Selina Skies
February 14, 2021 8:13 AM
Telling Tales - The Midsummer Concert by Selina Skies
The concert was probably the most complicated of the Midsummer events. It required input and preparation by the students, and it involved inviting their families onto campus. Selina hoped they would have something good to show them. On the plus side, they had a clean and safe school free of strange manifestations. Whilst she was very, very pleased about that, and whilst it marked a step up from the recent situation, she was aware that was rather a minimum standard that was expected. She hoped they would have a decent performance too.For some parents, it was their first real exposure to the magical world outside of the visit from their Muggleborn liaison officer, and the subsequent shopping trips. The school contacted all the families with detailed transportation details, but took extra care to make sure the Muggle families had things fully explained to them. There was also the option of being picked up by something that was more or less a car (just with far more capacity inside, and the ability to drive itself) from the nearest town. The welcome area, which had extra Floo connections and space for apparition, was set up outside the school, staffed by Selina on welcome duty, and Katey, in case anyone needed medical attention.
As the families arrived, she greeted them all cheerfully – some by now familiar faces, some new, some ex students, some future students, and a small handful in the middle of those ages who presumably were non-magical siblings. She directed them through a door that was standing on the edge of the raised area, that was not attached to any form of wall but would lead into the foyer of the school, where there were refreshments, along with any of the school staff who had drawn the lot of supervising the parents instead of the students, and a place for the family members to make name labels so people would know who was who. Once everyone was gathered, there was an optional tour of the school. Those who didn’t want to come could stay in the foyer and mingle with the staff or each other, and those who did would still have a chance to do that both before and after the show.
And, in the Cascade Hall, props were being put in place, actors were getting ready, and tales were going to be told…
OOC: - If posting as families/multiple people please use 'other' as the author and select the appropriate post type from the drop down menu.
- Posts can be set before or after the concert, but students will not be available to join families until after, even if they are not involved
- For the concert itself, there will be a separate starting post. We do not have a set plan of what is happening - feel free to talk about what your student contributed in their posts with their families or by writing at the concert. You can use information from the prep threads, or other ideas you have, and/or check in with people in chatzy as needed
Subthreads: Conflicted and Angsty by Bridget Ferguson with Lorena Abernathy
I'm back, and he's not mine by Kir McLeod with Bel Pierce, Deidre Beales
Overwhelmed by Jenna-Lee Chalmers with Andrew Duell
Socializing by Amethyst Brockert with Deidre Wright
Trying not to commit a felony (again) [tag McLeods] by Karl Hexenmeister with Fionn McLeod
And getting in fights by Oz Spellman with Monica Spellmam, Isis Carter-Xavier, Monica Spellman
Is this family? [Tag Pierce-Beales] by Alexander Pierce-Beales with Bel Pierce, Mab, Deidre Beales
The two worlds meet [Tag Ness] by Lyssa and Suzanne Fitzgerald with Ness McLeod
The boys are back in town! [Tag: the Spurns] by Jacob Jamison with Ileum Spurn
Hello, Respectable Person. There is no commotion over there. (tag Allegra's family) by Wesley Pierce with Ben and Shannon Brockert, Allegra Brockert and family.
Thank Merlin, it's over by Caitlin Pierce with Winston Pierce
Ha! I beat you Billy! by Iris Cobb with Lydia Priory
I agree with Caitlin but for different reasons by Beau Tate with Beau Tate and parents
#MommyDaughterReunion #HappyFamily by Sadie-Lake Chalmers with Julieta De Matteo, Jenna-Lee Chalmers, Felipe De Matteo, Rosalie Hayles, Jessica Hayles
Being pedantic (Gaming Club member) by Gabriel Wilson with Morgan Garrett, Gabriel Wilson and parents, David Wilkes
It's real for you by Seth Alperton with Quincy Wright
Greetings by Esme Brockert with Valentine Duell
I am also glad it's over by Topaz Brockert
The fam's all here. by Graham Osbrook with Theo Spurn
Mixing and mingling on my own. by Carmela Morales with Mara Morales
It's good to be back. by Simon Mordue
So happy by Katerina Vorontsov
Ah, Professor Skies, is there a comprehensive list of potential problems I need to tell you about? by Karl Hexenmeister with Selina Skies
It's good to see you all together! [Duell family] by Bonabelle Row with Valentine Duell, Marissa Duell, Biddy Row, Andrew Duell
You there! [Jeremy Mordue] by Ilefonso De Matteo with Jeremy Mordue
Goodbye Sonora by Heinrich Hexenmeister
13
Selina Skies
Telling Tales - The Midsummer Concert
26
1
5
Sadie-Lake Chalmers
February 19, 2021 4:32 AM
#MommyDaughterReunion #HappyFamily by Sadie-Lake Chalmers
It was silly to be this nervous. It was just her mom. If she was even coming. She had never really got super into the whole letter writing and owl thing, and although there had been a ‘You Are My Sunshine’ postcard (complete with cute cartoon sun) which had included ‘So excited to see you on the XXth!!!’ it had not given any indication of whether that would be happening at the concert or at home.That had left Sadie with a bit of a dilemma. She tried hard with her appearance at Sonora. She always made sure her nails were neat and well-manicured. She liked styling her hair. She tried to pick cute outfits. But she felt like she needed to try extra for her mom. Her mom expected her to be extra. She didn’t particularly want to doll herself up to the levels her mom would expect and then be ridiculously overdone and nothing like herself if it turned out to be for nothing. But she wanted even less to be criticised if her mother did show up. She had spent a long time with fashion magazines and her entire wardrobe spread across her bed, anxiously consulting Jessica.
In the end, she liked what she had chosen. And she thought Jessica did too. That made her feel better in that Jessica’s opinion was one she valued, but she thought that Jessica probably went a bit too ‘classic’ and did not make enough ‘bold statements.’ It was stupid to worry when it was all going to engulfed by her robes anyway, save for her shoes (which was the literal worst because no shoes looked normal with her uniform) but she figured that as soon as they left campus, she would be expected to be good enough. She probably wasn’t.
She watched the show with fixed attention, deliberately not looking behind her. She had debated for a long time whether it would be better or worse if her mom didn’t show up. Whilst she sometimes liked being in the background, this would feel like the bad kind of ignoring, and everyone – or anyone who noticed – would feel sorry for her. But if her mom came… For starters, she was bound to use her full name in front of everyone. Judging by the increasingly sick, anxious feeling that twisted in her belly as the lights went up, she wanted to turn around and find that they hadn’t come.
No such luck. The high point of her evening was probably going to be Mab wishing her a good summer. She wished her one in return, and then made her way over to her parents, smiling brightly.
“Hey there, pumpkin spice!” her dad grinned, pulling her into a hug.
“There you are sweetie!” her mom beamed, following suit. “Well, this is cute,” she stated, running a hand over Sadie’s hair – a careful mermaid braid with a pale pink ribbon with gold edging worked throughout - and giving her a momentary flicker of optimism because cute was on brand. “Are we going Cottagecore for summer?” she smiled.
Sadie grinned in reply, as if she hadn’t just been told off. Because, of course, she hadn’t been. To anyone who was listening it would sound like her mom had complimented her, but what she had heard was that she’d messed up. It was subtle enough that she wondered sometimes whether her mom really meant to make her feel that way or whether it was all in her head.
“Ooh, and such blingy nails,” Jenna-Lee added chirpily, inspecting her carefully rhinestoned fingers. Bling and Cottagecore, two concepts that didn’t go together, and she knew that- so why had she done it? Because she liked ribbons but her mom liked sparkles, probably. But it had been silly to try to please them both.
“I’m sure you can take that off now,” her mom continued, gesturing to her uniform. “The children who were on stage aren’t wearing theirs so I don’t see why you have to. Why weren’t you up there, darling? You’d make a lovely princess. You’re so pretty.”
