Gloria walked into an ice cave to try and clear her head from what had happened that day. Chrysta was beginning to turn her life upside down. She made Gloria miss Katniss' piano recital that day, but that was nothing compared to what she had done to Mumble. Chrysta used to be a shy, bespectacled misfit, but now she was a perfectly voiced angel with beautiful blue eyes and a perfectly curved body. She must have stolen Mumble's heart Gloria thought to herself. Then suddenly a voice said "Gloria?" causing her to turn around, only to receive a hard punch to the face, sending her crashing to the floor, temporarily stunning Gloria. When her eyesight cleared, she saw her attacker, who sported an angry expression on her face. "Katniss?"
"Oh, good" Katniss responded sarcastically. "You can remember my name but you can't remember my recital, can you?"
"What was that for?" Gloria asked as she picked herself up, still squinting slightly from the impact of the blow.
"I told you two weeks ago. TWO WEEKS AGO that you were invited to my piano recital that was at 3pm today, and you promised that you would be there. But then, two weeks after that, I went to my recital and started playing. I looked in the crowd, and you weren't there. WHY WEREN'T YOU THERE, GLORIA? WHY?"
"I told you that I had to be somewhere."
"Oh yeah, I heard. Big rumble in alleyway. I heard you were thrown a hundred yards away by CHRYSTA WOLFSWORTH! As in, Arch-nemesis-who-is-better-than-you-at-everything-Chrysta Wolfsworth!"
"She is not better than me, okay! I'm never going to let that happen! EVER!"
"Well then if she's not better than you, then she wouldn't be worth missing your best friend's recital in order to try and kill then, would she?"
"What was so important about that recital anyway? You don't even like piano."
"YES I DO. I'VE TOLD YOU OVER A HUNDRED TIMES THAT I LIKE PIANO. YOU JUST DON'T LISTEN! YOU NEVER LISTEN! IN FACT, IT DOESN'T EVEN LOOK LIKE YOU'RE LISTENING RIGHT NOW!"
"I do listen" Gloria protested. "I know everything about you!"
"What's my favourite colour?"
After a brief pause, Gloria quickly said "Pass".
"What is my Mom's name?"
"Pass".
"What time do I go to bed?"
"Pass".
"What's my name?"
"Pa...oh, um, Kathy?"
"KATNISS!"
"Katniss, I said that! I said that! But, you probably don't know anything about me!"
"Your name is Gloria. Your mom's name is Michelle. Your favourite colour is bright crimson. You go to bed at 9:30 pm every night except on Friday when you go to bed at 11:50 pm, because, apparently Friday night is your me time!"
"What, it is!"
"And I also know that you are an arrogant, stubborn, self-absorbed, lying, manipulative, irresponsible, stuck-up brat who cares more about her extreme jealousy of an Arctic Fox than her relationship with her best friend!"
"Can you say that slower please. I still can't think straight after you slapped me silly back there".
"Well, maybe this can put some sense back into that thick skull of yours" Katniss said, before doing a perfect 360' backflip, kicking Gloria hard in the beak and sending her flying 6ft away. As Katniss flattened the ruffled feathers on her head back into place, she said to Gloria "oh, yeah, I also take gymnast classes, as I've told you before, not that you were listening."
Gloria stepped up off of the floor and said to Katniss "okay, that was two hits from you, and now it's my turn!" before lashing her fist at Katniss, knocking her slightly off balance, just catching her on the beak. Katniss looked at the small trickle of blood on the back of her flipper and said "Gloria, trust me, you don't want to do this."
"Just try me!" Gloria snapped before striking again, only for Katniss to block her attack and slam Gloria face-first into the snow. Gloria got up and said "let me guess. You also take Karate lessons".
"No, but if you weren't too self-absorbed to notice, I got into a lot of fights at Elementary School!"
The two former friends continued to fight for about twenty minutes, with most of Gloria's attacks being either slaps or punches with the minority of them actually hitting Katniss, who ended up throwing Gloria into the snow more often than not. By the time twenty minutes came by, Gloria was left with a black eye, a nose bleed, and a bite mark on her right flipper that bled vigorously. She was lucky that Katniss had enough after tackling Gloria to the ground for the umpteenth time, or else she would have got away with much worse.
