If I must. on Potions

Professor Fawcett

December 06, 2011 12:03 AM

Intermediate Potions I (3rd-5th Years) by Professor Fawcett

There was always some slight worry, as the Intermediate group changed ranks each year, that the new third years would struggle excessively with the more demanding work, but this year, at least, John had not been as worried as he might have been. Perhaps his vision was clouded by the presence of so many Aladrens, he didn’t know, but the current third years seemed like a solid group, one which would do well. He could, however, do little more in the end than hope for them; guiding them to an extent was possible, but only if they were at least marginally willing to be guided.

They were halfway between the start of the year and midterm now, anyway, and there had been no serious problems thus far. He had kept them on a relatively short leash, more or less as he would beginners, but the exams they’d taken last class were graded and it was time to begin seeing what they would do with a bit more freedom.

This might, he was aware, prove to be a rocky process, at least for a few weeks, but he had confidence in them. He had yet to have a group that proved a true failure, and nothing made him think he was going to start now.

“Good day, class,” he greeted them. “I have your exams here, and I won’t torment you further by withholding them until the end of class.” Whether or not to hand out papers at the beginning or end of class was one he’d often heard argued between professors in different places, but he favored the beginning, simply out of memories of his own time as a student. He had never been able to concentrate during a lesson if he knew he would get back a graded assignment at the end of it. “Here you are, Miss Adair….”

Once he had all the papers back and the students had been given a moment to absorb their grades and flip through the pages for his comments, he called their attention back to him. “You may, of course, approach me after class or during office hours if you have any questions or concerns about your marks, or the content of this exam. For now, however, I must ask you to put those away so we may begin our new unit. Antidotes.”

A recurring theme of Potions, antidotes, antidotes and poisons. He had come to rather enjoy them. “First of all, we must define our terms. Anyone have a definition for us?” Once he had a few answers from around the room, he nodded and began to speak again. “When I began this, back, of course, in the Stone Ages, I was under the impression an antidote was a specific remedy to a poison, which…made it go away, or neutralized it, somehow. And there are some antidotes of that nature. Generally, however, an antidote is something which will counteracts the effects of a poison. If a poison works by slowing the heart rate down, then the treatment might be something which speeds it up – an effect that might be dangerous itself, taken independently, but which here may save the patient.” If they stayed with him until the Advanced classes, then they’d have to do a unit over poisons counteracting each other, but that was another day.

“You have two assignments today. You’ll work together, pairs, and each pair will select a poison from the list on page 519 in your textbook. Compile me a list of traits and how it affects the body – your supplementary text may be of assistance, as may some of the books on the shelves to the right – and submit it at the end of class. You may range from animal poisons to mundane plans to Venemous Tentacula seeds, as you wish, but do keep in mind that we’ll use this to begin a project which will take up a good bit of your time between now and midterm.” By which point he would be as much choreographer as professor each class session, there would be enough going on. “For today, we’ll look at the first step, which is to look at poison itself. On page 472, which I will copy to the board, you’ll find a potion which can identify the presence of poison in food. It isn’t effective for all poisons, of course, just as a bezoar will not save you from all poisons, but generally, a poisoned substance will turn a vivid pink when exposed to it, and you will be provided with samples to test it on once you finish the potion. If you have time left after that, you may work on your project or start your next essay.”

He put up the instructions, with their listings of quantities of daisy roots (some dried and powdered, some diced and fresh), flaxseed, pomegranate juice, powdered mandrake root, and just a drop of essence of belladonna, along with fairly complex brewing instructions involving stirring both clock – and counter-clockwise at set points and a few instances of letting the solution sit for so long and adding the mandrake root and flaxseed in precise, small increments. Then he set them to work and began keeping a sharp eye on the room for any trouble or raised hands.

OOC: Standard posting rules apply – at least two hundred words to a post, spelling and grammar, no controlling other people’s characters. Be creative and have fun!

