Meredith, sweetheart? on Pecari Commons

Elly Eriksson

June 29, 2008 5:18 PM

Meredith, sweetheart? by Elly Eriksson

It had been a crazy day, and a rare occasion in that Elly had spent most of the day on her own. Well, there had been couple of classes in which she'd managed to gossip to her usual crowd, but Elly had gotten up early to finish her charms homework. Then at lunchtime she'd managed to scribble out her transfiguration homework and find a new book in th library that looked great for her midterm prank. After lessons finished in the afternon, Elly headed out to the pitch for some rigorous Seeker training - Pecari definitely had the best team this year, they just had to win - and finally headed in just as everyone else was making thir way to dinner. Elly was planning on a quick shower, then racing down to catch the end of dinner. Luckily it would be the weekend in a few hours, and time for a bit of relaxation.

The common room was empty as expected when Elly headed in; everyone had already gone to Cascade Hall for their food. But as Elly headed up to the steps twards her dormitory, she realised the roomm wasn't quite empty afterall - seated facing th fireplace was Elly's best friend Meredith. Halting in her tracks, Elly turned on her heel and headed back to where Merry was sitting. "You not hungry?" she asked.

Meredith seemed somewhat distant recently. Sure, she was still cheerful and still, well, still Merry, but with differences. Like there were times when she would go quiet for no reason, and Elly thought she'd heard her tossing and turning in her sleep. Plus there was the deal with her arm and leg still not being right, even though it ws months since the accident, and Elly still hadn't forgotten that Merry had missed the Opening feast.

Deciding it might be time to see if there was something she'd been missing, Elly lay her beautiful broom carefully on the floor and took a seat next to it. She was still wearing her Quidditch robes and her hair was an unbelievable mess as she sat on the floor, looking up at Meredith. "Everything okay?" she asked, determined to make things better.

0 Elly Eriksson Meredith, sweetheart? 92 Elly Eriksson 1 5

Meredith Lail

June 29, 2008 10:31 PM

Yes Elly darling? by Meredith Lail

School days felt a lot like summer days. One blended right into the next. Instead of staring at a canopy all day, Meredith went to classes, talked to friends, ate, attempted sleep and repeated it all the next day. So Mere was a little thrown off by having time to herself. It was hard to say if being left alone to her thoughts was good or bad. When classes were over, Mere went to the library, shock and awe, to get a book on Quidditch, less shock and awe. She found one of many NQL guides and checked it out. She got cozy with it in the Common Room in front of the fireplace. Mere looked at the pictures fondly and regretfully. She had kept her smile as bright as she could when the Quidditch list went up and her name wasn't there. Of course proper congratulations was given to her friends on the team because they all deserved to play and she couldn't wait to cheer them on. She knew they would take Pecari all the way.

Mere flipped through the pages of teams by the fire light, finding her favorite team. Seeing the Negators over the summer had been one of the greatest days of her life and she was glad Elly and Echo were there to share it with her. She wished the whole summer had gone as well. She grabbed her elbow at the thought. It was hard to believe how much had changed in so short a moment. She barely dared to believe it still. Everyday Mere watched everyone around her go about their business without a care. She wanted to do that. She did her best by any means, which was why she was drowning out any sour thoughts in a Quidditch guide. It was easy to key in on that since not much made her happier.

Mere read through the page she was on. The information was updated to include the Negators' incredible and almost completely unexpected win over the summer. Mere smiled as the pictures of the cheering team floated around the page and imagined herself on one of those brooms with them. She wanted to play on that team one day to help bring them back to their former glory. Her dad said she should do whatever makes her happy and that would be it. She was taken from the day dream when someone spoke to her. She didn't hear the question right away. It took her a few seconds for the words to to piece together and make a full statement. She turned around and saw Elly back from the Quidditch Pitch. How long had she been sitting there?

