Grateful (OPEN)

[kaylee māhealani mahi'ai]

Kaylee wasn't surprised to see that Clarence was absent from the day's celebrations. As the professor of Native American Magic, he had a valid reason not to be present at Thanksgiving, since the narrative behind it—at least in the No-Maj world—was one of which he was known to be quite critical. She probably would have skipped out on it, too, in solidarity, but Thanksgiving so far from home was another story.

Thanksgiving was full of so many of the things that Kaylee missed about being in America—good food and time spent with family and friends—and getting to celebrate it at Hogwarts was something for which she was thankful. She had her brother and sister there, though they had gone to sit with their respective friends, and the feasts at Hogwarts were excellent, regardless. Adding some pumpkin pie into the mix sounded pretty perfect.

Finding an open space near the end of the Slytherin table, Kaylee sat down, happy to see that it looked as though the Houses were intermingling even more than they usually did. From what she had heard of the planning process, everyone on the committee had been working extraordinarily hard to ensure that the celebration would be a success.

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NOVEMBER 28, 2024

Peyton had heard about the holiday tradition that originated in America, a thing called ‘Thanksgiving,’ and while she had never participated in it – it was interesting that it was brought it to Hogwarts to cheer up the Ilvermorny transfers. Plus, anything that involved good food caught the attention of Peyton. The entire school came together, and all the talk was that people were to sit with someone new, meaning that sitting with one's house was not mandatory. She wished that was something that happened all the time besides simple study halls where it didn’t matter. She found sitting with someone during a meal was a better way to be situated with meeting and speaking with someone new. Thus, when she entered the Great Hall, her eyes wandered over the people that were in there. It was almost packed with students, and she was sure that more would likely show up. She made her way through the crowd of people standing before she found a spot where a single female was sitting. She was pretty, dark hair and tanned skin, she smiled at her. “Mind if I sit with you during this feast?” she questioned, her British accent portraying that she was from Hogwarts originally and not a transfer.

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TAG kaylee māhealani mahi'ai

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[kaylee māhealani mahi'ai]

Kaylee hadn't been seated for very long before another girl, whom she recognized as being one of the Bainbridge triplets in her year (the prefect, if she recalled correctly, who had been on the Halloween planning committee with her), approached her. The girl looked like how Kaylee had once imagined all British people to look: pale-skinned and blonde, the kind of girl who would have been right at home if dropped right inside a fairytale. The Hufflepuff smiled at her and spoke. "Mind if I sit with you during this feast?"

The whole point of Thanksgiving, beyond its historical roots and whatever else, was to be thankful and to enjoy the company of others, and Kaylee smiled back at the other girl. "No, of course I don't mind," she replied, gesturing for the blonde to sit down beside her. "You're…" The downside of having come to Hogwarts and having met so many new people was that she had had to remember so many new names. "Peyton, right?" Kaylee bit the inside of her cheek after speaking, hoping that she wasn't wrong. "Or is that one of your sisters?" From her blonde hair, Kaylee knew that the girl wasn't Kinsey, whom she had met in her first days at the school.

@peytonbainbridge

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[attr="class","next"] Peyton was excited, something that showed through every fiber of her being. The idea of bringing American traditions to Hogwarts not only let the Americans feel at home but also made Peyton proud to be a student at Hogwarts during this time. Sure, it was under sad circumstances that the transfers had come all the way from the States, but being able to experience a holiday that was foreign to the British students, was interesting. She was sure people would participate, mostly because of the idea of food, but for Peyton, it was more about making more friends.

When Peyton had bound for the girl with whom she didn’t exactly recognize but knew her as someone from her year but a different house, as well as someone new that had transferred over, she prayed that she wouldn’t be mean or rude with her idea of sitting with her. The girl quickly smiled, a feeling of relief pulsing through the bubbly blonde, as she told her that she didn’t mind. She promptly started speaking just as she took a seat, calling her Peyton but looking hesitant about it, a giggle escaped her lips. While she, Penelope and Persephone didn’t look exactly alike, there was enough about them that caused confusion within others of the school.

She nodded her head excitedly, “Yes—I am!” she blurted out before shaking her head, “And your name is Kayla? Or Kaylee?” she questioned, a look of hesitation passing her own eyes. The young blonde Hufflepuff was better with faces than with name.

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TAG kaylee māhealani mahi'ai

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[kaylee māhealani mahi'ai]

A small rush of relief came to Kaylee as the other girl confirmed that she was Peyton, since it would have been embarrassing if she weren't. "Yes—I am," Peyton confirmed to her. "And your name is Kayla?" she asked. "Or Kaylee?"

