Kinsay still didn't understand what snakes had to do with gut feelings, but she wasn't about to ask and look silly in front of EVERYONE. So instead, she followed the crowd over to the crates, eyeing all of the serpenty options so that she could make the b e s t choice.

She was JUST about to make her selection when she heard Emm's wails of despair. Oh. Um. Ummmmmmm. Kizzy really didn't have a problem with touching the snakes. They looked neat! But if Emm didn't want to touch them then neither did Kinsay. "Yeah, ew," she made a face, looking around at whoever was nearby. To make sure they knew. Obviously.

She did, however, look back at the scaly creatures with a small sense of longing to pick one up. Only for a few seconds though because that's when hurricane Phoebe happened.

G A S P ! (for the drama!)

"Phoebe! What are you doing!?" Kinsay looked up at her sister with confusion??? Concern??? WORRY?? Before purposefully falling to the ground and attempting to SAVE all the snakes. The.... only issue was that there were a lot more snakes than there were Kinsays.

She did manage to gab TWO of them though. One with each hand. Both held in death grips so they couldn't escape (who needed to breathe anyway?). Creature handler of the year. Obviously. She held them up in the air the way a MMA champion would with their trophy belts.

Emmerson was about to scream....loud. Really loud. Louder than she was already yelling but then her hero swooped in and offered to take care of it.

What Bernie said: We can be partners.

What Emmerson heard: I will bravely do all the work, you need only stand over there and look cute—oh I love your bun today, it’s so neatly done—this snake is nothing for me.

The little girl nodded enthusiastically, taking an extra step away just to make it clear Bernie would be doing ALL the work. “O-okay.” And a sniffle to make sure everyone knew how distraught she’d been. Let the record also show how distraught Kizzy was because of these snakes. Clearly the whole class needed to be cancelled. The Professor should be taking notes.

“You can keep it, and I’ll watc—“ Her sentence to her new partner was cut short by the sudden shriek. “Phoebe! You can’t!” She was set to run for REAL this time now that her friend had unleashed holy terror in the form of liberated snakes onto the classroom but as she turned to run...a strange...strange feeling overcame her.

Emmerson turned to the Professor.

“Surrender the treasure.” All the earlier panic left the girl, leaving only an icy anger. When she spoke next, it was in a booming voice that she—even in her most impressive fit—would not usually be able to attain. “I want it! You will return it or I will rain down destruction on this castle!”

Quote:

Originally Posted by astrocat

Ashley was with Irithel on some of those thoughts. Didn't the professor know that, in Australia where she lived there were very poisonous snakes? That she would never touch? But she had good feelings about this little guy. "Sure, Irithel. Do you wanna hold it a little? It's a nice snake. Unless it tries to kill you which it won't." She held her arm out. "See?" The little snake slithered down her arm and hissed sweetly at Irithel. "Nice snakey." Wait a minute. The professor never said the snakes weren't dangerous. She said that they were tame. Those were not the same thing. She almost recoiled as she looked questioningly at the professor. But no. The professor would not let them hold poisonous snakes, right? She shook the thought away. "This one is kinda cute, isn't it? HEY PROFESSOR, what kind of snakes are these?" Hopefully they were garden snakes or something.

She smiled at how excited everyone was about the snakes, or well, almost everyone at least. "They are just harmless garden snakes. They enjoy being around people, they told me themselves." She made sure to know which were not wanting to do the activity before bringing them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mellamaet

Serena perked up when someone took up her offer as partners. "Yes, please." She sighed in relief, as she turned to smile at Avalon gratefully. The Slytherin walked up to the prefect, and watched as she took a serpent from the crate - she instinctively took a step back. "I'm pretty sure there won't be anyone attending Divination classes for a while, if that happens." She replied with a cautious chuckle of her own.

She watched as the older girl started...bonding? with the snake, and Serena inched closer to watch. It seemed docile enough, right? But when Avalon held out the snake towards her, she took half a step back before stopping and squaring her shoulders in reluctant determination.

