Professor Kijewski

December 05, 2006 6:24 PM
Kiva had had a very amusing and somewhat awkward start of the day. But it was definitely a break in her usual routine that Kiva had apparently needed. With life back at her parent's house getting steadily worse, any break from reality was a nice one to have for Kiva. After her seemingly random conversation with Simon, Kiva went back to setting up her class materials before eventually waiting for her class to arrive. As usual, it didn't take long for her to hear the little padded feet of her first and second years.

There were times (pretty much since the disaster of her first year teaching here at Sonora) when Kiva wondered whether or not it was a good idea to teach her class outside. But, after awhile, she realized that this was the only class, aside from flying, where the students were allowed outside for a breath of fresh air and the freedom to move around. Plus, with some of the things she would be teaching the older students, Kiva would need the space.

When the last of the students arrived and settled in, Kiva began her lesson. “Good morning, Everyone!” Kiva greeted them with a smile. “Welcome to Care of Magical Creatures. For those of you who don’t know me, I am Professor Kijewski. However, most people just call me Professor K.” Kiva introduced herself. The crate directly behind her made a soft whining sound, but Kiva ignored it. “This class is less formal than your other classes. The only rule I have is to not talk while I or one of your peers are talking. Other than that, feel free to get as comfortable as you’d like. Go ahead and remove your robes if you'd like, I know it's hot out and I want you all to be as comfortable as possible." Kiva said as she paced infront of her students. She waited a moment just incase there were a few students who decided to take her words literally and get comfortable.

She went behind her and opened the container, pulling something out before replacing the lid. She held up the custard-colored fur spherical shaped animal in her hands and showed it to the class, "Today we will be discussing these. This is called a puffskein." Kiva said raising her arm a bit higher for everyone could see it. "These are scavengers and very easy to care for. They usually make the best sort of pets for beginners or when parents feel that the responsibillities of any other pet may be too great." Kiva paused here to make sure everyone was paying attention to her.

"What's really cool about these creatures is that they don't mind being roughly handled. You can toss them, squeeze them, do whatever you like and you'll usually get a happy purring response from them." Kiva tossed the puffskein in her hand high into the air, caught it and gave it a squeeze. The result was a loud purring sound, much like the sound one would get from a content cat. "What I have in this pin are a bunch of puffskeins. I thought that since this is our first lesson, we might as well make it as fun as possible. If everyone could just stand up and grab one puffskein, you may take the rest of class and play with them or toss them between one another." Kiva said, opening the container and moving so that the students would have better access at getting to the puffskein.

"There are plenty for everyone and you all have to participate, remember you are earning your house points here." Kiva called out to everyone. In the past, she had always had a student or two who would do nothing during the lesson. After the blowout last year, Kiva was going to nip that habit in the butt as early as possible. "If everyone enjoys their puffskein, I'll consider having you all take care of them and name them. These are babies, and because there are an abundance of these creatures in the shops, most never find a home. So, whether or not you guys can keep them as house pets or class pets, it's entirely up to you." Kiva said, smiling at her students. She was hoping that the idea of being able to call one their own was enough to really inspire them. Though, she knew there would always be a handful that would want nothing to do with the creatures. Such a shame too, considering how easy they were to care for.

OOC: Okay everyone, I'm looking for how well you write your reponses (make sure they are at least 2 paragraphs, 5 sentences each), grammar, and how well you develop your character. Take your time and have fun! Also, because this was an issue in the past, I will write a post indicating that this lesson is completed and everyone is dismissed. Until that post is written, continue to post here. Thank you!\n\n
Subthreads:
0 Professor Kijewski Years 1 and 2, Lesson 1 0 Professor Kijewski 1 5


Grail Markner

December 05, 2006 9:11 PM
First class of the new year, and already Ariel was there in Gray's head. The tiny blonde girl had the feeling that if Ariel was real, she would be jumping up and down beside Grail as she took a seat in the class. Of course, unlucky for Grail, no one else knew there even was an Ariel. And they shouldn't. The Ariel that Gray was talking to wasn't even real. So therefore, Grail was feeling insane. Yet again.

"Care of Magical Creatures? This sounds fun! Oo! Look at those cuties!"

Gray had already seen what Ariel was referring to. The little pen of fluffy cute little guys. Grail smiled as she took a seat. "They are adorable, aren't they?" she laughed to herself, or more to Ariel, forgetting about ignoring the insanity for a second as she watched the teacher explain that they were puffskeins. Cute little guys that didn't care what you did to them, they still liked it. Gray was beginning to like her head of house even more. Just playing for the first lesson. How cool.

And if they wanted they could keep them. Gray grinned. They were so soft and small, and they would make a great present for Merlin. Gray's little newborn brother needed a pet that didn't care what you did to it. Something he could learn to love. But, some creatures in the magical world, as Gray had learned, didn't like Muggles. So Gray sighed, wondering if Puffskeins liked Muggles.

"Merlin would love this, Grailie! This is a great class. I wish I had this class!"

For once, Grail didn't care about Ariel bugging her, or wanting to talk to Martin instead. She just wanted to get her brother a pet. So Gray walked up to the pen and picked out her baby puffskein. Smiling, she squeezed it gently and it purred, just as professor K had said. As she returned to the desk, Gray squeezed the little guy again. And again it purred. This was amusing. Gray laughed, "Merlin will love you!" she stated aloud. \n\n
0 Grail Markner Aw, fuzzy goodness =] 0 Grail Markner 0 5


Hannah Laurent

December 05, 2006 10:22 PM
Hannah had no idea what to expect for her first lesson, and therefore her bag was loaded down with a ton of supplies. Everything from books to quills. It was nearly enough to take the tiny first year down. Grunting slightly, she dropped it on the ground and sat down, waiting for class to begin.

Once the professor began class, Hannah realized she hadn't needed anything that she had brought. Not only that, but Professor K, as she had introduced herself, seemed to make the class fun. Afterall, what could be more fun than a bunch of cute furballs.

Smiling with the idea of being able to keep one, she headed over to the pen. Indecisively, she looked at each one. She wanted the perfect one, the one just right for her. Then, she saw it. Off to the side, a bit away from the rest, was a very small puffskein.

Gently, even though she had been told they could handle them any which way, Hannah picked up this one. Almost immediately, it started to purr. It was instant love for Hannah.

Going back to her bag, she curled up on the grass with her new pet. She placed the puffskein next to her and dug around in her bag to pull out the book on magical creatures. She hoped to find out more information about it.

Opening her book, she started skimming the pages while stroking her puffskein. She stopped only when a shadow fell across the page. Looking up, she saw someone standing over her.\n\n
0 Hannah Laurent Cuteness galore! 98 Hannah Laurent 0 5


Gwyneth

December 06, 2006 9:31 AM
Gwyneth arrived at class with the bulk of the first years. She had made sure she wasn't late. Her mother and father, both being teachers, had drilled that into her head, she thought ruefully. She looked around for Meri and some of the other first years from Teppenpaw and walked over toward the group of faces she thought she recognized from the Feast.

She settle down when Professor Kijewski began to talk. When Professor K, as she said students could call her, said they could remove their robes, Gwyneth took advantage of the offer. I guess I will get used to them eventually, but nothing beats wearing your most comfy jeans and favorite tee shirt, she thought as she neatly folded her robe and placed it on her bag. True to form, she was wearing jeans with a hole in one knee and her favorite black tee shirt with a picture of a wolf pup on it. Her shoulder length auburn hair she had neatly pulled back in a ponytail since she wasn't sure what to expect in this class.

The little fuzzball that the professor pulled out was adorable! And it purred, just like her Cat back home! She had been afraid that they would be dealing with newts and toads and such but these were adorable. They remind me of Tribbles, she thought as she flashed back to an old episode of her favorite TV show. And from what the professor said, they might multiply just as fast!

Gwyneth stood with the group as each student reached in and took hold of a puffskein. When it was her turn, she found a multi-colored one in her hand. Her puffskein, which she was already calling Tribbles in her mind, was a calico pattern of orange, tan and brown with a sprinkling of purple! When she bumped into another student trying to move away from the crowd, she almost dropped it and squeezed it a bit tighter than she meant to. Fearful that she had hurt it, she brought it up to her face only to hear that delightful purr.

She moved off from the group gathered around the pen and sat down, petting the puffskein. As Gwyneth alternately pet and gently tossed the creature up in the air and caught it, she realized that she had no idea if it was right-side up or upside-down. Come to think of it, she didn't know if it was male or female. Prof. K had said they were scavengers, so she guessed that meant they could eat a variety of foods. Gwyneth wanted to raise her hand and ask questions about these puffskeins, but held back for a few minutes. She didn't want to appear stupid before the other students, some of whom seemed a bit more knowledgeable about them than she certainly was. Secondly, if the Professor was going to start a lecture about them, she didn't want to interfere. She sat there, torn between wanting to ask the questions and hoping that Professor K or some of the other students would start talking about puffskeins so she wouldn't feel so clueless.

\n\n
0 Gwyneth Not sure what to expect 0 Gwyneth 0 5


Elly Eriksson

December 06, 2006 12:36 PM
Elly hauled herself out of bed on the first morning of lessons too late for breakfast. She just about had time to get dressed and brush her teeth before going down to her first class. Not bothered enough to brush her hair, Elly tied a navy blue scarf around it to keep her mad curls in check.

Luckily, she was on time for the first lesson of the day, which was Care of Magical Creatures. A lot of the students said Prof K was a pushover, but Elly didn’t think she’d ignore a student being late to class. Despite her general lack of interest and enthusiasm in this class, Elly enjoyed it nevertheless, not least because it was an opportunity to enjoy the fresh air of the outdoors, but mostly because it seemed perfectly acceptable to sit and have a chat, as long as you still participated in the lesson.

Pleased that it was another beautiful day, Elly took up her usual spot at the back of the class (well, not near the front, anyway, since the lack of classroom made discerning the back of the class a tricky proposal), and took no hesitation in shrugging off her robes at Prof K’s invitation. She was wearing her usual denim cut-offs teamed with an insanely bright orange t-shirt, which clashed horribly with her hair and made her practically a beacon amongst the other students.

Once she had made herself comfortable, Elly turned her attention back to the professor, who held up what Elly immediately mistook for a ball of fluff. In actual fact it was a Puffskein, though it really did seem to be just a ball of fluff. Elly craned her neck for a better look at the cute furry little oddment, which purred in delight while their teacher manhandled the poor creature.

“If everyone enjoys their puffskein, I’ll consider having you all take care of them and name them.” said Professor Kijewski.

Elly’s eyes grew so wide she thought they might pop out of her head. She’d never had a pet before - her parents had never even let her own a goldfish - and since meeting Meredith, Elly was always a bit jealous of Pence. Yet here this professor was offering them the chance to help raise one of these babies of cuteness. I want! I want! I want!

Scrambling with very little grace to her feet, Elly showed the most enthusiasm she had ever demonstrated in a COMC class before, and hurried to the crate full of puffskeins, bumping into a couple of slower students on her way. Elly dug one of her skinny arms into the crate, which felt incredibly weird, like plunging your hand into a barrel of slightly warm, gently vibrating fluff. Her hand closed around a spherical body, and Elly withdrew her arm, bringing the little creature close to her chest.

Due to the class now crowding around, Elly hurried back to where she’d left her bag and robes and sat back down cross-legged on the grass. She poured her puffskein into her lap. It was pale yellow, and looked like a hairy tennis ball except for a small tuft of fur that stuck up in the wrong direction. Elly poked her puffskein gently, and it rolled a bit, then purred. Elly grinned like a lunatic. “I’ve got a puffskein,” she said, proudly.
\n\n
0 Elly Eriksson MINE! 92 Elly Eriksson 0 5


Nathalie Grant

December 06, 2006 2:02 PM
Nathalie arrived a few minutes late for class, having got herself lost already. When she finally found the rest of the class, they were standing in front of a teacher and a large crate. Some appeared to be pulling off their robes, and Nathalie lowered her bag carefully to the ground and removed her own, revealing a grungy green woolen jumper and a pair of brown cords. She wished that she'd thought to wear something better this morning, but she hadn't thought that she'd be removing her robes that day.

Pushing the sleeves of her too-big jumper up to her elbows, she turned her attention back to the teacher, who said something about Puffskeins and then about being able to keep one if they wanted. Nathalie was unable to suppress a smile, thinking of Orlando's face if she announced that, of all things, she now had a Puffskein as a pet!

The teacher stopped talking and people went forwards to go and collect their Puffskeins. Nathalie hung back slightly, waiting for someone else to collect theirs. Once a girl with bright ginger hair and hauled one out of the crate Nathalie stepped forwards and grabbed one herself. Her Puffskein was pale ginger and enormously fluffy. It purred happily as she squished it slightly. She noticed another girl sit down, and wondered if she too was a first year. She looked like one. Nathalie decided to take a risk, and, collecting her things, walked up behind her.

"Hi. Mind if I join you?"\n\n
0 Nathalie Grant Aah, bless their little cotton socks!! 0 Nathalie Grant 0 5


Josaih Ashwood

December 06, 2006 3:28 PM
Josaih was still rubbing the last sleep of the night from his eyes as he walked down to his Care of Magical Creatures class. He held in one hand a piece of toast with jelly on it, and in the other an apple. As Professor K talked, he consumed the toast. The apple, he decided, would be saved for a snack later. He grinned widely at her invitation to take off their robes. He did so as quickly as possible, showing off his white t-shirt and jeans underneath.

He craned his neck to see what the professor held up. It was a little moving ball of fuzz! He wouldn't admit it aloud, but he found them neat and possibly cuddly. He walked up to the box to grab one when a blur of orange dashed ahead of him. He grinned seeing that the orange had a female attatched to it. He pulled out a puffskein from the box. Ironically, it was close to a yellow color. That was what he had turned on the opening feast.

Holding his puffskein close to avoid it being thrown from his hands and trampled, he aproached the girl. I've got a puffskein He laughed, obviously this girl had possesion issues! "Hey there," josaih said with a lopsided grin, "Neat, huh? These...whatdya call 'em.."He pretended to thin, "Ah, puffskeins. They're pretty cool huh? If we do keep them, I have to keep mine away from Mortemer, my raven. Oh, pardon me! I forgot my manners. I am Josiah Ashwood. How do you do Miss-?" he broke off leaving her to fill in the gap as he bowed his head and extended his puffskein-free hand. \n\n
0 Josaih Ashwood Umm...possesion issues? 0 Josaih Ashwood 0 5


Caedence Redoak

December 06, 2006 3:39 PM
OOC: There, I tagged ya! Nyah!

IC: Caedence had been woke up by the sounds of her fellow housemates dressing. She looked up at her alarm clock and realised with a start how little time she had before class. She pulled off her nightgown, dayclothes on beneath as always, and did up her braid. "Catch you later Elly," she called as she rushed out of her dorm.

It was COMC today, she realised with a sigh. That Professer K would be teaching as usual. She took a seat near the front and watched the teacher. She held up something that was so disgustingly cute it wasn't even funny. She rolled her eyes wishing she could play with Rover this year instead. No, they had these stupid fluffballs. But, she realised, if she could keep it for a pet maybe her father would get used to it and allow her to get an owl.

So it was with mixed disgust and excitement that she reached into the box to pull out her own ball of fluff. She realised soon that it was a sort of dull cream, almost brown. Well, she could reaserch color changing spells to make it a more suitable color like black.

She then decided to see if what Professor K said was true. She found a stick on the ground and gently hit the fluffball with it. It gave no reaction except for blinking up at her cutely. Yuck! She then tossed it up in the air and "juggled" it by hitting it with the stick and, when it fell down again, hit it back into the air.

Someone nearby gasped seeing what Caedence was doing. She snatched the fluffball out of the air and turned to the newcomber. "What? She said that they wouldn't mind rough treatment. Just practicing my beating!" She said as the puffskein purred in her hand completely unfazed.\n\n
0 Caedence Redoak Ugh! Cute! Tag: Hyana 94 Caedence Redoak 0 5


Nikki Ramirez

December 06, 2006 4:34 PM
Nikki walked out to the Care of Magical Creatures "classroom." One couldn't really call it a classroom, as the class took place outdoors. The class, which was taught by her Head of House, Professor K, was once again her first class of the year. Nikki reminisced on the first time she had had this class. It had been where she had met one of her best friends, Leo Idoya; Nikki's other best friend was her roommate, Gray Markner.

Nikki spotted Gray sitting on the ground, but before she could greet the other girl, the professor had started speaking. Taking a custard-colored fur ball out of a box, Professor K explained that it was a puffskein. Although the creatures were found world-wide, and made excellent pets, Nikki had never seen one before. Well, that wasn't exactly true. She had seen them, occasionally, but she had never gotten to play with one. Professor K told the students that they could play with the puffskeins and might even get to keep them.

Nikki walked over to the pin, along with most of the other students and picked up a puffskein. "Your awfully cute," she said to the puffskein, giving it a squeeze. The creature issued a contented humming sound. Nikki walked over to where Gray was sitting with her own puffskein. She shrugged off her robe and sat next to Gray, just as Gray was telling her puffskein 'Merlin will love you.'

"Who's Merlin?" Nikki asked, giving the puffskein in her lap another squeeze.\n\n
0 Nikki Ramirez I'd say furry 0 Nikki Ramirez 0 5


Irene Liddowe

December 06, 2006 5:22 PM
Irene listened intently as Prof. K walked around with the enlarged cotton ball in her hand. Irene was itching to go to the crate and snatch one for herself. Htey looked so adorably squishy!

When the word had been given Irene dashed up to the crate and pullled out a Puffskein the color of the vanilla pudding she had eaten at the feast.

'They're so funny!' She thought to herself, giving the Puffskein a tickle. She almost squealed out loud when Professor K had told them they could keep them. She was filled with excitedment at the thought of a playmate for Gatita, her kitten.

Irene pulled up a spot of grass still grinning at her poof ball. A voice spoke up behind her and she turned around.

"Hi. Mind if I join you?" It was Nathalie from the girls dorm. Irene felt a bit more comfortable here now that she had someone to talk to. She smiled and patted the grassy lawn beside her.

"Go ahead! These things are adorable, huh?"

\n\n
0 Irene Liddowe Do these things bounce? 106 Irene Liddowe 0 5


Rachel, Matt, and Cole Tripp

December 06, 2006 5:25 PM
Rachel had met her brothers down in the Entrance Hall and the three of them had walked down to their Care of Magical Creatures class together. They arrived just before the professor started talking and stood listening to her speaking about puffskeins. 'If everyone enjoys their puffskein, I'll consider having you all take care of them and name them.' Professor K said.

"Rachel," Matt said, "Go get us a puffskein so we can throw it around."

"I don't want to throw them around." Cole said, and followed his sister to the pin. Matt walked after them.

"Why not?" Matt asked his brother. "The professor said they like it." He picked one out of the box, flung it into the air, and caught it again. The creature purred. "See?"

"Fine," Cole conceded

"How could you not like them Cole?" Rachel asked, picking another out of the box. Without waiting for an answer, shh continued. "They're adorable. Hey Cole, do you know what they eat? We'll have to know if we're taking care of them."

"Anything," Cole answered, "Although they're particularly fond of boogers."

"Eww!" Rachel squealed, and dropped the puffskein. Matt caught it in his open hand. He found himself again imagining his sister's reaction to Gunter der Zombie. Of course, since she was in Teppenpaw, she would probably never see his painting.

As Matt gave Rachel her puffskein back, she spotted a girl from her house although she couldn't recall her name. Walking over, she sat down next to her. "Hi," she greeted "I'm Rachel Tripp, and this is Matt and Cole, mind if we join you?"

"You have fun," Matt said, "If you'll excuse me, I think I'll try to find Riley and Oliver." He gave a small bow and left his siblings and the other girl in search of his friends.\n\n
0 Rachel, Matt, and Cole Tripp Re: Not sure what to expect 0 Rachel, Matt, and Cole Tripp 0 5

Gray

December 06, 2006 5:26 PM
Gray was just about to think of a name for her little puffskein (probably was going to be one of the millions of names Ariel was shouting, just to shut her up), Nikki came over. Gray smiled at her friend when the blonde Mexican asked her who Merlin was. Gray thanked whoever was up there that she wasn't talking to Martin or Ariel at the time, and instead talking about her newborn half brother. That was actually explainable.

Turning to Nikki, she smiled. "Merlin is the name of my newborm half-brother." She gave a short laugh. "You'll come to realize my mother either has a sick sense of humor, or is completely obsessed with King Arthur. It's the latter. My older brother is Aurther, the twins' full names are Chalice and Labyrinth, my younger is Alais, and then Merlin. Then you have me, Grail." Gray shook her head at the thought. "My mother is completely insane." "But she thinks you're insane!",/i> Ariel laughed. Grail's smile fell a bit. I probably am, she thought.

"Anyway, this seems like a really fun class, just playing with these little guys the whole time," Gray tried smiling again, and squeezed her puffskein, allowing it to purr, soothing her. "Your's is cute," she pointed at Nikki's. "If we can take these guys home, I'm giving this one to my brother, though. Since he's a baby, he's a tad rough with toys and a normal pet wouldn't be good with him. And if he squeezes of throws this guy, he won't care. So I think it's good." Gray threw hers in the air and allowed it to bounce on the table before she caught it again. Once again, it let out that soothing purr. This was disrupted by Ariel chiming in.

"Grailie, you need to NAME him!". Gray sneered as the insanity repeated the sentence over and over. "I know I have to name it and I will, god," she muttered allowed, then looked over at Nikki, realizing she was still there. "I mean... we have to name them. What's yours's name?" Close one.\n\n
16 Gray Either way, Merlin will love them 113 Gray 0 5

Gray

December 06, 2006 5:27 PM
Gray was just about to think of a name for her little puffskein (probably was going to be one of the millions of names Ariel was shouting, just to shut her up), Nikki came over. Gray smiled at her friend when the blonde Mexican asked her who Merlin was. Gray thanked whoever was up there that she wasn't talking to Martin or Ariel at the time, and instead talking about her newborn half brother. That was actually explainable.

Turning to Nikki, she smiled. "Merlin is the name of my newborm half-brother." She gave a short laugh. "You'll come to realize my mother either has a sick sense of humor, or is completely obsessed with King Arthur. It's the latter. My older brother is Aurther, the twins' full names are Chalice and Labyrinth, my younger is Alais, and then Merlin. Then you have me, Grail." Gray shook her head at the thought. "My mother is completely insane." "But she thinks you're insane!" Ariel laughed. Grail's smile fell a bit. I probably am, she thought.

"Anyway, this seems like a really fun class, just playing with these little guys the whole time," Gray tried smiling again, and squeezed her puffskein, allowing it to purr, soothing her. "Your's is cute," she pointed at Nikki's. "If we can take these guys home, I'm giving this one to my brother, though. Since he's a baby, he's a tad rough with toys and a normal pet wouldn't be good with him. And if he squeezes of throws this guy, he won't care. So I think it's good." Gray threw hers in the air and allowed it to bounce on the table before she caught it again. Once again, it let out that soothing purr. This was disrupted by Ariel chiming in.

"Grailie, you need to NAME him!". Gray sneered as the insanity repeated the sentence over and over. "I know I have to name it and I will, god," she muttered allowed, then looked over at Nikki, realizing she was still there. "I mean... we have to name them. What's yours's name?" Close one.\n\n
16 Gray Either way, Merlin will love them (ignoe the last one) 113 Gray 0 5


gwyneth

December 06, 2006 5:49 PM
Gwyneth looked up as a girl and her two brothers walked over towards her. She thought she recognized the girl as from Teppenpaw. When the girl introduced herself and her two brothers, Gwyneth replied, "Hi, I'm Gwyneth. I think if remember your face from the feast, or maybe the Common Room. Aren't you in Teppenpaw, too?" Gwyneth smiled as the one brother said he going off in search of others.

"So, what do you think of puffskeins?" Gwyneth asked as she made room beside her on the ground for Rachel and her brother Cole. "I guess I really didn't know what to expect, but these are possibly the cutest magical creatures I could imagine!" She snuggled her puffskein, Tribbles, again. 'I really mustn't name it or think of it as mine,' she thought to herself. Breaking her reverie and coming back to the class, she wondered how she could politely ask about the care and feeding of puffskeins without looking like a dork.

"So, are you familiar with puffskeins? I mean, before this class. Professor K said some of might get to keep them as pets and I wondered if you knew anything about them, . . . or even had one as a pet at home?" Gwyneth knew she was beginning to babble but wasn't quite sure how to stop.\n\n
0 gwyneth Re: Not sure what to expect 0 gwyneth 0 5


Paul Tarwater

December 06, 2006 5:53 PM
To Paul's anger, he realized that in his first class, first and second years were grouped togather. Second year, meaning him, and first year meaning his Satan't spawn of a sister, Cissy. Unbelievable. So the black haired boy walked in quietly and snuck around to the back of the groups of students. Noticing his sister, he chose a spot very far away from her, and went to concentrating on his Head of House. Looking over his shoulder every few seconds to see if Cissy was still there.

Paul frowned, puffskeins? They were so.. fluffy and sickeningly cute. Paul was sure the girls in this class would love it, but Paul didn't do cute fluffy things. Unless you counted Lussni, but that cat was far from cute. Paul's eyes darted back and forth between his sister and the teacher, and to all the other first and second years. He didn't want a puffskein, and he didn't want Cissy to have a puffskein. She'd torture it. The poor, annoying thing.

It wasn't long before the cold blue eyes of Paul, and cruel blue of Cissy's met once while Professor K was demonstrating how the puffskein purrs. Paul felt as if pins were punturing his stomach, a feeling he normally got while looking at Cissy. Paul tried to look away, but he couldn't, he just glared slowly at his sister, while the fear bubbled inside. What would she do to him in here? Public, she couldn't touch him. Paul was safe, he hoped. But after a second into the sibling stare fight, Cissy gave Paul a cruel grin, matching her eyes. Her finger went to her neck and made a crossing motion. Paul shook a second, trying to keep his glare before quickly moving his eyes over to the teacher.

Paul realized his hands were shaking madly, and they had gone pale. Oh Merlin, what was that for. What would she do with him. Paul was terrified of her.

When the teacher told them to get a puffskein, Paul found himself nearly sprinting up, grabbing any old one, and taking his seat again, trying to hide himself from Cissy. He noticed his sister walking back to her seat, grinning now at the puffskein with that cruel glare. The poor sincking thing. Paul dropped his eyes to his puffskein. "Feel lucky you're with me and not her," he muttered, squeezing the puffskein. Paul found the purring sound it made oddly soothing, so he smiled. Not a cold smile, this time a more genuine one. A bit... blissful. Now Paul wanted to keep the puffskein. It would make a nice stress reliever.\n\n
0 Paul Tarwater ... I don't do cute 0 Paul Tarwater 0 5


Hyana Kamiya

December 06, 2006 6:06 PM
OOC: And now I reply, ha!

IC: Hyana woke up and blinked a few times. It was really bright, she thought to herself. She looked at the purple alarm clock she had set next to her bed, and realized that she was going to be late for class! She jumped out of bed and pulled on her robes as quickly as possible, then brushed her hair. Grabbing a black and red hair tie, just in case, she ran to her first lesson, COMC.

Once she got there, she plopped down in her seat, looking for Ebony. Without luck, she focused on the teacher. When Professer K pulled out the puffskein, she covered her mouth in delight. It's so kawaii! She cried in her head. If they got to keep them, she would have a pet here, and maybe she could use it to lose her ties to home. Her mother wouldn't allow her to bring her cat, Suki. Hyana shuddered thinking of what her poor cat was going through.

Shaking her head, she waited until everyone was out of the way, and pulled out one of her own. It was lilac, and made it look even more adorable than it already was. "Kawaii." She whispered in her japanese tounge, scratching it on the head. It looked up and her and blinked. Hyana giggled. She turned around with it to find a small area of her own, when she saw the girl with the braid she had met at the feast.

She was hitting her poor brown puffskein with a stick. And she seemed to be enjoying herself! She gasped, and soon wished she hadn't made a sound at all. "What? She said that they wouldn't mind rough treatment. Just practicing my beating!" The girl said. Hyana realized that the girl was right when she looked at the brown puffskein, which was completely unfazed.

"St-still, miss, it's not very kind. Why would you do such a thing?" Hyana forced out. She frowned slightly, and remembered how mean this girl was the first time they met. She held her puffskein close, and avoided any eye contact. \n\n
0 Hyana Kamiya What are you doing?! 0 Hyana Kamiya 0 5


Hikaru Kasuragi

December 06, 2006 6:42 PM
Hikaru walked over to the pen slowly and looked down at the tiny creatures. They really were very cute, so he picked one up that had been bouncing up and down looking at him. He smiled as he stroked it and it purred. He walked over and looked in his book about how to feed and care for puffskiens.
As he examined the book the puffskien jumped out on the pages just to get his attention, he smiled at the little guy and kept stroking and cooing at him. He shut his book and dropped it into his bag.\n\n
0 Hikaru Kasuragi Cool 0 Hikaru Kasuragi 0 5


Mika

December 07, 2006 1:28 AM
Mika had gotten up well before anyone in his dorm. Mornings were very slow for him and he knew that. He got up and went through his morning routine, which involved showering, an unusual level of concern over appearance and hygiene for someone his age. He was dressed neatly and in his wheel chair, making his way down for breakfast, around the time the other boys in his dorm had probably been getting up.

He made his way to where COMC was meeting, again, allowing himself lots of time, unsure what sort of terrain he should be expecting. He managed to get himself there, and a little bit early too. When he arrived, he folded his hands in his lap and waited in the shade. The heat didn't seem to bother him, despite the heavy robes and long pants underneath them.

