"So how are things going with your friend?" Madame Razz asked before taking a long sip from out of her mug.
"Oh much better!" Adora answered. "We're talking again. I mean, I can tell she still has some reservations, but we're making progress."
"I'm glad to hear it," Razz answered, her face wrinkling profusely as she smiled warmly.
"One thing I did mean to talk to you about though. I kinda got assigned to work with...Lonnie for a school project. And she's...I don't know…"
"Has she said or done anything to you?" Razz asked, suddenly very serious. "I can ask Principal Hope to have the teacher assign you a new partner."
"No, no," Adora responded quickly. "Nothing like that. It's weird, but she hasn't said anything like she used to. She hasn't exactly been friendly, but she isn't being mean either."
"Interesting. And how do you feel about working with her?"
"Well at first I was...scared. I thought we'd get in another fight or it'd be like it used to. But so far it's going okay. I just don't know...I mean, how are you supposed to just talk to someone who did that stuff to you? Like, 'Oh hey, I know you punched me in the face, like, a month ago, but can you help me fill out this slide?'"
"I understand," Madame Razz said thoughtfully. "I told you the first time we met that it was good practice to understand why people do the things they do. But it should be made clear that it is never your job to try to fix the mistakes that someone else made. If you don't want to talk to her you don't have to. And we really can have your partner switched, dearie. I'm surprised your teacher even let this pairing happen."
"Well we're mostly done with the project now anyway. Just a presentation. And it's really not that much of a problem. It's just a weird experience, is all. For both of us."
"Yes it must be," Razz said sympathetically. "If you have any trouble with her then please let me or Principal Hope know."
"Yeah I will," Adora said distantly, thinking about how her class would go.
"I don't like your slides," Lonnie said bluntly as soon as Adora sat down across from her.
"Why?"
"Well you put too much information," Lonnie explained, turning her laptop around and pointing out a slide Adora had been working on.
"Isn't more information...better?" Adora asked.
"Well yeah but you're supposed to, like, have short bullet points on the slides and then expand on the topic with your own words. Not just read a page."
"Well...sure," Adora said, a little defensively. "I just don't like having to remember all that when I'm presenting."
"Well it's either that or we recite a whole paragraph in here about Egypt's economy."
"Well I guess I can change it," Adora settled. This was not off to a great start.
Adora went in and reworked some of the slides she had done to shorten them down as Lonnie worked on the other slides. She had not even finished rewriting them when Lonnie spoke up again.
"I still think we should change up your slides a little bit."
Adora took a slow breath inwards and looked up at Lonnie. "How so?" She asked through gritted teeth, trying to hide her annoyance.
"Well since we didn't do the whole thing together our slides seem real disjointed. So maybe you should read my slides and try to match yours up with mine."
"Or...you could always match your slides up with mine?"
Lonnie and Adora locked eyes and there were a few moments of silent struggle before Lonnie looked away.
"Yeah sure. Whatever," Lonnie said resignedly and went back to work on the corrections.
Adora went back to her work as well and tried to calm herself down. Lonnie was being a lot more talkative today, but apparently with that came a whole lot of judgement. Adora did have to admit, however, that their slides had been a little confusing before they had changed them.
The girls worked quietly for a while, only talking to each other briefly when they had to. But then, when there were only a few minutes left in class, Lonnie surprised Adora once again.
"So how's Catra doing?" Lonnie asked nonchalantly.
Adora looked up from her computer surprised and stared at Lonnie. The girl wasn't even looking up from her screen. She had asked the question as casually as if nothing had ever happened between the three of them.
"Um...she's good. She's...yeah she's good," Adora answered awkwardly.
Lonnie nodded in approval. "I saw Scorpia doesn't sit with the rest of 'em anymore. Why is that?"
"Oh that's...I mean...I don't wanna spread, like, gossip or anything."
Lonnie looked up and stared at Adora, an expectant look in her eye.
"Well…" Adora shifted uncomfortably. "I don't know all of it. But her and Catra had a little...disagreement."
Lonnie grunted. "Figures. What about?"
"Uh...I don't know if I'm...comfortable telling you that. It's kinda Catra's personal business."
Lonnie chuckled briefly. "Yeah. Forgot I was out of the loop now. Well I'd ask you to tell 'em I said 'hi' but I doubt they'd wanna hear from me anyway."
Adora didn't respond because she wasn't exactly sure how to.
"Adora! Update! Fish Update! Breaking news!" Catra exclaimed loudly as she burst into their English class that was starting to fill up with students.
Mrs. Weaver shot a glare at Catra. "I'd prefer you keep your 'fish update' a personal matter and not shout in my class, Catra. Unless you'd rather discuss it in another detention?"
Catra shot a nasty look right back at Mrs. Weaver and made her way to her seat next to Adora.
"Catra, you're gonna get in trouble," Adora said, failing to stifle her amusement at Catra's outburst.
