Acting Headmistress Sadi Powell

October 14, 2011 9:40 AM
Considering the request for Sadi to step in as temporary Headmistress at Sonora while David Regal had been called away to a family emergency had been made at midterm, the former Ancient Runes professor had not expected to still be performing this temporary role by the year’s culmination. Yet, here she was, opening the Midsummer event. The Cascade Hall had been suitably altered for the occasion so it now no longer resembled itself: the walls were strewn with banners, streamers and tapestries. Along one side of the room were large oak tables, already decorated with candles and drapes, which would later bear a magnificent banquet of fresh meats and vegetables that might have been consumed around the time of Leith Clurican’s birth. The opposite side held a stage, where members of the most liberal branch of Pierces were ready to entertain with musical delights. The staff table had been replaced by a lower surface, covered in numerous re-filling goblets containing a variety of drinks, to which staff and students could help themselves throughout the evening. While the majority of the rest of the room was empty for dancing, there were several scattered chairs round the outskirts, clustered together in groups of two or three for conversation, and each chair had been dutifully transfigured to mimic an ornate medieval throne.

Even Sadi herself had made a transformation on a much smaller scale. While she usually wore simple robes in muted tones and her grayed hair was pulled neatly into a bun, her attire this evening consisted of earthy green robes that would have been in fashion five hundred years previously, and the bun was twisted a little more elegantly, sitting higher on her head; she had eventually decided against the traditional pointed hat. She had encouraged other faculty members to dress in appropriate costume, too, and hoped many of the students would take advantage of the opportunity. From her vantage point on the stage – keeping as best she could out of the way of the musicians – Sadi was able to survey all those who came into the hall. She watched people gather, some excited, some unsure of what to do with themselves, and even a few who looked as though they’d rather be somewhere else. As six o’clock approached, the Hall began to look nicely full, and so Sadi signalled to the Pierces that she was ready before casting the Sonorus charm.

“Good evening,” Sadi’s voice was magnified to be heard over chatter, the waterfalls, and the rustling of many gowns. “Thank you all for attending the Midsummer Ball this evening. Music will begin shortly, and the banquet will be served at eight. First, I have a couple of announcements to make.” It seemed the way that whenever an event occurred there were always announcements to be made first. “I’d like to begin by congratulating the current seventh year students on making it to their final year, and wish them all the best for the future.” From all accounts they’d been a very pleasant yeargroup on the whole, causing very little trouble other than asking incessant and pedantic questions. “Hopefully our current sixth years will follow their good example, led, of course, by their Head Boy and Head Girl.” The prefects would not be announced until the Opening Feast, but it was tradition to announce the most senior positions at the end of the year. “Congratulations to Jose Hernandez of Pecari, and Marissa Stephenson of Crotalus, who can collect their badges at the start of next term.” She led a short round of applause for the students who had been amongst those nominated by the faculty, but voted in by their fellow students.

“It is not only our seventh year students who will be leaving Sonora, but we’re also saying farewell to Medic Rocamboli, and to Professor McKindy, who will both be moving on to other exciting opportunities.” From a professional perspective, Sadi considered that this left a vacant position for Head of Pecari House, but she also experienced Aaron’s resignation on a personal level; next term would mark the first time in over a decade that neither of them was employed at Sonora. “We wish them all the best.” There was another short smattering of applause before Sadi resumed speaking for the last time. “Finally, I’m sure you’ll all join me in thanking everyone who has made this evening possible. So as the prefects lead the opening dance, let’s show our appreciation for the faculty, and for our guests from California.” One final round of applause, and Sadi cancelled the charm that amplified her voice, and vacated the stage as music began to play.

(OOC: As students are still posting in some classes the House points for this year have not yet been totalled, so look out for an OOC notice before the start of the new term to see which House has won this year.)
Subthreads:
0 Acting Headmistress Sadi Powell Midsummer Medieval Ball 0 Acting Headmistress Sadi Powell 1 5

Andrew Duell

October 17, 2011 5:02 PM
The day was finally here. The day he'd been simultaneously dreading and dreaming of since the opening feast. He'd made his plans, and miraculously some of them actually panned out. He had gotten the prettiest girl in the school to go with him, and they'd even learned to dance without tripping over each other to much. One of the last things he had to figure out was what he was going to wear. This was not a dilemma that he usually encountered. Luckily he had a solution, he knew a leading expert in the field of archaic fashion and was mildly skilled in the art of transfigurations. After a few consultation sessions with Jose, a little research in the library and some experimentation; he was ready to go.

