CL Hidden In The Trees PV Andy Menton

It was Oct. 9th, exactly one day after the autumn ball. Last night with quite crazy, with all the dancing in the courtyard and petting the animals in the petting zoo in the grounds, Andy had a lot of fun, but it also made him quite exhausted. When he got up next day from the cabin in the campgrounds, it was already past noon, and Andy just wanted to have a quiet day to recharge his batteries after such a crazy night and prepare himself as the benched member in the Ilvermorny Hexwizard Team. He just wanted to take a stroll in the trees, and hopefully meet up with some new people and make some new friends as he only had one friend, the young horned serpent, Amelia @Lily Blaze. Meeting up with new people surely proved to be a challenge for the shy Thunderbird, but Andy was determined to give it a try.

When Andy slowly walked close to the trees surrounding the campgrounds, he admired the golden sun shining warmly and brightly through the brown branches and dark green leaves that were not yet started to change color since autumn was just about to start. The weather was quite good, along with the beautiful scenery, it is surely perfect for Andy to take a relaxing walk by the campground.

Andy walked a little further into the woods and found a girl with light brown hair sitting on a big fallen tree chunk towards the sunnier area, sighing, seeming to be lonely and sad. The Thunderbird was too shy to even introduce himself to the girl, so he just sat on the grass next to the girl and tried to give her some company, hoping for the girl to start the talk. "The girl must be really lonely sitting on the tree trunk alone, maybe I could give her some company. She clearly doesn`t have any friends, and maybe we can be friends." Andy thought as he gave a sympathizing look to the poor brown-haired girl.
Word count: 336
@Alma Stoll as iNPC Annika Nivikov

Lost in thought, Annika barely noticed the smaller boy come and sit next to her. She was gazing at the overhead trees when she saw a sliver of dark brown hair sitting in the grass. It startled her, she jumped up and let out a small yelp of surprise.

“Ah! Oh my gosh…” she turned to catch her breath from the scare. “S-Sorry about that, I thought I was alone.”

She turned back to the boy with a new confident smile, in direct contradiction to her previous spooked demeanor. She held out her hand to the boy in the grass and cleared her throat. “I’m Annika Novikov - you can just call me Annika. Or Anni, as my da calls me. You?”

Her russian accent barely there in presence of the new kid, she tried to decipher what school he was from. She then realized she had yet to state her own school. “I go to Koldovstoretz, if you couldn’t tell. How about you? You here at Hogwarts?”

She would nod along to whatever answer he had to give and take her place back on the dead tree, bringing her knees up to her chest carefully so that she didn’t fall on her way up. She studied the boy more carefully. He looked about an inch or two taller than her - though she was normally the taller out of her female peers, the boys tended to beat her out, much to the annoyance of her competitive side. His eyes were a cute greenish-grey color and he had very feminine features.

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@Rita Su

Little shy Andy found out her face blushed again while the brown-haired girl began to talk to him, introducing herself as Annika from Koldovstoretz. A Russian girl. He studied the girl for a while, and found out she a few inches shorter than her, and was quite pretty, with long light brown hair and piercing blue eyes. After a while, the thunderbird finally decided to pick up the courage to look the girl in the eye and responded to her in a low voice, "Hi, Annika. I`m Andy from Thunderbird, Ilvermorny. How`s your day? Sorry, I am quite shy and nervous seeing you for the first time."

Andy was really shy seeing the girl for the first time, and could not even look the girl in the eye but he tried to talk a bit more, "I saw you sitting on the tree bunch alone. I`m also by myself so I come to accompany you." Andy was too shy to even talk further to Annika, so he put his head down and thought, "it is difficult for me to even talk to Annika when I see her for the first time, but I think Annika will understand I am just shy, and I should try my best to overcome my shyness if I want to interact with people further."
Word count: 220
@Alma Stoll as Annika Novikov

“Andy, huh?” she asks, cocking her head at the boy. He did look from America, now that she thought about it. “Well, it’s nice to meet you! You seem just wonderful.”

She looked back up at the bright sun shining through the trees again, pretending that she was in a movie with the golden glow on her face, illuminating her blue eyes. Andy asked her a question and she turned her head to look him in the eyes. There was something about this boy that she couldn’t quite place exactly, but she wasn’t complaining. He seemed really sweet. “My days been alright. How about you? You enjoying Hogwarts so far?”

She dropped her legs so that they were dangling from the tree again and looked at Andy in shock. “Shy and nervous seeing me? But i’m, like, totally normal!”

She stood up and began pacing back and forth on the limb, her black doc martens thumping up and down the wood. “No need to be shy around me. I promise! Besides,”

She hopped off the tree and lay her hands on Andy’s shoulders, keeping a fair distance but close enough so that he can hear her. “Maybe we can be friends?”

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@Rita Su

Andy looked at the brown-haired Russian girl again. Annika`s sweet compliment did make Andy feel a bit better. He was not shy and nervous seeing her, he was just that way seeing people for the first time in general. Anyway, he smiled to the girl, tried to raise his voice a little bit, and respond to Annika, "Thanks for your compliment. You are such a nice girl! You know, I am just shy and nervous seeing people for the first time in general, it`s definitely not your problem. Please try to understand that. By the way, your compliment did make me feel a little better!"

The bright sun continued to shine through the trees and Annika`s brown hair and blue eyes looked extremely beautiful under the sun. Andy felt like he was somewhat attracted to the girl, but it was not yet a crush. Anyway, Andy decided it was better to keep that feeling to himself at this point.

