Terr-eagle(ible) Puns & Apology Tea PV Sam S. Finished

Samantha had been really surprised when Alec, the stupid boy who had made her lose her first duel, approached her and gave her a piece of paper during lunch. At first, she hadn't noticed him since she had been too busy talking with her friends about that one book she was currently reading and it was only when she noticed her friend looking next to her that she followed their gaze and saw Alec. After he had nodded towards the paper, the young girl stared at the boy for a few seconds like he was the most suspicious person on earth before turning her attention away from him to the piece of paper he had placed down.

"What's this?" she had asked him sceptically. The eagle that was drawn on the front of the paper was pretty cool and Samantha admired it for a bit before turning the paper around. A little giggle escaped as she read the first joke, but she quickly stopped as she remembered Alec, who she disliked, had written it. Her friend on the other hand had read with her over her shoulder and laughed loudly, which rewarded them with an annoyed look from Samantha after which they quickly stopped laughing. Trying to figure out Alec's motive, the brunette continued reading, which only confused her more. She had no idea why he wanted to meet her and what he wanted to apologize for, but she agreed that he was a mean and stupid kid.

Too curious to ignore the meet-up, Samantha walked into the almost empty classroom precisely at the time that the boy had written down on the note. Her blue eyes scanned the familiar classroom and the less familiar set-up Alec had created so they could have their tea. "Hello?" her greeting was more questioning than normal as she slowly walked toward the boy. Alec answered her greeting with a small wave and gestured for her to take a seat. Samantha didn't like anything about this situation, she had no idea what Alec was going to say and hated she wasn't in control. "So, what is it you want to say?" she asked demanding, trying to get a bit of control back, as she sat down on the chair across from Alec.

She had no idea why he wanted to talk to her now since they barely even knew each other and hadn't spoken in months. Even though she disliked the whole situation, it was clear that Alec cared about it, since he had put in a lot of effort for the apology tea. The variety of tea bags, the moved tables and the hot water in the teapot which was waiting to be drunk showed that the boy had been here longer to prepare everything and it made the girl smile a little. It was actually quite adorable and she hadn't expected anything like this from Alec after his actions on the duelling stage.

Waiting... waiting... waitinggg. Alec foot tapped on the ground nervously from where he sat. Of course she wasn't going to come. It was fair of the girl, he just thought he might be able to actually apologize. He didn't want to do it in public, he didn't want too make a scene. Sucked in his thoughts the young man only barely noticed the girl had already arrived. His looked over to check the door when he heard footsteps. Relief flooded him, alright, at the very least she showed up. Alec waved at her and gestured for her to take a seat. About to pour both of them some water, pausing when Samantha took a seat and spoke.

"So, what is it you want to say?"

It wasn't only him who thought that sounded slightly hostile, right..? Alec's eyebrows furrowed in concern, he lips formed a thin line. He couldn't expect her to be nice. But, no tea? You could dislike a person; however, it was another situation when a person skipped past the tea heading straight for the point. Did she think it was poisoned? Or... potioned? Or something... He was going to be pouring them the same water. No tricks up his sleeve, nothing. Alec shot the girl a questioning look, “you don't want tea?” Alec poured the hot water into his cup as he asked. He reached for a tea bag without looking, instinctively knowing where the one he wanted was. He never gave her time to answer, as after he'd put the tea bag in his cup he nodded and spoke once more. “Alright, straight to the point it is then.”

Alec's eyes fell towards his cup as he took a moment to properly articulate himself. Guilt shown on his face even as his eyes would now purposefully avoid hers. “What happened during the first duelling stage wasn't right,” his opening sentence. Alec had no other way to put it. He frowned, “I am incredibly prideful, and it's hard for me to admit when I make a mistake. Hence why I took forever,” Alec internally rolled his eyes at himself. Now he really did feel entitled, and arrogant. He had the attitude of a perfectionist in many aspects of his life. If he was going to do something he was going to do it right. When you don't do whatever you're doing right? Well... No one could possibly know it was a mistake on your end if you don't admit it to be.

“My actions were a misstep.” Alec just felt as if he was going to keep repeating his actions were bad with different words. He needed to say something else... Ugh he was terrible with words. He was practically setting himself up for failure in a situation like this “I don't support or encourage hostile duelling environment. And my actions actively contributed to a hostile environment.” Those had to be the right words. They felt right. It was the truth so... Alec took a deep breath before he continued. “Obviously none of what I said was acceptable. . . I know it doesn't help now, but I didn't meant a word I said.” He spoke fast trying to get through it as quickly as possible. Too much anxious energy to go about the situation slow. He worried he was going to start getting fidgety. “I have no idea what I was thinking when I chose too...” Alec's voice slowed, and his face soured. He ran a hand through his hair. “Fine, um, skipping past the ramble.” His eyes looked up to meets hers. “I'm sorry.”

