Chapter 7 – Let's Hear It

Catra

"Catra." Her father called her as she entered the house. He was sitting in the smallest fancy couch on the living room right at an angle where he could see the door. She walked towards him slightly afraid and, at the same time, with conviction. "You didn't come home last night. I was worried." He said in a monotonous tone as his look went back to the tablet he had on his hand. Sure, he had been so worried he never even thought about texting or calling her.

"I stayed at a friend's place." She answered, a little bit of anger in her voice.

"Sit." He signaled the couch in front of the one he was sitting in and she sat down. "We both know you don't have friends." He took a cup of coffee from the table in the middle and sipped from it, as if the thing he just said was the most normal thing you say to your daughter every day and it couldn't hurt her. "But I'm willing to let it slide if you tell me you're going to start doing as I say again. A couple weeks of… 'Rebellion' should have been enough for you to see how awful the world can be without my money. I've seen pictures of that college and it is... horrible."

As she heard every word that came out of her father's mouth, her blood boiled more and more. He was such an asshole. A megalomaniac who though he was always right and only he could be the bringer of truth. She couldn't wait now to tell her what she was going to do. And so, with a smug smile on her face, she started telling him.

"Yes, I've think things through and I know what's best for me." His father took another sip of his coffee as he nodded, as if he already knew what she was going to say. "I'm dropping out of that college and those lessons." He let out a small chuckle and she was a hundred percent sure that he was internally patting himself for being so smart and able to see into the future like the god he thought he was. "I'm also leaving this house. I'll go and live with Scorpia and her girlfriend. They're more than happy to take me in." She enjoyed not only saying that, but seeing how Hordak's face contorted in anger as she kept going.

"You!" He threw his cup to the floor, yelling with anger.

The sound of the cup breaking on the floor and the loud yell startled her and she prepared herself mentally to listen to his father yelling at her again for hours and hours as she shrank in the couch more and more, as usual, but nothing else came.

Uncharacteristically, her father sat at the couch again, with a hand massaging his eyes and breathing deeply, not saying a word. She wasn't sure if that scared her more than the yelling. And that silence lasted for almost a minute, making her more uncomfortable with each second that passed. She decided to say something, but before she did, the man spoke again.

"Maybe this is what you really needed. A little bit of independence to see how harsh the world is." His tone was the calmest tone she had ever heard coming from him and she couldn't help but feel a little confused. "I assume you know I won't be giving you any money if you do this. You would have to find a job and support yourself. Are you aware?" He looked at her, a frown still on his face but his tone remaining calm.

"Yes. Scorpia's girlfriend is pretty confident she can find me a good job." Hordak nodded and hummed as an answer. After that, another silence engulfed the room for a while until the man spoke.

"Are you aware of the fact that, without you here, I have no use for Scorpia's services? She would need to find a job too. Your decision might be making things harder for her and her girlfriend. Have you thought about that?" She felt a little scared hearing how calm his father was, but she had gone through every little thing that could go wrong yesterday and she was confident on what she was about to do.

"Yes. We talked about that yesterday. She said that won't be a problem." At her answer, the man sighed and massaged his temples with one hand before he spoke again.

"You know, I found your guitar yesterday." A shiver ran through her spine as she heard that. "It was an awful piece of wood. It couldn't have costed you more than a hundred bucks." She felt suddenly very nervous as her father kept talking. "If I take that into consideration, it would have been impossible for you to spend so much money on that and the lessons. I take it you still have the money because you were planning this." He didn't ask, but it sounded as if he wanted a confirmation for his statement and she didn't know what to answer. That money was her new and only contingency plan for this new thing she was about to do. It was basically the whole reason she thought it was possible. Was he going to ask her to give it back? But she couldn't hide it. She didn't think he would find out about it and so, she never thought about an excuse.

"I have it in a different account I opened for myself." She said as her palms started to get sweaty and cold. His father just nodded.

