I am not the half-human you are looking for. on Cascade Hall

Mortimer (and a little of Vivien) Brockert

August 26, 2016 9:52 PM

Midsummer Ball! by Mortimer (and a little of Vivien) Brockert

Tonight was the Midsummer Ball. This time, staff were allowed to bring adult guests and for some bizarre reason, his wife Vivien had wanted to attend. This was rather unfathomable to Mortimer, as he certainly didn't want to. He'd actually rather snarkily suggested that she could go instead of him and had told her-rather sarcastically-to have a good time.

Fortunately, they'd been married long enough for Vivien to take it in stride. Several years, five sons, and ten grandchildren later, she was more than used to her husband's attitude. Besides, it wasn't as if he was actually annoyed with her, he just didn't like social events. Especially ones where there wasn't a good scotch present and lots of teenagers and their hormones were. For her part, Vivien was curious about this aspect of her husband's life since he rarely seemed to find it interesting enough to talk about. Besides, their oldest grandchild, Emerald, would be attending Sonora next year and Vivien couldn't help but be a little interested in the students who'd be attending school with her, even if her own classmates hadn't arrived yet.

It wasn't as if Mortimer paid attention to the students enough to know a lot about them as individuals so he couldn't give Emerald his opinions. Besides, he was proud to say that she was much more interested in the well-stocked library than her social life. If she was really curious about her classmates-which only would apply to those going into their second year-she could ask Angelique who'd had class with them this year.

Now it was time for the ball to begin. The Cascade Hall was decorated in a space "Out of This World" sort of theme. A bit of magic had charmed the ceiling to show not a simple starry night, but a rotating series of galaxies and nebulas. The Aladren in him really appreciated this. There were also several of what Mortimer assumed to be planets hanging from the ceiling which revolved around a sun, a series of constellations projected on the walls, and several models of what must have represented denziens of other planets wandering around that the students could interact with if they got bored of dancing or had nobody else to talk to.

He stood, Vivien sitting behind him. Mortimer placed a smile on his face"Hello students and welcome to our Midsummer Ball. Your yearbooks are located on the table over there. Have a good time. Now I'd like to call our prefects and Head Students and their dates to do the opening dance." With that Mortimer sat down. Vivien made her way to get a yearbook for Emerald but he stopped her. "If Emerald wants to see one, Owen will probably be glad to show her his."

OOC-Yearbooks will be linked on the OOC board when Amelle gets them done. Please be patient about them because she is not required to do this and does it simply because she wants to. Feel free to write for the aliens if you care to interact with them. Have fun!

Subthreads:

Well, this is embarrassing by Georgia Kirkly with Farrah Welsh, Kellen Mormont

Not interfering . . . so far by Nathan Xavier and his Mom with Isis Carter, Alfie Pye

Can I either eat something or leave? by Kyte with Ben Pierce

Attempting to Join In by Aislinn and Sutton Nicolls

I really hope I don't trip... ((Savannah)) by Aiden O'Neil with Savannah Brockert

Loophole abuse. by John Umland

The perfect night with the perfect girl [Ginger] by Jake Manger with Ginger Pierce

A Midsummer Dream Come True (TAG Sophie!) by Juliet Grase with Sophie O'Malley

Well, let's do this thing [Abby] by Wu Peizhi with Abigail De La Garza

A Barnaby and a Gentleman [tag: Nevaeh Reed] by Barnaby Pye with Nevaeh Reed

A Muse by any Possible Name by Cassius Riker with Jocelyn Spencer (and Cassandra King)

Frankly, my dear, I'm no Rhett Butler by Tobi Reinhardt

Let's dance the night away! [Ingrid] by Louis Valois with Ingrid Wolsiethcrafte

I am not the half-human you are looking for. by Clark Dill with Lena Westley

On top of the world by Sébastien Évreux with Madeleine Dautin

Let's do this together! [Tag: Juniper] by Finn Scott with Juniper Brockert

Living the Dream (Tag: Laila/Chuck/Sammy? by Gia and Jax Donovan with Laila Kennedy, Chuck Fintoc, Sammy Meeks

The Dress by Arianna Valenti

Adventure awaits! (tag Lily) by Jozua Sparks with Lily Spencer

My Fair Future Sister-In-Law. [Caelia] by Jack Spencer with Caelia Lucan

Looking for my lady. [Emmy-Lou] by Dustin Newell with Emilia-Louise Scott

"The Last One" by Atlas Primred & Liliana Bannister

The night to last a lifetime [Isaac] by Makenzie Newell with Isaac Douglas

I don't care. Really, I don't. by Diana Carey with Olivier Westley, Diana

Playing the gentleman (tag Joella). by Lionel Layne with Joella Curtis

Someone should have had the decency by Edda Eir with Dorothea Xavier

I met a girl, she was a frog princess.... (tag Duncan) by Araceli Arbon with Duncan Brockert

A magical night (Jemima) by Owen Brockert with Jemima Wolseithcrafte

May I have this...song? by Arne Reinhardt with Lauren Song

Best (Non) Couple by Gabriel Valenti & Natalie Varth

Getting ready (MARS) by Natalie, Nevaeh, Raine, & Theresa

11 Mortimer (and a little of Vivien) Brockert Midsummer Ball! 6 Mortimer (and a little of Vivien) Brockert 1 5

Georgia Kirkly

August 27, 2016 4:30 AM

Well, this is embarrassing by Georgia Kirkly

Georgia had been pretty excited to put her ball outfit on, and go get her party on. She didn’t have anyone specific to go with but she’d not really heard of many people in her year pairing off, and she was looking forward to hanging with Farrah, and maybe making some new friends. Parties were good for that kind of thing, everyone was happy and having fun. And in Georgia’s mind, that’s very much what it was - a party. Sure, they were using the word ‘ball,’ but that was just wizards, as far as she was concerned, who seemed to like to talk in a kind of old-fashionedy way. The thing about a prefect dance had pretty much flown over her head, seeing as she wasn’t near enough them in age to hear any of the gossiping or worrying about that.

She’d picked her outfit at home over the holidays. She had a pink denim mini skirt and a black top with zig-zags picked out in glitter. Her mom hadn’t really been into the idea of her having heels (even though she was at big school now, way unfair!) but they’d picked out some cute pink pumps that pretty much matched the skirt, and she had been allowed to purchase lip gloss and mascara. Georgia was a jeans and jerseys kind of girl - she didn’t own many skirts at all, much less dresses. But it had been fun to get a little bit dressed up - even feel a little bit sexy. Girls were always wearing mini skirts to parties back home and she usually rocked up looking a lot more casual, a bit afraid to wear that kind of thing, but then always regretting it. Always feeling frumpy and like she’d missed a chance to be a different person for the evening. All in all, she felt pretty good about herself. She felt excited. Until she saw what Juniper was wearing. Juniper was in a full on ball gown, looking super princessy.

“You… look very nice,” Georgia managed. She found Juniper’s outfit kind of over the top but it still gave her a little kick in the stomach that, nice as she’d felt five minutes ago, she didn’t look like that. But… ok, Juniper’s family was like… old-fashioned or whatever. Maybe, Georgia tried to tell herself, it wasn’t that big a deal. But, as she exited the dorm, and made her way through the school, it became more and more apparent that it was her, not her room-mate, that was the odd one out. Pretty much everyone was dressed up like they were going to prom. On the whole, she thought it looked kind of ridiculous. It felt like she’d stumbled into one of those reality shows about child beauty queens. Ok, sure, those kids were like… five but it didn’t seem much less ridiculous for her peers to all be dressing this way for a school dance. She was pretty much sure you weren’t meant to be on the side of the people in those shows - they were meant to be the crazy, over the top ones, and you - who would never do anything so ridiculous - got to feel smug because, however messed up your family was, at least it wasn’t that kind of crazy. The trouble was, when it was everyone else in the whole world vs you, that meant you were the crazy one, however surreal it looked for a bunch of twelve year olds to be dressed up this way.

Georgia slid into the Cascade Hall, no longer really wanting to be there. She was conscious of her legs. Maybe if she’d been skinny, with long, tanned legs she wouldn’t have minded. But her chubby legs and dimply knees were on show to the world, whilst everyone else swanned around in floor length evening wear. She crossed her arms across her stomach, wishing she could just disappear. Or have her outfit magically morph into something more like what everyone else was wearing (whilst simultaneously dropping a good few pounds so it actually suited her). She thought about just chucking the whole thing in but she wasn’t sure that they were allowed. It was a some big, end of school deal (mandatory fun was the best kind of fun… ) and she was too afraid of getting in trouble to just ditch the whole thing and go for a walk.

There were some girls with face paints on, and she edged a little closer to them, although they were in a group and she didn’t want to interrupt, but she felt a bit more secure being next to them than some of the more dolled up girls. She breathed deep. She already looked like an idiot. She wasn’t going to cry in front of everyone too, even though (after just running out of there) it was what she most felt like doing. She’d already cried in front of her whole class once this year. She didn’t want to get a reputation as a cry baby.

When the prefects dance was over, everyone started dancing, eating, or mingling. She thought again about slipping out, just to go to the bathroom - after all, they had to be able to leave to do that - and then she could brace herself a bit - perhaps see if there was anyone else mingling around outside the confines of the Cascace Hall, and whether she had any other options for how to spend this evening... However, she only edged half way back towards the door, when someone stopped her…

OOC - god-modding permission given by Juniper’s author

13 Georgia Kirkly Well, this is embarrassing 346 Georgia Kirkly 0 5

Farrah Welsh

August 27, 2016 7:45 PM

Not if you're <i>working it</i> and you are! by Farrah Welsh

Farrah had been excited about the ball ever since she first heard about it. She had never been to a ball and when she had asked her father about it, he had said it was the sort of event where everyone dressed up in their formal wear and danced the waltz. She was a bit nervous about the idea of it being so… adult, but she also kind of felt like it would end up being much like a fairy-tale.

During the holidays, she and her mother had gone dress shopping. Farrah had wanted to find a dress that didn’t make her look like a little girl but her mother wasn’t quite ready for her to dress up like an adult either. In the end, they had opted for a royal blue that puffed out slightly after it hit her waist and ended just above her ankle. At the time that she had bought it with her mom, she thought that she had looked quite magical in the dress, but now that she was sitting in Cascade hall, she kind of felt like she was just playing dress up. There were other girls in full on ball gowns. The sort you would see in a movie or something. Farrah’s dress was pretty, but it wasn’t anything near that of a ball gown.

She took a breath and tried to tell herself to relax. Aside from her dress, the rest of the hall looked amazing. She absolutely loved the theme of the ball (although, she wasn’t sure how a space theme worked for a ball, but she wrote that off as a magic thing) and she was sure some of the others from the Science club would appreciate it too. She couldn’t wait to meet up with her friends and enjoy the evening together and have fun while they figure out what to make of all of this.

Farrah was surprised to hear that they were getting yearbooks! That was such a normal thing for the school to do for them and it made her incredibly happy. She wasn’t sure why it surprised her so much as she had seen her father’s yearbooks plenty of times after he had told her about magic and going to Sonora. She couldn’t wait to bring it home and show her parents everything. It was one thing to write letters and tell them about things and another to point to a picture and tell them exactly who that person is and the stories she had about them.

The Headmaster made a very brief speech before calling the prefects and the head students up to the front for their dance with their partners. Farrah clapped for them, wondering if there would come a day when she would either be up there as a Prefect (she still didn’t know what that was) or as maybe someone’s date. It had never occurred to her before now that she maybe should have thought about a date being only barely twelve; boys hadn’t really made much of an impact on her yet other than that of friends.

Speaking of friends, Farrah looked around the hall during the dance to try to see if she could spot any of them. She couldn’t find Kellen or Killian (weird how close their names were and how very weird they were) but she spotted Georgia sitting near a group of girls. Farrah grinned at the sight of her and slipped out of her seat when she saw that it was safe to do so. Her smile faltered though when she realized that Georgia was heading away from the party. “Georgia, wait!” Farrah called out as she reached her. “Where are you going?” She asked, failing to realize that her friend was not in a ball gown like everyone else as her first concern was making sure her friend was okay.

6 Farrah Welsh Not if you're <i>working it</i> and you are! 344 Farrah Welsh 0 5

Nathan Xavier and his Mom

August 27, 2016 9:44 PM

Not interfering . . . so far by Nathan Xavier and his Mom

Nathan had enjoyed his afternoon immensely. His mother had come along to the school, and he'd been able to show off his office (which, admittedly, he'd cleaned up considerably for her visit), the Teppenpaw rooms that he'd been overseeing for a number of years now (which he'd tidied a little bit and made sure the elves dusted in all of the little out-of-the-way corners for today), the grounds he was in charge of upkeeping (which were, in fact, in their normal state as he always had them in a condition that was presentable for visitors, including his mom), and his new greenhouses (which, like his office, had needed a bit of work), as well as the living quarters he counted as his home more than anyplace else in the world (which had required a full month of preparation to get up to mom-visit-acceptability). She had been satisfyingly impressed by her son's accomplishments and spaces, and then had locked herself in his bathroom for thirty minutes while she got herself ready for the ball.

Nathan had used that time to put on his best robes (which were the same ones he had bought for his graduation ceremony next week when he became officially certified for teaching) - so they were nice, new, and stain-free, but not exactly the deluxe formal wear some people would be sporting tonight at the ball.

... Like his mom.

He blinked at the woman who came out of his bathroom, barely recognizing her. Her normally straight grey hair was done up in curls and dyed a light brown. She was wearing make-up and that took decades off her face. Her dress . . . well, it was glittery and white and might very well have been the one she wore the day she married Nathan's father.

"You know this is just a school ball, right?" he asked.

"Of course, sweetheart," she tutted, patting him on the cheek. "I get so few chances to dress-up, though. I thought I would have some fun with it. Here." She took out her wand and made adjustments to his own robes and hair, taming his mess of curls into something almost dignified. "There," she remarked, sounding pleased with herself. "You look dashing."

Nathan seriously doubted this assessment, but she was his mom, so he didn't argue with her. A glance in a mirror did show that he looked closer to dashing than he ever had in his life, so she was due some credit there.

They headed down to the Hall, and after the Headmaster's speech and the Prefects' Dance, Mom headed off to find some food while Nathan looked around for some of his seventh year Teppenpaws to congratulate and wish happy futures to, but first he spotted one of his first years looking upset and heading for the exit.

He moved to intercept, but another first year got to her first. He hung back, letting Farrah take the first shot at resolving whatever was upsetting Georgia. It could have something to do with her choice of attire, which wasn't as formal as most everyone else, but he really didn't want to assume that and certainly didn't want to mention it first, in case that wasn't the problem and she became offended. Fashion was definitely not his forte and the last thing he wanted to do was to come off as criticizing hers by suggesting some alterations.

Fortunately, he knew from observing the students in his beginners' herbology classes that the two girls were friends and friends would probably solve whatever the issue was (clothing self-consciousness or whatever else it might be) better than a professor could. Just the same, he hovered between them and the Hall doors, in the off chance further intervention was required later.

1 Nathan Xavier and his Mom Not interfering . . . so far 28 Nathan Xavier and his Mom 0 5

Georgia

August 28, 2016 11:34 PM

I am? by Georgia

Georgia, wait!

Georgia froze, even though the tone sounded friendly, she was feeling like she’d been caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to. But it was Farrah. Farrah wasn’t exactly likely to be telling her off. She just wanted to know where she was going.

“Oh… It just… um, seemed kind of warm in here,” she said, turning bright red. Maybe if she’d been dancing, or it had been more than five minutes into the night, her excuse might have seemed a bit more believable. “I was just going to get some fresh air for a sec,” she smiled.

She hesitated… Farrah obviously wasn’t totally embarrassed to be seen with her, or else she wouldn’t have come over when she didn’t have to. And now that Farrah was here, the option of spending the evening hanging with friends seemed more viable than it had five minutes ago, even though Farrah was a lot more dressed up than she was and even though she still wished she could just start the whole night over.

“What… what did you want to do?” she asked a little awkwardly, aware that the question didn’t quite make sense, given that Farrah wasn’t the one who’d been caught trying to sneak out, but wanting to see if her friend had a better plan for the night than just abandoning ship.

13 Georgia I am? 346 Georgia 0 5

Kyte

August 29, 2016 12:42 AM

Can I either eat something or leave? by Kyte

Kyte wasn’t really into the idea of the ball. It sounded sort of dumb. The fire last year had been fun. He liked fire. Why couldn’t they have a fire every year? Fire was better than dancing. All year long, people had been getting excited about dates and dresses, both of which were really boring subjects. He had been doing his best to keep a low profile (which was hard given that he was neither adept at sitting still nor keeping quiet) and hoping that none of the girls in his year got it into their heads that they needed a date for the evening. Luckily, that problem had largely been addressed by most of the girls agreeing to go together, and the only ones who weren’t in that group being the type that were unlikely to consider touching someone ‘like him’ with a bargepole. This was the one element of the ball that he was truly happy and excited about… Raine was going in a big group of friends, and he was so proud of her. Raine was sure to have a great night, and that was as much enjoyment as he expected to get from the whole thing (and was more than enough for him).

He hadn’t really dressed up. He didn’t even own a shirt, and there wasn’t much point buying or making one for a few hours of one evening when you could spend that time and money on things that were actually needed. He was wearing one of his least worn-out t-shirts and a baggy set of cotton trousers in rainbow colours. For a sense of occasion, he had added a bashed up trilby that he was trying to use in a trick. Kyte liked hats but there weren’t many occasions to wear them. When your job was going upside down for a living, hats were not very practical. The one in question was usually used to catch juggling balls (hence it had seen better days) and to be passed around at the end of street performances, although he wanted to work on wearing it on his broom, doing a loop the the loop, and then coming back under it in time for it to fall back onto his head.

He filed into the hall with everyone else. He had been planning to head directly to the snack table, which was the most appealing part of the night, but they all had to stand and listen first as His Excellency the Grand Headmaster made a speech. At least he always kept it short. But then he was calling prefects and their dates to do a dance. Which was fine, whatever, it didn’t affect him… Except that no one else was moving towards the snacks. Everyone else was just… watching. Watching this small group of random people dance. It wasn’t even a fun dance. Just round and round in circles.

“This is boring,” he muttered to his neighbour.

13 Kyte Can I either eat something or leave? 335 Kyte 0 5

Aislinn and Sutton Nicolls

August 29, 2016 1:54 AM

Attempting to Join In by Aislinn and Sutton Nicolls

A ball was in absolutely no way of any interest to Sutton, but she had agreed to come only because her sister had wanted to go without looking like a complete loser. So, here she stood very uncomfortably in a black dress that ended at mid-calf. She couldn’t really say what sort of style it was, because she really didn’t know. What she did know was that she would much rather be wearing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. However, she had snuck a bit of herself into the outfit. She had on a pair of black Converse and her hair was thrown up in a messy bun. She probably looked rather odd, but she didn’t really care.

“Sneakers? Really?”

Sutton turned around with a sigh to face her sister. “I’m here, aren’t I?” She hoped that pointing out the fact that she had shown up to the dance at all would make Aislinn chill out about the unapproved of attire. Not to mention the fact that she had also been the subject of torture to spending three hours shopping for dresses. “You look nice.” If she was lucky, the sudden compliment would further distract from her shoes.

“Thank you,” Aislinn twirled around to show off the pretty dress that she had picked. Hers was an off the shoulder number in a combination of deep blue and purple. The bodice was tighter with the dress flaring out at the waist. It was absolutely gorgeous. She had tried to pick out one that was equally beautiful for Sutton, but it was amazing that she had even gotten her into a dress at all. Still, if it weren’t for the shoes, her sister would have looked rather stunning, but she decided to let it go since she didn’t want to be fighting. Instead, she changed subjects, “I hope someone asks me to dance.”

“I’m sure someone will,” Sutton reassured her, grabbing Aislinn’s arm to walk to an available table. While they walked, Sutton looked around at the male population. Lately, Aislinn had started talking about boys. Personally, she didn’t find the subject to be all that fascinating. They were just guys. It wasn’t like they were aliens or something like that, but the way girls seemed to talk, her sister included, one would think they were.

It wasn’t that Sutton wasn’t interested in the opposite gender. She just didn’t think they were that much of a mystery. She had a lot of male friends back home and they pretty much said or did whatever was in their heads. They didn’t need any major decoding like girls seemed to think. Of course, this could also be the fact that she wasn’t romantically interested in any of them. “Oh, look here’s a spot.”

Sitting down, the twins admired the theme of the ball and the thought that had been put into it. They politely clapped when the prefects performed the leading dance. After that they continued talking waiting to see if anyone else joined their conversation or for Aislinn, asked her to dance.

0 Aislinn and Sutton Nicolls Attempting to Join In 297 Aislinn and Sutton Nicolls 0 5

Isis Carter

August 29, 2016 3:51 AM

So far... so good? by Isis Carter

Isis stared at her reflection with mild discontent. The woman in the mirror was, unfortunately, nothing really special. She knew that she was moderately pretty, and she knew that, as staff, she didn’t really have to dress up much, but what she wore still left much to be desired of her. There were a lot of unspoken consequences, she felt, for her lack of true formal wear; things always weighed more, said more, of her than others in the same situation, namely because of her background. When you grew up like (and looking like) Isis did, you had to attest to a lot more than just yourself by the way you carried yourself.

A fancy dress for her not in her budget. The substitute professor had never had much money, and she was doing her best now to save up now that she was finally employed. And while she’d been here for a few years now, she didn’t have enough yet to pay back what she owed back in Detroit. She had sworn she would return what she had taken someday, and Isis still carried that vow with her. Her budget had been enough to afford Nevaeh’s dress--the Reeds, with their moderate wealth, had insisted it was unnecessary, but Isis had never bought her daughter anything of substanance, and after thirteen years of life, she thought Nevaeh deserved something from her--but that had wiped out all she could spare.

So she did what she could to look like something: black dress pants, a pink polo, a grey sweater vest with yellow argyle patterns, a yellow headscarf, and a black heels. All of these were items she had probably worn to class, but hopefully not in this combination. Isis did her makeup rather plainly, the only pop of color her burgundy lipstick, and made her peace with herself. Tonight, she reminded herself, was not for her. She pictured Nevaeh, and she smiled.

Whether she was truly ready or not, the ball commenced. There were people she didn’t recognize because of how dressed up and glamorous they looked, and there were others she didn’t recognize because they were dates of the staff members. But some of them, her friends (and her child), she’d recognize anywhere, anytime.

One of those people was Nathan. Isis suppressed a slightly silly grin as she approached her fellow Head of House. “Hey, stranger,” she greeted merrily before realizing he seemed distracted by something. Her dark eyes followed his apparent line of sight, finding two young girls at the end of the line. “Everything okay over there?” she asked with genuine concern. She was at a school event in her teacher clothes; she might as well use her teacher voice, too.

12 Isis Carter So far... so good? 31 Isis Carter 0 5

Ben Pierce

August 29, 2016 9:09 AM

I vote Eat Something by Ben Pierce

Ben was familiar with the concept of balls. He was a pureblooded wizard of Pierce descent, after all. However, it was purely theoretical knowledge that he possessed as he was from the Boston branch of the family and therefore not invited to the kinds of events his dad had grown up attending before his disownment. Still, he had a nice robe - the Boston Pierces were not rich but they were not poor either and Mom was a doctor so his folks could certainly afford nice things - and his Gramelia had taught him the basics of etiquette and dance for these kinds of things, knowing he'd attend the Sonora ball if nothing else.

His robes were nice, yes, but they were not stuffy and uncomfortable, so he mostly just felt snazzy instead of confined, like he had at his uncle's wedding, but robes were inherently less awful than muggle suits in that respect. Plus, he had his fedora from the wedding, so that would be pretty fun to play with and doff at the ladies as he asked them to dance.

Being only a second year, albeit a thirteen year old one by now, he had considered a date, but had discovered most of the girls he'd considered already had one by the time he'd thought about inquiring, so that idea had fizzled. He'd also thought about accepting Ingrid's sister's matchmaking services, but then chickened out before he'd gotten to talk to her.

So here he was, dateless, at the ball. Most beginners weren't really expected to have them like the older students were, so he did not view this as a failing on his part, but an opportunity to dance with a greater variety of girls tonight. Ingrid and Sammy would probably both give him at least one dance, even if they'd come with other guys, right? And he hadn't wanted to commit to dates with Raine or Arianna V in case their brother or cousin wanted to Know His Intentions With His Relative, which were basically just to have a fun evening and dance loads, but friends sometimes got weird about friends dating their female relations. Neither Kyte nor Gabe were likely to object to just one or two dances though, so going stag was looking like the best option all around anyway.

Ben found himself standing next to Kyte during the speech and first dance. Kyte was dressed even less stuffily than Ben was, to the point where Ben wasn't quite sure his roommate had dressed up at all, but he wasn't too surprised by this. It was Kyte. Kyte didn't even always wear shoes. And he had a cool hat, so that made up for a lot, in Ben's opinion. But, then, his family was possibly a little bit hat-obsessed, so this opinion might be biased.

"Nice hat," he remarked anyway, when Kyte decided conversation was not taboo during the dance. "And it'll get better when we get to dance, too. Have you ever danced before?"

1 Ben Pierce I vote Eat Something 339 Ben Pierce 0 5

Aiden O'Neil

August 29, 2016 8:59 PM

I really hope I don't trip... ((Savannah)) by Aiden O'Neil

Aiden had been petrified the morning of the ball. Since midterm had ended and Aiden had asked Savannah to be his date to the ball, Aiden had worried about what her response had meant. Was she thinking of this as a date date? Or was this just a friend date? Did Savannah like him as more than just friends? They had always been friends. She was who he considered his best friend here and he hadn’t really thought about it beyond that because she had always been Savannah. But now he was thinking about it and he was completely confused about things.

He took time getting ready that afternoon. He looked much better this year than he had in previous years. His baby fat long gone, leaving him tall and gangly (although he was working out regularly now, but he knew he would not ever be muscular) and with his fixed teeth, Aiden felt much better about how he looked than he had ever before. With his hair done with careful precision and his dress robes pressed and lint free, Aiden waited down in the common room for Savannah to arrive.

When she did, any anxiety Aiden had been feeling about this evening went away. His heart’s pace quickened and he nervously smiled to her. She looked amazing in her ice princess looking gown. “You look beautiful, Savannah.” Aiden said, holding out a corsage for her. “The flowers are white because I wasn’t sure what color you were wearing, but they are charmed to change colors once you have it on.” Aiden explained. His mother had given him the idea so he had ordered from a place in Tumbleweed and had them send it that morning so that it was still fresh. “I probably should have checked to make sure you weren’t allergic or something.” He mumbled, panicked now thinking that he might have just handed his date something that could give her hives.

He offered her his arm and lead the way out of Teppenpaw and to the hall where they could meet up with Scarlett and Aiden’s roommates (assuming that Tobi and Scarlett sit with them and Liac decided to join in). He was nervous about the dance, but only about doing it in front of the entire student body. He had grown up learning the proper dances that all Pureblood children grew up learning, so dancing didn’t bother him (he had managed to master the Teppenpaw jig after all). He just didn’t want to like accidentally step on Savannah’s dress or trip on something and embarrass her in front of everyone.

Unfortunately, the Headmaster’s speech had not been very long and therefore, had not given Aiden enough time to really calm his nerves down before they were being called up to the dance floor. “I guess we’re up.” He whispered, standing up and taking Savannah’s hand to walk her to the dance floor. “I apologize in advance if I accidentally do something that is embarrassing.” He said to her as he stood in the first position, holding her one hand while his other went to her waist. He grinned at her, letting her know that he was only partially joking about doing anything embarrassing.

6 Aiden O'Neil I really hope I don't trip... ((Savannah)) 287 Aiden O'Neil 0 5

John Umland

August 29, 2016 9:00 PM

Loophole abuse. by John Umland

John was not a huge fan of robes. The sleeves fell in his tea and inkwells (or worse, sometimes went to the inkwell first; when that happened, the tea was ruined if the sleeves ever got to it, because John had yet to get desperate enough to knowingly drink inky tea. He was sure he had done it before, possibly quite recently, but he’d never knowingly done it), and while the top was comfortable enough if well-sewn, he could get his legs tangled up in the bottom parts. They also had a bad habit of snaring on other objects when he tried to climb trees or architecture, of billowing inconveniently in breezes and startling the birds he wished to observe, and of generally being in his way.

They did, however, have one major point in their favor: they were among the easier forms of clothing to don. If John had had to go through anything like the contortions he had gathered his sister had taken up as part of her routine, he would have thrown his hands up and gone to the Ball in jeans, but the navy blue robes his mother had bought for him were not substantially more complicated than his school uniform. He also remembered to comb his hair and check the mirror to make sure he had met up with a razor this week. Joe and Obie had taken him to task for forgetting such things and for looking like he’d slept in his clothes (which he…actually had, but not the way Joe thought. What was he supposed to wear whilst napping in the library?) several times in recent weeks, Obie appealing to general decency and his brother complaining that people were going to think he – Joe, that was – was related to ‘some kind of half-vampire hobo’ and think poorly of their mother because of this. Why the laundry goblin, who shared no relatives by blood or book with him that he knew of, was concerned with the non-laundry components of John’s sorry state, John had no idea, but he really did seem to be so; John had started getting even more lip about taking care of himself from the elf than he did from his brother. He thought he must have scared Obie a bit that week Donovan had been ill; suddenly relieved from the necessity of being on his Best Behavior (sitting very still on his bed and not making any noise all the time, asking permission for everything short of breathing, etc.) so much more than he was used to, all the accumulated nervous energy he’d built up since Donovan moved in had boiled over and he had had one of his particularly bad states. It had looked like a paper factory had exploded by the time he'd wound down, and there had been green stains on the ceiling and his work station from a potion which actually had exploded, and it was all kind of…vague, now. All he knew for sure was that there had been a lot of anxious squeaking from Obie and that he had not done his duty, which had been to seek out Donovan and make sure he was not falling behind academically because of whatever it was that ailed him. He had informed Donovan he was free to ask for any assistance he might need once the other boy had returned to the dorm, but that wasn’t good enough. John didn’t like it at all, had none of the right predispositions for it, but now that he had been forced to more than vaguely register the fact of Donovan’s existence, Donovan was his responsibility. That was what being a prefect was about, not sex appeal, which was just as well: the mirror let John know he had shaved and combed his hair acceptably recently, so he didn’t look like a hobo half-vampire, but he didn’t exactly look his best, either. Instead, with the help of his dress robes, he just looked like a regular, lower-middle-class half-vampire with aspirations in life.

He combed his hair again. There was nothing he could do about the dark circles under his eyes, so he didn’t think about them any further.

He still didn’t know what he was going to do when he got to the Cascade Hall. He supposed he could make the rounds of the girls without partners again, if there were any, but he really didn't want to. John had started out indifferent to girls, baffled at worst, but now the very thought of them made him anxious. He, for whatever reason, didn’t like them, they didn’t like him, human behavior in this area was never going to make any sense to him – Donovan was prettier than him, to be sure, if a bit lacking in visual character, but he doubted the fourth year was any stronger and the other boy was also apparently poorer; he had attributed an asthmatic weakling like Owen Brockert having a reasonable chance of reproductive success to the number of non-genetic resources Owen brought to the table, but John certainly had more possessions to deck his nest out with than Donovan did and yet Donovan was the one who was surrounded by a flock of girls and who had almost certainly had an affair with either Jack or Barnaby on top of that – and that was that. Unfortunately, though, he did not feel sure enough of himself to go through with poisoning himself anymore, not when he didn't have the time and privacy to make sure everything went just so, so if a girl was standing around unattended, John was under implicit orders from the Overlords to pretend he found her attractive instead of pretending to have poisoned himself like a sensible person.

Underneath it all, barely acknowledged, was frustration, which was bubbling dangerously close to the surface as he walked down to the Cascade Hall, dreading both the thought of unaccompanied ladies and the thought of there not being any. What was wrong with him? He’d looked at all of their pictures in the last yearbook while trying to fill in the little worksheet for this year’s, trying to figure out what attraction even felt like, and all he had gotten out of it was anxiety at the thought of talking to them, anger at nothing in particular, and (in a moment he attributed entirely to sleep deprivation and the then-recent realization that there was really no reason other than at least two of the fourth year boys having a relationship and then a break-up for Pye to approve Donovan’s room transfer; normally, he didn’t think about human sexual behavior of any kind much, finding the topic dull and uncomfortable and irrelevant to his life) a moment of mild anxiety over actually having opinions about the guys on the Best Looking page while he regarded all but one of the girls as just boring to look at….

