So I kind of wrote this on a whim while waiting for the next MCL chapter to be released. But then it got really long, and started to develop an actual plot, and then there were some ideas for character development, and all the while Nathaniel was in the back of my head being all awkward and adorable. And well, I decided; what the hay, maybe other people need something to tie them over between chapters as well.

I'm not overly confident in my writing abilities yet, honestly I don't think I ever will be. But I do enjoy it and the only way to get better at something is to actually do it. I'm just blessed to live in a day and age in which I can get feedback. So feel free to share any comments, criticism, concerns, questions, passing thoughts, ramblings, non-sequiturs, and opinions on the Hogwarts houses and where you feel the MCL characters should be sorted.

Be warned, there is mild swearing. So far I have no intention of dropping any f-bombs but Castiel is in this so…okay yeah there's gunna be some cussing.

Nothing overly explicit, aside from some slight adult humor. Anything more and I will put a warning at the beginning of the chapter.

Disclaimer: Considering that MCL has a Fan fiction page on their site forum, I feel like they're pretty open to the idea of us borrowing their characters. But anyways: don't own, don't sue.

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It's On

I was going to win this thing hands down! There was no way Pocket-Protector was beating me this time. He and his stupid hair could just suck it!

"Sweetie," a voice called, "I made some cookies would you like-whoa."

Auntie came in to the room and paused the moment she saw the chaos spread across the floor, desk, bed, and even parts of the window. So many toothpicks, so little room.

"What is it Agatha I'm busy" I said, not even looking up from where I sat on the floor, carefully applying more glue to my creation.

"…I thought you just had to give a two minute oral presentation" Auntie said, eyeing the tea stained fabric drying in the window.

I rolled my eyes but didn't stop working. Auntie was a nice lady, and I am willing to admit that despite her eccentricities she is one of the more tolerable people in my existence. But sometimes she could be just so slow on the uptake.

"We do, and with this" I held up the toothpick monstrosity "I will have a perfect example piece to explain the many intricacies of a felucca".

Auntie blinked at me a few times. "Bless you", was that sarcasm in her tone? I think it was.

"Fel-oo-kua" I enunciated.

"I feel like I need to wash your mouth out with soap for that" Auntie said wandering into the room and looking at the many things spread across my desk.

I choose to ignore that comment, "it's a type of sailing ship, more of a boat really, seeing as it's not very sea worthy. The Egyptians mostly just used them to travel along the Nile".

"Mmm" Auntie hummed, it really irritated me when she did that. When I first moved here I thought it was because she wasn't paying attention. But then she'd be able to repeat everything I'd said back to me verbatim, all while still reading her book, or tending to her plants. Now I knew that she made that noise when she was thinking something but didn't feel inclined to let me in on what it was. Which was annoying. "Uh sweetie" she said, now looking at my laptop "how exactly did you manage to turn a twelve hundred word assignment into a fourteen page paper? I don't think your teachers going to want to read all that".

"Psh its fine" I said analyzing my feluccas deck of popsicle sticks "it's actually only eleven pages, one of them's a cover page, and two more are for references"

Auntie made a sighing noise prompting me to glance at her. She was giving me that look.

"…there's pictures" I said. They only took up two thirds of a page when all together but Auntie didn't know that.

"Uh-huh, and what about the cut up, dirty sheets drying in the window?"

"Sails, the tea stains makes them look more authentic".

Auntie just shook her head, but she was smiling. "Anyways" she said "I made cookies, they're fresh out of the oven. Take a break and come have some."

My mouth watered at the thought of sugary treats. I really liked Aunties baking, but I couldn't stop. I had to win this thing, which means my felucca had to be perfect. Then again my stomach had been grumbling at me for the last hour.

"In a minute Agatha" I said, "I want to get all these little oars made first".

Auntie rolled her eyes, "all right, but if you're not in there in ten minutes I'm coming back to help you with your project" she said, an evil glint in her eyes.

I gulped, "uh, sure Agatha, I'll be there in a few minutes". No way was I letting that happen, if she had her way my ship would be nothing but ribbons and tie dye.

Auntie smiled heading for the door, "you deserve some, you've been working so hard lately, both at school and everything else". I tried really hard not to fidget at that statement. "And besides" she continued "I was only able to make them thanks to you getting that nice flour".

