I am not blushing. on Labyrinth Gardens

Anonymous

June 27, 2015 1:01 AM

A secret revealed by Anonymous

The first secret had been fun. It had worked well, setting all kinds of murmurings and worry in motion. It didn’t matter - hadn’t even registered - that it was an unusual thing for a boy to keep secret. All that mattered was that he’d been carrying it round, close to his chest, not wanting to tell. And there had been more - more like him, though their thoughts ran to a particular person. One of those had been spoilt though, and it wasn’t fair! It just wasn’t. That juicy gossip had been worked for, hard won… And then that boy, who had been so… ripe, so full of hidden intent had gone and told the girl how he felt when it wasn’t his place to. Still, there were plenty more like him… All staring, moony-eyed at each other, feeling but not telling.

At first glance, it seemed like a secret place. A tree out in the gardens - such a common place for that kind of thing. But it was strangely close to the school, strangely prominent for anyone who’d been trying to hide what they were doing. Almost everyone who passed that way was bound to see it.

A small heart enclosed two initials. A ‘G’ and an ‘A.’

Subthreads:

Curiosity is piqued. by Scarlett Brockert with John Umland

To the attention of G & A by Nathan Xavier, Protector and Restorer of Trees with Laila Kennedy

Beware of Dog. by Jax Donovan with Joella Curtis

I am not blushing. by Adam Spencer with Lena Westley, Aladren

Not amused. by Dustin Newell

13 Anonymous A secret revealed 0 Anonymous 1 5

Scarlett Brockert

June 27, 2015 1:27 PM

Curiosity is piqued. by Scarlett Brockert

Scarlett set out to engage in one of her favorite activities-exploring the gardens. She wanted to examine every nook and cranny of this huge building and it's grounds, go places no student had gone before-or at least hadn't gone in a very long time. Discover hidden rooms and secret passages. Fun things like that. Not that Scarlett felt the need for a hideaway, she liked people generally speaking but just the thrill of the hunt! Even the risk of getting caught and the game of trying not to was fun.

She wasn't very far in when she spotted a tree with initials inside a heart. Now that wasn't a big deal, Scarlett ran into such things here and there during her excursions but the Pecari came by this tree often and this was new. A and G. Well, that was obviously the initials of two students. She tried to remember the names of all the students whose names started with either letter. It had to be current students too because it was unlikely that something so fresh was about graduates. Besides, though she could think of a bunch of A's who'd recently graduated, Scarlett didn't know of any G's who had. Obviously it had to be current students.

The third year racked her brain for people who fit. She decided to start with the A's. Well, of course there was Aiden O'Neil and Araceli Arbon in her year. Then in second year there was Alistair Johnson, Andrew Carey and Aislinn Nicolls. Nobody was either a G or A in fourth year but fifth year had Atlas Primred and sixth year had Arnold Manger and Ava Fletcher and of course Head Boy Adam Spencer in seventh. And then there were the first years whose names she didn't know aside from Kira and Fabian.

She turned her mind to the G's next. Well, there was Ginger Pierce and Gia Donovan. Then there were Gemma Bennett and Ginny Bellrose in seventh year. Scarlett's inclination was to go with Adam and Ginny since she didn't think any of these other people had much connection to each other. Unless Alistair or Andrew had developed an affection for Ginger during Quidditch last year.

Then she remembered the first bit of graffiti, about someone liking girls. Scarlett might not be the intellectual twin, but she could figure that that probably had to with a girl liking another girl romantically. If the two were connected, she could eliminate all the boys. She could probably eliminate Araceli too based on the fact that an Arbon wouldn't be interested in someone not of her social status. "A" had to be either Ava or Aislinn.

This was most likely something the Pecari should leave alone. She didn't want to gossip and cause trouble for people, but her curiosity tended to be overwhelming on things and quite frankly, she just had to know. Scarlett wouldn't tell anyone but she just had to solve the mystery. The only person she might tell was Savannah. The two of them made the perfect little detective team.

She was about to turn to go find her sister when she found someone standing next to her looking at the tree. "Oh, hello!" Scarlett greeted her new companion. "What do you make of this?" Maybe they had some theories of their own.

OOC-Apologies to girls whose names start with A or G, for bring more scrutiny to your sexual preferences.

11 Scarlett Brockert Curiosity is piqued. 293 Scarlett Brockert 0 5

John Umland

June 29, 2015 6:52 PM

Good thing you're not a cat, then. by John Umland

Intermediate classes were better by far than what they had replaced, but they had yet to monopolize John’s attention to the point where he’d consider giving up side projects. He was not disappointed, though, because he had never expected to do so. In an ideal world, his interests and assignments would have aligned so perfectly that work and fun would have been the same thing all the time, but he knew he was lucky that they were the same thing even some of the time and was mostly content with his situation.

It helped, of course, that off-the-books work had other advantages as well. When he was just ‘playing’, he had total freedom to try whatever he could get away with and fail as spectacularly as possible with no social consequences. His endocrine system had become another Cassius, dedicating substantial resources to convincing his nervous system to stab his reasoning abilities in the face, but it was hard to be self-conscious and aware of what other people thought a smart person looked like or was interested in or anything like that when no other people were around. He missed having accomplices, but got his social needs met by attending clubs and sometimes, awkward though it was at unpredictable intervals, approaching classmates in the common room or library to discuss class material and enjoyed the restfulness of his naturally solitary activities.

Accordingly, he was in a good mood one day as he headed out to the Gardens with his binoculars, field guide, and notebook to perform one of his bird counts. The conditions of the Gardens were far from ideal for observation, but he tried to do get out into them at least three days a week and usually succeeded, at least in the ‘getting out there’ part. Sometimes he did not have such luck with the ‘seeing anything’ part, but that was the nature of the beast. The important part was that he wouldn’t see anything if he didn’t try.

Before he could get to the observation point he'd selected for the day, though, he saw one of the Brockert twins staring at a tree. John, curious what would make her do that, looked at the tree, too, but it took him a moment to spot the graffiti and he was a little surprised when she spoke to him about it. He’d seen probably-her out here before, and sometimes also when he was wandering the school in search of a nice secret passage he could use as a laboratory, but between her House and her surname, he had always deemed it safest to go his own way instead of asking her business or drawing attention to his own. John had no personal feelings of any kind for the headmaster or his relatives, but discretion was supposed to be the better part of valor and he tried to remember it.

“Dating people are probably being idiots," he said matter-of-factly. He understood this was a pretty normal thing for dating people to do, especially young ones. "Or somebody really likes the state of Georgia," he added, remembering the maps of this country he'd seen where all the states had abbreviations instead of names on them. He doubted that was it, but he missed his city, at least, when he was here and saw no reason why someone from Georgia shouldn't miss his or her home enough to carve a tribute. "It's probably the...daters, but I guess a first year could be really homesick or something," he added, trying to remember if any of the Aladren first years seemed especially unhappy and in need of support.

