Team 7 (nm) on Cascade Hall

DH Skies

July 20, 2019 7:26 AM

Team Challenge Lists by DH Skies

There seemed to be a lot of talk about both the upcoming challenges and the possible team combinations. Professor Skies had assured everyone at breakfast this morning that, this evening, the waiting would be put to an end, and had advised everyone to be punctual to dinner, as it would be a good opportunity to get to know their teammates. She had also given a brief rundown of the team selection process - they had been able to divide the number of students at Sonora exactly, in a way where it worked out that they could let every seventh year lead a team, plus one sixth year. Said sixth year had been a random pick from a hat. They had drawn the rest of the school at random too, with an occasional adjustment if too many of one age group ended up on the same team (there had been an occasional veto too, for families or sworn enemies, but on the whole the idea was that it would just be a case of suck it up, buttercup). The challenges would be designed to be accessible to a range of grade levels, and scored in varying ways to take into consideration the different skill levels of the participants.

That evening, as the students entered the hall, they would find that the usual layout of house seating had been abandoned in favour of thirteen smaller tables, each with a number displayed prominently in shining green light which hovered just above the centre of each. The team lists were posted at intervals along the wall, so that all the students wouldn’t be clustered around the same small piece of paper, and each team’s members were also listed at their table, just to make sure everyone found the right space.

Team One
Emerald Brockert
Brett Newell
Caitlin Pierce
Nicolas DiCaprio
Friederike Albert Zauberhexen

Team Two
Amelia Layne
Eden Manger
Peyton O’Malley
Evelyn Stones
Isabella Harrington

Team Three
Florence Newell
Jasmine Delachene
Ruby Brockert
Christabel Davidson
Ellie Alperton

Team Four
Gwen Fintoc
Cleo James
Lyssa Fitzgerald
Anastasia Delachene
Ahria Wells
Elizabeth Smith

Team Five
Kir McLeod
Parker Fitzgerald
Nathaniel Mordue
Jake Daniels
Dathan Fischer

Team Six
Isaac Song
Dorian Montoir
Heinrich Hexemeister
Julius Astley
Beatriz Coulthon

Team Seven
Natalie Atwater
Vladimir Brockert
Jessica Hayles
Hilda Hexenmeister
Emilia Lewis

Team Eight
Luke Powell
Tatiana Vorontsov
Jehan Callahan
Michael DiCaprio
Ness McLeod

Team Nine
Victor Callahan
Sylvia Mordue
Katerina Vorontsov
Sophia Priory
Martin Crosby V

Team Ten
Salali Bly
Ivy Brockert
Zara Jackson
Bridget Ferguson
Jezebel Reed-Fischer

Team Eleven
Winston Pierce
Loren Aalto
Topaz Brockert
Malikhi Hill
Jeremy Mordue

Team Twelve
Simon Mordue
Beauregard Tate
Johana Leonie Zauberhexen
Sapphire Brockert
Nerida Sound

Team Thirteen
Connor Priory
Gary Harper
Allegra Brockert
Felipe De Matteo
Theodore Flores

OOC - these posts will not be scored but we thought it would be fun to have a chance to mingle and get to know your teammates, and to get that out of the way before challenge 1. IC the selection process was ‘random’ but OOC we have tried very hard to balance teams, in terms of frequency of posting, as well as provide combinations that may be interesting/enjoyable/fun.

I have checked and double checked, but if you see any glaring errors such as missing people or anyone doubled up, please let me know asap.

Subthreads:

Team 13 (nm) by DH Skies with Gary Harper, Teo Flores, Felipe De Matteo, Allegra Brockert, Connor Priory

Team 12 (nm) by DH Skies

Team 11 (nm) by DH Skies with Winston Pierce, Topaz Brockert

Team 10 (nm) by DH Skies

Team 9 (nm) by DH Skies

Team 8 (nm) by DH Skies with Tatiana Vorontsova, Ness

Team 7 (nm) by DH Skies with Hilda Hexenmeister, Jessica Hayles

Team 6 (nm) by DH Skies with Heinrich Hexenmeister, Dorian

Team 5 (nm) by DH Skies with Parker Fitzgerald, Kir McLeod, Nathaniel Mordue

Team 4 (nm) by DH Skies with Anya Delachene , Lyssa Fitzgerald

Team 3 (nm) by DH Skies with Ellie Alperton, Jasmine Delachene

Team 2 (nm) by DH Skies with Peyton O'Malley

0 DH Skies Team 2 (nm) 26 DH Skies 0 5

DH Skies

July 20, 2019 7:31 AM

Team 1 (nm) by DH Skies

0 DH Skies Team 1 (nm) 26 DH Skies 0 5

Ellie Alperton

July 21, 2019 2:30 AM

Hovering with intent by Ellie Alperton

It had been a long day. It was feeling slightly like every day might be a long day. Ellie was anxious that now that the initial excitement had worn off, this whole thing was just going to feel constantly exhausting. She loved both the fact that she was a witch and that she was Ellie, and she was getting to be both of those all of the time but that was all still so new. It was really mixed up and contradictory because even though she knew Ellie was who she was, really and truly, it still felt like something to consciously put on at times. Having never had the freedom to be Ellie, she still felt like she was having to learn how to do it right, and had to live with the fear that she would get it wrong. She didn’t want to go back - already that short haired person who everyone had called by a different name felt like a place so alien and unreachable that she couldn’t imagine ever having to endure it again. She couldn’t imagine giving up her lovely hair, or her lovely clothes, or her lovely name. But sometimes, they felt like things she was supposed to earn, and she wasn’t sure she’d managed it yet. Wasn’t sure she’d got it right enough or done it well enough.

Today was really feeling like one of those days. She thought that it was probably the announcement at breakfast about the challenge teams that had done it. She had settled into her class routine and her room (for a given value of ‘settled’ where both still made her anxious) but this evening, she would have to meet a whole group of totally new people all over again, and it would include students way older than her and - it just felt like a lot. She was often kind of done with people by the end of a day of classes.

She had put on her Confidence Clothes and tried to believe in herself. It was outside of class, so she could wear whatever she wanted and, even if she was tired at the end of the day, it was still a wonderful moment where she went and opened up her closet and there were only Ellie clothes in there (at home, she had kept her Ellie clothes separate, so admittedly she had been able to open up cupboards and see the same thing, but at home she had known that one drawer along, the Other Clothes were there) and she could put on whatever she liked and wasn’t going to feel like she needed to change back if anyone unexpected came along. For the team meeting, she had chosen to wear a pink t-shirt with rhinestones declaring her to be a ‘Princess’ and outlining a tiara. This was paired with purple leggings and a short flared skirt which was a similar pink to her t-shirt with little lipsticks and kisses picked out in white. They hadn’t been designed as a set, but she thought they went well together. A princess was always perfectly presented, after all. She had brushed her hair - a ritual that was both necessary (because she was still a bit slow at it, and so giving it a good long and proper detangling after class made up for any knots she’d missed in the morning and gave her additional practise) and calming to her, and then had adorned it simply with sparkling barrettes. She gave herself a firm nod in the mirror, one that said ‘You are Ellie’ and made her way down to the hall.

She was glad she hadn’t worked her hair into a proper style, because she realised as she got to the hall, that her fingers were already busily twirling little strands of it, and she couldn’t pinpoint the precise moment in which they had even started doing that.

She found her name quite quickly, seeing as she was in team three. She did not know who any of those people were. A couple of the surnames were familiar. There were Brockerts in her class. She thought Christabel might be a second year, actually, so they did have classes together, but she didn’t know her. There was also a Delachene in her class. It was the girl who seemed to bounce and get in trouble a lot. Ellie didn’t think that there was anything bad about that particular girl, per se, but she was definitely a Tigger, and Ellie was much more of a Piglet, and even if the Tigger girl didn’t mean to bounce her, the end result would still be being bounced if she got too close, and it was not necessarily a desirable one, and it was hard to be brave when you were such a small animal and all that. She suspected that Anastasia didn’t appreciate princesses much, even if she shared the name of one, as did her sister.

Ellie made her way towards table three, but with very small, slow footsteps. She wasn’t sure what to do if she got there first. Was it presumptuous to just take a seat before the big kids? She was also not sure what to do if she got there and they were there first. She was just generally unsure what to do with any variation of the situation that the universe had decided to throw at her, because pretty much the only way she thought she could have just sat down was if it had been with Freddie, which of course it wasn’t.

She slowed, hovering with clear intent, in the vicinity of table three. It was unmistakable that she must be on her way there, but also that she wasn’t really sure what to do with herself or how to make the final steps over there.

13 Ellie Alperton Hovering with intent 1456 Ellie Alperton 0 5

Winston Pierce

July 21, 2019 9:01 AM

Leading Team 11 by Winston Pierce

The first thing Winston worried about when he found out about the challenges was his teammates. He supposed working with a halfblood or a muggleborn would fall into the same 'it can't be avoided so it's acceptable as long as you don't actually like them' category that playing Quidditch was in, but he'd still rather not have to. The other problem with teammates was the sixth and fifth years who might want to usurp his authority like his own cousin Thaddeus had done during his challenges.

So it was with some trepidation that he sat through a whole day of waiting to see the team assignments and then approached one of the sheets.

Right off the bat, with team one, he was glad for Emerald but sad for himself that Caitlin would not be able to be his second in command. He trusted his sister, both in terms of skills and abilities, and that she wouldn't turn on him, so he would have very much have liked to had her on his team. Fortunately, though, she was at least with Emerald, which he thought would be good for both of them.

Team Five made him frown, mostly just by the name leading the list, and he immediately set a goal that team five was the one to beat. Even if his team didn't win the whole set of challenges, as long as they bested team five, he'd have accomplished something. He felt really bad for Simon's little cousin, though.

Team Eight just gave him a huge relief, knowing that That Aladren was not on his own team. By team Ten, he was getting annoyed that he hadn't found his own name yet and was starting to worry that it either wasn't on there at all, or he'd missed it somehow.

The next though, though, relieved that fear. There he was, first name in the list for Team Eleven. As he pursued the four names following it, decided it could have been worse. Loren Aalto the sixth year was the next oldest, but he thought she was unlikely to try to mutiny and take lead. Admittedly, he didn't know her all that well, and she was a Pecari, and not of high society, so that wasn't ideal, but she hadn't caused much trouble over the past five years that he'd noticed, so she was . . . acceptable.

