This is most unfair. (Ladies) on Cascade Hall

Headmistress Sadi Powell

July 13, 2010 3:14 PM

All Fourth and Sixth years! by Headmistress Sadi Powell

At dinner the night before it had been announced that all fourth and sixth year students would be excused from the first twenty minutes of their morning class the following day, and would be required to meet in the Cascade Hall once breakfast was formally over. Traditionally, fourth years would have to wait until the following year to vote, but as there was no fifth year currently, they would experience the voting one year early.

Sadi waited patiently as the students gathered around, looking like she always did, in muted shades of brown for her robes, her hair tied back neatly, and an air of calm. On the table beside her were neat piles of parchment forms, and some writing materials, in case students had not thought to bring their own.

When everyone was gathered, the Headmistress did a quick check to ensure nobody was there who ought not to be, and then she cleared her throat, signaling it was time for the students to pay attention.

"Thank you for all being here. As the sixth years have probably concluded, this isn't anything that any of you need to worry about, although I do hope that you will take your responsibilities in voting seriously. I have here the forms - one for each of you - so you can anonymously vote for next year's Head Boy and Head Girl. Please do not discuss who you are going to vote for,” she didn’t doubt some discussion would take place after the event, but it was best that the voting reflected only the preferences of each individual. “The announcement of who has been successful in securing the roles of Head Boy and Head Girl will be made at the upcoming Midsummer fair. Now, if you could please take one of these and pass them along," Sadi handed the pile of forms to the nearest student. "Try and find a spot on your own, and when you've made your decision, fill the form in - if you need writing materials they are on the table here for your use – and then please hand the forms back to me."

OOC: Form is here. Voting is In Character and as anonymous as you choose to make it. Votes from ineligible characters, random strangers, anonymous people, etc. will be ignored. Responding to this post isn't necessary, however voting is if you want your character to have their say.

Subthreads:

I spy a Family Feud by Amelia Smythe

This is most unfair. (Ladies) by Chelsea Brockert with Holly Greer, Cecily Smythe

Contemplating family versus merit by Daniel Nash II

....Didn't see that one coming. by Gray Wright with Jera Valson, Jera

0 Headmistress Sadi Powell All Fourth and Sixth years! 0 Headmistress Sadi Powell 1 5

Amelia Smythe

July 13, 2010 3:31 PM

I spy a Family Feud by Amelia Smythe

All in all, Amelia hadn't minded skipping out on fifth year. It meant she could prove (yet again) to Cecily that the younger sister was the smart one, and she got to graduate from Sonora a year early. She hadn't had a dreadful time of it so far, but it hadn't been as filled with fun and joy as Amelia's been hoping for. Nevertheless, skipping a year did have its disadvantages. The first was that Amelia was never going to be made prefect, because you got made prefect in fifth year, and she'd missed that out. The second only became apparent as the Headmistress asked all fourth and sixth years to stay behind - that she would only get one vote in future student Headship, as opposed to the usual two. Normally school politics bothered Amelia very little, but popularity was incredibly important to her, and rumor had it that sometimes these votes were little more than a popularity contest. Furthermore, she had several relatives at schooll and voting against them would have been delightful.

As it happened, Amelia just got one vote, and she was going to use it wisely. Taking up her ballot, she looked first at the names at the top, listed for potential Head Boy. Well, that was an easy decision for her to make. Besides, she could always lie and tell Ian she hadn't voted for him, just to see how irriated he got. That would be riotously funny. Besides, Gray Wright was, by all accounts, missing a few essential screws, and Thomas was too quiet, and already captained the Quidditch team. Voting for Head Boy was easy.

It was only when Amelia read the names for potential Head Girl that she sufferred some difficulty. In fact, she froze for a moment or two. Two thoughts entered her head simultaneously, and both were clamouring to be heard over each other. One concerned the presence of her own name among the options; the other concerned the absence of her sister's.

