Jogging and Grumping on Labyrinth Gardens

Sorrel Craven

July 12, 2006 7:45 AM

Jogging and Grumping by Sorrel Craven

Up earlier than usual, Sorrel had decided to use the extra time afforded to her by her lack of sleep to take a jog on the paths. Even though she wasn't sure she'd run into anyone this early, she hadn't been able to leave without applying the thick black eyeliner; it was to be her face from now on, her aggressive new front and she wasn't going to present the softer front to anyone. Plus, the sooner they got used to the fact that this was her now, the better. She decided not to let her brain inform her that those two ideals clashed slightly.

Half way around her circuit, she stopped at a certain statue. Taking a swig from her water bottle, she walked over it. It was of an elegantly twirling veela. It was a bit of a wussy statue, but it was the only one she'd found that suited her purposes. She reached up to one of the statue's outstretched arms, gripping it tightly. She pulled herself up, finding as she reached the full height of a chin-up that her toes still touched the floor. She tried tucking them up, but found - because of the angle of the stupid veela's stupid arm - that her toes scraped its plinth if she did that. She let go, kicking a nearby bit of hedge repeatedly. Stupid growth spurt, she thought, crossing her arms defensively over her chest, even though there was no-one around to make her feel self-conscious.

She carried on at walking pace, too pissed off to carry on with her jog, kicking any available debris. She wasn't in the mood to find another statue right now, especially as she was convinced that that had been the only good one. Coming to a fountain, she paused, sitting on its edge, her good mood at getting a jog in removed, leaving only the grumpiness of an early morning, and a general apathy towards trying anything else that day - it would probably only go wrong.\n\n

13 Sorrel Craven Jogging and Grumping 51 Sorrel Craven 1 5

Jennifer Zucchero

July 16, 2006 12:59 PM

Activities that probably shouldn't be interrupted...oops by Jennifer Zucchero

Somehow, fourth year had gotten much more demanding than any of the previous school years had ever been. It wasn’t just the slight increase in class work, even though the slightest change seemed to throw off the entire system. In addition to the classes and the homework, though, everything else had gotten more complicated as well.

At least a few of the Crotalus third years seemed to be plotting something once more, which, even though it really was none of Jennifer’s business, generally meant everyone should be watching out for whatever was going to explode next. And while she didn’t have to worry about getting a full roster for her quidditch team this year, there were still a few things that needed to be ironed out before practices began again, and she wasn’t looking forward to the confrontation. And then there were the new social situations, which she had decided for the time being to just leave alone. (She still got the feeling Liz was hiding something from her, though, and she was going to discover what it was, no matter how much unethical prying it took.)

All in all, things had been busy so far. And while it had been a wonderful challenge the first few weeks of the new year, now it was just a pain. So, when she began to develop the urge to burn every paper in sight after waking up early to work on quidditch plays and finish up an essay that wasn’t even due for another week, she decided it was past time to finally take a break before she did something she was going to regret.

She chose to wander through the gardens, since that was likely to be the quietest place, the easiest to collect herself and her thoughts. She walked for about fifteen minutes without seeing anyone else, but then heard what sounded like various things hitting each other. Growing curious, she followed the noise until she came upon another student sitting on the edge of a fountain.

It was Sorrel, but she seemed very different from the last time Jennifer had seen the girl, at the end of third year. It looked like she had decided to go for a different style and cut her hair, and also seemed to have developed a fondness for black eyeliner. It was a very different look, but it seemed to suit the other girl, in its way. After a moment of pondering leaving the girl alone, since she didn’t want to interrupt anything important, Jennifer decided that now was as good a time as any to broach a topic she had been wanting to discuss with the other girl and her brother since soon after the quidditch match.

Moving so that she was almost directly across from the girl, she leaned back against a hedge and said cheerfully, “Hey, Sorrel. I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” Pausing both to give Sorrel a chance to answer and to decide how to continue from there, she chose a few seconds later to just come right on out with it. “I want to thank you and Ash for the chocolates you sent me last year. I really appreciated them. I kept meaning to write you guys a thank-you note, but,” she grinned somewhat sheepishly, “It kept slipping my mind. Anyway, you two really didn’t have to do that. I mean, anyone would have done it. I just…happened to be the closest, that was all. So just…thanks,” she finished somewhat lamely.

She wasn’t quite sure where to go from there. She had always seen Sorrel and Ash as Liz and Stephen’s friends. She supposed she could consider the two of them friends as well, but not close ones. Still, Sorrel seemed nice, and from the letter it sounded like she and her brother were willing to become better friends. It wouldn’t hurt to try and start a genuine conversation, so she settled back and asked, “So, how have things been with you so far this year? Did you and your brother do anything interesting over the summer?” It was a pretty lame start, even she would admit that, but it was the best she could come up with.
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0 Jennifer Zucchero Activities that probably shouldn't be interrupted...oops 48 Jennifer Zucchero 0 5

Sorrel

July 19, 2006 12:16 PM

Jogging's a perfectly companiable activity... by Sorrel

Sorrel looked up as someone hailed her. They called her name, which meant it was someone she knew, so she checked her usual reaction of glaring. If she decided she didn't want to be bothered by whoever it was, she could put them off easily enough, especially as her make up, mood and general demeanour meant that a simple lack of a glare didn't mean her face looked friendly and welcoming. She was a little surprised when she found it was Jennifer Zucchero who had interupted her... whatever it was she was doing. Essentially sitting in a mood, but she didn't want to admit that. The surprise softened the meaness in her face slightly, curiousity lighting behind her eyes instead of the guarded expression. She found herself shaking her head when Jennifer asked if she was interupting.

