Kitty McLevy
June 11, 2011 8:13 PM
The cart before the horse by Kitty McLevy
After signing up for Quidditch Kitty realized that she didn’t know much about the game. She’d seen other people listing their positions and she’d been forced to just say any because she didn’t know which was which. Frowning a bit in annoyance at her lack of knowledge Kitty began pacing around the commons room, her large azure eyes flitting over different titles. Finally they alighted upon a small worn book entitled The Quidditch Handbook. Grinning happily she plucked the book off the shelf and half skipped over to the large dark blue rug situated in front of the fireplace.Without hesitation she flopped down onto the rug laying on her stomach, legs up and resting on her elbows she opened the book and began reading. Kitty hummed lightly under her breath as she flipped through the pages. Her small nose wrinkled as she read the description for Seeker. Yeah, they probably are really important players and all but they aren’t even really part of the game. How boring just looking for a little gold ball while everyone else gets to play the real game. She struck that position off her mental list. That left Beater which sounded delightfully fun to the small girl, though it still lacked the team interaction she preferred, Chaser, which she thought would be equally great, and Keeper who was basically the goalie. Being Keeper wouldn’t be as exciting because she would have to wait for the other players to get to her, instead of being able to be free to move about.
So, Beater, or Chaser. Kitty gave another yawn, but stubbornly continued reading. Slowly her head started to droop forward and it took longer and longer for her eyes to open after each blink. A small snore escaped the small girl as sleep took her.
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Kitty McLevy
The cart before the horse
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Kitty McLevy
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Arnold Carey
June 12, 2011 8:12 PM
...I don't think it works that way by Arnold Carey
The common room wasn’t somewhere Arnold spent a lot of his time. Most of the people in Aladren he’d like to see were in his dorm, and the rest were all in the same corridor, so the socialization purpose was of little use to him, and he did most of his homework at a table in the library on Saturdays with Arthur and the rest lying on his bed, which ruled out going down to the common room for that. Sometimes, he got distracted working on essays with just the sounds of Arthur’s quill and the occasional distant sound of footsteps, there was no way he could have ever focused on anything in the common room. Too many people.Sometimes, he felt like he didn’t really belong in Aladren, either. He didn’t expect many people to be like Arthur, Arthur was a little strange, and Edmond’s childhood had been nothing but academics, so it made sense that he was the way he was, but there was a difference between just not being on a level with the other Careys in Aladren and just not being on a level with most other Aladrens in general, and Arnold knew he fell into both categories. He was too impatient, too restless, for real academic achievements to be easy for him. Nor was he a very deep thinker; half the time, he had no idea what his twin – and while they weren’t identical, and so didn’t share a full complement of genes, was definitely a bit more than just a brother; he not only had Jay’s relationships with Henry and Brandon to compare to, but also his own interactions with his own other brother Anthony – was talking about, never mind older people. He wasn’t a moron, but he wasn’t a genius, or even, as far as he was concerned, that far above average. What kind of Aladren was that?
At the same time, though, he couldn’t imagine living in any other House. Pecari was almost okay to contemplate, though he knew that thought was blasphemy and would so never utter it, but he couldn’t quite see himself feeling as at home there as he did here. Though he knew it would be about as stupid to announce it as it would be to tell the family that he thought he could make do with Pecari if Aladren was disbanded for some reason, he viewed the Aladren quarters with an almost proprietary feeling. The confusion caused by the conflicting feelings of belonging and not belonging was another reason why he didn’t spent too much time in the Aladren hub.
Sometimes, though, he did pass through, or stop to speak to someone, or get his attention caught by a really fierce chess game going on in the corner. It was just one of those things, he supposed, just as he thought a girl being asleep on the floor was something strange enough to warrant his interest. There was no reason for someone to do that. He had never been down the girls’ corridor, but couldn’t imagine their beds were that much more uncomfortable compared to the boys’.
He sat down and watched her for a minute, and when she showed no sign of waking, he finally touched her shoulder. “You’re sleeping on the floor,” he pointed out helpfully. “Someone’s going to step on your book soon.” That would upset most Aladrens enough to make them jump up right away, so her response would help him decide if he should seek medical help for her. “I’m Arnold Carey,” he added, since he was guessing, based on her size and unfamiliarity, that she was one of the new first years. “South Carolina Careys.”