16 John Umland Good thing you're not a cat, then. 285 John Umland 0 5

Nathan Xavier, Protector and Restorer of Trees

July 01, 2015 7:03 PM

To the attention of G & A by Nathan Xavier, Protector and Restorer of Trees

Nathan Xavier found the initials carved into the tree a couple days after they appeared. He’d been tending to other parts of gardens and had taken short cuts through lesser known entrances to the labyrinth, which meant he hadn’t passed by this particular spot prior to now. Currently, though, he was here and so he’d seen the oddly prominent bit of graffiti carved into one of his trees. Teenagers, he thought with an irritated huff. Worse, teenagers in love.

He used the same spell he’d used a week or so before to clear the initials off the tree - in such a well-transversed clearing it just didn’t look good to have initials carved into the proud trees of his garden - and wondered if the two events were related. He made a note to tell the Headmaster that someone with the initials G or A had used a similar style of carving to the words drawn into the Cascade Hall doors. But then, most students had knives of about the same size for their standard potion ingredient slicing and dicing, so maybe that was the only connection between the two. It was circumstantial evidence at best anyway and by no means conclusive. Or maybe the lovebirds had only thought of carving their initials into the tree because somebody else had very publically made another carving recently. There was no easy way to tell.

In any event, he restored the tree to its unblemished state and gave the clearing back its dignity. He summoned up a piece of parchment and a quill, wrote out a quick admonishment to the semi-anonymous couple, and used a sticking charm to attach it to where the heart enclosed initials had been previously displayed. It read:

To the attention of G & A and anyone else inclined to carve their everlasting devotion into the hardwood of my garden:

Please don’t.

I will need to remove the graffiti and how symbolically eternal would that be if your declaration of everlasting love was removed as though it had never been there?

Also, if I or one of my elves catch you at it, you will receive a detention. And the elves will be watching now.

Yours,
Nathan Xavier, Protector and Restorer of Trees

Looking it over one more time to make sure it got his point across and didn’t look too much worse than the carving itself, he nodded to himself and made a mental note to take it down after a few days, once he felt the offenders would have had enough time to come back to revel in their illicit deed and found the note instead.

He was about to head off and inform the elves he’d like to put a watch on at least this clearing, and maybe a few others that looked cozy and romantic, to defend his territory against knife-wielding lovebirds, when he realized he wasn’t alone anymore. “Oh, uh,” he stammered, not quite embarrassed to be caught writing up vaguely threatening warnings against students. “There was more graffiti,” he explained, in case his new companion hadn’t seen it before he’d mended the tree.

1 Nathan Xavier, Protector and Restorer of Trees To the attention of G & A 28 Nathan Xavier, Protector and Restorer of Trees 0 5

Jax Donovan

July 01, 2015 7:07 PM

Beware of Dog. by Jax Donovan

Jax was in a foul mood. He wanted nothing to do with anyone at the moment. He hated the other people of this school. They all went around either acting like the world fell out of their butt or so oblivious to everything else around them that they had this false idea of how the world worked. It bothered him greatly how self-involved these people were and they were dragging his sister into their world.

It was frustrating to be a part of all of this. He knew that if any of them really knew what his illness was, none of them would want to have anything to do with him. He was pretty sure that the staff hated him, or, at the very least, wanted nothing to do with him. If the Headmaster could have, Jax was sure he would have sold him out to the highest bidder. He hated this school. He hated everything.

During his moodier times as his ‘illness’ grew closer, Jax spent almost all of his free time wandering around outside in the gardens. He loved the fresh air. The school made him feel stifled and stuck. He always feared that someone would figure out his secret. With rooming with Barnaby and Jack, Jax was definitely concerned that one of them would figure it out. Jack seemed like one of those oblivious to the world types, really friendly and kind, but he was still an Aladren. Jax’s real fear was with Barnaby. He was the suspicious sort of person, just like Jax. If anyone was going to figure something was up, it was going to be Barnaby.

Jax had to be extra careful.

Walking around the gardens now, something marked on a tree caught his attention. On the tree was carved a heart and inside the heart was G A. At first, he thought that Gia had carved her name into the tree and the i wasn’t deep enough to see. But he knew Gia wouldn’t do that, so then he thought someone tried to carve her name into the tree but then wasn’t sure how to spell it, so he/she tried to skip over the middle part. He couldn’t necessarily blame anyone for not knowing how to spell her name since it wasn’t spelled as one pronounced it. What sounded like Guy-a, was spelled Gia, which was an older Greek form of it. It never surprised Jax when someone called his sister Gee-a instead.

The idea of someone trying to portray their love for his sister in a tree sent Jax in a bit of an internal rage. Who thought they had the right to embarrass her that way? Who thought they might possibly have that sort of a relationship with his sister? Jax wanted to find whoever put this on the tree and tear them into pieces so that they knew she was not theirs.

Thoughts continued to rage through him and only at the presence of someone else nearby did Jax force himself to have his mind go blank and erase any emotion he had currently been feeling. He knew that the closer he came to the change, the more emotional he became and he needed to check himself.

Looking at the mark on the tree again, he realized that it probably had nothing to do with his sister. They were separate Initials. G and A. He supposed it could still be his sister, but he doubted it at this point. She never spoke about anyone that he can recall with an ‘A’ name, except her roommate and he doubted the ‘A’ would have come after the ‘G’ if Anna-Clarissa had a thing for Gia (if she did, Jax would have to rethink tearing her apart as he would never harm a girl no matter what).

He supposed the initials could be like Ginger Pierce and Andrew Carey or Aislynn Nicolls and Alistair Johnson. Or some other students who were older and he didn’t know of all that well. There were bound to be quite a few possibilities for these two initials and he was honestly glad that one of them wasn’t a ‘J’ because then he would be seething at the idea of someone liking him or thinking they were in a relationship (of course, that wasn’t likely to happen either because, well, who would like someone like him?).

“Is this a popular spot for couples?” He asked the person who had joined him. “It feels like such a well populated area for someone to decide to proclaim their love.” Jax didn’t normally talk to people first, but the Aladren in him couldn’t help but ask anyway.

