Not surprised on Cascade Hall

Mortimer Brockert

May 19, 2024 3:22 PM

Opening Feast by Mortimer Brockert

Another summer had passed, much like all the others. Although this year, there had been something that happened that while not affecting Mortimer personally, he still very much knew it was wrong and hated it. And this time, it wasn’t Eustace either though there was plenty of that too. However, that was almost mundane now since it happened all the time. That said, Mortimer could not wait for Honora to be at school and away from her father.

As for what happened this summer though, well, that was something for Icky and Imogen or more likely Cory to deal with, and all of them were more feelings people than Mortimer was. Though to be fair, even he would admit that was an extremely low bar.

Now, however-thankfully so he didn’t have to think about things that happened last summer that might involve feelings including ones he himself was trying to deny that he had, after all this didn’t involve his grandchild, just a grand-niece he actually kind of liked - the new students were entering and the returning ones had assembled at their house tables. “Welcome to Sonora for the new first years and welcome back for all older students. First years, you should have received a blank badge at the end of Orientation. You will dunk the badge in the Sorting Potion and it will turn the color representing your house which are blue for Aladren, yellow for Teppenpaw, red for Crotalus, and brown for Pecari. Afterwards, you may join your house table.” Mortimer watched as his grandson, Uriah, was Sorted.

After the first years had been settled, Mortimer continued. “Would Christopher Brockert and Phillip Carson please come up and get your Head Student badges." He continued. "In addition, I'd like to call up Nausicaa Scapetello, Robyn Lundstrom, Lyla Holland and Xarryn Bavol to receive their prefect badges. Congratulations.” Mortimer could not have been happier and more proud that Christopher had won, despite the fact that the boy looked slightly confused about it. It made Mortimer want to shake Eustace all over again. (Not that he’d previously shaken him, though if some nanny or someone had at some point, it would explain an awful lot. However, Mortimer had certainly felt the desire at many points.) Admittedly, he had really hoped Liesl would win too, since truthfully, he’d always sort of had a soft spot for her-granted, Mortimer’s soft spots were less soft than the average person but still he’d always been sort of amused by her love of horror-and he felt bad for the events of the previous summer, despite it not being his fault at all but he guessed Mr. Carson was fairly inoffensive.

Although he hoped two boys winning wasn’t a bad sign that misogyny was a factor. This had been a humongous worry when they’d gone to gender neutral Head Student elections, something that not even a remotely significant portion of the student population had wanted. Of course, Mortimer was admittedly pretty biased against the student who formed that petition, given that she’d been his granddaughter’s mortal enemy. As it was though, his grandson was chosen and the other person was not terrible so he had to just hope that two boys winning was just a this year thing or that Mr. Carson was just that good an option. He knew Christopher was.

As for prefects, well Mortimer had a bit more to complain about there. Olaf was perfect for the position. Nothing against Miss Scapetello, he had no qualms about her in general and she even had on paper qualifications that Olaf didn't, like running the debate club. In fact, there was even something about her that reminded him of Topaz, though he couldn't figure out what. It was just that Olaf was ideal. More ideal even than his other grandchildren. However, since there was a social aspect to the job that he was pretty sure the Aladren would hate, at least Olaf was unlikely to be broken up about not getting it. And there were no other options in Teppenpaw or Pecari. He probably would not have voted for Mr. Bavol if there had been since the boy was practically illiterate, though Mortimer supposed there wasn’t a lot of reading or writing involved in the job. He’d also acknowledge that it was the fault of the parents and not the student, that Mr. Bavol’s pre-Sonora education had been neglected. However,he felt nothing but pity for whichever CATS examiner ended up grading the Pecari’s written exam.

And Miss Lundstrom stuck out very little on her own, Mortimer mostly knew her by what her relatives were like and their actions, the drama with her brother and the fact that her mom fell into the category of being a pain in the backside. Interestingly, she also seemed to be friends with Samara Crosby, whose mother also fell into the same category.

Which brought him to Crotalus. Now, Miss Holland was perfectly fine for the job in general.From what he gathered, Olaf seemed to hate her less than the rest of the human race in general and that spoke well of her. Had Tawny Crosby not been every bit as bad as Mrs. Lundstrom in a different way, Mortimer probably would have voted for her.Except Tawny was that bad and if Mortimer had to deal with her, someone was going to pay for it.

Once the prefects and Head Students were back in their seats, Mortimer continued. “Our midsummer event will be the Concert. Details to be announced at a later date.” After all, the Concert didn’t always mean what Jason thought it did, where it was exclusively music. Obviously there were some acts in the last one that most definitely didn’t not qualify as such and he didn’t mean Isla’s puppet show either.

And speaking of potentially being very much not musical “Now for the singing of the school song..” Lyric sheets were passed around and the song began.

Every day we strive
Learning to survive
Life’s hardships and to solve its mystery.
Learning to defend
Our honour and our friends,
Flying high to meet our destiny
We will stand and face those who want to harm us.
We won’t let the world transfigure, jinx or charm us
I won’t fight alone, as long as you are with me.
Sonora be my home, my tutor and my spirit
Vasita quoque floeat; Even the desert blooms.

That done, he dug into his steak and bourbon.

Subthreads:

Aladren

Me? Me! by Phil Carson with Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher

Not surprised by Nausicaa Scapetello

So I'm a mage, huh? by Yale Adams with Violet Calhoun

We might just have a shot. Maybe. by Nicholas Pierce

Teppenpaw

I'm a second year! by Dora Xavier

I guess we've become advanced now, huh? [tag 6th year Tepps] by Cole Pierce with Lenny Pierce, Leviosa Scurlock

Hi (tag Ursula) by Leo Lyons with Ursula Arcadius

Crotalus

Congratulations! (tag Christopher) by Verdillia Scurlock

This will do by Grim Noir with Lyla Holland

Second verse, same as the first(?) by Petey Thompson with Cecily Welles

We have reached the beginning of the middle (tag Ida) by Alexander Pierce with Ida Stanford

One Feast (almost) down, one Feast to go. by Claire Osbrook

Pecari

Fifth year means prefect ... and CATS ... oh no! by Xarryn Bavol with Zeus Brooding-Hawthorne-Smith, Fortune Ardovini

Is it because I quit ballet? by Araminta Fairthorne with Lysandra (Lyra) Dreseller

Second time's the charm. by Ramona Thompson with Donovan Peters

Staff

11 Mortimer Brockert Opening Feast 6 1 5

System

May 19, 2024 3:22 PM

Aladren by System

0 System Aladren 0 System 0 5

System

May 19, 2024 3:22 PM

Teppenpaw by System

0 System Teppenpaw 0 System 0 5

System

May 19, 2024 3:22 PM

Crotalus by System

0 System Crotalus 0 System 0 5

System

May 19, 2024 3:22 PM

Pecari by System

0 System Pecari 0 System 0 5

System

May 19, 2024 3:22 PM

Staff by System

0 System Staff 0 System 0 5

Verdillia Scurlock

May 22, 2024 4:09 AM

Congratulations! (tag Christopher) by Verdillia Scurlock

Verdillia had taken her time to style herself for the feast. She aways did so, but had put an extra special effort in for that evening just in case she was called up on stage. She didn't want to presume but she could certainly hope - and make sure her curls were neatly creamed and bouncing, and that her jewellery matched nicely, in Sonora green to show whole school spirit.

The ideal scenario would be her and Christopher being elected together. A lot of high school romance novels led her to believe this could cement things for her future. Though according to those novels, the two of them would start out as enemies who bonded over their shared responsibilities. As they were already friends, hopefully that put them ahead of the curve.

But when the headmaster made the announcement, there was only one of the names she'd hoped to hear. She fixed a smile on her face, genuinely happy for Christopher. Of course he deserved it. And at least Phil wasn't someone he could get romantically entangled with.

"Congratulations! I was hoping you'd win." She offered him a wide smile as he sat down. That was also totally true, even if there had been more to the wish than that. "You'll make a great head boy."

13 Verdillia Scurlock Congratulations! (tag Christopher) 1541 0 5

Phil Carson

May 22, 2024 10:11 PM

Me? Me! by Phil Carson

Phil settled into a seat at the Aladren table for his last Opening Feast, feeling simultaneously like he'd been at Sonora forever, and also like he'd only just started and why did they think he was only one year shy of being competent enough to graduate and be a grown-up wizard? He supposed, technically, he'd already achieved part of that, since wizards counted 17 as being an adult, and he'd hit that over the summer, but it felt surreal to him that people might think he wasn't a kid anymore.

He still had a few hoops to jump through before he was counted as educated - his entire seventh year, the RATS, his RATS scores - but he was a good student and not really struggling in any of his classes (though some were certainly more challenging than others) so even those were more of something to be reached through patience and time rather than any major hurdles to reaching the end of his Sonora years.

There was still college, of course. He was an Aladren, and middle class, so adulthood didn't really start until he had a college degree, but still. He'd have to fill out his applications for those, soon. Like, now.

Well not right now. Right now the new first years were coming in from their tour and getting sorted. Then the headmaster would give a speech so brief it hardly counted as one, they'd try to sing a song nobody knew the words to because it only came out once a year, and then he'd eat a feast. So . . . not the time or place to fill out college applications even if he knew which ones to apply to.

The children were sorted, looking smaller and younger than ever, and okay, compared to them, he was maybe close enough to adulthood to count. They didn't look that much bigger than his sister.

One came to sit at the Aladren table and Phil clapped for them, and getting a closer look, realized, yes, yes they were still a fair amount bigger than Loki. She was still seven and just starting second grade. These kids were closer to - well, no, they would be middle schoolers if they'd been going to muggle school instead of here. He remembered he'd finished fifth grade and was supposed to go into sixth when he'd gotten his letter. So yeah, probably four years older than Loki then. He wondered if she'd have magic. Probably. The amount of chaos surrounding her was still unusually high. Some of that might just be personality. Some of it could be accidental magic.

He was brought out of his musing by hearing his name. He sat up straighter. People were looking at him and the people closest were congratulating him. The Headmaster was naming prefects ... oh. Oh! Head Student! He'd gotten Head Student!

He got up and went to get his badge, feeling simultaneous opposing emotions again, this time pride for earning the title, and embarrassment for not paying attention and forgetting that this was even on the night's agenda. This was why he should not be trusted to take care of himself yet.

He congratulated Chris and the new prefects as they all got handed their badges, and then returned to the Aladren table, giving Nausicaa one more final nod of prefectly solidarity before resuming his seat.

Then the headmaster gave his ridiculously short speech, they sang the song nobody knew the words to, and the feast appeared. Turning to his neighbor and definitely not showing off the new shiny on his robe, he smiled as he greeted them. "Hey. Did you have a good summer?"

1 Phil Carson Me? Me! 1536 0 5

Dora Xavier

May 23, 2024 8:54 PM

I'm a second year! by Dora Xavier

This year began strangely. It was the first one since she'd been eight that she didn't attend the Orientation, either as a spy, a Daddy's Helper, or a first year student herself. Daddy offered to let her come along as his helper again if she wanted to, but she wasn't ten anymore. She had free range of the school now. Instead, she went to get her stuff moved over from her summer room in the Xavier family suite to her school year room in the Teppenpaw dorms. Fortunately, she could use Daddy's office as the transfer point and didn't need to do the jig each time she made a trip.

