Wu Peizhi
September 23, 2016 12:47 AM
Baby steps [Laila] by Wu Peizhi
Peizhi’s summers at home on the other side of the world were never truly overall very… well, good. Seeing Bohai was always the highlight of her time, but it was dragged down by conversations with her father, so the overall quality of her summers varied based on the proportion of those two factors. This time around, Father was apparently in a good mood; for the most part, he left her alone, while permitting her to spend as much time as she liked with her eldest sibling. Bohai had to leave sometimes for business matters, meetings Father needed him attend, but he always came back to her.While she would obviously miss her brother while she was away, for once, she was actually returning in good spirits. In most previous years, she had a dilemma where being at Sonora made her miss China and being in China made her want to be at school, but she felt surprisingly peaceful returning, even though she had done a good job here of mucking up her own life.
The Teppenpaw had wanted to talk to Laila at the Ball, but she had never gotten a chance. She couldn’t just approach because Laila was with the others, about whom Wu was quite tentative. She had thought Jax might understand, but when she did her best to be honest--a rather failed endeavour on her part, but an attempt at progress nonetheless--he had only made her feel worse for it. Gia was too close to Jax, and Sammy to Gia, for her to feel comfortable with them, possibly ever again. She didn’t think they’d want her back at this point, anyway.
But Laila did. Their correspondence, short but powerful, last term had showed her that. Laila had made her feel, for the first time in a very long time, like things would be okay, like she would be… safe. That was huge for her. Laila trusted her, even when she didn’t deserve it. She believed in her like no one else ever had, seeing her through her walls and through her nerves and through her fears. No matter what her blood was, no matter what Wu’s father might say, Laila was safe.
She was a friend, a word that still filled Peizhi with trepidation as she marvelled at its unfamiliarity. Her whole life she had had Bohai on her side, and Huojin as far as he could understand her, but really, that was it. Her mother was distant, a background figure, and her father was a strange cold fire that could burn or freeze as its flickering dance saw fit in the instant. She was afraid of letting people in, letting them see the real her that masqueraded behind all these walls. The walls had doors, but the doors had locks. Apparently, Laila had found some keys.
Perhaps really, she had Abby to thank, for asking for trust in a trivial matter. The simple, easy request had filled Wu with a strange courage, a boldness to ask for that very same thing back from someone else. She had never been trusting--or, honestly, trustworthy--but she wanted to try.
So she would. She sent word to Laila to meet before the Opening Feast in MARS, specifically the water room. The fourth year had always found it to be so peaceful, and she had taken quite a few semi-accidental naps to the sound of the waves lapping at the beach. There was no time for sleepy drifting now, though, as she sat vigilantly waiting to see if Laila would come. She had said she trusted her, but if she didn’t show up, Wu would have understood.
12
Wu Peizhi
Baby steps [Laila]
316
Wu Peizhi
1
5
Laila Kennedy
September 27, 2016 4:33 PM
Just put one foot in front of the other. by Laila Kennedy
Life was complicated. This was something that Laila had learned over the past year. Things didn’t always work out the way they were supposed to, and someone who could make you feel on top of the world one second could make you doubt everything the next. All in all, she supposed her third year at Sonora had not been awful. In fact, she’d gotten closer with her various sets of friends and she’d made a lot of progress in her coursework. She had shed—if only temporarily, her crush on Dustin Newell. Hearing that he was going to the ball with Emmy-Lou Scott had completely crushed Laila’s heart, no pun intended, for all of three days before she had seen Olivier Westley pouring himself a glass of iced tea in Cascade Hall and she had promptly gotten over the first student to have ever had a conversation with her at Sonora. She had overcome her fear of rejection and asked Jax Donovan to the ball and they’d had a lovely time. For the next few nights after that, she had dreamed about how they would live happily ever after in a pretty house and have loving, sweet children.And then Scottie Tucker had knocked on her door and asked if she wanted to get ice cream. Scottie had grown up a bit since Laila had last seen him—thirteen year old boys were notorious for growth spurts, and he didn’t go by Scottie anymore. Scottie Tucker had been a good boy, but so was Scott Tucker. He made nearly straight As except for in biology, and he was a shoe in for the JV football team. He was clean cut and he dressed well and he never had a bad thing to say about anyone. He was almost annoyingly perfect and he didn’t have a leather jacket or a motorcycle but he was interested in Laila and he sometimes had interesting things to say and so she had agreed and after about half an hour of blushing and faux-over politeness, Laila had forgotten about her perfectly adorable children in her woodsy-house with Jax Donovan and let herself be consumed by Scott Tucker.
