You could say the next few days were productive. Though Reia would disagree and argue that it felt like walking barefoot through burning hot mounds of coal.

Maybe worse…

She didn't like having bandaids on her face, nor did she like the idea of splashing icy healing liquid on her face every morning or drinking it in case she had any unchecked injuries. Thankfully her face cleared up in as little as 24 hours.

…stupid ass Mac brothers.

But she digressed...

The announcement that she was forming a new club came with a fish tank load of disdain in the first few days, it was like no one even considered that Reia was serious or that the rest of the clubs would retaliate and thus the thought of joining the Starlight Disciples scared most off…but it hadn't been so long.

Surprisingly, there weren't any attacks on her as of recently, it was weird, not what she'd expected from her enemies and that kept her on edge. The Purple Monkeys were not known for easily forgiving those that commit strife against them. They were as cold as they were calculating, she had to stay vigilant and ready.

Purah had successfully retrieved registration papers through the plan Reia had at first wished to do herself and after getting five signatures from Purah, Maila, Caroline, Blanket, and Reia herself, it occurred to them that they didn't necessarily have a sixth person to sign off on the paper and as such, their club wasn't official.

Reia had one encounter with Brick, which was just as uneventful as the week—except when he saw her he most definitely hissed—perhaps it was a gag? Regardless it was in disgust and Reia had to use her left hand to stop her right hand from connecting with Brick's face yet again but not that time. Probably better to save it for next time.

Now, Blanket, Purah , Maila, and Caroline all had free periods during the third period—except Reia of course, because she had to be the oddball. Which left Reia deciding to take the loss and ended up ditching her third period Mana conservation class.

There were names they kept going over, names of people they knew, and who they thought could possibly be interested.

The registration paper sat at the center of the table.

"…I've never met Archer Turnsville." Maila didn't sound too sure about him.

While Reia didn't say anything, leaned back in her chair and mulled over her decisions of the past week.

They were in the library again, the same table as last time, though more chairs she guessed…

Had she done the right thing? Would he be proud? Would the parents she could barely even remember be proud? What was Reia even doing?

Since when was Reia the president of anything?

"Well, Archer used to push a lot of static juice, good tasting stash too—but he totally turned his life around, doesn't even do that stuff anymore." Caroline was shaking her hands as if to say don't get the wrong idea. Like there weren't already major red flags just lingering in the air.

"Okay...good to know he was your old drug dealer," Maila said.

And Blanket just shrugged as if none of what either Caroline or Maila said mattered.

"We can keep him as an option.", Reia said.

"Timothy Dorrock?" Maila suggested.

"Never heard of him." Caroline declared.

But it was Purah's voice who boomed the loudest "Okay no, not Timmy, no! I don't think he'll appreciate me sitting as VP! Shoot, heavens no, I mean… I hope he doesn't remember the slime cube incident? I–heard they were his favorite animal—but" then she dropped her head face down into the desk, the memory too overwhelming.

Oh, Purah…

Look, the slime cube incident was really better left unexplained—just know that a slime's….slime is near impossible to wash out of any type of clothing material or hair and Archer never wanted to speak to them again.

"Oh yeah, he remembers." Reia said and with that, everyone understood that Timothy Dorrock was thereby completely out of the question.

"You have a few friends, right? And you said they get harassed every day." Maila asked Caroline "Ask them to sign and join! It's perfect, they'll be protected and they won't be clubless—"

"No. They wouldn't dare…they've been mistreated and ostracised for years, the mere idea of joining a club disgusts those two." Caroline answered.

"Blanket, why don't you summon your serpent and have him be our sixth?" Purah was joking, of course.

Blanket didn't look at Purah, although it looked like he wanted to burst out a verbal jab in rebuttal.

Interesting, what was wrong with Blanket?

Reia was curious about this—actually, the entire table looked over at Blanket, leaving Caroline who had, for some reason, stacked all of her books on top of each, to ask the question "That's strange, I haven't seen you with your serpent all week. I thought you were always with the little guy?"

