Headmistress Powell and Headmaster Guido

October 02, 2009 4:18 PM
It was a pleasantly warm morning; students at Sonora were unimpressed with having to wear their uniform robes on a Saturday, but this was a special occasion. The visiting staff and students from Rocky Mountain International had only just arrived by portkey to the edge of the Quidditch pitch, where the inhabitants of Sonora Academy had gathered to meet them. Headmistress Sadi Powell was the first to make contact; she walked up to the large group and shook hands with their Headmaster, Alessandro Guido. Then she took a couple of steps back again, and put her wand to her throat. Her voice, magically magnified, could fill the Quidditch pitch as she made her announcement. “Welcome to Sonora Academy. We hope you will enjoy your stay in the desert. Today there will be a series of activities for all students, which our prefects have been kind enough to arrange. There will be a buffet at lunchtime served in the gardens, and during the evening we will come together for a magnificent bonfire.” Sadi paused in her speech to allow for any response to this news to die down before she continued. “Tonight all staff and students will camp out here on the Quidditch pitch.” Tents would be erected later in the day; each tent would hold four students, and would be strictly single sex. The students would be free to choose their own camping comrades, although the Headmistress was hopeful there would be some inter-school sharing.

Before the students from RMI had embarked, Alessandro Guido had given them a brief speech about their expected behaviour as visitors at Sonora. As he stood with Sadi Powell, he sincerely hoped certain students would take his words to heart. The man was excited that his students would have this opportunity; it felt, at times, as though the student body became somewhat set in its ways. Sandro was a firm believer in encouraging diversity, and sincerely hoped all the students would take advantage of this opportunity to step out of their ‘boxes’ and meet other young witches and wizards. As the students hesitantly began to mill about, Alessandro smiled and took a few steps forward in order to speak with Sadi. After months of planning, it was exciting for the event to finally be occurring!

Returning her voice back to normal, Sadi started to encouraged visiting staff towards a small table of light refreshments the prairie elves had laid out on the pitch. For her, giving the speech had been easy: it was the rest of the weekend that held mild concern. Although Sadi was sure all students would do their best to represent their school, it would be foolish to imagine everyone would get along swimmingly. Hopefully any scruples that did occur would be minor, and easily resolved.
Subthreads:
0 Headmistress Powell and Headmaster Guido Sonora Academy Welcomes Rocky Mountain International! 0 Headmistress Powell and Headmaster Guido 1 5

Saul Pierce, Pecari Prefect of Sonora

October 05, 2009 3:15 PM
Saul stood toward the front of the Sonoran crowd as Headmistress Powell welcomed the RMI students and staff, and explained the day's agenda. The green uniform he wore was weighed down by the Prefect and Quidditch Captain badges pinned to its front. The Pecari seventh-year fit neither stereotype, being neither Quidditch-obsessed nor a student in good academic standing, but he was prepared to be as prefectly as the school and the Headmistress required him to be. Well, short of stopping the prank Elly was planning for the day . . . that he planned to help out with.

But he'd be happy to help sort out tent arrangements, resolve disagreements, or provide directions to anyone who needed the assist.

As Headmistress Powell finished speaking, he figured the first tent arrangement to sort out should be his own. He had a little while before he had to join Pepper, Elly, and Briony at the Obstacle Course. Unfortunately, he had few male friends. Echo's absence hurt worse than it had since the Fury! kick-off. There was still Matt, but Saul wasn't taking it for granted that his roommate wasn't going to hook up with his twin brother and maybe some other sixth year friends.

A glance around showed Adam probably had a similar plan to his own, but he didn't approach. Adam had made it quite clear what he thought of Saul the year before. The remainder of the seventh year boys in Sonora weren't quite as opposed to his existence, but he wouldn't call any of them close friends. And his cousin Jose was way too young to share a tent with.

That pretty much left Saul with the RMI students. Besides, the Headmistress seemed to think mixing with them was important for the school image, so who was he to argue? He liked new people, and as a Prefect, he should be an example to the younger students.

