Susan, meanwhile, made her way to the outdoor sand pit at the west end of Skyward School of Practical Sorcery for her second meeting of the Sand Club.
It was a pleasantly warm seventy seven degree day and the sky was cloudless and a brillant tent of gorgeous blue.
Walking at a leisurely pace so that she could take in the sun upon her skin, Susan walked to the center of the sand pit where she found Seamus, Dean, Lee, Gabe, Luna, Sofia, Xiu, and their club leader Sarah Finnigan.
"So," piped up Sarah, "Susan has a surprise for you all!"
"Hey, Seamus, Dean, Lee, Gabe, Luna, Sofia, Xiu, and Sarah, " smiled Susan, "I have gifts for you all. I wrapped them in sand color wrapped paper and hid them in the sand pit. I also put sand colored bows on them. What's going to happen is this, we are all now going to go to the south end of the sand pit.
Next nanosecond, Seamus, Dean, Lee, Gabe, Luna, Susan, Sofia, Xiu, and Sarah all walked at a brisk pace to the center of the south end of the sand pit.
"Susan didn't put mane tags on any of her gifts to you," explained Sarah, "What she did do was position them in a specific order in the center of the sand pit from south to north. Seamus will find his gift first, then Dean, then Lee, then Gabe, then Luna, then Sofia, then Xiu, then me last as our leader. The way we're going to find these gifts is by raking through the sand with our hands as Susan buried the gifts in the sand."
"Brillant!" chroused Seamus, Dean, Lee, Gabe, Luna, Sofia, and Xiu.
"On your marks," called out Sarah, "Get set. GO!"
They all took off as though they were Olympic sprinters running a 100 meter dash. As Seamus knew his gift would come first, he got down on all fours and started raking the sand with his hands.
It only took a minute and a nanosecond for Seamus to discover his gift, which took on a small box shape.
Eagerly ripping away the bow and wrapping paper, a delighted Seamus found what appeared to be a clear plastic globe with a yellow flame with it.
To Seamus's amazement and amusement, the color quickly changed from yellow to orange, then red, then green, then blue, then purple, then hot pink, and then white before returning to yellow.
"Wow, Susan!" grinned Seamus, "I love fire. I take it this a globe with a magical fire that it is bewitched to constantly change colors?"
"Yes," confirmed Susan, "You told us last meeting that you are fascinated by fire. You had originally planned to join the Fire Club before it was cancelled."
"She remembers," said Seamus warmly, "That says a lot about Susan. She's very vested in this club and in her clubmates."
"I am," replied Susan, trying to sound humble about it, "I'm really enjoying the opportunity to make new friends in this club outside of my besties."
"I, on the other hand, am glad that my bestie is in the same club as I am," cooed Seamus, "Speaking of my bestie, Dean, your gift is next in line."
So, Seamus, Dean, Lee, Gabe, Luna, Susan, Sofia, Xiu, and Sarah continued on their way and this time it was Dean who got down on all fours and raked the sand with his hands. Just like his BFF, it took Dean exactly a minute and a nanosecond to find his gift, which was thin, small, and rectangular.
Getting rid of the bow and wrapping paper with the same enthusiasm that Seamus had, a joyful Dean discovered a pack of magical markers in ten colors: Red, green, yellow, blue, orange, purple, hot pink, white, brown, and black.
"These are magic markers," Susan explained to Dean, "When you draw with them, they will start out as the color the marker is but will flash between the ten colors. "
"You remember from our first meeting that I love to draw," said Dean cheerfully.
"Yes," answered Susan, "I also tried to make my gifts to you lot magical."
"Thanks, Susan," said Dean, "Let's go Lee!"
As Seamus, Dean, Lee, Gabe, Luna, Susan, Sofia, Xiu, and Sarah journeyed further north, it took Lee about three minutes to rake up his gift, which was small and awkwardly shaped.
Disposing of the bow and wrapping paper in a very hyper way, Lee saw that he had gotten a microphone from Susan.
"I was a Quidditch commentator at Hogwarts, " grinned Lee, "Susan understood how much I loved that."
"It's a magical microphone too," instructed Susan, pointing at a few buttons on it with labels such as "hush" and "magnify" to control the volume of the sound as well as "localize" and "globalize" to control the distance of the sound."
"Merlin's beard, it is perfect," piped up Lee glowingly, "I'm going to have a lot of fun with this!"
Susan smiled. It warmed her insides to see and hear how much her clubmates were liking her gifts.
Actually, putting his lips to the microphone after hitting the magnify button, Lee yelled "GABE"
The loudness of Lee's shout startled them all so much that they all jumped back two steps involuntarily.
"Wow," said Sarah in a stunned voice, "That microphone and its magical functions certainly do work!"
"Of course, they did," said Lee meaningfully, "From what I can tell of Susan, she would never give someone a junk gift that didn't work."
"Of course not, " beamed Susan, "Though Gabe's gift is a little different and unique."
Seamus, Dean, Lee, Gabe, Luna, Susan, Sofia, Xiu, and Sarah resumed their hunt and Gabe got down on all fours, taking about four minutes to gather his gift. It was a large square shape though the corners felt empty.
"I couldn't use the exact shape because that would've given away what it is before you open it," said Susan matter of factly. "And please open it carefully."
Gabe slowly and carefully took off the bow and unfurled the wrapping paper with care.
When Gabe had seen what Susan had given him, he felt his heart leap.
The gift itself was a heart. A sand heart.
"I made you a sand sculpture in the shape of a heart," piped up Susan sincerely, "Because of your undying and unlimited love of sand. This heart sand sculpture is meant to represent your love of sand. I made it myself. I'll admit that it is not magical in any way, but I thought it was the most fitting gift I could give you, Gabe Grain, the sand lover of sand lovers."
