Someone's gotta react to this one. on Crotalus Commons

Anon

August 09, 2015 8:47 AM

Surprise by Anon

The holidays had been very dull. For years, he’d never really noticed. The elves came and went, same as ever, muttering their little worries under their breath to amuse him. They had always seemed so funny. But now… Now he’d discovered something so much richer. The students were like a tantalising buffet of all the finest delicacies and richest flavours. Two weeks left alone with nothing but the elves was like two weeks on bread on water. But today, it was the day of the feast.

The students settled to their meal, a stern warning from the Head falling on innocent ears. And whilst they tried to shake it off - to eat, drink and be merry, whilst everyone was busily looking the other way, there was work to be done.

Nothing too big to start off. That was the fun of the feast - to have a little of this, a little of that. And these… These seemed to be somewhat universal problems. Perhaps he could stir up some more feelings along similar lines, beyond the ones he knew about. The cork boards were blank in most of the Common Rooms, or at least had been before dinner, with the notices from the first half of term removed, ready for a fresh start. He smiled, looking at them - clean, pristine, just waiting for the first announcements. And he had plenty.

On the Crotalus board, was scratched a single word: ‘Jealous?’

Subthreads:

Someone's gotta react to this one. by Kira Spaulding with Alistair Johnson

Not. Amused. by Leo Princeton

0 Anon Surprise 0 Anon 1 5

Kira Spaulding

August 29, 2015 7:59 PM

Someone's gotta react to this one. by Kira Spaulding

Kira had had a wonderful midterm. First there had been the get together with her family and she'd gotten to see Ryan and Sophie's twins, Wally and Stanley again, plus Uncle Seth and Aunt Lilac's daughter Lavender. Even better, Amity was there with Phillip and despite the obvious tension between her aunt and cousin, the Crotalus was excited to see both her and Sophie and catch up, even though she'd written to them many times over the first part of the term.

She'd also helped take care of the twin boys and she and Amity had played dolls with Ivy and Natalie, her because it was a socially acceptable way to continue doing something she really still hadn't outgrown and her older cousin because she'd never really gotten a chance to play as a child. Which Kira thought was one of the saddest things ever. Even Ryan had gotten to play during the stretches of time his father had been away on business and taken him to Grandmother and Grandfather's to get him away from Aunt Pearl.

Even better was after that, Kira had been able to go back to Mississippi with Amity and Phillip and she'd been so excited! It was the first time she'd gone on vacation alone without her parents and brother. It was something special just for Kira, something neither Tristan nor Kelsey got to do. They went out to some of Amity's favorite restaurants and shopping and several tourist sites within the state, even taking a riverboat ride. That was the best. The riverboat cruise on the Mississippi River including dinner. Spending time with Amity or Sophie was nice because they paid lots of attention to Kira. Phillip did too, and he treated Amity really well also. She was glad her cousin had that now. Hopefully the first year would be treated as well by her future husband. At this point the Crotalus had no idea whom that would possibly be though.

Now she was back at school and rather missing her break with Amity and Phillip. She was not bound to get that kind of attention here. There was that she did well magically of course, but she tried to avoid calling attention to herself, not really wanting to take a chance that it would make others feel bad or that she'd have to try to explain herself like with Emmy-Lou, when she truly had no answers for why she was that gifted in terms of magic. Granted, given she didn't shine anywhere else, part of Kira felt she needed this after coming up inferior to Kelsey in so many things. Still she didn't like to brag. Not that she was really sure how, she was much too unsure of herself most of the time to put her good qualities out there.

Something on the Crotalus cork board caught Kira's eye and she drew closer. The word jealous certainly struck her where it counted. It was true, she often felt jealous of Kelsey. How the very slightly older girl seemed to be able to everything one needed to do to be a lady effortlessly which she'd always gotten the impression was what was important in finding a husband-even though Sophie was as unlike Kelsey as one could be and she'd married Ryan- and making friends with the right people. Not only that, Kira was even jealous of how her cousin's being very slightly older meant that the cut off day for Sonora fell in between their two birthdays and Kelsey had gotten to go to school a year ahead of her.

Footsteps approached and Kira jumped, her face flooding red. She didn't know what was more embarrassing, that she'd staring at the board, or that she'd been visibly startled.

OOC-Mentions of Sophie, Wally,Stanley, and Lilac approved by their author

11 Kira Spaulding Someone's gotta react to this one. 320 Kira Spaulding 0 5

Alistair Johnson

September 01, 2015 5:33 PM

A suspicious reaction. by Alistair Johnson

Alistair rather thought that his Quidditch Captain status made him a highly important figure in the school and, much more specifically, his house. For this reason he considered it essential that he remain up-to-date with everything that may potentially concern him and therefore made sure to pay attention to any changes to the noticeboard in the Crotalus Common Room.

As he entered the common room after the Returning Feast there were two things that brought his brief glance at the corkboard to a complete halt for a better look. One was the single word ‘jealous’ followed by a question mark that had been scratched into the board and the other was the little pink-faced girl who appeared far more startled by his presence than he considered natural even for the shyer sort.

“Caught in the act?” The second year wore his trademark sly smile that could so easily be mistaken for a sneer.

He was, of course, teasing because no matter how guilty Kira Spaulding may have looked to him at that moment, Alistair could not bring himself to believe that a first year girl, much less Kelsey Atwater’s cousin, could be responsible for the vandalism that had been getting rather out of hand before the midterm break.

