Serena, Glen, Amadea & Rosalie Valentines

Mentions: @Edric Banes

Serena was not really sure what motivated her to sign up for the event but she was almost fifteen and was probably the only person that hadn't gone on a date or had a boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever. This might not have been true but it kind of seemed like it was. She had absolutely no idea how to do this dating thing or what it really was and the idea of it was just nerve-wracking and awkward. If she saw a cute guy, her reaction was to just run away. Mostly because the alternative would likely be her stammering and making a fool of herself. This was why she had barely spoken to that cute Slytherin boy in her year. Edric Banes. They spoke a little some time ago but at some point, Serena felt herself going red every time she looked at him in class. She would feel nervous and awkward and panic. So... she would do what anyone would do: turn around and try to avoid looking at him. Whilst doodling his name with a heart in her notes.

At one point, she had tried to ask about him to a friend of his but that went horribly awkwardly. But it's fine! She was over that silly little crush now, right? Of course she was! Why else would she be here? Right?

Anyway, it was fine. She was going to just have fun and learn to be less awkward. It might actually help next time she met a cute guy. Several years had gone past and whilst she never really understood the purpose of Valentine's Day, it seemed like everyone around her was dating. Hell, she had never even really taken had a date at any of the balls and it always seemed like she was the only one who did not.

Dressed in a pair of woolly leggings, with warm boots and a long sleeve black dress. Though her coat and scarf hid most of her outfit. She probably ought to have brought gloves too but she always forgot to wear those. Stuffing her hands into her pockets to try and keep them warm, Serena mounted the stairs. Was she supposed to have dressed in cute clothes? Now that she thought about it... she should have probably dressed up, right? Well... she did not. She wore what she probably would have worn any day.

Tugging on her Hufflepuff scarf - since she did not bother to wear a different one - she made her way into the decorated room. Everything looked so different, it was kind of odd. A little too pink and red for her liking but she would not say no to food. Food was the best reason to attend any event, in her opinion. Nothing else really mattered. With that, she picked up the bag of chocolates and one of the cupcakes when she saw the sign to do so. "Woah -" She whispered to herself as she noticed something start to appear. She frowned a little, not quite understanding what she was meant to do with the number. It took a moment or two before it dawned on her. Oh.

Serena looked around the room, walking past some picnic blankets until she spotted the correct balloon. There was no one there yet but the blanket did have some cushions and a hamper. It looked pretty nice, though she was starting to get a bit awkward. This was a really weird thing for her to sign up to, wasn't it? What if she had to talk to a really cute guy?! Oh dear.

Nonetheless, she sat down on the blanket, pulling one of the cushions into her lap and sitting cross-legged with the cupcake and bag of sweets next to her. Who was going to show up? Was it too late to just... leave? Why was this so awkward? No one was even here! Nonetheless, she could feel the nerves starting to grow within.

Glen had signed up for this shindig only because it advertised as a picnic, ergo free food. Of course technically, all the food at Hogwarts could be considered free food for the students, but special event food always was something, well, special. At least in theory. Signing up had been a bit of a spur-of-the-moment thing, and he half-regretted it as soon as he remembered how events at the school usually went. (Dying a fiery death, in case anyone was wondering.) But he'd signed up and so he would show up.

Entering the room was a bit of a shock. What was with all the pink-red colour scheme? Was it already that time of year again where people suddenly decorated red-pink. He liked the red-green of Christmas more than this travesty, but alas. Apparently the colour season had changed or something, after all, Christmas and Yule had been almost two months ago. Admittedly even that would get to be an eyesore if it stuck around for that long probably. In any case, the room looked... kinda horrifying, really. But there was no way out but through, right? Glen wasn't about to run away just because of how the room looked.

Dressed in a normal black sweater, jeans and the house scarf, he seemed to fit right in though there were some that had dressed up for this dinner. (What was the point, that just made it worse if clothes got ruined but then he never got the point of so called 'sunday clothes'. Aside from, like, weddings, maybe.) Still, he wasn't that underdressed this time around. Which was good. Not that it really mattered. Anyway.

With a slight grimace he walked to the 'please take one' sign. He stared at the options in bafflement for a moment. Why would he want to pick a rose? You couldn't eat roses. Right? He wasn't too keen on trying, even if they'd been de-thorned. He'd probably eaten worse as a kid, but given that there were other options... not that they looked all that promising. A baggie of sweets that for some reason were heart-shaped, or a cupcake. What to choose... Ah, well, he'd just take both, after all the fine print said that 'one of each' was okay.

Upon picking up his choices, a number appeared on the labels. Hm. So that was the point of the numbered balloons. Looking around for his number, he was relieved to recognize the student already sitting there. That would make this hopefully less awkward. (If nothing else, she knew he was a mess when it came to conversing with people.) Making his way over, Glen would drop down on the opposite end of the blanket from Serena, mirroring her.

