Overdrive

[Pia Morales]

New year's resolutions weren't Pia's style. She thought they were pointless, merely an excuse to make a temporary change before reverting back to old habits within a few weeks and a trap that most adults she knew fell into time and time again and she was proud to say that until this year she had never made nor broken a new years resolution. Although Pia openly disliked new year's resolutions and did not believe she was conforming to the 'new year, new me' trend by any means she knew how badly she needed to make positive changes in her life and figured a new year was the perfect opportunity to do so. It sounded hypocritical, but she desperately needed to open up, be a generally more friendly and welcoming person, and needed to make genuine friends instead of keeping to herself and shutting everybody out. Though most importantly she needed to learn to swallow her pride and accept help when it was offered to her. She decided to give herself a fresh start this year and made an ambitious resolution to change all of these things and in turn change her life for the better by getting out of the antisocial hole she caged herself in from fear of the events of her previous school year repeating. It was a ridiculous fear driven by her insecurities and in order to see her resolution become reality and face that fear head on, Pia set out to work hard from her first day back at the castle which meant trekking to the wild patch with a satchel filled with textbooks over her shoulder and a confident stride to her steps that matched the determined expression on her face.

She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Orwell working in the gardens and dropped her heavy satchel to the ground to alert him of her presence. When their eyes met she began speaking and announced her reasons for being in the gardens with all the bluntness she could muster. "I would like you to help me study." She was tempted to cross her arms over her chest but chose to keep her arms to her sides so she did not look defensive or that she did not want to be there, accepting the offer of help the crazy-haired anarchist boy offered to her during the previous semester because she did, in fact, want to be there. Their interactions were minimal but Pia could admit she enjoyed speaking to him and attempting to grasp his unique view on the world that differed so greatly to her own. What she did not want to admit, however, was that she did need help in order to figure out what level her subjects were at in comparison to her school in Brazil and that was the reason she wanted to revert to her old ways and act like her defensive and introverted self even as she stood with her worn out shoes in the dirt waiting for Orwell to react to her unexpected arrival and sudden demands.

blahhhhh blah blah​

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[Orwell Brocken]

Orwell loved his gardens, he had begun referring to them as his, though he would never possessively say they belonged to him. The teen was happiest in the gardens, since he could not actually go to the forest, the next best thing he had was the garden, and that gardens were his life. Orwell found it always easy to settle into a good routine when he was able to start his semester with being within the gardens. Mostly when he got back Orwell was making sure the plants were all okay, making sure nothing had died, cleaning up the bits and pieces that he needed to. The boy had a lot on his plate and his mind was filled with concerns over Archie and stresses about exams, Brock was nervous about his exams, nervous about sitting real life major exams, though he wanted to put little stock in them, he couldn't help but do so, and his revising had taken on a different toll. As he worked in the soft summer sun, the teen gladly pulled a weed from the dirt and discarded it on the small pile beside him, and behind him, on a bench he had books open at the page he had been reading, alternating between the garden work and his studies, in his little garden of zen.

The pink haired King of Flowers glanced up suddenly when a heavy satchel dropped to the ground and he was a little startled by it and then upon realising who it was, gave the girl a warm smile, but she seemed to be more pressed with something, and the teen only had to wait a beat before the girl told him what she wanted with a bluntness he hadn't really expected. Orwell had to take a moment to understand what she was saying, "Study?" he repeated before just nodding at her, "Sure, I'd be happy to help," the ravenclaw walked through the soft dirt out of the flower beds and to the ground, wiping his hands on his dirty old jeans. He continued to his belongings and with the little bottle of water he had he quickly washed his hands by spilling a little on them and wiping away the dirt, using his slightly dirty t-shirt to dry them, "Do you want to start now, or set up a time for later?" he asked since he had some of his belongings to study with him, but he wasn't sure when she wanted to study, or even what she wanted to study.
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[Pia Morales]

Orwell's compliance to her demands threw Pia into a momentary lull of confusion because she did not think roping him into being her tutor would be so easy. From what Pia had heard around the school, the other Ravenclaw was ridiculously headstrong, at least when it came to his poltical beliefs and that was what she expected when she stormed into the wild patch that day. A headstrong, messy haired Ravenclaw that marched to the beat of his own drum and refused to listen to anybody else. But it seemed the boy had much more depth to his personality than what Pia already knew from her few interactions with him and it made her second guess herself. She wanted to apologize for her brash actions but that would mean showing vulnerability and distract from her intent to study so she quickly shook that thought from her head and moved her attention to the task at hand that she promised herself she would not get distracted from when she was walking to the wild patch.