"Well so be it," Catra said dramatically. "Mrs. Weaver can't stifle my freedom of speech! I have rights!"
Adora shook her head, smiling widely. "So what's the fish update?"
"I'm glad you asked," Catra said with a grin. "Did you get the picture I sent you last night?"
Adora chuckled as she remembered the blurry picture of Catra's new fish swimming around in the tank. "Yeah they looked very happy."
"They are," Catra announced proudly. "I fed them those high end fish flakes you got me and they seemed very thankful. So thank you."
"Well I'm glad they liked it!"
"They did. You're a good fish mom to my fish children."
"We're a happy little family," Adora said, angling herself in her desk so that she could face Catra more easily.
"Yes we are," Catra said with a big grin. "And anyway what I wanted to tell you is that I finally came up with a name for Boba's fish brother."
"Oh? Last night you said you were thinking of naming him either Zap or Lil' Flippy?"
"Ah yes, those were good," Catra admitted. "But it didn't fit well enough. Now I'm thinking: 'Beefers'.
Adora blinked a few times, maintaining eye contact with Catra, who looked dead serious.
"Beefers?" Adora finally asked with a slow sigh.
"Yup," Catra said, liking the sound of it. "It really fits who he is."
Adora's look of disbelief slowly morphed into an appreciative grin. "You know you are the dumbest human being?"
"I am aware of this," Catra answered facetiously. "And you love it."
"I really do," Adora replied honestly. "And I think you're a wonderful fish dad."
"That's the nicest thing anybody has ever said to me. I do take my duties as fish dad very se…"
Catra was interrupted suddenly by a loud clicking sound and the sudden darkening of the classroom as all of the lights went out at once.
Catra and Adora looked around, confused. There was a collective gasp from the students in the room as they wondered what had happened. Mrs. Weaver stood up. "Class it seems our power has gone out. Stay in your seats. Class should resume shortly."
The students began to murmur excitedly amongst themselves as Mrs. Weaver moved to her desk phone and began to dial the office.
"Oh man!" Catra exclaimed excitedly as she turned back to Adora, now only dimly lit by the natural light from outside a single window in the room. "This is cool! Maybe it's like the beginning of a nuclear apocalypse or something!"
"Yeah or the power just went out," Adora suggested.
Catra shrugged. "Well just wait till it gets all Hunger Games in here. You better start sharpening that pencil. I say we hole up in the cafeteria."
Adora couldn't help but laugh at the thought. "We'd have all the food. That's a good plan actually."
"Yeah I think about this a lot. We could trade our supply of food with the other roving bands of students for weapons and supplies. Fortify our base. Hold out until winter."
Adora rolled her eyes and was about to respond when a voice came through the overhead speakers.
"Students and Faculty…" The voice of Principal Hope poured into the classroom, quieting the room. "We have just been informed by a construction team nearby that our power has been accidentally severed. There is no time estimate on repair as of yet, so we have decided to end school early for the day. The buses will be called in for those of you who need them and any after school extracurriculars are cancelled as well. Sorry for the inconvenience and thank you."
Mrs. Weaver addressed the class. "Alright. It seems you are all dismissed for the day. But I still expect your homework next class before the bell rings. No exceptions."
The students barely heard her as they were all so excited to get a surprise day off. Catra practically leapt out of her seat as the students began to leave the classroom.
"Well this is great!" Catra exclaimed. "We have all day now!"
"Thank goodness for construction errors," Adora said, also pretty excited about the impromptu vacation.
"You wanna come back to my place?" Catra asked, shouldering her backpack.
"Yeah that sounds fun," Adora answered. "I'll have to check with Angella first though."
Adora pulled out her phone to call her foster mom and saw that she had two missed calls from Bow. Both had only been mere seconds ago.
Adora called him back as her and Catra walked out of the classroom and into the bustling hallway. The phone had only rung once before Bow picked up.
"Hey!" Came the excited voice from the other end.
"Hey," Adora said, smiling into the phone. "What did you call about?"
"Well we have a day off! I was thinking we should hang out! Like all of us!"
"All of us meaning…?" Adora asked tentatively, looking at Catra who stared back at her questioningly, wondering what the conversation was about.
"Well...you and me and...I was thinking...we gotta get Catra and Glimmer to hang out together at some point. Like, better now than never right?"
"I don't know…" Adora answered hesitantly. "We're a little...tenuous right now with Glimmer. Don't you think this could make it worse?"
"That is a solid possibility."
"She probably won't even agree to go."
"Well I'll just ask her. Hey Glimmer!" Bow called out on the other end of the phone and Adora heard a voice in the background.
"Is that Bow?" Catra asked.
Adora put a hand over the phone speaker and nodded. "Yeah he's wondering if you wanna hang out after school. Maybe with Glimmer and him. Do we wanna?"
"Do you wanna?"
