So I guess this is happening. [Tag Malikhi] on Cascade Hall

Headmaster Brockert

June 28, 2019 4:31 PM

Opening Feast by Headmaster Brockert

Another year was upon them and this year, his granddaughter Sapphire would be starting her first year at Sonora. Mortimer had to admit that the novelty of grandchildren starting school was starting to wear off. As was having new ones in general. Madeleine was due soon. Not that Mortimer wouldn't love his new grandchild any less than the ones that he already had. Not that he would show it any more than he always had. He was also concerned about Sapphire and how she would get on at school with her epilepsy. Fortunately, the young first year was well medicated but she was different and young people weren't kind to those who were different. If anyone bullied her, they would be in deep trouble.

Once everyone seemed to be in attendance, Mortimer placed a Sonorus charm on himself and began to speak. "Welcome to Sonora for the new first years and welcome back for all older students. First years, you should have receieved 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."

After the first years had been settled, Mortimer continued."Would Kir McLeod and Natalie Atwater please come up and get your Head Student badges." This outcome had rather surprised-and sort of disappointed-Mortimer, he had somewhat expected Emerald to win. However, he wasn't disappointed in Emerald, but in her classmates. He always knew teenagers didn't have any sense.

"In addition I'd like to call up Gary Harper, Dorian Montoir, Peyton O'Malley and Parker Fitzgerald to receive their prefect badges. Congratulations." Also disappointing that Ruby hadn't won. And Mortimer couldn't even blame that on teenagers exercising poor judgement.

Once the new prefects and Head Students had returned to their tables, Mortimer continued. "This year we will be having Team Challenges." He was pleased about this, the Challenges kept everyone busy. "Your teams will be announced within the next few weeks and at the end of the year, we will be having our annual Midsummer event, the bonfire."

"Now we will sing the school song." Or they would, rather. Lyric sheets were passed around and the song began.

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.

That done, he dug into his steak and bourbon.

Subthreads:

Pecari Table Threads 

The food is always the best part by Mikey DiCaprio with Hilda Hexenmeister

So I guess this is happening. [Tag Malikhi] by Evelyn Stones with Malikhi Hill

Ura! by Tatiana Vorontsova with Natalie Atwater

So you're saying I belong here? by Parker Fitzgerald with Isaac Song

Hi! I’m Anya! by Anya Delachene with Salali Bly

Crotalus Table Threads 

Feeling shy, as usual by Nicolas DiCaprio with Jezebel Fischer-Reed

Another year, another load of... by Julius Astley with Felipe De Matteo

Nerves by Sapphire Brockert with Jessica Hayles

He’s walking away with *my* badge! by Winston Pierce with Simon Mordue

Me? Really? by Peyton O'Malley with Jasmine Delachene

Teppenpaw Table Threads

She's not there by Kir McLeod with Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

Here's to the new year. by Katerina Vorontsov with Lyssa Fitzgerald

Summer was fun but so is this [Tag JD] by Zara Jackson with JD

So, you're saying I belong here? by Dorian Montoir with Eden Manger

Aladren Table Threads

The blues are the good people, right? by Ellie Alperton with Isabella Harrington

Blue: Finale by Florence Newell with Amelia Layne

Huh? by Gary Harper

Staff Table Threads

I...I think I'm still alive. by Professor Wright with Professor Sophie O'Malley

Introspection by Nathan Xavier

11 Headmaster Brockert Opening Feast 6 Headmaster Brockert 1 5

System

July 04, 2019 6:23 AM

Pecari Table Threads by System

0 System Pecari Table Threads 0 System 0 5

System

July 04, 2019 6:23 AM

Crotalus Table Threads by System

0 System Crotalus Table Threads 0 System 0 5

System

July 04, 2019 6:24 AM

Teppenpaw Table Threads by System

0 System Teppenpaw Table Threads 0 System 0 5

System

July 04, 2019 6:25 AM

Aladren Table Threads by System

0 System Aladren Table Threads 0 System 0 5

System

July 04, 2019 6:25 AM

Staff Table Threads by System

0 System Staff Table Threads 0 System 0 5

Nicolas DiCaprio

July 04, 2019 7:02 AM

Feeling shy, as usual by Nicolas DiCaprio

Mikey had given Nico a rundown of what the houses were known for: Pecari was full of adventurers and fun people, Aladrens were great at studying and academics, Crotalus were snobs and mostly purebloods, and Teppenpaws were nice and fun. Mikey was most definitely biased, but Nico kept those descriptions in mind as he went to get sorted himself. If he measured himself up to all of those traits, he could see himself as getting sorted into Aladren or Teppenpaw. He also liked blue, so he wouldn't mind having that as his house color.

While others were getting sorted, Nico was nervous about standing in front of everyone. He fiddled with his blank badge while he waited for his name to be called. When it was his turn, Nico dunked the badge into the Sorting Potion as instructed, and he was surprised to see it turn red. Really surprised.

Nico scanned the Pecari table for his brother quickly before making his way to the Crotalus table. He didn't spot Mikey, but he was sure his brother would be shocked too. Nico was definitely not the snobby type, and he was definitely not a pureblood. He didn't know what had brought him to this house of all places, but it seemed like he would be stuck here for the next seven years. It's not like he really wanted a certain house, but he was a little disappointed that he was sorted with the snobby house, according to his brother.

The Head Students and Prefect badges were handed out, but Nico had no idea who anybody was. He was quietly observing his classmates, wondering if they were all purebloods and if he would get judged by others for being a half-blood and going to a muggle elementary school. He really hoped there weren't bullies.

Back at his school in Denver, Nico had had a good group of friends, mostly other boys and girls who thought he was fun to play sports or skateboard with. Nico had never been bullied for being shy or quiet or for being an Italian-American, but maybe things would be different here. He wasn't afraid to stand up for himself if needed, but he'd also never had to. Even though Mikey was in a different house, at least he was here to help him if needed. Nico tried to spot his brother's head of brown hair at the Pecari table, but he was unsuccessful. Oh well.

He did his best to keep up singing the school song when the lyric sheets came around, and Nico glanced around to see what other people were doing after the song ended. There was a huge spread with too many options, so Nico went after what looked familiar. He chose a chicken pot pie and broke the top crust. It was hard to think of what to say to his new housemates when there was so much going on around him, so he kept his eyes down on his food and focused on scooping up the delicious mixture inside into his mouth. He glanced up every so often to gaze around Cascade Hall too. He'd never been inside a place so beautiful and magical like this. It made him wonder what the other rooms looked like in this place and if his common room would be just as magical as this.

19 Nicolas DiCaprio Feeling shy, as usual 1458 Nicolas DiCaprio 0 5

Jezebel Fischer-Reed

July 04, 2019 7:02 AM

Confront it with knowledge and a plan! by Jezebel Fischer-Reed

Jezebel was a Crotalus. That probably meant something or other, but somehow she couldn't remember. She was sure she'd read about it because she'd read about everything, but she couldn't seem to recall and now she only had the faces of her classmates to gauge by. She took advantage of the fact that she wasn't the only new student in this House though, and took a seat beside a quiet boy who had searched another table before sitting himself.

The song was done before Jezebel could decide whether she wanted to sing, and there was food before she could decide whether she was hungry. Sense told her that she'd regret it later if she didn't eat now so she followed the boy's lead and took the first thing that looked decent: mashed potatoes and beef stew.

She tugged her black hair out of the way by putting it up in a loose ponytail with a tie from her wrist, and then turned to look at her classmate. There weren't very many black students at this school, although she'd noticed a few other students of color, and she hoped this wasn't going to be a problem. Still, it wouldn't do to be on the defensive just yet.

"I'm Jezebel," she announced to him. "Guess we're housemates?"

22 Jezebel Fischer-Reed Confront it with knowledge and a plan! 1454 Jezebel Fischer-Reed 0 5

Nico

July 04, 2019 7:03 AM

I'm bad at planning for social interactions by Nico

Someone spoke to him. Nico felt grateful not to be sitting and eating all alone at a table full of strangers, but now it meant having to talk about... stuff. He was charming in a quiet sort of way, according to his parents, but Nico didn’t know what that meant. He could never tell if his parents were complimenting him or pointing out how little he spoke at first when he was with new people. Mom had said she was quiet as a little girl too, but he really couldn't imagine it. He couldn't imagine either of his parents being known as the quiet type.

He nodded at the other girl. “Yeah, guess so,” he said. “Did you know anything about the houses before this?”

Maybe she had a different idea of what Crotalus was known for. Nico knew his brother was biased towards Pecari, so he hadn’t taken all of his descriptions to heart. But it still stung a little to be in what Mikey called the “snobby house.” He didn’t want to be known that way, and this wasn’t the greatest start to his new school. Nico hoped this girl wasn’t one of those types either, but he wasn’t one to judge others quickly. Maybe Mikey was just exaggerating.

“My name’s Nico, by the way,” he added. Then he didn't know what else to add to that, so he put some a big spoonful of food into his mouth so he wouldn't have to say anything.

19 Nico I'm bad at planning for social interactions 1458 Nico 0 5

Jezebel Fischer-Reed

July 04, 2019 7:04 AM

That's actually a really good point by Jezebel Fischer-Reed

While there were undoubtedly books that could speak to the colloquial reputation of Sonoran houses, or houses at other schools if that was a thing, Jezebel had not found any. As such, she knew only the basics of what the houses were meant to be and she knew all too well that what things were meant to be was often not reflective of what they actually were. From what she'd gathered, Crotalus was for the ambitious and the organized. That seemed accurate enough, but she didn't know what else to expect. It was like having her horoscope read to her without knowing what her zodiac sign was; sure, it sounded good, but she wouldn't have been able to say otherwise anyway.

"Not much," she admitted, deciding that honesty was a good first try. "My family-- Well, my parents aren't magical so I only know what I've read in books."

She'd only read about magic in books until now, too. Then all of a sudden she was magic and her cousin was magic and maybe a grandparent or something but no one really knew.

"What about you?" she asked, sensing that she'd have to do a bit of prodding to make conversation happen with Nico.

That wasn't a bad thing and actually kind of a relief after being pestered by Augustine and Patience all summer. Marcus had hardly talked to her since she got her letter and thinking of family was a hard reminder that her very existence just might destroy hers. At least there was Dathan, but he didn't have siblings. He couldn't understand.

22 Jezebel Fischer-Reed That's actually a really good point 1454 Jezebel Fischer-Reed 0 5

Nico

July 04, 2019 7:04 AM

I make those sometimes by Nico

Nico had never read about magic in a book before. It had always been in his life growing up since both of his parents were magical. That was something he had always taken for granted. Sometimes he wondered how kids at school or his grandpa and uncle lived without magic. It was just so convenient. He couldn’t imagine cleaning toilets or washing dishes by hand, unless Mom was trying to teach them a lesson or something.

He was really curious as to how she felt when she found out she was magical. Nico and his brother had expected it, but he didn’t know what it would be like not knowing magic at all.

“What was it like finding out you were magical?” he asked, brown eyes bright with curiosity. “Was your family shocked? Are you the only one in your family who’s magical? My mom’s family isn’t magical either. She’s the only one, but me and my brother grew up with magic. He’s in Pecari. He told me a little about the different houses, but he definitely thinks Pecari is the best.”

Nico didn’t think people who came from non-magical families were any less good at magic, but there was a lot more for them to catch up on, probably. Going to boarding school was overwhelming for him because there was so much to get used to and he was away from his parents for the first time, but at least he had his brother here.

19 Nico I make those sometimes 1458 Nico 0 5

Mikey DiCaprio

July 04, 2019 7:07 AM

The food is always the best part by Mikey DiCaprio

By now, going back and forth from Sonora to Denver was routine. Mikey liked having time to spend with his family, but then coming back here to work hard and hang out with friends. It was different this year, though, because his little brother was finally joining him. Mikey had told him as much as possible partly because he was excited Nico was coming and partly because he wanted to make sure Nico was prepared. He didn't think his brother would be sorted into Pecari, but he really hoped he was wrong. It would be so cool to have the DiCaprio brothers together in one house. They would so dominate.

But, unfortunately, Nico was sorted into Crotalus, and Mikey felt his jaw actually drop when that happened. His brother looked a little lost, and Mikey almost waved his arms to get his attention, but Nico always found his way to where he needed to be. Even though Mikey loved his brother, that was one of Nico's traits, among many, that Mikey was jealous of.

The concert had been fun to watch last year, and Mikey had played a small part in it. His parents had been proud and told him how much fun they'd had watching everyone's performances. This year, though, team challenges sounded so much more fun. Finally, Mikey would be able to put his athleticism to use! Unless the challenges were lame, like who could study the most or get an O on a test. Yuck. He was surprised they weren't simply going to compete by houses. Maybe he and Nico would be on the same team then. And a bonfire sounded like a fun way to end the year too.

Mikey glanced at where his brother was sitting at the Crotalus table. He felt the big brother duty to go and introduce Nico to some new people, but he couldn't take care of him for all of his life either. Nico would adjust and get used to it, just like when he started kindergarten. He would make some cool friends too. Mikey didn't need to worry about him, even though a small part of him still did deep down. He would check on him later after dinner.

Once the song was done, Mikey helped himself to a slab of filet mignon, mashed potatoes and gravy, and green beans. It was his usual go-to during the first feast of the school year. One thing that he definitely missed during the summer was the meals at Sonora. His own parents barely cooked much, and if they did it was almost always Italian food or sandwiches.

"This food is just so good," he told a fellow housemate. "But besides that, how's it going? What'd you get up to this summer?"

19 Mikey DiCaprio The food is always the best part 1406 Mikey DiCaprio 0 5

Hilda Hexenmeister

July 04, 2019 7:08 AM

Und Englisch ist das Schlimmste by Hilda Hexenmeister

Hilda arrived at Sonora for her second year a bit more resigned to her fate than she had been the year before. She had returned to Germany over the summer to visit Johana Leonie, and while it had been a good trip and fun to see her friend . . . but it hadn’t magically fixed everything, just by being back in her native country, like she had somehow unconsciously expected it to. In some ways, it had even been worse over there.

If Germany hadn’t solved all her problems, then the problem must be with her and not her location. English was still her bane and she still hated that America used that as their primary language, but now she was starting to hate it on its own merits instead of for the fault of Not Being German.

But she was a Pecari. She was supposed to be adaptable. She was pretty sure Hansel fit this description more than she did, but she was going to make an effort at adapting this year. Maybe even try to hold conversations with people other than Heinrich and Johana Leonie which was something she had made an effort to avoid as much as possible up until this point. So instead of bothering Heinrich in the library or hoping to find Johana Leonie in the Hall, she went to her room during the first years’ orientation to attempt to converse with her roommates. She was not convinced she succeeded, but words were exchanged. They might have even been in English. Hilda wasn’t sure.

She also opted not to jump tables for the Feast. She was pretty sure by now that Heinrich was lying (or more likely simplifying, because Heinrich was a stick in the mud who didn’t know how to lie and he might not even understand the difference between The Rules As Written and The Rules In Practice because smart as he was, he had an even worse adaptability capacity than she did) when he told her that feasts required students to sit with their own Houses. She had seen evidence that it wasn’t that cut and dried last year, but she returned to the Pecari table anyway.

The hours with her roommates had made one thing very clear: she needed a lot more practice with this Getting On With English Speakers thing.

So she didn’t even seek out Evelyn Stones who was learning German a little bit, and sat down next to some kid she didn’t know at all, other than having both been in the concert. She figured that if she made a total fool of herself, it wouldn’t have long lasting consequences that way.

And he looked to be about her brother’s age, so that gave him just enough familiarity that she didn’t feel remotely intimidated by him.

After the song - Hilda had not even attempted to read the English lyrics at the melody’s speed and had opted for a half hearted humming instead - he started talking to her. She understood ‘food’ and ‘good’, so she nodded, smiled, and said “Good!”

Well, she meant to say good. It still came out sounding more like the German “Gut!” than she had intended. Stupid English. Stupid tongue habits.

But she copied his choice of foods on the assumption that he was making recommendations and very little of what was available were things she could name. (A lot of them she had tried over the past year, so she could have found something she liked; she just literally did not have names for the American and other ethnic dishes, especially not their English names.)

He said more, but the gist was harder to guess at than his first sentence. Going, she knew, and that was said with the lifting note of a question, so she made a wild guess about what he might want to know about traveling, and answered that. “I go Johana Leonie in Deutschland to see. Das is good. And you?” she turned the question back, because that was infinitely easier than composing her own questions. And if it sounded a bit like she was saying “Und du?” instead, that was the fault of English for changing from its Germanic roots.

Stupid English.

