Desperate times, desperate measures (Gwen) on Cascade Hall

Connor Pierce

March 18, 2008 10:50 PM

Desperate times, desperate measures (Gwen) by Connor Pierce

There was, officially speaking, nothing wrong with hanging around outside the Cascade Hall to wait for someone to get done with and leave breakfast. Unfortunately, that did not make actually doing it any less awkward. It took less than two minutes for Connor to become convinced that Headmaster Tribble, Headmaster Clurican, and Mims were all staring at him, the first and last as if sure he was up to something. Telling himself it was all in his head proved ineffective.

He'd been putting this off for months, first by reassuring himself that there was plenty of time, and then by telling himself that it would be stupid to do something that could be misinterpreted during the stress and madness of CATS. Now, though, their exams were over, there was almost no time, and he had found out, to his dismay, that he was actually going to have to dance at the Headmaster's Ball. If ever a situation called for him to work up the nerve to ask Gwen out, this was it.

Now all he had to do was get around to the working up the nerve part.

At least he could be fairly sure that no one else had asked her first. Gwen was gorgeous and everyone knew it, but that had always taken second place to the rumors about her being crazy. He'd never really understood that. She could go from mood to mood faster than anyone he'd ever met and she liked to talk a lot, but that was no crazier than half the people in Pecari. Maybe it was just because she was a Crotalus and people expected Crotali to act differently. The Houses were great promoters of stereotypes.

He meant to go back over his list of reasons for thinking this was a good idea, but had gotten no further than that it made sense for the commonly accepted prettiest girl in the school to lead the dancing before, without any of the flourishes or random notes of music that should have come part and parcel with such a scene, Gwen left the Hall and entered his line of vision. It was do or die now, or felt as though it were. Being around her so much could lead to seeing things a little too dramatically every so often.

"Hey - Hey, Gwen," he said, walking quickly to catch up with her. "Got a minute?" So far, so good.

0 Connor Pierce Desperate times, desperate measures (Gwen) 68 Connor Pierce 1 5

Gwen Carey

March 20, 2008 8:22 PM

Fumblerule #33: Avoid clichés like the plague. by Gwen Carey

Gwen got up from the breakfast table, humming slightly and mostly tunelessly. She had never been musical, but humming was one of the activities most associated with those times when the world seemed a fine place, and the cliché greatly amused her. It was quite easy to be amused when everything was going more or less right in her life, and she'd always been the most easily amused Carey she knew besides. With a newly-light school bag, two years until her next major set of exams, and everyone she disliked in straits at least as dire as hers, even returning dull books to the library was a sort of party.

It couldn't last, of course. She'd known that from the very moment she'd woken up in a wildly good mood after CATS, but she didn't let it bother her too much. Anything she was put through over the summer would have to end at the end of two months, and she didn't expect the Ball to warrant more than a few days of ill temper. There was virtually no chance any of her close relatives would snatch dates, and seeing Lila, prissy missy Lila, alone would boost her spirits by itself, and other morale-increasing things were sure to happen. She was particularly looking forward to seeing Jordanna attempt to lead the dancing on her own.

She was halfway across the vestibule, thinking vaguely of going for a walk in the Gardens, when she heard her name. Turning, frowning slightly in confusion, she found Connor beside her. Asked for a word, she blinked and smiled and, more devoutly than she had done anything for a long time, hoped Morgaine was nowhere nearby and would stay that way until this interview was over. It had been weeks after an initial amicable interview before she and her sister were able to stop acting like polite, formal strangers to each other. She was out of favor now, and needed her sister on her side.

"Sure, dahlin'," she said, deciding to go along and hope he just wanted to know when their CATS scores would arrive, or something as quick and mundane. He had almost always been a good friend to her, but the fact remained that they weren't at all politically good for each other, especially now that her place as a Carey girl was very nearly equal to his as a Pecari prefect. Friendship was a private affair, and in the view of Tavarius Mims and the Founders and anyone going out or coming in was not a private place. "What's the matter?"