Their near daily ice cream outings and their weekly trips to the outdoor cinema was enough for Laila to start planning her perfect wedding to the charming boy in the way that most young girls do when a cute boy pays attention to them, and her mother was so impressed with Scott Tucker’s record with the townies that she let him come over after church for Sunday lunch at least once a month. But the summer had to come to an end, and so amid earnest, yet childish promises to keep in touch, Laila said goodbye to Scott Tucker and left her little bubble to return to a world that she couldn’t tell him anything about. It was hard, she had learned, having a Muggle boyfriend, because he wanted to know all sorts of things about her classes and her friends and how she liked boarding school and why she couldn’t text him or email him while she was away, and she hated lying because lying was a sin and God didn’t like sinners. But it was also breaking the rules to tell Scott Tucker about magic and besides that as long as she was repentant about her sins, she knew that God would forgive her. And she was very repentant about lying to Scott Tucker.
The wagon ride over from Washington had been nice—the Reinhardts had fought over something and weren’t speaking to each other again, and so she had made up for it by chattering to them both and anyone who would listen, and the Donovans had been there too which had been quite nice. Jax Donovan was no Scott Tucker, but he was nice to look at anyway, and besides, Laila couldn’t wait to tell Gia about the new book series about sexy vampires and werewolves that she had started to read which was due to become a television show. They hadn’t covered either creature much in Defense Against the Dark Arts yet, but after reading M. S. Spencer’s Blood Moon Rising, Laila was quite confident that most vampires were as charming as the ever brooding Kern (whose first name was still a mystery for the readers) and most werewolves as sweet as the territorial Gayle. She especially enjoyed reading the fight scenes between Gayle and his older brother, Gilbert who had been turned into a vampire by Kern against his will to punish Gayle after something mysterious had happened. Laila wasn’t quite up to that part in the series yet, but she did know that taciturn Gilbert was by far the hottest character of them all.
As they arrived at the school, Laila broke off with Arne from the rest of the wagon to head to the Crotalus dorms, the rather cross wizard getting quite annoyed by the time they reached the corridor to their common room entrance and snapping at her rather pettily, in Laila’s opinion, to just go and get lost in Albania already if she was so determined to love the undead. Rolling her eyes, Laila gave Gunter the Zombie the Crotalus password, glaring at him when he chimed in to support Arne’s opinion of the series and told the unsuspecting portrait “no one asked you” before flouncing off to her room to settle in. She planned to meet Gia and Jax in Cascade Hall afterwards, but a note on her desk in handwriting she now recognized as Wu’s changed her plans.
When she arrived, she found her quiet friend sitting in wait, and she let the door close quietly so as not to disturb the serene environment that she now found herself in. “Hi,” she said, walking over to join Wu in the room. “You wanted to talk?”
10
Laila Kennedy
Just put one foot in front of the other.
318
Laila Kennedy
0
5
Wu Peizhi
September 28, 2016 1:52 AM
And soon you'll be walking cross the floor? by Wu Peizhi
She came.Wu hadn’t heard the door proclaim Laila’s entrance, but she was here. Despite everything, the ups and downs, the intrinsic fears the Teppenpaw could not step out of, Laila came. That meant something. It had to, didn’t it?
“Hi,” she said back once she had recomposed herself. Though soft, Laila’s voice had startled her a bit,and she’d jarred quire hard. Her heartbeat was returning to normal now, however, so while slightly breathy, her voice was otherwise fairly normal. “I am…” she marvelled. A small grin caught her. “I am very glad to see you.”
