Closed A Parting Gift

[Indira Khatri]

Indi had kind of blacked out after her speech. Jordie had walked up to the stage and the rest was a bit of a blur. She knew she had at least walked across the stage since she had her diploma in hand but as she came back to herself she realized she had walked outside without knowing where any of her family or friends were. She wanted to say goodbye to Weston and Salem, and maybe Natalia one more time. Indi knew she'd see them again but there was a silly part of her that was scared they would vanish into thin air if she didn't. Looking around she just saw the unfamiliar faces of her classmate's family until she spotted her sister. Indi pushed her way through the crowd when they wouldn't moved out of her way. Apparently the perks of being head girl were already wearing off. She sighed when she reached Anisha and didn't see her parents or even Raafe around. "Where's everyone else?" she asked.

 

[Anisha Khatri]

Anisha had not cried at Indi's graduation, and that was at least something she could hold onto. She hadn't been in the best mood, as her family celebrating Indi's graduation made her feel stupid for wanting her to stay. She had distanced herself from her family for a bit, even avoiding Raafe for a moment. She crossed her arms, looking around the room with a frown. Suddenly, Indi appeared in front of her. Anisha had been sure she was probably off talking to her friends about their cool post-graduation plans. "Not here." She said sulkily. "Obviously."

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi rolled her eyes. "Obviously." she repeated in a mocking and irritated tone and sighed again. At least it was nice to know that on the verge of massive change in her life, bickering with her sister still came naturally. But now she would be the one at home while her sister was at school. She would likely not be at their childhood home for long and she'd be off to bigger and cooler thing but the shift felt...odd. For the longest time Hogwarts was hers and having to share it for the past few years had been nearly insufferable. Now she felt calmer about the whole thing and was ready to let it go. Indi stood a bit straighter. "You have a dueling title to uphold now I hope you know that." she said seemingly out of nowhere but it was the first thing that came to her. Indi had lost her own final match but she took some comfort knowing it was probably the highlight of Lucie's whole time at school. If her sister was going to take over for her in spirit, she had to be prepared.

 

[Anisha Khatri]

Anisha didn't really expect Indi to say anything touching or nice, but it still frustrated her when her older sister mocked her. She scowled, looking away. She tensed a bit at Indi's next words, though she did enjoy that her sister finally acknowledged her win. Anisha knew she would have noticed, as she ran the SDA, but Indi hadn't said much about it. "I'm already upholding it, since you didn't even win this year." She muttered but then winced. She felt mean. Why were they always so mean to each other? Now Indi would go away, move out, find a cool job, and never want to see Anisha again. She swallowed thickly. "I mean. Yeah. I will win." She said, trying to force herself to sound composed and sure of herself.

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi grit her teeth when Anisha brought up her loss. She was tying to be nice. But before she could come up with a retort her sister agreed. "You better or I'm going to send howler and embarrass you in front of everyone." she said as intimidatingly as she could. She was tempted to stand on her tip toes to exaggerate the few inches she still had over her sister. "And keep you're grades up. You already know being a prefect isn't everything and it's still a few years off. And start studying for you're OWLs way before you think you need to." Indi was starting to ramble now thinking of all the tips she needed to get out. They still had all of winter break together most likely before she moved out but honestly she should have been doing this from the start. But at least the words were coming now and she was finding it hard to stop.

 

[Anisha Khatri]

Anisha was glad Indi didn't yell at her for her rude comment. Instead, she started spewing a bunch of advice at a rapid tempo. Anisha blinked at her, wondering where this side of Indi had been for the past two years. "Of course-" She said, but then shook her head. "Indi, I know this. I'm top of my class." She said, wondering if Indi had any idea about that. She frowned. "I'm not going to like, shame you with bad OWL grades, you know." She added, feeling frustrated.

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi did her best to keep a neutral face and her sisterly affection was fading fast if Anisha was going to act like this. But to be fair it wasn't like she really knew what her sisters grades were like. She was busy enough with her own studies she hadn't really asked. "Well keep it that way." she said briskly but felt a little sad when Anisha mentioned bringing her shame. "You're not going to shame me." she groaned. Was her sister being difficult on purpose? Probably, but it wasn't like Indi didn't deserve some of it. So dumping a lot of generic advice wasn't going to help. Instead she tried to grasp for something else to say that would get her point across. "Just...be...better than me." she said not knowing what else to say. "I set the bar. Now you get to pass it. Or don't. Do whatever you want." she sighed.

 

[Anisha Khatri]

Anisha knew this whole conversation was going wrong. Shouldn't Indi be telling her something else? Shouldn't she be less mean? It was like it was her default setting, she struggled to switch. She blinked at Indi when she told her to be better than her. She snorted, feeling tears sting in her eyes. "Indi, you were head girl. How am I going to top that?" She asked, voice wobbly.

