Stranger in a familiar land on Cascade Hall

Headmaster Brockert

March 03, 2017 4:03 PM

Opening Feast by Headmaster Brockert

It was time for another school year to start. Mortimer sat at the staff table as they all waited for the new first years to come in. Missing from staff this year was Liam Ammon, who had taught Muggle Studies last year. Whether or not Mortimer cared was debatable. Professor Ammon had taught his subject in the exact balanced way that Mortimer approved of but yet his subject was not a particularly necessary one. Hence why it was an elective in the first place. And certainly Mortimer felt no personal attachment to the youngest staff member.

Of course, it would figure that someone that young would be flighty enough not to know what they wanted to do with the rest of their lives and throw away potential job security. Mortimer was sure the young man was out chasing some ridiculous unacheivable dream as young people were likely to do.

The first years arrived and Mortimer stood, placing a Sonorous charm on himself and began the Sorting spiel. "Welcome to Sonora for the new first years and welcome back for all older students. In just a minute,first years will be receiving a goblet distributed by Deputy Headmistress Skies, in order to sort you into your houses. You will turn the color representing your house which are blue for Aladren, yellow for Teppenpaw, red for Crotalus, and brown for Pecari. Afterwards, you may join your house table."

Unlike last year, there was nobody in this class he particularly cared about so he waited through it until it was done. Once everyone had found the appropriate table, he moved on.

""Would Aiden O' Neil and Savannah Brockert please come up and get your Head Student badges? In addition I'd like to call up Louis Valois, Abigail De La Garza, Laila Kennedy, and Ingrid Wolseithcrafte to recieve their prefect badges. Congratulations." Amazing, three Head Girls in a row for the Brockert family. After twenty years of not a single Head Student whose last name was Brockert.

Once the new prefects and Head Students had taken their seats again, Mortimer gave one last announcement. "This year's Midsummer Event will be a concert. Now we will sing the school song." Sheets with the words written on them appeared in front of the students.

Every day we strive
Learning to survive
Life’s hardships and to solve its mystery.
Learning to defend
Our honour and our friends,
Flying high to meet our destiny
We will stand and face those who want to harm us.
We won’t let the world transfigure, jinx or charm us
I won’t fight alone, as long as you are with me.
Sonora be my home, my tutor and my spirit
Vasita quoque floeat; Even the desert blooms.

Subthreads:

Waterfalls in the Desert by Jen White with Ryder Knight, Zevalyn Ives

Mirror, mirror on the wall [tag Jozua] by Lily Spencer with Jozua Sparks, Lily

Being social by Jack Spencer

Excited! by Ivy Brockert with Eden Manger, Alex Leifsson (and a bit of Madison)

I'm a tomato by Cleo James with Connor Priory

Stranger in a familiar land by Cecilia Carey with Araceli Arbon

Making this place home. by Brett Newell

Some casual bickering. by Florence and Dustin Newell with Amelia Layne, Dustin and Flo

A pie or a person? by Victor Callahan

Torn. by Emilia-Louise Scott with Louis Valois

Excited for the year ahead! by Tess Whittaker

Another year, another start by Finn Scott

Uncharted territory by Sammy Meeks with Laila Kennedy

11 Headmaster Brockert Opening Feast 6 Headmaster Brockert 1 5

Jen White

March 03, 2017 4:58 PM

Waterfalls in the Desert by Jen White

As the tour concluded, Jen fished out her uniform robe from the small satchel she’d kept with her through orientation. It was relatively neat thanks to her Mom’s charmwork, and Jen tried not to feel too much like a dork as she pulled it on over her skater jeans and black hoodie. She blended into the other forest green robes around her as they strode, shuffled, or otherwise progressed into the Cascade Hall.

It was an impressive room, Jen had to concede. The juxtaposition of waterfalls in the desert was sweet. The Headmaster’s welcome was appropriately grandiose, and being given an unidentified substance to drink was categorically the way to begin life at a magic school. Embracing the macabre, Jen drank her share and wordlessly contemplated her fingers as they turned blue. The newest addition to Aladren House tried to identify her feelings about this revelation as she ambled, hems of her jeans dragging on the ground, to take a seat with the other Aladrens. She had skeptically believed the sorting of students into Houses to be arbitrary; a more inventive means of splitting them into manageable groups than alphabetically or by gender. Still, a group of people believing they have something in common might get along better than a group of people believing themselves indifferent strangers. Jen liked that.

Politely, Jen applauded the students receiving recognition, and made a valiant effort to mumble through the school song, knowing neither the words nor the tune. At its conclusion she waited to see what would happen next, and in looking up she caught the eye of someone seated nearby. Perhaps it was the excited atmosphere that influenced her reaction, or merely the novelty of the entire situation, but Jen found herself smiling back at the stranger. Her mother would be so proud.

0 Jen White Waterfalls in the Desert 388 Jen White 0 5

Lily Spencer

March 04, 2017 2:01 PM

Mirror, mirror on the wall [tag Jozua] by Lily Spencer

Loads had happened this summer. Loads. First, Adam and Ginny had finally tied the knot and were officially Mr and Mrs Spencer. She’d cried a few tears over the heart-breaking realisation that Adam would be starting a family apart from her, but she was happy for him, really. Then Jack had almost died whilst on holiday in Darlington, but he was safe now for the most part, if not a bit more reserved than before. Then there was Geoff and his lot. When she thought about them now, she couldn’t help but feel a bit dreamy.

She and Geoff had been lying on the field after running about kicking the football around. Though she was breathless, she couldn’t quite let go of the anxiety she’d been carrying on her shoulders since she’d returned for the summer.

Geoff propped himself up to look at her. “So Liam—”

“Actually, it’s Lily,” she blurted out. “Lily Spencer.”

Geoff stared at her with his mouth open. “Lily,” he repeated. “As in a girl. You’re a girl. What—you’ve been a girl this whole time?”

“As I haven’t had a sex change in the past few months, yes I am, and I have been.”

Geoff shook his head. “You’ve got to be winding me up, mate. You look just like a boy.”

Lily swallowed nervously. “I’m not. I’m a girl, and I know, I’m sorry I lied to you all last year, but I didn’t think your lot would still let me play if you knew I was a girl.”

Geoff shrugged. “Probably not,” he said slowly, “but now we know you’re a brilliant footballer so I don’t want to exclude you just cos you’re a girl.”

Lily didn’t know how to take his message, but she nodded anyway. “Then… are we OK?”

“Yeah, we’re OK. Thanks for coming clean.” Geoff smiled with a corner of his mouth, and Lily’s heart fluttered. He looked perfect just like this, lying on the grass, his sandy hair reflecting the sunlight and his gentle brown eyes trained on her. “You really look like a bloke though,” he continued with a laugh of disbelief. “I never, ever would’ve guessed. I don’t think the boys will believe me when I tell them. Do you like passing off as one?”

“Sometimes, yeah.”

Geoff grinned. “You’re pretty cool for a girl.”

And then the melting.

Lily had never imagined herself the sort to fall head over heels for anyone, really, but Geoff was just so… perfect. He was nice and let her play with them and had broken the news to the other boys so she didn’t have to. After they all got over the awkwardness, they treated her just the same, just the way she wanted. And she liked that, really, but there was still some kind of uncomfortable feelings that welled up in her when she saw how they looked at girls wearing skirts and makeup, even Geoff.

As she munched on her chicken wing, she took a glance at Jozua, whom she’d sat down next to for the Welcoming Feast as usual. Joz was a boy and her best friend. She’d never really noticed it before, but he had nice hair and was well mannered and easy-going: all attractive qualities. Any girl would be lucky to have him. He’d have to tell her the truth even if she didn’t like it. She knew she wasn’t one of those beautiful, delicate pure-blood witches who wore expensive dresses and had perfect hair. She was rough and wore jumpers and trousers without a care in the world. Her short hair tousled after the long wagon ride, hardly attractive compared to the other girls in their year.

“Hi Joz, how was your summer? Do you think it’s possible for a wizard to fancy someone like me?” she asked bluntly. “Tell me the truth.”

40 Lily Spencer Mirror, mirror on the wall [tag Jozua] 357 Lily Spencer 0 5

Jack Spencer

March 04, 2017 2:17 PM

Being social by Jack Spencer

Jack was sure how he was going to tell John or anyone on his team about his temporary 'condition'. If he were lucky, he wouldn't have to tell anyone and no one would ever see him seemingly freak out over nothing. He'd gotten good at hiding it for the most part, except he would start sweating for no apparent reason and his pupils would dilate. Otherwise, he thought he had it under control; his father had given him a good stock of Calming Draught only if it became really bad.

Jack had been improving slightly; the attacks occurred only three times a week now, but they were still unpredictable. Once he'd felt a panic attack come on right before he fell asleep. If he wasn't so afraid of embarrassing himself by breaking down in front of other people, he would have been incredibly annoyed by it every time. His friend Ruby had accidentally figured it out when he'd suddenly felt it come over him whilst they were out for lunch. It'd been an awkward conversation at first, but she was very supportive of him. He'd like her more if she didn't have such a smarmy boyfriend, but that couldn't be helped.

On the wagon ride over, he had his fingers crossed that he wouldn't have one right in the middle of the opening feast. He couldn't imagine running out of Cascade Hall to hide in the loo for a good five minutes or so.

There were quite a few first years this year, and Jack applauded especially loudly for the new Aladrens. He'd been very pleased with his house last year when they won the House Cup, and very proud of his team as well even though they lost the finals. Though Teppenpaw had seized the Head positions this year, Jack hoped to represent his house next year as Head Boy. He crossed his fingers again as he listened to the Headmaster's spiel, hoping for good things next year.

His biggest concern with joining the team again this year was having a panic attack in the middle of a match. Ever since he'd been hit in the head with a bludger that summer, it'd been difficult to muster up the same blinding passion for the sport. There was always a bit of anxiety that tickled the back of his head whenever he joined his team on the pitch.

Jack's hope was to be a Quidditch coach one day as a professor, but as of now he wasn't sure if that was a dream that could be carried through. He would have to see how his progress was and deal with it accordingly. Until then, he'd keep his 'condition' a secret.

Feeling friendlier than usual, Jack smiled at the person sitting near him. "All right? Good to see you again," he said. "How was your summer? Do anything fun?"

40 Jack Spencer Being social 299 Jack Spencer 0 5

Ivy Brockert

March 04, 2017 3:33 PM

Excited! by Ivy Brockert

All her life, Ivy had heard about Sonora and now she was finally here. The school where generations of her family had gone, where all her older cousins had attended or were currently attending, where her father had gone, where her parents had both taught, where they met and fell in love.

Sometimes, Ivy wished they both still were teaching here. Not because she wanted special treatment or even thought she would have gotten it but because then she'd still get to see them every day. She already missed them and her sister and especially her brother Vlad. Ivy was sure she was going to miss out on all sorts of stuff that he would be doing with Peyton and Harper. She just hoped she could make some friends to get her through the year. Otherwise Ivy was going to be awfully lonely.

She hadn't even come here on the same wagon as her cousins. Not her first cousins anyway, the people she knew. They all lived in Colorado and Ivy lived in Minnesota, so they had ended up on different wagons. Of course, by sheer coincidence, she'd met a boy on her wagon named Connor whose mother had been a Brockert making him her distant cousin. This was his first time at Sonora too and he seemed so nice. He'd probably end up in Teppenpaw.

As for her, Ivy didn't quite know where she'd end up. She doubted she'd be in Pecari, which had been her father's house. Even though she was a daddy's girl, but she possessed more of her mom's personality traits. That was likely why she was closer to her dad, because he saw her mom in her and he really loved Mom. Plus, she and her dad shared a love of plants.

And as she was a lot like her mom, except less peppy-Mom was extremely peppy, it would be hard to match that level of pep-she figured Teppenpaw was a distinct possiblity. Her mother had not attended school here, but she had been the Teppenpaw Head of House when she worked here and definitely matched the house traits.

The other house Ivy could see herself being sorted into was Aladren. She had a lot of what some would call geeky interests. She liked reading and learning and sharing what she learned with great enthusiasm. The new first year also enjoyed puzzles and crosswords and other word games.

Either one would be pretty cool. Well, depending on who she had for roommates. And Ivy had overall more faith in Teppenpaws there.

Now though was the moment of truth. Ivy took the flask from the person next to her, and drank. Her skin flushed a brilliant yellow. Teppenpaw. That was awesome! Even though she only saw two others, both girls, turning yellow as well. That meant Connor was somewhere else. Ivy looked at her cousin, only to see him red as could be.

Still it would be okay. Ivy really didn't mind, he was only a distant cousin and she'd only just met him. She was just a bit surprised.

The new Teppenpaw took a seat at her house table. Ivy applauded loudly when Savannah was announced as Head Girl. She was so proud of her cousin- and now housemate.

Once all the announcements were finished, Ivy turned to the person sitting across from her. She flashed them a big smile. "Hi, I'm Ivy Brocket, of the Western Brockerts. Are you as happy to be here as I am?"