That night...
Mumble grabbed a piece of freezing ice and placed it on Gloria's injured flipper, to which she responded with a scream of pain.
"OOWW! THAT HURTS! WATCH IT MUMBLE!"
"Look you wanted me to help, so let me!" was Mumble's answer to this. Gloria just sat there as Mumble tended to her injury, only making the odd hiss of pain every now and then.
"What made you want to attack Katniss today anyway."
"She was being a jerk! What was I supposed to do? I had to fight back!"
"No you didn't! Just because she says something about you doesn't make you invulnerable to pain. I mean, look at your eye!"
"It's collateral damage, Mumble. Besides, I'm pretty sure I was inches away from knocking her out with an uppercut!"
"I doubt that very much! You really think you stood a chance against Katniss. She once broke Seymour's nose! You can't win a fight against someone who takes gymnast lessons!"
"Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-wait! You knew she took gymnast lessons?"
"Of course. Everyone knows. I hear her talk about it every day."
"Oh, right."
"And by the way, can you just stop this petty rivalry with Chrysta. It's pathetic."
"What, she started it!"
"How, by not being a penguin. By not being you. Gloria, you hate Chrysta for the same reason everybody hates me. Because she's different."
"And because she's trying to be better than me!" Gloria quickly interrupted. "Of course, she thinks she's so perfect, with her rich brother, and her blue eyes and curved hips and big boo-
"You really think her life is perfect? Chrysta's brother beats her and insults her every time he sees her. You know, he once gave her a black eye and she said she banged into a door made of solid ice."
"You see, that's my point. If her brother's a psycho, then it probably runs in the family. Mumble, you can't trust Charlotte be-
"Chrysta".
"You can't trust Chrysta because once you turn your back on her, she's going to hurt you."
"Gloria, that's ludicrous. Chrysta's my friend. She cares about me."
"Cares about you? Mumble, she's an Arctic Fox. She can't feel. She can't love. The only reason she hasn't torn your carcass apart is because she needs you to get to me."
"No, that's not true" Mumble said, his breath beginning to slow as his anxiety began to bubble inside of him. He felt as though he was going to explode.
"Do you really think she kissed you out of care? She was just trying to make me jealous. Mumble please. I'm just trying to protect you before it's too late."
"Gloria, please, jus-
"Chrysta is not your friend and she never will be."
"Gloria, I'm warning you" Mumble said quickly, his anxiety beginning to turn into anger that had been mustered from all the insults he had been called, all the shame he put his family through. He wanted Gloria to stop but she just had to carry on.
"She may seem nice on the outside, but trust me, she's pure evil."
"Gloria. Stop" Mumble said through gritted teeth (or whatever penguins do).
"She's a heartless monster."
"THE ONLY HEARTLESS MONSTER HERE IS YOU!" Mumble yelled, his anger limit finally reached.
"HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT BEFORE CALLING CHRYSTA AN INSULT, OR DOING SOMETHING BAD TO HER, YOU EVER THOUGHT ABOUT HOW SHE MIGHT FEEL! OF COURSE YOU DON'T!"
"Mumble calm down".
"YOU CALM DOWN!. YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO TREAT CHRYSTA LIKE A MONSTER. SHE HAS FEELINGS TOO!"
Mumble continued his rant before Gloria resorted to her final idea of how to pacify him. She quickly grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him into a long, passionate kiss, which caused Mumble's eyes to open to their full extent. Mumble had originally thought that she did this to calm him down, that was until he turned around to see the door wide open with Chrysta standing there with some of her books in her hand.
"Wh-a-what-th-the..." she stuttered.
"Chrysta, I can explain" Mumble said.
"How could you!" She screamed, throwing the books to the floor and running out of the room and down the hall, tears flowing from her eyes.
"Gloria, why did you do that".
"Well, if turning you against her wasn't gonna work, I'd just have to turn her against you" was Gloria's response, before Mumble sped out of the room to follow the fox.
"Chrysta, wait!"
Next chapter: Gloria slaps Mumble