0 Gwen Carey Fumblerule #33: Avoid clichés like the plague. 63 Gwen Carey 0 5

Connor

March 20, 2008 9:08 PM

But they're <i>fun</i>! by Connor

There was something weird about feeling both relieved and a lot more nervous at the exact same time. It made less sense than a reclusive Muggleborn thinking he had a chance with a notorious pureblood whose father sounded like a Darth Vader without a Queen Amidala to recall and get sentimental over. It was, however, what he felt when Gwen gave him one of her smiles instead of one of her haughty looks. Her smiling was good. The possibility of her stopping that was bad. He knew her exactly well enough to know there was no telling how on earth she'd react.

He tried very hard to remember why this had seemed like a good idea back in the common room. They were friends, and it was normal for friends to do each other favors to keep either from looking like an idiot in public. Morgaine had better sense than to make a scene in public, and he was a prefect and could write her up if she tried to hex him at some later date. There were already rumors about them, so it wouldn't really compromise her reputation. None of his arguments seemed as convincing as they had, but he wasn't able to come up with new ones.

"Nothing," he said quickly when she asked what was wrong. A debatable lie, he thought. He wished he'd taken his brother up on his offer of tips for how to deal with girls when the Ball announcement had arrived. "I was just - uh - wondering something." Well, here it was. It was now or never, because if he ducked out and asked something dumb about when Sutekh wanted their essays in by, he'd never manage to work up the courage to ask her again. Why couldn't he have preferred an Aladren, or some nice Teppenpaw girl? "You, er, you want to go to the Ball with me?"

That hadn't gone too badly. He'd actually gotten all of the words out, they had all been in the right order, and he was pretty sure he hadn't sounded too terribly strange. Maybe a little less casual than he'd wanted to, but not like he was considering never facing the school again if she decided to get offended and slap him or something like that. Now there was nothing left to do but cross his fingers and wait for a reaction.

0 Connor But they're <i>fun</i>! 68 Connor 0 5

Gwen

March 22, 2008 11:14 PM

The Rules are more important than Fun. by Gwen

All traces of good humor left Gwen's face the second after she processed what she'd just been asked. She wasn't given to hovering around refusing to believe things that were as obviously true as her nose was on her face, but there were moments when doing so was appropriate. If this wasn't such a moment, she didn't know what, short of being disowned or hearing that someone in the immediate family had died, was one. Once the moment ended, however, her brain had started working furiously behind her shocked expression, searching for a good solution to the problem at hand.

Telling the truth was, of course, not an option; it would almost certainly lead to a quarrel, and she...didn't want to deal with that, not when things had been going so well for her. Accepting wasn't an option, either; she would be ruined, and this time there would be no chance of somehow making things up. Mud thrown at her could also wind up on her sister, and it had been made clear that Morgaine, the family's best hope of a decent marriage alliance in their generation, had to be as spotless as Gwen could keep her. That left turning it all around somehow so it was her own fault. She hated making it her own fault, especially when it sort of was.

"Oh, honey," she said finally, the endearment sounding less fond than tired. "What would you want me to do that for?"

Fool, she thought, chastising herself. Why had she called him "honey"? The point was to turn him down gently while making it obvious that any attempt to make a second such offer would be taken less well. Calling people honey and darling and so on was habit, but even she knew enough to know it was also the sort of thing members of a couple did. Other people her age were interested in such things, and they read something into everything.

Gwen was not interested in nonprofessional relationships. As far as she could tell, they lead to nothing but either heartbreak or ruin. She did, though, still think it was a pity Connor was Muggleborn. If making a good alliance was no longer possible, she would have liked to marry someone she got along with, and the list of candidates was a very short one - so short, in fact, that it didn't exist.

