Headmistress Kijewski-Jareau

August 18, 2012 12:02 AM
The summer had come and gone and life was all so very strange and complicated. Jeff and her celebrated their one year anniversary together along with their children, Emery and Chloe, and their foster children, Ayita and Angel. They began the process of adopting both children, but with their difficult backgrounds, it was a long and difficult process. On top of all that, Kiva and Jeffery were going to have a baby of their own. They were their own little Brady bunch.

When the first years were brought in, Kiva stood up and charmed herself to be heard over the crowd. She waited a few minutes for the returning students to settle down before she finally greeted the students. “First and foremost, I want to welcome all of our newest students to Sonora Academy and all of our returning students a welcome back. I do hope your summers were full of fun adventures, but I am happy to find that you have all returned to the school intact.” Kiva was only joking with them really. She knew that students both loved and hated returning to school. They loved it because they were able to see their friends again. They hated it because it meant that they had to do work again. She couldn’t really blame them.

“For those who do not know me, I am Headmistress Kijewski-Jareau, but feel free to call me Professor K. Our first priority for the moment is to have the first years sorted.” Kiva turned her hazel eyes to the newest group of students. “In order for this to be done, I need for each of you to step up one at a time to Deputy Headmistress and Coach Pierce and take a sip from the potion she will offer to you.” Kiva explained, nodded to Amelia to indicate who Coach Pierce was. “The potion is harmless. Once you have sipped it, your skin will turn into the color of the house you will be spending the next seven years in. Once your house is indicated, please have a seat at your house table. Yellow is for Teppenpaw, blue is for Aladren, red is for Crotalus, and brown is for Pecari. Please, if you could form a line and begin…” She gestured for the first student to step up.

Once the sorting had ended, Kiva regained the students’ attention. “I first have a few announcements to make. I would like to introduce our Charms Professor, Professor Olivers. Let’s show her how wonderful our school is by giving her a warm welcome.” Kiva clapped after the introduction. "Also, please take note that Medic Bailey is now the Head of House for Teppenpaw." It wasn't completely unheard of for a non-professor to take up the position.

“I would like to have Jane Carey and Samuel Bauer to please come up here and accept your new Head Boy and Head Girl badges.” Kiva called out and when both students approached, she grinned and handed each their appropriate badges. “Congratulations to you both.” She whispered to them before having them return to their seats. “I would also like to have Russell Layne, Chistopher Calhoun, Regina Parker, and Josephine Owen to join me up here for a moment.” Kiva waited for the four to be standing at her side before continuing. “Everyone, I would like you to meet your newest Prefects. Congratulations to you four, please take your new badges.” Kiva gestured for the four to return to their seats. “This year’s Midsummer Event will be the School Bonfire. As the year continues, you will receive more information on the event and any suggestions you would like to make, please feel free to tell me or any other staff member.

“In honor of tradition, please refer to your music sheets as we begin the School Song.” Sheets of music appeared in front of the students. “Let’s begin.”

Every day we strive
Learning to survive
Life’s hardships and to solve its mystery.
Learning to defend
Our honour and our friends,
Flying high to meet our destiny
We will stand and face those who want to harm us.
We won’t let the world transfigure, jinx or charm us
I won’t fight alone, as long as you are with me.
Sonora be my home, my tutor and my spirit
Vasita quoque floeat; Even the desert blooms.


Once the song ended, the food appeared before them. A feast of great magnum. “Please enjoy the rest of your evening. When it is time to head back to your Houses, your Head of House will call for your attention and bring you to your destinations. That is all.” Kiva concluded and then took her seat at the staff table.

OOC: Welcome First years! Please do not post on any other board until your Head of House posts his/her welcoming speech. Have fun at the feast and remember the site rules. Happy posting everyone!
Subthreads:
0 Headmistress Kijewski-Jareau Welcoming Feast! 0 Headmistress Kijewski-Jareau 1 5


Effie Arbon

August 18, 2012 4:29 AM
Effie Arbon appeared perfectly composed on the outside. Nothing less was expected of her and she had had deportment lessons since she could sit up, therefore holding herself correctly was a matter of course. On the inside, however, she was in a tumultuous state for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the sheer volume of people was somewhat overwhelming. Until their débutante ball, the Arbon girls did not mix in society. There had been occasional visitors to the house but they were usually there to see father and did not bring children. The most that was required of Effie in terms of interaction was to line up with her siblings and greet the gentleman with a curtsey, before keeping out of sight and out of earshot. She had passed all her etiquette classes with flying colours, of course, and so had no doubt that she would be able to socialise appropriately with the appropriate people but just being around people, and being outside of their estate, was a new and alarming experience. The second concern was the nature of some of the people with whom she might be required to mix. No Arbon children had been sent to Sonora since it had started accepting Muggleborns. It had, in their eyes, been continually going downhill for a number of years, with the majority of the staff being Muggle-huggers and the general attitude of the school tending towards dangerously liberal attitudes. Effie knew that all she had to do was avoid such people but the idea of being amongst them was distressing. Finally, she wondered how much attention she was attracting. It had been announced in all the proper circulars that she would be attending the school. The Arbons had not attended public schools in living memory. Most people her age had probably never even met one. Her parents kept a suitable number of public engagements with those whom they felt were worthy company but this was unlikely to involve interacting with said people's children. Mostly, they kept to themselves, which was easy enough to do as they had a modest island off the coast of Maine all to themselves. She supposed she might be something of a curiosity.

