Israel! on Quidditch Pitch

Headmaster Brockert

February 10, 2017 6:48 PM

Midsummer Fair by Headmaster Brockert

It was time once again for Sonora's annual Midsummer Event. This year, it was to be the fair and they were doing an International Festival. While he was naturally not the most culturally sensitive towards others, he appreciated the fact that it was something educational. Mortimer found those to be the kind of events he preferred for the students to have. Education, after all, was the most important aspect of school and that's where people should be focused, not socializing or Quidditch or other extracurricular activities.

Though admittedly, sometimes, it was good to have an event that was purely fun because it boosted morale. Happy students meant happy parents which in turn lead to happy board members which in turn lead to Mortimer being happy based on not having to deal with their unhappiness, but if it could be both fun and educational, so much the better.

And there was one booth in particular that Mortimer was interested, and that was South Korea. He had no more interest in that country than any of the others featured, except that it was Emerald's booth and he was keen on seeing what she and her group had done. He might not have been the warmest, most caring person in general, but she was still his granddaughter and he did love her and his other grandchildren.

Now, however, it was time to get started. Mortimer stood in front of the assembled group, cast the Sonorus Charm on himself and began to speak. "Welcome to this year's Midsummer International Fair. Your yearbooks are available on the table next to the stage. Have a good time." With that he stepped down, removed the charm from himself and headed off to look at the South Korea booth.
\r\nOOC-The yearbooks will be available when Amelle finishes them. As she is currently very busy with other things, please be patient.

Subthreads:

Brazil! by Nathan Xavier with Lily Spencer

Ethiopia! by Isis Carter with Joe Umland, Raine Collindale

Poland! by Rory Taransay with John Umland, Lionel Layne

Israel! by Professor Sophie O'Malley with Simon Mordue, Wally and Stanley O'Malley

Chile by DH Skies with Dustin Newell

South Korea (nm) by DH Skies with Ginger , Jake Manger

France (nm) by DH Skies

New Zealand (nm) by DH Skies

Wandering between [Tobi] by Makenzie Newell

Is this our twilight? (tag Lena) by Clark Dill with Lena

11 Headmaster Brockert Midsummer Fair 6 Headmaster Brockert 1 5

Nathan Xavier

February 11, 2017 5:17 PM

Brazil! by Nathan Xavier

The Brazil booth had come together nicely, if Nathan did say so himself. It was a bit larger than he had really expected a student group to design, but it did incorporate a bunch of his trees, so that took up a lot of space right there. As the pitch did actually need to be restored to playing conditions eventually, rather than permanently becoming a rain forest, he'd had to use smaller juvenile trees that could be carted around in large pots instead of planting them into the ground, but they did a reasonable job of giving the Brazil area of the pitch a small sense of the Amazonian Rainforest. Smaller plants did a decent job of hiding the pots, too, so it didn't look entirely temporary.

Visitors approaching the Brazil 'booth' would be met with black curtains hiding from view. The curtains had only two openings. One was labelled "Brazil - Enter Here" and the other was adorned with a sign that said "Exit Only". As people passed through the curtains of the entrance, they would find themselves surrounded by the tropical plants of the Amazonian rainforest with a winding path leading deeper into the Brazil booth.

Drop cloths with paintings of more rainforest behind the trees and other flora made the tropical path seem more three dimensional than the plants alone would have done, and he'd even managed to get a few macaws and other tropical birds (in cages) on loan to provide some color and sound for the visitors passing through the main entry path. All of the various plants and birds in this area had small placards informing passersby what they were called and some interesting facts about them. His group had worked quite hard on getting it all just right. They'd even found some charms to provide the visitors with a warm mist to walk through as they passed through the curtains to simulate the humidity of the actual Amazon. The kids had wanted a full forest maze, but this one path into the main booth was what was actually doable with the number of plants Nathan had available for them. It was a good path, though, and he was quite proud of them. And it did have two small offshoots where people could get 'lost' if they cared to leave the wider path and see some more plants and birds.

After passing through the rainforest, the booth opened up to an area that was a bit more booth-like. One half of it had a wooden platform for dancing. Samba music played and some of the booth attendants were dressed in carnival costumes and were ready to teach anyone interested in how to samba or provide demonstrations, or at least the basic steps of it.

The rest of the area had a crafting station for making your own carnival headdress, some food samples (mostly made by the school's elves, but the group had provided the kitchens with the Brazilian recipes), and some posters with information about the people, cultures, and locations that could be found in Brazil. The Brazilian food on offer included bite-sized sweet chocolate balls called brigadeiros and some small cheese bread rolls called pão de queijo.

When the booth visitor was ready to leave, another (shorter and less winding) path through more rainforest would lead them back to the main thoroughfare of the Sonora Cultural Fair.

1 Nathan Xavier Brazil! 28 Nathan Xavier 0 5

Isis Carter

February 11, 2017 10:13 PM

Ethiopia! by Isis Carter

It had been an interesting year for Isis, both personally and professionally. A year that, looking back at it from the end, had contained a lot of personal growth on a variety of fronts. In a relevant sense, she had learned a lot about Ethiopia this year thanks to heading the booth on it for the fair. Going into it, she hadn’t known much more than the students had, she imagined, but thanks to the research and discussion to put their booth together, she had learned.

Their most valuable resource had definitely been the pen-pal system suggested by Raine Collindale. The students were put in contact with other third-year wizarding students - she wasn’t sure if it had been intentional or coincidental, but she was fairly certain all their correspondents had been the same age - while she herself had the opportunity to write to a fellow teacher in that country.

Thanks to them, the group had been able to comprise a fair amount of information about what living in Ethiopia was like and how it compared to life in the United States. However, the booth had two main focuses, as they were the things the kids had been immediately most enthused about: food and music.

Isis was definitely more into the food than the music. Prevalently, they had wat stew, made available in individual dishes and served, as tradition, over injera. Ethiopian dishes were widely available in vegan options because of a strictness to fasting periods, so it was determined to be the best course of action to provide fully vegan dishes. Still, to remain popular, there were some meat dishes available at the booth, although students had to take cautions before chowing done. Ethiopian meat dishes were notoriously spicy.

Quietly playing from the booth were samples of Ethiopian music. Despite her more immediate interest in the food, Isis rather enjoyed the musical selections as well. She was surprised by the religious nature of much of the music, as they had discovered the strong presence of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in the nation.

They also had some traditional Ethiopian instruments available for demo, gifts from the school they had contacted. Isis had been certain to acquire the malakat, a ceremonial, trumpet-like instrument that Tasha DuBois had specifically mentioned. Also available were the krar and the begena, a six- and ten-stringed lyre, respectively. Isis expected the most popular - and possibly most regrettable decision - would be the kebero, a large hand drum. There were different sized kebero drums for religious and secular purposes, and they had acquired the larger, religious model to learn about as a bigger drum seemed like more fun. She had certainly had a decent time with it, herself, when no one was listening.