0 Gwen The Rules are more important than Fun. 63 Gwen 0 5

Connor

March 22, 2008 11:17 PM

But that wasn't a Rule by Connor

Gwen looked...shocked. Connor wasn't sure if it was a good shocked or a bad shocked. Either way, he had a feeling she couldn't have looked more surprised if he'd taken a notion to hit her upside the head with a hammer. She was actually speechless, a phenomenon he'd hardly ever witnessed before now. Gwen could always find something to say about things, so much so that he'd wondered if her running feud with her roommates might not be attributable to her sleeptalking or something.

He began having his strongest doubts to date about this. He liked her, but she'd never acted as though she saw him much differently than she did Amber, someone who'd listen to her ramble on without interrupting much or trying to talk about Quidditch all the time. That was why he'd tried to sound as if he didn't think anything about asking her. He'd expected either fury at the presumption, a good-natured rejection or acceptance, or at least something so he knew what was going on in her head. This blank look had never factored into his calculations, and he didn't know what to do with it. He had no idea what it meant.

He was just about to apologize and evacuate the area before he made more of a fool out of himself when Gwen finally got her tongue back. On the bright side, she didn't sound cold, furious, or likely to start hitting him any time soon. Less favorably, she hadn't answered the question. Instead, she'd done exactly what he'd really, really hoped she wouldn't do and asked why he was asking her. He didn't want to tell the truth for fear of her temper, but he wasn't that great of a liar under pressure. This counted as pressure.

"They're saying us prefects are gonna have to - uh - lead the first dance," he mumbled, not looking her in the eye, cursing silently once he realized he had started mumbling again. He'd gotten much better about that, and he thought she'd pick up on it. "I figured - well, we're friends and you know how to dance and I don't, and - well, you know I don't know that many girls besides you..." It took just a little too long to realize that might not be the best way to go about this. That sounded like he had only asked her because he was desperate. He decided the best thing to do next was shut up before he dug himself in any deeper.

There were a lot of days he wondered if he and Gwen had, in some moment of mismanagement by the staff, been Sorted into the wrong Houses. This was shaping up to be one of them. It was a complete given in his mind that, if their places were reversed, she wouldn't have been clumsily dodging the issue and really wishing she'd accepted a night of dull Quidditch talk and just asked his nonexistent magical cousin. As they were each in their own shoes, though, this chat was looking more and more like a train wreck about to happen as it went on.

0 Connor But that wasn't a Rule 68 Connor 0 5

Gwen

March 22, 2008 11:25 PM

Technicalities, technicalities. by Gwen

Gwen raised her eyebrows slightly, not sure if she should laugh or be offended, when Connor finished his litany. It was quite ridiculous, and for a moment things felt almost normal between them on her end. She got a grip as quickly as she'd almost lost it, however. It wasn't the moment to be normal and open, it was a moment to think and actually use her head for more than a glorified hat rack. This was high theatre, it was, and she did love to think about how well she played parts. If she could play one so well that things ended amicably here, she'd be able to rest assured that she was Sonora's best at it, without rival.

"You know Anne," she pointed out. "And Amber, but she's not for you, I'm afraid. Anne's a perfectly good match, and now that you're a prefect, everyone knows who you are. I'm sure there's lots of girls who'd be delighted to dance with you, darling, and they'd all be better for you than me. I'd just make you look a fool." Actually, people would think that he was either crazy himself or willing to overlook her alleged craziness for her looks, but that didn't suit her and might backfire completely. She wouldn't put some fit of misguided gallantry past him.

"I'm sure Anne's still alone," she said, deciding she'd say her sorries later and maybe allow Anne to punish her a bit. It was for the greater good, and Anne had no reputation, no family, or anything at all to be concerned about. Being, at least in rumor, a prefect's girl might actually help her cousin socially. "You know, she's much admired, but the boys are a little afraid of her, I think...You know how she can be. She's a very good dancer, though, loads better than me." This was almost certainly a lie, though Gwen had never actually seen Anne dancing to confirm it. It did not matter at the moment.