11 Ivy Brockert Excited! 394 Ivy Brockert 0 5

Jozua Sparks

March 04, 2017 11:17 PM

You're the fairest of them all by Jozua Sparks

Jozua's summer had been about as dull as the one before. There'd obviously been the expected lessons his parents insisted he take so he didn't get stupid over the summer and there were the more spontaneous lessons his parents doled out because they were incapable of not turning any experience into a learning experience. Then he'd gotten a decent Quidditch broom, but as his love of flying for the sake of flying was basically non-existent and he only did it because Lily liked that he did, his flying practice with it was not any more entertaining than his other lessons.

The shining moment was, of course, his annual birthday present to see a Wizard dueling tournament live. He'd asked to invite Lily to it, too, but Dad looked all sad that Jozua didn't want to keep it a Father-Son tradition, so he hadn't ended up doing that after all. It was the right decision. Afterward, Dad promised that he could invite a couple friends to another one around Christmas as his Christmas gift since he was getting harder and harder to buy stuff for. Jozua had jumped all over that idea with glee. Christmas could not come fast enough.

In the meantime, he was glad to be back at school. He'd missed Lily and Madeleine and Finn. The few kids at home who hadn't thought he was invisible hadn't really ever been what he'd call close and being away at Sonora had further distanced them. Here though, he had no shortage of people willing to spend time with him. He expected they'd help the time fly much faster than the summer's slow creep through each day.

Though they weren't in the same house, Jozua made sure to find a seat for the Feast near Lily. She was his first and best friend, and, if he was being entirely honest, which he wasn't sure there was any need to be, but on those rare moments he decided honesty was in order, she was also his first and best crush. This had become clear to him by the amount of jealousy he had felt every time he watched her try to salsa with the Brazilian booth visitors.

He had sworn to himself not to tell her this, however, because he didn't want to make things weird between them.

This resolve was almost immediately tested upon the start of their conversation. Not only had she asked point blank if she was attractive, she'd demanded truthiness.

He stared at her in that wide-eyed way deer regard oncoming headlights (though, of course, as a pureblood wizard, Jozue was entirely unfamiliar with what headlights were or how deer regarded them, though he was equally as doomed so the analogy stands). So preoccupied was he with the options between reassuring her but outing himself versus preserving their friendship but lying when she told him not to, he entirely forgot that she had asked about his summer, which, had he not been panicking, might have allowed him some extra time to think about it.

But he was panicking and as such his brain was not working as well as it would otherwise, so what came out of his mouth was neither intelligent nor wise and he regretted it immediately.

"I'd marry you in a heartbeat."

It was the truth though. And that was what she'd asked for.

1 Jozua Sparks You're the fairest of them all 348 Jozua Sparks 0 5

Cleo James

March 05, 2017 3:05 AM

I'm a tomato by Cleo James

The school was impressively distracting. So much so, that Cleo started to forget her homesickness as they looked around. She had attended the local Muggle school in their small town prior to Sonora. Her daddy was a wizard, but she still needed the basics - reading, writing - and they definitely weren’t the kind of family that could do that by private tutoring. But she had always known it was a temporary thing. Getting to magic school felt like really becoming herself. No more lying or pretending. No more worrying about her accidental magic, and having to wonder how to explain that. There was magic everywhere here. Sure, her daddy used it at home, to lock up the shop, to tidy up… But this was magic on an impressive, showing off kind of scale, the likes of which she’d never really seen. The hall was simply incredible. Cleo thought she could easily spend hours here watching the waterfalls. She’d never seen anything like them in nature, only in pictures…

She lined up with the rest of her little year group. So. Here it was. Sorting time. She was curious but perhaps also a little nervous… She tried hard to be the kind of daughter her daddy wanted. She wanted to be kind and good and hard-working, all the things he valued. But being all those things was such hard work. None of them seemed to come naturally to her as they did to him. She could see a lot of Pecari in herself. She often acted without thinking, but she often regretted it afterwards. She wanted to think things through, and make good decisions, it was just… hard sometimes, especially when she was annoyed about something, or when she wanted it really badly.

She took a sip of the potion and grinned broadly as her skin turned red. Crotalus! The rule-abiding, respectable house. That was good. That was something her daddy would be proud of her for. She had already been mentally writing a letter home, telling him all about school, but now it was even more exciting because she had some good news, not just merely observation. She took a seat with her new housemates, head up and smiling, clearly very happy with where she’d ended up. She listened to the announcements, and tried to join in the school song - it was hard because she didn’t know it and definitely had no idea how to sight read music, but she was happy and so quietly hummed along, a beat or two behind everyone else.

Then they were free to eat. She surveyed the dishes before her. She was a little unsure about some of the foods. Her daddy was a fan of plain and simple, and she didn’t recognise some of the dishes before her. There was a dish of spaghetti bolognaise nearby though. She knew that. She liked that. She helped herself, proceeding to cut her spaghetti into manageable and markedly lower class pieces, rather than spiralling it elegantly around her fork. It was how she’d always eaten it. She didn’t even know that it wasn’t the right way, and - had someone pointed it out to her - would have been baffled as to why spaghetti should receive some special exception to being a food that you cut up before eating it.

“Hi,” she smiled at the person next to her, tucking her short blonde hair behind her ears. Her hair was just long enough to tie into a very stubby little ponytail, but she usually only did this when absolutely forced to for dirty or dangerous tasks. She fell roughly in the middle when it came to sociability. She wasn’t totally removed from others, and didn’t desire to be, but nor was she the outgoing chatterbox who needed to be with other people all the time. She liked people, most of the time. They almost always seemed to like her - a fact no doubt helped along her having a pretty face framed by angelic blonde hair, although she wondered whether being the only witch in a Muggle school had anything to do with it; people certainly seemed interested in her, even though she wasn’t particularly outgoing. Even though they couldn’t know she was a witch, perhaps she just had some kind of… vibe, or aura. She would, on most nights, take it or leave it when it came to having company for dinner, but tonight was the first night, and she wanted to go to bed feeling like she’d started to make some friends. “I’m Cleo,” she introduced herself, giving them a sweet smile.

13 Cleo James I'm a tomato 389 Cleo James 0 5

Lily

March 05, 2017 11:30 AM

Pish posh. by Lily

Jozua's outburst and wide-eyed look made Lily suspicious. Was he lying to make her feel better? But Jozua wasn't the sort to lie for that reason. At least, he'd never really done so before, but then again she'd never asked such an unreasonable question as this. She let his comment hang in the air whilst she tried to decide what to do with it. A second passed before her suspicious expression melted into a sigh.

"That's very nice of you to say, Jozua," said she, convinced of his honesty but also knowing he was only saying this because he was her best friend, "but that doesn't answer my question." Lily dumped the chicken bone on her plate and wiped the grease off on a napkin.

"These boys I play with back in England - I told about them, didn't I? - they seem to fancy pretty girls with skirts and make-up. It shouldn't bother me, but it does for some reason." She knew exactly what that reason was, but she hadn't told a soul about it yet and would deny it until she was sure Geoff felt the same way about her. Not that he would, ever. "We're only thirteen and these girls already wear make-up. It's caked all over their face." Lily shook her head. "I don't know why, maybe they like to play dress-up? She wondered what Geoff would think if he saw her eating like this, piling chicken bones higher and higher. Even though she told herself she didn't care, it did make her somewhat self-conscious. She wiped her fingers again and decided to tackle mash instead.

Since Lily didn't want to reveal her own crush just yet, she quickly changed the topic as she was apt to do. "Summer was fun this year for me. Adam and Ginny were married, and I'm happy for them, but it's hard letting my big brother go." She felt herself getting a little choked up again at the thought and suppressed the thought before she embarrassed herself. "I beat one of the boys, Ed, in football and he cried because he hurt his ankle. I think he was just trying to get sympathy, crying like that, and it didn't work on me. I can be too rough, can't I? Well, I suppose that can't be helped. And another one of the boys back home has a crush on this pretty girl at his school and we all teased him about it. Dating seems pointless at this age, doesn't it? At least I think so." That was the truth - though Lily was quite certain Geoff sparked feelings in her akin to a heart attack, she couldn't imagine dating the way her siblings had dated.

"And Jack got hit in the head with a bludger, but I think he's about sorted now. How was your summer? Sorry I don't write frequently, I always mean to but there were so many things on. How was the wizard dueling tournament?"

OOC: Making the assumption that, since it's his annual birthday present, Lily would know about it to ask.

40 Lily Pish posh. 299 Lily 0 5

Ryder Knight

March 06, 2017 12:31 AM

I would like it even more if the waterfalls were an ocean. by Ryder Knight

While brushing off his uniform robe and dragging the back of his skater shoes on the ground, Ryder made his way into Cascade Hall with the rest of his new classmates. Soon he would learn which house he was going to spend the next seven years in. Ryder did not have much of a preference as to where he would like to be sorted. He was just happy to belong somewhere. Public school had been pretty unbearable at times, and if it had not been for his best friend’s reminders as to why he needed to hang in there, Ryder probably would have done something to get himself expelled.

Steve Mertz and his gang of misfits (at least that is what Ryder and his best friend Lexi referred to them as) made every day a new adventure in the land of torture. At least what was torturous to an eleven year-old. They stole Ryder’s book bag and threw it in the toilet, put glue on his sandwich when he walked away to get a spoon, and pushed him into his locker. The last straw, however, was when Steve broke Ryder’s new skateboard in half by hitting it repeatedly off of a cement wall. The same incident led to Ryder leaving public school for Sonora when his magic manifested during his rage.

Ryder scoffed just thinking about Steve and his stupid shaggy red hair, but pulled himself out of the past long enough to drink from the goblet and watch his hands turn blue. Aladren was his new home then. He hoped there weren’t any uppity purebloods in that house, or at least the kind that tried to act better than everyone.

Ryder pushed his worries and recollections aside, and took a seat at the Aladren table. He checked out the spread of food and nodded. So far, Sonora had been pretty impressive with its food arrangements. He was about to grab a sandwich when he happened to glance at a girl seated near him. He recalled seeing her earlier that day, but hadn’t spoken with her yet. She smiled at him, so he assumed that she wouldn’t mind him introducing himself.

“Hey” he began, “My name is Ryder. I am from California. I guess we are housemates.” He smiled at her and placed a sandwich in his plate. “Are you excited to be here?” He paused for a moment. “Oh, uh, let me know if you would like me to pass you any food that is near me.”

0 Ryder Knight I would like it even more if the waterfalls were an ocean. 383 Ryder Knight 0 5

Eden Manger

March 06, 2017 9:29 PM

noncommittal hand wiggle by Eden Manger

Blue for Aladren, yellow for Teppenpaw.

Hearing the names of the Houses announced like this by the Headmaster jogged Eden’s memory. Teppenpaw was Jake’s. Aladren, she was less confident but still fairly sure, was Arnold and Sally’s. The other two didn’t matter as much in the moment as she would have been the first Manger sent to either and she was just looking to remember her half-siblings’ and what Jake said they meant. Aladren was the smart House. Teppenpaw was friendly. Like Jake.

A goblet slid into her hands. Eden peered into it nervously, her blue eyes reflecting back to her despite the natural coloration of the liquid. She was filled with what she felt was understandable trepidation, as one of the first magical things they asked of the first years was to drink a strange potion that would at best change their appearance, at worst do who only knew what. She didn’t think potions were dangerous if used correctly, and she couldn’t imagine the school would do anything to harm them, but Eden had just gotten here, and she couldn’t just accept this without worrying about it. She didn’t trust enough for that.

But she remembered Jake told her about this, and he said it would be okay. Jake, she trusted. So she sipped.

After passing the goblet onto the next person, the first year’s next step was a thorough inspection of her hands. It took a moment before anything happened, during which she had only her nerves and a lingering bad taste to focus on, but soon enough, she saw her skin start to change. Teppenpaw yellow. Like her brother.

There were some announcements that she didn’t pay much attention to, obviously not knowing any of the new prefects or head students announced and not knowing what a midsummer event meant. She noticed that Ryder Knight, the boy who had spoken to her at Orientation, had turned red and was sitting at that other table, Crotalus. After the announcements, there was a song. She didn’t sing, but she did look over the words on the sheet music that appeared before her. Maybe next year. Eden wasn’t really in the mood for singing this time around.

The next moment, somebody was talking to her. It was a girl sitting across the table from her, flashing a big smile. She was also bright yellow, and she introduced herself with a lot of words. Eden knew that was the pureblood thing to do, but her outsider upbringing hadn’t lent to her habitually responding the same way. “I’m Eden,” she offered simply, giving slight pause to consider Ivy’s question. “Well, I wouldn’t say I’m as excited as you are,” she said with a small smile. “But I guess I’m happy to be here.”

12 Eden Manger *noncommittal hand wiggle* 385 Eden Manger 0 5

Cecilia Carey

March 06, 2017 10:10 PM

Stranger in a familiar land by Cecilia Carey

For as long as she could remember, Cecilia had been taught that one indiscretion could easily be enough to ruin someone’s whole life. When she had been taught that, though, all the examples had involved bad behavior. None of her relatives had ever mentioned getting into a snowball fight while visiting her northern grandparents as the one indiscretion that could ruin her whole life, but last Christmas, it very nearly had. Brandon, Diana, Cecilia, and Peter had all gotten chilled and soaked to the bone, and it was because of that, her mother was sure, that Peter had then caught dragon pox from their cousin Timothy and passed it along to Cecilia.