"Not really. I didn't even realize what time it was." She grinned at her lack of awareness. Elly sat on the ground beside the chair and her broom. Mere looked back at her book until Elly asked another question. A question she'd heard already and hadn't wanted to hear before. She looked back at Elly with a confused smile. "Yeah. Everything's fine." She patted down some of Elly's wild curls. "But your hair might say something different." She laughed. She knew what Elly wanted her to say. The girl wasn't dumb and neither was Meredith, despite what Ryan thought. But why bring it up? She preferred things the way they always were. A laugh here, a joke there, and never a sad face. That's how Mere wanted to keep it.

0 Meredith Lail Yes Elly darling? 0 Meredith Lail 0 5

Elly

June 30, 2008 9:09 AM

Talk to me? by Elly

As could have been predicted, Meredith was still cheerful and smiley, depsite only moments ago looking completely blank and distracted. But then she was reading a Quidditch book, and might really have been into it, Elly reasoned. She smiled at Mere's teasing about her hair, but it wasn't as full a smile as it otherwise had been - she had a suspiscion that Mere was keeping something from her, and that was a new experince. The gils had always shared everything before. Nowadays Elly felt closer to Caedence - her other roomate was more than happy to confide in Elly, and Meredith had always been that way, too, until now. They still chatted, played soccer, ate and did homework together, but the talking was always weightless banter. In fact, all signs were pointing to everything being absolutely fine, and Elly felt that perhaps she was imagining anything was wrong with Meredith.

But there as definitely something - Elly and Mere, along with Echo, had been best friends for three years already. Something was up, but Elly didn't know what it was, and Meredith didn't want to tell her. It was a horrible situation to be in. Elly wanted to help her friend, and she wanted to be trusted with whatever informatin Mere was with-holding. Yet if Mere did't want to say anything, or if Elly's hunch was no more than that, and things really were fine, then nothing Elly did or said would change anything. It wasn't a familair feeling, but Elly felt rather useless in this situation.

Still, Meredith seemed content to jke and chat, so Elly followed her lead. "Yeah, I might need to buy yet another new brush fter I've sorted this mess out," she grinned, pulling at her tangled curls. "I already broke the one my aunt sent me for my bithday. Which reminds me," she said, sitting up a little straighter. "Dad says I should go visit Mum over midterm, but I was thinking I might go stay with Caedence and meet her foster family. Either way, I need to do some time planning. So I was wondering if you had any plans or ideas, coz maybe me and Echo could visit again for a couple of days? What do you think?"

0 Elly Talk to me? 0 Elly 0 5

Meredith

June 30, 2008 1:55 PM

About what? by Meredith

When Mere's friends were smiling at her, it made everything around her feel better and Elly's had always been especially contagious. When she pulled at one mess of curls, Mere lifted another so it looked like tangly antennae. Meredith's hair never took much effort to work with. It was usually a quick comb through, if that, and she was done. Then again, her flat blonde hair was nearly polar opposite to Elly's red curled mane. She dropped Elly's curls when she sat up.

Meredith closed her book as Elly moved the conversation somewhere else. A thought seemed to hit her that had to do with Mere. She asked about plans for midterm. Mere already decided on what she was doing for midterm. She was staying at Sonora. Something told her that her dad and brothers wouldn't like that so much, but she didn't want to be back home yet. If her sleeping was bad at Sonora, she would be awake all night in Nashville. Elly's plans, on the other hand, were still tentative. Mere knew how Elly and her mother got along, which was sad and seemed even more sad since at least Elly had a chance to visit her. But maybe her mom felt better after being with her family for a while. Elly mentioned coming to visit again. It would've been nice, but it would also be a lot of explaining she didn't want to do about a lot of things she refused to think about.

"Well you could come over, but you wouldn't see me there." Mere joked and began twisting her mother's ring steadily. "I'm staying here for midterm. Maybe you could stay with Caedence for part of the break and see your mama for another part. The holiday is long enough to get a lot of stuff in, and yet when you have good plans it's never long enough, is it?"

0 Meredith About what? 0 Meredith 0 5

Elly

July 02, 2008 9:48 AM

Take a guess by Elly

"You're staying over midterm?" Elly repeated. "How come?" Meredith hadn't ever stayed at midterm before. Maybe her parents were going away together? "And can you take care of Custard for me?"

