Open The Adventures of Learning Something New

[Valencia Addington]

Open after Ana replies as Weston Stirling

It had been a new school year, which Valencia was not always excited about. This year had been slightly different from the past few years. During her break, she had received a prefects badge in the mail. Which in all honesty, came as a shock for Valencia. She didn't really expect that she was going to get one. Maybe her head of house had confused her with someone else? But she wasn't going to question it. The girl sat on the edge of the lake, sitting on the rocks and taking in the air of the lake and what was around it. Valencia wasn't sure how long she had been sitting there, but she assumed it had been a while, as she had been frowning confusingly at her badge, questions flowing through her mind, since she had arrived at the lake

 

[Weston Stirling]

Ever since he and Indi had started their project to document the man-eating eel, Weston had found himself spending more and more time by the lake. Whenever he went outside, he tried to stop by the lake or at least take a path that brought him close to the shore. It was impossible to predict when the eel (or one of its eel brethren) might show, so the only solution was to stop by the lake as often as possible. Weston hadn't had any luck so far, but that didn't deter him. He had seen the eel once before, and it was only a matter of time before he saw it again. After all, it wasn't like the eel could go anywhere. It lived in a lake, not an ocean.

It didn't take long for Weston to realize he wasn't alone on today's lake excursion. He spotted Valencia sitting some ways away, and Weston waved to her. "Valencia!" he called out as she started to make his way around the lake to where she was sitting. Once he was closer, he grinned and took a seat next to her, assuming she would be fine with him joining her since they were friends. "What are you doing out here?" he asked curiously. They usually ran into each other in the common room, and Weston wasn't sure when he'd last seen her out here.

 

[Valencia Addington]

Valencia looked up when she heard her name being called. "Hey, Weston" Valencia says with a small smile and wave, glad that there was company to distract her from her thoughts. She had managed to make a few friends at Hogwarts, and she was glad that Weston was one of them, even though they didn't really hang out that often. The Ravenclaw girl shrugged a little. "I'm not sure really. Just needed some air. Maybe a bit of a distraction, somehow" Valencia says with a small chuckle and a shrug as she responded to his question. "How about you? What are you doing out here?"

 

[Weston Stirling]

Weston had never understood the concept of needing "air." There was plenty of air indoors, and — in the muggle world at least — it was air-conditioned. But he was glad that Valencia had needed air today since it meant he would have company while he waited for the eel. "What do you need a distraction from?" he asked. It was a nosy question, but he figured she wouldn't have brought it up if she didn't want to talk about it. "I wanted to check on the lake and see if I could spot the eel," he explained. "You've heard about it, right? I've actually seen it before, but I want to see it again." He hadn't gotten that good of a look at it the first time around, and he was hoping he'd get to observe it at length soon.