From the other side of the courtyard, Lancelot, Leon and Elyan were waiting for the rest of the knights to finally join them. Leon in particular was beginning to get very impatient, seeing as he had specified to everyone to arrive precisely after breakfast, and no one had arrived.
"They'll turn up soon Leon." Lancelot sighed, getting fed up of the knight's constant pacing.
"I mean, I can expect this from Gwaine and Merlin, but Percy and Arthur? I mean really? It's ridiculous, I mean, we might as well just send the girls off on their way and forget the whole stupid thing." Leon replied, and started pacing twice as violently as before. Elyan purposely walked up to Leon and grabbed his shoulders as if to shake some kind of sense into the knight who had just said 'I mean' three times in thirty seconds and was on the verge of hyperventilating.
"For the love of Camelot Leon, pull yourself together! Arthur is probably holding Merlin up with some chore, Percival will be cutting the sleeves off another perfectly good shirt and chainmail and Gwaine is probably sobbing his eyes out over the humiliation of yesterday." At the mention of Gwaine's mysterious mishap from the night before, Leon immediately perked up, and joined Lancelot who was thumping the wall with laughter and desperately trying the breathe.
"What… actually… happened?" Lancelot said in between sharp intakes of breath and hysterical laughter "It's not exactly like Gwaine to… wear… a DRESS!" He almost screamed, now buckled over with laughter.
"I bet it has something to do with those girls. Think about it. Gwaine's been drunk before, and it wouldn't surprise me if he's had pigtails at some point, but showing up to an official feast like that is ridiculous." Leon replied, slightly calmer than before.
"Talking of girls, what on earth are they doing?" Elyan said from the window. As Leon and Lancelot went over to join him, they both felt their mouths hang open at the sight of a bunch of girls wearing trousers and stretching. "Do you think it is possible we may have signed up for more than we bargained for…?" Elyan started, but was cut off by Leon's quick reply.
"Absolutely not. They are a bunch of girls with the idea that they will live to see the next day by beating us at throwing a ball."
"But we're not actually going to have them put to death are we?" Lancelot countered, who had also recovered from his laughter fit at the idea of losing. "I really don't think that they meant to do any harm, apart from whatever they fooled Gwaine into believing, and if I know Gwaine, he won't let them get away with it." Leon shot Lancelot a stern look at the idea of letting the girls live.
"You are a gentleman Lance, but everyone in Camelot must face its laws and punishments, no matter the cost of their actions. Now, would you like to join me in finding our ball-of-net companions, or are you going to stare at our guests for the rest of the morning?" Elyan shrugged at Lancelot, and followed Leon, but Lancelot lingered for a few moments longer to work out what the girls were planning on doing if they lost and how on earth they could be so happy when their lives were in such danger.
But the girls knew better, of course – they had no intentions of losing this game, despite the fact that everything would be against them. Including the ref.
"Hey Katie!" Yelled Lili as she and the rest of the girls jogged from one side of the courtyard and back again, much to the confusion of the watching villagers, who had heard of this forthcoming encounter with 'the girls who appeared from nowhere'.
"What?" Katie asked.
"Does Uther even know the rules of Netball?" Lili looked worried, and quite rightly so – the King was probably as oblivious as the rest of the Kingdom when it came to netball.
"Ummm-"
"Not likely!" Yelled back Emma, refusing to believe for one moment that that was even a slight problem.
"Oh well I'm sure we will do fine," said Holly with a cheer as she proceeded to do heel flicks back across the courtyard.
"We better, I don't fancy dying!" Said Becca with a grin to her team mates. "Wait is that them?" she started to laugh as she pointed towards a gaggle off men hiding behind a pillar who clearly didn't want to be there, especially with a small crowd gathering round to watch!
"I think it is," Replied Emma with 'that face' on again, the face that could only describe a wicked plan brewing in her mind. And with that she started to march towards the assembled knights.
"Ahhh… Lili?" said Leon upon seeing her approaching.
"Wrong, it's Emma," said the real Lili coming to a halt next to Emma along with the rest of the team.
"Can we help you?" said Emma with a too innocent expression on her face.
"Oh we were… uhh… just watching you run around," said Lancelot, still looking worried for the girls who would surely be facing their execution come dawn.
"Oh that," said Katie who looked like she was trying hard not to laugh, "That was a warm up Sir Lancelot"
"Oh," said Percy walking up to his brothers-in-arms "Well we were just about to begin one ourselves, weren't we?" He said, glaring at Leon, Elyan and Lancelot, trying (and failing) to get them to agree with his sudden outburst, whilst trying to keep relatively sly.
"Oh, er sure," said Elyan with a smirk "You can lead our warm-up then if you're so keen," he said motioning to the man-mountain in front of him.
"Wait! I'm sure Katie would volunteer to lead your warm up!" said Becca, who then proceeded to look very proud of herself, whilst Katie looked like she actually wanted to kill the girl in question.
"Oh thank you Katie," responded Leon not catching on that this was some sort of private joke between the girls. Holly, Lili and Emma laughed whilst Becca tried to look innocently at Katie, but she couldn't quite manage it with the look of fury she saw on Katie's face, it was too funny for words!
"Fine!" Katie spoke through gritted teeth "But where's the rest of your team?" She questioned whilst gazing around the courtyard, trying to pick out Arthur, Merlin and Gwaine from the crowd around them.
"Oh err, we don't know," replied Lancelot. "I would say Gwaine's in the tavern, but if his drinking buddies ever found out about his new found love for all things pink and frilly, he would probably die of shame, so I have no idea!" The girls proceeded to giggle before they heard a large announcement from the castle entrance.
"Behold, the Crown Princess Clotpole herself, Princess-"
"Gwaine shut up!" yelled Arthur attempting to push his friend down the stairs and failing as Gwaine proceeded to turn and whack him in the stomach. Behind them Merlin laughed as Arthur doubled over with a grimace, and then the raven headed youth proceeded to trip over his own feet, which cheered Arthur up no end. As the trio arrived they were greeted warmly by both the knights and the girls Arthur surveyed the scene.
"Righto, where do we start then?"
"Katie has kindly agreed to show us how to do a warm up sire," said Elyan.
"That's nice," said Arthur. He seemed to be caught up in a daydream.
Woo, we updated in time! (well Katie you were supposed to update on Tuesday...)
All of us are amazed at how many people are reading this story, reviews are always welcome!
I hope you are all enjoying the story and be sure to check out the drabbles which are our other adventures in Camelot which show some other antics we got up to!
Happy reading!
~Katie from The Camelot Netball Team