the gauntlet discussion

Wow these past few days had certainly been active. So active that she hadn't even been running with Dan during them like he said, mostly because after the first day he mentioned he was training with a friend Lyca and then he had personal training from being top ten and she had punishments and well....they hadn't had a lot of time to interact. But she'd seen him coming out of the bathroom and had told him to meet her at the obstacle course in ten and now there they were with her stretching her arms out and grinning as he walked up. "Hey look at you, you made it! I've heard you've been a busy busy guy." Yes indeed. She'd heard a rumor that Dan had gotten down and dirty on the mats with Lyca and then she'd heard another rumor that he'd nearly pushed someone off a cliff, and yet another rumor about how he had caused the Raemer twins to get into a huge fight that had somehow turned into a threeway battle with Nora's very own Cassie. "So tell me, is it true? Did you really find a girl already Moss? Cause i'm going to be a little heart broken that I didn't get to be involved in the process. I made a vow to help you and then you go and do it all by yourself. Making me a vow breaker. Like c'mon bro, I had goals here."

Well besides the whole win the Gauntlet become a Guardian thing.

Dan just chuckled to himself as he approached Nora. He hadn’t been planning on coming over to the obstacle course that day, but when Nora basically jumped on him in the bathroom and told him to be out here in ten or else asked, he couldn’t say no. “I did.” He said with an easy smile. It’s not like he’d nearly shoved his toothbrush up his nose because she’d jumped out of literally nowhere, again. “And I have been busy.” He answered with a nod. Between personal training, his own training regime that he was used to doing, as well as everything that had been going down with Jamison and Lyca, there’d been a lot going on. Nora already knew that, somehow, because Fucking Jamison rumors had been spreading around here with the wind. Everyone already knew everything, which could be a blessing and a curse.

“Technically, I did not find a girl.” He corrected her as he joined her in the stretching exercises. He’d known Lyca previously, so it wasn’t like he just found her here like Nora had found him. “We were friends before the Academy.” He clarified, and ignored the look of disgust she shot him. “And besides, I haven’t seen you around, so how was I supposed to know you would stay good on your promise?” Which was true. She’d had punishments, and the staff had seemed to purposefully placed everyone on opposite schedules. “Like I told you in the woods, you gotta keep up.” The Academy was not the place to go waiting around for people to hand things to you, that much he knew for certain. “Which you clearly didn’t hear, since you couldn’t keep up with me in the competition.” He teased, shooting her a playful glance.

Nora was actually impressed that Dan actually came to the course though, she'd figured he'd probably get roped into something. Funny but it seemed like Dan was that guy around school, the one who everyone kind of knew or knew of and just got constantly sucked into things. Probably because of his easy going smile and something told Nora that Dan was the kind of guy who didn't know how to just say no to things. He seemed like the type who would say yes and agree to things even if he didn't really want to do it, so she'd used that to her advantage, roping him into joining her on the obstacle course. She held up her hands though at his correction, brows raised with an amused grin. "Oh, of course. My bad Mr. Technicalities." Because obviously it didn't count that he seemed to realize she was a girl only when at the academy or whatever.

"Hey hey hey!" Nora was quick to object to his claims, "You are the one who has been too busy for little ol' me. Here I thought you were different from all those rich 'Next Gen of Guardians' kids, and yet you forgot all about little ol' me." She sighed dramatically then, as if she truly was disappointed, but really how disappointed could she be. She'd met Dan like twice and talked to him for like less than an hour combined. So she doubted that she was really any level of presence in his life. "And I have been training a lot, mister. While you've been off starting fights and getting all hot and bothered in the training room- interesting choice by the way- I have been working to beat you. So you know, that's why we're here. We're going to race." Of course she doubted she'd win, but at least she'd have a goal to beat then. Since there was a rather large clock on the course that timed both runners. She'd have a time to set her goals to. "I mean, I doubt that it happened the way the rumors are speculating. Since according to one she just licked your face, and to another you two christened the entire training facility."

That was Nora, subtly, asking which was the truth here.

Dammit Cassie. If only she'd ever bothered to get out of bed it might have been her getting her stress relief on with Dan instead of someone else.

Dan made a face of fake disgust at her rebuttal. “Oh, yes, I’m so sorry I’ve forgotten about you. It’s just… I have this thing against horses…” Dan said with just as much fake intonation as he could muster before he let out a snort. Everyone he’d passed coming back form their punishments had stunk up the entire dorm, and no amount of showering could really undo all of the stink that they brought in with him.

