Closed This Is A Sneaking Mission

[Aine Thompson]

Aine absolutely did not want to be at the Valentine's Feast.

And for all intents and purposes, she wasn't...not really. She'd said she wasn't going because she didn't feel like it and had some work to be getting on with anyway. Which was mostly reading for the sake of her research project (which really was just a fancy way of saying she was reading a bunch of novels and then writing down her findings on depictions of magic within them) but the point still stood. She knew Valerius would be overbearing and treating her like a child while also pushing too much into her space, which she resented. Especially as it gave off the wrong impression. Aine didn't feel that way about him, if she even knew how that was supposed to feel. It wasn't something that had crossed her mind. She did appreciate his friendship, and did miss having him to talk to in class. But she was stubborn, as ever. And she knew Cameron would probably be there, probably with his stupid camera. She had the feeling he'd make fun of the way she looked and while she'd never paid much attention to dressing up or how she looked before there was a dim feeling in the back of her mind that that would somehow be more hurtful than usual.

But she was also hungry. And a little curious about the event in general, just to see what was going on. She'd put on one of her nicer dresses to try and blend in, although she didn't plan on staying for very long. Brushing rose petals off the top of her head - it was a good thing magical cleaning existed, she supposed - Aine placed herself very conspicuously behind a rosebush, peering out from behind it to scope the area. In and out to get some cakes and somehow sneak them back up to the common room. Or if not, to find a nice quiet spot to eat, drink, and then get the heck out of there before she ended up in a painfully uncomfortable situation. She was not exactly quick, or stealthy, but she was doing her absolute best in this situation. Which wasn't saying much, but it had to count for something, right?

 

[Van Voclain]

Well, though Van. I'm here. Whether this was a success or a failure on her part was murky. She ran a quick internal assessment to find out whether she was, in fact, happy now, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that she was. As none of Van's peers cared enough to pressure her into attending the dance, she had taken to pressuring herself, and, as it turned out, she was very good at it. Indeed, her powers of persuasion were so strong, and her persistence so wearing, that she had buckled just to shut her inner voice up. But her clever little demons weren't about to have the last laugh. Yes, Van was here, but that didn't mean she had to play by the rules.

Her rebellion started with a pair of old trainers, gained strength with a rainbow-striped tee, and reached its zenith with a nice messy ponytail. Did she look out of place? Yes. Did she care? Also yes - but her satisfaction made it just about worthwhile. Besides, it was so much easier to walk to the snack table when you weren't tripping over the hem of your dress. Perhaps she was really onto something.

Biting into a strawberry-flavoured cake, Van started towards the chocolate fountain, when suddenly a suspicious scene arrested her interest. How very strange it was indeed to see a young girl sheltering behind one of the enchanted rose bushes. Not one to pass by a potential drama, Van crept up from behind. When she was close enough to cause a fright, she straightened up and put a hand on her hip. "Well, well, well, what do we have here?" she asked. "No, it's pretty obvious, actually. You're either hiding from someone, or you're stalking them. Which one, eh?"

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine had just about plotted the optimal path between rose bushes to get food and get to safety when she was jolted back to earth by a girl who looked to be a little older than her, jumping on the spot and stumbling into the rosebush, then having to take a moment to detangle her hair from it as inconspicuously as possible (which was not inconspicuous at all) while she caught her breath and tried to look much calmer. Her shoulders slumped a little at the assessment - she was obvious, yes. She had absolutely no idea what she was doing. Partially wanting to avoid the party but partially wanting to be involved. It was why she'd actually dressed up, wasn't it? Or maybe to just do the lip service to say she was being involved without actually doing anything. "I..." she started, wondering how best to justify herself. "...would you believe a little of column A, a little of column B? Mostly...the first part." Aine winced. "I'd be lying if I said people watching, uh, wasn't a partial motivation." She quickly turned back to the rosebushes...and let out an 'oh' in dismay when they shifted, completely destroying her potential pathway. Back to square one. She "hid" behind the rosebush again, tensing. "...you, uh, haven't seen a couple of second year boys around, have you? Both a bit on the smug side, one probably has a camera and will probably glare at me if he sees me." Aine scrunched up her face, nerves making her run her mouth again. "Stupid question. Sorry."

 

[Van Voclain]

Sure, Van could believe that. She herself had spent entire Valentine's evenings by the window in the abandoned classroom, watching students dressed up in pretty gowns mingling in the rose-studded courtyard below. There was nothing wrong with a bit of people-watching. What interested her more was why the blonde girl felt she needed to hide.

As the bush shuffled a meter or two to the left, so did Van. Not that it was doing a very good job of concealing her. To anybody on the other side, it must have looked like she was talking to the roses. "What? Is he taking photos of you?" she asked. Woe betide the kid if he was. That was completely out of order. "I mean, I've seen a lot of second years, and most boys are smug little twerps, let's face it - so I'm not sure I can help you there. You shouldn't have to hide from them, though. What are they going to do? Just glare at you? Say hello?" Van shrugged, watching a pair of boys approach the dance floor. "Tell them to get lost." For a second, she thought one of the boys was holding a camera, but it was just a large pet rat. Van gave him a dirty look anyway, because he'd probably done something to deserve it, even if not to her personally. Boys were the worst.

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine looked quite self-conscious for a moment. "Well, technically he works for the yearbook, I think, so he's taking photos of everyone," she admitted, shrinking a little on the spot. Was she just reading too much into this, thinking it was more about her than it actually was? "But he got a bunch of me and my friend - like, probably more than normal? - at the Yule Ball and apparently they all looked weird and I so do not want to deal with that again." Maybe she'd been pretty harsh to Valerius, all things considered, but it was probably good to step back a bit. Maybe he'd stop babying her or treating her like a special case just because she wasn't confident with magic. "He does keep laughing at me when I mess up in class or glaring at me across the room when we have classes together. It's such a pain." Aine sighed, looking at the girl with an almost helpless expression. "Why do boys suck so much?" It was something of a rhetorical question, but this girl seemed pretty savvy and wise, maybe she'd have an answer. Even if it was really something unanswerable.