The Summer BBQ Open Closed

[quote]Katrina went over to the food, the delicious smell calling her over. She loaded herself a plate, potato salad and a burger. She decided that she would head to her cabin after this and grab her swim stuff. She had heard the lake was open to swim in. She sat there lost in her own thoughts.

She watched people talk. A second year Ravenclaw who she hadn’t met arrived. Dragons Den was all talking to one another. A second year Slytherin took a fall and Katrina winced in sympathy. One of the Newspaper Writers spoke to a professor whom Katrina had yet to meet. River, whom Katrina had not met, but knew her name from Quidditch she seemed to have fallen asleep, or at least become lost in her own thoughts. Several other people that Katrina hadn’t met spoke amongst themselves. Maggie spoke with the rest of Kelpie Cavern.

Katrina had an odd tendency to ‘meet’ other people by listening to other conversations. She never meant to be rude, she just could help overhearing when she was alone most of the time. She watched other people talk, quite the turn-up if you asked her. This summer has to be great.

@Maggie Parker @Mac Murphy @Carson Miller

Dale sat down at the table Maggie picked out, it had a better view than his table and was a lot bigger, as he soon as he sat down he continued to eat. Maggie brought up the subject of the prank war, out of all the things that they could've done, why did it have to be a prank war?! It brought him a bit peace of mind to know that they would not have to worry about Maggie, Carson had said he was the master of pranks, or something similar to that. ."A-a prank war, when, what, why?" He asked Maggie a bit frantically.

Interacting with @Solomon Lear. Sort of interacting with @Erin Ryan.

It only took a while for the pale boy to start feeling mild discomfort. Without his father forcing him to go out or do outdoor physical activities, Arc had managed to stay cooped up inside for almost a year long. He only came out to meet the sun whenever there was a very important occasion. Thus, the summer heat and sun affected him even more than any of his previous years. He had been desensitized, so to speak.

When he was thinking of how good it would be to swim, someone’s toe suddenly caught his side. He was completely relaxed and wasn’t ready for what was going to happen. Arc didn’t even catch a glimpse of the armor-wearing, adult man that was about to fall on top of him. The sudden drop pushed the breath away out of his lungs and the pain followed soon after.

The sound of metal crashing rang out but Arc wasn’t even paying attention. He only wanted to get out from underneath the man but he couldn’t move him on his own. Professor Solomon Lear was bigger and heavier than the boy and Arc was not that strong to begin with.

“Ugh…Is that…you, Professor?” Arc managed to eke out words with his squished lungs. “You’re…squishing…me.”

There was someone shouting in the background and Arc would have sworn that someone mentioned his name. But his mind was preoccupied by the man crushing him, the pain of being crushed, and how to be un-crushed. What took him so long to stand up anyway? Did he faint? Did he hit his head when he fell?! Was it his terrible presence? He was dying here!

There was this strange, insidious presence. This feeling that made his bones ache and the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. This subjective sense of dread was troublesome. Solomon had no idea where or how to place it, it was the feeling he got in the pit of his stomach whenever his ex wife entered a room. There was this instinct to flee, break a window or run over a child just to get away. The only thing that stopped him was his higher functioning simian brain, a brain capable of disregarding the things that our body does to keep us safe honed through millions of years of evolution. Yes, Solomon ignored that 'bad feeling' he had, that sense of impending disaster but it was but a warning as well as a distraction. Solomon would trip over the very sort of his abject dread and come crashing down onto the poor boy. 

How the young Ravenclaw would survive the impact, it is unknown but certainly a testament to his durability. Solomon was surprised at how soft his landing was. "Ahh" he complained, he was not even entirely sure of how it happened. Was he distracted by one of the female Professors? Worried about his siren (not literally) of an ex wife? Probably. Likely. That had to be it.

He planted his hand on the ground and shifted his position on the ground. He felt something squish?

“Ugh…Is that…you, Professor?”

A sad, muffled voice called out. Oh god, there is someone under there! 

“You’re…squishing…me.”

The strange sense of consternation persisted, he reasoned it was the dire state of affairs for the poor child beneath Solomon's ponderous form. He would rise off of the poor child. As he looked down at the crushed child, that creeping perception of alarm would punctuate this experience. There was something wrong but he could not put his finger on it. "Merlin, are you all right!" Solomon exclaimed. Logic and sensibility in denial of the fact that his concern came from the very thing he had tumbled over. 

"It might get hotter in the afternoon. Sun hasn't reached it full zenith yet I believe." His clear blue eyes would light up as he'd look up towards the sky. "Maybe I should have brought a hat. Little Nora would be scolding me if she saw me without one." he'd comment as he returned his focus to the barbecue. "Have I told you about my daughter, Zahid? I'm fairly certain she'd love your lessons if she were ever to attend Hogwarts." He'd smile at the man with the glitter of excitement in his eyes.

"The book?" He turned to Nora. What did he need a book from Zahid for? Then he recalled what he had made as a perfect excuse to make his exit during the second year graduation party. "Oh. OH. Yes..." He looked over to Zahid. "Of course. Yes I got the book from you, right Zahid?" He eyes would widen a bit at the older man as he was trying to get him to play along. "It was the book on... ehm..." He'd eye the History of Magic porfessor for help.

Hjørdis pondered Zahid's question for a moment. She knew further south, it was a lot warmer and temperatures were set to break records. But Scotland's hot weather was still not what most people considered warm. She nodded, agreeing with Caradoc that it might pick up a little in the afternoon, before adding, "It seems to be picking up so... I imagine it will drop suddenly very soon." The British Weather was always odd. It featured a glimpse of sunlight before becoming incredibly cold again for a while. This week was meant to be rather pleasant and she could only hope that it stayed that way but, you could never really judge in the UK.