“Yo! Any idea what's up with the decoration theme 'round here?”

── ❋ ──

Interacting with Serena and Glen

𝓦hen Amadea found out that Ami and Cecily had jokingly signed her up for this Valentine's Day dinner, it had taken a lot of restraint to not hex both of them. She knew their intentions were...good, but it was hard not to be angry. Number one: Amadea was the epitome of an introvert. Socializing, especially with people she didn't know, and especially in a romantic setting, was something she would never willingly sign up for. Number two: Amadea was not interested in finding love at the moment. Sure, she daydreamed about the day when she would meet the love of her life and they would live happily ever after. Sure, she saw people and found them attractive. But it was not Amadea's intention to go out of her way to seek love; she didn't want to seem desperate, and frankly, she just had other priorities at the moment.

Nevertheless, she was here, and despite the odd circumstances that got her to this situation, she was determined to make the most of it. As Amadea climbed the staircase to the Astronomy Tower, she walked slowly, taking in the decorations. It had been transformed into a tower of love, with heart-shaped decorations everywhere. The pink and white theme seemed out of place compared to the usual stone walls of the Astronomy Tower. Amadea's eyes made a beeline toward the table with cupcakes and bags of treats. She was a sucker for anything sweet. She would have immediately headed to the table if not for the other two people already in the room.

Usually, Amadea liked to be early, the first one to show up to events like these. For some reason, being early gave her some semblance of control and calm; she could be early and allow herself to prepare for whatever was to come. Today, though, had been different. If Amadea was being completely honest, the reason she hadn't shown up early was that she had debated showing up at all. These types of events were not Amadea's scene and she wished she could opt out of the event. Unfortunately, it was too late and Amadea eventually decided she would go for two reasons: number one, she didn't want to stand up her "date" or dates, and number two, there was the promise of food.

Amadea waved at the two students and quickly picked up a cupcake and a bag of sweets from the table before walking over to the blanket. The two students sitting were Amadea's fellow housemate and fourth-year Serena Towers and a boy she did not recognize. She was glad there was at least one friendly face here, but she also now felt a bit awkward. Three was an odd number, which meant someone was the third wheel here. Was it her? Amadea tried to make eye contact with Serena to wordlessly ask if that was the case, but Amadea didn't know if she knew Serena well enough to have those wordless conversations.

Instead, she settled for sitting down on the blanket as far away from the other two as she could, hoping it didn't make it seem like she was disinterested in them. "Hi," she said tentatively with a smile. "I'm Amadea," she added as an afterthought, realizing not everyone here knew who she was.

── ❋ ──

Interacting with: @Glen Pope and @Amadea Campbell

Serena pondered just getting up and leaving quickly as the nerves started to get to her. This was ridiculous! Why had she thought this might be a good idea? It was not. But she could not just leave, could she? That would be bad. Her partner would end up having to sit here alone if she left, that would be awful. As she toyed with the idea, in great wonderment of why she was even here, she looked around. People passed by, finding their own areas. Her attention was caught by one figure who seemed to actually be approaching her. Looking up, she spotted a familiar face. One Glen Pope. Oh, perhaps he was dropping by to say hi? They were friends, after all!

Well. That was her thought until he sat down. On the same blanket she was on. Oh. She swallowed. Was he her date? Was she meant to be on a date with her friend? Worse, the very same person that was friends with Edric? WHAT IF EDRIC FOUND OUT? AHHH.

Wait. Why did it matter if Edric found out? It wasn't like Serena even spoke to that guy. But STILL. Her heart pounded as the awkwardness of the situation dawned on her. Whether or not anyone else felt it did not matter, she felt super awkward. Was she really supposed to be on a date with Glen?! Of all people, why him?!

These confusing feelings lasted only a few moments. He spoke, giving her a 'wait, what?' moment and made everything even worse by his... lack of awareness? "Hey. It's uh well it's-" She started, unsure of what to really say. It was Valentine's Day, right? The whole decoration was themed on... that or something. It seemed pretty obvious, so she was a little thrown by the question. Was this meant to be a joke that she did not understand?

Serena tried to think of what else to really say, "It's Valentine's Day so... I guess... hearts and the colours are... just meant to be about love or something?" She continued. She pulled her cushion closer, clutching into it to give herself something to do that was not being awkward. She did not really know where to look but that choice was very quickly made for her when another person arrived. Another friend appeared. This time, Amadea Campbell. She had no idea what was going on - why was there three of them? Was there a fourth person too? Like a double date or something, that was what it was called right?

