Break Away ((Ivy))

[Jordan Elizabeth Cortes]

Jordan tilted her head at her reflection. Her right hand grasping the stick of a lollipop which was in her mouth. The cherry flavoring being savored with each suck. There was sure to be a red strip of candy goodness on her tongue, but Jordan didn't care; the longer the taste stayed, the better. It was better than that nasty tea she was forced to drink earlier by her mother. Jordan's throat wasn't in the best of health at the moment, and she had done the absolute wrong thing and owled her mom about it. Instead of a get well card and some throat lozenges, Jordan recieved a package filled with tea and a note saying to drink three cups a day. Normally, Jordan would drink any tea, but the tea her mother had sent her was...abnormal. No where near real tea.

Jordan took out the lollipop and smiled, finally realizing she was ready to head down to the Lounge. She was still in her Hogwarts uniform, but it wasn't as if she was going to class. Her white shirt was untucked from her skirt, and she wore a Hogwarts sweater on over it instead of her cloak, it was getting to warm for cloaks anyway. As she walked down the stairs, she popped the lollipop back in her mouth and sucked on it. She had already finished her homework and studying for an hour, and was ready to break away and have some fun. Jordan was all for the fun. And if she didn't get at least some fun in on one day, she wasn't the best person. Her personality was to make everyone happy, no matter how sad or troubled they were. No one liked someone who was sad. Even if the person didn't want to smile, it made them feel better just to be smiled at. At least, that's what Jordan thought.

If every smiled at one another everyday, there wouldn't be that much sadness and terror in the world anymore, Jordan thought as she went down another flight of stairs, everyone would also have sore lips. She giggled at that thought. Everyone smiling so much that their lips stayed that way. Permenant smiles plastered on their faces until always. Then people might get angry, though. Too much smiling, or smiling the wrong way can make a person get outraged and go on a maniac homicidal killing spree. Then the world would be worse than sad. The world would be...basically dead. Jordan's smile faded slightly at that thought, she didn't want that to happen. As soon as she thought of that thought, however, it disappeared from her mind and her smile reappeared. Not a moment too soon, either, for she had just came upon the entrance to the Student Lounge and she wanted to appear happy for those who weren't.

She pushed open the door and looked around, it wasn't empty; nor was it crowded, but there weren't many of Jordan's friends lounging around in the comfortable but, affordable chairs and couches. Few Gryffindors were playing Wizards Chess, and she spotted two Ravenclaws sitting in a corner studying. There weren't any Slytherins in sight, then again she tried to stear clear of them. Not too many liked her. Her brown eyes looked around the Lounge for any Hufflepuffs and settled on one that looked to be a year or two younger than herself. Jordan smiled, took out the lollipop from her mouth, and walked over to the Hufflepuff. She took a seat near the girl and tucked some hair behind her ears before introducing herself, "Hi! I'm Jordan! What's your name?"

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy was busy. Professor Trelawney had set them some reading homework. And once they'd finished that reading homework they were going to have to join her for an evening class gazing at the stars. Seeing the progression of Neptune into the Orion Nebula or something. Plunging into a misty sea, as some of the more poetic might put it. Ivy was not good at Divination. She struggled. Professor Trelawney would probably say that she was 'clouding her Inner Eye' by trying too hard. In the end she would probably just give up trying. She didn't even know if it was possible to fortell things. It probably wasn't wise. You should be free to make your own way in life. If someone told you who you were going to marry, and you married that person, did you marry them for love or because someone told you you were going to? And if you decided not to marry them, did you do that because someone had told you you were going to marry them? Just to defy them?

Ivy was letting herself get distracted here. She had been trying to make sense of that sentence for the past five minutes. Not that she really understood any of it. She resumed with a sigh, keeping her eyes fixed on the book, though they were glazing over. It was hopeless. But she was going to continue trying. She didn't want a clear Inner Eye. She didn't want to see her destiny, or anyone else's for that matter. Her own would no doubt not be pleasant, and why would anyone else want her nosying into their destiny? It certainly wasn't her business. She was trying of course, because she wanted to succeed. But sometime, she was going to have to resign herself to the fact she probably wouldn't pass her Divination Owl. At least Divination probably wasn't needed to pursue a career in Charms.

