Laurie Cider
May 07, 2009 5:13 PM
Tuckered out. *4th Year Girls' Dormitory* by Laurie Cider
It wasn't so much that Laurie disliked the Opening Feasts- she liked them. And it wasn't that she was avoiding any of her classmates- she wasn't. But once again, her parents had insisted on her taking a plane flight to Arizona, and combined with the trip on the wagons, she arrived at school feeling dusty, exhausted, and not remotely hungry. She made the obligatory entrance to the Cascade Hall, listened to the welcoming speech by Prof- that is Headmistress Powell, and then whispered a quick explanation of her departure to Josh before making a fast get away.The Crotalus Common Room welcomed her with a satisfactory silence, made all the better by the complete absence of her other housemates. Thirty minutes later, after a blistering shower and a change into new, clean clothes, Laurie still felt tired, but certainly better. She dug into her carry-on, ignoring the necessity of unpacking her trunk for now, and ran a comb through her dark blond hair, the straightened strands finally reaching past her shoulders. Deciding that the drying of it could wait, she fell back on her bed, grateful for its luxurious softness, and considered briefly going to sleep then and there, wet hair and early hour be darned.
Time caught up to her, however, and Laurie lifted her hand in a tired wave as one of her roommates came in. "Welcome back."\r\n\r\n
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Laurie Cider
Tuckered out. *4th Year Girls' Dormitory*
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Laurie Cider
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Addie Laurent
May 20, 2009 9:55 PM
Probably not the company hoped for. by Addie Laurent
“Um, thanks,” Addie said to Laurie as she entered the room. She had left the feast just a bit earlier than their other roommates with the thought that no one would be in the room. It would give her a chance to get out of the getup that she was wearing. What had she honestly been thinking by begging her mother for the dress that she was wearing under her robes. It was an adorable dress. It was a classic a-line style with the neckline, waist, and hem in a chocolate while with a random leaf print done in the same brown with a green and blue. And it was completely wrong for her.She wasn’t one of the popular girls who would look utterly smashing in a dress like this. No, she was an unnoticeable and it was completely out of character for her to try to draw attention to herself in any way. Thankfully, she had been able to hide the dress by keeping her robes closed at the Feast. Not so thankfully, she couldn’t hide the matching brown, heeled sandals nor the hair and makeup. Her long hair hung down her back in ringlets. Her eyes looked just a bit bigger. Her lips were shinier. It was certainly a change from the girl of years previous.
She knew exactly what she had been thinking or rather hoping for. After her conversation with Cecily last year, she had wished for the entire summer to be a part of their group. They were the girls that every girl wished to be and every guy wanted to be with. She wanted that. She wanted so badly to not be her, to be someone different. She didn’t want to be the girl that everyone ignored. She didn’t want to be the girl that no boy found attractive. She wanted to be someone instead of a nobody. But who was she kidding?
She felt absolutely ridiculous and now Laurie was there to witness what a fool she was. Addie hung her head in the hopes that her hair would cover the embarrassment of her face while she wrestled through her bag to find makeup remover and face wash. It would be so much worse if anyone else saw her like this. As she did so, she tried to distract Laurie by asking her the simplest of questions, “How was your summer?” She was hoping it would be enough so that she could get by without wearing the robes since they weren’t really always convenient for things like face washing.
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Addie Laurent
Probably not the company hoped for.
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Addie Laurent
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Laurie
May 25, 2009 4:24 PM
Any company's welcome. by Laurie
It was strange, to be sure, that Laurie had lived with her roommates for the past three years, and still only knew the barest details about two of them. For Anabel, the reasons were glaringly obvious; and yet. . . after last year's attempt at conversation, she felt marginally closer to the girl, even if it was a grudging awareness. She still couldn't shake the feeling that regardless of how much she might show of herself to Anabel, the chances of the other girl ever thinking well of her were very slim. It left an ugly feeling in her chest, the undeniable sense that, in someway, Laurie was disliked. More than anything else, she did not want to be hated.For Addie, though, the continued lack of familiarity was hard to understand. Laurie couldn't quite place the reason for it; Addie seemed like a nice sort of girl, perhaps a bit more subdued than their shared roommates. Generally, it seemed like a case of disappearing into the woodwork. When everyone else was around, somehow Laurie just sort of. . . forgot about the other girl. The realization made her frown, and bothered, Laurie sat up, twisting her damp hair into a loop over her shoulder.
"Summer was. . ." She thought briefly over the past weeks: the cruise with Renaye, that bizarre meeting with the Grimms, and then the three enforced evacuations due to the overly active tropical storm season. If anything, it had been incredibly busy. "It was full," she said at last. "Good, but full. How about yours?"
