Nicoletta Dupree
February 20, 2009 11:14 PM
Seventh Year Girls' Dorm by Nicoletta Dupree
Since coming back to Sonora, her days were filled with endless repetition – get up, go to classes, make sure Adam doesn’t forget to eat, study for RATS, try to sleep and fail, worry, worry, and worry some more. The pressure just continued to build and just as she was feeling like she was about to crack, a very unlikely solution had arrived in the form of a letter from Bella inviting her, her roommates, and Adam to hear her perform in L.A. She had been rather surprised by the invite, but the idea of getting away from it all was utterly appealing.Nicoletta had considered not going at all, because without even asking, she knew that Adam wasn’t going to be able to go. He barely had any energy for a normal day let alone going out to a place where people were probably going to be a little rowdy, which was part of his reasoning for why she would go, the entire idea of their classmates acting that way and the promise that she would take pictures of them. She really couldn’t imagine her brother acting in a way that was less than the perfect model student. If he ever did, she would be utterly surprised.
She really couldn’t imagine her roommates acting that way either, but even so, it didn’t mean that they wouldn’t want to go. At least, she didn’t think it meant that. She really hoped that it didn’t. It was the perfect opportunity for them to have some fun before graduation came and their lives changed forever. They were already changing. Catherine was planning a wedding while she was planning on college. Her friend would have all the responsibilities of a husband and running a household. Not to mention the possibility of children. Would she be having them soon?
And she would bet nearly anything that Gwen and Jordanna were probably heading in a similar direction just because of the way they had all grown up, but then she could have been over generalizing. Regardless, it didn’t change the fact that she thought they all needed to relax and have a bit of fun. It was with this thought that she sat on her bed, Bella’s letter in hand, ready to pounce on her roommates as soon as they were all back in the room. She had already come up with every argument and counter-argument as to why they should go.
Once everyone was in the room, she tentatively began by asking, “So, does anyone have any plans for break? “ She looked pointedly at Gwen to make sure she knew she was included in this question. “Because I have this great idea.” Her hands were in a ‘please hear her out and agree’ stance. “Bella Santoro invited me and by proxy all of you to come stay with her.” Right now her sanity might be being questioned since Bella wasn’t part of their group and never had been. She wasn’t a Crot girl. Even Gwen had her place, strange as it was, among them.
“I know that none of us are exactly friends with her, but I think it could be fun. It’ll be something new and different, exciting, even. Oh, and I haven’t told you the best part of all this!” She was getting rather excited about the prospect. “She’s going to be singing at a club, which we’ll get to go to. Seriously, we should so do this…as…as a celebration to our impending graduation. Please?” She was pleading. She even had the puppy eyes and slight pout in hoping against all hope that they would agree. “Say you’ll go. Pretty please?”
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Nicoletta Dupree
Seventh Year Girls' Dorm
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Nicoletta Dupree
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Gwen Carey
March 14, 2009 10:59 PM
Is it bad that I'm going to kind of miss these threads? by Gwen Carey
As she entered the already mostly-full dormitory, Gwen half-smiled at Nicoletta before, without further ado, going over to the mirror and twisting up her hair to study the effect. What to wear to dinner took much less time to pick than how to wear her hair, at least when she wanted to impress.She knew, of course, that she didn't really have to work to do so. Since she was five years old, Gwen had known she was beautiful. Seven years of experience had also given her the impression that Connor wasn't exactly the hardest person in the world to impress; she could have gone to dinner in what she had on and still received some admiration. There was no reason to dress up, except that she liked how normal it made her feel - as if she were any other pretty girl and could do whatever she liked with whomever she liked.
That, of course, was why she was stupid.
She was a Carey. He was not an appropriate associate for a Carey. It was as simple as that. Even if Alasdair had died when she was an infant and P.U.R.E. had never been formed, the basic problem would have still been there. After June, they would have to break off their...whatever it was. As a Pecari couldn't be expected to think properly, it would be Gwen who did the breaking, and she had the romantic notion that she couldn't lie about why, stark though "Carey girls don't marry Muggleborns" was.
It would have been best for both of them if they had picked different places to stand in their first year flying class, but since that was water under the bridge, it would be much better if she ended it now. The only thing keeping her from doing it was pure selfishness - ironically enough, a family trait. She told herself her failure to steal someone else's boyfriend and use him for emotional support once she'd seen she was getting attached was about not wanting to hurt him, but the truth was that the only guys in the year not a long way out of her league were Earl, who hated her unreservedly and with reason, and Adam, whose girlfriend she was not too eager to tangle with again.
Who was also, come to think of it...
