Preston Stratford
April 08, 2011 11:40 PM
Thinking, just thinking by Preston Stratford
Preston’s midterm had been nice. Like every year, except for the Meet-and-Greet at the Sinclair’s. It had the first formal party he had attended, and he had to admit he would have been disappointed by it, but he had met Sara. It completely made him forget the general outrage that every extended member of his family felt during the holidays. One of his cousins or aunts (he wasn’t sure, because nobody ever talked about Isabella) had gone and shamed the family by getting married without the consent of her Head of Family, which was someone Preston didn’t know. The Edwards family was not close to the Stratford’s, they were related by marriage, but Granppy Ignatious had been very angry during the Christmas Dinner. Preston wasn’t sure he would recognize Isabella if he saw her.Anyways, the first-year redhead had been appointed a mission of the utmost importance: he had to befriend the Carey twins. His grandfather Roman had specified he did, because the Carey were very important, and they needed connections of their own. Preston had heard the same lecture over and over during the break. They needed to branch away from the shadow of the Randolph’s, their more powerful relatives. The Stratford’s needed to make a name of their own, what Grandfather Roman wanted was to be seen as a powerful family unit. A shine of their own.
All of that was nice and all, but Preston was curious about Sara. She had completely crushed his preconceptions about women. He had been taught that women should be quiet and wear pretty things, but Sara was intelligent and she actually knew what he was talking about when they conversed during the Sinclair party. It had been nice. Preston liked learning new things, and he was eager to get to know her. It was like an experiment of sorts, because she was the complete opposite of what he knew. He wanted to prod her and see how much she knew. It would be fun. So, in addition to getting closer to Arthur, he wanted to befriend Sara.
It was a nice Saturday and since he had already finished his homework, he thought it would be nice to go and think about his plans in MARS. The best option was Room 1, where he could think in the peace of a pond in the middle of a forest, just like at home. Preston’s favorite place, besides the Library in his house, was a small pond surrounded by trees in his family’s state grounds. It was nice and quiet, and he sometimes even swam there, but not that often. The redheaded first-year entered the Room to find the place he wanted. It was just like home. He sat down on the edge of the pond. He rolled up his trousers and his feet began playing with the water. It was a really nice place to think.
He heard someone enter the room, he instantly looked up to see someone. “Hello,” he said. “Do you want to join me?” it was out of politeness, because he had been very comfortable alone, but he couldn’t scream at the person or tell them to go somewhere else. Besides, the room wasn’t his, it was school property.
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Preston Stratford
Thinking, just thinking
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Preston Stratford
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Russell Layne
April 17, 2011 9:29 PM
Dropping in, just dropping in by Russell Layne
Midterm had been…strange. Not bad – it had, in fact, been great – just strange. He had spent his entire first semester of school secretly wishing he was at home with his parents, and when he had gotten that wish, it had felt kind of unreal. And then there had been the last few days, and that crazy feeling, the feeling he got when he had an assignment he didn’t want to do getting very close to its due date multiplied by ten, of time slipping away too fast while he frantically tried to hold on to it. That hadn’t been much fun.Now, though, it was over, and he was back at Sonora, determined to make a better show of it this time. His grades were acceptable, his parents were more than pleased enough with those, but his social life was…weird. He knew who everyone was, but the only one he’d really call a friend was Topher, who he’d known practically since birth and who therefore didn’t count much more than his cousins did. He had to work on that. School, as his uncle liked to tell him, was where he met the people who’d be there for him and against him for the rest of his life.
If he still told himself that his grades had to come first, and was so going to the water room because he found being around it helped him concentrate on his reading, and felt this was an excuse to continue being a bit of a loner, well, that was just how things happened sometimes. Nothing he could do about it. Grades were important, and there was no telling what could happen down in MARS. For all he knew, the entire first year class was throwing a pool party, and he’d walk in and unwind around everyone and they’d all get along fantastically for the remainder of their time at Sonora.
That wasn’t happening, but there was another first year in the room when Russell got there, and it was one of his roommates. He didn’t know if he should be surprised and a little creeped out, amused, or just slightly surprised. He decided to go with the last one. It was a public room; it was likely that he was going to run into someone here at any time, but slightly less likely that it would be one of the other first year Aladrens.