Meredith's suggstions for Elly's own midterm did make sense, and she'd already onidered the split holiday herself. "I'v thought about it," she conceeded. "I could stay with Mum and my aunt for a bit, meet my cousins again, and then go stay with Caedence after Christmas," she said. "I want to check out her foster family, make sure Caede will be okay with them," she explained with an oddly sheepish smile. She knew it wasn't really her place to be looking out for Caedence, but she couldn't help it; Elly needed to feel that her friends were okay.

That was part of the reason she was getting so workd up with Meredith. Even though her friend was acting and talking normally, she was still behaving oddly. Like right now she was fidgeting with a ring on her finger. But then Meredith had always been a fidgeter - Elly wondered again if she was imagining something was wrong.

"Cool ring," she said, nodding towards the jewellery Meredith was currently twisting round and round her finger. It was large, and set with a yellow stone - it wasn't the sort of jewellery Meredith would usually wear, but Elly had seen her with the ring on a couple of other occasions this year. "Did you get it for your birthday?" she asked.

0 Elly Take a guess 0 Elly 0 5

Meredith

July 03, 2008 6:56 PM

I don't think I need to. by Meredith

Meredith nodded when Elly repeated that she was staying at Sonora for Midterm. "I just feel like staying. No real reason." As soon as the nonchalant response left her mouth, her stomach turned. She hated to lie and she was terrible at it. Mere made jokes, she didn't lie. She felt a little better doing a service to make up for it in a way. "Sure, I'll take care of Custard. No problem."

Elly continued on the track of how she could spend her midterm break. Mere smiled when Elly said she wanted to make sure Caedence would be all right with her new family. She was always looking out for everyone else. Mere wanted to know Caedence was doing all right too. She couldn't imagine having to be given an entirely new family. Would that have happened if something happened to her father too? And worse, would they have put her under the care of that woman she recently found out was her other aunt?

And Elly would've wanted to make sure everything was fine, not that Mere would let her anywhere near that insane woman. She always took that extra step to be persistent. A lot like she was doing now. Mere didn't know if she was purposely prying or if she was simply curious. When she mentioned the ring, Mere first started to twist it faster, but with a little effort managed to stop touching it all together.

"Not for my birthday. It's mama's ring. I sort of took it, but she won't miss it." She shrugged with a half hearted laugh. Mere looked at the ring and felt her eyes sting. Her vision blurred momentarily. Was she nearly crying? She hadn't cried all summer. She rarely cried at all. Not since Faye made her go to Ms. Corona's and now that seemed so trivial. She jumped up from her seat and quickly rubbed her eyes. She smiled brightly again at Elly. "Hey, if you're hungry we can go to Cascade Hall. I just need to put my book away." Mere snatched up her NQL guide and started towards the stairs. She didn't like the turn that the conversation had taken.

0 Meredith I don't think I need to. 0 Meredith 0 5

Elly

July 06, 2008 7:23 AM

So are you gonna talk? by Elly

There certainly were times in her life when Elly had been mistaken. She'd once but salt in her tea instead of sugar. She's once thought her friend Lauren was laughing, when actually she'd been crying. If she had been wrong before, Elly reasoned there was a chance she could be wrong now. But it was only a small chance - she was positive Meredith had been on the verge of tears, and this was just another bizarre occurance in a long line of bizarre occurances. But before Elly could be sure of what she'd seen, Meredith had already collected up her book and started to head to the dormitory.

"Meredith!" Elly called after her. She scrambled to her feet, utterly unsure of what to say. Should she accuse Meredith of hiding something and risk either being wrong of being told it wasn't her business? Should she keep quiet and continue to ignore the fact that her friend was apparently unhappy? Elly didn't make any move towards Meredith, but her call seemed to have temporarily halted her friend's progress. Desperately trying to think of something to say, Elly merely stated, "You're my best friend."