The heavy, book filled satchel seemed to answer Orwell's question alone. She thought it was clear that she wanted to study now because the confidence she mustered to admit she needed help could fade away any second. It really was now or never so she nodded at the other Ravenclaw before opening her mouth to say "Yes, now." in the most matter of fact way she could. The hands she had balled into fists at her sides tightened momentarily before she released them and knelt drown to the ground to pick up her satchel. She walked to the nearby bench, already laden with books and placed the satchel on it as she began digging through it. Eventually she wrapped her hands around a potions text book. She quickly pulled it from the satchel and held it towards Orwell. "We can start with this." She announced before biting her lip. Potions was one of her better subjects and she was always apprehensive to admit that she even needed help with one of the subjects she previously excelled in. She still enjoyed potions immensely but Hogwarts New Zealand taught potions in an entirely different way compared to Castelobruxo and in order to fully enjoy potions again she needed to catch up on everything before the exams began. She moved from biting her lip to smiling slightly and shaking her head as she moved one hand to her forehead and finally gave in to her urge to apologize to the other Ravenclaw. "I'm sorry. I just haven't needed help with school before. It's difficult to admit that I'm not as smart as I thought I was." She then returned her expression to one of confidence as she opened the potions book in her hands and sat down on an empty space on the bench. "Let's get started then." She said as she adjusted her oversized glasses and skimmed the books table of contents.

this took so long i'm so useless omg​

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[Orwell Brocken]

Orwell had always been confused about the definitive lack of study groups within the school, he had always imagined that as a school with so many students, classes and years that they would also have countless study groups which help new and old students come to grips with what they were supposed to learn, but no such things were actually available to students, which meant that as a student like himself who'd come into Hogwarts with no prior schooling that could be classed as formal he had done a lot of catching up and done a lot of work in the background to get himself into a position to be able to keep up with the work, and often it meant doing a lot of late night studying which he wouldn't have had to do on his own had there been study groups to help, so he fully understood why Pia was stood in front of him, asking him for help after what was likely a lot of internal debate, but Orwell saw no shame in asking for help and thought it was always better to ask than to not ask. He had learned in his community that helping others was just part of life, and given that there was no formal education and the teacher's he had came and went much like the students he had learned to help others learn like he had been helped to learn.

The Ravenclaw just stared easily at her, knowing that he'd gotten most of the dirt of his hands and being able to actually touch what she was giving him without in any way making her also dirty, being dirty was just part of what it took to be in the gardens and minding it, but now given that she wanted to study the teen knew he had had to clean up slightly. The boy just listened to her, and took the book that she had handed to her and began to read over it quickly, nodding as he read the words with ease, quickly understanding that it was potions which he was pretty understanding off, since he too had struggled with potions when he had first arrived at the school. His knowledge prior to that time had been purely theoretical, he'd never once actually made a potion, it had never been one of his duties in the community, The boy just continued reading over it as she moved to sit down on the bench, and he placed down the book beside her, wandering away to the wild patch shed and retrieving the books and bag he usually put away before getting to work. He took a seat next to her just as she continued speaking, explaining to him the issue that she had, "You are perfectly smart," he told her sincerely, "I had the same difficulty too with potions when I first arrived, but mostly because I only did potions theory before Hogwarts," he told her, as he pulled the book in front of him and them glanced at the book in front of him, "Do you want me to quiz you on potions or talk through how to make them or just sit in silence?" he asked unsure of how she wanted him to help her and deciding to just see what methods of studying she was open to.
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[Pia Morales]

