A Swim for the Book PV Darcy Adair Closed

"Oh, God," Darcy mumbled to herself, sneering with disgust as she picked her way across the muddy grass. She knew it would be a bad idea to go outside. It always was. Only bad things ever happen outdoors - mud, rain, mosquitos, bugs, wild animals, etc.

Darcy sidestepped another mud puddle, careful to not get her designer boots wet. She wouldn't be out here if not absolutely necessary. She just couldn't be inside that castle a minute longer. Everyone was driving her insane. Of course, that was to be expected. After all, many of them came from muggle or half-blood families. Nothing good can come from an upbringing like that.

Darcy wrinkled her nose and swept her silky brown hair over one shoulder, clutching her bag tighter in her hands. She looked around. She needed somewhere to do her schoolwork that wasn't overrun with crazy people. Despite the chill that had settled over Hogwarts, many students had chosen to spend their weekend outdoors. Why, Darcy couldn't imagine. She was out here because she had to be. The other people were so simple-minded already that it didn't matter if it was too loud for them inside. They could deal.

Darcy continued looking around for a free space. Every corner seemed to be occupied. Well, except for the area around the Great Lake.

Darcy sighed and rolled her eyes. Seriously? She would have to go study over there, by that disgusting water? She sighed again, long and gusty, and marched over to the Lake's bank. The ground there was decidedly muddy as well, save for one spot, a rather nice spot. An occupied spot.

Great, Darcy thought to herself. The one halfway decent area out here was already occupied by some nobody. Well. That would have to change.

Darcy lifted her chin and dropped her bag on the ground. "Excuse me," she said tersely,"You're going to have to move. I need to study, and this is the only spot that's not muddy in this godforsaken place. I'm sure you'll understand." She smiled sweetly.

Mentioning/Interacting: @Darcy Adair

Outfit

#666

[font=Kaufmann Bd BT]The wind was laughing at her. It blew her hair around every now and then, and threatened to throw her work in the lake. Pissed off, Suzuki turned a little so her back was to the wind.

Mistake. The topmost sheet of paper (the one with the writing on it!) was swept out of her grip, and landed in the water, face-up, as if mocking Suzuki. Determined not to be made a fool out of a piece of paper (of all things), she continued writing on the second sheet of paper, closing her metal case down on one edge so this one wouldn't be swept away.

Just then, a voice disturbed her. Great. She shouldn't have come out here.

It was a girl with rather fancy clothes (Suzuki entertained herself with the image of the girl's clothing getting dirty- or even better, wet- or even best, muddy), looking haughtily down at her. Definitely a Slytherin. By now, Suzuki could tell by the tone and the peacock-like haughtiness. The Sorting Hat did its job well. In the majority of cases, at least.

Leaning back on a hand to look at the girl, Suzuki decided on what she'd say. It was something Nakamura had taught her a while ago, and it was, in her opinion, pretty great.

" Sure, I'll go away, as soon as you take your attitude away." By then, Suzuki had been pretty ready to go back inside the castle to the library to go finish up her homework (finish- ha), but as soon as the girl came, she changed her mind.

The wind blew by again, gently. Suzuki turned back to her work to show that the girl hadn't disturbed her (well, at least).

It was all for the aesthetic, really. Kind of.

Darcy glared at the girl, who had just turned away as if she didn't exist at all! Who did she think she was? Most people didn't openly defy Darcy, or at least not so smoothly. The girl hadn't faltered or looked scared or anything. She must be a Gryffindor. They always seemed to be the annoying ones.

Darcy clenched and unclenched her fists, trying to figure out the best say to respond to the other girl's comeback. The girl still hadn't looked at her. The wind increased, tossing Darcy's straight hair and blowing it into her face. She swept it away dismissively and set her face into a mask of indifference. This nobody wanted to ignore her? Fine. Two can play that game. Darcy wanted that spot, and she was going to get it.

Darcy spread her jacket on the ground, as she lacked a better option to keep her jeans from coming in contact with the muddy grass, and sat down a mere two feet away from the other girl. She opened her textbook with a dramatic and loud ruffling of the pages, and started humming, so quietly it could barely be heard but was just noticeable enough. She began reading, but couldn't concentrate. The silent treatment obviously wasn't working.

With a loud sigh, Darcy slammed the book shut and tossed it to the ground. "Do you even know who I am?" she asked. Without waiting for an answer, she continued. "My name is Darcy Adair and both sides of my family have been coming here to Hogwarts for centuries. Needless to say, my parents have connections here. I wouldn't want to have to use them." Darcy actually had no idea if her parents had connections at Hogwarts, but it was worth a shot. This wasn't even about the stupid study spot anymore - it was about pride.

