* ~ * SPIRIT CLUB * ~ * on Magical Arts Room and Sports

Laila Kennedy, Spirit Master

October 07, 2016 10:47 PM

* ~ * SPIRIT CLUB * ~ * by Laila Kennedy, Spirit Master

Over the summer, all her friends had attended a cheerleading camp. Now that they were getting to the age of high school, the girls were all clamouring to try out for JV cheerleading and all wanted to be on the varsity squad come their junior year. Once upon a time that had been Laila’s dream too—all of them had been dressed up in baby sized uniforms from the moment they were old enough to walk and it had always been a given that if you were a Kennedy or a Seve or a Lomer girl you would be a cheerleader. She still wanted to cheerlead, she thought the uniforms were cute and she loved painting her face with team numbers and waving glittery, rustley pompoms. She had always loved cheering her cousins and their friends on during football and soccer games and she loved walking down the high school halls during game season and seeing all the decorative flyers about.

Sonora, however, did not have a cheerleading team or even a spirit club. Last year, she had wanted to start a club like that and asked Gia at one of Sammy’s games if the older girl might want to help her start one. Gia had seemed excited b the prospect and so that summer Laila had made up four flyers, in Crotalus red, Teppenpaw yellow, Aladren blue, and Pecari brown. One for each of the common rooms. On the wagon ride over she had asked the Reinhardts and the Donovans to help her hang the flyers up in the common rooms she did not have access to and before going down to see Wu she hung the Crotalus flyer up on the notice board.

Each flyer, in addition to being colored in the individual house colors, had a little hand drawing of the house mascot that she had asked Tobi’s mother for help in charming the little animals to run about the header. The Crotalus snake slithered between the all caps, sparkling bubble letters of SPIRIT CLUB! while the Teppenpaw praire dog popped it’s head up randomly between the lettering while the Aladren hawk swooped in and out of the tops of the letters, using the openings in the P, R, and the B as rings to fly through. The Pecari boar was slightly less flashy, and simply head butted against the ends of the letters but Laila had asked Kaili if she wouldn’t mind making the letters move from the impact of the hit in order to be more eye catching.

Underneath the banner, utilising her brand new gel pens, Laila had written in decorative lettering:

Come join the BRAND NEW Sonora SPIRIT CLUB! No experience necessary!

Do you like to support your friends and house?

Do you like decorating and dressing up?

Then spirit club is for YOU!

Proposed activities include: cheerleading, sign making, holiday parties, and dress-up days.

Please come to an informational meeting at 2pm, Saturday the Xth* in the MARS room. There will be treats.

She had been full of confidence as she handed the flyers out to be posted and asked Gia to head the club with her as VP. Now, as she stood at the front of the MARS room, a table of elf baked treats and juice at the back, waiting for people to show up, she felt like a bundle of nerves. “Are you sure people will show up?” she asked, wringing her fingers into the skirt of her dress. Laila had opted for a white dress with forest green ivy detailing embroidered around it to express school colours and not loyalty to one particular house. It was one of her favorite dresses, besides, and wearing it always gave her a little boost of confidence. She had also swiped on some mascara that Jillian Chong had slipped into her suitcase right before leaving and a light colored lip gloss—a birthday present from Katy Lomer. She wanted to feel and look the part of an expert cheerleader. Her friends had all given her insight to what the camp had been like and she knew that once people arrive she would be able to squash down her nerves and pull out her bubbly face to present her great idea.

If people showed up, that was.

At five minutes past two, Laila started the meeting. She had wanted to wait a little bit for those who might have lost track of time before hand, and greeted them all with a large smile. “Hi everyone, my name is Laila Kennedy and this is Gia Donovan. Back in my hometown, the schools have cheerleaders which lead the school in cheering during sporting events. They are also involved in getting the school excited for big events like a Quidditch match or a Midsummer event. I was thinking that it would be fun to have a spirit club here, too. We would make posters and host holiday parties or school wide games like candygrams and dress-up days right before a match.

“A dress up week is where each day of the week is designated to a certain type of costume and everyone comes to class wearing something like that. An example might be twin day or crazy hair day. Spirit club will run in a popcorn style manner, so everyone gets to have input and suggest ideas on what we should do for various different events. Gia has agreed to make us uniforms—” here, Laila passed around photos of what the cheerleaders back home looked like so that those with non-Muggle backgrounds could get an idea “—if everyone would like to do that. Since Sonora cheerleading would function differently as our school is split up in four teams and we would want equal representation for all the teams, I was thinking about plain white with bits that we could charm to change color depending on who’s playing.

