Moving on in (first year girls). on Aladren Commons

Mara Morales

December 24, 2019 12:53 PM

Moving on in (first year girls). by Mara Morales

Two other girls had been Sorted into Aladren, and Mara had strong suspicions about what that might mean. As she and they and the boy also Sorted into Aladren were gathered up by Professor Wright again, this time for a more exclusive bit of the school tour, she eyed the other two girls in particular. The boy was someone she expected to get to know, and maybe even to get along with, but the two girls were the people Mara very much expected she was going to have to live at close quarters with.

In regular boarding schools, she thought, most people slept two to a room, but this school was so small that she didn't think the numbers would work right. Frankly, considering how big the building was compared to the number of people rattling around inside it, she thought they probably could have just given everyone a private room, but doubted they would. That, after all, would give too much freedom. So a triple it was probably going to be, at least for the girls. The boy was lucky, would have his own room, if what Jessica had said about her situation held true. Mara and these two girls, however, would be spending a lot of time together for the next seven years - more time, in fact, than Mara spent with either of her actual sisters, since they would also spend at least five years in all the same classes all day. This would either be really, really cool or really, really horrific.

She was anxious to find out which it would be - or at least start trying to figure it out - but other matters commanded her attention for a while. Her mouth opened slightly in surprise when Professor Wright led them back to the library and explained their room was adjacent to it, then curved up slightly on one side, pleased with this development. If she was going to get around in this world, ready access to the library would be a major perk. She took in every feature the Charms teacher showed them, then took out a notebook to write down the title of the key book to make double sure she did not forget it when he showed it to them.

Her new home was, she thought, more comfortable-looking than she had really expected a boarding school common room to be. The color scheme was a little blah - blue was a nice color, but she wasn't the biggest fan of black generally, at least as a fabric color - but the chairs were comfortable and the room had plenty of...well, room in it. She resisted the temptation to go look at the bookshelves long enough to listen to Professor Wright and get confirmation - though it seemed largely unnecessary in context - that she was allowed to use them later.

After he stopped talking, though, she remembered that she couldn't really go look at the books right now, though, because she had to get to know these other girls first, since Professor Wright had confirmed they would all share one room, plus she had to find that room. She looked at the other two girls.

"This place is pretty nice, huh" she said, not specifically to either. "Maybe we'll have some of these books in our room. I'm Mara. Morales," she added her surname a beat later. "From Georgia. Nice to meet you."

16 Mara Morales Moving on in (first year girls). 1472 1 5

Morgan Garrett

December 24, 2019 1:08 PM

Yay! by Morgan Garrett

Well played, Dad. Well played.

That was Morgan's first thought when she followed Professor Wright and the rest of the first year class of Aladren into the library, newly informed that their common room was on the other side of it. Her father had, after all, sort of broken the rule about not disclosing one's House location - or former House's location, she supposed - to someone who wasn't in that House (at that time)...but he had done it in such a way that Morgan had assumed he was just being sarcastic again. I can't even guess what House you might be in, kid, he'd said. I still don't know how I ever got into Aladren. It's the nerd House - we literally lived in the library.

And because Dad was not known for using the most precise language all the time, or being entirely serious about half the things he said, Morgan had assumed that was hyperbole. She really, she thought, should have known better by now. Dad often said the truth in such a way that it didn't sound quite like the truth. Anna had done the same thing, when she had been alive. The Wilkeses were just like that.

She thought she should be able to remember the title of the key book okay on her own, but felt a brief flicker of doubt when she noticed another girl writing in a little notebook. She forgot about that, though, as she went into the common room and stared around in delight, finding it even nicer than she had imagined. It really did, she thought, thinking back on her earlier daydream about being in a movie about being in Aladren like Dad had, look like a set. She could just imagine the camera angles....