Andrew met with Marissa so that they could arrive at the ball together, they were prefects after all and should make a proper entrance. She was stunning, simply stunning. He tried to convey this idea on their way down to the hall, but wasn't sure he had much success. The Cascade hall looked incredible, he'd been here for six years, but what they could do with this room still amazed him. The room was pretty full by the time they arrived, with all the other people dressed up he didn't feel quite so out-of-place in his robes.

Headmaster Powell made her speech, and he cheered loudly and applauded his date and best friend on their appointments. "Congradulations Marissa! You're going to be an excellent... head?" That didn't quite sound right to him, but it didn't really matter.. he hoped. So he just grinned at her and offered his hand. Time to show off what they could do, "So, shall we?"
2 Andrew Duell Here we go... 145 Andrew Duell 0 5

Marissa Stephenson

October 19, 2011 5:59 PM
Having always had her own room at home, and only shared with other girls for sleepovers, Marissa had spent most of her years at Sonora being okay with having no roommates, but now she almost wished she wasn’t the only sixth year Crotalus girl. Having friends to tell her if she looked good and help with the buttons and her hair and such would have been great, and while she had friends at Sonora, they were both not Crotali and kind of…not girls, which made the part about not being Crotali irrelevant. Even if a boy had an eye for clothes, it just wouldn’t be proper.

What she heard about her appearance from Andrew made her feel a little better on that point, but as they entered the Hall, she still felt an uncomfortable flutter of anxiety in her stomach, if not as large a one as when she’d come to the place where she met up with her date. She kept smiling, but she was pretty sure she seemed a little fidgety, a little on edge. She felt bad about it, and hoped really that her date didn’t think it was because of him, because it really wasn’t…mostly not, anyway. It was about the Head Girl announcement.

She had been trying to ignore it, but the truth, the truth she couldn’t ignore anymore in this moment, was that she wanted it. She was a prefect and going to be Quidditch captain, so she knew she shouldn’t begrudge Tawny it if she got it, but…well, if it happened, she wouldn’t hold it against the other girl. She’d just hold it against herself.

The worst thing, she thought, if she lost, was that she wouldn’t know why. Would it be because they really thought Tawny would do better, or because they thought she was too busy, or would it be because of her ability with magic? People boiled it down to blood, but it wouldn’t surprise her at all if it turned out that there was a certain amount of…something that went with magical strength as well. Maybe it was smaller, more subtle if it wasn’t huge, and primarily between people of the same class, but it was hard for her to imagine that it didn’t matter at all, that people had seen her try and fail time and time again in magic classes without having some thoughts about it.

She had taken the psychology exam last summer, but somehow had failed to internalize the lesson involving the invisible audience. It would have been a great help to her if she had, but she hadn’t.

During the endless wait, she kept up a conversation, hoping to distract herself, but her nerves didn’t go away, and began to intensify greatly when the headmistress finally started to speak. By the time the words ‘Head Boy and Girl’ were uttered, her hands were clasped so tightly in her lap that her knuckles were starting to hurt, and she wished Andrew were actually her boyfriend so she could hang on to his.

Though he was soon using them for clapping, so maybe it was for the best that she hadn’t. For a second, she sat there stunned, but then closed her eyes and smiled as relief crashed down over her. She had done it. This one thing, at least, she had done. She had been good enough.

Andrew was saying something. She responded with a kind of squeak. He said something else, offering her his hand. She kind of noticed she was hugging him after the fact.