OOC: For more information, check out the wikipedia pages (and check sources) for Ethiopian cuisine and music

12 Isis Carter Ethiopia! 31 Isis Carter 0 5

Lily Spencer

February 12, 2017 9:13 AM

Care to dance? by Lily Spencer

Lily was so very proud of her group's booth. It had taken loads of work and extra time that she would've normally used to romp around the gardens with Jozua and/or Madeleine, but it was time well spent. She'd never been interested in learning about different cultures until this term, and since learning all about Brazil she'd made it a goal to go on holiday there before she graduated. She got on with her fellow group members as well; though she wasn't as intelligent as they were, she had put a lot of effort in getting to know them and working hard at her tasks.

Once it was all set up, Lily went up to Professor Xavier and thanked him warmly for all his help. Without him, it wouldn't have looked half as lovely as it did. She then took a quick walk through and decided their booth was the best. She wished she had a camera to take photos with, but it wasn't like she'd be able to show them to her mates back home. They wouldn't understand. This past term had been somewhat difficult with no contact with Geoff or the others, but Lily had thought of them - particularly him - everyday. She didn't understand it, really, why he mattered so much, but she liked him. A lot. The only problem was he still thought she was a boy. That bit would have to be remedied eventually, she just didn't know how.

"Geoff would like the Amazon, I think," she said to herself as she examined the macaws. Though Lily didn't know Geoff well yet, he seemed like the sort who'd enjoy adventurous things. Her heart warmed at the thought of him, but she ignored it and skipped out of the maze.

For this occasion, Lily was wearing a white button-up shirt tucked into her trousers complete with braces. Her short brown hair was tousled, having forgotten to brush it in the morning, and she fancied she looked quite a lot like Adam today. Dressed like this with such a short, neat haircut, Lily had had a bit of fun over the winter holiday confusing shop employees and irritating her mother to no end.

As the Headmaster gave his usual speech, Lily's eyes scanned the other booths. She liked the idea of yearbooks, but almost always forgot to pick one up when there was so much else to do during the Midsummer events.

Lily ducked through the black curtains again and sped through the makeshift rainforest. She passed by the crafting station with a curious peak at the examples. She was planning to get very involved with each and every station and booth, but there was something she had to do first. As she passed by the Brazilian food table, she popped a chocolate ball into her mouth and then approached the wooden platform for dancing. She waited for someone to wander in before approaching them with a big smile.

"Would you like to be my partner?" she asked eagerly. "Samba looks like great fun, doesn't it? And quite different from the waltzes that I had to learn."

40 Lily Spencer Care to dance? 357 Lily Spencer 0 5

Rory Taransay

February 13, 2017 4:04 PM

Poland! by Rory Taransay

Rory was proud of what his group had come up with. The initial meeting had boded well, everyone having ideas and sorting out who would do what, and the productivity had continued. Looking around at their booth, it was definitely well organised and, hopefully, appealing to the other students.

John and Sutton had prepared a great display on the flora and fauna of Poland, and Sutton’s drawings really made it look more appealing. Rory knew that an attractive presentation made it easier for people to understand information that they were given, and the two students had really combined their talents well. He’d been interested in what they’d come up with, and had given them a few suggestions about particular areas to focus on, such as the Białowieża Forest.

Barnaby’s timeline went well with their display too. Initially, Rory had been concerned about Barnaby taking on the task alone, but the boy obviously knew what he was capable of. The timeline gave information about important wizards and witches, spells and potions, key events in Polish history, and interesting laws. Barnaby had drawn on skills from all across the curriculum to prepare it, and Rory had been happy to help out with the more difficult spells.

The youngest two students in the group had also put a lot of effort into their part of the project. Louis and Emmy-Lou obviously hadn’t been exaggerating when they said they were interested in fashion. Their outfits were both accurate and well-made, and they also had made some embroidered cloth to decorate the booth, as well as extra hats and jackets for other students to try on. Sadly, not all of the group had got into the spirit of dressing up, but Rory had swallowed his pride and allowed them to make him an outfit too. He had, however, requested that his costume wasn’t too bright and eye-catching – unlike Louis and Emilia-Louise, who had delighted in all the patterns and colours traditionally used.

Their booth also had a selection of Polish food, which Emilia-Louise and Louis had made. It was mostly sweet food, such as makowiec (a poppy seed cake), pierniki (gingerbread shapes), and krówki (a type of fudge). The food was neatly arranged in small pieces, ready for the other students to pick up and pop in their mouths. Rory had snuck a few when they were setting up, and had been pleasantly surprised.

Rory was impressed by how much effort every member of his group had been willing to put in, and was confident that their booth wouldn’t be shown up by the others. He’d enjoyed the opportunity to get to know some of the students better, and hoped that they had enjoyed learning about a different country.

9 Rory Taransay Poland! 33 Rory Taransay 0 5

Professor Sophie O'Malley

February 13, 2017 7:07 PM

Israel! by Professor Sophie O'Malley

“Stanley Jacob O’Malley, I swear to God if don’t get back here and take your father’s hand right now, so help me, you will be grounded until you’re thirty.” The small, dark-haired boy who had kid skittering ahead of them screeched to an immediate stop. “Thank you,” said Sophie. “That’s better. Now, come on, we have to go check in on Mommy’s booth.”

The Potions professor was quite pleased with her group of assorted Crotali and lovable outlier. They had come together nicely to create something that Sophie thought had turned out just incredible. The historical aspects incorporated, she felt, were perhaps the most impressive, thanks in part to input from Caelia Lucan’s brother Emrys, who had evidently done actual archaeological work in Israel recently. Their pamphlets described not only the history of Israel as a country but of the land before it was made into the country the world now knew.

And one could hardly discuss a country like Israel without some discussion of religion. It was often a hot-button topic among people for a variety of sensitive reasons, but Sophie felt it was important to the understanding of the country, and she was glad to see her students seemed to have the same idea. The Hebrew faith was simply quintessential to the Israeli identity and had to be covered.

An interesting topic also selected to cover was the local folklore. It was the sort of thing that varied everywhere, but Sophie at least had never before thought to consider just how different - but also how alike - a nation’s particular stories could be. In the case of Israel, most of their stories seemed to reflect their history of exile in other lands, their return to the land of their ancestors, and the modern-day battles over establishing and maintaining statehood. The blonde found the struggle to belong quite relatable, as she imagined many of the students would.

Most booths seemed to offer some sort of food samplings, and the Israel booth was no exception. Thanks to a large chunk of cultural meshing, there was not much of an established Israeli cuisine, although the most popular dish was felafel, which were deep-fried balls of ground chickpeas. Food items were restricted to what was considered kosher, with shellfish and pork, for example, right out. Sophie had expected some limitations, but she hadn’t known previously that even acceptable meats had to be kept completely separate from all dairy products. They couldn’t even touch the same utensils, a fact about which she had been diligent while they worked on preparing the meals in Sonora’s kitchen.

