You could eat me up with the taste of the first fight

The girls took a long time to finish their meals. At least, that was their perspective anyway.

Every second they spent restraining themselves, trying to show that they could eat in moderation, was like tortured agony to them. All they wanted to do was take one more bite.

And then, before they knew it, there were no more bites left to be had.

When Rose finished off the last bite of her tuxedo cake, she practically burst into tears. Sylvia was filled with disappointment when she reached the dregs of her bowl of tomato soup. And Morgana, she slurped up the last of her noodles with glee, and when she went for more, her heart sank.

That was a common reaction shared with all the girls. The only one who didn’t react with disappointment was Ella- she was still in a daze. By the time she realized what was going on, the burger was gone, and she was staring at her empty hands.

She blinked, and then gasped, wiping her hands off on her napkin and sinking back into her seat, her face flushed with horror.

“Oh my,” she gasped, holding her hand over her mouth. “What… what did I do?!”

“Hey, come on, it’s not so bad,” Carly called over to her, wiping her lips. “You were actually pretty cool like that!”

Ella blinked, surprised. Not just at the fact that Carly was talking to her, but by what she’d said. “…Pretty cool?”

“Yeah, you did good,” Dawn agreed, looking enviously at the other girl. “You ate that burger like it was any other meal.”

“Way to go, Ella!” Morgana cheered. “You did a really good job!”

“I think so too,” Sylvia agreed. “It’s pretty difficult to maintain a straight face like that when you’re eating something that tastes so good, my girl. I think you were even more composed than I was, and I put a lot of hard work into keeping my focus!”

Ella was confused. She didn’t remember any of that! Her hand drifted to her wrist to snap her rubber-band, before remembering again that it was gone.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin had a bright smile. She beamed from ear to pointed ear as she sat back in her seat, content, and patted her belly. That was the best ice cream she’d ever tasted, and she’d had quite a lot of it.

“That was a pretty good event, all things considered,” Vivian said, trying to shift the heat off the flustered Ella. “I don’t often get to eat food that good!”

“Really?” Kim raised her eyebrow. She was pretty sure that Vivian could eat whatever delicacies she wanted, whenever she wanted. “Even though it was ‘just’ fish and chips?”

Vivian shot her a sly look, but didn’t reply further. She sat back in her seat and shrugged.

“I’ve gotta say, I was worried that when Dakota changed my event, it would be a problem,” Gina said, sighing. “But she actually knew what she was doing on this one. That was a lot better than the event I had planned.”

And she wasn’t just saying that because she’d gotten to eat the best pizza she’d ever tasted. She really thought that idea of Dakota’s worked on several levels.

“But your idea was fine too,” Marley said, trying to encourage the other girl. “It would definitely have worked better for a high-society party! This was just a more competitive one that we could all take part in, that’s all.”

“She’s right,” Dani agreed. “And that’s what’s really important, I think. But that doesn’t mean you had a bad idea or anything! I’m sure your next two events will be really good! And Dakota said she’s not going to alter them, right?”

Actually, Dani was kind of worried about what events Gina had planned. But she was still going to lift the other girl up.

Gina smiled gratefully at her.

“That event was quite satisfying indeed,” Amelia stated. She seemed composed, but if anyone looked closely at her, they would see that she was somewhat flustered. It was hard to notice at first, because she so seldom looked disturbed. But if one knew the signs, they would be able to tell.

Which is what Nick picked up on, and why he knew that this event had really been a challenge for the girls to face.

Of course, flustered as Amelia was, she didn’t look nearly as uncomfortable as Rose. The actress hid it well, but Nick was an expert at seeing her true face behind her calm, affable demeanor. And she was stewing with impatience. Knowing her, she was itching to get onto the results. But she didn’t let that leak out.

“A wonderful dessert,” she said, giving Dakota a charming smile. “Thank you for letting me relive the taste of maman, Dakota.”

Dakota blinked. “…Why, of course,” she replied with a conniving smirk. “But it’s really Gina who deserves the credit here. After all, she’s the one who decided to rank you all in terms of your table etiquette. Without that as the baseline to build off of, I never would have been able to arrange for you all to try your favorite foods like that!”

