The calm before the storm on Cascade Hall

Zara Jackson

July 29, 2020 9:28 PM

The calm before the storm by Zara Jackson

Zara made her way to the Cascade Hall, feeling a little off. She had got a note from Professor Skies the previous evening. I am writing to inform you that Felipe is in the hospital wing. He is not in any current danger but at this time he cannot have visitors. I would request that you respect Felipe's privacy by not discussing this in detail with your classmates. If you wish to talk to us, we are always available.

She was not exactly sure how she was meant to discuss anything in detail when she had not been given any details but whatever. That was probably just standard grown up speak. Her best guess was that Felipe had something contagious - that was a reasonable reason not to allow him visitors. Or maybe something embarassing or weirdly horrifying had happened - magical accidents could be strange after all. Maybe Jeremy had transfigured his head into a pineapple or something. If that was the case, she was sort of grateful not to be allowed in. She was probably supposed to sit there and dutifully tell Felipe that she'd still like him no matter what he looked like. Green spiky hair, she thought she could deal with but she wasn't sure she could really earnestly tell him that the rest of it made no difference. No one wanted to date a pineapple, it would be spiky and hard to kiss, and she had liked Felipe's face how.it was. Also, if Jeremy had done that, she was going to transfigure a certain part of his anatomy so that it was inconvenient, comical and even less to boast about than it probably was at present. Maybe a literal shrimp...

It had been an odd morning, sitting in classes without Felipe. The teachers clearly knew not to expect him, and luckily their morning assignments had been very minimally interactive, which had limited anyone else's opportunity to come ask her. Not that she had much to say... It was bugging her a little that she didn't, and obviously she didn't like the thought that he was sick or hurt. It was hard not to be a little bit worried, even if Professor Skies had said he would be fine (or words that Zara had taken to mean that, even if the Deputy Headmistress had said no such thing).

She thought she might just grab a sandwich from Cascade Hall and swing by MARS to make him a get well card, hoping that would cheer him up even if she couldn't see him right now - assuming that as a pineapple he still had eyes and could read. She could drop it off at the hospital wing and see if she could get an update. However, she hadn't even finished making her way into the hall before someone approached.

13 Zara Jackson The calm before the storm 1444 1 5

Mara Morales

July 30, 2020 7:32 AM

Funny how you can still feel a storm building up, though. by Mara Morales

Occam’s Razor stated that the simplest explanation was usually the best explanation, and right now, it suggested that Mara was simply reading too much into things. There were a thousand reasons why a – well, not guilty conscience, but at least one which was not entirely sure that what she had done with good intentions was a thing which would have good outcomes – a complicated conscience should make little things seem more significant than they were, or make her see things that weren’t even there. That seemed much more likely that then tension Mara thought she had kept sensing all around the building being real. And yet, she was still uneasy.

The problem, she thought, with developing a concern for someone was that once it was developed, it was impossible to subsequently shove it aside. The rational thing to do would be to tell herself that she’d done her good deed for the semester and forget about it – but she was all in these people’s business now even if they didn’t know it and she didn’t want to be, so she found herself looking, casually, between classes for De Matteo, and being increasingly concerned when she didn’t notice him anywhere. From there, it was easy to think the teachers seemed curiously on edge, or even other students – though there were other explanations there, too. Everyone had more things going on in their lives, and while Leonor might be strained if her brother had gotten carted off for a mental health evaluation on the recommendation of an anonymous tipster, she could also just have had an argument with her jerkface ‘boyfriend’. Or had a bad night’s sleep. Or none of the above, and Mara was seeing things that weren’t there out of a complicated conscience.

And yet, she was still uneasy.

She had not decided if she was going to going to confront Zara Jackson about her unauthorized knowledge of Mara’s business while she had been at home, and she had been even less sure about doing so after the bizarre events of her confrontation with Felipe. The last thing she wanted to do was end up feeling sorry for someone who considered spreading trash about Mara’s sister a good marketing strategy – or provoke that someone into actually starting a scandal. A desire to fight rather than cower made her want to confront Jackson, but reason said not to do so.

Mara had made up her mind to stay away from Jackson today, anyway, when she stepped into the entrance hall and saw the other girl about to enter the Cascade Hall. A wave of dizzy recklessness swept over her, and before she thought about it, she said, “Hey!”