The blonde extended a tentative finger towards the snake, and ran a finger through its cool skin. It wasn't so bad? But it definitely was no warm kneazle.

"Are allowed to name..it? him? her?" She asked

"Oh yes, go ahead and pick a name if you like." She didn't think the snakes would mind being named by the students.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

She was fine, you know. Everything was fine. It was Divination class and while one Emmerson Nicole Justine Cambridge was growing tired of going to classes and...y'know...learning, she didn't mind Divination.

Until the snakes.

"Eeewwwww!!!!! Ew ew ew! Professsoooorrrr!!" The little Gryffindor stayed as FAR AWAY from the snakes as she possibly could without leaving her classmates and professor in her dust but it was fair to say she had no plans of getting any closer. Someone should have TOLD her they were learning about snakes today. She would have gone to the healer with the worst headache in life and INSISTED on staying in the hospital wing for the hour.

The headache would understandably disappear once the lesson was over but now she might get a real headache and this was absolutely not fun.

"It's looking at me--ew ew get it awwaaayyyyyyy!!"

No, she didn't want a partner, she wanted a letter excusing her from the lesson entirely.

"Please calm down, they are not going to hurt you. I was very picky on which snakes I brought today and it is my specialty to be able to communicate with them and know their feelings." Of course she couldn't speak their language, but she knew their thoughts, so that was just as good. Cassie always enjoyed getting to use her little gift with the students.

"If you are too scared I would ask you just watch for now, but please try to come close to interact with them when you are ready." Snakes were very nice, she promised all the ones seeming a bit scared. Just as she went to talk with the next person she noticed Bernie offering to help, she smiled and nodded at the Gryffindor happy to see the students working together.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin

Phoebe didn't dislike Divination, but she certainly spent most of her time just trying to figure out what the Professor was talking about. There were facts you could glean from a book (she was fine at that, whatever) and facts that only the Professor could impart (which required listening skills, sadly) and then there were gut instincts... and Phoebe was not nearly self aware enough to have those.

But at least she could play with a snake. That was pretty cool, right? Phoebe approached the box and waved at one of the cutest little guys who was just waiting on her. Cute... little... b...

She slowly dropped her wiggling fingers back down to her side and considered the box of remaining snakes coolly. THIS WAS HOW THEY WERE SPENDING THEIR TIME? THIS WAS HOW THESE PROFESSORS SHOWED THEIR DISDAIN FOR HER DEMANDS????? The audacity.

With a SHRIEK of rage, she upended the box, sending those snakes out on the ground. "I WILL NOT BE IGNORED."

It happened faster than Cassie would like to admit, but she was in shock seeing the helpless snakes fly into the air. "Phoebe what has gotten into you? You could hurt those poor snakes. That is not how you act in a classroom even if it is outside today. Five points from your house for careless behavior. If you have a question please raise your hand like everyone else, you are not being ignored." With a flick of her wand the snakes were in the air and being gently placed back into the crate where they would be safe.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

Emmerson was about to scream....loud. Really loud. Louder than she was already yelling but then her hero swooped in and offered to take care of it.

What Bernie said: We can be partners.

What Emmerson heard: I will bravely do all the work, you need only stand over there and look cute—oh I love your bun today, it’s so neatly done—this snake is nothing for me.

The little girl nodded enthusiastically, taking an extra step away just to make it clear Bernie would be doing ALL the work. “O-okay.” And a sniffle to make sure everyone knew how distraught she’d been. Let the record also show how distraught Kizzy was because of these snakes. Clearly the whole class needed to be cancelled. The Professor should be taking notes.

“You can keep it, and I’ll watc—“ Her sentence to her new partner was cut short by the sudden shriek. “Phoebe! You can’t!” She was set to run for REAL this time now that her friend had unleashed holy terror in the form of liberated snakes onto the classroom but as she turned to run...a strange...strange feeling overcame her.

Emmerson turned to the Professor.

