Last minute friendship! [Tag: John] on Cascade Hall

Professor Sophie O'Malley

July 30, 2017 1:45 PM

Midsummer Event: Concert! by Professor Sophie O'Malley

Sophie had fond memories of the midsummer events from her own days at Sonora. Bonfires, concerts, balls, and fairs. They were all pretty great. She had volunteered to emcee for this year’s event - the concert - and while the preparations were made, she couldn’t help but reminiscing about her own time. Her very first event as a student had been a concert, and now here she was, some fifteen years later. Time sure flew by sometimes.

For this year’s concert, most responsibility fell to the students. Namely, the clubs. It was pretty cool, she thought, how involved so many of the students were at this school. Just based on the smaller population, Sophie imagined they had to have a proportionally higher participation rate. That was cool.

As always, it was hosted in a hotel in town, just off school grounds. While Sonora had an incredible and more than suitable grounds, having it in town made it more accessible. Muggles could not go to Sonora, so this way, Muggleborns could have their families present just like everybody else. It wasn’t a struggle Sophie had ever experienced personally, with just about everyone in her life being at least halfblooded, but she nevertheless supported the gesture. It was only fair.

When it seemed all the family members were settled around tables, Sophie climbed up the steps to the stage. With a quick Sonorus, she addressed the crowd. “Hello, everybody!” she smiled. “And welcome to this year’s Midsummer event. We’ve got a great concert ahead of you, with just about all parts of the evening run by our wonderful clubs, so please, sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!” Sophie cancelled out the spell, and as she dismounted the stage in the falling lights, she glanced ahead the table where her family sat, triple-checking that her son Stanley was behaving himself. Then she took her temporary place in the audience, and the show began.

OOC: Hello! Please keep in mind that this does take place outside of the school. It is only being posted here because we do not have a board for this location at the current time. All immediate family members are invited and can be posted. Congratulations on making it through another school year. Have fun, everyone!

Subthreads:

Dueling Demonstration! by Jozua Sparks with Zevalyn Ives, Joe Umland

Sporting Spectacular! by Ben Pierce

Last minute friendship! [Tag: John] by Sammy Meeks with John Umland, The Meeks-Jones family

After the Concert. by John and Julian Umland

12 Professor Sophie O'Malley Midsummer Event: Concert! 34 Professor Sophie O'Malley 1 5

Jozua Sparks

August 02, 2017 10:34 AM

Dueling Demonstration! by Jozua Sparks

Jozua stood on stage in front of the whole school and their families. Somewhere in this crowd, his own parents and granddad were watching, too. He was pretty sure his Dutch grandparents had declined the opportunity to watch a bunch of teenagers demonstrate their favorite hobbies, but he hadn't heard formal confirmation of that. He was going to work under the assumption that this wasn't the event that finally convinced them to cross an ocean to visit him. He'd be less nervous that way.

He'd had three volunteers for the dueling demonstration; one from each grade level. Joe and Zev were close to the same age though, so he felt lucky that his intermediate and beginner at least looked evenly matched, even if they weren't. Scarlett was a graduating seventh year, though, which was awesome because she could really show off some cool moves, but putting her up against a fourth year or a first year was just pointless.

Jozua cleared his throat and started with a brief description of his club and what they did. It wasn't terribly interesting, but neither was it terribly long either, so nobody in the front rows was looking too bored yet when he said, "And today we're going to show you a couple of sample duels. At lower levels you might see something like this: Joe Umland and Zevalyn Ives, en guarde," they two younger demonstrators took their places. Well, they were younger than Scarlett anyway. They were both older than Jozua himself. As an aside to the audience he explained, "Magical duelists use the same French terms to begin a match as are used in fencing. En guarde tells the duelists to take their places and raise their wands, 'pret' will warn them that the bout is about to begin, and 'allez'" Jozua pronounced it ah-lay with the most emphasis on the last vowel sound, which not knowing French, he wasn't sure if that was correct or not, but that was how most of the judges he'd seen in professional matches pronounced it, "will tell them to begin and start the timer in timed matches."

"Pret," he said to Joe and Zev. "Allez!"

