Alright, let's get this over with. on Cascade Hall

Headmaster Brockert

August 18, 2017 3:55 PM

Opening Feast by Headmaster Brockert

This year Mortimer was a bit more interested in the incoming students than he was last year as another of his granddaughters, Ruby, was going to be attending.

She would be among the first students who would be trying out their new sorting method. Honestly, Mortimer didn't understand why it needed to be changed. Generations upon generations had been sorted this way and had grown up to be just fine. He never did undestand why things needed to change when the old ways worked perfectly well. Tradition was important. However, apparently, people had complained about the lack of sanitation regarding sharing a cup which was ridiculous. Even Annabeth hadn't raised a fuss over Owen doing so and she was incredibly overprotective. Honestly, kids were too soft now what with all the special diets that said everything with any flavor was bad for you. All that gluten free organic sugar free nonsense. Conspiracy by the blasted vegetable industry if you asked him.

They would change the food over his dead body. They could have those items too but they weren't taking away his steaks! After all, the kitchen elves had only just perfected steaks the way he liked them. Practically still mooing.

At least though, the year was off to a better start. No dealings with student altercations. Probably because after last year, Mortimer had wisely decided to stay in his office until the feast.

The first years arrived and Mortimer stood, placing a Sonorous charm on himself and began the usual spiel. Honestly, whatever he said at the Opening Feast was practically the same every year. Of course, now he would have to change it just a little. "Welcome to Sonora for the new first years and welcome back for all older students. First years, you should have recieved a blank badge at the end of Orientation." At least they hadn't gotten it when they first got there, some were liable to lose it. "You will dunk the badge in the Sorting Potion and it will turn the color representing your house which are blue for Aladren, yellow for Teppenpaw, red for Crotalus, and brown for Pecari. Afterwards, you may join your house table."

He watched as Ruby joined the Teppenpaw table along with two boys. Sorting might have been done by the potion and not him specifically,but so far he was four for four on guessing his closer relatives.

Once the first years had settled , Mortimer began his next announcement"Would Owen Brockert and Samantha Meeks please come up and get your Head Student badges? In addition I'd like to call up Nevaeh Reid, Joseph Umland, Angelique Brockert and Theresa Whittaker to recieve their prefect badges. Congratulations." He was pretty satisfied with Angelique and Owen being awarded the badges. That meant their parents would be happy and when others were happy, it made his own life easier and while Owen was incredibly soft, he was at least better than John Umland. On that note,Joe Umland's promotion, did not thrill him.

After they returned to their seats, Mortimer made one last announcement. "This year's Midsummer Event will be the bonfire. Now we shall sing the school song." And by we , he meant them .

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

Once the school song had been sung, Mortimer dug into his steak.

Ahh, juicy, just the way he liked it.

Subthreads:

Enthusiastic by Ruby Brockert with Dorian Montoir

Back in the Swing of Things by Kit Reid with Jennifer White

A new man by Louis Valois with Florence Newell

Of French fools (or one in particular) by Sébastien Évreux with Lily Spencer

Not my day. by Peyton O'Malley with Jasmine Delachene

Stewing by Dustin Newell

One for the road. by Sammy Meeks

On to my next challenge. by Tatiana Vorontsova with Parker Fitzgerald

Exhausted already by Wu Peizhi

Worthless by Kira Spaulding with Daniel Fintoc

This is definitely an improvement. by Joe Umland with Jozua Sparks

I made it! by Gary Harper with Jehan Callahan

Alright, let's get this over with. by Loren Aalto with Salali Bly

It wasn't supposed to go like this (tag Owen) by Jemima Wolseithcrafte with Owen Brockert

Not bad being back [tag: Isaac Song] by Luke Powell with Isaac Song

Looks like it's just you and me [tag: Kelsey] by Alistair Johnson with Kelsey Atwater

The prefect year by Nevaeh Reed

Not the only Callahan [Tag Simon and/or Winston] by Victor Callahan

11 Headmaster Brockert Opening Feast 6 Headmaster Brockert 1 5

Ruby Brockert

August 18, 2017 6:25 PM

Enthusiastic by Ruby Brockert

Ruby was so excited to be at Sonora. Here she would make friends for life and maybe she'd even meet that someone special the way Owen had. She often fantasised about such things. Someday, she would meet the love of her life. Even if it didn't happen here at school, it would still happen.

She'd really dressed up for the occasion too. Well, as much as she possibly could wearing school robes. Underneath she had her new sundress which was yellow and patterned with delicate pink roses. It was incredibly beautiful and it was a shame to cover it up. Especially as the pink diamond jewlery that Ruby was wearing didn't match the robes. Emerald had told her it was silly and impractical to bring such jewlery to school, but Ruby didn't see the harm in it. She wanted to look nice, especially for her first day. For all she knew, she could end up meeting her future husband today!

Ruby stood with the other first years, badge in hand. She already sort of knew about the changes in the sorting process as Grandfather had been grumbling about it.

Her turn came and she placed her badge into the potion. Teppenpaw! How wonderful! Teppenpaws were the nicest and to be considered nice was an honor. Of course, Ruby probably would have been as happy with Crotalus or Aladren. Though Pecaris could also be lovely people, overall the nature of the house was a little too rough and tumble for her tastes. She didn't think she'd have much in common with them.

She sat down at the Teppenpaw table, noticing that the other two new first years were both boys. Ruby couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed. She was supposed to have a roommate who became her lifelong best friend like in books she'd read. How was it that she ended up without that while Emerald who prized her solitude had three roommates? Of course, it was possible that one of the boys was her soulmate. That would be amazing!

Head students and prefects were announced and Ruby applauded for her cousins. She was so happy for them! Though it was a shame that Jemima hadn't won. How perfect would that have been if Owen was up there with her, being Head Student with her. It would have been so terribly romantic.

Grandfather then mentioned the bonfire. That sounded fun. She imagined she and her new friends would stay up all night talking in their tent. Maybe they'd all sing songs around the fire and roast marshmallows.

After they'd sung the school song, Ruby turned to the person across from her and introduce herself. "I'm Ruby Brockert, of the Western Brockerts."

11 Ruby Brockert Enthusiastic 1405 Ruby Brockert 0 5

Kit Reid

August 19, 2017 1:49 AM

Back in the Swing of Things by Kit Reid

The first day of school was always fun. Everyone was excited to see friends they hadn’t seen much, if at all, during the summer. It was interesting to see all of the changes that had occurred. It was that awkward time when some classmates had hardly changed while others were starting to change drastically. Kit hadn’t gotten much taller. She stood at 5’2” and it was beginning to look that’s where she was going to stay. However, her face was a little fuller along with a couple other areas. Her blonde hair was longer and this was the first year that she was really allowed to wear makeup. Her mother had taken her to a parlor to ensure that she knew how to wear everything correctly. It was amazing! Her eyes looked bigger and her lips were shiny. She knew that it was shallow, but it gave her a whole new level of confidence as she took her seat at the Aladren table.

Kit watched while the first years were sorted. She thought back to when that had been her. She had never expected to be chosen for Aladren, but it had opened up a new world, one in which she didn’t have to just be a pretty face. The only downside had been that Ayla had ended up in a different house. Looking back on it now, maybe it had been for the best. She didn’t really talk to Ayla anymore. She had gone in a different direction. But she had gotten to know others, like Amelia, who was quickly becoming her best friend, and Emerald, who had turned out to be really nice. She couldn’t wait to see them.

Her eyes drifted over to the Teppenpaw table in hopes of seeing Kir. However, she was distracted when the sorting began. That was weird. At her sorting, she had drank out of a cup to determine her House and had to suffer being blue. However, it seemed that the new year would simply be dunking a badge. Her mouth twisted down. Well, that was certainly left a lot to be desired. The first years had absolutely no suffering to bond them together and to initiate them properly into the school like those that had come before them.

After the anticlimactic sorting, the announcements were made. Kit clapped politely for those that had earned Head Student and Prefect badges. She didn’t know any of them personally, but receiving the badges were definitely something to acknowledge. Afterwards, something of interest came about as they would be having a bonfire. It seemed it would be a lot of fun. She wondered, no, hoped, that she would be invited to go. She knew that she could always go with friends, but now that she was getting older, there was more appeal in spending time with a certain person.

Not really paying much attention to the fact that people had begun to eat, Kit allowed her mind to wander to the possibilities. After all, she was only thirteen and allowed to dream. She was just thinking about what it would be like to hold hands for the first time with him, how the conversation would go, when he might...pass the potatoes. She glanced over to the person that had interrupted her fantasy. They kept asking someone to pass the potatoes rather loudly. Trying to tune them out, she turned to the person closest to her, “I don’t suppose it would be proper to ask a boy to the bonfire, would it?”

0 Kit Reid Back in the Swing of Things 363 Kit Reid 0 5

Louis Valois

August 19, 2017 7:32 AM

A new man by Louis Valois

It was so surreal, being back at Sonora. Louis felt like he had changed so much, grown up so much, and yet here was everything, just the same as it had been when he’d left for the holidays. He smiled slightly as he looked around, half an ear listening out for the headmaster’s speech, but mainly occupied in trying to stay awake.

He was exhausted. He’d never had a busier holiday. Almost every day since he had made the decision to stay had involved paperwork, tonnes of it, visits to Valois-owned buildings, and so many meetings. He’d re-written almost every single contract his father had signed, re-written so many business practices, regulations, legal documents. The Valois family business had been completely overturned and, by the time Louis stepped onto the Sonora wagon, Louis was fairly confident that what he owned was no longer a self-serving money-making machine, but a business that traded fairly, treated its employees well, didn’t discriminate, and was even responsible in the disposal of its waste fabrics (which were made into clothes for charities). He’d taken a huge pay cut, even though he still earned a large sum of money, but finally he was happy. He’d kept out of the social circle, so had no idea what was being said about him, but Louis cared more about the new muggle line of clothing he was planning than whether or not some spiteful old man called him a blood traitor.

Louis was dressed smartly in chinos and a shirt. He wasn’t going to let his standards of dressing slip just because he was busy – he had a reputation to keep up! His face was still boyishly handsome, but looked perhaps a little more serious than it had a month ago, and the shadows under his eyes were quite obvious. Still, he was back at school now, and that would provide him with a chance to recover from his unusually busy summer.

His grandmother, officially named as head of the business until Louis was old enough, had been very clear with him from the beginning. Whilst still underage, he would be allowed to keep charge of the business so long as it didn’t interfere with his schooling. During the holidays, Louis would attend meetings, plan the direction of the Valois fashion brand, and make the important decisions – whilst still prioritising his holiday work and revision. During term-time, he would just be an ordinary schoolboy, with no other worries. He’d be kept updated on what was going on, with fortnightly summaries being sent to him, but everything would be as normal. There would be no demands on his time, so he would be free to study, run his orchestra, and live his childhood for a couple more years.

With this in mind, he tried to do as his grandmother had asked. Putting thoughts of business aside, he turned to his neighbour. “Happy to be back?” he asked.

OOC: More information on Louis's summer and the dramatic happenings can be found in his latest wts post. Feel free to assume that Laurent Valois's death is generally known in the wizarding world (the Valois family are a large French pureblood family).

9 Louis Valois A new man 314 Louis Valois 0 5

Sébastien Évreux

August 19, 2017 7:36 AM

Of French fools (or one in particular) by Sébastien Évreux

Louis Valois was an idiot, and Sébastien had never been happier. Oh, he’d been so angry when he’d heard about the death of Old Man Valois. Why should Louis become the head of one of the finest French families, the owner of a lucrative business, and so very rich before Bastien had the chance? It just wasn’t fair! But then Louis, the fool, had immediately started to change everything his father had done, or so the rumours had it. Apparently he was paying muggleborns more than purebloods, pretending to care about his employees, and even reducing his income! It was stupidity on such a large scale, and Bastien was positively writhing with glee. Oh, he was so glad to be an Évreux now. The Valois family were surely on their way down and, with a bit of luck, Louis would soon marry a muggleborn – or even a muggle, which would be perfect - and the Valois family’s tomb would be firmly sealed. Surely there was no way Louis could claim influence in French society after ruining his father’s perfectly respectable legacy?

Already the Valois influence seemed to be waning, at least according to his father, and some of the older generation. Sending the young Valois boy to America seemed to have done more harm than good, and Antoine Évreux was getting wary of the same happening to his son. Madeleine Dautin had already been officially transferred to Beauxbatons, where her parents could trust that their daughter wouldn’t receive any untoward notions. To Bastien, this suggested that he would soon be transferred too, and then finally he’d be properly respected, wouldn’t have to speak English anymore, and wouldn’t have to put up with his sister telling him about everything he was missing out on.

For the first time, he found himself smiling as the Headmaster began his speech. It would be full of the usual rubbish, but that wouldn’t affect him for long. The announcement of Samantha Meeks (loud muggle nobody, and probably Quidditch cheat – there was no way she was better than Sébastien without an enhancement potion, or maybe she really was just a boy) as Head Girl didn’t even rile him. He did, however, continue his protest against the school song, refusing to sing along for the fourth year running. He wanted none of that ‘stand together’ nonsense.

The one problem with the way things were going was the lack of Madeleine. Sébastien didn’t like to admit it, but he had a serious lack of friends at Sonora, and the French witch had been the main person he spent time with. Still, she wasn’t in his house, so that didn’t affect him right now, and he was too hungry to worry about a potential lack of conversation during the next year.

“Could you pass the beef, please,” he asked the person next to him, giving them a polite smile because he wanted something from them. Never let it be said that Sébastien Évreux didn’t know how to charm those who could be useful.

OOC: Sammy, I'm terribly sorry that you ended up in the firing line. As Sébastien's author, I do not condone his opinions, or the somewhat shocking things he thinks, and suggest that they just come from jealousy.

9 Sébastien Évreux Of French fools (or one in particular) 350 Sébastien Évreux 0 5

Dorian Montoir

August 19, 2017 11:29 AM

Trying to be likewise by Dorian Montoir

Dorian followed Professor Xavier on their tour. He wasn't sure he committed it all to memory but he wasn't really worried about getting lost. That, he felt, was expected. People would understand, and hopefully some of the older students would be kind and helpful. He was more focussed on monitoring how much he understood of what Professor Xavier told them about the places. Not understanding well was still his biggest worry, and one he felt other people wouldn't tolerate so well as getting lost. Everyone expected the first years to get lost, but he was the only one who was going to struggle to hold a basic conversation. His interaction with Jehan had left him with very mixed feelings. On the one hand, he liked the other boy very much. Jehan seemed interesting and he thought they might have quite a lot in common. The trouble was, he couldn't see Jehan feeling the same about him. There had been a number of confusions, missed connections and the need to backtrack in their conversation. Whilst some of these perhaps came from not having a shared culture, or Jehan jumping topic without making it obvious, Dorian was apt to blame his own language skills. The impression he had come away with was that Jehan's mind worked very quickly but he would be forced to slow down in any interaction that the two of them had, which was bound to be frustrating for the other boy.