The fact that someone had graffitied on the noticeboard of his house was not one that sat nicely in his mind. He disliked to think that it was a Crotalus who had purposefully ignored the Headmaster’s speech and continued with the silly game they had been playing for far too long. Unless they had skipped the Returning Feast in order to go about their defacing of school property before anyone had chance to catch them at it… But even so it was a pointless, pathetic thing to do and Alistair could not fathom what it was the mystery character was trying to achieve through the numerous cryptic messages they had been leaving around.

In truth he was only really bothered by the whole thing because it had at one point concerned him. The heart containing the initials ‘G’ and ‘A’ that had been found marked into a tree in the Labyrinth Gardens had led to him being questioned by his Head of House which he had at the time found most insulting. Then the situation had become more irritating than anything when his mind forbade him to forget about the whole thing and the second year found himself examining what ‘G’s may have potentially been interested enough in him to etch their initial in a romantic symbol with his. It wasn’t that he had disliked the possibilities that these thoughts had uncovered, only that they could be turned around to reflect badly on him as a close friend of his had decided to bring to his attention by demonstrating.

“Miss Spaulding, isn’t it?” Alistair continued in a more polite manner, although he knew for certain that he had already correctly matched name to face. “I’m Alistair Johnson, of the Arizona Johnsons.” He thought she should already know of him by now even if she didn’t think his family name was quite up to the standards of her Brockert relatives in terms of fame since Alistair was the Teppalus Captain and in all her classes.

8 Alistair Johnson A suspicious reaction. 306 Alistair Johnson 0 5

Kira

September 11, 2015 8:19 AM

A nervous one. by Kira

Her heart was pounding in her ears and for just a moment, Kira was worried Alistair had heard it too. Kelsey had spoken very highly of the older Crotalus boy but she herself wasn't...all that impressed. He was the sort who made her anxious, the sort whom she was certain would find her lacking. Plus, Alistair seemed to share all her brother's worst qualities such as being smug and arrogant.

His expression didn't exactly put Kira at ease either. It was the sort that would make Fabian want to punch in Alistair in the face and made her feel like she was rather being mocked. Which made her panic inside and would make Fabian want to punch him even more.

But her cousin wasn't here and she had to deal with Alistair herself. A situation she found highly stressful. She even for the first time ever wished Kelsey was there to distract the other second year. Suddenly there was a strong breeze whipping around her and her companion. One that couldn't be accounted for as coming from outside, given that there were no open windows and was blowing in the wrong direction anyway. Nearby a table shook a little.

Her cheeks reddened even more. Kira knew she was displaying accidental magic again. She loved her abilities when they let themselves out properly, with a wand, controlled. Otherwise, they could be a bit embarrassing.

His next words seemed a bit more polite and she relaxed slightly. "Yes." Kira confirmed, curtseying. A move she knew she had to do, but was more self-conscious about than ever, because of anyone was going to compare her to Kelsey, it was someone like him. And she'd never been compared favorably before, she doubted it was going to start now. "Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Johnson." She did, obviously, know who he was of course. Even if her cousin hadn't been a bit enthralled with him and even if he wasn't the Co-Captain of the Teppalus team, it wasn't a big school and they were in the same house to begin with.

OOC-Sorry this took so long.

11 Kira A nervous one. 320 Kira 0 5

Leo Princeton

September 17, 2015 4:41 PM

Not. Amused. by Leo Princeton

It was rather dull this year, what with the lack of drama and brothers to bother. His cousins were a dull bunch and Leo did his best to ignore them when he could. After Alistair had approached Leo for the team and he'd rejected him, Leo spent most of his time these days either lingering in Cascade Hall or the library or the Crotalus common room. It wasn't as though he was looking to make friends or anything or looking to see if a certain someone would finally acknowledge his existence again.

He'd heard about the 'date' Nellie and his own room-mate had gone on. Nell had told him about it, the witch that had always followed him around as they'd grown up together in Surrey. Suddenly she wasn't there anymore when he turned around and she wasn't awaiting his every beck and call. He'd watched her during the Returning Feast to see if anything had changed, but she didn't even look at him once.

Leo hated this new change.

When he walked back to the Crotalus commons alone, thinking of curse words in his head because he didn't know what else to think about, he tried to put the blame on Tristan. Nellie had always followed him around; who was Tristan trying to be, snatching the attention of Leo's mate away from him? She'd always just been there, someone he could rely on. It wasn't Tristan's right to take her away from him. Leo said the password and walked in, his eyes naturally drawn to the noticeboards even though he knew there would be nothing there. Except there was.

Jealous?

Every nerve in Leo's brain sprang into a frenzy and he curled his fingers into fists. "I'm not jealous," he said through clenched teeth. The way Nellie looked at Tristan now when she used to look at him that way was not something Leo was jealous of at all. It wasn't as though he'd wanted her to look at him that way. He'd never wanted to marry her or anyone. At least, he'd never even considered it until now.

Leo didn't want to be in the same room as his room-mate in this state, fuming as he was. He stomped over to the couches, slouched down into it and crossed his arms. It wasn't fair, but he wasn't jealous. What sort of vandal would scratch something like that into the noticeboard? If it was Tristan, Leo would be thinking up some nasty curses for his blooming room-mate tonight, but he couldn't be sure. If it was Nellie... Leo's fingers curled into fists again and he sank deeper into the couch. He was not jealous.

OOC: Uses of Nellie's character approved by her author.

40 Leo Princeton Not. Amused. 263 Leo Princeton 0 5