Welcome back? Hardly. [4th year girls dorm] on Pecari Commons

Meredith Lail

April 08, 2008 5:34 PM

Welcome back? Hardly. [4th year girls dorm] by Meredith Lail

Meredith was tired. It was as simple as that. She was so tired. But she was tired because everything wasn't so simple. Her mind still wasn't fully wrapping around what had happened over the summer. She couldn't make full sense of entering her house and only having three other people greet her rather than five. One gone by choice, a choice she couldn't begin to fathom, the other taken from her for reasons she didn't want to fathom. Rather than go to Cascade Hall for the Opening Feast to greet her friends she had unconsciously alienated herself from nearly all summer, she went straight to her room to occupy herself with something else where she could be alone for a while longer. It was an odd feeling she had become accustomed to. Not exactly pleasant, but there was a comfort there somewhere in not having to speak when she didn't want to and she didn't want to. A rarity.

Meredith placed the green pouch that held her wand on the side table beside Pence and Dot's cage. It was a new wand since she had broken her old one. She never mentioned to anyone that she broke it purposely. She couldn't use the same wand that that maniac used to...

After putting her wand down, Mere opened her suitcase to begin unpacking. She did a lot more blank staring off into space or at the large ring on her hand than the actual sorting of clothes. It also went slower with the greater effort of using her left arm that was twisted noticeably enough and tired out quickly. The same went for her left leg. Now that she thought about it, she wouldn't be able to try out for Quidditch again. She couldn't play with a busted arm and leg. Especially since it was her dominant side. She hadn't played almost all summer and she didn't know if she would ever be able to play again. The healer didn't think so. Something else she loved indescribably that those people took from her. No. They couldn't even be described as people. They were monsters.

Mere sighed. Where once it was rare for a negative thought to cross her mind, now it was all she could think of. She dropped the shirt she had been about to put away and hobbled back to her bed. She fell back and stared at the ceiling of her empty dorm room through clouded blue eyes. She was supposed to be excited about moving into a new room, about being one year older, about planning for the booth she and her friends would put together for the fair, about just seeing her friends again, but she couldn't make herself feel what she ought to.

Meredith began fidgeting with the thick ring on her middle finger. A yellow gem was set in the stone. Her father said it was Faye's class ring from when she went to school and that the numbers and initials were the year of her graduation and the name of the school. Mere kept it with her since she took it from her mother's memory chest. She could bet Faye never thought this would happen as she celebrated graduating and moving on in life. While she toyed with the ring, she lost hold of any sense of time and her eyes drifted shut. She fell asleep there on her back above her covers and in the clothes she had arrived in. She wished she hadn't fallen asleep because all she ever had anymore were nightmares

0 Meredith Lail Welcome back? Hardly. [4th year girls dorm] 0 Meredith Lail 1 5

Elly Eriksson

April 10, 2008 2:56 PM

I'm beginning to think this room is cursed by Elly Eriksson

Having left Irene to find and fawn over Brett, Elly headed up to the fourth year girls’ room. Fourth year already – on one hand the time had flown by, but on the other, Elly felt as though she had been at Sonora forever, it was so much a part of her life.

Pushing open the door, Elly almost jumped in surprise at seeing someone else already there – Meredith was asleep on her bed. Elly realised that she had not seen her friend at the feast, and that in itself was unusual. Immediately concerned, Elly bypassed her own bed and sat on the edge of Meredith’s instead, brushing her long braid over her shoulder and out of the way. Knowing she would be forgiven for waking her friend, Elly gently placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Merry?” she asked, rousing her friend. “Merry, is everything okay? You okay?”

She knew she was bordering on talking nonsense, but Elly had never known what to say to comfort someone (despite the unnerving fact that she was getting rather practised at it). She hoped Meredith was okay – neither she nor Echo had heard from her since their visit to Nashville, and skipping the feast was very un-Meredith-like behaviour.

0 Elly Eriksson I'm beginning to think this room is cursed 92 Elly Eriksson 0 5

Meredith

April 14, 2008 6:40 PM

We should hang up good luck charms by Meredith

There was a familiar door. A familiar man. A familiar wand. A familiar crash. The show continued in piecey succession like a flip book. It would've been boring by the Merlin-only-knew-what-number time Mere had seen the same dream each night if each night wasn't as terrifying as the first time she dreamed it or when it actually happened. The circles beneath her eyes could attribute to the countless times she had woken up during the night and couldn't get back to sleep. The wand was pressed against her frozen arm once again. She tried with all of her strength to move it, but it wouldn't budge. Not in her dream it wouldn't, just like it hadn't when it really happened. She knew what would come next and she couldn't stop it.

