Laila Kennedy
November 05, 2016 2:20 PM
Halloween Party! by Laila Kennedy
For three weeks, the following sign made in orange and black had hung in Cascade Hall and the bulliten boards of each common room (each room had a different element to it. Flying bats decorated the sign in Cascade Hall while dancing pumpkins adorned the signs in the common rooms) so as to ensure every student in the school would have a chance to see it:Spirit Club presents...
A HALLOWEEN COSTUME PARTY!
Please dress up in the costume of your choice and join us for a night of fun and merry-making.
Where: MARS room 1
When: Friday, October 31 at 7:30 pm
Events include: music, food, dancing, paper ‘jack-o-lantern’ making, a bake sale, and a costume contest.
Halloween had been one of Laila’s favorite holidays for as long as she could remember. There was just something about the spookiness and chill in the air that sent her spine shivering and that was a feeling that she found she craved more than anything. Her mother, superstitious as ever, had never fully embraced the less-religious aspects of the holiday but Joey Kennedy who had grown-up trick-or-treating around Turner’s Point had put his foot down and insisted his children get the full benefit of the holiday. Not one to be outdone by her husband, Leonora had painstakingly handmade Halloween costumes for both Laila and her brother because if her “angeli piccoli” were going to dress up (after all, if it was just a game, it couldn’t hurt anyone) then they were going to do it well. So long as they went to church with her beforehand and lit candles to pay their respects to the dead.
That year, with Spirit Club, Laila was excited to host a school-wide Halloween party. Since Halloween fell on a Friday that year, she had wanted to ask Headmaster Brockert if they might be allowed to dress-up for school as well, but she was a little frightened of the man and opted not to in case she get shot down. Besides, dress-up in costumes was a Muggle thing, it seemed, and Headmaster Brockert was a pureblood. Laila had been at Sonora long enough to know that while the purebloods tolerated her presence and participation in class (sometimes even her friendship) they were less tolerant of other things (like romantically mixing or forcing” her Muggle beliefs on them).
At the end of the day on Friday, Laila arrived to the MARS rooms as soon as class got out to start setting up for the party. She had decided that the water room would be the perfect place for the party, a night scene by a lake was such a nice setting and with the help of her Spirit Club and the prairie elves she was certain the whole thing would come together quite nicely. The finished product was, perhaps, not quite as polished as she would have liked since they were only schoolchildren and elves, but she was still happy to see that the general idea of her decorations were around.
The dark, quiet lakeside had been brightened with strings of fairy lights that now hung in the illusioned trees and tall stakes that poked out of the ground around uncovered picnic tables that held Halloween-themed treats whipped up by the prairie elves. Since the party was to take place just after dinner, Laila had thought snacks and desserts would be more appropriate, but had also asked for a few substantial items since some members of the Spirit Club had worked through dinner. In the ground were paper bags with faces cut into them put over candles (charmed with the aid of an older student not to catch the bags on fire) that she had taught the Spirit Club to make in lieu of jack-o-lanterns, and at another picnic table were more bags in case other students wanted to join in the fun. She had put out a couple of sharpies from her personal collection in case someone wanted to write their name on the back and take their creation home later.
Professor Ammon had graciously agreed to help Laila bring creepy Muggle monster tunes to the Halloween party, and so earlier that month, Laila had written home and asked Gabe-y to send her a mix CD which was now playing through an enchanted CD player hidden inside an old, broken cauldron she had found in one of the unused classrooms and decorated with fake spider web. She was really grateful for Gia and the rest of the Spirit Club’s help setting up the party and had made a mental note to talk to Gia about doing something nice for the members who had volunteered their afternoon to set-up for the event. She was also thinking about doing something for Gia who had agreed to be her right-hand woman in the crazy rollercoaster she was throwing together, but of course Gia didn’t need to know that.