Once she did, though, she quickly stepped away, her cheeks rapidly turning red as sense returned to her head. Yes, she wanted to bounce up and down and scream at the top of her lungs, but she could not do that. She had to maintain a level of dignity here. She was the Head Girl-Elect. “Sorry,” she said. “I…guess I needed to hug someone.” She hoped that sounded like she was making appropriately light of it. The Head Girl-Elect’s first action in her new office had been to make someone almost certainly think she was very weird. That had to be one of the more auspicious starts to a tenure in the history of Sonora Academy. Since the music was starting, though, she had a good excuse for changing the subject to something a little less weird. “We can, um, dance now.” She thought she still remembered how, anyway. It hadn’t been very hard once she learned the basics, just like any dance routine. Now it was time for the recital, to be her best.
16 Marissa Stephenson Let's just try not to go mad, okay? 147 Marissa Stephenson 0 5

Andrew

October 19, 2011 10:12 PM
Andrew could really get used to this. He hugged Marissa right back, after he realized what was happening, which did take a moment or two. That wasn't quite what he had meant by "Shall we?", but it worked for him all the same. She was warm, soft and even smelled beautiful, he reveled in the moment but let her go reluctantly as she stepped back. She was blushing a very cute red color, and he couldn't help but smile at her. "You've worked hard for it and you deserve it. I couldn't think of a better person for the job."

He took her hand and gave it a quick, friendly squeeze then looped her arm around his and led the Head Girl-Elect to the dance floor. Right, dance. How did this go again? Dance class had showed him something unexpected. It had showed him that he was a half-decent dancer. He certainly wasn't a great and awesome natural, but he wasn't horrible at it either. He could follow the rhythm of the music and he could find the right places to put his feet. It had taken a little bit of practice in class, but he actually had a small, very small bit of confidence in what he could do on the dance floor. Or at least he thought he did. Then all the sudden he had to do it with the entire school watching. He was not meant to be the center of attention, he never wanted to be the center of attention and yet here he was... the center of attention. Well, a part of the center, the other prefects were out here as well. Hopefully most of the people were watching them. He looked around nervously and unsuccessfully tried to tune them all out.

The pattern was still up in his head, somewhere. He had just been practicing it in his room again before coming down to meet Marissa, definitely one of the advantages of having a room to himself. That plus there was no one else to complain about his experiments. But now... Rather sheepishly he looked back at his partner, he was afraid to tell her that they were in trouble. But looking at her again, everything else just faded away. She was something else. He put his hands at the right spots on her and gave her the best grin he could. The steps came back to him as he caught the rhythm of the music, so he drew in a breath and started them off counting quietly as they began to move.

2 Andrew Luckily, we're not from Aladren 145 Andrew 0 5

Marissa

October 20, 2011 10:07 PM
“Oh, thank you,” she said, biting her lip through a smile and looking down at the marble floor, smooth with two centuries of feet walking over it, for a second. “I really hope that you’re right about that.”

There wasn’t much else to say. To protest too much would be to seem to insult his judgment, or at the very least like excessive or false modesty – might even make him assume she would be incompetent, when she had no intention of being any such thing; it was hers, now, and that meant it was hers to do right – but she couldn’t bring herself to seem totally confident. That could seem arrogant, and even if that wasn’t how it was taken, she would still be deeply uncomfortable with it. It seemed like asking to fall and fall very hard at some time in the near future.

But now, they had to dance. As the prefects stepped out onto the floor together, she saw Jose across the room and started to smile in his direction, only to have the expression falter at the look Tawny was giving her. It was only for a moment, short enough for her to doubt she’d read it right, but enough that she couldn’t quite be sure she had read it wrong. It had also been very unfriendly indeed.

She hoped she was wrong, or at least that it was only a brief flash coming from disappointment instead of something worse. Being thought of as someone's enemy, even if it was just at school, would be bad, and worse than usual next year when she was Head Girl and trying to live through her RATS. Worst still when she had gotten through all of Sonora without seriously annoying anyone, except maybe every now and then, impersonally, in Quidditch.

“I hope Tawny and Edmond aren’t too upset, though,” she said as, after an initial moment during which he seemed to hesitate and she was about to as well, they began to move in the pattern they had been taught at the lesson. That was very much the bad thing about their voting group consisting of only four people, two boys and two girls. It made it seem more personal, somehow, than if there had been more candidates.

