“So you’d say that Fistborn’s culture is a bit of a learning curve for you?”

  “A little bit, but… a fighter is nothing if not adaptable, right? I know all of us will find our unique niche eventually. All the great fighters went through some kind of doubts when they started, I imagine. But they’re great fighters now. If they could do it, we can do it.”

  “Well said. Okay, I think that’s it. Thank you for your time, Calista.” Senior Journalism student Tamara Wallace rose from her hovering chair, reaching out to shake Calista’s hand.

  “Thank you. This was fun!” Calista smiled brightly and sauntered out of the interview room, letting the next student in for their turn.

  The graduating seniors from the Journalism school had summoned all 330 of the new students to engage in their quadrennial interviews. Whoever was graduating in Journalism during a Versus year was extremely fortunate. Other students interviewed a retired fighter, one of the coaches, or someone else that had achieved fame during the Games, but this was the chance to assess each new student’s capabilities and expectations in the Versus Fighting School.

  These sorts of interviews would look stellar on a Journalism student’s record and give them better chances of getting a high position in the Versus News outlets of Earth, or maybe even outside of Earth.

  Tamara was surprisingly friendly and charismatic to the point that she could pass for a professional Socializer. Calista had never felt this comfortable at Fistborn. She hadn’t revealed too much of her past, still concealing Jennifer Zyben’s name, but she talked about her passion for fighting and all the other interests she had, like learning alien languages. Tamara had seemed quite impressed.

  It had been two weeks since Calista started classes at Fistborn. She kept her sister’s advices and projected confidence wherever she went, not caring a bug whenever other students made fun of her custom uniforms or her model walk. She’d stayed away from the Socializer Hub, focusing on learning about Fistborn’s school culture and expectations.

  Camelithia had continued interacting with her, being nice enough to educate her on who was who and who not to glitch with. Apparently, she was Belinda’s roommate, which explained her impulse to approach Calista during lunch that day. The two had stuck by her side and become her friends.

  Friends. Real friends. Calista had never really experienced such a thing. She was only ever with the ‘friends’ Jennifer introduced her to, all of whom were some sort of relative to her old Socializer partners. The only real friend Calista could think of was Elizabeth, but they were never that close. Being with Belinda and Cam was refreshing. They let her be her and helped her out whenever they could. She had the thought of requesting a schedule change to be in class with them all the time, but decided against it. If she couldn’t fight on her own, she wouldn’t know how to fight at all.

  In terms of her fighting skills, Calista was getting extremely frustrated. She endured insults from her classmates and frustration from her teachers every day. Theory classes were easy enough, but Practicum was going to kill her. Her body simply wasn’t adapting well to fighting anymore. She’d increased her caloric intake by a few hundred to receive more energy, but her limbs weren’t strong enough for the routines.

  She didn’t go to the spa anymore during Break periods. Instead, she spent every free minute she had at the gym, practicing on CDSims. Belinda and Camelithia would try to help, but in the end, it was up to Calista to improve herself. She could say goodbye to ‘impressing’ the Student Coaches now. She was sure that even Harrison wouldn’t want her as a student. Over a quarter of the new students had already gotten invited into Guilds.

  Calista downed some water once again after another struggle with the CDSim. Her ears were filled with the sound of the machine’s irritating beeps. Every time she kicked or punched, it would tell her there was something wrong, whether it was her form or her balance. She could feel it, too; her leg wobbled every time she tried a high kick.

  She got back on the mat, took a breath, and loaded the program. She carefully followed the hologram’s movements as it performed a sequence of attacks. On the fifth move, the hologram beeped in red and paused, pointing out the exact flaws. Her knee was too bent and she was leaning back too much.

  Calista groaned again and restarted, messing up over and over again. She even punched the CDSim out of frustration, but her fist went through. She heard some of the other students in the gym laughing at her in ridicule.

  She panted, leaning on her knees, and gave the group of students an annoyed glare. Their smiles faded and they quickly went back to training. Were they suddenly intimidated?

  “One tip I’ll give you: the more tired you are, the more difficult it’ll be to keep your form.” Turning with a start, Calista saw Lisa White herself walking up to her.

  Ah. That explained it. Even if she was controversial, she was still intimidating.