For now, though, she just had to listen to Professor Wright, who was telling them a lot of practical information that wasn't terribly interesting or outside what Morgan either already knew or had access to inside her green folder from Orientation. Instead, she kept sneaking glances at the two new Aladrens she didn't know yet. One was a boy, so she would have to go out of her way some to get to know him, she guessed, but the other was another girl, a pretty Hispanic-looking girl whose super-cute dress she had noticed at Orientation - it had looked like she belonged in a small-town play about summer, like something from Thornton Wilder or something, except for the denim jacket adding some interest - and who would, it seemed, be Morgan and Josie's roommate.

After they were dismissed, the other girl spoke to them, introducing herself and seemingly, with her last name, confirming Morgan's guess about her origins...and revealing something else about them which Morgan never would have guessed. "Another one from the South!" she exclaimed in her thicker Kentucky accent. "Sorry - I'm Morgan. I'm from Kentucky, and Josie was born in Georgia," she explained. "Though - sorry - she can talk too," she said with an embarrassed laugh, waving to Josie. "Sorry Josie."

16 Morgan Garrett Yay! 1470 0 5

Josephine Clyde

January 01, 2020 9:15 AM

Girls Girls Girls by Josephine Clyde

The library was big, beautiful and the location of the Aladren common room was a literal dream come true. Inside of a library. Inside! She would get to live inside of books, books, books! Josie stopped herself from letting out a happy sigh and watched as the tall Professor from orientation, Professor Wright Head of House, got it, pulled on the book doorknob. Birds of Prey, she’d remember. It wasn’t Pecari, so she would remember everything with ease. Her father had actually talked to her for hours about Pecari. It was his lifeblood, he claimed, his heart and soul, he said. She was glad she wasn’t there.

The other first years were Morgan, another girl with the most beautiful black hair she’d ever seen and a boy. Well, if he was in Aladren then he must share some of the same interests as the rest of them. Not every boy was like her father and step-brothers, hopefully. She wanted to make friends, but not with people who were basically just her step-brothers in disguise. Hopefully, her new roommates had some similar interests as her too. Morgan was wonderful and fun, but Josie had never shared a room with anyone before and she felt a little nervous. She watched the beginning of the conversation with her new roommates with interest and laughed at Morgan’s introduction.

“It’s okay, I don’t really count as a Southerner anyway. You’ll have to tell me about Georgia! Mara, right? I like your name; it reminds me of this book I read the other day.” Josie laughed again, “Do you guys want to hear about it?”

44 Josephine Clyde Girls Girls Girls 1477 0 5

Mara Morales

January 02, 2020 9:07 AM

Indeed. by Mara Morales

Thing One was a talker. Mara was not sure how she felt about this. On one hand, the girl was spilling forth info like Niagara Falls spilled forth water, and she was doing it in an accent even more pronounced than Mara's own one, which was...not comfortable, exactly, because Mara was emphatically not a country girl, but at least it wasn't as jarring to her ear as the prospect of a roommate who was just as clearly from, like, Jersey or something. On the other hand, the girl was rattling on without any apparent thought, which seemed like the kind of thing that could get really tiring really fast, and what if she was the sort of Southerner who gave other Southerners a bad reputation? That could be unpleasant, especially as Mara's appearance and name were rather pointed clues toward the fact that Mara was not actually entirely white.

Thing Two said less to start with, but at least it carried some interesting data points, not to mention questions. Mara's eyebrows lifted slightly in curiosity.

"Yeah, Mara," she repeated. "I'm from Atlanta," she added more specifically, since they all had some connection to the same part of the country and this data had the possibility to be meaningful to the other girls. "I know my name's in a few books," she acknowledged. Aside from the whole story of Naomi and Ruth, there was also at least one book with Mara's name in the title, though she had not read it herself - something to do with ancient Egypt, she thought. "Which one have you read?"

