Enjoying the sunshine on Labyrinth Gardens

Taylor Li

May 20, 2009 8:55 PM

Enjoying the sunshine by Taylor Li

The best part for Taylor about being back at Sonora was being away from her insane mother. For as long as she could remember, her mother had attempted to make her into a world famous actor. Before coming to the school, she had gone along with it. She had even been in a few commercials and a couple television shows, no major roles though. But being away from the scene for nearly a year had taught her that she really didn’t want to have anything to do with acting, especially after the Concert. It had shown her the difference between acting for pleasure and what her mother had been forcing.

And after a week of auditions, she had learned how to successfully bomb one without looking as though she had done it on purpose. She couldn’t imagine how her mother would react if she knew that. Unfortunately, her little plan had backfired somewhat. Her mother figured that Taylor must just be nervous when being evaluated and decided that instead Taylor would break into acting by first modeling. Once she was known on that front, she would be able to get any role she wanted. The fact that models were just as severely, if not more so, judged never crossed her mind.

So for the summer, Taylor had been placed on one diet after another, returning thinner than she had been at the start of last year, if only slightly. Thankfully, the heavy makeup and false amenities were gone. She hated wearing things like fake eyelashes. It was like there was some bug resting near her eye that she couldn’t brush away. But now, she could return to eating normal meals instead of weird pudding that was ready when it grew fungus on it and the simplicity of wearing school robes. Though, now they were a little big on her. She couldn’t wait to fill into them again.

She also couldn’t wait to return to learning. While it was quiet in the Common room of Aladren and even more so in her dorm room, she preferred to read in the Gardens since it was such a beautiful day. She had been fortunate enough to find an unusual book featuring the physics of superheroes before returning and bought it with the idea that perhaps it could help her in determining the physics of magic. She already had an idea for an experiment involving broom flight, but she had to find a willing partner, which would be hard to do given her sociability. Or perhaps, it wouldn’t be so hard as someone interrupted her reading.

Glancing up, she had to shade her eyes from the sun, because of her position on the bench. “Hi. Sorry, I didn’t hear what you said. This book just pulls you in.” She showed the person the front of the yellow book with a picture of a superhero in a box and circle. She wondered if they would even find it mildly interesting or if they would just think her some nerd. Either way was truly fine with her, though, it would be nice to actually get to know someone beyond being acquaintances since that seemed to be the only way that it had gone so far at Sonora. It had been mildly disappointing, but the classes had more than made up for it.

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Elliot Valentine

May 23, 2009 3:45 PM

Enjoying the green stuff by Elliot Valentine

In most regards, Elliot was glad to back at Sonora. Most twelve year olds wouldn't be too happy returning to school, but Sonora was different. All his camp friends were starting 7th grade and lamenting the amount of math homework they were supposed to get that year, or how Mr. Davidson's jowl's wiggled when he talked about The Middle Ages. But Elliot was living in the Middle Ages. A place where magic was real and the slaying of dragons actually happened. He was a wizard. Going to school to learn how the dragon slaying was done and how to turn people into frogs wasn't school. It was like a game. Like he was in a book.

Elliot had somehow managed to find his way into the Gardens without realizing it, but that was all right. It was nice out and it was also a lot easier to do magic outside where it couldn't bounce off walls and remove his left arm. he pulled his wand from his pocket and pointed it at the closest small object he could find: which happened to be a garden gnome running around. He shouted the first incantation he could think of, trying to turn said gnome red. But the gnome managed to dodge the little flash of light and the spell flew through a hedge, while the gnome, giggling, slid beneath an odd looking shrub.

Shrugging, Elliot turned at the next opportunity to see if anything had been affected by his wayward spell. Just beyond where he had been trying his spell was a little area with benches, a small water fountain shaped like a garden gnome. Coincidences. But sitting on a bench near the garden gnome fountain was that girl he and Ethan had met at the beginning of last year. The one they had shared marshmallows with. Forgetting his question he walked over to Taylor.

"Hey, Taylor! It's been a while." He waited for her to respond, but when she did, it was to say that she hadn't heard him. Elliot started over again.

"I said 'Hey Taylor!'" He grinned. "What are you reading that's so much more interesting than the real world?" He sat down next to her uninvited. If she really wanted her privacy, she'd just tell him and he'd leave. But right now he was a little bored and Taylor always seemed nice.

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Taylor

May 24, 2009 12:30 PM

Enjoying the blue sky by Taylor

“Ever read comics?” Taylor asked Elliot or was it Ethan? She didn’t know them well enough to tell the difference between the identical twins. Hopefully she would be given a clue. Otherwise, it would be a bit embarrassing to have to ask, but then they probably got it all the time. Maybe. There might have been some magical way of knowing instantaneously, but if there was, she didn’t have a clue as to what it was. If she had more of an interest in genetic traits, she might care to find out and how it tied in with magic, but she didn’t. She didn’t even really care about the differences between pureblood, halfblood, and muggleborn. If there were any.

Though, she did wonder if purebloods had comics. If they didn’t and Elliot/Ethan were one, then he wouldn’t have a clue as to what she was talking about, but until he interrupted her, she would continue on about the book, “Well, this talks about the physics of superheroes. It explains if superheroes’ abilities would be feasible in the real world like if Superman could really leap over tall buildings in a single bound and how strong he would have to be to do so. One of the things I haven’t gotten to yet is about the Invisible Woman and how can she see if she’s invisible. It makes you wonder how things like invisibility cloaks work.”

As Taylor talked, she curled her legs up under her, accidentally bumping him in the process with her knee, “Sorry about that. Anyhow, magic brings about the things that are written about in comics. What we’re able to do defies physics and we simply explain it by saying that it’s magic without ever really explaining how or why it works. You would think that people would be inclined towards wanting to know. We have a natural curiosity to know about everything else, so why not this? Why do we just explain it away?” She paused realizing that she was rambling a bit. “Sorry, I tend to get wrapped up in this stuff.”

Tucking a piece of short, dark hair behind her ear, she bit down on her lip, still slightly embarrassed. She should have been talking about a normal kid subject rather than the contemplation of physics laws. What should she have been asking about? Thinking of a subject was a minor problem since she wasn’t exactly a normal kid. Though, she had abandoned the false glasses from last year. It was just too difficult to continuously clean them. A list of subjects ran through her mind and she came to the most obvious one, the one that she had been hearing everyone else ask their friends, “How was your summer? Was it good?”

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