Sadie was not sure what the right response was to that. She also wasn’t sure whether it was true. Sometimes she was pretty, when her mom wanted her to do something. Of course you’re lovely. You should want to share that. People would kill for your skin, you know that. But when mom wanted her to stay still, or to justify why she needed to take another dozen shots, beauty was a lie that they created with styling and poses and filters. She shrugged lightly, busy with trying to take off her school uniform whilst being utterly invisible in case she wasn’t supposed to yet. Professor Skies was scary and was not a person Sadie wanted to displease, but her mom had given her a direct order to remove it (even if it hadn’t sounded like that) so she had to gamble on that being the lesser form of disobedience.
“Mm, that’s better,” Jenna-Lee nodded, taking in her daughter’s pastel shorts with a rose patterned scarf as the belt, white blouse with scalloped sleeves, and white tennis shoes. Sadie wasn’t sure whether ‘better’ meant ‘good’ or just less awful than her school uniform, which was a low bar to clear. “I’ve got some lovely new things for you at home! Lots of people want to get in on your summer shoots,” Jenna-Lee carried on, rattling off a handful of fashion brands. Sadie smiled, brighter and bigger than she ever did for her classmates, her voice a little above its usual pitch as she squeezed enthusiastic monosyllables between her mom’s name dropping - Wow! Great! - desperately hoping that she could be enough of the person her mom wanted to see whilst remaining inconspicuous to her classmates. It could happen, right? They’d be wrapped up in their own families, right? Everyone was happy and bubbly and excited right now, and she was behaving would seem totally normal, right? And Mom wouldn’t want to stay long. She could get out of here without her worlds colliding too messily, right?
“And you’ll be soooo excited about one of the packages I’ve been able to score for your cosmetics. Guess who?”
“I-I don’t know,” Sadie mumbled through a bright smile.
“It’s your favourite, honey,” Jenna-Lee prompted. Sadie looked at her blankly, waiting to be informed what her current favourite was. “ARVALE!” Jenna-Lee beamed at her.
13
Sadie-Lake Chalmers
#MommyDaughterReunion #HappyFamily
1480
0
7
Julieta De Matteo
February 19, 2021 10:35 PM
I'm having the first part, not the second part. by Julieta De Matteo
Julieta accompanied her husband to Sonora for the second time in her life, feeling much more tense than she had years prior. She always felt more tense than she had over previous years, although she tried to ignore the feeling, hoping it would wash itself away in her daily routine or in the creative pursuits she was able to enjoy when presented with the chance. She had always thrown herself into helping the people of Ciudad de Matteo but especially when her husband's political and personal pursuits had had some undue burden on them, as they did every five or ten years. This was normal, she knew. She had known that even before she married Ilefonso; it would have been hard not to know what the De Matteo family had a legacy for. But it didn't make it easier, especially now that Felipe and Leonor were old enough to understand what was happening. Of course, they were hardly present now, so most of her tension was reserved for her own part in her life's show rather than what her children thought of the whole thing. They would, she knew, learn to live with it as she had. Simply a matter of adjusting to the philosophy of the De Matteo family.Ilefonso was talking with Felipe near the snack table, the former's eyes naturally darting about with interest at the mix of Muggles, wizards, and important people (some of each category, they knew) who were gathered for the concert, and Leonor had excused herself long enough ago that Julieta was pretty sure she was only going to come back when she had to. As such, she'd excused herself as well, determined to either find out what her daughter was up to or find something to engage with long enough to feel interesting when it was time to gather as a family again and head home. If she was lucky, she might even find out something that was helpful, or at least fascinating. That would make Ilefonso happy and, for all his flaws, Julieta did love him.
She was meandering towards the bathrooms a bit, figuring that was a likely place for Leonor to hide and easy enough to pop in subtly and use the facilities herself if not, when she overheard a word she was familiar with. It was a word she associated with important Muggles now, even though Felipe seemed to have gone and turned the tables on that possible connection. That was fine; Muggles generally didn't have a place in the De Matteo family line, although Julieta knew that his current girlfriend's family wasn't a lot better. Still, the girl Felipe was dating now was pleasant, kind, and made Felipe happy, and those were traits that mattered more to Julieta than did anything else, although she wasn't always sure Ilefonso agreed. In any case, it was the word 'Arvale' that Julieta overheard and that drew her attention to a woman with her own daughter (presumably), a girl who looked to be about Leonor's age. Both were gorgeous, although they had the distinct look of social airs about them that made Julieta think more was happening under the surface. Perhaps she was projecting though. In any case, she smiled at the woman she assumed was the girl's mother and extended a hand.
"Pardon my interruption, I can't help turning when I hear 'Arvale'," she explained, her best social smile gleaming on her face. She knew that she looked relatively modest compared to a lot of the important people who might be here, but it was only for lack of adornment. Her clothes, handmade and beaded, were elaborate enough not to call for much in terms of jewelry, and she'd settled with only a floral clip - red to match her lipstick which was from Arvale funny enough - in her dark hair instead. "My son is close friends with the owner's daughter, so I'm always happy to hear when her family's company is talked about with such excitement," she explained. "I'm Julieta De Matteo."
22
Julieta De Matteo
I'm having the first part, not the second part.
0
Julieta De Matteo
0
5
Jenna-Lee Chalmers
February 21, 2021 5:53 AM
Follow me for #ParentingTips by Jenna-Lee Chalmers
People always said the trouble with first impressions was that you only got one of them. Jenna-Lee thought that simply wasn't true (though she would tell Sadie-Lake it whenever she needed her to believe it). For example, this woman initially struck her as nothing special. She was quite stylish, for a particular sort of style, but wasn't someone Jenna-Lee would normally have picked out of a crowd. Of course, the bar here was considerably lower, and she was definitely better than the chubby man with his exploding hat, and his inordinately plain wife. She had been quite stunned when the absolutely beautiful little blonde girl from one of the plays had rushed over to embrace them as her parents, proving that genetics really was a wild throw of the dice sometimes.However, as the woman spoke (revealing herself to be fairly skilled at inserting herself smoothly into a conversation, an admirable trait in itself) she became substantially more interesting. Anything Jenna-Lee had initially thought about her was erased, in favour of always having thought this person seemed stylish and well-to-do.
"Not at all,” she easily waved off the apology for the absolutely welcome interruption. “What a small world!" she smiled. "Has your son managed to keep up much of a relationship with her since coming here?" she asked. "It's such a struggle to maintain connections with the outside world, I find."
13
Jenna-Lee Chalmers
Follow me for #ParentingTips
0
Jenna-Lee Chalmers
0
5
Julieta De Matteo
February 21, 2021 11:30 AM
Follow you where? by Julieta De Matteo
"I'm afraid this is the outside world for us," Julieta explained, her modest smile tipping with amusement. "Our estate is in a fairly rural part of Mexico so most of our world is limited to our subjects and the people we meet when we travel," she said, knowing that this woman's world must be the Muggle world. That was probably the case for most people who knew about Arvale, although the company seemed to be wildly successful enough that Jessica certainly was on an in-route to taking it to the magic world by storm. She had high hopes for the young girl's future, although she worried a bit about her all the same. Julieta didn't know Jessica well but she was pretty sure she was right in thinking Jessica was a bit sheltered for her own good, and that was by De Matteo standards."But no, Felipe met her here," she added, going back to the point that had brought the question up anyway. "They're in the same House and year, so he met her here." She glanced around to point Jessica out to the woman but didn't immediately spy her and as Felipe was still engaged with his father, she didn't bother to call him over either. "I'm not sure where she is at the moment but she's a lovely girl. You probably know Jessica, right?" she asked, turning her smile to the girl. It didn't cross her mind that the Hayles family might not want it publicly known that their daughter was a witch or attended this school, or that mentioning it to this particular woman might have ramifications for Jessica herself, because why would anyone be disappointed to have a magic child? Frankly, it was the best thing that could have happened to the Hayles family, and to Arvale, and Julieta was happy for them. "You're about my daughter's age, I think. Leonor is a third year," she added to the older of the two women.