In order to affirm the notion that she was confident, she stepped forward first to receive the sorting potion and was relieved to see her skin turn bright scarlet. Crotalus was said to be the house where the majority of the appropriate company resided. As she took her seat at her newly appointed table, her relief increased. The cup was simply being passed from person to person. That was a dubious hygienic practice at best but there were Muggleborns up there. She might have been made to drink from something that had been touched by Muggleborn lips. This was beyond her worst ideas about what might happen. She tried to suppress her imagination vis-à -vis all the lips that might have touched the cup over the years. She could only hope that they had some very thorough scouring charms in place, although Muggleborn germs were known to be much longer lasting and harder to purge. This was one of the many reasons it was dangerous for a Pureblooded young lady such as herself to mix with such people. The notion was still causing her to feel slightly nauseous when the food arrived. This was also a strange experience. She had heard of buffet food. It had been covered in her etiquette classes. It was a style of food served at parties where one served oneself. However, she had formed the impression that this usually comprised vol-au-vents and fruit platters. She was fairly sure this was supposed to be a full meal – the term 'feast' along with the selection of dishes on offer certainly indicated so – yet one seemed to serve oneself. Furthermore, she believed that buffets were reserved for ambulatory settings. A seated buffet was an oxymoron. She didn't know, of course, but she expected that this what commoners did. It seemed like a practice adopted by those who could not afford servants. Showing timidity for the first time, she reached tentatively for a serving spoon, taking it very gently, as if loathe to commit to fully grasping it. She was not sure what exactly she expected to happen. The implement was unlikely to bite her, nor was her etiquette tutor going to apparate and scold her for improper behaviour. It was clearly the done thing here but it felt like a transgression. She was able to take a pork chop and salad without incident and picked up her fork with more determination, hoping that anyone who had witnessed her handling of the serving spoon had taken it for the delicate touch of a young lady and not the trepidation that it actually was. Inside though, if anything, her fear had been increased by her experiences. Thus far, everything about this place was stranger and more horrifying than she could possibly have envisaged.
13 Effie Arbon Amongst strange and savage people 238 Effie Arbon 0 5


Isabel Raines

August 18, 2012 11:45 AM
For almost as long as she could remember, Isabel had heard about Sonora. For her father, Charles, it was an important stage of life and something to aspire to, for her cousin Sara, it was a daily reality, and for her older sister Catherine, it was something approaching a religion. Her only sibling was only days short of being fifteen years her senior, so she had been out of school for years and had a successful marriage and three children, but Catherine still seemed firmly convinced that the best times of her life had all taken place within these walls. That there was nothing to compare with being at Sonora Academy. 

It was something of a disappointment, then, to eagerly look up at the building as soon as she clambered off the uncomfortable and crowded Illinois wagon and conclude that it, like every other structure she had ever been in, could probably fit inside her house. It would be a closer fit than most, but she thought that taking that one tower off and storing it elsewhere could make it work.


Well, she had read in Dinah Rutledge’s gossip column one time that celebrities usually seemed smaller when you met them in person. She had been talking about one of Catherine’s friends, and Catherine had been furious since she’d decided it had really been a thinly-veiled insult really meant for her, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t be right. That didn’t make Sonora any less of a celebrity in her family, though. This was where Papa had gotten an education, Catherine had made friends she still clung to years after they’d stopped being meaningful in society, and Sara had done better than anyone except maybe Aunt Margaret had really expected. Sonora was where everything happened, where everything that happened began. She had to work hard not to hurry toward the building, at least at first. After that, it was harder not to be bumped around by larger people who were more certain of where they were going.  

As a first year, she found herself standing uncomfortably with a lot of other people, trying to tell herself they were all as uncomfortable as her, but that it would all change soon. Mamma had been in favor of holding a party for the children of other proper people who were Sonora-bound, but Papa and Catherine had argued that it was against tradition; Isabel wished more than ever that her mother had won. She recognized the Miss Pierces – they were hard to forget, really – and Alan, who had caught up after her first moments of walking too fast and finally stopped grumbling about her trying to leave him, was beside her, but that wasn’t enough to make her feel any less surrounded by strangers, too many of whom, among the older students, she felt were staring. She found it hard to follow what the headmistress was saying, though she was able to pick it up easily enough by watching what everyone else was doing. As the line began to move along, Alan allowed her to squeeze his hand once about a minute before – since his name was earlier in the alphabet – he was called up.