Subthreads:

A subject I most enjoy. by Alice Adair, Crotalus with Sara Raines, Pecari

If I must. by Jordan Adair, Crotalus with David Wilkes, Aladren, Jordan

Sigh. by Dani Adair, Pecari with Jane Carey, Teppenpaw

This year may kill me... by Fae Sinclair (Crotalus)

0 Professor Fawcett Intermediate Potions I (3rd-5th Years) 0 Professor Fawcett 1 5

Alice Adair, Crotalus

December 07, 2011 1:05 AM

A subject I most enjoy. by Alice Adair, Crotalus

Alice was probably one of the few students that were actually excited to get her test back. Thankfully, she was also the first in the class to get it back. Granted, there were two other Adairs in the class – her sisters, but alphabetically, Alice was before Dani or Jordan. Looking at her test, she frowned slightly. She had missed one. She thought the test had been rather easy, but apparently she had been highly mistaken. She had thought for sure that she would have gotten a hundred percent on the test, but no, she had missed one! Everyone else probably got perfect grades. She sighed heavily. Why couldn’t she have gotten a perfect? She looked at the question that she missed. Oh, she was so dumb! She should have left her original answer. She had read too much into it and thus, talked herself out of the correct answer. Everyone else would probably be laughing at her if they knew.

Turning her paper over, she sat quietly with her hands folded, waiting for Professor Fawcett to finish passing them back and to begin the lecture. Unfortunately, Jordan was trying to get her attention. Glancing over, she raised an eyebrow, as Jordan mouthed to ask what she had gotten. She shrugged her shoulders slightly to indicate that she hadn’t done very well before asking the return question. She saw Jordan’s mouth turn up with a reply of 82. A B? She had only gotten a B? She didn’t understand how Jordan had only gotten a B. The test had been very straightforward in Alice’s opinion. Everything that they had learned through the year had been on the test. It was just a matter of regurgitation. The only way someone could have missed the questions was to have missed the material and she didn’t think that Jordan had missed any of the classes. Had she been paying attention?

She didn’t have any more time to think about it since class was officially underway. The material sounded promising and she was certainly looking forward to a research project. She wondered if she should still consider approaching the professor in regards to her ideas. She really wasn’t sure that he would approve. He might say that she had no future in the field and it was silly of her to branch out in such areas or at best that it was too much for her to take on at her age or at this time. Though, as she thought about it, the projects could actually coincide with each other. This was assuming, however, that the professor went for it. There was still a very good chance he wouldn’t. She supposed she would just have to present it in the best possible light and hope for the best. It would be awful to admit to Fae that she didn’t even have enough courage to try.

Putting the ideas aside for now, the Crotalus concentrated on the task at hand. First, she had to find a poison and list the effects on the human body. Flipping to page 519, she scanned through the options. There were quite a few to choose from and all of them were vastly interesting. But she knew she was to find a person to work with first so to make it easy she turned to a person sitting nearby. “If it’s not too much trouble, would you like to work together on this project?” She hoped that it wasn’t for it would be terrible to be rejected in such a manner just for the fact that she was probably not nearly as smart as some of the other potential partners.

0 Alice Adair, Crotalus A subject I most enjoy. 0 Alice Adair, Crotalus 0 5

Jordan Adair, Crotalus

December 07, 2011 5:26 PM

If I must. by Jordan Adair, Crotalus

Jordan had actually managed to forget about the exam, but there it was, waiting to be passed back. She didn’t really want it back that much. She thought that she had done all right. She had studied all week for it, but Potions was not her strong suit. Every class she struggled in, because it was a test of patience and patience was something she was sorely lacking. She wanted to immediately have the potion done. She hated how certain things had to be added at certain times. Then, some potions had to sit for months at a time! This was why she just planned on buying ready-made potions when she was older. She was never going to have to brew a potion once she left school.

So, given her hate of the class, imagine her surprise when she received her test back and had gotten an 82! She wondered how Alice had done. Getting her sister’s attention, she asked how she had done, but was only given a shrug as a response. Lame. The Crotalus knew her sister had done well. She always did, but she also knew that if Alice missed any, it was the end of the world. She truly didn’t understand her at all. She didn’t understand how Alice couldn’t see how intelligent she was, that she could be anything she wanted. It was sooo annoying! If she were that smart, she would be jumping for joy over the grades. As it was, she was just happy that she had managed a B, which she was fine sharing with Alice.