“Surrender the treasure.” All the earlier panic left the girl, leaving only an icy anger. When she spoke next, it was in a booming voice that she—even in her most impressive fit—would not usually be able to attain. “I want it! You will return it or I will rain down destruction on this castle!”

What was going on? Cassie looked now to Emmerson very confused. "What are you talking about? There is no treasure here, we are working with snakes. Please calm down, I know you are afraid of snakes, but this is no way to act in class. Five points for disruption."


Cassie really hated taking points and the thought put her in a sad mood. She turned to the rest of the class trying to get back what good thoughts she had. [b] "Now everyone, as I was saying before we will be working with Ophiomancy, which is divination using serpents. These serpents are very aware of their surrounds, they have to be being so low to the ground. They use their tongues to smell and taste around them. Watching them you can really see if danger from an enemy or even weather is near.

Flicking her wand she pulled a poster into the air, "here is how you know what they are doing and what it means. I have copies of this poster that you can each have to do this lesson. What I would like you to do is spread out and observe your snakes for a little bit to get use to them. See what they are doing, jot down some notes, and try to read your observations. I will give you fifteen minutes with this before we move on to the main assignment for today."

She laid the stack of papers on the ground for the students to take one, but kept her eyes on the two fourth years that were causing some issues. She felt bad for taking the points, but she had to be stern during a lesson. With a sigh she went to make sure the snakes were unharmed in the crate.

Quote:

Serpent curled in a defensive ball- danger is near
Serpent slithers to a person- person has a warmth around them
Serpent hisses and goes an opposite way- person could be suspicious
Serpent eats another animal- the area is calm and no danger around
Serpent slithers fully away from an area- be cautious of your surroundings

**I am so sorry this was delayed. A windstorm caused some power outages for me and some damage to my property. All good now so we are moving on and I am enjoying all the snake posts! We will move to the next part of the activity in 24 or so hours.

It turned out Heath wasn’t scared of snakes. Or maybe he just wasn’t scared of friendly snakes but the point was, he now had one in his possession too. Um… would she name her snake? She eyed it curiously for a moment. “I think I will. Hmm. I think I’ll go with Slythers.’’ Brilliant, wasn’t it? Slythers the Snake. Claudine playfully rolled her eyes at Heath. “Of course you’d name a snake something Star Wars related.’’ The girl would have commented some more to Heath and then to her new snakey friend but things were happening.

Like Phoebe shrieking and causing the calamity of upsetting the snakes. She will not be ignored? “That’s no reason to throw the snakes on the ground,’’ Claudine spoke up, highly affronted at the girl’s actions. She hadn’t even realised Slythers had wound his way over her shoulders and was sitting there like some sort of shawl. As for Emmerson? What treasure? What destruction could a first year cause? In any case, Claudine cared more for the snakes than these two troublemakers but when she turned to volunteer to help Kitridge, she saw the adult had already taken care of them.

A disgusted look was thrown at the two, especially Phoebe before the Snakette turned her attention to Kitridge and to Slythers on her shoulders, the latter of whom seemed to be content on his perch and was lying quite still as though asleep.

After taking one of the papers and scanning the list of snakey activities then looked down at her shoulders. There was definitely no meaning for a snake casually lying on someone’s shoulders as though not having a care in the world. There wasn’t even one for the snake poking its tongue at someone, which Slythers was currently doing to Claudine’s right cheek.

She may have giggled a bit.

Violet smiled happily and went quickly up to where the crates were, before all the good snakes were gone. She peered into it and carefully examined all the snakes, looking them all in the eye--that was how you could tell a really good snake. She gently nudged a few out of the way, and finally she decided on just the right snake--he had a very sincere look about him. So Violet carefully reached out her hand and stroked him on top of his head, and was delighted when the snake slowly began to uncurl and slither up her forearm.

