John

*"Ribit, Ribit, Ribit, Ribit."* - John

**John** (surname possibly Glenn) was a student on the Rowing Team at St. Thom Huell's until he was turned into a frog by Imogen Parker. He currently resides in a terrarium in Imogen and Layla's room.

It is believed that Imogen turned John into a frog at the end of the last school year. While it is not explicitly known what was the cause of this peculiar transformation, it is believed to be accidental, as Imogen has shown no ability to turn others into frogs and expresses some regret about doing it. Indeed, she has confessed to Layla that she does not know how to metamorphasise humans. Considering her ability as a witch, however, this display of power is not particularly suprising whether accidental or not.

Imogen is supposedly working on a way to turn him back although no progress has been made so far. With the group being otherwise occupied with other, more life-threatening matters, the matter of John has been pushed to the wayside and indeed very little research has been done on the matter in the first place.

Currently, only Imogen and Layla appear to know that John the frog is in fact John from the Rowing Team. This is particularly fortunate for John, as keeping a pet in the dorms is apparently against school regulations. Despite Barnaby being Sports Captain, he did not know of John's disappearance in the first place, nor his last name, which according to Imogen is "Glenn". Alternatively, his disappearance was insignificant enough for the Rowing Captain to not inform Barnaby in the first place.

However, John was previously regarded as "bit of a dick" by Barnaby, and once threw Imogen's stuff into the river, which corroborates with Barnaby's statement. It is unknown whether John or his parents are still paying tuition fees for attending St. Thom Huell's, though Imogen says he "left". John apparently had some degree of social influence, but nothing too major to cause a fuss about the nature of his sudden disappearance - not "falling on a pitchfork", as was common at STH. More recently, it has been implied by Imogen through her discussions with Layla that John may not only have thrown her stuff into the river, but done something that was more hurtful to Imogen.

Despite being a frog John is shown to be able to ribit the theme to the 1976 film *Rocky* and hop around punching the air. According to Imogen, John was never particularly bright in the first place, but this implies to some extent that John possesses some of his (mild) sapience even in his current form. He has shown no particular distaste or disagreement with his current predicament. While this may be put down to any lack of intelligence as a result of his metamorphasis, he has not attacked either Imogen or Layla thus far. This may be beneficial to the group in the event that he is returned to being a human again, as he would not only have been privy to Imogen's magic but also potentially any discussions about vampires and other threats in the group held in Imogen and Layla's room.

John is thought to be a *Rana Temporaria*, otherwise known as the European Common Frog. As such his natural predators include storks, birds of prey, crows, gulls, ducks, terns, herons, pine martens, stoats, weasels, polecats, badgers, otters, snakes, and house cats. If it gets cold enough he will typically hibernate from late October to early February.

If his surname is indeed Glenn, John was presumably named after the American astronaut and US Senator, John Glenn, who was the first American to orbit the Earth. It is not known why he would be named after an American astronaut, though Glenn was a relatively notable US politician at the approximate time of John's birth. However, it would have been unlikely for John to have been born after the popular 1983 American epic film *The Right Stuff* was released, where John Glenn (the US astronaut, played by Ed Harris), is given a major and heroic role, coinciding with John Glenn (the US astronaut)'s campaign for the Democratic Party's nomination for the US presidency.

## Recent Developments

As the relationships between the group grew, John became party to and observer of many events which occured in Imogen and Layla's room, such as the development of Barnaby and James' relationship. It is uncertain whether they did bonk in Imogen and Layla's room, as they were last seen there before the others left for the Greater Rosewater museums.

John was present at the celebration party after the death of Penemue, and observer of the tragedies that ensued, including James' death, Robert's wounding and Imogen topless while being a conduit of magic. Later, John was taken by the police as evidence while the room, James' death scene, was being examined. It is assumed that he was eventually released and given back to the girls, though they may not have re-occupied their old room, and he may have been an observer of their developing relationship, making him, alongside Robert, one of two to have potentially observed them making out.

During the Christmas holidays John was left in Violet's care while Imogen and Layla went to the Parkers'. During the two days Layla was away Violet attempted to bond with the frog in her despair. An initial attempt to turn him back into a human failed due to the difficulty of the spell, so Violet turned him into a rabbit before failing to turn him into a human. Once this route had failed, Violet turned John back into a frog, albeit one with different colouration. Layla confronted Violet on this, who admitted to it. Violet had considered painting John with the correct colour, but was dissuaded from doing this.

The night before their AS exams, while Imogen and Layla were studying, John appeared to have teleported out of his sealed terrarium. When Layla went looking for him, John was outside and on fire. After dealing with the frog on fire, Layla asked Violet about John, who was not particularly forthcoming. The two roommates fussed over John somewhat, but he did not appear to show any other changes, and they decided to leave the matter until after the exams.

As of Valentine's Day 1998, John has a new house in his terrarium courtesy of Layla.

In the aftermath of the events surrounding the "expedition" to Tunisia and the subsequent break-up of Layla and Imogen (which led to Imogen temporarily moving out of the boarding house and in with Janet), John has been left under Layla's care within Layla's room.