"Study Sessions" - Catradora College AU

3

Fight and Flight

It was an early Autumn morning when Adora had ran up to Catra in between classes. The way that she rubbed her upper left arm, her fingers tracing the geometric shaped heart tattoo she had on there, let Catra know that Adora was nervous about something, and in mirroring her anxiousness she let her tail swing back and forth – now worried about the news that Adora was going to bring her.

"Shadow Weaver e-mailed me last night," Adora sighed, "She wants to oversee our next tutoring session."

Catra's ears sprang up, "What?!  How come?"

"Don't be mad, but I may or may have not told-Headmaster-Hordak-about-what-shadow-weaver-was-doing-with-your-grades." She said in one breath.

Catra groaned, shoving her face into her hands. Of course Adora had tried to play hero, what else could she expect?

Adora continued, "It was enough to warrant an inspection of her teaching or something along those lines. Obviously I submitted an anonymous report, but it's reasonable for her to assume it was me because – let's face it – you don't really talk to anyone in class."

Catra groaned again, slapping her forehead over and over again.

"I'm really sorry Catra, I thought it would help! But maybe it will, we can buy ourselves some time if we just have a realistic enough tutoring session after school today."

Catra took a deep breath, resurfacing herself before she said something to Adora that she would regret later. This plan was doomed to fail from the start and she'd felt stupid for not seeing that coming and for not assuming earlier on that Adora would go out of her way to do the 'right thing' even when Catra asked her not to.

But it wasn't Adora's fault that Shadow Weaver was a bitch. Catra reminded herself of that. This whole thing started because of her.

But she wouldn't be able to compartmentalize her rage for much longer, so she told Adora to set up a session with Shadow Weaver and to let her know the details afterward.

Adora could feel burning tension between Catra's words, despite how hard she tried to conceal her anger. She felt awful for what she had done, when her intentions were in the right place. She just hoped that the session would go well so Catra wouldn't stay upset for much longer.

In order to clear her head Adora called up her best friend, Glimmer, and her boyfriend Bow. Adora was lucky that Glimmer had chosen such a friendly guy to start going out with, as her past experiences as a third wheel were less than pleasant. Glimmer had always been a good friend to her though, ever since they were little she knew she'd never abandon her or leave her out – even if she had a boyfriend, and soon enough the trio ended up becoming really close.

Bow had also been a student athlete, he was on the school's archery team and was arguably their best shot. Adora and Glimmer frequented his matches and were usually the most animated spectators there, cheering loudly every time Bow would score – which was a lot.

So naturally, Glimmer and Bow arrived at the scene immediately, eager to console a panicking Adora.

"What's wrong, Adora?" Glimmer asked.

She explained the entire situation to them, the false tutoring sessions, her report to the Headmaster and Catra's reaction, all while forgetting to take a breath between her sentences. Her friends grimaced, understanding that her situation had become incredibly complicated.

"That's a tough spot to be in," Bow said, "I just can't believe Shadow Weaver's getting away with all of this!"

"I know right!" Adora sighed, "I just really wanted to help Catra."