Professor O'Leary
January 19, 2007 4:18 PM
Lesson 1: First and Second Years by Professor O'Leary
Clad in the usual black robes, Drake O'Leary stood in the sunshine of the Labyrinth Gardens. If anyone thought this was odd, they dared not to say anything. Arms folded, he waited for all of the students to catch up to where he stood.Once there, he began his normal lecture, "As this is a mixed class, some of you know me, some of you do not. For those that do not, I am Professor O'Leary, the Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor. While today's lesson is unusual, most classes will be spent indoors. When in the classroom, I expect absolute silence, unless otherwise given permission. Also, regardless of being in the classroom, I demand respect at all times. Fail to do these and you will be serving detention with me and I can assure you it will be quite...unpleasant."
He allowed his dark gaze to fall across the students, seemingly scarier due to the unconventional setting.
"Now, then, today's lesson involves performing and using the Point-Me spell. I want everyone to hold your wand in your open palm, like so," Drake pulled out his own wand and demonstrated. "Then, clearly, in a commanding tone, say 'Point Me.'"
Drake's wand spun around until it was pointed North, "Now if you managed to do this correctly, each wand should be pointing North. With this spell, the wand acts as a compass, which can be useful if you find yourself lost, because for today's lesson that is exactly what you'll be."
"You will be pairing off in groups of two or three and heading into the mazes. Before you head into the maze, take one of the maps that I have provided. It will show you the start point and where you should be heading to. When you reach the location, you will find a stack of bags
containing candies. I assume that it will be motivation enough to make it the location. After obtaining the bag, use the map to find your way back out. If you get lost, point your wand up in the air and use the Spark Charm, like so," Drake said, demonstrating, "and I will come find you. Now, I want to stagger the groups, so one group head in, and then in about five minutes, another group can head in, and so on. Begin."
OOC: Okay, remember, your post should be at least ten sentences in length. The more creative the post, the more points you'll earn, so have fun with it.\n\n
Subthreads: When there's food involved...(partners?) by Matt Santoro with Josiah Ashwood, Matt, Josaih
Ah time for the Vamp's class! Yay! by Caedence with Jaeven 'Jae' Dimitri, Professor O'Leary
Orienteering! Sweet! [tag Elly and Meredith] by Echo Elms with Elly Eriksson, Meredith Lail
Must I venture into these untamed wilds? by Lutece Anthony with Gil Idoya (with a little Leo and Cisco), Lutece, Lucas Smythe
Sounds more like a treasure hunt than DADA by Gwyneth Aquillon with Leo Idoya and Cisco Vargas, Gwyneth
Partner? Anyone? by Hyana Kamiya with Josh Santoro, Hyana, Mika
Pointing by Grail Markner and Kavin Analai with Irene Liddowe, Gray and Kavin
Wow, finally we have a class that I wanted by Hikaru with Eavan Valentine, Riley Garraway, Hikaru Kasuragi
I can do it! by Oliver Abbott with Amber Carey, Helena Layne, Oliver
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Professor O'Leary
Lesson 1: First and Second Years
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Professor O'Leary
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Oliver Abbott
January 29, 2007 4:28 PM
I can do it! by Oliver Abbott
Oliver’s first ever Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson found him in the gardens, just outside the maze of hedges than these Sonoran folk referred to as the labyrinth. It was quite sunny, so Oliver was glad he’d decided to keep his sunhat in his bag with him. His school robes would cover his skin nicely, but he didn’t have his sunglasses with him, so he hoped they wouldn’t have to stay out in the sunshine for too long. If he found a bit of shade that would be okay, but Oliver’s eyes didn’t like the sun.The professor was a bit eerie, and he seemed stricter than all the other professors Oliver had met so far. Still, he didn’t have anything on Mr Sherwood, his old maths teacher, otherwise known as the scariest man alive.
Professor O’Leary told the class about this pointing spell that showed you North. When he realised the other students were trying out the spell for themselves, Oliver took his wand out, too. He laid it in his palm and tried to remember Jordanna’s instructions for performing spells.
