Let the games begin... on Charms

Professor Aaron McKindy

November 13, 2009 4:23 PM

Beginning Charms, Lesson I by Professor Aaron McKindy

Aaron McKindy was standing in front of the Beginning Charms class wearing his usual top-hat made of large, transparent, pink bubbles, a Muggle-style t-shirt that Garen had given him, and dark jeans. There was a collection of first-through-third years seated on a large rug on the floor just in front of the raised dais in front of the room. Whether they were looking at him uncomfortably because there were no desks to be seen in the room or because of his outfit, Aaron had no idea, but he was hardly unused to such looks and wasn’t much worried about them. Although he would agonise excessively over appearing out-of-the-ordinary around adults, his students were a much different case; the professor was thoroughly convinced that school spent too much time being dull, and it was his personal duty to liven things up a bit.

“Good morning, class,” the man began, grinning down at the seated students with friendly grey-green eyes. “My name is Professor McKindy. In addition to being your new Charms teacher, I’m also Head of Pecari House,” he smiled at a few of the Pecaris he recognised in attendance “and I would like to make this as painless an experience as possible. Today, I’m going to be starting out with a bit of an introduction for the first years and a review for the rest of you.” Noticing the lack of excitement at his announcement, Aaron smiled more broadly at the class. “Don’t worry, there isn’t too much work involved.” He did see some faces light up at that. Excellent.

“Today, I would like you to work in groups of two or three. You will be playing a game called Jumanji. Have any of you read the book or watched the movie?” A few hands shot up, and Aaron nodded in approval. In all probability, the hands belonged to halfbloods and Muggleborns. A pureblood himself, Aaron hadn’t known about either until this past summer when Garen’s godson, Henry, had introduced the man to a plethora of unknown Muggle fancies, including Jumanji and bumper cars. “For those of you who haven’t, let me paraphrase,” the man continued. “Both the book and the movie detail the adventures of a pair of young Muggle children who encounter an enchanted board game and begin to play it. However, the effects of the board game come to life—when one of the Muggles lands on a spot that mentions lions, for example, lions appear and chase the children.

“Obviously, for our purposes, these effects will be the results of the different Charms I’ve placed on all of the games I have provided. Right now, I would like you to get into your groups, pick up one of the boards from the cabinet,” Aaron flicked his wand absent-mindedly in the direction of the large cabinet in the corner as the doors flew open to reveal game sets as he continued talking, “read the directions, and get started! At the end of class, I will pass out a worksheet I would like completed by next time, if you would.” The man looked around the classroom and, seeing no absolutely lost looks, nodded. “You may begin then! Any questions, please ask.” the professor smiled and stepped down from the dais. The step made his height appear to be less, if only moderately so; he still was around six feet tall, after all.

The students were gathering together in groups and talking, a few looking at him furtively as if he were quite mad. Aaron grinned. He had missed this.

|OOC| Right-o, I hope you lot have fun with this! If you need more information on Jumanji, check out the wikipedia page. For more information on how the classroom is set up, etc, check out Setting Up the Classroom.

Other than that, I expect the usual 10 sentences from you lot. If you’re having trouble getting up to that mark, try and write about your characters thoughts, feelings, worries, etc. If you’re REALLY having trouble, remember that my posters talk, and you can feel free to write for them! Plus, the hat is usually a good conversation piece. Remember, the more you write, the more points your House gets!

Anybody that wants to do the homework that is posted above in the Homework Bin will receive between 10 and 20 extra points for their House. Speaking of which, I’d appreciate it if you identified the House your character is in with the name (example: Aaron McKindy [Pecari] ), but it isn’t necessary.

Have fun!

Subthreads:

Sounds fun! (need a partner!) by Demelza Eagle with Starbuck Gregory

Let the games begin... by Kameyrynn Prinzo, Teppenpaw with Delilah Kerrigan, Pecari, Delilah, Pecari

Searching for a partner by Veronica Kerrigan, Aladren with Daniel Nash II, Aladren, Veronica, Aladren

What a charming idea! by Tobar Brishen with Rachel Bauer, Crotalus, Tobar Brishen Teppenpaw

It's a jungle in here... by Marissa Stephenson, Crotalus with Andrew Duell, Teppenpaw, David Lancaster [Teppenpaw]

My kind of lesson. by Mike Song [Pecari] with Jose Hernandez (Pecari), Mike

Who wants to play with me? by Adelita Garcia (Crotalus) with Theodore Manzana, Juri Dahlgren, Aladren, Lita, Theo Manzana

This really isn't all that fun. by Dulce Garcia (Teppenpaw) with Raines Bradley (Crotalus), Dulce

Oh, dear... by Edmond Carey [Aladren] with James Anthony [Aladren]

You people never learn (Professor) by Quentin Melcher with Professor McKindy, Euna Song [Aladren]

0 Professor Aaron McKindy Beginning Charms, Lesson I 0 Professor Aaron McKindy 1 5

Demelza Eagle

November 13, 2009 8:06 PM

Sounds fun! (need a partner!) by Demelza Eagle

Demelza had been looking forward to taking formal magic classes ever since her oldest brother started his education. She had been imagining what lessons were going to be like, and not to mention, what the teacher was going to be like. But as she walked into the charms classroom, the teacher standing there was a totally different teacher in her imagination. She had, of course, recognized the charms teacher as their head of house, and was happy that he keep his bright and bubbly appearance: this was one teacher Demelza had the feeling that she wouldn't need to worry about. He seemed just so happy, and that made Demelza grinned widely. When someone else smiled like that it was like an infectious decease, and she had to smile too.

When Professor McKindy mention Jumanji, Demelza shot her hand up in the air. She loved that movie! Her dad showed her it as a child. He was muggle-born and watched that movie many times as a kid.

As the charms teacher instructed them to get in groups and start the game, Demelza went into a search for a partner. She would take anyone really. She also grabbed a board game, and set it up, ready for someone to play it with.

0 Demelza Eagle Sounds fun! (need a partner!) 157 Demelza Eagle 0 5

Starbuck Gregory

November 13, 2009 10:09 PM

Yes it does! by Starbuck Gregory

Starbuck was excited about her first magical class she had sat down and smiled at the people around her. She wore her red hair in a bun and her school robes were a tad bigger then she needed but she was comfortable and that’s all that mattered. She had grinned when the Professor had mentioned Jumanji, she had loved the movie, and the book as a child. Her hand raised slowly but then dropped down as everyone elses did.

Finally they were free to go but Starbuck looked around a bit confused as who to pair up with. Finally she found one of the girls from Pecari and walked up to her. “Hey, would you mind being my partner?” She asked hopefully remembering the other girls name as Demelza. She smiled hoping that the girl wouldn’t say no.

0 Starbuck Gregory Yes it does! 0 Starbuck Gregory 0 5

Demelza Eagle

November 13, 2009 10:57 PM

Most defiantly! (let the game begin!) by Demelza Eagle

Demelza was relieved when the girl asked to partner with her.

"Of course!" She immediatly replied. "I'm Demelza, and you're Starbuck, right? I can recognize you."

"So, do you know how to play Jumanji? I pretty much know it all. It's gonna be really weird playing it in a wizard's way, eh?"

"Erm, If you don't mind, I'll go first." Demelza rolled the dice and moved her peice. "Ah ha!" She exclaimed as she moved a couple of places.

She rolled a six, and as she looked down at it, her tounge started to twist in her mouth and she felt a most uncomfortable feeling. She didn't know what was happening and tried to talk.

"Ga a'ead. You ca be to'cured now!" She chocked out, doubting that Starbuck could even understand her. "Or, may'e we shol try to fi' it?" Wasn't that the point of class, to learn the charms? Demelza pulled out her textbook and searched for the charm.

She figured out that it was the tongue tying charm.

"Eh, Star'uck, I dink it ib de toun' tyin' carm. Look up de cou'er carm!" She chocked this out as she ruffled through the pages to find the counter charm herself. She was quite anxious for it to come off.

0 Demelza Eagle Most defiantly! (let the game begin!) 157 Demelza Eagle 0 5

Professor McKindy

November 13, 2009 11:11 PM

OOC by Professor McKindy

Hey Starbuck! It's awesome that you're so excited to post in Charms. =) But if you could please remember to abide by all the site rules (especially the one about post length) that would be great. Also, the more you write, the more House Points you get!

0 Professor McKindy OOC 0 Professor McKindy 0 5

Starbuck Gregory

November 13, 2009 11:21 PM

Ah! by Starbuck Gregory

Starbuck was a bit nervous bout Jumaji she was glad no lions or tigers would be jumping out at her though. When Demelza rolled the dice and the piece moved by itself she watched stunned. This had to be the coolest class ever! She wasn’t looking at Demelza until she tried to speak. Starbuck looked up in concern what was wrong with the girl?

It took her a moment to figure out what she was saying and with a nod of her head she started looking for the counter charm to the tongue tying charm. After a few moments of a frenzied looking she found the counter charm and raised her wand, trembling. What if she made it worse? ‘Do doubt yourself Starbuck.’ She thought as she said the spell. Nothing changed and she reread the passage. It took her a couple of times to get it close enough for the charm to wear off, though Demelza did still seemed to have problem talking she couldn’t be sure.

With a shrug Starbuck grabbed the dice and rolled a four, her piece moved forward self propelled and her skin began to turn a bright color green. She breathed a sigh of relief that her tongue hadn’t tied that would have been scary. She laughed and blushed glad that Demelza couldn’t see it due to the greenness of her skin. “So what do you think? Is green my color?” She laughed glad her brothers couldn’t see her now they would definitely now call her the wicked witch now.

“So what can it be? A color changing charm?” She began to leaf through the charms books not in such a rush like she had been before. Bright green skin wasn’t as terrifying as a tied skin, she could live with being green for a bit.

0 Starbuck Gregory Ah! 0 Starbuck Gregory 0 5

Kameyrynn Prinzo, Teppenpaw

November 14, 2009 12:58 AM

Let the games begin... by Kameyrynn Prinzo, Teppenpaw

Kamey walked into the Charms classroom and the first thing she noticed was there were no desks. The students from what appeared to be the first 2 or 3 years were starting to gather on the rug at the front of the class. She gracefully took a seat crosslegged on the floor near some faces she recognized from the Teppenpaw commonroom and turned to the teacher at the front, which lead to the second thing she noticed.

That being the professor who was onceagain wearing that ridiculous pick bubble tophat. She shook her head briefly and grinned. This was bound to be an interesting class and from the looks of it there didn’t seem to be much in the way of theory... or atleast sitting there in class studying the text book.

When he asked mentioned Jumanji, and then asked if anyone had read the book or seen the movie she raised her hand like some of the others. We’re going to play Jumanji! She thought. This ought to be good.

Kamey stood as some of the others did and looked around the room. Some were trying to find groups while others just went to find a game and set it up waiting for someone to join them. Still no really knowing anyone, even those from her own house she went with option number two and moved over to grab a game. She found a spot on the floor where she sat and opened up the box, setting up the pieces as it said in the directions. She then looked around to see if anyone was still in need of a game. Spotting someone she tilted her head questioningly and waved them over hoping that they would join her.

0 Kameyrynn Prinzo, Teppenpaw Let the games begin... 0 Kameyrynn Prinzo, Teppenpaw 0 5

Demelza Eagle

November 14, 2009 9:18 AM

How interesting! by Demelza Eagle

Demelza grinned in appreciation to Starbuck as her tongue untied. It was such a relief! And, more importantly, it was no longer her turn! YES! That was torture! She gave a small "Thanks" to Starbuck and watched her meet a charm. Only, she thought her result wasn't fair at all.

"What?!" Demelza shrieked in a normal voice as Starbuck's skin turned green. "That is so unfair! I get my tongue tied and your skin just turns an awesome shade of green!" she laughed a little after that.

"Yeah, green suites you very well. It matches your red hair. Green and red are complementary colors! Anyway, I was looking through my charms book early," she said as Starbuck leafed through the pages of her own charms book, "And it actually has a bit of transfiguration in it. Here... lets try this."

Demelza pulled her willow wand and leveled it to Starbuck's face. It's the first time she is using magic with a wand. She just hopes that she does it right...

"Recultum!"

-ooc- This is color in latin, but I just added "re" to the begining. -ooc-

Demelza gave a thumbs up to Starbuck to indicate that it did work. Then, Demelza grudgingly picked up the dice for her turn and rolled it. She winced thinking at first she was going to be physically abused again, but this time she just felt happy. Really happy. But why?

"Lovely, innit it?" She smiled wider and wider at Starbuck, looking strait at her in the eye. Then, with out introduction, she laughed so hard. And she had absolutely no reason to be laughing! But she laughed and laughed and just couldn't stop! She just felt so happy!

She then stood up and skipped around the board and giggled. She looked ridiculous, but she took no notice. All she cared about was that she felt very giddy. Very giddy. What was wrong with her?

0 Demelza Eagle How interesting! 157 Demelza Eagle 0 5

Veronica Kerrigan, Aladren

November 14, 2009 11:10 AM

Searching for a partner by Veronica Kerrigan, Aladren

If there was any class in the school that Veronica was looking forward to, it was Charms, but her certainty over this wavered as she saw that the professor was dressed in obvious muggle style and had a top hat of large, transparent, pink bubbles. To make matters worse, he actually expected them to sit on the floor, on a rug. What was wrong with sitting in a desk or at least a chair? Expensive skirts and dirty floors were not a pleasant combination, but what choice did she have? Tucking her legs under her in as much of a ladylike fashion as she could master, she waiting for the lecture to begin.

When it did, interest flickered over her face when Professor McKindy mentioned being the Head of House for Pecari. Her sister, Delilah, was in that House, and she wondered exactly what kind of influence this man was going to be. She already had a hard enough time getting Delilah to do any of the appropriate ladylike, pureblood things, but how was it going to be now that she was being exposed to all these bad influences? There was a woman that coached Quidditch and a Charms professor that Veronica had to question the sanity of for the hat he wore. Had she come to the wrong school?

Though, she did like the idea of having to do little work, but she was confused at the mention of something called Jumanji. She was more confused when he asked about the movie. She didn’t even know what a movie was, let alone what this had to do with Jumanji and what it all had to do with the class, but it seemed that others did as they raised their hands. She was comforted when the professor continued on to explain what it was. But why couldn’t they be playing a magical game rather than a muggle game? It seemed uncouth. Yet, it did mean not doing work so maybe she could forgive such a thing.

Once they were permitted to go get a board, Veronica hurried to do so. It was always better to be the one with something rather then having to be the one to have to find something. If she had the board, then others would presumably come to her. With the board tightly in her grip, Veronica made her way back to where she had been sitting, her one-inch heels (that was as high as she was allowed to go) making a click-clap sound on the floor. She loved that sound. It was the sound of sophistication in her mind. Hopefully, whoever came over to join her would be equally as sophisticated.

Carefully, she arranged the board and picked out one of the pieces. Hmm. Maybe she should pick out two. She looked around for Delilah and when she made eye contact, she motioned for her sister to come over, but all she got was a shake of the head indicating no with an addition of a brief smile before she went along her way. Slight shock washed over Veronica. She wasn’t used to her twin not doing what she wanted her to. Oh, it wasn’t that it didn’t happen, but didn’t Delilah see that she looked like a spaz sitting all alone? Didn’t she care how she made Veronica look? Now, she really was going to have to do work. Catching the eye of someone else, she brushed back her blonde hair and gave one of her most charming smile before mouthing, “Want to be partners?”

0 Veronica Kerrigan, Aladren Searching for a partner 0 Veronica Kerrigan, Aladren 0 5

Starbuck

November 14, 2009 12:07 PM

This is getting a bit scary by Starbuck

Starbuck couldn’t help but laugh when Demelza had shrieked. It did seem a bit unfair but it was all worth it, this game was fun! She couldn’t wait to write to her family about this! Jonny would get a kick out that was for sure! “I agree, I look very Irish now.” She said with a laugh. After she cast the spell Starbuck laughed. “Aww I’ m no longer green.” She pouted.