Since that didn’t seem like much of a way to continue the conversation, and focusing it on herself would be both awkward and rude, she then said, “So, do you have any great plans for the summer? I can't believe we're already on our way to seventh year."
16 Marissa That does tend to help, doesn't it? 147 Marissa 0 5

Andrew

October 23, 2011 10:26 AM
"Hmm..." He considered for a moment, as they danced and circled around he got to look over in Jose and Tawny's direction and Edmond and Cassie's. They were dancing, and he really didn't get a lot of time for analysis. "I hope not," he finally responded, "It's not like it was your or Jose's fault, the students were the ones that picked. I have noticed that some 'feuds' can get started this way though." He was fairly certain that everyone in the school would know to whom he was referring. "It seems a bit childish though. Oh well." He realized he was probably dragging down the mood and he needed to fix that so he cracked her a smile, "On the plus side, neither you nor Tawny are Aladrens."

He had been considering something for a little while now and he wasn't exactly sure how to proceed. He liked Marissa, a lot. She had agreed to go to the dance with him, miracles aside that had to indicate something, right? He wanted to ask her if she had any inclination towards making this arrangement of theirs more official. Tonight would be the right situation in which to ask, if all went well anyway. So far it was, the trouble was timing. It was their last day here at the school before leaving for the summer. Could he ask her something like that when they wouldn't see each other again until school started again? What sort of message would that send?

"Summer?" He thought about it for a moment, "Not really any big plans. My summers are generally boring. I'll split the time between Mom and Dad as usual, come to think about it, last I heard they had been talking about taking a trip somewhere..." he paused for a moment. "If they can agree on a place." The most exciting thing he could think of doing over the summer would be exchanging letters and such with his beautiful girlfriend until they could be reunited once the next term started.

"Yeah... seventh years. It's hard to believe, isn't it? We're going to be the old timers here, well not counting the teachers of course. It'll be our last year..." He nearly stumbled in his dance as the implications struck him. "We'll have RATS, and then on to the rest of our lives." Again he realized he may be steering the conversation in far to much of a 'serious' direction, "So," he continued more cheerfully, "What do you have planned for your summer?"

2 Andrew Immensely 145 Andrew 0 5

Marissa

October 23, 2011 9:50 PM
She tried not to, but Marissa couldn’t help but laugh at the mention of feuds being caused by the elections. Maybe things wouldn’t have been so bad if Charlie hadn’t been somehow involved, too, but as it was…well, it was an amusing comment now, but if Tawny decided they were the new James and Daniel, she was dead, and it wouldn’t help that much that they, at least, didn’t have to share a dorm. Though… “That should help,” she agreed with a smile. “Those guys are often a little intense, aren’t they?”

Intense. That was one way of putting it. A way that made her have something like a pain in the very nasty bruise version of a phantom limb.

Marissa was almost sorry she had brought up summers at all when Andrew started talking about his parents. Her parents, and her father’s partners and their wives, had all been together as long as she could remember, so she found that she didn’t really know what to say. Especially since even when her parents disagreed, it didn’t actually matter, because Mama would discuss it until she got bored and then tell Daddy what they were going to do and that would be that. He would grumble, but he would go along with it. Still, at least Andrew didn’t seem…terribly disturbed about it, so maybe it wasn’t going to completely mess up the evening.

Or maybe so. She didn’t shiver at the mention of the rest of their lives, but she thought it was an appropriate moment to do so. What did that mean, anyway, now, for her? Once, she’d had at least seven more years of her life worked out, but now she didn’t really know how well, if at all, any of those old plans could be implemented. Coach Pierce said it was possible, but Marissa could only see difficulty in going back to the Muggle world. The question was if it would be more difficult than trying to be a witch who’d taken almost a month longer than the rest of the class to get the feather the full five feet in the air, and that had been one of her success stories.

At least she could practice over the summer now. That might help. “I’m going to try to take the Apparition test,” she said. “I might not be magic enough to do it, but I turned seventeen last month, so I guess it can’t hurt…much to try.” She added the qualifier to the normally rhetorical statement because of the real fear of splinching. “And I’ll spend a lot of time working on Transfiguration. It’s going to be so good to be able to practice so I can do more than light a candle by the time I get back next year.” She tilted her head thoughtfully. “Though I guess if you can only do a few things, that’s not a bad one. The power went out last midterm, and my sister kept asking, ‘why can’t you just magic the candles on instead of fumbling with the lighter.’”

