"I still don't know why people complain about the food they serve at schools," Astra commented, stabbing a piece of chicken with her fork. "This stuff's great!"

Lily poked at her peas, making sure to separate them fully from her mashed potato. "It's not bad," She agreed. "Doesn't beat a home-cooked meal though." She smiled, remembering her mother's casseroles. Oh, how she missed them.

"Gods, yeah," Cobalt looked wistful. "Yatsuhashi made the most amazing quiches and Fox could make the best Vacuan crab."

Astra wrinkled her nose. "Gross."

"It's not actually that bad," Luna piped up. "I had it once when I slept over there as a kid."

"It's nice that you two have been friends for so long." Lily tried not to let her slight jealousy show.

Cobalt offered her a smile. "Well hey, hopefully in a decade or so, we'll have been friends with you for a long time, too."

Okay, that made Lily feel better. Sometimes it was still hard to believe that her team really did care about her; that they actually did want to be her friend and seemed to have to intentions of stabbing her in the back. It was nice.

"What's this? Team LLAC are actually sitting together?"

Lily's good mood vanished instantly, lifting her head to see Rowan Coldstone and Birch Aster of Team SRBY staring her down with identical smirks on their faces.

"What do you two want?" Luna asked bluntly, already looking as tired of them as Lily felt.

Rowan's eyes widened with fake sympathy. "Well, I'm just concerned! I certainly wouldn't feel safe around a criminal."

Lily's fist clenched and she gritted her teeth.

"We wouldn't want her pulling a gun on you again." Birch sneered.

Hands slammed on the table.

"Would you just shut up!?"

Lily stared at Astra in shock as the ginger-haired girl glared at Rowan and Birch, her teeth bared.

"Just leave her alone; you don't know anything about her!" Astra snapped. Lily couldn't help but be slightly intimidated; she'd never seen the girl angry before and she pulled it off well.

Rowan looked down her nose at Astra, clearly unimpressed. "You think I'm going to take shit from a cat-tailed freak?"

Anger stabbed into Lily and she wasn't the only one. A chair skidded across the floor as Cobalt stood up, his face full of sudden fury.

"What did you just say to her?" He snarled. Across from him, Luna shrunk down, though Lily could see the anger in her eyes too.

Birch sauntered right up to Cobalt, someone standing higher than the already-tall faunus.

"You got a problem with my girlfriend, bunny boy?" He sneered.

Lily had a feeling Cobalt might have punched him right then and there, had mashed potato not flown across the table and splattered all over Birch's uniform. All eyes turned to Astra as she glared at the boy, mashed potato dripping from her hand.

"You straight fucks really piss me off." She hissed.

Birch looked wildly offended. "What did you just call me?"

"I called you straight, dipshit," Astra replied, her voice dripping with scathing annoyance. "It's what you are." Suddenly, she let out a startled squeak as water splashed all over her.

"Aw, does the kitty not like water?" Rowan crushed a now-empty bottle in one hand as she smirked at Astra.

That was the final straw for Lily. She grabbed an apple and got to her feet, ready to aim. With a sigh, Luna stood up as well, almost seeming reluctant as she picked up her entire plate.

Birch went to stand by Rowan, flicking potato off his shirt. "So, you little shits want to fight, is that it?"

"We don't have to if you just back down," Luna told him. Lily couldn't help but notice that she shook slightly as she spoke, "Just leave us alone."

Rowan sniffed. "Scared you'll lose, princess?"

That was it. Astra was the first to move, hurling a glass of milk at the other teens, Cobalt following suit with a heavy-looking bread loaf. Lily dodged as Birch grabbed half a rockmelon from another table and hurled it at her and threw her apple right back at him. Luna's plate whizzed through the air, only to be dodged by Rowan and crash into the wall behind her.

Around them, students began to hurry away from the fray, clearly wanting to stay out of things. As Lily dodged another melon, she briefly wondered where the other two members of Team SRBY were and why they were doing nothing to aid, nor control their teammates.

As Luna was knocked to the ground by a heavy salad bowl, Astra stopped briefly to throw her a concerned look before her face darkened and she leaped onto the table, conjuring a massive ball of light with both hands. As Lily watched, she hurled it at Rowan like a fastball, slamming the teenage girl into the wall with enough force to crack the plaster. Birch responded with his own Semblance, slamming his foot into the ground and sending a shockwave throughout the room that knocked Astra off the table and onto the floor.

The food fight was over; this was a proper battle now. One without weapons, but a battle all the same.

Lily clenched her fists and sent a punch flying into Birch's face, hard enough that he might have gotten a black eye were it not for his Aura. Rowan, having recovered from Astra's attack, body-slammed her to the ground, unaware of Lily's physical strength as she threw her right back off.

Lily removed her jacket and let it drop to the floor, letting Rowan get a full look at her muscles as she flexed. If these two assholes hadn't known what they were dealing with before, they sure as hell did now.

Seemingly giving up on her, Rowan turned on Cobalt instead, who was running at her with full force, grabbing him by the shoulders and flipping him onto his back. Her smugness gone, she glared down at the rabbit-eared faunus and held out her hand, her weapon appearing in it with a glow.

