Morning Rendezvous [Tag Marissa] on Cascade Hall

Andrew Duell

November 07, 2011 9:39 PM

Morning Rendezvous [Tag Marissa] by Andrew Duell

Andrew had been looking forward to this all summer, he was finally back at school and this was going to be an awesome year. He just knew it. At the closing ball last year he had done something extremely risky and foolish, he'd asked the most beautiful girl in the school to be his girl. Much to his surprise and delight, she actually agreed to it! They had agreed to keep in touch over the summer which was great, but did lead to an interesting challenge. When he was at his Dad's, he could send her email, and that worked for the very brief amount of time he was there. Unfortunately, as usual, right after school he went to his mother's place.

The problem he ran into was figuring out how to send her a letter by owl without his mom finding out. He liked his mother, and he really liked Marissa and he wasn't about to let his mother ruin anything. His first night home she had been asking him all about the dance, and his date, and.... so on. He was fairly certain that if she actually learned he'd asked her to be his girlfriend, she'd demand to go and meet her right away. Thus, he needed a plan. He dismissed his initial plan on working Jose into the scheme. She wouldn't suspect communications with him, and have him pass messages on to Marissa. That would just look, poor. He couldn't use Lance, his mom's owl though. The only other solution was obvious, he'd have to get his own. However, he'd have to do this without rousing Mom's suspicion either.

She nearly solved that problem without his help. He brought up the idea and she insisted upon getting him an owl before he could say much more. Before long he had his new Archimedes carrying messages to Marissa. It was all going very well until he went to his dad's place. He transitioned over to email fairly well, but he wasn't there for long. His parents sprung a vacation on him and he barely got a message off to Marissa saying he was going away before they whisked him away. The 'vacation' had gotten 'interesting' and they barely got back in time for him to pack and get back to school. Now he could finally see and talk to her again.

Last night he missed her at the opening feast. It was a little crazy as usual and being in the positions they were, they had duties to attend to. But now, it was the first official day of school. He normally got up early to set up his experiments for the start of the year, but not this year, they could wait. He was up early and fixed himself up before heading down to the Hall for breakfast. He found himself a good spot and waited until he saw Marissa enter. He stopped himself from bellowing across the room to her, and instead just tried to get her attention by waving her over to his table and merely calling out her name. "Marissa!"

2 Andrew Duell Morning Rendezvous [Tag Marissa] 145 Andrew Duell 1 5

Marissa Stephenson

November 09, 2011 6:32 PM

So it is. Pass the orange juice? by Marissa Stephenson

The next morning, after having a whole summer to get used to the idea, Marissa found herself still running her fingers over the Head Girl’s badge placed above her Crotalus prefect and Quidditch captain badges and so at the top of the triangle of metal on the left shoulder of her robes. It was going to be a day or two before it stopped feeling strange, but that wasn’t why she did it. She was just still having trouble believing it was there.

It didn’t seem entirely proper to walk around drawing attention to it, though, so she forced herself to stop and hold on to a bit of her robe instead as she approached the Cascade Hall for her first official breakfast as the holder of one of the two highest student-held positions at Sonora Academy. She was proud of her badges, and still walking on air when she realized that her classmates thought she was good enough to elect her to something when they did have another option in spite of her failings, but she had been well-conditioned against bragging too much a long time before she came to Sonora.

She couldn’t, though, in spite of that conditioning, keep a wider smile than usual off her face as she came in, but she could just be having a good morning. Why shouldn’t she do that? Things were going well for her. She had made it to seventh year, she was the Quidditch captain who stood the best chance of finally breaking Aladren’s ridiculous winning streak, she had….

…A boyfriend, kind of, who was currently hailing her. She smiled as she went over to join him at one of the tables, the expression masking a bit of nervousness. It was kind of one thing to write over the summer, even to have spent quite a lot of time together last year as part of her quest to pass Transfiguration and then for them both to learn ballroom dancing, but another to have things kind of…official, as he’d put it last year. She was unfamiliar with official. What were the rules, exactly? She had tried to read some books and magazines on the subject over the summer, but they had mostly struck her as ridiculous or irrelevant for one reason or another. She’d finally gotten desperate enough to ask advice, but that hadn’t gone over well. Paige had nearly fallen over laughing, and her friends had been more interested in why she didn’t have pictures – which she did, but only Paige had gotten to see those, because the others still didn’t know she was a witch.

