[Second Year Girl's Room] Decorating? on Teppenpaw Commons

Ginger Pierce

May 25, 2015 2:36 PM

[Second Year Girl's Room] Decorating? by Ginger Pierce

Even though it meant getting up a little earlier and not having as much time during the day to say goodbye to all of her relatives before heading out to the transport station, Ginger thought she liked the new schedule. Her stop in California wasn't too far from Arizona, relatively speaking, so it wasn't horribly inconvenient or anything. It was just a bit tighter on time to get all her last minute preparations done than she'd faced last year.

On the side of things she did like about the change, the foremost one was that she wouldn't have to eat a huge dinner so soon after getting off the bumpy wagon, giving her stomach a chance to recover from the bouncy trip. She didn't get terribly wagon-sick or anything, and she'd had no trouble digesting the many different selections she'd tried out last year, but she just thought she'd be able to enjoy the food more with a bit extra time to settle down first.

The other thing she thought was nice about the earlier arrival time was that she and her roommates could get their room set up and how they liked it first thing. Last year, there just hadn't been time that first night, what with the sorting, the feast, and then exhaustion and bedtime. Decorating had needed to wait until after classes the next day. Well, she supposed, the first years would still run into that problem, what with them attending orientation and not knowing what room they would be moving into until they got Sorted later on. But for the second year Teppenpaw girls, they could spend their free time until the Opening Feast crafting their decorations right away.

So after getting off her wagon, Ginger got the password from Mr. Xavier and headed up to their shared dorm, already wondering what they were going to do this year to make their room special and homey. Her luggage, as promised, was already waiting for her when she arrived, and once she put her stuffed rabbit on her bed where Floppy belonged, she wasted no time it getting out her crafting supplies.

"What theme do we want to go with this year for the room?" she asked once both Lauren and Jemima had arrived as well and the usual polite greetings had been exchanged. "I was thinking maybe some kind of magical creatures? Do you both like unicorns and flying horses? Maybe some dragons?" she added, with a glance toward Lauren, as she understood dragons were very popular in Asia and she didn't want to exclude an important cultural creature for her roommate. Anyway, the whole idea was just a suggestion, something she thought might be fun and challenging to craft, and she wouldn't mind at all if they had other ideas to either replace or add to hers.

1 Ginger Pierce [Second Year Girl's Room] Decorating? 302 Ginger Pierce 1 5

Jemima Wolseithcrafte

May 28, 2015 10:24 AM

Introducing Montezuma and random assumptions by Jemima Wolseithcrafte

Jemima was excited to be back, having had a very positive first year at school. She had been pleasantly surprised to find that her classes weren’t impossible - in fact, she had had very respectable grades to take home. More importantly though, she had made great friends. Her two room-mates were super nice and she loved hanging out with them, and she also had Owen, whom she had a bunch of stuff in common with and who was the sort of friend that would make mother proud of her. There were still a lot of people in her year she didn’t know very well but she was looking forward to changing that at the next available opportunity.

They were back to school early this year, so that the first years could have an orientation, which was sort of nice but which she wished she’d known about sooner, so that she could have answered Ingrid’s million and one questions over the summer with ‘you’ll find out at orientation.’ Of course, really, that only meant a few hours ahead of the standard ‘you’ll find out when you get there’ would have done, and that had never really been something that pacified Ingrid, whom - as soon as idea had occurred to her - had to act on it. There was not a lot of debate in the family about which house the youngest of them was likely to end up in, and in fact it had been one thing Ingrid hadn’t even asked.

Although she would never admit it, she was quite glad that Sonora forced her hand, both in terms of scheduling and house arrangements, into leaving her sister with Mr. Xavier. Jemima loved Ingrid very much, and being only a year apart they had spent a lot of time together growing up. However, since starting Sonora and making friends of her own, Jemima had started to realise how little she and Ingrid had in common. It was something she had always known on some level but she hadn’t had much to compare to before. She still enjoyed her sister’s company but there was a difference between it and the time she got to spend with people whom she’d chosen, and who had chosen her back. She found herself glad of those people and, now that Ingrid was here, she wanted them to be just hers and to not have to share them or give them up to spend time with Ingrid. It made her feel a little guilty thinking that way but she reasoned that Ingrid would make lots of adventure loving friends herself when she inevitably got sorted into Pecari, and would scarcely even need her any more. And, for things she really did need her for, for sister things and homesickness and, when they were older, crying over boys, of course she would still be there for her.