They began what could more accurately be called a choreographed dance than a real duel, but it helped ensure that it would look good, not get repetitive, let then show off some more flashy hexes and jinx that were generally too cumbersome to bother with in a real match, and help Jozua keep on top of the running narrative to help the audience understand what was happening. Also, it ensured it went on long enough to get a good idea of what two evenly matched intermediate students might be able to pull off.

Joe was the one doing most of the difficult spells, though Zev had managed two above her level and had her defenses down solidly to counter Joe's attacks. Eventually though, Joe ended the match with a disarming spell that Zev, as per the choreography, didn't get her block up in time for.

The two duelists bowed, Joe gave her back her wand, and Jozua explained how duels ended and were scored. "Next, I will invite out Scarlett Brockert to show you some spells more advanced duelists might use." Scarlett came out with Professor Nash. Jozua talked about some of the most important spells used by professional duelists, or at least the important ones Scarlett could do anyway, and she demonstrated each one, either targeting Professor Nash, or defending against an attack that the dueling advisor sent at her. Jozua thought it looked amazing and hoped the audience agreed. "Thank you, Scarlett, Professor Nash," he thanked them when they were done. They stayed on stage and Joe and Zev joined them for final bows.

"That's it for the dueling club demostration. I'm Jozua Sparks, the president. Professor Nash - the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher - is our advisor and coach. Watch for fliers on your common room bulletin boards if you want to join us next year. I'd like to thank Scarlett Brockert, Joe Umland, and Zevalyn Ives again for volunteering to help demonstrate what we do. Enjoy the rest of the concert." They all bowed and exited stage right (or maybe it was stage left, Jozua really wasn't sure how that worked, but it sounded cool in his head.)

OOC: Joe and Scarlett agreed to the basic plan of the demonstration in Chatzy; the implementation of it is hopefully acceptable to their authors.

1 Jozua Sparks Dueling Demonstration! 348 Jozua Sparks 0 5

Ben Pierce

August 02, 2017 4:06 PM

Sporting Spectacular! by Ben Pierce

Ben had signed his Sports club up for the concert with eager enthusiasm, but the more he had thought about it, the harder it had been to figure out just what exactly a sports club could do on the concert stage.

So he'd taken a few wizarding photographs of each of his meetings since them and worked with the professors to find a way to arrange them into a slideshow they could project onto a screen on stage. Besides that, he'd recruited some volunteers to do some sporty things on stage before, after, and during the slide show.

The Sports Club opened with a banner that the Art Club made up announcing them as The Sports Club. All closed loops in the letters were either made into balls or had a ball flying through it. Other letters were made to look like other sporting equipment: the 'l' in Club, for example, looked like a baseball bat while the underside of the 'h' in The was netted like a soccer goal.

As soon as the banner unfurled, club members came out flying on brooms. With Quidditch demoted to scrimmage games for most of the year, he had unofficially considered those scrimmages his meeting of the Sports Club for those two weeks. Also, he'd done one Quodpot match in April, so broom flying was totally within the scope of Sports Club. He didn't really trust real bludgers in the muggle hotel where the concert was being hosted, but he and Sammy were batting a softball enchanted to look like one (and not fly into the audience if either of them hit it wrong) between them while the broom sport slides showed on their projector screen. The rest of the club members tossed a Quod between them. Some of the slides repeated themselves, as they were on a random loop until Ben specifically told them to advance to the next set, which he did when the Quod exploded (which was a good climatic high point, but somewhat unpredictable in timing).

The slideshow moved on to the muggle team sport loop. There were shots of his club playing baseball, soccer, volleyball, kickball, and more. Meanwhile his performers dismounted from their broom, and started kicking or throwing balls amongst themselves. This was a longer set, and nothing exciting was planned to mark the end of this section, so it wasn't randomized or looping so it automatically moved right into individual sports.

The screen showed the moving magical snapshots of club meetings where the participants ran or swam races, played ping pong or tennis or badminton, or did something challenging like climbed rock walls or completed obstacle courses. His club members added live action by bouncing tennis balls on tennis rackets, racing each other around the stage, and hula hooping.

The slideshow ended on a shot of the outside of the Sonora Academy building with as many of the sports club attendees gathered together for a group picture as he could wrangle and most of them grinning and waving at the camera. (Though a few who Ben guessed were maybe unfamiliar with wizard cameras were just standing still and smiling fixedly.)