The Opening Feast was a little different, too, being a returning student for the first time. She got to arrive at her leisure, say hi to her friends, and do a little catching up with people she hadn't seen since last spring. Then she got to watch the new first years from the student tables, as a older person who'd already experienced the magical act of dipping a badge into a potion and finding out what House she belonged to. She clapped to welcome in the new Teppenpaws as others had done for her last year.

After that, things went more or less as they usually did for Opening Feasts whether she was here at the student table or still up at the staff table with her parents and brother. People she only kinda knew got called up for Head Student. The prefects were not quite as much strangers and she clapped loudly for Robyn who she did know a bit more personally now after sharing last Opening Feast together. The Headmaster mentioned the Midsummer Event (the Concert again, whoo! That was always a fun show to watch!) but didn't have a lot of details about it yet. They sang the school song, which she had dutifully learned by heart years ago and taught to Summer.

And then they had food! Dora filled her plate like she hadn't eaten lunch here just a few hours ago. She was twelve and a growing girl.

Smiling at her neighbor after swallowing her first mouthful of potato, she wondered, "Whaddu thing the concert's going to be like this year? Dad says they've done everything from talent shows to a full on play before." Which wasn't really a concert, strictly speaking, but Dad said they used the term very loosely here at Sonora.

1 Dora Xavier I'm a second year! 1507 0 5

Xarryn Bavol

May 23, 2024 9:24 PM

Fifth year means prefect ... and CATS ... oh no! by Xarryn Bavol

Xarryn knew fifth year was when prefects were chosen for each House. He also knew he was the only fifth year Pecari. He might have trouble reading, but he could do simple math well enough, so unless they decided to do something very different about how they determined prefects, he was going to be the one chosen to be Pecari's fifth year prefect.

Sure enough, after the new kids were sorted into their Houses, his name was among the six people called up to get a badge. The two new Head Students were an Aladren and Crotalus, so he was the only Pecari heading up to the front today. He gave Phil a high five because Xarryn was old enough to know a Head Student well enough to consider him a friend, now. That was pretty cool, and also kind of alarming. He realized all of a sudden that those CATS tests everyone talked about all the time and he always disregarded entirely because they were so far away were aimed at his year group this year and they weren't so far away anymore.

He sat back down at the Pecari table in kind of a daze. Fifth year. This was his fifth year and all the hard things in Intermediates were now his things to do, and he really wasn't sure he could this. Some of the practical stuff came easily enough, especially in Charms, but he couldn't explain how any of it worked, and keeping track of all the steps in potions was nearly impossible, transfiguration theory was an absolute mystery, and how was he possibly going to pass enough CATS to be able to take any Advanced classes? He was only barely skating through with just enough As to balance out his Ps as it was.

This was not going to be his best year, but at least he was still in Intermediates. He knew what to expect from Intermediates. You didn't need to test into Intermediate classes. It was next year that kinda terrified him. What if he failed everything? Would he have to redo fifth year? Or did you have to drop out of school entirely?

After the song, he turned his worries on an older student. "What happens if you fail all your CATS?"

1 Xarryn Bavol Fifth year means prefect ... and CATS ... oh no! 1560 0 5

Nausicaa Scapetello

May 23, 2024 9:51 PM

Not surprised by Nausicaa Scapetello

Nausicaa was not in the least surprised by the evening's events. It had been the only logical outcome. Still she certainly played the part that was expected of her by the masses. She arrived at the miserable little excuse for a proper educational facility with all of the grandeur allowed by the horrific flying wagons once again, and proceeded to her room where she did her best to recover from the experience. It had not improved over the years, and she had yet to find a way to make the trip tolerable.

At the appropriate time, Nausicaa made her way to the Cascade Hall for the traditional opening feast. She had taken special care this year to look a bit extra nice as she would be standing in front of everyone, and it would be a shame for the all of the people to miss out on seeing what a proper, civilized person looked like. Thus far in her time at this 'school' she had yet to gain the proper following which she had considered essential and inevitable. She just hadn't taken into consideration just how far she had been from proper society. That was something she was trying to account for now in her plans. She needed to act this year perhaps, she did not have the network nor influence she would prefer and as such she would need to use a different tactic than her original plan.

Nausicaa sat at the table belonging to the house into which she had been put. There she greeted others in the same house cordially enough while she waited for the headmaster to begin. As usual she paid a minor amount of interest to the new students. Her hopes for them being useful were slim to none. Then came the part she was waiting for, right after the head students were done. That would be relevant later, not yet. She stood while the headmaster was still working his way through her name and strode to the front.

This was part of her plan, it just didn't have as big of an impact as she would have liked without a fair sized group of followers. Still it was something of a win and she would take it. At least she had been recognized and appointed properly, not that she had had any competition. The biggest thing Olaf had going for him was nepotism. After basking for just a moment in the accolades, she returned to her seat and waited for the rest of the evening to be over. Mr. Carson gave her a nod as they found their seats, and she returned it with a small smile and tilt of her head in acknowledgement.

The headmaster finished his 'speech' and she thanked all the powers that be that they only sang once a year. Nobody in this school knew how to do it properly, and no one seemed to care. The noise was atrocious and she was forced to do her best to sing along to maintain her image. Thankfully it was quickly over for another year.

Nausicaa's eyes perused the food as it appeared to see if there was anything up to her standards. There wasn't and she wasn't surprised. There hadn't been yet and she had given up hope of anything even close a long time ago. Still there were a few things that looked almost decent, and she had to content herself with those. After serving herself like a commoner, she ate a few bites before being social.

"Do you think the Concert will be a proper concert this year?" She asked one of the Aladrens nearby. The last one had been more of a convoluted talent show that mostly lacked talent.

2 Nausicaa Scapetello Not surprised 1561 0 5

Yale Adams

May 24, 2024 9:18 PM

So I'm a mage, huh? by Yale Adams

The first inkling Yale had that magic was real was when he was in second grade, and he'd forgotten his lunch. He knew he'd forgotten his lunch. He could remember seeing it sitting on the kitchen counter and he hadn't ever gone back in to get it after putting on his backpack. He hadn't had it on the bus. It hadn't been in his way when he took out his homework folder. But it had been lunch time and he was hungry, and he didn't like what the cafeteria was serving, and he wished really hard that it had been in his backpack this whole time, and he opened it up, and there it was.

If it had been an isolated incident he might have written it off as Mom putting it in his backpack and he just hadn't noticed it earlier. But it wasn't an isolated incident. It wasn't a common incident either, though, so each time he was able to explain it away to some degree. It wasn't until the wizard turned up at his door and tried to tell them that Yale was a born magic user and there was a school in Arizona that he was invited to attend, to learn how to use that skill, that it really occurred to him just how weird all those individual strange events really were.

The hard part had been convincing mom and dad it was a real thing, but with the muggle liaison guy's help, they did eventually come around and accept the preponderance of evidence. Then the guy needed to promise Yale could still go to Yale University (his parents' alma mater, and the source of his name because they had it in their heads that he was guaranteed a spot there, between two alumni parents and being named for the school, assuming he didn't tank his high school grades) and that he could get all the prerequisites he needed to do well there, even at a no-name school with no academic acclaim in their circles. Apparently, Yale would need to take some electives to get all the requirements in for a muggle high school degree, but it could be done, and he promised to do that if he could just go to the magic school.

He'd never been much of a fantasy reader. He preferred Hardy Boys to Narnia, and he was worried about what the guy said about his Switch not working when surrounded by too much magic, but he couldn't imagine turning down this opportunity. Not least because it put most of the country between him and Yale Freaking University and he didn't need to live under its shadow anymore like he had for his entire life in Connecticut. Because maybe, just maybe, it meant he discover his calling and could go into some kind of magical career or field of study that Yale didn't teach and maybe he wouldn't ever have to go back.

If he was lucky. If he could plan it right. If he could come up with the right arguments and evidence for why that course was a far better one for him. He had seven years. He was sure he could do it.

And now he was here. He was no stranger to fancy private schools, but the ones he'd attended before hadn't been boarding schools, and they certainly hadn't started with a flying wagon ride. He hadn't thought anything was bumpier than riding a school bus, and he certainly wouldn't have pegged something that didn't even use roads with potholes or speed bumps on them as a likely contender, but he was wrong. Looking like a covered wagon, and lacking the aerodynamics of normal flying vehicles, it was evidently at the mercy of every stray air current, and it bumped not just up and down but left and right and even forward and back as capricious tail winds and head winds changed their acceleration at random rates.

He was very glad to touch down onto solid ground again. He listened to the professor man tell them about the school for their orientation, and then mingled with the other new students before going on a tour of the school, grasping a green folder with important information in it, and a blank badge that would somehow be used to determine which of the Houses the school was divided into that he belonged in.

The Cascade Hall was probably the most impressive room he'd ever seen, and he'd seen some pretty impressive rooms before. As an Adams he was often among the first people called for things, so he didn't have to wait long to reveal that his badge was secretly blue and he was going to Aladren. He headed over to the table the loudest clapping was coming from and found a few empty chairs together and took one of them, hoping he'd get to sit with some of the other first years so they could network and figure out together how they were going to navigate this place.

More badges were handed out after all the color changing ones had their colors revealed. The headmaster mentioned a concert which was fine. He'd taken band since fourth grade and while he wouldn't say he was a great musician, he knew his way around a trumpet well enough to not embarrass himself if he needed to participate in that. He hadn't been told Band was an offered course here though, so he hadn't thought to bring it with him, so he might need to have Mom and Dad Fed Ex it to him.

Did Fed Ex even come to the middle of the Sonora Dessert to a secret magic school? Probably not. He'd have to ask a teacher about how to get packages delivered.

He startled as a lyrics sheet magically appeared right in front of him and everyone started singing. He hadn't taken chorus, though, so he just mumbled along and pretended like he was participating. The sheet disappeared as suddenly as it had come and equally fast the tables were full of food.

"Whoa," he said, staring more than a little wide eyed at the heavily laden table that had been empty except for their place settings a moment ago. "Where'd all that come from?"

1 Yale Adams So I'm a mage, huh? 1594 0 5

Zeus Brooding-Hawthorne-Smith

May 24, 2024 10:09 PM

Third year means intermediates!! by Zeus Brooding-Hawthorne-Smith

Zeus was not the subject of the older boy's question, but he was close enough to hear it and it made his stomach churn. He hadn't even thought about the fact that CATS were the next milestone in his future as he transitioned to intermediate levels, and taking classes with students as stressed out as Xarryn was bound to be seemed stressful just by proximity.

He'd kept his head low so far at Sonora, not really making friends or doing much of anything. He supposed that was the unfortunate side effect of having largely grown up at the school: some of the novelty that propelled his classmates into friendships wasn't active for him. He'd be naive to assume that was all it was, though. He'd gotten himself well in control of his powers but he couldn't turn his face off, and he always felt a little fire in his skin when he was especially upset.