She was still preening over her B when the professor began. She tried to pay attention. She really did, but it was hard to. It seemed like everything Professor Fawcett said just sort of strung together. It was overwhelming. There was something about a research project and poisons and doing an assignment. Her head was spinning from it all! At least they could work in groups. She was going to have to find someone that understood all of this stuff. She hoped that the person she was about to ask was decent in potions or they would both be in hot water. “Hey, do you want to work on this with me?”

0 Jordan Adair, Crotalus If I must. 0 Jordan Adair, Crotalus 0 5

Dani Adair, Pecari

December 07, 2011 6:21 PM

Sigh. by Dani Adair, Pecari

Entering the classroom, Dani took a seat as far in the back and as far away from anyone else as she could. All she wanted to do was to be left alone. All she had ever wanted since arriving at this school was to be left alone. The only reason that she liked being at school was that it meant she didn’t have to be at home, but really she didn’t want to be here either. Though, at least being here, there was no one to nag her about how she wore her hair or the way she dressed or to yell at her about her grades. Granted, it didn’t mean she didn’t get a few Howlers for she certainly did. But she didn’t care. She just let them yell and then continued with whatever it was that she had been doing.

Seeing her test, she knew she would probably be getting one for how she was doing in Potions. She had scored barely passing on the test, but whatever. She tossed it aside to continue writing in her journal. It was the only thing she cared about doing anymore. What was the point of anything else when all it surmounted to was a society full of rules that made absolutely no sense? In this world, there were only two ways to go. One was to follow the proper societal upbringing, which was barbaric at best. She could be subjected to marrying some proper male that would never make her happy, be confined to throwing parties, and never truly be happy, or she could go the other route. In this case, she would forever have to deal with the suppression of the upper class in that everyone else was a second-class citizen or lower. Both would equate to a life of fighting either herself or others. Neither was something she really wanted, but she had no idea how to escape.

With a sigh, she brushed her streaked hair back out of her eyes. Over the summer, she had dyed purple streaks into her blonde hair. Her mother had totally freaked out. Good. Dani didn’t what it was lately, but she wanted to make her mad. She wanted to get under her skin. She had even decided to get her nose pierced. That had been trickier than the hair since she had needed parental permission so she had forged her dad’s signature and had gotten it done. It wasn’t anything major just a little stud in the side of her nose, but it was a symbol for her freedom, for her independence, for not following all of the stupid rules.

The lecture was started and she didn’t pay a bit of mind to it. She didn’t even bother looking up. She didn’t really care if Professor Fawcett knew that she wasn’t paying attention. Though, she might have looked studious since she was continuously writing. It was only when someone was talking to her that she was pulled from her thoughts. “Did you need something?” Her eyebrow was raised in question. “Or are you practicing your imitation of a statue?” She wished they would hurry up so she could tell them to go away.

0 Dani Adair, Pecari Sigh. 0 Dani Adair, Pecari 0 5

Fae Sinclair (Crotalus)

December 10, 2011 10:03 PM

This year may kill me... by Fae Sinclair (Crotalus)

Fae was not the best at potions. She could understand the theory just fine and she could read the directions well, but for some reason, the outcome of the potions never seemed to be where she needed it to be. She had no idea what she did wrong that ruined the potions or made them null and void, but it always seemed to happen. Unless, of course, she had somehow managed to snag a partner who knew what they were doing. Sometimes, she really had the luck with partners, but she was sure if they knew how unhelpful she truly was, they would eagerly try to find someone else to work with.

She took her test when her name was called and looked over the grade. Okay, so she got an average, which is good, but definitely not what she really wanted. She tried her hardest to be good at everything, but she knew that she would always fail at them. Shelby could do just about everything and Fae had to wonder why life was so easy for her sister and so difficult for her. She shook her head, there was no point in thinking such thoughts.

Fae sat at her desk feeling rather dumb after the professor explained what their lesson was about. Well the two separate lessons, she supposed. The idea of a research project with another student terrified her greatly. Doing a potion while in a lesson was completely different than doing an entire project for a part of term with another person. She was going to ruin this! Not only that, but it was a poison! She’ll kill them too. This was such an awful year. Totally unbearably awful year!