All in all, it had been a wonderful experience, and Sophie was glad to see all the kids’ hard work pay off. And her boys seemed to think it was pretty interesting, so that was nice. Even if Stanley still wanted to run off into the literal rain forest the Brazil kids had created. She sighed and passed him a felafel, hoping that food would distract him for now. She handed one to Wally, too, although for the normal reason that one usually gave food to a child. He had always been so much more calm, whereas Stanley, despite having grown out of his “terrible twos” and now his “threenager” year, still seemed to have enough chaotic energy for the both of them.

OOC: Mentions of Ryan approved by his author. Information about Israel was gathered here

12 Professor Sophie O'Malley Israel! 34 Professor Sophie O'Malley 0 5

Joe Umland

February 14, 2017 2:39 PM

Here we go! by Joe Umland

Joe had been as surprised as anyone – except, he guessed, maybe Tasha; he had been surprised as the project was developed and they developed a menu for the project to find the Aladren girl rather cool and sort of hoped that their association didn’t completely end with the Fair – to find that Ethiopia was apparently very Orthodox. The differences between Catholicism and Orthodoxy were significant to Joe, who was a member of the former group, but he had been surprised, on researching a little more and writing back and forth with his new Ethiopian penfriend, to discover the degree of similarity. He was not musical enough to play anything, but he had been able to contribute what he knew about theology to the musical selection process and had made several illustrated ‘Did You Know’ posters for their booth discussing the history of the Orthodox church in Ethiopia (the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church had been granted its own Patriarch by the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria only in 1959), the relationships to their food choices (at least 250 days of fasting a year, and some rules much stricter than what Joe was used to; the Orthodox didn’t have days off during Lent and extended the prohibition on meat to dairy as well), how their liturgical language, Ge’ez, was an ancient South Semitic language which had only gone out of common use a few centuries ago, and a chart comparing their specific brand of Orthodoxy (the Oriental Orthodox were Miaphysites, apparently, and also Ethiopia specifically apparently rarely gave the Eucharist to anyone but young children and very old people) to the wider Eastern Orthodoxy (Dyophysite, like Joe’s own church, and their rule was just a somewhat stricter pre-communion fast) and the Ethiopian Catholic Church, one of the Eastern rite groups whose practice was more similar to Orthodoxy but who nevertheless were in communion with the Holy See, unlike both sorts of Orthodox.

John had been an undeniable help with all that. Joe had no head for theology, so working with his brother behind the scenes had seemed like the most sensible route to take, and they had had some interesting discussions in the process of figuring out what was what and how to present it. John had, to Joe’s immense surprise, actually admitted the Eastern Orthodox, at least (he was less enamored of the Oriental Orthodox) made some good arguments, though he maintained the Great Schism had been an error on their part. They had had a good time and now Joe thought he could converse with anyone who wanted to discuss those aspects of Ethiopian culture as long as they didn’t get too far into the details. John had scolded him several times for not knowing why they did or believed certain things, in between poking fun at him for the same thing.

Joe, as a bit of a nod to another part of his background. had volunteered to make the Ethiopian version of tea to serve with the snacks. It had interested him to find that the water was heated with spices – green cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, and ginger – and then poured over the tea to steep once it had boiled for ten minutes or so. Boiling-hot beverages were not, of course, ideal at a large event where people were walking around outside and it was, well, midsummer, so he had slightly Americanized the tea in the little cups people could take with food by chilling it, but he had a clear glass kettle going with the spice mixture for people to see and some more teabags so he could demonstrate how it was done if asked, and so he could make himself cup later. As they got the last details organized, he grinned at his teammates.

“Here we go,” he said. “Good luck, everyone.”

With that done, he looked around at the non-booth participants starting to come down and craned his neck trying to get a view of the nearest other booth, wondering if they would get a chance to see what everyone else had done. Poland had at one point been discussing outfits, and while he was reasonably sure John wasn’t wearing one, Julian would kill him if John was and Joe came home without obtaining multiple pieces of photographic evidence of said event.

16 Joe Umland Here we go! 329 Joe Umland 0 5

John Umland

February 14, 2017 9:10 PM

Fantastic beasts: here's where to find them! by John Umland

By the time the festival officially began, John had been preparing for it for hours. He was sure of his facts, so studying as such was no more necessary than it ever was, but he wanted to make sure he could present. Speaking with others, people he was unfamiliar with in situations he was unfamiliar with, was not easy for him, and while he thought his enthusiasm for his subject matter ought to make him largely unaware of anything else about the situation, he did not want to stammer if he took a few minutes to get into his stride at the Fair. Therefore, he had prepared cards with little speeches about each creature and spent the morning reading over them, rehearsing what to say and how to pace it if he was uncomfortable when he began.

Finally, though, he grew bored with reading out loud and the clock said it was time to get ready for it. John had joined Barnaby in resisting full costume, but he did wear black shoes and black trousers with a plain white button-down shirt, something vaguely evocative of pictures he vaguely remembered seeing when he’d read about nineteenth-century Eastern European emigration to North America when he was younger and had donned a stupid red hat. Wearing the right hat, he had once heard his sister say, could change one’s whole outlook on life, and he had to say he thought that Julian might have a point. It brought home that he had a specific role to play today and that was probably going to be helpful.

On the Pitch, he had relatively little to do to be ready for his own part, so he helped anyone else who needed it and remembered to compliment Sutton again on her drawings. It was awkward, their situation, but she was a talented artist and he suspected her drawings would make much more of an impression on the audience than his knowledge would. He also complimented Barnaby warmly on his timeline, which looked fantastic and which John planned to take notes from later. Then there was nothing to do but try to sneak pieces of the sweets and try not to be too visibly fidgety while they waited for the rest of the school to arrive.

Professor Taransay had not, it had to be said, steered him wrong when he had suggested focusing on the Białowieża Forest. John had been particularly pleased to learn that it was a popular spot for ornithologists, both the magi- and normal types, and he had to admit that he had maybe come up with more detailed notes on the Żar-ptak, a magical bird, than he had on some other creatures. He had asked Sutton to make it the largest drawing and to place it centrally in the exhibit. The bird was interesting not just on its own account (there was some documentation that suggested it might have prophetic powers and high intelligence, but it was hard to be sure when the creature was actively unfriendly to humans and also attributed with the ability to bring first fortune and then doom to those it ran across, though John suspected that was more of a self-fulfilling prophecy brought on by the rarity and prestige associated with catching one than anything), but it was also part of a ‘family’ of birds that John had been informally researching since he was a first year. The dodo, the phoenix, and the chicken were all very different, but they all had interesting similarities, too, and he had quickly realized that the firebird was like them in several ways, particularly resembling the phoenix but very likely having a relationship to the chicken as well – he did not think the presence of the zilant, a less dangerous relative of the basilisk, in Poland was a coincidence. He really, really hoped it was possible to extract DNA from these highly magical birds and that he got a chance to do so someday.