Starbuck watched with confusion at the fact that Demelza kept laughing. What was wrong with her? “Oi! I read about this one on the wagon ride!” Starbuck cried glad that her excitement had taught her something. “It’s a cheering charm!” She smiled very proud of herself for remembering. She turned to the page and frowned, no counter charm was listed. “There’s no counter charm you have to wait till it wears off! Maybe it’ll wear off your next turn.”

Taking the dice in her hand she rolled a two as her face began to grow very, very, very hot and steam blew out her ears. She tried to open her mouth but couldn’t because more steam came out. She began to go through the charms book as quick as she could. Her eyes growing wide in horror.

0 Starbuck This is getting a bit scary 0 Starbuck 0 5

Delilah Kerrigan, Pecari

November 14, 2009 1:10 PM

Ready, set, go! by Delilah Kerrigan, Pecari

Dragging her feet slightly, Delilah entered the Charms classroom. The academic portion of school just didn’t agree with her at all no matter how hard she tried. As she entered the room, she was surprised to find that there were no desks, but what else had she expected when her Head of House was the professor? Things were looking up already and she grinned at his top hat of bubbles. She wondered how she would do something similar and hoped that it was something that they would learn in this class. Even Veronica would have to admit that wearing bubble jewelry would be trendy. It would be way ahead of all those magazines her sister read.

Eagerly, she sat down on the rug with her legs folded to listen to the professor. Her fidgeting at a minimum, she toyed with the hemp bracelet on her wrist, while he lectured. She wouldn’t even call it much of a lecture since it seemed more like he was talking to them rather than at them. When he mentioned something called a movie, Delilah wished she could have raised her hand like some of the other kids were doing, but she really had no idea what he was talking about. Thankfully, Professor McKindy went on to explain and boy, did it sound like fun! Did anything like that ever really happen? It just might be possible and wished it would happen to her. The ultimate adventure!

When they were told to break off into pairs, Delilah considered getting a board, but decided against it. A lot of people would probably doing that. She figured it would be better to join somebody that already had one. Glancing around the room, her brown eyes spotted a girl with one and the girl must have spotted her to since she waved to her. Grinning, Delilah made her way over to the girl, but before she got there, a pang of guilt stopped her. She glanced around for Veronica in case she was alone and wanted to join her. Oh, it seemed as if her sister already had a board and was expecting her. She bit on her lip in uncertainty before shaking her head.

She didn’t like to do that to Veronica, but she had already agreed to be someone’s partner. Besides, how was she going to make friends with others if she only worked with her sister? Sitting near to the other girl, she grinned. “Hi, I’m Delilah Kerrigan. Isn’t this like the best class ever?” She pulled her brown hair out of its ponytail since it was coming out anyhow and brushed her fingers through it. “Who would have thought we would be playing games? So, what house are you in? I’m in Pecari. Do you want to go first or should I or do you think we should try to find another person?”

0 Delilah Kerrigan, Pecari Ready, set, go! 0 Delilah Kerrigan, Pecari 0 5

Daniel Nash II, Aladren

November 14, 2009 1:37 PM

I guess you found one by Daniel Nash II, Aladren

Daniel liked Charms. Even if it wasn't as exacting as potions or even transfiguration, Charms was still interesting and a very satisfying class. Due to learning a new spell nearly every class period, he felt he accomplished more in this class than he did in any other. Just the same, he was a little disappointed that the third years were being kept in the beginner's lesson again. Last year, he was quite sure, they'd been a part of the intermediate group.

Worse, he discovered as he walked in and came to a sudden halt, the new Charms teacher didn't give them desks or even chairs. With a grimace, he moved away from the doorway and knelt down carefully on one of the rugs, trying not to muss either his robes or the trousers underneath. Not that he couldn't replace both easily enough, but he still had a few classes to go before he could get back to his dorm to change, and he didn't like looking messy if it could be avoided. That had no place in the image he liked to project to the rest of the school.

When the teacher began, Daniel did his best to balance his notebook in his lap and take legible notes, but this effort came to an abruptly startled stop when the Professor mentioned Jumanji and muggle movies. Slightly alarmed, he looked around, and hoped it was just his imagination that his classmates were looking at him. He hadn't even been in Jumanji. He'd had a very tiny role in Zathura, so small he hadn't even been creditted, just extra work because he'd been in the studio and bored while Mom worked on a different movie that day. There was no way anyone here could possibly know that small robot had been him. And Zathura was entirely different from Jumanji. Zathura was in space.

Still, it took him a few moments to calm down enough to get back to his notetaking, and by the time he caught up, most of the games were already distributed and he was going to need to find a partner.

Before he could go look for Charlotte or Adelita or one of his other third year friends, though, he heard someone nearby quietly ask if he wanted to be partners.

"Sure," he agreed, shifting over to join her with as much grace as could be managed with only a floor to sit on, he introduced himself, "I'm Daniel Nash."

1 Daniel Nash II, Aladren I guess you found one 130 Daniel Nash II, Aladren 0 5

Veronica, Aladren

November 14, 2009 2:51 PM

It is my lucky day. by Veronica, Aladren

Hmm. The boy hadn’t introduced himself with any sort of location attached. Did that mean that he wasn’t a pureblood? If so, that would be a terrible shame for he was awfully good looking. She had noticed some of the girls, some of the older girls in the class paying attention to him. She chewed on her lip for a moment only to be left with the taste of cherry lip-gloss. Even if he wasn’t pure, he appeared to be older and with a reputation. It would be popularity destroying for her to be anything but well mannered to him and to her, popularity was a key to her life plan.

“Veronica Kerrigan,” she said offering a polished hand. She thought to leave off that she was of the North Carolina Kerrigans in case he was a pureblood and it was no longer the fashionable thing to do. After all, she had learned such mannerisms from her grandmother who was a little old-fashioned. Now, she was worried that she had been introducing herself completely wrong and had lowered her reading on the popularity meter. But then, Rachel had introduced herself the same well and she was pureblood. Maybe her original conclusion was correct. Oh, well. She supposed she could let it go since he had so many other noticeable qualities.

“I set up my piece, so you just have to set up yours. Do you want to roll first or should I?” Veronica asked. Normally, she would have asked the question as some sort of test to whether or not he was the worthy sort. After all, a gentleman would always insist on a lady going first. But this time she had actually asked out of actual politeness. She didn’t dare to think to test him since he already made her a little nervous since it might seriously matter what kind of opinion she left him with. If it was a negative one, was he the sort that would tell others? Good Merlin, she hoped not! Who would have thought a class would become so difficult?

She tried to think of some way to continue the conversation, questions that she could ask. One kept stumbling back to mind, one that she really didn’t want to ask for he would ask the same of her and she didn’t want him to know that she was an Aladren. Her grandmother had always said that it was fine for a female to be smart as long as she didn’t show it off and how obvious could one get when they were in the house deemed for smarts? Trying to buy a little time to think, she played with her curled blonde hair and fluttered her lashes until she finally came up with a reasonable conversation-continuing question. “Have you had this class before? Do we always sit on the floor and play games?”

0 Veronica, Aladren It is my lucky day. 0 Veronica, Aladren 0 5

Tobar Brishen

November 14, 2009 3:27 PM

What a charming idea! by Tobar Brishen

Tobar walked into the charms class a bit excited, he liked that the first class they were taking was charms. His mother was always teaching Tobar some charms that she thought he would learn at school. Now today they were starting though he shifted uncomfortably in the school robes, he missed the freeing clothing of his way of life and couldn’t wait to get out of these robes.

He sat down and smiled glad that there were no desks. He had never heard of Jumanji but a lot of other students had. He bit his lip feeling that he was missing out on something, and reached up and played with the golden hoop in his ear. He breathed slowly and closed his eyes remembering that he wasn’t the only one who didn’t know what Jumanji was. His shaggy black hair was in his face and he swept it back a bit with a smile as the Professor released them to find a partner.

Tobar grabbed the game and walked up to the first person who was looking around without a game. “Hey, I’m Tobar Brishen would you mind being my partner?” He asked biting his lip glad that his hands were occupied with the game board so he couldn’t play with his earring, a bad nervous habit he had picked up since he had earned the earring.

0 Tobar Brishen What a charming idea! 152 Tobar Brishen 0 5

Demelza Eagle

November 14, 2009 5:10 PM

I think it's time for "JUMANJI! by Demelza Eagle

Feeling the charm starting to ware off, Demelza sat down, still giggling, and watched, with wide exuberant eyes, as Starbuck rolled the dice for her turn. But the effect was enough to make Demelza's giggles subside.

Starbuck's face was growing bright red, and steam was pouring out of her ears. Previously staring transfixed at her, Demelza ruffled through the pages of her charms book, but she couldn't find it at all.

"Maybe a heating charm?" She said, doubting that was true. The only time she had ever seem anything like this was when her sister got a cold and her mom gave her pepper up potion. Was that it?

"Maybe it is a potion," she suggested, "Or maybe it will just ware off soon. Does it hurt?" Demelza asked. Deciding that she now just wanted this game over, she rolled the dice and got her wish. She rolled a twelve... and she was in the Golden City! YES!

"JUMANJI!" Demelza screamed, but of course, just her luck, the game played one more trick on her.

Just out of the corner of her eye, Demelza was able to see the many books pelting toward her and Starbuck. Luckily, though, Demelza knew exactly what to do.

Demelza instantly pulled out her wand, shouted "Wingardium Leviosa!" And invited Starbuck to do the same. And surely, she was able to control the books and pointed toward the ground... although her aim wasn't all that great yet, so they all just went everywhere... but at least they were no longer air born! She looked toward Starbuck and gave her a big smile. The steam appeared gone, and Demelza didn't know whether it wore off or Starbuck cured it.

"Defiantly a new game I've never played before. Although, I don't reckon I'll keep it for family game night, would you?"

0 Demelza Eagle I think it's time for "JUMANJI! 157 Demelza Eagle 0 5

Starbuck Gregory

November 14, 2009 5:35 PM

Oh thank god by Starbuck Gregory

Starbuck laughed when Demelza screamed Jumanji, thankfully the steam had gone down in her face before the books came flying at them. She ducked them not trying to do Wingardium spell, she felt like she had done enough spells in class today. It was an awesome lesson and she couldn’t believe that this was a class, in muggle school that would have been free period.

"Defiantly a new game I've never played before. Although, I don't reckon I'll keep it for family game night, would you?" Demelza said and Starbuck nodded with a smile. “I’ll think it would be fun to play with my brothers, they have no magic in them at all. They would freak if that happened to them!”

She laughed as she eyed the rest of the class some were finishing up the game but other students were still playing. Now that she no longer had to play she was giggling watching the other students. She reached up and fixed her golden red hair and was glad that she Demelza had won she wouldn’t have thought bout the Charm when the books had flown at her.

0 Starbuck Gregory Oh thank god 0 Starbuck Gregory 0 5

Rachel Bauer, Crotalus

November 14, 2009 10:19 PM

That's a matter of opinion. by Rachel Bauer, Crotalus

She didn't think it would be her favorite class, but as far as potential first classes went, Rachel could think of much worse options than Charms. It was a useful subject, and one she was much in favor of learning properly after the ordeal of fixing her hair for her first day of classes. The little spell Momma always used to curl it was not, as she'd quickly discovered, as easy as her mother made it look, and she'd been forced to make her classroom debut with the best-looking side ponytail she could manage.

Once she was in said classroom, Rachel frowned slightly at the realization that there were no desks. She had no objection to the floor - two brothers under the age of four and a tomboy sister could do that to a girl - but she didn't usually wear a skirt while playing with her siblings. She frowned again, more faintly, when a mention of Jumanji came up; she thought she'd read that at some point, but Momma would flip out if she ever admitted, in a public setting, that she had Muggle grandparent and a father who felt she should embrace that fact.

For the first time, she began to seriously wonder just how well the mirage Momma and Jeremy had constructed was going to hold up in the real world, where they were unable to be constantly on the alert for her mistakes. It had been very different when her role had just gone against what she had personally believed and had as part of her nature; now, it was potentially messing with her grades. She'd been born competitive; the thought of not doing everything that she could to excel was anathema to her. If it really did come down to propriety or an O...

She shook the thought off. She was Rachel Bauer, and things always worked out for her in the end. In the bigger picture of life, that meant she'd figure out some way to be popular and good at being both a daughter and a student at the same time. In the moment, it boiled down to her finding a person to play a game she was pretending she'd never heard of with so she could get her credit for the day.

A boy she thought she recognized as another first year came up to her before she could pick someone to approach. As the Teppenpaw (thank goodness for robes) introduced himself and asked her to be his partner, she gave him a quick once-over and evaluation. The earring wasn't really her style (it did not help that she was wearing gold hoops herself today) and Momma didn't think nearly as well of Teppenpaws as a decade-plus marriage to one might've suggested, but at least Tobar Brishen - interesting name - was polite. Making up her mind quickly, Rachel smiled.

"Sure," she said. "I'd shake hands, but yours are full. I'm Rachel Bauer." She glanced at the game. "Do you, um, really understand how to play this?"

16 Rachel Bauer, Crotalus That's a matter of opinion. 154 Rachel Bauer, Crotalus 0 5

Tobar Brishen Teppenpaw

November 14, 2009 10:39 PM

The luck of the draw by Tobar Brishen Teppenpaw

‘Rachel Bauer’ Tobar closed his eyes and put the face to the name and nodded. “Nice to meet you.” He said with a smiled as they made their way over to an empty spot and he set the board down. He ran a hand through his dark hair and smiled sheepishly. “Well we played a game called Clue with some muggles as a kid once, we roll this thing, and it tells us how many times we can move, besides that I don’t know much else.”

He smiled and picked up the dice. “Hope you don’t mind I’ll go first.” He said with a smile, he really wanted to try it out and his since of dignity would not allow a girl to take the plunge first. Men would always put themselves in danger first. Though he was sure it wasn’t dangerous he still didn’t feel right letting Rachel go first. So he threw the red dice and rolled a four.

His piece moved forward four times and suddenly he was up and dancing. His feet just moving by themselves and he couldn’t help but laugh. “Rachel.” He began with a smile. “It’s the Tarantallegra charm.” He said laughing. “Since…. I’m…a …bit busy can you look up the counter charm?” He couldn’t help but laugh and look at the girl with pleading eyes.

0 Tobar Brishen Teppenpaw The luck of the draw 0 Tobar Brishen Teppenpaw 0 5

Marissa Stephenson, Crotalus

November 14, 2009 11:01 PM

It's a jungle in here... by Marissa Stephenson, Crotalus

Despite all the trouble as she'd had with the woman's class during her first year, Marissa wasn't sure if she should be glad Professor Taylor was gone or not. Maybe the new Charms teacher would be some sort of prodigy who could help her go above and beyond the block she had around the whole subject and improve her grade dramatically, but he might also prove incapable of helping her and - as he was a man, and men had a tendency to be more practical than theoretical - cut down the percentage of her grade determined by essays, which had saved it the previous year. All things considered, Marissa honestly thought the second option was more likely. Besides, it was hard to see how the world could benefit from having more people confused by her strange ability to be completely brilliant whenever she picked up a pen and to completely suck whenever she picked up her wand.

She'd hoped her block would vanish over the summer, undone by two straight months of relaxation in her own world and giggling with her girls, but she had tried a few simple charms in her single dorm the night before, and the best effect she'd gotten was nothing at all. The worst had, ironically, sparked a bit of magic that actually did what she wanted it to do; she'd set her bed on fire and somehow put it out again without being entirely sure what she'd done. The bed hadn't even appeared damaged, which had creeped her out so much that she hadn't slept well. Part of her head still wasn't completely used to magic, especially when she didn't even know the theory behind it.

It was, therefore somewhat understandably, with great trepidation that she stepped into the Charms classroom.

Sitting down on the floor and hoping against hope that she neither got dirt on her jeans nor had her back hate her in an hour, Marissa focused on looking around the classroom and not staring at the professor's bubble hat. It drew the eye like a magnet, but it was rude to stare. Instead, she examined the firsties - Crotalus, as it had in her year, only had one new girl; Marissa wondered what sort of family she came from, and what she thought of the House and being with a bunch of boys - her classmates, and the posters on the wall. There were quite a lot of them, and a few nodded to her. Slightly startled, she nodded back.

