***Reese***

"He~ey! Whatcha doin'?"

The hand on my shoulder and voice right next to my ear make me start, and I look to the side to see Neon grin at me. "...A good morning to you too, Neon."

"Mornin!"

I'm checking out the notice of the fight matchups for today, the final day of the Teams round, when the cat Faunus – somehow, while still wearing rollerblades – sneaks up on me. "The fights today?" "M-hm." I nod, and Neon peers over my shoulder to inspect the leaflet.

VRDN of Haven vs. PWTR of Atlas

CRLN of Beacon vs. VRML of Atlas

CLDN of Haven vs. FCSA of Shade

SFRN of Beacon vs. CNBA of Atlas

Of course I'm rooting for Haven's VRDN and CLDN, but other than that I don't know any of the other names, and don't much care for them. Neon might be interested in most of them, though, since there's 3 Atlas Teams fighting today – including against our VRDN.

"Hey," I nudge Neon's side and highlight the the first battle of the day with my finger. "This one could be good."

"Oh yeah, our boys from Team PWTR [Pewter] against your V-R-D-N... what's that spell out?"

"Viridian."

"Right. PWTR vs. VRDN. Sorry to tell you, but Haven doesn't stand a chance, PWTR are one of Atlas' top Teams."

"Well, so are VRDN. They're fourth-years, and even if their leader is pretty flighty, Valerie is also an excellent fighter."

"Oh? So you think Haven is gonna win that one?"

"Of course."

"Wanna make a bet of it? You're one behind again after all."

Yesterday we ultimately tied in our races and stuff at the skate park, so with the win in our duel I was catching up, but then I just had to agree to let a game of rock-paper-scissors count later during the night. How the hell did Neon talk me into that one? I really should have gone to sleep far earlier. But if Neon wants to make a game out of this too, works for me. "You're on."

"Great. By the way, did you have breakfast yet? There's still time before the fight begins."

I shake my head. "I'm waiting for the others, they should be here any moment."

"'Kay. Me neither. But I'm gonna need a moment, so you just go ahead, I'll catch up with you." And with that Neon turns around and starts heading back up the stairs to the dorms. "And save a seat for me!"

Only a few minutes later Arslan and the others arrive and we head over to the dining hall. We're actually pretty early, so there's still plenty of seating.

"He~ey! How you doing?" For the second time in like 15 minutes someone comes up on me from behind suddenly putting their hand on my shoulder and almost making me spill my cereal.

"Jeez, is today 'jumpscare Reese'-day or something?" I complain, but I recognize that voice too and turn to the speaker with a smile. "Hello, Skye. I'm fine, how are you?"

"I'm great. And so is Keira." The blue-haired, golden-eyed girl wearing a sleeveless t-shirt, baggy shorts and her asymmetrical armguards, only the left one extending over her upper arm too, gives me a brief hug and then waves to her girlfriend making her way over to us.

The taller gray-eyed redhead is wearing a dark vest over a short light gray dress and modesty shorts as well as black knee-high boots and the thick bracers she's wearing literally always, with a few thin wires attached to them running behind her back. I know they involve her Semblance somehow, but I have no idea how exactly.

As I greet Keira, Skye hugs Bolin next to me, then reaches over the table to also hug the other two best as she can without knocking anything off the table. She's like that, hugs for everyone, and Keira knows that and doesn't mind, especially as the two of them are a lot more... passionate about their relationship.

...As evidenced by the deep, long kiss they share a moment later. "Jeez, get a room, you guys," Bolin says, "some people could become annoyed at the two of you making out like that." Including that girl with the beanie over there looking away with poorly veiled distaste in her one visible eye. "I mean, not that I mind, after all it's hot and- Ow!"

Bolin is cut short by Keira whacking him upside the head with one hand, the other still embracing Skye. "Shut it."

"Hey, that was uncalled for!"

