Whispered worries on Cascade Hall

Chloe and Emery Jareau

December 28, 2013 11:41 PM

Whispered worries by Chloe and Emery Jareau

Chloe and Emery sat together in a corner of the hall eating and talking quietly. They had done that a lot over the course of the year. Mostly because they were so used to eating together having grown up together and now being siblings and all. But also because they didn’t really have friends. It wasn’t without trying, of course. They did try. Chloe probably more so than Emery. But nothing seemed to be solid and concrete. Everyone they tried to be friends with was better friends with someone else. Emery’s roommate ignored him most of the time in favor of the quiet Crotalus girl while his housemate he was sure didn’t even remember his name as she spent all of her time with the Teppenpaw who liked to jump into things like he knew what was going on. He still tried, of course, but it was useless. Everything felt useless.

Chloe still got along fine with her own roommate, but she felt that Ji-Eun preferred not to be around her. She saw her a lot talking to boys, so Chloe assumed she preferred their conversation than hers. She couldn’t blame her. Chloe didn’t bring a lot to the table when it came to intelligent things and Ji-Eun was pretty smart. Other than her though, Chloe only ever really conversed with Malcolm. She liked him, he was honest and didn’t seem to mind her at all. But she didn’t think she could call him a friend. Or, at least, didn’t think he would call her one. Friendship seemed so few and far between when they were at Sonora. Invisible in such a small school. It was difficult for them to understand since they had so many friends at home. There was some sort of disconnect for them here.

Now though, they were not concerned about friends. No one seemed to notice or care about their sick sibling or the pressure that the Headmistress, their mother, was under. Emery and Chloe saw it. She was nothing but bones, distracted, tired looking. They had even heard her crying to their dad during the holidays. Angel was not well. He was worse than that. Their parents kept telling them that he would be okay, but they were not so little like Harper to believe them anymore. Seeing Angel was difficult for the two of them but seeing their mom trying hard to do everything from run a school to make sure Angel made it to all his appointments and took his potions on time, ate properly, etc. was like realizing Santa wasn’t real. Emery had always seen his mother as invincible, unstoppable, a superhero. Now, he saw her disappearing. He didn’t blame Angel, of course, but it was hard to watch them both struggle. Ayita and Jeff helped, of course, but Emery’s mother always put the world on her shoulders.

The two of them sat, heads’ bowed, whispering together. Their holiday hadn’t been very good, but that was because of the worry. Chloe had been so excited to see Ayita, but everything else darkened it. The adults did their best to make it work and Harper seemed unaware being only a toddler, but it wasn’t the same. The two Jareaus stopped whispering when someone sat near them at the table. Their family business was their own, no one else needed to hear their concerns.

6 Chloe and Emery Jareau Whispered worries 0 Chloe and Emery Jareau 1 5

Ji-Eun Park

December 30, 2013 2:51 PM

Trying not to put my foot in it by Ji-Eun Park

Ji-Eun had always been a little shy around her room-mate. Chloe's loudness, where it might have excited a similar reaction in an equally loud person, prompted Ji-Eun to speak less, being the listener and observer to her room-mate's showier tendencies. She didn't regard that as a problem – she enjoyed the energy Chloe brought to their room, and to their friendship. It took a great deal of pressure off her that Chloe could be relied on to always find something to say, as she so often wasn't really sure what she could contribute. The fact that the pressure was off her on that front seemed to make it a lot easier though, and she was gradually relaxing and opening up more.

On their first night back, Ji-Eun had enquired politely after Chloe's holiday but she hadn't probed and didn't plan to. Given Chloe's nature, Ji-Eun felt that the girl would bring up subjects if she wanted to talk about them. If she didn't, Ji-Eun assumed it was because she didn't want to discuss them and then it was far from her own nature to pry. She knew it must be distressing that Chloe's brother was ill, and she herself could see the stress it was causing Headmistress Kijewski – she wasn't blind, after all – but, as far as she was concerned, someone unwantedly dragging all that into the open would only add to the distress. If her own mother was looking sick or stressed, the last thing she would want was anyone else being rude enough to point this out. Outwardly, one had to maintain one's appearance – one had to be seen to cope and to do so with dignity – and thus anyone saying that someone in the family looked sick or strained was pointing out that were failing on this front, noting that not only was something wrong but that everybody could see it. That would be unimaginably embarrassing and she had no wish to subject her room-mate to such a thing. Her view on this had been confirmed in Transfiguration, when she'd overheard Dimitri commenting to Emery on his brother. She hadn't caught his reply but he hadn't looked happy. Thus clearly leaving it to them to bring up the subject was the best approach, though she very much doubted they would. She would not have, under similar circumstances.