Taking a leaf out of Jozua's book, since Dueling Club had gone first, Ben stepped forward to center stage and said, "Thanks for watching. We're the Sports Club at Sonora. I'm the club president, Ben Pierce, and these are my fellow sports enthusiasts," he pointed to each of his club volunteers as he named them. "We'd love for you to join us next year, just watch for the announcements telling everyone what we're doing and where and when we're meeting each week! Just come to the ones that sound interesting to you! Thanks and bye!" He gave a quick bow, and ran off stage, grabbing a tennis racket, his broom, and a baseball as he did so.

When the curtain closed, he ran back out to help collect the rest of their stuff and help take down the projection screen while the next act was simultaneously setting up theirs. Once his act's stuff was clear, he he grinned at his helpers, "Great job everyone, have a great summer!"

OOC: Sammy's participation approved by her author. If your character ever attended a sports club meeting (or even just participated in a Quidditch scrimmage) you may feel free to say they were one of the people on stage and/or in the group shot at the end if you'd like.

1 Ben Pierce Sporting Spectacular! 339 Ben Pierce 0 5

Zevalyn Ives

August 02, 2017 5:01 PM

Did you see me? by Zevalyn Ives

Zevalyn hadn't joined many clubs her first year at Sonora. It was lack of time rather than lack of interest that restricted her, but Dueling Club was basically an extension of DADA so she'd considered it too educational to skip. As such, if she wanted to be involved in the Club Showcase Concert, she really only had one option for getting on stage. At first, she'd decided against it, as it would probably require rehearsal time that would take away from her learning time, but then she found out muggle parents could attend AND it was taking place right in Phoenix, not even 10 miles from her house.

So she'd talked to Jozua and he seemed relieved to have her in their demonstration and it didn't take away from learning at all. If anything, the pressure of not wanting to mess up on stage made the spells she was using in her demo among her strongest. She got to work privately with two older students and the DADA professor until they were totally solid.

Professor Nash even had her try some of the intermediate spells Joe was using and while she wasn't entirely proficient in them yet, he told her that he had no doubt that she'd be able to make the transition to intermediate DADA next year with no problem. That had been a very encouraging moment.

Anyway, the concert was now here and she stood, wand raised, facing Joe. She knew not to attack at the first allez - the one where Jozua was explaining what they meant in terms of dueling if not the literal French translation - but she was ready for the second one and shot out her first spell, the jelly legs curse, right on time. It being a well practiced duel, Joe was ready for it, but Zev still felt a bit proud of herself for each successful casting she did.

She'd been a witch for less than a year and here she was casting real, practical, combat magic against someone finishing his fourth year and holding her own. Okay, yes, that was precisely because it was so carefully choreographed, but not everyone watching knew that. And her parents would be totally impressed.

The notion crossed her mind to actually defend against the last disarming spell, but everything had gone so well so far and she didn't want to go off script now on Jozua, so she went through the preliminary motions to a shielding charm she would never complete and pretended to be surprised when her wand went flying over toward Joe.

When it was all over, she went weaving through the crowds, trying to find her parents. "Did you see me?" she asked excitedly when she did. "Did you see me do real magic?"

1 Zevalyn Ives Did you see me? 380 Zevalyn Ives 0 5

Joe Umland

August 10, 2017 2:43 PM

Sometimes it's not fun being youngest. by Joe Umland

Julian had worn yellow. It was a much lighter shade of yellow than the one which covered much of the Teppenpaw common room, plus she was wearing blue earrings and a blue pendant necklace instead of anything reddish to go with, but Joe still decided to assume she had made her wardrobe selections out of lingering House loyalty instead of pure awareness that the outfit suited her rather well. She looked at Joe appraisingly as he left the stage after his choreographed duel with Zevalyn Ives.

“On the first day of school you pick a fight with a seventh year, and on the last day of school you have one with a first year,” said Julian. “Interesting social strategy you’ve got, Joe.”

“Zev’s not a normal first year,” Joe excused himself, and he and his sister embraced. After he and his parents did the same, though, he noticed Julian’s eyes flicking around the hotel ballroom, clearly trying to force the low lighting to be less of an obstruction to her aims by willpower alone.

“I hope not,” his father joked, though he looked a touch stressed, too. “Otherwise, I’m going to have to ask some of your teachers about those good reports you’ve been showing us….”