“I know that things have been…” she paused, searching for the English word. None very helpful came to mind, so she went on, “...bad, lately. I have been bad. I pulled back because… because I was afraid. Of many things. I thought it was just my father. He wants me to be friends with important purebloods. But you do not have to be of magic family to be important, or special. I know that now.”
“I think I was also afraid of letting anyone close.” Wu swallowed hard, but the lump in her throat persisted. It was a rare occasion that she spoke this much, but she had a lot to get off her chest. “I have never had anyone want to be my friend before. I have never had someone I would call a friend. But… but you call me friend, and you are patient, and you treat me so nice. You are my friend. I know that now, too.”
She looked away. “I cannot promise anything of the others. I do not think Jax likes me very much for what I have done. And I understand that. But if you still wish to be my friend, I would like that very much.” The last sentence was a struggle to express, not only because she had spoken so long and could feel herself sliding back into her shell from a sort of exhaustion, but because she felt tears fighting for freedom. Her small hands wrapped into fists as she fought against their influence. “And… if you do not…” Peizhi pressed out, “I understand that, too.”
12
Wu Peizhi
And soon you'll be walking cross the floor?
316
Wu Peizhi
0
5
Laila
October 07, 2016 8:52 PM
That would be the idea. by Laila
As Wu talked, Laila felt her heart drop in her stomach. She knew that many purebloods disapproved of Muggleborns like herself. Most of the students at Sonora, however, seemed to be allowed to at least be friends with them though marriage or dating appeared out of the question as had been made evident to Laila when she’d had to do the asking the year before. But Wu’s words frightened her. Had the other girl called her here to break off their tentative friendship?Although a million thoughts and doubts were running through Laila’s head, she let Wu finish her piece, working hard to hold back the tears that were threatening to come out. She had never before been told that she was not wanted, that she was inappropriate, that she was not good enough. At home she was the perfect daughter of a legend. Everyone loved her and she had no want for friends. She had come to terms with not being the golden child at Sonora, but never before had something like this been said so directly to her face. She almost appreciated Wu’s candor even though it made her want to run to her Nonna and cry. At least no one was beating around bushes anymore—one could get tired of the fake pleasantness after awhile.
But Wu continued to talk and Laila allowed herself to feel a little bit of hope. And then, her quiet friend (she had admitted to being friends only moments earlier so surely that meant they were and would always be friends?) talked about how she thought the others didn’t like her anymore and how she thought Laila would no longer want to be friends either. The damn broke and Laila burst into tears, moving forward to wrap Wu in a big hug. She didn’t even think about how her friend(!) had felt about touching or personal space when they had first met—a boundary Laila had yet to cross with Wu despite doling hugs out to her other friends regularly, she just needed reassurance herself.
“Of course we’re friends,” she said, feeling her heart rush with joy, just happy that Wu had not called her to end their fragile friendship and tell Laila that she would never be good enough to be her friend. “And the others will come around. We all miss you, Gia especially.” The others weren’t so vocal with their laments, it seemed, but Laila had noticed how Wu’s abandonment of them had hurt her older friend. “Jax is just…moody.”
Despite her massive crush on the older boy, something which had come back to her despite her summer long affair with Scott Tucker, Laila could acknowledge that his taciturn ways weren’t for everyone. He had a good heart and he was loyal and cared about his friends—all things which attracted her to him in addition to the leather jacket which was what had sparked her initial crush anyway, some left over feelings from her Harvey Mills days, but he didn’t talk much and he could be rather blunt. With Wu’s quiet, passive manner and Jax’s quiet, forthright way, she could see how a miscommunication could arise and cause strife for everyone involved.
“Friends usually talk about their summers,” Laila offered to give Wu an out as she pulled back a little, and let her hand drop down to hold Wu’s to guide them to a sittable rock not too far away. “How was yours?” she asked, sitting down and patting the space next to her with the hand she’d been holding Wu’s with.
10
Laila
That would be the idea.
318
Laila
0
5