Professor Connell
December 14, 2007 7:23 PM
Lesson--First and Second Years by Professor Connell
Nothing ever seemed to change with regards to Marian Connell. She was, for all intents and purposes, completely stagnant in every way. Despite being at Sonora for five and a half years now, she was, for all intents and purposes, precisely the same person she’d been when she first arrived. That realization had, naturally, led to the discovery that she was destined to be, oh, a strange old crazy cat woman or something, according to her younger sister Roxie, who had been only so kind to point this out at the annual Christmas dinner (Marian had reverted to being 10 again after that comment, and kicked her sister under the table, though she was trying to forget that.)However, after a brief period of despair, Marian had concluded that her sister was right, and that it was useless to try and fight destiny, so she might as well start as soon as possible. Therefore, when Maria had asked, as a joke, if she and her husband should get her a kitten for Christmas, she’d agreed.
Unfortunately, the little orange ball of fluff that Marian had yet to name (she couldn’t see how there was actually a cat in there somewhere, and that made naming difficult) was no kitten at all, but instead an evil spawn of the devil. Apart from attempting to destroy everything she owned (magic was a wonderful thing), it had decided that the war for dominance should begin immediately, and the current battle was his detestation of being left alone.
When she’d tried to leave it in her rooms so she could head off to her first lesson of the new year, first and second years, her attempt was met with fervent yowling that actually increased in volume over time, so she’d given in almost immediately, and now there was a cat sleeping at the corner of her desk, currently hidden from the students, but, with her luck, as soon as she released them it would emerge from its hiding place to disrupt everyone as much as possible (this cat was devious.)
The creature appeared to remain asleep, though, as her pack of students entered, first a trickle, then a flood right before class was scheduled to start, and finally one or two stragglers. This class was a fairly good one, so she didn’t have any worries about them causing problems, even if the satanic furball decided to make his presence known. She let them talk amongst themselves for a few minutes, and then stood up and waited until the room was quiet before she began to speak.
“Welcome back. Today you will be learning to make the shrinking potion, also called the shrinking solution. As the name suggests, it causes items to shrink, but it also reverses the aging process for anything that’s alive.
“The ingredients you will be using, which are in the cabinet in the back, are chopped daisy roots, skinned shrivelfig, sliced caterpillar, one rat spleen, and a dash of leech juice. You should work in groups of two or three, which you may pick yourselves.
“Finally, I’ve transfigured some toads for you to test the solution on. They’re in the storage room right now, but will be on my desk by the time you have a final product. If you made the potion correctly, it should turn back into a tadpole. If it does, than bring the animal back up to my desk to show you’ve completed the assignment, give it a few drops of the aging potion that will be sitting beside the box, and put the toad back. Once you’ve completed that, you may begin your homework, which is a foot-long essay on the principles behind the shrinking potion relating to both size and age.
“Now, I trust that there will be no misconduct among anyone during this lesson,” she said finally, giving a stern look to her assorted students. “As always, standard rules, particularly those regarding safety, apply, even if your grade is being determined in a less…conventional way. The first person I see doing any roughhousing, or anything else that could potentially be a safety hazard, will get two detentions and five points off his or her house; it’s only going to increase with the next person, if anyone else is foolish enough to do so. You may begin.”
Marian wasn’t worried about whether her class would be mature enough to handle having live animals in the classroom. She had faith in her students, for good or ill. If they couldn’t deal with this in a reasonable fashion, well, it was safe to assume it would be made obvious fairly quickly, and until that happened, she could relax and keep an eye on the demon in the corner. That is, unless he rebelled before she got back with the box.
OOC: Standard posting rules apply. At least two decent-sized paragraphs, so at a minimum roughly 8 lines of text. House points will be awarded based on post length, detail, etc. Be as creative as you like; feel free to have things like explosions, spills, whatever, though if the destructive levels could be kept to a minimum, that would be lovely (my classroom is perfectly lovely the way it is, and prairie elves coming in here to clean might be disasterous).