0 Gwen Technicalities, technicalities. 63 Gwen 0 5

Connor

March 22, 2008 11:34 PM

Very important things. by Connor

When Gwen started listing the other girls he was at least a little acquainted with, Connor made a face automatically at the names she pulled up. Anne was too much for him to think about handling, and Amber Carey was thirteen. Both were all right folks and pretty enough, but not his types. His luck, however, apparently decided to take a tiny upswing, because Gwen didn't seem to notice or take offense at his expressed lack of enthusiasm about her cousins.

The comment about the other girls was dismissed as a joke he wasn't getting. Maybe they could vaguely point him out as "the fifth year prefect" or "the fifth year who is not Adam", but he doubted that even the girls in Pecari would think that was a good reason not to laugh and walk off if he randomly asked one of them out. He lived an infinitely quieter life than many of his Housemates and, most of the time, liked it that way. From what he'd seen of people at Sonora with more interesting lives, getting noisy in this world seemed very uncomfortable most of the time.

He gave her a horrified look, which was as overlooked as his earlier grimace had been, when Gwen proposed that he find Anne and ask her out. He didn't know about how much admired she was, but did Gwen seriously not realize that there were several good reasons why people were a little intimidated by Anne? He wouldn't put it past her to jinx him on the spot if she decided he was mocking her. She'd never actually done something like that, at least to the best of his knowledge, but it fit her.

The hell with it. The worst Gwen could do was storm off. "I don't want to go with Anne," he said. "Nothing against her, but I asked you instead of her because I - well - wanted to go with you instead of her." Gwen was a girl. Girls wanted, traditionally, to discuss things. He definitely did not. It would make this too weird and uncomfortable, and it was not exactly fun as it was. "And I don't know why, so don't ask. You - I dunno. I don't know. Can you just say yes or no?"

0 Connor Very important things. 68 Connor 0 5

Gwen

March 24, 2008 8:48 PM

Not as important as grand finales, though. by Gwen

Gwen frowned, cross, when her half-decently-intended try at matchmaking was rejected out of hand. The part of her brain devoted to the family was also slightly insulted for Anne's sake. Apart from her father, there was nothing really wrong with Anne, and girls had overcome far higher social hurdles than an embarrassing parent before now. As Gwen had already made it perfectly clear, in her opinion, that she could not go with him, he should have been quite happy to get Anne as a replacement. It had been at the heart of her quickly-made plan to keep this civil.

The rest of the speech didn't improve her estimation of the situation. This was horrible. He'd just as good as declared interest in her, which was about the worst thing that could happen. Nothing could ever come out of it, which almost had to mean their friendship was ruined. Worse, it was clear to her that it was all her fault. She had always been too nice to him for his own good - or hers. She hadn't meant a thing by it, but that apparently hadn't gotten across. Now...this was in front of her, and she couldn't see a pleasant way of getting around it. It was like circumventing an erumpent in the dining room.

There was nothing for it. She was going to have to lie and find a way to make it work. That would require the Devil's own luck, but the Careys did usually have a little of that on their side. "I'm afraid I can't," she said, keeping her voice intentionally low to mask any inflections that could have betrayed her. "I already told someone else I would go with him." She didn't dare begin sorting through a list of boys she might ask to at least enter the Cascade Hall with her. "Very sorry, darling. I never thought you'd ask me."

If she could find an acceptable date before the Ball, then this could work. The long-term relationship might still be beyond saving, but she could prevent any explosive, public fights and could slowly, tactfully, withdraw as painlessly as possible for them both. If she couldn't...Well, she had been out of favor with much more influential wizards. Very recently. She'd brazen it out and move on, and they'd both end up better off than they were at present.