She had just done that with Bowman Wright when Professor McKindy began to speak. Marissa's face was not one of those that lit up at the idea of limited work, but that was because she'd long since developed a protective wariness toward Charms; what some would consider easy, she found all but impossible, and she'd had a few of the allegedly more difficult concepts actually be some of the few she picked up relatively quickly. When asked about Jumanji, she was one of the students who raised her hand. Her parents hadn't thought it was an entirely appropriate movie for her or Paige, but it was one of her friend Bella's favorites, and she'd seen it during a few sleepovers with the DeAngelos.

There was a difference, though, between watching a movie of a dangerous game in the comfort of her friend's room in their Muggle neighborhood and playing the same game in the middle of class. Hearing that it was charms that would be coming to life to attack her instead of lions didn't really comfort her that much; at least with lions, there was an off chance she could run or, as her magic seemed to work and work dramatically when she was terrified, blow them up. The charms, she was sure, wouldn't be potentially fatal, but she had a feeling she was about to be subject to an awful lot of embarrassment.

She had to try, though. That was what her teacher had told her to do, and the teacher's word was law in her world. She would probably fail, but she had to try. Getting up, she went over to someone who was already holding a game but had no visible partner. The kids in the movie had been a pair, so she assumed the groups in the class would also be a pair.

"Hi," she said, smiling and tucking her wavy brown hair back behind her ear. "Have a partner yet?"

16 Marissa Stephenson, Crotalus It's a jungle in here... 147 Marissa Stephenson, Crotalus 0 5

Rachel

November 15, 2009 12:11 AM

That can determine quite a lot. by Rachel

"Dice," Rachel said automatically when Tobar mentioned his Clue experience but couldn't remember a word. "Or a die, when there's only one of them. I've played Clue before, too." And loved it, but that was as irrelevant as her related likings for Monopoly and Risk. It wasn't, in fact, something she should have mentioned at all; it was a Muggle game. Of course Dad would have to show them the cool stuff about Muggle life; it was like he was trying to get them all disowned. "My dad has this thing for Muggle artifacts," she added, to cover for herself. "It's just a quirk. He doesn't do anything stupid or anything."

If she had known his rationale for wanting to go first, she would have been offended and might well have said something about that. Maybe it was being an eldest child, or thinking that her mother was ten times the businessperson her stepfather was, or just the sheer strength of Rachel's self-regard, but she didn't hold with the idea that a wizard was automatically a better-qualified person than a witch could be. Since she didn't know any of that, though, Rachel just nodded when Tobar picked up the dice.

"That's fine," she said, taking out her Charms book and her wand in case she needed them. He'd been the one to pick up the game, so that probably canceled out 'ladies first'. In any case, they were playing a magical adaptation of a fake magical game invented by Muggles. Which gender had first rights wasn't really the biggest issue here.

When his piece finished moving and Tobar suddenly began to dance, Rachel's hand moved to her wand handle automatically - she hadn't expected it to be that sudden, and so had to paranoidly assume something could happen to her just as abruptly - and she slid back a little. If he kicked her in the face, Momma would sue, and she didn't want to deal with that much drama in her first week.

As inappropriate as it seemed in the situation, Tobar's laughter was contagious; she had to hide a smile behind one hand as she opened her book with the other. "No problem," she said, trying not to laugh at his predicament as she took her hand away from her mouth to assist in turning the pages. She considered apologizing in advance for if she did it wrong, but then remembered that she wasn't going to allow that to be a possibility. "Finite incantatem," she tried, pointing her wand at his dancing legs.

There wasn't exactly a warmth in her hand the way there had been when she'd first gotten her wand, but she thought she felt...something. The wand sent out sparks, but nothing seemed to happen. She frowned, concentrating harder. It was a battle, her versus the magic; she had to be the stronger party and make it do what she wanted it to. "Finite incantatem," she tried again, pronouncing the syllables more crisply.

This time, it worked. She smiled, feeling triumphant. This school thing was going to be a piece of cake. "You're welcome," she said, giving Tobar a grin. "Pass the dice?"

She rolled a two...and, for a split second, felt nothing. Then a heavy sheet seemed to fall down over the inside of her throat. She clapped a hand to her neck, but there was no pain or real discomfort, just an odd feeling. Rachel opened her mouth to ask Tobar what appeared to be wrong with her, but the words wouldn't come out.

Silencing Charm. Fabulous. She now regretted all the times she'd asked Momma to put one on Raleigh or Isaac, because they couldn't even mime their displeasure with the situation accurately. Waving to make sure she had Tobar's attention, she pointed to her throat, then began opening and closing the fingers of her left hand like a mouth for a moment before using her right hand to clamp it shut and shaking her head. She then pointed at her throat and mouth again and then pointed toward to the book she'd left open on the floor.

16 Rachel That can determine quite a lot. 154 Rachel 0 5

Tobar

November 15, 2009 1:17 AM

Crazyness by Tobar

Tobar smiled his appreciation that Rachel had been able finally to get rid of the dancing charm. He passed the die and watched the board. He didn’t realize for a few moments that she was having a problem talking. He laughed and as soon as he saw her clutching her throat he knew what was going on. “Silencing charm.” He said with a laugh. “I know how that feels.”

He smiled and remembered the counter charm after a few moments. “Sonitus!” He said but nothing appared to work. He squinted pulled his wand up once again. “Sonitus!” He glared why wasn’t she able to speak? “Sonitus!” He said and the third time was the charm and it seemed to Tobar that Rachel let out a breath.

He took the die in his hand and tossed it gently this time he rolled a six. The piece moved and nothing happened for a moment but when he looked down at his hands they were swelling up to extra large sizes. He lifted up his hands but they felt like they weighed a ton.

When he opened his mouth to talk he sounded like he had bit his tounge. “Uh rawchel.” He began. “I tink itsss aaa en’go’ment cham! Hwelp!” He was trying to joke but he knew it didn’t come off as joking.

0 Tobar Crazyness 0 Tobar 0 5

Kameyrynn Prinzo, Teppenpaw

November 15, 2009 1:26 AM

Giggles and fancy footwork by Kameyrynn Prinzo, Teppenpaw

Kamey was glad when the brown haired girl joined her, it would have been rather difficult for her to call out for a partner. She grinned as the girl sat down and introduced herself. "I'm Kamey, well Kameyrynn Prinzo of Teppenpaw." she said in a hoarse whisper as she pushed some the multitude of long blond braids over her shoulder. "If all of his classes are like this I'm thinking that this will probably be one of my favourite classes"

Looking around it seemed that most folks were partnered up "Let's just start." She picked up the dice and rolled. Her chosen piece moved three spaces on the board as depicted by the numbers on the dice. A small cloud rose from the board and a quiet voice was heard from it "A slow start usually means a distraction, lose one turn."

Kamey paused looking around to see what this distraction might be. She then began to feel an odd prickling sensation on the soles of her feet and the back of her neck. Bitting her lip and snickering she managed to stutter out in her hoarse whisper "T-t-tic-tickling ch-charm" Reaching over to her book sachel she continued to snicker and giggle her feet twitching. It may seem rather odd that the charm only seemed to effect her feet and not other areas that would normally be sensitive to tickling.

Pulling out her charms text she began to flip through as she started to giggle more, though never louder than a whisper, and kick her feet around narrowly missing the board

0 Kameyrynn Prinzo, Teppenpaw Giggles and fancy footwork 0 Kameyrynn Prinzo, Teppenpaw 0 5

Delilah, Pecari

November 15, 2009 11:30 AM

Giggles and hairdos by Delilah, Pecari

“Well, Kameyrynn Prinzo of Teppenpaw, it’s nice to meet you,” Delilah said with a giggle. “Hey, that sounded all medieval.” She remembered reading a story about princesses and knights and they all had official title sounding names. “Maybe you’re the princess of Teppenpaw.” She couldn’t help giggling more at the statement as she thought about each House having a princess in some sort of long flowing gown and one of those pointy hats. Actually, she wouldn’t have minded wearing one, which was saying something since most of her outfits consisted of the simplicity of jeans and t-shirts, but it would have been like a game.

More laughter escaped Delilah and she wasn’t even under the Tickling Charm, but she couldn’t help it. Kameyrynn looked absolutely silly flailing around. When she nearly kicked the board, Delilah reached out a hand to automatically steady it and in doing so was able to calm down slightly. Though, with a bit more of her senses surrounding her, she was curious as to why Kameyrynn’s laughter was so soft. Wasn’t laughter supposed to be naturally loud? She had always thought so, but maybe she was wrong. After all, she could only judge by her family. Maybe they were just all loud laughers.

Taking the dice, she rolled them and got a six. Her piece moved ahead on the board. ‘Danger lurks. It’s best to take precautions.’ Suddenly, around her head was a bubble. She must have looked like a gapping fish or something from the outside. What the heck? Grabbing her book, she looked under bubbles and found that, “It’s the Bubble-Head Charm.” But what sort of danger lurked ahead? There was only one way to find out. Since Kameyrynn had lost her next turn, it meant that it was now Delilah’s again. She rolled once more and got a five. Moving ahead on the board, ‘Hair like this is no fun so let’s change it up with a new do.’

Her eyes widened at the thought. It obviously had something to do with her hair, but what? She had no way to check it since she didn’t carry a mirror with her. It wasn’t that she really cared so much as she just wanted to know. She couldn’t even tough it since the bubblehead charm was still in effect. If she had known, then she would know that her hair had currently changed from its normal brown color to a vivid pink. If she had seen it, then she would have known a color changing charm was being used. “Your turn. This is how all classes should be taught.” If they were, she might actually do well in them.

0 Delilah, Pecari Giggles and hairdos 0 Delilah, Pecari 0 5

Rachel

November 15, 2009 8:23 PM

What is? by Rachel

Rachel grimaced her sympathy as Tobar indicated that he had some idea of what she was going through, then gestured back toward the textbook a little impatiently. She wanted him to fix her throat and fix it now, because she was not about to go around miming everything for the rest of the day. It was beneath her, and - more practically - it was not conductive to performing well in this class or any other. If Professor McKindy's idea of an easy lesson ruined her academic career before it could even start, she'd encourage Momma to sue, and if that meant drama then so be it.

Luckily, that didn't prove necessary. It took Tobar three tries to get the charm down, but her voice came back none the apparent worse for wear. Massaging her throat despite the lack of any actual pain it, Rachel smiled gratefully at her partner. "Thanks," she said, relieved all over again to hear that she sounded normal. "Seriously." She never wanted to go through anything like that ever again.

The game wasn't over, though. As she watched Tobar pick up the die, Rachel found she had a death grip on her wand. She had grown up with magic, but since her parents had a policy of not using magic for punishments, not with magic being directed against her. Maybe it had been optimistic of her, but Rachel had thought they would sort of ease the students into magic before asking them to break various offensive enchantments on a dime.

Her wish that they had grew substantially when Tobar began to inflate; a look of total horror spread over her face as she imagined, in far too much detail, what it would look like if she landed on that square somehow. Just how uncomfortable he made it sound didn't help, either. It wasn't difficult at all to think that, if she didn't work fast, he'd explode. She understood exactly enough of what he'd said to begin flipping through the book at lightning speed, or at least the closest approximation of it she could manage without getting paper cuts or breaking a nail.

"Okay, okay - it's - Reducio!" Her hand was shaky, though, and she could tell she'd botched it up. "Darn it - Reducio! Reducio! Reducio!" To her relief, Tobar began to head back toward his normal size. She stayed relieved right up to the part where she remembered that breaking the spell on him meant rolling the die to see which one would end up on her. Then she started to wish she was a borderline Squib who took forever to pick up the simplest thing.

Once the dratted thing left her hand and landed on six, the first sign of trouble she noticed was the strange prickling feeling at her temples. Without letting go of her wand, she reached up to see what the problem was and almost shrieked. Her eyebrows were growing, and by the feel of it, it wasn't pretty. Her hair also seemed to be falling a lot further past her shoulder than it should... "Oh, no," she said in a whisper. "Oh, oh...." She noticed Tobar again. "It's hair-thickening!" she exclaimed, in a tone more suited to announcing that enemy forces had just breached the fortress wall. "Fix it, fix it, fix it!"

16 Rachel What is? 154 Rachel 0 5

Andrew Duell, Teppenpaw

November 15, 2009 8:28 PM

Me Tarzan, you Jane? by Andrew Duell, Teppenpaw

Ahhh... Charms. Andrew was looking forward to charms this year. Last year, he didn't do so well, this year he hoped to drastically improve. Transifiguration is easy enough, this year he had to do better in charms and potions. He just needed to figure out what he was doing wrong. His mother had given him some pointers, it was time to put them to work.

Upon entering the room, the first thing he noticed was the professor, well more accurately, the professor's hat. That was something else... wow. This could be an interesting class. Andrew looked around for a seat, not finding any seats at all, he followed the trend of the other students and flopped himself down on an empty spot of the floor. He got his notebook out and prepared to take notes. When Professor McKindy asked about Jumanji, Andrew raised his hand along with some of the others. He had watched it at his father's place, his father had a rather extensive DVD collection. It wasn't one of his favorite movies, but he did enjoy it. Now they were actually going to play the game, or a variant of it? Cool.

Once the professor allowed them, he stood up and picked up one of the copies of the game. Now he just needed a partner, he glanced around the room as the other students were grouping up. A girl asked if he had a partner yet.

He smiled, "Not yet, but I am accepting applications. My name is Andrew."

2 Andrew Duell, Teppenpaw Me Tarzan, you Jane? 145 Andrew Duell, Teppenpaw 0 5

Tobar

November 15, 2009 10:11 PM

Oh dear! by Tobar

Tobar watched with wide eyes as the Rachel’s hair began to grow quickly! Oh dear it was not a pleasant look for her at all, he began to look through his charms book quicker then ever. Finally he found it and cast it a couple of times before her hair stopped growing. He breathed a sigh of relief and he grinned up at the girl. “I just want this game to be over, what about you?” He asked with a sigh.

He grabbed the die and blew on it for good luck. His mother had taught him wishes were always better when told to the object it involved. He closed his eyes and released the die from his hand and then slowly opened them as his piece began to move. He counted in his head ‘one, two, three, four, five, and six. At the sixth one his piece slid into the golden city. Holy crap he had won. “JUMANJI!!” He cried with a smile.

He looked at Rachel and breathed a sigh of relief. “Are you as glad as I am that is over?” He ran a hand through his hair and closed his eyes. That was one game he NEVER wanted to play again. It had fried his nerves and he was pretty sure that Rachel was just as glad that was over but he couldn’t be sure until she spoke.

0 Tobar Oh dear! 0 Tobar 0 5

Daniel Nash II

November 15, 2009 11:37 PM

We can hope so; we are about to play Jumanji by Daniel Nash II

Daniel looked at the remaining pieces and picked the blue one, as much because it was the color of his House as it was because he happened to like the color. While he struggled with getting it out of its plastic bag, he answered her question: "With Professor Taylor, we never sat on the floor and played games. I'm a third year, and my sister is a fifth year," the less said about said sister the better, but in this case he thought she was safe for a passing mention, "so I'm fairly sure this is completely unprecendented."

He looked up at the bubble-hatted man doubtfully, "But Professor McKindy is a new teacher, so it might be normal now." His voice clearly suggested that he did not think this was a positive change. "If it is, I can see why they didn't give him Professor Taylor's Head of House position as well, putting him as Pecari's instead of Aladren's." Only his slight flourish of the blue piece as he put it down beside Veronica's in the Deepest Jungle indicated he was speaking of his own House. Now a third year, he'd come to assume everyone already knew he was an Aladren, even when a moment's logic would have told him a first year wouldn't have had a chance to learn that yet.