“The Friday before a Quidditch match, spirit club could wear their uniforms and half would have the colors of one team and the other half the colors of the second team. We could organize for players to wear team gear the day and make posters to remind everyone a game is coming up. We would then lead the student section in cheering on the teams so that while they played they would feel supported,” her planned speech done, she walked over to a big board of paper she had hung and opened the circle up for discussion. “What kinds of ideas do you have? I’ll write them down and then we’ll get together to figure out what will work best!”

Laila already had many ideas for things the club could do. Her elementary school back home had held pyjama days and game days and movie nights and there were all kinds of fun things like candygrams or Secret Santa that they could do when it came closer to the holidays. Her biggest idea of all was a school Halloween party and dress up day and so she had already added that to the list, alternating the letters in orange and black gel pen bubble letters, adding little squiggles and confetti around it so that it stood out. Halloween was a super fun time of the year in the Muggle world and she missed dressing up.

OOC: It’s the first Saturday morning after they’re back at school.

Subthreads:

Potentially Crashing by Gabriel Valenti

10 Laila Kennedy, Spirit Master * ~ * SPIRIT CLUB * ~ * 318 Laila Kennedy, Spirit Master 1 5

Gabriel Valenti

October 08, 2016 3:24 AM

Potentially Crashing by Gabriel Valenti

In truth, Gabe had never seen himself as being an “involved” kind of kid. He was dedicated to Teppenpaw Quidditch and Sports Club, of course, but was only a casual member of Archery Club, and attended Baking Club mostly when he was in need of some variety from the usual Cascade Hall cuisine. In an unusually academic spirit, he was even considering checking out some electives this year. His GPA could definitely use the bump he was sure to get in Muggle Studies, even if he wasn’t a fan of the M-word.

And so, when he noticed the Spirit Club sign (he blamed it in the prairie dog) he was surprised to find how eager he was to join. A lot of the example events didn’t actually interest him - cheerleading logistically made no sense, and his doodles were scribbles at best, requiring clear labeling. He enjoyed creating them, but his art was not intended for Official Things. Still, he found himself making an effort to actually manage to attend, no small feat for the impulsive teenager.

Most stuff about Sonora wasn’t like his old middle school. He assumed it wasn’t at all like the local high school he would never attend, where his sister was currently a freshman and his brother a junior, either. Most of the time, this difference was a good thing. His old school never encouraged him to play with creatures during class. But this summer, particularly with Emma getting ready for high school, he was starting to realize that there were things his siblings would get to do together that just wouldn’t happen at Sonora, land of magic and strange rules about propriety. Spirit Club just felt so… so refreshingly normal.

Plus, he had been promised treats.

Saturday was pretty uneventful, he successfully evaded an early start on all his new homework for the year, and went flying instead. After several laps, and a few Wronski Feints (sure he wasn’t Seeker, but you never knew when a skill could come in handy) he headed back to Teppenpaw dorms for a shower. Now that he was a teenager, his parents said that keeping good hygiene was more important than ever. This, and other Health lessons, were things he would have learned at normal school. He threw on a blue Mets t-shirt and some jeans and headed out.

There was no time for lunch, so Gabe just headed straight for MARS, unabashedly filling his plate with baked goods upon arrival. He was a growing boy, after all. Finally. For a while there, Gabe was convinced that the growth spurt would never start.

“Hiya Laila,” he grinned as he took a seat. They had worked together in class before and she had always seemed like a cool girl.

But then Laila started talking, and if he hadn’t been busy stuffing his face with cookies, Gabe might have frowned. Was this club going to be all about cheerleading? Was it weird that he was even here? Should he take his cookies and leave?

With a mom and a dad who did the same type of job and a sister who was a star baseball player who could probably beat most guys up, Gabe Valenti had been raised with what was probably a more liberal understanding of gender roles than most. It didn’t bother him so much that cheerleading was usually associated with girls. He liked being excited about things, and some cheer teams had really athletic routines. But as a Quidditch player, he wouldn’t really have the opportunity to do all that. Plus, the uniforms were not his jam.

Fortunately, Laila seemed to be pretty open to other ideas, and already had some cool non-cheerleader stuff listed, like a Halloween Party.

