Adora tossed and turned in her bed for several hours that night, broken figurine pieces clutched in her fist. When she couldn't take it anymore, when the fury reached its peak and she couldn't lay still, she rose from her cot and snuck down the hall to the captain's quarters. The figurines were replaceable but her respect for Stone was not.
It was time for payback.
Lying awake in the cot, Adora had allowed herself to fantasize about various avenues of revenge. As she crept closer to the door at the end of the hall, she was unsure which method would be most satisfying. Shaking off her doubt, she figured she could allow herself to choose in the moment. Adora smirked to herself and suppressed a giggle; she was feeling very mischievous, very Parent Trap.
For a moment, Adora's breath caught at the thought of someone spotting her, especially Scorpia, her newest friend and comrade. Would Scorpia try to stop her? Adora felt as though this was something that could not be stopped; this was an unstoppable force against an immovable object.
To Adora's relief, the door to the cadet captain's quarters was unlocked. She very, very slowly turned the knob, her heart pounding in her chest. The knob gave way without so much as a noise, but when she began pushing in the door, the hinges creaked ominously. She froze, listening. She could hear breathing from inside, slow, methodical breathing. Stone was asleep.
Holding her own breath, Adora pushed on the door once more. It creaked again, but softly. She kept pushing, listening for any changes in the breath inside the room. There were none. Eventually, she made a big enough gap to slip through and into the dark room, even darker than the cavernous room she had left.
It took a moment for her eyes to adjust. A slice of moonlight cut through the window at the head of the cot and aided in her sight. The room was nothing special; neither was the cot in which Stone slept; it was standard-issue. The best thing about the "suite" was the private, attached bathroom. Adora stood at the foot of the bed and looked down at the cadet captain, mostly to ascertain that Stone was indeed asleep. Adora was afraid to look but not able to help it. Her worst fear in this moment was finding Stone's eyes open and hearing the roar that would surely follow. But they were closed, Stone was out like a light.
Asleep, she looked tame, harmless.
What a laugh.
Silently reprimanding herself for wasting time, Adora padded her way over to the bathroom on her toes. She still hadn't decided what exactly she was going to do to Stone but she knew that it had to be good. It had to cause humiliation.
The bathroom, though beige and boring like the rest of GWMA, was a treasure trove. From the shower she took a can of unscented shaving cream. In the medicine cabinet she found a pair of shears and an empty cup which she filled with water. With the shaving cream tube tucked under an arm and the shears handle-down in her back pocket, she tip-toed back into the main room and crouched next to Stone's head. If Adora looked too long at the cadet captain's peacefully sleeping face she knew she might chicken out, so Adora focused on the hair instead. During the day, Stone's hair was braided into a neat plait and tucked under her cap. Now as she slept, it spread all over her pillow, frizzy and voluminous.
Taking a deep breath to brace herself, Adora reached back and took the shears from her pocket. Suddenly nervous, she fumbled to get her fingers through the holes at the end, almost dropping them to the linoleum. Thankfully, she held them steady and opened them wide, lowering the blades so that they were straddling one of the curiously gray pieces of hair by Stone's ear. A moment passed and Adora kept still as a statue but for her pounding heart. Did she have the guts?
Closing her eyes and holding her breath, and without thinking too hard about it, she brought her thumb and index together and heard a snip ring through the room.
Adora's eyes snapped open in disbelief. She had done it! The stripe of gray hair fell ungracefully over the side of the cot and to the floor.
Stone grunted in her sleep and stilled. Adora grinned.
Emboldened, but still a little shaky, Adora chose one more chunk of hair to snip, a piece of Stone's bangs that would be much harder to hide. Dare she?
Suddenly, Stone's voice rang through her head. "I don't fucking care what it is, cadet! I told you I didn't want to see it in my barracks." Then, the sound of boots stomping down on fragile wood, small limbs snapping.
Resolved, Adora made another hasty snip and Stone's bangs were toast. Next, Adora took the shaving cream and very, very carefully drew a silly smiley face in the remaining masses of hair surrounding Stone's calm face. Finally satisfied, she then grabbed the cup of water and painstakingly positioned Stone's hand so that her long, sharp fingertips rested underwater. Adora had heard once in middle school that if you did that to your friend at a slumber party they would pee their pants. She had no evidence that this was true, not having hated anyone enough to use it in middle school, but this seemed like the best time (and person on which) to try it out.
