Flurry meets fury on Labyrinth Gardens

Jordanna Howard

March 21, 2007 5:43 PM

Flurry meets fury by Jordanna Howard

It was totally embarrassing! How could her parents tell her to stay at Sonora for the holidays? Only rejects and losers stayed at school for midterm. There was no explanation, no mentioning of how she would receive her presents. There would still be presents, right? What was going on?

The blond girl wanted to stop thinking so much. She had to preoccupy her mind with how she looked in her black leggings and pink wool robes that ended at her knees, over a white t-shirt charmed to keep her body warm. She had to paint her pale face with makeup, had to style her hair into a neat side braid. Had to do something she had control over, just to feel as if she wasn’t completely powerless.

Stomping out to the Gardens, her pink boots left prints in the snow, slowly being covered by a light flurry. Jordanna had always loved new snow- it made everything glitter and shine. Old snow was dirty- she didn’t like it. But she liked new snow and the way the tiny snowflakes fell in her hair. It was calming.

Fifteen minutes into the Gardens, she found a stone bench worthy of her sitting on. Taking her ebony wand from her pocket, she muttered a charm that dried off about half of the bench- leaving more than enough room for her to sit. Jordanna sat down on the bench, looking up towards the heavens, daydreaming about a summer vacation that would be much better than this vacation- or lack of one.

She heard crunching. Slowly she realized that it was the sound of someone walking nearby- someone walking and sitting next to her.

Hey! If she wanted them to come sit next to her on her bench, she would have invited them. She raised her wand swiftly and pointed at the other person’s chest. If they stayed over midterm, then they couldn’t be anyone good. Quickly she recalled all her previous humiliation and fury. This kid was going to rue the day they ran into an upset Jordanna Howard.\n\n

0 Jordanna Howard Flurry meets fury 65 Jordanna Howard 1 5

Gwenhwyfar Carey

March 25, 2007 10:58 PM

That's not good. by Gwenhwyfar Carey

There wasn't much to do over midterm at Sonora, especially with Anne gone. Gwen filled her days with trying to study, writing endless cheery letters that would never be sent to various relations, embroidery, and trying not to go crazy, the same activities she'd buried herself in every year for the past four. It usually kept her busy enough to keep her head on straight, but this year...this year, it had fallen short of the goal before midterm even began. She couldn't, not even when she tried to read, stop thinking about every last thing she didn't want to think about. It was starting to get to her, which was why she had decided to try a more physical routine.

In four years, Gwen couldn't recall stepping outside of the building once during midterm. She had been raised in one of the country's hottest regions, and while she had started to like looking at snow, she was still distinctly less-than-fond of walking in it. The first year, when she had been at her lowest, she'd hardly ever gotten out of her bed, which had seemed like the warmest place at Sonora. The Gardens, not a usual haunt of hers anyway, had been totally forsaken until nearly her birthday every year. Needing some activity, though, she had headed for the Labyrinth. Staying away from the Pitch seemed prudent, at least for a while.

In April, she would turn fifteen. At home, that would mean a lot, and would have some influence over events even now, while she was still fourteen. She would be a year from her debutante. Her father might be working on an engagement to a rich man for her. Hopefully a young, handsome one, but a rich one either way. She would have beaux - more than just a few, with her looks - and she'd finally get to use some of her lessons in waltzing. Here, unless Morgaine had an unprecedented moment of sentimentality, it would almost certainly go unnoticed. Her own fault, but that did little to make her like it any better.

She slowed down when she realized how much noise her shoes were making. There was no escaping the annoying sound that came from walking through a layer of stacked ice, but slow walking made a little less than fast. She would shrivel up and die if she ever had to live up north; she couldn't see how they survived even more of this than Sonora had. Sarah St. Martin had astonished the younger denizens of Magnolia Grove with stories about the winters in her own home state of Maine for as long as Gwen could remember.

