Chloe Jareau
July 13, 2015 8:42 PM
Spectator Thread! **sulking by myself** by Chloe Jareau
Chloe thought that by forcing thoughts of her mother out of her head and not talk about them with anyone would make her feel better and for her mother to go semi-permanently from Chloe’s existence. But that was not the case, no matter how hard she tried to make it work. With the recent letter from the Pembroke family, thoughts about her mother and her Pembroke family were waging a battle in her head. In truth, Chloe claimed to have felt guilty for telling people about her mother and forcing that burden of knowledge onto them, but the fact was that she felt guilty for leaving a crucial detail out of it.She had siblings.
Half siblings to be exact. A few years after Chloe was born and her mother had gone through her first stint in Rehabilitation and was sober for the first time in a long time, she had met a married, prominent well to do Pureblood man (her mother’s words) and had an on-going affair. The affair produced two children. A boy and a girl. Some time after her daughter was born, Chloe’s mother relapsed into drugs again and the married man left her. Whether that was actually the truth or not, Chloe wasn’t so sure and she had no idea how she would even go about finding out. Her mother claimed that the children were living with their father. Chloe wasn’t sure she could believe that if the man was married, but her mother said that he and his wife were not able to have children of their own and this was the next best option.
Chloe couldn’t bring herself to admit that she had siblings that weren’t the Jareaus. She felt sick to her stomach with knowing that she had family out there who had to deal with the same issues and she had. She could only hope that they had each other to help through it. But even though Chloe felt like she ought to find them and get to know them, she also wanted to keep them as far away as possible. She didn’t want them seeping into her life here. She didn’t want them ruining her relationships with her parents or her real siblings. She didn’t want to be a part of them. She didn’t want connections to her biological mother. She didn’t want any of it.
This was all such a joke. For as long as she could remember, Chloe had always wanted to know about her mother, she had always fantasized about a relationship and a large family to share a life with. A family that was in addition to the one she currently had. Her dreams, her mother and father just weren’t together, but still happy individuals with their own families and Chloe was part of both.
But those were childhood stupid daydreams. This was reality.
In effort to maintain her own sense of self, Chloe took the walk down to the pitch to watch the game alongside the rest of the school. She dressed in a extra long sweater that came down just past her bottom, black leggings, a black belt around her waist to show off her curves, and purple sneakers. The weather was a little cold but she felt that the sweater should do the trick and, if not, she would just place some heating charms on herself.
Finding a spot in the stands, Chloe watched everyone else around her. She wondered if any of them had to deal with the things that she did. Different, unknown families, drug addicted mothers, dying adopted siblings, intelligent siblings and best friends… Did anyone else just feel so alone that they felt like they were disappearing? Chloe just felt so lost these days and nothing seemed to be helping. Not even this game. She used to love watching it. She would drag her brother down to sit in the stands with her. Not today though. Today she was here alone.
Someone sat beside her and Chloe looked down from the sky at them. “Hey.” She greeted, smiling politely. “Nice day for a game.”
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Chloe Jareau
Spectator Thread! **sulking by myself**
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Chloe Jareau
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Ginny Bellrose
July 14, 2015 9:41 PM
Also watching, but in a different area... by Ginny Bellrose
This term was not going as well as she had hoped. Some things were good. Classes were going alright (as far as Ginny was concerned), but it was her final year at Sonora and that meant that her R.A.T.S. exams were coming up much sooner than she was really giving it credit for. Although the end results of those exams mean very little to her since she was expected to be nothing more than a wife to someone, Ginny was still terrified about having to face them. She only hoped that her friends were willing to study with her from time to time to help her through it.Along with the R.A.T.S exams, there was the whole mess with the initial carvings into the tree out in the gardens. As humiliating as it was to just be associated with that based on the fact that she was called by a ‘G’ name, Ginny had been called into the Deputy Headmistress’s office and questioned over it. Ginny knew that she must have been red in the face throughout the entire conversation. The initials were screaming in her face about her feelings towards Adam. She must have looked so guilty even though she had nothing to do with the carving of the initials. The fact was that deep down she had hoped Adam had seen them and thoughts about what it could mean. Any sort of hint in that direction left a little bit of hope for Ginny for him to see her as something more.
