Elizabeth woke up to some good news in the morning. Her channel had just reached 1,200 fans. As Calista progressed through the prelims, more people started watching her. She was pleasantly surprised when she saw many fans of the SociaLights on her list, having defected from the other channel.

1,200 fans in three days wasn’t that impressive, but she didn’t expect so much after the deplorable start.

Apparently, since she left, the channel had decreased in popularity. The girls hardly had anything to talk about, so they would mostly spend their time bashing Calista and Elizabeth. The new girl, Litzy, had become another version of Elizabeth; shy, overlooked, and silenced by the other two— three, in this case. The other replacement, Jamie, had the same personality and disposition as Danica and Rebecca. At least Calista was likable.

After her reaction broadcast to the final round, which came with a lot of squealing and yelling, she updated her new fans with a final overview and opinion on the preliminaries as a whole. She’d taken the time to follow Calista and the rest of her team. Being the big ‘Socializer who became a fighter’, it would be the start of what Elizabeth hoped was a new era. She could follow many other Socializers-turned-fighters who were afraid to do so due to the pressure of most of the community.

“Hey… everyone.” She waved hesitantly and muttered, “I’ve got to work on that.” She plastered a smile on her face, her nerves getting more frazzled as the viewer counter already went up to 12. “So… we saw the final! Uber-awesome! And as always, our beloved Calista Medley was an absolute, stellar queen. It was really scary, though. I couldn’t imagine playing a game like Kidnap.”

Reactions came from her audience, agreeing with her. A chill ran down her spine. She was worried they wouldn’t be engaged for long enough.

“But let’s also look at the other members of the team. I’m gonna start with the humans— I don’t want to be species-biased, but you have to admit, not a lot of us get on-topic enough, and this is our home planet.” She winced a bit. Maybe that sounded a little aggressive. “Ahem. So, Charlotte Petz is one that didn’t make it to the Earth team, but she did such a great job.”

The brown-skinned girl with shiny black curls appeared next to her, using her scan from the Solo rounds. Her stats measured her speed, strength, agility, weapon use, and effectiveness of her fighting technique. The stats weren’t definitive scores for every fighter, but they gave the audience an idea of what kind of contenders they were.

“Charlotte, girlie-” She stopped. She sounded way too much like Danica. “I mean… uh… Charlotte. You probably won’t see this, but you did an uber-amazing job. You made the Fistborn team, and that’s what’s important. Great, great job. What you did with your Pet, making it into a… glove… explosion thing. That was so awesome. Keep going, girl.”

She then reviewed Hammerhead, who was a Mercearthian, and then the other members of Team 3 that were cut. She didn’t mind being a little passive-aggressive towards Geija and Alka, since she’d seen what they’d done to Calista at the academy, but she commended them nonetheless.

“Now let’s look at Damaris Delario!” she squealed. “Besides Calista, she’s the only other human on the team from Fistborn and the only non-Guild member there! I gotta say, I don’t know if that’s just coincidence, or if they really do get that much more training being in a Guild, but geez. I can’t believe Damaris is the only one. And she did amazing, didn’t she?” She was interrupted by a call.

“Danica Lavini is requesting a holo-call,” AIDA announced.

Elizabeth’s red brows raised. What would Danica want with her? “Looks like we have a guest call, everyone. From the SociaLights. Wonder what they want?” Hesitantly, she answered, glancing at her Pet camera.

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Danica’s form appeared before her, her arms crossed and her lips twisted. “Hi.”

“Hi? What do you want?” Elizabeth asked her.

“Rude much?” Danica flipped her hair. “Look. Becca and I have been talking about it, and we think… we wanted to give you a second chance.”

“A second chance?”

“It’s upsetting to know we won’t be going to NYWS together, but that really wasn’t your fault. They picked you. Now, with the Versus thing… that’s on you. But like I said, we want to give you another chance. We just hope you’ll realize how sick the game is.”

She frowned, confused. “I thought you got new girls?”