“Point me,” Oliver said clearly and with enthusiasm. His wand did exactly as it was supposed to, and turned neatly to point in the same direction as the professor’s had done. Oliver felt smug; he looked around to share his triumph, but sadly it appeared that nobody had been watching him. Why did it always happen like that?
Not to worry though – they had to get into groups and go round the maze together. That sounded like fun, plus it meant Oliver could show off his new spell to other people. He would do it subtly, though, so he didn’t look like he was showing off, because that wasn’t tasteful.
Now the only issue was, once again, to find a partner. At least this time the older students were only a little bit older, not fourth years like in charms. Oliver still didn’t know many people, and groups were forming quickly. He didn’t fancy being the only one left without a partner, so he looked up and tapped the person who was closest to him on the shoulder.
“Can we work together?” he asked.
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Oliver Abbott
I can do it!
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Oliver Abbott
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5
Amber Carey
February 01, 2007 8:44 PM
*claps* by Amber Carey
It would take a lot of nerve and at least a little insanity to think of Professor O'Leary as part of a funny TV program for five-year-olds, but the first thing that popped to mind when Amber saw him in the Gardens was a cartoon character worked into a real set. It just looked weird. If he had been one of the witches in The Wizard of Oz, she would have thought direct sunlight was his "weakness", like water was the Wicked Witch of the West's. Shoving her bangs out of her face, Amber stood on tiptoe to see if he showed any signs of melting, just in case. The professor looked as solid as he did out of place.She made an effort to listen politely to the introductory lecture, not feeling nearly as worried about the threats as she had the previous year. Morgaine was a third year, which meant she and Amber were forced into contact much less than they had been in her first year. Even O'Leary seemed like less of a dragon when she wasn't constantly worried that her bratty cousin was about to set her up and get her in trouble when she hadn't actually done anything. She tuned in fully when the talk turned to the day's spell and winced at the directions. Firm might work out, but commanding...
Here goes nothing, she though, lying her wand flat on her right palm. It looked ridiculous there, and she had a moment of the old this-couldn't-possibly-work doubt that had caused issues in the first few months of her first year. Amber shook her head once, hard, and reminded herself that O'Leary had done it and that people around her were doing it as she waffled. "Point me," she said, trying to mimic the tone her stepmother used on the house-elves.
The wand gave a halfhearted jerk, then stopped, pointing in a direction different from O'Leary's. She felt herself starting to blush, and reminding herself that she'd never been able to figure out compasses wasn't helping. They were with the first years, for crying out loud. The spell looked weird, but the firsties meant it had to be easy. "Point me," she said again, a little louder. Her wand, to its credit, did turn in an actual direction this time. Amber thought it might be pointing south.
A tap on the shoulder served to remind her of the partners requirement and keep her from making another attempt at the spell. Amber lowered her wand quickly and looked around at the boy. She thought he was one of the first years. "Sure," she said, then noticed the House badge on his robes. She immediately decided not to mention her last name. A first year wasn't likely to know much about people in the upper years, but what little she knew about Gwen's House made it sound more political by far than Teppenpaw. If any of the firsties knew about Gwen and Morgaine and their less-than-pretty reputations, it would be the Crotali. "I'm Amber."\n\n
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Amber Carey
*claps*
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Amber Carey
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5
Helena Layne
February 03, 2007 6:11 PM
Me, too! by Helena Layne
He's suffering from a Vitamin D deficiency and hates oranges.His wife's just got back from Malibu with a tan and he's jealous.
He's trying to sweat off some weight by wearing those robes out in the sun for a class period.
That explanation for the unprecedented move of the Defense Against the Dark Arts class to the Gardens proved the deal-breaker. Helena nearly choked herself trying not to laugh at the notion, and wound up coughing into her shoulder to keep from drawing attention to the disruption. She didn't think she'd ever be able to look at O'Leary's signature black robes the same way ever again. Offering a tiny, apologetic smile to the people around her once she got a grip on herself, Helena terminated all speculation over the change of venue and began winding a loose piece of hair around her index finger as she stared straight ahead and listened to the lecture.
