Jessica Hayles
March 26, 2020 12:34 PM
This isn't for you (Felipe). by Jessica Hayles
Jessica had realized within the first ten minutes of the conversation she and Mara had had with Leonor that she needed to make contact with Felipe, but she had realized very, very quickly that actually speaking to him wasn't a good option. He had rejected her effort at an olive branch out of hand, indicated he wanted nothing more to do with her, and the situation was not quite dire enough to induce her to grovel, or risk making a scene by physically getting in his way when he tried to stalk off like a hypocrite (she no longer gave him credit for the decency to try to slink away in the shame he should have felt). Plus, she was not sure she could restrain herself from shouting, and with her, shouting invariably turned to screeching, and both would make a scene, which she did not want to do.Writing, however, had its own problems - specifically, that he knew her handwriting. After a little thought, though, she had figured out how to get around this and had started drafting. It had taken four drafts to get enough of the bile out of her system to write a version she could send in good conscience, one without phrases like 'you're hardly in any position to talk to me about respect anymore, are you' or 'I don't know what it's like to be the kind of person who keeps serfs and still feels entitled to the moral high ground'. This last version was copied out, as smoothly as possible aside from one word, in the ink her mother had bought her for Christmas for her best pen - a Japanese Beautyberry purple, which looked blue under certain lights, and was named after Lady Murasaki.
This is about LEONOR, she wrote in lieu of a salutation, making the last word three times larger than any other and underlined several times.
After what I just heard, she continued, you can be very sure that I don't want to disrespect your request to stay away from you at all anymore. People are more important than your ideas about honor to me, though, so I'll do it just this once.
Your sister needs you. God knows I am doing my best to help her, but I don't know exactly what your parents' expectations are and I know less about what wizards are really like outside this school. I can teach her about being a woman in power, but not about being a witch in power. We figured that out pretty fast. You're the one who your parents invested in. She'll need us both (separately) to help her if she's going to have a chance to catch up.
I realize now that the person I thought I was friends with never existed, but you stayed really convincing for two years. That makes me think you must have some tiny speck of conscience, somewhere deep down. If that's true, then use it to help your sister get used to the mess you've dumped in her lap. I'm sure Jackson can be awful enough for both of you for a little while, and that she'll take you back after so the two of you can go on being as self-centered, lazy, and hypocritical together as you want.
Jessica
On the outside, she wrote his name in block print, reasoning that he had not seen her print very often and that he was therefore somewhat likely to open the letter.
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Jessica Hayles
This isn't for you (Felipe).
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