Hesitation...crushed ice.... on Library

Julius Astley

September 29, 2018 4:54 PM

The Aronos - Team of journalists needed! by Julius Astley

Julius felt very satisfied when he pinned up his sign up sheet, pleased to see it on the wall. It seemed to make his project that much more real. It was one of the first steps towards producing a paper. He'd be even happier if people actually took an interest in the project. While he didn't particularly want to make friends through the paper, he also didn't want to do all the work himself and a team of people would help with that. He just hoped that they were interesting and intelligent individuals. He wouldn't be able to tolerate giggling, simpering and silly morons.

He looked the sheet over one more time, making sure that everything was clear.

Team needed!

If you're interested in journalism and want to be a part of the revival of the school paper, please sign up below. Looking for a whole team of writers, photographers, etc... Please sign your name and position you're interested in. Speak to Julius Astley if you have any questions.

He nodded to himself, hoped it would draw enough attention before walking away, deciding that while he was in the library, he might as well try and find a decent book to read.

Subthreads:

Crossword Puzzle Maker by Zevalyn Ives

Sounds interesting by Isaac Song

Hesitation...crushed ice.... by Evelyn Stones

Putting my skills to use. by Nathaniel Mordue

Signing up by Ivy Brockert

20 Julius Astley The Aronos - Team of journalists needed! 1425 Julius Astley 1 5

Zevalyn Ives

October 04, 2018 11:31 AM

Crossword Puzzle Maker by Zevalyn Ives

Being an Aladren and a frequent denizen of the library, Zevalyn had seen the sign for the school newspaper soon after it went up. She had read it but moved on. The next six or seven times she passed by, it got repeated looks, but no moves to reach for a pen. She was not actively thinking about joining. She was not a photographer, not a writer. If she did write anything it would likely classify as either science fiction or maybe even science research, but not journalism. So she wasn’t planning to join.

Except a school newspaper was just something so universal, so familiar, that the sheet drew her in to look at it every time she neared the board.

And then, one night as she lay in bed, thinking about her plans for the next day, the random thought came to her: they might need an editor to check spelling and grammar. It was possible Julius Astley was planning to take that position but she figured it wouldn’t hurt to put her name down.

If it came down to it, and the Aronos didn’t need an editor, as long as she was already on the list maybe she could make crossword puzzles or something. That was always the best part of a newspaper anyway.

So by morning, she had decided she was going to do this.

Zevalyn Ives, Editor/Crossword Puzzle Maker

1 Zevalyn Ives Crossword Puzzle Maker 380 Zevalyn Ives 0 5

Isaac Song

October 09, 2018 2:55 PM

Sounds interesting by Isaac Song

This year, Isaac wanted to keep things more low-key. He’d thrown a big party last year and had loved meeting new people, but this year he had the dreaded CATS to study for and harder work to prep for. Part of him couldn’t wait for the challenge of Advanced classes, but the other part of him really didn’t want to get his brains metaphorically blown every day. On top of his Prefect duties, it would be a lot to handle.

Now that none of his sisters lived at home for the better part of the year, Isaac’s mom had started doting on him even more. She had sent him back to school with new clothes and a spiffy new haircut. He didn’t want to take advantage of her because he knew she was feeling lonely, but he also didn’t want to feel bad for getting new stuff. He was fifteen and he was a Prefect. Staying fashionable wouldn’t hurt, as Lauren had always told him.

He had frequented the library a lot this year so far, and he passed by the sign once or twice before finally stopping to look at it. A school paper? That sounded cool, but he wasn’t really into writing. Isaac didn’t know the person who had decided to revive this paper—he didn’t even know Sonora had a school paper—and only Zev had signed up for it right now. Maybe it would be a cool thing to have on his resume in the future if he ever decided to go for it. He could do photography. He wanted to make it a hobby, but he had literally just gotten a nice camera this past summer, which he managed to forget at home. He would just ask Mom to send it to him.

Isaac signed up his name before thinking twice, eager for something to break the monotony of school.

Isaac Song, Photographer

19 Isaac Song Sounds interesting 375 Isaac Song 0 5

Evelyn Stones

October 10, 2018 12:12 AM

Hesitation...crushed ice.... by Evelyn Stones

Uncertain would've been a polite word. Fully apprehensive was more accurate, but Evelyn hated to imagine Julius starting a paper with no one on board. Of course, others had already put up their interest, but if Evelyn was going to insist on calling herself his friend, she'd better act like it. Besides, she read too much to think she couldn't write.

She wrote her name in neat letters and considered the page for a moment before writing "Writer" beside it. She was particularly interested in cultural pieces and events, but didn't think a sign up sheet was the place to discuss such specifics. If she was lucky, this wouldn't go horribly. If she was unlucky, she'd satisfy her own expectations and there was something nice about that anyway.

She added a smiley face beside her listing and turned to leave the library as quickly as possible, certain that trying to stake out her usual spot was too risky when such things as it being occupied might seem like bad signs. Casting once more over her shoulder, Evelyn shook her head as she left, wondering at the odd boy she called her friend.