But back in the fourth year girls' dorm room, Meredith's arm did jolt on instinct to remove whatever was touching her. It wasn't pointy and cold like a wand. It was warm like - she slowly opened her eyes and saw someone beside her. First she blinked hard as if to flinch until she noticed who it was. She sat up, momentarily using both arms to lift her. After her left arm began to quake under her weight, she predominantly used her right one and sat up fully with a yawn. She could handle being tired for the day. At least she hadn't woken up breathing heavily or panicking. She didn't remember at what part of her dream she woke up, but obviously it wasn't the end. She was thankful for that.

"'Morning." She greeted with a tired, lopsided grin. Her dull eyes still drooped slightly. Her brain wasn't quite awake yet so as far as she knew she had fallen asleep all night. And without changing her clothes. Oops. She lazily took in her surroundings and noticed the two girls were alone. "Oh, am I the last one up? Sorry to keep you waiting."

0 Meredith We should hang up good luck charms 0 Meredith 0 5

Elly

April 20, 2008 1:13 PM

Or garlic... no wait, that's vampires. by Elly

As Meredith began to stir, Elly sat back, giving her friend room to push herself up into a seating position. Returning a smile, Elly was relieved to see that Mere at least looked fairly well, if a little tired. Perhaps she’d just been exhausted? If she’d been playing Quidditch all day and staying up all night, like the two of them and Echo had been doing at the start of the summer, then it was no wonder she’d fallen straight to sleep as soon as a bed had presented itself.

But then Meredith’s confusion about the time of day caused Elly’s mile to falter. “No, Merry, it’s not morning,” Elly said gently. “It’s only first day back, remember?” Elly knew that sometimes she’d woken up confused. Perhaps Mere just needed her memory jogging, and they’d laugh about her mistake. Elly hoped so. But then there was the other thing… “You missed the feast,” Elly said, her smile nearly faded now, and far more reserved than her usual manic grin. “You know, food, friends, that sort of thing. Is everything okay?”

Elly hoped that everything was okay. Not only for Mere’s sake, but, somewhat selfishly, for her own. She knew she would have to check on Caedence later – what little she’d heard from her friend over the summer hadn’t been comforting – and honestly Elly wasn’t sure if she could cope with Meredith being ill. But the medic would be able to sort out any illnesses, right? “Wanna go get a Pepper Up or something?”

0 Elly Or garlic... no wait, that's vampires. 0 Elly 0 5

Meredith

April 22, 2008 2:37 PM

Vampire protection couldn't hurt. by Meredith

It was still the first night? Mere was asleep for less time than she thought. Well that was fine. And she already knew she missed the feast. She did that on purpose. The whole not wanting to talk to anyone thing, which she guessed she could put aside for Elly. She just wished the 'are you okay?' question would disappear. No she wasn't okay and no everything wasn't okay, but that was part of not wanting to talk. If she said no, she would have to explain and even after all of this time she couldn't properly form words for why she wasn't okay. So she just kept smiling. It seemed like the default answer for everything now that she could form something of a smile again. Elly could understand that. Her smiles were big and infectious. But she wasn't smiling now. That was weird. Why not?

"Yeah. Everything's fine. I thought I slept longer than I did." She shrugged. "It's just been...a really long summer and I'm happy to be back. Smile." She told her friend and forced a bigger grin on her own face. "I didn't come back to see you so not cheery. Sorry I missed the feast. We can have a catch-up here."

Mere shook her head at the offer for a Pepper-Up Potion. Did she look that bad? She hoped not. Looking not okay was practically the same as saying not okay. She started twisting her mother's ring around her finger. She was still getting used to its presence, but she refused to leave it behind.

"So how was the rest of your summer? Nothing could top that Quidditch game right?" She joked. She didn't know what could actually beat seeing a professional Quidditch match in person. Even if her summer had gone better, she could guess that would still be the highlight of the vacation.

0 Meredith Vampire protection couldn't hurt. 0 Meredith 0 5

Elly

April 25, 2008 5:37 AM

We'll get some of that, too, then by Elly

After an assertion from Meredith that she was fine, Elly dutifully obeyed her instructions to smile. Not that the expression needed much encouraging; aside from it being Elly’s norm, it was fantastic seeing Meredith again after several weeks’ separation. Still, Elly wasn’t entirely convinced that everything was okay here. Mere missing the feast was a big deal, and sleeping through was odd enough. Plus her friend seemed decidedly more twitchy than usual. Elly hoped she was imagining it – the chances were high that she was already worrying about Caede, Irene and even Echo (considering how his summer had been the previous year) so she was reading far into Meredith’s behaviour than was there.