"Yeah. It's Kaylee," Kaylee smiled. "I get 'Kayla' a lot, though." The two names were similar enough that she understood the confusion. Of course, getting people to understand what her name was verbally was much easier than making sure that they spelled it correctly if it needed to be written somewhere. Kaylee didn't quite understand what was so hard about having two e's at the end of her name, but she had gotten so many misspellings of it over the years. She had lost count, in fact, of how many times she had had to spell her first name aloud, much less her middle and last names in combination with it.

"Are you enjoying Thanksgiving so far?" Kaylee asked. "The food is maybe the best part," she laughed, though her Thanksgiving celebrations at home in Hawaii had always been a little bit different from the traditional Thanksgiving spread. Most of the time, they cooked their turkey in an imu, and they tended to have poke right along with it. While she wasn't anticipating any poke at the table this year, it hardly mattered. Hogwarts had welcomed them more than Kaylee had ever expected.

@peytonbainbridge

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[attr="class","next"] Peyton was a nice person, and everything she did was for the better of others than for herself. She was like a saint in some people’s eyes, in others she was just an ignorant child that hadn’t faced the real world yet. Getting the girl’s name wrong had made her quite guilty, but it wasn’t because of her fault – she had heard a lot of names thrown around lately, especially with transfers and some people got things wrong. She had heard Kayla or Kaylee quite a few times whenever she was around the fellow student, but it still made her feel a little bad. A tint of a blush appeared on her skin as she frowned, “Oh—sorry, I’ll get it right next time,” she said with a small appearance of a smile on her lips. At least the girl wasn’t a poor sport about being called the wrong name, unlike many people that passed through Hogwarts.

She smiled brighter, “Oh yes—it’s an interesting holiday for sure. And the food is rather interesting, I’ve never had sweet potato casserole before, but it was pretty good,” she said with a small laugh. The girl was nice, that was for sure. “Are you enjoying it? Does it make you feel at home?” she questioned, she didn’t know where the girl was from other than she had come from the states.

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TAG kaylee māhealani mahi'ai

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[kaylee māhealani mahi'ai]

"Oh—sorry," Peyton told her once she'd given her the correct name. "I’ll get it right next time."

"No, no," Kaylee reassured the other girl. "It's fine! I didn't mean to make it sound like I was offended or something," she laughed. "I just meant that you're totally not the first person who's called me Kayla." And she doubted that Peyton would be the last person, either. She shrugged. "It happens!"

After she had asked Peyton if she was enjoying Thanksgiving, she said that she was and that she found the holiday interesting. "And the food is rather interesting," she added, at which Kaylee had to giggle. Peyton continued, "I’ve never had sweet potato casserole before, but it was pretty good."

Kaylee had to agree that sweet potatoes were pretty good, although sweet potato casserole wasn't usually something that she had, either.

"Are you enjoying it?" Peyton asked her in return. "Does it make you feel at home?"

It was really nice of Peyton to ask, Kaylee thought. It really did mean a lot to her that Hogwarts was recognizing Thanksgiving for them and that their British classmates cared, too. She smiled as she replied. "Yeah, it's cool," she said. "I'm Hawaiian, so Thanksgiving for my family is maybe a little… non-traditional, compared to this?" The mixture of cultures had led to something that wasn't really found on the mainland. "We actually have purple sweet potatoes at home," she explained. "They're called Okinawan sweet potatoes, but we don't cover them with marshmallows or anything. I mean, not that I mind marshmallows," she spoke as she took some of the sweet potato casserole and put it on her plate. "Hawaii has people from all over—Hawaii, Japan, China, Korea, Portugal, the Philippines, the mainland…" Kaylee had to laugh as she counted them off on her fingers. "So we have so many different influences, magical and No-Maj. It's really cool."

@peytonbainbridge

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[attr="class","next"] ‘No, no. It’s fine! I didn’t mean to make it sound like I was offended or something. I just meant that you’re totally not the first person who’s called me Kayla. It happens!’

Peyton let a soft smile appearing on her face, and nodded her head eagerly. “Good—I hate feeling like I’ve offended someone. I’ll have to keep reminding myself its usually the second name I think it is,” she said with a laugh. The conversation quickly changed to that of the food and the enjoying of the meal that was presented before them. It was then that she revealed that she was Hawaiian and that her Thanksgiving was a little less traditional than the one that was presented before them now. She began talking about purple colored sweet potatoes and the lack of marshmallows on top of the casserole.

