Katey Willow

October 20, 2023 3:44 PM
The ball committee was asked to arrive an hour before the doors of the event opened to the rest of the school to assist in the final set up and preparations. Katey had dealt with all the external adults (musicians, food vendors, ice sculptors, and anything else the students had selected while staying within their budget) and allowed the students to be the ones focused primarily on the decorations. However, some final touches were needed that went beyond even the near-graduating seventh years’ likely ability, and so with the flourish of her wrist, Katey performed the final transformations. The house tables had already been replaced by smaller ones, but now, they appeared like carved stumps, like one might see in a Muggle perception of a fairy dollhouse. But perhaps the greatest change of all was the walls. In most places, the titular cascades of the room slowed, then stopped as vines and greenery grew over them. Even to a magical-raised student, the words “enchanted forest” would take on new meaning tonight.

Katey turned to her team, absolutely beaming. “We did it! Thank you all so much for your wonderful contributions. You have made the most beautiful ball Sonora has ever seen. Now - enjoy yourselves!”

The main student body began to enter, and Katey gathered those participating in the opening number, the traditional prefects’ dance. She told them to hold their position while she gave the introduction, then went back to the area where the rest of the school was waiting.

“Welcome, everyone, to the ball! This year, as you can tell, our theme is Enchanted Forest. Before we begin, how about a round of applause for our amazing ball planning committee?” Katey eagerly participated in the applause, leading the charge as she always did. “Please enjoy yourselves with friends, dance, enjoy the music and concessions, but first, let’s begin with our traditional opening: the prefects’ dance! Music!”

After the dance, the ball was truly in motion, and the students were free to do as they wished with their evening. As for the medic, she was more than content to simply watch, although she was tempted herself to twirl around on the dance floor a time or two, if she could persuade her coworkers into a dance, to let her ombre dress spin around her while her arms, in long black gloves, held onto a friend. To be young again, but different this time. Better.
Subthreads:
12 Katey Willow The ball!! 1505 1 5

Xavier Lundstrom

October 20, 2023 9:28 PM
As the date of the ball drew closer, Xavier felt a tight knot in his chest. It was the feeling of hope, which had been artificially inflating his heart, draining away, and leaving it the sad, shrivelled up lump it really was. Oz had remained shuttered off over his books, acting like Xavier didn’t exist. He wasn’t sure whether he’d imagined a slight thawing since exams and the Quidditch season ended, or whether that was just wishful thinking, but it was very clear that the turnaround needed for Oz to be his ball date wasn’t going to happen.

Xavier had never been closeted. He’d never needed to ‘discover’ himself and worry about it. He’d always been more aware of boys, and just naturally grown into the Feelings that went with that, knowing he was safe and loved regardless. It meant he’d been able to do plenty of imagining about handsome princes coming to rescue him, or going to prom with a cute guy at his side. It was something that was supposed to be his, and be easy, and he was not about to let the universe and all the screwball decisions it had made on his behalf take that away from him. He had the promise of queer solidarity with Lenny, and he would make the most of that.

It wasn’t going to be exactly what he’d pictured. He didn’t need to have a debate with his date about whether they were doing matching suits or not (luckily, most of his daydreams involved choosing the ‘heck no’ option on that, so that was one bubble that hadn’t been burst) and he didn’t need to worry about whether the night would end in a kiss and how you did that and whether he’d be any good at it. He knew he was. And that he wasn’t going to do that with Lenny.

They could still have a great evening though. And as Xavier started to picture it, he realised he had never really agreed on more than ‘at least once dance,’ and that just because he couldn’t have exactly what he wanted for the evening, was no reason to short change Lenny… Maybe Xav wasn’t exactly Lenny’s first choice either, but he could still step up his game and be a better second best.

He’d penned his friend a note, and included a small flower with it, which he’d colour-change-charmed to be the rough idea he had of Lenny’s dress colour.

Dear Lenny,

Perhaps selfishly, I hope you’re still available for the ball. I guess I should say I hope you’ve been swept off your feet and found the date you really deserve, but that if you haven’t, I’d like to try to be him. Still as friends, but a proper friend date.

Enclosed is a flower in what I think you said is your dress colour. Please let me know if you accept, and if I got it right, and I’ll bring you real ones for the real thing. (Fyi, in case the charm wore off, it’s roughly this kind of purple)’
Perhaps it was not super elegant to include a small crayola scribble in the card, but even after this long, Xav didn’t fully trust his magic, even for basic things.

Xavier.

All of which had led to him standing here, with a purple corsage and a bundle of nerves. Partly because the dress Lenny had described to him in their MARS meeting had sounded incredibly loud and over the top and he was going to be attached to it. Partly because it was all a bit weird to be going with someone who looked so much like a girl. Partly because he was kind of excited, and wanted to be good enough, and if there was one consistent message attached to all the crap the universe had put him through, it was that he very rarely was.

