Come December, Adora could finally see Bow and Glimmer in person, not just on a phone screen. She invited them over the first weekend of Christmas break and what a glorious reunion it was. Bow, with an impressive amount of muscle mass, as ever, bodily picked Adora up in a hug and spun her in circles, almost crying from happiness. Glimmer waited her turn, watching from the sidelines, and when Bow finally let Adora down, wrapped Adora into her own fairy hug, the top of her head coming to just below Adora's chin.
"Oh my god, I've missed hugs," said Adora, sighing happily into Glimmer's hair. "I've been hardcore touched-starved at military school."
"What, they don't believe in hugs there either?" said Glimmer, pulling away.
"No, just salutes," said Adora, and then laughed as Bow snapped to a mock attention, saluting to her as flamboyantly as he could muster.
"I've missed you guys," said Adora, punching Bow in the gut lightly. He was wearing a crop top sweater and it was just too tempting. (Yes, a crop top sweater, you read that right.)
Once they had settled onto the couches in the finished basement and had plenty of snacks in their midst, they opened presents. Glimmer had gotten Adora a new leather jacket in her favorite maroon color (she had worn the same beat-up one for years and desperately needed a change). Bow on the other hand had made her a fresh set of the mini-figurines in their likenesses. This one made her tear up; she didn't realize how much she had missed these little guys.
After the gift exchange, they went about catching up. There were some juicy items of gossip from Bright Moon Public that she was mostly glad that she missed, like Mermista and Sea Hawk breaking up and getting back together for the 5th time or Perfuma starting a meditation club that no one attended, which sent her into a fury.
"But what's up with you, Adora?" asked Glimmer. "It has seemed like whenever we FaceTimed you, you weren't really telling us everything."
"Yeah, how's it been?" Bow asked, stuffing a Hostess cake into his mouth.
Adora looked down at her newly crafted Best Friend Squad mini-figurines, thinking of Stone. There was no way she was going to be able to keep all that drama a secret from her best friends forever, but something about the whole thing made her feel ashamed for some reason. She had hesitated spelling it out to Bow and Glimmer, afraid that talking about her feelings about the whole Stone situation would implicate something that she didn't really want to think about. But this was as good a time as any; she wouldn't see Stone again for weeks, not until after break, and maybe by then her weird obsession with the cadet captain will have abated.
"Yeah, it's been interesting," said Adora.
"I think that goes without saying," said Glimmer, exchanging a glance with Bow. Although they were the Best Friend Squad, Adora sometimes felt on the outside when it came to the two of them. They had been neighbors growing up and had always been friends. Adora hadn't come into the picture until seventh grade, when they had been already fully established as BFFs. She'd never felt explicitly left out by them but she had always felt that they could read each other's minds in a way that Adora could never replicate with them.
"Yeah, so I told you about Entrapta," started Adora, wondering how to bring up Stone.
"Uh-huh," said Bow, nodding.
"And Scorpia."
"Yes…?" said Glimmer, raising her eyebrows impatiently.
"And I might have mentioned my cadet captain, right?"
"You said she was pretty strict, I think that's it," said Bow, pulling a blanket up to his shoulders, settling in for what he knew was to be a long story.
"Yeah, well that's an understatement," said Adora, and then launched into the full, detailed story of her semester-long antagonism with Catra Stone. From the obstacle course fiasco to the dance, the smashing of the figurines, hair cutting and subsequent court martial. The longer Adora talked, the more her friends' faces morphed into surprise and anger.
"You said you lost the figurines in the move, I didn't realize a sadistic captain smashed them up!" said Bow, shocked.
"Why didn't you tell us about all this before?" asked Glimmer, who had her 'concerned face' on.
"I was embarrassed. I hoped that I could get it handled before it became a big deal."
"That sounds harrowing, Adora!" said Bow. "We could have been emotional support!"
"Yeah…" said Adora. She wasn't good at asking for help.
