In the gardens with Wendy. on Labyrinth Gardens

Rupert Princeton

April 23, 2014 3:20 PM

In the gardens with Wendy. by Rupert Princeton

It was the lazy sort of Sunday with nothing to do and nowhere to go. The Prefects and Head students were attempting to recreate the academic environment, but their studies would suffer and Rup wasn't particularly interested in COMC without the magical creatures or learning Charms when the sky was purple outside.

Quidditch had inevitably been cancelled and Rupert had been suffering. During the summers he had been free to play Quidditch whenever he chose, or simply practise batting bludgers, but without a medic everyone thought it dangerous to allow bludgers on the pitch at all. Reasonable, of course, but torturous. Rupert had taken to batting Quaffles instead in the MARS practise room and continuing his exercise that he had started over the summer. His body craved the exercise when he neglected it for too long.

Today was sunny and nice enough to take a walk or a jog outside. Rupert had been meaning to spend time with Wendy since the term had begun, but with all the chaos of missing professors and deciding what to do to replace Quidditch practises, he had pushed it back. This morning he had finally sent her an owl asking if she'd like to have a picnic lunch on the grass in Labyrinth Gardens. It wasn't difficult to take food out of Cascade Hall; there were bread rolls and bottles of butterbeer and meats to make sandwiches with. Rupert wanted to be good friends with Wendy, maybe something more. But he didn't dare go any further in his thinking than that.

Rupert had also asked Wendy to bring a blanket if she wanted to, and he sat near the entrance of the Gardens hoping she wouldn't miss him from whichever direction she came. To others their lunch would look more intimate; to Carter it could possibly look romantic. But Rup just wanted to be mates. Close mates.

He was lying on his stomach, the food still packed in the basket he'd filled, plucking blades of grass and enjoying the warmth. Rup sighed, laid his head on his arms and closed his eyes, still waiting. If there were grass stains on his chequered blue shirt he would be slightly heartbroken, but he wasn't terribly attached to the article of clothing. His dark green trousers, however, would be worth more distress. Rupert wasn't normally attached to clothing, but since he had discovered the brilliant colours and styles of Muggles he had found much more pleasure in dressing up each day than donning on another proper wizard's robe.

A shadow alerted him that someone had come and he looked up, realising how indecent he must look lying flat on the grass. It was too late to scramble up without staining his clothes, so he rose carefully, smiling at the newcomer. He brushed his blond fringe to one side and stood. "Hello," he said, the simple greeting sounding so arbitrary with the vast possibilities available in the English language. "Fancy the purple clouds?" he asked. "I find them lovely, though slightly disconcerting up there with everything else that's going on."

40 Rupert Princeton In the gardens with Wendy. 248 Rupert Princeton 1 5

Wendy Canterbury

April 25, 2014 4:25 PM

Here I am! by Wendy Canterbury

The invitation to have a picnic was one Wendy would never turn down. She had spent some time studying in the library with Waverly on her sister's insistence, but Wendy would much rather be outside lying in the grass or something. Rupert's invitation was a nice surprise and the option of a blanket seemed unnecessary. It was warm outside, it was a beautiful day with beautifully purple clouds, and the grass was nice and comfy to sit on.

Wendy wasn't sure if she was supposed to bring anything, but she snatched cookies Waverly had left over from baking before heading over. She was wearing a floral tank top and blue jeans with her brown and gold sandals. Soon it would be too cold to wear sandals like these at Sonora and walk around bare-armed, so she was going to enjoy it while she still could. Who knew how long they were going to be here for? Her hair was long enough to play with now, but she didn't tie it up; she just put the front strands of her hair into two braids like she'd seen in a magazine before. Waverly thought it looked silly, but Wendy didn't really care. She liked it.

Lunch was going to be a fun affair. Wendy liked Rupert; he was fun to talk to though they hadn't really hung out outside of classes. He was nice too, nicer than his brothers from what she'd heard. Other than that she hadn't really thought much about him. She wondered briefly if he'd invited anyone else, and then she walked out into the sun, her polka-dotted backpack slung over one shoulder. Rupert was already there at the entrance with a little picnic basket. He was lying down and Wendy grinned and walked over to him.

