Between a rock and a hard place. [III, IV, & V years] on Charms

Professor Olivers

July 25, 2015 1:58 PM

Between a rock and a hard place. [III, IV, & V years] by Professor Olivers

There was something strange going on at the school and Florence wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. She’d tried to shake it off as teenage shenanigans, but the occurrences were now too frequent to blame the students and their drama. Those strange secrets had been showing up in classrooms as well, and Florence hoped that the disturbance that had appeared in Selina’s class and Nathan’s gardens didn’t happen in her own. She also hoped this didn’t lead to something terrible like the year when all the adults of Sonora disappeared. It had been horrible being caught up in a strange, slightly claustrophobic place out of nowhere. But if all the students disappeared, well, that would be an even bigger problem. She would have to keep an eye out to see if it was just another bout of unbridled magic or something more sinister.

As her intermediate students walked into class they would see three boxes at the front of the room filled with different soft toys. The first were layers of thin fabric; the second stuffed animals; the third squares of thick tapestry and pillows covered in intricate embroidery. Once her class had settled for the most part, Florence closed the doors with a wave of her hand and charmed the chalk to begin writing out the lesson.

“As you all should have read last night, we will be working on the Hardening Charm today. Please turn to page 145 in your textbook. There you can see the wand movement for the charm as well as the incantation. It’s pronounced, DOO-roh. Let’s try that again, everyone: Duro. Now let’s practice the wand movement without your wands in hand first. Start from the bottom and make a large ‘D’ in the air: straight up, then make a half-circle and connect it back where you started.

“Starting with the first row, everyone needs to come up here and grab an object according to their level: third-years go to the first box, fourth-years to the second, and fifth-years to the third. Challenge yourself to do more if you succeed in turning your object into stone and back again. What is the spell to reverse your charm? Finite Incantatem, that’s right. You can talk to each other, but focus on doing your work. Once you’ve finished, come up and perform the spell for me and I’ll give you your points for today’s class. Afterwards you can work on the reflection I assigned yesterday on how you think you have been performing in Charms up to this point and what you hope to improve on after the midterm. Now go ahead and begin.”

OOC: Creative, realistic posts get more points alongside the minimum 200 words. Have fun with it!

Subthreads:

That's putting it lightly. [Tag: Chaslyn] by Tobi Reinhardt, Teppenpaw with Chaslyn Brockert,Crotalus

What about a rubbery place? by Aiden O'Neil, Teppenpaw with Lena Westley, Aladren

0 Professor Olivers Between a rock and a hard place. [III, IV, & V years] 0 Professor Olivers 1 5

Tobi Reinhardt, Teppenpaw

July 26, 2015 1:42 PM

That's putting it lightly. [Tag: Chaslyn] by Tobi Reinhardt, Teppenpaw

Over the past few years, it was quite obvious which was the outgoing Reinhardt and which was the more introverted one. And since Arne had arrived, which was the sullen, mischievous one (though Liac could be rather mischievous himself). However, that year Tobi was trying to branch out a little. He knew that his cousin was quite sociable and as such had friends across the school, and though Tobi knew Liac didn’t mind hanging out with him, he also didn’t want to be a heavy burden on his cousin and thought it was high time he either make a friend of his own or befriend one of Liac’s friends. Recently he’d had some rather nice conversations with their other roommate, Aiden, and he had given some advice to the Muggleborn girl who Arne hung out with a lot though those interactions had come to a slow as Arne got strangely territorial over his only friend—if they were indeed friends.