"I want to if you're there."
"Well I'll be there if you're there so sure. What are we doing?"
"Good question. Just a sec." Adora put her ear up to the phone again and listened to muffled conversation for a bit before Bow spoke again.
"Glimmer has...cautiously accepted the invitation. But only on three conditions."
"Uh...okay what are the conditions?"
"Well for one she wants to do laser tag."
Adora cupped her hand over the phone again and turned to Catra. "Is laser tag alright?"
"When is laser tag not alright?"
Adora went back to the phone. "That's a resounding yes for laser tag."
"Awesome. Condition two is that she's bringing Scorpia. And condition three is...that if at any point you and Catra do anything romantic in front of her she reserves the right to barf. Her words."
Adora sighed. "Catra is it okay if Scorpia comes?"
"What? With Glimmer?" Catra looked initially confused and startled, but shook it off quickly. "Yeah sure. I was gonna invite her anyway probably. Not that she would've said yes if I'd have asked." Catra mumbled this last part to herself and Adora put a hand on Catra's shoulder as she responded to Bow.
"Yeah that'll do. I hope Glimmer is ready for a lot of barfing."
Catra looked at her, utterly confused how this last part had made its way into the conversation.
Bow laughed on the other end. "Okay sounds good to me. We'll see how this goes! Meet you in the courtyard in a few minutes."
"See you there." Adora hung up and turned to Catra, who looked a little distracted.
Adora moved the hand that was on Catra's shoulder over to her other shoulder, so that her arm was now resting around Catra. This made the girl look up at Adora.
"Hey," Adora said firmly but with a comforting tenderness. "It's gonna be fine. We have each other, remember?"
Catra smiled genuinely. "Thanks."
"Of course. And honestly it'll be a little awkward for a while, but it won't be that bad."
It was that bad.
Everyone now stood in the courtyard grouped around a table together. Adora stood with Catra and Glimmer and Scorpia were sitting at the table across from them. Bow was wedged awkwardly in between them all. And nobody had said a word since they had all met up.
Bow finally cleared his throat. "Soooo...how are all my favorite people doing? You all look great today."
Nobody said anything and Glimmer frowned to herself, already regretting agreeing to do this.
"Oh thanks," Scorpia answered Bow's compliment. "I'm Scorpia, nice to meet you." She clumsily extended a hand and Bow shook it enthusiastically.
"I'm Bow. It's nice to finally meet you too! My dad said you saved his life one time at the gym."
Scorpia squinted her eyes momentarily before recognition came to her face. "Oh! That was your dad!? Yeah that guy tried lifting without a spotter! And he went way too heavy! If I hadn't grabbed that bar it woulda fallen right on his ribs and cracked him all to bits."
Bow's eyes widened at the description.
Scorpia saw the horror on his face and scrambled to relieve him. "Oh! Oh I mean he probably would have been fine! Y'know...he woulda been…totally alright...I bet…" Scorpia trailed off.
There was another awkward pause before Glimmer spoke up.
"Well. We better head over. Who's riding with me and who's riding with Bow?" She looked at Bow and Adora as she said this and made the concentrated effort not to make eye contact with Catra or even acknowledge her presence.
"I'm going with Bow," Catra muttered, stepping closer to Adora.
"I'll...uh...oh…I have a car so I can ride on my own," Scorpia said, shooting a few guilty glances at Catra out of the corner of her eye.
Then everyone turned to look at Adora. Adora decided then that this was the worst decision she had ever made.
"Uh…" She looked over at Glimmer, who was staring at her curiously. And then she looked at Catra who was right up beside her. "I...um…" Adora froze and looked at her feet.
"You should ride with Glimmer," Catra said, putting a hand on her back. "I'll see you there, 'kay?"
"Okay," Adora answered, relieved that somebody had made the decision for her.
She wondered if Catra was in any way upset about this, but when Adora looked at her she just saw a supportive look on her face.
Glimmer watched the exchange, trying to hide her surprise at Catra's actions. "Alright. We'll meet you guys there."
"See you there," Bow said. Catra gave Adora one more assuring look and then headed off with Bow.
"Drive safe!" Bow shouted back to them as Adora, Scorpia, and Glimmer walked off the opposite direction.
"He seems nice," Scorpia mentioned as they walked away.
"He has his moments," Glimmer replied. "I can't believe you saved his dad!"
"I can't either! I mean the story seemed to scare him a bit but that dad guy really did almost get all crunched up!"
"You're like a buff guardian angel," Glimmer joked. "Let's hope those skills transfer over to laser tag. You wanna be on my team?"
"Definitely," Scorpia agreed with a smile. "I'll see you there, Glim. Uh...you too, Adora." She waved awkwardly at Adora and then went off towards her own car.
"Yeah see you there," Adora said as she walked away. Then she turned to Glimmer. "Scorpia calls you 'Glim' now? I thought only Bow could do that?"
