Try To Catch Amelia Off Guard

Amelia was the one who started this chain of events, so it seems only fitting to let her be the subject of your counter attack.

You wait for Mana to pass for you, and once again you try to make the curve of magical energy you have created deeper, trying to angle it so that it moves past Selena and right at Amelia.

Unfortunately, while you are getting the hang of manipulating magic, your physics calculations still need work. The lightning ball does take an **** curve, picking up a good amount of speed in the process but while it certainly goes wide enough to miss Selena it also does not go wide enough to go towards Amelia. Instead, it finds a spot between the two of them and goes flying out of your circle towards another one of the groups.

Selena looks somewhat horrified as she turns to follow the ball while Amelia turns to look at you. She raises an eyebrow in your dirrection, giving you the impression that she has a pretty good idea of what you were trying to do. She does not seem mad at you for it, though you suppose you will have to find out for sure later.

Speaking of someone who might be mad at you, a yelp of pain comes from the group your lightning ball had shot at as it strikes one of their members on the back of the head... and then they are struck in the stomach by the ball in their own group as it was already headed towards her.

Uh oh.

You recognize those blonde locks.

And that voice.

And those burning green eyes that glare directly at you as she turns around and starts marching towards your group, shaking in fury.

"What do you think you're trying to do, WORM?!" Harmony growls.

You attempt to apologize, honestly not having meant to do something like that to her, but before you can say anything Professor Zizana is behind you again, a deep frown on her lips.

"I TOLD you," she says, turning her good eye in your direction, "to be more careful in your deflections. Perhaps I should have you practice against the wall until you are good enough to not be a greater danger to your allies than your enemies."

You look down at the ground, suitibly chastised but unexpectedly Selena gives Mana a surprisingly stern looking glare. Mana looks like she is about to speak up, perhaps to make a confession about what she and Amelia had been trying to do but before she can say anything, Zizana turns her attention to Harmony.

"And as for you," the teacher says, "considering the boasts you were making before the class started, I would have expected you to exhibit better spacial awareness or at least enough wit to only get struck once. In a real battle, one must always be aware of the possibility of friendly fire coming from behind. Arrogance leads to sloppiness, a trait I'm sure is unbecoming of an Ashcroft."

If Harmony was upset already, the deep purple her face turns indicates that she has reached a new level of furious. She keeps her eyes locked on you even as she grunts out, "Yes, ma'am."

"Go back to your groups and I'll restart you," Zizana says, then returns her attention to you once more, "Make a mistake like that again and you WILL face consequences. I do not stand for clowning around about the serious matter this class addresses."

Though Zizana is talking to you, the way her gaze momentarily swings towards the rest of your group makes you wonder if those elf ears are good enough that she already knew everything that had been going on and she had only been waiting to see how the situation resolved itself before getting involved. Mana looks fairly guilty now, Selena still giving her that serious gaze that is almost... well... Princessly is the only word you can think of to properly describe it. Amelia also looks rather guilty as well, squirming from foot-to-foot and not being able to look you or Selena in the eyes as she mutters, "Sorry. Just thought it'd be a little rib, y'know?"

The rest of the class finishes without incident, Selena and Mana silently making up at some point as the former stops staring at the latter as intensely.

Once done you change from your gym clothes to your regular uniform, stepping out of the locker room to see Amelia waiting nearby. She walks over to you, still looking a little upset as she says, "Hey. Seriously, I am sorry I got you in trouble with the teacher. Anything I can do to make it up?"

You reach out a hand to pat her on top of the head, looking around to make sure nobody else is nearby before informing her that, if she still considers herself your personal cumdump, you can think of a few apologies to try tonight.

Amelia leans into the head-patting, a small smirk coming to her lips as she whispers, "Damn right I do."

The moment is broken up as a paper airplane, propelled by a magically enhanced gust of wind buzzes by your ear. It loops in mid-air in front of you, reflexively making you grab it out of the air. You look around but see nobody there who could have thrown it and when you look back at the paper you see there are words written on it, so you unfold it to read its message.

It is in Harmony's handwriting as you recognize it from her notes but, even if you had not, you would have guessed the origin as you are pretty sure she is the only one who would currently want you to receive the kind of message written on it.

"Tomorrow. Midnight. Behind the Library. Bring your two witnesses. You will duel me."

Amelia looks over the words as well, eyes widening as she gasps, "That stuck-up bimbo! Is she serious?! You haven't even had basic dueling training yet! And she's invoking the Law of Witness so she's going the full nine yards!"

Plus, you ruminate to yourself, that implies she is going to be bringing witnesses of her own. Which means the word would probably spread of you being some kind of coward or somehow being untrustworthy if you just elected to ignore this challenge.

Of course, you still could ignore it and try to frame the inevitable argument as you do not find indulging Harmony's temper tantrum worth your time, which would probably further anger and humiliate her.

But has that ever really been your goal? She has certainly been frustrating to deal with in your brief encounters so far but you get the impression there is more to it than simply her indulging her arrogance. On a certain level, it almost feels like she is trying a little TOO hard to be abrasive and competitive to everyone else so there may be more behind her actions than simply wounded pride. Perhaps you should face her, ending whatever this is between you now before it escalates further.

"If you wanna do it," Amelia speaks up again, "I'll do what I can to help ya get ready. If not, I'll back-up whatever cover story ya wanna give."