6 Jax Donovan Beware of Dog. 296 Jax Donovan 0 5

Laila Kennedy

July 02, 2015 2:02 AM

I wonder if the snow loves the trees as much as you do. by Laila Kennedy

Laila walked up to the tree. This was supposedly the spot in which two names had been carved into it inside a heart. Though her mother said that gossip was a tool of the Devil, Laila had always been intrigued by romantic whisperings. Growing up, she’d hated the gossipy nature of the town when it came to things like families or who was fighting with who, but when it came to something as light and fluffy like the Macnulty’s daughter and the delivery boy from Lauren Aven’s florist, then Laila was all ears. So, even though she likely didn’t know the lovers who had put their names on the tree, she did feel it was somewhat necessary to go find ground zero and inspect. The note that the grounds keeper was hanging was enough for Laila to confirm that there had indeed been a carving and it wasn’t just the rumor mill at splendid, splendid work.

Over the past couple of days she had heard everything from the two initials in the heart as being star-crossed lovers, to it being some sort of unrequited love. She personally preferred tragic love stories as those always made her giddy—she especially liked the idea of it being being two students in love but both thinking it was unrequited because one was in a forced relationship on account of their parents being very important and trying to make connections. It was a silly girl’s fantasy, and it was one that Laila knew likely had no basis, especially since she didn’t know who was who in the upper years just yet and on top of that didn’t really know if anyone was dating anyone.

Another couple rumors had gone around that the carver of the hearts had also carved the message about liking girls into the doors of Cascade Hall, but Laila didn’t really buy too much into that theory as it didn’t make any sense for someone to say “someone” when they really meant themselves and on top of that it just wasn’t nearly as romantic a notion than two people in love writing their names on a tree. Laila nodded as Mr. Xavier explained what he was doing and peered around him in order to read the note, her brown hair falling into her face as she did so. “Oh,” she responded as she tucked the hair that had fallen out of her pony tail away behind her ear and looked back to the note, her cheeks lightly flushed at having been caught involving herself in gossip. Although she was miles away from her straight-laced mother, Laila still often felt the pull to obey.

“I didn’t realize wizards did this kind of thing too,” Laila said instead of pushing forward with the romantic idea as she had figured out from his note that Mr. Xavier likely didn’t care about that sort of thing. “You see it all the time at Muggle parks, but I guess I thought this was something too plain for wizards to do.” Over the past couple weeks it had seemed as though wizards loved to do flamboyant things. Everything from the wand-lighting spell she had learned in defense class to the transfiguration and bright charms seemed to serve an unnecessary purpose other than to say ‘hey, I have abilities that are condemned by other people, let me show you how awesome I am at them.’ To carve a name into a tree with a heart around it seemed so…ordinary that the idea of it had cheered Laila up to think that perhaps, just perhaps, wizards were much more easy to relate to than she had originally thought.

OOC: subject credit = adaptation of an Alice in Wonderland Quote.

10 Laila Kennedy I wonder if the snow loves the trees as much as you do. 318 Laila Kennedy 0 5

Nathan Xavier

July 02, 2015 9:54 AM

Would it blanket the branches so nicely if it didn't? by Nathan Xavier

Nathan smiled as he recognized the girl as one of the first years from his orientation. She hadn't been one of the three that got sorted into Teppenpaw, so he wasn't entirely sure of her name, but despite her interest in the tree and his note, he was going to go ahead and assume she was not the G or A who had defaced his tree.

"Oh, yes," he agreed good-naturedly in response to her surprise that some things remained exactly the same on either side of the magical divide. "Wizards can clear up graffiti easier than muggles can, especially when it's carved out of trees, but that doesn't stop it from happening in the first place." He gave a sigh a bit heavier than what might be entirely appropriate when conversing with an eleven year old, but it was heartfelt and he didn't believe in patronizing the younger students. "Some things are just universal, unfortunately."

He smiled at her again, making an effort to not be a downer. "I take it it you're a muggleborn then?" he guessed. "I'm a halfblood myself, so I knew magic existed when I was growing up, but I didn't actually see much of it until I went to school. It's a lot to get used to, isn't it?" he asked in sympathetic understanding.

"It gets easier," he promised. "It might take a few years, but eventually you figure out the important things are pretty constant everywhere." He made a gesture deeper into the gardens and suggested, "If things get overwhelming, I always found a quiet nature hike helped settle things back into perspective. Birds sound like birds everywhere."

1 Nathan Xavier Would it blanket the branches so nicely if it didn't? 28 Nathan Xavier 0 5

Joella Curtis

July 03, 2015 3:12 PM

It's okay, I like dogs. by Joella Curtis

Taking a slight detour through the Labyrinth Gardens on her way from the Pecari Commons to the sports room in MARS, broom in one hand and Quaffle tucked under the opposite arm, Joella stumbled across Jax Donovan...watching a tree. She stopped a short way from him and looked at the tree too, curious as to why it seemed of such interest to him when it was there every day. Carved into the body of the tree was a heart, containing the initials ‘G’ and ‘A’. Because it was Jax Donovan showing an interest, Joella assumed that the G would have to be his sister Gia. But then who would the A be? Andrew Carey or… Alistair? The third year thought it unlikely. But what if the G wasn’t for Gia but rather for Ginger Pierce. Maybe Alistair did have a thing for his teammate last year after all, only she didn’t seem his type at all. He would never go for a California Pierce, for sure. Joella shook her head in response to her confused thought process, intrigued as to what couple would so publicly display their feelings to the rest of the school when she didn’t know of anyone who was even dating at Sonora.

Adam Spencer popped up in her mind, another ‘A’ that she was familiar with. But she didn’t think he had a girlfriend and she couldn’t for the life of her imagine who his ‘G’ was. It did cross her mind that perhaps it was Ginny Bellrose, a good friend of Adam’s. But being part of the dance club that Ginny ran and Adam attended, Joella was able to observe her Quidditch Captain’s interactions with the Crotalus girl and for quite sometime she’d thought they didn’t seem nearly as good friends as they had previously been. So it was highly unlikely that they had been sneaking out to the gardens for a little romantic rendezvous where they etched their initials in a heart together.

Joella’s thoughts were interrupted when Jax Donovan spoke. She took a moment just to be sure she had heard correctly, pleasantly surprised by the fact that he had actually initiated some form of interaction with her. She wasn’t sure she could recall a time that she’d even heard his voice, whether it be directly to her or something she’d overheard when passing him. Perhaps his quietness last year had really just been down to being new… Only Joella didn’t think he seemed much like another Araceli Arbon at all. He had seemed cold and gloomy rather than simply shy before. Even so, she was sure there must be a fun side to the boy before her, since his sister had seemed so friendly when the thirteen year old had conversed with the younger Pecari in the past and therefore was unlikely to spend so much time with such a miserable person.

