Not Just What You See

[Jessica Matthews]

Jessica didn't really know what she'd been thinking when she had decided to come up here - being outside wasn't particularly exciting in and of itself, and she would much rather be back in the castle trying to make friends with some of the other students she had met. But lately she had been thinking about what her sister would be doing if she were here, and visiting the cliffs seemed like one of the more obvious options. Even if she mostly hated the school herself, Jessica knew that Laura would want to know everything about it and hence the idea to write her twin the best letter she possibly could had appeared. She was beginning to wonder, however, if that really meant including a first-hand experience of exactly what she could see from up here. It was getting harder to force herself to take another step closer to the edge.

 

[Amber Chou Wilson]

Amber was starting to feel like third year would be a hard one for her, on the classes front at least. She really enjoyed learning and enjoyed having more classes, but her workload had gotten bigger since she hadn't actually dropped any of her old ones. Today she had given herself some free time from both socializing and homework to walk around the grounds. It was a nice way to get her head empty.

She normally didn't venture this close to the cliffs, but she hadn't been thinking too hard about where she had been going. Her mind kept drifting back to Ainsley, to school, to her friends... so when she saw a girl near the edge of the cliffs, she thought for a moment she was imagining things. She blinked a few times and realized there really was a girl there, and a young one too. She couldn't be anything but a first year. Amber hesitated before getting closer, feeling worried for her. "Excuse me!" She called as she jogged closer to the girl. She waved her hand to catch her attention. "Excuse me, hello! I don't think you're allowed to be this close to the cliffs. You really shouldn't be playing here, it's very dangerous." She told the girl. "I know you're a first year, so you might not know all the rules, but I think you can get in trouble for it, or you could get hurt." She smiled at the girl, hoping she would listen.

 

[Alana Finch]

Although this had once been a favorite spot of hers, a few bad experiences had soured the girl on this particular area of the school. It just reminded her too much of everything related to the drama of Chaos and Matthew, something that had been on her mind since her return to the castle. With the events of the party, the added consequences for marrying Chaos Zhefarovich, Alana Finch couldn't help but wonder what life would have been like had she somehow managed her way out of the engagement and ended up with Matthew. It was a silly thing to think about, she knew. She and Matthew were just friends and barely that these days. It had been ages since she'd heard from him.

With a heavy sigh, the woman continued her hike up to the cliff top. She hadn't specifically said it to Chaos, but she was scared, more scared than she'd ever been. And the way that the year had started off didn't help matters. It was like there were omens all around, chaos filling every corner of her life almost like life was suggesting this wouldn't all work out. "Merlin, get out of your head, Alana" she muttered to herself as she continued hiking up, grateful for the burn in her shins. Picking up the pace, she began to jog, anything to force her mind from her thoughts.

 

[Jessica Matthews]

Jessica had been trying to will herself into taking just one step closer, when she suddenly heard the sound of someone yelling behind her. Startled, she whirled around, her hands gluing themselves to her collarbone in some instinctual attempt to stop the heart now racing in her chest. For a moment the shock she had experienced was all she could feel, but soon she managed to calm herself as she took in the older girl who had seemingly appeared from nowhere. Normally Jessica would have agreed with her assessment of the danger, but the way she had said it had just sounded slightly patronising. "I wasn't playing," she said haughtily, managing to bring her hands back down to her sides in order to present herself less vulnerably. She was eleven, she didn't play. And she especially wouldn't play by herself. "But if I was, why would you startle me when I was so close to the edge? I could have fallen off." The girl had smiled at her, but Jessica didn't think she wanted to return the expression just yet - she was always cross and snappy when people frightened her, it was just something she'd never quite managed to get under control.