Well. So much for doing the reasonable thing. She was more on edge than she had thought she was, which was not ideal. Still, too late now.

She approached Zara warily, as though expecting her to attack. Mara’s jaw was set, and she folded her arms as she approached, wishing the other girl wasn’t taller than her. She considered what to say, and finally, as she stopped walking at a reasonable conversation distance from Zara, settled on, “Do you know who I am?”

16 Mara Morales Funny how you can still feel a storm building up, though. 1472 0 5

Zara Jackson

July 30, 2020 7:59 PM

It's one of those things The Authors seem to See by Zara Jackson

‘Hey!’ Zara prepared herself, wondering how to answer the inevitable ‘Where’s Felipe/do you know why he’s not in class?’ She supposed that ‘yes’ was a semi-honest answer to that - he was not in class because he was in the hospital wing instead, and then she could tell them it wasn’t any of their business and get on with her day. Not that she really minded - she assumed that most people would be asking out of concern. After all, what gossip was there around being ill? Unless there was some rumour flying that she hadn’t heard about him and Jeremy getting into a duel. But presumably they’d go to Jeremy for that. Also, if he’d done something bad enough to land Felipe in the hospital wing, she hoped he wouldn’t be still sitting in class, and there he’d been.

’Do you know who I am?’

“What?” Zara asked, puzzlement flitting over her features as she was asked not what she had expected at all. It was also a very strange question to ask, more fitting of a celebrity in a strop (which hey, she wasn’t ruling out, given the drama family that the person belonged to and how pissy she looked for no obvious reason) and given that they were in a school small enough that almost everyone knew who most other people were. She had observed Jessica and Mara spending time together. She had heard people call the other girl’s name. She was on the freaking Quidditch team, so her name got shouted out during matches. Zara would have had to be pretty dense to not really know who Mara was, especially as she’d been given a heads up to make her curious enough to try and work out which first year she was, back when she had been a first year. As usual, what she didn’t know when it came to the Hayleses - or whatever Mara was - was why she was supposed to care.

“Yeah. You’re Mara,” she stated, in a tone that clearly conveyed ‘and what?’ She didn’t ask whether Mara knew who she was. She was pretty sure that the answer was ‘no’ even if Mara knew her name because after all, the only things she would have heard about Zara were what Jessica told her, and Zara doubted any of those were accurate.

13 Zara Jackson It's one of those things The Authors seem to See 1444 0 5

Mara Morales

July 31, 2020 7:50 AM

Weird how that works. by Mara Morales

Mara grimaced when her name was correctly cited. That hadn’t really been what she had meant, but she thought it might get to the point anyway. Why would a fourth year know her name, if she hadn’t been told it by someone who had no business either discussing Mara or Mara’s business with unauthorized people?

Well, unless she had noticed Mara’s venture into publicly running her own business last year. However, this girl was not one of her clients, so to put a face to the name….

Abruptly, her shoulders relaxed – or, more accurately, slumped. She didn’t want to deal with this. She didn’t even know how to deal with this, really. At least with Felipe, she’d had a solid offense to charge him with. Now – well, she did have things to hold against Zara, but this wasn’t specifically one of them, despite being the most personal one.

“I was really hoping you didn’t know that,” she said. “But hey, if the world was perfect – then it literally wouldn’t matter.” Mara’s first thought had involved the phrase then I wouldn’t have any reason to want to kick your teeth in, but that was perhaps a bit unnecessarily aggressive. Might give this shrew an excuse to go whining to someone that she’d been all threatened and she hadn’t even done anything because she was such a nice person, wasn’t that obvious, she was in Teppenpaw, wasn’t she? Et cetera, et cetera, ad infinitum, ad nauseam. Ad. Very. Very. Nauseam.

“Look,” she said with a sigh. “I’ve been thinking for the past two weeks about how to win a ding-dong-waving contest with you so that you know to stay out of my business, but frankly, I’ve got better stuff to do with my time. I know you know things I don’t want you to know about my business. That – unlike lying about my sister to people – “ she added with a scowl – “isn’t your fault – you should have let us know you knew our business, but as long as you leave it alone, so will we – my main issue there is with your boyfriend – wherever he is today. Does it sound like we’re on the same page, now?”

