Roxanne stumbled to Mace's side to pull him up and help him dust himself on while Neren and the others head-touched and hooted over their victory.

"Are you alright?" she asked in a rush, and Mace grinned at her with such absolute confidence, Roxanne could practically feel it in her toes.

"Never been better," he proclaimed, though his black eye and the bite mark on his left keep said otherwise.

Roxanne slowly smiled back and threw her arms around him before casting her eyes toward Deldja, whom Flooze was helping to her feet. The girl let go of Mace before he even had a chance to hug her back, and he was enveloped by a crowd of congratulatory faces. Roxanne slipped over to Deldja's side as Flooze slipped and dropped the Cerulean, whose face was not nearly as beautiful as it had once been, now swollen and a little bloody.

Roxanne smiled down into Deldja's confused and furious face and cocked her head.

"What do you want?" Deldja snarled.

"You can't hurt me anymore," Roxanne stated, and spit in Deldja's face.

It darkened from blue to violet in nothing flat, and Deldja leaped to her feet on her own, drawing her fist back without thought, to which Roxanne leaned forward, willing her enemy to hurt her just this one last time—for old time's sake, one might say.

Deldja let fly, and Roxanne braced herself for what would surely be a terrible, world-shaking blow, and would also surely be the end of an era—Deldja's era.

Deldja's terrible, horrible, cruel, nasty, evil era.

Roxanne was ready for pain.

And instead was saved at the last moment by the single most benevolent force in her entire life wrapping strong arms around her waist from behind and pulling her back while simultaneously extending his foot in Deldja's direction and catching her…in the stomach.

And everyone saw.

For a few moments, there was a long silence as Deldja shrieked and clutched her stomach like it was the end of the world (though really, he had barely hurt her) and all the others simply watched with cold, judgmental eyes.

Flooze began shrieking, too, but after a few minutes, someone who was not one of Mace's close friends spoke up.

"What are you talking about?" he asked. "Mace never even touched you. You fell all on your own. You shouldn't be such a lendor on your feet."

Deldja was suddenly silenced.

The boy turned away and started chatting with another kid as if nothing had happened, and after a few seconds, the rest of the students did the same.

Deldja and her cronies could kick and scream and shout all they wanted, but no one heard them, because suddenly they didn't exist.

And though Roxanne tried to become invisible again, she was suddenly touching heads, gripping hands, and taking names every which way. She could hardly breathe from the shock and excitement and...what was that word? Exceptional? No, that wasn't the one, though it was close. Acceptance? Yes. That was the one.

Acceptance.

And at one point, long after Deldja had run out screaming about aliens and brainwashing schemes to take over the world, Roxanne found it was too much and turned her head, burying her face in Mace's shoulder to cry tears that were positively joyous.

And Mace smiled and held her, and they swayed together in time to the music, pretending to do no more than dance, though no one would have blamed Roxanne Aida Cerebellum had she cried aloud.

But she didn't know that, and even if she had, it gave her an excuse to be here, in Mace's arms, which was exactly where she wanted to be.

Here, and nowhere else.

Author Comments:

HO YEAH! MY KEYBOARD IS ON FIRE!
My muse is back! I'm back on board and ready to GOGOGOGO! :DDD
Also, I'm hyped up on Mountain Dew and Sleep Deprivation, which always helps. :D XDXD
WOOT WOOT! Deldja gets her just deserts. :3 But don't worry, folks, it's FAR from over...
Enjoy! :D