"So now you have to literally clean her boots because she's an asshole and goaded you into getting back at her for targeting you?" Glimmer was furious.
"Well thankfully not anymore. The punishment was only until the end of the semester."
"Can't you transfer to another barracks or something?" said Bow. "Surely there are other captains who actually have respect for their cadets."
Adora had never thought about that. Running away had never been an option for her.
"No, I can handle it. She seemed to lay off me as the semester went on. Maybe she'll have gotten over whatever problem she had with me when we get back."
"Or maybe she comes back with a whole new plan to make your life miserable!"
"Won't know until spring semester starts, I guess," said Adora, changing the subject. She decided against telling them she wanted to try out for the drill team. Their comments about the drill team from the beginning of the year were ringing in her ear. Apparently she couldn't stop keeping secrets from her best friends.
By January, Adora was itching to start training for drill team try-outs. She wanted to start over the break but she didn't want to ask Hordak for help, nor did she want him to know that she was seriously considering trying out. His reaction when she had mentioned the prospect was still replaying in her mind; dropping his eyes and going silent. She didn't want him to know about her aspirations until she could say she was actually on the team. Instead, she had to wait until school resumed so she could look elsewhere for a coach.
At breakfast on the first Monday back from break, she cornered Scorpia by the juice bar.
"Hey, have a good break?" Adora said, blocking Scorpia's exit.
"Hi Adora! Break was good, glad to be back."
When Adora didn't move, Scorpia raised her eyebrows and chuckled nervously. "Want to find a place to sit...?"
"First, I have a favor to ask of you."
"Okay…"
"I want to try out for the drill team."
"Oh?" said Scorpia, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, a full tray of food held awkwardly at her chest. "Go for it!"
"Thanks… I have a problem though. I have no idea how to train for it. I don't even know where to start."
"Are you sure we shouldn't sit-?"
"I wondered if I could somehow bribe you to be my coach."
"Bribe?"
"What do you want? I'll give you anything. My friend Bow makes all kinds of artsy-craftsy things, I can get him to make you something. A ceramic mug, a pair of earrings?"
"I don't think…"
"Or, you know what? I have a $50 gift card to Maggiano's! You could take Catra and make a friend-date of it," said Adora, desperately scrabbling for something that would make Scorpia say yes.
This one made the sergeant pause. "Friend-date? Catra has been distant lately. I wonder if that would help get her out of her head."
"See? That sounds like the perfect thing! A nice dinner with Catra!"
Adora truly couldn't think of anything worse but she knew that Scorpia's loyalty to Stone and desperation to make the cadet captain happy would trump all.
"I'm just asking for a few nights of coaching this week before try-outs next Wednesday," said Adora, talking fast, not wanting to lose Scorpia now that she'd hooked her.
"Well, okay," conceded Scorpia. "When do you want to start?"
"Yay!" Adora gave her a quick hug before finally leading her to a table to hammer out the details.
Adora and Scorpia met in the gym that night after dinner. Scorpia brought two white rifles with her from the equipment room. Adora had the gift card ready for her. Scorpia slipped it in her pocket carefully, turning slightly red.
Scorpia's training started off with how to hold and position the rifle, both in-hand and on-shoulder. This came pretty naturally to Adora. She didn't mention that when she was the equipment manager last semester she had tried standing with a rifle a few times in the locker room after practice when no one was around.
Then Adora learned the directions in which the rifle needed to be faced and when to turn it in-hand. Next, Scorpia showed her the proper ways to walk with the rifle, either keeping it stationary in-hand or striking the ground with the butt every other step. All of this was fairly simple and straightforward in Adora's opinion and she felt like she was picking it all up really quickly. Even spinning it behind her back came effortlessly.
She was feeling good, that is, until they got to the stylistic throwing and catching of the rifle. Adora had been under the impression that she was reasonably coordinated but it turned out that catching a large, spinning rifle out of the air with skill and poise was way harder than she'd assumed. Watching the drill team had given her a false sense of confidence by making it look so easy. Over and over again Adora threw the rifle up and either missed the catch entirely or misplaced her grip and watched it slip out of her hands. Over and over it hit the ground of the gym with a resounding crash. Over and over Adora bent over to pick it up, frustrated, Scorpia beside her and flowering her with encouragement.
