Connor Pierce

January 07, 2006 10:28 PM
Connor had heard that the Astronomy classroom hadn't come out of the mud storm in very good shape, but if that was true, it had been repaired so well that he couldn't tell the difference. The mobile was still floating overhead, and things looked to be pretty much back to normal. Sliding into a middle-section seat, he began writing down some of the information on Jupiter from the board, stopping periodically to flex his fingers. Extreme cold was not an asset when trying to write legibly without ending up with frostbite, and he felt perfectly justified in ditching quills until things warmed up again.

No kidding, Connor thought dryly when Professor Dione commented on the weather making her room uncomfortable. He could only attribute it to fate that he had tossed a coat into his trunk when packing on his last night at home, because no one in their right mind would expect it to get this cold anywhere in Arizona, never mind in the middle of the Painted Desert. Luck had been on his side that day, at least. He flipped to the chapter on Jovian planets, wondering why the glue had yet to freeze and crack.

The Dalila girl he had met not long before Christmas jumped in with an answer. Dione called out one of the Crotalus girls who had been playing with what looked like some kind of Rubik's Cube and made her recite more facts about Jupiter. Anne Wright then rattled off a bit about Saturn in a prim, smart-sounding kind of voice. Either she didn't notice the stare Dione was giving Tallow for information, or she had just decided to ignore it and plow on anyway. It fit with his idea of her. He was just going to keep his mouth shut and let the others get on with it. The art of pretending to read from the textbook was one learned early by public school kids where he came from. \n\n
0 Connor Pierce I'm back, by Jove! 68 Connor Pierce 0 5


Catherine Raines

January 07, 2006 11:47 PM
Catherine didn't think she was her Head of House's least favorite student, but she did think she was fairly high on the list. She and Dione had clashed on the first day, and something told her that Dione's opinion of her had gone up no more than hers of Dione. Which was to say, not at all. If she hadn't been so determined to keep out of trouble for her father's sake, she would have attempted skipping, but it wasn't worth it. Not yet, anyway.

The expression 'Jovian planets' was met with a blank look, as was the question about the fifth planet from the Sun. The only thing the woman had said that she understood was the part about the room being uncomfortable, and she hadn't needed Dione to tell her that. She did open her book to a spot at random, not bothering to feel guilty about having never looked at the chapter in question. There was no point in it, and the combination of some loudmouthed Teppenpaw and Dione's dislike of Tallow combined to make her inconspicuos. In this class, at least, that was more of an asset than a disadvantage. Leaning back in her seat, she tucked her gloved hands into the pockets of her cloak and fixed her gaze on the edge of her desk, thinking about the lovely spring wardrobe Daphne was preparing for her and what a shame it would be if Sonora's weather troubles made her unable to wear it. \n\n
0 Catherine Raines Spring Dreams... 66 Catherine Raines 0 5


Eliza Bennett, Crotalus

July 07, 2012 5:11 PM
If she had any sense at all, Eliza knew, she would have dropped this class simply by not returning to it and let it go at that. No one would have called her out on it, or at least not very many, and she wouldn’t have been hugely surprised if it turned out that no one even noticed. She was already having a hard time this year, and adding one more thing to her plate that she didn’t have to was, even she could see, probably not going to be the smartest move she ever made.

In the end, though, she hadn’t been able to make herself really believe any of that, at least not enough to act on it. There was a chance, however small, that someone would remember she had been in this class last year and that they would judge her for not coming back – that they would figure out it wasn’t because it was a stupid class, but rather because she was just afraid that if she came back, it would be the one last thing she needed to drive her into burnout. And anyway, her memories of the previous semester made it seem like she had been, but Eliza was sure that she hadn’t really been that stressed. There had been a million things she could have done better, or done more of, and so forth; she had not been working as hard as she possibly could, which meant her perception of the past four months was probably just her wanting to feel sorry for herself, and like she had done enough when she knew perfectly well that she hadn’t.

