Springing into the children's section on Library

Josephine Clyde

March 08, 2020 10:23 AM

Springing into the children's section by Josephine Clyde

It was an absolutely lovely spring day. What better way to spend it than indoors! Josie wiggled into her robes. They were still an offensive green color, but seeing as how no one had said anything about the “striking color of her eyes” yet, they were still manageable. Mara and Morgan didn’t seem to be in the dorm room, or they were just hidden under their blankets. She would have waited to ask if they wanted to join her, but today was going to be more of a ‘me’ day. It was high time she became best friends with… the library . A quick glance around the common room told her that it was empty. For now. She scurried over to the exit, thinking about the rows and rows of books that waited for her. They were practically calling her name. Well, the paintings in the halls moved and talked, it didn’t seem like such a crazy thing for the books to talk.

Ahhh. The wonderful smell only libraries had hit her as soon as the hidden door opened. As the door closed she had to stop herself from skipping down the aisles. So many books to discover! So little time. Why did the Aladrens need a curfew? They literally lived inside the library! But Professor Wright had said that it was meant to be a secret. Too bad. She wanted to know more about the other houses. Unlike her father, Josie hadn’t developed an unhealthy love for her house yet, but, of course, the library changed everything. Did the other houses have it as good as they did? Aladrens seemed to be what her step-brothers would have labeled as nerds, but if it meant living in the library then she was okay with that. Theo was a Pecari, just like her father, so God only knew what secrets they had. Jo was a Teppenpaw and the house, as a whole, seemed sweet just like her. The only house she hadn’t learned about yet was Crotalus. It would be nice if she could make more friends.

After walking past Mr. Fox-Reynolds’ desk with a smile Josie marched straight towards the children’s section. Her father hadn’t let anything from his magical past even touch their lives, but once her acceptance letter came he couldn’t stop talking about it. Even Minnie had some stories about her fancy European school. Not for the first time Josie found herself wondering how different Sonora could have been if she’d grown up with more magic in her life. Minnie had said that there were a lot of nice children’s books that every magical child grew up reading. Then the conversation became her father and Minnie talking about their magical childhoods and Josie couldn’t help the angry bitterness that welled up inside of her. She knew that some of the students were like her, clueless, but it seemed like most of the other half-bloods at least had half an idea of what was going on. As much as she didn’t want to take any of Minnie's advice she had to start somewhere. Maybe reading the books would help her make more friends. It certainly seemed to be enough for her father and Minnie.

Josie was looking around at the shelves, trying to find something that caught her eye, when she tripped over a short stool. The crash would have been loud anywhere, but inside the library it was like an explosion. As Josie lay face down on the library’s floor she wondered if there was some magic that would take her back to the beginning of the day. Maybe she should have gone outside after all.

44 Josephine Clyde Springing into the children's section 1477 1 5

Theo Spurn

March 15, 2020 11:02 PM

That's a word play by Theo Spurn

It was a cheersome sunshiny day, and Theo was dressed accordingly. As it got into summer, proper, it would become harder to wear some of his fuzzier clothes, unless he found an adult who would put cooling charms on them. He thought Professor Brooding might be willing to help, and that was reassuring. However, he also had his lighter soft things, so that he could be fuzzy in every season. Today, he was making the most of still being able to wear his fluffier pyjama pants, but had combined this with a silk shirt which ran like cool water over his skin. The pyjama pants had blue penguins on and the shirt was a pattern of orange diamonds. He’d added a black velvet choker and little wristlets in the same fabric, just in case he needed more fuzzy and, as it wasn’t totally warm outside yet, added a soft woolen shawl in pinks and purples over his shirt. He wasn’t sure why people talked about ‘feeling like a million dollars.’ He felt like substantially less than that because the shirt and shawl had come from thrift stores and his mum had made the velvet accessories, but this was definitely the best feeling. He imagined, from the people who talked about feeling like a million dollars - with their tight, starched and fashionable dresses and bulky jewels - that that involved feeling very spiky and uncomfortable. He felt full of love though. He was giving love to things that would have been thrown out, and his mum had sewn love into his accessories. He thought that feeling $9.73 was a lot better than feeling a million.

In spite of the sunshine outside, his first stop was the library. He thought he could quite happily spend the whole day hanging upside-down off a bench, reading thoroughly unimproving literature. That first meant acquiring said literature.

He gave the librarian a cheerful wave and made his way towards the children’s section, considering whether boarding school stories would still hold his attention now he was really at one himself, or whether he might prefer something else. Animal books were nice because you could imagine all the soft fur, though usually something mildly perilous happened to something adorable and fluffy, and he wasn’t sure he wanted that. He didn’t know why people didn’t write nice books where everything was fine and people just did lots of pleasant activities with vivid texture descriptions. Maybe an adventure series. When it was all smugglers and treasure and the perils were silly things you couldn’t imagine getting up to, that was a lot more bearable than ‘will this small creature live or die?’

