Calista Elise Medley

  LEVEL UP!

  Level 3 -> Level 4

  XP Earning +15%

  EP Increase 8%

  New High EP Meals Unlocked— See Meal Menu

  See Skill Tree:

  New Ninja Ballet Moves Unlocked— +25 DP Level Up Incoming

  New Karate Moves Unlocked— +20 DP

  New Kung Fu Moves Unlocked— +20 DP Level Up Incoming

  New Jiu Jitsu Moves Unlocked— +15 DP Level Up Incoming

  PT Level Up! Level 1->2

  Agility Level Up! Level 18->19

  +6 Strength

  +4 Stamina Level Up Incoming

  +15 Intelligence Level Up Incoming

  +5 RP

  See Arsenal:

  Unlocked Short Spear, Battle Axe

  Unlocked Pole Sword

  Unlocked Spiked Chain

  Unlocked Explosive Throwing Discs

  ===

  After healing up, all five students responsible for the hallway fight met Dean Lisa White in her office in the Hall of Affairs. The three Student Coaches; Reilly, Li Mei, and Harrison, were also present. Since they were all their students (most of them Favorites) they were also responsible for their training in discipline and self-control. Lílitha still counted as being under Harrison’s tutelage, even though she’d only become a Kappa the previous night.

  The security footage from the many SECURE micro-cameras around campus, as well as Pet recordings students took, proved that Rosalina had started the fight by grabbing Lílitha’s collar, and Hillary had begun her fight by touching Calista’s face. Calista especially enjoyed it when Lisa berated the three, spending a few minutes lecturing them on their lack of conduct.

  “All of you should know better,” Lisa told them, her brows knitted tightly. With her blond hair tied back into a bun, she looked even angrier— and scarier. “As third-year students, I expected more from you.”

  Calista and Lílitha didn’t avoid any punishment, though. “Intentionally aggravating a dangerous enemy is a very foolish thing to do,” Lisa said, her amber eyes turning to Lílitha. “And letting anger take over the fight is dangerous.” She now looked at Calista. “If Mr. Smith hadn’t stopped you, you would’ve hurt both yourself and Ms. Kaye very seriously. You could’ve permanently damaged your hand.”

  Lisa’s Pet was projecting the fight recording, showing different perspectives from the micro-cameras. Calista realized that Camelithia and even Lílitha were yelling at her to stop punching Hillary. Both had tried to pull her off, but she’d shaken their hands away— she didn’t remember them grabbing her arms at all. She thought she only punched Hillary a few times, but she had landed nearly ten hits, some with her left elbow, before Harrison arrived at the scene and pulled her away.

  Now she realized that the other students hadn’t been looking at her with awe. They were afraid.

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  She looked at Hillary, who still had a healing brace on her nose; a triangular silver box that was attached over it until it healed completely. It would come off in a couple of days, but it was a very serious injury. Calista herself had bulky, silver gloves on both her fisted hands, slowly repairing the severely damaged knuckles. Her right hand had taken the worst of it; her bones were cracked into small pieces.

  “Is that really me?” she asked in disbelief.

  “That’s why rage is dangerous. You don’t fully remember this, do you?” Lisa said.

  Calista shook her head. “I guess… I just got so…” Her momentary guilt dissipated, replaced with satisfaction at the brace on Hillary’s nose.

  “That’s all we need, Hayley.” Lisa summoned her Versus Pet back to her belt, a dark blue one that contrasted against her white bodysuit. “Listen, all of you. We are weeks away from finals. During those matches, you can go ahead and challenge each other, and beat each other up all you want. But to start an unsanctioned fight in the middle of the hallway, using deadly elements, is unacceptable and reckless.” She looked at Rosalina, whose gaze stared straight ahead, her back erect, like a soldier.

  “Anyone could’ve gotten severely hurt just by being around the area. Any of you could’ve been hurt worse. The whole point of the Games is that we settle any grudges, big or small, through controlled combat, and still show respect and sportsmanship towards each other as allies in the Utopia. As fighters, you are representatives of your countries and your planets. Not just Earth.” She looked at Lílitha. “You represent the example of what the Games are meant for. Don’t contradict that meaning. We have enough stereotypes of us being ‘ragers’. We can’t prove them right.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” all five of them said. Calista’s UI then read:

  Punishment: -10 XP

  3-Day Suspension

  “Miss Medley and Miss Houdge. Your suspension will be for three days. You’ll have to do extra training by yourselves to make up for XP lost in missing classes. Miss Kaye, you will be suspended for a week.”