His next oldest two were both only a third years, which meant he had a pretty young team. Again not ideal, but it did mean he shouldn't have too much trouble asserting authority. Topaz was the sister Emerald seemed to like the least, but she was still Emerald's sister, and an Aladren, so she couldn't be all bad. Malikhi, he didn't know much about, but he was a Pecari, like Loren, and also of no particular family of note.

His youngest was Simon's youngest cousin, Jeremy, who was a second year, which meant that despite having only two students older than third, his team at least wasn't cursed with a first year who barely knew anything yet. Jeremy was of good family and while he had challenged Winston for Seeker of the school Quidditch team last year, Winston had come out victorious from that so he held no ill will toward the twelve year old for it.

So, for a random selection of students, he could have done much worse, he decided. He headed over to Table Eleven to meet them all, those ones he didn't know already.

He sat down at what he deemed could arguably be called the head of the table (at least, it was the spot closes to the staff table) and awaited his followers - er, his teammates.

"Hello," he greeted the group once all four of the others had sat down. "I am Winston Pierce. Good to meet you all, and we're going to win this. Let's go around and say something about our strengths. I'm a seventh year, so I've got a good amount of practice and experience in doing magic. My best subject is potions, but I also continued Charms, Transfiguration, and Care of Magical Creatures into RATS level classes. I'm the seeker on the school Quidditch team, so I'm also good at flying."

1 Winston Pierce Leading Team 11 370 Winston Pierce 0 5

Jasmine Delachene

July 21, 2019 10:25 AM

Come, sit! Be fabulous! by Jasmine Delachene

It did not take Jasmine very long to find all the names she was interested in finding. Peyton's was in Team Two, hers was in team Three, and Anya and Cleo were together in Team Four. She was mildly disappointed but not too surprised that she wasn't put with Peyton. They were both sixth years and the oldest students needed to be spread out among all thirteen teams. She found herself feeling mostly relief that Anya wasn't on her own team, so much so that Jasmine felt compelled to find Cleo and offer condolences (well, actually, she wished her luck, but it was the same sentiment) before she headed over to Table Three.

Her team sounded like all girls (assuming 'Cristabel' was a girl's name and not some weird form of 'Christopher'), which Jasmine hoped was going to be a good thing. However, Ruby was the only one she knew even remotely, though even her yearmate wasn't a close friend. They hadn't ever had anything against each other though, just not much reason to spend time together, so Jasmine hoped this would be a chance to make a new friend.

She knew who Florence was, from their one year of overlapping Intermediate years, but she'd have even less interaction with the seventh year than she had with Ruby. Still, she didn't think they'd hate working together.

She didn't quite get all the way to the assigned table before encountering a girl with a Princess t-shirt hovering in the near vicinity. "Team Three?" she guessed, "Come, sit. I'm Jasmine." They were a matched pair, which boded well, she thought. Jasmine was also wearing an equally pink sundress with equally shiny rhinestones that spelled out 'Princess' in a very similar font. A darker pink pair of leggings covered her legs, shimmery and glittery. Unlike the first year's shirt, though, Jasmine's dress did not have a tiara on it; instead she wore one of those on her head, and the dress sported a fairy castle outline behind the word.

At fifteen, Jasmine was just starting to develop a bust so the straps of a training bra peeked out from beneath her dress's spaghetti straps. She was secretly kind of pleased about that. While it did not look entirely beautiful, having two sets of straps crossing her shoulders, it did prove she was no longer a child, which she felt had been an overly long time in coming.

As she sat down at table three, she smiled at the younger girl. "Enjoying Sonora so far?"

1 Jasmine Delachene Come, sit! Be fabulous! 1397 Jasmine Delachene 0 5

Gary Harper

July 21, 2019 8:21 PM

First one here? by Gary Harper

Gary was fairly early, as usual. He was curious as to the whole challenge concept thing that was going on. What were they going to be? How were they going to work? Was he going to be an asset or a liability? So many questions.

Once in the hall he saw the papers and found his name, nearly at the bottom, in group thirteen. Good thing he wasn't overly superstitious. The names in his group made him a little nervous, he wasn't the most social person in the school, and he only knew one person on his team. At least he had that though, Conner would be there. A wash of disappointment rolled over him as he spotted Jasmine's name in team three. This would have been a fantastic opportunity to spend some more time with her. Oh well, he still didn't know what to do on that front anyway.

He sat down at the semi-ominous sounding table thirteen and looked about at the other students milling about, finding their tables. He hadn't spotted Conner yet, and was really hoping that his sole known contact would arrive before the others. Hopefully that would help smooth out any awkward conversational bits that would inevitably crop up.

2 Gary Harper First one here? 1404 Gary Harper 0 5

Heinrich Hexenmeister

July 21, 2019 10:07 PM

I'm not as isolated as I thought I was by Heinrich Hexenmeister

Heinrich, for all that he was an isolated German-speaking immigrant who hadn't really talked to anybody in the school socially until last year, knew more names on his team than he was expecting to know. Dorian was also an international student (in as much as Heinrich was not actually international given that he did have a permanent address in Utah) and they therefore knew each other through the banner making for the Concert last year, and he occasionally showed up for the supplementary academic help program for non-native English speakers though he didn't really need to. He was also only one year older than Heinrich, so they'd had classes together three of Heinrich's four years so far.

Isaac Song was on the Quidditch team with him. Or he had been last year. Sign-ups for that hadn't gone up yet, and Heinrich was still undecided if he would return. Probably at least one more year, until Hilda was at least a little better with her English.

Julius was the guy who ran the newspaper. Heinrich had no personal knowledge of him beyond that, but running a newspaper was a pretty clear indicator that he was a motivated and responsible sort of person. He was also in Evelyn's year, which meant this was now the second year they were sharing a class. But Heinrich was really very terrible at getting to know people in class. His limited English early on meant working alone was just plain easier, and even now that he was getting more fluent, he still mostly preferred to focus on the assignment rather than his neighbors and chose to work alone whenever given the option.

Beatriz was Hilda's roommate. And she'd been on the Quidditch team, one of two who played in matches when he didn't, so he sort of knew her from that. But it was a tenuous connection at best.

Still, that was everyone on the team, and every name had at least one fact attached to it. None of them were complete strangers (even if he was pretty sure he'd never exchanged so much as a word with either Julius or Isaac). He couldn't help but wonder if that went both ways, if they knew he was The German Guy (which could also be Freddie now, but Heinrich had been The German Guy a lot longer) or The Fourth Year Aladren or That Quidditch Chaser Who Only Plays to Translate for His Sister or if he had some other claim to fame he was unaware of. He hoped it wasn't That Weird Antisocial Dude Who Does Too Well in DADA. He didn't want to be that guy. Even though he kind of was that guy.

Or was he a complete stranger to them? He actually kind of hoped he was a complete stranger. There was less baggage in that. He probably wasn't that lucky.

After identifying his own team, Heinrich found his sister's name and felt a stab of worry for her. There wasn't even a partial German speaker like Evelyn or Katerina on that team to help her along. He almost started heading for Table Seven, to serve as her translator, before he realized that wouldn't work. He was on Team Six. He had to meet the people from Team Six tonight. And once the challenges started, he couldn't translate for her then either. Hilda was just going to have to figure out how to communicate on her own.

He still felt more than a little bit guilty heading over to Table Six instead. Seven followed Six numerically. The tables would probably be close enough that she'd be close enough to ask for help if she needed it. He consoled his guilt with that logic and sat down at his own table.

"Hello," he said to the next person to arrive, careful to get the right vowel sound in that word to make it an English word instead of a German one. "I am Heinrich," he added, in case that wasn't already known.

1 Heinrich Hexenmeister I'm not as isolated as I thought I was 1414 Heinrich Hexenmeister 0 5

Ellie

July 21, 2019 11:30 PM

I'll do my best by Ellie

Jasmine was perfect, and was simply everything a girl called Jasmine ought to be. Ellie looked at her with wide-eyed admiration but also felt immeasurably comforted by her appearance. Already, some of the girls back home had been saying that princesses were for babies, and had wanted to be into fashion instead. Ellie had been worried that she had missed out on getting to do the princess phase anywhere beyond the closed doors of her own home. Clearly, that was not true, because here was Jasmine, who was old enough to have a figure and wear a bra, and she was still declaring herself to be a princess.

"Yeah," she answered, when Jasmine asked if she was on team three, relieved at being swept up by someone who was so obviously nice, "I'm Ellie."

She followed Jasmine over to the table, settling into the seat beside her, and evaluating how to answer her question.

"I like it," she answered, with a small smile, "It's so fun to do magic, and-" she had almost said 'be Ellie' or 'be myself' because those two ideas were so firmly twined together in her head, but she was aware that was a remark that couldn't pass by without some explaining. She supposed being who you were meant to be and feeling like you had found yourself were things that other people felt too, but she felt like that was going a bit deep with someone she had just met, "people are nice," she finished instead. "There's just a lot to get used to," she added, aware that for all she was saying the right things, she wasn't exactly overflowing with enthusiasm. She had stopped playing with her hair briefly, although as she had wondered how to finish her first sentence, her fingers had twisted the little friendship band of flowers in white and pastel blue and pink that she always wore. Still, she felt much more settled than when she had come into the hall, even if this manifested itself more as an absence of anxious behaviour than an abundance of positive ones, though she kept shooting Jasmine hesitant little smiles.

"I like your outfit," she added, seeing as she couldn't return the question that had been asked of her, "Are you and your sister named after the princesses?" she asked, hovering somewhere between assuming that it was too good to be a coincidence and forgetting that some people wouldn't automatically know what she meant by that.

13 Ellie I'll do my best 1456 Ellie 0 5

Hilda Hexenmeister

July 24, 2019 12:43 PM

Das ist definitiv eine Herausforderung by Hilda Hexenmeister

Hilda was hesitantly optimistic about the challenges. The idea of them, as Heinrich explained what little he knew, sounded interesting. If she could know Heinrich would be on her team, she’d be really excited. The problem was that there was no guarantee Heinrich would be on her team. There was, in fact, a better chance he wouldn’t be, and that made her nervous. She’d had basically no idea what was going on in the concert last year but had somehow blundered through it anyway, but she wasn’t sure activities actively meant to be challenging would be so forgiving.

