-- RISE UP ABOVE IT && [poppy]

when poppy had started realizing that her usual spots to hang out by herself such as the library, the bell-tower or under a random tree around the academy grounds were not safe anymore, the girl decided that it was time for her to change her habits. ian knew where she hung out. he knew where to find her and so he would send his very own minions after her to torture her in any way possible. no matter to where she would flee, they would follow her and end up finding her only to torture her once more. it had become her daily routine, really, one that she hated more than anything else. there was one place though that she had barely ever gone to and that she knew ian didn’t know she someitmes hung out here. the first time she had come was when nell had helped her with her abilities a few months back. she had been surprised to find it quiet and calm the other times she had came here. it had been the only place that attracted her, that day. she wanted to be alone by all means. she wanted to have time to herself for her to try to think straight. in the past days, she simply could not. she was always harrassed by someone. everyone was messing with her. or, at least, everyone who approached her. she wanted to run away from it all. she wanted to leave the academy. it would have been the easiest solution. however, there was no way in hell she could possibly do that. could she? for precaution, the girl had decided to construct herself a little nest where she could hide if she heard any kind of sound coming from anyone who was approaching. she had also disguised her hiding place so it looked like there was absolutely no space between those two rocks for someone to hide her. as soon as she had woken up, that morning – or well, as soon as she had been done crying, she had feld the castle and had ended up here with a blanket or two, her usual writing pad she now carried everywhere with her. she had also snatched food from the mess hall so that she, at least, would not starve to death here. she was ready to stay her for the entire day if it meant that she could stay away from all the trouble she had put herself in. so far, her plan had worked pretty well for nobody had come to disturb her. not even one of her wind elemental peers who had come to practice. she was all alone. and it felt great.

the good thing in all of this was that poppy finally had some material to continue writing the “story of her life” as she called it. she had started it a while back in the bell-tower and had not been able to continue seeing as, at that moment, there had been absolutely nothing worth telling happening in her life. she had then wished for something exciting to happen to her. however, she had never thought life would have thrown something like this at her. again. she guessed that the saying “be careful what you wish for” applied perfectly here. at the thought, the girl rolled her eyes and got more comfortable in her little nest. she had been writing all morning and had only eaten an apple. she decided it was time for her to take a break and lied down on the blankets she had laid on the ground. she grabbed a piece of bread and started chewing on it as she looked up at the clouds floating by in the sky. she did not do anything to disturb them as she usually would have however. she did not disturb the currents in the air. it all seemed so peaceful. sometimes, poppy wished she was a cloud. while most people thought being a bird would have been the most amazing thing since you could have wandered the earth by flying, she knew better. birds had almost more to worry about than human beings. they had to worry about their predators, about protecting their children, about human beings’ activities which disturbed their cycles. no, being a cloud would have been much easier and much more peaceful than being a bird. being a cloud seemed absolutely effortless. they just sat there in the sky and floated along amongst their brothers without worrying about what was happening below them. they did not care, they were above it all, above the entire world, as if they did not belong in it. sometimes, when she was little and would lay down in the grass behind her house to watch the clouds, she would think about how the clouds were so superior to everybody else. she understood why christians thought there was some kind of heaven were every good soul would end up in their after life. if there was one, it was in the clouds, she was certain of it. or, rather, the sky was that heaven. the clouds were the good souls, floating by aimlessly. well, that did not mean she had suicidal thoughts, not at all. even though she already had had them, before. if this continued, she could not promise they would not end up coming back, at some point.

when she thought everything was finally okay, when she thought nobody would be coming to disturb her, poppy heard them. footsteps. she instantly sat up and grabbed everything, creeping backward in her hideout. she stopped breathing for a second. as the footsteps stopped and she heard the person sit near her rock, she frowned. she would have to stay weary until that person went away. however, could she really be sure it was someone who would have hurt her? after all, if they had been looking for her to torture her, there would have been more than one pair of feet and they would have simply sat down. they would have looked. for some reason, poppy decided to take a chance. she left her things inside her hideout and looked outside carefully. nobody was around. she then turned her head and that was when she saw him. she was about to start running when she recognized the familiar figure. a long sigh escaped her lips and her body became less tense than it had been. josh? she asked in her small voice, pulling herself out from her hideout and tilting her head. she came closer to him, though staying a little bit back. maybe he had came here not to be found, to be alone, as well. hey.. she said with one of her small smiles.