“As a Quidditch player, it would be really cool to see people getting into the games,” he mentioned, preferring to be positive whenever possible, “I can also help relay info to the teams, if you want,” he did have a cousin on Aladren, and his buddy Ben Pierce playing for Pecari, after all, “I was thinking it could also be cool to do a Battle of the Classes? Maybe a Battle of the Houses would make more sense here,” he amended, “There could be different competitions between the teams - not just sports stuff. There could be like an eating contest or dance off or scavenger hunt or something, so everyone can get involved.”

Feeling like he had made his contribution, the messy-haired boy returned to his treats. He hoped other people would like his ideas, and that he wasn’t just crashing the club for snacks. All of his ideas, of course, were the sorts of things Emma and Mattie would do at their own school. Most of the time, in his letters home, he had to do a lot of explaining. It would be really nice to have something to write home about that his siblings did, too.

0 Gabriel Valenti Potentially Crashing 330 Gabriel Valenti 0 5

Jemima Wolseithcrafte

October 08, 2016 6:21 AM

Potentially confusing by Jemima Wolseithcrafte

Jemima had vowed not to take on any extra activities during her CATS year, especially after being appointed prefect. She had been pleasantly surprised by the badge. Not that she couldn’t see the qualities of a good prefect in herself, but she saw them in pretty much everyone in her year’s Teppenpaws, which meant she’d felt like she had about a one in five chance. It was nice to shine. Especially in a way in which her siblings had done. Overall, Jemima didn’t exactly pull worse grades than her older siblings had - she was bright enough - but she wasn’t super academic the way most of her family members were. And she wasn’t sporty either. She was always used to being the odd one out, and it felt nice to have ticked one of the same boxes as the older ones for once. But, whilst prefect was undeniably an honour, it added to her workload. So she would be sticking with running art club, and the occasional baking. At least, that was the plan until the banners for spirit club showed up. She didn’t really know more than the poster told her, but she definitely checked both prerequisites for being a member, and so on the appointed Saturday, she headed down to MARS.

Jemima was excited by Laila’s description of what they might do. Sure, she didn’t understand all the ideas or the terms the other girl was using. She wasn’t sure what a candygram was (but she would guess at involving sweets, so that couldn’t be bad). She didn’t know whether she was interested in being a cheerleader. The uniform looked sort of… sexy and she blushed imagining herself wearing it. Not that she would have minded being considered sexy but she just didn’t feel particularly well qualified. Perhaps she would just make the signs that she cheerleaders would wave. Or something. Sign making was involved and she could definitely do that.

A few people spoke up around her, including Gabe who suggested some non-sports competitions, which sounded fun too.

“Maybe it could be class based,” she added to Gabe’s idea. “Or made up of groups. Like when we did the challenges, to bring people together from different houses. Or is the idea to promote house pride?” she queried of Laila. Things like cheering for the Quidditch teams sounded very house based but things like throwing parties sounded like they were to bring people together, so maybe it was both. Or maybe it was both but competitions had to be house based? She wasn’t quite sure. Either way, it all sounded fun.

13 Jemima Wolseithcrafte Potentially confusing 304 Jemima Wolseithcrafte 0 5

Farrah Welsh

October 08, 2016 3:31 PM

Potentially adding... by Farrah Welsh

Farrah would never consider herself the cheerleading sort in the sense of non-Magical cheerleaders (she was not certain that Magical cheerleaders were different or not). Those girls and guys were the popular jocks of most high schools. They were pretty, perfect, fake nice, and really mean. They were the sort of people that a person like Farrah dreamed of being but would never actually become. But Farrah did have school spirit. Her parents took them to the local football games in the fall and to the homecoming parades that the marching band would put on for the town. It was always fun when they went and the Cheerleaders/Spirit Squad was always the group that got the crowds going.

When Farrah had seen the poster go up in the common room about Spirit Club (she had to read it thoroughly to make sure it didn’t have anything to do with ghosts because they apparently DID exist after all…) she was both excited and nervous. She knew that Sonora had jocks because of Quidditch, but they weren’t the same as from back home. They weren’t just jocks. Some were super friendly, some were very smart, others outgoing. There were a handful whom she felt could probably be labeled as jocks although she didn’t know their names but she felt Arianna probably fell into that because she was rude and sporty. They weren’t the sort of people she was accustomed to thinking of jocks, so maybe joining the Spirit club would be okay. If she had ever attempted such a thing back home, she’d be laughed out of school.