“I wouldn’t think so,” replied Joella to Jax Donovan’s question. “As you say, it is a rather exposed spot. And as far as I know there aren’t too many people dating around here so I’m not sure many couples would want to be so open about their feelings.” It wasn’t as though Joella knew the ins and outs of the student relationships at Sonora, especially since she was still among the younger years in many respects, but it was a small enough school and she thought herself aware of other people enough to gage which people were classed as being ‘together’.

Joella frowned in thought and confusion, stepping closer toward Jax and the tree. “Only this suggests otherwise.” She wondered if maybe a couple of students were having a secret romance and another student, having found out about this, had decided to stir things up by announcing it to the rest of the school. Yet surely they would have just spread it through word of mouth rather than leaving an ambiguous clue on a tree that some people might not even notice? “Perhaps it isn’t the couple who left this but someone trying to cause trouble,” she suggested to the Aladren beside her but wasn’t particularly convinced by the thought. Suddenly another idea popped into her head. “What if it has something to do with the writing on the Hall doors the other day?” She wasn’t sure why she hadn’t thought of it before. “This all seems like a bit of a mystery to me…” Joella smiled and looked at Jax Donovan, realising that perhaps she wasn’t just talking about the heart in front of them or the doors of Cascade Hall but maybe also about him. She was a curious and imaginative girl and although she would never purposely try to pry she couldn’t help finding the Donovans suspicious and intriguing.

8 Joella Curtis It's okay, I like dogs. 295 Joella Curtis 0 5

Jax

July 03, 2015 9:33 PM

What if they bite? by Jax

Almost as soon as he had spoken, Jax had wished he could take it back. The person who had ended up joining him at the tree was one of those people that he hated to be around. Joella Curtis. Gia really enjoyed having a conversation with her during dinner, but Jax felt like Joella was asking too many questions. Gia said that Joella was always really nice and energetic and Gia loved watching the Quidditch matches because the team all seemed to be like that. Jax was just exhausted even thinking about them being that way. Why did everyone have to be so extreme about things? Why couldn’t they all just be settled and keep to themselves? Life would be so much better for him if they were more like that.

Still, he had asked her a question and it was only polite to give her his attention. Jax listened to her answer and it seemed to make sense. Jax didn’t really talk to people, well, anyone except his sister, but he did pay attention to what was going on around him. He was not sure about the older students in the school as he only saw them either in the common rooms or during meal times where they happened to be in there at the same time. He couldn’t figure out who was dating and who was simply just friends. Out of those that he did know from last year and this year, he thought Uzume was dating that older boy he saw her with a lot and maybe Liac was dating that older girl because they seemed together a lot. But, other than those four, Jax had no idea.

Joella had a point. It might not have been the people whose initials this was representing that had put this here but someone trying to out them. Jax was suspicious enough about people that he could totally believe that someone would be terrible enough to do that. He wasn’t sure why a person would feel the need to out someone else with something like this, but it only made him all the more worried about himself. If someone was going around outing people, his secret was going to get out and then him and his sister would be ruined all over again. He just couldn’t let that happen.

“The thing about the girls?” Jax asked. He had seen the writing on the doors but really didn’t care enough to have thought about it. “I guess someone could have found out that there are two girls secretly dating and when the first message didn’t bring it out, went ahead with a more bolder note.” Jax suggested. It did make sense if someone did put both messages up. But, if they really were trying to out them, why wouldn’t they have just written their whole names or at least give both initials? “I don’t really understand why someone would do that though. But, some people just can’t keep out of others’ businesses.” That statement came out a little on the aggressive side but Jax didn’t care. He hated the idea of someone digging deeply into someone else’s life. He had enough to worry about and knowing someone was doing this.... it was just too much.

The worst part was though that Jax was now trying to think of girls with ‘G’ names and ‘A’ names that this note could possibly be about and that made him sick to his stomach. “I guess this is one mystery I will leave unsolved.” He declared to Joella. “I don’t think it’s fair to those involved to have their business displayed like this.”

6 Jax What if they bite? 296 Jax 0 5

Scarlett

July 04, 2015 2:37 PM

Indeed by Scarlett

She wasn't all that surprised to see John Umland, sometimes she saw him out when she was exploring though the Pecari usually tried to avoid being caught by him. Though she liked to stand out normally, when one was sneaking around where they probably weren't supposed to be, it was better to be invisible. Plus, well, it wouldn't be proper for people to think they were sneaking around together. She didn't want that kind of reputation.

Still, Scarlett at least figured that John couldn't tell on her without incriminating himself. Besides, right now they were in a fairly public place.

"Well, yes." Scarlett replied. "I mean the Georgia theory is an interesting one but probably unlikely." It was obviously people dating, she didn't an Aladren to point that out to her. "The question is who ." Okay, yes, she didn't really care who was dating who with random students she didn't know, but she always wondered things. She just couldn't help it.

"On the other hand it might be connected to the other graffiti?" Scarlett asked. "The one about someone liking girls? Like it's not the daters themselves but maybe someone's trying to humiliate or bully or otherwise destroy someone else." This bothered her. She knew bad things happened but she couldn't stand a bully. It made the Pecari sort of angry. Now, she wanted to get a hold of this person and make them suffer. "I mean, if you were dating someone and inclined to deface school property, wouldn't you put in a place where it's less likely to be seen? And if you wanted to embarrass someone else, wouldn't you put it where everyone would see?"

"I wonder who would do that...and why. What does this person have against A, G or both? But to know that, we'd have to know who G and A are to know who their enemies are. " Off the top of her head, the only person Scarlett could think of doing something like that was her cousin Carrie who had graduated. Of course, Carrie would be less subtle than even this. She wasn't exactly that clever.

It was a great puzzle, a great mystery and now Scarlett was more intrigued than ever. Someone had to be brought to justice.

11 Scarlett Indeed 293 Scarlett 0 5

Joella

July 05, 2015 12:06 PM

I wouldn't blame the dog. by Joella

It wasn’t as though Joella was unaware that Jax Donovan was the kind of person who wasn’t that keen on conversation but as one of the more talkative kinds of people (having been named the Most Talkative in the yearbook for two years now she wasn’t in any position to deny her chatty nature even if she had cared to) the Pecari thought it her job to help kids like Jax realize the fun of it. She wasn’t sure the second year would ever enjoy anyone’s company besides that of Gia but she might as well try and see how far she could get. Joella was therefore quite surprised that he continued to converse with her. He may not have been the most enthusiastic companion but at least she didn’t feel she was forcing him into conversation…

Joella nodded when the Aladren clarified what she meant by the writing on the Cascade Hall doors, something that had confused her greatly at the time. Who had written it? And what was the significance of someone liking girls anyway? Someone whose name hadn’t even been mentioned… It was only when Jax continued talking that Joella’s face lit up. What a fantastic idea! How had she never thought of that before? She reconciled herself with the fact that Jax was in Aladren so she could hardly beat herself up about not having the same intelligent thought processes as he did. “That would make more sense,” she agreed. She knew that there were a lot of prejudices about people of the same gender being in love, especially amongst the kind of families that the Curtises socialized with.