22
Julieta De Matteo
Follow you where?
0
Julieta De Matteo
0
5
Sadie-Lake Chalmers
February 24, 2021 6:54 AM
It seems like we should follow you by Sadie-Lake Chalmers
OOC: Post subject to editing if inaccurate assumptions have been made about what Sadie would know of Jessica's thoughts, or if Juilieta would have jumped in to respond sooner.
Also happy to edit up to get to intros if that's easier for other people. BIC:
“Oh, how wonderful!” Jenna-Lee smiled. “Well, think of you going to school with someone like that and you didn’t even know it!”
Also happy to edit up to get to intros if that's easier for other people. BIC:
Sadie - if possible for someone who was already being an obedient, smiling statue – froze, wondering whether or not to correct her mom. When they had first been interrupted Sadie, had been almost grateful. Whilst she wanted to severely limit the number of people her mom interacted with, this person was saving her from having to respond to the Arvale shaped bombshell her mother had just dropped into the conversation. Though the relief was very, very short-lived, because here they were looping right back round…
She wasn’t quite sure what to make of Mrs. De Matteo’s claim about Felipe being close friends with Jessica. Jessica had never said anything, and it was certainly possible that – of the plenty of times she wasn’t with Sadie, many of them were with Felipe – but he was aware enough of Jessica’s presence in the girls’ dorms to know that it fluctuated, and she had a feeling that Jessica was on/off friends with Felipe. Still, her own policy of keeping her head down and not being noticed by her housemates unless necessary or definitely safe had extended to him, and she had to admit that she didn’t know much about him. The way Mrs. De Matteo talked it sounded like he came from money. Like, serious money. Of course, Jessica did too, and to a lesser extent she herself did, but this was clearly magical money. Possibly more than that. Unlike her mother, who assumed there had been a minor slip in the otherwise impeccable English, Sadie did not automatically under-rate the word ‘subjects.’ It was odd, given everything Jessica had said about ‘these people’ and ‘back-stabbers’ in their house that she was friends, even if intermittently, with someone who was so much a part of that system.
Still, none of that was the point right now. The point was that the subject of Arvale was very definitely on the table, and more specifically the subject of Jessica. Sadie wasn’t exactly the sort to chime in about knowing Jessica, partly because it would have seemed like bragging, but also because she knew exactly how her mother was going to react. But if she went over there and started talking as if Sadie barely knew her, that could be embarrassing in its own way – that had already happened once this conversation, though luckily only with Mrs. De Matteo who didn’t know any better. There was no doubt that her mom was going to be begging this woman for an introduction even if Sadie didn’t say anything. She also felt the tiniest sting of being left out. Not that she wanted to brag about Jessica, but if anyone here got to be excited about her, shouldn’t it have been Sadie?
Still, what to say was taken basically out of her hands as Mrs. De Matteo turned and asked her point blank about it.
She nodded, feeling like she was making the gesture in slow motion.
“Yeah, she’s my friend too,” she said quietly.
“Well, goodness me! And here I thought all the Arvale things under your bed were just because you were a fan. I didn’t realise you’d networked your way right to the top!” Jenna-Lee beamed, “You could have told me sooner, sweetie! Honestly, we get never ending stories about your talking bunny rabbit but you never thought to tell me this?” she asked.
Sadie was pretty sure she hadn’t mentioned Jack-Jack above a handful of times. Certainly, she had mentioned Jessica far more, though obviously not the part her mom thought was the most interesting or important. For obvious reasons. Reasons which were now manifesting themselves all around her.
“Well, won’t it be nice for all of us to go say hello, hm?” Jenna-Lee asked.
“I don’t see her,” mumbled Sadie, having the most cursory glance around, wondering whether Jessica’s parents might have spirited her away quickly and impatiently.
“I’m sure we can find them,” Jenna-Lee said. She was about to gesture for Sadie and Mrs. De Matteo to lead on, figuring that they knew who they were looking for, when it suddenly occurred to her that she did too. The promo video that Arvale had sent had featured ‘Ms. Arvale herself.’ And that bright, coppery hair should be easy enough to pick out of a crowd. “Isn’t that them?” she nodded at a place where a little knot of people had just moved on, revealing a familiar figure.
They made their way across the hall. Jenna-Lee was chit-chatting to Mrs. De Matteo as they went. Sadie tried to block it out, though she had already heard her full name twice and ‘highly successful.’ She wondered how slowly she could walk without it being obvious, or whether she could somehow use magic – either on purpose or by accident – to stretch the tiles in front of them out so that however far across them they walked they never got closer to where they were going. Or to just… set everything on fire.
But the hall remained devastatingly obedient to physics and totally unlit. In literally every sense.
13
Sadie-Lake Chalmers
It seems like we should follow you
1480
0
7
Felipe De Matteo
February 24, 2021 3:04 PM
I'm not following. [Introducing the Hayles family] by Felipe De Matteo
Felipe would rather be almost anywhere than talking to his father, although he was happy to if it meant that Leonor could get a bit of respite from conversation for now, and if it meant that Ilefonso De Matteo wasn't going around meeting anyone else. It was probably fine if he did, but there was a certain ex-boyfriend Leonor was pretty determined to keep their father from and much as Felipe didn't like Jeremy, he didn't necessarily want to see harm come to him either. At least, not from the De Matteo patriarch. So Felipe chatted with his father. Well, his father chatted with him at least; Felipe didn't have much to say and his father seemed to have a lot to say. He was in booming high spirits and had been pleased with the concert. Entertainment for the masses was important to him and he appreciated a good throwback to folklore, even if he didn't know most of the stories that had been depicted.Over his father's shoulder, Felipe caught sight of his mother making her way through the room and then stopping to chat with an unfamiliar woman and Sadie Chalmers. Felipe didn't know her well except that she was in Leonor's year and Felipe's House, and that she was quiet. They'd spoken before and she seemed nice, though. It wasn't the fact that Felipe's mother was chatting with the Chalmers family though, it was that they were rapidly crossing the floor to where Jessica was standing with her family. Felipe hadn't done much to keep his parents updated on where things stood with Jessica, although he was sure it hadn't gone unnoticed that there hadn't been any invites either direction for summer visits anymore.
Felipe's father noticed his sudden disengagement and tapped the side of his nose suggestively when he followed his son's gaze. "Go talk to her," he said with a wry smile, glimpsing Jessica across the room. "I need to find the restroom. And your sister probably too." With one more small smirk, he left Felipe alone to decide whether to throw himself into a conversation that probably wasn't his business or not.
It really wasn't his business. He really didn't have to join. But something about the way that Sadie just looked like something bad was about to happen made him want to fix it, even though he almost definitely couldn't because so far he'd fixed exactly zero things ever. Picking his way between other milling families, Felipe arrived at his mother's side just as she led Sadie and her family to the Hayleses.
"Arthur, Ros, Jessica, always good to see you," Julieta was saying with a small dip of her head and a friendly, social smile. "I overheard these lovely people talking about Arvale and wanted to give you the chance to meet each other if you haven't already," she said. "Ah, and my son. This is Felipe," she added to the woman she'd walked with, placing a hand on Felipe's arm with a much firmer grasp than she probably meant to. Felipe wondered how much of his and Leonor's stress was also his mother's, and whether he'd ever be able to be as collected as she was. Or whether he wanted to be.
Felipe nodded as he was introduced, smiling at the gathered families. This was probably going to suck, he suspected. "Pleasure to meet you," he said. "Sadie and I are in the same House," he added for context, glancing at Jessica out of the corner of his eye to read her expression as best he could, although he expected the same social smile that they all wore because that's what you did. That's what you always had to do.
