"Stop pinching my legs!" Shelly tried to lift her feet, unable to move from our weights.
"Your legs are beautiful," I tried to curry some favour with her.
"You look prettier than normal today," Henry stared at her face.
"Shelly always looks pretty! Don't you see her face? Her elegant posture and stunning figure?" I refuted.
"Michelle doesn't only have a beautiful physical appearance but a great brain as well!" Henry went one step further than me.
"Stop!" Shelly watched others hear us compliment her.
"Excuse me, but I never knew you were interested in my part- ." Alex found Henry acting strange.
"Can you stop talking?" Both Henry and I shouted at him, interrupting him.
"You're the strange one for not appreciating her beauty!" Henry tried to earn more points with Shelly.
"That's right! You treat Shelly awfully!" I added, almost yelling.
"Michelle is a beautiful person inside and out," Delia discovered the three of us together.
"So switch with me?" She began to beg Shelly.
"I think you should leave my part- ." Alex tried to join the conversation again.
"Can you not interrupt us?" All three of us yelled at him.
Alex's eyes widened, stunned from all of us extremely hostile towards him. While we poured all our efforts in flattering Shelly, he remained frozen in front of us. Alex was never treated this way before, coming from a powerful and prestigious family, no one wanted to get on his bad side. Pretending he was invisible, the fight among the three of us became more intense. I pulled on Delia's shirt while she pulled on my skirt. Meanwhile, Henry continued to cling on Shelly's leg.
"You're going to rip my shirt!" Delia yelled at me.
"You're doing the same to my skirt!" I shouted louder than her.
"You can rip Henry's shirt!" I turned her attention to him.
"Not my shirt!" Henry struggled to move away from us.
With one arm tightly grabbing onto Shelly, we began to rip each other's clothes with our other free arm. Ties and ribbons were thrown to the ground while sounds of strong cloth ripping intensified as we poured all our strength to eliminate more rivals. Only one of us would get to switch turns with Shelly if she agreed. Luke didn't even comfort Alex, equally shocked from the scene in front of him.
"Target his pants next!" I decided to ally with the more powerful Delia.
"Are you serious?" Henry shivered in fear.
"Then give it up!" Both of us brightly smiled.
"Don't think I'll leave your skirts alone!" He started to attack us back.
"You already ripped my skirt yesterday with Sienna," I had thrown out some of my uniforms before changing into a new one.
"You ripped my pants yesterday too!" He tore the zipper on my skirt.
"That's it!" I started to pull on his hair.
"My hairrrr," he screamed.
"You deserve it!" Delia followed me.
"Fine! I'll give up for today!" Henry gave up and ran away from us in tears.
Delia quickly took his place, afraid that it would leave an opening for Shelly to run away from us. Shelly sighed as she noticed the crowd around us increasing as our fighting became more intense every passing minute. Our clothes were loose, some parts completely unrepairable, showing bits of my tank top. My skirt had a nasty slit before Henry had given up while some strands of his hair covered the ground.
"Just for today?" Delia switched her target to Shelly again.
"Aren't we long time friends?" I wasn't willing to lose.
"Both of you two aren't my friends anymore!" Shelly remained stubborn.
"You ruined my shirt the other day while you broke my bracelets," she turned to Delia and me.
"I can give you some of mine," I had tears streaming down my cheeks.
"I have better ones!" Delia quickly offered.
"It's almost time for class," Shelly smiled once she noticed some of the crowd starting to disappear.
"Oh we should change," I turned to Delia, knowing we had lost the battle.
"We should," Delia dusted the dirt off her while getting up.
"I heard yesterday was worse since they were using barriers against each other," someone in the crowd murmured.
"Weren't explosion spells used as well?" another person whispered.
"I heard none of the teachers could interfere since the fight was too intense on the other days," a person in the crowd answered.
"And some of them were sent to the infirmary," another person joined in.
While Luke knew I was fighting with my friends, he never knew the true extent of how desperate each one of us were. The rumors continued to drift into his ears, surprising him sometimes with some of the overblown ones that never happened. The teachers never stopped the fight since we stayed away from them, fearing they would figure out the club room was the source. Barriers were also rarely used, preferring physical attacks since they were more persuasive.
"Does this happen every day?" Luke turned to me.
"The fight today wasn't bad," I didn't tell him it was still escalating.
"Sometimes it gets worse than this," Delia sighed.
"You can't tell him that," I elbowed Delia.
"We would like it if you don't interfere," she remembered how Alex wasted some of our time in which we could have used to persuade Shelly.
"We don't know if we can keep ourselves from attacking you as well," she warned Alex.