Grab Bag Writing Challenge - October 2018
- bond - class - common - diverse - fusion - harmony - invite - join - kind - league - morale - social - unify - value - welcome -
by Brianna Caedmon
"Welcome," read the sign. Black ink on a grey background. If it was supposed to be welcoming, I thought, perhaps they ought to have used different colours. Something brighter. Orange maybe? On a yellow background?
No, that would look ridiculous. Maybe something calming instead. Blues or greens or something. But not black on grey. Black and grey just looked cold.
I wondered, not for the first time that morning, why I had come. When I first received the invite, saw what was taught here, saw who taught here, I had thought maybe that I might have finally found my place. Now I was no longer so sure. What if I wasn't good enough? What if I made no friends?
The sign was above a door. A grey door, with murky little windows I couldn’t see through at all. I walked slowly towards it, my heart filled with trepidation. Then I stood before it. Was this really a good idea? Well, I thought, it’s a bit late to change my mind now. With a tentative shove, I pushed open the door.
Through it was a desk with a short dark-haired woman sitting behind it. She looked up, and smiled. It was a kind smile, at odds with the cold grey bricks around her. "You must be Ciara?" she asked, and I nodded. "Sorry about the décor," she said, gesturing at the building around her, "but as I'm sure you know, our little school here has just started up. I don’t know who used to own this place, but they clearly had no sense of how to decorate anything. The headmistress assures me we’ll have it sorted out soon enough though. I hope she’s right. The office is just depressing as it is…" she trailed off, as if forgetting herself, before exclaiming suddenly. "Oh! Oh yes, of course, I forgot you’re here to sign in and you’ll need a timetable and your paperwork and… Do you have the consent form?"
I nodded and handed her the thin piece of paper with a sense of finality that in retrospect was probably wholly undeserved. I could have still left then, had I wanted to.
But I did not, so she put it in my file and reached for more papers and kept talking. "You know, you have the best scores of anyone so far on three of the tests? You fell down a little on the maths." I blushed. Maths had not been my strong point. "But your verbal reasoning and geography and language aptitude were unmatched, and your fitness wasn’t exactly bad either!" I smiled at that. I enjoyed doing well. I would need to work on that maths score though…
"Here," said the woman, "I've given you a map. You're in Dormitory B, and you'll eat breakfast and lunch in your dorm’s common room. Dinner is in the School Hall. Also, we're trying to think of a better name for the hall, so if you have any ideas please write it on a slip of paper and leave it in the box over there. You'll be given your class schedule when term actually starts in a week. For now, please take time to get yourself settled in!"
I looked down at the map. The New Earth School of Exploration was written in bold at the top. This was written in blue. That was a much better colour choice. I smiled as I followed the map to my dormitory.
The route was up two stories of metal stairs, and then along a still-bare corridor until I reached the end. It still looked gloomy, but the receptionist – I should have gotten her name, I berated myself mentally – had put me at ease. The door to the dorm had a paper sign on it, which read "Dormitory B" (underneath someone had written "seals" in brackets, which had been scribbled out with the same blue fountain pen and replaced with "dolphins") and "Enter freely if you are one of us. Everyone else please knock." Since I was now one of them, I did not knock and, instead, simply entered.
Beyond the door was another long corridor. I could go either left or right. I chose right and found myself at another door. Beyond it, I heard laughter. I opened it and peered tentatively in.
"Hey!" called a boy with short red hair and round glasses, "Hey, I don’t know you, are you new?" I nodded. "Come in, come in and join us! We’re playing Monopoly. Oh, and welcome to the Llamas, by the way."
A girl with long black hair moved over on a sofa to make way for me, and I sat. "Llamas?" I said, "What happened to Dolphins?"
A girl with cropped blonde hair and dark eyes replied, "We keep changing our mind. Every time we vote on a name someone else turns up and they have a new idea and so we have to hold another vote and no one ever votes for the same thing twice for some reason and so now we just keep changing it," she spoke fast as if permanently excited about whatever she was saying. "And we need to choose something," she continued, without taking a breath, "because you know it will give us something to bond around and an identity and everything and we can hardly go around chanting Dormitory B during the football league or the rugby league or the..."
"May," said the redhead who’d first spoken to me, "what makes you think there will be any sports leagues at all?"