Laurie stepped down from the bed, stifling a tired sigh. After a summer of not using magic, it was about time she tried out some of the more basic charms and unpack her trunk. She lifted her wand, and then paused, turning back to face Addie. There was something. . . different. A subtle thing, but there it was. The brunette looked brighter. Not really pausing long enough to allow Addie to answer her original question, Laurie crossed the small space between them. Upon nearing, the differences became more apparent.
"Hey, you look really great!" she exclaimed, not cognizant of either the assumed familiarity of the comment or the seeming distress of the addressed. Her brown eyes took in the coiffed hair, the fastidious make-up, and the coordinated clothing. Some of her enthusiasm died; as great and as noticeable as Addie looked, Laurie couldn't help but draw a parallel between the girl's current appearance and its similarity to how a certain group of girls in her same year presented themselves.
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Laurie
Any company's welcome.
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Laurie
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Addie
May 26, 2009 12:33 PM
*grins* by Addie
Addie wished she could say that her summer had been great. For the most part, she had watched boys fawn over her sister, who had gotten taller and filled out more. She glanced down to her own body. She was certainly filling out, but not in the way she wanted and to her, the dress just seemed now to exacerbate the problem. Of course, her mental mirror was in need of a serious fix for seeing a lie rather than the truth. She was turning out to be a rather pretty girl in her own right, but she still and probably would for a while compare herself to Hannah. She just wanted to be better than her in something, anything.Though, she had sort of won out over her sister in the form of Cristian Romero, the main highlight of her otherwise boringly usual summer. But then, he was new. He didn’t know that boys noticed Hannah, not her. Never mind that Addie was too wrapped up in herself to notice that the boys at school weren’t exactly lined up for Hannah. So, when he had asked her to come watch him play baseball and suggested pizza after, she hadn’t thought anything of it. Embarrassment had ensued on both parts when she realized his intention. Regardless of how the informal date had come about, she was still ecstatic to have had one at all.
But then, she hadn’t been dressed the way she was now. She still felt highly out of place in this getup. “Thanks,” she replied to Laurie’s compliment while subconsciously tugging at the dress. She felt like a parrot that could only mimic two words. Clearing her throat slightly, she tried for a bit more, “My mom helped with everything. I…it looks ridiculous, doesn’t it? I feel ridiculous. This isn’t me at all.” Her hands twisted together, betraying her nervousness. Laurie always seemed like a nice enough person, but she was still worried about being laughed at. It wasn’t like she was pretty or popular and nothing was going to change that, no matter how much she wanted it.
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Addie
*grins*
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Addie
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Laurie
May 30, 2009 9:09 PM
That good, eh? by Laurie
"I…it looks ridiculous, doesn’t it? I feel ridiculous. This isn’t me at all."
You're right, came the internal agreement, you look like someone trying to act a part- you look like you're trying to be one of their clones.
A pressure of guilt climbed onto Laurie's shoulders and took rest there, its unwelcomed legs tightening across her chest and its unwanted arms digging into her hair. She bit down on her lower lip the moment the thought flickered through her mind, its inherent ugliness making her feel naked. That Addie's innocent admission, at once vulnerable and pleading, provoked that sort of thought in Laurie's mind made her feel sick. All too often recently, she had similar ugly thoughts, a wretched cattiness that left her feeling equal parts guilty and liberated.
Resolutely, she shook her head, the motion an attempt to clear away the unsolicited thought. "It's just new, right?" Her words landed far more roughly than she intended, and so she continued, walking back to her bed and unpacked truck, hiding her expression behind her damp hair. "I'm sure it just feels strange now because you're not used to it yet. Just be confident, and no one will criticize you."
Not out loud, at least, she added mutely, hating the thought instantly. But it was true, though. Laurie couldn't help but think that the Addie in front of her looked great, but it felt fake. The entire presentation felt forced, and the whole point was to look beautiful effortlessly, right? Wasn't that why she, herself, stuck to her jeans and t-shirts? Wasn't that why she had spent most of her third year feeling miserable because her attempts at femininity kept falling short compared to her more glamourous roommates?
And wasn't it true now that she only thought these ugly things because she felt envious that Addie had pulled the attempt off far better than she had?
The lid of her trunk flew open with more force than necessary, and Laurie crouched on her heels, trying to collect herself. She was only tired, that was it. She was tired after a long day, and surely weariness was an excuse for feeling out of sorts. Rooting for the right way to fill the silent space between them, she finally voiced the old dependable staple of new school years: "What about your summer? How'd it go?"
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Laurie
That good, eh?
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Laurie
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