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi was looking to the crowd again. The vulnerability sitting awkwardly between them. She wasn't sure what she was expecting Anisha to say, if anything at all. Maybe she'd argue or say something snarky. So Indi wasn't surprised when Anisha questioned her. "I don't know." she said exasperatedly before looking back. "Figure it out." she said with a shrug and held out her arms for added effect. But she stopped short when she noticed the tears in her sister's eyes. She felt guilty immediately even though for the first time she was fairly certain it wasn't her fault. Not entirely. "Are you crying?" Indi blurted out without thinking and acted without thinking as she reached out and wrapped her arms around her sister. "Stooop." she whined in a mix of irritation and panic. "Mom's gonna kill me if she sees." Indi mumbled into her hair.

 

[Anisha Khatri]

Anisha had meant the head girl thing as a compliment, but of course, Indi had to get exasperated. She tried her best to blink away the tears before Indi noticed, but of course, she noticed almost immediately. Anisha shook her head. "No." She said quickly, though she knew she couldn't keep it in. As Indi wrapped her arms around her, Anisha burst into tears. "I'm n-not crying." She sobbed.

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi wanted to die. Be swallowed up by the earth and disappear. "You have to stop." she hissed and Anisha started to sob now. She held her sister tighter and hoped their family would take their sweet time tracking them down. "Do you want me to be mean? I can do that." she asked half joking, but only half. They had countless screaming matches that ended in tears over the years when they were growing up. Indi's anger at her sister's existence wasn't always justified, in fact it rarely was. But she was also a child and it was the only way she knew how to express her fear and uncertainty when her step-dad and new little sister joined their family.

There just never seemed to be enough space. Both of them too big and full of energy to fit in the other's orbit. Two roaring fires competing for all the air in the room. But the world was big and maybe there was enough room for both of them to exist out there. And now there were tears in her eyes as she sniffed hard to keep them in check. "You're being so stupid right now." she said, her voice thick with unshed tears of her own.

 

[Anisha Khatri]

Anisha was humiliated. She never cried. She hadn't cried since she was like, eight. But here she was, hiccuping out another sob. She shook her head, clinging to Indi as she hid her face in her shoulder. She gripped her tightly. "You're the stupid one." She mumbled between her tears. "You're leaving." She said, aware she sounded very childish. "Again." She added, before letting out another sob. "And you're being s-stupid about it."

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi sniffed again but it didn't stop tears from finally falling the next time she blinked. At least with both of them crying she wouldn't instantly be in trouble. But it wasn't like either of them had a good track record. "Because I'm graduating!" she nearly shouted before a sob hit her. It wasn't her fault and she wasn't 'leaving', not really. She was planning to move to New Zealand permanently once she got her job figured out. If anything she'd be closer than their parents were. "Do you want me to repeat school forever?!" That sounded like a personalized version of hell as far as she was concerned. "You're the one that needs to hurry up an graduate then. Skip a grade or something." she mumbled back to her and finally losened her grip just enough to reach up and wipe her eyes.

 

[Anisha Khatri]

Anisha sniffed. She knew her objections to Indi leaving were silly, but she couldn't help feeling abandoned again. "You could've repeated at least one year." She mumbled, sniffing and wiping at her eyes too. She bit her lip for a moment. "I'll try, but I don't know if Raafe can handle things on his own." She added, attempting to joke a bit even though her voice came out wobbly again. "Just don't forget me." She added quietly.

 

[Indira Khatri]

"Not a chance." Indi said with a sniff. As much as she loved her sister deep down there was no way she was staying at Hogwarts for a moment longer than she needed to. She was finally starting to feel like her breathing was getting back to normal when Anisha mentioned Raafe. Indi laughed and rolled her eyes. "You two are going to need to be surgically removed one day." she teased. It would do both of them some good to get a little independence but she figured it would happen one day. Indi frowned when her sister told her not to forget her. "Literally how could I do that?" she asked, her voice still sounding stuffy after crying. She knew Anisha's fears were real to her and she didn't want to completely disregard them but she couldn't help pointing out the flaws in her reasoning. "You're literally my sister."

 

[Anisha Khatri]

Anisha hadn’t really thought Indira could have repeated a year. She wasn’t even sure if students ever did that at Hogwarts. If they did, it wasn't the head girl. Anisha let out a little snort when Indi mentioned her and Raafe. “He’d be lost without me.” She said with a shrug, though she knew it was more mutual than that. Anisha nearly started sobbing again when Indi said she couldn’t forget her because she was her sister. She shrugged, looking down. “You could never talk to me again.” She mumbled. “Could just… stop visiting.”