16 Mara Morales Indeed. 1472 0 5

Morgan Garrett

January 02, 2020 9:18 AM

This should be fun! by Morgan Garrett

Morgan had to make an active effort not to clap her hands and begin babbling again at the revelation that Mara was not only from the South, not only from Georgia, but from Atlanta. Morgan had never been to Atlanta, but she had heard a lot about it, because Anna had lived there for two years while she had worked as a journalist, before she had gotten sick and had had to come back to live with their family in Industry. Anna had always made Atlanta sound like the most marvelous place in the world in her stories, and Morgan was dying to get to go there herself. Now she could hear about it from someone else, too!

For now, though, the conversation seemed to be about names - specifically, Mara's name. It didn't immediately ring any bells for Morgan, but she knew she wasn't the best-read person in the world. Most of her books were old, ones which had belonged to Anna and Dad and Aunt Lee when they were kids. The rest of what she had read was from the school library, and she had not tried to read anything. Reading, to her, was what she did for fun, so she just followed her own inclinations, and none of them had led her to a book about someone named Mara. She'd have to try to remember the titles they were talking about and check them out.

"It's always great hearing about a new book," she agreed cheerfully when Mara agreed that Josie should tell them about the book she had read. "I love reading."

16 Morgan Garrett This should be fun! 1470 0 5

Josephine Clyde

January 05, 2020 5:44 AM

Weird? Maybe definitely by Josephine Clyde

It was better for her new roommates to know all of her annoying habits now rather than later. She’d been able to hold herself back from describing anything too crazy since orientation, but is she was going to live with these two girls then she might as well find out if they could handle her or not. Theo and Jo’s reactions weren’t what she’d been expecting, but she was glad that she’d been able to open and share with them. Josie would just start small, tell them the same story she’d told at orientation.

“Well,” She began, unable to keep the big grin on her face hidden, “It’s about two elves and its romance. The elf princess is in love with this commoner named Hojo, but her nickname for him is Jojo and her name is Marianne, but he calls her Mara. Her parents, the king and queen hate him because he’s really good at plant magic, so they need him, but Mara already has a fiancé that’s supposed to be good for alliances and other political things.”

Josie took a breath and smiled. Might as well give them the warning now.
“I like reading really awful books and then because they’re so awful I want everyone to share the awful pain of it with me. My parents used to run away from me every time I started.”

She looked around the room for her trunk, “Then there’s this evil witch and they need Jojo to fight him and they win! Yay! But then Mara’s fiancé shows up because he heard rumors about Jojo and challenges him to a duel.” She started sorting through her trunk after she opened it, “Jojo barely wins,” Her voice grew muffled, “But then Mara’s fiancé says that Jojo only loves Mara because she looks like Jojo’s dead wife and her name was Mara.”

There it was! Josie pulled out her copy of the book. It had a very dramatic picture, as her mother had put it, of three elves on the front wearing imaginative clothing. In the background was the outline of another elf next to a big pink unicorn. She held it up for her two roommates to see.
“Would you like to borrow it? I won’t spoil the ending for you. I’m also super excited to see what kind of really weird books the library has!”

Josie felt the laughter start to build up and couldn’t help a couple of giggles from escaping. Sure, she’d been nervous at orientation, but there was no point in continuing to be so for the rest of the school year. Maybe, as Aladrens, they would understand her unhealthy love for books and stories.

44 Josephine Clyde Weird? Maybe definitely 1477 0 5

Mara Morales

January 05, 2020 5:18 PM

Seems kinda definite to me, yeah. by Mara Morales

Mara managed, with an effort, to control her eyebrows when Josie said the words 'elves' and 'romance.' She had just heard that elves were real, after all, and worked in the kitchen, so maybe it was some kind of wizard book version of Upstairs-Downstairs or something like that. She could not completely restrain a twitch, though, at the juxtaposition of 'Hojo' and 'Marianne,' but levelled out when her new roommate clearly acknowledged that this book was absolutely atrocious.

"Misery loves company," said Mara neutrally, seeing both sides of this argument to a point. There was a weird pleasure to inflicting nasty things on other people, but she hoped that Josie had enough experience with other people running away to hope that Josie would at least take it to Mara and the other girl, Morgan, on rotation or something.