“We don’t like Litzy, and we can’t find any more replacements.”

“What’s wrong with Litzy?”

“She’s annoying. She always tries to see a ‘sympathetic’ side to the death game. She says she’s against it, but I think she’s caching. She’s also kind of… weird-looking. Like, that hair— it’s worse than yours. She has to use a bunch of stuff to straighten it. Anyway… we need a new SociaLight, so if you don’t mind being Loyalty instead of Freedom, we’re willing to re-invite you.” She flashed a big smile. “Then you’ll see what great friends you’d be missing out on. Not everyone gives second chances like this.”

Elizabeth stared at her. Was she really this horrible of a person? What was her motivation to be… this? Did she not hear herself at all?

“Um… thanks, but no thanks. I’ve got a pretty good channel right here. Lots of growth so far. And I like the Versus. I don’t want to stop watching it.”

Danica scoffed. “Your channel? The pathetic little speck in the Hub?”

“I’ve got 1,200 already.”

The other girl laughed. “Yeah, a speck! Elizabeth, you don’t have the charisma, talent, or personality to get people to like you. Face it, you’re nothing without us, and you’re not good at anything else. We’re giving you a second chance here! How are you gonna survive at NYWS without a real channel, huh? You’ll literally be the most unpopular girl in school. That school is all about popularity. We’re the reason you got that scholarship.”

“Then why didn’t you get it?”

“They ran out, okay? You got lucky. And Calista going to fight didn’t help our rep. But you need to wake up and realize we’re your only hope to be something important. Those 1,200 losers are just watching you out of pity. Unless you want us to turn the whole Hub against you, you should just come back and forget all this ever happened!”

“If I’m so unpopular, why do you want me on your channel?” Elizabeth shot back. “Wouldn’t I ‘ruin’ the SociaLights?”

“Not if you apologize. And we just need a filler. You’re better than Litzy, at least. Like I said, no one wants to replace her.”

“Mm-hmm.” Elizabeth nodded, glancing at the viewer counter: 300 already. Checking the list, she saw many current and former fans of the SociaLights…

And Litzy.

“So what’s wrong with Litzy, Danica?” She cocked her head, ruffling her red curls. “Specifically?”

“I told you,” she said, irritated, “she’s annoying, way too sympathetic with that killer game, and she just doesn’t… know how to look good. So many clothes changes… and she’s too quiet. But at the same time, she just jumps in when she wants to. She’s also always so cheery and sweet and smiley!” She imitated Litzy with a huge, exaggerated smile. “She tries so hard. It’s pathetic. So, yeah, we’re giving you a big opportunity here.”

“Right.” Elizabeth looked back at her viewer list. “Anything you want to add, Litzy?”

Danica paused, her painted lips parting. “Excuse me, what?”

“You know I’m broadcasting right now, right, Danica?”

The light brown skinned girl stared at the redhead, gaping. “No…?”

“Well, you do now. And guess what? Litzy just happens to be here.”

A reaction popped up right after, showing Litzy’s face. “I wanted to try out your channel and see what you did,” she said. “Glad I did. You can go ahead and tell the Hub that I’m officially out of the SociaLights. Oh, and Danica, hack your code.” The reaction shut off.

“You glitch, you tricked me!” Danica shrieked.

“It’s not my fault you decided to call me during a broadcast. I always answer calls from other Socializers.”

“No other Socializer talks to you!”

“You did. You’re my first. I answered. That’s just the way my channel goes. I’d love to hear feedback from other, more experienced Socializers.” Elizabeth smiled sweetly. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve got to get back to my fans.”

A stream of curses spewed from Danica’s mouth, worsening her currently falling reputation— by extension, Rebecca’s.

“Yeah, also, you did this stuff to me and Calista all the time to embarrass us. Same code, Danica. See you in your apology broadcast.” Elizabeth cut her off before she could curse any more.

After so many years of letting that girl step all over her…

That felt good.