 

[Bethany Zanders]

Bee had been out at the cliffs taking a hike to enjoy the nicer weather of the New Zealand spring. She had almost been to the top and saw two other girls at the cliffs already when she saw the Head Girl a little ways behind her. She didn't know if the Head Girl was also just taking a walk now but she did know that they weren't technically allowed to be at the cliffs so she worried if the Head Girl would be coming up to patrol and get them in trouble. Bee jogged the rest of the way up to warn the two other girls but as she approached she heard the older one tell the younger one to be careful and both of them talked about her possibly falling. Bee walked the rest of the way toward them and said, "Relax, she'll be fine!" Bee had been up here many times before and never gotten into any danger. To prove a point she took a step closer to the ledge and said, "See? It'll be fine, come, try it, both of you," she encouraged them, forgetting her original purpose to warn them of the Head Girl possibly coming up here.
​

 

[Amber Chou Wilson]

Amber frowned a little at the younger girl who was being slightly rude. Amber had only been trying to help, and she still felt like what the blond girl was doing was very dangerous. "I don't know what you were doing, but whatever it was, its dangerous." She said, putting her hands on her hips. "And I didn't mean to startle you, I meant to warn you." Amber liked helping younger students, but they generally seemed to appreciate her advice more than this girl was. Before she could go into the reasons for not being near the cliffs, another voice joined them. One that didn't agree with her either. She turned to see a girl in the year above her approach. Amber had seen her around school, but they had never talked. The girl took a step closer to the edge and Amber looked even more concerned. "I really don't think that's a good idea." She said, not caring if it made her look cowardly. This girl seemed nice, but also a bit like a bad influence on the first year. "I'd rather not try it, thank you."

 

[Alana Finch]

Keeping a steady pace, it wasn't long before Alana neared the top, hearing a bunch of voices. She slowed, catching her breath as she drew closer. A frown appeared on her face as she came upon a group of girls, all just a tad too close to the edge for her liking. "What do you think you're doing?" she asked, hands on her hips as she took another step closer. Of course, she'd come across this. It was how the year was going for her.

 

[Jessica Matthews]

Jessica could feel her back teeth clenching together in an effort not to tell the older girl to just go away already. Of course it was dangerous up here, she was standing on top of a cliff - she didn't need this busybody to tell her that. Jessica would have liked to ask the girl exactly what right she thought she had to talk to younger people as if they were stupid, but she'd never know if she would have actually said it because just then they were interrupted by someone else. As the new girl walked further towards the edge, Jessica found herself taking the same amount of steps away from it as her own nerves intensified just seeing the other girl so close. "Yeah, I'm fine back here," she added to the busybody's statement. "Really I just wanted to know everything you could see from up here." Jessica felt awkwardly hemmed into conversation with the two girls, and the arrival of yet another person seemed to pin her in with no chance of escape. She wasn't completely sure, but if she was right in thinking that it was the head girl who had just found them, Jessica absolutely didn't want the other two to drag her into any sort of trouble. "Hello," she said, smiling respectfully. "I can't really speak for the others, but I was just taking a walk. I'm writing home to my sister about the castle grounds." If the busybody said one word about her 'playing' near the edge of the cliff...

 

[Bethany Zanders]

Bee laughed a little when the two girls were hesitant to come closer the way she had. She knew she had to be careful but she she felt fine so far, she wasn't scared yet. Just then the head girl came upon them and asked them what they were doing. She knew they could get in a lot of trouble and that the head girl had the privileges of taking points away from them, but she didn't want them all to get in trouble even if she didn't know the other two girls. "These two girls were just saving me from getting too close," Bee said, finally taking a step back from the edge. It wasn't entirely a lie, but it wasn't the exact truth either. She just hoped it sounded good enough that they could be pardoned if so for looking out for a student's safety.
​

 

[Amber Chou Wilson]

Amber was just starting to feel like the situation was starting to spin out of control when she heard a vaguely familiar voice call out to them. She turned to see the Head Girl approach, and her heart sank. She didn't want to get into trouble, all she had wanted was to be helpful. She would be really peeved with this first year if she caused them both to lose points with her sillyness. It surprised her when the Gryffindor girl took the blame for them being near the edge, she was wondering what to say. Should she go along with what she was saying? She decided to be vague to be safe. "I ... just thought it looked unsafe to be up here." She said, shrugging quietly. "It seems dangerous to me." She gave the Gryffindor girl a grateful look, though she didn't feel nearly as kindly to the younger girl. She hated being talked to like she was meddling for the sake of it. It wasn't like she had been wrong to warn the younger girl.