Reia hadn't seen the serpent once.

See, the table instantly became cold like a lake in February, Blanket played with his pen and answered "Well, I owe the Trenchcoats about 250 iron ingots—which I definitely almost won back in a game of palace—I'd counted the president's entire deck—" their white-haired friend paused and touched his forehead breathing a heavy sigh "Let's just say I bet Sebi in a game against the Trenchcoats president and lost!" Blanket slammed a fist on the table.

Bet? Palace, the card game? When did this happen?

But that wasn't important, Reia had questions, not only questions but an immediate response "Then why aren't we getting him back, what the hell? Let's go!"

"You think I haven't been trying? President Asher refuses a rematch in the form of palace! Instead, now, he suggests only combat-centered activities! The bastard! Reia—you see the issue? I can't beat anyone from the Trenchcoats in a one-on-one battle! I-I've never beaten anyone in battle! I'm no fighter, that's what Sebi does!"

"Heck, if you can't, maybe I can!" Reia declared putting her thumb into her chest. "I'm not gonna sit and watch, I'm not that white-livered girl anymore!"

"White…livered?" Purah stuck out her tongue at Reia's choice of word, though nobody else was as concerned as her.

Immediately Maila frowned "Hold on, Reia, do we really have to solve everything with our fists and magic?"

"Yes!" Both Reia and Caroline answered at the same time. At least she understood.

But Reia elaborated "A knight looks danger head-on and laughs. A girl's gotta do what she thinks is right."

"Yeah, but is a knight supposed to go looking for danger?" Purah said, earning a hundred nods from Maila, but Maila seemed to have mixed feelings on the subject.

"It doesn't matter! If I can just make enough static juice then I'll have enough to buy back Sebi." like a hammer Blanket's fist came down on the table.

Reia stomped her foot a second after him, "I can't condone this static juice thing, Blanket! Where did you even learn to do that?"

"Because my pops is an amazing alchemist! Maybe the best in all of Koncord!" Blanket answered with pride "And as such, me the same. Give me the ingredients and how to produce and I can put together any concoction, any drug—Hubble potion, healing elixirs, static juice, drift drink. Hell, I mean, Brick saw my talents!"

That also put up huge and major red flags in her head.

Brick seeing his talents wasn't really something Blanket should have been bragging about. But, she understood his point in being a good alchemist—he can make quite the variety of potions and freaking whatever else he made.

But, they had to go back to the main underlying issue.

"We need to get your serpent back." Reia wasn't going to just let him sit there without his freaking summon, he was her friend.

At least that's what Reia thought!

"Well, they're not gonna just give him up! They've using him to brew their concoctions!" Blanket shook his head "Sebi can heat things to a specific temperature that most ranges just can't."

"More of the reason to get your friend back, yeah?" Reia said.

Then Purah commented, looking away from everyone "They're not hurting the poor creature, are they? Not… that I care or anything."

"All I know is he's not home with me. And that's a huge no-no."

"Maila, Caroline, Purah, they stole his summon and he doesn't want to hit them back!" Reia said.

"No dude, I didn't say that I didn't want to hit them back…"

But for Reia the answer was very simple, after her first fight with Brick and being attacked by two other members of the Purple Monkeys, she found herself more daring than really…ever. None of that discouraged her, she was ready to start actually doing something.

"Then we should be knocking on their door, this very moment, am I ri-ight?! We can talk with them." Reia wasn't monitoring her voice and one of the librarians gave her a steel glare—she must've been so loud.

"Right, just talk.", Caroline commented with a whisper.

"That won't end well.", Purah said.

Then Maila said, "We should probably engage in some sort of diplomacy with the Trenchcoats."

"Huh? How? We're not even an official club yet, and even so, our reputation is still mud." Blanket dropped his head on the table, like a boulder dropping hitting the bottom of a lake.

Okay, well…Blanket looked just fine.

Caroline threw her head back in her chair "I hate these types of meetings, this is really what I'm wasting my free period on?" Then she jerked her head upright again and declared "If Reia's club president and she wants to start busting Trenchcoat chins, then we should follow. Your serpent needs you and you're playing widdle-waddle with yourself."