Unfortunately, Tobi was not blessed with the ability to make light conversation easily. Tobi really didn’t distinguish between witches and wizards when it came to his reluctance to start conversation, and the attractiveness of the Crotalus girls (first Shino, then Mackenzie, now Chaslyn, what was the world coming to?) did not play a factor in this at all, though the thought of them addressing him of their own free will sometimes made his tanned cheeks blush a pretty red color. Nevertheless, he did not find witches to be particularly more intimidating than wizards and as such, was able to hold full conversations (or, as full a conversation as he was accustomed to in general) when required. Now, as he sat in front of his stuffed animal, practicing the wand movement and spell that Professor Skies had taught the, Tobi found himself sitting next to one of the older students who Liac had befriended. He had never really had an exceedingly long conversation with Chaslyn before, but since Liac always spoke well of her, Tobi thought it couldn’t hurt seeing if they could form a friendship.

Charms in general wasn’t a class that Tobi had ever really needed to put a lot of energy into. He wasn’t a progidy, per se, but after having spent most of his childhood in close proximity to complex charms that he had always been expected to know or at least be familiar with even though he hadn’t been old enough to perform them until that year, really, he was able to handle getting his spells in order rather quickly comparatively while still managing to talk to and hold a conversation with Liac. However, today, Tobi was a little distracted not only because he found himself sitting next to yet another pretty girl but also because there had been some graffiti around the school, one of which alluded to an ‘A’ possibly being either targeted by or the culprit of. Though Tobi highly doubted that the three messages were really about Arne at all, the ‘A’ and his brother’s new found coarseness were just too much of a coincidence and as such he was trying to wrestle with turning his brother in or not.

Arne had already been called into the office and been questioned about the initials in the tree, Tobi knew that much at least. And obviously there hadn’t been anything to connect his little brother to the crime, but Tobi wasn’t too sure. Growing up, Arne had always been the one to get in trouble both at home and in school and, coincidentally, also got in trouble far less often than he really should have as he had this way of weaseling his way out of getting caught. Yet at the same time, Tobi didn’t really think of his brother as a particularly malicious sort and as such almost felt as though it had to be a coincidence. The result of Tobi’s thought process was that he had a rather troubled look on his face as he concentrated on his spell and as his mind was slightly not there, he ended up accidentally hardening his parchment paper which was sitting a little close to the pushie he had chosen from the bin.

He cursed quietly under his breath in Onondagan before flushing and turning to Chaslyn to apologize. He wasn’t normally in such an aggravated mood and besides that, a well-mannered wizard was not supposed to cuss in front of a lady, he mother had always taught him, even if it was in a different language. “Sorry, I missed,” he said politely in his gruff yet still somewhat pleasant manner that Chaslyn should have been used to by now after two and a half years of school together as the tone in which he addressed everyone in regardless of whether he liked or disliked them. He quickly fixed his error—finite incantatem being a spell he had forced himself to perfect earlier that year just in case he ever needed it for instances like that. “How is your spell coming along?”

10 Tobi Reinhardt, Teppenpaw That's putting it lightly. [Tag: Chaslyn] 289 Tobi Reinhardt, Teppenpaw 0 5

Aiden O'Neil, Teppenpaw

July 26, 2015 5:13 PM

What about a rubbery place? by Aiden O'Neil, Teppenpaw

Aiden should probably rethink his crush on Virginia Bellrose. It was unreciprocated for sure, plus she was a Seventh year and he thought it was poor choice to drool over a person who was not going to be around for much longer anyway. He should really waste his time focusing his good vibes to someone who would be spending at least a couple more years in his presence. This feat shouldn’t be too troublesome for the Third Year as there were several lovely ladies in his own year let alone in his classes that he could very easily spend his time thinking about.

For instance, in his year, there was Araceli. Her looks were fair and reminded him a little of the cold. He had no idea why he felt like that when he looked at her, but he did. It wasn’t necessarily a bad feeling, it just wasn’t warm. She was cute all the same though. And then there was Diana, who he felt was the complete opposite in looks to Araceli. He didn’t know her very well having only worked with her a couple of times, but she seemed nice enough. If he wanted someone who seemed more on par with him personality-wise, he would say that Joella was the right fit for that.

And those were just a couple of girls from his year. Then there were the second year girls like Lauren Song or Ginger Pierce.