1 Hilda Hexenmeister Und Englisch ist das Schlimmste 1433 Hilda Hexenmeister 0 5

Evelyn Stones

July 04, 2019 7:09 AM

So I guess this is happening. [Tag Malikhi] by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn hadn't quite been able to avoid everyone upon her arrival back at Sonora, but she'd tried. Now, she sort of regretted that. She would've loved to just melt into one of Ness' big hugs, or see Heinrich and have him tell her things were going to be okay, or to see Julius being practical and awkward as usual, or to hug Malikhi and know that things were still good there. As it was, she just sort of missed everyone anyway, and the emotions weren't going to work out for her coming into the Feast. She pushed them aside - something she'd gotten better at over the summer - and made her way to an open seat at the Pecari table. Only about half the students had come down yet, so there were actually lots of open seats and it wasn't difficult to find one.

Somehow, everything was already different. Part of that was, of course, that she had apparently maxed out her height and was a towering five-foot one. She hadn't bothered to keep up on any hair dye over the summer, partly because her father seemed to find the whole conversation painful when she brought it up, and the dye she and Ness had used had long since worn out, leaving her hair its natural white blonde. Tonight, her lips were painted brown and her eyes dappled with gold to represent Pecari House. Dark brown combat boots peeked out from beneath her green robes and she looked a little bit like an overgrown shrub.

She took her seat at Pecari and waited for things to begin.

22 Evelyn Stones So I guess this is happening. [Tag Malikhi] 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5

Malikhi Hill

July 04, 2019 7:10 AM

Everything just happens, whether we want it to or not by Malikhi Hill

Malikhi was happy to be back at Sonora, though you wouldn’t have been able to tell from the dark circles around his eyes and his lips pressed into a thin line. Malikhi looked the same, yet different. His unruly blond hair seemed longer and perhaps in need of a cut, the strands falling further over his eyes than ever before. He was taller (and clearly still growing), lankier but he had at least managed to put his previously lost weight back on. The monstrous appetite that he used to have had not yet returned but he was no longer skipping meals (following a row with his mother over the summer about how he could no longer just lock himself away in his room).

He rubbed a hand over his face as he automatically headed for the Pecari table. Contrary to what his expression seemed to say, Malikhi was actually happy to be back at Sonora. The school made him feel normal and the sting from losing his father lessened when he was there. It was always hard at first but as time went on, he would feel better - a bit like antiseptic spray, he supposed. His home life was just awkward and difficult and it was nice to escape from that.

There was, of course, one other reason as to why he liked returning to Sonora. Evelyn Stones. His best friend, his rock. He would not know what to do if he didn’t have her in his life and his lips automatically began to involuntarily twitch upwards in a smile as he spotted the vacant seat next to her. He slid in easily and opened his arms. He wasn’t sure what it was but it didn’t feel right to just engulf her anymore. He had realised from his own experience that, sometimes, people just didn’t want to be touched. It seemed more right to ask now.

“Linney,” he greeted, with a smile. “I missed you. How was your summer?”

20 Malikhi Hill Everything just happens, whether we want it to or not 1423 Malikhi Hill 0 5

Evelyn Stones

July 04, 2019 7:11 AM

Usually, I don't by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn hated the way she hesitated to accept her friend's hug, and she only managed a smile until she had her head on his shoulder and out of his sight.

"I missed you, too," she murmured, pulling back and putting a smile back on her face. It was an expression she'd mastered recently and Malikhi wouldn't have noticed anything odd about it, which saved her from having to explain it. "My summer was as good as can be expected," she told him with a shrug and a teasing smirk. "How was yours?"

It felt weird to be back and she hadn't really realised this until now. Two years previously, she'd met Ness at at orientation and then been sorted into Pecari. She was meant to be adventurous or exciting or something, but she only really felt like she was probably a mess. She wondered whether this was anything like how Malikhi had felt the year before, except it couldn't have been because his dad had at least still loved him.

She shoved her hands in her pocket and reached for the familiar red stone. Be a good wolf, Evelyn. "To a new year," she added.

22 Evelyn Stones Usually, I don't 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5

Malikhi Hill

July 04, 2019 7:12 AM

Yeah, me neither. Lately, it all just sucks by Malikhi Hill

Evelyn’s hug felt nice as Evelyn’s hugs always did and Malikhi felt better afterwards. He simply nodded in reply to her comment about her summer. He knew about her mother leaving. He didn’t know the details for Evelyn had made a simple comment about it in one of her letters and he hadn’t pushed her for them - another new thing he was learning to do was letting people share what they wanted, when they wanted. He knew that he hadn’t wanted to particularly share anything about the car crash or his feelings until he was ready (and even now, he wasn’t exactly comfortable discussing the subject) so it would be hypocritical of him to push anyone else into talking about things that they might not want to talk about.

“It was alright,” he shrugged, not really sure what else to say. “I didn’t go anywhere or do anything. I was hoping to go back to England for a couple of weeks but Mum didn’t want to... Guess I can’t really fault her. Too many memories of Dad at home, I suppose. Not sure what’s going to happen there. I overheard her talking with my Aunt about selling the house.”

He said ‘overheard’ to make it sound like such a thing had been an accident but he had taken to frequently eavesdropping round corners and through doors when it came to conversations between his Mum and his Aunt. His mother wasn’t particularly sharing anything with him and Malikhi had to get his information somehow.

Malikhi helped himself to a bowl of mashed potato and gravy - something that seemed to have become his comfort food - and poured himself some juice before offering to fill Evelyn’s cup.

“Let’s hope this year’s better than the last one...” he muttered before taking a swig of juice.

20 Malikhi Hill Yeah, me neither. Lately, it all just sucks 1423 Malikhi Hill 0 5

Evelyn Stones

July 04, 2019 7:13 AM

True that! by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn blinked, surprised by the outpouring of expression from her friend. He'd hardly said as many words in a single conversation and now he was just going to talk as if everything was perfectly normal? Except that it wasn't, of course. The entire topic of their conversation was a reminder that nothing was normal at all. As if she'd needed the reminder. As if she could forget.

"Would you move in with your aunt?" Evelyn asked, not sure whether he actually wanted to discuss this or just to get it off his chest. She felt a little bad that he'd been much closer than England all summer and she hadn't bothered to try to see him. She'd been preoccupied with... with what? With her own sense of self-pity? She was glad she hadn't taken any food yet, because she would've had the urge to stab it all with a fork and that was not Good To Do. As it was, she turned down the offer of juice, gesturing at the water she'd poured for herself instead and sipping on her glass to quench her dry throat.

"You can say that again," Evelyn muttered, doing her best to keep the bitterness and resentment out of her voice.

22 Evelyn Stones True that! 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5

Kir McLeod

July 04, 2019 7:15 AM

She's not there by Kir McLeod

At the end of the concert, everyone had been getting on well - all his and Zevalyn’s family members - and it had ended with ‘So we’ll see you for dinner next week?’ not with goodbye. And that was how the summer had continued. The concert had broken down the barriers that made their families strangers, or maybe it was because they knew that this would be happening at the end of the summer, but they had been constantly popping back and forth - for dinners, for game nights, to go to the drive in movies hosted by the Muggle Cultural Centre (few people actually drove in, but they parked up a fleet of old cars in front of the screen for people to watch from). There had always been a next time to see each other. Until, suddenly, there wasn’t going to be. Zevalyn had started college a couple of weeks before, which had marked an end to the summer, but magical transport made it easy for her to still come over and see him. They’d even had the stroke of luck that she didn’t have any super early classes on September first. She’d been able to come over for dinner the night before and stay over, coming with his family to see him (and Ness) onto the wagons for Sonora.

He wasn’t sure, at the moment when it happened, whether it really was lucky that her class schedule had given them that. Because whilst he wanted every extra second with Zevalyn he could get, it was so surreal to board one of Sonora’s wagons and leave her on the ground, shrinking into the distance when it still felt like she should be coming with him. It also meant their last goodbye (not goodbye goodbye but… well, so long for a long while) was in public. And it wasn’t like Kir thought there was anything wrong with guys showing emotion in public, but he would just rather have not had to board the wagon in tears or sit crying in the corner for half the journey.

He really didn’t know what to do with himself between arriving and the feast. He wasn’t actually sure who his friends were. There was the DnD group, but they didn’t exactly hang outside of games a lot. He guessed he should probably try to change that if he didn’t want to spend most of this year alone, given that Jozua was also gone. He had unpacked the non-magical way to make it take up more time, and considered starting a letter to Zevalyn, along the lines of how much it hurt to be apart from her. He wasn’t sure that would be a very good letter though. He had eventually just resorted to napping the time away.

There was still a solid air of misery clinging about him as he made his way to the Opening Feast. He took his seat, barely even watching the first years. He didn’t know them. He wasn’t likely to get to know them, unless one of the Teppenpaws had some kind of catastrophe and, as their prefect, he had to help them.

And then his name was called. For head boy. He was head boy! A smile spread across his face. He hadn’t known how to rate his odds. He was nice enough, and… noticeable. He doubted there were many people in this school who didn’t know who he was. Whether that was for the right reasons or not in their eyes, he hadn’t known. The ballot had also been comprised of two very straight-laced, traditional Purebloods, and two more moderate candidates, which meant each of the voter pools was going to be split down the middle. He suspected it had been a pretty close run thing.

He made his way up to the stage, and his eyes automatically snapped to the Aladren table, which was dumb as heck because it wasn’t like the fact that Zev had graduated had escaped his notice given that he’d been moping about it since he’d got on the wagon. But he suspected it was possible that for a while he would be simultaneously miserable about her graduating and habitually looking for her everywhere he went, expecting her to be in her usual seat at breakfast or to round a corner in the library any moment.

“Great job,” he smiled instead at Parker and Gary. His smile had faltered for a second when he’d looked across to Aladren, and they were probably close enough to notice that it was kind of stuck on now, and not really reaching his eyes.

He made his way back to Teppenpaw, pinning his badge on his robes as he sat down, which did manage to keep him smiling for a moment. And then they were singing the school song, and rather than thinking about how this was the last time he would sing it, he was already busily composing in his head, thinking up the letter he’d write Zevalyn when the feast was over...

13 Kir McLeod She's not there 366 Kir McLeod 0 5

Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

July 04, 2019 7:16 AM

You seem sad about that. by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

Johana Leonie had been around enough sick people and enough injured people to recognize the signs. The worst, though, were the signs of having lost someone. Sometimes, she didn't get to meet the person; their patient arrived with a tear-stained grimace, babbling about someone they couldn't hold anymore. Other times, it was the patient who passed away. The screams were the worst part, but the way a broken heart imprints itself on the face was awful as well.

In this case, the boy who'd won House Boy didn't seem to have lost someone forever because there were no screams in his eyes, but he certainly seemed heartbroken. Always the Healer, Johana Leonie was pleased that she had taken a seat across from him earlier on. While she would have loved to greet her brother, and had indeed enjoyed the full faced grin he'd shot her as he took his own seat, she had things to do now.

"Good," she smiled, when she realised she didn't know the English word for 'congratulations.' She brushed her red hair back over one shoulder so she could Kean forward a little without getting it in her plate of sausages and potatoes. "You did well! But your face... You look not well inside. Can I help?"

22 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen You seem sad about that. 1432 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen 0 5

Kir

July 04, 2019 7:17 AM

That's cos I am by Kir

Of course he wasn't going to get away with anything less than genuine happiness at Teppenpaw table. It was their house trait to notice. That, in itself, made him feel slightly better. He knew Johana-Leonie from the concert, having had the responsibility of catching her when she threw herself off a moderately high platform. It was definitely a connection, and one neither of them was likely to forget in a hurry, but he wouldn't say they were close. Still, the girl opposite him, who didn't really know him, had both noticed his sadness and cared enough to do something about it. His smile softened a little.

"Thanks," he smiled, when she offered her version of congratulations, and his fingers touched the badge slightly, both in acknowledgement that that was what they were talking about and because it felt nice to do so.

"I am happy about the badge," he promised, one finger tapping it slightly, "But I am sad because my girlfriend graduated." Well, he wasn't sad that she had graduated, because that meant she had passed all her exams, and obviously any scenario that resulted in her still being here would be bad. However, he managed to keep all this inside his head because he remembered that it was Johana-Leonie he was talking to and she might not cope with that. He wondered if she understood 'graduated.' "Zevalyn," he clarified, nodding at the Aladren table, "She was head girl last year," he added, as he didn't suppose she would necessarily know Zevalyn's name. "Now she is at college. Which is good," he added, with a proud smile, "But I miss her." Already. And it had been less than twelve hours, and there were so many more to go. He considered the other part of her question. Whether she could help. His imnediate and facetious thought was that he doubted she was that good at switching spells or any other form of magic that would bring Zevalyn here, but he wasn't sure it was fair to attempt sardonic humour on a non-native speaker, and one who was trying to be kind too. And again, he didn't really want to make Zevalyn appear here. She was somewhere else now, somewhere that was making her happy (he hoped) and smarter and she was going to write him long letters full of clever things which made her even more amazing. He supposed he could wish to be there, but the badge on his chest said that he was supposed to be here right now...

"Tell me about your summer?" he suggested. Putting the problem into simple words had helped, as had simply expressing it out loud. As did concluding that, even with a magic wish, he might not be able to think what to do. He could wish that this year went quickly, rathar than skipping out on it all together, and the best way to do that was probably to be distracted rather than in his own head. "And help me choose good things to eat. This will help."

13 Kir That's cos I am 366 Kir 0 5

Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

July 04, 2019 7:17 AM

I'm so sorry to hear that! by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

Kir seemed to be thinking very hard for all the words he was saying, but Johana Leonie wasn't entirely sure about what. She suspected that part of it was in the course of formulating sentences she could grasp, a habit she'd noticed among her classmates and one that she simultaneously appreciated and found frustrating. She couldn't resent them for it because she did need the help; more, she resented herself for not knowing any better and not being able to engage with her classmates more fully.

"Magic college?" Johana Leonie asked, never having really considered pursuing education after Sonora. She had heard of it though, because some of their patients asked whether her parents had to go to college or university to learn how to do medicine. Usually, her parents just laughed and said something about ancient traditions and things. "What does she?"

The thought of missing someone was more familiar to Johana Leonie. She'd missed Friederike Albert the year previously and now she missed her parents again. It was a little better with Friederike Albert nearby, but not much.

Tell me about your summer. In theory, it was an easy enough request. Johana Leonie simply needed to open her mouth and . . . tell a story. That was the hardest thing in English because all the words had to go together right. She was plenty good at it in German, and tried her best to work from there first.

"I practiced English for the summer," she began, grimacing to show how well she thought it'd gone. "I helped my brother become ready. He is in Teppenpaw also." She said the last rather proudly and then smooshed her smile a bit, since the boy seemed sad. "And I like to eat potatoes," she finished, pointing at her plate and grinning.

22 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen I'm so sorry to hear that! 1432 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen 0 5

Ellie Alperton

July 04, 2019 7:20 AM

The blues are the good people, right? by Ellie Alperton

Ellie was feeling buoyed by orientation. Freddie had been super nice to her. She suspected he was one of those people who just had a gift of making others feel at ease, and it was nice to know there was a friendly face somewhere in the school should she need one. It had, after getting off the flying wagon, all been pretty normal. There had been juice and cookies. There had been folders with schedules, although instead of math and the most dreaded of things, gym class, they said fun things like potions and flying. Orientation had felt pretty grounding, which was nice.

Things started getting decidedly more magical as they looked around the school. Ellie didn’t know which way to turn her eyes. Even in that briefest of walks, there were so many things that were just a little different to what she was used to. The paintings moved and talked. She didn’t get a chance to examine many of the books in the library, but the library itself was huge, and just knowing they were spellbooks was fascinating. It really felt like something that would happen in a movie. Kind of like the Princess Diaries, except instead she was a witch, which she thought might even better. Being a princess would be fun and all, but she’d always liked the stories with magic the best, and now she was getting to live one of those.

The hall absolutely took her breath away. It was like it was made of water, and she could kind of imagine she was in King Triton’s palace in the Little Mermaid, which was her absolute favourite Disney film. She’d even named her little tortoiseshell kitten Ariel. She wondered where Ariel was now. She’d been told to leave her in her basket and let some elves take her, along with the rest of her luggage, but she didn’t have a bedroom yet, so she guessed Ariel was just in holding somewhere. Or they’d let her out to explore, and she’d be able to show Ellie around the school when they were reunited.

She didn’t have long to dwell on the beauty of the hall, or the adventures her kitten might be having, because they were being told to line up in front of the whole school. Ellie her felt her cheeks glowing. Okay, they were just dipping a badge in a potion but literally everyone was looking at them, which was bad enough and… what if she dropped her badge? Or got potion on her hands - what would it do to her? Mostly she just didn’t like the thought of everyone staring. The magic would be kind of cool if it wasn’t for it being so public.