When she'd collected enough presence of mind to reassure herself she wasn't suffering a hallucination, Amelia lifted her head from her voting paper, her eyes immediately connecting with Cecily's. What she saw there was a mix of confusion and hurt, as if Amelia was responsible for her name appearing there and Cecily's not. Amelia shrugged in response; she wasn't going to apologise for something she had no control over. Besides, Cecily would make a dreadful Head Girl. Probably better than Holly, though, Amelia frowned as she re-read the other names on the list. As for Jera... Amelia liked her yearmate well enough for a geeky, Quidditch-playing, daughter-of-the-Headmistress. Was she going to vote for her though? No chance. Amelia put a great big tick next to her own name, and submitted her voting form, vaguely wondering how long it would be until Cecily spoke to her again.

0 Amelia Smythe I spy a Family Feud 121 Amelia Smythe 0 5

Chelsea Brockert

July 13, 2010 5:14 PM

This is most unfair. (Ladies) by Chelsea Brockert

Her name was not on the ballot.

How could this be? Chelsea was the most deserving of the opportunity to be Head Girl. She was wealthy and beautiful and popular. Her family (by which she meant collectively, including distant relations)probably donated more money to Sonora than a lot of others combined. They were also a very prominent, pedigreed family with bloodlines that went back far.

To make matters worse, Jera Valson, Amelia Smythe and Ian Grimm were on the ballot, while she, Cecily and Anabel were overlooked. That wasn't fair at all . It was bad enough that she'd had to share her room now, why should Chelsea further have to suffer and be denied her rightful chance at Head Girl, simply because not enough magical children were produced that chose Sonora for school the year after she was born?

Although she was tempted to just not vote at all, Chelsea marked off Holly's name. At this point she would have voted for the Pecari even if they weren't friends, because of the options for Head Girl, Holly was the only one who had the right to be on the ballot. (Though had it been Alexis or Laurie instead, Chelsea might have gone ahead and voted for Amelia, despite how she did not deserve to be an option at this point.)

For Head Boy, the choice was easy. Chelsea cast her vote for Thomas Fitzgerald. Grayson might have had the advantage of blood purity-albeit from a not terribly respectable family-but she wasn't going to vote for him after he'd usurped the position of prefect that had rightfully been hers. As for Ian, well, what applied to Amelia and Jera applied to him. Plus, he was possibly more annoying than Quentin. (Which was another thing, Chelsea didn't really think the fourth years had the right to be voting either.)

That's when Chelsea remembered her greatest triumph of her years at Sonora which was the fuss she and the other Ladies had made to get Old Flatt fired (a service that right there should have guaranteed her and Cecily spots on the ballot. Chelsea couldn't think of greater service that had been done to the school.) She turned to her friends and said. "This isn't right. Why should we be denied a spot on the ballot simply because they moved up a year?" Chelsea asked. She went on. "We should do something about this. Like when we got rid of Flatt."

11 Chelsea Brockert This is most unfair. (Ladies) 108 Chelsea Brockert 0 5

Holly Greer

July 14, 2010 3:53 PM

Maybe Danny should lend Sonora's deck my marbles. by Holly Greer

Holly had never been interested in real positions of power in the school. Her minor obsession (it was minor, she was sure, at least in comparison to the one with horses) with princesses had more to do with the pretty dresses, the shiny jewelery, and the fairy castles than because she had any wish to ever be a Queen. She wouldn't know what to do with a kingdom if one ever fell into her lap.

Of course, given how Sonora had gone so far, she wouldn't be terribly surprised if one did.

She'd been named Prefect last year, to her utter shock. The rarity of Pecaris her age explained that, she supposed, but it still had been a stunning moment when she'd been to be singled out as a responsible leader among her peers. She had never wanted to be prefect, never expected it, never roused any effort to be noticed for the position. She had, if anything, considered herself an unlikely candidate given how much she avoided most of her Housemates and how . . . poorly . . . she handled stress. She'd expected the position to go to Raoul who was part of the Quidditch team and who didn't break down into tears, nausea, or a dead faint if confronted with something unpleasant.

But the teachers, in their infinite wisdom (it had to be infinite, Holly thought, because she couldn't see how else they could have reached the decision they did when limited to the finite wisdom she herself was privy to), gave the badge to her instead. She had done her very very best to live up to the responsibility. She even thought she did a remarkably good job at it. She had survived her CATS year without having a single nervous breakdown. This year, with the ability to choose her classes, she hadn't even thrown up or fainted once. Even her anxiety potion intake had taken a sharp decline; recently she was averaging about one vial a week instead of the one or two a day of a year ago, or four or five a day during the height of Old Flatt's reign of terror.

