Dustin Newell
October 14, 2016 12:47 AM
Grumble, grumble, grumble. by Dustin Newell
He’d been in the Intermediates level classes for a whole year, but Dustin didn’t seem to remember this much homework in the first few weeks back last time around. His green eyes glanced between subjects sprawled out before him on the coffee table before him. As much as he might have preferred the definitive quiet of his room (assuming Louis knew he needed it), he’d gotten a bit claustrophobic up there and had descended to the Common Room, finding a spot on the couch. And since it was empty when he arrived, he decided it would be his final destination.With a frustrated sigh, he ran a hand through his short brown hair. It was cut much shorter than he’d been allowed as a younger boy. He was getting to be a man now, his father said, and needed a man’s haircut. Dustin couldn’t say he really minded; he definitely felt older without the shag tickling his ears and hiding his forehead. Now if he could get a little less scrawny, he would be well on his course to manhood.
The fourteen year old found it interesting how his father was still concerned about his appearance. What was the point? The Newell family name was flushed down the toilet but Uncle Nelson’s stupid choices. He should have known the family didn’t have the power to withstand that kind of scandal, not yet. They’d only been in notoriety for a handful of generations, not like these Brockerts and Careys and Pierces whose families ran back forever.
He felt his anger at his uncle well up, and combined with his anger at Makenzie for her stupid, inconveniently mopey summer and immediate disregard for societal effort and her smiles upon returning to Sonora, as well as his frustration with a particularly inane Potions question, Dustin found himself engaging in a rare outburst: he threw the textbook across the room. Far after the point of no return, he realized there was someone standing there, and all he could do was hope he missed them. Fortunately, he did, his arm too weak to chuck a textbook too terribly far, and he immediately scrambled over to recover it, much of his rage overshadowed by embarrassment. “I am so sorry,” he said nervously, his ears tinting red. “That was foolish of me. I’m just a bit…” Dustin held up the textbook tentatively. “Frustrated,” he concluded.
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Dustin Newell
Grumble, grumble, grumble.
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Aislinn Nicolls
October 14, 2016 1:51 AM
Care to share some grumbling? by Aislinn Nicolls
Another day had gone by to which he didn’t notice her. Was she doing something wrong? She hated this. She should have been confident enough to be able to talk to him, to tell him that she liked him, but instead she turned into some weird version of herself. All words just seemed to fly from her brain, leaving her standing there mute. She just didn’t understand it. She had always told herself that she wouldn’t be one of those girls and here she was being one of those girls.With a sigh, Aislinn entered the Common Room, ready to retreat to her room, where she could forget another day in which she didn’t exist in his world and focus on the homework they had been assigned. Most students hated homework, but she was not most students. She didn’t love homework, but it was an escape from her reality. So, long as she was focused on the task at hand, she could forget just how forgettable she was.
Unfortunately, that was not meant to be. Cringing, Aislinn automatically lifted her arms in front of her in defense as a book came flying in her direction. It wouldn’t have actually hit her. That much was obvious from the angle it had been coming at. Trying to gather herself, more from the embarrassment of acting girly, she fixed her skirt and brushed her fingers through her light brown hair. She was just thankful that he hadn’t been anywhere to see such a thing. She would have died of mortification. Being scared of a book and not using simple logic was simply not the attention she wanted.
Part of her wanted to yell at the boy that was now apologizing to her, but she felt for him. Her own frustration haunted her every day. She felt her face softening with a hint of a smile. “I suppose I can be thankful that it wasn’t a bludger. From what I understand, they can be rather nasty. So, Potions, huh? I haven’t started the assignment yet, but we can try working on it together, if you want?” She didn't normally offer help to anyone since she preferred working alone, but she felt awful for him. Besides, it might help take her mind off her own problems for a bit.
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Aislinn Nicolls
Care to share some grumbling?
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Aislinn Nicolls
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Dustin
October 14, 2016 2:11 AM
I suppose if you really want some? by Dustin
Fortunately for Dustin, the girl--A girl! What were you thinking?! You could’ve hit her!--he had almost hit with a textbook didn’t seem horribly upset by the whole situation. She even sorta smiling at him, which was strange. She probably knew who he was and pitied him, which was infuriating, but he’d already done his raging for the day, so he kept that all inside. As to her identity, he was fairly sure she was in his classes, a bit older than him maybe, and he’d definitely seen her face, perhaps even twofold, if he was remembering correctly. Still, her name currently escaped him.“Yeah,” he said rather dimly. He was referring to her statement about a Bludger, although he wasn’t going to volunteer his general repulsion from Quidditch because some people, he imagined, would find it emasculating to dislike a sport, especially one so prevalent, as well as referring to her smaller, casual inquiry about Potions, a clearly rhetorical question anyway. As to her last question, offering to work together, Dustin felt an immediate conflict. He couldn’t say no out of concern for manners, but he didn’t want to show her his trouble with the assignment spelled out any more than he’d already had to suggest, lest she think he was stupid.
In the end he settled on letting her into his study environment, choosing pride in his manners over pride in his intellect because only the former could ever really be irrefutable anyway. “I’m working over here,” he stated with an accompanying gesture to the couch. He stood back so she could go over before heading back himself, sitting gingerly on the couch.
“So how far are you?” he asked as he paged through his only slightly damaged textbook to relocate the appropriate page. “I’m about a third of the way through it, personally. Maybe we’ve got different parts answered, though. I know I’ve been jumping around. Oh,” he added, looking up from the page to make some kind of eye contact. “I’m Dustin, by the way.” No point, he rationalized, in any sort of formality with it, since both the situation and his family's reputation were so off-kilter, so he just threw his first name out there mostly in the hopes of being reminded of hers.
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Dustin
I suppose if you really want some?
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Dustin
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Aislinn
October 14, 2016 8:59 PM
Well, it is one of those days. by Aislinn
Aislinn followed the boy, whose name she thought started with a D. That was terrible that she couldn’t state his name off the top of her head. But then it didn’t help that she didn’t pay attention to most people. Except for him. Otherwise, she stayed within her own world, which consisted of studying. It was sad really given how small the school was that she only knew a few names.Dropping her overfilled book bag on the floor, Aislinn took a seat on the couch. She was relieved not to have to carry it anymore. It seemed that with fifth year, her homework load had grown significantly. She guessed it made sense since the next year they would be choosing the classes that would affect their futures. She knew that she had to get top scores. Not just to get the top scores, but to move on to the classes she would need go get into a mediwizard program in university.
She didn’t know what she would do if she didn’t get into a mediwizard program. Her father was a mediwizard. Her grandfather was a mediwizard and owner of a hospital. How could she be anything else? If she didn’t, her grandparents would be so disappointed. She always felt like she was a disappointment to her grandparents. They were purebloods and she was well…not. This was her only saving grace.
Pushing her thoughts aside, Aislinn got her textbook out. “I haven’t started it yet. I briefly looked over the questions in class. The substitution theories seem like they would probably be the most difficult.” She hated doing substitutions, but were important since they were meant for people that might have allergies so you had to find ingredients with similar properties without spoiling the integrity of the potion. “Nice to officially meet you, Dustin. I’m Aislinn.”
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Aislinn
Well, it is one of those days.
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Aislinn
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