Mika watched as his classmates started to congregate, then turned his full attention to the professor as she began to speak, listening closely to all she said. Puffskeins. He could deal with that. He had never owned one, but he had known others who had them as pets. They weren't the most exciting animals, but Mika was very okay with that. He wanted two weeks to get his schedule down and his body use to all of this before he had anything 'exciting' happen. He smiled a bit when the Professor told him they might be able to keep the creatures. That would be nice. Mika rather liked animals, though he had never had any. He did shrug out of his robes, draping them carefully over the back of his chair. He was dressed, he realized, far more formally than any of his classmates. He wore black cargo pants that were nice enough to almost qualify as slacks, and a blue button down shirt. Some concession had been made to the summer weather, and he had rolled up the sleeves to his elbows. The shirt was at least made of a very light cotton.

The boy waited patiently as all the other students got their puffskeins before he wheeled over to the box. He parked his chair in front of it, and pulled one of his arm canes from its resting place at the underside of his wheelchair. Like his wheelchair, these two were enchanted to shrink when he put them away, and expand when he took them out, so they were less cumbersome. The crutch lengthened in his hand through no magic of his own and he gripped the hand-grip, placing the rubber end firmly on the ground. He put both feet on the ground next, and gripped the side of the crate with a free hand.

He gathered his strength, then drew himself to his feet, leaning on the crutch and the crate, using the strength in his arms, though his feet did shift to take his weight as well. Mika stood for a moment, just to be sure he had his balance, then took a small step closer to the crate. He was actually rather tall when standing. He took a moment to push his glasses up on his nose, before he leaned down and fished out a puffskein with the hand not holding on to his armcane. He made a bit off a face as he tried to pick the thing up, as it almost over balanced him head first into the crate. It would figure he would end up with the fattest one.

After readjusting his grip, he lifted the puffskein out of the box. It was indeed quite fat for a puffskein, a very very pale cream color. He tucked the critter under his arm, and took the step or two back to his wheelchair, and eased himself down into it once again. The armcane was tucked away, and he set the puffskein on his lap, wheeling back to his place in the shade.

The professor had said they didn't mind rough treatment, but Mika was rather shocked to see how some of his classmates were treating the creatures. He picked his up with both hands and brought it to eye level, turning it over in his hands as he looked at it.

The puffskein quivered a bit in his hands, and a long pink tongue appeared, heading straight for Mika's nose. Mika recalled a bit belatedly what it was that puffskein's liked to eat. He made a startled sound and dropped it back into his lap, clamping a hand over his nose. A laugh was surprised out of him, and he giggled quietly.

"Nyet! Neh Vibeeritee moy noess!" He laughed, smiling a full smile for the first time since he had arrived in the US.

((OOC: "nyet! neh vibeeritee moy noess!" = "No! Do not pick my nose!"\n\n
0 Mika Better Than a Flobberworm 0 Mika 0 5


Jaeven 'Jae' Dimitri

December 07, 2006 5:39 AM
Jaeven Dimitri had arrived on time, although practically robeless. He had tried to get the thing on properly, but it didn't work. Consequently, the school robe that everybody else was wearing had ended up being put on slightly backwards and rather sideways. But it was all okay, because he got to Comec all by himself. Saul had told him that it was called Comec at the Opening Feast, and that it was about animals. That was good, because Jae liked animals. They were fun. And some people were almost as good as animals to be with, too. Other people weren't very nice, though, and Jae didn't like that.

He had been a little nervous when he had found out that the Deputy Head taught Comec. Deputy Heads didn't usually like Jae very much, but Professor K seemed cool. And then she showed them puffballs! They were smallish and fuzzyish and they were madcooler than even the pictures in the library! Jae jumped up happily and skipped over to the Puffskein pen. He picked out a good sized, creamy brown puffball, and hugged it. It purred at him!

This was better than a cat, even! Aunt Cheri had said that he could have a kitty for his birthday this year, but kitties didn't like being hugged much. Jae decided to name his puffball Todd. Todd was a good name for a puffball. Todd sounded like he was a happy puffball too, since whenever Jae hugged him, he purred.

Todd was probably getting lonely, without other puffballs to play with, though. So when he saw another boy in a wheelchair, he decided to take Todd over to play with him and his puffball. Jae thought wheelchairs were pretty cool. He had gotten a ride in one after he swallowed a quarter last year, and had taken a trip to the hospital so they could get it out. It had been fun. So he skipped over to the boy, nestling Todd in the biggest pocket of his tan cargo pants for the ride. He could feel him purring against his leg, too, so Jae thought Todd probably liked skipping.

"Hi! I'm Jae!" he grinned widely at the other boy. His blond dreadlocks quivered a bit from the trip as he fished Todd out and hugged him. "This is Todd. He's my puffball. What's your puffball's name? And what's your name? And what did you just say? And why do you get a wheelchair? I think wheelchairs are fun, 'cause you get to spin them. My aunt doesn't like it when I do that, though. Did you know that the hospital lets you borrow a wheelchair for free sometimes?\n\n
0 Jaeven 'Jae' Dimitri Much, I think 0 Jaeven 'Jae' Dimitri 0 5


Mika

December 07, 2006 8:42 AM
Mika stared at the boy who skipped over to him, his dark eyes wide behind his glasses, making them look even bigger. The boy spoke so fast Mika could hardly keep up. His English was good, but this kid talked like he had to pay by the minute, and Mika just stared at him after he stopped talking for long moments, as he tried to run all of that back through his mind. There had been a lot of questions, at least he was pretty sure there had been, it seemed like the boy's voice had gone up alot. Of course, some Americans seemed to talk like that all the time, like everything was a question.

Slowly Mika's brows knitted and he frowned, the other boy appeared to have a letter for a name, and a puffskein with a person name. When he was fairly certain he had sorted out all that the kid had just thrown at him he finally spoke.

"Preevyet," he paused a moment, there was no 'j' sound in either Russian or Hebrew, and considering that the kids name was nothing but that letter, Mika knew he wasn't going to say it right. "- Yae. My name is Mika'el. It is o-kay if you call me Mika. I think that these are called puffskeins, not puffballs?" He was almost positive of that, but hey, Yae was the one who spoke the language natively, maybe Mika had misheard. "I have not yet named my... Sloyka." That was what they were called in Russian.

"A moment ago I said 'do not pick my nose'." he paused again, realizing that sounded very odd out of context. "Sloyka like to eat..." crud, he didn't know that word in English. After another long pause, he settled on the closest he could get "...snot. It was hungry, I guess."

"I have a wheelchair because my legs do not work properly. I suppose they might be fun one could stand up and walk whenever it became less convenient." Mika didn't mean to sound snobby, and was in fact unaware that he did, not realizing that his careful and rather formal way of speaking made him sound that way. "I am know that hospitals may allow one to borrow a wheelchair, da, but this one is not borrowed. It is made just for me."

Mika's accent was a little thicker then usual, as he was working very hard to keep up with this other boy, it sounded Eastern European mostly. He shifted in his wheelchair a bit, caressing his puffskein a bit nervously, finding Yae very overwhelming, but was trying very hard to be friendly.


((OOC: I do know his name is Jae, but lol, there isn't a 'J' sound in either Russian or Hebrew, so Mika doesn't know how to see his j's very well, hence the Yae ;) ))\n\n
0 Mika Wishing for a Translator 0 Mika 0 5


Elly

December 07, 2006 5:41 PM
Elly looked up at the sound of laughter and noticed a first year boy standing nearby. “Hey there,” he said.

“Hi,” Elly replied, smiling, and fluffing her puffskein between her fingers. Then the boy starting talking again, but he seemed to be forgetting to breathe. Elly gazed at him and waited for him to stop chattering. “Slower next time, please,” she said, still smiling so the boy knew she wasn’t annoyed or anything. Elly hadn’t really caught most of what the younger student had said. She thought that he’d asked her name, so she replied to that and would deal with the rest of his ramblings later.

“I’m Elly,” she said, and, taking his extended hand, pulled him down so he was at her level. While she waited for him to get comfortable, Elly said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name. You need to remember to breathe, okay?”

Elly picked up her puffskein – Custard, she had decided to name it – and placed it on her shoulder, where it sat contentedly purring in her ear. She wondered how to tell whether Custard was a boy or a girl puffskein. Elly didn’t mind either way, but she wasn’t sure that she’d want a whole bunch of little Custards fluffing around the place in a year or so.
\n\n
0 Elly Not really. Just happy! 0 Elly 0 5


Jae

December 07, 2006 5:52 PM
OOC: 'tis cool. I like it, actually. ^_^

BIC:

Wheelchair kid looked like he was thinking. That was okay. Jae could play with Todd while he waited. So he scratched Todd's tummy, and Todd made a funny gurgle noise. So Jae did it again. Todd sounded happy. That was good, because Jae was happy too. And then Wheelchair kid talked, and said something weird that started with a P. And then Wheelchair kid called him Yae. Which was a weird nickname, but it was kind of cool. Yae. Like, YAY! That was fun. And then Wheelchair kid said his name was Micka-ell, but to call him Mika.

But Mika seemed to have trouble talking. And he was confused about what to call the puffballs. Jae wasn't sure either, because he hadn't really been listening to Professor K when she explained what they were called. When Mika decided to call them Sloyka, Jae decided that he would go with what Mika said. He seemed pretty smart, especially since Jae was pretty sure that some of the words he was saying weren't English. Plus, Mika sounded weird too. He was saying some words differently than most people Jae knew. Maybe he was speaking in Spanish, like Jae's neighbor, Nina? Nina was fun, and sometimes they rode horses together. He liked horses. Maybe Mika got to ride horses too? Even though he said his legs didn't work right.

"Do you get to ride horses, since your legs don't work right? I like horses. They're fun, and sometimes my aunts let me give them carrots. I don't like carrots too much, but the horses do! It's cool that you get your own wheelchair. When Nina broke her ankle, she let me borrow her crutches sometimes, and that was fun. Do you talk Spanish like Nina does? I don't understand some of the words you say, but that's cool too."

Jae dug in one of his pants pockets, came up with the wandstick, and stuck it behind his pierced ear. Then he held Todd up to his face to see if he would do what Mika's Sloyka did, but Todd squirmed away, so Jae put him down next to Mika's. They would play together and have fun. Him and Mika could have fun too. Jae had seen some kids flying around on brooms, too. Maybe Mika did that. Maybe Mika would teach him! He liked his new school. He liked Mika, and Todd, and Professor K, too. So Jae hugged Mika and grinned and sat down on the ground. Happy was fun.\n\n
0 Jae Not sure how much that would help 0 Jae 0 5


Mika

December 07, 2006 7:04 PM
Mika was starting to wonder if this boy was quite right in the head. Maybe his parents were hippies. the blond dreadlocks suggested that was a possibility. Really he had no idea what to even think at the moment, he had never encountered anyone quite like this before. His mother was a very serious woman, and Mika had never been able to play quite like other children, so he too tended to be very serious and unused to play. He had also gone to school at one of the best yeshivas in the world, which also contributed to his miniature adult personality. To meet someone who was so carefree, and open... it was surreal to Mika.

Another barrage of questions was hurled at him, but this time he kept up a little better, getting used to the boy's voice and manner of speech.

"I have ridden horses before." He nodded, "They call it equine therapy. Horses are nice, but not very common where I am from." He considered the next several statements that Yae made, nodding a little. Mika rather liked carrots himself, but to each his own. "I do not speak Spanish,I speak Paroosky...er... Russian. Those are probably the words you are not understanding. I also speak Hebrew. English is my third language. I am starting to learn Japanese as well. I would like to learn Spanish as well. I like to speak many languages."

And then, all of a sudden, the strange boy had his arms around Mika and was hugging him. Mika froze like a deer in the headlights, his eyes going even rounder. He was somewhat used to others handling his person, it was a fact of life when you were disabled, but being hugged, spontaneously, but a strange boy, was as surprising to him as if a six legged donkey came walking down a rainbow and granted him three wishes and a puppy.

Mika patted the other boy's back awkwardly, and was happy when he was released, and the boy sat down. He pushed his glasses up on his face again, nervously.

"Ah..." Mika thought he should try and make conversation. Yae was nice enough, just very, very overwhelming. "I have crutches too." He offered, suspecting his crutches were very different than the ones this Nina had used. "You can try them if you want." Mika offered, pulling them out from under his wheelchair, they expanded to the right length in his hand. They weren't the typical kind of crutches, but instead, arm canes, with a hand-grip and a band that went around the forearm. He held them out to Yae.\n\n
0 Mika ...Did You Just Hug Me? 0 Mika 0 5


Professor K

December 07, 2006 7:33 PM
Hello Hikaru!!

I'm so glad to see you posting in my lesson. I just wanted to let you know that one of the rules here at Sonora is post length. In my lessons specifically, the minimum for each post is 2 paragraphs, 5 sentences each.

It's always important to try your best when you write posts because you are earning your house points. Be sure to keep that in mind for future posts!

Sincerely,

DH Kijewski\n\n
0 Professor K OOC 0 Professor K 0 5


Eavan Valentine

December 07, 2006 7:56 PM
Eavan made her way to her Care of Magical Creatures class of the year with a skip in her step. It was her favorite class, and the perfect weather was making it that much better. Before sitting down, Eavan cast her eyes around the group of first and second years, looking for familiar faces. Not seeing any, (she was rather early to class anyways)she sat down and waited for people to arrive and the class to start.

As soon as enough people showed up, Professor K began her usual (she assumed) first class of the term speech. Eavan was only vaguely interested in it, and instead spent the time looking for friends. However, with everyone sitting down, it was rather hard to distinguish people. Eavan turned her attention back to the lesson at the sound of a box being opened.

While Eavan is not the girlie type, the sight of the little ball of fur in Professor k's hand made her gasp of admiration with most of the rest of the girls in the class. Waiting a minute or so for most of the other students to get out of the way, there were only a few ruffled-looking puffskeins left. Eavan stared at each one in turn and decided on the most rumpled one in there. He needed more love than the others. It's fluffy, gray fur was sticking up at odd angles, but the instant Eavan picked it up, it let out a content purring and she fell in love. And to think that she might be able to keep it!

With a sunny expression to rival the perfect day, she headed back to where she was sitting and began tossing it up in the air as though it were a child. The puffskein purred.

Eavan gave the furball a quick kiss on what she guessed was the top of its head and brought it up in front of her face.

"You need a name," she said before glancing past the puffskein and finally recognizing a face.

"Hey!" She called out happily, waving her free hand above her head.\n\n
0 Eavan Valentine Insert girlie 'awwww' here. 86 Eavan Valentine 0 5


Jae

December 08, 2006 6:08 AM
Mika said he rode horses sometimes! That was great! Maybe he could ask Professor K to let them ride horses during class. Horses were cool. And he spoke Russian! And Japanese! That was really, really madcool. Maybe he would teach Jae. And then they could communicate like...like...secret agents or something, with code. That would be fun. And they could battle evil and stuff, just like on TV. Nina had been teaching him a little Spanish before he left. He missed Nina sometimes. She would probably like Todd a lot. Except, she had a cat, and maybe Todd wouldn't like the cat very much. Nina's cat didn't like his aunt's dog very much. Cats didn't seem to be friends with very many things except people.

Mika had crutches too!! Except, they were different from Nina's crutches. Jae hadn't ever seen anything like them before, and they GREW! All by themselves, the got longer, and longer! Madcoolness! Jae jumped up and took the crutches with a huge grin on his face, then paused for a moment. He looked at Mika seriously.

"You'll take very good care of Todd while I'm playing, right?" His aunt called that responsibility. She said he would have to have responsibility before he got a cat. Jae wasn't sure he still wanted a cat, since he had Todd now, but he thought it probably was the same for Sloyka as cats. Except maybe not, since Sloyka were more puffy, and they didn't eat mice. It always made Jae sad when Nina's cat ate mice, because mice were really cute too. Todd was blinking at Mika's Sloyka and making bubbley question noises. He didn't seem upset, but what if Todd didn't get on with Mika's Sloyka? Jae wanted Todd to be happy. Mika looked like he had a lot of responsibility, though. He probably had a cat, or maybe even a dog!

Jae fiddled with his earring while holding the supercool crutches in one hand. He was really very torn, and his features showed it.\n\n
0 Jae *checks* Yes, I believe I did... 0 Jae 0 5


Mika

December 08, 2006 8:28 AM
Yae seemed extrodinarily excited over the crutches. Mika was partial to them as well, but like his wheel chair, they were custom made, just for him, measured prefectly to his height. The might be a little long for Yae, Mika was rather lanky.

When asked if he would take good care of Todd, Mika looked down at the two sloyka, who weren't doing much of anything, and nodded, leaning down to pick them both up, setting them in his lap to prove he would keep a close eye on them.

"I will watch them, da." He nodded, "I will take care of Todd." They were rather nice critters after all, and two was hardly any more work than one. He caressed both of the sloyka, one with each hand, patting them gently. "He will be fine."\n\n
0 Mika Of Course 0 Mika 0 5


Nathalie

December 08, 2006 1:49 PM
"Irene, hi." Nathalie didn't know quite how to say that she had been asking the other girl if she could join her, so settled for saying; "I was just about to join...um, I'm sorry, I don't know your name." She hoped this didn't make Irene feel uncomfortable. She'd got on well with her last night in the dorm, and she didn't want to make any enemies this early on.

"What do you think the dorm'd be like with two puffskeins and our cats in?" She asked, sitting down on the grass. She dropped her puffskein in her lap and then picked up her robes, folding them carefully and lying them on top of her satchel. The satchel itself was dark brown leather, and embroidered with the words "Nathalie C. R. Grant" in glossy gold thread. She fingered the lettering lazily, on hand buried in the golden ginger fur of her puffskein. The satchel had been a gift from one of her cousin's friend - Valentina - who had bought it for her when she had passed her first year exams, and she was extremely fond of it. For her, it summed up the fire and pride of the Italian Magical world, where status was everything and beauty was the norm.

Her puffskein purred loudly, bringing Nathalie back down to earth with a bump. She realised that the other girl still hadn't answered and turned to her, repeating, "Sorry, is it OK for Irene and I to sit here?"\n\n
0 Nathalie I don't think finding out would work very well. 0 Nathalie 0 5


Josaih

December 08, 2006 4:15 PM
Josiah laughed. "Josiah Ashwood, and I'll remember to breath next time Miss Elly." He said. His puffskein purred contentedly in his hands and he petted it gently. He moved around to get a more comfortable position. Spying his robes about a foot away, he reached over and retrieved them. Then he bundled them up into what resembled a nest and placed his puffskein in. "I'll make sure Mo likes this little guy, or else." he laughed here, "I think I'll name 'im Teppers, because he's almost Teppenpaw Yellow. My house you know?" he said, slower this time so that she could catch his words.

"So, what's your house? Someone as pretty as you deserve to reside somewhere similarly beautiful. Let me guess, Alardren, Pecari or Crotalus. I haven't seen you in my commons yet." He said still careful to breath so that she caught every word. He shot her a grin again. \n\n
0 Josaih ^_^ Well happy is your thing! 0 Josaih 0 5


Caedence

December 08, 2006 4:23 PM
She tossed the pufskein back into the air and continued to juggle it with the stick. "Well, she said we could play with them, and that is what I'm doing. If we had Rover back, I could teach him another trick. That was a good animal," she said pausing every now and then to catch an out-of-control hit. "But all we have are these things. Disgustingly cute, if you ask me. As soon as I can, if we keep them, I'm changing his color to something more proper, like black."

She did a double-take, dropping the puffskein to the ground. It closed its eyes contentedly, purring even louder than before.

" You!" she said, realising who the girl talking to her was, "You're that clumsy girl who spilled my drink and ran off! You do know I was about to give you a warning before you darted away like that didn't you? If those stupid Cravens," she looked around as if to double check the Cravens weren't here; she didn't want to lose any chance of making it back on the team, "didn't intervene. Just, don't do anything stupid like step on my fluffball and I'll let you stick around me..." She glared for emphasis on the last word "Unharmed."\n\n
0 Caedence Beating, what does it look like? 94 Caedence 0 5


Irene Liddowe

December 08, 2006 4:59 PM
Irene almost smacked a hand to froehead when she realized that the girl a few feet away from her was to whom Nathalie had been addressing.

"Oh wow, my bad." Irene said with a small laugh.
"What do you think the dorm'd be like with two puffskeins and our cats in?"

Irene considered her answer before replying, "Furry." Nathalie was playing with a leather satchel that lay in her lap. Irene looked down into her own lap where her puffskein sat in all its fuzzy glory. She decided it needed a name. Names happened to something she was fairly good at, at least in her mind.

"Wait, is it a boy or girl?" She decided she would think of that later, after all, good names take time.

Irene shook herself out of her reverie and looked around as Nath said, ""Sorry, is it OK for Irene and I to sit here?"
\n\n
0 Irene Liddowe ooc: oops wrong button 106 Irene Liddowe 0 5


Hyana Kamiya

December 08, 2006 6:39 PM
Hyana bit her lip so she wouldn't shout out in anger. She had to be calm, she wanted to make peace with this girl. For some odd reason, everything she did was wrong.

"Y-you're right-I mean, you're right." she said, catching her stutter. She couldn't stutter here, not now. She scratched her puffskein and continued, "She did say we could play with them, and it seems fine." She ignored the black comment, because the girl had become very angry.

"I'll let you stick around me, unharmed." Hyana felt like flinching, but stood her ground. If she showed weakness to this girl like her mother, she could get hurt. This was not the place to get hurt.

"Gomenasai sempai. I didn't mean to knock down your drink at the feast. It was a complete accident, and I hope you forgive me." She said and bowed as low as she could. Her puffskein fell to the ground and walked over to the brown puffskein, purring in the same manner. Straightening up after a few seconds, Hyana extended out her hand and said:

"I'm Hyana Kamiya. Is it okay if I were to ask your name sempai?"

OOC Translation
Gomenasai: I'm sorry
Sempai: Upperclassmen\n\n
0 Hyana Kamiya It looks like beating alright, just not the way you mean it 0 Hyana Kamiya 0 5


Meredith Lail

December 09, 2006 10:19 AM
Meredith had done her regular morning stretches after waking up that morning. She got dressed and went to breakfast, her hair in the typical stubby ponytail. Her light blonde hair had grown over the summer, but she made sure to cut it before coming back to school. When she went back to get her bag and whatever she needed for classes that day she saw Saul gathering some first years for his tour group. Meredith couldn’t help but feel slightly empowered by being a second year. Okay, she wasn’t exactly upperclassmen level, but she wasn’t the new kid being stared at anymore. She may still get some stares, but that had nothing to do with her age. That was her personality.

When she got outside where the Care of Magical Creatures class was being held with the first years, Meredith dropped her bag and sat on the ground in a way she fell into over the summer. It was a flat way of sitting on her knees so that all of the side of her leg was touching the ground, rather than just the tops of her knees and shins. She stopped noticing when she did it except when her mother would tell her to stop because apparently it was bad for her knees. Meredith took off her school robe since it was far too beautiful a day to wear the dark heavy thing. She threw it on top of her bag and looked back at Professor K as she started the lesson.

Meredith’s attention was half drawn from the teacher to the crate behind her. Something was making noise in there and Meredith wanted to know what. But she had to sit through introductions and all that. Luckily it didn’t take long to get to the lesson. Professor K pulled out a little yellowish ball of fuzz from the crate. They would be learning about fuzz? Oh! They were puffskeins. If Meredith had spent any time inside her house she might’ve seen a book or two on magical creatures in the library and recognized the little puff critter. She listened and watched Professor K explain about the puffskeins.

The teacher let the students take one of the many baby puffskeins and Meredith was happy to oblige. She got up quickly and made her way to the crate, managing to grab one of the little things. She was about to worry that the things would be crushed under the tons of hands, but she remembered Professor K said they didn’t mind being handled roughly. Meredith backed up and sat back down when she got hers and looked at the ball of fluff in her hand.

“You're kinda cute. I ought to name you little guy.” She said to the puffskein and tossed it in the air. She clapped her hands once and caught it. It purred loudly and happily. She grinned. This was her kind of creature. Of course she loved Pence, but he didn’t like all the rough stuff. He absolutely hated the wagon ride, but this little guy would love it. She hoped Professor K was serious about letting the students keep them. She tossed it up again and clapped twice. She squeezed it and it purred again. “So what should I name you, huh?” She let it in the air a third time, clapped three times and it landed right in her hands.

“What about,” It went up again, but a little too far backwards. Meredith leaned back to catch it and managed to fall over on her back. She opened her eyes after the thud and saw the seemingly upside down student directly behind her. Her head was only inches from the other student. Meredith grinned and caught the puffskein as it came towards her face. It purred in her palms.

“Oops. Went too far again.” She laughed. “Hey there. Did you name your critter yet?” \n\n
0 Meredith Lail Little guy needs a name... 0 Meredith Lail 0 5


Caedence

December 09, 2006 5:20 PM
Caedence stared blankly at the girl. Gomenasai sempai What did that mean? Based on her posture and the bow, she took it to mean, 'sorry ma'am', but wasn't too sure on that. "Caedence." she replied simply. She looked down at her puffskein and saw it licking the other's nose. Well, Caedence guessed the nose would be about there. either way, it was too cute to watch without hurling.

Instead she turned on the first year, "You look like the kind of girl who needs advice dealing with a hostile enemy. Rule number one: Never ever show your neck, they can take that as an opening and strike you down. Rule two: Learn to speak defiantly and straightforward, never uncertainly." She came off sounding like the girl was anoying her, but in truith she was just trying to correct the mistakes the girl made. Imagine her getting into a fight! With mistakes like those, she'd be dead in a millisecond! "Bowing shows respect I hear. Thanks for that. But were I an enemy intent on harming you, a well placed blow to the back of the neck would either break it or cause some real bad pain."

She looked the girl up and down, sizing her up. She didn't look like much, but she seemed the sort that you should watch out for. She also noted the shape of the girl's eyes, "Asian?" she guessed pointing at her eyes. \n\n
0 Caedence Maybe I meant it two ways o.O 94 Caedence 0 5


Hyana

December 09, 2006 5:56 PM
Hyana thought the girl's name had a nice ring to it. Caedence, that really was a nice name. Her puffskein and Caedence's were getting along well, so she didn't have to worry about them. Now she could focus on their conversation.

Hyana was a little shocked when Caedence started giving her "advice". She figured she might be annoying her a bit, but when she thanked her for bowing, she realized Caedence was trying to help her! What a thought! When Caedence finished, Hyana nodded quickly, showing that she understood what she was being told.

Caedence pointed at her eyes and said, "Asian?" Hyana thought about the advice Caedence just gave her and answered with a stronger voice.

"Hai, I am Asian. Well, part asian. My dad was American." She thought quickly and said, "What about you? Where are you from?" She knew it was a stupid thing to ask, but she had to think of something. She didn't want the girl to leave or get annoyed, she seemed to somewhat like her. The feast might have been a start of a rocky friendship.\n\n
0 Hyana Good point... 0 Hyana 0 5


Helena Layne

December 09, 2006 6:27 PM
It wasn't as hot outside as it could get during the summer back home, but Helena was still uncomfortably warm by the time she got to the Care of Magical Creatures area. Sitting down cross-legged on the ground, she twisted her hair up and off her neck one-handed for a moment before letting it fall again. At home, she stayed mostly indoors where the cooling charms worked, and sharing with Lavinia compelled her to keep her room rigidly neat. Here, with the dorm to herself, she had become just enough of a slob that there wasn't enough time to locate a hairclip when she overslept.

It was strange to see the first years and know that they were first years, but also a relief. She had never been the "baby" in her life until the previous year, and the weirdness of it had never completely worn off. In six years, she would be the eldest, which would probably feel even less natural. She had technically been the youngest child for two years, before Lavinia was born, but Geoff had been securely in place as the eldest child and grandchild well before her parents even thought about having her. Shrugging it off, Helena focused on professor Kijewski. Things were back to normal for the moment, and that would do.

She left her robes on despite the heat and Kijewski's permission for the class to discard them. She'd never held with all that nonsense about wizarding dress setting them apart or whatever - at home, she was out of robes a lot more often than she was in them - but they were the school uniform, and it would feel like breaking the dress code. A minor rule, but it was usually pretty obvious when someone broke it. She didn't want to deal with the feeling of being stared at. Shifting her position on the ground, she leaned forward to look at what the professor was holding up and clapped her hands in delight before she realized it.

She had heard of puffskeins, but she'd never seen one or held one. Her family had Pandora for the mail, but other pets had always been deemed impractical; Lavinia was the only member of the family who couldn't remember the fits she'd pitched during her crup and cat stages, but none of it had gotten her what she wanted. When they were told to come get one to play with, Helena was clamoring towards the front right along with everyone else and soon came up with one of the tiny spheres in her right hand. It was humming contentedly from her hand tightening to lift it out.

She carried it back to where she had been sitting, bouncing it very slightly in her hands. Professor Kijewski had said that it wouldn't mind rough handling, but she didn't have it in her to toss the puffskein about like a rubber ball. Instead, smiling so broadly she thought her face might crack, she began petting it, laughing as she dodged its attempt to put its tongue up her nose. It wasn't a good idea to get attached, since the professor surely wasn't serious about letting them keep the creatures, but it was hard not to want to keep it.

She was giving the puffskein another small toss when a thud jerked her head around to look at the girl who had just landed hard on her back in front of her. One of the Pecaris in her year, she thought, the only House to have its members of her year in a close group that she had seen. She smiled at the other girl as she caught her own puffskein as it came down. "I was thinking of Sunny," she said, rubbing her hand in a circle on what she thought would have been the puffskein's back. "I'm not too good with making up names. You?" She would have asked if the other girl - she thought her name was Meredith - was all right, but it seemed unlikely that she would be laughing if she was hurt.
\n\n
16 Helena Layne Had any ideas? 88 Helena Layne 0 5


Darla Park

December 09, 2006 8:33 PM
Classes. Darla, a small girl with Asian features and olive skin, was looking down sadly as she walked into this Care of Magical Creatures class. Darla was simply awful in classes. Being half-blood, her father wanted Darla to be at least slightly educated in Muggle things (she even heard she would have summer school every summer when she got home so she could go to college), so Darla had gone to an Elementary school for her last five-six years. And was always awful at most classes.