For now, he had asked Sutton to put the zilant, a snake with the wings and feet of a rooster, next to the central image of the Żar-ptak. He had asked that the other things with wings (the gamayun, a sphinx-like bird-creature with a humanoid face, the three-headed, bipedal, related-to-dragons zmey, and the egg-laying, amphibious ‘flying mermaid’ alkonost) be sort of near the center, too, and then had butted out of the organizing game. Graphorns and the various sub-types of troll were somewhat interesting, and John would happily dissect a nogtail or a dugbog if he got the chance, but they weren’t his particular area of study and he had just included them in the display so Taransay wouldn’t accuse him of being too limited in his interests. He was, after all, doing all this in no small part to get into the professor’s good books.

He unrolled a long, narrow sheet of parchment, one which gave a very brief description of each creature in the pre-determined arrangement order, and set it up just beneath Sutton’s portraits. That done, he conjured himself up a stool, adjusted his hat, opened the tab that covered the sipping opening in his travel cup of tea, slipped a bit of the krówki while no-one was looking at him, and waited to see if anyone would actually ask him to ramble on at them about magical creatures.

OOC: Żar-ptak is the Polish name for the “firebird,” a creature from Slavic mythology. Being unfriendly, a bringer of fortune and doom, and possibly prophetic are traits Wikipedia says it has in said mythology. Being related to dodos, phoenixes, and chickens biologically is something that I made up. The other creatures John mentions are also from folklore; some liberties were taken, the alkonost description is particularly based on one image of the creatures that has a mermaid-like tail, but they were said to lay their eggs in the sea and cause storms by doing so.

16 John Umland Fantastic beasts: here's where to find them! 285 John Umland 0 5

DH Skies

February 18, 2017 1:09 AM

Chile by DH Skies

Selina was pleased with how the fair had come together. The students had certainly put a lot of effort in, and she was looking forward to having a chance to explore the booths herself, once Chile was taken care of. She left most of the setting up to the students, but was on hand to assist with any tricky bits of spellwork to get their display standing, or just to be an extra pair of hands.

Like most of the booths, it covered a diverse range of subjects, from indigenous people to local animals (including, surprisingly, penguins - even she had learnt something whilst putting this booth together). From a stand in front of the stall, delicious smells wafted across the pitch…. She doubted it was a unique selling point, food was such an obvious and appealing thing to explore, but she definitely thought theirs smelt tempting. And if there were further snacks to try at other stalls, she definitely wasn’t going to be disappointed.

“Great job team,” she smiled, once the booth was set up ready. “Thank you for all your hard work - it looks fantastic. I guess those who aren’t on duty first are free to explore,” she added. She had left it up to the students to devise their own rota, merely giving it a quick scan to check that all the work hadn’t been dumped on one or two people. “And those who are, let’s get ready to show them what Chile’s made of!”

OOC - booth content based on what Tobi suggested at the meeting but left deliberately vague for any of the Chile students to fill in extra ideas/details if they’d like to.

13 DH Skies Chile 26 DH Skies 0 5

DH Skies

February 18, 2017 1:10 AM

South Korea (nm) by DH Skies

0 DH Skies South Korea (nm) 26 DH Skies 0 5

DH Skies

February 18, 2017 1:15 AM

France (nm) by DH Skies

0 DH Skies France (nm) 26 DH Skies 0 5

DH Skies

February 18, 2017 1:16 AM

New Zealand (nm) by DH Skies

0 DH Skies New Zealand (nm) 26 DH Skies 0 5

Raine Collindale

February 18, 2017 4:16 AM

Letting the food do the talking by Raine Collindale

Raine was genuinely excited for the fair, and very pleased with how the whole preparation had gone. People had liked her idea. That simple sentence still filled her with a huge bubble of pride and amazement. She had come to close to just keeping her mouth shut, a little bit afraid to put herself out there in front of so many unfamiliar people, but she had gone for it, and it had been worth it. Every time she looked at the Ethiopia booth, she felt proud. Raine had never been proud of anything she’d done in school before. Sure, after it had started, the whole pen-friend thing had run away from her a bit, in certain areas. Joe Umland seemed to be getting endless information either from his pen-friend or additional sources about religion, which went into a level of detail that was completely beyond her comprehension. But, so long as Joe was happy with his part of the project, and the pen-pal scheme was a success, it didn’t matter.

Besides making a new friend in a different country, she had enjoyed the cooking the most. She liked to cook, and had learnt to make some really interesting food, which she hoped she’d be able to try again some day. She wasn’t great with music, but she’d listened to it enough that she was humming some of the melodies as they set up. Her own posters centered around her pen-pal, and what she’d learnt from them.

“Your tea smells really good,” she smiled at Joe, as she laid paper plates out, placing one of the mini injera they’d made on to each. The sourdough pancakes were a bit of an acquired taste, and she hadn’t been a fan of the first batch they’d made, but they were definitely growing on her, and the stews were very tasty. She plated some up, adding little flags that declared them to be ‘vegan’ or ‘meaty (warning, spicy)’ and stood back. She would explain to people, if they asked more about the food, but she sort of felt the labels said the main things people would want to know, and she wasn’t really a natural sales person.

13 Raine Collindale Letting the food do the talking 327 Raine Collindale 0 5

Makenzie Newell

February 21, 2017 1:56 AM

Wandering between [Tobi] by Makenzie Newell

Though not necessarily consciously, Makenzie dressed a little extra nice for the fair. Her dress was far less than a ball gown, of course, and she could hardly wear heels on the Quidditch pitch without fear of hurting herself, messing up the grass, or all of the above. Instead, she wore a summery white dress with a peach floral pattern and peach sandals. She didn’t often wear earrings, but she chose today to. And her hair was gently curled and pushed back, a delicate swoop of bangs supported by a shiny silver hair clip.

The Crotalus was planning to split her time between her two favorite people: Araceli, her best friend; and Tobi, her… well, it was complicated. There was something there this year, something she had never seen or imagined before. She just… didn’t know what to do about it, or if Tobi felt the something she did and would do something. Makenzie honestly felt a bit overwhelmed by all the feeling she was doing lately. This year had been very different than any before.

She couldn’t help but note that last year, while she’d been at the midsummer event, her homelife had been falling apart. She didn’t want to think about it - she wanted to have a fun night - but the thought refused to be shaken completely from her mind. It was a quiet whisper that said maybe things were never going to be okay again, and maybe they weren’t meant to be. Makenzie didn’t want to believe that, but it was so hard to feel hopeful when her parents’ marriage had deteriorated so rapidly. She had always thought they were perfect. An ideal representation of the society couple. But she had been wrong.