It was quite a wonder how Dakota could make it sound like her praise for Gina was actually praise for herself. But it was nothing new to Nick. And she gave the punk girl more credit than she usually did when they were kids, which was nice.

More importantly though, it was time to get to the ratings. And judging by Mary’s frazzled expression, her rating scale would probably be a little wild this time around.

As for Nick himself…

He thought all the girls did pretty good. But he knew them better than most people, so he could notice the little tells they made. It would be hard to rank their scores in comparison to each other, so he decided to go with who showed the most composure when they took that first bite, since pretty much everyone improved their behavior as they completed the meal.

Ella was the one exception to that. She’d remained mostly uniform the whole time, even though she’d finished her burger faster than anyone. He had no idea how he should grade her on her speed, since compared to Mary, who had been similarly ravenous, Ella hadn’t looked like a wild animal while devouring her meal.

“Now, on to scoring,” Dakota said, looking over to the judge’s table. “Ideally, you would be scoring based on how well you think all the girls did. But no one here made a significant faux pas, I would say. Certainly not to the level of a certain someone…”

Mary turned bright red.

“…No, I think it would be best for everyone if you all decided to grade on your own criteria,” she said, tapping her chin. “How well did the girls show their enjoyment for the meal, while also keeping control of themselves? Did anyone slip up and get a little too expressive in the heat of the moment? That’s the question we should be asking ourselves! Feel free to be as flexible as you like in determining that, we’ve got plenty of time, after all! Need to let the food settle before we get to our later events.”

Nick had no idea what those later events would be, but he appreciated the buffer of time that Dakota was providing. He needed to think hard about this. Being granted some flexibility in how he could score them was also a benefit too.

Eventually he decided on scores that he felt were a fair reflection for everyone, and sat back, waiting to see what Dakota had to say.

“It seems our judges are all ready to score you!” She mused. “And they were working rather fast, it seems. Perhaps because they don’t get food until they’re done?”

“When do I get food?” Nola complained.

“You don’t need to eat,” Dakota replied.

“No, but I still like to!” Nola complained some more.

Dakota rolled her eyes at the displayed lack of class from her assistant. “Let’s move on,” she said, not wasting another thought on Nola. She tapped her cane, and the black screen flashed up again with the contestants’ scores, showing just how the party guests did in the third event.

Amelia – 8, 6, 8, 10, 6 – 38

Vivian – 8, 8, 7, 10, 5 – 38

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin – 9, 9, 8, 10, 8 – 44

Ella – 9, 9, 8, 10, 8 – 44

Kim – 7, 8, 8, 10, 6 – 39

Dani – 6, 7, 7, 10, 8 – 38

Carly – 6, 6, 7, 10, 8 – 37

Marley – 7, 7, 7, 10, 7 – 38

Rose – 6, 6, 7, 10, 7 – 36

Morgana – 5, 9, 6, 10, 9 – 39

Dawn – 4, 10, 6, 10, 8 – 38

Sylvia – 8, 9, 8, 10, 7 – 42

Gina – 6, 8, 7, 10, 8 – 39

The scores were quite a surprise. Especially on Mary’s part.

Dakota actually looked stunned when she turned to the redhead and gave her a questioning look.

“…You gave everyone a perfect score again?” She asked, raising her eyebrow. Then she smirked in realization when she saw Mary’s flushed cheeks. “…Because they all managed to comport themselves with more dignity than you did, is that it?”

Mary stammered and averted her eyes. “W-well… you’re not wrong,” she admitted, sinking into her seat a little.

Nick couldn’t help but smile at his charming wife a little.

“I’m a little surprised at the score I go!” Morgana said, her eyes wide. “I thought for sure I would have gotten much lower, given how much I was slurping.”

It had hurt her with Octavia and Nick to an extent, but Holly and Serenity had both rated her very highly on their scores.