“Hi,” she said, sitting down. Then she just, deciding it was the best she could think of, picked up where they'd left off, sort of. “So, how was the vacation?”

She’d had a sort of vacation when her aunt decided they should all go to Tennessee for a long weekend, something she’d mentioned in a letter, but had mostly spent the summer playing tennis and studying French. She gathered that his vacation had been a little more extensive. She’d been a little worried when she hadn’t really heard from him for the rest of the summer, but he appeared intact and was talking to her now, so that seemed to be all right.

Which was good, because she had taken the Apparition test during his vacation, and with Quentin gone, she didn’t really have anyone else to tell about it. She could write to Quentin, but that wasn’t the same as telling someone about it in person. It had been the most frustrating thing ever when she’d gotten home, unable to go to her friends and with her family treating it as nothing more than a driving test. She had passed that without so much as a blink, but Apparition….

16 Marissa Stephenson So it is. Pass the orange juice? 147 Marissa Stephenson 0 5

Andrew

November 09, 2011 9:56 PM

For you, anything. by Andrew

You couldn't have wiped the smile off of Andrew's face if you tried. He certainly didn't. The way she gracefully navigated the navigated the hall, the smile that she gave him, the music that filled his ears when she asked about his vacation, she was just perfect. He sat there just a moment, reveling in her presence, and artfully covered it by piling some food onto his plate. Then he had to give her question some serious consideration. "Well if I try to remember hard enough, I'm pretty sure I've had worse vacations, but this one would definitely rate in the top five of the category."

This could get to be a lengthy tale, was she really interested or just making polite conversation? Normally he'd assume the latter, but now she might want to know the torrid details of his life. Well, to play it safe, he could feed it to her slowly. "Remember one of the last letters I had Archimedes carry to you? Mom and Dad were still trying to figure out if they wanted to do one and where and such. Well, apparently they came to that decision rather abruptly and before I knew it we were out camping in the middle of nowhere." He paused for dramatic effect, "Everything went wrong." He reconsidered that statement while twirling his fork, "No, that's not true, we all had fun I guess amidst the misery of the weather, car trouble, general tech trouble, camping trouble, wild animal trouble..." he then waved his fork in an 'ongoing' sort of motion, "...et cetera and so forth."

"We never did get to wherever it was that we were going, by the time everything was straightened out again we were nearly late getting back home for me to catch the ride back to school. I was worried I was going to miss... everything." He had missed her, but saying that sounded rather needy and creepy at this stage even inside his head. Time to steer the conversation back to her again. He had hogged the floor long enough.

"How did your trip to Tennessee go?" Another thought struck him, "Did you get to do your Apperation test? I missed mine. Hopefully I can schedule it again sometime soon."

2 Andrew For you, anything. 145 Andrew 0 5

Marissa

November 13, 2011 6:09 PM

That's a very broad statement... by Marissa

Marissa winced in sympathy at the vacation ranking in the top five worst ever of Andrew’s life. She didn’t know much about his vacation history, but that still sounded more than a little ominous.

The description he gave her was vague, but it didn’t give her any impression that he had exaggerated. “Wow,” she said sympathetically. “That sounds…memorable.” A mild way to put it, by the sounds of it. This was why she let Daddy watch the nature channel by himself, lest she someday be somehow coerced into going with him and his dad and brothers and nephews on the hunting trip to Montana since he didn’t have a son. It didn’t seem likely, he wasn’t likely to take either of them but was more likely to ask Paige than her since Paige was older and more outdoorsy anyway, but….

“That would have been bad,” she said when he said he’d nearly missed the ride back to school, smiling slightly. “I’m sure they could have set something up, but you might have missed…the Feast.” Very important time, the Feast, particularly for senior prefects. Much more important than breakfast, which had briefly occurred to her as something to end the sentence with.

She started on one expression, then dithered between two more before deciding to stick with the excited smile associated with the second question. “You should,” she said about him rescheduling his soon. “It’s really not that bad.” She paused just a little for dramatic effect before adding, “I passed.”

She took a moment to be delighted about that again before adding, “Well, I didn’t fail, anyway. I can only go so many miles at one time, so it’ll probably be faster to just use Portkeys, like, between states or things, but…You know, I don’t even really care about that.” Not in the face of having passed. She had somehow almost talked herself into believing she would before the test, because she’d never really, truly, completely failed before, but she guessed it had been a surface-level belief at best, because she had been so shocked when she found out she passed that she had nearly passed out before she started screaming and spinning around, just once, hugging herself. The poor Transport wizard giving her the news had looked kind of terrified. “I passed. And the photo on the license is so much better than the one on my driver’s license.”

