The Monday after spring break Catra was not at morning inspection. Instead, Scorpia ran the show. The sergeant seemed to have had prior knowledge of this, as she took it all in stride.

"I wonder where Captain Stone is," said Entrapta.

"Don't know, don't care," sniffed Adora. Her cheek still ached from yesterday's slap.

"Maybe she thought she'd give Sergeant Garnet practice for next year."

"I doubt she's that nice."

"I thought you were starting to be friends with her," said Entrapta. This observation was a little more emotionally intelligent of her than Adora was used to. Perhaps all those notes on human behavior were helping after all.

But by Monday night Adora couldn't help but to care just a little. Catra still hadn't shown - not at meal times, in building three, or anywhere on campus as far as she could tell. Scorpia seemed to enjoy evening inspection so much that Adora couldn't begrudge her the chance to show some leadership in Catra's absence. And she had to admit that Scorpia, although still displaying the standards of GWMA, was slightly more lenient than Catra. That is, Scorpia didn't pick on cadets for the fun of it.

That night between evening inspection and lights out, Adora asked Scorpia about Catra's absence.

"Oh, she just said she needed a break," said Scorpia, eyes wide and bright. "I was happy to oblige. That's what friends do, after all."

"Did she seem okay when you talked to her?"

"Talk to her? Oh, she just left me a note. She said I was to take over inspections and drills until she was feeling ready to come back. She is even letting me stay in the captain's quarters, to prepare me for when I take over my own barracks as cadet captain next year, I expect. She is just the coolest, nicest friend."

"Wait, you're going to become a cadet captain?" said Adora, feeling as though she had been so wrapped up in her blossoming friendship with Catra that she was out of the loop for everything else.

"Yes, didn't you hear?" Scorpia said self-consciously. "It isn't really a big deal."

"Of course it's a big deal!" said Adora, bouncing forward to hug the tall, muscular frame of the soon-to-be cadet captain. "Which means you'll be leaving building three and me?"

Scorpia squeezed Adora tighter in their hug. "Maybe you can transfer to my barracks next year."

Adora's gut response would have been something to do with not being able to leave Catra… but then a bruised cheek served as a reminder for reason. Before spring break she would have said, "maybe…"

But "that would be awesome," is what Adora said instead.

There was no sign of Catra almost all day Tuesday as well. Adora caught herself worrying over whether Shadow Weaver had just decided to withdraw Catra from GWMA early, then had to berate herself for devoting so much mental energy to a person who would never be able to be a decent person.

But any worries about Catra's withdrawal were dispelled when the cadet captain showed up for the first drill team practice after spring break. Adora had to restrain herself from approaching Catra. She didn't even care about their duel anymore; it could crash and burn for all Adora cared.

For her part, Catra kept to herself, only talking when spoken to and avoiding everyone's gaze, especially Adora's. After practice, on her way out of the locker room, Adora and Catra caught each other at the door. Again, no words were exchanged but it was with relish that Adora saw Catra's eyes flicker to Adora's cheek before pushing past her and into the locker room.

So, Catra was still alive and still at GWMA, but several things bothered Adora despite herself. Like, where was Catra sleeping if not in building three? Where was she eating meals if not at the mess hall? Was she even going to classes, or just drill team practice? And why was the cadet captain still so much on Adora's mind?

And so the weeks went on in that fashion: Adora trying not to think about what Catra was up to and failing, and Catra just being… absent. Like a ghost, she haunted GWMA for Adora, she was everywhere and nowhere; the mess hall, the gym, the goddamn obstacle course.

Adora would have gladly just forgotten about the unarmed duel but Huntara would not let her. After drill team practice at the beginning of April, she called for Adora and Catra to show her the move set they had been working on.

There was no need to admit they had not practiced since before spring break. They waited for the rest of the team milling about to exit the gym and when the time came, Adora and Catra executed the unarmed duel with the same amount of precision they had back when they had practiced regularly. Adora would never confess that she had obsessively practiced over spring break.

Huntara was mildly impressed.

"I'm just glad you two actually could work together long enough to get something together," said Huntara candidly.

Neither Adora or Catra said anything, nor did they look at each other.

"The only thing I would change," said Huntara, stepping toward them, "is the ending. It's too jerky and needs to be more slick."

The drill captain was met with silence which she took as an open invitation for suggestion.

"You are already facing each other when you come to this move." She mimicked their second-to-last pose. "It seems counter-productive to completely about-face and end yards away from each other."

Huntara grabbed Adora's forearm. "Why don't you finish here, Collins." Then Catra, too, was pushed into place like a life-sized doll. "And Stone, here."

Now Adora and Catra were facing each other from a foot away. Huntara had positioned their arms and legs into different tableaus. Adora held her breath and made sure to look anywhere but at Catra as Huntara stepped back to examine her work.

"Yeah, that will do nicely," she said, nodding. "What do you two think?"

But instead of answering, Catra promptly turned on her heel and, grabbing her backpack on the way out, exited the gym.

"I'll assume that means she likes it," said Huntara, unfazed.