Adora stood tall and rested her hands on her hips, surveying her handiwork. A small swoop of regret spiked in her stomach at the sight of the missing chunks of hair, but she swallowed it down. She turned to go but one last thing caught her eye - Stone's uniform hanging crisply on the door of her wardrobe. Maybe one more thing…
Adora approached the uniform, thinking fast. She was itching to make her escape but simply couldn't resist. Behind her, Stone grunted again in her sleep and Adora suddenly felt the clock ticking. She quickly removed every pin, medal, and badge from it, stripping it down to its bare essentials. Fists full of the shiny, poky things, she departed, slipping back through the gap and carefully closed the door by leaning against it, full as her hands were.
As quickly and quietly as she could, Adora made her way back to her own cot, throwing a glance over her shoulder at Scorpia's bunk. The sergeant was fast asleep.
Once at her bunk, Adora hid the pins under her pillow and slammed down on top of it, hoping against hope that no one could hear the heart beating like a drum inside her chest.
After several minutes of tense quiet, Adora found she could breathe freely again. It would seem she had gotten away with it…!
The cadets were awoken on Friday morning, not by Scorpia's usual whistle, but by the predictable roars of rage emanating from the captain's quarters.
"What happened?" asked Entrapta, rubbing at her sleepy eyes.
"I might have an idea," said Adora, trying not to smile.
"SCORPIA!" Stone bellowed, and the sergeant scurried in, closing the door shut behind her.
Adora could hear the cadets around building three giggling and whispering to one another. She allowed herself a small smile, again satisfied with a job well done.
After a few minutes, Scorpia emerged from the captain's quarters and addressed the curious hall. "Cadets, morning inspection is cancelled today. Line up and head straight out to the quad for PT."
"What's up with Stone?" Entrapta wondered aloud, lacing up her boots.
"Guess we have to wait and see," said Adora. Just then, she made eye contact with Scorpia from across the room. The sergeant was frowning.
The rest of the morning passed exquisitely Stone-free. Adora had never walked around GWMA with such buoyancy.
The bubble burst somewhat at lunch, however, when Scorpia approached Adora and Entrapta's table.
"Hello, Sergeant," said Entrapta, carefully peeling the wrapper off of her tiny cupcake. On Friday's, GWMA offered dessert with lunch.
"Adora, I know you did that thing to Catra last night," said Scorpia, her frown even reaching her forehead.
"She deserved it," said Adora. Despite her verbal confidence, that pang of regret went off again in her chest and she struggled not to let the weakness show on her face.
"What did you do, Adora?" said Entrapta, still preoccupied with the sweet treat.
"Nothing," Adora insisted, not letting herself look up at Scorpia hovering above her.
"The hair was one thing," said Scorpia, tone still deadly serious. "But I want to recover the pins. If we return them to Stone's uniform ASAP you shouldn't get in… too much trouble."
"Why would I get in trouble? I didn't do anything…" said Adora sweetly, sucking on the upside-down spoon hanging from her tongue.
"I'm serious Adora, I don't think you understand what Catra could do to you."
"What can she do?" said Adora, feeling like she was digging her own grave. "My stepdad is the commandant!"
Scorpia's expression of disappointment deepened and she sighed before returning to her own lunch table without another word. Adora grimaced and bit her lip when she realized Stone's usual chair next to Scopria was empty.
"Wait, what about hair and pins?" said Entrapta, waking Adora out of her reverie. In a low voice, Adora filled in her friend, Entrapta's eyes growing wider with every word.
"Adora," Entrapta said anxiously, biting at her nail beds. "What have you done?"
"I'm starting to wonder that myself."
Adora wasn't as confident the rest of the day. A gnawing feeling of growing dread ate her up from the inside and she could barely focus in her afternoon classes.
When she got back to her bunk later that night, the pins were gone from their hiding place under her pillow. She assumed Scorpia had found and retrieved them without her knowing. Yet another trickle of guilt and shame ran down into Adora's stomach.
Stone was absent from the Friday night inspection too.
Her weekend at home was peaceful, to say the least. She let herself be unbothered by the thought of Captain Stone or GWMA.
At dinner on Saturday, there was a special announcement: Octavia was pregnant!
At the news, Adora jumped out of her seat and ran around the table to embrace her mom. Even Hordak looked proud, though a little frightened. The commandant, frightened? For Adora's part, she tried her best not to be weirded-out about the thought of her mom and Hordak having sex, choosing to focus instead on how fun it would be to have a little baby sibling.
"Good job," she told them, nodding approvingly, both thumbs up. "Let me know if I can help with anything!"
Glimmer and Bow, too, were stoked to hear about the pregnancy on their usual weekend FaceTime later that night.
"Do you think they'll have your hair pouf or Hordak's undercut slash mullet thingy?" asked Bow immediately.