"You may go first," he offered, passing her the dice he'd managed to get out of the plastic bag along with his board piece. Not only was it polite, and within standard board game protocol to let the youngest player go first, but he was a just bit worried about exactly how real these enchanted boards were going to get. He'd seen the movie. This game was downright dangerous if it was enchanted at that level of reality.

He carefully but subtly readied his wand in case he needed to protect the first year from lions or elephants or something. It was probably for the best that she was paired with a third year. Even beyond her lack of experience, the way she had fluttered her eyelashes at him did not inspire him with the greatest of confidences in her abilities. With any luck, she was one of the Crotalus pureblood girls like Holly hung out with and not some star-struck fan who hadn't gotten around to asking for his autograph yet. Purebloods, he could shake just by telling them he was a muggleborn.

But if that's what Veronica was, he was smart enough not to mention it until the end of class when their partnership dissolved and they no longer had to get along. He made a mental note to address all blasphemy and prayers to Merlin instead of God for the duration of the game.

1 Daniel Nash II We can hope so; we *are* about to play Jumanji 130 Daniel Nash II 0 5

David Lancaster [Teppenpaw]

November 16, 2009 11:16 AM

Crashing the party. by David Lancaster [Teppenpaw]

The return to classes wasn't exactly an unhappy event. David Lancaster liked his professors, even if the staff seemed to now be made up of entirely new ones. He found the lessons interesting, and outside of class time, he was left to his own pursuits, a freedom he never had at home under constant watch from his parents. He liked his classmates, had a few friendships, even if none were particularly close, and he'd managed to sneak out on a few prime star gazing nights during the past year to sleep out in the Gardens, something he definitely never got to experience at home, caught in the bustle and artificial lighting of the city.

But actual scholastic achievement eluded him, and even his Muggle parents who were used to the standard ways of grading had managed to work out that a wizarding A was little more than a median score. His parents blamed it on his lack of self application. He had agreed; it just wasn't that important to him, not when compared to other things, like sitting in the Gardens or reading in his common room. Besides, it wasn't like he was wasting his potential, not really.

David had yet to show any amount of natural talent when it came to his classes. His Defense spells lacked strength, his concoctions in Potions were always several shades lighter than they ought to be, and he'd yet to manage a completely finished product in Transfiguration. If it weren't for Care of Magic Creatures and History, David would consider himself a complete failure instead of just a middling one. Even in Charms, a class he rather liked, his results were always lackluster. He supposed it could be attributed to his personality; he lacked gumption, will power, tenacity, ambition and all other manner of traits his parents said were necessary to be successful in life.

Still somehow, after hearing the Charms lesson planned for today, David felt that he could, at the very least, manage this sort of assignment just fine. Jumanji had been a staple favorite of his when younger, and despite the somewhat nightmarish qualities the film portrayed, he nevertheless used to imagine finding the game himself, its drums echoing from beneath the sand on some beach. He stood up slowly from his seat on the rug, his knees snapping with the movement and surveyed the room. The newer first years appeared openly eager to approach the lesson, and while not unappreciative of their enthusiasm, David would rather skip the whole step of trading introductions.

Upon spotting Marissa and Andrew already in conversation, he approached them from across the room, carefully weaving through the eager groups. He liked both of his fellow second years, Andrew having been his roommate the past year, and Marissa had a steady dependability about her that inspired his confidence. Even if her exactness made him feel overly conscious of his own perpetually unkempt appearence. She was pretty, too, a fact he had recognized when he first met her, but it was an always present fact, and unlike with some other girls, he felt none of the intimidation he normally experienced.

"Hi Marissa, Andrew, sorry to interrupt. Mind if I join you?"

0 David Lancaster [Teppenpaw] Crashing the party. 0 David Lancaster [Teppenpaw] 0 5

Mike Song [Pecari]

November 16, 2009 12:16 PM

My kind of lesson. by Mike Song [Pecari]

Mike Song decided, upon taking in the combined changes in the classroom set-up, his professor's attire, and the subject of the lesson, that Charms was now officially a class he could like without looking like too much of a dork. After all, any class taught by an individual sporting a hat made out of pink bubbles was undeniably gaining in the cool factor. He particularly approved of the removal of desks and chairs. Tables and other flat surfaces were really only necessary if one needed them for note-taking or book-propping, both pursuits being ones that he actively neglected. He'd managed two years of receiving Exceeds Expectations in all of his classes, minus CoMC, but he hardly considered that exception worth noting.

So what if he was no good with animals? He didn't exactly plan on a career involving them.

As was his habit, Mike spent the majority of the lesson's introduction scanning the room for anything of interest. He was forever bothered that he had no classes with fifth years, but in lieu of watching (read as staring at and nibbling on his finger nails) Holly, he normally could find something of note to distract him from the mundanity of lectured knowledge. The word Jumanji jumped him back into the lesson, though, as the rest of the words caught up to him, it took all of his barely existent self control to not cheer out loud. A whole class dedicated to playing the one game he'd always wished was real?

And it was real? For real!

Mike wasted no time once they were released to the task. Throwing a thankful grin in Professor McKindy's direction, he ambled to the cabinet, took a boardgame, and quickly grabbed the nearest individual by the elbow. "Let's get started. What piece do you want?"

0 Mike Song [Pecari] My kind of lesson. 0 Mike Song [Pecari] 0 5

Jose Hernandez (Pecari)

November 16, 2009 2:24 PM

Mine too! by Jose Hernandez (Pecari)

As far as Jose had been able to figure out during his first year at Sonora, the subject of Charms is what his family largely regarded as 'magic'. The California Pierces were largely too untrained to manage more than basic transfiguration, and potions had too much ethical baggage to be a useful part of their vegan hippie existence. DADA was hardly applicable in their daily lives, magical creatures weren't allowed around their muggle neighbors, and History was a book class that didn't teach any kind of practical magic.

So that left Charms. As it was the single most familiar kind of magic to him, and he usually remembered to do his homework, he was actually pretty good at it. It was the only class he was holding an O average in.

Despite all of that, he found even History to be more interesting. How Professor Taylor managed to make the most versatile form of magic into something that was boring was quite beyond him, but she did. But Professor Taylor had left. Jose had met (sort of) the new Charms Professor during Pecari's Head of House speech, and he was hopeful that the class would drastically improve this year.

When he walked in on the first day, he was not disappointed. He grinned at the lack of desks, the plethora of posters on the walls, and - certainly not least - the pink bubble hat that had so mesmerized him during the Welcoming Feast. "Awesome," he said, more to himself than to anybody else, and then moved into the room to take a seat on the rug.

Though he'd never seen the movie, much less read the book, Jose raised his hand along with some other people when asked who had heard of it before. He knew the basic plot summary. The professors next few words of explanation, however, negated any advantage he had over the people who hadn't known what it was.

He scribbled down a few notes, so he'd remember later what they did today (not that playing Jumanji, of all things, was likely to be forgettable), and then packed his things away in his bag, figuring he wasn't going to need any of it to play a board game.

He'd just finished zipping it up and begun looking around for a group to play with when Mike Song grabbed him by the elbow and asked what piece he wanted.

"Uh," Jose stumbled after him, half-carrying, half-dragging the bag he hadn't quite managed to finish lifting up to his shoulder as they moved to find a clear spot of rug to spread out on. He dropped the bag entirely once they found one and settled down cross-legged beside it.

"Orange if they have it," he said, hoping this was a game that offered that color. A disappointing number of them didn't. "Otherwise, I guess I'll go with red." Most games did have red, and it was usually bright enough to almost make up for not being orange. "Unless you want red. I like blue, too." Everybody liked blue, though, and he'd never yet played a game where somebody else didn't want blue more, so he usually let them have it.

0 Jose Hernandez (Pecari) Mine too! 0 Jose Hernandez (Pecari) 0 5

Rachel

November 16, 2009 4:23 PM

Indeed. by Rachel

Rachel bit her lip desperately, covering up as much of her face as she could with her hands while Tobar tried to find a countercharm. What if he couldn't fix it? What if it was so bad by the time he found out how to fix it that she had to go to the hospital wing? She couldn't walk along one of the corridors like this! Of course, at this time of day, a lot fewer people had any right to be in the corridors than were in this room, but what if someone glanced through the crack in every classroom door at the exact wrong moment? A lifetime of being known as a Yeti, that was what.

And then the damage felt gone. Very cautiously, she took her hands away from her head. "Definitely," she said, with a shaky return grin that didn't quite manage to be as sincere as his. The game was all fun and a challenge until the mutilation started. So vivid was the picture now stuck in her head of herself as a Yeti that Rachel couldn't help opening her purse and pulling out a small hand mirror just to be sure.

Her eyebrows appeared to be their own size and shape again. As Tobar played with the die, Rachel pulled the hairtie out of her now slightly messed-up ponytail, ran her fingers all through her blonde hair, and then put it back. She finished in time to watch, with appropriate worry, as Tobar's little game piece made its final slide...

...And he said the name of the game, loudly. Didn't that mean he had won? By the way he was smiling, it sure did.

If he'd won, then she'd lost.

Rachel didn't like to lose.

She liked having her ability to not look like a monster all being in the hands of a first year even less, though. She'd be reasonable. Today. Another time, when it didn't mess her head up so badly by being sprung on her, she would beat him at something and they'd be even. She was not asking, right here and now, for a rematch. Nope, nope, nope. Not in a thousand years. "I think so," she said, touching her hair again. She had never appreciated how nice it was in its own state before; her annoyance at it for not curling while she was getting ready had almost vanished. "At least the first day here wasn't boring?"

16 Rachel Indeed. 154 Rachel 0 5

Marissa

November 16, 2009 7:05 PM

Three's company? by Marissa

Marissa couldn’t help but laugh at the response her inquiry got. It was the kind of thing guys said on those stupid teen dramas her friend Briana was obsessed with, and she’d never heard anyone say something like it in real life.

“Nice to, um, meet you, I guess,” she said, realizing that they’d never been formally introduced. “I’m Marissa.”

It was, she had to admit, a little disappointing to not be recognizable as the smart girl who always sat up front and answered lots of questions. It was also a relief, though, to not be recognize as the hopelessly inept girl who could barely levitate a feather without botching the job. She’d known who he was as soon as he’d looked at her properly, of course, but decided not to mention it; some people might have deemed it unhealthy to know someone’s name because she’d spent a year staring at his Transfiguration work in pure, soul-eating envy.

Not that she held anything against him. She didn’t. He was better than she was at the subject, fair and square, just like it had been with Bella and science when she’d still lived at home. It wasn’t The Way to resent someone for having either more natural talent or dedication than she did, or even for just getting really lucky. Not unless that person was a total jerk, anyway, at which point all rules went out the window. Her friends really didn’t have a lot of tolerance for that kind of thing.

When David came up to them, Marissa smiled in greeting. Though they couldn’t be classified as close friends the way she and the girls were, she did consider him one of her better Sonora friends, and she’d missed having someone around she knew “got” the whole Muggleborn thing over the summer. It might be equipping her for life as a spy in exotic locales, but being the only person she didn’t have to lie to was kind of…lonely. “Well, I don’t,” she said when he asked if they minded if he joined them. “Not at all. Andrew?”

16 Marissa Three's company? 147 Marissa 0 5

Adelita Garcia (Crotalus)

November 16, 2009 8:56 PM

Who wants to play with me? by Adelita Garcia (Crotalus)

Adelita Garcia walked into the Charms classroom with a bit of apprehension. She had grown used to Professor Taylor and her strict ways, but this new professor was foreign to her and she had no idea exactly on how he would be around them. On top of that, being a Third year now meant that the work was going to get harder and being one of the older students, she was bound to have to help out the younger ones. Granted, Charms actually was one of her better subjects, but she wasn’t exactly sure if she’d be of any help to other people.

Her dark brown hair was still long and lay peacefully around her shoulders. Because it was the beginning of the year, Adelita was dressed to make a great impression… of course, that fell short with now having to sit on the floor. “What is up with Professors making me sit on the ground or crawl into a tent when I’m in a skirt?” Adelita mumbled unhappily to herself as she carefully adjusted herself in order to sit properly on the ground. She wasn’t so sure if she liked the new professor if only because he was making her sit down on the floor on the first day. Aside from that, she did appreciate the pink bubble hat. Mainly because it was pink.

Lita didn’t pay attention to who was sitting next to her until she heard the familiar voice of her younger sister, “Isn’t he too old to play dress up?” Dulce said in her flat voice that she often used when she found life to be dull and uninteresting.

“Shhhh.” Lita replied, looking slightly annoyed. “Go sit with the other first years!” Lita refused to admit that Dulce was probably right with her comment. It did seem silly for an adult to wear a hat like that. Watching Dulce stand up and take a seat elsewhere, Lita focused back on the professor when he began the lesson. She had never heard of the game Jumanji and didn’t quite understand why this was their lesson, but she wasn’t going to ask any questions. After all, if their lesson was just playing a game to see all the charms that came with it, that sounded like a pretty fun lesson!

Standing up, Lita looked around for a partner. Seeing someone with a board already, Lita made her way over to them. “Hey, do you want to play with me?” She asked, realizing that she sounded like a five year old when she asked. “I mean, would you like to play Jumanji with me?”

0 Adelita Garcia (Crotalus) Who wants to play with me? 0 Adelita Garcia (Crotalus) 0 5

Andrew

November 16, 2009 8:57 PM

Re: Three's company? by Andrew

Marissa... Marissa... Right! Marissa! He knew she had looked familiar. Andrew sometimes envied the people who seemed to be able to connect faces and names and actually have them stick together. His mind wasn't quite organized right to do that, or at least that was his going theory. He wasn't entirely sure how his mind was organized... but he had to admit, it did let him excel in at least one class. The rest of his classes did not get the same benefit. Looks like it was time to cover up yet another one of his shortcomings.

He chuckled at her laugh and introduction, "Sorry, it's been a bit of a crazy summer. I'm pretty sure I've forgotten more than I took in." He put on his best 'winning' smile, "Marissa, right. You're one of the smart ones here, your application has definitely been approved." Maybe she could help him wrap his mind around charms, and all those other pesky classes that eluded him.

As his roommate walked up and asked to join, Andrew nodded at him, "Fine by me, the more the merrier, right?" David was a good guy. "Shall we find a place to get this game started?" Andrew looked around for an open spot on the floor to set up the board.

2 Andrew Re: Three's company? 145 Andrew 0 5

Dulce Garcia (Teppenpaw)

November 16, 2009 9:33 PM

This really isn't all that fun. by Dulce Garcia (Teppenpaw)

Dulce was somewhat excited about going to her first lesson at Sonora, but a part of her didn’t want to be here. She understood that this was a part of her adolescence and that she needed the education in order to survive life in general. But she didn’t really feel that this type of education was really all that necessary for her. She had wanted to go to a school for performing arts. She had wanted to continue on with her music, not have it stalled until the holidays and summer vacation. Okay, she did have a keyboard with her that her mother had charmed to return to its original size after twenty four hours, but that wasn’t the same as her grand piano that she played on every day. And sure, she had her violin with her, but playing in her room just wasn’t like playing at the auditorium where her lessons were.

Still, Dulce didn’t have a choice in the matter. She was here and she would remain here for the next seven years. As long as she did her work and kept out of trouble, she could manage to do this.

Listening to the Professor with the crazy hat, Dulce visibly frowned at the days lesson. So… she was going to play some muggle board game. Joy. She could have done that at home. Why couldn’t he just give them a charm to learn and not some social gathering event that involved a game with a strange name? If she was forced to be here to learn, she would at least like to actually learn something.

Oh well, there was nothing she could do about it now. This would be her first lesson. Playing a muggle game. She could do this and she could be polite about it. All she had to do was find someone to play with. Of course, if she didn’t, it wasn’t like the professor could hold it against her. It wouldn’t really be her fault if people didn’t want to be her partner. Right? Grabbing a board, Dulce sat back down on the rug and setup the game. Once she had chosen her piece, she waited quietly in the corner for someone to join her.