She had read all the house descriptions carefully, but really wasn’t sure where she would end up, except that she was pretty sure it wouldn’t be the adventurous house. She mostly would have described herself as anxious, which she knew wasn’t really a house trait, although she had felt some of the ‘cautious’ tendencies of Crotalus could apply there. Except she really, really didn’t want to end up in a house that prided itself on tradition and whose house colour was red. That sounded very like another group of people with whom she wasn’t at all comfortable. She dipped her badge with shaking hands and found it turning blue. That was reassuring. A house with a love of learning sounded good. Educated people tended to be more tolerant. And blue was the colour of the good people. Even though she knew that the house colours had nothing to do with Muggle politics, it made her feel much more comfortable.

She joined her new house table, just glad to get out of the spotlight. Freddie went into Teppenpaw, which wasn’t surprising. At least they’d have classes together. And classes were the main part of what you did at school. Or at least, normally they were. As the feast appeared on the table in front of her and she thought about how her stuff would now be being moved up to Aladren, it really hit her that she wouldn’t just be studying here but living here. Obviously, she had known that, but knowing and experiencing were two different things. Eating dinner was such a family thing to be doing. You normally finished school, went home, and had dinner. This had felt like an exciting, if somewhat scary, day out until now. Now, as everyone started serving themselves food, it really hit her what it meant to be living here, and being served a proper meal here really underlined the fact that she was going to actually be staying here, miles and miles from her family, and not see them for weeks. She twirled a strand of reddish-blonde hair around her finger nervously, taking deep steadying breaths instead of tucking into the feast in front of her.

13 Ellie Alperton The blues are the good people, right? 1456 Ellie Alperton 0 5

Isabella Harrington

July 04, 2019 7:20 AM

I wouldn't know by Isabella Harrington

Isabella’s first year at Sonora had passed without too much excitement and nothing of particular interest to note. She had done well in her classes, studied hard, completed her homework, kept up with her dance training and generally just been a good, hard-working student. She supposed, if she had to pick a negative about the previous year, she hadn’t really made any friends. Acquaintances, certainly and she knew the names of the people in her year but a real friend? She didn’t have one of those.

She classed it as a negative but Bella supposed that it was a good thing, in a roundabout sort of way. To have friends would mean having to spend time maintaining those friendships. That would mean less time for dance training. Less time for dance training would mean an impact on her progress. All of that would negatively affect her path to becoming a champion.

Still, at the moment, the impact of having friends didn’t really matter as she still didn’t have a dance partner. Cousin Alex was still being an idiot and refusing to talk to her - she hadn’t heard a peep out of him all summer, despite the letters both she and her grandmother had sent. It had been a long, lonely summer. Bella was kind of glad to be back at Sonora. Sonora meant no Alex to worry about. No Alex to worry about meant less stress. Less stress could only be a good thing.

She politely listened to Headmaster Brockert’s speech and applauded when the new prefects and Head Students were announced (though she didn’t have the faintest idea who they were, really). She had no interest in the Team Challenges that he spoke about and sang the school hymn quietly, letting her voice get lost with everyone else’s. Bella was tired from the day’s travel and simply wanted to eat and then retire to bed.

Sticking firmly to her meal plan that her grandmother had created for her, she filled her plate with brown rice, grilled chicken and some mixed vegetables and accompanied it with a cup of water. Just as she was about to dig in, she noticed that the new first year sitting next to her seemed to have taken more to playing with her hair than eating. Bella had been in enough competitions to recognise nerves when she saw them.

“You should eat,” she told the girl. “You’ll feel better when you have something in your stomach.”

20 Isabella Harrington I wouldn't know 1435 Isabella Harrington 0 5

Ellie

July 04, 2019 7:21 AM

Oh. Well, here's hoping by Ellie

"Um, right," Ellie nodded when the girl told her she ought to eat. She supposed she should, and she appreciated that someone was bothering to look out for her even though she hadn't been sorted into the 'friendly' house. "Thanks."

There was an overwhelming number of choices in front of her. Ellie had never been particularly good with choices. She would have said that applied more to big life decisions - 'should we move somewhere new' being the one she had always dodged. For you. Or because of you. It was that latter part that had made it feel impossible to make a decision. Even though it was put across as gently as possible, without pressure or blame, the only reason they would have moved would have been because of her, in order to give her a fresh start and let her be Ellie all the time. She would have liked that, of course, but she was concerned about uprooting everyone else in her family and whether it was what they wanted, and what if they all went to all that effort and the new place still wasn't any better? Her parents had promised that it would be. That they would make sure they moved somewhere understanding and accepting but Ellie just... wasn't sure. And she thought you ought to be sure before you uprooted your whole family.

Deciding what to have for dinner had fewer serious long term implications. She found though, that she wished there wasn't quite so much to choose from. It was still just a bit overwhelming. She thought about taking just the same as the girl next to her but at elementary school, people got really annoyed about any perceived copying, even when it was completely accidental. She helped herself to some mashed potaoes first to make it clear she wasn't totally copying and because the rice the girl had taken looked a funny colour anyway, before adding the same chicken and vegetable combination.

She wondered if she ought to say anything more. The girl had seeemd friendly enough but maybe she'd just been trying to be helpful. It didn't mean she wanted a random first year bugging her. Ellie dutifully put a forkful of potatoes and vegetables in her mouth, as per the girl's advice. It tasted pretty nice but she hadn't exactly doubted that it would. The real problem was that she still kind of wanted her own dinner and her own bed instead of these substitutes.

13 Ellie Oh. Well, here's hoping 1456 Ellie 0 5

Bella

July 04, 2019 7:22 AM

Hoping is always good. Making good stuff happen is better. by Bella

Bella eyed the girl next to her for a few moments more, not entirely sure what else to say. It had perhaps been a little bit rude - and had certainly made things a touch awkward - to offer unsolicited advice about how to feel better and battle nerves. She decided to have a few more mouthfuls of her own dinner, letting the silence hang between them for a short while before she attempted conversation again.

Spotting the same chicken on the other girl’s plate, she gestured at it with her fork, “The chicken is really good here,” she commented and it wasn’t a lie. Truthfully, it was some of the best chicken she’d ever had.

Bella wasn’t entirely sure why she was attempting to make conversation with the new first year. Conversation and forging new relationships could be such a hassle but there was a part of her that kind of wanted a friend and there was something about the new Aladren that appealed to Bella. While it was true that she could make friends with people in her own year, it was probably a little late to start trying to create friendships with people she’d been merely acquaintances and class partners with for a year. The first year next to her was new and would need (or, maybe not need but want?) friends. That might not necessarily mean that she’d want herself for a friend but there was no harm in trying.

Bella supposed the next step was to introduce herself.

“I’m Isabella Harrington, though I prefer Bella,” she stuck out her hand for the girl to shake. “And.... you are?”

20 Bella Hoping is always good. Making good stuff happen is better. 1435 Bella 0 5

Tatiana Vorontsova

July 04, 2019 7:24 AM

Ura! by Tatiana Vorontsova

By the time she entered the Cascade Hall for the Opening Feast, Tatiana felt much better than she had when she had first arrived back at school. She had flown like a madwoman, risking her neck more than once, which had gotten her out of her head nicely; a quick shower and a nice long session of cleaning and picking between her jewels later, and she felt mostly like herself again by the time it was time to join the rest of the school for formalities and a meal.

She had settled on mainly pearls and sapphires for the evening. Since it was what passed for a very formal occasion, she had reluctantly parted with the far more interesting baroque and multicolored pearls she preferred to hang around her neck, instead donning only a simple, perfect white strand Anpapa had given her for her fifteenth birthday this summer. She had made up for its simplicity with a sapphire pendant on a gold chain which Anya and Rodya had gifted her for the same occasion, along with diamond earrings and an iolite brooch shaped like a slightly abstract butterfly and accented with moonstones. With her gold bracelets gleaming at her wrists, a pearl bracelet pinned on her headband to vaguely imitate a grand kokochnik, and all her gems shining or sparkling as appropriate, she swept into the Hall in something approaching a dignified, ladylike manner, aided immensely by not immediately spotting her friends.

After she was seated, of course, she did see people, and her neutral resting expression broke into delighted smiles as she waved to each in turn. Her face returned to straight lines, however, as the first years were Sorted, as none of them were of any particular interest to her, and it remained somber through the announcement of the Head Boy and Head Girl, even though the latter was a Pecari. Kir McLeod was stupid and had nearly made her cry in Professor Hawthorne's class once, an offense she still remembered and did not appreciate, and Natalie Atwater was neither friend nor foe to her. When Headmaster Brockert announced the prefects, however....

"Pozdravlyayu Dorya! Ura!" she exclaimed, loudly enough to hear herself over general applause, bouncing up and down in her seat and clapping her hands. Congratulations, Dorya! Hurrah! "Pozdravlyayu Dorya i Parkeer!" she remembered to add, beaming in Parker's direction too, even though he was not the principal reason why she was so pleased.

She did not, however, resent him at all. It had never even occurred to her that she might be an option for prefect. Who would put her in charge of anything, or even directly under the person who was in charge? Dorya, however, there was someone who - well, he did not act fatherly as she understood the term, and of course he could not be matushka because he was not a girl, but he was someone who could take care of the littles. Plus, had he not established last year that he was good enough to be in charge of things? And his English was very good, and he was always kind, and the adults liked him very much. Dorya would be a perfect prefect, and Parker would be a very good prefect, and she supposed the other two were like them as well.

She was still smiling as the food appeared and, given how long it had been since breakfast and how active she had been in that time, made it a little easier not to rush over to the Teppenpaw table to celebrate with Dorya and Vladya at once. Instead, she shoveled some paella on her plate and then poured herself a drink, which she raised in cheerful acknowledgment of the nearest person. "Za tvoe zdorov'e," she said happily, her earlier mood completely forgotten in light of more interesting and immediate developments. To your health.

16 Tatiana Vorontsova Ura! 1396 Tatiana Vorontsova 0 5

Julius Astley

July 04, 2019 7:25 AM

Another year, another load of... by Julius Astley

Julius was scowling as he walked into Cascade Hall. This was neither new nor particularly surprising as Julius was often seen walking around Sonora with a frown on his face. One could just never be sure what was annoying him - whether it was something to do with the Aronos, school itself, somebody annoying him (it was hardly a secret that Julius didn’t particularly socialise unless he deemed it necessary - the one exception to this rule was Evelyn who he always talked to when she talked to him) or, unbeknownst to others, his own family.

This time around, it was his family. It was perhaps a long time to be sore about something that happened in the middle of the summer holidays but Julius was able to hold a grudge and when it was a grudge against his father, it was easier than ever. It seemed silly to be worked up over something that hadn’t happened yet but Julius had been looking forward to his younger sister, Aurelia, attending Sonora. There had been thoughts of spending time in MARS, listening to her play the piano while he read a book or worked on the Aronos. It seemed that now, however, his father was considering sending Aurelia to a school in France for her education. There was still time (another year, to be exact) to decide but that also meant that there was still plenty of time for Julius to be sore about it.

He sat himself down at the Crotalus table and automatically reached for the teapot in the middle of the table. His anger had lessened his appetite and while the food looked delicious (and, from experience, he knew that it was), Julius did not feel the urge to pile his plate with food. Not that he would even if he was hungry, that was just unrefined.

He hoped to spend the feast in his own head with his own thoughts but it seemed that, again, he had no such look as somebody started talking to him. Why did people insist on doing such a thing?

20 Julius Astley Another year, another load of... 1425 Julius Astley 0 5

Felipe De Matteo

July 04, 2019 7:26 AM

... pretending I care about my housemates! by Felipe De Matteo

Felipe wasn't sure how he felt about being back to Sonora. Some part of him was relieved not to be at home with all the pressures of becoming a man and all that, but there was a slower pace there that he appreciated, too. More than that, he'd gotten to bring both Jessica and Zara into his fold of reality, and that was special no matter what else it was too.

Now, with only a sea of green robes and a headache, Felipe was not eager to be twelve, or to sit at Crotalus. He'd missed the chance to sit next to Jessica, and so he took a seat by a boy in the year ahead who absolutely oozed Crotalus snobbery. It was the sort of thing that he tried not to assume of people, particularly when Jessica was in the House and clearly didn't fit all the usual stereotypes, but he couldn't help sort of imagining most of the Brockerts, several of the Pierces, all the Mordues, and Julius friggin' Astley were all sort of one person.

Of course, this brought him to the same thought that usually came second place, which was unfortunate for a number of reasons: what would Zara think of him for thinking thinking that? He was trying to be better, both for himself and for Zara, and of course for his family and legacy, too. There were lots of reasons to be a better human being than he was, but he just couldn't find it in him to be nice to the sort of people who were the reason he needed to be nice.

Still, it was good to get past his mental block on that front, so he sat across from Julius and nodded politely. Smiles weren't friendly in these circles, and civility and etiquette were top tier qualities. He took in the boy's sour expression, and wondered whether he had any of the same sort of things going through his mind as Felipe so often did. He had seen Julius talking to the Pecari girl with the bright lipstick - he wondered what Jessica thought of that - so maybe he wasn't as closed off as he seemed on the surface.

"Tea is the very best way to start a new year," Felipe said, nodding at Julius as he took the pot from the table. "What kind is that?"

22 Felipe De Matteo ... pretending I care about my housemates! 1434 Felipe De Matteo 0 5

Parker Fitzgerald

July 04, 2019 7:29 AM

So you're saying I belong here? by Parker Fitzgerald

Parker felt comfortable walking into the Hall.

The waterfalls had always had an oddly calming effect on him, but being back at school this year seemed to increase his comfort. It was like coming home in a way.

He liked being home. He loved spending time with his parents, and oddly JR had calmed down some. Lyssa and Parker had had a long weekend with the three of them to San Francisco, JR driving promising to teach Parker, “if your lot even need to know how.” Nothing dangerous or even shocking happened unless you counted Lyssa running around the Exploratorium like a madwoman.

Still home wasn’t home anymore. Their parents had moved houses, something smaller since the three of them were rarely there. Parker also rarely saw his old friends, and even if he did he couldn’t keep up with the pop culture references or share exploits with them. How could he explain Quidditch without getting in trouble?

He’d felt most out of it this past summer when they all asked him for his Snapchat name and he had to reveal that not only did he not have a Snapchat account, but he didn’t have a cellphone.

“What are you going to school again? Some kind of Amish school?” one of his friends had responded. Parker had merely laughed and change the subject to a video they’d all been watching.

Parker felt he couldn’t explain that he didn’t need a phone. His friends could send him moving messages, that they could transport many places without needing to drive there if they wanted or fly on their broom.

Speaking of which, he had taken to doing night time rides on his to ensure that he was practicing but wouldn’t be seen. His brother had made fun of him for that, the stereotype of witches riding across the moonlight. Lyssa had even laughed at that one and told Parker to wear a pointy hat next time to confuse anyone that might have seen him.

But back here at Sonora he felt like he knew his place. He might not understand all the cultural references of people, but at least they were willing to teach him or at least explain it to him, and then he could continue to be involved with it.

He looked around seeing if Cleo and Dorian were in the Hall yet. He wanted to go up and say hi, give hugs, talk about their summers, but couldn’t see them as the mass of students milled around. There would be time for that later he assumed.

Parker sat down and closed his eyes, breathing in the smell of the Hall as the Headmaster began his speech. Parker almost laughed because Brockett seemed more disinterested than usual. Though that might be Parker’s imagination or as his mom said multiple times this last break, he was “projecting” onto the Headmaster. Either way, Parker was only lightly paying attention when he heard his name called.

Parker opened his eyes and felt his heart jump into action. He looked around and saw people clapping and other students walking to the front. Suddenly in his mind, Parker rand through multiple scenarios trying to figure out what just happened. Maybe this was just a practical joke of some sort; surely he wasn’t actually being asked to be something of importance. He wasn't even from a magic family. He slowly got up from the table, cautiously, like at any point someone might laugh at him. As he walked to the front of the Hall, he was able to weakly smile at Lyssa who was throwing thumbs up at him.

He began to walk with a little more confidence picking up his prefect badge. As he stood in front of his entire school getting his badge, he realized that not only did he feel like he belonged at the school, but that the school felt similarly. He held up his badge in front of him as he walked down the stairs back towards his table. He had a smile on his face. As he got back to his table he heard Tatya shout his name. He realized that Tatya was probably the only other option for the prefect badge for their year, still it felt nice that Tatya seemed pleased that he had gotten the badge.

He sat down at the table, mumbling his way through the song, not focusing too heavily on the glow of good cheer inside him. As the food came out, a thought hit him. He didn’t know all the things prefects did.

He smiled to the Pecari next to him, “Well that was pleasantly unexpected. Can you pass the food?”