Dan put up his hands as Nora responded. He had no doubt she’d been training, but she couldn’t deny that when they’d seen each other in passing, she’d been covered in sweat, hay and stunk of a horse’s rear end. While he… ”No, its…its not like that.” Dan said. Someone had Jamison, I swear to God, when I get my hands on you… been spreading false rumors. “That fight was an overreaction that I had no part in,” No major part. Small, maybe, but it was not his fault. As far as the training room rumor was going, Dan just shrugged. He was clearly not going to stop it flying around the school that he and Lyca had gone at it in the training room. Whatever.

But before he could reply, she mentioned a race. Hold up, race? Dan glance over at Nora, one eyebrow raised. So she wanted the truth about the training room rumor, and she was insinuating that she could beat him in a race. “What’s it to you, Nora?” Dan asked, an idea sparking in the back of his head. “Worried I’ll be able to get laid without your help?” He asked teasingly. “I’ll tell you what. You beat me, I’ll tell you about one of those rumors you mentioned.” He said, laying out his plan. “Deal?”

Woah. Woah. Woah. Hold the phone here.

Horses?

Oh. My. God.

Dan had totally been thinking some other girl at the academy was her, wasn't he? He had seen some other blonde who was doing punishments with the horses and had assumed it was Nora, and- her hand shot out instantly smacking Dan's left boob with lips parted in a perfect o. "Daniel Moss! You forgot all about what I looked like!" granted his first impression with her had been a red faced Nora covered in sweat with hair a mess, but still she hadn't thought he'd see a short blonde who smelled like horse ass and think - yeah that one is Nora better avoid that.

Her lips reformed into a smile now, because oh he was never going to live this down. "For your information, princess, my punishment was cleaning the bathrooms. I know a hot shot like you doesn't pay attention to the losers, but there were three branches of punishment. I at least made it out of my dorm." And she'd been thisclose to making that twenty-fifth spot.

Oh yes, she was definitely going to make sure she beat Dan at this stupid obstacle course now. And while he'd been busy starting fights and having affairs....Nora had been running this obstacle course on a daily basis. So when he offered his little deal she held up her hand immediately, pausing right before clasping his. "I get to pick which rumor you tell the truth about, Moss Man. Since you know....you forgot who I even am." Oh yeah.

Never. Letting. That. Go.

What the hell? Dan rocked back a half step when she reached out and smacked him on the chest. What had he done now? He’d just made one joke about her…

Oh. Shit.

She hadn’t been in the horse stables group. He’d forgotten that. In his defense, there’d been a lot of names on that list, and he hadn’t paid too close attention, making sure to remember the names around him, and note the placements of some other people he knew. He’d glanced over the punishments lists, but apparently not slow enough to notice where Nora had been. Oops.

Either way, she took his deal, and Dan saw the look in her eyes. Now this was going to be fun. If she was so offended by his mistake that she beat him, she wouldn't get much. He’d stolen Micah’s clothes, which had lead to a fight, sure, but only because Mitch had gotten caught in Micah’s war path. Lyca had licked his face because he’d made a joke, after she pinned him down because he’d slipped. That was it. Well maybe there was the thing that happened up in the trees, but no one had seen that. “Alright.” He said, the side of his mouth twitching upward in a small smirk.

Dan dropped her hand and got into position. At the signal, he took off towards the first obstacle, not even paying attention to where Nora was going.

Damn.

If Nora had been a less moral person, a less honorable person, a less....Nora person, she probably would have just skipped all the obstacles and headed straight for the finish line. After all, their deal had been whoever won, and that meant crossing the finish line first, but Nora wasn't that kind of person. Even if it meant that she was already matching every one bound of his to two of hers. Curse the freaking tree for being so damn tall.

Thankfully though, she knew this course like the back of her hand now, and by the time the two of them had made it over the low wall she was actually impressed to see that she was keeping up with Dan. That was her real focus, keep up with him for now, and then pass him up in the tunnel, because she was 80% certain that his giant body mass was going to have trouble with crouching through that little space. Finally a time in her life where being short would come in handy. Of course, her height also came in handy a little sooner than at the tunnel.

Vaulting over one of the walls, Nora barely had to duck under the beam before she was hoisting herself up and over the next wall.

Whoo.

Go short-stuff.