Speaking of mild peril, there was a loud crash just as he was making his way over. He stuck his head into the aisle, and found Josie sprawled on the floor.

“You fell down,” he observed, tilting his head and hoping she wasn’t badly hurt. “Was it pirates?” he asked, because it would obviously be much more fun if they pretended it was.

13 Theo Spurn That's a word play 1476 0 5

Josephine Clyde

March 23, 2020 1:37 AM

I just wanted a closer look at the ground by Josephine Clyde

She’d only been on the ground for a few seconds, but her brain was working in a hundred million different directions. Did her body hurt? A mildly dull ache was spreading, but it was slow. Did she break anything? She wiggled her arms and legs. Hmmm, nope, doesn’t seem like it. Was she bleeding? Not sure, she’d have to get up to check and she wasn’t not not graceful enough to check yet. She’d tripped over a stool, so the books were probably okay. Had anyone heard? Probably, but there didn’t seem to be any rushing footsteps. Hopefully, no one would come. Josie spent a few more seconds greeting the floor, maybe she could just stay there? No one would notice. Or maybe it would be better for her to get up now before someone did come looking. She’d officially run out of reasons to keep lying there. Just as she felt like she’d gathered enough grace to get up she heard Theo’s familiar voice. Oh no. How embarrassing. Well…at least it was Theo. He seemed like the least likely person to laugh at her or tell other people about her sudden meeting with the floor. Then he asked about pirates. Pirates? What about pirates? Oh, maybe he was playing pretend? She could do that. Recovered she was not, but willing to play along she was.

“They threw me overboard for mutiny.” Her voice was muffled by the floor.

Mutiny, as far as she could tell, was a bad thing, but she’d only read two books about pirates and the Peter Pan movie hadn’t exactly been the pirate life learning experience she thought it would be. She had watched it with her mother and it was funny and had nice songs, but she wanted to know more about the pirates and Indians and mermaids and if there were more fairies like Tinkerbell. Peter seemed like a bit of a bully, but so did Captain Hook. But at least Captain Hook was funny! He probably would have let her live if she had mutinied. Only one of the two books had mentioned mutiny and the people who did it had been killed, their bodies thrown off the ship. In this pretend situation with Theo, her crime wasn’t quite as bad, she was still alive after all.

It was time to face the music. Josie pushed herself off the floor and into a sitting position. She wasn’t bleeding at least. Yay! But her left sleeve seemed to have ripped somehow. Her fingers traced the small tear as she looked at the bookshelves. Had it caught on something as she fell? Josie glanced back up at Theo, he was dressed as fluffily as always. He always looked like a comfortable cloud, but she wondered what he would wear once it got to be desert hot. But Theo was always a wonderful rainbow of colors that made her smile whenever she saw him in the hallways or class.

“Hi Theo. Did the pirates get you too? We’re both still alive, so maybe the pirates are the nice type. At least there weren’t any alligators!”

44 Josephine Clyde I just wanted a closer look at the ground 1477 0 5

Theo Spurn

March 24, 2020 10:28 PM

Is it exciting? by Theo Spurn

Ah. Mutiny. That would cause drama. Still, it also sounded like it could be the start of a really great adventure, and it was a very unexpected but good surprise to have come to the library and to have found one of those outside of the pages of a book. Once the pirates had been dealt with, he thought he and Josie would also be in for a good time choosing books together. They seemed to have similar taste – one which demanded things be as silly as possible.

He watched as Josie sat herself up rather carefully, checking herself over.

“Did it hurt when they threw you overboard?” he checked, realising this might not all be fun and games.

“They and I fell out long ago. I mutinied over them declaring velvet to be only for captains,” he decided, shaking his head sadly at this grave miscarriage of imaginary justice, “Wearing lots of velvet is the best part of being a pirate. What’s the point otherwise? I mean, hunting for the treasure can be all well and good because it’s an adventure, but you can’t snuggle treasure. Snuggling not smuggling – that’s my pirate motto,” he declared with a grin, “What was your mutiny over?” he asked.

“A lack of alligators is always a positive,” he agreed. “They are bumpy on the outside and sharp in the mouth. I would not wish to pet one.”

13 Theo Spurn Is it exciting? 1476 0 5

Josephine Clyde

March 31, 2020 9:39 PM

It definitely is! by Josephine Clyde

“I tore my sleeve a bit and I’m definitely sore, but I’m okay for the most part.”

Her robes were basically a school uniform, hopefully they weren’t strict about tidiness. Some of her old friends had gone to private schools where uniforms were a big deal. Huge. Weekly checks and surprise checks to make sure the uniforms were all following the rules. Those who didn’t got detention and Josie had never gone to detention before, but it sounded scary. She swallowed some of her nervousness and tried to ignore the tear. It wasn’t a big deal, definitely small, and Professor Grayson would know what to do. Besides, she looked at Theo’s colorful clothes; it wasn’t as if the school’s dress code was too strict. Though, Theo could be a special case.