At first, listening to her mother worrying out loud, Cecilia had been terrified that she would go deaf or blind. Later, after that was no longer a possibility, her mother had been even more worried about something else: the possibility that the illness would leave her permanently scarred. Cecilia had become nearly hysterical when something, either the medicines or the illness or a combination of the two, had made her hair start coming out, convinced this meant her skin was ruined, but two months of creams every day had prevented that. The only scarring was three marks on her left shoulder, and they were minor.

For two months, though, her face had been at least a little unsightly and it had taken even longer than that for her hair to grow back to a decent length. There had been no question of going out in public for the second half of her second year, so first her bed and later the drawing room had become her schoolrooms for a few months and her different relatives had taken turns being her teachers. Aunt Lorraine had been her main teacher, but Uncle Anthony had helped a lot, and Jay and Arthur had taken turns sometimes boring her to tears and sometimes pushing her to learn spells and theory so hard that she had cried sometimes, first in front of them and later, when she realized it was doing no good and only making them annoyed with her, only after they left her alone finally. At Midsummer, though, everyone had decided her hair was long enough for her to go out in public again, and when she had realized someone had arranged for a photographer at Arnold and Fae’s party to take a picture of her while she was holding her little cousin Penelope, everything had become easier to endure because she had known they wanted everyone to know there was nothing wrong with her anymore and that this meant they were going to send her back to the much easier world of school in September.

When she first stepped off the wagon, though, she still hesitated, wondering if anyone would recognize her. Her hair had come back a shade or two darker and much wavier than it had been, so much so that it still only brushed her shoulders at its longest point the way she wore it now. She was also taller than she had been, her face thinner and the front of her robes at least a touch less flat. After just a second, though, she remembered that it didn’t matter if anyone knew her or not – she knew who she was – and she walked confidently into the school and hid in the library until it was time for the Feast, when she could put off seeing her once and current schoolmates no longer.

She hesitated again in the Cascade Hall, forgetting for one dreadful moment which table was the Crotalus table at feasts, but recovered quickly and quietly took a seat. She watched the new first years take the potion, smiled at a red one who caught her eye, and sang along with the school song much more skillfully than she had the year before – in her boredom at home, she had taken up studying music and could read the score now. She doubted anyone noticed or cared, though, when they all knew that after the song came the Feast.

Well, there was no time like the present to make her real reentrance into society. Cecilia smiled politely at another Crotalus. “Good evening,” she said, wishing she had found her roommates instead of hiding in the library during their free time and had asked them for all the last year’s gossip so she didn’t misstep. She would definitely ask them for all the gossip later, before they went to bed. “How are you today?”

0 Cecilia Carey Stranger in a familiar land 349 Cecilia Carey 0 5

Brett Newell

March 07, 2017 1:22 AM

Making this place home. by Brett Newell

As the first years were led into the Cascade Hall, Brett’s eyes immediately located the Aladren table. This was an easy feat, because his sister bolted to her feet and waved at him as soon as they were within view of one another. Brett grinned and waved back. He saw Dustin’s look of irritation. Heh. Good.

As his Sorting grew increasingly close, the eleven year old pondered what House would be the most fun. Pecari sounded cool, from what Flo reported. And she was in Aladren, but the drawback of that was that Dustin was too. Crotalus with Makenzie could be nice, but he thought that House sounded pretty boring. Following the rules wasn’t his style anyway, though, so he doubted he’d go there. Teppenpaw was the nice people, from what he understood, but he was a little worried that they’d be too nice, constantly saying “I’m sorry” and “excuse me”. Like Canada, but worse.

He gulped his share of the potion eagerly, and he was quite happy with the result: Pecari. If he had known more about the House, Brett would have been in no way surprised that this was where he belonged. Still, he waved again to his sister, this one slightly more tame, weighted with a “see you around”, and took his place among his new Housemates.

“Hi, I-” Brett turned to greet his neighbor, but then the Headmaster was talking again, so he stopped. Headmaster Brockert announced the prefects - Dustin didn’t win, which was great - and Head Students, said something about a midsummer event, and then suddenly they were singing. Brett didn’t sing, but he did hum along as best he could. He could read music, ish, but it had been a while, so he was just following by ear, and trying to do that and sort out words sounded like way more effort than he was willing to expend.

The first year held his excitement for just a moment, making sure the Headmaster wasn’t about to start up again, before turning once more to his neighbor. “Hi,” he said again. “Sorry about that. I thought he was done. Anyway, I’m Brett. What’s your name?”

12 Brett Newell Making this place home. 384 Brett Newell 0 5

Florence and Dustin Newell

March 07, 2017 1:53 AM

Some casual bickering. by Florence and Dustin Newell

Florence craned her neck to look over the tables at the entryway to the Hall. “Do you think they’ll be coming in soon?” she asked her older brother. “What time is it?”

“I don’t care,” Dustin stated in lieu of a helpful answer. “Now stop staring over there. You’re embarrassing yourself.”

“No, I’m not,” she returned. “I think I’m just embarrassing you.”

“Yes.”

“I can live with that.”

Dustin’s face smacked into the center of his palm just as the doors opened and the first years trailed in. “Look, there’s Brett!” Florence announced. She made big gestures in their younger brother’s direction, waving happily at him. She hardly noticed Dustin’s annoyance, but after a lifetime of his disapproval, she had more or less gotten used to it.

She sat back down as things got started. “Idiot,” she heard Dustin mutter under his breath. Flo wasn’t entirely sure if he met her or Brett, but either way, she let it slide for now. Dustin always thought he was so much better and so much smarter than anyone else in the family, but she knew for certain that at the very least, she and Makenzie were both definitely smarter than he was. Dustin had potential - he was quite the gifted learner, and he read fervently - but his inability to put aside his ego was a massive limitation. Florence did not have that issue. Of course, she would never express these thoughts aloud to anyone except Brett, and usually only when he brought it up. She was fairly humble about her intellect in general.

They watched Brett turn brown and shuffle off to the Pecari table. Dustin scoffed. Of course that little pest was a Pecari. There was usually applause at the Sortings, and Dustin did not break this pattern, although his claps were slow and somewhat sarcastic. He noted the blue people filtering into their table with mild surprise. It always amazed him how many girls they let into Aladren. Of course, he supposed maybe some girls could be smart - Makenzie had proven to exceed his expectations of her abilities - but that many of them every time? Flo had four roommates, for Merlin’s sake! The scrambling was fairly quick, and he didn’t care enough to look thoroughly now, but he was pretty sure he saw at least three of them this year. And one was pretty tall for a first year.

Dustin didn’t win prefect, he discovered quickly thereafter. That was a touch disappointing, although he was happy for Louis. His French roommate had a lot of… ~~stressful~~ interesting ideals, but he was generally a pleasant person. Even if Dustin had seen more than enough of the guy to make a girl faint at the prospect. Damn model.

The midsummer event was announced, and then the song began. Flo started singing, but her brother did not. She frowned at him. “Aren’t you going to sing?” she paused to ask, resuming the moment her query was done.

“Nope,” he returned. Florence paused her singing long enough to sigh and hopped back in at the next full word.

The song concluded, and it was time to eat at last. “Hey, Dustin, can you pass me that?” Flo requested, pointing at the dish she wanted, a bowl of mashed potatoes. Her brother gave no indication of hearing her. “Dustin. Pass me the potatoes, please.” Again, nothing. The second year sighed and, instead of appealing once more to her brother beside her, looked up at the person across from her. “Excuse me, can you reach the mashed potatoes? My brother is either going deaf of being a jerk.”

12 Florence and Dustin Newell Some casual bickering. 362 Florence and Dustin Newell 0 5

Araceli Arbon

March 07, 2017 6:35 AM

I know the feeling by Araceli Arbon

Seventh year. It definitely didn’t feel like she should be a seventh year. That was, she supposed, hardly surprising, given that she had actually only spent a small fraction of her alloted time in this school. She didn’t want to be so close to graduating. Not only because she was just finding her feet here, but school was also the last slim defence that stood before her and the real world… That meant marrying Duncan Brockert, if she was lucky - on paper, she could scarcely hope to do better, he was from an exceedingly good family and actually seemed nice too, but she didn’t know him, and he thought he knew her, but actually knew, and presumably prefered, her sister. Or at least, her sister’s impression of her. But she had to hope for that, because the alternative was returning home to her father, a disappointment and a burden. He hadn’t wanted her for the first seventeen years of her life. Why would that be likely to change once she actually failed him? Time flew by so fast at Sonora. She knew that it would be no time at all before she was bidding goodbye to this place, finally somewhat safe and familiar, and having to start again.

She sat nervously in her seat, awaiting the announcements for head student. She knew it wouldn’t be her, it couldn’t be her… And unlike most people, she was more than fine with that. It was the ‘what if it is…’ that made her anxious. As Savannah’s name was announced, she breathed a sigh of relief. She applauded the head boy and girl, very grateful that she had not, by some horrible freak accident, won. She had been shocked and astonished to see her name on the ballot. She didn’t want to lead, or be in charge. She just wanted to melt quietly into the background. She could think of nothing more embarrassing than having to walk up onto the stage in front of everyone - which was not going to fit well with the fact that this year’s event was the concert.

As the feast began, she noticed that Cecilia Carey had taken a seat next to her. Even though they were many years apart, she had noticed the other girl’s absence last year. It was a small school, and they were housemates as well as both being society girls. Plus the sudden disappearance of a classmate… It was rather a relatable experience, even though she couldn’t exactly commiserate with Miss Carey over the subject, as to all other observers, she had been here for the duration of her schooling. She would have been relieved to hear that it was merely a regular illness, albeit a serious one, had she not enough skepticism to know better… Any time there was something more serious or sinister ir would of course be buried under a convenient excuse like Dragon Pox. She tried not to examine Cecilia too closely, knowing full well that she wouldn’t have welcomed such intrusion, besides which she wasn’t sure what she was looking for. If there was any untruth about it, the traces of it were not likely to be written on Cecilia. Not unless one knew her well. It had taken Effie long enough to realise that her sisters had been swapped, and she knew them intimately. Besides, she wasn’t exactly suspecting the same thing to have happened with Cecilia. Just… she only ever believed excuses so far.

“Good evening. Yes, very well, thank you,” she smiled when Cecilia addressed her. “Welcome back, I hope you’re quite well again,” she tried carefully to tread the line between appropriate consideration and dwelling on unpleasant and personal matters. It was always such a juggling act.

13 Araceli Arbon I know the feeling 290 Araceli Arbon 0 5

Jen

March 07, 2017 4:13 PM

Oceans are difficult to contain by Jen

Wow, it seemed like her smile had been interpreted as an invitation for the other blue kid to keep talking and not stop. Jen was definitely going to have to be more careful about which facial expressions she chose as greetings. Also his name was Ryder, like that was a real and okay name to have. She guessed she couldn’t hold that against him, unless he’d by-passed whatever name he’d been given and chosen one for himself, but the odds did not support that theory. In an effort to not be scathing about every other word that he had uttered (it definitely wasn’t his fault that he good mood had evaporated in a split second, even if she wanted to blame him for it), the first year focused on his polite offer to pass any food she might want. “Thanks,” she said, and she looked around to see what was on offer, her black, rectangular-framed glasses bringing everything into sharp focus.

Honestly Jen really liked eating junk food. She hated fast food chains and their lack of respect for people or animals, but she would be completely lying if she said she liked anything better than a burger with fries. There was a lot of food on offer here, which helped to further raise her opinion of the school - she didn’t think she would starve at any point over the next seven years - and gave her a lot of options instead of the life-shortening burgers and fries. With a resigned sigh, Jen filled her plate with a baked potato, and loaded it high with grated cheese. She had a thin frame, that was not at all identifiable under her current layers of robes, hoodie and a t-shirt, but she ate a lot. She guessed she just had a fast metabolism or something.

Jen filled her cup with a juice of some sort that was bright red, as red as the kids being sorted into Crotalus House, and then remembered that she hadn’t really given much notice to Ryder. Ryder.

“My name’s Jen,” she finally said. She didn’t feel like sharing anything else, least of all her past residencies or current levels of excitement. She didn’t think she was outwardly demonstrating any signs of being excited, but since two people had asked her already, she could assumed it was a common theme for the other first years. Jen decided to indulge Ryder in his projected emotions. “Are you excited?” she looked up as she spoke, her choppy, brown hair bouncing annoyingly about her head as she did so.

0 Jen Oceans are difficult to contain 388 Jen 0 5

Victor Callahan

March 07, 2017 4:53 PM

A pie or a person? by Victor Callahan

Victor was a big boy now, and it wasn’t his fault that being at home was just a teeny, little bit boring. Even if saying that had made Jehan sad - but then again, it didn’t take much. Victor didn’t like to see his little brother unhappy, but the only way to stop that would have been to stay at home instead of returning to Sonora, and that just wasn’t possible. Jehan would have to understand, and be happy with Victor writing him lots of letters. He didn’t really like writing letters, but made an exception for Jehan.

However, Victor was back at Sonora now, so he didn’t have to worry about Jehan. There was nothing he could do from here, and Victor wasn’t the type to worry if he could avoid it. Instead, he relished the fact that he was no longer a loser first year. Life was so much better when you got to be a cool older kid, and Victor was loving it already.