"Well," said a girl to May's right, perhaps worried her friend might starve herself entirely of oxygen if she tried to breathe again, "they said we’ll get to vote on stuff like that. Something about democracy promoting harmony in the school. On how the school is run. Personally, though, if there's going to be any kind of extracurricular sports, I want hiking and climbing. It will be more useful to us all anyway."
"Plus," I began, feeling increasingly confident around these people, despite my usual anti-social nature. It seemed to me that perhaps they thought a little like me, a little more than anyone at my old school had anyway. "Plus, surely there's no better way to unify a bunch of near strangers than to stick them all together in the middle of a mountain? It would do wonders for morale."
A girl a few seats to the left of me laughed. "Oh yeah, where are you from anyway? And what’s your name? Sorry, we’ve been incredibly rude, just got a bit carried away with myself. I'm Kat, from Veridianna."
I told her not to worry and we all shared names and where we were born. The people at the school came from a diverse range of cities, but all on New Earth. No one had been back to Old Earth in hundreds of years. Even if we still had the technology, it would no longer be inhabitable. It was a shame, I thought, not so much for me, but for my sister. She had always valued history, always wished to know what it was like.
I realised with a jolt that I had stopped paying attention, and zoned back into the conversation. The Monopoly board was long since forgotten before us. A boy was talking about a language he hoped to learn, one of the languages spoken by the people who lived on the Borderlands, what we called the last frontier that stood between the New Earth that we knew and that which we were yet to explore.
The language, he said, was a fusion of Portuguese and Japanese. That sounded very interesting. A girl commented, "I've always dreamed about seeing the rest of the world, both inhabited and not. To be honest, I want to see everything. I feel kind of sad that I can't be everywhere and everyone and experience everything." Several people agreed.
I smiled to myself, smiled at the thought she had somehow plucked from my head to pronounce for herself. It seemed I really was at home there. It seemed that despite the black and grey, I was welcome.
"Welcome," read the sign. Black ink on a grey background. If it was supposed to be welcoming, I thought, perhaps they ought to have used different colours. Something brighter. Orange maybe? On a yellow background?
No, that would look ridiculous. Maybe something calming instead. Blues or greens or something. But not black on grey. Black and grey just looked cold.
I wondered, not for the first time that morning, why I had come. When I first received the invite, saw what was taught here, saw who taught here, I had thought maybe that I might have finally found my place. Now I was no longer so sure. What if I wasn't good enough? What if I made no friends?
The sign was above a door. A grey door, with murky little windows I couldn’t see through at all. I walked slowly towards it, my heart filled with trepidation. Then I stood before it. Was this really a good idea? Well, I thought, it’s a bit late to change my mind now. With a tentative shove, I pushed open the door.
Through it was a desk with a short dark-haired woman sitting behind it. She looked up, and smiled. It was a kind smile, at odds with the cold grey bricks around her. "You must be Ciara?" she asked, and I nodded. "Sorry about the décor," she said, gesturing at the building around her, "but as I'm sure you know, our little school here has just started up. I don’t know who used to own this place, but they clearly had no sense of how to decorate anything. The headmistress assures me we’ll have it sorted out soon enough though. I hope she’s right. The office is just depressing as it is…" she trailed off, as if forgetting herself, before exclaiming suddenly. "Oh! Oh yes, of course, I forgot you’re here to sign in and you’ll need a timetable and your paperwork and… Do you have the consent form?"
I nodded and handed her the thin piece of paper with a sense of finality that in retrospect was probably wholly undeserved. I could have still left then, had I wanted to.
But I did not, so she put it in my file and reached for more papers and kept talking. "You know, you have the best scores of anyone so far on three of the tests? You fell down a little on the maths." I blushed. Maths had not been my strong point. "But your verbal reasoning and geography and language aptitude were unmatched, and your fitness wasn’t exactly bad either!" I smiled at that. I enjoyed doing well. I would need to work on that maths score though…
"Here," said the woman, "I've given you a map. You're in Dormitory B, and you'll eat breakfast and lunch in your dorm’s common room. Dinner is in the School Hall. Also, we're trying to think of a better name for the hall, so if you have any ideas please write it on a slip of paper and leave it in the box over there. You'll be given your class schedule when term actually starts in a week. For now, please take time to get yourself settled in!"
I looked down at the map. The New Earth School of Exploration was written in bold at the top. This was written in blue. That was a much better colour choice. I smiled as I followed the map to my dormitory.