41 Parker Fitzgerald So you're saying I belong here? 1402 Parker Fitzgerald 0 5

Isaac Song

July 04, 2019 7:30 AM

Yes indeedy by Isaac Song

Isaac couldn't believe this was going to be his last year at Sonora. Summer had been super fun since his mom had let him stay home this year instead of going on their yearly family trip to South Korea. He missed his dad and his little sister who lived there, but he also really didn't like going to Korea especially during the summer. Instead, he had lounged by the pool with his uncle, gone to the beach a ton with his best friends, and even got a new cell phone. That thing was addicting, and Isaac missed it already now that he was back in Sonora where muggle technology wasn't allowed.

This summer, he had also attended Cleo's birthday party. It was nice seeing Cleo, but Isaac had also felt super uncomfortable the whole time. He was pretty sure her dad didn't like him, or any boys for that matter, on principle, so it was hard to even talk to him properly. Isaac had been really glad to get out of there and be back home where he felt comfortable. He liked Cleo, but he honestly wasn't a big fan of her family.

This year was exciting because the Head Boy would be coming from his group. Isaac thought he had a pretty good chance at it, but nothing was for sure until the Headmaster announced it. He cheered loudly for the new Pecaris, but when Kir and Natalie were asked to go up, Isaac felt himself deflate. It felt like his heart was breaking. He felt really disappointed and could barely muster up an enthusiastic applause for the new Prefects. How close was the race for Head Boy? Had Isaac even been a competitive candidate at all, or was he just kidding himself? It sucked losing like this.

Isaac sighed, but then buried it down to process his sad disappointment for later while alone in his room. At least he was the lead Prefect now for his house now, so that was something.

Despite his feelings, Isaac's stomach was ravenous as usual, and he piled on the meats, carbs, and greens. Parker said something then, and he smiled at him. "Congratulations, dude! You definitely deserve it." He patted him on the back, and then looked at the various plates of food. He looked back at Parker. "Which one do you want me to pass to you?" he asked. "I could also pass them one at a time," he joked.

19 Isaac Song Yes indeedy 375 Isaac Song 0 5

Katerina Vorontsov

July 04, 2019 7:32 AM

Here's to the new year. by Katerina Vorontsov

The uniforms were not normally an aspect of school which Katerina particularly complained about, but she still felt the need to indulge in a small sigh as she put them on before the Opening Feast this time. Over the summer, Mama had finally allowed her to start learning lace-making, and the trims on her dress were a testament to her newly-gained skills.

Truthfully, she had had little else to do. They had gone to Russia, and then to Anya and Rodya's new dacha, and then to their own dacha, and at all those locations, Katya had been left largely to her own devices while her sisters and older brother had been out doing this or that, or else chattering about acquaintances and experiences she hadn't shared. She had been left at home with Nadezhda and Alexei, and while she had been able to fill most of her time with reading, practicing or listening to music, painting, and finishing an (if she did say so herself) impressive number of handicrafts, she had still been so frustrated with her situation that she had passed some time teaching knitting to Alexei. He had proven a surprisingly good pupil.

This had been gratifying, as was the knowledge that she had a number of pretty embroidered, lace-trimmed, or embroidered and lace-trimmed things to give as regard-gifts to her classmates. She had also painted watercolor postcards of floral still-lifes for Sylvia Mordue and her friends, and a delicate profile of Tatiana in the garden (the mixing of paints for portraits was far more difficult than the mixing of photographic solutions, so a distant profile with only the occasional blink or repetitive gesture toward the nearest flowers was as much as she had been able to do, though she hoped to experiment more with that this year) for Dorian. She supposed she still had a bit of a crush on him herself, but it was obvious that he would marry her sister - they had visited each other at home, their parents had all gotten on very well at the Concert last year, it was a little strange to think of one of her siblings marrying a non-Russian, but when had Tatiana ever wanted to do anything in the normal manner? And he could learn to be Russian; he had picked up a decent amount of the language already, and apparently it was fashionable in Petersburg to have vaguely Chinese or Japanese trappings in fine homes, so he would only have to learn to drink tea properly on occasions when he was with Papa. It was hard to imagine Papa even with an English teacup, much less the tiny, delicate little things they used in China....

At the Feast, though, it was generally English tea, water, or juice. Katerina applauded politely for the Head Boy and Girl, and smiled a genuine smile, rather than a purely American one, when the prefects were announced. She would have liked it had her sister been chosen for Pecari, but she had not expected it and was therefore not particularly disappointed on that front.

Hopefully, she thought as they finished the song and the food appeared, the rest of this year would go no worse than that. Her first year of Intermediate classes was a bit intimidating to contemplate, if she was honest, so if it at least failed to be awful, she would be reasonably content. Katya prepared to American-smile as the scramble for food began. "Good evening," she said to her neighbor, getting things off on a polite foot.

16 Katerina Vorontsov Here's to the new year. 1418 Katerina Vorontsov 0 5

Lyssa Fitzgerald

July 04, 2019 7:32 AM

A new us? by Lyssa Fitzgerald

Lyssa had had a marvelous summer. Her parents given her a smart phone to play with and ostensibly call them or someone else when she needed a ride. And was she glued to it. It was pretty addicting. She'd gotten to go on trips with Parker and a surprisingly nice JR. And when Parker had left to go to Cleo's birthday party, after much ribbing from her, Cleo had some nice alone time with her mom. It reminded her of the two years where it was just her in the house after The Incident .

She'd spent time reading books on magical things. She finished the whole Patrick Reese series. She liked how the book series tried to humanize muggles and showcased the ways that both wizards and non-wizards were just… humans. It wasn't hard for her to realize that, but she remembered her encounter with Nathaniel Mordue when she'd started reading it. She had taken his suggestion though and read Tales of Beedle the Bard as well.

She enjoyed those stories, but the way women were written in both of them seemed off. They didn't seem to have as much agency. Even in "The Fountain of Fair Fortune" Lyssa felt like the witches stories revolved around men in someway. After all, didn't Amata have to give away a memory of her with a man? That was her treasure? Not her friendships with other women? Not her childhood? Not memories of her mother? No, it was her time with a man.

Still, as far as fairy tales written in the 1600's went, they were good and quite progressive. She liked how muggles were shown to be more ignorant of magic than malevolent. And that the heroes are usually the people who were most kind, the hopping pot story being a bit over the top on the matter.

She felt like she was beginning to understand wizarding culture, and to be honest was excited to learn more and expand her extracurriculars. She'd even thought about figuring out if she could start a debate club, but she felt something else was more pressing.

She'd felt a jarring culture shock when she arrived at school. Yet she knew she was better prepared for it because Parker had led the way, and he'd been able to share things. Still, she wanted to make sure other muggle borns attending could have help and a community where they could talk she'd decided. And since she hadn't seen anything like it yet, she wanted to create it herself. She just didn't know how. She'd talk with Xavier after the house speech he did and ask him the proper way of doing it.

She was in mid thought about what she would ask when she heard her brothers name called to come up front. Lyssa quickly realized Parker was getting the badge for his house. Excitement rippled over her. She started to cheer and realized that Parker was slow on standing up, possibly also coming out of his head like she had, but he wasn't realizing what was happening. As he slowly walked up to the stage she shot him double thumbs up. This was really good, she was going to write her mom and dad about it when she got back to her room.

She knew they'd be excited too and possibly a bit surprised. Lyssa though was not surprised. Parker was perfect for being a prefect. Kind, open, welcoming, protective. These were the traits she saw in her brother always. Even if he rarely saw them in himself.

As she looked up at the stage she realized that half of the prefects were muggle born, though that might be due to the small class size. Proof in her mind that muggles were just as good and decent as those from stuck up wizarding families.

As Lyssa got down to food she smiled in response to Katerina’s smile. She picked up the bowl of mashed potatoes and put some on her plate before handing them towards Katerina.

“Hi Katerina. Are you ready for this new year?”

41 Lyssa Fitzgerald A new us? 1421 Lyssa Fitzgerald 0 5

Zara Jackson

July 04, 2019 10:34 AM

Summer was fun but so is this [Tag JD] by Zara Jackson

Zara’s summer had been the actual best ever! She had gone to visit Felipe in Mexico which had been a totally awesome adventure. She had felt very grown up getting to travel abroad by herself, even if magic meant her parents had been able to literally shuttle her into her friend’s front room. Felipe had also let her explore rather than giving her a tour and there was a big difference. She felt like she’d got to discover his home for herself, all the while with someone on hand to tell her brilliant stories and help point her in the direction of the best treats. The one slight downer had been Felipe getting all serious about his future, like the fact that he had to take over his family’s estate was some kind of Tragic Doom. But really, once he’d brushed that aside in favour of churros, she hadn’t thought about it too much either. Felipe was inclined to be serious. It was just in his nature. It wasn’t a bad thing, so long as he wasn’t letting things worry him, and after that point he’d seemed to lighten back up. The future still seemed forever away, and Zara couldn’t get herself anywhere near as bothered about it as he seemed to.

Felipe and his family had also come to visit her. The De Matteos had come for a day out at the Non-Magical Cultural Center run by Zara’s family, and then left Felipe behind to enjoy a week’s visit in return for hosting her. Boston was not as cool as Mexico in her opinion, but it really was quite fun looking at it through a tourist’s eyes. They definitely had some museums worth seeing.

Now though, it was back to school, and Zara was pretty excited about that. She loved her family, and it had been fun to be back with them for long, lazy summer days. She thought that going away might have made that part even better because she sort of got to behave like she was on holiday when she went home. She was still really glad she’d decided to do the big school adventure thing, instead of being homeschooled like her cousins.

At the opening feast, she noticed JD, and made a point of taking the seat next to him. She thought the Tepp girls had it quite easy, in that they shared a room, so that made socialising something that could practically happen by accident. JD was on his own though, at least in terms of roommates, and she wanted to make sure that didn’t mean he was alone, or felt like he was an outsider. They’d had a pretty cool time connecting about Hallowe’en and candy the previous year, and he seemed like an easy and fun person to talk to.

She let out a ‘Whoo, go Kir!’ at the announcement of the head students, which she figured people might chalk up to house pride or having been involved in the concert together last year, though actually they knew the McLeods from way back because they were family friends. She was really pleased for him, and pretty sure he deserved the badge, little as she knew about the other candidates. The prefects weren’t people she knew well, though she knew the one in her own house, again from the concert, but he’d been backstage and generally quiet. Once the announcements were over, she turned her attention to the two areas of interest - her neighbour and her food.

“Hey,” she grinned, showing the little gap between her teeth utterly unselfconsciously. “What shall I eat for dinner, and how was your summer?” she asked.

13 Zara Jackson Summer was fun but so is this [Tag JD] 1444 Zara Jackson 0 5

Natalie Atwater

July 04, 2019 4:41 PM

Triumphant by Natalie Atwater

It was Natalie's last year at Sonora and she was...not eager for it to be over. As sick as she was of homework and boring lectures, she was not looking forward to boring parties and pressure to marry a boring suitor. Even the ones that were not directly Kelsey's rejects-though some were younger brothers and cousins of Kelsey's rejects- and were closer to her age did not understand that she was her own person and not a clone of her older sister. Because they or their parents or their family's patriarch wanted a clone.

It wasn't as if she didn't want to get married, that she wanted to have a career or anything. It was just that Natalie wanted to marry someone she actually liked and connected with. She hadn't found that yet.

And once she left Sonora, the pressure would be on. The seventh year feared her family would end up choosing her future spouse and she'd have no say whatsoever. Not only that, but Kelsey's opinion would likely be consulted and Natalie knew full well her sister didn't have her best interests at heart. She thought she did, but she didn't understand that what she thought was best for Natalie actually wasn't.

She took a seat at the Pecari table as Headmaster Brockert began to speak. She didn't really know any of those being Sorted so she only had mild interest in that. Then it was time for prefects and Head Students. She heard her name being called and blinked. Natalie had gotten Head Girl?

Natalie had gotten Head Girl!

The Pecari was genuinely surprised, she had really expected Emerald to win, but it was her!

Kelsey had not gotten Head Girl. It wasn't as if Natalie had just beaten the Aladren girls, she had beaten her sister .

Still, as she joined the others on the stage, she concentrated on not looking smug. She didn't want the other candidates to think it was directed at them. Natalie had no desire to make Emerald, Amelia or Flo feel bad but she couldn't wait to rub it in her sister's face.The seventh year accepted her Head Girl ballot from Headmaster Brockert and found her seat again.

Natalie scanned the table, trying to decide what to eat before settling on some shrimp scampi. That's when Tatiana Vorontsov put up her glass and said something in Russian, which the older Pecari didn't speak a word of. She raised her glass back and said "Thanks" figuring that the fifth year was congratulating her. Hopefully Tatiana wouldn't be upset if Natalie had misinterpreted her.

11 Natalie Atwater Triumphant 371 Natalie Atwater 0 5

Sapphire Brockert

July 04, 2019 9:01 PM

Nerves by Sapphire Brockert

Sapphire was very very nervous about starting Sonora. What if she didn't make friends? What if she had a roommate she didn't get along with like Topaz did? True, it was hard to imagine that her older sister would get along with any roommate, but the Aladren had done her very best to fill Sapphire's head with roommate horror stories. Or what if everyone else bonded and she was left out like Angelique?

What if people found out about her epilepsy and made fun of her or left her out because of it? There were some things that she had to be sort of careful about, such as flying too high or too fast in flying lessons. Sapphire had been told that Topaz and Allegra had had to participate in an athletic competition in that class. Would she be excused from such a thing? That would be a no win situation for her and not just because there was no way she could win that sort of competition-or probably really any sort of competition but especially an athletic one-but because either she would participate and fail and make a fool of herself or because she didn't and then everyone would know she was defective.

Or what if she was in Aladren? This was Sapphire's greatest fear of all. Topaz would make her life miserable. Then again she didn't think she was smart enough to be in Aladren and she definitely wasn't particularly independent.

She really hoped she'd be in Teppenpaw with Ruby or Crotalus with Allegra. Either of them would take care of her and she'd already know someone there whom she was comfortable with. Sapphire didn't think she'd like Pecari either, she wasn't the least bit active or adventurous and wouldn't fit in. Plus, the only Pecari she knew was Uncle Eustace and he scared her almost as much as Topaz. Fortunately he really didn't pay much attention to her or his other nieces but still.

But how did she know she'd fit in at all? She sincerely had her doubts. And even though she'd have Allegra if she was in Crotalus, Crotalus had a wide range of personalities. All houses did, but in Teppenpaw they had the common denominator of being nice and in Aladren they were all smart. Pecaris were all adventurous to a degree. But there were Crotali who were mean and awful and then there ones like Allegra who were nothing like the mean awful ones. However, she could end up with one of the mean awful ones.

Now was the time she was going to find out. Sapphire sort of felt like she was going to puke. She feverently hoped not though, that would so embarassing and a terrible first impression to make on people. Plus, it would be really gross and Topaz would never let her live it down.

Grandfather began to speak and Sapphire went with the other first years to get her badge to dunk in the Sorting potion. When it was her turn, she dunked hers in the potion and it turned red. She saw Allegra sitting at the Crotalus table but the third year was already sitting with people. Sapphire was on her own. Her cousin sent her an apologetic look.

Prefects and Head Students were announced. Emerald hadn't gotten Head Girl and Ruby hadn't gotten prefect. Then Grandfather said something that made her stomach drop again. Team Challenges? Sapphire didn't like the sound of that. She had doubts she'd be an asset to her team and then they'd all hate her.

After they sang the school song, and food appeared, Sapphire asked a person nearby. "Could you please pass the potato salad?"

OOC-I do not consider people with epilepsy or any other medical condition to be defective people. This is just how Sapphire sees herself, partially due to, of course, Topaz.

11 Sapphire Brockert Nerves 1459 Sapphire Brockert 0 5

Kir

July 05, 2019 1:03 AM

I will survive by Kir

"Both," Kir answered, when Johana Leonie asked about Zevalyn's college. "Mostly magical but she can take some non-magical subjects too. She is still deciding what things exactly, but she likes potions and non-magical science," he answered. He really hoped she decided before Christmas, otherwise she might well have to take some summer classes to make up any missing credits, and much as Zevalyn studying was deeply cute, he could think of much more interesting ways for them to spend their time after weeks of forced separation. Still, he wasn't exactly going to say anything on that front because he recognised that pressuring Zev to make a decision about her whole future so that they could make out was not really having appropriate priorities. "She's very clever," he added instead, smiling proudly.

"You're doing good," Kir encouraged, with a thumbs up when Johana Leonie mentioned practising English and then grimmacing. He hadn't talked to her enough last year or yet in this conversation to evaluate whether there really was much of an improvement but he figured she deserved credit either way. What she was doing wasn't easy.

