Apparently while Mackenzie was at the gift shop and talking to Tory, Miyagi-Do lost a bet with Cobra Kai. Eli tried to fill Mackenzie in on the way back to the hotel, but she hardly listened. All she knew was that Robby and Demetri lost their room and would have to share with Miguel and Hawk.

Mackenzie and the rest of Miyagi-Do waited in Miguel and Hawk's room for Demetri and Robby to pick up their belongings and the entire time they waited, Eli asked Mackenzie the same question over and over again.

"Please. I cannot share a room with Demetri during this trip." Eli pleaded, staring down at the blonde who was lying on his bed. Eli lying beside her, perched on his elbow so she'd have to look at him.

But Mackenzie had the sweatshirt she bought for Brandon thrown over her face to try and signal to Eli that she didn't want to talk.

Hawk ripped the sweatshirt off her face.

"Kenz, you have two bed in your room. It would be unfair for it to go to waste!" Eli yelled but Mackenzie ignored him, reaching for her shark stuffed animal to put it over her eyes like she had done with Brandon's sweatshirt.

Hawk snatched that too.

Before Mackenzie could yell at him, the door to the hotel room opened and Demetri and Robby came in with their shoulders slumped and very prominent frowns on their faces, their luggages dragging behind them as if they weighted thousands of pounds.

"Well, this sucks."

"Not a very smart gamble, boys." Mackenzie said, taking her hammerhead shark back from Eli and resting him in her lap.

Demetri scoffed at Mackenzie's words, dropping his bags by the other bed and glaring at Robby over his shoulder. "Yeah, somebody said it wasn't gonna be a gamble." He spat.

Robby stared at the back of Demetri's head before he scoffed. "I didn't want to get involved, remember?" Robby spat and without thinking about it, Mackenzie's eyebrows shot up.

"I wasn't there, but... it sounded to me like you got involved." Mackenzie butted in, raising an innocent hand.

Her comment earned an instant smack on the back of the head from Eli next to her. "Shut up!"

Robby sighed, ignoring Mackenzie's comment. He turned to Miguel and Eli on the bed with her, shaking his head. "I told you guys to stay away from Cobra Kai and look where we are now." Robby groaned, throwing his arms out exasperatedly to gesture to the hotel room they now all had to share.

"Well, why didn't you follow your own advice?" Eli scoffed out, making all eyes turn to him. As Robby squinted at Eli, Mackenzie rolled her eyes.

"Oh, and I had to shut up." She muttered to herself.

"What are you talking about?" Robby asked at the same time Mackenzie spoke.

Eli looked around at the rest of his team as if to say that all of them will agree with him before he turned back to Robby. "We all saw you talking to Tory."

Mackenzie suddenly felt a burning weight on her shoulders and even though no one was looking at her, she could feel everyone think about her. She wanted to curl into a ball. To walk out of the hotel room. To do anything that would get the feeling to stop.

She did the best she could do in the moment and pulled her knees up to her chest, gently resting her chin atop her knees,

"She's his girlfriend." Devon almost immediately defended before her eyes moved to the girl right next to Hawk and she pointed at her. "We all saw Kenzie talking to Tory, you're not ganging up on her."

Now Mackenzie wanted to run out of the room. If her team was only thinking about looking to her earlier, they all definitely turned to face her now.

Well, all expect for Demetri.

The boy had his eyes on the ground and hearing Devon's comment, he scoffed out a laugh without even thinking about it.

"I wouldn't have called that talking." He muttered. Him and the rest of his team all heard Mackenzie yell at Tory at the aquarium and so far, no one's brought it up yet.

Mackenzie's eyes shut and from next to her, Eli smacked Demetri's leg. Hard. "Will you shut up?" He whispered as he whacked the boy.

As Demetri winced in pain, Hawk scoffed, leaning back to be next to Mackenzie again. "They're dealing with her decision. Same as the rest of us." Hawk explained, everyone besides Sam and Demetri nodding in agreement with him.

Mackenzie didn't notice the two missing people standing in her corner, too busy sending a small, but grateful smile Eli's way that was returned with the boy gently rubbing her back.

"I wouldn't say that exactly." Sam huffed, just loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.

Mackenzie slowly lifted her head to look at Sam, her eyebrows furrowed and her lips parted in confusion. Sam's eyes were glued on Robby across the room and her lips curled in anger. Mackenzie hadn't been friends with Sam for long, maybe eight months by now, but she knew Sam was pissed at Robby.

"You knew Kreese came to Tory and Kenzie."

Mackenzie felt her blood run cold and when Sam turned her nasty glare to her, she felt as if her lungs no longer worked. Nothing could get in, and whatever air was trapped in her lungs refused to come out.

Everyone else's eyes turned to either Robby or Mackenzie. While Miguel and Demetri looked at Robby in shock, Devon and Eli looked to Mackenzie.

"What? You did?" Miguel asked quietly, a hint of betrayal in his tone.