She stood up and placed her hands on her hips. Before she knew what was happening, her foot hit the book she had just thrown onto the ground. She slipped. Both of her feet slid out from under her and she fell with a *thud* on the ground. Her book continued sliding, unlike her, down the subtle incline to the Great Lake. And with a resounding splash, it fell in. Darcy made a strangled sound. The universe was not in her favor today. How was she to make her point if she looked like an idiot? Staggering, she stumbled up and stomped her foot on the ground.

Mentioning/Interacting: @Darcy Adair

Outfit

#666

[font=Kaufmann Bd BT]Although Suzuki may have enjoyed writing essays, she wasn't one to say she was actually good at the thing. While her essays were usually lengthy and pretty clear (to her, at least), they might've been a bit sloppy. And sloppiness, apparently, wasn't something to be tolerated. Suzuki scrapped her draft and restarted. When the same voice interrupted again, sounding rather agitated.

Amused at the girl's rather loud response, Suzuki replied without looking up, " And?"

It was rather intriguing, messing with random people that came down to annoy. It was almost like a fistfight, really. But before Suzuki had time to do anything, really, the girl's book and the girl both started sliding. Towards the water. Escalation. What fun.

But then it kept escalating. The dire of the situation (not really) rose, and it kept rising. The book fell into the water with a expansion of light blue. White, almost.

" You need help?" Not giving the girl a chance to answer, Suzuki rolled up her left sleeve, and stuck her hand into the water, her body flat against the muddy ground. Reaching deeper in, Suzuki grabbed the book, and fished it out.

Searching around in her mind for a useful spell, Suzuki cast a simple Reparo with her wand. on the bedraggled book, remembering to use the correct wand movements- a spiral shape. The book fixed itself, and Suzuki jammed the wand back in her robe pocket. She then handed the book back to its owner.

Darcy stared at the girl in pure shock. Why had she helped her? Darcy turned the book over in her hands. Good as new. She fidgeted with her hair and wiped her hands on her jeans. No one ever helped her. Well, voluntarily.

"Thanks," she finally stammered. The word felt foreign in her mouth.

Darcy looked at her feet. Her leather boots and new pants were mud and grass stained, and she knew that her hair was messy and wind-blown. She assumed the rest of her wasn't looking so great either. For once, though, she didn't feel mad or disgusted or self-conscious. She felt . . . how to describe it? Awed? This girl had helped her, stuck her hand into the freezing water and pulled out her book and fixed it, when all Darcy had done was insult her and insist she move.
Darcy cleared her throat. What should she do? She still hadn't moved. The book was still clutched in her hands, and her knuckles were turning white. The wind was blowing harder than ever, tossing the branches of the nearby trees, and the air was frigid and misty.

Darcy slowly looked up and took a deep breath. Should she apologize? Don't be stupid, part of her brain told her. She doesn't deserve that. Darcy closed her eyes briefly and did something she had never done before. She told that part of her brain to shut up. And surprisingly, it did. Darcy took another deep breath. This shouldn't be so hard. People apologized all the time. It wasn't a big deal.

"I'm . . . sorry. For acting the way I did. It wasn't nice and . . . yeah, I'm sorry," she said, so quietly that she wasn't sure if the girl could hear her. She cringed at the awkwardness of her words.

"Um . . . what's you name?" she asked, making eye contact.

Mentioning/Interacting: @Darcy Adair

Outfit

#666

[font=Kaufmann Bd BT]A word of thanks and an apology wasn't really what Suzuki expected; she expected a loud 'humph' and for the girl to stalk away. She took it, anyway, kind of but not really surprised. She decided that this girl may have been a jerk, but she wasn't stupid.

Squinting up past the girl's head, Suzuki watched a bird explode out of a tree, and as the girl in front of her argued with herself.

" It takes the strongest kind of person to apologize when they don't want to. It's fine." A phrase she'd read from a book. For the majority of the time, she was either too lazy or didn't care enough to forge her own phrases, so she borrowed them from books.

" Call me Suzuki."

Turning back to her essay, she finished the first paragraph, squinting at the messy words hastily pasted onto paper, and wondered if the Hogwarts professors would deduct points for messiness. Just to be sure, she restarted it, this time in a neater font. A bit of discoloured water dripped onto the page, and it was only then that Suzuki registered how dirty her fatigues and hoodie were. It didn't matter. It was only mud- a bit of mud never hurt anyone. But it'd probably end up hurting the essay, so Suzuki adjusted the whole setup until the water would only drip onto the ground.

Frowning at the paper, she twisted the quill between her fingers, letting her mind wander away from the essay to something else. Someone else. Suzuki usually didn't do so well with people, give or take a few, but for those certain that she did too well with; they were usually quiet people, jerks (perhaps this girl), or just random maniacs, like her Muggle friend at home or the laughing clown she'd met in the dorms. Three of the weirdest (maybe not the quiet category) kinds of people. Did it have to do with similarity? Probably not. Suzuki was quiet, sure, and she could be a jerk, but was she a maniac?