Still, even given her prefecture success, the current sixth year class had one of the largest crops of girls the school had seen in a very long time, especially with the year below joining them now. Not being one of two options anymore, Holly figured it was safe to assume she would not be on the Head Girl ballot.

She wasn't completely ignorant of the fact that most of the school thought she was a few marbles short of a full deck. (She wasn't quite sure what marbles had to do with decks, but she'd overheard someone say she didn't have a full one and she was willing to admit the swimming deck she liked to sit out on at home didn't have much on it, and then someone else said she was missing a couple marbles, which she could also grant, because she was pretty sure Danny had stolen most of her collection when she lost interest in them, and in either case, she never kept her marbles on the deck. This was evidently a big oddity, but she was kind of used to being a little odd. She was okay with that. Everyone said Belle was odd, too, and she was one of Holly's favorite Disney princesses.)

So anyway, Holly figured there were many more options available this time and the teachers would pick Head Girl options that included people like Cecily and Chelsea who had been talking about how wonderful it would be to be a prefect or a Head Girl for ages. Holly had been torn on which of them she would vote for when they both made the ballot (or worse, who she'd pick if Alexis was there, too), but she certainly wasn't going to begrudge any of them their opportunity to reach for greatness. Like prefect, Head Girl just wasn't something she had ever thought applied to her. She wasn't that person.

So when she got her ballot and looked over the three female names, she just blinked at it for a long two minutes before it really sunk in that hers was the only name in the trio that wasn't a displaced fifth year. Of every girl in her birth year - and there were easily at least a half dozen - it was Holly alone who ended up on the short list.

The faculty must have really far-reaching infinite wisdom because this was barely comprehensible. Holly admitted she was perhaps not the brightest bulb in the class year, but looking up, it seemed the other Ladies were equally baffled by this turn of events.

No Chelsea. No Cecily. No Alexis. Not even Laurie. Just her. Her and Amelia and Jera. Those were the Head Girl options.

Holly marked off her own name. She might not have expected, she may not have even wanted it, but the teachers must think she could do a good job and, as little as she understood most of things they said or did, she figured they must know what they were doing. It would insult their nomination if she wouldn't even vote for herself. Besides, the prefecture turned out to be okay. She was handling that just fine. She could handle being the Head Girl, too, if it came to that.

It seemed unlikely though, even now. Jera was the Headmistress's daughter and a brilliant student. Amelia was a pureblood (pure magic, not pure muggle like Holly, which Holly had eventually figured out made a difference among some purebloods) and also quite smart. Holly . . . was pretty. And rich. Rich and pretty could get her a lot of places, but she didn't think the Head Girl position was one of them.

She picked the boy she felt she could work best with (as she didn't know either Thomas or Grayson particularly well, she decided this was the devil she did know and marked down Ian's name), and then turned in the sheet.

She joined the other Ladies in time to hear Chelsea's comment. Holly wasn't quite sure if she was included in the call to arms since she hadn't actually been denied a place on the ballot. She decided to neatly side step the issue and just ask the question on her mind, "I wasn't just hallucinating that my name was on there, right?"

Hallucinations hadn't been a real concern of hers since she found out magic was real and she wasn't actually developing schizophrenia, but some fears never truly went to rest. And a hallucination was perhaps more likely than her truly being one of the candidates in reality.

1 Holly Greer Maybe Danny should lend Sonora's deck my marbles. 123 Holly Greer 0 5

Daniel Nash II

July 14, 2010 4:39 PM

Contemplating family versus merit by Daniel Nash II

The missing fifth year class posed several questions that Daniel hadn't really thought about until he was sitting in the Cascade Hall with a voting ballot on the table in front him in his fourth year. He should not, by all rights, be in a position to vote for or against his sister as a Head Girl.

Even more important, though, than the dilemma of whether or not family should trump merit, was the thought of this time next year. Next year, when there would be no sixth years.

