is the one who beats their opponent when they're at their strongest. Not when he's injured! Cause if they can't when they are at their strongest—" he looked directly at Odessa. "Then they're not the best at all."

She swallowed back tears that she could feel developing in her throat. They weren't from sadness, they were from embarrassment. Everyone was looking at her.

"Is that understood?"

"Yes, Sensei!"  Everyone in the class but Odessa answered. She only stood there with her hands behind her back.

Johnny nodded firmly.  "That means no more cheating. No more fighting dirty. From here on out,  those are pussy moves and you don't want to be pussies, do you?"

"No, Sensei!"

"Good. It's why I had you wear your white belts. We're
starting over. Diaz, Beaumont, Hawk, fifty push up on your knuckles. Miss Robinson, warm them up."  Johnny demanded and walked back to his office.

Odessa let out a shaky breath she was holding in. She ran two shaky hands through her hair, feeling overwhelmed. Hailey walked up to her grabbed her shoulders.  "Are you okay?"

She shook her head and felt a tear fall. "He literally told me to talk to Robby because he was injured. What was I supposed to do?" She asked with a crack in her voice.

Seeing her cry, Eli came up behind her and rubbed her back. "He's just in a bad mood. You did nothing wrong." He reassured.

Hailey glanced over her shoulder and back to them.  "Do your push ups so he doesn't get mad. I'll count. You don't have to do all fifty."

The three teens dropped to the floor and began doing their push ups. She only making them do thirty. Each push up she did, the angrier Odessa felt. When they were done, she stood up from the ground and stormed into Johnny's office. She slammed the door behind her. "What was that?"

He didn't look her in the eyes. "I had to get my point across."

"What was your point exactly? That I'm cheater and didn't deserve the win? Because you think i'm not strong enough?" She continued to shout. "You told me compromise with Robby!"

Johnny finally looked at her. "I taught you to always fight your strongest and you didn't." He gaslit.

Her blue eyes shined with tears and they looked down to a picture frame on his desk. It was a picture of him and her father when they were young. They were standing outside of their school,  Johnny's arm wrapped around Christian and they were smiling widely at the camera. She blinked and a tear rolled down her cheek.

Johnny sighed and visibly relaxed his shoulders. "You're just like him, you know?" He spoke more calmly.

She looked at him.

"Christian always had a fire to him. But he was kind and always did the right thing no matter how hard some people tried to push him to be bad." He explained, feeling his heart sink taking about his old friend.

"Yesterday you said my father would be proud of me for winning. Is that lie now?"

Johnny didn't know how to respond. He watched her storm out of his office and he cursed to himself.

Odessa ruffled Bert's hair when she passed by and she smiled at him. She grabbed Eli's hand and they walked out of the dojo together. "Are you okay after what happened?"  The boy asked.

"Yeah, i'm fine. He's just having a bad day." Odessa excused the man's actions even though she was still upset.

Eli nodded. "Hey, what are you doing this weekend?" He changed the subject and stopped her from walking.

She hummed. "Hmm, moms wanting to teach me how to knit. Unless you have another plans?"

He leaned closer to her and rocked their locked hands side to side.  "I want to take you out."

Odessa grew a smile. "Like on a date?"

He shrugged with a flirty smile. "Of course. Anything you want to do, we'll do it."

The girl hummed agin and tapped her chin. "Can we go to Italy?" She asked with a giddy grin. 

Eli did the same thing and titled his head.  "Hmm, only if we can do a romantic boat ride."

She giggled. "Sounds like a date."

Hailey leaned against the door of her car and watched them. "Can we go to Italy?" She asked her boyfriend.

Grayson smiled. "Whatever you want. I've heard their peaches are more ripe there."