Dorian also felt increasingly nervous as they got towards the hall. He wasn't really worried about the actual sorting, as his family didn't have enough connection to the school to have hugely strong opinions on the houses. His parents seemed to think that Crotalus sounded promising, and his mother liked that its colour was red, as that was very auspicious, but they'd only mentioned it in passing -they weren't obsessed with the idea of him getting in there. He was just nervous about having to be up in front of everyone. Dorian could have a very funny side, and he loved singing along to his favourite songs, sometimes with exaggerated impressions of their singers which had his sister in stitches. But he was not a performer. This was a private activity, a side reserved for those he wanted to have fun with. Partly, it was his nature, although his older brother's constant assertions that he was a chochotte and his tendency to give Dorian dead arms and friction burns for being such a little sissy freak had also strongly contributed. Dorian didn't desire an audience, and being made to stand up in front of the whole school was making his hands shake.

When it was his turn, he kept his eyes on the potion, trying not to think about things like tripping over his own feet, or accidentally dipping his sleeve in the potion, or his badge spontaneously turning into a stuffed dragon or displaying the words 'kick me' (especially as, with accidental magic and nerves, he wondered whether there was an actual risk that he might make that happen). He dipped his badge carefully, watching as it turned a brilliant yellow. Teppenpaw.

He made his way over the table. He was pleased with his sorting, although it didn't yet show on his face which was still fixed in a (somewhat failed) attempt at not looking as anxious as he felt. Teppenpaw was good but he still didn't feel relaxed yet about being here, or having had to do that. He clapped mechanically for the prefects and head students, who he didn't know, and mumbled his way through the song, which he also didn't know.

The table filled with food, and chatter broke out around him. The girl opposite him introduced herself. A Brockert. That was good - his parents would certainly be pleased about the company he had in his own house. And she even fulfilled his mother's wish for him to be surrounded by the colour red too, in a sense.

"Dorian Montoir of the Québec Montoirs," he introduced himself. He managed to relax a little bit now that he was on more familiar territory conversation wise, and now that he was just one to one with a peer. A peer who was not big or scary or looking like she immediately wanted to put his head down a toilet, all of which were plus points beyond her status as respectable company. He managed to stop looking quite so frozen and gave her a small smile.

"I like your earrings," he added, both because compliments were usually considered polite and because he spent enough time with his sister to notice such things as what jewellery a girl was wearing.

"I think that we are only three?" he added, having noticed only one other person joining their table - another boy. He considered waving him over to join them, as he didn't want the boy to feel left out, but he seemed to be happily engaged in talking to someone near him. "And it appears that I will share the room but you, no." A small frown of worry creased his features again as he wondered what the Other Boy would be like. He hoped they would like each other. If they didn't, the next seven years would be Hell. Surely, given that they'd landed in Teppenpaw, he couldn't be too awful...

OOC - permission to God-mod Vlad obtained from his author.

13 Dorian Montoir Trying to be likewise 1401 Dorian Montoir 0 5

Peyton O'Malley

August 19, 2017 6:09 PM

Not my day. by Peyton O'Malley

Orientation had been lovely but now Peyton was feeling nervous. Sorting was kind of...a big deal. Where she was placed wouldn't have any determination about how people she was already close to would think of her, though she wondered if Sally and Arnold would feel a closer bond with her if she was an Aladren. Same with Jake if she was in Teppenpaw. Then maybe they wouldn't replace her with Eden, the new half-sister they'd just discovered.

Teppenpaw, though, was where she really wanted. On top of being Jake's house, it was also where her cousin and best friend Ivy was. Of course, Eden was there too, as Ivy's roommate. Peyton tried hard not to be jealous of this as she was Ivy's cousin and Eden was just a roommate.

When Peyton's turn came, she went and dipped her badge in the potion like the others. Red! That meant Crotalus which wasn't all bad, as that had been Ryan's house and he was her favorite big brother. Being like Ryan was something to be proud of and that was a comforting thought.

Of course, Peyton's half-sister (and Ryan's full sister) Carrie had also been in Crotalus. Like most Carrie-related things, the new first year tried to ignore this but she just couldn't completely. She knew that she wasn't anything like Carrie but if Carrie could go in Crotalus that meant it wasn't just people like Ryan. There might be people like Carrie there too! And that meant one of them could end up her roommate!

The thought made her feel kind of queasy. Peyton hadn't seen Carrie in years and didn't really know her well, but everyone said she was a cruel nasty person. Ryan didn't really like talking about her as she-and their mother-had been worst to him. To Peyton, sharing a room with someone similar to Carrie was like sharing with a dementor.

And then she saw Vlad over at the Teppenpaw table and her shoulders slumped. So she was potentially sharing with someone evil while her cousins would be together and with Eden .

Reluctantly, Peyton sat down at the Crotalus table and served herself some macaroni and cheese, fried shrimp and a brownie. She began to eat and then someone addressed her.

11 Peyton O'Malley Not my day. 1403 Peyton O'Malley 0 5

Jasmine Delachene

August 19, 2017 9:49 PM

I'm not evil, I promise. by Jasmine Delachene

Jasmine's mother had told her, under the strictest of confidences, how sorting worked. You drank a potion and your skin changed colors. She had said it was one of Pecari's most redeeming features, that its students turned a color that wasn't garish. Jasmine had specifically chosen clothing that would not clash with red, but the school robe was green so there would be no avoiding the Christmas correlation if she was Sorted where she most hoped to go.

When she finished her tour, though, she was handed a blank badge and the Headmaster was instructing them to dunk it in the potion, not drink it. Huh.

Mom had written in protest about drinking the potion from the goblet as everyone else, as well as its wretched taste, but Jasmine hadn't expected it to actually change anything, and was surprised that not only weren't they sharing it, but they weren't drinking it at all. Perhaps having that many goblets just wasn't practical. (No doubt why they had done the sharing thing before.)

Pleased to avoid that experience, Jasmine dunked her badge into the potion in turn. It came out red, and she beamed in delight. Crotalus! She'd be with Arianna after all! How wonderful! She spotted her friend as she headed over to the Crotalus table and waved and pointed to her new red badge proudly, to show they'd be together and they could catch up later, but for now she needed to met the other Crotalus first years to make a good first impression among her yearmates. For breakfast tomorrow, maybe, she could sit with Arianna, if the fourth year didn't mind spending the meal with a first year. Jasmine wasn't entirely sure how that was going to work out if they weren't the only children together on the property. Did Arianna have other friends her own age who would look down on a first year hanging out with them? She hoped not.

Anyway, tonight she sat with another girl with a red sorting badge. It looked like they were the only ones sorted into Crotalus tonight, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. The fewer people they had to share a room with, the more space each of them would have. Mom had been so happy to have a room of her own, but Jasmine hadn't really been expecting one, and she was almost kind of glad that she wasn't by herself. It meant she had a better than average chance of making friends with somebody. To that end, she smiled at the other red-badged girl and said kindly, "Hello, I am Jasmine Delachene, of the California Delachenes."

1 Jasmine Delachene I'm not evil, I promise. 1397 Jasmine Delachene 0 5

Jennifer White

August 21, 2017 11:20 AM

Swing and a Miss by Jennifer White

Second year was so much better than first year. The school was familiar, a lot of the faces were familiar, but more than that, Jen had brought her skateboard to school. Her mother’s argument that it would have prevent her from making friends was obviously a load of garbage as Jen hadn’t made any friendships that could be quantified beyond a preference to work or eat with some people over others, and one of her preferences had materialized largely because Ryder had a board that he’d let Jen use. The outcome of it all was that Jen had been allowed to bring her board for her second year. So take that, universe.

With her board safely at Sonora with her, Jen was in a pretty good mood considering the end of the summer was always going to be pretty tough. Okay a couple of months with just her Mom in their small apartment outside Phoenix wasn’t the best experience on the planet, but leaving it to hang around with a bunch of adolescents she liked less than she liked her Mom was not an enviable replacement. Whatever, the food here was good, she actually liked some of her classes, and she only really didn’t like Cleo out of everyone she’d met so far (what was that girl’s problem, anyway?). She had new glasses - the frames were still black, rectangular and plastic, but they had a purple streak on the inside where the lenses were - and her mousy-brown hair was still choppy, and even shorter than it had been last year; before she had been able to tie it in a couple of tiny bunches if she’d ever wanted to (she hadn’t) but now even the longer layers just tickled her neck. Otherwise she was maybe a half inch taller than she’d been at the start of last year, but her jeans with the scuffed hems were the same, as were increasingly tatty-looking hoodies. Same old Jen.

Not same old sorting, though. The second year had turned bodily blue, not been given a badge to dunk. For half a second she thought that maybe the Sorting was different every year, but then there seemed to be some commotion about it all, so maybe this was a new way of doing things. Whatever, she didn’t care all that much. She just wanted to sing (mime the words without making sound) and eat. She didn’t waste any time in adding fries and fried chicken to her plate, and only paid the slightest bit of attention to her neighbor when as voice next to her said, “I don’t suppose it would be proper to ask a boy to the bonfire, would it?”

“Uh…” Jen hesitated. She didn’t really know Kit. She thought maybe Kit was friends with Kir because she’d seen them together sometimes, but Jen was pretty sure she’d never worked with Kit in class, or sat by her in the commons, or ever even held a conversation with her beyond maybe asking her to pass this or that. “I don’t think it would be improper,” she guessed, wondering whether Kit was one of these uptight Pureblood types she had so far managed to avoid. “It’s just a bonfire. That’s pretty casual, right?”

0 Jennifer White Swing and a Miss 388 Jennifer White 0 5

Dustin Newell

August 21, 2017 3:40 PM

Stewing by Dustin Newell

She left. She just up and left. Dustin couldn't believe it. She had shared their lives forever and their home for years, and in the span of one night - unless she had been quietly planning this abandonment for a while now - she just.... left. And the night before three out of the other four youths of the house were meant to return to school, no less. He wanted to be angry, like he had been when he woke up this morning, but for once, Dustin Newell ran out of anger. Now he just felt tired.

Well, so long, Makenzie, he thought with a bitter forced apathy. They were better off without her around, anyway. She'd only been a burden on them since she moved in after her stupid father got arrested and her selfish mother left, and... and....

And he missed her already.

He was just worried about how his younger siblings would take it. Anastasia had been inconsolable, having gotten herself excited for this year of just her and Makenzie together before she would be coming to Sonora. Brett seemed shocked stupid, or maybe that was just his normal stupidity. But Flo was surprisingly calm. He never understood that dumb little nerd before, though, so he supposed now was no time to start, anyway.

He just took his spot among the ranks of the blue House, making sure to sit far enough from his sister that he didn't have to talk to her (last year was a disaster), but close enough that he could keep an eye on her in case she finally started feeling the pull of sentimentality toward their wayward cousin. He had little opinion for the sorting other that noting it was the first time in a while he didn't have a sibling scurrying about, and also had little opinion for any of the announcements. So he just waited for the song to be over so he could get some food, at which time he ended up with some sort of beef stew. Dustin resisted the urge to poetically note that the contents of his bowl looked like how his insides felt, and indeed he wondered why he had even selected the dish. But here he was now, lying in the bed he made. Like a goddamn grownup. Not so hard, is it, now? he grumbled silently, stuffing the semi-liquid into his mouth. It tasted just as appetizing as it looked.

12 Dustin Newell Stewing 312 Dustin Newell 0 5

Sammy Meeks

August 21, 2017 4:09 PM

One for the road. by Sammy Meeks

It was an odd feeling, coming back to Sonora after the summer and knowing this was the last time she’d do so. Sammy wasn’t someone who enjoyed being sad, as most sane humans weren’t, and she did her best not to dwell on “last”s, but it was hard not to notice with a big of whimsical, childlike nostalgia how much growing she’d done here, both physical and mental. She was still the same loud, somewhat obnoxious, in-your-face Muggleborn tomboy she’d been when she arrived, at least mostly, but she was also seventeen now, and she had seen and experienced a lot of things. Her first crush. Her first heartbreak. Her first-... well, she wasn’t going to kiss and tell, but she was certainly glad she'd gotten to see Jamie again this summer. She had made friends and watched them go, loved and lost, and all in all done her best. And now Sammy only had one more year to finish leaving her mark on this place and on its people.

Evidently some mark had already been made, though, as she found herself approaching the staff to collect her badge. Head Girl? Huh. The Pecari had learned that being Muggleborn was sometimes a disadvantage in this magical world, but apparently enough of her classmates didn’t care that they elected her to lead the school. That was pretty cool. She herself had initially thought to vote for Ginger Pierce, who she thought might objectively do a better job, but she’d ended up voting for herself just because if the Quidditch season didn’t run, Ginger would still have the Art Club to run, whereas Sammy was bound to get bored and would need something to do.

She returned to her seat with her shiny new badge pinned proudly on her chest, thinking smugly about the letter she would have to send to John later about it. The song came, and Sammy sang along quietly, once more aware that it would be the last time. Ah, well. That was life, she supposed. It was time to eat at last, but Sammy found herself lacking much appetite. Maybe it was just the nostalgia filling her stomach instead. But she heard someone ask for a certain dish, so she said, “No problem!” and got them what they wanted. “So how was your summer?” she then asked the person, trying to be friendly.

12 Sammy Meeks One for the road. 310 Sammy Meeks 0 5

Tatiana Vorontsova

August 21, 2017 8:39 PM

On to my next challenge. by Tatiana Vorontsova

Graceful carriage, Mama always said, was one of the most important traits a girl could cultivate. A sense of poise and refinement could distract the eye from any number of physical flaws, making girls whose photographs clearly showed them to be fairly plain but for a nice pair of eyes or the like seem like beauties in person.

Tatiana did not consider her own photographs overly plain, but she was aware that she was not, by Mama’s standards, making the best of her advantages as she entered the Cascade Hall. She did not, however, consider this her own fault. How was she supposed to have known that there would be no-one on hand to take her gloves and hat from her when she entered the building for the tour, obliging her to carry them around in one hand like a ninny while handling the blank badge thing Professor had given her in the other? She knew she looked stupid, but it wasn’t her fault. She did wish there was somewhere she could put her things down before it was her turn to stick the badge into the potion, though….

She did not know what to expect when her turn came around. She had read the brochures for school, looking up words she didn’t know in the dictionary, but she had not been sure enough of her reading to have much of an idea where she would land. If she had been forced to gamble, she supposed she might have said Aladren, but it turned out she was lucky she had not wagered anything on her prediction because the badge turned brown and gold instead of blue and black. Pecari, a word that sounded like it could almost be a word to her, unlike the other Houses. She hoped that was a good sign as she went to sit down among the others.

Of course, sitting down proved more complicated than she might have liked because of all the things someone should have been in place to take from her. She had to awkwardly put her hat in her lap and her gloves in her pocket before sitting down, then not crush her hat with her elbow or the edge of the table as she pinned the badge to the front of her green robes. That done, she folded her hands on top of the hat and sat there as though this was perfectly normal behavior.