There were, at least, other German speakers in the school. Johana Leonie or her brother would be good team mates, but they were a bit more like the very near sighted leaded the blind. And Katerina knew enough that she could probably help, and Evelyn was at least trying to learn German, so she might be a comfort if not any better at German than Hilda was at English.

But when the team lists came out, Hilda was alone. She stared at team seven’s roster in dismay. None of other names were on her short list of people she could communicate with.

This was going to go so badly. She wasn’t going to understand anything. So much for a fun year.

She made her way over to Table Seven as though walking to the gallows. She was a beginner and barely spoke English. She was going to be the weight the rest of her team had to carry.

And Hilda was quite large for her age.

She hated being a burden, but she didn’t know how to fix it, short of becoming fluent in English and she been trying to do that. English just happened to be her nemesis and was proving very difficult to overcome.

She sat down at the table. Last year, she would have just accepted defeat and held up her flashcard that said ‘I don’t speak English,’ but she’d already decided to try harder this year. Yes, not having any kind of net was going to make the challenges nigh on near impossible for her, but they were supposed to be challenging, right? She was just playing in a higher league than she was ready for. But that just meant she’d need to double her efforts and not give in to hopelessness. There was always a chance she might surprise herself and everyone else.

At minimum, she could try to at least do her best to at least try to assist the others rather than giving up and guaranteeing she’d be nothing more than deadweight for them to drag around.

So by the time the next person arrived, she had pep talked herself back into something like grim determination, which was a much better frame of mind than her earlier bout of fatalism, but was still a pretty far cry from the eager excitement she’d wanted to have as a part of Heinrich’s team.

But Heinrich wasn’t here. Heinrich was one table over meeting his own teammates, which was what she had to do too. Here goes. “Hallo, I am Hilda,” she stated in very heavily accented English that obviously came out only with great difficulty. “Mine Englisch ist not goot. Spreak slow?” She was concentrating too hard on her words to remember to smile.

1 Hilda Hexenmeister Das ist definitiv eine Herausforderung 1433 Hilda Hexenmeister 0 5

Anya Delachene

July 24, 2019 1:27 PM

Team Four for the win! by Anya Delachene

Anya was super duper stoked to be doing Team Challenges this year. They sounded really exciting. Competing against the whole school. Teamwork. Unknown adversaries and/or problems to overcome. It was great.

She was excited to find out who was going to be on her team, but she was still only a first year, so she hadn’t met enough people to have preferences on who they should be. Probably not Jasmine though. Anya knew her sister had a lot of good qualities, but she didn’t think problem solving, determination in the face of daunting odds, and the drive to push the limits to reach victory were among them.

Anya intended to win. Jasmine would just slow her down.

“Whoo!” she cheered at the team list when she spotted her sister’s name and her own was not grouped with it. Unfortunately, her enthusiasm was quickly replaced by angry offense by the names listed in the next team down. Anastasia? They had her down as Anastasia?

Hadn’t she corrected enough teachers by now during role call that they ought to know by now that her name was Anya?

In a grumpy huff, she flounced herself over to Table Four and into one of the seats there. “I am Anya,” she told the other student already sitting there with forceful emphasis. “Not Anastasia.”

She grabbed the team roster available at the table and went for a writing utensil she realized belatedly that she wasn’t carrying because it was dinner time and her backpack was hanging off her bedpost. She grimaced. With a bit more curtesy and less aggression than before, she turned back to the other student and asked, “Do you have a quill so I can fix this?”

1 Anya Delachene Team Four for the win! 1453 Anya Delachene 0 5

Dorian

July 27, 2019 2:24 AM

Weird feeling, isn't it? by Dorian

Dorian sort of wished the fact that the challenge teams would be up that evening had not been announced at breakfast. He had had general background anxiety about the whole thing since it had been announced at the opening feast but it had been easy enough to put it from his mind what with catching up with friends and prefect duties and all the usual start of term business.

Today though, it had been much harder to put it from his mind, resulting in some rather overdone charms and culminating in his shrinking solution almost bubbling over. The seventh years were leading teams. What if he got Simon? What if Tatya got Simon, and he wasn't there to defend her? What if he got Victor? He had just about got over the mental block that told him all big brothers were like Matthieu, and he could have something that passed for a normal conversation... if not directly with Victor then at least at a dinner table where Victor was also present. However, it was a big step up from there to working together on a team. To trying to prove his worth and be useful without seeming cocky or arrogant. To not making a complete idiot of himself or ending up utterly humiliated if any of the challenges was even vaguely athletic.

His stomach was twisting in knots by the time he could go check the team lists. Isaac Song. He was on Isaac Song's team. He breathed a sigh of relief. He knew basically nothing about Isaac, but he wasn't any of the three people that Dorian hadn't wanted to end up with (Winston having been mentally lumped in with the other two boys in his house as, even if Dorian had no specific and personal reason to be afraid of him, they were all Of A Type - a type that he was well aware he was supposed to aspire to be, and he knew it spoke volumes about the direction his life was headed that he couldn't stand the thought of being around them. Not that this was a new revelation, but it was a solid reminder...). Out of the remaining seventh years, Dorian had not had any particular feelings about them. He thought he generally got on better with Aladrens, Teppenpaws and girls, and the fact that Luke and Isaac were both Pecaris, boys and Quidditch players did not make them his natural companions. Still, he got on surprisingly well with Parker and, back home, Jean-Loup, and had slowly inched to the conclusion that not all sports players were violent sociopaths who were going to beat him over the head with whatever he was reading just for having the nerve to prefer reading. Just the one he had the misfortune to be related to, and the type that said brother hung around with.

Isaac also had the advantage that the chances of him turning out to be racist or xenophobic seemed pretty low. Dorian wasn't sure exactly what his background was, and he hadn't shown up to the banner painting party, suggesting that he either didn't really speak any other languages or did but thought that Dorian and his cutesy banner were lame. However, seeing as he and Dorian made up the entire 1.5 strong Asian contigent in the school, it was hard to imagine Isaac hating him just for being foreign or multiracial. It was possible, he was quite sure Matthieu could manage the leaps of cognitive dissonance required, but it was less likely. This was a positive not just for him but for other members of the team too, seeing as both Heinrich and Beatriz were on it.

He took a few moments to find his friends' names. He suspected he would be cheering on team eight. That was nice for Tatya and Jehan. To be together. Really nice. He and Jehan were best friends, but he was aware he was also Tatya's closest friend, and then it also felt like she and Jehan didn't spend that much time together independently of him, so this would be a chance for them to bond. He just hoped they didn't end up liking each other more than they each liked him. That was a silly thought though, and jealousy was not becoming, so he wasn't going to think it. He was happy for them, and was relieved to find that none of them seemed to have been dealt an awful hand. Not that working with Victor would probably have been a problem for any of the rest of them, and working with Simon might have been fine for Jehan, Vlad or Ruby unless they were tainted by association. They all had nice, middle of the road captains though. And Tatya and Jehan had each other. And, as noted, he would be happy if they got closer. Just - was he a terrible person for thinking this? Probably, but he found he couldn't stop adding it every time he thought about how nice this was for them - not closer than they were to him. The only thing to worry about was that Johana Leonie was on Simon's team. He didn't want to scare her but he thought he might make sure that she knew to come to him if anything bothered her... Besides that, there wasn't anything too much to worry about. The Tatya and Jehan thing wasn't a worry. He just wanted them to still like him better, and- what if this brought them close enough that they fell for each other and started dating? Or fell out completely? He suddenly wasn't so sure it was great for them to be on the same team. Except it was, it was fine,.and he was just being silly...

He made his way over to table six, giving a little wave to seven and eight as he sat down. He was slightly surprised at Heinrich's introduction, seeing as they had worked together on the banner last year. However, he didn't let it show on his face. He could understand wanting to stick to familiar rituals both when fumbling in one's less confident language(s) and when dealing with an unfamiliar situation.

"Hi. I'm Dorian," he reminded the other boy, though he doubted he had forgotten. "It will be nice to work together," he ventured with a smile. A few years ago, he would never have dared presume someone would be enthused about the possibility of working with him, and he wouldn't have risked this statement on any of his other teammates, whom he really didn't know, but the times he had been exposed to Heinrich's company last year had been fun and he wasn't sorry to be getting a chance to know him better. "Your sister is together with my roommate," he observed, glancing at the next table. "This is good. Vlad is very nice," he added. He hadn't particularly observed any anxiety over this on Heinrich's part but he was on the hunt for common ground, and he also knew that he would have wanted to hear this sort of thing had his own sister been here.

13 Dorian Weird feeling, isn't it? 1401 Dorian 0 5

Teo Flores

July 27, 2019 8:55 AM

That means we're first to the food, amigo mío by Teo Flores

Teo ambled into dinner, feeling quite hungry. This wasn’t unusual. In his defence, he was a growing boy, and he also just been having a kick-about in the MARS room with a football. It had been good to work off some of the extra energy he always had, especially as he wasn’t doing much dancing. Not that he liked to think too much about dancing; he missed his dance classes from home, and it was just depressing to think about something like that when he didn’t have it here. His dance classes didn’t exist here, and that was that. It was far better not to dwell on it, and just put some music on and have a little boogie when he really felt the urge. Life was wasted if you spent time being sad about things you didn’t have.

What he did have, however, was a bit of a surprise waiting for him at dinner. Sure, he’d heard the Deputy Headmistress’s announcement at breakfast, but he hadn’t expected the seating arrangement to be turned on its head. This didn’t bother him, so long as there was still food at his new table. Which was, as it happened, table number 13. But Teo was a fairly happy-go-lucky type, and couldn’t be bothered with his mother’s superstitions. He mentally apologised to her for not crossing himself to ward off the bad luck, and took a seat at his hopefully-not-unlucky table, next to the one member of his team who was already there.

“Hola,” he greeted Gary. reaching for some food already, and trying to work out if he should know the other boy. Given the probable age difference, he guessed not.

“I’m Teo,” he offered, still trying to place his new teammate. “What year are you in?”

