Avoiding things. on Cascade Hall

Jax and Gia Donovan

April 05, 2016 9:19 PM

Avoiding things. by Jax and Gia Donovan

The Donovans entered the hall looking a little worse for wear. The wagon ride from Seattle to Sonora was not a quick journey by any means. It certainly wasn’t the longest to the school either. But since both of them were running on little sleep, it made them more tired and usually made Jax sour. Neither of them had been all that excited to come back to school, although for different reasons.

Both Donovans had grown up over the summer, both physically and mentally. Jax was taller with broader shoulders. The workouts and boxing finally showing their affects on his body. Although it wasn’t a lot of muscle, it was enough to show that he was gaining it. Added to that, his mother had given him their father’s old leather jacket. The one that he was wearing when she met him and fell in love with him. She had kept it safe until she felt Jax was old enough to have it. He wore it with pride. He spent the majority of summer in the boxing ring with his coach or at home with his mother and sister. He knew about Gia’s new ‘crowd’ but he also knew it wouldn’t last very long and his Coach told him to let her have some fun for a little while. So, he had to do his best to not get angry at her for having a social life.

Gia had not grown in height, but she had grown in other more feminine ways. Her mom even took her shopping since her training bras were of no longer any use to her. Gia picked out all sorts of cute ones. And her mother allowed her to have a couple of new dresses, one of which she was sporting today. It was a cute little flirty dress that looked rather nice on her. She was even learning a few things about makeup. She didn’t wear any most of the time, but today she had put a little eyeliner on and tinted lip gloss. Over the summer, Gia had made friends with a couple of girls on her block. They weren’t from money, so they knew how to find all sorts of bargains. They also knew all sorts of boys. Boys who enjoyed their company and Gia found herself enjoying theirs.

Since Jax was too busy with the boxing, he wasn’t around to keep her in check. Gia made friends with quite a few new people and she shared her first kiss! But it wasn’t at all as she had expected it to be and it made her realize that these boys weren’t who she wanted to be around. The realization complicated things for her and she wasn’t sure what to do about it. She didn’t mention it to anyone though. She was uncertain of how her mother would react and even more concerned about how her brother would react. So, for the remainder of the summer, she kept a low profile and tried not to think about how things would go between her and her friends once school resumed.

But here they were now and both Jax and Gia were hesitant to be back there. They were well aware of puberty. Jax had long ago been bogged down by it and with it came the obvious attraction to certain people, but this was new to Gia. She was realizing her feelings and it bothered her greatly. “Here.” Jax said, placing a glass of water in front of her and rousing her from her thoughts. “It’ll help wake you up.” He mumbled, sipping his own. “Do you want to find Sammy or someone?” Jax asked.

At the beginning of summer, they had been angry with each other over the yearbook. Jax was mad that everyone assumed she and Barnaby were dating. Gia, loathed to admit it, found Barnaby to be attractive physically, but they just weren’t compatible. He was too smug and arrogant for her to be around. But she did feel like she needed to be nice to him all the same and she couldn’t help how others interpreted that. Eventually, he got over it and they got over being annoyed with one another. Now, she had bigger fish to fry.

“I don’t see anyone yet.” Gia replied, almost relieved by that for the time being. “Let’s grab some food and find a seat, when they get here, they’ll hopefully see us and join us.” Gia suggested, standing up and making her way to the snacks. It had been a long flight and dinner was still a ways away. It didn’t take them long to pick out food and find a seat somewhere where they could be seen.

6 Jax and Gia Donovan Avoiding things. 296 Jax and Gia Donovan 1 5

Sammy Meeks

April 08, 2016 3:23 AM

FRIENDS!! by Sammy Meeks

As much as Sammy generally enjoyed her summers, it was always a joy to come back to school. Which felt way weird and nerdy to think, but she genuinely liked Sonora. The classwork was way more interesting than stupid math she had to learn at Muggle school (although she did miss science some, which was why she had joined the science club), plus she had something here that she had never really had before: friends. She loved her friends! They made her feel so happy inside.

She’d tried to write as much as she could over the summer, but the Pecari was pretty bad at doing so. Writing a letter was so dang tedious. Sometimes she would type one on her computer and then print it and send it out that way, but Sammy didn’t really like to sit still, so even putting in that much work was a strain. At least Laila had email, so that eliminated the whole part about entrusting or tying a piece of paper to a bird of prey part. (Wizards were so weird.)