16 Mara Morales Weird how that works. 1472 0 5

Zara Jackson

August 01, 2020 2:53 AM

You're weirder by Zara Jackson

This was hands down the most random encounter Zara had had for a while. And she lived in a house with Bertie. And was cousins with James. She had literally spent most of her winter break being spoken to or about like she was an enemy spy or entirely in the dialect of screechy drag queen. So, when she thought that Mara was random, extra, and confusing there was like… a decently high bar to hit to be awarded those accolades.

“Okay, Rumple, wanna chill a sec? Because I don’t know what secret bargain you’ve made, or what kind of wicked witch you think I am, but I am not sure my knowing your name - or whatever else about you,” she acknowledged because she knew there was another fact they were putting with that, “is the monumentally huge deal you seem to think it is. What all do you think I’m gonna do with it above and beyond the oh, absolutely nothing that I have done so far?” she asked. Mara seemed kinda sad and worried, which made Zara wonder exactly what exactly had been said about her and what evil things she was out to do, but also angry and up in her face and… kinda hilarious. Zara had to stifle a giggle at the phrase ‘ding-dong waving contest,’ desperately wanting to ask whether this was with imaginary body parts or baked goods, given that neither of them had the literal equipment. An image of her and Mara swinging cheap mass produced cakes at each other would have been hilarious except she had no idea what competition she was trying to win here.

“Not even slightly,” she stated, shaking her head when Mara asked if they were on the same page. “What I’m getting, is that you’re all up in my face right now and making a scene in order to ask me to… what? Stay out of something that I was not even in? Make sure you’re not the centre of any drama?” Right. Cos clearly all the Hayles-Whatevers would hate that. As Mara acknowledged, Zara had not tried to get the information herself - it had just happened to her. And since then she had ignored it and stayed out of it, and now she had Mara on case telling her she’d better... do exactly what she’d been doing? The idea that she should have gone back to them was weak, and she didn’t bother to counter it. She was sure an ‘I know your secrets’ conversation with Jessica would have gone so well after all. She hadn’t even bothered Mara. She’d been tempted. She’d been hella curious. She’d wanted to just strike up a conversation with her and find out what this one was like. And she hadn’t. She’d minded her own and stayed out.

“I thought we were all supposed to lie about your sister,” she stated, confused by Mara’s other accusation, “Not that I have. I haven’t told anyone she is, I haven’t told anyone she isn’t." Weirdly, Zara's life did not revolve around gossiping about Mara's family, and she bit back a comment to that effect. "I haven’t talked to you. I haven’t talked about you. So what do you want right now?" Because she was really not sure how she was meant to give less than the actual zero flying monkeys that she already gave about thier whole entire family drama. She wondered whether it was the fact that she didn't care that bothered them all so much.

“You two openly hang out. You go around using the words ‘my sister.’ You ran a shop selling thinly disguised Arvale products to students. So, you can leave Felipe out of it too because if there’s any degree to which you think your business is getting about more than you’d like it to, maybe you need to examine just how hard you’re trying to keep it a secret before you go blaming other people.”

13 Zara Jackson You're weirder 1444 0 5

Mara Morales

August 01, 2020 11:18 AM

I've got a lot on my mind, okay? by Mara Morales

“I don’t know what you might want to do with it,” said Mara darkly. “How can I fathom how your mind works? I just want you to know I know you know so that…you don’t think you can do anything with it, and us not…know it was you who did it.”

Which sounded more and more ridiculous as she said it out loud, and made her wish she was somewhere else. This, she thought, was why one shouldn’t do things on impulse. This was why one strategized with advisers and stuff – at this rate, Professor Skies was going to figure out that Mara had written that note, and hear about this even though there was no-one else around right now, and think Mara had been pulling some bizarre, cruel prank on her friend’s brother for no real reason, instead of being genuinely worried about someone….