I jerked upright nearly dropping the felucca, "wait, what flour!" I said, "The brown bag flour?"

"Um, yes?"

Like lighting I shot up and rushed past Auntie. I sprinted down the hall ripping my coat off the hook as I went, skidding to a stop at the doormat, and plopping my butt down to quickly put on my shoes.

"What? What's the fuss" Auntie said coming up behind me.

"I was going to make hard tak!"

"Hard what now?"

"Biscuits!"

"I have canned biscuits in the fridge?"

"No! Hard tak, it's like sailors bread, I need to make some for the class".

Auntie crossed her arms, smiling down at me "you need this for the supposed to be eight hundred word report?"

"Yes!" I said standing up. "Council-Busy-Body will never see it coming. Not only will I have an Egyptian ship recreation but I will have authentic ship food!"

"Sweetie…this was a three day assignment".

"And that was three days for Prim-Press to build a sarcophagus. I know that's what he's doing! I overheard him talking to Violet about face piece designs". I opened the door ready to head out.

"Sweetie…"

"What?!"

Auntie just pointed at my side. I looked down and realized that I still had the felucca tucked under my arm.

"Oh", I handed it to her "uh, thanks".

"No problem, just be back before it gets dar- hey wait a minute, are these my chopsticks?"

"Gotta go".

I ran out the door, down the hall and busted down the staircase before she could stop me. Coming outside I hadn't even made it to the sidewalk before something small plopped off my head. It was a button.

"Those were my good chopsticks" Auntie was yelling at me from the second floor apartment balcony.

"I needed a mast" I called back.

"You could have used some of the popsicle sticks".

"Those aren't round, it would have looked stupid. Einstein-Wannabe would never let me live that down".

"Why can't you ever just call that boy by his name?"

"What?"

"I said; why can't you-"

"I heard what you said, why do you care?"

"I just find your obstinance interesting."

"I…it's because he deserves it!" I shouted, then mumbled to myself crossing my arms "the prat".

"Honestly, I don't think I even remember what his name is" Auntie was saying.

"I think it started with an M" someone called. A little old lady stepped out onto her own balcony, next to Aunties.

"Oh hello Mable" Auntie said, "was that it? Let's see, Martin, Max, Michael-

"It had three syllables" Mr. Johnson from the first floor poked his head out the window, calling up to the two.

"I thought it was four" his wife said, popping out next to him.

"No it was three" her husband responded.

"I remember it was a nice sounding name" Mable smiled to herself.

"Matthias, Maximillian," Auntie was saying.

"Three"

"Four"

"Three"

"Four!"

"Such a nice young man"

"Montgomry, Mateo, Milton, wait that's two syllables"

"Four!"

"Oh for the love of" I said, throwing my hands up, "It's Nathaniel! His name is Nathaniel!"

"That was it!" Auntie said snapping her fingers.

"Ha, three" Mr. Johnson said.

Mable was just smiling.

I sighed at the pavement, "why is this apartment complex full of nosy busy bodies?" I asked to no one in particular. Hearing Mable ask a question to Auntie about 'the nice young man', I quickly turned and headed off down the street. I did not want to hear that discussion.

I guess it was true, he was a nice young man for the most part. Not to me of course, but other people always went on and on about his kindness. Mable had met him last week when he had walked me home after the whole 'ghost incident'. Because that was Nathaniel for you, being a gentlemen even to his mortal enemy. Well okay, actually I think Castiel is his mortal enemy, but I am a close second! And at least I'm a worthy rival.

Before I showed up Nathaniel was the smartest kid in school. Nothing but advanced classes and straight A's, and student council president. Also when he'd walked me home I had started teasing him about how useless he'd be if someone did attack us, and he told me he practices kendo. I didn't believe him so he kicked an old metal trashcan to prove his point.

I was actually passing by that trash can right now. I wonder if anyone's ever going to get it out of that tree. Not sure why they'd bother, it's kind of useless being practically bent in half.

Nathaniel did have me beat physically I guess, but I was a 5 foot 6 girl, so that didn't count. And he had Castiel to compete with for that. No way was I getting in the middle of any kind of cat fight those two had going on.

