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It was time to fight for their house again, he pinched up the sleeveless shirt on him and judged the overly enlarged mascot. It was found in his dorm after he signed up, he snorted as he knew it was the gnomes that knowing no privacy at all.

Releasing his grasp to cover most of the skins exposed, the competitors all lined up into five groups according to their houses for the assembly before the first round started. AJ was kinda spaced out, thinking if the orange was replaced by black and the mascot graphic shrank to the size of a chest badge, it would be perfect.

A grin showed up on his face when the curtain revealed what they were going to face. How creative the designer was, the boil grew up around the desert of course never ski before. First experience was always so much fun, he couldn't help the agitating thrill inward already.

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"AJ, what're you wearing?" The serpent-dragon raised a leg so the curious head was able to see the ski. "They're for skiing, see the path going down? We're gonna slide down it with the help of these two long plates and sticks." He explained to the tail head at the peak. Not knowing much about the activity, that was the best he could give. He heard the bell rang and posed to push himself out, but a greater force already did it. Not even have a second to look what swept him down the slope, the skiing began.

The slope was steep at fast, bringing the boil traveled through a distance before landing to the snow with staggers. He quickly found the balance by shoving the sticks into the snow to slow down the speed. On his way twisting between the poles, there were assaults that made him raise his brows. Snowmen with different funny expressions tossed snowballs as he passed by, leaving a teasing laughter while sneaky Chrismtas elves hid up and waiting to knock you down with mischievous gleeful smiles. It was really fun, like riding a roller coaster while ahead there were creeple throwing bombs at you.

Even it was the first time, his good athletic ability manipulated the ski well to whiz past all the obstacles. Unfortunately, he forgot besides him, there were others on the path. On his left, a giant snowball, nope, a student rolled down the slope while yelling. It flattened and dragged those on their route like a rolling pin and became bigger and unluckily might have to bow out with the race. On the right was a student hunted by the secret ornament of a colorful elf, it jumped and danced on top of its prey. What he should take note of was the one in the middle behind him, a ghoul crying while shaking her head helplessly at high speed. "Oops." He deliberately moved into her way to help her slow down to normal speed, they clipped and missed by one pair of gate. Anyway he finished the ski section uneventful at the remaining part.

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The icicle made the finish line for the section, where they were brought to the sedate area to take off their equipment for the next section - A simple hurdle track maze. You ask how difficult the hurdle wold be? You can stare at the student skidded on the shiny surface or those fell because of some shady tricks of others, AJ is sure you will get the answer. It was impressive to see a large maze raised up from the ground, he made sure his shoelaces were secured and tapped against the snow to collect his wandering thoughts together.

"So Shiny!" The tail head made excited compliment at the giant block of ice which was where the maze stood on. "Yup, so shiny and slippery," AJ added and squinted his eyes at the challenge ahead. Meandering into each other, he carefully sprinted while hopping through the obstacles. He didn't do excellently but not poorly either, he spent extra time turning around within the maze and careful with his steps. There was a time a skidded competitor came into his way, he allowed them to pass through first politely before he continued. Said student bumped into several hurdles but it wasn't his fault.

Eventually he could see the exit of the maze, an aching yelp from behind drew AJ's attention. It was a student squirming and covering the middle part between his legs in pain. How merciless! As a male, he knew the pain too well that he sent the poor boil a sympathetic look as he ran towards the exit.

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"What?" said AJ staring at the balance beam. There was no way he could surpass others on it, therefore, the boil sneaked forward for a nice position before they stepped onto the beam. "AH!" A short but loud shout could be heard, but there was too many creeple blocking his vision, he barely saw someone fell off. The smooth queue came into a sudden pause, he peeked a head and a giant stocking in red caught his eyes, it swang like a pendulum and it was what knocking creeple off the beam into heaps of snow. Ouch, it must hurt.

Some decided to walk like a cross, horizontally posing their arm straight like wings of a plane for the best balancing effect. Others bent down to dodge the stockings with height advantage and moved onward at a lower position. AJ had to wait for the queue to move, he stopped at a few steps from the first stocking and passed it when it went backward. Even one could pass the first, there were second, third and so on waiting for them. Except the beginning part of the beam, the middle and towards the end were full of swinging stockings. When they swayed back and forth, a gust of wind would blow up their hair and clothes. Providentially, no one was wearing skirts or dresses.

Didn't get knocked off at all, he finished the section.

