Finally Back at School on Pecari Commons

Elizabeth Lavine

April 17, 2006 9:31 AM

Finally Back at School by Elizabeth Lavine

The first Saturday back from midterm dawned on Lizzie and the rest of the 3rd year Pecari dorm, illuminating the room with soft sunlight. Okay, so maybe it wasn't exactly dawn, but 10 was early for the young teenagers. Elizabeth, being the only one awake at the time, sprung from her bed and with the speed and efficiency of a small child opening christmas presents, showered and changed into clothes for the day.

With a final check in the mirror, Lizzie grabbed her bookbag and headed downstairs to be greeted by a semi-full commonroom. She was able to slip into an empty corner table and chairs set easily, and within moments, she had pulled out her photo album of the midterm. John had bought a new camera earlier before her came to visit her, and the two of them had a grand time playing with it over the break.

Flipping through the pages revealed various sports shots of the Hurricanes scrimmaging at the Winter Invitational held at the New Orleans stadium, and pictures of John and Lizzie at the game as well as with the team. Those pictures were succeeded by photos of Lizzie and John around her house. Banister sliding and funny moments in the library were all captured with those photos. Farther into the book however, were the professional party photographer's pictures. These were bright and colorful photos that depicted tuxedo'd young men and formally dressed young women. There were pictures of Lizzie in all her dressed up glory dancing with various friends of John's as well as photos of Liz with her cousins Helena and Hermia. But the last photo in the album had to be her favorite of them all- it was John and Lizzie waltzing the last dance of the evening together.

Liz grinned and laughed to herself as she watched the last picture dance and twirl. She hadn't known that the photographer was taking it until she found out later from John, who had noticed the photo being taken. She had acted like she was so mad at him for not telling her, but Lizzie couldn't get really mad at John. He was like her best friend, and since Jen was kept at Sonora for the midterm, he was there to fill that hole. The more she thought about it, the less she was in check with reality. After a few minutes, Liz was completely involved with her thoughts, not noticing that her photo album was sitting open to the last picture on the table, unguarded. \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

0 Elizabeth Lavine Finally Back at School 53 Elizabeth Lavine 1 5

Ash Craven

April 18, 2006 6:53 PM

I'm sure it missed you by Ash Craven

Ash had been up early for a teenage boy. He had pulled on some jogging bottoms (over yesterday's underpants) and a fairly bog standard t-shirt and sweater. Ash didn't exactly do fancy clothes, and had decided there wasn't any point showering before Quidditch training. He'd already been to the Cascade Hall, where he'd consumed most things that had come his way a) because he had to have lots of energy for training and b) because teenage boys did that on a normal day anyway.

He returned to the commons and was on his way back to his dormitory to loaf around until he had to leave for practice, when he caught sight of Lizzie flopped in a chair. He wandered over, unnoticed, and so glanced at the book on the table in front of her. He was about to roll his eyes at the ickiness of dancing and posh frocks, when the couple on the page turned and he caught sight of the girl's face.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed, probably load enough to startle a dead badger, and certainly loud enough to snap her out of her trance. He turned to look at Lizzie. "That's you?" he asked, pointing at the album. "You look... grown up," he said, sounding amazed, and wishing he didn't sound like some patronising auntie. "Who's your boyfriend?" he added, finding the idea of someone smooching up to his school friend a bit weird. \n\n

13 Ash Craven I'm sure it missed you 50 Ash Craven 0 5

Lizzie

April 18, 2006 9:50 PM

It missed all of us, I'm sure. by Lizzie

Daydreams, no matter what their context, always seemed to catch Lizzie at bad times. This one was no exception. Upon being fully awoken from her reverie, she not only realized that she had been caught unaware by one of her guyfriends reminiscing with photographs, but fate had also let her be caught with girly party photos. On impulse, Lizzie sat up and closed the photo album with such force it sent a small puff of air that blew the air out of her face. Looking up, she tried to slowly pull the album off the table.

"Ash- Hi. Yeah, that's me..." Lizzie tried to smile nonchalantly, but his next question caught her off guard.

