Calling Ladies of the Second year Court (and Laurie) on Library

Cecily Smythe (featuring Amelia)

June 06, 2008 7:12 AM

Calling Ladies of the Second year Court (and Laurie) by Cecily Smythe (featuring Amelia)

With a small bag full of WAIL pamphlets and her own notes, Cecile strode purposefully to the library, her brown eyes narrowed in determination and her brown hair tied back in a no-nonsense braid.

Behind her, her younger sister Amelia followed; taller and curvier, Amelia strolled with a far more relaxed step behind her sister, her long blonde ponytail swishing playfully on her shoulders.

Cecily had invited Amelia to the meeting because she believed her sister might have some useful input - she could actually be quite clever when she wasn't preoccupied with being an idiot. Yet so far Milly had done nothing but irritate Cecily with her laid back attitude and vacant expression. Still, she'd put up with Amelia for twelve long years, she could manage her for another hour or so.

Once in the library, Cecily headed to the back of the stacks, where they wouldn't be overheard by anyone untoward, especially the Head Girl, who also happened to be disgracing herself as the Quidditch Captain of Crotalus. Cecily couldn't conceive of anything more scandalous! Still, having fund a quiet, out-of-the-way table, Cecily began laying out her leaflets as she waited for the other young ladies to arrive.

0 Cecily Smythe (featuring Amelia) Calling Ladies of the Second year Court (and Laurie) 0 Cecily Smythe (featuring Amelia) 1 5

Laurie Cider

June 15, 2008 1:06 AM

Joining on in. by Laurie Cider

When she had opened her eyes that morning, her first thoughts had been ones of this meeting. She had prepared for this day in typical Laurel Cider fashion: excessive over-thinking (said redundancy intentional), inordinate over-analyzing (honestly, it was far beyond the normal median, even for her), and perfectly justifiable research. The library, however, was remarkably scarce when it came to WAIL literature. There was last year's poster for DISCUSS, but relatively nothing about the WAIL movement. She had been forced to rely on Cecily's leaflets, and after an hour or three of perusing the tracts, she'd found the words so distasteful that dinner that evening went untouched.

The pamphlets' supposed facts and truths stung with over-generalizations, unfounded conclusions, and a level of prejudice Laurie had never before come across. Even with growing up in Florida, the only state still busing to its schools to enforce desegregation, she had never experienced discrimination- not even second hand. Perhaps it was her lack of upbringing in magical society, but somehow she had missed the train on WAIL's particular brand of indoctrination. The one thing she really couldn’t get her brain wrapped around was the insinuation that homosexuality was something bad. Sure, she hadn’t ever actually met anyone who was of that persuasion, but still, she couldn’t understand what was bad about it.

For that matter, what precisely was it that made a female feminine or masculine? Why were certain traits labeled male and others designated for females only? Like crying- men were considered wimps if caught with that sort of labeled weakness. Or being good with electronics- why was it that women were always consider incompetent in that field? Laurie’s mother loved the things- the more pieces there were, the better. Her father so much as touched something involving circuits or conduits and disaster inevitably ensued. For the past day and a half, her mind swirled with questions upon questions, each consideration segueing into three more.

By the time the hour for the meeting had arrived, she had worked herself into a ball of nervous, brow-furrowing energy.

She walked into the library, her clothes perfectly neat and in direct contrast to her state of mind. Her notes and thoughts had been committed to paper, and those pages were organized, labeled, and underlined to such a degree that it left little need for imagination to guess what caused the bags under her eyes. The table was tucked out of sight, and by the time of Laurie’s arrival, was only occupied by two: Cecilia and Cecily’s sister, Amelia.

Sitting down, she smiled in greeting and tried to force her expression into something that didn’t display her nervousness quite so much. Once her papers were arranged to her suiting, she leaned back and allowed herself a few moments of reflection. There was nothing to do except wait and see just what sort of rationale was behind the WAIL supporters.