Once the obligatory pre-lesson threats had been issued and resolutions to stay as far out of trouble as possible had been renewed, the lesson plan itself came and turned out to be half-decent. Helena had never seen O'Leary as the type to hand out candy or any other type of reward, but she wasn't going to be the one who looked a gift horse in the mouth. It would be beyond paranoid to think that he might poison it to see if they could tell. She'd be surprised if the headmaster would allow that with seventh years, much less the people in this class. It was just ridiculous.
Still, though...O'Leary was the kind of Defense teacher who made one feel as though an attack could come at any given second. She had yet to forget Geoff's description of his first lesson with the professor, though that could have had more to do with the Pecari Geoff swore had used Tinkerbell as an example of a good and a bad fairy than with O'Leary's dead-serious attitude. She didn't think that the professor would be stupid enough to risk killing over-excited first years by poisoning the candy, but she was going to let her partner or one of her partners sample it before she did.
Helena hadn't managed to get the spell perfect during the required run after the demonstration, but she decided to go get a map before she started worrying about that. The maps were critical, and not just because of candy; she had no desire to spend hours wandering around in circles until the search parties found her because she'd relied on someone else to get the paper showing the way out. Helena thought she was far better at delegating than her brother or Anne, but she wasn't going to take a stupid chance on it. What if there were only enough maps for groups and everyone tried to grab one and the stocks ran out?
Returning to her previous spot, she put her wand flat in the palm of her hand once more. "Point me," she said, her tone an imitation of the one rich, snobby Titania Webber often used on her mother's favorite three-thirty radio show. She had been too afraid of sounding faux riche to use it when the whole class had had to do the spell together, but the disbanding made her feel invisible and so safe. Her wand turned in the exact direction that O'Leary's had, and had a satisfied smile bestowed upon it for its trouble. Now she was ready to find a group.
The burst of confidence getting the spell right had given her faded away at the thought. She didn't know that many people, and all of them knew other people better. She began going over the list and looking around for the people on it. Geoff and Anne weren't in this class. Eavan was with some first years. Meredith was with her Pecari friends. Her two Housemates, Leonardo and Joshua, were both in pairs at the moment, but she couldn't imagine either of them would like her bouncing up and using that or their mutual age as an excuse to force her company down their throats. Add in what Anne thought was Josh's sister's aversion to Helena's brother...
She was getting a little desperate if she was willing to use an "acquaintance" with a girl's distant cousin that was composed of seeing each other at Quidditch practice and the cousin's reputation, but it would have to work. If Helena remembered correctly, Amber Carey knew even fewer people in their year than she did. Her rehearsed smile faltered a little when she saw that even Amber had managed to secure a first-year partner without her noticing, but it wasn't enough to deter her. "Hi, you guys," she said brightly, noticing that neither of them appeared to have a map. "Got room for a third?"\n\n
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Helena Layne
Me, too!
88
Helena Layne
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Oliver
February 05, 2007 5:19 PM
Woohoo! by Oliver
OOC: This is before the Quidditch practise, then. Makes sense, I suppose, if it's the first lesson.BIC:
The girl Oliver had accosted turned and introduced herself as Amber. Oliver didn’t miss her eyes flicking to the Crotalus badge on his robes (so he did the same and noticed she was in Teppenpaw), nor did he miss Amber’s absent surname (which he wouldn’t have noticed before Sonora, but people here liked to introduce themselves quite formally, he’d noticed). He was just about to introduce himself in return, when another girl came over, and she already had a map. “Hi, you guys,” she said, as Oliver wondered what he’d done to deserve only having girls for partners in every lesson so far. “Got room for a third?”
Oliver looked at Amber and shrugged. They couldn’t very well say they didn’t have room for another person, seeing as together they only made two. “Okay,” he replied. “I’m Oliver,” he said, pushing his glasses back up his nose, following Amber’s lead with not giving his surname. He thought he recognised the new girl from his commons, and a quick glance at her robes confirmed she, too, was in Crotalus. He suspected she was an older student, but he didn’t know about the first girl, so just to be sure, he added, “I’m in first year,” to the end of his introduction.
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Oliver
Woohoo!