It was good to be able to say that and be pretty sure the person she was speaking to knew what she was talking about. She didn’t know how comfortable Andrew was with Muggle technology and stuff – at home, she knew she was considered the next thing to a grandmother in that respect, with her friends feeling incomplete without their cell phones and her spending a few days very frustrated with her computer until her hands re-adjusted to the keyboard, but she wasn’t sure what the typical experience was for someone exposed to both worlds – but he had mentioned car trouble, which implied he knew what a car was and was accustomed to seeing one used and was familiar with some of the rules associated with them.

However, talking about pictures was going a little far, probably. “Sorry. I’ve been really, really excited all summer, and the family got really bored really quick because they were just, like, isn’t that like getting your driver’s license? I’d like to see them teleport sometime.” She took a breath. “Tennessee was fine. We went to the aquarium, wandered around some shopping districts a little. My aunt didn’t really have a plan when she decided we should all pack up and leave town.” That happened a lot when her aunt just decided they should go somewhere on a whim. Sometimes it was fun, sometimes it was just completely uneventful. “Nothing like your camping expedition. The weather was pretty good, and…well, her GPS did mess up for a while and we ended up getting to see some unplanned scenery, but we didn’t really have any car trouble…wild animal trouble….”

16 Marissa That's a very broad statement... 147 Marissa 0 5

Andrew

November 14, 2011 7:37 PM

It is, I shall then draw the line at... hmm... by Andrew

He grinned at the suggested adjective, "Memorable is probably the best way to put it." It has been actually rather fun, once he let himself admit it. If only it hadn't impinged so much upon his other summer plans. He had been rather worried that Marissa would be mad that he hadn't sent her anything else after that last hastily written message. She didn't seem to be, or she was very good at hiding it. Either way, she was still here talking to him.

"You did? That's awesome! Congratulations!" He would have jumped up and hugged her, but there was a table in the way. Stupid table. It occurred to him that it may have sounded like he didn't think she could have done it and was surprised. He was about to retract his statement, but realized that any attempt along those lines would probably just make it worse. So instead he went with a different tactic. "I knew you could do it. What's it like? I hear it's really disorienting. Mom was trying to coach me a bit early this summer, but..." he paused for a moment to collect the best way to continue, "it took her a few tries to get her license, and she doesn't do it much." He decided not to add on 'because she's downright terrible at it.'

"Oh really?" he interjected at her pictures comment while switching over to a more playful smile, "You do realize with that comment, I'll need to examine both of them, right? If you promise not to run away screaming I'll let you see my drivers licence in return." He was pretty sure he had brought it along, he didn't need it while he was here, but he'd made Dad help him get it so he didn't let it get to far from him.

He couldn't stop himself from laughing at her statement about her family attempting to teleport. "The culture difference is amazing sometimes, isn't it? Between Muggles and Magical, my Dad isn't so sure about apperation. I assume a lot of that comes from watching Mom try to do it, and the sci-fi movies we watch with teleporter incidents when I'm staying with him."

"It definitely sounds like you had a more successful vacation than we did. Sounds like you had a good time, sometimes I wonder what it would be like to do something without a plan." His mind briefly drifted off to his schedule for the day and the mental checklist that he had made to go along with it. Then he tossed it aside, plenty of time for that later, now it was Marissa's time, with her class schedule he may not see her again until Transfiguration. Unless they could work out something else... "So, what all classes do you have lined up for the term? Do I still get to be your Transfiguation tutor?"

2 Andrew It is, I shall then draw the line at... hmm... 145 Andrew 0 5

Marissa

November 16, 2011 12:24 PM

Yes? by Marissa

Marissa winced instinctively in sympathy with the idea of someone’s mother trying to help them with something. Maybe it was just her family, or maybe even just her, but she had almost never learned to drive because of her relatives trying to teach her. Her grandmother had nearly put them in a ditch one day seizing the steering wheel because she, unlike Marissa, had never noticed how much more dangerous things looked from the passenger seat. She had come as close as she ever had to disrespecting her elders that day.

“I’m not sure if help would have made things better or worse,” she said. “I think it hurt as much as it helped with driving.” She took a bit of her eggs and added, “but it does feel really weird. It’s like – “ well, he wouldn’t know much about girdles or really tight stockings to imagine them as full-body devices, or at least she really hoped he didn’t – “I don’t know, but I swear the first time I actually moved, I thought I was going to suffocate.” She decided to leave out the part where she’d briefly parted company with her left foot before she got that far. There was no need to scare him off the whole idea right now.