“Oh, uh, hey, Preston,” he said when his roommate greeted him. He remembered his resolution to do better on the social front. Might as well start with the people he lived with, even if they were all enigmatic members of the Heir Club and at least one of them was crazy. “Sure,” he said, sitting down by the pond, too, and putting the book he’d brought along aside. “How’s it going?” he asked, in an effort to start a conversation.
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Russell Layne
Dropping in, just dropping in
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Russell Layne
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Preston
April 19, 2011 7:19 PM
Nice of you to do so by Preston
Preston was sort of surprised to see Russell there. His roommate was..was..was, he really couldn’t come up with an explanation, because he didn’t know him that well. Yes, they shared a room, but that was about it. He wasn’t overly social, just like him, but he hadn’t had any trouble with him or the others. It was a nice atmosphere, in his very humble opinion. Well, maybe Arthur was the exception, but he was just crazy. Arnold could be seen as the better half of them. However, Preston didn’t mind any of that, he knew that he wasn’t normal by anybody’s standards, his grandmother always told him that he was an adult trapped in the body of a kid. He didn’t mind, all that much, it annoyed him when he wanted to give his opinion on something, and he was ignored because of his age. At this point, he was sure he knew more than his older brother Victor.“Hey Russell,” he greeted him back. He nodded politely as he sat down next to him, and left a book on his side. “It’s going okay. Just settling back into the school life after midterm. How about you?” the redhead wasn’t that good when it came to small conversation, since he preferred deep debates on interesting topics, like he had with Sara during the Sinclair party. That particular one had started with small conversation; it wasn’t polite to go into debate the second one was with someone. He had to admit that he was sort of disappointed that Sara hadn’t been the one coming into the room, but he could search for her in the near future. He peaked over his shoulder, trying to see what was the book Russell was reading, maybe they could talk about that, but he couldn’t see the title of it.
His green eyes looked at the pond and then at Russell, “What are you reading? Is it interesting?” Yes, the first-year Aladren wasn’t that skilled when it came to polite conversation. It was part of who he was, and at this point, he wasn’t going change it. Polite conversation was such a waste of time, and time was very valuable, not something to be squandered. His father always told him he was too direct, but he didn’t necessarily see it as a bad thing. If he was going to spend time with Russell, he wanted to make the most of it, having nice long conversation about something that mattered, and learning something in the process.
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Preston
Nice of you to do so
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Preston
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Russell
April 19, 2011 11:38 PM
I do try to be a nice guy. by Russell
“That sounds about right,” Russell said when Preston summed up his going as getting used to school again. “First it’s weird to be at home, because I’ve gotten used to having so many people around here, and now it’s weird to be here because it’s just me back there.”He didn’t mind being an only child, even kind of liked being able to have his peace and quiet after having to listen to other kids all day at Mrs. Ballard’s, but he did wonder why his parents had just had him. It wasn’t really about money, because while they were never exactly going to have the Raineses over for tea, they had plenty of it. His mom told him she’d seen no reason to mess with perfection, but since he’d heard from his grandma that she and Dad had always planned to have just one kid and that was it, that didn’t really make sense, either. Even if he believed he really was the ideal child his parents would have picked, which he didn’t always, there had been no way for her to predict he would turn out like he had.
That was kind of the major downside, too. His parents made a point of not pressuring him to do well, which just made him feel that much more pressured. He knew it was more his issues than anything to do with them, but he still felt like he had to do as well as possible, make the whole family proud. After some of his cousins, he couldn’t help but imagine there was a sense of him being the best chance they had left.
Having his book be selected as the topic of conversation wasn’t a surprise, but he kind of wished it hadn’t been noticed. He was still getting used to the complete lack of privacy that came with being here. At home, at least he could occasionally keep it secret what he was reading and so not have to worry about what other people thought of it. “This history of comics thing,” he said, then felt compelled to explain that a little. “M’parents run an antiques shop, and our house is behind and under it, so I read the weird history because the general stuff gets boring. And I like trivia.”
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Russell
I do try to be a nice guy.