It was only then that Adora let out the breath she'd been holding.

"Hey, you've reached Micah Collins. Can't talk right now but leave me a message after the ABRA KADABRA."

BEEP.

"Hey, Dad," said Adora, disappointed she'd gotten his voicemail. "I heard your tour is over next week… not sure where you'll be, but there's a competition I'll be performing in for GWMA's drill team and I'd love it if you could come."

She finished the voicemail with details on the competition: the date, time and venue.

"I really hope to see you there… but no worries if you can't come." She felt that nothing could disappoint her anymore. "Okay, love you, Dad. Bye."

She got a response text two hours later:

Daddy 3:31pm

Wouldn't miss it for the world, baby girl.

The last Saturday before the competition, Huntara subjected the drill team to a six-hour super-practice.

First, they went through the Inspection Phase questions. These were military-related questions that all the cadets around the country should know, such as, "Who is the commander in chief of the US military?" (The answer is the president of the United States.)

Adora totally understood why Huntara wanted to make sure they could pass the phase without any issue. It should technically be the easiest of the phases. All the cadets had to know the answers to all the questions because they didn't know which they would be asked during the competition. Adora had been working on her flashcards with Entrapta all week.

They worked on the Inspection Phase questions for a couple of hours. If one person got a question wrong, the entire team had to do push ups. It was at least a good warmup for the Exhibition and by all accounts the correct answers were easier to remember when Huntara shouted them at the team over and over as they did push ups.

After a quick break, they went into the Exhibition Phase. Adora felt they were doing very strongly here but Huntara had other ideas. She had them run one segment at a time, over and over and over again. If even one hair was out of place or someone shouldered their rifle a millisecond behind the rest of the team, Huntara would make them do that move 20 times over and over until they got it right. It was the most intense and harrowing practice session Adora had ever been a part of. It took them two hours to get all the way through the move set. They got a 15-minute lunch break to scarf down food that Entrapta delivered from the mess hall, then they ran the whole Exhibition three more times without stopping.

By the time that was over, Catra and Adora were bid to show the rest of the team their unarmed duel for the first time. Weak as she was from the intense morning practice, Adora was afraid she was not going to be able to even raise her arms in a salute. Sweat soaked her uniform through and her arms were jelly.

She had avoided eye contact with Catra all day, but as they took their positions for the duel, Adora found she could no longer avoid a close look at the cadet captain. There were dark circles under Catra's eyes; it looked like she hadn't slept in days, maybe weeks. She was skinnier and her skin more sallow. Was she eating? Adora wondered.

Huntara gave them a nod to start and off they went, falling easily into their predetermined move set. Adora felt distracted and lazy, not able to stop her concern for her duel partner. When they finished, Adora could already tell that it was not their best performance.

Huntara set in immediately as the rest of the team applauded. She fixed this and changed that. She lectured Adora on her lazy footwork and Catra on her lax claps.

"It must be completely in sync," Huntara reminded them. "There's only two of you, so it should be easy."

They ran it thrice more, Adora feeling as though they were getting worse every time. Huntara seemed to agree.

"Let's take another break," she said, waving Adora and Catra off the gym floor. "We'll take 5, run the Exhibition once more, then the rest of you can go so I can work with Captain Stone and Cadet Collins."

Adora was in a toilet stall in the locker room when she heard Scorpia say, "how have ya been, Catra? Feel like I haven't seen you."

"Yeah, that's kinda been on purpose," came Catra's usual snarky reply. Her voice was more hoarse than usual and definitely sounded tired.

"I don't want to pry but… I did see you coming out of the isolation cabin…"

"What of it?"

"Did you do something to get in trouble?"

"It's self-containment actually," said Catra and Adora wasn't sure if that was the truth. Was this Shadow Weaver's doing? Had Catra been demoted?

"I remember you said your mom came to campus the other day-" Scorpia began, mind on the same track as Adora's.

"I don't want to talk about that bitch," said Catra. "We'd better get back out there. Shadow Weaver said if we lose the competition she's pulling me from GWMA."

Catra laughed bitterly but Scorpia gasped. "No!"

"Yep," said Catra. "So I'm basically signing my own death sentence by being on the team at all. Getting the Cadet Captain role didn't even help. Nothing will please her but perfection."

"Catra, I'm so sorry," said Scorpia, sounding close to tears.

"Whatever. Nothing anyone can do about it anyway."

And there was the closing of a door as Catra exited the locker room. Adora waited until she knew Scorpia had also left before emerging from the stall. Adora made eye contact with her reflection in the mirror as she washed her hands, taken aback once again that any mother could be so mean.

For a moment, Adora almost felt bad for Catra again. But then everything Catra had done and said to her throughout the academic year came flooding back. Every "maggot," every push and slap. The cycle of abuse was continuing, everything Shadow Weaver had done to Catra, she had done to Adora. Adora shook her head. Being a victim of abuse did not excuse Catra from being a terrible person.

Adora doubted that Catra had it in her to be anything but selfish. Maybe it would be better for both of them if Catra was withdrawn from GWMA all together.