It was a bit easier to not think about it when she wasn’t alone, so she was grateful for the company currently Tobi provided. Makenzie was pleased to find that their turn away from their fair both coincided, and so currently, they simply strolled between booths. She didn’t initiate anything immediately, although she would not pull her hand away from his if they happened to brush or, more optimistically, he reached for it. She knew hand-holding wasn’t intrinsically romantic, but just the thought of it brought a flush to her cheeks. His presence was a warmth and a fluttering she had never known before.

“Hey, Tobi?” she said, obviously nervous. “I, um, I’m really glad we’re….” Makenzie hesitated around the word friends, afraid of establishing it as the maximum level when she was fairly certain that she wanted more than that. “You know. That we’ve spent time together this year. I wish we would’ve started doing it earlier,” she added with a weak laugh that faded quickly, returning her tone to exposed honesty. “It’s really meant a lot to me.”

12 Makenzie Newell Wandering between [Tobi] 291 Makenzie Newell 0 5

Dustin Newell

February 21, 2017 4:04 AM

Might as well learn something by Dustin Newell

As with most school functions, Dustin didn’t really care about the fair. However, he did his best to at least seem fairly positive since both his cousin and his sister had signed up and worked on booths for it. He wasn’t exactly a great sibling/cousin to have and he knew it, but he did try to support their endeavours. Their extracurricular endeavours, at least. Other types made him less enthused. And by other types, he meant boys.

Florence was still a bit young to take much heed in the male sex, but even Dustin could identify the look in Makenzie’s eyes. She smiled at Tobi Reinhardt just a little too much, laughed just a little too loud when he spoke to her. Dustin was certain he would never properly live down the boggart lesson in Defense Against the Dark Arts where his had taken shape of the Teppenpaw sixth year stating his claim to Dustin’s cousin, mostly because Tobi in real life seemed to be infuriatingly kind to all living creatures, but he felt fairly justified in his fear related to him. Dustin was the oldest of four, but for most of his life, he’d been more like the second of five. And now with everything that had happened with the family last summer, and Makenzie having to move in with them and live like a proper sibling, he was utterly terrified of all the all too real possibility of Tobi stealing her from them.

Maybe he was jumping too far ahead - after all, Tobi and Makenzie weren’t even, like, dating - but he couldn’t help it. Nothing like this had ever happened before, and Makenzie was on the cusp of adulthood! She’d be a seventh year next year, her final year at Sonora, and after that, he didn’t know what would happen. Had the family not socially imploded, he would’ve expected a match made for her if she hadn’t yet found a suitable guy to marry, and she’d live at home briefly until the wedding could be managed. But that wasn’t really an option now. So would she be off to college? Would she move out and find a job? Would she run off to live in Turner’s Point with the Reinhardts, choosing them over the Newells like she had over midterm, like her mother had chosen the Hartfields? He knew that thought wasn’t fair, and that if Makenzie could have heard his thought process, she would have likely burst into tears or something. But Dustin was hurting too. He was supposed to be heir to a fortune and prowess. Now it seemed like all he was heir to was disaster and sadness.

As he headed over to check out the Chile booth, a memory returned to him. Dustin saw himself sitting on Makenzie’s father’s lap, not more than maybe four or five. ”You’ll take care of my daughter, won’t you, Dustin? You’ll always look out for Makenzie?” Uncle Nelson asked. The small Dustin bobbed his head seriously. “Good boy. You’ll be a good leader someday, just like your dad and Grandpa” - he laughed - “and heck, maybe even me.” Nelson ruffled Dustin’s fluffy brown hair, and the young boy smiled. His father was older than Makenzie’s, so in a way, Dustin had always felt like he was better than her. But nowadays, it seemed pretty silly. She was just… family.

Dustin arrived to check out her booth, but she was not there. He sighed. It must not have been her turn or whatever. He’d head over to France soon to check out Flo’s stuff, but for the moment, he was already here, so he figured he might as well stick around a bit. “Okay,” he said to the group member currently set up at the booth. “Teach me something about Chile.”

12 Dustin Newell Might as well learn something 312 Dustin Newell 0 5

Ginger

February 22, 2017 12:00 PM

One last date at Sonora (Jake) by Ginger

Ginger loved their South Korea booth. It didn't have a rainforest or anything, but they had some Korean food, and costumes, and most of the group had learned enough of the Korean alphabet from Kir that they could make bookmarks for the booth visitors with their names written in Korean letters (or at least fake it well enough that most people who weren't actually of Korean descent probably wouldn't know the difference).

Amelia, Emerald, and Kit, as the team's Aladrens, had led the way in finding out about the country's History and Government and Culture and Other Key Facts, and Ginger had been happy to volunteer to help arrange all of that information into visually appealing educational posters and dioramas for visitors to view. Jake had helped, too, of course.

It had all come together very nicely, she thought, as she looked at their assembled booth on the pitch. "The booth looks great, we look great, the food smells great, and let's all have a great day today!" she enthused. She volunteered herself and Jake to take the first shift of covering the booth, and told the rest to go out and see the rest of the fair.

She initially handled making the bookmarks while Jake answered questions and made sure the food didn't run out, then they switched places for the second half of their shift. Soon enough, the next shift arrived and she and Jake headed out to see what the rest of the fair had on offer.

"Where to first?"

OOC: Booth details pulled together based on guesswork and what was said at the planning meeting.

1 Ginger One last date at Sonora (Jake) 302 Ginger 0 5

Jake Manger

February 22, 2017 10:30 PM

Teach 'em how to say goodbye, say goodbye, you and I~ by Jake Manger

Jake was generally a chipper person, as anyone who had ever been in the same thirty foot radius as him could attest, but today, he found himself pressing for a smile. As much as he wanted to ignore it, there was no way he could push the thought away fully. This was the end of Sonora career. His last day.

Spending it with Ginger lessened his sorrow some, at least. She was his greatest treasure and a more than fitting distraction, as long as she herself was still smiling. That was what mattered, really. He had always been a kind person, but having someone so important in his life had taught him real selflessness.

He wore the costume for their booth on South Korea, despite feeling entirely silly in it. Jake was generally pretty fond of more western clothes, although Ginger of course looked adorable in hers, so much so that with them on shift at the booth, he didn’t even mind fumbling through bad Korean to write people’s names on bookmarks. He found immediately after switching to that job that he definitely preferred fielding questions and supplying food. That was way easier.

But soon enough, their shift concluded, and they were off to explore the other booths. “Oh, I don’t know,” he replied. “Maybe Brazil? I bet Professor Xavier has a lot of cool plants and stuff in that rain forest. I also promised Soph- Professor O’Malley,” he amended, “that I’d stop by Israel. But wherever you wanna go first is fine by me.” Jake also wouldn’t have minded just disappearing into the pseudo rain forest with her, but of course, he was not the type to suggest such a thing. And all time with her was precious, whatever form it took. Especially today.

