There's no escaping real life on Aladren Commons

Rosalind Rabindra

August 06, 2008 3:39 PM

There's no escaping real life by Rosalind Rabindra

Immediately upon being shown to her new Common area, Rosalind had levitated her things up the staircase and began unpacking with such care and precision that anyone watching would think she had some severe mental disability. Luckily that was not the case. Unluckily, the case was that the sooner she stopped getting settled in, the sooner she would have to realize where she was and why she was here. So instead of her usual stance of thinking, she went for the automatic.

It took a while to finish, but eventually Rosie's books had been placed on her shelf in alphabetical order, her clothes hung according to the weather and then by color, and her bird, Brigid, was safely locked in her golden cage with enough food, water and newspapers to last the rest of her time at Sonora. Finding herself with nothing else to do, Rosie picked up a worn and tattered book from her shelf and trudged downstairs to survey her new common room and and perhaps continue the not thinking about her own life by reading about someone else's.

She chose a chair near the corner of the room and curled up on it, ready for a long read, but she never opened the book. Instead, she stared at the cover. Jane Eyre. It was a muggle book that her father had smuggled into the house for her. Her grandmother would beat her if she knew that Rosie had muggle literature, but her father valued knowledge over pretty much anything else and if his eldest daughter wanted to expand her mind with muggle novels then so be it.

Thinking about her muggle books, led her to thinking about why she shouldn't have them, and then why she was here and Rosie had to bite her lips to stop the initial sob. She needed someone to cry to. Someone to tell her it was all going to be all right. Of course very few people she knew would do that. Kane was the closest, but considering that the closest is 2000 miles away didn't help much. Then there was her sister, who was at Hogwarts and her Nanny who had been fired once Audrey had gone off to school. Both Rosie and Audrey cried hysterically when they found out, but Phoebe was old and she left to live with her own children and the heavy compensation the Rabindra's had given her.

She was told that she could possibly live with Rosie once she was married and a had a baby of her own. Rosie shuddered, still trying to keep in the tears. There was no one in the common room yet, but someone was bound to show up and start asking why this strange girl was sobbing and clutching a book like it was a life preserver in a storm. Her fight to keep the tears under control resulted in heavy, gasping breaths and sniffles, probably not the best things to keep her under the radar. She decided to finally open the book to get her mind off of everything, but Jane and her own abysmal situations.

Halfway through the second chapter, she heard the common room door open. Her tears had never come, but her eyes were red-rimmed and her breathing still a little forced. She decided to ignore the person and moved her long brown hair over her face, as though it would make her invisible.

0 Rosalind Rabindra There's no escaping real life 73 Rosalind Rabindra 1 5

Zack Dill

August 07, 2008 10:11 AM

It's easier than you think. by Zack Dill

When Zack entered the Common area, he looked around as he always did, just to make sure nothing was amiss. He'd taken his prefect duties very seriously since he was appointed two and a half years ago, and becoming Head Boy had only increased his zeal.

The curtains were hanging straight. There was no trash on the floor. All of the furniture was where it should be. There were no loose pets or unclaimed luggage lurking about. Nobody was fighting. There was an unfamiliar girl with red rimmed eyes and choked uneven breathing sitting on the couch. The carpet was clean. The windows were securely fastened against the January air. No books were - wait. An unfamiliar girl?

Zack mentally backed up and his eyes returned to the sight that his brain had cataloged a few moments before. Zack did not know every Alderaanian in the school. He admitted that freely and it was the cause of some recent concern in relation to figuring out the identity of one of his co-conspirators for this year's fair booth. But he did believe that he could recognize most of his Housemates by sight if not by name, especially the older ones.

This girl, he had never seen before.

She looked to be a little younger than him. But that was hardly surprising. He was a seventh year born in November. At eighteen now, he was older than just about everyone in the school who wasn't staff. But she definitely wasn't young enough to be a second year, never mind pre-Sonora age. So probably not a visiting relative of Professor K.

Undoubtedly a transfer, then. He was supposed to meet with the Head of House and other two prefects later that night; this girl was probably on the agenda. But Zack didn't need to be told to make her feel welcome in her new home. That much was obvious. It was a clear responsibility for a Alderaanian prefect.

So he moved closer and perched down on the edge of a nearby armchair, not so close that she'd feel crowded (given her level of distress, he'd say 'threatened' but he didn't believe a too-skinny guy who barely stood five feet tall could ever be viewed as threatening), but close enough for easy conversation. "Hi," he began. "I'm Zack Dill, one of the House prefects." Not that the prefect badge on his school robe, or the slightly larger Head Boy one, were in any danger of going unnoticed. It just felt a whole lot less awkward to talk to girls who looked like they might have been crying if he was doing it professionally rather than personally.

