Running Round The Grounds pv Mahlioz

There was that girl running again. Mahlioz didn't know who she was, but she had seen her quite a few times before, from the library or while walking through corridors, looking out of the window. She had seen her many a times during the beginning of the year, even some of the end of last year, and here she was again. Always running. Like she was showing off to the world that she was so much better than Mahlioz.

Okay, Mahlioz didn't really think that, but the more they saw her running, the more it felt like it. She ran so well. For so long, and at a decent speed, too. Every single time Mahlioz watched her go by, they were reminded that they hadn't done a real sport in too long. That they hadn't ran in literal weeks, and then it had been to get to a class on time. They had always been jealous of people who did sports, especially regularly, but this girl? It almost felt personal at this point. Mahlioz had been slowly building an annoyance towards her, without even knowing her. What right did she have to go running like that all the time like it was easy? Show off.

This time, for once, Mahlioz was on the grounds when the girl was running. It was the first time she'd seen her in a while, but the annoyance was immediately back. The third year had come outside to enjoy a nice, sunny-ish day (as good as you could get in Scotland, anyway) with a book, and now this girl was ruining it making her jealous.

But it didn't stop there. The girl decided the right place to stop for a drink was quite close to the wall against which Mahlioz was sitting in the grass. And enough was enough. The Slytherin couldn't convince herself not to judge a book by its cover, because it had gotten to the point where she almost believed the personality she had made up for this girl was reality. And her ego was hurt by how well this stupid kid was running. So she let her teenageriness take over.

"Wow, you're really good at running." They had meant for it to sound sarcastic, but it ended up just sounding like a compliment. They were rather terrible at this. Why were they so freaking terrible at this?! They had to - they had to prove themselves, they couldn't let this girl just- keep being so awesome! It wasn't fair! "But there's no way you're that good at everything. Like, I bet you couldn't - I bet you can't play any instruments well at all!"

Had Mahlioz been in any better state of mind, they may have cringed so hard they would have wanted to fall into a hole in the ground. But none of it mattered right now. She needed to be better than this girl. At least she knew she was good at violin, she knew she was, she knew she would be better than the runner girl. She had to be.

What was Mahlioz doing? This was so unlike her, she felt like she had been possessed or something. They wanted to disappear, forever, never to have to do anything ever again, just roll up into a ball of embarrassment. Of course this girl knew how to do musical stuff - Mahlioz couldn't just go around insulting people without knowing anything about them! They had to apologize, say sorry over and over again, but-

But she couldn't, because the other girl had doubted her abilities now, had said she couldn't run a mile. Which may have been true but was unacceptable. As horrible as Mahlioz was feeling, as meddled and mixed up and everywhere as her feelings were at the moment, she had a sense of pride. They had started this, and they would have to see it to the end. No one could insult their abilities and just get away with it. No, this was their opportunity to prove it to themselves, prove it to the world that they were perfect.

A mile in five minutes sounded like a lot (Mahlioz wasn't sure she'd run a mile at once at all in her life, actually), but that meant nothing. "Oh, you're on. You learn to play piano as well as I play violin, and I'll race you. And win." Being this arrogant was so weird. "But I'll give you the summer, so you even have a chance. Meet me back here. On the - on the 5th of September." It was getting harder to act confident. She was trying not to fall apart from embarrassment.

This was the worst idea she'd ever had. There was no way she could learn to run in five months. Sure, they could pretend this was for the other girl (who they still didn't know the name of - they were being so rude, oh my gods). Sure, they knew that learning an instrument took ages - they'd been doing so for years and years, almost six now. But that didn't change the fact that their pride was doing them dirty. This was the worst decision they'd ever made.

Despite it, she voiced one last word: "Deal?"