So here she was, smiling by reflex and trying to look excited about a new professor instead of like she planned to spend as much of the period as possible scribbling ideas about how to handle other problems on her parchment once she figured out what they were doing for at least a good part of class. This had the advantage of making her even happier she’d grabbed the seat next to Nic’s; her initial thinking had just been that if the lesson turned out to be unusually hard and she had to look dumb in front of someone, it was better him than anyone at Sonora, but now she could also factor in how he was unlikely to rat on her for being off-task if that happened. She planned to give at least half an ear to the other students, since they might say something she could make something of when talking about what they hoped to get out of the class, but honestly, she expected almost every last person in here to lie to try to make a better impression on the teacher.

If someone wasn’t going to do that, though, it figured it would be Nic. Eliza bit her lip to keep from laughing when he said he was there because it was supposed to be an easy grade and had to smooth her face into a smile for an adult in record time since she was next in line. She thought she pulled it off, though. “Hi,” she said. “I’m Eliza Bennett, I’m in fifth year, and – “ with a sick feeling, she realized she had no idea what to say – “I’m here to learn whatever you want to teach me,” she finished in the same upbeat tone with barely a hesitation. Apparently, she was starting off this class with a ditzy persona. She just hoped it didn’t come back to haunt her when the new professor, however her name was pronounced with its credentials, started grading papers; she had always been afraid that teachers did. Everyone else in the world interpreted new things they saw from people based on what they already thought about them, after all – she certainly did – so why not professors? As much as she was sure they all tried to deny it, somewhere under there, they were people, too.

As the attention moved on, she glanced at her friend. “I think you’ll win best answer for the day,” she said very quietly, so as not to draw the professor’s attention from boring, tailored-to-please answers.
0 Eliza Bennett, Crotalus Participation is mandatory, sorry 174 Eliza Bennett, Crotalus 0 5

Charlie B-F-R

December 24, 2013 6:04 AM
Charlie had joined his concert group based on which one had the highest likelihood of sequins and jazz hands. He was a bit concerned that the presence of a Brockert and a Carey might jeopardise that but perhaps they'd either see the fun side of it or opt for working backstage. Rupert and Adam were also possible stumbling blocks there but, from what he knew about them, they were pretty relaxed guys. He was quite excited to be in the same group as Rupert. Charlie had decided that Rupert was the perfect target for a hopeless, unrequited crush and was sure such tragic and angsty feelings would be bursting forth any day (he was now a teenager after all). However, they'd been much slower to manifest than he had thought they would be, and perhaps a concentrated block of time together, maybe with the added emotional intensity of show tunes, might just be the perfect catalyst.

He smiled at Clara and the others as he joined the meeting. To start with, it was fairly standard, and he gave his name (abbreviated), house and year when required. Clara then proceeded to explain that the choice of meeting room was no coincidence and he felt his smile become a little fixed as he shot a covert glance at the Pureblood members of the group. He liked Clara and he hoped they wouldn't be rude to her over whatever she was suggesting but at the same time he felt uncomfortable on their behalf, and he thought it was a little insensitive of her not to consider who was in her group and whether they'd be ok with what she was suggesting. As she explained her idea in more detail, his concern grew, and his smile had slipped somewhat by the time she concluded.

“I think it's a good idea,” he said hesitantly, when Clara finished. She had asked for their ideas but he figured they were welcome to give opinions as well. “But how well an idea works depends on the audience. In order for people to get the jokes, they'd have to be familiar with the original tricks. And most of them just won't be.” He hoped that was a gentle enough way of letting her down. It was true... The act might have worked really well elsewhere but it just wasn't going to here. He tried to think of a subtle way of pointing out to her that she needed to consider Duncan and Brandon too but he couldn't. He guessed if they were that offended they could stick up for themselves.

“Depending on how confident everyone is with singing and dancing, we could do something along those lines. If we did a medley, then it could include something everyone likes.” It wasn't a very original idea, he knew, but it was fun and could please everyone. Besides, from what he knew of what Henny's group was doing (and what he extrapolated most Aladren-led groups would be inclined towards) singing and dancing might actually be in shorter supply than one would imagine...
13 Charlie B-F-R Let's get just a little closer to the box... 252 Charlie B-F-R 0 5