Putting her crisis of conscience behind her, Gwen turned to ask Nicoletta what she thought of the way she'd twisted her hair up. They weren't exactly friends, but they hadn't been enemies for a while, which would have to do; she hadn't had girlfriends of her own since Asher left. When Nicoletta got a word in first, though, Gwen dropped her light blonde hair and folded her arms to listen.
Her eyes narrowed as she heard the idea. All she knew about Bella Santoro was that she was Head Girl; Gwen doubted they had exchanged two words in the past seven years. Why, then, would Bella invite her into her home? Or, more to the point of the matter, why her and Cate? She could see, with a certain amusement, some kind of convention for all of the year's pureblood rebels and rejects, but Catherine? She was Sonora Academy's Good Girl. The original people-pleaser and perfect daughter. Standing by her little friends when their money went away was probably the naughtiest thing Catherine Raines had done in her entire life.
Maybe she'd just felt bad about excluding Nicoletta's best friend; Aladrens could be sentimental. The Santoros didn't strike her, from what she knew about them, as the type for kidnap, and she would be useless to them anyway. There was nothing to lose.
"Why not?" she said, shrugging and turning back to the big mirror. "A little drunken debauchery beats another holiday in the library."
Another stupid move, but she thought she deserved a little vacation. She'd had to work and work hard to get to even a precarious place in society, and the first day she was out of Sonora, she would have to start working again to find a proper husband. Taking a week to enjoy herself couldn't do that much harm.
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Gwen Carey
Is it bad that I'm going to kind of miss these threads?
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Gwen Carey
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Catherine Raines
March 25, 2009 4:55 PM
Nah. by Catherine Raines
Easter holidays were rapidly approaching, and Catherine couldn’t have been happier about it. Between RATS prep, coming up with calm answers to her mother’s frequently hysterical wedding-planner letters, trying to be charming on paper when answering Theo’s letters, and keeping up with her friends, she was exhausted. A massage, facial, and manicure, none of which she’d had since Christmas, were more than in order, and a nice, long shopping trip afterward might be enough to make her feel human again.She was going through yet another catalogue of bridesmaid’s dresses – the printed schedule she’d received a few days earlier listed a final meeting with the seamstress about that two hours after she arrived in Chicago; if the wagon ran late, she wouldn’t have enough time to wash her hair before it – and trying to ignore Gwen’s fascination with her own reflection when Nicoletta decided to ask the room about plans for the break. Before Catherine could whip out her itinerary, though, the question was proven not to have really been a question at all.
Bella Santoro? They didn’t even know Bella Santoro, did they? She was in their year, but she was an Aladren and a tacky dresser to boot. It made no sense for Bella to want anything to do with them, or for them to want anything to do with her, did it?
Apparently it did. Nicoletta had been nice to Gwen since fourth year, but Whitney’s influence seemed to have spread past “be nice” to “be a real friend to everyone”. Catherine disapproved of him having so much control over her friend; it was most unseemly. He was just a man, and not even her husband or father.
She winced when Gwen mentioned drunken debauchery, headlines streaming through her mind: Socialites Gone Wild, Good Girls Gone Bad, , Raines Disowns Daughter Post-Debauch, Illinois Heiress Dead - Georgia Beauty Arrested For Murder. None of them would have ever appealed to her, but they seemed even less appetizing so close to her wedding. She would have given almost anything to put it off a year or two, but having it in August was better than having the whole thing called off because she made a fool of herself in L.A.
“None for me,” she said, sitting up and crossing her legs under her. “I’m triple-booked the entire time. I’ve got meetings with jewelers, caterers, and the seamstresses, a publicity photo with the other six Catherines – “ somehow, no less than six other cousins with variants on her name had been found, and the Gardiners thought it made for an excellent, memorable tidbit – “at a fake lunch, two real brunches in the city with Jack and Irina, a bonding trip with Nancy, some little shows at Phillip and Isabel’s prep school, some charity events and a fashion show with Mother in New York, a trip to Louisiana to see her family, a dancing lesson with Daddy, the Spring Social – “ she waved the latest itinerary, which had been neatly pressed between pages of the catalogue, as if to prove her point.
Though she thought the point was proven, she still bit her lip. “You aren’t mad at me, are you?”
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Catherine Raines
Nah.