That was it, it was all he had to say and now... Hm... Alec glanced towards his tea, leaving it without anything sweet in it, he took a sip before setting the cup down. “Yeah er- anyway... Apology tea?” Alec offered, waiting for an actual answer this time. “I know tea can't fix what I said, but a cup of tea for having to show up and come listen to me isn't a bad addition- at least I think so.” The last bit sounded uncertain. He tilted his head as he looked at her. “Do you even like tea? If you don't I imagine it would not be a benefit. Most people like tea, it'd be weird to find a person who didn't.”

@Samantha Salwis

Apparently, Alec didn't appreciate her directness as he frowned and shot her a questioning look before asking if she didn't want tea. She had never said she didn't want tea, did she now? Samantha wanted to reply with exactly those words, but the boy didn't give her a chance because he started talking again. Ignoring the urge to sigh dramatically, the brunette spoke up again. "I never said I didn't want any, did I now?" she replied annoyed. He hadn't been nice to her and her duelling captain during the first stage, so she saw no point in being nice to him.

Something changed on the boy's face as he looked down, but Samantha couldn't quite place what it was, since she had always been horrible at reading people's emotions. His opening sentence had caught her attention and she quietly listened to the boy's next words. The words were very interesting to the young girl, it seemed like Alec admitted he had been wrong. How strange, a person apologizing and admitting they were wrong without being forced to do it. Only when being forced by her parents did Samantha apologize, so she was a bit suspicious of Alec. Did he mean it or did he just say it because he had to?

Alec was right, the duelling environment hadn't been exactly the nicest. She had also contributed to it, but he had started it. So it was his fault, she had done nothing wrong. Speaking fast, the third year didn't give her a chance to reply to any of his words. Still unsure if his words were true, Samantha watched him with suspicion and when his eyes looked at her she glared back. Even though the sorry seemed heartfelt, the brunette didn't completely trust it. Why would he have waited so long to apologize? Did he expect her to apologize as well? If he did, he could wait really long because she wasn't planning on doing so. She didn't say a single word but it was clear she was judging the boy in the silence.

"Tea is fine," she told the boy, a lot less hostile than before. It was a short answer, a lot shorter than her usually rambling since she still didn't completely trust Alec. "But first," she straightened her back, "did somebody tell you to apologize or did you come to me on your own?" It was one of the many questions on her mind. "Also, do you want me to apologize as well? Because if that's the case you are out of luck." Maybe Alec felt bad about his words, but Samantha did not and there was no way she will apologize for any of it things she said. Honestly, she couldn't even remember most of it, since it was more than half a year ago.

This interaction seemed to be going well. Or at least better than Alec had originally thought it would. She had arrived, and there was not outright bitterness and distaste for him(Though he could certainly catch the undertones. He deemed it fair enough.). Alec had gotten rambly out of nervousness, but as it turned out, maybe there was no reason to be nervous at all. She even said tea is fine, so she didn't hate tea. Good. He was about to pour some hot water into his glass, pausing a she spoke once more.

"But first, did somebody tell you to apologize or did you come to me on your own?"

Alec looked surprised. As he should be. That was the question she was asking after a genuine apology? What did she just want to throw everything he said before out the window? He was stubborn, he admitted it, stubbornness means he isn't going to bend to wills and whims of others. Or at least... He hoped not. “Did somebody tell me to apologize?” Alec repeated questioningly, as if he had to get what she said just right. Double-checking no errors there? Alright, apparently it was serious. Alec laughed, “no,” of course not. He smirked, “not that I would have listened anyway.” He was going to go back to the water, however, it was interrupted again, she had more questions.

"Also, do you want me to apologize as well? Because if that's the case you are out of luck."

He didn't expect an apology. Not that he was trying to reinforce insults even in the case of self-defense. It seemed kind of petty to expect an apology. Though an apology was a framework for the point of the matter rather than the fact that it was an apology in itself.

“Uh... I didn't say I expected one. I think most of what you said was in self-defense anyway” He smiled, he was just going to name whatever that was as stubbornness as well. He wasn't sure where her question had come from. He laughed again though it wasn't ever at her, more about the situation. “Do you want tea now?” He asked, though what he was really asking was 'do I need to stop and answer question or can I pour your water?'

