Every cloud has a silver lining on Cascade Hall

Oliver Abbott

January 08, 2009 10:49 AM

Every cloud has a silver lining by Oliver Abbott

At first, Oliver had moments of regretting his decision to stay at school over midterm, but even by the second day he knew he'd made the right choice. For one, he got to experience the school with only a handful of students (and none of them inclduded Charlie - for the first time this year he didn't have to worry that she was around). Plus even with the snow, the Sonoran winter was much warmer than winter back home in Chicago.

Oliver had also realised that crazy things happened over midterm. He'd heard tales of strange snow creatures on the Quidditch pitch (which he had every intention of checking out later), but the pleasure Oliver was enjoying right at that moment was the abundance of chocolate pudding. He could swear that ever time he'd been into the Cascade Hall over the holiday period there was chocolate pudding being served. It was the best.

During perhaps his third helping in two days, Oliver looked up as someone else staying during midterm joined him at the table. "Hey," he said in greeting, without really looking to see who it was.

0 Oliver Abbott Every cloud has a silver lining 99 Oliver Abbott 1 5

Lutece Anthongy

January 19, 2009 11:02 AM

That usually means rain by Lutece Anthongy

The logical option had been to stay at Sonora for Christmas, obviously. James had agreed with her and both Anthony siblings had ended up writing home and letting their parents know. Lutece, not on speaking terms with their mother, had written a letter to her father. James had taken on the duty of letting their mother, Liss, and Grace know about it. Knowing Grace, Lutece supposed that James's twin would spend the entire holiday sulking. Liss would understand--she'd been through a divorce too, and was just riding this one out until she could go to college next year. Lutece was glad at any rate that she wouldn't have to deal with the awkward moments that meant a divorced Christmas.

The only thing that really worried her about the divorce was the custody thing. From what she had heard from friends whose parents had gotten divorced, custody battles could be nasty, and long, and the mother usually won in the end. The fourth year wasn't entirely sure she could deal with that. Her mother wanted to pull her from Sonora and send her to a boarding school in Pennsylvania where Lutece could make 'proper connections' and the like. She wasn't sure what their mother wanted to do with James. But whatever. Long story short, this divorce thing was going to be a huge pain in the butt and Lutece did not want to deal with it. At all.

She had more important things to deal with, such as the Oliver Problem.

On the one hand, she could have sworn up, down, and sideways that Talitha had this thing for Oliver and he had a thing for her. But then again, there was the whole Adam Brockert connection. Where was that going? Did Talitha really like him? Could you like more than one boy at a time? Lutece had owled Liss for advice yesterday and was hoping to get a letter back today. After all, who was a better person to ask about a Boy Problem than your older sister? Even if she was only a half sister. Liss was a cheerleader and a senior, which made her like, triply qualified.

Dressed in a green V-neck sweater, jeans, and fur-topped boots, the fourteen year old had also lined her eyes with a tasteful green eyeliner. Not obnoxious, but enough to bring out the actual green in her eyes instead of the old, boring blue. Her hair was tied half-back and curled. Lutece has recently invested in a monthly subscription to WitchTeen and it had the best haircare charms she had ever found. Critically examining herself in the mirror, Lutece decided to go grab a bite to eat. It was a pity that she didn't know anyone else staying for Midterm.

Or so she thought. Stepping into the Cascade Hall, the first person her blue-green eyes locked upon was Oliver. SCORE! Now was her chance to get the real 411 on what was going on with him. Did she have a chance or not? Take the chance, Lutece, she counseled herself, sliding into the seat across from her friend/crush and smiling at him.

"Hey Oliver! I didn't know you were staying for Midterm!" Lutece enthused, deciding that batting her eyelashes at him would be too obvious and old-school.

0 Lutece Anthongy That usually means rain 0 Lutece Anthongy 0 5

Oliver

January 19, 2009 12:59 PM

It never rains but it pours by Oliver

Ah. Lutece. Still, she was no longer the annoying girl she had been in first and even second year. In fact, since she'd started helping in potions rather than butchering his attempts, Oliver had even begun to not entirely detest her company. To say he liked her was probably going a bit far, but she was tolerable enough.

"Hey Lutece," he smiled back; cheer was often infectious. "Yeah, I usually go home," he said, licking his spoon clean, "but my parents went away and left my brother in charge." He let his spoon clatter into his empty bowl. "There's no way I'm being bossed around by Julian for my holiday." Oliver licked his lips then sat back. "Charlie's gone back, though," he elaborated. "Needs to see her dance friends, or whatever. Sleepovers and reading magazines and that rubbish," he said, shrugging and looking to Lutece with only a small smirk; he was fairly sure she'd grown out of that sort of thing by now, but since she was a girl she might have been just as enthusiastic as Charlie once upon a time.