  “Dean White,” Calista addressed, immediately getting flustered. “Uh… is there- I mean- how can I- ahem.” She wiped her sweaty palms on her shorts. “Good evening.”

  Lisa gave a small smile. “You look like you’ve been working a good while. You should take a break.”

  “I’ll take a break when it’s curfew,” Calista said, drinking water again.

  “I think you need it now. It’s almost nine. You need to sleep enough if you want to do well tomorrow.”

  “I’ll just do a couple more rounds.”

  Lisa shrugged. “Well, I guess, in a way, you’re improving like this. The more you push your body, the more stamina you’ll build. I noticed when classes started that you tired pretty easily.”

  Calista blushed. “Yeah… I wanted to improve that.”

  “That’s good. But if you push yourself too far, you’ll have the opposite effect. I know you probably look at the other students and think you have to train 24/7, but that’s a common misconception. Rest is as important as training. If you don’t give your body enough relief, it’ll demand rest in the middle of class, and you’ll collapse.”

  “I guess…” Calista looked back at the paused program.

  “Look, the CDSim is a perfectionist. It’s a simulator. It’ll want you to be as precise as possible. We program them like that to set high goals and expectations, but that doesn’t mean you have to do it perfectly.” Lisa walked up to the program and opened up another screen, showing some sort of list. “A lot of students don’t focus on this, but in my expert opinion, you should know how much you’ve improved to know how much more you can improve.”

  Calista wiped sweat off her neck, grimacing in disgust, and went to the screen. It was a series of notes such as: ‘Improved high kick- raised leg by 2 degrees’, ‘Improved balance on right leg- stability increased by 0.2%’. “What is this?” she asked Lisa.

  “It’s your progress report. The CDSim records every single improvement you make, no matter how small. Students don’t look at this often enough.”

  Calista scrolled down the screen, awed by how many improvements there were. She could even look at holo-images of her previous forms and compare them to the current form. She didn’t realize how much she’d already improved the past two weeks.

  “You don’t become a fighter when you get into the academy, Miss Medley,” Lisa told her. “Sure, you should have some fighting experience before you apply, but we don’t expect you to be a pro. If you were a pro, you wouldn’t need schooling, would you?”

  She had a point… “But I want to get on the team.”

  “I know you want to get on the team. Everyone wants to. But you can’t expect to perfect your skills in just two weeks. That’s why we train for four months before the competition, and even then, you’ve got a long way to go.”

  “I just really want to be in the Games this year. I know it’s fast, but lots of first-years go, and I want to be one of them. I don’t want to let anyone down. I need to get on the team, and to get on the team-”

  “You have to give your all,” Lisa finished for her, smiling. “Quoting me, huh?”

  The girl chuckled, embarrassed. “I didn’t realize it. I guess… lots of what you said stuck.”

  “Alright, if that’s the case, then I hope this sticks, too: know when to fight and when to fall back. A fighter is strong, tough, and fearless, but they’re also wise and follow common sense. If they know they can’t face a threat, they retreat and try another way. They rest, recover, treat wounds, try to regroup. We’re all essentially training for war, Calista. We’re soldiers in the making. God forbid, we won’t have to fight in a war, but if it ever happens, we’ll be ready. War isn’t something that gives you a heads-up.” She closed the CDSim for her. “A soldier that’s starved and beaten up after a battle doesn’t go running into the next one. They take cover in a safe place and treat their wounds first. So you do that. Don’t neglect your body.” She left Calista and turned to the other students, dishing out some more advice and tips.

  Calista looked back at the powered-off simulator. She still wanted to keep going, but… Lisa had a point. Just like Socializers needed their beauty sleep, she needed her rest and recovery. Maybe the workaholic environment the other students put up got to her.

  She couldn’t figure out what was enough to be on the team. Grades, practicums, training, Guilds… there were so many ways to try and advance, yet no matter what she did, she never felt good enough.

  ===

  “Good morning, Miss Calista Medley. It is now 6:15 in the morning of October 1st, 2349 in the city of Washington D.C. You have a pending message from… Cam Courier… which arrived at 9:00 PM on September 30th, 2349.”

  “I’ll listen to it,” Calista said as she rose from her sleep capsule and the AIDA fixed her hair.