However, sitting in the Charms classroom, Aiden discovered a fourth year who was quiet, smart, and beautiful. Through roll call, he had learned that she was Lena Westley. He vaguely remembered her from when they were in class together during his First Year. That was back before he realized females were the most wonderful creatures on the planet. There was just something about her that Aiden enjoyed aesthetically.

Aiden tried to find a seat close to her just in case she needed someone to help her with her lesson and then pulled out his stuff for the class. The reading was boring and Aiden didn’t remember much about it other than the fact that it was the spell that turned things to stone. Some of these spells that people did made no sense to him. Why would he need to turn anything to stone? That seemed like a terrible idea. Aiden could tend to be a little short sighted though and he couldn’t understand the sort of need someone might have to turn an object to stone.

He looked at the piece of fabric in front of him. This didn’t seem like a terrible challenge, but Aiden was aware that what seemed to be too easy usually wasn’t. He practiced saying the spell without his wand first as the professor instructed. Feeling like it was a pretty easy spell to say, he went on to try the wand movements without saying the spell. Feeling confident in both knowing the spell and knowing the movement, Aiden focused his attention back onto the fabric sitting on his desk.

”Duro Aiden stated firmly, his hand moving his wand just as he had practiced. He watched the fabric for any sort of sign of change. It looked thicker, which he wasn’t sure was supposed to happen. Picking it up, he found that it was heavier, but not stone. This felt more like rubber than anything else. Aiden frowned. He didn’t really expect it on the first try, but he thought he should have gotten at least a little further along.

Sighing, Aiden returned the fabric back to its original state and tried the spell again but only received the same results. “Does your work come out thicker and more rubbery?” He asked the person next to him. “I can’t seem to get past this point.”

6 Aiden O'Neil, Teppenpaw What about a rubbery place? 287 Aiden O'Neil, Teppenpaw 0 5

Lena Westley, Aladren

July 27, 2015 4:30 PM

Yes, I'm definitely between a rock and a rubbery place by Lena Westley, Aladren

Alone today, Lena picked a spot at random to sit. She usually preferred the far side of the classroom but whichever side had fewer seats taken always trumped that. Out of habit she picked a spot where there was an open seat to either side of her, one of which was usually occupied by her brother after she sat. She wished he had been able to come today, he always helped her find the correct pronunciation even if only by example. She was good at imitating him but when it was anyone else her accent was inescapable.

Professor Olivers didn’t take long instructing them and so after having returned with her material she promptly set to enchanting it. Her “DOO-roh” came out as more of a “DOO-rowuh” but the end was so slight that she might have thought it would work if she hadn’t been looking at it. Unfortunately the fabric that lay there looked as limp as usual and without the tell tale color of stone she thought she had completely failed. Sighing herself, she heard the owner of the sigh next to her say “Does your work come out thicker and more rubbery? I can’t seem to get past this point” Not looking up first, in her usual disheartened manner and not seeing if the question had been meant for her at all, she picked up her fabric to test it for rubber like qualities but pleasantly found none.

“No, not at all. Mine seems to have solidified,” she started as she turned towards the boy “just not turned to the proper material.” She didn't smile but here eyes were twinkling. Olivier would have noticed the difference but her excitement was probably lost on this boy whom, as far as she remembered, she had never met. Looking down at the unfamiliar boy's unenchanted piece of fabric she boldly poked it and immediately realized her mistake. Retracting her hand super quickly a startled “Sorry!” escaped her as curiosity gave way to timidity. It interested her to see what a rubbery piece of fabric would look like now that she knew the plain fabric was not the result in question. Slightly shiny perhaps?

