Ryan O'Malley
June 17, 2011 5:36 PM
Thinking (Room 1) by Ryan O'Malley
While his summer trip to Moscow had been specifically designed to keep Ryan's mind off things with his parents-well, maybe not specifically as Uncle Seth's mind had clearly been on other things-the third year had not been able to keep from thinking about them. Worrying.He knew some things, he knew he wasn't going to be living with his mother anymore at all. Ryan also knew that his father was talking to Sophie's father about getting the soon to be ex-Mrs. O'Malley legally banned from contacting Ryan. He felt kind of bad about it. That it would end like this even if it was better for him not to have to deal with her anymore.
However, it seemed Ryan was still going to have to deal with Carrie, at least part time. She was Jeffrey O'Malley's child too, and he still loved her, so naturally Ryan's father wanted at least partial custody of Ryan's younger sister too. He hadn't seen Carrie, since he'd been in Moscow over the summer, but Ryan knew his sister well enough to know that she was going to blame him for how things were now. That any time it was the two of them and their father,she would do all she could to pick up where their mother had left off and make Ryan miserable.
She and Ryan's mother weren't the only ones who blamed Ryan though. The Crotalus also blamed himself. Maybe if he just hadn't been so defective, his mother would have loved him and his family wouldn't be breaking up now. If Ryan wasn't mentally challenged, if he hadn't been premature and thus a weakling, if he was capable of flying.
Or if he'd never been born. Sometimes, Ryan really wished that he didn't exist. Life would have been better for all of them. Maybe it would even be better if he stayed with his grandparents or Uncle Tim, Aunt Lisa and their kids or even Sophie when not at Sonora. Then his parents could stay together with Carrie and forget all about Ryan. Pretend he'd never been or that he was actually Arabella's brother.
Ryan entered the Water Room. He didn't know why exactly as he was not a strong swimmer. It was just that he'd needed to get out of Crotalus and have a change of scenery. The gardens had been out because of his allergies. Besides, his uncle might be out there and Ryan kind of wanted to be alone. (Plus, he didn't want to walk in on Uncle Seth and Professor Crosby kissing or something.)
The room had apparently set itself to a lake with a dock. There were no boats docked there, just a beach chair. Ryan walked to the chair and sat down, staring at the water. The Crotalus had heard water was soothing and he hoped it would work.
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Ryan O'Malley
Thinking (Room 1)
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Ryan O'Malley
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Sophie Jamison
June 19, 2011 12:15 AM
Sneaking by Sophie Jamison
There were a lot of things Sophie did on whims.She taught herself Quidditch and how to fly. She invited Ryan over to her house the summer before last. She sent a Howler to Pearl O’Malley. The list went on and on.
On a whim now, the blonde third year headed off to the MARS place. Third year! Sophie could hardly believe she was already in round three of schooling. It felt like only yesterday she had first waited at her stop for her wagon to come pick her up for her first year, like only hours before she’d drank that weird thing that turned her skin brown so she knew she was a Pecari.
In all truth, Sophie liked being a Pecari. Spontaneous, instinctive, and daring--some of the traits of Pecari House--fit the blue-eyed girl perfectly. Even some of the unwritten traits fit her: loud, outspoken, and occasionally annoying. She enjoyed being described so well, and it was really not a hard decision for her in her Sorting.
That quality of fitting in made her glad her father hadn’t sent her to Hogwarts. None of those Houses really fit her. Plus, at Hogwarts, she might have been crammed into a room with a zillion roommates. Here, she only had one roommate, Sara. Sara wasn’t her favorite person, but she was tolerable.
The only time she ever wished she wasn’t a Pecari was when she hung out with Ryan. Then she wished she was a Crotalus, so they could hang out in the Common Room for super funtimes. But then she thought about all that drama with Renée and Eliza in the third year Crotalus girls’ dorm, and she liked being Pecari again.
Speaking of Ryan, she happened across him in the Water Room of MARS. He was sitting in a chair, facing away from her. A grin on her face, Sophie decided to have a little fun. Like a ninja, she snuck up behind him until… “Boo!”