"Was not," I say, and the two girls nod, "but maybe keep it down a little in public."

"You sound like Tear and Rowan." Keira says, and I guess their other teammates would be the ones to tell them that. "But you haven't even seen the worst of us yet."

"Yeah," Skye agrees with a sly smirk. "The night after we won in the first round, Keira and I got all kinds of-"

"They really don't need to hear that," Keira interrupts her girlfriend with a faint blush. Funny, I always had her pegged as the more forward one about things like this.

"Oh, right," I say, "Congrats on your win."

"Thanks," Keira says, "It's a shame ABRN got eliminated already."

"Yeah, but what can you do? You two are gonna be in the doubles round, right?" Skye nods with a proud smile. "Then you go on and win one for Haven."

"Got it. We should get back to the others, come on, Keira."

"Yeah. Bye, guys."

We all say goodbye as the two turn to leave. Wait... "Oh, one more thing, Skye." "Hm?" "If you see your sister tell her to give her all in her battle, I have a bet running on victory for VRDN."

Actually Valerie is only like Skye's half-sister or cousin or something, but they're easily as close as actual sisters, so de facto they are. "Can do. See ya." "See you."

Just as the majority of students begins to filter in, Neon gets there too, accompanied by her Team, finding four seats right next to us. "Hey guys! Meet my Team, Team FNKI. You already met Flynt yesterday, and these are..."

Apart from Neon and Flynt, whom we met yesterday during the movie night, there's another girl and a boy. Neon namedropped both of them at some point , but it's nice to get faces to go with the names.

Kyle is a pretty impressive sight, standing over 2 meters tall and appropriately bulky, clad head to toe in dull gray plate armor and with his brown hair in a short, practical cut. If the armor were just a bit shinier and he had a helmet, he'd look exactly like the knight from a fairy tale. Also he seems a bit taciturn, yet eloquent if he talks, creating a harsh contrast to the black-haired girl next to him.

Iris, from what I gathered a very close friend of Kyle's, is almost 2 whole heads smaller than him and way chatty and vivacious, if maybe not to the extreme of Neon. She's wearing a white suit with golden adornments and no sleeves and black sunglasses even indoors. She seems like a fun person to me, as does Flynt; only Kyle is a bit harder to gauge, but I guess he's gonna be okay too.

After a round of greetings and introductions we eat, chatting about various topics on the side. At some point Neon gets bored so she takes to launching cherries and grapes with her spoon for Bolin and me to catch with out mouths, and except for the one botched shot that hits Iris' forehead, the breakfast goes over mostly uneventful.

Until, after most of us are already done eating, Neon climbs onto the table and starts shouting over the din of the fully-packed dining hall. "Hey! Everyone! Listen!" After a few tries most of the noise dies down and everyone's attention turns to Neon. "Thank you. Now that I have your attention, I'd like to make a short announcement of utmost importance."

Why am I getting this creeping feeling of doom? The gaze Arslan gives me tells me she senses the same; nothing good can possibly come of this. "Ahem." After exaggeratedly clearing her throat, in one swift motion Neon takes a handful of tomatoes still on our table and tosses them in random directions towards the other students. Yep, called it. "FOOD FIGHT!" After a split second of stunned silence, all hell breaks loose.

AN: I apologize for the somewhat long wait for such a small chapter, the next two are going to be bigger. Also sorry for teasing the food fight and then not writing it, but I had a rather bad case of writer's block in regards to that scene, and I took almost a full week trying to come up with something before giving up. I do hope I'll get some ideas at some point, then I'll either go back and retroactively add the fight here, or just have Neon start another one down the line.

Any and all OC names comply with the color naming rule, even if I'm not gonna spell out every single one.

Speaking of which, the 8 Teams competing today all together form one big shoutout. And if you get it, from that context you can also logically predict the outcomes of all four fights. Anyone who gets all four winners right gets a cookie (disclaimer: Cookie may be metaphorical).