Mackenzie stared down at the hammerhead shark plush in her hands. She couldn't look up—feeling Devon and Eli's eyes burn into the side of her head was painful enough.

When she felt Miguel turn to her, Mackenzie forced her eyes to look up and finally landed on somebody. "Kreese came to you guys?" Miguel whispered and somehow, his words sounded more hurt when aimed at her than Robby—his own fucking step brother.

Mackenzie suddenly felt sick and she looked back down at her lap, swallowing down the nervous bile rising in her throat.

"Kenzie! What the hell, man?" Hawk yelled, smacking the girls arm.

Robby noticed the way Mackenzie's wide eyes jumped around the bed, too panicked to settle on any specific place. He didn't have to be as close with her as he was to see the way she was about five seconds away from passing out in embarrassment.

"I knew Kreese came up to them, yeah!" Robby blurted, getting everyone's eyes off of Mackenzie. And Robby suddenly realized why Mackenzie hated everyone looking at her.

This was horrible!

But he pushed through, clearing his throat. "But that was before their mom..."

Everyone's faces fell at the mention of Tory and Mackenzie's mom. Hawk was the first one to look away from Robby, his eyes landing back on the girl beside him. "What did he say?" Eli asked quietly, as if he wanted this conversation to be just him and her. He didn't sound upset or mad anymore, only confused.

Mackenzie squeezed the shark in her hands as she finally looked up to the boy next to her. "He was trashing Miyagi-Do. Said Tory and I didn't have a fair shot." Mackenzie raised her eyebrows and turned to the rest of her team.

"I told him to go fuck himself and Tory told me to be nicer so I told him to get lost." Mackenzie explained, earning a couple snickers from Hawk and Devon.

Everyone else watched her closely, Sam's eyes having a bit more of a glare to them. If Tory was so quick to leave for Cobra Kai, who's to say Mackenzie wouldn't follow after her? She did go wherever Tory did.

Mackenzie turned to Miguel directly in front of her. Out of all the eyes on her in the room, his was the one that made her the most nervous. The way his big, brown eyes mimicked a sad puppy dogs made Mackenzie spill everything. "On the car ride home she seemed upset, but I figured she was just shaken to see him. I mean... he is a fugitive. I didn't think she was gonna actually take his offer."

Miguel nodded, understanding and believing Mackenzie. Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see Demetri and Eli nod in agreement with him and even from behind Miguel, Devon, who was leaning against the wall, did the same.

Mackenzie let out a small breath, a weight lifting off her shoulders until—

"Really? This is what Kreese does!"

Whatever guilt and nervousness that was bothering Mackenzie seconds ago came back strong and harder. She could practically feel the wind knock out of her from how venomous Sam's tone was.

"Sam..." Miguel whispered, reaching his hand out to gently rub Sam's thigh.

Sam pushed Miguel's hand away from her and looked down at her boyfriend with wide eyes and a determined shake of the head. "What? He played her and he played both of you!" Sam yelled, looking back and forth between Robby and Mackenzie.

"And you lied to us about it!"

Maybe it was on purpose, maybe it was on accident, but that yell—that pin of the blame was said all toward Mackenzie. Sam didn't look at Robby, as if he wasn't even in the room.

For a moment, Mackenzie curled into herself, her arms crossing over her chest like it could defend her from Sam's hurtful spews. "I didn't lie to you about it..." Mackenzie muttered, her eyes moving to Robby across the room. "And neither did he."

And then, it all shifted.

All that nervousness, embarrassment, guilt that Mackenzie was feeling shifted into something darker. Angrier. The nervous pool in her stomach that was just making her sick, now burned.

She pushed herself off Hawk's bed as she stared at the girl across the hotel room from her. Mackenzie's eyebrows were furrowed and her jaw was clenched tight.

"I may have kept it from you guys, but I didn't tell anybody for six hours! That's it." Mackenzie explained, her voice low, freaking Eli out beside her as she slowly walked away from him and his bed to head toward Sam. Mackenzie wanted to keep her voice quiet. It was late and the other guest staying in the next room didn't deserve to be woken up by her karate team fighting.

The only person in the room that has heard her speak like this was Eli. On the night he broke Demetri's arm. Hawk had already felt like shit for what he had done, but after Mackenzie spoke to him like she was speaking now, Hawk was tempted to head over to Demetri's to apologize right then and there.

It reminded him of a parent whose kid is acting up in public and they can't make even more of a scene by yelling at them so they just speak to them lowly—like a warning.

As she walked toward the center of the room, Mackenzie's arms uncrossed from her chest and she pointed back at Eli without even turning around to face him. "I was thinking about telling Hawk after prepping for the captains match, but I chickened out and by the time I got home, my mom was dead!" Mackenzie yelled.

Okay, maybe she didn't mind yelling.

Sam flinched. Not only at Mackenzie's volume, but the words she had said. Her mouth opened and closed as Mackenzie's eyes glared into her. "Sorry I was a little busy with other shit."