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credit , to me
tagged , mister joshua donovan dale, aka the awesome taylor. <3
music , everything on my comp.
outfit , clickers, bby.
words , ONE ONE TWO THREE.
notes , i got inspired, lmfao xD

since they had last met, poppy felt somewhat bad for telling joshua he could stay to talk to her when she have not been there. well, her body might have been, but her mind definitely was not. she should have just told him from the start that she had had a lot of things on her mind and that then might not have been the best moment to start a conversation with her. then again, poppy always had things on her mind for the simple fact that she never spoke about them. she always had something about which she was worried and it would cloud her mind so much that she would be unable to focus on anything else. it could have been an exam that she was nervous about, or simply the fact that clouds had strange forms that day. and she felt bad for it. particularly towards josh since she knew he was not particularly one to like talking, just like she did. it must have taken an effort for him to actually try to start up the conversation and she had simply not returned that effort. she felt horrible about herself, really, and wished she could have made it up to him in any way possible as soon as it happened. now was her chance, really. i was k-kind of hiding.. she said softly, looking down at her feet as she stepped slightly closer to him, sticking her hands in the pockets of her jeans. she did not exactly why she had said that anyway. it was truly stupid. he would end up asking why she had been hiding, for sure. and she was not about to tell him exactly why. she would have to make up some kind of story to tell him, even though she knew she absolutely sucked at those. well, she did not really have any choice now, did she? the ian matter was her own problem and she was not going to ask for anyone’s help. she would stand up for herself, just like she never had before. i’m s-sorry for the other d-day at the library, by t-the way.. she started, trying to change the subject. she truly was hoping that it would work. i d-didn’t mean to be r-rude or anything.

poppy was about to shake her head at his next question when she realized it would probably be best to agree with him. after all, it was true that most wind elementals would come here to practice since wind was always around, even though that did not include poppy. but it would have still made sense for her to say so. after all, she still had some difficulty with controlling her powers. she could have easily said that she had came here to practice just like he had suggested. i d-did.. it’s so n-nice up here. she said, a slight smile spreading across her lips. at least, the last part was not a lie. she truly liked it up here when she was not too close to the edge. that made her even more nervous than she usually was – and that was saying something – due to her fear of heights. the scent of the lake was stronger here than everywhere else on the academy grounds and it kept bringing back memories of happier times to her. it was such a relief that this was also the place where ian’s minions generally did not look for her. after the library and the bell tower, this third place had become her sanctuary. a place that no one would ever disturb. or so she thought. of course, it was not meant to last. she would eventually be caught and would have to move once again. if she started going to the forest to find her sanctuary, maybe they would then stop following her wherever she went. then again, she knew she would never had had the courage to stay there longer than five minutes. she would probably have ended up running out of there as fast as she could like the pathetic little coward that she was. and they would catch her again. and she would have no way of escaping. and this would be the end of poppy watkins. she shook her head only slightly. no, that was not going to happen. much b-better, thanks for asking. she said, the smile reappearing on her face.

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credit , to me
tagged , mister joshua donovan dale, aka the awesome taylor. <3
music , everything on my comp.
outfit , clickers, bby.
words , SEVEN THREE FOUR.
notes , sorry for the wait.~

poppy should have known that josh was not going to ask any questions. he was not one to generally ask questions. most of their conversations would be on random subjects really, and that was the way poppy liked it. when it came to talking about her life, she was just like him. she did not want to expose every single little thing that there was to know about her to the entire world. she preferred to keep it to herself. she only shared bits and pieces with a few people. even then, those would never know the entire truth about the girl. she preferred being a mystery. one that nobody wanted to find out about. plus, it was not like she had ever had a quite eventful life except from now, really. her days were slow and boring. nothing ever happened to her. most people probably would have figuratively died due to the boredom, but poppy had gotten used to it and found herself to be quite comfortable in that very environment. it was true that this place probably was the best hideout on the grounds of the academy. still, she should have been careful with it and still not come her too often. otherwise, people would have ended up finding out about it and she would have had to find yet another one, which was something she definitely did not want to do. she should have been more careful about it. she probably should not have even come out of under her rock in the first place. however, she did not think that josh would have been one to go around and tell to whoever asked where her hiding place was exactly. she looked up as he mentionned the view and a light smile spread across the girl’s lips. it’s really b-beautiful. she said. she took a step forward to see the landscape better, but she quickly retreated, her fear of heights taking over her entire body. the view of the mountains and the forests surrounding them was definitely calming. she had always found nature to be quite calming. she had lived in a small village in the south of ontario during her entire childhood. she had been surrounded by forests like these and this somehow reminded her of home, even though she had never known such magnificent mountains before she had come here.