He stabbed at a piece of steamed broccoli, a bit disgusted that it had somehow ended up on his plate when he'd been lost in thought, and tried to focus on his classmates' conversation rather than his own sad meal. Perhaps dumping gravy over the top would help...? He tried to avoid glancing towards the headmistress as Professor Skies was the most likely to notice him misbehaving and hiding a piece of uneaten broccoli under the leftover bone of a chicken drumstick was sure to count as misbehaving.

22 Zeus Brooding-Hawthorne-Smith Third year means intermediates!! 1576 0 5

Grim Noir

May 25, 2024 12:30 AM

This will do by Grim Noir

Grim had tried and failed to stay awake all day, a transition that had been made difficult by lack of support at home. They'd napped twice so far and were ready to head to bed, although they were frustrated at the prospect of missing out on the stargazing opportunities that nighttime granted. Soon they'd have classes to attend and those were entirely daytime activities. Grim thought that was wildly unfair but here it was, dinner time when it should be breakfast and classes would begin well after bedtime.

They looked around at the various offerings, bemused by all the options in front of them. They'd never seen most of the options present and it was difficult to know which things they'd want to try. It didn't help that the room seemed to be entirely full of hot air and an overwhelming mix of food smells. It made their stomach churn uncomfortably, so they merely chose the closest, least offensive item, and put a small portion on their plate. They hissed uncomfortably when their first bite gave away the distinct flavor of garlic; it didn't hurt Grim of course but they only knew the odor as a foul one and certainly had never eaten it.

The portion of food was swiftly dumped off onto the floor and kicked under the table, and a safer looking choice - a wiggly red jello bowl - caught their eye further down as they looked back up.

"Give me that one," they said, pointing at it without looking at anyone who might be able to answer their request. Realizing that, furrowed their brow, nervous about what etiquette bit they were missing here, and turned to the person next to them.

"I want jello," they said, their voice raspy from disuse.

22 Grim Noir This will do 1599 0 5

Araminta Fairthorne

May 25, 2024 3:24 AM

Is it because I quit ballet? by Araminta Fairthorne

There was a lot Araminta wasn't sure about as she climbed off the flying wagon and followed the other first years. Some were big things, like how homesick she might be. The most immediate concern was what she wanted to be known as. She'd often been 'Minty' for short at home but her little sister was Mae and she wasn't sure she liked matching initials. The next question that was foremost on her mind was which house she'd be in. No one single option stood out... They all sounded a bit like her in some ways but not at all in others. Grandma said they were all good in their own way, but surely she'd be proudest and happiest if Araminta ended up in her own house, or in Aladren which Grandma had often cited as the closest parallel to her own house, Sal Salis, back when she herself had been a student absolutely forever ago.

The orientation session was surprisingly interesting. Even though she had grown up hearing about the school, that wasn't the same as knowing the rules she was meant to abide by or knowing her way around. She'd seen relatively little of the school, and of Grandma during the times she was working here. It would be interesting to change that, although a little strange that their first at-school interaction would be in front of a whole hall full of people.

Araminta passed the time until then in pleasant chit chat with her yearmates (deciding for now to introduce herself with her full name, figuring that would be easier to change later if she decided she did prefer her nickname) then made her way into the hall.

She didn't mind going up in front of everyone, having never minded volunteering for speaking parts in class assemblies, though it was a little unnerving given how much older than her some of the people were, and that rather than giving a well-rehearsed speech, she would be revealing her core personality features. Okay, perhaps she and the butterflies in her tummy minded just a bit...

Still, she tried to keep her head up as she went and dipped her badge. Her core personality was... brown. Pecari.

Her eyes widened in surprise, and she glanced at grandma, trying to check whether she seemed disappointed, but she was smiling the same friendly, professional smile that she had for everyone. Perhaps a little more genuinely in Araminta's case. Araminta did her best to smile back and to keep smiling as she went to meet her new housemates, wondering whether it was her stack of half finished projects (personal ones, not school) and frequently changing hobbies that had landed her here.

She applauded the prefects, their names unfamiliar even if she'd heard stories about them, as grandma always tended to say 'a student' rather than name names.

When the food appeared, she helped herself to a creamy pasta dish and turned to smile at her neighbour.

"Hi. I'm Araminta. Nice to meet you."

13 Araminta Fairthorne Is it because I quit ballet? 1596 0 5

Lyla Holland

May 25, 2024 5:17 AM

This will not do by Lyla Holland

Lyla’s summer had been fine. Her mom had decided that the Hollands- sans Dad, who was off on some mission somewhere he wasn’t allowed to talk about- would stay with Kerri’s family in Monterey over the summer “to make up for lost time,” or whatever. Lyla had managed a couple of trips to the TARDIS Bookshop again, browsing for ideas for the book club that she was definitely going to advertise and host this year. She sent another tome to Olaf each time she went, with short notes- the shorter, the better, she’d found when it came to Olaf- asking for his thoughts.

In between shopping trips, Kerri had started to teach her how to surf. Lyla was glad she knew how to swim, because her feet went up over her head almost every time. By the end of summer, she felt like she was half seawater she’d swallowed, half sunburnt, and half dumb little pebbles in her shoe because the private beach the Stonehursts apparently owned were rocky instead of sandy. It came out to one and a half, but Lyla felt strongly that none of those things could be assigned a smaller percentage.

Her fifteenth birthday kind of sucked. It wasn’t like she was able to host a party at not-her-house and her friends were scattered across the States, anyway. That was the downside of Sonora; friendships were geographically inconvenient. You had to either arrange for a portkey or get someone to side-along apparate you, or travel the Muggle way, on a plane or in a car, and Lyla had a feeling that Samara would Not Be Allowed to do anything the Muggle way. In an effort to not feel sorry for herself, she wrote ridiculously frilly letters to her friends and made her mom enchant them to spew glitter, like a reverse birthday card. Ever a Pecari, Wendy had wanted to use real glitter, but Lyla was slightly more responsible and insisted on stuff that would disappear after a few minutes. She didn’t want Olaf to murder her over a faceful of permanent glitter, as funny as it would be to see. Even so, the enchantment would likely put him in a mood, so she put a tiny apology in his letter and hoped for the best.

The Hollands, sans Dad, who was still gone, had arrived home to Colorado the day before the wagon ride. Lyla felt as red as a lobster, though she had started getting the hang of surfing in the last week or two. She didn’t have time to make the traditional roommate cookies before she left, but she made her mother promise to send her some as soon as possible.

She was glad to see Samara and Robyn, squeezing her best friends into a group hug before going to sit at the Crotalus table. A twinge of fear coursed through her as she realized that this was her fifth year. Robyn was going to be a prefect, but only one of the Crotali would be. Lyla had been so mindful of keeping all three of them included, and here one of them was going to be excluded whether they liked it or not. Robyn was already left out a lot, since she was in a different House. It was fair that she was part of the prefect pair since she wasn’t allowed to be a roommate (though Lyla would move her in in a heartbeat!). On the other hand, Robyn and Lyla had connected from day one, bonding over cookies at Orientation. Lyla was the center of the friend group, the glue in between, and although she knew Samara and Robyn were friends, they were friends because of her. She’d rather exclude herself than either of them. It took mere moments for her to decide that Samara should get the position. She probably had, anyway, if the faculty knew Mrs. Crosby at all.

Lyla applauded the new students, just like every year. The Head students were announced-two boys, of course, but neither were objectionable, so Lyla let it go, only rolling her eyes on the inside. She preemptively nudged Samara’s foot underneath the table, giving a congratulatory grin as the headmaster began calling out the prefects. She didn’t hear Samara’s name, though. That was weird. Lyla blinked. Lyla Holland…that was…her? She rose, head swimming, at the urging of her housemates. The roaring in her ears drowned out the clamor of Cascade Hall as she received her pin and sat back down. This wasn’t right. It was supposed to be Samara. Someone wrote it down wrong, or Headmaster Brockert needed new eyeglasses or something. He was quite old. Lyla would put it right later, talk to Professor Skies and get it switched over. Samara might not get the big Opening Feast announcement and applause, but she’d get that badge!

Lyla’s reverie was broken by a hoarse demand for Jello. A first-year, pale as death and somehow less lively. Grim, the fitting name echoed through Lyla’s recent memory, a hand pointing to the jiggly stuff just out of reach.

“Oh,” she said, “Would you like me to pass you the Jello? Here you go.”

She supposed that she ought to at least make herself helpful to the first years until the badge shone on Samara’s chest instead of hers. She would feel guilty if their first impression of a prefect was somebody who didn’t care. Feeling rather put out but putting on a brave face, she opted to be friendly, as well.

“Where are you from? I’m from Colorado, but I’ve been all over.”

64 Lyla Holland This will not do 1559 0 5

Lysandra (Lyra) Dreseller

May 25, 2024 10:20 AM

That just means you can try something new! by Lysandra (Lyra) Dreseller

Lyra stepped into Cascade Hall, her eyes widening as she took in the splendor around her. The waterfalls cascading down the walls created a mesmerising backdrop and the air was filled with the gentle, soothing sound of flowing water, punctuated by the occasional murmur of awe from new students. Crystal chandeliers hung from the high ceiling, casting a warm, inviting light that danced off the water.

Her heart raced with excitement and anticipation as she made her way forward, her footsteps echoing in the grand space. Despite the grandeur of the hall, Lyra felt a surge of confidence. This was the beginning of her journey at Sonora Academy, and she was ready to embrace every challenge and adventure that came her way. The hall was filled with students, each one generally seeming to buzz with nervous energy, but Lyra stood tall, her head held high and her eyes gleaming with determination.

When her name was called, Lyra strode up to the Sorting Potion with a confident smile. She took a deep breath, her fingers gripping her badge tightly. Without hesitation, she dunked her badge into the potion, watching as the liquid shimmered and swirled around it. Then, the badge turned brown and she felt a rush of pride as the brown hue confirmed her place in Pecari, despite knowing little about the house. With a confident grin, Lyra walked over to the Pecari House table, spotting a spare seat near the middle and she plonked herself down with a satisfied sigh.

Lyra watched with idle curiosity as the Head Students and Prefects were announced, the older students going up to receive their special badges, their faces a mix of pride and seriousness. They left an impression of responsibility and discipline that didn't particularly interest her. The concert sounded appealing though and Lyra thought that could be fun. Of course, that would be dependent on the details that were to be revealed at some undisclosed time. That was annoying. Lyra wanted to know more about that now.

The school song was of little interest and as soon as she glanced at the lyric sheet someone handed her, she tossed it aside. Hopefully, this wasn't an indication of what sort of music the concert would have.

Once the song was over, a hungry gurgle from her stomach reminded her that it had been a long day. Distracted from her thoughts, she glanced around the table at the array of dishes laid out before her. Her eyes lit up as she spotted a platter of roasted chicken, its skin golden and crispy. She reached for a piece, the savoury aroma making her mouth water. Beside it, a bowl of buttery mashed potatoes called to her, and she scooped a generous helping onto her plate. She dug in eagerly, savouring the rich, comforting flavors. As she ate, her eyes continued to wander around the hall, taking in the sights and sounds of her new home.