The idea jolted through him with the blinding shock of lightning: Next year, it would be him versus James on this small sheet of paper, for the position of an unprecedented two term Head Boy-ship. Would there be a re-election year in two years? And if so, would the fourth years then be allowed to vote? there wouldn't be much point otherwise, since it would still be the same population as the one that had voted in the incumbent. Unless, of course, whoever won did a really bad job or left the school, and therefore wouldn't be on the ballot at all the second year.

Daniel frowned in consideration and looked around at the other fourth years, assessing the rest of the political field. James was an obvious rival. But Dmitry could prove to be still competition as well. They were the big three, he decided. Daniel thought he had the advantage.

Unlike the Prefecture, Head Boy had an element of popularity in the appointment. All of the things he'd been doing lately to gain the faculty's attention for prefect would, quite likely, prove to be even more effective among his classmates. Quidditch. Library Monitor. Soccer. Midsummer involvement. Plus, smart, responsible, Aladren, good-looking, and more sociable than either Dimitry or James. He had everything people voted for in a Head Boy.

Holly, despite her name appearing on this year's ballot, had none of them. Well, she'd done the Midsummer thing. And she was pretty, he guessed, in a sisterly sort of way; he'd never really thought about it much, but she was Kathleen Burbridge's daughter, too; that carried good-looking genetic weight even if Paul Greer wasn't as Hollywood handsome as Dan Nash.

Actually, Daniel considered, looking over the list of six names on the ballot, he thought he could probably trounce any and all of them. He ticked off Thomas's name as his predecessor (any of them would provide a good precedent as they were all Aladrens, but Daniel suspected the Soccer Coaching labeled him as more of a jock, so picking the Quidditch Captain would probably segue into him better, plus, he was pretty sure Coach Pierce had implied he was going to be leading the team before long as well).

For the girls, he hesitated a moment, looking at his sister's name.

She'd be an awful Head Girl. She was certifiably crazy, and everyone knew it. Plus, if she did a bad job, it would reflect poorly on him, since they were siblings. Not a legacy he wanted to risk. He checked of Jera's name. Aladren and Quidditch Assistant. Again, a good set of qualities to provide a precedent to lead into him getting Head Boy.

Besides, Holly getting nominated and then losing would make it much sweeter when he got nominated and won. But that was an unworthy thought born of sibling rivalry and he convinced himself that it hadn't played a part in his decision before he turned in the ballot.

1 Daniel Nash II Contemplating family versus merit 130 Daniel Nash II 0 5

Gray Wright

July 14, 2010 7:35 PM

....Didn't see that one coming. by Gray Wright

After the voting assembly was over, Gray stood outside the Cascade Hall, his eyes fixed unseeingly on a tapestry. The corner of his brain still working properly was deeply, deeply grateful to not have a class to go to, except when it despaired of the distraction class would have provided. It was a fickle corner of brain.

His name had been on the ballot.

His name had been on the ballot.

His name had been on the ballot.

There was something about that which was just refusing to register. His name had been on the ballot. How could his name have ended up on the ballot? He was...he was...he was Grayson Wright. That kind of thing just didn't happen to him. It happened to him so little that, when he'd seen that Holly's name was also on the ballot, he had momentarily assumed that he was having an odd dream, because the professors would never nominate them both and take the chance that the student body would be Headed by Mister Incoherency and Miss Potions Abuse USA for a year.

And the worst part was, it could happen. Holly had a lot of friends, who would vote for her and get along with her and help her out when she was feeling especially unbalanced that day. Gray did not have a lot of friends, but his competition consisted of Ian Grimm, who wouldn't have known pleasantness if it jumped out at him, and Thomas, whose pre-existing role was traditionally given to crazy people. Next to the average Aladren Quidditch captain, almost anyone was looking good. And he was taking very few classes and making top marks in all of them, which gave him time to do things, time Thomas wouldn't have as Quidditch captain.

If he could see how one could logically think he and Holly were, if not exactly ideal candidates, at least acceptable ones, so could other people.

A lot of other people.

At first, that thought had horrified him. Now, though, it was starting to have a level of appeal, and he was far from sure which was worse. Ambition wasn't considered virtuous in his family. All the other ambitious ones were also Aladren, and while they were both doing all right at present, that had definitely not always been the case.