Not relevant, though. What was relevant was the problem in front of him right now, which was the fact that none of the girls here thought he should contribute to the world being peopled while the staff thought he ought to do his bit, an incompatible pair of positions that put him in an impossible third place. The edges of his vision were pulsing slightly as he looked around the Hall. There was something unnerving about Jupiter; he looked away from it quickly and his eyes landed on one of the alien…things...wandering around as the entertainment. At first glance they annoyed him – those weren’t real, they were a Muggle fantasy, a product of the various Departments of Misinformation – but on second thought, they gave him an idea.

He could feel his heart rate accelerating, pounding uncomfortably near the roof of his mouth. What was left of his right mind thought this was a bad idea. There was a lot of bad data trying to distract him from that thought, though, things firing in his brain that were triggering unnecessary and useless phenomena - in other words, emotional opinions on the subject. He struggled to focus past them. Doing this would be tantamount, he thought fuzzily, to actually using the irrelevant data - expressing his feelings to the staff - and he thought people usually got in trouble for doing that kind of thing to their overlords even if they didn’t drag said overlords' wives in on the fun just for the heck of it and because they could. On the other hand, though, even the besieged remnants of his right mind had to admit that there was trouble and then there was trouble, and he was in some trouble no matter what he did. The question was just how much trouble came with each option. He tried to think through everything he’d heard said about this accursed duty. He did not remember ever hearing anything about their partners necessarily being students, just something about not bringing in outside dates….

He should, he thought, have asked Obie. Obie had brought him a drink once. Sure, it had been a tisane and Obie had possibly thought John was having a mental breakdown at the time, but it was the thought that counted. Too late for that now, though. Instead, he walked over to one of the things he very much hoped were well-charmed or Transfigured mannequins instead of people in funny suits and, reassuring himself that it would be more trouble than it was worth for the Overlords to punish him for this, bowed to it. It looked back impassively through eyes that were a sickly, to his mind, greenish-and-amberish color, seemed to have multiple pupils, and were shaped and lined in a way that reminded him of those fashion dolls with the creepy oddly-proportioned faces he'd seen in supermarkets.

“You look like a charming…individual,” said John, realizing two beats too late that he had no idea whether it was supposed to be a male or female extraterrestrial. He had read a few things where extraterrestrials supposedly had additional sexes, too. Oh, well. This was him making a point, not him seriously searching for a wife. “Would you like to dance with me?”

This was ridiculous, and had he been an iota less tired, fed up, and annoyed – if just one thing that had happened since March, or so it seemed in his stressed-out state, had gone his way – it wouldn’t have worked. He would have lost his composure and stormed off the floor. Since he was just that tired, fed up, and annoyed, though, he kept up the act throughout, making cheery commentary on the decorations to his companion and steadily ignoring the rest of the room until his sentence was up and he got to bow again to the tall green thing he had...shuffled around within a few inches of, anyway. There had been no touching, so he didn't think they could technically call it dancing, but it had been bad enough at it was. “If you are alive and speak English, then - thanks,” he said, and as soon as his companion, who he was reasonably certain was not actually sapient now, drifted away, he set off toward dinner, carefully avoiding all couples and hoping his expression adequately conveyed to anyone who insisted on looking at him that he was a prefect and a Beater and an Aladren with all the trimmings and therefore someone who, if he chose to do so, could make very nearly anyone in this school’s life deeply unpleasant in a variety of ways. He couldn’t really – even had he been less opposed to dealing with what would happen to him if any of the purebloods realized that his badge and even his, if he did say so himself, considerable magical talent only went so far, there was still Joe’s well-being to consider – but all authority short of the divine was based on a kind of collective delusion. Maybe it would hold enough tonight to keep them from mocking him to his face. What they said behind his back, he didn’t much care, but he was afraid his response to face-to-face mockery might involve shouting incoherent gibberish.

He gathered a plate of delicacies and a tall glass, filled nearly to the brim, with punch, which he devoutly hoped would have the same effects as last time. If everybody got drunk, maybe they could have a brawl. That would be a lot more fun than watching everyone else’s halfhearted courtship displays and looking at the yearbook.

16 John Umland Loophole abuse. 285 John Umland 0 5

Jake Manger

August 29, 2016 9:30 PM

The perfect night with the perfect girl [Ginger] by Jake Manger

“Duncan, can you help me with my tie?” Jake asked rather pathetically. “It’s still crooked.” It wasn’t, really, but he felt hypersensitive of his appearance. He wasn’t generally concerned with how he looked--although apparently other people were, since he’d been put as Best Looking last year, which meant unless he’d gotten suddenly a whole lot uglier he would probably be there again this time--but today, he had to look perfect. He had been to a ball here before and dozens elsewhere, and surely he’d attend a thousand more in his lifetime. And while he imagined so would Ginger, this was here only one at Sonora. He had to make it special.

His girlfriend had to have the perfect evening.

Thinking about her and the title made his brain light up, a goofy grin setting with some permanence into his cheeks. Ginger was his girlfriend. He had written Arnold about it immediately, to which he’d gotten a single-word letter back: “Finally.” Jake shot him back a reply just one word longer: “Says you..”

Jake had proposed meeting up just outside the Cascade Hall’s entrance; they were in the same House and all, but he expected Teppenpaw Common Room to be a bit too bustling. Obviously there would be more people here since the literal entire school had to pass through, but the space was more open, so he thought he would do better to find her and soak in her sight. Really, he just hoped his suit matched her dress well enough.

Soon enough he saw her approaching, and suddenly he wasn’t really concerned about his crooked tie or bright jacket anymore. Jake wasn’t concerned about anything anymore: Ginger was beautiful. He felt his smile widen so far he thought he could taste his ears, though it pulled up farther on one side than the other. Ginger Pierce was perfect, and for whatever reason, she chose him. Despite everything in his family’s past, the dark reality he had come from, the things he knew and the even more bountiful things he did not, Jake felt so, so lucky.

He brushed his sleeve across his face to wipe away the tears he felt beginning to fall. “You are so beautiful,” he said, his voice slow and deliberate, each word a testimony of its own, a firework that exploded behind his head, although he didn’t need to turn around and watch the show, because the sight ahead was already better.

12 Jake Manger The perfect night with the perfect girl [Ginger] 280 Jake Manger 0 5

Juliet Grase

August 30, 2016 1:22 AM

A Midsummer Dream Come True (TAG Sophie!) by Juliet Grase

For the greater part of today, a letter had remained sealed on the desk in Juliet’s quarters. Addressed to her from the manager of her Dragons, Juliet knew what it must be. Having had received and forwarded her official all clear from her doctor shortly after the school’s quidditch finals, this letter had to be her welcome back notice and training schedule. While coaching here had certainly been a fun way to recover, Juliet wanted nothing more in the world than to be back home in her own uniform.

On the other hand though, training future generations of players wouldn’t be a terrible career change. The captains who’d led their teams to this year’s finals, Bennett and Bannister, certainly had potential, though she wasn’t sure if either of them intended to play professional, or even collegiate. But as they were both seventh years, Juliet wouldn’t have had any time left to really work with them anyway. However, there had been a couple Pecaris that had stood out to her that had at least one more year to work, specifically the beater, Meeks, and the seeker, Park. They had both shown real intuition and natural talent in their games this season, and had Juliet not been about to put in the equivalent of a two weeks notice, she would have loved to work with them.

Juliet had left the letter alone all morning and afternoon, opting to open it tonight at the Midsummer Ball with Sophie. Her little cousin had been there for her for her entire life, more specifically with helping her get her job as coach and keeping her spirits up throughout the long winded process of recovery, and so she wanted to read the good news together.

However, as she was not to be described as a patient human being, Juliet could hardly contain herself as she rushed to don her suit and long jacket, having to rebutton her dress shirt twice as she had misaligned them in her haste. The french braid she had planned on ended up devolving into a very curly ponytail, as no iteration was up to par for her anxious excitement. Smiling one last toothy grin into her mirror, Juliet happily tucked her letter away in the inner pocket of her jacket, and strode down to Cascade Hall, where the loud music and sounds of excited students already rang loudly. She leaned against a door frame until she saw Sophie walking towards her.

“Hey kiddo,” Juliet said, smiling broadly, unable to contain herself. “You look great, Soph. Let’s get in there and find a corner to chat. I have some great news!”

0 Juliet Grase A Midsummer Dream Come True (TAG Sophie!) 38 Juliet Grase 0 5

Wu Peizhi

August 30, 2016 1:46 AM

Well, let's do this thing [Abby] by Wu Peizhi

Her dress had arrived from China with just a few days to spare before the event that necessitated it. Wu knew that could be no coincidence; her mother did not want her to have time to send it back if she did not like it. The dress itself was not that bad, but it was very much… not her. The base color was a pale pink that bordered on white, with beautiful light floral patterns across it. It was flowy, just above her knees up front and longer in the back. It was very pretty and, she knew the moment she touched the material, very expensive.

She hadn’t dared to try it on in advanced--her mother would not have sent something that was not her size--for fear of ruining it somehow, but now, the night of the ball, she stood before her mirror examining it and cursing herself for all her flaws. The dress did not fit the way it was designed to, but that was her own fault; it fell around her a bit awkwardly because she had yet to develop much in the way of hips or breasts. Her knees were gawkish, and she hated how short the front of the dress was to reveal them to the whole school. But the ball was, for as much as she hated the idea, tonight.

Wu was very quiet on the walk down to the Cascade Hall. There were many people around, all looking much better than she felt, and she took a deep breath as they entered the fray. Inside the Hall, she was quick to get out of the way for the Prefects dance, grateful that she would probably never have to dance it. There would be another ball her seventh year, as she understood the cycle of events, but there was no way she’d ever get a Badge. It would be Abby for Prefect, and there were plenty of options beside Wu for Head Girl. Really, she was the kind of girl who only got a badge if no one else was available for it. She’d been a last resort her whole life. Nothing would change now.

Although… things had. People here seemed to care about her, even when she hurt them. Peizhi glanced across the room and, for a second, seemed to make eye contact with Laila Kennedy, Muggleborn third year, Crotalus…. Friend.

Wu smiled. She would have to say hello later.

“Everyone looks very beautiful,” she commented lightly to Abby, her generally quiet voice just audible beneath the music of the Prefects dance. “Do you think so?”

12 Wu Peizhi Well, let's do this thing [Abby] 316 Wu Peizhi 0 5

Barnaby Pye

August 30, 2016 2:15 AM

A Barnaby and a Gentleman [tag: Nevaeh Reed] by Barnaby Pye

Perhaps it was fate that he hadn’t asked Nevaeh. Perhaps it was just stupidity. Whatever it was, watching her having a good time with her friends just cemented it in him that not asking her was a good thing. He didn’t need outsiders in his life, he and Tarquin were handling things just perfectly on their own. But then this strange blind witch had somehow wormed her way into his tight-knit circle of two that had expanded to three just to accommodate her. And he felt as though she deserved every sort of happiness. She seemed relatively normal and well-adjusted, and Barnaby didn’t want to drag her into the complicated, inner-workings of Tarquin and himself and he certainly didn’t need Tarquin getting any ideas.

He stayed on the outskirts of the room, observing his classmates and their dates as Cascade Hall began to fill with students, offering a stiff nod to his old roommate and the Muggleborn he had brought as a date but avoiding eye contact with anyone else. He was only there because it was required of him. Barnaby Pye did not want to be at that dance anymore than he wanted to fill out the yearbook survey to help determine superficial awards such as best looking and Class Gentleman or Lady. Nevertheless he clapped along with the others for the prefect dance and filed to the side to grab a yearbook.

Barnaby weaved his way through the crowd and found himself a seat, flicking the yearbook open to look through. He might not have cared about the various awards, but there was one award in particular that was on his mind. After seeing the winner for it the previous year at the bonfire, he had been filled with this strange sensation. Almost a sort of righteous indignation that felt entirely foreign to him. And he was curious to see if this year the award would remain the same. As he turned to the page on which the truth would be revealed, he looked up and smiled to see Nevaeh laughing with her friends.

Barnaby Pye was no judge of beauty—certainly he had never felt the stirrings of anything romantic about anyone in his entire life, but even he couldn’t deny that Nevaeh Reed made a lovely, bright picture and he wanted to keep this image in his mind to remind himself that any sort of reaction against the award (should it have been given again) was justified. He held his gaze on the gaggle of second years a moment longer before casting his eyes back to the page and scanning quickly until he found it.

He nodded rather briskly to himself as he took it in and closed the ledger, leaving it on the table as he walked over to the second year girls and [got her attention]. When Nevaeh turned around, he bowed low as his father had instructed him to do before asking a lady to dance. “Ladies,” he said in his most polite voice. “I wonder if I might steal away Miss Reed here for a dance. If that’s agreeable to her, of course?”

10 Barnaby Pye A Barnaby and a Gentleman [tag: Nevaeh Reed] 298 Barnaby Pye 0 5

Cassius Riker

August 30, 2016 2:37 AM

A Muse by any Possible Name by Cassius Riker

Cass could honestly say he had never danced in his life. At least, not the kind of dancing he’d assume would happen here, of which there were two possible options. Either one, everyone would be doing some variation of high class ballroom dancing, or two, it would be typical club-esque grind-dancing. Neither of which Cass felt inclined to make a fool out of himself attempting. However, he did find some enjoyment in dressing up and listening to music, so he climbed into his dark green suit and, with sketchbook and his favorite pencil in hand, headed down to Cascade Hall for this dance.. thing.

Actually walking into the hall was a bit more overwhelming than Cass had expected. He had apparently been running a bit later than he thought, and as such a good portion of the student body had already arrived and started enjoying themselves. Taking a deep breath and clutching his book to his chest, he dove into the throng of students and chaperones, ducking and weaving gracefully between humans to avoid bumping into any conversations. He successfully survived the first round of dodging to make it over to the punch bowl, where he poured himself a cup, and then smuggled himself into the back of a nearby empty table.

Comfortable in his corner, Cass set his drink on the table next to him and dropped his feet on the chair next to his, lounging. He opened his sketchbook on his lap, intending to try his hand at the spiraling galaxies and constellations above him. After a few minutes of unsatisfyingly mediocre space doodles, something sparkly caught in Cass’s peripheral vision. When he looked up fully from his book to see what had grabbed his attention, he almost had to do a double take.

He wasn’t exactly sure who the girl was, but he was absolutely stunned by her. Not like, in a romantic way, Cass reassured himself hurriedly. She was aesthetically gorgeous; everything from her hair, to her dress, to her shoes just flowed, almost magically, every fibre in perfect place. Cass took a long gulp of his punch, and began to pencil her into existence between his subpar stars. Soon enough, her form took shape beneath his hands, transforming the previously dull galaxies into the shimmering highlights of her aura as he frantically glanced back and forth between the girl and his art. He posed her like a ballerina; arms delicately circling above her head, her dress flowing around her softly as if she had just finished a graceful turn.

Cass tore his eyes back from the page to get another look at her, and was surprised to find her no longer standing still, but rather walking in his direction. No, not towards me, to the punch bowl table. He thought, calming himself. She doesn’t know me, and there’s no possible way she could know I was drawing her. So she has no reason to talk to me. That thought came with a surprising feeling of disappointment. So, for almost no reason besides to make the disappointment of her not speaking to him go away, Cass stood up and walked over to intercept the girl who had become art.

“Um, hello.” He said to her, cheeks now burning a bright red. “I hope you don’t mind, but I drew you. Would you like to see?” He tried to keep his breathing slow as he waited for a response. He wasn’t entirely sure why he was so nervous, but he was all but praying she wouldn’t think he was creepy for the sudden revelation.

0 Cassius Riker A Muse by any Possible Name 326 Cassius Riker 0 5

Sophie O'Malley

August 30, 2016 2:43 AM

That sounds promising! by Sophie O'Malley

“Sophie, for the last time,” said Lola with audible exasperation. “I’ve literally babysit your kids like seventy times. I know how to call 9-1-1. I know how to contact you at the school. I even remember that Stanley won’t eat peas unless I tell him they’re super-power beans. Don’t worry about a thing!”

Sophie blinked at her cousin. “Well, first of all, I have serious doubt in your ability to approximate,” she stated, “but that is fairly impressive memory. Have fun. Let me know if they misbehave.”

“Stanley will jump on the couch until he passes out,” Lola returned plainly. “Wally will sit quietly and play with his blocks. Go.”

*****

Now in her Mature Adult™ dress--she had waited to get dressed because she knew if she did it before Lola had arrived, one of the boys would’ve probably gotten sick and thrown up on her--she and her husband arrived at Sonora and made their way down the familiar halls. “I can’t believe we’re back here together,” she grinned, pulling Ryan along by the hand. “C’mon, Juliet’s probably so excited to see us all fancied up.” She was pretty sure Juliet had yet to forgive her for running off and eloping, so, despite being a sworn tomboy, she was sure her cousin was eager to see their attire.

Even with her hangups on the kids and Lola, they arrived fairly early. Which was good, since Sophie had actually been aiming for super extra early. She was getting pretty good at this life-with-kids thing.

It took a while before Juliet arrived, though, and when Sophie spotted her leaning just inside the doorway, the Pecari alumna was momentarily separated from Ryan, who had gone to get them drinks. But, she decided, he could find her again if she moved, so she went over to talk to her cousin, the Quidditch coach.

Sophie smiled back at her as she approached, although that grin was nothing in comparison to Juliet’s. “Yeah?” She uttered curiously. “Sure, yeah, we can sit over…. Over there!” The Potions professor pointed out a thus far empty table about midway down the Hall. She grabbed Juliet by the arm and led her to the table she meant, releasing her when they arrived and sitting down. “Ryan’s getting drinks,” she explained. “He’ll find us in a few minutes, I’m sure. For now, what’s your good news?”

OOC: All godmodding approved.

12 Sophie O'Malley That sounds promising! 34 Sophie O'Malley 0 5

Tobi Reinhardt

August 30, 2016 3:04 AM

Frankly, my dear, I'm no Rhett Butler by Tobi Reinhardt

Deciding what to wear to the ball had been a bit of an ordeal. Arne and Tobi’s mother had sent them a set of matching black dress robes which pleased neither sibling until they discovered their mother had painstakingly embroidered a different beaded pattern onto each set so that Arne’s robes held his fiery personality in red, orange, and yellow seed beads and Tobi’s matched his calm exterior in blues and greens. He had been worried that the beads wouldn’t match whatever it was Scarlett had picked out for herself until Arne had rolled his eyes and pointed out that it was a platonic date and therefore Scarlett probably couldn’t care less about what Tobi wore so long as it was appropriate and his hair was washed.

To which Tobi had, of course, lightly swatted at his brother’s head and told him to go annoy someone else because he washed his hair each morning and it was always tidy, thank you very much. The thought still resided in Tobi’s head, however, as he got himself ready for the ball that night. He had already showered that morning but Arne’s words caused him to shower again, nervous that Scarlett might be the type of person to associate long hair on wizards with dirty hair. He brushed it out and tied back the dark strands into a low, tight ponytail so that as the night went on he would have nothing to hide behind.

Tobi thought he might have been the first ready out of his roommates, mainly because he wouldn’t allow himself to be late in meeting Scarlett outside the Hall. The night hadn’t started yet but he already felt guilty, knowing preemptively that he would spend most of it wishing he’d possessed the courage and the selfishness to ask Makenzie to the Ball. He had thus decided to make it up to Scarlett. He would be the perfect date, he would arrive early, he would be courteous, he would not take his eyes off her even to marvel at the stunning beauty on Isaac Douglas’ arm (but that was mainly because he was afraid of jealousy).

As he waited for Scarlett to arrive, Tobi found a chair in the hallway to sit on and fiddled with the little box on his lap. He had written home to his mother to ask her what sort of flower she thought he ought to give Scarlett (since part of being the perfect date was to bring the witch a flower corsage of some sort) and Kaili had come through with helping him to choose a very nice arrangement that was sure to look lovely against the colors of Scarlett’s gown.

When Scarlett arrived, Tobi got to his feet. A gentleman always stood in the presence of a lady. “You look lovely,” he said, holding out the box. “This is for you to wear. I can help you with it, if you like.” Once the corsage was settled, he offered her his arm to escort her into the hall. Neither he nor Scarlett were prefects which excused them from the first dance and so Tobi suggested to her to perhaps find a nice table to sit at where they could wait for Aiden and Savannah to finish their dance and also for Liac who would no doubt be attempting to charm his way into the arms of a few different witches.

10 Tobi Reinhardt Frankly, my dear, I'm no Rhett Butler 289 Tobi Reinhardt 0 5

Louis Valois

August 30, 2016 2:28 PM

Let's dance the night away! [Ingrid] by Louis Valois

Louis loved going to balls. Ok, that wasn't exactly true. In fact, it was probably 100% untrue, as he'd never actually been to a ball he'd completely enjoyed. However, that was something he blamed entirely on his father. Laurent Valois liked to show his son off at these events, introducing him to boring old men and over-perfumed women with questionable morals, instead of letting him go and have fun with the other children. Who weren't particularly fun themselves.

Nevertheless, Louis still held some typical Valois traits which made the idea of a ball more appealing. For example, he had a love of fashion, and going to a ball was the perfect opportunity to wear his finest (and most flattering) outfits. Furthermore, balls included dancing. Louis had been taught to dance at a young age, and loved spinning and gliding to the music. Being quite musical, it was something he'd taken to very quickly and easily. These were all reasons why Louis was very excited about the Sonora ball. Away from his father’s influence all the boring aspects of a ball would be taken away, and a night of fun and laughter and dancing no doubt lay before him. And, to make things even better, Ingrid had agreed to go with him. As Louis tied his bowtie (something he had no trouble with, having decided quite a few years ago that he didn't want to rely on elves for such things), he decided that he did love balls, and was going to love this one in particular.

He'd arranged to meet Ingrid outside Cascade Hall so they could enter together in style (Louis liked doing everything in style). He was, of course, exquisitely dressed, wearing clothes made by the family company but designed just for him. His shoes were beautifully shined and had a slight heel, his fitted black trousers had two satin embroidered stripes over the outer seam, his white shirt had a marcela front with stud buttons, and its lace cuffs were just peeking out of the sleeves of his jacket, subtle but showing. Said jacket was black and almost like that of a muggle dinner suit, but with a swallowtail at the back (the full width of which was single rather than the muggle double swallowtail), and with delicate silver embroidery on the lapels, which were of grosgrain silk. The outfit was finished off with a rich dark blue cummerbund (which he thought made him look slimmer and taller), and a bowtie in the same colour. He'd asked Ingrid about the colour of her dress in advance, not wanting to run the risk of clashing with her. Hopefully Ingrid would think he looked smart enough, and would maybe even consider him to be dashing. He definitely would apply the term to himself, and Emmy Lou had told him that he looked “trés debonair”.

Louis bowed when he walked up to Ingrid - she deserved a proper gentlemanly greeting - then grinned at her, unable to maintain the facade of being mature and boring for very long at all. “You look lovely,” he told her, blushing slightly, a comment which was definitely true, although Louis thought Ingrid looked quite nice in even the grim school robes so she had little chance of him thinking anything unflattering. He held out his arm to her and gestured towards Cascade Hall, where students were already mingling. “Shall we?”

OOC: Feel free to move Louis into CH and sit him down/get him dancing! Mentions of Emmy approved by her author.

9 Louis Valois Let's dance the night away! [Ingrid] 314 Louis Valois 0 5

Ginger Pierce

August 30, 2016 10:50 PM

I don't know that I'd go that far... by Ginger Pierce

The night was going to be a magical one, Ginger was sure. It had to be. This was Sonora. Magic was its specialty. Beyond even Sonora's traditions was the fact that she was going to a ball with her boyfriend, Jake. Everything about that sentence was incredibly wonderful. Before Sonora, she'd gotten into one of the Wolseithcrafte brunches under semi-false pretenses (well, Mom had donated generously to the charity in question, so that pre-requisite had been made, but it was mostly intended for wealthy purebloods and less so for wealthy half-bloods) and that had turned out very well in that she'd met Jemima for the first time that day. And some of the Renaissance Faires she'd worked held 'Balls' as a special event, so she'd been to those, but they were strictly muggle and centuries out of date.

This, this was her one magical ball of her lifetime, barring any weird life turns that she couldn't really imagine it to take.

She went all out with her dress. Long, flowing, and her favorite blue (or close enough to the cotton candy shade of it to suffice). She felt beautiful and frequently spun around for not other reason than to made the dress flare out as she turned. It was both fun and glorious.

Her hair and make up had also been done up nicely. Jemima and Lauren had done a great job with her fine brown hair that often resisted doing anything more complicated than a braid, not because it couldn't get into complex patterns but because it had no volume and was slippery and tended to fall out seconds after any such attempt was made. However, staying charms had been used extensively and Ginger wasn't convinced the updo would ever come out again, but for tonight she was going to look elegant. She even had spirally curls, which was a look Ginger had always envied but her stubbornly straight hair had never allowed before.

Once she was all decked out, and so were Jemima and Lauren, she headed down the Hall to meet up with Jake. He'd said he was going to match her blue, so she figured he'd stand out pretty well and finding him wouldn't be an issue. It wasn't.

She broke into a broad smile as she spotted him, and ran up to him. After pushing up to her toes for a quick kiss, she settled back on her heels (high heels, tonight, in fact, reducing the height difference between them by two and a half inches), she beamed up at him, and snaked an arm around his waist. "Yeah, Jemima and Lauren work miracles. You fancy up pretty well yourself," she returned his compliment, feeling quite pleased he agreed that she looked beautiful tonight. "Shall we go in?"

1 Ginger Pierce I don't know that I'd go that far... 302 Ginger Pierce 0 5

Clark Dill

August 31, 2016 11:28 AM

I am not the half-human you are looking for. by Clark Dill

Clark's dad was an astrophysicist. He made good money at that and their expenses were modest, so, logically, Clark should have been able to afford nice new robes for the ball. However, this was a fallacy because the equation did not take into account that Clark's dad was also a cheapskate who only liked to spend money on electronics and other geeky things. Fancy formal robes did not meet this qualification.

Jedi robes did though.

So Clark was dressed in off-white and brown tonight and when he entered the Hall, he became absolutely delighted by the decor because now his outfit actually made sense and he had to run out again to the little wizards room to use the mirror there to give himself a Jedi Apprentice braid before finding Lena. Feeling very Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Phantom Menace, he sauntered out again into the crowds outside the Hall to find his date.

His height worked to his advantage, letting him see over most of the other students, and made him into an easier than normal target for Lena to spot, and between the both of them looking for each other, their perception check succeeded and they were united. "You look lovely," he told her, wishing Obi-Wan had more complimentary quotations to draw from, but Old Ben hadn't had any and Young Obi-Wan appeared in movies that were painful to watch multiple times, so Clark could not recall any appropriate remarks from them.

"Shall we go in?" he asked, holding out an elbow for her to link arms with him, and smiling in anticipation of checking out the astronomy theme in closer detail. "The elves were, ah, infinite in their decorative choices."

Upon entering, Clark's grin expanded, and he wondered in the new professor had given a hand to the theme because he could recognize the constellations played out over the walls. "Ah," he breathed in awe, "look!" He gaped at the galaxies and nebulas rotating above them, in much clearer detail and larger scale than his astronomical atlas and NASA prints could ever hope to display.

It was only when the Headmaster began talking that his gaze lowered to the other ball attendees, and only when John lead ... a being ... out to join Clark and Lena on the dance floor for the Prefect Dance that he realized that aliens had taken advantage of the theme to infiltrate the school.

His breath caught, but he tried to remain calm as the music started. Clark entered Hold with Lena as they began a waltz, and he whispered worriedly, "Do you think John is safe, dragging one of those beings out into the middle of everything?" He was desperately torn between the need to rescue his best friend from danger and wanting to keep as much distance between himself and the spies from outer space.

Or... another thought occurred to him that maybe they weren't real aliens at all, but just imposters sent to Sonora to investigate the Satori's discovery that one of the people here was born in outer space himself. This could very well be a sting operation to identify the alien in the school's midst. Clark could only hope Lena attributed his sudden spike in heart rate and perspiration as worry for John.

1 Clark Dill I am not the half-human you are looking for. 277 Clark Dill 0 5

Sébastien Évreux

August 31, 2016 1:25 PM

On top of the world by Sébastien Évreux

As he looked in the mirror, Sébastien decided he saw a handsome, respectable and important-seeming young man looking back at him. Oh yes, he was definitely happy with his appearance, even if the Valois clothes he was wearing put him in a constant state of pride and disgust. Pride, of course, that he was wearing such a fine and recognised brand, but disgust because he now wore Louis Valois’s name on him. Still, he supposed it couldn’t be helped.

Sébastien wore for a base layer black trousers with an embroidered satin stripe, and a white shirt with lace cuffs, a marcela front and a wingtip collar, over which was worn a black waistcoat with satin-faced buttons. A black jacket that tailed down at the back completed the look, along with his bowtie, which was cream and gold. to match Madeleine’s dress. The idea of colour-coordination wasn't the sort of thing that would usually occur to Bastien, but it seemed to be a sort-of common thing to do in America. Besides, he wanted to show to everybody that they were attending the ball together, feeling very proud that he was going with a Dautin witch.

Normally, Sébastien didn’t care about his clothes, but as maman wasn’t here it was up to him to ensure that he represented the family well. He also wanted to make Madeleine realise how lucky she was to be going with him, and if a few other girls ended up jealous of her position on his arm he had no problems with that. The Évreux family were destined to be a big name in America, and today was just the beginning.

With a final satisfied look in the mirror, he walked out of his dormitory (oh, how glad he was that he didn’t have to share! That would be an invasion of his privacy that he could not cope with, and what if he’d had to share with someone unimportant?) and through the common room. He didn’t know where the Aladren common room was, but Madeleine had instructed him to wait outside the library and not be a minute late. He was still rather indignant that she’d felt the need to instruct him so, having had no intention of being late. An Évreux never kept a lady waiting. He presumed Madeleine was being like that because he'd asked her to the ball so late, but really that hadn't been his intention so she shouldn't hold it against him!

Shortly after he arrived outside the library, Madeleine appeared, looking wonderful and probably – or so he thought – better than any other witch at the ball. “Mademoiselle,” he bowed low over her hand, and flashed her the most charming smile in his repertoire. His formal tone slipped into something more casual as he continued because he was actually allowed to and was going to take advantage of that at all times. “Tu seras la reine du bal.”

Glossary:
Tu seras la reine du bal = you will be the belle of the ball

9 Sébastien Évreux On top of the world 350 Sébastien Évreux 0 5

Abigail De La Garza

August 31, 2016 3:57 PM

It's so pretty I'm gonna die! by Abigail De La Garza

Abby had been excited about the midsummer ball (to fluctuating degrees) ever since its first announcement. The school year had been somewhat of a struggle for her internally, although she had put on a brave face and not let her constant cheery attitude and smiles falter in the presence of others. The ball hadn’t really helped matters in that sense, since she had at first worried about having to go alone and then about what she would look like.

Now that the big event had finally arrived, however, both concerns had almost ceased to exist. She had her roommate’s company to enjoy and a gorgeous Little Lady Couture dress that she had managed to fit into nicely, despite the anxiety about this that had plagued her ever since purchasing it in midterm. She had opted for a knee-length dress, having been reassured that a floor-length ball gown wouldn’t be expected of a fourteen year old at a school ball (although she was sure a certain few girls - particularly those of high status - around her age would wear such), which made her feel surprisingly confident. Abby wasn’t used to feeling confident about the way she looked but there was something about the little black dress that got her right in the mood for dancing the night away. It was a fairly simple a-line dress with a sweetheart neckline, thin straps and a particularly tight-fitting bodice that best suited her plump figure (she may have lost weight over the course of the year but she wasn’t going to allow herself to fall under the false impression that she had ceased to be plump). To accompany the dress, she wore a cute pair of little suede Mary Jane wedges. She’d managed to style her own hair into a formal side ponytail and then topped off the whole look with a delicate selection of rose quartz and silver jewellry.

