Hailey Lancaster
July 03, 2011 1:11 AM
Comfort (Room 5) by Hailey Lancaster
Hailey really hadn't had the chance to talk to anyone else, even her first year roommates. She just felt so out of place and excluded from anyone that staying inside the Aladren Commons made her feel uneasy and nervous, like everyone was watching her every move, and she always felt like she was auditioning for a part.Because of that, she tended to stay during her free time inside the library, and already knew her way around it in a relatively short amount of time. That was, until she found this music room, where she was at now, staring at the not so elaborately decorated walls full of portraits of both anonymous and prominent musicians alike.
Looking around the room, she noticed that the deceased musically-gifted occupants of the portraits were staring at her with looks of anticipation and criticism on their faces. She liked their attention, because she knew that they would only give opinion to her music, not her personality and appearance. They didn't even speak to her unless they deemed it necessary or she spoke to them first. She was certain that they already knew her if not by name, but by her music and face. They already knew to keep silent and not to disturb her, especially if she was playing.
She scanned the room again for a particular instrument, and at last she found a cased violin leaned against a corner. She went to pick it up but, when she caught sight of a set of ivory keys on her left, decided against playing the violin for that particular time.
She cautiously approached the grand piano and lightly put her hands on top of the newly polished wood. It had been a year since she touched the surface of a piano; now it was time to see if she could still play it as smoothly as before. She pushed the middle C.
Then it all came back to her. She remembered the day when she first managed to press all three keys together, how it thrilled her when she was five. How could she forget it? Playing the piano was her number one passion, it had always been, and it still is. She pressed random notes-she was always relying solely on her ear and emotion whenever she played. Now she was playing and letting her happiness take her over, and at that moment she was free, she was comfortable, she was herself. She was not burdened by insecurity and consciousness. She was herself.
Then without knowing it she began to play a softer tune, something so familiar and comforting yet sad. It was something she composed at the young age of eight. Then she abruptly stopped playing; no one could ever understand her love for music, especially the piano and how far it could take her, no one here in the academy could.
She stood up, picked up the bag that she deposited on the floor, and marched toward the door, unaware that the inhabitants of the portraits were staring at her, open-mouthed and teary-eyed.
As the door closed, Hailey thought she heard one of the inhabitants said, "That was..." but the celebrated musician could not find any words to describe the exceptional playing of the girl whom he thought was even a lot better than himself.
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Hailey Lancaster
Comfort (Room 5)
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Hailey Lancaster
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Nora Dobson
July 04, 2011 5:14 PM
Curiosity by Nora Dobson
Although Nora was a primarily academic sort, she found herself in Sonora's MARS room anyway. The first room was a water room. That...might be okay, if it summoned up a water park or something someday. Room two was sports and that held absolutely no interest for the first year whatsoever. Nor did she dance, paint, or play a musical instrument. Oh, Nora had had lessons but nothing ever really grabbed her about it and she didn't need it anyway. Not when she had her mind.Rather, Nora was interested in the type of people who used these rooms. Oh, the water room could be anyone and the type of people who did sports barely interested her at all beyond wondering what on Earth could posess someone to play a game where people hit metal balls at them. The dance room was only slightly better, but the art room and the music room, well, some of the greatest artists and muscians were completely insane.
Nora had come looking for crazy people.
That was what interested her, people and their psychological issues, not art or music or dance or sports or water. People. The human mind worked in mysterious and fascinating ways. There were a ton of different psychological disorders out there. Mood disorders. Personality disorders. Anxiety disorders.Schizophrenia.
And that was without the use of magic. There were those, like Grandmother Rosemary, who had been driven mad as a result of mental magic being repeatedly performed on them. As opposed to Grandfather who appeared to be born evil.
It wasn't for entertainment value that Nora was interested in the mentally disturbed. It was simply that she wanted to analyze them. See what made them tick. The why they were the way that there were, what had got them to that point. Nora could have read a book on the topic, and of course she would, despite her mother's insistance that it was neither an appropriate topic for a young lady or person Nora's age in general and the books she had access to on the subject where rather limited.
But it was also good to study the subjects themselves. It would help her understand the other students at Sonora better, as well as her own family.
Nora was about to go into the art room-if nobody was in there, maybe she could at least analyze what others had created-when the door to the music room opened and her roommate Hailey came out. Nora didn't know the other Aladren very well, but it was still early in the year. Hailey seemed really quiet-though anyone seemed so next to Kitty-but that wasn't a bad thing at all. Still, Nora couldn't help but wonder what made Hailey so quiet in the first place. Was there a reason behind it?
"Hi Hailey." Nora greeted the other first year. "How are you doing today?"
An innocent enough question. One people usually asked as a habit and didn't really expect an elaborate response to, but it was a way to start a conversation that might very well prove to be interesting.
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Nora Dobson
Curiosity
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Nora Dobson
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