Plotting on Library

Tawny Brockert

September 14, 2010 2:06 AM

Plotting by Tawny Brockert

So far, Tawny had spent her time this term angrier than usual. She was still upset over the prefect announcements. The fourth year hadn't cared about her own house, but she was downright ticked off about her sister getting it for Teppenpaw.

Some might say her anger was irrational, that she should just let it go but Tawny had never let go of any anger in her life. She certainly was not about to start now. Not that Tawny had exactly held it in either. She was more apt to throw things at someone-usually Pippa-or destroy someone's property then to hold it in or deal with her anger in any sort of productive or positive or healthy way.

This time, however, she needed to plan. Tawny was determined to get prefect herself next year. To anyone objective and sensible, it probably appeared that she didn't deserve it, but Tawny was not necessarily sensible. There was a reason she had not been sorted into Crotalus.

The fourth year Pecari naturally thought herself an ideal candidate for prefect. She was intelligent-not that Jose was stupid-and she was a Brockert. Her family was overdue for some reconigtion around this place. They certainly donated enough money but somehow not very many had been prefect this generation. Truth be told, it was her branch of the family that had had the most luck. Granted Kaylie, great-granddaughter of the patriarch and older sister of Royal Twerp had gotten it while Tawny's older sister Melora had not, but Pippa was prefect along with her cousin Angus having been so. Tawny felt she had something to live up to.

She wasn't going to best Pippa in this one, but she certainly wasn't going to let her older sister best her again. Ever. Tawny had to be better in something, anything, or at the very least do just as well. She already had doubts that she'd get a better betrothal than Pippa. While Tawny knew her parents (and grandmother) would settle for nothing but a high quality pureblood for her, she worried that nobody was going to want to marry her just like Grandmother said.

That hurt, it hurt alot. Tawny wanted to strike back, show them she was just as worthy as Pippa of a good pureblood marriage. She was not going to have people think she was like what Aunt Margo really was. Hence one reason she would never ever play Quidditch even though she had all the natural anger and agression of a beater. Tawny wanted a man, preferably one who liked her for herself and would rather have someone like her than like her dull simpering sister. She would, however, settle for one wealthy, well-connected and with a pureblood pedigree as good as her own.

First step in her plan was to get prefect. It sounded good, made her seem even better. Tawny would do anything to get that position though she felt just a tiny bit guilty that she would have to step over Jose to get it. Tawny genuinely liked her fellow Pecari fourth year. If he was pureblood, she might even want to be betrothed to him .

But still, Jose was Quidditch Captain and why should he get both if there was another option for prefect?

Tawny took out a parchment and a quill and headed the paper with the title, Plans for Getting Prefect . She was trying to think of what she needed to do, when someone sat down at her table. "Can I help you?" Tawny asked, trying desperately to keep the annoyance out of her voice. If she was going to be a prefect, she might have to actually be nice to people.

11 Tawny Brockert Plotting 148 Tawny Brockert 1 5

Daniel Nash II

September 23, 2010 12:22 PM

Campaigning by Daniel Nash II

Daniel spent a lot of time in the library. More than being an Aladren, he was also the Library Monitor - or at least he had been last year and he picked up the duties again this years without asking confirmation about whether or not it was a job he had to apply for every year. He'd initially signed up for the position to draw staff attention to his ability to handle responsibility and his interest in being involved with the school's smooth running. This should, in Daniel's opinion, have made him a shoo-in for prefect this year but somehow James Anthony had gotten it anyway.

If all hope had been lost, he'd quit, but there were still Head Boy elections coming up so he decided having Library Monitor (2 years) on his transcript would go a long way in convincing the general school population that (a) he was responsible and a good organizer, and (b) being named Quidditch Assistant Captain didn't mean he was any less of a scholastic Aladren than James.

