Serah kept one eye closed with a wry smile on her face, hands behind her head, as she listened nonchalantly to Lorenzo chewing her out. She'd been prepared for a tongue-lashing and boy did she get one, not even half as gentle as she hoped he would be. Still, if a bit of verbal abuse was the worst of it, she didn't mind so much. [color=00aeef][i]'Same old, eh professor?'[/i][/color] she thought to herself, smirking, before her smug self-confidence turned to confusion. She'd never met Lorenzo before last week, so why did she feel like this all had happened before, and not even just one time to boot?

Odd sense of deja-vu aside, she felt a little more sorry for the rest of her squad. Some got off easy, some were chewed out. Serah herself thought everyone didn't do half bad... well, aside from Mema-ka. He absolutely deserved it for abandoning Raptor like he did. Zel-Ghin too. Zel-Ghin was a jerk. The pair of brothers aside though, Serah thought everyone else looked really cool in the footage, even picking up things she missed earlier. Arrish diving in to save Elora was super cool, Ava and Minerva were beautiful to watch in action, she was shocked all over again that Bug survived Aurora's assault... Serah really thought everyone was super talented.

If the professor didn't want them all to get killed, he shouldn't have pit the crew in a death match. One side was going to lose no matter what. At least, that's how Serah viewed it.

The lieutenant approached Astolfo and Ava with a tiny box after the professor had promoted those two, a decisions Serah supported fully; the two made an awesome pair inside the simulation. Elora gave her full support too, clapping when the two got promoted. When Elora meekly withdrew into herself from embarassment, Serah decided to clap too, yelling out: [color=00aeef]"Go Ava! Go Bug!”[/color] to cheer the two of them on. Then, Serah turned to Elora and made a "peace" sign at the other girl while a cheeky grin was plastered on her face, having made a fool of herself to make her friend feel a little better.

Unfortunately, the goofs didn't last long. The first person to speak up when the professor asked for questions was Griff, stepping in lightning fast. He defended Serah, Elora and his whole team. He blamed himself for being the reason team Apple lost, and quickly grew meek when he realised how much he'd mouthed off.

That bugged Serah. It bugged her a lot, actually. Part of it was just it being Griff- but also that he felt the need to come in and defend her. [color=00aeef]"Cut it out Griff,”[/color] she interjected, crossing her arms and averting her gaze from him. [color=00aeef]"The professor's right. I got reckless and careless. Just because it worked out doesn't mean I didn't do something stupid,”[/color] she'd say half-heartedly. Its not like she regretted her choices, but Lorenzo's critique of her was justified.

[color=00aeef]"Just one thing, though, professor,”[/color] Serah would cast her attention to Lorenzo, intending to follow up with a remark of her own. [color=00aeef]"What's the point of making us fight each-other, if you don't want us to get ourselves killed? We had a rrreeeeeaaaaaallly close match there.”[/color]