 

[Alana Finch]

Alana listened to them each speak in turn, her eyes narrowed all the while. She wasn't exactly sure if she was buying what they were saying, but she surely had no proof that they weren't telling the truth. "That's because it is" she said in reply. The teenager was still suspicious, but she didn't want to have to go through the trouble of finding Heads of House or docking points. "Listen, I'm not in the mood to dock points today" she said with a sigh. "so are you all doing exploring?" she asked the girls, stepping back to leave room for them to go past her and down the path. What she hadn't realized was there being exposed roots on the ground, which she promptly tripped over. Stumbling back to try to catch her step was a bad idea, she quickly realized as her ankle twisted painfully, causing her to eventually fall on her behind. "Ohhhhh" she let out a pained groan, her hands going immediately to her ankle.

 

[Jessica Matthews]

Jessica was glad to hear that neither of the other two girls seemed inclined towards landing her in trouble. Although if the school was so worried about the danger, shouldn't they have signs, or fences up, or something? The whole place was practically a death trap if you weren't careful. She was completely ready to follow the head girl's direction and go back to the castle to finish her sister's letter, when the older girl suddenly tripped over. Inwardly Jessica wasn't initially too concerned, but once it became evident that the girl had actually hurt herself she reacted much more fittingly to the situation. "Oh no, are you okay?" She took a few steps closer, but only hovered, unwilling to take the lead in helping her - she had no experience with this sort of thing, and didn't want to look bad messing up the head girl's ankle even worse. Turning, she fixed the other girls with a pleading look. "I don't know what to do." It was times like this she didn't mind playing the younger card.

 

[Bethany Zanders]

Bee was afraid the two girls were going to rat her out and tell the head girl she was lying just to get themselves out of trouble or something, but she was glad they didn't say anything to contradict what she had said. She had already hiked up the cliffs and spent enough time there to satisfy her, but she still didn't like the implication of being asked to leave the premises. She wasn't going to argue though, since the head girl didn't seem to be in the mood to be messed with and she had already been nice enough not to dock points from them. So the Gryffindor had only taken a few steps further away from the ledge when she saw the older Slytherin trip on a root behind her and fall. Bee reached out to try and grab her before she hit the ground but since she was the furthest away so her extended arm was useless. She saw the head girl clutching at her ankle. "Ouch," she said, wincing sympathetically with the girl. Bee walked past the smallest girl who looked at them anxiously for help and kneeled down by Alana. "Looks bad," she noted. She had twisted her ankle a few times before in surfing accidents or generally horsing around with her brothers so Bee had some knowledge of what to do. She turned to the other girl and asked, "Can you help me get her up?" Alana shouldn't put her weight on her ankle so she was going to need support to get up from the ground and this girl was older than the first year so she made a better support with Bee combined.
​

 

[Amber Chou Wilson]

Amber was eager to get out of here. She had never lost points for her house before and didn't really want to start now. She could see the older girl wasn't happy to see them here but she was relieved when she said she wasn't in the mood today. Amber had been about to reply honestly that she hadn't been exploring, just walking, when Alana tripped and fell over. Amber's hands flew to her mouth in horror as she saw that the girl had hurt herself. "Are you alright?" She asked frantically, even though the girl obviously wasn't.

The first year seemed even more worried and nervous than Amber was, and Amber felt more pressure from her pleading look. Suddenly she felt just as young as the first year girl, and just as clueless. She herself turned her gaze to the Gryffindor, who thankfully seemed to know what she was doing. When she turned to Amber to ask if she could help get the head girl up, she nodded immediately and went over. "Of course." She said, trying to sound more confident. She went to Alana's other side and crouched down too. "It's going to be okay." She told her, hoping it sounded like she was quite sure about it. "They'll be able to fix this up at the castle in a second." She looked to the first year girl. "Maybe she could go find a professor?" She asked, glancing over at the Gryffindor girl for guidance as she helped her support the Head Girl.