Dan took off bounding, lengthening his stride as he approached the first few obstacles, knowing that a full out sprint wouldn’t work here. There were too many things in the way to go full out, so he had to cover as much distance as he could with as few steps as possible. So he pushed off hard with each foot that hit the ground, and he easily vaulted himself over the low wall and ducked under the beams the way he would climb over and under fallen trees. Simple. He used his long legs and his agility to his advantage, reacting as quickly as he could. Granted, Nora was going to have it a bit easier in the small tunnel due to her size, but he knew he could get head in time and distance in other places.

Just as he expected, he dropped to his hands and knees and scrambled through the low tunnel as fast as he could, but his body size, agile as he was, got in his way. He had been a couple steps ahead of Nora going into the tunnel, but she was able to get through the tunnel quicker than he was. Benefits of a tiny body. Close to the ground, fewer limbs to get tangled up in.

So, as he exited the tunnel, rolled and jumped to his feet, Dan took off again towards the dodging panels and the ropes. If Nora was going to win, he certainly wasn’t going to make it easy for her.

You know, there were a lot of different types of people here at Ainsley. And they all showed during competition. Take this race, you had a person like Nora who trained and really really really had the willpower to win at competitions. Then you had Dan who just sprinted around with a smile on his face like he was literally born running this obstacle course. Who even was this guy? Who grinned while they ran like that and what was with that roll?

Show off.

Nora probably would've called him out on it too, and rolled her eyes about it if she'd had the time to spare, but she didn't. She had to not only keep up with Dan, but she had to figure out when was the right time to pass him up. The dodging panels she had the advantage, able to keep her twists and turns tighter without having to expend so much energy into swerving, but it was pretty clear that Dan had the advantage with the rope. It took her nearly four seconds more to reach the top than he had to, and in a race like this that was a lot of time to have to make up.

But here was the hardest part of the race. The ditch. She had to propel herself into a full on sprint just to hope to have the momentum to clear the area. And she'd fallen so many times before....if she pushed off at the slightest wrong time, she'd be screwed. All she could do was suck in a sharp breath as she pushed off from the edge, and all too soon she was stumbling at the edge of the other side. Nearly falling backwards into the ditch, but at the last moment regaining her balance and shooting off again towards the next obstacle.

Dan clambered up the rope with ease, just as he’d always done. At this point, rope climbing was just second nature. Sure he was weird, a monkey, a freak, whatever, it was easy. Dan reached the top and slid down the rope, and kept on toward the ditch. He took his running start, lengthening his stride more and pushed off just at the edge of the ditch. He threw his body weight forward, so that when he landed, his momentum was moving towards the next obstacle, so he could land and keep going.

From the sounds behind him, Dan could tell Nora was a few second behind him, which he fully planned on using to his advantage. He easily skirted over the terrace, but then, once again, his height slowed him down in the corridor. He could duck under the height restrictions once he recognized he had to, but simply getting his body react quick enough and to continually duck under them took just a few extra half-seconds than he would’ve liked.

He could hear Nora coming up behind him as he exited the corridor, and he took off again toward the balancing bridge. He put out his hands to offset his weight on the bridge, and stepped as quickly across the bridge as he could. Granted, the bridge wasn’t more than six inches wide, so it did slow both of them down, but at this point, Dan was just smiling. It’d been a while since he’d done a competition like this, just for fun.

Dan continued to move along the bridge, almost loosing his balance a couple times as he misstepped, but he got to the end, and bounced down from the couple feet high of the bridge back down to the ground. Only three more obstacles to go. He was almost there.

As much as Nora wanted to win, mostly so she could prove to Dan that she could and he'd stop walking around with that puffed up ego thinking he was the cream of the crop, but also so she could get the information from him. Of course she knew what she was asking of him already the moment she won. If she won, she was going to have to make up for distance somewhere, and that somewhere definitely hadn't been the balance beam. For one thing, it was only big enough for one person at a time, so Nora had been sort of shit out of luck on that to be behind Dan. Another thing, she had almost slipped off of it twice, but at least she had kept up there. Good balance and all that jazz had made that obstacle one she didn't really have to worry about.

Her only hope now was that Dan would have a hard time squeezing in through the window and contorting his body into the smaller hole. But for her? That was practically child's play, she didn't even have to duck as she vaulted through one of the little windows, hitting the ground hard and immediately taking off into a sprint up the apex ladder. Time to go all out right? After all, if she held back even the slightest in this stretch she knew Dan would win. He already had the advantage with those long limbs of his.

Dan was almost to the end of the obstacle course. He just had the terrace to get over, and then he’d be over the finish line. Easy-peasy. Dan pushed himself a bit faster, running up the slope and taking off with a jump towards the ground. Except, that’s when something went awry. He couldn’t tell what he’d done, but he landed slightly off balance on the first jump, and so when he took off for the second jump, his balance was off from the get go, and he didn’t land on his feet.

