Attitude is Everything ((Open to All))

[zoeyshay]

Zoey had woken up to a bad start today. She had rolled out of bed, and fell on the dark, hard wooden floor, hitting her head hard and leaving a small bruise on her forehead, slightly to the left. It was no problem for her, though; she could easily cover it with her long, charcoal black bangs. She opened her trunk to pull out some robes to change into, and the trunk closed on her fingers. She had yelped, and pried the heavy trunk off of the fingers of her left hand. They were swollen and bruised looking now. Zoey shrugged, pulling her beautiful wavy, glossy black hair into a messy, but pretty, side swept ponytail. She opened the door of the Gryffindor common room, but tripped over her own two feet, landing on her knees right outside of the Gryffindor common room. Good thing nobody was around.

She began as a swift, steady pace down the ever moving stairs, racing so the stairs didn’t move while she was on them. She hated when the stairs moved and she was on them, especially if she was carrying books. She always ended up falling and embarrassing herself. To her luck, on the last fleet of stairs, right when she was confident that she was clear to move faster, they moved, and she lurched to the side, hitting her arm hard against the marble railing. She could feel the bruise forming. She got off the stairs, and walked toward Great Hall. Entering, she saw many students bustling, rushing to class or where ever they had to be. She smiled herself, not that she was in the best mood, but because she enjoyed seeing people happy, or at least, not sad. She seemed to feel other people’s emotions, so when someone was crying around her, she’d be sad, or even start crying, and the same thing with happiness. She didn’t think anything of it; she just thought it was pretty cool.

She opened the doors, and the cool, fresh breeze of the gorgeous spring day rushed into the castle, and made her hair flow. She breathed in a breath before continuing on her way. Zoey had stepped wrong, her ankle twisting and fell. Her cheeks turned a bright, vivid red, before she tried to get up. Her ankle hurt, but she knew she didn’t break it; probably just a slight sprain if anything. She looked around, not many people were here to see her.

[Cougar Farmer R7]

Today is a beautiful day, Cougar thought as he arose from bed. He had woken up almost half and hour earlier, but decided that he was NOT getting up all sleepy so he rolled around and gradually woke up, all just because he had no classes that day; just because he could. He got up walked over to the trunk and pulled out a pair of jeans and a green t-shirt with a tree on it and on the back it said, "Love Your Mother", with the "o" in mother shaped like a heart and colored like an animated picture of the earth on a map would look. He wondered what he would do with his amazingly wonderful free time that he got that day. It is a wonderful day today, maybe go outside? Play guitar a little? or just sit by the lake maybe. Who knows? Who cares, I'm free and I can do what I like. Before leaving to go outside and enjoy the comforting warmth of "Mr. Golden Sun" outside, he walked over to his guitar stand beside his bed and grabbed Stella Mae, his neutral colored Alvarez acoustic guitar and two picks from beside the bed. As he threw Stella Mae on over his shoulder by means of a guitar strap, he made sure not to knock off the capo that was put on the headstock of the guitar, and headed towards the front doors.

He watched kids bustle by him as he walked down to the Hogwarts entrance to proceed outside and on to his relaxing and enjoyable free time. Many greeted him as he passed, it seems for guitarists its typically easy to be friends with anyone, and especially for Cougar because of his personality. He smiled and waved and said "Hi" to a few as he made his way down. He saw the huge front doors of Hogwarts and was reminded yet again how amazing this place is and how huge and epic everything was. He would miss it terribly in a year when he moved on with the rest of his life, even his classes. Oh! Speaking of which, Cougar reminded himself that he needed to study for his Defense Against the Dark Arts exam coming up. Cougar sighed. Oh well, so much for a totally free day, but at least I have this amazing day, Cougar again reminded himself as he finally stepped through the doors.