Ivy jumped as she realised someone had just said 'Jordan' and asked her her name. "Ivy," she replied, lowering her book to look them in the eye so as not to be rude. "I'm Ivy." The name of Jordan had set her off along a whole other thought trail... that of the Jordan she knew. The Jordan her age, who had gone off to America. Ivy didn't believe that she'd stopped thinking about poor little Katie. She'd followed her, after all. All the way to America. And Ivy wasn't entirely certain that it was a good idea. From what she knew, the two seemed to have become bitterly divided before Katie left for America. They were probably doing each other more harm than good. Once Katie left, Jordan had become depressed. And now she had followed her, probably about to bring up a whole lot more pain. Ivy didn't know what was best to be done anyway, and reminded herself that she had just told someone her name. She looked up at the girl with a shake of her head as though to try to clear the negative thoughts, and gave her a small smile, waiting for her to say something else.

[Jordan Elizabeth Cortes]

The lollipop was still in her mouth, except now Jordan was chewing on the cherry goodness. The girl Jordan approached, seemed to be thinking about something, and Jordan allowed herself to look at the book the girl was holding. I can't very well call her the girl now that I know her name, Ivy. Pretty name, Jordan thought as she lifted her eyes to looked at Ivy. Jordan smiled again, and stopped chewing on the lollipop. Starting to think about something to talk about.

"I like your name. It's really a pretty name. So, what are you doing Ivy? Are you too absorbed in it to play a game of wizard's chess?" She asked, a smile still playing on her lips. Her lips which were a red from the lollipop. Jordan liked candy, she liked to eat lollipops mostly. She liked chewy things too, things like gum or starbursts. A lot of muggle candy. Though, wizard candy was good too. Jordan also liked wizard's chess. Though she wasn't any good at the game. In fact she thought it brutal. She would run upstairs and get her Monopoly board game, but she wasn't sure if Ivy knew how to play Monopoly.

"Or, we can play Monopoly. I have that in my trunk upstairs. I'm supposed to be getting some new board games soon, supposed, being the keyword. Do you know how to play Monopoly?" Jordan finished off the lollipop and dropped it in a garbage can by the chair she was sitting in, and looked back up at Ivy. Wondering if this was a new friendship in the making. Jordan liked to make friends. Then a thought occured to her, "Hey, are you on the Quidditch team?"

[Ivy Tunstall]

"Thanks," Ivy said in return to the compliment. Which was most likely a rather meaningless comment just to fill the gap in conversation. That was always what happened when people introduced themselves. She watched 'Jordan' sucking on a very red lollipop, and wondered to herself why some people were so addicted to them. Herself, she found them far too sweet to have very often, in fact she didn't usually enjoy them. She only had them on rare occassions. Honeydukes candy was slightly different, but even that she only had on rare occasions. She just didn't have a need for the sugar like some other people seemed to have. Ivy thought immediately of Ashley. She seemed to live on the stuff. It wasn't necessarily a good idea, as Ashley probably proved. Although she was certainly a very nice girl. And the fact that she had energy for life and wasn't unhappy like Ivy often still was was certainly refreshing. Ivy would have to ascertain the character of this Jordan. And she wouldn't be able to do that without talking to her. Even though Ivy was making herself busy and slightly stressed right now.

"I'm reading this for Divination," Ivy said, waving the book around in her hand as she said this so Jordan would know what she was talking about. "And I'm certainly not absorbed in it, I'm struggling with it in fact, so a break perhaps wouldn't be a bad idea. Although I have very little idea how to play wizard's chess - I suppose you could say I suck at it." Ivy noticed as she said this that it could be taken to have a double meaning, although it had been entirely unintentional. Just a phrase Kiyla often used. The lollipop had gone anyway, and Ivy smiled more at Jordan as she suggested playing Monopoly. "Monopoly sounds great," Ivy said. Hopefully it shouldn't go on for too long that her Divination homework would fall completely by the wayside. Although there probably wasn't any point trying anyway. No doubt Ivy was going to fail her OWL in it.

