gooseberryhigh | PUNISHMENTS

After dinner, Sylvester Stoker and Reid Wainwright are called into Ms. Vector's office for a mandatory meeting with her and Mr. Thorn. The mood in the room is tense, but the two strict teachers get right down to business. They don't mince words.

For attacking a fellow student, Sylvester Stoker is being benched until the new year, January 1. This means he will not be participating in the game against Azurcrest.

He may keep his badge and act as Captain during practices, and he'll have to decide whether he'd like Ira Ashworth or Dinah Dixon to replace him for the next two months or so.

Mr. Thorn makes it clear that if it were up to him, Stoker would have his badge removed permanently.

Further inquiries will be made into whether or not Stoker is a fit captain. This means that interviews will be set up with his team, Coppertale senior and junior prefects, the Coppertale Cheer captain, and the other Quidditch captains.

Stoker has a week to tell his team, after which it will be made clear to senior prefects and the victim of his attack how and why he was punished.

With that said, the boys are dismissed. You can attempt to ask questions or make arguments if you like, but Mr. Thorn and Ms. Vector rarely sway from their decisions. This sounds like a done deal.

Elsewhere, Calvin Evercreech is being spoken to by Mr. Hightower about implications that he had, in fact, tried to frame Stoker. Ribbonfin junior and senior prefects (and the Head Boy) as well as Calvin's roommates will be asked if they can vouch for his character or his whereabouts.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ribbonfin junior and senior prefects (and the Head Boy) as well as Calvin's roommates will be asked if they can vouch for his character or his whereabouts. What do they tell Mr. Hightower?

This...may be the most that anyone has heard Cole talk at one time. When Mr. Hightower asks him whether or not he thinks Calvin tried to frame Sy, Cole is adamant that his friend didn't do it. Calvin told him that he didn't do it. Calvin wouldn't do something like this both because he's a good person that wouldn't hurt other people just to hurt Sy and because he wouldn't be this unwise when it could have real consequences for him. School and Quidditch and Dueling and being at Gooseberry are all too important to him. He also insists that he'd been awake the night that the Ribbonfin girls' cabin had been pranked and that Calvin had been there just like the rest of them. He'll show Mr. Hightower the painting he'd been working on at 3AM if Mr. Hightower doesn't believe him!! (That's not evidence, Cole.)

The boy is earnest and certain of his stance and gets a little worked up the longer the discussion goes on because the idea of Calvin getting in trouble because of Sy seems fundamentally unfair to him. Please don't let that happen, Mr. Hightower.

Surprisingly, Ramon seems relatively disgruntled by the fact that he even has to have this conversation; if Calvin says he didn't do it, he didn't. While he's upfront about the fact that his roommate is far from having any sort of positive feelings towards Sylvester, he's also clear that he's confident the other boy wouldn't lie about this. He knows his friend isn't to blame... mostly because he doesn't think Calvin is that stupid. There are plenty of less risky ways to get back at the Coppertale if he wanted to, and he says as much. Even if Mr. Hightower isn't going to trust Calvin at his word (which he should), he should at least trust that he's smarter than that. Unfortunately, though, he can't say much about his whereabouts. Ramon, despite wanting to exonerate Calvin as much as he can, doesn't lie - he wasn't awake before all the commotion started so technically he can't claim to know for certain that his roommate was actually in the cabin then, but it seems fairly unlikely that he could have made it back in before they had all woken up.

Plus, how reliable is their source? You can't crucify Calvin simply on hearsay. Sylvester's the one that came to their camp and tried to beat him up - he's the bad guy here.

Rosy is in an awkward place here. She knows it. Fuck she knows it. She's not going to lie to Mr. Hightower. He trusts her, and she, you know, likes him. But everyone knows where her loyalties lie.

"I... don't know him that well," she says, trying very hard to actually make eye contact with Mr. Hightower. "But he doesn't have a history of making trouble." She can't verify his whereabouts on the night of the prank in Ribbonfin, and she's not going to speculate. If Rosy can get out of here without saying anything definitive about anyone's character, she'll consider it a diplomatic success.

There is no small amount of guilt Ferdie has, going into this. He should've kept better track of this situation. Should've checked in with his prefects as soon as rumors of the LGK were back in circulation, made sure everyone was accounted for, at least re-instated a Ribbonfin buddy system. Certainly after the whirlwind of last week. He's a little sheepish and apologetic sitting in front of Mr. Hightower. He opens, hands wringing a little, how he should've kept closer track of the tensions between Stoker and Calvin. Should've checked in more. There was a lot more that he could've done.

As it is, as it stands, he knows Calvin had that issue with a ouija board (??) last year, but otherwise, he's a generally law-abiding citizen. One of their highest achieving, honestly, with Quidditch and Duelling Club. He hadn't stooped to revenge before now so this seems suspect. And he'd ask Mr. Hightower to consider only solid evidence. It's not impossible, and Ferdie doesn't know him well, but it seems out of character for Calvin to do something like this. He'll try to reach out more from now on.

It is probably a fairly long monologue.

Kurt's not sure what to say. He can't vouch for Calvin's whereabouts and he says as much. He's still rattled that a fistfight broke out in Ribbonfin but he tries to focus on the questions at hand. He may not be able to help Calvin with an alibi, but he does say that he doesn't think Calvin did it? Or, at least, if that's what Mr. Hightower is asking for? Kurt's visibly uncomfortable but also trying to push through it and do the prefectly thing.

He licks his lips, bites his bottom lip, takes a deep breath, and finally says what he doesn't want to say: he and Calvin had a bad relationship when the younger boy first transferred to Gooseberry. Calvin was unpleasant and combative, and, frankly, a bully. But! Butbutbutbutbut! It didn't even last the year. He believes Calvin's changed, and he's noticed the boy's attitude towards others changing as his and Calvin's stopped being antagonistic? He was even nice to Kurt when he didn't need to be last year, and in Kurt's books, that means a lot.

TL;DR: Thanks to Kurt's policy of all-honesty-all-the-time ~~and habit of nervous rambling~~ he says that Calvin used to be less of a nice person, but Kurt honestly thinks he's changed, and if Calvin was responsible for this prank he would be really, really, really, really, really, surprised. And really, really, really, disappointed. :(

PUNISHMENTS

RIBBONFIN OPINIONS

Cole

Ramon

Rosy

Ferdie

Kurt