She was a bit surprised by the way he spoke about people not keeping out of each other’s business. Was that a dig at her? She didn’t think it could be. Although she was quite curious about how different Jax and Gia were and why the Aladren ate meals with the Pecaris and seemed so intent on not making any friends, she didn’t think she had ever shown this kind of interest when talking to the Donovans. She had only ever attempted polite conversation with them. But perhaps other students had the same questions as she did, only they weren’t quite so polite and had gone ahead and asked Jax some quite nosy questions.

Joella was very confused as to why the dark haired boy had so quickly switched from taking an interest to not wanting to think on the mystery any longer. What did he have to hide? What was his business? She was now a little annoyed at herself for having such nosy thoughts because Jax did have a very good point. If someone was trying to stir trouble and display other people’s business then trying to guess who the victims were would make matters worse for them.

“I guess you’re right,” the third year agreed quite amiably. “It isn’t our business at all.” Well, if the ‘A’ did actually stand for Alistair she thought it would be very much her business. Only they weren’t best friends anymore… “And I know I wouldn’t want my business displayed like this for the rest of the school to see. Not that I have anything to hide, of course,” Joella added in a hurry. She didn’t think she had any secrets at all. “But if I did then…” she trailed off, knowing that Jax would get what she meant and that she was probably beginning to ramble which was something he most definitely would not appreciate.

“You’re not worried that it’s Gia, are you?” She didn’t know why she said it but as soon as the question was out, Joella almost clapped her hand to her mouth (only she didn’t because the dramatic action would only embarrass her further). She hated it when she said things aloud without thinking and it could quite easily get her into trouble. But it did make sense as to why Jax wanted to drop the subject. Siblings were generally quite protective of each other and Joella wondered if he was trying to protect what he had figured out to be his sister’s secret. Even if she regretted asking the question, she had spoken out of concern and not because she wanted to pry at all so she thought Jax could hardly hate her for it… but he probably would.

8 Joella I wouldn't blame the dog. 295 Joella 0 5

Jax

July 06, 2015 8:57 PM

You are a rare breed. by Jax

He was glad to hear that she agreed with minding her own business. Jax had to always deal with people talking about him or his family. It didn’t matter whether it was in Greece or in America, people always had something to say about them. Gia always told him that he needed to relax and not be so suspicious about people, but he knew what they were thinking. He knew what they were really like. It was Gia who was oblivious. It was his sister who didn’t understand that their family was a laughing stock and there were all sorts of rumors swirling around their neighborhood about them. Not just in their current home, but in all the places they lived before. Most of them were always about their mother, but then it’s the ‘questionable’ son.

Gia always asked him why he was always on edge or why he was always so angry, it was because of everyone else. Because people were prejudiced and bigoted against people like him or families like the three of them. People went around talking about their mother as if she were a modern day Hester Prynne. None of them knew her story, but all of them seem to just assume that their mother went around having children with married men. She had loved their father, she had been a devoted wife to him and all of that history was so easily erased all because people felt like they had a right to make assumptions of others.

He did not want to be apart of those kinds of people. Not here and not out there.

Jax’s cool blue eyes turned to look at Joella when she brought up his sister. The look on her face showed that she shouldn’t have said anything about her, but he didn’t think she meant any harm behind her question, so, he answered her truthfully. “At first, I did worry that it had something to do with Gia.” Jax said in his usual calm, soft, yet, at the same time, rather firm voice. “But Gia doesn’t really have secrets of her own and I very much doubt that she likes girls.” Jax really had no idea if she did or not. His sister was too young to really have an opinion of one gender or the other. “Or hasn’t figured it out if she does like girls.” He added. Of all their family secrets, Gia being a lesbian was the least of their worries. Neither Jax or their mother would really care very much about it if she did end up being that sort. But Jax knew how other people were and there were likely to be a few who had some mean words for anyone who happened to like the same gender.

“There are worst things in this world than being gay.” Jax commented with a shrug. “It’s sad to know that even America is still so limited by what they find acceptable.”

6 Jax You are a rare breed. 296 Jax 0 5

Adam Spencer

July 08, 2015 4:00 AM

I am not blushing. by Adam Spencer

The strange appearance in Cascade Hall had completely passed over Adam’s head. He didn’t really care who liked girls or boys at this school, save one. He had plenty of other things to worry about and he’d started to take walks in the gardens to try and clear his head. He liked being out in the sun and Head duties were starting to get slightly overwhelming alongside his Quidditch duties, but he enjoyed it. He liked being responsible and having so many things to do he hardly had time to think about personal matters.

On one of his walks he was thinking about how to put together the Quidditch roster when Adam passed the tree he always passed, this time with unfamiliar markings on it. He stopped and neared a bit closer, curious to know which letters were in the heart. It was bad form, carving initials into a tree, a bit elementary—

But then he saw familiar letters and his face flared up immediately. Good God, even if he hadn’t carved it himself he certainly looked guilty now with a face as crimson as his. He didn’t even know why he was blushing in the first place—it wasn’t as though she had carved their initials into the tree—unless she had. In which case that changed everything. He was beginning to feel a bit light-headed so he walked away and sat down on a bench not looking at anything in particular. There had to be dozens of other ‘G’s’ and ‘A’s’ romantically involved at this school. He didn’t know many of the first years, but there was Gemma Bennett who could possibly be dating Arnold Manger, but he’d seen Arnold around Ji-Eun more often than not.

Then there was Alistair Johnson, but he didn’t know any name that started with a ‘G’ whom Alistair could possibly be dating. Adam’s brain was scrambling for names now, any name that could fit ‘G’ and ‘A’, any two names that could disprove his growing hope that Ginny Bellrose had carved those letters inside that heart herself. What did it mean? Was it supposed to be a coded message to him? Or to the entire school? Was she mocking him? No, she was too kind to do anything of the sort. But then if she carved their letters into a tree in the gardens where he was often found, was she saying she wanted to talk to him about something? This was far more romantic than he could have ever imagined.

Witches were silly, but having sisters he had a fair idea of how romantic their ideas could be. Adam thought he was about to go mad and the flush on his cheeks still hadn’t gone away. He stood so abruptly, ready to race off to his common room, that he bumped into someone. "Merlin, sorry," he said, taking a step back and readying himself to escape again.