She chuckled at the idea of being driven to screaming by a license photo. “I don’t think that I can really be scared too much after my mom’s,” she said. “And my sister’s, now that I think of it.” Both had expressed considerable consternation at how even the not as good driver’s photo had come out. It was like they hadn’t heard of remembering they were taking a picture when they went to the DMV. “So that’s a deal.”

She didn’t know if her parents had ever thought about teleporter accidents when it came to her learning to Apparate, but then, they’d never been around it, where it seemed like Andrew’s mom was a witch and his dad would therefore have gotten at least a little used to the idea. Her parents knew no magical people aside from her, and they didn’t seem interested in getting to know many more. They were okay with her; she preferred the privacy of them not really knowing what she did, just being glad she did it well. “There’s just enough in common to make it really obvious how different some things are,” she said. Goodness knew there were enough things she could see the backward reflection of between worlds. “Though I got lucky. None of my family really got into sci-fi.”

Marissa liked schedules enough to not really like contemplating doing something without one until it was too late to do anything about it, but was aware that it was a little unusual. “It’s weird,” she offered, then found herself on firmer footing with talk of classes. “If you’d be so kind,” she said, emphasizing what was left of her accent for a moment, when he asked about remaining her Transfiguration tutor. “It’s mostly the same schedule as last year – I’ve got my independent studies and the stuff with Fawcett, then Transfig and Potions and Divination.”

Even now, there was part of her that felt something was subtly off about saying that when she should have been making remarks about history and chem and calculus, but she ignored it. It wasn’t like she didn’t know a bit about those things, too – well, less about the calculus, but she had never had the best head for numbers, her mother just persisted in refusing to believe it, so she even knew a little about that. She shook her head slightly, banishing the life she might have had in exchange for the one she did have. “What about you? Make any drastic changes?”

16 Marissa Yes? 147 Marissa 0 5

Andrew

November 16, 2011 7:22 PM

I'm thinking, I'm thinking.... request motive is key by Andrew

It sounded as though Marissa may have at some point met his mother, but he wasn't sure when that could have been. He loved his mother, he really did, but sometimes she was just a bit to... free-spirited. He wondered what Marissa's parents were like and who she took after in the family. He defiantly took after his dad. "I'm fairly certain all of Mom's good intentions wouldn't have translated well into actually helping either." Marissa's description made him just a little worried, "I'll bet you'd be great to help me train for it."

"It is strange to go between both worlds, isn't it? Mom looks at Dad just as strangely when he pulls up in the car as he does at her when she flies in on her broom. Both of them make perfect sense to me. Dad can't seem to grasp the idea of an energy that can be manipulated through thought and will, while Mom can't understand anything that functions without making use of it. They're just to solidly at odds and..." His voice drifted off realizing he was actually voicing the main problem that has been running through his head for the past... well, since his parents decided they just could handle each other's world. "Heh, sorry." He tried to cover it with a nervous grin, "Ignore my nonsensical ramblings, they escape every once in awhile."

"Anyway..." He was glad for school discussion, much easier. Much safer. "It is truly my pleasure," he wish he had a neat accent to respond with, oh well. He brighten as she listed her classes, "Excellent, Transfigurations and Potions." It was odd to think that he only had one class with both of his best friends this term, Marissa and Jose would be in Potions. "You are still taking Divinations? You'll have to tell my fortune sometime. I only took it for a term, but that was enough to realize I had zero talent in that field. Thankfully CalTech doesn't require it." He wasn't sure if he had actually mentioned his plans for after school this year to her. "No big changes to my schedule, I'm taking what CalTech's Magical Engineering department requires; Charms, Potions, Transfig, Arithmancy and some independent good ol' muggle physics and math. Oh, and just so you know, my future may well rest in your hands." He grinned, "Well, yours and Jose's. There is no way I would have made it through potions without you two."