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Catherine Raines
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Nicoletta
March 30, 2009 9:28 PM
I know I will. by Nicoletta
A wide grin spread across Nicoletta’s face when Gwen agreed and a laugh nearly escaped her lips at the ideas that floated through her mind at the words before turning unexpectedly to Catherine. There were very few people that truly counted in Nicoletta’s world, but Catherine was among them. She already had one person not going. She didn’t know what she would do if the other said no. Unfortunately, that seemed to be the course that was going to be taken as Catherine had a laundry list of reasons for why she couldn’t.Nicoletta’s smile faltered at the news. She should have guessed that her best friend would have all of these commitments. If the roles had been reversed, she would have been doing pretty much the same things. Blue eyes shifted away in a twinge of jealousy and guilt. Was it wrong that she wanted what she wasn’t going to have? She missed the social events. She missed the whirlwind of it all. She missed the attention. Most of all, she missed how much simpler life was in a way. There was only celebration, not looming death.
And this is where the guilt came from for even wanting such things. It wasn’t that she regretted the decisions she had made, because she didn’t. She had Adam, but she wished sometimes that her two worlds would fit together. She wanted Adam and Catherine to be friends. Sometimes, though, it was probably all in her head, it seemed as though they didn’t like each other. She had hoped that the performance would help to change that, that Catherine could see that the other side wasn’t so bad, that one could even be happy, but it wasn’t going to happen.
Though, somehow in the tragedy of the event, Gwen had become her ally for the trip. Oh, sure, there was her brother, but he was already friends with Bella and Anne, which Nic could only assume Bella would invite her roommate if she had invited her and her roommates. “I guess it’s just you and me,” she said to her soon to be partner in crime. It wasn’t a bad thing. It would give them a chance to actually get to know each other better. She suspected that if things had played out differently, they could have been great friends, but things were what they were.
’You aren’t mad at me, are you?’
Her eyes shifted to her roommate. A small sigh escaped her lips. How could her best friend think such a thing over such a thing? Yes, she wanted her to go and yes, she was disappointed that Catherine couldn’t, but it wasn’t as though it were something to get into a huge fight about. Moving, she sat down next to her friend on the bed. “Of course I’m not mad at you. I don’t know what would give you the idea I was going to be. Are you and your future husband” the words felt odd “going to be picking out the rings then? Any thoughts on what you’re looking for?”
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Nicoletta
I know I will.
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Nicoletta
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Gwen
March 31, 2009 12:38 AM
They are truly epic. by Gwen
Somehow, Gwen was not surprised to hear that Catherine was going to stay sober during break. Maybe because she, Gwen, had just agreed to go, and she and Cate were only civil on a good day at Sonora. Outside, in the real world... In their world....The world Cate just...wouldn't...stop...talking...about....
Fighting down irritation, she began to brush her long hair, pulling harder than usual. So Catherine had everything, and knew everything, and would belong to the family controlling most of the mass media in the Northern United States before this time next year. So the life she was describing was, in perfect detail, Gwen's life, if everything had gone the way it should have. Cate had this round in her pocket, but Gwen would have the next one. When she married in a year or two, she would do better than Catherine by far.
She put down her hairbrush when Nicoletta spoke to her once again. "Let the fun begin," she drawled, slipping back into her accent. She had learned to imitate most accents she had heard around Sonora, and usually stayed in one not entirely unlike Cate's bland Midwesterness, but the one she had used before Sonora was still much more comfortable, somehow.
'You aren't mad at me, are you?' Catherine asked her friend.
When Nicoletta's back was turned, Gwen rolled her eyes and picked her hairbrush back up. Leave it to Cate to be a few months away from marriage and still sounding like a little girl afraid that the big kid didn't like her. As she began to brush her hair again, though, Gwen turned to face their conversation instead of the mirror. The wedding talk was a tad too enticing to ignore.
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Gwen
They are truly epic.
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Gwen
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Catherine
March 31, 2009 2:33 PM
Odysseus had nothing on us. by Catherine
When Nicoletta sighed, Catherine felt her stomach plummet even faster than it had at the idea of Nicoletta and Gwen having fun together, but it quickly rose back to a normal position when her friend assured her that she wasn't mad. Everything was okay. They were okay."Rings?" she asked blankly, then got it. "Oh! Rings. I get it. I'm pretty sure Mother and Irina already did, but I'll have to try mine on to make sure it fits." She looked down at her left hand, wondering what wearing two rings instead of one there would be like. "I've been looking through the catalogues for a necklace and earrings, but all the things Mother recommends are too big and gaudy. That's why I have to hit the jeweler's."
Her mother had fabulous taste in clothes, but Catherine was convinced she'd bought the most expensive display pieces of every fine jeweler in six or seven states to fill her jewel boxes. It was the only explanation for how Lila had come to own so many pairs of earrings almost as big as her head and necklaces that seemed about to snap her neck. Catherine had no idea what she'd do with it all when her mother died; the idea of pawning her mother's jewelry was unthinkable, but - and it was a powerful 'but' - unless her appearance changed pretty radically before then, she herself looked like a bad fortune teller in it.