He felt himself looking at her a little longer than was technically polite, and as he caught her eye, he smiled. “Sorry,” he said, chuckling softly at himself. Even this far into the relationship, he found himself blushing. “I didn’t mean to stare. I was just thinking about… about how much I love you.” It wasn’t the first time he’d said those words to her - Jake felt no constraints about announcing his feelings, and he probably told people or things that he loved them a hundred times a day - but the tone was weighted with something heavy, something real. The feeling of not just loving, but of being in love.

12 Jake Manger Teach 'em how to say goodbye, say goodbye, you and I~ 280 Jake Manger 0 5

Lionel Layne

February 22, 2017 11:04 PM

Admiring the artwork. by Lionel Layne

His last night at Sonora. It didn’t quite seem real. Lionel had opted out of participating in the Fair so he could study for his RATS (how he had done on them after all that was…something he was choosing not to think about yet. He was sure he had passed, at least most of them, but he was not as sure that he had passed by a large enough margin to make Granddad and Grandmother happy), but now that it was upon them, he saw other advantages to having done so. His sister was stuck at one booth – happily, admittedly, by the looks of it; Aladrens – but he got to walk around and see all of them, not to mention sample all their food.

Everyone, it seemed, had taken the food angle and run with it, and Lionel greatly appreciated that they had done that. Not all of it tasted that great to him, and Merlin knew he couldn’t pronounce all the names of all the dishes (or, frankly, probably even a majority of the dishes), but it was fascinating to see what was the same, what was different, how different people used the same ingredients in different ways….He really understood, he thought, for one of the first times, why cooking was sometimes said to be like art. It was all the same sets of pigments, but one could do a million different things with them, each surprising and novel.

Food art was still, however, not something he knew as much about as real art. Poland held no innate interest for him, but as he wandered by it, expecting their food samples to be pretty bland and being pleasantly surprised to find something that both looked and tasted a lot like candy, he became intrigued by part of the display. It was not the colorful costumes a couple of the people were wearing, the stupid hat John Umland was wearing, or the ramble about magical creatures John Umland was subjecting some poor soul to, but rather, the artwork depicting the creatures John was rambling about whilst wearing his stupid hat. Moving carefully so as not to attract the Aladren’s attention (Aladrens. He knew them too well), he got close enough to examine them more closely and then saw another member of the group.

“I’m guessing I know who did these,” he said to Sutton, smiling. “They’re really good.”

16 Lionel Layne Admiring the artwork. 283 Lionel Layne 0 5

Sutton Nicolls

February 22, 2017 11:26 PM

Pleased at the admiration. by Sutton Nicolls

Sutton was thankful that she hadn’t had to do much of the academic work required for the booth. She had been content to do the artwork and to study John Umland. She still couldn’t fathom Aislinn’s taste. She had nearly drifted to sleep a couple of the times that he had been talking during their part of the project, however, paying close attention to some detail of his face, such as his nose or an ear had kept her focused. She just pretended that she was supposed to be studying him so that she could draw him later. It seemed to be the only way to make him appearing at all. Aside from the interest in angles that made up John Umland, she had decided that Aislinn was absolutely insane to like John. He was without a doubt that most boring person that she had ever met in her life. She seriously hoped that her sister would meet someone interesting over the summer. Perhaps, she would try to find someone for her.

She was lost in these thoughts when she heard Lionel speaking to her. Sutton offered him a smile and got up from the chair that she had been sitting on. “Oh, thanks! I’m glad that you came to our booth. I was afraid that someone – “ her eyes drifted to the one currently speaking continuously” – would scare you off. Anyhow, I haven’t seen you around much. But then, it seems that the RATS always scare the seventh years into hiding.” She laughed a bit, but it really wasn’t that far off. The CATS also seemed to make the fifth years retreat to either their rooms or the library. Even she had studied for them and she didn’t feel confident that she had passed everything, she had passed most of her subjects. It was at least enough to allow her to continue school for the next couple of years.

“Soon you’ll be free of this place,” Sutton commented, though, she was a little sad to see him go. He had been one of the rare people that she felt she could actually be friends with. But then wasn’t that the way things usually went? Every time that someone came along, they inevitably went away.

0 Sutton Nicolls Pleased at the admiration. 311 Sutton Nicolls 0 5

Simon Mordue

February 23, 2017 7:06 PM

Probably flirting with disaster. by Simon Mordue

Simon had learned to hide it, to conceal nerves behind a solemn expression as though he were merely a very serious and refined person instead of a nervous one, but he did not think he could blame all of the sweat annoyingly beading up on the back of his neck on the midsummer sun. His role was relatively minor – hand out the pamphlets on history and culture he and Caelia had put together and answer a question if it was directed directly to him and he knew the answer – but he still felt the pressure of the stage. Quidditch had helped that fear, helped a lot – his uncle had slapped his back when he told the family about his first game and said that the game would make a man out of him, and if being a man was only half-panicking whenever people chased him with weapons, he guessed his uncle was right – but Simon was not sure it would ever really go away completely for him.

Through his nerves, though, he really did think they had all done a good job. He didn’t know how it would have gone without Caelia as an older student to help them out, but she was there and it had worked out for them. They had a booth upright and it had pamphlets and food and what Winston and Kira had done with stories at the very least. Brazil had clearly gone completely over the top and Poland featured some distinctive costumes and so many posters it reminded Simon of all the paintings and photographs that covered the walls in his aunt’s boudoir, but Israel was presentable. He was even prepared to bet that theirs was not going to be the worst booth at the Fair.

He stood up straight and made a point of asking passers-by if they wanted a pamphlet, as he and Caelia had worked hard on them, but he doubted many people found history and archaeology that interesting. He was not totally comfortable inserting himself into conversations among the group members or initiating them with anyone but Winston and sometimes Caelia, so when he found himself without anyone to offer a pamphlet to for several minutes, he looked for something else to do for a moment so he wouldn’t just have to stand in awkward silence. The most appealing option looked like speaking to one of Professor O’Malley’s small children, so Simon smiled at one of them.

“Is the felefel good?” he asked one. They looked old enough to talk, and he thought he remembered running across a game when reading that it might be possible to use them in a demonstration of if they were old enough to understand things. That wasn’t part of the program, really, but it would probably draw more attention than just history and stories and chickpeas, and then maybe people would stay for the rest.

16 Simon Mordue Probably flirting with disaster. 369 Simon Mordue 0 5

Lionel

February 23, 2017 11:07 PM

Pleased to be noticed. by Lionel

Lionel knew it wasn’t very nice of him, but he couldn’t help but smile when he saw Sutton look at John when talking about people who might scare him (or, he guessed, anyone; he doubted she had been looking for him to come by particularly, had she?) off. John was…a character, no doubt; Lionel felt capable of handling the Aladren in relatively small doses, it was a side effect of having grown up around Uncle Geoff, and even more so Aunt Anne and Gray Wright and even, on a good day, somewhat less so Alicia, but he could see Sutton’s point. He suspected very few people who hadn’t themselves been Sorted into Aladren would risk getting close enough to have the speech directed at them.