She had thought about asking her friends to see if anyone was interested in going to the meeting with her, but she hadn’t seen much of Killian and Kellen probably wouldn’t want to join, he seemed more of an anti-crowds type of person. Georgia was her top choice but as the week went on, Farrah forgot to ask her about it and now it was Saturday and too late to run and find her to see if she’d be willing to go to the first meeting with her. Farrah sighed to herself as she walked to MARS; she really wished she had asked someone to come along. Farrah didn’t do well with these kinds of situations but having someone she liked with her would have given her more confidence about it all.

Deciding to try to fit in to what she assumed would be this group of people, she opted to look a little more preppy than nerdy. She wore a yellow polo shirt and a khaki colored pleated skirt that fell a couple of inches above her knees. She wore it with brown flip flops since she didn’t have converse shoes that would have matched. Even dressing this way with her hair pulled back into a pony tail and doing her best to smile at everyone and not show her nerves, Farrah was nervous of being made fun of by everyone. What was someone like her thinking she could join something like this?

She listened quietly as the hostess of the club started off and took in what everyone else was saying. She was a little surprised to see Arianna’s cousin there, but what did she know? Competitions made her nervous, but perhaps she could just help set them up and not actually have to participate in them? Another person spoke up to make additional suggestions based off of Gabe’s and once all of that was resolved, Farrah raised her hand to get attention. “Back home, during Spirit week there would be competitions like certain classes, er, years, would be assigned a wing of the school and they would have to decorate it a certain theme. And then the staff would be the judge of which year did the best.” Farrah said, her voice quiet and shaky from her nerves.

6 Farrah Welsh Potentially adding... 344 Farrah Welsh 0 5

Kit Reid

October 09, 2016 1:01 AM

Potentially trying by Kit Reid

Kit had no idea what a Spirit Club was, but the activities that had been listed sounded like fun. She liked parties and dressing up. She didn’t really know what cheerleading was, but she figured that it wasn’t anything she would hate since the rest sounded so great. So, she had decided to go to the meeting in the MARS room to find out what it was all about.

While waiting for the meeting to begin, she ran her hands over her light pink skirt, brushing out imaginary wrinkles. She wasn’t really sure what to do with herself since she didn’t know many people yet. Though, getting involved in activities was a definite way to meeting others. She adjusted her glasses and smiled at potential friends who entered the room.

Once the meeting began, Kit turned her attention towards the girl that introduced herself as Laila Kennedy and in proximity Gia Donovan. Soon, she realized what a cheerleader was. Duh! It made complete sense now. It was someone that cheered others. However, at the mention of getting the school excited for things like Quidditch, would that mean she would have to choose between the two? She wanted to do both. She would ask later after the meeting. First, she wanted to gather more information.

Oh, the uniforms in the pictures looked super cute! It made her excited to think that she would get to wear something like that. The idea made her feel special. She would have a uniform that signified that she was part of a group. Since they would be wearing the uniform before games, would they still have to wear the school robes? Would they be able to wear the cute cheerleading outfits in place of? That would be awesome!

When Laila finished speaking, a boy started speaking. She didn’t know his name, but he was a Quidditch player. Huh. Guess that pretty much answered her question to whether she could do both. Nice. Now, she could be both a Quidditch player and in the Spirit Club. Plus, if she made the Quidditch team, the Spirit Club would be supporting her too during games. It was so thrilling to think about.

A few different people spoke with varying ideas. She didn’t think that she really had anything to contribute. Everything that others had come up with sounded amazing. A little nervous, only because there were older students with more knowledge than her, she spoke up, “I think all the ideas sound great. My idea isn’t really involving a competition, but more after the competition. What if there was some sort of after party to celebrate the winning team? Anyone could come, obviously, but it would be like a good going for the team. Oh, and maybe we could make pins and stuff for people to wear to show their support?” She didn’t know if any of her idea would sound okay to anyone else, but at least, she figured she was trying.

