Closed Boredom Leads to Creativity

[Professor Louis Alcott]

Louis had hoped being outside in the courtyard would make doing his homework slightly less unbearable. Unfortunately, the essay he was attempting to write stayed as boring as ever. If anything, being outside with other people around made it more difficult to focus on the work. He kept glancing around after every few words he wrote down, noticing new people walking through. He waved a couple of times when he saw people he knew, but then tried to force himself to focus on his essay again. He was sitting on one of the stone benches in the courtyard, his parchment pinned down with one of his heavier books so it wouldn't blow away in the wind. Louis sighed and fidgeted a bit as he glanced around again, this was so boring. He glanced back down, noticing a crumpled-up piece of parchment he had discarded after failing his first attempt at this essay. Glancing up again, Louis grinned as he noticed a nearby trashcan. He grabbed the ball of parchment and sat up a bit as he tried to aim. Then he threw, letting out a curse in French as he just barely missed it. Unthinkingly, he grabbed a fresh piece of parchment out of his bag and crumpled it up to try again. This was way more fun than writing his stupid essay. And now it was a point of pride too. He had to do better.

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine wasn't getting anywhere on her homework in the library, and she felt a bit stir-crazy cooped up inside. She usually didn't mind it as such, but sometimes one just desperately needed fresh air. So the courtyard was a fair compromise- although it seemed many people had the same idea. And after a while of desperately staring ar her DADA textbook and hoping she could just force the words to sink in to her brain and that somehow it would be able to make her cast spells on people by flicking some sort of switch, she gave up. People watching seemed far more fascinating, and she stood up to stretch her legs, shifting over to a different seat. There was a cute guy trying to throw balls of crumpled parchment into the trash, and she found herself intrigued, rather blatantly staring. She sunk her chin on to her hands, now a captive audience. "You got this," she mumbled, barely loud enough for him to hear.