Closed Unstoppable

[Aine Thompson]

As much as Aine was socially awkward, and struggled to communicate, and appreciated her privacy and alone time, she did genuinely want to be more social with people. She also half wanted to push Valerius into being more social, as it seemed wrong that he was the one who was more calm and sure of himself and she was the one who was making an effort to talk to people. And there were lots of reserved people in the year who didn't appreciate her efforts to make conversation that seemed to be done with all the grace of an elephant on a tightrope. And people like Cameron who just hated her (and not entitely unreasonably) but the less said on that point the better.

Aine was undeterred, though. Sure, she'd completely botched her attempt to talk to Rosie who was upset about her friend but she did still think the party wasn't a bad idea. She'd been a little surprised at how small the year level was and thought that maybe, just maybe, she could actually manage to get to know everyone a little more. It had actually been a bit on Siobhan's advice, since she'd had possibly the longest conversation she'd ever had with her eldest sister over the holidays. So she was going to grab third year by the horns and it was definitely going to be better than second year.

"Hey, Isadora," she greeted, seeing one of her classmates in the courtyard when she looked up from her scrapbook of...stuff. She didn't know Isadora too well, but she was friends with Margo and both of them seemed nice. Isadora was a bit more lively and seemed pretty cool, so Aine had been a bit too intimidated to approach her, but she wasn't going to be so pointlessly scared. "How was your break?" This was fine, she wasn't completely obviously nervous.

 

[Isadora Novak]

Isadora had already relocated three times since she had decided she should probably do some of the reading for her upcoming Potions lesson. At first, she had opened her book in the dormitory, but it was uncomfortable to read in bed and besides, it was stuffy in there. So she moved to the student lounge, but the sunshine outside kept distracting her. A brilliant idea had struck her, she could just move outside! But now that she was sitting on one of the stone benches in the courtyard, Isadora still felt fidgety. Why was it so hard to focus on a stupid book? She fussed with the pages, looking at the illustrations of the next chapter instead of reading what she was supposed to be reading. She jumped a little guiltily at the sound of a voice, sure for a second Professor Miller was here to scold her for looking at the wrong part of the book. She immediately realized how silly a thought that had been and smiled a little sheepishly at Aine. She didn't know much about the Hufflepuff, besides the fact that Cameron didn't like her. But Isadora knew better than most not to always take Cameron at his word. Isadora snapped the book closed, happy for the excuse to do so. "Hi Aine." She said, scooting to the side so there was more room on the bench. "It was fine." She lied, feeling like it would probably make things awkward if she said it had been crappy, like all breaks. "How was yours? What do you have there?" Isadora asked curiously.

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine knew vaguely that Isadora was friends with Cameron as well, which belatedly made this slightly more awkward. Margo didn't outright hate her, though, and at least maybe Isadora didn't since she was polite enough and not shooing her away or being cruel. Which was nicer than she expected, in all honesty. Still, she coukd use the distraction. So she sat down, and nodded at her words. Aine wasn't a model of social grace, but she was trying. "Extremely boring," she admitted, bluntly. It hadn't been that bad - having a week or two to recharge had been nice. After a while, though, it had gotten painfully lonely...and her only real interaction face to face with someone her age had resulted in her completely making an idiot of herself and screwing up her truce with Cameron in one fell swoop. "Oh, it's stupid, really, I got so bored I tried to put together a bunch of plans and ideas when I was home and could get stuff from the internet," she rambled. "And like, looking at the yearbook I saw that our year level was really small, and thought like, hey, we should have a party or something and all hang out a bit more. But I also realized I don't know anything about throwing parties." Aine shrugged, sinking down a little. When she got nervous, she talked more, but she didn't censor herself as quickly as she had in first year. She wasn't sure if that was good or bad. "Sorry, you're studying and I've gone and started being annoying. I can, um, leave you alone..."

 

[Isadora Novak]

Isadora had expected Aine to give a similar polite response about her break as she herself had done, so she snorted in surprise at Aine's blunt but honest answer. It was funny, but it also made Isadora wish she had been a bit more honest herself. Isadora sat up a bit as Aine explained about her book. She felt her curiosity pique at the mention of the internet, something Isadora only had a faint idea about. "Oh, that sounds like an awesome idea." She said brightly. "How do you get stuff from the internet?" She asked then, clearly unused to pronouncing the word. "Does it come by owl?" She asked, curiosity distracting her for a moment. "No, no don't be sorry! I love getting distracted from my studies. You're not annoying at all." She said, patting her arm hastily. "I want to hear more about your ideas from the in-ter-net." She said, taking her time to pronounce it better this time.

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine wasn't sure whether her bluntness was a good or a bad thing. It was certainly disarming, to say the least. It was nice to make people laugh, even if it was more a laugh of confusion or surprise. This is good, Aine thought. I am going to pass conversation, which is a completely normal thing to think and definitely something my classmate is grading me on. Regardless, she gave a slightly embarrassed smile, especially as she realized Isadora was from a purely magical background and wasn't familiar with things Aine took completely for granted. Even if her own setup was pretty dated, all things considered. "Oh, well, um..." she tried to think about how best to explain. "I have this old thing called a printer at home, and it lets me take things like pictures or articles I find and put them onto paper in front of me." Kind of like magic, except for all the paper jams and fading ink, she thoight, but decided not to add that in case of more confusion. Not many places sold printer materials any more, but schools and offices needed them sometimes. "I, uh, anyway, was trying to think of stuff and there was ideas like a costume party, or a beach party...but we've got Halloween, and a lake isn't really a good beach." Aine shrugged, a little helpless. "But I'm sure there's something that could be fun."

 

[Isadora Novak]

Isadora had picked up a few things about the muggle world during her years at Hogwarts, but it still always fascinated her. At home, it was practically a forbidden subject. She knew better than to even show a passing interest in anything muggle at home, it just wasn't worth the hassle and the drama. Her parents really overreacted every time. So it was very interesting to her to hear someone else mention it so casually. She listened carefully, almost wishing she could take notes. "Oh, that's awesome." She said. "I wish we had that here, it would save so much time copying things out of books." She sighed. Isadora considered Aine's ideas. "I think a costume party could still be fun, but the beach party is even better." She said with a nod. "I don't think the lake is that bad. Though I guess some people don't like getting muddy." She said with a shrug. "I think your ideas are good." She added encouragingly.