The jet lag wasn’t doing Sylvia much good as her legs carried her to the Control Room, nearly 5 minutes late to the meeting before the tournament began. She was tired, groggy, and not in such a great mood after being forced to come back here to this hell hole. Ugh. At least she looked great in her extravagant black dress and bejeweled pumps! Plus Lucas Lovelace’s hotel in Japan had been such a great experience! A giant shopping center with so many good eats, connected to a luxurious theme park in the center of Tokyo! The man was truly a pioneer in hotel accommodations. Alas, here she was, all decked out in her finest garments and clanking towards this mandatory meeting. Someone else was
supposed to be there, but with a few strings pulled, the Vargas had managed to put herself firmly in their place. That other person would have received a sad email about a “mix up in the system”. A grin spread upon the ginger’s face at the thought, silently hoping that kid was crying over it.
Sheesh. Thinking about it, she was in a very sadistic mood right now. Not that was much of a change, but part of her just wanted to carve someone’s soul out and serve it for dinner. That’s when she remembered what she’d seen earlier on Jenna’s blog and in the Delphina Times. Two of her
most favorite people in the world popped into her head: Eliana and Cecilia, the sister and mother of her best friend respectively. Rubbing her hands together anticipatingly, there was a bit more of a pep to Sylvia’s step as she forced herself on at a quicker pace to get to the Control Room! Oh this was going to be so much fun!
”Ceciliaaa!” the redheaded princess practically sang when she spotted the Lovelace in the center of the room, finishing reprimanding her own daughter for heaven’s knew what. Waving and brandishing an obviously fake smile, she interrupted anything Cecilia was about to say and interjected in the rudest kind of way.
”How is my favorite Lowborn teacher doing today? I just got back from Tokyo. Your husband is as splendid as he ever was. You… well, you still like you picked yourself out of a garbage bin. So sad.” Sylvia came out swinging like the heavyweight champion of verbal abuse. Cocking her head, she saw that the expression in Cecilia’s face was one of both bewilderment and annoyance.
“
Good afternoon to you, Sylvia. You aren't supposed to be here.” Cecilia responded calmly and professionally. The ginger laughed at the Professor’s words, jumping into the explanation.
”Oh you don’t know, do you? Leave it to you to not check your emails. Well here’s a quick FYI: I’m in the tournament now! Splendid, isn’t it?” Though Sylvia was more than half Cecilia’s age, she was harassing the poor Professor with reckless abandon, knowing fully well that the blonde couldn’t touch her lest she face dire consequences. Unfortunately for everyone, she was far from done with her mockery. If people were paying attention, Mrs. Lovelace was subtly clenching her teeth and holding her tongue, knowing she would have to deal with this issue dilemma and give Mr. Vargas a call afterwards, though she didn’t believe it would accomplish much since they spoiled their daughter immensely. Meanwhile, Eliana clasped her hands together and took a deep breath in, holding her urge of stepping in.
Next to the Professor, Sylvia turned and gazed at the competition, like she was some kind of meat inspector checking the quality of the day's haul. A hand on her chin, she began mulling over their names, some out loud and in her head. There were respectable people in this group, such as Minako Ikeda and Amelia von Carsten, but not enough to impress this privileged white girl. Her chocolate orbs seemed to light up when she scrolled over Lucas and Brenna, nearly laughing out loud.
”Oh! Look! A couple of the whore’s lackeys! I don’t expect them to last long, no.” The whore was, of course, Ms. Gianna Daniels. There wasn’t a bone in her body that liked that girl, mostly because she had dated Vince, her Freshman crush, for a long while. How someone could date someone so promiscuous as her though, she hadn’t the faintest idea. Gia wasn’t a problem right now though. No, her focus was on Lucas, who'd be more admirable if he didn't hang around trash, and Eliana, the nerdy librarian that had no right to call herself a Lovelace. These two lovebirds were going to be the talk of the school, she was sure.