Lyra's attention snapped from her surroundings as the student sitting next to her spoke up and she turned slight to face her. Araminta had a friendly smile. Lyra quickly swallowed a mouthful of mashed potatoes and grinned. "Hey, I'm Lyra," she replied, still chewing a bit. "Nice to meet you too."

She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and added, "Sorry, I was just really hungry. This place is amazing, isn't it?"

20 Lysandra (Lyra) Dreseller That just means you can try something new! 1600 0 5

Fortune Ardovini

May 26, 2024 8:53 AM

Sixth Year means Advanced I guess by Fortune Ardovini

Fortune was one of the 'Advanced' students now. He was both pleased and excited by that fact, and also a bit nervous. Not that he'd admit that to anyone. It would all be fine, he'd done fine on his CATS and he assumed the professors had adequately prepared him for the boost in 'academic expectation'. He was pretty sure that was the correct term to use for it. So, overall he was sure things would be fine. Plus, as per the plan they'd worked out last year, he'd hand the Dueling club reigns completely over to Xarryn so that he could work on Gaming (and Quidditch), while Phil got to study and help out where he could. So he wasn't overly concerned in that area. He was going to need to flesh out the game idea he'd though about over the summer, but hadn't actually work on nearly as much as he should have fairly soon though.

The opening feast went as expected, the biggest surprise wasn't really one. He would not have pegged Xarryn as 'prefect material', but there weren't a lot of options. Fortune was fully confident that his friend would do fine, it was really more of a social thing than anything else, and he'd be great at it. Fortune smiled as Xarryn high-fived Phil on the way back to his seat.

The food appeared and Xarryn turned to him almost immediately with a question that Fortune hadn't ever really considered himself. "Hmmm..." He thought about it for a moment, "I dunno. Maybe you'd retake your fifth year again? I wouldn't worry about it though, the professors know what they are doing." He had picked up on the worry in Xarryn's voice, and he had to admit that it might not be completely unfounded. "You can check in with Professor Carter-Xavier and see what she says, I can help you study as well if you want." He gave his friend a reassuring smile, shrugged his shoulders, then moved on to what he considered more important matters. He hoped that might distract the boy from his worries.

"Are you ready to take over Dueling club? You did great as a deputy last year. I've gotta figure out my gaming stuff before the first meeting." Another thought struck him at the moment, that might help Xarryn forget about his worries. "I was thinking about doing a 'high-seas' campaign, and might need an expert to consult with," Fortune gave the boy a friendly, knowing smirk, "Know anyone like that?"

"We've also got Qudditch to think about as well," Quidditch was never far from his mind. "It'd be neat to get two full teams so we could play real practice games here." It was at that moment that he spotted Zeus nearby poking at some broccoli on his plate. He'd been pretty quiet so far as a student, maybe he just needed an invitation. "Zeus," He called over to the boy with a smile, "Have you thought about trying out for the Qudditch team? We can always use more players. Or the gaming club? You don't really have to try-out for that one though, you can just show up and join in."

2 Fortune Ardovini Sixth Year means Advanced I guess 1549 0 5

Cole Pierce

May 26, 2024 11:35 AM

I guess we've become advanced now, huh? [tag 6th year Tepps] by Cole Pierce

Cole arrived at the Cascade Hall for the Opening Feast of his sixth year with a fresh haircut, new robes (he'd outgrown all the ones he'd had last year, having sprouted up nearly four inches since this time last year), and the recipient of nearly all Es on his CATS exams, plus an O in Potions. Mom and Dad had both been quite proud.

He'd opted to drop Transfiguration and Herbology, neither of which he had particularly enjoyed, though he'd done alright on the tests, but kept everything else, including Astronomy, which he'd been on the fence about, but he liked the late night classes and looking up into the skies. It was very calming somehow, and it reassured him that the same stars he was looking up at, his family in Boston might also be looking at. That left him with five classes at RATS level, which seemed high, but he'd give it a go, and he could always drop classes easier than get them back.

The one thing he regretted was that, upon a comparison of their schedules with Lenny, they discovered the only class they'd both kept was Charms, but he guessed he saw plenty of his ersatz brother the rest of the day that they didn't need to have synchronized classes as well.

Taking a seat at Teppenpaw, he smiled at his friends, and asked after their summers, and told them about a few events in his own until the first years arrived and the sorting ceremony began. He applauded for Robyn when she was made the new Teppenpaw prefect, and Christopher for making Head Student, and then joined into the singing of the school song.

As he filed his plate with food he addressed the most pressing topic on his mind after chatting in their room with Lenny, "So who's keeping what classes this year? Between us, I think Lenny and I have all of them covered, but we've only got Charms together."

1 Cole Pierce I guess we've become advanced now, huh? [tag 6th year Tepps] 1546 0 5

Ramona Thompson

May 26, 2024 9:18 PM

Second time's the charm. by Ramona Thompson

First year had come and gone in a generally uneventful manner. Petey had been mostly successful at keeping Ramona out of trouble, which in her opinion usually meant he wouldn’t let her go exploring random corridors or gardens and making sure their downtime between classes was boring and uneventful. Mona could tell that her brother was pretty stressed out most of the year - he was less flexible than she was, so adapting to their new lives was trickier for him - and so she decided to play nicely and let him have his way.

It was odd this time around not having much required of her until the Feast. Having the orientation tour and then Sorting ceremony made for a good time-fill last time around. It was ironic in a weird way, because the whole first year thing was the exception and all these other years would be the same, but since that was the only year she had done so far, the “normal” routine felt abnormal to her.

Petey wanted to get to his room and start unpacking before the Opening Feast, so Mona decided to do the same. Unlike her brother, she had no roommates, so the room was all hers. That had taken some adjustment last year, too; she and her brother didn’t have to share at home, but if she woke up in the night or got lonely, she would often wander down the hallway and initiate a sleepover. Here, she didn’t even know where his bedroom was.

Mona brought some decorations this year, so she got about half of them hung before it was time to head down. She found an open seat at the Pecari table, and as the first years became visible, she couldn’t help but stare, hoping to see some girls come over and join them. Pecari didn’t have a lot of girls close to her age, so she was optimistic for the opportunity to make some new friends. To her excitement, she noticed a couple join them after Sorting, although they didn’t sit close enough for her to greet them upon arrival.

From there, the rigamarole was pretty much the same as last year, with the exception of the Midsummer event being different. “A concert could be cool,” she commented to her neighbor. “Do you know what they usually do for that? Like, does a band come in and play or something?”

12 Ramona Thompson Second time's the charm. 1587 0 5

Petey Thompson

May 26, 2024 9:34 PM

Second verse, same as the first(?) by Petey Thompson

There was something a little relieving about coming back for second year, Petey thought. Now he had the lay of the land and felt more at home in Sonora’s many halls. He hated that feeling of being the new kid, unsure and nervous. And usually, if they started at a new school, he was a grade above his sister so he could get things figured out for her before she got there, but because of the Sonora cutoff date, they were in the same grade here and had to figure it out together.

But now they were second years: not “upperclassmen” by any sense of the word, but at least senior enough for their Beginners level classes to get the harder assignments, or able to feel experienced enough to be of help to their peers. That was always something Petey enjoyed. If he couldn’t help his sister necessarily - although he did still often help her with her homework - then he could at least now help some other younger kids maybe. If they would let him.

It was hard to leave Grandma alone, though. Last year had been hard too, but the time away made it even harder to leave the next time. There were long gaps between when the kids were home, and Petey could see now the way his grandmother continued to age while they were gone. The kids were aging too, which he realized when none of the pants he had left at home fit anymore. He felt bad asking Grandma to buy him new pants, but his old ones fit Ramona okay now, so it lessened the financial blow at least a bit not having to buy new clothes for both kids.

He tried to push all of those thoughts from his mind now, though. Grandma told him that when he was at school, his job was just to worry about school. Of course, he also still had to worry about Ramona, but that was implied. Grandma meant at least that he should try not to worry too much about her. Petey did his best to do so, although the speech Headmaster Brockert gave wasn’t especially stirring. With a few feasts under his belt now, he was beginning to suspect that was just how the man was: terse.

The food appeared immediately thereafter, and Petey began to help himself. “Excuse me,” he said to a neighbor while in the process of loading his plate. “Can you pass me that when you’re done with it?”

12 Petey Thompson Second verse, same as the first(?) 1585 0 5

Violet Calhoun

May 26, 2024 9:44 PM

Something like that. by Violet Calhoun

Something very big and wild had happened in the last year, something Dad didn’t seem very pleased about but had absolutely no power to prevent: Violet had become a teenager. In a lot of ways, Violet had always had teen energy - she was stubborn and sarcastic, and in many ways she took pride in being generally uncooperative. But according to Dad, thirteen year olds were even worse than twelve year olds, so Violet went ahead and leaned into that. If it was a teen he dreaded, it was a teen he would get.

Not to say that Violet didn’t love her father. She’d been in his custody for most of her life now, ever since her mom died. That was probably why Dad was so worried about her teen years. Being a developing young lady without a mom wasn’t easy, because Dad sure as hell wasn’t prepared to have a talk about her first period, but she did at least have Aunt Desiree to help. Her aunt had lived with them almost as long as she’d been with Dad, so while it wasn’t a mom, it was… something, she guessed.

Anyway she was back at school now, so Dad and Aunt Desiree were no longer immediately present concerns. She had noticed a new first year take a seat near by her during the Sorting, and as the usual music appeared and disappeared, he seemed surprised. A muggleborn, no doubt. Violet didn’t have anything against Muggleborns, but she did like to know more than other people, so having her magical background to rely on made her feel smart.

He commented in awe as the food appeared, marveling about from whence it came. “From the kitchen, I imagine,” Violet answered, even though it was probably redundant. “The prairie elves made it and then sent it to the tables. With magic.” She twinkled her fingers as she said the word magic. “Welcome to Sonora, kid,” she added, although her tone made it feel almost more like a challenge than a greeting.

12 Violet Calhoun Something like that. 1575 0 5

Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher

May 26, 2024 9:57 PM

You! by Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher

A lot had changed for Lazlo over the summer. For one thing, he had finished up what was probably his last major growth spurt, and he now stood just over six feet tall. He hadn’t noticed at first, so he was glad his mom made him try on his school clothes with a few weeks of summer to spare. It was then that he realized he could see his exposed ankles.

He had also turned seventeen. That meant in the magical world, he was legally considered an adult. Lazarus didn’t have a lot of reasons to really need to do magic outside of school, but now that he was allowed to, it was kind of fun here and there to try it out. He didn’t want to overdo it and make his Squib little brother feel bad, though, so he kept that to a minimum.

But the Aladren did have an odd predicament in that no one else in his class would be able to relate to the latter of these developments. Laz was only a sixth year, not a seventh year, due to his late start. So unless he were to attach himself to a seventh year, his actual yearmates would not be able to do magic outside of school yet. Maybe those who lived partially in the Muggle world and got their driver’s license could sort of relate, but it wasn’t really the same.