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Oliver
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Amber
February 07, 2007 5:59 PM
*claps some more* by Amber
OOC: You have to love fuzzy time. BIC:Amber looked at the first year, waiting for a name, and was caught off-guard when the voice that spoke was definitely a girl's. She jerked around to face her yearmate, the look on her face not the most intelligent in the world, and began desperately searching for a name to go with the marginally familiar face. As they were wont to do in such moments, all the facts she had ever heard about the other girl - that she was the only girl in her House and year, had a brother a little older than they were, was the youngest starting player on the Crotalus Quidditch team, and was, in Gwen's opinion, a bad Catherine Raines wannabe - except for the one she needed came up.
To stall for time, she smiled politely and nodded when her partner - Oliver - agreed to let the other second year into their group. Gwen called her whatever it was Anne Wright called her, but all Amber could remember about that was that it was weird and started with an L and most likely wasn't her real name. Laury didn't sound right, but it was the only thing she could come up with. It would be close enough; the better half of everything that came out of Gwen's mouth was pure rubbish, but she did tend to get people's names right. "Amber," she repeated, leaving off her surname again. "Second year." It didn't seem very likely to her that Laury would know who she was, unless the other girl was a pureblood who followed the scandals a lot.
Amber mentally fussed out Professor O'Leary for insisting that they stagger the entrances, because that meant prolonging the awkwardness between the three of them. She was a Teppenpaw, which made her by definition friendly, but she didn't think she was up for smoothing the waters between Crotali. Her eyes latched onto the map in Laury's hand. "You got one of those? That's - uh - good. I learned how to read maps a little at my old school, so I can help with that..."
She had always thought it was Gwen being obsessive about her yearmates the way she always was, but the more Amber thought about it, the more she could see a resemblance between Laury and Catherine. They had almost the same shades of Crayola-brown hair and angel-fair skin, and they both had light eyes. She didn't know the other girl at all, though, so she refrained from making a quick call on whether or not the Crotalus was a snobby gossip like her fourth-year look-alike. Swinging her arms a little, she fixed a genial smile on her face and prayed for the time to enter the maze to hurry up and show up. \n\n
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Amber
*claps some more*
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Amber
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Helena
February 09, 2007 10:27 PM
I guess we're just a talented group. by Helena
Though she had become less vocal about it as she got older, Helena had always hated taking "girl pictures" - photos of just her, her mother, and her sister. Part of that was the inevitable misunderstandings when one of her parents had a new colleague or book club member or whatever over and the stranger, familiar with photos and birth order, called her Lavinia because she looked like the younger sister. The biggest thing, though, was that she inevitably looked out of place. Nadia and Lavinia looked startlingly alike except for Lavinia's hair; without her father and brother to add some objectivity to the shot, Helena looked adopted. It was always an uncomfortable feeling.Sort of like the one the current group dynamic was causing her to go through. The difference was that, try as she would to convince herself that it had something to do with the difference between her brown hair and their blond, she had a feeling that it had nothing to do with looking out of place.
"Nice to meet y'all," she said, ignoring her temporary resemblance to a Charleston tour guide trying to pitch a bad ghost walk. "I'm Helena La - Helena." She had no idea why they had failed to offer their surnames - it was, after all, practically expected at Sonora - but it would be incongruous and a little high-nosed of her to offer hers when Oliver and Amber had both chosen to remain anonymous. The thought didn't decrease the weirdness of introducing herself by only her given name again, though. "Second year, too," she added, offering Amber a tentative smile.
She considered mentioning her "acquaintance" with Amber's cousin, but decided against it. That could lead to Geoff and Anne talk, and as fond as she was of them, she couldn't pretend that they were assets when she was trying to get along. Helena was sure they didn't mean to be, but her brother and his best friend were difficult people at best, impossible at worst. Lavinia had said before that Geoff and Anne were fated to marry just because they were the only ones capable of surviving each other for the next hundred-odd years. Until Kate Peralta entered the picture, Helena had never questioned the accuracy of her sister's comment.
She made herself stop with her tangent, as interesting as it was, and get back to the matter at hand. With family out of the running for a topic of short-term conversation - she didn't know the first thing about Oliver, and without a surname, she couldn't figure out if she knew any relatives - she turned to the next-best thing. "It's not really like O'Leary to hand out candy, but I'll take what I can get," she joked, reaching up to smooth down her light brown hair. "Y'all have any favorites? I'm a peppermint person, myself."\n\n
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Helena
I guess we're just a talented group.