She faced her own project again but kept her eyes on her neighbor’s fabric not bothering to unhex her own cloth. Curiosity had not fully given into timidity. Plus, she was making considerable progress with her own, she could divert her attention for a few minutes. She'd already written her reflection and although, yes, she had to perfect the enchantment before the end of class in order to demonstrate it for the professor, this shouldn't take that long and she never needed the whole class. She could never get it right the first time but even Olivier had had a few times when he wasn't perfect right off the bat. So deciding that setting time aside for this interesting result was completely validated, she waited for the boy to try again now with an eager look in her eyes.

7 Lena Westley, Aladren Yes, I'm definitely between a rock and a rubbery place 279 Lena Westley, Aladren 0 5

Chaslyn Brockert,Crotalus

July 31, 2015 7:06 AM

You have no idea by Chaslyn Brockert,Crotalus

As midterm drew closer, Chaslyn grew more and more tense. She'd been gulping down Endurance Potion but now her stores of the ingredients used to make it were growing low and she'd had to forgo it. So she was now tired and hungry and more anxious than ever. Soon she'd be seeing her mother and was sure to find she'd let her down in some way. Chaslyn always did, it was inevitable. And the more she'd let Mother down, the more difficult the holiday would be.

She never was quite sure which thing would be the one Mother noticed and came down on her hardest for, her tired mind could never quite keep up, could never quite remember it all. The Crotalus remembered an E on a DADA quiz, a piano practice with many missed notes, tripping over the ribbon when she practiced rhythmic gymnastics. All of these things had been most upsetting for Chaslyn and had only made matters worse. She spent many nights in her room in tears and then berated herself both for not toughening up-Mother hated tears and had no more patience for them then she did Amity's laziness and backtalking and her old dance teacher Miss Annie had yelled at anyone who cried and berated them for being a baby, she'd gotten screamed at for that a lot while Mother just said there with a cold expression in her eyes and Amity hugged her close and defended her, screaming back at Miss Annie, drawing the fury onto her-and for wasting time when she should be studying or practicing something because obviously Chaslyn needed to.

But the more and more deprived she became of sleep and food and the more frayed her nerves became, the harder it was to keep herself from breaking down and now that the fourth year had run out of ingredients for the Endurance Potion, it was even worse. She was beginning to feel more and more desperate, even considering briefly stealing the ingredients from either her cousins, other Crotali or even Professor Carter. Just pinching one thing or another here or there. But Chaslyn knew she could never ever go through with such a thing. It was wrong and especially so for a Brockert. She should never have to steal, it made it look as though her family couldn't afford potions ingredients which they quite obviously could. Besides, it was just wrong to take what didn't belong to you.

Not only that, she'd likely get caught anyway if she tried such things. Then Mother and Father would both know and Father would be angry too and he never was. Chaslyn didn't think she could stand that, to have both of her parents against her, especially without Amity there for protection. Not that her sister would really approve of stealing either. She was lazy but she wasn't a thief .

Chaslyn shook her head, as if that would erase the thought. She was ashamed that it had ever been there in the first place. What kind of person was she? And what if Mother found out she'd ever thought about such a thing? . The thought truly did make her feel sick to her stomach. Granted, being as tired as she was and as anxious as she often felt, Chaslyn felt that way alot.

Now all she wanted to do was put her head down on the desk, but that was out of the question. She had to look alert, be a good student. Besides, it would mess with her hair and make-up that Chaslyn had painstakingly spent a lot of time on so she could look presentable in public. Looking like a slob was one of the many things that was unacceptable-and not just to Mother but to society in general. It was something important enough to people that even Amity put effort into it.

In her edgy condition, the lesson almost made Chaslyn laugh. Make things harder? How very appropriate! Things seemed to be doing just that for her. She didn't know how much harder they could get. Of course, she didn't do this, she didn't want people to look at her weird or make fun of her. Besides, the mention of the reflection paper made her feel queasy again. It was hard for her to judge precisely how she was doing. Anything less than perfect was considered not very well, and she knew she wasn't doing perfectly. She'd gotten some questions wrong, even an E or two. Mother found Es unacceptable.

