Headmistress Kijewski-Jareau

January 04, 2013 5:45 PM
Kiva had given birth to her daughter, Harper Melissa Kijewski-Jareau, only days after the last day of school last term and spent much of her summer being a new mom and an old mom to the other four children in the house. Emery and Chloe were thrilled, well, initially thrilled anyway. Emery became cranky when the baby cried for too long and Chloe only held interest in her until she became bored and moved on. Knowing they were only ten, Kiva tried not to hold it against them. Ayita and Angel were harder to predict. Ayita seemed to spend as much time away from them as possible. Kiva wasn’t sure if that was a sixteen year old being a sixteen year old or something more. Kiva gave her the space she needed, but also had tried to make sure she knew that she was a part of the family. Angel clung to her more often than she remembered him doing in the past, but didn't seem to enjoy the baby all too much. Sometimes she would catch him watching Harper while she slept, but would immediately run off if the baby woke up. It was strange, but Kiva figured he had never seen a baby before. This was a learning experience for them all.

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 were back in school.

“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 your new Deputy Headmistress Pierce, who is also the Coach, and take a sip from the potion she will offer to you.” Kiva explained, nodded to Amelia to indicate who Coach Pierce was. “Once you have taken a sip of the potion, 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 would like to have Sara Raines and David Wilkes 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 Nora Dobson, Lawrence Stratford, Paul Bennett, and Melanie Goodwill 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 Ball. Normally, there is a theme to the ball, but we wanted to change things up a bit since last term, the event was low-key.” Kiva advised them, waiting for any moans that were bound to come.

“There will be three challenges held during the year. We are going to place you in various groups and in various levels. The Advanced Students will take lead, but the point of these challenges is to see how well you work together.” Kiva wasn’t sure if they would actually enjoy these challenges or their teammates, but it would keep them busy. “At the end of the year, the winners of these challenges will be given awards. The hosts of these challenges will provide you with more detail when we come closer to those. I’ll be posting the teams on your house boards and the main board in the hall within the next couple of days.” Now onto what she assumed would be the worst news. “Due to the challenges this year we decided to forego all Quidditch games.” Now she really waited for the hostility from the students. “Quidditch Captains will still have to uphold their responsibilities with signups, tryouts, and practices, but games will be postponed until next year.”

Kiva waited for any commotion over this news to die down. She knew for the graduating Captains it may have been hard to swallow. Once they had quieted, she continued, “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

David Wilkes

January 04, 2013 10:58 PM
David was halfway across the Cascade Hall, moving toward his usual seat at the Aladren table, when he realized that this was his last Opening Feast and his step faltered a little. It was weird to consider the idea of not coming back to Sonora on one day when everyone else did, of just being…gone. He didn’t know really what to make of it.

After a second, though, he recovered and went on to his seat. There was nothing to do about it, so he just had to go on as though the problem wasn’t going to come up eventually. He was going to graduate, but he wasn’t going to do it today. First, he had a whole year of being Head Boy, and that was more than enough to worry about for now. How on earth he was going to do that and be Quidditch captain and take the RATS, he had no idea, but he had to do it. He didn’t get on well with his family, didn’t feel he fitted in with any of the ideas they might have for him, but his mother was right about that much, anyway. One did what one had to do right now and worried about the future later if it was inevitable.

He watched the Sorting, applauding the Aladrens who joined his table, and then, feeling shaky and half out of his head as soon as he heard his name, went up front to get his new badge. “Thanks,” he said when the headmistress congratulated him and Sara, heading back for his seat, applauding Nora, too, as a sense of normalcy came back to him once he was safely out of the big public view. He had never gotten comfortable with being up on stage, though he knew both of his sisters thrived on it. It was just a difference in people.

He was one of the students who groaned when he heard that they were about to pay for last year’s low-key event, but just sat there stunned when he heard that Quidditch was being cancelled this year. He was sure that his table was making some noise about that, but he couldn’t even process it at first.

At first. Then, after a moment, he dropped his head and muttered to his knees, too low for anyone else to hear him, “thank God.”

He had played it because, after his joke joining the reserves for social time had ended in the captainacy, he’d had to, but he had never really liked it that much, and he had lived for the past two years with the fear of how the team might take it if they should lose on his watch. He had been worried, too, about how it was going to affect his RATS and thus his chances in the world, or in this world at least. He figured he was going to have to deal with angry players for a while because of this, and of course he was still going to have to run the team to keep it sharp for when Arnold took over next year, but he still felt something like relief. No one, this year, was going to hit any Bludgers at his head.