He headed over into the RMI crowd. Spotting a guy who was probably fifth year or older, Saul navigated over in his direction. "Hey, do you have tentmates yet? I'm Saul." He opted against offering his last name and family branch. It would scare away most that recognized it, and falsely imply he was a pureblood to those that didn't. The California Pierces were many things. Pure wasn't one of them.
1 Saul Pierce, Pecari Prefect of Sonora Seeking Tentmates among the RMI guys 82 Saul Pierce, Pecari Prefect of Sonora 0 5


Darian

October 08, 2009 11:02 AM
Dairan looked around the quidditch pitch of Sonora Academy. What an odd place this was! Their pitch didn’t even have a playground, and it was open to real air. The weather wasn’t charmed or anything. And it was hot. It seemed like it should feel like a normal mild day, but to the boy used to the weather in Colorado, this was pretty warm indeed. He tugged at the collar of his robes, wishing that he hadn’t chosen a thin sweater to wear under his robes. The sweater was perfect for a “mild” day at RMI, but a bit too much cloth for a “mild” day at Sonora. On the plus side, his coffee colored skin kept him from worrying about sunburn out in this Arizona sun. Darian rubbed his hand through his tiny fuzz of hair looking around the group of kids.

The Sonora, in their green robes, seemed to stick together. The gray robed RMI people did likewise. Darian riffled through his pockets, sorting through his stash of dungbombs, fake insects, stringmint floss, and other mischief making items. He chuckled. Okay, he promised to be on his best behavior, right? Well by Aquilla standards, that was only pulling one trick. Just which one to use and on whom?

The headmistress of Sonora (which was another odd thing) began her speech and welcomed everyone. Darian cracked a grin when she finished. So the headmistress here was a lot less longwinded than Guido! That wasn’t really fair to Guido, but the man could go on in a speech!

The Sonora and RMI kids started mingling and Darian figured it would be a good idea to join up with one of the Sonora kids. After all, he already knew all the RMI people. What was this bonfire for rather than to meet new kids?

Just as he was about to approach the other side, a green robed person walked his way. The kid, who looked to be just a bit older than Darian, introduced himself as Saul. Darian flashed him one of his best winning grins. “Hey Saul! Name’s Darian, and no I don’t have a roommate yet.”

Darian looked the other boy over. He thought the kid looked pretty cool, so Darian didn’t seem to mind partnering up with him. “So, this school doesn’t have much by the way of older males, huh?” Darian joked. “Same at RMI. The girls practically run the school.”

“Sonora, its pretty nice here. A bit warm, but nice. Oh I’m an Aquilla Prefect by the way. We’re the… well more outgoing of the kids. We’re the best,” Darian chuckled a bit.

He looked around the pitch, taking in the sites, “So where’s the theater in this place anyway? Do we get to see inside your school or just this area?” He asked, still getting used to the “realness” of the whole outdoors of this place.
0 Darian Well I'm a guy, and a sixth year. Does that count? 0 Darian 0 5

Saul Pierce

October 08, 2009 1:45 PM
Being a nomadic California native whose family migrated south in the winter, often to a town within spitting distance of the Mexican border, not to mention a student who'd gone to a school located within Arizona's desert for the past seven years, Saul considered the day's weather to be somewhere between 'nice' and 'a little chilly'. Only the extra layer of school robes made it comfortable without a light jacket. Darian's opinion that it was 'a bit warm here' made him raise his eyebrow doubtfully, but he let it pass in favor addressing the rest of the other prefect's statement.

"Us guys are pretty well outnumbered," Saul agreed, "but the seventh year class is the exception. We're actually split about even, believe it or not. But," he shrugged, "we're one of the smaller classes at the school, and most of the other guys are Aladrens - that's the smart House - so . . ." he trailed off and waved a hand around, "not really the type to hang out with Pecaris."

Tapping his own prefect badge, he explained with a grin, "We're the ones all the school brochures call 'adventurous' and the teachers call 'trouble-makers'. Also the best," he added with a conspiratorial smile. "The geniuses are just jealous."

With a nod toward the school, he continued, "And while I think the library's open, that's not particularly interesting. Sadly, no theater here. Just the Pitch - which is going to have a stage later, so we're getting closer - the Gardens, and the Cascade Hall. The Hall's where they're going to have the academic competition later, so that's definitely open, and you can get food there if you're hungry.