”Darling, did you know that Mr. Lucas has doe eyes for Eliana? Jenna told me. Well, and it’s on her blog. And on the front page of the Delphina Times. God knows why though. If you pulled yourself out of the garbage bin, then I’d say she’s one of those ugly little sewer rats. Seriously, what the hell is she wearing today?” She grimaced at whatever trashy outfit the eldest Lovelace sister was wearing, heavily criticizing the bookish girl. Shaking her head, she murmured,
”I just don’t understand how Jenna is the only one of you Lovelace ladies that has any dignity whatsoever.” Eliana’s hands tightened, but her mother lifted her hand subtlely, which told her daughter to let the self absorbed girl finish her tangent.
Not a second later, Sylvia sank her claws further underneath Professor Lovelace’s skin, dragging out skeletons better left alone.
“On second thought, you won't have a semblance of dignity once your Lucas divorces you. Jenna’s told me all about those nasty fights, you know. I suppose you could try marriage counseling, but you know what they say about that: it never works out. I'll give it a year before you're on the streets.” Snickering, she watched Cecilia’s face twist up into a scowl. Sylvia hoped she would do something, just to give her an excuse to run to mommy and complain about how awful Cecilia Loveless was. The Professor was smarter than that though, not willing to risk her job over the ginger princess’ petty bullshit. Before she gave the reigns back to the blonde, Sylvia just had one more comment to make. Pointing at Lucas and Ellie, she began speculating on their relationship verbally.
“Do you think Eliana likes Lucas back though? What if she wants to screw her dad, but she can't because ewww. But! She knows this guy Lucas who's sort of okay looking, I guess? So she thinks she can live out one of those weird, little fantasies of hers through him. Gross. Can't say that's unwarranted from her though. After all, it must be hard looking like a Troll doll and not being able to get a date. Desperate girls are just like that.” If it wasn't obvious yet, then anyone who had yet to meet Sylvia Vargas was getting a great snapshot of how the girl worked. Her tirade ended with Sylvia waving a hand to Cecilia, as if giving her permission to speak freely.
“
This is neither the time or place to express your speculations, but I’m sure Mrs. Dunn and Mr. Danford enjoyed every minute of it.” The teacher gestured up to the hanging office, whether the spoiled princess believed they were in there or not was entirely up to her, but she had a meeting to start, “
Since you’re so determined to make this an interactive meeting, why don’t you and Eliana come assist me?” Their teacher directed them to stand a distance apart from each other, directly behind her, as if they would put on a display for the rest of the participants. In this matter, the entitled rich princess had to do as her teacher said, regardless of if she wanted to or not. This was more of a bluff than anything because Mrs. Lovelace did not have the time to have students fight in a fifteen minute meeting.
As much as Eliana wanted to do terrible things to Sylvia, she knew this wouldn’t end well for the red haired bimbo. Closing her eyes, Ellie sighed and then spoke up, “
Mother, why don’t we save that for the tournament? As much as a sparring match would be great to be in, I’d like to save my cards for later.”
While the fact that the Headmasters were watching them startled the redhead, it was only enough to quell her lampooning of Cecilia. Sylvia snorted at her opponent’s declination, shaking her head and rolling her eyes.
”So the scared bitch runs. How predictable.” she muttered with glee. Internally, she understood she would have lost this battle had they commenced. Sylvia may be an egotistical bitch, but she was self-aware of her powers, which were more or less lackluster offensively. Add on to the fact that mind manipulators, such as Eliana, utterly bypassed her defenses. It was better to hold your head high and go out swinging than to roll over like a dead dog though.