40 Adam Spencer I am not blushing. 257 Adam Spencer 0 5

Laila

July 08, 2015 11:55 PM

There is some merit in that, I guess. by Laila

Laila nodded. She supposed that made sense and besides that, after having found out she was a wizard, Arne had invited her over more times than one to see how magic worked. For the most part she had declined the invitations, preferring to keep to what she knew which was playing with her brother and Dusty. However, she had briefly stopped by to his brother’s birthday and occasionally had found herself coming across their secluded compound while taking the family’s golden retriever for a walk and had seen some magic in action, namely brooms that swept for themselves and rags that washed windows without the aid of a person’s arm. She had passed by the Reinhard’s house many times before but had never noticed these animated household objects until after having received her Sonora letter. While he bothered her at dinner one day, Laila had taken the opportunity to ask Arne about the shift in things she had begun to notice. ‘Disillusionment Charm,’ he had replied rather nonchalantly. ‘Are you going to finish that?’ and before she had the chance to reply he had swiped the rest of her dinner roll.

“Yes,” she replied. “There’s a lot of stuff going on I don’t always understand but…” she shrugged. “The Reinhardts are generally pretty good at explaining things to me.” If I press Arne enough, she thought in an uncharacteristically bitter manner. Tobi was always willing to offer a suggestion, but Laila had rarely approached with questions as Arne tended to get rather irritated if she ever started a sentence with Tobi said or when I asked Tobi. “We’re from the same town, Tobi, Arne, and I,” she explained. “We went to elementary school together.” She wasn’t sure how much of everyone’s background Mr. Xavier knew, but if he could tell she was a Muggleborn this far into the conversation she was certain he knew that Tobi and Arne were purebloods and Liac was a halfblood, seeing as he was Tobi and Liac’s head of house.

Mr. Xavier was nice, she decided as she took into consideration his suggestion. It was true that somethings obviously had to stay the same across the two worlds—like the sound of birds, but even those were different. In care of magical creatures Laila ad studied all sorts of things that she hadn’t even thought could be possible to exist, had received confirmation that other things existed, things that she had been reassured time and time again by her father didn’t exist like vampires, werewolves, and ghosts. “I guess,” she replied, her forehead scrunching as she looked down the long windy path of the garden imagining all the soul sucking creatures that could be lurking behind corners, things she had never really been afraid of nor concerned with before she came to Sonora and found out they were real.

“You wouldn’t happen to have any monster repellent?” she joked, only half-serious. “Something that could ward off the Randall’s of the wizarding world?” She wasn’t really sure if the groundskeeper would get the reference to the purple lizard-monster with chameleon like abilities that she had seen in a movie once, but she made it anyway, unsure as how to otherwise phrase the sentence for fear of accidentally insulting Mr. Xavier who, for all she knew, had a relative who was part vampire or something like that.

OOC: Randall is, of course, from Monster's Inc of which I own no part.

10 Laila There is some merit in that, I guess. 318 Laila 0 5

John

July 09, 2015 8:38 PM

I think we're both better off as humans. by John

Who was not a question John was remotely prepared to answer, so he shrugged. “No idea,” he said honestly. The first ‘A’ he could think of off the top of his head was Araceli Arbon and the first ‘G’ was Julian’s roommate Gemma. Since he very much doubted that Araceli Arbon and Gemma Bennett loved each other (frankly, he very much doubted that Araceli Arbon and Gemma Bennett even knew each other), he did not think they were who the carving referred to. “My older brothers are the only people I know who I know do…dating and stuff.”

He raised an eyebrow when Brockert linked the current message to the Cascade Hall graffiti. “Unless…whoever…just wanted to cause as much trouble as possible and picked letters out of a hat,” he pointed out when she assumed A and G were specific targets. “I mean, if I really did want to - humiliate or bully or otherwise destroy - a specific person, I’d use more than one initial each. This is too unspecific. Unless I just don’t know enough people,” he said fairly. “But still – you and your sister have the same initials, and I’ve got a sister and a brother with two the same as mine.” Of course, Joe wasn’t here, but there wasn’t the point. “You couldn't be sure people would guess the right S.B. or J.U. if you were after one of us, but you could probably at least narrow J.U. down to my family. If someone just put 'J' on it, though, everyone with that initial's a suspect.”

It occurred to him that he was probably not doing much for his strange, (technically) inaccurate reputation for latent criminal tendencies by sharing thoughts on the most effective strategies for ruining other people’s reputations. Luckily, she probably wasn’t going to admit to knowing so much as his opinion on the most effective strategies for staying out of bad weather. The girls of her sort, he had noticed, seemed much more socially isolated than the boys did, though whether that was a double standard (all right if Our Boys engage in any activity you can think of short of honorable marriage with Umland's sister, but it's a scandal if Our Girls are so much as civil to Umland) or if it was just because the Aladren guys had good reasons to tolerate him and were reasonable enough to do so. He should attempt interaction with surnames from other Houses, see how that went and then, depending on how the results panned out, maybe write in some commentary to American newspapers.

"I wouldn't be surprised if it's all made up from start to finish," he said. "Just to cause trouble," he continued, not entirely keeping the disgust the thought inspired out of his tone, since the sort of trouble he was thinking about was political and therefore revolting. He just could not, no matter how hard he tried, understand why untrue statements, based on pure ideology instead of logic even when the most cursory examination of facts showed that Stuff Didn't Work That Way, actually convinced people, why they thought it could be so simple when it never had been before. It didn't make any sense.

16 John I think we're both better off as humans. 285 John 0 5

Nathan Xavier

July 10, 2015 4:16 PM

Keeping Trees and Students safe since SA20ish by Nathan Xavier

Nathan nodded in pleased approval as the girl said she was from the same town as some of the Reinhardts and they were helping her out. "That's great, they're good kids," he said, basing the assessment on the two Reinhardts he had in his House sonce he didn't really know the youngest one. He was mildly surprised that Tobi had gone to muggle school as Nathan had thought he was the pureblood one, but maybe he had that mixed up.

"Having someone to explain things helps a lot, I'm glad you have someone like that." He'd been working up to an offer to provide the same service if her own Head of House was too busy (he felt not having classes helped him be a bit more proactive in his Head of House duties), but it seemed she didn't need it.

He blinked in bafflement at her final request, wondering what in the world she was talking about before the penny dropped and he remembered the movie his nephew (well, the son of his cousin, but he had always been Uncle Nathan to the boy) had obsessed over for a few years. "Oh," he said, feeling somewhat surprised that he gotten the reference at all. "Um, well, here," he fumbled both verbally and physically as he tried to find something in one of his robe pockets that might double as 'monster repellant' for the girl.