22 Evelyn Stones Hesitation...crushed ice.... 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5

Nathaniel Mordue

October 11, 2018 2:43 PM

Putting my skills to use. by Nathaniel Mordue

The Aladrens, naturally, seemed to spend a lot of time in the library. Nathaniel, also in the library, often looked at them in some envy. His life would have been so much easier if he had been a natural scholar – if facts had just cooperatively stuck in his head without his having to work very hard on it, if streams of logical had come to him readily. That would have been an entire thing he would not have had to worry about being good enough at.

Instead, though, he thought his only real skill was observation, though when he started to feel sorry for himself he would often remind himself to go look at his sometime muse Miss Vorontsov and her friends – but especially Miss Vorontsov. She was in the library a lot, too, but she wasn’t quietly studious and industrious. With her friends, she sometimes erupted into rattles of a harsh-sounding language which, though he couldn’t understand the words, he could tell was expressing extreme exasperation. On her own, he’d once seen her crying.

At least, he thought, he didn’t have to work that hard.

There were a lot of good things in his life, he reminded himself often. Yes, Mama often felt weak or ill, or her nerves were bad, or Jeremy was difficult – but he still had Mama and Jeremy, not to mention Sylvia and Uncle Alexander and Aunt Avery and Simon. He had a family that loved him, and since Mama had the house and the money and public support from Uncle Alexander and Aunt Avery, they were even still received by society, hence why he was not struggling along in school in Mexico or Quebec or something, hiding from society because he was no longer considered worthy of the company of heirs and heiresses and scions of some of the most powerful families in the country. His own shoulders wound up tightly every time Mama was a day later than he expected in replying to a letter, but on the scale of things, this was a relatively minor complaint about life. Merlin – he was Mama’s son, as much or more than His. He could have been in poor health, even.

Since he was not, however, he tried to keep his mind on the books and not on other library occupants. One day, however, he was trying to find a place to take a discreet shot of the front of the library, where the librarian was looking very librarianly, when he saw a notice and read it.

Astley. Nathaniel had spoken to him in Transfiguration, but the acquaintance had not extended much from there. Now, though, it seemed Astley was putting himself out there more, and in an ambitious way.

Nathaniel scratched the back of his neck as he thought. He wouldn’t mind the excuse to photograph more people. Of course, his favorites were candid shots, preferably where the subject didn’t even know (or pretended not to know) he or she was being photographed, but he couldn’t exactly say that, much less put them in his albums. Landscape photography was a more respectable hobby – as Miss Vorontsov had established by mistake earlier in the year, photographing people had a distasteful touch of the commercial about it – but journalism was the sort of thing a respectable gentleman could dabble in, to a point. Since there was an older boy also in the game, though, he didn’t know yet what sort of opportunities he would have. Still, though – couldn’t hurt to try, especially since the list was small enough as it was.

Nathaniel Mordue, he wrote, carefully, using his best cursive handwriting. Photography, writing.

Nathaniel had never written anything beyond school essays and his letters to his mother, but he thought that might actually be qualification enough – especially the letters. Each letter had to be Just So, lest he say the wrong thing and that thing would turn out to be the one wrong thing that put Mama into a bad state. Or even just made her not smile when he came into a room anymore. He couldn’t disappoint her – he had the feeling sometimes that if he did, something horrible would happen. If he was good at something at school, something that got him positive attention, Mama would be happy – and compared to all the letters, a short piece about some seventh year winning a prize or interviews with the international students would be a piece of cake of a way to make that happen.

16 Nathaniel Mordue Putting my skills to use. 1412 Nathaniel Mordue 0 5

Ivy Brockert

October 26, 2018 7:00 PM

Signing up by Ivy Brockert

The library was a place where Ivy spent an awful lot of her time. There were just so many books out there that every time she visited the library, she found at least ten things she wanted to read-and that wasn't an exaggeration. It was often very hard to pick which books she would check out because she didn't want to take out too many at a time, in case other students needed or wanted them.

Even though there were more than enough books in the school library for every student to check out ten and some people didn't like to read. Sometimes, Ivy had a hard time understanding this because there were so many books out there on so many different subjects so there had to be a book for every interest. Still, she knew people such as a few of her cousins who weren't big readers. For example,her cousin Tristan preferred doing things that were active. He took after the other side of his family on that one since most of their mutual relatives weren't interested in those kinds of things.

Still, people had different interests and there was nothing wrong with that. If everyone liked the exact same things, there would be things that wouldn't be done. Like if everyone wanted to be an Auror, there would be nobody out there being a Healer or working for the government or making music. Or writing books so people had something to read. People needed to have different roles for the world to work.

Anyway, because Ivy spent so much time in the library, she periodically checked the notice board. She didn't do it everyday, because there wasn't always something new and then there was no point. On this particular day though, the Teppenpaw noted something that she hadn't seen before, an notice about one of the first years starting a newspaper.

She stared at it for a few moments. Journalism wasn't something Ivy had ever considered before but it sounded...like something she wouldn't mind doing. Besides, barely anyone was signed up so far, and she would hate for Mr. Astley to get discouraged if there weren't enough people to make the paper a success.

Ivy wrote down her name

Ivy Brockert, Writer

11 Ivy Brockert Signing up 394 Ivy Brockert 0 5