22
Felipe De Matteo
I'm not following. [Introducing the Hayles family]
1434
0
5
Jenna-Lee Chalmers
February 24, 2021 4:43 PM
But soon you will be by Jenna-Lee Chalmers
Whilst Tag had smiled and acknowledged the new comer, he had mostly left it up to his wife, seeing as they seemed to be talking kids, and school, and shop. He suspected that would be the case too with these Arvale people, seeing as he would have guessed at those being cleaning products if someone hadn't already said they were cosmetics. Either way, it was more connected to Jenna-Lee's world than his. Still, he felt he should be the one to lead (other than Julieta) partly because he was the man of the house, and partly so he could fade back again and leave his wife to talk lipstick and... and whatever else."Tag Chalmers," he smiled, offering a handshake and a business card, which declared him to be in corporate management for a highly prominent cellphone company. He passed one to the witchy lady too, even though she was possibly going to think it was a fruit not a range of high end tech. "My wife, Jenna-Lee, and I guess you already at least know of our daughther."
"Lovely to meet you," Jenna-Lee smiled, handing over business cards to both parties (if the hat man had got one, she could spare this lady one for the sake of being polite). "Sadie-Lake," she stated, pointing the second syllable lightly at Felipe. She suspected he had only heard her name in roll call and perhaps he assumed it was her surname that was double barrelled. It was, she had to admit, a slight flaw with the name they had chosen, although surely any sensible person would never call themselves Lake-Chalmers, "talks about Jessica all the time, and I'm always finding Arvale things in her room. She never mentioned the connection though!" she stated, shaking her head slightly. "It's the funniest thing, I've been DMing your social media people to set her up with products to model in her summer shoots, and all the while she's better connected than I am!" she laughed.
13
Jenna-Lee Chalmers
But soon you will be
0
Jenna-Lee Chalmers
0
7
Rosalie Hayles
February 26, 2021 7:43 AM
Somehow I don't think he will.... by Rosalie Hayles
It was true, Ros thought, what people said: you really could get used to anything, given enough time.She remembered, vividly, the last time she and Arthur had been at Sonora: they had both been terrified, being out in what amounted to public without bodyguards or even the ability to call common police at need, among strange people, and both also desperately worried about their daughter, too. They had been concerned enough about the educational neglect and lack of direct communication with Jessica, but then at midterm, it had become obvious that her mental health was beginning to deteriorate….
Those had not been good times for them.
Now…well, Ros wasn’t sure if they were in a better place or if they had simply resigned themselves to the situation while Jessica had developed Stockholm syndrome. Either way, though, she supposed that it was better than where they had been: tonight, Ros was still a little anxious, standing here without any security which was more loyal to her than to the organization, but she was less anxious than she had been the last time, and as Jessica came out to them, this time she was smiling.
Ros smiled, too, when she saw a familiar face coming up to her: not a friend, perhaps, but she had an acquaintance here in this world. Someone she could more or less understand on some level, who was not totally dissimilar to herself. “Julieta,” she greeted the other woman. “How have you been?”
Jessica smiled, too. “Buenas noches, Sra. De Matteo,” she said, and continued to smile as they were presented to what she assumed were Sadie’s parents, even though the picture of that dress Mrs. Chalmers had tried to put Sadie in for the Ball flashed through her head. They had managed to fix that situation, but still: she was kind of surprised to see Mrs. Chalmers looking…not that bad. A little too trendy for her personal taste – being actively trendy seemed to her to be a little too…try-hard – but still, perfectly respectable. Designers, heels. She saw her mother’s eyes flick to Mrs. Chalmers’ shoes, and started to suppress another smile (some things never changed) before instead directing it to Felipe as he joined them all.
“Hi,” she whispered to him.
And then, she found out that Mr. Chalmers’ name was Tag, and Mrs. Chalmers shoved perfumed business cards at them and started calling Sadie something weird, and she was right back to understanding the dress. Of course, Mr. Chalmers couldn’t help it if that was his real name, or some kind of fraternity nickname, but….
Don’t be judgy. That is not okay. And Sadie is your friend, and they’re her parents, so they can’t be that bad.
Rosalie looked over Tag and Jenna-Lee, approving of their clothing at least, but her smile remained smoothly social after Jenna-Lee made a somewhat backhanded remark about her daughter’s patronage of the company. Jessica, too, was smiling, but Ros had a feeling she was worried, somehow.
“Well, I wouldn’t really call me a connection at this point,” said Jessica, feeling rather awkward. “I’m just a private person now.”
“We’ve always preferred to keep Jessica to ourselves,” added Ros. “She would have assumed a bigger role in company events as she got older, of course, but now…” She shrugged. What had there been to do, but resign themselves to the situation? “On the bright side, though, she gets to have friends who aren’t just looking for free cosmetics,” she added with a brief smile and nod of approval for Sadie.
“You said your girl does shoots - modeling shoots?” asked Arthur, smiling at Sadie. “Interesting – I’d be worried about these secrecy people coming after us, if we put Jessica in public too much."
16
Rosalie Hayles
Somehow I don't think he will....
0
Rosalie Hayles
0
5
Sadie-Lake Chalmers
February 26, 2021 10:50 PM
We can but hope by Sadie-Lake Chalmers
Sadie smiled. She kept her eyes as firmly as possible on Mr. and Mrs. Hayles, not wanting to see Jessica’s reaction to any of it – to her parents, to her full name, to everything her mom had said in those few breaths and was no doubt about to say about her. She didn’t want to witness Jessica re-evaluating her. Starting to hate her. Jessica’s mom and dad were smiling at Sadie-Lake, but it rarely felt like the smiles she got when being presented by her mom were genuine. Maybe if they got to meet Sadie, Jessica’s friend, who really genuinely cared… But with mom around there was no chance. And maybe they would think Sadie-Lake was better anyway. Most people did, or at least pretended to.She tucked her hands even more firmly inside the bundled up school robes she was holding, pretty sure that the Hayleses would not approve of her rhinestones. Jessica always wore very minimal make up in spite of her parents’ jobs, and Sadie blushed under her blusher, wondering if they thought she looked tacky. They wouldn’t exactly be wrong.
As Mrs. Hayles mentioned not just being in it for free samples, her eyes widened. She sort of wanted to nod yes, to show that Mrs. Hayles had it right, and that had absolutely been what she was not doing but it hadn’t been a question, and she wasn’t sure how to agree with that even though it absolutely was what she wanted them all to keep thinking. She was slightly amazed that two seconds into being exposed to her mother, Mrs. Hayles hadn’t already concluded the worst about her. She probably only succeeded in looking a little caught in the crossfire, and potentially looking guilty – she wanted so badly for them to believe that she wasn’t a bad person that she would end up looking like she had something to hide out of sheer panic.
“Of course not!” her mother spoke the thought for her. Though any benefit was immediately ruined as she followed it up with “Sadie-Lake knows she’s expected to work for nice things when people give them to her, don’t you sweetie?”
“Yes,” she agreed automatically. Then realising that made it sound like she regarded Jessica as someone she had networked for products, shook her head. “No,” she hastily amended, glancing anxiously back to the Haylses. “I-I mean… Jessica’s my friend,” she said plaintively.
“Of course she is, sweetie,” her mother stated, as if Sadie’s remark was stating the obvious. “No one said otherwise,” she added, looking at her blankly.
“It’s so hard having them whisked away like this, isn’t?” Jenna-Lee continued, glad the Haylses had provided a wealth of other things for them to talk about. She mostly addressed this to Jessica’s mother, as she was the one who had mentioned how school had impacted their plans for Jessica. “Especially with a high-profile child. It’s been a nightmare trying to explain Sadie-Lake’s absence all the time! And all the plans I had for her. Completely rewritten!