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Arnold Carey
...I don't think it works that way
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Arnold Carey
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Kitty
June 12, 2011 10:12 PM
Mmm..true true by Kitty
Kitty’s dreams of flying were interrupted by someone touching her shoulder. Shifting and grumbling under her breath she said in a sleep slurred voice “Go way Zach, M tryin ta sleep.” But it wasn’t her brother’s voice yelling at her that she had to get up or she was going to miss the bus, no it was a stranger’s voice.“Someone’s going to step on your book soon.” At the sound of the unknown voice Kitty pulled herself into a sitting position, ebony curls half in her face as she rubbed at her sleepy blue eyes. A large yawn escaped her as she tried to focus on who was speaking. “I’m Arnold Carely, south Carolina Careys.” He said in introduction. Kitty snagged the Quidditch book off the floor and closed it, a pleased smile touching her lips now that she knew the different positions. Again she turned her attention to the older boy.
For a moment Kitty just blinked at him as she tried to make sense of the last part he added to his name. “Oh, I’m Kitty…well Katrina McLevy, but everyone just calls me Kitty. So are there a lot of Careys around that you have to say where each is from?” she asked sleepily, figuring that must be the reason for designating the state. Maybe there were some Nevada Careys, and Arizona Careys, and California Careys. Though why it would matter which state each came from was important Kitty didn’t know. She gave Arnold a sleepy smile while blinking owlishly at him. Sitting there the tiny girl was simply the perfect picture of cute.
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Kitty
Mmm..true true
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Kitty
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Arnold
June 13, 2011 12:20 PM
You should turn it around, then, so it works properly by Arnold
Cuteness, in picture form or otherwise, wasn’t something Arnold really knew much about. He had been given lessons on basic art history when he was younger because the family prided itself on being the most cultured of the Carey branches, and he knew more or less what the adults would call beautiful and what they would call vulgar because it was a useful life skill when the South Carolina Careys, as they frequently did since the bulk of the branch was composed of the children of two brothers, all came together, but he had only a limited sense of aesthetics himself. Small, dark-haired girls were also what his family ran to, and since the one he knew best was his cousin Theresa and the most infamous, despite being a Healer and maybe not quite five feet tall, was the Georgia matriarch Morgaine, he wasn’t inclined to see that as very endearing, either. His attention was fixed on her apparent unfamiliarity with branches.“There’s five states of us,” he said, looking at her with mild interest. Not magic-born, then. His family might have been the largest to use such a system, there were plenty of people who still wished unfriendly things on the immortal soul of his great-great-great-grandfather for first never bothering to learn to tell his twin sons apart and then neither raising their cousins by his dead older brother as his heirs over any of his sons or firmly putting them in their place so it would never occur to them that they could be, but they definitely weren’t the only one where it really mattered that everyone know which state you were from, so even if, like him, she wasn’t very good at genealogy, she should have heard of the concept before if she came from a magical family. “Virginia, North Carolina – “ though what the point of talking about them now was, Arnold wasn’t sure – “Georgia, South Carolina, and Louisiana. You really don’t want to say someone belongs to a branch they don’t.” Which was one reason even the littles never, ever tried to play guessing games about branches at the Reunion. It wasn’t as bad, Arnold was told, as it had been just ten years ago, but words that mixed up the Louisiana and Virginia Careys were still fighting words with some people, and since their patriarch was biologically Thomas’ grandson, members of those two lines still looked a lot alike.
There were some strong resemblances between the Virginia line and the South Carolina one, too, since many Virginians were the descendants of one of those twin sons of Anthony III and all of the South Carolinians, including Arnold, were the descendants of the other. Great-Great-Grandfather often said that Arnold looked very like Thomas had when he was young, which Arnold didn’t question but did find the phrasing of confusing since Thomas and Great-Great-Grandfather were identical. Virginia and South Carolina were friends again, though, so mistaking Arnold for some random minor cousin of the Virginians was not going to get someone killed these days. Ten years ago, though….