Glimmer shrugged. "Scorpia likes nicknames."
"Yeah I guess so. So you guys are, like... friends now and everything?"
"Oh yeah," Glimmer said as she got into her car and Adora hopped into the passenger seat. "She was there when I needed her and it turns out she's really cool. Plus we already know each other from back in the day."
"Yeah…" Adora said, buckling herself in. "Uh. Sorry about that again."
Glimmer turned the car on. "Sorry about what?"
"Just that I wasn't there for you when you needed someone."
Glimmer sighed. "Adora you already apologized for all that like twenty times."
"I know. But it still feels like you're...mad at me."
"Well…" Glimmer gripped at the steering wheel and then relaxed her hands. "Yeah I mean I told you I'm still a little burnt by the whole thing. And, like, it's incredibly weird that I'm going to do laser tag with Catra. And it's a crazy thing to get used to."
"That makes sense."
"Yeah. But... y'know... I'm not, like, mad mad. And I really really do wanna get things back to normal. And laser tag with you guys sounds fun. And...mom and I talked and...I don't know. Maybe I should try to 'see things from your point of view' or whatever."
"Well thanks for trying."
"Yeah."
Glimmer pulled out of the parking lot and began to head out towards the laser tag place. It was quiet. After a few awkward moments that felt like they stretched on forever, Glimmer tried to strike up a conversation.
"So how is school going?"
"Not too bad. I aced that test in our chemistry class."
"I figured you would. I did...less well."
"Oh shoot. Yeah we didn't get to study together like we usually do."
"Yeah. It didn't tank my grade or anything but it wasn't great."
"Well hey we'll just study extra hard for the next one then. And we can work together on that homework tonight if you want."
Glimmer looked over at Adora briefly before focusing back on the road. "Yeah that sounds good."
"So what about you? What's been happening with you?"
"Not much you don't know. I spent almost a week being furious. I've been hanging out with Scorpia."
"Yeah how's that been going?"
"Good. She's really nice and cool. We went to the gym the other day and then we talked a lot."
"Oh wow," Adora replied, secretly a little bummed that Scorpia had been the one to have a gym day with Glimmer and not her.
"Yeah it was good. Helped clear my head. We're feeling a lot of the same stuff right now. And Catra's kinda burnt her lately too."
"Well," Adora said slowly. "I wouldn't say that Catra specifically 'burned' either of you."
"Oh right," Glimmer recalled. "Forgot I can't say that stuff around you."
Adora frowned and opened her mouth to argue before giving up on it and slumping back into her seat. She looked out the window and didn't respond.
Glimmer and Adora ignored each other for the rest of the drive over.
"Welcome to the Laser Castle everyone! You're the only group here so it looks like you'll get the whole place to yourselves today! Split up into teams and then head into the dark room over here when you're ready!" Exclaimed the overenthusiastic young adult who was working the front desk.
The group of students looked at each other for a moment.
"What do we wanna do for teams?" Bow asked.
"I call Scorpia," Glimmer proclaimed immediately, receiving a smile from Scorpia and a grimace from Catra.
"Aw man, one of the teams will be uneven," Bow remarked. "We should balance out skill level. Who's really good at laser tag?"
Catra half raised her hand. "I'm not too bad with a laser gun."
"Yeah if it's anything like her shooting skills in Halo, she'll be great," Adora joked. Catra smiled at her appreciatively.
"You wanna be on my team?" Catra asked Adora.
"Sounds good," Adora responded.
"Alright well I'm terrible at laser tag so I'll join Glimmer and Scorpia just to balance things out," Bow decided.
"I don't know, Bow, they might need the extra firepower," Glimmer said, a small hint of hostility in her voice. "We're fine being the smaller team."
Scorpia looked back at Glimmer. "We are?"
"Oh yeah," Glimmer responded. "Us against them."
Bow regarded Glimmer warily for a moment before stepping back towards Catra and Adora. "Alright. I'll be over here then. Let's, uh, head in."
Adora and Catra shared a look before following the rest of the group into the dark room in the back. Inside, the walls were lined with racks of laser vests and the room was covered with neon paint and black lights. A big TV screen played a safety video as the person from the front desk explained the rules to them.
Catra elbowed Adora gently as the person was going over instructions and whispered in Adora's ear.
"How are you doing with Glimmer? Things seem...tense."
Adora nodded and whispered back. "Yeah it's not going great. But at least she's trying, I guess."
Catra huffed. "Yeah sure she is."
The instructor finished reading off the rules and told everyone to grab a laser vest and get ready.
Catra, Bow, and Adora went over to the red team and Glimmer and Scorpia went over to the blue team.
Scorpia shot a glance back at Catra as she walked away from her. "Hey, Glim. Do you think Catra's mad at me?"
Glimmer began looking through the laser vests for one she liked. "Not really. But you shouldn't be worrying about Catra. She's not worrying about you."
