Oh...joy? on Cascade Hall

Headmistress Powell

January 29, 2010 1:55 PM

Intermediate Team Challenge [years 3-5] by Headmistress Powell

In addition to their usual lessons, the intermediate classes - years three to five - would have an extra activity this week. It would take a whole day, and was designed to promote team building and lateral thinking. Without revealing its content, Headmistress Powell had simply informed the students that they would be excused from usual classes that day, and they should be down in the Hall directly after breakfast in clothes that permitted easy movement, and that they would not want damaged. When they arrived as instructed, the students would find the usual chair and table arrangement had been abandoned, in favor of several small work areas set up at each end of the Hall. Between these two areas, in the centre of the Hall, the students were greeted by their Headmistress, Medic, and Groundskeeper. When sure everyone was accounted for, Sadi began to speak.

"Welcome, everyone, to your team building day." Her voice was calm yet commanding, as always, but also held some indication that she had been looking forward to this. "Today you will be completing three exercises, one each in first aid, food preparation, and orienteering. In a moment, when I have finished speaking, you will organize yourselves into teams of three - how you decide your teammates is entirely your choice. When teams have been formed, you will register with Medic Rocamboli, who will assign you to your first activity." The instructions were fairly straight-forward, and Sadi hoped nobody would quarrel thus far.

"The member of staff supervising your activity will monitor your progress and award points, based on teamwork, effort, and your final result. Once you've completed your first activity you'll move onto the next, until all three are done. We will be having breaks in between for refreshments," she assured the students - they were all adolescent and food was of great importance to a growing child. "At the end of the day, we will total points from each exercise. The winning team will receive ten House points per student, and their names on the school honors board. Runners up prizes will also be awarded." Hopefully this exclusive prize would be enough to encourage each student to do his or her very best.

"If you have any questions now is the time to ask them. Otherwise, sort yourselves into groups of three and let's begin!"

(OOC: There is no need to respond to this post - activites will be posted in the Hall and gardens soon, so keep an eye out! These posts will gain your character House just like a normal lesson.)

Subthreads:

In need of a team by Nate Bealer - wait, no, Daniel Nash II with James Anthony, James

Oh...joy? by Adelita Garcia with Charlotte Abbott, Lita, Taylor Li

0 Headmistress Powell Intermediate Team Challenge [years 3-5] 0 Headmistress Powell 1 5

Nate Bealer - wait, no, Daniel Nash II

January 29, 2010 4:00 PM

In need of a team by Nate Bealer - wait, no, Daniel Nash II

Team building. Daniel shook his head and sighed in a put-upon sort of way. He was fairly sure that he would have preferred normal classes. Not only did he already know he did well in standard learning environments, he could wear his good clothes and carry on in the comfortable persona he'd adopted as an Aladren wizarding student.

This would require a rather different sort of approach. The dress code, after all, wasn't the same. Oh, he could have worn his nice robes. He was wealthy enough in his own right that he could have his entire wardrobe replaced quite easily if anything happened to it. In fact, one of his robes was already slotted for disposal as it was starting to fray on the right sleeve, just along the cuff, but then he'd have to wear a fraying robe and that was almost worse.

If he was going to dress down, he was going to actually dress down. He'd look better overall if it was on purpose than only begrudgingly attempted. There was a world of difference between going casual and looking shabby.

The morning ritual started out the same. He woke before his roommates - he took the longest shower and spent far more time fussing with his appearance than the average teenage boy, so he tried to get most of it over with before they even rolled out of bed - and went thorough the usual bathroom activities - wash up, brush and floss his teeth, shave, apply skin care products, file his nails, towel dry his hair.

That was about where it changed. Normally he would have followed that with a drying charm he'd learned from Holly to replace a blow dryer, but today he left it alone for now and went to get dressed. He forwent his normal slacks, button down shirt, tie, formal socks, dress shoes, and hand-tailored robes.

Instead, he pulled on a pair of blue jeans. Designer jeans, true, but jeans were jeans, and they counted as casual. Jeans were meant to get dirty no matter how expensive they were and these were comfortable and allowed a full range of movement even as they hugged him well enough that he knew he looked good.

For a shirt, he picked a blue t-shirt that he'd bought because it was the exact shade of blue that Aladren claimed as it's own. Atop that he pulled on a denim overshirt and left the buttons undone, in a similar style to how Nate Bealer wore his flannel shirts on Street Beat. In fact, as he examined himself in his full length mirror (he'd had to provide it himself - for some reason he didn't understand, the Aladren dorms didn't come with one), he thought he looked a bit like how he imagined Nate would look if his father had been as wealthy as Dan Nash instead of subsiding on a beat cop's salary.

