So not winning this year's intelligence-gathering award. on Cascade Hall

Rachel Bauer (and a bit of Kate)

November 24, 2010 12:51 AM

So not winning this year's intelligence-gathering award. by Rachel Bauer (and a bit of Kate)

OOC: Fuzzytimed to just before the Quidditch game. BIC:

Somehow, Rachel knew that the discussion she was having with her sister was about to get loud a split second before it happened. It was just one of those things one picked up about a person after living with them for ten years: when they were sad, what their favorite breakfast food was, their occasional flirtations with non-magical cultural beliefs, and when they were about to start shouting at one in the worst possible place, over one of the worst possible topics.

"What I do with my own time is none of your business," Kate exploded, her face going an unattractive shade of red as her patience with Rachel's diatribe finally wore a little too thin and snapped. "Just because you're Mom's little robot doesn't mean I am, too."

"Will you shut up?" Rachel snapped, keeping her own voice low. Robot was a Muggle word. If anyone recognized it coming out of her sister's mouth...Well, she'd be free of that twit Bradley, but she didn't think it would make her feel much better. Even kicking his butt once she could do so without more consequences than the school could provide wouldn't help all that much. "And I am not a - what you said. I'm just not an idiot." That was not likely to help with Kate's irritation, but she really couldn't think of a better word. "What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking I could actually have some fun at school," Kate snapped back. "Get to know people. Show some House spirit. Not go around being totally useless and acting like I'm dumb and sucking up to people who wouldn't let my dad in their hou - "

"Shut. Up."

Apparently, she was not the only one who could recognize a cue, because Kate actually did shut up. "I don't believe this. You've spent the past - what? Five years? Five years constantly implying that I'm some kind of - of selfish hedonist, and then you just do whatever you want. You don't even think about what you're doing to me, or to Momma, or Alicia, or even Dad, if Momma gets really mad about this. The only reason I even think that's you being the selfish one is because you wouldn't be able to walk and chew gum if you were actually that stupid." She realized her voice had gone up at least an octave. That could not, the detached back corner of her brain thought, be healthy. "I'm so done with this. I'm done. I don't even care anymore. Go completely ruin any chance you ever had at having an actual life. I don't even care. I'm not even going to bother telling people I disapprove unless they actually ask."

And, before it actually could devolve into hair pulling or she could stop making the faintest trace of sense, she walked into the Cascade Hall and sat down in an empty seat without even scanning the general population. She started to slice an apple, but her hands were shaking too much to make the cuts straight.

Maybe, she thought as her head cooled a little, that had been a little bit of an overreaction. Apparently, people under sixteen or so got a little leeway for acting stupid and had some time to recover before they were flat-out booted from society. She wasn't going to take it back, though. Rachel was never the first to apologize in her family, because even those who'd not just let the matter go away and act like it had never happened would crack a long time before she did even if they were in the right - which Kate wasn't. Rachel didn't actually care what her sister did, and even envied her a little for having the guts to do it, but she did care a lot when it could make her look bad by association.

It wasn't enough, though, that Sam was in her House and still apparently had no problem with being poor and illegitimate and using her surname. It wasn't enough that she was being freaking blackmailed. No. Her sister just had to join the loser Teppenpaw Quidditch team on top of all that, thus setting herself up for both political comments and for mockery for being a total failure and Rachel for the backlash when their mother found out and blamed Rachel for not keeping her on a shorter leash, and then let her find out about it from outside sources.

Some Crotalus she was. She should have known about this months ago. It had been so obvious. Kate had hurried out of dinner at least one night a week - no doubt going to get ready for practice. She'd been so skittish for a while right at the beginning of the semester, too, and so reluctant to talk about what she was doing at school over the midterm break. And then she'd spent so much time flying around the yard when they went to Dad's....Oh, yeah, Momma was going to skin them both alive. She should have seen this and strong-armed Kate into quitting months ago, but she'd been distracted by the stuff she wasn't telling their parents about, and now it was too late. Lucie Dupree had a stronger arm than Rachel did, at least with the Teppenpaw-Crotalus game happening in just a few days. Kate would get too caught up in the House spirit, anti-Momma rhetoric to see straight; the only thing she could do that might work would be to mildly poison her sister, and she was not going to do that. Not only was it just wrong, it was also a really cowardly way to deal with a problem, and besides, if she got caught, she'd get expelled. Three very good reasons not to do that.