"Amadea, hi!" Serena gave her friend a smile, trying to match her look as though to ask if Amadea was meant to be on a date with Glen and if Serena was the one third-wheeling here. "So uh, I suppose a fourth person will arrive? Or urm does your thing say a name or anything? Mine just has a number..." She mumbled out trying to figure out how to figure out what was going on. Perhaps they had received information beforehand and Serena had, somehow, missed it. She had no idea. She just was talking out loud, hoping to figure it out. Should she leave them to it? Was someone else coming?!

OOC: I'm going to continue this thread since it's been a few weeks but if you are still intending on joining then you're definitely welcome, @Rosalie Rutherford.

Glen blinked in surprise at Serena's words. Valentine's Day?? Oh boy. Wasn't that the weird cringy-lovey-dovey-lovers pseudo holiday? Well, that was... awkward. Glen grimaced. “Ooooh. Uh. Woops.” He winced. “Right... I guess that explains the sign-up thingy. Huh. I was wondering why the heck they would be asking about anyone crushing the food. … I-, sorry.”

Giving Serena an apologetic look, Glen frantically tried to figure out what to do with this information. He didn't know what to do. He kind of wanted to flee now that he knew. After all, that definitely wasn't what he was here for but that would be horribly impolite, right? He wasn't the best at human interactions but even he knew that you didn't just ditch someone on a date. (At least according to movies.) Did this even count as a date though? Considering that they didn't – then he remembered that 'blind dates' were supposedly a thing, so he concluded the answer to the date question to be yes.

Which... what did people even talk about on a date???? Were there any rules on how conversation had to differ compared to talking as, well, friends? Oh Merlin, could he even tell Serena that he wasn't interested in any of that or would that be too rude considering they were apparently on a date. Then again, he might've already given that away with his earlier question about the decorations... So. She might not take it personally? Hopefully.

(Honestly, what was even the point of this day even. Why would anyone go on a date and waste time on … courteous? … conversations. And if they did, why would you need a special day for that? People went on dates all the time, didn't they? Also, weren't they still too young for any of that, so why..? There were firsties here if he saw that correctly!! Why would anyone at that age have any interest in this?)

Lost in his somewhat panicky thoughts trying to make sense of the situation, he missed the other girl approaching them, and only noticed that someone had sat down with them when she introduced herself. Amadea... Amadea. why did she look familiar? Well, more familiar than just another random classmate. Oh! Hadn't she been at the meet-up back in November? He thought so but he wasn't sure so he merely echoed her greeting. “Hi, I'm Glen.”

Maybe she was Serena's date? He was relatively sure that they both at least knowingly signed up for this and not like a doofus the way he did without really checking what the event was about. But then why was he here? He highly doubted that he was here as a chapel, no, ... chaper, ugh, how where those people in iya's favourite drama called again?

Whatever the reason this whole thing was weird. Oh. Serena thought there would be a fourth person? Hm. So, a, uh, double blind date? Blind double date? Not that it matter what it would be called. He looked around but did not see a fourth person approaching them (yet) but then again, he hadn't seen Amadea either. Giving an awkward shrug to Serena's question, he shook his head. “Nah. Just the number. Did the sign-up sheet say anything? I... didn't actually read it, I just read 'picnic* and signed up.” He winced. Maybe he shouldn't have said that. Urgh. This was so confusing! “I have no clue how any of this is supposed to work.” He added apologetically.

── ❋ ──

@Serena Towers | @Glen Pope

𝓐madea made a mental note to absolutely pummel Ami and Cecily when this ordeal was over. She wasn't typically the person to seek revenge or yell at anyone, but the sheer awkwardness of this entire situation was enough to make Amadea wish she had never befriended the two troublemakers that had signed her up for this (of course, she didn't actually wish they weren't her friends...she just wished they had to suffer through this experience as well). Amadea was desperately wracking her brain, trying to come up with some happy solution to cure all awkwardness but her mind was blank. At this point, she was ready to walk out of the room and pretend she had never even been here in the first place. Why hadn't she just not shown up? Sure, she would have stood up her "date" and angered her friends, but seeing the way the dates had been matched, she was certain it would have been fine for her to skip out.

She wondered which one of them was supposed to be the third wheel here. Serena was staring at Amadea with the same wide-eyed gaze, clearly just as confused as her. Well, this was great. No one had any idea what was going on. "Mine just has a number too," she added. Maybe this was some sort of joke? Amadea had heard of reality television shows where they placed odd numbers of people together to fight for love. Was this what was happening here? If that was the case, she would happily surrender and let Serena and Glen enjoy their date.

