Long distance yelling on Crotalus Commons

Ryan O'Malley

October 04, 2010 5:05 PM

Long distance yelling by Ryan O'Malley

It was just after nine o'clock that night when Ryan started his homework. He knew he should start it earlier, as he knew he needed to go to bed soon but Ryan just hadn't been able to focus. He was a real night owl and seemed to just work better later. Ryan didn't feel his work was as good if he did it right after class as if he did it later and Ryan needed to do the best he could so his mom would not yell at him or say he was mentally challenged. Not only that, but Ryan needed to prove to himself that he wasn't. So it was far better to do it now, when he had more energy. He could probably go for a couple more hours.

Unfortunately, that meant tomorrow, he would be exhausted for class. Ryan couldn't help it though, he couldn;t sleep at night. He wanted to keep going,even if it meant he was doing his homework, as he really did like most of it, when it wasn't too difficult.(Some of the written work wasn't too easy for him, especially in Transfiguation. Fortunately, he seemed to be fairly good at the practical side of the subject) The first year might not have been the most energetic but he was definitely more so at night. It took Ryan forever to wake up in the morning.

At least the nightmares had lessened. He had terrible ones sometimes. Naturally they were mostly about his mother doing horrible things to him even though she had never harmed Ryan physically. Unless one counted how she usually 'forgot' to put a Cooling Charm on Ryan's room in the summer. But still, he felt better sleeping at school, safer. Ryan had never liked sleeping much at home.

Though being awake wasn't too pleasant there either. It was best to say he just plain didn't like being there. Ryan dreaded going home for break but there wasn't anything he could do about it. If he didn't go, his father's feelings would be hurt and Ryan didn't want to do that.

He settled back on the couch, having just finished his Potions essay. Ryan still wasn't sure it was any good. Maybe he'd have Sophie look at it. She seemed really good at Potions.

That's when the sinister owl swooped in carrying a red envelope and deposited it right in front of him. Ryan cringed. He had grown up in the magical world and knew all about Howlers.

He looked around, making sure nobody was around before he opened up. Obviously it was his mother and it was just one big rant about how Ryan was worthless and a loser and something about he ordered Bonky to break Carrie's glass unicorn. Ridiculous really, as Ryan had not seen his favorite house elf in months, since he'd been at school.

Suddenly, Ryan heard footsteps behind him. He turned around, his face turning as red as the envelope. "Um, hi. How much of that did you here?" He asked, feeling mortified beyond belief. Ryan should have known his mom would find a way to get to him here at school. How could he have been so dumb to believe he'd be completely free of her here?

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Renée Errant

October 04, 2010 9:49 PM

Caller on Line Two by Renée Errant

After about a week, the usual pangs of homesickness had begun to recede for Renée. She was pretty sure she had found a friend in Neal, and after receiving a letter from her brother congratulating her on earning her position as a chaser on the Crotalus Quidditch Team, she decided it wouldn't be totally unbearable to stick it out at Sonora. It was sure to be an adventure and that was all she cared for.

Although right now she was lacking one. Frowning as she looked at her school books strewn across her bed, she realized that she had no more work to keep her occupied. It was too early for her to go to bed (actually she was rather tired but she was resisting it), and none of her roommates seemed all that eager to talk. She pulled on her robes and headed towards the common room to see if she could find some like minded individual to do something with.

'Now, if I was in Pecari,' She grumbled silently. 'That would be a sure thing.'

She was near the end of the staircase when she was suddenly startled into stillness by a loud burst of shrieking. At first too shocked to distinguish the sounds as coherent words and sentences, gradually she began to get the general idea and waited until the accusatory wail receded.

Brushing her long dark brown curls out of her face, she continued down the staircase where a familiar looking boy looked at her with the reddest face she had ever seen discounting the time her father had made steam burst from his ears. She smiled in memory before focusing on the boy in front of her.

"Pretty much all of it." She answered his question truthfully, and unnervingly casual. As she neared him, her bare feet padding softly on the carpet, she recognized him as a boy in her year though she wasn't so sure of his name. "You're... Brian, right?" She settled down in a seat near him, her body shifting to rest her legs on one of the armrests and tilted her head to look at him. "I'm Renée." She nodded at the Howler, it's paper folding in on itself from the suddenly combusted flame. "What did you do to deserve that? Who's it from?"

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Ryan

October 11, 2010 2:45 PM

Embarassed by Ryan

Ryan wanted to die. Well, not really but he did sort of wish the floor would open up and swallow him whole. This girl, Renee, had heard the whole thing. Every rotten, nasty thing that his mother said about him.

He'd only experienced her fury in front of people once before, at the wedding of a distant cousin. That was the time Marshall had stood up for him, but nobody was sticking up for him now and his mother wasn't even physically present.

The humiliation was new to Ryan and he really didn't like it one bit. Usually it was just his sister and some house elves who heard (and Carrie enjoyed it way way too much.) It might have been scarier with his mother actually there but this embarassment was almost as bad.

He couldn't help but think that was his mother's intent. To have him feel completely humiliated and degraded. It seemed she wanted Ryan to feel not just lower than house elves but lower than a flobberworm, which was working. Not that the first year hadn't felt like that already.

Nor would he put it past her to be trying to make everyone else hate him too, make it so he was an outcast by sending a Howler to scream all his flaws out for everyone to hear. She didn't have it sent to him when he was in his room, she had the owl find him in the common room where all the other Crotali would hear. What if next time-and Ryan was sure there would be one-it found him in the Hall while he was eating.

"It's Ryan, actually." Ryan replied, looking away. He badly wanted to escape this whole situation. "And I don't know what I did, to be honest." He rarely ever did. Ryan tried so hard to be good, did everything he was told, but somehow his mother would come up with something and now she was even harassing him at school.

But he couldn't tell Renee that. Ryan couldn't let anyone know how bad things were at home. That he was someone whose own mother couldn't love him. That it was his fault his parents fought when his father was home because they were mostly fighting about him. He'd learned shortly after his cousin Tristan was born that boys living with their grandparents part of the time was not normal when he'd asked Grandma when the younger boy was coming to live with them and she'd explained it to him.

And Ryan couldn't let his yearmate know all that for fear she would hate him. Not to mention the fear that his mother would find out and things would be worse.

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