That was somewhere near the top of his mind when he noticed, distantly, that someone was speaking to him. “What?” he asked, shaking his head slightly to return his vision to normal and looking around to see who it was. "I mean, uh, hello."

16 Gray Wright ....Didn't see that one coming. 113 Gray Wright 0 5

Cecily Smythe

July 18, 2010 2:51 PM

You don't have marbles by Cecily Smythe

Cecily had been looking forward to Head Boy and Girl voting for the past couple of years - ever since she and Chelsea hadn't been made prefects. Sure, she had been pleased for Holly, but with the three of them all in different Houses, they could each have been made prefect, and had a definite power within the school. Only Holly had that power, and she barely knew what to do with it. Cecily had learned to love her Muggleborn friend, but there was no denying she was a few feathers short of the full fan. The difference with the prefect elections was that the decision was entirely up to the faculty; students didn't have a say. With Headship positions the teachers had a say in which names made it onto the ballot, true enough, but the deciding votes were left with the students. Although Cecily knew both she and Chelsea couldn't be Head Girl, she was fairly confident one of them would be.

That was until she read the ballot. Cecily had skipped past the boys' names for the time being - they weren't the important ones. She went straight to the Head Girl nominations, and read them once. Then twice. Then, a third time. Could this be right? She looked up at Chelsea and read her expression. It wasn't favorable; her own paper must be the same as everyone else' then - this wasn't a trick. Cecily read the names for a fourth time. Only Holly's name was where it was supposed to be. Chelsea's name wasn't there, and her own name wasn't there. Their places had been taken by the Headmistress' own daughter - Cecily supposed she should have seen that one coming - and Cecily's sister, for Merlin's sake. The would-be fith year who delighted in showing the world just how much better she was than Cecily, and yet had failed to make a single friend in the school aside from the insufferable Ian Grimm, who had somehow also made it onto the ballott.

Almost on instict, Cecily looked up, and her eyes immediately connected with Amelia's. She wanted to yell at her, to shake her and blame her for taking her place on the voting slip, whereas logically Cecily knew Milly'd had nothing to do with it. It wasn't fair! She'd known there would be repercussions for the fifth years joining them, but she hadn't known they would be this damaging. In reponse, Amelia merely shrugged. Disgusted, hurt, and failing to be proud or happy for her sister, Cecily marked her votes off and submitted the paper with an air of defeat.

"This isn't right," Chelsea rallied immediately. Cecily could always count on her friend to be right - maybe that's why she was in Aladren. "Why should we be denied a spot on the ballot simply because they moved up a year? We should do something about this. Like when we got rid of Flatt."

Cecily nodded, but her reponse was only half-hearted. What difference would it make? It was only for a year, and if she couldn't be recognised for her natural leadership qualities then were they worth fighting for? She was consoling herself that in a year she would be done with Sonora, anyway. "You weren't hallucinating," she replied flatly to Holly. She stopped herself from adding, 'There's a first time for everything' because this wasn't Holly's fault, either. In fact Holly deserved it most, being a prefect and in the right year. By all rights Holly would make Head Girl; then at least Cecily and Chelsea could have a say through her.

0 Cecily Smythe You don't have marbles 122 Cecily Smythe 0 5

Jera Valson

July 18, 2010 3:48 PM

You should take Divination by Jera Valson

The fourth years being invited to vote had clued Jera in to the possibility that those who'd moved up a year, such as herself, might have been included in the considerations for next year's students Headships. However it wasn't until she received a voting ballot that she considered she might be one of them. From her perspective, Jera could appreciate that Amelia would make a good leader - the blonde girl was intelligent, confident, and had good family connections (Plus her father was a minister for education and on the Board of Governors, but Jera liked to think that relatives in power had nothing to do with the voting system, especially considering her own parentage).

Naturally, Jera marked herself for Head Girl - she would hardly be worthy of being on the form if she didn't. It was the Head Boy nominations that drew her consideration. Out of the three of them, Jera held repsect for Ian because he, like her, had moved up a year. On the other hand, she found him to be solitary and occasionally rude. Besides, she knew Thomas and Grayson a lot better, due to the three of them playing Quidditch together for several years, as well as sharing several classes. That all of them were in Aladren meant she wasn't being biased by House.