The route was up two stories of metal stairs, and then along a still-bare corridor until I reached the end. It still looked gloomy, but the receptionist – I should have gotten her name, I berated myself mentally – had put me at ease. The door to the dorm had a paper sign on it, which read "Dormitory B" (underneath someone had written "seals" in brackets, which had been scribbled out with the same blue fountain pen and replaced with "dolphins") and "Enter freely if you are one of us. Everyone else please knock." Since I was now one of them, I did not knock and, instead, simply entered.
Beyond the door was another long corridor. I could go either left or right. I chose right and found myself at another door. Beyond it, I heard laughter. I opened it and peered tentatively in.
"Hey!" called a boy with short red hair and round glasses, "Hey, I don’t know you, are you new?" I nodded. "Come in, come in and join us! We’re playing Monopoly. Oh, and welcome to the Llamas, by the way."
A girl with long black hair moved over on a sofa to make way for me, and I sat. "Llamas?" I said, "What happened to Dolphins?"
A girl with cropped blonde hair and dark eyes replied, "We keep changing our mind. Every time we vote on a name someone else turns up and they have a new idea and so we have to hold another vote and no one ever votes for the same thing twice for some reason and so now we just keep changing it," she spoke fast as if permanently excited about whatever she was saying. "And we need to choose something," she continued, without taking a breath, "because you know it will give us something to bond around and an identity and everything and we can hardly go around chanting Dormitory B during the football league or the rugby league or the..."
"May," said the redhead who’d first spoken to me, "what makes you think there will be any sports leagues at all?"
"Well," said a girl to May's right, perhaps worried her friend might starve herself entirely of oxygen if she tried to breathe again, "they said we’ll get to vote on stuff like that. Something about democracy promoting harmony in the school. On how the school is run. Personally, though, if there's going to be any kind of extracurricular sports, I want hiking and climbing. It will be more useful to us all anyway."
"Plus," I began, feeling increasingly confident around these people, despite my usual anti-social nature. It seemed to me that perhaps they thought a little like me, a little more than anyone at my old school had anyway. "Plus, surely there's no better way to unify a bunch of near strangers than to stick them all together in the middle of a mountain? It would do wonders for morale."
A girl a few seats to the left of me laughed. "Oh yeah, where are you from anyway? And what’s your name? Sorry, we’ve been incredibly rude, just got a bit carried away with myself. I'm Kat, from Veridianna."
I told her not to worry and we all shared names and where we were born. The people at the school came from a diverse range of cities, but all on New Earth. No one had been back to Old Earth in hundreds of years. Even if we still had the technology, it would no longer be inhabitable. It was a shame, I thought, not so much for me, but for my sister. She had always valued history, always wished to know what it was like.
I realised with a jolt that I had stopped paying attention, and zoned back into the conversation. The Monopoly board was long since forgotten before us. A boy was talking about a language he hoped to learn, one of the languages spoken by the people who lived on the Borderlands, what we called the last frontier that stood between the New Earth that we knew and that which we were yet to explore.
The language, he said, was a fusion of Portuguese and Japanese. That sounded very interesting. A girl commented, "I've always dreamed about seeing the rest of the world, both inhabited and not. To be honest, I want to see everything. I feel kind of sad that I can't be everywhere and everyone and experience everything." Several people agreed.
I smiled to myself, smiled at the thought she had somehow plucked from my head to pronounce for herself. It seemed I really was at home there. It seemed that despite the black and grey, I was welcome.
by Cody Lewis
"Welcome to the 2018 season opener between the Ballycastle Bats and the Wimbourne Wasps," the commentator’s voice boomed over the packed stadium. "I am Oliver O’Toole and joining me here today is former Wimbourne Beater Ludo Bagman."
"An extraordinary pleasure to be here, Oliver! Thanks for inviting me!" Ludo chimed in. He had always been a very social person and he took any opportunity to talk about Quidditch in front of a live audience. "Bit of a diverse crowd we have here, isn’t it?" The Bats were the favorites to win at home, but the Wasps fanbase, the Stingers, always traveled well, and nearly half the stadium was donning yellow and black apparel.
"The Stingers have come out in swarms for this match," Oliver agreed. "This is going to be great for the Wasps’ morale in this tough road matchup. So let’s talk Quidditch. What can we expect to see out there, Ludo?"
"We’re going to see some great Quidditch today!" Ludo responded emphatically. "The Bats’ Chasers are in a class of their own, but they’ll still have their hands full going against Arthur Leitzke, who is easily the top Keeper in the league."