Darla sometimes found people who absolutely no problem with school. Those who didn't even have to try to get good grades, or those whose whole life revolved around schoolwork. Darla was not one of these people. She was extremely slow, and only got mediocre grades no matter how hard she tried. Darla's only real talent was cooking, but that wasn't a class. She knew here at Sonora, there was Potions, which was related to cooking. So she may do faily well at that. But other classes? No...

Especially not one like Care of Magical Creatures. If there was anything that Darla couldn't get along with, that was most animals. She normally made them mad, a dog bit her once because she didn't know how to pet it and a cat scratched her when she grabbed it's tail. Darla had no idea how to take care of animals, and she normaly did it wrong. So here was going to be one of her worst classes. She just hoped she wouldn't need too many trips to the Hospital Wing.

But when Darla saw what they were doing today, taking care of puffskeins, she let out a sigh of relief. Her mother had a puffskein once. Apparently, they didn't care what you did to them, they just purred. This was good, this was a creature Darla could handle.

So when the instruction was given, Darla went up to the pen and got herself a puffskein. Accidentally, Darla squeezed it while picking it up, and it purred. Darla smiled, positive any other animal would have attacked her. "I like you," she grinned. "I don't normally like animals, so consider yourself lucky, bud. Now if I'm going to keep you, I suppose you need a name. And I would like to keep you, you know. You're the only one who hasn't made me bleed or bruise in some way." She gave the puffskein another squeeze, and laughed when it purred. "Okay then, names. Hm... I like my dad's name. Carlo, named after his mother's father, Carlo Adriano, from Italy. Or my dad's father's name, Tao Park?"

Darla frowned. "Maybe... a mix? Tarlo? Yeah... Tarlo will do... a mix between Tao and Carlo." Darla then made her way back to where her bag was. Where she was sitting. She noticed another little puffskein near her things, and another person with them. A new friend? Darla smiled and walked up to the person. "Hi, what's your puffskein's name? Mine's Tarlo, a mix between my dad's and grandpa's names."\n\n
0 Darla Park Whoo! No work! 0 Darla Park 0 5


Josh Santoro

December 09, 2006 10:24 PM
Josh Santoro was a twelve year old Spanish American boy with dark brown hair and matching brown eyes. He was also a semi-quiet boy with a slightly reserved nature about him. At least until a person got him talking. If ever in a comfortable situation, Josh would be more than happy to talk...and talk...and talk some more. Much like his twin brother would do. Well, technically speaking, much like any of his siblings would do.

Care of Magical Creatures wasn't one of Josh's favorite classes. Not to say he hated it, because he didn't, but he liked classes like Transfiguration, Charms, or Potions. He got to do things with his wand and the closer he got to creating the best pranks to help him and his brother, the happier Josh was. So, the walk down to class, Josh had remained quiet and sullen.

Sitting there and listening to the professor talk, Josh took it upon himself to look around at the other students. There were a lot of first years this year. Josh wondered if the older students had felt like that last year when he had been a first year. After another moment of thought, Josh wondered if this year he would make a few more friends than last. His roommate wasn't necessarily the most social of people around him and he constantly saw him with those Aladren girls. Matt says the same could be said for Echo. As cool as Echo was, he only ever hung out with Meredith and Elly. They were cool too, but everyone seemed to have their little cliques and Matt and Josh were left to discover and learn the school on their own.

Both of them were hoping for something a little different this year.

Josh picked up the first puffskein he could get his hands on. It was brownish in color and a bit smallish in size. It's tongue waved around as if testing the air around it. Josh smiled slightly. He wasn't terribly fond of puffskeins as they seemed to do nothing at all, but they were so innocent in appearance and helpless that Josh couldn't help but like them. Plus, they were probably the only form of pet that his mother was willing to allow them to have. She claims having nine children were plenty enough not to own any pets too.

"Well now, what should you be called. Can't go around without a name..." Josh thought for a moment. Suddenly, a wizard's name came to mind. His Uncle. The first man who had ever shown Josh a trick. "How about, Benitoro? Benny for short? Yeah, I like that. You'll be Benitoro." Josh said with a proud grin. Walking, Josh failed to notice a bookbag laying on the ground. His foot caught it at the wrong angle and Josh went straight to the ground while Benny went soaring through the air and away from Josh.

"HEY, Someone grab Benny for me!" Josh called out, struggling to get up from the ground and hoping someone would keep watch on Benny for him.\n\n
0 Josh Santoro *Sigh* 0 Josh Santoro 0 5


Hannah

December 09, 2006 11:39 PM
Hannah looked from one girl to the other. How embarrassing, she had been about to reply to the one, but obviously she had been addressing the other. Hannah shifted her eyes away slightly in mortification, until it was made clear that she had been being addressed. Hannah smiled brightly at both girls.

"Yes, please do," she said in her soft Louisiana accent. "Aren't they adorable?"

With this, she affectionately petted her puffskein.

"I was just trying to find more information on them," she stated, gesturing to the book in her lap. "Oh, my name is Hannah."

"And yours is Irene, yes?" She asked, looking at the one girl. At the other, she appeared a little lost for she hadn't gotten hers, "And you are?"\n\n
0 Hannah Sorry, been busy. 0 Hannah 0 5


Danae Dupree

December 10, 2006 12:43 AM
Care of Magical Creatures was anything, but Danae's idea of fun. She wasn't planning on being around anything more than maybe a kneezle in her lifetime and therefore, thought of the class as useless. With heavy shoulders, she approached the part of the outdoors where class was held. She dropped her rather large bag onto the ground and sat down next to it. She hated being outside. It was always noisy and involved bugs. She hated bugs. Why couldn't they be inside, where nothing was nipping at her delicate skin?

She attempted not to sigh heavily, as she listened to Professor K's lecture. All in all, she wasn't a bad professor, just taught a horrendous class. Apparently, today they would be working with puffskeins, which she figured it could always have been worse.

Slowly, getting up, she headed towards the pen when someone shouted, 'HEY, Someone grab Benny for me!' The little creature was aiming straight for her. Automatically, Danae caught it with her hands. She petted it softly, as she went over to the boy, who appeared to have tripped over someone else's bag.

"Here," Danae said, handing him the puffskein, "Are you okay?"

\n\n
0 Danae Dupree And *sigh* some more 91 Danae Dupree 0 5


Irene Liddowe

December 10, 2006 1:48 AM
The girl seemed to be in the same predicament that Irene was in just now; awkward and embarrassed. Irene took a seat when the girl asked them to join.

The girl commented on the puffskeins in a southern accent. Irene nodded eargerly saying,
"They're terrific! I'm still trying to think up a name! I think this one calls for a very long name," she said, aware of how strange her Michigan accent sounded compared to the other two's different accents.

"I was just trying to find more information on them,"

Irene nodded, telling her that it was a good idea to do so. She took out her own book from her back and flipped through the pages until she reached "Puffskein"

The other girl had introduced herself as Hannah, also saying,

"And yours is Irene, yes?"

"Yep, you got it. Irene Liddowe," she said holding out her hand.
"We're in Pecari. What house are you in?" \n\n
0 Irene Liddowe No problem. Me too. 106 Irene Liddowe 0 5


Elly Eriksson

December 10, 2006 12:29 PM
The first year boy introduced himself as Josiah Ashwood. He seemed friendly enough, and Elly wouldn’t mind talking to him again, so she tried to commit the name to memory. “So do you want me to call you Josiah or do you prefer Jo? Or do have nickname or anything?” Elly thought Josiah was a nice name, but pretty long; she didn’t like names with more than two syllables. Meredith was now Mere (or Merry when Elly could get away with it), and Leonardo had been Leo almost immediately.

Josiah said he was going to name his puffskein Teppers. Elly took Custard from her shoulder and popped it in the nest Josiah had made with his robes, so that Custard and Teppers could play together. “I’ve named mine Custard,” she said, grinning.

Then Josiah asked what house Elly was in. Well, actually, he said, “So what’s your house? Someone as pretty as you deserves to reside somewhere similarly beautiful.”

Elly raised an eyebrow at him. Was this kid being an arse or did he really believe that flattery got you everywhere? Either way, he had just called her pretty, so Elly continued to smile at him. “Well I’m in Pecari,” Elly said. “The best house, naturally,” she added, grinning wider.

“So you’re a Teppenpaw, huh? Gil’s in Teppenpaw,” Elly said idly. She leant over and petted Custard, who purred in delight.
\n\n
0 Elly Eriksson I'm glad my reputation preceeds me *grins* 92 Elly Eriksson 0 5


Meredith

December 10, 2006 2:38 PM
Meredith flipped herself onto her stomach, brushing grass from her hair, when the other girl spoke. She was trying to put a name to the face. She had seen her in classes, probably in Cascade Hall a few times, but had never actually sat and spoke to her. She wondered why since the girl seemed nice. She mentally shrugged, and looked at the puffskein in her hands. There were a million possibilities to name it. Thinking of a name wasn’t the problem. It was choosing one that was her issue. She had the same trouble when she named TinTin. She picked the name when he started tearing apart the tinfoil her mother was using to keep a roast warm.

“Sunny is a perfectly fine name for it. I like it. I haven’t got a name for mine just yet.” Meredith squeezed the little thing again and listened to its happy purring. “How about—no…maybe—nah. Oh! What about Dot? Yeah, I like Dot. It’s just a little dot of yellow. What do you think about that, Dot?” Meredith pushed herself up into her odd sitting position. She tossed Dot in the air and clapped five times, catching it again. Its happy sounds were loud. “I’ll take that as a yes.” Meredith gave Dot a rest from tossing and just pet it, not really able to tell what she was petting, but she assumed it was either its stomach or back.

“Pence is going to love this little guy.” She told the girl, a name sort of connected, but still seemed a little off for some reason. Probably because it was. “Pence is my mouse. He’ll probably mistake Dot for a pillow and fall asleep on it. Do you have any other pets? Oh, I’m Meredith, by the way. You’re Helen, right?” She asked sounding the name out slowly. She crossed her fingers jokingly, as if praying she got the name right. She didn’t want any hard feelings, but she couldn’t really be blamed for not knowing. They had never really met before. Plus, she was pretty sure she was at least close with the name.\n\n
0 Meredith Tons, but it's hard to pick one 0 Meredith 0 5


Josh

December 10, 2006 3:31 PM
Josh watched in both a semi-horror semi-hypnotized way as his new Puffskein went sailing into the arms of a girl. Happy to know that Benny was safe, but also worried that the girl would take him for herself, Josh quickly detangled his feet from the strap of the bookbag and scampered back up to his feet.

Once on his feet, the girl had already reached him. Josh took Benny from her with a grateful smile. "Hey, thanks, nearly lost him there." Josh said, giving Benny a nice pet and listening to him purr in his hands. It was amazing how quickly it was to become attached to another creature. "Yeah, I'm fine, stupid bookbag though." Josh said, looking down at the discarded bookbag and giving it a small kick for emphasis.

"You're in my brother's house, right?" Josh asked, looking at the girl a bit more closely. He didn't know her from anyone else, but recognized her from classes and around the school. "I'm Josh Santoro. Did you get a puffskein yet?"\n\n
0 Josh Okay, enough of the sighing 0 Josh 0 5


Paul Tarwater

December 10, 2006 5:20 PM
During Paul's little therepy of squeezing his puffskein, and keeping his eyes away from his evil little sister, he was thinking up names. The simplest one came to his mind, Sanctuary. Because thats what this little guy felt like to Paul. His Sanctuary from school and Cissy. Sanctuary was like Lussni and Beating combined. Soft and warm, yet good to release frustration on. Of course, he wouldn't give up his odd cat or Beating, it was just Sanctuary was his third option.

Then Paul heard something that made his ears want to bleed. And made him squeeze Santuary so hard, the little puffskeins purr was the loudest ever.

“Well I’m in Pecari... The best house, naturally...”

He turned to the general direction of the voice. Of course, Elly Erickkson. Cissy had told him about her a few days ago on the Quidditch Pitch. This girl was the reason Cissy was even more mad when she reached Paul. And the reason Paul had four more deep cuts added to his stomach. And also, according to his sister, she was one of the stuck-up Pecaris. Like that was any vaguer.

Normal people, like the Mudblood Grail in his house, would keep quiet after a statment like that. Not Paul, the stinging pain in his stomach pushed him forward. And gave him a reason to butt into the first year and stuck-up Pecaris' conversation.

"The best house," he scoffed. "Like Pecari was so good about the Quidditch game last year. Making it out like Teppenpaw shouldn't have won. The best house because people are hyper and 'outgoing' and annoying? And people make fun of the Crotali and call them stuck-up. Hah, at least they're quiet and follow rules. Unlike your so-called 'best' house." Paul was burning inside now. He wanted to say even ruder things to the girl. Wanted to yell at her for causing Cissy so much anger, in turn causing Paul so much pain. He was near shaking now, and squeezed Santuary even harder. Clutched him in hand.

"Just saying that makes you stuck-up. I feel bad for anyone who talks to you," Paul hissed, turning his cold blue eyes on the Tepp boy. "Especially any actually nice person." If the boy was a Tepp like the Idoya boy, he had to be nice.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
0 Paul Tarwater Just had to butt in 0 Paul Tarwater 0 5


Elly

December 10, 2006 6:01 PM
Elly’s conversation with Josiah was interrupted as a sneering voice mimicked Elly’s words. Momentarily stunned by the turn of affairs, Elly blinked stupidly up at the offender before her senses returned to her and she recognised Paul Tarwater. He went on a bit of a rant about how he disliked Pecaris, and Elly’s conversation with his sister Sierra came flooding back to her in a horrible wave, like someone had poured cold water down her back. Even as Paul’s rude words flowed from his mouth, Elly remembered her promise to herself that she would be nice to him next time she saw him. Oh well, promises sometimes had to be broken.

“I feel bad for anyone who talks to you.”

Elly wasn’t one for confrontation, it scared her a bit, but she wasn’t about to sit and take slander from an almost complete stranger. Trying to keep her expression neutral, Elly pushed herself up from her comfy seat on the ground and stood at her full height, which, she was pleased to notice, was taller than Tarwater.

“I’m sorry,” Elly said, “have I done something to offend you?” Her tone wasn’t vicious, but she hadn’t quite managed neutral; an ounce of annoyance had slipped in unwarranted. Elly felt bad for Josiah – she didn’t think he’d want to witness an argument, and she certainly hadn’t wanted him to think she was the sort of person who got into conflicts with other students. She realised her hands were clenched, so she unclenched them. But then she realised her hands were shaking, so she clenched them again. Elly wished Caedence was there, she’d be able to talk down Paul.
\n\n
0 Elly Why? You're not wanted here. 0 Elly 0 5


Paul

December 10, 2006 7:21 PM
After Paul's little rant, he realized how hard Sanctuary was being squeezed. Slowly he gave the little guy room to breath, and a loud purr escaped Sanctuary. He was breathing raggedly now, trying to get his anger under control. Even if this Elly girl was a stuck-up little Pecari brat, he shouldn't have snapped. How was she to know what pissing Sierra Tarwater off would do to him? And either way, Paul knew his sister. this girl would get something in her bed one night.

It was what she said, responding to Paul, that made him even angrier. Had she done anything to offend him? "Well obviously," he snapped. "Except I don't think you realize how much that statement made you sound like you had a superiority complex, so I'll forgive you for that. Especially since you probably do have that." Most of that sentence came out sarcastic, instead of the last one that was more of a spiteful growl. Stupid stereotypical Pecaris thinking they're the greatest, when they weren't (not that he absolutely loved the other houses, Paul didn't like nice people because they showed too much pity, smart people could become insane or stuck-up, and Crotalus people was normally the pureblood families that looked down on his). Stupid Elly, and stupid Cissy, causing his physical pain.

Paul had half a mind (the foolish, angry half) to open up his shirt right now and show Elly exactly what her stupid mouth did to him. Would she be so superior then? Seeing what Cissy could do with a wand and a mind full of hate. But with an uneasy glance towards his little sister, he quickly shot the foolish idea down. If he did, Cissy would no doubt hurt him even more for it later. There was also the idea of getting in trouble with the teachers for... flashing... someone. But that wasn't as bad as what Cissy could do. Instead, he clutched his stomach with the puffskein in his hand, digging and squeezing sanctuary into the cuts, maybe the sharp pain and pressure would bring more sensible thoughts back.

"And stop acting so perfect. It makes it more obvious how annoyingly hypocritical you are," he said again, the pain keeping malice from his voice. Paul honestly didn't know Elly, here he quoted his sister. And he decided to point that out, let Cissy get hated for once. "A message Cissy wanted to pass on." Finally he let go of his stomach, and Sanctuary purred loudly again. Paul felt a bit of moisture on his stomach and wrapped his robes closer in. He was bleeding again, dang. He turned away from Elly and the Tepp boy and walked over to the Professor. These cuts hurt long enough, and he could think of a good excuse for where he got them.\n\n
0 Paul Hence the word "butt" in... 0 Paul 0 5


Law Cooper

December 10, 2006 9:18 PM
Law, never one to be too confident about anything related to academics, was actually excited about Care of Magical Creatures. For one, it was outside, which was of course his favorite place to be. Also important, it lookied like they were actually going to get to work with animals, not just sit around all day and take notes.

He didn't want to get his uniform dirty, so instead he wore baggy jeans and a blue button-down flannel shirt, hoping the teacher wouldn't mind too much. Besides it was hot, and Law got embarrassed about getting really sweaty around people he didn't know, who tended to think it was really gross. Running a hand through his mousy brown curly hair, he was relieved to find that he wasn't sweating horribly. Which was good to know, considering he was still having trouble to adjust to the warm weather of Sonora, even if it was controlled by climate spells.

Sitting on a large rock towards the left of the class and putting his bookbag down next to him, and directed his attention towards the front. He was in luck, the teacher seemed pretty nice. She didn't seem to care about uniforms, at any rate.

Puffskeins. Law couldn't help but be disappointed. There wasn't anything particularly wrong with them, in fact a couple of the local girls kept them as pets. It was just that they didn't really do much of anything but purr and just kind of sit there. The brown-eyed boy had been hoping for something a little more interesting.

Not as excited as when he had first walked to the class, Law stuck his hand in the bin and picked up the first Puffskein his hand could grab, a runty kind of golden-brown colored one. He held it in his hand and, as expected, it just sat there. Great, now he had to figure out what to do with it for the rest of the period.

Out of no where the little fuzz ball jumped out of his hands and started crawling off, and his jaw dropped. Well there was something he hadn't been expecting. He chased the little thing and watched it crawled to some girl's stuff. Great. Dashing through a herd of students, he made his way towards the fuzz ball and scooped it up.

Face red from embarrassment, he was about to apologize to the girl, when he realized it was Darla. She was the girl in his house and year who he'd met at the Welcome Feast. The red in his face started to go down, he didn't feel so embarrassed about losing the fuzz ball in front of someone he kind of knew.

"Never thought about naming it," Law confessed, "It's just a ball of fuzz, really."\n\n
0 Law Cooper chasing after the fuzz ball 0 Law Cooper 0 5


Elly

December 11, 2006 2:58 AM
Elly had asked Paul if she had offended him. “Well obviously,” he snapped in reply. Elly was about to ask what she could possibly have done, seeing as this was the first time they had ever spoken to each other, but Tarwater just carried on. Elly couldn’t understand why he was being so rude. What was wrong with him?

Paul looked away for just a moment – Elly didn’t notice where – and she took her opportunity to voice her thoughts. “What’s wrong with you?” she asked, though it wasn’t really a question. Her voice was a bit weird and high.

“And stop acting so perfect,” Paul shot back. “It makes it more obvious how annoyingly hypocritical you are. A message Cissy wanted to pass on.” Then he just turned and left, and Elly stood staring, agape, at his retreating back. What was his problem? At least she had been right about Cissy, Elly thought. That sweetness had all been an act – it had been the way she allowed the word ‘Mudblood’ to just roll off her tongue that had made Elly suspicious.

Elly continued standing there for a moment, her hands still shaky, her chest feeling a bit tight. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and suddenly remembered Josiah still sitting behind her. “Sorry about that,” Elly said to him, sitting back down on the grass. Her legs felt a bit wobbly, and when Elly looked up at Josiah she realised he was a bit blurry to her eyes. No! she thought. Don’t cry! But it was too late. Elly hugged her knees into her chest, wrapped her arms around her legs, buried her head in her knees and started to cry. She didn’t know if she was upset about the Tarwaters or relieved it was over or both, but she couldn’t stop the tears from streaming down her face.
\n\n
0 Elly *sniggers* 0 Elly 0 5


Josaih

December 11, 2006 4:18 PM
Josaih was left staring dumbly after the boy's retreating back. He had come into their conversation and started insulting this perfectly nice girl. What was wrong with him anyways? He seemed to have anger issues, "You-!" he started in a yell, but bit it back sure that it would only bring more strife. His mother wouldn't be happy if he brought shame to the family name and father would be furious he couldn't keep his temper under check. "What a prat, eh? Wonder what bit his butt!" He joked, after a moment turning back to Elly. His mouth dropped open in shock.

She was crying! That stupid boy made her cry! To heck with honor! To heck with his stupid father! His wand was in his hand before he knew it. His knuckles stood out white. A few unwanted sparks sprouted from the tip. "That little..." he couldn't find any proper adjective, so he let the sentance fade off.

Elly's sobs stoped his persuit, however. For once in his life Josiah didn't feel like a flirty boy. He felt a sort of brotherly feeling for this girl. Sorry about that. her voice cut straight into him, furthering his anger at the boy. He scooted up beside her, placing a comforting arm around her.

"There is nothing to be sorry about Elly! Nothing! That stupid boy...if I had my way I'd make him sorry he ever spoke to you. Shh. Don't worry Elly. Don't let him get to you!" he whispered slowly and soothingly in her ear hugging her slightly when he finished.\n\n
0 Josaih o.o -.- o.o what was that?! 0 Josaih 0 5


Caedence

December 11, 2006 4:26 PM
"'Hi'?" she asked raising an eyebrow at her. "oh..."she said realising, "'Yes'. Sorry I thought..." "What about you? Where are you from?" Caedence flinched as if a whip had struck her. She gave the girl a piercing glare.

"It doesn't matter where I am from. I don't wish to tell you of my home. America, happy? I'm a hundred percent American!" She snapped. Breathing heavily she surpressed the memories of her summer. "Sting!Sting!" the voices echoed in her head. She shook her head violently in an attempt to dislodge the memories.

"It doesn't matter where I'm from..."she repeated in a whisper looking away. She attempted to look the girl back in her eye, but her firm gaze was wavering. 'Lock eyes, stare 'em down!' she thought mentally slapping herself. Her gaze became more firm. A challenging glare, daring the girl to inquire further. 'Let her ask her stupid questions when her tounge is hexed to the roof of her mouth!' she thought though in reality she couldn't do that; she hadn't the skill. \n\n
0 Caedence ahh wrong thing to ask her....*hides* 94 Caedence 0 5


Elly

December 11, 2006 5:41 PM
Elly couldn’t believe she was actually crying – she’d never cried at school before. She was trying to calm herself down, and then she felt someone shift beside her, and an arm wrapped itself round her shoulders. “Don’t worry Elly. Don’t let him get to you,” Josiah’s voice said gently in her ear. Elly was torn between feeling completely stupid at breaking down in front of a stranger, and totally overwhelmed at how nice said stranger was being. She sniffed loudly and lifted her head just a little off her knees.

“I’m sorry,” she said again, but it was so quiet she wasn’t sure if Josiah had heard it. Get a grip, her head was screaming at her. Taking her own advice, Elly lifted her palms to her eyes and forcibly removed any tears from her face. She knew she looked ghastly when she cried, though – her face went all pink and blotchy – so she didn’t hold her head very high and she stared resolutely at her shoes.

“I don’t know why it upset me so much,” she said, honestly. “I’ve never had any problems with him before. He’s in my year, you see,” Elly said, in case Josiah hadn’t picked that up. She shook her head and wiped her eyes again. She didn’t want the Tarwaters to ruin her friendship with Josiah, and she refused to let it. “Is Custard okay?” she said, trying a smile, and managing a small one.
\n\n
0 Elly An interruption. We can ignore it now. 0 Elly 0 5


Kaleb Heindrich

December 11, 2006 5:45 PM
Picking up a puffskein, Kaleb smiled one of his very sly smiles. He threw it up in the air and caught it. Indeed the puffskein purred. "Hmmm, you need a name." He said as he threw it at one of the other kids.

"YO, throw it back!" he yelled at the kid.

He needed to give it a funny name. After all, the little reputation he had at Sonora needed a boost. Should he name it 'an old lady with cookies'? No, too long. "How about Softball? After all, you are pretty much a living softball!"

It wasn't the greatest name, but it would do. He really needed a lot of time to come up with a good name. Maybe he should wait to name it. "Nevermind, I'll just call you softball for now and I'll give you a real name later."\n\n
0 Kaleb Heindrich DODGEBALL!!!!!!!!! 0 Kaleb Heindrich 0 5


Danae

December 11, 2006 7:41 PM
Danae smiled some more and brushed back her longish, dark chestnut colored hair with one hand. She hasn't been sure with Santoro this was until he asked about her being in his brother's House. She nodded in response.

"Nice to meet you. I was just on my way to get a puffskein," she replied. "Oh, I'm Danae Dupree."

She knew of the Santoro name, but didn't know much else, as much of her time outside of school was spent at her family's home in France. She waited in curiousity to see what type of reaction her last name had, as the Duprees were considered to be well known in the United States, in addition to France and Quebec, Canada.

As she grew older, she was learning that while most knew the name, they also knew that the Dupree family consisted of Pureblood elitists. Her cousin, Nicoletta, being the worst Dupree at Sonora. While Danae could be snobby, she wasn't completely sure where her loyalities lay yet. It had been drilled into her birth that anyone less than Pure wasn't worth life, but being at Sonora had become an eye opener, as she observed other students.\n\n
0 Danae Really? I happen to enjoy it 0 Danae 0 5


Jae

December 11, 2006 7:43 PM
Assured that Mika would take good care of Todd, Jae decided to play with the crutches. But when he put them down on the ground, he realised that they were really, really big! Mika must be super tall when he wasn't in his wheelchair. Or at least taller than Jae. At 4'4", he wasn't the biggest kid around. A little bit disappointed, Jae gave up on the crutches and returned them to Mika. Todd was still there, though, and looking at Mika's Sloyka.

"The crutches are too big. But that's okay! Hey, are you going to name your Sloy-ka? And what house are you in? Saul says that I'm a Pecari. I don't really get what that means, except that I turned brown at the Feast. Oh, and I get to be in Saul's House. Saul is cool. He told me not to play with my wandstick, and what me turning brown meant. And then we ate. Did you have fun at the feast?"

Jae had fun at the feast. He had learned stuff too. And then he had gotten to go to his House, even though you had to talk to a suit of armor to get in. And you had to say really weird things about mess removers. Except, that changed sometimes, at least according to his Hoho, who was also the Potions teacher. Potions didn't have cool acronyms, like Dayda and Comec, so that wasn't fun. But Saul said there was a fifth year called Stephen that made Corridor Rides, too. Jae wanted to find him so he could see what that was.\n\n
0 Jae Sorry for the delay 0 Jae 0 5


Darla

December 11, 2006 9:21 PM
Darla smiled seeing it was the boy she met on her first day, Law. She watched as he scooped up his puffskein and admitted to not thinking of naming it. Here she frowned a bit. "But... it's still a creature. Every creature deserves its own name. Even if it is just a ball of fuzz," Darla muttered, looking at her own puffskein. Names. "Mine's Tarlo, after my dad and grandpa, Carlo and Tao. Now we have to figure out one for yours..."

Darla paused and looked at the puffskein in Law's hands. "He looks like the perfect marshmallow in a s'more," Darla grinned. Golden brown, and he looked soft too. "How does the name S'more sound to you? Or something to do with marshmallows? Mallow? Marshy?" Darla realized she was talking food again, randomly. She couldn't help it, food and cooking was her favorite subject. "Uh... or anything you want..." she added, not wanting to sound bossy.

Darla then decided to move onto another subject. "I'm glad it's puffskeins we're learning about," she mentioned. "I'm awful with animals, I end up handling them wrong all the time and they make me bleed one way or another. I always wanted a pet, just didn't know how to treat then," Darla rambled. "But a puffskein wouldn't care how I handle it, so it would make a good pet. What do you think?"

"I'm also bad at school, despite the fact my dad thinks education is the most important thing in someone's life," Darla shrugged. It wasn't like he pressured her, it was more she knew she wasn't the daughter he'd hoped for grade-wise. "He's making me go to a Muggle summer school too, so I can go to college." Darla frowned slightly. School over the summer, you had to be a maniac to make that up. "My dad is a Muggle, mom's a witch. How about your family?"\n\n
0 Darla Cute fuzz ball =] 0 Darla 0 5


Paul Tarwater

December 11, 2006 9:34 PM
So the stupid Pecari girl was crying now. Pah, it wasn't like Paul said anything cruel about her personally, except for the Cissy side note and the bits about her being a stereotypical Pecari. Which she had just proved, trying to make him out as the bad guy. He doubted she even listened to anything but the insults. Probably thought she was all high and mighty, was too thick to even try and glance at the truth. He gave Sanctuary a squeeze.

Stupid Pecaris. Stupid Elly.

Ouch. Paul checked his white button up shirt. It was staining a little red from the cuts. Adding onto that, stupid Cissy. He glanced over at his little sister, she glared at him, squeezing her own puffskein hard. Paul's have to get that away from her. But Paul hadn't walked away from Elly and the Tepp boy (who had grown angry at him, probably also to thick to glance at the truth) to start a fight with his sister. Paul was going to get help for his cut from the Professor.

He'd thought up a believable lie. That his cat scratched him. While the cuts on Paul's chest were too far apart to be really cat scratches, it was the only thing he could think of. Paul had these cuts for days and all they did was keep opening up and bleeding again. He figured enough was enough, and that something was wrong. Either the cuts were very deep, or Paul's body was very weak. He guessed the latter.