Merlin, she loved having Ryan as a friend. With other people, they might have been angry, but Ryan probably wasn’t. He was cool like that. To put any nerves of his at ease, she stepped where she knew he could see her and reassured, “Don’t worry, it’s just me.” Her grin still in place, she added, “How are you? Other than scared by my awesome sneaking skills?”
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Sophie Jamison
Sneaking
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Sophie Jamison
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Ryan
June 21, 2011 4:20 PM
Startled by Ryan
He sat there staring at the water transfixed. Ryan had yet to feel better. He wished he could just vanish off the face of the Earth. It would be better, they would be better off. His parents would stay married and be happy with each other and his sister. Ryan was a mistake that never should have happened.“Boo!”
The Crotalus jumped, his heart pounding. Ryan looked up to see his best friend. He smiled despite himself. He might have felt awful about himself, but Ryan was glad to see his best friend. Sophie made the second year feel wanted and cared about. It amazed him that someone would want to be friends with someone as worthless as Ryan was. Before he'd gone to Sonora his mother had told him that there was no way he'd have any friends and that he'd fail all his classes. That had turned out not to be true.
"Hey Sophie." Ryan greeted the Pecari. Now how to answer her question? It was almost habitual to answer that question by saying he was fine. Usually people answered it that way without even thinking and had it been most people, Ryan would have answered that way too. People generally did not want a real answer to that question. They didn't really want to hear it if someone wasn't and Ryan knew that.
Also, the Crotalus wouldn't want to share his problems. He didn't really want people to know how he was really feeling. They might judge him for feeling so bad or use it against him somehow. And Ryan definitely did not want others knowing how he was treated by his mother and sister. They might think there was a good reason for it and treat him that way too.
But this was Sophie. She knew how bad things were. Her dad was even his dad's lawyer . There was no way Ryan could hide things from his best friend even if he wanted to. "I've...been better. You?"
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Ryan
Startled
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Sophie
July 05, 2011 1:24 PM
Satisfied. by Sophie
A satisfied grin lit up her small face as her best friend startled, and once he saw it was her, he smiled too. That was one of the great things about Ryan; it would take purposeful effort to make him not like her, an effort she would never exhibit. The only effort she ever gave was on the Pitch or occasionally in the class room, if she was in the right mood.Maybe a question as simple as the one she posed was, in a way, also a bit complex. People asked and wanted stupid, superficial answers of “I’m fine” or “Good, you?” However, that was not what Sophie was about. When the blonde asked how someone was, she wanted to know the real truth. If she asked, she was concerned for or cared about the person she was asking. If she didn’t want a real answer, she would never ask.
Ryan’s answer of “I’ve…been better.” was just as the question was, simple yet complicated. The small girl knew things had been tough for him, but at least now, thanks to her father, his mom wouldn’t be bothering him any more. There had been worse times for the third-year boy, but, as he said, there had been better, probably such as the summer at her house. That had been a very happy time, minus the emotional part when she took him to her mother and brother’s graves.
“I’m fabulous,” Sophie answered as the question was turned back to her. “This year has been going swimmingly so far. No problems to report.” Of course there were things that bothered her, weighted her down mentally, but that was nothing new. It was a usual thing to have things in the back of her mind screaming at her for being so positive and bubbly.
It seemed like, because of her loudness, adventurousness, and all around Pecari-ness, Ryan didn’t know why she liked him. That signal came off loud and clear if only because the Crotalus had such low self-esteem. However, in her mind, it was he who had no reason to be her friend, really. Sophie admitted her flaws; she was obnoxious and cared too much, protective to a flaw. She easily became annoying and acted childish, refusing to grow up really. The blue-eyed girl misbehaved when it was convenient. By no means was she the model friend for anyone, especially someone shy and nice like Ryan, but it was how it was, and she was not complaining.
“This lake place is nice,” Sophie said. “I like the sand.” On a whim--nothing new--she kicked off her shoes and wiggled her toes on the ground. She pulled her hair into a ponytail with the tie that had been around her wrist to get the hair off of her neck. “And the water looks nice and cool. Want to go splash around?” The girl was not wearing a swimsuit or anything, but oh well. Clothes dried.