He hesitated a moment and then risked asking the obvious, "You're new here at Sonora?"\r\n\r\n

1 Zack Dill It's easier than you think. 40 Zack Dill 0 5

Rosie

August 07, 2008 8:25 PM

I sure hope so. by Rosie

Rosie looked up slowly. She knew it was coming. The onslaught of questions about why she was so sad. But her eyes opened wide at the sight of the person who addressed her. This Zack was almost exactly her height and yet he stated that he was a prefect. She glanced at his robes and not only saw his shiny prefect's badge, but his larger head boy badge. He was at least seventeen! And not only that, he didn't ask her why she was crying. Just an introduction of sorts.

She smiled shyly at Zack. "Y-Yes, I am." She surprised herself with how little she stuttered. Usually, she could barely be understood when meeting new people, but Zack's short stature and automatically friendly nature caused her to see a kindred soul in him.

"I-I just transferred from S-Salem. I-I'm R-Rosalind R-Rabindra" she continued, though she decided to leave out why she transferred. She assumed people would find out anyway soon enough. She broadened her smile, though it seemed forced even to her. "It s-seems n-n-nice here," she offered up, not wanting to make her first meeting with the first person she's introduced to awkward and dull.

0 Rosie I sure hope so. 0 Rosie 0 5

Zack Dill

August 08, 2008 10:39 AM

I lost touch with reality years ago by Zack Dill

She smiled. Thank the Great Maker. It perhaps wasn't the most genuine or happiest smile Zack had ever seen, but she was looking less like she was about to burst into tears at any moment than she had been before Zack started talking to her. Zack wasn't really good with tears, so if distraction seemed to be working for her, he'd stick with that.

"Welcome to Sonora, then, Rosalind," he told her, smiling back at her without any need to force the expression. "It's a pretty cool," he hesitated, realizing just in time that if he said the word 'school' like he'd originally planned, it was going to rhyme and sound dumb. "Place," he finished instead. "The food's really good here," he continued, hoping to cover any awkwardness from the re-phrasing, "and the teachers all know their stuff."

He made a gesture toward the Head of House's door. "Did you meet Professor Kijewski yet? She's in charge of our house and teaches Care of Magical Creatures. She's really nice, so if you ever need anything, she's a great help. She'd probably be my favorite teacher, but I don't like animals. And Alderaanians are pretty cool people. I don't think we have any real trouble makers in the House - most of those are in Pecari - so it's usually pretty calm and quiet and peaceful around here. What year are you in?"

1 Zack Dill I lost touch with reality years ago 40 Zack Dill 0 5

Rosie

August 08, 2008 4:42 PM

I'd like to know how you did it by Rosie

Rosalind contented to just listen to Zack talk about ~~his~~ their school. She liked to let other people talk while she listened; mainly because of her stutter, but also partly because anyone who spoke to her kindly must have something of interest to say. Her book was still open with her finger on the point she left off at, but her attention was on the Head Boy. This happily left her sad thoughts to sulk in the back of her mind, hidden behind thoughts of what her new teachers would be like and Zack's odd pronunciation of their house name.

"I-I haven't m-met her yet," Rosalind said, once Zack had finished. "Or anyone r-really," she admitted. "Y-You're the f-f-first person I've met b-besides Headmaster B-Bulla." It was a shame really. From the way Zack talked about the Professors, especially their Head of House, she wished classes would come sooner. Though she was disappointed that the head of her house was the Care of Magical Creatures professor and not the transfiguration professor or something more...bookish.

"I-I'm a f-f-fifth year," Rosalind replied monotonously. She was lost in her thoughts again, but she decided she needed to voice one of her thoughts aloud.

"Y-You called our house b-by a different pro-pro-pronunciation than H-Headmaster Bulla did. Is th-there more than one w-way to s-say it?"

0 Rosie I'd like to know how you did it 0 Rosie 0 5

Zack

August 08, 2008 5:40 PM

It started with the discovery that magic was real.... by Zack

It was a little hard to understand Rosalind through the stutter at first, but Zack was from inner city Detroit and at least she used standard English and proper grammar, so once he got accustomed to the backtracking, it started to get easier. By the time she told him she was a fifth year, he was already starting to get used to it, but her next question had him beetling his eyebrows in confusion for an entirely different reason.

He pronounced Alderaan weirdly? He tried to think back to how he said it, but it sounded fine to him.

Then he remembered. "Oh." He flushed. "That." He shifted on his chair in mild embarrassment. "See, there's this movie that's really popular in the normal world, called Star Wars." Zack made a point of never using the word 'muggle', having a philosophical aversion for the word. It just didn't fit his family and the other mundanes he knew. Of course, labeling the non-magical world 'normal', and implying the wizarding world wasn't, clearly identified him as a muggleborn, even seven years after his introduction into his new world. Not that his interests and obsessions would ever put that in doubt.