"The Gardens have the obstacle course. I'm helping to run that so I gotta get over there reasonably soon, or I'd offer to give you the full tour of the place. Classrooms and common rooms are obviously closed down for the weekend. Hospital wing's probably open, if you get hurt, but it's pretty much like any other doctor's office in the wizarding world. Not really sure what else we've got of interest anyway. The Gardens, Pitch, and Cascade Hall are the big three."
1 Saul Pierce That's perfect. 82 Saul Pierce 0 5


Darian

October 12, 2009 6:53 PM
Darian looked at Saul incredulously. No theater? What kind of school didn’t have a theater? Then again, RMI had a theater but no drama club until he transferred. In fact, the theater was only discovered after he had started the drama club. But still, he had become so used to spending free blocks in the theater that the thought of no theater seemed to be impossible.

“Well, if you’re running the obstacle course, perhaps I could come join. After all, what’s the point of this if not to meet new friends?” Darian looked around the pitch. The green and gray mingled quite a bit, however there were a few pockets of single colors. Darian knew he should mingle with the Sonora kids, but he understood the desire to stay with friends. After all, its where people were comfortable.

“Too bad though about you having to leave. But prefects have to do their jobs.” Darian felt a little dumb for not noticing the other boy’s badge. His own was pinned on and freshly polished. Then again, looking at Saul’s showed Darian another point of difference between the two schools.

Darian rubbed his hand through his hair. “So, do you wanna be my tent mate? I cant guarantee that I wont put a little shaving cream on your pillow.” Darian laughed then held his hands up in a surrender position, “Joking, joking!” He added. “It’s the Aquilla way, we’re all jokesters and pranksters. Though we have got thin blood over the years. Not as many Aquilla as the others. I guess our schools have that in common. Small upper class huh?”

Darian looked around. Abby had to be here somewhere. He had to find her sometime, had to tell her he was sorry for being mean to her. Had to tell her that he didn’t really mean that she was his property. He hoped Saul kept away from Scott. Saul seemed really cool, Darian didn’t want him getting polluted by riffraff.

“So I guess we’ll catch each other later then Saul?” Darian asked, assuming it would be better for the other boy to get to his setting up. He didn’t want to get in the older boy’s way for now. Plus there was the bonfire to hang out at, too. Darian was going to have fun. Abby or no Abby.
0 Darian Perfect match, huh? 0 Darian 0 5

Saul

October 13, 2009 2:21 PM
"Yeah," Saul agreed, nodding and grinning, "You should totally come try out the obstacle course. Between me and the girls, we should be good staffing it for most of the day, but you can hang out there with us if you want. Then I can give you an intro to Elly, Pepper, and Briony, who are all awesome people." He shrugged, his cheer diminishing slightly, though it didn't drop very far, "but they're all girls, so I can't share a tent with them."

"You though," he added, pointing both forefingers at Darian, his grin returning to its full capacity, "will be in my tent. Your shaving cream does not scare me." Which was probably an invitation to get some on his pillow, but Saul was already planning to help Elly with putting out trip wires and proximity alarms, so he could hardly complain if a prank got turned around on him. He breifly considered asking if Darian wanted to help out with that, but decided it was Elly's game and she was the one who was going to have to live with the consequences next year if they got caught.

"I will definitely catch you later," Saul promised, checking the digital watch that had never worked right on school grounds. It claimed to be about seven o'clock tomorrow morning. He tapped its plastic face a few times as he started to walk backwards toward the Pitch exit. The digital display blinked a few time, the date corrected itself, and the time settled on eleven o'clock AM, which might be within about twenty minutes of accurate, which was as close as he ever needed it to be.

He shot off a salute toward Darian and excused himself, "I really probably ought to get over to the Gardens now. Remember. Obstacle Course. Try it. Oh! And if you can find two more for the tent, I get along with most people." At least, Saul had never met anyone he didn't like. The reverse was not true, as Adam had made very clear during Saul's doomed Head Boy campaign last year.

"I'm okay with anyone you pick, but make sure they know it's me in the tent with you, if you pick another Sonoran." Even those that liked him well enough might give pause before sharing a tent with him. Beyond the obvious personality differences between Saul and the other seventh year guys, and even most of the sixth years excluding Matt, who all tended to take the world far more seriously than Saul could possibly contemplate, it was hardly a closely guarded secret among the upperclassmen that Saul's familiarity with the concept of personal property was limited at best.
1 Saul I'd say so 82 Saul 0 5