2 Andrew I'm thinking, I'm thinking.... request motive is key 145 Andrew 0 5

Marissa

November 20, 2011 5:55 PM

I usually at least try for good intentions. by Marissa

Marissa was pretty sure Andrew was just being kind in saying she’d be great to help him practice for the Apparition test, but she appreciated it anyway. “Kind of hard to practice here, but I can maybe tell you about what sort of mental things worked and stuff,” she offered, though she wasn’t sure if she wouldn’t just given conventional advice instead of saying what had really worked for her. Admitting a complete, overwhelming terror of failure and certainty that she could not fail was just…It just wouldn’t feel right, not least of all because she was sure no one wanted to hear that. They all had their own problems, many likely worse than a petted upper-middle-class girl’s problems with her self-image and self-esteem.

She smiled kindly when trailed out of rambling about his parents. That kind of problem didn’t exist between her parents, but she did think sometimes it was starting to get into the family. Or at least, it would if she ever lost her temper and opened her mouth. Sometimes, having them nod along when she knew they had no idea what was really going on or how important it was but also knew they were sure they did was just frustrating, enough that she really preferred not to talk about her life with them at all these days if she could help it. “It’s okay,” she said. "I promise, you'll get to hear all kinds of rambling once I process that we're taking RATS and doing college applications."

By the sounds of it, CalTech magical engineering was pretty much a set part of Andrew’s future. She kind of envied him the certainty, for all there was no way she’d ever get into that if she bribed the admissions office with the Hope Diamond. She didn’t know where she was going next year, or what she was going to do there, and that was already turning into a weight of anxiety in her stomach, one which she knew would just keep getting steadily worse between now and the night, dangerously close to deadlines, when she panicked and made up her mind on the spot after months of pretending to work on it and just putting it off instead.

That thought was momentarily banished by the assertion his future was in her hands while she tried to figure out what exactly he meant by that before he explained about Potions. “Oh, yeah,” she said with a smile. “Well, I owe you back for Transfiguration. I don’t know if I’m going to end up needing that for school, but there’s no way I’d pass it without you.” She played with her fork for a moment. “I still can’t believe we’re seventh years and now we have to have plans,” she said. “I mean, I thought we just got here, and now I’m Head Girl and haven’t got a plan in the world for what to do this time next year. I keep wanting to just tell Coach Pierce to tell me what do with my life, but I don’t think she’d like that…and I might not, either…” She shook her head at the complications of growing up, all of which she wished would just go away, even though she knew there was no way that was going to happen. "See, I told you I'd ramble. Do you have a RATS study plan set up yet?"

16 Marissa I usually at least try for good intentions. 147 Marissa 0 5

Andrew

November 22, 2011 8:30 PM

That is why this is difficult by Andrew

"Oh yeah..." He had forgotten about the 'no apperation' thing in the school, "Well, I'm fairly certain that anything you can tell me about your experiences would help. Just knowing what may lie in wait never hurts, right?" He had always thought the students that were skilled at divinations had something of an advantage in that respect. Marissa was still taking the class, maybe she could give him some insight into how things might go.

He visibly shuddered a bit at her mention of RATS. He could still remember taking his CATS far to clearly for his own liking. "Don't remind me just yet. I'm not certain I've recovered from the CATS yet. At least this time they will focus more on the classes that we've selected, and not all of them." He sighed and switched over to the other part of her statement. "As for college... I'm hoping for the best. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do if I don't make it into CalTech, I don't have much of a back-up plan. What..." he paused just a moment to consider his question. Ordinarily he'd think it might be bit of a personal question, but they were dating now, right? He could ask what she was planning with her future after school. Was she looking at schools? Did it maybe involve him? How... Then she sort of answered his question before he could ask it.

He grinned at her, "I wonder what Coach Pierce would suggest. Pro-Quidditch player maybe?" RATS study plans... hmm... RATS study plans... Spend as much time with his 'study partner' as he could? "Well, let's see here, RATS are at the end of the year, right? I think my plans at this point are to memorized everything I possibly can that could maybe come up on the tests. How about you?"

2 Andrew That is why this is difficult 145 Andrew 0 5

Marissa

November 24, 2011 10:32 PM

Oh, well. Life would be dull without a few difficulties. by Marissa

Marissa smiled at the idea of knowing what lay in wait not hurting anything. She’d always wondered if the Greeks had a bowlful of sour apples when they wrote the tragedies where knowing was what made the bad things happen, but then, she thought they had known a bit about magic, which implied that it might be true. She didn’t know; she loved Divination because she could do enough to get a good grade without the mad effort she’d had to put into, say, Charms, but she didn’t know how much stock she could put into it when she was definitely not Gifted in that way.