"Who's your boyfriend?"

Oh great. As if the situation wasn't awkward enough, he had to ask about John. Well, it was her own stupid fault for leaving the page open, and Lizzie knew that Ash wasn't going to let the question go unanswered. Taking a casual deep breath, she attempted to explain John Phillips.

"Him? Oh, well, he's not my boyfriend, he's... ah-" Lizzie fumbled around for words, feeling immensely those blasted hormones that made everything awkward in the teenage years, "That was John Phillips, he's a friend of mine. Ah... and an ex-boyfriend. He was in town visiting, and he was just my escort at my brother's Christmas Gala..."

Lizzie trailed off, feeling her normally tan face flush with embarassment. Ash was going to think she was extremely girly, and- she didn't want to think about what that would entail. The thing was, Liz wasn't ashamed of looking pretty, it was just... that was a thing she did at home for special occasions, and that just wasn't who she was here at Sonora. Sighing, she slowly continued inching the album off the table.

"Well, quidditch practice later today, right?" she asked, desperately trying to change the subject. \n\n

0 Lizzie It missed all of us, I'm sure. 0 Lizzie 0 5

Ash

April 19, 2006 4:56 AM

Well... we stayed here, so... by Ash

"Oh, 'k," Ash replied, when she said this John guy was an ex. It sort of threw up a lot of questions (mainly along the lines of 'You had a boyfriend?' and 'What happened?' and possibly 'Why'd you go to the dance with your ex?') but the last he attributed to being some weird need for a partner at some weird Pureblood dance thing, cos it seemed like the sort of thing that would happen, and the others seemed too girly, so he pushed his curiosity aside.

"I'm not going to bite your fingers off if you try to take that, you know," he said, indicating the photograph album that was inching at a snail's pace across the table. "It is yours." Ok, he had shoved his nose in it when it had been on the table, but that was an acceptable amount of nosiness. The only time he had an unusual view of the concept of property was when something was supposedly Sorrel's. That actually meant it was also his, in his eys. It worked out by Sorrel treating his things the same way. "Not that I'd mind if you wanted to show me more photos of you all glammed up for the dance," he added. Was it girly to want to look at photos? "Just cos it's weird," that sounded like something that would make her hit him, "I mean it's weird seeing you look so different from you do at school, not that you look weird in a nasty way," he clarified. He pushed his bottom lip out slightly, blowing up onto his face to cool it down, and causing his shaggy dark fringe to ruffle.

"Yup, at 12" he said, glad when she brought up Quidditch. "So wrap up warm. It should hopefully be cold and windy," he grinned. \n\n

0 Ash Well... we stayed here, so... 0 Ash 0 5

Lizzie

April 19, 2006 7:15 PM

Well, that's too bad. by Lizzie

A more comfortable grin made an appearance on Lizzie's features as she re-aligned the leather-bound photo album so that it sat squarely in front of her. Upon reflecting on the contents of the album, Liz decided that maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to show him the rest of them. To save face, of course. And maybe if he was really interested, she'd show him some more Christmas Gala pictures. Maybe. With a sigh, she opened the cover back up, revealing the first photo of her and the entire Hurricanes team.

"Well, I didn't just go to parties all break, you know. I went to the NQL Winter Invitational in New Orleans, and it was amazing! My brother's team played really well, and there were some great matchups. There were all the most renound players there, and I got photos and autographs of people like the Miami Heat's Pearson Rierson, you know, that amazing seeker they've got?" After rambling off a few more names of pro players, and showing Ash the respective pictures she had taken with them, she arrived at the point in the album where there were just around the house photos. "Oh, you probably don't want to see these, they're only photos my brothers, John, and I took messing around..."

She flipped a few pages, and then they were back at the Gala photographs. The opening picture was extremely formal- It was in front of their enormous Christmas tree in the Lavine Mansion foyer, with the three of the Lavine children dressed up before the guests arrived. Her brothers, both in formal tuxedo dress robes, stood on either side of her, the picture of perfect gentlemen. The second picture, however, was rather comical. Javon had decided that it would be funny for him to pick her up, and the two older boys posed for the camera as she protested her "unjust incarceration". The next series of pictures were all of the party itself- ball gowns and dress robes galore.