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The next section was waiting for them once they left the balance beam, in front of the students were bigger-than-usual wreaths fitting for the season. It wasn't hard to guess they were inspired by some sports training method with the use of tyres. Things got ridiculous when they were used in Amityville, having the experience of climbing up a Santa, the knee-height wreath didn't put a threat to AJ.

The boil used to do so many part-time until now was good at moving around, his stamina and strength built up over his work. Up and down the wreath, he had no hesitation and had a clear objective. He was the wreath master! While some students stuck at the protruding part of the scented wreath and made themselves smell great, AJ had already in the mid-way of the run.

Those big movements consumed his energy but he was almost done with it. He hopped into the last wreath and stepped on the fine branches to push himself up another side. He stood on top of it and looked back, it was quite an amusing scene to see others struggling or shorter students trying to grab onto the wreath by jumping. No luxury to waste time, he jumped down the wreath and sprinted towards the next section which looked like a pine forest.

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The cheers he heard from the Stand suggested he was at the last section of the prolonged obstacle race. AJ wiped the sweats and flung them off his hand, tied up his hair again before he entered the forest path which was actually a row of pine trees. He had to wait until the one before him was a distance from him. He didn't want anything like shoving his face into someone else's bottom.

Crawling was uncomfortable, at least for the tail head, it chewed the branch and pushed it as they moved. Sooner or later, it learned hissing was no use to the trees and distraught. "Hey, Bro, we're almost there, cheer up." Hands covered in mud, AJ assured the tail head with enthusiasm.

"Why don't we move upward?" The boil jabbed a thumb at a student not following the instruction, he was thrown spiky pinecones and the tree gestured him to crawl. "Ohhhhh~" Surprised by what it saw, the tail head opened its mouth. When the tail head curled next to AJ, its eyes glowed like two red lights shining the dim path. It stared at the ground for pinecones and ate as snacks to bring the happy mood back. Free snacks is the best!

Patting his body to get rid of the loose dirt on his outfit, he stood up after crawling through the last pine and afterwards dashed to the finish line. The candy cane given to AJ was immediately snapped by the tail head couldn't help its pigging out while the boil resumed his breath let out a "thank you" as he received a pedal for his effort. They were informed there was quite a time before the next race started, that would give him some times to rest and browse some booths meanwhile.

Strider was not in this for the house pride or the thrill of competition. No he was in it for the trophies, babes and glory. Strider was also nothing if not extremely good looking. As in, he was nothing other than that. He had no strength, no smarts, no teamwork skills. Just a lot of really sharp cheekbones.

Skiing was a mess because snow was nothing like icy water at all and quite frankly Strider was a little offended by the betrayal. He just hoped nobody was watching him ruin his perfectly beautiful face.

He felt much more at ease with the hurdles considering he was very skilled at icy hurdles. Interpret that as you will.

Thankfully on the balance beam while he was knocked off multiple times he never actually fell off; he always lifted himself back up and eventually made it to the end. He was kind of incredulous at all of the third years doing it with ease; it just didn't seem natural or fair for them to excel so much at this task. Where was the part where Strider won all the trophies and babes?

The wreaths weren't even something he was going to mention later. They never happened.

The crawl on the other hand he would talk about on end for the following weeks because seriously did you see the way his butt looked in that position? Looked damn good it did.

The end was actually where Strider excelled most: soaking up people's attention was his specialty. He even signed a few (unnecessary) autographs.

On nights like this, Rojo kind of regretted that he wasn't much for sleeping. It made waiting for the start of the House Cup nearly unbearable. The boil spent most of the evening before the competition trying on his new undead dorm duds and posing athletically in front of the half circle of mirrors outside his massive closet.

When the sun rose he was ready, having chosen the sleeveless shirt, drawstring pants, headband, and bow as his final ensemble, the one that would lead him to victory! He bounced as he was ushered out of the dorm and toward the stadium, entering and climbing up the ramp with an open-jawed grin. As slowly as the night had gone prior to this, time was flying now, and Rojo was pushing his way to the front of the pack to get a good view of what he would be facing. ICE! So much of it!

He was still at the front when the course began and he pushed off mostly out of shock but partially out of necessity. Everyone else was doing it. If he didn't he would be stampeded. Still, Rojo kept his balance somehow, weaving between posts like he had been born to, even though he hadn't even remotely seen this much snow ever. The skeleton even managed a twee little spray of snow as he came to a stop. All of those mirror poses had really helped!

