Cool and relatable Zeta Faleur was on the take. With my cool sunglasses on and my awesomely chill demeanor, I wasn’t even a little anxious about having to fight the devils. There was a pleasant looking lake with a long dock. The boards went almost the center, where Kitty had set up a wrestling ring (shocker, I know!), where the eight devils waited for their first challengers. Behind the ring were rows of tents set up for the camp part of our trip. Cool and relatable Zeta Faleur definitely wasn’t sighing in relief that she didn’t have to set up tents. I didn’t spend the morning worrying about what Oka would do if she saw my pathetic attempts to put a tent together.

Kitty and Caya were in the middle of an argument of how to best handle the fights.

“I think we’re going to do a team of eight versus eight to start, some team business. Then some one on ones,” Kitty said. “Oooh, or maybe the one on ones first, teams could get a bit busy, don’t you think?”

“Just pick one,” Caya said.

“Pick one on one? You’re trying to influence me!” Kitty said. “But fine, I don’t really want the big team battle just yet. Or do I?"

While they argued, I tried to look relaxed, so the devils would see me and think I was the type of person worth befriending.

"Dang, a whole weekend away from everything," I said. "No internet, no TV..."

"They're gonna have routers set up," Kalei said. "And you can always just go back home in a second."

"I...I mean, I guess so," I said. "Dang it Kalei, I was doing a thing."

"Were you?" Kalei asked.

"Yes! I was gonna say...no internet, no TV...you'd think I'd be upset about that, right? Except I borrowed my sister's tablet and asked her to download a bunch of shows and movies for us to watch." I snickered all cool-like as I showed off Stella's spare reading tablet. She recently upgraded, so she let me borrow the old one.

"That'd be better if we didn't already establish we'd have internet and stuff," Kalei said.

"Yeah, I know! Who's to blame for that one?" I asked. "Er, I mean, pretend I said that all cool-like."

"Why are you pretending to be cool anyways?" Kalei asked.

"Zeta's really cool!" Oka said.

"If you're gonna start this this early I'm just gonna go to my tent and nap," Kalei said.

"It's part of my befriend the devils plan," I said.

"That they're going to see you desperately pretending to be cool all the way from the middle of that lake and think you should hang out?" Kalei said.

I was glad the sunglasses hid my eyes in that moment.

"S-something like that," I said.

"Well, at least Kalei's usual snark is returning to normal levels," Lillia sighed.

"Was my snark not normal?" Kalei asked.

"Well, you're in crabby mode now, so if you talk to Zeta like that again I'm gonna throw you in the lake," Oka said.

"Sorry," Kalei said. "Kitty just wears me out."

"Kitty wears all of us out," Oka said. "Doesn't mean you have to take it out on Zeta."

There was definitely something up with Kalei, and Lillia was close to the point of full investigation mode.

I was more hopeful Kalei would feel better with whatever flu bug she had with time. Or whatever was going on if it was more than that.

"Alright, we're just gonna run through everyone because I've decided on something even cooler than this for the next one!" Kitty said. "Spoiler alert? Tournament arc, baby. But we still have to see how stinkin' strong our new students are, right?"

“I volunteer to take on anyone,” Caeda announced, shouting all the way from the end of the docks. “I’ll go first.”

“We know, we know!” Kitty screamed back. “Big, important, Caeda!”

The other devils cleared out, leaving Caeda waiting for her first opponent.

“Your shields will be activated for this, so it will be like the demonstrations you've been shown previously,” Caya said. “You will be protected from any harm, and shouldn’t feel any pain. When the shields have a green hue, that means they’re at full ‘health,’ so to speak. They'll gradually shift to red the more damage they take. Focus on using your powers only, your bloodsabers will be for any void monster encounters, not for this challenge."

“Blah blah blah, boring! Let’s see who will be our first challenger…” Kitty walked around us, humming to herself.

I actually thought about stepping up. Cool and relatable Zeta Faleur could be the first one to challenge the devils, putting in a cool performance that got everyone's attention.

Though I was supposed to befriend them so I wouldn’t have to fight them, dang it! Kitty sucks.

Still, the mental image of me being super cool, taking down Caeda, showing everyone in class how skilled I am with my Cani powers, making the other devils want to talk to me right away, and also making Oka swoon, so much so that she'd drag me away from this and to our tent, and...it maybe distracted me a bit.

Enough that I forgot to say anything, leaving someone else to step up.

“For all the hype, I still don’t think you devils have any real skill,” Ovie said. “While I have all of it."