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Russell
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Preston
April 22, 2011 1:37 AM
You are doing a good job by Preston
Preston nodded letting Russell know that he fully understood what he was talking about. He liked the school, but it wasn’t the same as being home. When he was home, he was never alone, Bianca and William were there being all kinds of annoying. They were full of questions about Sonora and what it was like. The redhead had never been one to talk about those things. He had answered his father’s question, and then went to immerse himself in the Library. He had stayed there for most of the duration of the holidays, just socializing with his family when it was required, like Christmas dinner. Other than that, he had spent his time doing what he liked best, reading about interesting things and not being bothered by inconsequential things, like Victor being besotted with Shelby Sinclair. His Granppy Ignatious had been beyond ecstatic with that news and began scheming with his father. The Aladren couldn’t care less about that. He hadn’t voiced his interest in Sara Raines, since he didn’t want his family to ask him pointless questions. Besides, his interest in Sara was not based on that, she was just interesting.His face lit up at the mention of history, one of his favorite topics of all time, especially the history of magic. It was super interesting and helped you understand a lot about the way things were now. Like why Purebloods ruled and how the magical government came to be. Also, different magical cultures were awesome to study. However, the history of comics was new to the redhead. He raised a quizzical eyebrow at him, and decided to prod him further. Russell was beginning to be more interesting in his eyes, if he liked history (no matter what kind of history), he was more than capable of having an interesting conversation.
In his eyes, Russell just got a whole lot more interesting. Also, the fact that his family had an antique shop was beyond great. Antiques were full of good stories, they always had something that explained where they came from and who used to own them. His family house was filled with things like that, things from his ancestors. He usually asked his father to tell him stuff about them and how they had come to be.
Preston smiled, “It sounds intriguing and entertaining.” He hadn’t actually read any comics in his life, and he was certain there were none in his house, but he always liked to learn something new. Maybe comics would start to be part of his life, a way of distracting after studying so hard. “Can you expand on it?” his green-eyes were shining with excitement at the prospect of learning about that.
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Preston
You are doing a good job
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Preston
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Russell
April 23, 2011 11:10 AM
Why, thank you. by Russell
Russell half-shrugged when Preston asserted the interestingness of his reading material. “It’s not bad,” he said. He thought the emphasis on the mystique of the industry was a little overdone, especially by the guy who wrote the introduction, but it was interesting enough for him to gloss over those passages and focus on the parts that didn’t go into the kind of hyperbole that annoyed him.Preston’s request for expansion was a little harder to work with. “I haven’t finished it yet,” he said. “I just finished the part where political cartoons, you know, in the newspapers became a really big thing. Now I’m in this whole chapter about what happened with them when the whole Cabinet-Council thing started up, and all the debates about unification and all that. They start melding into multiple panels telling stories in the next chapter, I think, and then into novels and stuff later on.”
Though the stuff he was looking at now was pretty interesting, too. The reasons people in different parts of the country had, according to the author, had for feeling one way or the other ranged from things that kind of made sense once he got past a lifetime of just being used to the current system to the kind of petty to the kind of bizarre. Russ had grown up with history, and had used it to draw a very important conclusion about humankind and its condition. That conclusion was people are weird.
“Do you read any?” he asked, curious. One of his theories was that everyone had some interest they didn’t generally display to the public and which the public would be surprised to hear about, but he didn’t have a whole lot of evidence for that one. “Comic books, I mean. Or funny papers. Anything like that?”
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Russell
Why, thank you.
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Russell
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Preston
April 24, 2011 3:36 PM
You are welcome by Preston
The redhead listened intently to Russell expand on the contents of the book he was reading. It sounded like a rather interesting read, to pass ones time, especially the part of the Cabinet-Council thing. Preston wasn’t very much interested in politics, but he knew he had to have basic knowledge about it, since it was a topic that was touched by adults. The Aladren knew that in order to follow a conversation, you had to have some knowledge about the topic. Otherwise you could be seen as an ignorant fool, and he wasn’t one of those, of that he was certain. He worked hard to know as much as his mind could hold, which was a lot, or so he liked to think. One thing Preston couldn’t fully grasp was modesty. He thought too much about himself to see his own faults, his brother always told him that, and while he could see some of them, they were one or two of many.He shook his head, “No, I haven’t read any comics or funny stories.” And that was the truth. His father didn’t think such nonsense was good for his children, because they could get the wrong ideas or something. Preston was sure his brother, Victor, didn’t follow that rule while he was away at school, but at home they didn’t have anything that resembled one. “How about you?” he was fairly certain Russell had, since he was reading the history of them, but it was rude to assume something about someone, especially when you didn’t know that person, and Russell was almost a stranger to the first-year.
