Despite having stood up for herself, Calista’s spirits and confidence had plummeted. The next day, she avoided the cafeteria, choosing to eat in her room, and she tried finding the longest, least busy ways to her classes. She kept a brave face for her family, not wanting to worry them. They didn’t need to know about those girls.
She thought she could gain some sort of respect by showing her confidence and pretending the remarks of her past life didn’t bother her, but it seemed that the opposite happened. The more of herself she showed, the more foolish she was.
Geija and Alka were in her Fighting Discipline class, but since it was a Theory class, they couldn’t do much. Flix was in her Weapon Use class, so Calista did her best to avoid being paired with her whenever they did combat practice.
Thankfully, Geija didn’t complain about her out-of-bounds injury, probably out of pride. How shameful would it be to admit that a weak, wimpy Socializer had broken her nose! While Paeseoan bones were stronger than humans’, their nasal bones were still easy to damage, especially when taken by surprise.
Calista’s revenge still came with a price, though. Her knuckles had practically shattered. She’d feared getting in trouble if she went to the infirmary, so she settled for a slow bone repairer she had in her dorm’s first-aid kit. It looked like a weird, bulky brace on her fingers for a few days, which she hated.
She avoided using her dominant hand in Practicum classes, causing her coaches to holler at her more frequently when she missed a punch. They encouraged students to ‘live with the pain’ and continue fighting with broken bones. The girl desperately needed to up her pain tolerance.
It had been five days since the incident, and Calista kept a low profile the whole week through, even reversing the customized uniforms and the look of her room. If she didn’t add more fuel to the gossip flame, maybe she’d be able to survive until finals week. Not even a month into her stay in the academy, and she’d made plenty of enemies in her attempts to make friends.
Her old habits stuck to her like Aelket slime. She had a few strengths in her fighting; she memorized routines well, her balance had improved, and her flexibility was always above average. But her strikes were too gentle and she moved more like a dancer than a fighter. Coach Tostama would tap her legs and her fists, reminding her, “This isn’t a ballet class, Miss Medley.”
After the Multi Dutch incident, Calista was determined to be more of a fighter. Her Break periods were dedicated to the Training Center or the Studitorium. After Guild Training, she worked out at her dorm. Her diet no longer had vanilla-berry lattes or weight-therapy ingredients. She tried her best not to use Socializer slang whenever she talked to Belinda or Camelithia, who were still loyal to her… for some reason.
“You’re gonna have to face them sooner or later,” Lindsay told her the morning of October 21st. Calista was eating omelets with grilled tomato slices and pork strips on the side. “Hiding from your enemies isn’t a good look.”
“I’m not hiding. I’m just being smart. I have the right to eat in peace,” she said, drinking her reduced fat milk. She hated the taste of it, but it was what AIDA recommended.
“Even so, after the way you retaliated, Geija should be hiding. Not you. You told her you’re scared of her, even if it’s not true. You can’t avoid her, or Rosalina, or anyone else forever.”
“I just don’t want to eat down there anymore.”
“You were doing so well-”
“Lindsay, I don’t want the lecture, okay?” Calista snapped. “I don’t need you to tell me everything I’m doing wrong!”
Lindsay detached from Calista’s belt and flew in front of her face, forcing her to lean back. Her digital, blue eyes narrowed in anger. “I’m just telling you, as your Pet, that being super brave and confident one day and then hiding the next day is not how a fighter should act!” she said. “You think that, if Rosalina Wiasod got pranked like you, she would hide the next day? No! She’d pretend it never happened, and intimidate the bugs out of whoever messed with her.”
“I’m not Rosalina.”
Lindsay’s angry eyes turned red. “You’re a fighter. Concentrate less on what you eat and wear and more on your presence!”
“Belinda Adenifi and Camelithia Courier are requesting to enter,” AIDA interrupted.
“Get back on my belt.”
Lindsay huffed. “Fine. But remember the Versus Anthem.”