The fourth year--when had she gotten so dang old!?--returned to school far darker skinned than she had left it. A summer of sunburn fading into tan, reburning, and cycling through had been very good (and very bad) to her skin. Most of the burned parts had healed up by now, although the stretch across her cheeks and her nose was still quite bright red. It kinda felt hot to the touch, but it was also very sore and sensitive, so she did her best not to mess with it, even though the bits that would be peeling soon were sure to get on her nerves.

Even though the elves generally took care of luggage, Sammy insisted upon carrying her own things to her room. “Don’t worry, I know the way, and I’m sure you’ve got better stuff to do,” she told them, tossing one large bag over her shoulder and scooping up the rest in her arms, intensely grateful as she approached Pecari that her dormitory did not demand a dance to enter as she heard Teppenpaw’s did. That had to suck if you were carrying stuff.

The brunette dropped her things off on the side of the room that was typically hers, not bothering to really unpack them. That could happen later. For now, she wanted to find her cohorts. She’d half-expected to find Gia in their room, but she supposed that was only half because a good chunk of her new that her best friend would probably be with Jax. Those two were pretty inseparable most of the time. It was cute. Sometimes Sammy was a little bit jealous of that; she wished she and her brother were like that, but Ethan was too much older to appreciate having her around much. Sammy and their moms had just moved him into college a few weeks before.

She figured if Gia and Jax were together, they’d probably be down in the Cascade Hall, and that Laila and Wu would probably find them down there eventually too. She decided if she saw Chuck that she’d grab him too, although she didn’t see him, so that was pretty lame. But when she got to the Hall, she did find the most wonderful Donovans. “Hey, you guys!” Sammy called across the room. “There you are! I’m on my-” she stopped abruptly, her eyes landing on the snack table. “I’ll be there in a second!” She amended.

After piling a sample of every available snack on her plate (because what the heck? She felt adventurous), she relocated the Donovans’ table and made her way there, plopping down next to Gia. “Heya,” she grinned merrily. “Hope you didn’t miss me too much. Did you have a good summer?” The answer she took from their physical appearances was a resounding yes, but it was only polite to ask. Still, the puberty fairy had evidently been very kind to them over break.

12 Sammy Meeks FRIENDS!! 310 Sammy Meeks 0 5

Laila Kennedy

April 08, 2016 8:07 AM

Hail, hail the gang's all here (almost) by Laila Kennedy

Laila had been very excited that she was starting third year since it meant she and Wu would be back in classes with Sammy and the Donovans, and as such she had dressed accordingly in a happy, yellow cotton tank top that her mother had insisted on starching so that it wouldn’t wrinkle on the wagon ride over but which she had rescued from such a horrid fate by pulling a white sweater over the top so her mother didn’t realize she had opted for that particular shirt. She had left her brown hair in it’s naturally semi-curly state, but had allowed her mother to arrange them nicely. After arriving at Sonora, Laila had bounced happily off the wagon, determined to go find all of her friends and catch-up with them, going to the Crotalus Commons twice only to drop off her white sweater and then again to go back and tie it around her waist in case it Cascade Hall was a little chilly. Although they had not previously decided upon it, Laila figured Cascade Hall would be where they’d meet up since between the five of them they were spread out amongst four houses.

But while returning for her sweater had prepared Laila for the cold, it did not prepare her for the site that greeted her upon entrance to Cascade Hall.

When she had first developed that crush on Conner Mills, Laila didn’t think she was every going to get over it. He was just so cool. He was everything her parents disapproved of. He was older, he had a motorbike, he wore a leather jacket. And then she had met Oscar Culie who was quite cute and everything her parents approved of (neat and quiet and polite) except he said that he didn’t kiss girls (which, of course, hadn’t stopped him from telling all his friends that Laila was the best kisser he’d ever had, something which she’d simply waved off with a shrug when Nate Fernandes pressed her for confirmation). And, even though she’d spent her summer running about with her brother and Dusty, getting ice cream with Katy Lomer and Jillian Chong, and giggling late into the night at Melanie Bitterman’s sleepovers like she usually did, she had also started kissing Scottie Tucker behind the bleachers when he walked her home from the outdoor cinema or church socials because she couldn’t do so on her front porch lest her parents see. But none of this matched up to the image of Jax Donovan in a leather jacket.

