Ekins National Girls Academy
London, Britain
Camille Amberson who is sitting on her armchair is staring out the window in a rainy afternoon, chin on her palm and her other hand fiddling with a pen. She seems to be in deep thoughts as their instructor speaks in the background. Their daily lessons in Tankery is being discussed though Camille hears nothing but muffled voices.
She's not neglecting the lessons in purpose but it's because she's thinking about her mother's words about transferring her to a tankery school in Japan.
"-And that concludes our lesson about the design and specifications of the M4A4 Firefly."
Their instructor, Ms. Ferrings also former captain of the National Tankery team that won champion twice until being defeated by Commonwealth Girls High School.
"I trust that you've all familiarized yourselves with the pride of our Academy, the Firefly.. Any questions?"
She scans the room for any student raising their hands and seeing none but when she turned her vision to the right side of the room she sees Camille who has spaced out and crosses her arm.
"Ahem.. Ms. Amberson!" She fails to catch her attention in the first try.
" !" Instructor Ferrings raised her voice louder this time with a more angry tone which finally caught the girl's attention causing her body to jump up as she gets startled.
"M-my apologies ma'am.."
"Sigh.. I'll speak to you later, after school in my office if I may. Now.. Dismissed."
"Y-yes ma'am.."
The instructor would walk out the room carrying her teaching materials along then everyone would start to prepare for the next class, as for Camille, she stays inside the room and let out a brief sigh.
Girls Academy School Ship Tank Hangar B
The students from gather in a neat row with a line of tanks specifically a row of Matildas behind them as Darjeeling, Orange Pekoe and Assam stand in front of them as if they were going to address them.
"My fellow students, I am pleased to announce that the 3rd All-out School Battles are approaching and we have been given the permission to select a line-up that will be participating in the prolonged battles against chosen schools."
Everyone starts rumbling about, excitement and joy can be indicated by the sound of the students chatting about the matter. One of them is Rosehip who has her fingers crossed that her crew will be mentioned in the selection.
Darjeeling closes her eyes for a second and starts sipping on her tea as Assam steps forward making the crowd stand back in attention.
"But before the line up we have been given a partner school that we will be participating with against an enemy pairing. I will announce both our pairing and the enemy pairing."
Everyone lets out their reaction be it excited or nervous on whoever they're pairing with but that isn't the case. The problem for each and everyone of them will be the enemy pairing, last year they were paired with Maginot and it did not go well against the second round against the strong pairing of Kuromorimine and Pravda. Though both schools held a rivalry against one another, they managed to dominate the tournament.
"Ahem…" Assam starts and the crowd goes silent as Assam brings out a folded piece of paper slowly unfolding it causing suspense among the students. Even Pekoe beside Darjeeling is anticipating the pairing.
"And our partner school is…"
The entire place quiets down, pure silence fills the room as most have their fingers crossed some are biting their lips.
"Saunders University!" Darjeeling opens her eyes having a smile on her face as cheering starts, they've never had a better pairing than the Mighty Saunders. Though they have experienced being paired with Pravda during the exhibition match against Oarai-Chi Ha-tan and they didn't do bad unlike Maginot.
"Settle down, here are our enemies."
Once again the area quiets down as everyone now more nervous as ever. Rosehip can be seen twitching and shaking nervously with her teeth clattering.
Assam pulls out another piece of paper and unfolds it revealing two long black scribbles.
"Bonple High and … Pravda Girls High.."
Everyone let out mixed reactions, some are unhappy and some are glad, glad to the fact that they have a chance of not being easily eliminated since they're up against Bonple, a Polish themed school that fields only a limited array of tanks.
Unhappy that they're going to face against Pravda as well. The school that they know too well, known to fight ferociously and recklessly leaving destruction upon their path but overall, they think they can handle the first round.
Ekins National Girls Academy
Faculty Office
Camille knocks on the glossy wooden door with a plaque that says "Faculty Office" on it and stands idle for a few seconds waiting for a reply.
"Come in." A voice is heard from inside as the student turns the doorknob and pushes the door slowly, the sight of her Instructor's desk was the first thing she saw, then followed by scribbling on some paperwork.
Camille stood there looking around the office, several shelves filled with various books caught her attention.
"Have a seat Ms. Amberson." Says her instructor in a calm and soft but convincing tone.
The girl would bend down to sit, the soft leather cushion catching her bottom and back making it comfortable for her. still scribbling several letters on the papers until finally she raises the pen up and lightly puts the tip down on the bottom end of the paper making a punctuation mark.
"Alright… Ms. Amberson, I called you here to inform you that your transfer form has been approved by the school and the rest of the tankery staff, not to scold you."
The girl's face would remain in her usual blank expression despite the fact that she expected a scolding due to her inattentiveness during lecture hours.
"Listen, I know it will be hard for you but please, this is for your own good. I tried to save your tankery record but the board has already given final ratings for each students."
The girl's facial expression would change to a somewhat a sad one after she heard Instructor Ferrings' words.
"Please let me prove myself next ye-"
"You can't … No.. I can't I'm sorry but I've tried everything I could but the tankery board has made a decision to transfer you and get enough points in your tankery record."
"I understand.." Camille looks at the floor sadly.
"Hey, you might make more friends there, who knows? It might be fun!"
The girl would raise her head and speaks just after the instructor ended her phrase.
"Judith is my only friend!" Camille would raise her voice at her instructor but would calm down quick.
"I know but.. It's better to have more than one friend trust me. I managed to speak to Judith this morning.. She told me to tell you to cheer up. You wouldn't want to disappoint her do you?"
With that, Camille bows her head down and replies with a silent voice indicating defeat.
After all that was over, Judith goes home, unsure how to present herself to her mother who is quite silent as always but the advices that she gives are words of encouragement.
She is also the current director of Ekins National Girls Academy, though her daughter studies in the school she runs, she doesn't take advantage of her relationship with her daughter.
Amberson Mansion
Camille arrives at home just in time for dinner, the smell of delicious food wafts from the kitchen as she walks down the hall while looking out for her mother whom she'd rather not run into in her current situation. But she failed in avoiding her as the door leading into her mother's office opened and there she was. Tall and proud, wearing a casual dress.
She spots the girl in front of her and calls her name but Camille kept walking and waking until she got some distance from her but her mother is fast and knew what was up, she quickly grabs her wrist and turns her around as the girl looks down to the floor with a sad and disappointed look on her face.
That's when it happened.
"Mother… I'm-I'm so sorry...I wasn't doing my best.."
Camille would be held on both shoulders by her mother as she began to sob, her eyes leaking with tears falling down her face.
"No…" Her mother would talk softly in a calm soothing manner.
"You we're doing your best.."
"But… I'm bad at commanding.. I let my crew down! I let Judith and you down!"
"There there, one loss does not mean anything to me dear, I'm sure Judith feels the same way too."
Her mother takes her in her arms and holds her in a tight warm hug calming Camille down.
"I'm proud of you.. And you can make me even more proud if you do your best in Japan." She rubs her hair from the back then after a few seconds of staying like that, Camille was free from her mother's warm loving hug, wiping away her tears and trying to fix herself to stand proud in front of her mother.
"I… Will do my utmost best to win, whoever I will fight with I'll honor."
Camille would then later pack her stuff and prepares to disembark on a journey to the school ship.