And speaking of cats, what was with Nathaniel and the little fur balls? My first week in this town I had stumbled across him feeding a bunch of strays…just, ew. He was in a back alley not far from school and they were crawling all over him while he gave them multi colored fish shaped crackers. I couldn't help but stare at him in complete bewilderment. And then one of the flea infestations came up to me and started yowling, prompting Nathaniel to notice I was standing there. I tried to leave but the little monster followed me. Why?

Nathaniel tried to feed it and get it back amongst the others but could the thing be logical? No. When it wasn't looking I tried to run only to have it pounce digging its claws into my calf. I admit, I did squeal, but only a little. So there we were in this stupid back alley, with a stupid mini fuzz face clinging to my leg, with me stupidly bouncing around shaking my leg, and stupid Nathaniel trying to grab it. Not a good day.

So yes, Nathaniel was your ideal student. Perfect both academically, physically, and a kind soul to boot. And then I show up and screw it all to hell for him. In a way I almost felt sorry for the prat. …ha ha no I didn't.

I know it's egotistical to say, but I am smart.

Quite frankly, I used to not care. I still took all the advanced classes because that's where school counselors would insist I go, and I still always got straight A's because things just came that easy to me. But I didn't give a damn. No matter how many people tried inspiring me, be it teachers, counselors, or the never ending parade of 'caregivers', I simply could care less about this gift.

I kind of still don't.

But I do care about kicking Mr. Perfect-Stuckup-Blondie-Dress-Shirts ass. So tomorrow, I'm gunna have the best Egyptian history project Mr. Fariaze has ever seen! Nathaniel may have won last week with the science project (and I was still suspicious that he'd had outside help). He'd taken advantage of his bragging rights for the rest of the week, as he should. But now it was my turn. I know he's gotten cocky, having also gotten one more extra credit point than me on that math test today, but that just meant that his defeat tomorrow would be all the more sweet.

Grinning, I quickened my stride.

I yawned and stretched feeling several vertebrae pop satisfyingly.

Glancing at the garage clock I noted that I'd been at this for nearly six hours now. It was getting late but I was almost done.

It wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't been stuck at kendo for so long. Practice had gone on and on, and then being the idiot that I am I offered to take over cleaning duty for Mica because his grandfather was visiting. That was the third time this week I'd stayed after to help clean, you were only assigned to do it once every two weeks. Maybe I should start charging people.

But I honestly didn't mind staying that late, same reason I usually hung around the school for a few hours. More time somewhere else meant less time here.

It did make getting this project done a bit of a hassle though. Not for the first time over these past few days, hell these last few months, I debated on just saying screw it. Let her win, as long as I still got good grades what did it matter? Mom didn't care if I won or not, Dad definitely didn't care. As long as they don't know about her as anything other than that girl Amber can't stand, I would be fine.

I looked at the four foot long, intricate box on the workbench. So much effort for such a stupid project. I mean was it really worth it?

She was just one ridiculous girl at school, at stupid high-school for that matter.

…dammit I refuse to lose.

With a fever I went back to spray painting the sarcophagus. There was no way I was letting her get the best of me.

"Nathaniel!"

I looked up, surprised to see Amber standing there and coughing, I hadn't even heard her come in.

"Cough, cough, it is two o'clock in the damn morning!" she all but shrieked.

That was true. I waited to see if she was going anywhere with that, but she just stood there glaring at me.

"And?" I finally asked.

Amber threw her hands up, "and, you're keeping me awake with all this racket! It's just a stupid box!"

I rolled my eyes at her, I was hardly making any noise, especially not any that could be heard in the rest of the house. I wasn't stupid enough to risk waking either of my parents up.

"Sarcophagus" I corrected, "and I'm just spray painting Amber".

"Yes and its keeping me up!"

"How?"

"You know I sleep with the window open!"

No, no I didn't. Honestly it's like she thinks I kept track of every minor aspect of her life sometimes.

"Then close the window" I said, working very hard not to add a 'duh'.

Amber sniffed, "I need the fresh hair for my hair, you close the garage".

"Amber, that is dangerous, and besides-"

"It'll be fine" she huffed walking towards the controls.

"No!" I shouted, lunging for her and grabbing her wrist before she could hit the button.