She listened to the Headmaster’s speech, trying to understand as much as possible. All the people who went up for some reason (to receive badges? Didn’t they already have some badges from when they were first years? No – these were authority badges, not House ones. These people were important) were unknowns to her, but she did notice that two of them seemed to be Pecaris as well. That was good, she assumed; only Pecari and the yellow House, the one with the stupid name, had two. The red House and the blue House only had one each go up. She applauded when everyone else did, but stared in consternation at the page of music which appeared in front of her.

Many of the words looked familiar enough, but there were some that threw her. ‘Strive’? ‘Survive’? ‘Hardships’? She sang along several beats behind the tune, giving up when everyone else finished in favor of looking instead at all the food which appeared on the tables before her.

What to pick? Tatiana was not used to meals like this. At home, she and her siblings had food put before them and were expected to eat it. On their birthdays and namedays, the parties centered on the honoree’s favorites, but still – there was not a wealth of choices like this. Tatiana looked from dish to dish, only looking up when she heard a voice beside her.

“Po – sorry. I didn’t heard,” she said apologetically, pointing to her ear. The room was noisy! So much chatter. “What said you?”

16 Tatiana Vorontsova On to my next challenge. 1396 Tatiana Vorontsova 0 5

Parker Fitzgerald

August 22, 2017 3:48 PM

Someone I know! by Parker Fitzgerald

Parker Fitzgerald walked into the great hall gawking, or at least that is what his mom would have called it. He stared straight up trying to take it all in. The ceiling felt as if he were standing in the middle of a grove in a forest, but the waterfalls coming down the walls made it feel like he was in a bathing pool somewhere.

The room was obviously inside, but also felt like it had taken parts of nature and brought it in. He was fascinated as he walked along holding the badge that Professor X had given him and was unclear of what it was for.

After he had taken the room in a bit he realized that everyone was separated into different tables that seemed associated with houses. Suddenly Parker remembered that Sullivan had told him he would have to drink something that turned you into your house colors. He immediately regretted eating that second plate of food after talking with Jasmine. He was a bit worried because from what he gathered he might throw up all he had eaten.

When he saw the first kid take the badge and dip it instead he was relieved. When he dipped his they turned brown and gold, he looked around the room and saw the table. Pecari, great! From what he knew about the house it seemed like it would be a good fit.

He looked to see if anyone else was a Pecari and saw Tatiana's badge was also brown and gold. Great! I already know someone! he thought. Then realized he might have to learn some Russian to talk more with her.

He walked over to Tatiana as the Headmaster called up people for Head Student badges and something called a Prefect badge. He wasn't sure what either of those meant, but he did notice that two of the other Pecari students went up, one of them being the Head Student.

Parker tilted his head slightly to the side, she reminded him of someone, but he couldn't place it. Another girl from his team was called up. Apparently Pecari girls were either great students or highly respected, thought Parker, either way it seemed to be a good house to be in.

Suddenly a page of music appeared in front of him. Parker sat back startled a bit and looked around. Other students were picking up the music or noticeably ignoring it. Parker looked at the words as people started to sing. It actually was quite a lovely song and he especially liked the last bit about even the desert blooms. It made him smile in a sad way, remembering the desert mountain side where his sister and parents were. He wasn't sure if his brother was still in the house or if he was at the military academy yet, but either way Parker was not sad about that.

After the singing everyone seemed to begin eating, and though Parker had eaten two plates of food, or closer to one and half, he put some more on his plate and turned to Tatiana next to him trying to go slow again.
"There's so much food." He felt there was no time like the present to learn a few words to communicate with her better, he held up what he thought was a chicken wing and asked, "How do you say chicken in Russian?"

41 Parker Fitzgerald Someone I know! 1402 Parker Fitzgerald 0 5

Ruby

August 22, 2017 6:57 PM

So is my author by Ruby

"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Montoir." Ruby replied the way she had been taught. She had never stopped to think that the formality she was brought up with was weird or could be off putting or made her seem snobby. To her it seemed elegant, something straight of an old-fashioned novel. Not to mention it was just polite and being polite was a good thing. Rudeness could hurt others' feelings!

"You may call me Ruby though." Once one got past introductions, it was, she felt, much friendlier to go to first name basis. Especially as they were housemates and for all she knew, could end up being much much more someday.

"Quebec, did you say? Do you know the Beausangs? A distant cousin of mine married one not long ago. I myself am from Utah, but we say Western Brockerts because we're, well, all over the western states. The majority of my relatives live in Colorado but my dad's cousin Alfie lives in Oklahoma with his family. Like, I don't think anyone whose last name is Brockert lives west of the Mississippi River though sometimes girls marry people who live out east."

Ruby blushed "Thank you. I got them as a present for my eleventh birthday along with the rest of the set." Wow, right off the bat she met a guy who was complimenting her!She wasn't at the point where she was mentally planning their wedding as they had just met but this did bode well for future possibilities. Or at the very least, a friendship.

She nodded. "I think so. It's an awfully small class we have this term. Which is quite a shame really, but maybe some of the changes will raise enrollment. Like, with the Sorting ceremony. Before they all had to drink a potion from the same cup but people complained about it being unsanitary. Grandfather," She gave a general nod in his direction, "wasn't too happy but if more people attend because of it, that's a good thing.

"Yeah..." Ruby said, a bit disappointed. Then she noticed the small frown on Dorian's face. "Is everything all right?" She asked, worried.

11 Ruby So is my author 1405 Ruby 0 5

Tatiana

August 23, 2017 12:17 PM

Getting to know you better. by Tatiana

So much food. Tatiana understood that well. ‘So much noun’ was one of the first constructions she had reliably mastered in English, as she used it to complain to Anton Petrovich about the existence of articles a lot. Articles were stupid and Tatiana did not see their purpose no matter how many times Anton Petrovich tried to explain it to her.

“We say kuritsa,” said Tatiana when Parker asked her what the thing he was holding was really called. “I like chickens that they are – not like that? Alive,” she volunteered. “I with Anya go get eggs in summertime. Chickens are funny.”

They had names, but Tatiana was at a loss for exactly how to translate them – they were named after specific flowers that they reminded Anya of, all except Tsveta, whom little Lyoshka had named – and so she did not offer that information to Parker. “Anya is my sister,” she remembered to offer further, as she had just named someone he did not know. “Three sisters – Anna, Sofiya, Katerina.” She counted them off on her fingers to make sure he kept track of what to him probably did not sound like names any more than his name sounded like a name to her. “Only two brothers. You have the brothers and sisters?”

Anton Petrovich said her family was larger than most of her classmates’ families would be, but then, it was not small by village standards, either. Mama said she liked a big family – for what did one get married if one didn’t want children? – but Tatiana had been just old enough when Alexei was born that she had realized the grown-ups were worried about Mama during much of the time before Alyosha actually arrived. Some people said, too, that Papa was very unfortunate to have so many daughters, though he laughed and asked who would want a garden with few flowers in it? And besides, it was good, Mama and Papa agreed, that each girl automatically had a built-in best friend in the sister closest to her own age, though in fact the four of them grouped more according to other factors: Tatiana and Sonia were both stronger than Anya and Katya, Anya and Tatiana both loved being outdoors and reading more than Katya or Sonia did, and so forth. The formal photographs they took every summer took forever to complete as they had to keep regrouping for different shots Mama wanted, and that was before their parents and brothers got involved. Tatiana had the album of photos she had put together for an art lesson project with her, an album that featured nearly all her favorite people and things – she had even stuck in a picture Anya had taken of her and Katya having lessons with Anton Petrovich - but she had dithered greatly still over which framed photographs to bring with her to decorate her space her in the dormitories. It was going to be strange not to be surrounded by years and years of accumulated memories of her family for so long here.

16 Tatiana Getting to know you better. 1396 Tatiana 0 5

Parker Fitzgerald

August 24, 2017 12:33 PM

Siblings can be good ... or bad by Parker Fitzgerald

"Currytsa", Parker said outloud trying to remember the word. He remembered that Jose enjoyed it when people made an effort to speak in his language. Jose said it made him feel welcomed.
Parker felt that he might as well make Tatiana feel welcomed as he was also hoping to be welcomed as well and they were the only two first years in the house.
She mentioned that she didn't like cooked chicken and so Parker, who had still been holding the peace put it back on his plate. He thought of the live chickens he had seen and laughed when she mentioned how funny chickens where, they were funny.
Tatiana then mentioned three sisters by name and two brothers, without names. Parker could relate a bit, he wasn't sure he wanted people here to know much about John Junior.
"I have one brother and one sister. My sister's name is Lyssa." Parker responded. He had noticed that there were people that looked like family in the hall and wondered if Tatiana's family was here as well.
"Are your brother's or sisters here at the school?" he asked.
He thought that maybe she was also Muggle born, but he wasn't sure. He was trying to ask without asking, since the way Jasmine had mentioned her mother being muggle born, it sounded like it could be a rude thing to ask out right, and though normally Parker wouldn't care very much, Tatiana seemed to be someone he'd want to be friends with and so didn't want to offend her during their first meal together.

41 Parker Fitzgerald Siblings can be good ... or bad 1402 Parker Fitzgerald 0 5

Tatiana

August 24, 2017 2:28 PM

I think mine are all pretty good. by Tatiana

Tatiana smiled kindly at Parker’s attempt to say ‘chicken.’ It needed more emphasis on the first syllable, but considering she was not the best at pronouncing words in his language, either, she couldn’t really say anything.

“Yes, kuritsa,” said Tatiana, nodding. “That is how we say it.”

Lyssa. That almost sounded like a name, or at least a diminutive. Tatiana nodded to let him know she had understood that was his sister’s name. “No,” she said of her own brothers and sisters. “Katya and Alexei – little brother – they are too….” She searched for the word. “Short,” she said, holding her hand about level with her own shoulder. “They are eight, three. Little. Anya and Sophie and Grisha – they went to the school which in Russia. They are bigger.” Tatiana raised her chin slightly as she proudly announced, “Papa said for me to go here because I learned to speak English with Grisha.”

It was more complicated than that, of course. Tatiana had begun by just wandering into Grisha’s lessons because she liked being with her brother, and then she had realized he was getting to learn something she wasn’t. She had not liked that and had complained and picked up as much as she could from Grisha’s lessons until Papa relented and started letting her learn English formally, a program which had abruptly intensified a year and a half ago when Anton Petrovich had joined their staff and had begun teaching her almost exclusively in English. However, saying as much as she had in English, thinking through how to make things go in the right tenses and in more or less the right order and with so many extra words in place, had made her head awfully tired and so she did not feel up to telling that whole story at the end of a long day. “Your brother, sister – they are here?” she asked, moving the talking back to him.

16 Tatiana I think mine are all pretty good. 1396 Tatiana 0 5

Wu Peizhi

August 24, 2017 4:40 PM

Exhausted already by Wu Peizhi

Advanced classes were upon her and her peers, and as such, Wu had spent a lot of her summer studying, both the course work and English. "No more excuses," Father had said. She was among the oldest in the school now and needed to be more than just sufficient. Her fluency had to increase. For every time he heard her ask a tutor or Serenity, "what does that word mean?" she would be punished.

Of course, that hadn't been all of her summer, as Zheng Li could attest. She still couldn't even believe what happened. One more thing to disappoint her father, that was what. If he ever found out. Wu was very much hoping he never did. She certainly had no intention to tell him about it. Or anyone, for that matter. She hadn't even told Bohai. Hopefully it would remain between her and Li forever.

Oddly enough, she wasn't sure she regretted it, although she was honestly glad to be back at Sonora and away from the entire Zheng clan and their pressure. Her own clan's pressure had always been quite enough, thank you.

Peizhi tried to shake away the memories and listen to what was going on, but she was quite jet lagged from the time difference to Beijing, and in that weakened state she couldn't stop remembering the way Li's fingers felt on her skin. She did at least notice that Sammy won Head Girl, which was nice. The two did not spend much time together anymore, but she was happy for her.

Somewhere in the song, the jet lag took hold in full measure, and by the end of it, Wu found herself drifting off to sleep. However, a nearby noise - likely the sound of clattering plates - spooked her back awake. Heart racing, she glanced around with nervous instincts wanting to know who or what had caused the sound.

12 Wu Peizhi Exhausted already 316 Wu Peizhi 0 5

Kira Spaulding

August 24, 2017 6:56 PM

Worthless by Kira Spaulding

Kira had just suffered through yet another miserable summer. Another summer of balls and parties, of being a wallflower while Kelsey and other similar girls held court.

Nobody was going to ever want her, that was clear, so she didn't really try. She never knew what to talk about with, well anyone. Kira was hardly going to try to engage men she met at parties in discussions about folklore or other books that she read as most things she read were pretty girly. Most of the men who did ask her to dance were those who wanted to be professional Quidditch players and trying to make connections with her because her family owned the Denver Wolves. They weren't really interested in her , just in getting a try out. Other than that, she stuck to the corners, occasionally escaping to the library. Which admittedly occasionally had it's drawbacks where Kira saw stuff she didn't want to see. Of course, all she felt was envious.

Anyway, she could not feel more worthless and unattractive than she did right now. What if she ended up graduating without being betrothed. None of her female cousins had had such an experience other than Savannah and that was a very different situation. Okay, technically Kelsey wasn't betrothed yet, but Kira knew she and her parents were sorting through offers. Her cousin was just being picky. The sixth year only wished she had that luxury.

Kira had few things going for her. Family name, money, and a pedigree. The problem was, so did everyone else around her. Well, as far those who respectable men wanted-and she had to be with someone from a respectable family.

And she probably would still end up married. It was just that she wanted to marry someone who liked her for herself. She probably shouldn't hold her breath on that since it was unlikely that anyone would.

She took a seat at the end of the Crotalus table barely paying attention as the first years were sorted. She did, however tune in for the Head Student and prefect announcements, applauding for Sammy. Kira was glad Kelsey hadn't won, sparing her from yet another way she'd be inferior to her cousin.

Once food was laid out, Kira spooned herself a bowl of lobster bisque soup, not really in the mood for a big meal tonight. She was about to start eating when someone began speaking to her.

11 Kira Spaulding Worthless 320 Kira Spaulding 0 5

Joe Umland

August 24, 2017 8:14 PM

This is definitely an improvement. by Joe Umland

It was, Joe thought as he took his place for the Welcoming Feast, amazing the difference a year could make. A year ago, he’d stepped out of a frying pan (his family teetering on the brink of imploding all around him) and into the fire (being in deep trouble with the headmaster and then off speaking terms for most of a year with his brother because of things he’d done, which had…not helped with the family-implosion bit of his problems). Tonight, though, his world was....

Well, it wasn’t perfect. He had to admit that. For one thing, there were still some unresolved issues concerning John’s absence and how he’d handled his return. For another, Julian had gotten married, which had disturbed everyone greatly and was a thing they were still adjusting to. For a third, he had completely blown his chance of being prefect this time last year, which meant he was going to be the first one in the family not to gain such a badge. However, things were so much better than they had been at the beginning of his fourth year that he could hardly even mind those small flaws in life as it was now. By comparison, they were about as significant as pebbles in his shoe would be. Particularly since John had only got prefect by default and almost certainly would not have had there been literally any other options for the job at the time.