"What about you?" he asked. He sort of wanted to ask about her parents divorce, but he wasn't sure their tentative friendship could really stretch to such topics. "And your brother?" Oliver remembered Lutece had a brother at school now, in the same year as Charlie - had their siblings met? - but couldn't remember his name.

0 Oliver It never rains but it pours 0 Oliver 0 5

Lutece

January 20, 2009 9:26 AM

Sometimes there's snow too by Lutece

As usual, Oliver did not seem to understand the finer points of female existance, such as magazines, sleepovers, and dance. Not that Lutece herself had ever been a dancer, but Liss had and Grace was, and she completely understood the bonds that were built within a dance group. Of course, that also meant a significant amount of drama, usually, but it was the sort of drama that Lutece herself had thrived on prior to her attendance at Sonora. It was weird, actually. She'd gone from being the centre of attention in elementary school to having almost no friends at all now. There was Talitha, of course, but that was really it. Oliver sometimes, but she wasn't entirely sure what the boy thought about her. It was kind of frustrating, actually.

"Oh, I usually go home too," Lutece said, playing with one curled strand of hair. "James and I are staying this year though. My mom's being a--well, a bit witchy about the whole thing, if you know what i mean. She wants to send me to some boarding school in PA for high school. I kind of want to see Dad," a huge jump from where she had been at this time two years ago, despising her father and wishing he had never made her come to Sonora. "but if I go back to see Dad, I have to see Mom too. It's a mess. Liss says they'll get over it though," the Crotalus added as an afterthought, still playing with the strand of hair and looking around the hall quickly, half hoping to see an owl. There was none, of course, so she went back to pretending to be normal around Oliver.

"Um," Lutece was kind of at a loss for conversation now. Mind scrambling, all she managed to come up with was "how far have you got on the Potions homework?" which was a particularly lame question since she wasn't even sure if they had Potions homework. It was also disgustingly cliche. Boy meets girl. Girl likes boy. Girl asks boy for help in math-slash-science related subject. Boy tutors girl, girl starts dating boy, et cetera. In her head, it sounded like a re-run of one of those horrible TV shows that had been written back when her parents were younger and less psychotic than they were now. Just the thought almost made her wrinkle her nose in disgust. Instead, she started sketching out shapes on the table with her finger while listening to Oliver's response.

0 Lutece Sometimes there's snow too 0 Lutece 0 5

Oliver

January 21, 2009 10:07 AM

Occasionally the sun shines by Oliver

"That sucks," Oliver commented on Lutece's mom wanting to send her to a different school. "Yeah, that really sucks," he commented on the divorce situation overall. In Oliver's opinion, kids, especially teenagers, were fairly good at dealing with their parents' divorce. Not that he spoke from experience, but there was so much of it about these days it was impossible not to know someone with divorced parents. He didn't think his pwn parents would ever separate, but then he supposed that was the whole point: you never did expect it.

This divorce talk left a blank for more conversation, which Lutece fikled with potions homework, of all things. "Potions homework?" Oliver repeated, his eyebrows raised in incredulous amusement. "That coursework project, you mean?" The project in which Oliver had delved into details of thickness before cooling, optimum simmering tempertures and angles of slicing, and secretly hoped he would ace but openly denied having done much work on. "About half way through." That was almost true, despite him having done twice the amount of work needed already. Still, he found it comforting to note that potions was the only subject he geeked about.

Oliver grinned at Lutece. "You're not stuck already, are you?" he mocked her. "Not that it matters," he added, "because I've heard rumours the Professor" (Oliver couldn't recall his real name due to the number of nicknames the students had given him) "won't be coming back after midterm. Typical." He was going to do the work to the very best of his ability anyway. The new professor could read it, and Oliver would probably still get credit for it.

Even though she had begun the conversation, Oliver couldn't believe Lutece really wanted to talk about potions homework. All indicators showed she hated potions, and generally homework of any kind. Though on the other hand, Oliver struggled for a subject that was familiar to both of them. As always, he stuck with the obvious: Quidditch. "That last pratise we had was tough," he said mildly. "Reckon we've got a really decent shot at the championship this year."\r\n\r\n

0 Oliver Occasionally the sun shines 0 Oliver 0 5