A Battle to End all Battles

This was how it was going to go, Cass decides as she paces the family of Willow trees. She is going to jump on natalie the minute she walks back from the tree climbing she's been admiring from a distance and then, then she is going to tell her that if she does not accept her challenge she will be expecting and be given a fearsome and most gruesome death. Otherwise, Cass won't have anything to do today and she will be very bored.

She doesn't want to remind herself again that she hasn't yet signed up for her classes. It's something her mind doesn't want to register. Yes, it is a school that is meant to teach stuff, but Cass doesn't like the idea of that. What's worse is having the awful choice of what to pick. She isn't really that good at anything. If anything was nothing she'd be brilliant, is what she'd always say.

The first year sees Natalie skipping back and smirks.
The badger has landed. The hole will be dug, and treasure will be found.

Natalie was skipping on the grounds, somehow unsuspecting yet alert. She was on the lookout for a certain Cassopeia Marling and when she found her, she was going to pounce her and challenge her to the duel to end all duels. There would only be one victor.

She twirled around and saw nothing, which made her suspicious. Something didn't feel right about seeing nothing. She stopped to do a little stretching, just in case, tossing in a few karate chops here and there. Cass wouldn't know what hit her.

Gah! Natalie karate chops right where Cass was a second ago. Seeing as she's in the ideal position as she is crouched down now to do something fun, she cartwheels and once she's satisfied with the non-swooping sound she usually makes as she whips through the air, she bobs down and tries to hold back a giggle. She taps the girl on the ankle and smiles smugly. Natalie won't know what hit her.

Natalie felt something touch her and screamed. "A SPIDER! A SPIDER! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!" She jumped around for a minute and flailed her arms before realizing that there wasn't a spider at all. Just a first year Hufflepuff.

"Oh, hey Cass. What, uh, what are you doing here?" she tried to stand in a "cool" stance and act nonchalant as if she hadn't just had a small spaz attack.

Cass narrows her eyes at the third year thinking she is a spider. Yes, she is small, and well no she isn't the most spindly of people (which annoys her to a tee) because she likes her custard, but that is very hurtful. And look at all that flailing. Unkind.

Realising she is crouched very much like an arachnid trying to evade the broom or dustbusta or what ever it is, Cass stands straight and fakes nonchalance and aloofness by standing with one leg bent around the other, like some twisted flamingo. Natalie has a boyfriend, or so Cass heard at the Hufflepuff table. All the girls were fawning over the thought. Well, most of them. That's sort of intimidating now she thinks about it. Not that Cass is interested, but Natalie... is cool.
Why does she have one?!
Instant un-coolness.

"Oh. I sort of wanted to attack you with the promise of acrobatic splendour," now she has those words out in the open her confidence comes spider-creeping back and she licks her lips and begins her speech of bold and brave and brash stuff. "if you do not accept my cartwheel challenge you will be expecting and be given a fearsome and most gruesome death. Otherwise, I won't have anything to do today and I will be very bored. Clear?"

A cartwheel challenge! Marvelous! Ironically, Natalie had been seeking Cass in hopes of doing the same. "Very well, I accept your terms. Bring it on!"

Natalie attempted a one-handed cartwheel and landed on her bum. "That was just a little taste of what you're going to see today," she said confidently as she stood up, as though she had just gotten a perfect ten in a gymnastics competition.

"Are we going for amount or technique?" she asked. They needed to get the details of this competition hammered out if she was going properly bring it.

"I will bring it on. All or nothing, that's what they say," she says, unsure of who says it exactly. "My terms are not be negotiated Ms Olivier. Just rememember that. Gruesome death or school. It's all very very simple."

Cass decides after keeping a very convincing poker face whilst watching Natalie initiate her cartwheel that she will keep everything of her wiles that she possesses under wraps until the competition. That's the best thing to do: to hide all your cards. You're not supposed to twist your hand, after all.

Impassively and trying to look deep in thought, Cass returns, "the more beautiful the mirror the more pointless it is when it falls down a mountain. Wait, that didn't work. The, ur- the... the more bananas in the fruit bowl the less monkeys there are to feed."

Cass thinks this is sufficient enough chinese proverb to put the point across.