A Resolution (WotW) on Labyrinth Gardens

Raines Bradley

April 23, 2011 10:16 PM

A Resolution (WotW) by Raines Bradley

Next year, Raines decided, he was going to ask Miss Veronica to the Christmas party.

He wasn’t sure where this resolution came from, since a moment earlier he’d been walking blankly down the path as he sometimes did when he couldn’t bear to sit in his dorm or the library any longer, but now that he’d made it, he was determined to allow nothing to thwart him in it. Thinking of walking up to her in September and asking for an actual date made him, Raines, feel almost sick with nerves, but objectively, it was what made the most sense. The family needed to reestablish its credentials now that the worst of the scandal of Anna’s disownment was dying down, and a good way to do that would be to showcase the normality and respectability of his parents’ surviving heirs.

That Miss Veronica might turn him down, thus causing humiliation all over again, did occur to him, but he was grimly focused on the part where it wasn’t likely. Her family had been experiencing some troubles, too, and her older sister was as good as engaged to the only better option running around in the years near theirs. Plus, he really thought Miss Veronica did like him. Or at least he liked to think that she did.

If she did, the personal benefits for them might even outweigh the political ones. Neither of them would have to worry about the embarrassment of attending the ball next year alone, and, once the ball made two dates, he thought he might even be able to get away with calling her just ‘Veronica’ instead of always ‘Miss Veronica.’ And if he could do that, move beyond declaring an interest in a relationship to actually having one close enough for them to drop honorifics, maybe he could think about her and just her and stop occasionally thinking about....

He shook his head to clear some of the images. That was just disgusting. And Miss Veronica was not only superior in every moral and mental way, but she was also more beautiful. There was no part of his mind that doubted that, and he was sure the rest of him would come into line once he no longer had to handle the frustrations and uncertainties of flirting or paranoidly suspect that she was leading him on and planning to make him look like a complete fool in front of the entire student body.

He reached a clearing, but didn’t stop, instead going through to the other side and then around the first bend he came to. It was soothing, just moving with no plan, no aim, no clue. The only time he didn’t feel like something in his head was just wound too tight and about to snap.

It wound itself again, though, when he heard steps and began to feel as though he were being watched. “Is someone there?” he called out, his hand drifting toward his wand in case it was something dangerous.

0 Raines Bradley A Resolution (WotW) 155 Raines Bradley 1 5

Cooper Abramson

May 04, 2011 6:49 PM

An avoidance! by Cooper Abramson

Something was up, and Cooper didn’t know what. That made him nervous—when things were up, that usually meant that he and Melody would be moved to another foster home shortly. But it had been almost five years that the fourteen-year-old and his little sister had been living with Garen and McKindy, and in that time, Cooper had learned that their foster parents were a pair of complete idiots. He had also learned that, like the pair of complete idiots they were, they would literally take in anything that came scratching at their door. The split-layer ranch house in Aurora that he and Melody lived in during the summer frequently had Garen’s ‘adopted’ kids popping in and out—Abby and Katrina, and Katrina’s kid—while Jessie, McKindy’s bio-kid, was almost always there. Sometimes Jera was there too, but she had an actual family so Cooper didn’t usually count her. They also had a cat that chewed on McKindy’s ankles regularly and a Shakespeare bird.

No, Melody and Cooper weren’t going anywhere.

The brown-haired, brown-eyed Aladren had wandered outside because he didn’t want to think, greying sneakers carelessly tied, sloppy bows hidden under the cuffs of jeans that were barely too long. He was going through his growth spurt, and the hems wouldn’t have stood a chance if it hadn’t been for the occasional lengthening charm that McKindy put on them.

Euegh. Eyebrows pressed together, face contorted into a scowl, Cooper kicked at a stick on the ground. It rolled over itself a couple of times before catching on the ground and stopping. Cooper kicked it again. Similar effect. Again, harder—and it snapped. Balling his fists, the third-year barreled headlong into the Labyrinth Gardens. He didn’t want to know what was going on, he didn’t want to think. Blood pounded in his ears, drowning out his brain, and after a minute of furious sprinting, turning corners without regard for where he was going, Cooper was out of breath and a flush was visible even in his somewhat dark complexion.

With a similar disregard for his clothes that he had shown for the way he was going, Cooper flopped backwards on the ground, probably dirtying the plain, green t-shirt he was wearing. The dirt was gritty against his sweaty neck, but his thoughts were too busy scrambling for oxygen to bother him. He didn’t feel like hitting things anymore either, which was probably good. Or at least, it was until he heard a vaguely familiar voice from just on the other side of a bend.

“No. Go away.” Cooper managed, somewhat breathlessly, voice hinting at a crack about midway through. It would have sounded a lot more convincing if he could breathe and manage an appropriately frightening tone.

0 Cooper Abramson An avoidance! 0 Cooper Abramson 0 5

Raines Bradley

May 14, 2011 4:29 PM

Not a very successful one, it seems by Raines Bradley

Well, at least the voice that responded to his question was human. Unless this school was truly out of line and letting sphinxes and manticores run amok, which was no more likely than Headmaster Regal and the entire board of governors and the groundskeeper being suicidal, which was the only reason for them to let something like that happen when the place contained as many children of important people as it did, the person speaking was also human. Raines rounded the corner.

He found another student lying on the ground. Raines thought he recognized him vaguely, so they must have had a class at the same time at some point, but he also thought that the other boy was younger. That presented him with something of a dilemma.

On one hand, the other fellow did not look like a reputable member of society, and while he had generally avoided outbursts toward those who were not his equals, he also still made a point of not socializing with them more than he absolutely had to. That got tricky, sometimes, and he’d spent a few classes working alone when he was supposed to be working with someone else because all the good partners had been taken before he worked up the nerve to speak with them first, but he usually got along all right with it.

On the other hand, he imagined the staff would settle who the prefects were soon, and while he thought he should be a lock, he hadn’t gotten into Crotalus by the skin of his teeth by taking things for granted. If he wanted the prize, he had accepted, he was going to have to act as though the non-society members of the student body were less offensive to him than they really were, at least for the year. Next year, he could go back to ignoring them in peace, but this year, he had to play nicely with them.

“Are you not well?” he asked lying-on-ground-boy. He seemed out of breath, and Raines couldn’t think of a reason why someone would lie on the ground unless they could simply go no further, but perhaps he was merely very strange. Some Pecaris, he thought, were strange enough to do much stranger things than this.

0 Raines Bradley Not a very successful one, it seems 155 Raines Bradley 0 5