Meredith seemed eager to catch up, anyway, and Elly had no qualms with that. “Definitely the best ever,” she enthused about the game they’d seen. “Never gonna top that and you know it,” she added, winking. “Still, hockey was okay. Not Quidditch, of course, but a fair substitute. And Dad was around a bit more towards the end, so that was nice.”

Actually, now Elly had had time to adjust to the idea, she was really okay with her Mum moving off to live somewhere else. It wasn’t like they’d ever really gotten on that well, anyway, and her Dad would be able to visit her in Austria just as often as he could visit her in London, which was practically all his work allowed him to do, anyway.

“What about you? Play much Quidditch after we left? I got to brush up again – training starts first thing tomorrow,” she grinned. She and Irene had decided not ten minutes ago that Pecari were going to win the Quidditch cup this year.

0 Elly We'll get some of that, too, then 0 Elly 0 5

Mere

April 27, 2008 3:11 PM

We're totally prepared for anything by Mere

Meredith laughed her best when Elly agreed with her about the Qudditch game. It was so much fun being there with her best friends. It would've been even more incredible, if that were possible, with all of her friends if she only had the tickets to bring them all. The rest of Elly's summer sounded like fun. Hockey and seeing her dad more near summer's end. She hoped everything was going well with her mother moving away. It seemed like it was.

"Sounds like fun, especially if hockey is as fun as soccer. Brett's still doing that soccer thing here, right?" Maybe Mere could play a defensive position rather than the usual offensive. Then she could still play something this year.

Meredith's eyes drifted back to her left arm when Elly asked about her. Unfortunately it meant she had to do something she was really bad at because she had little to no experience at it. Lying. Not complete lies, but a degree of stretching the truth she wasn't comfortable with. And she was already put out about not being able to play Quidditch this year. There were many times she considered just trying out again anyway and maybe her arm and leg would get better in time, but she wanted to see Pecari win as much as the next person, the next Pecari anyway, and even if by some miracle she made the team she would only bring it down.

"Well not really. I kinda hurt myself earlier in the summer. A week or so after you and Echo left." She held up her arm a bit to show what she meant. It was bent a little awkwardly, but still noticeably so. The same went for her leg. She put it back down quickly with a shrug and smile to brush it off. It was already clear Elly hadn't heard anything from the newspapers. She was certain it wasn't just in the Notice, but maybe it was just there in America. It was probably for the best that she didn't know. "The healer said I had to take a break from sports until my arm and leg got better." She smiled a little bigger and perked up her voice. "I'll be cheering for you guys for sure, though. You'll make this Pecari's year. In honor of our graduating captains who are gonna work you to the bone to make sure of it."

0 Mere We're totally prepared for anything 0 Mere 0 5

Elly

April 30, 2008 11:56 AM

Like the Scouts by Elly

“Oh no!” Elly was horrified that Meredith had hurt herself so badly. Usually she would have laughed at her for being so clumsy, but being prevented from playing Quidditch all year was no laughing matter. “You must have hurt yourself pretty bad,” she said sympathetically, saving the jokes for when Mere might be up to them. Her arm was still twisted and Elly couldn’t help but grimace as she was shown. As far as Muggle accidents went it was bad enough, but Elly knew enough about magical healing to know that Mere must have really messed herself up to still be suffering so long afterwards. When the bludger had hit Elly’s knee last year it had been healed instantly, and only sore for a week or so afterwards. If Meredith had hurt her arm and the start of the summer, just after she and Echo left, it should have stopped hurting by now.

Meredith’s promise to cheer from the bench didn’t do much to make Elly feel any better about her friend’s injury. “That sucks!” she said, as if Mere didn’t already know that. “But it should heal soon, right? D’you think the medic here can do anything else?” Elly was disheartened – she’d imagined that she, Saul, Caedence, Irene and Meredith would all be going to practises together again, like last year, and that it would be amazing fun. “I mean, you do still want to play, right?” she thought she’d better check in case Mere wasn’t quite so much into playing Quidditch as she had been at the beginning of the summer. Stranger things had happened… like her friend missing the feast…

0 Elly Like the Scouts 0 Elly 0 5