"Well...I don't know…" Scorpia said glumly as she shrugged one of the vests on.
"Look, Scorpia, just try not to worry about her. She's probably just mad at me."
"I guess…" Scorpia said distractedly.
"Now...which vest name should I go with? Crusher or Sprinkles?"
Scorpia pondered this difficult question.
Across the room, Catra, Bow, and Adora were choosing their own vests.
"I'm going for PeaceMaker," Catra said, taking her vest down from the rack. "That sounds dope."
Adora chuckled. "Which one should I get?"
"Well there's one over here that says Beast and that's giving me heavy Adora vibes," Bow said.
"Oh yeah hand that over," Adora said instantly, grabbing the vest from Bow and clipping it on.
Bow proudly put on a vest that had Ravioli printed across the nametag and shot a thumbs up across the room. "We're ready!"
"Yeah we're ready too!" Scorpia agreed, still fumbling with the strap on her vest. Glimmer helped her out and the employee led them into the arena.
It was a big, dark room with more flashing neon lights spread all over. There were big ramps that led up to a second floor and there were structures that looked kind of like a castle. Walls and barricades were all over the area for cover.
The employee then gave them a thirty second warning and told them to go and find their places.
Catra immediately bolted up a nearby ramp and waved to Adora and Bow to follow her.
Glimmer looked around the area and found a ramp on the other side. She grabbed Scorpia and the pair ran over to the opposite end of the arena and up the ramp, taking shelter behind a wall.
"It's so loud in here!" Scorpia shouted over the near deafening sci-fi music that was playing throughout the arena.
"Yeah it is!" Glimmer shouted back. She craned her head around the wall and looked over to where Catra and the rest of them had gone. "Okay I'm thinking we split up at that branch up there and we go in from two ends and mess 'em up!"
"Sounds good!" Scorpia yelled. "I'll go left and you go right!"
"Wait no I wanna go right!"
"Okay then you go right and I'll go left!" Scorpia yelled back, pointing at the different routes ahead of them.
"Well you pointed at a different place! You mean those two bridges over there?!"
"Oh I meant the bridges over there!"
"That's only one bridge!"
"Oh shoot, you're right!"
"Okay so you go left and...wait…I'll go…right?" Glimmer was cut off by a recorded voice over the speakers saying that the match had started as their vests flared to life.
"Let's go! No prisoners!" Glimmer shouted as she took off forward.
Scorpia followed her quickly, trying to keep up with the girl. They ended up both going across the same bridge.
Meanwhile, Catra was showing Adora how to shoot the gun.
"You gotta hold the bottom or it won't fire!" She yelled over the battle music that had begun to play.
"Oh yeah!" Adora exclaimed, gripping the bottom and accidentally firing off a few shots."
"You almost shot Bow in the head!" Catra laughed loudly.
"I need my head!" Bow yelled as he tried to aim his gun out at the rest of the arena. "I feel like mine is broken!"
"Bow you gotta hold the bottom!" Catra yelled over to him and he adjusted his grip.
"Oh yeah! Thanks! Oh I saw a flash of blue over there!"
The three of them stood up and peeked out from behind their cover.
"Don't fire 'till you see the whites of their eyes!" Catra exclaimed.
"But it's so dark!" Bow yelled back helplessly.
With that, Catra dashed over to an adjacent barrier a few feet ahead and aimed her gun out at the area.
Bow and Adora looked over at one another and shrugged before following Catra.
They clumped up behind her in her cover and she turned around and looked at both of them before shaking her head and smiling helplessly.
"We can't all group together! We should split up at least a little bit!"
"What!?" Adora questioned, having not heard Catra's advice over the blaring music.
Bow, however, did hear and stood up to look for another place to hide. He was only up for a few moments before a beam of light shone from across the battlements and struck him in the chest.
Bow gasped and looked down at his vest as an explosion sounded and his light went out temporarily.
"How dare you!?" He yelled out towards where a blue light was peeking out from behind a pillar. Bow ran a few steps to the side and his vest lit up again. He began to rapid fire madly out towards the light.
He missed almost all of his shots and the blue light ducked away again. Then Bow's vest instantly darkened again as he got shot by another beam from a different spot a few feet from the other one.
This time, however, Catra was ready. As Bow yelped and retreated back to cover, she whipped her gun over to where the shot had come from and fired two shots, satisfied when she saw a blue light flash and blink out.
"Nice shot!" Adora yelled. "I'm gonna go help Bow! He's struggling!"
"I'll cover you!" Catra yelled and shot again over towards where the first shot had come from, watching another blue light flicker off.
Across the battlefield, Glimmer and Scorpia had initially been celebrating their success, but soon found that almost every time they peered out from cover they were getting blasted by the same person.
They played like this for a while longer before Glimmer realized they needed to change things up.