He watched the sorting with interest - these kids were going to be in his classes, after all - but you couldn’t really tell much about people from just looking at them. He’d have to talk to them all at some point, see who was from which family and who was fun. For the meantime, the headmaster’s speech and the song were the only things that stood between him and food. Somehow he managed to survive the eternally long wait, amusing himself with the thought of the Head Boy and Girl having to volunteer themselves as food because the house-elves had all caught the plague and died, taking their cooking abilities with them. He’d just decided that, really, he’d prefer a nice pie to human flesh, when the food appeared, and he was spared having to turn into a cannibal.

After taking a few bites to satisfy his appetite (he was a growing boy, after all, aiming for at least 6’11’’ because being really tall would be so cool), he slowed down his eating rate and turned to being sociable. Partly, this was because Victor liked talking to people, but also because he was a Callahan and, as his father had reminded him over the summer, that meant Responsibilities and Being A Sociable Person. It also meant that people should like him, although Victor also remembered the manners his mother had taught him, more or less.

“Can I pass you anything?” he asked the person next to him on the Crotalus table, smiling cheerfully. There was food - how could anyone not be happy? “This pie’s pretty great, I’d recommend it.” That was definitely manners, gallantly giving up the pie he’d found. Still, not even Victor Callahan could finish off all of the large pie in one sitting.

9 Victor Callahan A pie or a person? 368 Victor Callahan 0 5

Alex Leifsson (and a bit of Madison)

March 07, 2017 10:28 PM

Joining in. by Alex Leifsson (and a bit of Madison)

“What House do you think you’ll be in?” Madison whispered to Alex. She had read about the different Houses in the pamphlets they had received regarding the school. “You’ll probably end up in Aladren.” She tried not to be sour when she said this. She loved her sister. She really did, but sometimes, it was hard living with someone so perfect. It wasn’t enough that Alex always had a ton of friends, was super fun, and played sports. No, she had to be really smart too. It was really hard to compete with someone like that. It was absolutely exhausting.

Alex bit her lip and thought for a moment before responding. She hadn’t really thought much about which House she would like to be sorted into because she was too concerned with whether or not she would be sorted into a different House than her sister. Madison had a tendency to be a loner at times, and being sorted into the same house would make it easier for Alex to include her sister in her activities or group of friends. “I’m not sure,” Alex replied finally and let out a sigh. “I was hoping that we would end up in the same House.” She smiled at Madison and then turned her attention to the sorting ceremony that had started.

Madison felt conflicted by her sister’s words. Part of her wanted to be in the same House, but part of her didn’t. She felt that if they were in different Houses, then maybe she could shine for once. She wanted to be the one in the sunlight instead of the shadow. Even at the Orientation, she had felt like the ugly stepsister. She knew once they started talking to anyone that would be it. Alex would have all of the friends, because everyone instantly liked her and she would be left out in the cold. Okay, maybe she was being silly. Back home, their friends were mutual, but honestly, how much of that was out of politeness? Here, if she were in a different House, maybe she would have the chance to actually make friends that were her friends and not their friends.

Once the Sorting Ceremony started, Madison watched as her sister’s skin changed color. She was expecting Aladren, but…

Alex’s hand turned yellow. This meant she was in Teppenpaw. To her, this made sense. She was outgoing and tried to be friendly. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she nearly forgot that her sister was behind her in line to drink the potion. Alex quickly turned to see her sister’s hands turn brown. Madison was sorted into Pecari.

Alex felt a bit stunned. She hadn’t thought through what would happen if they were sorted into different Houses, even though logically she knew it was a possibility. She walked to the Teppenpaw table without saying anything else to her sister, simply because she didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t that she needed to be in the same house as Madison, but she knew she would now be worried about her sister being alone and not making any new friends.

She was still lost inside her own thoughts as she semi-listened to other first year Teppenpaw students around her introduce themselves to one another.

“I thought I would be excited to be here…” Alex chimed in, probably rather impolitely after hearing Eden introduce herself to Ivy. She meant for her statement to remain in her head, but she had blurted it out in her frazzled state.

“My apologies,” she began again, “I was thinking about something that was bothering me and didn’t mean to intrude. My name is Alessandra Leifsson of the New York Leifssons…but I usually go by Alex.” She hoped the other girls would excuse her lack of enthusiasm, as it was out of character for the new Teppenpaw. Alex glanced at the Pecari table in hopes of seeing what her sister was doing.

OOC: This post was co-written with Madison Leifsson's author.

0 Alex Leifsson (and a bit of Madison) Joining in. 392 Alex Leifsson (and a bit of Madison) 0 5

Ryder

March 07, 2017 10:43 PM

That's the beauty of it. by Ryder

Ryder blinked at Jen while patiently waiting for her to say more in response to the questions he asked her, but alas she just thanked him, gave her name, and asked him the same question she left unanswered herself. Every girl he had encountered thus far had been quiet and unengaged in conversation. He started to wonder if there was a prerequisite for attending this school that required participants to learn the art of not divulging any information about oneself to fellow students. If so, he had missed the registration deadline.

Ryder was not aware of how much he liked to talk, and therefore assumed everyone wanted to talk as much as he did. He genuinely found people interesting, but the lack of conversation he had encountered so far left him feeling frustrated. Nevertheless, he continued to be polite in hopes that he would find someone at Sonora who shared his love of conversation. He had not encountered this predicament at home, for his best friend Lexi rivaled his skill of constantly talking.

He thought for a moment before responding to Jen’s question. “Well, I am excited about being here, but it doesn’t seem like many people share the same enthusiasm.” He wasn’t trying to be rude, nor did he state his response in an abrupt manner, but this was genuinely how he felt. He did not want to fake a happy response if it wasn’t how he actually felt. He paused for a moment and continued, “I mean, I miss talking to my best friend, but I am excited to learn more about this part of my life. I used to attend a public school, and it was not the best experience at times.” He smiled once again, returning to a less frustrated state of mind. “How is that juice you are drinking?”

0 Ryder That's the beauty of it. 383 Ryder 0 5

Emilia-Louise Scott

March 08, 2017 11:26 AM

Torn. by Emilia-Louise Scott

Emmy-Lou tried her best to take on every new day with a bright smile. She was a happy person for the most part, but more than anything she liked to see happiness in the people around her. She was excited about being back at Sonora, despite what she had to leave behind, and was all smiles as she entered Cascade Hall with her best friend.

This new school year she had even more to look forward to than usual. She was finally going to receive an honour she’d long desired. She was entering her fifth year and felt confident that she would be getting the prefect badge. Emmy-Lou already did so much to help other people - even as a mere second year, she’d taken it upon herself to look out for the younger students - and being a prefect opened the door for her to expand on that further. It was also just nice to be recognised for her efforts as well, although that was obviously not the motive behind it all.

Thus the Aladren felt as though she’d been stunned when Headmaster Brockert did not call out her name. Not only that but it soon registered that he had announced her best friend as the newest Aladren prefect. That made a whole lot more sense than Dustin of course, but she knew it would be a whole lot harder to deal with. For the time being though, Emmy-Lou was having a hard time processing the fact that she was not prefect.

She could feel her face heating up and tears welling up behind her eyes as she stared in shock at Louis. But now was not the time and Emmy-Lou knew she was going to have to save face and try her best hand at acting for just a few seconds. She forced a smile and patted Louis on the back. He was her best friend and he’d just been awarded a title she regarded very highly. She felt she should say something but she couldn’t, fearing that she might even throw up.

As she watched Louis walk up to receive her badge, amidst the applause of their fellow students, Emmy-Lou didn’t think she could take anymore. She wanted to leave but she knew she would have to wait until everyone was eating, where eyes wouldn’t instantly rush to her, but by that point Louis would have returned to the table and she’d have to speak to him.

Emmy-Lou was always very loyal to her friends and supported them in the best way she knew how so not being able to do that for Louis only made her feel worse. She was devastated. To some people, becoming prefect didn’t mean a great deal, but to her, at least right now, it felt like everything. She had so much to give and couldn’t understand what she’d done wrong to be skipped over like this. It was hurtful and Emmy-Lou just wanted to run up to her room, curl up in a ball and cry.

She avoided making eye contact with Louis when he sat back down beside her and tried to throw herself into the school song, but for the first time she just didn’t feel happy enough to sing along with her classmates as they entered a brand new year.

When the song ended Emmy-Lou looked around at the delicious dishes before but her appetite was gone. She turned to Louis and managed to speak finally. “I don’t feel too good,” she whispered, beginning to get up. “I’m sorry - it must have been something I ate last night.”

8 Emilia-Louise Scott Torn. 313 Emilia-Louise Scott 0 5

Jozua "Carl Fredricksen" Sparks

March 08, 2017 3:51 PM

Someday I'll fly my house to South America for you by Jozua "Carl Fredricksen" Sparks

Jozua wasn't sure what he'd been expecting from his declaration of undying love - okay, maybe if he had phrased it that way, Lily may have reacted differently, but his natural penchant to not explicitly share his feelings seemed to have made its underlying meaning less clear - but doubtful suspicion and a casual dismissal of his words had not been among predictions.

He was almost offended. Here he was basically proposing, and she was barely even listening.

Then he remembered they were thirteen not thirty and Lily - as much as he did care for her - was a bit dense sometimes, so she really had no reason to think Jozua seriously meant the details of their possible future wedding was a thing he did think about from time to time. (England, he had decided, was practically ideal: they spoke English there for the American side of his family, but it was much closer for his Dutch relatives, thus making it a perfect compromise location even before considering the bonus that Lily's family was actually from there.) He'd never mentioned it before because, well, they were thirteen and he didn't want her to think he was a dork.

So on the Not A Dork front, this reaction was really pretty much the best thing he could have hoped for.

Of course, then she needed to bring up the boys from England back home in this context, and he stopped trying to force an everything-is-normal smile. She had mentioned them before. They played sports together and they treated Lily like she was one of the guys. And they apparently watched and flirted other girls who were not Lily. Jozua was liking them more and more, though he didn't like that she didn't like this.

"No accounting for taste," Jozua stated, frowning a little, displeased with the direction of the conversation. Fortunately, though, Lily changed it and told him about her summer instead of dwelling further on the idiocy of her English pals. Who in their right minds wanted a girl in ridiculous makeup and impractical clothing when there was a stalwart adventurer in their midst?

He nodded in sympathy for the relative absence of her brother now that Adam had entered the married life, though as an only child, Jozua truthfully had no frame of reference for understanding that mixed bag of joy and loss. He had a better idea of her no holds barred method of play, though, so he could more easily picture this Ed guy's injury. She kept talking, not giving him a chance to answer her apparently rhetorical question that she was too rough sometimes, but he shook his head in answer loyally anyway, even if it couldn't be denied she was definitely rougher than he was. He considered that a Pecari versus Teppenpaw difference though.

"Totally pointless," he agreed readily when she stated her opinion on dating. This was a reassuring opinion after the conversation's previous topics, and it hopefully meant she had no intention of dumping him as a friend in order to find herself a dumb boyfriend and making kissy faces with him instead of adventuring with Jozua.

If he hadn't been friends with her for years already, he might have been left behind by her next sentences which jumped from discussing her other brother's fairly serious head injury to asking about his birthday dueling tournament in basically the same breath. However, as they were good friends, he was mostly used to her use of portkeys in her conversational maneuvering by now.

He decided no comment was necessary on Jack's condition since it sounded like he was fine now. Lily knew Jozua didn't say much if he had nothing to add (which meant she often shouldered all of the heavy lifting in their conversations though he honestly didn't think she really minded or even noticed most of he time), and she'd followed it with a direct question about one of the few topics Jozua actually did enjoy talking about at length, so he assumed she only expected a response to that.

"It was great!" He enthusiastically summarized, then launched excitedly into the nitty gritty details: who had competed, who had won, who had pulled an upset, and some of the more memorable moments in the duels. As he reached the end of his account, he concluded with the best part. "And Dad said we could go to another one over midterm, and I could invite you and Finn! Do you think you can visit in January, right before we head back to school?"

1 Jozua "Carl Fredricksen" Sparks Someday I'll fly my house to South America for you 348 Jozua "Carl Fredricksen" Sparks 0 5

Jen

March 09, 2017 6:41 AM

Hard to keep in a school, though by Jen

Jen frowned; either Ryder didn’t like her not voicing her excitement, or he’d talked to other people already that day who also didn’t wish to express excitement. He didn’t seem at all impressed by her answer. When he said about missing stuff from home, and being excited about a new part of his life, Jen guessed she could kind of relate to that. She was about to make some sort of empathetic comment when he asked about her juice instead. “I… I haven’t tried it yet,” she said, but lowered her fork immediately to take a sip. She licked her lips after a small mouthful and crinkled her brow a moment while she contemplated. “It takes likes beets,” she said, evenly. “And cherries. Together. But… somehow that’s a good thing?” If someone had told her beforehand the red juice was beet and cherry flavor she would have left it it in the jug. “I think I like it,” she concluded, and proceeded to take another mouthful.