Making it up to Professor K, Paul took a second to place his straight face on. "Professor?" he muttered. "My cat scratched me a few days ago, and the cuts keep bleeding. And, well..." Gently, he opened his robe up a bit to show the little trace of blood on his shirt. "Like I said, this happened days ago and it just keeps bleeding. I think something is wrong. Can I go to the Hospital Wing to see?" The usual cold blue eyes looked slightly hopeful, as Paul wanted to get awayfrom everyone in here.\n\n
0 Paul Tarwater Moving up... PROFESSOR 0 Paul Tarwater 0 5


Helena

December 11, 2006 10:30 PM
Helena chuckled at the reasoning behind the other girl's puffskein's name. "I get it," she said, starting to toss Sunny gently from hand to hand. "It's a good name. I picked mine mostly because it can work as Sunny for a female or Sonny for a male." The only Sonny Helena had ever heard of was a character on her mother's favorite WWN soap, but most of the characters on it had normal names, a sharp contrast to the abnormal drama of their "lives". Helena had started following one of Sonny's story arcs over the summer, but had given up on it in the more immediate drama of Geoff's adventures in romance.

She listened to Meredith talk about her mouse, then shrugged when asked about other pets. "My parents got us an owl for the mail when I was about seven. My brother Geoffrey was on a Greek kick when we got her, so the poor thing wound up named Pandora." Helena suspected their father's snotty former boss of the same name had also had her part in Geoff's executive decision, but it didn't really matter. Pandora Phillips had moved on to her next post nearly six months before they got the owl. "Unless we get to keep these, though, Panny's all I've got."

Helena laughed good-naturedly at the way her name was sounded out. "Not bad, for a first guess," she joked, reverting to stroking Sunny. "I'm Helena." She gave Meredith a slightly crooked grin. "You can call me Helen if you want to, though. It's a change from Lena and Lenny." She had never understood how people got Lenny from Helena, which had more of a 'lee' sound in the middle. Her namesake Grandmother Corin had the 'len-ah' sound to her name, but she was British, not South Carolinian. She still answered to it, though, because it was more curiosity than annoyance and people would think she was crazy if she started going off about being Hel-lee-na instead of Hel-len-ah. \n\n
16 Helena I just picked the first one that sprang to mind. 88 Helena 0 5


Mika

December 12, 2006 12:13 AM
Mika took back his crutches, and they shrunk down again and he stowed them under his wheelchair. "Sorry, I guess I am taller than you." He said. Mika sometimes forgot he was on the tallish side, since he was sitting most of the time.

"I will name him if we get to keep them." He nodded. His sloyka was chirping at Todd, making odd little cooing noises that was sloyka-speak. "I do not know what though. I am in Aladren. Houses, I think, are sorted by personality types. I don't know what Pecari's traits are supposed to be like. Aladren's like to read, and problem solve. My mother also told me not to play with my... wandstick..." He raised an eyebrow, finding that particular choice of word rather odd, but hey, what did he know, Mika didn't speak English natively. Mika pulled his 'wandstick' out from his sleeve showing it to Yae. It was a rather unique wand, and looked black, it was made of Yew.

"I know some spells already, my mother taught me." he tucked his wand back into his sleeve again "I did not have fun at the feast." He shook his head a bit, "Nobody would speak to me." He shrugged. \n\n
0 Mika It's Groovy 0 Mika 0 5


Law Cooper

December 12, 2006 5:31 PM
The animal rights speech. Law had heard it a couple of times before, usually from his cousins on his mother's side. It wasn't that he didn't care about animals, really, some were pretty cool, but they weren't his favorite thing in the world to think about.

"S'more is cool," he replied to the marshmallow rant, which was starting to get him kind of hungry. He was always hungry though, so that didn't matter too much. Law watched the puffskein, now officially dubbed S'More, crawl up his arm to sit atop his shoulder as Darla continued.

"Why would an animal want to attack you?" he asked her, genuinely confused. Most animals could take a little bit of rough housing, and besides, from what little he knew of her, he didn't think Darla was a bad person. She was a Teppnpaw, she had to be at least a little kind. And animals usually seemed to respond well to people like that.

"I think I might give it to Gnome, for the holidays," Law thought aloud, then realized that Darla would have no idea what he was talking about, "She's my cousin. Naomi's her real name, but everyone calls her Gnome because she's so little."

"That's crazy stuff, about the summer school, I mean," he said, shaking his head incredulously. He couldn't see either of his parents making him go to extra school, and his mom was a teacher. No, for the Coopers of Oregon, just having a magical education would be good enough.

"My parents are both magic- my dad's mom was a pureblood and his dad was a muggle, though. My mom's parents were both magic, but both her parents were halfbloods. I'm not exactly sure what that makes me."\n\n
0 Law Cooper I don't do cute 0 Law Cooper 0 5


Hyana

December 12, 2006 7:16 PM
Hyana tensed a bit. She was right, her question had been stupid. She didn't even know Caedence that well yet. And she asked her something personal! How stupid could she get?! "Gomenasai Caedence-sempai. I didn't mean to upset you. If there's anything you wish to know about me, just ask."

Hyana started to bow, but remembered Caedence's advice. She didn't want a physical example. Straightening up quickly, she gave Caedence a small smile. Hopefully Caedence would happily ask her something, and they're puffskeins could play a while longer. They seemed to be enjoying they're playtime.\n\n
0 Hyana Yes I think so 0 Hyana 0 5


Nathalie

December 13, 2006 3:29 PM
Irene and the girl who had called herself as Hannah seemed to be making friends straight away, and Nathalie felt slightly like a third wheel. Digging in her satchel for her textbook to hide this, she decided to make herself useful and at least read up on Puffskiens. Irene seemed to have had the same idea, and Hannah was checking her own copy too. They seemed to be rather eager when it came to textbook-reading.

"None of them have names yet." Nath pointed out, noticing how soft and insignificant her voice seemed to be against Irene's strong accent. She was glad that she hadn't yet made any enormous errors, like she had the first week she'd lived in Montana. She'd gone to the shops with her mother and they'd decided to get lunch. Nathalie had asked for chips, and had then been forced to consume cheerily the enormous plate of crisps the bemused cafe-owner had brought over. Nathalie said; "I think I might call mine Gisele. What about you two?"\n\n
0 Nathalie I just don't have an excuse, really. 0 Nathalie 0 5


Josaih (tiny bit of Caedence)

December 13, 2006 4:32 PM
Josiah flashed Elly a big grin. She was going to be okay! He glared hotly at Paul. Then he turned back to Elly. "I'm sorry

He stared at her. She was sorry? What had she to be sorry for? It was that stupid boy that had caused her so much grief. "No no no, don't be sorry never be sorry!" He said soothingly giving her another little big-brother hug.

He glanced at his puffskein. It was roling back and forth, knocking into Custard and purring. Then it would back off adn give Custard a little lick. "Ummm, I think they made a little tribal ritual?" he said jokingly.

"Elly, are you all right over there!?" Called a voice. Josiah turned to see a very angry blonde girl with a familiar braid.

"Don't worry hun, I'm helping her, it's nothing!" Josiah called back.

"DONT YOU DARE CALL ME 'HON'!" Caedence exploded.

"Okay, hun, whatever. Look, I'm handling this!" Josiah called a bit miffed.

Caedence contemplated this for a bit and finally called, "Tell me if you need anything, Elly! I'll catch you later!"

Josaih rolled his eyes. "That girl seems really...scary. Do you know her?" he asked Elly. Akwardly, he pulled a sky blue handkercheif bearing his family coat-of-arms and handed it to her to help her clean up her face. \n\n
0 Josaih (tiny bit of Caedence) Good, back to the happy! 94 Josaih (tiny bit of Caedence) 0 5


Caedence (bit 'o Josiah)

December 13, 2006 4:39 PM
Caedence softened a bit. Of course this girl knew nothing of her family. How could she? "it's nothing...home's a touchy subject for me. I'd rather not talk about it, that is all." She said. A time not too long ago she would have challenged the poor girl to a duel. With a wicked grin she recalled her fight a year previous and a shudder when she remembered Elly getting sick of Caedence's temper.

Glancing around for a change of topic, she saw Elly and Paul talking. That stupid flirty boy was nearby as well. Then they seemed to be...fighting? Paul walked away and the stupid flirty boy was looking as if he wanted to channel Caedence, and Caedence saw why. Elly was crying! Paul made her cry! Glancing back at Hyana, she thought that it would be best not to lose her temper and scare the poor girl. "Hold on..." she called.

"Elly, are you all right over there!?" she called

"Don't worry hun, I'm helping her, it's nothing!" Josiah called back.

"DONT YOU DARE CALL ME 'HON'!" Caedence exploded.

"Okay, hun, whatever. Look, I'm handling this!" Josiah called a bit miffed.

Caedence contemplated this for a bit and finally called, "Tell me if you need anything, Elly! I'll catch you later!"

Turning back to Hyana, she asked, "so...you said I could ask you any questions? Play quidditch? We could meet on the pitch sometime..." She glanced at her puffskein. It was purring happily. She picked it up and tossed it in the air, catching it when it came back down again. She continued doing this while she waited. The Puffskein's purring became even louder. It was enjoying itself! "Wanna toss my puffball back and forth?" she suggested off-handedly.\n\n
0 Caedence (bit 'o Josiah) Ah well *shrugs* 94 Caedence (bit 'o Josiah) 0 5


Irene Liddowe

December 13, 2006 6:58 PM
Nathalie had spoken up, asking about names. She was glad she did. She needed something to do besides read the textbook.

"Gisele's nice!" Irene began, giving Nath's puffskein a sizing up. SHe decided that the name seemed to fit.

"I'm going to take a wild guess that this is a boy, so I'm going to call him Otis." Irene was one of those people who chose names that were short but sweet. Hearing the purrinf of the puffskeins from all directions, Irene turned to Hannah.

"So any names jumping out at you?"\n\n
0 Irene Liddowe hahaha! Lots of papers to write =/ 106 Irene Liddowe 0 5


Meredith

December 13, 2006 7:05 PM
Meredith smiled at the approval for Dot’s name and Helena told her why she picked Sunny. It made sense.

“Yeah, I don’t know how to tell if these little guys are actually little guys or not.” She looked at Dot in wonder, but let it alone for the time being. “We can ask Professor K. She’s got to know. It’s her job, right?” If Dot was a girl, it would be the first girl pet she’d own. Pence and TinTin were both boys.

Then Helena explained about her owl, Pandora, or Panny to her. Meredith didn’t think Pandora was that terrible a name, but the owl was her only pet? That was sad. "I think we will get to keep them. Professor K said there were like, a million of them." So she wasn't quoting word for word, but that was the general feeling she got. Meredith had wanted more pets, but her mother would only allow so many “vermin” in the house at one time. That was just the kind of high-class woman she was.

When Meredith was allowed to pick her own pet and brought home Pence, her mother nearly had a heart attack. It was actually very funny. It was almost a wonder why her father’s family didn’t like her, but no matter how sophisticated she could be, there was nothing more important than blood to them. But that was basically the extent of Meredith’s knowledge on them. Blood was all that mattered and not to be like that because that wasn’t what was important. Period. The end. And Meredith rarely questioned further seeing how upset her father could get over it.

“I’ve had Pence for,” Meredith counted off on her fingers as she thought “almost three years. TinTin, my owl, we’ve had for six years. He’s more of a family owl then just my owl, but I take care of him the most when I’m home. Mama won’t get near him. She’s got a small fear of birds that the twins like to make fun of her for. I think she’d like Dot though. Yellow’s her favorite color anyhow.”

Helena told Meredith she was close with the name. She knew she wasn’t that far off.

“Oh, Helena. I knew I was close.” Meredith laughed. “If you want I’ll call you Helen. My friends usually call me Mere, though some have taken to Merry. I don’t like it as much, but it’s not the end of the world if I’m called that.” Meredith glanced Elly’s way with a small smile. She was standing and then sat down, but then Meredith couldn’t see her anymore past the boy next to her. She looked back at Helena. Before she could say anything more, she heard a shout that sounded suspiciously like Caedence. Something about being called ‘Hun.’ Meredith shook her head with a grin as she sighed.

“That girl always seems to be mad about something.” Meredith said offhandedly with a look towards her roommate. She also seemed to be trying to act nicer and Meredith gave her kudos for that. She had nothing at all against Caedence. She just always got the feeling that Caedence might actually try to bite her head off if she said just one wrong word. She wasn’t scared of the girl any, just wary of her head.\n\n
0 Meredith And it worked just fine. 0 Meredith 0 5


Darla

December 13, 2006 7:52 PM
Darla grinned when Law accepted S'more as his puffskein's new name. The name she'd thought of. This fact made her happier, that Law had accepted the name she had thought of. Darla wasn't used to people accepting her ideas, unless it came to a new reciepe. And when it turned out that she'd made a mistake, and the reciepe ended up tasting bad or getting people sick, no one except her family trusted her with that again.

Darla was always lucky that her reciepes rarely ever failed.

Darla blushed slightly when Law asked why an animal would hurt her. "I'm just, not that good with them. I try to be, but I always end up making some sort of mistake." She slid her black hair behind an ear in nervous habit. "I'm better with people. And people and animals are just really different. Like, I was trying to get a cat's attention, and accidentally grabbed its tail and it scratched me. Same with the dog I tried to pet while it was eating, except he bit."

Darla grimaced, remembering the stitches she had to get from that incident.

"Gnome," Darla laughed a little. "That's a cute nickname." She looked over at Tarlo. "I don't know if I have any cousins, but I do have a little brother. Asher doesn't have a nickname though." Asher was a bit like Darla, and they looked the same too, so people called them twins despite the two year difference, but that was the only other name they were called besides their first and last names.

"It's not too bad," Darla shrugged at Law's comment to summer school. Actually, she did find it rather awful. She hated looking stupid around people. It wasn't like she was an airhead, if she tried to get good grades she was sure she could. But studying for hours on end got boring, and it was hard to put effort into it. And even though she always completed homework, because she didn't read too much about what the homework was on, Darla didn't get too good of grades. "I mean, I'm pretty used to it. My dad's just trying to get me into a good placein life."

It took a second for Darla to figure out Law's genetics. This was something she was okay at. It was actually pretty easy once you figured out how to do it. Quarter plus quarter meant his mom was half. As was his dad. When it came to blood, half plus half meant another half. "So you're half blood, like me. Just not directly," she stated. Darla blushed slightly. "Sorry, I like genetics. That and cooking are the only things I'm good at." And bits of sciences. The ones that required formulas, at least.\n\n
0 Darla That's no good, since I do =] 0 Darla 0 5


Hannah

December 13, 2006 8:57 PM
Hannah looked over at the other two girls, as they named their puffskeins.

'So any names jumping out at you?'

"Unfortunately, not. I wonder if mine is male or female," she wondered aloud. "It would be a big help."

How would she ever be able to name her puffskein, if she didn't know what gender it was? She knew she wouldn't want to have a boy's name. Maybe, she should just give it a gender neutral name, like Alex or Taylor. She thought about this for several minutes.

"I think I'll name mine Kennedy," she said to the other two. "What do you think?"

She glanced down at her soft brown puffskein that had its purr motor going at full speed. She petted Kennedy some more. The fur was so soft. She hoped Abby and Kennedy would get along in the dorm and hoped the little puffskein wouldn't affect Meri's allergies further.\n\n
0 Hannah Yay! My Finals are over! 0 Hannah 0 5


Elly

December 14, 2006 3:02 PM
Elly smiled as Josiah gave her another one-armed hug and assured her that their puffskeins were okay. She’d managed to lift her head back up to normal height, but lifted it even further as she heard her name shouted from across the class. Elly gave a small wave in Caedence’s direction to let her friend know she was just fine. Caedence and Josiah had a bit of a yelled conversation – if you could call it that – and Caedence finished with, “Tell me if you need anything, Elly! I’ll catch you later!”

Elly felt herself grin. Caedence had never openly offered to help Elly before, yet she had just said, ‘tell me if you need anything’. Elly had been a bit worried about Caedence the first night in the dormitories, but things seemed to be well and good now. Plus, Josiah obviously liked her enough to stay around even when she got into arguments with other students and then started leaking all over the place. It was all good.

“That girl seems really scary. Do you know her?”

Elly blinked, startled to find Josiah’s face so close to hers. A second later, what he had said registered with her, and she laughed. “Yes I know her, we share a dorm,” Elly said. She took the proffered blue hanky and wiped her still damp face with it. “Thanks,” she muttered, passing it back. “And yes, Caedence is a bit scary,” she added, “but she’s lovely once you learn to cope with all the scary stuff.” Elly grinned at Josiah, and leant over to pick up her puffskein. She gave Custard a gentle squeeze, and giggled when it purred.
\n\n
0 Elly Happy happy joy joy! 0 Elly 0 5


Law Cooper

December 14, 2006 4:14 PM
Law smiled a bit when Darla explained why she didn't get along with animals. At least he didn't laugh, he had to be given credit for that. It just seemed like animals didn't like her for common sense mistakes. Of course animals didn't like their tails pulled or being interrupted while they were eating.

A lot of people had nicknames in his family, if he thought about it. Law was short for Lawrence, sometimes they called his brother, Zane, Z, and his youngest brother Theodore, was almost always referred to as Ted. Naomi was Gnome, and well, that was all that there was as far as nicknames on either side of his family. He felt bad for Darla, not knowing if she had any cousins and all. Law was curious as to why she didn't know about them, but he wasn't one to pry, either. It must get lonely, though, with only one other kid in the family.

Law winced as he felt something tug at his brown curls, and realized that S'more, had climbed on top of his head. And it was... purring? Wow, the fuzz ball- sorry, S'more, really did like his hair. That was pretty weird, actually. Pulling the little thing out of his hair, he made a mental note to keep an eye on the fuzz ball.

"Sorry," Law said, confused about the last thing Darla had said, "But what are genetics?" It had to be a muggle thing, because he certainly had never heard of it before.\n\n
0 Law Cooper It's a good balance, though 0 Law Cooper 0 5


Jae

December 14, 2006 5:42 PM
OOC: Right. Sorry for the delay...again. I was wrapping up some Scouting stuff that took altogether too much of my time, but life is returning to the relative semblance of normal now.

BIC:

His old Principal had used that word a lot. Problem solve. Jae didn't like the word very much, but he did like Mika, so he couldn't be that good at this problem solving stuff. People that were usually did things like complain to the Principal about him. And hang out in libraries and boring stuff like that. They didn't know about Sloykas, and they didn't have awesome wheelchairs and crutches that could shrink and grow all by themselves. So Mika was okay, even though he was in a House with people who were problem solvers. Jae didn't like to read very much either, because the words didn't make sense a lot of the time. They just looked like a bunch of shapes on the page that made sense sometimes. Jae liked pictures. He could sit and draw pictures for hours and hours with Nina. Sometimes his Aunt Marla read to him before he went to bed, and that was fun. Maybe Mika would read to him sometimes too, since he could probably read all by himself. That was what these Aladren people did, right?

Mika's mom had told him not to play with his wandstick, too, so maybe there was a reason. There was usually a reason if grownups said not to do something. Sometimes the reason didn't make sense, though, and that wasn't fun because then Jae got confused and his head hurt. Mika's wandstick was black, which was cool. And he said he knew something called 'spells'. Maybe Mika could show him those, too.

When Mika said nobody would talk to him at the Feast, Jae frowned. That didn't make sense. Mika was fun to talk to! And he knew about Sloykas, which was fun. "Why wouldn't anybody talk to you?" Jae asked, going over to Mika and giving him a big hug. Hugs made everybody feel better! Except for grumpy old principals. But they were just grumpy grownups. "I like talking to you," he said seriously, releasing Mika and meeting his eyes. "I'm sorry you didn't have fun at the feast. Maybe you can sit with me next time! That will be fun, right? Especially if Saul sits with me again, because then he can explain stuff. Or maybe a big kid named Stephen. Saul said that he invented the Corridor Ride, which sounds like a lot of fun, except I'm not sure what it is yet. But we could find out!"

Todd was blinking and making more bubbly, squeaky noises at Mika's Sloyka. They looked happy.

\n\n
0 Jae Grooviness! 0 Jae 0 5


Hyana

December 14, 2006 8:53 PM
Hyana felt like she had to say something to Caedence, about home anyway. She could understand home being a touchy subject. "Well Caedence-sempai, I understand. My home life's not a walk on the beach either." She noticed Caedence looking around. She seemed bored. Hyana sighed. 'I knew she'd get bored talking to me sooner or later.' She thought sadly. She followed Caedence's stare, and saw Josiah and...well, she didn't know, but the poor girl was crying. And Paul was walking away.

'I wonder what happened...Paul didn't seem that bad when I met him...' Hyana thought, a little surprised. But when Caedence called to the girl, Elly, Josiah turned their way. Hyana gave him a small wave, she thought it was polite. Plus Caedence's back was turned, she couldn't see what Hyana was doing. Soon, after a minor explosion from Caedence, they were back in conversation.

"Quidditch?" Hyana said thoughtfully as she picked up her puffskein, Chiyo, she decided to call it. "Well-" She started to say, but Caedence asked if they wanted to toss puffball, she guessed that was its name, back and forth. She nodded and placing Chiyo on the top of her head, caught puffball. "I've never ridden a broom in my life. To tell you the truth...I'm muggle born. The only thing I know about quidditch is from books. I wanted to try out though. For chaser." She said, and tossed Puffball back.\n\n
0 Hyana I understand 0 Hyana 0 5


Josh

December 14, 2006 9:17 PM
The name Dupree sounded familiar, but Josh wasn't sure where he had heard it from. Either one of his older siblings mentioned the name in passing or his parents had said a thing or two of the name. Josh neither cared, or listened much when people were talking of 'Pureblood' ways.

The Santoros, weren't so much as known in the United States (aside from the schools in which the children attended) as they were well known in Mexico due to that being where most of them still reside and in Spain (though they were known as Chavez there) where their mother's family resided. With that, they knew very little about families prominate in the United States or anywhere else.

"It's nice meeting you too." Josh said with a grin. He was already walking to the pen so that Danae could get herself a puffskein. "It's cool that the professor's letting us keep these. Not sure how my mom will like it though." Josh commented, lightly tossing Benny between his hands. "Think you're going to keep yours?" Josh asked her. He didn't know much about how to talk to girls in general, so small talk was becoming increasingly difficult for Josh to do with girls.\n\n
0 Josh Sighing = Sad 0 Josh 0 5


Irene

December 15, 2006 6:37 AM
"Unfortunately, not. I wonder if mine is male or female,"

Irene shrugged. "I was wondering the same thing. So i just picked one."

"I think I'll name mine Kennedy. What do you think?"

Irene grinned and nodded in agreement. "I love it! It works for both, so even if we do find out how to tell these guys apart you can keep your name," Irene said. Irene tickled the puffskein and heard its loud purr follow.

"You know what? I think I'm going to change that name to Zizzie. It sounds like a pet name to me, I guess," Irene said. "I tend to change my mind a lot."

With that Irene pulled out the textbook. Maybe there was something in there that could solve this boy/girl delema...\n\n
0 Irene Woo!! Only 5 more days until Christmas vacation! 0 Irene 0 5


Darla

December 15, 2006 4:47 PM
Darla started giggling a bit when S'more started crawling on Law's head. The little puffskein was cute. All the puffskeins were cute, of course. She smiled, looking town at Tarlo. Tao-Carlo. Hah. She could show Asher Tarlo, and he'd be pretty happy. Asher, unlike Darla, was okay with animals.

He had more common sense with them, at least.

Darla was, however, a bit surprised being asked what genetics were. It must have shown, having her brown, almond eyes widen a bit in surprise. "You don't know what genetics are?" she coiced carefully, giving Law a disbelieving look. She may understand if a pureblood didn't, but Law had Muggle blood on both sides of his family. Didn't they at least think about giving him the other half of his culture in school form?

Darla thought another second on how to explain to someone who didn't know what genetics were... well... exactly what they were. "Genetics are..." she paused, "the stuff that... makes you up. DNA and such. Like, your nationality or blood. Or your looks. You get genetics from your parents so you're half of what they are." Darla hoped she was making sense.

"Okay, take me. My dad is half Korean half Italian. My mom is Italian, English, Irish, and Japanese. So I'm a little over a quarter Asian and Italian. And a little bit English. My dad is a Muggle, my mom is a pureblood, so I'm half of each," Darla stopped. "Am I making any sense?" she asked, a little confused herself.\n\n
0 Darla Balance is good... 0 Darla 0 5


Mika

December 16, 2006 12:39 PM
Mika blinked as the other boy hugged him... for a second time. Was that normal? Did American boys hug like that? Russian boys didn't. Israelii boys sometimes put their arms around each other, but not Mika. No one Mika's own age touched him. It was the wheelchair. Mika supposed that there was no harm in it. It was just very odd to him. He patted Yae's back again. It was a bit of a start that he realized Yae might be trying to comfort him, because no one had spoken to him at the feast. That was very nice of him. Hmm.

"I do not know why they did not talk to me. Sometimes people are unsure how to deal with people in wheelchairs. Especially wizarding people. It is very unusual for wizards." he said with a bit of a shrug. It was one thing Mika really didn't like about having inherreted his parents' magic abilities. If he hadn't been a highly driven child who wanted to excell at everything, he would have almost wished to be a squib. Of course, then people would assume that the magical disabilty was related to the physical one. And Mika would have hated that even more then how a lot of wizards already treated him. He had resolved to become a very talented wizard himself. It just seemed a natural extension of his academic pursuits of perfection.

"I do not know what this 'corridore ride' is either." Mika shook his head, filing that away with the list of things that he didn't understand but needed to look into. Like what a 'sloyka' was called in English. He had his COMC book with him, but he didn't want to take it out, a little afraid Yae would think he wanted to study and would stop talking to him. Yae was odd, but friends were friends. "It would be fun to sit together, yes." Mika nodded a bit, wondering if they were allowed to not sit with their houses, he wasn't sure. He added that to the list of things he didn't know but should find out.

Mika's sloyka rolled around a bit, doing whatever sloyka's did to interact with other sloykas. Mika lifted a booted foot from its foot peddle and nudged his sloyka gently, It cooed, and rolled over, so Mika rolled it around with his foot a bit. He was being gentle with the little guy, just tussling around with it like you would with a puppy or a kitten.\n\n
0 Mika Another Hug? 0 Mika 0 5


Jae

December 17, 2006 9:14 AM
People didn't talk to Mika 'cause he was in a wheelchair? That didn't make sense. Wheelchairs and crutches and stuff were FUN! Especially if you were friends with somebody who had crutches or something, and then you got to play with them sometimes. Except teachers and parents didn't like that very much. But Mika said something about a wizard. Like in the movie, with King Arthur and Merlin? Merlin was a wizard, except he had a long white beard and stuff. Mika didn't have a beard, but he said he was a wizard. That didn't make sense. Maybe wizard meant something different in Mika's language?

"What does wizard mean?" Jae asked Mika, playing with his wandstick, then remembering he wasn't supposed to and sticking it behind his ear again. "And why don't wizardpeople get wheelchairs? That's not fair. They should get to play too, right? Nina says there are some wheelchairs that move all by themselves. Isn't that madcool? Do you think that Professor K will let us ride horses here? Do you think she maybe does have horses? Aunt Marla said that I couldn't bring my horse here, so Nina's taking care of him. Aunt Cheri said I could have a kitty for my birthday, though. Do you think Todd will get along with a kitty?"

Mika was playing with his Sloyka with his foot. Jae decided to copy him, except it didn't work quite so well because Jae was standing up. So when he tried to play with Todd with his foot, he lost balance and fell down. But that was OK because he wasn't hurt. Jae started to roll Todd around with his hands. The Sloyka made a purring noise, and Jae laughed.\n\n
0 Jae Hugs are <i>happy</i> 0 Jae 0 5


Lutece Anthony

December 17, 2006 9:40 AM
Lutece highly disliked animals for the most part. Oh, the occasional horse was fine, so long as she didn't have to clean up after it or anything, but animals in general annoyed her. After Professor Kijewski stopped talking, she distastefully made her way over to the puffskein pen. Eew. They were small, and round for the most part, and they didn't look at all attractive. Mildly cute, yes, but not attractive. Using two fingers, she reached down to pick one up by its fur. Eew. It looked at her with big eyes and made a cooing noise. Eew. How sickeningly cute. While cute was useful, these animals obviously had little to no use. After all, what could a round, squeaking thing do? Lutece withdrew her hand from the pen and the thing looked at her reproachfully. No, she would prefer an F to touching it. It probably had all sorts of germs anyway.

From the corner of her eye, she spotted something approaching her through the air. It was almost exactly like what happened when Jennifer decided to teach her how to Keep, except Lutece wasn't on the broom. She turned quickly and caught the thing in one hand before realising it was another puffskein. How annoying! And there was some kid yelling at her to throw it back, too. So she did, then approached the kid, smiling slightly. It wasn't a nice smile, per se, more of a 'be-pleased-you-have-attracted-my-attention' sort of thing, but it worked.

"Lutece Anthony, first year Crotalus," she said, holding a hand out to the boy.\n\n
0 Lutece Anthony Is it mandatory? 100 Lutece Anthony 0 5


Law Cooper

December 17, 2006 11:11 AM
Wow, it seemed like genetics were basic stuff to being a muggle. If so, Law really wouldn’t know too much about it. Both his parents had always known they were magical, and both had gotten magical educations, as had both his maternal grandparents. His paternal grandmother, though long dead, had been a witch too, and a pureblood at that, so she wouldn’t know about genetics either.

“The last person in my family to go to Muggle school was my dad’s dad,” Law answered her first question off-handedly, passing S’more from hand to hand, “And he never said anything about genetics.” He wouldn’t have had the time to. Grandpa Wes was much too busy trying to learn everything about the magical world all four of his children were destined to live in.

Law cocked his head to the side, trying to figure out what Darla was saying. Sadly, her words were lost on her. DNA? He had no idea as to what that was. And if you were half of what your parents are, than what was the other half? Or was it each a half, and that made a whole? Muggles were definitely a lot more complicated than he had previously thought they were.