"I— already have a plan, and then even a backup plan after that. I appreciate the kind gesture, but no." Blanket raised his head and Reia tried to read the look in his eyes, she then tapped her own cheek.

"What, selling more static juice?" asked Reia.

"Yeah, exactly that..." he replied, avoiding eye contact, though wiping off imaginary sweat.

Maybe it was best if she didn't press him any further.

"And they refuse to let you play palace in a rematch?" Purah was playing with her dagger and using it to pick her nails when she asked this.

"Yeah, president Asher counts cards! And he counts them better than me—I forgot he can use his telekinesis to help improve memory."

Asher? A telekinesis?

If she remembered correctly, Asher was the Trenchcoat's president.

"Well, would that help him against me? I'm sick and tired of people doing nittyfreak whatever they want to others with no consequences!" Reia said.

Another table of students shushed them.

"Yeah and what're we gonna do about it, Reia?!" Caroline egged on, and Reia knew Caroline was silently cheering for action.

"I think we should just run up into their club, and start swinging on everyone wearing those stupid things." Reia said.

"I'm still sorta-kinda against fighting right, we can be diplomatic about things too", Maila said.

"Yeah, if you want people to walk all over you." From across from Maila, Caroline said this with a single raised red eyebrow above the other "Taking someone's summon is no joke. I thought we were the Starlight Disciples, not the Starlight cowards. Blanket you don't wanna fight for Servi?"

"It's—it's Sebi!" Blanket corrected with a high index finger.

Purah looked down at her lap groaning "We can fight, sure not my first choice—but if we end up ruining our knight careers before they even start—oh, and especially if someone gets super hurt, or loses a limb and then suddenly all of us have to lose a limb, don't say I didn't warn y'all."

"I don't need your help—really." Blanket again reassured, looking at the four girls with finality in his voice.

"Nonsense." Reia inclined her head with his "You're my friend and as such, I can't overlook someone who's hurt or wrong you. Now either we can go down there and be diplomatic…or we can just walk into their room and start going ballistic—I would much rather go in peacefully..."

"Take the aid, Blanket, no doubt we'll all back you up.", Purah said this and Blanket just looked down at his lap with parted lips.

He probably didn't expect Purah to back him up.

"Shouldn't we worry about our sixth?" Blanket asked in disbelief, and Reia wasn't sure why he was so perplexed.

"Not while Sebi's in a cage or something! We're a team, one team now! And I say we figure out a way to help Blanket!"

There were murmurs of agreement, of course.

"Diplomacy with the Trenchcoats…no the Trenchcoats don't do diplomacy like normal people, they're way too weird for that" Blanket noted "They play games to solve their problems—well problems in general, actually."

"So, we'll beat them at their own 'games' ." Reia declared and Caroline sadly looked down to the floor.

"But the thing is, they only pick games that they know they'll win at—games that they excel at when using magic, Asher will never play a game that he doesn't have an advantage to."

Reia then said, "Did you know this when you played them?"

"Hell, absolutely not!" Blanket looked completely disappointed.

"Cheating bastards…" Maila commented.

"Damn, talk about getting swindled, Blanket." Caroline said, "Maybe I can blow a tornado through their room?"

Well, Reia didn't like that idea and at first she thought her and Purah were on the same page because Purah looked at Caroline with sighed, but admitted "Well, yeah that could work. Why not?"

"No, we'll play them by their own game, no need to be that dirty. At least not yet…" Reia said.

Caroline let out a loud psst, and scratched her nose "Trenchcoats follow the Monkeys and thus they think they're big bodies in the school, but truthfully they're just a group of weirdos who think they look all cool and edgy just because they wear Trenchcoats!" sounded like there were some emotional ties somewhere.

"Shhhh…" an annoyed student across the room said.

"Before we get our sixth person for official registration, I say we get Sebi back, because any friend of Blanket is a friend of ours in this club, am I right?" Reia said, making sure to keep her voice down.

