fandomhighdorms | Lobby; Monday, All Day [ 12/13 ]

It was Monday, the first day of Finals Week, and Alexander, who really had done a poor job of planning this out with so many class on today, was in and out of the lobby to maintain the coffee bar that the Student Council was providing to help all the students throughout the day study and prepare and satisfy their sweet teeth with baked goods. Alexander had never really had a finals week before, or even a final at all, so the idea was novel and new enough that he found it quite exciting and he was up at the very crack of dawn to prepare everything and do quite a bit of studying himself in between people stopping by.

There was, of course, plenty of coffee available from the Perk and snacks from J,GoB. Extra pens and pencils and paper and Post-It notes, too, in case anyone should find themselves in the need for one. And a big sign that looked as though it wanted to be more glittery than it actually was proclaiming: GOOD LUCK ON YOUR FINALS, FROM YOUR STUDENT COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVES.

[[ No OCD! Grab some snacks on your way, or snag some up and sit down and get your study on! ]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Not to make a sweeping generalization," Alexander said thoughtfully, "but I do have a suspicion that is because you girls do tend to join forces together again us boys. Of course, this is just an assumption."

"And it's only because you start it," Rilla said. "Generally."

"Generally?" Alexander lifted a brow. "My dear, I hope you haven't an exam in the use of language, for I believe you mean never."

Rilla laughed again. "Perhaps language usage is different in Canada," she said, "but I mean 'all the time.'"

"Oh, then, clearly," said Alexander with a knowledgeable nod, "Canadian and Daventrian are quite different languages, because I do not think that phrase means what it would where I'm from. Quite the opposite, I'm afraid."

"How extraordinary," Rilla said merrily. "I wonder what other words are different!"

"Hmm, well," said Alexander, tapping his chin with his eyes drifting off a bit, "what word do you use for, say, someone who is always right and knows best?"

"In my family, we call him Dad," Rilla said with a laugh.

"See, another difference," Alexander returned the laugh. "In mine, the word is Mother. If we know what's good for us."

"Well, we like to boost up Father every now and then," Rilla said. "He likes to feel like he has control."

"I'm not sure even the most powerful spell could convince anyone that King Graham is the one really running the kingdom in that castle," Alexander admitted with a chuckle. "To be fair, though, Mother does have more experience than he does at royal affairs."

"How so?" Rilla asked interestedly.

"Well," Alexander offered, "my father was only a knight, from a pretty modest background, and he became the king of Daventry when he helped recover the kingdom's three lost treasures. The king did not have an heir, so the title passed on to who ever managed to brave the dangers to bring the magical items back. My mother, on the other hand, was of the royal family of the land of Kolyma. She married my father and came with him to Daventry after he saved her from the tower in which she was locked when an evil witch kidnapped her."

Rilla's eyes were starry. "It sounds like a tale out of a storybook," she sighed. "Were they quite in love?"

"Quite," Alexander said with a smile at Rilla's clearly approving response to the tale. "And they still are. I shall consider myself lucky if I'm able to find myself even half as loving a match as theirs."

Which, of course, could only make him sigh wistfully.

Rilla joined him in sighing. "That's my wish as well. My parents grew up together and know each other inside out."

"Are they very different from each other, too?" asked Alexander. "They seem quite polar on many things, but in a way that I feel compliments each other nicely."

"Yes," Rilla said. "Mother is much more fanciful. She goes a little mad every spring when the flowers bloom. Father's a very well respected doctor."

Alexander couldn't help a chuckle. "Another opposite, then! It's the other way around with my parents. Mother's the well respected and responsible one and Father, while very brave and strong, is a little flighty. In fact, on the occasion that our castle was spirited away by a wizard, he missed out on it entirely because he was out picking wildflowers!"

"...A wizard took your castle?" Rilla gasped. "You have a castle?!"

"Well, yes," Alexander chuckled some more, and a blush spread across his face despite his pleased smile. "It wouldn't be nearly as exciting being a prince if there wasn't a castle as well."

"Well, I certainly agree," Rilla said, "but I've been learning to manage my expectations. Sometimes things that sound like fairy stories are real, and not nearly as nice as the stories suggested."

She said this in tones of Vast Wisdom.

"I feel," Alexander said, his smile now a little faint, "that there is no happy ending without at least a great deal of danger and strife before it. In a way, though, that makes the happy ending even more precious, don't you think?"

Rilla nodded thoughtfully, though tragedy had only barely touched her life (and in the types of tragedies that only seemed dreadful when you have nothing truly dreadful to compare them to). "You feel as if you've earned it more?" she said, thinking back to sermons she'd heard Reverend Meredith preach.