"I'm a huge fan. Well, Star Trek's better, but Star Wars has its high points. Anyway, there's this planet called Alderaan in it, which is where Princess Leia is from. Alderaan's this kind of a utopian peaceful world, or at least it was before the Empire blew it up, and when I first started at Sonora, I started using the names Alderaan and Alder, no, Ald, no, Ala- Aladren, yeah, that's what it's supposed to be, Aladren interchangeably. Well, Alderaan, mostly, unless I'm being really careful about using the real one, and even then I tend to mix them up. Most people around here are used to it, and I think I got a couple of other people doing it, too. Just take them for synonyms and roll your eyes at me behind my back like everyone else," he grinned to show her he was joking.

Probably.

Well, even if people were, Zack didn't mind it. It went with the territory of being the kind of nerd that dressed up like a Jedi in public and went to Trekkie conventions (but, obviously, not at the same time - he dressed up like Spock for the Star Trek conventions).\r\n\r\n

0 Zack It started with the discovery that magic was real.... 0 Zack 0 5

Rosie

August 08, 2008 10:38 PM

I was never able to make that discovery by Rosie

Rosie bit her lip when Zack flushed. Did she say something wrong? Was she not supposed to bring up the difference in pronunciations? Maybe it was a lisp of some sort. She flushed just as badly as Zack until he started explaining everything.

Rosie tried to listen, but it was difficult to understand. Something about a war in space that he was a fan of and a planet blowing up. Shouldn't she have heard if a planet had been blown up by a war. Even if it was a muggle war, that would have been big news. She stared at him with her eyebrows scrunched together in concentration. It still didn't make much sense, but now she knew that it wasn't her fault.

Just take them for synonyms and roll your eyes at me behind my back like everyone else."

Rosalind wouldn't have known that Zack was joking except that he grinned at her afterwards. She returned the smile though less enthusiastically.

"Oh," she said, not knowing what to say next. There was an awkward moment of silence before she found something else to say.

"Well, m-maybe I c-c-could start pro-pronouncing it like you," she said. It was an odd thing to do, but if people knew about the strange way Zack said his house's name and Rosie started saying it, wouldn't it show people that she was friends with Zack? Or at least knew him? It was a way to show that she belonged. Kind of. And now was a good time to start getting the hang of it.

"A-Alderaan, d-did you s-say it was?" She'd have to write that down. In fact, the library was just outside the common room (one of the few upsides about transferring). She might be able to find a book or two about this space war and the planet Alderaan.

0 Rosie I was never able to make that discovery 0 Rosie 0 5

Zack Dill

August 11, 2008 11:54 AM

Well, discovering Star Wars might serve the same purpose by Zack Dill

By her expression, Zack was of the opinion that Rosalind had no idea what he was talking about - and since you had to live under a rock in the Himalayas to have never even heard of Star Wars in the mundane world - he concluded she was probably magicborn. Consequently, he was a little surprised when she seemed interested in carrying on his tradition of calling Alderaan by its new name. Not one to discourage such interest, though, he nodded in approval. "Sure. Yeah. It's Alderaan. That's A-L-D-E-R-A-A-N. Two As at the end there."

Not one to let an opportunity of conversion escape him, he added, "I've got some of the books in my room if you want to read them. Heir to the Empire, Jedi Academy, and the X-wing series are the best." He frowned thoughtfully. "You might be able to figure out what's going on without seeing the movies, but I've got reference books, too, so you can look stuff up if it gets too confusing."

He shrugged and continued, "Or you can just ask me. I've got the whole history pretty well down pat. I can even write in Basic, the language of the Empire and New Republic. But that's pretty much just English with a different alphabet, which is kind of disappointing. Kling-on was much more challenging to learn."

1 Zack Dill Well, discovering Star Wars might serve the same purpose 40 Zack Dill 0 5

Rosie

August 14, 2008 1:17 AM

I think you may be right :) by Rosie

Rosalind wished she had a pen and parchment to write down everything, but she had to settle with trying to remember everything Zack was telling her. Spelling out Alderaan made it a bit easier and she smiled in thanks for the tidbit of information.

At the mention of book, Rosie's grey eyes lit up. "You have books on the subject?" Rosie asked excitedly, forgetting to stutter for s second. "I'd love them!" Her grin broadened when she heard there were reference books. She might want to read those as just a book instead of using it for just reference. There were so many things she didn't know and here was Zack, tossing a large portion of muggle knowledge into her lap with a smile.

However, finding out that he knew another language, let alone more than that, was fascinating. It meant that he was smart. So far, Rosalind had just assumed that everything he was telling her was basic knowledge in the Muggle world, but she doubted more than a few people at this school, or even Salem knew a language beyond English. Rosalind herself only knew some generic French from her mother. This boy was getting more interesting by the second.

"You know another language? Is B-Basic, was it? Is that hard to learn? A-And w-what's K-Kling-on?" Rosie's brain felt like a dry sponge and Zack was cool water. Her hands itched to get her hands on the books Zack mentioned. She fidgeted with her brand new Sonora robes with the ~~Aladren~~ Alderaan crest on it, barely able to control her urge to learn this new language and read these new books.

0 Rosie I think you may be right :) 0 Rosie 0 5