"I think I'm good," she said when offered the offending article. "Especially with my name in it. I'm so not an elven princess." Her sister was the princess. Mara was just...Mara. She was not someone who would ever have random plant elves and politicians arguing over who got to marry her; as far as she knew, all a potential spouse had to do to get around her parents would be exhibit moderately decent behavior toward them and Mara and presumably her sisters. Well, that and possibly a talent for secrets. Mara had never really thought about that before, but it was a...whole thing, unless she just wasn't planning to ever introduce her future husband or wife or whatever to her father and older sister, which was kinda...not a good plan.

16 Mara Morales Seems kinda definite to me, yeah. 1472 0 5

Morgan Garrett

January 05, 2020 5:34 PM

Eh, normality's a social construct. Let's be weird! by Morgan Garrett

Hojo was Jojo and Marianne was Mara, but someone else was also Mara, and there was a king and a queen and a politics involved, and wow was this quite the plot. Morgan couldn't help half-shaking her head as she tried not to laugh out loud at the plot. The latter attempt, however, was dropped as soon as Josie admitted she knew the book was terrible-sounding and that that was, in fact, the entire point of the exercise.

"No kidding," said Morgan, chuckling, at Mara's response to this revelation. "At least we won't be bored in our room, right?"

She had trouble reading Mara. The other girl seemed like a verbal minimalist, and not a terribly facially emotive person - that, or Morgan was not good at things, but she had grown up around people who didn't emote much and also around people who emoted altogether too much and so she thought she could tell the difference. Her stepmom was really normal, she thought, and Sage stood out compared to the rest of the family for that reason, so she thought she was onto something. She hoped the other first year, though, was just someone who needed a little time to loosen up and be fun.

"I'll give it a shot," she said, bravely or foolishly she didn't know, about reading the terrible elf romance book. "Pray for me," she joked to the other two girls. "And who knows how weird the books in the library must be! Did y'all both know that pictures move here? With wizards, I mean? I can't imagine how weird the novels could get if they're illustrated at all," she remarked, thinking of the books she most often read at home. They had chapters and whatnot, of course, but many of them still had doodles here and there through the books.

16 Morgan Garrett Eh, normality's a social construct. Let's be weird! 1470 0 5

Josephine Clyde

January 18, 2020 1:22 AM

Books (and friends?) galore! by Josephine Clyde

Josie could taste the conflict in the air and almost giggled. Although Mara’s face hadn’t changed much her polite refusal of the book had said it all. It was just like her father’s face whenever she started one of her stories, a mixture of ‘help me’ and ‘I should be polite, but I really don’t want to’.
She gave Mara a wide smile, to congratulate the other girl on making it through round one (because there would definitely be more, but she was kind and gracious), and nodded at Morgan.

“Let’s just say that my parents got a lot of exercise running away from me whenever I got in one of my “moods” as they put it. It’s also,” Josie sat on her bed with a bounce, “Great for your brain! You get a lot better at making up excuses when I have you trapped at the dinner table.”
The laughter welled up inside of her again, but she kept it in to be polite. Wouldn’t want her new roommates to be running for the hills already, now would she? At the mention of the moving pictures Josie felt the same sweet magical feeling she felt each time something, well, magical happened at Sonora.

“Oh I saw some in the hallways!” She gushed, “My father only had one moving picture and I hardly ever got to see it…But my step-mom has a lot in this photo album. She went to magic school in Europe, but I don’t remember the name.”

Wanting to change the subject back to books, Josie focused on the library.
“Anyway I might never leave the library, so it’s nice that we’re so close to it.”

And it was nice. Better than nice. Amazing, fantastic, superb. Morgan was right, wizard books with moving magic would be weird. Weirdly awesome. She couldn’t wait to settle in. Maybe, if they had time, they could even go look around. Or read in the common area! The world was a better place surrounded by books. If there were people who understood the importance of books, even better! To have both in one place? Perfect.

44 Josephine Clyde Books (and friends?) galore! 1477 0 5