"Babies aren't born with enough hair for that, Bow," corrected Glimmer.
"Yeah I know," said Bow, "but I mean when they're older, what do you think they'll be like?"
"Finding out is the fun of it," said Adora.
"I just hope it's not the hair pouf, honestly," said Glimmer, giving Adora a side-eye even through the phone.
"Hey, you take that back!" said Adora, but she knew Glimmer was joking.
Bow was already crafting new Best Friend Squad mini-figurines for Adora. She missed both Bow and Glimmer fiercely. Sometimes she still felt twinges of regret for being so gung-ho about Hordak's career change… but there was no going back now, especially not after this recent victory against Stone.
Adora was still flying high when she returned to GWMA on Sunday night. Entrapta was also excited to hear about Octavia's pregnancy and had the perfect comment just as Adora began getting nervous about being a big sister.
"I was a bit upset when Emily was born, but now she's my best friend! I tell her everything!" Entrapta assured her sweetly. "You will have a lot of fun with your new sibling, Adora."
"Thanks, Entrapta."
Adora turned to put fresh sheets on her cot and heard boots approaching from behind. Assuming it was Scorpia, Adora turned quickly to greet her, a grin coming on. But the smile faded immediately when she found herself face-to-face with an irate Captain Stone.
The cadet captain could rarely be seen out of her quarters (besides inspections), so this random appearance at the end of Adora's cot was downright alarming. Adora's eyes flicked involuntarily to the two places on Stone's head where she had snipped off chunks of hair. The shorter strands were awkwardly bobby-pinned to the rest, the ends stubbornly sticking straight up, making Stone look more unkempt than usual. The pins were securely back on her uniform, so at least there was that.
"I know it was you," Stone said in a low, quivering voice. If Adora didn't know any better, she would have thought Stone might have been scared or nervous, but she did know better. Stone was pissed.
"No idea what you're talking about." Adora felt she had no choice but to feign innocence, but she also felt that the jig was indeed up.
"Whatever, maggot," said Stone, holding up a slip of paper with a smirk.
"What's this?" asked Adora, taking the paper and unfolding it with a bit of struggle.
"You're being court-martialed, cadet," said Stone gleefully. "You'll have to appear in cadet court this week. Your dear old stepdaddy will hear the verdict and decide your punishment."
"Wait, what?" said Adora. She had never heard of anything like cadet court.
"Have fun getting expelled, Collins," Stone sneered. She turned on her heel and stalked away.
"What the what?" said Adora, bewildered. She turned to Entrapta for explanation.
"Oh, that's bad," said Entrapta. "That's really bad. I've only known one other cadet to be court-martialed."
"All this for pulling a prank?" said Adora, taken aback.
"You pulled a prank on a cadet captain," explained Entrapta. "That's no small matter."
Adora swallowed. What had she done?
"Court-martialed?" asked Octavia. Adora had called her mother the next morning, feeling like she had no choice but to finally clue Octavia in to what she had done. It was either that or have her find out when Hordak tells her that he has to punish her daughter for pranking a senior officer.
"That sounds really bad, Adora," said Octavia. Adora could almost feel her perfected side-eye through the phone. Half glass, half real.
"It's run by the cadets, so not as intimidating as you'd think." Adora hoped she was right.
"And then Hordak has to decide your punishment if you are guilty of… insubordination or whatever you said?"
"Yeah," said Adora, deflating.
"That puts your stepfather in such a difficult position."
"I know…"
"You don't usually act so rashly honey. I… don't know what to say."
Stung, Adora abruptly ended the call. "I'll let you know how it goes." She hung up before Octavia could get another word out.
The cadet court to try Adora for her crimes was scheduled for that Thursday evening. All of building three was in attendance and Huntara Crimson, the senior who was the captain of the armed drill team, presided as the main judge. The rest of the panel consisted of upper class Cadet Captains. So, not intimidating in the least...
Both Stone and Adora were allowed to have one extra student at their table to help present their cases. Naturally, Adora chose Entrapta and Stone chose Scorpia. Adora stayed up for hours after inspection the night before researching military school court martials and how often the defendants were absolved of their crimes. Spoiler alert: they were found guilty more often than not.
Adora and Entrapta got there early, primarily out of nerves, and when Stone stalked in right at the scheduled time, she gave Adora the biggest malicious grin Adora had ever seen. Oh boy, was she in trouble.
The only person who was not allowed to be in attendance was Hordak, lest he influence the court's decision.