Also, if you feel that you simply must, you may bring in the Evil Kitten of Doom to harangue your characters, though please, no hurting it (it would hurt back), and make sure whatever you do with it flows with anything that's previously (for the purposes of fuzzy time, go with thread order, I suppose, if it's absolutely crucial to have a timeline). In any case, be creative, and have fun.
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Subthreads: Shrinking Potion, its the little things that count by Talitha Cumni with Oliver Abbott
I stole the evil kitten of doom first by Holly Greer with Renaye Warren, Cecily Smythe
Shrinking by Cissy Tarwater with Liz Guthrie, Cissy
Ewwwww....rat spleens...(wotw) by Chelsea Brockert
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Professor Connell
Lesson--First and Second Years
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Professor Connell
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Holly Greer
December 17, 2007 3:13 PM
I stole the evil kitten of doom first by Holly Greer
Holly had discovered on almost the very first day of class that she hated potions. It was, to put it in the very simplest of terms, gross. Unlike some other who may take offense at the killing of animals for their potion uses, Holly's main concern was that she was expected to look at them and, worse, touch them.Take today's potion for example. Caterpillars. She hated caterpillars. At home, she was known to run around shrieking 'Kill it! Kill it! Kill it!' if one happened to climb onto her or the book she was reading or the pool chair she was lounging on. Despite this very obvious lack of love for the creature, slicing a couple of them up and putting them into boiling water was not something she wanted anything to do with. She would far rather the creature stopped existing entirely. Or better, that it would be born in butterfly form and skip being a nasty caterpillar altogether because caterpillars were just plain icky. And being sliced up only made them ickier.
She looked over the list and collected the ingredients she didn't find too disgusting to touch. This she was missing the caterpillars, the rat spleen, and the shrivelfig (which, despite being from a plant, was still really gross). The daisy roots were borderline, but they were fortunately free of dirt, so she collected the requisite amount as well as the leech juice.
She was about to go looking for a boy to partner with (boys being traditionally more inclined to touch rat spleens and dead caterpillars than girls) when she nearly tripped over a small ball of orange fur. Depositing the daisy roots and vial of leech juice onto her desk, she tried to kick aside the fur that must have fallen out of someone's potions kit when it meowed.
Quickly aborting the kick, she instead squatted down in front of it, "Hey, Kitty," she greeted it warmly, glad for the distraction from caterpillars and shrivelfigs. The orange kitten was a much cuter thing to look at and hold. Lifting it up, she sat down on her chair and settled the kitten into her lap. "Aren't you just the most adorable thing?" she asked it, petting its fluffy orange fur, which immediately set it to purring like a breaking down refrigerator. "Yes, you are," she answered her own question, smiling at it and scratching its head (which was recognizable amid all the fluff as a head because it was biting the thumb on her other hand but not hard enough to hurt).
Petting a baby kitten was so much better than chopping up daisy roots. "Isn't she sweet?" she asked a random person as they passed by with their own set of awful ingredients in hand. The kitty had captured Holly's thumb between both of its forepaws and was gnawing on it lightly. The purring was loud enough now that it sounded like the tiny feline was about to launch off to the moon.
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Holly Greer
I stole the evil kitten of doom first
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Holly Greer
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Renaye Warren
December 20, 2007 3:40 PM
Beware the evil kitten! by Renaye Warren
Renaye was kind of lookiong forward to Potions. She wasn't the master of a thing like this, but she found it enjoyable to see the different reactions the different ingredients held. Some of the ingredients were slimy, weird, not very appealing, but she didn't have a problem with touching them. She imagined that Quidditch had probably toughened her up. Many of the guys on her neighborhood team thought of her as one of them because she didn't mind getting a little dirt on her uniform, while girls like Lynnie refused to walk onto the pitch if there was so much as a sprinkle of rain.Raye got up from her stool, brushing her long blonde hair away from her face before heading towards the cabinet for her ingredients. She wrinkled her nose at the jars of unusual ingredients, but took them nevertheless. She was on her way back to her seat to find a partner, but a girl near her caught her attention.