Lily froze in horror, having forgotten about Rowan's teleportation Semblance. She prepared herself as Rowan lifted her heavily-spiked club to strike.

"What in the name of the Gods is going on here?"

The six teenagers froze as Coco's sharp voice rang out. Rowan's spear instantly vanished again and Astra let go of Birch, who she'd pinned to the ground, and stumbled to her feet.

Coco peered over her sunglasses from the entrance to the cafeteria, her gaze sweeping over the scene. "Well?" She prompted. "Is anyone going to even try to explain?"

Rowan's smugness returned in an instant. "They started the fight," She replied, her voice high and indignant. "Birch and I were just defending ourselves."

Coco sighed, annoyance clear on her face, even with the sunglasses covering her eyes. "Rowan, Birch, go to your dorm and stay there until I say so. I'll be talking with you later."

With a final glare at team LLAC, the two teens dusted themselves off and left the room. Lily almost sighed in relief.

"As for you four," Coco addressed the team sternly. "You can come with me to my office. Clearly, we need to have a talk."

Lily's heart sank. Her first term and she'd gotten caught starting a fight with other students. Perfect. All the same, she and her teammates followed the vice-headmistress to her office, the mood low between them. Cobalt, in particular, looked deeply ashamed, and it wasn't hard to guess why.

In the office, Cobalt seated herself behind her desk and leaned over, removing her sunglasses entirely to lay them on the desk and fix them with a gaze full of stern disappointment. She heaved a sigh.

"So, what happened for you four to feel the need to start a fight?" She prompted. "I expected better from all of you."

Cobalt wouldn't meet her eyes. "You didn't hear what they were saying."

"They called Lily a criminal!" Astra added. "Not to mention the derogatory terms to the rest of us…"

"They called faunus freaks." Cobalt muttered, still not looking at his stepmother. "It wasn't fair."

Coco's gaze softened. "I wouldn't call a four-on-two fight 'fair' either." She pointed out. "And what happened to telling me when this kind of thing happened?"

Cobalt finally looked at her, his face washed in shame and protest. "You don't get it! I wouldn't have cared if it was just me, but they lashed at out my teammate. I couldn't just let that slip by! Those two are nothing but racist assholes who'll judge anyone for the slightest thing they can think of."

"Believe me Cobalt, I understand exactly how that feels," Coco replied. "It's never easy to see a teammate being bullied right in front of you and being expected to just deal with it."

Cobalt looked away again, his ears drooping. Lily felt a pang of sympathy for him; earning a parent's disappointment was never a fun feeling.

"But there's a time and a place to start physical fights over it," Coco continued, "And the school's cafeteria is not one of them. You could have hurt other students and you made a mess of school property."

Cobalt's ears drooped lower and Lily was unable to keep herself from stepping forward.

"Please, don't be upset with them," She begged. "This only happened because they stood up for me; it's not their fault."

Coco gave her a wry smile. "You have a noble heart Lily, but your teammates are just as guilty as you are. I'm sorry, but you'll all have to undergo some kind of punishment."

Astra gave an unenthusiastic moan and Coco gave her an amused look.

"Don't worry, it's nothing grueling," She assured her. "I assume you're all aware that Professor Oobleck has retired?" At nods from the team, she continued, "His replacement will be arriving at the school tomorrow morning. You four can be in charge of giving her a tour of the school."

Lily's heart lifted; that didn't sound too bad.

"I'll also have to let your parents know about this."

Ah, there it was. Lily's heart sank again.

Coco's voice softened as she addressed the whole team.

"You four have the makings of a great team," She told them. "But it won't do you any good to keep starting fights with students you might have to work side-by-side with one day." She smirked. "And hey, don't worry. There's always sparring classes if you really want to take your anger out on them."

Astra slammed her fist into her palm. "Good." Lily couldn't resist a smile.

Coco stood up and waved her hand dismissively. "Go on now, get out of here. And consider this an out-of-class lesson."

Lily breathed a massive sigh of relief as the team exited the room.

"Well, that wasn't fun." Astra grumbled as the headed through the hallway.

"I wouldn't say it was undeserved though," Luna commented. "That fight ended up getting more…violent than it should have."

Lily stopped walking; guilt weighed on her chest, but it was mixed with something else, an emotion she wasn't sure she'd felt before. "Guys…"

Her teammates turned to her.

"Are you okay?" Luna asked softly. "I'm sure everything will be fine…"

Lily shook her head. "I know, I just…I wanted to thank you guys. For standing up for me, I mean." She stared at her feet. "You probably already figured, but I've never really had friends before…so…thank you."

Cobalt smiled at her. "Aw, Lily. That's sweet."

"We'll always be here for you," Luna promised. "Nobody's going to treat you like shit when we're around."

Astra bounced slightly. "Is this a good time for a group hug? I feel like this is a good time for a group hug."

Lily grinned. "Sure. I think we could use it."

As the team pulled into a tight embrace, Lily felt her eyes welling with tears. Damn hugs and their habit of bringing the waterworks out of her. But right here, she had a team; she had friends. And they cared about her and defended her, even if it got them punished. Somehow, despite her shame at getting in trouble, Lily was happier than she'd ever been.