She couldn’t really dwell on the project though because the second assignment was actually to create a poison. Why in the world would the school want to teach them how to create a poison? That was like asking for trouble! Antidotes, sure, but poisons? Not everyone was trustworthy. If people found out how to make a poison, they could make it on their own and then do some harm to people here. What a silly lesson to teach them!

Of course… why would they think anyone would do that at a school, right? They were safe here.

Fae looked around for someone to work with. She didn’t really want to work with a fifth year because they were a bit intimidating, but someone in her year or a fourth year would work just fine. Preferably not someone who would hate her if she screwed something up. Which left Alice out of the question. Besides, if she worked with her roommate, Fae was afraid they might end up really hating one another by the end of the project.

Taking a breath, Fae walked up to the person who caught her eye, “Hi, so, today’s lesson is a bit more complicated because there’s also a project involved.” She said by way of making conversation. “Would you mind working with me on both the project and this lesson?” She asked politely.

0 Fae Sinclair (Crotalus) This year may kill me... 0 Fae Sinclair (Crotalus) 0 5

David Wilkes, Aladren

December 13, 2011 10:14 PM

Come on, I'm not that bad to work with...right? by David Wilkes, Aladren

He wasn’t his sister Annabeth, to have to all but hurt himself to keep from asking the teacher at every turn when the test or paper or whatever would be handed back to them all, but the knowledge that a test had happened and had yet to be handed back was the kind of thing that always reared its ugly head in the back of David’s when he entered the relevant class and sat to see if today would be the day. The worse he thought he’d done, the worse the suspense tended to be. He guessed he couldn’t help a certain amount of Aladren tendencies, being, after all, an Aladren.

Today, though, was the day, and though it took his suspense a while longer than he might have liked to end because some distant ancestor of his had possessed either the bad taste to choose or the bad luck to be given a surname that started with W, the paper was back and in front of him soon enough. His eyes went first to some red handwriting on the sides of one of his answers, then back up to the top, to the grade. 87%. Not as good as he liked to do, but not bad, either. In Fawcett’s class, there was nothing wrong with a gentleman’s 87, especially when he’d kind of run out of cram time during breakfast and hadn’t managed to finish reading the last few pages of his notes before the test. If there was something he could always count on with mathematical certainty, it was that whatever material he didn’t look at was what was going to be covered on the exams, any class, any time.

With the worry of the score out of his head, though, he found himself in a good mood, and so inclined to let his attention wander. He picked up something of what they were to do, something about a potion today, the usual stuff, and then there was some kind of project they were going to be working on together, but the details kind of sailed in one ear and out the other and left him, at the end of the lecture, without too clear of an idea of what he was supposed to be doing.

So he looked to the person he was sitting next to for guidance and found himself looking at Jordan Adair. As usual, his first thought upon viewing Jordan Adair was to appreciate her looks, but then he got to business. He doubted he’d have the motivation to carry through with a lot of studying for the next exam, but he liked to at least start off with good intentions when he had some ground to make up. “Sure, if you’re any clearer than I am on what we’re working on,” he said. “I know I heard what he said, but I have no idea what it was.” He grinned, hoping it was in a charming way. “My brain went on vacation a little early for a minute there.”

16 David Wilkes, Aladren Come on, I'm not that bad to work with...right? 169 David Wilkes, Aladren 0 5

Jordan

December 14, 2011 7:39 PM

I think you just brightened up my day. by Jordan

For a moment, Jordan tuned out on the actuality of what David was saying to note what a nice smile he had until the reality hit her. Oh, no! He hadn’t been paying any more attention than she had and here she had thought that she had really lucked out in having gained an Aladren for a partner. “Um…mine sort of went to Hawaii,” she joked. Biting down on her lower lip, which tasted like cherry gloss, Jordan thought about what the professor had said or what she could remember. Maybe if they put everything that they had caught together it would make something sensible. “Well, Professor Fawcett mentioned something about poisons on page 519, so I’m guessing we have to do one and a research project. Did you get anything on that?” She frowned at the minimal amount of notes she had on her page.