Abby was curious to see what Wu would be wearing since the last time she’d asked, her roommate hadn’t actually known. “Your dress is amazing!” Abby said when she finally got to see the beautiful dress. She was surprised by her roommate’s choice of attire but thought it absolutely wonderful nonetheless. “It really suits you,” she had also said, because she wanted Wu to be confident in knowing that it wasn’t just the dress that completed the look but at the same time she didn’t want to go too far with compliments for fear of making the shy girl uncomfortable.

Wu was noticeably quiet on the walk down to Cascade Hall but Abby didn’t mind. In fact, by now she had grown used to her fellow Teppenpaw’s quiet nature, ]yet at the same time a ball like this was a lot for her to take in so there was a high chance Wu felt the same way.

Abby nodded in agreement when her roommate commented on how beautiful everyone looked. “Yes, definitely,” she grinned, unable to take her eyes off the other students milling about - they all looked so different all dressed up and just being surrounded by them made Abby feel very grown up. “There are so many different colours,” she observed, thinking the variety of colours in the large room looked very nice and impressive, not that she contributed to that in her black dress.

Although she was interested to see what everyone was wearing, there was one handsome older boy that her brown eyes searched for in particular. She hadn’t heard any mention of the Teppenpaw Captain having chosen himself a date but then again, there was a chance she was too young to catch all the fifth year gossip even if she did share classes with them. Abby couldn’t help that slimmer of hope that she might just be lucky enough to dance with Liac Reinhardt at some point during the course of the evening, no matter how much she tried to tell herself not to be so silly as to think he might ask her to dance.

“Shall we grab some drinks?” Abby suggested whilst the prefects did their dance. She thought they all looked so magnificent and important and it made her wonder how on earth she was ever going to be one of them. Not that she was assuming the role of prefect of course (although now she came to think of it, she didn’t imagine Wu would really want that kind of social responsibility), but was more thinking in terms of age and how mature they all seemed. It was hard to imagine being amongst the oldest students in the whole school.

8 Abigail De La Garza It's so pretty I'm gonna die! 315 Abigail De La Garza 0 5

Finn Scott

August 31, 2016 5:21 PM

Let's do this together! [Tag: Juniper] by Finn Scott

As the ball’s proximity increased, so did Finn’s nervousness. He wouldn’t say he was actually dreading the event – far from it, he was sure he’d have fun once it had actually started – but during the run-up he’d found himself with too much time to think about potential problems. Would he look right? His mother said that his tuxedo was fine, and he trusted her, but what if moths had got into the shirt? There would be dancing, and he did know the basics of how to dance, but what if he got flustered, tripped up, and embarrassed Juniper? Talk of Juniper, what if she didn’t actually want to go with him and had only agreed to because she was a fellow Teppenpaw and therefore nice? No, he knew he could discount the last concern. He and Juniper were friends now, or so he thought, and he had enough self-confidence to believe that people would want to spend time with him. Besides, Juniper was far from a concern. If anything, she was the opposite. Any potential trouble at the ball wouldn’t really matter, because he wouldn’t be going alone. Juniper would be there to help him, to brush over or laugh off any embarrassments, and would make the ball much more enjoyable. He just hoped that she would think the same way, would realise that he was also there for her (if, that was, she wanted him to be).

Now that his fears had been logically considered and found to be unimportant (and now that he’d checked and found his shirt to be intact), Finn felt much happier about the ball. He was smartly dressed in a tailor-made tuxedo, complete with bowtie, which felt a little over-the-top seeing as he wasn’t used to dressing up quite so smartly, but also made him feel quite respectable. He’d got Jozua to check that he looked fine, and once he’d received the ok from his roommate he wished him a good evening and went down to the common room to wait for Juniper. Shortly after she appeared, looking pretty in her dress. He told her that, slightly shyly but nevertheless managing to pluck up the courage.

The Headmaster kept his speech short, which was a relief – all the decorations and the dressed-up students were far too distracting for Finn to pay attention for long. He sat and watched the prefects dance, envying how much older and more graceful they looked, then turned to Juniper. “Would you like to dance?” he asked, deciding that it was the done thing to offer. Hopefully he could manage to manoeuvre his way around the dance floor without any collisions. “Or we could go get something to eat and drink?”

9 Finn Scott Let's do this together! [Tag: Juniper] 347 Finn Scott 0 5

Gia and Jax Donovan

August 31, 2016 7:51 PM

Living the Dream (Tag: Laila/Chuck/Sammy? by Gia and Jax Donovan

Gia had been so excited about the ball this year. It would be the only ball that she and her brother would attend, so she had high expectations of it being absolutely perfect. She didn’t think it would be perfect in the sense of a fairy-tale or anything like that, but rather, she wanted everyone to have a great time together and to get lasting memories from it. She truly believed that her group of friends, despite the bumps, worked well together and she thought they could easily make this evening the best for everyone involved.

She had gone shopping with her mother during midterm to find the perfect dress for herself. The one that they had found was a bit pricey for their budget, but Jax had offered to not get dress robes, so the funds towards that had gone to her dress instead. She thought it was beautiful and she felt beautiful in it. The top half was a golden color with a detailed design and the bottom half was a deep shade of blue that was flowy and a lovely satin fabric. She had gotten ready in MARS with Laila and Sammy and she was happy for their input on how she ought to do her makeup and hair. Her hair was curled and pinned back so that it fell like a black waterfall down her back. She decorated it with a diamond (fakes of course) headband. Her makeup was light, just blush and a tinted lip gloss; her eyes were done up the most. She went with a smoky eye look (or as close to one as she could do) and then dusted it with a shimmer to lighten it up. She felt her overall look made her look like a better version of herself and she hoped that Chuck liked it.

Since she had gone to the MARS room to work on getting ready with Sammy and Laila, she had agreed to meet Chuck outside the hall rather than back in the common room, so it was there that she greeted him. “Hi Chuck!” She said with a bright smile, hugging him as usual when she reached him. “You look handsome!” She complimented as she looked him over in his outfit. “Are you ready for a good time?” Gia spotted her brother not too far from them waiting for Laila and she waved to him, happy to see that he had worn the dress robe that she had handstitched together for him.

It had been a very strange year for Jax and his relationships with people in his life. First Wu decided they were no longer worth her time and she shut them out of her life. Then the whole thing with Barnaby happened and Jax moved out of the dorm room and into John’s dorm. Now Jax is dealing with John, who is really quite weird, but since he doesn’t seem to care what Jax does or interested in anything Jax does, Jax ignores all the weirdness that is John. And of course Sammy now knows that there is something suspicious of Jax, so he had to be extra caution around her. On top of all that, Joella had feelings for him and despite him trying to not hurt her; he might have ended up hurting her.

The truth was, he did like Joella. He thought she was pretty in an unconventional way, just as Sammy was, and he enjoyed spending his time with her in the MARS room, but he couldn’t risk her figuring him out. If they started to date and she realized he was in the infirmary every month around the same time of a certain moon phase, she was bound to find out. It was just easier this way.

Jax smiled at his sister and nodded his head to Chuck when he saw them. He knew that Gia would be pleased that he had worn the dress robe that she had created for him. It was just a simple black robe that was fitted to his frame. Beneath it he wore a white button down and a pair of his nice black jeans. His button down was tighter around his chest and biceps due to his work outs, but it wasn’t to the point of being uncomfortable so he left it as it was.

His eyes caught a glimpse of Laila and he turned his attention fully onto her. “Wow, you look amazing” He commented, leaning down to say it so that she could hear him over the crowd of students. He held out a single white rose to her. He knew that corsages were the appropriate thing to do, but it turned out that they could be quite expensive and he didn’t want his mother to spend any more than she had to. “I hope this is okay.” He stated. Gia said that any girl would love a flower, even a single one, when he had asked her if Laila would have been embarrassed by a lack of a corsage or bouquet of some sort. “Come on, let’s go in.” Jax commented, wanting to find a table with his sister and their friends.

The speech was a quick one from the Headmaster and shortly after that the Prefects were dancing together. Thank God the ball wasn’t next year, Jax could only shudder at the idea that he might have had to do that should he have been given the badge (although, he didn’t think he would get it).

“Oh, Peizhi came with Abby?” Gia mumbled, confusion and hurt crossing her features when she spotted their former(?) friend. Despite trying to maintain a friendly disposition with Peizhi, always greeting her and smiling to her whenever she saw her, Gia felt her friend slipping further away. Tonight seemed to cement that too seeing as she had come to the ball with what would be her new friend. Her replacement friend.

Jax frowned. It was only a fraction of a downturn of his lips, but it was there. “Gia, it wasn’t any of us.” He said, mad that Wu never took responsibility of her disappearance and told the rest of them why she decided to stop being their friend and so he had to listen to his sister cry about what she might have done wrong to make Wu hate her. It only made Jax even angrier at the situation. Jax looked to Chuck and nodded towards the dance floor. The best way to cheer up his sister was to distract her with things she loved to do.

Taking his own suggestion, Jax looked to Laila, “Would you like to dance, Laila?” Jax asked her, giving her an exaggerated bow the way that he believed rich pompous males did with their females. Jax didn’t enjoy dancing really, but mostly because he was not accustomed to American culture of dance. He knew Greek traditional dancing and dancing that he did with his family only. However, since this was a night where he had someone else to keep happy, he would at least attempt to stand out there and pretend if it made her happy.

Gia’s face lit up briefly as she turned to look at Chuck, “Do you want to dance with me?” She asked him, putting her hands together and looked up at him with a pouty lip in hopes that he would agree to do so. If he didn’t want to, she would just make Sammy dance with her.

OOC: Hope it’s okay to assume they were all sitting together. I figured Chuck/Gia can go off and do their own thing and Jax/Laila could do theirs. Also, Sammy/Chuck, Gia believes that she, Chuck, and Sammy are all one date, so be prepared for Gia pushing Sammy to dance with Chuck or Gia taking her out on the dance floor to dance together.

6 Gia and Jax Donovan Living the Dream (Tag: Laila/Chuck/Sammy? 308 Gia and Jax Donovan 0 5

Laila Kennedy

August 31, 2016 8:44 PM

I may be in for a rude awakening. by Laila Kennedy

The weeks leading up to the ball proved to be very difficult for Laila. After Jax had pushed forward the concept of their attendance to the ball as a date despite her offers to let it remain simply what it was, an agreement between friends, she found herself reading into every little interaction. But she could never be sure—did their hands touch for a second longer than they needed to when she asked him to pass the butter at dinner, or was it simply that he worried she didn’t have a firm grip on the dish? Had he always looked that intently at her or was it just the way he looked at everyone? Did he pay her special attention or was she just so starved for special treatment that she would take anything as a sign of preference. Laila honestly didn’t know and it was driving her crazy. She shook her head in frustration, her brown curls tangling as she did so and cast a look over to her bed where her dress lay.

She was to get ready in MARS with Gia and Sammy but she had not yet left the Crotalus dorms with her dress or make-up to meet with her friends. She didn’t quite know what she was waiting for but she almost hesitated to leave. She was late to meet her friends and there was time enough to get ready—Loretta had expressly forbidden Laila to wear any sort of makeup that showed other than, perhaps, a bit of glitter of she so desired, but Laila felt as though if she were to leave the safety of her room, there would be no going back. Tonight was, as Jax had so insisted, a date. Laila had gone on dates before (although her mother didn’t know) and she had kissed Scottie Tucker on the lips the previous summer, but this was different. The church dances paled in comparison to whatever it was the Sonora planned to throw and some how that made Laila feel as though her dates with Scottie Tucker were mere child’s play.

Laila walked over to her bed, her fingers reaching out to touch the fabric of the cream-colored dress lying on her bed. Over the Christmas break she and her mother had gone around to some shops in the area including taking a trip out to Seattle to look for a ball gown however Loretta had not approved of any of the dresses available at these stores, as each garment was either “too old” for her thirteen year old or meant for a winter party, not a midsummer event. The very idea of a midsummer event perturbed the sensibilities of the heavily Catholic woman who knew such traditions lay with pagan ideologies. However she could not bare the crestfallen look on her daughter’s face and so had taken her measurements and pledged to send her a nice, appropriate gown for a young lady.

The resulting garment was a loose, cream colored dress that fell long on Laila’s legs. It was almost empire waist in design although the darker lace bodice was not tightly fitting but rather just skimmed the silhouette of Laila’s still young figure. Her favorite part of the dress were the lace short-sleeves which cast a patterned shadow when light shone through them and fell lightly in rather elegant folds on her shoulders. Since she was already late, she put on the dress and slipped her feet into a pair of very low-heeled nude colored shoes. When she arrived, slightly red-cheeked and short of breath from running to meet them, her feet were a little bit dirty from having taken off her shoes to better navigate the hallways of Sonora quickly.

Luckily for Laila, her mother did not really approve much of makeup (resulting in Laila’s borrowing of Gia’s shimmer to use on her eyelids but not much else other than her cherry cake pop chapstick) and she had a rather simple hairstyle in mind, having long ago decided that the best way to keep her curly hair pined out of her face would be to put it in a nice side braid that wrapped from one side of her head to the other) so her lateness did not impede her final look and she was happy to give input to her two older friends before going down to meet Chuck and Jax outside of Cascade Hall.

“You look very nice too,” she said quietly, blushing and feeling quite cold all of a sudden as he pulled away to hand her a flower. Laila accepted the flower and felt her cheeks grow warmer. Logically she knew that flowers were a part of going to a dance with a boy, but somehow in the anxiety leading up to the night she had forgotten all about that part of it. “Of course it’s okay,” she replied. “It’s very lovely, thank you.” So as to free up her hands, Laila carefully broke off part of the stem and wove it into the long part of the braid so that the petals were by her ear.

She did frown slightly as Gia and Jax discussed Wu and felt guilty at having written the girl, but did return their old friend’s smile back pleasantly if not with a degree of uncertainty. Luckily Jax seemed to know how to solve the problem (how did he always have the answers?) and Laila felt some of her anxiety melt with his antics. “I’d love to,” she said as she accepted his hand and they moved to the floor. “Although, you don’t have to dance with me the whole evening, you know. I’m perfectly happy doing a number of different things if you’d rather.”

Laila had never taken Jax to be someone who enjoyed social events like dances even though Laila had always had fun at the ones hosted at the church, but then again that was one of the reasons she had deluded herself into thinking he cared for her as more than a friend.

OOC: and idk if anyone cares, but I got the inspiration for Laila's dress here.

10 Laila Kennedy I may be in for a rude awakening. 318 Laila Kennedy 0 5

Arianna Valenti

August 31, 2016 9:58 PM

The Dress by Arianna Valenti

Arianna enjoyed the process of getting ready for a big event. It was something she so rarely had the opportunity to do, the last time being her cousin Ashley's bat mitzvah last summer. Sonora had brought with it so many challenges to how she thought the world worked - magic, pureblood politics, her dork cousin somehow having more friends than she did, the bulk of her friends turning out to be boys, not girls. All her plans to be a success, make her parents proud and get out of that tiny Brooklyn apartment had been shattered the day she received a letter just over a year ago.

But a Ball, even a magical Ball, she understood.

Yesterday she had done her nails, both manicure and pedicure in a light pink color. She would have liked to have some girlfriends to do this with, but most girls at Sonora just seemed stuck up or totally weird. So Arianna had started the process of getting ready on her own.

The morning of the ball she woke up late, it was important to get one’s beauty sleep. After a quick brunch with her cousin, she retreated into her bedroom for the rest of the day. Arianna had a mane of thick, dark curls to tame. And she had to accomplish this all without the use of electricity and modern beauty products. Wizards really needed to figure out a way around this whole no electricity situation, they didn’t know what they were missing. Luckily, the magazines of fashion club had provided the first year with plenty of alternatives.

The young Aladren had saved up what she had of an allowance and traded it in for sleakeazy's hair potion. She had tested it out on her hair the week before - to make sure it didn't do anything weird - but hadn't ever used it on a full head of hair. With her thick curls, she was afraid it might take the whole bottle.

Hours full of primping and preparation passed - a formerly untamed mane became a half-down half-updo, the top of her hair weaved into a twisted braid crown at the back of her head, the lower part in long loose waves. She smiled at the mirror, she was proud of herself. If only there was enough time to do this everyday. Or if only Mamma would allow her to permanently relax her hair. The twelve year-old felt old enough to make her own beauty choices. Like makeup, for example. She wasn't allowed much makeup, but she did have a sparkly lip gloss, and carefully applied it to her lips.

And at last, it was time to put on the dress.

As the second youngest of ten cousins on her father's side (Mamma's family was still in Sardegna), there were plenty of opportunities for hand me downs. Emma was a total tomboy, so there wasn't much there, but Ashley, at least, had taste. Ashley’s bat mitzvah dress that Arianna had envied last summer was now hanging in her Sonora closet. It had a silver beaded bodice, with a conservative bateau neckline, and a long a-line chiffon skirt. It was much nicer than anything she could have gotten on her own.

If only it wasn't so... pink. Pink was good for nails, it accented her olive skin and the tan she had been working on over the previous month. But it was such a princess color. Being a princess didn't sound like much fun, there were still people telling you what to do. Arianna already had enough of that - in her last letter, Mamma had outlined the schedule Arianna would need to keep to in order to stay on pace with her non-magical education next summer. Logically, she understood it, but still, something in her just rejected the idea of a schedule entirely. She wanted to be queen.

Hanging the dress on the closet door, she retrieved her two tools of choice off the dresser - her walnut wand, and a fashion magazine, dog-eared to a page with a shirt that was her favorite color of the season, snorkel blue. It was a very bold shade of blue, a strong blue. Nothing like this light pink dullness. Now, she had practiced on stray bits of paper and headbands before, but this was to be her greatest undertaking yet. If it worked, then her outfit would not only represent her fashion sense, but her power.

With all the confidence she could muster, she uttered the color-changing charm. Sparks flew, and for a split second she was afraid she had achieved nothing. At first. But slowly, the bold blue color she had been hoping for began to swirl at the bottom of the dress, slowly working its way up the skirt, and then the bodice.

Success! Arianna grinned. Soon she was in the dress and putting on the silver kitten heels borrowed from her cousin, Emma. Mamma had initially been against heels, particularly because Arianna was so awful at walking in them. But the length of the dress demanded she either get additional height, or get it hemmed. It was more convenient to send Emma’s old shoes than to attempt a fitting while Arianna was at boarding school.

Declaring herself perfect, she (carefully) made her way down to Cascade Hall. Arianna wasn’t sure what she was expecting when she entered the dining hall, but it certainly wasn’t all this. The alien things were creepy, but the night sky was absolutely amazing. She liked the way the silver beads on her dress sparkled in the charmed night glow. She wondered how long it was until she could charm something like that.

The first year made her way through the crowd to watch the prefect dance, and wondered if that would ever be her starting off the Ball. It was more than the dance that caught her attention, the Ball was only one night after all. Being a Prefect was about the everyday power. She wasn’t sure what powers they had, exactly. But they seemed important.

Distracted by the dancing, and the outfits (what was with that dork outfit that Clark was wearing? And what was John doing with that thing? Clearly her two older teammates should have consulted her before attending the Ball) she didn’t even notice that her charm on the dress was already starting to fade, tiny swirls of pink and purple starting to appear against a backdrop of a bright navy blue on the dress.

0 Arianna Valenti The Dress 343 Arianna Valenti 0 5

Jozua Sparks

September 01, 2016 11:32 AM

Adventure awaits! (tag Lily) by Jozua Sparks

They were in different Houses, so the obvious place for Jozua and Lily to meet up for the ball was at the ball itself. However, his mom had been quite insistent that if her son had committed to take a girl to a ball, then by gosh golly he would TAKE her TO the ball. So instead of just meeting up there like sane people, Jozua was standing in the middle of the gardens, wearing dress robes that were too new to be comfortable and too blue to belong to a Teppenpaw (however, his Aladren alumnus mother had pshawed this argument when he made it, telling him that yellow was an awful color for robes while blue looked very distinguished on him and that was the end of that discussion) and hoping Lily showed up soon so they could get this whole thing over with.

He was sorely tempted to suggest just staying ing the Gardens altogether as long as they were out here anyway, but he was enough of a goody two shoes that he felt he should at least put in an appearance for a little while. Plus, if what some of his Quidditch teammate said was true, they'd probably get their yearbook there, too, so after all the effort he'd put into the survey (and he had still had needed to turn it in incomplete due to running face first into the deadline with only a portion of his classmates interviewed), he was kind of curious to see what the final results were from that.

Soon enough, Lily appeared.

"So go to the ball, dance a few times so people see we're there, get food and yearbooks, then sneak out for adventure?" he asked, hoping for confirmation that she likewise had limited interest in the ball itself. The suggestion would not come as a surprise to her since he'd explained later that was what he'd tried to express with his awkward candle passing when she had asked him out via note in Transfiguration class. But now that the ball was actually upon them, their plans could yet change, if she had become excited about it in the meantime. He was okay with following her lead. Even a staid and dull ball with Lily would be more fun and interesting than hiding out in the Gardens alone. "Or do you think longer at the dancing would be better?" he asked, by way of opening up the decision to her preference.

When they arrived, and Jozua saw how the Hall had been made over, his eyes grew wide in appreciation and he whispered to Lily, "Maybe a few extra songs could be worked in after all. Look!" He didn't point, as pointing was both rude and would draw attention, but he tilted his head toward one of the alien creatures shuffling about. "We could maybe have an adventure right here even!"

1 Jozua Sparks Adventure awaits! (tag Lily) 348 Jozua Sparks 0 5

Nevaeh Reed

September 02, 2016 12:52 AM

Does that make me a Nevaeh and a lady? by Nevaeh Reed

If the ball itself was half as fun as getting ready with Tess, Raine, and Natalie in MARS, then Nevaeh knew she was in for a great night. The girls (and Scout, of course, with his adorable purple bowtie) were sure to make an entrance; for one thing, she had a dog, but for another, the girls were made up beautifully with face paint. Raine was sure magic.

And also just about the sweetest thing in the whole world. Nevaeh made a mental note to get her aside at some point to thank her for being so considerate. There was no way it was coincidental that Raine had so many senses involved tonight. The legally blind Aladren could hear her friend move, there was a very pleasant smell radiating from her, and when she had brushed by, she felt a velvety softness to Raine’s attire. Nevaeh felt so lucky to have such a great best friend.

To think, she had been nervous about coming to Sonora. Her parents had let her decide for herself if this school was the one for her. There were plenty of reasons not to come: her disability, the awkwardness with Isis, and--she wasn’t an idiot--her race and social status. This school mostly tended to white society purebloods, it seemed, and she was neither of those things. Eventually she had decided to come both for the secure and semi-distant method of getting to know her biological mother, and because she wanted to prove to herself that she could do it. She was so glad she did.

A ball in and of itself wasn’t something she would have expected to enjoy, but so far, she was having a pretty good time with her girls. She laughed along at all the funny things they said and did, one hand lightly attached to Scout’s harness, the other arm crossed against her middle, lightly rubbing against the rhinestones across the middle of her dress. But then all of a sudden, someone else wanted her attention:

“Ladies, I wonder if I might steal away Miss Reed for a dance. If she’s agreeable, that is?”

“Yes!” She answered a bit too quickly before turning back to her friends. She could hardly discern their facial features, knowing who was who for different reasons, but still she darted her eyes between their faces. “You guys don’t mind, right?” When there were no objections, she turned back to Barnaby with a huge smile on her face. She passed off the end of Scout’s harness to Nat, who was closest to her at the time and offered her newly freed hand to Barnaby. The impact of the gesture likely went unnoticed, but in effect, Nevaeh proved her trust of him in this simple act, allowing him to take her into the imperceivable beyond without her eyes.

“Lead the way.”

OOC: All godmodding approved.

12 Nevaeh Reed Does that make me a Nevaeh and a lady? 325 Nevaeh Reed 0 5

Lily Spencer

September 02, 2016 3:49 AM

In the most unexpected places. by Lily Spencer

The idea of wearing a dress was so unappealing to Lily she’d almost revolted against the very idea of the ball. However, the fact that the entire school would be there and she would be attending with her best friend kept her sanity in tact. It had somehow come to her mother’s attention that there was a ball on at her school and she’d taken the liberty to send her a lovely, expensive gown by Mum’s standards: the sort of proper dress one would wear to a formal ball. When Lily begrudgingly put it on, she hated it immediately. It was a revolting shade of rose with a white lace trim on the quarter sleeves. The billowing skirt was embroidered with roses and ended at her feet with a white lace trim as well.

When Lily looked at herself in the mirror, for the first time she fancied herself an ogre trying to dress up like a lady. It didn’t help that she hadn’t brushed her hair yet. She’d never be as pretty as Charlotte; everyone knew that, and Lily didn’t care to even try. She felt silly even wearing this dress. She would have rather liked to wear what Jack was wearing. A shirt, waistcoat and trousers didn’t seem so difficult, and the way Jack went on about his bowtie was enough to make it sound like a choker. Lily would have been glad to wear it instead.

She had half a mind, now that she knew how to use magic, to transfigure her dress into something more commonplace - something with trousers - but she didn’t know quite how to do that and didn’t figure any older students would do such a thing for her. From Jozua’s transfigured candle - a piece she’d kept for keepsake - Lily had surmised he wasn’t keen about the ball either, and she was looking forward to playing out in the gardens whilst the rest of the school was dancing and chatting each other up inside. That wouldn’t be til later, but she still wore shorts underneath her dress in preparation.

Lily really had no idea what to do with her thick brown hair, so after brushing it she tied it up in the back and let the side tresses fall around her face the way she’d seen her mum and Charlotte wear it. Usually she would have her long hair in a ponytail, but today was a special occasion. She didn’t want to appear unkempt and have Jozua write home to his mother of how disheveled she was on the night of the dance. She couldn’t wait til she was old enough to decide how she had her hair cut. Once she could go to the salon by herself, she’d cut it as short as Jack’s and wouldn’t have to worry about taking care of it.

Joz had been nice enough to meet her in the gardens, an effort she hadn’t really expected. It would be the first time anyone at school would see her in something other than a shirt and trousers or her uniform, and frankly it was embarrassing. Lily looked at herself in the mirror again and scowled just to be sure that it was really her reflection.

Lily trounced out of the Pecari common room and made her way through the labyrinth she’d memorised by now to see Jozua waiting at the entrance. He greeted her with their agenda for the night, and she nodded enthusiastically. “No, your plan sounds marvelous,” she said. “I like dancing because it’s fun, but my teacher always told me I had two left feet.” Lily grinned and pretended to waltz with a partner in her arms as she and Jozua walked together towards the hall. “Not that I’ve ever been to a ball before. This is my first.” Lily stumbled over a potted plant and caught herself with a laugh. It seemed as though grace had poured itself into her other siblings and hadn’t any left for her. “At least I’m brilliant at sports. That’s all that matters to me, really.”

They entered Cascade Hall then and Lily’s words died away. It was absolutely marvelous, better than she could have imagined. It wasn’t going to be a dull night at all! Jozua pointed out an alien and Lily grabbed his arm. “Can we go talk to it? Or should we dance first? Or grab food?” There was so much to do; she’d had her doubts, but it looked like the fun was beginning already.

40 Lily Spencer In the most unexpected places. 357 Lily Spencer 0 5

Jack Spencer

September 02, 2016 3:53 AM

My Fair Future Sister-In-Law. [Caelia] by Jack Spencer

It by luck and a bout of boldness that Jack had found himself a date to the ball. He enjoyed formal events unlike many other wizards his age, but the pressure to find oneself a partner to attend with was overwhelming.

Caelia was a proper date and pretty as well - very pretty. If she’d been any other witch Jack would have been enamoured of her, but Caelia was almost his future sister-in-law. There was the slim possibility that Charlotte and Emrys would end their relationship over a row or some sort of family scandal, but that was highly unlikely. If Charlotte and Emrys broke up, Jack’s belief in solid romantic relationships would be shattered. He felt the same way about Adam and Ginny. His siblings were lucky they’d found their respective partners so early on, and both had started off as best mates. Jack would never admit it, but the fantasy of finding his future partner at Sonora and having a romance half as lovely as theirs did run through his mind from time to time. But all that aside, he didn’t think his date with Caelia Lucan would turn out to be anything more than friendship.

Since they were in different houses, Jack had offered to meet her halfway to Cascade Hall. It was a bit awkward, standing around in an alcove waiting for his date to show, but he was glad he’d arrived earlier than the stated time. Mum would not’ve been happy if she’d heard Jack had left his date standing in the cold waiting for him on account of his tardiness.

It had taken all afternoon to decide how to style his short hair and figure out how to tie a bowtie. Adam and Charlotte weren’t around to do it for him now and Jack was stubborn enough to try and figure it out on his own. He’d asked his mum to send proper robes for a school ball, and she’d sent his navy blue ones. It was very agreeable and very Aladren and fit nicely over a white button-down shirt. Jack was dressed to the nines down to his polished oxfords, and he hoped it wasn’t too formal for the occasion. He couldn’t remember the last ball he’d attended, but the idea of being invited to one and going with a date was lovely.

When he saw Caelia, Jack walked out and called her. “Caelia, you look lovely tonight,” he said with a smile, particularly dazzled for a moment. This was his future sister-in-law; it would be good to remember that. Jack held out his arm like he’d seen Adam do a thousand times for Ginny, and he led them to Cascade Hall. “It’s been years since I’ve attended a ball. When’s the last time you’ve gone to a party like this?” He didn’t count family reunions as ‘balls’ because bringing dates to those was always very awkward.

Once inside, Jack fell speechless for a moment. It was not what he had been expecting at all, and he realised part of him had hoped for chandeliers and loads of candles and fairy lights twinkling. Instead there were galaxies and nebulas and aliens. The amateur astronomer in Jack was tempted to spend the entire night looking up, but that wouldn’t do. He tried to close his mouth as he turned back to his companion. “They certainly did a lovely job, didn’t they?” He couldn’t wait to put these sorts of events together once - if - he became a Prefect next year.

40 Jack Spencer My Fair Future Sister-In-Law. [Caelia] 299 Jack Spencer 0 5

Dustin Newell

September 02, 2016 4:39 AM

Looking for my lady. [Emmy-Lou] by Dustin Newell

Silver was, at the very least, an acceptable, gender-neutral color. Dustin wanted to be a proper gentleman and match with his date, but as she had told him, Emmy-Lou would be wearing silver and lilac. But he considered himself fairly masculine and did not want to be seen in anything resembling the color lilac, so he was pleased the accompanying color was something he could wear. And wear quite well, he liked to think. Dustin wasn’t terribly concerned about his physical appearance most of the time, just wanting to make sure he looked neat and tidy, as a gentleman ought to, although admittedly, he had subconsciously started taking a bit more care in the presence of such a fashion-conscious roommate as Louis. Dustin did not consider himself easy to manipulate, but without his even knowing or any effort spent by the other party, Louis had turned him into a much more dapper young man.

He hoped Emmy-Lou would look beautiful. Dustin hadn’t quite started noticing girls in any sort of romantic fashion yet, or at least none here had officially caught his eye,but he was pragmatic in most matters, and it was most ideal to show up with a lovely date. Fortunately, his fashionista friend (he supposed they were friends at this point) did not disappoint. “You look wonderful,” he greeted genuinely when he met her in the Common Room. “Ready to head down?”

The decorations, he found upon their arrival to the Cascade Hall, were somewhat mediocre, although he appreciated the effort made. Most balls he attended at home were unthemed and unpleasant. This one at least looked somewhat interesting. Dustin’s green eyes were swooped upward by the nebulas swirling above them. “Those are nice,” he commented idly. He noticed the alien… things next, but, finding them rather tacky, he decided to keep his opinion to himself.

Soon enough the Headmaster announced the official beginning of the ball, summoning the Prefects and Head Students for their dance. Dustin glanced at Emmy-Lou and, thinking she seemed a bit too far out and therefore she might be in the way of the dance, he grabbed her hand and tugged her a bit closer to her. Realizing a moment later how foolish that may have looked to her, he released her hand and looked away, feeling the faint heat of a subtle blush beneath his freckled cheeks.