“You look stunning,” he said, when Lenny joined him. He gave him a genuine smile. One that even reached his eyes a little bit, because Lenny was his friend and Xav was glad he was there. But not one that lit them up and said he was dazzled, or that his heart was totally fine now. “This is for you,” he added, holding out the corsage. His own tie was in a similar shade of purple, against a lighter purple shirt, paired with a royal blue suit. He hoped it wasn’t too weird to colour match for a friend date, but he’d wanted it to feel like something real.
13 Xavier Lundstrom You deserve better, so I tried to be it (tag Lenny) 1529 0 5

Lenny Pierce

October 23, 2023 9:37 PM
Lenny had been a little surprised to get Xavier's note, but he'd quickly written back that he had arranged to have dances with most of his friends, but he was otherwise still without a formal date, and he'd be delighted to have a proper friend date with Xavier. This was nearly as much a relief to Cole as it was to Lenny because his roommate had felt a little bad for pairing up with Piper and leaving Lenny more or less on his own, despite Lenny's insistence that he did not feel abandoned. He also compared the flower sample to his own dress and confirmed it was a match, or was at least close enough to not matter.

When he'd gotten dressed, Lenny had opted against the corset his dress had come with, as feminine shaping was not a thing his friend-date was interested in at all, and there wasn't really anyone else he was trying to impress in that department either. He had opted for adding a starlight shimmer to the skirts, nothing too over the top, just a bit of a magical light that twinkled when he moved, and the skirts were really good for swishing around on the dance floor. Rosalynn said he looked elegant, and she'd helped him with a cute up-do that was pinned up with silvery clips that were shaped like leaves and flowers to compliment the woodland theme.

He hadn't used much make-up, opting for a natural look other than a clear lip balm that tasted like strawberry and gave his lips just a little bit of shine. His fingernails were trimmed and shaped and had a fresh coat of shimmery clear polish on them. Nobody would mistake him for going masculine, but he definitely was not pushing for feminine as hard as he could have. He still felt beautiful and fancy for his one and only ball, and that was what really mattered.

Lenny was on the ball planning committee, so he'd finished getting ready well before the start of the ball, and arrived the requested one hour early to help with set-up. He may have found more excuses to spin around quickly than had strictly been necessary while hanging the decorations, but he was loving his dress and how it moved around him.

Once the other students started entering into the hall, he found Xavier and beamed at the compliment. He gave a requisite twirl to show off how the skirts shimmered and spun, then accepted the corsage, very pleased to have a friend-date who would give him one. Xavier had even worn purple, which he found very sweet and adorable. "Thank you. You look quite handsome yourself," Lenny returned.

Xavier wasn't quite the perfect romantic date he'd hoped he might have, but Lenny was very much looking forward to the evening and was hopeful it would be quite magical anyway. So far it was off to a nearly perfect start. Xavier was certainly pulling out many, if not quite all, of the stops for him, and Lenny really appreciated that. Xavier had even gone to the dance lessons, and while Lenny had been busy helping as one of the instructors, they had paired up a few times, and they had danced pretty well together.

As they watched the prefects dance, which neither of them were (so far - Lenny was still a fourth year, so it wasn't until next fall that he'd find out which of the four Teppenpaws in his year got that honor), Lenny asked, "So, any boundaries or preferences I should know about? Like, are slow dances a no-go or are they okay? Do you prefer to lead or follow? I'm non-binary, not female, so I'm fine with switching or leading if that's what you like. And I've got about five people who agreed to save me a dance, so if you need a break, just let me know and I'll find one of them."
1 Lenny Pierce You're sweet and you've made my night 1547 0 5

Xavier Lundstrom

October 24, 2023 8:32 AM
Lenny had gone with the (in Xavier’s opinion) less alarming variations of his dress. He wasn’t wearing any kind of coserting and nothing on his dress was dancing around. He was just super sparkly, which was to be expected. Xavier didn’t violently hate it. Which didn’t really matter, cos it wasn’t up to him anyway, and he would support Lenny regardless, but it was sort of a plus to feel like his date’s dress (still a weird sentence for his brain to have to think but he was rolling with it) wasn’t trying to burn his eyeballs out.

And Lenny had called him handsome.

“Thanks,” he grinned. It was a while since he’d heard something good about himself that didn’t relate to his progress in not setting things on fire. Even if Lenny only meant it as a friend… Friend compliments hit the warm and fuzzy spots in a way that teacher compliments didn’t and shouldn’t.