A dull flush began to suffuse her cheeks, though she refused to back down, because what kind of message would that send? Unfortunately, the only really persuasive message she could think of as an alternative was threatening to take out anything Zara did to Jessica on Bertie, and that would be incredibly screwed up. Anyone who stooped to that kind of tactic was beneath contempt, and also stupid – that kind of thing did not make businesses run smoothly. It just encouraged the competition to hate you more, and pushed them up against the wall, from which they could come out swinging.

Plus, it was just…wrong. You didn’t go after people for stuff they didn’t do. Mara would have squirmed uncomfortably if confronted on the idea that she’d care about something being morally wrong just because it was morally wrong, rather than for any practical reasons, because that just sounded lame and perky and naïve, but she couldn’t really find a way around it inside her own head.

Thankfully, Zara gave her something more concrete to work with in short order, something she could latch onto and address without qualms. “So you’re saying you didn’t go around telling people she’s some kind of racist soap opera villain behind her back?” she asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow. “Because there’s a difference between keeping your mouth shut about other people’s business and lying, and that there? That was a lie. You may notice I’m kind of not white,” she added irritably. “I’m pretty sure I’d know if my own family was either racist or in a soap opera.” The lashing of sarcasm on that last sentence was soothing, familiar, stable. Not like…anything the past two days. Or possibly just last month.

“And I don’t go around doing anything,” she added again, more defensively this time, her body language curling in slightly, as though to protect herself. She flushed even more, feeling very…twelve, here, and talked down to, and not liking it one bit. “You’re the one naming names right now. And anyway, do you think Leonor and Sadie are family, too, just because she hangs out with them too? You got a real low opinion of my dad, for him to be someone you’ve never met. And it’s my business. I can go tell the New York Times about it, if I want to, but Felipe had no right to tell you,” she added more fiercely, finding her feet again. “Which he agrees he didn’t, by the way,” she added in case Zara thought she could go whining to her man for sympathy.

She studied the other girl. “You’re not like I expected,” she added abruptly, apropos of nothing. She would have expected more…subtlety, somehow. However, as she had observed the day before, Felipe was completely screwed up in the head. Maybe talking to him like he was an idiot was the way to wind him around one’s finger. It seemed utterly alien to her, but she was the person who had initiated conflict, yesterday. If someone had shouted at her like that, she’d have yelled back, no matter how in the wrong she might or might not have been. She couldn’t imagine doing otherwise, just as she couldn’t imagine being the way Jessica was sometimes. Other people were mysterious animals, sometimes.

16 Mara Morales I've got a lot on my mind, okay? 1472 0 5

Zara Jackson

August 04, 2020 3:34 AM

Any of it logical? by Zara Jackson

Was this funny, or was it just deeply disturbing? As the twelve year old child in front of her looked at Zara like the fourth year was ready and willing to do Terrible Things it was equal parts both. It was funny because it was ludicrous and Mara was just a kid and she halfway sounded like something out of one of Bertie’s spy adventures (oh geez, imagine if they bonded!) but it also seemed probable that Mara genuinely believed it, which was tragic as heck. Who went around using phrases like ‘I cannot fathom how your mind works?’

“My mind works like this - don’t be a douche to people. That’s pretty much it,” Zara shrugged flatly, refusing to be whatever it was Mara was casting her as. Presumably Little Bit here wasn’t going to believe her. She seemed to think she needed to regard Zara as her arch nemesis, ready to blackmail her or ruin her reputation. What ridiculous soap opera life did you have to lead for your child to have a genuine fear that blackmail was a legitimate problem they might face in the school yard? Zara wasn’t saying that wasn’t a possible risk. She wasn’t naive. But it was still a messed up life to lead. It was also, having not grown up considering that risk, something she would have thought to worry about, or to do with the information she’d acquired.

“And yeah? You’ll know it was me, Felipe, Leonor or anyone else who made a wild guess and decided to gossip about their hunch,” Zara pointed out. Like heck she was taking the blame if people started talking about Mara, though she was sure that’s what they’d try. Leonor seemed way more likely to go spreading rumours - after all, her standard of what included a decent enough human being apparently included Jeremy Mordue.

“That is a lie. A heck of a big one,” she agreed, “But no, seeing as I don’t, never have done, and there is no freaking evidence for that whatsoever, I’m guessing I’m not the one telling them,” Zara glared defensively as Mara accused her of lying about Jessica. “She’s clearly said enough for you to form quite the impression of me though. That I’m what… Name calling behind all your backs and about to blackmail you at the drop of a hat?”