poppy definitely was not one who was good at hiding her feelings, particularly when she thought she had made someone mad. she hated the fact that some people she ‘cared’ about thought that she was annoying. she had few friends at the academy and so she probably would have done anything to keep them around. she was not necessarily one who needed to have friends to be able to survive or anything of the sort. however, lately, she simply felt like she needed those. she needed friends so that she would not transform into some sort of hermit who lived under a rock and barely ever came out except for food or to run to her classes. it simply would have been a nightmare for her. or well, a nightmare coming back. this was why she, unlike joshua, could not have possibly stayed silent about their last encounter in the library. she preferred coming clean about it, about how she regretted being somewhat rude to him by being so distant, even though she knew she could not help it in any way at all. she was one of those people who would always have something on their minds bothering them constantly. she simply could not stop herself from thinking about things, really. her mind was always working. however, she did try to make it seem as if she was always attentive. however, this only really happened during small conversations like the ones joshua and herself normally shared. if someone needed her help with something, then it seemed that her mind would stop functionning and she would only focus on whatever the person was saying. a slight smile appeared once again when joshua told her that everything was okay and she relaxed a bit. she pushed her hair behind her ear and nodded. i t-think i am, actually. she started. lately, she had been practicing non-stop in order to be ready for those exams which had been stressing her out since the beginning of the semester. she simply wanted to be done with it all and, now that they were almost here, the stress was greater than ever. but she managed to handle it. i j-just hope everything g-goes well.. she murmured, looking down at her feet.

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credit , to me
tagged , mister joshua donovan dale, aka the awesome taylor. <3
music , everything on my comp.
outfit , clickers, bby.
words , SEVEN SEVEN ONE.
notes , sorry for the wait.~

when she found a spot where she was not too close to the edge and yet still close to where josh was sitting, she decided to sit down herself in order to be more comfortable to have what to seemed to be heading towards a calm conversation with the boy. she thought it would help her, in some way, focus on what he was saying instead of having her mind constantly wonder if she was far enough from the edge so that she would not fall off if some huge chunk of the cliff decided it was time for it to detach itself. here, however, sitting where she was under a small tree, seemed to be a place safe enough and so she could relax and not constantly be scared. when she had seen how joshua’s legs were dangling over the edge, the girl could not help but wonder how he could possibly stay calm while he was so close to falling right off of the cliff, even if he seemed to be holding onto the ground tightly enough. she had to remind herself that heights did not scare everyone. people were different from one another. they had different personalities and thus different fears. still, she could not understand someone would not have been scared of this. to fall off and see your life passing in front of your eyes before you crashed on the ground below you. it was strange, though. poppy never really was one to think about death all that much. she had never really even thought of death after being stabbed, shot, poisonned, electrified by one of her classmates. it had never scared her. this was the only type of death that truly scared her. she thought it would have been the most horrible death. of course, those were only presumptions her mind had made up. the reason behind it, she never could have said. i hope i-it will b-be enough.. she told him, a small smile on her lips.

poppy generally was not one to come unprepared to an exam, really. since her youngest age, she probably was one of her classmates who studied the most and knew things the most out of everyone who took the exam. it was due, mainly, to the fact that she was quite stressed about school. it was one of the only things that she had going on for her and she did not want it to go away like everything else always did. plus, it was not exactly like she had much anything else to do, really. the only thing she ever did when she did not need to study intensely due to exams coming up was reading, which was pretty much the same, really. when she studied, she read. did she not? however, she never complained about the fact that this was all she ever did. for one, books had the rare ability to take her away from her life. reading her notes had the rare ability to take the stress off of her shoulders. there were already enough things as it was hanging there. she did not need the stress of examinations added to the rest of it. this was the second reason why she always came prepared to an exam. most people who took the exam with her would have thought that she was, in fact, not prepared at all. she always was the last one to leave the room. she preferred taking her time since she was never fully certain of the answers that she gave, like she never was quite fully certain of anything that she did in life, in general. plus, she was never quite ready for an examination to end. each and every single one of them took her closer to the end of her years at the academy and closer to the decision she would have to take whether she wanted to stay at the academy or not. but this was not the time to think about it. she looked at him and shrugged a little. n-not really. mostly my c-class notes. she told him with the same small smile on her lips as before.