Arnold didn’t really remember all that. He had been little when his great-grandfather died and the other twins (not strictly an accurate description, but that was how he thought of Thomas and Anthony IV) made up. The family’s memory, though, was longer, and even though he wouldn’t be thirteen until February, Arnold had a hint of an idea just how little time ten years was, at least for other people.
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Arnold
You should turn it around, then, so it works properly
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Arnold
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Kitty
June 13, 2011 12:59 PM
Scolds horse and puts it before the cart by Kitty
A small frown flitted across her lips. “Why can’t you all just be Careys? I mean, you’re all the same family right. Wouldn’t adding all that other stuff just make you feel…I dunno different from each other? I think that could lead to a whole lot of problems, because one group might think they’re better than another and then they all just hate each other for no reason. After all, they are all Careys, does it really matter where they live?” She asked curiously. The whole concept didn’t really make sense, after all one set of her grandparents lived in Oklahoma, where as the other lived in Nebraska, but they didn’t go around adding that to their names as if it made any difference where they lived.While she was thinking about the odd Careys situation she began finger brushing her hair to get it out of her face as she waited for his response. The whole thing was terribly interesting and Kitty wondered if it was like the old west where one side of the family got into a blood feud with the other and now both sides even generations later hate each other and don’t want to be considered the same family.
She watched him with wide fascinated blue eyes as she wondered what he was going to say next. It must be an interesting story of how there ended up being five different groups of Careys instead of one big family.
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Kitty
Scolds horse and puts it before the cart
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Kitty
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Arnold
June 13, 2011 2:02 PM
Now for the harness, or whatever it's called by Arnold
Arnold stared at Kitty, able to acknowledge that there was some sense to her logic, but knowing at the same time that it was wrong and shouldn’t be thought of. To imply that the South Carolina Careys were no better than the North Carolinians, or the Georgians – that was a grave, grave insult. He had to remind himself to be patient, that she was ignorant, not trying to give offense. “Yes,” he said flatly when she asked about whether or not it mattered where they lived, his voice not leaving much room for compromise. “It does.”He reminded himself to be patient and take pity again. “The branches began to split almost two hundred years ago,” he explained. “With the North Carolina Careys. Then came the Georgia Careys. Their founders were my great-great-grandfather’s cousins – “ genetically, anyway; North Carolina James was a strange case in family history – “but those branches – “
He remembered that Edmond was technically head of the Georgia branch, though his sister was running it until she got killed or he graduated from college, and glanced around the common room quickly before he finished. The Virginia Careys had raised Edmond since he was six years old, but there was no way to ever tell what he was really thinking about anything behind that bland, pleasant smile, much less what he was thinking about his birth family, and despite what his Quidditch performances could suggest to those who were inclined to think that way, Arnold was not, in fact, suicidal.
“ – Those branches aren’t respectable,” he said primly. “The Georgia matriarch’s own sister is practically disowned, she married – “
He remembered deducing that she was Muggleborn.
“ – without permission from the family or even her guardian, and she has a job. And North Carolina….” He shook his head and frowned at the first year. “Besides, we couldn’t all fit in one state anyway,” he finished, feeling vaguely as though he had just been tricked into saying too much.
He remembered something else.
"Didn't I see your name on the Quidditch list?" he asked, grateful for the excuse to change the topic, albeit to one also not very pleasant for him. Preston hadn't signed up yet, and if they had to have a Muggleborn girl who was barely tall enough to be let into Sonora as their second Beater, he was going to have to do his roommate an injury. Possibly with a Beater's bat, so no one could make any remarks about how Arnold Carey didn't have style. He made a mental note to speak with Preston about that the next time he saw him, and even have a quill on hand to loan him at the time.