0 Gwen Not as important as grand finales, though. 63 Gwen 0 5

Connor

March 24, 2008 9:18 PM

Sometimes not, I guess. by Connor

After the scene they'd just strung together, the response she finally made when he pressed her for one was a little anticlimactic. Connor felt irrationally angry as she told him, cool as a princess, that someone else had asked her. He decided to attribute it to how long she'd taken to get to that part. Why couldn't she have just said that at the beginning instead of dragging it out like that? He'd made an idiot out of himself at least twice, maybe more often, so she could take forever about admitting she had a date. Did she just enjoy messing with his head?

"'S all right," he muttered, determinedly not looking right at her. Seeing her look sorry for him was the last thing he wanted to do right now. He should have known there would be someone who'd latch on to her the second they announced the dance. A someone who'd probably need watching - he was sure the guy was a real jerk, despite not knowing who the person was. He didn't want to make himself look even more pathetic by asking, so he'd have to wait until the Ball to find out, if he resisted the temptation to catch a diplomatic illness of some kind. "Maybe next time."

Not that there would be a next time in their time, exactly. The next Ball wouldn't roll around for four more years, and they only had two left to go. There would, however, be some entertainments on the same scale in their sixth and seventh years if everything went according to plan, and he resolved to be a little quicker on the uptake then. It couldn't be a serious entanglement she was in now, because the rumor mill would have processed such a thing by now. He'd ask her to - whatever they were supposed to do - the minute Bulla made a formal announcement next year.

0 Connor Sometimes not, I guess. 68 Connor 0 5

Gwen

March 26, 2008 10:19 PM

Well, carrying on... by Gwen

Well, Gwen thought, hearing the strain in her mental voice that she hadn’t allowed to enter her audible one, that went well.

And it had, objectively speaking. She had not cracked under pressure and said something stupid. He had not caused a scene. They were, for the moment, still on good terms. A successful play by any standards, if she could produce the imaginary date she’d been telling Amy about for some time now. As she was sure she could manage it, there was no reason at all for her to feel strangely discontented.

She gave herself an impatient mental shake, as though hoping she could dislodge the irrational feeling, and smiled prettily up at him. “Maybe next time,” she agreed sweetly, knowing perfectly well that next time, if anything, was likely to be worse than this time. Finding someone to act as a full-time boyfriend was definitely an option Gwen thought she would be wise to consider. “I really am sorry.”

She glanced away for a second, toward the stairs. She thought – and it was definitely a tenative belief; she would have no way of knowing for sure until after the fact – she might know someone who could assist in making her brilliant plan to keep the peace work. The question she had to answer first, however, was where to start looking for him. “Well, I have to run – you know how it is, always five things due in four hours this time of year. Take care.” She headed for the stairs, still unsure of whether she’d wait on them or go check the library.

0 Gwen Well, carrying on... 63 Gwen 0 5

Connor

March 26, 2008 10:22 PM

Yeah...Titles get hard at the end of threads, don't they? by Connor

One good thing had come of this debacle: he now knew asking Gwen hadn't been a really, really stupid thing to do, as he had been half-afraid it would be. She'd as good as said she would have come if he'd asked her sooner. The only problem, then, had been timing. Though still not entirely happy with how things had gone, Connor felt rather more cheerful.

"Don't worry about it," he said easily, not muttering the second time around. "We're cool."

She said something about work and having a lot of it and having to go work. "So much for being lazy after CATS," he agreed, grimacing as he thought about his own workload. He had been working up the nerve to have this chat for two days, which had put him behind on the assignment schedule he'd drawn up for the week. He'd found it was the easiest way to keep track of what was due when and get it done on time. "See you."

He didn't follow her up the stairs, but went the other way, back outside toward Pecari. Apart from catching up on work, which was definitely important at the moment, he needed to regroup and figure out what to do about the problem of the Ball. 'The only girl I know who isn't way too young or too intimidating to come with was already taken' wasn't an excuse he thought Bulla or Connell would accept with much grace.

0 Connor Yeah...Titles get hard at the end of threads, don't they? 68 Connor 0 5