Brushing her dark hair out of her eyes, she turned to the page. That was a really long list! “Wow, I think my brain needs to go on a permanent vacation after seeing this. Any ideas on which poison you might want to do?” She hoped that they didn’t end up with some boring one that just killed the person instantly. Okay, so someone dying wasn’t boring, but it wouldn’t give them much to write about and she figured that the professor would want more than just ‘instant death’ since he had said about the affects of the poison. “We should look for something interesting. Maybe something unusual?” Since there was going to be a research project, she was betting it would count for a lot of their grade and she wanted to do well.

But then it also wasn’t like she planned on taking this after fifth year so doing poorly wouldn’t affect her career. Though, her parents would probably be angry if she did. Of course, they had to contend with Dani so there was the possibility that they might not even notice at all. Yet, she didn’t really want to appear stupid to David. He was an Aladren so he was obviously smart. She wanted to impress him and appear like she actually knew what she was talking about. She continued to look through the list regardless of that fact that it was beginning to make her head hurt. “Okay, once we get more info on this research project, we should definitely start meeting in the library. I feel like this is definitely going to require a lot of work.”

0 Jordan I think you just brightened up my day. 0 Jordan 0 5

David

December 17, 2011 12:33 AM

Gl...glad to be of service. by David

David knew there was absolutely nothing funny about it, considering this was both their grades on the line, but he laughed when Jordan said her brain had been off on vacation without her, too. “Hawaii, huh?” he said. “I think mine was in…Cancun.” It was the first spot that popped into his head as vacation-like. “Or maybe Aruba, it’s not too clear on the details.”

He nodded when she said something about a research project. “Yeah, that sounds familiar,” he said. “I heard something about that.” He was largely resigned to asking one of the guys on the team who was also in this class about it – probably Russell Layne, just since he seemed a bit less likely than the others to look at David like he had just fallen off the Moron Boat for needing to ask. He wasn’t too sure how happy the Careys were about last year’s alternate suddenly jumping up to the be the replacement for one of their own, so he’d rather not give them any more reasons to think he was utterly useless, and Preston Stratford had all those things about him which, to the observant Muggleborn eye, screamed ‘pureblood of a certain type, unlikely to prove overly friendly.’

But he didn’t really want to admit all that in front of Jordan Adair, which meant bluffing with a cheerful heart as well as he could and then faking a revelation after he pumped someone on the team for information. Or, now that he thought of it, possibly Samantha, though he didn’t want her to think he’d fallen off the Moron Boat, either. Team member he’d need respect from next year or girl he’d like respect from now? Difficult questions, no good answers. Such was life.

“Yeah, definitely,” he said to finding something interesting to do their project over, and then things kind of screeched to a half in his head for a second as he processed the next thing she said, rewound to make sure he’d heard it right, and then contemplated its meaning for a minute before reality presented him with a check. Hanging out in the library with a girl like Jordan was…not something the likes of him aspired to, frankly, which was where the reality check came in. It was work, of course. She’d slap him cross-eyed if she knew there had been so much as a split second where he wondered if she possibly meant or was implying something else.

“Er…yeah,” he said, feeling like he was agreeing with her an awful lot. Maybe he should attempt to make some kind of assertion? Problem was, he couldn’t think of one. “I’ll…figure out when Quidditch practices are and come set up times with you, er, at supper or something.” That was about all there was on his calendar that couldn’t be shuffled, that he knew of; he could not remotely picture telling Edmond Carey he needed to rearrange practices because he’d just blindly agreed to the first idea Jordan had. It would be like trying to breach such a subject with – not even his grandfather, maybe his priest was a better analogy. Picturing Edmond losing his head because a pretty girl happened to be working on an extended project with him just didn’t work in his head.

Something occurred, by a miracle, to him. “Wasn’t there something about a potion to do in class today?” he said. “That’s a start, anyway. “ Maybe it was related to the project and it would make something else click. He’d heard everything, the trick was just retrieving it from his memory for practical use.