Jera considered Thomas and Grayson for a short while longer. Thomas was more obviously sane, and his leadership abilities had already been proved by his successful coaching of the Quidditch team. Grayson, though, was smart, and interesting, and creative, and nevermind that Jera'd kept her five-year-long crush on him fairly well hidden thus far. It was a tough choice. Making her decision, Jera handed in her voting slip and got out of the Hall before she overheard the decisions other people had made - she didn't want to know people's votes on this occasion.

Once she was out of the Hall, it wasn't long until she came across one of the subjects of her earlier contemplation. Practise at being around Gray had made her almost normal in these situations. "Good luck," she said with a smile, but a moment later she got the impression he didn't even know she was there. She'd felt like that a long time, though, so didn't let it trouble her. When he did notice her, she kept her smile fixed in place, repeating her earlier sentiment. "You know, with the votes."

0 Jera Valson You should take Divination 112 Jera Valson 0 5

Gray

July 18, 2010 8:47 PM

Eh, I'm too lazy to add another class. by Gray

Gray felt like an idiot when he saw who he’d been ignoring. Of all the people in the school to not notice, the Headmistress’ daughter and probable future Head Girl – and one of the three people in the building that he would classify as a friend – should have been rather low on the list. He had enough trouble with being social to people he liked and not saying something to make them agree with the common theory that not being completely all there in the brainpan ran in the family without irritating them by doing things even he realized were potentially insulting.

“Yeah,” he said. At least she wasn’t laughing about what a joke his even being nominated was. He expected to get that reaction a lot once the news hit the general populace, or even before if Chelsea was feeling especially…unpleasant today. Which, considering she hadn’t been on the ballot and the Ladies thought they deserved everything, she might very well do. Nice to have at least one person at least pretend it wasn’t totally ridiculous. “Votes. Thanks. I think.”

What, exactly, did the Head Boy and Girl do, anyway? Other than help run the Concert next year, which he was going to have to do anyway because he was already a prefect. Geoff Layne, the only one of the lot Gray had ever really had anything to do with, had never seemed to let any responsibilities of office keep him from engaging in his two favorite activities – well, second- and third-favorite activities – but then, Anne did keep trying to recruit him to join her theater group. He might have been insanely busy and just covering for it. Gray supposed he could just ask, but had a feeling that Layne would fall over laughing.

“I’d wish you luck, too,” he said, “but I don’t guess you, you need it, huh? No way you lost.” He hoped the compliment would do something to make up for being rude, though he did suspect it was the truth. Sure, it was possible Holly or Amelia could prevail, but even though he didn’t know Amelia that well, he still felt sure Jera was the most competent person on the list. Surely, with who knew when events with RMI would put the school’s honor on the line, that had to matter to people.

16 Gray Eh, I'm too lazy to add another class. 113 Gray 0 5

Jera

July 20, 2010 11:56 AM

And you call yourself an Aladren! by Jera

From Gray's fragmented responses, Jera was able to pick out two main points. The first was that Gray didn't seem sure that he even wanted to be Head Boy (which Jera could understand - it had the habit of making a person busy and in the limelight, which were two things a person could live without). The second was that he seemed to think Jera didn't need any luck, implicating he thought she was genuinely the person on the ballot most likely to be elected, despite being younger than the vast majority of voters, some by more than a year.

"I don't know about that," Jera replied, being honest rather than modest. Holly had made a reasonable prefect, and Amelia had a lot of standing with the other students. Jera's mostly kept herself to herself outside of Quidditch. It was a wonder anyone even knew who she was. "But I think it would be fun. Being Head Girl, I mean," she clarified, because although that was their current topic, she could have been referring simply to winning the vote, rather than the job this indicated. Fitting it in around Quidditch would be no problem, as Thomas did most of the work, anyway. Her only other extracurricular involved putting books back on the right shelves.