“What?”
“‘You need eyes on the back of your head, listen to the voice of your Pet’,” she quoted the traditional song that fans usually belted out at the competition. “I’m more than just a robot, you know.” She retracted into Calista’s belt.
“Let them in,” Calista told the AIDA.
The two entered. “Hey, sweet. We wanted to ask if you wanted to go for a ‘girls’ night’ after classes,” said Camelithia. “We haven’t seen much of you since what happened.”
“How’s your hand?” Belinda asked.
“All better.” Calista flexed her fingers. All that was left was a bit of scarring. Normally, she would’ve freaked out and searched for anti-scarring therapy, but she did her best to ignore it now. “What kind of girls’ night?” she inquired.
“Nothing big, just spending time in the Favorites’ Lounge. I’m going to add Belinda as a guest,” Cam answered.
“We have a Favorites’ Lounge?”
“Yes,” Dropkick chuckled. “You didn’t know? Harrison never told you?”
“I… I guess not.”
“It’s great,” Belinda gushed. “They have everything. A huge HARP, mini-Studitorium, simulation games. God, I wish I was a Favorite. You wanna go, Cali?”
“I dunno…” Lindsay cleared her throat— or imitated the sound, anyway. Calista sighed, glaring down subtly, and said, “Yeah, okay.”
“You sure? You don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”
“None of those girls are Favorites, so you don’t have to worry about them. And Hothead barely drops in.”
“No, I’ll go. We’ll meet up after school.”
“Great! You good with us staying? Keep you company?” Belinda offered.
For the first time in a week, Calista smiled. “Thanks, guys.”
===
There weren’t too many people in the Favorites’ Lounge, which brought relief to the ex-Socializer. A few Zeta members, sporting their blue Guild uniforms, played a light combat minigame in one corner. Other students sat in the HARP room watching a Phoenix game. Some Epsilon members with red patches ate in another corner.
Eyes turned to the three girls when they entered, but didn’t go further than intimidating stares. Camelithia strutted to one of the minigame modules. “What do you girls want to do?” she asked. “Play something? Eat something?”
“I guess… play a game?” said Calista.
Camelithia stepped into the boundary, activating the module. “Let’s see… there’s a lot of games. Even better, we get more selections than non-Favorites. Early releases, archives, and such.”
“What’s ‘archives’?”
“Old games that nobody plays. Other modules don’t have them installed, but we do.” Cam opened another section to show them. “Might as well uninstall them altogether, though. No one will play these… except our parents, maybe.”
A familiar flash caught Calista’s eye. “Wait, stop! Go back a few… there.”
“DanceSim?” Belinda read.
“How is that an ‘old game’? There’s a tournament, like, every year. Everyone plays it.”
Some nearby students laughed, shaking their heads at the girl. “Everyone plays it!” a boy imitated her with a high-pitched voice.
“Not anyone here,” Cam answered her.
“No one dances here?”
“Maybe, but they don’t play the game,” said Belinda.
Calista glanced around, shame rising, and nodded. “It’s fine, I get it. We can play something else.”
“We can play it if you want,” said Camelithia. “No big deal.”
“It’s fine. If it’s not popular here-”
“Nonsense. We’re playing it.” She glared at the nearby spectators and loaded the game.
“I’m not really good at dancing… I can just watch you guys play.” Belinda stepped back shyly.
“We’re all playing. Come on, Bel, it’s just a game.”
The girl hesitated, but conceded, stepping into the boundary. Laughing eyes faced their direction as they picked a song.
“I don’t know any of these,” said Cam as she browsed the song selection.
“Ooh, let’s pick this one!” Calista selected ‘Tune Of Dreams’ by Girlies 4ever. “And let’s make it Freeze Dance! It’s so much fun.” To accommodate her friends, she tapped the ‘Easy’ mode, which would include a tutorial.
