Open Expressing Yourself

[Cameron Roswell]

Two months. It'd been over two months since he'd seen Isadora. She'd buggered off to Durmstrag hadn't even bothered to try to say goodbye to them in person. All he got instead was some stupid letters. How was he supposed to reply to that? Was he just supposed to respond to her owls like everything was normal and fine and she hadn't just abandoned him and Margo cause she was afraid of telling her parents no. Cameron's quill punched through the parchment again and he swore, crumpling the unfinished letter into a ball in a fit of frustration. The words wouldn't come out right and his stupid quill was just making things worse.

Crumpling the letter wasn't enough and Cameron hurriedly grabbed for his wand, jabbing the ball of parchment furiously as he tried to burn it or vanish it. Turn it to stone he didn't care. The parchment let out of a loud pop, bursting into a flurry of foam and startling both Cameron and several owls over head, causing him to flail backwards with a screech making the disgruntled owls above.

 

[Aine Thompson]

((don't mind me just coming in to make Cameron's day worse))

Aine didn't often send letters. There wasn't much point - her family weren't the type to sit down and write and try to wrangle owls. It was really old fashioned to them. She wasn't even sure if any of them had halfway legible handwriting. She sent them notes to tell them she was still alive every now and then and that was the extent of it, really. Which she figured she ought to do, tell them she got to school in one piece. And maybe send something off to Violet as well, letting her know when the next Brightstone weekend was so they could get coffee.

Wondering exactly what she'd say, she was distracted by a really strange noise as she entered the Owlery, pen at the ready. "The heck was-" Aine started, before seeing Cameron flailing about, some...thing on the floor, and a bunch of disgruntled owls. She narrowed her eyes, almost wanting to laugh but thinking better of it. "Oh. It's you." Of all the people who could've been there, of course it was Cameron. At the very least, he was the one looking like an idiot this time, not her. "Careful not to bother the owls. You probably don't wanna get covered in sh*t." Though that might have made them even, she supposed.

 

[Cameron Roswell]

Cameron pawed at his face, smearing whatever foam his letter had turned into onto his palms as he blinked furiously in Aine’s direction, aware his scowl probably lost a lot of its impact considering the state of him and his robes. Of course Aine had to show up. This was some sort of karmic retribution for him following her after class last year. At least he could keep it together enough to not cry in front of her, though maybe that would have been less embarrassing.

“Stuff the owls,” he spat out sourly, brushing angrily at robes, mostly succeeding in just smearing foam around. “What do you want anyway? Don’t you have a desk to go cry under or something,” he snapped. Cameron had mostly pretended the moment he’d had with Aine last year hadn’t happened, it’d felt far too vulnerable and weird to think about it too long, but right now, heart hammering, it was all he could think of to wield to get Aine to back off, a jab so he could lick his wounds in peace.

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine blinked, looking Cameron over as dully as possible. Of all people in the school, he was the one who'd consistently seen her vulnerabilities. A strange feeling bubbled up in her chest. Fear, perhaps. It seemed to be the most apt description. She took a deep breath to push it back down, rolling her eyes and holding up the muggle envelope she had in hand as though she was answering a very obvious question. "I don't want anything. I'm sending a letter. You know, the thing that people come up here to do?" Once again, the urge to make a snide comment won out over common sense. Probably because he'd mentioned the desk thing, which she, in a very mature way, decided to pointedly ignore lest she start making a scene. Even if it did cut a bit close. She looked him over again, actually seeming to pause for a moment, opening and closing her mouth once or twice before giving up and just asking. "...what happened to you, anyway? The heck is that?"

 

[Cameron Roswell]

Cameron kept his gaze fixed on Aine, hackles raised like he was some sort of angry cat, trying to scare her off by making himself look bigger. Aine didn’t seemed moved by his posturing in the slightest and Cameron almost felt bad for a moment for jabbing at her about what had happened last year. It had seemed the fastest way to make her go away but when Aine didn’t respond in kind he just felt like a **** for saying it.

The feeling quickly evaporated when Aine pointed out the mess of foam he’d managed to charm his letter into and quickly stomped on the remains angrily. “Writing a letter, obviously, you know the thing people come up here to do,” he said hotly, mimicking Aine’s words and making a grab as stomping managed to send up a flurry of more foam and parchment pieces into the air.

