XVIII. The Midnight Duel
The doctor took off his bifocals and matched Diana's look.
"My job is not to tell you how to feel. My job is to help you understand your true feelings toward people and events." He said plainly with little trances of emotion in his voice.
That was the biggest load of horse shit Diana had ever heard. All he did was bend her memories of people and events to convince Diana to agree with his opinions.
Diana sighed and set her sights on just getting out here. "Very well, then. I believe you."
"Good, I'm going to start with your friends. It's good to have friends that support you but Hannah and Barbara seem to be enabling your behavior."
Diana was filled with a sense of rage. Hannah and Barbara could be exasperating sometimes but she stood by the fact that there were no other friends she would rather have. She tried to reason with herself, this was all just to judge her reaction.
"How so?" Diana asked with little emotion. She knew to use questions to feign ignorance.
"They should be supporting you in your journey to recovery. Not encouraging your deviant behavior. You need to ask them to support you in the right way or sever ties to them." The doctor concluded.
Diana's stomach flipped several times. "You're right. I understand completely." Diana said, washing out any traces of resistance on her face.
Doctor Klien didn't even smile. "Good. The next thing we need to address the events that took place at the ball. Why did you feel a need to wear a suit to this event?"
He stared at Diana with judgemental eyes, pen and paper ready. Shit. Diana knew that she had to make up a bullshit answer that didn't hit too close to home.
"Because it was… less expensive and easier." Fuck. That was the stupidest answer she could think of.
"So setting up a fitting appointment, showing up for said appointment, buying the suit and wearing it to the ball were all easier than wearing a dress, Diana?" Doctor Klien asked with a hint of amusement in his voice.
He knew she was lying but he was making Diana dig her own grave.
"In some ways, yes." Diana replied with a squeak in her voice.
"Tell me. Why it was easier?" He asked.
It was a dead end. No answer would be good enough for him to believe. Suddenly one came to Diana; an answer that was already coming into existence.
"Because everyone at school already suspects that I'm not straight. It's less stressful to fall in line with people's expectations than to challenge them." Diana relayed.
This seemed to throw Doctor Klien for a loop. He scribbled for a minute on his notebook. Diana felt a weight disappear from her shoulders. There, she thought, try figuring that one out.
"So why did you feel like you needed dance with another female student? I understand she was at the ball with someone else." He hinted.
Diana paused a moment before answering. This would drag Andrew into this, not that she cared about his feelings but she wanted to contain this as much as possible. But how was she supposed to answer this? To hell with it.
"You already know the answer. I like girls. I wanted to dance with her and her date was unworthy of her." Diana stepped back mentally. She said the last part with more venom in her voice than she had planned. It was brutally honest.
Doctor Klien smirked and wrote something down. She realized he was happy because she had involuntarily given him one of her few honest answers.
Diana thought he was going to ask her why she found this particular girl so attractive, but he went the other way, making Diana very uncomfortable.
"Why do you think that Andrew was unworthy of being Akko's date?" The doctor asked with a small smile.
Diana involuntarily stiffened. How did he know their names? That didn't matter. By the look on his face, Diana assumed that he was going to be very aware of her lying from now on.
"Because he doesn't know Akko the way I do." Diana stated.
"And?" He said.
"Because I care about her more, he has plenty of other girls to choose from." Diana said, answering the question quickly.
The doctor scribbled something down and put aside his pen and notepad. He then jumped topics again.
"Sounds to me like you are not only jealous of Andrew but you have issues with men in general. In your case, your same-sex attractions drive you to imitate the opposite sex in hopes of gaining an unhealthy relationships with women. But the truth is that your father leaving your life from an early age is the source of all of your resentment toward men." The doctor concluded, leaving Diana stunned.
The doctor checked his watch.
"Ah. It's about that time. We'll have to pickup our conversation next week. Until then, think about what I have told you." Doctor Klien said.
Diana slowly got up and exited the room.
Diana arrived back at Luna Nova near the end of the day; school grounds were relatively quiet. Diana decided to head to the flying fields and let off some steam. After grabbing her broom from her room she was happy to see that she still had a handful of minutes before classes let out.
Diana got a running start and jumped onto her broom. She speed to twice around the race track. While she was flying she couldn't help but turn over the things Doctor Klien had said in her head.
Jealous of Andrew, please. Only because he beat her to the punch.
Diana soared away from the track and up in height. She raced toward one of the academic buildings with breaknecking speed. Just before she hit the brick wall she swooped away upside down, almost touching the grass.
Hmph, Diana thought, could Andrew ever do that?
She soared swiftly over the courtyard and through some of the gaps between the buildings.
What was all of that business about her father? Diana had never really known her father but thought about him whenever she thought of her mother.
Diana skirted close to a series of classroom windows on the third floor and noticed students packing up their books and exiting the rooms. The day was over. Diana sighed as she knew Hannah and Barbara would be looking for her.
Sure enough Diana heard a voice calling her name. She looked to the ground from her falcon-like view, but it wasn't her teammates. It was one of the fan girls that had challenged her to a duel.
"Diana Cavendish. Get the hell over here! I got something I want to say!" Ellen yelled. As a group of students surrounded her.
Diana descended to the field and dismounted from her broom smoothly. A group of students watched in awe. Most students had a hard time dismounting from their brooms without fumbling the landing with their feet.
Diana sighed as Ellen approached her. She was being gassed up by some of her peers. Diana rolled her eyes, this whole duel affair was reaching new levels of absurdity.
"Well, as you shouted, you had something to say to me." Diana said calmly.
Ellen straightened up.
