Iris sat on her bed in her shared room and stared unseeing at the far wall. She was downright miserable, just like she had been all year. Also last year... and before. Previous years she just hadn't really had the ability to focus on it so much. Her stupid brother had been around, doing the stupid brother things he always did... and then some. She still felt sorry for poor Ray. This year though, he wasn't around to distract her and be a convenient outlet. Henry had also been around. She did like Henry, he was a wonderful boy, and she liked him, but... did she love him? She didn't know. It didn't feel like it felt whenever she saw Hans. Which she tried to avoid doing whenever she could, especially if Liesl was there as well. Thankfully it would soon all be over.
The door opened and it pulled Iris out of her reverie. There were only a very small number of people it could be, and of course it was the most likely one of them all. Her roommate. Iris' face instinctively scrunched up into her now traditional expression of displeasure at the company. But it fell a moment later into one of tired, sad resignation. They had been such good friends years ago. Did she really want to end things like this? Not really. Ray and Amethyst had been her friends here, and then they were both pretty much gone from her life. Her last few years had been one of loneliness. Iris may not have seen Amethyst show any remorse for the way things had gone, but maybe it was worth trying before it was to late. If it didn't work out, well... they would go their separate ways anyway. Amethyst off to her life of ease and luxury, and Iris off to somewhere. She wasn't even entirely sure yet, not back to the mountain. At least not to their community, maybe to the Cobbson place short term, but she didn't want to stay with Billy and Ray long term.
Iris gave her roommate a weak, half-hearted smile and said more to her than she had in what seemed like ages. "Hi."
RATS was finally over. All that was left was the Fair and then Amethyst’s time as a student at Sonora would be done….and she could not wait.Even though she was more proud of herself for outlasting this much tension without begging Grandfather to take a spare room from a year with no female Crotali than anything else, she wanted it to stop. She wanted peace and a place where she could relax and feel comfortable. Something she might very well not get at home, since Topaz had been more awful to her than usual over Midterm.
Although according to her brother, there might be another way but it was a way that was hard for her, and that was to apologize and talk it out with Iris. Amethyst did feel bad, she had the last few years. She’d hated losing her best friend, even though Alexei had been great.
The thing was that it was hard for Amethyst to apologize.She had grown up needing to learn to survive . Her sister was a psychopath and her parents were neglectful. Anything she’d learned about how to be at all decent came from nannies and tutors, Cory’s friend Neal in particular. He was the one who noticed that Sapphire was epileptic and would not take any crap from Topaz.
Also, her sister Ruby had been sort of more of a mother to Amethyst than her own had. Like, while Emerald did her very best to ignore them all-she had never realized before that her eldest sibling was so similar to Olaf actually-and Topaz tortured them, Ruby adored playing with Amethyst, Jasper and Sapphire. And unlike her actual mother, the Teppenpaw alumna made sure that they said please and thank you.
So, no, Amethyst had not learned feelings . Regardless of what her older sister instilled in her, other instincts and needs had taken precedence. So, yes, she’d learned to manipulate.
However, to be fair, manipulation had never been an issue between her and Iris. Amethyst had never tried manipulating the other Crotalus, which was either a good sign that someone somewhere had instilled some sense of morality in her or that she had cared enough about the other Crotallus not to.
And she knew there were things that were her fault, that she needed to apologize for. Mostly for hurting Iris but also, Amethyst wanted to tell her that she was sorry for the fact that Hans actually did like Liesl.They were now an actual couple. Not that that was Amethyst’s fault at all, since she obviously had no control over Hans and who he liked and she absolutely had done nothing to encourage them. It wouldn’t have been necessary,though she supposed she could technically have done so by encouraging the Teppenpaw to ask her cousin out sooner. But she hadn’t. Amethyst had done nothing the last couple of years aside from mope and sulk and try to become Head Student.
Which was completely because of Iris. Well, the not encouraging Hans and/or Liesl actively thing, not the Head Student thing. Though the moping and sulking parts also had a lot to do with her, to be honest. Maybe some of it was Amethyst’s own fault but that did not mean that the reason that she was moping and sulking was not because of their fight.
Nor did it mean that Iris was completely blameless. Or that there was really anything that would have been the right thing for Amethyst to say in the situation. Obviously, she had not said the right thing, and she realized she had not handled it in the best manner but aside from telling Iris out and out lies like that Hans was dying to spend time with her but never got a chance with Liesl around. Amethyst didn’t doubt that their classmate did enjoy being friends with Iris and liked her just fine but really did have more in common with Liesl.
Anyway, now she had to go back to her prison cell dorm room and put up with yet another night of tense silence. Amethyst sighed to herself as she entered.
Except that as she walked in Iris actually greeted her ”Hi” Amethyst returned the greeting and weak smile. She was tired, so very very tired. True, some of it was RATS and the Fair and regular exams, but this situation had also been weighing her down for some time.
11Amethyst BrockertSorry seems to be the hardest word153205