Zara wasn’t sure what Leonor had to do with things. It wasn’t like she’d ever really seen her hang out with Jessica, or if she did, she assumed it was because she was Mara’s friend. She wasn’t sure who Sadie was. As for Mara’s dad, she wasn’t about to give him any kind of a pass on being non-racist. He was willing to sleep with his hired help, so didn’t regard all forms of racial segregation as the ideal. He was presumably not calling Mara and her mother slur words to their faces if Mara thought he was alright. Zara’s bar for not being a racist was quite a lot higher than that, and she was not about to believe that some powerful and privileged white guy had really taken the time to understand himself, the systems that had built up, and all the toxic crap they had planted in his head along the way just cos he had a little brown daughter. One who, for political reasons, he wasn’t willing to acknowledge in public. Still, she wasn’t about to start a theoretical race debate with someone who busy making very real accusations based off… Wow, absolutely nothing. Again.

“I did not say anything about your dad. Though I gotta say, at this point it’s getting pretty tempting. If you all are gonna make up a bunch of crap and accuse me of having said it anyway, maybe I should just go for it. You know what you said, about how if this gets out, you’ll know exactly who to blame? I hope you realise the answer to that is you and your sister. Cos I tried staying out of your freaking business, and all I’ve got to show for that is you yelling in my face accusing me of a bunch of stuff I’ve never done. Stuff it wouldn’t even occur to me to do, because I don’t see people’s weaknesses as something to exploit.

“Great. You got Felipe to apologise or whatever. Achievement unlocked,” Zara gave Mara a slow hand clap. “He’s pretty much the most apol-” she cut herself off. “But maybe I shouldn’t tell you. Maybe if I tell you any sign of weakness, you’ll assume that’s a convenient point to exploit. That’s apparently your default assumption of what we’ll all do to each other, right?

“Well, I can only assume that’s a good thing,” Zara glared when Mara declared her to be ‘nothing like I thought.’

13 Zara Jackson Any of it logical? 1444 0 5

Mara Morales

August 04, 2020 3:30 PM

Some of it. by Mara Morales

Mara blinked, taken aback, when Zara agreed that Jessica was not a soap opera racist, but not because of that. Well, mostly not because of that. The more startling part was the claim that she hadn’t said it in the first place. Saying she wasn’t a liar by calling Jessica one…that was an interesting strategy.

Of course, it was possible, a rational corner of her brain noted, that nobody was lying exactly. Jessica was dramatic and anxious; it was quite conceivable she could blow a thing up beyond what it really was in her head on a bad day, which she seemed to have had. She had never, on the whole, been able to exactly say what it was Zara had done…other than the part about calling their family crap. That, Mara was fairly sure, had happened, because Jessica was generally honest and she was unwavering on that point.

“According to her,” said Mara in a tight, clipped tone, “you said our family was crap, and then, instead of telling her what your problem was like someone with any guts worth mentioning, you went running to your boyfriend behind her back to whine about how she did something bad to you, because apparently offering to collab and then apologizing for wasting your time when it didn't work out is…somehow offensive to you.” She was pretty sure that her tone, combined with the look she cast at Zara, clearly indicated that she saw this as proof Zara was either stupid or crazy, not someone with any ground to stand on. “The way Jezi tells it – “ damn it, she had not meant to use Jessica’s name, much less her pet name, her family name – “she apologized for wasting your time, and that was when you started insulting our family, and she just left it alone because she, unlike you, has some manners.”

That was another thing Mara could only conclude Jessica had judged absolutely accurately, because Mara was an off-balance bundle of negative emotions right now and she was still doing a better job of being civil than Zara was, she thought. This chick had acted like Mara was beneath her somehow from the first word out of her mouth. Her behavior had not improved since. Mara was aware that she was not exactly being her best self right now – all right, she was a million miles from being her best self right now; she was acting like a dramatic, defensive child of her actual age, which was behavior she tried to avoid as a general rule – but she still wasn’t talking to people as though they were beneath her.