Oh, great was the first thought to go through Gwen's head when she saw Jordanna Howard, queen of fourth year and general bane of its existence, sitting on a bench. Gwen had never really gone up against Jordanna, unless one counted a hundred fantasies where she told the other girl her opinion of her clothes, but the other blonde had the worst taste in friends Gwen had ever run across. Nicoletta was one thing - she was a dark lady just waiting to happen, but there was a semblance of intelligence there - but Cate? Cate made Allie St. Martin look smart. Given, the girl could out-gossip the ladies of Magnolia Grove on a good day, but there had to be a line drawn somewhere...

Of course, she admitted, she could have been biased. Cate, after all, was her father's lapdog's daughter. When a girl had a father who all but bowed down to hers, she found she had trouble dredging up much respect for either of them. A quirk of her personality.

Deciding she might as well, Gwen sat down on the bench beside Jordanna. Yep, she really was crazy, unless the orange juice at breakfast had been spiked. Messing with Jordanna wasn't among her more brilliant political ideas, but it might prove entertaining. The possibility of that went down when the other fourth year pointed a wand at her. Better to play it cool. "What, no hello for your roommate?" Oh, Merlin, she was out of her mind. "You can stop pointing that at me any time you care to, you know. I wouldn't mind one little bit." \n\n

0 Gwenhwyfar Carey That's not good. 63 Gwenhwyfar Carey 0 5

Jordanna Howard

April 02, 2007 3:47 PM

no, it's not by Jordanna Howard

Did the world suddenly decide to hate her or something? Jordanna was totally beginning to think so. Of all the people that could of sat down next to her, it just had to be Gwen Carey.

The resident crazy fourth year of Crotalus was almost if not just as horrible as Asher Tallow. But it got worse. Ever since Jordanna had been trying to make sure those firsties didn't embarrass Crotalus the way Gwen and Asher did, she hadn't been on the best terms with Catherine and Nicoletta. What if Gwen told them that Jordanna had stayed at school over midterm? Would they believe her?

If she was nice to the other girl, or at least cordial, maybe she wouldn't tell. But that would require Jordanna being nice or cordial, something she truly was in no mood for. What she really wanted to do was hex the other girl into next year- but that might call attention to herself. And during midterm was not exactly the time she wanted to make her presence known in the school. That would just mean even more people would know, and Gwen would be more likely to want revenge on Jordanna. Not that she was afraid of the other girl- of course she wasn’t afraid of Gwen and anything she may or may not say.

The girl shivered. Maybe the heating spell she’d put on her clothes was beginning to wear off. Yes, that was it.

Little flakes of snow fell onto her black wand as she kept it pointed at the other girl. Jordanna still wasn’t exactly sure what she planned to do with it, but Gwen didn’t need to know that. Besides, she liked to keep her options open.

Jordanna’s temper began to flare when Gwen started to talk. Who did that freak think she was, talking to Jordanna like… like an equal? It took all her self-restraint not to just hex the girl on the spot.

“You’re one to talk about politeness, sitting here without an invitation and all,” Jordanna said with a dangerously saccharine smile, “But you know, I think I actually kind of like my wand where it is, thank you very much.”

She paused for a moment, still trying to figure out what Gwen was aiming to do. There had to be some sort of twisted purpose for her madness- right?\n\n

0 Jordanna Howard no, it's not 65 Jordanna Howard 0 5

Gwen Carey

April 03, 2007 11:14 PM

We agreed on something. The world should end any second now. by Gwen Carey

Maybe it was because she spent so much time alone, with all of her entertainment options contained in books and her own head, but Gwen thought about the past more than she thought she should. Morgaine had always liked to study histories of others while forgetting her own; Gwen found that going over her memories was, if in a slightly messed-up sort of way, a pleasure. Now, looking at Jordanna, she gave the other girl an ironic, slightly bitter smile. For people who had barely exchanged a word in years, they had a lot of old, bad blood between them.

Everything went back to that first morning at Sonora, when the lines had been drawn. When her mind drifted back, on a bad day especially, to where it had all went wrong, it was inevitable that she would think about that day and the day her father had come to Sonora first. She hadn't become one of the rebels she'd always looked down on until she'd been snubbed by Catherine, and then Jordanna and Nicoletta had, for whatever reason, went along. For some reason, that bit always stuck out. It had been that morning that had taught her a bit about people and ruined her socially, but at the very least she had still been playing with a full deck. It had only been after the Banquet that she had begun to feel crazy.