“They’ve never told me I can’t continue to share photos of my own child,” she frowned slightly, when Mr. Hayles mentioned being wary of putting Jessica in the public eye. “So long as I don’t show her waving a wand or put her talking bunny rabbit on camera,” she stated, giving those words the slight disbelieving head shake that they warranted. As if she was here, talking to the heads of Arvale, and the subject on the agenda was a talking rabbit. And one that wasn’t even allowed to do promos. “They can’t me what to do with my own child during the few weeks a year I’m actually allowed to have her! And Jessica’s youtube promotion must have been after she started here,” she added, quite sure she had been about Sadie-Lake’s age in that.
13
Sadie-Lake Chalmers
We can but hope
1480
0
7
Jessica Hayles
February 28, 2021 1:29 PM
I'm a totally respectful young lady who'd never sass an adult. by Jessica Hayles
The air felt electric, somehow, bright with tension; Jessica resisted the urge to fold her arms in self-defense, hoping that it the tension wasn’t literal and a result of some sort of magic force building up and feeding off of all the unspoken tensions in the group.She had greeted Sra. De Matteo normally, forgetting for a moment that it was possible there was a problem, and that she had cause to be wary of Sr. and Sra. De Matteo now. Felipe’s arrival to the party, however, reminded her of the problem – potential problem? – and made it hard not to allow her eyes to dart between her friend and his mother, looking for some clue to let her know if Sra. De Matteo was the one who had done…something…Felipe had not wanted to tell her what was troubling him, and she had only pressed so far. She had told him that she understood if he didn’t want her to know, but that he could change his mind at any time. So far, he had not done that, which left her just to worry and speculate – not an easy position to be in.
And then there was Sadie’s mother, who was….
There was…almost nothing wrong with most of what Mrs. Chalmers was saying, but nevertheless, Jessica got a feeling of…backhandedness about her. Two-faced comments that were far less okay when she thought about them than they seemed at first glance – comments that put Jessica’s back up, but which she couldn’t say anything about without being rude, or sounding unreasonable.
“That’s right,” said Jessica when Sadie stammered to the end of her response to one comment which Jessica felt she could say something about. “And I don’t really think that I expect my friends to ‘work’ for presents from me, or that I work for presents from them," she added dryly. "We just – like each other, so sometimes we give each other stuff. Right?” she asked Sadie.
Her mother discreetly tapped her on the back: a signal, no doubt, that Rosalie felt she had spoken with too much ‘attitude’ toward Mrs. Chalmers. Jessica did not react, not even by a flick of her eyes.
For a moment, when Mrs. Chalmers began to talk about the difficulties of having a high-profile child (Sadie, high profile? Jessica had never realized. How could Sadie, of all people, have functioned at all in a high-profile role? She was so shy sometimes…), her parents nodded along with the woman. Jessica had often thought about the difficulties of having her and her parents’ plans for her all derailed, had even thought before about how this was all nightmarish, but somehow – perhaps because she was rapidly deciding she didn’t like the woman – hearing it from Mrs. Chalmers made her shrug uncomfortably, shaking her red hair back. Her mother tapped her again, and was ignored again.
“This…wasn’t what we expected our lives – her life – to be like,” her father admitted. “I had always thought Jessica would be taking a role in the company by now, but…”
He sounded slightly lost, a little bewildered, and for a moment, Jessica felt sorry for him, and for her own less than exemplary attitude tonight. And then Mrs. Chalmers annoyed her again distracting her from that.
“That was Arthur’s idea,” said her mother disapprovingly when Jessica’s Youtube episodes were mentioned. “I didn’t think it was a good idea – but then, I still don’t think she’s old enough for that kind of thing, even though we’d agreed – before – that she could have a regular public role after she turned sixteen, if she seemed mature enough to handle it.”
16
Jessica Hayles
I'm a totally respectful young lady who'd never sass an adult.
1442
0
5
Jenna-Lee Chalmers
March 01, 2021 4:08 AM
Glad to hear it by Jenna-Lee Chalmers
"Sounds nice," Tag smiled, as Jessica talked about Sades more like a friend. Jenna-Lee's Instaing was harmless enough, and she seemed to enjoy it and get nice things for the kids, but he often felt out of his depth (or, if he was honest with himself, just a tiny bit bored) when it was the only topic of conversation. "And you do all your fancy braids and things from grandma's magazines together, right?" He did not understand ninety percent of the details that Sadie put into her letters about French knots and waterfall braids, but he dutifully relayed it to his mom, or took Sadie's letters to her, and it all seemed to make both of them happy, which was what counted."Yeah," Sadie confirmed. She had nodded emphatically as soon as Jessica had spoken, and this was more to her dad, though she glanced again her friend to include her. She wasn't sure whether Jessica knew what she was doing, or really meant to take her side - calling it that probably made it seem far more dramatic than it really was, or than she would want the Hayleses to think of it as - but it was such a relief to think she might get out if this with her still thinking some good about her, or that she had some allies in this conversation. She edged a little closer to her dad.
Jenna-Lee, meanwhile, was having all her suspicions about trying to work with a brand like Arvale confirmed. They were so stuck in their ways that she was going to end up in the role of convincing them that the digital age was worth their time. It was no wonder that the response from their social media arm had been so slow and underwhelming. It was clearly something they were yet to fully embrace. She was torn between her delight in finding people who seemed to understand how confusing and ridiculous this world they been thrust into was, versus her dismay that they seemed to lack any real appreciation of the world she spent most of her time in. In fact, they seemed to feel it was beneath them and their daughter.
Maybe they were jealous. Or just didn’t understand – well, clearly they didn’t, and the question was whether it was worth her time to try to make them. Ordinarily, it might not have been but they were all stuck here with no one better to talk to.
She looped back to where things had last gone right – they seemed to at least understand the fact that this place was ruining all their plans. This place was a problem, and her daughter was wonderful – yes, those were familiar safe and happy refrains.
“I’m sure Sadie-Lake would have been getting all kinds of interesting offers by now if this hadn’t happened,” she stated, addressing herself mostly to Mr. Hayles, who seemed the less like hard work. “Her brother’s done some similar collaborations to the one you had Jessica do,” let them sneer at that if they could. “Though more for gadgets and boys’ things. Of course, he misses out on any sibling opportunities. And where am I meant to say she is? I swear, half the Internet thinks she’s been taken into care or had some kind of breakdown.”
13
Jenna-Lee Chalmers
Glad to hear it
0
Jenna-Lee Chalmers
0
5
Jessica Hayles
March 03, 2021 7:44 PM
...did you just go a whole title without a hashtag, Jen? by Jessica Hayles
Mr. Chalmers might not be able to help being named Tag, but he could help being married to Mrs. Chalmers. Consequently, he was not, Jessica thought, to be totally trusted. He did, however, seem to have the basic social capability to understand what the term ‘friend’ meant when the user was offline, and to actually know a vague detail or two about Sadie and stuff she did….“Sadie’s fantastic with hair,” she said approvingly, bestowing her most winning smile upon Mr. Chalmers. “Which is great, because I am so beyond hopeless with my hair on my own.”
His wife carried on complaining about the inconvenience of Sadie’s sequestration here, which made even Jessica, who had more than once been vocal enough on the point herself, want to wince. She had heard her own parents say the same between themselves when they didn’t know she could hear, but nobody said it to her face. That was just…rude, to announce how inconvenient Sadie was to her when the Sadie was right there and, even more to the point, had no choice at all in the matter of causing said inconvenience. It might have been one thing if there had been some choice involved, but there wasn't. She guessed it was true, then, what Daddy always said: mommy bloggers were bad businesses to get too close to, because they always eventually got found out for something distasteful sooner or later. Usually something kind of (or even explicitly) child abusey, actually –
And yet, Mrs. Chalmers had somehow won herself at least a one-off sponsorship. Either someone at the company had goofed up or she had slipped under the radar, something supported by her talk about Sadie (why did she keep calling her Sadie-Lake? What an odd term of endearment, and what an even odder quirk to use it constantly like this…) getting deals in her own right in another world, and about her brother doing it in this world…was Mrs. Chalmers just, like, some weird Instagram variant on a pageant mom? Who were these people?