"This sucks," said Adora after several straight-up misses.
"It's a new sensation," said Scorpia, trying to make her feel better. "You'll get the hang of it!"
"Maybe we should call it for tonight."
"You got it, boss."
Adora had to wait until Scorpia had another free night on Thursday for more coaching sessions. In the meantime, she snuck into the gym as many times a day as she could, even skipping a few meal times in order to practice. She had to get this down. She could never face Stone, Hordak, or even Scorpia if she failed in this. It was just not an option.
One evening when she was alone in the gym, she heard the door open and turned to find Stone entering. Adora did her best to hide the long rifle behind her back but Stone had already seen. Besides barrack inspections, during which Stone had stopped zeroing in on Adora to the point of ignoring her completely, the two hadn't really come face-to-face since last semester.
"What are you doing in here all alone?" asked Stone suspiciously, crossing her arms and approaching Adora.
"I could ask you the same thing, ma'am," said Adora, as sweetly as she dared.
Stone narrowed her eyes but didn't take the bait for once. "I hope you're not thinking of trying out for the drill team."
"Whatever gave you that idea, ma'am?"
"You're holding a rifle behind your back, idiot."
"Maybe I saw how poorly the team was doing and thought I could spruce it up a bit."
"I'm not in the mood for your snark, Collins. Get out of here, I'm done with you."
"Yes, ma'am!" said Adora, who also wasn't in the mood to argue.
"Give me that," said Stone, ripping the rifle out of Adora's hands. Without another word, Adora exited the gym, feeling Stone's eyes on her back the whole way.
Adora persuaded Entrapta to come hang out during the next training session with Scorpia, determined to make them into the Super Pal Trio. It obviously wouldn't be on par with the Best Friend Squad but it meant she was trying to dig into the culture at GWMA, as if trying out for the drill team wasn't enough of a submersion.
"Wow, you're really good," said Entrapta once they'd started.
"Thanks," said Adora, stowing the rifle on her shoulder. "But you haven't seen me throw yet."
At first it started off the same way as before, many drops and frustrated grunts from Adora. Why couldn't she do this?
"I have a suggestion, if I may," said Entrapta, coming over after a particularly nasty drop.
"Sure, I'll take any advice at this point," said Adora. She tried handing the rifle to Entrapta, thinking she would show off a technique, but Entrapta ignored the rifle, instead coming to stand next to Adora.
"If you think about the three laws of aerodynamics, you might have an easier time." Scorpia and Adora exchanged a look, wondering where this was going.
"The first law states that every object in motion will remain in motion unless an external force stops the object. Think about that external object as your hand, I'm sure you understand that."
Adora nodded, still not sure what her point was.
"The second law, and this is where it gets interesting, is that the more mass that is in an object, the more force will be required to change its speed and/or direction. And then the third law states that slowing or stopping a moving object requires the application of an equal, opposite force."
"Thanks for the lesson," said Adora, "but I don't see how this is helpful."
"In short, I think the main issue here is that you are not putting the same amount of force into stopping the moving object as you are into beginning the movement."
"Which means…?" said Scorpia, struggling to put it together.
"When you try to catch the rifle you are exerting too much force on it, which propels it away from your hand and into an opposing rotation."
"So you're just saying that I should be more gentle about it," said Adora. It was such an Entrapta thing to over-explain a simple statement but she appreciated the advice all the same. "I'll try that, thanks Entrapta."
"You're welcome!" she said brightly, and scuttled back to her seat against the wall.
"She could be right. I was at a loss anyway!" Scorpia said, shrugging. "Try it!"