0 Dulce Garcia (Teppenpaw) This really isn't all that fun. 0 Dulce Garcia (Teppenpaw) 0 5

Veronica

November 16, 2009 11:05 PM

I think we may need more than luck. by Veronica

The sound of not sitting on the floor sounded heavenly, especially as now she was going to have to take what they were doing in class (assuming the professor told them) when getting dressed. It was a shame too, because if activities like this were going to occur frequently, it would mean more often than not, she would have to wear pants. She felt like she might as well be a boy if she had to do that. Part of the charm of being a girl was the ability to be feminine. How was she supposed to be feminine when she didn’t get to wear all her pretty dresses and skirts? She had picked them out especially for her first year at school.

But at least things weren’t all bad. Daniel Nash confirmed her suspicions that he was older and a third year, no less. She felt rather flattered that he hadn’t turned her down when she had asked him to partner her. He could have easily worked with someone else in the class so she should take advantage of the opportunity. In order to do that, she would need information, even if it seemed inconsequential at the moment, because one never knew when it might come in handy later. The easiest was to jump on the fact that he had mentioned a sister. That was something she could relate to. “Who’s your sister? I have an older sister in the school too. She’s a second year. My other sister is a first year too.”

Absolute horror passed over Veronica’s face as she nearly choked on her next words. “He could have been Aladren’s Head of House? He would have been my Head of House?” As soon as she said them, she bit down hard on her lower lip. Uh-oh. She hadn’t meant to let him know what House she was in, but there it was. Well, there went any hope of popularity and after she had gone through so much effort so that her robes folded over just right to hide the identifying badge. A sigh of disappointment, mostly with herself, escaped her lips. If she kept this up, she was never going to accomplish her goals.

She might as well just be all academic then. Taking the dice, she made her roll, hoping that it didn’t land on anything too horrific. Otherwise, she didn’t know what she was going to do. She wasn’t even worried about what actual dangers might be in the game so much as whether or not they might make her look pitiful to someone else. There was nearly no worse fate than that. She held her breath as the dice moved a mere three spaces. ‘Appearances can be deceiving as true forms are hidden.’ What was that supposed to mean? Quickly, she ran her hands over her nose, her forehead, her lips. Everything still seemed normal.

Oh! Her gaze fell on Danny or what was Danny. “You look awful!” Veronica blurted out as she gagged slightly and had to look quickly away. His appearance was disgusting. Nothing at all like what he had been before. But…it had been her turn so why would it affect him? She looked around the room to see if anyone else had noticed. They all seemed to be busy with their own games, but…boy, did they look just as hideous. They all looked like mucus dripping mutant puffskeins. Oh! Another realization just struck her. Whatever charm occurred must have affected her and made her think she was seeing something that she wasn’t really. But what was it? Digging out her book, her fingers flipped through the pages trying to figure it out while Danny had his turn.

0 Veronica I think we may need more than luck. 0 Veronica 0 5

David

November 17, 2009 2:44 PM

I appreciate that. by David

The room, despite its size and the absence of any desks or chairs, managed to appear very full. The volume rose considerably higher than it did under Professor Taylor's watch, a change that David didn't particularly mind as it remained at the level of a dull roar, none of the sounds overly distinctive or too highly pitched.

"I think this spot is as good as any," he suggested after a moment more. He began to lower himself to the ground and then paused, his brown eyes considering Marissa. Wordlessly, he removed his school robes, and smoothing out some of the larger wrinkles, placed it on the ground beside him, gesturing for her to sit.

He waited until both classmates had joined him on the ground, and then began his inspection of the game board. It unfolded open, the eaves on the side listing the game's directions and specifications. The center of the board had the meandering path, just as shown in the movie, with the center occupied by a large, cloudy hemisphere; the game pieces sat waiting on the left side. Somewhat gingerly, he picked up the dark green piece, its weight surprisingly heavy in his palm. "I guess it's just a case of rolling the dice then. Who wants to go first?"

0 David I appreciate that. 0 David 0 5

Raines Bradley (Crotalus)

November 18, 2009 12:52 PM

I must agree with you by Raines Bradley (Crotalus)

Raines was not in a good mood as he approached the Charms classroom. His little sister had decided it would be just dandy to send her thoughts on their cousin's brat ruining her birthday by being born the day before it along with a letter from their mother outlining the same thing, and it had talked. He'd managed to fold it shut before an awful lot of people could hear Emma's voice complain away in a politically incorrect fashion, but he was still sure he was going to be known for the rest of his life as that guy who was so pathetic he actually listened to the silly little problems of his silly little sister.

He was going to kill her when he got home, right after he figured out how she'd done it. He didn't know how to make parchment talk, and he was a real wizard at a real school with a real wand. Emma was a little girl on an estate out in the middle of nowhere with a practice wand. He thought she could have stolen their mother or father's wands - it was family tradition; she'd done it before, and so had he and Anna - but that didn't explain anything else.

His mood was not improved by the lack of proper seating and professorial garb in the Charms classroom. Raines found his eyes kept floating back to the bubble hat. The next time an obnoxious Bradley cousin called him effeminate, he was just going to point them to this fellow. Perhaps his eyes were a tad too large and long-lashed for manliness, and maybe he'd been born a little height-challenged and raised to think no gentleman went around with dirt under his nails, but he did not go around wearing pink.

And then they had to drag the Muggles into it. Considering just how his family felt about Muggles, especially since a Muggleborn had made his uncle into a laughingstock in some circles, Raines came to the conclusion that this was not a day he had been destined to like.

Maybe his parents had been right to want to keep him at home after all.

But no - it was far better to be here, where there were at least some reasonable people, than at home, where that was a word no one understood. Besides, he'd heard Anna and his cousins all say that it was not uncommon for professors to come and go; it was not outside the realm of possibility that he'd outlast all the teachers he found irksome. And it wasn't exactly a game of Muggles, because Muggles didn't know Charms. Right. Naturally. That made sense.

He was here to get socialized, so he was going to go socialize. That was another useful function of this…unorthodox…form of conducting a lesson. If nothing else, he’d be introduced to at least one member of his class, and contacts were contacts even if they did have to be dismissed later for some reason. He quickly checked over his clothes and his auburn hair to ensure that they were still in place and set out in search of a partner.

After a moment, he noticed a girl sitting off by herself in a corner with a game. Shy or standoffish, most likely, and no telling which it was. When Emma was like that, it was the former; with Anna, it tended to be the latter. Anna could be like that a lot; Raines suspected it was why she was eighteen and still had no wedding date in sight when Catherine, of dubious legitimacy, had been married for a year. Either way, though, he expected there would be a modicum of familiarity, so he went over.

“Good morning,” he said politely. “I am Raines Bradley, of the Louisiana Bradleys. Would you like to work together on this…game?” Despite his flawless reasoning on the subject of why it wasn’t a form of blood treachery to play it, he still couldn’t help but pronounce the word with a touch of skepticism. His idea of a game involved, at the very least, the pieces smashing each other over the head, and if Muggle-lovers were all supposed to be soft, then it stood to reason that Muggles would be even softer and less violent in their entertainment.

0 Raines Bradley (Crotalus) I must agree with you 0 Raines Bradley (Crotalus) 0 5

Marissa

November 19, 2009 9:52 PM

Any time. by Marissa

Marissa would have enjoyed a move for no reason other than putting off playing Jumanji just a little longer, but David’s logic made sense; there was, technically speaking, nothing at all wrong with right where they were. A board game and three second years didn’t take up a lot of space, and after all the moving around that had presumably gone on, she doubted one bit of the floor was any cleaner than another.

“I think so,” she agreed, starting to sit down. When David stopped in mid-sit, though, she did as well, wondering if the position was about to be reconsidered. It occurred to her that he seemed to be looking at her, and she wondered if she’d sounded like she had a problem with the spot after all and blushed, sure she had.

Then, after a moment, he took his robe off and put it down – for her to sit on?

That certainly seemed to be what he had in mind. Who called chivalry dead now, anyway? She felt kind of bad about just sitting on his uniform, but felt it would be somehow rude to reject the gesture, which was really sweet of him to make. So, with a smile, continued blush, and a quick, whispered, “thanks”, she sat down beside him.

David managed to quickly turn her mind away from that and back to the matter at hand: the game. They were getting started. She decided to be brave – or perhaps just sensible; when she tried to think about things, she often just made herself that much more anxious, and it built on itself until she was unable to do much of anything – and answer the question. “I’ll do it,” she said, picking up a piece and placing it on the board.

Because there were definite limits to courage with her, she closed her eyes as she released the dice. Since she’d done that, she didn’t see the piece move by magic, but she did feel the results: she lost her breath in what had to be record time as it felt like three or four people all started tickling her at once. Clutching her sides with one arm, she took out her wand and attempted the countercharm.

16 Marissa Any time. 147 Marissa 0 5

Andrew

November 20, 2009 9:00 PM

Someday I'll remember these subjects... by Andrew

Andrew flopped, rather ungracefully, down on the floor along with the others. He smiled and pretended to ignore David laying out his robe for Marissa. He wasn't exactly sure why he thought he should pretend to ignore this, but it seemed like the thing to do.

Once the others had picked their game pieces, Andrew picked up the dark brown piece and placed it on the board. He watched then as Marissa picked up the dice, and bravely went first. Her piece moved along the board, almost like... wait, no. It was magic. How did the piece know what was rolled on the dice? Was it multiple charms interacting with each other on the game board, or was there one that covered the entirety of the game?

Her piece stopped, and the globe in the center of the board began to clear and the message appeared.

'Loud and clear let it ring, laughter is a wonderful thing.'

Andrew watched Marissa's reaction to the charm. Now, how did the charm target her? And how did it know which charm to cast?

2 Andrew Someday I'll remember these subjects... 145 Andrew 0 5

Theodore Manzana

November 22, 2009 3:36 PM

Better late then never by Theodore Manzana

Theodore Manzana walked into charms a bit more nervous, mama would be proud if he did will with charms it had been her favorite subject in school, while papa would be proud if he were good at transfiguration but only time would tell. He smiled at the Professor who wore a very odd hat but it didn’t matter much. His own parents often wore odd outfits according to his friends, then again they did try to combine each other’s heritage into one outfit. Theodore still remembered the green and blue stripped jacket that his parents had forced him to wear to show his “pride” in Ireland and El Salvador.

Once the Professor was done talking he stood grabbed a board and looked around unsure of what to do next. He bit his lip and saw the girl approach him and ask. “ Hey, do you want to play with me?... I mean, would you like to play Jumanji with me?” It took a moment for Theodore to understand her he was used to hearing his father speak Spanish and his mother speak Gaelic to him. He grinned at her and nodded. “Si, I mean yes.” He began as they found an empty spot and sat down.

“I am Theodore Manzana.” He said with a smile. “You may call me Theo though if you wish.” He set up the board and held out the die to the girl with a smile he said. “Mujeres primero.” He sighed and shook his head. “I’m sorry, ladies first.” He corrected forgetting that he wasn’t at home.

0 Theodore Manzana Better late then never 0 Theodore Manzana 0 5

Juri Dahlgren, Aladren

November 22, 2009 7:28 PM

Sometimes never is better by Juri Dahlgren, Aladren

Grudgingly, Juri walked into the Charms classroom. It wasn’t that he disliked Charms. He just didn’t like it. Actually, he really didn’t care for any of his classes this year and it had nothing to do with the professors or the subject material or anything at the school other than the fact that he was at the school at all. Over the summer, it was like his entire life had fallen apart, because he was never there anymore. Any time he had called any of his muggle friends, they had been busy with other friends. They were all beginning to go into other social groupings, away from each other and away from him.

Then, there was the whole his mother had begun dating problem. Serious dating like the kind where she brought him home and introduced him to Juri. He hated it. He hated the guy. What if the man stuck around and actually married his mother? Then, he would not have only a horrible stepmother, but a worse stepfather. He hated his smile most of all, the way his lips curled almost into a sneer at the very end. He hated his greasy hair, all slicked back. He hated the way the guy always wore a dress shirt with a sweater tied over the shoulders. It was stupid, completely and utterly stupid. And he wasn’t there to do anything about it cause he had to be here.

The only good thing he could say about being here was that he had three sorta friends. One of whom he saw and he smiled shyly before giving his attention to the professor. The guy was a bit strange, but seemed harmless enough. Though, he really had to question if anyone in his (or her) right mind would wear a pink bubble hat. It was absurd. He certainly wouldn’t ever be caught wearing that, but then there are some that probably wouldn’t wear the things he wore, such as the jeans that had tears in the knees or the black ring watchband. His father had thrown a fit over these things, but he could care less. His father had begun to call him a miscreant. It was the best feeling ever.

Before he could begin plotting what he would do over midterm, the professor started talking. All right. Time to pay attention. Maybe. He kept glancing over in her direction. He shook his shaggy blonde head. He shouldn’t be looking at her. What was wrong with him? For the rest of the time, he forced himself to pay attention to what they were doing, not that it would be difficult since it was just a board game. Yes, he had seen the movie, but it wasn’t as though that would actually be occurring. At least, he didn’t think it would be. Or maybe it would be. He wasn’t sure what to think of the idea of having charms on the board and having the randomness of a dice roll. What if he ended up with makeup on or pink hair or something? He hated the idea, but he didn’t really have a choice unless he planned to fail, which he didn’t.

Looking around the room, he spotted Adelita with some guy. Suddenly, feeling something he couldn’t quite explain, he shuffled over to the couple in time to hear the squirt being all gentlemanly to her, which made him gag a bit. Seriously? What was the kid like ten or eleven? It was definitely not as good as being thirteen. Before he could stop himself, knowing it was rude, but feeling aggressive, he said to the younger boy, “Then, you better roll,” as he made himself at comfortable in front of the board. It was apparent that he had every intention of joining this group whether or not they wanted him to. Reaching over, Juri tugged lightly on a bit of the long brown hair. “Hey, Garcia. Go ahead. Maybe you’ll get lucky and get a hair charm.”

0 Juri Dahlgren, Aladren Sometimes never is better 0 Juri Dahlgren, Aladren 0 5

Lita

November 23, 2009 7:59 PM

Never means there's no adventure. by Lita

The boy with whom Lita had approached looked to be a first year. Okay, not ideal, but Lita was friendly with everyone and perhaps this boy knew about the game. Plus, with her sister being a first year, maybe Lita can pave the way and introduce them. Adelita was well aware that her sister wasn’t going to make the effort to make friends. She just wasn’t the sort to bother trying. So, if Lita didn’t step up and make the effort on her behalf, well, Dulce would remain forever alone and that was rather quite sad.

As the boy began to speak, Lita tilted her head at him ever so slightly. He spoke Spanish and it was clearly his more familiar language if that’s how he had begun addressing her. For whatever reason, Lit was still always caught off guard when other classmates spoke another language. Being from California, Lita was used to other languages and having three different houses in three different countries, Lita spoke more than one language, but she always separated school from all of that. Of course, she was well aware that some of the terms she used that were rather normal for her (like Tio) weren’t so normal for everyone else. That was a lesson she had learned gradually by the strange looks that her friends had shot her during their conversations. Now, three years later, they were all just used to them.

Adelita was about to introduce herself when Juri address the first year rather unpleasantly. A slight frown formed on her lips at Juri before a looking rather mortified when Juri joked about her hair. “Juri! That’s not nice at all!” She declared, although her lips twitched in a smile as she rolled her eyes and waved him away. “Don’t listen to him, Theo, he’s just teasing you.” Lita advised, returning her attention to the younger student. “I’m Adelita and this is Juri. Is Spanish your first language? It’s my second.” Lita commented with a smile before looking over at Juri.

“And why would I be lucky for a hair charm?” She asked. “I like my hair!” Giving him a pouty look momentarily as she tried to figure out why he would think her hair needed a change, Lita focused on the board game. “Okay, I don’t know anything about this game or what we’re supposed to do.” Grabbing a piece and placing it at the start, Lita rolled the dice and waited for something to happen. “What’s the point of this game?” She asked the boys, hoping they had played it before.