  “Acknowledged. Playing message…”

  Cam’s hologram appeared next to Calista as she picked out her uniform for the day. “Hey, Cali. Bel and I couldn’t help noticing you’ve seemed quite stressed lately. We thought we could try out the spa in the Recreation Station. Honestly, we should’ve tried it ages ago. It’s no wonder everyone here is always so grouchy. So, if you want, we can go after school ends, say, around eight-thirty? See you at breakfast tomorrow.”

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  A spa day? It almost sounded foreign. Calista had done her best to ignore the little bulge around her stomach, but every night, it got her anxious. She knew she’d been neglecting her appearance lately, spending time training instead of infusing her skin in lotions. Even her hair didn’t feel the way it used to. She was sure she had split ends.

  She’d tried following Lisa’s advice to rest, but every time she did, she was hit with extreme anxiety that kept her up anyway. Every minute she felt she was wasting time, she could practically hear all the other students laughing at her, wondering when she’d quit. The SociaLights’ cackles reached her ears all the way from NYWS, where they were surely soiling her name and telling rumors to all the girls there, especially the Art School girls.

  She wanted to try and destress by talking to Kate, but she couldn’t reach her. She’d left a message saying she was unable to answer any calls, but that there was ‘nothing to worry about’ and that she’d get back to whoever contacted her. That only worried Calista more. Her parents and her brother were pretty silent, too. Quincy did answer her once and reassure her that they were fine, just that they were busy.

  She sighed in frustration and put on the default Practicum uniform. She was wasting too much time on designing uniforms. She wasn’t a Design student, she was a Fighting student.

  When she went into the mess hall for breakfast, she noticed a lot of people staring at her, which was weird. She wasn’t wearing anything outrageous, and after over three weeks, everyone was pretty much used to seeing her in a new outfit every day. The looks didn’t diminish when she went into her Teamwork classroom. She got down to do some stretches, pretending not to notice.

  “I don’t believe we’ve properly met,” someone said.

  Looking up, Calista froze, meeting the rose red eyes of the Hajjian woman in her class. After studying, she’d read that her name was Rosalina Wiasod, call sign ‘Hothead’, and she was the best Favorite in the top-ranking Alpha Guild, led by Reilly Campbell.

  And of course, she was Reilly Campbell’s girlfriend.

  She was a pretty woman, but being a Hajjian, she was naturally intimidating. Her skin was a carmine red and her hair was fiery orange, tied up into tight braids. Her most distinguishing characteristic was her forehead; Hajjians had black age ridges on their faces. Men had them on their chins and women had them on their foreheads, fanning out in a triangle from their glabella. They enhanced Rosalina’s orange eyebrows and made her look fierce, as Hajjians usually were.

  “I had a thought,” Rosalina said with her heavy accent. “Let’s start over, shall we? We haven’t had the chance to try and get along.”

  “Uh… okay?” Calista said, pausing her stretches.

  “Rosalina ‘Hothead’ Wiasod, 23rd-seeded student in the academy, 34th worldwide.” Rosalina stuck out her hand. “And you’re Calista, right? One of the newbies. I never gave you a proper welcome to the school— any of you, really.”

  Calista took Rosalina’s hand for a handshake, also pulling herself to her feet. “Nice to meet you?”

  “I suppose you hadn’t heard much of me before today.”

  “Uh, no, I know of you. You’re a pretty famous fighter, right? You set all your opponents on fire last Versus.”

  Rosalina raised her brows. “Impressive. You’ve studied.”

  “W-well, yeah, I mean, obviously. If I’m here, I’m going to know all the fighters. I’m a huge Versus fan.”

  “Are you now? Because from what I hear, you’ve been on a Socializer channel the past few years.”

  Calista’s knees locked in place. She anxiously chuckled. “Wh-what?”

  “You didn’t see your interview on the academy Hub? I’m shocked. You Socializers usually follow anything relevant to yourselves.”

  “I… I never mentioned…”

  “Oh, yes, the Journalism students do background research before they interview new students. Most of the time, they try and see if they have any Junior Versus champions among the bunch. This time, they got something different. You’re quite controversial in your community, no?” She laughed. “All that talk about the Games promoting violence, and they’re all obsessed over taking you down.”

  Calista sighed, her body melting in shame. She had to know that one of these days, the truth about her would be revealed. She had just hoped she could keep it up for a little longer.