“Sorry,” he smiled weakly when Darla asked if he understood her, “It’s kind of all going over my head.”\n\n
0 Law Cooper yeah, otherwise we'd all fall all the time 0 Law Cooper 0 5


Mika

December 17, 2006 12:34 PM
What does wizard mean? Mika cocked his head. How had this strange, strange boy end up at a wizarding school and not know what it was to be a wizard. Even if he was muggle born. How was that possible? He blinked a few times, remaining quiet, trying to formulate an answer. Finally, with a sigh, he realized this needed a dictionary. He left his sloyka alone for a moment, reaching into his backpack and pulling out his English dictionary. His backpack had a lot of books in it. His class books, yes, but also an English dictionary, an Russian/English dictionary, a Hebrew/English dictionary, and a small thesaurus. Over kill? Maybe. But there was nothing Mika hated more than not having the right word for something. He opened his English dictionary to 'W', and looked for the definition.

"Wizard is a noun. It means 'a man with magical powers." Mika recited from his dictionary, then put it away again. "Sometimes, though, I think magic people say 'wizards' to mean any magic persons or group of magic people. Like one might use the word 'guys' to refer to a group of people, even though they may be of mixed gender." Mika explained patiently. "You are a wizard. That is why you are here at this school. That is what your wandstick is for. Magic."

HE thought about the rest of the questions a moment before answering. "Magical people don't often use wheelchairs because there aren't many wizards or witches with disabilities." He cocked his head again, Yae didn't seem to understand that Mika wasn't 'playing'. He would trade the 'fun' of his wheelchair for a decent set of legs any day. "And only people who are hurt or disabled use wheelchairs." He shrugged. "There are wheelchairs that move by themselves. But they use electricity, or magic." He was sure the ones Yae had seen had all been electric though. "And I think they are boring. They are slow. And all you do is sit there." Madcool, eh? Mika knew something that was madcool. Which he presumed to mean 'exceptionally cool'. He picked up his sloyka, tossing it up in the air. When it purred, he decided it was okay to treat it a little bit like a soccer ball.

"Electric wheelchairs can't do... madcool... things like this." He tossed his sloyka up in the air, then with a shift of weight, he leaned his chair back so that his front wheels were off the ground. Using his hands on his wheels to balance as he was tilted back, and maneuver his chair, when the sloyka came down, he bounced it off his feet on the footbar, like a soccer ball. With some minor adjustments of his wheels, tilted back as he was, he was able to bounce the soccerball off his feet repeatedly, almost like he was playing hackie sack with it. His mom hated when he did that, always afraid he was going to flip over backwards, but he never did.

After a few bounces, he dropped his front wheels to the ground again, and caught the purring sloyka, caressing its fur. He offered Yae a grin, a real and rather wide smile. Probably the first time he had really smiled today. He nudged his glasses up on his nose.

"See, you can not do that with an electric wheelchair, they are too heavy." Not to mention if you were using one of those you were way most disabled then Mika was. \n\n
0 Mika Time for a Dictionary 0 Mika 0 5


Brett Hodges (with Echo Elms)

December 17, 2006 1:16 PM
Brett Hodges took Saul the Great Guide's tour from Pecari Commons out to Care of Magical Creatures. He added the "great" in there after the tour. Did you know there was a bush on the way here that resembled one of The Guide's relatives? That Saul kid was a riot.

A riot who was going to be late to his next class if it started at the same time CoMC did. Brett had just enough time to find his friend Echo Elms before Professor Kijewski began the lesson.

For Echo this was same old same old. Brett wanted to step on his toe to make the kid pay attention. He was constantly distracted by his looking around (he assumed for Elly and Meredith). Not that Brett was paying a lot of attention either. The puffskeins were cool and as soon as he saw them, all he wanted to know was how many other kids played soccer. He caught Echo's eye and mimed kicking and rose his eyebrows. Echo flicked his eyes from the puffskein to Brett with a small frown.

"But she said the like to be handled roughly," Brett argued the second they were released.

Echo walked over and picked out one of the larger puffskiens. It was about the size of a grapefruit, "Not that rough," he turned the thing around in his hands, "I am so calling mine Tribble. Get it?"

"Yeah, I get it," Brett sighed, picking one the size of a tangerine and wishing he'd thought of it first. Mr Elm's video collection came in handy sometimes. "Better find out if they multiply before you take him."

Echo half grinned. They moved away from the Tribble bins and Brett set his Tribble on the ground. His needed a cool name, too. He rolled it back onto his foot. "Hackysack?"

"Sure," Echo set the big tribble aside and Brett kicked the tribble -- Beans was a good name -- into the air. Echo caught it on his knee and sent it back. Beans trilled happily as Brett caught it on the inside of his foot and sent him flying to a kid walking nearby.

"Hey!" Brett called, "Keep it up!"\n\n
0 Brett Hodges (with Echo Elms) Join our hackysack circle! 0 Brett Hodges (with Echo Elms) 0 5


Professor K

December 17, 2006 5:18 PM
Kiva had to keep herself for letting out an exasperated sigh. Watching the students do as they wished with the puffskeins was like agony for Kiva. She should have known some of the students would mistreat the creatures. Sure, for the most part, puffskeins didn't mind being tossed, squeezed, or kicked about, but they were still living, breathing, creatures. If treated too roughly, they bleed, they cry, they die.

If only some of these students would understand that.

She was about to call out to one particular student who seemed content enough to find out just how hard she could squeeze her puffskein before the creature finally gave out when she was distracted by another student. Kiva looked at Paul with a raised eyebrow wondering if he was having trouble with his creature. However, what he said was not what Kiva had been expecting at all.

At the sight of the blood, Kiva's eyes widened. A cat did that? She had been attacked by many...many creatures, and only those of magical blood ever caused deep wounds reopening due to the toxins running through their system as a way of survival. Never a house cat, and certainly not a house cat that could scratch deep enough for it to be an issue. She frowned at Paul, "What sort of cat do you have that would cause this?" She asked, merely curious to the answer.

"You can go to the Hospital Wing. Professor Wolfe should be able to fix you up no problem. I will be checking with the Medic to make sure you went there, so don't disappoint me, Paul. And stay away from the cat." Kiva said, though her words were stern, her voice and posture were more nurturing than anything else.\n\n
0 Professor K You rang? 0 Professor K 0 5


Paul

December 17, 2006 5:36 PM
Paul looked down at Santuary and frowned. He had a feeling this lie wouldn't work. "A cat... that meddled in magic," he muttered. No one would deny that, Lussni was multicolored, one eyed, three legged, and had two and a half ears. But no one would think that the cat was forced into that kind of meddlement, not by Cissy. Just like no one would think that such a "sweet" small girl would do something like... that... to Paul or a cat.

"Professor K, I don't plan on plan on skipping class while I'm bleeding. Nor would I have made myself bleed to skip class," Paul said simply. "I would like to get rid of these stupid cuts, they hurt rather badly." Like hell, Paul reasoned in his head. "Useful word, since they did come from Satan's spawn
, he glanced to his sister who was pretending to play nice with her puffskein.

Yeah right. Once she was out of peoples' views, that puffskein was in for a world of pain. Once Paul got back from the Medic's, he'd have to save it. Paul wasn't one for letting creatures be tortured under Cissy. He knew what it felt like.

"Thank you Professor, but I think my cat will be better now. It... had a bad dream and I woke it up," It was a blaring lie. So obvious, Paul didn't want the Professor to blame Lussni though. "I just won't wake him up anymore..." And before questions could be asked, Paul said his final thank you and ran out of the classroom to go to the Medic's with his own puffskein in hand.\n\n
0 Paul I did 0 Paul 0 5


Cisco Vargas

December 17, 2006 9:19 PM
Of all the classes his cousins had told him about, the two that Cisco had been most excited about were Potions and Care of Magical Creatures--not only because he had a natural talent at the former and loved the latter, but also because neither required that he display his complete ineptness when it came to magic.

As a pureblood, he'd been tutored in basic magic since he was a small child, though he never "officially" learned any of the spells. Because he was so intelligent and so quick to pick up the theory, the aunt who ran their lessons had him with Gil, Leo, and a few cousins a year or so older than them. At first, she just said that Cisco's difficulty with the spells was due to his age; but when, at the age of nine, he had yet to perform accidental magic, they began to doubt. Finally, a few weeks before his tenth birthday, he'd turned his cousin's hair a violent shade of purple in a fit of irritation. His mother cried (happily, he was pretty sure) when he was accepted to Sonora.

But in this class, he didn't have to worry about that. He hadn't even brought his wand, which was sitting in a usual state of neglect somewhere on his night stand. A small smile touched his usually stoic features as the eleven-year-old made his way up to the pen with his classmates and looked down at the puffskeins. After a moment of hesitation, he reached downward and picked up a smallish, pale amber one.

As he edged his way away from the pen, he held the puffskein carefully in his cupped hands and lifted him towards his face. Two green eyes--as pale as the fur--blinked at him, and after a moment, the little creature began to purr. His smile widened. "Como te llamas, chico?" he inquired quietly. After a moment, he nodded. "Chac. Sí... pienso que sí. Te llamas Chac."

He wasn't as cool as Cisco's horses, or the family hounds... but Chac was an animal that needed taken care of, and that was all Cisco really needed.

All of a sudden, he was distracted by a boy's voice telling him to "keep it up." Cisco whipped his head around in that direction just in time to see a smaller puffskein come zooming towards him. He jumped forward and fumbled to catch the other puffskein without dropping Chac.

"Hey!" he called, looking over at the boys, his expression a mix of concern and annoyance. His Spanish accent was thick, but understandable. "They may be hardy, but puffskeins are living animals! There are laws against animal abuse, imbécil."


OOC - translations: como te llamas, chico? - what's your name, kid?; sí... pienso que sí. Te llamas Chac - yes... I think so. You're Chac; imbécil - imbecile.\n\n
0 Cisco Vargas O...kay? 0 Cisco Vargas 0 5


Josiah

December 18, 2006 4:10 PM
Josaih grinned, "She can be 'lovely'? Ahh I doubt it," He joked. "You know, I never answered your question. You can call me whatever you'd like, Elly. You don't have a perfered nickname do you?" He looked down at Teppers. He was looking around and blinking slightly, as if looking for his lost friend. He picked him up and hugged him lightly. Teppers purred and snuggled into his hand.

"You know, smiling does compliment you better, dear Elly. You are so pretty when you smile," He said. Indeed, to him, the girl practically glowed when she smiled. She was rather pretty, despite the frizzy mess of hair. He ran a hand through his own orange locks to make sure they were neat and orderly. What he didn't know is that he just gave himself a mini-mohawk.\n\n
0 Josiah ^_^ 0 Josiah 0 5


Caedence

December 18, 2006 4:22 PM
Caedence smirked to herself. It wasn't her new, nice smirk. It was the old smirk she once buried. The smile of the hunt. The wolfish smile. The one she wore when faced with a challenge or an opponent. This girl was her rival on the field!

"Then this is good practice, wouldn't you say?" she said and tossed the puffskein back to her, "The Puffball can't really be...well angry with its treatment. I guess we'd have to go sort of easy on it. I think a volley ball might be a better tool. Yeah...or a rock." She was almost too distracted by her plans to notice The Puffball coming back at her. She caught it and threw it extra-fast, hoping to throw her companion off guard. "Focus!" she warned in case Hyana wasn't paying the proper attention.

"You will meet me on the pitch. Tomorow. I'll talk to Coach Fox, get what we need. Meet me after lunch. I know both first and second years have a free period. You might want to invest in catcher's gloves, but they arent necissary," Caedence said, more of an order than a request. She flashed her own beaters cloves, slightly more grip on them to help hold the smooth wood of the bats, to show her before catching the Puffball again. "Like these, but these are beater gloves. I am going to teach you chaser basics. Then I'll begin training you to dodge bludgers," again, more of a demand.

She contemplated the girl. Good weight, aeorodynamic. Yes, good build for a chaser. Caedence had slightly more muscle, but she wasn't too bad. Well, if those pesky bludgers would just go away! She didn't know why, but she felt like honing this girl, training her. She glanced over at Elly, now chatting freely with that stupid first year boy. She would teach Elly someday. But this girl was a ready and waiting pupil. Yes, she had an aprentace on hand. \n\n
0 Caedence Strange to see my charrie...nice.... 94 Caedence 0 5


Hyana

December 18, 2006 6:20 PM
"Hai, it is good practice." Hyana said, tossing Puffball back. She looked over to see what Josiah was doing, what Ebony was doing, what Mika was doing, when she heard Caedence shout, "Focus!" She saw Puffball flying fast to her right. She leaned to the right, caught it and threw it as hard as she could at Caedence, all of these things happening quickly. She hoped Caedence would be impressed by that feat, because she was extremely impressed with herself.

Caedence told her to meet her on the pitch the next day. Hyana was pretty surprised. First Josiah wanted to teach her how to fly, and now Caedence wanted to teacher her how to dodge bludgers! Hyana couldn't believe it...but Caedence was being nice! "Hai! I'll meet you at the pitch tomorrow. I'm ready and willing to learn!" She caught Puffball, which had been thrown right at her chest, and tossed it back with force. She pushed her hair out of her eyes and, with confidence she never really had before, stood, waiting for Caedence to give her a difficult throw to catch. And there was a smirk on her face, something quite unlike Hyana.\n\n
0 Hyana She's...nice! 0 Hyana 0 5


Gwyneth

December 18, 2006 7:09 PM
As Gwyneth continued to babble on, asking questions of her classmates about the care and feeding of puffskeins and their relative experience with one, her eyes started to wander around the field observing how the other students were reacting to and interacting with the puffskeins. What caught her eye was the way some of the students seemed to be mistreating their puffskeins! Her questions to Rachel and Cole dropped off into a shocked silence.

Sure, the professor had said these were pretty hardy creatures, able to withstand a bit of rough handling which made them the perfect pet for younger, more irresponsible, children. But she surely didn't mean for them to be treated like an inanimate rubber ball and be bounced, kicked, thrown or batted around just for the amusement of the students! Who in their right mind would treat these adorable animals this way?!? Tears started to well up in her eyes in sympathy for the puffskeins.

Then she remembered the time a younger neighbor back home had caught her Cat and had been pulling his ears and trying to swing him around by his tail! Barely aware of what she was doing, she stood up, mumbled apologies to Rachel and Cole for her abrupt departure and stalked off across the field to rescue the puffskein she thought was in trouble.\n\n
0 Gwyneth Operation Puffskein Rescue 0 Gwyneth 0 5


Danae

December 18, 2006 9:23 PM
Danae had to scurry slightly to catch up with Josh, before falling into step with him.

Think your going to keep yours?

She shrugged slightly with her reply, "I'm not sure. I guess it'll depend on how the puffskein feels about me. Well, that and my one roommate makes me a bit nervous about having a pet. She has a bit of a temper."

She really didn't like Caedence after having to work with her in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Actually, she really didn't care for any of her roommates, though, Meredith didn't bother her as much, but she never seemed to say much. Elly, on the other hand, Danae gave a slight eyeroll, thought she was something special. In her opinion, her toast in the morning offered more.

Shaking off the thoughts of her horrible roommates, Danae smiled sweetly at Josh, "What about you? Benny is awfully adorable."

She reached over to scratch the little puffskein in affection. After doing so, she strode slightly ahead, now eager to get her own, she wanted to have a friend in the dorms. When she reached the pen, she picked out a cute little slightly copper colored one. Immediately, it began to purr. She placed the puffskein up to her cheek to feel the vibrations pouring off. How could she not keep it?

Hugging it to her, she turned to Josh and said in her light French accent, "I think I'm going to name mine Amya for loved one."

She tugged the little puffskein into the safely of the crook of her arm, as she started back up the hill. A bit of her dark hair fell into her face and she pushed it back with her free hand.

"So, are there any secrets for how to tell you and Matt apart?" She asked with a slightly flirtacious tone, her blue eyes sparkling.\n\n
0 Danae *Is not sad* 0 Danae 0 5


Josh

December 18, 2006 10:51 PM
Josh frowned slightly at the mention of her roommates. He had met Elly and Meredith the year previous right here during Care of Magical Creatures. As far as he was concerned, neither of them seemed to have any tendencies for torturing animals. Caedence, whom he had learned from his brother, had an anger issue. So, she may have been the roommate Danae was refering to.

"I forget people have more than one roommate." Josh said after a moment. "I've only got Leo and Matt only rooms with Echo. But both Leo and Echo hang out with girls, so, we basically only ever see them when we go to bed at night." Josh knew he was rambling now. He clamped his mouth shut to keep more words from falling out.

Josh looked down at Benitoro who sat purring in his hands. "I think it'd be cool if I could keep him. Not sure what Mama will say though." Josh replied. "I don't think she'll mind so long as I take good care of him." Josh added. It seemed truthful enough. His parents were always talking about the twins taking on more responsibility. A puffskein might just do the work for him.

He waited patiently for Danae to pick out her own puffskein and had to fight the urge to roll his eyes at the name. Girls were so weird. They have to connect everything to love. Perhaps Danae was much like his sister Sophia. If that were the case, he ought to run away right then and there. But as she continued on with the conversation, Josh found himself blinking dumbfoundedly by her actions.

"Uh..." Josh began before having to close his mouth and start over again. "Nah, we're identical in every way physically." He responded to her, finally finding his voice again. "But our family doesn't have a problem knowing who is who, which can be a problem if we're trying to trick them. So, I'm assuming if you're around us enough, it's just something you pick up." Josh said, grinning again. "But I like to claim I'm the better looking one."\n\n
0 Josh Then there's no need to sigh 0 Josh 0 5


Elly

December 19, 2006 1:00 PM
Josiah said that Elly could call him whatever she wanted when it came to name shortening. She wasn’t sure she would make use of this freedom though, despite her dislike of long names; Josiah was a perfectly nice name, and shortening it to ‘Jo’ or something equally as dull didn’t seem to do this extraordinary kid justice.

“You don’t have a preferred nickname do you?” Josiah asked her.

“No,” Elly replied. Technically, Elly was a nickname, but since not even her parents called her by her full name, Elly had stopped thinking of it as such.

Elly started gently tossing Custard from hand to hand, enjoying the fluffy fur between her fingers and the cute purring the little puffskein was emitting. She really hoped Proff K would let them keep their puffskeins, because she wasn’t sure she would be able to say goodbye to Custard. She almost dropped the poor creature when Josiah started talking again.

“You are so pretty when you smile,” he said.

Elly blinked at him again. This was the second time this kid had said she was pretty, but she couldn’t take him seriously. They’d only met a few minutes ago, after all. Maybe he was just flirty? Then Elly remembered Caedence had said something about a first year boy flirting with her at the Opening Feast. Perhaps it was the same boy? Brushing off the compliment, Elly said, “I’ll try to bear that in mind.”

“So,” Elly said loudly, marking the start of a new line of conversation. “Tell me a bit about yourself. Where are you from? You got pets back home?” Elly thought she’d heard mention of another pet, but this kid spoke so quickly she couldn’t be sure.
\n\n
0 Elly *grins* 0 Elly 0 5


Jae

December 19, 2006 3:48 PM
That was what his wandstick was for? Magic? Jae thought that was pretty cool. Aunt Cheri had always said magic wasn't real, but Aunt Marla had always told her to hush and sometimes she would say something about not 'ruining Jaeven's childhood', but Jae never understood what that meant, so he ignored it. Just like he really didn't understand much about the dictionary definition of wizard. He was very impressed that Mika had all those books, though.

Mika started explaining about wheelchairs and saying how only people who were hurt or disabled had wheelchairs. And he thought that the ones that moved by themselves were boring! Jae thought they were pretty cool. There were some at Safeway, when he went grocery shopping with his aunts, but they never let him play with them. Sometimes they gave him some money and he got to ride the electric horse up behind the cash registers, though, and that was fun. Not as fun as riding an electric wheelchair, but still fun. And definitely not as fun as riding a real horse. Maybe Mika could come over this summer and he could meet Nina and they could ride horses together! That would be madcoolamazingness.

Speaking of madcoolamazingnes....

Jae's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates as he watched Mika wheel back in his chair and bounce his Sloyka, just like the really cool soccerplayers did. WOW! And then he caught his Sloyka! Jae's mouth was open, and he was grinning in amazement. Mika was SUPERAWESOMEMADCOOL!!! He couldn't wait to tell Nina, and Aunt Marla, and Aunt Cheri, and...and...and...Saul about Mika! And maybe his Hoho, too, if he saw her. Mika was definitely amazing. Jae decided that he agreed with Mika about electric wheelchairs. Regular ones were much, much cooler than the other ones.

"Wow! That was amazingcool! You're good at that! Do you play soccer? I played soccer when I was little, but the coach didn't like me very much, so Aunt Marla and Aunt Cheri decided that I could join horseback riding with Nina instead." \n\n
0 Jae Not <i>quite</i> as fun as hugs, but I suppose it'll do 0 Jae 0 5


Lucas Smythe

December 19, 2006 5:11 PM
From near the the front of the crowd, Lucas stared at the creature in Professor K's hand with disgust, though as he watched it, he soon found himself half smiling: he couldn't really decided whether the thing was incredibly cute or just plain pathetic. He pushed his blonde-tipped fringe from his eye and simply stared a little longer until he found himself being dragged to the crate in front of him by his feet which apeared to have a mind of their own in this matter.

"Puffskein." Lucas murmured quietly to himself, sniggering involuntarily at the way the word sounded when spoken, before glancing around discreetly to make sure that nobody was giving him 'weird looks' because of it.

As he approached the crate of Puffskeins, Lucas was almost afraid to put his hand in since they were - to be fair - quite strange looking things and he just couldn't help feeling the tiniest bit of uncertainty, especially as something that actually enjoys being thrown about and squeezed roughly simply cannot be all 'rosy sweet' right?

'Oh shut up, Lucas.' He inwardly reprimanded himself, mentally getting a grip since 'not wanting to look like a total scaredy-cat in front of his peers' was quite high on his priority list at that moment, so pushed his hand into the crate with possibly a little too much determination and vigour, punching a few Puffskeins on the way and setting them off purring. He blushed a little and, inside the crate, wrapped his hand around one of the furry creatures and pulled it out, almost instantly falling in love with it against his own will, but it was difficult not to - the thing was small, black and fluffy with a single small white patch on it's side (or what Lucas assumed to be its side anyway, though it was very difficult to tell as the creature had no defining features at all). Lucas grinned brightly at it and hit it gently on the edge of the crate as a sign of affection before turning it over in his hands, trying to figure out where the eyes were since it just must have some somewhere.

Lucas had wanted a pet of his own for a while. His parents had promised him a kitten but had been too busy to live up to their word before he joined the school and so, although he still desperately wanted a kitten of his very own, a Puffskein would be a perfect substitute for now - after all, it was fluffy and it did purr... It just didn't seem to be or do anything else. Lucas just hoped he would be allowed to keep it since he was already becoming rather fond of the creature.\n\n
0 Lucas Smythe Hmm, 96 Lucas Smythe 0 5


Helena

December 19, 2006 10:08 PM
"I guess so," Helena said, studying her own Sunny and Meredith's Dot to see if there were any immediately obvious differences that might point to gender. To her untrained eyes, they looked identical, with the only real way to distinguish them being to hold on to them. Maybe an affinity developed after a while so one could pick out his or her own from a group. "If she doesn't, I can't think of anyone who would." She could ask Geoff to look it up for her, but it was a toss-up as to whether or not he would consider it worth his time, and the rest of the class didn't have him as a resource.

"It is kind of sad that these go homeless," she said, wiggling her fingers in front of what she thought might be Sunny's face the way she would have to a cat. "They're adorable." She bounced Sunny a little higher than before and smiled benignly at the creature's happily purring response. "I wonder how big they wind up?"

She laughed at Meredith's talk of her mother. "Geoff keeps Pandora when we're at home," she said. "Our sister's supposed to take care of her when we're not, but Daddy usually winds up doing it. Lavinia's not too crazy about her." Lavvie would be here next year. Helena hoped for Professor Kijewski's sake that the lesson wasn't about crups or Kneazles.

"I have a pair of twin cousins. Jessica and Andrea. They're fraternal." Truth to be told, no one looking at the pair of them would even think they were related. Jessie was little and pale, with eyes almost the color of aquamarines, while Drena, tallish and dark, looked more like Dinah than anyone, and even then it wasn't a close resemblance. "Only two siblings, though. I'm the middle child. Any brothers or sisters for you?" She figured she could assume from what had been said that Meredith's twins were her siblings, but she'd look a right fool if she was wrong.

"Yeah, you can hear a little difference in them," she agreed, repeating Mere and Merry in her head. "I'll answer to just about anything, but only - " she cut off at the blowup from a girl she recognized more by her braided blond hair than by her face and winced a little. Caedence Redoak wasn't someone Helena had had any real encounters with, for which she was several kinds of grateful. The other second years' reputation was enough to make her skeptical about walking away from such an encounter with a whole skin.

"I don't know her very well, myself," she said, looking away from her lest Caedence think she was staring and take offense to it. "I've heard she can be...volatile, though." She looked at Meredith for a moment, not wanting to wreck an acquaintance before it even got started properly with a misplaced word or three. "Is she as - er - forward as they say? I've heard crazy stories from Geoffrey, though Merlin only knows where he gets his information from."

OOC: Sorry about the delay. Finals are misery incarnate.\n\n
16 Helena As did yours. 88 Helena 0 5


Hikaru Kasuragi

December 20, 2006 7:32 PM
Hikaru watched the whole event with Cadence and Hyana and knew that Cadence was probably observing her new prey. He wlaked over to them with his new puffskien Leon and asked Cadence "I heard you were fiesty, but I didn't know there were flea ridden animals here, this is just from what I've observed, if however I do see you being blatently cruel to someone...I will hex you into oblivion." He fingered the wand that he was just itching to to bring out and hex someone with.\n\n
0 Hikaru Kasuragi Um...I don't think so. 0 Hikaru Kasuragi 0 5


Kavin and Darci Analai

December 21, 2006 10:06 AM
"Kavin! We're with the econd years!" Darci grinned, excited, as she broke into the Care of Magical Creatures classroom. "And we're leaning about puffskeins!" She grinned even larger, loving soft animals. And glad they weren't learning about birds, which she hated more than Tracy.

Kavin was a less than a little excited about classes. Growling angrly, he looked around the classroom at the people. People. People who talked. Dear Merlin, he hated people. And his sister's annoying enthusiasm was just making things worse for him. "And how are those things good?" he hissed through to Darci. Second years? Who cared? Puffskeins were cute, but put Kavin in a room full of people, and everything was bad for him.

"Gray!" Darci squealed, knowing her brother's dislike of people. "Remember? Gray's a second year! We can find her!" Darci craned her head to look for this Gray. Some girl Kavin knew to be their half-sister's half-sister. Confusing, but such was when your father was irresponsible. And the Analai's had seen things more confusing than that.

"How can we find her, Darci?" Kavin sighed, as he pulled his sister up to the front of the class to get her and him a puffskein. "We don't even know what the hell she looks like!" he growled and snatched up the first puffskein he touched, turning on heel and moving back to the back, pausing to wait for Darci.

She frowned, realizing Kavin was right. "Yeah..." she muttered. Darci took her sweet time picking out the perfect puffskein, a cute little strawberry-blonde one with large eyes. "Hey cutie," she grinned, turning and jogging over to where Kavin was. Bumping into another boy, and accidentally dropping her puffskein.

Darci scrambled to the ground and picked it up, petting it soothingly. "Sorry," she grinned, looking up at the boy who had been holding his own puffskein. "Is yours alright?"\n\n
0 Kavin and Darci Analai Finally we meet! 0 Kavin and Darci Analai 0 5


Darla

December 21, 2006 10:27 AM
"Your grandfather?" Darla confirmed, trying to understand all this. It was very hard when Law and Darla seemed to grow up in completely different environments. It was a challenge, but Darla didn't care. When it came to making friends, she didn't care about challenges. They were, in fact, welcomed by her. "He probably wouldn't. Not many people care about their history in genetics and such. We all have different likes and such."

Darla also still didn't quite get why Law didn't go to a Muggle school was well. It was part of who he was, after all. And, as her mother stated, it was good for wizards to learn things like basic Muggle math and science and such. It made them more well rounded. Also, Muggles were becoming a big part of Wizard-life. So knowing basic things a Muggle knows makes it easier to fit in. She even believed there should be Maths and Sciences and English in Magical schools, since they were needed subjects overall.

Darla agreed with her mother, and wished such was true. After all, if it was, Wizards would be able to understand her when she spoke of her Muggle background, and she wouldn't have to take summer school for her father.

And Law still didn't understand. Darla frowned slightly as she squeezed Tarlo gently in her hands. She was never very good at explaining things. "It's okay. Basically, you're hlaf of each parent, and having two parents make you a whole," Dala said. "I'm sorry, I'm not very good at explaining things." She was still didn't understand how Law didn't get a Muggle education.

"Which is why I don't get why you don't know much about Muggles," she said. "Muggle background is a part of who you, and your parents, are. Why wouldn't they have you learn about it. It's good to learn about your roots." She hated how Wizards believed Muggles were stupid and such. Hated how they favored themselves over Muggles, and didn't even think of "corrupting" their children with Muggle lifestyles, when it was obviously helpful.

See was glad for Muggle Studies, but Darla's mother had said she'd taken that class. And they normally filled the position with someone who knew nothing about Muggles. But Darla didn't want to show these feelings to Law, how she preferred her Muggle background to her Wizard one since he obviously only knew the Wizarding one. And also... "I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything if I insulted you. I'm sure your parents had good reason for not having you see Muggle background, I just mean it's not eactly fair."\n\n
0 Darla True true 0 Darla 0 5


Law Cooper

December 21, 2006 4:13 PM
"Yeah, I think I get it," Law said nodding at what Darla said about genetics. He didn't see what was so phenomenal about it- didn't everyone know they were half their mom and half their dad? Muggles couldn't be that thick, so what did Muggles think was so special about that concept?