"I told you, it'll be fine!" she seethed.

"You'll wake dad up!" I hissed.

She huffed. "So what? He'll just go back to sleep"

No he wouldn't. If any kind of noise from this part of the house woke him I just knew I'd get blamed. I suddenly got the image of Amber stomping up the stairs, and felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise. I looked back at the sarcophagus. It was perhaps another ten minutes of spray painting, and then a half hour of detail work before it was done.

Amber was still glaring at me. I sighed. There was no help for it.

"Alright, fine I'll stop" I said.

Amber gave me the stink eye for a few more seconds before turning on her heel with a prissy "hmph" and made her way back into the house. I followed, carefully creeping along and wishing desperately she would do the same.

We made it to our respective rooms without incident and I was suddenly aware of just how tired I was. I flopped down on my bed face first and just lay there. I didn't want to move.

I'd almost fallen asleep before I remembered I needed to set my alarm another half hour early if I wanted any hope of finishing in the morning. I yanked the damn thing off the night stand, moving as little as physically possible. I did the same removing my clothes, not even flipping to my back as I yanked the shirt and pants off.

Okay so what still needs to be done I thought, ticking off things in my head. Finish the base paint, do the detail work on the sides, thank gods the mask is all done, finish wrapping the mummy, I really hope the gauze has dried out by morning, and print off the paper at school tomorrow.

It would be stressful but doable. I tried to calm down to catch what sleep I could. But my head kept swimming with thoughts about the stupid thing…and the reason I was so obsessed.

I flipped to my back and glared at the ceiling, but all I saw was her, her and that annoying, obnoxious, frustrating smirk she made whenever she bested me.

When Mr. Faraize had first given the assignment and announced that the best presentation would be receiving and extra ten credit points, our eyes had immediately snapped to each other. She squinted at me, and I clenched my jaw at her, and it was on. There was even a collection of groans from the class, most of them being aware of our rivalry by now. Mr. Faraize was, of course, oblivious to it. Some of the teachers were beginning to pick up on our conflict and where responding accordingly, i.e. don't present a straight up challenge to the class if you don't want war.

It was amazing really, she'd only been here for three months and already she was a contender for top of the class. I'd lost track of the number of times she'd beaten me on a test or project, or had been able to answer more questions, or had written nicer lab notes, or just, whatever it was!

My parents would be furious if they found out, father especially. Bested by a girl?! Father would never accept such a thing. Good thing he'd never find out. So long as I maintained my perfect G.P.A. and was the best in Kendo he was happy. Or well, happy as he could be.

So the question I had to ask myself, and in fact had been asking myself; why did I care?

It was just a stupid teenage rivalry and I knew that, yet I still allowed myself to be sucked in. Its ridiculous, and honestly I think it brings out the worst in me, making me act childish. One of the few things my father has drilled into me that I actually agree with is presentation and maturity. How people view you is extremely important.

But today, we got our math tests back, and I had received full marks, no surprise. But of the five advanced extra credit questions I had gotten four of them right.

As she always did on test return days, our teacher, Mrs. Applbaum, gave us the last twenty minutes of class to go over our tests and get started on homework. And, as always on these days, she had sidled up to my desk, all casual, holding her test paper behind her back. She sat at the desk to my right, taking the seat that usually belonged to Iris, who would go work/chat with Kim and violet during these free work periods.

"So" she said, still feigning casualness.

"So" I returned, playing along.

Our eyes locked, my shoulders stiffened, I could feel Melody on my left cringing. We snapped at the same time, flipping our tests face up onto our desks. My eyes flicked away from hers briefly, to see her marks just as she looked at mine. She had an 83 to my 84.

And in an extreme bout of childishness, I grinned and stuck my tongue out at her. I can't even begin to explain why I did it. And the second I realized what I was doing I felt so foolish and ridiculous.

But her eyes had snapped back to mine, and there was a fire there promising retribution. And suddenly we were both bent over our homework scribbling away madly, occasionally glancing at each other to see how far along they were. Melody tried to engage me in conversation once or twice, and I know I answered her, but I was too absorbed to really notice what she or I was saying. And I'm pretty sure at one point I actually grunted in answer to something she said. I fell kind of bad about brushing her off now, but in that moment it had been all about beating that annoying girl sitting across from me.