Jemima headed up to the Teppenpaw dormitory, excited to see everyone there again. She glanced around for Owen as she entered but knew she ought to unpack really, so headed up to her room. Her cat, Montezuma, stalked ahead of her. She had picked Monty out the summer before her first year. Unlike most of her classmates, who had probably looked for cute little kittens in petshops, she had found Monty in an animal shelter. He was fully grown, a little rotund and missing a back leg. Jemima had been immediately filled with a sense pity for the ginger tabby - one, which she had found out after adopting him, that he did not want. He refused to be coddled or made an invalid, strutting around the house and glaring should anyone provide assistance that he didn’t need (but equally giving looks that could kill where necessary accommodations were not made because for goodness’ sake, human, can you not see that I only have three legs?!). Jemima had quickly learnt the theory of how he liked to be petted (on his terms) though in practise she still found it hard to resist scooping him up any time she wanted a cuddle or found him particularly adorable (which, in spite of his attitude, was still most of the time).

Monty strode into the second year girls’ dorm, mustering a surprising amount of dignity and gravitas for someone with a lopsided walk and gently swaying belly. He sprung easily onto her trunk, from there climbing to the end of the bed, where he turned his yellow eyes on Ginger, affixing her with his usual expression, which read something along the lines of Go on. Try to patronise me, tiny human. Just try…

Jemima greeted Ginger more politely and enthusiastically, placing her stuffed duck and pile of photos and sketches onto her bed. She also pulled out the orange throw that usually decorated it, but left this piled up at the head in deference to the fact that Monty was busy sitting where it needed to go.

“That sounds fantastic,” she grinned, as Ginger suggested a theme for their room, getting out her own crafting supplies and pondering ideas. *I wish I knew how to do origami. I bet that would look great. Do you know any?” she asked Lauren. She was broadly aware that origami was Japanese and that Lauren and her family were not. If forced to analyse why she thought Lauren might be any more likely to know it than her, she perhaps would have seen that it was silly and maybe a slightly ignorant thing to suggest. But no one had ever forced her to analyse such things, and so - even though she meant nothing but kindness and would have been devastated had she learnt that she had caused offence - such assumptions were not untypical of her interactions with her room-mate. “I’ve got some really pretty papers we could use, and lots of glitters for different coloured unicorns,” she added, as she took stock of her supplies.

13 Jemima Wolseithcrafte Introducing Montezuma and random assumptions 304 Jemima Wolseithcrafte 0 5

Lauren Song

June 07, 2015 9:10 PM

Accepting random assumptions and throwing out ideas by Lauren Song

Lauren felt very lucky to have good roommates. She'd never heard horror stories, but it was nice to know that she liked the girls she shared a room with. Back home she had to share a room with her baby sister and she didn't like sharing her space with a somewhat annoying six-year-old. It was nice to spend time with girls her own age that were also magical. Though she had some friends in California from her elementary school days, it was different. They couldn't understand the magical part of her and she couldn't exactly share it with them. Her first year Lauren had been very hesitant about getting too involved. She liked to scope out the area first before jumping into things, but now she felt more comfortable with her roommates and Sonora. She wanted to make more friends and get out of her shell more.

As she'd watched the welcoming feast, Lauren had wondered which house her siblings would get into. Maia was still too young, but Isaac would be coming next year and he was a lot more outgoing than she was. He'd probably be a Pecari, but Lauren secretly hoped he'd be sorted into Teppenpaw anyway.