  “Don’t worry, I won’t beat you up because you had a channel.” Rosalina smirked as two of her fellow Guild members came up to them, joining the conversation. “SociaLights out!” one of the girls mocked, imitating Calista’s symbol of Loyalty.

  Calista tried to smile and play it off as if it were all a joke. Maybe if they saw that she wasn’t offended and that she had completely rejected her past identity, they wouldn’t hold too much against her. Socializers had done a lot of damage to fighters despite being a ‘pacifist minority’. Through their skills in gossip and rumor-making, they’d stained a lot of fighters’ reputations, fueled further by the more toxic half of Versus Games fans. Socializers and Versus Journalists constantly clashed, each side trying to push a different narrative, all of which were usually false.

  “I’m not into that anymore,” Calista said. She wasn’t really lying; she never truly wanted any of that. “I realized what I really wanted to do, and I’m going for it. Fighting has always been my dream, and… my purpose.”

  “Oh, isn’t that inspiring?” one of the Alpha girls said. “Are you sure you’re not just trying to glitch us up? You going to fail out of the academy and tell everyone how horrible everyone was here? How we’re all natural-born killers?”

  “No, I… where are you getting all this?” Calista said, flustered.

  “Don’t make her so nervous,” Rosalina said. “I’m willing to give Miss SociaLight a chance. I know this must all be difficult for you. It’s a whole other culture, no? Especially with your sister’s situation…” She clicked her tongue.

  “Oh, yes, how unfortunate,” Rosalina’s friend said with a pitiful pout of her lips.

  “What? What do you mean?”

  Genuine confusion reflected in Rosalina’s eyes. “You don’t know?”

  “Don’t know what?”

  Rosalina’s fangs flashed as she smiled in disbelief. “You don’t talk to your own family? Oh… they must have disowned you after you betrayed them, right?”

  “Well… my sister and I talk. My family just hasn’t talked much lately. They’ve been busy.”

  “Yes, busy dealing with the fact that your sister works at Genesis X.”

  Calista stepped back. “How do you know that?”

  “Don’t you Socializers practically live on the Hub?” one of the other girls said. “How do you not know this? We know it.”

  “I’ve… focused on studying the past few weeks. I don’t have time for that.”

  “What admirable discipline.”

  “How do you know about that? Did someone see her?”

  “I suggest you catch up on your gossip. If we heard about it, you should have,” Rosalina said.

  “Three against one… how cowardly.” The three girls turned, revealing Lílitha Houdge standing nearby, her hips cocked and her arms crossed. “I expected better from the Alpha Guild. Even from you, Hothead.”

  “It seems your parents never educated you on minding your own business, Piranha,” Rosalina replied.

  “You’re one to talk. I never knew Alpha members were so interested in Socializer gossip. That’s low, even for you.”

  Calista felt a bit confused. Why was Lílitha arguing with Rosalina? Lílitha had completely ignored Calista to the point that she most likely forgot about their fight from the pressure exam. During class, Lílitha would seem annoyed by Calista’s clumsiness and lack of skill, but all she ever did was roll her eyes and huff.

  Calista had noticed that Lílitha was close friends with Harrison. They almost always teamed up and she’d seen them talking in the mess hall often. Harrison was courteous to Calista during class, giving her tips and advice every now and then, but otherwise hadn’t talked to her much. She didn’t blame him; obviously, the school knew who she was now, and Harrison couldn’t afford that sort of social suicide, even in the fighting world.

  “What I find low is how you make assumptions,” Rosalina retorted in response to Lílitha’s remark. “Remember your place, likata. Good little girls learn to respect authority.”

  “I don’t see what’s authoritative about a walking firebomb that explodes over every little thing. You’re more of a spoiled brat to me.”

  “Speaking of authority, our coaches are starting warm-ups.” Harrison approached the group, his face stone-cold. He nodded curtly at Rosalina. “Hothead.”

  “Cheater.” Rosalina nodded back with a smirk. “Honestly, I’m surprised you haven’t gotten more acquainted with the new students. Especially the other humans.” She gave Calista a condescending glance. “Don’t you need it?”

  “I’m more focused on training than making friends,” he said.

  “Yes… you need that, too. Well.” She smiled at Calista. “Good luck to you and your sister, Calista. I hope you can regain your followers someday.”

