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Post by Nikole Talley on Jul 7, 2007 2:05:12 GMT
Nikole walked down to the lake shore and sat down on the ground. For a few moments she sat staring out at the lake, trying to make a decision. Then she hesitantly took off her shoes and stood up. It was strange for her to feel the grass beneath her bare feet. She hadn't taken her shoes off outside since she was about seven.
Taking a deep breath, Nikole inched closer to the water. It wasn't what lived in the water that made her nervous about it. It was the fact that it was dirty and disgusting. She was only going to wade in; that couldn't be to bad. When she got close enough to the water that her toes were lightly splashed she hesitated uncertain of whether or not she could stand this. Finally making herself get over it, she stepped one foot into the water and then the other.
Before she knew it the water was up to her ankles. "Eww!" she said as she started to feel mud between her toes. She was wrong; this was horrid. She was stupid to think this wouldn't bother her. At least it was only her feet that had been in this disgusting lake.
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Post by Prof Grace Marks on Jul 11, 2007 15:55:53 GMT
Grace was walking around the lake, more jogging but slowly that she would have classified it as walking, when she saw a Ravenclaw taking her shoes off. Grace smiled, knowing the feeling of wanting to test the water, and headed in her direction. When Grace got close enough she saw the girls horrified expression and Grace stopped running and began laughing.
"I see you've found the mud," she chuckled, walking towards her but keeping her distance from the water. "Delightful, isn't it?" she laughed. It was a sarcastic question but fun to ask as sarcastic was not Grace's usual course of wit. She smiled warmly at the girl and crossed her arms. "Are you just going to stand there till you slip and get that disgusting mug all over you?" she asked, taking a step closer and dropping her arms, ready to extend them if she did slip.
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Post by Nikole Talley on Jul 11, 2007 16:09:33 GMT
Nikole slowly turned to look at the girl who had spoken to her. She immediately recognized her as head girl, however she couldn't remember her name. "Umm...no," Nikole said, carefully stepping toward the shore, until she could feel the grass beneath her muddy feet.
She looked down at her feet with digust, and then looked back up at the girl. "That was so gross," she said her voice getting whiny. "I can't believe I actually stepped in that nasty lake. That was definately one of the worst ideas I've ever had."
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Post by Prof Grace Marks on Jul 11, 2007 16:21:38 GMT
Grace smiled and nodded with approval as the girl came out of the lake. The last time Grace had done that she had slipped and ended up smelling like slime for a week; the smell would not get out of her cloths. So Grace held out her hands as she walked out just in case.
Grace laughed at her comment and nodded again. "Indeed," she giggled, "I'm still trying to figure out why I did that." She looked the girl up and down and smiled. "I'm Grace, by the way, Grace Marks, pleasure to meet you. And I'm glad you didn't slip. That smell doesn't come out easily." She grinned at the girl.
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Post by Nikole Talley on Jul 11, 2007 16:34:18 GMT
Nikole crinkled her nose at the thought of being covered in this mud. "I'm Nikole, Nikole Talley. It's pleasure to meet you also." Nikole started rubbing her feet on the grass to try and get at least some of the mud off of them.
"You've done that before also?" Nikole asked just realizing what the girl had said. It relieved her that she wasn't the only person who would be stupid enough to step into the lake.
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Post by Prof Grace Marks on Jul 11, 2007 16:44:12 GMT
Expensive Grace smiled and nodded. "Indeed I have," she said, then with a guilty look on her face, she added, "more then once actually." Grace recalled the number of times she had stupidly go into the sludgy waters of the lake but decided to rather not give an exact figure. "But once you get past the gross sludge and you actually get swimming, the fact that you can hardly see your own hand a wands distance under the water it hardly matters. I had the jitters that whole time. I kept expecting to get wrenched into the water by the squid."
She sat down on the grass and smiled as she noticed that Nikole was trying to get the mug off her feet. Grace pulled out her wand and pointed it at her feet. "Spongify," she said, and was happy to see all traces of the horrid mug evaporate into nothingness. "Naturally the guy I was swimming with got squidified," Grace added as an after thought. "It was quite funny at the time but he didn't appreciate me laughing. Never spoke to me again after that." She laughed and looked at the Ravenclaw. "So, what year are you in?" she asked.
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Post by Nikole Talley on Jul 11, 2007 18:44:59 GMT
Nikole laughed as she walked over and grabbed her shoes. She sat down next to Grace and started to put her shoes back on. "I'm a third year," she said focusing on her shoes. "And thanks for cleaning my feet," she said looking at Grace with a smile. "Much better," she said after finally getting both shoes on.