So far, all of his roommates were nice, logical people. Thank Merlin he had been sorted into Aladren, he couldn’t fathom the idea of being in any other house. That would have been horrible! If something of the sort had happened, he would have demanded to be taken home. Maybe he could have made an exception for Crotalus, but Pecari or Teppenpaw that would have been the death.
“I mostly read history or cultural texts, or topics that interest me,” he had the need to expand. He didn’t want Russell to think he didn’t read. Considering he was in Aladren, that would have been sort of silly, but he wanted to say it. Preston had had some experiences with people that assumed things, and that just irritated him.
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Preston
You are welcome
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Preston
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Russell
April 24, 2011 4:37 PM
*Feels welcome.* by Russell
Russell wasn’t entirely surprised to have his question answered in the negative. He had always considered having parents who were impressed enough by his capacity for reading and learning to not really care about the details of it to be a double-edged sword, but when it came to being able to read things just for fun, it was definitely a plus. He expected he’d go completely nuts if he had to just do serious stuff all the time, the way he’d heard some people’s parents made them.“Not really,” he said when asked about his own comic-reading habits. “The funny strips and the political stuff in Dad’s paper, sometimes, but nothing serious. Might start, though.” He smiled both fondly and a little self-consciously at the thought of his family. “My aunt said she just saw it and thought it looked weird, so she guessed I’d be interested and bought it for me for Christmas. That’s how I end up with half the things I read, and with a shelf full of things I don’t.”
One definite perk of not having siblings was being able to commandeer one of the extra rooms – the one that had, he’d been told, been Uncle William’s childhood bedroom – and convert it into a book room. His mom and dad kept their books on spare bits of shelves around the house part of the building, and in boxes and random stacks everywhere, but his were organized, at least in a way he could understand and remember and use to find what he wanted quickly. The far right shelf, though, was devoted to things relatives who didn’t know him well had bought him because they knew he liked to read, but which he’d found unreadable for one reason or another. He couldn’t go return them or regift, since the whole family knew he kept his books in one room and liked to look around it when they visited, so that was the only solution he had so far been able to come up with to the problem.
He nodded when Preston described his reading habits. “’Topics that interest me’ sums me up,” he said, the wording feeling awkwardly formal to him. It sounded okay when Preston and the twins – Arthur more than Arnold – talked like that, but while he said it okay, it just didn’t feel quite right to him. He was just less formal than that. “I bounce around a lot, whatever looks cool, or I get for Christmas, or something. I’ll try pretty much anything once. I like reading plays a lot.”
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Russell
*Feels welcome.*
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Russell
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Preston
April 26, 2011 6:14 PM
yey! by Preston
Russell appeared to be a rather interesting individual to the eleven-year old. Preston smiled, the muscles in his face feeling sort of stiff. He rarely smiled, because he rarely found something or someone that made him want to smile. There were a few exceptions, like Sara, that made the redhead really appreciate the human interactions of socializing. It wasn’t that bad, and it if it was, then he would not do it. Every good scientist had the practical knowledge of its field, theory was not enough. He nodded at Russell, he would see the political strips on his father’s newspaper once he went home for the summer, summer was still a long way from now, but he would remember. He rarely forgot a thing that had gained his curiosity. “That is awfully thoughtful of your Aunt.” Preston’s family usually gave him money so he could buy his presents, that was because he usually didn’t like what they got him. It wasn’t his fault, they just needed to get to know him better, and they didn’t think it was necessary to know the interests of an eleven-year old.Preston was very picky when it came to things to read, not every topic was worthy of his time. His tutor always tried to expand his horizons, but the redhead got bored really quickly with the things that were not of his liking. Everyone said he was stubborn, and he thought they might be right, but he couldn’t care less about it. What was the point on wasting valuable time on something that would eventually give him nothing? None really.
