Reworking an image on Library

Lexi Stafford

April 18, 2007 5:13 PM

Reworking an image by Lexi Stafford

Before the second semester of her fourth year, Lexi Stafford could count on one hand the times she’d visited the library with a serious purpose in mind. And, somehow, things had never really proceeded positively, whether it involved trying to apologize to a reportedly insane first year for breaking her arm, or unintentionally threatening another member of her year. Now, she wasn’t sure whether to count those events as good or bad, but at least they were interesting.

That really was completely irrelevant to the matter at hand, though, despite the fact that she almost wished something of that nature would occur again, just to liven up the mood. The point she’d been trying to make was that, in the last two weeks, she’d spent more time in the library than in her entire school career up to that point, and Lexi had come to the conclusion that, by the end of this year, she was either going to have turned into an Aladren, and actually begin to enjoy studying and schoolwork, or she was going to have gone completely mad. She wasn’t sure which option was preferable.

The irony was she was incredibly good when she chose to apply herself. When she’d told her brother that it wasn’t going to be all that long that she was borrowing his broom, she hadn’t been kidding. Her prediction was two months, tops, before her grades showed a significant enough increase for her father’s peace of mind. And some of the studying was proving to be tolerable in its way (not that she was going to actually share that information with anyone, as she had an image to keep up), though not so much that she’d willingly do it as much as she had been.

In all honesty, she sometimes couldn’t recall why she was so ticked off about this whole thing. She’d never really thought that she was going to end up in a job like a quidditch player, where no kind of academic accomplishment was necessary, so thusly would have started studying seriously sooner or later. Perhaps it was just because she was Lexi Stafford, and, like it or not, she was going to be remembered as the ‘angry and violent’ girl who liked to take out Pecari chasers. Studying passively didn’t fit into that category, even if she really wasn’t the next Sorrel Craven or Lily Collins type, or all that certain she wanted to be.

So, on second thought, maybe this was the right thing to do. Recreate her image, or whatever it was that needed to be done. Even if it meant- she glanced over at the stacks of books piled higher than her head on the table beside her, then dropped her head into her arms hopelessly- studying two weeks ahead of the current lesson for the rest of her school career.

0 Lexi Stafford Reworking an image 0 Lexi Stafford 1 5

Anne Wright

April 21, 2007 12:03 AM

I've heard that's easier said than done. by Anne Wright

...Your favorite sister, always, Mary Elizabeth

Anne rubbed her eyes, tired from over an hour of puzzling out the five separate styles of handwriting she'd already discovered in the letters she'd swiped from her old house in Charleston on Christmas Eve, while the Laynes had been gone. She supposed they were her letters, now; her mother hadn't left a will, and she had no other obvious heirs. A youngish woman with one child usually didn't need a will. The letters, like the scrapbook still wrapped in an extra set of robes in her trunk, had caught her fancy, so she'd taken them to look at. There was nothing wrong with that. They were hers, and it could hardly matter to Mary now.

The usual puzzles tried to come back to her - how the house had been kept in such perfect condition, and why on earth a few of her relatives and someone named Lorie who Anne would have guessed was a friend had kept in touch with her mother after Mary's disownment - but she ignored them. Thinking of all that would make her think of other things Anne was sure she didn't want to think about, and that wouldn't be a good thing for anyone. Carefully refolding the old parchment and putting the letter back into its neat, ribbon-bound packet, Anne began gathering her things to go back to Aladren.

Books littered the table she'd been at, most of them dryish stuff about Potions she'd "borrowed" from Geoff, though the Ancient Runes textbook and volume on social order of Muggle Americans were hers. The whole setup screamed 'study area', and most of it strongly suggested 'geek'. That had been the idea Anne had had when she was arranging it, and she wasn't displeased with the result. Geoff and Lena made it sound as if people already thought she was obsessive about Quidditch and winning, so getting caught doing something weird - like reading letters written to and by a dead woman about twenty years earlier - didn't seem too smart.

She passed other tables, nodding to the people at them if there were any. Geoff said she was too unfriendly, and it was the reason they always lost people. There was no harm in nodding to folks, just to test the theory. Geoff had a plethora of incorrect/dumb/random theories on the record, but he also had some good ones, and he had read more than she had about interpersonal relations. It took Anne a few seconds to realize that one of the people she'd nodded to was facedown on her table. That probably wasn't good. She walked over hesitantly, hoping devoutly that the girl had just nodded off.