She got up and selected a stuffed elephant from the appropriate box. Sighing grimly, Chaslyn sat back down and eyed it with a certain wariness. She knew she had to get this right on the first try. Not that she didn't have more time to get it but she knew what was expected of her. Unfortunately, she'd never managed to get any spell perfect on the first try, not even in Transfiguration her first year.

Chaslyn did the motion and said "Duro" . Her face fell as she looked at the results. The elephant certainly didn't look like stone. She reached out to touch it, finding to be only mildly harder, stiff, as if sprayed with starch or something. Less cuddly, but not stone .

The next person next to her spoke, snapping her to attention. One must always be polite when one was addressed. It turned to be Liac's cousin Tobi who was speaking to her. "Huh? Oh it's all right." She replied. Chaslyn looked back at her disasterous attempt. She could not let him know what a colassal failure she'd been but she couldn't lie either. "It's a start." The Crotalus replied diplomatically, trying her best to hide how she really felt, though probably coming up short there too.

11 Chaslyn Brockert,Crotalus You have no idea 281 Chaslyn Brockert,Crotalus 0 5

Aiden

July 31, 2015 6:40 PM

I'm sorry to have put you there. by Aiden

Aiden nearly had a heart attack when he realized who it was that had spoken back to him in response to his query. It was her. The girl who had quickly taken over the spot in his heart that had once belonged to Ginny Bellrose. Aiden’s hazel eyes stared dumbly at the girl for a moment while he tried to gather his thoughts or, at the very least, get his brain to actually begin functioning so that he could talk to Lena. His tongue felt thick and dry. He tried to swallow but instead he coughed. Oh no! That’s so horrifying! Aiden really wished that he had a glass of water somewhere. Why did his throat suddenly become so dry?

“Uh…uh…” Aiden stuttered as he watched her reach out and touch his fabric. He wanted to shout and her and tell her not to do that, afraid that touching his failed piece might somehow rub off on her and make her next attempt as useless as his have been . He did not want to be the reason for her to fail at charms. As quickly as she had reached out to touch his work, Lena had snapped her hand back and apologized. At first, Aiden thought his classwork had burned her or repulsed her in some way and he sat there horrified over the concept of that.

But after Aiden quietly inspected his work again and poked at it to be sure that it hadn’t actually caused Lena any physical harm, he came to realize that she was probably just apologizing for having touched his work without asking first. “It’s alright.” Aiden advised with a grin. “I’m sure it feels weird. A rubber fabric.” Aiden commented. He didn’t mind poking fun of his own work. Aiden was trying to get the spell down correctly, but it was obvious that he was having a hard time doing it. Reviewing his work was only going to help him figure out what mistake he was making and if someone else wanted to have a look at it to, he found nothing wrong with that.

Aiden returned his fabric back to its rightful state. He felt really embarrassed because Lena was the one who saw his terrible work. He wasn’t expecting her to acknowledge him let alone speak to him. And now he felt his face burning because he knew that she was going to be watching what he did. He didn’t want to look stupid in front of her. It was one thing for her to see it after the fact but now she would actually see it while he cast the spell. He was probably doing it all wrong.

He sighed and took a breath. There was no point in pretending to do it. With less confidence than he might have otherwise, Aiden once again said the spell and attempted the wand movement for the third time. Just as the other attempts before, Aiden watched as his fabric thickened again and returned to that rubbery state that has him afflicted with confusion. “See, there it goes again. I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong.”

6 Aiden I'm sorry to have put you there. 287 Aiden 0 5

Lena Westley

August 01, 2015 11:11 PM

It was a Worthwhile Experience by Lena Westley

Lena didn’t notice his coughing, didn’t notice his blush, she was to heavily focused on watching for the change in the fabric. She had however heard him comment on the rubber fabric’s feel. It was weird but it was interesting . He took a breath and cast the spell again.