9 Teo Flores That means we're first to the food, amigo mío 1441 Teo Flores 0 5

Cleo

July 27, 2019 12:55 PM

Or the.. just... whatevering by Cleo

If the universe hated her (and it seemed to), she would be the sixth year picked at random to lead a team. They had said it was out of a hat. Technically, that could still be true if they had drawn her name, decided that was a terrible idea, put it back and drawn someone else’s. Cleo hoped they had that much sense. She had done nothing except stay out of the way with the concert, and she wouldn’t have been good at anything else. She was an avoider, not a leader.

She found her name, giving a silent cheer when it was second on a team list. No matter that she’d never spoken to Gwen and knew nothing about her - everything that was about to happen to them was her problem, and not Cleo’s. Thank goodness. Judging by the way Jasmine came up and wished her luck in dealing with her sister, there was some degree to which problems were likely. Beyond Gwen, who would own said problems, and Anastasia, who was said problem, there was another first year, and Lyssa, the latter of whom was a good person to find herself on a team with.

She made her way over to her allotted table, where she was shortly joined by someone very small and very angry. Anastasia. Or, apparently, Anya. She wondered whether she had a tendency to be angry all the time and whether this was why her sister had warned Cleo about her.

“Sure,” she nodded, when the other girl asked for a quill. Cleo rarely did her homework in her own common room, finding the space oppressive in atmosphere, and so had her bag with her even though it was now dinner time, so that she could complete her homework without having to detour back there. Perhaps in the prefect lounge, where she could cosy up with Isaac for a study date... She passed the writing implement over. “I’m Cleo,” she added quietly.

13 Cleo Or the.. just... whatevering 389 Cleo 0 5

Jessica Hayles

July 30, 2019 1:21 PM

...Uh-huh! Totally. by Jessica Hayles

There was something surreal about finding her name on an assignment list, going to join a project group, and then realizing that yes, she was still at Sonora. It wasn't, however, quite as surreal as sitting down with a project group and struggling to suppress the urge to pick up the enamel locket dangling near her stomach to check the watch concealed inside it, impatient to be gone.

Group projects were not her favorite thing. They were difficult and involved letting other people put their fingers in the pie and possibly messing up her grades or standing in the class. They were, however, important. A CEO had to delegate; a CEO had to work with others constantly. Therefore, group projects were important training for her future, and therefore, she had always been expected to throw herself headlong into them, throwing everything she had at them, working twice as hard and twice as long and twice as enthusiastically as everyone else.

Now, though...what was the point? This couldn't go on her resume. It couldn't even, with so many older students in the way, do much for her as a training scenario. Therefore, it was just a waste of time and every moment was a moment she could have spent doing something actually useful. Therefore, she fiddled with her watch chain, then reached up to touch the Art Nouveau ivy pendant closer to her neck which she had gotten for her birthday from her grandparents, then fiddled with her watch chain again, struggling not to look as impatient as she felt.

It became easier to smile, mostly by reflex, when another girl started to introduce herself, her words far more accented than any of Jessica's. Jessica's accent was a regional one. Hilda's was that of a non-native speaker.

"I'll do my best," she promised, enunciating carefully, upon the group being asked to speak slowly. Their Northern associates said that she and Daddy already spoke very slowly, but she wasn't sure that they meant the same thing Hilda did. "I'm Jessica," she added, smiling, the perfect warm, personable Southern lady. "It's great to be working with you all."

16 Jessica Hayles ...Uh-huh! Totally. 1442 Jessica Hayles 0 5

Tatiana Vorontsova

July 30, 2019 1:50 PM

Let's get this party started! by Tatiana Vorontsova

Tatiana was enthusiastic about the team challenges. Challenge was a good word, so long as she didn't have to try to spell it. In a challenge, it didn't matter that her spoken English had never caught up to her written, or that her written English was still riddled with spelling and punctuation errors, or that some people thought she was stupid because of this. In a challenge, she would come into her own, getting her friends moving, and then they would win everything, and impress everyone, and then kick Simon Mordue in his stupid face!

There was only one problem: nobody seemed to have told the teachers about this.

Tatiana stared at confusion at the list, as if staring would make the list change to be what it should have been. There was 'Tatiana Vorontsova'. There was 'Jehan Callahan.' Where were the others, though? Where were Dorya and Vladya? Jasmine would be good, too, but the essential bits were absent, and this was not good.

No matter how she glared at the paper, though, the words did not change. Pancakes! This would have been a good year to have the magic sickness, but no. Instead, she was in control of herself and not much else. Making a face, she went to the table eight and sat down, gold bracelets clinking on her wrists.

As the room grew noisier and people sorted themselves out, though, it was hard not to get a bit caught up in the atmosphere, and soon enough she was waving over someone else whose name she had recognized from the list, bracelets jingling merrily this time as she moved her arm more enthusiastically. "Ait? Taim ait?" she said, half-rising from her chair to use her meager height to her advantage. "Hallo! Zdravuiste! That is Russia-hello. Privet!" she said as people joined the table, not thinking twice about playing the part of greeter. "I Tatiana am. Hello!"

OOC: 'Pancake!' (blin!) is apparently used as a comparatively mild exclamation in Russian, hence Tatiana using that to express her thought - left it untranslated in narrative since all her thoughts are 'supposed' to be in Russian.

16 Tatiana Vorontsova Let's get this party started! 1396 Tatiana Vorontsova 0 5

Felipe De Matteo

July 30, 2019 5:31 PM

This already looks muy divertido. by Felipe De Matteo

Felipe made his way to his newly assigned group just a short distance behind another boy. This, of course, was terribly frustrating as it meant that he had to either awkwardly linger a short ways behind him so as not to interrupt, or to just go ahead and interrupt.

He wasn't sure exactly what was going on but challenges were up his alley and he was eager for anything to break up the monotony of not being good enough, trying to be good enough, being at least better than his peers, and still not being good enough. He was also still trying to be a nicer person and it just wasn't working out as well as he had hoped.

Zara and Jessica were both on different teams from him which was bittersweet. On one hand, he could focus on the task at hand this way. On the other, everything sucked this way.

He really should encourage them to meet sometime.

"Saludos," Felipe said, adding his own greeting to the established Spanish. He felt a little bad that he hadn't realized there were other Spanish speakers at Sonora, but he didn't exactly make a point of speaking Spanish at school anyway, and he had a perfect American English accent, so he shouldn't have been surprised.

"Sorry to interrupt introductions," he said, giving voice to his rudeness in order to apologise for it. "I'm Felipe. Second year. Pleasure to be working with you both."

22 Felipe De Matteo This already looks muy divertido. 1434 Felipe De Matteo 0 5

Ness

July 31, 2019 10:03 AM

You've certainly got the gold diamond rings for that by Ness

Ness was not sure what to make of the ‘challenges.’ There were already ‘challenges’ every day in school. There was the academic challenge of stepping up to intermediates, trying to get perfect homework scores, and doing every spell right. On the sporty side, there was Quidditch. Ness enjoyed participation, and chances to be good at things, but what if the new challenges weren’t something Ness was good at? Or what if they were things that Ness was excellent at but the third year got lumbered with some idiot who didn’t know how to lead a team or didn’t want to listen to younger team members? People often seemed to take that attitude and it was really crappy. Ness didn’t like failure, and particularly didn’t want to fail at the challenges due to some idiot who wouldn’t listen.

As dinner time rolled around, the lists went up, and Ness hurried along them. Luke. Luke was… a person. A Quidditch player, which meant Ness had some vague familiarity, but a Quidditch player who had only joined last year, and whose leadership potential had never really been part of the equation. Jehan Callahan, fellow Aladren. Probably not an idiot. Mikey, who was kind of sporty and possibly an idiot but one that hadn’t seemed to mind Ness telling him what to do, so was probably fine. The main issue was the Bejewelled One. Ness had noticed her. You couldn’t fail to notice her. Ness suspected that was sort of the point. The only reason Ness was hesitant to liken Tatiana to some kind of strange creature in a zoo was that she was foreign, and therefore Ness wasn’t sure if that would be racism - and Ness strove very hard to avoid isms of all varieties. Ness was pretty sure that it wasn’t, if it was said about something that wasn’t part of Tatiana’s foreignness, but you could never be too careful. And maybe wearing a pirate’s booty of jewellery every day was like… inherently Russian or something. Still, within the privacy of Ness’ own head, it was downright weird. Wasn’t it heavy? Or uncomfortable? Didn’t putting it all on and taking it all off cut into time that could be used for sleeping or reading? What was it for? Were boys meant to like her more because of it, or was everyone supposed to just know she was rich? That was the part that made Ness the most annoyed. There were so many more things in the world that needed money throwing at them than shiny rocks. Shiny rocks that weren’t even really that special except that everyone had decided they were. It was such a herd mentality thing to find valuable. It was so Pureblood.

Ness got that that, in itself, was not a reason to dislike someone. People couldn’t help being born Pureblood the exact same way that people couldn’t help being born gay. The trouble was Purebloods refusing to see that second point as relevant. Or to choose a point closer to home, no one could help being Muggleborn. Any Purebloods who looked down on others for factors they couldn’t change about themselves were bigots, plain and simple. And that attitude was a fair reason not to like someone. You couldn’t help being born Pureblood, but you could help your own crappy attitude towards other human beings and learn to treat people like people. Anyone who happened to be a Pureblood but who was able to do that, Ness would not have a problem with. Patience with the ones who hadn’t learnt that was Kir’s forte though, not Ness’. It wasn't their classmates' faults they had been born into mindless bigotry but if by an age between eleven and eighteen they hadn't managed to question it yet, that was solidly on them.

Nothing about Tatiana’s appearance inclined Ness towards optimism. When people pointed out that Dad and Aunt Catriona had once been ‘like that’ it was hard to imagine literally like that. They had grown up in Pureblood society, but they were clearly the odd ones out, the ones who learnt to see things differently. Aunt Catriona sometimes came across as different than other members of the family. She liked to make a bit of a fuss about things like cake forks and matching teasets that the rest of them probably wouldn’t have bothered much with. But it was sort of fun. You knew when you were sitting up to Aunt Catriona’s table for tea and it kind of felt like a game. That was how Pureblood society had always seemed to Ness - like an overly elaborate game of dress up and tea party, with the temper tantrums merely having been scaled up to match the size of the people having them. The manners of it all just seemed silly if you actually took them seriously. Tatiana had every evidence of someone who was playing that game to its fullest capacity, and Ness wondered whether the Pecari actually took herself seriously, because who would?