There was a reply of agreeing murmurs and yeses from everyone except Blanket, who slunk back in his seat with a straight face, though she saw him trying to hide back his fluster.

Emphasis on tried.

"Well i-if you all insist–I–"

"We do!" Reia confirmed, and nobody was arguing with her, so the proclaimed president of the future club—the Starlight Disciples continued with a single thing left "We'll go there right now!" Now Reia jumped to her feet and began storming off to the library exit, causing Maila and Blanket to voice their disagreement by calling for her name—leaving Purah to run at her and start grabbing her by the arms, but Reia barely felt it and kept tugging.

Ms. Chellog the librarian six feet away standing at the clerk's desk, just palmed her face.

All the while Caroline just stared on, before removing a vial of something pink and chugging the entire thing.

But before they could even begin the trip, the door was pulled open, a flush of silver—like the silver you'd see on an old person's head, instead on a young girl who bumped into Reia without a care or notice.

Not even acknowledging Reia or Purah's presence, but then as if she suddenly recognize the two, the girl's face scrunched in disgust. It was to be expected, everyone disliked Reia all of a sudden, surely this girl had read the Daily Decorous.

And the pieces of the puzzle began to come together.

The girl was about the same height as Reia, built skinny but she looked like did a lot of running, again her hair was silver and it only came down and touched the center of her neck and fell into a bang. A small notebook in her hand.

"Hey—" but before Reia could voice her contempt, the silver-haired girl put up a hand.

"I'm not in the mood, I know who you and your idiot friends are, Reia Welsh. And whatever you're planning, I hope—no, I know, is going to crash and burn, mark me, nobody's happy with you."

Tsk..Reia looked at the girl, up and down searching for some sort of armband, or symbol, or club attire or anything…just regular uniform like Reia.

Was she clubless? Reia had never seen the girl.

"And what club are you from?"

The girl frowned, looked at Reia like she wanted to spit in her face, and replied "I'm not from any! Not anymore, so if you'd please, I'm going to go find a nice corner to stare out the window at leaves falling! Okay?"

How could she hold such a malicious gaze for Reia, someone who had done absolutely nothing to her?

"Calm down, you're acting like we stole your puppy or something." Purah defended taking a foot forward.

By this time the rest of her Starlights were on their feet and the librarian was getting restless.

"All fighting should be taken outside, to the arena, not inside my library!" The old lady librarian—Ms. Chellog, with this white short ponytail rocking her desk with her finger and all the self-proclaimed Starlights looked at the girl with a challenge in their hearts.

The girl's lip twisted "Maybe we should go out there and fight, huh, since you want to be an asshat and start issues with everyone! Why don't you mind your goddamn business?!"

What the hell was she yelling at Reia for?

"We don't want trouble—I'm just trying to be a good knight! Trying to do better!" Reia's words weren't profound or anything, but the silence wasn't normal library silence. This silence was the silence you got when the entire room had gained your attention, where all parties in the room felt your conviction…this of course didn't mean that they agreed with her.

She saw them sporting their club symbols and attire.

Maila was already beside Purah, Caroline went towards the exit and leaned against the wall, her hand conveniently stored on the dagger on her belt, Blanket was writing something down in a notepad and Purah let out a hmph sound.

"Good-knight…" the girl mumbled, then barked one last time "That's why you got me and about five other people banned from deck 52, huh?"

Reia was baffled, that's just it "What? How did I get anyone banned?!"

One blink.

Two blinks.

The girl was just about to reply, but old Ms. Chellog was having no bullshit that day, she took a goddamn brick from who knows where and chucked it, everyone jumped out of the way with bowling balls for eyes as the brick literally caused the double door to collapse into the hallway.

Everyone looked at the door, then at the old lady librarian, who at some point her toes lifted off the ground and the librarian began to levitate, surprisingly had like twelve books and two bricks orbiting around her like flies to a slice of cake.

Yeah, Ms. Chellog knew telekinesis…

Now everyone was really blinking like it was a freaking grand prize contest.