She wasn't crazy, though. Of that, she was reasonably sure. If she had been crazy, Gwen didn't think she would think on it so much. She probably brooded too much, and there was no denying that she let Connor upset her sometimes when it was a pretty bad time for her to be upset, but none of that was craziness. Neither were the episodes that made her think of her Grandmother Carey-St. Martin's "fantastical moods" in a milder form, thought they felt close, sometimes. A line lay between her oddities and flat-out nuttiness, and she hadn't crossed it. Not that many people believed her about that.

She blinked a few times when Jordanna started talking, as if she was having trouble understanding what was said. It wasn't like she had anything better to do than rattle the nerves of a girl she'd never liked, anyway. The sarcastic almost-friendliness slipped away, replaced by a carefully built nonchalance. Annoyance, her real principle feeling, showed clearly in her blue eyes. She wouldn't take on all three at once for a kingdom - well, only a large kingdom, anyway - but individually, the only one of them she could really say she was afraid of was Nicoletta. The other two were a bit useless solo, by her estimation.

"Well, I don't," she said flatly. "And I don't think anyone else would, either. The professors like me a heck of a lot more than they do you, Jordanna, and I kind of have a little trouble seeing your little clique approving of using a wand against the likes of me." She gave the other blond a slightly crooked smile. "Give Letta one good excuse to drop you, and she will. Cate'll go along with it, because Cate's a Raines and was born with all the moral integrity of a cat off the street. Those two love ruining lives more than I do chocolate-covered cherries, and I like my cherries a lot."

It took her a moment to recognize the feeling saying that was causing. It had been almost three years since she had even tried to deliberately mess with another girl's head. She messed with Connor's upon occasion, if he'd upset her recently, and Morgaine's if she was in a bad mood and the opportunity presented itself, but that wasn't anything at all like this. This was a sort of power move, one with no point other than sowing chaos in an enemy camp. If even a small crack existed in their ranks, Gwen thought it could have been pushed wider by her commentary about Jordanna's friends. It was an oddly satisfying thought.

"Besides," she said pleasantly, "people like me don't have to worry about being polite. We leave that to you and your type." She didn't specify what the types were. "You really ought to try our way out sometime, Jordanna. It's not half bad, once you get used to it." \n\n

0 Gwen Carey We agreed on something. The world should end any second now. 63 Gwen Carey 0 5

Jordanna Howard

April 08, 2007 12:38 AM

Armageddon- Sonoran style by Jordanna Howard

Don't listen to her, something in Jordanna's mind warned her. The words of crazy people were not meant to be heeded. And Gwen Carey was most certainly crazy.

But for some strange and unknown reason, Jordanna found herself listening to the other girl more than she was listening to herself.

Did the teachers really hate her? Why? There was no reason, she'd never done anything to them. True, the only class she did well in was Charms, in every other class she was barely passing. If she was guilty of anything, she'd been a bit of a suck up all the times she wasn't complaining. See, the thing was, the teachers all acted as if they cared about your opinion and they were accepting of different opinions- keyword being acted. Once they got wind that a student's opinion differed from their own, they were hardly as kind as they liked to think they were. That's how teachers worked before Jordanna had arrived at Sonora, and that's how she figured they would always be.

And then about Jordanna's friends. Jordanna knew very well what they were like- they were her friends, after all. She didn't understand why they would be bothered by Jordanna pulling out a wand on Gwen- none of them really cared about her well-being. What reason was there to care about their rommate?

But then... and Jordanna smiled as she found the fault in Gwen's words. The spell of doubt cast in her mind left even quicker than it came.

Jordanna, Nicoletta and Catherine never called each other by nicknames as a rule. They believed it was degrading- they all had respectable names, so why change them? No, nicknames were reserved for inferior people, like Jenny (her sister, of course, who also knew of the nickname rule, and refered to Jordanna as "Jordie") and of course, Gwen. Because Gwen was not respectable. Gwen was crazy.