Once the room started to look like it was coming together, she let the various Spirit Club members leave to their rooms to get ready for the party, staying herself until everything was set-up. She had worn her costume under her robes in case there wasn’t anytime to change later and was grateful that she had since she was putting the last candle to rights when the first guests started to show up. Her schoolbag she kicked under the table-clothed booth the Fundraising Committee had set up so that it would be out of the way, and put on a big smile for everyone. She was kind of sad that she hadn’t been able to grab her red cloak like she’d originally wanted to, but Laila was quite certain that the red dirndl dress her Mother had made was obvious enough as part of a costume that it didn’t quite matter if she didn’t have her cloak as well. And if the party seemed to be doing well, she supposed she could always leave it to grab the rest of her costume. It was just lying on her bed, after all.
Laila let the party guests mingle for a few moments, wondering if she wouldn’t be able to get her cloak before she had to get up and greet everyone and point out the Fundraising Club’s booth, and wrung her hands in the skirt of her dress. When it was time, however, Laila climbed up onto one of the picnic table benches and projected her voice in the way she’d been practising for the Quidditch games.
“Thank you for coming to the party that the Spirit Club worked so hard to put on! Let’s give them a round of applause for coming here after class and staying until it was done!” Laila announced, showing her hands as she began to clap as a model for what she wanted everyone to do. “And now, if you could turn your attention to the booth over there, the Fundraising Committee is holding a Halloween-themed bake sale. All proceeds are going to a charity of their choice which Emmy will come up and talk about later on!” She clapped again, wanting the other students to join her. “There are paper bags there in case anyone wants to make a ‘jack-o-lantern’ to add to our ‘jack-o-lantern’ garden over there,” she raised her fingers to make quotations so the other Muggleborns would know she knew what a real jack-o-lantern was. “And for those of you who want to participate, there is a Halloween costume competition. Winner gets the joy and prestige of being applauded. Now please, enjoy the music and the company and sample the other treats we’ve laid out--you’ll notice there are no cakes, you’ll have to go to Emmy for those, and most of all, Happy Halloween!”
OOC: Feel free to respond here or at FnF if you’d like to bang out a quick Halloween party thread! If you’re part of Spirit Club (ie: posted there or meant to) feel free to mention whichever part of setting up your character did or, if you’d rather, Laila will need people to help tear down so your character could just mention that they planned to stay later to help with that.
Subthreads: What a brilliant illusion I bear [Tobi] by Makenzie Newell with Tobi Reinhardt
Two cakes and one companion for the evening, please by Araceli Arbon with Caelia Lucan
Cont'd from F&F (Jemima if you want) by Gia Donovan
Special Delivery. (Laila) by Kira Spaulding with Laila
All that jazz. [tag: Louis] by Arne Reinhardt with Louis Valois
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Laila Kennedy
Halloween Party!
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Laila Kennedy
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Kira Spaulding
November 14, 2016 1:12 PM
Special Delivery. (Laila) by Kira Spaulding
There was a party tonight but Kira had no intention of going. She'd never liked parties or balls or anything. She knew that nobody would want to talk to her and she'd be sitting there bored and awkward all night, probably standing by the refreshment table until she got full. It wasn't real likely that anyone would actually want to talk to her. Kira wasn't even sure Caelia would go because Kelsey certainly wouldn't and Chuck...would probably prefer to talk to Gia anyway. She didn't know about Daniel and while Sammy had made friendly chit-chat with her on the wagon, the Crotalus knew she too had friend that she probably found more interesting than Kira.These had always been her experiences. People weren't particularly impressed by her. Kira wasn't the perfect lady or funny or smart or interesting or even that pretty or any of the other things that made Kelsey so appealing to other members of society. And even though this wasn't a society part by any means, she felt excessively inferior to her classmates in anything but magical ability. Kira felt she didn't have anything going for her at all besides that. Yes, she was wealthy and from a good family, but that didn't seem to matter when Kelsey-and others-were too and others didn't even care about that. Plus, the one thing that she had going for her, that made her feel good about herself could possibly even cause resentment in others, even if they were better than her in every other way.
So why go to this party when it wouldn't be truly different in anything more than surface ways? She didn't belong. She never would. Not anywhere. Besides, it included dancing and Kira wanted nothing to do with that.
