Mysterious Encounters PV EmmaLee LeDames Finished

EmmaLee did not have to wake up on that cloudy morning. She had been up all night wandering around the quidditch stadium because every time she returned to her tent and tried to go to sleep, she found the she could not. When this happened at home, she could read books downstairs, or play her cello on the other side of the condo from her parents bedroom, or any number of more or less quiet things on another side of the house until her eyes started to get heavy.

But here, there were nine other people to worry about waking up and no where to get any privacy. To be honest, that was a major part of the problem. She had not thought that sharing a tent with boys would bother her, but they had such a very different atmosphere from girls and honestly, as nice as they were, they made her jumpy. She didn't have a lot of experience with boys outside of Kiernan, one of her best friends in New York. Most of the other boys she knew were either way older or way younger than her and therefore had no interest in interacting with her. She was also an only child and un-used to the sounds of so many other people sleeping around her.

Anyway, for various reasons... She couldn't sleep. She didn't want to disturb her tentmates with her tossing and turning, so she had wandered the grounds all night. But, today was the day the Mutiny game was to begin, so she was excited. It was her favorite game, although under a different name, to play with her friends in New York.

So as the sun started to peek its way over the stands of the Quidditch Stadium, she made her way back to her tent, cleaned up, and dressed herself in a light, blue summer dress and white sandals. She pulled her hair half up into two pony tails and let the other half of her white blonde hair cascade down over her back. Her hair was long enough to be just a little past her waist.

Her tentmates were still asleep as she headed over to the sign up table and jumped in line to sign up for the Mutiny game. She signed her name on the list and headed over a little ways to chat with a group of those already signed up. A few moments after that, she heard that the first game had been filled and since there were still people in line, there would be a second game. She would be happy to sign up for the second game if that was an option. She was very excited to tell Kiernan that she was playing this game all the way in jolly ol' England.

After another few moments, she turned as a girl with red hair and blue eyes similar to her own spoke to her. “Hi, my name is Ellie! Will you be playing?”

"I will be. I made it very shortly before the sign up filled for the first game. My name is EmmaLee. It's nice to meet you." EmmaLee said, holding out her hand to the other girl with a bright smile. "This is my favorite game and I'm glad that I made it in time."

Ellie was thrilled that the girl was incredibly friendly. She gently shook her hand, consciously trying hard not to squeeze too tightly. “Aww, I just made it into the second game. I haven’t had the chance to play it before, but I love reading mysteries, so I just had to join. Maybe they will let you join in on the next one, from the looks of it there might be some free spots.”

She really hoped she would be able to join. From what she can tell, EmmaLee seemed kind and since she has already played the game before, maybe she could help her through it.

This is the one activity she was really looking forward to when she first looked at the schedule for the camp. Even though she did very much enjoy watching the quidditch match.

“Somehow I really lucked out with my tent situation and only have one other tent mate with me. It seems like the other two campers never made it to the camp. Talk about a mystery." She chuckled. “My tent mate is great, but sadly wasn’t too interested in this game.” Ellie really was very happy with her tent mate. She had been so welcoming when she arrived and invited her to tag along for camp activities. She looked forward to attending some of the other events with her.

“Do you have any pointers for a newbie?” She said excitedly; thrilled that she had someone to talk to while they waited for the games to begin.

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EmmaLee beamed as Ellie talked. She had found that the vast majority of people at the camp were friendly and is was nice to have someone to wait with, if only to help her stay awake. She rubbed her eye and responded.

"I may join the second game as well, depending on how the first one goes and if there are any spots left." She said, bouncing a little in excitement despite the tired. She could hardly wait for the game to start and she was excited that she had managed to secure a spot in the first round. "Before I moved to Scotland, my friends and I would play this all the time. Although, we called it Werewolf." She continued, putting her hands in the pockets of her dress and rocking back and fourth from her heels to her toes and back. She grinned wider when Ellie mentioned her love of mysteries.

"I love mysteries, too! My friend, Alura, got ahold of some non-magie mystery books about Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. They are very good. We used to read those and make up mystery games around our condo complex. We even solved a few real mysteries about our complex." EmmaLee motioned with her hands as she spoke and chuckled when Ellie started talking abut tentmates.