16 David Gl...glad to be of service. 169 David 0 5

Jordan

December 17, 2011 10:07 PM

Now to see if we can get some work done. by Jordan

“I wouldn’t mind going to Cancun or Aruba right now,” Jordan stated, as she stretched her arms forward a bit, much like a cat. “Ever been? I haven’t, but my parents were talking about maybe going over Christmas break. I don’t know though. I mean I want to go, but it would be nice to have the holiday with lots of snow. I think I’d rather go to Aspen. We went there before and it was fun learning to ski. Of course, I spent most of my time one the bunny slopes, but I eventually got the hang of it.” That had also been a few years ago, but she figured it wasn’t really something one forgot how to do. Plus, now that she was older, she could go on the bigger slopes, something her parents hadn’t allowed before.

She nodded in agreement when David said he would find out when he could meet. “Sounds good to me. Just don’t forget about me, okay?” She winked at David to let him know that she was just joking. She didn’t really expect him to go out of his way just to tell her when they could meet. She figured that he would tell her when he could. She didn’t really know much about Quidditch schedules and such, but suspected that they must be busy. All the Houses had to arrange practice times on the fields and there were varying levels and some needed more help than others and so on. It was sort of like gymnastics in that a high level, maybe not as high for Quidditch, but still a high level of commitment was needed.

“Quidditch always looks very intense. Do you have a lot of fun? I like the flying part, but the bludgers worry me. I would probably get knocked out by one. So, I settle for cheering in the stands.” As if to demonstrate, Jordan made a small cheering motion with her hands. “What position do you play? Next time I see you play, I’ll have to cheer you on.” At this thought, Jordan had a brilliant idea, though, she wasn’t sure if anyone else would actually be interested. All of the major teams had mascots of some sort and some even had cheerleaders, those dedicated to cheering on the team and showing off. She would be completely amazing at doing something like that. She would have to talk to her roommates and just gage if it was worth pursuing.

His question brought focus back to the class. Jordan’s attention span was certainly not the greatest and was worse for things that she found uninteresting. “Oh, yeah.” She looked up at the board. When in doubt, it was best to look at the board. She found that most professors put what they were to be doing on the board and this was no exception. “Geez.” The instructions were rather complex. “All right. Let’s get this started.” She pushed up her sleeves. Safety first and all that. Before getting her cauldron set up. “I’m going to start on slicing the daisy roots.” With this, she started cutting them into small pieces. This was definitely going to take forever.

0 Jordan Now to see if we can get some work done. 0 Jordan 0 5

Jane Carey, Teppenpaw

December 18, 2011 6:45 PM

That's not going to help anything by Jane Carey, Teppenpaw

Jane flipped her test paper over quickly when it came back to her, but the mark on it didn’t surprise her in the slightest. Nearly perfect, again. She’d known it would be before she even took the test, since, aside from maybe some minor variations in version that wouldn’t amount to much, the third years had taken it, too.

It wasn’t their fault, or even Professor Fawcett’s, she supposed, since she’d heard enough vague things about funding and such that she imagined he couldn’t offer them a better variety of classes, but she had been growing more and more frustrated with having to be in the Intermediate classes since she came back to school. Edmond still shared his notes with her, as they always had since their educations abruptly diverged for the first time when he went to school two years before she did, and she wasn’t even finding that work very difficult to do. Once or twice, she’d even helped him out. Was she really supposed to do the same work over for the next two years? Do things she could have done when she was twelve for the rest of this year?

She tried to quell the rebellious, irritated thoughts as the professor began to speak and she began to take notes on the potion for the day, and the research project they were to begin once they were finished with it. Antidotes. She remembered when Edmond had done this unit, but it was more interesting than some things, anyway. She could at least suggest that she and her partner work on something that her brother had not for their project, and while the basic processes might be similar, at least the details would vary a little. She smiled slightly at Professor Fawcett as she wrote, working up her enthusiasm for the project just like she tried to for all the other things they did in classes. There was, when she was looking at it from the right perspective, enough variety to keep her from being too terribly bored.

At the end, when they were told to divide into pairs, she glanced at the girl in the next seat. Dani, she thought her name was; a girl in her year, a Pecari, but not someone she knew very well. She had purple in her hair and an earring in her nose, which was unusual, but Jane remembered she was an Adair. One partner was much the same as another, she supposed; she had no enemies here that she knew of. “Good day,” she said, and was met with…well, definitely not what she’d expected. Her smile dimmed at her reception.