Instead she decided to just settle in for the night and read a book. Reading had always been an escape for Kira, something to take her mind off the way she felt and now that it was no longer socially acceptable for her to play with her dollhouse or her American Witch dolls-she was even afraid to ask her parents for new ones that came out- she had delved in further into the world of books. The main reason she hadn't joined Book Club was because of the club part. Kira didn't want to share her opinions on the books she read-or even what books she read-or her interpretations of what she read for fear of being judged and mocked. It was better to do this on her own instead of risking rejection. Besides, it wasn't as if anyone save for Amity or Sophie had ever really valued her opinion anyway.
She put her nightgown on and picked up her book off the nightstand. Kira was just about to get into bed when she noticed that Laila's covers looked a bit different than the normal Crotalus red. The shape of the fabric didn't look quite right.
Kira went over to investigate, on the grounds that it might have been something that she had done by accident even though she overall had better control of her magic now. Instead it turned out to just be a cape. Something that most likely belonged to Laila's costume. Something her roommate would likely want. It looked like Kira was going to have to go down there after all.
She changed back into her clothing, as it wouldn't do to be seen in her pajamas by anyone other than her roommate which she didn't have a choice about and grabbed the cloak. Kira walked down to MARS and entered the party, despite the sick feeling growing in her stomach. It's not like I'm staying. She reminded herself.
Spotting Laila, she approached, cloak in hand. "Hey, I think you forgot this."
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Kira Spaulding
Special Delivery. (Laila)
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Kira Spaulding
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Laila
November 14, 2016 8:37 PM
Much appreciated! by Laila
After giving her announcement, Laila was planning to go back upstairs to fetch her cape, but her attention kept being pulled away for one thought or another until she had decided to just give up entirely on the idea of being Little Red Riding Hood and just enjoy her party. So far she had only spotted Gia there, but there were so many bodies there, she was hopeful that the others had showed up as well. The Reinhardts were separated from all the drama and so Laila had reclused herself into hanging out with them a fair amount, however she always felt bit left out when with them since they were all family and she wasn’t. That was why she had liked to hang out with the Donovans and Sammy. It was a little bit the same with them—they had all been friends together for two years before she had really began to befriend them and Jax & Gia were siblings while Sammy & Gia were roommates, but they hadn’t all known each other their entire lives and so she felt like they had more room for her, somehow.However, after everything that had happened a few weeks earlier, Laila was feeling rather uneasy around her friends. It seemed as though there was no one around for her to safely interact with. Wu got along with her but not the others, Sammy was worried about setting her best friend against her brother, Jax didn’t like her like she’d thought he did, and Laila felt utterly guilty when she was around Gia when both Wu and Sammy had confided in her but were avoiding the others. As such she did try her hardest to hang out with the older girl perhaps more than she normally would have, however as it was a party Laila didn’t really want to be filled with all-consuming guilt.
She was pouring herself a glass of the Halloween punch, however, when her roommate showed up, carrying the red fabric. With a wide grin, she set the cup down on the table and whirled the cape about herself, fastening it around her neck.
“Thank you so much!” she gushed. “Would you like some punch?” Without really waiting for a response, Laila pushed the glass towards her roommate and turned to pour herself one. It was as she turned around that she realized Kira was not in costume. “Are you not planning on staying?” she enquired in a friendly manner. “You absolutely must stay!”
Laila had always thought Kira was nice—if not a bit odd and quiet, and she did wish the other girl didn’t keep to herself so much. Laila could understand feeling shy—she was trying her best to be patient with Wu, after all, but she and Kira had been roommates for four years now. She envied the easy friendship between Sammy and Gia which had been (for the most part) drama free. Laila had invited Kira to eat with her and whoever it was she was dining with that day a couple times, but it seemed that Kira preferred the company of her cousin, Kelsey (it was just too perfect that her roommate along with everyone else have family at Sonora when Laila could only see her brother twice a year) and Kelsey’s roommate, Caelia. But this, this was her chance to finally have a firm friendship with her roommate.
“And if you’re worried about a costume, here, you can take my cape!” Laila reached back up to unfasten the cloth from around her neck and moved to hand it to Kira in case the other girl would like it.
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Laila
Much appreciated!
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Laila
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