I glared again at my bedroom ceiling, still seeing her ridiculous smirk whenever she beat me. Glancing at my clock I saw that I had wasted a full fifteen minutes of precious sleep time thinking about her.

Groaning at my own stupidity I flipped over and tried to wipe all thoughts of that annoying, obnoxious, girl out of my head.

I was ready to go. My felucca was complete, the hard-tak I had stayed up late baking was tucked into a big square tupperware Auntie loaned me. My paper and homework were all in my back pack. My hair was brushed, my shoes were on, my shirt wasn't accidentally tucked into my panties or anything.

So why did I feel like I was forgetting something?

"Lunch Dearie" Auntie called from the couch, not even looking up from the morning paper. I seriously am beginning to wonder if that woman is a mind reader.

So turns out lugging this stupid sarcophagus to school was the hardest part of this whole ridiculous project. Getting it into the trunk of the car had been an exercise in creative thinking, Father had not been amused. I just know I'll be paying for putting that scowl on his face later.

"Why do you even need this stupid box" he grumbled standing next to me as I tried to level it into the trunk.

"It's a sarcophagus, you know for my Egyptian project. I was assigned mummies and burial rights so I-"

He was giving me that look. The one that said shut up and hurry up. He left me to it as he went and sat in the driver's seat clearly indicating that I had about a minute to get my ass in gear.

Finally discerning that the damn thing would not fit in the trunk, Amber and I sat in the back seat with the thing spread across our laps. And then I had to listen to her moan about how heavy it was and how it was messing up her outfit for the entire ride to school. Something my sleep deprived brain did not enjoy. Fathers scowl had only deepened during the ride meaning he hadn't cared for her wining either. But did he tell her to stop? No, of course not.

We pulled up to the school, and Amber quickly jumped out strutting straight for her friends. This left me to shimmy both myself and the four foot long box out of the car on my own. Having learned from earlier heaving the thing into the car; it only took me about a minute to get it out. But with the way Father was tapping his finger against the steering wheel you would think I was stopping to admire the scenery, not doing my damn best to keep up appearances as I kept myself from grunting in excursion as I angled my body awkwardly to get the proper leverage needed to hoist the thing out without banging it against anything or scratching up the leather seats.

Once it was on the sidewalk I went back to close the car door.

"Thank you for the ride sir" I said, keeping my voice level and polite.

Father only grunted, not even turning to look at me. I carefully shut the door, wary of not 'thrashing it about like a hooligan'. Father loved his sleek black Rolls Royce, which meant the rest of us were required to love it too. I slammed the door only one time when I was late and rushing to kendo, Father made sure I never did that again.

The Royce peeled off and I was left alone on the sidewalk to lug my project in on my own.

As I got off the bus some jerk on a skateboard flew right past me nearly nocking the felucca out of my arms. He called something back to me about watching where I was going, so I threw up a hand ready to give him the one fingered salute.

"Good morning" a small voice mumbled behind me.

Quickly, I brought my hand down and turned around. Violet was behind me, chin tilted down and sketchbook securely in place beneath her arms. As always, she was the picture of demure.

"Um, morning Violet…you, didn't just see that…did you?" I asked. Violet is a sweet heart through and through. When I'd first come here I hadn't much noticed her as she was just so shy. But then Iris had introduced us and it was just not possible to be upset with someone like Violet. At times I wish she was more confident in herself but then at other times I just want to hug her and tell her it will all be okay…and then have her point out the bad guys so that we can sick Kim on them.

Violet just smiled at me as she walked past, not truly confirming, but definitely denying that she had just seen my little bout of delinquency.

"Right…you totally saw that" I groaned.

Violet only giggled, and honestly it made me feel better. I'd only been at this school for three months, and I tried to be on my best behavior especially around people like Violet who I actually enjoyed be around. I didn't know if we were friends, as I didn't have a lot of experience with those, but this seemed like the kind of thing a friend would be okay with.

"Nice boat by the way" she said, pointing at my creation, "very…sturdy"

"I know it's not pretty, but it is accurate. It's from the early dynastic period, before King Menes had even founded Memphis. So they didn't really have a lot of the artistic flair they're known for yet. And it's a felucca."