Another thought occurred to her. "One more thing about my break. Do you mind wearing lavender? Daphne can make your adjustments this summer - I'll guess your size so she can have something to work with until then - but I'll need to settle on the cut and colors while we're out this time."
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Catherine
Odysseus had nothing on us.
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Catherine
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Nicoletta
April 01, 2009 8:20 PM
What ever will we do next year? *tears up* by Nicoletta
A perfectly done eyebrow was raised on the fact that neither Catherine nor her future mate had picked out the rings. In her mind, the rings were the most important part of the planning. Even if the entire wedding was a disaster, people would eventually forget that or only remember on occasion, but the rings were something that would be seen, noticed, every single day for the rest of their lives. It might not be a symbol of their fidelity, but it would be a symbol of commitment. What if it were some gaudy piece of jewelry? People might think that the entire relationship was just as kitschy.Nicoletta bit her tongue on saying as much, especially when Catherine admitted that her mother had already recommended necklaces and earrings that were as much. She sincerely hoped that if they were, Catherine would stand up for herself and find something more appropriate. But then, who was she to judge? Her wardrobe and jewelry had improved considerably since last year since she no longer had to buy from bargain outlets and the like, but even so, no matter what she had on, the bracelet Adam had given her had its place on her wrist. Oh, it wasn’t that it was horrible looking. It just wasn’t as extravagant as some of the other pieces.
Thus, it caused the bracelet to stick out like a sore thumb on occasion. But then, their relationship went deeper than mere jewelry and alliances. Theirs was built on emotion and trust. She knew that if she had stayed on the path she was on, she wouldn’t have ever had that with Lucien. She wondered if Catherine had that with Theo. She remembered the way her friend’s face had glowed with merely mentioning him, so maybe it was feasible that she would. She wished that it would happen. If it did, then the rings would be important as the symbol of their devotion. Okay, the rings were entirely momentous no matter what the final relationship.
Involving less essential matters included the color of her dress. She fought against sighing again for Catherine asked her if she minded lavender. If she said that she did, would Catherine pick a different color? It wasn’t that she was bothered by the color, but it was more that it was supposed to be her friend’s wedding and she should be planning the details. Voicing it, Nicoletta said, “Catherine, it’s your wedding. It’s the only one you’ll ever have so it should be everything you want it to be.” She placed her hand on Catherine’s arm as a gesture of support before joking, “If you want me to wear a bright orange dress with a huge pink bow for your wedding, I would.”
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Nicoletta
What ever will we do next year? *tears up*
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Nicoletta
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Catherine
April 04, 2009 1:54 AM
Road trip! by Catherine
“If you want me to wear a bright orange dress with a huge pink bow for your wedding, I would.”Catherine's lips twitched in a near-smile. "Don't give me any ideas," she warned. "You're the only girl I know who's gorgeous enough to pull that look off, but my sister-in-law would kill you after the ceremony. She's practically invisible in anything except, like, gray."
Actually, Nancy would kill Catherine - they had known each other forever, plus Nancy would probably still think it was beneath her to acknowledge Nicoletta's presence beyond bare formalities - but that was a trivial detail. Light blonde hair and pale blue eyes could work quite nicely, but Nancy Gardiner just didn't have it. She looked anemic wearing blush half the time. Catherine figured it was Nancy's punishment for being so blessed in every other respect: rich, attractive parents who adored each other, brothers, good grades, culture, the works. She had to pay somehow, and she'd done it by drawing the short stick when it came to looks.
It was obvious that Nicoletta didn't quite get why all this was an issue. For one crazy second, Catherine considered just saying it: you are more important to me than Theo will ever be, and I want to make sure you know that. Because Gwen was still in the room and she was too much of a coward to risk hearing that she wasn't as important as Adam, though, she didn't say it.
"So," she said instead, tossing the seamstress' catalogue onto her night table and hugging one of her pillows to her stomach. "What about your ball and chain? Is he going with you to California?"
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Catherine
Road trip!
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Catherine
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Gwen
April 07, 2009 7:34 PM
WtS will never be the same... by Gwen
Gwen felt a moment of real pity for Nicoletta as she, once again, had to reassure Catherine of her worth in the world relative to her best friend. To be among the most precious and privileged girls on the continent, Cate lacked a spine in a major way. Nicoletta was either a saint or getting an absurd amount of benefits from the relationship to refrain from telling her to grow up already."I take exception to that comment," Gwen said, only half in jest, when Catherine said Nicoletta was the only person she knew who was gorgeous enough to wear the ridiculous orange-and-pink non-dress. "I could totally pull that look off."