When it was Stone's turn for opening remarks, she glanced gleefully over at Adora, bi-colored eyes glinting across the room. It was clear that she was going to milk this for all it was worth, and she didn't disappoint. Stone's opening remarks quickly turned into a list of Adora's crimes, going point-for-point through the student handbook she had brought in with her.
"Section 101.2: failure to maintain orderly quarters. Section 103.4: violation of uniform dress code. Section 102.2: insubordination. Section-"
"Cadet Captain Stone," interrupted Captain Crimson. "Are we skipping straight to the prosecution's remarks?
"I'm not one to waste time," Stone sniffed, opening the manual again to continue. "May I?"
Crimson looked as though she wanted to roll her eyes, but she merely tightened her lips and nodded for Stone to proceed.
This beratement continued for another ten minutes. Adora found herself zoning out, but tried her best to concentrate - this was about her, after all.
When Stone finally stopped talking, she snapped the handbook shut and took her seat after throwing Crimson a, "That's all, Captain."
"All right, Cadet Collins. I guess we are skipping right to your defense."
Adora stood tall, shooting a glare to the openly gloating Captain Stone. "Captain Stone has used her power and authority to bully and verbally harass me since the minute I stepped on campus. That has continued every day until now. Not only that, but she destroyed my personal property."
"Collins, do you have the evidence of these being rules broken as stated in the student handbook?"
Adora froze. Shit.
"I do not, ma'am."
"I see," said Crimson, looking displeased. "On top of the lack of evidence for these claims, Captain Stone is not on trial, you are."
Adora dropped her head in shame. "Yes, ma'am."
"Do you have any reason for us not to take Captain Stone's accusations at face value?"
"No, ma'am."
"Well then, this concludes the proceedings, deliberations will begin immediately," said Crimson, banging her gavel. The sound made Adora flinch. She looked over at Stone again and upon seeing the Cadet Captain gleefully picking her teeth with those claw-like fingernails, feet up leisurely on the table, Adora found herself stalking over to the table she shared with Scorpia.
"You didn't even give me the chance to say sorry," said Adora at her approach. The cadets in attendance had begun to chatter as the panel deliberated, and Adora could safely address Stone under the din without being overheard. "We could have skipped all of this."
"Apology not accepted," spat Stone, removing her feet from the table so she could lean closer. "The shaving cream and putting my fingers in water were laughable. But cutting my hair? Stealing my pins? You messed with the wrong cadet captain."
"You destroyed my figurines," retorted Adora, seething. "So we're even."
Before Stone could reply, Captain Crimson banged the gavel once again, asking for order. Adora returned to her seat next to Entrapta, heat rising in her cheeks from her anger.
"After a brief deliberation, we find the defendant guilty," Crimson banged the gavel once more. "The cadet will report to the commandant's office immediately for sentencing."
Adora exhaled sharply. Though not wholly unexpected, the verdict still stung. Entrapta was trying to say something, make Adora feel better but Adora could not hear it. What a mess.
Stone's gloating expression as Adora left the courtroom was bad enough, now she had to face Hordak too.
"Sit," commanded Hordak when she entered his office. He held out his hand for the panel's file that she had brought from the court martial. He took a seat at his desk, flipping through the verdict. Adora was silent, waiting for the blow-up.
"Insubordination?" he asked after a time, closing the file and throwing it on the desk between them.
"It was retaliation, Sir," started Adora. "If Stone hadn't-"
"I don't care what Captain Stone did, she is your commanding officer. You should not have done anything to her."
"It was a harmless prank?" It came out as a question, even Adora knew this wouldn't get her out of punishment.
"Your hearing records give a detailed report of the incident, including the cutting of hair and stealing of uniform accessories. Is this true?"
"Well… yeah. But she destroyed my personal property! The pins got returned and the hair will grow back… eventually."
Hordak sighed heavily, running a hand through his white hair.
"You know how difficult of a position this puts me in. I have to give you a punishment."
"Hope you don't go too easy on me," said Adora in an effort to keep the conversation light.
"I just expected better of you, Adora." He met her gaze steadily and she felt compelled to look away from its intensity. Another pause as he studied her.
"I think I know the perfect punishment. I'm sentencing you to the drill team."
"Don't you have to try out for the drill team?" Adora asked, confused.
"Yes, you do. I am not putting you on the team. You will be their equipment manager. You'll polish their belts, shine their shoes, and clean their rifles."
In other words, she would be their errand girl.
"Okay," said Adora, accepting defeat. Hordak looked surprised that she hadn't tried to argue again.
She couldn't tell him this, but the real punishment wasn't going to be the manual labor… it was going to be having to spend even more time with Captain Stone.