As she entered the hall, Ji-Eun saw Chloe and Emery, with whom she had still not exchanged more than polite greetings. She felt a little bad about this point and thought that this might be a good opportunity to rectify it, especially as Chloe was there as a sort of... mediating force. If Ji-Eun wasn't sure what to say, Chloe was bound to think of some way to bridge the distance. It was only as she sat down and noticed the abruptness with which the siblings stopped talking that it occurred to her that they might have preferred to be left to themselves.

“Hi,” she said softly to the pair of them, the single syllable coming out a little tremulously, “Hi, I'm... uh, Chloe's room-mate,” she added awkwardly to Emery, blushing even as she said it. It was a small school and of course he would already know that fact. But equally, it felt weird to sit down and act like they already knew each other when they really didn't. Sometimes, she felt, there was no way for a social situation to go that wasn't just clunky and awkward. Other times she just figured that she was inept at finding it. “I just thought it might be nice to join you guys but, if I'm interrupting anything, I can go. I didn't mean to...”

13 Ji-Eun Park Trying not to put my foot in it 268 Ji-Eun Park 0 5

Emery and Chloe Jareau

January 01, 2014 6:51 PM

You did just fine. by Emery and Chloe Jareau

Chloe relaxed when she realized that it was her roommate who sat down with them. She probably would have relaxed for anyone, but it was easier knowing that it was Ji-Eun and not someone else she didn’t know as well. At least Chloe didn’t have to pretend to be super happy when she wasn’t genuinely feeling it. Ji-Eun saw her every morning before class, when Chloe was an absolute mess and miserable, she could handle a not-so-happy Chloe.

Before either of had a chance to greet her back, Ji-Eun was introducing herself to Emery. Both Jareaus looked at her in confusion for a second before answering, “I know.” Emery said at the same time that Chloe responded with, “He knows.” There was a moment of silence shortly after they spoke and then Chloe broke out in a giggle. Emery cleared his throat and gave Ji-Eun a crooked smile, “Er, I mean, it’s nice to officially meet you.” He corrected. He supposed it was probably considered good manners to actually acknowledge knowing someone after some period of time, but it was a little awkward none the less. Still, he appreciated her making the effort.

“Hi Ji-Eun.” Chloe greeted. She was getting better about how she pronounced her name and really hoped that by the time they graduated, she’d be an expert at it. “No, you aren’t interrupting us; we were just rambling about nothing in particular.” She explained to her roommate. It was mostly true. They were just going in circles over everything that they have already discussed a million times over. It was hard to find new things to talk about when they were always together. There were no new topics or stories to talk about when it was just them.

“How are you doing, Ji-Eun?” Emery asked. He might not really know her, but since Chloe liked her so much, he didn’t see any reason to not get on better terms with her. The term was still early so there wasn’t much going on aside from homework. He knew that he’ll feel differently about terms once they were older and the schoolwork was harder, but at the moment, he was just, well, bored.

“Ji-Eun, has your concert group gotten together?” Chloe asked. She was sort of regretting not signing up under Clara’s group since she knew her, but there was nothing she could do about it now. Emery had asked her to do the concert in the same group as him, which is how she had ended up in an Aladren group. “We haven’t had any notices from ours, so I didn’t know if other groups were getting together or not.” Chloe was saying as she munched on her dinner.

“It’d be nice to at least have something to keep me busy.” Emery added.

6 Emery and Chloe Jareau You did just fine. 0 Emery and Chloe Jareau 0 5

Ji-Eun

January 02, 2014 4:36 PM

Phew by Ji-Eun

Ji-Eun ducked her head as the Jareaus responded to her introduction, feeling the blush spread. She was sure it was creeping down from her cheeks and that a new one was rising from her neck and they were going to meet in the middle and do their joint best to make her look like a tomato. Though Emery did at least add that it was nice to meet her properly, which made her feel that she might not have been a total idiot. Or that she had been but at least he was willing to be nice about it.

“I'm doing ok,” she responded to his question, trying and failing to think what else she could add. She hadn't done very much since getting back to school, other than study and read K-Pop fanzines, neither of which she thought were very interesting news. “How about you?” she asked shyly.

“Yeah, we met up the first weekend. But that was our first one. Who's in your group?” she asked. She knew she must have asked Chloe before but there were so many groups to keep track of and a lot of the names of older students didn't mean a lot to her.