“I’m sure that won’t be necessary,” said Mom, who was looking around, too. Joe decided to cut to the chase.

“Yes, John is around here somewhere,” he announced, and all three of them did double takes and then began to look more than a little guilty.

He did not feel badly about making them feel like that. He knew they would have come even had he been the only one of their relations at the school now, but he also knew that they would have been paying a lot more attention to him had John not also been here, somewhere. He honestly would not be surprised to find that Mom and Julian, at least, had spent the entire performance looking around to see if they could spot John.

Guilt was something Julian seemed to experience a lot, but not something she let stop her from doing what she wanted to do. Joe could never decide how to think of that, but he decided he was fairly sure it was why Julian recovered first. “Where?” she asked bluntly, also getting to the point.

Joe shrugged. “That I don’t know.”

Julian pinched the bridge of her nose and made a noise of clear exasperation. “For God’s sake,” she whispered. “Does he really expect us to – what? Beg on our knees?”

“I don’t think that’s it,” said Joe, deciding he’d mock her for the dramatic touch there later, if it seemed appropriate.

“Well, let’s not talk about that now,” said Dad, sitting down again.

16 Joe Umland Sometimes it's not fun being youngest. 329 Joe Umland 0 5

Sammy Meeks

August 10, 2017 4:46 PM

Last minute friendship! [Tag: John] by Sammy Meeks

Sammy always liked the midsummer events, especially the ones that parents came to. Ethan didn’t care enough to come anymore, but her moms always did, even when Sammy’s participation level was literally “play sports”, a feat they had seen her do hundreds times over the years, just usually not on a stage. But it wasn’t about the come-see-meness of it; she was more excited, this year in particular, for her moms to see the duels.

She wished her moms could come see Sonora, but they couldn’t because they were Muggles. But because the school hosted magical events off of school grounds, the Meeks-Jones moms could attend. And that was very special to Sammy. She wanted them to get to see and love and experience magic the way she got to. Sometimes she still felt a little bad that nobody else in the family had any magic, and since she wasn’t allowed to do magic outside of school in the past, it was kept so separately from her family’s lives. Of course, now she was seventeen and of legal magical age, so she could do stuff at home for them, but the point remained. This was special.

The concert was just about to get under way, and she saw her moms sitting happily together at a table across the way. Sammy started to them, but somebody else caught her eye: John Umland. He seemed… off. After spending some time with him this year - that MARS day started it, and now from time to time, she would just show up and have a meal with him or something, or track him down in the Gardens and make him hang out with her - John was someone she considered a friend. And if something was wrong, she wanted to fix it.

So she strolled right up to him. Following his gaze, she noticed he was looking at a table where a bunch of presumed Canadians sat with Joe. Oh. Family thing. Sammy was lucky enough not to have any family drama (her moms were great, her dad was great, and her brother, while a bit of a jerk sometimes, was great), but her heart went out to him anyway. She put a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, you good?” she said. “Your face is weird. Like, weirder than usual.” She elbowed him weakly, hinting at the joke but also expressing some concern through its gentleness.

“Wanna come sit with me?” Sammy offered with a warm smile. “My moms are waiting for me. My brother didn’t come, though, so if you want to fill in, we can go be playful and sassy. Because, y’know, that’s a change. And you can show them how much smarter you are than me. It’ll be fun.” She didn't know if John was involved in anything for the concert, but she herself would have to duck out for the Sports Club bit, thus leaving John alone with her moms, which had the potential to be awkward but kinda only made her want him to come over even more.

OOC: All godmodding approved

12 Sammy Meeks Last minute friendship! [Tag: John] 310 Sammy Meeks 0 5

John Umland

August 10, 2017 6:45 PM

Not like we have much left to lose, is it? by John Umland

Julian had worn yellow. It was not a loud shade of yellow, he thought – to the extent he was good at telling shades of the same color apart – but that just meant it made more of a contrast with her black-brown hair and sharp blue eyes, which had that stuff around them that made them more prominent in the middle of the mask of other make-up which blurred most of her features into obscurity. The result, paradoxically, of her relatively subdued wardrobe choices was to make her the most striking-looking witch in the room, to John at least. Or was he just fixating on his sister to avoid looking at the taller, slighter, faded-looking witch sitting beside Julian?