Her eyes widened, “Okinawan? That’s a hard name to pronounce,” she said with a soft laugh, not even sure she was saying it correctly when she did. But the idea of purple potatoes sounded interesting and delicious. “Do they taste different than that of a regular sweet potato? Or do they taste the same just the color is different?” she questioned quite curiously as she put her full fork to her mouth and took another bite. Hawaii sounded interesting, especially with the blend of cultures that came from the places she listed off.

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TAG kaylee māhealani mahi'ai

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[kaylee māhealani mahi'ai]

Peyton smiled and told her that she hated feeling as though she had offended someone. She added that she would have to keep reminding herself that her name was actually the second one from the one that she thought it was, at which Kaylee laughed softly.

With the conversation's having turned to sweet potatoes, Peyton commented that "Okinawan" was a difficult name to pronounce. Admittedly, Kaylee found it kind of funny, though she supposed that it would have been a strange name for someone who wasn't used to it.

"Yeah, like Okinawa in Japan," she told the blonde, hoping that that would make it a little bit easier on her.

"Do they taste different than that of a regular sweet potato?" Peyton asked her. "Or do they taste the same, just the color is different?"

Kaylee shook her head. "They don't taste the same as the orange ones, no." There were some other kinds of purple sweet potatoes that tasted sort of gross, too. "We also have something called taro, and something else called ube, and they're both purple, too—but all different." She was probably making things much more confusing than they needed to be, and she apologized upon realizing it. "Sorry if that's totally confusing," she giggled.

"But, yeah, without getting into every cool food we have back home," Kaylee said to cut herself off, "I'm really glad that everyone here has been so welcoming to all of us. I had no idea what Hogwarts was going to be like—I mean, we had a few people at Ilvermorny who had gone here before or whatever—but it's different when you suddenly have to pack up and move to another country."

@peytonbainbridge

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[attr="class","next"] “Okinawa,” she breathed out, attempting to pronounce the name of the place in Japan but it sounded weird upon her tongue. “Did I say that right?” she questioned, biting her bottom lip because she felt like she knew that she had butchered it. It came out of Kaylee’s voice with ease, but she lacked a British accent that destroyed a lot of American pronunciations.

Kaylee began to explain that the two different types didn’t taste the same before mentioning something called ‘taro’ and ‘ube’ and she frowned, but let out a soft laugh. “No—no…I like learning new things. Being confused is the first step towards understanding,” she said with a smile on her face.

Peyton nodded her head, “Yeah—I mean I can’t say that I understand what you are going through, but I can imagine. Luckily there are a bunch of you all transferring, so hopefully, a few familiar faces accompanied you here. Old and new friends always go hand and hand,” she said with a smile on her face.

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TAG kaylee māhealani mahi'ai

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[kaylee māhealani mahi'ai]

"Okinawa," Peyton repeated. "Did I say that right?"

Kaylee smiled. "Yeah!" Of course, her pronunciation of the place's name was probably a little bit butchered, too. She wasn't Japanese, nor did she speak the language. Someone who actually spoke Japanese would have been able to say it properly, without a doubt, though the way that she pronounced it was no different from how she had heard almost anyone else in America say "Okinawa".

Peyton didn't seem to mind that she was pushing a lot of probably unnecessary information on her about sweet potatoes. She said that she liked learning new things, which Kaylee appreciated. If she hadn't been Sorted into Slytherin, there was no question in her mind that she would have made a good Ravenclaw, too.

"Being confused is the first step towards understanding," Peyton told her, at which Kaylee nodded.

"Yeah. That's so true," she agreed, and she thought that it was a good motto to have. Nothing came with out a little bit of confusion—or at least not a complete understanding. If everyone knew everything already and didn't have to learn things, Kaylee felt that that would be a bore.

The Hufflepuff said that, although she couldn't understand what she was going through in having to transfer schools, she could imagine it. Luckily, she went on, there had been a lot of people who had transferred. It was something that Kaylee had appreciated from the start—especially over the summer, when she was trying to get everything figured out for the school year for herself and her brother and sister. Peyton said she hoped that some familiar faces had come with her, and Kaylee smiled. Although she hadn't seen some of them—Ellie and Zen, in particular—until the train ride and their actual arrival to school, respectively, she was glad that they were there.

"Old and new friends always go hand and hand," Peyton explained.

"Aside from my brother and sister, two of my best friends from Ilvermorny are in Ravenclaw," Kaylee nodded, "and there are a lot of other people here who I didn't know before I came." Case in point, she was having this conversation with Peyton, wasn't she? "One of my friends, Zen, is actually living here with her aunt now," Kaylee explained, "so she's, like, officially a Hogwarts student."

@peytonbainbridge