“Yeah,” he agreed about RATS. “I mean, on my own, of course, telling me this is the one test that’s going to determine what jobs I can do for the rest of my life isn’t enough to push me into the library, but I thought my grandparents would like it if I went some.” Plus his roommate had decided to become a public exhibitionist recently. Lionel was perfectly fine with acknowledging that girls were pretty and that doing stuff with them sounded appealing, but that didn’t mean he wanted to watch someone else doing said things. “I’ve heard there’s something that does the same to fifth years, now that I think of it,” he joked.

Sutton’s next word choice was as interesting as the look she had given John. “Interesting choice of words,” said Lionel, smiling a bit so she’d hopefully realize he was just teasing a bit. “Someone could get the idea you don’t like it here.” He shrugged. “But yeah, I am almost out. Where I’m going next…who knows?”

It was not an altogether rhetorical statement. Lionel really did not know what he was going to do with his life and didn’t think getting his RATS results was going to help him much with that. The only thing he really truly enjoyed was art, and he had seen how making a living at that could look with his mother. His mother spent more time waiting tables than painting, and selling enough of what she did paint to draw attention from higher up was hard. He did not think Granddad would approve at all if Lionel attempted that, especially since he knew without a doubt that he wasn’t as good as his mom. She had a real talent. He just enjoyed it.

16 Lionel Pleased to be noticed. 283 Lionel 0 5

Clark Dill

February 24, 2017 7:55 PM

Is this our twilight? (tag Lena) by Clark Dill

The fair was winding down and in the morning the wagons would take them home. In less than 24 hours, Clark would see his last of Sonora Academy. It was a bittersweet thought. He was moving on and up with his life, going to college, studying the sciences he loved most. But there were things here he was going to miss. Science Club. John.

Lena.

He had spent the fair with her, what part of it he hadn't been working in the New Zealand booth, as the closest thing Sonora could offer as a good fun date out. And dusk was approaching and he'd be expected back at the New Zealand booth soon for take down.

Short of saving it for the minutes before getting on the wagons, he had put off this conversation as long as was possible. He did not know how it would end, and he hadn’t wanted to ruin what time they had left together by bringing it up any sooner than he had to.

"So," he said, looking up at the sunset of his last day in Arizona, and possibly his last day of being Lena's boyfriend. "Does our time as a couple end with our time at Sonora?"

Truthfully, he had never really expected his relationship with Lena to continue past Sonora. He knew she was a pureblood girl and he was some form of half-blood. They came from almost literally different worlds. But that did not mean he wanted to see it end.

1 Clark Dill Is this our twilight? (tag Lena) 277 Clark Dill 0 5

Wally and Stanley O'Malley

February 25, 2017 5:14 PM

What's flirting? by Wally and Stanley O'Malley

Wally blinked. There was a big kid talking to him. He glanced at his brother sitting on the ground beside him, but Stanley didn’t seem particularly phased by the big kid, too occupied by his snack.

Mom said it was bad to talk with food in your mouth, so Wally chewed and swallowed quickly. “Yeah,” he answered quietly beneath the chatter of the event. He looked around nervously and realized he was probably too quiet, so he repeated himself, this time a bit louder. “Yeah.”

His folding chair - unlike his brother, Wally wasn’t very fond of dirt and things, so he had asked for something to sit on instead of just plopping down - wasn’t too far from the booth, where his mom and dad still currently stood, and also where the falafels were. “They’re over there,” he added, pointing at the booth. “If you want one.”

It was now, halfway through his treat, that Stanley seemed to become aware that there was a conversation going on and that he wasn’t involved in it. And Wally was! That was unfair. Stanley tugged on the big kid’s pant leg to get his attention. “Hi! I’m Stanley!” he declared. “Are you here to be our friend?”

0 Wally and Stanley O'Malley What's flirting? 0 Wally and Stanley O'Malley 0 5

Simon Mordue

February 28, 2017 1:11 PM

...Someone else will tell you when you're older. by Simon Mordue

The small child appeared shy. Simon could sympathize with that, and hoped that the child was not one of the heirs in his family, too. People expected the one with the main property to be the face of the family, and it was just too bad if that one happened to wish his future ability to tell people what to do could include the power to order someone else to be the face of the family and host the biggest parties and do business and do politics and meet with important people instead. Everyone, though, as his father said, had a boss, and tradition was an heir’s.

“Thank you,” he said politely when the small child pointed out where the food was, and then the other child jumped up and tugged on his trouser leg. Simon looked, startled, at the second child, who offered up a name.

“Hello, Stanley,” he said, offering his hand to shake. Did small children do that? He had been taught to by the time he was their age, he thought, for when he met his father’s friends. “I’m here to help your parents with this booth, but I’d be happy to be friends with you, too. Would you like some pamphlets to offer people?” Maybe small, cute children would have an easier time making people take an interest in history and culture. "They are about what children in another country do." He looked back at the seated one. “My name is Simon,” he added to both twins. “What’s yours?” he asked the less bold one.

16 Simon Mordue ...Someone else will tell you when you're older. 369 Simon Mordue 0 5

Joe Umland

February 28, 2017 1:46 PM

But talking is fun! by Joe Umland

Joe smiled back at Raine when she complimented the spice mixture. “Thanks,” he said. “I guess I’m giving away stuff about my background when I admit I asked my friend about whether or not they take tea,” he joked. “Teatime – “ by which he meant tea with half a sandwich or a bit of toast and a cookie or the like; it was more snacktime than anything, the whole afternoon spread was for special occasions, but everyone stopped being productive for twenty or thirty minutes and had to sit up straight, eat their snacks nicely, and say something interesting he or she had learned that day whenever Mom presided over the regular occasions – “is my mom’s favorite part of the day, I think. Those look good, too." He looked between the vegan and spicy meat options. "Wonder which kind will be tried the most?”

Joe had half-worried about being poked fun at for liking to cook different foods, but it turned out this had been a pretty common interest in the group. He didn’t know if a full-fledged cooking club (as opposed to just baking) was feasible, given how the elves liked to do things for people and what an expensive thing cooking international cuisines could be, but he did hope it could translate into a continuing connection with Raine and Tasha next year. If the secret agenda of the Fair had been to get people to get to know each other better and get along with their now closer acquaintances better, Joe thought the Ethiopia booth might well be a success whether anyone expressed an interest in the divisions of Orthodoxy or had the nerve to try a dish whose spiciness came with a warning label or not.

16 Joe Umland But talking is fun! 329 Joe Umland 0 5

Wally and Stanley

February 28, 2017 8:26 PM

When? by Wally and Stanley

Stanley looked at the hand offered to him by the big kid for a moment before remembering what he was supposed to do with it. Then he reached out and grasped on, his grip pretty solid for a kid his age, and shook happily. When the big kid offered him pamphlets, he made a face. “That sounds boring,” he commented bluntly. He didn’t want to just stand around and give people papers. What was he, a paper-man?! No, sirree Bob.