“Hm,” her father said as the speech rolled to an end. “Well, we told…about half the truth, ourselves, with Jessica – that she’d gone to boarding school. The publicity wasn’t fantastic, since we had to pretend she’d chosen to go to school out of state on her own without mentioning what state she was in, but…” He shrugged helplessly.
“You should have blamed O’Connor,” suggested Jessica. “Said I went to Iowa to walk in her footsteps and – “ No, it was not a good moment to insert a remark about learning to tip cows. She could not be openly aggressive. Plus, that wouldn’t have worked anyway, she could tip all the cows she wanted in various parts of Georgia, too. “work on my poetry when I got frozen in every winter,” she substituted. An idea flashed into her head, and she looked at Sadie. “That reminds me, Sades – I’m nearly done with the new draft of that chapbook – think you’ll have time to look them over for me this summer? The manuscript’s pretty short.”
This was a bald-faced lie, but novel problems, creative solutions. It would be much easier, if she had to, to work less obvious stuff into poems if Mrs. Chalmers started to not let Sadie communicate directly. It would not be terribly effective if Mrs. Chalmers went full-blown horror movie crazy over Sadie’s failure to exploit Jessica’s identity the nanosecond she’d found out about it, but hopefully, nothing was really that bad…
Despite her distaste for doing so, she turned her focus to Mrs. Chalmers and put on the charm for her, too. “That’s so interesting about your son, though, Mrs. Chalmers,” she said brightly. “Are all your socials on your card? I’ve got to check you all out when I get home. And you said you’re doing something with Arvale this summer? I can’t promise anything without checking our schedules, but who knows…” She raised her eyebrows, not speaking the implied proto-offer.
16
Jessica Hayles
...did you just go a whole title without a hashtag, Jen?
1442
0
5
Felipe De Matteo
March 03, 2021 9:16 PM
I don't know what a hashtag is but I hate this woman. by Felipe De Matteo
Felipe was pretty sure that his parents were not great. His mom was alright and she even had gone out of her way to be supportive of him when he'd had his . . . episode. But his father was arguably a pretty terrible person, even if he put on a good show. It was hard to say for sure whether it all balanced out actually because you could do bad things and good things and Felipe wasn't yet sure whether that meant that you were a neutral person or what. But Mrs. Chalmers was, so far, just terrible. And Sadie was not. Sadie had been nice to Felipe and was Jessica's friend (which didn't necessarily mean anything; Jessica was friends with Felipe too which clearly meant she had poor taste in companionship at least some of the time) and was just a kid. So as sure as Felipe was that his parents were not great, he was extra sure that Sadie's parents - at least her mother - were definitely not great. Although. . . . probably not the same sort of terrible. That wasn't the point.His stomach clenched on Sadie's behalf and his jaw locked with uncharacteristic anger as Mrs. Chalmers went on about how inconvenient her own daughter was. Then Jessica's family was sort of almost defending themselves and Sadie against her own mother and Felipe wanted to smack Mrs. Chalmers in the forehead with his wand until he made her a bit more charming. A lie of sorts came to mind and he wondered whether his own mother would call him out on it if he went for it . . . if he was trying to help someone, what problem could she have with that? It wasn't as if she never lied on behalf of others . . .
"You'll have to excuse me, ma'am, as English is my fourth language," he began, looking at Mrs. Chalmers and clearly speaking in perfect, unaccented English. "But Sonora's reputation is internationally known and it's my understanding that your daughter is in the best place she could possibly be for the bright future you're hoping for." He gestured at Jessica and himself. "She's in the same House and made quite an impression on the daughter of Arvale's owner," he began, desperately hoping he'd gotten that title right, "And myself. My family has a minor . . . what's the word in English?" he asked, glancing at Jessica as if she might be able to help him. "Kingdom? I think that's it." He was pretty sure his mother was either very proud or very disappointed but she hadn't stopped him yet. "But as I said, English is not my first language; I'm not understanding what your concern is on Sadie's behalf? She's been nothing but extraordinary since I met her at this boarding school, ma'am."
His mom took a breath and then tapped him on the shoulder. Her eyes gleamed a bit and she kept them locked on his as she spoke. "You're helping?" she confirmed in Spanish, making the question sound exaggerated for those listening. When he gave a small nod, she looked up at Mrs. Chalmers. "I'm afraid I don't understand either," she said with a small, embarrassed smile that Felipe recognized as completely untrue. "Both of my children have said nothing but good things about your daughter. She's certainly doing very well in the magical community so far."
22
Felipe De Matteo
I don't know what a hashtag is but I hate this woman.
1434
0
5
Sadie-Lake Chalmers
March 05, 2021 3:41 AM
You can't say that by Sadie-Lake Chalmers
OOC: CW - passing references to abuse BIC:
“Yeah?” Tag smiled, as Jessica complimented Sadie-Lake, giving his daughter and the other girl an approving smile. He was pretty sure anyone whose family ran a cosmetics empire was not ‘hopeless’ with their hair because, as far as he was concerned, that all fell into the same bracket, but it was nice of her to give Sadie-Lake a compliment like that. “Sometimes between… what is it, mermaid tails and unicorn this and that, I have no idea if I’m reading her about hairstyle or her homework,” he laughed, tipping his daughter a wink to show he was mostly joking. “She’s very good at the magical animal class,” he added to the Hayleses. Sadie did what she did whenever anyone tried to pay her a compliment, and looked at the floor.
“She gets her hairstyling skills from me,” Jenna-Lee smiled at the compliment, “We used to spend a lot of time doing things like that, didn’t we?” she added to her daughter, who looked back up and nodded. She wasn’t sure she’d got a lot of hands-on experience herself as her mom wrangled her hair into the latest trend for a photoshoot, but she wasn’t about to say so.
The conversation then took a decidedly weird turn then as Jessica started talking about poetry, and offering to show her something called a chapbook, that she was apparently meant to have an opinion on. She had never seen any of Jessica’s poetry, and was fairly sure she wouldn’t have anything intelligent to say about it, but she did whatever she did when someone with more power than her asked her to do something, and nodded obediently. It was a little intimidating, but it didn’t feel like things were going badly, until Jessica abruptly switched sides. She probably didn’t mean to of course. And it wasn’t a case of ‘sides’ because that was her mother and it was ridiculous to think of it in those terms and Jessica was probably just trying to be nice to her mom, because that was what you did, and Sadie should probably be pleased about all of this, and Jessica talking about collaboration because obviously her mother would think was excellent. And if she felt ashamed and scared and just downright horrified at the thought of Jessica getting to peer into the parts of her life she was most ashamed of then maybe it was her own fault for being such a bad friend and keeping such a big secret. It wasn’t Jessica’s fault if she didn’t know what to do with this when, after all, Sadie had never told her.
“Of course,” Jenna-Lee smiled, pulling out a second business card so that Jessica could have one too (Sadie felt herself die slightly as Jessica was handed what amounted to a password to everything Sadie had tried to keep hidden. But she was sure she had no one to blame for that but herself). Jenna-Lee thought Jessica seemed like a very nice girl, and with far more business sense than her parents seemed willing to give her credit for. “I’m surprised you don’t know where to find us already!” she added, looking slightly quizzically at Sadie-Lake. They didn’t have computers at school, of course, but her friends could have looked her up when they got home. “Sadie-Lake’s things are generally further back, but you can just search her hashtag. It’s an advantage of having such a unique name. Unique and special, just like you, right sweetie?” she smiled at her daughter. Sadie hated agreeing with that more than anything else because it sounded not only egotistical but it was also blatantly untrue to anyone who’d ever met her. Still, she had worked out a couple of years ago that so long as she was smiling and not disagreeing, her mother generally just moved on without noticing that she hadn’t actively agreed.