"You okay?" she asked, touching the other girl's shoulder.

16 Anne Wright I've heard that's easier said than done. 59 Anne Wright 0 5

Lexi

April 23, 2007 12:02 AM

Which is why I'm working so very hard by Lexi

“You okay?”

Lexi’s head shot up immediately, both because of the question, and the touch of someone’s hand on her shoulder. She hadn’t expected anyone else in the library to notice her, or care if they did, which was why it had come as such of a shock. Glancing up, she received an even greater surprise- the person who sounded so concerned was Anne Wright, her brother’s captain.

Lexi couldn’t really see why Anne would care about her. Yes, they knew each other from working in care of magical creatures class that one time last term, when they’d gotten along relatively well, but that didn’t make them friends. It didn’t even make them close acquaintances. Actually, as far as Lexi knew, Anne didn’t really have any friends, apart from that third year beater also on the Aladren team.

Still, it would have been rude not to answer, or to question why Anne was bothering to ask, so Lexi merely shrugged. “I’m fine. Just a bit bored, that’s all.” She glanced around at the stack of books once more, and resisted the urge to groan. “My father was less than pleased with some of my grades, so I’m studying like mad now. Unfortunately, it’s not the most delightful of activities.” She glanced over at the table she thought the other girl had come from. “I assume you’re in here doing the same thing? Studying, that is, not slowly dying of boredom.”

This was a bit weird. Anne Wright, being a kind and friendly person for absolutely no reason at all. Something didn’t seem right about the entire scenario. Still, Lexi could play along, if necessary. After all, she supposed stranger things had happened before.

0 Lexi Which is why I'm working so very hard 0 Lexi 0 5

Anne

April 28, 2007 2:54 AM

Hope that works out for you. by Anne

Anne took an automatic step backwards when the girl's head lifted off the table. Well, she wasn't dead. That was good even if there was something else wrong. It hadn't happened yet that Anne knew about, so it was impossible to be sure, but she had a feeling that the library might seem a little uncomfortable afterwards if someone died there, and it was practically impossible to get past third year without some regular usage of the place. From what she'd seen in fourth year, things just got harder from there. She had been worn out by Christmas, between running the team and getting all of her classwork done.

The thought about finding someone dead in the library had been mostly humorous, in an almost sarcastic sort of way, but with everything she'd heard about, it might have been just one more straw on the camel's back if the other girl had been dead. Her connection to the gossip lines was far from the best, but when every story she'd heard through a Layne or Gwen or whoever was hideous to horrific, it made anything bad seem possible. She tried not to dwell on the idea, turning her attention back to the person who wasn't dead to distract herself.

"Oh, hey, Lexi," she said when she got a proper look at the non-corpse. She hadn't recognized her at first, mostly from the lack of association in her brain between Lexi Stafford, the Teppenpaw terror, and the library. The other girl, when Anne had met her, hadn't struck her as a dummy or anything, but she hadn't seen her as much of a bibliophile, either. A bibliophile's sister, maybe - Ben was an Aladren; traces of bibliophilia were inevitable - but not a nerd herself.

"Oh, yeah," she said, glancing at the pile of books in her arms. The letters were safely tucked away between them, so that no one who didn't know to look for something would be likely to notice. "Potions, mostly. I'm not patient enough for them." She made a face that looked more amused than it did seriously annoyed. "Buddy of mine was supposed to help me out in exchange for some with Transfiguration, but he's bad to make a deal and break it." So she was lying. If any such deal had ever existed, Geoff would have broken it, if she knew him at all; he wasn't bad at Transfiguration, but he wasn't the best, which had him convinced he had a block and made him irritable when it was brought up.

"Anyway," she said, writing off the matter as irrelevant because Geoff would never know, "Sorry I bothered you. I couldn't tell if you were sick or asleep or what, but it didn't seem like the best place for either." It did pass through her mind that she probably made sense to no one, possibly even including Geoff, but herself when she said things like that.

16 Anne Hope that works out for you. 59 Anne 0 5