Oh good. She wasn't weirded out by his comment. Because he was. Just a little.
He never though his name as long and formal. Let's see nicknames, abbreviations...hmm...

As they both sat thinking Benjamin got a tad distracted by the plates again. And looking at the plates was way less nerve-wracking than being concious of Iris the pretty blonde girl. Yes. Pretty blonde girl. Calling her by her name would mean...defeat. He hoped he wouldn't be forced to say her name out loud.
Where, oh where, did that confidence go?
Maybe it got sucked into the pretty plate.
Maybe that was why it was so pretty. It was glowing with stolen confidence.

Benjamin had a sudden urge to break the plate. He wanted his confidence back and the plate was a THIEF. He glared at it, but then heard the girl speak again.

Ha. Ben did sound like a dog's name. Ben. Ben, Ben, Benny. Com'ere, Benny. Have a treat. Roll over, Ben. Ben, BEN. Roll over.

Wait, Jimbo? Where'd she get Jimbo from? That's so random.

Maybe her thoughts were just as odd as his own. How else would she have gotten Jimbo out of Benjamin. He looked at her, a little frightened. Maybe there was a whole world of odd things under that pretty blonde hair.

He liked Jimbo, though. Maybe he'd keep it.

"I like it." He announced. Maybe he wouldn't have to break the plate. It was an honest plate thief. It had shared the confidence.

Oh. She was a third year as well. And since she was in the same house as him...well that meant they'd be seeing a lot of each other. He wasn't sure if this was good or bad, but just before he got back into his nervous state she asked him a question.

That was a bit of a personal question. If he told her this, they would have moved just a little bit closer to the line that makes strangers aqaintances. He wasn't sure he was ready for that. What if -

The plate sensed his need for confidence to answer this rather simple question. Even though it had already given half the confidence back, it gave him more, keeping a bit for itself.

whoa. Confidence. Cool.

"Well...it all comes down to my parents. They're crazy. They wanted to pick just the perfect school to send me two and were discussing it for literally a year. A YEAR. It was ridiculous. Then they decided that maybe they should homeschool me, but then they found that it was way too much work and difficult for them so they went back to the 'drawing board' and decided, FINALLY, that I should come here."

What a paragraph of words. See, see? The plate was nice.

"I actually almost went to Durmstang but my mom talked my dad out of it. I'm glad to be coming here though. It's gorgeous."

He grinned and lifted the plate, completely forgetting himself, he hugged it.

"No, not really." Sylvia said modestly, while she tried not to sweep her index finger across the pink icing and lick it off. Though, they were her cakes, she should be able to do whatever she wanted with them! "You are too kind Blake, really." And rather good looking.

She knew it, SHE KNEW IT! Blake wouldn't be that mean, she made a tree shower him once because he stunk so badly. That was nice of her, hehe. "I'm glad you were kidding, you would have payed otherwise." She smirked and giggled. Blake was too lovely to call someone like herself fat. But, when he told Sylvia that she was gorgeous and that she was tired of hearing it, she had to blush. "Oh Blake, you calling me gorgeous is the best apology ever." She smiled and gave him another hug. 3 HUGS! in a half hour!

"Thalia, come on, it's not that bad being sorted into Slytherin and all. I mean, I really wanted Hufflepuff. But, as you can see, i'm sitting at the Sytherin table. Don't worry at least me and you are together. Two best friends in the same house, i'm pretty happy!" Anna said with a smile. Thalia looked really sad. She didn't know why, probally becasue of Parker, or because Thalia just didn't want Slytherin. Anna, on the other hand, was very happy to make Slytherin.

Art laughed as Chaucer's face coloured. "There is absolutely no shame in losing to a woman. I have found, that they are usually better at things that require skill and delicasy than we male creatures."he smiled brightly.

"Oh I don't know about that, I'm sure that Kellen will still tease you for it." Art teased and smiled. He grinned back when jokingly lamented his position. "Well the answer to that friend, is that you are in Slytherin for a reason. You draw such circumstances to yourself, like gravity.......I do at least" Art chuckled. Ah, that one got a grin.

