Soaring to New Heights Closed

Kendra was carefully fllying around trying not to get too high as she was only beginning to get the hang of flying on a broom. Some students were still struggling and she made sure keeping a safe distance so as to leave them some space to practice. Suddenly something shoot past her with incredible speed almost having her lose her balance. Her grip on the broom tightened only barely keeping herself steady as  she watched the student angrily while he landed a little further away and stood there obviously enjoying himself watching others failing at their attempts to fly for the first time. She slowly landed and began walking to his direction. Anger was building up but she took a deep breath and decided to confront him in a calm manner. 

"That was extremely reckless and cocky, you shouldn't provoke others like that! You almost had me falling from my broom !" she complained realising she sounded less calm and more angry than what she intended. 

She noticed the boy was also a Slytherin and she furrowed her brows while crossing her arms in front of her chests. "Why do I keep having trouble with my housemates?" she thought to herself. 

Kyden was taken aback by the angry girl. He hadn't been trying to be reckless or even hurt anyone. He was just trying to have fun. He noticed that this girl was also in Slytherin. Now this is the type of person who should be in Slytherin not me, He thought. "Sorry I was just having fun watching all these people learn how to fly is boring. I hate that all first years are expected to be on the same level on things. I am by far quite a bit advanced in flying over all of you guys." He waves his hand around motioning to some of the students that were still trying to get up of the ground. "I might not be so great in Charms but I excel in flying. But anyways like I said I am sorry. My name is Kyden by the way. And you would be?" He looked at the girl kind of intrigued but also kind of intimidated by her. He looked at all the kids still trying to get up on there brooms and laughed to himself. He was itching to get back on the broom and go flying again but he didn't want to upset the girl again.

Flying was relatively old hat for a girl who had grown up (half the time) in a manor with extensive grounds; it was one of the many lonely activities Quinn had practiced at the behest of her parents,  in order to get her out of their hair. Still, even if she could fly around easily on her mum's old Cleansweep Eleven, controlling the even older and more temperamental school brooms was something of a challenge. At least she knew the basics, which was more than could be said for many of the others.

She was comfortably hovering five feet over the ground, practicing some slow acceleration and braking, when a tiny boy plummeted towards the ground right beside her on his own broom, successfully pulling up at the last second. Wasn't that a Wronski Feint? Or was it a Wachowski Feint? She wasn't very well versed in professional Quidditch. It was impressive, at any rate. As she watched, a Slytherin girl she recognized from the Sorting started arguing with him about recklessness, and Quinn was struck with a sudden idea. Would it cause too much friction? It definitely had multiple benefits, and the consequences... probably fell within acceptable parameters. Probably. Being in the air always made her feel a bit breezy, and she wasn't thinking as hard as she normally did.

"Oi!" She called out at the pair. "It isn't reckless if he's really that good! How about a race, fly boy?"

Kendra did not expect such a gentle reaction. Her eyes widened as she began feeling a little bad for the way she had spoken. The thrill of flying was after all one of a kind, one could get easily carried away. She listened to his reply closely realising she must have overreacted a little. 

"Well you have to start somewhere, don't forget some of these kids are from muggle families, we should help them as much as we can." she pointed out, fearing she may have spoken too soon since she had no way of knowing the boy's family's background. She only made the safe assumption he had grown up with magic given his impressive skills in flying. 

She observed him a little closer,it still seemed strange speaking with boys her age. With girls it had been a little easier as they seemed to generally be friendlier to her. 

"I am sorry if I spoke too harshly." she said feeling her anger fading away "My name is Kendra." a small smile formed on her lips. "Nevertheless, you should be more careful." she insisted on her initial point. 

Suddenly she heard a voice behind her. She turned around to see a Slytherin girl flying towards them, soaring just a few feet above the ground, calling out to Kyden for a race. Kendra wasn't a big fan of upfront interactions like this, she couldn't help but frown looking at the girl coming their way. 