I can’t do this – illogical thought. Of course I can. I am physically capable of walking. I think. But I can’t do this. It’s worse for everyone. Mom’s lost weight, is that my fault? Dad’s hair looks like it’s started getting grey, but that could be the light….

He wanted to go over there. He would have given a year of his life to go over there. He would have happily consented to dropping dead in a week if he could have gone over there knowing they would welcome him back. He couldn’t know that, though, and he knew it would be worse for everyone no matter what happened if he even tried, and yet – to go back would be as hard as to go on. He couldn’t take his eyes off them.

I'll never be such a gosling to obey instinct, but stand, as if a man were author of himself and knew no other kin. I have shored up these fragments against my ruin. He glanced at the fragments in question, namely a column, a number of tables, and some people. Other people’s families, he supposed. Go, get you home, you fragments. Get out of the way -

Something touched him and he flinched before he realized it was just Sammy. He classed her as a non-threat not because he didn’t think she could be one if she wanted to – he was sure she could – but she was good company, surprisingly enough. Pity he hadn’t known it before this year, really. He chuckled slightly at the allusion to his face looking ‘weirder than usual.’ It was the kind of thing Joanie might have said.

“Yeah, I was just – thinking about the chairs,” he said. “There’s lots of chairs.” This was true, but was more the kind of thing, not exactly untrue, John would say to make someone at home go away by making them think him very strange. He doubted that would work on Sammy, though.

He considered her offer. Sit with her and some women he didn’t know, or go to his own family?

Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once.

“Sure,” he agreed. Here’s to the next however-many tastes, I suppose.

He waved awkwardly to the women in question when they arrived. “Hello. I’m John,” he said. “Sammy invited me.”

OOC: John quotes from Shakespeare’s ‘Coriolanus’ twice (“I’ll never be…kin” and “Go, get you home, you fragments”) and misquotes from Eliot’s ‘Waste Land’ (‘I have shored up these fragments against my ruin’; the line is properly ‘These fragments I have shored against my ruins.’). Eliot being Eliot, it’s entirely possible – even probable – that the line has nothing whatsoever to do with the reference to ‘Coriolanus’ which precedes it, but given Eliot’s affection for the play, the fact that Rome did find itself, like the Fisher King’s kingdom, in a bit of a bind after the title character left, and the fact I felt really smart when I connected the play and the poem through the ‘fragment’ references, I decided to permit John a really bad nerd joke in one of the lower moments of his life to date. He also borrows lines from Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar' and 'Macbeth'.

16 John Umland Not like we have much left to lose, is it? 285 John Umland 0 5

The Meeks-Jones family

August 11, 2017 6:14 PM

But so much to gain! by The Meeks-Jones family

Lauren and Cheryl blinked at one another for a moment. John. They searched their memories in synchronized silence. Had Sammy mentioned a John before? Usually she talked about Kira or Laila or Aislinn, although Lauren was somewhat confident that John had been at least mentioned once or twice. Still, if they were expecting another member at their table, they would’ve bet on one of the girls Sammy talked about. They smiled anyway, of course. Any friend of their daughter’s was more than welcome at their table.

“Nice to meet you, John,” Lauren smiled. “I’m Lauren, and this is my wife, Cheryl.” She nodded to the brunette beside her as appropriate.

“I’m Sammy,” the Pecari announced. Grinning, she looked around at her odd company. “I just wanted to be included. Anyway, I told John he could fill in for Ethan, so like, make sure you embarrass him. He’s one of the family tonight!””

“Sounds good,” Cheryl nodded. She took a deep breath and prepared herself. “Are you dating anyone, young man?”

“Oh my god, please don’t actually do this,” Lauren laughed. Sammy, too, settled into the throes of laughter, although she was louder and far more rambunctious. They calmed soon enough, remembering that there was a performance about to begin, and Lauren spoke again, repressing a second wave of laughter as she noticed their daughter wiping away tears. “But no, seriously, we won’t be that mean. You’re free to share, of course, but we won’t pry.”

12 The Meeks-Jones family But so much to gain! 0 The Meeks-Jones family 0 5

John Umland

August 12, 2017 6:03 PM

Such as new perspectives. by John Umland

There was something peculiar, John thought, about Sammy’s family – not the obvious, that Lauren was using the word ‘wife’ in a very different sense than John would use the word, something else. It took him a moment to realize that it was how utterly un-freaked-out they seemed about someone they clearly didn’t know from Merlin’s favorite teacup joining them out of a clear blue sky.