She finished that with a laugh. Trust Paige not to fear her being a witch in the bad sense, or even the idea of her little sister she’d teased remorselessly when they were little being able to break the laws of physics where she could not, and just focus on the part where Marissa’s abilities could be applied practically.

“So yeah,” she said, looking up at him with a smile. It was a little more work to dance and talk at the same time, but she thought she was pulling it off. “We were just saying I’m not an Aladren, but I get to spend all summer acting like an Aladren. I’ll be keeping up with my Muggle subjects a lot, too. Mama wants me to have options.” She shook her head. “So at least you can think your summer is probably going to be more exciting than mine.”
16 Marissa Admittedly, there have been some Crotali.... 147 Marissa 0 5

Andrew

October 24, 2011 10:23 PM
Andrew smiled as she talked about her summer plans, and thought about his own. "I don't know that mine will be that much more exciting, maybe if Mom and Dad can figure out a trip. I think half the fun for them is just trying to figure out where to go." He briefly remembered their last family trip they took, it had been... interesting. What might they come up with this time? He'd find out soon enough.

"I actually hadn't given much thought to the Apperation test. I'm going to have to do that as well." He considered her statement, and wasn't quite sure how to respond. Apperation did take quite a bit of magic from what he'd heard, and as much as he liked her, Marissa was not one to pack a lot of power. "From what I've heard, the hardest part is the focus and determination." He smiled, "You'll do great." He really hoped she'll do great, he would not be happy if she lost a leg or something in the process. Hmmm... "I'd love to help you keep practicing over the summer, but I guess that would be a bit difficult wouldn't it?"

Maybe he could take some small steps here, to build up to asking her officially. That could work. Yeah. "If you want... I can give you my addresses, just in case you want to send me an owl or e-mail or something..." Huh. That didn't come out sounding quite as cool as he had hoped, more desperate or needy or something. Well, there went the evening and all hope he may have had for... well, anything. Open mouth, insert foot. Maybe he can recover, and say something clever! "I wonder how many other couples in the room could use either method to communicat..." had... had he just said the word 'couple'? Crap! He had! Don't Panic. Maybe she didn't notice... yeah, and maybe Jhon would learn to fly a broom someday. He had to be nearly beet red at this point, he could feel it. He wasn't even sure how he was still dancing now that he just solidly slammed his other foot into his mouth next to the first one. He just prayed silently that she didn't shove him away and storm off in the middle of the dance. Maybe she'd be kind and wait until the end, then he could sneak out and finish his schooling in another country.
2 Andrew Maybe just one or two... 145 Andrew 0 5

Marissa

October 25, 2011 6:29 PM
Marissa nodded at the idea of half the fun being figuring out where to go. “Paige and I always said that packing was half the fun when we were little,” she said, then couldn’t remember if she had ever said anything about Paige to him by name before. “Paige being my sister,” she added. “There’s just the two of us, she’s older.”

Sometimes, when she thought about it too much, she felt almost sad about being away from her sister so much. True, they had never really liked each other, but they were sisters, and one day, that would make them about the only close family they had. They had never been alike, never gotten along, but they had known each other, and she liked to think they had loved each other just because that was what close relatives were supposed to do. Now, though, they were practically strangers, especially with Paige spending practically half of her holidays with friends and boyfriends in New England these days.

Still, if she’d stayed, then life would have been entirely about being better than Paige, and she couldn’t imagine the kind of cutthroat competition that went with prep school, never mind the next step, would have done a lot of good things for their relationship, either. Things were what they were meant to be.

“A little bit,” she agreed. A pity, though. Andrew was very good at Transfiguration, and she thought Apparition was a little related to that. ‘Thought’ being the key word. She’d read so much, with all the independent studies, this year that she couldn’t keep it all straight in her head anymore. She had no idea how that was going to play out in her RATS next year, she just had to figure out some way of getting it straight again….