"It must be Catra!" Glimmer shouted over to Scorpia. "We gotta take her out!"
"She's too good!" Scorpia yelled as her vest got blasted once again.
Glimmer grumbled to herself and peered around the barrier, noticing a doorway in the middle of the floor between both teams with a roof over it.
"Scorpia, they said that if you shoot the little light in the center room you get a bunch of points! I think it's in there!"
"Oh I see it! But how are we gonna get there!?"
"Follow me and aim for Catra!"
Glimmer pushed off from the wall and began to move to the next cover, Scorpia following close behind.
They focused their fire on where Catra was and Glimmer laughed aloud when she saw the red light fade.
Then they both got shot as a few beams came from another spot. The pair heard Bow cheering Adora on. Glimmer gritted her teeth and they pushed onwards.
Across the battlefield, Catra took cover and then yelled over to Bow and Adora. "I think they're going for the base in the middle! We gotta get there first! I'm going in!"
Bow and Adora shot her a thumbs up and started shooting off to provide cover fire. Catra took the opportunity to hop over the short wall in front of her and crouch run over to the next barricade and then the next, working her way towards the center.
"What a tryhard!" Bow yelled over to Adora as he watched Catra dash around.
Adora laughed loudly as she continued to shoot towards the other team.
They watched as Catra slowly made her way to the middle. They hit Glimmer and Scorpia a few times, but couldn't keep them from also nearing the center from their end.
Catra saw the blue lights on the other side of the room in the middle and fired off a few shots, knocking both of them out. She grinned and then rushed forward into the room. She looked above her and instantly saw the flashing circle of light on the ceiling above her. She pointed her gun up to fire at the circle when suddenly a laser hit her shoulder pad and her vest powered down.
She whipped her head down and saw Glimmer standing just several feet away and approaching the room.
Catra ducked down and waited for her light to come back on. Glimmer reached the room from the other side the second that Catra's light came back on and the two fired at each other, each taking out one another at a close range.
They both looked down at their vests and then at each other and then up at the light. Then they leveled their guns at one another and spammed the triggers.
The second their lights came on they both fired off a shot and once again eliminated each other.
"Stop shooting me!" Catra yelled at Glimmer.
"No you stop shooting me!" She shouted back.
They eliminated each other again and both became increasingly more angry.
Scorpia came up behind Glimmer, laughing as she dodged a few shots, and then stopped as she saw Glimmer and Catra firing at each other endlessly. She lowered her gun.
"Uh...guys!? I think the point is that we kinda let the lights come back on first!?" Scorpia yelled, concerned about her friends.
Bow and Adora stormed in the other end, giggling like idiots and firing off potshots when they also realized Glimmer and Catra, now staring each other down angrily.
They stopped and watched for a moment before the music stopped and a voice came over the speakers signifying that the match was over.
Glimmer and Catra finally stopped firing at one another, realizing that neither of them had actually gone for the circle above them.
Catra stepped back and looked at Adora, her face instantly slipping into embarrassment. Glimmer just frowned, turned around, and walked off in the other direction.
Scorpia hesitated briefly and then followed Glimmer. Bow and Adora walked with Catra down the other end of the arena and back to the dark room where they all took off their vests and went outside to see the leaderboard.
Catra had come in first place followed by Glimmer and then Adora and then Scorpia and finally Bow.
Glimmer and Scorpia's team had lost by a few hundred points and Glimmer frowned a little as she saw this.
Catra whooped and patted her teammates on the back.
"How was my accuracy one percent?" Bow asked with a chuckle. "Is that even possible statistically?"
"With how you were shooting, definitely," Adora joked.
"That was so fun guys!" Scorpia said loudly, her ears still adjusting from how loud it had been in there. "Catra was that you over by that one pillar who kept getting us?"
"Yeah that was me," Catra said, trying not to sound as proud as she was.
"Man you're better with a laser gun than I remember!" Scorpia said with a grin.
"Well, the roller rink I worked at gave me coupons for this place so I used to just come here on weekends and shoot kids all day," Catra recalled fondly.
"Oh my god," Adora responded, smiling. "Do we wanna do another round? Or…" Adora hadn't addressed the question to anybody in particular, but everyone knew that she was really asking Catra and Glimmer in particular.
"Sure," Catra said with a shrug. "I mean...yeah sounds fun."
Glimmer nodded. "Yeah let's do it. I want a rematch."
"Well I'll join your team this time then now that we know Catra is a laser god," Bow said.
"No, we should do the same teams," Glimmer reiterated firmly. "I just needed a warm up."
"Okay sure," Bow said a little nervously as he stepped back towards Adora and Catra.
Adora shot a concerned look at Glimmer and Glimmer noticed the stare.
"What? I'm fine, Adora," Glimmer insisted.
Adora looked away and everyone stared at Glimmer. She grew frustrated with all the attention and threw her arms up defensively.