With that, Mackenzie grabbed her stuffed animal and the sweatshirt she bought Brandon and turned toward the door. She weaved past Robbys hand reached out to grab her arm. "Kenzi—"

Mackenzie didn't process who called her name before she slammed the door on the voice.

Now Mackenzie was starting to feel bad for the neighbors.

Before they could come out their hotel rooms to see who was causing a ruckus and before any of her team could chase after her, Mackenzie made a beeline to the elevator.

Not even five seconds after she pressed the button, the doors opened. Mackenzie figured it was probably because it was late and nobody was using the elevator, but when she saw someone standing inside, she realized it was just luck that the elevator got to her floor right when she pressed the button.

She finally looked up at the person in the elevator and forced a smile when she saw a sweaty and red in the face Axel.

"Oh, hey." Mackenzie breathed out, anger still thumping loud in her chest as she walked into the elevator, pressed the button to her floor, and stood beside him.

Axel smiled wide at Mackenzie coming into the elevator and standing almost shoulder to shoulder with him as she leaned back against the wall. "Hi, Mackenzie." He muttered, his voice slightly out of breath.

Mackenzie looked the boy up and down. He was out of breath, flush, sweaty. A small chuckle left her lips as she smiled up at the boy. "Where were you at this late?" Mackenzie hummed.

Axels face reddened even more, now because of Mackenzie's comment and the smile on her face.

"Training." He answered quietly with a nod of his head. His words made Mackenzie pulled her phone out of her pocket. Her face scrunched at the time and she quickly looked back up at Axel. "Training? It's one in the morning."

As she shoved her phone back into her pocket, she looked up at Axel.

The boy struggled to look at her, staring up at the small glowing numbers that told him what floor they were passing. "My sensei says I must work hard." Axel said almost robotically, whatever happiness, nervousness, or anything else he was feeling while talking with Mackenzie flew out the window.

Mackenzie pursed her lips and looked away from Axel. As soon as Axel felt Mackenzie's eyes off of him, he turned to her, his eyes softening. "I agree, but you should still let your body rest." She said, looking up at Axel. Mackenzie and shrugging. "I mean... tomorrow's the first day. I'm sure everyone is gonna be off their game from nerves."

Axel pulled his lips into a line. He had just gotten away from his training with Sensei Wolf, he didn't want to be talking about him now. He licked his lips and looked down at Mackenzie. "Where were you?" Axel asked, noticing the way Mackenzie's foot tapped in a mix of anger and anxiousness.

Mackenzie looked up at Axel, opening her mouth to dump just about everything that happened into the room on him before she quickly clamped her mouth shut.

"You just met this guy, Mackenzie. He doesn't need to hear your entire life story."

She took a deep breath and her foot slowly stopped tapping as she relaxed. "Talking with my team." Mackenzie breath out, trying to make her voice sound not as annoyed as she was just thinking about Sam's comment.

But somehow, Axel was able to read Mackenzie. He raised his eyebrows and turned to face her completely, leaning against the elevator wall. "Doesn't sound like it went well." He hummed and Mackenzie let out a dry laugh, copying Axel and turning to face him, leaning against the wall on her side.

"It didn't."

The two of them were barely a foot away from each other–Mackenzie looking up at the boy through her eyelashes and Axel giving the girl his complete attention.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked, crossing his arms over his chest. With a deep breath of bravery, Axel took a small step closer to Mackenzie.

And the elevator doors opened.

Mackenzie ignored the small flutter that started to bloom in her chest and she took a small step back. Axel's face fell, even when Mackenzie smiled after she stepped away from him. She slowly started to walk backward–out of the elevator, throwing her thumb over her shoulder. "I would, but this is my floor."

She turned and walked out of the elevator. As soon as se stepped into the hallway, Mackenzie turned her head back over her shoulder and smiled at Axel. "I'll see you in the morning?"

Axel's stomach practically did a flip at the softness in her voice, the smile on her face, and the fact that she wanted to see him in the morning.

Well, maybe that's not exactly what Mackenzie meant when she said, "I'll see you in the morning?" but Axel took what he could get.

"See you in the morning, Mackenzie." He breathed out and again, Mackenzie felt a weird buzz in her stomach.

She could see her hotel room door when she looked down the hall. Throwing Brandon's sweatshirt over her shoulder, Mackenzie started to walk toward it, tiredness suddenly hit her like a truck.

Mackenzie got about ten steps down the hallway before she turned back to Axel. The elevator doors were still open, as if they were waiting for them to say everything they wanted to say.

Mackenzie smiled, spinning around to walk backward again so she could face Axel completely.

"Hey, and good luck!"

Axel felt like all of the air had been sucked out of his lungs, making a small gasp leave his lips. Slowly, it turned into a breathless smile as he watched the girl get further and further away, her eyes glued on him.

"You too!" He called out, just as the elevator doors started to close.

emily speaks...
MWHAHAHHAHHAA(that was my evil laugh) THESE TWO ARE SO CUTE

when there's angst in this fic but it's macks relationship with just about everyone BUT axel😼