As she made her way back to the Teppenpaw commons, she hummed a little, glad to be back. It was always tough leaving her mom alone with the kids, but now that Uncle Derek lived closer to them she hoped her mom would be fine. Still, Lauren felt almost guilty for leaving for school. She planned to write home every night just so her mom knew she could count on her. After all, Lauren was the oldest and had always been the responsible, reliable one.

Lauren loved having Jemima's cat in their room. It made her miss her family dog back home, but having a pet around made things brighter in her opinion. Homier. She greeted her roommates and immediately perked up at the thought of decorating. Having roommates that enjoyed arts and crafts just as much as her was really great.

What was only slightly less great were the questions asked. She liked unicorns more than dragons, but the question about origami threw her off. It reminded her of her Korean heritage and she suddenly felt self-conscious of the jar of origami stars she had brought to make when she was bored. She didn't like being deemed as the token Asian, but she accepted it as normal for non-Korean people to make assumptions because of her physical appearance. It wasn't like she was completely removed from her Korean heritage anyway; her dad lived and worked in Korea. Her mom, however, didn't even call herself a Korean-American anymore and Isaac had picked up on that. Lauren still had some pride in her heritage and she was glad to share what she knew even if she didn't like being called out on it.

"I don't know how to make cranes, but I can make stars," she said, pulling out a jar wrapped in cellophane. When she unwrapped the glass jar, she lifted it to show them the thin paper and the small pile of stars she had folded during the wagon ride. "I just thought it would look nice to have a jar of stars in our room. We could maybe write compliments or encouraging words before we fold them, and then take one to read whenever we have a bad day. It's not much, but my mom came up with the idea.

"Also, I love unicorns," she added, bouncing onto her bed. "Do you think we could draw them out or something? Maybe this year we'll learn animation spells and be able to charm them to move! That would be really cool. We can't paint the walls, can we? I like the magical creature theme."

19 Lauren Song Accepting random assumptions and throwing out ideas 303 Lauren Song 0 5

Ginger Pierce

June 22, 2015 9:36 PM

Sorry for the delay! by Ginger Pierce

Ginger gave Monty a warm smile when she spotted the three legged cat Jemima had brought back for another year at school. Had she interpreted the look he gave her correctly, she might have felt bad for reaching over and giving him a head rub and murmuring, "There you are, little kitty, bet you didn't much like the wagon ride, did you?" But she attributed his glare to his recent travel experiences instead of a deserved wariness concerning her own tendency to patronize him. On the other hand, it may have made no difference at all. She didn't think she was being patronizing.

"Oh, origami would be fun!" she agreed, jumping on that bandwagon when Jemima mentioned it. "I've got one book on it here, and Mom could send me more if we want to do that!" she added after Lauren had admitted it wasn't something she knew a lot about. "Not sure if its got unicorns and pegasuses . . . pegasi . . . flying horses, or not, but it's definitely got cranes anyway. I guess there are magical cranes," she added as something of an afterthought before shaking her head and moving on to Lauren's idea.

"Animation charms would be awesome! Maybe we can look ahead even if we don't get to them this year in Charms, see how hard they are, maybe even get a prefect to charm them for us if they're really hard. And I can't imagine anyone would mind us painting the walls as long as we put them back to how we found them at the end of the year, but I could check with Mr. Xavier, too, just to be sure." As he'd been in charge of putting together the Quidditch team last year, she felt she had a bit more direct contact with the Head of House than maybe the other two had, but he wasn't at all scary and she wouldn't have minded volunteering to talk to him even if she hadn't had that experience.

"So, we're thinking mostly unicorns and winged horses, then," she concluded, summarizing what they'd discussed so far, "with maybe a few other magical creatures thrown in just so we don't completely exclude all the magical creatures who aren't horses. Probably a dragon and a crane or two, maybe a couple owls, possibly a hippogriff? This is a Teppenpaw room, so are there magical Prairie Dogs, do either of you know? Is that enough, do you think, or maybe something else, too?"

1 Ginger Pierce Sorry for the delay! 302 Ginger Pierce 0 5