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Sophie
Satisfied.
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Ryan
July 12, 2011 7:18 PM
Swimming? by Ryan
Ryan smiled. He was glad Sophie was happy, even if he really wasn't. He really wanted to be happy, if he was a downer, nobody would want to be around him and Ryan couldn't take that. He desperately wanted to be liked.Of course, he was completely surprised that Sophie did like him. Not only was Ryan a completely inferior person in every way, they were very different. Sophie was outgoing and adventurous. She was boisterous. Ryan...was pretty much the opposite. Very quiet, very cautious, why would someone like Sophie (or for that matter anyone else) want to be friends with him ? Ryan truly didn't understand.
Perhaps he was mentally deficient after all. If he wasn't, he'd understand, right?
"Yeah, me neither." Ryan replied. Which was a good thing, school usually seemed to go well enough for him. He did a decent enough job in most classes but then, he put forth a lot of effort. Enough that his mother had called him a nerd. The one subject that Ryan had truly done poorly in was flying his first year and naturally, he had been berated for that too.
With her, Ryan could do one thing and it wouldn't be right or he could do the exact opposite and it still wouldn't be right. Thank Merlin that she would never be able to bother him again.
And now he was at school where he did well in classes and better yet, nobody other than maybe Coach Pierce and Daisy disliked him. Plus, Ryan had Sophie, who was his best friend. Things were getting better and the Crotalus sincerely hoped that they would continue to, but he didn't hold out much hope. There was still Carrie after all.
"Um, I..." Ryan began, embarassed, "don't really know how to swim." He'd never had the opportunity to really do such. They'd had a pool, but certainly Ryan wasn't allowed to use it, because his mother was afraid he'd contaminate the water if guests wanted to use it at parties.It was there as an extravagant status symbol and nothing more. And naturally, his grandparents did not have one, due to the fact that a pool was, well, an extravagant status symbol and Grandpa Otis was very frugal.
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Ryan
Swimming?
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Sophie
July 19, 2011 11:33 PM
<s>Drowning</s> Kidding! by Sophie
“Um, I don’t really know how to swim.” Sophie was not disheartened by Ryan’s unfavorable response. “That’s okay!” the blonde smiled. “I can’t swim either! It’ll be fun!” Truthfully, she was feeling particularly bubbly, more so than usual, and she just wanted Ryan to enjoy himself.“Actually, you know what? Never mind that idea.” Drowning was bad, unhealthy even. Sophie didn’t want Ryan--or herself--to do it. “Let’s make sand angels instead!” Without waiting for a response, the admittedly fickle thirteen year old plopped herself in the sand and began to make angels, spreading and closing her legs as her arms flapped up and down to move the sand.
The sand gathered in her hair, tinting the blonde to a sandier shade that looked almost natural. A smile felt plastered to her cheeks, and she wasn’t complaining. Sophie loved hanging out with Ryan, even if she was doing (reasonably, to her) mundane things like angel-making. The blue-eyed Pecari even giggled a little, a conflagration of rather random happiness mutilating her common sense. Not that she ever had much of that to begin with.
But anyway. Looking up at Ryan from the ground, Sophia couldn’t help but notice how he had started to grow up. He wasn’t quite the little boy he’d been when they met first year. He was a teenager now, and she was too. Merlin, Sophie had curves in places they hadn’t been before! Or maybe they’d been there, but she hadn’t ever noticed. All she knew was it didn’t look right compared to her height. She’d finally hit the same height as a lot of first years.
Sophie was crushing on boys, but not Ryan. Nothing personal, but Ryan was more like a brother than anything more. She was pretty sure they both liked it that way. “The sand’s really soft,” she grinned up at him before flicking some up towards him. However, the grains missed him and instead landed on her face, causing her to spit and sputter. “I guess I deserved that,” she laughed.
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Sophie
<s>Drowning</s> Kidding!
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