He eventually found and offered her a small unlabeled canister of Safe-Gro potion that he used in his vegetable garden to keep away varmints that might try eating his tomatoes. There was only about a quarter of it left so it wouldn't go very far on his garden before he needed to open a new one, but it should last a while for her. "Just dab a bit of that on the tips of your shoes before heading out, and you should be fine," he assured her. "You don't need much at all for it to work."

He had a standing order for the elves to keep an eye on wandering students to make sure they didn't run into anything nasty, so he wasn't really lying in his reassurance. "But it only works during the day," he added warningly, because most of the elves turned in at curfew like everybody else did, and it wouldn't do to encourage a first year to wander about the labyrinth after dark.

As an afterthought, he added, "It stinks a bit, like all repellants do, so I'd advise you to apply it after you get outside."

1 Nathan Xavier Keeping Trees and Students safe since SA20ish 28 Nathan Xavier 0 5

Laila

July 10, 2015 7:59 PM

You should have a placard. by Laila

Or, In which Laila continues to be rather clueless.

Laila wasn’t sure if Mr. Xavier had ever met Arne if he was calling him a good kid or lumping him in with Tobi or Liac, but it wasn’t her position to tattle to Mr. Xavier on all the horrible things Arne did back home and if he had a different reputation at school than back in Turner’s Point then who was Laila to ruin Arne’s chance at redemption, so she just smiled politely and agreed with him that it was nice to have people help her out. In truth, it really was nice, but she wondered what it would be like when they all returned home. Would they still talk? Or would it return to normal? The Reinhardts keeping to themselves for the most part, Laila getting reinvolved with all her church activities, helping out with socials. Would Arne do summer ball again? If he did, would Laila cheer for him since they had started up a sort of friendship? Or would they pretend like they didn’t know each other?

The thoughts ran through her head until Laila felt almost dizzy. And on top of it all, did God hate her for involving herself with witchcraft? She supposed it wasn’t really all as bad as her mother had originally thought when the school official had originally arrived to their door because as it turned out it Sonora was in the wizarding world. Wizards had nothing to do with witches, so likely it didn’t mean anything, all this magic stuff (though her mom had pulled out some abstract rule from the depths of the Bible that said something about not idolizing objects and how wands were included in this idolization). But after having been at Sonora for a couple months now Laila had realized that wizards didn’t idolize wands so much as just use them, so that was probably fine too, right?

At any rate, it wasn’t as though wizards were these horrible people as her mom had made out at the beginning of it all. This one, in particular, had taken her joke seriously and offered her some monster repellent. When Laila had been younger, her mother had given her a bottle of holy water, telling her that this was all the monster repellent one would need and Laila had accepted it, fully believing in the powers of holy water and it’s ability to protect, but she hadn’t really believed that the Labyrinth Garden has anything to be afraid of, just that it appeared scary as many things often did on the surface. However, she accepted the offering with a smile.

“Thanks,” she said. “I’ll keep that in mind.” She looked down at the bottle again, her smile uncontainable. She likely wouldn’t write home to her mother about the specifics of the encounter lest her mother go on about the dangers of accepting things from strangers and being led astray by temping offers that would cause her to loose faith. However, she would write home and say that the Groundskeeper was a very nice, helpful person with a generous soul. Did lying by omission count, Laila wondered, even if it was a white lie to preserve the sanity of her mother? This was something she wasn’t sure about. Then a though occurred to her. She probably ought to pay Mr. Xavier back.

“Do you, er, do you need any help with anything?” she asked. Up-keeping the grounds probably was a lot of work and though she had been made to understand that the prairie elves helped around the school, she thought Mr. Xavier might want some human company while gardening. The elves she had met so far had been oddly skittish when she’d offered them some chips.

10 Laila You should have a placard. 318 Laila 0 5

Dustin Newell

July 15, 2015 2:42 AM

Not amused. by Dustin Newell

Dustin had stared at the foolish act of vandalism for considerably longer than he cared to admit. Childish, he thought. Just childish. Who, among the G’s and A’s in this school, which was actually a considerable amount of students as A names seemed to be popular among this particular group of students, was actually immature enough to damage school property--and living property at that!--was simply beyond his comprehension. What practical purpose could this illegal display of affection possibly serve? If someone was that desperate to have their love known, they should have just screamed it at the top of their lungs at mealtime. They would look equally stupid, but then at least nothing was damaged.

Of course, this particular breed of vandal was not very smart, Dustin imagined, because only putting initials and not full names did less than nothing to specify their love. All it did was possibly incriminate all the other G’s and A’s Sonora educated. That was perhaps the greatest tragedy of the matter. Plenty of innocent students would now be looked at sceptically, judged quietly from afar by their peers as they tried to go about their days. Every A and G were now public sources of amusement, confusion, or judgment. That was not fair to anyone.

All in all, Dustin was simply glad that neither D nor M was selected as the object of affection. Having either his or Makenzie’s good name slandered was a misstep he simply could not bear. After all, they were Newells! Important ones at that! He was the heir! No one had the right or deserved the opportunity to mess with Dustin Newell, and by extension, that protection applied to his cousin as well. The Newells were not to be touched, plain and simple.

Unfortunately for G and A, they did not have that sort of protection. The Aladren hoped for swift and decisive justice, with whichever party or parties were responsible for this act of vandalism receiving immediate punishment. Sonora was a place with which Dustin had as of yet found no particular fault, and to attempt to rectify that peacefulness with destruction was not something he was willing to tolerate. Someone had to pay for this, if nothing else than to send a message to all would-be vandals: stay away from Sonora.

12 Dustin Newell Not amused. 312 Dustin Newell 0 5

Nathan Xavier

July 16, 2015 1:47 PM

Something like "I speak for the trees"? by Nathan Xavier

Nathan tried not to look too pleased with himself when the girl accepted his gift and looked quite happy with it. Any grudge he'd felt towards the students at large for the damage to his tree was destroyed by her open joy and innocence. Without an actual perpetrator to blame, there was no sense in holding the crime against the whole school, the vast majority of whom were equally as innocent as this child, at least in regards to damaging his gardens.

He was taken aback when she offered in turn to help him. Even the kindest of students didn't often do that. He was a staff member. He was doing his job and getting paid for his efforts. (Granted, the pay was not enough that he could dream of ever becoming rich, but it was enough that he'd be able to retire comfortably someday ... maybe when he was eighty or so... but eventually he could retire.) Students weren't expected to offer help.

"I have plenty of elves helping me out," he assured her, "we've got everything well in hand, thank you." He didn't stop there though, knowing some people - himself included - genuinely liked working outdoors. "That said, if you'd actually enjoy helping to keep the gardens in top condition, I can make arrangements for you to have that opportunity. It's entirely up to you, no obligation." It wouldn't be anything as formal as an Independent Study - at least, not until third year, when she could begin learning Herbology if she so choose - but he could talk to her Head of House about it and get her some kind of credit for her assistance, even if it was nothing more than a teacher's note of 'Provided volunteer service to the school commmunity' on her report card. Parents liked seeing that kind of thing.