This was untrue. She never wore orange, or bright colors in general, for a reason - she thought she looked like she was in a circus nightmare. Since she tried to maintain at least some level of refinement in her clothing choices when there was sufficient money to do so, going around in any ensemble that could make someone think 'circus nightmare' was eleven different kinds of a no-no.
Catherine actually succeeded in making her laugh with her description of Adam Whitney. "Someone has fears of commitment," she teased, going to sit down on her own bed and focus on the conversation. Adam Whitney tagging along could be a serious problem. He could decide it would be a great idea for roommates to double-date on Easter. Since, at least in front of Catherine, she couldn't say anything remotely like that, she went with another tactic. "So, is he?"
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Gwen
WtS will never be the same...
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Gwen
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Nic
April 12, 2009 4:49 PM
Nothing will ever be the same by Nic
Catherine had to be lying. She just had to be. No one, absolutely no one, not even blonde bombshell Gwen Carey, looked good in an orange dress with a pink bow. The colors had a tendency to clash horribly. The only thing worse than someone wearing an orange dress with a pink bow was if that someone had red hair. Then, it was really scary. But she appreciated the compliment all the same. It had such a sincerity about it, because it was her best friend that had said it rather than some random guy who just wanted to see if he could get somewhere and for this she was rewarded with a smile.Though, the fact that the sister-in-law who looked decent only in gray that would kill her if she wore the monstrosity dress was a bit worrisome. Lavender was one of the colors that worked quite well on her. It complimented all of her tones nicely. How would sister-in-law feel about that? Of course, it didn’t really matter. She brushed off the comment with a wave of her hand. “She’ll be practically invisible anyhow, because everyone’s eyes will be on you and how gorgeous you’ll be in your wedding gown. I’m sure you’ll be like some fairy princess come to life.” Catherine was pretty on her own. This would be the ultimate enhancement.
Before she knew it, Nicoletta had all eyes on her wondering about Adam. She shifted a bit uncomfortably with a slight shrug of the shoulders. Her eyes now focused on Catherine’s bedspread and hoping for a loose thread that she could cause a fuss about instead. “No, he’s not,” she said slowly. She could have left it at that, but she was tired of pretending that everything was fine. She was tired of holding it all in. They had talked about it before. She had permission to tell them. “Adam’s really not up to travelling. He hasn’t been feeling well lately. Well, for a while actually. He’s really very sick.” She took a deep breath as the truth began coming out.
“He has a heart condition. I found out about it when he was dating Dalila,” she told them. She toyed with her fingers wrapping them around themselves. “Over midterm, he had to go to the hospital, because he had an attack. It’s getting worse. He’s…” She couldn’t say the word. She couldn’t say that he was dying. It was so final. And for the moment, she hated this world. She hated that there would be one without him for it seemed that there shouldn’t be. It was all so wrong. “It’s just one day at a time, hoping that there’s a tomorrow.” It was the closest she could come to saying what would happen in the future.
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Nic
Nothing will ever be the same
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Nic
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Gwen
April 13, 2009 11:51 AM
So true... by Gwen
Gwen had already been interested - Adam was a threat to the balance she tried to keep between her two worlds - but only when Nicoletta became evasive did she really sit up and pay attention. When the one of them with the most power started taking refuge in staring at an ordinary object as though it fascinated her, something was up. Had they broken up?Apparently not. Instead, the blame went to chronic illness of the incurable kind. Why, exactly, was he still going to school? She was no expert on heart disease, but surely all the stress of classes and RATS and a girlfriend and acting as if nothing were wrong was bad for him...
"That's awful," she breathed sympathetically when Nicoletta seemed to have finished. "I'm so sorry."
'Discomfited' was more like it. It was strange to imagine someone her age dead, and unsettling. It was awful enough to think of losing all her looks and becoming a crazy old lady in a corner without considering anything else, which all of this made her do.
To die young and beautiful or old and ugly. What a choice.
She felt a strong desire to change the subject. Death was so...messy. Unseemly, though that term was better applied to grief. There was a reason people in mourning minimized their social engagements, and Gwen felt it might be their comprehension of how distasteful it would be to inflict a load of black cloth and dull eyes on everyone else's good time. Somehow, though, she thought rattling on about hair products would get her reclassified as insane or added to the ranks of the severely socially inept, so she kept her mouth shut.