@Samantha Salwis
If Sam doesn't asks more questions immediately, feel free to godmod Alec pouring her some hot water for tea

For some reason the boy had felt the need to repeat the question she had just asked him a second ago, to check if she was joking or not. With a serious face, she gave the boy a small nod, she was completely serious. When Alec told her he apologized on his own and wouldn't have listened to somebody else anyway, a little smile appeared on the brunette's face, which she quickly tried to hide by looking down.

Maybe Alec wasn't as bad as he seemed. He didn't expect an apology from her but did take the time out of his day to arrange this meeting so he could simply apologize to her. There were a ton of different ways he could have told her he was sorry. Just walking up to her during lunch break and spending 2 minutes of his day to apologize to her would have done it, but he hadn't done that. The boy had drawn an amazing eagle and came up with horrible puns, just to ask her to have a cup of tea with him. It would be a bit rude of her to refuse the tea now, wouldn't it?

"Thank you," Samantha said after the boy poured the hot water into her cup. The tone of her voice and her general behaviour had gradually changed from hostile to a little more open. Her blue eyes scanned the variety of tea bags Alec had laid down on the table and picked a random one before she added some sugar to her tea. Samantha absolutely loved sweet things, so it wasn't a surprise when she dumped twice the amount of sugar a normal person would use in her tea.

"Did you draw the eagle on the paper you gave me?" she asked curiously. She had wondered if Alec had drawn the bird since she had gotten the paper since she found the drawing pretty cool. "It was a lot better than the jokes on the same paper," she said to him with a little smile, basically complimenting the drawing, while insulting his jokes.

Alec nodded as he finished pouring the tea and handed it off to her, “It's no problem, really.” Watching closely as she put a tea bag in, seemingly picked at random, followed by a large amount of sugar into her tea. It seems Samantha had a sweet tooth, clearly, it had to have been at least twice the average amount of sugar. Alec's gaze was settled on her very sweet cup of tea when she spoke once more.

"Did you draw the eagle on the paper you gave me? It was a lot better than the jokes on the same paper,"

Alec's face flushed, a sheepish look on his face as his gaze drew nearer to his own cup of tea. “I did, um- thank you,” the young teen laughed nervously. He didn't often show his drawing to others, he still hadn't gotten used to the feeling. It was nice to know she seemed to appreciate it. “My expertise don't lie in jokes, as much as a few eagle-themed jokes can be fun.”

Alec was quiet for a moment. Then just as if someone had lit a fire beneath a cauldron, his eyes lit up. “Maybe it's just the eagle ones. I should test that theory out.” Alec knew moving from eagle jokes to other types wasn't going to improve his jokes, he knew he'd still have fun in the process. Smile at his own jokes, the usual. “You should give me a category,” he suggested. Nothing better than jokes on the spot? Hopefully? Alec wasn't sure...

“Do you know any good jokes?” Or people with good jokes? If he was going to be telling jokes, why shouldn't Sam get a chance to tell a few as well? Besides, maybe she'd have a few good ones Alec could try to remember in other sticky situations.

Humor was the best aid to many a problem andddd perhaps look like less of a meanie to Samantha. He'd already said sorry and yet he couldn't help but feel the need that he had to do more to smooth things over. Jokes to smooth things over were the least Alec could do.

@Samantha Salwis

Her tea was extremely sweet, just how she liked it. The flavour of the sugar was extremely dominant and Samantha had no idea what the taste of the teabag was she had used. She picked up the little tea bag she had previously placed in her cup. Earl grey, how interesting. Warm water with the amount of sugar she had dumped in her tea would have probably tasted the exact same. If her mom would have been here, she would have defiantly made a comment about the quantity of the sweeter in her daughter’s tea. Samantha knew her mother well enough to know that she would ask her if she was having tea with sugar or sugar with tea. Luckily for her though, her mother wasn’t in the classroom and the brunette could do whatever she wanted. She could even throw her tea in Alec’s face because it wasn’t sweet enough and he didn’t have any honey for her. Not that she would ever do that, but she still could.

When she noticed her compliment on his drawing skills made Alec blush, she giggled a little. It was quite adorable to see the third-year shy which was a huge contrast to his behaviour during the duel. The bad mood she had started this conversation in had completely disappeared and a little smile could be seen playing around her lips as the boy admitted he wasn’t the best at jokes. When Alec was quiet, the brunette took another sip from her sweet tea. The idea of testing out the boy’s theory sounded very appealing to her since she was always curious about new things. ”Okay, let me think for a second,” she said seriously as she tried to come up with a good category. ”What about lions?” she proposed, staying in the theme of animals that represented one of the Hogwarts houses.

