Petra Redgrave

Lucas walks up to me. “Well, guess we have our winner.”

Seeing Petra slumped against the wall… I sure don’t feel like a winner.

“Ugh! She’s just so frustrating! And impulsive! And mouthy! And stubborn! And—”

Lucas turns. “Wait, are you describing her right now or yourself?”

I give him a quick pout before continuing.

“But… even so… the way she treats her summon, the way I’ve seen her worry about others… deep down, I just know there’s an amazing person in there somewhere.”

I sigh and scoop Pudding off the ground. He’s all shriveled up and unable to move—the unfortunate side effect of Shock Absorb and Counter Impact that makes them strictly last-ditch moves.

I start toward Petra, picking my wand up off the ground along the way. “Come on, Lucas. Let’s go make sure she’s—”

“What the hell’s going on here?!”

Coldheart comes stomping toward us, Jane following close behind.

Coldheart whips out her wand and splashes Petra with cold water.

Petra just barely starts to come to.

“Destroying school property! Kidnapping another student! Attacking others! What do you have to say for yourself?!”

“I—” Petra tries to speak, but she’s too dazed to get the words out.

“This is the last straw, Miss Redgrave! You’re getting suspend—”

“Wait!”

Everyone turns to look at me.

“Petra… Petra didn’t do anything wrong! I… I challenged her! I was the one who damaged school property! Punish me, not her!”

“Nora!” Jane whines. “You know what she—”

“Just what do you think you’re doing, Littleroot?”

“Please, she’s—she’s not the person you think she is!” I plead.

Coldheart turns to Lucas.

“Lucas, tell me what happened this instant.”

He glances at me as I silently beg him to cooperate, then he shrugs. “I, uh… all I did was officiate the duel. Don’t ask me.”

Coldheart turns back to Jane.

I give Jane my best puppy dog eyes until eventually she relents.

Jane sighs, a guilty look creeping across her face. “I, uh… guess I misremembered.”

“You misremembered a kidnapping—”

Coldheart spins around and squints at me

“I’ll have you know concealing evidence of violence against another student is a grave offense, Littleroot.”

“Uh… guess I’m lucky no violence occurred then?” I smile innocently.

But I don’t think she’s buying it.

“...You’ll be paying for these damages yourself, Littleroot. And don’t think we’re done here.”

I gulp. “Yes, ma’am… is it okay if I take Petra to the infirmary now?”

“...Go.”

I nod and run over to Petra. Coldheart storms off, muttering under her breath.

Petra tries to speak. “Why… why would you—” But she passes out again.

I sigh. “Okay, let’s get you—Hngh!” Oh my gosh she’s heavy.

Lucas comes over to help. “Oh come on, she can’t be that—holy crap! What does this girl eat, bricks?! Jane, help us out.”

After a lot of struggling, we’re finally able to carry her to the infirmary.

***

Petra groans. “Wha—where am I?”

I snap awake from my chair beside Petra’s bed. “Oh!” I rub my eyes. “Thank goodness you’re alright. We, uh, took you to the infirmary after the duel. Are you feeling better now?”

Petra pauses as she remembers what happened, then turns to me with a troubled look.

“Nora, why would you—why’d you take the fall for me? I’ve been nothing but horrible to you. You should’ve been leaping at the chance to finally have me out of your hair.”

I grab Petra’s hands. “Sure, you’ve made a lot of mistakes. But, Petra, I’ve seen the way you treat your summon, the way you worry over others. Deep down, I know you have a good heart.”

Tears start to well up in Petra’s eyes, and she quickly turns away.

“Well, I’ll get out of your hair, Petra. I’ve left some cookies on the counter for you. I hope you feel better soon.”

As I turn to leave—

“Wait!”

“...Yeah?”

“I have to ask… how long have you been a summoner… for you and Pudding to fight together like that?”

I giggle. “Well, I’ve known Pudding a lot longer than this, but I’ve been a summoner for about two weeks.”

Petra lets out a laugh that turns into a whimper as she wipes the tears from her eyes. “You’re pretty incredible, Nora, you know that?”

“Well, I think you’re pretty incredible yourself, Petra.” I smile. “Get better soon, alright?”

“Mhm.” Petra nods with a sniffle.

***

“You know, Lucas, you made it sound like I’d have to do a bunch of fighting, but two duels in, and I’m already ranked #48.”

“Yeah, well, most normal people inch their way up, Nora. They don’t take massive swings at summoners way above their rank. Petra’s like the #4 summoner in our year… or at least, she was. Hope she’s not pissed about you knocking her down the rankings yesterday—”

“Nora!”

Petra marches up to our table with her full crew behind her, freshly back from their suspensions.