He smiled at Chaucer and said,"I adore Othello, but A Midsummers Night Dream happens to hold special significance to me." I am so glad that at least he reads Shakespeare.

"Oh Anna I wish I could be happier. I'm just not," she said to her sighing. Thalia felt really bad inside at the moment. "I'm glad we're together," she gave a small grin. "I'm not so glad to be with him," she pointed at the idiot beside her. The annoying one.

"Good," she grinned. "Well you can see my cat, then. And my owl, for that matter." Natasha added, happily. "What have you done in the summer?" She asked. She couldn't wait to be back in the Slytherin common room again.

As Evan was still eyeing his pile and debating inside to grab one or not, he heard Violet talk to him. Whaa--? Oooh, right. 'How was your summer?' Where was her sister that they couldn't see each other? Though it wasn't any of Evan's business. He said in quite a normal voice "I went to QWC. Pretty exciting." Why wasn't it FIFA World Cup? Oh why not?!

"cool i found out some news this summer...it turns out it was a mistake i'm not part veela" said Violet in a whisper with a faded smile

If it had been FIFA World Cup, he could've impressed Torres with his Spanish, and hopefully get their jers--

"You were NOT?!" he half shouted, then looked around to see if it was too loud to disturb people. "How?" was the first question that came to his mind. And there were many more like Then how did you think you were? and then How did it affect me? That had more to do with psychology, he guessed. He had been conditioned that he must like her. But still... It was odd. How did you find out that kind of stuff anyway? Your parents gotta be veela, he guessed. If she wasn't one, then her mom had been lying. And then her grandma, then her grand-grandma. And the list would go on. And the whole family would be liars. Nooo. He was over thinking. Prejudice was bad, but he couldn't figure out any better explanation. Better to wait for her response. Yes. He looked expectantly at her to explain everything. Because he was curious.

Classes hadn't even started yet and someone was already hurt. Was that like, a new record or something? She couldn't remember if there was anyone hurt last opening feast, except potatoes and something that had to do with two kids ending up dancing with pink tutus or something.

"Alright alright. You're calm." Raising a brow at her friend, she scooted the water filled goblet towards her, thinking maybe putting a little something in her stomach would calm her even more. "Because." she whispered back, glancing from her to Rex. Was he going to sit? Or just stand there looking like...well she didn't know what he was imitating at the moment and she couldn't come up with a good enough answer. 'Gah, even in my mind I can't think of an insult. What's come over me? Jeez.' She didn't really want him to sit next to her either, but she knew Destiny would have a fit if she gestured to the open seat right there. Plus she wanted Josh to sit next to her, but apparently, he was busy. Hmph.


Sighing, she blinked a few times before hearing what sounded like an echo of her sigh. Frowning, Evelyn looked around before noticing another girl, older this time, alone and quiet. Okay, so maybe she was in a really 'good' mood now and making friends seemed important at the moment. And the fact that the girl was older was a bonus as well. It was good to have older students as friends. Could totally help out if you need help picking on someone...he he. "Hey. You look mighty bored." And that other girl still hadn't spoken yet...seriously why were they all gloomy?

This time a look of annoyance crept over Chaucer's face, his taut mouth grimaced. "You know, I always enjoy myself while I watch it but honestly I always want to throw apples at Demetrius. What in the name of love was so resplendent about Hermia? Her name was Hermia after all and 'herm' is such a garish sound I think. Helena rolls off the tongue and besides she is always at least the other girls equal. I suppose it was the passion of an unrequited love that drove him and he did come to his senses later." Chaucer fiddled with the fork once more, contemplating the whole affair as though it were a true conflict set before him. A little thought made it's way through the mess of fantasy and smacked the mind from it's reverie; We're still talking, you silly twit! It seemed to say.
"Ah la la where have I been?" His face became more jovial again as he shot up in his chair. "You know, Midsummer was largely influenced by Chaucer's "Kinight's Tale". Isn't that a quirky bit of trivia? Put that under you hat, I say, right under."

