XIV. Approval

Amanda knocked confidently on the blue team's door. She rubbed her eyes and tried to stretch out her back. After a few hours of writing she had finally finished her article about Diana. Reading over it, made Amanda realize how crazy all of this was. If someone had told her a few weeks ago that she would be trying to help Diana win a scholarship, she would have laughed in their face. But now was not the time to be stuck in the past.

The door opened halfway to reveal Hannah in a pink, fluffy robe, and a face half done with make up. Hannah grinned like a cheshire cat and pulled a folded fan out of her robe. She opened the fan in one flick of her wrist, leaned against the doorframe and fanned herself flirtatiously.

"Oh Amanda, how scandalous of you to be knocking at this hour. You know I'm not that kind of woman." Amanda shook off her confused expression, she wasn't here for Hannah.

"It's 7 pm on a friday and I'm not here for you. I need to talk with Diana. It's important." Amanda said with a deadpan expression. Hannah wiggled her eyebrows suggestively and used her free hand to push up her hair.

"Oooo, Lord Cavendish's daughter. I'm jealous, you sure know how to play with a woman's heart." Hannah winked. From inside the room, Barbara's voice rang out.

"Han! You're missing it! Prince Percy's about to run away with the milkmaid!"

"Coming!" Hannah yelled back and left the door open for Amanda who decided to let herself in.

The blue team was clearly having a girl's night in with snacks scattered between Hannah and Barbara's beds and a romantic drama playing on the TV in their room. Damn how come they had a TV? Amanda thought.

She spotted Diana sitting on Barbara's bed in a light green robe with her feet stretched out in front of her. As Amanda approached she noticed that Diana's face had a thin layer of clear paper coating it and her eyes were closed as if she was resting,

"Diana. Diana?" Amanda tested. Barbara glared over at her.

"Leave Diana alone! We finally got her to relax, she's had a long week." Barbara called over, pausing the movie to glare at Amanda.

"It will only take a second." Amanda called back, with slight irritation.

Diana opened her eyes and looked over at Amanda. The red-haired witch was taken aback, there was calmness in Diana's eyes that she didn't expect.

"S-sorry, I just- are you wearing a face mask?" Amanda asked, finding it impossible to ignore the weird texture of paper on Diana's face. Hannah piped up from the other side of the room.

"It's a 21-again, anti-stress beauty mask! Oh, your time's up Diana, you can take it off!" Diana carefully started to remove the sheet from her face, leaving her face with a soft glisten. Amanda meanwhile looked on with a grossed out expression. To her, Diana's face looked slimy and covered in vaseline. She would never understand why so many girls liked doing these sorts of things. Diana grew annoyed with Amanda's expression.

"Amanda, I trust you have something important to tell me." Diana remarked as she started to sit up on the bed a little more.

"Yeah, I wanted to tell you that I finished the article about you. We agreed that you'd read over it before I submitted it." Amanda said, producing a few sheets of paper stapled together. Diana looked surprised.

"I'm rather impressed that you managed to finish it so quickly." Amanda looked at Diana with a smug expression and folded her arms behind her back.

"Haha. You keep underestimating me! When I put my mind to it, a lot gets done. So go ahead, read it and tell me what you think." Amanda said. Amanda walked over to a spare chair and sat down as Diana read the article. Her teammates tried to slyly creep over and read over Diana's shoulders; the whole situation peeking their interests. This was a big moment, Amanda knew that she needed to nominate Diana as soon as possible so that they could move on to rallying support. As Diana read, her face changed. She went from a stoic to calm expression. Upon finishing the article she was holding back some tears as she looked away from the last page.

Amanda took it as a sign that she was done and softly approached.

"So… how was it? What needs fixing?" Amanda asked, cautiously.

"Aside from a few spelling errors, I think it's perfect just the way it is. You did a good job telling the full story." Diana said letting her tears fall. Amanda sighed with relief and scratched the back of her neck, good. Now it was just a matter of getting everyone else to sympathize with Diana, but how? That's when an idea popped into her head.