As he walked out of the door, the full warmth of the sun rushed over him, and he began to feel lazy again. If only this could last for a few days and I had a few days off, Cougar thought to himself. He sat on the stairs off to the side of the doorway so that he wasn't in the way of anyone coming in or out and put his long, silky, blond hair in a ponytail so that he could pulled Stella Mae out on to his knee and tuned her. As he started strumming some open chords looking for a good new progression he could use as music for some lyrics he wrote recently. Surprisingly, not many people were around, so he didn't have a crowd gathered around him like he normally did to hear him play. He didn't mind either way, you just had to play differently when people were around to listen. He loved playing for people, simply because he knew that if he sang a song that was meaningful to them, it could change their life, or at the very least change their mood at the time or give them something to think about later. He believed that music is the most powerful force in the universe. Many claim that ideas are, and Cougar agreed, but what is music but ideas put out thoughtfully, expressively, and artistically? So if ideas are the most powerful force, and music is ideas plus something, doesn't that make music the most? As he pondered this, he noticed a girl come out and fall down the steps. He jumped up and pushed his guitar onto his back via the strap and ran over to her to make sure she was fine and unhurt.

"Hey, Are you O.K.? I'm Cougar by the way in case you don't know. Oh! Wow! Did you get beat up or something?" Cougar asked as he noticed the bruises over her, on her head and arm and hand. "Here let me help you up." He said extended a hand intending to get her arm around him and help her hobble over to the steps to sit down if she accepted.

[zoeyshay]

Oh no. Oh god, this is embarrassing. Zoey was had a bright red tint her pale-ish cheeks. She just had to be her clumsy self an fall down the steps. She had actually expected the guy, Cougar by his introduction to laugh, but she silently thanked him for not doing so. She could just imagine him, or someone bursting out laughing at her. It seemed what people nowadays did. She allowed herself to grab his hand and hobble over to to the bench he was originally seated at. She saw the guitar around his shirt. It was beautiful in a strange way. It was plain, and brown, but it was in such good condition. She pulled herself up, seeing that someone that big would have no problem supporting a twig, such as herself. People often thought that she had an eating disorder, or that she was a midget or something. They didn't seem to accept that she was just a naturally short, small, skinny person.

"Oh, I'm Zoey." She introduced herself, smiling, trying to make herself more comfortable, and trying to calm the burning flames in her cheeks. She could feel her ankle throbbing. She heard him ask if she was beat up, and she let out a little giggle. "Oh, no no no. I just had a bad morning with a couple of accidents. No one wants to beat me up, or so I hope." she smirked. She tried to walk normally, but her ankle hurt and she let out a quiet yelp. She sighed. She didn't feel like hobbling over to the Hospital Wing for medical treatment. She never liked having medical treatment. I had always seemed to draw attention, and she hated attention. She was a rather shy person. A breeze blew again, and it made her feel a little better. It seemed to blow a tint of embarrassment away. "So, erm, hi!" she turned to Cougar. She thought he had beautiful hair She wished she had hair like his. She kind of hated her wavy black hair.

[Cougar Farmer R7]

Cougar helped, what was it?, Zoey?, over to the steps and sat her down. He then sat on the stairs across from her and sat Stella Mae up on his lap. He listened as she explained her apparent abuse, blaming it on natural causes. Cougar wondered if she was telling the truth, but between her cute blush and light-heartedness, any suspicions left Cougar's mind. She was what? Thirteen maybe? Cougar remembered his third year, that was a great year. He missed many of his friends that he hadn't talked to in a while. Maryn, Rosaliz, all of them. But he was now in the present, making sure this girl was fine and enjoying his free time. That was his current objectives. He noted wryly that forcing yourself to enjoy yourself is sort of an oxymoron. All this flashed through his head until he finally came back to the conversations with. . . Oh, damn, what was it? It's on the tip of my tongue. Zola? Zebra? Flowey? Zoey! It was Zoey! Cougar was terrible with names. Cougar liked to think of his inaptibility with names mathematically, as such: Cougar's memory of names<His ability to play guitar. Zoey. Cougar came back to his conversation with Zoey.