"Isn't she sweet?"
Renaye looked around before her bright green eyes found the girl sitting with a kitten on her lap. A smile spread across her face and she couldn't help but let out a small, "Aww!" Kittens were so tiny and fuzzy! It was so hard to resist their charm! Renaye suddenly became aware of the slimy substances in her hands. Keeping both hands over the many materials, Renaye jerked an elbow at the chair next to the girl.
"Do you want to be partners?" She asked. "I have the ingerdients, if you want."
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Renaye Warren
Beware the evil kitten!
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Renaye Warren
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Holly Greer
December 21, 2007 9:48 AM
Take cover and save yourselves! by Holly Greer
Holly smiled in co-adoration of the kitten as the other girl exclaimed, "Aww!" She felt an immediate bonding with her just from the shared experience of finding the orange ball of fluff the cutest thing ever. So she nodded in easy acceptance as the girl indicated the empty chair beside her and agreed to be her partner for the day."Sure. I'm Holly Thistle." For a moment, she was distracted by the kitten who just bit down on her thumb a bit harder than she had so far and this time it actually hurt. "Hey! Ow! Don't do that, kitty," she reprimanded, trying to extricate her hand, but the kitten seemed to think that was a game and tried her best to keep Holly's hand captured.
Giving up and just letting the kitten have it for fear of getting scratched or bit again, Holly looked back at her partner with a what-can-you-do look and abbreviated the rest of her introduction by skipping the 'of the' joiner between her name and family collective. "Hollywood Thistles." Not that there were any Hollywood Thistles besides herself, particularly since Thistle wasn't her real name, but this was how she understood people were supposed to introduce themselves in the wizarding world, so she adapted.
"I'm not sure how much I can do one handed, but it doesn't look like the kitten's going to let me have my hand back." Which, really, was perfectly fine with Holly.
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Holly Greer
Take cover and save yourselves!
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Holly Greer
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Renaye
December 22, 2007 7:55 PM
No, I won't leave you behind! by Renaye
Renaye had seen the girl in other classes. She couldn't recall ever talking, but she had always seemed nice. When she gave the agreement to being partners, Renaye took the seat next to her, placing the materials on the desk. Next to her the kitten was gnawing at the girl's hand. Renaye gave a little laugh. Cats weren't her first choice in a pet, but come on, kittens are adorable! This one was especially great because she didn't have to be the one to clean the litter box."I'm Holly Thistle. Hollywood Thistles."
Renaye smiled, noting the added introduction. Raye was pureblood, but she could never see the point in bringing your origin into your name. This was partly because her family moved so much, and it was partly because of the attitude of some families. She thought the name adding was probably for respect from other families, so they could note the reputation of the name. Renaye didn't judge on the family though, she judged on the person, which rendered the addition irrelevent for her. Holly was always nice though, so Raye knew she didn't have the attitude she usually associated with the "Place and Name" stuff. And had she just said Hollywood?
"Renaye Warren," she said, "Or Raye. Doesn't matter. Did you just say Hollywood? I live in Michigan right now, but I use to live out west. I never got to see Hollywood before." Renaye glanced at the first step and began making the potion.
"My parents own a Quidditch Supplies shop. They engineer and advertise brooms. We went to L.A. once for the advertising, but we never got to visit Hollywood. Is it as glamorous as I hear?" She said, watching the kitten play with Holly's fingers. Holly noticed this too and said,
"I'm not sure how much I can do one handed, but it doesn't look like the kitten's going to let me have my hand back."
Renaye gave a wave of her hand in a "Don't worry about it," way. She took a rubber band from her wrist and pulled her blonde hair into a long ponytail, leaving her light bangs down. According to the book, she had to chop the daisy roots. Okay. Good deal.