“I’m not sure,” Marissa said, pausing mentally on the word ‘couple’ for a moment before passing it over as innocuous and also looking around the room – she was never sure how many of the other students were Muggleborn, or at least the kind of half-blood familiar with a computer – then noticed Andrew looked kind of red and pained. Since she was pretty sure they had not been dancing that vigorously and that he had not been abruptly re-Sorted into Crotalus….”Did I step on your foot? I’m sorry.” She didn’t remember stepping on his foot, much less stomping it, but….
16 Marissa I'm not one of those, though...I think. 147 Marissa 0 5

Andrew

October 26, 2011 9:13 PM
"Foot?" Andrew was a caught a bit off guard by her response, "No, I just thought..." his anxiety drained from him, she actually hadn't noticed? Maybe there was hope for Jhon's flying after all. Or... she didn't even consider it worthy to think about. That was probably more likely, she was Marissa after all; Prefect, Quidditch Captain, and now Head Girl-elect. He was just plain ol' Andrew, nothing terribly special there. She would have her pick of the school, it was kind of her to agree to this dance with him. He wondered, very briefly, who she actually wished she was dancing with.

No! That familiar streak of determination reared it's head once more, burning its way through his depressing train of thought. He couldn't give up without a fight, he liked the girl. He just had to figure out how to get her to like him back. She had agreed to the dance, so there had to be something there. Man up, girls liked the take-charge, confident types. Not the whiny depressing ones. He had to be bold and daring and such. He'd come into this dance with just such plans, what had happened to them? Why did he keep falling back into his old, depressing, anti-social habits? He was past that stage, wasn't he?

"Sorry," he continued with a bit of a grin, "Don't worry about it. I think you've mentioned your sister before, but I don't know if you said her name." Being raised as an only child, this gave him a good avenue for conversation. "I don't have any siblings, Jhon is about as close as I have." He glanced over at his cousin, still mesmerized by the Pierces, Careys, Brockerts, and whomever else might catch her fancy. "Are you and Paige close? I look around at some of the families and wonder what it would be like to be a part of a bigger one."
2 Andrew No, trust me, you're not 145 Andrew 0 5

Marissa

October 27, 2011 12:04 PM
He just thought…what? Marissa hated it when people didn’t finish sentences like that. She couldn’t help but be paranoid, going over everything that they might have meant or not meant and if it was something bad about her. She usually assumed it was by default, or at least worried that it was and that she didn’t know what about herself she needed to try to fix at that time.

She was right on the verge of asking if she had done something wrong when he changed channels and asked about Paige. She didn’t have full use of her hands at the moment, which limited her ability to express it non-verbally and more fully than she thought she could with words, but did lift her right shoulder slightly. “Not really,” she said. “Not now. She started going to this boarding school in Connecticut in our second year, so we don’t even have the same old people we knew to talk about when I was home because she didn’t see them all year either, and now that she’s in college I don’t really see her anymore.”

But that was depressing to talk about, and she didn’t want to depress him. “But I’m still friends with some of my friends from before Sonora,” she added. “My parents pass on letters, put stamps on them and stuff, since they think I’m at some weird…I don’t know…some kind of school where it’s all about development and they don’t let us have much contact with the outside world, and they’ve taken me back every summer so far.” She made a face. “Though it’s kind of bad that I decided to tell them Quidditch was the dorm soccer team, because now one of them is the soccer captain at her school and we ended up playing last summer and I kind of…I don’t know how much she bought that I’m supposed to be a soccer captain, too.”

Of course, Marissa had always had a sneaking feeling that Briana in particular didn’t believe her – valued their friendship enough not to confront her, sure, but still didn’t believe her. “I don’t know if I’d want to be part of…you know, some of the big families here, though. I hadn’t been here a day before people started telling me to avoid the Careys. And the history books I’ve seen….” She shook her head. “We’re supposed to live a really long time. Maybe we’ll end up with magic great-great-something grandchildren and see how big families are.” Assuming, of course, that her…Problem wasn’t a dominant trait or something like that, which would get passed on and make everyone turn out to be a Squib in a generation or two. Mendel, for some reason, had never gotten around to figuring out what happened with magic as far as she knew, though she hadn’t really tried to find too much about that kind of stuff in the library. Though maybe she should, if only to see if the Problem would make her die sooner than other wizards, if still well after she could have expected to otherwise.
16 Marissa I'll take your word for it. 147 Marissa 0 5