"Right, Tom, I got a good one!" she called out to her partner, raising her arm a little to show him. As she proceeded back to where Tom was standing, she could hear the professor explaining what they would be doing. Oh, there were notes--she hoped Tom was copying those down, because now she had a snake on her arm and couldn't reach into her bag for her parchment.

Violet was nearly back to Tom when she heard a loud voice that sounded vaguely familiar--now where had she heard that voice before? She turned her head to look and saw Emmerson shouting at the professor--was that strange voice coming out of her? Violet had seen Emmerson do some outlandish things before, but this was more extreme than usual.

"Hmm?" Phoebe blinked as the snakes lifted up through the air around her and back into the box. Merlin, did the box have a hole in it? Why would you put snakes in an unsteady box? That's terribly dangerous. Phoebe accepted one of the snakes that Kizzy held from her hands (why was she on the ground, small thing?) and gave her sister a pat on the head.

"Thanks, Kiz. Good egg." Phoebe returned to her spot with her snake and held it tentatively with both hands.

Ok. They were just garden snakes. Not an Eastern Brown Snake or anything like that. She could handle this. She went to hold the snake, but it just hissed and slithered in the other direction. What? She wasn't suspicious at all... or was she? Everyone thought that she'd been acting weird. She got distracted for a moment, raising her hand. "Professor, can you give Emmerson her points back? Pleeeease? That isn't her. She's acting different. And she sounds like the ghost. It's not fair to take points." Ashley had no love for Emmerson Cambridge, but it was obvious she was acting strange, and it wouldn't be fair to take her points like that. Also, the behavior seemed familiar, and she couldn't think why. She went back to the snake. "Please little snake, I'm not suspicious. Pleeeease. Don't be afraid." The snake didn't move towards her, but it didn't move away either. "See Irithel? It's a nice snakey."

Serena grinned when Professor Kitridge gave the go ahead to name the snakes. Yes, she was still not so fond of the cold thing, but it was kind of growing on her. She continued stroking its cold little head absently - keeping care to stay away near its face. "Perfect, you look like a Sven." She said happily, reminding her of the old reindeer plush toy that she had seen on a garage sale last summer.

Suddenly, startling both her, her snake, and the rest of the class, Emmerson started screaming out - causing a scene. While this of course was not out of character for the first year - it did seem a little....weird. But Professor Kitridge was on it, and had resumed about her lesson. She glanced down on their snake. It didn't seem to be in any particular distress.

She leaned towards Avalon, and whispered "I think something is wrong - more than usual - with Emmerson?"

Did that girl just ... throw all the snakes onto the ground??? As Irithel had been standing close to the crate, she screamed a little and ran in the opposite direction. This was her worst nightmare - being surrounded by a few hundred serpents. Thankfully, Professor Kitridge quickly got the situation under control again. But this time another kid was trying to seek attention. She frowned, more confused than annoyed, when she heard Emmerson's words. They sounded familiar ... but she had no idea what treasure or destruction she was talking about. It was none of her business, anyway. Class was moving on.

The tall brunette took a poster from the ground and read the guidelines. She could understand the logic behind them, but was slightly concerned about "serpent eats another animal". The only animals available to eat here were humans, other serpents, and animals deep in the lake. She hoped no one would get eaten in this lesson, even for divination purposes. She crouched near the snake she was sharing with Ashley and observed it. GASP. It "hissed and went the opposite way" from her roommate, just like how the poster said snakes would behave near a potentially suspicious person ... HAHA, that is hilarious, her friend is not suspicious at all. This snake must be too little to know what it's doing.

"Have you done anything questionable, Ash?" she winked as she jotted down her observation. The next moment, the snake began to slither towards her. "Oooh, looks like I have a warmth around me. Well, I am dressed warmly today." More note taking and a gentle pat for the snakey.

"Sven is a cute name," Avalon replied, smiling as Serena touched the snake's head. Okay, this definitely wasn't as bad as it seemed. The snake was being....kind of nice?