“Feisty, and cocky! That’s what we wanna see around these parts," Kitty said. "Unsurprising that a Wildfire Hearts original goes first. Rest of you follow along and line up!"

Never mind that Ovie wasn't a Wildfire Hearts original, she started at Rising Shards and was currently back at Rising Shards, but Kitty wasn't one for logic or truthfulness.

Somehow we ended up at the front of the group walking across the wooden planks of the dock with Ovie, who eyed us up and down.

“It’s been a while since we’ve caught up,” Ovie said.

Cool and relatable Zeta Faleur prepared for this when I found out the Wildfire Hearts class would be coming along. I asked Kalei for some good comebacks I could use in case Ovie tried to start anything with us. Unfortunately, hers were way too harsh for me to actually repeat out loud, even with confidence boosting sunglasses.

"Sssssure is," I said. "Uh, how are...you?"

"Don't talk to me like we're friends," Ovie said.

"I'm gonna push you in the water if you say another word," Kalei said.

An advantage of Kalei in a crabby mood was her fuse was even shorter for everyone outside of our friend group.

"I need to focus on my bout, anyways," Ovie said.

The end of the dock was a wide enough platform to have the battle arena on it as well as space for us to stand outside of it. Ovie got into the ring and stood across from Caeda. 09 leaned on the ring as she watched.

“Genuinely, how do you stand being around her?” Oka asked.

09 didn't look away from Ovie as she shrugged.

“Is everything OK with you?” Oka asked. "I mean, with Penteldtam and all? We haven't had time to catch up, either."

09's stoic expression made me feel uneasy. "I mean, it sucks, yeah, but...he did kind of have it coming."

"That's...really harsh," Oka said.

09 shrugged again.

Kara was a bit late, but got to the ring in time to officiate. Kitty didn’t seem too pleased by her presence.

“As long as you keep it a Cani power vs. Cani power thing only, I won’t step in,” Kara said. “I’ll make sure things don’t get physical.”

"Can we start already?" Ovie asked. "She doesn't have a frying pan with her, does she?"

"I left it with my gear," Caeda said.

I had seen Ovie fight enough, including actually fighting against her, to know she was dangerous. Caeda had apparently gotten some kind of power boost, but if I had to pick some classmates I thought could match that and couldn't pick any friends, Ovie would be on that list.

"OK, rules again!" Kitty said. "If your shields are red, you lose. And if you get knocked out of the ring into the water, you also lose! Your match starts when I, the incredible and famous Kitty Kilander, rings the bell. Now...where is my bell?"

After wasting a bunch of time trying to find a physical bell Kitty forgot to bring (she blamed it on Corinani, making her come along to bring one, but Corinani didn't understand what she was asking for and brought a regular bell and not a fighting one), it was finally time for the first match. If Caeda was at all concerned about facing Ovie, she didn't show it. Their shields went up, looking like blocky armor made of projected energy, and Kitty rang the bell.

It happened so fast I thought that if I blinked once I'd miss it. Ovie launched a blast of acid directly at Caeda, who lifted herself up with her powers, which allowed her to basically conjure an elevator made of energy. The blocklike elevator thing boxed in Ovie's acid, then Caeda made another that shot upwards diagonally like a cannon, easily flinging Ovie high out of the ring and into the water.

"And we have a winner!" Kitty said, rushing to hold Caeda's hand up like she was the referee too.

Kara helped Ovie back onto the dock. Ovie smacked away Kara's hand as soon as she was out of the water,  and stomped off back toward shore.

If Ovie lost that easily, my confidence in my chances plummeted. At least, that's what I'd be thinking if I wasn't trying to be cool. Maybe the sunglasses were giving me a confidence boost, because I found myself volunteering to go next, climbing into the ring (I did get stuck a bit because I tried to roll in and the stupid ropes caught me). They put me against Myles, so at least I wouldn't be against Caeda's powers which seemed ready made for a trip into the lake. And I'd be up against one of the newbies.

This was my best chance so far to make any kind of impression on the devils.

"I'm uh," I said, pushing my sunglasses up trying to think of what to say to Myles, who was in the middle of tying her hair up. "I'm Zeta, and I'm gonna win this!"

“Faleur, sunglasses off,” Caya said.

“Dang it,” I obliged but I wasn’t happy about it.

Cool and relatable Zeta Faleur was definitely still cool even without her sunglasses on. And even though her tummy started to hurt which definitely wasn’t from trying to bottle in any anxiety.