He left the mirror to run a brush through his hair, but he didn't touch the hair products that normally kept every strand in its proper place. Daniel even ran his hand through it a few times to give it a rakish sort of disorder. He found a pair of blindingly white sneakers and pulled them on, wishing they weren't quite so obviously brand new. He checked himself out in the mirror again, and decided to use his wand to change the shoe's color to a light grey. That looked a lot better.

Some of his classmates might not even recognize him, but after studying himself for another few minutes, he decided he was satisfied with the look.

There was also an increasingly likely chance his roommates might think he was preening if he stayed any longer (mostly because he was flirting very close with doing just that), so he beat a hasty retreat down to Cascade Hall before they could say anything.

Unsurprisingly, they were going to need to find teams for the 'team building' challenge. After hearing the contents of the three activities they'd have to do, he was kind of glad he looked as good as he did, because it was his greatest draw. He couldn't cook (though he though his potions ability might come in useful there). His knowledge of first aid was limited at best and mostly based on muggle television. And nobody in their right mind was going to think Daniel Nash II had the faintest clue about orienteering, which would be an absolutely and utterly correct assumption. His idea of wilderness navigation was taking the path from the school doors out to the Care of Magical Creatures clearing. Just as well he looked more like his fictional television character than himself.

"This is going to be fun," he thought out loud with dry irony. The words may have gained the attention of a nearby student because they turned toward him. Catching their eye, he figured he may as well ask: "Do you have a team yet?"

1 Nate Bealer - wait, no, Daniel Nash II In need of a team 130 Nate Bealer - wait, no, Daniel Nash II 0 5

James Anthony

January 29, 2010 10:07 PM

In need of...a lot of things by James Anthony

Truth be told, James had never quite adjusted to the circumstance of having to room with males of a similar age to himself. To be sure, Daniel was impeccably dressed (even if James personally considered his ego to be a bit superfluously inflated) and Quentin was curious (even if James personally considered that curiosity to be somewhat shallow), but James still was uncertain as to his opinions on actually rooming with the boys. They were far from being idiots, although they did not match James’s intellect. Yet, they tended to spend too much time in the shower and leave things in places James did not appreciate.

Not that the brown-haired Aladren had ever roomed alone. No, before the whole debacle with Lutece turning out to be a witch (in power as well as in name), James had shared a room with his twin, Grace. However, since his own nascent powers had manifested three years ago, Grace had eschewed his company to the point where she had elected to live with their mother and elder half-sister in lieu of staying with Lutece and himself with their father. Between Grace’s obvious disinterest in James’s company and the woman their father was currently dating—referred to by Lutece as ‘that Vulcan’ with great frequency—James and Lutece had both opted to remain at Sonora over the Midterm. For James, that Midterm had been rather quiet. He had gotten some studying done. And now that was about to end with Headmistress Powell’s ‘team-building’ exercise.

James was dressed in his usual Muggle attire: a blue-and-white striped AE polo with pre-ripped and faded blue jeans, and the grey sneakers he had gotten the summer previously. He also wore his round-rimmed brown glasses that had the irritating penchant of sliding down his nose at the most inconvenient moments. The younger Anthony had planned to convince their father that contacts were necessary over the break, but since the two had not returned to Baltimore, that was out of the question.

“Fun?” James responded wryly to the more self-absorbed of his roommates. “If you call getting oneself lost in the woods with two others ‘fun’, than I suppose so.” Perhaps he was being unduly pessimistic and the Headmistress had an activity of great value planned, but James highly doubted it. In his personal experience, these sorts of things tended to be quite overdone and campy, and hardly how one should expend any of their time. “But no, I don’t have a team. Would you be interested in joining me?”

0 James Anthony In need of...a lot of things 126 James Anthony 0 5

Adelita Garcia

January 31, 2010 10:12 PM

Oh...joy? by Adelita Garcia

Adelita was a little apprehensive when she had heard that classes for the third, fourth, and fifth years would be canceled for the day. She had no idea what that meant for the three years or why it was only for those three years. As far as she could remember, that had never occurred before while she had been a student here at Sonora. She was planning on asking her relatives when she got the next chance.