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Gwen
So true...
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Gwen
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Catherine
April 13, 2009 12:54 PM
It's sad. by Catherine
Catherine flushed slightly with pleasure at the compliment, but refrained from saying that she would still look like an over-dressed troll next to Nicoletta. That was the real and recognized danger of having beautiful friends: they always, without exception, outshone her. Her parents hated it; they both felt that, given her position, she should have found a circle where she could lead instead of basking in reflected glory from Nicoletta and Jordanna, but Catherine liked this way better. She had few talents, but her strongest and most useful was for doing just as she was told to do. "Thanks."She took a slightly different tone with Gwen when she threw in a little barb about her term for Adam Whitney. "Please," she scoffed. "Wait until you get one, and then tell me what you think of my terminology." She did, however, make a note of Gwen's interest in the answer to the question. Was Gwen, whose blonde hair did not seem to be his type, thinking she might have a chance of stealing Whitney? And if it was what she was up to, why would she want him? Even with her social problems, Gwen had to be able to do better than Nicoletta's hand-me-down boyfriends.
Her initial reaction, before she picked up on the cues that came with the words, to Nicoletta's announcement about Adam was relief. He would not spend a week with her friend in an uncontrolled environment, doing and saying who knew what. A second later, however, she noticed the averted eyes, and an explanation came a second later, shocking her.
Too ill to travel. Heart condition. Serious. She had known about it since he'd been with Dalila, which was...Absently raking through her memory of gossip didn't yield a precise amount of time, but Catherine knew it had been a while. An extremely long while for Nicoletta to have been carrying a piece of news like that around without letting it slip. If it had slipped, Catherine was sure she would have known. A part of her policy had once included not keeping too close of a tab on her friends, but that had changed when Whitney entered the picture. She had to know that Nicoletta was... all right, not needing her help.
"Oh, Nicoletta..." she said, in nearly the same hushed way Gwen had offered her apology. It felt like a funeral parlor. She went to hug her friend. "Are his Healers good? Because it's not like I have no connections in the medical field..." She pulled back, shaking her head at her own stupidity. Now was hardly the time to talk connections and logistics. "I am so sorry."
It was an echo of what Gwen had said, but she meant it in a different way. Now that she knew, she felt guilty about how jealous she'd been about Adam seeming to monopolize all her friend's time. Of course he was going to get more of Nicoletta's focus - he was dying, Nicoletta thought she was in love with him, and Catherine was probably going to be in the world for a lot longer than he was. Unless one had some freak accident, she and Nicoletta might well have a century to be best friends. Nicoletta's affair with Adam might just as well not last another year.
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Catherine
It's sad.
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Catherine
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Nic
April 14, 2009 4:13 PM
Incredibly so. by Nic
Nicoletta nodded at their sympathies, offering a tight-lipped smile to each as she met each of their eyes. She wanted to avoid this part. She wanted to avoid the awkward silence and the pity. Pity because she fell in love with a guy that destiny was determined she not be with whether it was in the form of her family, their decisions, or his heart. She wasn’t used to the feeling. She hated the feeling and wanted it to go away as quickly as possible. She wanted to something else, anything else, Catherine’s wedding, Gwen’s joining her for the outing, just anything else, but she couldn’t. There were questions to be answered.“I guess the Healers are good, but it doesn’t matter. Muggle doctors might be able to help cause they have some sort of thing called a transplant, but they can’t just give it to him. I don’t really understand it all,” she explained. Truth be told, she didn’t completely trust the muggle doctors. While she had grown quite a bit as a person from the days where purity of blood meant everything, there were some things that she couldn’t let go of like healers being superior to doctors. She didn’t understand why everything seemed to take so long. She had met a person with a cast on their leg when she worked at her aunt and uncle’s restaurant.
After talking with him, she had learned that it would take something ridiculous like six weeks to mend the broken bone whereas if she ever broke a bone a Healer could fix it within minutes. It was just an example of the superiority, which was really horrible of her to think, but it was what it was. If healers couldn’t fix Adam, how could a muggle doctor? Not wanting to really go into further detail, Nicoletta changed the topic to Gwen, “Are you planning on putting your hair up or down for the club? I was thinking of putting mine up, but I don’t know.”
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Nic
Incredibly so.