"So this matchup might just come down to a Snitch, eh?"
"Indeed! But the real deciding factor will be the Beating. The Wasps have always valued strong Beaters," Ludo explained, "and newly acquired Harrison Hobbs is the kind of Beater that can completely change the game. I expect him to go after Rachel Bond every time the Bludger flies his way."
"Taking out the Bats’ Seeker, Bond, does seem to be a common tactic against the Bats," Oliver agreed, "but very few teams have been able to pull it off. Looky here, the referee appears to be ready to begin the match!"
The Stingers began buzzing loudly, while the Bats supporters sang the team’s anthem in perfect harmony. It was an odd fusion of noises and although the crowd was cheering for two opposing teams, they were unified by their love for the game of Quidditch.
"Welcome to the 2018 season opener between the Ballycastle Bats and the Wimbourne Wasps," the commentator’s voice boomed over the packed stadium. "I am Oliver O’Toole and joining me here today is former Wimbourne Beater Ludo Bagman."
"An extraordinary pleasure to be here, Oliver! Thanks for inviting me!" Ludo chimed in. He had always been a very social person and he took any opportunity to talk about Quidditch in front of a live audience. "Bit of a diverse crowd we have here, isn’t it?" The Bats were the favorites to win at home, but the Wasps fanbase, the Stingers, always traveled well, and nearly half the stadium was donning yellow and black apparel.
"The Stingers have come out in swarms for this match," Oliver agreed. "This is going to be great for the Wasps’ morale in this tough road matchup. So let’s talk Quidditch. What can we expect to see out there, Ludo?"
"We’re going to see some great Quidditch today!" Ludo responded emphatically. "The Bats’ Chasers are in a class of their own, but they’ll still have their hands full going against Arthur Leitzke, who is easily the top Keeper in the league."
"So this matchup might just come down to a Snitch, eh?"
"Indeed! But the real deciding factor will be the Beating. The Wasps have always valued strong Beaters," Ludo explained, "and newly acquired Harrison Hobbs is the kind of Beater that can completely change the game. I expect him to go after Rachel Bond every time the Bludger flies his way."
"Taking out the Bats’ Seeker, Bond, does seem to be a common tactic against the Bats," Oliver agreed, "but very few teams have been able to pull it off. Looky here, the referee appears to be ready to begin the match!"
The Stingers began buzzing loudly, while the Bats supporters sang the team’s anthem in perfect harmony. It was an odd fusion of noises and although the crowd was cheering for two opposing teams, they were unified by their love for the game of Quidditch.
by Gail Allen
"Welcome to the annual meeting of the League of Social Harmony." The woman on the podium almost shone with the glow of someone who could not wait to get started and for whom this meeting, or at least the league, was what truly made her feel she could contribute something positive to the world.
Kate looked at her with some skepticism. In her opinion, these kind of people usually meant well, but rarely had the chance to actually make a difference, because some bully would always run over them. But still, she was going to give it a chance. Mainly because Becca had invited her, and she didn't feel she could say no since she knew how shy Becca was about any kind of social gathering and especially if she had to go alone. Kate had convinced her to join her in her social studies class last year and since this was just a weekend seminar, common courtesy bid her come and support her friend's morale in being among so many other people.
As she looked around she could see that the group gathered here was quite a diverse one, which both surprised her, but also seemed to be completely in the spirit of the meeting: wasn't it about unifying people and embracing the value in difference?
The girl on the podium had continued talking while Kate was studying the people around her. "... and because of that we hope to create strong bonds between our two groups so that next year the fusion can be completed smoothly."
Kate wondered which two groups it was until she saw the banner next to the "League of Social Harmony" banner and smiled to herself. This was promising to be quite an interesting weekend after all.
"Welcome to the annual meeting of the League of Social Harmony." The woman on the podium almost shone with the glow of someone who could not wait to get started and for whom this meeting, or at least the league, was what truly made her feel she could contribute something positive to the world.
Kate looked at her with some skepticism. In her opinion, these kind of people usually meant well, but rarely had the chance to actually make a difference, because some bully would always run over them. But still, she was going to give it a chance. Mainly because Becca had invited her, and she didn't feel she could say no since she knew how shy Becca was about any kind of social gathering and especially if she had to go alone. Kate had convinced her to join her in her social studies class last year and since this was just a weekend seminar, common courtesy bid her come and support her friend's morale in being among so many other people.