When she had swallowed, Jen pursed her lips to one side of her face and looked at Ryder again. “I didn’t much like school either,” she told him, and admitting something about her personal life to someone she had only just met was a big deal for Jen, but he’d seemed so dispirited just now she felt bad for him. “We moved a lot,” she shrugged. “I guess I’m excited about staying in one place for seven years.” Even if her Mom did move again - and Jen had no reason to believe that she would stay put - at least her daughter was safely enrolled at a boarding school that accepted students from (as far as Jen knew) anywhere. She wouldn’t mind being settled for a bit.

“Your best friend…” Jen started, curious about the nameless person that had been mentioned. She wouldn’t mind directing the conversation back at Ryder; she had already said more than was usual for her at a mealtime. “Why aren’t they here?” There could be all sorts of reasons, from a difference in age, to a different choice of school. Jen didn’t exactly leave any friends at home. There were some people she liked more than others, but they were all Muggles, as far as she knew. It would be cool, she guessed, to have someone to share magic with besides her Mom.

0 Jen Hard to keep in a school, though 388 Jen 0 5

Zevalyn Ives

March 09, 2017 10:25 AM

The waterfalls are as close to an ocean as I've ever seen by Zevalyn Ives

Zevalyn's head was spinning from everything she had seen on the tour. It wasn't even just the big things, either. Obviously the potions room looked . . . incredible, she supposed was a good word, as it bore the connotations of both amazing and not believable. And the library was just, wow. Then there was the strange looking sports field. They all stood out and proclaimed as clearly as a Morgan Freeman narration that this was a magic school and that the concept of real life had ceased to exist.

But then there were the little details, like portraits that moved and even talked. The lack of electricity. The complete wrongness of the everyday items laying about in the muggle studies classroom as subject material. The casual mention of elves doing the housecleaning. These were the things that really nailed it home that this was her new reality. Enough of the other people surrounding her just walked past these things like they were totally normal and the teacher guy didn't bother trying to draw attention to them, like he didn't even see them. If this had been made by normal people trying to convince other that magic was really real, they would have pointed out all the ways it was used to make everyday life easier, instead of just saying, "Here's the witches' toilet." And then moving on while a painting of a Renaissance lady tartly ordered him, "You ought to tell those elves to get in there, Professor. Someone splashed water all over the floor."

And then instead of using that as a launch point to talk about what the heck elves had to do with wet floors in the bathroom, they guy just stuck his head in a nearby classroom and called out, "Hey, Bonny, we've got a spill in the girl's bathroom, could you check that out? Thanks." Then there was a faint cracking sound and they carried on with the tour but s she walked past and looked through the half-opened door the professor hadn't closed behind him, all Zevalyn could see was a half full dust pan in the middle of the floor.

And then they entered into the aptly named Cascade Hall, and her mouth fell open as she stared around the place. Having lived her whole life in Arizona, she couldn't help but feel most of her state's water supply was crashing down the walls right here in this room.

She tore her eyes away from the waterfalls as a goblet started getting passed around, and she watched a few other people changed colors before it became her turn. She had read up on the Houses enough to know she was fairly solidly Aladren material, so she wasn't too surprised when she turned blue. She felt ridiculous, yes, but not surprised.

Self conscious about her coloring, she sat sown near some other people who were similarly hued instead of trying to find more people closer to her age. She was going to be in beginner classes anyway to start with, so she may as well get to know some of her classmates anyway.

First, though, there were people getting badges and an announcement of a concert next summer, and a school song (she didn't sing as she didn't know the tune). Then she was startled by the sudden appearance of a vast array of food onto the table all around her, and by the time she had gotten over surprise and filled her plate, two of the blue first years were already talking to each other.

At one day shy of her fourteenth birthday, she felt weird trying to join the conversation of two younger people, so she just watched them them and listened (she didn't think it counted as eavesdropping when she was being this obvious about it). The one boy seemed pretty friendly and she smiled at him a little in sympathy when the girl was not matching his enthusiasm, and she thought about inserting herself then, but then the girl loosened up a bit, and she wasn't sure if she should or not now.

Also, she wanted to know the answer to why Ryder's best friend wasn't here. She doubted it was the same reason why hers wasn't (having your best friend be the squib daughter of the muggleborn liaison officer assigned to watch your untrained muggleborn self until you could accept magic was real seemed like something that wouldn't happen very often) but if he was muggleborn, too, then it was reasonable to guess his friends were muggles, and it would be reassuring to know she wasn't the only one who found all of this to be completely new territory.

She decided to compromise. She would join the conversation. But she'd expand on Jen's question which could technically be answered without providing the one detail she most wanted to know. "Are you a muggleborn, too?" she asked almost hopefully. Then she worried it was rude to ask questions like that without providing a basic introduction, she added quickly, "I'm Zevalyn. A muggleborn from the suburbs of Pheonix."

OOC: Xavier is mine so I can write for him.

1 Zevalyn Ives The waterfalls are as close to an ocean as I've ever seen 380 Zevalyn Ives 0 5

Amelia Layne

March 09, 2017 10:48 AM

All in good fun, I hope? by Amelia Layne

Summer had passed quietly, for the most part. Lionel had started working, and while he didn’t seem happy – he was quieter than usual and didn’t sometimes smile to himself for seemingly no reason, and didn’t tease her much and called her by her real name a lot instead of ‘Mimi’ – he didn’t complain. Amelia, her summer homework finished in the first couple of weeks between the combined energies of her grandparents, had spent most of her time reading, painting with Lionel or, two times, Mama, and trying not to die of heat and humidity. Twice Grandmother had taken her to the beach to swim, and that had been heavenly, aside from Grandmother, under a wide hat and an umbrella and a lot of sunblock, chiding her about how sunbathing would ruin her complexion and how she didn’t understand this mania for tanning. They had also gone to shops and tried on outfits they couldn’t afford a few times for fun, and Alicia, to Amelia’s surprise, had had Amelia and Lionel both over for tea several times (”she’s hoping you’ll tell her something about her cousin she can use against his dad,” Lionel had observed, and Amelia had to admit, Alicia had seemed very curious about what Winston had been up to last year and who his friends were, but why, then, had she been nice to Lionel, too? He had been a seventh year last year) and Amelia had written cheerful postcards and short letters to her roommates and Ayla Tremaine, who had hosted the girls’ lunch last year, to make sure they didn’t forget her over the summer. It had been fun, relaxing, and for the past week, she had been more than a little sorry to realize it was about to end.

Now that she was back at Sonora, though, Amelia was too pleased by the thought of seeing everyone again to think much about that. Tomorrow there would be lessons and waking up at the ‘wrong’ time and occasional manure in Herbology and Potions. Tonight, there was being awake way too ‘late’ and, more importantly, a Feast.

Hurrying in a little later than she had meant to, she grabbed a seat across from Flo, who seemed to be bickering with her brother. Amelia smiled – she and Lionel were not close enough to the same age to have ever bickered too much, but she had read about such things and had always been a little jealous of Rachel and Kate and Alicia for growing up with a house full of sisters and a little brother as much as for having money and the nice dresses and real jewelry that went with it – and applauded politely for the new Aladrens, mumbled her way through the school song, and then eagerly surveyed the food. Her attention soon returned to Flo and her brother, though, and this time she frowned a bit at Dustin.

“I think so,” she said when her roommate asked if she thought she could reach the mashed potatoes. Amelia picked up her knife and used it to extend her reach just enough to slide the bowl close enough to her that she could push it toward Flo without putting her hand on the rim of the bowl. It had a handle for just that purpose, but that was turned too far away from her for her to get it without getting up and leaning all the way across the table. Grandmother had negative feelings toward using cutlery in innovative ways to solve problems, but she had even stronger feelings about leaning one’s whole torso over the table to get something or putting one’s hands inside communal dishes. Or, really, eating with one’s hands at all except sandwiches – Grandmother ate even chicken with a fork, which everyone else found funny except when she made them do it, too. “There you go. You know, I think I read a spell last year that makes a loud noise if you want to test his hearing…” she added, looking at Dustin and figuring just the threat would probably prove he was just being a jerk.

16 Amelia Layne All in good fun, I hope? 360 Amelia Layne 0 5

Louis Valois

March 09, 2017 2:38 PM

Where do we go from here? by Louis Valois

After a good – albeit deep – catch-up with Emmy, Louis was definitely ready for some food. However, as usual he had to wait for the seemingly never-ending stream of small first years to be sorted. This wasn’t all boring, as Louis quickly remembered that the Aladren Quidditch team had two players to replace. Having a reserve last year took the pressure off a little, but it was still important to get as many new players as possible. Extras could be trained up, as Amelia had been last year. The new Aladren crop consisted of three girls and a boy, but this imbalance didn’t bother the French boy, as he was used to the idea of girls playing Quidditch. One of them was Arne’s sister, who would hopefully follow in the footsteps of her Reinhardt predecessors and join the team. Another of the girls looked a little bit older than the others, which was intriguing.

Louis was feeling confident about the year ahead of him, and not just regarding Quidditch. Once again, he would be one of the oldest in his class – an annoyance in terms of potentially being held back by younger students, but it would also mean that he’d get to tackle harder material. He also had lots of plans for his orchestra, as well as generally being happy to be away from French society once more. The end of his summer had been very tense, and Louis couldn’t help but wonder how much longer he could continue to rebel before his father did something drastic.

The headmaster announced the head students, and Louis dutifully clapped. He turned to Emmy, ready to be the first to congratulate her on becoming prefect, and was already clapping again when it registered. The headmaster had called his name? Yes, he definitely had, and Louis sent an apologetic look at Emmy-Lou before standing up, half a beat after the other prefects. Feeling like there must have been some sort of mistake, he walked up to collect his badge. As he pinned it on to his shirt he couldn’t help a smile, and a feeling of pride – he’d been chosen as prefect! - which only made him feel even more guilty.

He’d been so sure Emmy would be the Aladren prefect. She made sense – Emmy actively went out of her way to help people, she’d started two clubs, she was Emmy-Lou. Why would they chose him over her? Louis Valois, the French boy, a troublemaker at home and not quite the model pureblood student at Sonora, even if he was in general well-behaved and enthusiastic about Quidditch and orchestra.

He only half-registered the potential that a concert would bring, then found himself vaguely singing along to the school song. Once that ended he turned straight to Emmy, and was trying to think of something to say when she started speaking. He frowned at her excuse, immediately seeing through it, but not wanting to out her in front of everyone else.

“I’ll come with you?” he offered, starting to get up too. He didn’t want her to be sad on her own, and suddenly the feast didn’t seem as tempting for him either.

9 Louis Valois Where do we go from here? 314 Louis Valois 0 5

Ryder

March 09, 2017 11:11 PM

You, my new friend, are missing out. by Ryder

Ryder was pleasantly surprised that Jen decided to at least humor him and answer his questions. “Beet and cherry juice huh? Sounds...tasty?” He chuckled a bit. “I like cherry alright, but I am not sure about the beet part.” He reached across the table and poured himself an orange colored juice and sniffed it. He took a sip and nodded his head. “This one is good. It tastes like melons.”

Listening to Jen state that she did not like her previous school either made Ryder feel a little more at ease. Ryder nodded as she explained that her family moved around a lot. “Moving around a lot would be hard, but it also sounds kind of fun. I mean, did you get to live a lot of different places? I have just lived in California all of my life.”

Ryder was not expecting Jen to ask a question about Lexi, but before he could answer, another girl asked if he was a muggleborn and introduced herself as Zevalyn Ives. He hesitated to answer. Ryder was not sure how much of his family history he was ready to divulge to two classmates he had just met. He was a half-blood, and while that didn’t bother him one bit, he knew some people would look down on him for not being a pureblood. His grandparents had no problems with doing that. He wasn’t really suspicious of Zevalyn, since she just stated that she is a muggleborn, but he didn’t know how Jen felt about half-bloods. He decided to choose a safe answer.

“No, I am not muggleborn,” Ryder said turning to face Zevalyn and then turned towards Jen again, “but my best friend, Lexi, is a muggle. That is why she is not here. She doesn’t even know about magic. She thinks I transferred to another school because of my, uh, incident at my last school. Some jerk broke my new skateboard, and let’s just say I was a little angry.”

Ryder turned towards Zevalyn once again. “My name is Ryder Knight. Are you in the same year as us?” He hoped he wasn’t being too forward or rude, but the girl appeared to be older than them. He had noticed her earlier during orientation, but wasn’t sure if she was in their year or just transferring here to another year.

0 Ryder You, my new friend, are missing out. 383 Ryder 0 5

Tess Whittaker

March 10, 2017 12:19 PM

Excited for the year ahead! by Tess Whittaker

Tess’s summer had been far better than her last one, although that wasn’t hard. Finally she’d made some friends in Winthrop (her brother going to the local middle school had definitely helped her to get in with the local kids), and it was always nice not to have the threat of a potentially-terminally ill sister hanging over you. Emma was doing very well and, although she still had another operation to come sometime in the next year, was able to be treated almost like any normal baby. Tess enjoyed every minute that she got to spend with her little sister, not taking any of it for granted after the awful year they’d had.

Having girl friends in the area meant that Tess had people to go shopping with, and she had taken full advantage of this, updating her wardrobe to one that befitted a girl of almost 15. She wasn’t the kind of girl to spend ages on her appearance, but boys were more interesting than they once had been, and it was nice to know you looked good.