"Hi," Cougar said again awkwardly having greeted and introduced himself already. He could tell that she was a little bit nervous, and thinking about it, he could see why. A thirteen year old girl falls, hurts herself, gets seen by somebody, a seventh year Ravenclaw with long blond hair that plays guitar, no less, and offers to help her up. But what could he say? He was still socially competent enough to hang out with those younger than him, granted that sometimes it could be awkward, but he tried. He didn't like making anyone feel left out. If he ever saw anyone eating alone in the Great Hall, he would go and eat with them. To ease the awkwardness a little, Cougar arpeggiated a few beautiful sounding open chords. Just to give himself something to do. As he did so, He continued talking.

"So, what are you? A second-year? Third? Are you from my own house, Ravenclaw? No, you don't seem it. After that fall, maybe even a Huffle?" Cougar teased. He did it in a friendly way though. He liked to play around with those he was with. It always made for a nice comedic ice-breaker, and as a performer he knew, it was ALWAYS good to make your audience laugh. As he talked, his fingers nimbly shifted into a different key, one more happy and light. His fleeting fingers flew over his guitar strings as he fingerpicked a very fun sounding melody. "I'm a seventh-year Raven. The greatest!" He added with a wink.

[zoeyshay]

She looked over at him, and smiled. “Surprisingly, I’m a third year Gryffindor.” Zoey cracked up. She always wondered why she was put into that house. She knew she wasn’t brave, courageous, or anything like that. She thought hard about this a lot. She was actually still in amazement that the Sorting Hat had placed her in Gryffindor rather quick. She thought she was going to be a Ravenclaw for sure. But she didn’t let this get to her often, she took it as a miracle, well, she used too, until now. Her house was in last for house points. Zoey wondered what they were doing wrong a lot. Zoey’s flaming red cheeks faded to a light pink, about her normal skin color. “I know, I kind of look like a first year, don’t I?” she asked, looking down at herself. She was very short, blending in with the first years at times and her weight was lighter than average (she took this as a blessing.)


The sun moved, peering out from the small hole that wasn’t filled with leaves like the rest of the tree, and she squinted. She scooted back a little, just enough to where the roof of the castle blocked her eyes from the sun’s bright rays, barely. Zoey fidgeted, and started swinging her legs. She could never stay still, never. She took a look at Cougar again, and to the guitar he was playing. She thought the music was beautiful too; it blended into the day and the mood perfectly, almost like a movie. Actually, she was living a movie, in the eyes of a muggle. She wished she could tell her friends, her muggle friends about her mysterious new school, but she knew better.

[Cougar Farmer R7]

Cougar's idle playing of this light melody had bored him, and immediately he switched into something more deep, maybe even sad. As he played the minor-major progression with added trills to the A-minor chords and C-major chords, his mood changed with the song. He knew music had this effect of people. If you hear a sad song, your depressed, if you hear a light song, your happy. Cougar was becoming deep and raw emotion, and he played with more and more intensity and feeling, forgetting for a moment the Third-year Gryffindor that was sitting across from him swinging her legs now. He played until he almost felt sick with longing. Longing for what he would never have, and he knew it. With all the magic in the world that he now knew existed, he would never acquire his longing. He continues the instrumental until he peeked his eyes a bit and remembered where he was and the Gryffindor girl sitting across from him, watching him with his eyes closed moving with the melody and getting more and more into the song. He felt a little embarrasses that he let himself get carried away by the music like that, and also a little bit rude for ignoring her for those few minutes. It was acceptable to lose yourself in your music if you were alone or playing for a large crowd, but not in front of a single someone you just met.

