Professor Aaron McKindy

May 17, 2010 4:12 PM
It was almost Midterm, and there was something of a festive mood in the air. Aaron could feel it, but despite the general air of frivolity and excitement, he felt unnerved as he stepped into his classroom to prepare for his first years. He Banished the desks to a wizard-space closet in the wall, unCollapsed the black laboratory tables that doubled as bookshelves, and magically distributed ingredients to each station. It was done with a few muttered words, a few wandflicks, and it was done quickly and absent-mindedly. Aaron’s mind was preoccupied with other things.

The last day of the full moon had been two days prior, and this was the first Beginner Charms class since then. Running his hand through his black hair, Aaron felt the pressing urge to hit his head against his desk. Repeatedly. Garen was the one who took in strays and was good at being a parent—Merlin, he even had a pair of kids who weren’t his living at their apartment, in addition to the pair of kids that they were taking care of, and one of Aaron’s two biological daughters. Aaron, on the other hand, was the one not good with kids, or people, as could be evidenced by the awkward attempt several days earlier to ‘connect’ with Cooper, as Mariabianca had suggested.

First and second years started walking in, and Aaron smiled at them, motioned them over to the laboratory tables, spoke with a few of them. When Cooper walked in, almost late, the pair awkwardly avoided eye contact as Aaron groaned internally. The Aladren would probably hit it off better with Garen, or so Aaron hoped. But for now--

“Good afternoon, guys,” Aaron said loudly to get the attention of the students, although he didn’t bother going to his oaken desk on the raised dais at the front of the classroom. It was a ‘lab day’ today, a sort of fun project before Midterm. The Italian knew that kids were less than interested in doing work at the moment; fortunately, he was also skilled at incorporating learning and review into what he hoped would be a fun activity. In Aaron’s own personal experience, note-taking and lectures made reading the book redundant. Perhaps it was his nature as a kinetic learner, but he believed that class time should be spent doing rather than theorising.

“I know that the last thing you want to do right now is learn, so I’m not going to bother with that,” Aaron grinned as the students quietly (and not so quietly) celebrated his announcement. “I would like a paper summarizing what you learned this half of term the first day we get back from Midterm though, so you can start now if you like. At least one page, please.” The students weren’t quite so excited about that, but Aaron didn’t feel too badly for them. It was an easy grade. “Today, we will be baking holiday cookies; I expect you to use the Charms you’ve learned in your time with me to bake, decorate, and, if you wish, Charm your confections. Recipes should be taped to the lab table. Feel free to use more spells that are in your Beginner book or ask me for help if there’s something else you want to do. Until Midterm we’re just going to work on this review project, and then afterwards we’re going to start new stuff. Sound good? Go on then!” And with that, the students turned to each other and started working out the specifics of their project.

Hopefully, he would be able to sort things out with Cooper over the break. Merlin....

|OOC| Okay guys, minimum 10 sentences please! If you’re having trouble with that, try and describe what’s going on, what your character is thinking, feeling, wearing, looking forward to, fearing, etc. Tag me if you need anything and have fun! If you want to do the homework (for extra House Points) just turn it in to the Homework Bin. ;)
Subthreads:
0 Professor Aaron McKindy In the Kitchen [Lesson I, Years 1&2] 0 Professor Aaron McKindy 1 5


Brad Hayman (Aladren)

May 22, 2010 5:29 PM
Brad loved Christmastime. It was such a happy, friendly time when everyone got along and there weren’t any evildoers to worry about. After all, his duty to protect the universe wasn’t exactly a light burden; it was a pretty tall order! It was nice to have a break from it all, to be able to let his guard down. Of course, he never completely ignored the possibility of a supervillain uprising. He just wasn’t as relentlessly alert as usual, was all.

McKindy was pretty cool. The first-year liked the subject he taught as well as the way he taught it; he was pretty laidback, but he knew when to get down to business. He certainly wasn’t of Epic Hero proportions or anything, but he was better than the super-lame Professor Fawcett. Much better.

He grinned when the teacher—the teach-er—said he wasn’t going to bother making them learn today. Brad would probably be a little annoyed if winter break weren’t coming up very soon, but Christmas was almost here and he was going back to the farm soon and he’d get to see all his friends and family and…Well, he was honestly having trouble focusing on his magical learning pursuits, regardless of how utterly fascinating they were. Again, he enjoyed letting his guard down on occasion, and this was one of those times. And there was still some homework he’d have to do over the break, so it wasn’t like he was dumping his brain of Charms knowledge until further notice.

Woo! thought Brad when McKindy said they’d be baking holiday cookies. The redhead was a highly skilled cookie preparer; he and all six of his older brothers made them with his Mom and Pop every Christmas. Though the kitchen usually ended up covered in flour and green and red sprinkles, their cookies always turned out delicious.