Unfortunately, his next test was the hurdles, something that the boil apparently really stunk at. He understood that he was meant to follow a path of some sort, but he didn't understand where it was. Even if he had, this entire area of the course was far too slippery, and the balance he had displayed on his skis drained away when he made the switch to his own two bony legs. Rojo was eternally grateful when he saw the balance beam up ahead. Even if he did poorly there too, at least it would be a change of scenery.

At first when he mounted the narrow beam, Rojo inched forward at a crawl, but when he felt the rough surface under his feet, the boil sped up. So far he had only done poorly when confronted by slippery ground, and the confidence that came with that little bit of traction had him speeding ahead, making back most of the time he had lost in the last area.

The wreaths, however... Something about them tripped Rojo up again and he slowed down to a crawl, tiptoeing into the center of each one and whispering encouragement to himself before moving on. Tricky.

He came into the last section of the race knowing he had time to make up. Even so, Rojo stopped before the line of bent trees, assessing his options. Theoretically the fastest way was probably over the top, but as he watched, a snakey, short-limbed ghoul taking the course in her natural form tried that tactic only to have her legs pulled out from under her and her body thrown back to the start of the section. That was out then. Pushing up his sleeves, Rojo got down on his hands and knees and shimmied forward, his lovely undead gym clothes getting almost immediately splattered with mud. It was difficult to keep up his pace after all he had already been through, but the boil forced himself to recall how the course had looked from above, all pristine and pale, and it made him want to finish. He was just as good as a Christmas elf. RAH!

With an eerie yell, the skeleton powered his way through, emerging with a triumphant hop and claiming his medal with his muddy hands.

Alright. So the last time she had done a House Cup, she had struggled majorly, and while she was a third year now on the verge of graduation, there was still that small flutter of nervousness as she approached the top of the hill. More people were watching than last time, and now she had the boils to compete against--well, technically poor Ignatius was left on his own in the Ghost dorms, but still! She had to beat Brenley and Lock, retain her rightful place as the strongest of them all!

"Deep breaths, Pipes," she muttered to herself as she fixed her hair, making sure it was tied back well and tight. The last thing she needed was for it to get messed up or in her way. She'd never gone skiing before, but it didn't look hard. Just had to keep low to the ground to keep her balance and watch what was directly in her path. Not too bad.

The icicle style send off, though, she could have done without. Nevertheless, Piper's head was in the game. She zoomed and zigzagged through the gates, almost avoiding every projectile. It was just one snowman near the end that ruined her nearly perfect run, and by the time she righted herself, it was too far back to go and give it a piece of her mind. At least she managed not to smack into the other icicle waiting for the competitors below.

Good thing the stadium suppressed her magic, because she was hankering to send some fire at those branches in the way at the next part of the course. But Piper had grown up in a giant forest--she was more than used to hopping over the overgrown roots and branches, hissing every once in a while when her foot did caught. Was that elf cheering her on or jeering? Maybe the gnomes had soured her disposition to tiny creatures in general. (But hey, at least there weren't birds everywhere. That was the new low for her.)

Thus did she hop, skip, and leap her way over the giant ice cube of an arena.

Piper got another chance to flaunt her stuff when she reached the balance beam cut across by several large red stockings. Well, she supposed it was better than wrecking balls or arrows or something...Though she had no urge to try and get smacked by one nonetheless. Tossing her hair back, the reaper carefully picked her way across, face set in concentration.

Maybe getting her life together was what let her get across unscathed. Or maybe she was just that good. Mmm yeah let's go with that. Metaphors were for NERDS.

Maybe she was being too careful though. The next part made her wary as she picked up her wreath with some grunting. Was something going to chase them? She half expected a giant snowman to form and follow after, but other than some unfortunate tripping, nothing really stood in the way. Well, small miracles, right?

"More trees?" Piper complained, which was funny given that she'd grown up around them. But Christmas trees were just different, alright? They smelled weird, they looked different, and they were clearly hostile. She watched some poor kid get smacked down for trying to go over all the low hanging branches, and with a sigh she realized she was going to have to crawl her way to the finish line. How undignified.

And probably unlucky, since her outfit wasn't exactly winter-themed. What could she say, she liked being loose and free.

Her determination saw her through. Eventually Piper hit the finish line and was awarded a medal and a candy cane, which felt more like consolation prizes than anything substantial. Ah well, one competition down!