Ness was about to find out. The first impression beyond ‘needlessly shiny’ was ‘excitable’ which was sort of unsurprising given that Tatiana was in Pecari, but sort of surprising because wasn’t being energetic ‘unladylike’?

“Az-dravuistah to you too,” Ness nodded, trying to mimic the word and finding that it was full of sounds being smushed together that did not have any right to be touching, judging by how clumsy they felt. “Hi. I’m Ness,” the Aladren stated. At least Tatiana hadn’t felt the need to include family name and place of origin. Ness tried very hard to just look like a natural, relaxed human and not adopt a curiosity-induced head tilt or any such thing. “What’s the other word mean?”

13 Ness You've certainly got the gold diamond rings for that 1419 Ness 0 5

Topaz Brockert

August 01, 2019 8:20 AM

Following. Ugh. by Topaz Brockert

Topaz was, loathe as she was to admit it, unsure about the challenges. On the one hand, she wanted to win. Of course she wanted to win. Why would anyone want to lose? On the other, there were certain things she did not want people to think mattered to her, like if there was an athletic aspect and there had been in the past, when Owen and Angelique had done it, though both of them had taken the non-flying role so it was an option. Not that Topaz was incapable completely of doing an athletic task but it was beneath her.

Which brought up another question, was it beneath her or not to care about the Challenges? If they included anything academic in nature, it wasn't and she'd be an asset to her team. Plus, there was the fact that Topaz just couldn't let certain people beat her. Period.

She also was concerned about who would be on her team. There were certain people-mostly the same certain people that she wanted to beat-that she didn't want to be around. Plus, how could Topaz beat them if they were on the same team? Though it would really bother Allegra, Emerald or Sapphire to be on the same team as Topaz and she would certainly enjoy that. Of course, her younger sister would be a burden to any team she was on, so the Aladren especially did not want her.

Topaz entered the Cascade Hall and found her way to a team list. First, she found Emerald's name and checked the ones underneath, happy to find that her sister got one of the non-native English speakers. A language barrier was sure to make things harder for her sister. Hooray.

Anyway, first team to beat was Team One.

Team Two included Clown Lips. Topaz would like to beat them too but wasn't worried about doing so. Eden Manger would be good in athletic stuff, but other than that, the third year Pecari would be almost as big of a millstone as Sapphire. After all, she was an idiot with poor judgement. The girl had put her wand in her mouth at the Opening Feast in their first year and was friends with Snotti-Ness. Topaz wasn't sure which thing made her stupider.

Ruby was on Team Three. She had to beat Team Three.

There was nobody else of interest until she got to Team Eight where she found Snotti-Ness. That was the most important team of all to beat. Topaz would rather lose to Sapphire than the other Aladren.

Ah, there she was! Team Eleven. With Slimey ! What in Merlin's name was Professor Skies on ?

On the other hand....the enemy of thy enemy was thy friend and Slimey didn't seem to like Snotti-Ness much more than Topaz did-it would be bloody near impossible to like the other Aladren less than Topaz did- so maybe they could be allies beyond the team challenges. Though she was loathe to align herself with the other third year because he was rather a moron.

She was also with Winston Pierce, which could be fun, as he'd made her life a bit more difficult or not, given that she'd probably pay for it if she was rude to him at all. And it was such a blasted struggle to be polite! Second to the preference people had for male heirs, having to be polite to people was the worst thing about being a member of pureblood society.

Even though, Topaz had found her name, she still had two more to find. Sapphire was on Team Twelve, with Beau Tate who seemed like a lazy idiot-she had no proof of him actually being an idiot but he was a Pecari which to the third year seemed synonamous with idiot-and one of the foreigners. So language barriers for Sapphire too, yay! Topaz was not worried about beating this team at all, though of course, she had to, because if not, it would be humiliating.

There was one team left, and there was Allegra. Topaz would be sure to taunt her cousin later about being on Team Thirteen and how unlucky that was. Even though Topaz didn't really believe in things like that.

She found her table and teammates. Winston greeted them. Topaz was a little surprised he hadn't included the formal pureblood greeting, at least for the benefit of herself and Jeremy Mordue. Who already knew who Winston was. She liked his attitude about winning though. "I am Topaz Brockert." The third year stated. "I'm really good at all subjects in our curriculum both theoretical and practical." There was nothing else that she'd really bothered with.

11 Topaz Brockert Following. Ugh. 1427 Topaz Brockert 0 5

Lyssa Fitzgerald

August 01, 2019 9:49 AM

I am here for whatever this is. by Lyssa Fitzgerald

Lyssa was still not 100% sure what these competitions consisted of. She enjoyed competitions to be sure. As her Sunday school teacher had once told her, “as iron sharpens iron so man sharpens man.” It had been told to her because she was questioning his understanding of women’s roles in the church, but she’d found the phrase useful if you changed man to person or human. Still, the lack of a debate team or non sport competitions at the school had become a chaffing point for Lyssa.

She read through the list and smiled, all women. Awesome. Or at least she assumed so, she couldn’t tell with the last name. Still, she assumed the teachers would have put Cleo on a team with all women to limit effects.

Lyssa had thought about it a bit since she was a part of the gardening club and saw the way her brother looked at Cleo and realized that there was a big assumption the teachers had when it came to Cleo. Lyssa's understanding was that Cleo's power on people went to anyone interested in women, no matter their gender. Lyssa was curious what someone with a lack of testosterone would do in the situation.

As Lyssa walked up to the table, one of the first years seemed to be getting upset grabbing the name card and asking Cleo for something. Cleo being the amazingly kind person she was seemed to take it in stride and gave the first year a quill as Lyssa sat down at the table.

She let the upset first year on her own, turning to the rest of her team.

“Hi, I'm Lyssa. Any idea what these competitions mean? It’s all seemed been a bit… vague to me.”

41 Lyssa Fitzgerald I am here for whatever this is. 1421 Lyssa Fitzgerald 0 5

Jasmine

August 01, 2019 11:01 AM

I’m going to adopt you, okay? by Jasmine

“Hello, Ellie,” Jasmine said with a warm smile, after the first year introduced herself. “I’m pleased to meet you.” The etiquette of a first meeting was second nature to her but it was also completely genuine. It really was a pleasure for Jasmine. Ellie was Anya’s age, and Jasmine couldn’t help the somewhat wistful and also somewhat unkind thought that this was the sister that Mom had meant to adopt instead.

Jasmine loved her sister, she did, but she didn’t really connect with her the way even just this brief superficial meeting with Ellie did.

“It can be overwhelming,” she sympathized. “I’m glad my parents and uncle were able to tell me what to expect, and it helped that Uncle Daniel was teaching DADA when I started, too, so I had a familiar face to turn to. It must be hard without that.” Anya seemed to be adapting just fine without Daniel, but Anya was a Pecari, and she did have Jasmine. Not that Anya had passed much more than a ‘Hi, Jasmine!’ her way since she started. But Ellie was nothing like Anya. Jasmine could tell that conclusively already.

Anya never complimented her clothes. If Anya noticed them at all she just rolled her eyes and shook her head. Jasmine didn’t see how she had any room to comment when Anya’s own clothing choices were fit to made eyes wince with just a glancing blow.

“I love your shirt, too!” Jasmine enthused, which was something she couldn’t begin to imagine ever saying to Anya. “And that skirt is just adorable!” Anya did wear shirts. Sometimes even princess shirts, if they came out of the hand-me-down pile. So it was just barely within the realms of possibility that Jasmine might approve of a shirt Anya wore before it got torn and dirty, but Anya did not wear skirts. Not ever. Not since Mom stopped dressing her. And even then she was prone to taking them off. “And the purple leggings go very well with both,” Jasmine concluded.

She smiled widely and nodded in pleased approval when Ellie recognized the source of their names. She knew animated musicals, too! Jasmine really did need to adopt her now. “Yes! My mother loves the Disney princesses! And so do I! Anastasia was Dreamworks, but we love that one, too, and it almost counts. But sometimes Mom thinks she should have name my sister Ariel instead, or maybe Merida. It would fit better. My brother is named for Prince Phillip, but we’re half French, so he actually shares his name with Belle’s horse, Philippe, instead. Which is kind of cool, because we love horses, too. We own a flying horse ranch in California. Where are you from?“

1 Jasmine I’m going to adopt you, okay? 1397 Jasmine 0 5

Tatiana

August 01, 2019 2:51 PM

They help things sparkle and shine. by Tatiana

“Eh?” said Tatiana, still mildly occupied with being unsure whether she should smile or wince at the attempt to replicate the Russian word. “Oh, you say privet? This also a hello. You say…’hello!’ ‘hi!’ We say, ‘zdravstvuite’, ‘privet!’” she explained.

“You are which one?” she asked, “Nyess?” she hazarded a guess, going on size and appearance. Katya had mentioned that there was a Ness in her classes and that Katya had initially assumed this individual was a cute boy, but had become progressively less sure that Ness was a boy at all. She also had not seen this person in her common room before and was fairly certain that Michael was someone whose face she would put together with the name when he appeared in front of her, which helped narrow it down yet further.

“Your family name, that is shotlandskoye imya - eh, name of - Sholandiya.” She remembered that Scotland sounded pretty similar in English and Russian, but only after she said it in Russian, and so she left it as it was. “If I say wrong, you tell me, and I try,” she promised. “If I speak Russian, you can ask Van - eh, Jehan. I taught him some, he knows some. You are in Aladren too, yes?”

16 Tatiana They help things sparkle and shine. 1396 Tatiana 0 5

Parker Fitzgerald

August 01, 2019 3:38 PM

We seem to be stuck together by Parker Fitzgerald

Unsure of what to expect Parker walked into the Hall and looked around. It was like when they posted positions for sports teams, except he hadn’t tried out for anything. Although, maybe he had. Reading through the lists it didn’t seem like this was truly Random. It seemed to have some sort of organization or planning to it. He didn’t know what the competitions showcased but it looked like they wanted each team to have a wide variety of skills, backgrounds and ages. Thinking about what he and Kir would be able to do together, besides DnD made his mind wander to a variety of topics. None of them good.