"Hey Diana. What if I also published the article in the school paper? I mean it might get more of the school to support you." Amanda suggested; Diana looked like she was torn. Amanda was then kicking herself, shit she had forgotten about all the older stories published about Diana that had caused her so much grief in the first place. Amanda stepped back a little from Diana, she had to remind herself to respect Diana's wishes. Going with her gut was what Amanda was used to, it took a little more thought to consider others. Diana finally answered.

"If you think this is the best option, then I trust you. I've been told by a couple people that I need to start being more open about myself to others." Diana replied, looking at both of her teammates.

Amanda smiled and took back the piece of paper. "Then look out for your story in next week's newspaper!" Amanda called as she confidently waltzed out of the room.

Many students throughout the halls of Luna Nova were engrossed in the latest edition of the Luna Nova Letter which featured Amanda's nomination article. As Amanda walked to class with her team, she couldn't remember another Monday when she had seen so many people reading the school newspaper. She couldn't help but remember all of the hard work that went into making all of this happen. After feeling a pang of guilt she turned to her teammates.

"Hey guys, I know I've kinda dragged you into helping me with this whole thing with my plans and all. What I'm trying to say is I'm sorry. I'm a team leader and I need to do better, this isn't really my style, but thanks for backing me up through all of this." Amanda said, her words sounded unfamiliar coming out of her mouth.

Giving sappy thanks to people wasn't her thing. She always viewed that as something others did. Constanze smiled knowingly, nodding in agreement and Jasminka bear hugged Amanda. From Jasminka's cookie coated bear hug Amanda could see the red team marching down the hallway led by a rather angry looking Sucy. Akko was trying to diffuse the situation, but Sucy was determined.

"Look I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding. Amanda probably has a good reason for everything." Akko assured, trying to get Sucy to slow down. Lotte looked puzzled at Sucy.

"I've never seen you so worked up before. All I said was that if I don't get the scholarship, I'd probably need to pick up a job this summer to pay for school." Lotte said.

"I know. That's why Amanda better have a gooooood explanation for this." Sucy said glaring daggers at anyone who dared to get in her way.

The green team watched as Sucy locked eyes with Amanda and made a beeline for her. Amanda stood her ground, she had expected backlash for Diana's nomination. Most people wouldn't think that she deserved anything more than the mountains of money that her family already had. She just never expected Sucy to be spearheading this. The purple-haired witch never seemed to care much about any that wasn't her precious mushrooms. Amanda relaxed her stance as Sucy approached.

"Hey Sucy, what's going on? You look mad enough to kill." Amanda asked, trying to handle the nervousness in her voice. Sucy glared.

"How hard did Diana slam your face into that desk for you to nominate her for a scholarship that she clearly doesn't need?!" Amanda sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Okay, obviously you haven't read the article. So go pick up a copy and try again later. I explain the whole story there" Sucy gritted her teeth.

"I've read it and it's pretty bold of you to weave some sob story of why we should all nominate the richest student in the school for a scholarship that clearly other people need more than her!" Lotte tried to get Sucy to step away as other students started to gather around and agree with Sucy. Amanda cleared her throat.

"Look, Diana's not the bad guy here. Believe me I understand, I used to think the same thing not too long ago. She's been through a lot just because her sexuality got leaked, her family is threatening to cut her off if she comes out and that's not fair. If anyone needs to be supported it's Diana." Amanda said, surprising herself with the conviction in her voice.

Unfortunately, Amanda noticed that most of the other students visibly disagreed with her. Sucy huffed in disbelief and shook her head while others mumbled their objections. That's when she remembered Diana's previous anti-gay comments. This was going to be rough. Sucy pulled out a copy of the newspaper and chucked it at Amanda's feet.

"If Diana REALLY needs support, then she should say it herself and own up to the shitty comments she's made. She shouldn't make someone else play her PR manager. So call me when Diana comes out and apologizes." Sucy spat, turned sharply and walked away.

The rest of the students mainly nodded in agreement and dispersed. Leaving Amanda with more problems than before.