Chapter 2: An Uncontested Challenger

Lunchtime, the two-way intersection between breakfast and dinner, morning and night! In high school, this is where the greatest congregation of students tends to happen outside of events.

A chance to catch up on the week, or maybe make new friends. Learn new recipes, or critique the lunch lady's cooking if you're feeling really rude.

Serra's small group of four found a table and sat down. Leo and Zelene had packed lunches, but Damian needed to buy something from the counter. A healthy tuna sandwich, milk and banana worked for him.

Serra meanwhile, realized something when she sat down.

"Uh-oh…" She said with a chipper tone while pulling out her drink canister, "I went and filled'er up with a strawberry smoothie during my jog!"

And there were bits of it still at the bottom.

Damian remarked, "Well, I saw a fountain on the way in you could wash it out-"

Serra leaned in and patted him on the back, "Thanks for the worries, buddy! But watch THIS!"

She took out her chilled milk and protein powder, mixed it all together in the same canister, and presented it to her friends, "Ta-da! A strawberry protein shake!"

Which she proceeded to gulp right down, leaving Zelene's mouth to slack in disgust, "Strawberries and…protein mix?"

She looked at the strawberries in her salad and wound up plucking them back into the container.

Leo, in the midst of his reuben, prompted Damian, "So, your art…?"

"Ah right." He hastened to say, reaching into his bag to pull out a sketchbook, nervously flipping through a few unfinished drafts before settling on one done with a granite pencil.

Serra stared at it long and hard and didn't really get what it was depicting. Seemed to be some kinda tunnel-y thing going on.

Leo was there to translate, good job! "Ah, are those motion lines?"

Damian nodded, "Yeah, I'm trying to practice action scenes. I just…n-need a little time and inspiration for the subject."

Damian turned to Serra and she stared at his eyes while he got a little flushed in the cheeks. With a big smile and a couple blinks she patted him on the back, "Can't wait to see it finished!"

Damian hastily withdrew the sketchbook into his bag and muttered, "R-Right. Thanks…"

Leo hummed, and then returned to his meal until another topic came to mind.

"So, what are the rest of you planning to do next?" He wondered.

Zelene looked off in the distance, "Well, maybe I can say 'Hi' to big sis before she returns to class."

"I'm pretty certain all the teachers eat in their offices." Damian pointed out.

"Oh…" Zelene muttered with her head hanging like an injured puppy, before trying to lift it up and smile, "Well…I bet she's going back home after school. I'll catch her then."

"Hey! Speaking of catch, I'm gonna try and hit the field!" Serra declared, warranting no further response from her family.

Damian however, said "So I guess I'm…going with her" again warranting no further response.

Leo then closed his eyes and remarked, "I have no particular plans at the moment. Zelene, want to join me in touring the school?"

"I guess…" She glanced to her right briefly and sighed.

"I'm just glad I won't have to sit in that stuffy classroom for the rest of the day! Hee hee!" Serra grinned.

After the four finished their lunches they went their separate ways, with Serra making a beeline for the field with Damian just barely keeping pace.

"D-Do you even know where we're going, Serra?!" He proclaimed.

She kept running backwards while proclaiming, "Of course! When it comes to sports, my eyes are like a compass!"

"That…Oh bother..." Exasperated, Damian ran after her in full confidence after a point.

But just as Serra was about to round her way down the last hall, she collided with another student and toppled them straight to the ground.

Slamming her heels into the floor to slide around the corner, she turned right back around and shouted, "Whoops! Sorry 'bout that! You alright?"

As she leaned in to help, she was left staring at the girl's super bright pink hair, the side bangs coiled into cutesy curls. She wore a white and pink blouse with puffy shoulders and a night blue knee-length skirt with a white star pattern.

Fitting, cause it looked like she was seeing stars at the moment.

Damian approached cautiously and asked, "Should we take her to the nurse's office?"

"NONSENSE!" The girl's arm sprang to life, and the rest of her followed soon after, landing on a lean-in pose with her tongue sticking out and her fingers held in a "V" in front of her right eye.