0 Kit Reid Potentially trying 363 Kit Reid 0 5

Ayla Tremaine

October 12, 2016 7:54 PM

We have potential! by Ayla Tremaine

Some of the things Ayla was the most excited about when she’d arrived at Sonora were the clubs. She was looking forward to trying new things and meeting new people. It would also be great to be able to join clubs she was already interested in and surround herself with like minded people. She’d been checking the bulletin board, just waiting for something to be posted, so the first year was thrilled when the first flyer went up. As she read it, it sounded exactly like something she’d be good at. She spent a little extra time getting ready, and settled on a royal blue knee length skater dress with slightly puffed sleeves. Her dress had small white cat faces that looked like polka dots from a distance which made the 11 year-old really happy. Her blonde hair was swept to the side in a loose fishtail braid, and she made sure to wear the golden heart shaped locket her parents gave her.

As she entered the MARS room, she noticed a lot of new faces, but was really happy to see that Kit was at the meeting as well. There was an empty seat next to her friend, so Ayla quickly claimed the seat beside her. She flashed the Aladren girl a smile before turning her attention to Laila as she began to to explain the function of the club. Everyone else had really good ideas for the club, but when it came to her turn to add to the conversation, Ayla was drawing a blank.

She was happy and bubbly in general, so cheering people on seemed like it was going to be easy. She would gladly perform any task asked of her, and was eager to do so, but she just couldn’t come up with something on the spot. The flyer did say that no experience was necessary though, so that made her feel a little bit better. She idly twisted the tail of her braid around her index finger as she pondered possible spirit club activities.

“I think it would be nice to do things that encouraged house spirit, but it also might be good to do things that supported school spirit and brought everyone together.” She paused for a moment, thinking about things that would possibly build relationships. “Ooo! We could do a huge school sleepover, I think some places call it a lock in? Like the girls could all sleep together in Cascade Hall, and the boys could be in the library or something.” Ayla shrugged. She didn't think it was a bad idea, and it would give different years and houses the chance to interact more. She was more of an execution type of girl than a planner when it came to things like this, but that didn't dampen her spirits.

5 Ayla Tremaine We have potential! 367 Ayla Tremaine 0 5

Gia Donovan

October 17, 2016 9:22 PM

Positively Confused by Gia Donovan

Gia was excited to help Laila out with her Spirit Club. It was nice that her friend trusted her enough to help lead the club with her and Gia hoped that she would do a decent job of it. She must have had some skill in it since the Staff had deemed her worthy of the Prefect badge. But Gia had never really stood in front of her peers and try to convince them to join a club that she still wasn’t really certain she understood herself. Thankfully, Laila was the one who would be doing all the talking, so Gia just had to stand near her to show her support.

Standing in the MARS room, Gia self-consciously tugged at her mini-skirt. It was a blue floral print that ended several inches above the tips of her fingers. She was still getting comfortable with the lengths of her new skirts and dresses, but since no one seemed put off by it, she tried to act more confidently in them. She paired the skirt off with an old grey tee shirt of her brother’s that she removed the sleeves from and tied it at her waist. She wore thigh high stockings and clunky shoes. She didn’t really get the shoes as they weren’t practical, but Phoebe had said that everyone wore them these days.

She smiled in greeting to those who came, some she recognized, some she didn’t, and gave a little wave when Laila introduced her. She was excited to be able to make the outfits for everyone. She figured that she would make a warm weather outfit and then a cold weather outfit which would basically just be the warm weather outfit with like pants that went on under the skirts and long sleeves like she had seen in some of the pictures. She had to make sure those who wanted outfits worked with her soon for measurements and to discuss how they wished their outfit to fit (midriff showing or not, shorter skirt or not, and so on). Gia would be up for their opinions as she didn’t want to make an outfit that they would not be comfortable in. And, with males here, she could work out something for them too, should they wish to participate in that.

Gia understood some of the ideas that people were saying, but not all of them. What was dress up day? What was a candygram? Why did they have to have a battle between houses? That just sounded like they would get into trouble for. What were they going to dance off of? If they were cheering people on, why would they have competitions between the houses or years? Gia would have to wait until after the meeting before asking questions to Laila because she didn’t want to seem less confident about the club or like an overall idiot to those there simply because she did not understand some of the concepts. She knew it was a language barrier more so than anything else and it frustrated her more than anything because of it. She hated not understanding something so simple.

She didn’t have anything to add to the list of ideas though, considering she didn’t really understand most of it, but she felt like saying something. “We’ll probably want to make up some, er, cheers? For each house or a unified cheer to not show a particular loyalty when we cheer at games.” Gia said from her spot. “Also, for those who are interested in the outfits, you’ll have to set up time with me so that I can get measurements and we can discuss your comfort levels of lengths and style.”