Laila had rounded the corner into the dining hall rather quickly but stopped in her tracks when she saw the prettily dressed Gia and her gloomy brother. At first she thought she was having a heart attack. Then she thought Harvey Mills was at Sonora. Then she flushed bright red and ran back outside the dining hall, pressing her back against the wall and taking a deep breath. She couldn’t go back to the Crotalus Commons now. She was in a chatty mood and didn’t want to spend the hours before the feast talking to no one. However, she also couldn’t enter Cascade Hall and risk being spotted by either Gia or Jax because she really didn’t know what she could say to either one of them. She closed her eyes and counted to ten.

It was while she was counting that Laila felt a small tug on one of her curls. She peeped open an eye to glare half-heartedly at Arne Reinhardt who always seemed to appear wherever he was least wanted. “Yes?” she asked him tiredly, still with only one eye open. “Can I help you?”

“I never thanked you for that invite to Bitterman’s birthday,” he said, his hands thrust into his pockets casually as he flipped a bit of his long, dark hair out of his eyes. Laila resisted the urge to roll hers. She absolutely hated how nonchalant Arne acted about everything. “It was good fun if you know what I mean.” He wiggled his eyebrows and Laila suppressed a groan. Everyone had been surprised upon catching the birthday girl lip locking with the contrary Reinhardt brother at midnight, but the gossip had soon faded when the news about the Campbell’s divorce emerged the next day.

“You’re disgusting,” she retorted, pursing her lips and crossing her arms, tanned from the summer sun. Banter with Arne Reinhardt, this she could do.

“Please, like you weren’t doing the same thing with little Scottie Tucker every Thursday night, at least Bitterman and I aren’t ashamed of ourselves.” His grin unnerved Laila and she felt herself getting rather quickly annoyed. She wanted to say something, stand up for herself, come up with a clever retort, something, but she found herself at a loss for words and just blushed rather ferociously instead. Arne laughed in response and patted her head rather condescendingly. “Well, I’ll see you around, Kennedy.”

And for once it was he who left her rather than the other way around and Laila didn’t like it one bit. She felt so indignant, she forgot that she was avoiding the Donovan’s table and stomped into Cascade Hall, practically fuming as she sat down in the seat across from them (and Sammy who had appeared at some point turning her conversation with Arne--if she could even call it that), huffing. “Boys are stupid and I don’t think I’m ever going to be nice to Arne Reinhardt again, that’ll show him!” She violently ripped into a piece of roll and chewed it angrily before taking a deep breath. “Anyway, what have you all been up to?”

10 Laila Kennedy Hail, hail the gang's all here (almost) 318 Laila Kennedy 0 5

Gia and Jax

April 11, 2016 7:39 PM

Where is the rest? by Gia and Jax

Gia and Jax both looked up from their snacks when they heard Sammy call out to them. Gia immediately perked up at the sight of her best friend. She had wanted to go see her over the summer, but her mother had been too busy with work to really take time out to send Gia away (she needed to get to know Sammy’s mothers and all of that). Gia also wondered if she could have seen Laila over the summer since they were in the same state, but it didn’t seem like something Laila seemed interested in, so Gia never brought it up. Maybe this coming summer she would ask if they would want to do something together since they were near one another.

Sammy plopped down beside Gia and any anxiety Gia might have had when she returned to Sonora was whisked away at the sight of her best friend. Gia threw her arms around Sammy’s shoulders and gave her a tight squeeze. “Of course we did! I missed you very much!” Gia commented, missing the fact that it was a common phrase that her friend used. “I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to visit this summer. Mana was too busy at work to get the time off to take me.” Gia explained. Even though Gia had a fun time with the new friends she had made, she still wished she could see her Sonora friends more often during their summer break.

“Hey.” Jax greeted with a cock of his head in Sammy’s direction in his usual manner as though they hadn’t just been separated by the summer months. “Summer was alright.” Jax replied. In truth, he hadn’t really done much, but it was a nice summer and he felt accomplished. There was one time when his Coach suggested Jax bring Gia into the fold and have her begin training too, just in case, and Jax felt almost betrayed by the suggestion. First, because boxing was his thing and he felt like Coach was trying to take it away. Second, Jax was doing this to protect his mom and sister but it felt like Coach thought he couldn’t do it so now he wanted Gia to learn to protect herself. Jax lied and said that Gia wasn’t interested in such things.