He made a conscious effort to watch the dance, taking note of any possible specifics involved. After all, there would be another ball in his time at Sonora, and by that time, he intended to be Head Boy or at least a Prefect, which meant he would be responsible for this (rather silly) tradition. But it was over quickly, and as the song ended, he turned to his date and asked, “Would you like to dance? Or would you rather go get yearbooks now instead?”

12 Dustin Newell Looking for my lady. [Emmy-Lou] 312 Dustin Newell 0 5

Atlas Primred & Liliana Bannister

September 02, 2016 4:55 AM

"The Last One" by Atlas Primred & Liliana Bannister

Atlas smiled contently to himself as he flicked his wrist at his tie, forming a nice knot around his neck. This was a sad day. He was saying goodbye to Sonora and all the people he befriended over the course of his 7 years. All except for one special girl that is. A certain girl who happened to be his date, and his- well, he wasn't sure what to call her. He loved her, and although she just recently became aware of his feelings, he was hopeful. Regardless of what the future held, tonight would be a good night. No fighting, no worries, just dancing together with his best friend, then maybe a walk through the gardens to do some stargazing among… other things.

Dressed to the nines, he eyed his watch. Atlas was early as usual. He wanted to head down to the common room early, but as he placed his last piece of clothing in his trunk he found himself becoming distracted by the memories of the room. This place had changed him. He went from a dumb magic newbie to a full fledged wizard, even if he could still be an idiot at times. It was thanks to his friends, the Baking Club, Quidditch, and Liliana that he was now so much stronger than the lost boy who entered Sonora. Although it hurt to say goodbye, he couldn't help but smile. After all he had a very special witch waiting. Grabbing his flower boutonniere, he took one last look around the room. Taking a breath, he smiled and closed the door, heading off to the ball.

Liliana had joined Joella and her roommates in the fifth year dorm to get ready for the ball. Joella might have been two years younger than her but she was Liliana’s closest friend at Sonora after Atlas and she knew that if they ever wanted to make it to the ball, getting ready with him was a bad idea. And when she arrived in the common room she was glad to have had that sort of foresight because Atlas looked good. He was wearing a black suit with a crisp, collared shirt and a pink tie with neat white stripes running diagonally across it, a pink carnation tucked into his lapel. Liliana smiled widely and rushed over to him, her silver heels evening their height so that she was almost at eye level with him.

“Hey,” she said, pulling him towards her by the lapels of his jacket and kissing him. “You clean up well.”

He barely got a glimpse of Liliana before she was in his arms. All he could see was a flash of pink and the simmer of earrings that were paled by the shine of her smile. “Of course,” he replied after another quick peck of her lips, “I have a beautiful witch to impress.” Releasing himself from her embrace he stepped back a few feet. He wanted to see the full effect.

She was a vision in pale pink. It was a simple dress, but it fit her body perfectly. He was secretly happy that she picked a flowy dress, that way when he spun her the dress would mimic her movements. The thing that really caught his eye was the beaded bodice that fit her almost too perfectly and the thin straps that kept it up. They were somehow tantalizing to the poor boy, and he wanted more than anything to just slip the straps off and kiss her shoulders.

“You look amazing...”, he started trailing off, trying to focus his attention on her silver shoes in an effort to hide his thoughts. “You really do look beautiful,” he said blushing furiously. It was amazing that after all they had been through, seeing her in a pretty dress could still get him this flustered.

Atlas’ blushing face filled Liliana will all kinds of butterflies and she giggled against her will. “I can only hope that I’m half as handsome as you, Mr. Primred, and as much as I’d like to spend the evening kissing you in the common room, prefect duty calls.” She batteed her eyelashes at him prettily in mockery of some of the young witches in the noblesse she knew. “Won’t you escort me to Cascade Hall and do me the honour of the prefects dance?”

He smiled contently distracting himself by playing with the ribbon that connected her bodice to the skirt. He was feeling rather bashful, but still somehow felt his boyish desires creeping up into his conscious. Thankfully her batted eyelashes broke him into a chuckle distracting him for the time being. “Of course I would, it would be my honor,” he said linking his arm with her like they had done a million times before. There was time for romance later, now was the time for traditions.

As Atlas twirled her around on the floor, her blush pink gown floating out around her legs, just brushing the ground, Liliana thought that she’d never been happier in her life. She wasn’t sure what was going to come after graduation and she didn’t want to think about it since she knew it would be a struggle to convince her parents of Atlas’ worth at her side as more than just a friend, but for one night she just wanted to push all of those thoughts out of her mind and enjoy herself. Liliana had always been a happy girl--most students at Sonora probably would be hard pressed to remember a time where she was not smiling, but never before had she smiled so wide.

“Atlas Primed,” she said matter of factly, holding tight to his hand and his shoulder, his other hand around her waist. “You sure do know how to make a witch feel like a princess.”

Atlas laughed pressing his forehead to hers. “Well Katie has never let me forget, she was adamant for the longest time that you were a real princess,” he whispered. He wondered what type of knowing look his little sister would give him when she found out they kissed. Katie had always approved of Liliana, and often inquired about her. He wanted to see the look on his sister's face when he told her, but that could wait. He wanted to enjoy this moment for as long as possible. Atlas spun Liliana again, to him she looked like an angel dancing on the sunset clouds. Although he was a little self conscious of his dance skills, he knew no one would be paying attention to him when Liliana looked so gorgeous.

“You should come visit me in Santa Cruz,” he found himself saying without thinking. “You know, since Katie would love to see you, and stuff…” he added.

“I’ll think about it,” Liliana replied with a grin, pretending to mull over his offer, letting a few more measures go by before answering in the affirmative. “I suppose I could allow myself a break from the terrible summers in France to see you in California. But only if you give me a kiss, Mr. Primred.”

“Well I suppose that is a fair trade,” he replied with a grin before realizing they were on the middle of the dance floor. Although they had kissed in the common room and at the Quidditch party he never kissed her in front of other students like this. It felt exciting, but nerve wracking at the same time. He leaned in a little closer with a sly smile as he whispered in her ear, “But right here in the middle of the dance floor, would that be prefect appropriate?”

“You hardly cared about ‘prefect appropriate’ when you kissed me at the Quidditch party,” was Liliana’s rather sassy retort. “And I’m fairly certain the entirety of Pecari House noticed that display as it wasn’t exactly the most discreet, now was it?” She offered him a cheeky little wink and smiled widely at him to show that she bore him no ill will for the heated kiss they’d shared.

Atlas liked to believe he had held some kind of discrepancy in the common room even if it wasn't true. “Hey, you’re the one that took it from a kiss to a makeout session. Not that I’m complaining,” he replied with a grin. Discreetly looking around the room as they danced, Atlas wondering how much anyone would care if they did kiss. It wasn't until the song began to end that Atlas gained the courage to pull Liliana’s waist closer to him press a kiss onto her lips, separating just as the next song began.

Liliana nearly fell forward as Atlas pulled away, not wanting even the chastest of kisses with Atlas to end and she blushed slightly at the stumble, grateful that he was stronger than her and able to hold her up. “It’s almost like we’ve been drinking that spiked punch from third year,” she said, her cheeks still pink. “Shall we venture over in a bit to see if the spiker returned for our last year?” Though no one knew who had spiked the punch at the last ball Liliana had always assumed it was a student older than their year.

“S-sure,” Atlas replied covering his own blushing face. Liliana could be so strong, and of course that was sexy to a 17 year old boy, but that made her cute and clumsy moments all the more special. “A drink sounds good, but I really hope there is nothing special in the punch,” he commented, entwining his hand in hers as they left the dance floor. “The fact that this is our last night already seems so surreal, and I don't want any spiked punch to amplify that. I want to remember this night,” he added, the melancholy creeping up on him. He squeezed her hand a little for comfort, trying to bring himself back to the moment.

Liliana grinned happily and returned the hand squeeze. “We’ll remember the night,” she reassured him.

0 Atlas Primred & Liliana Bannister "The Last One" 276 Atlas Primred & Liliana Bannister 0 5

Makenzie Newell

September 02, 2016 6:01 PM

The night to last a lifetime [Isaac] by Makenzie Newell

Makenzie twirled once in front of her mirror, and that was all it took to be hooked. More often than not, she was honestly a rather humble girl, but tonight, she decided, she was going to fall madly and deeply in love with herself. The light pink lipstick and accompanying makeup made her feel beautiful to begin with, but it was really her intricate green dress that brought her into her own. Her red hair flowed behind her, billowing out as she turned just as her skirt did, and she smiled with delight. She felt like a princess.

Though she had yet to put on her shoes, she floated about the bedroom she shared with Shino and Araceli. She hummed her own accompaniment, waltzing by herself until she got the bright idea not to dance alone anymore. Makenzie grabbed Araceli by the hand and started dancing about the room with her, letting Araceli fall into the more familiar following position while she led. She was glad to see Araceli smile, and that little beam of happiness magnified what Makenzie already felt by a hundredfold. What started as a somewhat structured waltz with fairly orderly hummed musical accompaniment quickly thereafter devolved into spinning in a circle holding hands accompanied by the silly laughter of a teenage girl. Makenzie felt so young and alive, even when she realized the time and had to conclude their little dance to put on her shoes.

As much as she wanted to stay with Araceli--and also Shino, honestly; she had always liked her other roommate from a slight distance, but she felt like Quidditch had brought her closer to the other Crotalus--the girls eventually had to separate to meet up with their respective dates. Makenzie could meet Isaac in the Common Room, but Araceli had to go elsewhere to meet up with Duncan. She hoped their two pairs could spend at least some time together this evening; not even including how much Makenzie enjoyed Araceli’s company, she wanted to keep an eye on her and Duncan. Whatever had possessed the Teppenpaw boy to wait so long to ask Araceli to the ball was simply beyond her comprehension. It seemed to have Araceli quite worried, and as for Makenzie, she was quite irritated and distrusting over the matter. (Of course, neither of them were likely to say anything about it, but still, the sentiments were present.)

How practical this plan of vigilance was, however, was yet to be determined. Makenzie was already feeling a bit giddy, and if she were to be swept up in the magic of the evening--an entirely likely possibility--she wouldn’t be too attentive to the status of someone else’s date. Depending on the evening and on Isaac, she might be a little too busy. Of course, she and Isaac had in no way established an actual romance and were going, as she understood it, mostly as friends who needed partners for the Prefects dance. To that end, she hoped Isaac would be understanding if she received inquiries for a dance from other classmates; Makenzie fully intended to be the bell of this ball, and she hated the idea of having to refuse a dance to a gentleman over a friend’s honor.

The formalities of meeting flew by, the you look great, thanks, so do you inevitable to these things going in one ear and out their other. She had her eyes on the real prize: the ball itself. Makenzie was eager to present herself, fully princess-ed, to the school she so adored. There was no better way than the Prefects dance. A part of her still wished it had been Araceli to receive the title, but at least she would be dancing with the Head Boy, even if he wasn’t on Makenzie’s greatest terms at the moment. More loudly now, she took some pride in her badge, especially now as it put her in the spotlight. She had always loved the spotlight and the luxury her life had afforded her; even as she tried to deflect it and share it with Araceli, she was still quietly glad to have it.

Headmaster Brockert called for the opening dance, and, a little too excited to quite remember the social submissiveness expected of her, she took Isaac’s hand and, grinning, walked him out to the dancefloor. She did remember to let him lead the dance, at least, although it was a conscious effort after leading Araceli around their room earlier. Makenzie twirled as her partner saw fit, grateful with each turn and each step for how her life had played thus far. In truth, it was beautiful. She had everything she could ever imagine wanting, and tonight of all nights, everything was perfect.

“You’re a fine dancer,” she commented merrily as the dance concluded (far, far too soon). “Would you like to continue, or shall we get yearbooks or drinks now?”

OOC: Godmodding of Araceli approved by her author.

12 Makenzie Newell The night to last a lifetime [Isaac] 291 Makenzie Newell 0 5

Farrah

September 02, 2016 6:44 PM

Of Course you are! by Farrah

Farrah caught up to Georgia easily since her friend stopped to wait for her. She hesitated for a moment due to Georgia’s reply and she had to wonder what it was that had caused Georgia to seem unhappy and in a run to get out of the hall. Farrah, as she had done with everyone that evening, took a look at Georgia for the first time and realized that her friend was not in a dress of any kind, but rather in regular clothes or party clothes. Farrah was confused for a moment as to why she was so casual and thought maybe she hadn’t been aware that this was an actual ball? Farrah had her dad to help her about these sorts of things but she didn’t think her mom had been a Sonora alumni to know what the events were?

Since Farrah had seen a few other people wearing rather casual outfits, including some adults, so Farrah thought that it really wasn’t all that weird and if Georgia felt comfortable enough in it, who cared? “I like your skirt!” Farrah complimented with a smile. Farrah never wore mini skirts because she felt like she had chicken legs and she was made fun of for being ‘too skinny’ by people, but she did think it looked cute on Georgia.

Farrah thought it over about what she and Georgia could do and since her friend didn’t seem to want to get out of the hall as much anymore, Farrah wanted to make her friend feel more comfortable. “Well, we could grab some food? Or a yearbook? Or we can find like Kellen or Killian and maybe head out to the dance floor and have some fun?” Farrah suggested. “Or I can come outside with you while you get some air?” Farrah added because she didn’t want Georgia to feel like she was trapped in here if she really did need to step out and get some air.

6 Farrah Of Course you are! 344 Farrah 0 5

Ingrid Wolsiethcrafte

September 03, 2016 1:54 AM

With senoritas who can sway? by Ingrid Wolsiethcrafte

Ingrid was excited for the ball, purely for the fact that she was going with Louis, and he seemed like he would be fun company. All the preparation was a bore. It had started at midterm, when she and Jemima had gone dress shopping with their mother, and she had been expected to have actual opinions about clothes. She had eventually decided that she would wear red because she quite liked it and because it definitely wasn’t going to be the house colour of whoever they faced in the final, because Crotalus were already out by that point (and besides, she was planning on wearing bright red, not Crotalus red). It was a shame that Pecari’s own house colour sucked so much, otherwise that would have been an easy decision. Once she’d settled on red though, there had been an endless parade of red dresses, which she’d been forced to try on. There was the one with the sparkles, the one with the beads, the one with the flowers… When asked what she thought of each, she had shrugged her shoulders, eventually going with Jemima’s favourite for her. The dress had sequins on the top, arranged in vaguely florally-swirly motifs, a high waist that there was probably a technical name for, and a long skirt in some kind of light, swishy fabric.

She met Louis in the entrance hall, slightly surprised to find him in Aladren colours. He had asked the colour of her dress and she had assumed it was so that he could match with her, although as this more of a friend-date than a date-date she didn’t really mind. She decided not to pass comment on him flying his house colours. She had decided that she was allowed exactly one dig at him over losing the championship (their pact had been for the loser not to sulk, not for the winner not to brag, but she didn’t want to actually ruin his evening or make him sick of her) and she wasn’t going to waste it on his outfit, especially as she couldn’t think of anything particularly good to say about it.

“Thank you,” she smiled at his compliment. Sure, it was pretty much in the rules that he had to say that, but it was still nice to hear. Ingrid wasn’t really into making a big effort with her appearance but had done so for the ball. She had kept make-up to a minimum, even though she knew how to do it all properly, just giving herself a light coat of foundation, some mascara, and some tinted lipgloss (the bright red lipstick that would have matched her dress just looked ridiculous on her, she thought). Her long brown hair was gathered in a large bun at the nape of her neck, a few strands arranged to cover the wealth of ties and pins and give the illusion that it was holding itself up, whilst a couple of loose strands framed her face. “You’re looking very handsome,” she added.

“Absolutely,” she smiled, taking his arm, as he suggested they entered the hall. She took her place to watch as the prefects and head students began their dance. She shifted slightly uncomfortably as Liliana appeared with Atlas. She had seen them kissing at the championship party, and wasn’t sure what to think. Liliana was supposed to be a respectable girl. One of them. It was one thing to be team-mates, or even friends, with the other classes, but to kiss them and to show up to a ball with one of them? That was wrong and Ingrid knew it, but she liked and respected Liliana so much...

“Interesting couples…” she muttered under her breath, not even really noticing that John Umland was dancing with an alien. To her, it was much more surprising that Liliana would date outside of society, and that her brother had managed to get one of the actual, only two human females in his year to be his date.

13 Ingrid Wolsiethcrafte With senoritas who can sway? 322 Ingrid Wolsiethcrafte 0 5

Savannah Brockert

September 03, 2016 8:48 AM

Me too, that would be painful. by Savannah Brockert

Unlike some of her cousins, Savannah was looking forward to the ball tonight and felt that she didn't really have anything to be nervous about the way poor Kira was with regards to her date. The Teppenpaw, however, was going with her closest friend and it was pretty likely that she and Aiden would be hanging out with Tobi and Scarlett (and probably Liac) so she assumed she was going to be in for a fun evening. After all, her sister and fellow fifth year Teppenpaws were very fun people.

She joined Aiden in the common room. Her cheeks grew warm as he complimented her. Savannah had never really considered herself beautiful before. Not ugly by any means but not beautiful. Besides, her looks had never been her focus-not that she didn't usually look presentable- given she'd always shared them completely with Scarlett and they sought to differentiate themselves in other ways. Having an identical twin meant that Savannah would never be the most beautiful girl around, because even if someone thought that about her, Scarlett would have to be considered equally beautiful. Besides, the Teppenpaw thought Serena was prettier than them anyway.

Not to mention prioritizing one's looks above all else was incredibly shallow and vanity was not a positive quality. After all, her cousin Carrie who was the most detestable person Savannah had ever met, was exceedingly vain.

That said-or rather thought-hearing Aiden say it, a boy saying it, made her feel really really good. "Thank you." Savannah replied, almost shyly. "You look pretty good yourself. Oh and thanks for the corsage too. Don't worry, I'm not allergic to anything." It was sweet of him to be concerned about that. Aiden really was an amazing friend and she felt lucky once more to have been put in Teppenpaw rather than Aladren. Savannah might have not had the friendships she had if she'd been sorted differently and seriously doubted John Umland would have been so thoughtful.

She took Aiden's offered arm as they made their way to the Hall. The Headmaster gave his usual bare minimum speech and then it was time to dance. "No worries. " Savannah replied as they entered the floor.

OOC-Savannah's gown can be seen here. http://www.ebprom.com/light-blue-ball-gown-prom-dress-tea-length-homecoming-dresses-with-sleeves_p449.html

11 Savannah Brockert Me too, that would be painful. 286 Savannah Brockert 0 5

Kellen Mormont

September 03, 2016 10:10 PM

Alien Invasion by Kellen Mormont

When he’d first heard about the ball, Kellen decided he needed to make a date with the library. He definitely wasn’t much of a dancer, and finding a date of the female variety was out of the question. That wasn’t to say that there wasn’t an ample amount of girls to invite, he just wasn’t bold enough to actually ask anyone. Plus there might be implications that the young Aladren just wasn’t ready for. Unfortunately, Kellen also wasn’t a rule breaker, and despite his wishes, the dance was a mandatory one. At least it had a theme he could get onboard with.

Since he had to go, he figured he should send his mother an owl requesting appropriate attire, and boy did she deliver. His ball outfit was definitely fancier than he usually dressed, but it wasn’t black tie or anything. Most likely it came from the thrift shop down the road from the apothecary, but Kellen didn’t care. In fact, he was actually kind of excited. He wasn’t sure how many people would get the reference, but that didn’t particularly matter to him either.

He dressed in a light blue button down shirt with black slacks and red suspenders. The robes his mom sent were stripey brown tweed and made his neck itch a little as he put them on. He tried his best to make his hair do something resembling the 11th incarnation of Doctor Who and topped it all off with a red bow tie. Kellen was pleased with how he looked as a Time Lord, but couldn’t help feeling a little anxious. What was he going to do once he got down to the ball? Sit alone and be awkward? Loiter around the snack table? The more he thought about it, the more his stomach started to turn into a big knot. Maybe he would be able to find Farrah, assuming she didn’t have a date. She was definitely pretty enough to have one in his opinion. Kellen took a deep breath and smoothed his robes. If he thought about it too much longer, he was going to lose what little courage he did have, and he was already running a little late.

“Geronimo.” He said quietly to himself as he left the sanctuary of his dorm for Cascade Hall. He couldn’t help but notice as he walked that a lot of his peers were opting for formal attire, and not so much themed costumes. At least he was wearing a bow tie, he thought to himself, trying to calm his ever building nerves. As he entered the hall, his grey blue eyes scanned the room; admiring the decorations and searching for someone he could at least stand with without feeling too weird.

A small smile appeared across his face as he spotted Farrah with another girl from their year. He couldn’t quite remember her name, and he hadn’t met her officially, so he hoped she wouldn’t mind the intrusion.

“Good evening, ladies.” He said, adopting his best English accent, which admittedly wasn’t great. He paused for a moment, considering whether or not he should say something about their outfits. That was the polite thing to do, and he actually felt a little relieved that they weren’t in full regalia. Girls were less scary when they weren’t completely made up.

“You both look lovely tonight. Are you enjoying the ball?”

5 Kellen Mormont Alien Invasion 341 Kellen Mormont 0 5

Juliet Grase

September 04, 2016 1:11 AM

The World Turned Upside Down by Juliet Grase

Juliet had to slow her stride down a bit to allow Sophie to “drag” her over to her chosen destination, what with Juliet being about a foot taller than her small companion and all. She hadn’t even hinted to her excitable potion’s master what she had in store, but Sophie’s immediate excitement was exactly what Juliet had expected.

Sitting down next to Sophie at the table she had selected, Juliet nodded through the explanation of the whereabouts of the hubby, not actually fully paying attention. It’s not that Juliet disliked Ryan, much to the contrary as far as she was concerned they were pretty good friends. It was just that right then, his presence wasn’t detrimental. Drinks did sound nice though.

” For now, what’s your good news?” Juliet grinned again as she pulled the sealed letter out of her jacket and waved it excitedly around in the air between them. “I got this in the mail this morning, Soph. I wanted the first time I read it to be outloud to you.” She opened the seal as she continued. “You know what this has to be right? It’s from the offices at home, it must be my return request!” Juliet pulled the folded letter out of the envelope, letting the extraneous paper fall onto the table in front of her. Taking a deep breath, she unfolded the letter in her hand, noting the official Dragon seal shimmering at the bottom of the paper. This was it then, it had to be.

“‘Dear Ms. Juliet Grase,’” she began reading to Sophie. “‘We are very pleased to hear of your full recovery from such an intense injury, and would like to congratulate you on the hard work you undoubtedly must have faced during your therapy.’” Juliet stopped to grin at Sophie. “None of which I could have done without you, right?” She continued; “‘However, it pains us to inform you that due to the time that has been physically required of you to be back to playing shape, coupled with the high possibility of re injury, we as the management staff of the Great Lakes Dragons have decided to not request your return or renew your contract.’”

There was more, but Juliet stopped there. The shallow apologies and explanations of why taking her back was a financial risk just didn’t matter. She would have played for free, as if that meant anything. “I… Soph?”

0 Juliet Grase The World Turned Upside Down 38 Juliet Grase 0 5

Chuck Fintoc

September 04, 2016 12:01 PM

Something like that. by Chuck Fintoc

The latest generation or two of the Fintoc family preferred to exercise their social status to a minimum, needing to remain recognized members of society because it was good for business and reputation but nothing more. When younger, Chuck’s involvement in balls had been more or less restricted to smaller local ones rather than the grand society types which the Fintoc adults would sometimes attend without their children. He’d probably been to more of the latter than most of his cousins, however, since his father worked as the main coordinator between their company and those they were in partnership with or did business with.

Therefore, the midsummer ball was not the first ball Chuck had attended nor would it be the last. Nevertheless, it was probably the only one he would ever attend where non-society people were present (besides his controversial step-sister) and thus was likely the most relaxed. And it was hard to imagine ever going to a ball with someone better than Gia Donovan, especially since Chuck doubted anyone better even existed.

The large redhead was not entirely sure how or when it had happened but over the past term, what he had at first perceived to be, a natural attraction had escalated into something far greater and stronger. Chuck wasn’t the kind to worry himself over this though. He got along so well with Gia and she was such a fantastic person that really it made perfect sense when he thought about it.

Chuck’s aunts had got him measured up for a new suit over the midterm break and had warned him to stay off the pies from then on until the ball so that it fit. Needless to say, the Pecari had done quite the opposite but fortunately the western tuxedo had been tailored to accommodate for this.

One look in his wardrobe at the number of shirts, jeans and vests could tell anyone that Chuck didn’t care much for fashion and thus there was very little variation in what he wore. In spite of this ignorance for fashion, the cowboy was rather pleased with his brand new jacket. It was a black western blazer with blue floral embroidery over the shoulders. Beneath this he wore a smart paler blue dress vest so that he would still look the part if he took the blazer off, which was more than likely to happen fairly early on. As pleased as he was with the jacket, Chuck tended to get hot quite quickly so usually wore vests instead of jackets with sleeves. Chuck’s shirt was a clean white with a bolo tie around the collar. He wore dark trousers, specially polished black boots and a big silver belt buckle currently sat hidden at his waist.

It didn’t matter what he was wearing though because his wonderful date would easily surpass him in the looks department, and quite rightly so. His expectations were not to be disappointed (although truth be told Gia could probably have showed up in a potato sack and he’d still think her stunning) as his fellow Pecari appeared before him.

He hugged her and then held her at arm's length so he could get a good look at her. He knew that dressing up for the ball was a big thing for many girls so it was probably nice for Gia to know she was very much admired for the way she looked. If he was honest Chuck thought Gia looked beautiful everyday but tonight everyone, including himself, were putting extra effort into their appearances and Gia was no exception to that.

There was no doubt about it; Gia Donovan was the ‘belle of the ball’.

Gia got there first with the compliments and Chuck had to wonder if this girl actually had the power to render him momentarily speechless simply due to her looks.

“You look… truly... beautiful,” Chuck told his ball date, never one to lack confidence and feeling that she deserved to be told how beautiful she was.

“You bet,” he told her, grinning enthusiastically. Chuck really couldn’t wait for the night to properly kick off, very happy about getting to spend the majority of it with Gia and feeling sure that it would be so much fun.

He then revealed a blue and white corsage and held it out to her with a smile. His aunts had been very keen that he give it to Gia, but he hadn’t been sure if it was expected. Now that he saw Jax giving Laila a flower, however, he was very glad that his aunts had his back.

Chuck couldn’t help frowning slightly in confusion at the mentions of third year Wu Peizhi. He couldn’t understand what the problem was with Abby coming with her roommate. It was rather nice, he thought, to see the two girls together since he knew that in the past Abby had been a little disappointed at the lack of friendship between them.

But then Jax indicated for him to make his way to the dance floor with Gia and all concerns about this left his mind. He was mildly irritated that Jax felt the need to direct him. He had asked Gia to the ball and therefore obviously had plans to dance with her. He did not need her monosyllabic brother showing him the ropes and giving him cues. Chuck knew he was being harsh as Jax probably wasn’t trying to patronize him so he continued to wear his merry smile and move on.

“Of course,” he beamed at Gia. The last thing he was going to do was be grumpy or petty tonight. Such attitudes never did one many favours anyway and especially not on a perfect night like this. He took her by the hand and led her onto the dancefloor.

8 Chuck Fintoc Something like that. 309 Chuck Fintoc 0 5

Diana Carey

September 05, 2016 10:01 AM

I don't care. Really, I don't. by Diana Carey

Diana Carey was, she was completely sure, the very image of a disinterested pureblood girl as she watched the prefects’ dance. Sure, her eyes did abruptly widen and her hand abruptly rise to her mouth as she tried not to laugh when she saw John Umland, apparently unable to find literally one girl in all of Sonora desperate enough to touch him with a ten-foot pole, dancing with the scenery, but she thought everyone else who noticed Umland was reacting the same. Other than that one moment, though, she watched with an expression of no more than polite interest, as though she were watching something dull while wearing something comfortable instead of watching something infuriating in a royal purple ballgown, heels that she thought would be perfect for stabbing someone in the eye with, and her already naturally curly hair in an updo of ringlets she was afraid would fall if one of the mobile parts of the scenery brushed past it.

She liked Ginger. She liked Jake enough that she had never seriously considered marrying him of her own accord even before she’d realized that it most likely wouldn't have ever been an option anyway. She did not like Ginger and Jake together. For one thing, it was just…weird, even Jay and Francesca hadn’t gotten involved until Francesca was an adult, too, and neither of them was a soft little person like Ginger who would be easy to hurt and had no business even knowing about all the nasty things big people did together, and for another, their relationship was the whole reason Diana was sitting on the sidelines. Sitting on the sidelines was better than broadcasting what a pathetic loser in the game of love she was like Umland was doing, but it wasn’t ideal, either. For the love of Merlin, Dill was doing better than she was.

Diana had always known she didn’t want to end up like her older sister. She had no interest in romance. She refused to lose her mind over a boy or a girl or a spaceman dummy or to allow any of them to drag her through the mud just so her body could enjoy a few minutes behind a curtain. She also knew that while it would have been flattering for some of them to be crazy over her, it wouldn’t have been worth the trouble if anyone had assumed she was reciprocating. But still….

It wasn’t, she thought irritably, fair at all. If a girl attracted suitors, she was fast. If she didn’t, she was a failure. If a girl made it plain she didn’t care about who she married as long as she got something out of it, she was cold and unnatural; if she fell in love, she was stupid. What did the world want from her?

She started to toss her head and then remembered her hair...and that self-pity was a pointless emotion. She was being ridiculous. She knew what was expected of her: marry as she was told and convince the poor fool she was in love with him so he’d tell her secrets and she could tell them to the family. Everyone at home thought highly of her, so they would not marry her off just for – for a discount on bulk imports of gillyweed or anything like that, like she had heard might be done for Theresa. She mattered. Jake and Ginger, bless their sweet hearts, didn’t, not really, and that was for the best – they were both too darling to matter. Let them have their few minutes. Next year, they would both be miserable and she would still be in control of herself. That sounded better to her than being in either of their positions.

Someone joined her and Diana smiled brightly at them. “Good evening,” she said. “It’s hard not to say ‘middle of the night’ with these decorations, isn’t it? They’re very realistic.”

0 Diana Carey I don't care. Really, I don't. 294 Diana Carey 0 5

Lena Westley

September 05, 2016 9:09 PM

I sure hope I was, though by Lena Westley

One of the greatest things about breaking out of her shell was that with it came an increase in self-confidence. Lena hadn’t been particularly insecure, but she had depended on Olivier on more than one occasion due to timidity. She couldn’t think fondly of the long lasting quarrel (if it was that) with her brother but there were undeniably good things that had come of it. The most relevant one at the moment was her new found ability to embrace her creative side and confidence to flaunt the fruit of her labor in the form of wearing one mildly daring dress. The dress, influenced by both Greek Goddesses and Leia’s slave bikini, started from a gold necklace, black spreading out to her sides, and tawny-gold patterned silk draping itself around breast and hips. Nude satin covered her chest, gold bands grasped her upper arm and just below her elbow, and more of the tawny-gold fabric flowed down in front of her in intervals. The back was low cut and had a giant bustle of lighter patterned fabric, and could be seen from either side even when on looking at the dress from straight on. Overall it was a dress she hoped to “wow” with.

Though she and Clark were both Aladrens and could conceivably have met in the common room they hadn’t made plans to do so. Having had just enough time after changing and doing her hair up in a style reminiscent of Leia’s in the scene that had helped inspire her dress, she made a quick detour to the gardens, hoping (despite the heavy improbability) that she’d catch Olivier leaving. Only spending a couple minutes before ultimately realizing she had no real business with him, and in fact didn’t even know if he intended to go to the ball at all, she traversed the halls back to Cascade Hall, where she eventually spotted Clark. Evidently looking for her too, they both caught each other’s gazes fairly quickly and made their ways toward one another. She smiled as he quickly commented on her overall appearance, and accepted his arm as they proceeded into the Hall itself.

