Speed had been the important part, even as Sabi had silently acknowledged that maybe not everyone was as surefooted as she was currently. It hadn’t mattered either way, seeing as Ava had stretched out at the same time she had to grasp the edge of the box. The motives didn’t matter, but seeing as Ava seemed to have it handled, she’d turned to look to see where Keely was. Thankfully she didn’t seem damaged in any way by the idiotic decision to obliterate the wall, courtesy of Digby, who she thought she’d heard waxing on about her outfit and her shoulders. Under normal circumstances, she’d have been flattered and even amused by the attention. Used it, even, but she was still mad at him over the wall situation. That and his whining about her precious Keely having kicked him as if it had been intentional.

Even if it had been, she figured he deserved it. “Why would we give the box to him?,” she said, hearing the idea being thrown out by the other male in the room. She hadn’t even recalled James having gotten to the other side of the now crumbling ruins of a wall, but she grinned at hearing Keely reprimanding him. Good girl.

Oh, and back to the whiner. “I really don’t think you have the authorization to make that decision. Or maybe we should suggest people being kicked out for destroying property,” she said dryly. Because the wall had to have been the property of the experiment group. Plus, she and Ava could’ve been crushed.

Honestly, she didn't even want to know if Jamie was trying to lose on purpose or not. Clearly Keely had been paired up with the wrong person and she turned to see where the lovely Khara was, the one she was truly meant to be with. Gasp. "Be careful with her! She's precious!" Keely demanded of Digby as he had her over his shoulder (!) and was not nearly as gentle as he needed to be in setting her down. Clearly the kick to his head did not knock any sense in there. It seemed to do the opposite.

For Merlin's sake. She did not even try to repress rolling her eyes as Digby tried to get her disqualified. What a baby. "It was an accident," she huffed. "For all I know, you moved into my path on purpose to try to get me kicked out." Of course that wasn't true, but his head was big enough to just happen to be in her way. It was believable.

But she wasn't entertaining that thought any longer anyway. Keely needed to make sure Khara was alright and she rushed over to her, stepping carefully through the rubble. "Are you alright?" she asked the most beautiful girl she had ever seen, inhaling the heavenly scent of her perfume. Or shampoo? She didn't know, but all thoughts were vacating her head right now except how lovely and amazing Khara was. Hello.

The first challenge was over. Sabi and Ava had won, and soon, all of the wall and any bricks that had come disconnected from the wall due to the BLAST from one of the participants had disappeared. The older woman with her clipboard seemed to be appear from nowhere in particular, her heels clack clacking towards them.

"Excellent job, you two!" she smiled a little at the winning team. "Now you get to see the contents of the box!"

She drew closer and tapped it with her wand. The box fell open in a dramatic way, and the woman pulled out the envelope that was at the bottom. "Gather round, all of you!" she said loudly, her voice echoing in the room. She opened the envelope with her manicured nails and smiled a bit. "You each won 50 galleons!" wahoo. Good for them! "Aaaaand I have some great news! A donator had just doubled our prize money for you all. So instead of splitting 500 Galleons...EACH of you will get 500 Galleons. The winning team, that is. Ava and Sabina, you are in the lead with one point." And if a tie happened...well...they'd get there if they got there.

"Now, for the next challenge, I need you all standing next to your partners with your WRISTS TOUCHING." ahem.

They'd see soon enough.

Oh my goodness he was still on about the kick. She tried to keep her voice to a whisper, "Digby I could look at your head. I heal animals at the zoo. A bump on a human head shouldn't be too hard." Just saying she had fixed bumps on Nifflers many times. Her eyes looked at where he was kicked to see if she saw any damage, but she couldn't.

Hearing Keely she moved a bit as the woman was standing so close to her. Ava might think she was into this lady when clearly she was into Ava and Ava was her world... now. "Oh, I'm fine. It was quite fun being over his shoulder, to be honest." She couldn't help the small chuckle. She did enjoy the fun of the competitions, but her eyes set on Ava, "I was just worried my breaking the wall hurt her." The only one that mattered clearly.


When the lady came up she couldn't help but frown a bit to the money stuff. Her eyes glancing at Digby, was he mad? She was clapping for Ava though, she deserved to win. She was just perfect at this competition stuff. "YAY AVA!! You were amazing." Oh whoops did she say that aloud. As she walked towards Digby and lifted her wrist for him to touch hers she couldn't help but feel her cheeks turning warm and pink.

Oh, Khara thought that it was fun being over Digby's shoulder, did she? "Well, that's great then." Keely smiled brightly at the other woman, but inside she was growing jealous. She had to show her that she was fun too! Not that ridiculous dolt of a man.

Okay. So Sabi and Ava won this round, but it was only a mild setback. They might have won some money and gained a point, but it was good news that the prize money was now doubled and she was even more determined now.

She stole another glance at Khara, wondering if she could convince her to switch teammates. She knew the two of them could win this entire thing if only they were together! But she needed to impress her first and she would do that by winning the next round. She'd just have to put up with Jamie a little while longer.

"Ready?" She gave Jamie a bright smile as she walked over to him and held out her arm for him to line up with his own. "We totally got this." But in doing that, she overheard Khara cheering on Ava and she shot Ava a death glare. She had a new target.