It didn’t occur to him though until he saw Phil Carson going up for a Badge that next year, that could be him. Well, technically, although it was insanely unlikely because Lazarus had negative social presence here. Anyone who knew him probably just knew him as the nonverbal kid with the speech book, so that was probably not really Head Boy material. Whatever, he didn’t really care about that. He just hadn’t realized that final year was so close.

Phil asked him about summer once the “speech” and song were done. Usually, depending on the flow of conversation, Lazlo had to flip through his book to find the phrase or word he wanted, but he knew how these feast events went, so he came ready. “My break was good, how about yours?” The light glinted off Phil’s new badge, so he quickly found and added, ”Congratulations.”

12 Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher You! 1548 0 5

Nicholas Pierce

May 28, 2024 6:30 PM

We might just have a shot. Maybe. by Nicholas Pierce

Nicholas did not know the school song by heart, but after three years, he knew it well enough that he probably could have followed along without taking the time to pull out his gold-rimmed reading glasses, hook them over his ears, and actually read the lyric sheet that appeared in front of him. However, putting his glasses on and taking them off again was something he did so many times a day that he barely thought about it – he’d found them annoying when he’d first been stuck with them when he was nine, but at this point, it was practically a reflex, so that if he saw paper, he automatically reached for his glasses. As a result, he spent the last moments of Headmaster Brockert’s speech opening their case, and the last comment the headmaster had made before telling them it was time for the song didn’t quite register with him until after the song was over and his glasses-case back in his pocket. Once it did, though, he stopped in the middle of reaching for a spoon and glanced at the Crotalus table in an equally automatic attempt to get his brother to either confirm or deny his suspicions:

The Concert...that’s the one they invite the parents to, isn’t it?

When he’d first arrived at Sonora, it had seemed perfectly natural to Nicholas to imagine his parents being here. Some of it could have been a simple lack of imagination on his part – just a side effect of Mom and Dad having almost always been wherever he and Alexander were – but he supposed most of it had been because he’d grown up hearing stories about the school that had made it a little like what he imagined it would be like to walk inside a painting. Now, though, imagining Mom and Dad here just felt...odd, and out of place, and a little alarming, too – if Mom called him a mouse in front of all his friends….

Last year, he’d done a lot of research and prep for Alexander’s proposed chess club, but if he was right about the Concert, then he suspected he had only just gotten a taster of how much time he was going to have to sink into the year-end event this year. If Mom and Dad were going to come, then he and Alexander were going to have to pull off something truly spectacular. If they did, after all, then their social lives might survive the collision between worlds, and…well, he was pretty sure there was nothing, nothing in the world, they could do that would actually impress Mom so much that she would suddenly agree that they were grown up enough to manage their own affairs, but something truly spectacular could only contribute positively to their campaign for her to do so. Plus it was always nice when she and Dad were pleased with something he and Alexander had done, even if they didn’t get much out of it beyond praise. Praise was good, especially from Dad. Though there were other potential benefits. As long as Mom didn’t call him an impudent mouse in public in any language that anyone he knew could speak or read even a little of, or which sounded even vaguely like the English words for that, anyway.

Something spectacular...what are we spectacular at? After a moment of reflection, he amended that to, what are we spectacular at that translates well into a talent show format? Because Alexander’s history, Nicholas’ languages – those things had their uses, but they didn’t lend themselves well to anything visual, at least not in their natural forms. And Nicholas could draw and liked to draw, but even if he translated that onto a much larger scale than he’d ever tried to do before, it just didn’t sound like enough, somehow.

He knew Alexander probably already had the beginnings of a plan going, but while he assumed they would start working on fleshing it out at breakfast tomorrow, he did want to have something in mind himself to throw on the table. For now...well, eating might not give him a flash of brilliant insight, but it couldn’t hurt anything. He served himself and greeted his nearest neighbor, slipping back into the routine of school with hardly any more thought than he’d had to put into taking out his glasses for the school song.

16 Nicholas Pierce We might just have a shot. Maybe. 1565 0 5

Lenny Pierce

May 28, 2024 9:56 PM

We'll get by with a little help from our friends by Lenny Pierce

OOC: Lenny is literally named after John Lennon. Why is this his first Beatles lyric reference in his post titles? BIC:

Lenny had become less concerned about people noticing that he and Cole arrived in different wagons over the course of their Sonora years. Part of that was that he and Cole didn't need outside acknowledgement anymore to know they were brothers in spirit if not in blood. Part of that was because anyone who was going to question their claim of being twins, probably already had, and nobody had ever made a fuss about it to Lenny or Cole directly in the past five years so there was no reason to think anyone would now. Mostly though, Lenny just didn't really think about it much anymore. They were just twins who happened to live on opposite sides of the country during the summer and had different parents. It wasn't a big deal.

So after he got off the wagon, he asked one of the people giving out the House Common password (this seemed to be Crotalus and Pecari, as best as he could tell; he knew Teppenpaw only had the jig that didn't change, and guessed Aladren had something similar since nearly all the Aladrens walked right past the staff and prefects like the Teppenpaws did, unless, like Lenny they had something else to ask) whether the East Coast wagon had arrived yet. It hadn't so he loitered around until it did and then he and Cole walked up to their room together, catching up on their summers in a way letters never quite seemed able to do.

As they set up their room for the year ahead, putting up decorations (Cole had a few photographs he put up, but mostly the job of making the room sparkle was left to Lenny), and putting away their clothes and supplies so they weren't living out of a trunk all year, the topic of CATS and advanced classes came up. Lenny's grades had varied wildly by subject, his best ones in the ones that favored creativity - Divinations (O), Transfigurations (O), and to a lesser extent Charms (E) - and his worst ones in the ones that demanded rigidity and doing things right - Potions (A) and DADA (A). Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures fell in between and were both boosted by his interest in the natural world, so he'd gotten Es on those.

It was a pretty easy choice to drop the two classes he'd only gotten As in, though his potioneer mom had been a little disappointed (not that she said as much, but Lenny could figure it out) that he hadn't done well in, nor had any interest in, her primary subject. There were just too many gross animal bits and the fumes were terrible for his hair and he couldn't wear his best clothes on potions days, so he felt bad, but not bad enough to keep on with the subject.

That left him with five, which was kinda a lot, but the next one he'd probably drop was Divination, just because he didn't really need it, but that was such a fun class, and it was one of his Os, so he couldn't do it.

Cole had decided to keep both Potions (his mom was also a potions master, and Cole seemed to have inherited a lot more of the talent from his mom than Lenny did) and DADA, while dropping the natural world classes, and they'd already had opposing electives, so that left them with basically just Charms together.

Lenny figured this was the best of both worlds. He spent a lot of time with Cole outside of class, being brothers and roommates, and this way if there was anything really interesting in any of the RATS classes, one of them would learn about it, and they could teach the other.

Plus they both had a lot of friends so it was unlikely either of them would be entirely alone at anything either. Cole addressed that as soon as the Feast appeared on their table. Even though he'd already discussed it all with Cole, Piper and Levi hadn't been part of the conversation, so he was quick to chime in with his half of schedule. "I kept Divinations, Transfigurations, Charms, COMC, and Herbology. Cole's got everything else."

1 Lenny Pierce We'll get by with a little help from our friends 1547 0 5

Grim Noir

May 29, 2024 2:36 AM

Yes. It will. by Grim Noir

Grim made a mental note of the older student's phrase correction - pass me the jello would be their go to in future - and accepted the item hungrily, dumping a portion on their plate and taking a bite before realizing they were being spoken to. The student who had passed the jello to them was a prefect, a role Grim only vaguely understood from the orientation information they'd received previously, and clearly several years older than they were, but still chose to speak with them. Of course, everyone in Grim's life up until this point had been older than they were, but the gap was usually closer to half a century than half a decade.

They gazed with wide eyes at their new housemate for a moment, trying to assess the girl. Her hair was the sort of soft, fluffy, shiny stuff Grim had always wanted and fallen far short of. Her flushed skin and pulse beating in her throat naturally drew Grim's notice but she paid them no attention; there was no need for that here. There wasn't honestly that much need for it at home either but they did try to keep up appearances of being helpful.

"Louisiana," Grim replied hoarsley. "French quarter," they added. "Have you... been?"

22 Grim Noir Yes. It will. 1599 0 5

Cecily Welles

May 29, 2024 2:55 PM

Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of having two verses? by Cecily Welles

Summer had flown by in the now-usual fashion, days rushing past so that now, sitting back at the Crotalus table for the first Feast of the year, Cecily thought of it as a series of moments strung together by blurs, like beads on a station necklace separated by lengths of chain. For the most part, the blurs were made up of time with her siblings or at Mass (she didn’t have to go to Mass as much as some in the family did – Mom said that she and her brothers had gone every day in the summer when they were kids, and that Grandmother and John still usually did – but she thought she still spent more than her fair share of time in church over the summers: she did usually get dragged along at least twice a week, whereas her dad didn’t even show up for all the holy days of obligation) and the beads were parties, but she had also been extremely excited when her father had, unexpectedly, allowed her to come to work with him one day. Admittedly, he’d pawned her off on her uncle Joe by lunchtime, but she was fond of Uncle Joe, after all, and it was still the most interest Dad had shown in her in years. In her or her brothers, really - George had been almost pea green, or at least so she imagined, when he’d heard about it – but especially her, now that she spent so much time away from home. The only times she even heard from their father during the school year were in rare postscripts added onto one of Mom’s letters, whereas George and Kenneth did occasionally happen to be awake when he was in the house.

He had made the effort to show up at breakfast today, too, even though it had been a full family breakfast with her grandparents and all of her uncles and she couldn’t remember the last time he’d come to one of those. She had been thrilled to get to see him again before she was packed back off to school, but she was also a little worried; she hoped that this didn’t mean things were going poorly somehow with his work. Him showing up for a few photo shoots at home was one thing, but actually joining in family activities...that wasn’t the kind of thing which would make him Minister for Magic, and that was the goal, of course – what else was there?

For now, though, there wasn’t much Cecily could do about...much of anything, really, but especially not her father’s career. She wished she could make one last occasion of the Opening Feast before she settled into the blur of days full of studying, but Headmaster Brockert had no idea how to make a speech and it was therefore just a fancy dinner, only not really because Cecily did not get to wear an especially pretty dress. At least, she thought, the food was good.

“Sure,” she agreed when her neighbor, a second year, asked if she could pass a dish along. “Here you go. Did you have a good summer?”

16 Cecily Welles Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of having two verses? 1578 0 5

Petey Thompson

May 29, 2024 9:01 PM

Redundancy can have its value. by Petey Thompson

She handed him the dish as requested and then asked him about his summer. “She” being the girl at his table - Cecily something, from the class just above Petey’s - and not Ramona, who was the most common “she” involved in Petey’s life, especially when the pronoun was given without an antecedent. This particular “she” was quite pretty, which was also unlike Mona, who, by nature of being his sister, was intrinsically a butterface (a term which had some additional connotations beyond just an ugly face of which Petey was clearly unaware.)