But then there was some commotion. Phoebe was dumping the snakes on the ground, and then Emmerson was screaming, in a voice that sounded freakishly powerful. Avalon's eyes widened, taken aback by the sudden shouting. She nodded in agreement at Serena's comment. Rain destruction down on the castle? Something was most definitely wrong with Emmerson. Thankfully, Professor Kitridge had the situation under control. But an uneasy feeling settled over Avalon.

"Alright, so I'm just going to put Sven down, and then we just....see what he does?" Avalon said, slightly unsure of this whole process. She placed the snake on the grass and glanced at the poster. Oh, Merlin. She really hoped their snake didn't decide to eat another animal. She did not want to see that today.

Naya smiled at Cole. She clearly understood his reluctance to approach the snake. She wasn’t afraid of snakes, but other things.........well she might feel that way about some other things. Keeping a slight distance she replied. “You can touch him if you want to, but maybe you can start by talking to him first. Let him get to know you.” Creatures were very sensitive. They could sense fear. Maybe if Cole talked to the snake, he would start to feel more comfortable. Maybe.

Naya was so focused on her snake, it took her a minute to realize that things wer starting to go all Hogwartsy in the class. Some of her classmates started talking crazy talk and then.......snakes were everywhere. Naya looked at Cole, hoping that he wouldn’t freak out, now that there were snakes on the loose. Fortunately, the professor got everything under control quickly. What was that all about?

Heath blinked, momentarily caught off guard by Claudine’s eye roll. At first he thought he might’ve done something wrong, but when she spoke, he realized she was teasing him and smiled. “You know me so well,” he replied with a slight chuckle. His smile grew as he watched her with her own snake. “I think Slythers is a great name!” He looked at the snake. “Hello, Slythers,” he whispered. “I’m Heath, and this is Baby Yoda.” He inclined his head toward the small garden snake still perched on his shoulders. “Come say hi to our new friend,” he said to Baby Yoda, but the little snake was too content in its place on his shoulders to move closer to Slythers.

O_____________O Sweet slurping sarlaccs! What was going on?! All Heath could do was stare in disbelief as Phoebe shrieked about being ignored and spilled the box of snakes. That was… not like her. Before he could process the sudden change in Phoebe’s behavior, Emmerson started yelling. Okay, that in and of itself wasn’t unusual - from what he’d seen of her, she seemed loud and unpredictable. It was what she yelled and the way she yelled it that concerned him. What treasure was she talking about? And where had that voice come from? That wasn’t the voice of a first year girl! The thought occurred to him to offer to help Professor Kitridge round up the snakes from the box, but she’d already taken care of that before he had the chance.

Heath was so flustered by the sudden turn of events that he had trouble concentrating on the lesson. He tried to follow along with what Professor Kitridge said... something about observing their snakes and taking notes. He didn’t know! He went to retrieve a copy of the poster, hoping that would make things clearer. Finding a space to work, he extended his arm to allow Baby Yoda to slither down it so he could observe him/her better, but where was Baby Yoda? He still felt the snake on his shoulder, but he could no longer see it in his peripheral vision. HIs head whipped around frantically, and he saw the tiny snake nestled against his neck, curled up in a ball. He immediately realized what had happened. Baby Yoda must’ve been scared by the yelling and hid behind his hair for cover. “Poor Baby Yoda!” he whispered. “Did all that noise scare you?”


Heath glanced at his list of interpretations. Curled up in a ball… so that meant, “danger is near.” Once again, his thoughts turned to the two Gryffindor girls’ strange behavior. Could that be the danger in question, or was there something else? As he tried to riddle out the meaning (if any) behind the interpretation, he remembered a story from his older brother’s time at Hogwarts. Something about a hawk and kids being possessed… It seemed crazy, but could that be happening again? That would explain the girls’ behavior. Come to think of it, Headmaster Trent had also been acting different all term. Could he be possessed too? Should he say something about it? Better not… He didn’t want to cause a panic or worse, lose house points!

