Chapter 2
Tory didn’t consider herself shy. She didn’t have many friends, but that wasn’t a concern of not being able to socialize. She just didn’t want friends. Almost everyone at school was too small-town for her. The boys were either too country, junkies, or both. The girls were a mix of trailer trash, fake Plastics, Walmart emo, and horse girls. Tory would feel bad about generalizing if she hadn’t already met everyone.
She found a space to lean against the wall and looked around the dojo. There were a lot of people, more than six cars worth. She didn’t bother counting. Plenty of the people she tried to avoid at school were there. Tory looked away and tried to focus on a picture of some old man in a karate uniform.
“Hi.” A girl was standing next to Tory, watching her look at the photo.
“Hi,” Tory muttered. The girl wasn’t familiar, which was odd.
“I’m Sam. The new girl,” Sam added with a subtle hint of irritation. Clearly, she wasn’t loving her new home. She brushed a strand of hair out of her face.
Tory sized up the strange girl. “I didn’t know we had a new girl.”
“Yeah, I guess no one knows yet. I’m a junior, by the way. Are you…in high school?”
Tory snickered. “Nope.”
“Oh,” the girl was starting to blush, “sorry, I thought—“
“Oh come on,” laughed Tory. “I’m kidding. I’m a junior too. Welcome to hell, aka Ohio. Hope you remember how to leave.”
A smile broke across Sam's face.
“Where are you from?”
“New Jersey. My dad grew up there, but then he had to move here in high school. He graduated here and then moved to LA for college. And then back to Jersey, where I grew up. And now we’re back here because of this. Sorry, am I rambling?”
“Only a little,” chuckled Tory. “What do you mean, ‘this?’”
Sam gestured around at the dojo, which was now almost full of prospective students. “This.” She pointed at the short man outside, who was yelling at the other sensei again. “That’s my dad.”
“Oh. Sensei LaRusso.” Tory watched as Sam’s dad yelled at Johnny Lawrence again. “Does he like…hate Sensei Lawrence? Or what’s their deal?”
Sam shrugged. “I thought he did, but then he moved us all the way here for him. So I don’t know.” For a moment, the girls watched as Sam’s dad glared at Sensei Lawrence. “They had this rivalry thing in high school. I don’t know. He didn’t really talk about Johnny too much until recently.”
Suddenly, Sensei Lawrence unfolded his arms, turned around, and walked into the dojo with Sensei LaRusso at his heels. Sam fell silent attentively as the two senseis made their way to the front of the room.
“Line up!” yelled Lawrence. “I wanna see straight lines. Organized.” He began to walk through the space between the lines and glare at the students. “Face front,” he barked in the face of a small boy who had turned around to talk to his friend.
Tory followed Sam to the back of the class and lined up next to her.
“Hey,” whispered Sam as Lawrence yelled at another kid, “you never told me your name.”
Smiling, Tory answered, “Tory. Tory Nichols.”
“Nice to meet you.”
Once they were satisfied with the lines, the senseis made their way back to the front of the class and glanced around at their students. A smile formed on each of their faces. LaRusso stepped forward.
“Alright, welcome everyone,” he said kindly, “We’re so happy to have you here. I know you’re all anxious to get started, but first, we wanted to tell you about the two styles of karate that we want to teach you and give you a bit of the history of…”
Tory started to zone out.
She couldn’t really help herself. She was there to learn karate, but more importantly, she was there to learn if she could afford karate. It wasn’t worth paying attention to all the bullshit about the history of their styles if she wouldn’t be in class next week. She didn’t want to get attached too quickly.
Likewise, she felt guilty about accepting Sam LaRusso’s kindness. It wasn’t Tory’s fault that Sam had been nice to her, but the guilt persisted. Tory knew in the back of her mind that a friendship with Sam couldn’t last. She was pretty, she was new, and she would be instantly popular once school started. Not to mention she had the look of growing up with money. Any kindness she had shown to Tory would be beaten out of Sam after a few weeks in Blue Creek. Tory was sure of it.
Lawrence started demonstrating a punch and Tory figured she had better pay attention. He took a step to the side, forming a wide stance, and punched the air with a yell. A couple of students flinched, but Tory and Sam stood still. Sam grinned at Tory, looking impressed.
“Ok, now you do it,” said Lawrence as he stood back up.
The students tried in a mess of yells and movement. A couple of people looked around, confused. Sam stepped and punched effortlessly. For a second, Tory saw Lawrence smirk at Sam. She demonstrated her own punch, and caught the eye of Sensei LaRusso, who nodded.
“Pretty much all of you are garbage,” shouted Lawrence. “The rest of you are ok. But that’s not enough. We want you to be badass.” He pushed a kid’s shoulder and the kid toppled to the ground. “See? That shouldn’t happen. So let’s talk stance.”