Change Isn't Always a Good Thing

[Professor Cyndi Kingsley]

Cyndi stepped out of her classroom, with a folder full of papers that she would need to grade before the next lesson. Her students were bright and eager to learn though, and so far teaching a class had been no trouble at all. I can't believe I was actually worried, Cyndi thought to herself as she continued to walk down the corridor. There were students milling around, waiting to head into the Arithmancy classroom for their lessons and just gossiping about the latest school news.

Hearing someone mention Andy's name, Cyndi remembered that she had been meaning to speak with her friend. She couldn't hear the rest of what the girls were saying as they quickly hushed when she walked past. Where would she be now? Cyndi thought to herself as she rounded the corner and continued walking. Although she had seen her other two ex-roommates, Kiera and Kat, around the school, she hadn't seen Andy around anywhere. It wasn't all that strange though because she knew that wherever Kat and Kiera were, Andy probably wouldn't be, especially since the three girls were currently not speaking. It still bothered her that she hadn't seen one of her dearest friends since returning to the school.

 

[Andromeda Fiorelli]

Leaving the house and walking down the stairs Andromeda caught sight of Cyndi. A bright smile illuminated her face, it was great to see her but the smile soon became replaced by an impassive expression. If Cyndi was at the school then the girls would already have spoken to her, they certainly would have made no bones about verbally tearing her to shreds. Walking on towards her Andromeda concluded that with Cyndi gone the girls of dorm 4 had literally fallen apart. She had obviously been the glue that had held them together.

"Cyndi, I thought it was you" the smile was genuine and bright enough though she didn't hug her as she normally would have done.

 

[Professor Cyndi Kingsley]

As she was walking, the very person she was thinking about, Andy, appeared in front of her. "In the flesh." Cyndi said with a huge smile. It faltered a little when Andy didn't hug her, but then regained its strength.

"I'm teaching now! Ancient Runes, isn't that cool?" Cyndi began, excited to finally share the news with her friend. "I've been looking for you to let you know I was back, but I could never find you around. Guess you're pretty busy with it being your OWL year and all, right?" Cyndi realized she was rambling and stopped. It was a bad habit of hers.

 

[Andromeda Fiorelli]

Andromeda was delighted to see Cyndi again, she may not show it with warm embraces or leaping up and down but she truly was.
"Ancient Runes, that's great Cyndi. Still remember the reading you did for me" a thought crossed her mind as she looked at her friend, "I don't suppose you'd be interested in doing a reading any time soon on me would you? I know the last one didn't exactly turn out so good but who knows, right?" she shrugged her shoulders noncomittedly.

Andromeda moved the bag she carried on her shoulder and looking down at it nodded before looking at Cyndi once more.
"Way too much studying, my permanent residence is now the library" she attempted a laugh, not sure if she pulled it off or not.

 

[Professor Cyndi Kingsley]

Cyndi smiled at Andy and nodded. "Sure. I did one for Kat the other day and..." she began and then faltered wondering if she should have mentioned the other girl because the two were not on good terms at the moment. She awkwardly tried to pick the conversation up again as if nothing had happened, hoping that Andy wouldn't notice her pause. "Yea... so whenever you want me to do the reading let me know. Any particular questions you want to focus on?" she asked, wondering why Andy would want a reading.

 

[Andromeda Fiorelli]

Andromeda was glad to have met her, Cyndi was like a breath of fresh air among all the madness. She knew of course that the most of it was her own making but that certainly didn't make it any easier. Hearing that Cyndi had done a reading for Kat as well made her lower her head slightly pretending she was interested in something stuck to her shoe when all she really wanted to do was to ask how she was, what had her reading been about but she didn't ask anything but chose to pretend like she had heard nothing.
"I guess whenever you're free, I know being a professor must be tricky and hard work. Do they pay well?" she offered up a smile though it failed miserably compared to anything she had ever done before.
"Why life sucks for one thing" again a slight chuckle at this stage, Cyndi would think she was losing her marbles she mused.

 

[Professor Cyndi Kingsley]

"I will then" Cyndi said with a smile that was lost when she saw Andy's own smile. With a shrug, Cyndi said "Eh. They pay pretty well and I get free meals and board, so no complaints there."

When she heard Andy's question, Cyndi frowned and stayed silent for a moment. "Life doesn't suck...sometimes things are just...just difficult" she said in response. "Why don't you make up with them then?" Cyndi asked, thinking that her response had to do with the argument Andy had been in with the girls. "They seemed pretty upset about the whole thing..." Cyndi trailed off, not wanting to mention any of the things that Kiera had said about Andy's going around with a bunch of guys. She definitely didn't want to get into that conversation, especially if she wanted the girls to become friends again, which she did.

 

[Andromeda Fiorelli]

Andromeda merely smiled at Cyndi when she suggested apologizing, she didn't need to say names. She knew exactly who her friend was talking about.
"Time is of the essence, right now is simply a bad time. Actually I don't ever think it's ever the right time" nothing of what she said was a straight forward answer but she simply didn't want to talk about Kat and Kiera at that moment.
"Life only seems to get more difficult the older you get, I mean what ever happened to the old tale that you get wiser with age?" she shrugged, looking at Cyndi she tilted her head slightly, "Am I holding you up?"

 

[Professor Cyndi Kingsley]

Cyndi was dissappointed with Andy's response, so she stayed silent for a moment. Getting her former dorm mates to talk again would obviously take more work than she originally thought. It was clear that the three girls were not ready to talk to each other yet. They each seemed to be avoiding interacting with the other, though all three of them seemed to be willing to speak to her.

As Andy looked at Cyndi, she brought her focus back to what her friend was saying. She shook her head and gave Andy a faint smile. "Nope. I just finished teaching. Actually, if you want to do the reading now, it probably wouldn't be a bad time. Want to?" she asked as she felt her bag to make sure she had her runes. Feeling the odd shapes beneath her fingers, she knew that they were in there. She was very interested to read Andy's runes and try to find out why her best friend was acting so differently.

 

[Andromeda Fiorelli]

Andromeda shrugged and walked over to a nearby bench and sat down.
"I've got the time if you do?" she smiled, "you know I have yet to get a reading right. I keep getting them all wrong or maybe I just am doing it all wrong".
Waiting for Cyndi to join her on the bench Andromeda wondered what question she should ask the runes or ask Cyndi to ask the runes. The subject still perplexed her, her grades in it were awful so she knew for a fact she would be dropping it after OWLs.

 

[Professor Cyndi Kingsley]

Cyndi followed Andy to the bench and sat down. Luckily, it was pretty quiet in that area, so doing a reading wouldn't be too much of a problem. She smiled back at Andy and placed her papers on the floor in front of her. "It takes a while to get used to. My first reading was a disaster...I think I predicted Estrella was going to have some kind of disaster at the Halloween ball and instead, she met Jaken" She shook her head, knowing that it was obviously not a disaster.

Pulling out her runes, Cyndi began to shake the bag. "Ok, shoot" she said as she waited for the question.