“Follow the dancer as precisely as you can. When the music stops, freeze in your position! Moving will lower your score. If you score lower than 40%, you lose! The moves will get faster and more difficult as the song progresses.”
Cam shrugged. “Easy enough.”
“Hmm, maybe. You’re dancing against a longtime DanceSim fan.” Calista stretched with a smug look on her face.
“I smell a challenge.” The Eta Favorite smirked at her. “Careful, Calista. You don’t want me to humiliate you.”
“Oh, I’m not the one who should be careful,” she replied.
“While you both are losing, I’ll be the dark horse with the high score,” said Belinda.
“I thought you ‘couldn’t dance’?”
“Maybe I can.”
The song began with slow and easy moves; sensual steps forward, swaying hips, gliding arms that circled around them like angel’s wings. Calista sang the words under her breath, concentrating fully on the dancer. She’d forgotten about all the other Favorites in the room, who watched curiously.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
The song paused and the trio froze. “So it’s like Freeze Race, only dancing. It’s binary code,” Camelithia said confidently.
At the second chorus, the dance moves got more difficult to follow, but the three girls were doing good. Calista, however, being the most flirtatious one, had a 10% higher score than the other two. They froze again.
“I like this song. It’s different,” Camelithia commented.
“It’s sung by real people, you know. It’s not AI,” Calista told her.
“Really? That’s pretty good. Human singers?”
“Yup.”
Calista won the first round with a 97% score while the other two got an 89% and a 72%. Cam shrugged and said, “Well played.”
“It’s not done yet.”
The song restarted at a faster pace. The two fighters quickly tried to keep up while Calista casually aced the complicated moves thrown at them. The song paused while they leaned precariously to their sides. Belinda wobbled a bit too wildly, causing her score to drop below 40%, and she was eliminated. She huffed and stepped off the platform as the song resumed.
Camelithia panted, glancing at Calista as she tried to mimic the dancer. A kick, a spin, a plié. Then a quick, spinning jump. The dancer pushed herself to her toes like a ballerina and the song paused. Calista copied the hologram with ease, but the Seeyastian wobbled off-balance and fell on her rear. Her score plummeted.
“What is this, the theater?” She stepped off.
Calista expertly finished the fast song, not missing a beat, and replicated the dancer’s image almost perfectly whenever she froze. Once it finished, her name popped up in huge letters to announce her high score, which beat out previous high scores from over a decade ago.
To her surprise, an audience had formed. People clapped for her, impressed by her skill. She smiled and took a graceful bow. “Wanna go again, girli- I mean, girls?”
“How was that Easy mode?” said Belinda. “You cheated.”
Calista laughed. “You wish.”
“We’ll prove it. Let’s go again.” Cam slapped a hand on Belinda’s shoulder.
“What?!”
“Oh, I’m doing Hard mode now.”
“That was Hard mode. We’re just first-timers. We’ll try again and beat you.”
“Alright, Dropkick.” Calista picked another song by Climax of an Atom.
“You should’ve gone to dance school instead of fighting school, pinkie,” a boy teased. “That’s something you’re actually good at.”
“Why, thank you,” Calista responded, finding some new confidence after her performance. She slammed the screen, initiating the difficult round. The two girls stepped back on the platform.
“Maybe her call sign will be ‘Dancer’,” a girl said behind them.
“You only get a call sign if you get on the team. By the time she gets hers, we’ll have graduated.” Some laughter followed.
The song began and the girls stared hard at the dancer, doing their best to copy the moves exactly. Once the music paused, they were still as statues. Even so, Calista’s score was a lot higher.
“We can give her a little nickname while she’s here,” someone else said.
“What about ‘girlie’? She says that all the time.”
Another pause in the song. Calista held her arms up as she stood in a sort of tree pose. Belinda was shaking a bit too much, but kept her score above the line. The three of them panted heavily.
“Okay, I’ll give you credit,” she said. “Your dancing skills— they’re not bad.” They resumed.