Nikole let a little sigh. Yet another attempt to enjoy the outdoors that did not turn out as planned. "I guess I should probably just start staying inside," she said more to herself than to Grace. "This outdoors thing doesn't seem to be working for me, too dirty."
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Post by Prof Grace Marks on Jul 11, 2007 20:01:14 GMT
"My pleasure," Grace said to her thanks, and she put away her wand. She was always very impressed with her charms abilities and was happy to show them off every now and then. Grace smiled at the lake, it was calm and calming. The odd quack of a duck did disturb the silence but it rarely lasted long enough to do any real damage to Grace's calm.
When Nikole began talking again, Grace looked and her, resting her chin on her arm. Grace laughed and looked back over the lake. "Yeah," she said absently, "me too. But that's never stopped me coming out here," she said to Nikole now, "I usually just sit and watch the others do their thing. I could never do it myself, the thought of not being able to see what I'm swimming over ..." she shivered at the thought, "well, let's just say it's never sat well with me." She smiled at the third year then looked back over the lake. "It's just so beautiful I can't stop coming out."
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Post by Nikole Talley on Jul 12, 2007 15:14:55 GMT
"It is beautiful," Nikole agreed, her voice sounding very dreamy. "However, I do not think I will have the same problem as you. I think I will have no problem staying away from her," she said looking out at the lake still.
Nikole sighed a little. "I was just hoping that I could get to where the outdoors didn't bother me so much. I realized how I worry about everything too much and wanted to change that, but it just didn't work. Guess, I can't change who I am..."
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Post by Prof Grace Marks on Jul 13, 2007 12:45:19 GMT
Grace looked back to the girl when she sounded especially dreamy. Grace smiled at her and frowned. She never knew a Ravenclaw who wanted to become more the out of doors type. She grinned and said, "we're all made differently and the outdoors just isn't made for everyone."
Her next comment completely confused Grace. She frowned and inclined her head towards the Ravenclaw. "Why would you want to change?" she asked, "you were made the way you are and that makes you who you are. Changing would make you someone your not and then you wouldn't be you." She frowned as she spoke, almost confusing herself.
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Post by Nikole Talley on Jul 13, 2007 15:02:50 GMT
"I don't know," said Nikole giggling at the confusing way the girl said that. This was true she had never thought to question why she wanted to change; she just did. "But I think, I may be over it," she said looking out at the lake and crinkling her nose at the thought of how dirty it was. "Yeah, I'm most definately over it. I guess I can live with just being smart and almost perfect," she said smiling at Grace and then giggling.
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Post by Prof Grace Marks on Jul 13, 2007 18:43:39 GMT
Grace giggled with the Ravenclaw. "Almost perfect sound just able perfect to me," she giggled. Sighing she smiled at the lake. It was a beautiful day and Grace was glad for that. The recent rains had been a damper on her good mood but no more rain meant good mood. Deciding to take a new course of conversation, Grace turned to face Nikole and asked, "what's your favourite subject?"
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Post by Nikole Talley on Jul 13, 2007 19:26:10 GMT
Nikole thought for a moment. "Hmm...That is a difficult question. I enjoy all subjects quite a bit," she said but then corrected herself. "No, wait, I enjoy most of my subjects quite a bit. All, in fact, except for care of magical creatures. I care nothing for creatures of any kind and they care nothing for me." Nikole thought about all the troubles she had with animals. She could barely get a simple owl to deliver a message for her. Animals just didn't like Nikole for some reason.
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Post by Prof Grace Marks on Jul 13, 2007 19:31:09 GMT
Grace laughed and said, "that would add to your non-outside thing you've got going on." Grace smiled playfully at the Ravenclaw to show she was only joking. "But Care of Magical Creatures is at least interesting. Divination." Grace shook her head, "there's one subject I could never understand." Grace had dropped it the first chance she had gotten. Mrs Biggerstall had advised her to take it but Grace knew she wouldn’t need it so why bother.
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Post by Nikole Talley on Jul 13, 2007 19:38:05 GMT
Nikole laughed. "It's not that interesting a subject if animals don't like you. Trust me, I know. Yeah, I guess it does add to my anti-outdoors attitude. I never really thought about it. Divination is just a bunch of rubbish. I personally believe it shouldn't even be considered a class. I would never take it," Nikole said with a smile. She had always considered Divination one of the most ridiculous classes they could ever teach here.
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