0 Lita Never means there's no adventure. 0 Lita 0 5

Edmond Carey [Aladren]

November 23, 2009 9:33 PM

Oh, dear... by Edmond Carey [Aladren]

Though he had always enjoyed and performed well in lessons, Edmond approached the first classes of his second year with caution. Adjusting to one new tutor was difficult at home, which meant adjusting to four here, if they were much different from their predecessors, was going to be outright painful.

One look at the desk-free classroom and bubble-hatted new professor was enough to tell him that Charms classes were going to be especially agonizing for a while. A classroom more different from the one he'd had in first year wasn't easy to imagine; it was hard to recognize it as the exact same space the austere Professor Taylor had occupied only three months before. It was a good thing he'd gotten some experience in sitting on the ground with dignity during a year of Care of Magical Creatures lessons.

Most of what the professor said made only a limited amount of sense; the one thing he really understood was that some Muggles had played a game in a book (and possibly in...the other thing he'd mentioned, which one "saw" and which he'd never heard of), and now they were going to play that same game, only without lions. He thought. Hoped, really. Lions weren't really something he wanted to deal with during his first day of classes; though he had practiced in secret as he was able to over the summer (Robert might well have let him practice openly, but Julia was stricter about laws and such), he knew he hadn't been skilled enough to repel even a small lion on the best day of his magical life.

He took out his wand and textbook, went to get a board, and looked for a familiar face. Spotting one, he went over. "If you're still looking for a partner," he said, "I'd be happy to serve in that capacity."

0 Edmond Carey [Aladren] Oh, dear... 0 Edmond Carey [Aladren] 0 5

Theo Manzana

November 24, 2009 1:39 AM

How true that is. by Theo Manzana

The girl seemed to take the boy’s teasing good naturedly, something his sisters never did. Theo nodded when she introduced the pair of them. When she asked if Spanish was his first language he smiled and shrugged. “Sort of, my father is Salvadorian so he taught us Spanish at an early age, my mother is Irish and taught us Gaelic so I learned those before English.” He laughed he knew it sounded crazy but his parents were crazy.

He swallowed hard as she asked what the point of the game was. “You want to be the first to get to the golden city Jumanji.” He said with a smile. “When you get there you call out Jumanji and you win.” He looked around and smiled. “I believe from the looks of the other students there’s going to be some type of charm placed on you which we will have to figure out how to fix.” He smiled glad that he was with older students they would hopefully know how to fix the charms quickly.

0 Theo Manzana How true that is. 0 Theo Manzana 0 5

Juri

November 25, 2009 9:33 PM

Adventure can lead to things unwanted. by Juri

Juri raised an eyebrow as the kid explained how he knew three languages. He wasn’t sure whether to be impressed or annoyed so he settled for a question to decide. “You must be pretty smart to know three languages, even growing up with them.” He didn’t actually know how hard it would be if one grew up with all three, but most people, he figured, would have to be since there were people that still had a hard time with the intricacies of just their first and only language. Looking over at the boy, probably with a look that said that the boy had somehow offended him, he asked, “Are you in Aladren?”

If the boy answered Aladren, Juri would considered being impressed since Aladrens were considered to be highly intelligent. He doubted the boy would answer as such though since he was an Aladren and hadn’t noticed the boy among the blue first years. Of course, he could have just not noticed. He had been paying a little more attention to other things and he had noticed a reddish looking girl sitting at the table so it was plausible that the boy had just opted to sit somewhere else. But if the boy did indeed answer a different House like Juri expected, then he would just be annoyed at the boy’s intelligence and hoped that Lita didn’t think that the kid was intelligent.

Though, Lita might end up thinking that since the kid (he couldn’t bring himself to actually refer to him as anything else) gave her an explanation to the game. More annoyance at the little know-it-all occurred. She hadn’t asked just the kid. She had asked both of them. Juri could certainly have given her a better answer. He was sure of it. At least, he was reasonably sure that he could have, but the more he thought about it, the answer was a resounding no unless he went into a detailed explanation that she didn’t really need. Then, he would probably only end up annoying her and he didn’t want to annoy her in that way, only in others.

In an effort to do so, though, he wasn’t honestly sure as to why he was doing so, Juri answered Lita’s question regarding her hair. “Nothing’s exactly wrong with it…if you like that…you know…look.” He had considered saying dull and flat, but he really didn’t think that and the manners his mother had taught him were kept with a nagging voice in his head. He brushed a hand over his head, pulling at the strands that hung on his forehead. He nearly sighed over why he couldn’t just be nice, but it just wasn’t in him at the moment. He glanced over to where one of the other girls were and wondered if he shouldn’t have joined another group instead, but it was too late now since the die had been rolled and they were waiting to see what would happen.

0 Juri Adventure can lead to things unwanted. 0 Juri 0 5

Dulce

November 26, 2009 12:26 AM

Then we're off to a good start. by Dulce

Dulce looked up when the boy approached her. Although her face never left the normal neutral look that she held most of the time, Dulce was rather disappointed that she had been spotted by another classmate. She had really been hoping she could have gotten away with not having to play the game, but her classmate clearly had another agenda for her in mind.

As she always did with meeting a new person, Dulce looked the boy over in front of her. She wasn’t even afraid to hide it. Everyone judged everyone based on appearance first and then by everything else later. She couldn’t quite understand why adults told her that it was impolite to do such things like look at someone without a reason to. Dulce felt appearance wasn’t everything, but first impressions were important. She wasn’t in a skirt like her sister, but she was in new jeans and a navy blue polo which made her light eyes look even lighter. Her long dark hair was pinned back and out of her face. Although she wasn’t really trying to make friends, she was at least making herself presentable.

By his introduction, Dulce could only assume that he came from money. Who else introduced himself by indicating which part of America he came from? This was Dulce’s first real interaction from someone her age. She had other people who took lessons a long side her, but they were different then the ones from this school. Dulce couldn’t exactly say why. She knew some of the students came from money, but they were all there for music and not for status. Perhaps that was the difference?

“A pleasure.” Dulce stated in her usual bored tone. “I’m Dulce Garcia of the California Garcias.” Dulce mimicked. Of course, the Garcia last name would either produce a multitude of Garcias (all of whom she doubted where her family) or none at all. If she had said the Chavez of Spain or the Santoros of Mexico, then there probably would have been recognition. But, as she has neither of those names for her own, Dulce made due with what she was given.

“That is a decent question, Raines.” Dulce commented, an eyebrow arching ever so much when she said his name because she found it rather odd. “Since you’ve found me, we might as well work together.” Dulce agreed and gestured to the ground opposite of her for him to take a seat. “I’ll be honest, I do not know this game or the purpose of it. But, looking around, it seems we’ll have to figure out charms.”

0 Dulce Then we're off to a good start. 0 Dulce 0 5

Lita

November 26, 2009 12:28 AM

But the unwanted might lead to adventures of the wanted by Lita

“I don’t think intelligence has to do with speaking more than one language.” Lita stated, not picking up on the fact that Juri may not have been the most polite of boys when communicating with Theo. “I’m well aware that I’m not an Aladren, but I speak two languages. When you grow up listening to them, they just make sense.” She knew that wasn’t really an explanation, but it was the complete truth in her eyes. “I think its cool that you can speak all three languages, Theo.” She wondered to herself if his parents actually spoke only those languages, and if that were the case, how they communicated with one another.

“Hm…okay.” She commented quietly when Theo explained to her the point of the game. Lita watched as the piece she had chosen began to move shortly after the dice had finished moving. The piece moved forward three spaces and then stopped. Leaning over the board, Lita read the glass ball out loud.

Beware of every step you take
The ground is solid, but it might shake.
What happens when its not there
And you are left up in the air?

“What the heck does that mean?” Lita asked the boys, but didn’t need their answer because she soon felt the affects of the words she had spoken. It was like her stomach dropped completely out of her body as she felt the ground giveaway on her. Only, it wasn’t the ground that had actually moved. It was Lita. Her body was floating in the air, steadily getting higher.

It took her a moment to realize what exactly was happening and quickly panic moved in on her. She stretched her legs out from under her so that she was still touching the ground, but she knew that wouldn’t help because she was still rising. “No, no, no, no, no.” Lita repeated while she tried in vain to keep her skirt from shifting too much and her feet on the ground. Eventually, the ground was no longer beneath her feet.

“Help me!” Lita exclaimed, leaning forward to desperately try to grab a hold of the boys to keep her as close to the ground as she could. She must have looked like a fool flailing around like she was. Trying to keep herself from levitating any more than she was as well as keeping her skirt in proper order so as to not make the scene any worse for her. “Don’t look!” Lita demanded through clench teeth at the boys so that they knew where their place was and to try and not sneak any peaks. “Please get me down!” The panic was clear in her voice. As much as Lita liked jumping while she danced, she hated heights. Especially in a situation like this when she had absolutely no control in what happened.

“Juri, please!” Lita cried out, nearly on the verge of tears. She was friends with Juri, so she was under the impression that he would help her and she knew for a fact that he was aware of what charm to use to get her down. She knew the first year hadn’t learned it yet, so she couldn’t be as positive about him knowing it the way she could with Juri.

0 Lita But the unwanted might lead to adventures of the wanted 0 Lita 0 5

Quentin Melcher

November 28, 2009 5:00 PM

You people never learn (Professor) by Quentin Melcher

It was a bit intriguing to have mostly new professors (or people who claimed to be professors, Quentin was never to be sure after Mr. Flatt hadn't been one.) He was curious to see what they were like. Right now, the only ones he knew for sure were professors were Professor Fawcett (whom Quentin was immensely pleased to have as Aladren's Head of House and teaching Potions full time. Professor Fawcett was his favorite teacher) and Professor Flatt, (who, unlike, his uncle actually taught them something.)

Quentin was unsure of whether or not Mr. McKindy was a professor but it only took one look at the man to know that he was someone who Quentin's grandfather would never hire at their school, ever. Nor would his father. Felix and Warren Melcher (his grandfather and father, respectively) were not just educators, they were conservative and so dratted proper and they judged on appearances.

He did not. To him, it mattered what was on the inside, not their looks or their wardrobe or their blood status. Well, maybe not what was on the inside, after all what was inside a person was blood and vital organs like kidneys and livers and hearts, though only one heart and liver. And of course, some people claimed Mr. Flatt had lacked a heart and Professor Taylor had ice in her veins. Of course, this was ridiculous as this would make them both unable to live. People said the same thing about his grandfather as well.

Anyway, what truly mattered was their personality traits. Such as intelligence and kindness. The former was important in a professor and the latter helped. In fellow students, Quentin could overlook a lack of the former if there was enough of the latter.

As the lesson began, his belief that his family would never hire Mr. McKindy was cemented. They were to play a game. A muggle game. With Charms. He didn't know how that could be possible. His parents and grandparents would be horrified that it wasn't a particularly academic activity. Quentin did not care.

Still, just because Quentin was honestly starting not to care what his immediate family thought, did not mean Mr. McKindy was a professor. So far, he wasn't teaching them anything. They were to read the instructions for the game hence the game's creators were teaching them something. As far as the worksheet went, he had not given them the answers.

A game might be fun but it didn't sound like it was educational and the alleged professor wasn't actually professing anything.

Still, he did say they had any questions to ask them...and Quentin never turned down that opportunity when he got it.

So, when everyone else went to get a game or find a partner, the third year Aladren walked over to Mr. McKindy and asked. "Why do fleas exist?"

11 Quentin Melcher You people never learn (Professor) 129 Quentin Melcher 0 5

James Anthony [Aladren]

November 29, 2009 12:56 PM

We're in the same boat by James Anthony [Aladren]

As James considered himself to be above and beyond the average intellect of his year, he did not have any particular interest in who had replaced Professor Taylor as Charms professor because he had not expected to learn anything from them anyway. As a proper Aladren, he would of course complete the homework assignments and suchlike, but as far as learning expectations went? James’s were practically nonexistent. He would just return to his table in the library and his studies on Summoning and Banishing. Although he had learned the concepts on his own last year, the third year felt as though he should refresh himself before re-embarking on his independent journey of knowledge.

Of course, the shock of having to tolerate the new professor was replaced with the shock of actually being instructed to play games in class within the first ten minutes of standing awkwardly at the back. James pushed his glasses up his nose, blinked his blue-green eyes once, and then again. Was McKindy serious?

Suddently, the brown-haired boy missed the comfortable familiarity of Professor Taylor’s highly-structured, practically applicable lessons.

On the off chance that the mad professor was going to grade them on effort and participation, James figured that he should probably participate in the class. Even if it was just a truly stupid assignment designed to ease first years into real charmswork. Since an underclassman (a second year, if James recalled the face, although he couldn’t place a name to it) had just approached him and offered to partner, James decided that he would use this opportunity to encourage his enterprising business of tutoring in the library.

“I would be quite amenable to that arrangement,” James replied, pushing his glasses up his nose again. “I suppose the expectation is to sit on the floor as we play this game,” the third year added contemptuously. A proper learning environment was one with a desk, a book, and a quill. Not this hippie nonsense. “My name is James, by the way,” he neglected to add his last name, for fear that Lutece’s reputation might have superceded his. “I don’t believe we have been introduced.”

0 James Anthony [Aladren] We're in the same boat 0 James Anthony [Aladren] 0 5

Professor McKindy

November 29, 2009 1:11 PM

We do--just on a curve by Professor McKindy

"Why do fleas exist?"

Aaron turned and looked at the third year in front of him. The face did not look familiar, which meant that the student was not in Pecari and so was probably not trying to prank his Head of House by taking him up literally on the offer of answered questions. Of course, that left the circumstance that the boy in front of him was being serious in the question, in which case Aaron was at a complete loss.

The Charms professor had an extremely broad knowledge base in a few particular subjects. Charms, for example. Aaron was also particularly proficient with languages—fluent in three (Italian, Gaelic, English) and knowledgeable about two more (Latin and Ancient Greek). He had a handy grasp of Transfigurations, a familiarity with fashion, and an understanding of Quidditch.

He had absolutely no idea about fleas.

“I don’t know,” the black-haired man admitted he had never been a fan of lying to students, particularly about knowledge he did or did not have. “I’m sorry. If you have questions about Charms, I might be more helpful,” that was said with a friendly, half-wry grin. Aaron liked teaching inquisitive students much more than he liked teaching those who just did the work without question, but he also disliked having questions asked that he couldn’t answer. Particularly those he was confused about the origin of. What in the assignment had triggered that response from this particular student? The Pecari Head of House blinked his green-grey eyes, confused, as he examined the student in front of him.

0 Professor McKindy We do--just on a curve 0 Professor McKindy 0 5

Juri

November 29, 2009 10:23 PM

Maybe no adventures are wanted. by Juri

Lita was right, of course. Intelligence didn’t necessarily have anything to do with intelligence, because they grew up speaking those languages. Though, how skilled you were with the little grammatical and spelling details were still based on intelligence regardless of being able to fluently speak the language, which was a small fact that comforted him. He didn’t like the idea that Theo spoke Lita’s second language. It made him feel left out that they could communicate with each other in a nearly secret way and he certainly didn’t like that Lita thought it was cool that Theo could. He wanted to say something, but thought better of it and just sat silently fuming while Lita took her turn.

Before anyone could answer Lita, she was rising up in the air and pleading to come down. Juri was vastly amused by the situation, but he also felt slightly guilty for the way she was flailing around up there. Though, it didn’t prevent him from the opportunity to take a peak, but just one. Anything more would truly equate him to some peeping tom and he certainly wasn’t one. He was just curious as was natural to a boy his age. He just hoped Theo wasn’t, because if he was and he considered taking a peak then he was probably going to need a steak for his eye or whatever. Plus, he could say he was doing it for Lita’s honor since she had said not to look. He just hadn’t applied it to himself.

The desperation in Lita’s voice called Juri to attention and without even needing to look, he waved his wand with the right incantation to bring her down. Pride swelled through him on not having had to look in the book. Now, that was intelligence, that was experience. He was better than the first year and his secret language. He hoped she was as impressed by that as she had been with Theo. Well, he wanted her to be more impressed, but he would settle for what he got. For now. With her back on the ground, he couldn’t resist teasing her a bit. “So, pink with white flowers, huh? I would have thought you’d be more a hearts kind of girl.” His expression was collected, but his heart was racing as he thought she’d smack him for sure.