"'Tis hardly a worry for a starlit princess of magic!"

"Uuuuuuhhh…" Damian and Serra uttered in unison.

The girl became more upright and fanned her fingers before her mouth, "What's this? Your eyes stutter in disbelief? 'Tis true though! I, Selina Perlwhite, am an incredible (pending) magical girl!"

She twirled energetically, but ended up tripping over her heels and falling backwards into the corner of the nearby locker.

"Owie!" She stumbled forward and grabbed the back of her head, while Damian was left to wince.

He reached out to her, "A-Are you…?"

Selina reached out and laughed it off, "'Tis but a scratch! I-I am fine!"

She then stood upright grinning and gleaming in her bright purple eyes, "Well, 'tis was a pleasure meeting my fellow students! Perhaps another day our paths shall cross like constellations in the night, and I can demonstrate my power!"

"Bye-bye!" As she spun around and ran off, there was a clear red stain growing in the back of her hair.

"W-Wait…!" Damian shouted, but the girl was far gone.

Serra continued to hold a vacant stare as she summed up this whole encounter for both of them, "That was weird."

But then pumped her fists and remarked, "But I like her enthusiasm! Makes me even more pumped to get to work!"

And then she was off running so quickly that Damian had to do a double-take before chasing after her.

They made their way outside and were blown back by how much bigger the outdoor section of the school was up close.

There had to be a field available for every major sport, plus they managed to find extra space for a couple tennis courts. Honestly, it wouldn't be that surprising to find a golf course.

Damian whistled, "Damn, the school really didn't squander on the President's spending bill did they?"

Serra leaned out and pivoted around with her fists on her hips, "Alright! Who am I gonna take on first?"

Damian walked past her and said, "If you need me...I'll be working on my art at those benches."

Serra broke off her search to give him a high-five send-off, "You got it, buddy!"

She then gave a firm stare towards the fields, locking down one in particular when she heard some powerful grunts.

There was a football team out in full doing practice.

"Heh heh," Grinning like a collector finding a rare figure, Serra rose and punched her palm, "'Tis the season after all!"

She ran straight out onto the field waving her hand with a disarmingly high degree of friendliness behind her shout, "Hey there, I'm ready to toss some pigskins whenever you are!"

One of the players rose up from practicing snaps with the quarterback and immediately started snickering, "Hey bro, look. We got an eager new recruit."

The quarterback stopped his running stance and tucked the football under his arm. He was a black dude with a bit of stubble on his chin, shaved hair, and a somewhat rigid jawline. He had the right muscles for his position, nothing too crazy for his age, but pretty impressive nonetheless.

He took to Serra's appearance barely containing a snicker, but at least made some attempt to not shoo her away immediately, "I'm thinkin' you're in the wrong zone. The cheerleading quarters are back inside."

Serra stopped in place and nodded, "Good to know! I'll say hi to them later!"

The quarterback and his partner looked at each other with a couple blinks as Serra started stretching in front of them.

"Wait, you serious?" The quarterback chuckled.

"Serious as serious can get!" She stood up and started hopping back and forth in place, "Gimme any position, and I'll show you what I'm made of!"

"Ok first off, that ain't my call," The quarterback remarked, then gestured his thumb at the rest of his team, "Second, see my bros there?"

Serra glanced at them slamming their burly bodies against each other, grunting and filling the air with testosterone.

The quarterback's tone got a little more condescending, "Can't you tell you're…missing something?"

"Heh heh heh." Him and the other guy said while looking at each other.

"Hmmm…" Serra thought it over with a smile and then widened her eyes, "Oh! DUH!"

She slapped her forehead and then grabbed the zipper of her jacket.

The football players watched her pull it down and casually take the jacket off, revealing she had a blue sports bra underneath and a toned stomach that she was personally proud of.

She ran over to set the jacket on the bench and then walked back cracking her knuckles along the way, "Alright, freed that up…! Now I can put on my equipment!"

The two football players were going from amused to annoyed pretty quick.

"Dude, Bang, she's not budging."