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Renaye
No, I won't leave you behind!
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Renaye
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Cecily Smythe
January 01, 2008 10:59 AM
Joining the girls... and kitten by Cecily Smythe
Potions again. What a detestable way to spend the morning. Cecily just simply couldn’t abide handling all the foul and utterly loathsome ingredients, and often found herself feeling nauseous with the fumes emitted by the grotesque concoctions. Luckily, Professor Connell was bearable, so the class wasn’t a complete waste of time. In fact, Cecily rather excelled at the theoretical, essay-writing side of the subject. If only she didn’t have to do any practical work the subject would cause any issue at all. Unfortunately for Cecily, this wasn’t the case.Today, not only would they be making another disgusting mixture with some of the most horrifying components imaginable, they would also have to test their potions on toads. This offended Cecily by two methods; firstly, toads were slimy, ugly creatures that should under no circumstances be kept in classrooms. Secondly, Cecily was opposed to harming any creature, no matter how vile, and so was strictly against testing students’ potions on animals.
However, if she wanted to pass the subject, Cecily didn’t think she had much option but to complete the assignment. Still, there was no way she was touching the ingredients if she could avoid it. She stalled a short while, flicking through her textbook and digging unnecessarily deep in her bag for one of her quills, until some pairs had already begun to work. One couple in particular caught Cecily’s eye – that lovely girl Holly who kept a pony back home, seemed to be playing with a kitten. Unfortunately that horrid girl from her dormitory, Renaye, was there, too. Cecily decided to be nice and save Holly from her roommate’s uncouth ways. Striding over, Cecily settled her small frame neatly into the seat beside Holly and began to make herself comfortable.
“Hello, Holly,” she greeted sweetly and cheerfully. “You don’t mind if I work with you, do you? What an adorable little kitten!”
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Cecily Smythe
Joining the girls... and kitten
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Cecily Smythe
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Renaye
January 07, 2008 9:13 PM
One of the girls by Renaye
Renaye looked up from the potion as her ears caught the sound of an approaching person. She spotted Cecily, one of her many roommates, heading towards the table. Renaye immediately felt a sense of foreboding. She knew she wasn't liked by Cecily and being in a group could lead to two things: more disagreement, or an epiphany of friendliness. Somehow she doubted the second. Cecily took a seat and began chatting to Holly, as if Renaye wasn't even there. Renaye tensed, remembering to keep a cool head. Maybe she had a reason. Maybe she was overreacting...“Hello, Holly,” she greeted sweetly and cheerfully. “You don’t mind if I work with you, do you? What an adorable little kitten!”
Renaye put on a smile and leaned over so she could look over to her.
"Hi, Cecily," she said, giving a wave. "Isn't she adorable?"
Renaye was going to be as nice as she could. Debating and fighting was never going to help the situation that she would have to live with the girls for the next six years. She might as well try to repair some of the damage that had been done. Even if Cecily didn't want to speak or acknowledge her, Renaye wasn't going let that go by. If she was going to be hated, she would hope it was going to be for more than one silly arguement. And if she was going to have any opinion on the other girls, she better get both views first.
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Renaye
One of the girls
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Renaye
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Holly Greer
January 08, 2008 9:35 AM
felines and females by Holly Greer
Holly was grateful that Renaye seemed to be willing to (a) touch all the nasty ingredients, and (b) do most of the work while Holly just held the kitten out of the way. While Holly paid enough attention to know that getting cat fur in the potion would be very bad (and the orange ball of fluff certainly had a lot of it) she also was aware she had claimed the far easier job. Renaye was so awesome.Before Renaye could do more than the first couple steps of the assignment, they were joined on Holly's other side by Cecily. Holly had instantly adored Cecily the first time they met because they had quickly discovered a shared passion for horses. Holly gave her a warm smile of greeting, and turned the vaguely head-shaped part of the fuzzy orange kitten toward her so Cecily could get a good look at just how adorable the kitty really was. She also used one finger to manipulate one of the kitten's paws so it appeared to wave at Cecily.