"Well…" She tried to mentally prepare herself for the worst as he started speaking. "Keep it." Confusion overtook her mind when she heard him and she was about to answer if he was serious when he continued. "That money is the last thing you will ever get from me. From now on, I don't care if you're starving in the street, I won't be giving you any more money." On instinct, she nodded. A thought about thanking him passed through her mind, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. "Also: the only things you can take with you are your clothes and personal effects. Unfortunately, I did burnt the guitar on my rage, but you can take your keyboard. I won't have any use for it. Everything else stays." She stood up and nodded, felling as if a huge weight had been lifted off her.

"Thank you." She forced herself to say it. It was not as if her father was being actually nice, but she thought that thanking him was better than making him angry by saying something else.

"Tell Scorpia to come in, I will fire her while you start getting your things." With a nod and a hum as an answer, she went outside and walked towards the car where Scorpia was waiting. She quickly told her what had happened and she went with her back inside the mansion, separating at the entrance as she walked towards her room to get her things.

Before she started climbing the stairs, she noticed her mother standing at the top of them, looking at her the same way she had always did; with disgust.

"I heard everything." She told her as she finished climbing the stairs. "I was surprised to see he was so calm about this, but I also understand. We're not missing much if you leave." She felt a little pain in her heart and lowered her head, avoiding to see the woman that claimed to be her mother. "Good luck though. If I ever see you asking for money on the streets, I might give you a twenty." She kept walking without stopping and trying not to hear the hurtful words that came out of that woman she had grown to hate.

When she finally got to her room, she closed the door behind her and stopped there for a second, trying to fight back the tears that had started to pool on her eyes, taking deep breathes and looking up at the ceiling of what had been her room for all her life.

Once she felt a little better, she started getting her clothes out of the closet, choosing the things she was going to take, trying to make her luggage as light as possible. After all, she could remember where she was moving to and it was considerably smaller than the mansion.

As she kept taking clothes out, she felt excitement and a little bit of fear overtaking her body.

She was excited to finally be free to do what she wanted, but she was a little scared because of how her father always talked about the world and how awful some jobs could be. It would be a hard journey for her and she didn't know what was going to happen, but she really felt happy with her decision.

"Hey, I'm sorry. I knocked but you didn't answer." Scorpia came in and closed the door behind. "So, I got fired." The buff woman said and then chuckled, making her giggle in excitement again. "Do you want some help?"

After a little bit more than an hour, she was finally ready to leave. A couple of bags filled with clothes, her backpack filled with some other personal things like her toothbrush, deodorant and things like that, and the huge case she had for her keyboard were everything she would take.

"Catra." Her father called her when she was at the door, ready to go out and live her life. "If you ever want to come back, you know what you will have to do." He said authoritatively, turning his back and walking away as if the person leaving was a stranger.

She shrugged the little feeling of sadness she felt at that moment and walked out along with Scorpia, grasping that feeling of freedom again.

"Hey, so… have you ever taken a bus?" The buff woman asked her once they were outside and she looked at her with confusion only to remember that the car she had been driving all this time was his father's. She shook her head in response. "Well, there's a first time for everything, right?" The woman smiled and she did too. A smile like no other she had had on her face before. A smile that actually conveyed how happy and free she was feeling at that moment. A smile that made her realize that she could actually show her feelings to people and it felt amazing. A smile that started everything…

Adora

Today had been considerably better than yesterday. Not only was she able to have lunch, she was also able to leave at the hour she was supposed to and it was all thanks to Huntara whom, as soon as their boss left for her monthly meeting, approached her and took half of her work after telling her that she could miss a day at the gym, while Adora couldn't miss any more of her lessons.

Of course when her boss came back, she couldn't believe that the blonde had finished all that work by herself, but she couldn't prove otherwise so she was free to go as soon as her shift was done.

But now the toughest part of her day began; trying to apologize to Catra.

Would she be willing to listen to her? Would she even attend the lessons today? After all, she left early the day before and she seemed like something bad had happened to her.