Lucie Dupree. That might be a way out. Could she pin blame on a member of one of the Big Old Families? That would be kind of risky. The Douglases were too new-money, and they didn't even have that overblown, Baroque-y, bought-'em-off thing that the Raineses did...

She noticed that she had company at almost the same time she realized she was getting close to both mincing her apple into apple sauce and slicing the end off one of her fingers. "Hi," she said, trying to sound normal and not acknowledging the weirdness of what she was doing to a piece of fruit. To just ignore the fruit altogether. There was no way she was eating that juicy, increasingly mushy mess. The mere sight was unpleasant.

16 Rachel Bauer (and a bit of Kate) So not winning this year's intelligence-gathering award. 154 Rachel Bauer (and a bit of Kate) 1 5

Jethro Smythe

November 24, 2010 4:17 PM

At least you didn't come last by Jethro Smythe

Today was a blue day. Since he'd woken up Jethro had felt distinctly that today should be blue. So all his clothes were blue (except his uniform robes and his shoes, because they were never blue, so that would just have been weird) and Jethro picked up his charms textbook, because it mostly had a blue cover. He checked his homework diary (Cynthia had charmed one for him that shouted at him if he forgot to write down his homework, and nagged him about it until he'd signed off that it was finished) and started to read the requisite chapter that Professor McKindy had set as a homework assignment. Or an out-of-class assignment, anyway, because obviously nobody was going to do the work at home. This was a boarding school; they didn't go home all that foten. Calling it homework was misleading, but nobody else seemed to mind, so Jethro, as usual, went along with the majority.

The fourth year was only a couple of pages into his chapter when he stomach gave a tumultuous groan. It would have been rather disturbing if Jethro hadn't sufferred many similar episodes in his recent past. He was a teenaged boy - he needed to eat, much and often. So the Crotalus tucked his charms book under his arm and made his way down to the Cascade Hall, where he would undoubtedly find food.

However, when he arrived at the Hall he encountered a problem. There was always a real lack of blue food, and not just here at Sonora, but in life everywhere. Jethro would eat non-blue colored food if he had to - he wasn't going to starve - but it would have been nice if there had been something blue to it. He couldn't think of anything off hand, but there had to be something other than jelly beans. The other trouble Jethro often encountered when he ate was the company he selected. A great number of people didn't seem to like it when he sat near the, but Jethro did prefer to eat with company. He spent so much time on his own anyway that while he was in a large, crowded hall it was preferable to be part of the crowd, not separate from it.

Simultaneously searching for someone who might not outright object to him sitting near them and some form of blue food, Jethro instead got distracted by the site of an apple being sliced so much it was turning liquid. He then noticed it was Rachel Bauer who was mincing it, and Jethro thought she might tolerate him. She had done in the past and he couldn't recall having done anything to offend her. He took a nearby seat and was about to ask if she'd mind his company when she said 'Hi.'

"Hi," Jethro replied. "It's a shame you can't get blue apples," he mused aloud.

0 Jethro Smythe At least you didn't come last 146 Jethro Smythe 0 5

Rachel

November 24, 2010 7:48 PM

Considering that interrupts my self-pity party. by Rachel

So much for ignoring her fruit. Jethro being Jethro, though, Rachel doubted he was actually making some obscure comment on her bizarre behavior - which wasn't nearly as bizarre as the Aquaman theme all that blue combined with the green robes to make it look like he was attempting to carry off - and decided to just go along with it.

"But if we could," she said, as though she were saying something perfectly reasonable and everyday, "we wouldn't have any reason to grow blueberries. Which are better with cream than apples are." Though she did have to admit to liking both. With candy being a one-way ticket to Fatsville, Rachel had learned to enjoy most forms of fruit very much. Oranges were the best, on some days - on others, they were just too acidic. Practically lemons.

"Why all the blue, anyway?" she asked. "Is there an occasion I don't know about?" It would be just her luck that there was some school-wide event that required the wearing of blue that she'd totally forgotten about. Drama wrought havoc on her memory every time. Today was probably a very bad day to wear purple. Would her eyes count as meeting the blue requirement? Probably not, considering that, no matter how she fiddled with her eyeliner, she could never quite get them to look gray for Crotalus-centric events. They were very resolute in their blueness.