After taking a deep breath, Adora tossed the rifle into the air. Taking great care to hold back her enthusiasm at the catch, she reached out and, to her astonishment, snagged the rifle out of midair without further incident. Both her and Scorpia stared at the rifle that was now safely back in Adora's hand for a moment before both bursting into cheers. Even Entrapta put down her pen to clap for Adora.
Maybe this was going to work out for her after all.
Instead of going home that weekend, Adora spent a couple of hours in the gym both Saturday and Sunday to perfect her toss-and-catch technique. She hoped this would be enough to wow Huntara come try-outs on Wednesday.
Adora also found she had to duck and hide from Stone over the weekend more than was decent. Adora realized this was one of the first weekends she hadn't gone home since the beginning of the school year and was surprised at how much she ran into the cadet captain. Maybe the fact that the Stone never got a break from GWMA was the reason she was so rotten all the time. Thankfully, the weekend, too, passed without incident.
Monday morning after inspection, Scorpia approached Adora at her bunk.
"Are you ready for Wednesday?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'm feeling pretty good about it," said Adora, pretending to flex, trying to get a laugh out of the sergeant.
"Nice, nice…" Scorpia replied, a bit distracted. "So guess what? I used that gift card you gave me on Friday night." She sounded as if she had been bursting to tell someone about it.
"Oh really?" said Adora, her stomach inexplicably dropping. "Did you take Catra?"
"I did, yeah!"
"How did that go?"
"Oh, it was great. Catra left right after finishing her entrée but before that we had an amazing time!"
"She left early?"
"Yeah, but she does things like that all the time," said Scorpia amiably, waving a hand. "I wasn't too worried about her. Any time spent with her is good time."
"If you say so," said Adora.
Wednesday evening found Adora in the hallway outside the gym lined up with a handful of other drill team hopefuls. None of the cadets spoke, nervous as they were.
When it was Adora's turn, she strode into the gym as confidently as possible, gripping the heavy plastic rifle like her life depended on it. She felt like she was back at cadet court; there was a whole panel of judges, Huntara in the middle and Stone on her right-hand side.
To Adora's chagrin, Stone burst out laughing as she took her place in front of the panel. Huntara held up a hand to quiet Stone, then said, "Whenever you're ready, cadet."
Practically blacking out due to her nerves, Adora ran through the short series of moves that Scopria had taught her, spinning the rifle behind her back, under her leg, and then for the finale throwing it up and catching it perfectly. She ended the move set with the rifle perched on her shoulder and her fingertips at her temple in a salute. She hoped the Huntara and especially Stone could not see the tremble in her salute.
"Real cheerleader stuff, Huntara. I hope you noticed the flaws in her execution," scoffed Stone. She had said it quietly enough, but the acoustics in the gym carried it all the way to Adora, who tightened her grip on her rifle, the only movement she could get away with.
"Thank you, cadet. The roster will be posted at 09:30 tomorrow morning. Dismissed."
On her way out, Adora looked back over her shoulder at the panel. Stone had been watching Adora take her leave but looked quickly away when their eyes met.
9:30 the next morning came and went. Adora was itching to go check the posted roster but all of her classes were across campus from the drill team bulletin board. She would have to wait until lunch to take a look.
It turned out that she didn't even need to wait that long. On her way to her last class before lunch, Adora ran into Scopria who, without warning, scooped her up into a big, twirling hug.
"Congrats, friend!" Scorpia said, smushing Adora's face into her bosom. "I'm so proud!"
"I take it I got onto the team," Adora said when Scorpia had returned her feet to the ground.
"Oh, you didn't know?" said Scorpia, looking guilty. "I'm so sorry! I ruined it for you. I should always lead with a spoiler alert."
"You didn't ruin it! Honestly that was the best way I could have found out. And I would not have been half as good at try-outs without you and your coaching. I owe you way more than a $50 gift card."
"Just help us get placed at a competition and I think we'll be even!"
"Deal!"
