Lila St. Martin
December 27, 2008 1:57 AM
House Leadership Meeting (prefects, Quidditch captains) by Lila St. Martin
Lila was frankly repelled by the idea of having to work on a House concert display with the rest of the Crotalus high command, but she was St. Martin enough to smile graciously as they arranged themselves in the semicircle of armchairs she'd arranged in front of hers. If anyone had an official right to take over, it was Jordanna, but Lila had dismissed her leadership on the basis of her social status. That had left no one but Lila herself, since their Quidditch team's leaders were also nobodies and José Santoro was new.Since, as her sister had unsympathetically pointed out, she had no choice about working with them and did not want Lila St. Martin or Crotalus House to look like fools, she'd come up with this meeting of the House leaders. In addition to the prefects, she'd finally and reluctantly invited both the Quidditch captain and his mousy assistant to come, too. If bad came to worse, the team could do some routine in the air and be the group act, and it would help keep all of the workers in check to let them see the authority figures work as a single unit.
"Thank you all for coming," she said sweetly once everyone was settled. "We have a lot to discuss today." She glanced at Helena, who had writing materials with her, looked like a secretary, and was the lowest-ranking person there. "You can take down the minutes," she said.
She leaned back in her chair, wishing she was upstairs and doing something constructive, like picking out which robes she and Allie should order for this year's midterm parties or scanning the society magazines for mention of people at Sonora or in her circle at home. "At this point, we've got Anabel McIntosh, Amelia Smythe, and Laurel Cider signed up and the prefects conscripted," she said briskly. "Anabel's interested in singing, Amelia wants a minor part in group, and Laurel wants to be a stagehand."
She turned then to Geoffrey. Lila could never like him - he had whittled the pool of marriageable boys in her year down to nothing by getting disowned - but she might have to work with him in future, since he was probably the next Head Boy and she considered herself a shoo-in for Head Girl. "As for you, I can't make you do anything, but could you try to get some of your players into the act? Anabel could do the solo part, but three prefects and a second year aren't much of a group act." Merlin help them if Lila had to go on stage. It had been years since she'd done anything artistic.
"Our two main topics are how to get more people to join in and what we're actually doing - are you writing this down? Good. It had to be something spectacular if we're going to outdo Pecari. Money isn't a problem." She hoped it wasn't, anyway. Her father was cross with her, but he'd surely not let something as small as Allie getting better CATS scores interfere with doing what he had to do to make her and her House look good. "Ideas?"
16
Lila St. Martin
House Leadership Meeting (prefects, Quidditch captains)
80
Lila St. Martin
1
5
José Santoro
January 08, 2009 8:50 PM
Leadership....really? by José Santoro
Josh was not looking forward to having to work out this concert thing. He understood why the Prefects were the obvious choice for the part, but he didn't like the idea of having to figure out what his entire house should do as a performance for, well, everyone. What happened if they bombed? Would everyone blame it on the Prefects' leadership skills? Would it go on his record? Would their house end up hating them because of it? Josh didn't want that responsibility. He just wanted to get through school with little attention to him as possible when it came to the students not in his year or not related to him.But, apparently, the professors had other things in mind for him by giving him the Prefect badge. Not for the first time, Josh really wished they had chosen Helena for this instead. She was the Assistant Quidditch Captain, so they must have faith that she had some leadership skills. Josh still wasn’t sure what had drawn the professors’ attention to him to make them believe he was capable of doing Prefect duties. Okay, he was aware of the fact that he got decent grades and kept out of the public eye and was generally a nice guy to everyone. But still, Prefect? And now this?
Josh took a seat near Helena, feeling more comfortable around her than any of the others. For one, Josh had never spoken a word to Geoff or Lila or Jordanna. And two, Josh wasn’t really sure if he liked Lila or Jordanna all that much from the things he had heard around the school about them. And his sister didn’t seem all that impressed with Jordanna, but Bella didn’t seem impressed with anyone outside of Aladren… or of the female gender. But, Josh mainly just felt uncomfortable around them. Like they were judging him for simply existing. Although, he was pretty sure they didn’t know he existed up until this moment when they were forced to work with them. He supposed that went for Geoff as well.
