Closed At Odds

[Cameron Roswell]

Cameron shut his Charms textbook with an overwrought sigh, gaining a small grain of satisfaction from the audibly thump the action made if nothing else. They'd not even been back at school for long but he already felt behind, Professor Corrin's being so intent that Cameron needed extra lessons to help him keep up in classes and it was all Cameron could do not to chuck both his wand and his books in the lake. Unfortunately, scowling angrily as his textbook hadn't made the spells come to him any easier and Cameron was over it, sourly tucking his chin into his palm before turning his glare on Aine sitting nearby.

"You're thinking too loud, I can't focus," he told her, glad to have a target for his irritation. He was pretty sure Aine's family wasn't even magical and yet Cameron knew she was one of the better students in their class. How was that even fair. It was probably because she spent so much time reading, as if she didn't have anything else better to do than get in Cameron's face about it. Just sitting there. Being all smug.

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine had no idea what Cameron's problem was with her. It could've been any number of things, really. She had been called annoying, boring, obnoxious, irritating, 'for God's sake, Aine, could you stop blathering on?', etc. But she hadn't even spoken to Cameron more than a handful of times and they hadn't gotten on at all.

She had to study, though. Even though she usually got distracted reading novels instead. She was so far behind by virtue of being from a non magical family, hating flying, terrified of duelling. Aine glared back at Cameron, pretending she hadn't been reading the same sentence 10 times over instead of actually making progress in her textbook. "Better to think too much than not at all," she pouted, childishly. She knew she should try to be nice, but it was easy enough to get annoyed by him.

 

[Cameron Roswell]

Cameron narrowed his eyes at Aine's response, wishing he knew a half-decent jinx right about now. "What's that supposed to mean?" He snapped at her, annoyed that he could feel his face heating up as she glared back at him. "Just cause you read all the time doesn't mean you're smart, you didn't even know magic existed till like a year ago," he said, crossing his arms triumphantly at the logic. She was so annoying, why'd she always have to have something to say about everything.

 

[Aine Thompson]

Oh, now he was going to bring up the muggleborn thing? How annoying, Aine thought, not sure why she felt especially frustrated but not about to let something like good judgement or sense get in her way. She didn't have the worst temper, but it was still pretty bad - she'd just learned to suppress it through her childhood because throwing tantrums didn't get her anywhere. "So?" she retorted, feeling a little hurt by his comment. Didn't she work really hard to try and fit in to the magical world anyway? "What's that got to do with anything? That just means they're keeping up their annoying secrecy thing well. I'm not stupid." Aine was the only one allowed to call herself stupid, after all. She was trying desperately to keep her expression calm, and not doing a very good job of it at all. Why did he manage to get under her skin so easily?

 

[Cameron Roswell]

Cameron had known magic was real for about as long as he could remember, even if his mother was a muggle. He’d waited so long for some sign that he was magic too and the idea that Aine just got to waltz into school after finding out only a short time before that magic even existed was just patently unfair.

“Could’ve fooled me,” Cameron scoffed as she insisted she wasn’t stupid, crossing his arms and then uncrossing them again. He hated how aware he was about what he was doing with his hands now that she was looking at him. Couldn’t she just go away or read somewhere else. “Why do you always have to read so much then? Hah,” he said smugly, deciding to settle on crossing his arms this time.

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine could feel her face reddening, and she hated it. She would have tried to sink down in to her robes, hide her face behind her book, but she was in it now and didn't want to give Cameron the satisfaction. She kept her eyes on him, avoiding the smarter urge to stand down. Especially since he plainly wouldn't. She wrung her hands, hoping he wouldn't notice.

She was caught a little off guard by his question, looking back down at her book for a moment and biting her lip while she thought of what to say. She could be honest and self-deprecating but for some reason she was unwilling to. "What kind of a question is that? Why wouldn't I? Novels are great-" she started, before realizing she was supposed to be actually studying and cleared her throat. "I mean...shut up." This wasn't going well at all.

 

[Cameron Roswell]

"Novels are great," Cameron mimicked her, feeling a quiet thrill at getting a reaction out of Aine. He didn't like being mean, despite what Margo or Isadora would probably think, but something about Aine just pushed his buttons and now that he was in it he couldn't stop. "You're just trying to look smart all the time," he decided, crossing his arms victoriously now that Aine seemed on the back foot. "Do you actually have any friends or do you just hang out with the teachers all the time?" Dimly, Cameron knew there was probably a line he was very quickly approaching crossing, but he didn't want to back down, not just because he didn't want Aine to think he couldn't think of anything else to say, but because it mean the conversation would be over and he'd have to wait till Aine did something annoying again before he could talk to her again.

 

[Aine Thompson]

Something in Aine's brain was telling her to disengage, to step back, that Cameron was just being awful and she had to be the mature one and step back.

Aine did not listen to her brain especially frequently.

"I have friends," she retorted, sharply, knowing maybe the plural was pushing it - she had a friend who acted like an annoying big brother at times (although she did appreciate the company) and she had her cat. She was frustrated, and clearly it was showing on her face as she looked away while answering, the terrible liar that she was. She just couldn't seem to stop herself and back down. Maybe she didn't really want to. "But if you're so much better than me why aren't you hanging out with your friends, then? Don't you have better things to do?" She looked back up at him with as intimidating a glare as she could manage. It was hardly intimidating at all.

 

[Cameron Roswell]

It was thrilling, in a way, having all of Aine's attention focused solely on him, even if Aine's retort only proved to make Cameron scoff again. "Friends who are actual people," he stressed, tone dripping with condescension. "Not books."

He scrunched up his face when Aine tried to flip the conversation back on him, crossing his arms again. "I'm busy, I don't need to hang around them 24/7. And I was here first," he said dismissively, vaguely aware he wasn't actually sure if he'd been in the library before Aine or not, but that wasn't the point. "You're not gonna cry about it are you," he asked snidely, catching how Aine had looked away. For as much as she took up his attention sitting around and being distracting, Cameron didn't actually know her body language that well, but he knew from experience that nothing shut someone down quicker than implying they were going to cry.

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine wasn't much of a crybaby, she thought. She'd get emotional in movies, but that wasn't an issue at Hogwarts because they couldn't watch any movies there and nobody could see her anyway. But although she was something of a shrinking violet and a wallflower (and other such floral similes), she wasn't one to start crying when provoked. Especially not with such an annoying, arrogant boy who seemed to take great joy in making fun of her. She didn't want to leave, as that would be the same as admitting defeat. Had she even been there first? Now she wasn't sure.

Aine felt very aware that her face was quite red, but at least her eyes weren't watering, which could at least prove Cameron wrong. As a minor, minor victory. "Of course not," she replied, defiantly. "I'm not a baby," she added, sounding dismissive. As dismissive as she could. She knew she was going to keep thinking about this, now, and wasn't going to be able to get any study done. If she was even going to anyway. "Ugh, what's your problem, anyway? You're so annoying," she almost whined a little pathetically, now trying to turn away from him and look back to her book. She was dimly aware she didn't want him looking at her at the moment.