the gauntlet discussion

Ivy bounded through the hallway, nearly tripping over herself as she came to an abrupt stop. "Izzy, Izzy, look!" she called to her friend excitedly. Ivy'd dragged her friend down here to see this, and her face was bright as the sun finally finding the damn thing. She pressed her hands up against the glass, bending in so far that her forehead was plastered against it as well. "That's my gramps!" she exclaimed, poking her finger against the glass, trying to show off her nineteen-year-old grandfather in the photo. "Second best in his class. At least, that's what he always told us." Ivy laughed. She wiped the mark she'd left off of the glass, shuffling back a little to admire it in its rightful place. Surrounded by all the other historics. Plus, no wonder her family was all so cute, Pops was a ladies man in his prime. He had all the good genes. "Aw man, Dad would've loved to come here." she said vaguely, thinking about her family. Ivy crossed her arms and gave her friend a big smile. "That competition was rough, but next time we'll kill it." she assured boldly.

"Wow, rude, and here I was thinking that you liked me for more than just my cute looks." Ivy pretended to huff, but her smile was hard to get rid of. It was like someone had drawn it on with permanent marker, even when she was sad Ivy felt her wobbly lips try to smile through the pain. Her Pops was cute though, no wonder Grandmama fell for him. Good looks, a powerful guardian -- why not love him?

Ivy flickered her gaze to Isabelle, thinking over all that went wrong during the competition. "I'm telling you, if that bitch hadn't tripped me I would've shot past all the posers." Her chin still hurt from where she'd banged it all up. "I mean, last place? I'm so much better than last place," Ivy pouted, planting her hands on her hips. "You even beat me. I'm so pathetic." There was jest in her tone, but she was insulted with herself for barely making it out alive. She was better than that. She was little and fast, but dragging her little ass through the wave pool had proved to be a tough challenge. The only victory that came out of their results was that they didn't have to waste time on punishments; not that they got any special privileges either, but Ivy was dead set on changing that.

(view spoiler)[totally thought I'd replied ;; (hide spoiler)]

Ivy pretended to be floored, even pressed a hand over her heart and did the gasping 'o' thing with her lips. "Sabotage? Isabelle Svennson you are so much better than sabotage." Despite her faux gawking, her words were true. Iz was better than that playing dirty stuff; but Ivy knew as well as the next person that playing by the rules landed up in last place. Literally. She was scrubbing toilets and everything-- it was gross. And if it didn't motivate her to get her hands dirty the next time around than nothing did. But still. Thinking about Isabelle doing that very same thing was nauseating; her best friend was worth more than all this nonsense. "And I can't believe you were thinking of doing it without me." She tsked after a moment.

"Hey, look," Ivy stopped suddenly and poked a finger into the glass again. This time the face was unrecognizable, but the name printed on the award was not. At least, the surname wasn't. "A VanKent. Wow this is from, like, eons ago. I wonder what other names are here." Ivy trekked an observant path down the hallway, catching names on plaques and medals and on and on. They went to school with some of these people. Some of them were infamous names, the ones that died or barely lived to tell the tale of how they didn't win. There was an Erocke on a silver trophy, it was beginning to dull; Ivy recalled her grandfather muttering about their arrogance. She figured that wasn't unusual of Guardians. Bummer. "It's sad that a lot of these people are dead," she commented vaguely.