(board not mine).



Although it was the midst of the summer, in mid afternoon but before evening, with the perfect temperature, Rhea Bishop was stuck inside. She--more specifically, her parents--had been invited to some sort of party by some pureblood family or other. Rhea had lost track of all the different families. 

But there were a few that she recognized. There was the Ford family, who had a daughter her age. Serena Ford. Rhea had spoken to her a few times before, at a few other parties, but not enough to guarantee a friendship. An acquaintance, perhaps, but not a friendship.

Then there was the Medici family. Her parents were horrified when they heard the the Medicis were to be attending this party--where they too underdressed? where they too informal?--and had practically forced Rhea to go introduce herself to the daughter and make a good impression for the Bishops. 

Of course, there were plenty other families with a few kids, but none that Rhea recognized. She had to debate between going to talk to either Serena Ford, or Lisabetta Medici.

Rhea decided that before she would talk to either girl, she would get some food. The poor redhead girl had not eaten since breakfast that morning, having been prepped and made up the entire afternoon. Rhea hurried to the grand table laden with all types of food, and took out a plate. She couldn't decide between which meal to take, so she just stood by the table for a while, staring between both options. 

She didn't notice that someone seemed to walk behind her and clear their throat, preparing to speak.

Mia walked behind the red-haired girl, preparing herself to speak.

"Hello. I'm Mia Alexander. Umm...your blocking the macaroons. Could I, by any chance, get some?"

She smiled tightly and pointed towards a platter that the girl was standing in front of. It was laden with many different colored sweets, and at the center, two macaroons, both cream colored.

"I'm so sorry to inconvenience you."

Mia said, hopping nervously from one foot to the other. Mia hated talking to most people, as she made enemies easily, and wanted to go over to a corner, find Emily and her brother, or someone else she knew from previous gatherings. Maybe Ava will come! Or Ingrid. Mia thought. These were her roomates, ones she was not on the best terms with, especially Ava. She looked back at the girl. Maybe she could substitute for Emily Light. She seemed similar enough to Mia. They both had their stomachs on their minds. She worked up the courage to say something.

"Do you want to sit down with me? Or do you know people here? If you want there are two seats right over there."

She pointed to where the two empty seats were on the side of the tent. She took the macaroons and, smiling at the girl, crossed her fingers, hoping that she wouldn't have to sit this one out.

Serena was starting to get annoyed with her younger brother Janis when he started to play with the food he had on his plate. She thought that it was a mortal sin to play with food, especially when there were people dying of hunger in other parts of the world.

"Honestly, janis. If you weren't going to eat the food, why did you put it in your plate in the first place?", she told her brother in a serious tone. She got more irritated when Janis decided to stick out his tongue at her. "I am going to tell mother and father about how awful you are behaving."

Her threats seemed to work on her brother and he finally decided to eat the food on his plate. The ravenclaw relaxed in her seat and wished that she was with their younger sibling instead. Savanta, who was only five, was definitely more well behaved than Janis.

As Janis continued to eat, she looked at the other party guests for a bit to look for any one else that she was familiar with. Their parents were conversing a few feet away from them with some friends of theirs, whose names Serena could not recall. She also saw a few children her age but she couldn't approach them yet since she wanted to make sure that janis actually managed to finish off his plate.

Lisabetta never liked coming to these types of gatherings. She always stressed herself out about what she should wear, where she should sit, and who she should sit with. She never understood how her parents always seemed so calm and put together like they knew exactly what to do no matter what. Her mother would told her that it would come with time and to not worry so much. She was happy she had chosen to wear a dress that had very soft colors and a floral pattern, it seemed to go well with the décor. 

Her parents were approached almost as soon as they had entered the gathering, and Lisabetta did not care to stick around. Their adult conversations always seemed to bore her and she would just be forced to speak with the children of whoever her parents were talking to and she did not want to deal with that right away. She went over to the table full of food, seeing two girls her age talking near the table, but she kept to herself, going around them to fill up her plate. She wanted to load up on all the amazing sweets that they had but she knew that would not be okay. She filled up her plate very modestly, knowing that she would be starving afterwards, but she was expected to only eat small amounts at gatherings like this. 

She found the table that had her name on a place card, sitting down to eat, while looking around her, hoping to see someone that she knew, maybe her best friend, Elvira, would be coming. She knew that Elvira's family had been invited, but they normally didn't come to these types of things. 

"Mama, please. You've trained me for years on how to act like a proper pure blood lady. I'm sure I can handle myself at this little get together!" Alina complained, pushing herself away from the clawing hands of her pure blooded Slytherin mother who insisted on making sure that every single part of Alina was perfect. After all, nothing else would be acceptable.

That's what Alina hated about these things. She hated having to be perfect. Why couldn't she just be...Alina? Why did she have to try and be someone she wasn't? She knew she was never going to be a pure blooded princess. So why bother?

Alina slunk away from her mother while she was in conversation with another woman. Alina's nose lead her to a table filled with treats and snacks, her stomach grumbling ridiculously. "Food, lovely, lovely food," she mumbled to herself before filling up a a plate and ducking away from any people who looked like they wanted to start a conversation.

Looking around, Alina found her family name on a table and slid into her seat, making eye contact with dark blonde hair before smiling and taking a huge bite of pumpkin pie. "Mm, this is honestly delicious." After swallowing what she had, Alina held out her hand to the girl beside her, who she faintly recognized as a Medici. "I'm Alina Ambrosia, but my mother's family name is Winters. I think we may have met at one of these years ago?" Alina knew that at these pure blooded dinners, if she never introduced herself by her mother's last name, she would never get recognized. Not that she ever did really. Her Slytherin mother wasn't as popular as she thought she was, but was still recognizable.