As she looked around she could see that the group gathered here was quite a diverse one, which both surprised her, but also seemed to be completely in the spirit of the meeting: wasn't it about unifying people and embracing the value in difference?
The girl on the podium had continued talking while Kate was studying the people around her. "... and because of that we hope to create strong bonds between our two groups so that next year the fusion can be completed smoothly."
Kate wondered which two groups it was until she saw the banner next to the "League of Social Harmony" banner and smiled to herself. This was promising to be quite an interesting weekend after all.
by Iverian Gnash
I’m going to tell you a story of how I met my first friend at Hogwarts.
It was the first day of class. The previous two days had been orientation days to help get settled in and comfortable. After hanging out in my common room for a little bit, I headed over to my first class, which was Charms where they were teaching the value of the levitation charm. As I was walking there, I passed the room where the Frog Choir was meeting today. They definitely needed to practice because they were not in perfect harmony.
As I approached the classroom, my morale was pretty low. I stepped into the room and saw a diverse group of people. Class started, and our professor asked us to unify and form leagues, so we could practice the levitation charm together. Since I’m not a very social person, I didn’t want to join someone’s group or for that matter invite them to make a group with me. I also didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of a group of people by forgetting how to cast the levitation charm. I knew it involved a fusion of willpower and the proper pronunciation, but it was easier said then done.
Pretty soon though, I was saved from my dilemma by a girl sitting next to me. She asked me if I wanted to form a group with her. I said that I would, and I shyly began to practice with her. She turned out to be really kind and she never laughed once when it took me six tries to even make my feather move. Through the weeks that followed we formed a close bond with each other and I can truly say that we will be friends forever. Imagine that! A Gryffindor and Slytherin friendship.
I’m going to tell you a story of how I met my first friend at Hogwarts.
It was the first day of class. The previous two days had been orientation days to help get settled in and comfortable. After hanging out in my common room for a little bit, I headed over to my first class, which was Charms where they were teaching the value of the levitation charm. As I was walking there, I passed the room where the Frog Choir was meeting today. They definitely needed to practice because they were not in perfect harmony.
As I approached the classroom, my morale was pretty low. I stepped into the room and saw a diverse group of people. Class started, and our professor asked us to unify and form leagues, so we could practice the levitation charm together. Since I’m not a very social person, I didn’t want to join someone’s group or for that matter invite them to make a group with me. I also didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of a group of people by forgetting how to cast the levitation charm. I knew it involved a fusion of willpower and the proper pronunciation, but it was easier said then done.
Pretty soon though, I was saved from my dilemma by a girl sitting next to me. She asked me if I wanted to form a group with her. I said that I would, and I shyly began to practice with her. She turned out to be really kind and she never laughed once when it took me six tries to even make my feather move. Through the weeks that followed we formed a close bond with each other and I can truly say that we will be friends forever. Imagine that! A Gryffindor and Slytherin friendship.
by Maxim Trevelyan
There was a lot of bustling in the common room, as is usual for the beginning of the year. The tables in the room were covered with assortment of food or club props and other swag that could be given to the newcomers to make them interested in joining them.
One voice sounded over the general chatter, "Welcome, welcome, old Eagles and new, please, join me at this table to sample the best and diverse desserts our Eagles have to offer."
"I thought you were put in charge of Eagle harmony and morale?" Gary moved closer to the table Maxim was bellowing behind, eyeing the food.
Maxim grinned and invited Gary to try and some of the treats. "And what better way to unify the house than with cake?" he asked rhetorically and gestured for some lower year girls to join the table, smiling kindly.
"Right social butterfly you are," Gary murmured, then winced from Maxim's well placed elbow.
"Don't be jealous that my table is out of y'all leagues," Maxim winked at him, then passed some more cookies around. "Besides, I love this kind of thing," he gestured around the common room. "I think people often forget the more fun and pleasant things in this place. Too much focus on classes, points and Quidditch. We forget to tend to our bonds of friendship."
Gary nodded and looked down at the candy, which was assorted blue, bronze and white colors. "So you made food that embody the values of Ravenclaw to make people remember that."
"Kind of," Maxim shrugged. "If nothing else, the students will at least enjoy the fusion of the food provided. Now shut up and enjoy the cupcakes," he ordered.