She watched as her cousin walked forward as though it were no big deal, said something, she didn’t hear what, to the lady with the potion, and suddenly turned yellow. Teppenpaw, then. Isabel bit her lip, not sure what to think, or if she should hope to go there, too – for the one second she had to think about it before, as the next Raines in line, it was her turn.  

Unlike Alan, she was too nervous for pleasantries, and so there was almost no delay between when she stepped forward and when everything she could see of her whole body except for the ends of her brown hair turned bright red. She was in Crotalus, just like her father and sister. She felt very relieved as she smiled at the deputy headmistress and moved away.


Her name was so late in the alphabet that it didn’t take long for the rest of the ceremony to go by and for a speech, most of which she didn’t understand, to occur before the feast began. Once it did, Isabel looked at the other new girl near her with a smile, but found the other girl seemed to be more interested in the utensils they could use to serve themselves with. She made herself a salad while her roommate did that, then decided to be the one to speak up anyway. They were going to live together, to be almost like sisters, if all went well; they had to get to know each other.

“Good evening,” she said. “I am Isabel Raines, of the Illinois Raines’. How do you do?”
0 Isabel Raines I don't think I'm either 241 Isabel Raines 0 5


Effie Arbon

August 18, 2012 5:36 PM
A Raines. That wasn't as terrible as it could be. The family didn't go back as far as some and, as such, had some strange, modern practices, such as girls being permitted to being the primary individual to inherit. However, brief history and these little idiosyncrasies aside, they broadly speaking had the right attitude. It was highly likely that Effie's parents had been at some of the same occasions as this girl's parents, although the chances were they would have had fewer interactions than the degree of overlap might have suggested. However, in the warped joke of a social circle offered by this school, being joined by a Raines could be considered positively fantastic.

“How do you do,” she reiterated, this – rather than an attempt to answer the implied but nonsensical question – being the correct way to respond to it. As she uttered these words, Effie found herself coming across her first serious dilemma of the evening. She had, of course, extensively practised curtseying but every situation they had covered which might call for it had involved the participants standing. Internally, she frowned, although she didn't let the ugly and unfriendly expression cross her features. She blamed the uncouthness of the school for presenting her with such an odd social situation as making introductions in a seated position. She gripped the edge of her skirt, pulling it out and dipping the top half of her frame, executing all the actions of a curtsey bar the bending of the knees. Although that tended to be a fairly integral part she felt that she had done an adequate job of making a respectable greeting.

“I am Effie Arbon,” she introduced herself, with quiet and simple authority. That was all there was to it. There was no need to clarify, as they were just The Arbons. The one and only line of. The Raines Family were part of what her father termed the admirable, but unrealistic, attempt to repopulate America. It seemed to be the trend with Pureblood families on this continent to procreate at a prolific rate. That, as far as he was concerned, just gave one an unwieldy array of offspring to attempt to marry off into proper families, who were in fairly short supply. Although it was admirable to try to breed faster than the Muggle scum, thus beating them at their own game of overpopulating the planet, it wasn't conducive to protecting one's bloodline. The Arbons stopped as soon as they had a male heir to inherit the estate and name. Any daughters that arose during this process were unnecessary inconveniences for whom suitable marriages needed arranging.

OOC - I based what I said about the Raines from your description of them in the wiki. If any of that is inaccurate or is accurate but goes against how they attempt to portray themselves/what would be generally known, please forgive me and provide me with the appropriate corrections.
13 Effie Arbon No, Gods be thanked. 238 Effie Arbon 0 5


Cepheus Princeton

August 19, 2012 5:34 AM
The summer was over and Cepheus was so glad for it. The family reunion had been one weary evening from beginning to end. Right now, all he wanted to do was forget about it. Forget about that and the boring times he’d spent in France. There’d been some good parts, but all-in-all, the summer had been awful because of one major thing. The talk of marriage.

Cepheus knew he hadn’t been completely free when his arranged marriage to Lauren didn’t work out. He just hadn’t known he would be free for such a short time. His celebration had hardly begun before he was hitched again to another girl, this time one who attended his school. Cepheus had hardly even heard of Meghan Brownbriar before, but now he was betrothed and could do nothing about it again. He did, however, recognise the family name and he wondered briefly if she was related to Gareth. He knew it wouldn’t matter, really, except now he would have a closer tie to his roommate. Still, he wasn’t sure that being closer to his roommate in the familial sense made it worth having to marry a girl he now loathed on principle.