He read through the list of names in his group and raised his eyebrows. Nathaniel Mordue .

Lys had talked about him in unflattering terms last year and his views on muggles sounded less than ideal. Parker could feel his heart beat a little faster. He didn’t want to make assumptions before he met the younger boy, but he also was upset that he was placed with someone who had upset his sister that much. Parker had been noticing that Lys was looking more and more for some sort of argument. Still, she was his sister.

Your on a team. Teammates stick together and try to grow together he thought. He looked back at the name under his. This might turn into a long year.

He took a deep breath and held it for five before putting on a smile. He approached his table he saw the list of names again and did a double take. He had to reread because he finally noticed Jake Daniels name. He’d been so busy thinking about Nathaniel that he hadn’t noticed the name that was sure to confuse any muggle born.

“Hey guys. I’m Parker. What skills we got around the table that might be of use this year?”

41 Parker Fitzgerald We seem to be stuck together 1402 Parker Fitzgerald 0 5

Anya

August 01, 2019 7:57 PM

I’m better now by Anya

Anya’s flares of temper rarely lasted long and this was no exception. She took the offered quill, scratched out ‘Anastasia’ and replaced it with ‘Anya’ and then she was calmer. She handed the quill back and smiled. “Thank you.”

Cleo, she had introduced herself, which - unless there were multiple Cleos in the school - meant she was one of Jasmine’s friends. She didn’t have an excess of pink or jewelry on her, so Anya made the conscious choice not to hold the older girl’s choice of friends against her. Jasmine was nice enough, Anya supposed, if she wasn’t in one of her moods where she was all like ‘you can’t do anything fun or wear anything comfortable today because I said so’ but Anya was pretty sure they wouldn’t like each each other if they weren’t sisters.

For that matter, with the four year age difference, they wouldn’t know each other at all if they hadn’t gotten adopted by the same parents.

But then, if the Delachenes hadn’t adopted Jasmine, Anya figured Jasmine wouldn’t be Jasmine. She’d have conformed to whatever that set of parents wanted. Anya was equally unsure that she’d still be Anya without her mom and dad, and their amazing horse ranch, but she thought she might be closer to who she was now than Jasmine would have been.

But none of that mattered because they had both gotten adopted by the Delachenes and they were sisters now and Anya still thought Jasmine would be a terrible teammate to have for a set of challenges, but hopefully her friends had a bit more gumption and determination to win that she believed her sister was capable of generating.

Or, if not, she hoped the rest of the team could make up for it. She did seem kind of quiet and passive, and not much of the go-getter type Anya had been hoping for.

Another older girl - younger than Cleo, but older than Anya and Ahria (who was also a first year she’d seen in her classes) - asked about the challenges as a whole and Anya perked up to listen to whoever had an answer. It was a solid question that seemed to indicate that girl - Lyssa - was taking the challenges seriously at least.

Anya also returned the corrected team list back to the middle of the table for easy reference.

1 Anya I’m better now 1453 Anya 0 5

Ellie

August 01, 2019 8:32 PM

At school, right? I get to keep my family too? by Ellie

Jasmine came from a family that already had magic then. Ellie had been warned that not all such people took kindly to those born into non-magical families, but so far Jasmine was being really nice. She also knew about Disney, which Ellie had been told not everyone would, so maybe she was some sort of in the middle type person.

“No one else in my family’s magical,” she confided quietly, in case that wasn’t already obvious from what she’d said, her tone and the way her large blue eyes searched Jasmine’s face making it clear that she was checking she still had approval.

“Thank you,” she beamed, straightening up a little, growing like a flower exposed to sunshine, when Jasmine complimented her outfit. She searched for something more to say, but clearly couldn’t find anything, but still, she looked very happy.

She listened carefully to all of Jasmine’s explanations about her life, which all sounded very cool and glamorous, and a little bit funny - she had to giggle just a little bit at Phillipe getting named after a horse whilst his sisters got to be princesses. But they owned horses! Flying ones! Jasmine really was like something out of a Disney movie. When she’d been told she was going to live in a castle full of witches and wizards, it had sounded cool, but it hadn’t sounded like it would have quite this much sparkle. But now she could see a lot of potential. Unicorns were real, she’d checked that, as were mermaids but they weren’t like what she thought they were (apparently), and she supposed that maybe it was really possible to turn a pumpkin into a coach if you got very good at Transfiguration…

“That sounds wonderful,” she sighed, “Do you have magic carpets too?” she asked.

“My kitten is named Ariel. She’s my favourite princess,” she said, the firm emphasis on this word suggesting that there were many other elements of Disney that had been ranked and ordered, “Do you think she and Merida are alike? Apart from being redheads,” she asked cautiously. She knew that asking suggested that she didn’t, and she was hesitant to disagree with someone so nice, but she was also curious to hear what Jasmine thought. She could always end up agreeing with her.

“I’m from California too,” she admitted, smiling at the coincidence. “Whereabouts are you and your horses?” She had never seen any. She knew that Explain-Elaine had said it was all secret and people made it so you couldn’t notice. She wondered how near though, she had grown up to flying horses. She imagined what it would have felt like, when she was younger, looking out of her window and feeling sad, and seeing a glimpse of a flying horse in the distance. Then she could have watched for them, the way other people watched for shooting stars, and known that something better was out there. That would have been nice.

13 Ellie At school, right? I get to keep my family too? 1456 Ellie 0 5

Jasmine

August 02, 2019 12:06 AM

Yes, of course! It’s a sister adoption; those are easier. by Jasmine

Jasmine nodded, not too surprised to learn Ellie was muggleborn. Few purebloods recognized Disney princesses until Jasmine educated them, so the options had been between muggleborn and halfblood. “My mom is a muggleborn, too,” she shared, keeping her voice as hushed as Ellie’s. She was pretty sure her mom had never really grasped how unusual it had been for her to be accepted amongst the purebloods, but Jasmine was perfectly well aware of the uphill battle she faced as a half-blood, even with her parents’ connections. Sylvia Mordue was proof enough of that. Thank Merlin she and Anya had been spared her on their teams.

Jasmine smiled as Ellie asked about magic carpets. “Not yet! But I intend to get one when I’m older! Maybe next year, when I’m sixteen, Mom will finally let me have one. We sing the song while we’re flying the horses - Anya takes Aladdin’s part - but it’s not the same at all as being on a carpet!”

She waggled a hand and half-grimaced at being called out on equating Ariel and Merida. “It’s more in how they disobey their parents than anything else. Anya is probably more Merida than Ariel, but Ariel does exactly what her father told her not to do and gets into all kinds of trouble for it. And she can’t stay near the ocean floor any better than Anya can stay on the ground. Then Merida and her mom are constantly fighting over incompatible world views, which is basically exactly what Anya and Mom do. So, basically, none of the three of them are remotely Crotalus.” Jasmine wasn’t currently wearing her school robes, but she still tapped where her House badge would be if she had been. She considered the other Houses briefly. “I’d peg both of them as Pecaris, too, probably. What do you think?” she asked, genuinely curious and open to dissenting opinions. “I know the Houses are still pretty new to you, so if you don’t know, you can just name what you think are their primary personality traits and strongest driving factors, and I’ll try to translate that into a House.”

“Wow! That’s neat!” she exclaimed when Ellie said she was from California, too. “We live in the desert near the Arizona border, south of Las Vegas. Not many people around there, which makes owning winged horses easier. But my grandparents all live in or near Hollywood and L.A.”

1 Jasmine Yes, of course! It’s a sister adoption; those are easier. 1397 Jasmine 0 5

Ellie

August 02, 2019 8:09 AM

Phew. Can't be too careful with fairytale contracts by Ellie

“It still sound ma- well, um, wonderful,” Ellie smiled, when Jasmine explained that, for now, she didn’t have a carpet, and had to have her sister substitute in for the role of the handsome prince. She thought it was pretty obvious that she had been going to say ‘magical’ which of course it was, because there were flying horses involved, but the trouble with using that as an adjective was that everything was magical now. She trusted Jasmine not to laugh at her though, and to maybe understand that there was another sense of magical. There was the shiny Disney sense, and the literal daily life sense. Although it was definitely cool that magic was real, so far, real magic was by turns fun, but also frustrating or slimy. She supposed some slimy things happened in Disney too. Like when King Triton got turned into a polyp. She couldn’t watch that bit. It was just so icky.

“Um…. Well, Ariel reminds me of me, and Merida doesn’t,” Ellie ventured hesitantly. Jasmine seemed genuinely interested, and it definitely seemed like a fun game to try and sort the Disney princesses. She poured herself some juice, offering it with a gesture to Jasmine too, to buy herself thinking time. “Merida argues with her parents, and she does all these impulsive things, and then she kind of learns… They were both wrong, and they meet in the middle,” she took a long sip of her juice, trying to explain how it wasn’t the same for Ariel, or why she related to her so much without saying ‘she’s a metaphor for being trans.’ However, equally, she found herself not wanting to not say that either. She’d come here to be herself, after all. She talked about things like this all the time with her friends at Group, or with her parents, and she had assumed it was because those were the places that she felt able to talk. But, speaking of Ariel being a metaphor, she didn’t want the price of being Ellie all the time to be losing her voice. Having to edit her explanations of how she felt about things, or why she liked things felt all wrong when this was supposed to be freedom. She was a bit wary of the idea of Jasmine being from California-but-not-the-city because that, in her mind, translated to where she was from, and it wasn’t exactly very open minded. But Jasmine’s family were city people, in LA which had loads of gay actors and you weren’t allowed to be rude about it and there was proper Pride, and maybe Jasmine just didn’t live there because the horses couldn’t. It didn’t mean that her parents were Republicans. “Ariel’s supposed to be a person. It’s not her fault that she got assigned mermaid at birth,” she knew that that terminology might easily sail over Jasmine’s head but it was the best way of explaining it, and she didn’t mind if Jasmine didn’t understand what she was getting at (in fact, she sort of thought she might be a little bit relieved, because she still wanted to choose her words carefully) but she did mind if she herself ended up not being honest about things. “And only King Triton changes his mind. She doesn’t have to change her mind cos she wasn’t in the wrong.”