He was, accordingly, already prepared to applaud for one of his Housemates when he heard his own name and froze, hands half-raised already, wondering if he had heard correctly. He didn’t see any of the other fifth year Teppenpaws getting up, though, and he was not in the habit of hearing things that were not really said, which led him to the conclusion that there had been a terrible mistake and that he had probably better take advantage of it before anyone else figured it out. It was, he thought, a lot harder to remove someone from office after they actually accepted said office than it was to announce ‘sorry, wrong name’ right now and sort things out. Maybe Brockert didn’t remember him?

Either way, he managed to retrieve the badge and return to his seat without any opposition. It was with considerable cheer that he began simultaneously filling his plate and composing his first letter home of the year in his head after the school song. This year was definitely off to a better start than last year.

16 Joe Umland This is definitely an improvement. 329 Joe Umland 0 5

Parker

August 25, 2017 10:52 AM

No Siblings here either by Parker

"Coritza" Parker said again.
"Coritza"Parker repeated. Once his mom realized that Parker was not the sort to sit still for things he wasn't interested in learning about, she constantly talked about how you need to do something three times to truly begin to remember it. So now Parker usually tried something three times, and if by the third time he didn't remember it Parker just felt he wasn't meant to know it. It worked well with math, not so well with spelling.

As Parker listened to Tatiana he was more than a bit amazed. She had learned to speak English with what Parker was assuming was her older brother, which probably wasn't easy. He thought of being in any classes with his older brother and it sent a few shivers down his spine.
Tatiana seemed so...graceful, might be the word he was thinking of, but he now imagined she could be forceful when she needed to me. After all how else would she have gotten into classes with her older brother that her sisters hadn't. He immediately realized he might just assuming again since her sisters weren't here.

"My brother and sister aren't here either. They have no magic, just like my parents."

Parker actually wondered if that was true. No one had told him that only there could be only one child with magic born to muggles. He had gathered that his older brother wasn't one though, since he would have already been accepted into the school. But his sister might still show it. It would be nice to have his sister at school. He knew that she would love the garden as she already spent much of her time currently in their parents garden planting seeds and playing with the bugs she found.

Parker quickly replayed Tatiana's conversation in his head. "Your older sisters and brother are in Russia. Are you from Russia?" Parker asked.

He was wondering where someone who only spoke Russian would live in America, but maybe she was an international student like his father had talked about from college.

41 Parker No Siblings here either 1402 Parker 0 5

Tatiana

August 25, 2017 3:30 PM

That could be good or bad. by Tatiana

No magic. Tatiana still could not get her head around that no matter how many times it was explained to her, kind of like all the extra words in English. How did people function with no magic? Nadezhda said there were millions – millions! – of them in the world who did, so many more than wizards, and that some of them were even rather good at it, but it sounded too bizarre to be real.

She shook her head when Parker asked if she was from Russia. “No, no, no. Mama is from Russia, but now we all live in Volshebnaya Derevnya.” Tatiana bit her lip, trying to think how to explain it without a real map or her full vocabulary. “Look – here’s the water,” she said, picking up her goblet and putting it in front of him. “Here is Russia,” she continued, lifting her left hand and putting it on one side of the goblet, “and here is the land with home on it - Alaska.” She put her right hand on the other side of the goblet so they were separated by the ‘water.’ “It used to be Russia, but they tell me in lessons that Americans bought it before Papa was born,” she added as an afterthought. “That is why boys learn English – they must talk to Americans sometimes.” She laughed a bit. “Mama and Anya tell me, Tanushka, you will never use English, is silly to learn, but – “ Tatiana spread her hands and shrugged. “Here I am,” she concluded.

So she was. “Maybe Katya and Alyosha will come here too,” she added. “My family – all wizard. We say volshebniki. We say your family - Maggly. Where are they?” she asked, paying attention and trying to tune out as many of the other English voices talking around them so she could hear his answer and remember it so she could look it up in her atlas later. If she was going to live in the south for most of seven years, she thought she ought to get to know the layout of the place a little better.

16 Tatiana That could be good or bad. 1396 Tatiana 0 5

Parker

August 25, 2017 4:59 PM

Food Maps by Parker

Parker heard where she lived and picked up Vole- something - aya and Dare something-a. He wasn't sure if that was a place that was somewhere he had learned about in class and missed, but he felt it might be a smaller community. Also, it seemed to him there were a lot of a's ending words in Russian. Then she started explaining and said Alaska Parker jumped up a bit. Parker knew Alaska. It was on most maps in classrooms down in the corner, and he liked looking at the maps when he got bored or antsy. He did not know about it belonging to Russia before it belonged to the United States. He wondered when the US bought it. Obviously soon enough that the women in Tatiana's town don't speak to Americans though. But if she was from Alaska. But wasn't she American having been born in Alaska? Maybe the wizard world had different boundaries.
Tanushka... Parker wasn't sure who that was, but from the way Tatiana was saying it like her family talking to her even though that didn't sound like a nickname at all. JJ shortened John Jr. Tanushka was just as long as Tatiana.
"Who is Tanushka? Is that you?" Parker asked. If she was called Tanushka he wanted to make sure he called her that and not Tatiana.
Then she said the Vole word again, or something similar and Tatiana (Tanushka?) said it meant wizard so Parker tried to say it as well.
"VoleSHEDnicki" He then repeated it again two times. That one he might have to practice more than three times. Maggly he got, it was close enough to Muggle.
"My umm Maggly family lives in Nevada, near Lake Tahoe." Parker took the goblet and held it up, "Lake Tahoe in California". He then grabbed a plate with bread on it placing it to the right of the cup "Sierra Nevada Mountains". He looked around the table and grabbed two shakers that he figured were salt and pepper (or at least like salt and pepper). He held up the Salt shaker,"Reno, Nevada" he said placing it to the right of the plate with bread on it. Then took the other shaker "Sheridan, Nevada" and placed it closer to them away from Reno shaker, and a bit closer to the plate of bread.
"That's where my mom, dad, and Lyssa live," Parker said. "JJ is going to live in Oregon somewhere. I don't remember where." He started moving the things back to where they were on the table before he realized he had not mentioned JJ before.
"Oh, JJ is my older brother. Short name for John Jr," Parker said,"Umm... I probably won't talk to him while I'm here."
Parker hesitated before he spoke again, but something had been on his mind since their first encounter, something that he hadn't asked Sullivan who was also Muggle born.
"So you come from a wizard family, is being Maggly a bad thing to other VoleSHEDnicki?"
Whether it was or not, Parker was pretty sure he was going to have to prove to others that he belonged here, not just himself.
Parker took a bite of the chicken that was still on his plate as he looked to Tatiana(Tanushka), leaning close to his plate to make sure none of it fell in his lap.

41 Parker Food Maps 1402 Parker 0 5

Gary Harper

August 26, 2017 8:23 AM

I made it! by Gary Harper

Gary looked around the great hall in amazement as the tour of the school came to a conclusion. It was simply magnificent, but he would expect no less from actual wizards. He had lined up with the other first year students and removed the blank badge the teachers had given him from where he had clipped it onto his backpack for safekeeping. He took his turn at the sorting potion as instructed by the headmaster. When he pulled it out it was blue for the Aladren house, looks like Dad had been right. They were supposed to be the studious wizards, and in a society where knowledge was literal power, that may be a good place to be.

He walked over to the Aladren table and found a seat. Taking off his backpack, he slid it under his seat and sat down and listened to the rest of the Headmaster's speech. It wasn't much, some of the other students came to get their badges of office, then they sang the school song. The song had been printed in the school's information material, but he hadn't really payed it much attention. As such, he semi-hummed along.

After that, it was apparently time to eat. Gary looked over the options on the table in front of him and made a few selections for his plate. He wasn't terribly hungry after the food they had just had at the orientation meeting, but the old adventurer's quote still stuck with him. 'Eat whenever you are able to, you don't know when you might get another chance.' To be fair, the schedule in his orientation folder did tell him when food was available, but you never know what may happen. This was a wizard school, some portal could randomly open up, sucking him into another plain of existence and he'd have to fight his way back again. You just never know...

2 Gary Harper I made it! 1404 Gary Harper 0 5

Kit

August 26, 2017 11:15 AM

Try again? by Kit

Kit hesitated a moment before agreeing. “Yeah, it’s pretty casual. My parents would never approve though.” There were many reasons that her parents wouldn’t approve. They wouldn’t approve of a girl asking a boy since that’s just not how things were done. They also wouldn’t approve of his social standing even though she thought it was noble. But then there were a lot of things that she did that they would never approve of.

Then, there was the question of whether or not he would actually want to go with her. Yes, they were friends, but there was the possibility that he didn’t see her like that or worse still was the possibility that he liked someone else. Neither was a scenario that Kit wanted to think about. “I suppose that I have time. It’s not until the end of the year. It sounds like it’s going to be fun, don’t you think?”

Decided on the course of not having to think about it right at this moment, Kit changed the subject. “So, how was your summer? Did you get to go anywhere? We went to Europe for a couple of weeks, which was awesome. I sounded foolish trying to order anything so I’m not sure I even got what I wanted, but it was still amazing!” Thinking about food, her stomach gave a rumble of complaint. She giggled. “I guess talking about food made my stomach think about it.” Looking around the table, she took some spaghetti.

0 Kit Try again? 363 Kit 0 5

Peyton

August 26, 2017 9:38 PM

Glad to hear it by Peyton

Peyton gave the other girl-the one who was apparently her roommate-a friendly, yet cautious smile. Cautious because she was not sure what Jasmine was like yet even though she had spoken kindly, something Peyton knew Carrie would never do. She had not heard of the California Delachenes, but then she was a Colorado O'Malley, a branch that consisted of her, her parents, Ryan, Sophie, their twins, and their unborn child. Even her other siblings weren't O'Malleys, other than Carrie whom Peyton didn't really consider a sister.

Her family was so confusing. Most people had a branch that they said they were from and that was that. With the Brockerts-a family Peyton was not technically part of but spent a good deal of time around- they were all one family but lived in different states, so they were Western Brockerts even though there were no Eastern Brockerts. If a female Brockert married someone from out east she then used her husband's family's name and location. As for her, the O'Malleys were from Boston but she'd always lived in Colorado where her dad oversaw the western branch of the O'Malley whiskey distillery.

And that was without getting into who was related how and why she spent a fair amount of time around Brockerts even the ones who weren't her first cousins. Not to mention the illegitimate siblings of her siblings who'd just popped up and caused them all massive upheaval.

Anyway, Peyton was certainly not going to get into that with Jasmine, on the grounds that it would confuse her if not scare her away. "Pleased to meet you, Miss Delachene. I'm Peyton O'Malley, of the Colorado O'Malleys." She thought for a moment, just in case Jasmine thought she was putting on airs or copying her instead of a genuine pureblood. Honestly, the greeting was a bit silly when anyone hearing it could easily just start saying it. Of course, there were those that would call them out on it. "A sub branch of the Boston O'Malleys." She added, not wanting Jasmine to try to say there was no such thing.

Not that it really mattered. All that mattered was that they got along. That Jasmine was nice. "You can call me Peyton though." The first year added.

She ate one of her fried shrimp and asked. "So are what are you looking forward to most here at Sonora?"

11 Peyton Glad to hear it 1403 Peyton 0 5

Loren Aalto

August 27, 2017 7:42 AM

Alright, let's get this over with. by Loren Aalto

Loren had found it difficult to adjust to life at Sonora Academy at first. There was so much to grow accustomed to, all worth it of course if it meant she didn’t have to see Brian everyday. He was her mother’s new husband and Loren despised him. The feeling seemed to be mutual.

The kids here were all very different from that in the muggle elementary schools she’d attended in the past, where she’d been very good at getting what she wanted out of them. She had thought the people at Sonora would just be a lot like her and Luke, maybe minus the surfing obsession since they came from all over the country, but as it turned out most of them were just so weird. Loren had envisaged getting up to all kinds of fun with her new girl squad at boarding school, all whom followed her lead of course, but now that she was here she didn’t see how she could ever end up being friends with such dorks.

Thus Loren had spent a lot of her first year following Luke around whenever he let her. But he was a year older and had his own friends and things to do so that wasn’t always a viable option. She was glad that he’d told her about the MARS water room so she had known to bring her board and they went surfing together as much as they could. Unfortunately Luke had got it into his head that it would be a cool idea to run a surfing club in the new term. Loren couldn’t think of anything worse. Surfing was their thing - what was the point in sharing it and ruining their fun times together?

But she wasn’t going to dwell on that for the time being. At the moment it was time to observe the fresh meat entering the food chain as they lined up to be sorted and then perhaps make some effort making small talk during the feast. It was pretty clear to Loren that she was going to have to suck it up and find some girl friends in this bizarre place. How was she going to gain any real authority over the first years if she didn’t have any friends. People like Loren were never the kind to be left friendless - that was the sort of loser thing they laughed at other people for. Although, it wasn’t exactly her fault that everyone around her seemed so… unappealing. She was seriously going to drop her standards and she’d make sure they knew it.

When the headmaster had said the same dull few words he’d said last year and they were finally permitted to begin the feast, Loren began serving herself. “Pass the pasta, please,” she asked one her neighbouring housemates. Her attempts to sound polite had been known to sound fake or condescending but in all honesty she didn’t really care. People could be so funny sometimes - it wasn’t her fault.

8 Loren Aalto Alright, let's get this over with. 393 Loren Aalto 0 5

Jemima Wolseithcrafte

August 27, 2017 11:25 AM

It wasn't supposed to go like this (tag Owen) by Jemima Wolseithcrafte

Jemima was super excited for the Opening Feast. She always looked forward to it, as it was an exciting occasion and a chance for her and Owen to indulge in one of their favourite hobbies - eating new and exciting foods. This year though, she had an extra reason to be excited, as she and Owen were in the running for head girl and head boy. She was almost sure he'd get it, and not just because there were only two boys in the running, but because he was kind and helpful, and all the things a good head student should be. There was more competition amongst the girls but Jemima had dwelt less on the practical possibilities, and possible breakdown of voting demographics, and more just on the ideal of how romantic it would be if she and her boyfriend were made head students together.

She tried not to fidget through the sorting ceremony. It was kind of strange seeing it done differently but she didn't feel particularly bothered. She was proud to notice than Teppenpaw got the most students. Hopefully that indicated that it was a nice year group.

Then came the big moment. She gripped Owen's hand under the table. His name... And Sammy's?! Jemima felt tears pricking her eyes as she watched Owen go up to collect his badge without her. With Sammy. She put on a smile but a couple of tears escaped. Maybe everyone would think she was just proud of and happy for Owen? That was what she should be. She didn't want to ruin this for him. She quick wiped her eyes although fresh tears welled up in them.