"Hi, Cecily," she said, looking over at her friend again before nodding to her other partner, "I take it you know Renaye?" This gem of knowledge had been picked up because Renaye had said Cecily's name without an introduction. Cecily's dislike and exclusion of Renaye went completely over Holly's head and she attributed Cecily's lack of greeting to the other member of the group to kitten distraction. "She's doing a great job with the, uh," Holly's expression twisted to one of distaste and her tone echoes the sentiment clearly, "caterpillar slicing."
Her expression instantly warmed again though as she looked down at the kitten in her lap. It had begun gnawing on her robe sleeve and she tried to put a stop to that with as little torn cloth or bloodshed as possible. Distracted by this endeavor, she extended the invitation without checking to see how the other two took it, "I'm kind of limited in what I can do right now," she indicated the kitten, though that was probably self-evident, "so I'm sure Renaye would love having another person in the group to help stir and stuff." It never once occurred to her that two people she liked might not like each other.
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Holly Greer
felines and females
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Holly Greer
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Cecily
January 09, 2008 4:04 PM
and cat fights by Cecily
As Cecily reached out a hand to stroke the kitten’s fluffy head, she was dismayed that Renaye answered her greeting first, even though it had been directed to Holly. In Cecily’s opinion, that was extremely poor manners. “Hi Cecily,” Renaye said. “Isn’t she adorable?”It took half a second for Cecily to register that her Housemate must have been talking about the kitten, not about Holly. As if waiting for the excuse, Cecily turned her attention back to the fuzzy creature, continuing to ignore Renaye’s presence or involvement. Instead she smiled at the other girl in their small group. “Hi Cecily,” Holly replied. “I take it you know Renaye?”
With a thin-lipped smile, Cecily flicked her eyes between the two girls. She guessed this wasn’t the first time they had worked together, therefore it was probably imprudent of her to be especially rude to Renaye in front of Holly, as they might even be friends. Cecily didn’t want to upset Holly, so she replied, “Yes. We share a room.”
Cecily had discovered that it was quite easy to ignore Renaye in their dormitory, seeing as there were so many other girls to talk to. Anabel was the nicest girl, but none of the others were so unfriendly as Renaye had been since their very first meeting. She had been so headstrong and ridiculously obsessed with her Quidditch ranting. She’d been so rude to Cecily that it was hard to forgive, even after several months. So Cecily had just managed to survive by only talking to the other girls; even Laurie had since been accepted since the two girls had worked out their differences in a civilised manner. Nothing about Renaye was civilised, though – she was brash and outspoken; she enjoyed getting sweaty and knocking people off brooms – she’d said so herself. Still, if Renaye was content with doing all the potions work, then Cecily had no qualms whatsoever in sitting with Holly and playing with the kitten.
“I’m kind of limited in what I can do right now, so I’m sure Renaye would love having another person in the group to help stir and stuff,” Holly said.
Cecily’s expression turned icy, so it was just as well her friend was paying so much attention to the cat she wouldn’t see. “I suppose I could chop up some daisy roots for you,” Cecily said, being careful to direct her speech only at Holly. She didn’t want the other girl thinking she was offering help to her.
As she stood and began chopping daisy roots, Cecily felt the need to say something to Renaye. With a quick glance over her shoulder to make sure Holly couldn’t hear, she spoke in a quite voice. “I don’t like you. I’m working for me and Holly, not for you.” Cecily kept her eyes on her work. After all, she didn’t want to slip with the knife and mess up their potion.
