Open Bearings

[Julio Santana]

Obsidian Harbour was certainly different to the life in San Germán he was used to, and was still something Julio was struggling to come to terms with. Frankly, he just really missed home and didn't want to end up stuck in New Zealand. And he probably would have mentioned this if he hadn't noticed how happy his father was to finally be back home. And so, he had decided to keep his mouth closed and his head down. He just had to go to Hogwarts like his father wanted and then after he graduated he could think about going back to Puerto Rico where he knew he belonged and where all his friends were. That was just... almost eight years away, no big deal or anything.

For now, Julio was just trying to get his bearings, ditching both his parents and going for a wander off down the street by himself. If he was expected to live here, he should probably know where everything was. However, he wasn't walking for very long until he came across the ice cream parlour, debating for just a moment whether it was worth going inside or not.

 

[Dashley Renner]

The gentle bell ringing above the door of Florean Fortescue's announced Dashley's return to Obsidian Harbour, smug smile glittering her face, attention kept solely towards the pink ice cream in her hand. It was an accomplishment to break free from a boring afternoon of following her dad around while he browsed endless apothecaries and herbalist stores in search of new ingredients, and while the promise of ice cream was never out of the question entirely, the promise of having ice cream sooner than she was usually allowed to felt like an accomplishment, and finding herself left to her own devices, at least temporarily, in Obsidian Harbour boded a welcomed feeling of independence as a reward for her patience. Dash's shoes clicked softly on the cobblestone street as she glanced around, smug smile unwavering and eyes narrowing when her attention landed on a boy, also entirely alone, and lacking the ice cream she held like a trophy.

It would be unlike Dashley if she didn't make the most of such a ripe opportunity, to revel in her accomplishment and point out the ice cream she had that this boy lacked, if not only to rub in how privileged and happy she was in her own reality. Pouting in mock niceness, Dashley stepped over to the boy, tilting her head to one side as she spoke with a tone of saccharine niceness that betrayed her intentions. "Aww, look at you, don't you have a galleon for some ice cream?" She offered, as if she felt bad for the boy when she wholeheartedly didn't. "How sad." Dash added definitively, trying to coax a reaction simply for the fun of it.​

 

[Julio Santana]

Julio really hadn't been expecting anyone to pay much attention to him. It wasn't uncommon for people to generally ignore him, and frankly, that was usually how he preferred it anyway. He wasn't exactly a social person, and talking too much and being around too many people was often quite overwhelming for him. The friends he did have waiting for him back home were those children who he had been around since he was running around in diapers, and he had grown up around. The thought of having to make new friends since he was going to a brand-new school in a brand-new country was even more reason he wasn't exactly thrilled about the new living arrangement.

And so, as he stood there outside the door to the ice cream parlour and debating whether he was going to spend some of the change his mother had given him that morning, he was surprised when a girl appeared out of nowhere and suddenly accused him of being poor. "Who says I don't have any money?" He did have to question, fisting a hand in his pocket around the loose coins, "I'm not poor and can afford ice cream." His parents weren't wealthy or anything like that, but they weren't exactly poor. They had enough money to get by and they lived in a nice enough house and everything. He could afford some ice cream if he really wanted some. "Why do you care if I have money or not anyway?" Julio didn't really see the point in riling up some random stranger like she was apparently attempting to do. Not very successfully he did have to say.

 

[Dashley Renner]

Dashley's mocking pout faded into a thoroughly amused smile as she watched the boy's reaction to her goading, proving her accomplishment in not only getting her favorite ice cream, but also bragging about doing so and of course riling up someone else simply for a the fun of it. She giggled gently, tilting her head to the opposite side as he exclaimed he wasn't poor. "That's exactly what a poor person would say." Dash retorted, believing wholeheartedly that if he could afford an ice cream like hers he would have already bought one, rather than standing in the street like an idiot simply thinking about it. "Surely if you could pay for an ice cream you'd already have one, like me." She added, holding her ice cream out further like a trophy before she took a bite of it. A moment later she giggled again, eyebrows raising almost in disbelief at the boy's question. "I don't care whether you have money, I only care if I have money, because it means I have an ice cream and you don't." She added with a shrug, almost ready to leave the conversation be because she had achieved the small sense of entertainment she sought from it, but deciding to stay put mostly out of curiosity as to what the boy would say next.​

 

[Julio Santana]

This whole interaction was just incredibly confusing and Julio couldn't stop himself from looking around just in case he was the victim of some weird hidden camera prank. People weren't just like this normally, were they? However, failing to see any cameras or any sign that there were people in hiding just waiting to burst out with a big sign, he turned his attention back to the bizarre girl once again. "If I wanted ice cream, I would buy ice cream. I was just deciding whether I actually wanted one or not. Want to see the coins in my pocket if that would satisfy you?" The idea of getting ice cream had rather soured by now, though he was almost tempted to march right into the store and buy one right that second if it would shut the girl up and prove that he wasn't poor. Really he didn't know why he was even bothering to respond, these sorts of people were better off just being ignored, but here he was stoking the flames anyway. "Maybe if I cared more, I would be insulted. But I'm not, so how about you go and look down your upturned nose and flaunt your obvious wealth to someone who cares."