"Congratulations!" she smiled, hugging him when he returned. He hadn't reacted like this when she'd got prefect and she didn't want to take anything away from his moment. But that, she felt, was different. There was only one prefect per year in each house, and they couldn't both have got it. They could both have got head student but they hadn't. And now Owen would have to spend a load of his time with Sammy instead of her. Sammy wasn't someone she approved of over much. She seemed to be going through the boys of Sonora like potions supplies. First Jamie, then last year people had been saying she was getting with John. She'd possibly also had a thing with Jax when he'd been around. At least Owen's name didn't begin with a J! Sammy seemed to be aiming to collect all the boys of that initial. In that sense, it was a shame Jack hadn't got head boy - Sammy was very welcome to him, and it would have left her and Owen more time together. She trusted Owen completely but she still didn't relish the thought of his hanging out with someone like that. Sammy was what her mother referred to as 'a loose woman.' She didn't like the fact that Ingrid spent so much time with Sammy, who was probably a bad influence, or that the Pecari Quidditch captaincy seemed to have had a trend of going to or creating women of scandalous repute. Now she had to worry about Sammy flirting with her boyfriend too.

13 Jemima Wolseithcrafte It wasn't supposed to go like this (tag Owen) 304 Jemima Wolseithcrafte 0 5

Luke Powell

August 28, 2017 3:58 AM

Not bad being back [tag: Isaac Song] by Luke Powell

Luke's summer had been absolutely awesome, as always, and he was gutted that it had to come to an end. But at the same time he had been beginning to feel rather excited as the new term at Sonora drew nearer.

And now he was here and ready to find out what life would be like as a third year. It was nice to see everyone again (well most people) and he couldn't wait to further his friendships with his classmates - in fact he'd have a whole lot of new classmates now that he was moving up into intermediates. He still didn't know where the time had gone.

Luke considered Isaac easily his best friend at Sonora and he couldn't wait to catch up with him. His roommate was a lot like him and was always getting up to cool things over the holidays. He sat across from Isaac at the Pecari table so they could chat once the Headmaster had spoken and they'd sung the lame school song. He was quite excited by the mention of the bonfire being this year's midsummer event. That sounded fun.

"Hey mate," Luke grinned across at Isaac as he helped himself generously to the tuna salad. If he wanted to be a real athlete he was going to have to start eating like one. "How was your summer? What did you get up to?"

8 Luke Powell Not bad being back [tag: Isaac Song] 374 Luke Powell 0 5

Tatiana

August 28, 2017 10:37 AM

...Can be almost as hard to follow as Russian nicknames. by Tatiana

Tatiana could not decide exactly what to make of Parker’s attempts to use Russian words. If he had been in her village, this would have been proper, but they were here. Did he want to visit the village? It would take a long time for him to learn enough to make himself understood, but one did have to start somewhere….

“Of course,” said Tatiana, a bit puzzled, when he asked about one of her pet names. “Sometimes. They are bigger than me, we are family. Do you always use full names?”

That sounded dreadful to her. How did one know if an occasion was formal or if the speaker had affection for the addressed? Mama usually called her Tanya or Tanushka, Papa liked Tatianochka, and her siblings usually called her Tatya, but there were other according to situation and their moods - when she was small, Papa had often called her Little Hummingbird instead of her name or any of its derivatives, and Katya was as often ‘Sunny’ to him or ‘Little One’ to Mama as she was ‘Katenka’.

This did remind her of something, though. “Book said that the Houses are families here,” she said, trying not to laugh as she imagined ‘Pecari’ being used as a familiya. Tatiana Pecaria…she would keep Vorontsova, she thought. “So you can say Tatya.”

She could not follow his attempt at a map, but did gather that the word ‘Nevada’ was important and so nodded politely. “I see,” she said solemnly, though she really didn’t. Of course he would not talk to his brother while he was here if he was here and his brother was in Oregon. Oregon wasn’t here, was it? Here was Arizona, and while she had no idea where Oregon was, she was pretty sure it was another state. He could write all his family, but unless mainlanders got to visit home on weekends or something, how could he talk to any of his family?

His question about Muggles gave her pause, and not just because of the difficulty of composing a response to it in English. “I do not know,” she said frankly after a moment’s thought. “Sounds very bad to me, but there are no Magly in my village. There is one old woman….” She searched her memory but could not find the word she needed. “She not Magl, I don’t know English the word. No magic, but not a Magl. This happens sometimes. The vrachi, they say people with this v sem’ye should not marry. It is very - “ she floundered over trying to remember the word for grustnyi, sure it was something that sounded like a Russian word for something gardening related but wavering over which word it was. “Not happy. Very not happy. Has to take charity. But Nadezhda - my nurse, mine and Katya’s - she has met - you say Magglez, yes? Not Magly? - she has met them v place called Noo Ork, she says they do things even with no magic, they are not like Serafima Semyonovna - they are used to it. So maybe not so bad. I don’t know.”

16 Tatiana ...Can be almost as hard to follow as Russian nicknames. 1396 Tatiana 0 5

Alistair Johnson

August 28, 2017 11:37 AM

Looks like it's just you and me [tag: Kelsey] by Alistair Johnson

Alistair was entering his final year but he couldn't bring himself to feel excited. Numerous things had changed over the years he'd spent at Sonora, and because of all those things he found himself with a strange sensation of not really caring.

Quidditch seemed to be falling to pieces and his experiences in the sport had advanced so much now that trying to instil any level of skill or enthusiasm in his peers was nothing more than frustrating.

And just when he'd thought he saw a potential romance on the horizon, the girl he should have paid more attention to from the start left. He was too late.

It was all good and well satisfying himself with Charlotte over the summer but he hadn't been entirely distracted from that loss. And whilst their relationship wasn't lacking physically by any means, he knew deep down that he missed that special feeling he'd discovered only around a few select women. But he'd be a fool if he ever let his heart rule over his head again.

He sat down at the Crotalus table, choosing to sit across from Kelsey. She didn't give him butterflies in his stomach, she didn't make him really smile, but at least she was nice to look at. In truth he was really out of all other options but Kelsey had always been his friend, even when he hadn't been so sure how he felt. Now it was just the two of them left and maybe, just maybe, that was all he deserved.

"How are you, Kelsey? I trust you had a good summer?" Alistair enquired after Kelsey once Headmaster Brockert had done his part. He had already said a quick hello upon sitting down.

8 Alistair Johnson Looks like it's just you and me [tag: Kelsey] 306 Alistair Johnson 0 5

Jen White

August 28, 2017 3:41 PM

Getting warmer by Jen White

While she chewed her food, Jen considered Kit’s statement that her parents wouldn’t approve. She got that. Parents could be so weird. Like her Mom not letting her bring her board to school in first year was a really good example of that (Jen probably would be better friends with Ryder if they’d been able to board together in the grounds, rather than her just sharing his or using one in MARS, which was fun, but that wasn’t the point), and also her Mom moving around all the time Jen was growing up, because apparently being a young witch but living in Muggle towns and having no father wasn’t disorienting enough. She didn’t think her own Mom would bat an eyelid if Jen asked a boy to a school bonfire (well she’d probably be surprised, as Jen was hardly a social butterfly, but she wouldn’t be bothered by it, was the point) but everyone had different rules.

“Yeah, I guess it could be fun,” the second year replied when she’d swallowed her mouthful. “A bonfire on it’s own sounds pretty lame but if there’s, I dunno, s’mores or ghost stories or music or camping,” she trailed off, out of ideas that came to mind when she thought about bonfires. “Yeah it could be fun. And like, maybe you’ll think of a way to ask a boy that would be acceptable.” She shrugged and took a drink. “Like you could ask a whole group of girls to do it together. Safety in numbers,” she shrugged. It didn’t work with everything - there were definitely times when ‘I did it because everyone else was doing it’ would not be a valid reason for doing a thing - but there were other times it could help. Like if everyone was coming home from the skate park at eleven then it was reasonable you didn’t want to walk home on your own at ten.

Kit abruptly changed the subject and asked Jen about her summer right before launching into a short story about her visit to Europe. It was fun to get this glimpse into the life of someone she didn’t know all that well. She didn’t really have much of an opinion on Kit one way or the other, but she seemed pleasant enough, judging by this conversation alone. “Wow do you travel often?” she asked. “I’ve traveled across the country but never abroad. But nah, this summer I just stayed home. Chilled out with my Mom, my grandparents visited. It was a break.” She lifted another forkful of fried chicken to her lips.

0 Jen White Getting warmer 388 Jen White 0 5

Nevaeh Reed

August 28, 2017 4:35 PM

The prefect year by Nevaeh Reed

It had been a fairly usual, boring summer for Nevaeh. Now that she was older, her parents let her to places by herself, so she had spent a lot of time in the park. There was a great dog park within walking distance from the Reeds' home, and she found as much playtime as possible to be beneficial to both her and Scout. Sometimes she would play with him, throwing a frisbee in one direction and, unable to perceive if he caught it or not, praising him regardless when the disk returned to her. A lot of the time, though, she would just sit and let him run. Scout was a working dog, functioning as her eyes and her guide in almost all activities, so it was good for him to just to let loose and be a normal dog for a while.

She liked sitting alone, too. Nevaeh loved dogs and she extra loved Scout, but it was actually kinda nice to just sit without his furry company. It was like taking off your shoes and walking in the sand, or closing your eyes in simple reverie. Peaceful.

The duo was back to school now, but Nevaeh had learned from their adventures and packed some frisbee along this year. "Later," she told Scout, his whining indicating that the elves must have taken their bags. They met up with their friends - Scout was very excited to see Raine in particular, and, forgetting he was Back To Work, offered many sloppy kisses - in the Gardens before the Feast, since the four students were in three different Houses and therefore couldn't crash in a dorm. That had been... interesting. There were a lot of details about Raine's summer that Nevaeh didn't like, and a part of her couldn't help but silently siding more with Kyte. Still, she mostly just hoped that Raine was safe and smart. She could do whatever she wanted, Nevaeh just didn't want to see her get hurt. Or get pregnant.

Parting temporarily from the group, Scout and Nevaeh took their places among the blue-clad House. To her surprise, however, they were not sitting too long, because Nevaeh was being awarded Prefect! She allowed her badge to be pinned on her, and as Scout led her back to her seat, she craned her head to see if she could catch a glimpse of how shiny the badge had to be.

Nevaeh sang along to the school song prouder than ever, noting with some amusement and wonder that she and her classmates were now old enough to attend a repeat Midsummer event. A bonfire at the end of their first year was how she really ended up friends with Nat and Tess! With that memory in mind, she couldn't help but be excited! Yes sir, this was going to be her year, she just knew it.

Her thoughts were derailed a moment later, however, when her olfactory senses informed her just how hungry she really was. "What smells so good?" She asked a neighbor. "Whatever it is, can you pass it my way?"

12 Nevaeh Reed The prefect year 325 Nevaeh Reed 0 5

Florence Newell

August 28, 2017 5:07 PM

#cantrelate by Florence Newell

Flo was wearing her hair in a braid. This was significant for two reasons, one vastly more important than the other. Firstly, this frustrated her because it meant her hair was long enough for braids. Florence liked to keep her hair short. It just stayed out of the way better that way. She hated to be reading, craned over a book, and have her hair drop in the way. No, she kept her brown hair as short as mother would allow.

The second reason the braids mattered were because, as everyone in the household seemed to conveniently neglect to notice, her mother, an otherwise perfect woman by all regards, was, for whatever reason, unable to braid well enough to be worn into public. And Florence, while better than her mother and having provided a number of successful twists to her younger sister's hair over the years, was historically terrible at braiding on her own head. There was only one person in that house who could braid like this, experienced on her own flaming red locks as well as those of others. And she had left before anyone else woke up. Right?

Sometimes, Florence thought, it was convenient to be the smartest person in the home. She did not think so maliciously or arrogantly; one simply had to face the facts. Dustin thought himself her better, and perhaps her parents still had some sort of edge based on their age compared to hers, but Florence knew logically and objectively that she was, proportionally, the smartest. She, at least, would have made a connection regarding the braid.

In any case, the morning had been horribly busy and eventful, filled mostly with Anastasia crying. It broke her heart to see her sister cry, especially when Flo had information the rest did not, so she was glad to escape, even if it meant a bumpy wagon ride. Dustin didn't sit by them, so she and Brett chattered together for most of the trip (except for the bit where Brett fell asleep. How he managed that, she didn't know.)

The speech went by uneventfully, although Flo did notice somewhat nonchalantly that it was the first time in awhile that a Newell wasn’t popping up. When the food appeared, she heard someone address her, and she looked beside her to find Louis Valois. Louis was a boy that it seemed a lot of the girls in her year thought was just gorgeous, and while Florence couldn’t deny that he was pretty cute, to her, he was mostly just Dustin’s friend. “Yeah, I think so,” she answered. “Summers are nice, but it’s good to get back to school, too. What about you?”

12 Florence Newell #cantrelate 362 Florence Newell 0 5

Salali Bly

August 28, 2017 5:20 PM

I feel the same way. by Salali Bly

“Nobody’s ever going to want you, you know. You’re a freak.”

Salali couldn’t stop hearing the words in her head. The other girls at the orphanage… did not like her. She hadn’t realized it before. She thought they were her friends. But they weren’t. When she got home from school, she found her bed shifted as far as the room would allow from theirs, with the rest pushed together so tightly it was almost as if they were one giant bed.

The girls were talking about being adopted when she entered the room. Apparently, when you turned thirteen, your chances of being adopted decreased. Nobody wanted a teenager, it seemed. The other girls were all Salali’s age - she didn’t know when her birthday was, exactly, but there was a relative time frame it had to be in - and she tried to be positive, to reassure them. And then they said that. Not only was she too old now to be adopted, but she was too weird to be loved. They said she would age out of the foster system. They said she would be on her own. They said nobody would care.

At least at Sonora, she had friends. Or maybe she didn’t? She thought people were her friends - the girls of her year had such a lovely lunch event together! - but maybe they weren’t. After all, she’d thought the orphans were her friends, too. Salali felt very sad, and, all at once, very, very lonely.

She half-heartedly listened to the Headmaster Leader Man talk, and while the prospect of something called a bonfire - she didn’t know “bon” but she knew “fire” and she liked that, so hopefully it was similar - sounded fun, she didn’t really raise her head much until someone beside her spoke, asking her to pass the pasta. Salali knew what that was and wanted to be helpful, but she saw two bowls of pasta before her. One with a white sauce, and one with a red. “Ummm… which one?” she asked, her words crisp with forced literacy. “Sorry,” she added without really knowing why. She just felt bad and guilty and… and dumb.

12 Salali Bly I feel the same way. 372 Salali Bly 0 5

Isaac Song

August 29, 2017 1:42 AM

I couldn't agree more by Isaac Song

Isaac was super stoked to be back at Sonora, but more than that to finally be a teenager. It was cool being a kid and all, but he couldn't wait to learn how to drive, to do things on his own with his friends, and go snowboarding with them on his own instead of always being taken around or dropped off by parents. His friends' parents were nice and all, but sometimes he just wanted to be spontaneous and go on adventures regardless of how worried their parents would get.

Isaac plopped down at the Pecari table, eager to eat and get back to the regular school year. Summer had been whatevers, but the highlights were getting a brand new cell phone (the latest model too) for his birthday and seeing his family get together again. He had to leave his beloved phone at home, but he was lucky enough to have a close friend at Sonora to catch up with. It made missing his crew less intense.