“As expected, I got hit bad for my tail,” Dawn sighed, wincing. Her tail drooped down behind her- it wouldn’t be swishing for a while yet.

In contrast, Sylvia was amazed. “Look at how good I did!” She marveled. “I got such a high score, I can’t believe it!”

But it wasn’t the highest score. No, that honor was split between Ella and Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin- the two girls that Octavia had given 9s to. They both tied at 44 points apiece, one of the highest scores they’d seen today from a single event.

“I must say, I’m jealous,” Vivian said, taking great care to conceal her envy behind a polite smile so as not to lose any points with the judges. “For Octavia to rate you both so highly, it’s truly something to be proud of! Wouldn’t you agree, Teach?”

Amelia nodded slightly. “…I suppose so,” she said, **** to agree with Vivian on anything in principle. “You both carried yourselves diligently and with grace.”

“Diligent? Grace?” Ella was completely flabbergasted. She didn’t remember anything! One moment she’d been sitting there, burger in hand, and the next it was gone!

“I rated my scores based on the display of outward emotion,” Octavia revealed calmly. “Those who gave positive responses without expressing too much overt joy in the act of mastication were rated at a higher level, given the nature of the challenge.”

“Hey, what’s wrong with being overtly joyful about that?!” Holly protested, turning in her seat to face Octavia with a frown on her face. “It’s not like it’s hurting anybody!”

“Mastication, Holly,” Nick clarified for her. “She means eating.”

Holly blinked.

“…Oh. Well, okay then,” she mumbled, turning red. “That’s fine too I guess.”

Octavia stared blankly at her, then returned to her statement addressing the audience.

“When in high society, one must display their joy for the food at all times. Even if you dislike the dish, expressing your compliments is still expected if you wish to remain in high standing,” she calmly explained. “And I believe that many of you did quite admirably in that regard. The only problem, then, is when one is unable to control their emotions.”

Dawn’s ears drooped on her head. She felt like Octavia was speaking directly to her.

Dakota grinned, ecstatic at the butler’s explanation.

Serenity shrugged. “Opposite,” she said bluntly. “Rated on what I felt like. That’s all.”

Nick should have expected that the siren would play a little fast and loose with her criteria. And judging from her fondness for physical gestures, it wasn’t a surprise that she rated Dawn so highly, even with her tail acting like that. Holly’s score for her caught her off-guard though.

“I gave you a 10, Dawn, don’t worry!” The maid winked at the cat girl, and Dawn looked at her, a little surprised.

“Yes, I was somewhat confused about that,” Dawn admitted.

“Seeing you wag your tail like that was really cute. So I couldn’t resist,” Holly giggled. “I want to endorse more catlike behavior like that!”

Dawn raised her eyebrow, now sure what to say in response to that.

“Well, I did say you could be flexible with your grading criteria,” Dakota said, barely able to suppress her laughter. “Not such a bad decision, when it results in amusing outcomes like this one, wouldn’t you agree?” She asked, looking over at Nick.

He wasn’t sure how he should respond to that, if he was being honest.

“So what about the total scores?” Morgana asked nervously.

“I’ve already calculated mine,” Dawn replied. “Would you like me to do yours?”

Marley nodded. It wasn’t that hard. She wasn’t as smart as Dawn, but she could do the math herself, too.

Dakota nodded and raised her cane. “Okay then,” she said, nodding towards the black screen over the stage. “Shall we see what the total scores calculated for this event will be? This might be the turning point- there are only two events after this, you know! We’re in crunch time now, girls, so if you’re looking behind, you might want to pick up the pace and try really hard in the coming events!”

The girls looked at the screen as the scores changed, showing their new points, and who was in the lead now.

The three-way tie was broken.

Amelia – 76 + 38 = 114

Vivian – 78 + 38 = 116

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin – 74 + 44 = 118

Ella – 69 + 44 = 113

Kim – 70 + 39 = 109

Dani – 79 + 38 = 117

Carly – 79 + 37 = 116

Marley – 72 + 38 = 110

Rose – 79 + 36 = 115

Morgana – 66 + 39 = 105

Dawn – 77 + 38 = 115

Sylvia – 65 + 42 = 107

Gina – 73 + 39 = 112

After the scores were calculated, the girls took a look and saw that they had gotten a lot closer together, to show their totals.