Talking of boys, Tess had also spent more time with Ben over the summer, a fact which was very exciting. Admittedly, some of their meet-ups had included both their families, but she and Ben had also hung out, just the two of them. Her crush on him had definitely not subsided as a result of this, and she was eager to discuss it with her Sonora friends.

Seeing her friends again was one of the best parts of returning to Sonora. Sure, she always missed her family, but that was kind of balanced out by seeing Raine, Nevaeh, and Nat. She was also looking forward to seeing Tasha, after she’d got to know her better whilst working on their booth.

All in all, Tess was excited for fourth year. It sounded so grown up! That was definitely a good thing. It was always nice to stop being one of the younger students, both in the school and in classes. Clapping enthusiastically as the head students and prefects went up to receive their badges, she couldn’t help but wonder if that would be her next year. She made a mental note to talk to Laila about the concert (baking club should definitely ask if they could provide refreshments), and joined in with the school song.

“Looking forward to this year?” she asked her neighbour, loading up her plate with a selection of yummy-looking food. Sonora feasts were always a great thing to return to.

9 Tess Whittaker Excited for the year ahead! 338 Tess Whittaker 0 5

Finn Scott

March 10, 2017 12:34 PM

Another year, another start by Finn Scott

Moving up into the intermediate class felt like an important thing to Finn. He’d be one of the youngest in his class again, but he would no longer be in the youngest class. He was growing up, and that was both scary and exciting.

Finn had enjoyed the summer. It was always nice to have time to recharge after a year at Sonora, and to see all his family again. He was very fond of his family, and missed them a lot during term time. The long summer had meant he could spend hours with his grandmother, talk with his grandfather, go riding with his cousins, and enjoy being in his own home with his parents. He’d also attended more social events than in previous years. The Scott family believed in letting their children enjoy their childhood, without being forced to act as a mini grown-up all the time, and so Finn’s parents had only slowly increased the amount of time he spent socialising. This meant that he had always been able to enjoy social events without feeling too much pressure.

Attending events also meant a chance to see Juniper. They weren’t at the same events particularly often, but even seeing each other occasionally was better than not seeing each other at all. Finn felt sad that Juniper had to go to events despite not liking them, which couldn’t be much fun for her. It was a situation he sympathised with, although didn’t entirely empathise with - despite being quiet, Finn did enjoy social situations, especially if he was acquainted with at least some of the people there. He found it nice to see people, and after two years at Sonora he was getting used to not having much alone time.

The last two years had made Finn very glad to be in Teppenpaw. He was sure that all houses had their advantages but, for him, being in Teppenpaw meant that he was able to be outgoing yet still quiet, shy but still confident, without having to be as bold as the Pecaris, intelligent as the Aladrens, or sure of himself as the Crotali seemed to be. Plus his two closest friends were in Teppenpaw. He hadn’t had too much chance to catch up with them yet, but that would happen in due course. In the meantime, there was a feast to enjoy!

“Could you pass me the potato salad, please?” Finn asked the person next to him on the Teppenpaw table, not wanting to be rude and reach across anyone. Manners were, after all, very important.

9 Finn Scott Another year, another start 347 Finn Scott 0 5

Jen

March 10, 2017 3:54 PM

You make friends real quick by Jen

“Are you a muggleborn, too?” a girl asked out of nowhere. Jen glanced at her, preparing to frown disapprovingly in her direction - so maybe her conversation with Ryder hadn’t exactly been private, but jumping in like that and asking personal questions was not okay - but the girl was an older student that Jen had seen at orientation, so she held back the frown and just looked, instead, wondering why she didn’t start Sonora in her first year like everyone else.

She continued the interruption by introducing herself, which riled Jen. Luckily, the girl claimed to be a muggleborn from near Phoenix, so Jen frowned at her potato instead of at Zevalyn. It must be tough to be a muggleborn, from what she knew about it from her Mom, and just how she imagined it must be to discover this whole hidden world. Also Jen lived near Phoenix, too. Still, interrupting was not cool.

Ryder at least answered Jen’s question (after answering Zevalyn’s), about his best friend being a Muggle. That was a part of the reason Jen didn’t have a best friend, or many friends at all, really. She sometimes thought it might be different if she hadn’t moved around so much and she knew the same Muggle kids her whole life. It was a bit sad, but then Ryder said something about a school incident that sounded interesting enough for Jen to want to hear about it. But then he said something about his skateboard.

By the time she had realized what he said, Ryder was already talking to Zevalyn again. No, no way was her only link to her only passion being passed over so easily. “Wait wait, back up,” Jen said, sitting up straight, clearly more affected by Ryder now than she had been at any other point so far. “You’re telling me you skate?” She had completely forgotten her meal by this point. A lot of Jen’s more negative feelings about coming to school had to do with not being allowed to bring her skateboard with her. “No way.” She had also forgotten about Zevalyn. “Seriously the only thing I’m gonna miss from home is my skateboard.” Maybe her Mom, but if her Mom hadn’t forbidden it, then Jen would have her skateboard with her at school.

0 Jen You make friends real quick 388 Jen 0 5

Zevalyn

March 10, 2017 10:05 PM

This is awkward by Zevalyn

Not a muggleborn. Zevalyn felt a small rush of disappointment, and it showed on her face, but she consoled herself with the information that he at least knew - and was best friends with - a muggle, so he wasn't totally isolated from her world as she had come to understand some people here would be. That at least was reassuring. She hoped, though, that she'd find someone else to discover everything brand new with. It was really not nearly as fun exploring the unknown if the people with you didn't find it new and exciting, too.

She opened her mouth to answer his seemingly simple question with a rather complex answer when Jen interrupted.

This was probably fair play in retaliation to her own butting into their original conversation, but it did leave her in the awkward position of not quite knowing if she should now butt out again now that she had learned the detail that she had wanted to know, or if she should consider herself part of the conversation now.

Jen didn't really seem to think so, which might have gotten awkward if they were going to be living together for seven years, but Zevalyn had it on pretty good authority that she'd be with the first years for no more than a year if she could pass enough placement exams at the end of this year to move up to intermediates for her 'second' year. She had no intention of failing those placement exams, so if she didn't get on with Jen, it would only be unpleasant for one school year. She was probably going to be spending most of it in the library trying to cover the other half of her beginner lessons anyway.

As the other two seemed to have found a bit of common ground that she did not share and they'd be working in close quarters for all seven of their Sonora years, she opted to put food in her open mouth instead of answering Ryder's question just then, and raised her eyebrows in question to show she wasn't going to think him rude if he answered Jen. Jen's question sounded more keen for an answer than Ryder's did anyway. Ryder had seemed idly curious while Jen was downright enthusiastic now, in stark contrast to her near apathy at the beginning of the conversation.

Besides, Zevalyn was in no rush to make an explanation she expected she'd need to make repeatedly over the next few weeks.

1 Zevalyn This is awkward 380 Zevalyn 0 5

Cecilia

March 12, 2017 9:17 PM

But it isn't polite to discuss such things, is it? by Cecilia

Cecilia smiled again as Araceli Arbon – a safe choice, she thought, for her first conversation of the new year; they were practically family, after all – welcomed her back. “I am, thank you,” she said to the wishes for her health.

Cecilia did not think Araceli was quite as beautiful as her sister Effie, but they were both the sort of girl Cecilia had always secretly tried to model herself on, no matter how persistently Jay help up Francesca as a better role model. It was impossible to imagine one of the Arbon girls roughhousing in the snow with a bunch of brothers and a sister as tough as any of the brothers, or growing up to have five or six children and run them and a household with a firm hand. They were so…delicate and elegant-looking. Cecilia supposed she had an advantage over her sisters in that, Diana and Theresa both had much more striking looks than she did, but she still felt too tall and awkwardly put together and too much like a rough southern girl in general as she noticed Araceli look her over.

“And so glad to be back,” she continued. “It was so boring, being cooped up at home all the time, and Arnold wouldn’t even let me play with the baby for two months.” Arnold doted on his only child, so much that Cecilia had heard her mother and oldest sister speculating over whether or not Fae could even have more children – it had, after all, taken them years to have Penelope, and Penelope was nearly two now, and most men wouldn’t love a daughter that much if they thought they could have anything else. “I don’t suppose you can say it was horribly boring here last year, too, and that I didn’t miss much?” she asked, not at all seriously. Diana had talked so much about the international exhibition when she’d come home that Cecilia had wanted to throw something at her.

0 Cecilia But it isn't polite to discuss such things, is it? 349 Cecilia 0 5

Lily "Ellie" Spencer

March 14, 2017 3:00 PM

As long as it's by durable coloured balloons. by Lily "Ellie" Spencer

As Lily spoke of her English mates, she saw Jozua's facial expression drop. She could imagine the jealousy one would feel hearing their best friend talk about other friends they liked quite a lot. If Jozua started trying to replace Finn with her she knew she would be unhappy - not that she was replacing Jozua at all. She hoped he knew that. Luckily, her tirade distracted her from reassuring him of his spot as her very best friend for life and it was soon forgotten.

Their agreement that dating was totally pointless made Lily a little happy. She liked being agreed with, and Jozua always had a knack for encouraging her though she hardly took a breath whilst talking sometimes and never wanted to grow up and do 'adult things'. Most pure-bloods their age kept an eye on the past and the future, but Lily didn't care to bother.

She loved hearing about the annual wizarding duel tournaments Jozua went to with his father. It must be nice, having a dad who would take his son to these sorts of events. Her own dad was away on long business trips, and he would take Adam and Jack out to play sports or watch Quidditch matches, but she'd never been old enough to attend with them. Now that she was old enough, her dad was too busy with his work at the hospital, but she knew she was still his favourite. Maybe after Adam. She imagined Jozua receiving loads more attention than she could even imagine, since he was the only child, and she wondered what that might feel like. Did he ever get overwhelmed or irritated by the attention?

Lily was a very engaged listener as Jozua relayed the details of the tournament. She nodded and gasped at all the right bits and stared at him with her brown eyes, the images dancing across her brain. She imagined it to be grand and brilliant with spells flying here and there and near-fatalities (that she conjured up) making the audience gasp, enraptured.

Her eyes grew wide. "Really? I'll ask my parents, but they'll have to let me go! I wouldn't miss it for anything!" Even if she had to whine and pout and throw tantrums to get her way, she would do so for the sake of these tournaments. It was right after the holidays as well, so they couldn't make a fuss about it.

"That sounds like a fantastic time," she said, eyes glittering with excitement. From Jozua's account, she felt like she'd been to a tournament already. "I'm glad you enjoyed your birthday. I can't wait for the duelling tournament next year!" She had finished her mash and was back to consuming chicken wings because they were just so tasty. "We get to sign up for elective courses this year," she commented. "Are you going to sign up for any?"

40 Lily "Ellie" Spencer As long as it's by durable coloured balloons. 299 Lily "Ellie" Spencer 0 5

Connor Priory

March 14, 2017 8:22 PM

Why not an apple? by Connor Priory

So here he was, Sonora. Connor knew he shouldn't be impressed by the Cascade Hall as he should have been used to huge displays of magic but he was. His home was large but not especially opulent as his parents preferred to be a bit more down to earth.

Thinking about his parents made him worry. His mother had a bad back and was usually lying down and on pain potions whether she liked it or not while his father had anxiety issues. Connor was used to being responsible and helping out with his sisters Sophia and Lydia as well as his cousin Bridget, whose dad was his mom's first cousin. Bridget's parents also had issues so she was often at Connor's house whether or not that was the best place to put her. Grandma and Grandpa's probably would have been better both because they were perfectly healthy and because they actually lived in the same state as Bridget's parents did. Still, Connor liked having Bridget around and she was the same age as Sophia anyway so it gave his sister a girl her own age to play with on a regular basis.

Anyway, it was going to be odd not looking out for anyone but himself. As one of the youngest students, he was going to be seen as needing help, not as a source for it. He wasn't going to be the big brother here. At least, not for now.

Connor stood with the rest of the first years and waited for the goblet to reach him. Once it did, he took a substantial drink, not so much that there wouldn't be enough for everyone who was left, but enough for it to work. For a brief moment, he wondered what happened if the last person in line didn't drink all of what was left. Did they throw the potion out? Saving it for next term would be quite disgusting. He figured potions had shelf lives just like food and a potion left too long would either lose at least some of it's potency or turn toxic.

Or what if someone drank too much of it? Would it have ill effects or just make the color last longer? Or what if they ran out in the middle of Sorting and had to go get more? Was there more already made, which could fall into the issues of less potent or potentially toxic depending on how old it was or would someone-probably the Potions professor-go make more while they waited? It wouldn't do for someone to drink a less potent Sorting potion, they might end up in a house that was totally wrong for them. And that would be a disaster. What if it made a quiet timid person go into Pecari or a mean person go into Teppenpaw? While the latter didn't invoke much sympathy in Connor, he knew that being placed in the correct house was an essential component of thriving at Sonora. And everyone should get to thrive.