The exclamation didn't voice Elly's thoughts and concerns entirely, but it summed up a great deal of what she was feeling. And fair enough, Meredith did share the best friend title with Echo, but that fact bared little relevance right at that moment.

Elly wasn't sure what she was hoping for exactly. Without knowing for sure that something was amiss made it very difficult to plan one's actions. Any sort of response would be a comfort.

0 Elly So are you gonna talk? 0 Elly 0 5

Meredith

July 24, 2008 11:14 AM

I suppose I must. by Meredith

"Meredith!"

Mere halted immediately, but continued staring ahead at the staircase. She wasn't completely sure why she stopped. Apart from the obvious of her name being called, her mind was still telling her to run upstairs and make the conversation end. But Elly's voice rung in her head. It sounded different than any other time she ever said her name. She slowly turned back around, forcing another grin on her face as her usual defense. She couldn't hold it up easily and it continued to drop and return and drop and return again. "You're my best friend."

Well she wasn't expecting that. Why would she say that? Meredith already knew. She, Elly, and Echo had been friends for over three years. The odd circumstance behind that always managed to make her smile. Only that time it made her smile disappear completely. It started as bewilderment from the statement and then turned to realization. She lowered her eyes to the ground by her feet. She felt like an awful friend. Friends were supposed to tell each other things. Mere chose to just ignore everything. She should have known Elly wouldn't buy it and wouldn't let it go. Elly told her just about everything. Mere's last clinging effort to keep everything suppressed tried to reason that this situation was completely different, but it was useless now. Elly still thought of her as a best friend. She wondered if Echo agreed. She couldn't blame him if he didn't. It wasn't fair to keep something like this from either of them.

"You're my best friend too." Meredith finally spoke, sitting on the bottom step. "And it's not fair to you." She ignored the fact that her phrase probably made little sense to Elly and plowed on before she could convince herself to stop and make Elly sound so sad again. "I don't know if you heard about those people in the news over the summer. P.U.R.E? Those lunatics that were attacking witches and wizards just cos they like muggles and muggleborns. They attacked the muggles and muggleborns too." She cradled her elbow again without thinking and paused as her stomach knotted and her throat felt constricted. If she kept talking, she would have said more about what happened than she ever had.

0 Meredith I suppose I must. 0 Meredith 0 5

Elly

July 27, 2008 3:27 PM

It's time by Elly

Meredith stopped, and the smile she'd held since the summer faultered. Elly felt her stomach clench uncomfortably. She almost wished she'd just let Meredith go rather than stand awkwardly by, not knowing what was going through her friend's mind. Though when Meredith replied, and sat down on the steps, Elly immediately hurried over to her. Her instincts told her to sit down by Meredith, but the surrealism that she hadn't been imagining Meredith's behaviour and perhaps she was about to find out what had caused it made her distinctly uncomfortable. Furthermore, there was still the lingering fact that Meredith had been keeping something from her. Elly couldn't help but feel a little hurt - she would never keep anything from Mere - but on the other hand, she felt worse that she'd pushed Meredith into telling her something that almost certainly none of her business. So instead Elly stood close by, looking down at Meredith as her friend started speaking.

"I don't know if you heard about those people in the news over the summer. P.U.R.E?" Meredith said. Elly nodded; although she was fairly isolated from the wizarding world when she was at home in London, the gossip on the wagon ride back to school was second to none. Elly didn't know anything about P.U.R.E. per se, but she'd heard of them and their bizarre and ridiculous approach to promoting purebloodedness. "They attacked the muggles and muggleborns too."

Elly frowned. She hadn't liked the sound of this elitist group before, but, seeing as she was herself muggleborn, now had no option but to hate them. "That's disgusting," she said, no small amount of anger tinting her usually cheerful voice. Elly had met the occasional blood prejudice at Sonora, but general consensus agreed any claims that blood purity correlated with magical ability were unfounded. Anyone who said otherwise was ignorant at best. Yet this didn't explain why Meredith was so upset; she wasn't muggleborn. Though Elly knew she had a lot of friends in Tennessee. Maybe some of them had endured unpleasant encounters with this detestable organisation? Elly tried to remember the scraps of conversations overheard on the wagons - she couldn't recall any names being mentioned.