1 Nathan Xavier Something like "I speak for the trees"? 28 Nathan Xavier 0 5

Laila

July 17, 2015 10:52 PM

For the trees have no tongue? by Laila

Mr. Xavier’s reassurance that he didn’t need help seeing as he had elves only slightly placated Laila. She was used to living in a house where it wasn’t questioned whether one helped out or not. If Mamma was cooking then Laila and Gabriel were setting the table or assisting food preperation. If Mamma felt the house was too messy, then Laila and Gabriel were picking up after themselves. If Mamma needed the garden weeded, well then Laila and Gabriel were out there right along side her and sometimes Daddy making sure Mamma’s tomatoes and basils weren’t being overrun. It was just how things worked. And even though Mr. Xavier said ‘no obligation,’ that wasn’t really what Laila heard and so she only nodded shyly.

She felt a little bad because it wasn’t a completely selfless act—not only was she was exchanging goods for services, but she was also assuaging a little bit of homesickness. “I think it could be fun,” she said in case her nod wasn’t clear enough. She wasn’t sure if she ought to tell Mr. Xavier her name or not—they had never gotten around to introducing themselves as she knew who he was and hadn’t thought to ask if he knew hers, but now realized that since he likely had a whole school full of people to remember and she was only a first year her name probably wasn’t one that he knew.

When he did get around to asking her, in a slightly awkward fashion, Laila provided it readily. “Laila Kennedy,” she said sticking out her hand to shake like she’d been taught by her father to do when meeting new people, especially adults.

10 Laila For the trees have no tongue? 318 Laila 0 5

Scarlett

July 19, 2015 10:58 PM

No animagus plans then? by Scarlett

At John's suggestion, Scarlett rolled her eyes impatiently. Once she had an idea about something, it was very hard to convince her otherwise and she certainly wasn't about to let some know-it-all Aladren tell her she was wrong. She had too much pride for that. Though she supposed it wasn't John she was truly irritated with but the person who was messing with others.

"Yes, but maybe this person is more subtle than that." Scarlett argued. "Like it's real psychological torture. Make their victim into a paranoid nervous wreck so they do themselves in. Like they can't take it anymore and just blurt it all out." She would never do anything like that herself but she knew how people could work like that. Her aunt and cousin had psychologically tormented her other cousin for years. Granted, the methods they used weren't really something Ryan ever told her about, given they weren't that close due to the age difference and that it was most likely painful for him.

Still, Scarlett felt that her theory was just as valid as John's, even though she had to concur about people with the same initials. Him being an Aladren and her being a Pecari didn't give him the right to treat her like she was stupid though. This must be why my sister is Teppenpaw, Scarlett thought. Savannah would never treat her that way.

"And even if it is made up," The third year continued, "and is meant to cause trouble, that doesn't mean it might not be meant to target someone specific." Oh, Scarlett was so not giving up on her idea at all. She never did. Someone would have to provide her with definite proof that she was wrong in order to do that. "And it's quite obvious that this is meant to cause trouble. That's really not in dispute. However, slandering someone can also be damaging. That is why people can sue for it."

OOC-I'm going to just assume slander isn't legal in the magical world either.

11 Scarlett No animagus plans then? 293 Scarlett 0 5

John

July 20, 2015 4:33 PM

Eh, I'll probably give in to curiosity eventually. by John

John really looked at Brockert for the first time, intrigued, as she started talking about techniques for psychological torturing others and, though she didn’t put it quite that way, how to cover one’s tracks after using them, spreading the net wider so that any attempt the actual victim made to call the tormentor out just made the victim look guilty of the charges. She did have a twisted little mind. Clearly at least one of the twins was more interesting than he’d given either of them credit for.

“Obviously,” he conceded about the damage slander could do. Suing was unlikely to do any good if one wasn’t already so rich and powerful that it was more about getting more money than actually needing a reputation, that was the joy of the system, but the idea was there for a reason. “That would be an excellent reason to leave it vague – ‘yes, my Lord, I do have an enemy who’s a girl whose name starts with ‘A’, but who doesn’t if you look around long enough?’ There’s room for reasonable doubt. You’ve got a good argument there, it’s just…” John shrugged. “It goes both ways. If you’ve got plausible deniability, so does A. I wouldn’t panic right now if it was me…I might not be happy, but I wouldn’t confess to anything I wanted to hide, either. And if…whoever…keeps carving breadcrumbs into school property, they’re bound to get caught sooner or later. Of course, there's always taking the target down with you then, but then whoever you're after could also say you’re just a sneaking liar who’s trying to start trouble, it doesn’t look good for you to do things that way, you know?”

He waited, eyebrows slightly raised, for her to answer this objection. The personal irritation in her response was something which had completely failed to register with him. He had no investment in his theory and was arguing just for the sake of covering the angles of the problem she had put before him. His sister didn’t date anyone, never mind girls, and he wasn’t close to anyone named G or A, so he knew this had nothing to do with him, which made it just another puzzle to him. That Brockert might be in a position very different from his own, much less just care about being right here, had not occurred to him yet.

16 John Eh, I'll probably give in to curiosity eventually. 285 John 0 5

Lena Westley, Aladren

July 27, 2015 5:26 PM

If you're not you have a very noticeable sunburn by Lena Westley, Aladren

The boy who'd bumped into her apologized immediately but Lena wasn’t concerned with his manners.
“Are you ill? Your face is very. . . red.” Lena thought there was something curious about his face at the moment but couldn't put her finger on anything abnormal other than the color. She didn't know the boy who resembled a first year who’d just been sorted into Crotalus, though a lot older, and didn't mean to stop him. Especially if he was going to be ill, best see to that sort of thing right away. “If you have a fever you should go see the medic.” He looked familiar and Lena squinted in concentration trying to place him. Her eyes went from doe eyed to what on any other person was a normal size but so were her squints.

She wasn't able to figure out where she might've seen him before, never having paid much attention to announcements. She didn't recognize the house boy anymore than she’d noticed the initials engraved in the tree at the entrance. She would have been equally dumbfounded if it had been the house girl she’d met, whose name and face she was also not familiar with. The boy's reaction was the only thing that had distracted her. Now, though, she was done wondering about this and wanted to proceed into the gardens. Turning, she left the boy to continue to where he had been headed, wherever that was. Hopefully somewhere with some medicine.

7 Lena Westley, Aladren If you're not you have a very noticeable sunburn 279 Lena Westley, Aladren 0 5