Hello, Fanfiction world! I had a lot of fun writing this one for some reason. Anyways, thanks for all the support, and like always, I'll work to get a chapter up every three days. Reviews are always appreciated. Hope you guys like it, and take care!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of The Underland Chronicles, only the characters I make up and the plot itself.

Regalia High

Chapter 9: Caught

After realizing that the players were indeed looking at him, Gregor noticed that it was strangely quiet. In fact, it was completely silent. Wasn't he in a gym packed with people?

He looked around and saw that everyone was staring at him. Everyone from Regalia and the Fount. Angelina, Larry, Ripred, Henry, Ares, Aurora, and Luxa.

Everyone in the gym was looking at him with their eyes wide and their mouths open.

-O-

The day after the dodgeball tournament was Gregor's celebrity day. He was greeted by absolutely everyone.

Random strangers would come up to him to shake his hand. Larry and Angelina told him in the morning that the entire school was talking about what he had done to the Fount. Because he couldn't get a break about his performance, Gregor's mind kept replaying the memory of the day before.

Something had happened to him that he still couldn't explain. Everything had blurred except for the other players. His body had become a machine, executing precise movements to get the job done. He needed to avoid being hit while trying to hit the other team's players. Gregor wasn't too sure why he had been so good at it. The only thing he knew was that he had done all of that, and that everyone was staring at him, not daring to move.

When the school got over their shock, the gym had exploded into loud cheers. At first, they were shouting the name of their mascot.

"Warriors! Warriors! Warriors!"

A few moments later, however, they soon turned into cheers that included his name. It was so strange to have all of those people say his name at once. People that didn't know him. People that would never pay attention to him otherwise. Yet there they were, cheering him on. Even weirder was the new nickname that the school had given him. They called him the warrior, after the mascot.

Now, here at school, he kept getting handshakes and enthusiastic pats on the back.

"Good morning, warrior."

"Hey, warrior! Nice to see you today!"

"That was a crazy game yesterday, warrior."

Gregor knew that the nickname would get annoying at some point, but right now, he was enjoying every second of his fame.

It wasn't until he got to lunch that he was finally able to get some time to talk to Larry and Angelina. He sat in his usual spot at the table with a tray completely packed with food. While he was in line and on his way to the table, Gregor was approached by more strangers who gave him food. He thought it was a bit strange and was hesitant, but in the end, he had accepted their gifts. Now, he had four burgers, two bags of chips, a pretzel, five cookies, and about three servings of fries. His friends and sister just looked at his tray with wide eyes as he set it down.

All of them spoke about the usual things. What movies were out, what concerts were coming soon, and the grades they had gotten recently on quizzes. When the subject of the dodgeball tournament came up, everyone got silent.

After a moment, Gregor broke the silence.

"Was it really that big a deal?"

Angelina nodded, and even Lizzie, who had only heard of what had happened, gave her brother a look. It was the same look she had given him all day at home after the tournament. She had found out about it almost immediately. The social media was something that could spread rumors quickly, but it also spread the truth like wildfire. And the fact that Gregor had taken on the best players from the Fount by himself in such an extraordinary way was a truth. A big one.

"Dude, it was like watching a professional play against a bunch of little kids," said Larry.

"Oh."

It was all Gregor could say. He hadn't thought much about how it had looked to others. He had only thought about what he had felt himself do, and how it had been all too natural. Like he had done it before. Not knowing that he could do something like that amazed him, and although he would never admit it to any of his friends, it also scared him.

"I didn't know you could move that quick. Or that you could throw harder than Ares and Henry. And that backflip!"

"Backflip?" asked Gregor, putting his food down to look at his friend. He hadn't heard anything about a backflip.

"Yea! You backflipped over a ball and then hit the guy in the face before you even landed!"

"I don't remember that."

"Well that's too bad, because it was the coolest things I've ever seen."

"It was pretty cool," admitted Angelina. "But I think I enjoyed the look on Henry's face even more."

"I swear he looked like he wanted to run away. He thought he would get all the credit for winning just like when he plays football or basketball," added Larry.

"I'm just happy you weren't hurt," said Lizzie.

"Speaking of hurt," began Gregor. "How are you feeling, Larry?"

"My foot's still a little swollen. I think it might be a few more days before it gets better, but it's not like it matters."

"Why not?" asked Angelina.

"Because I'm quitting so that Gregor can take my place," he said.

"What?!" shouted Gregor, causing a few people from the nearby tables to look their way. After they had turned back to their own table and weren't staring anymore, Gregor continued. "What are you talking about?"

Larry leaned in. "Gregor, whether you wanted to play or not, you did a great job. No one wants me to play. Hell, I don't even want to play anymore. Not when I can sit back and enjoy watching you beat every team the way you beat the Fount yesterday. Everyone wants to see you again, and I'm not an exception."