Deciding to do just that, Gary stuffed one of the cupcakes into his mouth and marveled at the explosion of taste. Maxim certainly had a flair for baked goods.
There was a lot of bustling in the common room, as is usual for the beginning of the year. The tables in the room were covered with assortment of food or club props and other swag that could be given to the newcomers to make them interested in joining them.
One voice sounded over the general chatter, "Welcome, welcome, old Eagles and new, please, join me at this table to sample the best and diverse desserts our Eagles have to offer."
"I thought you were put in charge of Eagle harmony and morale?" Gary moved closer to the table Maxim was bellowing behind, eyeing the food.
Maxim grinned and invited Gary to try and some of the treats. "And what better way to unify the house than with cake?" he asked rhetorically and gestured for some lower year girls to join the table, smiling kindly.
"Right social butterfly you are," Gary murmured, then winced from Maxim's well placed elbow.
"Don't be jealous that my table is out of y'all leagues," Maxim winked at him, then passed some more cookies around. "Besides, I love this kind of thing," he gestured around the common room. "I think people often forget the more fun and pleasant things in this place. Too much focus on classes, points and Quidditch. We forget to tend to our bonds of friendship."
Gary nodded and looked down at the candy, which was assorted blue, bronze and white colors. "So you made food that embody the values of Ravenclaw to make people remember that."
"Kind of," Maxim shrugged. "If nothing else, the students will at least enjoy the fusion of the food provided. Now shut up and enjoy the cupcakes," he ordered.
Deciding to do just that, Gary stuffed one of the cupcakes into his mouth and marveled at the explosion of taste. Maxim certainly had a flair for baked goods.
by Prof. Tarma Amelia Black
She was smiling welcomingly. This was it! The first day of school. What bonds would be made, or broken? What kinds of events over the summer would be lending themselves to a new sort of harmony between the students – or break them up and unify them into new groups? She knew some of the history of some of the students. She was aware that many of them had experienced catastrophic events over the summer break. However, it didn't matter, in a way.
The common ground for all of them is that classes were starting soon.
They poured off the school buses and vehicles of different kinds and were invited into their diverse lines. Each line showed their points of similarity. The ones with blue hair went into the blue line. The ones with pink joined into the pink line. Etc, etc, etc. Where there was a fusion of colours (where did magenta go?) those people seemed to be in a league of their own – so went into that line.
While there didn't appear to be any social value to the different groups, there did seem to be a common breakout within them. The enthusiasm and the morale between the members of the spiky pink, seemed to be particularly high. Those with blue hair appeared to be more somber and quiet. The ones with green hair were a bit strange, she thought musingly to herself.
"Okay! Count down please!" she said to the groups. "One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four."
Everyone did that. They knew what was coming up next and some were smiling happily as they found out who had counted what in the other lines.
"All 'Ones' come here!" She indicated a line on the ground. She walked over a bit more.
"All 'Twos' come here!" She did that until all the people were in four different groups.
When they had quieted down a bit, she continued on. "Welcome to Camp Feather. You all have been here before, so you know what to do next."
With that, all of the students, no matter what species they were, started singing their favorite song.
She sighed happily at the cacophony of sound. It was a good group and it would be a good year!
She was smiling welcomingly. This was it! The first day of school. What bonds would be made, or broken? What kinds of events over the summer would be lending themselves to a new sort of harmony between the students – or break them up and unify them into new groups? She knew some of the history of some of the students. She was aware that many of them had experienced catastrophic events over the summer break. However, it didn't matter, in a way.
The common ground for all of them is that classes were starting soon.
They poured off the school buses and vehicles of different kinds and were invited into their diverse lines. Each line showed their points of similarity. The ones with blue hair went into the blue line. The ones with pink joined into the pink line. Etc, etc, etc. Where there was a fusion of colours (where did magenta go?) those people seemed to be in a league of their own – so went into that line.
While there didn't appear to be any social value to the different groups, there did seem to be a common breakout within them. The enthusiasm and the morale between the members of the spiky pink, seemed to be particularly high. Those with blue hair appeared to be more somber and quiet. The ones with green hair were a bit strange, she thought musingly to herself.
"Okay! Count down please!" she said to the groups. "One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four."
Everyone did that. They knew what was coming up next and some were smiling happily as they found out who had counted what in the other lines.
"All 'Ones' come here!" She indicated a line on the ground. She walked over a bit more.