The only jokes Samantha knew were the really stupid, childish ones her dad and uncle always told at family gatherings. Even though she had heard them a thousand times, they always made her laugh. ”I know some jokes. I wouldn’t say they are the greatest though and some of them are in Dutch but I could just tell you the English ones” she told Alec with a big smile. ”This is one of my favourites. Okay, so: what did the clock do when it was hungry?” she asked the boy, already giggling.

The girl giggled and Alec rolled his eyes in turn(not in a mean way, the passive holding back a smile sort of eye-roll). He folded his arms across his chest, “something funny?” He couldn't help but have been flustered over the mention of his art. Sam seemed to find his flustered reaction amusing. It was lucky, however, be it his flustered reaction be the thing to encourage her to let loose. He was half-expecting the tea had some role to play in the whole matter. She was smiling, that had to be a good sign ...And yet even as he sat there he couldn't escape an overwhelming feeling of guilt. He'd apologized. He hadn't done anything more than spout out bits of nonsense and even with the acceptance of his apology it was inescapable. Eating at him, telling him the only reason he apologized was for himself. He didn't do it to patch some sort of relationship, and he felt bad but wasn't this just him relieving himself of the grievance of guilt? 

Then he received his prompt. Oh right, he had asked for a prompt. Alec stroked his chin. “Lion huh,” he pretended to be deep in thought, still stroking his chin, an act of dramatization. “What do you call a lion's reflection?” Alec paused giving a moment for the first line to settle in. “A copycat,” he grinned in a sheepish manner as if he found his own joke amusing. His eyes lit up when Samantha agreed to tell some jokes of her own. Though some of what she said caused him to sit still for a moment. “You know dutch?” His second instinct was to ask where she was from, or if there was a distinct reason behind her knowing Dutch. There were families who were simply bilingual. With having tutors and other resources, and those who had the language from where they lived or their heritage.

Samantha then went on to tell one of her favorite English jokes. One about a clock. Alec's eyes stopped on Samantha, he tried to mask his confusion though the look on his face was as clear as day. His eyes slightly wide, and his brows furrowed, his lips pursed in a way that made it seem as if he wanted to interrupt Sam and her joke-telling moment, but he didn't.

Where exactly did his confusion lie? Well, it started at the mention of a clock, although he had a feeling it wasn't going to end there. If he listened to the start of the joke, he wasn't even going to understand the end, since presumably, the first line would be important to the punchline. He would pretend he understood and nod, doing the line he was expected to as the person on a receiving end of a joke. “I don't know, what did the...” He stopped for a moment trying to remember the funny word she'd used. “-clock say?”

@Samantha Salwis

"Yeah," she continued to giggle. "You are blushing," she teased the boy. "Everybody," Samantha acted like she was gathering attention from random students by looking at her left and then right, "Alec is blushing," she told the imaginary students in the empty classroom in a hushed voice and a little smile could be seen on her face.

Eyes narrowed and head slightly tilted to the right, the brunette tried to think of what the possible punchline of the joke could be. "How do you call a lion's reflection?" she repeated the boy's words in deep thought. She wanted to know the answer before Alec told her, but she had no idea what it could be. Utterly unimpressed with the boy's answer, she raised her right eyebrow as lowered her left and gave the boy a weird look. "A copycat? Really?" she said, shaking her head a little. "Your little theory that it's just eagle jokes you are bad at had just been proven wrong. Your joke was horrible," she told him bluntly.

Her little comment about knowing Dutch jokes seemed to have sparked Alec's interest, as it didn't take long for him to ask her about it. "Yeah, I do," she said proudly. "I lived in the Netherlands for the first 9 years of my life. My dad is Dutch and my grandparents still live in the Netherlands, so I speak it a lot when I am home," she shared with the third year. Even though it was more than 3 years ago that she moved to England, the Dutch culture and language were still very important to her.

The wide eyes, furrowed brows and pursed lips showed Alec's confusion, which she didn't give any attention to as she expected her joke would become clear to the boy once she told the punchline. Letting the question sink in, she looked at the other duellist expectantly, hoping he would ask her what it was and she could finish the joke. Finally, Alec asked the question she had been waiting for struggling a bit at the word clock, something that completely flew over Samantha's head. "The clock went back four seconds," she said with a huge smile, extremely proud of her joke. "You get it?" she asked eagerly. "It's hungry so it goes back for more food, but it also is a clock that goes back four," she showed 4 fingers, "seconds, as in the time form."

"I found that joke on the internet during the last school break," she told the boy with a little smile. "There are tons of great jokes on the internet. There was also this other one," she was quiet for a moment as she tried to recall the joke. "Okay, what do you call a droid that takes the long way around?" she added as she finally remembered the joke. "R2 detour," she said before bursting out laughing about the star wars joke she had found online.