The day he left for school on the wagons, Cepheus would have been overjoyed to get away from his suddenly over-bearing family. All they asked were questions about his time in France and his lessons and Meghan Brownbriar. It was getting more difficult to relate to his best mates from home and Cepheus just wanted to get away from it all. For once, he would find solace in his studies. However, this was not the case.

This year, Cepheus had a tag-along. As much as he loved his brother, he didn’t like him all too much and he hated taking care of him. He knew Rupert would be able to take care of himself at the school. Sometimes he was a bit jealous of how free Rupert got to be especially as of late, but he tried not to think about it too much. It had made Cepheus bitter inside towards his brother and he didn’t want to be that way towards Rup. Rupert wasn’t exactly a good kid, but Cepheus hadn’t been either his first year. The fact that Rupert was going to be attending school with him now, however, dampened his spirit. His escape would be hindered by another Princeton.

Cepheus didn’t feel much guilt about leaving his brother to fend for himself. He justified it quickly by thinking that he’d had to go through this entire process on his own and Rup ought to do it himself too. He sat with his Crotalus mates in Cascade Hall and watched the beginning of the feast lazily. He watched his brother sip the potion with slight disinterest, but his eyes widened when he saw the colour his skin turned. Pecari? Cepheus turned to look at the Pecari table critically. Cepheus of course prized his house above all the others, and so it surprised him that Rupert wasn’t going to be in it. Of course, he and Rupert had totally different personalities so it only made sense. He sniffed pretentiously and turned back to his table.

After that bit was over, he was bored. He fiddled a bit with his sleeve, unbuttoning and buttoning the sleeve of the button-up he wore underneath his robes. From time to time, he would glance up and see if anything worth noting was going on. The new Charms professor interested him slightly, but only because she would be his professor. He’d already forgotten who the new Teppenpaw Head of House was.

When the Prefects were announced, however, Cepheus watched his housemate receive his badge closely. Topher was a fellow Quidditch player, but Ceph only knew him from practise. He wondered how exactly one went about getting that position. He knew Father would be so proud to find that Cepheus had been made Prefect in his year. He had two years to impress his professors and bring up his marks. His only competition would be his roommate. Well, Gareth would have to understand.

The first year at Sonora, Cepheus hadn’t sung the school song. His third year at Sonora, he kept with his tradition. He read the lyrics on the sheet of music and mentally remarked on how cheesy it was. Instead he focused on his growling stomach. As soon as the song ended, the food appeared and the newly growing teenager piled food onto his plate. Though the skinny bloke hadn’t grown much during the summer, he had still grown at least two centimetres. That was, at the very least, something. Cepheus could only hope to grow as tall as his father.

To begin with his new aspiration of becoming a Prefect in two years, Cepheus eyed two new Crotalus girls. They both looked a bit stiff and, having overheard their introductions, wondered how they would fair in his house. Well, their house now. He turned to them, his blue eyes and blonde hair reflecting the lights in the hall. “Congratulations on joining Crotalus. Believe me when I say it’s the best house.” He smiled. His voice had started changing, but it was in a strange, hoarse state at the moment. The English lad thought it made him sound rather charming, but that was in his own opinion. He gave a little bow with his head. “Cepheus Princeton, of the Surrey Princetons. You two looking forward to starting school here?” He nodded at Miss Raines. “I’m certain you’ve heard all about it.” The name ‘Arbon” he hadn’t heard before, at least here, but he hoped she was of the right sort.
40 Cepheus Princeton Being Friendly. 216 Cepheus Princeton 0 5


Isabel Raines

August 19, 2012 9:51 AM
Her roommate could curtsy sitting down and was named Effie. Isabel wasn’t really sure what she should do with either of those facts, so she did what Mamma said was almost always the thing to do in such situations and kept smiling. She had heard the family name before, but she didn’t think she had ever met anyone who used it, so she found herself at more of a social dead end than she had hoped, It seemed it was going to fall completely to her to keep a conversation going.


Before she could think of a way to do that, though, an older boy seated near them turned to speak to them, too, and Isabel’s smile became relieved as she looked at him. Cepheus Princeton, of the Surrey Princetons; she wasn’t sure what Surrey was, but decided to assume it was in another country because of his accent. She was all right with that, though; her family was increasingly international, with Aunt Margaret in Spain and Sara always going places with her, and he had just made things easier for Isabel. Maybe he had recognized her family name, with Sara a prefect here, or maybe he was just friendly, but he had been a help either way. She didn’t feel so much like she might be forcing conversation down Effie’s throat.  

“All my life,” she said simply about hearing all about it. “My father and sister both loved being Crotali, so I was so pleased to be Sorted here.” As long as there wasn’t a Gwen Carey in her class, she would stay that way, she thought. How common could those really be? Isabel couldn’t even imagine why anyone would want to do anything improper, yet along do so many things that were that they were rejected by their families.