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Nic
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Gwen
April 16, 2009 10:52 PM
Sadder than Odo the Hero. by Gwen
As Catherine attempted to comfort her friend, Gwen tried to repress a grimace at the allusion to the Raines connections in the medical field. She honestly didn't know if Catherine was trying to be offensive or if she was just that dumb, but Gwen still felt it was in poor taste for her to be so open about the fact that, in their world, she was so far above them as to not warrant comparison. Their families had taken them back, true, but they would never rise as high as they had been before they were thrown out. Catherine didn't need to remind them of it.The talk of Healers and doctors made her feel even less at-ease than the talk of death. Unlike her sister, who held an unhealthy fascination for their austere craft, Gwen loathed Healers and the medical field in general. Thinking about it made her think about her childhood, something she had, with a fair degree of success, done her best to forget she'd had any part in. Lorena's Healers had not been regular players, but they had made their contributions to the psychodrama of her previous life.
Fortunately, the topic soon changed to something far more congenial: herself. She gave Nicoletta a grateful look. A riddle she might have been, but she had been raised well; she knew the morbid was not to be stayed with. "Depends," she said, touching the ends of her hair automatically. It might not have been her best feature, but it was a feature she took a great deal of pride in. "Deciding what to wear has to come first, and then I might change how it goes at the last minute, anyway." She raised a shiny lock up in front of her eyes to study it. "Maybe down, if it's one of its good days."
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Gwen
Sadder than Odo the Hero.
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Gwen
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Catherine
April 23, 2009 5:12 PM
Let's just try to remember all the good times we had... by Catherine
Muggle doctors were among the classes of people Catherine had no exposure to and knew nothing about, but if she was to believe Nicoletta, that wasn't a lack she had any need to remedy. They sounded utterly useless.Of course, the uselessness of the Muggle doctors didn't do away with the fact that Nicoletta had implied there was no solution on the magical end, either. For the millionth-or-so time, Catherine cursed herself for being stupid. If she had been smart, she might have been more aware of what was going on in the family businesses and known whether or not Uncle Luke could do more than Adam's Healers. He had - she thought - been a cardiologist before he'd retired into the board chairman's position, so he would know if there was a lot of research going on in the field and if any of it had a promising look.
What had Nicoletta done to deserve all this? First she drew a bad betrothal, then she got disowned, and now the boy she thought she was in love with was going to die. No one - she even included Gwen in that - deserved to suffer through all of those things, but Nicoletta surely deserved it less than most. Whatever she had done wrong in her life, she had paid for when her parents rejected her. There was no good reason for Fate to keep dragging it out.
It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair. Catherine wanted to go kick Adam for doing this to Nicoletta, but had sense enough to know it would just make things worse. Besides, he was on the guest list for the wedding. It would be awkward, to say the least, to kick a boy down a flight of stairs and then have him get an invitation to her wedding the next day in the mail.
She wasn't quite sure how Nicoletta could spring something like that on her and then change the topic to Gwen's hair, but she bit her tongue as Gwen began to think about it. It could have been worse; Gwen could've started expounding on the subject and throwing in subtle little comments to make sure they knew she thought she was prettier than either of them. In Catherine's case, there was no question - she had always been the plainest of they three - but Nicoletta was a different story.
"Like it ever has a bad one," she said before she thought, then turned pink. Complimenting Gwen, even in what she was really hoping would appear to be jest, was even worse than kicking Adam. Catherine would almost bet the everday pearls that she would never be allowed to forget saying that. She decided to steer the subject away from Gwen's hair with as much haste as possible without being blatant. "So, what do you two think you'll wear? I don't know what's...proper in that kind of place." Odd, to use proper in that context. A club was hardly a proper place for ladies of their caliber and age. "Mother says I'm wearing pink for the Social."
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Catherine
Let's just try to remember all the good times we had...
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Nic
April 29, 2009 10:43 PM
Like this? by Nic
"Who's all invited?" It was a really good thing that Nicoletta had been taught like most respectable purebloods to be able to hide her emotions and this was one of those times to as she asked the question. Why would her mother have picked pink? At one time, Nicoletta had absolutely loved the color. It had been the color she had worn when given the chance for most of their first year. But she had also been eleven. Pink was one of those colors that was generally worn by little girls not by mature, intelligent women. Did her mother think that she was a little girl or that she just wasn’t smart?In either case, she didn’t think that Catherine’s mother gave her very much credit. Actually, she didn’t think many people gave the girl very much credit. It was these type of people that her mother had taught her to watch out for, to make friends with, because they were the types that would leave everyone stunned. When it came down to it, they were unpredictable. Of course, she could be completely wrong about her friend, but really, why take the chance? Besides, if she didn’t like Catherine, she would never tell her any secrets and she shared quite a few.