"Hey man!" Isaac said, grinning as he started piling his plate up. "I feel like I did a lot this summer, but I don't think I did in reality. I went to Korea for, like, three months with my mom and sisters to visit my dad there. We had a good time together and hit up all these touristy sites that I thought were pretty boring. Even though it's nice seeing my dad, I hate visiting Korea cause the weather is so humid and muggy and I don't have anything to really do there except hang out with family. Korean food isn't my favorite either.

"But I got you something. Hopefully you like it." Isaac reached into his backpack and pulled out a medium-sized box with a picture of a robot on it. "It's a kit to build a model robot. It's kind of like an action figure, if you know what I mean, like a toy made out of plastic but you get to build it yourself. I had a lot of fun putting it together and it's not too hard as long as you don't break the pieces. When you get tired of studying it's a good breather, I think." Isaac wasn't sure if Luke would like it since he was more of an active guy, but he'd given a similar gift to his best friend Jason back home and Jason had loved it.

"What about you? What'd you do all summer?"

19 Isaac Song I couldn't agree more 375 Isaac Song 0 5

Lily Spencer

August 29, 2017 2:06 AM

And English wits. by Lily Spencer

Over the summer, Lily had discovered something very interesting: Muggle television and films. It was a moving box of pictures that told stories without speaking directly to her. She could get right into the lives of strangers and feel like she was their friend. Her mates had taken her to the cinema to watch a few films as well, whatever new ‘box office hits’ they were talking about which she’d simply nodded and agreed with. The idea of films had fascinated her, and she started visiting her other Muggle friends more often to watch DVDs and reality TV. Though Lily loved the action films and thrillers, the ‘rom-coms’ had particularly stuck with her.

It was such a simple and common storyline with common emotions and romance, but there was something about it that attracted her. Never had Lily seen kissing up close or been interested in another’s relationship before, even those of her older siblings. Though she still had lingering feelings for Geoff, who currently had a girlfriend, she’d never really imagined what kissing would feel like or hugging a boy so close, or even having certain relations that she knew Adam and Ginny got up to as married people. Watching that on the telly had made her blush, and Lily wasn’t the blushing sort.

After sharing her interest with one of her good friends, she realised fancying rom-coms was a rather girly sort of thing, so she kept it to herself. If anyone asked, she loved action films and thrillers that made one’s skin crawl. However, her mousy brown hair was at her shoulders now and she took a bit more care with her clothing rather than throwing on the first T-shirt and jeans she found. Though she would never be as lovely as Charlotte, Lily could at least try to look attractive to the outside world, and maybe then she could be like one of those female leads in romance movies, being swept off her feet and the like.

When she entered Cascade Hall, she scanned the room looking for Jozua. She always sat with him during the Welcoming Feast, but her eye caught Sébastien instead. He was sitting on his own at the Aladren table, and Lily had noticed Madeleine wasn’t in the wagon with them this time around. Had she decided not to come this year? He didn’t seem like he had any other close friends, so Lily decided to sit with him. Rarely did she respect the house division, especially during the Welcoming Feasts.

“Hi Sébastien,” she said as she sat down. Though they weren’t best friends, she did think they were friends enough that this wouldn’t be weird. She endured through the Headmaster’s formalities, then passed the beef over to him. “How was your summer? Is Madeleine not coming to Sonora anymore? I didn’t see her on the wagon coming here.”

40 Lily Spencer And English wits. 357 Lily Spencer 0 5

Daniel Fintoc

August 29, 2017 3:35 AM

Everything has changed. by Daniel Fintoc

Daniel had changed.

He had spent most of the past year running around after his grandfather with little recognition for his work and he'd grown tired of it. Perhaps he had taken the odd break every now and again, but didn't he deserve that?

They'd taken Sonora away from him and then they wanted to his life away from him too? If he was going to be stuck at the ranch, he had to find a way to have fun and socialise as well, otherwise he'd have gone stir crazy.

Until then Daniel hadn't realised just how much he'd got used to Sonora and how much it had changed things for him. He'd always wanted to get out and having the freedom of Sonora taken away after just three years had been horrible.

He was done with the ranch now. Daniel knew there was no way he was ever going to stay there. As soon as he left school he'd be off to big cities. Forget academia, he was going to be an actor. Life in the fast lane: money, fame, excitement, women...

But for now he had three more years to power through at Sonora and hopefully they would not be interrupted by more dying relatives and farming troubles.

What he would get up to in those three years was as yet unknown and right now he couldn't wait to get started reinstating himself at Sonora. He saw himself as a man now, much bigger than before at fifteen years old and still growing into himself. Over the past year he'd found success with the fairer sex and he expected the same results at school, even if their was a much smaller pool of attractive females.

Daniel helped himself to some of the food following the headmaster's speech, enjoying the atmosphere around him and feeling so glad to be back. Once he had filled his plate, he paid more attention to those around him, keen to start making conversation. He'd missed all the socialising, especially with the right kind of people that weren't hard to find at Sonora.

And that was when his eyes fell on Kira Spaulding. He frowned. Daniel was no longer the lovesick little thirteen year old who had no real clue what he was doing with girls. Now that he was older and had had a taste of what fun could be had with prettier, more exciting witches, Kira just didn't seem to have the same effect on him.

In hindsight he didn't think he'd had any chance with her anyway. She'd never seemed all that interested. She may have gone to the ball with him all those years ago but perhaps it was unfair to make assumptions based on that, since their were only limited options for a girl of her status at Sonora.

But Daniel was more confident now, not that he'd seemed to lack confidence before, and he wasn't going to shy away from talking to someone as harmless as Kira just because he'd once cared ever so much about what she thought of him.

"Hello Kira." He smiled politely. "Long time no see, how've you been?"

8 Daniel Fintoc Everything has changed. 333 Daniel Fintoc 0 5

Louis

August 29, 2017 12:19 PM

I would be a little surprised if you could by Louis

Louis didn’t know Florence that well, but enjoyed the interesting contrast of interacting with her in real life and hearing about her from Dustin. It wasn’t that Dustin talked about his sister all the time, but it was always different to know someone from another’s point of view.

It was good to hear that Florence was happy to be back at Sonora, but Louis realised he was less sure how to reply when she turned the question back on him. “I suppose so,” he replied, not sure what he felt either way. “It’ll be good to have a break from home stuff, at least.” That was definitely true. His work over the summer had been pleasantly challenging, once he learnt to ignore the circumstances and what was at stake, and just focus on the task at hand. Being back at Sonora felt, in some ways, like a step back into the world of childhood, but maybe that was no bad thing. As his grandmother said, he should enjoy it whilst he still could. And he had to admit a small amount of relief at being able to forget the pressures of running a business, and just focus on RATS, his orchestra, and Quidditch.

He didn’t think, as he said it, that his response was probably lacking context a little. Realising that a beat too late, he decided that Florence had probably heard, anyway. News normally travelled fast on the pureblood grapevine.

He wondered if his flagrant disregard for the usual pureblood society expectations would have any effect on his relationship with his roommate. He hoped not. He knew that Emmy Lou would stand by him whatever, at least. Ingrid would probably be more disapproving, although they weren’t exactly friends anymore. He didn’t know what they were these days, preferring not to analyse it. That just lead to vague feelings of desire, confusion, hurt, and anger. Well, he’d never claimed to not be dramatic.

Talking of Dustin, his friend didn’t look particularly cheerful. He wondered why, before remembering that he was currently talking to a rather good source of information on that front. There was no point wondering, when you could find out.

“Is Dustin okay?” he asked Florence. “He looks a little…down.”

9 Louis I would be a little surprised if you could 314 Louis 0 5

Sébastien

August 29, 2017 12:44 PM

I've never cared much for the English by Sébastien

Apparently Sébastien had misjudged his social status at Sonora. Lily Spencer seemed to think he was important enough to risk breaking the rules for, although that wasn’t saying much. Lily Spencer never seemed to care for rules.

Was sitting with Lily Spencer better than sitting alone? Logically, that was a difficult question. She was a Spencer, yes, from a good family, and Merlin knew it was advantageous to surround oneself with people from good families. On the other hand, she was Lily, weirdly tomboyish, seriously lacking in style, and the girl who kept stealing Madeleine’s attention, when it should really be entirely focussed on Bastien. However, she did seem to look a little better this year, and she was, at least, somebody. A part of Sébastien was just relieved that somebody wanted to talk to him, to give him attention. That annoyed him; he was Sébastien Évreux, and shouldn’t feel grateful for such things. They were what he deserved.

He ignored her question about his summer, not really believing that she was interested, just making polite conversation. Lily seemed to be more concerned with solving the Madeleine-shaped riddle she’d found, and Bastien was glad to have someone to rant to.

“She has transferred to Beauxbatons,” he said, rather bitterly. “We came here together, and she was meant to stay with me, but her parents decided that Sonora isn’t a good place for a proper young girl. And now it’s another thing that Valois has ruined, and now Madeleine goes to be at Beauxbatons, and with her little Léon, and I am here. Without her. And vraiment c’est pas juste que moi je dois rester…” He trailed off at the end, slipping into French and becoming quieter as he realised that he was getting dangerously close to whining. Évreux didn’t whine, especially in front of girls like Lily Spencer, tomboy or not.

“Didn’t she tell you?” he asked, composing himself and trying to regain the upper hand. Judging by Lily’s questions, she’d had no idea. That made Bastien feel a little more special. At least Madeleine cared that much, although she’d still abandoned him.

9 Sébastien I've never cared much for the English 350 Sébastien 0 5

Jehan Callahan

August 30, 2017 2:33 AM

Did you not expect to? by Jehan Callahan

Orientation in the Labyrinth Gardens had actually been quite fun. Contrary to probably everyone’s expectations, Jehan seemed to have made a friend already. Dorian was an interesting boy, who seemed to share hobbies with Jehan, and apparently thought similarly too. Really, there wasn’t a better outcome one could hope for, and he looked forward to getting to know the cute and excitable boy better.

The tour had been useful. Jehan wasn’t sure that he now knew where everything was, but that was half the excitement of it all. He rather enjoyed getting lost from time to time. There was nothing wrong with not knowing where you were. In fact, that often led to fascinating discoveries, like the time he’d found a beautiful little glade in the woods near their house. Of course, then Victor had found him and the glade, and requisitioned it as his explorer’s base, which made it less peaceful.

Victor had refused to describe the sorting system to Jehan. That was mildly irritating, although he had done extensive research. Jehan knew he wouldn’t join his older brother in Crotalus, as disappointing as Victor would find that. Other than that, it was hard to tell, so Jehan let himself enjoy the anticipation.

For a second, Jehan thought he had lost his badge, but luckily he turned out to have put it in his pocket for safekeeping. He dunked the badge when instructed, and it turned blue. Aladren. He nodded to himself, not really surprised. Aladren ought to be a good house. He’d be surrounded by apparently intelligent people, at least.

Jehan joined in happily with the school song, and applauded the prefects and Head students as they were appointed their positions. He wasn’t sure he’d want to be a prefect or not, but they all looked happy, so good for them. Then he turned his attention to the Aladren table.

During the sorting, Jehan had worked out that he had only one fellow first year Aladren. Presumably they would be sharing a dorm, so he positioned himself next to the other boy. It was best to do introductions now, rather than when they were both stripping to get into their pyjamas. Victor had, many times, informed him that nudity was not socially acceptable. Jehan had a habit of getting distracted easily, which had frequently led to him pausing mid-pyjama-putting-on to do something else, but he would try to remember not to do that here.

His future roommate was busy hunting for food, so Jehan helped himself to a nice bean salad in the meantime. It was a relief that he could be openly vegetarian here, without being told off by his parents.

“Hi, I’m Jehan, your roommate,” he introduced himself, once both boys had stocked up on food. “Do you think you’re going to like being here?”

9 Jehan Callahan Did you not expect to? 1398 Jehan Callahan 0 5

Lily

August 30, 2017 2:39 AM

We're a rather fine bunch. by Lily

It was shocking to hear that her friend had transferred, and, to Lily, it was most unexpected. Her face fell and she grew suddenly melancholy, silently mourning her loss. She knew enough French to understand most of what Sébastien muttered at the end, but it didn't quite register, so concerned was she with her own emotions. She'd feel sorry to see any of her friends leave Sonora, but Madeleine was one of her close friends here. Memories of playing pretend with her all those years ago came to mind and it made Lily feel even more melancholic.

She knew what her mother would say: 'Making such a fuss about nothing. Buck up and stop worrying yourself over things that won't change.'

"No, at least I don't remember her telling me," replied Lily. "That's really awful. I hope she likes it there, though; I'll have to write her. I'm the worst correspondent, maybe that's why I don't remember hearing about it from her." At least Madeleine would have friends there. Maybe she would feel more comfortable there as well in her home country despite the rumours Lily had heard about Beauxbatons being snobbier and more pretentious than other European schools. "I know you two were really close, you must miss having her here. Is your family thinking of transferring you as well? You'd be missed if so. The wagon rides would be really lonely then."

Lily couldn't understand why one would send their children to school in America only to transfer them. Even if her parents wanted her closer to them at Hogwarts now, it was much too late to think of displacing her after she'd made so many friends and established herself here. Even when her cousin was dating a muggle-born here years ago, her uncle and aunt hadn't plucked him out. Pureblood politics were exhausting - there was a reason why she'd never taken any interest in it; that is, unless it directly involved her friends.

"Why did your family send you to school here instead of Beauxbatons?" she asked, curious. "My parents sent us mostly because my older cousins attended and seemed to do well. They all thought it would be a good 'cultural experience,' from what I understand. Did your family think similarly?"

40 Lily We're a rather fine bunch. 357 Lily 0 5

Jozua Sparks

August 30, 2017 5:06 PM

So is fourth year cursed then? by Jozua Sparks

Jozua entered the Cascade Hall for the first time as a fourth year, wearing new clothes and new robes. In fact, pretty much everything he had was new this year. Though he guessed his classes would be the same, as he was going into his second year as an intermediate.

After his wagon dropped him off, he'd headed up to Teppenpaw (which hadn't required a password, but the jig gave him a little trouble after a summer of disuse) and spent the intervening time catching up with Finn and battling him over a (new) chess board with his new set of pieces. All too soon, his stomach started to rumble and his (new) clock told him it was nearly time for the feast already.

Looking around for Lily, he spotted her with one of the french kids, but since it wasn't Madeleine, he headed over to his own House table instead. Ah. Empty seat next to Joe. Very good. Jozua claimed it.

"Hi," he greeted just before the first years followed Xavier into the Hall. "Is it just because I reached the middle of the totem pole now that they look so little or do they actually get smaller every year?" he questioned aloud.

The Sorting was different this year, which caused Jozua to frown reflexively. "That looks much less spectacular than the way we did it. If you're gonna change a tradition you should make it better not boring," he opined.

He cheered without enthusiasm for the Head Students- Owen moreso than Sammy, simply out of House Loyalty, but he didn't know either of them personally and doubted that was likely to change. The prefects, though, were only one year above him, and he clapped with more conviction as his chosen feastmate got up to collect his. "Congrats," he said with a smile when Joe returned.