Their practice had paid off, as Clark led Lena onto the dance floor as the Prefect Dance started. They were fluid in their motions, and Lena smiled with the ease in which they danced and comfortableness dancing with Clark provided. They continued to dance and for a moment she had started to look at Clark with something akin to wonder, a spark of confusion at the possibility that maybe she could see herself with Clark. IT was interrupted as something caught Clark’s eye. And it certainly was eye catching.

Lena, fortunately always doe-eyed, could not open her eyes any wider at the sight of John dancing with one of the many mannequins that had lined the edges of Cascade Hall even though the sight would have prompted it. Though her jaw remained closed she was shocked enough to stare blatantly at John. Recovering only in the sense that she was able to tear her eyes from the sight back to Clark to answer his question, she began with a tentative “Well, I don’t think it can harm him physically.” She didn’t continue that socially it might be a little harder to recover from. She still wasn’t very interested in concerning herself with everyone’s opinion about her, but was no longer naïve about the fact that others tended to put a lot of weight on what seemed to be arbitrary but significant social norms.

OOC: I photoshopped a picture of what I envisioned Lena’s dress to look like which you can find here

7 Lena Westley I sure hope I was, though 279 Lena Westley 0 5

Juniper Brockert

September 06, 2016 11:47 AM

It's the only way by Juniper Brockert

Juniper was super incredibly anxious about the ball tonight. It wasn't Finn, he was...probably her friend. She wanted to consider him as such but always second guessed herself on such matters. People were so complicated compared to animals. That he had asked her to the ball-as his date rather even than just hanging out with her there-when there were so many other girls in their class and they were only first years anyway was something she took as a good sign though.

That did not mean that she was even remotely comfortable being in social situations where there were lots of people and Juniper knew full well that balls were that exactly. It didn't matter that this was not a society ball, as far as she was concerned, it was all the same.

Plus, she was worried about her dress. When Georgia told her that her dress looked nice, her voice sounded a little...strained. Like maybe it wasn't a very good dress, maybe the color wasn't pretty enough. She'd picked one that was an off the shoulder off white champagne type color, because she didn't like to wear bright colors that would stand out and attract too much attention. Or maybe the dress was fine but she just didn't look good in it. Probably that.

And this was Georgia , who going primarily by house placement was likely the nicest girl in their class. If she didn't think Juniper looked good, the Ariannas were sure to be laughing at her.

So by the time she met Finn in the common room, Juniper felt sick to her stomach. However, the fact that he complimented how she looked in her gown made her feel slightly better. Slightly.

However, once they reached the Hall, her nerves started to get the best of her again. All she wanted to do was run out of the room or clutch onto Finn for dear life. Juniper knew full well that she couldn't do either though for if she did the former she'd embarass herself, her date and her family, plus Finn might take it personally as she would certainly do if he did that. However, if she did the latter, he might push her away.

"Would you like to dance?” he asked, deciding that it was the done thing to offer. Hopefully he could manage to manueuvre his way around the dance floor without any collisions. “Or we could go get something to eat and drink?”

"Um, let's get something to eat." Juniper replied. Doing so would attract less attention so long as she didn't spill on herself or others.

11 Juniper Brockert It's the only way 345 Juniper Brockert 0 5

Caelia Lucan

September 06, 2016 5:43 PM

Does that make you Professor Higgins? by Caelia Lucan

Caelia Lucan thought that Charlotte Spencer was probably made for her older brother. Emrys Lucan and Charlotte Spencer just sounded good together. Emrys had even forgone the college experience that their parents had planned for him to move to England and, according to him, follow his book binding dreams, but Caelia just knew that part of his move had been based out of love. Because if Emrys didn’t love Charlotte then Caelia wasn’t really sure if love could possibly exist. Certainly she hadn’t seen a single other couple in the entirety of Sonora that matched the loveliness of her brother and his girlfriend.

She was pleased, however, that Jack had asked her to the ball. He was a rather good-looking wizard, very smart and well-mannered, but his sister and her brother were likely to be engaged and then married and so it wouldn’t do to fall for his charms since it would only lead to heartbreak. Besides, against her better judgement, Caelia had another charming young man on her mind.

Nevertheless, she allowed herself to feel complimented by Jack and responded with a small curtsy as he approached her. “Thank you,” she said, her pale cheeks slightly pink. “You do too.” She thought the navy blue of his dress robes looked quite lovely with the light pink of hers and she was pleased that they had not gone the matching route. Caelia loved art and one of the things she liked best was looking at and creating pretty things, and she had learned over the years that a little asymmetry in whatever form was always appealing to the eye.

“I think it’s been a few years myself,” she replied as she accepted his arm into the ball. She had gone to a couple formal events in the past couple of years but she thought that the last ball she had actually attended might have been a Christmas one when she was just twelve. “I suppose that when Emrys gets around to it we’ll have an engagement ball to attend in the future though, so we do have that to look forward to.”

The conversation on balls, however, came to a halt as they entered the room and Caelia was able to take in the decor. Jack’s awe was mirrored by Caelia’s as she tried to come up with enough words to respond to him. However for what was probably the first time in her life she found she had no words to describe the splendour of an event. There was something there in her head, pushing to get out. It was a feeling that she wasn’t sure she’d ever had before but it was almost a sort of longing. And it occurred to her very muddled brain that perhaps there was something missing from her life.

She let Jack’s arm fall from hers so that she could spin and look at it all, her dress flaring out slightly as she did so, her sparkly earrings catching the light of the room. There was something more than just beauty here, something that kind of was calling to Caelia to push past the block and dredge something up from deep inside her and the longer she stayed in the room the more she was sure that she was living a lie. “It’s incredible,” she breathed. “I’ve never seen anything like it. I want to…” she trailed off, perplexed almost at the words that had been about to roll off her tongue, but something was pushing her to say them anyway.

“I want to know everything about the universe now.”

10 Caelia Lucan Does that make you Professor Higgins? 307 Caelia Lucan 0 5

Sammy Meeks

September 07, 2016 2:27 AM

<strike>Mambo</strike> Wheel #5 [OPEN POST] by Sammy Meeks

There was very little in this world that Sammy wanted to do less than go to this stupid ball. It was just so much stress and work for such little reward. She supposed she ought to muster up some more enthusiasm about it since her friends all seemed pretty excited about their dates with each other, but as the fifth wheel, she couldn’t help but feel a bit grumpy. The little voice she liked to keep quiet told her that the clothes would be cool, so there was that, but otherwise, she knew she was in for a boring night. She didn’t like dancing. She didn’t like “society” based bullcrap the Purebloods all seemed to live for. And she especially didn’t like being the odd friend out.

At least, she noted with mild confidence, her outfit looked decent enough on her; the two-piece attire was a bit revealing, and Sammy wondered if it would violate enough dress regulations to get her in trouble. She was more than fine with that possibility, since the only logical punishment would be to ban her from the ball. And even if it didn’t and she had to suffer the whole evening, uncomfortable or not, she knew that with her baby fat just about all melted off by now, she probably looked like something.

But whatever. It was a touch of a silver lining, even if she had never really cared much about her own appearance. She put in effort when it was necessary to try to impress or something, but she’d figured out a long time ago that she was never going to be one of the pretty girls. The Pecari was a Tomboy™, a weirdo who was too athletic and too obnoxious for girls’ standards. She was too butch for boys and too female for girls.

Maybe she was too young and, usually, too upbeat to be this cynical, but her life felt like such a mess lately, and it was pushing her to the cusp of the “Oh god I’m gonna die alone” spiral. There was the whole Barnaby bullcrap, and then Joella going with Lionel, and all her other friends pairing up…. Sammy was usually pretty good at talking herself out of dark feelings (or otherwise just pushing them back down inside her to boil in her stomach acid like the little jerks they were), but everything lately just felt so hard. It was stupid, and she knew it, but for the first time since coming to Sonora, she kinda just wanted to go home.

She sighed and threw on a brave face for her friends, pretty uneventfully getting through prep time with Gia and Laila. Girl Things™ like this always kinda made her stomach feel queasy, just because it didn’t align with her perception of self, but she did her best to bite her tongue on the matter, even letting her friends do whatever makeup-y things to her face they wanted. She was pretty apathetic, save for any mascara brushes or eyeliner pencils hoping to blind her. She was not cool with those little meanies.

Then eventually it was time for the other two girls to meet up with their dates outside the Hall. “I guess I’ll just go find us a table. Meet you guys inside,” said Sammy as she separated herself and went on in; she didn’t really want to watch them get corsages and drool over each other. And inside, too, everyone she could see looked perfectly coupley and gooey and happy and gross. She didn’t know if Lionel and Joella were here yet, but she was afraid to see not only how Joella would look, but also how happy she would be with her date.

Man, Sammy had really been going to ask her.

She met up again with the others after not too long. The Headmaster talked, the Prefects danced (Sammy didn’t watch), and then they were free to do whatever. She thought she caught some talk about Wu, but she wasn’t really listening to what her friends were saying about her. Sammy didn’t know what happened with the little Teppenpaw, but even now, she was sure it would all work out eventually. Probably.

And then the pairs re-paired to go have a dance. “I think I’ll go grab our yearbooks,” she suggested to the back of their heads as they walked away. Sammy shrugged; she didn’t know if they heard her, but she figured they probably didn’t care anyway.

She pushed her chair out and walked over to the stack of books. When she arrived, there was a decent-looking line, so she said to the student ahead of her, “Hey, do me a solid and pass me back, like, five of those.”

12 Sammy Meeks <strike>Mambo</strike> Wheel #5 [OPEN POST] 310 Sammy Meeks 0 5

Madeleine Dautin

September 07, 2016 4:10 PM

You jump, I laugh. by Madeleine Dautin

Madeleine had only been looking forward to the ball for two reasons: one, she was to go with Sébastien Évreux and not some ridiculous American; and two, she had long ago learnt that the most exciting things happened when matters of the heart were concerned and so she was sure it would be a night full of lovely tidbits of information to store away. After all, the Rosenthal’s only granddaughter was attending with a Muggleborn and Louis Valois had made a political movement by asking a Wolseithcrafte.

That night as Madeleine got herself ready for the ball, she realised something. Never before had she attended a ball without her governess laying out her dress on her bed for her, without Myrtille and mother nearby giving the hairdresser instructions on how to do up the young witch’s hair. Not only was it her first event as a school-aged witch, it would also be the first time she could wear whatever it was she wanted, and there would be no one to snatch the fun ribbons from her head or the decorative ornaments from her braids.

But Maman appeared to have anticipated this train of thought as she had sent Madeleine a very nice gown of the Valois line, a lovely cream coloured piece with gold and light blue accents in curling fleur de lis patterns around the full skirt and bodice. It was a modern take on pre-Renaissance France, as was most of wizarding French couture and Madeleine was proud to show her countries’ superior designs even if Bastien’s sworn enemy’s father had created it.

She was further pleased that Bastien had arrived outside the library as she’d asked him to before she did because she was still slightly miffed he had waited so long to ask her to the ball and allowed her to think all kinds of ridiculous things. “Monsieur,” she replied with equal mock formality, curtsying low and bowing her head in the demure manner that Myrtille had used to ensnare the attention of many a noblesse gentlewizard. “Si je serai la reine, tu es certainement le roi.”

Upon entrance to Cascade Hall, Madeleine was momentarily stunned by the wonderfully put together decor. It was nothing like a proper ball in France and so she ought to have sniffed at the aliens walking about and the swirling celing above but she found herself rather entranced and part of her wondered if perhaps France did not do everything better. Was it possible that a desert school in the middle of nowhere, America could pull of a ball of this extravagance when Muggleborns and non-society members were in attendance?

Madeleine didn’t know but she was not about to admit it. Especially not as she noted several under-dressed classmates (impressed as she was by their boldness to stick it to the man, she still found their ensembles of choice to be rather tacky). But all that attention was torn away as prefect John Umland chose one of the aliens to dance with. Most suspicious indeed, Flora Deschamps noted as the prefects and their dates danced around the floor. And Madeleine remembered to keep an eye on the fifth year who seemed to have no regard for any standard of propriety. Someone like that, she reasoned, was well on their way to becoming a criminal.

Flora was already congratulating herself on having found another suspect to tail when the song ended and Liliana Bannister began to kiss her Muggleborn date on the dance floor in front of the whole school. Granted it was not a very passionate kiss and Madeleine was rather happy to say she’d witnessed much more passionate ones between her mother and Oncle Theirry, but it was still the height of impropriety and it filled her with glee to know that while Myrtille was to marry Théodore Vètil, Liliana was stuck with a third rate Muggleborn boyfriend.

“Tu vois?” she asked Bastien disdainfully. “Le monde est devenu fou.”

Glossary:
Si je serai la reine, tu es certainement le roi. = If I am to be the queen, then you are certainly the king
Tu le vois? Le monde est devenu fou. = Are you seeing what I’m seeing? The world has gone mad.

10 Madeleine Dautin You jump, I laugh. 340 Madeleine Dautin 0 5

Isaac Douglas

September 07, 2016 5:29 PM

And good company to spend it with. by Isaac Douglas

Isaac knew there some couples who would wear color-coordinated robes so that they looked like a matched set on a page in one of the fashion magazines which had been all over everywhere when his sisters had still lived at home. Isaac had not thought this was necessary for his and Makenzie’s evening. His family was rather modern in some ways, including a certain tendency to wince when wizards went out in brilliant colors with too much embroidery. A dignified black and white, heavy on the former, would do for him.

It would, he had to admit glumly as he got ready, have done better had Isaac not been quite so pale, but there was no helping that. He and Rachel had both been saddled with their Gramma Claire’s coloring, and his oldest sister had often despaired of pairing it with most things long before Isaac had been old enough to think about such things at all. His hair was at least a little darker blonde than hers, so he assured himself he was just nervy about the not-quite-a-date aspect of affairs as he finished up brushing off imaginary lint (another disadvantage, he thought now that it was far too late to do anything about it, of this color scheme: it showed a lot of things far too well. He made a note to avoid any foods that might possibly leave opaque stains) and went downstairs.

Makenzie was not, he thought when he found her, overly fortunate in the area of coloring, either. Red hair was lovely, but he imagined it could be even harder to pair things with. Maybe? He didn’t think he would have thought her hair would have paired well with that dress if he had just seen the dress alone, but he thought it worked a lot better actually on her than he thought he would have thought it would had he seen it under other circumstances. He smiled with a small bow as they approached each other.

“You look beautiful,” he said. This was a standard thing to say, he knew, but in this case it was true. He offered her his arm. “Shall we?”

Downstairs, he was, in spite of himself, impressed with the decorations, not to mention a little bit relieved. He didn’t want to get sentimental about the fact this was one of the very last times he’d ever set foot in the room he’d eaten the vast majority of his meals in for the past seven years, and it looked different enough from how it usually did tonight that he might have been visiting any particularly lavish home for a particularly lavish ball. Nothing really registered as school-ish about the affair except for the teachers, and they were easy enough to ignore. “This is…impressive,” he said, but then spotted the…things…moving around. “Except whatever those are supposed to be.”

Other than attractive to certain types, apparently, he thought, a bit snidely, as they all started onto the floor for the opening dance, Makenzie leading him but smiling in a way that made it hard not to smile back, and he saw that Umland appeared to have picked one of the aliens up. He pitied Makenzie for being in Umland's year, as he was making all the prefects look just a bit less like people the other students should actually pay attention to with this stunt. Isaac was out of it, but hoped for the sake of old times that only the other Aladren prefects suffered for their representative’s oddities next year.

He was a little worried, from the way some of the dummies were moving around the room, that Umland’s partner would walk off mid-dance and crash into the rest of them, but the dance went smoothly despite the elephant on the dance floor and the distracting speculations that, in recent years, inevitably occurred when in close physical proximity to attractive girls. He caught only a brief glimpse of Lena Westley’s dress, not long enough to determine conclusively if it had fabric in the front or not but sufficient to provoke the thought of Makenzie in a version without fabric, which he tried very hard not to think about for very long. He smiled as the dance concluded.

“I had an excellent partner,” he said when she complimented his dancing. “And will follow her lead now,” he added, a bit teasingly, “though I’d prefer dancing or drinks right now – I expect there’s going to be a line for the yearbooks right now.” Truthfully, finding out what all his classmates thought of him and what his hair had been doing on picture day was never one of his favorite parts of the end of the year events, but Makenzie seemed extremely happy tonight and far be it from him to dim things by complaining, even if it was suggested that he might have deviant leanings and he looked dazed and confused in the photo.

16 Isaac Douglas And good company to spend it with. 273 Isaac Douglas 0 5

Lionel Layne

September 07, 2016 7:37 PM

Playing the gentleman (tag Joella). by Lionel Layne

Lionel did not consider his family poor by any stretch of the imagination. His grandparents both worked in civil service, and while their positions were hardly the most lucrative imaginable, they had put, so far, most of five children (Aunt Emily had jumped the fence before she could finish, and Lionel still had a year left) through school, and they owned their house. It wasn’t the nicest house, nor was it in the nicest neighborhood, but it was a long way from being the worst house in the worst sort of neighborhood, too. They had enough, and generally, Lionel was happy with that.

Generally, however, he was not meeting up with Joella while she was dressed like that. Lionel thought he might be thinking about economics and the relative plainness and cheapness of his dress robes, worrying that Joella might actually refuse to do the prefect dance with him on the basis of them, to distract himself from the facts that her dress was very flattering and that he was convinced it was very nearly see-through. Those were not good facts for him to think about. He really did not need to think about them, now or ever, but particularly not now and particularly not during the bit of later where they were dancing….

“Ah – ah, you look lovely,” he managed, hoping he didn’t sound…any of the great number of things that could cause girls to deem guys in need of a good slapping, actually. He did not want slapping. He was glad Isaac wasn’t here. They were just cousinly enough that Isaac would have said something to him, at least later, something that would have made Lionel want to hit him. Lionel proffered a modest white corsage. “It’s, um, only really paper,” he admitted with an awkward smile, “but I think I Transfigured it pretty well,” he said, glad he had not inherited his uncle and grandmother’s abysmal Transfiguration skills. Uncle Geoff’s brilliance in Potions could have been nice to have, but Lionel thought he would rather be merely okay to good at everything in school than great at one thing and near rubbish at another.

Downstairs, he was momentarily distracted from Joella by the appearance of the Cascade Hall. “Cool!” he exclaimed aloud. He wasn’t particularly an astronomy nerd, didn’t know much formally about the topic except which potion ingredients had to be harvested at particular phases of the moon, but the display was amazing nevertheless. Including the aliens. At first glance, at least, it was almost like there really were different living creatures in the room. He was distracted enough that he momentarily forgot the part of the evening he was most nervous about: the prefects’ dance. He prayed he wouldn’t step on anything other than floor, and that if he did, there was nothing on the bottoms of his shoes that could transfer to Joella’s dress, where it would stick out like a sore thumb. The shoes had no business having anything on them, they were new, had never been anywhere but from the dorm down to here, but getting from Pecari to the Cascade Hall did involve a brief walk outside….

“Fair warning, I only have about half an idea what I’m doing,” he said just before the music started. His grandmother had taught him the basics over the holidays just for this occasion, but Lionel didn’t think he’d ever be as comfortable with this kind of formal dancing as Isaac was.

He got through it, though, without inflicting any major damage to his date, her property, or the room in general. This was, in his opinion, no insignificant achievement for someone on his first Ball. He grinned at Joella and made what he hoped was something resembling a courtly bow as the first dance finished.

“Success!” he declared. “I might have to go to another of these ball things sometime.” As if. Alicia would probably react about as well to him showing up at some fancy party of hers as she would to a slug on the floor, and Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Emily were hardly going out of their way to seek out his company, either. Rachel might let him in somewhere if he made her laugh, though, if he ever felt like putting himself through formal dress again. “What do you say, my lady? Shall we dance more, or seek out some dinner and an extraterrestrial show?”

16 Lionel Layne Playing the gentleman (tag Joella). 283 Lionel Layne 0 5

Nathan

September 08, 2016 11:53 AM

Seems that way by Nathan

Nathan turned his attention away from the girls as he was joined by Isis, looking about as dressy as he had himself before his mom started grooming him to her own specifications. Now feeling almost dapper, he grinned a bit self consciously as she remarked on it (or that was how he interpreted her choice of 'stranger' as her form of address for him).

Of their own accord though, his eyes drifted back to the first years to check they were still fine and, perceptive educator that she was, Isis picked up on his distraction. "So far so good," he replied. "It looked like we might have had a flight in progress but friend...s," he awkwardly switched around his sentence and pluralized the word in progress as another child joined the first two, "look like they have the situation under control." He gave her another, warmer, smile and added, "But we will continue to monitor the trio in case anything changes."

"How is your evening going? Did you bring anyone? When she gets back with her drink, I'd like you to meet my mother. She's looking forward to meeting my colleagues tonight." If possible, he though he might try to swing well clear of Edda Eir, though. He wasn't sure which thought was more terrifying ... the two women being rude to one another, or them actually getting along. He thought Mom and Isis would be reasonably safe to interact, though.

1 Nathan Seems that way 28 Nathan 0 5

Isis

September 09, 2016 2:21 AM

Thank goodness. by Isis

Fortunately, as Nathan explained, the situation with the two girls, and now a third friend, seemed to be under control. With this many kids with this many personalities, it was inevitable that someone would have an issue, be upset, or just generally not enjoy an event like this, which meant there would probably be situations that staff members would have to attempt resolving. And as two of the four Head of Houses, the hypothetical problem was likely to be directed their way. “Sounds good to me,” she said back; somewhat monitoring seemed like the best approach.

“Aw, your mom’s here?” She glanced across the room to try to find the woman around the drink area. The crowd made it difficult, obviously, but she thought she saw a flash of grey hair as bodies leaned and shuffled. Nathan bringing her was good for two reasons: one, that just about the sweetest thing she’d ever heard, and two, she noted subconsciously, it proved definitively that there wasn’t another woman in his life. It did, for a moment, stall her brain out on the thought of what it might be like to have some sort of relationship with one’s mother, when she hadn’t spoken to hers in over a decade now, and even during her youth, there had been a strain. Isis quickly did manage to push the thought from her mind, though, and be happy for Nathan. “I’d love to meet her too.”

“I’m by myself,” she answered the earlier question, shoving her hands into her pants pockets. Truthfully, there wasn’t anyone she could have brought with her, although she wasn’t about to volunteer that information. The only person in her life of any affection who wasn’t already at Sonora was certainly unable to attend; even if her brother ever get out of prison, somehow, she doubted the school would ever let her bring him along to functions. “But,” she added positively, “that’s alright. I’ve got enough friends around here that-”

She had been scanning the room as she spoke, but one sight cut her off completely: Nevaeh. In that instant, it was a different world. “Oh my God,” she breathed aloud, one hand covering her mouth. “She looks so grown up.” Isis might have been close to tears if not for the fact that, as she suddenly remembered, she was in a very crowded place, where her connection to Nevaeh was, purposefully, mostly unknown. Turning quickly back to Nathan, she did her best to cover, although she was not nearly as convincingly vague as she often was. “I know Nevaeh’s parents, so it’s… it’s nice to see her like this.”

“Anyway,” she somewhat rushed to change the subject, “I hope your mom’s not lost among a bunch of teengers. Has she been gone long? I imagine she must be back soon, right? Maybe we should go find her.”

12 Isis Thank goodness. 31 Isis 0 5

Jocelyn Spencer (and Cassandra King)

September 09, 2016 2:54 AM

Muse, Part-Veela, they're interchangeable I suppose by Jocelyn Spencer (and Cassandra King)

Despite Cassandra being in a completely separate house and Jocelyn having the perfectly reasonable excuse of the two not being able to get ready in either of the girl’s rooms, Cass managed to convince Jocelyn to get ready with her in one of the bathrooms. Cass prided herself on her ingenuity; Jocelyn barely managed to refrain from grimacing. As much as she liked her cousin (though Merlin knew why) spending all this time with her was, simply put, exhausting.

“So has there been any progress?” Cass, truly the chattiest and most intrusive person Jocelyn knew, rambled. “You know, with being asked to the dance?” Jocelyn stopped stepping into her dress for a moment to send a glare Cassandra’s way. She wasn’t sure if she was more irritated by the fact that no one had and that Cassandra was asking, rubbing it in unintentionally, or that she was here listening to Cass ramble on without making the slightest move to get ready herself.

“No.”

“Ah. Well there’s always next year. And it really doesn’t matter as a first year, I mean, we’ve barely met anybody. Well, we have, but not intimately.” At this Cass sighed and Jocelyn wished she’d been left in blissful ignorance as to why. In addition to Cassandra nosing into Jocelyn’s business, it seemed Jocelyn couldn’t be spared the reverse and heard all of Cass’ woes as well.

“Honestly, if you want to make friends maybe you should stop dragging me away from things just to play with you and brave the social waters yourself. Really, what’s so hard about that? You’ve never had a problem making friends before.” Jocelyn was now frowning at her reflection in the mirror, weighing the merits of putting her hair up against leaving it down and maybe adding some waves. Cass’ hemming and hawing gave her her answer- the one that took less concentration.

“I have some friends. . .”

“Don’t pout, it’s not attractive.”

It was Cassandra’s turn to glare and she quipped “It doesn’t matter, none of the girls notice me anyway!”
Jocelyn almost chuckled at that. “Well it can’t be helped that most of our classmates aren’t interested in romance at our age and even fewer are going to be-” Jocelyn paused, finding the right words, “similarly inclined.” Wand out, Jocelyn had finished the front sides of her face. “Cass, be a dear and do the back for me?” Maybe if Cassandra was made to do her hair the task at hand would put a halt to the current dialogue.

Cassandra dutifully picked up her wand in her right hand as she began to part off sections of Jocelyn’s hair with her left. She sighed before continuing on about how there were such “angels” in their class and how approaching them was harder than usual. Jocelyn could not control the eye roll and grunt, but made no further comment on the subject.

When Cassandra had finished Jocelyn admired her cousin’s work, thanked her, then looking to the other girl said “You really need to start getting ready, though.”

~~~~~

To Jocelyn’s chagrin Cassandra insisted that she escort her in place of a suitor. Testier than usual due to nerves, Jocelyn was less than receptive. Somehow the younger girl had gotten her way, though, despite Jocelyn’s rising temper. The Pecari didn’t seem to notice and continued chirping away to the unreceptive Crotalus until they reached the hall.

After entering Jocelyn’s face went from anger to awe. Suddenly the world was gone and it was replaced with space- galaxies, light and a fantastically loud roar of constellations and other stars danced across the ceiling (or where the ceiling should have been). She barely registered the Headmaster’s speech as she was lost in the décor still. As expected of a pureblooded witch, the awe was not detectable on her face, but she could have sworn that out of the corner of her eye at some point she saw Cassandra smirk at her. That simply wasn’t on.

“Cassandra,” she warned “not a word.” For once there was no real anger behind her chastising. She shifted her chin ever so slightly towards her cousin and let the faintest of smiles creep on her carefully collected face for just a moment. It was long enough.

When they were allowed to dance themselves it became obvious that nothing would please Cass more than to join the couples. Jocelyn, unsure if one improper dance would ruin her chances of making good connections, decided she would entertain her cousin’s frivolities this once. Taking Cassandra’s arm she began to make her way to the center of the floor until Cassandra caught on and exchanged places with her, now leading Jocelyn further onto the floor

~~~~~

At some point, twirling had gotten to be too much. Cassandra obviously did not share the sentiment though, as she continued to spin, beckoning for Jocelyn to rejoin hands with her and do a barrel roll. Jocelyn declined but smiled, hopefully conveying the message that Cassandra should stay and dance to her heart’s content. Even if she was having difficulty striking up conversation with other girls right now, she wasn’t shy. She would be fine dancing by herself for a while. Jocelyn on the other hand was parched and needed a beverage immediately. Spotting the punch bowl, she made her way over to it. What awaited her there surprised her though.

A blush crept over her cheeks as the boy confessed to having captured her likeness. Maybe he had reacted to her Veela charm. After all, she had been dancing. As much as her grandmother would love that to be the case, she doubted it. Cassandra had always been the more gifted when it came to the inheritance from their maternal lines. To be honest, after all the distress over not having had a date, it would be nice if this boy had been captured for a different reason. That, and he was kind of, somewhat . . . exceedingly cute.

Her only response to his question was a small nod of her head and a faint blush creeping over her cheeks.

0 Jocelyn Spencer (and Cassandra King) Muse, Part-Veela, they're interchangeable I suppose 0 Jocelyn Spencer (and Cassandra King) 0 5

Wu Peizhi

September 09, 2016 3:12 AM

I would very much prefer you did not!!! by Wu Peizhi

There were a lot of senses stimulated by an evening like this. A thousand visuals flashed before them, twirling Prefects dressed in oceans of colored fabric. The air had defined, muddled scent, a mixing of dozens of perfumes or colognes, plus the faintest trace of the food and beverages offered. There was music and chatter, which made it a bit difficult to separate Abby’s words from the roar encompassing them. Luckily, the touch was minimal, and Wu was only disturbed in terms of her dress’s embrace and the occasional bump from a neighbor. The flood of information was all a bit overwhelming, but the event was mandatory, so she did her best to remain calm and resist the crooked finger of overwhelment that traced up and down her spine.

“That sounds nice,” she answered Abby’s inquiry about drinks. Acquiring beverages would give them an excuse to break away from the more densely packed group around the outskirts of the dancing Prefects. She walked to the drink table with Abby presumably at her side and, upon arrival, reached for a glass. She offered the first one she picked up to Abby and then got one for herself. “Let us sit? I will get the yearbooks.” Peizhi did not particularly care about the awards since, really, they meant nothing, but she did want to page through them anyway. If nothing else, they would occupy her. Reading them over would either be A) a linear, clear line of conversation with Abby that would be less stressful since they would just be commenting on something in front of them both, or B) time that she did not have to worry about conversation at all. Either of those two things were acceptable.

Not to mention that looking at all of her classmates’ pictures could be moderately enjoyable. In any case, certain individuals would look better there than they did in real life, namely Jax, who she was pretty sure, at this point, simply hated her. Wu needed to talk to Laila tonight, but she didn’t see either of the Donovans ever really wanting her back or forgiving her. She was trying to make her peace with the fact, but given how strongly Jax reminded her of Bohai, it stung. When she tried to explain as best she could and struggled to muster the words she hadn’t had yet--the trust me like she had asked of Laila, like Abby had asked of her so casually--he had only expressed what she could perceive as anger and blame. And she knew that Gia hurt, which was probably why Jax was so angry, but it seemed to run so deep, where Laila seemed instead to flood with hope.

Once they were seated, she placed her now half-empty drink before her and turned to open her yearbook. “Hoping for any specific award?” she asked lightheartedly before opening the book and discovering what her peers had said.

12 Wu Peizhi I would very much prefer you did not!!! 316 Wu Peizhi 0 5

Emilia-Louise Scott

September 09, 2016 3:48 AM

Sorry, I haven't seen her. by Emilia-Louise Scott

The midsummer ball was a long anticipated evening and all of her friends and the Fashion Club members would be well aware of how eager Emmy-Lou was to see everyone’s outfits. She had revealed surprisingly little about her own (mostly) self-designed dress, really only sharing simple details such as the colours.

Emmy-Lou was very appreciative of the time and hard work that had gone into creating the perfect dress for her so she made sure to send a thank you letter to all at Little Lady Couture in response to its arrival not long before the day of the ball. She would be sure to get herself photographed as they would no doubt love to have the dress featured in some fashion magazines.

Because of this likely possibility, Emmy wanted to do the dress justice so she allowed herself plenty of time to get ready for the final night.

She wore her long blonde hair down, although altered it from its natural straight style to a slightly wavy look which nicely complemented her cowlick. She kept it back from her face with a silver jewelled headband, a skinny one that was rather subtle for her - usually she liked them to have some big feature such as a flower or a bow but tonight she was all for letting her dress do the talking.

Her makeup was equally simple with a subtle pink lip gloss and a touch of shimmery silver eyeshadow, centred around the inner corner of the eye just to add a bit of sparkle. Emmy had always been supplied with plenty of makeup to play with but she didn’t very often wear it seriously because she knew that her childish face didn’t suit it all that well. She’d only ever worn what she perceived to be bold makeup out on very few occasions when she was quite a lot younger and that had only been because she found so much delight in the appalled reactions it got from the grown ups.