That thought just made her uncomfortable, so she decided not to dwell on it. Not only did she have a lovely life that she would hate to give up, but she loved her family. She and Catherine had never been close, her sister didn’t like her, but the rest of them…She couldn’t imagine Papa and Mamma cutting her off, Alan not speaking to her anymore, even Sara, in her way, not being a good relative to have. Not having a home anymore, or seeing Maria Teresa and Lorenzo or Ella…no, that was all too awful to even think about.
0 Isabel Raines That's a good thing to be. 241 Isabel Raines 0 5


Effie Arbon

August 19, 2012 11:40 AM
Effie felt things were going well with Isabel Raines. They had made polite introductions and the next stage of the social process would be to engage in small talk. When practising it in her etiquette lessons it was always something that she found a little contrived and difficult but she suspected that had more to do with her conversation partner than the act of small talk itself. Delphine was only eleven months younger than Effie. She could not remember a time when she had not had a sister, and thus effectively had known her all her life. Making airy and meaningless conversation with someone with whom one usually had all the intimacy of sisterhood was not a natural thing to do. Still, she had passed her examinations with commendations in every social skill. She was about to put this knowledge into practise when their conversation was interrupted by a boy.

Effie was rather floored by this for a number of reasons. Firstly, he seemed to have an incredibly casual manner of speaking which immediately caused her to put her guard up. She had done her research into those of a proper background who attended Sonora. The Princetons were even newer money than the Raines family, and she felt that it showed in the manner in which he spoke. It went to show that however much wealth you acquired, it could not buy you class. Isabel seemed content to address him and she would not snub him during this conversation, as that would be rather awkward, but she could not see herself actively seeking out his company in future. The fact that he made an approximation of bowing to them mollified her slightly, and she returned the greeting by giving him the same little bob she had extended to Miss Raines. Even though she had resolved that she could speak to him, briefly, in this situation, there was a further difficulty, one which was somewhat more insurmountable. Effie had never seen a boy of her own age (or one near to it) before. She barely even saw her own little brother, as Ignatius took his lessons separately from the girls. He also had the privilege of spending time with father, along with a play room all of his own. It seemed natural to form sororal relationships and she had practice in that. No one had specifically guarded her against speaking to males. However, even if it was allowed, it was a very foreign concept to her.

His second question had been more directed at Isabel, so Effie was very glad when the other girl stepped in, commenting on the family history of being in Crotalus.

“I am sure it will be an interesting experience,” she agreed, with regards to the question that had been addressed to both of them. She wasn't yet convinced that it was going to be an enjoyable one but her tone did not convey this doubt, “Have all of your family been in Crotalus?” she asked Isabel. Technically that was something that she could have researched and learnt but she felt that knowledge of who was who in society was enough. Memorising house affiliations was not expected. Even if she had known, her etiquette tutor had told her that it was sometimes appropriate to pretend that you didn't know something which you did, in order to create a source of conversation, so long as the “forgotten” detail was not something which it would be offensive or rude not to be aware of.
13 Effie Arbon Indeed. I have read all about it. 238 Effie Arbon 0 5


Cepheus Princeton

August 19, 2012 3:36 PM
After Miss Raines spoke, he smiled. "You must know all about our house, then." He was still very proud that his house had won the house cup last year. Now they needed to add the Quidditch Cup to their list and all would be forgiven. Cepheus was the king at holding grudges at times and he was certainly still holding one against Arnold Carey, the Seeker that had stolen the Snitch from him last term. He wanted to beat Aladren, but if he had the choice between beating Aladren and winning the Quidditch Cup, he'd rather win than seek out revenge.

It seemed that Miss Arbon wasn't exactly thrilled that an older bloke was acknowledging her. In fact, she hardly spoke to him, focusing her questions instead to Miss Raines. Cepheus subtly appraised her, looking down at her with his eyes for a moment. He wondered if she had unintentionally snubbed him, but he could never be sure. One never knew what to think with first years and American pure-bloods. The reason why the past patriarchs had been hesitant to send their own to America was because they had loads of pride in their culture and their country. Americans had been looked down upon as something close to a mutt with so many different cultures here. Of course, English pure-bloods were becoming more tolerant of other cultures now and Scorpius had taken the plunge by sending his grandsons off to an American school.

Though Cepheus acted as the ambassador for the Princetons here, he had never felt snubbed before by anyone before. His classmates were kind and, as long as one was of good blood, conversational. Of course, there were instances where pure-bloods clashed with the muggle-borns, but that was only to be expected. Cepheus himself tried not to converse with the muggle-borns as he knew his brother would try to do out of curiosity. However, though his name was not yet established in America, he had never felt persecuted because of it. Of course, this could all be fanciful thought. Cepheus had been rather sensitive as of late.