"I ended up with a full tent. 5 boys and 5 girls. They are all rather nice. Except one girl who honestly should probably switch tents. I don't even know if that's possible." EmmaLee said with a small frown. Prank Wars had not really gone to plan because of said student, but EmmaLee wasn't really one to gossip, so kept the details quiet. "But otherwise, it seems to be going well with everyone else. We decided to enter the Prank Wars together and that was very fun." She giggled to herself, remembering the events of that night. She felt like they won, even if no one was keeping any real score.

She wrapped one arm around her waist, put the other elbow on top of it, and put her knuckle to her bottom lip as she pondered Ellie's next question. "Hmmmm, well, I would say don't trust anyone. I always think that the loudest to accuse is one of the guilty ones." She said after a moment of thought. Honestly, she didn't have a whole lot of advice. She always had very mixed success with this game, sometimes having a keen intuition on who was who, but also sometimes not having a clue at all.

Ellie loved EmmaLee’s energy. She seemed really genuine and shared in her excitement of mysteries. “I love Nancy Drew, too!” She often times would do the same thing, pretend that there was some mystery that needed to be solved around where they lived. Sometimes Marcus would indulge her and play along as she would sleuth around the house.

Ellie was relieved that her tent wasn’t taking part in Prank Wars. She just felt like too many things could go wrong. Plus not having a full tent would put them at a disadvantage already. She was however curious about this tentmate that EmmaLee was referring to. From the sounds of it, she didn’t seem to want to give a lot of details, so Ellie didn’t want to pry and risk making a bad impression on EmmaLee like she was some kind of gossip. She decided to file it away for now, but this could be a mystery that she will try to solve later.

She imagined she might be able to find out more information just by being her vigilant self around the camp

Ellie took in EmmaLee’s advice. “Thank you so much for what you’ve told me! I tend to get very passionate when I feel strongly about something, so I will try to tone that down if I feel I have a lead, so I don’t put suspicion on myself.”

“I hope this isn’t weird, but I’m really glad that I’ve met you. Would you like to be friends and maybe do other activities together?”

This was the boldest Ellie has ever been, and she turned to flush just muttering the words. She wasn’t in the habit of making friends yet and wasn’t even sure if she was doing it right. She anxiously waited for EmmaLee’s reply.

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EmmaLee grinned widely and put the tips of her slender fingers together in a triangle. She was ecstatic to find another mystery lover. Maybe they could solve the mysteries of Hogwarts together as well once they got there. Oh...that was a question she should probably ask. She didn't even know if Ellie was going to Hogwarts yet. It would be really disappointing if her new friend was going elsewhere.

"I'm always have mixed success at this game." She said with a shrug. "K always just blurts out whoever he thinks is suspicious and questions them until he can get everyone to vote with him. Even if it's a really dumb reason." She hid a smile behind her hand at the memory of their games. They got pretty wild sometimes and completely out of hand. "I usually try to at least take it in slowly and assess the situation before accusing someone. A lot of my strategy is just agreeing with everyone else if they have a good argument."

She grinned widely at Ellie's 'official' question of friendship and nodded happily, her white pigtails bouncing and the loose hair swishing with each nod.

"I do believe that we are friends already." She said with a small laugh. "At least I would hope so. I'm very glad to have met you, too. Are you going to Hogwarts, or one of the other schools? I think it would be really fun to try and solve some of Hogwarts mysteries together....um....if you're going there, too that is." She clasped her hands behind her back and dug some dirt with her toe awkwardly. She really hoped that Ellie would be at Hogwarts. As much as she liked keeping up with her friends in New York and looked forward to their correspondence, letters just weren't the same as having someone to sneak around the hallways and gardens with trying to find clues and intrigue.

Ellie shyly smiled. She was so happy that EmmaLee didn’t make it weird that she asked to be her friend. She was so relieved that she already considered them friends. She laughed internally that she hadn’t thought to ask EmmaLee first if she was going to Hogwarts. Ellie was always so flustered in social interactions. She could think thoroughly about everything else.

“Oh yes! I’ll be attending Hogwarts too!” She said excitedly. The suggestion of them solving some mysteries at school together sent her over the moon. It was a great feeling to find someone into mysteries as much as she was. “I would love for us to solve some mysteries at the school once we are there.”

This was a new feeling for Ellie. She was more excited than anxious. Here she was about to take part in a game that would involve her interacting with a lot of people, which normally sends her into her shell, but she felt completely at ease. EmmaLee helped her feel comfortable with the idea. She will heed her advice and try to be very observant in the beginning to get clues on who the wolves could be. “In your experience, do these games usually take a long time? I’m really excited to get started.”