Tentatively, Elly sank down to sit on the steps behind Meredith. "Someone you know?" she asked gently, hoping she was wrong.

0 Elly It's time 0 Elly 0 5

Meredith

July 31, 2008 2:50 PM

Oh fine. (WotW) by Meredith

Disgusting completely undermined the situation. There wasn't a word in any language that could properly describe it. Meredith hadn't had a decent night's sleep since then because of it. The gradual appearance of circles beneath Mere's eyes could attest to that. She could feel Elly's presence as she sat beside her on the stairs, but at the same time she was numb to it. Her question wormed its way into Meredith's blocked mind, making her rethink everything deeper than when she usually only skimmed the surface, acknowledging that maybe, possibly, perhaps something happened. Now it was made into a definite reality and she had to verbalize it. She already told herself she would. Her stomach continued to clench nauseatingly and her throat still caught the words.

"A few." She finally choked out. The bitterness couldn't be restrained from her voice, a far cry from her usual effervescent demeanor. Mere's hand left her elbow and began twisting Faye's ring. Slowly at first and steadily faster until her shaking fingers began missing the ring and slowed down. She would tell the story, but at the moment it was the only indication as to what was clouding Meredith's mind. "Daddy's boss came to our house about a week after you and Echo left. They were gonna have a meeting about something or other." Her chest burned and squeezed as she made herself speak.

"I let him in cos it looked just like Mr. Ritger, honest it did, but then he came after us with his wand and used all sorts of nasty spells. He wanted to see Mama, kept calling her an 'it', but Daddy wouldn't let him. Then they and my brothers started fighting and I couldn't even help cos he stuck me to the wall first thing and did this," she held out her twisted arm and leg. "Daddy figured out it wasn't really Mr. Ritger, but it didn't matter. He still got what he wanted. Well, she got what she wanted." Mere took as deep a breath as her compressed lungs would allow and plowed through the rest. "Mama came downstairs to try and reason with the woman who was pretending to be Mr. Ritger, but she aimed a killing curse at me and everything just went really...slow. I couldn't remember anything for days while we were in the hospital. Then Ryan told me Mama was--I figured out she stood in the way of the curse."

That was it. That was all she could say. A few finer details were missed, but it was the best she could do for the time being. Meredith felt awful for dumping this on Elly. She knew Caedence had turned to Elly when her mother passed away. She was taking a lot on her own shoulders and Mere didn't have any idea how to repay her. She couldn't think of anything at the moment except the film that wouldn't stop playing her mind. Her eyes stung as they blurred again. She rubbed her cheeks with less vigor than before, much less caring over whether she cried or not. She barely felt it past the utter numbness that overwhelmed her more than anything else as if the events had all happened once again right before her eyes.

0 Meredith Oh fine. (WotW) 0 Meredith 0 5

Elly

August 05, 2008 2:17 PM

There. Feel better? by Elly

"A few."

Those two short words brought with them a horrible, heart-clenching cold. Elly had hoped her guess had been so far from the mark it was laughable, whereas in reality she had almost been right. Except she would have guessed at only one person being attacked; Meredith said 'a few.' That was definitely more than one.

As she listened to Meredith's story, waiting unwaveringly for her to finish in her own time, there was the occasional utterance that Elly didn't understand. However that was inconsequential: she got the headline loud and clear. She thought she might vomit.

About four months ago, Caedence had told Elly that her mother had died. Elly remembered being devestated; she remembered crying, and feeling utterly useless, unable to help her friend. But that had been different - there had been warning. Caedence's mother had been very ill, and the possibility that she would go away had been around for a long time. Meredith hadn't had any warning, and still she'd managed to carry this alone since.. when? If it was soon after Elly and Echo had left during the summer, then it had been almost as long. Why hadn't she said anything?