Gregor was too angry to say anything. They said all he had to do was play that one time. Now he was being pushed into an entire season of that. It wouldn't be such a bad idea, especially since he had accepted that he was really good at it, but he enjoyed running track more.

Looking down, he only focused on his food and kept quiet. The rest of the group noticed that he was upset, and they didn't try to include him in the rest of the conversations.

He thought of Ripred, and how the coach had been there at the gym the day before. Knowing him, Gregor guessed that part of Larry's decision was probably influenced by the coach. It was exactly the kind of thing that Ripred would do to keep a player that made him win. Especially if that win had been against the Fount. Gregor decided he would talk to the coach at practice later that day about not playing so that Larry could be on the team again. His friend had been so excited, and Gregor was not about to just take his place.

The frown on his face stayed there the rest of the day. That is, it stayed until after school, where something happened.

Gregor was putting his books away and getting his backpack. Luxa was at her locker, but she kept her door up so that there was something between them, and they weren't able to see the other's face. Lizzie wasn't there, and her locker remained closed.

Just as Gregor was about to close the door to his locker, a girl approached him and leaned on Lizzie's locker. Gregor looked over and immediately recognized her. Her name was Stellovet, and she was the head cheerleader at Regalia High. Luxa might have been asked out a lot, but it was nothing compared to how much Stellovet was asked out. She was a senior, and though there were rumors that she wasn't the nicest person, Stellovet was absolutely gorgeous.

And now, she was staring at Gregor with a smile on her face.

"Gregor, is it?" she said in a voice that almost made Gregor drool.

"Yea," he choked out, barely keeping himself from stuttering.

"You were amazing yesterday." Stellovet rested her back on the locker, turning her head to stare at him with beautiful batting eyes.

"Thanks," he said. He realized he might look like an idiot with the grin he had on his face at the moment, but he didn't care.

"I didn't know anyone could be so good at sports. Much better than the guys that play sports already. It must be your muscles," she said, reaching out and softly placing one hand on Gregor's bicep. "You must work out a lot."

"Not really," said Gregor. Track practice was all he did. After running for hours, he was usually too tired or had too much homework to want to go to a gym.

"Cute and modest," said Stellovet, taking her hand off his arm to pull back a strand of hair that had fallen over her face. She didn't remove her hand, however, and started twirling her index finger in her hair. "When you aren't too busy working out, maybe you and I can hang out. Alone."

At Stellovet's words, Gregor heard Luxa's locker door violently slam shut. He looked over to see Luxa turn to leave. When she slammed her door, though, one of the straps from her backpack got caught, and Luxa was forced to open her locker again to free her backpack.

Her pale skin was red, and Gregor could immediately tell that she was angry. He didn't know why until he looked at her eyes.

Luxa was jealous.

Before she could leave, Gregor turned back to Stellovet with a grin.

"I'll make sure to let you know," he told her.

"Great," said Stellovet, and she turned to walk away, smiling over her shoulder at him. "See you around."

Without turning to see Luxa as she struggled to open her locker, Gregor closed his own and walked away, still grinning. He didn't know what was better. That the prettiest girl in school had basically just asked him out, or that Luxa had been jealous over it.

He thought about it on his way to the locker room and decided the second one was probably better.

-O-

The next day, his luck turned completely around. Things went bad. Really, really bad.

It started off better than most days, though. Gregor woke to the smell of pancakes and bacon. When he got to the kitchen, his sisters were already eating. His mom had the morning off from work and had made them their favorite breakfast. He happily ate, still thinking about the day before.

Luxa had definitely been jealous. There was no other way to explain her behavior. With that in mind, practice went by so much smoother. Instead of being tormented by the thought of her, Gregor was able to run with ease.

It made it easier that Ripred wasn't there yelling at him. The bad thing about Ripred's absence was that Gregor couldn't talk to him about the strange thing that had happened to him at the dodgeball game. If anyone could help with that, it would be him.

As he approached the school, more people that he still didn't know greeted him. He was sure they had come up to him before, and some of them even looked familiar. Luxa wasn't at her locker, but it didn't matter. Nothing could make him forget what he had seen in her eyes.

They were in Mrs. Miravet's class when things went wrong.

Mrs. Miravet surprised the class with a pop quiz. One that apparently no one had prepared for judging by the amount of groans the class let out.

"From what I hear, I can take a guess and say you haven't been studying," said Mrs. Miravet. "Hopefully, this will serve as a wake-up call for most of you."

