The Brightmoon Institution (Catradora Boarding School AU)

The Boarding Games

Adora woke on Wednesday morning a nervous mess. Her fingers were trembling so much she could barely tie her hair up.

"Get it together Adora, you have to perform. Don't choke now."

She spoke softly to herself, trying to ignore the message that beeped on her phone.

Shadow Weaver.

Adora had been purposefully avoiding her phone calls with her, keeping them as brief and rare as possible, but that never stopped her from sending her daily texts. Unable to resist, Adora swiped open her phone.

Go and win today, my star.

She let out a breath, tension within her rising while she also felt welcome relief. Putting the phone down again, Adora was surprised to see another message filter through.

I trust you to rid yourself of distractions during this critical time.

Adora knew who Shadow Weaver was talking about, and despised the fact that she was partly correct. The thought of eliminating Catra from her life was unthinkable, but the girl was causing Adora to lose sleep almost every night.

The first few nights following their argument were difficult, mostly because Catra was too stubborn to talk to Lonnie. But then Glimmer had given Adora the brilliant idea of asking Lonnie, who was very hesitant but thankfully agreed. Catra had approached Adora about a day ago, slightly mad that she'd gone to Lonnie (how did she even know when Lonnie didn't tell her?) , but they managed to work everything out (sort of) in the end. Now Adora was losing sleep over the thoughts of Catra, which often passed her mind even when she was having a simple conversation with her. Looking in the mirror, Adora noticed her own blush forming on her face and lightly slapped herself to shake out of it.

She's really messing with your functionality you horny idiot.

"Ready for the big day?"

Adora's eyes caught Bow leaning against the door frame and she smiled.

"You make it sound like I'm getting married," she joked, finally mustering the strength to tie her hair up.

"They're coming around ten, we're meant to welcome them but last year people threw eggs, so we aren't doing that this year."

Adora snorted, knowing "people" definitely consisted of Glimmer. She was likely the main perpetrator, it seemed like something she'd think of doing.

"Be honest, how good are their sport teams?"

Bow took a breath, causing Adora to emphasize the "be honest" part of her question.

"Pretty damn good. They're the only team that can hold a candle to us."

Adora loosed a breath, the statement doing nothing to calm her nerves.

"You shouldn't be scared though, we smashed them last year, we can do it again this year."

Bow gave her a grin, easing Adora slightly.

"Mornin'."

Adora looked over to see Catra stroll in, taking a bite out of one of the cafeteria's croissants.

"How are you so calm right now?"

Catra shrugged, swallowing as she stuck a hand in the pocket of her coat. She'd donned Angella's old jacket again, only this time navy and indigo streaks coated her cheeks, along with stark white and black eyeliner. She looked good, but that was frequently the case.

"I'm not, I just don't externalize my inner conflict. Scorpia told me so."

Adora had briefly heard of Scorpia, but more in passing conversation. Catra did mention she was her therapist, the first time she was drunk, but there was another detail Adora felt she missed.