"Yeah, my day has been good, besides I was a bit lonely before seeing you. The ball last night was quite fun, but it made me really tired. It is nice to have a relaxing chat with someone nice like you to recharge my batteries," Andy tried to speak a bit more with Annika, "Yeah, you are very sweet, I`m glad to have you as a friend."
Word count: 227
@Alma Stoll as iNPC Annika Novikov

“You went to the ball? Cool! How was it? I didn’t go…didn’t have a date. But I’m glad I was able to help recharge your batteries!”

She got back up and hopped up onto the log once again, this time laying on it and not planning on moving again. She closed her eyes, admiring the slight cold chill of fall on her face. October really was the best month, wasn’t it?

“So tell me about yourself. What’s your age? Blood status? Favorite food?” She rambled on, trying to make conversation with Andy best she could. She certainly didn’t want him to get bored of her and leave, so asking him random questions, even if it seemed annoying, would probably get him to stay.

“I’m a pureblood. Both biological parents and adopted parents are all wizards. Sometimes I think it’s pretty boring, just learning magic magic magic and never getting to study anything muggle-like. Muggles fascinate me, yknow? Sorry, I’m rambling.”

She shut herself up and went back to simply laying on the tree, not saying a word until Andy spoke. So much for not being super annoying, am I right?

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@Rita Su

"I think it was pretty great. Actually, I also don`t have a date, I just went there to meet up with someone new and try to overcome my shyness. I met a South American boy with orange hair called Sherlock in the petting zoo, and I think he`s pretty nice. But the whole night was quite crazy, as there were so many people at the ball, and it was just extremely noisy. It`s great to have someone like you to have a relaxing talk with after that crazy, exhausting ball last night." Andy smiled at Annika as he told Annika about the crazy night spent at the ball, feeling lucky he could finally spend some time with someone just for chat and chill after such a fun and tiring night.

"But why did Annika want to know about my age and blood status? Anyway, maybe she was just throwing some random questions at me to keep me from being bored. It is not a big deal." Andy thought as the brown-haired Russian girl suddenly began to ask him some personal questions. He was not offended, he just felt weird when someone he just met suddenly began to ask him personal questions so directly.

"Well, if you really want to know about that, I`m also a pureblood, my dad is an Auror, and he met my mum also at Ilvermorny and later they get married, and I was born. But why would you want to know that? I don`t feel very comfortable to talk about that." Andy turned to Annika, "Could we just move on? Maybe we can talk about our hobbies. I really like flying, and I`m broom racer. I also enjoy going on adventures and doing some risky things. Cos I am actually quite brave despite being introverted and shy. By the way, when it comes to food, it`s hard to pick a favorite, but I guess I gonna say sweets if I have to pick one? What about you? What are your hobbies and interests?" Andy looked to Annika with a smile as he finished asking her some questions and waited for her to respond.
Word count: 358
Interacting with: @Alma Stoll as iNPC Annika Novikov
Mentioning: @Marius Brown as iNPC Sherlock Dols

Annika felt a little guilty for bringing it up when Andy said he felt uncomfortable talking about it, so she put his worries to rest. “Oh, i’m sorry! I didn’t realize…i’m like that sometimes. I can’t really read social cues. Anyway, yeah! We can totally talk about something else!”

“Oh my gosh, you’re a broom racer?!” she sat up to look at him more clearly now with excitement in her eyes. “That’s awesome! I’m a broom bracer too! I love flying, it’s awesome. I also quite like wizards chess - used to play with my dads all the time. And yeah, I also like going on adventures!”

She slid down and scooted up so she was sitting right next to him. “We’re a lot a like, actually. We should hang out more often.” She gave him a bright smile.

“And as for your earlier question, my favorite food is any type of indian food. It’s delicious.”

Annika began thinking up some ideas if she ever were to hang out with Andy again. He seemed like a really sweet kid, why wouldn’t she want to spend time with him? They could explore the castle, go on adventures…maybe they’d even land in detention together. She wanted to make as many memories with new friends as possible before she had to go back to Koldov.

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@Rita Su

Andy nodded and smiled when Annika apologized for asking him about his blood status and not understanding social clues. He remembered that unhappy incident he had with Amelia Lily Blaze just a few days ago, which landed both of them in detention and made Amelia super mad at him. Luckily, Andy would later find out Milly would eventually forgive him, but that always reminded him that he was indeed quite selfish and definitely not good at socializing.

Therefore, even though Annika accidentally brought up the blood status topic he deliberately wanted to avoid since he did want to be proud of being a pureblood and really did not care much about other wizards` blood status. "A muggle-born wizard is still a wizard, and no wizards should be judged or discriminated upon their blood status, it is the same thing with stuff like gender, race, and sexuality." That was something Andy always believed despite growing up in a pureblood family and was something his parents always taught him.

However, Andy believed Annika just brought it up by accident, and he should definitely forgive her for bringing that up considering what he did to Milly, which was definitely much worse.

"Well, it`s OK, I know socializing is extremely difficult, and I am definitely not good at that. Anyway, let`s move on." Andy finally responded to Annika with a smile after thinking for a while, "Yeah, good to know you are also a broom racer! maybe we can practice broom racing together or even race against each other someday! Or maybe, we can go on some adventures around the school! By the way, you are such a nice girl, I would definitely like to be friends with you! Would you agree to be friends with me?" Andy smiled to the pretty Russian girl with beautiful long curly light brown hair and crystal blue eyes which shined brightly under the sun. "Annika looks like an angel, which quite a few people do, but she also has a sweet personality, which is more precious. I am not saying I have a crush on her, but I really want to be her friend and go on some interesting adventures with her. God bless me I do not mess up in this friendship, not like the one with Milly." Andy thought as he waited for Annika to respond.
Word count: 392
@Alma Stoll as iNPC Annika Novikov