Petey hadn’t really noticed girls before, but he supposed he was of that age now, as he was days shy of thirteen years old. He probably would’ve started noticing them over the summer had there been any to notice, but he didn’t really get out much. Anytime he had spent outside the house over the summer was catching up with some neighborhood guys over basketball, and most of them were tragically lacking in hot sisters, with the exception of one whose sister was significantly older than them - probably nineteen or so by now - and so Petey hardly regarded her as the same species as himself.

So the fact that there was an actual girl his age who happened to be quite pretty talking to him now… well, this was uncharted territory. Petey swallowed. “Thanks,” he garbled. “Summer was good, thanks,” he answered after a slightly perceptible pause. “Not especially eventful. How about you?” He could only imagine the guys at home seeing him fumble and mocking him later. The second year made a mental note to begin recording all details from here on out. He liked his roommate Wesley well enough, and being Crotali, mockery seemed less likely, so he thought he could safely review this whole incident (which was sure to end in failure) later with him so they could come up with a structured plan of action to later redeem himself.

12 Petey Thompson Redundancy can have its value. 1585 0 5

Alexander Pierce

May 29, 2024 10:51 PM

We have reached the beginning of the middle (tag Ida) by Alexander Pierce

Alexander was now a fourteen year old fourth year. His academics were stellar, and he'd done a lot of studying over the summer, encouraged by his mother, so he felt he was at least a couple of months ahead of where most of his peers would be, which gave him both a head start and a buffer in case he needed to focus on something other than his studies temporarily.

To that end, he had a solid plan for beginning the chess club more formally, including a set of posters to hang up on each House's bulletin board, as well as the Cascade Hall's. Said posters had taken most of the summer to draft, with revisions and feedback from not only his parents and brother, but also his grandparents, his Aunties Ann (Aunt Annette, in particular, had taken a publicity course in college and was in charge of advertising her own businesses so her opinion was especially valued), and some of his cousins as well (not that he had any in the target demographic, but if you averaged Isabelle with Winston, you'd get a sixth year). He'd also sent copies to Quillan, Desmond, and Ida to elicit their opinions, until he finally had a product he felt confident would go over very well.

(Somewhat distressingly, his poster may have worked a little too well and now Isabelle wanted to play 'the horsie game!' all the time and she was terrible at it and made up her own rules and she got mad when he tried to teach her the right way to do it and her lying cheating chess set preferred her instructions to the proper gameplay and told her she was right and Alexander was wrong, which just made everything worse. On top of that, father tried to tell him that you couldn't reason with a five year old, and Alexander was still trying to figure out how the Anns survived living with a creature who had the power of speech but couldn't yet grasp logic. Orion was a small barbarian of rage and giggles who could barely string three words together, so Alexander could see the two year old was obviously beyond reason, like a tornado or a destructive pet, but Isabelle otherwise seemed mostly human and intelligent.)

Additionally, there would be a concert this year, but he probably wouldn't need to worry about that until later in the year. If it was anything like the last Fair, they wouldn't get any details until after the Returning Feast in January, and the concert had just too wide of a range for what might be required of them to put too much energy into it yet.

Of more immediate extra-curricular interest, there was Ida. Fourteen was a reasonable age to begin dating from what he understood, at least for the simple courtship rituals. So he made sure to find a seat next to her at the Opening Feast, and was well turned out, having showered and changed into fresh robes and clothing after the wagon ride, and when the song was over he smiled at her and asked her attentively, "Is there anything you'd like me to pass to you, Miss Ida?"

1 Alexander Pierce We have reached the beginning of the middle (tag Ida) 1566 0 5

Xarryn Bavol

May 30, 2024 9:53 PM

Now that that's out of the way ... extracurricular pitches! by Xarryn Bavol

Xarryn made a face at Fortune's suggestion that he didn't need to worry about it, but checking in with Professor Carter-Xavier did sound like a good starting point anyway. "Yeah, thanks," he said to Fortune's offer to help him study, though - other than some of the more complex theory stuff- it was actually reading the questions and doing the potions that he was most worried about. Still, any help would probably be beneficials, and he appreciated the offer. And maybe Fortune could even explain the theories so they made a little more sense.

Then Fortune did the best thing he could have possibly done and changed the subject. Xarryn grinned in relief and excitement as his mind moved to the Dueling Club. "Absolutely!" he confirmed, suddenly cheerful.

He perked up even more at the idea of a high seas campaign. His characters always had a sailor background (even the superhero) but it very rarely came into the foreground of the adventure. "I might," he grinned in answer when Fortune asked if he knew any experts on the topic. "That sounds awesome!"

Fortune then started trying to recruit one of the Housemates to Quidditch and/or the gaming club. "Or Dueling!" Xarryn added on, as that was now his club to run. "Mostly with wands, but I'm willing to branch it into swords, too, if there's interest! No try outs for that either, and if you just want to come sometimes, that's fine, too. Lots of people are just casual members for that. But even for Quidditch, I wouldn't stress out about try-outs. Worst that can happen is that you get put on the reserve team to brush up your skills so you can maybe make the first string next time. Or even if you don't like the pressure of a competitive game, you can still be a part of the team! One of the seventh years who just graduated wanted to just do the practices, and that helps us all out too because then we can have practice games with full teams if we get enough people."

1 Xarryn Bavol Now that that's out of the way ... extracurricular pitches! 1560 0 5

Araminta Fairthorne

May 31, 2024 9:55 PM

Exactly! by Araminta Fairthorne

“No need to apologise, me too,” Araminta said, indicating her own pile of pasta. She took a forkful. “I’m pretty sure the main point of a feast is eating,” she added, once she’d swallowed.

This girl was going to be her roommate. That was exciting. Sonora was a small school, so a roommate wasn’t guaranteed, but it was such a key part of the boarding school experience, and Araminta felt lucky to have one. She hoped they’d get on. People sometimes seemed to find her a bit much, but she wasn’t ever sure what she was doing to get that response.

She managed not to say ‘thank you’ when the girl complimented Sonora. She didn’t personally have a real connection with it yet, but she did feel like it reflected well on Grandma when people liked the school. Though maybe the girl just meant the waterfalls and fancy things they’d seen so far, which were to do with even older people.

“It is!” she agreed about the school being amazing. “I can’t wait to explore properly and discover all its secrets. And the MARS rooms look so much fun. I heard the water one can change into some really amazing places, like beaches and stuff! So even though we’re here, we can go to all these different places. We could plan a trip somewhere with the whole yeargroup!”

13 Araminta Fairthorne Exactly! 1596 0 5

Lyla Holland

June 01, 2024 11:53 PM

I suppose you're right by Lyla Holland

The newly inducted Crotalus next to her seemed…odd? Like they weren’t used to speaking. One awkward pause later, Lyla learned her dinner companion was from Louisiana. New Orleans, down on the south side of the state. She shook her head at the question attached.

“We were stationed at Barksdale, in Bossier Parish, when I was seven- but that’s more north. We were going to take a road trip to New Orleans that summer, but we got PCS’ed…I mean, we had to move before it happened,” she clarified, remembering that civvies didn’t speak in acronyms. She stifled a sigh. It sometimes seemed that the military had an overly complicated acronym for everything. TDY-Temporary Duty (which didn’t even make sense as an acronym because there was no “Y” word) and PCS- Permanent Change of Station- were the two that made Lyla’s stomach sink when she heard them. They meant either Dad was leaving or she needed to start saying goodbye to whatever friends she’d managed to scrape together since the last move. That was one advantage of Sonora. Sure, your friends were scattered during the summer, but for nine glorious months of the year you got to see them every day for seven whole years.

“What sort of things do you like to do in the French Quarter?” Lyla asked, hoping to cover up her wistfulness with false cheerfulness. She didn’t need to dump her emotional trauma about moving all the time on a little first year. First years really were getting smaller every year. Reluctantly, Lyla thought that maybe she had grown taller this summer, like her mother had proclaimed loudly one morning. Lyla had been more preoccupied with her shirts growing tighter around her chest than her legs sprouting up beneath her. She felt a bit gangly sitting next to Grim. Reaching for a dinner roll, she used the movement to slouch a little to lessen the height gap.

64 Lyla Holland I suppose you're right 1559 0 5

Donovan Peters

June 02, 2024 12:47 AM

Hopefully I won't be saying that about CATS by Donovan Peters

Donovan’s summer had been interesting. He’d grown again, prompting his mom to order robes a size too long so she could let them out when he came home over winter break. This new height, coupled with his baby fat finally starting to convert to muscle after a couple years of Quidditch practice, had offered some…weird attention from people. Mainly girls. All girls. Jilly Anderson- who now wanted to be referred to as “Just Jill, because Jilly is for babies”- had even made cookies and walked them over to the Peters’ farm. Donovan hadn’t quite known what to do other than thank her, to her visible disappointment. Jilly was an alright girl, not one of the fraidy-cats like Addie Liesmen (who screamed whenever Donovan picked up a cute little corn snake), and she’d certainly grown nicer-looking while Donovan had been away (or at least he’d grown more interested in what she looked like), but what was he supposed to do while he was at school? It’s not like Jilly could tag along. The whole thing seemed completely impractical- which, not being something that Donovan normally thought of, said a lot for the impracticality. He'd ended up offering to take her through the barn to meet his favorite cows. Jilly declined.

One uneventful wagon ride later (Leo no longer threw up on the wagon, so Donovan no longer played nursemaid) he tapped his foot impatiently through the announcements. Misty would likely get Prefect next year, not that Donovan minded at all. She could have it. As much as he liked helping out the younger students, they had CATS next year, and Donovan knew he would be studying, whether of his own volition or because Leo dragged him into it. Donovan wasn’t great at quill-and-parchment tests, so he hoped there would be a large portion of practical testing. Otherwise, he’d probably end up retaking fifth year.

Donovan’s stomach rumbled for the umpteenth time as the school song ended, and he immediately began filling his plate with some of everything within reach. Before he could take a single glorious bite, his neighbor asked him about the Concert. Eating had recently overtaken talking as a favorite activity, but Donovan supposed it would be rude to take a bite now.
“This’ll be my first concert,” Donovan answered, stabbing peas methodically onto the tines of his fork, “I only get to be here for one, since all the events are on a four-year rotation. Unless I fail a grade, I guess. If it’s anything like the fair, it’ll be student led.”

OOC: Leo's wagon sickness clearing up confirmed by his author...me.

64 Donovan Peters Hopefully I won't be saying that about CATS 1569 0 5

Cecily Welles

June 02, 2024 12:50 PM

But it can also be taken too far. by Cecily Welles

Cecily was not exactly surprised to hear that her neighbor’s summer had been uneventful. She supposed most people’s entire lives were uneventful, as a rule, and she thought her House especially attracted people with uneventful lives. Which did make her worry a little about being in it sometimes, because she wasn’t supposed to have an uneventful life. Even if she’d had some other father, one who wasn’t going to be Minister someday, she would have, after all, still been an Umland on her mother’s side, and her mother’s family had style if it had nothing else. The most normal people in the whole family were Uncle Stephen and Aunt Aimee and Uncle Joe, and they were all still at least interesting.