Before they could really divulge any further though, Laila came stomping to the table and sat down looking upset. Gia blinked in surprised as Laila ranted about boys while Jax simply looked amused by it. “What did he do?” Gia breathed, looking interested in why Laila was upset with Reinhardt, getting over the shock of her sudden appearance. Jax also looked interested to hear what it was exactly that the third year had done to Laila. If it was anything bad, Jax had no qualm of seeing that he never bother her again.

“You should ask Gia her opinion of boys.” Jax muttered, his comment causing a look from his sister. “Tony.” He said. Gia’s face went red from embarrassment. She thought he hadn’t known that she had hooked up with him, but their area of the city was small and a lot of the guys hung out at the gym where Jax boxed.

Deciding to ignore Jax’s comment, Gia refocused the conversation onto her friends. “Summer was alright for us. How were your summers?”

6 Gia and Jax Where is the rest? 308 Gia and Jax 0 5

Sammy

April 13, 2016 5:28 AM

Probably on the way. by Sammy

Sammy was having a nice time with her favorite siblings (sorry, Kardashian family) and talking about their summers, getting an expected and considerable amount more from Gia than Jax, when a loud declaration made her practically jump out of her skin. “Boys are stupid and I don’t think I’m ever going to be nice to Arne Reinhardt again, that’ll show him!”

Gia beat Sammy to the punch of asking what had happened, but then Sammy got distracted by a comment Jax made under his breath, then, glancing between them, the redness that crept onto Gia’s face when he mentioned a specific name. Gia redirected the topic to summers, but as she spoke, Sammy’s eyes burrowed sternly into Jax, demanding information as she mouthed, Who’s Tony? She figured she had to answer Gia, so she didn’t have a lot of time to get an answer, but still she added a silent, Tell me later.

“Mine was okay,” she offered. “Nothing too exciting. We moved Ethan into college, though! I’m glad he had to go before I left.” It was hard to believe her big brother was old enough to be out of high school already, but hopefully college would be a good experience for him. Sammy had tried to hype him up with her stories of how great boarding school was, and that was kinda like college, right? He’d never had a roommate before, and now he had three, which she didn’t think he was super enthusiastic about, but she told him how her roommate at school had immediately become her very best friend ever, so maybe that could happen for him, too! Ethan seemed unenthused by her general hyperactivity, but she hoped that maybe deep down he was a little bit comforted. Overall, though, he just seemed kinda grumpy about even getting life advice from his baby sister. And that was fair; as the older sibling, Ethan Jones was the one who was supposed to be out there experiencing things and making the mistakes and passing wisdom down, not the one who learned by word of mouth. Magical school had kinda given her that advantage.

“Brothers, am I right?” She teased in the direction of Gia and Laila, a small joke at Jax’s expense. And technically Laila’s brother’s too, but whatever, he didn’t reeeeaaally count, because he wasn’t here to get mock-offended (or maybe real offended? Meh, Jax was a big boy; he could handle it). “What about you, though, Laila? Aside from Arne getting on your nerves, how have you been?” And as it was now her turn, Sammy assumed Gia’s attention would be on their younger friend, so she dared to return her glance to Jax, partially to make sure her brothers comment hadn’t actually bothered him but mostly to see if he was going to give her any immediate indication as to who this Tony guy was. If Gia had a boyfriend, Sammy had to know. It was her divine right as The Best Friend!

12 Sammy Probably on the way. 310 Sammy 0 5

Laila

April 19, 2016 9:37 AM

Let's hope so! by Laila

Her friends looked actually concerned over her comment regarding Arne and laila felt a little bad since it was just her reaction that was a bit dramatic while she didn’t think his actions themselves had been that deserving of such a reactionary response. Laila shrugged their concern off with a smile and glanced up from her bread.

“He’s just an idiot,” Laila replied, tossing her hair scornfully and taking another, smaller bite of the roll which she had quite nearly mutilated before. And then, before she could ask who Tony was, Gia changed the subject and asked after their summers. Sammy’s summer seemed to be alright and Laila grinned in response to the teasing comment she sent regarding brothers.

“I know what you mean,” she laughed. “Gabe wouldn’t let me alone at any of the town events, I practically had to pry him off my arm to get any alone time with...my friends.” She wasn’t about to admit to the group anything regarding Scottie Tucker without knowing if the others had done some experimenting of their own back home that summer which, from the sounds of Jax’s comment about this mysterious ‘Tony,’ Laila assumed that at the very least Gia had. She was curious to know exactly what had gone down since it would discern whether or not she shared certain details of her own summer with the group.