13 Ellie Phew. Can't be too careful with fairytale contracts 1456 Ellie 0 5

Kir McLeod

August 02, 2019 9:42 AM

I'm good with that by Kir McLeod

Kir ran his eyes down the list. He was pretty pleased to be paired with Parker, his partner in tabletop adventuring. Parker was also a Quidditch player, so he was probably decently athletic too, which Kir was not. Kir was very capable at throwing himself at things that required a height advantage and coming out on top, but he was made of twiggy stick limbs - he could generally do the monkey bars just by virtue of the fact that his feet usually still reached the ground but absolutely not if he had to use real upper body strength. Then there was Nathaniel, who was related to Simon but was a Teppenpaw so hopefully not as much of a massive butthole, and some other Teppenpaws who were… also Teppenpaws. Small ones. Everyone was small relative to Kir, but these were like… really small.

He cast a curious eye over some of the other lists. Ness did not have anyone who he saw as a threat. In fact, they probably needed to be more scared of his sibling than anything else, but there was nothing that immediately struck him as a dumpster fire just waiting to happen. He also cast his eyes over the teams being led by the Gentleman’s Club. It seemed that his arch-enemy had Ness’. Well, that was a handy way of consolidating the vileness so it didn’t contaminate other people’s lives, though the two of them would probably have no problem with each other. Whilst that was sort of a shame, Kir didn’t really want Winston to have people who had a problem with him on his team, because those would most likely be Good People who didn’t deserve to be forced into his vile company. He wasn’t sure what Loren was like, but he thought she was okay (she had never referred to his family as ‘dead’ and him as non-existent, which was admittedly a low bar but that was the point they were at) and he thought Malikhi wasn’t a rich, spoiled brat in spite of Ness’ aversion to him. He mentally wished the two of them luck and went to find his own team table.

He gave the youngest two a ‘Hi, I’m Kir’ as they sat down, although he had been named in front of the whole school at the opening feast, and pointed out to both of them when they joined Teppenpaw as being one of its prefects (this having been true last year as well, when Jake joined).

“Greetings, traveller from the strange land of Pecari,” he grinned, giving the word a deliberately odd emphasis, as Parker took a seat, “How you doing?” he added in a much more friendly tone, belying the fact that Parker was actually the one he knew best here.

When they were more or less assembled, it was actually Parker who kicked it off with a discussion on skill sets. Kir didn’t mind someone else getting the ball rolling, although he sort of wanted to state that their team skills were clearly being fuzzy, or suggest that they planned their team hug as a first order of business just because he thought it was funny. Admittedly, a part of why he found it funny was imagining the look Nathaniel would give him, and he knew that passive aggression and schadenfreude were technically bad things which was why he kept his comments in his head. As far as individual skills went, he had being tall and fabulous to offer.

“I can reach high up things,” he pointed out needlessly, “I’m nice,” he added, because he actually felt that was a decently important quality in a captain, and he was very happy to set the tone of the team as a friendly one, not an overly competitive one. “And I’m old, so I therefore know stuff. Also, I can walk in heels and apply nailpolish,” he added, just because he couldn’t resist, “Sort of,” he added, for honesty’s sake. His nails were currently painted very neatly in a shade of iridescent purple which actually spoke to this either being false modesty or applying more to the heels than the nails.

“Who's next?”

13 Kir McLeod I'm good with that 366 Kir McLeod 0 5

Jasmine

August 02, 2019 10:49 AM

You are so right! by Jasmine

Jasmine smiled as Ellie almost said ‘magical’ but replaced it with ‘wonderful’ instead. “Don’t worry. I’ve had season passes to Disneyland since I could walk. I know what you meant.” The Disney version of ‘magical’ was very different from the Sonora version, and Jasmine was fluent in both uses.

She blinked a little at how Ellie explained the difference between Ariel and Merida. Anya’s problem was definitely more on the Merida scale of things, Jasmine thought, because Anya was not blameless in the fights she got in with Mom, but at the same time, there was also some of the Ariel-Triton unfairness thrown in, too. Anya just wasn’t a princess, and Mom couldn’t accept that.

Anya didn’t have to dress like a slob or constantly be defying death to prove it though. Mom was already on anxiety medication without her youngest daughter jumping off the stable room on purpose.

Something niggled, though, in the terms Ellie had used. Something that didn’t apply to Anya, but might apply to Ellie herself, since she said she identified with Ariel but not Merida.

Then her eyes widened, and she said, “Oh!” as it clicked.

Jasmine was sheltered. She knew perfectly well she was protected by magic and wealth and an overprotective helicopter mother who wanted to make her world a beautiful fairytale and usually succeeded (see previously mentioned magic and wealth as well as their isolated living arrangements in the middle of nowhere).

But as hard as Mom tried, they weren’t completely cut off from the outside world. They had satellite TV. She spent some time in the City visiting her three sets of grandparents, and the two sets of muggle ones liked to take her out and make sure she didn’t lose sight of her muggle heritage. And Uncle Daniel had been her tutor before he got hired at Sonora, and Uncle Daniel had no patience in sugar coating the world for her (much to her own dismay at the time).

So she knew what Pride was and why it was important. She knew what some of the letters meant. And while the cutesy rainbows she loved wearing on her dresses and drawing on her homework were not intended as a political statements, and most people took her to be too much of a sheltered child to read anything into them, she still thought a little bit about Uncle Daniel and his Dads when she put them on.

So she smiled at Ellie encouragingly, and then abruptly giggled as she remembered something. “Doesn’t King Triton make a rainbow with his trident at the end of the movie? That’s perfect!”

1 Jasmine You are so right! 1397 Jasmine 0 5

Nathaniel Mordue

August 02, 2019 1:53 PM

I'm reserving judgment. by Nathaniel Mordue

Nathaniel was nervous about the team challenges, and had admitted this - to Sylvia, who didn't count. Otherwise, he had confined his comments on the upcoming ordeal to telling Jeremy how important it was to get along, so they could be prefects and make the family proud, and to joking with Simon about how he would try to look appropriately sorry if he couldn't stop his team from defeating whichever one his cousin led, as it had been assumed from the start that they would mostly be apart.

He had not commented that it was probably for the best, all things considered. He and Sylvia would have worked together perfectly. He would have deferred to Sylvia, which would have probably prevented any real clashing with Simon. Jeremy....

Nathaniel didn't know what was wrong. He didn't know if it was him or his brother who had the problem, or both, or what, but clearly, there was a problem. And he didn't know how to fix it, and that terrified him. So he tried to ignore it. Jeremy behaved well enough at school, and he and Nathaniel weren't going to be driven to public conflict by these challenges. That was all.

Nevertheless, he was nervous about the challenges. Kir McLeod was, bizarrely, okay. The fellow had helped him out when he had been ill, and Nathaniel was not one to forget a kindness. Parker Fitzgerald, on the other hand...he had never had a conflict with Parker. The other Fitzgerald, however, that was another issue. Perhaps it didn't mean anything, but perhaps it did. He kept his face in a rigidly correct, blandly pleasant social smile as he joined the group.

At least Parker Fitzgerald seemed practical enough. Nathaniel's careful facade cracked for a moment into genuine amusement at Kir's list of useful - or 'useful' - traits (it took a particular kind of nerve to announce that one was a nice person unprovoked. He chose simply not to hear the comments about nails and heels. Historically, men sometimes wore those when they were normal, and Kir had had a girlfriend, which indicated he was normal enough in...that...way, so Nathaniel was prepared to dismiss them as bizarre affectations that didn't harm him), but settled back into place as the question who's next was asked.

"I'm good at Defense," said Nathaniel. He sort of wished to make some silly remark of his own, for some reason - perhaps simply to align himself with the formal leader as insurance against possible issues with others; that was the most logical explanation for the freak impulse - but he couldn't think of anything, and it would not have been proper at all. "Defense and Potions, and I'm not bad at Transfiguration. I'm not sure if this could help, but I do a lot of photography for fun," he added as an afterthought. It seemed unlikely that photography would come in handy, but one never knew.

16 Nathaniel Mordue I'm reserving judgment. 1412 Nathaniel Mordue 0 5

Ellie

August 03, 2019 12:06 AM

Or with life in general by Ellie

“We’ve been twice. Once for my birthday when I was smaller, and once this summer to celebrate,” she smiled, when Jasmine talked about Disneyland, “It really is the best place,” she beamed. “I dressed as Rapunzel the first time, and I met the real one - well, you know what I mean,” she added, not wanting Jasmine to think that she was dumb enough to think they were really real, but within that world they were, and it was so fun to think of them that way. She had still had short hair but it had been okay because ‘Tangled’ had made her feel like she could still look like a real princess in spite of it. And the real Rapunzel had hugged her for a photograph, and even though she had her enviable flowing, golden locks, she had told Ellie that she liked her hair, and Ellie had managed to stammer out thanks, and then when Rapunzel left she had cried because she was so happy. “She was super nice.”

And the she and Jasmine talked more, and then oh. And either Jasmine was having a revelation as Ellie’s utterly profound Disney theories, or Jasmine knew exactly what she was saying. And Jasmine’s reaction was oh. Ellie sort of felt like someone wouldn’t recognise what she was saying unless they understood. But there was understanding what she was saying and there was being understanding about it. And she suddenly realised how very different they were, and how badly wrong this could go. She had just enough time to tense her entire body - she sort of wanted to hug her knees to her chest but she always had the lurking paranoia that it meant people would be able to see up her skirt and she did not like that idea, so one leg curled onto the seat in front of her, and her arms wrapped around herself, one hand reaching up to play with the little key pendant that hung on a chain around her neck. And then Jasmine was smiling at her. It was a nice smile, like it had been before. And then… laughing. Ellie wasn’t sure what the laugh meant, until Jasmine added her own bit of explanation. Ellie nodded, wide eyed and mute for a second because Jasmine understood, in both senses.

She searched for something to say. She sort of wanted to check ‘You still think I’m a princess too, right?’ and she sort of wanted to hug Jasmine or burst into tears, but both were probably a bit too weird to do in the middle of the hall, and it was still sinking in that this had just actually happened. And it was unsurprising that, in that time, someone else arrived at their table.

