Putting my foot in it (tag Farrah) on Cascade Hall

Georgia Kirkly

October 25, 2016 7:58 AM

Putting my foot in it (tag Farrah) by Georgia Kirkly

Part of Georgia was glad to be back at school, in that it meant she was away from her parents. She was just so mad at both of them! Her mum had messed everything up and was now seriously over-compensating like she could just buy Georgia back. But her dad… Her dad hadn’t been able to get over what she and her mum were. He didn’t want to be part of a family of witches, and that was so hurtful. When she’d been to visit, she had felt like she could barely even talk to him. She didn’t know why he’d even wanted her there given that he was so grossed out by what she was. Her family had always been so nice, so loving, and now she was actually glad to get away from them, to be sent off to this weird-ass boarding school! She felt guilty for thinking such horrible thoughts about them but it didn’t make the thoughts go away, it just added another reason to feel crappy about everything.

At school, she more or less felt invisible. Her year had a weird vibe, totally different than what he mom had tried to prepare her for. There were the Purebloods, and they did seem to stick kind of together, but they weren’t actively hostile. Then there were a couple of girls, Eliza and Arianna V, who walked around like they had permanent bad smells under their noses. At first she had assumed they were both Purebloods but had learnt later that that wasn’t the case. They were just the same garden variety stuck up girls she would have encountered at a regular school. It was odd.. She had thought that blood would be a big leveller. That all the halfbloods would be outcast together, but it didn’t seem to work that way. Girls who had always acted like Queen Bee seemed to feel the same ability to do it here. They hadn’t faded into the background the way she seemed to. Perhaps it was more to do with her than the whole blood thing - she was just a chubby, crybaby loser. At least standing out as much as a piece of furniture meant she was off everyone’s radar, even if it was kind of depressing. She’d seen a cartoon set at a mystic school once, and this girl who had felt invisible had actually become so. She wondered whether that was something she should worry about here… Although, until her limbs started disappearing, she guessed she’d be grateful for going unnoticed, especially now that there seemed to be twice as many potential bullies as she’d initially anticipated… Not only were there the blood racists but girls like Arianna and Eliza. She had been very disheartened to hear about the Spirit Club being founded. The one thing Sonora had had going for it was it didn’t have actual cheerleaders, even if it had people who had the attitude but not the uniform. She made a mental note to avoid everyone who had signed up for that. She could just picture them sticking her head in a toilet…

She’d steered well clear of the MARS area all afternoon, even though she’d wanted to find Farrah (and when her friend hadn’t been easily apparent in any other part of the school, she figured she might be skating). Georgia didn’t want anyone to go anywhere near where spirit club was being held, in case anyone thought she was planning to join. They’d be bound to laugh at her for thinking she could possibly belong or be accepted in such a group. She’d been kind of bored all afternoon though, and so, when she saw Farrah at dinner time, she took the opportunity to join her.

“Hey, I looked for you this afternoon,” she grinned. “Were you practising skating?” she asked, “Or did you run away to join the spirit club?” she added, her tone jocular, very much suggesting this was the last place on Earth she suspected Farrah would have been.

13 Georgia Kirkly Putting my foot in it (tag Farrah) 346 Georgia Kirkly 1 5

Farrah Welsh

October 25, 2016 10:02 PM

This is awkward. by Farrah Welsh

Farrah thought that her Saturday had really gone quite well all things considered. She had been able to ice skate early that morning (sometimes it was really hard to find the water room empty so that she could practice) and then she had hung around the library for a little bit to take up some of her time (and really, when she said ‘hang around’ she really meant completing all of her homework so that she didn’t have to worry about it for the rest of her weekend), and then her afternoon consisted of talking herself into going to the Spirit Club meeting and then actually going to it.

