I was walking towards History with Angelina when I felt that something was wrong. There was a crowd in the middle of the hallway.

What was going on?

"Isn't that Russel?" Angelina asked.

Oh no. What had my Tower done this time?

"Stay here. Time for me to go be Tower Representative." I held back the urge to sigh as I stepped through the crowd. I saw Russel standing there looking somewhere between smug and unamused while the other guy, some Salamander I didn't know the name of despite him being in our class, looked furious.

"I think you being bothered by me says more about you," Russel was in the middle of a taunt.

The other guy was yelling. I wasn't listening. Both of their body postures told me everything I needed to know. I stepped out of the crowd and in between the two of them. I held out my hands up at both of them, a silent plea to knock it off.

"Boys!" I called out. "Whatever is going on, enough."

"You stay out of it!" the Salamander shouted. "This has nothing to do with-"

I interrupted by showing the badge on my uniform. "Tower Representative Stewart, nice to meet you. I'm just trying to keep both of you out of trouble. If neither of you can talk this out civilly, you can send paperwork to me and both of our Tower heads and we'll work out a time and place for it."

Russel was grinning which was probably not helping.

"I look forward to making you eat your words."

I was tempted to hit Russel, but since about seventy percent of our History class was watching I didn't. "I said enough, I was talking to both of you."

"But he's-" The other student tried to press on.

"Nope. Don't care. We're all done here and need to get to class." I clapped my hands twice and then made a shooing motion at the crowd. "Show's over. Everyone disperse, we all have far, far better things to be doing. I'm sure no one here wants me to have to get professors." It was a bit of an empty threat, being that I had no way to contact any of them right now, but no one needed to know that.

The orange coat stormed off, I heard swearing intermingled with the names of some gods.

What a pleasant person.

After a few seconds, the crowd continued about their day leaving only me, Russel and a worried-looking Angelina.

"Dare I ask what that was about?" I turned to him.

"Just a hot-headed prick from Salamander still upset at me over a…dispute we had back when I was one of them.

"That was weeks ago, why bother you about it now?"

"I went on a date with his girlfriend before they were together and apparently she just broke up with him. I think he's just looking for an outlet."

I hadn't been aware Russel went on dates. Probably because I had made my lack of interest in such things very clear.

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"And your response was?" I prompted.

"I may have called him an insecure goblin and that the breakup was probably more the fault of that then anything I had done."

"Did it get physical?" I asked. I didn't have the authority to suspend or really punish anyone. But being Representative I would be expected to talk on Russel's behalf to the staff. I needed to know what I was in for.

"No. I have more sense than that. And I guess so did he." Russel sounded a little disappointed. "But I have a plan."

"Whatever it is, do it with official channels, please."

"Of course, you all but threw the gauntlet for me. I'll get that official challenge sent out before the end of the day."

Wonderful.

(*********)

After classes I was sitting in Vivian's office. She had gotten the paperwork from Russel and Salamander Tower.

"Do you know anything about this?" She asked me.

"I know that they had a verbal altercation and nearly caused a disturbance. I recommended choosing to have a duel in an attempt to break it up or at least prevent escalation. Admittedly I was hoping they'd both cool off by now."

"Anything else you think I should know?"

"As far as I know Russel's eager for it and has no complaints. The other student is in our History class so I assume he's a first year. Nothing I know says that this needs to be stopped."

"You know being Representative means you have a level of responsibility over them."

"I'm aware. I also know that me attempting to force them to behave the way I think they should would be a disaster. If they're going to cause or involve themselves in trouble I'd rather it be in an official way or in a controlled environment."

"Letting him duel so that he doesn't send a horde of skulls at the boy later."

"Exactly. It's like a compromise."

"Alright then. You've convinced me. I'll approve of Russel dueling Mr. Orebranch."

(*********)

Celica was reveling in the mess Russel had made. Jarec had ditched us to go spend time with his boyfriend, thus leaving her to be the sole enjoyer of drama and gossip.

Russel didn't seem to mind.

"He and I didn't know each other well when I was in Salamander," he was saying as I stayed silent in hopes of being left out of the conversation.

I think it was working.

"Was a duel the best way to resolve it though?" Angelina asked.

"It was Serafina's idea," Russel said. Because he was a traitor. Weren't there rules against snitching?

Then the table looked at me.

"Look me in the eyes and tell me that you and he wouldn't have continued to try and escalate the situation," I demanded in lieu of explaining.

Russel and Celica laughed. Angelina sighed.

"I think we all still remember the day of the first school paper," I continued.

Angelina shuddered, "Yeah. That's fair."

"And you thought we were crazy for picking you," Fethris finally commented.

I still had not forgiven them, nor did I really understand their choice. "I'm stuck with it now, might as well try and not completely screw it up."

"You're doing fine," Celica scoffed.

"Also I don't think any of us would do any better," Russel added.

Which was a sentiment I did agree with. December couldn't come fast enough.

Angelina looked around the table and then clapped loudly once.

I tried not to wince.

"Have you guys started to think about your next classes?" She asked.

"I have given it some thought." I took her opportunity to change the subject.

She smiled brightly and leaned towards me.

"Mostly it's a list of classes I shouldn't take. Because of the curse." I explained.

"You in Elements would be a disaster," Celica commented.

"Brewing is on the list of ones I can take though. Very seriously considering it," I offered.

"Brewing is fun, Professor Carmine is pretty cool." Right, I had almost forgotten she was taking the basic Brewing class.

"Do you know if he teaches the Advanced brewing course too?" Celica asked.

"I think he does, I don't know for sure though." Angelina tilted her head to the side as she thought about it.

"I was thinking the four of us, minus Jarec because he's already taking it, should take his class next semester," Celica explained.

"Um…why?" I asked. If this was part of some plan or something I was going to have to find another lab-based course to take.

"Because he's the only professor with red magic," Celica lowered voice as she spoke.

Fethris caught on to whatever she was up to. "So it was Professor Carmine that was the other option for our Tower head."

That's when I started to catch on. That Professor was the only other person in this whole school that was chosen by Dragon Tower.

Oh yeah, I was definitely taking Brewing next semester.

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