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Arnold
Now for the harness, or whatever it's called
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Arnold
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Kitty
June 13, 2011 3:10 PM
Well, now that we’ve got that put to rights by Kitty
Kitty blinked at his rather cold response to why where someone lived was important. Though he seemed to relax again as he spoke further, and Kitty couldn’t help but think it sounded an awful lot like Shakespeare and all that where family name meant way more back then than it does today.She gave him a sad look, feeling bad that his family was still at odds even though what ever went wrong happened two hundred years ago. Kitty’s brothers always said that she could hold a grudge, but this was just plain silly. Then he started talking about why and she thought again of Romeo and Juliet. “You know, times are way different now. Women get to do all sorts of stuff, like pick who they want to marry and have jobs, they could even be the president. It’s not like we live in medieval times any more when women weren’t aloud to do anything. That seems like a silly reason for your family not to get along. After all you only get one, I would hate to loose a family member over something like that just because they wanted to live their own life and be happy. What’s the point in being alive if some grumpy old man makes all your choices for you?”
She didn’t sound practically outraged, as some muggleborn girls might. Just curious, and a tad disappointed that the magic world seemed so behind the times. It was so strange how witches could play sports with the boys, but then they couldn’t choose who they wanted to marry.
And speaking of Quidditch… “Oh yes! I’m so excited, we’re going to be learning to fly tomorrow and then I’m going to try out for the team. That’s why I was out here in the first place, because I wanted to know what the different positions were to see what I wanted to do.” She said as she held up the book for him to see. “I think that being seeker would be really boring because they don’t really get to play with the rest of the team, they just have to do their own thing off by themselves. Keeper would be alright I guess, but it still wouldn’t be as fun as chaser or beater. So are you going to be on the team too? What positions do you play? Is it really fun?” All signs of sleepiness left the tiny girl as she practically bounced questions tumbling out of her nearly faster than she could speak them.
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Kitty
Well, now that we’ve got that put to rights
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Kitty
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Arnold
June 13, 2011 4:00 PM
...We can take a ride to the county fair! by Arnold
Arnold began to suspect that he was being made fun of. She was talking strange, but sounded just curious. Was she doing what Arthur did when he considered Arnold’s argument about something irrational, sort of parodying it?Either way, though, there was what she was saying. Who was she to call his family silly? What did she know about it? It was like it never occurred to her that there could be an element to the story that she was missing, that maybe, he wasn’t going to hand out family secrets to a complete stranger like Christmas candies and that she should perhaps then politely avoid expressing controversial thoughts on the issue, never mind talking to him like he was an idiot who didn’t know what poor people did – though, admittedly, he might not have if his mother hadn’t been born middle class, but –
“Well, it’s not your family,” Arnold said coldly, not liking an outsider talking about the Careys. “And Great-Great-Grandfather is a great man. When he left Virginia, all he had was his wife and son and daughter-in-law, and now we’re the second-largest branch and – “ He took a deep breath, glad she wasn’t a boy. He definitely would have lost his temper right now with a boy, first year or not. “Great-Great-Grandfather takes care of us,” he said. “That’s what leaders do. And you shouldn’t talk about people’s families.” Desperate, he jumped from her name to where he’d seen it before to change the topic.
Luckily, she was happy to babble about Quidditch. “I’m the Seeker,” he said, wondering if it was wrong to be a little amused by just how little of a filter she seemed to have. No thought of maybe insulting someone seemed to cross her mind, whatever was coming out of her mouth. Admittedly, not even the worst he knew for being touchy would be very upset about someone thinking their Quidditch position was boring, but still. “I won our game and the Championship game for us last year – though it helps that my twin brother’s one of the best Chasers in the school, and my cousin’s the best Beater,” he added generously. “And Captain Nash is excellent at what he does as well. And so is everyone else, even our alternate.” A little harder to prove, since David had never played, but he didn’t really care. A note of pride entered his voice. “Aladren has the best Quidditch team at Sonora Academy.”
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Arnold
...We can take a ride to the county fair!