Pia shook her head when Orwell assured her she was smart because smart was definitely not a word Pia would use to describe herself. Dedicated, maybe, or even quick witted by it's loosest definition but smart as a word was a far cry when describing her as much as the word 'brave' or 'impulsive' would be. She merely thought she was dedicated when school was involved and believed her memory was decent enough for her to be able to regurgitate information seemingly at the drop of a hat. Smart, unfortunately did not come into the equation since her transfer to Hogwarts New Zealand and the times where she did consider herself smart were only in her memory. Orwell was reassuring her that he was in a similar boat when he first transferred but it did nothing to change Pia's opinion because she refused to consider herself smart again until the tedious, exhausting amount of time she had spent studying yielded some positive results. "Maybe it's a good idea for you to quiz me on what I'm supposed to know, so we have a starting point." She answered, opening her book to the contents page and handing it to Orwell so he could begin quizzing her.

Pia answered his questions one by one and to the best of her ability considering all her answers were from the top of her head and eventually they reached a starting point for her study. It was just an unfortunate yet somehow predictable circumstance that when they reached the point where they could study productively that Pia had also reached her wits end and her mind begged her for a study break. It lead to Orwell and Pia sitting in a patch of grass near the wild patch while Pia attempted to teach Orwell how to make daisy chains. With the title 'the king of flowers' and a reputation for creating flower crowns, Pia was surprised that Orwell had not known how to put together a daisy chain but she was happy to teach him if it meant she could give her mind a rest from studying. "So you just create a small hole here in the stem, then thread the other daisy through." She demonstrated as she spoke, her tone of voice soft as if she was talking to one of her younger brothers. As she added another link to her daisy chain she added "Be careful not to damage the petals." as an afterthought.​

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[Orwell Brocken]

Studying with Pia was decidedly better than studying alone, although he had not planned to do any studying that day the Ravenclaw knew that studying with someone like Pia was bound to help him too, all the information he was helping her learn, were likely things that he too was currently learning just by being with her in that moment. Orwell realised that Pia was definitely smart, smarter than she appeared to really give herself credit for, there were some areas that were weaker than others but mostly this was just because of her different education prior to Hogwarts. Which wasn't exactly a bad thing in his mind, any school education did seem to make students fair better than his complete lack of school education prior to coming to this school, it had certainly helped that Orwell had been one of the brightest kids in his community, it had given him a good advantage when he'd come to school and not struggled overly hard to catch to where the rest of the students were, thankfully though compared with Pia he had arrived at the school in third year rather than at the unfortunate point of being right before exams, but he was sure in the quizzing that he did for Pia that she would be just fine.

The king of the flowers was pretty pleased when she decided they weren't to study any more and just moved on, though it had gotten to a certain point where it would've been a good place to start the real studying outside of the quiz, much like she was Orwell's mind decided it was pretty much done for the moment a study break was exactly what they both needed. Orwell who spent most of his time in the gardens, knew exactly where they should sit, in a grassy opening that he was sure she'd like, the one good thing about the garden was that it was always so quiet and peaceful, rarely did this place experience anything other than a few people at most. The boy was glad for the study break but found it funny that they were daisy chains, or well, she was, he was failing at it, though Orwell had mastered the craft of a flower crown, or flower lanterns, it seemed that small more delicate daisies were a little beyond what he could do, he was either crush them, or making them break apart and both left him feeling a little bad. It meant that when Pia described to him what he should do, Brock did just that, a small hole in the stem, threading the daisy through it, "I don't know why I'm not really getting this," he chuckled lightly as even with her words he managed to some how pull too hard and break the chain, "I'm good at flower crowns, this though, apparently I can't do," Orwell continued his light and laughing. He tried again, focusing more, his attention and focus almost solely on the flowers in his hands, the lines of determination clear on his forehead and this time he finally got it, "Yes!" he exclaimed loudly, before trying again with the next flower, "It would be awful if the king of flowers couldn't make a daisy chain," he joked with her, an easy and calm expression on his face, it didn't matter that he had exams coming up, this was nice and a well deserved break.
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