Splash and Ripple - Open -

[mairead ó fearghail]

Somewhere out in the middle of the lake, ripples broke the smooth surface of the water. The, otherwise placid lake reflected the greyness of the overcast sky overhead, making the waves of the ripples obvious as they glided across the surface. A few scattered students were outdoors, but the overcast skies had chased most indoors. It was on the cool side, but not unpleasantly so. Though, the water that lapped around her ankles was a bit on the cold side.

Her school robes were abandoned on the shoreline and her shirt was untucked, hanging loosely over her shoulders. The bottom of her shirt hung over her skirt, hiding the top hemline that had been rolled over on itself several times to shorten the skirt. Even so, the bottom of it was still wet.

Another splash and string of ripples broke the surface of the water. This time, she could see a glimpse of the giant squid tentacle that had flipped up. She waved briefly, though the squid was, by then, long gone. The sound of someone approaching was muffled by the grass so she was, largely, oblivious to any coming until they'd reached the shoreline.

[bryana spencer]

Bryana sat on the lake's edge, holding her quill in one hand, and her parchment in the other, with it resting on her knees. She stared intently upon the lake, wanting to capture the scene as much as possible. "Look at me! I think I'm a great artist!" she retorted to herself, getting up and dusting herself off.

She, like many other erm..students, was dressed in her school uniform but more informally than anything. She looked down at her feet and rolled her eyes. "Nothing better to do." she sighed. She looked out onto the lake again, and that up at the castle in all it's mischievous glory.

She was ready to fall back onto the ground, and take a nice nap, when she felt something splash her face and her wonderful ensemble. It wasn't a huge splash, but it was enough to make her wonder what it was.

She looked around, but all she she was a girl not too far away, standing in the water, getting pretty darn wet. Then she saw it, what must've splashed her. The slightest tentacle wiggled out of the water and disappeared again. Bryana put her hands on her hips, and kicked off her shoes. She skipped out to where the girl was standing, without the need of rolling her skirt, knowing she'd already rolled it a few times that morning. "It only comes out a few times a day. A lot of people don't graduate ever seeing it with their own eyes."

[mairead ó fearghail]

Mairead looked up at the sound of splashing, glancing over her shoulder at the approaching newcomer. As she heard another splash, she looked out again, but by the time her attention had moved, the tentacle was long gone. Such was the nature of things.

The squid, it seemed, had managed to get the other girl and, though she doubted it was entirely welcomed, she grinned back at the other. The squid had an interesting sense of humor - of course, assuming that the squid did it out of humor. "That's rather rude of it," she said with a grin, pointing to the splash marks. "Ye think he did it on purpose?"

She glanced out over the water at the other's comment and nodded after a moment. "I heard it likes the night more, but I've never been out here at night and seen it. It's fun to watch, when you do get a chance to see it. I've always wondered what it'd be like to swim with the thing, but never have tried."

[bryana spencer]

Bryana watched with great interest as the Squid's tentacle splashed in and out of the water. It seemed like such a gentle creature. It was too bad, though that so many people thought nothing of it. " I don't know. I don't think I've done anything to it, to make it dislike me so.", she chuckled lightly at the girl's comment.

"Yeah, it's amazing to see something like this. And, it's funny that a lot of people don't notice it." she said. Looking around at all the others behind them, no one seemed to really notice. But, Bryana couldn't fully tell because she was so far away. "I suppose it would be..quite an adventure to go swimming with a giant squid." she agreed.

She looked out onto the lake more, looking for any signs of squid, but then it stopped for a second. That's when turned towards the stranger, to itroduce herself. Otherwise, it would be rude to just stand there. "We haven't been formally introduced. "I'm Bryana." she said, holding out her hand warmheartedly.

[mairead ó fearghail]

Mairead laughed and nodded her head. The surface of the water was gradually smoothing out to a placid grey again. It was impossible to tell if that was because the squid had gone elsewhere or whether it was lingering just under the surface. Again, she couldn't help wondering whether the squid had a sense of humor. She looked at the one next to her and nodded her head. "Maybe it likes to do practical jokes. It might not have had anything against you. Who knows; maybe giant squids laugh."

Following the other's gaze, she glanced up the bank at the others who were enjoying the outdoors. "It would be," she repeated, looking back over the water. It was tempting, but the lake water did look cold. It wasn't that bad in the warmer shallows, but out there it looked much colder. "It looks cold, though," she said, this time out loud.

The other was right; Mairead looked, up, realizing she, in fact, didn't know who the other was. With a grin, she took the extended hand and shook it pleasantly. "You're right, we haven't. I'm Mairead. Or, most just find Mai easier to remember. Fifth year Hufflepuff."