The dress itself was absolutely gorgeous, in Emmy’s totally unbiased opinion, and she was very proud to have had so much input in its design. It was silver net dress complete with glass beads, crystals and chandelier drops which reflected the light with every movement she made. Her favourite feature of the calf length dress were the silver and lilac feathers that ran down the sides, complementing the modest knee-length lilac slip she wore underneath that was clearly visible through the netted outer dress.

Emmy’s look was completed with a small pair of silver heels, not very high but even the slight raise in height made a nice change for the short girl. Having twirled in the mirror numerous times to appreciate the way her dress fanned out when she did so, the Aladren made her way carefully down to the common room. She was glad that her dress did not reach the ground and therefore she has one less thing to worry about. It was an expensive piece, probably costing more to make than any Little Lady Couture item ever had, and the last thing she wanted to do was bring any damage to the beautiful creation that so many people (including herself) had invested good time into.

She wasn’t sure how the rest of the school would take it, much less her date, but she didn’t really care. Emmy loved fashion and this was undoubtedly that. It was never a bad thing to stand out and be unique and she was confident that her dress would do just that.

“Thank you,” Emmy beamed in response to Dustin’s polite compliment, feeling a little disappointed at the lack of butterflies in her stomach and the telltale blush that was missing from her cheeks. “As do you,” she added before accompanying him downstairs to Cascade Hall.

The theme of the ball decorations was nothing like Emmy-Lou had expected but that made it all the more impressive when she entered the hall. It was a surprise and she liked it. “Yeah,” she agreed rather absentmindedly to Dustin’s comment, occupying herself with looking around and taking everything and everyone in.

She spotted Joella as her friend made her way onto the dancefloor for the prefects’ dance. The older girl looked absolutely stunning in her ball gown, Emmy thought, and she couldn’t help thinking how grown up her childhood friend looked. Her attention was quickly diverted elsewhere, however, when she found herself having to do a double take at a particular prefect’s dance partner.

Emmy wasn’t sure how to feel about John dancing with an alien. It was ridiculous, granted, but she was also rather impressed by the slightly rebellious act that definitely violated something but probably technically broke no rules. For some reason though, Emmy did find herself feeling mildly offended by the scene but she wasn’t sure on whose behalf - the eligible girls in the school who were still dateless and could have danced in the alien’s place, or John himself who was reported to have been turned down by a number of girls who apparently thought themselves above him.

Emmy was startled out of watching the prefects and head students, and their amazing outfits, when she felt Dustin suddenly take her hand and pull her away from them. It was then that she realised she might have been a bit close as the couples moved around the dancefloor.

“Oops,” she giggled but upon noticing how abruptly Dustin dropped her hand and the pinkness of his cheeks, she gave him a kind smile and added a “thanks” which she hoped would convey that she hadn’t thought the action at all inappropriate, if that’s what his lordly little ass was worried about.

“I would love to dance,” she told him, allowing him to lead her onto the dancefloor. The yearbooks sounded all too tempting but she was trying not to obsess over them this time so they could wait. For now, she just wanted Dustin to spin her around in front of the whole school so they could all see what a fabulous dress she was wearing.

OOC: In case anyone is interested, the dress inspiration can be found here - although the colours are obviously different, the underdress is a little longer (and not so low cut) and the netted dress a bit shorter.

8 Emilia-Louise Scott Sorry, I haven't seen her. 313 Emilia-Louise Scott 0 5

Edda Eir

September 09, 2016 3:58 AM

Someone should have had the decency by Edda Eir

Edda’s first thought when it came to school functions was ‘How dangerous is this event?’ , not because she was a concerned faculty member but because the answer always had a positive correlation with how much fun she would have at said event. Despite being the perpetrator of many of the booby traps cast around the school, she didn’t enjoy other people’s pain. Not directly. It just meant there was more for her to do, and she so very desperately needed something to do.

Despite the fact that dances encompassed lots of “physical activity” the danger level was low. Though she would no doubt hold out hope that someone would sprain their ankle in the first dance -and every consecutive one until someone did- dances held a charm that other events did not. Getting gussied up.

Edda was usually a no-nonsense, no frills, and absolutely no lace career woman. That being said, after particularly long draughts of there being no patients in her infirmary, she enjoyed putting on a dark, sleek dress, strapping on precariously high heels and proceeding to the not-so-nearest establishment for a night out. Balls were a bit stiffy, but there was nothing in the dress code that said she had to look like a part of the puffed up fruit medley the ball gowns in various ostentatious colors inevitably made many of the students look like. Honestly. She much preferred a svelte dress.

In a one-shouldered black number that fell to the floor, with just enough leg covered to not be scandalous, she put on her jewelry and released the bun, letting her hair tumble into a perfectly curled ponytail. They were allowed dates but she wasn’t interested in bringing anyone. She might’ve been tempted had experience told her anything other than men becoming needy and thinking they were in a -shudder- relationship when brought out in public. Especially to work functions. So sans date she made her way to the hall.

Though the décor wasn’t offensive to the eyes, the sight of happy couples was. Edda didn’t have time (or, well maybe with things the way they were she did but not by choice) for a relationship, but she’d certainly be less dippy than those on the floor. Making her way over to the punch (which she quickly considered spiking with something like veritaserum or maybe even alihotsy draught, wouldn’t that be fun?) she tipped the drink back and refilled her cup, wishing that there were something stronger available but understanding why there wasn’t. Hopefully something entertaining would happen –other than that boy dancing with the furniture.

7 Edda Eir Someone should have had the decency 36 Edda Eir 0 5

Finn

September 09, 2016 1:02 PM

Always happy to be at your side by Finn

Postponing the dancing was a plan Finn was wholeheartedly on board with. He was still happy to take to the floor later, but with a bit of luck it wouldn’t be particularly crowded and also people wouldn’t really be watching the dancing. Although, he supposed, if more people were dancing then fewer people would be looking, but if fewer people were dancing there would be more chance of being looked at. That was a bit of a dilemma, but one to be addressed after food. Things were always better after food.

“That sounds good to me,” replied Finn in agreement, turning to lead the way to the refreshment table. However, he soon realised a slight flaw in their plan. Between the dance floor and the wonderful array of food were a fair few people, enough that Finn thought there was a possibility of being slightly separated from Juniper. This was problematic as Finn had no intention of being separated from Juniper. It felt nice to have her by his side, and he’d be a poor date if he went wandering off.

Fortunately, Finn immediately thought of an obvious solution to this problem. Unfortunately, this next logical move was something that Finn was a little wary of doing, despite finding the idea to be quite appealing. But he figured that if Juniper had any plans to run away screaming she would have done it by now, so after surreptitiously wiping his hand on his jacket to ensure it wasn’t sweaty or clammy, he offered it to Juniper. “If you take my hand, we won’t get separated,” he explained, going a little pink and hoping that he wasn’t stepping out of line at all. He rather wanted her to say yes. As much as a slightly sheltered 11-year-old really thought about such things, he liked Juniper, and her not wanting to take his hand would be very embarrassing.

9 Finn Always happy to be at your side 347 Finn 0 5

Dorothea Xavier

September 09, 2016 1:08 PM

I am always decent by Dorothea Xavier

Dorothea Xavier departed her son's company after the prefect dance in search of refreshments. Touring Nathan's only real home since he'd left NYU had been very informative and equally reassuring that her boy did, in fact, have some stability in his life and, despite living at his job, he wasn't a completely work obsessed bore of a human being as she had begun to fear over the last few years. It was nice here and Nathan seemed happy and comfortable in all of his spaces around the school. He seemed quite proud of his new classroom, too, and he had every right to be. It wasn't just anybody who could go back to school and take on a more challenging career after hitting forty years of age. (Dorothea was careful not to think the phrase 'so late in life' because Nathan was her baby and had quite a lot of life left to him, thank you very much.)

In any case, she was quite famished and dry after wandering all over the school and its grounds prior to the dance. Plus, she thought she might possibly pick up more information about how well liked her boy was here if he wasn't two feet away. So she struck off on her own, collected some hors d'oeuvres, then headed over to the punch bowl for something to cure her parched throat.

Spotting another adult (she didn't feel quite right interrogating students for fear she'd turn them against their herbology professor if they were interrupted from their party) she finished filling up a cup of punch and addressed the woman. "Lovely ball tonight. Lovely school, in fact. Are you one of the staff here? I came with my son. He's a professor," she stated, for the the first time, feeling quite proud. Groundskeeper was a fine profession, nothing to be ashamed of in it, but professor? That was an occupation with prestige.

"Oh, my apologies!" She exclaimed suddenly, executing a respectable curtsy, one that a trained eye might identify as rusty and ill-practiced, but she made a noble attempt to overcome those shortcomings. She'd been absent from most wizarding society events for over half a century but, by Merlin, she would not embarrass herself in front of Nathan's colleagues. Being a silver-haired seventy-one-year-old gave her some leeway in being forgetful of her manners (or at least forgetful in general), and she hoped that was how the oversight was taken. "My head is as far away as these amazing starscapes. I forgot to introduce myself. I am Dorothea Xavier."

For only half a moment, she had teetered on the choice between offering her married name or her maiden name. Too many years had gone by since she became a Xavier, though, well over two thirds of her life had been as a wife to a muggle man. Neither her current family nor her past one would appreciate her attempting to relive the past, even for just one night. Not even if it would let her interrogate a coworker about her son in relative anonymity. Perhaps especially so in Nathan's case. Being Dorothea Xavier was too much her self-identity now anyway. She had walked away from wizard balls of her own free choice. Attending one now was a fun diversion and made her feel young again, but that was all it was. Tomorrow, she'd be back home in a house with a toaster over and a wonderful man for whom she had happily given up her world.

1 Dorothea Xavier I am always decent 28 Dorothea Xavier 0 5

Louis

September 09, 2016 1:11 PM

Depends how much of a maverick they are... by Louis

Louis smiled at Ingrid when she called him handsome, confident in the fact that he looked good but hoping he’d succeeded in impressing her. Together, he felt that they made a good-looking couple.

In Cascade Hall, the prefects took the floor, looking very grownup and graceful. Maybe one day Louis would be there amongst them, although he didn’t think he’d ever make prefect with Emmy-Lou as competition. As much as he thought the role might be nice to have, he was sure she’d be better at it than he would. Besides, he knew she would love to be in a position where she could help younger students. Dustin would probably be competition as well, but Louis didn’t know his roommate’s feelings towards being prefect so hadn’t yet factored him into the equation.

He was rather distracted by his thoughts, and almost missed Ingrid’s comment, quiet as it was. “What, John and his rather fetching dance partner?” he asked, assuming that they were the couple she was commenting on. They certainly seemed to be the most noteworthy. “Trust John to choose the unexpected,” he added with a smile. He liked his Quidditch teammate, finding the older boy to be amusing and refreshingly different to many other people he interacted with.

Thoughts of Quidditch led to Louis picking out his fellow players amongst the dancers. Theodore was also there, and Clark, along with numerous opponents. Louis had just switched to watching Liliana and Atlas dancing, musing on who could be replacing them next year in the Pecari Quidditch team, when they suddenly kissed. Well, that was slightly awkward. He quickly averted his gaze and turned to face Ingrid instead – a much more pleasant sight!

“So, Quidditch romances are making an appearance here,” he joked, gesturing at the handholding Pecari couple and wondering if he and Ingrid would ever be in a similar position. Relationshipwise, that was, not that Louis was averse to PDA, provided it was something he could partake in rather than watch. Still, he was glad on Liliana’s behalf that she seemed to be avoiding a relationship with some of the stuffier members of French society, a tactic that he wholeheartedly recommended.

9 Louis Depends how much of a maverick they are... 314 Louis 0 5

Olivier Westley

September 09, 2016 4:53 PM

Neither do I by Olivier Westley

Olivier didn’t plan on spending his night this way. He had wanted to attend the ball with Lena at his side like when they were children back in Wales. Watching the nervous and idiotic adults prance around like they had any kind of rhythm was always a delight, especially when Lena was there to share the moment. Yet her time was being occupied by some imposter again! Despite all his efforts, the scum of Sonora still flocked to her like flies to honey. Last time it had been a blood traitor, this year a Muggleborn. When he thought about it, Olivier guessed he probably disliked purebloods as much as Muggleborns but at least society viewed purebloods with some level of respect and he hated that the likes of Tobias Reinhardt and Clark Dill had thought to sully his sister’s sparkling reputation. Of course, he couldn't blame Lena. She was just too kind to ever say no to someone, even if they were inappropriate.

At the same time, he supposed it made sense that the others wanted to be around her, and at least Dill was a prefect. That didn’t mean much to Olivier other than that apparently the professors at the school trusted him enough to give him some sort of authority. Which really didn’t carry any weight since Olivier didn’t know how much weight he put with the professors, many of which he didn’t think were competent to handle a pack of dogs much less an entire student body.

Sipping on a cup of punch, Olivier watched Lena intently. Making sure to keep an eye on her, and her ‘date’. He was torn between wanting to eye her the entire night, and the urge to look away due to her proximity to any guy other than himself. Separating his eyes from her for a few moments he allowed his mind to wander the room. Surprisingly his eyes ended up on yet another girl who was quite enamored with something. Following her sight, he found out just what was so interesting. Of course it was none other than John. The weirdo.

He made his way over to her, her bright purple dress intriguing in that it was an assault to the eyes. She must have sensed his approach because as he got there, she asked him a question. Despite its occupants, Olivier thought Cascade Hall was decorated quite well. He knew Lena would love it, certainly. How many hours had they spent as children star-gazing? “Indeed it is,” he said with a charming grin and a practised voice, the kind that made him sound like he actually cared about talking to his classmates, the pair being something he was quite used to using on a regular basis.

“You know, my sister is part of the Astronomy Club, she really loves looking at the night sky.” There was only a slight change in tone as Olivier talked of the only person in the world he was truly fond of. He didn’t look away from Diana Carey even though he thought her curls were ridiculous. He knew what was expected of him. He hated to dance, he hated human interaction, but he only had to fake liking it for one more year and then he would be allowed to go off and find a cottage on the moor where he could be happy and live alone.

He waited until the prefect dance ended, however, so that he could ask Diana in the most gentlemanly way he could think of. As it ended, he took a deep breath and turned to her, making sure to fidget just a little bit in the nervous sort of manner he was certain wizards who liked witches were supposed to fidget in so that they didn’t look too menacing.

“I must say, you are looking absolutely wonderful tonight and if I’d known you were available I might have asked you to the dance myself, as it is,” he shuffled slightly, looking quickly at his feet once, his cheeks dimpling as he raised his head back up to hers, mouth turned up in a generous yet hopeful smile. “Would you excuse my behaviour and do me the honour of this dance, Miss Carey?”

He held out an arm in the case that the female Carey would want to take it and prepared himself for a horrendous night. At least the Careys were a well-known family so it wouldn’t hurt his reputation to dance with the witch. He’d had plenty of time to find himself a date--the last ball he had attended with Araceli Arbon who was now on the arm of the Head Boy, but he simply hadn’t been able to bring himself to do it. That would have been pushing his puppy-dog exterior too far.

10 Olivier Westley Neither do I 282 Olivier Westley 0 5

Jack Spencer

September 09, 2016 5:04 PM

Sounds about right. by Jack Spencer

Jack had never escorted a witch to a ball before. He'd never been expected to, really, only to watch over his younger sister and make sure she didn't get herself into mischief. Though he was relieved to have found a date, as they walked together he realised he would have to entertain her for the entire night. There was some pressure there to be interesting enough and Jack hoped they had other things in common besides the possibility of their siblings getting married. He could rattle on and on about books and family and courses and anything else that piqued his interest, but if Caelia wasn't interested it didn't really matter what he said.

"That's true," he said thoughtfully. "Honestly I can't imagine Charlotte getting married. She's always just been my older sister, you know. Is it weird for you, that Emrys might be starting his own family in the next ten years at least?" Jack had never really thought about it that way before, but suddenly he didn't want to see Charlotte married off at all, at least in the near future. Things would be irrevocably different once she was married. It was too soon and Jack wasn't quite ready to say goodbye to either Adam and Charlotte in that way.

Once inside Cascade Hall, he was glad to see that he wasn't the only one blown away by the decor. It seemed as though many of the students were impressed by this year's theme. Caelia spun around like a child and Jack continued to look around at everything. There was so much to look at it would be difficult to get any dancing done.

He softly chuckled at Caelia's admission. "You should join Science Club. We went star-gazing a few weeks ago and it was brilliant. The planets and stars never looked so close. I'm looking forward to taking Astronomy. I think I could be an Astronomy professor if Transfiguration doesn't work out." Jack peered up at the sky, seeing if he could recognise anything. "That's Corvus over there," he said, pointing at one of the constellations projected on the wall. "That's my uncle's name, Corvus. My mum's family is very into naming their older children after constellations, so I learnt a bit about the stars as a child. I believe my mum was named after Cassiopeia. Do you know any of the myths behind the names?"

In his excitement, Jack had temporarily forgotten all about being a gentleman. As the Prefects began their dance, Jack cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, here I am chatting on and on. Would you like anything to drink?"

40 Jack Spencer Sounds about right. 299 Jack Spencer 0 5

Georgia

September 10, 2016 3:46 AM

Well, that's certainly a distraction by Georgia

“Really? Uh, thanks,” Georgia smiled, quite surprised by Farrah’s compliment. Subconsciously, she tugged the edge of the pink skirt, worrying about its length, although no amount of making sure it didn’t ride up was going to transform it into anything close to appropriate for the evening. She weighed up Farrah’s suggestions… She appreciated that she was still offering her the chance to duck out but the whole situation didn’t seem quite so scary with a supportive friend by her side.

“I… I didn’t realise everyone else would be so….” she trailed off, not sure what word to use. Farrah also didn’t seem to have missed the memo on getting dressed up and she didn’t want to accidentally insult her. “You look really nice though,” she added.

“Maybe yearbooks?” she suggested. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know what the rest of her year thought of her but she knew that it would prey on her mind until she knew. In teen dramas, the yearbook was always a source of humiliation to the unpopular kids…. At least tonight wasn’t going to be counted towards their opinions.

Before they could get their books though, they were joined by the new boy, Kellen. Georgia knew him from ‘around,’ as it was a small school, and starting halfway through their year had drawn attention to the boy. She hadn’t spoken to him but she had heard him speak, just to answer roll call and stuff, and she thought his voice sounded kind of… off when he spoke to them, though she couldn’t identify why.

“Thanks,” she replied uncertainly to his compliment. She was pretty sure he was just being polite but it made her feel a thousand times better to know that there were people at least willing to do that. She didn’t have to spend the evening alone, or with the whole hall laughing at her for her mistake. “Your outfit’s really neat too,” she added because it seemed polite to say something back. The whole ensemble was actually kind of strange but he definitely looked no worse than she did. “Uh… yeah…. It’s...um, lovely,” she managed unconvincingly when he asked about the ball. “We were going to grab some yearbooks actually, which might be interesting,” she added.

13 Georgia Well, that's certainly a distraction 346 Georgia 0 5

Kyte

September 10, 2016 4:02 AM

Or ceilidh with the aliens by Kyte

“Thanks,” Kyte grinned at Ben’s compliment. “You too. Hats are cool…. I don’t get why more people don’t wear hats,” he pondered. It was fun having a hat-partner though, and having it be Ben, and if more people had worn hats it wouldn’t have made this moment so special. Kyte liked it when the universe randomly made things like this click. He couldn’t understand people who didn’t believe in higher forces and destinies and things when there were so many beautiful moments of otherwise random synchronisation in the universe.

“Of course,” he answered, surprised when Ben asked if he’d ever danced. “Dancing is in everyone. It’s the natural desire to move your body. Did you know, that there isn’t a single human culture discovered that doesn’t have some form of dancing? I can’t believe there would be anyone here who has never danced.” Ok, sure, he hadn’t ever danced like the prefects were doing, but he had just established that was boring, so why would he want to? And Ben hadn’t asked whether he had done that dance, he had asked him about dancing in general.

“Do you think they’ll play any fun music, or will it all be like this?” he asked. There was very little reason why Ben should know the probability of this any better than he himself did, although he had already voiced one opinion on how the evening might proceed. And Ben came from a semi-regular family that lived in the ‘normal’ world, so there was a chance he was more familiar with these kinds of things. “I like ceilidhs…” he added, apparently apropos of nothing, although there had been some kind of train of thought, that had gone via something like picturing Ben at formal events, and then picturing himself being as formal as his family got, which was usually someone’s wedding, which usually involved a ceilidh. So far this didn’t really seem much like that, although maybe they could get some aliens to join them and stir things up.

13 Kyte Or ceilidh with the aliens 335 Kyte 0 5

Ingrid

September 10, 2016 4:23 AM

Things seem to be getting pretty out of hand by Ingrid

“Oh, uh, amongst others,” Ingrid said, her attention catching up to who or what John was dancing with. That still surprised her less than some of the other combinations. She didn’t know John well but he basically struck her as being Theodore but without the manners and status. He was a sciencey, nerdy, Aladreny-Aladren. They weren’t famed for their people skills, and he was, generally speaking, surrounded by girls who outclassed him.

“More like I hope Serena Brockert enjoys really long lectures on wizard chess or only agreed to one dance,” she explained, “It’s basically against the laws of nature for a girl to like my brother. And she is so unbelievably far out of his league.” Sure, Serena was engaged, and it was only a ball-date, maybe even only a prefects’-dance date, but that didn’t make it not weird. At least she knew for sure there wouldn’t be kissing involved. Unlike…. At least Louis seemed as revolted as she was, as he turned his eyes away.

“Gross,” she muttered, not picking up on the fact that Louis’ comment about Quidditch couples could have been interpreted as flirtatious. “I just don’t get her…. I mean, it’s not like her year group is short on proper gentlemen.”

13 Ingrid Things seem to be getting pretty out of hand 322 Ingrid 0 5

Araceli Arbon

September 10, 2016 5:11 AM

I met a girl, she was a frog princess.... (tag Duncan) by Araceli Arbon

Araceli had resigned herself to the fact that getting ready for the ball was probably going to be the best part of the evening. Makenzie was so giddy and happy about the whole thing, and it was hard not to enjoy her enjoyment just a little, especially when she pulled Araceli in, twirling her around.

Everything else about the ball was wrong. Her mother had picked out a dress for her which was, objectively, very pretty. The top was sequined and the skirt was made from a fine, meshy material. The whole thing was gold. The colour for first place. For winners. And it was so eye-catching… She was sure she would have admired it on anyone else, but she felt utterly unworthy of it. She brushed out her long blonde hair. She knew she should do something fancy with it. Fiddling with her hair was her worst habit, and was unladylike. But she liked the weight of it on her shoulders. The curtain it made that she could hide behind. She felt so exposed with it all pinned back, although she ran a small braid around the crown of her head so that she had made the required effort.

She met Duncan in the entrance hall. She had agonised as the year had passed them by without him asking. Over midterm, she had shared her concerns with Delphine, trying to work out what she had done wrong. Her sister had assured her that there had never been anything more between her and Duncan than what Araceli had - that she hadn’t lost what Delphine had gained but it still felt like it. Perhaps her sister had had a genuine warmth towards him which she lacked. Perhaps she had initiated the interactions more than Araceli was willing or able to do. Whatever the reason, Duncan was not forthcoming with any kind of real interest in her. Perhaps he was still too busy combing the corridors, desperate to make friends with the ghosts of the castle. Araceli had often felt pale and invisible. Insubstantial. Less than a real, full person. And apparently Duncan thought so too. She was of less interest to him than questing for ghosts. Finding them, having their society was so much more fulfilling an idea than her readily available company. What did that say about her?

When her dress had arrived, she had spent an afternoon bawling her eyes out over it, and then she had made a decision. She wasn’t going to care. She did not care about Duncan and she didn’t care whether he cared about her, beyond being the necessary ticket out of her father’s house. That mattered. That mattered and it frightened her so much that she might fail on that count that it was hard to stick to her new resolution of feeling nothing. But if she felt nothing for Duncan, he could neither hurt nor disappoint her. And why should she feel for him? She didn’t know him. Once, she had daydreamed about true love. She had wanted it, felt deserving of it. But not any more. It was clear that real love was never going to be granted to someone like her. She would take escaping. She would take getting to hold her head up high and not care when someone else didn’t care about her. After all, it wasn’t like he would be the first man to disregard her feelings. Perhaps they were just a brutal species as a whole and it wasn’t worth trying to love them.

Of course, she couldn’t let him know that. She still had a part to play. She painted on her smile as she met him in the entrance hall, ready to go through the motions of a pleasant evening, but feeling perfectly, indifferently hollow to it.

13 Araceli Arbon I met a girl, she was a frog princess.... (tag Duncan) 290 Araceli Arbon 0 5

Louis

September 10, 2016 7:19 AM

Not really going in the ideal direction at all by Louis

Louis took a second to process Ingrid’s response, a nasty heavy sick feeling settling into his stomach. Surely Ingrid didn’t think less of her teammate simply because of his origins? Logically, he knew that idea was drilled into purebloods from birth (having experienced a similar indoctrination himself), and he knew that Ingrid was a Wolseithcrafte, but he had, perhaps foolishly, overlooked that and assumed Ingrid would have realised the flaws in the argument.

“I don’t think you can choose who you love,” he replied carefully. Maybe he’d misunderstood Ingrid. He hoped he’d misunderstood Ingrid. Their evening, which was meant to be perfect and fun, couldn’t be ruined by this unexpected scenario. “And does blood really determine if someone is worth loving?”

His mind was reeling at the implications of Ingrid’s statement. ‘Proper gentlemen’? Was that why Ingrid had agreed to attend the ball with him? Of course she was a member of pureblood society, and that inevitably had a role in making her who she was today, but Louis had asked Ingrid to be his date simply because he enjoyed her company. Her being a pureblood was irrelevant to him, just as he wouldn’t have cared if she was halfblood, or muggleborn. But had she agreed to attend with Louis, or with Louis Valois? Her comment was feeding right into his fears of being worth nothing more and nothing less than his family name.

He bit his lip, knowing that what he was about to say next could have evening-ruining potential for him, but also knowing that, if he didn’t ask, the thought would always be hanging over him. He had to be sure.

“If I were a muggleborn, would you have refused to be my date?”

9 Louis Not really going in the ideal direction at all 314 Louis 0 5

Owen Brockert

September 10, 2016 7:55 PM

A magical night (Jemima) by Owen Brockert

Owen was slightly nervous about the ball because he wanted to make it extra super special for Jemima. Nothing was more important to him than her having a great time. Unfortunately that would include dancing and he...could only do the slow songs even though he was doing pretty well with breathing tonight. However, he wanted to keep it that way and because this was not like the balls that he attended outside of school-not that he'd been able to go to many-and non-society people were in attendance, some of the dancing was sure to be different and not at all what he was used to. That meant some of it was likely to be really fast and Owen just couldn't do that. He hoped Jemima would understand. He was more than happy to do slow dances with her, holding her close to him. He just wasn't too sure about the faster numbers. Owen even tried to avoid doing the Teppenpaw jig when possible, sneaking in with housemates who performed it or going in through the HoH office. He was capable of it but preferred not to. His mother had always made him feel like he shouldn't do anything too strenuous.

Not only was he worried he wouldn't make the evening as perfect as Jemima deserved but he kept thinking back to his conversation with Theodore. Now Owen constantly was afraid he'd do something wrong, that he'd hold Jemima back in some way without realizing it. He despised the idea of them ever separating in the way Theodore suggested. Of course, just has he'd told the Aladren he'd go visit Jemima as much as possible but miss her like crazy and be miserable while they were apart. Summer vacations were hard enough. Midterm was hard enough and that was only two weeks and they got to see each other during it.

Plus, even if she didn't have a problem with something he did, her brother and the rest of her family might not approve of him for some reason. Even before speaking with Theodore, he'd sometimes worried that they wouldn't like him. The Wolseithcraftes were big on Quidditch, even having an organization promoting girls playing. Jemima was the only one of her siblings who didn't. Owen couldn't even if he'd wanted to. Not that he'd ever had the desire, his mother having always steered him away from competition.

The fourth year stood nervously in the common room awaiting his girlfriend. When she arrived, she took his breath away-metaphorically speaking. For just a moment as Jemima approached, Owen couldn't speak. Fortunately, he recovered quickly enough not to look too ridiculous. "You look....amazing." He handed over the huge bouquet of flowers and the corsage he'd gotten her for her wrist. Then he pulled one last thing, a small box, out of the pocket of his dress robe. "This is for you too. For our one year anniversary of actually being a couple. I know it's not today."The way calendars worked the Midsummer events didn't fall on the exact same date every year. "But I wanted to give it to you today because it was last year at the Midsummer event that we became boyfriend and girlfriend." Inside the box was a gold heart-shaped lockets with a picture of the two of them inside. "I-I hope you like it." He said, blushing,

He took Jemima's arm and led her down to the Cascade Hall where they listened as Uncle Mortimer gave his short speech and the prefects and Head Students did their dance, something Owen would never ever have to worry about even if he did receive one or both honors. Once they were finished, a fast song came on which was out of the question for him so he turned to Jemima and asked "Would you like some punch?Or we could get our yearbooks?"

11 Owen Brockert A magical night (Jemima) 300 Owen Brockert 0 5

Diana

September 10, 2016 10:10 PM

We're both completely bored by Diana

Olivier Westley was handsome, pureblooded, most likely not completely stupid, and, well, alone. These were all good things. Unfortunately, there was obviously something wrong with him - either he was sentimental or soft on Muggles or just had no spine in general, because otherwise, he would have controlled his sister. Diana would have slapped Cecilia or Brandon until they saw stars if either of them had ever even considered dating Clark Dill, and if that hadn’t convinced them to refuse his invitation to the Ball, she would have slipped them sleeping potions and locked them in closets without their wands until the ball was over. A private affair was one thing - a really distasteful and stupid thing, but a different thing than going to a Ball. A Ball was public.

“I did not know that,” Diana said when Westley told her that his sister was in Astronomy Club. “I’m sure she and Mr. Dill are both appreciating the show even more than we are, then.”

That, Diana knew, wasn’t very nice of her. His sister was taking an erumpent horn to her reputation right now, and he might even know it. His tone did change just a little when he mentioned Lena, after all. Diana wasn’t in one of her nice moods, though. Let him make of that what he wanted to.

She realized he was going to ask her to dance long before he got to the point and began to consider her options. Rejecting him most likely was one, considering how Lena was behaving, and one she almost liked – the fidgeting and shuffling were, to her, at least in the mood she was in, a little offputting. A weak man was useful, but one who couldn't pretend to be confident when he needed to was much less so. Unfortunately, though, he looked like her only possible escape from boredom, and what she knew about his origins meant that refusing him also involved a chance of inadvertently interfering with business. Diana’s cousin Roland had not set foot in the country in years, as Aunt Catherine had picked his wife specifically because Jocasta had connections who'd been invaluable for getting things in and out of Europe. Principles were all well and good, and South Carolina of all the Careys had always been the most dedicated to at least appearing to uphold them, but her family would not be happy with her if she annoyed someone with the ability to cost them money. Not only did money make life pleasant and people agreeable, but Diana was also under no illusions about exactly what would happen to her father, oldest brother, both of the twins, and most likely her grandfather, at the very least, the day they no longer had enough money to make people agreeable. And Brandon was sure to get pulled into it before the dust of this place was even off his shoes…. Of course, the chances of Olivier having the ability to cost her father money were tiny even before she compared them to the odds of some other girl telling her family all about how Diana Carey had danced with the brother of someone behaving badly, but Diana didn't think the scale of Lena's offense was severe enough for anything to come back on someone who just danced with her brother, especially not after Liliana Bannister had kissed her date. Between Liliana and John Umland, Diana thought the gossips would have no time for her at all tonight.

“If it will soothe your conscience,” she said lightly, “I suppose I could spare one dance.” Since my dance card is so full. Hopefully he could lift his feet a little better on the dance floor. If not, Diana would definitely make it only one dance.