Morgana’s heart sank in her chest. Unfortunately, she had the lowest score- Dakota’s words sounded very prophetic to her. But on the positive side, Sylvia had really improved her score, even if she was only a few points higher than Morgana now. Still, both girls would really have to put in work if they wanted to get higher up in the rankings.

Kim felt the same way. None of her scores had been bad per se, but she was near the bottom of the pack, like those two. The real stand-out in the points this round, though, was Ella. She had gone from right near the bottom to pushing towards the middle, almost near the top! She was only a point behind Amelia now!

“I… I got so high…” Ella’s eyes widened in surprise. It wasn’t what she expected.

“Yeah, you did!” Sylvia cheered. “Way to go, Ella! Great job!”

“I’m a little envious myself,” Gina said in a congratulatory tone. Ella had managed to pass her, which was surprising, because Gina hadn’t been pulling her punches at all. “Great job there, Ella!”

The dark-skinned girl blushed.

Rose let out a disappointed sigh. “A pity… it seems that I have fallen out of first place,” she said, placing her hand over her chest. She looked wistfully up at the scoreboard. “And the tie is broken, it seems… so Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin is in the lead, now? How amusing,” she tittered.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin held her head up high and flashed a smug smile, placing her hands on her hips. Three events down, and she was in the lead- but it wasn’t a comfortable lead, unfortunately.

Dani was closing in on her.

“We finally broke our streak,” Carly said, placing her hand on Dani’s shoulder and patting her. “But you’re really doing great, Dani! Nice job!”

“Yeah, I can do this,” Dani said, making a triumphant fist.

…Wait, did she even want to “do this”? What was the prize even going to be? Knowing Gina, it might be something sexual with Nick…

…No, the punk girl wouldn’t do something like that. She wanted to win that boon!

Dakota looked out over the murmurs of the crowd, and stroked her chin thoughtfully.

“It seems there’s a bit of tension here, now that you girls are looking at your scores in their totality,” she purred. “There isn’t a significant discrepancy in the scores, but at this point… if you don’t have a score in the 110s, you’ll really need to buck up for this next challenge!”

She winked over at Nick, who felt a shiver run down his spine.

Whatever Dakota was planning this time around, he wasn’t sure if he would like it or not.

“What’s the next round going to be then?” Dawn asked, her ears perking up. Her fur bristled and she narrowed her eyes. “Before I know whether I should be worried or not, I think that we should know what we’re doing, right?”

“Dawn is correct,” Rose nodded in agreement. “Gina, what’s the next round going to be?”

Gina blushed, but she didn’t say anything.

“Come on, it’s going to be fine,” Sylvia said, shrugging. “You’ll enjoy it a lot, Daddy, don’t worry!”

“Yes, but not right now,” Dakota said, shaking her head. “I believe at this point, we should take a bit more time for everyone to mingle together!”

“Come on, you’re dodging the issue,” Kim groaned, rolling her eyes. She knew better than to trust Dakota on anything at this point.

Amelia frowned. “These details are not important to determine right now,” she said, trying to gently soothe the other girls’ concerns, but coming across stern and cold. “It is best to face the situation as it arises, and focus on enjoying ourselves, wouldn’t you agree?”

Coming from a woman who didn’t look like she enjoyed anything, the words were powerful.

“You said it, Teach!” Vivian stretched her arms over her head. “Let’s just hang out and have fun! No big deal! That’s what I say, anyway!”

Ella bit her lip. She was worried herself. But she had somehow managed to claw herself back into the game from behind, so she genuinely felt a strange sense of anticipation.

Almost giddiness.

Will I actually be able to do this? She wondered hopefully. She looked over at Morgana, who looked back at her. Both girls, and Sylvia too, were all a little curious about how things were going to go from here on out.

Only Gina had any idea of what to expect, though.