She had been so nervous about going to the club because she wasn’t sure what to expect from it. Cheerleaders back home were the cool people. They were the people that ran the school. If they liked you, your life was less horrible, if they didn’t like you, you were tormented by everyone. Some people were able to live their school lives in a lovely bubble of invisibility when it came to the popular crowd, but Farrah already knew that would not be her life. She was already picked on and she hadn’t even made it to Middle School before entering Sonora. There was no doubt in her mind who would be popular as cheerleaders and make her life even more miserable.

Someone might now wonder why it was that Farrah would think about joining the equivocal club to cheerleading after such an experience as she had and the truth was because she was curious about what the magical world had to offer in this regard. She liked the idea of being a part of something like this, being able to show school spirit and make friends, but she was nervous about the type of people that would be there. However, once she was there, they were just regular other people like her. Some of them were likely to actually be popular (like Gabe Valenti, she knew he had a bunch of friends), but the two hostesses of the club seemed really chill and no one gave her weird looks for being there. So far, so good. She didn’t know how cool joining the club would make her or even if she’d like it, but she was willing to give it a try.

Farrah was sitting at one of the tables in the hall for dinner when Georgia approached her. Farrah smiled to her as her best friend approached but her smile faltered slightly when Georgia made her comment on the Spirit Club. Farrah had thought about asking Georgia to join her for that meeting (having a friend around always made her feel more confident about things) but the way she mentioned the club, like it was laughable, made Farrah glad that she hadn’t. “Um, actually I did go to the Spirit Club meeting.” Farrah admitted, lowering her eyes to her food so that she couldn’t see Georgia’s direct reaction to that. “I take it that it’s not something you’re really interested in?”

6 Farrah Welsh This is awkward. 344 Farrah Welsh 0 5

Georgia

October 27, 2016 10:27 AM

You can say that again... by Georgia

“S-sorry,” Georgia stammered out, her face turning the same shade as a beetroot as Farrah explained she had gone to spirit club. She felt like a complete idiot all of a sudden, but she’d thought it such a safe assumption. She almost thought Farrah was joking with her, but if she was, she was doing a really good job of being totally deadpan, and looking like Georgia had hurt her feelings.

“I… I’m surprised you were,” she answered, “It’s basically the cheer squad, right? Which is almost exclusively joined by the types of girl who spent all of middle school picking on girls like us. Why would you want to join them?” her tone was genuinely curious, rather than accusatory, although she was pretty floored by the idea… Was Farrah aiming to become trendy and popular? Surely, she couldn’t want to fit in with people like Arainna V after what a grade A bee she’d been the been the year before. Though most teen movies she’d seen espoused that people were dying to get in with the popular kids… Was Farrah going to turn her back on her in order to become one of the cool kids? Especially now that she’d turned it into an us-versus-them thing. Or what stood to become a her versus a them which included Farrah…

“I’m sorry,” she added again, because although she was still worried about why Farrah was joining, she really didn’t want a fight. “I… I didn’t mean to…” she trailed off, not quite sure what it was she’d done, other than totally make a mess of things, as usual.

13 Georgia You can say that again... 346 Georgia 0 5

Farrah

October 29, 2016 9:16 PM

Every friendship has a moment or two like that. by Farrah

Farrah’s eyes glanced up when Georgia apologized. She seemed embarrassed about her remark which Farrah hadn’t meant to do when she responded. It was a bit of a surprise that Farrah would have gone to the meeting; even she herself was surprised by her interest in it. But another part of her was a little put off by the fact that Georgia maybe didn’t think she belonged in such a club. Farrah knew that she was a nerd, there was no denying that fact, but did her friend think it was really laughable that she could fit into such a club?

Farrah’s small shoulders rose as she shrugged them in answer to her question. There really wasn’t much of an answer for her to give. She wasn’t even sure if she had a reason other than she just wanted to, but Georgia seemed confused by her actions and maybe she was right to be so. “Mostly because I was curious about the Magical world of cheerleading.” Farrah finally said. “Everything is just so backwards here sometimes, so I wanted to see if maybe the cheerleaders here are friendlier than those back home. Like, back home, the jocks are usually the ones that stick up for people like me, but then here there’s Arianna who is a jock and she’s just mean.” Farrah explained. “And like, normally the nerdy people aren’t popular, but then you have people like Clark Dill who is really popular and a nerd, so… I don’t know.” Farrah shrugged again.