She listened, stone-faced, as Zara finally showed stress as well as condescension and started to rant. There was a thrill of fear in the bottom of her stomach at the bluster about telling it all, but she refused to acknowledge it. Instead, she raised an eyebrow at the end and said, “I’d rather just focus on what I’m good at, but you do you. And I know Felipe is completely messed up in his head, so you’re not exactly spilling a lot of tea there, sis. Remember the part where I told you I already talked to him? And I know you didn’t directly say anything about my dad. I was using this thing called sarcasm,” she added, figuring she might as well give as good as she got. Maybe disrespect was all Zara understood. “Because if someone has to be related to anyone younger who she’s friends with, then there must have been relationships with her father and all their mothers – but that didn’t happen. See how it works?”

She was a little calmer, now. Felt more in control. Her stomach was still in knots, though, and she wished none of this had ever happened, and she had the strangest impulse to go hide somewhere. Since she couldn’t, and because that wasn’t a good plan, she focused on the feeling calmer bit.

“So go ahead, if you want to,” she said, borrowing the same technique she had initially assumed Felipe was using on her the day before, before she had realized he wasn’t calling her bluff and that he was actually completely screwed up in his head. “If embarrassing us a little makes you feel that much better, go ahead and try your best. Tell everyone in school, if you want. Do you really think you’re gonna cause more trouble than just embarrassing us if you do? Because you’re the one who started talking about exploiting and blackmailing and stuff. If I was too worried about you being able to do that, I would have come offering to polish your shoes with my hair if you wanted me to.”

This was partially a bluff. It was possible, maybe, hypothetically, that Zara could cause trouble and get someone to believe her…but Dad made jokes about people making up crazy stories about him sometimes. A random girl from nowhere, whose existence they couldn’t even verify probably because of how the wizards were separated from the real world, came up saying she had an insider scoop on Arthur Hayles? Who was going to listen to that? And if someone did, well, there was still the fact that Jessica was supposed to be in a ‘facility’ for some non-specific medical thing. PR said the story originated from some girl in the same facility getting it into her head that some other girl in the facility was Jessica’s sister. Half the city elites already probably thought Jessica was here for anorexia-bulimia, it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to convince everyone that Zara was someone here for paranoid delusions.

“I just like to let people know to their faces when I have a problem with them, and I have a problem with people who call my family crap, and since it turns out you know which face goes with which name, I might as well tell you,” she concluded, pretending she had had a plan so hard that she almost believed it herself.

She shrugged at the idea of Zara’s difference from expectations being a good thing. “Not really any better or worse, just kinda…different,” she said. “Didn’t expect you to sound like you were talking to a trail of slime the minute you opened your mouth, is all. Probably explains a lot about why your guy’s so apologetic, though, if you talk to him the way you apparently talk to everyone else, and he puts up with that.”

16 Mara Morales Some of it. 1472 0 5

Zara Jackson

August 15, 2020 6:26 AM

Depends who you ask by Zara Jackson

Wow. Were being irritating, melodramatic and just… making up your own entire versions of conversations family traits or something? This was insanely annoying.

“Well, Jezi is telling quite the tale then. Because the way I remember it? Having never, ever spoken to me to even so much as say ‘hello’ before, she drops in on me in the library talking about how my family could be a great resource for her family to promote itself. But before I can even say… anything, about what kinds of companies we do or don’t get involved with or, hey suggest she might want to get her dad to owl my dad cos it’s not like I have any power over those decisions - she just abruptly drops it all. Starts saying how, seeing as their company won’t be able to score publicity points off us, it’s all a waste of time. Which is, y’know, charming.

“And no, I did not call your family crap. Though believe me, it’s getting more and more tempting. I… I dunno what exactly I said, but that is a heck of a thing to say and I wouldn’t. I said I was sorry they made her feel like she has to go around making business deals instead of friends, or something to that effect. Maybe that it sucks that they make her feel crappy? I don’t know. But I know I wouldn’t say something like that. She actually said that I said that?” she asked, looking genuinely hurt. “Oh, and speaking of who went and talked to who, has she told you who she went to? I went to Felipe, yes, because he is my best friend, and because I was worried that she was treating him the same way. But nope, turns out that was special treatment just for me. She went and sat down at Teppenpaw, with my roommate. Who she had never, ever had a single conversation with until that point. So, if you have some idea that your sister is what… some sainted little victim, who only tried to be nice, got bit at for no reason and whose back I then went behind? You might seriously need to re-evaluate.