He doubted he'd get it next year, not with three other Tepps in his year and the large number of melted cauldrons attributed to his name, but it was inspiring to see one of his few friends wearing the badge.

He mumbled his way through the school song - that was the same at always unfortunately - then filled his plate with his favorites after the food appeared. "Did you hear about the fire in Aladren this summer?" he questioned, mostly to gauge how far the word had spread than because he felt it needed explaining after their conversation at the returning feast last January.

It had certainly been in the news at home, but it was a local story there, so naturally it got covered. "Er, the town, not here," he added as he belatedly realized there could be confusion. "It was grandfather again," he sighed heavily. "Only got our own property this time, not the whole city, so there was that. Mom and me went to the Netherlands for a couple months while he and Dad rebuilt the house. Hopefully your summer went better?"

1 Jozua Sparks So is fourth year cursed then? 348 Jozua Sparks 0 5

Gary

August 30, 2017 5:29 PM

Well, you never know... there are wizards about. by Gary

Gary looked at the boy that had sat down next to him, the only other first year who's badge had turned blue. He had wondered during orientation and the tour if any of the boys would be his roommate. Being an only child, he never had a roommate before, and now he did have one. He wasn't entirely sure how he felt about that. It could be cool, it could be really strange as well. Well, he'd have to find out through experience.

He smiled, "Hi Jehan, I'm Gary." Jehan had sang along with the song, and seemed pretty comfortable being surrounded by people of varying degrees of reality-altering power, and control over that power. If he had to guess, he'd say his new roommate has grown up around the idea of a magical world. That would probably turn out to be a good thing. Hopefully.

"I hope so," Gary responded to Jehan's question, "But I suppose time will tell." He subtly gestured around the room trying to indicate the various magical wonders without drawing to much attention from everyone else in the hall, "A lot of this is new to me, do you know how it all works?" Hopefully this line of questioning would get some good information without alienating his roommate to much. If they were going to live together for the next seven or so years, he couldn't botch this up right from the start.

2 Gary Well, you never know... there are wizards about. 1404 Gary 0 5

Owen Brockert

August 30, 2017 8:20 PM

No, it wasn't by Owen Brockert

It was his last Opening Feast and Owen couldn't help but feel sentimental. True, this wasn't where he'd met the most special person to him in the entire world-that had been in flying lessons of all places-but he'd met Tobi and while the seventh year couldn't say they'd remained especially close, the older boy had been there for him on his first day when he'd been a bit nervous and overwhelmed. He couldn't help but wonder what Tobi was doing now. He had left school early last year.

He watched the first years get sorted, pleased to see Ruby was going to be in Teppenpaw with him.

As Jemima gripped Owen's hand tightly under the table, butterflies flew in his stomach. It would be so special if they both won and got to be Head Students together. Though Owen felt she had a much better chance than he did. After all, Jemima was....Jemima. How could anyone not vote for her? She was amazing and special and just the all around best candidate and that was saying something considering that she was up against Ginger who was also his friend and pretty great. Just not as great as Jemima.

He, on the other hand, was up against Jack Spencer so, yeah, he was doomed .

But then, Uncle Mortimer announced his name. Owen looked up wide eyed, in shock. He had beaten Jack Spencer ? Someone who was a Quidditch playing intellectual. Things people tended to like, even though being good at sports really had no bearing on someone's ability to do things like be Head Boy. Still, Head Student boiled down to a popularity contest and he'd always assumed Jack was better liked among those who weren't close with either of them.

However, his uncle had not called Jemima's name, but Sammy Meeks' instead. Huh? Owen had nothing against the Pecari but if it was him, it was supposed to be Jemima too. The two of them were a pair. Not to mention he was just plain surprised that she hadn't swept it. He imagined his own win was by a narrow margin, probably a single vote.

Anyway, he stood up there with Sammy and the prefects-he was glad Angelique had gotten it, she'd had a tough time of things here at Sonora-and got his badge. Then he went back to his seat where Jemima hugged and congratulated him. However, even though she was smiling, she seemed visibly upset. "Thanks. Are you all right? I'm really really sorry you didn't win. You totally should have."

11 Owen Brockert No, it wasn't 300 Owen Brockert 0 5

Victor Callahan

August 31, 2017 8:12 AM

Not the only Callahan [Tag Simon and/or Winston] by Victor Callahan

Victor let out a sigh as he sat down at the Crotalus table. This was it. This was the moment when Jehan’s time at Sonora would properly start. Victor was not often worried, preferring to go with the flow and adopt a ‘what will be will be’ attitude, but Jehan was the exception to that rule.

Ever since Jehan had been born, a tiny little scrap of a baby, Victor had felt this strange protective urge. His little brother had been such an important part of his life ever since, no matter the headaches that had caused. Jehan seemed to have a knack for working out exactly what he shouldn’t do, and then doing it. From dressing unconventionally, to being too friendly to the staff, to trying to be vegetarian, to somehow finding the wrong books to read, Victor often found himself having to cover up for the things his little brother did. It was an annoyance, breaking the tradition of the carefree way he liked to live life, but Victor didn’t mind. He’d do anything for Jehan.

But now Jehan was starting Sonora. Already, for the past two years, Victor hadn’t always been there for his brother. And now Jehan was going to be at the same school as him, but in some ways even further away. Jehan would make friends, spend time with them, and Victor could only hope that Jehan remembered how he was supposed to behave. For their family’s sake, for the sake of the Callahan name and, most importantly, for Jehan’s happiness.

Victor held his breath as Jehan was sorted, hoping for Crotalus. It was very unlikely, but it would be cool if Jehan could be in the same house as him. But no, he went to Aladren. Then there were badges handed out to the Head students and prefects (would that be Victor in two years’ time?), the school song to sing, and finally food! Victor remembered how hungry he was, and immediately started helping himself.

Once he was fully supplied with enough food to last him a few minutes, he turned to the nearest of his roommates. “How was your summer, then?” he asked.

OOC: I don’t know if they’d be writing letters or not, but if they sent Victor any, they wouldn’t get many replies as he’s not very good at staying in touch.

9 Victor Callahan Not the only Callahan [Tag Simon and/or Winston] 368 Victor Callahan 0 5

Dorian

September 02, 2017 9:19 AM

How's it going? by Dorian

"Thank you," Dorian nodded when, once they had got past the formal introductions, she said he could just call her Ruby. "And you may call me Dorian," he added. He was glad to have been sorted into Teppenpaw. It did seem like it would be a more relaxed and friendly place.

"Of course, everyone in society know them," he confirmed when she asked if he knew the Beausangs. Obviously he, personally, did not know them very well because he was an eleven year old child and they were big, important grown ups. At least, the figures who came to mind when he heard the name were, there were probably younger ones too, at the school they ran. He wasn't sure whether his family was out of favour for having sent him here, whether it seemed like a snub. Assuming, of course, they'd been in favour anyway... Canadian society was predominantly white, and a few people in society looked down their noses at his family. Luckily, Ruby did not seem to want an in depth analysis of his family's relationship with the Beausangs, she just mentioned it in passing because of her cousin. He settled for nodding politely as she rattled off a dizzying list of relatives. However, as she went on to talk about the sorting ceremony, one particular relative caught his attention. Grandfather. With a nod to the staff table. Yikes. He knew that the Brockerts were powerful and important, and that they ran the school but he hadn't bargained on talking to the headmaster's granddaughter right away. He tried to reason that Ruby seemed perfectly nice so far, but he found his mouth had gone rather dry. He picked up a pitcher and a goblet.

"Juice?" he managed to ask, remembering to offer her some before pouring for himself.

The subject of roommates luckily took them back away from the subject of families, with Ruby sighing over the fact that she'd be alone, before noticing his concern.

"I just worried a little bit. Seven years is a long time if he do not like me. So far, everyone I meet is very nice," he added, smiling at Ruby first before his eyes slid over to where Jehan was sitting at the Aladren table. "So maybe I..." he hesitated. To 'miss his luck' did not sound quite right, "I have no more luck?" he suggested.

13 Dorian How's it going? 1401 Dorian 0 5

Jehan

September 05, 2017 9:07 AM

Shady characters, wizards by Jehan

Gary could be officially added to the list of Friendly People, which was probably a good thing. A roommate feud could have the potential to be dramatic, which would be fun, but really it was nice to know that you could sleep in peace, knowing your roommate didn’t hate you (well, not yet. Not that Jehan planned to give him cause to, but you never knew with people).

“You’re the first Gary I’ve met,” Jehan informed the other boy, feeling surprised that he’d never met anyone else called Gary. He felt like he should have- hadn’t their first tutor been called Gary? No, he was Jerry. His statement still stood.

Gary also seemed positive about being here, but realistic too. Jehan imagined that was wise, being aware that many things could happen, although he thought that being too realistic wasn’t such a good idea. Life could get boring quickly, that way. Gary’s next comment revealed that he was a muggleborn, which perhaps explained why he was a little wary. Jehan wasn’t sure how he felt about the word muggle. It seemed to give a bit of an us-and-them mentality, which was sad, as they were all humans. But then again, it was sometimes useful to have a word to distinguish who was and wasn’t magical.

“It’s not new to me,” confirmed Jehan, having been brought up firmly in the magical community. He’d never even met a Muggle – that is to say, a non-magical person – which was rather a shame.

“I mostly know how it works, but I’m not so sure I understand how it works,” he continued, abandoning his bean salad to turn his attention more firmly to Gary and their conversation. “Things become less interesting once you understand them. Besides, the magical world is probably just the same as everywhere else.” This was a long-held theory of his, and he was keen to see what Gary thought. “The main difficulty with understanding anything is that people do strange things. It’s not so much the magic that makes it hard to know how things work.”

Jehan knew that magic had rules. It was simple, predictable, understandable. In his experience, it was only once people were added into the mix that life got confusing. Everybody valued different things, and Jehan hadn’t yet found anyone who was completely on his wavelength, completely understandable. Except perhaps Dorian? Although that would need more study, as they’d only had a brief conversation. He glanced over to Dorian, sad that the other boy wasn’t in his house too, and noticed that Dorian happened to be looking at him at the same moment. He smiled to himself.

“Did you want to know how anything specific works?” he asked Gary, realising that the other boy had, perhaps, meant the question more in a practical way than a theoretical way.

OOC: Sorry about the delay, rl got in the way!

9 Jehan Shady characters, wizards 1398 Jehan 0 5

Jemima

September 05, 2017 9:18 AM

Well, what now? by Jemima

Jemima hesitated, torn between wanting to reassure Owen that of course she was fine (and to not take away from him getting the award), and the fact that that was a lie, and she wasn't sure she'd ever lied to him.

"Thank you," she smiled, at his show of support. "I'm ok," she assured him, because him asking and caring at least meant that it was partially true, and she knew that she wasn't going to remain upset over this forever, it was just a bit of a disappointment. She brushed away a couple of tears that had escaped. "I just wish we got to do this together," she added, "It would have been fun. But I'm really happy for you - you deserve it.

"Now... What foods shall try this year?" she asked, surveying the table. There were some old favourites that she wanted to revisit - she had a feeling that nostalgia might well be the theme of the year, but it was tradition that they tried something new every time. Hopefully Sonora wouldn't let them down this last time.

13 Jemima Well, what now? 304 Jemima 0 5

Jasmine

September 05, 2017 10:08 AM

Excellent. May I assume you are not evil as well? by Jasmine

As soon as Peyton greeted her as 'Miss Delachene' Jasmine wanted to encourage her new roommate to call her by her given name, but she politely waited until the other girl was done speaking before doing so. "You may call me Jasmine as well," she invited at the first opportunity and made the mental note to include that invitation to her future introductions. "Pleased to meet you, Peyton," she added with a smile. Whew. She'd won the sorting lottery. Peyton sounded like the good sort of friend she was supposed to make here.

She considered Peyton's question thoughtfully, not having considered Sonora in those terms before. Her mother had impressed upon her the importance of making the right sort of friends, and being a good role model for when her sister came, and remembering her etiquette lessons, and passing her classes. And though she had certainly lamented the reassuring things of home that couldn't come with her, and even rejoiced in some of the less pleasant chores that she would not have to do while away at school, Jasmine had not actually stopped to think about what there was to look forward to.

And while she was glad to be at the same school as Arianna finally, she was just enough worried that the older girl would think her too young to spend time with to mention that. Besides, she didn't want Peyton to think Jasmine found other first years too childish. Compared to Anya and Phillipe, her usual companions, more eleven year olds would be relative fonts of maturity.

"I suppose I'd like to sit out in the gardens and just enjoy watching and listening to a fountain," she mused. "Sonora seems to have so much beauty in it. Would you care to join me? I imagine it would be more pleasant with good company."

Then, because she was curious, she asked in return, "What are you looking forward to?"

1 Jasmine Excellent. May I assume you are not evil as well? 1397 Jasmine 0 5

Kelsey Atwater

September 05, 2017 3:44 PM

And all of the people... by Kelsey Atwater

Kelsey had had a marvelous summer, just as she'd had previous years. Now, though, she was back at Sonora for her final year. For the most part, she was ready to move on. The Crotalus knew that great things were ahead of her in life.

Starting with Head Girl. She sat waiting for Headmaster Brockert to call her name. While she did, she watched the Sorting Ceremony with mixed feelings. On the one hand, tradition was important. On the other hand, what sort of tradition would force purebloods to drink out of the same vessel as muggleborns?

Anyway, now for the more important stuff. Head Student. She listened carefully as the headmaster called Owen....and Sammy !? What?? How could Kelsey have lost to a Muggleborn. This was just so wrong. Losing to Jemima would have been one thing but this was just...not okay. And Sammy was a Pecari too and they weren't exactly known for being responsible. Plus, she was just plain an overall terrible role model what with a being a female Quidditch player and all.

The Crotalus was completely aghast. Still, she didn't let it show on her face for more than a second. Kelsey was quite good at keeping her face a perfect mask even when she was seething inside like now. How could she have lost to someone like that? Whatever happened to standards and selecting leaders who were good for the job? People who were mature, responsible and took things seriously. Who understood the importance of their position. Kelsey was certain Sammy wouldn't in the least know what she was doing.

She was able to put that all aside though to talk to Alistair. The Crotalus was always extremely happy to talk to him and this would probably be their last year together. If one thing bothered Kelsey about graduating it was that. Still, it was time to put childhood aside no matter how she felt about certain individuals. She had better opportunities out there. Like Maurice Ashworth IV. The Ashworths were one of the oldest families in the country. That was hard to pass up. After all, that was the most important thing in life, much more so than feelings."Oh it was. Absolutely fabulous. I've had so many betrothal offers and we're sorting through them. How was yours? Did you meet with any Quidditch scouts?"

Kelsey knew that was her friend's dream and she supported him. She, though, was personally looking for someone with a classier, more substantial career.