The fact that a girl younger than him didn't make an effort to include both he and Miss Raines in the conversation showed both that she lacked proper conversational skills or skills in subtlety. He brushed it off as a mistake any first-year would make. Cepheus himself hadn't been completely proper his first year as he was still getting his feet wet in American culture. Still, he didn't think that Miss Effie Arbon would appreciate his help in any manner despite his pure blood.

Cepheus decided to forget the offence and focus instead on his food. At least he had opened up his person for any questions about Crotalus and the school in general if they had any. However, it seemed like Miss Raines would know loads about the school already because of her siblings and Miss Arbon most likely would have had some relative attend this school who would have told her about it. Cepheus wouldn't interrupt their conversation again and if they decided to include him, then he'd be more than obliged to do so. If not, then he'd turn back to his fellow third-years and strike up a conversation with people he actually felt comfortable with.
40 Cepheus Princeton One would say experiences take you further in life. 216 Cepheus Princeton 0 5


Isabel Raines

August 19, 2012 5:02 PM
Isabel felt herself blush when the older boy said she ought to know all about their House already. “Well, I know a little,” she said modestly. It was politer to be modest about most things, and she didn’t want to make a fool of herself by acting as though she knew more than she really did, or getting something wrong that hadn’t been the case since Catherine was a first year, and then having one of them call her out on it. That would be almost the worst possible start her first year could get off to. “It's been a long time since they were here, so I'm sure there’s still a lot for me to learn.”


As if to emphasize that point, she then had to shake her head when Effie asked if all her family had been in Crotalus. “I’m afraid not,” she said, almost apologetically. “My mother was homeschooled, and my cousins here, Alan and Sara, they’re in Teppenpaw and Pecari. Respectively.”   

She wanted to point out that Sara was a prefect, but it didn’t seem like the moment, really, and she still didn’t know what to make of Alan being Sorted into Teppenpaw. Isabel had begun to think, after all the long conversations they’d had about Houses, that they would both be in Pecari with Sara, but clearly it hadn’t worked out that way. She didn’t even know if it was a good thing or not; she and Alan would have both been more comfortable together, or at least she would have been more comfortable if they had been, but they weren’t here to be friends with each other. They were here to learn and to make new friends and to make connections with other families. That was why Sara had been held up as an example to them for almost as long as Isabel could remember, because she was a very good student who was also flourishing in the correct kind of society.


As she looked between them, though, Isabel was distracted from that by the strange feeling that for some reason, Effie and Mr. Princeton didn’t like each other. “And – what about your families?” she asked, since it was what seemed to follow logically from what they had been talking about. “Have your families attended Sonora before, or do you have any family here now?” Maybe some of their family knew some of hers and that would give them something else to talk about while they dined.
0 Isabel Raines I think both are valuable 241 Isabel Raines 0 5


Effie Arbon

August 19, 2012 5:39 PM
Effie noticed Cepheus glancing up and down her and was glad that her cheeks were still tinted red from the potion to spare her blushes. She was not used to being inspected by people. She was, quite frankly, not used to people. Being in room with this many was unusual, and a one on one conversation with someone outside her family would have been more than enough for her. Now here she was being appraised and having questions asked of her by a boy. As they were only making chit-chat the answers were relatively easy to supply, she just had to pretend that she was addressing Delphine back in the school room, and not a male peer.

Isabel demured when it was implied that she would be a fountain of knowledge. Effie expected this was a show, for modesty's sake, and was rather glad to be making acquaintances with someone to whom the school was familiar. She would be loathe to tap into Isabel's knowledge too much, lest she seemed to lack confidence in herself and her own judgement but it was reassuring to know that this strange and alarming place had something of a safety net.

“I am sure you know many valuable things,” she reassured Isabel. It had been drummed into her so thoroughly to make a reply acknowledging the content of her conversation partner's utterances that she did so without having to think it through greatly. It was only after she had spoken that she realised she had paid someone her first ever compliment. It was quite a pleasing feeling.

“I have no family here,” she replied to Isabel's enquiry, “I believe one or two of my ancestors attended when the school was first founded but we have generally favoured home-schooling. How about you – have you family here?” she asked, passing the question on to Cepheus. Admittedly, Isabel had asked both of them in the first place, so she was reiterating a question rather than asking one of her own but at least it gave the appearance of a somewhat more balanced conversation. She could work on asking her own questions of people at a later date.
13 Effie Arbon I'm sure you're right 238 Effie Arbon 0 5


Cepheus Princeton

August 20, 2012 3:49 PM
Cepheus couldn't imagine anyone being home-schooled for very long. He had been tutored as a child from the age of five to eleven and he had loathed it. It had caused him to create chaos for his tutors. The fact that he and his cousins were all taught together made it even more rewarding. He'd gone through several History of Magic tutors who had taught his least favourite subject because of the amount of anxiety they felt just walking into the booby-trapped room. It had been loads of fun, but not very productive.