“Do you do any clubs? Other than book club,” she asked Emery. “I guess how busy that keeps you depends on how thick a book they choose and how quickly you read,” she ventured. The book club books tended to take her a while, although she didn't really want to admit that. Part of it was, of course, that she put her studying first and only read the books a little before bed, or when she felt she had a justifiable block of leisure time that she didn't want to take up with dancing or another hobby. However, she also knew she was a bit of a slow reader, and some of the books they chose she found complicated. Even though she knew she was bright, the vocabulary was sometimes hard. She didn't want anyone to think she was stupid though, and she already worried they'd be more skeptical of her intelligence for not being in Aladren.

Whilst they spoke, she helped herself to dinner. As usual, there was a large serving bowl of rice, and she spooned some of this onto her plate. Today there was also a beef casserole. She usually tried to find some combination of meat and vegetables to add to her plate, though she usually found any of the options a bit bland. Once she'd loaded up her plate, she fished in her bag, pulling out a bottle of hot pepper sauce, which she squirted liberally over the food. She also took out a small tupperware box and a pair of chopsticks. Using the latter, she extracted a little heap of stringy looking stuff dotted with red from the box and onto her plate. Kimchi. No meal was complete without it. She was comforted by the fact that none of this would be new to Chloe, even if they made Emery curious. It wasn't really that she minded people asking – she enjoyed talking about the things she knew as comforting and familiar – but it could get a bit tiring sometimes, feeling like something as simple as eating dinner could cause an onslaught of questions if you chose to sit next to someone new. From what little she knew of him, Emery seemed quite quiet and reserved, so she at least trusted that if he asked he would do so in a politely curious way, and not one that made her feel like an oddity.

13 Ji-Eun Phew 268 Ji-Eun 0 5

Emery and Chloe Jareau

January 07, 2014 7:58 PM

You worry too much. by Emery and Chloe Jareau

Emery thought hard for a moment at her question. With her being Chloe’s roommate, he was sure she was already well aware of the things going on at home. Or, at least, aware that there is something going on at home if Chloe wasn’t particularly specific with her. Emery had never told anyone any details about life at home, mostly because he was not close to anyone, but also because he thought it might be embarrassing to discuss such things. Chloe, however, was a talker and he wouldn’t be surprised if she did tell Ji-Eun everything. Not that he would hold it against her. Sometimes people needed to vent. Emery typically wasn’t among those who did. He decided to answer her with casual vagueness since they didn’t really know one another. “Things are alright. I haven’t really gotten into anything since coming back to school, so… just trying to stay focused.”

Chloe frowned when she heard that Ji-Eun’s group had met up. Were they already falling behind? “A bunch of Aladrens and some leftovers like me.” Chloe said, looking grumpy. “I should have signed up with Clara, she’s at least fun.” Chloe commented, more of a tease towards her brother and his Aladren title.

“We have Lucien D’Alesandro as our Prefect Leader, Ava and Irina are in our group and then a couple of older students that I don’t know.” Emery advised. They had quite a few second years in their group, hopefully that didn’t make them underdogs. “Who do you have in your group?” Emery asked. He hadn’t really paid attention to the other groups, but if they were a good mixture, it might make for a decent evening.

“See, I wasn’t lying, boring Aladrens.” Chloe commented, spooning around her mashed potatoes. “Le siiiigh.” Chloe said dramatically. Emery just rolled his eyes before answering Ji-Eun’s question.

“No, just book club.” Emery stated. Sometimes he didn’t always enjoy the books that were chosen and sometimes they were a little higher on his level of choice, so he lost interest in them and it took him longer to get through because he found himself doing other things. He really had to try better with it. “I thought I might join the fencing club this year, but it doesn’t seem to be happening, so that’s out.” Not that Emery would say so, but the other clubs just seemed girly. He knew that wasn’t proper to think because hobbies shouldn’t be based on gender, but it was how he felt.

He watched her set up her dinner plate, curious to what she was putting together. Chloe had told him that Ji-Eun was Korean and kept to those traditions, which he supposed included the food. He was surprised there weren’t actual dishes on the table for her. When she seemed set with it all, Emery cleared his throat, “How come you don’t ask the kitchen elves to set that sort of food up for you?” It seemed easier to him if she just had it already at the meals instead of having to supply it herself. “Mom said that she asked for more vegetarian and vegan options when she started and they obliged her quite happily.” Emery tended to eat vegetarian meals having lived with his mother. He had grown to appreciate soy, but he wouldn’t admit to that. He sometimes ate meat (it wasn’t something his mother ever kept from him, she allowed him to eat what he wanted), but usually only if Jeff was the one cooking and then Emery felt slightly guilty if he didn’t eat what his adoptive father was providing. “I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if you asked for more of your traditional food. Mom says they seem to like to try new things.”

6 Emery and Chloe Jareau You worry too much. 0 Emery and Chloe Jareau 0 5