"They thought i must've been someone else's child and the persons family was part veela because of my good looks" said Violet then flipped her long bleach blond hair back with a smirk "And because i'm good at magic" said Violet

Sarah smiled as she saw someone she hadn't seen before, but Sarah knew now that with Alice gone she would have to make some friends and so she picked up the courage to speak to this girl. "Hello." Sarah smiled. "I'm Sarah Jessica Winchester." She smiled.

Elisabeta looked up at Sarah and said "Hi Sarah nice to meet you, I am Elisabeta Nicoleta Lupescu but you can call me Lis for short" Elisabeta was glad she had someone to chat to because she had been thinking about what the sorting had said when she was sorted earlier

"Awesome, I love kittehs. I have a few cats and kneazles at home." Art grinned.

"Oh yes, how is your owl?" he asked sweetly. He had been with her when she purchased him from Eelops. Cute owl, cute kitty, CUTE Nattie.

"In return for letting me meet Candela and seeing your super cute owl again, I will let you meet Hebe." Art smiled. No one else , to his knowledge , had brought a familiar quite like her. "Oh and I brought Nyx as well." he added.

"I spent most of it in Diagon Alley. It seemed that I was my families errand boy this break." he laughed. "I spent the rest with my family, save for the first part of my summer I was at camp." he smiled.

"How was your summer Nattie?" he asked politely.

"Yes that is an interesting bit of trivia, it rather amuses me." Art smiled. Hmm, I didn't expect him to know that. When it comes to books he is quite the conversationalist.

"Ah, my favorite characters are not so much the humans as the Fairies. Lady Titania and Lord Oberon, Puck is my favorite character in the entire cast. The sneaky fairy. Most of my love for it comes from the fact that my mother used to read it to me before bed very often." Art smiled.

Iris smiled, "Good. Because I'm never going to call you Benjamin, it sounds daft. No offence on you name, of course. It just does." Iris grinned sheepishly; apologetically almost, "But, yeah. I'm calling you Jimbo, and Jimbo only." Iris nodded, confirming what she said.

Iris watched him as he appeared to think, then listened to him talk. Wow. that's a lot of talking for someone who seemed to struggle to greet her back. She supposed that this was a good thing, in many ways. If she became friends with him, then Aaron might become friends with him, and Aaron would actually have a boy mate. It would be like how she ended up friends with Fallon. Iris sighed sadly as she thought of Fallon. It was a shame, really, that she wasn't sat with them. She listened to him and nodded at what he said, "That's pretty cool I guess. Being taught here will be completely different to being homeschooled. It's probably more fun too. Especially with the common rooms, It's like having a giant sleep over, only with the added nuisance of homework."

Iris grinned. "The great Hall is only the start of it, It's dark outside, so you probably couldn't see the grounds very well. It's HUGE. Mr Masterson, our Groundskeeper -" Iris looked to the staff table quickly, to see if he still was the groundskeeper. Yup. " - always creates an area, that's different, for recreational uses. It's different every year. You'll love it. Like, in my first year, there was a sandbox. And last year, we had a Maize Maze - A maze made of corn." Iris then went on to tell him about what the common room looked like. "But of course, you'll see it all for yourself."

Iris watched him as he HUGGED the plate. "Are you alright? People don't usually embrace crockery." She grinned at him, figuring that he would be an interesting person to be friends with.

Sapphyre grimaced as the Slytherin Table was swept into conversations she was not a part of. So, with a sigh, she turned to the closest person and smiled, hoping they would notice her. Geez, she was a first year, but there was no reason to ignore her...

"Hi," she said, as if she wasn't bothered by not being the center of attention, as she had been for her whole entire life. "I'm Sapphyre Black, but you can call me Phyre!"

Sarah sat down next to Elisabeta. "Hi Lis, how are you?" She asked, she was glad that Lis had replied, she wasn't very good at making friends but she hoped that Lis would become a friend. "I'm in my fourth year."