He didn't understand why Darla was so set on Muggle culture. Law felt like he got along just fine knowing as little as he did about them. Besides, Muggles just confused things. Aunt Leah, who was a muggleborn, would sometimes try to explain muggle concepts to him, but they were so weird! Some of the sports that Ethan (Aunt Leah's son) had taught him were pretty neat, but nothing matched up to Quodpot or Quidditch.

Law stopped tossing S'More from hand to hand to stop and give Darla a good, hard look. Was she trying to put down his family? He couldn't be sure, so he didn't say anything, but something inside of him snapped. Insult him, and he'd get over it, he wouldn't like you, but he wouldn't do anything about it. But there was nothing worse that you could do to Law than insult anyone in his family. They were the most important thing to the eleven year-old, more important than Quidditch, even.

It was even worse that she was calling his family, of all things, prejudiced against muggles. She obviously didn't know about his uncles.

"Well, everyone in my family lives in magical neighborhoods, so I don't understand why I would need to learn so much about Muggles," he said quietly. It was true, he lived in an all magic community, as did his Aunt Tabby and cousin Hannah with Grandpa Wes in Pennsylvania, as did his cousins in New Jersey. Heck, most people, upon meeting Grandpa Wes, thought he was a squib instead of a muggle, he was so intune with that lifestyle. He'd lived in magical communities for more than half his life, anyway. He'd learned about magic because it was a necessity.

It wasn't a necessity for Law. Law had everything and everyone he needed in the magical community.

"My parents don't have anything against muggles," he said quietly, "If I wanted to know anything about muggles, they'd tell me, if they knew the answer. My uncles used to be real involved in muggle rights, and such."\n\n
0 Law Cooper Glad you agree 0 Law Cooper 0 5


Darla

December 22, 2006 10:44 AM
Darla shrunk away slightly when Law turned colder to her. She didn't mean to insult anyone, really she didn't. And she certainly didn't want someone with such good friend potential to hate her. Darla understood what she said was a bit shortsighted, she normally said things that were such. And they were talking about the boy's family, there's nothing more important than that.

But Darla still hoped he didn't take her too hard. She bit her lip and looked down at Tarlo. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to jump to conclusions," Darla muttered, squeezing her puffskein gently. "I was just trying to understand a few things, I shouldn't have pryed..." Darla wasn't used to most magical things. Sure those one her mother's side tried to show her, and she did listen. But Darla always preferred Muggle things.

She remembered when her mother tried to help clean up for Darla when she was done cooking. Her mother had used magic, and Darla felt a small loss inside that she wasn't able to clean her own mess. Darla was an odd one, so people said. Liking cleaning so much as well as cooking by scratch and just moving.

But Darla still had no idea why Law didn't care for Muggle background. Sure he lived in an all magical community, but still. People travel. And when you travel, Muggles are impossible to avoid. But Darla wasn't going to pry anymore. She was trying to make friends, not push people away. So she just nodded and kept her eyes on Tarlo. Who was staring up at her with his large eyes.\n\n
0 Darla It's good to agree 0 Darla 0 5


Brett Hodges (with Echo Elms)

December 22, 2006 2:19 PM
"They may be hardy, but puffskeins are living animals! There are laws against animal abuse, imbécil."

"That," Brett sighed, and walked up to Cisco, "is why we weren't playing soccer." He held out his hand for the puffskein. Based on how roughly the Professor appeared to be handling the tribble, he didn't see how hackysack was a problem. Beans hadn't seemed to mind, either. Not that he knew much about puffskeins, but he'd been trilling along all mad content-like. Brett wanted people to like him, though, so he set that aside. "Beans didn't seem to mind, but if you really think it hurts him, we'll stop."

"I'm Brett," he introduced himself, and pointed behind him, to where Echo had scooped up Tribble and was trying to balance the puffskein on his head. "And that's Echo."

Hearing his name, Echo turned quickly, caught the puffskein before it rolled off his head and Brett motioned him to come over and meet this kid.\n\n
0 Brett Hodges (with Echo Elms) You're no fun. 0 Brett Hodges (with Echo Elms) 0 5


Law Cooper

December 22, 2006 6:43 PM
Law always felt awkward whenever there was any tension between people. This was one of those times. Problem was, he never had a clear plan of action on what exactly to do in such times. It was just one of those things that he would think up as he went along. Except, he hadn't thought of any solution yet.

Law watched as S'more climbed back up his shoulder. What in the world did that puffskien think was so great about his hair? The creature was, decidedly, weird. It was a far cry from his favorite animal in the world, but he was willing to look past the weirdness factor.

Which was what he knew he had to do right now with Darla. He didn't know a lot of people at Sonora, so right about now he valued the kids he could talk to. And he had enough trouble just finding his way around the school without being mad at anybody. Besides, Darla seemed nice. So now was the time to be mature and fix things, even if he really wasn't sure how to do that.

"Make you a deal," he said, untangling the puffskein from his curls, "You can teach me Muggle stuff if you let me teach you about Quidditch."\n\n
0 Law Cooper Like agreeing to disagree? 0 Law Cooper 0 5


Darla

December 23, 2006 10:29 AM
Darla's fingers etched around Tarlo's fuzzy body. The little puffskein was letting out a spasm of purrs, like giggles from being tickled so much. Darla wasn't really paying attention to the little puffskein she was tickling, rather she was looking at Law for some sign of... well anything really would do.

She watched as Law's own puffskein, S'more, climbed up and around Law. Darla couldn't help but grin seeing the puffskein's fetish for hair. She knew Tarlo wouldn't be able to slip into her own drape of black hair, and hoped the little puffskein didn't also have S'more's hair-fetish. Otherwise, Darla would have to disappoint it by showing the uselessness of her long, straight hair. Maybe once she cut it, but not now.

Darla was extremely glad when Law spoke again, not really sure how to break the silence herself. She certainly didn't want to fill it up with meaningless chatter, but she would have started had Law not broken it for her. Darla was also glad his breaker was more than meaningless chatter.

"You can teach me Muggle stuff if you let me teach you about Quidditch."

"Okay then, deal," Darla chirped cheerfully. Sure, she was rather horrid at sports. Clumsy and noncoordinated, and Darla never took an intrest in them before, she preferred cooking and cleaning to such activities, but she was willing for compromise. And learning something completely different was good too, broadened her horizon as her father always said.

And Darla also was glad she could help teach someone about Muggle things. She always liked showing her maternal relatives the different Muggle things and surprising them. Especially the sciences, despite the fact Darla wasn't too good at science. Asher was much better at teaching, being the smart one, the son her father always wanted. But Darla was more interested in it than her younger brother, being the more eager learner.\n\n
0 Darla That works too 0 Darla 0 5


Law Cooper

December 23, 2006 3:58 PM
Law grinned happily upon hearing that Darla had accepted his offer. Conflict solved. Holding S'more in his cupped hands, he kept the little beastie as far away from his hair as possible. The boy looked over his shoulder to check in the professor was giving them anymore orders. Seeing as it appeared that the instructional part of the class was over, he didn't think the teacher would mind if he talked about Quidditch. Besides, they had barely been talking about puffskeins before, anyway.

"Good, we can start now," Law decided, never one to procrastinate, "So tell me what you do know about Quidditch." The boy remembered Darla calling bludgers, 'blooders' so he might have a lot to explain. On the other hand, she seemed to understand the concept of bludgers, even though she didn't know the name, which was a good sign.

Law just knew Darla would love Quidditch if she gave it a chance. It was socialization, it was fun and exciting- who wouldn't like that? And of course, you didn't have to be great at it, certainly he didn't think he was particularly great at Quidditch. But it was fun and he tried, and trying was all that mattered.\n\n
0 Law Cooper in some cases 0 Law Cooper 0 5


Darla

December 24, 2006 9:42 AM
"N-now?" Darla muttered, a little taken aback. She didn't know Law would start on his subject so soon. Then again, Darla had already had her turn, talking about the details of genetics and such. So it was only fair he'd get his turn as well. When he asked her what she knew about Quidditch, however, Darla heart dropped. Heh, would not much be an appropriate answer for her?

"Erm, I know you have to get some red ball through one of three hoops. And that those... metal ones are supposed to knock you down," Darla said, feeling immensly stupid. She never memorized any names of any of the equipment in any sport. What was the use if she was never going to play them? But now she sort of wished she remembered the names of the balls for Quidditch. Maybe it would make her seem less stupid. "And there's one more ball, but I'm not sure what that one does."

Darla thought hard about anything, anything, more she knew about Quidditch. Gah, she didn't even know the number of players on a team, or even what they did. Well, she did know one, she guessed. "Erm, and there's one player that protects the posts from the red ball getting in," Darla stated. This was obvious, you didn't have to be a sports lover to know someone had to protect whatever ball from getting in wherever. Or else your team would lose. That was simply common sense.

Darla sighed, as she looked down at Tarlo and shook her head. "That's about it," she said with a tiny laugh. "As you see, I don't know too much about it. You have a lot of work on your hands." She managed a teasing grin in Law's direction.\n\n
0 Darla Only some? 0 Darla 0 5


Lucas

December 26, 2006 2:43 PM
Lucas was turning his Puffskein over and over in his hands, smirking as its purring got louder by the minute. He lifted up various bits of fluff still in search of the eyes - honestly, he would have picked one with longer hair, that was just his luck. Raising the creature to his eye level, Lucas inspected it further.

"You must have eyes somewhere, Puff." He told it quietly, shortening its name to 'Puff' for mere convenience. He was already quite attached to his apparently eye-less pet and the way it purred so loudly; Lucas was beginning to wonder if it was actually part lawn mower since it made so much noise.

As Lucas was pondering these things (and still trying to find Puff's eyes), a girl bumped into him, causing them both to drop their creatures. She immediately bent down to pick hers up, then apologised to Lucas with a grin.

"Is yours alright?" She asked with, what Lucas thought, was sincerity.

"Yeah..." He replied absently, picking Puff up from the floor and inspecting it. "Sorry." He added, even though it was completely the girl's fault that she had walked into him, his parents had taught him to always be polite.

Lucas glanced at the light gingery coloured one that the girl was cradling and noticed its large and quite obvious eyes. He then looked back at his own creature and frowned a little, wondering why his couldn't have visible eyes like that. What if his Puff didn't have any eye at all in the end? 'That would actually be kinda creepy.' Lucas decided mentally, and expelled the thought from his mind. He was sure to find them someday.

Thinking it was about time to make a step toward getting a friend or two in this place, Lucas offered the girl who had bumped into him a nervous but charming smile. "So umm... Hi." He stuttered, kicking himself inwardly, that really wasn't a very good start to a conversation. He tried to repair his mistake. "Hi. I-I'm Lucas, I'm in Aladren. What's your name?"

He smiled again, even less confidently than before. This was rare for him, he had always hoped to be a dominant character, much like his father, yet here he stood, practically dithering. He just hoped he'd have the chance for a second first impression, if there really was such a thing.\n\n
0 Lucas Heeeey... 0 Lucas 0 5


Kavin and Darci

December 27, 2006 10:53 AM
Kavin, on seeing his sister run into another person, jogged over to the two. Darci looked up at her brother and grinned. "I'm all right, see," she said, giving him a turn. "And so is the puffskein, see," she gave her puffskein a turn in her hands. It giggle/purred lightly when she did that.

Kavin sighed and shook his head, looking to the boy who was his roommate when he spoke up. Kavin still wasn't going to talk until he saw if the boy was good or not. Lightly, Kavin placed his own puffskein in his hair so he didn't have to hold it, and gave Darci a look that told her he wasn't talking.

Darci sighed, and turned to the boy. Lucas. "I'm Darci," she said with a grin. "In Pecari. This right here is Kavin, you two must be roomies, he's in Aladren too." Darci elbowed her brother slightly. "He's my half-brother. And he doesn't really talk to people much," Darci grinned.

Kavin glared at his sister, not wanting attention to be drawn to him. He bit his lip and turned away, focusing mose on the puffskein in his hair than his sister and roommate. Darci frowned, and decided to annoy her brother more. She turned to Lucas.

"He's not a people person," Darci said shaking her head. "He has it in his head that people are of the devil when he first meets them," she looked to Kavin from the corner of her eye, to realize he was glaring at her. Darci gave him a tiny grin. "It's okay," she went back to Lucas, "you just have to be a good influence to him. Maybe talk to him about his guitar, Kav loves that."

Kavin sighed, and just shook his head. "Darci," he said in barely a whisper. "Shut. Up."\n\n
0 Kavin and Darci Hello =] 0 Kavin and Darci 0 5


Josiah

December 27, 2006 3:26 PM
OOC: I've been away, but I am now back!

IC: Josaih blinked a few times. This girl seemed...well uncomfortable with his compliments. That was odd. After all, she was very prretty, why not like it. But her extra-loud change in conversations put up a red flag to any of his protests.

"Well, we have Mortemer and Racheel (Ray-she-ehl) our ravens. Mo lives at Sonora with me. And we have..."he paused a bit, and finished in a whisper, "An owl," he shuddered, obviously not happy with the word. "And, if you consider him a pet, we have a prarie elf named Chipper. Mom lets him do all the work and she just sits around, lazy mom is. And if we can keep him, I have Teppers," He looked down at his puffskein. Teppers was blinking confusedly, looking for custard. Josaih picked him up and hugged him tight to himself. Teppers purred loudly and Josiah smirked at him. The thing was rather cute, even as girly as that word was.

HE started to toss Teppers in the air one handedly while he listened to Elly. Teppers was making odd noises that Josiah was sure translated into "WHEEEEEEEEEEE!" in human talk. \n\n
0 Josiah SO sorry it took so long to reply 0 Josiah 0 5


Caedence

December 27, 2006 3:37 PM
Caedence stared in open amazement at the first year before her. The puffball fell to the ground and was ignored. He didn't seem to like that, and made increased loud noises. Caedence glowered at him, but the puffball purred all the louder. She kicked it, slightly harder than she meant to, and it went sailing into the crowd. Oh well, she'd find it later.

"Flea ridden animals?" she growled, "Is that what you called me? Do you have any idea who the heck you're dealing with boy!? DO YOU!?" Her voice rose without her wanting till it was a bellow. "You think you could actually beat me?" Her voice quieted until it was a deadly hiss. Her eyes, which had so recently been purged of their venom thanks to Elly's help, reganed them at an alarming rate. they flashed dangerously and held no mercy in them.

"Do you know how many curses I know? Do you even know how many of them aren't even legal? Try me, boy,"she hissed again. Running through said list, she quickly abandoned the notion. After all, she had already been in trouble with Professor K the prior year for using her wand on someone else. But there the wand was, in her hand, emmiting sparks. Then she realised something. There was a stick at her feet and her bejeweled hairclip was in her pocket.

Quickly she pulled it out of her pocket. In one fluid motion, she had clipped it into her hair and grabbed the stick at her feet. In another split second, the stick was flying at Hikaru's head at an alarming speed. There was almost no chance of dodging it. Dimly, she remembered her training as a beater. Grip the bat firmly a few inches in. Check. Make sure you're on target. Check. Have a venomous desire to hurt the recipient of the blow. Check and double check. This was going to hurt! \n\n
0 Caedence and now...not so nice 94 Caedence 0 5


Hyana

December 27, 2006 3:46 PM
Hyana turned around when a first year boy said something to Caedence. "Hi-hikaru-san!" She exclaimed, completly forgetting to speak clearly. She knew that would probably make Caedence even angrier...but right now she didn't care. She couldn't believe that Hikaru would say such hurtful things! Hyana backed away from Caedence, and picked up Puffball. It seemed thankful; she would give the poor thing back to Caedence once she calmed down. She didn't want Puffball to be squeezed to death out of Caedence's wrath.

Caedence's wand tip sparked and Hyana followed her gaze. She was looking at a stick. She was going to throw it at Hikaru. "Hikaru-san, look out!" She cried, but Caedence had already thrown the stick. There was no way Hikaru could have dodged it. Hyana closed her eyes. If there was blood, she didn't want to see it. Blood made the Japanese girl very uneasy. Mostly because it usually was her own. Hyana felt very sorry for Hikaru, but he kinda did deserve it. Maybe Josiah or Elly, whom Caedence seemed to like, would come and try to put a stop to this. For now, the only one who could do that was Hyana. 'I'm gonna die.' She thought sadly.\n\n
0 Hyana Ummm...this is bad. 0 Hyana 0 5


Nathalie

December 28, 2006 7:50 AM
Hannah seemed to have settled on a name, and Irene had changed hers to Zizzie. Hoping desperately that she wasn't going to end up with a male puffskein with a very obviously female name, Nathalie tried to peer inconpicuosly at Irene's textbook. Her own lay forgotten by her feet, open at the page marked 'Flobberworms'.

She quickly realised that the words 'peer' and 'inconpicuosly' really didn't mix, and, partly for fear of getting strange looks form Irene and partly because she didn't know anyhting about her and was curious, Nathalie turned to Hannah.

"So, you're not Pecari, then? Which house are you in?"\n\n
0 Nathalie Sorry for the delay, there was pudding to eat 0 Nathalie 0 5


Hikaru Kasuragi

December 28, 2006 2:19 PM
Hikaru barely heard Hyana shout at him before the stick crashed into his head. He fell on the ground painfully and saw stars floating infront of him, he slowly rose to his feet and glared at Cadence with murderous wrath. 'Ok...' he thought to himsel, I've had to put up with being treated like a child all day, but if that flea-bag thinks shes gonna get away with hurting my friends she is soooooo wrong!' he didn't even bother to raise his wand, he didn't even think of a curse to use, he wanted to break her for embaressing him like that and treating Hyana like a slave! The nerve of this girl.

He groaned to himself when he realised people were going to stare and he would probably get into trouble again and he didn't need another detention. He thought of ten hexes that would probably get him kicked out of school then and there so he put those aside and composed himself.

He walked over until he was abouta foot away from Cadence and growled maliciously "I'm sorry senpai" he said the word with such venom a normal person would probably back away but he knew that this she wolf was different then the rest of the pack here. (Senpai=Upper Classman)

He spoke again in less of a snarl but he kept the venom in his voice "I think that if I see you harming Hyana, I'll make you wish that you were never born, however...since this is class and I'd probably get another detention from Kiva, I'll leave you alone, meet me in the Labyrinth Gardens tommorow so we can spar." He picked up his tiny blue puffskien Leon and walked over to find Riley.\n\n
0 Hikaru Kasuragi Uh-oh 0 Hikaru Kasuragi 0 5


Caedence

December 29, 2006 12:18 PM
Caedence stared after the boy in open amazement. Who was he to challenge her? Psh! The gardens. How cliche was that? After all, isn't that where Caedence battled Morgaine? The battle that was yet to be continued thanks to the medling of a certian COMC teacher? Glaring after his retreating form, she resisted the temptation to hex him while his back was turned. That wouldn't be good form. But, for now, she would just let her violent daydreams rule her mind.

Then she noticed that Hyanna was still beside her. "Well...this isn't too good is it? It appears our Quidditch lesson tomorrow will have to be put off. Unless I can dispatch of that fool quickly," Her eyes were still glowing with the embers of anger and hate (Metaphor people!!!) She glared once more after Hikaru's retreating form before turning back to Hyanna. "So, wanna continue where we left off?" Her eyes were still awful sinister. She hoped Hyanna wouldn't be too scared off.\n\n
0 Caedence You'll regret that boy! 94 Caedence 0 5


Hyana

December 29, 2006 12:28 PM
Hyana watched the whole exchange, weighing the options in her mind. She could tell Caedence to leave Hikaru alone...or she could make Hikaru give up. Both would result in losing one of her 'friends'. Which one did she fear most? Caedence. I think I'll side with Caedence on this one She thought with a smile on her face. A forced smile though, seeing how she wanted to help Hikaru too. She watched him hit the ground when the stick came into contact with his head. She resisted from asking him if he was okay, knowing that if she was going to side with Caedence, she would need to keep her mouth shut. Of course, the little fight had to end, and Caedence suddenly remembered Hyana's existence.

"Yeah, I guess we can reschedule...if you want to." Hyana said slowly. Something had been nagging the back of her mind...then she realized it. Josiah wanted to teach her quidditch too! She decided to weigh her options again. The nice and kind Josiah...or Caedence who would rip her to shreds if she trained with Josiah. Again, she chose Caedence. Hyana waited until the anger in Caedence's eyes died down slightly, then handed her Puffball.

"Of course I would like to continue where we left off! What's next?" She said excitedly, giving Chiyo a little pat.\n\n
0 Hyana Is it over? 0 Hyana 0 5


Caedence

December 29, 2006 12:40 PM
Caedence nodded at the girl once to acknowledge the reschedual. "A week from tomorrow. Again, should I dispose of the fool soon, we may stick to the origanal plan. Either way, I will be able to train you." she said with s smirk. It did no good to scare the pants off her pupil. She tossed the puffball a few times, catching it one handedly.

"Well, if you'd like, I could use different levetation spells and we could play a game. Like, whoever drops it first earns their enem...opponent a point. Then, whever gets like 10 points or so wins? Sound cool?" Caedence asked. "wingardium leviosa" she muttered under her breath and the puffball lazily floated up. It purred, as if happy to fly. "And to make it tougher, we could add...what was it?...Chiko? Chi? Chi-oh? To the mix so we have two things to concentrate on. It helps to build your reaction, hand-eye coordination and you periferal vision." she said with a smirk, "Oh and no offence, but you probably only know wingardium leviosa, so we'll stick with that one." she added. \n\n
0 Caedence Not untill the fat lady sings? 94 Caedence 0 5


Hyana

December 29, 2006 12:52 PM
Hyana agreed to the reschedule. A week? She could wait. Now she just had to figure out a way to tell Josiah that she couldn't train with him. Maybe in her next class. Hyana took Chiyo off the top of her head, where the lilac puffskein had been sitting, and tossed her up and down as well. Then Caedence suggested a game. She suggested adding Chiyo in the mix as well. Hyana looked at Puffball, who was enjoying the fligh, then at Chiyo, who was watching Puffball with jelousy.

"Okay." Hyana said. She set Chiyo on the ground and recited the spell that she had mastered in Charms with Dalila. "Wingardium Leviosa." Chiyo floated into the air and make a noice that was in between a showt and a cry of WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"But before we start," Hyana said...pretty daring, "Are you actually going to fight Hikaru? I mean, wouldn't it be more insulting just to forget about him?" She had to ask. She knew about the whole pride thing. Many people had asked her to show up at a certain place, but she knew that she was going to be picked on. So she ignored those people. That was probably the best defense and the biggest insult. She didn't want Caedence to get in trouble, and she wanted Hikaru to keep his life. This was going to be hard.\n\n
0 Hyana But she's a horrible singer! 0 Hyana 0 5


Caedence

December 29, 2006 1:01 PM
Caedence glanced sharply at her. "Don't go to the fight? Back down? Appear a coward? Never! Never will I back off from a fight! I won't!" She snapped, "I doubt you even know about having to watch your back every time you turn the corner. I doubt you know the feeling of there being no where to rest, that your home isn't a haven. I doubt you even know how to fight on the streets. However 'insulting' it may be to abandon the fight that would appear weak." She fixed Hyana with an unflinching stare "I-am-not-weak!" she said stressing each word.

"Now, lets forget about that pig-boy and onto our game, shall we?" She said, her voice marking the end of the little chat. Her heart pounded in newfound rage. Her concentration wavered and the puffball fell a few feet before Caedence said the spell to make him airborne again. Well, a little too fiercely as the thing shot a good six feet up from the three feet off the ground he was already at. "On the count of three then?" She said trying to salvage a smile.\n\n
0 Caedence Like most people in our choirs! 94 Caedence 0 5


Meredith

December 30, 2006 12:14 AM
OOC: No problem. I haven't been the best time wise either so don't worry about it.

BIC: “Me either, unless you know another expert.” Meredith said on who else would know how to find the gender of the puffskeins. “I’ve got a few books on animals at home, but I haven’t looked at them. I don’t spend enough time inside or sitting still to read them.” Meredith admitted with a laugh.

“Who wouldn’t want one of these? They’re like the perfect pet.” Meredith whole-heartedly agreed that it was sad to see something like a puffskein go homeless. She started slowly rotating Dot in a full circle with the tips of her fingers. Helena brought up a good point. How big could these little guys get? “I don’t know, but imagine if they grew to the size of a kneazle or something. Can you imagine a puff ball that big?” The image in her mind made her smile in amusement. No doubt she would have a strange dream about gigantic puffskeins that night.

Meredith nodded as Helena explained about her sister. She couldn’t understand why people didn’t like owls or mice, or pets like that. They weren’t dangerous. There’s a difference between owning an owl and, say, a dragon. The twins gave their mother a fright with an enchanted dragon kite once. Another hilarious episode. Obviously both she and Helena had strange family members. And then she was asked about siblings. Meredith always had fun talking about her brothers, especially the twins.

“Yup, I have three older brothers. There’s the twins, Max and Anthony. They’re fraternal too. They turned seventeen in April, which is a little scary because now they can do magic at home instead of just using little joke toys they bought.” Meredith laughed. “They love to torture mama, but they don’t go too far. They just play around with her because she’s a muggle. They mess around with all the muggles in Nashville, which aren’t many. Then there’s my oldest brother Ryan who’s twenty-one. He graduated from here a few years ago. He used to be more fun, but now he’s more business-like, sort of like daddy and works with him in the ministry and all that.” Meredith shrugged, not caring for that government nonsense. It was all gibberish to her anyway. "They still know how to have fun though, which is good.

Caedence’s yelling interrupted whatever Helena was saying. Meredith didn’t want to talk badly of Caedence, but her impressions on people didn’t leave much else to work with. She hoped Elly could break that reputation since she was the only one Caedence seemed to open up to. Helena looked to be trying to find a way to describe Caedence.

"Is she as - er - forward as they say? I've heard crazy stories from Geoffrey, though Merlin only knows where he gets his information from." Meredith frowned a little in thought and looked at Dot, wiggling gently in her finger.

“Well,” After a short pause she spoke again. There were some things that you just couldn’t rephrase “Yeah she is very forward. If you make her mad you’ll know it. She’s not a bad kid though, she’s just really…um,” she tried looking for her own word to describe her roommate, “defensive maybe? I don’t know. She and Elly are friends and I don’t not like her.” Wow, that sentence was a grammatical masterpiece. “What kind of stories did Geoffrey tell you? I don’t trust rumors.” Meredith asked out of pure curiosity, not to gossip. Gossiping was what Mama did with all of her lady friends on the weekends and Meredith was far from anything like that.\n\n
0 Meredith I guess both ways work. 0 Meredith 0 5


Law Cooper

December 30, 2006 12:11 PM
Well, she had a basic grasp of the sport. Albeit an extremely basic grasp. But it was a start, a step up from all the muggleborns who didn't even know that you could fly on broomsticks.

"Chill," he replied to her statement that he had a lot of work to do, "You're doing fine." Of course, that wasn't really true, and there was so much she needed to be told, but Law was an optimist. Besides, it be no help to tell her she knew so little about the sport. He'd been told the same thing by teachers in school subjects, and that never made him feel any better about himself.

From his own experiences like the treacherous experience with penmanship, he knew you had to take things one letter at a time. Or in this case, one position at a time. Otherwise, a sudden bombardment of information did nothing but confuse a person.

"So the red ball that goes through the hoops is called the Quaffle. Everytime a team gets it through any of the three of the opposing team's hoops they score ten points. The people who handle the Quaffle are the Chasers. There are three on a team. There's also the Keeper, his job is basically goaltending, which is to defend his hoops from the opposing team's Chasers," he stopped, realizing he was rambling and that there was a good chance that Darla was totally lost and that he had only made things more confusing.

"Sorr 'bout that," he apologized, "I got carried away. Did you understand any of my babbling?"\n\n
0 Law Cooper Otherwise, Ares would be bored all the time 0 Law Cooper 0 5


Darla

December 30, 2006 1:36 PM
"Chill," he had stated. "You're doing fine..."

Hah, Darla was pretty sure she wasn't doing fine. Knowing next to nothing about the sport certainly wasn't doing "fine." Not even knowing the names of the balls wasn't doing "fine." Darla knew she wasn't a good choice to teach sports to, finding them not too interesting. But at least she had a one-up against Law by knowing more about Muggles than him.

And Darla would have to teach him about Muggles sometime. She knew that would be more confusing than a sport. Maybe she'd show him the Algebra she had to do. Or Sciences, history? They were all good subjects to try out. She'd already started with genetics, so Darla wanted to finish that up. With her very basic concept of it...

Law started on with the red ball. The Quaffle? And putting it through the opposite teams hoops for ten points. And the people who did that were Chasers. And of course, there was someone to block those hoops. The Keeper? Darla nodded, that sounded right.

"Okay, so the red ball is a Quaffle?" Darla repeated, a little unsure of herself. "And the players who try to get the Quaffle into the hoops are Chasers? And the ones to protect are Keepers?" Darla was sure she was getting it right.

"Right, I think I get it..." she muttered.\n\n
0 Darla Wait... what? Oh! God of War... gotcha XD 0 Darla 0 5


Law Cooper

December 30, 2006 2:51 PM
Law was relieved to hear that Darla had gotten his rant. It meant that they could move forward and that he didn't have to go back and repeat everything all over again. Of course, as they moved foward, he would be sure to keep things simple.

"Don't ask me," he smiled reassuringly at Darla's unconfident tone, "You got it. The three chasers and the keeper are four of the seven starting players on a team. So right now you know more than half of what you need to," he added hoping that would make things seem as easy as they really were.

Next were the beaters and Bludgers, as the seeker and the snith were something you usually left for last. But how to explain them simply. He didn't know much about the muggle world, so he couldn't use a comparison to their sports. And personally, he thought the simplest way to explain it was just to tell it like it is.

"So while the whole thing with the Quaffle is going on, the two metal balls, the Bludgers are there to try and knock off the players nearest to them," he didn't say that they could be tampered with, because that would just baffle things, "There are two players on each team, called beaters. They have these wooden bats that they use to keep the Bludgers away from teammates, and they hit Bludgers towards the opposing team."\n\n
0 Law Cooper Don't mind my author, she's nerdy 0 Law Cooper 0 5


Hyana

December 30, 2006 5:20 PM
Hyana let Chiyo fall to the ground, no longer focusing on the spell. She listened to Caedence, but didn't really hear her. Caedence finished her rant and tried to be nice, but Hyana didn't care. She kept silent for a while, anger boiling up inside of her. She looked Caedence straight in the eye.