What was more than that was that they were told to wear comfortable clothes that would allow easy movement for them. What in the world would they be doing where Adelita had to wear movable clothes? She could make many assumptions on what it all meant and most of it she wasn’t too happy about. Still, if it meant getting out of potions for a day, Lita was almost grateful for it. She was atrocious at Potions and anything to get her out of it was a blessing.

Getting ready that day, it was an easy pick for Lita. She had put on her black dance pants that she practiced in, an old t-shirt that she hadn’t worn in ages, and her sneakers that she only wore whenever she was going to go hiking with the family when they visited the family home in Spain. She rarely wore her sneakers, but they were black with hot pink lining sketchers and she loved them. Her long dark hair was pulled back into a pony tail to keep out of her face in case they were doing anything that needed her absolute attention. And now, standing in the hall listening to the Headmistress, Lita was completely confused as to why they had to do these activities in the first place. Were the Sixth and Seventh years going to do something similar or the First and Second years?

Listening to what they would be doing, Lita was a little nervous. The first-aid didn’t worry her. With all the injuries she had sustained over the years with ballet, she had picked up a few things from her dance instructor and her mother. But food preparation? Orienteering? Her Grand Mama’s family had a famous restaurant chain in Spain. It was where their money had come from. Hard working money, but it had brought the Chavez name up in status so that they were now one of the richest Purebloods in Spain and one of the Elite. They had skills in the kitchen… Lita did not. What did Orienteering even mean?

Leaning over to the person closest to her, Lita whispered, “What’s Orienteering mean?” She felt a little dumb for asking, but she wasn’t an Aladren. If she wanted to be prepared, she had to go on a limb and ask.

6 Adelita Garcia Oh...joy? 136 Adelita Garcia 0 5

Charlotte Abbott

February 02, 2010 5:01 AM

Joy abounds by Charlotte Abbott

Nobody really seemed sure why their lessonas had been cancelled that day, or why they had to wear clothes other than the school unifrom, but Charlotte really didn't mind. Missing lessons with a valid excuse from the professors? That was agood thing. Not wearing the icky uniform robes in preference of her own carefully selected attire? That was a good thing, too. Like her roomate, Charlie opted for black dance pants that were casual and easy to move in. She accompanied them with a black t-shirt with the word 'Diva' spelled out in clear rhinestones across the front, and her black sketchers with dimantes on the sides. Charlie liked to strike a balance between looking nice, and not spending too much time on perfecting her appearance. So after dressing she tied her hair into a simple, neat ponytail and grabbed a hot pink cotton jacket before heading down to meet the rest of the third, fourth and fifth years down in the hall.

If she'd considered it before, Charlotte wouldn't have guessed that the collection of professors greeting them would include the Headmistress, medic and groundskeeper, but she ran with it. She stood next to Lita and listened as they were told what would be happening. The activities for the day sounded okay - better than chopping up rat spleen, anyway.

"What's orienteering mean?" Lita whispered.

"Um, I think it's something like map reading," Charlie replied to her best friend. She wasn't a hundred per cent sure, but she thought she'd heard the word used in that context before. They'd find out soon enough if she was right. "Hey, you're going to be in my team, right?" Charlotte said, linking arms with Lita. It wasn't really a question: of course she would be working with her best friend.

Looking round the other students to identify a possible third group member, Charlie noticed Daniel and James forming a group (... maybe she had been too fast in deciding to work with Lita?). After staring at them both for a little too long - and perhaps wishing she'd spent just a couple of minutes more on looking nice - she turned her attention back to Lita and said, "So we need another person in our group."

0 Charlotte Abbott Joy abounds 135 Charlotte Abbott 0 5

Daniel

February 03, 2010 4:45 PM

Like a third by Daniel

James. Muggleborn, like Daniel was, but not from quite the same social circles, and fortunately, not an obvious fan of Street Beat. He did have an unfortunate sense of fashion, but Daniel attributed that to his family's lack of movie stars.

Daniel tried not to hold James' middle-class-ness against him. He was a little more successful with that than he was about not judging people by their House. And as an Aladren, James had no points against him. Well, none except for the fact that they were probably each other's biggest competition for prefect. Daniel assumed the staff's annoyance with Quentin's frequent questions would disqualify their other roommate.

As a roommate, Daniel could imagine worse. He had to share a hallway with Holly at their mother's house and that was bad enough. And there was Quentin, so James didn't even register as a potential annoyance, even in close quarters. Overall, Daniel tentatively liked him.

He was less certain James had any cooking or first aid skills, and his opening gambit about getting lost in the woods was not promising for orienteering either. Daniel decided against explaining that by 'fun' what he'd actually meant was 'agony' - they'd both spent too much time around Quentin to make it worth the clarification.