Kyden looked at Kendra. She kind of reminded him of a girl at the orphanage. He realized after she said some of the students were muggles that she was worried she had insulted him. " I am not a muggle. I am wizard-born. I know how to fly well because at the orphanage I grew up in that was one of the only things we could do. Brooms were always handy so flying was a favorite past time of many." He smiled at her. He heard a voice behind him call him fly-boy and challenge him to a race. He was used to challenges. Challenges were something that he always excelled in. He quickly hoped back on his broom and zoomed over so he was side to side with her. He grinned getting really excited at the prospect of racing. He loved racing all the kids at the orphanage and he normally always won. He lost only one time but that was because one of the older kids hexed his broom and he had fallen off. "Sure, I will race that is if you think you can truly keep up with me. Let's say we race from here to the end of the field and back? First one wins. But the more important thing. What does the winner get?"

An orphanage... Kendra had never met anyone like Kyden before. She had always had a very strange love-hate relationship with her muggle-hating parents but just the thought of growing up without any parental figures was very new to her. She admired his courage and decided that if she had to guess she would most likely sort him in Gryffindor. Nevetheless, there must have been a reason he was sorted in Slytherin. She watched as he accepted the girl's challenge and the two of them flew a little further away getting in position for a race. She glanced over at the teacher that was at that moment trying to help a terrified student get down from their broom. She suspected the two Slytherins would get in trouble if the teacher took note of their racing sessions.  Turning her gaze back at the two she patiently awaited to see who would be the winner, secretly hoping it would be Kyden. That girl, she was almost certain she had seen her before and something about her made Kendra feel intimidated and threatened causing her to raise her defenses. She took mental note to ask her friends about her next time she got the chance. 

With a very small, slightly evil smile, Quinn got prepared for the next step. She made sure her wand was within easy reach in the inside pocket of her robes, and accelerated the broom just enough to feel what it might be like to take off at top speed, meeting Kyden halfway. 

"I accept your terms. And a wager, eh? Hmm..." She looked down over the students on their brooms below them, and her eyes alighted on the girl whose conversation had been interrupted by the challenge. Seeing the frown, Quinn's evil grin got wider, and she cried out dramatically, "Winner gets a kiss on the cheek from that fair maiden!" She added, in a quieter tone, "If she accepts, of course."

With Kyden's showing off a minute before, the other students would probably enjoy watching a race, and she was hoping the peer pressure would help to bring Kendra on board. She needed Kyden a little uncomfortable and flustered, and getting a kiss from a girl seemed like the sort of thing that made boys flustered in books. Hopefully it would work. Before they got started, she also made sure to check the handle of the boy's broom. Good, he hadn't snuck his Firebolt in or anything, it was just a normal old Shooting Star like the one she herself was riding.

Kendra ,with her gaze locked on her two housemates, patiently awaited for their race. Just when she thought everything was set, she heard the girl's suggestion to Kyden. It took her a few seconds to realise what she meant. She narrowed her eyes at the girl trying to figure out what she really had in mind. Was it a trap? Was she trying to make her look foolish, or maybe embarass Kyden? She decided to play along and crossed her arms with a small shrug tilting her head to the right. 

"So be it." she accepted trying not to think too much about it. 

That girl was definitely going to be a mental challenge for her.  It was by far the strongest first encounter she had ever had with anyone so far. It also seemed the feeling was mutual and for Kendra it was a very new sensation, given that before coming to Hogwarts her interactions with others were minimal to none. She glanced at the rest of the class again fearing they would notice them. She saw they were getting a few looks and she bit her lips hoping nobody would try getting any closer to find out what was going on.

Kyden got into position and looked at Quinn. He saw her fiddling with her wand in her pocket. "We must have a fair clean honest race. No hexing or putting spells on the other person. A clean fair race. Otherwise what is the point. Besides that where is the honor in it. And making yourself win what type of race is that anyway." He looked over at her with a serious face. He knew she was a Slytherin and he didn't trust her. He was still grappling with the fact that he was sorted into Slytherin and not Gryffindor like he had assumed he would be. He got into position on his broom and looked around. He could see others looking up wondering what was going on. He took a deep breath and looked at her. He loved a challenge especially like this. It reminded him of the orphanage where someone was also challenging him. He hadn't lost a race to anyone there except the one time one of the older kids put a spell on him and he fell and got hurt but he didn't count that. He waited for her to give the signal to GO. As she said the words he took off across the field already quiet a bit a ways ahead of her. He reached the end of the field and turned around to head back still in the lead.