"I am now ordering you all to exit this library and not to return! —Until tomorrow."

"Tomorrow, what the hell did we do? You saw her bump our friend!" Caroline argued, then pointed to the downed door "You literally destroyed school property!"

Any damage to Decorous Academy could be repaired with the right spell.

And then Ms. Chellog's voice sounded like thunder and her eyes went white "to-mor-row!"

And that's when all the books and the two bricks began shooting at them, leaving Reia, the Starlights, and the random desk 52 girl to haul their asses straight out of there and into the hall.

And see, the deck 52 girl flicked her hair and bared her teeth like some sort of wild saber goat or something…

And before anyone could comment on her rather…non-typical display, Purah was already walking to everyone's 12 'O clock, going to her waist and removing her dagger while charging a purple cloud of energy in her free hand.

"Listen, whoever you are, don't take advantage of the school's mayhem and use my friend as a scapegoat for your mishaps. Reia, if she wants a fight, allow me—"

"I don't recognize her." Caroline softly told Maila.

"Fight? Sure, get me tossed to the side and then beat me down into the mud like a farmhouse turkey, why don't you?!" the silver-haired girl then dropped to her knees and began mumbling to herself.

What…?

Certainly being removed from a place you had invested a great amount of time into hurt.

"Um, we don't actually do that to our turkeys back at the farmhouse," Purah explained.

They really didn't, that didn't even make sense.

"Is she okay?" Maila inched closer, but cautiously laid back.

Blanket held out his hand and a blue liquid vial was already in his hand as if he'd prepared the potion prior "Perhaps she's having a psychotic meltdown? This...right here will overwhelm her nervous system and paralyze all her muscles for like two hours…it'll be calming and relaxing."

"Uhh, Blanket, I'm so sure that's the opposite of calming and relaxing...but I like your energy!", Maila reminded him, but Blanket just blew air to his cheeks and huffed.

"We should just walk away and continue on with our thing. She's no threat." Caroline said.

But Reia could understand feeling such an intense motion.

Then the girl took a fist and punched the floor once.

Then a second time.

And before anyone knew it she was swinging her fist into the floor, with no restrictions, the skin on the girl's knuckles coming off like pencil shavings and that's when Reia ran to the girl and grabbed her wrist and looked the girl in the eyes "Alright, look can we start with a name? I mean, you said I caused this to you, can I know the name of the person who I got kicked out of their club?"

A clock, somewhere, went through its motion of ticks.

"Symone, Symone Smithers." The girl answered with a stubborn scratch.

"How or why did I get you removed from your club?"

"Because you pissed off the Monkeys' Vice president and his brother. You attacked them and now there are rumors of you forming your own club, now they're downsizing everyone else's club, freaking punishing the whole school like a !"

But that didn't make sense!

"Downsizing, what do you mean?"

"The Purple Monkeys forcing the other clubs to downsize on membership, starting with our weakest members…starting with me…"

But what did that have to do with Reia?

"So what?"

"All Because of you! They're punishing the rest of us out, because of you! You! I'll say it again…."

"No no, We get it…" Caroline chided and Purah silently agreed.

"So I'm guessing that means you want to fight me?" Reia assumed and although she hasn't fully healed yet, no self-respecting dame would dare back down from a challenge.

With her index Symone pointed at Reia "No, I'm not stupid, I'm just weak! I'm not going to put myself in that position again—you're just as bad as the rest of this asshat-filled school!"

She called herself weak…Reia didn't think she was weak.

Was Reia really just as bad? Honestly, she didn't even feel like she caused any stars in the school yet, to Reia it felt everyone was exaggerating the things she'd done the past few days.

"Hey, watch your mouth. Reia's been the only one helping people around here—her methods may be a little crazy, but she's the only one helping people!" Purah said.

Then Symone grabbed her own shirt and she took in a deep snort. "Maybe it was better if she helped everyone by not helping."

"Get a hold of yourself, dude..." Caroline was beginning to lose her patience.