Listening to Lila, Josh’s eyes widened with a start. The Prefects were conscripted? He knew he help to help set the whole thing up, but no one had said he had to do anything beyond that. Backstage stuff was all he was going to do. He had CATS to worry about; he didn’t want to add on top of that some performance too. He’d have to make that known at some point. “The only thing I can think of that would work in this instance is a play of some sort.” Josh suggested. He was fairly certain all the houses would put on a play because, really, what else were they supposed to do? The only things that were bound to be different were the solo acts. “I designed my family’s booth last year, so I can help with the background décor.” Josh added, hoping this would be enough of a hint to suggest he didn’t want to be seen on the stage.
0
José Santoro
Leadership....really?
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José Santoro
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5
Geoffrey Spindler
January 13, 2009 5:57 PM
Apparently. by Geoffrey Spindler
If Geoffrey had been able to telepathically catch what Lila was thinking as she started the meeting, he'd probably have been torn between agreeing and resentful disagreement. The agreeing would have been more out of habit and the years of being treated like he was a waste of space. The disagreeing was the gradual - and slowing winning - idea that he was worth something. Helped in part by being Assistant Quidditch Captain and now Captain of Crotalus' team. And helped by his aunt, uncle and cousins. And helped by his small group of friends.He wasn't entirely sure what he was there for in any case. Lila had issued, well, it wasn't so much an invitation... or it was an invitation, but he'd got the definite impression that it wasn't one he was allowed to turn down. Even if he had no idea what Quidditch had to do with the house prefects.
He pulled up a seat, glancing at Helena and giving her an apologetic shrug before Lila launched into her explanation of what was going on.
"Conscripted?" he asked as she turned to him. "You make it sound like this is a war..."
And then she was talking to him and addressing him as 'you'. He hadn't been gone from pureblood circles for long enough not to get the picture loud and clear.
He scratched his head in an absent gesture that he wasn't even properly conscious of doing as he considered, only half listening as things continued on.
"I heard that Saul's got his team all working for the Pecari production," he said, once Josh had volunteered to paint their set. "I suppose we can't let those damned Pecaris-" there was more wry humour than rancour in his voice, "take all the glory. I'll have a word with the team." He wasn't going to make them join, but he'd suggest it. Maybe appeal to their competitive instincts.
"Play's probably the better way to go," he nodded to Josh, acknowledging that the younger boy had suggested it as he seconded the notion. "Do we have any writers, or should we go with a classic or...? He looked around at the others.
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Geoffrey Spindler
Apparently.
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Geoffrey Spindler
0
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Lila St. Martin
January 25, 2009 10:00 PM
Absolutely. by Lila St. Martin
Lila nodded graciously when Jose volunteered to do set work for them. "Very good," she said. She made a note to ask her sister what the Santoros had done for the fair and how well it had been done. She wasn't sure what she would be able to do about it if he couldn't put together a decent background to save his life, but the sooner she knew, the sooner she'd be able to start thinking it out.She had not heard that Saul Pierce was pushing his entire team into the production - it didn't fit her image of him at all - but she approved of his tactics. It would not do good things for his image, but it would get the job done. Since Geoffrey didn't even have a reputation as a really, really nice and liberal sort whom everyone liked, she saw no shame or harm in stealing the idea. "Thank you."
A play wasn't something Lila had considered, but since Lila had considered nothing, that wasn't saying much. Before she could say anything about it, Helena looked up from her note taking.
"There's always modern drama and morality plays," she said, sounding faintly amused by something. "I can't confirm this myself, but I hear they both have short pieces." She made a note. "An all-student-produced production would be awesome, though, if anyone knows a writer - I don't, but that's just me. A classic would be safe, but since we don't have a huge amount of time, it would probably have to be abridged or a, I forget the word - myth or legend or something." The fifth year began writing again, apparently writing the highlights of her own speech for posterity. "I suppose we can start by picking out a genre and go from there."
Lila felt upstaged, but bit her tongue. Taking her to task would only prolong this, and she had wanted it over before it started. "Since we have a majority in favor of a play," she said coolly, "we can proceed from there." Lila glanced around the group. "Opinions?"
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Lila St. Martin
Absolutely.
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Lila St. Martin
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5