Nicoleta fell into a habit of restless training, the round of twenty five was harsher, and she only made it by luck.
So now she needed to focus, she needed to become much stronger, and with programs suspended she had only herself to train her.
The dummy was back in the center of her living room, being abused.
At some point she burned it, and had to order for a new one, which her father called her to ask her why she was using his card to purchase dummies.
She said training, and returned to her non-stop attacking.
By the end of the week the dummy had tears and burn scars all around it, and Nicoleta had won four out of four matches in the round of twenty-five.
The matches had gotten more difficult though, and with each win Nicoleta grew closer to the edge, her anxiety was there, though small, it was there, and whenever she watched the people she could potentially fight with later, annihilate their opponents, the hairs on the back of her neck rose.
The Competitions began to become the hot topic everywhere, the canteen mentioned Nicoleta's name more than she liked, and alongside her name was Leilani, and Laura Glass. She had heard that last name anywhere, she just didn't remember.
When she joined her friends for breakfast, she asked them. "Who is Laura Glass?" May gasped, and Charlotte stared at her like she was crazy. May had become very theatrical lately, did she join the drama club or something?
"Ignore her- she's a four time champion" Nicoleta's brows knitted together, four time champion? How come she didn't know about her until now?
Oh
The Laura Glass that beat Levi last year? She was a four time champion?
Her anxiety settled into a comfortable place where her flame should have been.
"You might meet in this round- the round of twenty five is notorious for pairing up people randomly" Nicoleta deflated, she was going to lose.
And what would be the point of qualifying, of begging Evan to make her join?
After breakfast she ran to the training hall with a strong hope of finding Evan there, hoping that he still went there despite classes being suspended.
When she reached the glass doors, inside she saw Levi and Evan drinking tea, and speaking about something.
She opened the doors, as loudly as possible to gain their attention.
Levi looked up first, "Nicoleta?"
"Ms. Ariti?" She walked up to them, her fingertips aching because of how many times she had scratched them, she was close to scratching off skin.
"Tell me about Laura Glass, you fought against her right?" Levi seemed to snap out of some trance when Nicoleta spoke, he glanced at his brother, then back at her.
"Well?" Nicoleta asked, "why do you want to know now?" Evan questioned, setting his tea down.
"We are in the round of twenty-five" Evan shook his head, "that is very unlikely" Levi butted in, "I don't see why we can't give her some advice"
She agreed with him, "he would know more than I do. Ask him" she turned to Levi, he froze, then relaxed.
"Glass is very predictable the more you watch her, she tends to use the same techniques, and moves." She nodded.
"When I fought with her she followed the same patterns as with her first match, down to the last- if I had watched her matches I would have been able to beat her" Nicoleta was shocked.
"So you admit it?" He furrowed his brows, "admit what?"
"That you lost" Evan laughed, "I was going easy on her" Nicoleta laughed, she didn't believe a word.
"She looked hopeless"
"Really? A three time champion helpless?" He shrugged, "yeah, maybe she needed the win badly" Evan chuckled with Nicoleta. Though she laughed,
she still felt uneasy. Laura Glass was able to put Levi on his back, and win against him, Nicoleta could hardly get a hit on him.
If Laura and her met, and they would definitely meet, if not in the round of twenty five then the finals, or even the quarters, or the semis.
Nicoleta's anxiety returned like a wildfire, she could hardly focus on her next match.
She won regardless of the fear, but when she sat down after being healed, to watch Laura combat, she left more fearful than she had ever been, and regretting ever stepping foot into the stands.
The round of twenty-five disappeared, and came the quarter finals, gladly she didn't meet Laura.
But Laura was in the quarter finals, which meant she would be in the semi finals, which meant she would be in the finals, which meant even if Nicoleta made it to the finals, she would be disgustingly defeated by Laura.
"I really don't want to be Laura's Fifth win" she confessed to her friends one night. May was scribbling on her paper like her life depended on it, homework.
Charlotte was practicing a speech for some class event.
"Guys?" She turned to look at them, busy, with their own lives, she realised just how selfish she had been since she met them. May and Charlotte must have known every problem she had, every thing about her, and her father, she knew only a little about May, and hardly anything about Charlotte.
She was treating them like comforters, not friends.
She sank into her chair, a frown drawing on her face.
"May- you need help with your homework?" She asked, May lit up with excitement, "really? Oh my gosh that would be so great come come" she sat next to her friend, and helped her with her homework.
When May understood that letters were indeed part of maths, she moved on to Charlotte.
"Speech?" Charlotte nodded,"you need help?" Charlotte nodded, "what can I do?" Charlotte looked up at her, then glanced at her open computer, "weren't you going to call your dad?" Nicoleta shook her head. Lie.
Charlotte shrugged, "well um… can you be an audience of very judgemental classmates?" Nicoleta dragged her chair over to where Charlotte stood, and sat down.
"I'm all ears" Charlotte looked at her, brows raised, hand on her hip. "You are supposed to be judgemental"
Nicoleta caught herself, and stopped smiling, "yeah sorry." She frowned and knitted her brows.
"When will this 'president' get speaking?" Charlotte accepted it.