Drawing the stars on Elective Hall

Aiden O'Neil

March 20, 2016 5:57 PM

Watching the stars (Tag Sutton) by Aiden O'Neil

The last of the challenges had completed and even though Aiden tried his hardest, he knew that his team wasn’t likely to move up the ranks to a decent position just on the last challenge. Aiden wasn’t the competitive sort, so actually winning meant very little to him, but he was on the same team as Chaslyn and she had seemed very stressed about the whole thing. Aiden didn’t talk to her much not before, during, or after the challenges. She seemed nice and she was in the Archery club, but Aiden just never really had the opportunity to get to know her. The challenges were supposed to bring them together, but they were also so focused on what was going on that they had little time to chat. Even so, it had been obvious that Chaslyn was taking this all very hard. He felt bad that he couldn’t do better, but hoped she didn’t hate him for it. Theodore too, for that matter, he seemed equally unhappy with it all.

Aiden wanted to destress from all the pressure the year had given to him and he did it through the stars. Astronomy was one of Aiden’s favorite subjects. He liked to read books on them, listening to the stories of the stars that were passed down through ancient times. There was a calm beauty to them whenever he looked up at them at night and even though it was a bit frightening to know that it was vast and went on for eternity, there was comfort in knowing that they were always there too.

Whenever he felt stressed or lonely, Aiden would come to the Astronomy room to view the stars. It was no longer in use and never had been while he attended Sonora, but at some point along the way, the room had been used and it was still kept in immaculate state by the Prairie Elves. Aiden carried his book back that was filled with some of his Astronomy books and charts and left the Hall after eating a quick dinner. He followed the familiar path around the school to the Astronomy classroom, expecting to find it empty, he barged into the room without knocking. The only time he had ever known anyone to be in the classroom was when the science club was doing something that required the room. Knowing that the club wasn’t meeting, Aiden expected the room to be completely his. But it wasn’t.

The room was currently being occupied by a girl. After realizing his mistake Aiden noticed that it was one of the Nicholls twins. He only knew them by face from classes, so he wasn’t sure which one was currently in front of him. He never realized how many twins this school had until he was face to face with them. “Oh sorry, I thought the room was empty.” Aiden apologized, giving a grin to the younger girl. “Do you mind if I study the stars too?” He asked. He’d be disappointed if she said that she did mind, but he didn’t want to intrude on her if she were doing something personal and wanted to be alone.

6 Aiden O'Neil Watching the stars (Tag Sutton) 287 Aiden O'Neil 1 5

Sutton Nicolls

March 22, 2016 9:05 PM

Drawing the stars by Sutton Nicolls

The Astronomy tower was one of Sutton’s favorite places in the school, second only to the Gardens. She loved the Gardens, because one could get lost within themselves. Here, though, was the complete opposite. Sutton gazed up at the night enchantment in amazement. It was so easy to go day to day, worrying about your problems, but here it made you realize just how small you were. She dropped her blanket on the floor and straightened it out with her foot before putting her pillow and bag down. She pulled out her drawing pad and got comfortable. She wasn’t really sure what she was drawing yet, but she let her hand go. A line here, a line there. Connect the dots. Soon, her work became a series of the sign constellations in the sky. Aries, Taurus, Gemini…

She was working on Cancer when the door suddenly swung open. Startled, Sutton jerked slightly and her drawing pad fell to the floor. Her blue eyes darted to the intruder. It was an older boy that she knew from classes, but had never actually worked with. Being slightly sarcastic, she said, “I mind terribly. There’s clearly not enough stars for both of us.” The corner of her lip twitched slightly upwards, showing that she wasn’t being unfriendly either.

Sitting up, the blonde twisted her legs under her. She pushed her hair, which was always a mess, out of her face so she could get a better view of him. “What’s your sign? Mine is Aries. You know, the Ram? The constellation looks like a V, but the ends are curled.” She made the motion with her hands, trying to demonstrate what she meant. She knew that there was a difference between Astrology and Astronomy, but there was also a correlation too. After all, it was believed that people had certain traits based on the stars and the constellations were actual star signs, solidified in Astronomy.

She thought that Aries was pretty accurate for her in some ways. She definitely had the independent trait, which might have made her seem unfriendly towards her roommates. Sutton wasn’t trying to be, but she was more comfortable doing her own thing. She didn’t have a strong need to find one person to be social with. Having acquaintances was enough for her. Though, that didn’t mean she didn’t have any friends at all. She was friends with a couple people at home, but that was mostly because they hung out in the skate park like she did.