"Would you, I mean, do you want to be Head Boy?" Not that it was relevant; the students involved were never asked if they wanted to be nominated; they just were. It wasn't quite what Jera had meant, anyway, so she re-worded her question after sighing at herself. "What I'm trying to say is are you looking forward to it?" Now she was being painfully incoherent. Maybe she should leave now, and save herself further embarrassment.

0 Jera And you call yourself an Aladren! 0 Jera 0 5

Gray

July 20, 2010 8:39 PM

Absent-minded dreamer sub-variety, yep. by Gray

That a position of great authority, fraught as it was with implications for both one's immediate post-school life and any class reunions ever to be held, could be thought of as fun was not an idea Gray had really considered. Of course, he had also observed that he did not have a typical notion of fun to work from. He liked some of his classes far more than he did others, but wouldn't pick any of them over the prospect of just being left to his books and writing and - and this part only on occasion, not all the time - someone to talk about the books with. That was about all he needed to be happy in life.

Couldn't have it completely, of course. His mother would, no doubt, let him live at home as long as he wanted, and he was almost as sure that she and his dad would technically never refuse to keep him up, but he'd be the laughingstock of the family if he did survive the peer-induced embarrassment and his sense of guilt over it. His parents already had to hear enough of his father's cousins' opinions on how they'd done a bad job of raising him and Anne, and for him to reinforce that idea was unthinkable, especially since his cousin had settled on a career that, while dangerous and what the family referred to as "pretentious," would apparently make her a great deal of money. Maybe not enough to afford half of the people she knew, but a lot more than his parents had ever made or ever would. Regardless of his personal feelings on it, he had to do something.

He shrugged in response to Jera's questions. "I don't know. Honestly, I never expected to even get nominated." Which - in retrospect - had been pretty dumb of him, actually; the Aladren prefect always got nominated, and often won. Everyone knew this. Oh, there had been a handful of times it hadn't happened, but Gray liked to think that he wasn't that grossly incompetent or completely overshadowed by the other guys in his year. "I mean, hey, it's me, you know? I talk to fire crabs. But - yeah. It might be cool."

He paused for a moment, then added, "I won't be, uh, going crazy if I lose or anything, but I reckon I could do all right." He was still a little less than one hundred percent confident on that one, but he would feel at least a flicker of disappointment if he lost, which was near enough to the same thing. It seemed he did have some flickers of a competitive spirit in him somewhere. "Got any big plans for this place if you do win?" he asked.

16 Gray Absent-minded dreamer sub-variety, yep. 113 Gray 0 5

Chelsea

July 23, 2010 5:52 PM

Marbles are irrelevant right now by Chelsea

While Chelsea knew that no matter what fuss they made, it wouldn't put her and Cecily on the ballot. Truthfully, she was simply out for revenge. She'd been made to suffer due to the would-be fifth years being moved up as had Cecily and she wanted to repay the favor.

Really, she did not know why they'd had to move up just because there were only three of them and each year needed to have a certain amount of students for funding. Chelsea didn't see why funding had to be based on the amount of students in a year. Marshall had graduated in a class of three from Salem and the Aladren didn't know why Amelia, Jera and Ian couldn't have done the same.

When Holly came over, Chelsea swallowed the momentary desire to take her anger out on her friend. Of the three of them, the Pecari would be the worst option given how she was kind of neurotic but Holly was still Chelsea's friend, and the only person currently on the Head Girl ballot who had any right to be there at all.

"I think we should complain to our parents like we did about Flatt, write letters to the board about the great injustice that has been done us. Maybe get that stupid policy about the so many people have to be in a year to get funding overturned." Or get someone fired.

Chelsea addressed Cecily. "Your dad is on the board of Governers, how could he possibly be okay with what this is doing to you?" The two girls were the ones who had suffered the most due to this policy and Chelsea couldn't help notice that the Crotalus seemed kind of bummed, even more so than Chelsea herself was. She supposed it was because Cecily was being made to suffer while her sister got a bunch of perks. Chelsea would be even angrier if had been Nina who had gotten benefits at her expense.