“I don’t guess so with this,” she said. Unless it terrified him into not wanting to even try, but since he had to have already heard all the Splinching stories that had scared her into, she thought, being able to succeed, she didn’t think that was too likely. “Mostly, I think it’s just knowing, totally completely, when you’re trying it, you know, that you can do it. You’re barely even thinking you might fail. At least, I think that’s what worked for me.”

She could empathize with the panicky feeling of not having a backup plan – not from personal experience, since she lacked a plan, but she’d worked for something before, and knew that it was probably worse to worry about failing than to worry about not trying. “I’m sure it’ll be all right,” she said. As far as academics went, she thought of Andrew primarily in terms of his Transfiguration work, where she’d been in awe of him since they were just first years. She liked to think that if she’d been that good at one of the mainstream subjects, she never would have worried a moment about her future, though in the back of her head was the little voice which let her know that yes, she would have, it was just her nature to worry about anything that wasn’t already finished and done. She ignored it and smiled a little recklessly instead. “What’s the worst that can happen, anyway? They can just all reject us, they can’t kill us.”

It was a little melodramatic, but she actually did find that thought a little comforting as well. She wasn’t sure what that said about her psychological state and so chose to ignore it, instead chuckling at the idea of becoming a professional Quidditch player.

“Of course,” she said. “Considering my impressive winning streak.”

She hadn’t, she thought a little defensively, really done badly. She’d gotten them into the Championship plenty. It was just that she couldn’t seem to win once they were there. It was her final season, so it should have been the most important ever, but she honestly thought it would be the easiest lose yet if she did lose there, just because Aladren’s Carey brat was finally old enough for it not to be utterly humiliating. Humiliating, sure, but not utterly humiliating.

She was distracted by the idea of studying. “I’m trying to work out schedules,” she said, with a smile which acknowledged how very sad that sounded. “Follow all these stupid ‘So-Many Steps to an O’ books,’ even though half of them contradict each other. I’m hoping it wears off in a few weeks and I just worry about getting through the classes right now and let the exams…do whatever they’re going to do. If only so I’ll have more time for the college and career brochures.” It wasn’t much of a joke, and might not even be recognized as one, but it amused her a little, anyway.

16 Marissa Oh, well. Life would be dull without a few difficulties. 147 Marissa 0 5

Andrew

November 27, 2011 6:39 PM

We certainly can't have dull around here, can we? by Andrew

He nodded at her advise as he took another bite of breakfast, then responded after swallowing. "That takes a lot of self-confidence," He really wondered if he could manage that level. He was almost always making 'contingency plans' in his head when he attempted anything, it was like planning for failure. Marissa on the other hand accomplished whatever she set her mind to, despite any obstacles in her way. She wasn't the most powerful witch in the world, but with just a little extra coaching she was pushing her way through (what he had been told was) one of the most difficult magical courses in the curriculum. He'd argue that point, but not right now. "Hopefully I'll be able to pull it off."

He considered her next statement carefully, "True..." he replied, drawing it out a little bit. "I talked to Professor Crosby before we took our RATS for some advise on where to go after we graduate from here. She gave me a bunch of literature to look into and that's where I found CalTech's program, last year I focused mainly on that and..." Whoops. He'd focused on that and getting Marissa to the point where he could sit down with her their first morning for breakfast and have a talk like this.

Eh, honesty never hurt, right? He turned just a slight shade of red as he admitted, "...and working up the courage to ask you to the dance. Anyway," He moved on quickly, "I didn't really look at much else in that information once I found CalTech. Maybe I should have, maybe I'll have to look at it a bit more." He paused for a moment as he recalled the conversation, "Actually the other career choice she suggested that, for some reason I can't really explain, caught my interest was healing. I don't have near the potion skills necessary for that though, and my charms are barely above mediocre at best." He paused again realizing he'd been rambling once again. Someday he'd learn to wrangle that in, but that day was not today. "I guess my point is, that it may not hurt to talk to Coach Pierce if you haven't yet and aren't sure what you're planning. She may have some interesting ideas that you hadn't thought of yet."

He'd caught a hint at something that may have been humor in her studying statements, and decided to attempt to follow it up with some of his own. "Well," he whispered in a hushed tone as he leaded toward her across the table, darting his eyes back and forth as if looking for suspicious eavesdroppers, "If you be wantin'," he even tried for some movie inspired 'New York Mobster' accent, "I knows a guy whos can make dem books dissapear. Poof. No questions asked." He thew in a sly wink for good measure before sitting back in his seat and giving her a grin.