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Cecily
and cat fights
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Cecily
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Renaye
January 11, 2008 10:29 PM
Super... by Renaye
Great. This whole dorm-wide hatred was really ridiculous. It was one thing to hate her, but then to march into groups and then pretend like a member doesn't exist? Did Cecily not realize how low that was? Renaye thanked her lucky stars for Laurie. Renaye could take not talking to the other girls, but it was great to have an ally. Laurie was very nice and Josh seemed to like her too. The other girls in the dorm hadn't spoken to her since the first day, pretty much. Renaye had hoped the whole thing would just cool off, but apparently not. Renaye thought it was pretty immature to hold the Quidditch argument as a reason to hate their roommate.Renaye opened her mouth to insist that Cecily didn't have to help. She knew that Cecily wouldn't want to, but her words couldn't meet her mouth soon enough as Cecily said, “I suppose I could chop up some daisy roots for you.” Renaye mentally sighed and continued with the potion ingredients. This group, which she had been so optimistic about before, was spiraling into this weird tension. Renaye's plan was to just continue what she was doing. She didn't need to really say anything to Cecily. If she was going to be so stubborn as to hold the grudge, let her.
“I don’t like you. I’m working for me and Holly, not for you.” Raye's eyebrows rose, thrown off by this completely upfront comment. She kept her eyes on her ingredients and whispered back,
"How long do you plan on holding a grudge for that silly argument?" She let out a breath. "Look, I'm sorry I was harsh. I get defensive over the things I love." Renaye didn't need to accept her apology. She meant it, but if Cecily didn't accept it, she wasn't going to be distraught.
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Renaye
Super...
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Renaye
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Cecily
January 15, 2008 4:49 PM
...man? by Cecily
Cecily half expected Renaye to ignore her (which is what she would have done if she was in the other girls’ position), but she was surprised as Renaye whispered back, “How long do you plan on holding a grudge for that silly argument?”Cecily exhaled sharply and placed her knife down with rather more force than was necessary. She turned to glare at Renaye, but it seemed the other girl wasn’t done talking yet. “Look, I’m sorry I was harsh. I get defensive over the things I love.” So that’s what Renaye thought this was about?
“You’re just as guilty of holding a grudge as I am,” Cecily hissed back, hoping that Holly was still occupied enough with the cat to not overhear. “You’ve never talked to me since, have you?” It wasn’t really a question, so Cecily continued without waiting for an answer. “Anyway, I don’t care about stupid Quidditch. You play the silly game if you like, I’m hardly going to stop you.” Truthfully, Cecily was still amazed that anyone would want to play, let alone a young lady with as much potential as Renaye had. Yet that wasn’t the basis of their disagreement; Renaye had insulted Cecily’s whole way of life, the very traditions upon which her family and similar families everywhere were based. Plus she had been rude and outspoken, and ruined what otherwise could have been a fairly pleasant debate. Although Cecily couldn’t remember the conversation entirely, as it had been several months ago, she was fairly sure she hadn’t been so rude or offensive to Renaye, or any of the other girls for that matter (except perhaps Laurie, because she was Muggleborn, but they were friends now so that didn’t matter anymore).
“If you must know,” Cecily said, reaching for the leech juice, “I’m insulted by your contempt for decent society.”
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Cecily
...man?
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Cecily
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Holly Greer
January 25, 2008 12:19 PM
No, superkitty! by Holly Greer
It took some doing, but Holly was able to get both her sleeve and fingers out of the kitten's mouth. Her two group members were whispering animatedly at each other, and Holly might have been worried they were talking about her (especially since they kept glancing her way) except they weren't laughing or giggling, so whatever they were saying, it probably wasn't to ridicule Holly. Maybe they were jealous that she got to hold the cat while they did all the work?It looked like all the mashing and slicing was done, so she bit the bullet and asked reluctantly, "Did one of you want to hold the kitten and I'll stir or something?" She was okay with stirring as long as she didn't have to look at what she was stirring. Because as gross as the ingredients were by themselves, the bubbling concoction that they became was almost worse sometimes.
She gave the cauldron a look of wary dislike and had little wish to find out if this was one of them. Holly really hoped they'd say no.
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Holly Greer
No, superkitty!
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Holly Greer
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