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Arnold
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Kitty
June 13, 2011 6:00 PM
Ohhh Fun! by Kitty
Uh oh. Kitty was quite familiar with that particular tone of voice. And just the sound of it brought to mind another voice. Even as Arnold spoke, telling her how she shouldn’t talk about people’s families, Kitty could hear her mom’s voice over lapping his in her mind. Oh Katrina for the love of…Can you please please attempt to think about what you are saying before you say it. How many times to I have to tell you to keep your opinions to yourself? She could almost see her mother throwing her arms up in total exasperation.And of course, to top it off he was the seeker too. The slightest sound of exasperation escaped her throat before she sat up straighter. Kitty gave him a look that said quite plainly that somehow this was all his fault, but she did what needed to be done. Focusing she put on what she mentally referred to as her ‘proper young lady face’ and said softly “I’m sorry Arnold, I shouldn’t have said that about your family. It was very rude of me.” The words had a feel to them, a sense that even though parts may change here and there this was a sentence that Kitty had said to more than one person in her life. And odds were exceptionally good that she would be required to say them many more times in the future.
“Um, Seeker is probably great and all, and I know they win the games. I just don’t think it’s for me.” She finished rather lamely. Then she relaxed again, apology offered, it would never occur to her that it might not be accepted. Something he’d said while dressing her down caused her unending curiosity to peak again and she said “Wow, you have a Great-Great-Grandfather? I don’t even have any great grandparents. That’s really cool to know someone who’s been around that long. I bet he tells the best stories.” She smiled happily imagining all that someone that old might have seen in their lives.
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Kitty
Ohhh Fun!
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Kitty
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Arnold
June 13, 2011 7:26 PM
*Puts on a big straw hat* by Arnold
Arnold didn’t know why he was being looked at like he was the one who’d done something wrong , but since there was no logical reason for her to look at him like that, the corner of his mind that spoke with a voice somewhere between Arthur’s and his father’s put the equivalent of a warning hand on his shoulder, telling him not to react in no uncertain terms, that he was a bit too emotional and was most likely misconstruing something. This turned out, he thought, to be a good thing when the expression went away a moment later.“Let’s just drop it,” he suggested when she apologized. He didn’t like for people to act as though it were nothing to insult him, his family, or other things he was close to, he didn’t feel he could allow it, but being apologized to was pretty uncomfortable, too.
“That’s good, then,” he said when she said she didn’t want Seeker. Even he could tell the routeness of the line – the ‘not for me’ dismissal – but it wasn’t something he cared about enough to argue over at the moment, at least not with a first year girl. “Because there’s only one.” He knew that it would be good to have a backup Seeker in place, he had taken Bludgers in both games he’d played in last year and had fainted right after he caught the Snitch at the Championship, so it was likely that he was going to be knocked out of a game at some point in his Seeking career, but he was still feeling a bit less reasonable than usual. It didn’t help that he was starting to really think that he’d overreacted.
More of his bad temper was dispelled, though, by the ludicrous image of the Fourth sitting down with them and telling stories. He blinked, confused. “He was born in the 1820s, I think,” he said, trying to remember the Fourth’s last birthday party. “He’s about a hundred and ninety years old – I think he’s actually a hundred and ninety this year, because he’s going back to Virginia to have a party with his twin, and some of the family are taking bets on whether or not he and Great-Great-Grandmother will make it past two hundred.” They were both still in decent health, but after 180, things became odd – or so Arthur told him. “Sometimes he’ll say a bit about this war the Muggles had in the 1860s, he still isn't sure what they thought it was about, or when he was courting Great-Great-Grandmother, he likes to talk about that, and he told me once about the time his twin got thrown off of a flying horse after I woke up after I went through a window on my broom and that’s why Thomas had to walk with a cane forty years before he did, but he’s usually too busy to do things like that. He’s usually giving you directions if he sees you.”
He considered Belinda for a moment. “Great-Great-Grandmother tells more stories, but they’re for girls,” he added. “My cousins seem to like them, though.” Even Terry, which was a surprise to him sometimes, when he forgot that Terry was actually Theresa and not just a boy in a dress.