Gregor wasn't too worried about it. The stuff they were learning in math wasn't too hard, and he was sure he could do well enough to pass. Without complaining, he took out a pencil from his pocket and put his things under his seat. He waited quietly while Mrs. Miravet handed out the quizzes.

Out of the corner of his eye, Gregor could see Luxa and Aurora whisper quietly to each other. They didn't have tests yet, and they were being pretty quiet, but he could tell that Luxa was worried.

When everyone finally had their tests, the room became completely silent. Just as Gregor had guessed, the quiz wasn't too hard. Most of the problems had to do with things he recognized, but there were a few that he left blank. He wanted to do as much as he could. He would go back to do those later.

The quiz was timed, so Gregor needed to work through it as quickly as he could. As always, no one bothered putting their name on it. Everyone in class started on the quiz as soon as they got it and Gregor could hear pencils scribbling madly all around him.

About halfway through the quiz, Gregor started going back to the ones he skipped over. His eyes wandered the room, trying to remember the formulas needed for one of the problems. As he looked around, he saw Luxa tap Aurora softly on the shoulder.

Aurora did her best to look over discretely, not drawing the attention from Mrs. Miravet. Luxa held the number three up on the fingers on one hand and Aurora turned her paper over and moved her head to the side slightly to let Luxa look at it. Gregor realized Aurora was giving Luxa the answers. It was something they had probably done before.

Luxa leaned over her desk a bit to get a better look of the paper but couldn't see. She even squinted a bit. After a few seconds, she gave up and sat back in her seat. Gregor saw Luxa tap on Aurora's shoulder again and hold out her hand.

Aurora nodded hesitantly and took her paper, holding it out so that Luxa could take it. At that moment, Mrs. Miravet shifted in her seat, causing both girls to look over at her. Luxa was already reaching for Aurora's paper, and turning to look at the teacher kept her eyes off the paper. Luxa didn't realize that the paper was a lot closer than she had thought, and her hand ran into it, causing the paper to crumple a bit and make noise.

The paper dropped from Aurora's hand, as she was startled by the noise. Luxa stopped reaching for the paper and looked down at her own. Mrs. Miravet looked over to their side of the room and cleared her throat. She stood up and began walking over to them.

Gregor looked at Luxa with disbelief. Was she just going to sit there? Was she not even going to try and get the paper from the floor? Luxa was the one that was desperate for help, but she was just going to sit there and let Aurora get in trouble with her.

Aurora wasn't his friend, but unlike Luxa, she wasn't mean to him. She had actually wanted for things between him and Luxa to get better. Sure, people should get in trouble for cheating, but seeing how Luxa was doing nothing for Aurora when Aurora had done so much for her made Gregor mad.

Before he thought too much about it, Gregor leaned over and handed Aurora his test. She needed a test, and he would get hers from the floor, which had landed a lot closer to him than it had to her. If Mrs. Miravet asked, he would say that the problems were hard and that he had crumpled his paper in frustration. The reason why he had leaned down was to grab his pencil, which he had dropped.

Aurora looked up when he gave her his paper, and he gave her a small smile, trying to ease the panicked expression that she had on her face. Gregor looked down to grab her paper from the floor but saw that Luxa had taken it. She was already on her way to get it when Gregor had given Aurora his paper. When she realized what he did, her ears turned red. Now, things had just gotten real complicated.

When Mrs. Miravet came to the group of students, she saw Luxa with two papers and Gregor without one. It wasn't rocket science to figure out what was happening.

Without a word, she took both papers from Luxa's desk. Every other kid in class had stopped writing and were now looking at them.

"Just the two of you?" she asked them, though the answer was obvious.

"Wait," said Aurora, and Gregor's jaw dropped.

Was she about to tell Mrs. Miravet that the cheating was between her and Luxa? He couldn't believe it. It was actually the right thing to do. But Aurora was too nice, and he wasn't about to let her get in trouble because of Luxa.

"It's okay, Aurora. You turned me down for the answers when I asked. You shouldn't get in trouble with us," he blurted out.

Both Aurora and Luxa turned to look at him. Aurora was scared, but Luxa was looking at him with a look that combined anger and curiosity.

Mrs. Miravet gave Luxa and Gregor a disapproving look.

"Both of you have a zero for this." She turned to walk away, the quizzes in her hand, before stopping and turning back to look at them again.

"And you will stay after class so that we may discuss your punishment."

I just don't understand what people find so hard about math. . . It's my strongest subject, and I'm taking 10th grade math, and I'm only in 8th grade (well school ended, so technically 9th). I just feel like I am surrounded by idiots in my school. I love how the whole rager thing was incorporated. And oh! Luxa jealous and Stellovet going for Gregor! This is just getting too good, my god. Can't wait for the next chapter!

Question: what will their punishment be?

Until next time,

-Tytonic