"Which one is your brother?" he asked, glancing between the boys that had joined the table to look for a family resemblance.

"Potatoes are good. There are still lots of choices though. I think I will have potato salad," he decided. That also narrowed down the mains to things that would go with cold and mayonnaisey potatoes. Salmon seemed like a good bet on that front, and he added some to his plate. "Starting with the type of potato you like, and building from there works," he confirmed, as he added peas.

13 Kir I will survive 366 Kir 0 5

Anya Delachene

July 05, 2019 11:57 AM

Hi! I’m Anya! by Anya Delachene

Anya had had an older sister in last year’s concert, so she’d already had a tour of the school, but the refresher was refreshing, and Glasses Guy took a slightly differ route than Old Lady had, so Anya felt she was even starting to get a good grasp on how all the bits of the school fit together, which was good because tomorrow she’d be on her own. Neither one if the tour guides was particularly keen on her normal mode of ambulation, which was to go atop of anything that presented a climbing surface or balance beam like opportunity (statue pedestals, fences, railings, furniture, etc) rather than around or beside them, nor did they like her jumping off such things or running in the halls. It was seriously disappointing. Every school authority she had met so far seemed every bit as much of a killjoy as Mom. She’d met three so far and every one of them reprimanded her for climbing on things.

Still, there was loads of open space out in the gardens, and playing Quidditch was actually encouraged, so Sonora couldn’t be all bad. Plus Emily had been nice, and the wide variety of new people to play with and hang out with couldn’t be anything but a good thing. Being home-schooled by tutors, most of her life so far had been spent at home, with only her gymnastics classes giving her a chance to meet other kids she wasn’t related to, and those were all muggles so there was zero chance she’d be allowed to invite them back home where she lived on a Flying Horse Ranch. Sure, her mom had magical friends, and they had kids, and Beau Tate was even here at Sonora to continue their adventures with, but even he was years older than her. She was excited to finally meet wizards and witches her own age.

It came as no surprise at all when she dunked her badge into the sorting potion and it came out brown. “Woot!” she cheered, with a jump and a fist pump, before heading over to her new House. She grinned and waved at Beau as she passed by him, glad to have joined his House rather than Jasmine’s (not that Anya ever stood a snowball’s chance of becoming a Crotalus), but for tonight, she went to find younger students to sit with and get to know. Beau probably already had friends who weren’t eleven year old girls. She’d catch up with him at breakfast tomorrow maybe.

Her sister was up for Prefect this year, Anya knew, so she paid attention to that part, but Jasmine wasn’t one of the fifth years so honored and Anya’s shoulders slumped a bit in disappointment. She looked over to Crotalus to see how her sister was taking the loss, but the elder Delachene seemed to be happily cheering for those who did win. Okay, good, no hard feelings. Anya wouldn’t have to hate all prefects on principle.

There would probably still be plenty rough patches between her and that group as a whole anyway, so it was probably for the best that Jasmine wasn’t among their number.

Then there was singing - Anya sang loud and proud despite not knowing the melody - and food. Anya filled up her plate eagerly. She’d had snacks at orientation but that had been like a whole hour ago. She was starving again already.

Smiling at her new Housemates, the new Pecari started things off with her nearest neighbor. “Hi! I’m Anya!” Her accent was largely unremarkable, having grown up in California, surrounded almost entirely by English, though the faintest hints of a French influence could be detected if one was looking for it. Her father had been born French and she picked up those few traces from him.

More remarkable upon first impression was the mess of dark curls cascading off her head. They didn’t fall past her shoulders, but that was only because they disregarded gravity as much as Anya herself preferred to do. She had already disposed of the school robes that had been all but forcibly magicked onto her for the Sorting, and was again dressed comfortably in torn jeans (the holes were earned honestly rather than bought that way) and a My Little Pony t-shirt featuring Rainbow Dash (not as badly torn as the jeans, but definitely not new). She wasn’t so much sitting on her chair as kneeling on it, and dirt smudges and band-aids were visible in multiple places on her arms. It was also apparent that she had not washed her hands before dinner.

There was, in short, no chance at all that she might be mistaken for a society pureblood.

OOC: Off screen teacher reprimands approved by their authors, though it should be noted Anya’s interpretation of Gray’s and Tarquin’s ‘please don’t die’ flusters and Selina’s discreet aside are a bit harsher than any staff member intended them.

1 Anya Delachene Hi! I’m Anya! 1453 Anya Delachene 0 5

Professor Wright

July 05, 2019 6:09 PM

I...I think I'm still alive. by Professor Wright

Excesses of sunlight and exercise had never precisely been Gray's favorite things, but he had thought that those were the worst things he had to fear from the school tour.

He had been mistaken.

Jasmine Delachene reminded him rather forcefully of what he remembered about her mother, with whom he had overlapped in school a bit, but she was basically all right. Not a very good student, of course, and then there was her attempts (and sometimes successes) in rivaling Tatiana Vorontsova in the competition for Most Flamboyantly Accessorized, but she stayed in her seat and didn't usually talk much when he was trying to teach the class something, which was really as much as one could ask of fifteen-year-olds who were slightly divorced from reality and rich on top of that. When he had spotted the name Delachene again on some lists, he had assumed that he should expect most of the same plus points and drawbacks from Anastasia which he had previously observed in Jasmine.

He had been very, very mistaken.

Anastasia stood out from a crowd every bit as much as her sister did on a day when the mood struck her, all right, but in a completely different way. By the time they had gotten out of the gardens, he had been slightly concerned about turning his back on her long enough to walk in front of the group of first years, afraid of what she might do to the portraits, or the curtains, or the talking tree which guarded the headmaster's office, or...anything, really. He had remembered abruptly, after all, that he had seen Tarquin dealing with some family which had let a kid climb the windows in the Cascade Hall at the Concert last year, and had at the time been grateful that he'd been on the other side of the room and therefore exempt from dealing with the situation. He was pretty sure he could now make far more educated guesses about the situation than he had been able to at the time....

Gray was not, he thought, the strictest of the strict. In fact, he rather suspected he was closer to being a pushover than anything. However, there was a difference between being indifferent to the rules that didn't much matter and at least prepared to hear students out (or, as the case was sometimes, to go temporarily hard of hearing when it served no purpose to have heard what he definitely, due to aforementioned temporary hearing loss, had not heard) and being indifferent to whether or not a student cracked her head open before she was even Sorted. Once they were Sorted, the Aladrens were his problem. Until they were Sorted, they were, since he was the staff member doing orientation this year, his problem, and he really preferred that any contact he was ever forced to have with a parent not involve someone's head being cracked open, or even an expensive work of art seriously damaged or destroyed....

Now, he supposed, he just had to hope she didn't go into Aladren. Stereotypes said she was a lock for Pecari, but he didn't trust those much. For one thing, there were plenty of reckless fools who had worn the blue over the years. For another, he had not yet forgotten the anomalous Teppenpaws who had been around when he had returned to the school, items he had thought Daniel Nash was joking about when he was first told of their existence.

Happily (for him, anyway - though now he felt bad for hoping, because it was a flaw in him, this relief when things were other people's problems, especially the problem, for the moment, of Sophie O'Malley, who was only here as a substitute while Isis was on leave), stereotypes came into play there. The rest of the opening went according to plan, Gray merely moving his mouth rather than attempting to actually sing during the school song, and then food appeared.

"Here's to another one," he said to the nearest colleague, raising his glass of juice slightly in a vague imitation of a toast.

16 Professor Wright I...I think I'm still alive. 113 Professor Wright 0 5

Ellie

July 05, 2019 10:15 PM

is Ellie, firmly, at everyone by Ellie

"Yeah, it is," Ellie agreed with a shy smile when the girl mentioned how good the chicken was. That was definitely small talk, and thus the girl was at least interested in having some kind of continued intercaction with her. It was possible she was just being polite rather than wanting to be friends but at least it meant Ellie could chat without worrying too much that she was bothering someone. At least, for now.

"I'm Ellie Alperton," she introduced herself, looking serious. She put down her fork in order to shake Bella's hand, before reaching reflexively for her hair. She ran a strand through her fingers before picking up her fork again. The gesture brought a small smile to her lips. Her hair was long, and it was prettily braided, and everything was okay. "It's not short for anything. It's just my name," she asserted with a degree of firmness that had not been present before, as if this was a point she had previously had to argue. She had needed to be pretty determined about that before, just probably not in the way that Bella would assume. It still felt somewhat strange and worrying to say it to new people but she figured that making it come across like it was a question or like she had doubts herself would only give them room to have them.

"So, what grade- um, year are you in?" she asked. She had taken care to learn about the school beforehand and thus knew the ways in which their vocabulary differed from what she was used to, but it was hard to put into practise when her brain was so used to supplying a different word.

13 Ellie *is Ellie, firmly, at everyone* 1456 Ellie 0 5

Jezebel Reed-Fischer

July 05, 2019 10:29 PM

Oh, that's good! by Jezebel Reed-Fischer

Jezebel relaxed tremendously when Nico expressed curiosity instead of distaste. On one hand, she would've preferred not to seem like such an oddity, but it was better than being ridiculed or something. Besides, Nico wasn't all magical all the way back either, and that was pretty cool. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

The problem was that she and her cousin hadn't really been very close before this. Their families hadn't been close, although there wasn't really any tension there either. It was going to be one heck of an adjustment making her way through school at Sonora, and she hadn't even seen anything like art or math on her schedule. Did that mean she was expected to do those things on top of her other classes? It all seemed like just too much.

"I thought it was a joke," Jezebel admitted with a shy smile. "I didn't believe in magic at all. My family was really shocked, but my cousin is magical too." Her throat clenched a little bit at the thought, because that just made everything was so much more real. "He's in Teppenpaw. Why does your brother think Pecari is the best?"

She hoped Nico's brother was wrong. She hoped every House was good, of course, but especially Teppenpaw and Crotalus. She was determined to do a good job either way, but she thought it would be especially challenging if people were awful to her. She'd dealt with enough bullying at home and didn't need that now.

22 Jezebel Reed-Fischer Oh, that's good! 1454 Jezebel Reed-Fischer 0 5

Dorian Montoir

July 05, 2019 11:40 PM

So, you're saying I belong here? by Dorian Montoir

Dorian took a seat in the Cascade Hall, nodding cheerfully to any friends whose eyes he caught on the way in. Having cleared his conscience with Professor Brooding, he felt much better. It had never worried him what other people would think so much as what they would do. He definitely didn't want to be teased but more than that, he had worried about them disrespecting Professor Brooding and it being his fault, especially in her eyes. He was reassured both that she could handle such things and that she didn't find his behaviour irresponsible. It didn't mean bad things wouldn't happen, or that they wouldn't be unpleasant. He still very much hoped no such gossip would spread at Sonora. But, in spite of that risk, things were still okay.

He took his seat, waiting for the feast to begin, and offering a smile to the incoming Teppenpaw first years. He was aware of what fifth year meant, but he wasn't too keyed up about it. He would be happy for whichever of Ruby or Vlad got the badge, and he couldn't imagine either of them starting a fight with the other, and of course he would be happy for Jehan.

Then they called his name. Dorian hesitated, but enough heads had turned in his direction that he was aware that it was not a mistake. Well, that it wasn't a hallucination or mishearing on his part. They had just made him prefect. He stood up to make his way forward, and it took an additional moment for him to realise that it was Gary's name that had been called, instead of Jehan's.

He had to balance looking for Jehan's reaction with not falling over his own feet or bumping into any of the other people making their way on stage. Looking across the room for all his friends' reactions kept him from staring at his own toes whilst being presented with his badge. He thought he had heard Tatya above the general clamour and, even if most of Sonora could not distinguish happy Russian shouting from angry Russian shouting, he was more fluent, and a quick glance in her direction confirmed his impression that she was pleased for him.

The fact that it had been Parker’s name instead of Tatiana's that was called had been something he’d expected. He did not think it was disloyal to think this - however fond of her he was, Dorian was neither surprised by this decision nor in disagreement with it. Parker definitely deserved the badge, and thinking so didn’t mean he loved Tatya any less or thought her any less wonderful. This particular job just didn’t line up with her good qualities. Anyway, Parker was also his… friend? Maybe. Parker was a nice person, and was always nice to him anwway, and Dorian was pleased for him. However, Kir, Parker and Gary all knew each other and Kir was congratulating them both, so the best Dorian was able to do was throw a small smile at the back of Parker’s head and try not to feel like this left him being lumped in with the girls. Even Dorian struggled to find that cause to be self-conscious - after all, it was fairly hard to feel you were being emasculated by someone who was wearing sparkly nailpolish.

He returned to his seat smiling, running a finger over the badge, and wondering what on earth he’d done to deserve it. He supposed he’d helped out with the concert. And he did try to look after people, like helping Johana Leonie with her homework. And he was good with Theodora, if that counted, given that she wasn’t a student yet. And he was a library monitor. He supposed, when he thought about it, he could come up with a list of things that said why the staff would have noticed him for the right reasons (he suspected he was not in Professor Wright’s good books, generally, having been rather confrontational with him over accusing Tatya of cheating). It just surprised him. He hadn’t done those things to try to impress anyone, he’d just done them because they seemed like the right things to do. And he'd been against two Brockerts, and he was a foreigner. His particular friendship group had kept him in a pleasant, protected little bubble where that didn't matter but he knew that, to some people, it mattered very much. He was an outsider in so many senses, even if some of them were ones that most of the staff or the general population did not know about, but yet they thought he deserved this. He really hoped his peers thought so too, or had noticed some of those things, and that no one had just decided that he must be sleeping with his teacher based on this.

“They made me prefect,” he observed to his neighbour. Even though he was not one who was usually inclined to talk about himself much, he still found he couldn’t quite believe this point.

OOC - if another fifth year replies, you can assume he would have noticed he was sitting next to them and added ‘You don’t mind, do you?’

13 Dorian Montoir So, you're saying I belong here? 1401 Dorian Montoir 0 5

Nico

July 08, 2019 8:08 PM

Thanks! by Nico

So she had someone else here at Sonora. That was nice. At least she wasn't alone at this totally new place. Nico couldn't imagine being the first one at a brand new school mostly because Mikey had always been there to show him the ropes. "Was your cousin surprised to be magical too?" Nico asked. He didn't know how common or rare it was for cousins or siblings to be magical, but it was definitely convenient.

He tried to imagine what his mom would have felt back then when she found out she was magical. Uncle Jimmy probably would've been a little jealous that his younger sister was magical and he wasn't, but he and Grandpa didn't seem so bothered by it now. Nico didn't know anyone else on Mom's side of the family that was magical, so she would have been the only one. If Nico had been the only magical one in his family, he would have been so scared to go to a totally different school and have to keep it a secret from other people.

Nico shrugged at the question about his brother. "He said that Pecaris are the adventurous ones, so they have a lot of fun and throw fun parties. He really likes the other people in Pecari too, but it would make sense cause they must be more like him." Mikey made his house sound like a lot of fun, but he was good at making a lot of things sound really fun or entertaining even if in reality they weren't. Though, when Nico came to watch Mikey's concert performance last year, Pecari's had been the most fun to watch because of all the flying.

"He said the classes were hard too, but they're a lot more fun because we get to practice magic." There wasn't much else that Mikey had told him that hadn't been covered during orientation. Nico personally was looking forward to seeing what the classes were like. It sucked that they didn't have art or math or science, but learning about charms and potions seemed cool too. He couldn't wait to use his new wand.

19 Nico Thanks! 1458 Nico 0 5

Mikey DiCaprio

July 08, 2019 8:21 PM

Sure, English, yes by Mikey DiCaprio

Mikey only knew this housemate because she was foreign. There weren't very many students at Sonora, and those who were from a different country definitely stood out. He thought it was really interesting that she and her brother had come so far to school in America especially when she couldn't speak English that well. Heinrich he knew from classes, but he couldn't remember his sister's name even though they had been in the concert together. It was hard keeping track of younger classmates.

He knew she responded "good" about the food, which he smiled at in agreement. He didn't know if she understood his fast tongue, but she responded to his question with a heavy German accent. It took a second, but Mikey got what she meant. He didn't know who Johana was, but he assumed she was another student at Sonora.

"Cool," he replied. "I went to a Quidditch summer camp for kids back home with my brother. It was really fun." Mikey had made a lot of fun magical friends too, but unfortunately they didn't go to the same school as he did. "My little brother Nico is here now, he's in Crotalus." He pointed him out at the other table. Mikey was still shocked and a little disappointed that he wasn't in Pecari, but he hoped Nico would do okay there on his own.

Mikey felt bad for asking, but he couldn't keep on a conversation without knowing what the girl's name was. "What's your name again?" he asked. He wasn't that great at remembering names, but he knew everyone in his year and a few in the year above him. Other than that, it was hard to keep track.

