Side RP: In the Great Hall

When the pushing and shoving begins, Ava finds herself suddenly in the middle of two of her only real friends trying to knock each other down. She struggles to get off the bench, and falls awkwardly to her hands and knees. As she scrambles up to her feet, she then finds herself tangled in the strap of her book bag and hops and twirls trying to get loose of it. All the while Rafa and Caroline are sniping and shoving at each other until finally Ava yells, "STOP IT! Stop it stop it stop it both of you!"

She’s crying for real now, her fists balled up and her book bag completely entangling her legs. To be completely honest, she looks utterly ridiculous. Not that either girl is likely to notice, given the venom being spewed back and forth.

Despite Rafa's small size, she's fairly lean and athletic — As athletic as a girl of her age can be, at least. She moves an inch or two when Caroline shoves her, but the intensity in her eyes don't falter. She stays still, glaring at Scrivener with a very nasty frown. She's not paying much attention to what Caroline is saying anymore, being simply mad at the fact that she's still talking back at her.

"You don't know me." Her tone is charged with emotion, an odd mix between angriness and calmness, similar to a brewing storm. She takes one decisive step forward toward Caroline, tries to catch her by the collar, and...

Her clouded stare and mad expression soften at Ava's sudden yell. Contrary to the two girls, she's not teary-eyed but is breathing deeply, in and out. It's only then that she notices how angry she had actually gotten. Assuming that she managed to catch Caroline by the collar, she gives her a final, light shove, barely pushing Scrivener a foot away from her. A barely audible sigh escapes through her mouth and she softly narrows her eyes at the floor.

That is just for a moment. She shakes her head and raises her stare, but this time to Ava. "Why are you crying, you dweeb? You're getting way too worked up for someone like her." There's a certain something in Rafa's voice. Jealousy, worry, it's hard to describe.

She brings her glare to Scrivener once more. "But alright, I'll stop." A small, triumphant smile starts to form in the blonde's face. "Because I'm cool as beans, I'm going to give you a second chance, Scrivener, which is something I don't usually do. So apologize for throwing a fit already, alright?"

What is bloody wrong with you?

Seeing how cool Rafa is staying is making Caroline even more upset. She barely pays any attention to Bex and Ava, although she fels a bit bad for poor Ava who apparently got upset enough by this situation that she not only fell but also got tangled up in her bag while trying to get between them.
Caroline's brain is working full power. There has to be something she can say that will hurt Rafa. At this point, she doesn't care about being right anymore. Rafa was so mean to her. She just wants to pay her back.
She remembers what she said right before Rafa started shoving her. It had been about her stepmom, so maybe that was a sore spot?
Caroline takes a step back, wipes the tears from her eyes and glares at Rafa with anger in her eyes.
"I don't need a second chance from you, Souza!" It annoyed Caroline how Rafa always used everyone's last name, so she decided to copy that. "All your so-called friends will soon get bored of you when they see how lame you are. But at least you'll always have your stepmom here to cry to! You baby!"
Caroline focuses on Rafa's reaction, trying to see if she managed to hit the same sore spot again. She was running out of ideas for what to say so she was hoping she would get through to the blonde girl soon.

Oi! Sticks his broom between the girls as he helps AVA up. You need to cool off. And fast.

Ava stomps her foot, made a little less effective by being tangled in her book bag. "BOTHER!" she yells, and reaches down to yank the bag off her feet.

She gets right up in Rafa's face, looming a little over the shorter girl, and shakes her finger in Rafa's face. "You! Stop poking and prodding at people just to get a rise out of them! Mean does not equal cool!"

Then, she gets right up in Caroline's face, and shakes her finger at her as well. "And you! Stop acting like someone you're not just because you think it's what someone else wants!"

Then, she rounds on Bex, and starts to shake her finger in his face. "And you..."

She comes to a screeching halt, suddenly deflated and sheepish. "You... didn't do anything wrong. Um. Carry on," she says quietly, blushing fiercely as she realizes what a (relative) outburst she's made. She sits back down.

Bex runs a hand through his hair, rather impressed at Ava's outburst. He gives a small smile. 's alright Ava, no harm done.
He narrows his eyes at the other two.
I agree with Ava though. You two need to stop pushing everyone's buttons. he pauses. Odd expression that...picked it up from a Muggle book I read...what do you think it means?