Andrew

October 28, 2011 10:30 PM
Andrew really wished he had some common point of reference at this point. He had no siblings and the kids he had called friends before coming to Sonora had pretty much deserted him He hadn't really noticed when it happened, his connection to them had been tenuous at best to start with. It occurred to him that this might be some of the information that 'social-type' people share with each other. Well, one way to find out.

"You still keep in contact with your friends? That's cool. I've pretty much lost contact with the ones I had before I started coming here. They were never really close friends, it was kinda tough to make real close friends while I was bouncing back and forth between Mom and Dad. So I guess on the plus side that means I didn't really loose anybody by coming here." He gave her a bit of a wry grin, "On the down side, I don't have much of a social life when I'm not here. Just a few letters back and forth with Jose, but he leads the life of a California Pierce, so..." he let the sentence drift off since he really wasn't quite sure how to end it. "You said your summer will be something of an Aladren summer, most of mine have been as well. Mainly for lack of other things to do." He sighed.

"I guess that's one of the reasons I was anxious to keep in contact over the summer. I'm trying to become more 'social' and such and you've been a wondrous help to me in that aspect." He gave her a wink, "Look I'm out dancing in front of the whole school with a beautiful girl. You can't get much better than that." He could have stopped the grin on his face if he had wanted to, which he didn't. "You may be on your own on the soccer thing, I haven't tried to figure that one out yet. But, once we have hordes of grandchildren, we can set them against one another and let them figure out how it works."

Wait a second... had she said 'we'll end up with magic great-great-something grandchildren' or 'we'll end up with magic great-great-something grandchildren'?
2 Andrew No independent verification needed? 145 Andrew 0 5

Marissa

October 29, 2011 9:20 PM
Though still blushing a little from being called beautiful, Marissa couldn’t help but laugh at the image that popped into her head when Andrew said that about teams of great-great-grandchildren playing soccer against each other, not least because it involved her being very old and wearing a sweatshirt and blowing a whistle in between long monologues about not letting them forget that their great-great-great-grandmother was a Muggleborn and they had better be proud of that when they complained and said they’d rather go play Quidditch. Assuming no one married any more Muggles, great-great-whatever grandchildren would be pretty thoroughly wizards by that point – not really purebloods, at least not by the standards some of the wackier families held, but definitely not Muggles or Muggleborns by any stretch of the imagination.

But that was a long, long lifetime away, even if she only lived to be a hundred. Maybe all those people who lived to a hundred and fifteen were like her, just-barely wizards who found themselves in the Muggle world, or else the Squibs she’d read about – not magic enough to have a hugely elongated lifespan, but still different enough from everyone else to get attention from Muggles. Either way, though, it was too far off to really affect her right now. Though it did put a new complexion on Papa Donnie and Aunt Hetty, technically a great-great-aunt, both living to be more than ninety….

“We’ll have to wait and see about that,” she said. “But…” she flushed again, then went on. “If you want to write, like you said, I’ll write back.” And since that felt like one of those moments she called a ‘script moment,’ she kept talking. “I, you know, miss talking to magic people during the summers, too. It’s hard, always having to cover for everything…” She shook her head. “That’s one big reason why I think about staying on this side, you know, being a witch full time even after we graduate. Either way, though, I’d like to still be in touch with people here.” She glanced up at him for a second. “I’ve probably spent more time with you this year than I have with my sister in the past two.”
16 Marissa I think it'll be all right for now. 147 Marissa 0 5

Andrew

October 29, 2011 10:53 PM
Andrew loved to hear her laugh. Especially when it was potentially connected to the thought (he hoped) of them making grandchildren. On the plus side, she wanted to keep in contact over the summer. That was great news! He was grinning wide, but faltered a bit when she revealed her thoughts about changing back over to the muggle world after graduating. He knew she wasn't the best with magic, but she was still a witch. They had been studying together and she had been getting better.