It turned rubbery yet again. Lena was impressed all the same. To be so consistent was admirable, she thought. When the boy found how to correct his spell she thought it likely he could master it easily after a few days of repetition. Of course she didn’t know him though and maybe correcting it would be harder than she anticipated.

“See, there it goes again. I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong.” Lena, trying to come out of her shell if only a little bit at a time, attempted to offer advice.

“Maybe it’s the way you wrote the ‘D’? I can’t say for sure, obviously, but my projects usually end up better after I prefect the spell’s pronunciation. You sounded pretty spot on to me, but yours didn’t harden so I think it may be the way you cast it.”Reaching for her own to show Aiden, she continued “Mine did harden- it’s just sort of in a middle stage. Maybe we can help each other.” After the bold proposition Lena’s face tilted down slightly and she smiled shyly. She would have loved if Olivier had been able to attend and she could copy him but he wasn’t here and she did need help. Her accent was much stronger than his.

Not waiting for confirmation, Lena turned back to her own work, disenchanted it, and tried the spell over, this time trying to sound more like Aiden. After making the simplest D possible, drawing the line up and around clockwise with her wand, she said “doo-roh” and the piece of fabric changed to stone. Not the same type of stone the professor’s example had been, but stone. She smiled at the boy, happy to have roughly gotten it on the second try. In encouragement she said “See? I’m even surer it’s your wand motion now.”

7 Lena Westley It was a Worthwhile Experience 279 Lena Westley 0 5

Tobi

August 02, 2015 2:20 PM

All failures, report to your Parentship. by Tobi

Chaslyn was working with a stuffed elephant that Tobi knew his little sister would go absolute bananas over. Matti loved animals of the ‘exotic’ variety. Every year they were allowed to choose a piece to be made for them by their father either for Christmas or their birthday. Taking after her older brother, Matti liked to request pieces either adorned in twisting vines or with tiny wallabies or camels, for example, marching around the edge.

The last time he’d been home, he had brought her a little tin of ginger candies from Chinatown which was where their store front was located, disguised as an abandoned warehouse so Muggles didn’t accidentally stumble across it, to wizarding kind it was a simple store with large windows that showed all all their wares. The tin which was from a Muggle store had had a little elephant on the front as decoration which he had charmed to act as a lock, wrapping it’s trunk around the edge of the tin and only opening for Matti (he’d had help from his father with the more difficult parts of the spellwork). He had figured that as the only girl she might like a storage thing that was just hers that no one else could get into. Matti had loved the winking elephant and how it made a horrific trumpeting sound anytime Hugo touched it, and carried it around with her everywhere.

“That’s good,” Tobi said encouragingly, making a conscious decision to elaborate what any other day would have been enough of a conversation for him to want to turn back to his work and finished practicing in peace. “Yours looks really nice.” He wasn’t sure what it was—perhaps it was the prettiness of the girl (he’d behaved similarly with Makenzie the other day), or perhaps it was his want to make things easier on his cousin. Tobi wasn’t even entirely sure if those two were the only reasons, it could have been something much greater than himself compelling him to speak to Chaslyn, to actually converse with her. And then he noticed just how soft and blonde her hair looked.

Tobi shifted in his seat and looked away, eyes falling on his classmate Makenzie Newell’s soft (weren’t there any other adjectives he knew for girl’s hair? Like shiny, was her hair shiny? No, but Shino’s was…and he tried not to think about his teammate's wonderful dark hair) red hair. He tried to look elsewhere, but no matter where his gaze fell there was a pretty witch with wonderfully soft, shiny hair and…and finally he settled on just refocusing his eyes on his own project, refusing to raise his eyes until next addressed.

Sorry, Liac, he thought as he attempted his spell again. Charms was normally one of his best classes even if it wasn’t his favorite, simply because it was such an integral part of his home life. This time around, the fabric hardened significantly, but last minute thoughts of his classmate’s hair infiltrated his brain and he watched as the hardened fabric softened before his eyes.