He looked up as the song was sung and then turned his attention to the feast before him, determined to enjoy his second-to-last one for everything it was worth. If they’d only ever done one thing right at Sonora as far as he was concerned, it was feed him. The food here was a million times better than he’d expected when he found out he had to come to boarding school.
16 David Wilkes I am...secretly relieved, but let's keep it a secret. 169 David Wilkes 0 5


James Owen

January 06, 2013 12:13 PM
Appearing at the Opening Feast for the last time was oddly therapeutic, James thought. He had been uniformly unsuccessful in making Head Boy, but he was Aladren's senior prefect this year, so that was something. He also recalled that David Wilkes, his roomate since their first year, had been perfectly agreeable when James had ben named prefect. Luckily, James had been granted the summer break to adjust to the notion, and he was now ready to be equally as amicable in return. Seeing as David was the closest acquaintance James had in his own House (and this event required House clustering), he sat by his roomate and politely paid attention to the Headmistress' speech. The mention of challenges bothered him; would he be expected to complete unsavoury tasks? Merlin he hoped not. As a prefect and a senior student he would no doubt be expected to set an example, but he'd rather not humiliate himself in the process.

"I wonder what these challenges will entail," he mused aloud as he began to serve himself some food. James' plate was soon holding a sizeable slice of lasagne alongside broccoli and fries. Intellectual activities would be more suited to the seventh year. He had, admittedly, been shown up by Josephine as her CATS results had been a slight improvement on his, but the Aladren nevertheless was confident that his above-average IQ and logical approach would contribute to adequate completion of such tasks. Sporting activities might be accomplishable, depending on their rules and requisites, but anything that demanded performance of any form would not be permissable in James' books. If the world was just, his prefectly authority would grant him early insight into what these challengs might be. If not, then perhaps David's extra recognition would be beneficial in that respect.

"Congratulations on your Headship, by the way," he added casually to David. "I don't think I approached you directly when the announcement was made last year, which was perhaps remiss of me." Although perhaps not, as he would certainly not have been so cordial at the time as he could be now, but David did not need to know this.
0 James Owen I won't tell if you don't 168 James Owen 0 5

David

January 06, 2013 2:00 PM
David looked up from his food as he heard James speak about the challenges. “No idea,” he said, since that wasn’t information they’d seen fit to give the new Head Boy ahead of time. “Hopefully something to keep the Quidditch team occupied, they’ll drive me nuts if they don’t get something else to focus their energy on.” He would also have to compete in whatever it was, but he was pretty sure the school couldn’t come up with anything more dangerous than Quidditch. Even after six years in the Wizarding World, he still couldn’t believe what a violent game it was, especially for one which was officially tolerated and even approved of by the staff and parents. He had never gotten hurt himself, but he knew that wasn’t a given even for his position; Nic Sawyer had been a Keeper, too, and he had nearly gotten his neck broken during David’s first year as a reserve.

He had to try hard not to laugh at James’ very formal phrasing as he…did something at least vaguely akin to apologizing, anyway, for not congratulating David on the Head Boy win at the Bonfire last year. “It’s cool, don’t worry about it,” he said, his own word choice slipping a little lower than usual in response to James’ high-brow language. Not that he had ever done fancy language too well unless he was playing the part of a cross between Aragorn, the Movie Announcer Guy, and every football coach ever to grace the frames of a predictable sports flick while giving speeches to the Quidditch team. “Thanks for the congratulations now,” he added, refraining from pointing out that he wasn’t sure congratulations were really the thing he needed. That had been all right with Samantha, but she had been a closer friend than James, despite the years of living together.

Honestly, after he’d seen the Head Boy ballot last spring, David had been kind of worried about James deciding on a Pyrrhic revenge by poisoning him or something, but his roommate had handled the disappointment pretty well, he thought. It just went to show, people could be pretty decent about things, when they wanted to. A lesson a person from as cynical a place as he was should never have learned, he knew, but there it was. Maybe he wasn’t related to any of them, but some people could be all right.