Again, he figured his greatest competition for Head Boy was James. The title, with only one exception, had always gone to an Aladren, and that was the year Paul Tarwater had been the only Aladren in the school. As the Aladren Prefect, James had a good leg up on Daniel, but the current Head Boy was the Quidditch Captain, the current Head Girl was his co-Assistant Captain, and most of the Head Boys had at least been on the Quidditch Team (thus displying attributes of teamwork, cooperation, and healthy competition - and the captaincy gave Leadership), so Daniel felt he was on near-equal footing there.

Plus the Library Monitor thing gave him an edge as well since that was entirely voluntary and not simply an appointment that the teachers foisted off on people like Paul Tarwater and Holly Greer just because there weren't any better options in their year and House. (This, Daniel was positive, was the only reason his insane sister got the Prefecture in her fifth year - there was no other reason that he could understand that Holly, of all people, would be put in a position of authority.) As everyone knew, people did better jobs when they liked the work, and here Daniel was volunteering for extra work.

And seriously? Library Monitor? What other position could possibly hold a candle to that in terms of sheer reliability and commitment to learning?

Which meant he had all his ducks in a row as far as qualification go. Now he just needed to ensure he won the popular vote. Clearly, outright campaigning and sheer popularity isn't good enough, or Saul Pierce would have earned the position over Geoff Layne easily. Daniel felt he was basically more well liked than James, but some outreach - especially to the fourth years, who he assumed would also be voting this year - certainly wouldn't hurt.

And there was Tawny Brockert right there in his library. Daniel smiled - it was somewhere between genuine and false, but it came easily and naturally and would look real (it occurred to him to consider a career as a politician later, but he didn't think he'd consider it for very long) - as he slid into the chair across from her.

"Can I help you?" she asked - he figured she was trying to go for polite but her body language didn't quite match the tone. He wondered for a moment if he'd win her respect quicker by leaving, but then his eye fell on the sheet of paper lying in front of her. He blinked. It wasn't a large reaction, but it was an honest one.

Ignoring her question entirely, as well as his own original plan to try to make nice with the fourth year and impress upon her how smart and responsible and what a good Head Boy he'd make, he just gave a sympathetic grimace and nodded down at the paper. "I had one of those. I'd offer to lend it to you, but I didn't get Prefect, so I don't know how much use it'll be. How my sister Holly got a badge and I didn't is something I'll never understand." He let bitterness twist his tone, though it was something he normally kept well hidden.

Shared misery, after all, was a much better hook to landing a vote. And Tawny Brockert's dislike of Prefect Pippa Brockert was hardly a school secret.

1 Daniel Nash II Campaigning 130 Daniel Nash II 0 5

Jethro Smythe

September 27, 2010 10:16 AM

Ambling by Jethro Smythe

There was a bit of green stuck underneath Jethro's fingernail. he had no idea how it had gotten there, and he couldn't seem to get it out. It was on the first finger of his left hand, which the fourth year couldn't recall having stuck into any greenish substances recently. He had even tried a cleaning spell with his wand, which had been particularly brave because his cleaning spells were never any good, to no avail. He tried simply to forget about it instead, but every time he happened to catch sight of his hand, there it was. Stuck there. Jethro was perplexed; he liked having clean hands, including fingernails.

On an entirely unrelated matter, Jethro had gone to the library to borrow a potions textbook, because his had gotten lost again and he'd been to the classroom to borrow one, but it had been closed and locked, and Jethro didn't know where to find Professor Fawcett when he wasn't in the classroom. He thought he was the Head of Aladren, though, and Aladrens were in the library. So it was obvious, really that the library was the best place for Jethro to be. He could borrow a potions textbook to do his homework, and if he happened to see Professor Fawcett, he could mention to his professor that his textbook had gone missing again, and ask to borrow another one. Luckily the Crotalus was not threatened by looks of disapproval, and so could tell a professor numerous times that he had lost his books, homework assignment, quill, or whatever else the occasion called for, without fear or trepidation.

Once he got to the library, he didn't really know where to start looking. Jethro wandered around for a little bit, getting distarcted occasionally by titles of books that sounded interesting or amusing, until he overheard some conversation from directly behind him that distracted his attention instead. "How my sister Holly got a badge and I didn't is something I'll never understand," said a boy called Daniel in fifth year. He was talking to Tawny Brockert in Jethro's own year, but in Pecari House.