Ivy looked up in surprise as Jordan enquired whether she was on the Quidditch team, and regarded her more closely. So maybe that was why she had looked slightly familiar... Ivy hadn't heeded the feeling at all before, being too stressed to do so, but she was slightly... maybe she had tried out for the team?
"Yes, I am as a matter of fact," Ivy said. "A Chaser. Why, are you? You're not one of the new... Beaters are you? Or did you come to the tryouts?" She frowned at Jordan, trying to work out what it was before the older Hufflepuff answered her. If she was a new Beater... well they could certainly do with them. The next match was against Slytherin, and from what Ivy had seen, the Slytherin Beaters were brutal. They didn't care about hurting people, in fact they rather enjoyed it. The Hufflepuff team would need all the defence they could get. Ivy was scared enough of playing the Slytherin team and coming face to face with one of... them... as it was, without the additional worry of being targeted extra viciously by the enemy Beaters.

[Jordan Elizabeth Cortes]

Monopoly it was then. But, Jordan didn't feel like running up at getting it out of her trunk. Normally she would just accio it to her, but not now. Jordan dug into her pockets and came out with a package of mints. She very well didn't want her breath to smell like cherries. Jordan offered one to Ivy, "Would you like one? They're cinnamon." She popped the mint in her mouth after she said this, and sucked on it...the cinnamon flavoring making the cherry go away. She listened to Ivy answer her question about qudditch, and smiled. No. Jordan wasn't a beater. But, she was on the team, "Mm mm. I play Keeper. Which is strange because I find it very hard for me to sit still for long enough. I think Dillion Moore is going out for Beater. I'm not sure if there is another spot, is there?" She raised an eyebrow in quiet wonder. Jordan hadn't ever played Quidditch before, but she had found that she had a decent enough talent for it...and had decided to try out. Sure enough, she made it, and was now the Keeper.

The mint slowly melted away in her mouth, and Jordan thought it was time to get the board game. She stood up and shook her hair out of her face, before saying to Ivy, "I'll be right back. I have to get that board game. Excuse me." She smiled and then left the Lounge in a slow manner. But, once she had reached the doorway, she sped up and ran towards the Hufflepuff common room. She burst through the entryway, sped past a few friends, and went directly to her dormitory. Jordan threw the covering that was over her trunk off, onto her bed, and pushed open the heavy lid. It clanked open and hit the end of her bed, probably scraping it, but Jordan didn't care. She shoved aside some books, and her remembrall, then threw aside an extra pair of shoes and a scarf. Finally coming upon the rather beaten up game of Monopoly. Jordan came from a large family, and they all loved to play board games on Holidays.

Jordan left her trunk open, trusting her dorm mates, and retraced her steps towards the Student Lounge. Not quite sure she was going the right direction one time, but quickly regained herself and went the correct way. Upon reaching the Student Lounge she walked in, slowly; like she had left, and took her seat next to Ivy again. The table was already cleared so there wasn't any need to put anything on the floor. She smiled at Ivy and opened up the box, "I know it looks old. I promise, there are no pieces missing." Jordan said this with a reassuring smile, but as she said this she pulled out a button, and she remembered that the button was used for the Shoe Piece, "Okay, maybe a few." She laughed and continued to set up the board game.

"Divination you said? That class can be a little weird. Some people think it's all stupid and no point to it, but I don't really mind doing the work. After all, what if it is actually true? And can tell your future?" Jordan commented on Ivy's earlier answer. Jordan did well in classes. Not because she tried really hard, but because it all came so easily to her. She wasn't that smart, not a brainiac, or anything. But, she did know her things and she knew how to use them. Jordan unfolded the board and placed it flat on the table, she counted out the money, and handed Ivy her share...then placed the rest in the little bank holder thing. Cards were shuffled and placed in the middle, and Jordan chose her piece. The button.