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Arnold
*Puts on a big straw hat*
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Arnold
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Kitty
June 13, 2011 8:48 PM
*Grins and puts a piece of wheat between lips* by Kitty
Her eyes got almost comically big when he said his Great-Great-Grandpa was 190. “Wow! Really? Is that because of magic? Was it some kind of spell, and now they’ll live forever? I mean the oldest normal person I’ve ever heard of was only like 110. And they were reaaallly old. Not the kind of people who are still giving directions to their families that’s for sure. They’re lucky if they even remember who there families are most days. Are you going to live that long too?”Kitty stretched and crossed her legs in front of her and smiled happily. She leaned back, resting most of her weight on her hands as she thought. Arthur didn’t seem to be mad at her anymore and that pleased the young girl. She knew that sometimes she said things that other people got mad at her about, but she really didn’t mean to be rude. It just seemed to happen, sometimes even when she really tried to be good. Luckily for Kitty most people who ended up spending any amount of time with her usually ended up forgiving the small girl this particular fault. Simply because it was easier to forgive, then to stay angry with her indefinitely.
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Kitty
*Grins and puts a piece of wheat between lips*
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Kitty
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Arnold
June 14, 2011 12:42 AM
*Dons overalls* by Arnold
“How should I know?” Arnold answered, as a catch-all answer to Kitty’s questions. “We don’t have Seers in my branch, and I think Great-Great-Great-Grandfather might have died when he was barely a hundred. I don’t know anything about it. It just is.” He reconsidered. “Except about the immortal part. No one’s immortal. He’s going to die, and so’s Great-Great-Grandmother, and Thomas and Edwin, and all of them. They might just be about two hundred and fifty and really senile when they do it.” Though the Fourth and Great-Great-Grandmother, of them all, looked like the least likely to make it to him, which was really odd since he would have thought Thomas and the Fourth would die at almost the same rate, but…This wasn’t normally something Arnold would have known, but Arthur’s latest obsession was with age, how long people could live, how long they did live, what could make them live more or die sooner. He’d been talking about it ever since the Reunion. It was kinda morbid, but also how Arnold knew that there had been a real fad for pushing the limits of magic, searching for immortality, when the Fourth and the rest had been young. That was actually pretty cool. It wasn’t the kind of thing he admitted, but Arnold liked history, some of it.
He just hoped that his brother wasn’t ever planning to try to make some of it. Arnold just felt that such an endeavor, even with Arthur’s intelligence behind it – or maybe especially with Arthur’s intelligence behind it – would be a disaster just waiting to happen. He didn’t think that it would wait for very long, either, or be a polite, South Carolina Carey-appropriate disaster when it happened, either. It would be the sort of thing that got into the history book, but not remotely the way he thought Artie would have intended it to. He knew Arthur really well, a by-product of having been together since before birth, and somehow, being known as a crazy failure did not strike him as something that his brother would ever want to do.
“But what do you mean, ‘normal,’” he asked, suspicious again as that piece caught up to his brain. He reminded himself that diplomacy was good, that the captain of the Quidditch team was supposed to be Muggleborn, too, that it was the current century. “There’s Muggle normal and then there’s our normal. They’re not the only normal. Unless you think everyone here is abnormal?”
He was working under the assumption that anyone smart enough to get into Aladren was not going to answer that question in the affirmative. He really hoped it was a good assumption.
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Arnold
*Dons overalls*
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Arnold
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Kitty
June 14, 2011 9:52 AM
*Laughs and hops into the cart* by Kitty
“But what do you mean, ‘normal’, there’s Muggle normal and then there’s our normal. They’re not the only normal. Unless you think everyone here is abnormal?” He asked. Kitty tilted her head a bit and stared at him for a long moment.“Of coarse we’re not normal. Normal is boring, it’s cars, and walking the dog, and eating cereal, and getting on the bus. No, we’re not normal. We’re magical. And that’s way better than normal.” She said, a smile touching her lips as she thought about it. Even if she’d grown up with magic she would never consider it so mundane as to be just plain normal.
“Normal…normal is like cheerios, yeah they sound great and all but they’re dull, dull, dull.” Then she gave him another odd look, “Why would you ever want to be considered normal?” she asked.
After learning about magic Kitty had developed her own point of view. There were all the normal boring people, then there were the magic people. To her, they were all magic people and there was no divide between muggleborn and pureblood. Magic was magic and that’s all there was to it. This point of view would most likely extend to other humanoid magical being as well eventually. Kitty would be the kind of person who would see little or no difference at all between herself and a werewolf, just that she had magic and they could turn into wolves. Both were magical, and thus both equal in her mind.