The fact that Isabel's family hadn't been in Crotalus for a very long time made him feel even more useful. This was a good feeling. He had never really enjoyed helping his brothers with much unless they were making booby traps for their tutors, and he didn't like children though he had been one himself. However, he was likely to rethink that with these girls. Perhaps it was because he felt closer to them just on principle. They were now in the same house and Crotalus had felt like his home for two years now.

The feeling that Cepheus had first received from Effie passed slightly when she redirected Isabel's question to him. He nodded, making eye contact with them both. "Yes, my younger brother is here. He's in your year, actually. His name is Rupert." He wondered if they were interested at all in meeting him, but he didn't dwell too much on the thought. He was in Pecari anyhow, not in Crotalus. He brushed back a few strands of his blonde hair that was beginning to come undone after the loads of travelling he'd done today. Coming to school from England was always a tiring trip. The first night back was always the night he slept the most easily because of it.

"If you've got any questions about Crotalus or Sonora in general, you can ask me." There. He'd put himself out there and it was up to them to take it. He remembered asking Linus his first year here all about Crotalus at the Opening Feast. He and Gareth had been so interested especially in learning about the professors and classes and such. Quidditch, too, but he doubted the girls were interested in that. After a moment where he took a bite of his food and swallowed it down, he asked, "Are you looking forward to anything here?" he asked. "Anything you might've heard or read about?" He looked at Effie then, realising that he didn't know where she was from. "And where do you call home?"
40 Cepheus Princeton That is what school is for, I suppose. 216 Cepheus Princeton 0 5


Isabel Raines

August 20, 2012 7:21 PM
Isabel smiled when Effie said she was sure some of what she knew was sure to still be useful. “I hope so,” she said, and listened as Effie talked about her family. Homeschoolers, like Mamma; she wondered what had made them decide to send Effie here this year. Then the question was redirected to Cepheus, who had a brother, in their year, named Rupert. Isabel noted this information, really wishing now that her mother had won the argument about having a party for everyone they knew of who would be in her year and was good to associate with. That would have meant she had more time to learn all these names instead of just being overwhelmed with information all at once and having to pray she wouldn’t make a mistake and call the other Mr. Princeton ‘Robert’ or something else equally wrong. Isabel had never done anything like that before, that she could remember, but she’d been worrying about it happening at school for a while.


Alan said she worried too much in general. Usually, Isabel just thought she was being smart, since she didn’t worry so much that she couldn’t do things the way she knew some people did, but tonight, it felt almost like her cousin might have a point.  

“How nice,” Isabel said. “I’m sure it’ll be a pleasure to meet him.” If nothing else, already meeting his brother would give her something to open a conversation with – her tutors and Mamma and Catherine and Sara all agreed the most important thing to was to try to remember anything that could be used later in that way, because a girl who could not always open up and keep up a conversation gracefully was going to be looked down on – and she enjoyed meeting new people, as long as she didn’t have to meet so many of them at once that she couldn’t keep track of who was who.


When Cepheus seemed to want to be asked about Crotalus and the school, Isabel thought furiously for a moment and then came up with, “Who is our Head of House?” Catherine had hardly seemed to notice she had one, but Sara spoke of them as though they had more authority; Isabel knew from Sara that Crotalus’ was Amelia Pierce, but it wasn’t always bad to seem ignorant of some things, and all that Isabel knew about Miss Pierce besides her name was that she was one of the people Catherine had never met whom Isabel’s sister seemed to particularly dislike. Maybe he would elaborate and she would get a better idea of what they were going to have to deal with from their Head of House – how strictly she would watch them, that sort of thing. One of the most important things was always to know what the adults were doing, because working around that was the only way for people their age to do anything themselves. She listened, too, to see if and how Effie answered his questions.
0 Isabel Raines School is for many things 241 Isabel Raines 0 5


Effie Arbon

August 22, 2012 10:47 AM
Effie gave a little nod to acknowledge Cepheus' remarks about his brother. He hadn't mentioned that the boy was in their house and she rather guessed he would be with Cepheus if he was – certainly, if Araceli came here, Effie would look after her on her first day. She would find out more about the brother, Rupert, and his house in the fullness of time. She wasn't desperately keen to add another Princeton male to the immediate conversation – one was more than enough for her coping skills at present.

“Thank you, that is most kind,” she responded to Cepheus' offer of further information. Isabel came up with an immediate question. Effie felt that repeating this immediately would make her tactic a little too transparent and would ring a little false, plus it had been a more open offer, and she did not think a lack of immediately capitalising on it would be offensive. Cepheus was just trying to kind and polite, she felt.