“Other than that though my summer was pretty typical, had some sleepovers, went hiking, swam at the beach of course. And the annual Kennedy camping trip went off without much of a hitch although my Uncle Donnie did nearly singe the eyebrows off my cousin Beth when he was manning the grill one night, but Gabe-y put it out with water before much damage could be done so that was nice.” She refrained from mentioning how furious Beth had been about the water ruining her brand new shirt, and left out the part of how it had been ice cold water and 9pm at night, causing Beth to complain of hyperthermia for the rest of the trip.

“But enough of the disasters of the Kennedy-camping trip. Who’s this Tony? I’m dying to know!” Laila sometimes felt a little awkward with the others since not only was she one of the youngest members of their group but she also felt, from time to time, that she was the girliest member and the one who was the most into gossip. Two things that she didn’t ever mind so much when she was back home but also two things that caused her to feel a little shallow from time to time when she was at Sonora.

10 Laila Let's hope so! 318 Laila 0 5

Gia and Jax

April 22, 2016 10:01 AM

Yes, let's! by Gia and Jax

Jax’s focus had been on Laila as she was the one upset over one of the other third years being mean to her, but he felt someone watching him and turned to see Sammy staring intently at him. Jax shrugged in response to her stare. He had only said anything to tease his sister, it was ultimately her choice to tell anyone about her relationship to Tony. His focused returned to Laila just as she was explaining that it was nothing more than Arne Reinhardt being and idiot. He didn’t quite know what their relationship was, but it felt like a weird less than platonic relationship.

“Oh, wow, he’s in college now?” Gia was saying when Sammy had talked about her brother. Gia sometimes forgot that her friends had siblings since they were not at school with them the way she and Jax were. Of course, that was partly because she also tended to forget that Sammy and Laila were Muggleborns. Well, not necessarily forget, but it was something that was not at all important to her, so she didn’t think about it when she was around them or anyone, really. Not in the same way as Jax probably thought about Purebloods and his condition.

She grinned at the brother’s remark, giving Jax a slide glance. He had returned his focus on food, but she could see that he was amused by the shenanigans that were happening around him. Laila picked up from there to talk about her own brother experiences. Gia remembered meeting her brother when they had the Midsummer event back when Gia was in her second year. He seemed exactly how Gia pictured younger brothers to be based on books that she had read and seeing other families on the street.

“Wow, your summers sound exciting.” Gia commented after Laila recalled everything that she had done. Gia’s summer consisted of hanging out with a couple of new friends, keeping their tiny apartment clean and uncluttered, making dinner, and creating new clothes for her and Jax (he had grown a bit while she hadn’t so, his clothes needed a lot of new fittings). It wasn’t anything remotely as fun sounding as swimming at the beach or going camping. Not that Gia would ever ask Jax to go camping. The bonfire had been pretty hellish for him. Gia could remember the dark circles under his eyes the next morning. Sleep had not come for him and she couldn’t really blame him.

The tables turned once again and Gia found herself the center of attention in the group. She usually didn’t mind people looking at her or being a chatterbox, but she had never had something relatively personal come up as the topic. She shot Jax a glare, but he purposely ignored it. He felt as though he had done nothing wrong. If Gia chose to leave out such an important part of her summer, well, no one wanted that to happen. Feeling her face flush again, Gia focused her attention to the food on her plate. She gave a casual shrug as though Tony was no big deal. “He was just a guy that I, how do you say this…” She paused while she tried to figure out the English word for her relationship with Tony. “Er, dated?” She wasn’t sure if that was the correct word for what they were. “I met him through some girls that I’ve become friends with and everyone just paired into zevgáris. That is, couples.” Gia tried to explain. “It was for fun…” She really didn’t have anything to be ashamed of, Tony enjoyed it as much as she had, but she felt guilty all the same. Mostly, because she knew that she didn’t really like him like that and that her feelings in general were confusing and that probably wasn’t helping her all that much.

“I’m sure you both know that sort of thing.” Gia said casually. “Jax just doesn’t understand because he only has eyes for his ‘Coach’.” Gia stated.

“Har har.” Jax responded. At home, girls were frivolous. Here, they were nice to look at, but he couldn’t fathom getting close enough to date any of them. They wouldn’t be able to handle it anyway.

6 Gia and Jax Yes, let's! 308 Gia and Jax 0 5