Besides, it seemed Ashley had already handled that. He gave a barely perceptible nod in agreement, though he blinked confusedly as she mentioned a ghost. He shot her a look as if to ask, Which ghost? The school was full of them, but he'd never met one that sounded like that! Hopefully she'd understand the meaning behind the look and explain!

Talk to him? How did you talk to a snake and how did Naya know that the snake she was grasping was a he and not a she? With clear reluctance and an anxiety that Cole tried to push down he took a long breath to steady himself before he took a step closer to the snake and Naya. Looking into his girlfriend's eyes he said "I shall try and do as you say. Just please keep a strong hold on him." Casting his eyes down to meet the snakes he lowered his voice as he took another little step forward. "Hi, I’m Cole. I like your dark green skin colour and black markings, it’s cool! Would it be okay if I called you Zorro?" Not getting a hiss in response Cole took it as a good sign and braved reaching out to pet the snake very gently on the head, a couple of times.

He had just pulled his hand back when a few of his classmates started acting funnily and saying crazy stuff. And then suddenly snakes we’re everywhere! Just like any other day at Hogwarts. Cole did his best to not freak out on the spot when the snakes fell out of the crates and started to slither around on the ground and towards him. Luckily Professor Kitridge acted swiftly to get things under control so Cole could focus on their next task. "Naya, are we just supposed to set Zorro down and observe and jot down what he does and try to interpret it?"

......... What?

So much was happening and Kiz understood none of it (except for the fact that she was still holding one snake in a death grip. That she understood. Sort of.

She blinking as she stood up, she looked over from Phoebe to Emm to Phoebe back to Emm again. Not going to lie, she felt pretty left out. How come they planned without her? There was no way she could go back to learning snake divination now. Kiz had half a mind to start shouting about treasure too!

"I know I'm quiet, but I would've helped too, if you asked," she gave Pheebs a sad sort of look.

Was crazy the name of the game today? It sure seemed like it, with all the yelling. Whitney decided to just ignore it and get a snake. As long as said snake wasn't a rattler. But of course, Professor Kitridge had said they were all tame, right? And who would tame a rattlesnake? That would be as crazy as the crazy going on in the class right now.

She picked up a small garter snake, still not entirely sure about this whole thing. She just wasn't exactly fond of snakes. Not scared of them, except rattlesnakes and to a lesser extent boa constrictors. Just not entirely comfortable around them.

"Right" Serena said in agreement. She watched as Avalon set the snake down on the grass.

"Do you think Sven will eat something in front of us?" She asked the older Ravenclaw cautiously. "I mean, I know its supposed to be a good omen, but I don't really wanna lose my lunch by watching it devour its lunch."

Violet was still looking back over her shoulder at Emmerson as she returned to her partner, Tom, with their snake.

"Look, it's just a garden snake--they're really cool. People think they're slimy, but they're not, they're dry and warm, even. Guess we should put him down and see what he'll do, eh?" Violet held the snake out towards Tom.

Phoebe draped her snake on her head as a hat and continued to blink in confusion at those around her. She still couldn't remember how she'd ended up in a pile of snakes, and she didn't like how people kept LOOKING at her. Especially Kizzy, who had the saddest and most pathetic expression ever.

"Helped with what, kiddo? You like my hat? I think this pose means... highly fashionable and super beautiful."

HUH? Bernie could KEEP the snake? "No thanks," she declared abruptly, dropping her snake from her robe-covered hands and watching as it hit the ground and slithered away from them.

What did that mean again? Keep an eye on your surroundings. Sure, Bernie could do that. Mostly she was keeping an eye on Emmerson and her strange voice. "You just lost us 10 points for that shouting," she hit the girl lightly on the arm. "And now we lost our snakeeeeee."

Was Bernie perturbed by Emmerson's strange behavior? Not a bit, not even as she felt her own eyes roll back in her head. The same deep voice that had popped out of Emmerson now emerged from Bernadette:

"How many children will it take to return WHAT IS MINE?"

…

5 points from who now?