19 Mikey DiCaprio Sure, English, yes 1406 Mikey DiCaprio 0 5

Hilda

July 08, 2019 9:37 PM

Ja, Englisch. Ist nicht gut. by Hilda

"Quidditch!" Hilda repeated enthusiastically when her companion brought up the familiar word. Other than 'brother' she wasn't entirely sure what else he said there. She guessed he'd said he had spent the summer playing Quidditch with his brother based on the two pieces of vocabulary she was certain about. She'd done some of that, too, so it made sense as something to talk about after coming back from summer vacation. "I play, too!" she shared this bit of commonality between them. It was her best English sentence of the Feast. Quidditch related words had been among the first she'd picked up and retained.

She looked over at Crotalus, not really knowing why he was pointing there unless it had something to do with the brother he played Quidditch with. The finger did seem to be indicating some of the new first years, so she tentatively tagged the male one as 'the Brother'. "Mein Bruder," she stopped, grimaced, and tried again, the words coming more slowly and less enthusiastically as she had to focus on speaking Sonora's language instead of blurting her thoughts out in her own, "My brother is Aladren." She pointed Heinrich out over at his table, since that seemed to be what they were doing now.

Then he asked an easy question. One of the first ones she was taught, way back in Germany, before she even knew she'd be carted off to Utah to live with her Uncle, when English was just something they learned because tutors enjoyed torturing students rather than because it had any bearing at all on her life. She smiled, pleased with herself for knowing this answer. "I am Hilda," she stated, and almost more by force of rote repetition than intent, she asked, "And you are?" Though, to be fair, having a name to go with his face would probably be a good thing, especially since he enjoyed playing Quidditch, too. He was too much older, and not German enough, for them to probably ever become good friends but if she ever wanted someone to go flying with, he was potentially an option.

1 Hilda Ja, Englisch. Ist nicht gut. 1433 Hilda 0 5

Jezebel Reed-Fischer

July 09, 2019 12:08 AM

Anytime! by Jezebel Reed-Fischer

Jezebel wrinkled her nose, wondering what exactly Dathan had thought when he'd gotten his letter. "He must've been," she decided. "Neither of us knew magic was real, so I'm sure he was, but I don't know. We haven't really talked about it much."

It still seemed so taboo. It seemed like a disease. Certainly Jezebel's own family was worried about the implications the whole thing had for her soul, but there was little to be done about it. At this point, she was clearly magical; the only hope left was in controlling it. Jezebel herself suspected that God wouldn't have made her magical if she wasn't supposed to be; she couldn't choose not to be evil if she just was evil. Which meant that this whole thing had to be okay. She just had to go about it the right way and not hurt anyone.

An adventurous house sounded . . . maybe sort of fun? Jezebel enjoyed a good time, but she wouldn't have described herself the way Nico described his brother. She was much more focused on other things, and "parties" weren't even on her radar just yet. She wondered whether Sonora had cliques the way her elementary school had, and decided that if it did, she was going to be just fine on her own. She'd always gotten by on her own, and if study dates by herself were the best way to get through school with good grades, then that's what she would do.

"Practicing magic sounds good," Jezebel agreed, wondering whether they'd dive right in or at least cover some theory first. She wanted to do this right. "Do you know what Teppenpaw's reputation is?" she asked, wondering whether Dathan would have a good time. "I know what the teacher said at orientation, and what the history of the House is, but I don't know what people actually think of it. Is it okay?"

22 Jezebel Reed-Fischer Anytime! 1454 Jezebel Reed-Fischer 0 5

JD

July 09, 2019 1:16 AM

Oh, definitely! by JD

JD had been pretty exuberant about coming to Sonora last summer. He'd wanted to learn about magic and be a wizard. It had all sounded so cool! But then Christmas rolled around and he went home and he realized how much of his life back in Maine he was missing out on. His sisters were growing up and dating, his family's restaurant was flourishing, his friends were trying out for JV sports, and he was tossing a baseball around the MARS rooms by himself.

School was cool and he did have more fun in class at Sonora than the public elementary school back home since he'd always done a bit better with practical application than theory. But school was lonely. It just wasn't the same! The second half of the year, JD had tried to be friendly with anyone he interacted with, but ended up isolating himself outside of the classroom, always finding a new place to be alone. He didn't want anyone to notice that he wasn't okay.

Now it was their second year, and JD really, really hadn't want to come back. But he hadn't wanted anyone to know, either, because he knew his mom worried for him so far away and he didn't want her to. Besides, he didn't even know if he was allowed to quit. Luckily, being from the furthest corner from school meant he'd gotten on the wagons early, allowing himself to fall asleep before anyone else joined him and providing the perfect excuse not to talk to anyone on the journey.

But now that he was back, surrounded by his classmates in a busy hall it was time to put the happy face back on! "Hi!" he smiled widely at Zara, one of the only girls he'd really bonded with so far. "It was nice but it's good to be back though, isn't it?" He handed a dish to her. "Baked beans?"

26 JD Oh, definitely! 1449 JD 0 5

Zara

July 09, 2019 8:03 AM

Hurrah! by Zara

Zara smiled, easily taking JD's comments at face value. She was a generally happy person and between that and exposure to Felipe and his constant worrying, she tended to assume most people just said what they were really feeling. Her family definitely did that too. Plus, they were like the touchy emotional house or whatever. JD said he was both good and excited, therefore Zara assumed that JD was, in fact, both good and excited. She hadn’t seen much of him last year, but she chalked that up to having been busy with the concert - it had made her social life pretty solidly revolve around concert things and concert people. He hadn’t been one, and so had presumably been off doing something else fun with other non-concert people.

"Yeah, it's fun to see family but like... My sister is all into make-up and hair and dates, and I am not interested. And my brother is still a little kid," - Bertie, who was in fact, nine whole years old would have objected strenuously to this defamation had he heard - "It's fun to play with him for a bit, cos he does come up with good games," - again, had he been present, Bertie would have been outraged because he was in a very serious training program to be a superhero-ninja-spy and it was definitely not a game - "but it's nice to be back around people my own age.

"Beans are good. I reckon they'd go with ribs," she agreed, adding both to her plate, "What did you get up to during summer break?" she asked.

13 Zara Hurrah! 1444 Zara 0 5

Parker Fitzgerald

July 09, 2019 8:57 AM

That's Idaho where potatoes grow by Parker Fitzgerald

Parker looked over to Isaac and smiled.

It had been nice seeing him at Cleo’s birthday party. Isaac had been a break from the fathers odd glances. Glances that made Parker feel like he’d done something wrong. He’d noticed that Isaac had also received them. At least the glares wasn’t just him. Though as Parker had thought about it afterwards, he guessed that Cleo’s father probably was apprehensive that the boys in Cleo’s life might try to… Parker thought a bit, maybe throw themselves out of windows for her? He had read as much as he could find on Veelas in the library, and they always seemed slightly vague about what might happen to the Veelas themselves. Then again, Parker imagined that it was rare that a Veela would sit down and write a book.

“Thanks Isaac. I’ll be honest, I don’t really know all a Perfect is supposed to do, so I might be looking to the Head Boy for a little guidance on that.”

Parker looked around at the food. There was a lot of options, but right now he felt the need for meat and some kind of veggie. Lately he’d felt the need for all the protein his body could stomach, which was an increasing amount.

“Let’s start with the meat and potatoes and see where the rest of the meal goes,” Parker said with a laugh.

As Parker put some of the food on his plate he turned to Isaac.

“It was nice seeing you this summer, even if Cleo’s dad made it a bit odd from time to time. Did you have fun otherwise? Any new adventures?”

41 Parker Fitzgerald That's Idaho where potatoes grow 1402 Parker Fitzgerald 0 5

Nico

July 09, 2019 5:05 PM

Re: Anytime! by Nico

Nico could guess that this girl wasn't too close with her cousin just from her reaction. He nodded, not sure how to respond. His own cousins were either older than him and not interested in hanging out, or they lived in England where one of his uncles had moved after going to college and getting married. His cousins in Denver weren't magical either, so it was a little hard to relate sometimes. He couldn't exactly talk about his Quidditch summer camp, and if they played basketball or soccer together they would destroy him because they were a lot older.

"I think it's okay," Nico replied. "My brother said the kids from Teppenpaw are nice, but that was it. He didn't say anything else about it."

Nico wouldn't have minded Teppenpaw either. It wasn't bad to be known as the house of nice people. He wondered if people here assumed you had certain traits, like an adventurous or kind streak, depending on the house you were sorted into. Apparently that's the way Mikey thought, but Nico didn't know if everyone thought the same way. After all, this girl didn't seem snobby and she wasn't a pureblood, so whatever his brother had said didn't seem to be true for everybody. Mikey had been here for a lot longer than him though, so he probably knew the houses and other students best.

"Um, what was your name?" Nico asked, feeling awkward for asking so late in the conversation. He hated these little polite questions especially when it should've been exchanged a lot earlier. He hadn't been listening to any of the names earlier as they got sorted. He'd been too busy being overwhelmed by the school and the new faces.

19 Nico Re: Anytime! 1458 Nico 0 5

Nathan Xavier

July 10, 2019 7:22 AM

Introspection by Nathan Xavier

Nathan was not eating much at the feast. He had not done the Orientation again. His mom had the baby - well, the toddler; Theodora had passed her first birthday and her first step, so he couldn’t rightly call her a baby anymore - again, like she had last year for the first school night with a new batch of first years. Dora would come back tomorrow, but his wife would not.

His first year and a half of marriage had not gone as well as he might have hoped. Sure, throwing a kid into the mix only a few months in hadn’t exactly been in the plans when he’d proposed either, but he had thought that was going well enough. He had thought it was going well right up until Selina had appeared, holding his baby girl and saying Isis was not well, and asking if she should watch Dora while he went to the hospital wing to see her.

It was not a stellar Husband moment, finding out his wife had been suffering from postpartum depression for six months and he’d had no idea. Isis hadn’t said anything and he just hadn’t noticed that Dora seemed to favor him over her mother. Or rather, he had, but he’d just attributed it to him having more free time to watch her, with all the Herbology classes being squeezed into Tuesday and Thursday time slots, leaving Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays largely free other than a few designated times for Office Hours. Which he sometimes brought Dora to anyway, if Isis was subbing.

They’d made it through the rest of the school year, with her receiving treatment and him doing everything he could to try to support her. He honestly wasn’t sure if it helped or if it just made things worse because as of mid-August, Isis had taken leave of Sonora and gone away for the semester. To sort herself out, she said.

To get away from him, she had not said, but he couldn’t help wondering if maybe he’d been too helpful. Or not helpful enough. It was hard to say. Communication had never been Isis’ strongest trait, and he wasn’t sure that he hadn’t been part of the problem that led to her needing to go.

Logically, he didn’t think that was it. If she was trying to escape anyone, it was probably Dora, because she felt guilty she wasn’t connecting well with her daughter. (And logically, too, this was not an ideal solution because leaving wasn’t going to help improve that relationship at all; but if Isis thought she needed to, so she could connect better later, he was willing to let her give it a try.) But logic didn’t silence the reasoning that Isis had already left one daughter behind once, and there was no guarantee that Nathan was a strong enough draw that she’d come back to this one.

He put down his fork and fiddled with his wedding band, feeling guilty for doubting the vows they had shared. She’d come back. He had to believe that she’d come back. He’d promised he’d always be there for her, so even if she didn’t, he’d just have to find her, and help lead her back home. That he was here and she was not did not mean their marriage was in trouble. This was a temporary set-back, that was all. It was a chance for her to heal away from all the other demands life had put on her. He could give her that space she’d asked for.

He just kind of wished she didn’t need it, and he felt bad for wishing it, like he was somehow being disloyal just because all he really wanted was for his wife and daughter to love each other as much as he loved both of them. And they didn’t.

Yet.

He had to believe there was a ‘yet’ on the end of that thought. He had to believe this walkabout would work out how Isis hoped it would, and then they could all finally have the happy family he’d thought they’d already had before he found out he’d been wrong.

And, in the meantime, he had to go collect the first years.

1 Nathan Xavier Introspection 28 Nathan Xavier 0 5

Winston Pierce

July 10, 2019 9:25 AM

He’s walking away with my badge! by Winston Pierce

Winston arrived to the Cascade Hall early for his last Opening Feast. This was partly due to hunger, as he had not grabbed a snack since arriving. Having flown in the wagon from New England, he’d brought snacks for the trip and by the time he arrived, his stomach was too unsettled from all the jostling to have any sort of hunger left, but his stomach had by now sorted itself out and was demanding to be filled.

That all could have been ignored, or at least rectified by one of the chocolate bars he kept in his room for late night studying and last minute essay writing. The largest part of his decision to come down early was to pick a good seat from which he could collect his Head Boy badge.

Except the Feast began and the small people were sorted and names were called out and his was not among them. Neither was Emerald’s, who he‘d thought was a shoo in for Head Girl. If Natalie Atwood and That Teppenpaw weren’t up there, he could have almost thought the Headmaster forgot to name Head Boy and Head Girl. But Natalie and That Teppenpaw were up there. And they were being given badges.

Winston glowered, furious that someone who didn’t even exist was getting his badge.

“Who voted for that guy?” he demanded of his neighbor after the song and passed unheeded and the food was beginning to appear. He was so mad he almost forgot he was hungry.

Almost, but not quite. He began filling his plate after his stomach rumbled in response to the wonderful smells that accompanied the food.

1 Winston Pierce He’s walking away with *my* badge! 370 Winston Pierce 0 5

Katerina

July 10, 2019 6:44 PM

I think I'm still pretty much the same. by Katerina

Lyssa jumped straight to the source of Katya's worries. A small line appeared between her blue eyes as her brow creased at the thought of the year before them.

"I hope so," she said. "I spend the summer in much work. I know it will be hard this year."

Sometimes, she thought, there were advantages to always having to choose between speaking rapidly and speaking smoothly. It allowed her to hide behind ambiguity or simplification when she did not really want to get into a topic, like her doubts and insecurities. She wondered if it was also so for Tatiana.

Probably not.

"Your brother does well," she added, nodding in Parker's direction. "My sister always says well about him. He will be good prefect. It must be hard, to be prefect when he has exams this year." Anton Petrovich had talked a lot about the exams Tatiana had to take this year, exams which required her to write both at length and in English. Her tutoring had focused heavily on that aspect of things, leaving Katya to work at her own lessons in steadily building terror at what lay before her in two years. "But I am sure he will do well. What do you do this summer?"

Her tenses were wrong there. She had not spoken slowly enough - but she did write a bit more fluently than she spoke, she thought. Could she write fast enough to both write the exam responses and write them correctly in English? How much would her English count against her if she made mistakes like that? Pointless, really, to think about it now, since she would know perfectly well this summer (there was no chance that Tatiana would write in perfect English, so studying her results would be far more productive than sitting here fretting), but it ate away at her anyway.

16 Katerina I think I'm still pretty much the same. 1418 Katerina 0 5

Tatiana

July 10, 2019 6:56 PM

Lost in translation. by Tatiana

Tatiana strongly suspected that her neighbor had no idea what had been said to her, which, if she was to be honest, was sort of funny. She didn't go around deliberately saying things in Russian just to confuse people (or better yet, saying it in a tone that didn't match the contents at all, just to get bizarre responses), but it amused her just a little when it happened, even if this response was reasonably correct to what she had said without thinking about which language she was speaking.

"You have good news," she said, recognizing the badge on the older girl's robes. "Bon soir. Félicitations," she added after remembering how to say 'congratulations' in French, having initially gone with 'good evening'. She thought a lot of Americans seemed to speak French, if not quite as often as Russians and Canadians, so she thought she stood a tolerable chance of being understood to some extent. It still irked her, though, to speak the wrong language...

"Congradion, it is, in English, yes?" she said, thinking back to things she had heard when she had played Quidditch. She missed that, but so long as Simon Mordue and his stupid face were on the team, she would not dignify the sport with her presence - or so she liked to think of it. It was less embarrassing than admitting that he had confused and slightly hurt and a little bit frightened her, really. She supposed that meant she could go back next year, if it was really worth it to pick something back up as a sixth year, halfway out the door already - assuming Simon's cousin was not quite as stupid as he. She had never had a problem with Nathaniel personally, but Dorya did, which was almost as good; it had been a magic accident when they were younger, so she might have overlooked it customarily, but his cousin did have a terribly stupid face which cast Simon's relative into more suspicion than such an incident normally would. This was why she didn't like it that Katya seemed to want to be friends with Sylvia; that family was bad news, if anyone cared for her opinion on the subject.