[bryana spencer]

"Nice to meet you, Mai. I'm a sixth year, Ravenclaw..if you haven't figured that out by my tie." she said, repeating her name to make sure that she'd remember it. She shook her hand, being friendly as possible. "I don't know. The only way to find out, is do it yourself." she said. The squid seemed friendly enough that she wouldn't tell anyone that it was a bad idea to swim with it.

The only thing was that it was agains the rules to swim in the lake. That pushed away so many oppurtunities. Mai seemed pretty darn passionate about the squid itself. "It probably is." Bryana shrugged. She'd swam in the lake once, but she'd never tell anyone that. "It looks frigid." she nodded.

"But, if you feel that you want to jump in there, I'll vouch for you." she smiled. She didn't blame her for wanting go in there. Bryana just wasn't feeling up to it. She wasn't a rulebreaker at large type of girl. She just broke rules..accordingly.

[potterholic22]

Transfiguration class had been a real brain-buster today. It was Ethan's strongest subject, but that didn't keep it from challenging the hell out of him from time to time! These Seventh Year classes were really stepping it up a notch; it might not help that he'd been up all night either.

Happy to have a break in his day, the Hufflepuff wandered outside, where many other students were already enjoying their freetime. He sighed, not seeing any of his usual friends out here yet. Perhaps they had opted to go the Common Room before lunch...he didn't know. However, he was already here and too proud to walk around aimlessly looking for someone to talk to.

And that's how Ethan ended up at the edge of the lake, skipping stones.

He wasn't half-bad at it. He typically got about 8 skips before the stone sank into the lake. It sure was boring, though. Ethan's gaze traveled around the bank as he mindlessly skipped stone after stone, just observing what people were doing. Someone, he noticed, was actually trying to fish out of the lake using their wand and the 'accio' spell. It was pretty amusing to watch, as the student and his cronies were only about second or third year. They probably hardly knew what the spell did.

Eventually the brown eyes of the Hufflepuff landed on two girls standing out in the shallows of the lake, apparently just meeting for the first time, judging by the handshake that they exchanged. Being a guy, Ethan went into judge-mode.

'The blonde is hot...the brunette, meh. She's alright, just really plain. Not ugly though, I guess. Her friend is hot, though. But that might be my blonde-fetish. They both have nice bodies as far as I can see. Brunette has a nice pair of....' He tilted his head as he thought, as if he were speaking the words instead of hearing them in his mind.

He recognized the brunette as a girl in his house. Fourth year? No, that felt too young. Fifth? That sounded better...because Sixth sounded too old. He had obviously never made himself acquainted with her. Getting to know all of his housemates...well, it was on his to-do list!

From small snippets of their conversation, Ethan could overhear that they were talking about swimming in the lake. It was a rule that you couldn't, but everyone does anyway. Ethan could remember a few good times in which he and some friends had taken a late-night excursion to the lake. Oh, where do the days go? He felt like he was getting old--it was Seventh Year already?!

"Thank Merlin," He said jokingly to himself, tossing another rock across the smooth surface of the lake. This time, it skipped a very long distance and--

"Oh, shit!" He swore, cringing. The rock had skidded to a halt right near the two girls, splashing them from behind. "M-my bad!" he stuttered out, making a mental note that stuttering was indeed most annoying when trying to apologize. "Sorry about that..."

Laughing to himself yet feeling bad, Ethan ran a long-fingered hand through his hair and discreetly pushed the small pile of rocks he had left into the water below him.

[bryana spencer]

Bryana felt a breeze coming on, not too strong, but enough to make her hair come untucked behind her eyes and blow all over the place. She swiped it back, only for it to come loose again. She groaned, becoming quite annoyed with her hair, and used the band on her wrist to put her hair into a side ponytail. She breathead a sigh of relief, until she heard a small clapping noise behind her. Instead of turning to see what it was, she dismissed the thought, figuring that it was just some other student doing who-knows-what somewhere behind them.

Too bad, she hadn't turned around. Because at the exact moment she was going to say something else to Mai, she felt a splash behind her. She gasped and felt the back of her skirt and her shirt. It wasn't soaking, but it certainly wasn't crisply dry like it was before. She looked down, trying to see what the bloody hell caused her to get wet, but she didn't find anything. Instead, she heard a stuttering voice, apologizing in the girls direction.