The quarterback pulled him aside and whispered, "Look, we'll just play along, she won't last. Trust me, dude."

He then turned to Serra and told her, "Alright, you want to practice with us?"

"Actually, I was looking to join the team!" She declared.

Finally, more of the football players stopped what they were doing and were left wondering, "Yo, Bang, did we hear that right?"

"Get out! She's too scrawny to be here!"

"SHHH!" Bang hushed them up, then faced Serra while tossing the ball in his hand, "First you need to practice."

"Heh! Guess I gotta prove my mettle to y'all! Alright…bring it on!"

Bang then turned to the opposite end of the field and held the ball back, "Fine, first step is to catch this ball."

With the ball hiding his ugly smirk, he flung the ball in a purposefully low arc so that by the time he suspected she'd reach it, she'd end up sliding into the dirt.

However, by the time he blinked she had already darted out and caught the ball against her chest, spinning around to raise it up high and declaring, "Got it!"

While the rest of his team was pausing in silence, Bang's eyes froze for a good while before shooting out of their sockets, "BWUH…?!"

He slowly turned to the rest of his team, giving him the stink eye. With a biting nervous grin he threw his hands out and remarked, "I-I wasn't going to be THAT rude, come on dudes, lay off!"

Serra tapped him on the back with the football until he turned around, staring at her innocently unaware smile, "What's next, QB?"

"Ghhh…" Gritting his teeth, Bang looked to his immediate left and pointed at the training dummy, "Knock that down."

"Sounds good!" She declared, then prepared to take a running start.

Of course, the football players looked at her arms and legs and sure, she had put a little work in, but not enough to knock down a fully-trained football player.

With proper form, Serra slammed into the dummy and knocked it down like it was a can on top of a table, sending it rolling across to the edge of the field.

Bang slowly crossed his arms, smiled, but inside he was screaming internally.

"Bro…" Another player approached cautiously.

"Wwwwwwwhaaat?!" Bang shouted with a hint of a higher pitch showing at the beginning, and with a flabbergasted flaring of his eyes he remarked, "Clearly…the dummy wasn't filled!"

"That what we rollin' with?" One of the players slipped up in saying.

"YES!" Bang said with barely contained fury.

Serra then planted her hand on his shoulder, sending a chill down his spine as he looked back to see her raring to go again.

"Am I on the team yet?"

Bang's eyes widened while he sucked in his lips. And thus he continued and failed to put her through the wringer.

Punting? She kicked the ball out of the schoolyard.

Passing? She nearly bowled over the person she threw it to.

Field goals? Some say the ball is still bouncing between both sides of the goal post to this day…

And it became increasingly harder for the team to keep up a collective lie regarding how this keeps happening.

It got to the point where one of the players approached Bang, shivering with fear.

"Hey HEY, what's the big idea, bro?" Bang remarked with a hint of concern.

"I-I'm starting to remember now…It was a memory I repressed ever since elementary school…! A blue-haired girl…cheerfully devastating every other track team in seconds…! SOLO…!"

The player grabbed the sides of his helmet and fell to his knees, "No Tim! Don't pass me the baton! Don't send me out to DIE!"

Bang grabbed him by the shoulders and started shaking him, "Get a HOLD of yourself, dude!"

Serra wedged herself between them with skin glistening with sweat and her grin making the other football player scream.

"AAAAH!"

"Aaaah!" She pumped her fist with a cheer, then turned to Bang wondering, "Well, am I on the team yet?"

Bang had had enough. This was no longer about gender roles. His teammates, his BROS, had been caught in the crossfire.

Gritting his teeth, he put his friend down and got into a defensive stance, still managing to hold the height advantage over this little blue-haired terror.

"You've gotten lucky so far, girl. But you will never, in a hundred years, be able to tackle me to the ground."

He closed his eyes in confidence and smiled. Everything else could be chalked up to a fluke, or sabotage. But what he's got…is 100% power and skill.

When he opened his eyes, he saw his teammates lined up in two rows and kneeling on a sideways ground.

"Uhhh, dudes, why are you all sideways?"