Instead, Dan landed on a pile of rocks and dirt built up to line the terrace on both sides, about twenty feet before the finish line. He hit the rocks with his legs first, but he felt the air leave his lungs as his torso landed solidly on a pile of rocks that just seemed to materialize out of nowhere. Fuck. Dan thought to himself, rolling off the pile of rocks and dirt to the grass, curling into somewhat of a fetal position as he tried to draw air back into his lungs. He let out a string of curse words, but could really only mouth and think them, since there was no air to be lett out of his body.

He stayed in that position for a couple moments, trying to encourage his lungs to bring oxygen into his body. His entire front of his chest was throbbing, and while nothing felt broken, he knew he’d bruised a couple ribs, and would have some pretty large purple splotches on his chest and shoulders come morning. And damn did it hurt. But he hadn't hit his head, which was the one thing he could be grateful for. With a grunt of pain, Dan extended a hand, and tried to push himself up into a sitting position, knowing that Nora would be coming to collect any second now.

Holy-

It was weird cause Nora had seen Dan practically launch himself into a rubble pile in basically slow motion. Which naturally left her torn between stopping to help him up and make sure he was okay and finishing the race- damn her thirst for information. Besides, she was pretty sure she'd heard him groan a few breathless cuss words so she was sure he was fine. Fine enough that she finished the race before looping back around and going over to his little....disaster zone. She actually felt a little bad seeing him all beat up like this, but well....

"Karma is a bitch huh?" That's what he got for getting all cocky arrogant fat head ego rich kid on her. Besides, he was pushing himself up, so she was certain he was fine. She'd worry and apologize if he started coughing up blood, but for now he seemed fine. So she was going to assume everything was fine too. She reached out taking his hand and helping him up into that sitting position he seemed to want to be in so badly, "You want a moment to catch your breath and bearings? I can wait." After all he'd waited the first time they met for her to catch her breath. Huh. Why was it that every time they hung out one of them ended up bent over and gasping for breath.

They'd have to break that streak a little more in the future.

She shifted her weight from one foot to the other anxiously, trying to push back her eagerness for information by pushing her sweaty hair out of her face instead. Damn that had been a work out. And if he hadn't tripped he would have beat her for sure. Which meant she was going to have to keep working harder. One of these days she was going to beat Dan fair and square. Then she could start racing other people. She did make a mental note though to tell Cassie about how funny Dan's face had looked when the breath got knocked from him. She'd probably get a kick out of that.

Ugh. Talk about a letdown. Dan mentally cursed himself for being so stupid and eager to show off, once again, for something that didn’t matter. He was smarter than this. Supposedly, as his aching ribcage begged to differ as he made even the slightest movement. Dan was vaguely aware of Nora’s approaching presence and at her words, he just made a face. Karma was one word for it. His own selfish ego was another word for it.

As he pushed himself up with one hand, he grunted, his entire torso screaming out in protest. He accepted her hand for help, and slowly got to his feet, gritting his teeth the entire time. Once on his feet, he nodded to her in thanks, and braced himself with his hands on his knees, his lungs just starting to accept oxygen back into them. Oh, this was not going to end well. And Nora was standing right in front of him, waiting for her prize. Well wasn’t this just a pile of butterflies and rainbows.

Dan glanced up from the ground at Nora. “So,” He started breathlessly, and instantly regretted it. No, his ribcage did not appreciate the effort of being moved to speak. Dan ducked his head and squeezed his eyes shut, and tried to take a deep breath.

Suck it up and deal with it, you dumbass. She just passed you because you were too stupid to actually take a second and regain your balance. Now stop being a looser and give her what she wants.

He glanced back up at Nora, absolutely certain the pain was written all over his face. “What do you want to know?” The faster he could get this over with, the faster he could get back to the dorms and lay down. Oh, what a thought. Lay down in his bed and let the pain wear itself out.

Jeez. He was really in pain here, and Nora was actually feeling the sharpest twinges of guilt over here for not having stopped to help him earlier. Or for even challenging him to this race. Which he apparently took very very seriously. Note to self; Dan didn't like to lose. Even at little competitions that were supposed to be just for fun. He did not like to lose. "You sure you're okay?" At his nod though, Nora decided to shut it and just let him be the judge of things. And apparently he was in the mood to get this information sharing thing over with quickly. Not a big fan of her company apparently, since he avoided her for days, and then when he did see her spent less than ten minutes running an obstacle course and wanted to flee the moment it was over.