He wasn't annoyed that he had lost the first task, because it was Sabi's team that had beat him by mere moments. He was annoyed by the fact Sabi was having to share her glory with Ava. Digby scoffed when Khara offered to inspect his head and looked away from her. Any other time and he would have made a comment about how she could definitely inspect him like she inspected the animals at the zoo. But right now..? He was just ready to move on and find a darn way to get that horrible horrible fly kicking witch out of this game.

Digs managed a smirk at conversation moving to him having Khara over her shoulder and dropped a whisper in her ear as he stepped beside her. "I told you already that I'd take you to dinner." As partners, of course. Because he was also taking Sabi out. To get married as soon as this was over. And this wasn't the potion talking. He was just drawwwwwwwwn to her and her shoulders and her face and her -- well, not really her conversation because they hadn't exactly had one of those yet.

But..he BET it would be excellent.

He put his wrists with Khara's and waited.

Ava WOULD not share the prize box with Digby and she might not be able to share the box with Jamie, but she could share her winnings with the latter. Maybe they could go out and buy a pet that they could raise together while they were planning their wedding and honeymoon. She did like crups very much. The thought alone made her smile and she was only brought out of her reverie by the Khara girl cheering for her. She really wished she would stop that, Jamie might get jealous and think the blonde was interested in her opponent and that was simply not the case.

Moving closer to Sabi and holding out her arms, Ava made sure her wrists were facing her teammate. "What creature do you think is Jamie's favorite?" What? She was curious and they had plans. Plans he didn't know about yet, sure, but plaaaaans. She was about to say more when she noticed Keely, Jamie's partner, shooting her a look. WELL, she could give one of THOSE right back. "I think we've made an enemy."

They got to see the contents of the box. Sabi was vaguely curious about whatever that was, but her eyes continued to follow Keely around instead of focusing on said box. She’d glanced over as it had fallen apart and the woman had announced that she hand Ava had won money. 50 galleons was nothing, though. She could spend that easily in one go, and she’d already allowed herself to come up with a few ideas as to what that might be. Gifts, maybe. For a certain other girl in the room who was frustrating her with the attention she was giving Khara instead. She could give her so much more, if only she would stop looking at Khara.

She brought her attention back to the task at hand when Ava had come up alongside her, however. First, they needed to win the competition. Then she could apply herself to the other distractions. “I haven’t the slightest idea,” she informed the blonde, aligning her wrist with hers for whatever was coming next. Nor did she particularly care what sort of animal James preferred. She was much more interested in that glance Keely had given their direction. “I could fix that easily.” Besides, she had all sorts of ideas how to keep the dark haired girl’s attention.

Without further explanation, the woman waved her wand, and handcuffs appeared around their wrists. Digby and Khara were now cuffed together, his left hand, her right. James' right hand was cuffed to Keely's left. Sabi's left hand was cuffed to Ava's right.

The woman smirked. "Your second task is to find a key. There are three keys hidden in this room." She looked around briefly before looking back at them. "Once your team has found a key and has picked it up, it will glow..because...you will be performing this task in darkness. No wands allowed!" she grinned and held out a basket for them to drop their wands in.

"Once all three teams have their key, the lights will come on. The keys will come in handy for the next challenge..." she said softly. "And so...once I leave the room, the lights will go out. Have fun, participants!" she waved at them all and click-clacked her way out of the big room where this experiment was taking place. She was gone with the basket o' wands.

And not less than a minute later, the room was bathed in darkness. No light whatsoever. Good luck.

She blushed hearing his words about dinner. Goodness what if Ava heard him saying this. She might think they are having something more than just partners and she couldn't have her thinking that. "We'll see okay, maybe a winning celebration dinner." Digby was attractive, but no one could compare to Ava and her beauty. She stared longingly at the woman as the main lady was talking. Khara really wasn't paying attention until she felt something on her wrist.

"Handcuffs?"


Why couldn't she be handcuffed to Ava now that could be fun. Then there was talk of darkness, "But that will hide Ava's beauty." Oh that was aloud. Her face flushed more and she quickly locked hands with Digby right as the lights were going out. "Holding hands will help not hurt our wrist in these things." Hopefully at least. Now where to start walking. She tried to squint, but darkness wasn't going to allow anything now was it.

"Maybe we should start by just walking forward? Slowly though.."

Oh, handcuffs! Keely hadn't been expecting that, though she didn't know what she was expecting. She had been a little too focused on Khara that she was slightly surprised when the handcuff suddenly appeared on her wrist, joining her and Jamie together. But that had given her an idea and she winked in Khara's direction.

And the dark would make things even more interesting. It was just too bad that she was handcuffed to this man and not to the woman of her dreams. As she put her wand in the basket, she tried to edge her way closer to Khara. She smelled so nice, did she know?

She squinted a bit when the lights went out, but that did nothing to help her see, of course. "So.. what do you think we should do?" Keely lowered her voice as she asked her partner. "Maybe walk over to one of the walls? We can feel our way there better than thin air." At least it would be something solid that they could put their hands on and feel their way down towards the floor. It would make sense to her that a key would either be on the floor or along one of the walls, rather than just floating somewhere. But it was just a thought.