Raine Collindale
August 17, 2017 10:34 AM
Assembling the Famous 5 (tag Tess, Nat, Nevaeh and Scout) by Raine Collindale
Raine stepped off the wagon, pointedly ignoring Kyte. She was dressed in harem pants printed with a red elephant pattern, and a black crop top, the beaded fringe of which just about covered her stomach. She fiddled with the beads whilst she waited. She lingered on the paths instead of heading to Teppenpaw. As almost all her friends were in different houses, it made sense to meet up there so that they could hang out before the feast. Once the five of them (she counted Scout, her friend's guide dog, because she liked him as an independent being in his own right) were assembled, she picked the opposite direction to the way the first years were headed, and ambled off into the gardens until she found a suitable clearing. It had a nice, softly splashing fountain and enough space to sit on or around it. Raine opted for the floor, leaning her head against the leg of one of the girls who'd chosen to perch on the fountain side instead.Raine was normally fairly quiet and self-contained, and so perhaps her melancholy wasn't easily apparent to anyone who didn't know her well. Her friends did though, and the main clue they might have picked up on was that, whilst she had expressed her happiness to see them, it hadn't quite carried the same enthusiasm as usual. It was also obvious now, in the way that she leant on her friend. She seemed somehow deflated or lacking her usual, albeit subtle, spark.
"I wish summer wasn't over," she sighed. "It was the best." Raine wasn't much of a letter writer, and so her friends tended to get limited news from her. She did make efforts to keep in touch though, by sending postcards from the places they stopped to perform in, with brief scribbled remarks. This year, the phrase 'sumer boyfrend' has appeared at some stage to all of them.
13
Raine Collindale
Assembling the Famous 5 (tag Tess, Nat, Nevaeh and Scout)
327
Raine Collindale
1
5
Tess Whittaker
August 20, 2017 8:02 AM
Assembled and ready for duty! by Tess Whittaker
Truth be told, Tess wasn’t so sad that summer was over. She did miss her family whilst at Sonora, but after four years (was she really a fifth year now?!) she was kind of used to that. Plus all her best friends were at school, and her boyfriend (she never got tired of being able to refer to Ben as such) was always there, both at school and at home. She did wonder if he ever got tired of her always being nearby, but it wasn’t like they spent absolutely every minute of every day together. Anyway, he wouldn’t have agreed to date her if he didn’t like being around her, so she was pretty sure she had no cause for worry on that front.Raine, however, was giving Tess cause for worry. Sure, the other girl was often quiet, but after being friends for so long, Tess was able to tell that this wasn’t usual Raine levels of quietness. Add the vague news about Raine’s boyfriend to her comment about summer being the best, and Tess could make a guess at what was wrong.
From her position on the fountain, above Raine’s eyelevel, Tess made a worried face at one of the other girls, before starting to play with Raine’s hair. “I don’t know, this term might be pretty good too,” she said encouragingly. “We’re fifth years now, after all, and maybe the older boys might start taking more notice of us.”
Not that Tess cared for the older boys, as she had her Ben, but hopefully pointing out the wider pool of possibilities might encourage Raine to cheer up. She had defined the guy as a ‘summer boyfriend’, after all, suggesting they had never planned to be a long-term thing, which meant perhaps she was missing being with someone, rather than the guy in particular. Or so Tess hoped; if she’d got it wrong, her comment wouldn’t be cheering at all. Tess had more experience in happy endings than pining, and she wasn’t sure what else to say. How were you supposed to cheer up someone when you didn’t know much of the details?
“Do you want to tell us about your summer?” she asked, hoping to get Raine talking and more enthusiastic, as well as trying to find out what kind of sadness they were actually dealing with.
9
Tess Whittaker
Assembled and ready for duty!
338
Tess Whittaker
0
5
Raine
August 26, 2017 12:02 AM
Outlining the issues by Raine
"Mm, maybe," she agreed without much conviction to Tess' suggestion of fifth year fun. The main thing it meant to her was CATS exams, which she wasn't even sure she could pass. Still, she didn't even have enough brain space to be miserable about those right now. She thought Tess was optimistic if she thought the upper years had dating potential, as they were mostly That Type of Pureblood and thus not interested in someone like Raine. She didn't mention this though, as she knew Tess was only trying to make her feel better. She also didn't want the conversation to venture into the territory of the boys in their own year instead. She had the opposite problem there... She definitely did not want Ben to be checking her out, but apparently he had been, which she felt horribly guilty about given that he was dating Tess."It was great," she smiled, at Tess' invitation to tell them more. "His name's Dallas - I have a picture," she added, brightening as she got to talk about him. "He's got kind of a skinny face," she added for Nevaeh's benefit as she pulled the picture out of her pocket and passed it to Tess. It showed Raine and Dallas alternately smiling and pulling goofy faces. In terms of looks, his face was too thin and he was overall a bit too kooky to be everyone's cup of tea, but his face was certainly expressive and his eyes were kind. "And short dark blond dreads, and really nice hazel eyes. He's nineteen and he's my aunt's step son - so not related to me," she emphasised, in case any of them had trouble following that connection and thought something gross. "And he was helping out around the circus this summer. And he noticed me, and he liked me," she explained, these concepts clearly held up like precious treasure. Raine knew she was unusual but often people made her feel like it was for the wrong reasons, rather than the right ones. And with her cloud of wild, mousey hair she was sure she was quite far from the typical idea of beautiful. The fact that someone had thought her special was clearly very special to her.
"Oh, and don't listen to anything Kyte says about him - or Ben, cos he'll only have heard it from Kyte and he's been a jerk about the whole thing. He thinks Dallas is too old for me, or that he was just interested in me for one thing, which isn't true. We did plenty of other things besides that. Like we'd hang out and go record shopping. He has really cool taste in music.
"And we said it was only for summer from the start. It's not like he tricked me or anything. But now I miss him so much," she added, deflating again.
13
Raine
Outlining the issues
327
Raine
0
5