6 Gia Donovan Positively Confused 308 Gia Donovan 0 5

Chaslyn Brockert

November 02, 2016 10:43 AM

Positively keeping my mouth shut by Chaslyn Brockert

When Chaslyn had seen the sign for Spirit Club, she had gotten up to her room as quickly as possible and burst into tears. It was another thing that she knew she was going to have to do. It might have Muggle origins, but the things it was planning were very much school involvement things that did not have to be Muggle, unlike Science Club as Mother-thankfully-did not know what science was, assumed it was something Muggle and therefore, didn't want Chaslyn involved in it. She was, in a way, grateful that her mother was almost as prejudiced towards Muggles as Kelsey was, the same way she was secretly grateful for WAIL. Sometimes, she even wished Mother was slightly more prejudiced and forbid her from doing anything with a non pureblood running it.

She knew that was the wrong way to think though and not just because being more prejudiced was a really bad thing. It wasn't so much that she completely loathed non-purebloods herself. In fact there was one halfblood in particular she was quite fond of though she knew it was not in her best interest to pursue that relationship any more than the friendship they had and to just marry Léon Beausang. Father seemed to think it was best for her to do that as quickly as possible.

And really, Léon seemed like a pretty nice guy. Chaslyn knew she was lucky in that respect. Not everyone could be like Serena or Ryan who found and married their soulmate but some people ended up married to someone they didn't get along with. Like Mother and Father. She couldn't stand when they fought. Especially because it was often about her-and occasionally about Amity-and if she could just be better, just be perfect like Mother wanted, everything would be okay. She just hoped her marriage would be more like her sister's, even though being like Amity was generally considered a bad thing given that the only thing her sister had ever done right was make the right friends. Chaslyn did hope that Léon got on better with Mother than Phillip did though. Not because she wanted to best her sister and be the good daughter again, it was just that she didn't know what she would do if her husband didn't get on with Mother. It would likely make Mother disappointed in her too and that as the last thing she wanted. Plus, Chaslyn really didn't want more conflict than there was already. Conflict had made her stomach hurt ever since she was a little girl and Mother was yelling at Amity.

However, the real issue regarding Spirit Club was her attitude. The seventh year should want to be involved in school activities and this club sounded about as involved as one could get. Not just attending meetings like other clubs but setting up parties and the like. Granted, party planning was actually an important skill for a pureblood woman to have but Chaslyn had just so many other things to do. Plus there was the new music club too and who knew what the fair would entail this year? She was starting to be really grateful for the little gift Mother had gotten her after the Crotalus had failed to meet expectations the previous year. Father had been yelling at Mother that Chaslyn didn't have enough time to do all that was being asked of her, that there weren't enough hours in a day for all that. Mother had used the Brockert name and influence to get her something to solve that problem.

It was their little secret,Father wasn't to know but with that and her potions, Chaslyn hoped she'd make through the year.

She entered the meeting and headed straight to the cookies. It never seemed she had enough time to eat so she took every chance to do so when she could. Then she took a seat next to Scarlett who'd shown up on time for once which threw Chaslyn off a little, making her assume for a brief moment that it was Savannah instead. She didn't used to have that much trouble telling the twins apart, but now sometimes she was so exhausted that she got confused. The more brightly colored clothing, however, made her figure it was the Pecari.

As the meeting began, Chaslyn tried to focus. She hadn't slept much last night so she'd had two cups of coffee this morning to get her through. Now her brain was on hyper drive-and her chest hurt a little-but she still wasn't coming up with ideas. She wasn't sure she liked some of these things though. A competition would put her under more pressure than she already was. She still felt completely sick to her stomach when she recalled how Mother had reacted to her failure in the Challenges . And the uniform seemed....indecent. Still, she knew better than to complain. She knew how well that went over.

11 Chaslyn Brockert Positively keeping my mouth shut 281 Chaslyn Brockert 0 5

Scarlett Brockert

November 02, 2016 1:20 PM

Positively not by Scarlett Brockert

Last year, when the yearbook came out, Scarlett had not been very happy. She'd only gotten one award. She was just adventurous. That was it. It wasn't a bad thing to win necessarily, but she just wanted more. Scarlett wanted to stand out, be noticed so she decided to start joining clubs though it did occur to her that it might end up with her stealing an award from her own twin sister. However, there were so many awards that fit Savannah. Brain, Bookworm, Friendly and Brighten Day to name a few. She didn't think her sister cared as much about the yearbook as she did anyway.