Elly didn't blame Meredith at all for being silent, but she did berate herself for not having noticed such a cataclysmic difference in her best friend's life. She should have known - she knew Meredith was acting differently. Now she thought about it, she knew she hadn't been sleeping, either. And no wonder! To have suffered such a loss.

That thought hit Elly hard, like a high speed train. Her friend had to be hurting so much, but she hadn't shared her burden with anyone. Elly couldn't remember putting her arms round Meredith, but she knew they were there. She had been so stupid, moaning about her own mother moving away, when Meredith's mother wouldn't ever be coming back. Naturally the lies Meredith had told about her Quidditch injuries were completely excused, but Elly wished they hadn't even been necessary.

"You should have said something," Elly said very softly, resting her head gently against Mere's own. She could feel Meredith's breathing by the shaky rise of her shoulders. Elly thought her friend might be crying, and yet she was completely oblivious to the tears dampening her own face.

0 Elly There. Feel better? 0 Elly 0 5

Meredith

August 06, 2008 7:30 PM

I really wish I could say yes. by Meredith

Mere could no longer wipe her face because Elly had draped her arms around her. The only way she knew her friend was hugging her was that she couldn't move her arms much anymore. Otherwise, it was meaningless pressure on her body, but she didn't move. Maybe, if only for just a moment, she could pretend things were as they used to be. She could imagine Elly hugging her after giving her a present for Christmas or just for seeing her again after a long and wonderful holiday break and it would feel good. Or maybe she could pretend it was her mother pulling her into a hug again and it would feel even better. Anything to change this!

But it didn't work. Meredith was still sitting on the stairs enveloped in a sad hug by her sad friend and feeling nothing. Actually, it was only close to nothing. She was surprised that just having said something, finally voicing the story she had been denying even happened, and having Elly there finally began to chip away at the numbness. No, she couldn't have her mother back. She did have her friends though and they were just about all she had. She needed them. She didn't know if she preferred feeling this awful or feeling nothing at all.

"You should have said something." Mere knew Elly was probably right. All she had done was make her friends worry when she wished they would act like everything was the same. That was all she wanted, but she couldn't get that from them when she wasn't acting the same herself. Still...

"Why?" She asked just as softly as she had been spoken to. "It doesn't change anything. I just want things to be normal again. It's not fair."

As feeling returned, the unbearable confusion ate away at her again. The reason why her aunt came to her house was both crystal clear and as vague as looking through mud. Elly was right that it was disgusting to attack people just because they were muggles or had muggle parents. She just couldn't for the life of her understand how it made sense to do that. And that was what made up a great deal of the pain she was beginning to feel beyond the numbness. It was all done for no good reason.

0 Meredith I really wish I could say yes. 0 Meredith 0 5

Elly

August 07, 2008 3:08 PM

Well, it will get better from now on by Elly

"Why?" Meredith asked. Good question. No tangible reason, Elly supposed, but she was a fairly firm believer that sharing the burden lightened the load, even with abstract concepts. Though in the grand scheme of things, it didn't really matter whether Meredith had ever told Elly or not - it probably did little to change the way she felt. Still, Elly would be careful not to complain too loudly about her own mother in future.

"It's not fair," Meredith said, and before she could stop herself, Elly had laughed. Entirely inappropriate, perhaps, but it almost seemed like a reasonable reaction under the bizarre circumstances.

"No, it's not fair," she agreed, releasing Meredith after a tight hug. She had already come to the conclusion that she was terrible at comforting people, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to try. "But you can't let that stop you," you said, sighing heavily. "I mean, you've been amazing, coming back to school and being, you know, smiley and stuff." She refrained from the cliche of telling Meredith she was making her mother proud, firstly becuase she'd only met Faye a couple of times, and secondly because she had severe doubts about the afterlife, so it didn't really matter whether anyone would be proud, if they were dead.