"Speaking of Quidditch this year though, I'm torn horribly." He clutched at his chest over his heart, "You're leading Crotalus, and Jose is leading Pecari. I'm at a loss as to who's team to root for, My girls?" He shot her another playful wink, "My best friend's?" he waved his hand out towards the rest of the hall where he assumed Jose was eating breakfast somewhere, "Or mine?" He was at this point assuming he was going to get on the team, but he was a seventh year now, and as things had been going would probably be the only seventh year to sign up. He may not make the team, but he would have to start to wonder about Kirstenna's sanity if she replaced a seventh year with a first year.

2 Andrew We certainly can't have dull around here, can we? 145 Andrew 0 5

Marissa

November 29, 2011 12:30 PM

No, we cannot. by Marissa

Marissa flushed, not sure if she should be more pleased or embarrassed or what, at the idea of her as self-confident. “It took a lot of panic,” she corrected with a smile. “I couldn’t even think of anything but how I had to do it right or I’d die.” It sounded like a humorous exaggeration, but honestly, she had really felt that way when she was in the moments before. The moment of the test, she had felt strangely calm, but before it….

Of course, she’d feel the same way when she was taking her Transfiguration midterm, she guessed. Rising panic and obsession, which would suddenly cut off into calm when she was actually taking the exam. The anxiety would swing up again in the end when she was the last person working in Transfiguration or something, which hadn’t happened with the Apparition exam, but it was basically the same pattern whatever test was in front of her. She hated it, but regardless of that, it almost always worked, and that was what mattered, she guessed. At least for now, while she was in high school.

She flushed again when he admitted his second focus of the previous year had been about asking her out, this time feeling flattered. “I talked to Coach Pierce last year,” she said. “We came up with journalism, editing, you know, and maybe early childhood education – private tutoring, you know, for some of the ones who wouldn’t mind too much that I was Muggleborn, or maybe a school in one of the magical towns. I’m just being indecisive.”

She leaned forward when he was whispering in what sounded a bit like an Al Capone-type accent. “Uh-huh,” she said seriously. She sat back when he was done, holding her face straight for a moment before she laughed. “I’ll hang onto them for now, just in case there’s something useful in them. But I might burn them in front of the bell tower at the end of the year.” She didn’t mean it completely seriously, but then, she didn’t mean it completely as a joke, either.

She pretended to consider his Quidditch dilemma for a moment. “Well….” She said. “You know I have an answer, and I'm pretty sure who's going to win, but I’m biased. I guess you could just take a fourth option and support Aladren, but they don’t need it and I think me and Jose might have to come after you then.”

16 Marissa No, we cannot. 147 Marissa 0 5

Andrew

November 29, 2011 9:24 PM

Excellent, now we must stay interesting. by Andrew

Andrew grimaced a bit at her response, "That's something I hadn't really thought about before." Sure, he knew bad things could happen while apperating; loosing hair, digits or even limbs. But it would not take much to lose the wrong part and... ugh. Not a fun thing to think about. This was going to take some looking into. "I've got to say," he tried to cover his rather gruesome thought process behind some mildly morbid lightheartedness, "I can think of better ways to go, then appearing somewhere without a head." He wondered, briefly, what exactly the death rates of apperation trainees were.

"I could see you doing any of that, you'd make a great teacher." He thought about it for a moment, "Actually I'm not sure if I can say that. I don't really know how the magical schools work that you'd go to before you come here. I went to Muggle school, and was homeschooled by Mom in some magical type aspects. It can't be to different than Muggle school can it?" He paused another moment to consider things again, "You know, I don't know that the setting really matters though. You're kind and patient and you certainly know your stuff. You've fought for it tooth and nail and here you are a seventh year, you've pretty much succeeded." He finished his rambling with a grin. That rambling may have caught him again, he'd meant that as a compliment... hopefully she'd take it as such, and not some kind of insult to the slight deficiency of magical power that seemed to plague her. She had accomplished so much despite it, and that was more impressive than someone who had blasted through classes with sheer power.

He gave her a wink and shrug "Okay, but give me a call when you decide to start the bonfire, I want to watch." Then he shuddered at her Quidditch suggestion, "No way. I think it's about time Aladren let someone else win for a change. I'm not sure who I'm rooting to win yet, but I'm going to do my best on the pitch to make sure it's not them."