“You’re not as impressive as you thought, humie,” said a girl. “Anyone can dance.”
“Wasn’t talking to you, glitch,” Calista muttered under her breath. She then said aloud, “I’d like to see you try. I can do this all day.”
The sped-up song was what did them in. Camelithia slipped and fell when it started. Belinda lasted a little longer, but soon mixed up the moves and killed her score. The routine finished with Calista leaping in the air and cobra-kicking at the screen, her foot colliding with the hologram’s. A golden ripple spread through the screen and revealed her name as the winner.
“Alright, you win.” Cam wiped her forehead. “That was admittedly tough.”
“I’m the Dancing Queen.” Calista tossed her high ponytail and smiled at the crowd. “Who’s next?”
“I’d give it a try, but I’ve got SC stuff to do.” The crowd parted, revealing a familiar pair of sapphire blues under brown curls. He strutted over, smiling at the girl. “I didn’t know you could dance.”
“You don’t know a lot of things about me,” she said.
“I’ll say. I haven’t seen you outside of class or Guild Training. Busy?”
“Very. First break I’ve taken in a while.”
“That’s good. Studying and training is great and all, but you gotta take it easy. Give yourself a chance to unwind, ‘kay?”
She nodded. “Hey, you never told me we had a Favorites’ Lounge.”
“I thought you knew already. It’s on the tour. But now that you know, we can hang out here more often. Outside of training.”
A strange beeping then sounded, confusing her. She looked around for the source. “That you?”
“I think that’s… you.” Harrison pointed down at Lindsay, who was still nestled in her belt. “Lindsay, right?”
“Lindsay? That’s your Pet’s name?” a male student laughed.
“Who’s talking to you, bughead?” Harrison glared at him, instantly shutting him up. He wasn’t from the top Guilds, so he was easy to scare off.
“Linds? What are you doing?” Calista asked her Pet.
“Don’t mind me,” she said. “Just downloading your new moves list. You gave me a lot to work with.”
“I did?”
“You did.” Harrison patted her shoulder. “I’ll tell you at training tomorrow.”
===
“Hey, human. I heard of your little dance contest last night. Who would’ve thought you’d be good at something?”
Calista glanced briefly at Rosalina and ignored her, squeezing through the crowd of Guild members to get to her training room. The top Favorite flashed her fangs in amusement.
“I suppose it makes up for the ridiculous Multi Dutch game. Honestly, I’ve never seen someone glitch up so terribly in such an easy round.”
“How do you know about that?” Calista asked her.
“Word gets around. And a remix was broadcasted on the academy Hub.” She pulled up her AIDA band, which showed an altered recording of Calista hysterically jumping and running in the game map.
“I didn’t know there was an academy Hub,” she said, trying to hide her mortification.
“Surprising. Isn’t that your life?” Rosalina put down her AIDA band.
“It was. Besides, that broadcast missed the part when I punched Geija in the face.”
She scoffed. “That girl is one of the worst students in the lower Guilds. Punching her is not impressive.”
“I broke Paeseoan bones.”
“You broke her nose. Anyone can do that. Anyway… why didn’t you use the same skill you used last night?” Rosalina now showed the recording of Calista’s dance-off with the girls. Even the human girl herself was surprised. She didn’t realize she was such an accurate dancer. “Unless this was fake?”
“I’m glad you’re so impressed that you thought I was faking it.” Calista attempted a smile. “It’s very real. I’d like to see you try that.”
Rosalina chuckled. “Careful, human,” she said. “You do not want to give me another opportunity to beat the glitches out of you. I will admit I underestimated you the first time we sparred, but I know how you fight now. You are far too predictable.”
Calista shook her head and went to her training room. That glitch wasn’t worth her time. She was just trying to psych her out.
“You should go to dance school, Socializer,” Rosalina called after her. “Don’t humiliate yourself further in this academy.”