16 Tatiana Lost in translation. 1396 Tatiana 0 5

Simon Mordue

July 10, 2019 7:21 PM

Quite a feat for someone who doesn't exist. by Simon Mordue

If you asked Simon (which no-one had, but that was, to his mind, rather beside the point), the system for selecting Head Boy and Head Girl was rather inappropriate. One did not simply entrust the keys to the doors to power into the hands of the masses. One had to give them the illusion they mattered, of course, otherwise goblins agitated the hoi polloi and said hoi polloi tried to riot against their betters and whatnot, but there always had to be higher authorities to keep them in line.

In theory, the staff was supposed to provide that guidance. In practice, Simon thought (though again no-one had asked him, which was again beside the point) they did an inconsistent job of doing that at best. The Head Boy and Girl ballot, for instance. They had put Kir McLeod on it. What madness had possessed them to allow that? The Headmaster was from a respectable enough family, for goodness sakes, or at least a large and rich one. He should not have allowed it, but there were a lot of youngish professors of no recognizable name, and now here they were, in a position where he and Winston, the most appropriate candidates in their year, were in their seats while Kir McLeod was in worrisome proximity to a proper lady and getting a badge.

"It certainly wasn't me," he replied sourly to Winston's indignant question as the food appeared.

He was also, however, not so high-minded as to ignore said food, and so he ignored the systemic problems with all these no-names getting into positions of authority long enough to put food on his plate. From the looks and smells of it, the food, at least, had not suffered in quality due to declining management, so there was that at least. Once he had an adequate quantity of tasty-looking things in front of him, though, he returned to the more important subject. "I can't believe he was even an option. Do you think Brockert's beginning to go a bit...." He touched his temple as discreetly as possible to indicate what he meant by that. "It's like there are no standards for anything anywhere anymore," he grumbled.

16 Simon Mordue Quite a feat for someone who doesn't exist. 369 Simon Mordue 0 5

Jessica Hayles

July 10, 2019 8:44 PM

Resentment helps with those, I've found. by Jessica Hayles

Summer had been...strange. That was the only word for it, and yet, Jessica didn't think she could think of a better one, which irritated her. She was a poet. Words were kind of her thing.

For now, though, she was going to have to settle for 'strange' to describe her summer. On many levels, things had been as they had always been. She had played with her sisters when it was safe (which was to say, very privately). She had eaten meals with her parents as often as possible and had been allowed to sit at her desk in Daddy's office when he was home. She had gone abroad, even, as she always did at least once. And yet...

Daddy had wanted to read a book with her - one about magic art, of all things. He and Mommy had kept asking her all sorts of stupid questions about her life here, as though that were in any way relevant, or even really any of their business. When they had gone abroad, it had been in part so Daddy could continue his bromance with Senor De Matteo. She had enjoyed seeing Felipe and getting to know his sister (she rather suspected that next year, she'd be hard-pressed not to try to adopt Leonor as a sort of surrogate Mara, despite the two girls really not being all that similar beyond their ages and being Hispanic), but it still had been...strange. She had never been on a visit where she was the main point of contact between people. She had never had the sort of friends who would invite her over for anything except the sort of birthday party to which everyone in the class was invited. It had been peculiar, being a real guest.

The strangest thing of all, though, had been the degree to which she had been isolated. She had never spent so much time only with people she knew. Most summers, she would have been at events, taken to meetings, taken - anywhere her family was doing anything of interest. This summer, nothing. She had been cut out of the business and state politics alike as thoroughly as though she had never existed. Sometimes, when both of her parents had been away doing things and she had been left alone with just the house staff, she had wondered if that was what her parents wished for.

They had talked about talking to Professor Skies, and had been so bright and cheery about the prospect of SAT prep classes that she had wanted to scream at them to stop lying to her, to stop treating her like she was so stupid that she would believe they hadn't completely and utterly given up on her. If they had valued her at all, they never would have sent her back to Sonora after her first term. Since they had, it was actually totally appropriate that they were cutting her out of the real life of the family. They didn't need her, which meant she was nothing but a burden on them - and that was what she supposed they expected her to be for the rest of her life. She remembered all too well how Daddy had smiled kindly, as though at a simpleton, and said 'how nice' when she had told him about Evelyn Stones. He didn't think she could do business here, which meant he probably didn't expect she'd ever be able to do business at all. That she was already too far behind to ever catch up.

It was almost a relief to return to Sonora. She couldn't do anything at home that could possibly make her parents proud of her anymore. Hopefully, when she learned how to make these people pay, that would at least impress them....

As she sat down, she ran her fingers over her necklace. Her great-grandparents had given it to her at the very end of the holidays - a delicate, antique Art Nouveau lavaliere pendant with plique-a-jour yellowy-green ivy leaves swirling together above a pearl drop. The joke, of course, being that she would be the first in the family to go to the Ivy League. That had hurt. She had worn the necklace almost every day since she got it, to remind herself.

She let her hands drop, though, to put in cursory polite applause for the new Crotalus prefect, and kept them down until the food appeared.

"Could you please pass the potato salad?"

Jessica looked up at a girl she didn't recognize, and her brown eyes automatically crinkled into a smile. "Of course," she said warmly, and suited actions to words. "You're new here, right? I'm Jessica, I'm in the grade above yours. We'll be neighbors in the dorms I guess."

OOC: Jessica refers to her sisters and Leonor De Matteo as "Hispanic" because that's, to the best of my knowledge, what she would have been taught in Georgia schools is the polite and not-racist thing to say; I've heard recently, though, that it may not be the term of polite use in other parts of the country, and so OOC this to clarify that neither Jessica nor her author is intentionally racist, basically.

16 Jessica Hayles Resentment helps with those, I've found. 1442 Jessica Hayles 0 5

JD

July 12, 2019 4:14 PM

Hip hip? by JD

As the only boy in a family full of sisters, JD definitely knew what it was like to feel on the outside of so-called "girly" stuff. He didn't, however, know what it was like to not be interested in dating because the young boy had always had a soft spot for any pretty girl who so much as smiled at him.

"My sisters are definitely into the make-up," he commiserated. JD didn't know why, he thought they looked so much prettier without it. More natural and real, the girls he'd grown up with and not strangers with coral lips and shaded eyes. "There are a few guys back home who I wish they wouldn't go out with-" JD had heard enough stories about Greg Meyers, for example, a 16-year-old baseball player his older sister Louisa was absolutely infatuated with "-but my mom says they need to figure that stuff out for their own."

JD shrugged and grabbed at a piece of fried chicken as the plate floated past to a hungry looking seventh year. "Juicy!" he proclaimed as he took a large bite. "My friends and I played a lot of baseball, crabbing with my dad," JD nodded. "And the restaurant, I helped out a lot there. You?"

He guessed that Zara had already mentioned some things, but maybe there was something in particular she really wanted to talk about. If so, JD wouldn't stop her. He didn't want to talk too much about his home life because that would just start him missing it all over again and that was the last thing that he wanted to do given that he was trying to forget how great everything was back home so he could get on with his life here.

26 JD Hip hip? 1449 JD 0 5

Peyton O'Malley

July 12, 2019 6:49 PM

Me? Really? by Peyton O'Malley

It was her fifth year at Sonora and Peyton had to admit, she was slightly nervous. For one thing, CATS was later this year and for another, more pressing concern, fifth year meant prefects being picked.

She didn't believe she had a chance. When people as well suited for prefect as Ivy and Ryan hadn't won, how on earth would Peyton be selected? Surely Jasmine was a better candidate than her. The other Crotalus was friendly and helpful. Plus, she had gotten Social Butterfly in the yearbook while Peyton had gotten Most Bashful.

And Peyton just didn't.... sparkle . She wasn't special . She wasn't a star quidditch player like Eden, (Even though Eden hadn't played last year. The fifth year didn't quite understand why, nor did she care.) She wasn't the smartest person in her class. She'd only gotten one yearbook award (as opposed to Ivy's five). Peyton baked and cooked and she played the clarinet. That was it. Nothing special.

Anyway, what if she did get prefect? Was Jasmine going to be upset with her? Was Ivy? The Crotalus didn't want to hurt either of them. Ivy had been devastated last year, convinced the staff hated her. And Ivy was the sort of person who really wanted the approval of staff members. Peyton couldn't understand why her cousin hadn't won. Was the staff just predisposed to prefer athletes? She couldn't imagine that was the case with Headmaster Brockert. Peyton knew full well the Brockerts didn't give a Blast-Ended Skrewt's blasted end about Quidditch. Also, that wouldn't be much of a deciding factor between her and Jasmine.

Still, she did want it. Ever since Eden-and the others too, but Eden was the one close to her age, the one that Peyton saw every single day, the one who symbolized it all-came along, it was like she was competing with the Teppenpaw. It felt to her like her siblings were so interested in getting to know their other siblings that she and Ryan were left out in the cold.

And Eden had gotten prefect. If Peyton didn't, that meant Eden was better than her. Again.

At least Sophie was going to be here for the time being. Peyton was glad to have her sister-in-law back. She wished Professor Carter well, as she didn't want the woman to suffer, but the Crotalus much preferred having Sophie around.

The feast began. Peyton watched as the first years be sorted, noting that Jasmine's sister was sorted into Pecari. The fifth year was not at all surprised.

Then the moment came that she'd been waiting anxiously for. Headmaster Brockert began to call the names, first mentioning the Head Students. Which were so not the people she had expected to win. She sort of thought it would be Emerald and Winston. Peyton was happy for Natalie though.

"In addition I'd like to call up Gary Harper, Dorian Montoir, Peyton O'Malley and Parker Fitzgerald to receive their prefect badges. Congratulations."

And Peyton was even more shocked then. For as much as she hoped, she honestly hadn't thought she was going to win, but she had done it, she was as good as Eden. At least this time.

As she took her place on the stage she was faced with the sudden realization though that Vlad hadn't won. Of course, Peyton had sort of expected Ruby to get it for Teppenpaw because she was the Headmaster's granddaughter but she had really hoped it would be her cousin. It was neither of them.

Nothing against Dorian, who seemed like a pretty good canditate-not that that always mattered given that Ivy was a thousand times better a candidate than Eden-but she had wanted to do this with her cousin. At least Ivy wouldn't have to feel left out though because Peyton and Vlad were prefects and she wasn't.

She took her seat again and Headmaster Brockert announced that they'd be having team challenges this year. These were the same challenges that Ryan (and Sally) had gotten second in and Arnold had gotten first. Peyton didn't consider herself a competitive person by nature, but well, she wanted to get at least second. Okay, it would be nice to win because well, who didn't want to win but if she got second she'd have done the same as Ryan. Also-and Peyton felt bad-ish about this-she rather wanted her team to beat Eden's.

At least she didn't have to lead the team though. Even though she was prefect, team leader went to seventh years first and then sixth year prefects, then other sixth years. "I wonder who'll be on my team." Peyton said aloud.

11 Peyton O'Malley Me? Really? 1403 Peyton O'Malley 0 5

Professor Sophie O'Malley

July 13, 2019 11:59 AM

Either that or a cunning imitation of it. by Professor Sophie O'Malley

So she was back. Sophie had left Sonora a few years prior after a decent sting teaching Potions. It was a place she knew well, even before then. It had been kind of a dream teaching at her alma mater, but life had, unfortunately, thrown her other plans. After her godfather’s stroke rendered him in need of care, she had returned home on a permanent basis. Sophie had absolutely never envisioned herself as a caregiver/stay-at-home mom, but she couldn’t say she minded it. Her kids were pretty cool, and Serapes wasn’t without his pleasantness (to her, at least; it wasn’t the most widespread opinion). Still, she did find herself occasionally missing Sonora, so when she had been asked to return temporarily to substitute for Isis, she had quickly snapped up the opportunity. Well, first she discussed it with her husband Ryan, because she was a halfway decent wife. But then she had totally snapped it up.

Staff weren’t really supposed to have opinions on the placement of badges, but Sophie couldn't contain her excitement as the new prefects were announced. She rose from her chair, clapping and cheering. Hopefully she wouldn’t get in trouble for that; it wasn’t like she was real staff anyway, and that little Crotalus girl was her husband’s baby sister. So yeah, she was a little biased. She was pretty sure the new Head Girl was Ryan’s first cousin, as well, but honestly she couldn’t keep track of his family. They were definitely related, though, so good for her.

She surprised herself with how little of the school song she remembered but managed to justify her school disloyalty with how many children’s songs were crammed into her brain 24/7 at home. Stanley was particularly passionate about his music lately, and either he was already going deaf or was bound to be a rock star, because damn did he like volume.

“Here’s to another one,” said a colleague beside her. Sophie turned and saw Gray Wright, lifting his drink in a toast.

“Definitely,” she smiled, glad she was able to say there was another one for her. Sophie glanced at his glass and chuckled lightly. “What, just juice?” she teased. “How have you been?”

12 Professor Sophie O'Malley Either that or a cunning imitation of it. 34 Professor Sophie O'Malley 0 5

Florence Newell

July 13, 2019 12:08 PM

Blue: Finale by Florence Newell

So here she was. Florence had gotten all the way to her seventh year. This was it. She would need to make some very important decisions in the next few months, start looking into colleges and all that. Decisions came in October or November if she got her applications in soon enough, and then she could decide before January rolled around and the scholarships started going out. Not that she really needed scholarships - even without status, the Newells had their wealth - but she didn’t really want to go on her parents’ coattails. And honestly, she wasn’t sure they would even want her to go to school. Their pureblood society hopes seemed dashed for good, but Flo had not anticipated collegiate freedom.

It would be hard to leave Brett behind next year, now that he would be the last of them. She had not planned on this since he wasn’t the youngest sibling, but Ana didn’t get magic. At least their baby sister was doing well, though; Flo visited her and Dustin as often as she could. And to her surprise, her older brother was doing a fantastic job. He was working his way through his education while also supporting their sister. She went to Muggle school. Dustin went to Parent Teacher Conferences. It was insane.

She visited their cousin Makenzie sometimes as well, and Makenzie was also flourishing on her own. She had found steady secretary work, and she was surprisingly happy with it. Florence assumed that was due to the structure and formality it allotted without completely smothering her in Pureblood rules and expectations. Makenzie just had to dress nice and follow rules that at least made sense. That was good for her.

Being back now was, admittedly, a little disappointed. Florence wasn’t prefect, so likewise she didn’t expect to get Head Girl, but she had still wanted it. Sigh. More time for her academics, she supposed. “Ready for the new year?” she asked a neighbor as the food came around.

12 Florence Newell Blue: Finale 362 Florence Newell 0 5

Salali Bly

July 13, 2019 12:18 PM

And I am not! by Salali Bly

Six school years had come and gone, and now Salali was a big bad seventh year. She could hardly believe it. The whole Magick thing still felt so new and strange, and maybe even a little uncomfortable, honestly, as it had been the reason for her Disownment. She still didn’t understand why her father had freaked out about it so badly, especially when she was kept so private in her existence anyway. Their hidden Muggle (that was a word she had learned here!) society held to a standard of one child, so she was a secret spare anyway, kept away in the smallest rooms in their home.

Sometimes she still missed her father, but in the end, Salali thought that this was better. She got to go outside and run and play and feel. And she had friends! So many friends! Like her roommate Natalie, who - oh my gosh! - was now Head Girl! That was amazing for her! Salali cheered and cheered and smiled until her cheeks hurt, just a little. Salali was happy. She liked it here.

It would be sad when she had to leave. That was the understanding of this place: it was a temporary shelter. And honestly, Salali didn’t really know what would come next. She knew there was something called college, which was like more school, but that was apparently really expensive, and she doubted the orphanage would cover any of that. She could get a job and be a grown up, but that felt so strange to envision. She still felt like such a kid. And she wanted to stay.

She was close to getting wistful about it, but fortunately, a small person saved her from her thoughts with a chipper introduction. “Hello, Anya!” She grinned at the first year beside her. “My name is Salali! I am a seventh year,” she added to explain her size. Salali’s speech had softened as she adjusted to this place and stopped trying quite so hard, but a lingering crispness did identify her as a non-native speaker. Or more exactly a literal native speaker, as her origins were Cherokee. “Are you excited to be here? Because I am!”

12 Salali Bly And I am not! 372 Salali Bly 0 5

Eden Manger

July 13, 2019 12:37 PM

I'd say so, yeah. by Eden Manger

It was getting better, Eden supposed.

She had been distant with her family for a while, but at the end of the day, she missed them. She missed Desiree, the big sister she’d known her whole life, her only whole-sibling. Eden tried to understand everything she knew now, all that they hadn’t ever wanted her to know. It changed a lot, but it also changed nothing. Her dad was her dad, even if he wasn’t that way with anyone else. And she missed him, too, but he was gone now. The siblings he gave her was all she had left now.