Bryana looked in his direction and rolled her eyes, shaking her head. She wasn't upset or anything. Nothing a little magic couldn't fix. She was bound to get splashed anyway, standing in the lake and all. "Hey, Mai. I think I should go and dry myself off." she said, smiling nicely.

Cautiously, she made her way out of the lake, and over to her things that she'd left on the banks of the lake. She opened up her robe pocket to reveal her wand. She pointed it at the parts of her skirt that she could reach, performing the hot air charm.

"Hey!" she called out to the guy who splashed her in the first place. He wasn't too far away. "Do you think you could dry off my shirt for me? Please?" she asked, quite nicely. She only asked because she couldn't reach it herself.

[potterholic22]

The Hufflepuff's stomach clenched when he saw the blonde roll her eyes, a girl's way of thinking something was annoying. He ran his hand through his hair again, feeling like a jerk and finding it funny at the same time, his typical lopsided smile still in place below his downcast eyes.

He was caught in his own embarrassment-slash-amusement for a moment and therefore did not even notice as Bryana waded out of the water and began to dry herself off with her wand. He looked up immediately at the "Hey!" that came from someplace nearby. It was her, and she had her arm jutted at an odd angle, trying to dry her rear end; but to no avail.

He blushed when she asked if he could perform the task for her instead. The first thought that came to mind was perverted so he suppressed it, replacing it with an, "Er--sure."

Ethan pulled out his wand as he walked over, and as he neared the Ravenclaw, he smiled. "I'd feel wrong to do this without introduction," he teased. "I-I'm Ethan."

He didn't hold his hand out to shake, he always felt awkward at having to do that. It felt too formal. Instead, he pointed his wand at the back of her skirt and dried it, smiling as if he'd just performed heart surgery. "There," he said, stowing the wand back to its place in his robes. "Aren't I supposed to take you out on th-three dates first or something?" He teased again, probably the only one amused here. He couldn't help it. He found the whole situation too suggestive to let it pass without comment.

"But s-s-seriously," he said, sobering. "I'm sorry ab-about that."

[bryana spencer]

"I'd feel wrong to do this without introduction," he teased. "I-I'm Ethan."

Bryana laughed. "You're right. I'm Bryana." she said. She didn't feel the need for a too formal introduction. She turned so that, he could dry the back of her shirt for her. It felt weird, it almost tickled the back of her legs, but she kept still so the job could be done sooner. She could only imagine what perverted thoughts were flowing through Ethan's head at that moment.

She giggled to herself, at least grateful that the job was getting done. From anyone far away, the two students would probably look as though they were doing something innapropriate, but who would do something like that in public? When he was done she winked, "Thanks. I figured you owed me one anyway."

"Aren't I supposed to take you out on th-three dates first or something?"

Bryana folded her arms. It was a good reach. "Like you didn't know that before it happened?" she teased right back. He was cute, she could admit that. Now, was really the first time she'd looked him in the face. Yeah, definetly cute.

But s-s-seriously," he said, sobering. "I'm sorry ab-about that."

"It's fine. I was bound to get splashed with water, standing in it and everything." she said.

[potterholic22]

Bryana. That was a pretty name. He smiled before chuckling lightly at her response to his apology. Ethan took this time to notice that he never seemed to stop smiling.

"What were you doing th-that for, anyway?" he decided to ask, making small-talk. He looked out into the lake, where the other girl still seemed to be standing. Ethan wasn't totally sure on whether or not she and Bryana were good enough friends for her to come and make herself known to the conversation. As a sign of welcome, he waved at the girl that resided in his own house of Hufflepuff.

He turned his attention back to the blonde girl before him, waiting for her response.

[bryana spencer]

"What were you doing th-that for, anyway?"

Bryana's smile slowly faded away. When she usually talked about the squid, unless she'd known the other person had seen it themselves, a lot of people didn't believe her. She hoped she didn't screw things up by starting to talk about the Squid. It usually didn't interest boys.

"We were..erm..checking out the Squid in the lake. You've heard of the rumours, right?" she told him, smiling all the while, but weary that maybe he might've thought she was strange or something. No, that wasn't the case. She was just curious.

[mairead ó fearghail]

She'd heard the splash from the sinking rock behind her but had, largely, disregarded it. It had just seemed to be one of many splashes that were coming from the lake. The splash from the impact of the stone hadn't caught her clothes so she'd been unaware of it until she'd heard Bryana speak. Certainly, that couldn't have been from the squid; it wouldn't have come this close to shore, she didn't think.

The source of the splash had become apparent when Mairead looked towards the older student standing a short distance away. She offered him a passive grin and an shrug as he apologized. A little bit of water wouldn't hurt anyone. She nodded to Bryana as the other girl waded out of the water to dry. Mairead, however, was not ready to get out, yet.