Emm blinked up at the Professor, finding it difficult to remember what happened in the last minute or so. Even the snakes were forgotten. “Me, Professor?” was she the one who lost 5 points? It was starting to seem that way with how the woman was looking at her and even Ashley was asking for her to get them back but...she hadn’t...done anything.

And then Bernie was smacking her hand and just...WHO cost them 10 points?

“WHAT are you TALKING about? The First Year, whined. She was only standing there waiting for whatever instructions and now looking down she saw there were snakes slithering everywhere and...and...and...really, what was going on here?

Emm thought to ask her partner but then...um....

Ooooookat then Bernie.

Her hand slowly rose into the air as she took several steps away from Bernadette. “Um. Professor. Can I be excused? There’s a ton of snakes and now my partner’s gone crazy and I don’t wanna end up one of the children she’s talking about. I think we should all probably just call it a day.” Because no, she still wasn’t going NEAR those scaly monsters.

Naya held onto the snake, now to be known as Zorro. She watched Cole, as he began to interact with their new friend. When he began to pet Zorro, Naya smiled. He was doing great. Then hearing what her boyfriend said, she looked up. “Oh, right. Sorry.” They were supposed to be observing. Between the girls talking crazy and trying to make friends with Zorro, she had forgotten what they were supposed to be doing.

“I’m going to set Zorro down now. You ok with that?” First Naya got one of the professor’s posters. Then she moved away from Cole a bit and set the snake down on the ground. “Ok Zorro, do your thing.” Keeping one eye on Cole and the other on Zorro, she watched for one of the behaviors listed on the poster. That was until her housemate started shouting with a very strange voice. This was getting crazier and crazier.

Cassie was trying to concentrate on the students around her making sure they were getting to know their snakes and starting their observations, but she could feel some tension with a few of the snakes, "make sure you aren't squeezing the snakes too tight and once you get to know them place them in the grass so you can watch their movements."

Quote:

Originally Posted by astrocat

Ok. They were just garden snakes. Not an Eastern Brown Snake or anything like that. She could handle this. She went to hold the snake, but it just hissed and slithered in the other direction. What? She wasn't suspicious at all... or was she? Everyone thought that she'd been acting weird. She got distracted for a moment, raising her hand. "Professor, can you give Emmerson her points back? Pleeeease? That isn't her. She's acting different. And she sounds like the ghost. It's not fair to take points." Ashley had no love for Emmerson Cambridge, but it was obvious she was acting strange, and it wouldn't be fair to take her points like that. Also, the behavior seemed familiar, and she couldn't think why. She went back to the snake. "Please little snake, I'm not suspicious. Pleeeease. Don't be afraid." The snake didn't move towards her, but it didn't move away either. "See Irithel? It's a nice snakey."

Turning when she heard Ashley say about Emmerson and she was going to nicely tell the girl to go mind her own business when she said the oddest thing, "Ghost, what ghost?" She looked between the girls very confused. "Phoebe, please come over here." She was going to get to the bottom of this. As she turned her eyes on Emmerson, she really seemed a bit confused, but what if this was a trick that the class was trying to play? "I'm sorry if you are all having some issues with snakes, but we can't be going around acting crazy to get out of lessons." Honestly, did they think she just started teaching or...

Quote:

Originally Posted by BanaBatGirl

HUH? Bernie could KEEP the snake? "No thanks," she declared abruptly, dropping her snake from her robe-covered hands and watching as it hit the ground and slithered away from them.

What did that mean again? Keep an eye on your surroundings. Sure, Bernie could do that. Mostly she was keeping an eye on Emmerson and her strange voice. "You just lost us 10 points for that shouting," she hit the girl lightly on the arm. "And now we lost our snakeeeeee."

Was Bernie perturbed by Emmerson's strange behavior? Not a bit, not even as she felt her own eyes roll back in her head. The same deep voice that had popped out of Emmerson now emerged from Bernadette:

"How many children will it take to return WHAT IS MINE?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

…

5 points from who now?