I looked at her and I could tell that she hadn't understood a word of what I'd said. But she'd listened and smiled indulgently at me. I think that was another thing friends were supposed to do, indulge each other. Was this a quid-pro-quo thing? I'll listen to your ravings if you'll listen to mine? Should I make an effort to look at her drawings more?...I should make an effort to look at her drawings more.

"Hi girls!" a bright voice broke into my thoughts as a head of orange-red hair came up next to violet. Iris smiled at us chipper as always, I think she wakes up like that. "Are you having a good morning? I hope today we get to-why do have a boat?" she asked noticing my toothpick monstrosity.

"Felucca" I corrected, "and it's for the history project today."

Iris suddenly reddened with worry, "it was a project? I thought we just had to write a paper."

And then I was worried that I'd worried her. I tried to calm her down but wasn't doing a very good job at it and the whole time Violet just giggled at my failed people skills.

A sleek black car pulled up to the curb just in front of us interrupting my explanation that food wasn't necessary either. Before the vehicle had even come to a stop the back door was thrown open and out rushed Amber. "Ugh, stupid box" she grumbled to herself.

Iris, Violet and I all stopped, not wanting to get in the way of the priss queen herself. Luckily for us she spotted Li and Charlotte and click-clacked her healed feet over to them in a hurry.

After her came an equally blonde head in the form of our illustrious student body president. He reached back in the car and pulled out his massive project that had to be about five times the size of my little boat. And suddenly I wasn't so confident.

He set it down on the curb and then went back to say something to the driver before they pulled away, and I felt an even bigger pang of jealousy. It figured really. Of course Nathaniel and Amber got dropped off and a shiny car, the kind of car that always looked new. The kind of car that in a way always was new because every time it got so much as a tiny miniscule scratch it got new body work and a fresh paint job. Meanwhile I had to budget the few bus tickets I got every month, so that I didn't have to walk on days like this when I had a bunch of stuff to carry.

And of course, Nathaniel had a big giant project. Made out of good materials that he could get at the hardware store, using the power tools and supplies that were probably in his garage. Because with a car like that, there was no way those people didn't have a giant garage. Auntie and I didn't even have a parking spot that was ours at the apartment complex.

And then, of course, Nathaniel has a parent that drops him off at school. One that he gets to say goodbye to every morning.

And I…I…

…

I shook the thoughts away.

Whatever.

It was whatever.

My felucca was still way better than his stupid project, and my paper was gunna be much better than his, and then as the real kicker, I had hard-tak! Ha! I brought actual food, which is always the most important thing to a group of teenagers. Even if it is tasteless and rigid biscuits.

I could-would win this thing still.

The shiny car drove away and as Nathaniel turned back to collect his project he finally saw the three of us. His eyes landed on me, and I lifted my chin just a little as we walked up to him.

"Morning" I said.

"Good morning" he responded.

"Nice sarcophagus" I shrugged an arm towards his project, not breaking eye contact.

"Nice felucca" he said, nodding his chin at my arm, also keeping his eyes steadily on mine.

…

I could practically feel Violet and Iris fidgeting beside me.

Finally I smirked, throwing in as much cock-sure confidence as I could manage.

"Good luck today Nathaniel" I said.

He nodded. "And to you too, Malory"

It was on!

AN: So I'm honestly not sure where I'm going with this. As I said in the opening authors notes: I pretty much just started writing this to pacify myself. I have a broad idea for plot, and this story will probably at least loosely follow the mcl chapters. But what I'm getting at is that I am completely open to ideas and feedback, be they over arcing multi chapter developing stories or just mini little ideas that are for filler and fun. Anything to get the plot bunnies hopping.

Also, please, please feel free to criticize. Tell me what you felt was good, explain to me where it was bad.

Oh and I didn't bother to explain what she looked like, so that readers could more or less imagine their own Candy girls looks in Malory's place. But I'm not entirely sure if that was the right choice, as I definitely gave her a personality (or at least try to) that people can't impose their own characters onto. Your thoughts?

Any who, if you got this far, thank you so much for taking the time to read this. You are wonderful and I appreciate you giving my writing a chance. Be sure to have a lovely day!