...And she was officially too emotional about all of this, if anything Jethro Smythe did could make her think that she had mismarked her social calendar and was doomed to social death for not wearing blue. Kate had been the straw that finally drove her crazy. She needed to calm down, now. It was time, as she continued to pay at least some attention to Jethro, to sneak a cupcake off that tray nearby. She could deal with the shame and guilt later.

16 Rachel Considering that interrupts my self-pity party. 154 Rachel 0 5

Jethro

November 30, 2010 7:02 AM

I seem to have gate-crashed by Jethro

Rachel very sensibly pointed out that one didn't need blue apples when there were bluberries about. Jethro didn't know if they would go better with cream, but they certainly went well with muffins. His eyes scanned the table once again and he found - to his delight - a blueberry muffin. Reaching over for it immediately, Jethro considered that while it wasn't blue exactly, more sort of golden with purpley veins, it would count. He didn't think it would be sufficient on its own, but it was a good starting point. he would have a blueberry muffin now, and maybe something more substantial afterwards.

"Why all the blue, anyway?" Rahel asked. "Is there an occasion I don't know about?" Jethro knew he shouldn't eat with his mouth open so he finished chewing his first bote of blueberry muffin before he answered.

"If there is an occasion you don't know about, then I don't know about it either," he replied. He couldn't state for certain that there wasn't an occasion she didn't know about, because Jethro himself was not omniscient. The only thing he could be sure about was that he hadn't dressed in blue for any particular occasion. "I just woke up feeling that today should be a blue day," he explained. "Green would have been easier," he considered out loud, looking at his muffin. "There is so much green food."

Rachel took a cupcake, and then they were both eating cake, which, to Jethro,. felt like a very civilized thing to do. When he aunts and cousins came over in the summer everyone would sit outside and eat cake. In the winter they tended to do a similar sort of thing but indoors. It was one of the few occasions Jethro was allowed to sit with the grown-ups. After all, he could hardly misbehave or say the wrong thing if all he was doing was eating cake. The situation he was in now felt oddly similar - rachel had asked why he was wearing blue, and Jethro had replied. Now they were both eating cake. As long as he knew the social rules for a situation then Jethro seemed to do okay. He sensed, however, that he should perhaps make some effort at conversation. As they were already on the topic of colors, he thought he may as well continue the theme. So he said, "Green is my favorite color, but I get to wear that all the time," he pointed at his robes. "Do you have a favorite color?"

0 Jethro I seem to have gate-crashed 0 Jethro 0 5

Rachel

December 02, 2010 10:59 PM

Misery loves company? by Rachel

Okay. There was no event. It was all good. And she was all sane. Taking in unnecessary calories and carbs, true, but everyone did that sometimes. It was all part of living and sometimes just not being good enough. She might even go so far as to indulge in a frosted cupcake next. It was a day when she was sure she could eventually forgive herself for it, since it was all Kate's fault anyway.

"There is," she agreed. "But it usually doesn't taste as good as other colors. Green apples are bitter, and so are most greens - " there was a word, she was sure, for large, edible green leaves, probably vegetables, that didn't make her sound more southern than her unholy terror of a great-grandmother, but she couldn't come up with it right now - "and lettuce tastes like murky water." Well, it did. She had always hated salads. She ate them, because she had to, but it was telling that one way in which she felt her diet had improved since she got rich quick was in being totally forbidden from using the dressings her father had been so fond of dumping on the bland, watery messes.

Jethro liked green. He was, as he pointed out, in luck. She had always felt it made her look funny. Her shade of blonde hair really didn't go all that well with green. They should have picked something nice and neutral for the robes. Besides, they were in the desert. Sure, the founders had been some Irish guys who liked to play make-believe with the grounds, but they were still. In the. Desert.

"I like lots of colors," she said. "Blue, purple - " she was wearing her favorite purple blouse just now - "gray, a few shades of brown...I got these brown dress robes last year, you know, custom-tailored, and they were, like, gorgeous, but Kathy Hayes said I looked like a grandma in them. Can you believe that? Just because she's not capable of more sophistication than a drunken circus elephant." She reminded herself to be calm, and that Jethro did not care about girls' clothing. At least, she hoped he didn't. She had gone to a dance with him, and her mother had been operating under the assumption that she'd marry him ever since. "But I guess blue is my favorite. It matches my eyes."

16 Rachel Misery loves company? 154 Rachel 0 5