"I'm challenging you to a duel at midnight tonight, in the back of the conjuration building!" She declared. Everyone gasped and whispered among themselves.
"Very well. What type of duel?" Diana asked peeved that she was really playing along with this.
Ellen sneered. "I'm challenging you to a fistfight! So no wands or magic and no spells or hexes."
"Spells and hexes are a part of magic." Diana corrected.
Ellen glared at Diana. "I knew that!"
Diana raised her left eye brow. "Are you sure?"
Students snickered and Ellen boiled over with anger. Hannah and Barbara emerged through the crowd pushing people out of their way.
"Hey, Diana." Hannah said it of breath siding on the right of Diana.
"Wh- what did we...miss?" Barbara said gasping for breath.
"Well, I was challenged to a round of fistacuffs at midnight tonight." Diana said, bored.
"No sidekicks! Just you and me duking it out." Ellen said with her friends encouraging her.
"Very well then. I accept your challenge." Diana said without missing a beat.
"Yeah! She does!" Hannah said performing some high kicks and posing in a karate-like stance with her knees bent.
"Yeah! Diana's going to kick your ass!" Barbara yelled performing some classic karate chops and taking a different stance than Hannah.
Amusingly, Ellen took Hannah and Barbara's threats, poses, chops and kicks seriously. She backed up a few feet and glared at Diana.
"Oh yeah? Prove it! You snobby, tea-sipping, closeted British bitch!" She snared.
Hannah and Barbara were about to move in on Ellen but Diana held them back. The crowd started to trickle away as the challenger and her followers walked away. A few students approach Diana, apprehensively.
"Are you sure about this Diana?" One of them asked.
"Won't you get kicked out of Luna Nova for fighting?" Another questioned.
Diana sighed, as her teammates turned to Diana.
"I plan to end this fight as quick as possible, with minimal injury."
The rest of the students let Diana, Hannah and Barbara leave and walk toward the dormitory.
"Diana, I'm not trying to doubt you, but do you know any non-magic fighting?" Barbara asked.
Diana thought for a moment. "When I was younger mother enrolled me in a mixed martial arts class."
"Whoa! Really? How the hell did we not know about this?" Hannah said slightly impressed.
"I was only eight. I continued it for a few years, along with magic and my other studies. Until my Aunt Daryl moved in to help care for my mother. Daryl pulled me out of martial arts and forced me to take cello lessons instead." Diana explained as they walked down the hall toward their room.
Suddenly, footsteps approached the group and a loud thump made the blue team turn around. Akko had raced over and tripped over her own two feet. Lotte was there trying to help Akko up as Constance, Jasminka and Sucy approached. Sucy rolled her eyes at Akko.
"That's no fair!" Akko exclaimed.
"I'm pretty sure the laws of gravity are impartial to whoever is stupid enough to trip on their own two feet." Sucy retorted.
"Not that! Diana you're Aunt's a jerk. Forcing you to take boring Cello lessons. Yuck!" Akko said sticking out her tongue as she picked herself up.
Diana smiled and laughed. Akko had a way of charming Diana with her clumsy ways. Amanda leaned on Diana's shoulders.
"Yeah, your Aunt is a real joy kill." Amanda said.
"As much as I agree with you, I have other matters to focus on." Diana said, still kicking herself for being involved in the duel in the first place.
Lotte perked up. "That's right, we heard about the duel you were challenged to. Isn't that against the school policy?"
Sucy laughed with a sharp-toothed grin. "Haha, well this will be interesting."
Akko's eyes gleamed with admiration. "Wow! A duel! We heard it was a fist fight. That's so cool! You're totally gonna win, Diana!" Akko gave Diana a big smothering hug.
Diana looked around and decided to explain.
"Yes, I will be taking part in a duel at midnight tonight and yes, it is against school rules but I plan to settle it quickly."
"Hell yeah!" Hannah said.
"Diana's gonna kick her ass!" Barbara said.
The two high-fived each other and smiled.
"No, I will simply be incapacitating her to end the fight with little injury." Diana said with Akko still hugging her.
Amanda smiled and walked over to Constance and Jasminka. "Well, finally! This is the most interesting thing that's happened around here since the ball! So why is she dueling you in the first place?"
"She's just jealous." Barbara said smugly.
Akko jumped to conclusions. "Is she jealous of me and you, Diana? Wow. I didn't know I had so many secret admirers."
Sucy rolled her eyes and Diana smiled at Akko's comment.
"No, Akko. She's jealous of my status and abilities. That's all. Apparently, there's a growing number of people who feel the same way, she does." Diana said.
Constance pulled out a white board and marker and scribbled something down. After she was finished she turned it and and put her hands on her hips. "That's not the full truth." It red.
"Constance is right. A little birdie told me that she thinks that you're a big phony. Something about secretly being a giant gay." Amanda finished with a big grin on her face.
Diana sighed, there was no use in firing back a response. They were right. This so called rumor was out in the open now.
Diana was feeling cornered, she wanted to put her challenger in her place but would that really help her situation at school? Even more importantly, what about Aunt Daryl? She wasn't ready to face her once and for all. What was she to do?
Akko noticed the stress on Diana's face and let go of her.
"Diana how about we get some ice cream?" Akko said happily.
Diana looked at her confused. "What?"
"Ice cream always makes me feel better after a hard day! Plus you need to be at your best for your fight tonight." Akko took Diana's arms and started leading her off.
Diana let her. She was tired of making all of the decisions, there were just too many to deal with.
The blue, red and green teams followed Akko, down the hall.
Sucy licked her lips. "I hope they have mushroom flavored this time."