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credit , to me
tagged , mister joshua donovan dale, aka the awesome taylor. <3
music , everything on my comp.
outfit , clickers, bby.
words , SIX NINE FIVE.
notes , ugh, done at night so it shucks. sorry D:

exams were definitely the cause of her not reading lately. if there was one moment in the year when the teenager could truly say that she was busy, it was during the end of the year exams, really. with all the studying and practising she had been doing lately, it was normal that she had had to put a few things aside for the time being in order to be able to pass her year. well, she was not really worried about that all that much. she was smart and had a rather good memory. she could certainly pass her year. however, always coming prepared was truly reassuring. it was definitely the main reason why poppy had put aside her constant reading and had decided to focus on only one thing. she already had her mind all over the place throughout the entire year. to be focused could only do good to her grades. could it not? and, of course, since reading was always the main thing she did it was normal that she had put that aside first. she was certain that she would be able to catch up on what she had missed over the break. she nodded slightly as an answer to his question. josh was probably right to find it strange or whatever he thought it was since most people generally needed to take a break every once in a while in order to give oxygen to their brain. however, if she did that, poppy knew that it would only help her escape and, as of now, she needed to be here. the conversation they had had at the library was not the only reason poppy was trying hard to focus on this conversation and only that. if she let her mind wander off, it would only give her another excuse to escape, and she did not want that. i t-take it really s-seriously, you know.. all the ex-exams and the sc-school experience in g-general. she told him as she tilted her head slightly back against the tree and looked up at the leaves. she smiled a little. school was probably the only thing that the girl had going on for her. of course, she took it seriously. most people who didn’t take it seriously had problems in school. so it was only normal that she would focus on it so much since she did not.

poppy had proved to not be one to like non-fictional books all that much with her absolute love for harry potter. but history was definitely one of the subjects that she loved to read about and, even though she had not read the book josh had just mentionned, she had already heard of it. she was glad that they shared these few things as a passion they both had. she generally did not talk much about her reading with other people and so to talk about books with josh simply made her smile, made her happy. i h-have, actually. isn’t t-that the book on the h-history of y-yugoslavia? she asked him, simply to make sure that she was thinking of the right book and that she would not be making a complete fool of herself by starting to talk about a book that was totally not the one he meant. when she talked about books, it was easy for her to get carried away. she remembered her tenth birthday, when her mother had given her an antique version of the adventures of huckleberry finn. when the girl had finally gotten through the book and her mother had asked her what she thought of it, she had not been able to stop talking until she had told her mom exactly every single little thing that she had to say on almost every word of the book. she did that with almost any book that she read when her mom asked her. she made sure that the woman had read the book before, however, not wanting to spoil anything for her. she knew that she would have absolutely hated it if anyone had ever done that to her and she probably would never have forgiven the person. a movie had once been spoiled for her that way. however, she had not been as mad. movies did not take such a large place in her life, for one. and they also took less time getting through, really, which, in poppy’s book, meant that it was less frustrating.

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credit , to me
tagged , mister joshua donovan dale, aka the awesome taylor. <3
music , everything on my comp.
outfit , clickers, bby.
words , SEVEN FOUR FOUR.
notes , written at one am. suckness is to be expected.

as soon as joshua spoke, the girl’s eyes widened and she could actually feel her heart beating faster in her chest. she clenched her jaw and closed her hands on themselves, digging her nails in the skin of her palm. she instinctively started biting down on her bottom lip and looked away from joshua as quickly as she could. it was somewhat of a ritual that she did whenever someone got annoyed by her or angry at her – she could not exactly tell the difference between the two since she was so nervous right at that moment. it was somewhat like a ritual a singer would do before going on the stage to perform, or a football player before his match, a student before his exam. avoiding eye contact was the biggest part of it really. josh was not exactly the type to lay his emotions out for everyone to read. she knew because she was usually the same unless she was nervous like right now. however, when his tone had changed, she had noticed something in his eye that this sudden change was not a good sign at all and that she should go into defensive mode, which meant disconnecting herself from the real world even more than she already was. however, it seemed to be more difficult than usual. her mouth opened slightly, but she couldn’t figure out the words that she wanted to tell him. she was not even sure that she wanted to say anything. however, just as she thought this, her mouth opened once again. i-i-i-i’m s-sorry, j-j-josh.. i d-didn’t mean it l-l-like t-that.. her stutter was worse than ever and she mentally slapped herself, trying to regain control over her body as she stopped biting her lips and actually looked up from her feet. it took a lot of strength, but she was glad that she did. if there had been one thing that she had learned in the past weeks with everything that had been going on in her life was that facing a problem could sometimes be better than running away from it. she was not exactly sure that this was one of those situations, but it was better than just sitting there and letting the silence between the two.