He closed his eyes, frustrated beyond belief. This never happened to him, he never struggled, like really struggled with spellwork. He wasn’t hot-headed like Arne, he wasn’t slow like Lukas, he was supposed to take over the store, and even if he didn’t want to he certainly didn’t want to see it fail. And not being able to harden things properly in a metal charming business…not acceptable. Father was not going to be pleased. Tobi took a deep, calming breath before his frustrations could get the better of him and he tried again.

10 Tobi All failures, report to your Parentship. 289 Tobi 0 5

Aiden

August 07, 2015 7:05 PM

I'm sure it was! by Aiden

The pretty girl beside him, Lena, was an awfully quiet girl. At first, Aiden was too nervous to talk to her (heck, he was even too nervous to look her directly in the face), the idea that she was addressing him directly or curious about his work had really sent a bunch of nervous energy through him. He didn’t want her to see him fail at anything (which was pretty much everything to do with learning spells for the first time) and think less of him… But now that he really didn’t have a choice in the matter, Aiden wondered why he never really saw her talk to anyone but her brother.

He smiled at her to show that he was listening and thought that helping each other would be a great idea. He couldn’t deny the fact that this was a big stump to him so if she could figure out what it was that he was doing incorrectly so that he could complete the task without taking the full class time to do so, would be so very appreciated. He was also very glad that her brother wasn’t around. He had never said or done anything to Aiden to make him believe that her brother was a mean person, but Aiden also wasn’t dumb enough not to notice how close the two of them were. That meant, her brother was probably protective of her and even though they were just doing school work, who knew what her brother might have thought of it.

After listening to her feedback over his spell casting, Aiden watched Lena do her own spell. He gave her the thumbs up when she had succeeded in making the item turn to stone. “Great job.” He complimented. He took in her feedback and carefully tried the spell once more. He knew how he said it was correct, he was probably flubbing the movement. He reviewed his notes and watched others around the classroom. Once he was sure he had the proper movement down, Aiden tried the spell again. This time, he was far more successful than he had been before. The fabric had hardened like it was supposed to. It wasn’t full on stone yet, but it was much better than it had been while it was rubber.

“Success!” Aiden said cheerfully, grinning at Lena. “Looks like you were correct! I just had to fix my wand motion.” Aiden was so relieved to have finally managed to go in the right direction instead of sitting at his desk stuck on the same one. Realizing that this might mean the end of their conversation because they had both successfully worked the charm, Aiden thought of the first thing that he could think of to continue talking to her. “So, uh, you join in any of the clubs this year?”

6 Aiden I'm sure it was! 287 Aiden 0 5

Lena Westley

August 11, 2015 4:51 AM

As is This by Lena Westley

This was new. The thumbs up (Olivier never gave her the thumbs up), the grinning (Olivier never grinned), the asking questions (Olivier didn't have to). Realizing earlier that her brother had made up her entire social circle, she had joined the science club to expand her social horizons. She still compared her interactions with others to her interactions with him but they were all she had to go on. This boy had asked about clubs though. What were the chances that he'd ask her something she could relate to or have a reply for that went beyond a “yes” or “no” answer? She had no idea, but she thought it was low. Only Olivier had discussions with her that seemed relevant.

“I joined the science club Clark Dill started. We’ve only had one meeting so far but I'm technically in that. . . Um” Lena began to ask “are you in a club?” She had originally planned on asking the boy’s name but wasn’t sure if that would be rude or not. Was she expected to already know it? She didn't want to offend him.

Interacting with others was hard but this boy was easier to converse with than most she had tried to. Lena decided it wouldn't be a bad idea to try to make an actual friend of a classmate and smiled, trying to give the impression of her being open to him talking more. She had no idea if it would work or if that's what people normally did to encourage conversation but she figured if this was a loss she'd try again during science club.

7 Lena Westley As is This 279 Lena Westley 0 5