"All 'Twos' come here!" She did that until all the people were in four different groups.
When they had quieted down a bit, she continued on. "Welcome to Camp Feather. You all have been here before, so you know what to do next."
With that, all of the students, no matter what species they were, started singing their favorite song.
She sighed happily at the cacophony of sound. It was a good group and it would be a good year!
by Sky Alton
I move quietly across the entrance hall: she hangs back, then follows. I consider telling her she didn't have to join but I'll likely just receive a sarcastic barb about how friendship requires her to stay up ridiculously late while my overdeveloped social conscience runs rampant.
"You know," she says as I push the doors to the Great Hall open, "others show people they value them just by smiling."
"It's so hard to do that in bulk. Doesn't do much for harmony or morale overall."
"But this… This is in a whole other league. Couldn't you just satisfy yourself with a kind act here and there? You know, just make a few people happy?"
"Yes…" I step into the hall and hold out my arms, "But this is more fun!"
Upending the bags I'm holding, I shake out the paper planes into a pile on the floor. Grudgingly, she does the same with the ones she's been carrying.
"You said you wrote something on each one. How on earth did you, even you, find enough generalised positivity?"
"While you were patrolling the corridors last night, I invited everyone in the Common Room to write down encouraging or supportive things they wish people would say to them, filtered out all the rude ones," I shrug, "And then put some random inspirational quotes in. Feel good fusion."
"You're not hearing yourself, are you?"
Ignoring her, I whip out my wand and move it in a complex pattern. With a soft 'swoosh,' the planes take off in a graceful, unified motion. All being well, they'll just peacefully float above the tables until breakfast when they should lightly swoop down for people to open.
"Okay, I'll admit that was impressive…" She trails off as there’s a sudden gust of wind.
"Duck!" I yell as we are mobbed by paper planes, determined to dive-bomb us (or decapitate us, I'm not too sure). Engulfed in a cloud of aggressive paper and trying to protect my face, I barrel towards the door. She's only a step behind me and slams it shut after us.
"To recap," she says, after a long moment, "The population of this school will converge on this hall tomorrow morning, their only wish to get some breakfast before their first class. And because you want to show them just how special and wonderfully diverse they are, they are going to be welcomed by half a forest intent on their destruction?"
"Oops?"
"'Oops!' One of your finest inspirational efforts. You should put it on a paper plane."
"Well… it might be a bonding experience…"
I move quietly across the entrance hall: she hangs back, then follows. I consider telling her she didn't have to join but I'll likely just receive a sarcastic barb about how friendship requires her to stay up ridiculously late while my overdeveloped social conscience runs rampant.
"You know," she says as I push the doors to the Great Hall open, "others show people they value them just by smiling."
"It's so hard to do that in bulk. Doesn't do much for harmony or morale overall."
"But this… This is in a whole other league. Couldn't you just satisfy yourself with a kind act here and there? You know, just make a few people happy?"
"Yes…" I step into the hall and hold out my arms, "But this is more fun!"
Upending the bags I'm holding, I shake out the paper planes into a pile on the floor. Grudgingly, she does the same with the ones she's been carrying.
"You said you wrote something on each one. How on earth did you, even you, find enough generalised positivity?"
"While you were patrolling the corridors last night, I invited everyone in the Common Room to write down encouraging or supportive things they wish people would say to them, filtered out all the rude ones," I shrug, "And then put some random inspirational quotes in. Feel good fusion."
"You're not hearing yourself, are you?"
Ignoring her, I whip out my wand and move it in a complex pattern. With a soft 'swoosh,' the planes take off in a graceful, unified motion. All being well, they'll just peacefully float above the tables until breakfast when they should lightly swoop down for people to open.
"Okay, I'll admit that was impressive…" She trails off as there’s a sudden gust of wind.
"Duck!" I yell as we are mobbed by paper planes, determined to dive-bomb us (or decapitate us, I'm not too sure). Engulfed in a cloud of aggressive paper and trying to protect my face, I barrel towards the door. She's only a step behind me and slams it shut after us.
"To recap," she says, after a long moment, "The population of this school will converge on this hall tomorrow morning, their only wish to get some breakfast before their first class. And because you want to show them just how special and wonderfully diverse they are, they are going to be welcomed by half a forest intent on their destruction?"
"Oops?"
"'Oops!' One of your finest inspirational efforts. You should put it on a paper plane."
"Well… it might be a bonding experience…"