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine was actually quite frustrated, but it was taking most of her composure to maintain a façade of calm. Maybe Arithmancy had been right, that she had a tendency to take slights too seriously and dwell on them way too much. But it also was mostly when it was Cameron saying them that they really set her on edge, like a cat arching its back in a defensive position. She didn't like to think about that class last year and hated that he'd spotted her in such a low moment. And always spotted her in low moments. "Did you write it in the bath?" she retorted, hotly, her voice wavering a bit. "Writing to a girlfriend or something? Gross." She didn't know where that had come from, looking away as she said it. She bit her lip, hastily moving around to make a show of busying herself sending the three sentence 'letter' she'd scribbled to her mum. Why couldn't she just not say weird things?

 

[Cameron Roswell]

Cameron wish he knew why Aine was so uniquely equipped to get under his skin. It wasn’t like he didn’t know he had a temper, Isadora and Margo had complained about him being grumpy plenty of times, but talking to Aine brought it up to a whole different level. Face burning, Cameron had been trying to work out some sort of retort when Aine made a comment about a girlfriend he nearly choked, spluttering. “What, no- Why would- I do not -That’s dumb,” he finally managed to squawk out. “Why would you even care, I bet you’ve been telling everyone you have some fake boyfriend at Hogwarts in Scotland or something,” he managed, trying to regain his footing in the conversation, glaring accusingly as Aine moved to send off whatever stupid letter she’d come up here to send.

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine's mind couldn't make its mind up at the best of times, but when she was around Cameron it seemed to go in to contradictory overdrive. One moment she wanted to point and laugh at him, and revel in his misery, the next moment she wanted to do something nice, hand over some sort of olive branch. Like right now, she vaguely considered just handing him some spare paper as a peace offering and leaving him to it, considering the state of what she assumed was a letter, at least it had been at one point in time. Then she remembered it was Cameron, and she really shouldn't bother because he'd just say something that would make her mad and she'd say something extremely stupid in retaliation. "No?" she retorted, embarrassment rising further. "Why would I? I'm not that stupid, I...I mean..." She hung her head a little, hesitating in place as the owl flew off with her note. If feeling sorry for yourself was a sport, Aine would probably make the world championships. "...whatever. Ruin all your stupid letters, see if I care."

 

[Cameron Roswell]

Cameron hated the look on Aine's face, glad when his jab at her about having a boyfriend had the desired effect of changing it to something more flustered. He wish he didn't feel the need to needle at her so much, but it was easier, dragging her down to his level than it was to watch her going around being a know-it-all and acting like she might feel sorry for him just cause she got better grades. "You're right of course, no one would ever believe you had a boyfriend," he sniped, feeling guilty even as the words left his mouth but refusing to back down. He was angry, about Isadora, about school, and it felt good to make Aine miserable for it. Like a pressure relief valve. "Fine, I will!" He snapped, rubbing his sleeve over his face to get rid of any lingering foam from his failed hex. Not his best come back, but he still felt like he might be winning this one.

 

[Aine Thompson]

While Aine's self-loathing told her that Cameron was right, the prideful part of her refused to take that from him. She could poke at herself and make harsh jabs and be hurtful as much she wanted at herself but when someone else did it seemed to hurt more, as much as she told herself it wouldn't if she kept numbing herself to it first. Her logic was extremely flawed but she believed it whole-heartedly. "Shows what you know," she grumbled, the words jumping out before she could stop them. But she had a plan to prove it, she just needed it to come to fruition. In fact, before she realized it she was scribbling a second note, hastily addressing it to her brother and sending it off with another school owl. She felt a bit bad as these could've gone together, but this had been something of an impulse. Really, it was an answer to a suggestion she'd shrugged off earlier. "I'd offer you paper, but since you're obviously managing just fine I'll leave you to...your 'letters'." Her tone was haughty, perhaps a little wounded but trying as hard as she could to look as cool and collected as possible (despite the redness on her face). She stomped off without a further word, resisting every possible urge she had to look back and waiting until she was far enough away to start running.