Inside, Harrison was already doing his stretches. He glanced at her and said, “Hey.”
“Hey.” She got down on the mat next to him and also started stretching. The exercise would hopefully put Rosalina out of her mind.
“You did good in class today,” he said, referring to their Teamwork period that morning.
“Thanks.”
“And I saw you at breakfast for the first time in a while. Where have you been eating all week?”
“In my room. I wanted a bit of peace and quiet.”
“Well, I heard about what happened the other day, with the Multi Dutch thing.” He arched his back into a bridge.
Calista sighed. “Yeah, Rosalina showed me. I should’ve figured they’d do that.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t know.”
“Oh, why, because I’m such a Socializer that I have to know every bit of gossip around school? I can’t take a break every now and then?”
He looked at her, confused at the sudden, snappy tone. “No, that’s not what I meant.” He relaxed his stretch. “Is that why you’ve been so quiet these last few days?”
“I just wanted a break from everyone. I should spend more time studying and stuff.” She sat down with her legs straight, stretching her arms out to touch her toes.
“What made you do the dance game last night?” Harrison asked her.
“Cam and Belinda.”
“Did you have fun?”
“Yeah, it was fun.”
“People are talking about that, too, you know. I saw you there. You were pretty good.”
“No one cares about that. It’s just a ditzy dance game,” she said unconvincingly. “I only played it because… I don’t know.”
Harrison relaxed, a smile playing with his lips. “So what are you trying to do?”
“What?”
“After the Double Dutch thing, you locked yourself down. You’re up in your room, you’re not talking to anyone, you’re over-training. Then you’re pretending not to like dancing when you’re very good at it.”
“Yeah, people keep telling me to ‘go to dance school’. But I don’t want to go to dance school, I want to go to fighting school. I want people to see me as a fighter, so I’m acting like one.”
“Changing yourself because a bunch of glitchheads made fun of you isn’t what a fighter does.” He stood. “Shows what they know. Come on.”
She followed him. “Then what do I do? I’m too much of a ‘Socializer’ if I’m being myself, I’m too much of a wannabe if I act like a fighter-”
“You’re not acting like a fighter, you’re just pretending to be someone you’re not. If you had just kept being as confident and outgoing as you were before, it would’ve been better.”
“Told you,” Lindsay butt in.
“Shut up, or I’m locking you in my dorm.” Calista tapped the Pet sphere on her belt.
“Watch this.” Harrison pulled up a recording on the HARP-ED screen across the room. Calista stared at it, watching an old match from the Versus 2314. Two unfamiliar female fighters battled in a classic arena; 1-on-1 battles didn’t take place in atmospheric simulations until a decade later.
“Who are they?” she asked.
“One of them is a top. You should recognize her.”
Calista looked closer, studying one of the fighter’s features. She was an Emitonian, her large eyes narrowed in concentration.
“Is that… the president?”
“Cruella Chrisman, 40 Earth years ago.” Harrison zoomed in on the two.
“And who’s fighting her?”
“That’s one of the dark horses of the era. Irenna ‘Lalaasa’ Kalley. Her call sign was named after the fighting style she used. It’s a Kwantanese discipline.”
Calista watched Chrisman’s opponent closely. “Kalley… I know that name.”
“That’s our vice president’s older sister. Benson Kalley?”
She covered her mouth. “How did I not realize that?”
Harrison chuckled. “Look how she’s fighting.”
Calista stepped forward, her eyes on the green-skinned woman bearing Kwantan’s white, orange, and blue colors. Her green eyes widened when she realized the way the woman moved; she was dancing.
Pirouettes, jumps, and steps were incorporated into her offense, seemingly confusing her opponent, who was trying to block and predict her moves, but failed to do so.
“That’s allowed?”
“It’s called ‘Lalaasa’,” Harrison told her. “That’s her call sign, like I said. Kwantan created it so they could have their own original culture, you know, since the planet didn’t have a native species. But when the Versus started, it wound up being a fighting style instead of an art style.”