"It IS magical," declared Gabe glowingly, "Not all magical things are magic. This sand heart is magical precisely because it absolutely represents who I am and what I love I love most. There's nothing more truly magical than that. It means more to me to know that you put the effect into crafting this for me by hand."
"Well said, Gabe," said Sarah approvingly, "I'm sure every grain of sand that Susan used to craft that sand heart by hand felt like a gift to Gabe."
"Exactly," said Susan quietly, still trying to present herself as humble, "Now it's the girls' turn! Luna's up!"
So, Seamus, Dean, Lee, Gabe, Luna, Susan, Sofia, Xiu, and Sarah kept on northbound, and Luna looked for her gift.
It took Luna longer than the others had so far to find her gift She plodded along slowly, frequently pausing to take in the sun upon her skin and looking at sand she was raking as though admiring it. It was over ten minutes before Luna located her gift. The shape was irregular, and Luna could feel that whatever was hidden inside the wrapping paper was soft.
Being the peaceful girl that she was, Luna calmly detached the bow from her present and quietly opened her gift and looked dreamily at the stuffed black thestral that was her gift.
"This is a really nice gift, Susan Bones," smiled Luna softly.
Now staring dreamily at her stuffed thestral, Luna felt a sort of peaceful joy when the stuffed thestral in her hands slowly went from black to brown to gray to gold to silver to pure white and then back to black again."
"I remembered that you are fond of animals, and you have a quiet and gentle personality, " Susan observed of Luna, "A magical stuffed thestral that slowly changed colors seemed to fit best. A creature like a hippogriff would be too proud and too fierce to represent your personality."
"Hippogriffs are pleasant creatures so long as they are not insulted, " spoke Luna softly, "But NEVER call one of them that offensive "U" word. But I'm happy to say that the gentleness of thestrals probably does represent me the best. But what awaits Sofia."
Seamus, Dean, Lee, Gabe, Luna, Susan, Sofia, Xiu, and Sarah marched on, and Sofia was far more aggressive in her pursuit of her gift than Luna had been.
Not only did Sofia rake far faster than Luna had, but she seemed to want to present herself as very athletic in the process.
Indeed, despite being a bit of show off, Sofia scooped up her gift in a mere three minutes. Sofia's gift was square in shape, but when she opened it, it was actually a round object in a square box.
It was a brand new never used Soccer ball.
"I love Soccer!" yelled Sofia excitedly, "I always played it at recess at my old elementary school! OHHH!"
"What is it, Sofia?" wondered Susan.
"She's just had an idea for when she will first use the new soccer ball," guessed Sarah, "She's thinking that at a future meeting of Sand Club that we could play sand Soccer."
"Our leader knows what she's talking about," said Sofia brightly, "That is my idea."
"It's cool that one of my gifts will actually be used here in a future club meeting. Though I suppose it won't be the next one," smiled Susan.
"It won't," confirmed Sarah, "But it will be a future Sand Club meeting. If you want a hint about our next meeting, look at Gabe's gift.
Seamus, Dean, Lee, Gabe, Luna, Susan, Sofia, and Xiu all knew at once that this meant that they would be building sand sculptures at the next meeting of Sand Club.
"Xiu, it's time to come back to the present," said Sofia wittily.
Seamus, Dean, Lee, Gabe, Luna, Susan, Sofia, Xiu, and Sarah went at a leisurely pace this time. Xiu was quiet and reserved and went about digging up her gift at her own pace. it took about eight minutes for Xiu to find her gift.
Xiu's gift was long and rectangular and had a bulge at the very top as though it was pregnant.
Very peacefully, very calmly, and very quietly, Xiu slowly removed the bow and slowly unwrapped her gift.
She gave Susan a quiet smile when she found a sky blue outdoor cot with a pillow and matching pillowcase.
"You said you're quiet and reserved and that you love sleep, " said Susan in a businesslike voice, "I thought an outdoor cot would be something you would enjoy."
"I look forward to laying outdoors on it," said Xiu softly, "I also love to read and I'm thinking laying on this cot outdoors in nice weather will give me the warm feeling of peaceful loneliness, much like in The Wood Between the Worlds in The Magician's Nephew."
Susan smiled at Xiu's reference to the first Narnia book.
"I love Narnia too," smiled Susan, "But our leader still needs to find her gift."
Seamus, Dean, Lee, Gabe, Luna, Susan, Sofia, Xiu, and Sarah finished their journey northward at a Cheetah's pace.
In a mere twenty seconds from beginning to rake, Sarah found her gift, was long and thin.
Sarah yanked off the bow and shredded away the wrapping paper to see that Susan had gotten her a sand colored dress.
"Oh, wow," smiled Sarah, "The dress will be the perfect thing for me to wear to future Sand Club meetings!"
"I'd have gotten you matching high heels too, but well, you know what Heather thinks of high heels and what the school's policy about them is."
"Heather is quite right to ban high heels!" exclaimed Sarah, "High heels are terrible for your feet. And to be blunt about it, while high heels may be good for looks, I don't need those uncomfortable bitches on my feet. "
We're not quite done," said Susan, digging her left hand into her left hand pocket and retrieving a box of twenty seven simple chocolates.
"Three each, myself included!" called out Susan as she opened the box.
Seamus, Dean, Lee, Gabe, Luna, Susan, Sofia, Xiu, and Sarah each took three chocolates and ate them, thoroughly enjoying them.
As the end of the meeting drew near, Sarah meaningfully, "Susan, I'm really proud of how well you've already learned your clubmates and how you are fully embracing your new friendships with them. You are exactly the kind of person I want to participate in the Sand Club."
Susan just smiled.
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