Well, controlling the future was not something she could do so, shrugging those thoughts from her mind, she entered college a little early (and again, she was really thankful to her co-worker. She should buy her something or at least take her out for dinner someday).

She sat at one of the benches on the courtyard as she waited for her first lesson, smoking a cigarette and watching a few students arriving too for the evening lessons. Some of them looked at her with curiosity, obviously remembering how she had gone crazy yesterday. It kind of made her feel bad, but at the same time it didn't because she was ready to make things right.

Before her cigarette was done, her eyes landed on a figure she knew. The girl she had been waiting for. The girl that suddenly caused her stomach to turn in nervousness.

Throwing the rest of her cigarette into an ashtray, she walked quickly towards the girl with resolve, not allowing her nervousness to win. After all, the worst thing that could happen was the girl telling her she was a cunt and leaving and, just like her grandma had said, she doesn't own her any more than an apology, which would be a very quick thing to do even if the girl ran away.

"Catra." She called her name as soon as she was close to her, making the girl turn to look directly at her eyes, frowning as soon as they made contact.

"What the hell do you want, jerk?" She asked without stopping, her voice conveying a little bit of anger.

"I just wanted to talk to you and…" Before she was finished, the dark haired girl interrupted.

"And yell at me again? No, thank you." The shorter girl walked a little faster, almost running.

"Wait. It's not like that. I wanted to apologize." She was about to grab her by the shoulder to make her stop, but thought that maybe that wasn't a very bright idea.

"Apologize for what?" Catra suddenly stopped and turned to look at her, anger showing on her face. "You want to apologize because I'm such a huge jerk you had to yell at me and that made you seem like the jerk? No, thank you!" She remarked those last words, a little bit louder but without yelling.

"No, I really do want to apologize." She lowered her head a little, felling really bad again by listening how the other girl seemed to think of her. With her eyes closed, she waited for the sound of the other girl leaving, but nothing happened.

"Okay then, I'll listen to you, but let's not stand in the middle of the courtyard." As her eyes opened in surprise, she saw the girl walking towards one of the tables outside the cafeteria and she followed her, sitting at the first one they reached before she gathered the courage to start speaking again.

"Thank you, for listening to me." The rich girl nodded, a frown still on her face, and she kept going. "I don't want to give you an excuse for how I acted yesterday but, I was really stressed and, I don't know, it just… I couldn't… I know I messed up bad. I made you feel bad and I could see you were going through something too. There's no excuse that can make you think better of me, but I wanted to at least apologize. I took it out on you and you didn't deserve it. You're right when you say I'm the jerk." While she spoke, she was incapable of looking at the girl in front of her, but once she was done, she turned to face her and was surprised to see she was looking at the table with a faint blush on her face.

"You know, I…" Catra started speaking with hesitation, as if she was not sure of what to say. "I'm kind of a jerk too… I'm not really used to… interacting with people so… I can be a little… rough…" A smile appeared in her face and her worry dissipated when she heard that. It seemed as if the girl was really not the kind of person she had thought her to be. Sure, as she said, she was a little rough, but not a real jerk (and she knew about jerks thanks to her boss).

"That's okay. I mean, we all have boundaries and we are allowed to get mad at someone when they don't respect them so, I don't think you're really a jerk." The dark haired girl smiled shyly at her and she might be going crazy because that little smile was the cutest thing she had ever seen.

"I get it. Besides, we all have bad days sometimes." She giggled lightly at her comment.

For a couple of seconds, they sat there in silence and she didn't feel nervous nor embarrassed or any negative thing. She solved that little issue and, in the process, she might have even made a friend.

Her grandma was right. She shouldn't have worried too much.

And that was chapter 7!

Things are finally moving forward in this relationship! But... how is it going to work now with Catra dropping out of college? That's a question to be answered in the future!

I hope you're liking it so far!

Anyway; See you next week for chapter 8!

Also: I wrote this chapter while listening to "Chrome Division" and the title comes from their song, "Let's hear it".