He looked up to see Serra had him pinned to rights. His body lied there, same posture and everything, his defeat captured for all to see.

And most damning of all, she flashed him with that same carefree but demonic smile as she said, "That was easy! So…am I on the team now?"

Bang's eyes widened all the way as his internal screaming broke free in the form of a high-pitched, deflating shriek.

From afar, Damian watched this unfold with a happy laugh, smiling fondly at Serra's gusto taking center stage once again, "Looks like someone's learning about Serra for the first time."

She had drawn in a crowd, and he now felt like a mere spectator.

With a sigh and blush, he looked down at his drawing, attempting to draw Serra into the picture running a marathon on a track.

"...No, the hair's too short…Calves could be a little denser too…"

With the end of the afternoon break period came afternoon classes for the rest of the students.

Lunalei sat her mug down in her office and put her cleaned lunch box back into her bag. With a sigh she rubbed her temples and murmured, "Please let there be no more surprises...I want...a relatively CLEAN first day."

New class meant a new roster, so her experience with the first half will carry her forward.

She pulled out the new roster, hesitantly hovering it before her chest and looking the other way.

She hadn't taken the time to review it. This last hour was for destressing, eating, and filling out other paperwork for the rest of the week.

She glanced at the sheet from the corner of her eye but then shook her head, daring the devil in utter confidence, "Nah, what am I fretting over? Zelene, Serra, Leo, that's all of my relatives who could possibly be in high school right now."

"Well…there was Erin and Alex. But they moved out of state around the time I went to college…" She smiled fondly in their memory, "I hope they're doing well."

The clock struck on the hour and Lunalei fidgeted with her glasses before grabbing the same books from the morning and heading out.

The classroom was filling up with a bunch of new faces. The only one who stood out as troublesome was the pink haired girl in the front row.

Same as before, they were looking at her funny. How funny it was varied. But whatever.

One more black student slumped into the room wearing a football jersey and pants with chains in the pockets, and an old watch on his wrist.

"Ah, I heard about this one ahead of time. He's the star quarterback," Lunalei raised her brow as he took a seat, "Geez, looks like he crawled away from a murder scene."

Once their eyes met though she could tell he was going to try and be the funniest funny man of the whole clown crew.

She patiently put an arm behind her back and remarked, "Alright, get it out while it's fresh in your head."

The quarterback chuckled, "Nah, I think I'll keep it…short."

The other students collectively giggled, with a fellow football player bumping his knuckles.

"Cute," Lunalei said dryly, "I hope your wit will reflect your grades, Big Shot."

"Ooooo scary." The quarterback fanned his hands up.

"I will-!" Lunalei hid a scowl behind the student roster, "No. Not stooping to his level."

She took a deep breath and then held the list before her face, "Alright, time to take attendance."

She went through the first few with no issue only to pause and say one to herself, "Alex Dark…?"

She then held that confusion while saying it louder, "Alex Dark?"

The gloomy boy with bangs covering one eye raised his hand, "Here."

Lunalei swore at that moment that she's been cursed with bad luck, "G-Great…"

And if there was an Alex, then the one-two punch from lady luck would be to give her…

"Erin Dark?" She called her name pleasantly, because if nothing else, Erin was easy to deal with.

"Yo! Right here, short stuff!" The moment that was said, Lunalei's gaze drooped, and she looked in the direction of the raised hand.

And her heart jumped, "EX-Cuuuuuse me?!"

Erin looked confident, and why wouldn't she be?

She was tall.

She was wearing a biker's jacket.

And those breasts…they were obscene!

"Bullshit! I call BULLSHIT! Where'd all this come from?! Last I checked, she was…NOT THIS! Is this some genetic…super lottery?!"

As Lunalei got distracted by this insecure rage Erin cupped her hands around her mouth and teased, "Hey cuz! Got the first day jitters?"

"Grrr…" Hateful as she felt, Lunalei knew she had to focus or the students would never let her live this down.

So she resumed going through the roster at a normal pace until…

"Selina Perlwhite? Huh…" A click of familiarity rang in her head, "Odd name…"

The pink haired girl raised her hand and was shaking nervously, "H-Here!"