It would have been different, he thought, had it been his family. Of course they’d be polite and as welcoming as they knew how to be, but…he remembered when Julian first brought William ‘round. Dad had done better than the rest of them, but even he had managed an echo of Mom’s elaborate, awkward politeness to the stranger she would really rather not have had around – not because he was Julian’s boyfriend, but just because they were all so unused to really dealing closely with people except each other and a small group of friends that Mom had clearly not known what to do with a new person. John could have dismissed his own inclination to climb on the roof and observe the stranger from a safe distance as just him being himself, but even Steve and Joe, who were usually social and extroverted, had seemed reluctant to socialize too much with the stranger once he was in the house. Heck, Joe had even still visibly been surprised at times when he saw Joanie around the house the last few weeks before John left, and she wasn’t a stranger, or even someone, at that point, they’d needed to hide anything from anymore.

Come to that, Clark’s dad had seemed far more okay with John’s prearranged showing-up than John thought his own parents would have been in the reverse situation. Mom usually allowed their friends to come over, of course, but it was a massive inconvenience and she was constantly stressed about it until said friends left and they all knew it. Of course, those friends were all Muggles, maybe it was only that….

“Er – thank you,” said John when Lauren (Mrs. Meeks? He didn’t know what to call her. He remembered Mom dithering over the same problem when she had decided to write Charlie’s fathers to ask if they’d heard anything from him That Year, but couldn’t remember how she’d ultimately decided to address whoever opened the letter) said they were not actually going to be that mean to him. “I shared my room with three brothers at home, so, uh, not too used to privacy anyway,” he added, hoping this would deflect attention. Mom said it wasn’t nice to let people know he found them baffling sometimes, so best to act as if all their behavior was totally normal.

16 John Umland Such as new perspectives. 285 John Umland 0 5

John and Julian Umland

August 16, 2017 9:42 PM

After the Concert. by John and Julian Umland

Sammy’s family was, if nothing else, never boring. Trying to find his footing with these people permitted John to spend a substantial part of the evening not dealing with two of his many problems, perhaps the most urgent of them all – that his family was here and he couldn’t see them, and, more practically, no idea what this meant for the weeks separating him from university. He had, with some effort, to get himself accepted to one, but that wasn’t going to help him much on a practical level until August. It was currently June. Late June, but still – June. He had not yet figured out a plan for addressing this, other than getting off a wagon Joe wasn’t on somewhere in the States and winging it from there, and ‘winging it’ was not a great plan when one was not actually a bird or, for that matter, a legal resident of this particular country for the next month….

This had been worrying him for several days, but he almost, in everything going on that evening, forgot about it for the duration of the Concert. He let himself focus on the moment, which was why it was both a surprise and not a surprise when he noticed a pair of high heeled shoes had appeared in front of him without his noticing their owner’s approach as the party started to break up. He hoped against hope they were random shoes as he looked up, but couldn’t say he was altogether surprised when the body they propped up turned out to belong to his sister.

He tried to think of something – anything – to say – either just to say or to get out of the situation – but nothing came to him. Julian seemed to have the same problem: she looked as if she started to speak several times, but did not seem to be able to get words out. She began to twist her engagement ring violently on her finger, and John reached out to stop her without thinking.

“I didn’t expect you’d still have that by itself now,” he said finally.

“Wedding’s not until August,” said Julian.

Silence fell again. John had a million things he wanted to ask, a million more he wanted to say, but he suspected that if he tried to say more than a few words, he would lose his composure in front of all these people, which was not something he wanted to do. Mom and society were united, for once, in their opinion that expressing emotion in public, particularly the kind of emotion and expression of same that involved falling to the floor clutching his sister’s and mother’s and father’s knees and weeping, was not quite civilized. “I should go,” he said, his voice cracking a bit even on that, and he tried to suit actions to words, but Julian grabbed his arm first.