And the words of crazy people were not meant to be heeded.

Yes, she hesitated, and Gwen had to be even more dillusional than Jordanna thought to have missed it. But Jordanna's head was clear now. She knew exactly what she was going to do next.

"And who are people like you?" Jordanna cocked her head to the side, the saccharine tone back in her voice, "Crazy nutters who ought to be locked up? Or maybe even a, I don't know, liar?"

And without hesitation, she raised her wand at the girl and exclaimed, "Silencio!"

The spell was something Jordanna had been experimenting with on her own with some of the cats at the Howard home and around school. She'd never quite gotten it down perfectly- sometimes the voice got lower, sometimes it changed completely. And sometimes there was a completely random reaction.

Either way, it wasn't a malevolent charm. Just frustrating for whoever it was cast upon. If anyone asked, Jordanna was being verbally abused, and her emotions got the best of her. In a way it was almost true. She had to silence that voice, and keep it from getting into her head and corrupting the Howard girl's thoughts.

The words of crazy people were not meant to be heeded, but for some reason, Jordanna found herself starting to listen.\n\n

0 Jordanna Howard Armageddon- Sonoran style 65 Jordanna Howard 0 5

Gwen Carey

April 08, 2007 10:01 PM

Sounds like fun... by Gwen Carey

Gwen had a moment where she felt nothing but satisfaction. It was working. Her little ploy was seriously working. She was doing on her own what Asher's long-ago alliance hadn't managed to. She was damaging the social structure of their entire year. It felt kind of like flying, only more giddy, more unpredictable, and probably more dangerous. She found her moment abruptly ended when Jordanna smiled and started to talk again, basically saying that she'd botched it, and threw a Silencing Charm at her.

Panic welled up, just barely controlled - in the moment, at least. What the next moment might bring, she had no idea at all. It did occur to her to keep her mouth shut and so keep whatever shreds of dignity she still had. Mouthing wasn't a very dignified action, she knew. Gwen thought she, too, had her wand on her - she thought she did - but what good would it do her like this?

One hand went to her throat and stayed there, unnoticed. She could still write, so she could go find a professor, but doing that meant coming up with one heck of a story. Jordanna was sure to say something to make Gwen look the worse of them, and she didn't want trouble - not trouble with the Powers That Be, anyway. Rumors distorted things over time and distance; by the time the Careys heard the story of this little encounter, there was no telling how awfully people might think she'd acted. What reached the family after they decided whether or not to keep her was irrelevant, but if things went awry before then -

It didn't take her long to conclude that she was beginning to get scared, and she'd always, as far as she remembered, had an odd way of showing it when she was afraid: she went into spells of uncontrollable and sometimes wild laughter. She pressed her hands over her mouth, trying to hold it at bay, but it did no good. Her shoulders began to shake with sil -

Instead of the silent pantomime of merriment she'd expected to produce, she definitely heard a sound. The sound was not very much like the sound she was accustomed to hearing when she laughed, but there was definitely a sound, and it came, as far as she could tell, from her mouth. The unfamiliarity of it was enough to make her feel disordered, but it seemed likely to indicate that she could still communicate.

"That," she told Jordanna once the fit of laughter reached its end point, her voice sounding bizarre and unnatural in her own ears, "wasn't nice." She wanted very much to start massaging her neck, but didn't want to give the other girl the satisfaction. It wasn't like it would help, anyway. "I might have to think some more about you, Jor. You actually had me thinking you were a lady." Even with her voice gone mad, she thought the sarcasm came through clearly. "And as for what I am..." She smiled, not nicely.

"I'm not crazy," she said, her odd voice seeming to ring in her ears. She was going to have to get it fixed soon, or go crazy for real. "And I'm not a liar. I'm just the girl that the girlfriends ruined on a whim." Talking felt odd, but it could have had something to do with how odd it sounded. She felt like laughing again, but decided against it; laughter, if she remembered correctly through the surprise of finding out the charm had gone awry, had made talking sound almost normal.\n\n

0 Gwen Carey Sounds like fun... 63 Gwen Carey 0 5