So she was trying. That was a little hard and a lot rewarding, but also a lot tiring, so she was pretty glad to come back to Sonora. Eden missed her boyfriend Brett (they’d finally given up on this “no label” hanging out thing and decided to just call it what it was) during the summer breaks. It was nice getting to spend time with him between arrival and the Feast, but they had to part ways now to go to their respective tables. It never seemed like anybody really cared, but she and Brett were both prefect, so it was best not to mess with rules, she thought.

And as luck would have it, she ended up seated by the newest prefect, Dorian Montoir. Eden chuckled slightly at his observation about it. “That’s kinda how I felt last year,” she smiled. “Congratulations, by the way. You deserve it.” Eden didn’t know Dorian very well, but really, they were Teppenpaws; it was a House full of kindness and butterflies, nine times out of ten. Pretty much anyone could be prefect here.

12 Eden Manger I'd say so, yeah. 385 Eden Manger 0 5

Zara

July 17, 2019 12:43 AM

That's the one by Zara

"Yeah, I know that problem all too well," Zara commiserated, when JD said he wished his sisters wouldn't go out with certain boys. "My sister's dates tend to be okay, but my cousin James always picks really crappy guys. There's an inherant issue with being into the bad boy type. So, you have sisters, plural? All older?" she checked her understanding so far.

Zara snatched a bit of chicken too as it went past. Clearly this was not going to be an elegant meal, given the domination of handheld foods so far. But then, that had never really been a priority for her.

"Crabbing? Oh, like... fishing for crabs?" she realised. She had never heard that word being verbed before but it was easy to work out. "Nice. Your summer sounds loads of fun," she smiled.

"I helped out a bit at home as well. My family runs a cultural centre, and there's always lots going on over summer. Most of the time, it's pretty easy to get stuff done because most of my family is magical, but as the centre is about non-magical stuff, they sometimes make us do things that way, or just pitch in like running stalls at the summer fete or taking ticket stubs for the movies, stuff like that.

"I also went to visit Felipe in Mexico," she nodded vaguely at the Crotalus table, pretty sure JD would know all their classmates by name even if he'd never really hung out with them. "That was really cool. They grow loads of different fruits and his family kept feeding me really tasty things." Felipe's whole life was pretty different than hers. Even though her family was comfortably middle class, his was like... next level rich. Kind of like she imagined fancy Purebloods were in America, only the De Matteos managed it without being racist douchebags. They had also seemed friendly and Zara was one to just take things in her stride, so she had quickly stopped worrying that she would use the wrong fork or whatever and just enjoyed the ride. The De Matteos seemed to care more about being a hard worker and caring about others than any silly etiquette type rules, and those were things it was much easier for her to get behind. "He came to ours for a bit too.

"So, what do you reckon these challenge thingies are going to be about?" she asked, deciding it was time to look forward instead of back.

13 Zara That's the one 1444 Zara 0 5

Jasmine Delachene

July 18, 2019 12:27 PM

Really you! by Jasmine Delachene

Fifth year mostly meant one thing to Jasmine Delachene: it was the year her sister came to Sonora. Sure, there were CATS, and they were a little scary, but she figured she’d pass enough to get through to Advanced classes. And there were prefect appointments, but Jasmine didn’t really care much about those. Her mom had survived being Pecari’s prefect years ago, but her mom didn’t have Anya in the school, and, frankly, Jasmine didn’t want to deal with that kind of conflict of interest.

She spent most of the first year Orientation lying on her bed and recovering from the wagon ride. The trip was thankfully quite short, as they lived very close to the Arizona border in Southern California, but Anya had seemed determined to die and Jasmine needed the few hours of soothing music and calmness before dealing with another school feast.

Specifically, tonight’s school feast was one that would determine Jasmine’s peace of mind for the next three years. Fortunately, the odds of Anya coming to Crotalus were impossibly small and the curly haired girl’s badge turned the expected brown. Jasmine let out a sigh of relief anyway.

More surprising, and equally relieving, Anya went right to her table and sat down (well, she knelt on her seat, shed her school robes, and immediately put her elbows on the table like the uncivilized heathen she was, but it was better than climbing the walls like she’d reportedly done before the concert last term).

Unconcerned by the rest of the first years, she paid little attention to the rest of Anya’s classmates, but began to get nervous as the already small group got smaller.

Peyton O’Malley, she willed the Headmaster to say. Peyton O’Malley. She felt only a little bad for wishing the prefect job on her best friend. With luck, Peyton wouldn’t actually run into Anya much. But even if she did, Peyton wouldn’t be betraying their sisterhood trust if she docked House points for doing the kinds of dangerous things Anya always did.

“Peyton O’Malley,” the Headmaster said, and it took Jasmine a second to realized that had happened out loud and in real life and not just in her head. She wanted to jump up and cheer wildly, but that would be Anya levels of improper and undignified, so she just smiled broadly at her best friend and applauded enthusiastically.

This feast was going just about perfectly. Anya was safely tucked away in a different House. Anya wasn’t drawing undue attention to herself (that would no doubt come in time, but it wasn’t the first impression she was making on Jasmine’s friends). And Peyton was prefect. So she was in genuinely good cheer as she sang the school song and added the proper sized portions of healthy things to her plate.

She smiled happily at her roommate. “Congratulations on prefect, Peyton!” she said. Jasmine was the more outgoing of the two of them, and they were about equally involved in clubs, but the selection really was not at all surprising to Jasmine. Peyton was a much better student, and far more responsible about turning in her homework on time. Teachers liked that sort of thing.

Then Peyton brought up the other thing the Headmaster had mentioned but which Jasmine hadn’t paid much attention to. The Challenges. “I hope we’ll be on the same team,” she stayed loyally, because Peyton was her best friend and she really did hope they could be teamed together.

Her gaze drifted over toward Pecari’s table. “Though I’m not sure if we should be hoping we get Anya or not. She’ll be good to have if we need to do anything athletic, but she’s kind of hard to keep on task.”

1 Jasmine Delachene Really you! 1397 Jasmine Delachene 0 5

JD

July 18, 2019 4:45 PM

Well, then hip hip and all that jazz! by JD

Being the only boy in a family of sisters had always been a bit rough because that meant JD was teased regardless of age -- even his youngest sister, Cathy, who was three years his junior enjoyed bossing him around and taking the mickey out of him. "Five older, two younger," he replied. "By the time Cathy was born I gave up on ever having brothers." In the end, it turned out not to really matter because his parents had stopped having kids and JD was destined to be #foreveralone.

Mexico was...other worldly. Before Sonora, JD hadn't ever left the Northeast. Arizona was already far, but he couldn't imagine traveling to yet another country! "Wow," he said, his gaze following hers to Felipe. Despite his family's loving and open ways, he'd definitely lived a sheltered life compared to his classmates. "That sounds pretty cool."

Challenges, on the other hand, were something that he hadn't really paid much attention to. JD had never really been good at listening to authority figures explain things. His brain just liked to turn off when someone older than him took too long to talk about something. Like class. "I just hope they're not academic," he said slowly as he picked at his food. That would just be one more thing to isolate him and he wasn't sure he was interested in that.

26 JD Well, then hip hip and all that jazz! 1449 JD 0 5

Zara

July 19, 2019 9:27 AM

Whoo! by Zara

"That sounds familiar," Zara smiled, when JD revealed that he had so many siblings, "I'm the middle one of three but we have five cousins who we practically live with, seeing as all our parents run the center together. We've got more of a mix of boys and girls though. I find it weird when people's houses aren't overrun with a million people all the time. Like, you can just keep track by looking up, you don't have to constantly headcount or play Kim's game.

"Yeah, it was amazing!" Zara grinned, when JD was suitably impressed by her Mexico adventure. "I've never been out of the country before. It definitely helped to be able to do it by magic, I'm pretty sure my mom would not let me get on an airplane by myself, but they could just whoosh me straight into Felipe's living room, so I think that made them worry less.

“Nah, they wouldn’t..." Zara started out confident but trailed off slightly. She had no idea what kind of challenge the school would throw at them. She supposed it could be something super dull. She liked solving puzzles well enough, but like… who can recite the most potion ingredients in a minute was not a fun challenge. “I guess we’ll have to wait and see. But hopefully it’ll be fun. What would your ideal challenge be?” she asked.

13 Zara Whoo! 1444 Zara 0 5

Gray Wright

July 19, 2019 10:51 AM

I am a master of illusion. by Gray Wright

"My juice is indeed dedicated to justice," said Gray seriously, enjoying the play on words even though he knew it was a bit silly. He sometimes wished he knew other languages just for the sake of knowing their multiple meanings, words that could only make sense in a given context and which could therefore be twisted for the sake of comedy. "It will preside over the trials of all the other parts of my supper."

He knew wine was the more typical choice for an adult, but he just could not like the stuff. He had tried. He had made concerted efforts, in his younger years. All he had ever gotten was a bad taste in his mouth and the occasional light headache. Vile stuff, wine. If people were meant to drink rotten juice, the juice would just...be rotten from the outset.

"Good. Teaching Charms mostly. I've been doing Orientation today, though, and last term they made me Head of Aladren." He couldn't quite hide a note of pride in his voice as he said that. Illogical he knew - he had been the logical choice, he had taken the job, fin - but so it went. He was still pleased with the appointment, even if he was slightly nervous about giving the speech later. "How about you? Children...childing well? Anything else going on?"

16 Gray Wright I am a master of illusion. 113 Gray Wright 0 5

Amelia Layne

July 19, 2019 12:07 PM

Next year it will be new: beginnings. by Amelia Layne

If she was to be honest, Amelia couldn't say she had been exactly shocked to hear that her brother had quit his job (a perfectly respectable entry-level job which Granddad had gone out of his way to procure for Lionel) in order to follow an idiot dream. More resigned than anything, really. She had no doubt Lionel would land on his feet somehow, after all, and it wasn't as if she couldn't live up to the extra pressure this meant their grandparents were therefore bringing to bear on her as she entered her seventh year.

As she did, though, and sat down to look around one last time at the spectacle of Sonora filling up for an Opening Feast, she had a rare moment during which she wondered about her biological father. What sort of person had he been? Was she at all like him? Lionel, after all, was too much like their mother - that was the problem. Lavinia Layne was an artist, very impractical, and now Lionel was working two flexible jobs up north with her and getting involved in some political pamphlet-writing stupidity on the side. He said he was happy and didn't understand why the rest of the family was so critical. Amelia had pointed out that half their lives had been spent not sure if Momma was alive or not, and that it was selfish of him to give Grandmother and Granddad yet more to worry about at their ages. Lionel had shrugged and said that Granddad probably would forget his entire existence if Uncle Geoff ever had a son, at which point Amelia had very nearly slapped him.

Most likely, of course, she simply took back after her grandparents. Granddad was very ambitious and Grandmother was very practical, and that was why Uncle Geoff and Aunt Helena and Aunt Emily were all very successful people. There were just a few odd apples in every bunch - though it was good for Amelia's cousin Kate, she guessed. Kate had gone to school to be a mediwitch, and while Granddad had been a little disappointed that Kate wasn't living up to the higher standards set by her two sisters, a mediwitch was positively brilliant compared to Lionel and Momma.

Amelia did perk up a little with interest during the announcement of Head Girl, but wasn't surprised not to get it, or even particularly disappointed - baffled that Natalie had gotten it rather than Florence or Emerald, but not particularly disappointed for her own sake. She had her plan for life all laid out and so didn't really need the cherry on top of being Head Girl. She would study very hard this year and next year begin apprenticing with Uncle Geoff. Her uncle was doing some paperwork related to that for her on the outside, as he preferred she keep her attention on her work. Amelia was not one hundred percent committed to the idea of staying with her uncle until they both had grey hair and he retired, and he knew this, but it would give her an extremely solid start and a place to come back to if later adventures once she was established didn't work out well. It gave them both options, which was really as much as she thought it was fair to ask for from life, and it would keep the whole family from worrying too much about her for years yet. A very practical solution to the vexed problem of how to while away the next seventy or eighty years.

"Hope so," said Amelia when Florence asked if she was ready for the new year. "I was just thinking about how my uncle's setting things up for me to apprentice with him next year." She had mentioned Uncle Geoff often enough to her roommates that she imagined this would make sense. Plus, while they did not say it, she knew that even Flo was financially better off than she, which was another factor in apprenticing under a master instead of going to college or university, and she imagined that would make sense too - even if they politely still didn't mention it. "But I have to get through RATS first. How about you?"

16 Amelia Layne Next year it will be new: beginnings. 360 Amelia Layne 0 5

Gary Harper

July 21, 2019 9:35 PM

Huh? by Gary Harper

Year five. He sighed as he sat at the table, wondering what exactly he was making of his life. Arguably he was only fifteen, and this wasn't the usual time to be having such thoughts, yet there they were. There were only two more years after this one, and then he was getting booted out into the 'real world', a world in which he would need to contribute in one form or another. What should he be focused on? At this point he was good at playing games. He sighed again and looked around the room, there were a good number of people, and only a few that he knew. One of which, he'd sure like to get to know better... maybe that should be his focus for this year. He'd been trying to work on his charisma stat over the summer, but as far as he knew it hadn't improved. What he wouldn't give for a few ioun stones or a headband of alluring charisma. Oh well.

Everyone was settling down and the headmaster began his usual speech. Gary appreciated his brevity. The first years went through their sorting, which he watched with minor interest. Didn't Jasmine say that her sister was going to be starting this year? He wondered which of the girls up there was Jasmine's sister. Jasmine had been pretty sure she'd go into Pecari. Well, if he was fortunate, he'd find out eventually. He cheered as Kir claimed the head boy badge. It was someone he knew! He had no clue who the girl was.

The next thing he knew, his name had been called. He did a bit of a double-take and saw three other students heading to the front, one from each of the other tables. He stood mechanically and walked to the front as well, what had just happened? He found himself up front with Parker and two others that he recognized from class, but hadn't ever interacted with much. He received his prefect badge and confusedly walked back to his seat. He was a prefect now? What did that mean? Was he going to need to talk to people now? He sat in stunned silence through the announcement of the challenges, the bonfire and the song. What kind of year was this going to be?

2 Gary Harper Huh? 1404 Gary Harper 0 5

Headmaster Brockert

Opening Feast by Headmaster Brockert

System

<b><font color="#804000">Pecari Table Threads </font></b> by System

System

<b><font color="red">Crotalus Table Threads </font></b> by System

System

<b><font color="#e6ac00">Teppenpaw Table Threads</font></b> by System

System

<b><font color="#1a75ff">Aladren Table Threads</font></b> by System

System

<b><font color="#006600">Staff Table Threads</font></b> by System

Nicolas DiCaprio

Feeling shy, as usual by Nicolas DiCaprio

Jezebel Fischer-Reed

Confront it with knowledge and a plan! by Jezebel Fischer-Reed

Nico

I'm bad at planning for social interactions by Nico

Jezebel Fischer-Reed

That's actually a really good point by Jezebel Fischer-Reed

Nico

I make those sometimes by Nico

Mikey DiCaprio

The food is always the best part by Mikey DiCaprio

Hilda Hexenmeister

Und Englisch ist das Schlimmste by Hilda Hexenmeister

Evelyn Stones

So I guess this is happening. [Tag Malikhi] by Evelyn Stones

Malikhi Hill

Everything just happens, whether we want it to or not by Malikhi Hill

Evelyn Stones

Usually, I don't by Evelyn Stones

Malikhi Hill

Yeah, me neither. Lately, it all just sucks by Malikhi Hill

Evelyn Stones

True that! by Evelyn Stones

Kir McLeod

She's not there by Kir McLeod

Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

You seem sad about that. by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

Kir

That's cos I am by Kir

Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

I'm so sorry to hear that! by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

Ellie Alperton

The blues are the good people, right? by Ellie Alperton

Isabella Harrington

I wouldn't know by Isabella Harrington

Ellie

Oh. Well, here's hoping by Ellie

Bella

Hoping is always good. Making good stuff happen is better. by Bella

Tatiana Vorontsova

Ura! by Tatiana Vorontsova

Julius Astley

Another year, another load of... by Julius Astley

Felipe De Matteo

... pretending I care about my housemates! by Felipe De Matteo

Parker Fitzgerald

So you're saying I belong here? by Parker Fitzgerald

Isaac Song

Yes indeedy by Isaac Song

Katerina Vorontsov

Here's to the new year. by Katerina Vorontsov

Lyssa Fitzgerald

A new us? by Lyssa Fitzgerald

Zara Jackson

Summer was fun but so is this [Tag JD] by Zara Jackson

Natalie Atwater

Triumphant by Natalie Atwater

Sapphire Brockert

Nerves by Sapphire Brockert

Kir

I will survive by Kir

Anya Delachene

Hi! I’m Anya! by Anya Delachene

Professor Wright

I...I think I'm still alive. by Professor Wright

Ellie

*is Ellie, firmly, at everyone* by Ellie

is Ellie, firmly, at everyone by Ellie