Lunalei paused and asked her calmly, "Nervous?"

"K-Kind of, big…teacher!" Selina replied with a gulp.

"Kiiiiiss assss." Hummed one of the students.

Lunalei rolled her eyes and told the girl, "Well. I'm all ears if you need any help settling in. High school is rough. I get it."

"Ok…! Thank you verily much!" Selina declared with a salute.

Lunalei then sighed and continued down the roster to the last name, "Violet?"

For the first time, she didn't get an answer. And now, noticed there was an empty desk.

"..." She pulled a pen from her pocket and noted the tardiness down, "There's always one…"

Then she went through the same speech as before and followed up with the introductions to the material they'd be covering.

No more shenanigans...for now.

Frankly, she was just as glad to have them out of the classroom as they were to be out.

However, Erin stuck behind and stood up in front of her desk as she was cleaning up.

Her height imposing over her, Lunalei looked up and kept a cool head while adjusting her glasses, "So. Just moved back?"

"Yeeeep. Same goes for you?" Erin said, holding a tone of superiority throughout.

"...Have any questions?" Lunalei remarked, failing to focus on her paperwork when Erin slammed her hands on the desk and leaned in, chest hanging.

"I caught you looking. Jealous much?" Erin smugly smiled.

Lunalei furrowed her brows and uttered dully, "Wow. Congrats."

"What are you now? 20? Looks like puberty took off like a bullet train and left you behind." Erin snickered as she stood.

"Is there a point to these lame intimidation tactics?" Lunalei pondered.

Erin closed her eyes in contentment and said, "Just wanted to make it clear where we stand, cuz. Cause all you got in this battle are your wits and frankly…"

"I'm gonna beat them so hard…they'll have to make an S-Grade to rank me," She then brushed her hair aside and turned around with a confident strut, "See you tomorrow. Sleep tight with your anime figures."

"Ugh…" Lunalei bemoaned, and now the only one left was Alex.

He rubbed the back of his head and sheepishly wondered, "Uhhh, want me to tell mom you said 'Hi'?"

"...Sure. Yeah. Sure. Thanks Alex."

He then tucked his hands in his pockets and followed Erin out.

Lunalei then slammed her face against the desk in a spectacular fashion to let out the loudest groan.

A few minutes later she grabbed everything she needed and left, locking the door behind.

And standing outside waiting for her was Zelene. For a brief moment, she remembered a little girl with a sunny disposition chasing after her, not this…fidgeting giant.

"...Hey, Zelene." Lunalei said in a friendly tone.

Zelene turned with a bag in hand and remarked, "...Are you all done, sis?"

"Yeah. God, talk about a stressful day…" The two of them started walking together, "I can't wait to get home and crash."

"So you…ARE coming home?" Zelene wondered.

"DUH. The job contract didn't come with a free house y'know."

Zelene could be heard saying under her breath, "That's a relief…"

She then perked up a little and said, "Mom and dad will be so happy to see you."

"Yeah, when I called mom during lunch she was elated. She also told me my room was as clean as I left it."

As they got near the front door Lunalei turned and wondered, "So Zelene, what kind of car are you driving?"

"I-I'm sorry…?" Zelene stared, completely at a loss.

"...Don't you have a car?" Lunalei asked with legitimate sincerity.

"Why would I have a car?"

"...Uhhhh, I assumed you'd have gotten your driver's license by now."

"...No, sis." Zelene said with disappointment towards them both.

"Oh. Hmmmm…" Lunalei did her paces until Zelene spoke up, "You can catch the bus with me."

"Ouuugh, fine. I was hoping it could just be us though…" Lunalei rubbed the back of her head and sighed.

"Let's go then. The sooner I'm out, the better."

"Oh sis…" Zelene murmured fondly, "It's good to have you back."

As they went out the door Lunalei turned to her and smiled, "You know…I needed that. Thanks."

Thus ended their first day of school. Next stop…home!

Next Time: Re-Meet the Parents