Seventy Eight (I)

The evening was disastrous.

It seemed like every fighter Avery had trained had stage-fright for a while, and some of them had even refused to fight the next day.

Avery had ordered a tonne of pizza and ice cream to calm them down, even though the Generals didn't exactly approve of her methods, one of them going as far as to call it a 'bribe'.

Sure enough, after they all had some carbs, they calmed down, and Avery had gotten them to talk about why they were afraid of fighting the following day.

Some were afraid of disappointing their parents, and for those kids, Avery organised phone calls home to the families, with the parents under strict instructions to only be encouraging about the event taking place.

Some were terrified they'd just do terribly, and Avery told them there was no shame in not winning. Her words did nothing to help, so Avery enlisted the help of some of the counsellors who were supplied by the Council, who organised the Trials with the help of some of the Senior Alphas