She knew she still had a long way to go given that she was in the second game but really did hope it would start sooner than later. She remembered overhearing one of the students at the sign-up say that they would plan to continue the games at school in a club and hoped EmmaLee would want to join with her.

“I think I heard them say they will try to start up a club at school for the games. If they do, would you like to join the club with me?” She had a good feeling she knew would EmmaLee would say but thought it polite to ask anyway.

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EmmaLee grinned and clapped her hands happily when Ellie said that she was going to Hogwarts. "That's marvelous! I'm so excited. I want to know about the giant squid that they say is in the lake and some things about the ghosts there. I imagine that they have amazing stories to tell." She said, letting her excitement get away with her a little. She was particularly interested in the Hogwarts house ghosts and how you become a house ghost. She pondered for a moment about Ellie's time question, putting her knuckle to her lip in thought.

"Well, it really depends on how good everyone is at lying," She said with a small chuckle. "and if the wolves turn on each other. We had one game where someone found out the first wolf and then the others fell like dominoes. They got flustered and gave themselves away by turning and talking bad about the wolf that got caught." She chuckled a little again at the memory.

"The games where the wolves win are very long, because they have to take out all of the villagers before they win. I definitely want to join a club at the school if they are starting one. It would be hilarious if I see my friends over next summer and I am so much better at Werewolf than they are." She said with a wide grin. EmmaLee was so glad to have a friend in Ellie who was so much like her old friends. It actually felt like having a bit of home to bring to Hogwarts and she wouldn't be missing so much.

The more she interacted with other students from Hogwarts, the less that she was upset and nervous that she wasn't going to Ilvermorny. She would always have her Mystery Squad, but she was slowly becoming more and more open the having a solid squad here as well.

A mystery about a giant squid. That sounded intriguing. Ellie hadn’t really heard about anything going on in Hogwarts. Their mom was often extremely busy with work and with their dad being a muggle there was not much he could tell them. Plus, leading up to them leaving for school, the focus really turned on appreciating and taking in much of what was at home since they will be away for so long.

EmmaLee seemed like she’s played the game a fair amount and Ellie was soaking in all the stories she was telling. She had mentioned her friends back home, which made Ellie a tiny bit sad. She realized she didn’t make the effort to make friends because she always just relied on her friendship with her brother. But she brushed off that thought right away because despite her not making an effort before she felt she was truly doing her best now, which was what mattered most. These are the people she will be seeing for the next seven years and she hoped she was already starting to build lasting friendships.

She realized she was getting pretty deep in her thoughts and quickly tried to bring herself back to the conversation. “I don’t really have many friends back home. I usually just spent time with my twin brother. I’m hoping to branch out more at Hogwarts. I am thrilled with how it’s been going so far.” She did a small sincere smile. She truly meant every word. She wanted to become more open.

It started to look like the moderators of the games were beginning the setup of the first round. Ellie was getting extremely excited even though she would have to wait for the first game to finish. Before they whisked away EmmaLee she decided to ask her one last question, “It looks like you’re about to start. In case I don’t see you when it ends, would it be okay if I sent you letters to stay in touch?” She felt pretty confident of what EmmaLee would say but thought she would be polite and ask anyway.

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EmmaLee smiled and tented her fingers. "Actually, I really only have those three friends, so we are a bit in the same boat. I didn't make any in Glasgow because I missed them so much." She made a funny awkward face and shrugged her shoulders. "I have a kind of loose friendship with my tentmates. Prank Wars did not go well for us and we kind of bonded, I suppose, about it, but most of them are from Ilvermorny so it is just more American friends. "

She turned and looked out at the great ship that they were to be playing on was revealed. This was definitely going to be a different game than it was back home.

The turned back as Ellie spoke again grinning wider at her new friend's suggestion. Her blue eyes twinkled excitedly at the prospect of a more long term friend and at the upcoming game. "That sounds like a great idea! We could write letters between classes and keep up with each other. Especially if we are sorted into different houses. "

The upcoming year was looking brighter and brighter for EmmaLee. She was making friends and brother... figure... type relationships. She was looking forward to her classes and the magnificence of living in Hogwarts castle. Her previous gloom about not attending Ilvermorny with her friends was slowly dissipating as she met more people and learned more good things about Hogwarts.