“I believe my first words were that I know you’re Mara, and that that is not the big deal you seem to think it is,” Zara reminded her, when Mara accused her of talking to her like she was slime the minute she’d opened her mouth. Zara didn’t do that to people. “I don’t play doormat, and I give back when people come at me.” She was starting to think that neither of them were very used to that, seeing as they seemed to think that it was the gravest possible insult and want to make her solely responsible for that happening. Funny how it had only really happened with the two of them, whilst she was able to get on fine with everyone else.

“I’m not the one who started throwing accusations like ‘lying’ and being ‘messed in the head’ into the conversation. Where do you get off talking about people like that and expecting them to be nice to you in return? And look, you’re pissed at Felipe - whatever. But you got your damn apology, so what more do you want? Leave him the heck alone. He’s fine when he’s with me.”

She was starting to wonder about what was wrong with him too. He’d thrown up before from stress. Was it impossible to believe that he was off today because of Mara laying into him the day before? Either because he’d made himself literally sick with worry or because he couldn’t stand the thought of being in the same room as Jessica? That part, she could understand… She would have told Mara that if she had hurt Felipe in any way, she was going to be freaking sorry, but she was talking to someone who saw weakness as currency, so she only glared.

13 Zara Jackson Depends who you ask 1444 0 5

Mara Morales

August 16, 2020 3:31 PM

Amazing the difference perspective can make. by Mara Morales

Mara rubbed one of her temples, tired and exasperated and wishing she could take up boxing. She had never before in her life thought about taking up boxing, but at the moment, it seemed an excellent idea, at least compared to dealing with people on days when she felt as though her brain had gotten dislodged from its proper spot in her skull. Hitting something very hard would be so much easier than…this, when she just had to express herself somehow to something.

“You know,” she said, “I was like fifteen seconds away from believing you, and suggesting that maybe this whole thing was one big mutual misunderstanding and that you and her should sit down and both say what you thought the other one was doing and clear the air – because seriously? Why would we need your family?” That was blunt, even for her, but if Zara was telling the truth about anything, then it seemed that Zara was very, very dense. “We’ve got plenty of partners, from plenty of organizations. You were the one getting a chance to get some publicity, genius. We have a whole division for that. We’d have probably lost money in that deal. She told me she asked about your thing, and you were all friendly until she mentioned the idea of partnership instead of you just getting to feel all high and mighty taking pity on the poor clueless Muggleborn girl, though, so she apologized for wasting your time, which – “ this was followed by a short stream of Spanish on the subject of Zara’s intelligence, or rather, what Mara perceived as a severe lack thereof.

“But the reason I’m not gonna tell her to do that?" she asked rhetorically, switching back to English. "You just said first that you didn’t say what she said you said, then said you don’t remember what you said, and then admitted you did use the words ‘sounds crappy’ when referring to our family.” Mara ticked these points off on her fingers. “So yeah, forgive me for believing the ‘sounds crappy’ part happened the way the person who can keep her story straight for sixty seconds said it happened, and not the way you said it happened when you’re the person who changed her story three times in a minute. Sure, the roommate thing was a little petty, but you’re still not really holding any moral high ground that I can see here, sis. Especially since it’s been a few years and she and Johana are still friends. Which…bizarre, but for some reason kinda makes me think they might have mutual interests besides you. Unless you can prove me wrong with something from your surveillance of every conversation Johana’s had since she started school here, of course.”

She stared at Zara, though, when she said that Felipe was ‘fine’ when he was with her. “Okay, let’s just ignore the fact that you were the one who went hostile first, when all I did was ask a question, to see if you knew which face went with the name, and you were the one who decided it was up to you what kind of a deal the answer was,” she said. She felt another twinge of conscience – technically, she was telling the truth, but she knew perfectly well she had kind of been hoping for an outright hostile reaction instead of just the condescending one she’d gotten, kind of hoping for a fight so she could ignore how off-kilter she felt today. “If you think your guy is fine, then either you have a really bad definition of ‘fine’ or you pay even less attention to what other people are actually saying or doing than I thought. That guy has problems. I never knew him when he was supposedly a super nice guy in his first year, but apparently he’s gone from a nice guy to a self-righteous jerk to a doormat in three years. That’s not normal. And funny, isn’t it, how he only went doormat after he cut off everyone in his life except you?”

