Closed Abroad or at Home, I Feel Lost

[Van Voclain]

Van had three essays and a research task to complete by the end of the week, so, naturally, she was out in the gardens, kicking a ball about. Actually, there was nothing natural about her procrastination; even as she dribbled the ball through a maze of ankle-high shrubs, she wrestled into submission, by way of repeatedly telling herself she was no good at Potions or Transfiguration anyway, a fierce predisposition to sit down in the library and complete all of her assignments one after the other. This determination came to her a surprise. She had laboured through last year's homework, and the year's before that, with such vocal displeasure that people had started to avoid sitting next to her when she had a book open. On reflection, it wasn't the work itself she resented, but her apparent lack of any talent, magical or academical, that her peers possessed in abundance, and which seemed to make the work so much easier for them. She would have been quite happy to struggle from dawn through dusk to finish her essays - if only her output was proportional to her effort.

She kicked the ball a little too hard, and it bounced over the low shrubs and into a wide rose garden which was connected to the outer wall of the castle and sometimes used as a shortcut to the greenhouses. Three options came to her: climb over the shrubs, summon the ball back, or wait for somebody to throw it. Since she could see the shadow of a figure approaching, she decided to bank on option three.

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine was also procrastinating. She was getting pretty good at it, but it helped that most things seemed to just stick in her brain. At least, enough to pass classes. She could sort of study, if she tried, but she didn't really know the best way to do the practical stuff. It wasn't like she could really practice brewing potions out of class. And she certainly wasn't going to go looking for boggarts outside of the Defence Against the Dark Arts class. Or transfigure creatures. Which was good, as there'd probably be some messed up chimera creatures wandering around, or some rat-hares destroying the garden. So she'd just have to keep working in class and try to distract herself outside of it. Fresh air was a good distraction, at least. And the roses smelled nice, as long as she didn't get too close and have hay fever acting up. That part was never fun.

She was distracted, however, by the kick of a ball and a vaguely familiar figure. It was the older girl she recognized from Valentines. Aine was sure she'd been rude and not properly introduced herself or asked her name, as she'd been far too busy hiding from Valerius and Cameron. How stupid that had been. At least now she had no time to worry about them. As though she did have time to waste doing nothing. It wasn't as though she had her priorities in check, at any rate. "Hey," she raised a hand in greeting. "This yours?" She was tempted to try and kick it, but that would be a disaster, no doubt.

 

[Van Voclain]

Van immediately recognised the girl from the Valentine’s dance. It had been a memorable dance because it was the first Van had ever been to, and would likely be the last. Perhaps one day a boy would ask her out, but perhaps the moon would fall out of the sky and the ocean would turn pink. “Yeah - chuck it back, will you?” she said, hands held up in preparation to catch it.

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine picked up the ball, and threw it with just about the most pathetic throw that had ever been thrown. It only barely got over the hedge. "Wow, that was sh- shocking," she quickly censored herself, shaking her head. "Never gonna stop arguing that we need non-Quidditch sports, and I'll present throws like that as evidence "

 

[Van Voclain]

"What was that?" Van said, bending down to scoop the ball out of a flowerbed. "That's proper embarrassing. Like you'd be getting on any sports team with a throw like that, my a***." She launched the ball back over the hedge. "Come on, try again."

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine was a little embarrassed, but she gave a somewhat helpless shrug, face heating as she defended herself. "It's cause we don't have PE, I'm out of practice. And the grass was damp." It was absolutely not damp in the slightest. She huffed, summoning up school netball practice to throw slightly better. It was still a bad throw, but it at least went where it needed to go. "Nah, I just suck at sports, sorry."

 

[Van Voclain]

Maybe Van had been a bit harsh. Her teachers back in England had been forever calling her rude, insensitive, abrasive; but since Van generally wasn't trying to be any of those things, she'd dismissed them as stupid. "Well - no," she backpedalled, spinning the ball between her fingers. "That one were all right. You just need more practice, that's all." She glanced in the direction the girl had been headed before Van stopped her. "Are you busy? Or do you want to have a kick-about?"

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine recognized the backpedal immediately - it was a familiar reflex of her own. She backpedaled in turn, realizing she was being in equal parts babyish and self-defeating. "Ah...I, um, didn't play a lot of sport at school," she quickly explained. She'd had to, of course, and been roped into netball, but more out of obligation. "But I'm not really busy," Aine added, partially lying - there was always more study to do - but actually hanging out with someome who seemed fun and interesting and not too difficult to talk to seemed like a much better use of her time.