Probably.

Back to the essay now- late work wouldn't be accepted.

Darcy couldn't help rolling her eyes when Suzuki said that thing about being strong and apologizing. Honestly, that girl kind of talked like a self-help book. It took all of Darcy's willpower to keep her mouth shut and not blurt her opinion out loud.

Darcy was still standing in the same spot she had been for the last ten-ish minutes, holding the book. Suzuki had bent down over her paper again, but it looked as if she were thinking about something else. Darcy shuffled her feet and sat down a respectful distance away from her and took out a length of parchment and a quill from her own bag. She started writing. If Suzuki wasn't interested in conversation, she wouldn't be either.

But she couldn't focus. She kept glancing at Suzuki. But why? Darcy had apologized. Suzuki had accepted it. Now they were going their separate ways. That's all there was to it. Darcy wanted to slap herself. Why did she even care about someone else? She was Darcy Adair. Adairs didn't need other people, much less think about them. Darcy sighed. What was different about Suzuki that made Darcy think about her more than another person? Darcy mulled it through. Was it because, unlike many, she actually stood up to Darcy? And calmly, at that? Yes, that made sense. A lot of sense, actually.

"How do you do it?" Darcy blurted out suddenly, before she had time to process what she was saying. "How do you stay so calm?" She clapped a hand over her mouth. Why had she said that? Of all the stupid things. That was what happened when she let her guard down! She started saying dumb things to random people and making an idiot out of herself. And Darcy Adair wasn't an idiot.

Mentioning/Interacting: @Darcy Adair

Outfit

#666

[font=Kaufmann Bd BT]Calmness was essential to life, at least for Suzuki. It played a rather big part in baseball games and football games (the ragers usually get fouled pretty quickly), and it played a big part in streetfights. She'd found out pretty quickly that the more nonchalant you were, the more likely you were to succeed. And Suzuki was pretty good at fighting- she was ranked pretty high up in the imaginary fighting rankings, and usually, she didn't come back with a lot of bruises or scars of any of that- she'd mastered the skill of dodging. Although, for some kids, you could never predict what they'd do.

"I'm used to it. Calmness is important in physical fighting." Then, with some more thought, she added, " and verbal. What good is there in not being calm? Does anything change? Is anything different? No."

While she preferred physical to anything else (including mental), she wasn't too shabby at verbal fighting. She was also used to verbal abuse- something you get used to when you used to live with a nitpicker.
It also helped that the Suzukis were known (back in Japan, at least) for being smooth talkers. They could probably talk their way out of anything. It didn't help that there were only two left, though.

Finishing the second paragraph with something that was a little less than a flourish, Suzuki stopped to go back and read over what she had so far. It was good-organized, in neat handwriting, and it didn't wander off-topic. Now to continue working on the explanation part.

A bit distracted, Suzuki poked around in the dirt by her side and picked up a thin twig. It was a bit shorter than her quill, and around the same thickness (or thinness) as her wand. She spun it around her thumb, trying to think of anything she might've needed to add to her essay.

It was then that she realized she didn't know the offending girl's name. " What's your name?" Although it didn't matter too much- Suzuki could just call her 'girl'- she preferred knowing what to call someone than just calling them by their gender. It was easier, too. She probably couldn't just say, I met Girl at the Great Lake.

Like she'd even have a reason at all to say that, but whatever.

When Suzuki nonchalantly said the thing about calmness and physical fighting, Darcy was quite taken back. Physical fighting? She wasn't sure what to say to that. She opened and closed her mouth for a moment until the girl asked her name, which was a welcome change of topic.

Darcy lifted her chin. "My name is Darcy Adair. I think I said that earlier, but maybe not." She twisted her fingers as a chilly breeze blew past. Darcy hated silences like these, lulls in awkward conversations that made her in turn feel awkward, something that she certainly wasn't.

She racked her brain for something to say. It was usually easy for her to whip up snappy remarks and comments, but she was blank. " What . . ." she started, "Um, what are you writi - EEK!" Her question gave way to a strangled yelp as a large, blue, iridescent beetle scuttled over her boot. Darcy wasn't scared of bugs - that would be slightly irrational considering how small they were compared to her - but she didn't exactly like them either. She backed away from the beetle, which had stopped a few feet away, until she was confidant it wouldn't try to crawl over her again.

She cleared her throat and tried again, slightly aware that her cheeks were heating up. Honestly, she was an Adair. Adair's didn't shriek. She turned to Suzuki. "What are you writing?" she asked, gesturing to the quill and parchment in the girl's hands.