"Yeah, it was a really formal event," Lizzie said, her face blushing as she watched the pictures of her and other political allies' sons swirl and dance about, "My brother Brett was celebrating his victory in the senate race, and there were all these older politicians who all had sons they wanted me to meet... Really silly, if you ask me..."

The thought then came to Lizzie that it was really odd to be talking about these guys with her guyfriend... Was it really awkward for him? Ash had said earlier that it was weird to see her all frilled up like that, but did that mean that... Maybe she was just over thinking all of this. Yes, that was it, Liz was putting way too much thought into the whole idea, and she needed to stop. Right away.

"Oh yeah, the quidditch practice," she groaned slightly, "It's going to be absolutely freezing..." \n\n

0 Lizzie Well, that's too bad. 0 Lizzie 0 5

Ash

April 19, 2006 7:49 PM

It was fun by Ash

"That's awesome," Ash grinned, as Lizzie showed him her Quidditch snaps and name dropped the big name players. "I keep hoping Mom will get me and Sorrel Quidditch tickets for our birthday. Not that we'd probably get to meet the players, but it'd still be cool."

Ash peered between the pages of the photos she tried to skip, the fact they were skipped over making them all the more interesting (was she smooching John or something in one of them and didn't want him to see?).

"You look good in those," he commented of the party pictures, before turning to look at her face. "But I reckon you're better as you normally are," he shrugged, "It's not my area of expertise, but I think girls look better when they look... real. Fair enough to get dressed up for a party, but the way my sister does it all the time, just so she looks exactly like a magazine cover... I don't get it. Why go to all that effort when you've got a pretty face to begin with?" he asked, looking directly at Lizzie, because he was actually asking her, rather than to imply that he thought that of her. "Not that I'm saying Mariella does," he added, breaking the eye contact.

He kicked his legs against the arm of Lizzie's chair, which he'd perched on. As far as he was concerned, he was having a fairly normal chat. The topic was slightly more image focussed than he'd usually be, but they were looking at pictures, so that was understandable. He hadn't really registered the fact that he'd uttered an opinion on how he liked his girls.\n\n

0 Ash It was fun 0 Ash 0 5

Lizzie

April 23, 2006 11:37 AM

Well, at least you had fun. by Lizzie

"Well, you and Sorrel're just going to have to come over during the summer and see some games with us," Lizzie said, grinning, "I'm the only one who uses our box to the games in New Orleans, and there's a big tournament over the summer. You two should come."

Liz listened as Ash spoke about girls making themselves up like magazine covers. The truth was, Lizzie couldn't agree more with him. It didn't make sense to her how people could care that much about looking like they just stepped off the pages of a Witch Weekley. Parties were different- everyone's expected to dress up nicely and look beautiful, but daily life was nothing like it. Who even had time for that sort of stuff in the morning anyway? It was all rather pointless to Lizzie.

"Yeah," she finally said with a laugh, "Hey, at least you'll never have to worry about that sort of thing with me. I'm likely to never look as glamourous like these pictures again. I mean, I like the way that guys dress like they just don't really care about what they're wearing. It's much more comfortable to talk to them that way... You know what I mean? It's like they're not really trying to impress anyone, so you don't feel like you have to go out of your way to impress them."

Right after she said it, Lizzie knew that she probably shouldn't have. It was weird, but she couldn't help feel that something had changed in her feelings for Ash. Before, he'd always been a friend, almost like her relationship with her brothers, but now... No, no, she was over-reacting again. Reading way too much into the whole situation. Blocking any other thoughts from her head, Lizzie closed the book and shifted her position in the chair to face Ash better.

"So, what about you? Anything exciting over the winter break?" \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

0 Lizzie Well, at least you had fun. 0 Lizzie 0 5