"The prefects are selected on an esoteric notion that serves only to empower those who would otherwise be invisible, or give false credence to an empty struggle to be recognised." He quoted word for word what his sister had said on more than one occasion. It was a moment or two before Jethro realized he'd spoken outloud, and he turned properly to face the other two students who'd undoubtedly overheard him. "I have a habit of joining conversations where I'm not welcome," he told them, again using other people's wording - a phrase he'd heard a great deal of times during his life thus far.

0 Jethro Smythe Ambling 146 Jethro Smythe 0 5

Tawny

September 28, 2010 12:59 AM

Re: Ambling by Tawny

The person who interrupted her turned out to be Daniel Nash. Tawny didn't know him very well, but her impression of him was that he was popular, intelligent-and completely stuck up. He was the male equivalent of one of those princessy girls that seemed to be the norm in Tawny's age group,side from the intelligent part. The girls in her class were bright, but they were goody-goodies. The girls in the year above were the spoiled stuck-up princesses, aside from possibly Taylor Li. The third year girls were intelligent spoiled stuck-up princesses, aside from Alessa-who was merely intelligent and a bit spoiled-and the Twerps, who were none of the above but annoying nonetheless.

Which come to think of it, was probably why Daniel was popular. Tawny had never understood it before, he wasn't her type at all. She preferred guys who were more...well not prissy. The fourth year Pecari didn't like prissy people period.

Plus, she'd always gotten the impression Daniel looked down on her, on pretty much everyone. Which had always irked Tawny as she was a Brockert and Daniel was, in the grand scheme of the magical world, a muggleborn nobody. She didn't really hate non-purebloods, deep down inside-after all, Jose was one and Tawny definitely liked him. In fact, her feelings about them were quite complex. She'd been brought up to believe she was better, and indeed, she did think herself superior, but mainly because Tawny truly felt she was inferior , was treated as such, as if she were beneath Pippa and Melora and everyone else in her immediate family and had a deep seeded need to feel superior to somebody .

Yet she couldn't truly hate the impure, at least for not that reason. Tawny could usually find far better reasons to dislike someone than that. Still, it irked her when they were up themselves and gave her the desire to see them put in their place.

Still, Daniel was being quite pleasant at the moment. Was he actually trying to be...sympathetic? "Well, maybe you could give me your list so I can know what not to do then." Tawny replied. It sounded perfectly reasonable to her ears, though it might sound rude or smartmouthed to another. "But I know what you mean. I can't believe my sister got it either." Tawny had sort of given up on pretending Pippa was the distant cousin, as she was pretty sure everyone knew that they were sisters by now.

That's when another voice broke in.

"The prefects are selected on an esoteric notion that serves only to empower those who would otherwise be invisible, or give false credence to an empty struggle to be recognised."

When she saw the source of the comment, Tawny raised her eyebrow. She had no idea Jethro Smythe knew words like esoteric and empower and it was surprising to hear them come out of his mouth. In fact, Tawny was shocked enough not to come up with a nasty retort."That's...all right."

She might as well try to be pleasant now. Besides, Jethro was a Smythe and her social equal if not her intellectual one. She'd never truly minded him anyway, given his presence made it a given that she'd never be last in class. Not that Tawny wasn't bright, especially in Potions. In fact she considered herself to be much smarter than Pippa.

The Pecari turned back to Daniel. "It seems to be that the best way to get prefect is to eliminate the competition. That has to be how our sisters both got it. I mean, process of elimination. You had the unfortunance to be up against four other people." Tawny told the older boy. "Pippa was only up against Nathaniel Leon and Elliot Valentine. An idiot and someone who was out of school for awhile."

She unfortunately, was only up against Jose. Yes, he was only one person, but he was her friend. How could she possibly mud sling against him ? Tawny was having a rare crisis of conscience and it was giving her a terrible headache.

11 Tawny Re: Ambling 148 Tawny 0 5