Like expected, Eliana said her peace and Mrs. Lovelace was grateful she did so. Hopefully, with no more interruptions, she finally informed her students, “
Since we don’t have much time, I’m going to keep my explanation concise and straight to the point. Mayweather Sixteen has been with our school for years. It’s a full day experience, with breaks between battles, where you can fight your peers until either the time runs out and you are judged, or until your opponent forfeits or is unable to fight.” She paused and let that settle in before continuing, “
You will be injured. You could fall unconscious, but I can promise you, you will not die. We will have referees and emergency medical workers throughout the arena but also, you will wear bracelets that can read your body pressure, heartbeat, and capacity to fight. If we think your opponent is at their limit, your bracelet will blink red. Depending on how in the moment you are, it may inject a serum that will sedate you. We start the day with eight grand battles.” Mrs. Lovelace let her eyes trail to each and one of her students as she spoke, “
Who you fight won’t be known until the big day. You’ll be given a number 1 to 8. The person who matches your number will be your opponent. Simple enough.”
Walking now, her heels resounding throughout the Arena, she continued to spill out information, while walking between them and looking at their expressions and posture, “
Usually afterwards is the Epic Eight round, where the winners fight in another 1 on 1 battle and so on and so forth until there is two left for the finale. This year we decided to try something new.” She stopped in front of Lucas, meeting his gaze. Her stare read that she didn’t believe the rumors of him and her daughter. Continuing on her way, she added, “
After all first battles have ended, the Epic Eight will enter the arena together. This year we decided to make a free for all challenge. Your goal: be the last one standing. Do not think the only thing you have to worry about is your opponent, which I do recommend studying every participant. The more prepared you are, the more likely you will win. For those who do not know what the arena is capable of doing, the arena is your enemy as well. It will form a scenario for you to deal with and random occurrences will most likely happen where you will have to think on your feet. Of course, you won’t find out any of that until the day of.”
Returning to the front of the room, she smiled, no longer bothered by Sylvia, who seemed to be quiet or at least keeping to herself, for now, “
If you have any questions, feel free to email me since we have inspectors coming in to evaluate the arena once more in just a few. I also think those who are capable of thinking of questions, should be the only ones who hear my answers. Questions could lead to better chances at becoming the Champion, so that’s why we’ll keep it confidential through email.”
Gesturing to her side with her head, she gave them a task before they would be allowed to go back to their merry lives, “
To my right, by the changing room, there are six polling stations, with a ballot box in each of them, I want you to write your name on the piece of paper and check the top three people you would like to fight at the tournament. This doesn’t mean you will get the chance to fight them, but there’s always a possibility. Feel free to write down your reasons why you want to fight these individuals in particular to perhaps convince me, I may consider them.” And with that, Mrs. Lovelace was finished. If they wanted to come up to her and talk, while they waited for a station to open up, they could, or they could chat amongst themselves. She truly didn’t want to deal with Sylvia, so hopefully someone would keep them occupied.
Eliana noticed her mother staring at her. Looking around, Ellie realized she was standing next to Elijah and a faint blush fell on her face before she immediately ran to one of the ballots. She knew her mother was going to pick whoever she pleased, regardless of what Ellie wanted, so she tried to think of who her mother would want her to fight. Poking her head out, she made sure no one was around her before quickly checking off names.
Eliana Lovelace
1 - Lucas Farweight - To challenge me on the battlefield with his physical strength and Solar Force abilities. I would also like to show that even a freshman can be capable of taking someone of his level down, for I have never gotten a chance to fight him before. (
That last part may have been a lie...sorta. We haven’t fought on this level before. But… we’re always fighting.)
2 - Elijah Masterson - Similar reason to why I want to fight Lucas, his powers are fire and my powers are mental-based. I am not afraid to take someone like him down! And I would love to show that to you. (
Maybe this will convince her that I’m not dating him...)
3 - Brenna Lancaster - I’m ready to face her. (
You got this, Ellie)
Sylvia’s fists were clenched, an aura of animosity radiating off of her slender form as she strode over to the polls. She fully expected a call from her mother soon, considering the involvement of the Headmasters, but she doubted there would be anything that came of it. Her parents were pushovers and scarcely understood the concept of punishment. Either way, it really peeved her that she had to hear from anyone at all about this. In the booth and with deft, elegant handwriting, the angelic woman left her message for the Professor:
Do your worst, you Lowborn whore.
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