XIX. Ellen the Annihilator
It was 11:45pm and Diana was figuring out how she should dress for tonight. It was pointless to wear her witch's hat, it would only get in the way. After much fuss and switching around different parts of her outfit, Finally, Diana decided to wear a white t-shirt, green shorts and her gym green tennis shoes. After tying her hair in a ponytail, she was ready.
Hannah and Barbara were hanging back on the beds, not sure if they should help.
"There. I'm ready." Diana said. "How do I look?"
Hannah and Barbara looked at each other.
"Are you just going to wear your gym clothes?" Barbara asked.
"Not that it's bad. We just aren't sure how to help in this case." Hannah said.
"Don't get us wrong, we'll be there to cheer you on and stuff." Barbara said confidently.
Hannah scratched the back of her neck. "We just didn't know what else you need from us."
Diana smiled. "Just being there is enough."
The team walked out of the dorm room and into the main hallway. The red and green teams were waiting for them.
Akko gave Diana the widest grin. "Go! Diana! Go! Give me a D! An I! An A! An N! And now an A!"
"The fight hasn't even started yet." Sucy said pointedly.
Akko pouted. "I knew that! I was just warming up!"
Amanda looked at Diana and started circling her examining her outfit. Diana stood there with arms folded as Amanda rubbed her chin and seemed to be deep in thought.
"I got it." Amanda pulled out a roll of flexible bandages from her pocket.
"Here let me put these on your hands. They're supposed to protect them and help your joints from getting tired." Amanda said as she started to use the roll on Diana.
After she was done Diana started toward the end of the campus where the conjuration building stood. She was feeling a little nervous and hoped that none of the school administrators had found out what was happening. She was also doubts about this. Her skills were rusty even after her going over some moves in the dorm room to the amazement of her teammates. What if this girl was secretly better than her?
After exiting the main building, there were small clusters of lights peeking out from behind the conjuration building. Amanda and Diana were the first ones to see behind the building and stopped in shock.
The half the school must have been there. There were dozens and dozens of students all in clusters sitting in the grass outside of a large fairy circle. The fairy circle was a circle of red and yellow giant mushrooms in the middle of a grassy field. The mushrooms ranged from 3 feet to 7 feet in height. They provided a nice boundary to the large arena in the center of the circle. The fairy circle acted as stadium seating as some students were already on top of them with snacks and drinks. The mushrooms were even decorated in magic lights, some of which acted as spotlights. Amanda looked over at some students taking bets on who would win.
"Damn. If I didn't know any better I say this was the biggest event Luna Nova's ever had." Amanda said.
"Diana!" Yelled an all to familiar voice.
Ellen yelled from the center of the circle. Diana took a deep breath and looked at Amanda as the rest of the group arrived to take in the sight.
"I suppose that's my cue." Diana said marching toward the arena. As she drew closer students parted the way for her and Diana found herself on the edge of the mushrooms.
She stepped into the spotlights before any fear or doubt could grip her. She had worn a suit to the dance, she could handle this.
Diana held back her laughter as she saw that Ellen had taken this way too seriously. Alice was dressed in a red superhero cape with a homemade black mask. She wore oversized red boxing gloves and a red sports bra. Alice's red, white and blue long gym shorts almost killed Diana with laughter.
Ellen was posing with flexed biceps voicing threats toward Diana. Ellen stood on a small rock and made a speech.
"Tonight is the night, that I will make Diana Cavendish answer for all of these rumors - with my fists! I will rip her stupid hair out of her rich little head! I break everyone of those blue-blood bones of hers. Most importantly, her face will reign black and blue from the blows of Ellen the Annihilator!" Ellen declared.
A series of laughs and guffaws stopped Alice. Sucy and Amanda were on top of one of the mushrooms along with the rest of the gang. Both were laughing at Ellen and making jokes about her until they both had tears coming down their faces.
"Damn, Diana you better watch out! Hahaha." Amanda laughed almost out of breath.
"Yeah, the Annihilator is gonna get ya. Hahahaha" Sucy snickered.
Ellen was about to say something but she saw that Diana stood behind her. Ellen smirked.
"There you are! Finally decided to show your face?"
"Humph, you make it sound like I'm late. I'm 5 minutes early." Diana said getting into a fighting stance.
"It doesn't matter! Tonight I'm going to beat you senseless until you admit the truth!" Ellen declared.
"And you orchestrated all this for what?" Diana asked, clearly seeing the absurdity of the whole situation.
"For what?!" Ellen squawked adjusting her mask. "To make you own up to who you really are! You're not any better than the rest of us! You're gay just like me and plenty of us here! I'm gonna be the one to knock you off your high horse and make you admit it!"
Ellen charged at Diana and began the fight.
Diana dodged Ellen charge and memories flooded back to her. She remembered learning basic kicks and hits but her body remembered how to position her center of gravity.
While Ellen wildly threw punches at her, Diana was remembering more. Her muscle memory kicked in as Diana swiftly dodged and even tumbled out of the way to put distance between her and Ellen. She hadn't even thrown a punch but she was remembering the thrill and adrenaline rush of fighting and that was all it took for Diana to throw off her initial ideas of minimal injury.
After another missed swing by Ellen, she growled and turned to Diana. "Goddammit! Hit me already, you condescending bitch!"
Diana flew toward Ellen with frightening speed. She launched herself off the ground and round kicked Ellen in the side of the face. Ellen picked herself up as Diana took a stance that would allow her to use both kicks and punches effectively.
The crowd was then split. More and more people were cheering for Diana, led by Akko who cheered the loudest on the top of Lotte's shoulders.
"GO DIANAAAA!"
Diana had landed a flurry of punches and was starting to grow tired. She landed a solid punch to Ellen's lower stomach and was ready for anything but what happened next.
Ellen staggered around, fell to her knees and threw up. The crowd slowly stopped cheering. Diana relaxed her stance. Ellen climbed to her feet, but it was clear that she had spent all of her energy chasing Diana around.
"Okay...Cavendish." Ellen said swaying around with a bloody nose. "I… that's right, I… am going to give you one last chance. Tell the truth...or suffer." She said.
Diana stood there. It would be easy to kick Ellen down and end the fight but what would that solve? The reason Ellen and her friends were mad at Diana was because she was old money and it was obvious that she was a lesbian but she refused to admit it. Maybe Ellen was right maybe if she just came out then people wouldn't see her as a two faced snobby rich girl to scare to lose face. If she didn't she would be letting other people control her life as she hid in the shadows. But what about her plans to pull her Aunt into a false sense of security?
Diana looked at her friends. They just looked back at her, Amanda was the only one who looked with serious eyes, eyes that accepted no responsibility. It was all up to Diana.
"Everyone. I know that Ellen wanted to use this fight to take me down and force me to answer for the rumors about my sexuality. While this was a... roundabout way to accomplish that, I intend to settle these rumors once in for all. I am a lesbian and anyone who has problem with that can say it to my face." Diana declared, it felt good to take control of her own narrative.
It hit Diana, the only reason Alice would care so much about all of this was because she herself was gay. Why else would she organize this elaborate event? The only other person who cared so much about her sexuality was, Aunt Daryl. That's it. Diana thought. As her friends rushed into the arena to celebrate her win, Diana thought to her home and knew there had to be secrets hidden within in the estate. Secrets that could stop Aunt Daryl once and for all.