Adora spent lunch soaking up all the congratulations from her fellow cadets. Her day was made when Entrapta showed up to tell Adora that she'd be the new equipment manager for the team. The day kept getting better and better… that is, until she ran into Stone on the quad on the way to her first afternoon class.
The ever-imposing cadet captain was standing in the middle of the path, arms crossed and eyes sharp as if waiting for her prey.
"I'm starting to think everyone is living some kind of delusion except me," Stone said, purposefully blocking Adora's way down the path.
"Go on without me," Adora muttered to Entrapta. She had an inkling that she knew where this interaction was headed. Without so much as a word, Entrapta fled the scene.
"With all due respect, Captain Stone, I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Everyone at this school seems to think you're some kind of amazing superhero or something," said Stone, holding her ground. "First, Scorpia assumes you beat my obstacle course record. Then, the commandant gives you a 'punishment' that ends up making you look like a competent equipment manager. Now, Huntara is deluded into thinking you belong on the drill team. Give me a break! None of that is true and I just want someone to admit that you don't deserve special treatment just because your stepdad is the commandant. Nepotism isn't a good look, maggot."
"Sounds like you're just jealous that a newbie is performing better than you at every turn," said Adora, refusing to back down. "I did beat your course record, I was good at being an equipment manager, and I trained really hard to get onto the drill team. You're making it sound like I was handed all of these things because I was lucky or something. I wasn't, I worked hard. If anything, you were the one standing in the way and making things harder for me. So you could say that I succeeded in spite of your sabotage."
"Hey friends, what's going on?" Scorpia had arrived, which was just as well because Stone looked as though she was about to tackle Adora to the ground.
Stone ignored the interruption. "There's a reason you got court-martialed, maggot! You are a troublemaker and as your cadet captain it is my duty to make sure your head doesn't get any bigger than it already is!"
Adora, finally losing her temper, advanced on Stone, pressing her forehead against the cadet captain's. "Shut up!"
Stone slammed her palms against Adora's chest, pushing her away. Adora stumbled backwards and would have hit the ground if Scorpia hadn't scooped her meaty hands under Adora's armpits.
But before this new tussle could get any more heated, a voice rang across the quad. "Ladies, what's going on?"
It was almost like Hordak had a sixth sense for when Stone and Adora were having a tiff because there he was once again striding through the grass towards them. Scorpia helped Adora to her feet and Stone turned away, breathing heavily in anger, hands in fists clenched tightly at her side.
"Nothing, Sir," said Adora, straightening her uniform from her fall.
"That didn't look like 'nothing' to me. Captain Stone, did we not discuss this? This is now the fourth incident I have had to mitigate between you two and I grow wary of it. Something needs to change."
There was a pause as he looked between Stone and Adora, brow furrowed. Neither cadet or captain moved, waiting for the verdict. Finally, his gaze rested on Stone.
"Captain, you are set to do an unarmed solo for the spring competition, are you not?"
"Yes, Sir."
"I heard Cadet Collins made it on the team this semester. As a disciplinary action of this ridiculous ongoing feud between the two of you, I command you to team up with Cadet Collins, making the solo into a duel instead."
"Wait, what? No-" started Stone, panicked.
"I don't want to hear a word about it."
"But this was my one shot-"
"QUIET," shouted Hordak. Stone's eyes dropped to the ground and she was still. "You two need to learn to work together, otherwise this might one day reach a point where one or both of you are facing suspension or expulsion. Do I make myself clear?"
Both Adora and Stone muttered, "Yessir."
"Captain Stone, Sergeant Garnet, you are dismissed. Cadet Collins, please stay."
Stone and Scorpia took their leave, Hordak staying silent and watching their retreating backs. When they were a good distance away, Hordak turned back to Adora and put a hand on her shoulder. With a small smile he leaned down and said, "congratulations, cadet, on making the drill team. I'm glad you decided to follow in my footsteps."
From the outside the sentiment seemed like a small gesture, but for Hordak it was huge. Finally, Adora was beginning to feel like she had a purpose at GWMA. Maybe she belonged here after all.