Avoid, avoid, avoid! on Cascade Hall

Cleo James

February 06, 2018 7:02 AM

Avoid, avoid, avoid! by Cleo James

On the face of it, avoid everyone forever seemed like a pretty solid life plan. She hadn’t dealt with any of the things that had been thrown at her over the summer, and she had no idea how she was supposed to interact with people. What could she say to them? She couldn’t pretend everything was normal, but she couldn’t explain any of it either. However, there were some unfortunate basics about being back at school that made that plan untenable. Number one, she had to go to class. She had got through the morning by just keeping her head down, and it was easier given that the only real friend she’d had was in a different grade to her. She doubted anyone much in her classes noticed her lack of sociability. Jozua Sparks had also done a decent job of providing a much more interesting talking point, and she suspected all the other intermediates were quite happily distracted by him living up to his name and covering his girlfriend in sparks.

The other unavoidable need of school was food. Professor Skies wasn’t willing to cosset her and let her avoid the world forever. She had simply skipped breakfast but by lunchtime she was starving. She would just go into the hall, grab the most portable looking food - there were usually sandwiches of some variety - and get the heck out again.

She headed to the hall, the prairie elf that had been with them in class branching off to move towards the gardens once they were in sight of the ghost that was conveniently haunting Cascade Hall. They were trying to make it less obvious to everyone else that she was being followed, which she would have appreciated had she had any brain space to feel anything except horrified and upset by absolutely everything that was happening.

As house tables weren’t a concept that applied much outside of the feast, she simply made her way to the one nearest the door. She grabbed a napkin and couple of sandwiches. Mission accomplished. Almost. She began to walk out, eyes still glued to the floor, but there were a set of feet that, instead of moving out of her way were moving towards her, and she was forced to look up and find out who was so very keen to speak to her that they clearly weren’t going to let her get out of the hall without a chance to do so…

OOC - Cleo isn’t doing any veela shazzamming right now, so whoever’s approaching her should be doing so out of genuine interest in speaking to her, not because they’re being magicked. See OOC posts for further details about how Cleo's powers affect others.

13 Cleo James Avoid, avoid, avoid! 389 Cleo James 1 5

Parker Fitzgerald

February 08, 2018 9:56 PM

Ya, that's not going to happen here... by Parker Fitzgerald

Parker had started to actually eat again, after talking to Kyte though not as much as he normally would have. At breakfast he had eaten a lot more, but missing almost an entire day of meals meant he was pretty hungry and had almost run to the Hall to get something to eat.

He was loading up his plate hearing others talk about Jozua Sparks covering someone in sparks. It seemed to be quite the talk of the middle years, and Parker felt a bit sad that he couldn't ask Cleo about it.

He was getting out of line when he saw her walk in. She was looking at her feet, and looked almost like she was afraid that people were watching her. Parker paused momentarily thinking that he was simply imagining her there, but there she was.

Parker almost yelled out from excitement, but the way she looked made it seem like she wanted to sink into a wall or jump into the wishing well. The wishing well! Parker almost dropped his plate to run back to his room to get the present he had brought back, but decided instead to talk to her quietly.

Something in the way she was looking at the floor tempered his excitement in seeing his friend was actually going to be at school after all. She had a few sandwiches in her hand and was still looking at the floor. She looked like Parker used to when John Jr was trying to get his attention. Focused, slightly sad and slightly angry, but trying to ignore everything else. Parker walked towards her, leaving his tray of food at his table deciding to use a technique his brother used to use that was almost always effective, blocking the direction of walking.

As Cleo looked up Parker broke into a big smile, he couldn't help it, he was just so happy to see his friend.
"Hi Adventure buddy," Parker said quietly, "I was worried I'd not to get see you this year."

Parker looked at her for a moment and then motioned to the table with his giant plate of food, "Come. Join me. Tell me about your summer. Or," Parker began to pick up speed, "If you don't want to talk, I can talk about my summer. The good, the bad, the ugly. How my sister wanted to meet you. How I learned more about gardening for gardening club. The adventures I had, the stories I learned" Parker hadn't moved, but he realized that his mouth was running in excitement.