Eri smiled at the gathering. Her aunt told her to go have fun while she talked to some of her friends. That was the usual and Eri didn't mind that at all. She was dressed in a white dress and her short brown hair blew a bit in the wind.

She walked around trying to find her name at a table. Finally spotting the name Windstone Written at the table she sat down. Eri recognized a girl she had seen at another meeting, her name was Serena Ford? Maybe. Smiling Eri decided to introduce herself. "Hi I'm Eri Windstone. We may have met at a meeting like this before. I'm not quite certain." The brunette began to put a few food items on her plate not wanting to get to much food. Her aunt hated wasting food so Eri had a habit of getting less than what she would eat in case she had less of an appetite than before.

She sat quietly and picked up a croissant. One of her favorite delicacies.  Eri observed Serena quietly from behind her plate as she ate not wanting to seem rude. Once she ate what was on her plate she grabbed another piece of food.

Rhea turned to look behind her as a girl spoke, telling her she was blocking the macaroons. 

"Oh, sorry," Rhea moved out of the way, but grabbed a green macaroon and bit into it. She hummed in content, but made sure to hide it so her parents wouldn't see her eating it. The girl invited her to sit next to her, and Rhea shrugged and nodded. Although she had promised her parents she would talk to the Medici family, she thought that she could talk to this girl, first. There was no reason not to. 

She turned and started to walk back to the table they were assigned. She looked around the room, knowing that her table was going to be either in the very front or towards the front - the best seats in the room. The less famous families would sit in the back. She beckoned for the girl to follow her, guessing that they were to sit next to each other. Alexander... The family was pretty well-known, and Rhea guessed that they could sit together. She saw other kids her age, but decided to go talk to them later. She saw a blonde girl talking to the Medici daughter, and decided that while Lisabetta was occupied, she could talk to Mia. 

"My name's Rhea Bishop," she introduced herself. She scouted out any other person they could talk to, and saw that Serena was still sitting along. Rhea decided to change her course and walk towards her, but it seemed another girl had the same idea. A short haired brunette girl walked towards Serena, and sat down. Rhea gestured at Mia to come sit next to the two others. The redhead caught the last few words of the brunette girl's sentence - apparently, her name was Eri Windstone. Rhea realized that she knew the girl.

But just then, her parents appeared. They looked around, seemingly searching for someone. Finally, her mother made eye contact with Rhea and beckoned for her to come over. Rhea bade the girls around her a soft good-bye and went to her parents, after which they left. Rhea never did know why they had to leave so early...

"My name's Rhea Bishop. Nice to meet you."

The girl- Rhea - led Mia towards a table in the front, leaving Mia to pick up her food and walk hurriedly towards her. They sat down at a table filled with two other girls. She recognized both of them. They were from influential families, the magical families that actually did things, and controlled bits of the country. Mia decided to introduce herself similar to how Rhea did.

"Mia Alexander. I do believe I've talked to most of you."

She recognized the short brown haired girl in a white dress. Eri was it? From the Windstone family. They were famous journalists that Mia's mother met and respected. The other girl was Serena. Of the Ford family. The Fords were also well respected, and believed that in order for a young witch or wizard to have a more holistic growth, they must be aware of both worlds that have coexisted beside each other for hundreds, if not thousands of years. They expressed this belief and people respected them because of this. Mia shifted. She was sure that she was the only Slytherin-based pureblood at the table, which was odd. Usually these things were filled with Slytherin-based families.

Lisabetta was nibbling her food very slowly, not making much noise, wanting to savor the food that she had. She knew that she could not go and get seconds of any kind, and immediately was sad that she hadn't added more food while she was up. What was the point of coming to places that had all this food if she couldn't even indulge? She was day dreaming about the dinner that her house elves would have waiting for her once she returned home, when she heard someone sit down next to her. She saw that the girl had a plate full of food making Lisabetta already very jealous, she wished she could chow down on pumpkin pie like that. Lisabetta smiled at the girl, realizing that she probably had a very sad look on her face before, and nodded at her. 

"Hello Alina, my name is Lisabetta Medici, it is a pleasure to meet you." She took her outstretched hand, shaking it, feeling very awkward doing it. She hadn't shook someone's hand in years. She did recognize the last name, Winters, and realized that she had seen this girl around before at these kind of gatherings. She wasn't sure what else to say, she wasn't very good with small talk. She didn't normally partake in full blown conversations with other people, unless she was forced to. She didn't want the girl to think she was rude, she just honestly didn't know what else to say. 

"Hello Alina, my name is Lisabetta Medici, it is a pleasure to meet you." The blonde said politely and softly. But she noticed that there was a bit of a sadness in her expression that was quickly wiped away. 'Maybe I just imagined it?' She mused.

"Honestly," She stated, before leaning over and dropping her voice. "Do you hate these things as much as I do? I mean I feel like this is all just peacocking. It's exhausting!" Alina sighed before settling back into her seat and diving into some more pumpkin pie and peacan tarts. She eyed the other girls plate which only had a few select things that Lisabetta nibbled on.

No doubt she had way more self control than Alina did. That was the one thing Alina's mama could never do: control her ridiculous appetite. Alina could eat and eat and eat and never gain a pound so she assumed that was why her mama stopped bugging her about it. Luckily, the only reason why she liked coming to these things was for the food. The cakes, the pies, the tarts and cupcakes. Pulling herself out of her daydream, she sipped at the glass of cold water on the table.

"So, what House are you in at Hogwarts? You're a first year, right?" She asked, setting the glass down to exchange it for another tart.