"I do know what it's like. I know what it's like to watch my back wherever I go. I know what it's like to have no where to go, no place to be safe!" Her voice had risen to an angry scream, and continued to get louder. "I know plenty about fighting! I've taken classes just so I can defend myself in my own house! Everyday I'm scared for my life Caedence! It's not just you!" Her voice started to quiet down. "I fear for my life everyday Caedence. My mother is a drunk who works at hooters and probably sells herself to men. She comes home drunk and beats me within an inch of my life. Because she enjoys it." Hyana's hands were clenched into fists, and her whole body was shaking.

"I could be dead and no one would care. My father and my sister are dead. They were the only people who cared for me. Now my mother is my only family left, and she holds my life in her hands. The kids in my neighborhood decided that I'm their punching bag. They see me walking down the street and say to their friends, 'Hey, who wants to kick around that Japanese girl?' They make fun of me because of how I look. I'm quiet. It's because I'm terrified of everyone Caedence! I can't trust anyone. It would only get me hurt. But I had a chance to come here and change that about myself. You're not the only one who fears her life Caedence." Hyana finished in a hiss. She looked at Chiyo, who seemed scared of her. She turned away from Caedence and picked up Chiyo, trying to calm herself.

But what she didn't know was her sholder was showing, and you could see scars and healing wounds. \n\n
0 Hyana Yuppers. I know a person 0 Hyana 0 5


Professor K

December 30, 2006 9:32 PM
Despite Kiva's sometimes lack of the obvious nature, or that some might consider her not entirely there in the head, she wasn't as dumb or foolish as some might think. In fact, in her line of work (one working with animals, not as a teacher), she had to be intelligent as well as quick on her feet. Especially if she planned on living a long full life.

So, when shouting happened in her classroom, Kiva heard it. She had been momentarily distracted by Paul who was in need of medical attention. But as soon as Paul was on his way to the Medic, Kiva made her way over to the source of the noise. Somehow, she wasn't surprised to find that Caedence was one of the girls to have risen her voice.

"Girls, do we have a situation here? I could hear you yelling clear as day from across the clearing. If you two are having issues, instead of yelling, talk it out, or it becomes my issue." Kiva said. Normally she was a passive and quiet, but over the last couple of years, Kiva had to learn to be stern and grow a back bone. If she wasn't or didn't, the students would have walked all over her.\n\n
0 Professor K Oh dear, when there's yelling... 0 Professor K 0 5


Caedence

December 30, 2006 10:32 PM
Caedence opened her mouth. She could have told the girl to shut up. She could have said 'i'm sorry'. She could have uttered the deadliest curse in the world. But she didn't. Because there was a second piece in the puzzle.

She stared at the Professor before her. Kiva Kijewski, the person who had caught her last year. In the gardens with Morgaine, about to have a wizzards, well in that case witches, duel. "No, Ma'am, we weren't. I honestly learned my lesson about fighting last year. Didn't I promise to work out my anger better?" Okay, so it was cheesy and suck-upish, but she really didn't want to get into trouble again there had barely been any school days, after all. She glanced at Hyana,

"I'm sorry,"she said simply. She did not know what for. For snapping? For her home life? Or was she sorry for herself? Caedence didn't really know. But she had to say it anyways.\n\n
0 Caedence ...Caedence is usually the source 94 Caedence 0 5


Hyana

December 30, 2006 11:12 PM
Hyana looked at the professor. She had no idea she was yelling. It wasn't like her, not at all. But hearing Caedence use that suck up voice and apologize, that wasn't like Caedence. She looked at both Caedence and Professor Kijewski and said, "Gomenasai sensei. I won't let it happen again. I just got a little worked up in our...conversation."

She wasn't being a suck up, but she wasn't exactly telling the truth. What she would give to smack Caedence in the face at the moment. Of course, everyone must have wanted to do that at one point in time.

OOC Translation:
Gomenasai sensei: I'm very sorry Professor.\n\n
0 Hyana Sorry... 0 Hyana 0 5


Mika

December 30, 2006 11:15 PM
Mika grinned at how impressed Yae was. Mika wasn't a show off, but it was nice to get admiring looks instead of pitying ones. That was part of the reason he wanted to play quiddich so badly. Because he just KNEW he would be good. Maybe not great, but good. He shook his head a bit when Yae asked about soccer though.

"Sometimes, but not often. The other kids did not like to let me play with them, because you don't play soccer the same when you are in a wheelchair, and the other kids did not think I was fun to play with. I am hoping to play quiddich though! I think that will be ... madcool." He still wasn't sure he was using that word right, but he thought he probably was.

Mika caressed his Sloyka a bit apologetically. "I wish we had real balls to play with. I do not like to kick my sloyka around, I know the Professor said they don't mind, and it purrs when I do, but it still is not very nice. Besides, cats purr both when they are happy, and when they are in pain. That is why a cat purrs when it is having kittens, because it hurts." Mika was full of useless trivia like that. "So maybe the reason sloykas purr when you kick them is because it hurts." he looked down at his sloyka, frowning a bit. "I do not think I will play football, er, soccer, with him any more."

Mika paused, then lifted his sloyka up and looked underneath it, trying to determine the fat thing's gender. He found no indicator though, and shrugged. "Or her, if it is female. I cannot tell."\n\n
0 Mika Whoohoo for Madcool 0 Mika 0 5


Gwyneth Aquillon

December 31, 2006 1:58 PM
After hurriedly excusing herself from Rachel and Cole, Gwyneth had picked up her puffskein, robe and bag, gave her auburn ponytail an annoyed flick of the head and headed off in the general direction of two different groups of boys. She didn't know which group she would yell at first for the way they were mistreating the puffskeins!

The hackeysack group was kicking their fuzzy puffskein around between a couple of kids. But as she neared that group, she heard one of the other boys begin to remind them of the animals' rights and the game seemed to stop. Okay, that left group number two and she veered off in that direction.

One boy in a wheelchair practically rolled over his puffskein, then he was showing off for the other one by balancing on just the wheels and popping the puffskein up into the air and back down again on his legs. 'Typical show-off!' she thought. 'Just wait until I get there and remind him of how that poor puffskein must feel.'

Fortunately for Gwyneth, as she approached the two boys she overheard the boy in the wheelchair say I wish we had real balls to play with. I do not like to kick my sloyka around,. . . I do not think I will play football, er, soccer, with him any more.

Like being doused with a bucket of cold water, she stopped in her tracks and quickly rethought what she was about to do. 'Gwyneth Aquillon, you were just saved from making a complete fool of yourself! Who do you think you are anyway? If there was a problem, the teacher would handle it, just like Mom or Dad would in their classes,' she silently yelled at herself.

Unfortunately for Gwyneth, she was now standing fairly near the two boys and was pretty certain that her approach had probably not gone unnoticed, so it would be difficult to just slink quietly away. No choice but to introduce herself, she quickly decided.

"Hi, I was watching you play with your puffskein. You are pretty good at 'two-wheel juggling'!" she said to the boy in the wheelchair as she finished her approach. "I gotta tell you that I originally came over to stop you from hurting your puffskein when I saw your juggling act from where I was sitting. But then, as I got closer I heard what you just said to your friend here about not liking to kick your puffskein around. Sorry, that I was being nosy. I was just worried about these little furry guys. My name is Gwyneth Aquillon, first year Teppenpaw, by the way. And what is a 'sloyka'?"
\n\n
0 Gwyneth Aquillon Operation Puffskein Rescue Aborted 0 Gwyneth Aquillon 0 5


Darla

December 31, 2006 9:48 PM
Darla beamed proudly when Law told she had it. Hooray, first step to learning something new. She smiled eagerly. "I am getting it," she grinned, tossing her black hair to the side, and snuggling Tarlo to her cheek. "I'm normally much slower than that. I'm surprised."

Well, Darla was slower at Math and Science and History. Things that took time to memorize formulas and numbers and dates. Sports, as Darla knew, you really only had to learn the names of the postions and what the position did. She didn't think she even had to really learn to play. Since the deal was just teach about the subjects. Not have them get involved. Darla knew she'd be clumsy and awful on a broom. And taking Law's Muggle knowlege (none), she wasn't about to force him to do homework her dad sent her. Or the tests.

Ew... tests. Darla could totally wait for her dad to send those out.

And now Law started on with Bludgers. Darla blushed remembering the opening feast when she'd called them "blooders." Well, at least Law knew that was because she knew nothing about Quidditch. So it was less embarassing that way.

"Okay," Darla nodded, this was a bit simpler to remember than the Chasers and Keeper. She tried to repeat it all. "Chasers throw Quaffle to other teams' hoops. Keeper stops Quaffle from going in. Bludgers try to kill players, and Beaters use bats to pound them away from their teammates and to the other team." She believed she had it. "Wow, Quidditch is a violent sport," Darla muttered, not able to hold that bit in.

The she looked to Law. "And there's one more player and ball, right? The little gold ball?" Darla really knew nothing about this. Well, now she did, but her previous knowlegde was awful. "What purpose do those two serve?" She had a feeling that was a very stupid question.\n\n
0 Darla Mine can be as well 0 Darla 0 5


Professor K

January 01, 2007 12:56 PM
Kiva stared down at Caedence for a moment. The events that had occurred the year previous came back at her as though they had only happened the day before. Kiva remembered being completely astounded by the things the girl had been telling her. It was like Caedence's mouth opened on it's own accord and split away all of her secrets. And now, the mouth had opened, telling Kiva what she thought she wanted to hear.

Her lips were slowly becoming a thin line of doubt as she listened to Caedence talk. Never had Kiva been so uncertain with a student before. She held up a hand for a moment, "Okay Caedence." Kiva said, her voice weary. She offered a smile to the first year, there was no reason to snap at a student who had yet to do any wrong.

"It's alright, Hyana." Kiva looked between the two of them. She wondered if it was a good idea to have Hyana be mixed up with Caedence, but then realized such a thought would mean she didn't have faith in Caedence. "If I hear any more commossion over here again, I will separate the tw of you permanently in my class." Kiva warned, giving each girl a stern look before walking to another group of students.\n\n
0 Professor K *Sigh* 0 Professor K 0 5


Caedence

January 01, 2007 9:25 PM
"Thank-you, Professor Kij..K!" She said still having trouble with the odd name. She continued grinning until the teacher went away. Then she sunk to the ground as if her knees went limp and she were falling through water. "Nothing in the world would be more merciful than to be struck down right now" She mumbeled to herself, hands covering her face. After a few moments however, she regained her composure. She stood up, firey determination in her eyes again.

"Well, now that that is over, shall we try our game again? I'll treat you to some homemade fudge from mum if you win Hyana! And maybe I can teach you ty-kuan-do (ooc:you should know, did I spell that right?) "She looked the girl up and down, "And should you already know it, we could spar. A fair match. I may not plan on being so fair to that whelp that just left. But with you, an honorable fight would be nice." She nodded to herself. Yes, it would be. "Wingardium leviosa" she said and puffball once more flew into the air, joyfully squealing.\n\n
0 Caedence seems i've been getting a lot of attention 94 Caedence 0 5


Elly

January 02, 2007 7:38 AM
Elly was thankful that Josiah adhered to her unspoken request to change the subject. He told her that he had two ravens and an owl, though he didn't seem too happy about the latter. Elly couldn't understand why - owls were useful and surely no more frightening than ravens.

"I'd like an owl," she said, addressing his discomfort indirectly, "but I think my mother would freak out most unpleasantly if she knew I had a bird in the house." She grinned. There had been an owl in Elly's bedroom on several occasions, but Elly had never told her mother about Meredith's owl, and certainly hadn't betrayed him as the reason for her tattered curtains. She was sure her mother would notice if Elly had one of her own, though.

Josiah said that he had a parie elf, too. Elly had heard about prarie elves at Sonora, and thought she'd gotten a glimpse of one in the gardens once, but she couldn't be sure. She did know that only wizarding families had prarie elves, but she didn't want to ask Josiah if he was pureblood; being Muggleborn, blood didn't matter to Elly.

"My parents never let me have any pets," Elly said, "and if we get to keep our puffskeins, I think I'll keep Custard a secret." \n\n
0 Elly Likewise 0 Elly 0 5


Helena

January 02, 2007 2:32 PM
Helena laughed along with Meredith about her activity levels. "I read a lot now, but not that kind of stuff. I'm more of a novel type." She grinned, shrugging half-apologetically. "I blame my mother. She went on some kind of chick lit kick while she was pregnant with me, and I guess some of it wore off."

She had discovered by accident that she was now reading more books in the average month than Geoffrey, but after she'd thought about it for a while, Helena had decided that it wasn't all that surprising. Her brother's social life might not have been much more flourishing than hers, but he had two roommates and Anne to contend with. Once she got away from her brother and future sister-in-law's well-meaning but madness-inducing efforts, Helena had to deal with neither. Unless there was a Quidditch practice, she didn't have much else to do but read or dream once she finished her homework.

"Oh, Lord," she said, her eyes getting big as she tried to envision a Kneazle-sized puffskein. "Invasion of the Giant Puffskeins. I can hear the radio serial now." She could visualize it, too, but she wasn't going to mention that. The radio serial comment had probably already done more than enough to support the (true) idea that she had an overactive imagination.

"Mum and Daddy both work in government," she said when Meredith finished talking about her brothers. "Just not for the same government, if you'll believe it. She's English, he's South Carolinian. Nothing too big, or our house would be a war zone." Secretaries and paper-pushers generally did stay out of the big leagues. "We're all wizards, as far as I know. Geoffrey's the know-it-all firstborn, and Lavinia's the spoiled-to-death baby. Daddy says I'm the good one, but that's because I was Sorted into his old House."

It was at least half a joke, but she couldn't help wondering if there was an element of truth to it. No one could have known for sure that she would go into Crotalus before it happened, but maybe there was some kind of affinity between people with personalities similar enough to wind up in the same House. It took less than a second of reflection to dismiss the bulk of the theory. She had never felt much of anything except the occasional bout of trepidation around other Crotali, and some of the older students would gladly dance on each other's graves, if one listened to the rumors.

Speaking of which -

Helena shrugged her shoulders. "I don't either, really, especially not in something like a school. It's hard to know if there's any truth to it, or if people are just making up junk to rip someone else to shreds. I'm not gullible enough to believe all of what Geoff tells me - I mean, one first year beating up every first and second year in Pecari at one time? Come on - but he usually puts enough truth into whatever he's saying that I wondered." The corners of her mouth twisted down, a halfhearted grimace. "His idea of looking after me, I gue -."

She was interrupted for the second time by an explosion from her yearmate. Her mouth fell open, but closed quickly around the only two words she could think of to summarize the situation:

"Oh, dear."\n\n
16 Helena 'Parently so. 88 Helena 0 5


Law Cooper

January 02, 2007 5:08 PM
Law laughed at Darla's description of the Bludgers, "They don't try to kill you, just, knock you off your broom." Of course, there were probably a lot of instances where getting knocked off your broom had the same effect as being killed. But Law simply wasn't one to think in those terms.

The little gold ball? What purpose does it serve? It was a very good thing Law was currently occupying himself by picking through the blades of grass to catch the scrambling S'more. Otherwise he might have been really rude and laughed.

"The last ball, that's the Snitch," he explained, "It's about the size of S'more, 'cept more gold and shiny, and of course, it has wings and it's not furry. Only the Seeker is allowed to catch it. It's worth 150 points and catching it ends the game. Whoever catches the Snitch usually wins, so it's really important."

Well, that was it, that was Quidditch. Or a very basic version of it, anyway. He'd barely described the rules, or what kind of people usually played what position, or moves or anything. He'd mentioned maybe one of the hundreds of fouls one could break (like pelting a bludger into the crowd, or throwing an opponent player off their broom). But the eleven year-old figured that was probably best left for another day.\n\n
0 Law Cooper happy new year 0 Law Cooper 0 5


Kaleb Heindrich

January 03, 2007 2:11 PM
The girl threw the puffskein back at him and he caught it. He saw that the girl was approaching him and grinned at the look she was giving him. "So," he offered the girl the puffskein "You want to play catch?"

It was an honest and sincere question; as honest and as sincere you could get with him anyway. Still grinning, he threw the puffskein in the air again. "Well," he asked again "what do you say to a game of catch?"\n\n
0 Kaleb Heindrich You need to get out more! 0 Kaleb Heindrich 0 5


Oliver Abbott

January 03, 2007 2:31 PM
Oliver found his way down to his first lesson with very little trouble, for which he was unspeakably glad. He tended to panic when he got lost, and it was never an enjoyable experience, anyway. Plus, he would have been late for the lesson, which wouldn't have given the teacher a good first impression. However, Oliver arrived well on time, so all these concerns were irrelevant.

He liked the teacher- Professor Kijewski – immediately because of her friendly and apparently relaxed approach to teaching. Oliver settled himself down amongst the other students, though didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to remove his robes. Oliver’s unnaturally pale skin was prone to burning even with very little sun, and his robes would help to protect him from its rays. He also kept in place his floppy beige sunhat, which would keep the sun off his head and way from his eyes. He knew the teacher wouldn’t mind him wearing his hat because the Headmaster had ok’d it before term started, and Oliver didn’t mind anymore if the other students decided to tease him. It didn’t bother him anymore.

Oliver listened to the professor talking with a fairly high level of interest. These Puffskein things were undeniably cute, but he couldn’t really establish that they had any sort of purpose in existence. If they got to keep them he’s probably give his to Charlotte, who would like it simply for its cute and fluffy exterior, without caring whether or not it had any use, or even any intelligent thought. Though the professor had mentioned they were scavengers, so it was likely they had some intelligence, if only enough to find their own food.

Keen to join in the lesson and start making friends, Oliver made his way over to where the Puffskeins were being held. He waited patiently for a gap amongst the students, and selected a sort of gingery ball of fluff that he thought Charlotte might appreciate. He took it back to where he had been seated previously, and sat down next to another student, who had already selected a puffskein.

“Hi, I’m Oliver Abbott,” he introduced himself. He pushed his glasses up, a gesture always performed when he was nervous, with one hand, clutching the puffskein gently but firmly in the other, and waited for the other student to respond.
\n\n
0 Oliver Abbott Is there a point to these creatures? 99 Oliver Abbott 0 5


Hyana

January 05, 2007 8:24 PM
Hyana watched K-sensei walk away. She felt relieved that she hadn't gotten in trouble. Hearing a thump on the ground, she saw that Caedence had somewhat collapsed. She was acting so strange. She reached out her hand to help, but pulled it away quickly. She didn't think Caedence was the kind of person who would except help. But of course she recovered almost instantly and stood with a very scary look in her eyes. She sort of seemed too excited about the game.

"Tai-kwon-do? You know Tai-kwon-do too?!" Hyana exclaimed after reciting the spell that sent Chiyo flying in the air. "I'm a black belt! And you?" She looked Caedence up and down. I wouldn't be surprised if she was the highest ranking black belt. She probably could teach me things I don't know! Hyana thought of their arguement a few minutes before. She thought, Caedence and I are much more alike then I would've ever thought...I wish I could tell her that...lord knows how she'd react! She waited for Caedence to make the first move. Defense was always the best offense, that's her first motto.\n\n
0 Hyana That you are 0 Hyana 0 5


Darla

January 06, 2007 10:10 AM
Darla cocked an eyebrow at Law's statement. Bludgers just try to knock you off your brooms? She could have laughed. "Couldn't knocking someone off their broom hundreds of feet in the air result in some type of death?" Darla asked. "Or at least the pain of a broken bone?"

Tarlo purred lightly in her hands, and Darla realized she had been stroking him. Darla stopped, and perched her little puffskein on her shoulder so it could move around instead of having her hold it the whole time. Then Darla paid attention to Law talk about the Snitch, the last ball, as she tried to ignore the tickling feeling as Tarlo moved around.

"So that's how the game ends!" she exclaimed. With the little knowledge of the game Darla had, she was never sure how the game ended. Most sports, she knew, ended when a certain team got to a certain number of points. Or sometimes there was a time limit, and when it ended the team with the most points won. And even sometimes, there were judges that gave points. Or in golf, you went until the end, and the person with the least points won.

But Quidditch never seemed to have any of that, so Darla was confused on how the game ended. Apparently, the Snitch was the end of the game. A little puffskein-sized ball that was worth 150 points. "I never knew how it ended before," Darla laughed. "I have to say, that's pretty different. It's nice though."\n\n
0 Darla A little late, but same to you 0 Darla 0 5


Caedence

January 06, 2007 2:26 PM
"Well, I don't have a belt ranking myself. I was taught it by my teacher. She was herself a black belt, but she never told me what belt I would have," She said as she released the spell by throwing her wand arm violently forward.

As the puffball soared through the air, Caedence said, "I think we could spar after our quidditch training, what do you say?" The puffball made an odd sort of bubbly yell that sounded somewhat like "WHEEEE!" Caedence cracked a grin. The puffskein looked like it would hit the ground few feet to Hyana's right. She readied her wand for Chiyo's flight towards her. That or puffball's return. "I forgot to suggest, play to ten sound okay?" She said not taking her eyes off the two puffskeins.\n\n
0 Caedence ^_^ And I also have detention and a 'talk' with my HoH 94 Caedence 0 5


Hyana

January 06, 2007 3:47 PM
Hyana watched Puffball fly towards her. Not responding to Caedence's question, she flung Chiyo at Caedence's left and quickly sent Puffball to Caedence's right. Knowing that she would have to let one fall, she smiled. "I say sparring would be nice. And to ten? Sounds good!" She watched both of the Puffskeins fly at angry girl, and hoped that one would hit the ground.\n\n
0 Hyana Hahaha!!! I mean, I'm so sorry. 0 Hyana 0 5


Mika

January 07, 2007 1:11 AM
Mika saw the girl hurrying over out of the corner of his eye, and adjusted his chair as she approached to he could see both her and his new friend? Yae. He listened as she spoke, seeming a bastion of rationality compared to Yae. Not that Mika didn't like Yae, but he was radically different than anyone Mika had ever met. This Gwyneth, as she had introduced herself, was more familiar, in personality.

"Thank you." He acknowledged the compliment she prefaced with with a nod of his head. "I have had much practice. I am Mika'el. This is Yae." he indicated the fair haired boy. "And this is a sloyka." he held up his puffskein. "Yae's sloyka is named Todd." He also indicated the sloyka in question. "I do not think it is a good idea to be roughly playing with the Sloykas. But, I think maybe they are rather tough creatures too. I do not think the professor would have told us to play with them as such, if they were too easily hurt. I still do not like to kick mine." He paused, pretty sure some other information had been relayed that he needed to respond to. When he recalled, he continued.

"And I am a first year Aladren. Yae is also a Teppenpaw, I believe." He glanced at Yae for confirmation.\n\n
0 Mika People for the Equal Treatment of Sloykas 0 Mika 0 5


Jae

January 07, 2007 3:39 PM
There was a girl standing by them.

A mad girl.

Jae knew what mad girls looked like. Nina got mad sometimes. Not at him, but at other people. And she was scary then. Nina wasn't usually scary, but when she was mad it was really, really, really scary.

The girl was scary.

Jae's eyes widened and he looked over at Mika as the scary girl introduced herself. She was looking a little less scary, but that didn't mean she wasn't mad anymore. It just meant that she decided to do a weird girlthing. There were loads of weird girlthings that girls did. Like his Aunt Marla could be yelling at him, except then someone would call, and she would pick up the phone and be all nice.

That was scary too. Especially since she went back to being mad after she hung up the phone.

Jae began to sort of edge sideways to hide behind Mika. Mika was smart, so Mika could help get rid of scarygirl. Except, she was called Gwyneth. When Mika introduced him to scarygirl, Jae sort of nodded and scooted backwards some more. And while Mika was explaining about Sloykas and stuff that was fine, but then he said that Jae was a Teppenpaw.

Except, Jae wasn't a Teppenpaw.

Jae was a Pecari.

Which meant he had to say something.

"Um...noI'mnotI'mPecariwithSaul," he said quickly, with one breath, then went back to hiding behind Mika with Todd. Todd wasn't purring anymore. Instead, he was looking up at Jae with big, confused eyes. Jae rubbed Todd's head and concentrated on staying as inconspicuous as possible.\n\n
0 Jae Person for the Eradication of Multi-Syllabic Words 0 Jae 0 5


Gwyneth

January 07, 2007 4:59 PM
Gwyneth was completely unprepared for the two boys who were now before her. The first boy, who had introduced himself as Mika'el, spoke in a slow, thoughtful way. His accent was distinctly not American, but his English was very good. He appeared to be thoughtful, polite and well mannered; 'his mother must be sooo proud,' Gwyneth thought tangentially.

Now the other boy was a completely different story, beginning with his improbable name - YAY! What the heck kind of name was that anyway?? First, this boy seemed to be pathelogically shy as he tried to hide behind Mika'el. Gwyneth wondered briefly if they were related, which could explain YAY's dependence on Mika'el. Secondly, this boy stared at her like she had just sprouted a second head with horns and snakes for hair! Then there was his speech. When he finally spoke, it all ran together so that she couldn't understand a single thing he said. 'Maybe this boy is "Special Ed" like that girl back home who was in my grade in elementary school,' Gwyneth thought. 'I guess even magically types have learning disabilities.'

Mika'el and YAY were the most unlikely pair to be partners, Gwyneth thought. "Well, it is nice to meet you, Mika'el . . .and you, too, YAY," she added. "Mika'el, your English is good. Where do you come from and how did you end up here at Sonora?"

She dropped her robe and bag while talking with Mika'el and began to pet her calico puffskein. Gwyneth noticed how upset YAY and his puffskein still seemed to be. She started to reach out to pet YAY's puffskein on the head, but stopped. She wasn't sure how this strange boy might react. She didn't want him to misinterpret her gesture as an invasion of personal space or as an attack. So she quickly caught his eye and asked, "May I?"
\n\n
0 Gwyneth Operation Save Face 0 Gwyneth 0 5


Law Cooper

January 07, 2007 10:50 PM
Well," Law said, thinking about the implications of a big metal ball knocking you out of the air, "Yeah, I guess it could hurt, but usually there are spells put on the Quidditch Pitch, or someone there who knows how to stop anything real bad from happening." Not that that was a certain thing, as Law had had his share of bumps and bruises due to Quidditch. He even ended up with a bloody nose once, when he was about nine. But he wasn't exactly about to tell Darla about that. Nothing like injuries to discourage a person.

Giving up on the fight against S’more hair fetish, he allowed the furry little creature to climb up his arm and shoulder back to it’s, his -was S’more a he or a she? Law had assumed he, but you never knew- perch in his hair. At least the small creature wasn’t trying to eat his hair or yanking his locks very hard or anything. He had to admit, it was kind of weird when S’more began purring.

“Yeah, hunt for the Snitch can get pretty intense,” Law admitted, “’Cause basically the whole game is riding on who catches it. ‘Lotta pressure on one person- I usually don’t play seeker. Besides, you have to be small, which I,” he nodded at himself with a grin, a boy who was unusually tall and heavy for his age, “most definitely am not.”
\n\n
0 Law Cooper I still can;t believe it's a new year already 0 Law Cooper 0 5


Jae

January 08, 2007 5:32 AM
Gwyneth was calling him Yae too. Jae didn't mind though. Yae was a cool nickname. Not quite madcool, but cool enough. And Mika called him Yae, which almost made it madcool, because Mika was definitely madcool. Not madcool people didn't play soccer in a wheelchair. It just...didn't happen. Not madcool people usually didn't have wheelchairs to begin with, or supermagic crutches either. Even if they were weird and too long.

And now the girl was trying to pet Todd. She was weird, too, because she didn't look like she was mad anymore. Not Aunt Marla notmad, but more like Nina. Except Nina had black hair and prettier eyes. Except, Nina said you didn't tell girls that. She was happy when Jae told her, he thought, because she smiled a lot. He kind of couldn't see because it was her turn to ride Chester though. But when Nina was notmad, she usually had to talk about why she was mad for a long time first. Maybe things were different with tall people. Gywneth was taller than him. And so was Mika. But Nina was almost his size, after he grew so much over the summer. She was just a teeny bit taller. So since Mika and Gwyneth were different, maybe it was just a tall person thing.

So Jae nodded when she asked to pet Todd, and Todd started purring again. He poked her Sloyka too, and it was a little bit strange coloured, but that was okay because it was a Sloyka, and so it couldn't look all that different from Todd. And since Gwyneth was notmad, it was probably okay to talk too. Right?

"Do you ride horses?" he chirped. "I have a quarter horse. His name is Chester. Well, he's part Nina's horse, but he's part mine too. And Mika rides sometimes too, except for him they call it equine therapy. I think the Sloykas are like horses, because if you get scared around a horse it gets scared too, and Todd was scared when I was." Uh-oh. He didn't think that you were supposed to tell people when you were scared of them. "Except, I'm not scared anymore because you're notmad. See?" Jae looked to Mika for confirmation.\n\n
0 Jae Operation has four syllables, you know. 0 Jae 0 5


Mika

January 08, 2007 12:35 PM
Yae had been so out going with him, Mika was surprised that suddenly he was being used as a human shield, he craned his neck around to watch Yae behind him. When Yae corrected him about what house Yae was in, Mika clamped a hand over his forehead (his own forehead) and mutter D'oh! He turned back to Gwyneth.

"Er, Yae is in Percardi ((ooc: sorry if I spelled that wrong. BIC)), I'm sorry Yae." He apologized for his incorrect statement. Mika hadn't actually caught all of Yae's words, but he had caught the house name and 'Saul'. Mika wanted to meet this guy so he at least had some clue who his new friend was talking about.