NVM Won't have time to fill out XD

Aisha had only really seen snow once and the memories were tied to some pretty traumatizing experiences. Of course she'd never been skiing before. Still, she always liked to try new things and she was feeling her house spirit very strongly as the stands cheered and all the students came out with their A game. Even the zombie ghoul had done appropriate body paint with a silver and green face skull and centipedes and snakes painted around her arms and legs.

She pulled her hoody tight and turned her headphones up to drown out the crowd and focus as she started the first leg of the course. The first couple of gates were rough. She stumbled and dodged, only a little bit of speed helping her not totally screw it up. The elves were a bit annoying, and the traps, and the first few caught her off guard. Any tempo she;d set, any quick progress she made, ended up thwarted pretty thoroughly by the tiny menaces.

Still, she eventually finished and survived no worse for wear.

The massive ice sheet in front of them all looked very daunting. Aisha wasn't exactly clumsy but she also wasn't used to cold or ice. Her boots were more for fashion and comfort than practicality. She decided to work slowly this time, not wanting to fail, but too uncoordinated to really make a ton of progress. She was in the back of the crowd by the time she got to the end.

Taking her time with the next activity only went better for her. She was able to dart pretty quickly past the stockings, though the color was very distracting.

Aisha's steady pace did her no good in the next activity. The pine needles were also sticking in her clothes and kinda pissing her off. She was vaguely huffy by the time she emerged from the field of evergreen.

The final stretch she simply gritted her teeth and stuck it out. KNowing it was the end sped her on and thankfully had gained a bit of ground by the time she emerged, battered and stuck with pine needles and cones, and very much ready for it to be over.

Jil was here because she liked to win things. She liked to be better than other people and if possible crush them under her tiny heel. As a first year it wasn't likely she'd actually do it, but she'd make a damn good effort.

Skiing was an activity for disgusting limbed beings, but she participated because it was necessary. The tiny ghoul was rather light and quick so she managed to avoid nearly all the obstacles and weave in an out of the gates until that disgusting snow creature tripped her up.

The next obstacle was not so easy. Taking a step out onto the ice slowly had her bobbling and sliding so she put all of her speed into darting across the surface and maybe a bit of her own magic into sailing over the hurdles.

The balance beam was not as easy as it looked. She'd exerted quite a bit of effort on the hurdles so this next activity took concerted effort not to screw up.

Thankfully the ghoul was so tiny and light she practically walked right over the wreath run. SHE'S A WREATH MASTER.

Being forced to crawl was disgusting, expecially when the branches kept snagging her long hair. Still, she emerged ahead of some others and that was satisfying enough.

'Why' was all Harmony thought as she looked at the course. This wasn't a mandatory event, but yet here she was. Even worse, she'd been forced to participate for the Monster dorms, a sheer betrayal of her own kind. She wished she was back in her dorm room, curled up in her pool. And so it was that Harmony was daydreaming about damp places when an icicle pushed the line of students into action. The slope was steep and Harmony immediately folded up her arms against her thin chest and hoped for the best. A garland bola wrapped around her and her tail hissed out, teeth snapping at the cheerful sparkle until it snapped. Harmony smiled briefly at that.

The next icicle thudded into her and Harmony nearly went flying through the air. She whirled, ready to hiss at this indignity, but it was time for the next round. Ice. Her tail and palms could gain no traction on it - it must be enchanted. The nest stage, the balance beam, was slightly easier. But by this point, Harmony was determined to finish the course sheerly out of spite. Spite could carry her far - it was her prime motivator in things.

It carried her through the balance beam, her tail biting it's way along the path. It carried her past that and into the wreaths. Her instinct was to fly and she quelled it. Cheating was not something a demon did; they bent rules to work in their favor, they did not break them. The crawl she utterly balked at, her clothing would be utterly ruined. Gritting her teeth, Harmony flopped down and went.


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You manage to fumble your way through a couple of gates, but the snowballs and elf attacks really do a number on your progress.
You can't quite figure out where you're meant to go in the maze of hurdles. Plus, the floor is really slippery. You remain near the back of the pack the whole way.
Although this is definitely more difficult than you thought it would be, you're doing a decent job! Take your time!
Were you not being so careful, you might have finished things a little quicker. You also might have faceplanted. As it is you're doing pretty good!
Your hair/wings/tail/whatever gets caught on the branches as you crawl. Tough break, but at least you're not the slowest!
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