After the prefect dance, Lenny had a lot of questions and thoughts. It was… well, verbose. In some ways it felt a little clinical, and reminded him this was just a friend date, where they didn’t really know what the other person was like or wanted. But in some ways it was kind of… safe and nice? Oz was often pretty direct, but his directness was more like shoving his tongue in your mouth, or communicating his feelings loudly and angrily once they were hurt. Just talking about what they both actually wanted was… different. And weird. But not necessarily bad-weird.

“Slow dances are okay,” he confirmed. “I had all these really cheesy daydreams of having a perfect prom,” he admitted. Lenny was fluent in Muggle-speak, so Xavier trusted he’d know what that meant. “Like, I was always out so there was nothing in the way of me just… having what everyone else did. Except the whole wizard thing and the lack of other out gay teens and the dumping of my sorry ass due to Stuff.” Lenny knew the non-gossip versions of ‘Stuff’ by now, so the shorthand was more to preserve their evening than to keep his own secrets. “So, I’m up for making the most of it. Checking off as many prom cliches as possibly except for drunken making out. And… I lead and follow about equally as well as each other.” He grimaced, in a way that indicated this was an apology rather than a boast. He knew Lenny didn’t have a preference, which had put him in the position of trying to work out his own and finding that he didn’t know. Following was easier. When he imagined himself with a guy, he was the one being swept rather than doing the sweeping. But with Lenny it was a little different, except he wasn’t sure that Lenny wanted it to be… He didn’t want to put Lenny in a different box than other guys, except Lenny just had kind of put himself in a different, non-guy box but… Well, Xavier was pretty sure Lenny was better at leading and also didn’t want to be told he couldn’t, but also that he wanted to be twirled. “So, whatever makes you happy, or outrages the heteros the most. I reckon we’ll be more co-ordinated with you leading, but you deserve to be twirled around a bit. Anything else I should know?” he asked, figuring that Lenny had covered most of his own preferences already, but that it wouldn’t hurt to double check.
13 Xavier Lundstrom Great. Now let's outrage society. 1529 0 5

Oz Spellman

November 02, 2023 6:03 AM
There had been a rumour going around that Xavier was going to the ball with Lenny. It wasn’t the first time a rumour had circulated about the two of them, given that they were the only two openly queer but unattached students in the school. The previous rumours had been when Oz and Xav had still been a thing, and Xav had explained that no, it wasn’t true, it was just low-key homophobia.

So, while the thought of Xav going to the ball with someone else wanted to squirm its way around Oz’s brain and ruin all the careful focus he’d put into actually succeeding with like… the whole rest of his life, Oz had managed to shut it down. More or less. It wasn’t like it never crossed his mind when he was meant to be memorising incantations, or like he never imagined a practice dummy was Lenny when practising his hexes. But he cast and punched out his bad feelings, and got back to work, because he wasn’t going to come this close to actually finishing high school only to fall at the last hurdle.

Since finishing his exams, it had been a bit harder not to obsess. He’d even tried working out how he might break the ice and talk to Xav, except in his self imposed absence, said ice had got rather thick… The space had done him good. It had let him focus. But it was hard to know how to cross a year of not speaking in just a couple of weeks.

And it probably wasn’t true about Lenny, and maybe he and Xav could hang a bit at the ball and figure stuff out from there.

Except it turned out it wasn’t just homophobia this time, it was the actual truth, even though there was no way in hell that Lenny was Xavier’s type given that Oz most definitely was, and the number of things they had in common could fit on a Golden Snitch. With space to spare.

Oz tried to keep himself busy, checking in with Yaniel, and other teammates, and of course Henry. But this couldn’t be the way things ended with him and Xav—with him twirling around the dance floor, in actual co-ordinated steps, with someone else.

Eventually, he and Lenny stopped being joined together, with Lenny peeling away to the refreshment table. Oz sidled over, doing his best not to look threatening. Oz didn’t think he was a threatening person. He was short, for an almost-eighteen-year-old. But when that was relative to literal children, it was still a height advantage most of the time. He was also pretty broad, and strong. ‘Lead Beater and Captain of the Quidditch Team’ did carry a certain weight behind it, one that said Oz could punch someone’s face in if so inclined. The fact that he was not actually inclined to do so didn’t seem to stop people thinking it. He would have been much more likely to beat up anyone who tried to beat up someone like Lenny than to actually start on Lenny himself. At least, ethically, that was the side he’d be on. He wasn’t sure he’d actually go after anyone with a track record of punching others, for fear they’d take out their resentment of him on Henry. Luckily, this school seemed to be relatively devoid of people who punched others, for fun or power, which meant that Oz’s tendency to hit metal balls and punching bags for recreational purposes had him cast in that role in these people’s sheltered little minds. Or maybe they just assumed that of everyone who didn’t know what a salad fork was or whatever.