"Thank you," he said solemnly in response to her complimenting of his English. "I try hard, but it does not always come out as well as I wish it did." He smiled slightly. "I am from Roosia," That was another word in English he never seemed to be able to quite get out right. It wasn't that there was no 'sh' sound in Russian, there was. It was just that the Russian word for itself was pronounced differently. "I lived in Roosia until I was seven, almost eight, years old. I have been living in Israel for the past three years."

Mika felt like he was practically giving a speech, but he hadn't finished answering the girls questions yet. He supposed he hadn't needed to say that part about Israel, but since she was asking because of his accent, he felt he needed to add it, since it had diluted his native Russian accent a bit.

"My mother is a Healer. We moved to the United States so that she could attend some special Healer education. It is very revolutionary, integrating aspects of muggle medicine into magical Healing. My mother decided this school would be best for me." Mika didn't look 100% thrilled at that. His mother was in New York, for one thing. For two, this was NOT a Jewish Yeshiva, which is where he had attended school as long as he had been attending school. That alone had made life awkward. Mika rather thought when he was older he would be glad not to be attending a religious school, but right now it was rather uncomfortable for him.

His mother also hadn't wanted to send him somewhere as prestigious and competitive as Mier Yeshiva, which is where he had been attending school in Israel. She wanted him to 'spend more time making friends'. He had very specific orders to write her about everyone he met and spoke to formally, at least, those that were other students. She was worried that he was going to grow up to be 'poorly socialized' with 'no people skills'. Which, his mother said, was almost as bad as being stupid and/or poorly educated. He believed her. He still wished he had gone to a slightly better school. Not that Sonora was a bad school, it was a great school, but it was sort of like... U.C.L.A. when compared to Harvard.

He looked at Yae as he spoke of horses again. That was okay, horses were pretty cool, Mika supposed. He liked animals, but hadn't been exposed to all that many. His own sloyka sat quietly in his lap. It was hugely fat for a sloyka, and took up most of Mika's lap. He caressed it absently, still not having named it.

"Yae likes horses." Mika nodded a bit when Yae was finished, glancing to Gwyneth to see how she took to this odd boy. Mika was finding that Yae was growing on him. A bit like a fungus. He was very odd, but Mika knew he himself was very odd as well, so who was he to judge?

"Where are you from, Gwyneth? And," Mika smiled another small smile. "How do you feel about horses?"

\n\n
0 Mika Antidisestablishmentarianism 0 Mika 0 5


Lucas

January 08, 2007 1:46 PM
Lucas smiled as the girl introduced herself: Darci, a Pecari. Lucas didn't know any other Pecaris, though in searching for a conversation topic, he felt that perhaps mentioning this simple fact was a bit daft - and irrelevant to say the least.

"He's not a people person, he has it in his head that people are of the devil when he first meets them." Lucas heard Darci say, making sure he didn't raise his brow in a '...what?' kind of way, instead tilting his head to the side and glancing toward the boy that she was referring to, Kavin, her half-brother who was apparently also in Aladren, though Lucas hadn't really seen him around much.

Upon hearing the quiet boy whisper 'shut up' to his sister, Lucas thought it better to intervene, not wanting to inadvertently become some sort of enemy to Kavin.

"So..." He glanced at his puffskein to make sure it was okay, before looking back at Darci. "Does your puffskein have eyes?" He asked casually, before suddenly realising that that was not what he had meant to ask. He had been aiming for something a little more normal like 'where are you from', but it seemed that somewhere between his brain and his mouth, a few things got mixed up.

Lucas felt himself colouring in his cheeks a little as the stupidity of the question hit him - Darci's puffskein's eyes were really quite blatant. Still, it was probably too late to correct himself so just smiled nervously instead, averting his eyes from hers and back to his own purring ball of fur.
\n\n
0 Lucas Purrin' ball o' fluff 0 Lucas 0 5


Professor K

January 08, 2007 8:48 PM
Kiva had wandered around a bit to see how everyone was dealing with the puffskeins. They were probably the simplest of animals to take care of. They did pretty much nothing. But they were cute and could handle anything on their own. Always a plus when it came to kids. Still, she had to crinch a few times when she noticed some of the students being a little too rough with the creatures.

It was slowly growing closer to the end of the lesson and Kiva knew that it was time for the students to know exactly what the deal was when it came to the puffskeins. After having to take care of Paul and whatever issue Caedence and Hyana were having, Kiva went back to where the pen was located. Casting the Sonarus charm on herself, Kiva cleared her throat.

"Alright everyone, I need you all to pay attention to me please." She called out, her soft voice caring easily over the noise of the students thanks to the charm. "Now, if you can all remember what I said in the beginning of the lesson, I want to elaborate on that just a bit." Kiva paused and looked around, making sure that every student knew what she was talking about.

"I will allow each of you to be able to keep your puffskein only and I mean only if I receive permission from your parents, or guardians." Kiva spoke, her voice stern while her eyes scanned each student. "If I find out that you kept your puffskein without permission, and trust me I will find out, or that the permission sent was indeed a fake one, you will be punished. "Puffskeins, though they can handle being handled roughly, are not toys, they are not bludgers to practice your beater abilities with, or balls to kick around.

"They are creatures. They breathe, they eat, they bleed. They cry when they are hurt, the purr when they are happy." When Kiva began to talk of the puffskeins, her voice held a quality that rarely showed through. A sort of passion for the animals that she refused to allow into the hands of those who only intended to harm them. "They are living things and I will not stand for anyone to harm them. I need to be sure that your parents are aware that there is a possibility of you having these animals."

Kiva finished her speech, realizing it was probably a bit heavier than it needed to be. But, she needed for these students to understand the neccessity of getting their parents permission. "For now, bring up your puffskeins, I'll charm them so that if you do receive permission, only the puffskein you chose will be able to be taken by you. If you don't receive permission, I'll allow you to come visit, however, that's about the only thing you'll be allowed to do."

OOC: You don't actually have to respond to this message if you don't want to. However, you are more than welcomed to do so. Reactions to her words and so forth. Also, you want to have something specific happen dealing with your puffskein, my email is linked so you can email me with specifics. Also, for permission, you can either email me saying that you would like to keep the puffskein, or owl IC to Kiva stating that the student's parents give permission. Also, if you have access to WtS, you can write an OWL that way as well.

Any questions, feel free to ask me.\n\n
6 Professor K SECOND PART OF LESSON 0 Professor K 0 5


Gwyneth

January 09, 2007 11:48 AM
The differences between the two boys continued to amaze her. YAY seemed to come out of hiding as they talked but she still wasn't sure he was normal. Whil Mika'el seemed to be the epitomy of normalcy. But one thing she had picked up on was that these two, for all their apparent differences, seemed to be friends. 'Well, if Mika'el can handle YAY, then I guess I can, too,' Gwyneth thought.

After hearing Mika'el tell his background, Gwyneth felt positively provincial. She had guessed, from the accent, that he was from somewhere in Eastern Europe, but that was as close as she came. She had only guessed that much from having met a visiting scholar who had come to lecture at the college where her father taught. Gwyneth shared her mother's interest in history and different cultures and envied Mika'el his background.

In response to his question about her home, she wanted to sigh. "I'm from Maryland, a small state on the eastern coast of America, south of New York. My life is not nearly as exciting as yours! My mom is a middle school history teacher and my dad teaches biology at the college in town. Until a few months ago, I thought I was normal . . . er, Muggle. I didn't even know my mom and grandmom were witches! So all of this," and she waved her hand broadly indicating all of Sonora specifically and the wizarding world in general, "is pretty new to me."

Not wanting to leave YAY out of the conversation, she turned toward him and answered the question both he and Mika'el had asked about horses. "I really don't know much about horses. I've ridden once, but you really can't count that time. It was a trail ride on horses that were trained to follow the leader. Mostly I think horses are big and kinda scary." She pondered the thought a bit longer. "But I guess taking riding lessons might be fun. And riding horses would be better than riding brooms! The horse, at least, doesn't leave the ground."\n\n
0 Gwyneth Supercalifragilistic Expealidocious (sp??) 0 Gwyneth 0 5


Gwyneth A.

January 09, 2007 4:59 PM
Gwyneth listened carefully to all that Professor K had to say about keeping the puffskeins. When she had first announced that possibility at the beginning of class, Gwyneth had been ecstatic about getting a pet to have at school. But Gwyneth was also a very practical person, 'sometimes too practical,' she thought to herself. The more she thought about keeping a puffskein, the more it seemed like this just wasn't the right time. Oh, she knew, or at least thought, her parents would give permission for her to have one. And, at home, her little sister would just love it!

But home might also be part of the problem. At home, Gwyneth's family lived as Muggles in the Muggle world. Her mom and dad both taught at Muggle schools and Gwyneth didn't even know that there was magic in hr family until just a few weeks ago! So trying to pass a puffskein off as an incredibly fat cat to her Muggle friends might be a bit difficult.

And her friends here at Sonora were another consideration. Her newest and possibly best friend and dorm mate, Meri, was allergic to most things. Almost everything it seemed. Gwyneth knew that Meri was having some difficulties with the cat that Hannah brought to school with her. Even though there was a possibility of a potion or something from the doctor to control her allergies, Gwyneth didn't want to cause her friend any more concern.

And thirdly, Gwyneth was so new to this whole magical thing that she knew absolutely nothing about the care and feeding of puffskeins. 'Oh, I guess I could read about it or ask some of the other kids in Teppenpaw,' she thought. It wasn't that she was embarrased by her lack of knowledge. She was just afraid that it might entail more than she would be able to handle and she didn't want to upset the teacher by first taking a puffskein then bringing it back like an unwanted toy a few days later!

So she slowly and very reluctantly went up to Professor K. "Thank you for the offer of a puffskein, but I don't think it would work out for me right now. I would like permission to come and visit them and play with them. I could even help you take care of any that don't get adopted by the rest of the class." Gwyneth was snuffling back tears by the end. Maybe if she helped Professor K with the puffskeins who weren't adopted, she could ask for one at the end of term. After checking with her mom and dad, of course.\n\n
0 Gwyneth A. Reluctantly Returning Puffskein 0 Gwyneth A. 0 5


Irene Liddowe

January 09, 2007 6:10 PM
Irene listened as Prof. K began to speak. Apparently the Puffskeins were to be kept here or the students would need a permission slip from... Did she hear that right? Irene was sure she had heard right and felt her heart sink.

"I will allow each of you to be able to keep your puffskein only and I mean only if I receive permission from your parents, or guardians."

Did these gaurdians have to be legal? Or just gaurdians? Uncle Mike was pretty much a parent to her more than anything, but he wasn't her legal gaurdian. Sure, she lived with him and he pretty much saved her life but that's just not good enough for the law. If she had to write to her "Dad" to get a permission slip, that would result in some nasty consequence. She would probably have to spend a week with him in the summer and that was just not going to happen.

She did not want to give up the Twilly, the 3rd name for her puffskein so far, but she may just have to do so.

Irene decided it was too risky to just guess if Uncle Mike's signiture was good enough on its own. She walked up to Professor K and tapped her on the shoulder.

"About the permission slip... Does the gaurdian have to be your legal gaurdian? Would, let's say, a really close Uncle do?"\n\n
0 Irene Liddowe Umm...Question? 106 Irene Liddowe 0 5


Caedence

January 09, 2007 8:46 PM
Caedence tried to get them both, she really did. In fact, her quick cries of wingardium leviosa kept them both in the air for a while, alternately rising and falling. The problem was, however, that one was boud to fall eventually. The one turned out to be puffball. She made sure to keep Chiyo up in the air. Angrily, she threw the puffskein a little too roughly at her partner. "Your point" she growled

She turned to her own and put it up in the air. A wicked grin spread past her lips. They had one rule, did they not? After getting puffball up high enough that it wouldn't fall too fast, she quickly shouted, "Wingardium Leviosa!" at Chiyo so that it unexpectadly rose up high. Then, she hurled puffball at her next, aiming for the ground at her feet. She watched with baited breath as chiyo fell. "Hey look! A flying puffball!" she cried pointing at puffball in the hopes to distract her. One-zip.\n\n
0 Caedence *shrug* the heart to heart aint movin' fast though 94 Caedence 0 5


Hyana

January 11, 2007 10:34 PM
Hyana saw Caedence's rough move with the two puffskeins and was furious...but impressed at the same time. She tried to think of a way to catch them both, but knew it was impossible. She went to catch Chiyo when Caedence shouted at her, "Hey look! A flying puffball!" Hyana caught Puffball instead and frowned.

"That was a really mean trick Caedence...but oh well! Your point!" She about tossed the two puffskeins back when she heard Prof. K say something about returning the puffskeins if they couldn't get parent's permission. She looked at Chiyo and sighed. "Caedence...We can't finish this. I have to return Chiyo..." She whispered sadly. She wanted to keep Chiyo badly. She would have been a nice companion. She let the two puffskeins fall to the ground and picked up her own. She held it close to her, not caring about how stupid and/or pathetic she looked. She turned away from Caedence, and wondered if she'd have to return Puffball too. She didn't want to return Chiyo alone.\n\n
0 Hyana No, not really no 0 Hyana 0 5


Mika

January 12, 2007 3:02 AM
Mika smiled slightly at what Gwyneth said. His life? Exciting? Well, he supposed so, but not the kind of exciting he'd wish on anyone. His father, for example, made life all kinds of 'exciting'. It was an 'excitement' Mika could live without. Moving half way around the world, twice, was 'exciting', and although Mika was happy to learn all kinds of new things in new places, moving ever couple years was bad enough, switching languages every couple years? A bit extreme. Then there was the kind of 'excitement' that went with living in Israel in general. The Gaza strip was also all kinds of 'exciting'.

"Ah, but, I think your life sounds very fun too. Two parents who are both teachers?" it sounded like heaven to him, actually. "And how fun, to have all magic be so new. It would be as wonderful as..." Mika paused, trying to think of something as equally wonderful as magic being a new experience. What he thought was wonderful was probably not the same as most of his age peers, and you just couldn't say things like 'as wonderful as being able to walk', it made people feel bad. "As wonderful as getting the entire Chronicles of Narnia in hardcover!" after a moment of thought, he added "And in Hebrew!" Now THAT would be wonderful. He actually got a rather whimsical look for a moment and sighed, visions of unabridged dictionaries too heavy for him to lift and entire bookshelves of encyclopedias dancing through his head.

He glanced at Yae, wondering if he knew the Chronicles of Narnia... probably not, he didn't seem to be someone to read much. "The Chronicles of Narnia have an entire book about talking horses, and there are all kinds of other talking animals too, including a lion." He added for Yae's benefit. "Actually, I know a lot of books about horses, and I brought some with me, I could lend them to you, they are story books though."

He had actually wanted to say 'fiction', but wasn't sure Yae knew what that was. He glanced at Gwyneth, including her in the offer to loan books from his personal stash. Maybe, maybe she'd read some, and then they would have read the same books, and then they could TALK about them!

That would be SUPERMADCOOL

apparently Yae was contagious.
\n\n
0 Mika No More Big Words, I Promise 0 Mika 0 5


Jae

January 12, 2007 5:55 AM
OOC: *snickers* Oh, gods, Jae contagious? That's a scary thought....

BIC:

Brooms? Why would someone want to ride a broom? Jae had tried it once with Nina and it didn't work too well. They had been playing up in the barn loft, and decided to try. She had fallen off the broom and broken her ankle. The broom had broken too, and Jae had hit his head. That was his second concussion, but Aunt Marla said it could've been worse, and plus, he got to stay home and listen to music and stories all day, so it was okay.

Then Mika started talking about the Chronicles of Narnia. Jae didn't know what those were. He didn't really know what Hebrew was, except that it was maybe a language. So Jae was happy when Mika decided to explain. And the explanation was almost as madcool as the soccer stuff, 'cause they sounded AMAZINGLYAWESOMELYCOOL!!!

"Really? About talking lions and horses? Do they have pictures? There's books in the library with madawesomecool pictures. They moved all by themselves, and they talked to me in a weird language. I didn't understand what they were saying, though, 'cause I only speak English. I like books with pictures. I don't read books without pictures too good. I guess I could try, though," Jae said. He really, really wanted to find out about the talking horses and lions. Horses were awesome. Talking horses were awesomely cool. Talking lions were, like, BEYOND that.\n\n
0 Jae pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicavolcanoconiosis 0 Jae 0 5


Caedence

January 12, 2007 4:54 PM
CAedence had been listening as well. Parent's permission, huh? Yeah, she'd get her parent's permission the day her father hugged her. Which, in short, meant never. She sighed heavily. Why did she have to give it up? As...well weak as the stupid thing was, she was sure she could use it to make her father let her have an owl. Now, she wasn't sure.

That was a really mean trick...Caedence we cant finish this. I have to return Chiyo She snapped into it when her pupil's words hit her ears. Yes, returning the stupid puffballs. She didn't want to! She really didn't! She felt sad about it, and she silently chided herself for feeling sad. Sadness was weak. She was not weak. "Yes, lets go. I do have to return my own puffskein." she said with a sigh collecting the puffball. Well, she had no chance to keep it. Maybe she could visit it? Maybe.

OOC: Let's post up above, mkay? ^_^\n\n
0 Caedence -_- I don't wanna give the puffball back! 94 Caedence 0 5


Gwyneth

January 13, 2007 10:05 AM
So it sounded like Mika'el was another reader just like she and Meri were! "I've only read a couple of the Narnia books. I would love to borrow some of yours sometime to read, if classes give us any free time, that is. My favorite author is Anne McCaffrey and the Dragons of Pern series. Have you ever read her books? I brought the entire series with me. I could exchange with you, if you're interested," she said to Mika'el.

Like an indulgent older sister, even though they were the same age, she smiled at YAY's enthusiastic remarks about the talking animals. She wondered what the other "talking books" were that he mentioned. Did he mean books on tape like she used to get from the library back home sometimes? She thought about asking him, but refrained. The way YAY talked, rambled, babbled, skipped around was hard to follow sometimes. She thought she would just check out the Library herself. "YAY, if you have time after class, could you show me where the Library is? I haven't explored Sonora too much yet and don't know where it is."

As they were talking, Professor K. had walked toward the puffskein pen and began to talk about students keeping their puffskeins, with parent permission of course. Gwyneth would really like to keep her Tribbles and bounced it up in the air to hear it purr loudly, but wasn't sure that would be possible for a lot of reasons. She continued to bounce Tibbles gently while she pondered the wisdom of keeping the adorable, fuzzy creature.\n\n
0 Gwyneth Re: pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicavolcanoconiosis 0 Gwyneth 0 5


Mika

January 14, 2007 1:02 AM
Mika smiled when Yae got excited about the Chronicles of Narnia. "They do not have too many pictures, but they have some. I can read them in English, so I'm sure you can be able." Mika said with assurance. Yae was special, but he wasn't in like, wizarding special ed, so, he had to be able to read. Mika couldn't imagine anyone not being able to read. "I can help you with the hard words. If you read more, you will get better at it."

"I would be very happy to exchange books with you. I will write my mother, and have her send more of my English books." He had at least two copies of his very favorite books, one copy in Russian, the other usually in English, but sometimes in Hebrew. It was how his mother got him to learn his languages. He even had two in Japanese. They were very very easy books, manga, actually, so there were pictures to help him learn. He had the exact same books in English, so he could see the translations. He only spoke a very little Japanese. Maybe Yae would like those?

"I have only read one book by Anne McCaffrey. I liked it, but I had to read it in English, and it was a small while ago. I should like to read more, though, and my English is much better. Have you read anything by Mercedes Lackey? They have talking horses too, Yae, and they are also magic." He really needed to get Yae a hobby other than horses. Horses were good, but the conversation was a bit limited.

He had some books in Arabic too, they were also very easy, but not as easy as his Japanese books. He couldn't read the Japanese books with out looking up well over half the words. He had the first three Lemony Snicket books in Arabic, and he could get through those and only have to look up a word or two per page.

And in case that wasn't enough, his mother had packed a French text book in his trunk. Obviously she wanted him to learn that too. Mika sighed a bit at that thought. His mother sent him here because she didn't want him to focus all his energy on studying, she wanted him to make friends. Yet, she was asking him to learn a sixth language? Yes, three or four was typical in the rest of the world, and yes, French was important, but, if he tried to cram any more language in his brain, he rather thought he'd start speaking in gibberish. Well, he would just have to write his mother and tell her that the French would have to wait. Japanese first, after English of course. Russian was his native language, and he was already fluent in Hebrew, really, he had been raised bilingual. And After Japanese was planted more firmly in his brain, THEN maybe more Arabic, or French.

Somewhere in the midst of his spinning thoughts on language, which to make matters more confusing was happening in sort of a pidgin of Russian, Hebrew, and English, the Prof had started talking about the Sloykas... Puffskeins! Aha! He knew they had an English name! Oooh, and they COULD keep them. How wonderful. His mother would say yes. He was sure of that.

An actual grin lit his face, a very very rare expression on his solemn continence. "Now I can name mine." He said to Yae, as he had told the boy earlier that he would not name it until he knew he could keep it. "I know my Mother will give me permission."\n\n
0 Mika Libraries are Madcool 0 Mika 0 5


Hyana Kamiya

January 14, 2007 4:22 PM
Hyana walked up to Prof. K, not knowing if Caedence followed. She was holding Chiyo close to her, and didn't want to give her up. But, since her mother was a muggle and her father was well...dead, did she have a choice. She sort of tapped Prof. K (her nickname for the Professor).

"Ummm...P-professor Kijewski...I have a question about my puffskein. My m-mother..." She paused for a second, and took a deep breath. She needed to calm down. The worst thing that Prof. K could say was no. "My mother is a muggle and doesn't really understand anything about magic and stuff. If I sent her an owl about Chiyo, my puffskein, she would either freak out about an owl in her house, ignore me, or both. So...should I try to get her permission or should I just return her?" She looked down at the ground. She truly didn't want to return Chiyo, it would be nice to have a companion around. Her mother wouldn't let her take her cat, so she felt alone sometimes. She really hoped Prof. K could help her.\n\n
0 Hyana Kamiya Professor, I have an important question 0 Hyana Kamiya 0 5


Caedence

January 14, 2007 4:37 PM
Caedence followed Hyana, robes billowing out behind her. With her firm scowl and tan eyes, she was rather impressive. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that she was twelve and therefore short, she would be intimidating even. Why in the world did she have to get her pathetic parent's permission? In fact, she doubted that her father would ever agree. Maybe she could try and say it was a cat? Or a class project? No, that wouldn't work, Professor K wouldn't buy it. It wasn't like she was too thrilled with Caedence at the moment anyways.

She rolled her eyes at her pupil's timidity. "Stand straight and make her know you want an answer. Dont stutter!" she hissed in her ear. Slipping the puffball in its box, she felt a little upset. She was hoping the puffball could maybe get her father to lighten up a little. Maybe accept her for who she was? No, that was a foolish notion. But she could always try. She gave teh puffskein a long last look. She memorized what it looked like. As a final touch, she took out the ribbon that she wound tightly over her tie and tied it around the ball of fluff, tying it off in a bow. "So I can recognize it later," she explained in case the teacher asked. She felt the elastic tye in her hair to make sure it could keep her braid in before turning to leave, "Remember, a week after when we planned earlier. Meet me on the pitch," she said before walking off. \n\n
0 Caedence Sticking to my pupil 94 Caedence 0 5


Jae

January 15, 2007 8:44 AM
Oh. The Narnia books didn't have very many pictures. That wasn't good. Nina had been helping him a lot, but Jae still couldn't read very well, or write that well either. He would probably need Mika's help with a lot of the words. Mika and Gwyneth were talking about other books, some about talking horses, but they probably didn't have very many pictures either. Feeling left out, he bounced Todd around a bit. But then, Gwyneth asked him to show her the library!

"Yeah!" he said enthusiastically. "I can show you! And then Mika can come too! And you can see the madcool talking book, too! And Todd and the other sloyka can come!"

Professor K started talking again, then, and Jae drooped. They would have to bring their sloykas up. And leave them until they had permission from their parents to keep them. Aunt Marla and Aunt Cheri would probably let him keep Todd, but he wasn't sure. And he wasn't sure how to send a letter to them to ask either, because Sonora didn't have a mailbox that he could see. Or a telephone.

"What're you going to name your Sloyka?" Jae asked Mika. "And how is your mom going to give you permission?"\n\n
0 Jae So are Field Trips 0 Jae 0 5


Professor K

January 21, 2007 8:43 PM
Kiva smiled softly down at the first year. She knew that the thought of permission or even having to actually take care of an animal would cause a bit of reluctance for the students to actually take one. She was sure there might be other reasons as to why a person wouldn't want to have one for their own, but, for the most part, permission always stopped people from actually owning one.

"You are more than welcomed to come and visit. They love attention." Kiva tapped her wand on the head of the puffskein that the first year had and whispered words beneath her breath. "This will help identify the one you had during class incase you change your mind." Kiva told Gwyneth. "I'm in my office during lunch as well as after dinner until curfew. You're welcome to stop by anytime for a visit."\n\n
0 Professor K At least you are considerate of others 0 Professor K 0 5


Professor K

January 21, 2007 9:10 PM
Kiva turned away from Gwyneth, when another student addressed her attention. Looking around, she noticed a first year Pecari. While the girl asked her question, Kiva lightly tapped her wand on the head of the puffskein and whispered silent words to herself.

Once that was done and the young girl had finished talking, Kiva gave her a sympathetic smile. "I'm sorry, Irene, but I need your legal guardian's permission. Unless there is a good reason as to why you would prefer your Uncle, and even with that, I would need an owl from said uncle explaining the situation to me, I can't accept his permission." Kiva stated, she hated not being able to just allow the students to have the creatures, but she knew the catastrophe that could occur if the students went home for Christmas with a bunch of puff balls that breathed.

"If it's important to you, have your uncle write to me explaining everything and we'll work it out from there. In the mean time, I'll take good care of this little guy and you can come for a visit whenever you'd like."\n\n
0 Professor K Answer 0 Professor K 0 5


Professor K

January 21, 2007 9:42 PM
It seemed as though there were a lot of questions to be answered now that the lesson was over. She probably said that the students could keep their puffskeins only while on Sonora property. That would leave out the headache she was bound to get by the end of all this.

Hyana was one of her own in Aladren, so she smiled gently when the girl began to speak. Her eyes narrowed slightly when Caedence came over, looking as lovely as ever, and whispered something into the younger girl's ear. Whatever Caedence had to say, Kiva wasn't so sure it was a good thing.

Taking out her wand, she lightly tapped Hyana's puffskein and whispered the same words she's been whispering whenever a student brought up their puffskein. Apparently, Caedence hadn't bothered listening to what she had said, otherwise she would have known a ribbon wasn't necessary. Still, once Caedence was off stalking, Kiva did the same to her Puffskein before finally resting her gaze onto Hyana.

"We have a lot of muggleborns, Hyana, and at some point, your mother will have to become aquainted with owls. They are our main source for communication." Kiva stated, tapping another creature on the head and whispering words beneath her breath. "Now, we do have trained owls who can drop the letter off on the stoop of the house if you'd like? Come by my office letter and we'll discuss it further."\n\n
0 Professor K Pupil? Oh wonderful, more of you around. 0 Professor K 0 5


Irene

January 21, 2007 10:12 PM
Irene awaited Professor K's answer with crossed fingers. But when she heard, "I'm sorry, Irene, but I need your legal guardian's permission. Unless there is a good reason as to why you would prefer your Uncle, and even with that, I would need an owl from said uncle explaining the situation to me, I can't accept his permission." she felt her heart plummit.

Shifting her weight from side to side, Irene thought about her decision. If she decided to explain to her professor that meant actually talking about her Dad. If she said nothing, thanked her for her time and walked away, that would mean the loss of a soft-of friend. Irene decided.

"Um... Well, its like this," she took a calming breath. "My dad is a muggle. And he's beem drinking, a lot, evere since my mom died when I was 5," she said quietly. She didn't want others to hear her.

"My dad was neglective and when I was 7 my Uncle Mike came to pick up some of my mom's stuff. He took me away and sort of saved my life," Irene didn't want it to sound like she was laying it on too thick, but it was the truth. She would have starved if Uncle Mike hadn't taken her away.

"I don't like to talk to my dad. He lives in Indiana and Uncle Mike and I live in northern Michigan. We try to avoid contact because he's threatened coming and taking me back and I really really don't want that. As far as I'm concerned he's not my dad and I know it sounds like I'm really laying it on but that the soul truth and really don't want to give up Twilly," Irene finshed and realized she had barely breathed that whole time. She had talked very rushed and wasn't sure if she had even been audible when she spoke.

"So...Umm... would my Uncle be okay, please?" \n\n
0 Irene Okie-doke 0 Irene 0 5


Professor K

January 22, 2007 9:09 PM
Kiva's sympathetic smile turned into a visible frown as Irene began to speak. At first, Kiva just assumed she would make excuses as to why she couldn't owl her uncle or her parents, to which Kiva would have to tell her a flat out 'no' and that permission would be needed with no excuses.

However, what Irene admitted to Kiva, not only was something the clearly showed a great confidence that the young girl had in Kiva, but also something extremely serious that would have to be addressed. She'd have to talk to Bulla about this before venturing any further with Irene.

"Have you're Uncle owl me and we'll go from there." Kiva spoke quietly to Irene. She didn't want to force the girl to have to get back into contact with her father anymore than she wanted to keep the puffskein away from the girl. "I'm sure we'll be able to work something out. For now, you're free to visit the puffskein and if you ever need to talk, my door is always open."\n\n
0 Professor K *Sigh* 0 Professor K 0 5


Irene

January 23, 2007 6:11 PM
Irene felt slightly embarrassed having just retold her life story. She looked up at Professor K when she bagan to speak,

"Have you're Uncle owl me and we'll go from there." Irene nodded and kept her attention as her Professor spoke again,

"I'm sure we'll be able to work something out. For now, you're free to visit the puffskein and if you ever need to talk, my door is always open."

"Thank you. I'll be visting when I get the chance. I'll have Uncle Mike owl you."

Irene smiled at her and made her way back to the common room. \n\n
0 Irene Re: *Sigh* 0 Irene 0 5