4 and a half days is not nearly enough to get good at this game. I'm not saying this to discourage you, but there is just so much to learn. My advice would be to pick a character like Liu Kang, go to the Liu Kang forums, look up his main combos, practice them, and it should give you a feel for the game and help your timing. You probably won't do good at the tournament if your friends have been playing for so long, but that shouldn't really affect you. Just have fun, use it as a learning experience, practice, and within a couple of months, you'll see noticeable improvement.