"Sorry. Just happy to see you. How are you doing?"

41 Parker Fitzgerald Ya, that's not going to happen here... 1402 Parker Fitzgerald 0 5

Cleo

February 09, 2018 9:01 AM

I'm pretty determined by Cleo

It was Parker. Of course it was Parker. She hadn’t really thought she could avoid him forever but she’d just wished it so hard that she had almost believed it. Why had she made such a big deal at the bonfire last year about how they’d have to keep hanging out this year? Maybe if she hadn’t, he wouldn’t be expecting to hang out with her now. Maybe they’d have naturally drifted apart being in different grades. But no, here he was. Hanging on. And she couldn’t help but question why… Did he really like her? Had he really missed her? Or was it just the draw of her veela charms? Was that the only thing he’d ever liked about her in the first place? How could she have any kind of relationship with anybody when she didn’t even know if they genuinely liked her or if she’d just somehow forced them into it?

And then he was talking… Chatting away like everything was perfectly normal. Things are not normal, Parker. She didn’t want this sea of words. She would drown. Every single thing he said - talking about summers, meeting people’s sisters, sitting down and eating lunch - they all belonged to normal people. They didn’t belong to her any more. She wasn’t a normal person. She wasn’t a person.

“No,” was the first word out of her mouth, even though it didn’t entirely make sense. But it was what she was feeling. No. No no no, to all of it. Her eyes were filling with tears. The ghost had attempted to casually drift nearer to her and Parker. What had it been warned to be on the lookout for? Anyone being overly drawn to her? Anyone upsetting her? “I can’t. I don’t want- I don’t want to stay for lunch, and I can’t be around you right now. I don’t want to be around anybody,” she added, attempting some semblance of explanation - not that it was much. It was ‘It’s not you, it’s me.’ She knew she couldn’t make him understand or not feel bad, and her attempts at in anyway mitigating that were so small as to be laughable. Well, whoever thought monsters would make nice, caring friends? It was only in keeping that she couldn’t spare a human’s feelings very well.

She made to step around him. And, unless he planned on physically stopping her, continuing on outside.

OOC - so, unless he physically stops her, you can assume in your post that she’s hightailing it out of there.

13 Cleo I'm pretty determined 389 Cleo 0 5

Parker

February 09, 2018 10:56 AM

What...just happened? by Parker

Her words and her rushed aside were so fast that Parker stood still for a few seconds trying to understand what was happening.

He wondered if this was what it was like when he had to distance himself from his friends back home, and then didn't show up for school. He hadn't actually written to any of them for a long time, or tried to meet up with them when he was back. He felt like maybe he was getting his comeupance for doing something similar to his former friends.

He turned around to speak after her, but she was already gone, and her last words about not wanting to be around anyone rung in his ears.

As he saw one of the ghost floating away, he turned to it not knowing if they would actually respond and said, "I didn't just imagine that interaction, correct? She seemed...scared."

Parker walked back over to his table in a daze. He sat mindlessly eating his food replaying the short events in his head. Maybe he had said too much too fast. But Cleo had never been upset by it before. As a matter of fact, at the bonfire she had been the one to come out with a trainful of words first.
He kept thinking about how Cleo had had tears in her eyes. She had said she couldn't stay before she said she didn't want to stay. What made someone not be able to stay and have food and talk? Was she sick in someway?

That would be why she couldn't be around anyone. She was sick. And if she was sick, he would respect her wishes for needing to be alone. He would ask Professor X or Oh my O'Malley if they could think of anything to help make her feel better. They probably already knew she was sick, but Parker wanted to be proactive and let Cleo know her friends hadn't forgotten her.

In the mean time, Parker decided he would need to write letters. First to his friends from home, apologizing for simply disappearing. Then to Cleo. Just cause she didn't want to see him, didn't mean they couldn't talk. His sister after all was always texting people, they could do the same. Or at least the magical equivalent.

41 Parker What...just happened? 1402 Parker 0 5