Elisabeta smiled and said "I am very well but tired, cool I am in my seventh year"

"Well to make a long story short, i went to Bauxbatons back in Europe and my father worked for the goverment.. when he noticed some things were out of place he decided to look for a new job so he found one here in England so we move over and i changed schools just like that. I´ve heared loads of things about this school so i was pretty excited to come" she said, her mind lost in memories

"Everything´s fine just hungry" she responded a bit absent

"Hi Evan is really nice to finally meet you" "i´ve heared a lot about you" she said smiling

Benjamin Jimbo listened as she rambled on about the school. It all sounded really great. Ah! A maze! He would have loved that! He really was going to love this place wasn't he?
Ooh. Stomach grumble. He was getting kinda hungry. He looked over at the staff table to see if there was any sign of the food coming soon. None yet. But he hoped it would.

"Plate hugging aside - trust me, I'm fine - what do you think that area is going to be THIS year?" The plate he placed where it belonged, anxious for the food. This girl really was something different. The girls back home would have given him a scared or disgusted look and left him there alone. The fact that she didn't was refreshing and he found that he didn't need the plate anymore. (Not to mention the fact that he figured out it was all in his head. The plate is not a thief, he's just crazy.) With this realization, Jimbo found he didn't need to struggle with his confidence to talk to this girl. She was probably just the right person to manage his odd traits. That being said...

"Wait, you're telling me you've never hugged a plate?" He acted outraged, he was really becoming himself again. "That's...that's...IMPOSSIBLE. You have not lived until you've hugged a plate."

Sarah smiled. "So are you a transfer student?" She smiled. "It's just I haven't seen you before."

"Aw, cool." She beamed at this.

"He's great, but..." She frowned for a moment, looking at Art. "I still haven't decided on a name for him yet, it's pretty bad, isn't?" Natasha chuckled. She really did need to give him a name.

"Yay! Thank you." Nattie said, excited. She couldn't wait to see his pets, now.

She laughed with him, and smiled, listening to the rest of his story. "I was mostly just at Diagon Alley or at home. It was alright." Natasha said. She wanted to be truthful with him, without going into a big long story. When she was at Diagon Alley it was fun, but when she was at home she got a little sad. Her parents had to work and they didn't have much time, but that Nattie was used to, and it didn't bother her. Her housekeeper was always there to talk to, and Natasha loved to talk to her. It was just the thought of Tammy. But now thinking about her not being here was easier. Easier than she'd thought it would be.

Elisabeta smiled and said "Yeah i am a transfer student, i have just transferred from Drumstrang which is why you havent seen me before"

Iris laughed. "Ok... I believe you. Hmm. I don't know, you know ... There is literally a thousand things there could be ... Mr Masterson likes to experiment and make really different stuff. So I really don't know. We'll just have to wait till tomorrow to find out."

She watched him as he looked from the table to the staff table. He was thinking of food. Typical male. "Once Headmaster Bonte- .. Uh ... I mean Headmaster ... Something. I don't know his name ... I don't like the look of him. He's new and ... Not Headmaster Bontecou. Anyway, Once that guy's made a speech, then the food will appear. Then you can stuff your face to your stomach's desire." She smiled at him and then looked at the staff table sadly. Lupa was still here, thank Merlin, but Bontecou wasn't ... What if they'd like ... locked him up or something. That would be evil and inhumane. He was the best headteacher ever.

Iris was brought back to the table by what Jimbo said next. "Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying." She laughed slightly, "Oh but I think that I have lived. Kinda. I've met the Giant Squid, right out there, in the Entrance Hall. He's called Mr Henry. So I think that kinda beats hugging a plate." Iris stuck her tongue out at Jimbo and wondered if he believed her. It was totally true. She'd met him in her first year, back when there was all of those floods. Wow, that seemed like such a long time ago now ... It was crazy, but she loved that year. She'd made so many friends.