Looking down at the table, he saw a recipe taped down that said Sugary Snowmen at the top. Smiling, he turned to the person next to him. “Hey, wanna work together? I’m Brad Hayman, Aladren first-year. I’m a super-baker; I have a badge to prove it!” He picked up his bag and plopped it onto the table, digging out the closest thing to an official badge that he could find: a dark yellow sticky note. He quickly scrawled his name and the title Super-Baker on it and then held it up to the kid. “See?”
0 Brad Hayman (Aladren) SUPER-cookies! 0 Brad Hayman (Aladren) 0 5

Marian Parker, Aladren

May 22, 2010 8:12 PM
The first half of the year had been easy come, easy go. Going back home after spending so much time at Sonora was going to take a lot of adjusting. Marian had gotten so used to being surrounded by and using magic that going into what she was starting to think of as ‘Muggle Mode’ would be like taking away apart of her she just started to embrace. She couldn’t devote evenings to practicing spells or every free moment in the library anymore. If anything all she could do was take some books out so she could study up at home and attempt the spells when she returned. It wasn’t what she preferred, but it’d have to work until she could come home.

Charms class only reminded her of how much she was dreading going home. She seemed to be the only one with any holiday spirit at home. Her parents didn’t really get into ‘silly things like holidays.’ They only appreciated the time off from work and left Marian to try and scrounge up whatever they had around the house for decorations and festive foods. She smiled at the thought that she could make some cookies here that she could share with people who’d appreciate them. She’d be sure to give some to Ellie at least.

Marking the homework in her planner neatly, Marian gently tucked her Quill away before placing her planner in it’s usual spot. She liked to keep things organize and tidy as possible, as she was raised to do. The class today, preparing a recipe, was also what she liked working with. It was, in a way, like Potions – there was a set-plan of execution to follow for good results, follow them and you’re fine. She liked the security in clear cut directions. She was too timid and insecure to trust risks.

She was looking at the recipes when she noticed the person beside her doing the same. He looked excited and had hair as bright as Ellie’s, though his was more red. It was a somewhat familiar shade. Maybe she’d seen him around the Common Room? But she spent so much time hiding in the background, trying to go unnoticed that she couldn’t be sure. Feeling embarrassed for looking at him for so long and trying to determine who he was, she directed all her attention to choosing a recipe. Sugar Snowmen were at the top of the list, but she wasn’t sure about doing it – it seemed to risky. She looked below it and decided she’d much rather do Sugar Cookies. They were the safer option, she thought. No crazy wand work involved in decorating or anything.

”Hey, wanna work together?” Marian leapt in her seat a bit, startled at being so forwardly addressed. No one had spoken that boldly to her, ever. The doll-like fragile girl tilted her head slowly to face the boy beside her, her glossy sky-blue eyes opened wider than they usually were. “I’m Brad Hayman, Aladren first-year.” Oh, so she had seen him in the Common Room then. He didn’t seem like an Aladren now that he was talking though. Most of the one’s she met were rather quiet and calm. He seemed more like the excitable Pecari or Teppenpaw she’d come across. If he didn’t say so or look familiar, she never would’ve guessed they were sorted to the same place.

He further drew attention to himself by dramatically making himself an ‘official’ badge. She giggled than stifled it timorously behind her small hands as her cheeks flushed. She didn’t like to laugh in front of other people – she still had issues talking to other people! Marian slowly took her hands from her face as she looked down and her desk bashfully. “O-oh, umm…sure, I don’t mind working with you.” She looked back up nervously, afraid he’d decide to reject her for being so socially awkward or something before she looked at her desk once more and willed herself to greet him properly. “And m-my name is Marian Parker. I’m an Aladren first-year too.”
41 Marian Parker, Aladren What's wrong with ordinary cookies? 1402 Marian Parker, Aladren 0 5


Samantha Hamilton (Aladren)

May 25, 2010 1:43 PM
Learning to be a witch so far ahd its good points and its bad points. Like, magic was real and Samantha was living in a real boarding school out in the desert, but she had to work really hard to keep up with everyone else in her class and she was homesick almost all of the time. Likewise, midterm coming up was both good and bad, because she was looking forward to seeing her mom and brothers, but she also had to see her step-family, and she couldn't even show anyone the cool stuff she'd learned since September.

Worse than that, was that Samantha couldn't even tell her parents about her friends, because she hadn't really made any. That was usually okay, because the kids in her year were nice enough and she could get along, but she had felt lonely, and cried in the girls' toilets on one or two occasions. She definitely wasn't sharing that with anyone back home.

The charms class assignment was to bake cookies, which was just what Samantha needed to cheer up. She also really wanted to work with someone who she might call a friend. She couldn't help hearing two of her housemates talking just behind her, and not wanting to miss the opportunity to get to know them better, she turned around with a friendly smile. "Would it be okay if I joined in, too?" she asked. "I love baking."

One of the others was Marian, one of Samantha's roomates. The girls in their dormitory weren't best friends like storybooks said girls at boarding schools were. Samantha just hadn't spoken much to Marian because she was quiet, and seemed to spend a lot of her time with Teppenpaws. She actually reminded Samantha a bit of a china doll, like she might break if you dropped her. The other person had introduced himself as Brad hayman. "I'm Samantha Hamilton," she said to the boy she recognised from their commonroom.

Now she had found a group to work with, Samantha tied her straight, light-brown hair back from her face into a simple ponytail, and rolled up her sleeves, forgetting for a moment that she would be using magic, not her hands. "What are making?"
0 Samantha Hamilton (Aladren) Nothing at all 0 Samantha Hamilton (Aladren) 0 5