Ben was relieved that he'd survived his late arrival and kept to himself quietly shrunk in the back. His next class, doubles, seemed to have a much friendlier professor. Never the overly ambitious one, Ben hovered around the back watching the battle. He'd actually had a fairly high ranking coming in. The fact that he'd only lost 3-2 against a fighting team was probably what had made him stand out. As the battle ended, it didn't seem anyone else was jumping to volunteer. After a couple moments of awkward silence, he meekly raised his hand. Might as well get it over with. Seemed that if you battled, you got to leave early anyway.
"Professor, I'll go, but I haven't got a partner."