“We are of Maine,” she replied to the question he had asked of her, “We occupy a small island off the coast.” Small was accurate on a global scale of islands but perhaps unjust of theirs when compared with its neighbours. Even without that consideration, a small island still gave a very reasonable estate. She couldn't return the question as he had already stated where he was from but perhaps she could maintain the topic. “I believe you said you are of Surrey,” she almost asked whether it was nice there before realising that implied the possibility that Cepheus came from somewhere that was not nice. “How do you find it?” she asked. Soliciting his opinion was a much more appropriate way of phrasing the question.
13 Effie Arbon Such as learning. And finding a husband. 238 Effie Arbon 0 5


Cepheus Princeton

August 24, 2012 1:29 PM
It was a bit of a surprise to Cepheus that Isabel didn't know who their Head of House was. Either she hadn't done her research or she was trying to be polite and feigning ignorance. Either way, he appreciated her attempt at dipping into his vast knowledge of his house with an easy question. "Coach Amelia Pierce," he told her. "She's quite strict and is more of a no-nonsense person, I think." He paused. "She's the Quidditch coach too, if you didn't guess that already from her title. I don't think she's that bad, but not someone who should be trifled with." That was all he could really say on their Head of House, but he hoped that explained the gist of everything.

Effie said they were of Maine, a state which Cepheus was not familiar with. Two years of schooling in America and they couldn't teach a geography class. Of course, Cepheus wasn't too keen on taking such a class, but he did need to learn the names of the states, and how many there were, if he was going to establish himself and his family here. That meant touring America sometime in the future, something Cepheus was not looking forward to.

The next question directed at him was a bit unexpected. No one had really cared to ask how his home was mostly because it didn't matter to them. Cepheus tried to think of a good response, but it was difficult to describe his home. "Well, we get the four seasons which I enjoy. The winters are cold, but whether or not we get snow depends on the year and how Mother Nature's feeling, I suppose." He smiled a little. "It's really quite beautiful with the trees and greenery and all." More than once he and his friends, when they were younger, had played around in the woods near his manor. Surrey would always have a soft spot in his heart no matter how much he loved the city too.

Now that he had answered the question, it was his turn to keep their conversation going. He realised then that they hadn't answered one of his many questions and decided to recycle it. "There have been so many professors cycling through since I've been here. One of the only constant ones, I think, is Professor Fawcett. He's the Potions professor and Aladren's Head of House. Potions is one of my favourite classes here. Any classes you two are particularly looking forward to?"
40 Cepheus Princeton I'll just pretend I didn't hear that last bit. 216 Cepheus Princeton 0 5


Isabel

August 25, 2012 11:03 PM
Isabel looked up again at Amelia Pierce as Cepheus talked about her. She wasn’t completely sure, but she thought he might approve of her – something which a pureblood girl would never be allowed to do, of course, but maybe there was more leeway for boys. She took a few bites of her meal after she thanked him, wondering if that was the case. She hoped not, but – well, it wouldn’t surprise her if it were true. Boys did seem to have most of the advantages in their world.
 
She stopped thinking about unimportant things, though, when he talked about his home. “That sounds beautiful,” she said, as it did. She was flat country, and though she didn’t dislike that, either, she liked trees. They had those, of course, on the estate – some of them her father had specifically had grown, along with some flowers, using magic when he married her mother, so Mamma would feel more at home when she left Louisiana and moved to Illinois – but it didn’t feel like the description he had given to her, somehow, though maybe that was just a feeling she had, she didn’t know.
 
Professor Fawcett was another person Isabel had heard about, one she thought that Sara, like Cepheus, approved of. That made her a little wary of the man right from the start, but she was determined to give everyone and everything a chance on her own before she blindly trusted in her cousin’s judgments. Even a strict old Potions teacher who’d had the same job forever. “I’m looking forward to Charms,” she volunteered when Cepheus asked about classes she and Effie were looking forward to. “It’s so useful, don’t you think?” Or at least, it sounded useful based on the book they’d been assigned for the class, and she thought Charms were the spells her family used most often in day-to-day life. “But really I’m looking forward to everything,” she said, giving the reason she had skipped over the question when he had asked it earlier at the same time. She hadn’t been able to think of just one answer.
 
So far, her experience here had been completely calm and decorous – she might have been playing out a perfect Welcoming Feast with her dolls in front of the adults instead of having a real one, that was how tranquil everything was – but Sonora, after all, was where everything happened. Isabel had spent almost her whole life on her family’s estate, only leaving to visit family and family friends, usually looked over by tutors and her parents and her sister and sometimes even Sara, who might as well have been an adult herself. Now she was, in a way, free, standing at the start of the rest of her life, the great long expanse that came after she left the constant supervision of her parents and had to start to behave – or not – all on her own. What she did tonight could mean a lifetime of social success or mean she had just taken the first steps down the path to inevitable failure. It was almost as momentous as growing up. Isabel was a little afraid, but mostly she was excited to see what was going to happen.
0 Isabel That might be a good idea 0 Isabel 0 5