In this case, it was not her mother who override her silence with the next torrent of words but Felipe. Felipe was talking about her. She was pretty sure he was saying more words about her right now than he had ever said to her. Or that he had ever said about her at home- speaking of which the word ‘Kingdom’ had just come up which combined with ‘Subjects’ earlier was just… Was an actual prince coming to her defence right now? That sounded impossible but then she owned a talking bunny, so all bets were off. Still, Felipe was seriously over-selling any kind of reputation she might have, and she was pretty sure he was lying through his teeth and wouldn’t have even been aware she existed in spite of being in the same house were it not for Jessica. Then his mother chimed in. Sadie was certain that if Leonor had ever noticed anything about her it was that Leonor could probably very easily eat a girl like her for breakfast. She couldn’t but stare at both of them in slightly wide-eyed amazement, though luckily they were standing on the side which meant she was staring across her dad instead of her mom. She wasn’t sure why they were doing that, but maybe it seemed like her mom was insulting magical people, which she guessed was offensive to them, even though she was sure mom hadn’t meant it like that. And which meant they were maybe picking a fight with her mom. That was a bad idea.
“I never said Sadie-Lake wasn’t doing well here,” Jenna-Lee replied. “Of course she’s doing well, and making friends. She’s always been very popular.” The fact that Felipe spoke four languages and claimed to have a small kingdom were largely lost on her based on the fact she didn’t like him and he wasn’t being co-operative. The main thing she noticed was that he had, as he himself had admitted, missed the point. Apparently it was entirely possible to keep applying filters, even when there wasn’t a cellphone in your hand.
“The problem is-” she began. The problem was that Sadie-Lake had been taken away, had unbalanced their brand dynamic, and that everyone who had liked or shown an interest in her could not be told what had become of her, which led to half of them being angry, and the rest inventing wild conspiracy theories, the worst of which was that her father had done unspeakable things to her and that they had murdered her and buried her body to hide the evidence. Any sane person, she thought, had every right to be upset by having to read things like that about her own family. But there were potential collaborators listening. She wanted to put this boy in his place, make him understand that she was the one who was suffering here, without alienating the Arvales from being interesting in her brand. She was also far from convinced that her daughter had made anything like the impression they were claiming given that he didn’t even know her full name, but she wasn’t about to point that out, even though it annoyed her. Jessica had shorted it too, but in a way that sounded like an affectionate nickname. It wasn’t ideal but it was much more tolerable. “People notice when someone like Sadie-Lake disappears from the public eye. And people in my sphere don’t like liars. We’re told we can’t talk about where she’s gone, but we’re not told anything convincing we can say when people ask. And people do ask, everyone still cares about her so much,” she added. She kept her voice calm and patient. Yelling at a fifteen-year-old was not a good look, and she was a sweet, bubbly person. “Not to mention the fact that we only get to see or speak to our daughter for a handful of weeks a year. I can talk to someone in Siberia or Indonesia more easily than I can speak to my own child,” she added, allowing herself a little bit of a frown because she thought most people would find that upsetting. “And actually, the bright future we had planned for her involved technology that was invented in the twenty-first century, which is banned on school grounds in case it explodes. Of course she’s doing very well with it all,” she added coming back to the point she had liked. “But it seems like the magical world doesn’t really care about her old life at all. It just expects her to build a whole new one, and leave all that behind, which seems very hard on everyone, especially her.” Actually, especially Jenna-Lee, who had to deal with the fallout whilst Sadie-Lake played with talking bunnies, but it was sadder if it was Sadie-Lake’s life that had been ruined.
“It’s lovely that she has you,” she added to Jessica. “And that you’re interested in doing something with her during the summer,” she added.
13
Sadie-Lake Chalmers
You can't say that
1480
0
7
Jessica Hayles
March 05, 2021 10:13 AM
Can I? by Jessica Hayles
Jessica was still not to the point of asking him what the hell was going on here, but she was relieved when Mr. Chalmers continued to act like Sadie was an actual person he had actually met before – or possibly not. Possibly he was simply acting like he was an actual human person, instead of an advanced-but-still-slightly-visibly-‘wrong’-somehow AI….“She is,” she agreed proudly when he commented on Sadie’s aptitude in Care of Magical Creatures. “She was a big help when we had a group project a while ago, we were learning to evaluate sources for biases and she knew so much about the subjects that it was easier for us to figure out when an author put in inaccurate information, or relied on stereotypes,” she added.
She felt vaguely like she was doing something wrong when she took the card from Mrs. Chalmers, but she needed an ‘in’ and hoped two things. One was that Sadie understood. The other was that Felipe…didn’t assert his sometimes problematic degree of honesty at the worst moment possible.
Jessica’s expression flickered for just a moment when Mrs. Chalmers started sounding like a parody of a kindergarten teacher while interrogating Sadie (had a grown woman just literally used the phrase ‘special and unique, just like you’ out loud in public on purpose, unironically? Was that a thing that really happened?), but she hitched her smile back into place as quickly as possible in order to try to come to her friend’s rescue. “Well, you heard what Mommy said,” she said quickly. “It was always the rule that I could only use the computer for school until I was sixteen, and I’ve only been sixteen since February.” This was…quite a bit of an exaggeration, but she knew her mother wouldn’t cause a scene by calling her out in front of people. You did not discipline or argue in public, it was not pretty. “And now I am, so…here we are,” she added, trying to catch Sadie’s eye.
Here they were indeed, and here, too, were Felipe and Sra. De Matteo….
Her expression flickered again, this time in surprise, when Felipe acted as though English was a problem for him…but then his mother spoke to him in Spanish. Jessica saw her father glance sideways at the pair, and frown slightly, evidently confused. She had to do something – but what?
Jessica could see what Felipe was trying to do – well, she thought she could, anyway – and she loved him for it, but she didn’t think it was going to work. For one thing, Felipe and Sra. De Matteo couldn’t really understand what it was like to suddenly have all of one’s dreams and plans and attachments and everything else suddenly snatched out from under them the way that Muggleborns did. For another, she didn’t think that Felipe…fully understood the problem here, maybe. They appeared to be in the process of confronting a mommy blogger in the wild. It seemed like at least even odds that Mrs. Chalmers’ problem wasn’t really that she was concerned about Sadie’s life, just about the revenue lost and comments made about Sadie not being available for lucrative brand deals….
In theory, Jessica was supposed to know how to read a situation and respond to it, steer it in the direction she wanted it to go, immediately. In reality…well, she felt like the tension was rising, like the situation was devolving somehow and Mrs. Chalmers might lash out if she was put under any further pressure to stop complaining, but she didn't know what to do about it. The knowledge just made her want to freeze, to hide, to hit Mrs. Chalmers over the head with a chair to make this all stop -
Is this how Mara and the staff feel when they have to deal with me?
The thought was deeply unsettling. Jessica had always been embarrassed and ashamed when she had breakdowns, but she had just as equally usually regarded them as inevitable. She had been used to other people taking care of her, even when she sometimes resented it, on days when she was in control of herself and they all treated her as if she wasn’t, or like she might abruptly stop being so. Mara, Carmela, Robert – they helped her hide it, helped her calm down, helped her maintain her public face in public and in front of her parents. She didn’t ask them to, they just…did it. Just as they were all trying to manage Mrs. Chalmers.
Do they think about me the way I think about her? And then, given the source of Mrs. Chalmers’ distress, Does Felipe?
She couldn’t think about that now. It wasn’t a good time to think about that.
Her first thought was to do what Mara would do, but what Mara would have done was find a pretext to get Jessica out of the room. Jessica could do that, she guessed, as a last resort – invoke the old trick of a girl asking another girl to accompany her to the ladies’ room – but right now, it would just be extremely blatant, so – she had to do something else, or try to –
“Yes, well,” she said when Mrs. Chalmers appealed to her directly again. “I know that it’s, um, really hard to adjust…at first, when this is all so new and different from everything you’ve been used to before.” Not that Sadie was exactly new, or like Sadie seemed like she was still struggling, or like Mrs. Chalmers shouldn’t have gotten over it for the most part by now, but…. “Felipe was a huge help for me in our first year, actually,” she added, shooting her friend an only slightly strained smile. “With figuring out that there could be a place for me here, too, just like there was at home.”
