The Opulent Quarrel - Round One: Mademoiselle Primfel's

"I'm surprised the Nekomata lasted that long without detention," Morinaga chuckled. Her friends joined in; even the werewolf, clutching an ice pack over her still-regenerating eye, couldn't help but laugh at the pink-haired catgirl's misfortune.

Damse didn't. She might be sitting at their lunch table, drawing envious stares from the other high-class girls in the VIP dining room. But as far as she was concerned, she wasn't one of them.

Not that they seemed to have the self-awareness to notice. Of course, Damse was mostly ignoring them, too. She had taken an interest in Georgia's punishment, but for entirely different reasons.

Apparently, there were "demerits". Get enough of them, and you got "detention". Allegedly they were handed out for misbehaving, but from what Damse had seen, the catgirl hadn't done anything at all. Certainly nothing to warrant the same five demerits the other cat had received for taking another student's eye.

What it was really about was obvious - those demerits had been for not being the sort of girl Madame Chora approved of. That much had been obvious from the moment the class started.

And somehow, Damse was "the right sort of girl" in every teacher's eyes. That was probably the Story's fault.

But now she knew how to fight it. She had to earn demerits, somehow. It wouldn't be easy - with her narratively-enforced status, she was sure the teachers would look the other way as hard as they could.

"I'm looking forward to the other lowlife feline joining her," said one of Mori's friends, yet another catlike creature. "I wouldn't want those ghastly troublemakers ruining tomorrow's volleyball tournament."

That was the first part of the conversation to catch Damse's interest in the slightest.

"How do you think they'd ruin it?" she asked.

"Why, they might participate. Can you imagine?"

The other girls burst into laughter again. Damse just ignored them, and started slowly picking at her food some more.

***

"A volleyball tournament?" Gally asked.

"Yeah, it's the big event of the year," Rocksanne said. "Thought about signing up last year, but, well." She looked down at her pedestal. "Not really built for it, so to speak."

"Then why even consider it?"

"Why else? Status. Winning the tournament is a sure ticket to the VIP dorms." Rocksanne glanced around carefully. "Of course, the girls who're already there usually win, so, it probably wouldn't have been worth the trouble anyhow."

Gally started to smile.

"And I imagine if one of these vee-eye-pee girls were to lose to someone of lower status, it would be a grand humiliation. Yes?"

"Probably. But, meh. It's basically rigged for pretty much that reason. Look, I want to move up in the hierarchy, of course I do. But the VIPs, status is everything to them. They're ruthless about it."

"And so they'd surely be devastated to lose it," Gally cackled. "Tell me, what must I do to sign up?"