“It was very nice,” she said. “And mostly just like my first summer off from school, though this year, Mom let me help her plan a few of the dinner parties we had, and I got to go to more of them than before.” This was said with a hint of satisfaction; in her eyes, this was proof that she was finally being taken at least a tiny bit seriously as a person and not viewed so strictly as a baby, since George and Kenneth and her cousins were all still denied such privileges, as a rule. Of course, George and Kenneth were boys, so they would only have so much to do with planning parties even when they were bigger, but it was the principle of the thing, which hinged on not having to go to bed at eight o’clock anymore.

“And I read a lot, of course. I finished fifteen books this summer.” A little pride crept into her voice there. That wasn’t nearly as many books as Grandmother and John and Uncle Paul had finished in the same amount of time – Grandmother read about that many books a month, and her two uncles who read weren’t all that far behind – but it was still more than she had ever finished in such a short time before, and everyone had been pleased with her about it. “I didn’t exactly understand all the theory books one of my uncles gave me for my last birthday - “ she had managed, she suspected, to read so many books because her eyes had sailed over long sections of the books John had given her without taking in more than half the meaning, if that - “but I read them all. That was like six books. But other than that, it was all the usual things. I couldn’t remember why I’d missed my brothers so much after I got home, but I guess I will again this year. Your sister is in ou – was in our class last year, too, wasn’t she?” Cecily was an intermediate now, no longer in the class with the people she still thought of as ‘the first years’ even though they were now second years. “What’s it like, having one of your siblings at school?”

16 Cecily Welles But it can also be taken too far. 1578 0 5

Ramona Thompson

June 03, 2024 8:53 PM

Fingers crossed. by Ramona Thompson

The response to Ramona’s question kind of left her with more questions than answers. She hadn’t realized the rotation schedule of the events, but that did mean that this kid - Donovan something? - hadn’t seen them all yet. She was pretty sure he was only two years older than her, so it wouldn’t be until the conclusion of this year that he had experienced them all.

“Unless I fail a grade, or something.” That was the part that really caught her attention. Mona was pretty nosy at heart, and this struck her with curiosity. She wanted to ask if that was something in danger of happening, because so far, she didn’t think she’d ever heard about anyone getting held back a grade. There was a boy in Aladren she heard was a year older than his classmates, but that was because he started late or something, not because he failed. However, even Ramona, with her curious nature and limited filter, opted not to pry on that front.

“What other ones have you seen?” she asked instead. “Like, other than the fair and the concert, what kind of events does the school do?” She was sure somebody had probably said it at one point, but she couldn’t remember. There were a lot of small details about Sonora life that she probably hadn’t been able to fully internalize in a single year here. Mona was more of a “big picture” person, so she was too busy staring at the constant water flow on the walls to notice any detail on the walls behind them.

12 Ramona Thompson Fingers crossed. 1587 0 5

Petey Thompson

June 03, 2024 9:07 PM

Anything can, probably. by Petey Thompson

If it wasn’t already immediately apparent from the way Cecily spoke, dressed, carried herself, and just about everything else about her, it became very clear as she went on about her summer that she and Petey came from vastly different backgrounds. The fact that she talked about dinner parties with adults as a positive thing was a huge indicator, and only furthered the impression he got about the rich kids here. Somehow, they got brainwashed into having fun being little adults.

In a way, Petey kind of resented that, actually. There were a lot of factors that made Petey seem like a small adult, especially if you asked his dreamy-eyed little sister. But none of them were fun. These rich kids had the luxury of stability, so they didn’t have to bear the responsibilities of growing up too early. They just got to have dinner parties and balls, dumb stuff like that, all the while somehow convinced that they actually enjoy it because it wasn’t actually difficult, just “mature”. He didn’t blame any of them for his circumstances, but for just a moment, it did make his beautiful Housemate look a little less pretty to him.

Cecily asked about Ramona, and instinctively, he glanced over at the Pecari table. His little sister was chatting away with some older guy. Yup, hate that, he thought to himself before resigning himself to dealing with that later and returning to his current focus of conversation. “I guess we haven’t really been apart, so it just seems normal to me,” Petey shrugged. “Although at our old school, we were in different grades because of when our birthdays fall, so that part has been kind of weird here. I guess not as weird as it could be, since we have grouped ‘Beginners’ classes and not just our own grade. Uh, I mean year,” he added, still adjusting to the more commonly used term. “But it’s still weird having all the same assignments and teachers and stuff at the same time. Usually at home, Mona would have a teacher the year after I did, and they’d be like, ‘oh, you’re Petey’s sister?’ but now they just… meet us at the same time.”

“Do you have siblings at home?” he asked, realizing he’d been rambling for entirely too long. Okay, so she was still really pretty. “Will they be joining you here anytime soon?”

12 Petey Thompson Anything can, probably. 1585 0 5

Yale Adams

June 03, 2024 9:59 PM

Well, that's pretty neat by Yale Adams

It came from the kitchen. So there were kitchens. Magic folk did actually cook then. They'd didn't just magic a feast into existing from nothing. That was probably good to know. He knew what a prairie elf was because he'd devoured every piece of literature he'd been able to get his hands on about the school, and questioned the muggle liaison person about them already when he'd seen a minor reference to them as part of the school staff. So it was actually the elves, not magical folk, who were cooking in the kitchen tonight, and probably most nights, because that was what Sonora had in lieu of cafeteria staff. But the fact still remained that the food hadn't come from nothing at all. It had been cooked.

And then delivered by magic.

This was going to take a little getting used to.

"Thanks," he said to the older student's 'welcome to Sonora, kid' even though he suspected she was being more than a little sarcastic and facetious, so he added a dry tone to his own response so it could maybe be read the same way.

"I've been given the impression the students here are from a diverse range of places," he added, consciously upping his vocabulary level so she wouldn't think he was entirely stupid and unfit for this House touted for its knowledge and learning despite gawping and not even knowing that the food came from the kitchens. "From whence do you hail?"

1 Yale Adams Well, that's pretty neat 1594 0 5

Cecily Welles

June 06, 2024 5:03 PM

Anything, or only almost anything? by Cecily Welles

Cecily listened with interest as Petey talked about his sister, and this interest was born primarily out of a seeming discrepancy. She knew that Muggle school didn’t work quite like magic school, but she knew from scattered tidbits that Muggle school was similar to magic school at least in how they grouped people together by age. She might have forgotten that, or at least doubted her own memory, but then Petey confirmed it himself by pure accident when he mentioned how Ramona had been in the class behind him at their old school and was only with him now because beginners were combined.

“I’ve got two little brothers,” she confirmed when she was asked about siblings of her own. “George and Kenneth. George isn’t too far away now. He’s four years younger than me. We’ve always had the same teachers, I guess, but not...real teachers?” She frowned, a small line forming between her blue-grey eyes. “My grandmother, my mom’s mom, she taught us how to read and write and everything. One of my uncles gives me stacks of books about whatever he thinks I should know for Christmas and my birthday and then grills me on them, like, out of nowhere whenever he thinks I ought to have finished them.” Her slightly prissy diction slipped into something a little more natural as she mentioned that – one of the several reasons why Mom despaired of the day she’d decided it would be convenient to allow John and Aunt Sammy to spend extended periods of time around Cecily. Dad only shook his head and said he was just glad Cecily wasn’t bright enough to follow along when John sometimes went into hour-long monologues about politics. “Nothing was ever...organized before I got here, at least after I learned to read. Once you do that, I mean…” Cecily shrugged. “Everybody in my family has books, and I was always with somebody, wasn’t I? I just sort of picked everything else up as I went along. I liked it better than doing homework.”

She made a little face at the admission, but perked up again quickly. “But at least we can use magic again now that we’re back here. Mom and Uncle Joe say that they’re trying to raise us to be law-abiding citizens and so we have to follow the rules at home even though we almost never see anyone except my aunts and uncles and Marylaud, and they’re all wizards. Mom says it’s the principle of the thing that matters, though, and that anyway, her family’s all wizards, too, but they lived in a Muggle neighborhood when she was growing up, so it would take too much paper to write a law that let some kids do magic at home and some not. And Dad agrees, and says there would be too many loopholes. He writes laws sometimes, so I guess he should know, but it is annoying. To me, anyway. Are you glad to be back?”

16 Cecily Welles Anything, or only almost anything? 1578 0 5

Leviosa Scurlock

June 07, 2024 9:56 AM

How did that happen? by Leviosa Scurlock

It was their penultimate feast. That wasn’t the same as last, but it was fairly dramatically the beginning of the end. They were advanced students. This was her sister’s last feast. And while Levi wouldn’t exactly be heartbroken when Verdillia went to be bossy to someone else, in the next chapter of her life, it did make her realise how quickly her own time at Sonora was passing.

She applauded for the prefects, especially Xarryn (though she wasn’t sure it was really his thing), and felt slightly bad for her sister not winning head student, in that she knew Verdillia had really wanted it, though Levi wasn’t sure that inflating Verdillia’s sense of authority was really in anyone’s best interests.

The ‘end of an era’ thoughts seemed to be on her friends’ minds too. At least, the step up to intermediates and the changes that brought.

“I’m taking Charms, Defence, Potions and Herbology,” she answered. “So, I guess that’s a fifty-flfty split… no wait, you both had charms. I see both of you in some classes,” she concluded, trying to focus on the positives, though it was hard when she was used to seeing all of them in all classes.

13 Leviosa Scurlock How did that happen? 1545 0 5

Phil Carson

June 08, 2024 9:32 PM

Plus you, makes us. by Phil Carson

As an Aladren prefect, Phil had tried to at least learn the names of the other students in his House. That was about all he knew about Lazerus Jareau-Fletcher, other than that he used a book to talk (and that was about as Aladren a thing as Phil could imagine and he wondered idly if the accessibility tool was designed to Lazarus' tastes or if it was just lucky happenstance that it came modeled after a book).

In any case, he got the stock answer to his question, which the sixth year seemed to have anticipated and had ready to hand. The congratulations took slightly more hunting, and seemed a bit more personalized to Phil specifically. Phil grinned and looked down at the badge again. "Thanks!" He'd hoped for it. He imagined most people did. It was a pretty nice prize that would probably help him secure a good college placement. But he hadn't necessarily expected it. There had been a lot of qualified candidates on the ballot, and it had probably been very close. But he'd had a lot of the prerequisites that most winners seemed to have - good grades, a prefect badge, the presidency of a club, and a fair number of of friends - so it wasn't unexpected either. Still, it felt like a pretty important achievement, and the congratulations made him feel good.

"My break was pretty good. Turned seventeen. My family's non-magical, so it wasn't a super big deal there, but it was cool to be able to show them magic now." He'd had to be a lot more careful about that with Dad's family than with Mom. The nearest neighbors to Mom's cabin were miles away, so there hadn't been much danger of any other muggles seeing anything restricted by the Statute of Secrecy, but Dad lived in downtown Helena. Helena was pretty small by city standards - he was pretty sure he'd heard it was the fifth smallest of all the state capitals, and only the sixth largest city in the state of Montana, which was itself not known as a particularly populous state. But still. It qualified as a city and there were muggles everywhere, and Phil had been mildly of terrified of some nosy neighbor seeing something through the window they shouldn't and Phil getting hauled off to magic prison or something.