“You miss us, Nora?” Zack smirks.

“You do realize we’re going to have to make you pay for—”

Breadhead pauses as Petra stroll up to the other side of the table and take a seat next to me, throwing her arm around my shoulders.

“Nora’s now officially under my protection! Anybody who wants to mess with her has to go through me!”

“HUH?!” Her entire crew is flabbergasted.

“I’m taking a break from hanging out with you guys to learn from Nora. Rhea, you’re in charge until further notice.”

“Petra, what the hell are you talking about?” Rhea asks.

“You see, Nora here is a certified badass.”

I don’t remember ever getting certified in that.

“And the best way I can get stronger is by learning directly from her.”

“But—we got suspended because of her!” Breadhead protests

“You got a problem with my decision?!” Petra growls.

They freeze.

Petra sighs. “Fine. If it makes you feel any better, you can have the dork.” She nudges her head toward Lucas.

“WHAT?!” Lucas shouts.

“Petra!” I snap.

“Nevermind, you can’t have the dork.” Petra backtracks.

Bruno’s usual frown intensifies. “Petra, you’ve gotta be joking—”

Petra shoots her crew a ferocious glare. “Do I look like I’m joking?”

“Ugh, screw this. Let’s go guys.” Rhea grumbles.

As the group starts walking off, Olive glances back at Petra before reluctantly following the others.

I turn to Petra. “Are you sure you want to leave things like this? They’re your friends, aren’t they?”

Petra shrugs. “Ah, we’ll be fine. We’ve had way worse fights than this.”

Petra pulls me in tighter and presses her cheek up against mine as sweeps her arm in front of us. “But you and me, Nora? We’re going places. With my muscle and your magic, we’ll be unstoppable!”

I giggle. “I appreciate the change of heart, Petra, but… I believe you still have something left to do?”

“Huh?”

I nudge my head toward Lucas.

Petra blushes and grits her teeth. “I… I’m sorry, Lucas. It’s my fault you got hurt. I should’ve kept my guys in line. I… I hope you can forgive me.”

“Uh… yeah, sure. Water under the bridge?”

“And you!” Petra snaps.

Jane yelps.

“I… I’m sorry about the whole kidnapping thing. I’ll try not to do it again.”

She’ll try?

“Uh, apology…accepted? I guess?”

“See?” Petra pats me on the back. “All good.”

I give her a skeptical glance. “Can you promise me you won’t go around needlessly harassing the other students anymore?”

“Got it, only the people who deserve it—”

“Petra—”

“Aw, fine! You drive a hard bargain, Nora, but I’ll leave 'em all alone. If they accept my duels willingly, though, I ain’t apologizing!”

I smile. “I can live with that…

“...So, about Pepper—”

“That’s not his name—”

“Oh come on, Petra! You guys, uh… fought with such burning passion, isn’t Pepper a fitting name?”

“Is that why you named him, Pepper?”

Nope. But she doesn’t need to know that.

“Well…I’ll take it under consideration.”

“Yippee!”

“If you’re taking things under consideration…” Lucas interrupts. “Watching your battle, I couldn’t help but think that if you just gave Pepper the right equipment, you probably could’ve beaten Nora. I’d kinda be interested in experimenting with crafting some gear for him.”

“Hey, Lucas!” I scold. “Who’s side are you on?!”

“No!” Petra objects. “He’s plenty strong already! Real warriors don’t need to rely on fancy equipment to win! It’s cheating!”

“But Pepper takes a club into battle, is that cheating?”

“Of course not!”

“Well, what if it was a really high-quality club?”

“...I guess not.”

“Well, you get to wear armor, why can’t he?”

“I mean, if he wanted to—”

“Well, what if it had extra features, like fire resistance? Or boots with grounding spikes? Where do you draw the line?”

“Well, I, uh—”

“Not every battle is a pure test of strength, a lot of the monsters we’ll end up fighting out on Sweeper missions have access to all sorts of wild abilities. The way I see it, we’re just evening the playing field—and I’m convinced Pepper has a ton of untapped potential.

Petra gets up and walks over to Lucas, who looks terrified.

“I, uh, I didn’t mean—”

Petra throws her arm around him and ruffles his hair. “You’re not so bad, four-eyes! I like the way you think! And I haven’t forgotten about you taking down my crew. Tell ya what, you build Pepper some fancy new equipment, and we’ll try it out against you next.”

“You sure you wouldn’t want to duel, uh…Jane, instead?”

“Hey, Lucas!” she snaps.

We all pause for a moment, then can’t help but to laugh.

I think… I think Petra’s going to make a fine addition to the group after all.