“The two running the club seemed really nice and there were a couple of Teppenpaws there, including Jemima who runs the Art Club. I know they are nice. I just thought it could be fun to be a part of it. Get involved with the whole Quidditch school spirit thing, you know?” Farrah explained her reasoning as best as she could. She still wasn’t sure if it would work out well for her in the club, but she wanted to at least give it a shot. In any case, she’ll have a uniform that she could wear for a Halloween costume in the future should she decide to not continue with the club and they didn’t want the uniform back since it was specifically measured for her frame.

Farrah gave Georgia a smile, “It’s alright.” She said when Georgia apologized again. “I probably should have mentioned it, but it was sort of a last minute ‘be brave’ kind of decision.”

6 Farrah Every friendship has a moment or two like that. 344 Farrah 0 5

Georgia

November 01, 2016 9:29 PM

You mean it's not just me? by Georgia

“Huh,” Georgia pondered, as Farrah pointed out that a lot of things were backwards here. Or, if not backwards as such, just… you could tick more different combinations of boxes than you could at home. She’d never really thought about that. Maybe because she lacked Farrah’s analytical Aladren brain. Maybe because she’d been so wrapped up in her own problems since coming here. Maybe because the box she always occupied was ‘fat idiot’ and coming to school wasn’t going to magically make her thin, so she was just stuck being the same butt of all jokes that she’d always been. “I guess that’s true… I’d never really noticed.”

She was glad to hear they’d been nice, partly for Farrah’s sake, and partly to quell her own fear that the school was amassing an army of uber snobs. She nodded vaguely, as Farrah said it’d be nice to be part of the whole school spirit thing and get into Quidditch. She couldn’t personally say she’d been feeling like that was missing from her life but the idea of belonging… She could relate to that.

“No, it’s fine… I mean, I might have ended up scaring you off it or something, and it sounds like it worked out well. Good for you, for trying something new.”

13 Georgia You mean it's not just me? 346 Georgia 0 5

Farrah

November 02, 2016 9:01 PM

No, it's not just you. by Farrah

Farrah had come to the conclusion that Georgia was having a very different experience at Sonora than she was. As far as she could remember, Georgia hadn’t actually been picked on by anyone here (or maybe she had and just never told Farrah about it out of embarrassment?), so Farrah thought that her friend might not be as open-minded about things at this school as Farrah was trying to be (and Farrah had to deal with Arianna V daily). Farrah wanted to have fun here in a way that she couldn’t back home. Spirit Club seemed to fit that for her. She didn’t want Georgia to feel bad about any of it though, so she smiled at her friend, “It’s just something I’ve been thinking about lately, that’s all.” She advised her.

Georgia’s last comment made her think of her mom. It was something that she would have said when she didn’t really agree with something she did but couldn’t find any fault in her having done it either. It was obvious that Georgia didn’t like the idea of Spirit Club, but she was also trying to be supportive of Farrah, so Farrah definitely appreciated the effort.

“I might not even like it once we start getting things together.” Farrah told Georgia. “I’ve never really been a cheerleader and I’m not loud or anything. Plus, like, crowds scare me, so I might just flunk out of the club or only do like the other stuff and not the actual cheerleading part of it.” Farrah admitted. She was now second guessing herself in general and the idea of what she was getting herself into. Maybe it really wouldn’t be too terrible and people might not even notice her out cheering anyway because she was so scrawny and ugly and there were so many pretty girls that were there for the meeting that would definitely get more attention than her. Ugh, she should have just stayed in her box and found people to play board games with or something.

6 Farrah No, it's not just you. 344 Farrah 0 5