“It’s all gonna be a pain with RATS this year, though,” he said, finishing the careful task of putting together his last Welcoming Feast meal. More care than usual had been necessary; it was a special occasion, not just another old year this time. “Quidditch would have been, too, but at least that’s pretty predictable. Who knows what these challenges are going to be, or how much time we’re gonna have to put into ‘em.” Plus he’d still have to run practices. Oh, his year was going to be busy. Maybe the Bludgers would have been preferable. “How many subjects are you taking?”
16 David We have a deal, my friend. 169 David 0 5


James

January 12, 2013 4:14 PM
It would not have occurred to James that the Quidditch players might be disappointed to have a year off from the violent sport, but the various reactions the news had been sufficient to enlighten him, and David's hopes that the challenges might distract his team further cemented the notion. James was not opposed to sport in any way - he followed the national Quidditch League with guarded interest - but he had no personal interest in participating in a game which more or less guaranteed injury at some juncture. At least if the challenges did require some sort of dangerous athletic display he could probably call on one of the many Quidditch enthusiasts to fulfill that particular requirement. If individual participation was stipulated he could potentially forfeit. Sadly, David was not currently in a position to offer an more information on the topic.

David's reply of, "It’s cool, don’t worry about it," would not usually have registered with James as unusual in any way, but as it had followed a relatively verbose comment from his own lips, the short phrase sounded peculiarly unrefined. Admittedlty, it also had the effect of causing James' own utterings to sound almost pretentious in their propriety. He had the good grace to be entertained by the contrast, and managed a rare, quirky smile, but remained unabashed. He knew that to succeed in this world he needed to talk the talk required to fit in with the fat cats, and he was sure that David knew that, too. Luckily he didn't ever complain about James' more obvious attempts to appear more superior than he really ought, nor did he seem concerned that the congratulations had been late in their arrival. Really, James considered, he had never fully appreciated how lucky he was in having David as a roomate. he could have been stuck with an entirely different arrangement if he'd have been born a year later, and that was something for which he couldn't give sufficient thanks.

Another aspect which he hadn't considered was that of co-ordinating studies for RATS alongside David role of Head Boy. All of a sudden James found himself feeling rather more appreciative of his current position than he ever would have anticipated. With an ideal roommate and no extra headship duties to concern him in his final year, he might, one day, even look back on his school days with fondness. One day, many years from now.

"I'm taking everything except Magical Creatures," James replied, knowing his courseload was identical to Josephine's this year, and if she could manage it then he liked to think he'd be adept, too. "I don't think I'll really need any of it in terms of a specific skillset, but you never know what's around the corner." What he meant by this vague collection of ambiguity and metaphor was that he intended to present himself as an apprentice to a soliciting body as soon as he graduated, but if he was unsuccessful as a lawyer for any reason, it wouldn't hurt to have some qualifications to fall back on. Plus he wanted to have at least as many RATS as Josephine.
0 James Excellent. 0 James 0 5

David

January 13, 2013 12:27 PM
Somehow, David was not surprised to hear that James was taking a lot of classes. They were, after all, Aladrens, and unlike him, James wasn’t about as lazy as one could get before the potion couldn’t justify letting a person become one. Taking a lot of classes, having big plans for what to do with them, and then pulling it all off was pretty typical Aladren behavior, he thought. Having some of those subjects as contingency plans rather than direct elements in a preferred ambition was a little more Crotalus-like, but still not at all un-Aladren.
 
“That’s pretty much what my mother said when she was badgering me about classes this summer,” David said, in spite of his mother being a Muggle. She had, as far as he could tell, decided to see magic as something like his being male and his father’s abrupt decision to revert to his childhood religious practice and have their kids in common at least half brought up in the same tradition after Anna was born: it was unexpected, it was not something that she liked, but she would work around it to get what she wanted in the end anyway. His mother was, or would have been if she’d been a witch, he was sure, a Crotalus, and of the most terrifying type. When he’d turned out to be a wizard, she had started buying extra books that caught her fancy when they went to get his school list every year, and had gradually educated herself until she could come out of nowhere and start talking about his RATS as though she were as familiar with them as with the obscure medical acronyms she spoke in when telling the family about her day at supper. “You can never have too many backup plans.”
 
That was, he supposed, a settling sentiment for those who had a bunch of backup plans, but for David, it was less comforting. “Of course, I’m a great guy to talk, since I’m still trying to figure out Plan A,” he said casually, more casually than he really felt about the issue. “This is one of the many times I’ve wished I was born in the wizarding world, at least I’d know more about what’s available.” Since he did hope to avoid going back to the Muggle world for more than the occasional birthday party or big mother’s family reunion thing. He would deny the idea of pureblood superiority as fast as the next Muggleborn, even throw some profanity in for emphasis in the right company, but that was more on general principles and familiarity with the accomplishments of Muggles he wasn't related to than because of any specific liking for where he, personally, came from.
16 David I'll take your word for it. 169 David 0 5