Her father cleared his throat, too. “I’m sure Felipe would have had some troubles adjusting if he’d had to go to school where Jessica was going to go, too,” he offered. “But we work with what we have to work with. That’s business, eh?” he added with a grin, nodding slightly to Mr. Chalmers as to an equal, someone in his own world. “You adjust to whatever’s thrown at you and choose to look at it as an opportunity.”
Jessica gave her father a glance which she hoped conveyed gratitude. “Absolutely,” she agreed firmly. “Just because something isn’t what you expected it to be, that doesn’t mean it has to turn out that it’s a bad thing.”
16
Jessica Hayles
Can I?
1442
0
5
Felipe De Matteo
March 06, 2021 10:19 AM
You'll have to race me to it. by Felipe De Matteo
Felipe had the distinct impression that this woman was a moron. It wasn't something he generally thought about people - or at least not something he allowed himself to think about people - but he couldn't help it in this case. Sure, he'd claimed to have missed the point for the sake of getting his own across, but it was clear to him that Mrs. Chalmers was the one who missed the point. She hadn't actually said anything about which life Sadie herself might prefer and from what he could tell, everything she talked about in Sadie's old life was basically terrible. Felipe couldn't understand a lot of it, to be fair, but he did understand what it was to have images to keep up and people to impress. When that hadn't been the life he'd wanted, his parents had, with a fair amount of grace all things considered, allowed him to step out of that. What did Sadie want?He resisted the urge to clench his jaw, instead settling for biting the inside of his mouth as he listened to the conversation move on. He'd given Mrs. Chalmers the chance to think it through and she'd done nothing of the sort, which meant he had nothing more to say to her. After all, what could he possibly say to someone like that? Felipe had never been one to think anyone was less than him for blood status or wealth or any other thing, but he thought that generally snotty personality and possibly terrible mother were good reasons to think someone was less than him. He kept his expression neutral though because Sadie was there and he had somehow become very invested in her throughout this conversation. The year was at an end, but he was pretty determined to be nice to her basically forever now.
"Yes," Julieta agreed kindly when Mr. Hayles suggested that, if the positions were reversed, Felipe would have had trouble adjusting too. Of course he would have, because he'd suddenly be around all that exploding technology and he would have had his world ripped away. But that's because it was a world he wanted to be part of and it didn't sound like Sadie was the one who was having a hard time adjusting, it sounded like Mrs. Chalmers was. "And it's always a challenge to have to change our own ideas for our children's futures," she added, keeping her eyes on the Hayles family.
Felipe wasn't sure if she was avoiding looking at Mrs. Chalmers or at himself then, and he felt a bit like shriveling up inside. For all that he was about ready to figure out some very unbecoming hexes he could send Mrs. Chalmers' way, he hadn't considered whether his own mother had felt the same way about him. Was this what people thought about his decisions and preferences? Is that why everything had gone so horribly wrong over winter break? Because he'd put so much stress on his parents that they'd snapped? On Leonor? He didn't want to blame himself for those things, and hadn't previously, but they were quickly adding themselves to the list of things he'd done wrong in his short life and it was overwhelming to be confronted with the idea that his mother could have felt like this woman said she did. Did that mean his mother was as horrible as he thought that Mrs. Chalmers was? Or that neither of them were in the wrong? Was there a middle ground? His own mother at least had included his thoughts in her own feelings on the matter . . . right? Perhaps she'd just kept her own feelings silenced. Because that's what you did. This wasn't the right time or place to start spiraling down those thoughts, so Felipe just swallowed hard and nodded, agreeing with his mother that he was a disappointment.
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Felipe De Matteo
You'll have to race me to it.
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Jenna-Lee Chalmers
March 10, 2021 4:35 PM
#WhenLifeHandsYouWizards by Jenna-Lee Chalmers
"Good job, Sades," her dad grinned, putting an arm around her as Jessica praised her contribution to the group project. Sadie was pretty sure that Jessica was over-selling it, given that she was putting into terms that Sadie herself could never have used to describe it, but she couldn't exactly argue, so she just mumbled some thanks, intended for both Jessica and her dad, and leant in a little more to the hug.Jenna-Lee was pleased to see everyone was behaving again, and they weren't trying to argue that she had nothing to be upset about. There was a lot of #Instaration about taking what you were given. Jenna-Lee could #WhenLifeHandsYouLemons and #DontSurviveThrive with the best of them but there were limits. Still, Jessica and her parents seemed to be helping bring Felipe back on track, and even his mother was conceding some of their points.
"Well, it seems like you'll have lots to catch up on," she added to Jessica. Honestly, who in this day and age restricted their children's computer use to that degree? It was scarcely preparing them for thr real world, not to mention all the entertainment that they would miss out on. "And perhaps you girls can email over the summer instead of having owls swooping in amd out all the time. Much faster and more hygeinic," she stated, giving a chance for that to get settled before pressing her next point.
"It sounds like you're interested in joining in with Sadie-Lake's shoots as well," she added, glad they could finally get back to the main point. "So, now you're sixteen, are you in charge of those decisions, or should I get your contact details too?" she asked, her attention flicking from Jessica to her parents as she spoke. Her tone was light, as if she was mostly joking, though she honestly thought that inciting a little rebellion in the Arvale girl might be good for her.
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Jenna-Lee Chalmers
#WhenLifeHandsYouWizards
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Jenna-Lee Chalmers
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Jessica Hayles
March 11, 2021 8:41 PM
...then you...have wizards. by Jessica Hayles
Mr. Chalmers praised Sadie and gave her a hug, which allowed Jessica to give him another ‘potentially okay’ point. Sadie didn’t seem to be entirely comfortable, but she was leaning into her father, not pulling away, and all things considered, there were a lot of reasons to be uncomfortable right now. Jessica was uncomfortable and her parents were perfectly acceptable, with no mommy bloggers among them.She wasn’t sure what to make of Mrs. Chalmers’ statement that she’d have a lot to catch up on. ‘Catching up’ on…the whole internet? She was pretty sure that keeping up with the Internet was basically impossible, never mind catching up after being away so often. Unless she thought Jessica actually didn’t know what, like, Instagram and stuff were? She’d been in a few web videos herself, and she heard people talk about various campaigns all the time, and she doubted learning the actual controls would be that difficult…
“Honestly, I’ve sort of started to like handwriting letters,” she said, in a tone of slightly embarrassed confession. Email was quicker and more hygienic, that was true, but it also went to a neutral spot. It was possible that it would only be accessed by the person it was directed to, but it was also possible, especially since they were kids, that it could be accessed by someone else. Like Mrs. Chalmers. “It feels so classy, like I’m Emily Dickinson, or Jane Austen,” she improvised with a photography-ready smile. “And owls seem a little quicker than the postal service for sending stuff like samples,” she added, going into something Mrs. Chalmers might actually attribute value to. “So maybe we’ll mix it up sometimes, both ways,” she concluded, not noticing that she had started lacing and unlacing her fingers in front of her. Somehow it felt like the crisis might have been averted, like Mrs. Chalmers was not such a risk for explosion at this point, but it was hard to be sure….
“The buck stops here when it comes to the brand,” her father answered for her when Mrs. Chalmers brought up the preposterous idea that Jessica herself might ultimately decide whether or not to join in Sadie’s ‘shoots.’ “And the buck stops with Ros when it comes to Jezi,” he added, with an affectionate smile to her mother.
“Plus I really wouldn’t want to upstage anyone or anything,” said Jessica. “Or just make everyone go, like…’who is this girl,’ if I’m on something other than the company website.”
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Jessica Hayles
...then you...have wizards.
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