The water felt good - cool and crisp. Not nearly as cold as the Atlantic. She waded a few more steps into the water, disregarding the weight as the water got deep enough and saturated the bottom of her skirt - despite her efforts to shorten it. For a moment she wondered if she was supposed to follow Bryana out of the water, but it seemed the boy that had splashed her had come over and they were engrossed in conversation. She turned her attention back to the water. It was ever so inviting - it would have been nice to have one of the boys there; the mischief they could cause. But, she settled for laying down on her back and floating on the water, staring up at the sky.

While she was floating, she saw the other Hufflepuff wave. It occurred to her that, perhaps, she should be more social and started wiggling her feet, propelling herself casually to drift in the direction of shore. Once she felt ground underneath her, she straightened up and waded out of the water towards the two. She caught the awkwardness of Bryana's response to the Hufflepuff. It seemed obvious, at least to another girl, that Bryana was finding the conversation about a squid not the most impressive and was expecting the Hufflepuff to consider her strange. Settling herself on the ground, without bothering to dry herself, she pulled her robe towards her and figured she'd be happy to claim the role of weirdo and help Bryana save her image.

"Well, I was watching the squid," Mairead said, with none of Bryana's awkwardness or hesitation. She gave every impression she thought it was a wholly normal and well-founded thing to do. "The squid was waving, so I was waving back. Quite simple, really. I was trying to figure out if squids had decent senses of humors. Bryana was just humoring me, really."

(OOC: sorry; I got caught up with work last week - it was a bit crazy)

[potterholic22]

[OOC]: Sorry about this reply taking so long. I've been swamped! D:
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Ethan suddenly got the idea that he'd said something wrong; at his question, Bryana's smile vanished. Realization dawned upon him, however, once she mentioned the squid. It was more of a legend than anything; sort of like the Loch Ness monster. Students had claimed to see it, and Ethan could have sworn he felt it brush his leg once...but he was weary about believing in a creature he'd never seen with his own eyes.

"Yeah, I've heard--" Ethan began to respond, but surprisingly, the Hufflepuff he'd waved over moments ago had taken up his invitation. He didn't think she would; she had merely looked at him before. He smiled in her direction, despite her soaking wet form. Well, that's until she spoke.

He smiled awkwardly at Mai, not really sure how to react to her interjection. He was about to tell Bryana that yes, he'd heard the rumors...but once Mairead approached the scene and put in her words of wisdom...well, Ethan was a little skeptical about getting into a conversation about the squid. Be real! The damn thing can't wave. Squids don't have senses of humor! This girl's cheese had appeared to slip off her cracker.

"Y-yeah..." Ethan responded awkwardly, still not sure how to articulate in the most polite way possible that she was a weirdo. "Well...that's cool I guess." he finished lamely, opting to stuff his hands into his pockets for lack of anything better to do. The shallow part of Ethan wanted the other girl to leave he and the Ravenclaw alone. The sensitive part of Ethan told the shallow part to be a little more compassionate.

'But she's just...weird!' Ethan thought, still trying not to portray how he felt about it. He knew he was a jerk to feel that way, but he simply couldn't help taking these thoughts as a first impression of his fellow housemate.

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OOC: Crap post, I know and I'm sorry! Also, I hate how most RPers treat weird characters like they're normal just because they don't want their character to look like a jerk. People make weird characters for a reason, if I am not mistaken! So that's my reasoning for Ethan reacting like an awkward jerk, woot!

[bryana spencer]

[OOC: My turn to be late. ]

"Well, yeah..that's what happened.."she finished, not exactly wanting to converse about a squid anymore. Sure, it was nice before, but chats came and went, especially when there were other things her mind. She watched as Mai waded out of the water, even more soaked than she was before. She also watched as she sat herself on the ground, although no one else was. Whatever suits her, I guess. she shrugged to herself. "The squid was waving, so I was waving back. Quite simple, really. I was trying to figure out if squids had decent senses of humors. Bryana was just humoring me, really."

Bryana wasn't quite sure if that was an insult, or just an honest fact. Well, she was almost certain that it could be perceived as an insult. She briefly agued with herself on whether or not she should insult her back. No, that would only make things worse for the girl. "Well, I hope you had a good laugh, for future reference." she replied, looking down at her.

The awkward tone in Ethan's voice let Bryana know that the squid thing uninterested him. While the quiet moment went on, Bryana thought about taking the time to go and gather up her things, knowing that her break was almost over.