11 Chelsea Marbles are irrelevant right now 108 Chelsea 0 5

Jera

July 26, 2010 3:29 PM

We have our fair share by Jera

When Gray said he hadn't even expected to be nominated, Jera considered that he was one of the few people she'd believe uttering that sentence (She hadn't expected herself to be nominated, either, but because she wasn't sure she was entitled. Plus her Ma had given no indication at all, and Jera liked to think she was generally good at picking up on those vibes). Of course when he said he talked to fire crabs, Jera couldn't stop the grin from spreading across her face; it was Gray's randomness that drew her to him. It was, therefore, perfectly reasonable that it would draw in others, too. Maybe a random Head Boy was just what Sonora needed.

"Got any big plans for this place if you do win?" Gray asked.

"Haven't really given it any thought," Jera replied, still smiling. Honestly, she'd been able to drop in her thoughts and ideas with the Headmistress over a hot chocolate on many previous occasions. Not that she'd had any ground-breaking thoughts, or that her input was always valued, but she had always had a touch more say than her peers. Then again, aspects such as being served hot chocolate again over midterm, and choice of band for the bonfire were hardly 'big ideas.' "I suppose we'll have the summer to think about it," Jera mused aloud - assuming that the announcement would be made at the Midsummer activity, as usual.

Feeling that perhaps their conversation had begun to dwindle (how long could they talk about nominations, anyway?), Jera decided to move out of the corridor. "Well, I'm going back to the commons now," she said, gesturing with her elbow in the general direction of the library. She wouldn't mind too much if Grayson followed her there, as they shared a commonroom it would make it easy to keep talking (though the topic would have to be changed). But then she wouldn't be offended if he didn't, for the reason she was about to give: "Got some astronomy work to complete."

0 Jera We have our fair share 0 Jera 0 5

Gray

July 29, 2010 2:36 PM

And we're awesome. by Gray

Summer. Ah, yes, there was a lovely thought. Two months of nothing to do but work on his writing, daydream about the fabulous, fulfilling life he was totally not going to have after Sonora, not thinking about that thing Anne had been working on for a while now, and read. At least, that was a normal summer for him, minus the Special Project. He wasn’t sure, other than his mother fainting and his father looking confused, a successful election would do to change that. Grand plans for Sonora were a thing he, too, was deficient in; for the most part, Gray was pretty happy with Sonora just the way it was.

“Guess so,” he agreed, then stalled out, not sure where to go with the topic from there. They were singularly unambitious little candidates. He didn’t know about the girls, but he was sure either member of his competition would have been well into a sermon on the subject by now.

He wasn’t entirely sure if Jera was signifying that she considered the period of interaction over or not – it was a classic out, but the elbow-gesture was one he recognized, with awareness that he sometimes misperceived social cues, as inviting – but since he didn’t really have anywhere to go but the library or their adjacent common room, he nodded and fell into step with her. Normally, he might have waited to see Lucie and get her opinion on all of this, but now that he thought of it and other things that weren’t related to personal shock, he wasn’t sure if that was a good idea until everyone had been given a little while to process the odd set of nominations. Her exclusion had confused him more than even his own inclusion, since she was definitely saner than him or Holly, but then, other than Thomas and Jera, the entire list had looked to him like Headmistress Powell had just written down all their names, closed her eyes, and pointed.

And, for all he knew, she might be completely cool with it, as he would have been if he hadn’t appeared on the list. But she might not, and since she was his friend, he didn’t want her to get emotional and somehow misperceive something he said as rubbing her nose in it. Not that he thought that would happen, but…bah. There were too many possibilities running this way and that, and he thought it would just be better if everyone had a little while to get over the fact that the ceremony had happened at all. Whether his judgment was sound or not would have to come out later.

“Finished that yesterday,” he said, feeling momentarily proud of himself for having done something in a timely manner for once, “but I’ll walk back with you. Got a free period, and there’s always something to do for Fawcett.” Or at least there was when he was him and therefore awful at the maths that went with some of the more complex Potions theories they were getting into. And even if he got that, there was a debate class next week, and he had to prepare as hard for those as he did for anything else because of his tendencies, in public speaking, to mix up his thoughts and end up saying something that didn’t come out the way he meant it to if he didn’t write out his opinions first. Thank goodness for the syllabus. “How’re you liking MacKenna, anyway?”

16 Gray And we're awesome. 113 Gray 0 5