Reaching up to brush some stray curls back from her face, Elly touched her cheek and only then realised her own tears. "You made me cry," she teased Meredith lightly, with a smile and the gentlest nudge. So that's what she was doing? Teasing a friend in mourning? Elly mentally slapped herself. She really was awful at this. Meredith's entire life had changed, and she was making jokes.

"Um, do you want me to get you anything? I could find a prairie elf and order up some chocolate cake, if you'd like."

0 Elly Well, it will get better from now on 0 Elly 0 5

Meredith

August 10, 2008 11:53 PM

Thank Merlin for that. by Meredith

A laugh? Elly was laughing? Did she know something Meredith didn't that made this better? Elly let go of her and Mere turned her head to study her friend with red rimmed blue eyes. She tried to make sense of what Elly was saying to find where the humor was because she could go for a laugh. She just hadn't felt it was possible for months.

When she couldn't find any, she guessed it was just Elly being Elly. When was the girl ever sad? And who was Meredith to do that to her? But she insisted. Seeing tear streaks on her face was so out of place. Mere didn't doubt she looked strange too. Was that why Elly laughed? It wasn't as if crying did them any good. Well, maybe a little, but she couldn't explain it. Feeling better after smiling or seeing one of Elly's infectious smiles made a lot more sense and Meredith didn't want to deal with anymore strange paradoxes that made her head want to implode.

"Sorry." She replied when Elly said she made her cry. She still spoke in a hushed voice as if their heads were still right beside each other. She looked back at her mother's ring and really wished she were there to help Meredith sort through everything in her head. They didn't always agree, but her mother always seemed to know what was best in the long run. It was a sort of magic she had, even being a muggle, that Mere never admitted to.

"I could find a prairie elf and order up some chocolate cake, if you'd like." Elly offered. Mere looked at her again with a confused expression. She knew Elly was still trying to comfort her. Everything she said was to be taken as comforting, even the laugh. She was so out of her element, but still trying. Only Elly, Mere thought. Slowly a smile grew on her face. This time a sullen look tried to erase it instead of the other way around, but the smile lingered. It wasn't a smile repressing anything. It was a genuine Meredith smile. What would she do without that silly red head? She thanked Merlin for spilled juice.

"Chocolate cake sounds good, but I'm kind of hungry for dinner. You still want to go to Cascade Hall?" She stood with her book and held out her other hand to Elly. When things felt normal, Meredith felt better and the idea of something so simple as going to eat dinner with her friends made her feel infinitely better. It couldn't be bad to be happy when her mother was...she would say it one day. Everyone kept telling her to smile before when she didn't want to. Well now she wanted to.

0 Meredith Thank Merlin for that. 0 Meredith 0 5

Elly

August 11, 2008 10:03 AM

It is done. by Elly

Meredith smiled at her, and while Elly was delighted to see the expression, she couldn't help but feel she was being mocked. Yes, she sucked at comforting people, that much was for sure, but all things considered, she could be worse - at least Mere wasn't hitting her or telling to her to go away. She was smiling, and that was the best medicene, no matter what the ailment. Unable to help herself, Elly smiled back.

When Meredith suggested they head to the Hall for some food, Elly's smile spread into a grin. She took Mere's hand and allowed herself to be pulled up from her seat on the step. "Yes," she agreed, "food is a good idea." She had originally been going to shower before she ate, but she doubted that would still leave enough time for food, seeing as a rather important conversation had interrupted her proceedings. Elly had a momentary concern for the state of her hair and her muddy robes, but she had never been concerned about how she looked, and now was a really inopportune time to start.

"We'd better hurry, otherwise there'll be nothing left," she said, linking arms with Mere and already heading back to the commons exit. She had already decided to ignore any requests to put the book back in the dorm - from what Elly could tell it was a library book, and perfectly safe left in the commons, or carried down to dinner if necessary. "I bet Echo's waiting for us," she said, cheerfully.

Although Elly knew things would never be the same for Meredith (and never was she so grateful to live in a different continent, and far away from those PURE freaks), she silently vowed she would do everything in her power to make sure Meredith had as good a time as possible.

0 Elly It is done. 0 Elly 0 5