"I have to go to the bathroom," she said decidedly before she quickly walked off in a direction.
"The bathroom is over here!" The employee at the front desk shouted helpfully to Glimmer as she walked in the opposite direction.
She turned back around and passed the group again, heading towards the bathroom. "Apparently the bathroom is over here," she mumbled as she walked past them and disappeared into the restroom.
They all watched her go and then Catra cleared her throat. "I gotta go to the bathroom too, guys. I'll be back soon."
Adora grabbed Catra's arm as she started to walk off. "Are you…? What are you gonna do?"
Catra smiled gently at Adora. "Trust me."
Adora still looked a little worried, but she nodded and let go of her arm.
The remaining three watched as Catra walked over and entered the bathroom, the door closing behind her. There was a moment of silence.
"So how likely is it that neither of them come out of that bathroom alive?" Bow asked.
Catra walked in slowly and saw Glimmer washing her face in the sink. Glimmer didn't notice her until the door closed and then she whipped her head over.
Upon seeing Catra her expression instantly soured and she went and grabbed some paper towels to dry her face off, trying to ignore Catra.
"Hey…" Catra said as she approached Glimmer. "How...uh...how about that game?"
Glimmer turned and looked at Catra as if she had lost her mind.
Catra rolled her eyes. "Okay, I know it's weird you don't have to make it even more awkward," Catra complained.
"What are you doing in here? Why are you talking to me?" Glimmer asked confrontationally.
Catra sighed and ran a hand through her messy hair. "Look I...I get that you hate me. I really do. Cuz trust me, sometimes when I look at you I just wanna…y'know..." Catra made a little choking motion with her hands.
"Well at least we're in agreement," Glimmer said firmly and then moved to walk past Catra.
Catra moved in front of her and blocked her path, at which Glimmer looked very annoyed.
"Look I don't wanna start anything," Catra said, raising her arms. "I just...we can't keep doing...this. I mean I was content with us just avoiding each other at all costs for years, but now there's Adora and...us fighting...it's gonna tear her apart."
Glimmer stopped and looked genuinely confused.
Catra continued. "You don't have to like me. And I don't have to like you. But...for Adora...and also for Scorpia and Bow...I think we should, like, at least try to get along."
Glimmer shut her eyes and took a moment to process this. She turned away from Catra and walked a few steps away before turning and pacing back to face the girl. "Look, I literally can't believe I'm saying this, but I think you're...right."
"I'm sure that's hard to say."
"Oh trust me, it is," Glimmer said, rubbing her brow. "But you're right. I mean this'll only work with all of us if either one of us leaves, or we manage to get along. I've just been so mad lately. And then someone says something about you and I get even more angry. It sucks!" Glimmer gripped the edge of the sink and Catra frowned.
"Yeah I know. I felt the same way for a long time. And, like, I still do. I've just been trying to contain it for Adora."
"Man…" Glimmer said, shaking her head. "You really like her don't you?"
"I like everything about her," Catra answered honestly. Glimmer groaned a little at this and looked away. "But I know you care about her too. So I think we should just try for her. For them."
Glimmer looked up and stared Catra in the eyes for a few seconds. She hadn't looked into Catra's eyes for years and it was strange to do so now.
"I do care about her a lot," Glimmer replied. "And Bow, of course. And also Scorpia now."
"Oh yeah," Catra said quickly. "Are you just friends with her to get under my skin or what?"
"No of course not!" Glimmer exclaimed before lowering her voice again. "We just genuinely helped each other out. I like her. And I didn't know I missed her."
Catra scanned Glimmer's face and saw that she was telling the truth. "Ah. Well. That makes me feel better then. And for what it's worth, I'm sorry the whole...thing with us broke up our friend group so much."
Glimmer's eyes widened a little bit, surprised by the apology, and then she looked at the floor. "Yeah I mean...yeah. It's fine."
"So…" Catra bit at her nails a bit. "Yeah that's all." She shuffled a bit awkwardly.
"Hey, did you really try and get Adora to tell me about you two from the beginning?" Glimmer asked suddenly.
"Well...yeah I guess. I didn't push her too hard but I figured it'd be better all around if you knew sooner and we got it over with."
"Yeah. How'd you know that?"
"Well... it's been a few years, but it's not like I don't know you at all," Catra explained.
Glimmer nodded slowly. "Well. I won't thank you. But. I'm not not thankful for that."
Catra grunted. "Yeah okay I figure that's as good as I'll get."
"And I agree with the whole trying to be civil thing. Talking to you right now is so extremely confusing but I think we can at least be in the same room together. At the very least we should try."
"Okay good. Cool. Then you think we can both manage do another round and not shoot each other endlessly?"
"Well the real reason that I wanted to go do laser tag was so that I could shoot all of you and not feel bad about it," Glimmer sighed. "But...we can sure try," Glimmer said, cracking a small smile.