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Kitty
*Laughs and hops into the cart*
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Kitty
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Arnold
June 15, 2011 12:56 PM
Then off we go! by Arnold
Arnold looked at her, now just plain confused. A Muggleborn girl should not be agreeing with his happily racist, sexist grandfather about the natural superiority of wizards. It just wasn’t done.Plus, she was using words he didn’t know. ‘Bus,’ yes, he’d heard of a bus, but ‘car’ and ‘cheerios’ didn’t make sense. Cheerio was a greeting, wasn’t it? Why would you try to eat an affected way of saying ‘hello’? And where was the dull, dull, dull? It was a little dull in its predictability as an alternative for ‘hello’, but he thought actual ‘hello’ still held the status of being standard – normal – all by itself. That or ‘good day’, which was another very popular one.
“Because it means there’s nothing wrong with you,” Arnold said to the part that was a question. And it’s the best you can ever hope for when Arthur’s your twin and Anthony is the heir and you’re just spare parts….No! Arnold shook that aside. He wasn’t just that. He was Arnold Augustus Carey, eldest son of Anthony Carey VII, favored grandson of Anthony Carey VI, and, if he did say so himself, a pretty good Seeker. He wasn’t a genius or the family heir, but he was something. “It beats the alternative.”
This girl was something, too. Something new and peculiar. He didn’t know if he liked that; right now, he was leaning toward not liking it. “I don't think you ever have to worry about it, though,” he informed her.
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Arnold
Then off we go!
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Arnold
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Kitty
June 15, 2011 2:11 PM
Gitty up…or perhaps mush…something like that by Kitty
Now the older boy was looking rather confused and Kitty was beginning to think that perhaps English wasn’t his first language. For all that he didn’t seem to have an accent it just felt like they weren’t quite on the same wavelength.It wasn’t so much that she thought she was better than normal people…well no. That was a lie. Being the youngest and the only girl had left Kitty more than a little spoiled. She was very sure about how special she was, and finding out that she was a Witch simply confirmed and strengthened this belief.
“Well of coarse there’s nothing wrong with you, though I think being just plain normal even among the not magical people is wrong in my opinion. People shouldn’t just settle for being average in life.” She said with a firm nod. People who simply got by with out even trying to stand out made her crazy. It was just such a waste to be satisfied with being boring.
She frowned a little at his last words. It almost sounded like an insult but she wasn’t sure. But then Kitty smiled, even if he’d meant for it to be an insult it was still the truth. Normal was a sickness that would never inflict Kitty.
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Kitty
Gitty up…or perhaps mush…something like that
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Kitty
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Arnold
June 18, 2011 1:47 PM
I think 'mush' is for sleds or sleighs by Arnold
A wave of relief wiped away the confusion in Arnold’s expression, and he sat back in his chair and nodded. “Oh, you mean self-improvement,” he said, still nodding. “Yes, that’s very important. Everyone should try to – to become their best.” He shifted a little, slightly uncomfortable with the wording, which didn’t feel natural in his mouth. Edmond and Jane both talked a lot about being their best, but it wasn’t something Arnold talked about, partially because the way they said it seemed odd to him and mostly because his best was never quite good enough.Or so Grandfather said, anyway, and Arnold saw no reason to think that the situation was anything other than Grandfather just being honest where the rest of the family was not. Maybe Mother loved him best, sometimes he thought she did, but she wasn’t really a Carey, not the way the rest of them were. He had heard her criticize the Fourth out loud before, and say that she found all the ceremony and formality of the family about itself to be ridiculous. Arnold couldn’t even think too much about saying things like that. It wasn’t right.
He decided, though, to make good his escape while he could still do so on a reasonably good note here. Lacking, in some respects, a common language, it was inevitable that they would end up clashing heads again at some point, and his parents had definite opinions about getting into arguments at school. Plus, it was awkward talking to someone who was sitting on the floor while he was in a chair, but all the confusion and impropriety involved in what this girl talked about had brought to mind the fact, which he normally would have forgotten about until it was too late, that it wasn’t proper to sit on the floor and he’d never hear the end of it if he did so in school.