There was little time to contemplate this much further at the moment however as he turned a brilliant red. Crotalus. It was his uncle Adam's house, but did it suit him? He ran through a list of Crotalus traits. He supposed he was cautious to a degree and a planner. Definitely sensible and down to earth. Was he respectable? His last name suggested so but did that make his behavior as such? Of course, it did say thinks oneself was a respectable member of society, not that one actually was . As for rule driven,maybe. Connor wasn't the bossy no fun sort, but he didn't really care to break a rule when the consequence of doing so was too great. Which he supposed was more accurately considered cautious.

As he sat down at the table across from another red-faced first year, he recognized another student. His cousin Arianna. Connor had rather forgotten she was in Crotalus as well. They hadn't spent much time together but despite trying to give people the benefit of the doubt, he'd noted that Arianna was a bit on the bossy, snobby and controlling side, absolutely considering herself a respectable member of a society. Perhaps not so down-to-earth.

He didn't believe they were that much alike. Though Connor wasn't sure he was much like his uncle either. He held a more positive of view of humanity, for one thing. But then, misanthropy wasn't exactly listed as a house trait. And Arianna and Uncle Adam certainly weren't much alike at all.

As Connor scanned the table looking for cheese curds-they were apparently a regional thing, something that he'd never known until recieving a blank look from Ivy, a distant cousin of his that he'd met on the wagon, upon mentioning them before she went on to reply that they served regional...cuisine at Sonora, which as far as Connor was concerned was only fair given they served international fare-the girl across from him spoke, introducing herself as Cleo. He replied "I'm Connor Priory, of the Wisconsin Priorys. Nice to meet you." The new Crotalus gave her a big friendly smile.

11 Connor Priory Why not an apple? 395 Connor Priory 0 5

Jozua

March 14, 2017 8:35 PM

Of course. Nothing less for you. by Jozua

"Good," Jozua said, glad and relieved that Lily though she could visit for the New Years Dueling Tournament. Since dad had made the offer, he had alternated between being certain that she wouldn't let anything get between herself and a dueling tournament and fretting that unsanctioned international travel might very well be that one thing that could keep her away. But if she thought her parents would probably allow her to come, it was all good. Just four months to go and counting down.

He was a bit surprised at her next question, academics not really being of Lily's strongest values, but he supposed it was a question all of the third years must have considered a least a little over the summer, and it would be good to know which of the new courses on offer to Intermediates he'd be sharing with his best friends, so in retrospect it really wasn't all that surprising after all.

"Just Astronomy, I think," he answered. "I don't have much need for Muggle Studies," this was arguably false, as he was a pureblood wizard with basically no idea at all about what muggles did without magic, and therefore was pretty much exactly the target audience for the subject, but that information was unlikely to ever be needed in his purely magical existence, so he didn't much see the point. "And Mom has no respect for divination so I don't want to have her frowning at me if I try to take it. What about you? Are you taking any of them?"

1 Jozua Of course. Nothing less for you. 348 Jozua 0 5

Lily

March 15, 2017 7:44 AM

Glad we're on the same page. by Lily

The thought of adding additional courses to her timetable made her cringe, but being friends with Muggles with no previous experience was difficult. She was a quick learner in context - she didn't speak much when they chatted about television shows or video games or mobile apps, but she'd learnt what a car was, a TV and a mobile. The computer was a bit trickier, but she'd decided educating herself so she could avoid sounding like a Muggle hermit was necessary.

Lily expected Jozua to sign up for an elective and part of her had hoped they would sign up for one together. Alas, she had no interest in Astronomy and she doubted he had much reason to take Muggle Studies.

"I didn't want to at first, but I ended up going for Muggle Studies. Don't want to look like a fool with the mates I've got back home, and it might be good fun learning something new. They've got all sorts of gadgets I've never heard of and I can't quite understand how they work without magic." It wasn't fascinating or particularly awe-inspiring, but Muggles weren't completely dense and helpless as she'd grown up thinking.

"I'm not looking forward to Intermediate courses this year though," she sighed. "You've got to keep me accountable, Jozua. If I get one A this year my parents are going to lock me away or home school me. That'd be the worst!" She'd luckily managed to keep her marks high so far, but with more difficult classes she didn't know if she'd be able to focus well enough to keep it up.

40 Lily Glad we're on the same page. 299 Lily 0 5

Cleo James

March 15, 2017 8:14 AM

You say apple, I say tomato by Cleo James

“Oh, cool. I'm from Colorado,” Cleo smiled. She had enough knowledge of the magical world to know that being from somewhere and being of somewhere were not the same thing but well… Connor had told her where he was ~~from~~ of - where he lived, so it seemed only fair that he knew the same about her. Being from Colorado, she was well aware of the Brockerts but only in the way that someone is aware of a rare species that lives in one’s area. She had heard a lot about them but had never actually seen one for real. She had hoped to meet one when she was younger but her daddy had explained that he doubted Brockerts would be found in their small town, and certainly not stopping in to buy groceries. This had been fairly disappointing to her, and she still held a particular curiosity about them There were, apparently, a lot of them at this school, though she wasn't entirely sure which ones were her Brockerts, as she tended to think of the Colorado branch (a notion which would probably have shocked and displeased them. She also knew enough to know that such people might not be particularly nice or welcoming to her. At least, theoretically she knew it but she found it hard to believe it because she had such little experience of being rejected - unless you counted her mother, but she had always been given the softer, more euphemistic version; that her mother couldn't take care of her. It stung her at times that there hadn't been some overwhelming maternal love that could conquer all obstacles but she had broadly accepted that Something (whatever it was) had been bigger, and everything that she needed in her daddy. Had she known there was a much larger element of personal choice in her mother's abandonment of her, she might have felt differently. But what she currently did not know was indeed not hurting her. Niggling at her, perhaps. Piquing her curiosity from time to time, certainly. But outright upsetting her with feelings of rejection, not so much.

“I live with my daddy and we run a shop,” she added unguardedly. Whilst she didn't go as far as spelling out that she was a motherless mongrel of who knew what origin, she wasn't tiptoeing round it or avoiding the subject with Connor. There was a little bit of naivety, born of her mostly meeting nice people who wanted to be her friend, but Connor was also giving her such a warm and welcoming smile that she didn't think he could be a mean person. And besides, in spite of their very different backgrounds, they had to have something in common - after all, they were both in Crotalus.

“So, why do you think you ended up in this house?” she asked.

13 Cleo James You say apple, I say tomato 389 Cleo James 0 5

Sammy Meeks

March 16, 2017 4:04 AM

Uncharted territory by Sammy Meeks

She barely saw her mothers the last few days of summer break. After Gia left their Nevada home with her mother and those men, their goodbyes still hanging in there, almost tangible, like maybe if one tried hard enough, they could be caught and held onto and bottled, Sammy had retreated to her bedroom, emerging almost exclusively for bathroom uses. She did not seek food; her mom brought her meals. She did not seek the sun; her mama came and forced open the curtains. She didn’t know what to do and in fact almost didn’t want to go back to Sonora with so many holes.

It felt so weird to be back without them, like a whole new school, a whole new foreign experience. Sammy had prepared herself for Jamie’s absence, but she had never imagined being at Sonora without Gia and Jax. She still had Laila and Kira and Wu and Joella and Chuck and Aislinn and Ben - perhaps she was spoiled to have so many she considered friends - but none of them were quite so close. Gia was practically her sister, flesh and blood without flesh and blood. The greatest connection she’d had in her entire life, the first face she saw in the morning and the last one she saw at night, her roommate, her best friend - she was gone.

The sixth year definitely didn’t want to go to the feast, her appetite unusually poor, dwindled to nothing, but she had nowhere else to go, not ready to see her dorm room without Gia’s trunks. So she went to the stupid feast. But she listened to a sum total of zero percent of the Headmaster’s speech and didn’t sing a note of the song.

Sammy did not move when the food became available. She did not speak to anyone around her. She just sat there. Silent and lost in her own mind, wondering if maybe it might’ve hurt less if she hadn’t sat at the Pecari table. Not Aladren, either, because Jax was gone and, like, Barnaby Pye was still there. But somewhere else. Crotalus or Teppenpaw. Hell, even the staff table, if they would’ve let her. The brunette just really wanted to be anywhere but here.

She was a Pecari, and Pecaris adapted. So she would adapt. Eventually.

12 Sammy Meeks Uncharted territory 310 Sammy Meeks 0 5

Ivy

March 16, 2017 8:02 PM

Welcome! by Ivy

Ivy smiled back. "Nice to meet you, Eden." So the other girl wasn't as excited and she sort of wondered why. Maybe Eden had wanted a different house or was homesick, the latter of which Ivy could certainly understand, as she missed her parents, Lavendar and especially Vlad already. She was trying to be as positive as possible though. Or maybe Eden was Muggleborn and was scared, in which case Ivy would have to do her best to make her feel at ease. Or it could just be that she wasn't all that excitable. Ivy didn't know if she would consider herself as such either so much but she didn't want to put people off by being a downer. Perhaps she was overcompensating.

Anyway, she didn't want to pry so she didn't pursue that line of conversation. It seemed like it would be a rather awkward one.

She was saved from having to find another one when her other roommate spoke up."Pleasure to meet you, Miss Leiffson." She responded automatically as was ingrained into her. "You can call me Ivy." She added both so Alex would know she had permission and so Eden wouldn't feel...weird or something. Eden hadn't introduced herself that way, so she was likely not accustomed to doing such. Still, Ivy had to or risk offending people or giving them the wrong idea even if she had no intentions of being anything less that kind to everyone. There were people, people like her cousin Kelsey, who would write her off if she didn't introduce herself the right way, though to such people, her last name would be readily recognizable. At the very least, she was noticeably related to both the Head Girl and the Headmaster. Still, Ivy didn't want to get a reputation for bad manners.

The Teppenpaw felt bad though when Alex mentioned something was bothering her. "It's no problem."She reassured the other girl. She had been focused on Eden at that point anyway. "Are you all right?" Ivy asked, concerned. If she could help Alex feel better she certainly wanted to do so.

11 Ivy Welcome! 394 Ivy 0 5

Laila Kennedy

March 19, 2017 11:22 PM

One last hurrah? by Laila Kennedy

Laila had spent the majority of her summer behind the church gym with Cal Fullerton and by the time she was back on her wagon to school she was feeling fuzzy and light-headed. She had had a lovely vacation and was ready to see her friends again. One thing that Laila loved about Sonora was that she could sit wherever she wanted whenever she wanted. Aside from the Opening Feast, however. Which kinda sucked because her best friends were not in Crotalus. But she got along fine with Kira and almost thought she and the pureblood might be becoming friends and there was Arne Reinhardt even though he was endlessly annoying to her.

But coming back to Sonora was always hard because it meant she had to leave her comfortable small town life for a world which, while accepting, was not hers. Her friends and classmates were all really nice, but she was still a newcomer, she didn't have to live up to a legacy (which came as somewhat of a relief) but she also didn't have such a legacy to rely on. Here, she wasn't Laila Kennedy, golden girl. She was Laila Kennedy, unknown Muggleborn.

She hadn't seen Jax or Gia on the wagon ride over and had spent the whole trip completely worried as to what was going on. Something just didn't feel right. When she got to the school they were no where to be found either and she hadn't seemed to be able to find Sammy either so instead she had just gone to her dorm room and tried to focus on the next Blood Moon Rising book but she hadn't been able to. She had wanted to spend her first day back with her best friends, tell them all about the really amazing summer she'd had. Laila had just made up her mind to pretend to be angry with them and make them beg for forgiveness next time they talked before laughing and telling them she wasn't ever upset at all, just a little disappointed when she saw something which jarred her as odd.

Sammy, alone at the Pecari table looking utterly downcast. Where was Gia? Laila scanned Aladren. No Jax. Her heart began to beat quickly in her chest. Something was wrong, she just knew it. She went up numbly when she was awarded the prefect badge for Crotalus, using the opportunity to look for the Donovans, and as soon as Headmaster Brockert finished the rest of his speech and the food appeared, she rushed over to Sammy.

"Sammy?" she asked, her voice breaking, all of a sudden terrified. "What's going on? Where are Gia and Jax?"

10 Laila Kennedy One last hurrah? 318 Laila Kennedy 0 5

Ryder

March 19, 2017 11:45 PM

Trying to make things less awkward... by Ryder

While Ryder was waiting for Zevalyn to respond to him, Jen seemed ecstatic about his reply and began asking questions about skating. Zevalyn raised her eyebrows at him, which left Ryder in the awkward positon of whether to pursue an answer to the question he directed at Zevalyn, or to talk to Jen about his skateboard. He decided to do a bit of both.

Ryder smirked at Jen a bit and replied, “Of course I skate.” He said it as though anyone who doesn’t skate is simply ridiculous, but his smirk implied that he was also using humor. “I brought my board with me. It is with my things in my dorm room. I am going to guess that you didn’t bring yours since you said you are going to miss it. You can always use mine sometime if you want.” Ryder couldn’t imagine living at school without his skateboard. He was always using it at home when he went out to meet Lexi or some of their mutual friends. He wondered why Jen did not bring her skateboard with her, but he figured that is something he could find out later. Instead he decided to try to find a way to include Zevalyn in the conversation, and after a moment he thought he knew how.