"Oh," she replied, when Jennifer explained that she wanted to thank them for their thank you. "S'alrgiht," she shrugged. "I'm not sure the coach would," she said, in repsonse to Jennifer's suggestion that anyone would have done the same, "She acts like she would have penalised Saul for having the idiocy to die, if he had. Stupid b****. Anyway, it was decent of you, and we wanted to to y'know," she shrugged, "show we valued your sportswomanship or whatever."

She considered Jennifer's other question a little longer. The response wasn't complex, there was a pretty standard answer to what they did over the summer. She was surprised the other girl was asking, was all.

"Come, sit," she decided to offer, though it sounded more like an instruction. It couldn't hurt to get to know Jen a little better. Especially if Stephen was going to go weird on her. "I don't bite. Not often or hard, anyway," she said. It was hard to tell whether she intended that as a joke, which was exactly what she wanted. She wasn't going to go all fluffy and cuddly on anyone. They took a risk trying to get to know her, or had to think they did. She didn't want people who weren't prepared to take her on. If they backed off or changed their minds, her reputation would still be in tact, because they would leave because they found her too 'difficult'. "Not done a lot since I got back," there was no way she was telling someone who was practically a stranger about Stephen, "put up the sign-ups," she almost grinned, it was a sort of camaraderie - being a Quidditch Captain - but not one where lots of details could be disclosed. The almost-grin said 'You know what it's like, so I don't have to tell you what I wouldn't anyway'. "Summer was ok. Our sister got married - she's Muggle, and a lot older," she added, as an explanation of why Jennifer wouldn't have seen her around, or at the alumni event, "It was the tackiest wedding the world has ever seen, but it was only one day. Played beach Quidditch and Volleyball the rest of the time really. You?" she asked. \n\n

0 Sorrel Jogging's a perfectly companiable activity... 0 Sorrel 0 5

Jennifer

August 08, 2006 10:41 AM

Not if your companion might bite your head off by Jennifer

Jennifer wasn’t quite sure what she was supposed to do as Sorrel complained about Fox. While it was slightly awkward to be standing across from someone while having a conversation, but she also wasn’t sure whether the other girl really wanted someone to get that close at the current time. She was saved from having to eventually make that decision when Sorrel informed her that she could join her on the edge of the fountain.

After taking a seat, she listened somewhat intently to Sorrel’s descriptions of what just what she and her brother had been getting up to. She smiled a little, a bit nervously, to tell the truth, as Sorrel joked about how she didn’t bite. At least, Jennifer hoped she was joking. It was rather hard to tell.

“Well, Fox was a professional, so maybe that has something to do with the ‘suck-it-up’ attitude,” she began once Sorrel had finished talking about her sister’s wedding. “But than again, I know a few beaters on Lizzie’s brother’s team, and they’re nowhere near that bad. So maybe she’s just slightly sadistic. You never know.

She paused before going on, not sure if the other girl was going to get offended if she said something about her sister, but decided, since Sorrel had been the one to say how tacky it was, going along in that vein was probably okay. “Well, you can’t account for some people’s tastes, particularly when it’s for a wedding. I mean, I don’t know your sister, but I got dragged to a lot when I was younger. Anybody who’s anybody seem to think that it’s important to have as many influential government figures present for their wedding as possible, so my father got loads of invites whenever some important family in whatever country we were staying in at the time had a member getting married. I didn’t get dragged to most of them, and some were perfectly lovely, but there was always someone who went overboard with lace, flowers, and the like. ‘Course, you probably had a much worse time than I ever did, since it was your sister and you were probably much rather involved in the festivities.”

Another pause, since she wasn’t sure how much personal information Sorrel was willing to share, then again decided to go ahead. “Do you and your sister get along well? I’ve heard it can be slightly awkward with Muggle and wizarding siblings, but, then again, I guess any siblings have their problems at times about almost anything.

“I spent all summer with Lizzie and her brothers in Louisiana, a lot of it hanging out with Javon’s quidditch team. Learned a bunch of useful tactics,” she said, grinning in much the same way that Sorrel had when talking about posting the sign-ups. “Haven’t really done much since I got back here, though. I can’t wait for quidditch to start up, even if it’s just a change of pace from schoolwork and everything.”
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0 Jennifer Not if your companion might bite your head off 0 Jennifer 0 5