“If you’re well, then,” he said, standing, “I’m expected upstairs. My brother wants to review our Transfiguration notes from last year before we begin classes again. Good day to you.”
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Arnold
I think 'mush' is for sleds or sleighs
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Arnold
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Kitty
June 19, 2011 12:21 PM
Well, either way, Go forward! by Kitty
As Arnold stood, Kitty did so as well. She stretched her arms over her head, lacing her fingers and arching her back. Sleeping on the floor wasn’t the most comfortable thing ever, and she ached a bit from doing so. That, and she hadn’t even made it up to the dorm room yet. What if all the beds are taken and I have to sleep on the floor every night? A small giggle escaped her at the thought, imagining creating a huge nest of blankets in the corner and sleeping there.“Thanks for talking to me Arnold. I think that you’re extraordinary. You know way more stuff than I do and I can’t wait to learn everything.” She offered him a sleepy smile. Though their conversation had a few rough patches Kitty felt that it was one of her better ones. This place was awesome, so far she hadn’t gotten into too much trouble for her curiosity and people were willing to answer her questions instead of telling her to get lost.
“Maybe we can chat again some times and you can tell me about what it was like to live with magic all the time. Daniel told me a lot but I think he’s like me and didn’t grow up with magic or anything, and I still think its amazing some people’s whole families are magic.” She bounced a little on the balls of her feet, large blue eyes filling with even more questions.
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Kitty
Well, either way, Go forward!
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Kitty
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Arnold
June 22, 2011 12:23 AM
Good plan by Arnold
Arnold flushed, embarrassed, when Kitty declared him extraordinary. People didn’t talk that way, did they? And if they did…Well, he didn’t know what if they did, but he was pretty sure they didn’t, so it was irrelevant. It was even more irrelevant because of the subject matter.“It’s just as strange to think that some people’s families aren’t,” he replied. Really, how did they live? He had never thought about that question before, of how on earth anyone could get by without any magic at all, of all the things that would be hard if not impossible to do, but clearly they did. There were lots and lots of them, enough that wizards had been driven into hiding once, and while they now, Grandfather said, maintained their separateness because they were simply too good to mix with Muggles, that didn’t change the stories of the horrible things Muggles had done in the past.
“But of course,” he added quickly. “I suppose we’ll see a lot of each other…Quidditch practices, and first and second years have most of the classes together.” He banished a mental image of her following him around for the rest of the year, constantly asking unintentionally insulting questions, getting into trouble, getting him in trouble if the wrong people thought about it just so….Thank Merlin for Fae. At least he could stick with her in Care of Magical Creatures. He really didn’t know, though, how he found himself in these situations. Arthur had gently suggested that he took the etiquette tutor’s thoughts on chivalry a little too seriously, but that was just Arthur being that strange, intellectual kind of improper that only Arthur could pull off. That stuff was supposed to be taken seriously. “Good night for now, though.”
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Arnold
Good plan
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Arnold
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Kitty
June 22, 2011 1:13 PM
But of coarse it is by Kitty
“Goodnight Arnold thanks again for answering my questions. Everything here is just so new, but I’m sure I’ll figure it all out.” She gave him one last brilliant smile, her face plainly showing her joy at the whole situation. Kitty was the type of person that no one would ever have to wonder how she felt at any given time. It was always written boldly across her features for anyone to read.Humming softly Kitty replaced the Quidditch book on the shelf she’d taken it from before bouncing up the stairs, her ebony curls swishing behind her. Even now, tired as she was she still moved energetically, as if moments before she hadn’t been sleeping on the floor.
Though when she got up to the dorms she quieted her steps and stopped humming. It was quite late, and she’d already found out at the feast that the small silver watch on her wrist had stopped working. This annoyed the tiny girl because she needed to know the time, or she’d lose track of it. But, even she could tell that it was quite late and she didn’t want to wake up any of her room mates. Slowly and carefully she snuck into the room and after a few light touches, and one girl almost waking up when she bumped into a bed, she found one that was free. With a small sleepy sigh she practically fell into it, not bothering to try and find her pajamas in the dark and risk waking the other girls, Kitty fell back to sleep.
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Kitty
But of coarse it is
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Kitty
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