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Helena
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Oliver
February 12, 2007 6:03 PM
Guess we must be. by Oliver
The girls Oliver was working with were called Amber and Helena, and they were both second years. Oliver tried hard not to feel too insignificant in their company, but he didn’t feel it working very well. In fact, the lesson had barely started and he was wishing for it to end. He soon realised that he wasn’t the only uncomfortable one, however: Helena was blatantly trying to initiate some forced conversation about candy. Oliver didn’t mind; he probably would have done something similar anyway. “I’m a peppermint person myself,” Helena said.“I’m not too fond of sweet things,” Oliver said, shrugging a bit. His parents hadn’t let him have candy at home, so he wasn’t used to eating much sweet stuff anyway. “You two can share the candies.” Oliver wasn’t really in need of an incentive to finish the lesson; just getting back indoors and away from having to work with girls who were either older than him or crazy would be fine with him. Why did they always have to work in pairs or groups anyway? At first Oliver had thought it was a good idea, and a great way to make friends. Now, however, he was beginning to adore every moment spent alone. He wouldn’t mind if he ended up being friends with any of his lesson partners, but that hadn’t happened yet.
“So, shall we head in then?” Oliver nodded towards the maze entrance and started subtly shifting his way slowly over, hoping that Amber and Helena would join him before he looked like he was trying to abandon them.
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Oliver
Guess we must be.
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Oliver
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Amber
February 20, 2007 11:29 PM
Talent is good. by Amber
Helena. Amber committed the name and face to memory, so she wouldn't forget them. It sounded lacy and Victorian to her, a name that had most likely gone out of style in seventeen-something, but it fit the other second year well. The half-remembered nickname must have been Lenny, to have the 'e' sound at the end and come from Helena. It wasn't as weird as some of the nicknames Gwen had come up with for her; she had spent a while during her first year answering to Maggie.The attempt at conversation was a little weak, but it was better than nothing at all. Amber had been on the brink of chewing her fingernails again in spite of the glittery nail polish she had applied to prevent her from doing that very thing. Helena liked peppermint, and Oliver shocked her when he announced that he didn't like sweets. Amber blinked twice, taken off-guard. What kind of kid didn't like candy? His parents must have been dentists or something. "I wonder if O'Leary put in any Peppermint Patties?"
She doubted that her groupmates would get the chocolate-and-peppermint thing, but she thought it was funny. She began twirling her hair around her fingers, but stopped when the ends poked and itched. It needed a trim, but she hadn't had time for one before the semester started up. She'd noticed that the pretty girls' hair never seemed to have split ends or anything, so maybe there was some way to do it here...
"Yeah, let's," Amber said quickly when Oliver suggested heading in, then suited action to words to heading for an entrance so fast she had to stop to let the other two catch up. She was in desperate need of a distraction if she was worrying about her hair like that. "Darn, I wish this spell could do multiple directions," she said, half to herself. "It doesn't help if you know where North is and get West confused with East." She was talking too fast. It was an annoying habit. "Good thing all you need to do is figure out how to point the map northward to figure out what turns to take," she added, more slowly this time.\n\n
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Amber
Talent is good.
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Amber
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Helena
March 03, 2007 10:28 PM
Yep. by Helena
Oliver didn't want candy, and Amber liked chocolate. Their sweets preferences were exhausted as a topic. She tried to come up with something else, but Amber's hair twirling did very little to encourage her. Shouldn't the Teppenpaw, one of those friendly pillars of the school, be the one who to make conversation? Sure, she and Oliver were both Crotali, but Crotali weren't noted for getting along all that well. The fifth years were supposed to be friends, and the three girls of the fourth-year triumvirate had been together all the way through, but the rule was that Crotali, especially girl-Crotali, just didn't like each other that much.Oliver proved himself a model of Crotalus sensibility when he suggested that they head into the maze. Helena honestly didn't care if it was their turn or not. Once they got the search started, things might get easier between them. Once their confederation had a point, it would be held together with a lot less strain and effort on all their parts. Long silences and awkward glances made her feel like a failure. Her mother had been a diplomat, and it was the toss of the dice as to whether or not she could keep a talk afloat. It seemed that today was one of the days where doing that was beyond her.