On top of all those other issues that she had, Ginny had recently received a letter from Maxwell. She never knew what to expect when she received them. On the one hand, he was her friend and she had always enjoyed conversing with him. He had always made her feel important and he listened to her when she needed to get anything off her chest. On the other hand, when she had finally felt good about everything and really felt like she was moving forward with her life, Maxwell knocked her over by declaring that she would be his last choice for a wife. If he couldn’t find anyone to marry while away at school, then he would consider her. It had hurt and her self-confidence had plummeted for some time afterward. Her destiny was to become a spinster living in a cottage on her family’s land with a cat. She didn’t know what it was about herself that repelled men, but it was clear she was unattractive in every sense and would remain single.
Perhaps it was better that way anyway. She was always making a fool of herself whenever it came to Adam and whatever mixed feelings she had with Maxwell had ended in a complete disaster. She hated dealing with feelings. They only ever caused her trouble. If Francesca and Adam ever found someone to marry, Ginny would struggle to be the happy, supportive friend for them when the evil jealousy monster would be raging inside of her. She would be happy for them, but she would be battling with other emotions at the same time.
Feelings were the worst.
Growing up was the worst.
Pushing all of those things from her mind, Ginny made her way down to the Pitch with the rest of the school to show support for the first Quidditch Match of the season. Or, more importantly, for her to show support for her two best friends. Despite a rocky past with them, Ginny had always supported them when they played. She did her best to understand what was happening (usually failing), but she was proud that she kept up with it. She would never ever have any desire to play the game, but she hoped to some day show Adam and Francesca all the hard work she was doing with learning to fly so that maybe if the two of them came out for fresh air, she could join them.
She wasn’t sure how that would even come about and she’d be sorely disappointed if she didn’t get a chance to show it off to them at some point.
Finding a spot in the stands, Ginny looked out at the pitch to see where her friends were. It would have been a lot easier if they were on the same team, but there was no such luck as that. So, instead of wearing either the Pecari colors or the Aladren colors, Ginny wore her own house color, red. She wore a red fit and flared dress that tied around her waist and a white cardigan to protect herself of the chill. It was a color that went well with her coloring, so she also wore it to look nice for Adam (as subtly as she could), but it was also neutral for the time being.
The coach began the game and Ginny started clapping as the players shot into the air. “Whoa! Come on friends!” Ginny cried out as the crowd cheered everyone on. Her friends supported her with the Dance club, coming to the games was one of the few ways where she could reciprocate the gesture. “You guys can do it!” The only thing that sucked was that one of them had to win over the other.
She knew she probably looked strange just calling out randomly and not actually shouting for a particular team, but anyone who knew the 7th year would have known that she had good friends on both teams. “Stay positive!” She shouted out, smiling in a supportive way even though she didn’t think they could see her or really paid any attention to the crowd.
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Ginny Bellrose
Also watching, but in a different area...
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Ginny Bellrose
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Jemima Wolseithcrafte
July 15, 2015 12:11 AM
In Switzerland by Jemima Wolseithcrafte
This was going to be truly horrible. She had considered not even coming but she knew Ingrid would want to chat endlessly about the match afterwards. She wouldn’t be able to bluff it all, and her sister would be hurt if she hadn’t come to support her. That had almost resolved her dilemma for her, of who to cheer on… She was closer to Ingrid than the other two, and she knew Ingrid cared about having her support probably more than Francesca and Theodore. But it was important for Francesca to win because it was her first year as captain, and Aladren had such a good record. She didn’t really say it but Jemima knew how much her older sister cared about what other people thought. If she was Aladren’s first losing captain in years, she’d be devastated. Ingrid would have lots of years of Jemima’s undivided support after the other two graduated…. Maybe it was their turn this time.Ultimately, she couldn’t choose. She had funnelled all her worry instead into choosing a perfectly neural outfit. She had considered her own house colour, or her favourite orange, but that didn’t feel right. It was a shame that the Aladren and Pecari colours didn’t mix well, the way the way the Teppenpaw and Crotalus ones had to create the Teppalus uniform. An Aladari or Pecadren uniform would just be even darker brown. Eventually, she had settled on white, as the most neutral colour possible, with a back up of wearing something school-green if it was too rainy out for her first choice. She wore a straight white sleeveless dress with a Peter Pan collar, both the collar and the hem of the dress being embroidered with white leaf patterns. She had paired it with high white socks and white pumps. The weather on the day of the match had forced her to add a cardigan, and finding that more white made her look just a little strange - like she was playing dress up as a ghost, or was some kind of performance art piece - she had opted for green.