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Holly Thistle of the Hollywood Thistles

June 18, 2008 12:12 PM

Following suit by Holly Thistle of the Hollywood Thistles

Unlike Laurie, Holly Thistle arrived at the table in the library with absolutely no idea what she was walking into. Cecily had invited her and that was all that mattered. The note the owl had delivered had said something about proper decorum, though, so she was a little excited that maybe they were planning etiquette or posture lessons or something. She had always found it irrationally fun to walk around with a book balanced on her head. Of course, Holly was aware that was probably a little weird (none of the girls in the princess stories seemed to enjoy the exercise) so she wasn't planning on admitting to it unless somebody else did first.

She had slept well the night before - she always slept well with the assistance of her anti-anxiety pills and between DADA and History lately, she'd thought it necessary to take a strong dose for fear of nightmares involving terrible hidden curses that sparked off awful plagues and bloody wars - so she was well rested and bright-eyed as she sat down in on of the chairs nearest Cecily.

"Hello," she greeted the three already there with a smile. After their adventure in the Gardens the other day, Holly was pleased to see Laurie had been invited, too. She had seemed nice. The younger girl, Amelia, was also present. Holly had met Cecily's sister during flying lessons and her presence made Holly wonder if maybe they were meeting to start an aerial dance team. That would be fabulous. They could show the rest of the wizarding world there was more to brooms than that stupid Quidditch game.

Her eyes glance down at the pamphlets covering the table and she reached out to turn one toward her. Lesbians and Quidditch, Holly read the main title, her brow furrowing in confusion and distaste. What was a lesbian? And why did Cecily have a bunch of papers about Quidditch? It was bad enough that Coach Fox was requiring attendance at games for flying lessons. Why did she have to hear about it now, too?

Holly read the subtitle out of habit before she could look away. The Facts About The Connection And What You Can Do To Prevent This Metamorphosis. Well, that clarified what a lesbian was; apparently the sport was causing people to turn into chrysalises. Butterflies were all very pretty but she certainly understood why people wouldn't want to become one. Good gosh, the wizarding world was a strange, dangerous place. She was definitely going to have to take another sleeping pill tonight.

She turned the pamphlet over so she didn't have to read it any further. Ignorance was bliss and she preferred bliss. "That's awful," she said. "Why do people play that wretched sport if it can do that to them?" She had already been confused about why people wanted to play it at all, but if the players were in danger of turning into butterflies, it seemed even less worthwhile.\r\n\r\n

1 Holly Thistle of the Hollywood Thistles Following suit 123 Holly Thistle of the Hollywood Thistles 0 5

Cecily (and Amelia)

June 22, 2008 11:40 AM

This will do for a start by Cecily (and Amelia)

Cecily was pleased when first Laurie, and then Holly arrived. She greeted her friends cordially, but waited out a bit longer in case one of the other girls decided to come along, too. She'd rather hoped that Anabel and Chelsea would come, because they might be her strongest allies.

Amelia had greeted Holly upon her arrival, but so far reserved judgement on Laurie. This was the first time they would speak together, despite having been in close proximity in lessons and at the newspaper meetings. She thought Laurie was a bit crazy, to be honest. She seemed jumpy and scatty, and completely unsure of where she fit in. In normal circumstances, she would be the unpopular, geeky and friendless girl, who never shone out and spent a lot of time making up timetables. As it was, she'd somehow ended up being friends with Cecily (that was still an unexplained mystery) and ended up completely out of her depth. Milly was looking forward to seeing how she would respond to the ideas put forth by the other girls. The social climbers, whether intentional or otherwise, usually understood very little.

Cecily was wondering whether she should start without the other two, when Holly commented on one of the Quidditch leaflets. Gazing over, Cecily raised an eyebrow in bemusement. "A very good question," she replied. "Why would anyone want to play Quidditch anyway? There are plenty of other sports, horseback riding, for example, that require skill, poise and energy, and don't come with any of the drawbacks that Quidditch does. That's partly why we're here," Cecily said, launching into the meeting. "To discuss how we think young ladies should behave, why we believe they should behave that way, and how to spread awareness to the other girls in the school that playing Quidditch can damage their reputation, at the very least, and plenty other things besides."

0 Cecily (and Amelia) This will do for a start 0 Cecily (and Amelia) 0 5