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“So, what about all that talk earlier about Cobra Kai going down? You don’t have anything to say now, huh?”
A small voice in Kenny’s head warned him to stop. Hawk was bigger. Shawn always warned him to stay away from guys bigger than him. And Shawn wasn’t around to protect him if things went wrong.
Even now, as he sauntered up to Hawk, squaring his shoulders back, trying to make himself look twice as big as he felt, a twinge of apprehension jolted Kenny’s nerves, reminding him of the other times he’d run into this high schooler. But he wasn’t nearly as scary-looking without that mohawk.
He didn’t need Shawn to face this guy. He didn’t need Robby, either. He didn’t even need Kyler or any of the other guys. He wasn’t a wuss. He wasn’t a pushover.
He was a Cobra Kai.
It was time to show this asshole he wasn’t afraid of him anymore.
Hawk simply stood there. He didn’t even raise his arms to fight. Was he that unimpressed?
Kenny’s hands flexed into fists. Hadn’t this guy seen him make it to the quarterfinals? Didn’t he know he was a real threat now? Or did he still see him as some scrawny middle schooler? Some helpless doormat he could walk over?
“It’s not too late for you to get out of this, kid,” said Hawk.
Kenny scoffed. “Get out of what?” he asked, jutting his chin out. “The winning team?”
Hawk shrugged. He stared down at him with a strange look in his eyes. “I’m not talking about tournaments. Cobra Kai’s gonna ruin your life if you don’t change course while you still can. Trust me, I know what I’m talking about.”
"You don’t know shit,” retorted Kenny. Who was this asshole to talk to him like this, like he wasn’t the one on LaPusso’s team? Like he wasn’t the one who stopped him from striking first against those douchebag freshmen who called him a little bitch? Like he wasn’t the one who loomed over him at the drive-in, where who knows what would’ve happened if Robby hadn’t been there to protect him?
The voice in the back of his head told him to back off now. Run away. Don’t provoke a fight with a boy stronger than he was.
But he could win, the Cobra inside him hissed. He was so much stronger than he used to be. And if he beat Hawk, he could prove that.
He didn’t need to be protected anymore.
“You just think you’re tough because you beat Robby in the finals,” Kenny continued, taking another step toward Hawk. “But you got lucky, that’s all. Next time you fight Cobra Kai, I’m gonna put you in your place!”
Hawk showed no signs of intimidation. In fact, he just snorted softly, shaking his head, that same look in his eyes as before.
Down by his sides, Kenny’s arms started shaking. Why wasn’t he taller, like Shawn? Nobody messed with Shawn. What was it going to take for people to start taking him seriously?
Even with all this newfound strength, it still wasn’t enough.
“Want me to tell you how this is gonna end?”
Kenny’s frown deepened. He scowled at Hawk. “With you face-down on the mats,” he answered, voice firm in defiance.
“It won’t stop with you just getting even with your bully, y’know,” said Hawk. “When you build your confidence around anger, it’s not true confidence at all. It’s fear. You become afraid of everyone seeing you for who you really are. And so everyone becomes your enemy. Next thing you know, you’re all alone. You think it makes you strong, but one day, you’ll be reminded that all that fury still won’t protect you.”
Sympathy.
That had been what was behind Hawk’s stare.
Sympathy.
Kenny took one step back, unnerved, his bottom lip starting to quiver.
Had it been that obvious the anger was a shield?
But sometimes a shield was necessary, right? It was a second skin he’d had to grow in order to protect himself. It was the only way to get respect out of people. How else was he supposed to develop confidence if he couldn’t stand up for himself against the Anthony LaRussos of the world?
Kenny sucked in his bottom lip and clenched his jaw to keep it from trembling. This was all a ploy to get in his head, to get him to lower his defenses so he could be made a fool of in front of everybody. Just like when LaPusso tricked him. Everything was always a trick.
What did Hawk know about anything? He didn’t know what it was like to be powerless. He didn’t know what it was like to be bullied, to have everyone think he was a loser, to be humiliated in front of his peers over and over again, to cry himself to sleep at night not knowing why people wouldn’t just leave him alone.
Hawk really didn’t know shit.
Anger was the cure for fear.
Pushing his feelings deep down, raising his shield again, Kenny forced a cruel smirk around the corners of his mouth. If Hawk thought he was dealing with the same scared little kid who’d shaken in his shoes in the boy’s bathroom, who’d dropped his concessions to the ground when he’d cowered in sight of him at the drive-in, well, then he really was Kenny’s enemy. Just like all the other bullies.
But the joke was on them. He wasn’t powerless anymore.
He was a Cobra Kai.
“Like how you couldn’t stop Robby from getting you good when he chopped off that stupid mohawk of yours?” Kenny said, jutting his chin back out again, determined to show Hawk he had no fear. “Just because you’re a pussy doesn’t mean I have to be one.”
Hawk only continued to stare at him with knowing eyes, not taking the bait.
Sick and tired of that look, Kenny lunged forward with a yell, throwing his fist.