Instead he answered the direct question; "Sure, we can work together." James was bright. They could both take direction well, so as long as there were instructions, he didn't think they could catastrophically fail at any of the tasks.

He looked around them at the other students pairing up and splitting into trios. "Do you have any suggestions for a third? I know Holly's a fabulous cook, but I'd rather not team with my half-sister if at all possible." And it looked like Charlie was already teaming up with Adelita, so there went the other person he felt he had any right to corral into a group with him. Assuming he did still have that right, which he wasn't sure he did anymore.

1 Daniel Like a third 130 Daniel 0 5

Lita

February 03, 2010 8:54 PM

We could make it even more joyous by Lita

”Um, I think it’s something like map reading.”

Charlie answered Lita shortly after Lita had posed the question. Okay. So, they would be doing something with First Aid, Food Preparation, and Map Reading? Why were they doing all of this? What in the world would Lita need to do with reading a map? It wasn’t like Lita was going to suddenly just go traveling without the use of magic ever in her lifetime. What a weird thing to teach a group of students. At least the other two activities seemed relatively important to a person’s life. Lita really hoped there would be more explanations as they went a long.

Lita smiled when Charlie linked arms with her in declaration of their partnership, but the look on her face when Charlie looked around wasn’t lost on Lita. Glancing around, Lita caught sight of Daniel and James and knew immediately that Charlie would probably give anything to be between the two of them. Lita thought Charlie was too into boys, but never said anything because they were best friends. Sooner or later though, her interest will get her in trouble. “Are you and Danny still dating? I never know how it is between the two of you.” Lita questioned, looking back at her best friend.

A thought occurred to Lita when she had been looking at the two boys, “Oh, you know what might make this all a little more fun?” Lita asked, gesturing to the ‘stations’ they had to go to for their challenges. “If we do it boys against girls! It’s supposed to be a challenge right? And the best group is supposed to be awarded, right? So, why not make it a little friendly competition between us and them?” Lita asked. She didn’t think the teachers would like it, but considering this was a competition they had placed right in front of them, they couldn’t really be mad. “We just need to find another girl and, hopefully, they team up with another boy.”

Lita turned quickly in her spot to find another girl, spotting one nearby, she called, “Hey, you want to work together?” Turning back to Charlie, Lita added, “Sound good?”

0 Lita We could make it even more joyous 0 Lita 0 5

Taylor Li

February 05, 2010 6:24 PM

By adding a third? by Taylor Li

Two and a half years ago, the thought of having to wear clothes that allowed easy movement and could be damaged would have been out of the question. Two and a half years ago, her mother would have sent her to school with robes and dresses meant to impress. Two and a half years ago, her mother had dreams of her daughter becoming an actress. Two and a half years and Taylor had finally won the war. She was now her own person, one completely devoted to the sciences, one completely missing on the entire making friends in school experience. Perhaps, today would change all that.

Since spending most of her free time in the library or with experiments, she had never really felt the need to change out of her robes. Thus, most of the regular clothes she had brought often ended up just staying in her trunk most of the time. Today, though, she actually had the opportunity to put on something considered to be a bit more normal. Sort of. She had decided on a pair of grey leggings, a blue t-shirt that read ‘Physics, it’s not rocket science! (oh, wait…yes, it is), along with white ankle socks, and black and white lace-less Sketchers. Her dark hair was braided on either side of her head though a good bit fell out and surrounded her round face.

She brushed a stray piece behind her ear, listening to the Headmistress talk about what they would be doing with this free time away from classes. She frowned when she heard words like cooking and orienteering. Being away from classes to learn such mundane things did not sit well with her. She leaned a little forward to hear more when two girls talking caught her attention. Adelita Santoro and Charlotte Abbott, the popular girls. She didn’t really know them all that well, but she would be lying to say that she wasn’t a bit envious. Socializing didn’t come all that easy for her and she wished that she had an easier time making friends.

Taylor was still staring at the two girls when the one turned around and asked her if she wanted to work with them. Her? No one ever noticed her. She was just the brainy girl. “Sure,” she said, a little shyly to be asked to join the popular girls group. “I’m Taylor.” Just in case they didn’t know who she was, which was entirely possible, but then she did tend to answer a lot of questions in classes. Adding a bit enthusiastically, she said, “Let’s win this!”