a smile actually spread across poppy’s lips when the subject changed and she made a mental note to herself not to go back on the subject of school. she had seen many people lose it because of the exams. josh was not really losing it, but she was certain that he was about as stressed as anybody else even though he did not let it show. it probably explained why it seemed to be a touchy subject. plus, she was glad they were talking books since they were her favorite subject of all. she was surprised that the two of them had actually heard of the same book since they seemed to have quite different tastes. well, she could not complain. at least, they had something else to talk about after the disaster that their first subject had turned out to be. poppy relaxed against her tree slightly, letting out a sigh. she hadn’t realized that she had been holding her breath. i l-l-love it because i c-can actually imagine the t-t-things happening in my head.. and i know t-that t-t-they happened somewhat like t-that. she said carefully, nodding slightly. she pushed her blond hair back behind her ear and looked up at him. it’s g-g-great that you g-get to do t-t-things you like.. she said softly, tilting her head back and looking up at the leaves like she had before. what she would do with her life had always been the biggest question poppy had asked herself. she knew that she loved litterature and her parents had always told her that she should do something that interested her. but still, could studying litterature truly make her have some kind of good future like josh was probably going to have when he became a doctor? she knew that she did not want to be unhappy when she grew up. however, there were so many things that could have made her happy. was litterature really the thing she wanted to choose? i’m so l-lost.. the girl muttered.

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credit , to me
tagged , mister joshua donovan dale, aka the awesome taylor. <3
music , everything on my comp.
outfit , clickers, bby.
words , SEVEN ONE FOUR.
notes , woot, yet another post. and lol, poppy got so scared.

poppy knew for already having to deal with josh when he was annoyed at something that she had either done or said that the simple shaking of his head as if to say that it was nothing was the closer the girl would ever get to an apology. even if they weren’t close, they had had enough conversations for poppy to have gotten used to his behavior. to be completely honest, she would have enjoyed to get a real apology out of him. after all, she had done absolutely nothing wrong and apologized for the misunderstanding. but she preferred staying quiet. she had sometimes wondered if not apologizing after an “argument” which you were wrong about was a men thing. she had seen her father argue so many times with her mother about stupid things he was convinced of. once she had proven that he was wrong, he would never apologize and would spend the night fishing outside until her mother proved once again that she was the bigger man in the household and would go find him, asking him to come sleep. she thought that it might have simply been enhanced by the fact that josh was a fire elemental, really. however, she never would have risked exposing this theory to him. or to any man, for that matter. she probably would keep that to herself her entire life. poppy was probably the one person who knew mostly absolutely everything that there was to know about imagination. you see, finding that you did not fit anywhere in the world sometimes could have its perks, even though it really sucked, most of the rest of the time. and one of those perks were enhancing your artistic skills. now, poppy here had never really been the artistic type. she was not a good singer and could not play any instrument. she was definitely not a good dancer. her drawings, even as a child, even when you were supposed to be just learning, were worse than every single one of her peers. however, she was certain that she had always had the most vivid dreams.

as far as she could remember, she had always been quite good at imagining things. poppy would make up her own little worlds in her mind where she could do things that would have most likely been impossible if she tried them in this world. she made up worlds where she could belong, where she had friends and did not have to feel as left out of every single activity all the time. of course, that was when she was a child. as she grow up, she gave up on her daydreams. well, they still happened once in a while. during class, or when she was sitting by herself in the mess hall, she would sometimes stare outside a window and imagine herself in the common room of the gryffindor house, at hogwarts, talking with neville longbottom since he had always been her favorite character. she would have never told this anyone, but she sometimes pictured herself as hannah abbott, imagining she had married neville and they lived happily ever after. but those were things she was going to take to her grave with her. it always m-makes t-things so much more v-vivid and easy t-to understand.. she said softly and, for the first time, she looked at the scenery that laid before them. in order to come back to reality, she had to rip her eyes from it and focus on something else. that thing ended up being her own two feet. as the conversation started slowly dying, poppy did not feel the need to continue it further. however, she also did not feel like leaving. mostly because she knew that, once she would step inside the castle, she would probably be harrassed by bullies and would have to find another place to go hide until the night came. it was just safer staying here, for now. she looked up at josh and arched her eyebrow. when she realized what he was saying sorry about, she shook her head slightly. it’s j-just.. i wish i had f-found my way l-like you d-did.. the girl said softly as she shrugged.

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credit , to me
tagged , mister joshua donovan dale, aka the awesome taylor. <3
music , everything on my comp.
outfit , clickers, bby.
words , SEVEN OH THREE.
notes , well, the least we can say is that they’re awkward, what with poppy’s shyness (if that’s even a word) and josh’s way of always getting irritated by her.