Emm blinked up at the Professor, finding it difficult to remember what happened in the last minute or so. Even the snakes were forgotten. “Me, Professor?” was she the one who lost 5 points? It was starting to seem that way with how the woman was looking at her and even Ashley was asking for her to get them back but...she hadn’t...done anything.

And then Bernie was smacking her hand and just...WHO cost them 10 points?

“WHAT are you TALKING about? The First Year, whined. She was only standing there waiting for whatever instructions and now looking down she saw there were snakes slithering everywhere and...and...and...really, what was going on here?

Emm thought to ask her partner but then...um....

Ooooookat then Bernie.

Her hand slowly rose into the air as she took several steps away from Bernadette. “Um. Professor. Can I be excused? There’s a ton of snakes and now my partner’s gone crazy and I don’t wanna end up one of the children she’s talking about. I think we should all probably just call it a day.” Because no, she still wasn’t going NEAR those scaly monsters.

O_o

What in the world was Bernie doing? She watched the girls eyes and the voice, that voice was very interesting. "How many kids? I clearly do not know what you are speaking about." She stared at Bernie talking to either a ghost or a child trying to play a joke, she wasn't fully sure at the moment. "No Emmerson you can not be excused, I would like to get to the bottom of this. You four girls stay right here."

She turned to the rest of the class. "Alright everyone, you should have taken a moment to get to know your snakes, so now I would like you to spread out all over the ground. Stretch your legs and walk to the Butterfly garden, the courtyard, anywhere there is grass and a nice place for the snake to slither around a bit. You will set them down and observe their actions. Once you have observed them in that place jot down some notes and find a new place and do the process over again. See if they acted different in one place over another and try to figure out why they might do this. You have twenty minutes so go ahead, but watch the time and be back here as soon as both observations are done."

Turning back to Phoebe, Emmerson, Bernie, and Ashley, "As for you four I would like to know everything that is going on."



**wonderful job everyone. For this part of the lesson you will have two days from when this post was done. Go off and find two threads in the grounds to post your interaction with your snakes. After your two posts you can post back in here and link those two posts.

Tom was still shaking with fear as his partner brought a snake to him, okay this was so crazy. 'Professor, I'm so scared of snakes.' Okay did he really have to look at the snake and touch it, maybe he could just watch his partner play with the snake.

This was so terribly confusing. It was an awful feeling, not knowing what was going on. Terrible, horrible feeling that made Kinsay's stomach feel upset like she had eaten something yuck for lunch. Why was Phoebe pretending like she didn't know? It made Kizzy feel even WORSE. Made her feel really small and stupid and like a little kid (which she wasn't because she was 12.42).

She didn't like being left out. That's what this was. Big inside joke she wasn't part of. It made her feel terrible things. "It's okay," she shrugged, feeling awfully deflated as she played with her own snake. It wasn't doing anything particularly cool, so she shook it up a whole bunch. See? Even the dumb snake didn't want her.

Could class be over now? Kiz needed a cousin Cooper hug or a Matty book hang. Either one would be better than watching her best friend play secret pranks with her sister.

"No worries." Cole reassured his girlfriend with a smile. "It’s hard to focus when four girls start shouting crazy stuff around us." It was very tempting to forget the whole getting to know your snake activity and instead get involved in what their peers we’re going on about. Cole though decided that it was probably best to keep out of it and do what they were assigned to do; observe their snake companions behavior. Professor Cassie didn’t need extra students causing trouble.

Cole waited while Naya fetched their observing posters, feeling glad that she didn’t pass Zorro over to him while she did that. When she came back and motioned that she was going to put Zorro down on the floor Cole nodded approval. "Yes, I’m okay with that. Let’s let Zorro do his thing!" As Zorro started to slither over to something that Cole assumed was a bug of some sort, it was hard to see on the ground, he asked Naya after consulting the poster, but being unsure if he was right. "Zorro is eating a bug. Do you think that means we are in a safe area?"