“I don’t see the point on reading something that doesn’t leave you something valuable, or at least entertains you,” he said while wrinkling his nose. “Don’t you agree?” he finished. The redhead was still playing with his feet on the water. MARS was a very nice place to be, he approved of what it meant. One could distract themselves from the school routine, but still do something worthwhile, like practicing something and mastering that ability. Preston hadn’t checked out the other rooms, but he had the goal of checking out the sports’ room, he needed to practice his Beater skills for the final match.
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Preston
yey!
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Preston
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Russell
April 28, 2011 10:18 AM
Your plot has been successful, it seems (WotW). by Russell
“She’s all right,” Russell said agreeably when his aunt’s thoughtfulness was commented on. “We don’t see her much except on holidays.”Dad said he thought she felt guilty because of that, and was basically trying to buy Russell’s affection and that of his cousins. Russell didn’t know. He liked her well enough, as he did most people he didn’t know well and, really, most of the ones he did, and she seemed to have a similar mindset, so they got along when she did come around and there were no hard feelings when she didn’t.
It did make him slightly uncomfortable to accept numerous presents from someone he didn’t really feel that attached to, he wasn’t, if she really was trying to buy him off, going to actively try to thwart her attempt. Not least because it would upset everyone if the theory was ever mentioned in her company. Avoiding conflict was more important than being completely comfortable with a situation.
Preston’s question made him think for a minute, though he wasn’t sure it was supposed to. “I think there’s some value in most things that are written,” he said finally, slowly, not sure if he really wanted to throw that theory out there with someone he had to live with for seven years but not sure how to dissemble. He was used to assuming that things were what they looked like and that, if his opinion was asked, he ought to tell the truth, as far as he could without being offensive. Mom said that wasn’t a good life skill.
“I mean," he continued, "you’re not going to like everything, but you can kind of – you know – see how someone else thinks.” He made a face. “Even if you really don’t ever want to go in their head again.”
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Russell
Your plot has been successful, it seems (WotW).
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Russell
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Preston
May 04, 2011 1:48 AM
I am good at plotting by Preston
The redhead looked at Russell for a few minutes without uttering a word, he stopped as soon as he realized he was doing it, since staring was rude, and it made you look stupid. Preston shifted his gaze to the lake and stayed glued into the vastness of it while pondering what his roommate had said. He could give some sort of credit to him, what he had said made some sense, but that didn’t mean he agreed with his point. He couldn’t understand why someone would read something that he knew was going against what he believed in. It was just a waste of time, in his opinion. Time was valuable, nothing to play around with, you could never get back wasted time. It was futile and pointless. However, he respected Russell for expressing his opinion, since the first-year didn’t like when people just went along with things because they were lazy to debate and learn from it.“I can see what you mean, but I really don’t see the point of reading something you know won’t leave anything worthwhile,” he commented back. Russell had his point and he had his, and each one was a valid argument. His tutor always told him that it was mature to accept other’s opinions and learn to live with it. Not everyone had the same ideas, and not everyone saw the world the same. It was what made life interesting, and the Aladren was enjoying living it, in his peculiar way.
The water felt great on his feet, and he continued playing with it. Preston cleared his throat, “So, you excited about the Quidditch final?” he knew it had been an abrupt change of topic, but he wasn’t going to change his mind about anything, and Quidditch was a safe topic, especially because Russell played in the House Team, like him. He was a Chaser and he was a Beater. “I think we are going to win. We have a very good team, Daniel is an excellent Captain. Don’t you think?” he smiled. Preston really looked up to Daniel, and he wanted to be just like him when he reached that age. The redhead wanted to be Head Boy and Quidditch Captain and even Prefect. He was going to do it, and be respected by everyone on the school. That was going to be great!
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Preston
I am good at plotting
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Preston
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Russell
May 04, 2011 6:10 PM
I've never really tried my hand at it. by Russell
Well, Russell thought as Preston just kept staring at him. There went that “let’s keep the roommates friendly and not wanting me dead or thinking I’m stupid” theory right down the toilet. He very much doubted he was going to give voice to anything so profound that it was going to strike the other Aladrens in his year silent with awe and respect.He didn’t consider himself disadvantaged in life. He was, due to his father being very good at restoring expensive items and the shop having a standing reputation in the Midwestern and occasionally even east coast pureblood and even new rich communities, easily the best off of the people he’d grown up with, and while Greta Ballard was no super-tutor educated in both content and teaching skills for forty years before she ever interacted with a six-year-old, she had been, counting Amy and Alison and Tessa and that lot before his group, been teaching for about a decade, and she knew a lot more about a lot more things than one would usually expect from an Auror’s widow who’d only taken up education to pay the bills after her husband was killed. But still, when he looked at the other guys, he couldn’t help but feel second-string. He would never admit it, because it sounded completely stupid and whiny and poor-little-me-ish to him, but there it was.