“I was going to ask if you wanted to work together on the potion and the project,” she said pleasantly. “But you accused me of wanting to be in the theater before I had a chance.”

Hearing herself, she was a little surprised by the edge to her voice as she said it, particularly the last part, but she found it strangely hard to want to take it back. Part of her, the part that still believed she could somehow make up her failures as a daughter to Mother by being the perfect daughter to Father, did, but mostly, she was a little offended. She’d done nothing to this girl; there was no reason why she shouldn’t be civil. Perhaps she was having a bad day, but if so, she should at least try to keep it to herself, or at the very most inside her own family, as other people had to. Jane knew she was no grand person to speak of, but she still didn't think Dani was any better than she was to do that.

0 Jane Carey, Teppenpaw That's not going to help anything 0 Jane Carey, Teppenpaw 0 5

Sara Raines, Pecari

December 22, 2011 8:47 PM

It's not the worst, I agree by Sara Raines, Pecari

Sara wasn’t completely pleased to get her paper back – there was a knot of nervous tension in her as she waited, thinking she had done well but knowing there was always that chance that her mind had wandered at a bad moment, or that she had misunderstood a question, or she had written an answer in completely the wrong blank – but she was eager, sitting up straight on her stool and wishing that her name, proud of it though she was, wasn’t quite so far toward the end of the alphabet, especially since she was sitting next to Alice Adair, who got hers first because of her repeated initial.

Finally, though, her paper came back, and Sara looked over it with a smile, pleased with the score she found. She had been right about how she could have done better on the second discussion question, and she saw where she’d gone wrong on number three now that the right answer had been pointed out to her, but overall, she had done well, and Mother and Father would be pleased with her. She was just a girl, but they wanted her to do well in her lessons, be a smart, accomplished girl, and there was how very much of her time she spent in company with Aladrens to think of….

Today, though, she wasn’t sitting with an Aladren, she was sitting with a Crotalus, but in the case of this Crotalus that hardly made a difference. Sara listened closely to the speech Professor Fawcett delivered, taking meticulous notes, and looked up finally with a smile as Alice greeted her with an offer to work together. She’d been a little worried, with such a high-stakes assignment cropping up today, that Alice might wander away from the person she was seated with for a partner since Sara was a Pecari, but it seemed her luck was in.

She had a few tentative connections to her own year – she and Marcus still got along reasonably well, she and Sophie were civil if nothing else, she and Eliza lived in the same immediate social circle – but if she had to name the people she was closest to at this school, it would have to be Fae and Preston. It had occurred to her, then, that she had better get to know their other friends as well, and if she had to name two other people besides herself that Fae seemed close to, she’d say Arnold Carey and Alice Adair. So here was Alice Adair.

She just hoped she wasn’t seen as eccentric for spending so much of her time with people younger than she was. Sara forgot herself that she wasn’t a third year a lot of the time, but maybe they would all see it as terribly strange than she wanted to be friends with them, and then she’d be an oddball in the eyes of public opinion forever. As Uncle Charles said, though, you’d never win a fortune if you wouldn’t risk a knut, and she needed more friends, and she didn’t think the method she’d seen Eliza Bennett use to get them – knowing lots of people who didn’t seem to know each other very well, and who had other connections which were probably stronger in a lot of cases than their friendships with Eliza – was very effective, so here she went.

Plus, connections and all that aside, it would be nice simply to have more friends. She got on very well with what she did have, but the more she made, the greater the chances were that she’d find a few really good ones, the kind that would stick by through thick and thin forever. That would be very nice. She’d like that.

“Not at all,” she said, wondering at the other girl’s phrasing. Too much trouble? That wasn’t what she would have expected, really. “Do you have any thoughts yet about what to do for the project? I have to admit, it’s not a topic I’d thought about very much before.” Poison was…it was the kind of thing that happened in history, in novels, in wireless dramas. Not in the real world, not now. It was just too unpleasant for now. Too uncivilized.

0 Sara Raines, Pecari It's not the worst, I agree 0 Sara Raines, Pecari 0 5