13 Ellie Or with life in general 1456 Ellie 0 5

Allegra Brockert

August 08, 2019 1:18 PM

I think we have different ideas of what qualifies as such by Allegra Brockert

Allegra was not looking forward to the team challenges in the least. Odds were, she was not going to be with people she was comfortable with and that she was going to have to do things she wasn't comfortable with. She really hoped that she didn't have to get on a broom again, that if there was a flying event, she could take the non-flying spot.

And that she wouldn't be with people who would belittle her for it. Or blame her for it if they lost because she wasn't fast or strong or athletic in any way. She also hoped she would not be with anyone too competitive in general. Allegra did not want to deal with that pressure. She wasn't very good under pressure. It made her feel anxious and sick to her stomach.

Not to mention there was that whole "competing against Topaz" thing. No matter who Allegra's teammates were or what the actual tasks were, in that respect, she was stuck. If Topaz beat her, it was bad. If she beat Topaz it was worse. Normally she would-as in Transfig last year-want someone else to come out on top because well, that was the only safe way. However, in this situation, the teams would be publically ranked. So even if the Aladren's team didn't get first, but they ranked higher than Allegra's or vice versa, it would be horrid. Plus, she didn't think her teammates would appreciate her.....attempting to go with the lesser evil and being beaten by Topaz's team. That she didn't try to do well. Even though she knew there things she wouldn't do well no matter how hard she tried.

She realized, to her great horror, that the only way to avoid competing against her cousin-other than not participating, which wasn't an option-was to be on the same team as her . That would be the worst of all. Especially if the team also included the sort of people who would judge her for being unathletic and/or were super competitive.(Actually, Topaz was rather the latter. And while the Aladren wasn't the former-since she thought sports were for idiots-she was still better than Allegra. Not to mention smarter.)

But they wouldn't do that, right? Put her on the same team as someone she was closely related to?

The Crotalus entered the Cascade Hall and found a team list. She scanned it, feeling a fresh wave of nausea when she got to Team Seven, not because of anyone on it, but because, well, if she remembered her family tree correctly, weren't Natalie and Vlad first cousins? So they would do that!

She continued looking down the list for her name, but spotted Topaz's first. Allegra breathed a sigh of relief. They hadn't done it to her. But she still had to compete against the other third year.

Finally, Allegra came to her name on the very last team. She looked at who her teammates were, realizing with a sinking feeling that she was the only girl. Angelique had made it very clear that being the only of anything when in a group was a really bad thing. True, she had seen Connor around in Crotalus and the island during the summer and and he seemed nice, but she didn't really know him and anyway, even if the boys weren't deliberately mean to her, they still might gravitate towards each other. Allegra suddenly felt a huge surge of sympathy for her cousin Jasper.

She took a deep breath and walked over to Table Thirteen where three of the boys were already gathered. The third year sat down and introduced herself nervously. "I'm Allegra." Which they probably figured.

11 Allegra Brockert I think we have different ideas of what qualifies as such 1426 Allegra Brockert 0 5

Emerald Brockert

August 10, 2019 12:21 PM

Good luck, Winston. by Emerald Brockert

Emerald was not exactly excited about these challenges. They were something that was going to take up an awful lot of time and she had RATS and four advanced classes this year. Plus, she had prefect duties. All that along with the Challenges was going to cut into her reading time.

She found her name right away. First name on Team One. However, this did not prevent Emerald from being curious about others and after taking note of who her teammates were-it would be interesting to work with Caitlin Pierce at least-she scanned down to see where people were. Or more accurately, see what poor unfortunate souls got stuck with Topaz.

Ruby was with Flo and a bunch of other girls whom Emerald was unfamiliar with. It looked like a decent team. Or at least the seventh year hoped it was. She didn't know any of the beginner students aside from Sapphire. The only other one she'd heard about was her sister's roommate and that was just that the other first year Crotalus girl didn't like flying. Sapphire had been excited about this. Oh and some girl who did scary things in Flying Lessons.

Wait, was that Christabel? Emerald thought the girl was named something ending in bel or bella. No, wait, it couldn't have been since she would have remembered a Christabel since that was Esme's middle name.

Aside from that, it was sort of interesting that she and Flo had each others' younger siblings.

Victor had two of Allegra's friends. Emerald considered Sylvia Mordue and Katerina Vorontsov-as well as Caitlin- to be Allegra's friends and not Topaz's because the idea of Topaz having friends was out of the realm of possibility. And if the younger Aladren actually did, Emerald would hate to see the sick weirdo that Topaz found common ground with.

She came to Team Eleven. Winston's team. She really hoped her friend had good one. He hadn't gotten Head Boy so hopefully he had teammates who both competent and pleasant.

He did not. He was stuck with Topaz. Poor Winston. Poor, poor Winston. This was so not his year at all. Okay, yes, the third year was competent, but....well...not pleasant. Plus, Emerald would not put it past Topaz to try and cheat and get them disqualified.

Sapphire had fared better. Of course, it was impossible to fare worse than Winston had but she had Simon and the other Zauberhexen as well as Beau Tate, someone she had seen around but had no real impression of beyond that he was in Pecari which gave her some thoughts on what he was probably like-hopefully he was more like Natalie, who was tolerable, than Lily Spencer or Uncle Eustace- and a first or second year whose name Sapphire had not mentioned. Emerald hoped the girl was nice to Sapphire. For her own sake. Topaz would not stand for anyone tormenting Sapphire or Allegra as she didn't like sharing her toys.

And Allegra was on a team with four boys. Emerald felt bad for her though she'd seen enough of Connor to know that her cousin was in good hands. Plus, hey, even being the only girl was better than being with Topaz!

She took a seat at her table and waited for someone to join her.

11 Emerald Brockert Good luck, Winston. 358 Emerald Brockert 0 5

Peyton O'Malley

August 15, 2019 1:44 PM

Oh no by Peyton O'Malley

When it came to the Challenges, Peyton really had quite a bit to live up to. Ryan and Sally's team had gotten second, Arnold's team had won. Even Jake had finished just out of the top five. She didn't know how well Carrie's team had done but it didn't matter because she didn't count. Though Peyton supposed it would be nice to do better than she had.

The thing was though that truthfully, she was a bit more worried about who she was going to be on a team with. There weren't very many people that the Crotalus thought were particularly mean but one never knew. And there were lots of younger students that she was unfamiliar with. Which would be embarassing, to be tormented by someone younger than her. True, Ryan had been tormented by a younger sibling and she didn't think any less of him for it but some people might.

Peyton entered the Cascade Hall and approached one of the team lists. It didn't take her long to find her name. Right below Eden's.

Her face drained of all color. The one person that Peyton really didn't want to be on a team with. It wasn't as if Eden was mean but it would be so awkward. Not to mention that every way that Peyton was inadequate to the Teppenpaw would be on full display.

Not only that but wasn't Evelyn Stones the girl who'd been kind of rude to Ivy for no reason? How could Peyton be sure that the younger girl wouldn't treat her the same way? Obviously, Evelyn didn't need a good reason to be like that since she certainly hadn't had one to be nasty to Ivy.

Also, and Peyton knew this was kind of silly but it was how she felt anyway, she was on Team Two when she had really wanted to be Team Five. Not that she had a burning desire to have anyone specific who happened to be on that team. Well, okay, she would have much rather had any of the Teppenpaw boys or Parker than Eden and Evelyn. What it really was though was that Ryan had been on Team Five.

Right now though, what Peyton wanted most was to run away and hide in her room. What she wanted was for this to be a bad dream and tomorrow she'd wake up and be on a team with people she was comfortable with or at least not on one with people she was un comfortable with.

However, running away would be over dramatic so instead, Peyton sat down and waited for her team to join her, hoping Amelia or Isabella would get there before either of the other two so she wouldn't be left alone with them.

11 Peyton O'Malley Oh no 1403 Peyton O'Malley 0 5

Connor Priory

August 23, 2019 3:55 PM

Process of elimination by Connor Priory

All day long, Connor had been curious about who would be on his team. He knew ideally that they would have a variety of strengths and skills and there wasn't anyone in particular he wanted to avoid the way that Sophia probably did. He knew his younger sister was less than impressed with some of her classmates.

Of course, there were people he'd like to have on his team, such as the other D and D people and, especially, Peyton. The former were people that Connor had experience working with to solve problems and the latter...he just really liked. He also wouldn't mind being with his sister, Bridget or members of the orchestra.

But then, he probably wouldn't since he thought part of the point was getting out of one's comfort zone. Still, Uncle Evan had been on a team with his best friend, so there was still a possibility.

There was one other thing that had been on Connor's mind regarding the Challenges. There was to be one team led by a random sixth year. He wondered which of them it would be. There were only six of them, so he figured as he looked down the list, he'd start eliminating people.

Right off the bat, he found Brett on Team One. Eden was on Team Two....with Peyton. Connor winced. His friend wasn't going to be comfortable with that at all. He gazed over at her and caught her eye. She threw him a look that plainly said "Help me". He gave her a sympathetic glance back. Connor would try to comfort her later.

Next he found Cleo on Team Four. Before he found the final three sixth years, he came across Sophia's name. The Crotalus quickly checked the others and was relieved to see that none of them were people that the second year had strong objections to.

And on Team Ten, Connor found Ivy and Bridget. He felt a little bit disappointed, it would have been nice for the other sixth year to be a team leader and prove herself but he was glad she and Bridget were together. And the other people seemed like nice ones too. Well, he didn't know about Jezebel, but....Sophia hadn't said anything negative about her so there was that at least.

So it was down to him and Loren. And it turned out she was on Team Eleven. That meant..... Connor was team leader. He skimmed down Team Twelve which included Beau

And there it was, Team Thirteen. He was the leader...and Gary was on his team! Awesome. He also had Allegra Brockert, whom he'd seen around Crotalus and various family events and Felipe De Matteo whom he remembered from the Concert meeting last year. Theodore Flores was someone he was unfamiliar with though.

Connor found his team and introduced himself. "I'm Connor Priory of the Wisconsin Priorys. It's nice to meet you all." He greeted him with a big friendly smile.

11 Connor Priory Process of elimination 395 Connor Priory 0 5