After spending so many months being absolutely freezing, however, it was a nice refreshing change to feel the sunshine on her arms. This was definitely much better than it had been for a while and Hjørdis fully appreciated that. The woman missed the sunlight during the winter months. That was part of the reason why she opted to work throughout the Summer Camp - and was keen for it to be based outdoors, rather than cooped up in the cold castle the entire time. She plated another burger, fighting back the urge to chuckle as she heard Caradoc's words to Zahid about the book that he borrowed. Letting him suffer for a few moments, the Professor moved over to a nearby cooler and helped herself to some water. Drinking the water helped her to cover the fact that she wanted to smirk, at the very least.

"The Goblin Rebellion of 1752, was it not?" Hjørdis perked up as Caradoc appeared to have been so busy concentrating on his grilling that he could not finish his own sentence. Grilling required so much concentration, after all. Conversing whilst grilling was a skill reserved to only the best multitaskers, of course. She glanced towards Zahid, waiting to see if any of this made any sense to him or if he knew nothing at all.

Outfit of the Day | Hairstyle of the Day

@ Dale Kurt @Mac Murphy

“A-a prank war? What, when, why?” Dale said, making Maggie laugh a little at the boy’s nervousness. She’d thought that they knew— but apparently Carson hadn’t told his cabin yet. “Yeah, I thought it’d be cool if we did like, a prank war or something with all of the other cabins, so I owled ‘en and put it together, with some help, of course.” she said, grinning. She was ecstatic for the thing, and she’d been waiting to prank someone since she started it. “Our cabins are allies, though, so don’t worry about it.” she said to Dale and Mac, wearing a sly grin as she looked around the campsite, whispering to the two, “Now, who should we prank first?” there were three other cabins competing in Cabin Wars, so far, at least, but Maggie was thinking of pranking each of them once. Of course, since they were only allowed three pranks during the whole thing, each one had to be good. She warily glanced at the group of Professors talking around the grill, afraid they’d overhear them. Okay, so maybe she hadn’t run this by them first, but it was no big deal, right? Nevertheless, she said again in a whisper, “Let’s head back to the lake, actually. I don’t think having anyone overhear us is a great idea.” she’d finished her food, and she glanced at Dale and Mac’s almost empty plates. She hopped up from her seat and grinned at the pair, giving a mock salute and striding off towards the lake.

Maggie Parker has left the thread.

potting Headmaster Lear as the cause of the commotion, Zahid turned back to his chopping. He trusted that the headmaster would not need help to handle the situation – or that he would call one of his colleagues over if he did.

Nodding to the others' comments about the weather, he only looked up as Caradoc mentioned his daughter. “You have a daughter? How old is she?” That was a thing people asked, right? You'd think he'd be more accustomed to what could probably still be considered small talk. “She likes History?” he questioned with delight. There were far too few young people that did.

Blinking in confusion, Zahid looked between Caradoc and Nora. Caradoc had gotten a book from him? When had that happened? He supposed it wasn't impossible that he'd simply forgotten – it had been a busy couple of weeks – but he rather thought he would remember meeting his colleague properly before but then again...

The Goblin Rebellion of 1752? If Zahid had a book specifically for that (and he wasn't completely sure whether or not he did have a book about the Rebellions though, honestly, he doubted it) it was still in storage back in Benghazi. He had already noticed that he needed to organize the transfer of his books over the summer holidays, as he would need to read up on the Goblin Rebellions – if he remembered correctly there was an overview fairly early in the first year lesson plan.

He couldn't help but be confused by Caradoc's imploring look, so he made a slight face. “The Goblin Rebellions? That's not a topic I pegged you to want a book on.” Scrambling for something else to say because he got the feeling that's what Caradoc was imploring him to do, his brain piped up that Caradoc had a daughter so he ended up blurting out: “The History of Braids, on the other hand...”

He actually had a book titled Hairstyles across History one of the people he'd met travelling had given him as a gag gift as they parted ways, however that was a colouring book and he doubted that Caradoc would be particularly interested in it...

“Yeah, I thought it’d be cool if we did like, a prank war or something with all of the other cabins, so I owled ‘en and put it together, with some help, of course.” Oh great, this is the last damn thing I wanted, Dale thought to himself. Pranks, out of all the things it just had to be a prank war, not a water balloon fight or a... something other than prank wars. Dale let out a sigh. “Now, who should we prank first?”, well maybe this would be a time to use some of the chemistry Dale had learned over the years with his father, some of it could definitely be used for nefarious reasons, why not right? “Let’s head back to the lake, actually. I don’t think having anyone overhear us is a great idea.”, well He did want to hang out by the lake, the lake was one of his favorite places in Hogwarts, so why not. He finished his food and threw away his plate, making sure not to leave any trash on the table or surrounding the table, and he followed Maggie to the lake.

Dale has left the thread

Interacting with @Erin Ryan Mentions @Arc Perscivious

"Hey Arc, did you know this girl has a thing for you!"

Raine's eyes widened as the older girl yelled out across the field to her friend. "Are you insane?!" she yelled up the tree where the girl was hidden behind the leaves. Looking over toward Arc, she saw that the Headmaster was finally getting up from on top of him and he looked over in their direction. With a gasp, Raine quickly hid behind the tree. Looking up at the leaves once more, she glared up at the leaves and gave the girl, who she wasn't sure if she could even still see her, the 2-finger salute before stomping off back toward her cabin.

She had some packing to do and a train to catch in the morning.

Raine leaves the thread