0 Diana We're both completely bored 0 Diana 0 5

Ingrid

September 11, 2016 1:06 AM

What just happened? by Ingrid

Ingrid’s brow furrowed slightly at Louis’ comments. Couldn’t choose who to love? Did blood really determine it? The answers to those questions were surely so obvious that she wondered why he would even ask. Certainly it was possible that one might lust after someone inappropriate. Her mother had explained to her that her teenage years were full of changes, and that there might be some people from outside of society who seemed attractive to her. That wasn’t her fault and it didn’t make her a bad person. But a proper lady controlled herself. One didn’t give into base desires in general, and certainly not with the lower classes. Was Louis getting at the same idea? Or perhaps he was just arguing for the sake of it. That was something that happened around their dinner table plenty - picking sides they didn’t agree with, debating a thing for the fun of it. Never this particular topic, but she was familiar enough with the idea of doing so, and it was a very Aladrenish approach to take to conversation. Still, it wasn’t something she was in the mood for at a ball.

“My parents would be mortified if I did that,” she explained, “Are you telling me yours wouldn’t?” she challenged. Louis was from a proper family, as far as she knew, and not only that but was the heir to his estate. What would his parents say if they heard him talking about kissing Muggleborns?

If I were a muggleborn, would you have refused to be my date?

What sort of question was that, and why was he asking it? Her mind reeled…. There was Emmy-Lou, she supposed. He was friends with her. And being friends was fine, in the same was that Jemima was friends with her room-mates. She supposed she would have agreed to be Louis’ friend date but not a date date, but she didn’t know which this was and was very loathe to bring it up because that sounded like a really awkward conversation, and if they decided it was a date date he might expect her to kiss him and stuff and she wasn’t sure she wanted to.

“But you’re not a Muggleborn,” she protested. “And if you were, you’d be an entirely different person. You’d only have known about Quidditch for a couple of years - you wouldn’t be half the flier you are, or half as fun to play against. It’s a completely crazy question to ask me whether I’d still like you if you weren’t you because how am I meant to know what you’d even be like?”

13 Ingrid What just happened? 322 Ingrid 0 5

Arne Reinhardt

September 12, 2016 1:12 AM

May I have this...song? by Arne Reinhardt

Arne Reinhardt was on a mission. Ever since lunch the other day he was determined to prove his brother and Laila Kennedy wrong. What had started as friendly teasing on Liac’s part of Tobi had turned into serious doubt on the part of his older brother on Arne’s ability to be a true gentleman, something that that insufferably annoying Muggleborn friend of his had summed up quite succinctly as “you couldn’t be a gentleman even if your life depended on it, Reinhardt.”

And so naturally, even though all he really wanted to do was find somewhere private to hang out with Lauren Song, he was absolutely not going to give into his less than gentlemanly thoughts that evening and give the pretty halfblood the very best evening his (slightly) misguided boyish mind could put together. And that meant flowers and compliments and studying the behavior of his new found friend, Louis Valois, until he was certain he could mimic the Aladren’s rather posh ways to a T.

Of course, underlying it all, he was still Arne Reinhardt through and through and so when he first laid eyes on Lauren outside Cascade Hall where it was customary for ball couples from separate houses to meet, he didn’t quite manage to string his words together as he probably ought to have. Arne let out a low whistle, a talent of which he was quite proud of, and raised his eyebrows rather quickly before reaching out to grab Lauren’s hand to twirl her around if she let him.

“You clean up nicely,” he said appreciatively. And then he realized that what he’d just said, while definitely falling under the category of compliments, was probably not the sort of compliment that Louis Valois would give and so therefore he would probably need to rephrase. “What I mean to say, Miss Song—” Arne himself, while pureblood, was not a member of society and often took great delight in mimicking their politesse for fun although his tone now, was more flirty than anything else. “Is that you look quite lovely in your dress and I would love to escort you into the hall and show you off on the dance floor.”

He might have been trying his best to be a gentleman, but he was still playful Arne Reinhardt to the core.

10 Arne Reinhardt May I have this...song? 319 Arne Reinhardt 0 5

Sophie

September 12, 2016 3:03 PM

But you're the American cousin! That's for the British! by Sophie

Sophie watched and listened happily as her cousin fiddled with the envelop and explained its probable contents. The time that Juliet had spent on staff at Sonora had been some of the best time of Sophie’s life. It was wonderful going to a staff meeting and sitting next to one of her best friends in the world. But she knew that Juliet’s heart was in the skies, soaring about on her broom as she defended her teammates as best she could. Sophie was an athlete herself in her day--although she probably hadn’t picked up a broom at least since her pregnancy; flying while pregnant didn’t seem safe, and after that status affliction had passed, she found herself sorely lacking the time--but Juliet was a professional. Quidditch was everything to her. And for anyone who had ever seen her take to the air, it showed.

But the tone of the letter shifted abruptly, and Sophie felt her smile fade rapidly as Juliet read. They didn’t want her back? That was… that was…. “That’s bullcrap!” she shouted a bit louder than she ought to in a room full of children at the place of her employment, especially given that crap was not actually the word she used, instead favoring something a bit stronger. And in a typical Sophie fashion, she her speech accelerated as she fired herself up further. “There must have been a mistake somewhere. Somebody misunderstood and sent the wrong letter. You know, these things are all cut-and-paste nonsense, so they must’ve stuck your name in the wrong format. Loads of people, poor communication. Happens all the time, I bet!”

“Because, like, why wouldn’t they want you back?” She went on, rambling angrily. “You’re their best bloody shot at any kind of finals! Good luck getting anywhere if all your players get smacked in the head with Bludgers because you fired your best Beater!” She stopped suddenly, throwing her hands over her mouth. That f-word sounded too harsh, especially when it was untrue. It had to be untrue. “Not that that’s what’s happening,” she backpedaled nervously. “They’ll send the correct letter right over!”

“In the meantime,” said Sophie, tentative with concern as her anger momentarily parted to make way for empathy. “...Are you okay?”

12 Sophie But you're the American cousin! That's for the British! 34 Sophie 0 5

Jake

September 12, 2016 3:37 PM

I would. :) by Jake

Something about her response made him, for a moment, very, very sad. Jake wished Ginger could see herself the way he saw her and understand that no, she wasn’t beautiful because Jemima and Lauren worked some kind of miracle on an otherwise ordinary canvas, but she was beautiful because she was beautiful. But he didn’t have the words or the time to tell her this, too bumbly in his own mind, not eloquent enough to make it sound like anything more than a needless disagreement over technicalities, and he wasn’t ready to have their first fight over him trying to show her positivity. Hopefully tomorrow, when hair fell and glitter faded, she would see that the beauty had not dissipated with the night.

“Yeah,” he said. “Let’s go.”

Upon entrance to the Hall, it was impossible not to notice the decorations that enveloped them. “Whoa!” he exclaimed aloud. “That’s some neat stuff!” He couldn’t help but wonder who had created their wonderful decor for the evening, since--No offense, Headmaster Brockert, if you can read my thoughts--he had never really pictured the Headmaster as a very creative or artistic individual, let alone wanting to utilize science in that creativity. That seemed like an Arnold thing. Not Jake, though, for while he was fairly art-minded (although he took more to music than conventional art), he was not smart enough to know a whole heck of a lot about science. He didn’t really have the time for a club where the active goal was learning when he already had to work on school-learning as it was.

The Headmaster spoke suddenly, and for a second, the Teppenpaw was terrified that his mind had been read and now he was getting called over to be scolded. Fortunately, it was just an announcement for the Prefects dance. “Well, hey, that’s us,” he grinned at Ginger. He bowed with as much grace as an awkward fifteen-year-old could muster and offered his hand. “Ready?”

12 Jake I would. :) 280 Jake 0 5

Louis

September 12, 2016 6:23 PM

I'm just as confused as you are by Louis

Louis smiled briefly at the idea of his parents hearing of him kissing a muggleborn. “They’d be horrified,” he replied simply. “But to be quite honest, I wouldn’t care what they thought.” That was true, or at least he was fairly sure it would be. The situation had never actually arisen, but Louis had argued enough on behalf of muggles (and had spent time with his muggle friends despite knowing that his parents would disapprove if they ever found out) to be sure that he would stick to his guns and not let his parents dictate what he should think.

And he wasn’t going to let Ingrid dictate what he should think, either, but on the other hand he didn’t want to do the same for her. Going by what she’d just said, he guessed she still considered the notions of blood purity to be important. He definitely disagreed with her there, but he didn’t want to get into a big argument and ruin their evening. Such an action would be unpleasant for Ingrid and probably for those within earshot, and Louis didn’t like causing unpleasantness (situations involving his father being the only exception to that rule). Besides, it wasn’t like she’d actually done anything discriminatory and affected anyone, even if her comments had been more than enough to make him feel uneasy. Hopefully his response would make Ingrid think about the inherited prejudices, and that was enough for now.

Ingrid’s response to his question didn’t really comfort him, but she did make a good point about him not being the same person given different circumstances. That idea gave him hope that she liked him as a person, and not just as a name, even if she only liked him for his Quidditch playing abilities. “I’m sorry, that wasn’t the most well-phrased question,” he replied with a smile, not clarifying how the question should be phrased.

“Would you like to dance?” he asked, deciding to resist the urge to make a speech on equality to everyone in the vicinity by moving the conversation on to safer grounds. Dancing was fun – you couldn’t argue whilst dancing.

9 Louis I'm just as confused as you are 314 Louis 0 5

Alfie Pye

September 13, 2016 4:43 PM

Third-wheeling this thang. by Alfie Pye

Alfie felt numb. There were several reasons that could have contributed to his current state and in all reality it was probably a combination of all these things, but as he checked himself out in the mirror all he saw were glassy eyes. He’d showered, scrubbed himself fairly clean for the Midsummer occasion, but for all his nice dress robes and neatly trimmed scruff did, he was still, in effect, a drunk. He didn’t really know the steps that had gotten him to this point and he didn’t really care either. When he thought over what had led him to this point all he saw was a misguided younger brother who didn’t know when to leave well enough alone and a witch with whom he was completely in love with but who would never admit that she loved him back.

When he and Cecily were together, they were good, but she’d had Jake and she’d always have Jake. And besides, she was such a forward thinking, practical witch that she hadn’t been able to think outside the strict margins of the case and their work and the distance to even try to give Alfie a proper go. It stung, and the countless returned owls stung even more. It was probably for this that he hadn’t had the time nor energy to properly punish Barnaby and had resorted to his father’s and grandfather’s tactics. After all, they had done it to him so he was really just passing along the Pye gift to his younger brother.

Barnaby seemed happier, lighter almost now that the weight of carrying around such a secret was gone. He’d done it for Barnaby’s own good, Alfie tried to reason with himself. Any traces of anything that had pushed Barnaby towards the more calculating side of his personality was gone, he was new and fresh and Alfie had his little brother back again. But living with the guilt that he’d altered Barnaby’s life against his brother’s will as easily as his father and grandfather had altered his was something that was beginning to take it’s toll on the ex-Auror.

It was visible in Alfie’s posture and face and he wiped his hands down his forehead, over his nose, past his mouth and chin, slapping his cheeks twice to scare more life into himself before he had to appear in public. He was tired, but a rejuvenating spell made him feel as though his worries were gone. Using spells like that was dangerous, he knew from past cases that one could get addicted to the light-hearted feeling many charms or potions could bring, but he just needed it for one night—the last night of the school year, and then he could disappear for the summer and wallow alone. And then he closed his eyes in annoyance. It was the last night of the school year and he’d promised Isis an answer by that evening.

Isis had asked him a couple days ago if she could crash at his over the summer, something about her current living situation becoming unlivable and he’d asked to think over it for a couple of days. He’d realised rather early on that having someone else in his house would ruin his summer plans, but he supposed he didn’t have to return home each night and it would probably be safer in the long run once this was all over that he have somewhere to hide out that anyone who had attempted to follow him home had not yet found. And if Isis was there then she could help with the upkeep. It was surrounded with wards and so was a very safe place to be but it still remained that it meant he had to let someone into his personal space.

When he saw Isis at the ball, he made a beeline for her. It was better to get it over with than to leave her hanging all evening and causing worry on both their parts. She was talking with Nathan Xavier and Alfie smiled politely in greeting to the older wizard. “I thought about your request,” he said in a low voice not sure if Isis wanted word to get around that she was in need of a place to live. “I was hesitant because I didn’t know how often I’d be at home this summer, I have some…auror things to wrap up. But then I realised that if I’m not really using my apartment you might as well.” He shifted kind of uncomfortably. He knew that for a professor he was rather well off and that he’d grown up with a lot more money than Isis and so letting her into his privileged world felt weird. “It’s in a young area of wizarding London, there are a couple other witches and wizards in the building around our age so you wouldn’t be lonely…”

He trailed off, waiting to see what Isis would say.

10 Alfie Pye Third-wheeling this thang. 30 Alfie Pye 0 5

Duncan Brockert

September 13, 2016 11:04 PM

Does that mean I should kiss you? by Duncan Brockert

This was it. Soon Duncan would be leaving Sonora forever and he felt a little wistful. He'd really had a good seven years. He'd made good friends in Liliana, Jake and his cousin Serena. He'd even become prefect and Head Boy. And of course, the best part was meeting Araceli. He was going to miss them all, and her the most.

His only regret was his inability to make contact with any ghosts haunting the school. He was tempted to give it one last shot and sneak out of the ball tonight to search, but he didn't think that would be fair to Araceli. Even if he brought her with him, it might look bad. Like they were sneaking off to do something inappropriate which would be way worse for her than him. He would be gone, she still had two more years here. Plus, those kinds of rumors tended to be harder on girls than guys and he wouldn't want to ruin her reputation.

Duncan was a little worried about things with Araceli in general. Something was a little...different about her this year and even though she'd agreed to come to the ball with him, he couldn't help but worry that she didn't like him any more. Such a thought filled him with sadness. He saw things coming together for his friends-and he was happy for them-but he felt he might be losing it all.

Had he done something wrong? He'd tried to give her plenty of attention this year but he had his Head Boy duties and studying for RATS along with his classes. Whatever it was, he was sorry, and he wanted nothing more than to make it up to her, whether it took tonight, all summer or years.

The seventh year met Araceli outside the entrance, corsage and small bouquet in his hands. Weird as it seemed, he'd taken his cues from Owen. His distant cousin was three years younger than him, but he and Jemima seemed to have the most loving relationship that Duncan had ever seen in a couple. It was something to be admired and something he'd like for himself. Come to think of it, maybe he should have gotten Araceli a larger bouquet, since Owen got a big one for Jemima but he honestly didn't know where she was going to put it during the dance. Jemima and Owen were both in the same house so she could easily take it up and put it in her room before they went down. Maybe an elf could take it to Araceli's room for her.

Anyway, Duncan handed both to the fifth year. "You look beautiful." He said. He meant it too. He'd always found the Crotalus to be the most beautiful girl in school . Duncan escorted Araceli inside, spotting Juniper and her date as Headmaster Brockert talked. He was going to have to talk to Finn later, make sure he watched out for Juniper once Duncan graduated. Anyway, the Headmaster finished his brief remarks and the seventh year led his date onto the floor for the dance.

11 Duncan Brockert Does that mean I should kiss you? 271 Duncan Brockert 0 5

Isis

September 14, 2016 3:27 AM

I mean thanks but also whyyyy by Isis

OOC: It was decided on chatzy that it would make the most sense for me to post again next since Alfie directly addressed Isis. The turn order will now adjust accordingly.

BIC:
She noticed Alfie, and as she realized that he was approaching them (or, more accurately, her), Isis felt both relief and annoyance. The good news was that if he interrupted, Nathan would have no time to ask any questions about her reaction to Nevaeh in the event her semi-rapid-fired menagerie of inquiries and statements had failed to distract. But the bad news was that given the intimate nature of their friendship, she worried that others might think she and Alfie were intimate in other ways, the ways that mattered. This was particularly true in Nathan’s presence; everyone knew Isis and Alfie were friends, but she was comfortable with him in ways she was not with anyone else, and she couldn’t help but worry their friendship and quiet intimacy would hint to a romance that wasn’t present.

Alfie smiled at Nathan briefly and then addressed her in a hushed tone. With all the effort this ball required, she had almost forgotten her request of Alfie, or at least she had managed to set it aside in favor of a different anxiety. Isis hated asking for things, but in truth, it was remarkable at this point that she’d even felt comfortable enough to do it. A request of this nature required honesty and openness that was not often found in her, as she had to explain that she was basically homeless. Isis had spent the last several summers on school grounds, but she was getting sick of feeling like she was mooching off her place of employment. But to leave meant a destination, and she had none. She had lived in a car before and could do it again, but she was no longer in possession of one. Isis was saving money as best she could, but it wasn’t enough yet. She couldn’t buy herself anything like that until she had honored her debt in Detroit.

She didn’t like the sound of the things Alfie had to do over the summer, instinctively worried, though she did find some comfort in her confidence that he could tend to himself. He didn’t need her to worry. The main focus now was the answer: he would let her stay with him (or possibly without him in his place, since he said he would most likely be gone a major portion of the time). He spoke of his neighbors, but Isis was not terribly concerned about company. She had plenty of friends at Sonora, but this was a first in a long time. She knew how to be on her own. “Thank you,” she said a little too loudly, genuinely moved. She gave a tight but quick hug, temporarily overwhelmed with gratitude but immediately remembering herself, their location, and their present company. Instead, more subtly, she took his hand briefly and gave a loving squeeze. “It means a lot,” she added more quietly. She might have kissed him if not for…

Nathan. Isis smiled nervously in the other wizard’s direction, afraid of being rude to him but also afraid of being overly apologetic and revealing something she didn’t want to reveal. “So, um…” she said nervously, directing her attention between her two favorite wizards in the world. “The decorations sure are nice.”

12 Isis I mean thanks but also whyyyy 31 Isis 0 5

Jozua

September 14, 2016 3:46 PM

How much is that ET in the window? by Jozua

Jozua's eyes had widened noticeably when he saw Lily in her dress for the first time, but the stranger before him turned back into his best friend when she spoke, and he relaxed muscles he hadn't realized he'd tensed. Lily all dolled up was just weird - not that she didn't look pretty, she did, she just didn't look like Lily and it kind of disturbed him on a subliminal level. Her voice and her smile were as they should be, though, so he put appearances aside as she waltzed down the path back to the school and he tried to keep up without getting stepped on.

"I've been to some," he admitted. "They're pretty dull. That's like a dull that is excruciating to experience, but very pretty to look at in pictures afterwards. Pretty dull." He smiled crookedly at her, figuring that, after nearly a year as friends now, she would not strangle him over his idea of a joke.

This ball, however, had aliens going for it, and was trying it best to prove him wrong in the dull department. Having poured so much effort into 'pretty' most balls suffered in the 'interesting' arena but Sonora had clearly avoided that trap by going for 'fascinating' instead of 'pretty' which was still glorious to the eyes but way better for the mind.

"I think prefects dance first," Jozua answered in response to Lily's slew of questions as to where to begin. He had questioned his Head of House on what to expect at the ball during one of the afternoons he caught the man lounging in their common area, so he felt he was on pretty good authority with this information. He'd mostly been trying to figure out how easily they could sneak away, but now he was glad he had the information so he could make informed choices at their plan of attack here.

"We should probably start by observing the creatures, then initiate contact if it seems prudent to do so. By then, the dance should be over and we can move on to food or dancing."

The Headmaster chose right then to make his speech and start off the dance and Jozua had to physically stop himself from pointing as one of the prefects dragged an alien out onto the floor with him. "Oh! First contact! They seem non-hostile! Shall we get one of our own?"

1 Jozua How much is that ET in the window? 348 Jozua 0 5

Ben

September 14, 2016 4:25 PM

You used an alien word there by Ben

Ben blinked at Kyte. "I did not know that," he stated, kind of surprised that literally everybody on Earth danced. But then, if even the staid and uptight Society Purebloods had dancing as a central theme for one of their most important social events, he supposed anybody could find a dance to suit them.

"If it were a traditional ball, I'd say it would all be stuffy, but they've got aliens walking amongst us, so I think traditional might have gone out the window. And you can make ballroom less boring," he informed Kyte. "It's not just all walking in slow circles. If you're not stuck with a partner who wants to get all mushy or has no sense of adventure, you can throw in dips and spins and really have fun with it. Plus," he grinned and winked, "It's a totally socially acceptable way to get close to lots of girls without any expectations but a fun spin around the floor!"

Then an alien took over Kyte's brain and made him speak alien-speak, and Ben gaped at him a moment before asking, "Did you just say you like whales?" Kyte had said that weird scientific word, though. Celadid or cephalid or something. He thought they were whales. Or maybe octopuses. Or krakens. Or something in the ocean anyway. Maybe.

1 Ben You used an alien word there 339 Ben 0 5

Makenzie

September 14, 2016 9:54 PM

You flatter me, good sir. by Makenzie

She let her eyes fall away coyly, smiling impishly as Isaac teased her. Okay, so maybe she hadn’t done as well as she had thought in sacrificing control of the dance. Makenzie did hope her apparent leading hadn’t been too obvious to onlookers, but at least her partner himself did not seem to mind terribly. She was just so eager and excited, and it was hard to slow herself to another’s pace. She wanted to spin and rejoice and grin the night away, and she was glad to have Isaac with whom to do it all.

There was something very nice about having a date. Makenzie had never had one before, given that she wasn’t involved with anyone outside of school and had only been a first year at the time of the last ball. It felt safe, in a way, because at no point did she expect to be alone. And because she wasn’t actually romantically involved with Isaac--although the thought had passed through her mind a few times during the preparation process, not because she had any strong feelings other than a fairly innocent teenage attraction but because he would be an excellent suitor as far as political reasons went--she would, she imagined, be free to spare a couple dances for other boys of the school. A sliver of her hoped that Tobi Reinhardt would ask; he too had a date, as he was with Scarlett Brockert, but he always seemed so very nice, and he wasn’t bad to look at, either. Of course, it was more likely that his stag cousin Liac would approach, which wouldn’t be half-bad either. Of course, unless it grew so frequent that her date grew annoyed, which she doubted, Makenzie didn’t think there was a boy here she couldn’t spare a dance. She dreamed of being passed between arms, the bell of the ball.

But for now, Isaac was more than satisfactory. “I could dance some more, if you don’t object,” she said, still a bit impish in her delivery, almost vaguely flirtatious. Makenzie had to stay classy, but she was quickly finding a pleasure in being held by a boy, a tiny joy she had thus far done her best to deny when it arose at society events. But she was sixteen years old now: she couldn’t keep pretending their attention did not please her. She was no harlot, but she was human. She raised her arms a bit and stepped closer so that Isaac could most easily position and lead, the perfect posture to be swept away.

12 Makenzie You flatter me, good sir. 291 Makenzie 0 5

Lily

September 15, 2016 3:04 AM

Let's find out! by Lily

There were times when Lily thought Jozua was actually funny, but those were few and far in between. She rolled her eyes at him good-naturedly, more amused at his expression afterwards than the attempts he made. "You're an absolute riot, Joz, has anyone told you that?" she teased. 'Pretty dull' balls sounded exactly like the sort that Lily's family usually attended, full of stiff-lipped pure-bloods looking to marry their children off. Horrific. Adults, in Lily's opinion, had the tendency to ruin all fun with their ideals of manners and expectations and fears.

When she walked into Cascade Hall, she knew she would have fun. Even though she knew next to nothing about the night sky or outer space, there was something enchanting about it without being ostentatious. There were no fancy chandeliers that screamed millions of Galleons or vases that were expensive and displayed simply to show off. Lily, of course, had no experience with these things, but she'd heard loads of stories from her siblings.

No, Sonora took a different approach, one that appealed to young students like her so much more.

At a loss for what to do first, Lily turned her head this way and that trying to get a good look at everything and everyone. Her classmates all looked so lovely in their dress robes; it almost made wearing hers bearable. The Headmaster confirmed Jozua's reply and reminded them that there were yearbooks to peruse through as well. "Merlin, there's so much to do. And we thought this ball was going to be dull." Though climbing trees and exploring more of their favourite places in the dark would have been fun, Lily didn't mind staying here. She liked the buzz of excitement going on all around them.

One of the prefects took an alien to the dance floor and Lily's jaw dropped as her brown eyes widened. "Yes! Can we?" Food, dance, Prefects were all forgotten. Lily grabbed Jozua's hand and rushed them over to the nearest alien. It was rather tall, but about as tall as a pubescent teenager and not a full-grown human adult. Its skin was the colour of the moon and its dark eyes were as large as that of a house-elf. It had a very small nose and a timid mouth, and when they approached it, it looked at them curiously, its pointed ears twitching towards them. This one wasn't wearing any clothing, but the alien didn't need it, really, though it looked human.

"Hello there, I'm Lily and this is my best friend Jozua." She looked at Jozua briefly, giving him time to say something if he wanted before looking back at the alien, eager to see how it would react. "Have you got a name?"

40 Lily Let's find out! 357 Lily 0 5

Nathan

September 15, 2016 10:25 AM

Adults acting awkwardly by Nathan

For a moment, Nathan felt bad about asking about Isis' guest when she proved not to have one, but she bounded back with an assertion that she had friends enough here and he smiled back at her, feeling quite pleased and warmed at the implication he was counted among them. She was a bright young woman and obviously on good terms with the other young staff, so he was glad he'd made a blip on her radar when he was now definitely into middle age.

Before he could properly assert that their friendship was entirely mutual, she got distracted by one of the students in the crowd. He followed her gaze to Neveah, and found nothing obviously concerning that may require a teacher's attention, but then realized it wasn't as a teacher that Isis' attention had been grabbed.

He nodded in understanding as she explained she was close to Neveah's family. "You can tell them she does very well in herbo- Hello," Nathan interrupted himself as Alfie Pye joined them and then pulled Isis aside to speak to her quietly. Feeling a bit confused how to handle this turn of events, and not quite sure if he should just stand there until the private conversation was over, or assume Isis was done talking to him now that one of her friends her own age had come over.

Undecided, he took advantage of the moment to look around for where his mother had gotten to and see what was keeping her, as Isis had been right and she should have been back by now. She was .... Oh dear sweet Merlin. Edda Eir had found her.

He was still debating the pros and cons of mounting a rescue when Isis's voice rose, drawing his attention back to her in time to see her give Alfie a quick hug and a hand squeeze. Yeah, he'd probably better go see to liberating his mother from the medic's clutches now...

Before he'd managed more than half of a backward step though to give the younger pair their space, Isis was talking to him again, trying to draw him back into their circle.

He stood there awkwardly, not entirely sure if small talk opening about the decorations was just to break the ice or if it meant he was being included out of politeness and nothing more intimate than the ball decor was up for discussion now. But it was rude to leave, and his mom was a strong woman who didn't need her son to hold her hand, and Edda was just enough scarier than Pye that given a choice of companions, he'd probably go with this set over that set.

"Um, yeah," he agreed, because the decorations really were something this year. "The nebulas are stellar." He realized after the compliment was out of him mouth that it was also a literal statement of astronomical fact and felt like an idiot. "Er, impressive, I mean. They look good." He needed to stop talking now.

1 Nathan Adults acting awkwardly 28 Nathan 0 5

Sébastien

September 15, 2016 11:52 AM

You laugh, I sulk by Sébastien

Entering the ballroom, Sébastien didn’t know what to think. A space theme for a ball? The idea was most improper, and definitely not the done thing at the balls that Sébastien had attended. However, it did look impressive, and sneering at everything he saw was not going to help Sébastien in the long run. Settling on a neutral look after indulging in an inner moment of scorn, Bastien moved his attention on from the décor.

The Headmaster’s speech was brief, as seemed to be his style. That was a relief for the young Crotalus, who struggled to concentrate during long boring talks, but it also made him wonder why the Brockert wizard wanted to be the Headmaster. If he were in that position, Bastien would use it to remind the students of how they should behave, to force his own agenda on them, and to increase his social standing. He wouldn’t be making short, forgettable speeches and then disappearing from the limelight.

Watching the prefects dancing made Bastien rather jealous. Even though dancing wasn’t his favourite pastime, he wished he could be on the floor with them, showing off himself and Madeleine and putting everyone else to shame. Still, he supposed, it wouldn’t be long until he was prefect and then Head Boy, for who wouldn’t give those roles to Sébastien Évreux? He certainly had more chance than Louis Valois would have when he was old enough – although that probably wasn’t true. Louis would get all the best titles just because everyone thought the Valois heir was so special. Even Bastien had to pretend to be friends with him now. Well, someday Louis would see that he was nothing compared to Sébastien Évreux…

Caught up in daydreams of lording it over his self-appointed enemy, Sébastien was brought back to reality by Madeleine as the prefects’ dance came to an end. The sight of Liliana ruining her chances of advancing socially was a bit of a shock, but it did bring a brief smile to Bastien’s face. It was fitting, really, that the Bannister girl would end up with someone of no importance, and the consequences would no doubt put her in her place. Bastien did like seeing other people get their comeuppances.

“C’est vrai", he replied, shaking his head as if to show sadness at the current state of affairs. The world was definitely mad, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Shall we dance?” Sébastien was keen to get on the dancefloor, and to let everyone see that he had the best witch in the year (if not the school – who could compare to the French?) on his arm. “We can find refreshments afterwards, when it will probably be less busy.”

Glossary:
C’est vrai = It's true

9 Sébastien You laugh, I sulk 350 Sébastien 0 5

Clark

September 16, 2016 12:48 PM

You're half-human, too? by Clark

OOC: I officially retcon Clark's opening comment in the previous post from the lackluster and generic 'You look lovely" to a much more appropriate response detailed below. BiC:

When he first spotted her through the crowd, his eyes had very nearly popped out of their sockets and the grin that burst across his face very nearly hurt. As a half-blood (half-alien, in fact, but he lived in a culture where calling himself a half-blood could be both remarkably true and misleading at the same time), he had felt it was his duty to educate his pureblood friend/girlfriend of the intricacies of the important fandoms of muggle science fiction, among which Star Wars had certainly earned its place. When he saw her dress he knew that the time had come when the student surpassed the master. Lena had not just dressed like Star Wars, she had made it her own. She was glorious.

"Wow," he breathed as they came within speaking distance. "You are amazing."

The sense of awe stayed with him up until he saw John's dancing partner, and even then it didn't so much fade as get overrun by his panic.

Lena seemed equally concerned, not for John's physical safety (which made sense; even real aliens wouldn't blow their cover by causing obvious harm to a student) but rather for his mental safety. If terrestrial satoris could read minds, and it was fact that alien snitches could, then surely there was a good chance other extraterrestrials would be able to shuffle through John's brain in search of clues in their search to find Clark.

Fortunately, John did not know Clark's origins, believing as most people did that Clark was just as human as everyone else and came from nowhere more exotic than Maryland. At worst, John might have been told in passing that Clark had lived in California when he was a toddler. But mostly John just knew Clark was a friendly guy who obsessed a little bit about science fiction and science fact and there was nothing particularly notable about that in an Aladren half-blood.

It was best and safest, especially with possible telepathy on the table, to just continue to keep his distance from the humanoids of indeterminate origin. Distracted now, the rest of the dance was not his best, but they had put in enough practice together that Clark avoided any serious misteps just through muscle memory. It was good they had been so diligent in their preparations or he surely would have drawn unwanted attention to himself in his attempts to stay on the opposite side of the dance floor from John's partner.

Eventually the song ended, and they were no longer required to be front and center in the school's eyes. Retreat was a viable option. "Want to pick up yearbooks and find a starry corner to look through them?" he invited, nodding to some of the further reaches of the room where constellations danced over the flowing cascades.

1 Clark You're half-human, too? 277 Clark 0 5

Isis (with some Alfie)

September 16, 2016 3:23 PM

You can say that again by Isis (with some Alfie)

Alfie raised an eyebrow. The air was full of tension and though he normally thrived on making situations like that awkward, tonight was not one of those nights where he felt like sticking around just to the heck of it. “Yeah, well, I’ll catch you guys later,” he gave them each a mock salute and went off to find Amelle. He knew she’d be hiding around somewhere and she was always fun for a flirt.

Isis blinked momentarily, though she couldn’t say she was horribly surprised by Alfie’s behavior. “That man is such a weirdo,” she said lovingly after him, a smile on her lips from both his buzzing off and Nathan’s accidental space pun. She was pretty lucky nowadays to have such lovely people in her life, people who, in their own, individual ways, made her feel so happy and alive. It was a pleasant change of pace to a history where her pockets were always filled to brimming with rocks, heavy and mighty. Lately, she felt mighty, too.