Amber must have been feeling the strain, too, because that much talking at that speed couldn't be her normal means of communication. "I hope you're right," she said, consulting the map in her hand. "I don't cotton to getting lost." The North Carolina Careys were, as the name implied, residents of Helena's own region of the country, and the exposure to another Carolinian was making her talk as if she were back home. Not the accent - no matter how hard she tried to get rid of it, that stayed with her as if held on by Permanent Sticking Charm - but the words and their arrangements. She wasn't sure if it was liberating or embarrassing.
Lines criss-crossed the map, but she couldn't get the hang of them. It looked like it should have been simple to work out, but learning how to read maps had never been too high on her list of priorities. The only outdoorsy activity she liked was Quidditch, and she had yet to see a Pitch so big she needed a map to navigate it. "I don't have a clue what this thing's saying," she said. "I never learned to read a map or anything." She laid her wand flat on her right palm and said, careful to imitate Titania again, "Point me." It worked, again. She wasn't completely useless. She adjusted the map so that it and the tip of her wand were facing the same way. "The end of my abilities," she confessed. \n\n
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Helena
Yep.
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Helena
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Oliver
March 07, 2007 4:24 PM
Uh-huh by Oliver
“Yeah, let’s.” Amber hurried ahead of Oliver and waited just at the entrance for the rest of the group to catch up. She started rambling about the pointing spell only showing you one direction. Oliver didn’t entirely understand her problem. Surely if you had your wand pointing North you could figure out the other directions? Maybe she just didn’t know which was East and which was West. Charlotte sometimes had difficulty with remembering which was which, but Charlotte was nine, and Amber was in second year, so she should have got the hang of it by now. But, as Amber pointed out, they did have the map.Helena held the map in front of her and, using the spell, turned the map so its little north arrow was in fact pointing north. A very good start. She did confess, however, that that was the limit of her abilities. Oliver smiled shyly at her.
“I can read maps,” he said. “I used to be in an orienteering club.” For anyone who really knew Oliver that would go without saying – he had, at some stage, been part of every club available. His parents had wanted all their children to be well rounded. Why, then, they had discouraged Oliver and Julian from attending magic school was beyond Oliver’s comprehension. Readjusting his glasses, Oliver peered at the map. “We take a right,” he said, pointing to the turn on the map so Helena could see. He was starting to relax a bit now. Oliver was never any good with strangers, especially girls, yet he was nevertheless beginning to feel a little more comfortable.
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Oliver
Uh-huh
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Oliver
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Amber
March 11, 2007 9:20 PM
Now that we've established that... by Amber
Amber felt her face drowning in red when Helena answered her ramblings. "Me, neither," she said, almost keeping a cheerful front up. "I don't even want to think about how long it would take them to find us in all this." Maybe a less reassuring comment would have been in order...Amber was coming, slowly, to the realization that she was in a league a little bit higher than her own. "I'm sure we'll get out fine, though," she added, a bit belatedly. Being the talker of the group was turning out to be a lot less easy than she would have ever expected; not knowing when she should shut up was more up Amber's alley.Helena then proceeded to figure out which way was north and how the map should go to reflect that. When Oliver told his groupmates that he had once been a member of an orienteer's club and could read maps, Amber began feeling like an extra wheel - not much use, really, and only lugged along because the car owners demanded it. She kind of doubted that one of the other two would go "flat" before they got back, either.
As long as the job gets done, she told herself. She wanted to get a good grade in the class, and if Oliver and Helena were better in the day's material than she was, she would be shooting herself in the foot to try to latch onto a leader position, mess things up, and get poor grades for everyone. Besides, she was the furthest thing from being a natural leader. She nodded when Oliver said they should go right, more because she had no idea what else to do than a thought that either of the Crotali was paying attention to her, and got ready to follow them and offer comments if it seemed relevant. \n\n
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Amber
Now that we've established that...
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Amber
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5