"To be honest, I didn't even sign up for this," she confessed, hoping that it didn't make her look like she didn't want to be here (even though that wouldn't be entirely untrue). "My friends signed me up as a joke...and then I felt too bad to bail because I didn't want to stand up my 'date.' But uh, I guess...there's three of us?" She laughed awkwardly and quickly fumbled around with her bag of sweet treats, pulling out the cupcake. "Um, I guess we can just eat and chat?" she asked. "Unless um...if this is supposed to be a date...I can just...go?" Amadea felt her face go red. She didn't want to give the impression that she was being rude or blowing them off; if she was being honest, this could just be a good chance to get to know some new people better. At the same time, if this was supposed to be a date with Serena and Glen, perhaps there had been a mixup with where she was supposed to go and she didn't want to intrude on anything.

── ❋ ──

Interacting with: @Glen Pope and @Amadea Campbell

Scratching the top of her head awkwardly as she listened to Glen, who had realised what the day actually was all about, Serena pondered what to say. She had no idea. He caught her attention by saying something about 'crushing' with 'food' in the same sentence. Wait, what? "Heh... It's alright, no need to apologise..." She responded, trying to make things a little less awkward but likely failing. She felt more awkward when she was trying to make it less awkward, anyway.

The way he was looking at her - all apologetic and such - was not helping. Oh gosh, was she being pitied? WHY DID SHE EVEN TRY TO DO THIS? She hated it already. Dates were, definitely, not her thing. That was the only thing she had learned from this experience.

Everything was just as awkward when Amadea had arrived but somehow, a little less awkward. At least the three of them were all equally confused by the whole concept. Having another person there also meant that she did not have to sit there with Glen just staring at each other in awkwardness. They could both look away for a moment, at least. Three was definitely better than two in awkwardness, right? She had no idea. But she was trying to find any silver lining she could right now.

Serena frowned as they both said they only got a number too. Looking around, she pondered if anyone else was arriving but so far, nothing. Perhaps it was a mistake. Then again, she had no idea who she was supposed to be paired with. Hearing their words, she had come to the conclusion that Glen and Amadea might have been set up on the date together but since Glen had no intention of being on a date, it was probably best for all of them to just treat this as a picnic.

She matched Amadea's awkward chuckle, before suddenly shaking her head and waving, "No no, this isn't a date- I mean-" She had no idea how to finish this sentence. Technically it was a date but Glen did not even realise it was a date so that meant it was not a date, right? "I mean uh, how about we just... all enjoy the food together? As friends..." She added clarity on the end, to avoid giving anyone the wrong impression. Picking up a jar from the hamper, she held it up, "To be honest, the food looks really good," She continued as she noticed the jar was strawberry jam that could go with the scones she could see in the hamper. There was quite a selection in there. "Oh! Cake!" She exclaimed a little too loudly, almost forgetting the awkwardness as she pulled out the cake.

With a firm nod to herself, "I think I am going to make myself some hot chocolate. Would anyone else like some?" She asked as she spotted some sachets in the hamper, still rooting around in there. Food made the whole world a better place, after all.

OOC: Sorry for the huge delay. My writing muse is non-existent right now >.<

@Serena Towers ♥ @Amadea Campbell

This event just seemed to get weirder and weirder. While both Serena and Amadea had at least known what this was supposed to be about, it seemed they had no idea what they were supposed to do either. Was there a particular SOP that they should follow? Any guidelines on how to proceed? Because he was utterly clueless. And while it was nice that he wasn't completely alone in his confusion, it wasn't particularly helpful either.

Wincing at Amadea questioning whether this was a date between Serena and him, Glen quickly shook his head in tandem with Serena. “Not a date, no.”, he agreed but then asked: “Unless you two...?”

But even as he asked the question, he was pretty sure the answer was no to that question, too. They did not seem like they were prepared for a date either. Giving a slight shrug, Glen nodded to the girls' proposal to just enjoy the food together. That sounded like the best plan of action. Leaving in the middle of this would be weird, right? Rude, at least. And he did not want to insult either of them, nor did he want to cause a scene.

“Food sounds awesome, yes!” Giving them a grin, he just hoped that they could salvage this mess. He would like it if they got to know each other a little, after all the three of them had been year mates for a while now. As in, for years. And while he had gotten to know Serenea a little last year, he knew pretty much nothing about Amadea.

“Wait.” He blinked at Serena's question. “There's hot chocolate??? That's even better!” Grinning, he nodded in answer, now looking eagerly at the hamper himself and over the food she was pointing out. “Is there anything else to prepare?”

Hold up. Were those shortbread biscuits?

He probably looked like a puppy spotting his favourite treat, but he loved those. Even if no one made any as awesome as his great-grandmother's. (Well, it was actually his grandmother that made them, but as she liked to remind his iya, she had learned to make the family recipe her mother-in-law had passed on to her, so surely her daughter could learn it, too.)