"Oh, mimicking me now?" Rafa smile breaks once more into an angry expression as she curls her fists. "Oh, you know wha-" She's about to close in their distance when, to her surprise, Ava suddenly yells. That makes Rafa startle and she simply stares at her friend dumbfounded as the tall girl gets really close. "H-Hey, Richardson, c'mon..." She says, or squeaks, or whispers, but she doesn't stop at Rafa and berates Scrivener as well.

She does roll her eyes at Bexley's comment. "Bex, nobody cares." It doesn't come off as taunting as much as it sounds playfully endearing. Her helpless glare does soften at Ava, and Rafa offers her a half-smile. "You scream really hard, Richardson. You're gonna be a great Prefect someday." She bits her lower lip, and she finally stares at Scrivener. She holds her gaze for a second or two, still challengingly, but then simply sighs and shrugs off. "Whatever. I'm not sure what bit you, or if you being nicer on the train was like a day off for you, but I don't care about you anymore." Rafa turns around, grabs her book off the table and starts walking away with resolution. "And next time you mention Professor Murdock, Scrivener, there will be consequences. I'm done forgiving a wimp like you."

"Don't threaten me with consequences! Even if you pretend you're so cool and special, you're still just a child!"
Caroline grabs her book from the table, accidentally knocking over the box of beans and spilling the few remaining ones all over the place she had been sitting with Ava. Caroline doesn't bother to clean them up and just starts walking off, satisfied with the way this conversation ended. She somehow managed to look kind of tough until the end, even when facing off against Rafa. Now she just had to get out of here before she said something stupid.
As she leaves, Caroline turns back one more time and says: "Come, Bex, Ava. Let's go somewhere else where she won't bother us!"
As soon as the words are out of her mouth, she curses herself internally. Why did she do that? If they decide not to come with her now, it'll be really embarrassing.

Bex nods, worried for both of them, but especially for Caroline. So many emotions on this girl!
Alright. Just....it's pouring outside

Ava continues to stay seated, looking from the departing Rafa to Caroline. She seems deflated and small, shoulders slumped. Finally, she says in a small voice, "Is this what you really want, Caroline? I mean, she can be irritating and exasperating and a whole bunch of other -ings too, but..."

She looks over to the Ravenclaw table where her other roommates are sitting, laughing, chatting easily with one another. "Right now... I don't have very many friends." She turns back to Bex and Caroline. "I hate to lose any of you. I mean, I get it... but please don't ask me to choose?" She winces in anticipation of how her request is going to be taken. "Please?" she says in an even tinier voice.

When Caroline sees that neither Bex nor Ava are really following her, she glances at the door that Rafa left through and once she's out of sight, she returns to the place where the other two are.
She sits down on the bench where she and Ava had been eating sweets together, picks up one of the beans that are lying loose on the table and puts it into her mouth. "She is a bad friend, though. She started insulting me even before I became a Hufflepuff." Caroline realizes she might be exaggerating this. Rafa called her a wimp. She probably didn't mean to insult her, just to joke around. Then again, that seems to be the way she deals with everyone. Joking and insulting them and being mean.
"I don't have many friends either." She looks around the room and sees pretty much only strangers. There are some faces she recognizes from her classes or the Hufflepuff common room but with almost none of them has she ever even exchanged a single word. "To be honest, I think you two are my best friends in the whole world. If you still want to be friends with Rafa, I won't stop you but I'm never going to be friends with her again!"

He doesn't understand girls. That's all there is to it. He listens to them talk, and sighs, completely at a loss for words

"Okay," says Ava. "I guess I can understand that. Just... try to remember how much fun we had on the train. And how much of that was because of her.". She smiles sadly as she remembers back herself. She looks over at Bex, including him in the conversation. "You know if it had just been us three and Merlin, we’d have sat there fretting about the lost book the whole trip, not doing a thing about it."

She chuckles quietly. "My heart was in my throat the whole time, but... wasn’t it fun?"

Caroline grumbles. "We could have just done it without Rafa's help." She knows that's probably not true. She herself would have never suggested it without Rafa's energy around. Bex and Ava both also don't seem like the type. Still, she was not going to admit that, especially not after this interaction with Rafa she just had.

Caroline goes silent. Many things go through her head that she wants to say. She wants to be upset that Ava seems to be taking Rafa's side. She wants to tell them that Rafa is mean and just pretends to be nice. She wants to tell them that even if she wanted to, she can't be friends with a Gryffindor.
In the end, all that she says is: "I have to go. My next class is Potions so I have to go all the way to the dungeons."
She gets up and after everyone has said their goodbyes, she leaves the great hall, well aware of all the eyes on her. Her little fight with Rafa gave them even more to gossip about. Just one more reason to avoid her