“No, you shouldn’t. You never should have in the first place!” If he had hoped to avoid a scene with his initial inane comment, he’d failed. Julian was all red and white at once now, never a good sign. “What were you thinking, just – just leaving us like that – “

“I had to – “ he began, but then realized this was not the proper trail to follow. “I thought you, anyway, you would have been happy about it – “

“Happy? What is wrong with you? I couldn’t even go in our house for a week. I’ve been worrying about you pretty much twenty-four seven for a year! Happy!”

“Yes,” said John, forcing himself to it. “It might make some of your friends and cousins uncomfortable, after all, you associating with the likes of me.”

He must, he realized a moment later, have been expecting her to slap him. She didn’t. Instead, she allowed – it was, he told himself, ineffectively, almost certainly deliberate; Julian was a messy crier when it was real – tears to roll down her face. “I don’t associate with you,” she said, more quietly now. “You’re my brother.”

He knew how to make her angry, he thought. He knew how to agitate her into such a passion that she did slap him and stormed off and declared herself well rid of him. Using that knowledge would be the right thing to do. He couldn’t do it and so stood there, hating Joanie for refusing to just let him die and be done with it last summer and Julian for having learned much more sophisticated ways to fight than she’d ever used when they were kids, before all this happened to them.

His silence seemed to encourage her in some way, because she took his arm again, this time more gently. “Look at me and tell me you don’t love us,” challenged Julian, and John became vaguely aware that Mom and Dad and Joe were standing a bit behind her, clearly uneasy with the scene.

John gasped in irritation. “Damn you, Julian!” he swore. “You know I can’t.”

“Then we can – we can fix all of this. Just come home with us.”

“I can’t do that,” he said, turning and trying again to leave. “It’s not possible. I’m sorry – “

“Sorry for what?” said Julian, now louder, sharper, angry. “If you’re not wrong, then what are you sorry for?”

Just keep going. Walk. Don’t listen to her. Focus. You can do this. This is penance. Do it. Keep going -

“Or are you so much of a coward that you’d rather go live off charity from your little boyfriend than deal with the fact you’ve hurt us like a man?”

…Okay, that was out of order.

John stopped and turned back to face her. By this point, she had to be deliberately pitching her voice – both to him, an increasing distance away from her, and to make sure everyone else around her heard it. “What?” he said, more quietly but just as angrily.

Julian maintained her distance. She crossed her arms as if to emphasize that she was going to stand where she was and that he could come crawling back to her if he liked. “Deny it,” she taunted him. “But prove me wrong if you do – otherwise, you aren’t my brother. If you’re as weak as that – “ Joe appeared to be urgently trying to whisper to Julian that she should stop talking now, but she shoved him behind her with one hand – “My brother was a lot of things, but never that.”

Since she was clearly not going to come to him again, he went to her – but furious, not crawling to beg her pardon. “You call me coward?” he demanded. “You – you!” He moved to seize her by the shoulders, but checked himself at the last moment – even now, he didn’t want to hurt her, and he was afraid he might do so whether he wanted to or not right now, in this extreme of emotion. He half-turned away and gripped the back of a chair instead. “I seem to remember you sneaking about, going off to see Bill and Lenore and Bertram and all those other do-nothings for the fun of it and not having the guts to admit you were doing it, because you knew you were wrong!”

“And I remember you lying to us all, making me cry just to distract me from what you were doing!” hissed Julian in return, rounding the chair to face him again. “At least when I was found out, I didn’t vanish into the night! I had the nerve to come here and humiliate myself trying to reason with you, and you haven’t got the balls to hear it? I’m not even sure you live in a glass house at this point!”

She reached out as if to grab him by the front of the shirt in her rage, but he jerked back from her. “Don’t touch me. I don’t want to hurt you.”

Julian stared at him wide-eyed for a moment. “Hurt me?” she asked, more softly again. “Are you trying to scare me? You’ll have to do better than that. You’ve hurt me a lot of times, but you never harmed me in your life.” Abruptly, before he could get out of range this time, she threw her arms around him and pulled his hair hard when he tried to get away from her. “You promised you’d always have my back,” she said, now sounding on the brink of one of her proper cries. “Is this how you keep a promise?”

“It’s my fault,” managed John into her shoulder. “If I go back – “

“That’s all in the past,” insisted Julian. “We’ve both done things we’re not proud of, but it’s all over now. We can start over. Just come home with us.”

16 John and Julian Umland After the Concert. 285 John and Julian Umland 0 5