"Hi," she replied. "You look comfy. You don't have to get up." She flopped down on the grass next to him and stretched out her legs in front of her. "Yes, they're pretty." She looked up at the sky, blinking a little at the light which she supposed was coming from the sun. "I would've liked them a little lighter shade of purple, but they're pretty just the same. Unique too." She looked back at him and smiled. "So what've you got for us to eat? Oh, I brought cookies." She put them on top of the basket. "My sister baked them and she bakes really good ones. I hope you like chocolate-chip."

Wendy sighed and lay back on the grass to look at the clouds. It was almost too bright to look directly at the sky, but luckily the sun wasn't visible to blind her. "It's such a nice day today," she said, spreading her arms out in the grass. "Thanks for inviting me. Lunch in Cascade Hall would be just a little depressing in comparison." She turned to her side and propped her head up. "So how's your term been?"

19 Wendy Canterbury Here I am! 245 Wendy Canterbury 0 5

Rupert

May 04, 2014 11:28 PM

And now we feast! by Rupert

Wendy was an odd witch, but Rupert liked that about her. She wasn't conventional and Rup had grown up around those sorts of witches all his life. They'd been incredibly boring and gossiped constantly about other pure-blood families. It wasn't really Rup's typical idea for a conversation, to chat about someone else. Her hair was different; Rup had never seen anyone tie their hair like that before and his admiration for her unconventional fashion soared.

He sat up anyway despite Wendy's approval. He felt a bit more comfortable sitting up in her presence than lying down like a fool. Rup followed her eyes to the purple clouds in the sky and nodded, agreeing with her assessment. "Brilliant," said Rup with a smile. "It's my favourite kind. I've been meaning to go back to Baking Club, but I just haven't had the time recently. I've never tasted your sister's baking, but these look delicious." He reached into the picnic basket and pulled out the sandwich supplies. "We can make our own sandwiches. There aren't too many options, really, but sandwiches aren't meant to be too complicated."

Rupert began making himself a turkey sandwich. He had forgotten the incredibly important ingredients to a good sandwich: cheese, tomatoes, lettuce; all they would have was bread and meat. "Sorry it's so lacking," said Rup apologetically. "I grabbed a couple fruits as well."

He uncapped a bottle and handed it to her. "My term's been well. Not too many classes to worry about." He smiled at her. "I've been exercising a lot to pass the time. I started a consistent timetable during the summer and I've been keeping it up since I've come back. Even though the Quidditch season most likely won't pick up any time soon, I still enjoy the workout." Rup bit into his sandwich and uncapped a butterbeer for himself. "How has your term been? Stressful, I can imagine, being Prefect in all this."

0 Rupert And now we feast! 0 Rupert 0 5

Wendy

May 31, 2014 6:07 PM

Erm, sort of. by Wendy

It was nice of Rupert to bring food for their picnic. The only downside was that Wendy was a vegetarian. She smiled and grabbed the bread and fruit. "It's totally okay," she said, receiving the butterbeer after putting her apple down, "I'm a vegetarian so I'll be fine with the bread and an apple. Mm, I love butterbeers." Wendy wished she could bring one home with her sometime, but it wasn't easy to simply take bottles of it and hope it would survive the intense heat of Phoenix.

Wendy smiled at his joke and wondered how someone could be so into exercising. It was such a good habit to keep, but Wendy had never bothered with it. It just didn't seem all that important to her. She liked eating healthy, of course, but she was naturally skinny and took it for granted. Maybe next time she would appreciate how her genes came to be this way when she ate her mom's cooking. Whenever she got home, anyway.

She took a bite out of her bread roll and sighed. If bread didn't exist, Wendy's life would not be nearly as happy. Neither would her mom's or sister's. Giving up meat hadn't been that hard, but giving up bread would be like slicing something out of her heart. "My term's been good," she said, realizing a moment too late that he had asked a question. "Yeah, being Prefect is pretty hard. I don't know what to do and it seems like people are freaking out. I don't like it, but I gotta do it, you know?"

Wendy tore off another piece of her bread. "You seem really dedicated to Quidditch. Do you want to do something with it after we graduate? You're like a real athlete, not just one of the boys who just does it for fun during school."

In the same breath, she added, "You have a brother, right? I think he's the same year as my sister. That means they're graduating together." Wendy thought it was funny how that happened. Maybe once Waverly had talked with Rup's brother about these things too. She didn't really know Rupert's brother all that well so she couldn't make any judgments of him.

0 Wendy Erm, sort of. 0 Wendy 0 5