He was definitely fun and it had nothing to do with the silly way he dressed. Theo’s brain was a creative brain and it was always fun talking to him. She’d noticed his love for velvet early on in their friendship and it had fascinated her ever since. For her tenth birthday Josie had gotten a beautiful blue velvet dress from her parents. It had been such a beautiful dress that she wore it every weekend and pretended to be a fairy princess. She’d always assumed velvet and other nice, soft and pretty fabrics were for girls, but Theo wore all of those things with such comfortableness that she wondered if it was wrong of her to think about things in such a girl/boy way. She thought back to Captain Hook from the movie. His clothes might not have been velvet, but they were fancier than anything she’d ever seen a boy wear before.

“I’ve never seen a pirate without velvet and it would be super rude not to share with others. My mutiny was because they wouldn’t let me be friends with the mermaids. They said mermaids were friends with alligators and that the alligators would eat us.”

Mermaids definitely knew where any underwater treasure would be and so what if they were friends with alligators? Alligators were definitely bumpy with sharp teeth, no denying that, but weren’t they a little bit adorable? They were basically the cousins of lizards and salamanders! Josie thought fondly of her COMC lizard, George, she’d have to go visit him soon and see if his scale rot had gotten better. And the alligator from Peter Pan was so silly and cute! Naturally, real life alligators weren’t that friendly, but this was a pretend pirate world and the alligators were always friendly here. At least, to their friends.

“But if you’re friends with the mermaids then you can be friends with the alligators and then they’ll show you where the hidden treasure is! I thought it made plenty of sense.”

44 Josephine Clyde It definitely is! 1477 0 5

Theo Spurn

April 11, 2020 9:18 AM

Cool by Theo Spurn

“Oh,” said Theo when Josie pointed out that she had torn her robes. He wasn’t really sure whether to be sad about that or not because robes were not happy clothes. They just… sort of were. They were a thing. And you had to. In some ways, it was probably good that she was wearing them and that they had taken the brunt of the fall instead of something Favourited. He wasn’t sure what else to say about though so he didn’t.

“There really are a lot of terrible pirates out there,” he sighed, shaking his head sadly, “Sounds like we’d make decent crew mates though. You can play with the mermaids all you want,” he assured her.

“Though actually,” he said, “Real merpeople aren’t very friendly at all and probably won’t show you where the treasure is, if they have any, especially if you don’t speak mermish, which kind of sounds like this,” he stated, letting out several strangly screechy noises that were definitely not library-appropriate.

“You might be better off looking for nifflers,” he offered, switching back to English, “They’re good at finding treasure. Though I don’t know if they swim. But we could sail to desert islands with our nifflers and have them sniff out the treasure. They’re very soft too. You could brush them afterwards to make sure they’re not too sandy before they get back on the boat. Or we could only go to treasure caves, not sandy islands,” he suggested.

13 Theo Spurn Cool 1476 0 5

Josephine Clyde

April 20, 2020 2:41 AM

Avast me hearties! Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! A pox on both your houses! …Wait by Josephine Clyde

Wait a minute. Mermaids were real ? Merpeople! She shouldn’t have been so surprised, after all, dragons were real why not mermaids? But still, to have actual mermaids in the world, wow. But then Theo started making terrible screeching noises and Josie had to stop herself from slapping her hands over her ears. What the heck was that? So mermaids weren’t friendly, which made sense to her, the ones in Peter Pan had been anything but. Those noises though. They had their own language? And it was something so unappealing sounding? Gosh. Josie wasn’t sure if she wanted to meet any now. Language barriers hadn’t been something she was expecting.

“Gosh, maybe it would be a bad idea to make friends with them then. We can still be crew mates though!”

She’d probably be better off if she had Theo. As far Josie could tell, he was really knowledgeable in all things magical. For example, a…a what? Ni-Niffle? She had no idea what that was, but Theo made it sound like they were those treasure finding machines she’d seen on TV. Those things were long metal sticks with a flat part at the end and the person had to wear really big headphones to listen for the treasure. But that was a thing the niffly sound like it was alive. They sounded adorable actually.

“The...niffly? It sounds really cute, like a bunny! They'd probably love to go to hidden islands and hunt for treasure, but what will we do if we run into some bad apple pirates again? Hide?”

Although Josie’s original plan today had been to read some magical fairytales she liked that she could spend this time with Theo. She had seen him recently, but she hadn’t gotten the chance to talk to him in a while. Pecari or not, Theo was a friend and she wanted to spend more time with him. Their separate houses made it so that she only saw him at class time and it wasn't as if they'd always get to work together either.

44 Josephine Clyde Avast me hearties! Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! A pox on both your houses! …Wait 1477 0 5