Leaning forward, Juri grabbed the dice and rolled them. His piece lurched forward five spaces. When it stopped, Juri read what came up:

What goes up,
Must come down.
Words come around,
To leave a frown.

“Cryptic much?” Juri asked no one in particular, wondering what that was supposed to mean. He didn’t have long to wait as he felt a tinkling sensation on his head. “What?” He felt it, but couldn’t see it. His hair had changed to form pink spikes along his head with little hearts all over them. “What happened? What happened?” He was in a slight panic over not knowing what it was other than it hurt to touch, because there were now points all over his head. He kept trying to tell himself that it could be worse. He could have lost all of his hair. He wasn’t bald. It wasn’t working. He wasn’t reassured.

0 Juri Maybe no adventures are wanted. 0 Juri 0 5

Mike

November 30, 2009 11:52 AM

Okay, ridiculously belated, I know. Many sorries! by Mike

"Green," Mike answered emphatically, more than pleased to have open choice. He wasn't particularly superstitious or anything like that-- that was more of his mother's bag than his-- but it was comforting to have the power of green on his side. It was a good, fresh sort of color, and had yet to disappoint him in terms of reliability.

Finding an open space, taking a seat, and setting up the board took up only a spare minute of consideration, during which Mike somehow managed to remember to have his wand on hand for whatever mischief the game threw his way. While he certainly didn't think (unfortunately) that the school was about to allow the magical creation of an African-themed stampede, he wouldn't put it past them to allow for some potential danger.

"I hope the spells aren't all G-rated," he said. "I wouldn't mind a tiger or a lion or something." The words were more bravado than sincerity as Mike had absolutely no clue what he would do if faced with a lion. Probably play dead; did that even work with lions? Or was it bears?

"Jose, did you wanna go first?" And then, without skipping a beat. "Never mind, I can go." The dice fell from his hand, displaying a two and a three. As his green piece moved forward the five steps, words began to appear in the center globe.

"Rainy weather gathers overhead,
For telling lies is a very bad vice.
Telling the truth is better instead,
Best you're caught only once and never twice."

Mike spoke the words out loud, his tone growing skeptical toward the finish. "So if I lie, it's going to rain? Like I'm afraid of a little wat--" A crack of thunder and undeniable sensation of rainfall on his forehead interrupted his disavowel. Nervously, he glanced ceiling-ward, and there, undeniably, hung a miniature storm-cloud, complete with a miniature deluge and the occasional crack of thunder.

"Okay then," he finished lamely, hoping fervently that Jose wasn't the sort to try and use the honesty-only situation against him; Mike really didn't want to know what a second lie would cause. "Know an umbrella-charm or something like that, Jose?"

0 Mike Okay, ridiculously belated, I know. Many sorries! 0 Mike 0 5

David

November 30, 2009 12:16 PM

Back in the game! ) by David

"Loud and clear let it ring,
Laughter is a wonderful thing.

When David was eight years old, his parents had taken him to the county's annual high school Science Fair and Exhibit. Almost all of the material had been far above his head, excepting the one volcano that had made the county's original cuts-- the students had created a type of organic explosive that caused the make-shift caldera erupt every thirty-three minutes without fail-- but tucked in the sixth row, between a study on cheese molds and the impact of magnets on levers was a board labeled, "The Danger of Laughter: How the Body is at Risk". The center piece was filled with huge, glossy photographs of what the lungs and the heart looked like when in the middle of an attack of the giggles. The sides were coated in newspaper articles and internet studies recounting the many deaths attributed to too much laughter.

Most of it, David avoided reading, his eyes continually drawn to the spasmed lungs and heart in the center, but the high schooler who made the board took David's interest as an invitation to share an anecdote not on the board: the use of laughter as a torture method, how if tickled enough, a person could stop breathing, completely paralyzed. How, if done long enough, a tickle attack could kill a person.

And so David found nothing amusing or relieving in the discovery that the first charm launched by the board was a tickling spell. Genuine concern filled him when Marissa began to contort, her wand clearly clenched. His own words followed shortly behind hers, and whether it was her utterance or his that did the trick (personally, he doubted it was his, as most of his spells were generally ineffectual), the invisible tickling device seemed to let up.

"Are you all right?" he asked immediately once Marissa seemed to regain her composure. His voice sounded far more anxious than the experience probably merited, but his worry was sincere. "I didn't think the game would do anything to us physically."

Worriedly, he considered the dice in his palm. Following the normal clockwise rules, it was his turn. Cautiously, David dropped the dice, a pair of snake eyes settling after a handful of flips. As his piece moved its obligatory two spaces, a series of words began to appear.

"The jungle requires a mind most reflective,
Try to view it from a different perspective."

At first, David noticed no real change, and then quite suddenly, his world became far larger, both Marissa and Andrew looming overhead like giants. He had shrunk, his head reaching no higher than six inches. His wand, he realized with a wave of dismay, had not shrunk along with him and his clothing and sat, twice his new height, beside him. "Help?" he said, his voice a tinny shade of its original.

0 David Back in the game! ) 0 David 0 5

Euna Song [Aladren]

November 30, 2009 4:33 PM

Needing help as well! by Euna Song [Aladren]

It wasn't terribly unusual for Euna to find herself without a group to work with. The problem tended not to be that there weren't any groups available, but that no one had approached her first. It was positively nerve-racking to drum up the fifteen seconds of courage it took to ask to join in with an established duo or trio, and on some days, Euna couldn't manage it at all. Her chest stung and her voice stuck, and in such instances, she turned to her professors for the safety line, that wonderful adult-like power that meant they could decide for her.

Sure, it was mildly embarrassing to be ushered in to join with people who hadn't invited you in the first place, but who was going to question the professor? And once she was with the group, that nervousness that prevented her from originally joining in lessened enough to allow her to participate. This lesson in particular felt awfully inviting, and if it weren't for the fact she was still avoiding her brother, she might have worked up enough gumption to join him and his younger housemate.

Professor McKindy seemed like the lesser of the two, though, and so she opted instead on asking him.

Euna approached carefully, weaving in between and around the seated groups, some already fully into their games. She found the front and Professor McKindy already engaged, and not looking terribly thrilled about it, with her own housemate, Quentin. She could only imagine what sort of question Quentin might have had this go-around, and she wondered briefly why the newer staff members weren't served with some sort of cheat-sheet on their potentially aggravating students.

Not that Euna found Quentin aggravating; he was just very specific about things. Very specific.

Knowing that if she didn't interject now, she might not get a chance for a while, what with Quentin's love for questions being common knowledge to her house and year, Euna jumped in quickly for her request for aid. "Professor McKindy? I wasn't able to find a partner."

0 Euna Song [Aladren] Needing help as well! 0 Euna Song [Aladren] 0 5

Raines

November 30, 2009 6:54 PM

Excellent! by Raines

It became apparent, at least to Raines, that he had not lucked out on which sort of girl this one was. The staring was most unwelcome; he didn’t go red, but felt like he might at any time. He constantly evaluated others, but he at least tried to be subtle about it and wasn’t used to having them evaluate him at all. Everyone he’d ever met had been invited in by his parents, which lead to an assumption of suitability for contact, and he’d always taken a degree of satisfaction from observing how much less observant than he most people his age were.

Not so this girl. It was quite as though he was the one who had something odd about him when she – as he’d noticed now, though without resorting to blatant look-overs – was the girl in trousers.

Apparently, he passed whatever test she was setting up. Her name got the same eyebrow raise from him that his had given her; his French was better, but he spoke enough Spanish to know that ‘dulce’ was the Spanish word for ‘sweet’ or ‘candy’ or something along those lines. Perhaps it was a nickname of some kind? Of course, he was the fellow walking around with his mother’s very surname-ish maiden name as a given name, so he could hardly say anything if that was, in fact, her name. Garcia, for its part, rang no particular bells, but that held true for most Western families. He knew everything there was to know about the families of Illinois and a fair bit about the East Coast in general, but his mother had never taken much of an interest in the west.

“That appears to be the gist of it,” he agreed. “Hopefully, the directions will explain things more to our satisfaction. If you don’t mind, you can take out the board while I study them.”

He read them over, but they offered scant comfort. At this point, he didn’t know if this was Muggle or magical or just-plan-insanital. “It appears we roll this,” he said, picking up the dice, “and a spell will cause an effect based on the number.” Because she was a girl, he felt obliged to say, “I will go first” despite the fact that he’d just as soon she did. Chivalry was often impractical that way; it made wizards do stupid things when the only sensible thing to do would be to run as fast as possible in the opposite direction.

He threw the die more than rolled it – board games were not his specialty – and studied the result. There was a rhyme, now, in the center of the board, but he was distracted from it when he moved his hand, which appeared to have turned an unpleasant shade of orange.

“Oh, dear,” he said, noting that his tone was far too matter-of-fact for the situation. How silly of him to assume it couldn’t get worse. Based on how this day was going, the damage was probably more widespread than he cared to see. “I suppose I must try to reverse this while you take your turn,” he added, already flipping through his book.

0 Raines Excellent! 0 Raines 0 5

Dulce

November 30, 2009 10:39 PM

That made you awfully excited. by Dulce

She wasn’t exactly sure how to take Raines. The way he held himself told Dulce that he was used to having control over everything. Whether or not that was true remained to be seen. She could only base her assumptions on how he was presenting himself to her. Very stiff. She probably wasn’t doing much better. Of course, conversation had never been something Dulce was good at. She wasn’t shy, but she just found words unnecessary. Her conversations happened through music notes. That was where her emotions were. That was the only way she felt comfortable expressing herself.

When Raines took charge, it almost solidified her feelings that he liked to be in control. Telling her (although politely) to get out the board and then going first with the dice. That was fine with her. She’d rather see what happened to him than have her be the guinea pig. Looking around the room, things certainly didn’t look all that fun for her. People with crazy hair, her sister freaking because she was off the ground, and a rain cloud over some boy’s head. This was not going to be joyful at all.

Dulce wasn’t quite sure what charm had been used to turn Raines that revolting shade of orange, but the effect was still the same on her. Seeing him orange had actually sparked amusement in her. Her lips twitched upward in a form of a smile. Although it was probably difficult for most to believe, Dulce actually did smile. It was usually only saved for her family, but there were rare moments (usually when she was playing the piano…or drums if she knew she was annoying her mother) when Dulce allowed her walls for fold just long enough to allow a smile to show through. If it weren’t for those few moments, her parents probably would have taken her to talk with someone.

Trying not to focus on Raines skin color, Dulce rolled the dice to take her turn. She watched as the piece she had chosen moved forward and leaned over to read the rhyme that came up once the piece stopped moving.

We hide our thoughts out of fear
Afraid to let others near
What happens when there is no filter
Will you still be in kilter?

“Well, that was vague.” Dulce said quietly when she stopped reading it. “Great. I have to play a silly game that makes no sense with a boy whose name has to do with the weather. ¿Por qué podía yo no ir a una escuela para realizar artes? Este es inútil.” Dulce said all of this quietly, but she had never intended to say it at all. The realization of her error quickly came to her as she covered her mouth with her hand, her hazel eyes wide with shock and horror. “I’m sorry, I don’t know why I said that. That was rude of me.” Dulce apologized, actually meaning it too. She never intended to actually say anything outwardly offensive to anyone. Her thoughts were her own and she liked to keep them as such.

“Maybe if you roll, this charm will be removed?”

(rough) Translation:
Por qué podía yo no ir a una escuela para realizar artes? Este es inútil - Why couldn't I got to school for performing arts? This is pointless.

0 Dulce That made you awfully excited. 0 Dulce 0 5

Marissa

December 03, 2009 10:42 PM

Yay! by Marissa

To Marissa's very great surprise, she did not die.

In a moment of temporary insanity, she had attempted to put a spell on herself, and she could tell her wand had done something because sparks had come out of it. That, by all rights, should have plastered bits of her to the walls, the ceiling, and probably David and Andrew. She was a witch by the skin of her teeth; she'd spent hours and hours, back in first year, working alone in her room when trying to get the hang of simple spells. After the summer off, she should have been so rusty she squeaked every time she even glanced at her wand.

She heard David attempting the countercharm, too. That was also slightly surprising, though, she thought, not as much of a risk to everyone's personal safety as her doing it. A greater surprise lay in the sudden end of the spell. Still a little out of breath, Marissa pushed her hair out of her face.

Either two spells together had done the trick, or David had just helped her considerably. She suspected the latter; she knew she hadn't improved much since last year, but he might well have done. "I'm fine," she said with a grateful smile. Her stomach ached slightly from all that laughing, but that would pass. "Thanks so much, David. Again." She looked at the now-innocent board, her expression uncharacteristically wary. "I don't think I like the professor's sense of humor."

Automatically, she looked around to make sure he wasn't in the immediate vicinity to hear that remark. Some of Daddy's patients were professors, and they could become immensely out of temper at the slightest sign that they were somehow less than perfect. He didn't seem to be about to strike her down in any sense of the word, though, so that was good. It was somehow less appetizing to see David picking up the dice; she felt her fingernails dig into her wrist. "Good luck," she near-whispered as he rolled them.

She read the poem, then turned to ask him what he thought it meant. The only problem was, he no longer seemed to be there. "David?" she asked uncertainly. Maybe it was some Ring of Gyges exercise, making him invisible? That was an awfully big thing, though, to assume that the average third year would know that one...

Looking around as though expecting him to jump out from behind a curtain, she noticed his wand. It was at about the same time that Marissa noticed what appeared to be an action figure next to it. One that was talking. And, if she wasn't very much mistaken, kind of resembled David Lancaster.

"Oh, no," she murmured. "Oh, no...Hang on, I'm trying!" This was directed toward David, though she wasn't sure he'd heard it. Since she wasn't sure if her voice would sound as out of proportion as she no doubt looked, she had lowered it. "I think the charm would be Engorgio," she told Andrew. "I read about it...You use Reducio to shrink an enlarged animal back down to its normal size, so it makes sense that you'd use Engorgio on someone who's been shrunk. But I - " she turned faintly red - "I don't know if I can actually make the spell work. I'm horrible at Charms, I'm afraid I'll hurt him. Can you do it?"

16 Marissa Yay! 147 Marissa 0 5

Raines

December 05, 2009 1:41 AM

My mother says I'm 'high-strung'. by Raines

His fingers were finally beginning to look something like their normal selves when Dulce began to mutter something. Looking up politely, Raines had just started to read what her riddle said when she mentioned the weather.

Though his posture was already impeccable, he found that it was, in fact, possible for him to draw himself up even more stiffly. It was almost enough to hide how short he was.

The weather. She had just implied that he had been, for Merlin alone knew what reason, named after weather.

He knew, of course, that it was technically irrational for him to be so offended, considering that she seemed unaware of his odd family. That it might even be good that, impossible as that seemed to him, she hadn't made the connection between him and his scandal-ridden uncle and cousins presumptive. Those facts didn't matter. There were many things that just set Raines' nerves all on edge, but none were as good at it as his name.

"It was indeed," he said coldly, ignoring her suggestion for the moment. "My name, however, does not derive from meteorology. Raines is my mother's family name, and I think that's a much better thing to be named for than candy is." That was mean of him, but she had started it. He could have been a lot meaner and pointed out that her substandard manners were probably why this school she spoke of wouldn't accept her, though his motivation for not doing that was more about thinking it might be wise to not let her know he'd understood most of what she'd said than about being nice.

Unaware that most of his head was still a color that didn't go very well with his hair at all, he picked up the dice once more and rolled them. Moments later, he found he was sitting upside-down. His gold-rimmed reading glasses, kept on in an attempt to look more distinguished, slipped down his nose and fell back at an awkward angle, making it hard to see around them. Resisting the urge to burst into tears - without Ellen around, it was an exercise in futility, as no one else responded to that tactic - he straightened the glasses up calmly. "I'll consider forgiving you if you can suggest a way for me to get out of this predicament."