“You should wear your hair up,” Nicoletta told Gwen as she got up off the bed and moved towards her closet. “It shows off your facial structure. I might do the same.” She normally left her hair down in their natural loose curls, but there would be no one at the outing to toy with her hair. Opening the door of her closet, she picked out a few of her newer outfits that she was considering wearing and laid them out neatly on her bed. “Jeans are popular among the…” What was she supposed to say? The lesser society? That would have been snobby.
Starting over, she continued, “Jeans seem to be popular.” When she lived with her aunt that was something she saw nearly everywhere. People wearing jeans. “I’m not sure what I would wear them with though. Most of my shirts aren’t really something I would wear out to a, and I quote, darker atmosphere. Or I could wear a dress or maybe a skirt.” She looked over the variety of skirts and dresses – everything from simple black to sequined. “The problem is I need something that looks good, but won’t give the wrong impression to a guy. What do you think?”
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Nic
Like this?
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Nic
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Gwen
April 30, 2009 1:29 PM
This does seem to be one of our better interactions. by Gwen
Gwen was momentarily taken aback by Catherine's comment on her hair, but recovered quickly and smiled widely at Cate. If nothing else, it would disconcert her. "Thanks, Cathy," she said. Since they were playing nicely for Mother Nikki, she softened her usual nickname into something she thought the other girl might find marginally more acceptable.She tried to picture Catherine in pink formalwear, but all she could see was that little third year, Holly, who acted so crazy Gwen could almost believe she really was a little detached from reality. That was a disturbing image...Catherine had issues, but not issues like that, and even Gwen's disdain for her didn't quite extend to thinking she ought to have been in Pecari. She gave up the effort to imagine the dress as Nicoletta spoke to her. She could always see the society column pictures later.
"I'll take that into consideration," she said, pulling her hair back with her hands again even though she wasn't able to see herself in the mirror anymore. "And I don't own any jeans, so I'm voting for a skirt." Gwen let go of her hair and eyed her own closet door. "As for the boys getting the wrong idea in their dirty little heads..." she shrugged as if not much interested in the question. "Might as well use our Defense Against the Dark Arts RATS for something."
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Gwen
This does seem to be one of our better interactions.
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Catherine
April 30, 2009 2:29 PM
Yeah. We're all being kind of...nice. by Catherine
Catherine smiled tightly at Gwen, ignoring the 'Cathy'. At least it wasn't Cate "You're welcome," she said evenly. It could have been sincere - someone could be figuring out how to make the Philosopher's Stone at the very moment Gwen thanked her - and if it wasn't, she wouldn't give the other girl the satisfaction of a reaction.She smiled for real when Nicoletta asked about the Social. Only semi-formal for everything except the ball at the end of the week, it was usually one of the most fun events she got to mark on her social calendar. "Except for the dances in the evenings, it's a few friendly families. There's us, the Gardiners, the Barretts, the Spencers, some Douglases, some Forwynts, the Rosedales - " she managed not to make a face at the thought of another year of watching Holly try, as usual, to flirt with Charles - "and the Shane Rutledges with their children."
Unbidden, the memory of Ariana Rutledge and that stupid hat she'd worn the previous year came to her. Some of the men - Shane and Charles among them - had come up with a game with that hat. The objective had been to successfully launch the most peas into its turned-up brim without her noticing. The winner had, she thought, been her Uncle Leonard, who had an impressive arm for a man about to turn ninety-four. Shaking off her moment of inattention, she got back to the point.
"Basically, there's some big dances and picnics that all of the local families come to, and then there's the events the main families have. It's my family's year to host the ball, and next year, I think we'll host the main picnic." She was hoping so, anyway. The picnics were always fun. "All of the witches start ordering their robes months in advance. Dinah Rutledge threw a fit when she heard I was wearing pink; she always wears rose, but since she's Theo's ex-girlfriend..."
She realized she was rambling. "You should come next year. I'll make the arrangements when I get back from - wherever Theo's taking me after the wedding." That had, she thought vaguely, been settled a while back, but she'd forgotten it if it had. No one could have remembered everything she had been bombarded with over the past few months. "It's always a lot of fun. So, what about your outfits?"
She gave Gwen a pointed look when the blonde suggested that she and Nicoletta might need to defend themselves from some of the club's other patrons. "I'm sure that won't be at all necessary," she said firmly. She wasn't at all sure she was telling the truth - what constituted 'darker'? - but it was a reassurance she felt she needed to make. It was possible, maybe even probable, that she needed to reassure herself as much or more than she needed to reassure Nicoletta. "Blacks are always nice. Sophisticated. With the right neckline and hem, you shouldn't have to worry about anything."
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Catherine
Yeah. We're all being kind of...nice.
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Catherine
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