She took her place in the stands, trying to find a place that wasn’t well into either side’s territory - she wasn’t sure that there were established sides, but there were already clusters of supporters forming. She sat down, head in hands, wondering whether she was even going to be able to watch. On balance, she was glad that they were all playing Chasers and Keepers, even though it brought them much more into direct opposition with each other. If any of them was Seeker, it would be more personally their fault that the other’s team had been defeated. And if they were Beaters… She didn’t fancy the responsibility of writing home to tell her parents that one of her siblings had broken another, nor of having to witness that happen herself.
The match kicked off and she peered through her fingers, not sure she even wanted to know what was happening.
Come on friends!
She heard the shout just behind her. Not Pecari. Not Aladren. She paused, her attention drifting from the match as she tried to tune in, to find out whether she was hearing what she really thought she was hearing.
Stay positive!
“Ginny!” she grinned, as she turned around and found the source of the non-team-specific chanting. Of course, she should have realised there would be at least one other person here with divided loyalties. It made it feel a little easier. She scrambled over to join Ginny in her row.
“I couldn’t think what I was going to shout,” she confessed, “Or say or do when one of them beats the others. Though I guess I still have that bit to deal with…” she bit her lip. “What do you do?”
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Jemima Wolseithcrafte
In Switzerland
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Jemima Wolseithcrafte
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Ginny
July 20, 2015 10:21 PM
It's the only place to be. by Ginny
Ginny looked away from the players in the sky to the person taking a seat next to her and found herself looking at Jemima, the only Wolseithcrafte to not join in the Quidditch phenomenon. Ginny always thought that was a little strange. How could a family of so many siblings who all seemed to enjoy Quidditch have one child who doesn’t play at all? Ginny wasn’t even sure if Jemima enjoyed watching it (although, she couldn’t really recall seeing her last year at games, but Ginny usually kept her eyes in the sky). “Hello Jemima.” Ginny greeted with a smile. Ginny was an only child and although she now hung around her cousins of similar ages of her, she would never know what it was like to share parents with another person. Both Adam and Francesca were surrounded by them. She was both envious and exhausted for the both of them.“I tell them that they both did amazingly and it’s unfortunate that someone must be declared the winner.” Ginny advised. She didn’t always say those words necessarily and it really only mattered if she saw both of them at the same time. “If I happen to see them without the other, then I just adjust what I say based on what the outcome was for that person.” She continued. “Seems terrible, I suppose, but I honestly am always just glad that they make it off the field with as little injury as possible. The actual outcome is less important for me, so I try to make sure I remain positive and supportive for both of them whether they win or lose.” Ginny commented.
She liked it much better now that Teppulas existed. While one of her friends’ played against the third team, the other one was sitting in the stands with her and could help with the supporting. “Thankfully, Francesca and Ada have always been very cool about playing against one another that it never seems to bother them.” Of course, that was before both of them started sporting the ‘Captain’ badge, so this year was going to be difficult for her. She knew that they both felt highly responsible for everything and if their teams lost any of these games, it meant that they would feel that they let their entire house down. It was really quite silly. They were a team. Captains were meant to encourage and support, the fate of winning or losing was beyond their reach.
“If it helps,” Ginny said, “I was rubbish with all this in the beginning.” She laughed. “l had no idea what to say and because I knew very little about the sport, I couldn’t give them any positive feedback on their games. I probably ended up making them mad at me for insulting them or something.”
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Ginny
It's the only place to be.
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Ginny
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Jemima
July 22, 2015 5:11 AM
It's got it all, if you like neutrality, hills and chocolate by Jemima
“It’s not terrible. It’d only be terrible if you were lying to one of them but you can be happy for one person and sad for another, or for yourself, at the same time,” Jemima assured her. “Like, if you and Francesca both passed a test and Adam failed it, I bet he’d be really annoyed with himself but still glad that you both did well. Or if you and Adam went out - Francesca would be happy for you guys but it’d make her feel weird,” she suggested.