That, she knew, was probably going too far. That was outright cruel, even if it was true, which Mara couldn’t exactly prove that it was. She also couldn’t prove that it wasn’t – he’d certainly cut off Jessica and effectively left Leonor out to dry, and until he’d joined Quidditch this year, she hadn’t really noticed him appearing to hang with anyone except Zara – but that was a fine line to draw. Too fine. She should have just beaten up a pillow, or gone to the hospital wing with some complaint today. Everything was slipping out of control.

16 Mara Morales Amazing the difference perspective can make. 1472 0 5

Zara Jackson

September 12, 2020 12:58 AM

Yeah, so go get some by Zara Jackson

Arvale, a multinational cosmetics company headed by a rich white dude, was bigger than their niche interest cultural project which functioned as a charity and was run by people of color? Wow! Thank goodness Mara was here to point out such hard to grasp facts for her, or she would never have realised! She knew what she had heard in terms Jessica saying that the exercise was pointless if there weren’t brownie points in it for them - and it wasn’t like there was nothing for a brand like Arvale to gain from showing off its token support for minorities. Sure, they had plenty of other causes to choose from, but that was the point of ‘collaboration’ as Mara kept causing this - both sides had to gain something for it to be deemed mutually beneficial, and it had not been deemed so.

“I don’t talk down to people from non-magical families,” she stated stiffly. That was a heck of an extrapolation to make based on her disagreeing with Jessica. But then, Jessica had assumed that Zara would tell everyone she was racist based on them not getting along, so taking one piece of data and blowing it out of all proportion, extrapolating all kinds of bullhockey from it, seemed to be a family speciality. Still, it stung to hear anyone say that she might do that. Just how exactly were Jessica and Mara painting her behind her back? And if Jessica started talking to Felipe again, how much poison would she pour in his ear, or how much would she put him in the middle? She had rarely wanted to cast silencing charms on people as much as she did right now. She was also pretty sure she was being sworn at or insulted in a language she didn’t speak, which was also a particularly cheap move.

Mara then went off on one like she was a TV lawyer who was doing her best to pull apart Zara’s excuses. Except she was very much twelve, and about effective at holding water as a sieve.

“None of that is changing my story, or contradicting itself. Someone quotes you directly, you can tell whether or not it sounds like your voice. You can tell if it’s beyond a thing you would ever say. There is a difference between saying a situation or a way a person is being treated or how they are being made to feel sounds crappy and calling their family crap people. And I’m pretty sure that, given I heard a rumour that Jessica wants to start a debate club,”- and no doubt had no expense spared on her prior education, but Zara thought that might be a sore point to bring up, because who knew whether Mara had “-she’s capable of understanding those kinds of differences,” when she wants to.

Apparently being told to relax was offensive? Zara really wasn’t sure what Mara had been hoping for, because ‘hey, there’s no drama here’ was apparently the wrong reaction that marked Zara out as a bad person. Wow, was she ever over trying to reason with these people.

“Wow, you think you have the moral high ground when you say stuff like that to people?” she glared, when Mara accused her of somehow breaking Felipe. Which was stupid, because Felipe wasn’t broken. If he’d been a mess when Mara was talking to him, it was only because of what she was saying, and because he took those kinds of things to heart. “Could also spin it that he only seems to have a crisis after talking to members of your family. Personally, I wasn’t planning on doing that,” she decided to make crystal clear, “Cos I don’t go around gossiping and trash-talking people to get my kicks. But he’s never lacked confidence with me,” she shrugged. Okay, that wasn’t totally true. He’d been all anxious and stupid about asking her out to the ball, but that was just normal. He certainly hadn’t seemed to hesitate much since then. He worried a bit, but he was fine. If Mara had seen something else, she must have been the one to bring it out in him.

13 Zara Jackson Yeah, so go get some 1444 0 5