  Hillary inhaled, her hands fisting, but she ducked her head and didn’t say a word back.

  “Miss Wiasod and Mr. Wefitan.” Lisa sighed, giving the two Hajjians a long look. “Under your Versus Parole, you’ve earned another incident on your records. Miss Wiasod, I hope you’re especially taking this situation more seriously. Mr. Wefitan has a cleaner record than you do. Neither of you will be able to challenge Miss Medley or Miss Wiasod for Finals Week.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” they both said.

  “Unsanctioned fights are taken very seriously. Your first offense is treated more leniently, but if this happens again, you’re risking your expulsion— and inprisonment. Self-control is a key Stat in fighting. If you want to be on the team, you’ll have to demonstrate you have enough of it.” Lisa leaned back in her chair. “You’re all dismissed. Miss Medley, Miss Houdge, you may go first.”

  Calista followed Harrison and Lílitha out of the office, deciding not to look at her enemies. She stared at her healing hands. Had she really inflicted so much pain?

  “How many incidents does Rosalina have?” she asked curiously.

  “I think about four, counting this one,” said Harrison.

  “What about when she fought me in the Favorites’ Lounge?”

  “That was a challenge,” said Lílitha. “Technically, the Lounge is an enclosed space with materials to train. Even though your spar with her wasn’t conventional, since you accepted the challenge, it wasn’t unsanctioned.”

  “How many does she have left, then?” Calista then asked.

  “It’s a maximum of eight incidents. After that, she’d be sent back to prison for the next few decades and not allowed to return to Hajja.” Calista heard Lílitha mutter something that sounded like, “As she deserves.”

  “Eight’s a lot…” Calista said.

  “Not if you divide them across sixteen years. She’s still got seven years to go until her parole’s over,” Harrison pointed out. “They’ve got extra pressure to control themselves and learn discipline.”

  Control. The word made Calista look at her gloved fists again. Even Hothead had controlled herself better— she’d taken many insults from Lílitha before finally losing it. Calista only needed to hear Hillary bring up her sister to punch her in the face.

  “You alright?” Harrison touched Calista’s shoulder.

  “How do I get better at Self-Control?” she asked quietly.

  “Hey.” He stopped, looking at her seriously. “Hillary’s going to be fine.”

  “That’s not the point. I-I lost it. I could’ve hurt myself worse than I did, and if I get any stronger, I might really hurt someone else.”

  “You have been doing those exercises and stuff with her, right?” Lílitha asked Harrison.

  “Yeah, every day.”

  “I don’t think that’s enough. I don’t know what to do, I… I’m helpless.” Calista felt tears squeezing her throat.

  “You’re not helpless. You’re just learning. There’s plenty of fighters that start out with really low Self-Control. We’ll work on it, okay?”

  +2 Rel-P

  “I just want it to go away now. I don’t want to be like this, I don’t want to be a…” She almost said that word, but she stopped herself.

  “A rager?” Lílitha finished for her.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

  The little woman shrugged. “That doesn’t offend me.”

  “It doesn’t really offend anyone here. It’s just a name— it’s not even true,” Harrison said.

  “You see what I mean? You guys just take it. When people call me that, I feel so angry… and I want to get them back, I want to show them how much of a rager I can be, then I do something like this and I end up being exactly what they say I-”

  “Whoa, calm down.” Harrison took her by the shoulders. “Everyone gets angry. It’s normal.”

  “Not like that. I can’t be what they say I am.”

  “You’re not,” he insisted.

  +2 Rel-P

  “They’ll call you a lot of things, Calista,” Lílitha said. “A monster, a sociopath, a warmonger, a murderer, a failure, a… thing.” She spat out the last word with venom. “All you can do is use the darkness from that to your advantage. You know who you are. They cannot define you.”

  +5 Rel-P (Lílitha)

  You know who you are. Calista stared at her emptily. Did she?

  She wasn’t a Socializer. She was a dancer… sort of. She was a fighter… or a wannabe one. She liked pink. She was a designer— she was good at that. She was a Medley. She was Katelyn’s and Quincy’s older sister. She was Henry Medley’s daughter.

  She drew a blank when trying to find other things to say about who she was. All her life, she’d merely been her mother’s little idol.

  She silently turned and went down the hall, leaving Harrison and Lílitha watching her. Thankfully, they got the hint and didn’t say anything further, simply following her.

  +6 Rel-P (Harrison)

  +5 Rel-P (Lílitha)