“Yeah… I guess it helps that they’re the same age and stuff, so if one of them beats the other, usually it’s fair - they just did better,” she nodded, when Ginny said Adam and Francesca had always been good about it. “Ingrid might not be… Not that she’s a bad loser,” she assured Ginny, although she thought that maybe Ingrid wasn’t exactly the best at it, “But like… They’ve always been able to win at stuff cos they’re bigger and older and smarter. And then by the time we get just as big and old and smart, they’ve gone off ahead again. Sometimes it can be really annoying being the youngest. But I don’t want to have to join in being grumpy about it if they do beat her, cos that’s not very nice and I’ll be happy for them too.” Really, she thought, that Ingrid was likely to be the issue. Francesca would be sad to lose but wouldn’t take it personally against their sibling. But, having been in the younger camp alongside Ingrid, she understood her irritation with not being able to keep up, and with having to lose or to be playing catch up all the time just because of where in the family you’d been born.
“It helps, thanks,” she smiled when Ginny assured her she’d not known how to handle it at first either. “But I don’t think you’d have made Francesca mad. She’d be happy that you were trying. Loyalty like that is really important to her. And you can tell when she’s mad cos she does that face - y’know, the face, where she doesn’t look super mad but her mouth goes all thin, like this?” she queried, doing a scarily accurate impression of a tight-lipped Francesca. “Maybe you haven’t seen her do it much though,” she shrugged.
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Jemima
It's got it all, if you like neutrality, hills and chocolate
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Jemima
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Ginny
July 26, 2015 1:39 PM
I do like those things, I really do. by Ginny
Ginny nodded along to what Jemima was saying. She knew that her friends were always supportive about things even when they themselves were hurting. Ginny was the flawed one of the group. When she was hurt, she closed off from the rest of them and it ended up causing a rift. Francesca and Adam were not without their own flaws, of course, but it wasn’t to the extent of her own. Her friends were supportive and helpful; Ginny was just in the way of them.Ginny jumped in her seat as though someone had just jabbed her hard in the back when Jemima made the comment about her and Adam. Surely the girl was only using this as an example, right? She couldn’t possibly have known how Ginny felt about him? She hadn’t been acting any differently around him, or she didn’t think she was. Did Francesca say something to her sister about it? That was the only common link between them, but Ginny didn’t think her friend would tell anyone what Ginny had told her in confidence. Maybe Jemima was just suggesting it as an example because of the initials in the tree.
“Well, it’s a good thing that wouldn’t happen, so Francesca doesn’t have to worry about it.” Ginny replied, her face flushing, feeling embarrassed.
Jemima was explaining Ingrid’s state of mind regarding playing against her older siblings. This was a family thing. Ginny didn’t know what it was like to have someone older than her always doing things first or being better than them than she was. She had her friends for that though. They were better than her at things. Sometimes it really bothered her and she felt useless around them, but she just smiled and went about her day. She supposed if it were like that in her family she would have a harder time of it.
Ginny laughed at the expression on Jemima’s face when she impersonated Francesca. “I’ve never seen the face directed at me, but I have seen it.” Ginny stated. “You do the face quite well.” She added. Ginny hadn’t been literal when she made the comment regarding her friends been upset with her if she had gotten her Quidditch terms all mixed up back in the beginning. Ginny knew some people probably thought Francesca was uptight and cold, but Ginny knew her for the wonderful person that she was. Francesca wasn’t easily swayed by emotion, at least not around Ginny. But sometimes Ginny felt like she put walls up and Ginny didn’t know how to get around them.
“Ingrid may lose and it’ll be terrible for her, but she has a great Captain and siblings to help her through it. This year might not be the year for her, but she has plenty more to follow and win then. Your best bet is to just remind her of that and let her wallow for a little bit.” Ginny commented, looking back at the game to see if there were any exciting things happening. “This isn’t a very exciting show so far. That’s helpful on my nerves.”
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Ginny
I do like those things, I really do.
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Ginny
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