Anyway, the point was, Oz wasn’t going to punch Lenny, and he didn’t want the final impression he gave to anyone to be that the thought was even crossing his mind. So he kept his frown on the inside. He did his best to look non-threatening, even though he wasn’t sure what he actually did other than just existing to be ‘threatening.’

“Hey,” he said. Easy, carefree smiles were something he’d perfected early on in life, given the number of times he had to tell people not to worry about him, even as he screwed up and died a little inside at every mistake he made. He threw one on as he approached Xavier’s ‘date.’ “You’re here with Xav? Are you guys like… a thing now?” he asked. “Just asking as his friend,” he clarified, in case Lenny had somehow missed the memo that Oz voluntarily hung out with people like them and therefore obviously had no problem with it.
13 Oz Spellman Speaking as a concerned friend... 1514 0 5

Lenny Pierce

November 03, 2023 9:55 PM
"Hey, I'll get us some drinks, okay?" Lenny offered as they came off the dance floor. He was the reason they were getting thirsty, doing all that dancing, so he felt he ought to be the one to get the drinks. "Is water good, or do you want something else?" Once he had Xavier's order, he headed over to the refreshments table, eyes scanning the crowds for his friends to see if one of them might be free for him to get in his friend dance with any of them.

The first person of interest he spotted was Oz, who was heading right for him. Cool, maybe he could plan a switch off instead of just hoping for an opportunity to tap out and trade partners so Xavier could get at least one dance with the guy.

"Hey," he returned easily to the greeting, wondering idly why Oz was talking to him. Lenny had devious plans involving him, but if Oz had similar ones why hadn't he just asked Xav out to start with?

His next question made this both clearer and a bit more alarming, not just because the ex thought Lenny might be part of a thing, but because the ex was claiming to be nothing but a friend, and might even be actively trying to not to scare they guy who might have a thing with his ex. That did not bode well for a get back together.

On the other hand, Oz was asking, so maybe not hopeless entirely.

"Definitely not a thing, just friends," he promised emphatically. "I'm not exactly his type, but I couldn't find a date and you never asked him." This came out somewhat accusatory. "He was still waiting for you to pull your head out of your butt up until about a week ago, and didn't let me try any matchmaking either. But I bet he'd rather be dancing with you. I got some friends lined up to hang out with tonight if you want to bring him his drink and go for a spin around the dance floor." Lenny's mouth quirked up into a proud teacher's grin, and added, "He's getting pretty good at spins." Oz was rather a lot taller than Lenny was, so Xavier might have some trouble spinning him, but he doubted Oz wanted to.
1 Lenny Pierce Right. 'Friend', huh? 1547 0 5

Oz Spellman

November 03, 2023 11:19 PM
OOC: CW - references to addiction BIC:

Definitely not a thing. Just friends. Not Xav’s type. All good. All the things Oz had known or hoped and—

Wait. What.

“He said—I—That’s private!” Oz bristled, a red flush creeping up his neck. His skin prickled with the indignation that Xavier had gossiped about him. But then, of course he had. Because to Xavier there was no need to hide any of that stuff. He’d always said it was ‘fine’ if Oz didn’t want to be public about it, but it had never been a very convincing ‘fine.’

But that paled in comparison to the rest of what Lenny said. He made it sound like he would step aside, and then it would be just as simple as Oz walking across the dance floor. It was tempting to believe that. But of course, Oz was the bad guy. He’d known it when he’d left Xavier. He looked cruel, disloyal… But for Lenny to actually say that Xavier had said it—

“Oh yeah, it’s a real butthole move on my part to not want to flush my own future down the toilet to prop up his addictions. And if he still can’t see that—” Oz wasn’t sure what kind of family Lenny came from. Presumably pretty liberal, unless he dressed very differently at home. But Xav had always treated school like it was easy, disposable, guaranteed… You could screw up a year here and there. If you dropped out entirely, the worst that would happen was that you’d be a disappointment, maybe come back later… He’d never had any real perspective on the idea that actions had consequences, or that not everyone had a big safety net waiting to catch them if they screwed up. Oz couldn’t handle Quidditch and his exams and being the one to pick Xavier up every time he fell… Except, he didn’t seem to be doing as much falling this year. Xav could be really sneaky, really good at setting up systems to hide his problems from people. But Oz had seen him eat three meals a day, almost every day. The lack of bags under his eyes said he was sometimes getting pretty full nights of sleep. Xav had put on weight, in the good way where he’d stopped looking like he might snap in half if Oz put his full body weight on him, and his skin was better. It was almost too perfect, just begging for a couple of hickeys to be left around his collarbones to break up all the gentle pink. “Did he actually kick it? For real?” he asked, his voice low, eyes searching Lenny for signs of the wear and tear that came with being Xavier’s closest friend.
13 Oz Spellman Used to be 1514 0 5