0 Taylor Li By adding a third? 128 Taylor Li 0 5

James

February 06, 2010 10:07 AM

That would be quite beneficial, I will admit by James

While James certainly would not compare Daniel’s intellect to his own, the boy was certainly brighter than most and could take directions without dispute. This was more than could be said of many Aladrens. Additionally, Daniel had a sense of style that was almost the equivalent of James’s own. They would make a suitable pair, to be sure, but they had to have a third. This could prove to be problematic, as the only person James regularly consorted with was Charlie Abbott. That in itself was problematic: Charlie was not particularly intelligent, and she was working with two girls that James had never bothered to remember the names of.

As a matter of fact, the brown-haired boy had something of a problem naming his peers, largely because James did not consider them his peers. He knew Daniel and Quentin as a matter of course, and Charlie predominantly because she was fairly attractive. Although James had not yet ‘made a move’, so to speak, the third year could say with a fair amount of certainty that should he do so, Charlie would be more-or-less agreeable with a brief liason or so. James did not believe that he was willing to allocate enough time from his studies to date, per se, but he was fairly certain that Charlie would be amenable to something more cohesive with his time schedule.

But that was a matter for the future, and did not contribute in the least towards a quest for a third group member.

“Quite frankly, I am not at all familiar with our peer group,” James admitted to Daniel. “Perhaps one of those Brockert girls would be inclined to join us? I am not entirely sure how intelligent either is, but perhaps they are gifted in other areas. After all, the concept of your half-sister cooking is a somewhat bemusing one; perhaps others have similarly surprising skills.”

0 James That would be quite beneficial, I will admit 0 James 0 5

Charlotte

February 07, 2010 10:28 AM

You got it! by Charlotte

"Are you and Danny still dating? I never know how it is between the two of you.” Uh-oh, Lita had caught her staring. Ah well, it wasn't like it was a secret that Charlie was crushing on the Aladren boys. She laughed in reply.

"Even I never know how it is between us," Charlotte admitted. "I like Daniel and I'm pretty sure he likes me, and we spend time together but, well, that's about it. I don't know if he sees me as girlfriend material," she said, tilting her head to one side, considering this conumndrum. Yes she'd very much like to be Daniel's girlfriend, but she could quite happily be dating James, or one of the Valentine twins, or - well let's just say Daniel wasn't the only attractive boy in their year. Charlie knew she had plenty of time to decide who she liked best (and secretly she thought it would be logical to sample a little of each before that choice was made, but she knew Lita wouldn't agree with her on that so she kept quiet) so she was content for now to keep her options open. If Daniel (or anyone else) asked her out, then that was great. If they didn't, well that was fine, too.

It seemed like Daniel and James being in a group together had given Lita a battle-of-the-sexes idea. "Why not make it a little friendly competition between us and them?” Lita asked. “We just need to find another girl and, hopefully, they team up with another boy."

Before Charlie could answer, Adelita had scooped Taylor Li - one of the yearmates Charlotte didn't know so well - out of thin air to join their group. "Hey, Taylor," Charlie smiled in welcome to the group. "Girls against boys works for me," she said, turning back to Lita. "Let's go sign up our team!" She linked her other arm into Taylor's and marched the three of them towards where the Medic was registering the groups. It would be fun getting to know Taylor a little better, Charlie thought - the other girl had always seemed a bit nerdy, but then so was James, and Charlie liked him well enough.

(OOC: One of you two want to pick our first activity and move the thread there?)

0 Charlotte You got it! 0 Charlotte 0 5

Daniel

March 17, 2010 1:40 PM

Ignoring the fact that this thread seemed abandoned. by Daniel

"Let's avoid the Brockert girls. One's a Lady and the other's a Pecari." Daniel frowned and barely suppressed a shudder at the thought of have either of those trait in a teammate for an event like this. He shook his head to dismiss the thought and noticed Taylor had joined up with Charlie and Adelita. "There just went most of the people I know outside of Quidditch," Daniel admitted, nodding after the group of girls as they went to register themselves with the nurse.

He looked around trying to spot any of his teammates. Over there, Jera was already teaming up with Gray and Holly's proclaimed future husband. That was two more people out. "Thomas, maybe?" he suggested, trying to find where his team's assistant captain had gotten to and if he had a group yet. "He's a fifth year. Or . . . Juri?" their fourth and quietest roommate was also a possibility. On that note, Daniel took a deep breath and regretted the suggestion even before making it, "Quentin?"

1 Daniel Ignoring the fact that this thread seemed abandoned. 130 Daniel 0 5