"Loki - that's my chaos god of a seven-year-old sister - was pretty impressed," he added, feeling moderately smug about that. It wasn't exactly that she was hard to impress. It was that she was hard to get to sit still, but she'd focused on his demonstrations like they'd given her the fascinate condition.

"Do you have any siblings?" he wondered. Lazarus was probably close to his own age, but hadn't had any go through Sonora either so far as he knew. Loki herself was still too young, so that didn't necessarily prove he was an only child, but Loki was technically his half-sister in his dad's second marriage, so there'd been a rather significant age difference there.

1 Phil Carson Plus you, makes us. 1536 0 5

Ida Stanford

June 09, 2024 9:26 PM

Where do you think it will go from here? by Ida Stanford

Ida was excited to get back to school and tell her friends all about her summer. Unfortunately, she couldn't. Or technically wasn't allowed to, which was the same thing. So she would have to be satisfied with what she could tell them. Her correspondence had been spotty at best, and rather vague, but she had helped Alexander with his chess club poster. Ida had thought a lot about Alexander over the summer. She was definitely ready to see him again.

The wagon ride to the school had been the same as it always was, bumpy and windy. After it arrived at the school, she dashed for her room before anyone (Alexander) could see her. She was a mess and needed to get cleaned up before the feast tonight. After she showered and did her hair a little fancier than normal, she got to put on her new dress and the makeup Mother had gotten her. It wasn't much, but Mother had said that in many cases 'less is more'. Then she got to put on the new fancy earrings and necklace Father had gotten her. These were all fairly new things to Ida, she hadn't indulged in such things before. They were a bit 'frivolous', but now... she looked in the mirror and smiled at her reflection. She wanted to look nice. Alexander would be there and... well... a little thrill went through her. Again. It was becoming something of a trend when thoughts of her housemate ran through her mind.

It was close to time for the feast, and she remembered they were all required to wear their school robes. Her heart sank a bit as she looked at the clean robe, it certainly wasn't her nice dress, but... she sighed, rules were rules. Ida pulled the robe over her dress and closed it up properly. At least her new jewelry was still visible. Not that it was anything more impressive than what a proper Pierce would have been exposed to.

From the look of the hall when she arrived, her time may have been off a little bit. Students were beginning to gather, but she was early. Naturally she hadn't aimed on being late, that would have been terrible, but she had hoped to arrive after Alexander so she could be sure to find a seat next to him if one was available. Now she would need to find a seat and hope that he came over to sit next to her. Hopefully he wasn't mad at her for her lack of communication over the summer. She had helped with his poster.

He did sit next to her! She did her best to pay attention to the headmaster, but she found it harder than usual. He smelled kinda nice. She made a mental note to see if Mother could maybe send her some perfume to use on special occasions.

The food appeared and Alexander lost no time in turning and smiling at her, something in her melted and it took a moment to process his question. She was smiling back without thinking about it while chiding herself to pull herself together and act proper. "Yes, of course Mr. Alexander," she had thought they were past the formalities, but it was fine. Her eyes cast about the table trying to locate something sensible within his reach that wasn't within hers and wound up on a random dish, "Could you get me the brussel sprouts?" She hated brussel sprouts.

"How was your summer?" She asked and immediately followed up with, "How did your chess poster turn out? I can't wait to see the final version."

2 Ida Stanford Where do you think it will go from here? 1571 0 5

Leo Lyons

June 11, 2024 8:02 PM

Hi (tag Ursula) by Leo Lyons

Dramamine. That was the secret to not hurling his guts up on the wagon as it hurtled through the air. The muggle antinausea medication worked just as well as the potions he’d tried and had the additional advantage of not tasting like wet dog. Leo made sure to pack a dose for the ride home, as well.

Leo found himself looking forward to coming back to Sonora more each year. Sure, there were classes and homework that he didn’t like, but that was true for muggle school as well. Playing Quidditch with an actual team rather than a one-on-one scrimmage with Donovan was a huge advantage. Being able to practice spells was another. And recently…Ursula. She was bright, funny, pretty, confident. Despite being Quillan’s little sister, a year behind Leo, she was more mature than half the students in Intermediates. Really, anyone who could handle Donovan with the grace she did was impressive. Leo rushed through putting his things away so he could try to snag a seat next to her at the feast.

Whereas Donovan had hit his pubescent growth spurt over the last year, Leo’s summer had caught him up all at once, stretch marks laddering up his back where he’d sprouted so fast. They stood at an equal height again…or close enough, in Leo’s opinion. Donovan seemed to want to lord his half inch advantage over Leo like it mattered. Leo still dominated on the Quidditch field, which was far more important.

Sliding onto the bench next to Ursula, Leo noticed just how much he’d grown, having to tilt his face downward to greet her. There wasn’t too much time for conversation before the Sorting and announcements, but after the final notes of the school song faded away and the food appeared, Leo opened his mouth to find himself completely incapable of speech. Was she wearing perfume, or did she always smell this nice? An awkward silence fell, his open mouth indicating he had something to say, and he tried to remember any of the conversation starters he had practiced so this exact thing would not happen.

“I missed you,” fell out, sincere and heartfelt, before he could stop it- stop it and say something intelligent instead. He had missed her. He had spent half the summer thinking about her. He’d intended to talk to her about…anything except his feelings. Not until he could tell if she cared, even a little bit, the same way. Heart pounding, he desperately tried to bail.

“Uhh…and these feasts!” He hoped Ursula wouldn’t notice his ears turning red; he could feel them tingling with the flush that rose to his face. He quickly filled his plate with the nearest items, not caring what they were. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Now she was going to think that he missed her on par with food , which wasn’t at all what he meant. Of course, he hadn’t meant to say he missed her at all, but he had, and then he had compared her to the feast and Leo wasn’t sure what that would come across as, but he was pretty sure that comparing a girl to food was not suave or cool or even made any sense.

“How was your summer?” he asked weakly, falling back to the oldest, most basic question ever. It would be better for her to think he was basic than…whatever that blunder was.

OOC: Donovan's mine, so no godmodding

64 Leo Lyons Hi (tag Ursula) 1568 0 5

Claire Osbrook

June 14, 2024 2:54 PM

One Feast (almost) down, one Feast to go. by Claire Osbrook

With Iris gone, Claire wasn’t exactly sure what she was supposed to do with herself at the school Feasts. They had never been best friends, but they had been friends, and had seemed to end up at about the same place at the table at a lot of Feasts, mostly while their socially superior yearmates sat together elsewhere and...did whatever it was they did together while Claire and Iris talked about gardening probably.

It was, perhaps, fortunate then that this was Claire’s second-to-last school Feast. After tonight, there would only be the Feast after the Christmas holidays, and then she would...well, not attend any more Feasts, most likely. Everything else about her future – distressingly, considering how late in the game it was – was still somewhat up in the air, but she was pretty sure that she would be done with feasts for her lifetime even if she did go to medical school. Her mother had gone to medical school and worked with the sort of people for whom such events were somewhat normal, after all, and Mom ate dinner at home more often than not, except on the rare occasion that Mom had to fit in a client at unsociable hours of the evening. Since Claire could not really imagine herself in her mother’s line of work (if she’d learned one thing as a psychologist’s daughter, it was that she absolutely did not want to be a psychologist), she was even less likely than Lillian to be invited to such events in future, unless she really stretched the definition to cover her grandmother Jacqueline’s annual Christmas get-togethers in New Orleans. Since she wasn’t inclined to stretch the definition that far, she figured she had two nights of awkwardness to get through and then she would be done.

In the meantime, she applauded politely for the prefects and Head Students and slid the pendant back and forth on the antique necklace her mother had given her in her fourth year as she listened to the rest of the announcements. The previous end of the year event had fallen squarely into Claire’s lane, to the point she’d been too busy obsessing over that for a while to even bother thinking the occasional idle thought about turning Chris into a mushroom, but she doubted, somehow, that this year’s event was going to work quite as well for her. Passion she had, but performance skills...performance skills were an area in which she was somewhat lacking. Even if she decided that her three summers of dance classes meant she had the skill required to dance, she still, after all, lacked the ability to choreograph her own moves, and just repeating a standard ballroom dance with one person would be kind of lame anyway. That was just as well, though, since it was, after all, her RATS year, and she figured she should put forth at least some effort toward extra studying and stuff, just for the form of things if nothing else. Form was important; otherwise, there was, at least, always the off chance of attracting some disembodied spirit of bad luck which would be displeased by someone being arrogant enough to assume she could do well on the RATS without any special extra studying beyond what was necessary to master whatever new material the teachers chose to throw at her this year – or, more realistically, someone who knew someone could observe it and report back to the more important someone, with the result that it would come back to bite her down the road. Nobody at school had ever shown any malicious intent toward her, and she was pretty sure she was invisible to just about everyone, which was how she generally preferred it, but if she had to narrow down things she’d learned from her mother to the category of things she knew specifically because Lillian’s patients were rich, it was that paranoia was a perfectly justifiable position to occupy in this world.

One good thing about the Feast, though, was that nobody could possibly expect anything too showy from her at it. She just had to eat, drink, and not look visibly un-merry, which was simple enough, since she was kind of hungry and reasonably content, as far as it went. Accordingly, she started serving herself with enthusiasm when the food appeared, and prepared to enjoy the best meal of the year while it lasted.

16 Claire Osbrook One Feast (almost) down, one Feast to go. 1540 0 5

Ursula Arcadius

June 15, 2024 9:22 PM

Hello to you too by Ursula Arcadius

Ursula was entering intermediates this year. That meant she’d once again be ~~competing~~ sharing with her brother. It was complicated trying to have a sibling rivalry with Quillan, because Ms. Faulk had drilled it very thoroughly into Ursula that flexing her superior ability to read and write over her brother was Not Acceptable. However, Quillan was writing most of his essays here with accommodations, which Ursula thought meant she might be allowed to rub it in his face if she did better. She also knew it was perfectly fair to flex if she beat him on spellwork, but that was so much less likely.

She was looking forward to intermediate classes, and the new challenges that would come with them, plus the access to better company. She hadn’t really gelled with the new first years last year. They were just so new and bumpy, and she was quite sure she had never been that small, and while she was sure they were perfectly nice people, she had found it hard to get attached, knowing she’d only really be around them until the end of the year.

One of the benefits of being in intermediates slid into the seat next to her at the Opening Feast, and she gave him a warm smile. Leo was sweet and fun, and she was looking forward to being in classes with him again.

I missed you.

Ursula blinked, momentarily caught off guard by the level of feeling. Not that it wasn’t true in return but she hadn’t expected it from Leo. Before she could respond though, he reverted to more typical teenage boy and started talking about the food. Ursula was less put off or offended by this than he imagined—after all, she lived with a Quidditch playing fourteen-year-old boy and knew that food seemed to take up ninety-percent of their brainspace.

“My summer was very pleasant, thank you. We went to Europe for two weeks, and then St. Berylla’s for some beach time.” She hesitated. It felt like the moment for replying to his earlier comment had sort of passed, but then summer looped right back around to it. “I missed you too. How was yours?” she added hastily.

13 Ursula Arcadius Hello to you too 1577 0 5