His smiled perked up again when she said she'd want to stay in contact regardless of which way she decided. It really perked up when she mentioned the time they had spent together. "We have had some good times, haven't we?" Was now the time? She would write to him over the summer, maybe that would be the best. They'd write back and forth, and build up to something and at the opening feast next term.... Maybe that would be the right time. But... who knows what might happen over the summer. She hadn't directly mentioned any, but she had to have boys after her all the time. What if some guy came along and swept her off her feet? He couldn't afford to wait.

"Marissa, writing will be great, but..." How to word this? "This probably really isn't the best time to ask you this, since we won't see each other until the next term starts, but what do you think about making this more of an official relationship?" That didn't come out right, to 'official', "I mean, I like you and..."
2 Andrew Now I'll take your word for it 145 Andrew 0 5

Marissa

October 30, 2011 11:31 PM
Marissa wasn’t sure what to expect when a ‘but’ happened. ‘Buts’ tended to herald not-so-good things, in her experience, and she didn’t want that. They had been having such a good time, she was still on a high from being named Head Girl…If things could just kind of stay the way they were now forever, then that would be okay with her. Just a permanent loop of one day when nothing went wrong for her, Groundhog Day without the memories driving her crazy – with an Obliviator on standby for each repetition, she guessed.

But it didn’t work that way, she knew. Life was more complicated than that. Nice moments never lasted, and even if they were followed by more nice moments, eventually, the kind of lousy ones crept in again. She wasn’t sure what was going on here, only that it was in her nature to mentally prepare for the worst, and that this trait had been greatly enhanced by six years of being one of the slowest in many of her classes.

In retrospect, she guessed she shouldn’t have been quite so surprised by what Andrew did end up saying, but it took her completely off guard anyway. For one thing, Andrew was…well, to say was was to risk the kind of inaccuracy that happened when people assumed she was confident, but he’d always seemed like one of those people with a big personality, actually confident and that sort of thing, comfortable with himself not the sort to really be particularly interested in a choir mouse like her except when she was directly in front of him, and for another…the question itself was just a surprise. She’d dated a few guys, but always with both of them fully aware that she was going back to boarding school in, of all the weird places in the world, Arizona in two months, a month after they started back to their schools anyway, so she had no familiarity with how people went about actually going from ‘people who have been on a date’ or even ‘people who have been on multiple dates’ to ‘people who are in, as Andrew puts it, an Official Relationship.’

Either she’d just found out, though, or Andrew was as oblivious to these things as she was and was making it up as he went along, but a question had been asked, and it needed an answer. Either way, next year was going to be…different. She smiled.

“…Yeah,” she said when he trailed off. “I guess…we can give that a try.” Then, since that reply was very Crotalus but not very warm, she added. “I’d like to give that a try.”
16 Marissa Very good, then. 147 Marissa 0 5

Andrew

October 31, 2011 7:36 PM
She had said yes! Andrew felt like dancing, except he was already dancing. So, he felt like leaping into the air and shouting, but that would probably scare off his cause for such elation. So instead he went with his first instinct. He stepped up their dance with just a little more flair as the music dwindled and came to an end. He was grinning ear to ear, and releasing Marissa from the dance hold he gave her a very quick 'official' hug. Releasing her from that, he took her hand, bowed and kissed the back of it.

"Thank-you M'lady for the dance," it was cheesy and he knew it, but he couldn't help himself, "and everything else. I look forward to giving this a try as well." He still couldn't believe it, despite everything Marissa had actually agreed to be his girlfriend. He was going to have to figure out what to do next, because he had no idea. He did know one thing, he couldn't let her down. He also couldn't let his mother find out... Knowing her, she'd try to arrange some kind of meeting, she'd probably try to make is look 'accidental' while she was at it. That wasn't going to happen, not for a long time.

Now was not the time to wallow on that thought, they had a whole evening ahead of them yet before they parted ways for the summer. He was not about to waste a moment of it. "Shall we peruse the refreshments and allow some of the other students to use the dance floor?" He offered his arm and wished for the best.
2 Andrew Indeed 145 Andrew 0 5