Outside the bathroom, Adora, Bow, and Scorpia were sitting at a table waiting for their friends. Scorpia kept looking over towards the bathroom every few seconds.
"Hey, I'm sure they're fine," Adora said, trying to assure the girl. To be honest, for all Adora knew they were beating each other up in there, but she was trying to hold out hope and trust Catra.
Scorpia looked back at her. "Yeah I hope so. They just haven't interacted this much in years."
"Yeah maybe we're pushing them too quickly?" Bow mused. "I just wanted everyone to have fun and love each other but I'm not sure it was such a good idea in hindsight."
"Hey don't say that," Adora said. "It was a great idea! Laser tag on a day off? I mean, I really want us all to be able to hang out like this normally and this is as good a time to start as any."
"That's true," Scorpia agreed before frowning. "I mean...I don't mean to, like, insert myself into your business or anything. Sorry."
"Girl, don't apologize. You're part of the squad now," Bow said encouragingly.
Scorpia smiled to herself. "You sure? I only just met you guys. Well you at least, Bow. Adora and I...well...we've met."
"That doesn't mean you can't be part of the group! We're not some exclusive squad, dude. And we're pretty unconditional once you're in!" Bow explained.
"Yeah, Scorpia," Adora added. "Literally anytime you want to hang out all together just let one of us know. You're cool. And apparently you saved Bow's dad's life."
"Yeah I guess I did," Scorpia half nodded to herself.
"And to be honest," Adora looked to the bathroom briefly. "Catra won't say it, but she...she really misses hanging out with you."
Scorpia frowned. "She does? I mean I'm the one who needed to take a break, but it's good to hear that she's...not mad or anything."
"She's not. She talks about you a lot."
Scorpia perked up at this. "Good things? Or like...embarrassing things? Oh gosh, she has so much dirt on me. Did she show you the picture with me and the pony?"
"The...the pony?" Adora asked, confused.
Scorpia put her hand to her mouth. "Oh. Forget I said anything. Uh. Subject change. Uh. So. Wow. It's really hot in here, they should turn up the AC!"
Adora smiled at the obvious subversion of the conversation.
"Oh wow, here we go," Bow said in a hush and the two girls looked over to see Glimmer exit the bathroom. She immediately noticed the three of them staring at her intently.
"It's nice to see you guys too," Glimmer said with a nervous laugh as she walked up to them. "Hey. Sorry if I said anything mean. To any of you. It's been a rough...week. But I'm making the solemn pledge right now to wave goodbye to Grumpy Glimmer!"
"We forgive you. You have good reason to be upset," Bow said quickly. "And also now that Grumpy Glimmer is gone...will you let me be on your team?"
"Yeah sure, what the heck," Glimmer agreed. "You'll probably make us have negative points though." Glimmer made sure to smile after she said this so they knew she wasn't being serious.
Bow chuckled. "You're probably right."
"I'm glad you're feeling better," Scorpia said, standing up and scooping Glimmer into a big hug.
"Oh man, I knew I liked her," Bow said under his breath.
Glimmer accepted the hug. "I am. I was just sitting in there and I was thinking to myself that maybe I need to try a little harder to make this work."
Glimmer and Adora locked eyes for a moment and they shared a knowing look. Glimmer nodded slightly to Adora, and she smiled back.
"You ready to get your butt kicked again?" Adora asked her foster sister.
"Ha! I think we all know who's butt will be kicked," Glimmer fired back.
"Are we trash-talking without me?" Catra asked as she walked up to the group.
"Yeah we were just saying how blue team is gonna destroy red team in this next round," Scorpia said with a big grin on her face.
"Oh yeah? We'll see about that," Catra replied cockily.
"I wanna switch my Ravioli vest over to blue!" Bow shouted as he took off towards the dark room.
"There's a Ravioli? I really missed out," Scorpia said disappointedly as she followed after Bow.
Glimmer walked with Scorpia over to the room and Catra and Adora fell behind them.
"Hey, what did you say to her?" Adora asked Catra incredulously.
Catra shot her a sly look. "I don't know. What happens in the laser tag bathroom stays in the laser tag bathroom."
"I hate you," Adora said, pulling Catra a little closer to her as they walked. "Thank you."
Adora squeezed Catra's hand as they walked into the dark room and Catra squeezed it back.
Laser tag chapter has been something I've wanted to do since probably starting this fic. And now I've finally done it! And you just know Catra would own at laser tag. You just know it. Also I've been thinking up some plans on where I want the story to go and we're coming up on a big point in the story and I'll update you probably next chapter and let you know what I'm thinking. What a fun story to write. And hopefully it's fun to read! I love the comments and the support! Also I put a fish name in there that one of you suggested in the comments because I liked it :)
But in the end I couldn't resist Beefers. I just couldn't. But thanks for reading! And I hope you all stay very very safe and happy. See you next week!