"Oh, I'm sorry about that. I just went somewhere else there for a minute." Cougar said as he changed pace and switched to a strings piece by Bach. He liked classical music, as well as most other kinds of music. He loved folk, classical, and classic rock the best, but he was open to nearly any genre. I liked how there were new styles and techniques to be learned from each. There was always something more to learn and incorporate into a song or melody. The more emotion you could invoke in both yourself and someone else. "And no, I didn't think that you were a first year. You don't walk around with your head up to the ceiling amazing at everything." He said with a wink. "I did that as well. I know how it is. I knew you weren't much older though. So tell me about yourself, if you would. Here, I'll tell you about myself a little first in the interest of fairness. My name is Cougar, as you know. I was named by my mother after her favorite animal. She claims that she had a close encounter with one at one time, and ever since then she has become enamored with them. My favorite color is green. I'm half-and-half, mom being the witch. My parents have a very interesting love story for another time," Cougar said with a wink.

"I play guitar, obviously. I like to think that I am pretty good at it myself, I guess you can be the judge. I play a few other instruments as well. I like to read, write music and lyrics, learn, and I enjoy foreign languages. In fact, I am competent with a few, si tu sabes alguien de espan(y)ol, oder specht du Deutch." Cougar replied. He wondered if she knew anything about any other language. I enjoyed speaking other languages with others. Sometimes English just gets so boring, and many times it is much easier to express the right feeling in another language, such as the French, "désolé". It just doesn't have the same feeling and intention as, "I'm sorry". It's different.

"So, I think that's enough about me for now. What about you? By the way do you have any requests?" Cougar asked indicating his guitar.

[zoeyshay]

Zoey’s mood seemed to change as the light, happy melody turned into a raw, depressing tune. Her legs kept swinging though, as they always did. Nothing seemed to change that part of her. Her head sunk, not in depression, but just concentration on listening to the music. She was one of the few that had to think hard about doing something as simple as listening, and not letting them get distracted by something as simple as, say, a marble rolling aimlessly across a floor. Zoey’s finger tips patted the hard, cold bench to the music, as she listened, zoning out a bit. Her hazel-blue eyes focused on her finger tips and the bench as she blocked out anything but the music and Cougar.

She looked up, noticing the music changing again, and seeing his expression changing. He had said he zoned out or something and she smiled. She knew that it probably wasn’t like the way she zoned out. She seemed to zone out just by looking at something or even nothing at all; he seemed to get into his music deeply and let his mood out in the music. She liked music like that the most, it seemed to trance you, and make you feel more, she thought you should do when listening to music, as opposed to other music. Zoey smiled at the joke. It was quite funny in a way. She didn’t make fun of the first years for awing and paying close attention to anything like that, but she did chuckle sometimes when she saw their faces.

“Well, um,” she started, thinking. She usually didn’t think of herself, or judge herself, like most people did; she let other judge for her. She didn’t want to become like some people and think highly of themselves, and think that they are something that they’re not. “I have ADHD, so I tend to be constantly moving and I get very distracted.” She stated, so he didn’t get her constant leg movements, or her accidental zoning out, confused with boredom or such. Sometimes, when she would zone out or get distracted when people would talk to her, they’d think she was ignoring them. “Er, I love drawing, even though I’m not very good at it. And I’m a halfblood too, except my mother’s the muggle, and my father was the wizard. But he’s dead, so, yeah. My mother’s very confused about my schooling and shopping. She usually just lets me go myself.” Zoey began talking away, but she stopped. She smiled.

“Um, I don’t know my mother’s favorite animal, she always seems to change it, but her favorite color is royal blue. It’s one of mine too, right behind lime green.” She said. Lime green seemed to match her personality: Fun, hyper, and vibrant. That’s what she liked about it the most. Her eyes wondered as she talked, not even looking at him at all. She could never seem to look at people when they were talking to them, let alone their eyes. It was pretty sad, because she couldn’t even look her mother in the eyes. She blamed it on her ADHD, even though she highly doubted it would do that to a person with it. Cougar had offered a request for him to play on his guitar, and she shook her head. "It's up to you, you're the one playing." she said, smiling sweetly.