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Aiden

March 29, 2016 8:11 PM

Discussing the stars by Aiden

Aiden paused as she responded to him. He was not a bright person and often took things at face value. Did she really want him to leave? Did she really mind him being here? He could understand. Based on the pad the fell to the floor, she was probably sketching or something and from Aiden could understand, most artist would rather be alone when they had inspiration than have an observer. Of course, Aiden was not an artist, so his interpretation could be incorrect or just a sweeping generalization of a group of people.

Her twitch of her lips advised him that she wasn’t serious and he relaxed a little. He was going to guess that this Nicholls twin was Sutton because that was Pecari one. Aislinn was Aladren, which Aiden assumed to mean less fun. That was also probably a sweeping generalization of a group of people. He knew this was very stupid to think since Lena was one of his best friends and he knew that she was not anything like he was currently believing that Aladrens were.

His belief in which twin this was was only solidified when she asked him what his sign was. He had heard about birth signs or year signs or whatever they were called. It was Astrology or something. If they had Divinations here, he was sure that it was something they would have learned about, along with reading tea leaves, and crystal balls. Aiden would find that all interesting, but he wasn’t one to just believe it to be true. He knew premonitions were true as many famous Seers foretold things, but that was about the only thing he believed to be true.

“I don’t really know any of that.” Aiden admitted, taking a seat at one of the telescopes so that he could seek out specific constellations that he wanted to see. “I only know the constellations and planets and things, but you’re talking the Astrology part of stars, right?” Aiden asked as he adjusted the lens. It was really a shame that this room no longer was used for lessons. Aiden would have loved to have Astronomy classes. His parents gave him all sorts of books on it and he had a wonderful telescope back home (his parents refused to allow him to bring it to school with him as they felt it could easily be broken), so he had some knowledge in the subject, but he wanted to learn more than just through books. It was probably the only Aladren thing in him.

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Sutton

April 08, 2016 11:33 PM

Analyzing the stars by Sutton

Sutton watched Aiden carefully as he took a seat. She picked up her drawing pad and put it in her lap. “Yeah. But if you know about Astronomy, it shouldn’t be too hard to pick up.” Shifting, she sat up and moved to where he was. She set her drawing pad down so that he could see what she had drawn. “So, in Astronomy, you know that certain constellations appear at specific times of the year. The astrological signs are based on those constellations. A long time ago, the constellations matched up to the star signs. So, like when I was born, the Ram constellation should have been shining bright in the sky. But they don’t line up anymore.”

She touched the telescope lightly so as not to move it, but she couldn’t help to do so. She wasn’t good at staying still. “Which one is brightest right now? If it was going by Astrology, it should be Cancer, but it isn’t going to be. I guess that’s why they really started branching away from each other. Plus, Astronomy is more of a science. I guess with the rotation of the planets and such. Astrology got more into fortune telling. I don’t think it really can. If it could, then wouldn’t everyone that had the same sign have the same fortune?” She always thought that was weird. Or there would just be general interpretations like the month would bring about great fortune. That could be spun a number of ways. If one won money, they would take it to be the fortune. Or if something good happen, then that was good fortune. She just didn’t think counting on astrology for fortune telling was a good idea.

“I don’t think astrology really can predict the future, but I do think that people born around the same time share traits. I think my sign is fairly accurate for me. That’s not to say I don’t believe in fortune telling at all. After all, it’s hard to live in a magical world and not.” Sutton knew that there were prophecies, but real ones came from only true seers. Things like tealeaf reading and tarot cards made it seem like anyone could tell the future. If that were true then anyone could be a fortune-teller and always knowing the future could be a dangerous thing. If you didn’t like something the future, then you would try to change it. Though, assuming there was fate, then one would never be able to change the future and it was always destined to play out as such no matter what.

These were the sorts of things that seemed to roll around in her brain. She thought a lot about things like fate versus choice. If everything was based on fate, then there would be no choice about anything and it wouldn’t matter what you did. It was depressing in a way, because it meant that no matter how hard you tried, it would never matter. Whatever was destined was going to happen. But in another way it was freeing, because then one would never have to worry about if they were making the wrong choice. Of course, there was no way to know if everything was fate or choice. Maybe it was both. Maybe it was just a bunch of possible fates all based on choice.

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