As the big kid - Simon - introduced himself and asked for Wally’s name, it suddenly occurred to him that now was the time to remember that he was shy. He felt very nervous immediately thereafter and sort of curled into himself, pulling up his dangling legs for safety. Stanley rolled his eyes at his twin brother’s sudden freeze up. “He’s Wally,” he stated for the good of the order.

Wally nodded slowly in confirmation of the fact. He managed eventually to pull his big blue eyes back up to Simon, although he looked a little scared to do it. “Are… are there pictures?” he asked weakly. “In the pamphlets.” Wally gave a tentative, sheepish smile. “I like pictures. And I don’t really know how to read.” He had started picking up a few things here and there, and he recognized his name when it was written out, as well as Mom, Dad, and Stanley, but mostly on memory of the appearance and not really on the basis of reading comprehension. But he was trying.

0 Wally and Stanley When? 0 Wally and Stanley 0 5

Simon

February 28, 2017 11:23 PM

When you're thirty, maybe. by Simon

Simon withdrew the pamphlet as Stanley declared it boring. Well, it had been worth a try. Things then apparently decided to get worse as the other one curled into a ball at being asked his name (maybe he was one of those people who really, really disliked his name for some reason? Simon wouldn’t have thought they were old enough to think of that, but he didn’t remember that much about it himself and therefore supposed he couldn’t say for sure.

Stanley answered for his brother, though, assigning to the other small child the moniker ‘Wally.’ Maybe he was old enough to dislike his name, thought Simon then. He would not like to be called Wally, but it did not seem polite to say so.

“Some pictures,” he said instead. “Of nice buildings and magical sites and things.” He proffered one for Wally’s inspection. “And Miss Lucan draws beautifully. I like reading – I’m sure you will, too, when you learn more – and I like looking at her pictures, too.” Simon looked back and forth between the two, then decided he should ask. “How old are you two?” he asked. He was assuming somewhere between four and six from how well they spoke, but knowing exactly would help him get a better idea of what he should think of them – hopefully, anyway.

16 Simon When you're thirty, maybe. 369 Simon 0 5

Lena

March 01, 2017 3:00 AM

Sunrise over Valley Broad by Lena

Out on the quidditch pitch, walking side by side with Clark, Lena enjoyed the fair and the last night she would spend in her home. That was what Sonora was after all. Home. She restricted her gaze to the fair, avoiding looking at the castle for fear of tearing up. The sun was starting to set and soon it would be too dark for Lena to make it out anyway. Tonight wasn’t a time for melancholy; she would have the entire wagon ride to feel the loss of her routine, her room, her classes, the Gardens, Quidditch, Clark.

Clark.

It was when they took a moment to look at the sunset when she heard Clark start “So,” and fear and hope surged within her before he continued “does our time as a couple end with our time at Sonora?”

Lena stilled. Was he hopeful? Did he want to break up after tonight? Would that be easiest for them even if it wasn’t what they wanted? They lived in different continents, their plans for the future were divided, they wouldn’t have much free time- but those were all obstacles to overcome. Ignoring the easier option, she screwed her courage to the sticking place.

“Not unless you want it to.” Until she heard his answer, her head didn’t need to start working out how they would make time for each other- distance wasn’t such a huge barrier when they were witches and wizards. Her house had a Floo connected fireplace, and she was prepared to use a portkey, however uncomfortable especially for such a long trip. As he would be the busier they could work around his time table, time differences be damned. It wouldn’t be easy exactly, but Clark was so important she didn’t want to lose him. He was her best friend, and romance aside even she knew she wanted him in her life.

She looked in Clark’s eyes and hoped his answer would be one that kept them together.

7 Lena Sunrise over Valley Broad 279 Lena 0 5

Clark

March 01, 2017 10:39 AM

Befuddled babbling by Clark

Clark looked away from the sunset to look at Lena in surprise. In truth, he had expected a sad and reluctant but ultimately unavoidable agreement that their time together was ending. Practically speaking, there were a lot of barriers in the way of continuing their relationship outside of Sonora. Had he thought there was a real chance of it not ending with graduation, he would have widened his college research to include those in England as well as Canada and the US.

Maybe he was the one putting too much credence into blood status because Lena seemed entirely open to the idea of not ending their courtship, and dating past secondary school carried rather more significant weight than dating in secondary school. Like she maybe even thought they had a shot at a future together.

"Oh," he said, his mind reeling and trying to accommodate this new information, while considering logistics and his own future expectations. "I, that, I mean," he stammered, then blurted the one baffling part he hadn't even considered before right now, "Your family would be okay with that?" Olivier had always been perfectly polite and friendly to him, but he'd always kind of gotten the sense that her brother was just tolerating him until Lena moved up to a better quality boyfriend. But maybe he'd misread that and Olivier just wasn't very skilled at making friends and letting people in and it had nothing to do with Clark at all. He briefly regretted not trying harder. But that was neither here nor there. Here was Lena and there was the perceived end of their relationship which maybe wouldn't end there after all.

"I mean, I don't want to break up, I just thought, I assumed, I didn't think it would work out long term. But if you want to try . . . It'll be hard, and if we don't make it, I'd rather stay friends than crush our potential under the pressure of a long distance relationship, but if you want to . . . maybe a trial run? See how hard it really is, and if it's too much, call if off for now, stay friends, and try again after college when we're not so busy and have a better idea of where we're going in life?"

1 Clark Befuddled babbling 277 Clark 0 5

Ginger

March 02, 2017 11:20 AM

Goodbye is for tomorrow not today, don't rush it by Ginger

Ginger was thinking about their choices for where to go first - she was definitely curious about that rainforest, but seeing Professor O'Malley's kids was definitely a draw, too (seeing the teachers as real people with real lives was always pretty cool even if Jake didn't have a familial relationship to them) - when she realized Jake was staring at her. She gave him a quizzical look, reflexively hoping her hair wasn't escaping its ties too badly, but by his enraptured expression she didn't think that was really the problem.

She smiled and felt a warm glow inside her as he confirmed again that he loved her. She jumped at him for a brief but heartfelt hug and kiss, then beamed brightly at him, "It is entirely mutual," she promised sincerely. Squeezing his hand in both of hers, she pulled him a few steps toward Brazil. "I bet that rainforest has some romantic spots in it. Let's go find them."

As they started moving that direction, she wrapped her one arm around his waist and tucked her body comfortably against again his. She was acutely aware that all too soon they would be separated by his graduation and she wanted as much closeness as possible in the meantime.

"We'll definitely hit Israel next," she added in afterthought, making his promise hers as well. She knew Professor O'Mallet was in some convoluted way related to Jake, but as she didn't have much need for clarifications on how her own cousins were related to her, she had trouble remembering the details. "She's your step-sister-in-law or something? Do her kids call you Uncle Jake, or are you more of a cousin?"

1 Ginger Goodbye is for tomorrow not today, don't rush it 302 Ginger 0 5