11 Kelsey Atwater And all of the people... 305 Kelsey Atwater 0 5

Gary

September 06, 2017 5:49 PM

You need to be careful around them by Gary

Jehan seemed like a good guy. At least, that was the first impression Gary was getting, he never was one for instantly assessing someone new. To be fair however, he didn't make it a habit to go out and meet a lot of new people. The big, open, social scene was not one that he sought out... ever. The banquet in the hall had been nudging his social comfort level into the 'red zone' when he first arrived. Once the sorting was over, he could just focus on the headmaster, and then food. Now it was Jehan, and that was okay as well. He could just tune out the rest of the room. Hopefully his new roommate didn't have a bunch of friends already that he was going to call over soon. That may not go well, especially after nearly freaking out at the orientation.

"Well, I think you're the first Jehan I've ever met," Gary replied. There had been that monk from the windswept crag adventure a few years back, but he didn't think NPCs counted. He also hoped that his roommate didn't share the same fate as that poor monk, hopefully there weren't many chimeras around the school grounds.

Jehan's distinction brought a smile to Gary's face. "That is a key difference, between knowledge and understanding. It's a similar difference between intelligence and wisdom I think." The boy's comments had got him thinking, and he began to ramble voicing his thoughts as they processed through his head. "Knowing how something works is inherently different than understanding it, right?" His mind leapt to the wagons that had brought them to the school, "For instance, in a standard, mundane covered wagon, you know that the main body rests on axles and they allow the wheels to turn when pulled. If you understand that function of the same wagon, you not only know how it works, but also how it can be used properly, and how it could be used in situations other than travel. You understand what is happening and could apply the same ideas in different contexts if necessary. Magic most likely operates similarly, once you know how it works and understand why it is doing whatever it is doing, you can apply that to other areas... I doubt flying wagons was the initial application of the 'raise things up in the air' spell." He paused to take a breath, and reddened a bit as he looked at Jehan.

"Sorry, sometimes my brain runs away from me." He considered Jehan's question for a moment, before replying, "What powers it all? Where does the energy come from to lift the wagons, or to move these waterfalls?"

2 Gary You need to be careful around them 1404 Gary 0 5

Ruby

September 16, 2017 5:08 PM

It varies. by Ruby

Ruby nodded. She guessed it was like how everyone knew who the Brockerts were. She was merely curious because of Chaslyn, a cousin of hers she didn't even know, had married one not long ago and the new Teppenpaw loved thinking about weddings! Her own in particular, though that was years away. Still, she adored thinking about it all. Herself in a long beautiful dress and sparkling jewels, lovely sweet smelling flowers all around. Her groom, whomever he may end up being, a man who loved her with all his heart and soul and whom she loved with hers.

Dorian offered her some juice and she accepted gracefully. "Thank you."

"Oh!" Ruby exclaimed. "No, don't worry. This is Teppenpaw. Teppenpaws are nice and you seem like you'll fit in just fine with that." She tried to reassure Dorian. "I'm sure he'll like you and vice versa. Plus, I'm here and my cousin Owen, who just got Head Boy, is in our house. I'm sure you can go to him with any concerns you have. Or to his girlfriend, Jemima whose one of the prefects. Or to our other prefects I guess." Ruby was less familiar with them, as neither Angelique nor Owen spoke much of them.

"Do you have family here?" The first year asked. Maybe they could help Dorian out too. It was a huge comfort for her knowing she had Emerald and Owen and Angelique and even Grandfather. She knew that for all his crankiness, her grandfather really did love her, her siblings and his other grandchildren.

11 Ruby It varies. 1405 Ruby 0 5

Joe

September 21, 2017 4:24 PM

At the moment, I'm going to have to go with 'yes.' by Joe

“I think they just keep getting shorter,” Joe remarked to Jozua’s question about the first years. “I’m not tall now, but I don’t think I was that short then, so logically, they must be getting shorter than they used to be.” This was not serious logic, of course, but he and Jozua (except in the most literal sense with the latter, in a way which had nothing to do with Houses) were only semi-Aladrens and so he could poke fun at logic sometimes instead of borderline enshrining it.

“Thanks,” said Joe when Jozua congratulated him on the bizarre thing which had just happened involving him, a guy he’d hit last year, and a badge that wasn’t more akin to the Scarlet Letter than anything desirable. Brockert had to have simply forgotten who Joe was, that was the only possible answer for it.

He knew little about the Sparks family, just what Jozua had mentioned in conversation, but that was enough for Joe to suspect the ensuing story wasn’t going to be happy when Jozua asked did you hear about the fire in Aladren. “I…don’t think I did,” he admitted cautiously, and the reason for that was soon revealed: apparently, Jozua’s relatives had not managed to demolish a town this time. Just their own house. Joe winced at the mention of going to the Netherlands while said house was rebuilt and took a minute to thank God and St. Joseph and Aquinas all together that John’s outbursts of temper when they were younger – and, frankly, even more recently – had more often had results opposite of firestarting. Things could be damaged when they were suddenly and unnaturally frozen and/or telekinetically thrown around, but fire was a bit harder to deal with. Fires spread.

“Uh – yeah,” he said when Jozua asked if his summer had gone better. “My brother came home, and my sister got married – sorry to hear yours, man, that’s awful. Was it just some damage or….” Well, that was a stupid question, if only because Jozua might not want to answer it. Joe had had a hard enough time when his house had only metaphorically been burned down; he imagined the actual loss of the structure, not having home to go back to as it had been anymore, would be worse.

16 Joe At the moment, I'm going to have to go with 'yes.' 329 Joe 0 5

Owen

September 22, 2017 6:52 PM

Um, I guess we eat by Owen

Owen nodded. "So do I but you know, prefects and Head Students work together on things. Which means we'll actually get to spend more time together because before you would be doing...prefect things and I wasn't. " Prefect things which included Jack Spencer. Not that he had ever shown interest in Jemima and vice versa but he knew how pureblood parents were. Owen worried all the time that Jemima's parents-or Theodore-might encourage her away from him and towards Jack. Or Alistair. Or someone else who played Quidditch and happened to be a pureblood.

Of course, Theodore shouldn't actually have a say in who Jemima was with but the Teppenpaw still worried. He very much didn't think Jemima's brother approved of him.

His eyes lit up as he realized something else,"We can even patrol together." Walking around Sonora in the middle of the night with Jemima gave him many many pleasant ideas. " As well as spend time in the prefect lounge." Head Students were allowed there too. "Granted, that might not be too romantic with my cousin and your sister there too but certainly there are times when we're there alone."

Owen looked down at the table"I've heard good things about Indonesian food and there are some meatballs over there that look like they're stuffed with cheese. Oh, and what about those pierogis?"

11 Owen Um, I guess we eat 300 Owen 0 5

Jemima

September 23, 2017 1:10 AM

Sounds good to me by Jemima

“That’s true,” Jemima smiled, brightening as Owen mentioned how they could work together. Just because Sammy was head girl and Owen head boy, it didn’t mean they had to take patrols together. And Sammy would probably be more interested in patrolling with her own friends, so hopefully they could all agree on a roster that made everyone happy.

“It doesn’t have to be something romantic. I mean, we rarely get privacy in Teppenpaw. It’s just nice to be together,” she added, as he weighed up the relative merits of the lounge. Of course, time alone definitely had its plus points too, and they’d put it to good use last year. She couldn’t quite imagine using the prefect lounge for making out though. As he pointed out, there was too much potential for other people, and particularly embarrassing ones, to walk in on them.

“Meatballs stuffed with cheese sound like heaven,” she grinned, holding out her plate. “And those too,” she nodded. She hadn’t recognised the name for the dumpling things he’d used, but who didn’t like dumplings in all forms? “They’re not gyoza?” she asked, as the dish he’d pointed out looked very similar, to her. Japanese was her favourite food. Well, sort of… Everything was her favourite food, and it didn’t have a lot of cheese, which was easily one of the best inventions ever… Jemima did not take after her siblings in terms of body type - the other four were all beanpoles, skinny, tall and athletic. She often thought it was unfair that they naturally had that body type when they didn’t even really need it - they all did so much sport they’d have burnt off any number of calories easily, whilst she was both shorter, rounder and more prone to sedentary activities, such as art, than they were, which weren’t the best combination for her waistline (along with the fact that she would probably describe ‘eating’ as her second favourite hobby). Though perhaps it all went together… Perhaps the tall, skinny genes came packaged somehow with the desire to do sport. Maybe if she’d been tall and thin like her siblings, she’d have been a completely different person. And Owen certainly showed no signs of objecting to her appearance. He’d started dating her when she’d been all pudgy cheeked with what she still regarded as baby fat. If he’d been hoping she’d outgrow it and morph into a tall, elegant swan, he would have been disappointed. But he was still piling her plate high at every feast. She was by no means fat - she had some luck with her metabolism - she was just never going to have that perfectly flat stomach, or be one of those lithe, feline girls. She was more along the cherubic lines.

“Indonesian sounds good… But maybe that’ll have to be a lunch date over Christmas because I wouldn’t know what I’m looking for. Or hey, maybe we can just go there next year. Imagine that… We could eat our way around the world!” Perhaps it wasn’t a realistic plan.. There was a strong possibility she’d be in college. And they couldn’t really travel together until they were married. But it was fun to dream.

13 Jemima Sounds good to me 304 Jemima 0 5

Jozua Sparks

September 26, 2017 2:20 PM

Should we hire a curse breaker? by Jozua Sparks

"Ha," Jozua responded, more word than laugh when Joe confirmed, with very questionable logic, that the first years were indeed getting smaller. That was fine though. He didn't need solid logic today, and just appreciated Joe humoring his observation.

Later, when it turned out that the story of his house fire at least hadn't made the news in Canada anyway, he supposed that was good. Well, it was good in that the whole world wasn't having conversations about how Those Sparks Were At It Again. Less good because that meant he'd probably have to explain about how Those Sparks Were At It Again.

Sure enough, after a sidelong mention of Joe's sister getting married (Jozua felt that must have surely been mentioned last term at some point and he was probably a bad friend for forgetting and being surprised by that news, but he kind of felt he had a good excuse this time), Joe was asking about the extent of the damage.

"I," he began, but then didn't know how to continue from that point and started over, "We're Sparks. We live in a pheonix house. This . . . was just the first time it had a death cycle since I was born."

He wasn't sure exactly how common pheonix houses were, given they were invented by his own great great great grandfather, who was hardly the sort of person sane people wanted to emulate in housing design given how often his own personal residence had tended to cease to exist by one form of disaster or another. "They're mostly immune to minor disasters but if a big enough one hits, the whole house is just . . . it's gone, so a new one can go up in its place without bothering with such tedium as rubble clean up and disappointing salvage efforts. We each had a fire haven where we could keep the stuff that we didn't want to go down with the house if anything happened, but . . ." Jozua grimaced, "I wasn't very good about keeping mine current, and there wasn't time to grab much of anything either. Pheonix houses are really good about getting people out to safety, but they don't really give you a lot of warning. One minute I'm reading in the living room, next minute there's this loud boom that you more feel than hear, and suddenly I'm sitting at the edge of the property with the rest of my family and the toys I loved as a six year old and the defensive wards are glowing like crazy all around us so much you can't see past them at all." He was aware he was mixing up his fist and second person pronouns but shaken enough not to care.

Jozua took a deep breath and then sipped at his glass of water, trying to remind himself that it was almost three months gone and no longer a present terror. "It could have been a lot worse," he added, more to remind himself than to inform Joe. The loss of almost all of his stuff was a bad blow, but he'd kept what was really important. "The initial explosion was big enough that the pheonix house magics triggered immediately, which got dad and grandad out with only minor burns and reduced everything in the lab to ash before it could spread or have other effects. We all survived with no bad after-effects, and the house and property already look exactly the same as they always did, at least from the outside."

1 Jozua Sparks Should we hire a curse breaker? 348 Jozua Sparks 0 5

Joe

September 26, 2017 8:10 PM

What, you don't think trying it ourselves would be fun? by Joe

For one moment, as Jozua started talking, Joe was concerned that the shock of losing all his possessions had caused Jozua to suffer some kind of brain fever and start rambling, but then he remembered two things. The first was that shocks bringing on brain fevers was a cliché of Victorian novels, not something people actually developed. The second was that Jozua had suffered the shock in question some time ago anyway and had been speaking coherently until now and it seemed unlikely that he – having brought the subject of his misfortunes up in the first place – had abruptly taken leave of his wits just now. Therefore, there was probably a sensible explanation.

Sure enough, one was provided for him a moment later. He had to admit, he could see…both positives and drawbacks to that idea. In his house, it would be good because his house was so heavily lined with books that they were all pretty much doomed as it was if the thing ever caught fire, but it would also be bad because Mom and John probably would have nervous breakdowns if they lost all of said books and their religious articles and Mom’s albums and knickknacks and John’s journals. The last wouldn’t be a category for a special box that was known about, either, because those were the one thing that John hadn’t finally owned up to with the whole family – those were apparently still something he wanted hidden. In any case, though, having one’s house burn down sucked and he was glad it hadn’t happened to him and he was sorry it had happened to anyone, but particularly a friend.

“Still sucks, but I’m glad everyone’s okay,” said Joe. “Er…you need anything?” This felt a bit of a stupid question, all things considered – it had been previously established that Jozua was at least a good solid financial tier or two above Joe – but it was also the polite thing to do. “I’ve got about…eh, probably only six books that count besides textbooks, a few more if you’re into the kind of religious books my mom thinks will improve you, and some jigsaw puzzles you can borrow.” Even rich people presumably took some time to replace all their worldly belongings after everything except their childhood toys and the clothes on their back and possibly the book in their hand the moment everything exploded was burned up.

16 Joe What, you don't think trying it ourselves would be fun? 329 Joe 0 5

Owen

September 28, 2017 7:26 PM

It sounds even better than it did before I started the post. by Owen

Owen smiled as Jemima brightened. One of the things he hated most was seeing her unhappy and she'd been crying. It had been like a punch in the gut to see her like that. Especially since he'd already felt a little guilty and just...wrong getting Head Student when she hadn't. They were a pair, they belonged together like Cookies and Cream but less platonic,or garlic and cheddar cheese soup but less edible.

He nodded in agreement. "I can't imagine not being so." Owen remembered back what he'd said to Theodore about how if he and Jemima went to different schools, that he'd visit her often, but he just couldn't imagine them being separated that way. They'd have to be at the same school. He was sure they could get in anywhere because, while Owen wasn't the sort who felt entitled because of his family name, he knew it would open doors. And hopefully he had enough talent to cross the threshold and get settled inside those doors. He and Jemima just had to find a school that focused on creative fields and great writing and art programs. The seventh year knew there were schools out there like that.

Owen paused. "Maybe they are. And there are some other dumpling type things over there. Maybe one is gyoza and one is pierogis. Either way, we should have both. Then again they might be the same thing. Also, we need to have something garlicky. It's a must. Oh, and like go back and have everything we had at all the previous feasts. There are those cheese curd things."

He nodded. "Yeah, Tasha kept talking about it on the wagon but she didn't give any sort of physical description of what it looked like, but what about some sort of curry?"

Or hey, maybe we can just go there next year. Imagine that… We could eat our way around the world!”

Owen's eyes lit up at the thought. "That sounds wonderful! We have to do that someday." He bit into one of the cheese filled meatballs. "These are scrumptious."

11 Owen It sounds even better than it did before I started the post. 300 Owen 0 5