So when she saw the Spirit Club sign, she'd decided why not? Well, okay, at first she'd thought it had to do with ghosts- she knew that there was not going to be a school club focusing on alcohol even with a Brockert as Headmaster-and that Duncan was going to be so disappointed that he missed it if he heard. Then she read the fine print, decided it sounded all right, not like something that she needed experience for the way music club was and to try it out.

And here she was. She took some cookies and then sat, not at all surprised when Chaslyn showed up as well. Scarlett noted that her cousin looked tired despite it being really early in the year and tried not to frown. What was asked of the seventh year was just unreasonable. She was Head Girl, what more did Aunt Jillian want? Scarlett felt strongly that Chaslyn should not be here, but she knew that suggestion would only fall on deaf ears. Chaslyn did what her mother wanted and that was that. The Pecari was powerless to help. If Uncle David couldn't do anything but marry Chaslyn off when she graduated, how could Scarlett do anything now?

Chaslyn sat next to her and the meeting began. Scarlett listened as people talked while trying to think of something to contribute. The outfits were kind of cute and she resisted the urge to imagine prancing around in one in front of certain professors and keep paying attention.

After Gia finished talking, Scarlett spoke up, first addressing Gabe. "With regards to some of the competitions, did you just mean the Quidditch teams should do non-Quidditch related things or that like, there should be non sports type competition? I mean, the latter would be okay, though I'm not sure with regards to being house based, I mean, wouldn't it be better to bring people from different houses together so it's not a 'My house is better than yours' sort of thing? Also, like with splitting up people into whose rooting for what house at the games, will people in the houses playing be rooting for that house with the people in the houses not playing are split up? Because it would be weird to like root for the team that's playing my house. I think the dress up days and parties sound fun. I suggest silly hat day." Scarlett and her cousins and sister used to love putting funny hats on Uncle Seth and taking pictures, so she could definitely figure out where to get them, if she could just remember where they were. "And I second the slumber party idea." She honestly preferred parties to competitions.

11 Scarlett Brockert Positively not 293 Scarlett Brockert 0 5

Kyte

November 14, 2016 5:10 AM

Can we have fire? I like fire. And cookies. by Kyte

When Kyte had come to Sonora, he had fully intended to sign up for the Pecari team. Only he didn’t plan on playing any of the positions. He had wanted to be their mascot. He had been sorely disappointed to find out that Sonora didn’t have this particular tradition, as being a mascot was a great way to put some circus skills to use whilst he was in school. He hadn’t been passionate enough to pursue the issue, nor really thought he had the power to change anything, but when he saw the posters for spirit club the idea was rekindled. He ticked a fair few of the boxes. He liked supporting his friends and dressing up. Even though he wanted to be a mascot, it was more for the fun of it than a real sense of house pride, and he couldn’t say he had strong emotions about decorating, but overall the club seemed kind of interesting.

He showed up on the given day, helping himself to cookies and finding a seat. He gave Gabe a cheery wave, glad someone he knew had come. Raine hadn’t been interested. He listened to the speech, and - because he had a mouthful of cookie - let a few other people get their ideas in first. Once other people piped down, he offered his idea.

“Can I be a mascot?” he asked. Kyte wasn’t a very formal person and didn’t tend to regulate the way he spoke depending on the audience very much - unless it was an actual audience and he had to use his big voice to boom out ‘good evening ladies and gentlemen’ but at the moment that was his dad’s job, not his. “At my brother’s school, the Quidditch teams had mascots and it sounded fun. I mean, as well as all the cheering stuff,” he added, wanting to make sure no one thought he was trying to diss the other idea. As far as he was concerned, there should be room for what everyone wanted. “I can do a bunch of tricks and stuff. And I’m getting better with fire.” It was a shame none of the houses had a dragon as a mascot but he was pretty sure he could think of a way to work fire into the act anyway. It’d be really cool. “Oooh, perhaps each house could have a different element or something, that we could do tricks around,” he added out loud, because that was how he tended to think. “Aladren would be air, I guess… But all the others live on the ground. It’s a shame there’s no real water or fire connections with any of the houses. Though I guess Crotalus is red, like fire.” His stream of consciousness finished flowing at that point, so he gave them all a smile and went back to his cookie.

13 Kyte Can we have fire? I like fire. And cookies. 335 Kyte 0 5