“...I’m… sorry,” she fumbled weakly. “That whole thing was... probably weird. Nothing to worry about, though.” There were a couple reasons she didn’t want Nathan to know about this living situation. One, being essentially homeless was kind of embarrassing. But two, perhaps more importantly, she didn’t want him to hear that she’d be living with Alfie and assume something between them that wasn’t there. For some fairly apparent reasons, it was rather important to her that Nathan not think she had a romantic interest in Alfie. Or anyone, really.

“Do you want to dance?” The question had left her lips before her brain had the time to stop it, and she was visibly surprised at herself for even asking. But she rushed the surprised expression off her face as quickly as possible, deciding in the instant that if she was going to ask a bold question, she had to commit to it, even as her stomach knotted probably from her heart dropping into it.

12 Isis (with some Alfie) You can say that again 31 Isis (with some Alfie) 0 5

Lauren Song

September 16, 2016 4:18 PM

I see what you did there. by Lauren Song

Lauren didn't really know what to think of Arne Reinhardt. She'd heard he was a playful kind of guy and he definitely seemed like it. He was the kind you would be best friends with but would never really consider dating. In a lot of ways he reminded her of her brother. Lauren liked spending time with him, but she had daydreams about the kind of Prince Charming she'd like to be swept off her feet by. Arne didn't really fit into that category.

She had dressed up like everyone else in a pretty dress with sparkles and had asked the opinion of her roommates probably a thousand times before being satisfied with her hair and light makeup. Lauren didn't want to look like a slob in front of her peers, but at the same time she wanted to have fun with Arne too even if she barely knew him. There was a part of her that was envious of her roommates who had both snagged really good-looking wizards, but it wasn't enough for her to have bad feelings towards them. They were her best friends and Lauren would always be there for them.

It took her a little while, but she finally made it to the front of Cascade Hall to meet her date. He whistled like a stupid boy and Lauren let him twirl her. She appreciated how her dress spun out as she twirled. His comment didn't exactly send a thrill of pleasure through her and Lauren wondered if Arne acted like this all the time. Probably. That meant he probably didn't have any other feelings towards her. Even though she didn't necessarily want Arne Reinhardt to be her boyfriend, having the special attention of a boy would have been nice.

Lauren smiled politely at Arne's amended statement. "Sure, sounds like a plan. Let's go inside." She led the way into Cascade Hall and wondered if dressing up and going to a ball with Arne would be worth it. Hopefully they'd have fun together. "Wow, this is amazing!" she gushed at the sight. Prefects were starting the dance first, so Lauren stood next to Arne and wondered if he'd offer to get her a drink. "The student council did an awesome job putting this together."

As a half-blood who lived with a really busy mom in the muggle world, Lauren had never been invited to any fancy parties. Ugly sweater Christmas parties didn't fall into the same category as this in the slightest.

19 Lauren Song I see what you did there. 303 Lauren Song 0 5

Jemima Wolseithcrafte

September 17, 2016 2:44 AM

A perfect date with a perfect gentleman by Jemima Wolseithcrafte

Jemima was so excited for the ball. Everything was as perfect as could be, not just for her but for all the people she cared about too, as both her roommates had dates. She had been surprised to hear about Arne asking Lauren, as she hadn’t really known that they knew each other very well. Not that that was a reason to stop a boy liking a girl, especially one as cute as her roommate, but she had been sure to press Lauren for all the details, including how she felt about him. Not only was everyone all paired up, but she had the most amazing dress too! Perhaps it was a little more casual than a lot of Pureblood girls would go for, but it was a Sonora ball, not a society ball, so she felt she could get away with it, and it was simply the most gorgeous thing she had ever seen. It was like the beautiful dress reincarnation of her artist’s smock - an old set of her mother’s robes that had found their way into the children’s dressing up box, and thence on to being Jemima’s art attire. The smock and the dress were both covered in bright orange floral print, although the smock’s was more graphic and mixed with browns, whereas the dress’s flowers were more realistic looking. It had a fitted top, which was in small, ruffly layers, and a huge a-line skirt which flew out amazingly when she spun (a fact which she had been sure to demonstrate thoroughly to Ginger and Lauren). She had pinned her hair up in a high ponytail, which bounced slightly with her slight natural curl, and had attached a large orange artificial flower to the side. Around her wrist was the bracelet that Owen had given her for Christmas, which also heavily featured her favourite colour. It was another plus of the slightly informal dress that the bracelet, which was quite funky and arty, didn’t clash as much as it might have with a more formal look (not that that would have stopped her from wearing it). Wishing her room-mates a fun evening, she practically ran down the steps to the common room, keen to meet Owen, which she did with a big hug and a kiss.

“Thank you,” she beamed at his compliment, “Oh, and thank you again,” she added, as he handed her flowers in addition to her corsage.

“You’re looking very handsome too,” she returned the compliment, and not just for form’s sake - she knew she was biased, but Owen was handsome as well as sweet. She really was lucky. And it only got better as he presented her with an anniversary gift.

“Oh Owen!” she gasped, her breath catching in her throat as he presented her with the present and explained why. “That’s so thoughtful. Thank you!” It was a good job she hadn’t done much in the way of make up, as her eyes filled with tears as she opened it. It was so beautiful and so sweet. She fumbled with the clasp, her hands shaking. “Can you help me put it on?” she asked, finding her fingers were shaking too much. “It’s perfect,” she thanked him, kissing him again on the cheek, “I… I didn’t get you anything,” she apologised.

Once the locket was fixed and the flowers safely stowed in a vase in her dorm room, she and Owen made their way to the Cascade Hall, arm in arm. She only really half watched the prefects dance… As far as she was concerned, this night was just about the two of them.

“Let’s get some punch,” she agreed. Yearbooks could be picked up at the end. She wanted to be free to dance, to hug and to hold hands.

OOC - The dress.

13 Jemima Wolseithcrafte A perfect date with a perfect gentleman 304 Jemima Wolseithcrafte 0 5

Ingrid

September 18, 2016 12:28 AM

Not sure why by Ingrid

Ingrid was quite shocked by Louis’ response. How could one not care what one’s parents thought? It was a basic pillar of her upbringing that a good daughter respected her parents’ wishes - loyalty and duty to one’s parents were owed for all that they had sacrificed to give her good things in life. Besides which, she knew there were serious consequences to disobeying in the ways that Louis was suggesting.

He seemed to accept her answer to his other question though. At least, somewhat. It was quite pleasing to think she’d backed an Aladren into a corner of admitting his own question had been badly put. They took such pride in that kind of thing.

And then he cast aside the subject, as if it hadn’t mattered at all, and asked her to dance. Ingrid was perplexed. She also still felt the irritation of Louis’ words burning and pulsating in her chest. She would sooner have shoved him over or yelled at him than danced… But his attitude had changed so suddenly. Had the whole thing been a joke? A test? That didn’t quell her annoyance any, but she knew better than to cause a scene.

“Sure,” she agreed, a little skeptically. At least it was quite a fast song so that didn’t mean getting all couply.

13 Ingrid Not sure why 322 Ingrid 0 5

Gabriel Valenti & Natalie Varth

September 19, 2016 9:59 PM

Best (Non) Couple by Gabriel Valenti & Natalie Varth

Sonora Academy had presented Gabriel with a series of challenges; flying through the air, meeting strange creatures, and even formal Challenges. But nothing was quite so intimidating as what presently lay before him, placed carefully on his bed.

Dress robes.

He'd gone to buy them over Christmas break with his dad and brother, they'd even practiced putting them on a couple of times. He'd been invited to formal events before back home, like weddings and bar mitzvahs. Even for Christmas dinner, Easter brunch, baptisms and confirmations, he was expected to look like he hadn’t just tumbled off the baseball field. That was all at home with family. No matter where they were or what they were wearing, they would probably still talk baseball and have a good time. But this would be the very first time Gabe was flying solo.

Everything had been going okay until he got to the bowtie, which was a bright Teppenpaw yellow (what else?). It was impossible - he almost considered throwing it to his probably feral Creatures book as a snack. Determined, he had paraded himself down to the common room until he found Jozua Sparks, a first year on the Quidditch team with Gabe. It took a couple of tries, but in the end, the second year felt pretty confident the result was something resembling a bow.

He wasn’t sure what you were supposed to do before a Ball, so he just showed up. Cascade Hall looked awesome! There were weird alien dudes and everything. Were they real? Did wizards have contact with aliens, and just not tell anybody? Who knew. Magic was crazy stuff.

While everyone else was watching the prefects dance (boring!), Gabe picked up a yearbook and promptly made his way towards food. He’d catch up with his friends once the ceremony stuff was over. He was hoping that an extra special occasion meant extra special food. Piling some pigs in blankets onto a plate, he found a table and started to look through the yearbook.

He had only started going through the awards - Nat had gotten Most Likely to Brighten Your Day, which was true, they were both Social Butterflies, which was fun, and they had defended their respective titles as Most Quidditch Obsessed, which was awesome. And then soon, his best friend was sitting next to him, too! He grinned.

Nat had slipped away from her party and found Gabe while he was still leafing through it. Placing a plate of her own next to his and voicing a quick “be right back” she went off and procured a copy of her own. Producing a gold pen she asked Gabe to sign. “You get this whole page! You can draw in it too,” she said opening up the inner flap to the first blank page, “but you have to write a lot too. I expect it.” Nat had been aiming for a voice that brooked no argument but couldn’t contain her smile. She was grinning when she handed the book and pen over to Gabe.

“For sure!” he said, taking the pen and yearbook from her, announcing importantly, “You will get a scribble resembling a dragon.” He began to write in his usual messy font, the ink slightly smudged because he was left handed. The second year wrote a note congratulating Nat on making the team this year, and detailing all the cool stuff they had learned to do in the air. Now that they had gotten the chance to play in actual Quidditch games this year, he felt like they were really upping their game.

She started on her plate of food, not expecting her book back anytime soon. “How far did you get? Anything of note yet?”

Gabe looked up from the book, dark eyes initially confused, “Nah,” he shook his head, before starting to feel concerned, “Unless… did someone snag my spot for coolest explosions?”

At that Natalie snorted. “That’s not the right adjective, but I doubt it anyway,” she said grinning again. “You’re the only possible candidate for that award.” Nat claimed Gabe’s copy and flipped to the section finding that, as expected, Gabe had won. “See? You have yet to shirk the title of explosion master”

Gabe looked at the page, relieved, until he saw something missing from it, “Aw, you didn’t get it this year,” he observed, feeling empathetic, “We’ll have to explode more things when we’re Intermediates.”

“Gabe,” Nat shook her head, wondering if she should tell him that “Most Likely to Cause an Explosion” was not something she would pride herself on receiving but her friend’s sincere look of sympathy stopped her, suspecting it meant something to him. Instead she finished by joking “you mean to tell me that those explosions were intentional? I do declare, that might be cheating! After all it’s supposed to be ‘most likely’ not ‘guaranteed,’”

He flashed a crooked grin, “Y’know, at first it wasn’t, but then I started figuring out what makes the coolest explosions… it’s like, a fifty-fifty break, now,” he was about to go back to detailing the scales on what was supposed to be a dragon, but then he wondered if Nat was up to something, “Wait, did you see something?”

“What do you mean?” Natalie asked, all innocence.

Gabe wrinkled his nose. He had older siblings, both were teenagers, and he could sense when he was being messed with. He started to flip through the yearbook, examining each page with extra care. He got to “Most Likely to Cause Trouble” and frowned.

“That’s not cool,” he shook his head. Sure, Ari was stubborn and kind of bossy, but why would anyone say she was a troublemaker? The first year was at least half the reason he was passing Transfiguration. But Nat was cool, he didn’t think she would tease him for that. So he kept searching.

“Congrats on Best Flyer!” he exclaimed, looking up with a grin, “Is that it?”

Nat blushed a little bashfully, “Aw, thanks. Sorry you didn’t get it too. . . But, hey! Explosions!” He hadn’t guessed correctly but at least he’d presented her with an out. At this point she leaned over his shoulder so they could view the pages together. “Let’s see what else everyone got.”

Gabe shrugged off not winning the award. He was used to not being the best athlete, not even in his own family. Mattie was a rising junior, and starting quarterback next year on the local high school football team, as well as a varsity baseball player. Emma was captain of her middle school soccer team, in part Gabe was sure because nobody was as focused as his big sister. But her real talent was for pitching. She was going to try out for the high school baseball team with Mattie and all the boys next year. Gabe was really proud of her. He played sports because he loved them, and tried his very best because that just seemed right.

“Okay,” he said slowly, still searching through the book. And that’s when he saw it. His stomach turned to a thousand knots, and somehow, remarkably, he wasn’t feeling very hungry anymore.

“Oh.”

“‘Oh’?” Nat was wondering what had caught Gabe’s attention, but she had turned back to her food when he flipped the page and he had a head start on seeing the content. On the left side was “Worst Enemies”, which she doubted could have been it -they were Teppenpaws after all- and when saw no obvious cause for alarm looked to the right side. They very last entry under it had the now familiar pictures of Gabe and her. That wasn’t that surprising, they hadn’t won Best Friends last year but it- oh. What she had assumed was the “Best Friends” page was actually for “Best Couples”.

“Haha, look at that, darling! We won!” she cackled as the boy next to her was still seemingly out of sorts. Prodding him with a grin, she lost some of the smile when he didn’t seem to respond. “Gabe?” came the worried question “What’s wrong?”

Gabe continued to stare down at the pictures of Nat and himself, both smiling and waving up at him, as if nothing about their placement was out of the ordinary. They had been voted Best Couple. Couple! Which they were not, they were best friends. He looked up. Nat was staring at him, concern written plainly across her face. Why was she concerned? Was she okay? Did she want to be a, um, couple? Should he have asked her to the dance? Did it count if they were just hanging out at the dance? Most days, Gabe was secretly kind of glad to get some space from his teasing sixteen year-old brother. But now, he wished Mattie would just appear and time would stop, so he could tell Gabe what to do.

What was he supposed to do here? All he wanted was for Nat to be happy, which, she definitely was not right now. What did she want him to say?

Thankfully, she interrupted again with the same question, “Gabe, are you okay?” Deciding to go for levity, she crooked a half smile and asked “Stomach cramps?” She was testing the waters, hoping her friend was just suffering from indigestion rather than something more serious.

He mirrored Nat’s smile and nodded. Food was the best, food would always be there for him. Currently, it was his cop out.

”Oh good, it wasn’t the book,” Nat thought taking a cursory glance at it open on the table before raising her head again. Before she turned back to Gabe she spotted one of the girls she had come with, Nevaeh, on the dancefloor. Deciding food troubles were best worked off through exercise (though how sound that was was up for debate,) she smiled and grabbed Gabe’s hand. “Come on, as best couple you owe me at least one dance. It'll be fun!” she said before hauling Gabe off his feet and pulling him forward.

She referred to them as a couple! That was such an awful, grown up word. But he didn’t have time to say much else, as Nat took his hand and whisked him off to the dance floor. It was a fast song, thank goodness. Gabe would prefer death by his crazed, feral Magical Creatures textbook over a slow dance. But he’d gone to enough parties back home to feel comfortable dancing to a fast song now, swaying to the beat and flailing about in a goofy way. He smiled, this was much better - moving was always better than talking.

Nat joined him, jumping up and down, balancing on the balls of her feet and her long hair whipping side to side. No part of this was romantic, they were just two best friends having fun dancing together. Sure that indigestion had been the problem now and not the book she planned to tease him just once or twice more tonight with it. It was quite a lark, she was positive Gabe wasn’t even interested in girls. Quite the late bloomer herself, she barely recognized people had genders at all. In any case she’d probably forget about the whole couple thing tomorrow. Gabe was an awful cutie when flustered but she'd spare her friend the teasing. After that “once or twice” of course.

Gabe had absolutely no idea what had just happened. Sonora Academy had presented him with a series of challenges tonight; he was wearing goofy dress robes, a first year had helped him with his bowtie. Somehow, he and Nat had been voted Best Couple, and Nat was joking, but he wasn’t sure how much she was joking.

But none of that was important to him right now. He was dancing with the coolest girl at school, and that was all that mattered. Feeling more confident than he had since getting his yearbook, he grabbed Nat’s hand and spun her around.

OOC: Permission to mention Jozua from his author, who has the eternal gratitude of Gabe.

0 Gabriel Valenti & Natalie Varth Best (Non) Couple 330 Gabriel Valenti & Natalie Varth 0 5

Natalie, Nevaeh, Raine, & Theresa

September 20, 2016 2:08 PM

Getting ready (MARS) by Natalie, Nevaeh, Raine, & Theresa

Raine was excited for the ball, even though asking her friends hadn’t gone the way she’d planned (although they’d later found the invitations when they’d been working in the library, and she’d told Natalie she could help herself to spare parchment out of her bag, forgetting that they were in there). Upon finding them Natalie had gathered Raine in a warm, jostling hug and declared Raine to be an “absolute charmer”. Tess had felt so bad when she’d found out about Raine’s carefully-prepared invitations. If only she’d been a little slower to suggest them all going together, instead of coming straight out with it the minute they’d all arrived at girls’ day! Still, what was done was done, and at least the invitations hadn’t gone to waste. They were so sweet and thoughtful, which was typical of Raine. Tess felt lucky to count her as one of her friends.

Raine headed down to the MARS room with Natalie, all the things she needed to get ready shoved inside a carrier bag, and a big grin on her face. Stage one was to get her outfit on. Raine was used to getting ready for performances in big changing rooms, and so had no compunctions about stripping down to her pants in front of a group, and slipping into her outfit. It was a recycling of one of her favourite circus costumes, a purple velvet leotard with lots of silver sparkles, which made a big, off-centre ‘V’ running from her shoulder to her naval. Her mum had helped her to sew a simple wrap around skirt to put over the top, also in purple and decorated with a lot of glitter. The skirt was taffeta and rustled beautifully whenever she moved. It was one of many considerations she’d made of Nevaeh when choosing her outfit. Dresses were normally so much about looking, and she didn’t want her friend to miss out. She also clipped little anklets in place, each a chain of small silver bells, so that she jingled lightly with each step. That was sound covered. She didn’t own any perfume, but had washed her hair that morning and given herself a thorough, all-over scrub with her favourite soap before heading out, so that she smelled of lavender and thyme. She thought the velvet of her leotard made for a nice feel, although she couldn’t imagine that would really come up because she couldn’t think of a way to suggest Nevaeh feel her without seeming very strange. She hoped that taste could be covered by some yummy snacks at the ball.

Raine had brought down her dress to change into so Nat had followed suit. Her dress was not nearly as creative or artistically put together as Raine’s but it was quite catching in it's own way, especially as a last minute thing. Nat had packed a single dress, a straight teal blue turtleneck that was shoulderless. In an attempt to make it more fetching and more formal Nat had engaged Raine’s help and together they draped gold chiffon around the sides and back of the skirt, stitched some gold lace up the front half and drew lots of glittery swirls on the skirt’s new extension. The process took a total of four days, the largest part spent on attaching the lace. Nat strolled over to her bag to retrieve said dress.

Everyone getting changed together reminded Tess of PE lessons back in primary school, although with more of an occasion to look forward to, less of a smell of sweat, and nicer clothes to change into. Tess was very pleased with the dress she and her mother had found in Nordstrom department store. It was knee-length and mostly white, with gold stripes fading upwards to white on the skirt, little bits of delicate gold patterning on the bodice, and white bow to the side of the neck. She felt that it was formal and pretty without being too old for her. Tess had twisted her hair into a simple yet nice-looking bun, and little gold-sequined pumps finished her look.

Nevaeh had decided that no height of heel would be appropriate for her, so she tucked her feet into simple white flats. Like Tess’s, her dress only came about to the knee and incorporated white, but overall it was quite a different dress. Hers was white and slightly laced on the top of the high waistline, with orange ruffles falling in a couple layers beneath. The two colors were separated by a row of sparkly ornamentations. When she had it all on, she turned to Scout and, pulling out a purple argyle bowtie from her bag, fancied him up, too.

Once she was dressed, Raine sat cross-legged, skirts flowing out around her, and began on… well, not exactly make-up. Raine was much more adept at face-paints and saw no reason not to apply this to the ball. She wet a small sponge, applying a light, air-brush look of different purples across the whole of her eyes, a little like a mask, before taking a small pointed brush to begin working delicate flower patterns across the background.

“I can do face-paint for anyone else who wants it,” she offered.

Tess had thought about wearing makeup, but beyond some mascara and lip-gloss (which she’d already applied) she didn’t really have much. So when Raine suggested face-paints, she thought this sounded like a great idea, especially as Raine seemed quite experienced in applying them. “I’d love some face-paint, please!” she replied enthusiastically. “What do you guys think would look good?”

Natalie, who was currently undoing the laces to her boots, shot her hand in the air while simultaneously cracking an open mouthed grin. She tugged her feet free from the dulled black leather with the remaining hand and crawled over to where Raine was seated just a few feet away. “Me too! I'd love a swirly mask! What colors do you have?” Nat thought her roommate would have quite the assortment but was still awed by how pretty the colors she did have were. After looking at the colors, Nat suggested white and gold for Tess to match her dress but also thought a little brown could be added to add school spirit.

“That’s a good idea, Nat, thanks”, replied Tess. “D’you reckon you could do some swirls by my eyes, Raine?” This face-paint idea was getting better by the second. It wasn’t something she’d have thought of on her own, but then again she wasn’t as artistic as she felt Raine was.

“Sure,” Raine nodded to Tess’s question, “Matching dresses is a good idea. I’ve got these,” she indicated a palette that covered a couple of shades of each of the primary and secondary colours, “Plus black or white to change up the shades, and some metallic ones still in my bag,” she explained. It essentially meant she could do more or less any colour they liked. Raine tended to be a person of the fewest words possible, but the one exception was when it sounded like bragging, and - even if it was just a true fact of the colours she had available or could make - ‘I can do anything’ was a sentence that was never going to pass Raine’s lips.

“So, this kind of bright blue for Natalie with some gold swirls, and white for Tess with maybe some big gold rays, like a sunshine, and to match the lines in your skirt?” she suggested. “I could edge them in brown too, because that might make the gold stand out better against the white,” she added, wanting to make sure she incorporated all of Natalie’s suggestion.

“I’ll take some too, if you’ve got the time,” Nevaeh piped up, inspired by the further discussion of colors and designs. “Though I think I want mine kinda subtle. Obviously a little more than makeup would be, but not too much.” She knew no mirror would allow her to really see what it would look like, but she did want to feel beautiful, even if she couldn’t use her eyes to confirm the fact. She knew her friends would probably tell her a hundred times, anyway. They were nice like that.

“Sure I do,” Raine smiled, when Nevaeh said she’d have face paints if Raine had time. She turned to finish Nat’s face paint whilst mulling over what to do with Nevaeh. Whilst Raine made a big effort to feed Nevaeh’s other senses, she just wasn’t a chatterer by nature, so didn’t often give the extra information that might have been useful, like the fact that she was just finishing up one of the other girls. If Nevaeh asked, or pointed it out, she would make more of an effort, but her natural quietness was a habit that would be hard to break out of without a lot of external prompting.

“Ok, ready for you now,” she smiled, when she’d finished Nat. “Just set yourself down where you are,” she added. Nevaeh was pretty near her and it was easier to adjust her own position than navigate Nevaeh around the mess of water pots and palettes she’d managed to amass around herself. “I’ll match your dress too. I can blend the colours soft-like on your eyes, then maybe some little dots in alternating colours underneath?” she asked. Nevaeh had said she wanted subtle, so hopefully that fit the bill.

Once she was done with the face paints, she brushed out her hair. Raine had two basic styles…. Hair loose, or hair in a huge bun, lacquered down with spray. The latter was really only for shows and usually done by her mother. Most of the time, she just left it down. If any teachers ever asked them tie it back for safety reasons, she would bemusedly ask for a hair tie from a neighbour or just tuck it into her collar. She had brought down a garland of fabric flowers, which was her main way of making her hair look interesting for special occasions.

“Is anyone good with hair?” she asked. “If not, I’ll just put this on,” she added, indicating the garland. Raine’s brown hair was not well suited to slick and elegant styles, being rather wild and fly-away. It had a tendency to always look unbrushed, even when it just had been - a fact that was demonstrably true right now. But perhaps one of her friends was able to work a little magic in this area.

Nevaeh couldn’t really offer much in the way of help with hair because, unfortunately, her hair was quite different from theirs by nature. Her own was already taken care of, as she had visited Isis for some help and consultation on the matter. They had thought about doing a head full of braids but, without proper time, eventually settled on straightening and taming it. Nevaeh’s hair had never felt so sleek before, but it was more work than she was willing to put in for daily life. She didn’t want to go ask Isis for help every day.

She gently grabbed the flower string from Raine’s hand and pulled it close to her so she could get some semblance of a solid look at it. “If nothing else, this is super pretty,” she smiled before handing it back.

“Thanks, your hair is looking super nice too,” she added to Nevaeh.

Nat offered to give Raine a double braid, something she was used to giving to Amanda. Raine was pretty much happy to leave herself in anyone’s capable hands, so let Nat work her magic. As the style wasn’t a big up-do that would be in their way, she popped the circlet of flowers on at the end anyway. Raine came away looking so cute that Nat had to smile at her handiwork and hugged her across the shoulders before standing up.

“Now” She exclaimed, “we're ready!” Natalie was fired up, ready to storm a castle and slay dragons with her party. They were technically going to parade down the halls of the castle and, in muggle slang, were technically going to “slay” at their ball debut. This was close enough for her, and excitedly she watched as everyone got ready to leave. Grinning, she grabbed the hand of the girl closest to her and ran out the open door towards the adventure.

7 Natalie, Nevaeh, Raine, & Theresa Getting ready (MARS) 331 Natalie, Nevaeh, Raine, & Theresa 0 5

Joella Curtis

September 20, 2016 3:35 PM

Just watch me play lady! by Joella Curtis

The last midsummer ball that Joella had attended had been in her first year. Four years on and the event had returned and this time was certainly going to be different. For starters, this year she would actually have a date. She’d had fun with her roommate at the first one but going with Lionel was admittedly rather more exciting. Not only this, but she had the prefects’ dance - something she would never have imagined herself being a part of.

Since it was her last school ball, the fifth year had wanted to go all out with her dress. She had got everything sorted in the midterm break (and told not to grow but there had been little chance of that anyway) whilst in Quebec, where she had been taken to fashion show upon fashion show. There she had viewed so much haute couture that she thought it would be impossible to pick just one dress. But then she’d seen it - a beautiful light blue embellished Valois design.

As she walked, the big dress would occasionally lift up at the front just enough that her silver heels were visible. Her gingery hair was styled into controlled waves down her back with some set over one shoulder and her makeup mostly subtle nude colours, allowing her blue eyes to compliment the dress naturally.

When Joella made her way down to the common room to meet Lionel, she felt nothing short of confident. She knew she didn’t even come close to being the prettiest girl in the school but over the past year she had discovered methods to making herself feel pretty and hoped that self-confidence would radiate and appeal to others.

Of course, there was a certain somebody in particular who she wished would admire her looks but she didn’t dare be so hopeful. And tonight she thought she was quite content with receiving compliments from Lionel, who seemed suitably keen to play his part.

“Thank you,” she smiled at him, both in response to his telling her she looked lovely and the proffered corsage. “Well, I admire your talents,” she grinned when Lionel revealed that he had transfigured it himself.

It was an interesting way to compliment a girl but she supposed since he viewed her as nothing more than a friend, it made sense that they didn’t take the whole “date” thing too seriously. As fond of him as she was, it had to be said that Lionel was no Jax Donovan.

Joella admired the Cascade Hall decorations when she entered but didn’t make any vocal exclamations like her partner did. His reaction sounded rather like something that should have come out of Clark Dill’s mouth but she had already spotted him drooling over his annoyingly pretty (not to mention almost naked - enough skin revealed to take all attention away from the somewhat sheer fabric of parts of Joella’s dress) rumoured girlfriend. Joella was not quite so well-endowed in the chest area herself, hence her dress did not focus on revealing this aspect of her body, but she chose to believe that some boys cared about more than that.

But for now she returned her attention back to Lionel and found comfort in the fact that he was not a nerdy Aladren so could find the decorations impressive without being a total weirdo. She rather liked the unexpected theme herself, save for the creepy aliens, and thought enough effort must have gone into making the Cascade Hall look this way that they should show their appreciation.

“Unfortunately I’ve had enough dance tutoring inflicted upon me that I can help you,” Joella smiled, although her resentment of said tutoring had long ago dissolved as she’d found herself grown rather fond of dancing. Lionel turned out not to be a total dress-breaking abomination on the dancefloor and Joella was satisfied that she had nothing to worry about on that front. Relieved and reassured of this by the end of the prefects’ dance, she was all smiles and keen to dance some more.

“Of course, you must. Balls are so much fun,” Joella nodded and if she didn’t know Lionel better, she might have thought he was trying to get himself an invitation to one of her family’s balls or at least use her as a social connection one way or another. But this was Lionel and he wasn’t like that at all - although in truth she didn’t know how much she’d mind if he was. Joella liked it when guys her age showed an interest in her, for whatever reason, yet obviously there were many more that didn’t than did and that was okay. But for guys like Lionel and Jax to not show an interest, that was an entirely different matter and sometimes Joella had a hard time convincing herself that that was also okay. They were her friends and whilst a girl didn’t want all of her friends falling for her, it had to be asked; if they weren’t interested in her then whoever would be?

That being said, she did get a kick from being addressed as “my lady” so Lionel was playing some of his cards right. Even if the formalities were done in jest, Joella couldn’t help grinning (and wiggling her eyebrows) at her date.

“Dance!” Joella said, enthusiastically grabbing Lionel’s hand before he could drag her away from the dancefloor. Tonight she was going to dance until her legs ached and more and it didn’t matter whether or not Lionel could take the pace because she knew for a fact there were a handful of handsome young men at the school who she wouldn’t mind stepping in for a dance or two. “You don’t mind, do you?” she added, but only once it was really too late for Lionel to withdraw the offer.

8 Joella Curtis Just watch me play lady! 295 Joella Curtis 0 5

Nathan

September 22, 2016 11:20 AM

Adults Acting Awkwardly by Nathan

Nathan watched as Alfie excused himself and wandered away, entirely baffled as to how to take his whole interruption into the conversation Nathan had been having with Isis. It did seem to be over now though, which was quite honestly a bit of a relief. He liked talking with Isis, but talking with Isis and Alfie was just confusing.

Neither was he entirely sure how to take Isis' fond tone as she called her friend a weirdo, and the most diplomatic response he was able to cobble together was only two letters long and lacked definition. "Um." He didn't want to insult his DADA colleague by agreeing (as he didn't have the background and friendship to make it playful like Isis had) but claiming that Pye was not weird would be lying.

Isis seemed to sense his discomfort with the whole situation and apologized for it. "I'm not worried," he stated, smiling a bit to show that he didn't hold the minute of awkwardness against her. But then she shattered his returning confidence by asking the last thing he was expecting.

Do you want to dance?

If she'd asked Alfie, Nathan wouldn't have thought anything of it. If she'd asked the new Creatures professor, he would have figured she was just getting to know the new guy. If she'd asked the Headmaster - well, okay, he'd have thought she was mad if she'd asked Headmaster Brockert. Asking Nathan, however, was only marginally less startling.

"M-me?" he questioned, looking behind himself to see if there was somebody else there who had actually been the target of the question, but there wasn't. "Uh," he stalled, still trying to wrap his head around what just happened. They were friends. This was a dance. Why had the request taken his so off-guard? He couldn't explain it, even to himself, but what Isis needed was an answer not an explanation so he stuttered, "Y-yeah, sure. Okay."

He held out a hand to hold while the walked out to the dance floor, and felt she did need one piece of background if she was going to get herself onto this, "But it's been decades since I danced anything but the Teppenpaw jig, and I'm pretty awful at that, just so you know."

1 Nathan Adults Acting Awkwardly 28 Nathan 0 5