He smiled at Jen and turned back to Zevalyn to ask a question. “What about you? Have you ever tried skating? If you haven’t, it’s cool. Maybe I can show you a few pointers if you are interested in learning.” This was Ryder’s attempt at still including Zevalyn in the conversation while staying on the topic Jen was enthusiastic about, and he hoped it didn’t backfire. It appeared Jen was not even paying attention to what Zevalyn was saying, but Ryder was still interested in whether or not she was in their year.

0 Ryder Trying to make things less awkward... 383 Ryder 0 5

Jen

March 22, 2017 6:35 AM

Okay, less awkward, whatever by Jen

He brought his board with him. Ryder had a skateboard, and he had it with him. Why did her mom hate her? Why? His skateboard was in his dorm room, right now. Jen's skateboard was in her bedroom at home, under her bed, for the next few months. “My Mom wouldn't let me bring it,” she said, angrily stabbing her fork into her potato.

That was so unfair. Riding a broomstick was in no way going to be the same. Jen had actually been looking forward to riding a broom until she realised it was going to replace her board. At least there was a board here she could use, since Ryder had offered. That was nice of him, seeing as Jen doubted she would ever let anyone use her board. Ryder was okay, she decided. Even if he had a dumb name. No longer distracted by Ryder’s skating comments, she recalled he had added his surname in his introduction to Zevalyn. Seriously, his folks had named him Knight comma Ryder? Jen smirked at her potato.

Nice guy Ryder was even trying to include Zevalyn in the awesomeness that was skating. Sighing at her potato, now in a mushy, unappetising heap on her plate, Jen figured she could be a bit nicer to the muggleborn who was new but not a first year. “Yeah, I guess I could help, too, if you wanted to learn,” she said to Zevalyn with a noncommittal shrug. “I'm Jen,” she added, in case the apparently older girl hadn't caught her name earlier.

“So are you transferring here from another school? You’re not in first year, right?” Jen was determined to stay at this school. She guessed moving around was interesting, getting to live in different places and stuff, but she was done with that. She was going to have a home for more than three years, and she was going to know the same people for more than three years, and she was looking forward to that. At least there was one person now she thought could maybe get on with okay.

0 Jen Okay, less awkward, whatever 388 Jen 0 5

Zevalyn

March 22, 2017 10:12 AM

Maybe for you by Zevalyn

After the earlier brush off and obvious interest both her Housemates had in skate boarding, she was uncertain whether or not declining Ryder's offer to teach her would result in being instantly ostracized. "I mostly do roller blading," she offered, hoping this was seen as a cool and related interest rather that some dorky and inferior alternative for the mainstream masses who were not hard core enough to skateboard. "But my mom made me leave them home, too," she added in sympathy to Jen. "I guess I could try to learn skateboarding though," she agreed, though she sounded doubtful enough that they could probably pick up on her fear that this would largely result in more bruises than fun, "but my elbow and knee pads are still at home, too." Yeah, totally not hard core here.

Jen threw her a bone anyway, possibly out of pity, sharing her name and repeating Ryder's earlier question. "No," she corrected the understandable misconception, "not a transfer, unless you count coming from muggle school. I'm starting magic fresh with you guys. My parents are both scientists, so we all thought the Sonora brochures a few years ago were a hoax and tried to get the wizard telling us otherwise arrested. Snopes debunked the existence of a school called Sonora Academy, you know."

She shrugged, then jumped to the end of the story, "But it's kind of hard to deny magic is real when you accidentally create some kind of magical wormhole and appear five miles away from where you just were, so we finally let the muggleborn liaison officers talk to us, and they explained untrained use was very dangerous and I really needed a magical education before I left a leg behind or something. So here I am. They'll let me test out of second year if I do extra work and learn all the beginner coursework in one year instead of two, and I can take my CATS after just two years of intermediates if I feel ready for that, so I can try to catch up to the current third years, which is where I would be if I'd started when I was eleven. I'd rather not still be here when I'm twenty, so that's my plan right now. But, yeah, technically, I am a first year until I can pass a test to skip up."

1 Zevalyn Maybe for you 380 Zevalyn 0 5

Dustin and Flo

March 23, 2017 2:00 AM

Weeeell, yes and no. by Dustin and Flo

The moment he heard Florence address someone else, Dustin’s whole body tensed and his teeth clenched. Of course he’d heard her; he just wanted to jerk her around a little bit, a subtle return for the annoyance she’d caused him already today. But no, he could never have the last laugh or the leg up. And that seemed unfair, given that he was the oldest and it was his right to be the best. What’s more, he was the heir, and Florence was just a girl. Even their idiot brother Brett was above her.

He resolved to continue ignoring her - she didn’t need him anymore since she’d asked a neighbor to do what she wanted - but the clambering sounds of her addressee was impossible to block out, and regretfully, he found himself glancing subtly, both to see what the person was doing and just who it was. Amelia Layne, one of his sister’s roommates, he discovered, was inchin a bowl toward her with a knife. Lovely. “There you go.” Oh, so she was successful, then.

“You know, I think I read a spell last year that makes a loud noise if you want to test his hearing…”

Dustin’s head turned immediately to face the young girl, giving the same type of glare he would offer his sister a moment later. As much as he hated to humor them with his attention, he was hardly interested in having a second year perform magic on him.

“Ooh, goodie!” Florence cried. It was then that his glare came to her. “Brilliantly done, Amelia,” she smiled to her friend before turning smugly to her older brother. “And how good of you to join us, Dustin! I was getting worried about your hearing.” Dustin offered no response, only glaring harder. “Oh, goodness, have you lost the ability to speak now? My, you just can’t keep your communication skills in check today, poor boy. Are you running a fever?”

She reached up with the back of her hand, but Dustin smacked it away before it could touch his forehead. “Quit it,” he said sternly through his teeth.

“Why, whatever for, big brother?” Florence feigned complete marvel through her intonation, but her smile gave her away. “Am I embarrassing you again? Amelia, do you think I’m embarrassing?” Dustin rolled his eyes bitterly, in a completely foul mood now as he hated being made a fool of, especially by someone his inferior, and in that time that his gaze was gone, Flo gestured to Amelia to play along. This was the most fun she’d had with her brother in a long time.

12 Dustin and Flo Weeeell, yes and no. 312 Dustin and Flo 0 5

Eden

March 23, 2017 2:17 AM

What an interesting trio this is. by Eden

Ivy’s smile felt warm, genuine, and almost familiar, so Eden decided that she liked her. She hadn’t made a big deal of their difference introduction styles, so that was generally a positive. Eden was never going to be “Eden Manger of the Rhode Island Mangers,” partially because she didn’t want to be, partially because she was raised differently, and partially because the only Rhode Island Mangers now were her and her mom. It hadn’t really been a “branch” in the same sense before, but with Dad gone, it certainly wasn’t now.

Eden was about to return Ivy’s gesture of good will when her attention was drawn to another girl nearby. She too introduced herself in the pureblood societal fashion, although she offered a nickname: Alex. Eden didn’t see any other yellow kids sitting around the table, so unless she just happened to miss them at a glance, it seemed like they were it for the new batch.

Alex seemed sad, mentioning having something on her mind and it being the cause of her accidental intrusion. Ivy was immediately kind, excusing the interruption and asking to Alex’s well-being. Eden felt a little bad about it, but she didn’t really care that much about Alex’s problem. The blonde was a bit too involved in her own grief to be very empathetic at the moment. She just didn’t have the emotional room for it. So for now, she just let Ivy’s polite interest suffice, contributing nothing of her own but the gaze of her blue eyes.

12 Eden What an interesting trio this is. 385 Eden 0 5

Sammy

March 23, 2017 2:33 AM

I can't stand any more "last" anythings by Sammy

“Sammy?”

Reality stole her back, ripping her from the sad little day dream she was having where she was somewhere else. A moment ago, she had been imagining herself young again, more carefree. The summer before Sonora, maybe, running through her yard one moment, exploring a magical shop with the nice person who told her about magic the next. But now she glanced up to find Laila, looking and sounding as bad as Sammy felt. Oh no.

“What’s going on? Where’s Jax and Gia?”

Sammy took a deep breath to force herself into complete composure, and scooted over to make room for Laila to sit down beside her. “It’s a long story,” she offered, glancing between her friend and the available space.

“A lot of bad stuff happened in August,” she began carefully. “Actually, I guess a lot of bad stuff happened for… forever? I don’t know. It’s really complicated, and it was told to me so fast, and I was so tired because I didn’t sleep well with everything. I got a little lost. I don’t know.” Sammy took a breath. “So, like, at the end of August one night, their mom showed up at my house with these two guys, and they were carrying Gia, and she was all….” The images flashed before her mind, and she had to reset. “She was in a really bad way. And then Mrs. Donovan left with one of them and the other one stayed to try to fix Gia on my couch. And then their mom came back a few days later and said that these weird people had been after them for sometime because of something somebody’s uncle did? But I guess they finally got them and they did stuff to Jax and Gia, and now they’re in Ireland with their mom’s family. Mrs. Donovan said Gia might come back but that she didn’t think Jax ever could.”

For now, she didn’t mention the why of that part. Sammy didn’t know what people knew, how much news got around in the magical world. Not that her fellow Muggleborn would know then, but, like, it seemed like half the school had showed up last year knowing about whatever Makenzie Newell’s dad had done (Sammy didn’t really listen to gossip), so who knew? But she knew she would have to tell her, and soon. If people did know, it was probably best that Laila heard it from her.

12 Sammy I can't stand any more "last" anythings 310 Sammy 0 5

Amelia

March 24, 2017 5:18 PM

Stirring the tempest in this teacup a little more. by Amelia

Amelia had to admit that there were situations she’d felt more comfortable in than being glared at by an older student, but she stared back at Florence’s brother anyway. It would be really stupid of him to do anything more than glare, after all, and their House kind of had this thing about acting stupid, they were supposed to disapprove of it as a rule. Plus, Florence didn’t seem that concerned with Dustin’s disapproval of their jests.

“Not at all, Flo,” she assured her friend when Florence asked if Amelia thought she was annoying. “I think you’re just trying to look after your brother when he’s not feeling well. I’m sure he’ll be grateful like he should be when he feels better.”

Amelia tried to imagine her own brother in Dustin’s shoes, but it just didn’t work. Lionel was too laid back to be in Aladren, for one thing. He would probably also be telling her to be nice by now. She thought she was being nice, though – nice to Florence, who was her friend. Besides, it was all a bit of fun. “Do you see any chicken soup around here?” she asked Florence, looking around the table as though in serious pursuit of chicken soup. “I’ve heard it’s good for not feeling well and the soul.”

16 Amelia Stirring the tempest in this teacup a little more. 360 Amelia 0 5

Headmaster Brockert

Opening Feast by Headmaster Brockert

Jen White

Waterfalls in the Desert by Jen White

Lily Spencer

Mirror, mirror on the wall [tag Jozua] by Lily Spencer

Jack Spencer

Being social by Jack Spencer

Ivy Brockert

Excited! by Ivy Brockert

Jozua Sparks

You're the fairest of them all by Jozua Sparks

Cleo James

I'm a tomato by Cleo James

Lily

Pish posh. by Lily

Ryder Knight

I would like it even more if the waterfalls were an ocean. by Ryder Knight

Eden Manger

*noncommittal hand wiggle* by Eden Manger

Cecilia Carey

Stranger in a familiar land by Cecilia Carey

Brett Newell

Making this place home. by Brett Newell

Florence and Dustin Newell

Some casual bickering. by Florence and Dustin Newell

Araceli Arbon

I know the feeling by Araceli Arbon

Jen

Oceans are difficult to contain by Jen

Victor Callahan

A pie or a person? by Victor Callahan

Alex Leifsson (and a bit of Madison)

Joining in. by Alex Leifsson (and a bit of Madison)

Ryder

That's the beauty of it. by Ryder

Emilia-Louise Scott

Torn. by Emilia-Louise Scott

Jozua "Carl Fredricksen" Sparks

Someday I'll fly my house to South America for you by Jozua "Carl Fredricksen" Sparks

Jen

Hard to keep in a school, though by Jen

Zevalyn Ives

The waterfalls are as close to an ocean as I've ever seen by Zevalyn Ives

Amelia Layne

All in good fun, I hope? by Amelia Layne

Louis Valois

Where do we go from here? by Louis Valois

Ryder

You, my new friend, are missing out. by Ryder

Tess Whittaker

Excited for the year ahead! by Tess Whittaker

Finn Scott

Another year, another start by Finn Scott

Jen

You make friends real quick by Jen

Zevalyn

This is awkward by Zevalyn

Cecilia

But it isn't polite to discuss such things, is it? by Cecilia

Lily "Ellie" Spencer

As long as it's by durable coloured balloons. by Lily "Ellie" Spencer

Connor Priory

Why not an apple? by Connor Priory

Jozua

Of course. Nothing less for you. by Jozua

Lily

Glad we're on the same page. by Lily

Cleo James

You say apple, I say tomato by Cleo James

Sammy Meeks

Uncharted territory by Sammy Meeks

Ivy

Welcome! by Ivy

Laila Kennedy

One last hurrah? by Laila Kennedy

Ryder

Trying to make things less awkward... by Ryder

Jen

Okay, less awkward, whatever by Jen

noncommittal hand wiggle by Eden Manger