Leonor De Matteo
July 23, 2020 8:27 PM
I will be who I want to be. by Leonor De Matteo
OOC - All the dialogue is in Spanish, but man I don't wanna do those italic tags all the time. BIC -Mamá and papá were away. Felipe was away. They were always away, it seemed. Well, not that far away, as they were all within her line of sight, but far enough away to make Leonor feel alone in this crowd of people she wanted little to do with. It was meant to encourage her to get to know the people of Ciudad de Matteo on her own, as the new heiress, but she wasn't even sure these people understood such a concept. For all that she'd told Mara she'd stand up for Muggles and Muggle-borns, these people sure made it difficult. Jeremy was particularly antagonistic about it but she was undecided at best, and definitely leaning towards distaste. That was especially true when a small child in a dirty dress offered her a doll carved from a corn cob. A corn cob! Maybe it was the husk? Leonor didn't pay attention to what part of the corn was called what. She just ate it. That was the luxury of being who she was and she didn't want it any other way.
"Thank you," she told the little girl, pressing her lips together into a flat, stiff smile. The girl's mother searched her face for a moment before walking away. Leonor resisted the urge to stick her tongue at the both of them and shoved the ugly little doll in the bag she'd been told to bring with her that she hadn't want to bring with her but here she was, having brought it with her. At least now it had a function. If she had her wand with her, she might have just set the thing on fire instead, but that wouldn't do anyone any good anyway. The problem persisted: Leonor was on the outside.
She'd always been on the outside and, she suspected, she always would be. Spread out around her, twenty-five feet or so away, were the rest of her family members. Felipe was sitting on the ground cross-legged, a goofy smile on his face as he let several toddlers play on him, pulling on his hair and climbing all over him, all while maintaining a conversation with their parents. Mamá was standing with a group of girls, showing them how to pull taffy. Papá was helping some of the older folks with laundry, casting subtle spells to speed the process along or make things more comfortable for them. Because the De Matteo estate was a magical place in the muggle sense, too, especially at Christmas. And here it was, Christmas eve, las posadas concluding at Los Jardines de Plata. And here she was, getting garbage dolls from dirty children and watching everyone in the world be happier than she was. It wasn't fair. Everyone had more than she did and she was the important one!
With a huff, she crossed the room towards the archway that led outside and followed the stars away from her house. She took a breath of the night time air and wanted to spit it out. It tasted so good and it was the only stupid thing that did anymore. She dropped her bag, not caring what happened to it, and wandered aimlessly forward. The gardens were expansive but she knew them by heart at this point and wandering around in the dark was no concern. Besides, as the busy sounds of stupidity and boringness faded behind her, so did the light from her home, and the moon helped guide her through the paths. How many of these had Felipe and Zara already juiced up with their gross kissing? There was another stupid thing that wasn't fair.
She came to a fork in the path and didn't care enough to pick one, so she sat down in the grass, and then laid down to look at the stars. She'd went and gotten herself some sort of boyfriend and she still hadn't gotten him to kiss her yet. Felipe got a kiss before he and Zara were even dating if he was telling the truth. Which he probably was because he didn't know how to do anything more creative than that. Although he must have had some creativity because he'd thought through a whole plot to smash a stupid bludger into Leonor's stupid boyfriend, and for what? It wasn't like he could ever be anything now. The prefect vote was coming up this year for him and there's no way he'd get it now. Oh how she'd love if Jeremy did. Even Jessica.
Leonor was thirteen now. She was practically a woman. She should get to kiss anyone she wanted if she wanted. She was an heiress! A wealthy, powerful witch. She should have anything she wanted. But here she was. With nothing. Laying in the grass to avoid a party in her own stupid house. The stars were blurry and one of them dripped on her, because she definitely wasn't crying.
"Pretty girls shouldn't cry," a voice said nearby, startling her back into a sitting position.
She glared at the figure who emerged from the dark, a boy she recognized from Ciudad de Matteo, who should be at the party and not in her yard. "What are you doing here?" she demanded in as haughty a voice as she could manage, trying not to look like she had been laying in the grass crying because that was not The Look she was going for.
The boy chuckled, a cocky, self-satisfied sound, and leaned against a tree nearby. His hands were in his pockets and he cut a sharp figure, even in the dark. "Same thing you are," he said. "Getting away from the noise."
Leonor huffed again and raised an eyebrow, although she doubted he could see it. "That noise," she replied shortly. "Is for you . . ."
"Javier."
"That noise is for you, Javier. Run along and enjoy it." She turned as if to pack up her things and go, but she didn't really want to go and she hadn't brought any things this far. Instead, she looked pointedly up at the stars. When Javier didn't leave, she glanced back at him. "What are you doing?" she demanded, exasperated.
Javier laughed again. "Our own princess doesn't want the company of her subjects?" he asked sarcastically. "She doesn't know how much fun we can be."
"Don't have to," she said sharply. "Do you always talk about yourself in third person plural? Because it's weird."
Javier took a step towards Leonor and sat cross-legged in front of her. "I don't know what that means," he responded, grinning easily at her. "But you still don't know how much fun we can be. The princess doesn't want to play?"
Leonor wanted to play. She wanted to play hide and seek and make this stupid boy go away. But she also sort of wanted to play tag. It made her think of Jeremy and she was not surprised to find that she didn't miss her sort of boyfriend thing. Irritated anyway, Leonor pushed herself to her feet and went to lean against the tree where Javier had been a moment before. "I'm not a princess," she said first. "And you don't look like you're playing."
Javier stretched out, laying with his hands behind his head, upside down from Leonor's view. "Oh, I'm playing, princess," he replied, looking up at the sky with a look of perfectly placid contentedness on his face.
Unable to help following suit, Leonor glanced up again as well, finding that there was nothing remotely interesting up there. The stars weren't blurry anymore, though, so she supposed that was a benefit of this stupid conversation.
"What?" she finally caved. "What are you playing?" She was itching to run, then. To play. To live the life she didn't realise she'd planned for herself before setting it all aside for a crown that came with all the weight and none of the riches.
Javier rolled over and stood up then, too. There were only a few feet between them and Leonor's stomach rolled around. Javier was Felipe's age, but shorter than her brother, so he didn't seem quite so large-as-life in that annoying way Felipe always seemed to.
"That depends," Javier said, closing the distance and leaning towards Leonor to put one hand up on the tree. He paused and then put the other hand in his pocket and retrieved a balero. "What sort of game does the princess want to play?" he asked, glancing around her face before settling on her eyes.
Leonor crossed her arms again, making as sour an expression as she could manage and stepping forward half a step. They were only a few inches away now, close enough that she still did have to look up at him some. Stupid boys. Stupid everything. "I'm not a princess," she repeated quietly. "Don't play with me."
A mischievous grin crossed Javier's mouth and Leonor's eyes couldn't help flicking there. He almost looked impressed. "Of course, milady," he said, matching her for volume as he stepped towards her again, making her step back into the tree. "Only wondering whether you'd like to play with me."
Leonor was not going to hesitate. She was practically an adult. She was a Pecari. She was a damn heiress. Pressing forward onto her tiptoes, she planted her lips firmly against Javier's and enjoyed the immense satisfaction of having the gesture returned as his arms wrapped around her waist and they leaned together into the tree. Maybe she really should spend more time with the people in town.
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Leonor De Matteo
I will be who I want to be.
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