When it seemed that Preston hadn’t quite understood what he was really saying, he started to rephrase the point of view he’d been getting at despite that feeling of slight inferiority, but didn’t push it when the other guy suddenly changed the topic. “Yeah, you’re right there,” he said, smiling a little apprehensively at the thought of the final. “And we’ve got Edmond.” This, he thought, was a major point in their favor when the opposition had that Phoenix kid and, worse yet, Topher as its Beaters. “But they’ve got Stephenson, and I think she’s the only Seeker here who’s played more than two years.”
Actually, he knew this for a fact, because the school records fascinated him, but he thought it was kind of weird to know about that kind of stuff from before he was even a student, so he kept it to ‘I thinks’ on some stuff and just didn’t mention most of the cool stuff he came across to anyone except his journal. Especially the fact that he thought he had a good shot at getting a badge or two just because of his last name. Not only would that alienate the other guys, but it also made him feel the pressure to achieve even more. Good enough wasn’t good enough when he had all the names on that list in his head. Even his dad, who bought less into that kind of thing than Granddad or Uncle William or Great-Uncle Phillip, still told stories about being prefect and Quidditch captain for Teppenpaw sometimes. Tessa had once told him that she hadn’t wanted to go to a real school in part because she didn’t want to spend her whole life grubbing for badges and then suddenly find herself outside, with no clue what to do once that there was no structure for handing her a shiny symbol of worth at semi-regular intervals, and while sometimes his cousin was a little creepy, for that one thing, Russell admired her.
“And they’ve got good Chasers,” he said. “Charlie Abbott’s in the year with Daniel, that Errant kid was crazy in her last match, and Sam Bauer ain’t bad. And they’re all older than Arthur and me. I think it’s going to be tough.”
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Russell
I've never really tried my hand at it.
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Russell
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Preston
May 10, 2011 11:47 PM
It's awesome by Preston
OOC: Sorry it took me so long to reply!Preston had randomly changed the topic from reading books to Quidditch. He knew it was sort of rude, but he really didn’t want to discuss any further about what he read to Russell, they both had an opinion on that, and neither one of them was going to change it. No, it was better to leave it like that, creating friction with his roommate was not the best of ideas. The redhead didn’t like petty arguing or revenge. Not that Russell looked like someone who would, but you couldn’t be too careful when it came to stuff like that. People reacted differently to certain situations, and quite honestly, Preston didn’t want to test anything with his roommate. It wasn’t worth it to live a hell for the next seven years.
Quidditch was a safe topic, and it was better to play it safe with his roommates. Besides, showing them his superiority would just make their living arrangement awkward. The redhead dutifully listened to Russell’s point of view on their contenders, he had good points, some of them he hadn’t considered. “Yes, Crotalus has good chasers, and their Seeker is more experienced, but like you said, we have Edmond and Arnold is a good Seeker.” Preston was going to work really hard to become a better Beater, just like Edmond. His fellow Beater was fearsome! With his large build and everything, not to mention his last name.
He wanted to make a name for himself, something his other siblings and cousins would have to live up to. The Aladren wanted to be Prefect and Head Boy and Quidditch Captain, since that was going to build him a better resume for when he went to college. He was going to do what his father wanted, bring the Stratford name to their own light, making him shine, but he needed to work hard for it, and he knew it wouldn’t be easy. “I think overall, we have a better team,” he nodded seriously.
The first-year looked down at his watch and realized that they had been chatting for quite some time. Preston got up and brushed his pants, he gave Russell a small smile, “It has been nice, but I need to return to do some pending homework.” He wanted to revise some things, it was essential for his academic future that he did well in school, as well as the other activities that would help him gain the recognition the redhead wanted. “See you around the dorm,” he waved goodbye, and began walking out of the Water Room. Merlin, he really liked it here.
0
Preston
It's awesome
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Preston
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5