Alright then, she could handle that.

"what's the deal with you and the Raemer twins?" Not exactly what Nora wanted to ask. Or what she had planned on asking, but why press for information when Danny boy here clearly didn't want to share it with her. She wasn't going to force him into being her friend- she had a little more self respect than to have to do that. "You trying to drive a wedge farther between them for the competition?" Damn. If that was the case she'd be surprised, she didn't exactly peg Dan as the cold hearted conniving type. Then again, people couldn't be judged by their covers.

Maybe it was good that Cassie never woke up to talk to Dan, maybe she had a better sense of people than Nora did. To bad, cause now here Nora was, biting back her teasing comments about how she finally beat him this time. Nope, she'd just keep her mouth zipped on this little race subject.

Dan braced himself for answering the hard question, and so he barely heard Nora’s question, “We…wait, what?” He asked, turning his head to look up at Nora, despite the pain that shot up his neck when he did. The Reamer twins? She’d challenged him to this race to ask about why Mitch and Micah were trying to kill each other? Okay. That was not what he expected. “Don’t tell me you’d rather be the wedge.” Dan said as teasingly as he could. That would be an interesting sight. He hadn’t pegged Nora to be the one to go for twins. But then again, he knew very little about her, except that she seemed to materialize out of thin air when she wanted something.

“I thought you were helping me get laid, not the other way around.” He continued, letting a smile-okay, it was a half smile, half grimace- tug on his mouth. Relieved that she’d only asked him about that, and not the other thing he’d expected her to ask, Dan just shook his head. “Yeah, that wasn’t me. Mitch asked me to pull a prank on Micah, I helped him.” How was he supposed to know that they hated each other? That wasn’t his fault. Sure, he’d be careful to avoid Micah for the foreseeable future, as neither twin seemed to be the type to forget things. Dan rather liked his nose the way it was.

Dan took a deep breath, his lungs finally deciding that they would like to accept air again, and pushed himself from a bent position to standing. He glanced over at Nora again, who was just fixing him with a look he couldn’t read. “What I’d do now?” He asked, confused. She’d beaten him, fair and square, he’d given her the information she wanted, he hadn’t missed any part of it. He was salty about his own stupidity, but that wasn’t something she needed to worry about.

From the way Dan reacted, it was pretty obvious that he didn't want to talk about whatever was going on with him and Lyca. Which meant there was a lot more to the story than just some wrestling match in the gym that got blown up. Interesting. Not that she was going to press, since when it seemed like she was going to push he had an expression on his face similar to hearing that the next competition was going to be some freaky eat all this disgusting food challenge thing. He obviously didn't want to share it, so instead Nora smirked, shrugging her shoulders. "Well maybe I do, maybe I don't. Raemer boys have nice .... everything." Please.

As if.

Neanderthal wasn't really Nora's type.

"Seems to me like you've got the getting laid thing all figured out. Student has become the master, ya-da. You got your thing with Lyca, I already beat you in a race. Nothing real mutually beneficial anymore to me trying to help you get laid." Sure, she only won because he tripped, but Nora didn't need to force herself around anyone. She wasn't desperate and it's not why she was here at Ainsley. "You should stop by the kitchenette, get some ice packs for that mess of a bruise you're gonna get. Good race, Dan." She threw another grin his way before turning on her heel, easily heading back towards the dorms and the showers.

Had he been in a slightly more comfortable and easygoing mood, Dan would have given Nora a snappy comment about setting her up with Mitch, since he was the more laid back of the two twins. But since his ribcage decided to light itself on fire when he tried to laugh, he decided against that. Damn, how hard had he landed? The Raemer boys were good specimens, if you were into the whole “I may or may not be the right twin” thing. Or maybe Nora was into threesomes, he wasn’t going to judge.

Student has become the master, that was one way to….Oh, shit.

How did this whole freaking place already know about that? Their sparring match had literally been in the middle of the night, yet Jamison had seen one thing out of context and suddenly he was running around spreading rumors like a kid with a torch that was hell-bent on burning the place down. It had been a misunderstanding, it had been a joke. A misunderstanding that had lead to an awesome kiss in the trees, but It had been nothing scandalous.

But before he could respond, protest, deny, whatever, Nora spun on her heel and basically skipped away. Knowing there wasn’t anything he could do, Dan just started walking back towards the dorms. After he really needed to shower, and clean up any cuts that he might have. So, walking deliberately, Dan headed back towards the dorms.