  “Otherwise, congratulations, you left your cult,” an Alpha girl giggled, leaving with Rosalina and her other friend.

  “You should be warming up, not talking to Hothead. She doesn’t even like you,” Lílitha said bluntly. “My advice? Stay away from her.” Her thin, blacked-out eyes narrowed further at the Hajjian woman with utter hatred. “She’s a snake.” She turned away.

  Harrison offered Calista a friendly smile. “Don’t let her get in your head. Hajjians generally don’t like humans. And Rosalina likes to intimidate people, especially the newbies.”

  “What did she mean by my interview? Did you see it? What is she talking about?” Calista asked anxiously.

  “Don’t focus on that. Just focus on your training. She’s trying to distract you.” The coaches called them to start their lesson, the AIDA bell ringing to finish the warm-up period.

  Calista tried to follow Harrison’s advice. She did her best to clear her mind of her worries and not give Rosalina the satisfaction. But Katelyn remained in her head, torturing her with worry. If people found out about her profession, what would become of the family? How many more crazed fans would try and take some sort of ‘revenge’ now that their idols had fallen?

  Once the day was over, Calista repeatedly tried to call Katelyn and find out about the situation, but received no answers. They were probably completely locked down for their safety. Did Katelyn become careless? How did she get exposed? Did her Mask fail?

  After giving up on contacting her family, she went onto the school’s Hub and looked up the interview.

  “New Student #165: Calista Medley,” Tamara’s voice-over announced.

  It started off with Calista’s basic profile and some highlights of the embarrassing moments of her fight with Lílitha. “The girl that fainted at the sight of blood,” Tamara dramatically narrated, which had Calista withering in shame.

  The interview footage soon came up, focusing on the questions she answered about what her aspirations and goals were in Fistborn. Calista smiled a bit at how calm and confident she sounded.

  “You think you have a chance of making the team?” Tamara asked her.

  “I feel like everyone has a chance. They just have to take it.”

  Calista’s thick brows furrowed. She’d said a lot more than that. The line sounded weak with how they cut it off.

  “Would her family say the same?” Tamara narrated, now showing clips of her family and her mother’s legacy, all of it edited with an ominous, flashy black-and-white filter, as if showing footage of a mass murderer. They even added some lines from Calista’s old broadcasts, where she was basically forced to criticize fighters with the other three.

  “What kind of people support this?” her 16-year old self wondered.

  “Evil people,” Danica had responded.

  The recording got worse as Calista watched on. It twisted her words, taking them out of context. It made her sound so stupid and out of touch. Yes, she’d said stuff about fighters… but she didn’t have a choice! And why didn’t they show the better parts of her fight with Lílitha? She cringed as the footage replayed her screaming in pain and passing out at the end, over and over again.

  Her fists clenched when they started talking about her family, mostly her mother. There were many lines played side-by-side, showing just how much Calista had repeated her mother’s phrases throughout her SociaLights career.

  “The fans are everything. They’re our whole world.”

  “I do this to put smiles on people’s faces.”

  “Style goes with your personality. It can be anything.”

  Chills wracked her body. Was she a carbon copy of her mother this whole time? Her mother always told her to be unique, to add her own flair… either she secretly wanted her daughter to be the same, or Calista just didn’t… have a flair at all. Had she ever shown anything unique?

  Was that what Jennifer meant when she said her portfolio wasn’t good enough? It was too much like her own?

  “Katelyn Medley was found on the Genesis X space station carrying an injured patron from an illegal bar, which has been shut down by SECURE.” Footage of Katelyn appeared, zooming in on her face as she helped someone through the crowded lobby. She had a black eye and she looked terrified. What had happened? Was it a bar fight?!

  Calista shook her head, clutching her black locks in her fingers. This couldn’t be happening. What would they do now? What had their mother done? Did she forbid Katelyn to talk to Calista? Was that why she hadn’t heard from them? Were they even home? Did they move out after their fans started attacking them?

  She couldn’t bear it. She closed the interview and pulled her covers over her head, crying it out. Katelyn and Quincy were her motivation. She wanted to ensure their future, show them that they didn’t need to do what their mother did. She wanted to give them a chance to escape that life with her.

  Now that this had happened… what was the point?