“Do people use it a lot?”
“Not in recent years, no. But you could.”
“You think?”
“Like I said, Cali, you were pretty good in that dance game. You need to work on some things, but it shouldn’t be that hard for you. Now you see. Fighting isn’t just punching and kicking super hard and acting all ‘ooh, I’m big and tough and scary’.”
Calista watched Irenna dance around her opponent gracefully while also hitting her hard, forcing her back into the wall. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
“Irenna won that Versus,” Harrison continued. “Now she’s headmistress of Kwantan’s top school. You can bet that she and Chrisman aren’t friends.”
“I thought Chrisman won.”
“Yeah, the one before that. This loss hit her hard. She didn’t expect a dance fight.” He shut the recording off. “Always remember. There are thousands of ways to fight. Thousands of offense moves, defense moves, escapes. So don’t ever say you can’t move, because there’s always a way you can.”
“What if I don’t remember what to do?”
“You will, because you’ll work on your muscle memory. HARP-ED, play Versus Match #3293, year 2346.”
Another recording popped up of two male fighters in a strange map made of discs flying all over. One was a Dnilian, his coal-black skin matching his brown and beige armor. His green veins pulsed with energy. On the other side was a fighter dressed in the blue and green of Earth.
Calista stood, taking a closer look. That was… “That’s you?”
“That’s me. I was 14 back then. This is the quarter-final.”
Calista watched in awe as he maneuvered around the Dnilian’s powerful kicks. He was like a ribbon, weaving in and out of every attack. When he went on offense, he jumped high in the air and kicked repeatedly at his opponent’s face.
“I used an Ilamikoan style called koksan. It focuses on kicks. I was a scrawny bug back then, so it was easy.”
“But how did you…?”
“I had a lot of practice, so I knew lots of disciplines. I just used what I knew and figured out a way to counter whatever he was doing.”
The human girl watched with an open mouth. “You’re amazing.”
“Thanks.” His voice gave no hint of modesty.
“Wait, you were 14? You’re supposed to be 15 to go to fighting school.”
His arrogance grew immensely. “Let’s just say I practiced a lot when I was a kid.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’ve got a hacking ego,” she muttered.
He laughed. “I had a friend, who knew a guy, who knew the Dean back in ‘41. I impressed him enough, beat some powerful opponents. I was… maybe 10. I got in the Junior Versus, won that year. No one talks about it, though. They put me in early for a non-Versus career. After a year, I transferred to the Versus branch. And you know the rest from there. I was supposed to be Student Coach since ‘46, but…” He shrugged. “At least I’m a Coach now.”
“You were 10? How old are you now?”
“18.” He turned off the screen. “So now you know. Anyone can fight. You don’t have an excuse. The only thing stopping you from fighting is you. Not Hothead, not the other Guild members, not your ex-friends. No one. One thing you have to unlearn from being a Socializer— people’s opinions don’t matter. What matters is how well you fight.”
“Don’t you guys have critics and fans, too?”
“Okay, maybe some people’s opinions matter.”
Calista snorted.
“But whether it’s positive or negative, you either prove them right or prove them wrong. That’s up to you.”
“Could you put the ‘lasa’ fight again?” she asked.
“Lalaasa,” Harrison corrected with a laugh. “HARP-ED, play Versus Match #1898, year 2314.”
Calista watched the Paeseoan fighter with admiration. Her blood ran hot with the desire to train, as if urging her to get to the CD-Sim and practice right that second.
“That’s why that game helped me update,” Lindsay told her. “The moves you were doing resembled that style. I can incorporate myself pretty easily into those moves if you use them. Helps up your damage and defense.”
“Lalaasa,” she whispered. If she could prove everyone in the academy wrong— even better, she could do it using what they were teasing her about. She was too ‘girly’, too ‘flighty’ and ‘stupid’.
What an utter slap to the face this would be.