0 Raines My mother says I'm 'high-strung'. 0 Raines 0 5

Andrew

December 06, 2009 9:59 PM

Woo-hoo! by Andrew

Andrew watched David take his turn and roll the dice. So far he was really enjoying this game. The board must be imbued with all sorts of spells just waiting to come out. What would happen next? David's piece came to rest on it's space, and the words cleared. View? Perspective? Oh boy, if he was figuring out how this game was working... Andrew looked up at David, or where he had been.

It seems that Marissa had noticed his disappearance as well. Yep, Andrew smiled at his roommate. That's what he thought might happen. Marissa seemed really worried, didn't she realize?

Andrew grinned at the girl, "I can give it a shot, but charms aren't really my best subject either. That's why we're here to learn though. This game is all about learning, it can't actually hurt us. I don't think the professors would let us use it otherwise."

"Now," Andrew commented, "let's see what we can do about fixing David." He readied his wand, Engorgio... that one did sound right. "Let's hope this works," he whispered. He focused on the spell he needed and tried to pull together the changes that needed to be made in his head. "Engorgio!" he announced with the appropriate wave of his wand. The spell actually seemed to work. Luckily for him that charm shared a lot with transfigurations, that he was much better with.

He picked up the dice. "My turn now." The dice hit the board with a seven. The little brown piece moved itself along the board the exact number of spaces, and a new message resolved itself.

'The jungle can be a wild place,'
'release the beast within upon your face.'

Andrew's skin and began to itch, looking at his hands he saw hair... no fur, sprouting. He felt it covering his face as well. "Well, this is interesting."

2 Andrew Woo-hoo! 145 Andrew 0 5

Jose

December 06, 2009 11:23 PM

No problem. I'm not any better here. by Jose

Jose grinned as Mike claimed green, and when they opened the board game, he was even more pleased when he saw one of the pieces turn orange as soon as he picked it up. "Awesome," he remarked as it jumped out of his hand and settled down into one of the four corners of the board.

When Mike asked if he wanted to go first, Jose was about to say 'sure' but then Mike went first anyway. Jose wasn't sure exactly how random the events were, but if that had been the first player's fate regardless of what got rolled, he was glad it was Mike that got it and not him. "Better you than me, dude," Jose said in equal parts sympathy and relief. There was no chance he'd be able to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth for the duration of a minute, nevermind an entire game.

"I'm a pathological liar," he added, assuming Mike wasn't and hoping to console his Housemate by giving an example of how much worse it could have been, but then his eyes widened in alarm as the stormcloud spread over to him and started raining on him as well. "Oh, c'mmmmon," he whined. "That wasn't even my roll!"

As he picked up the dice and shook them over the board, he muttered under his breath, "And that's an exaggeration, not a lie. Exaggerations shouldn't count." He wished he did know that umbrella charm Mike had asked about.

He released the dice and they fell on a one and six. The orange piece moved seven spaces along its route, and then the words began to appear in the center globe. Jose took a deep breath and began to read:

"
Holding still is your fate,
Until someone rolls six or eight.
"

Jose tried to sit back, but he couldn't move. He tested his fingers, but they didn't move either, but he found to his relief that his tongue wasn't nearly as frozen. Thankfully, his mouth was partly open, so even though his jaw and lips weren't very mobile anymore, he was able to communicate with only a small lisp. "'Lease roll a six or eight, 'Ike."

0 Jose No problem. I'm not any better here. 0 Jose 0 5

Daniel

December 07, 2009 12:03 AM

You're probably right by Daniel

OOC: Sorry for the huge delay in my reply. Finally saw the movie today, so now I know what's going on. BIC:

Daniel should have known mentioning Holly, however briefly, would have been a mistake. "Holly's one of the new Prefects," he told Veronica, and hoped that would suffice on information about his sister. It covered her first name and the one fact about her school existence that wasn't entirely embarrassing. And going into the issues of their different last names, not to mention Holly's adoption of 'Thistle' as her new surname, was far too complicated to explain.

He was a bit relieved to learn Veronica was an Aladren. "I'm an Aladren, too," he offered in exchange, but left it at that. Their shared House improved his opinion of her dramatically - Daniel tried so hard not to House stereotype but most of the stereotypes were there for a reason and he wasn't always successful - but she was still a first year. He didn't really expect they'd become fast friends anytime soon.

She took her turn, and he wondered what she was seeing when she looked at him like that. Self-consciously, he touched his hair (being told one looked 'awful' wasn't exactly something anybody would enjoy, but Daniel took great pride in his appearance and he was very concerned) but it didn't feel like anything was out of place.

She started flipping through a book, and he doubled checked that his robes were all in order, but they seemed fine, too. Still concerned, but unable to find anything wrong, he took up the dice and rolled a four and two. His piece moved six spaces along the track and words appeared in the middle sphere.

"Fly high or fly low, you won't be able to reach the ground below."

Daniel yelped a little (in a completely non-girly way - or so he hoped) as he abruptly launched up into the air. Thankfully, he didn't go very far, settling almost immediately into a hover about three feet over the gameboard. He found after a moment of trial and error that tilting his wand could make him go up and down, but he couldn't get any lower than that initial three feet.

He felt kind of weird and exposed, sitting on empty air at a height a bit above everyone else's heads, seeing as they were all sitting down on the floor, but he tried not to let it bother him. "I guess it's your turn. And you're going to have to hand me the dice when you're done. I can't reach the game from here."

1 Daniel You're probably right 130 Daniel 0 5

Veronica

December 07, 2009 11:43 AM

Of course I am. by Veronica

Holly was certainly not enough information. Was this someone that she should be aware of? Was she one of the important people? Prefect implied that she just might be and Veronica wanted to know all of the ‘in’ people. She wanted to be one of them. “What House is she in?” She hoped that she was an Aladren or Pecari prefect, because otherwise, she wouldn’t really have a reason to approach the possibly significant girl. If Holly were an Aladren, then it was obvious as to why she could and if she were a Pecari, then she could do it under pretense of wanting to talk about Delilah. Links were essential.

Checklists were also essential and now she knew for certain that she could put that Daniel Nash was intelligent. Otherwise, why would he be in Aladren? They were known for being smart much to her delight and dismay. It made it easier to give the boys that wore Aladren robes a good mark, but then, at the same time, it made it easier for others to know that she was in the same boat, which she viewed as a mark against. But she supposed that if she picked an Aladren, it would make her job easier since she might only have to dumb herself down so much or he might actually be smarter and she wouldn’t have to do anything.

Until then, she at least had the natural advantage of being blonde. People assumed them to be dumb anyhow so people might not look too closely to find out that she was actually in Aladren. She hated having to wear robes to announce what house she was in. She wished that they could just wear regular clothes. She wanted to show off all her pretty outfits instead of hiding them under robes with a badge that immediately separated her from everyone else. Her clothes would have separated her well enough and in a way that was better suited to the way she wanted to be separated. The proper from the not.

Of course, proper hardly mattered when everyone looked liked mutant pygmy puffs. She flipped through the book. She had found the spell that had caused the problem, now she had to figure out the counter and actually manage to cast it. Before she could, however, Daniel was up in the air and she had a hard time not giggling. He looked absolutely ridiculous floating up there in mutant pygmy puff prime. “All right,” she reassured him as she rolled the dice again. Nothing could happen that could be worse than what she was already seeing.

Pretty, pretty princess you are not,
When you lie a lot,
Sorry you will be,
When green is what you see

Quickly, she shut her eyes. Why, oh, why did this game enjoy playing with her sight so much? Daring to peek, she looked around the room. Okay, no one looked green. Slowly, she looked down at herself. Great. There was a faint green to her skin. She probably looked like some sort of gobblin. Oh, well, just another thing she would have to look up, but she guessed that Daniel might want to get down first. Besides, the sooner they finished the game, the sooner it would all end anyhow. “Here,” she said, handing him the dice along with her book. He was probably more adept at counter spells than she was.

0 Veronica Of course I am. 0 Veronica 0 5

Daniel Nash II

December 08, 2009 11:11 AM

I should never have doubted you by Daniel Nash II

Daniel sighed when he discovered he wasn't going to get away with glossing over Holly's existence. Worse, Veronica asked about her House. Holly did not like people spreading that kind of rumor about her. Even the most oblivious people at the school could see it pained her whenever Holly had to name her House. Daniel didn't entirely blame her, either.

"She's a Pecari, but don't hold that against her." Of everything wrong with Holly, the traditional failings of Pecaris were not among them. "Holly Thistle of the Hollywood Thistles," if there was the very slightest tone of mockery to his voice as he gave the full title Holly had made for herself, he claimed the derision as his right as her brother, "is one of the Ladies of the Fifth Year Court." Which was about as far from a stereotypical Pecari as one could get.

He considered it a favor to his sister that he told Veronica that. Veronica seemed the sort of person Holly might actually like, had they been closer in age. Besides, Holly would probably throw a fit if he messed up all her hard work at pretending to be a pureblood, and he was trying to prevent Holly from having a mental breakdown this year. Besides, with Veronica as his partner for the length of the class, he'd rather have his sister be Holly Thistle of the Hollywood Thistles than Holly the Muggleborn Pecari. It would make things easier on him.

After Veronica took her turn, Daniel accepted the dice and her Charms book from the slightly greenish girl. He wondered what she was being dishonest about, but decided it probably didn't matter. He'd start looking up counters in a moment, but first he rolled the dice.

The blue piece moved the three spaces that his roll allowed him to go, and then he leaned as close to the board as the levitation spell on him allowed, so he could read aloud, "Five Ten Fifteen Twenty. These little mites sure are plenty."

He looked down at Veronica in horrified alarm. "Does that sound like I'm about to get fleas to you?" He quickly began flipping through the charms book, trying to find some kind of way to repel the bugs before they started biting.

He wasn't fast enough.

1 Daniel Nash II I should never have doubted you 130 Daniel Nash II 0 5

Dulce

December 21, 2009 10:41 PM

I'm inclined to believe your mother. by Dulce

Although Dulce had apologized for having spilled out her thoughts without meaning to and certainly without the intentions of offending him, she still managed to do so. His demeanor, as impeccable as it seemed since the moment he sat down across from him, changed with only slight physical attributes to give her the inclination. Because Dulce had been looking at Raines, she had noticed the small change. But, Dulce also was rather observant when it came to other people, so she was more likely to pick up on the adjustments more so than someone who didn’t spend much of their spare time staring at people.

Apparently having misjudged his name the way she had was completely offensive towards him. But, honestly, how was she supposed to know that Raines was a surname for him? When she heard ‘rains’ she immediately thought of weather; she would have assumed that anyone’s natural thought would be the weather. It wasn’t like she knew every single surname in the world or should have been expected to. And she never thought someone could get so upset in regards to misunderstanding of their name.

Because of the game, Dulce didn’t have much control over her emotions as she usually did. The moment he judged her on her own name, her neutral face became steely and her walls automatically went up. Or as much as they could with the current spell on her that the game had placed. She did not like the boy sitting across from her. In fact, he was the first person at Sonora who rubbed her the completely wrong way. And, she was in Teppenpaw, by default, anyone in that house would have annoyed her beyond her every nerve.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it was a family name. It was completely inappropriate for me to have just assumed something like the weather.” Although she had said it with a completely unenthusiastic voice, one would be daft to not have picked up on the sarcasm the oozed between each word. “By the way, my name isn’t candy. The meaning of my name is ‘sweet’. Most names have meaning, I’m sure yours might as well. Besides, Dulce is a common name amongst Hispanics.”

She dropped the subject after that, not caring to go at it with a boy with whom she wasn’t likely to talk to ever again. He was likely to like someone like his sister anyway. Or her Tia Sofia. The type of girl who exuded femininity. Who knew when to keep quiet and all the right things to say when it was appropriate. Dulce was none of those things. She was just… quiet. Quiet only because she had no reason to talk.

Raines sudden predicament almost had Dulce laughing. But, she caught herself before she actually let a giggle out. The most that had escaped was a smile, but that faded with his comment. She had done nothing wrong to need forgiveness and she really didn’t feel like, even if she had, she would really want his forgiveness for it. Still, obediently, Dulce opened her book and flipped through the glossary to find the spell that would flip a person completely upside down. Finally locating it (and probably taking more time with it than she should have), Dulce read over the spell and then cast the spell to have Raines return to his correct state of being. Of course, only if she cast it right, but considering it wasn’t really a complicated charm, Dulce didn’t think she’d be too terrible at it.

Taking the dice, Dulce quickly rolled them and then read the rhyme quietly to herself. Almost immediately after she read it, she felt as though she had been struck by lightening. It hadn’t hurt, but the shock of it stunned her completely and took her breath away for a moment. When she finally remember to breathe, Dulce did so by coughing and by doing so, dark smoke puffed out of her mouth. “Well, that was strange.” Dulce commented, looking completely amazed by it all and not at all aware that her hair was now completely static charged and standing on end.

0 Dulce I'm inclined to believe your mother. 0 Dulce 0 5

Professor Aaron McKindy

Beginning Charms, Lesson I by Professor Aaron McKindy

Demelza Eagle

Sounds fun! (need a partner!) by Demelza Eagle

Starbuck Gregory

Yes it does! by Starbuck Gregory

Demelza Eagle

Most defiantly! (let the game begin!) by Demelza Eagle

Professor McKindy

OOC by Professor McKindy

Starbuck Gregory

Ah! by Starbuck Gregory

Kameyrynn Prinzo, Teppenpaw

Let the games begin... by Kameyrynn Prinzo, Teppenpaw

Demelza Eagle

How interesting! by Demelza Eagle

Veronica Kerrigan, Aladren

Searching for a partner by Veronica Kerrigan, Aladren

Starbuck

This is getting a bit scary by Starbuck

Delilah Kerrigan, Pecari

Ready, set, go! by Delilah Kerrigan, Pecari

Daniel Nash II, Aladren

I guess you found one by Daniel Nash II, Aladren

Veronica, Aladren

It is my lucky day. by Veronica, Aladren

Tobar Brishen

What a charming idea! by Tobar Brishen

Demelza Eagle

I think it's time for "JUMANJI! by Demelza Eagle

Starbuck Gregory

Oh thank god by Starbuck Gregory

Rachel Bauer, Crotalus

That's a matter of opinion. by Rachel Bauer, Crotalus

Tobar Brishen Teppenpaw

The luck of the draw by Tobar Brishen Teppenpaw

Marissa Stephenson, Crotalus

It's a jungle in here... by Marissa Stephenson, Crotalus

Rachel

That can determine quite a lot. by Rachel

Tobar

Crazyness by Tobar

Kameyrynn Prinzo, Teppenpaw

Giggles and fancy footwork by Kameyrynn Prinzo, Teppenpaw

Delilah, Pecari

Giggles and hairdos by Delilah, Pecari

Rachel

What is? by Rachel

Andrew Duell, Teppenpaw

Me Tarzan, you Jane? by Andrew Duell, Teppenpaw

Tobar

Oh dear! by Tobar

Daniel Nash II

We can hope so; we *are* about to play Jumanji by Daniel Nash II

David Lancaster [Teppenpaw]

Crashing the party. by David Lancaster [Teppenpaw]

Mike Song [Pecari]

My kind of lesson. by Mike Song [Pecari]

Jose Hernandez (Pecari)

Mine too! by Jose Hernandez (Pecari)

Rachel

Indeed. by Rachel

Marissa

Three's company? by Marissa

Adelita Garcia (Crotalus)

Who wants to play with me? by Adelita Garcia (Crotalus)

Andrew

Re: Three's company? by Andrew

Dulce Garcia (Teppenpaw)

This really isn't all that fun. by Dulce Garcia (Teppenpaw)

Veronica

I think we may need more than luck. by Veronica

David

I appreciate that. by David

Raines Bradley (Crotalus)

I must agree with you by Raines Bradley (Crotalus)

Marissa

Any time. by Marissa

Andrew

Someday I'll remember these subjects... by Andrew

We can hope so; we are about to play Jumanji by Daniel Nash II