"Reia is nothing like them, you're directing your anger at the wrong people!" Maila tried to explain, with Blanket nodding.

"Be mad at Deck 52 and the Purple Monkeys, we have no ties with them. Reia did nothing" Blanket said with a stroke of his hand over his hair.

"And I'm sorry they did that to you! It isn't fair and I'm sorry if my actions have somehow slighted you!" Reia looked Symone in the eyes and raised out a hand "My new club the Starlight Disciples will be jump-starting soon you know. And I know it's not much because, we're all that there is, and everyone thinks I'm some insane nuisance but if you join you'll be a founding member along with us! You won't be clubless and you'll be with people who'll respect you, protect and care for yo—"

SWAT!

It was a hard swipe that smacked away Reia's outstretched hand and Purah probably would've pounced had Reia not immediately held up a hand to stop her

"I would rather be boiled in cough syrup!" Symone reinforced desperation in her voice "I'd never join you! You ruined my life here at Decorous, I have to go through another year with the stigma that I was kicked from Deck 52! I'm clubless and alone—losers— like most of you are! But I'm not strong! I'm going to be attacked and harassed, and—and—" Symone's forehead seemed like it was about to burst like a swollen hot air balloon. "Do you hear me Reia Welsh, they're going to beat my ass and you offering me a position in your silly baby club will not change that!" at the moment Symone couldn't control the saliva coming from her mouth as she yelled.

What?!

And ew.

So yeah, Reia frowned. Sure, it was absolutely dishonorable on Symone's part, but the reason Reia was sad wasn't because of Symone's hostilities, Reia truly felt terrible that she was supposedly the reason this girl was terminated from her club.

"So what—what can I do to make this better!? To make it so the two of us don't have to be at odds? Symone, we can protect you, dude I'm not even here to cause trouble, I'm for the opposite! So any issue that you say I caused pleas—"

"Fix it? You want to fix this?! Get Deck 52 to take me back, like now." Symone then elbowed one of the hallway stone walls, shaking the area with tremors of her strength "Then bygones can be bygones! But until then, Reia, you're the worst knight I've ever had the pleasure of speaking with—hearing about, tsk, why don't you go fling yourself off one of those floating islands?!"

Worst knight?

Wow. Reia didn't even know this girl.

Was that how most people saw her nowadays?

That one stung and Reia had half the mind to bark back at her, but Reia subdued any of those thoughts. This girl didn't deserve to get dragged by Reia's words—Symone was simply going through an emotional water rapid.

When Caroline heard this she stepped right up to Symone—Symone being a good two inches taller, looked up at Symone then at Reia and calmly asked while crunching her knuckles "Can I deal with her mouth, she's got some nerve."

Looking at Symone, she was breathing heavily, eyes red and her fingers tapping her own thigh.

But Reia only put up a hand and shook her head from side to side, while Maila came up and gave Caroline a gentle tug backwards, Purah still kept a hawk-eye on Symone, and at some point, Blanket had begun sifting through pages of a notepad he was carriying.

"She does have a smart mouth, Reia, should I say…make something that'll make her endure two long, excruciating, days of cold-shivers?" Blanket suggested the totally normal question while pointing to his notepad, very much excited.

Symone deadpanned "Cold shivers?"

Blanked nodded "Yeah, like if you have the flu, but oh it's ten times worse."

"No! No potions Blanket! Symone, go on ahead, do what you were gonna do before. We have our own priorities, we'll go our way, you do the same." Reia nodded to her friends, and Symone just let out a loud psst, looked at everyone, and lingered longer than Reia expected.

This of course made Caroline and Purah slowly hone in on her, but when Symone asked… "What's the name of that stupid dead-end club going to be?"

Symone couldn't look Reia in the eye at that, but really Reia couldn't read Symone, she asked it sort of like she didn't care to know, but what was the point of asking about something you don't care for?

Regardless, Reia grinned and answered "Starlight Disciples." and then she kept pushing, the footsteps behind her notified Reia that her team followed as well, they had things to finish after all.

The word would spread on its own.

TBC

*>X<*