2 Andrew Excellent, now we must stay interesting. 145 Andrew 0 5

Marissa

December 04, 2011 10:07 PM

I'm sure we'll manage somehow. by Marissa

Marissa had never actually imagined dying by Apparitive decapitation, but she did now. Her thoughts had been about bleeding out from a missing leg, or an arm not going back on right, or something like that. Losing her head…well, she’d rather not, but…. “And I can think of worse ones,” she replied, “so I guess we balance each other out.”

She shook her head about Muggle schools and magical schools and such. “I don’t think it’s too different,” she said. “I mean, it’s the basics, right? You learn to read and write and your figures, then any math you need after that is up to the professors here.” Since it did come up in…virtually every class she was still in, to some extent. There was something hilarious to her about how an at least occasional element of everything she studied here was the subject she’d been worst at in her old life. “If Quentin and Edmond are anything to go by, then some people might expect a lot more, but maybe I could learn to handle the basics, you know, in some setting.”

It had occurred to her as maybe possibly not the best idea of all time to mention Quentin even as she said it, since she didn’t know what people had ever thought about that, but really, she had never remotely thought of Quentin like that. As a friend, yeah, but the very idea of dating him was…weird, and not just because he was Quentin and had his ways. She wouldn’t dream of saying anything about it, since it sounded a lot like the kind of prejudice he’d warned her about the first time they met just put into reverse, but purebloods still, even after years, just felt too alien to contemplate that with. Somehow, it was like they could never really be fully equals; here, they’d always have that slight advantage that came with knowing certain things from birth, and there, she’d have the same advantage.

The whole thing was just weird and kind of unpleasant, though, so she hoped she stopped thinking of it as she got older and more used to both worlds and all that. It didn’t seem like it now, but maybe someday she’d feel as comfortable in either place, as knowledgeable in either place, and be able to move back and forth smoothly, without even thinking about it. For now, though, she had a more immediate worry, like the very real possibility that her face would burn off.

“Keep complimenting me like this,” she said, “and I might have to keep you around.” It was one thing for her parents to compliment her, quite another for him to. Not for the first time, she wondered what on earth it was which would catch anyone’s interest, anyway. “But thanks,” she added with a small smile.

“Will do," she said when he mentioned inviting him to the book-burning if she held it. Just a joke, but it was almost a nice thought, she was worried enough about RATS. "Me, too,” she agreed about doing as much as she could to keep Aladren from winning. The key, of course, was to have the luck to find the Snitch while she was far away from Arnold, so Edmond would have to be off somewhere else protecting his cousin while she won the game for Crotalus and there was no way for him to get there in time to do what he’d done during the last two Championships and hit her just as the game drew to a close. She’d really rather that not happen again, but she didn’t think there was a chance the Aladrens were going to see it as someone else’s turn to win. Not when they’d just lost the prestige of having a Head Person in their House.

She laughed as a thought struck her. “It sounds almost like one of those movies,” she said. “We’re forming a pact. Take down the rival company at any cost and all that. Better to lose to each other than let them win!” She didn’t take it that seriously, and so said that very lightly, but it would be satisfying, if in a guilty way, to see them lose for a change.

16 Marissa I'm sure we'll manage somehow. 147 Marissa 0 5

Andrew Duell

December 06, 2011 10:11 PM

We have little choice. by Andrew Duell

Andrew grinned at Marissa's balancing act. "I'm pretty sure that's a good sign isn't it?" For some reason he felt more relaxed about the whole apperation thing now. He reasoned that if to many people killed themselves while trying it, something would have been done by this point. There would be much more strenuous training programs, or it would have been outlawed. There must be something inherent about the mind's aspect of self preservation that innately keeps all of the critical parts where they are supposed to. He hoped anyway.

"True." he agreed. "Magical or Muggle, there are certain things that you just need to learn." He almost laughed at her mention of Edmund and Quentin. "Also true." He had considered saying more, but she was turning red. She looked really cute. Once again, he found he couldn't help smiling. "Well then, I'd better keep on complimenting you like that. I like you wanting to keep me around."

"Hmm..." He thought for a moment, "We may have to start making some big overblown schemes, and we'll have to bring Jose into the planning as well. Also...." his voice trailed off. Something was odd, something around them. He looked around at the hall, it was nearly empty. Oh crap, what time was it!? How long had they been sitting here talking? He looked back at Marissa, "Umm... I think I may be late for potions." He started to collect his things, "I'll catch you later, right?" He asked hopefully.

2 Andrew Duell We have little choice. 145 Andrew Duell 0 5