Closed Good Enough or Not?

[Vanity Mettlestone]

Vanity knew Emery never talked to her about anything important, and she honestly didn't mind that, but it still felt a little strange and hurtful to hear he was dating someone from a random person gossiping instead of Emery himself. Apparently, the person he was dating was pretty cool, which Vanity couldn't understand. Why would anyone cool want to hang out with her nerdy brother? Let alone kiss him? But Emery had somehow scored a handsome Quidditch captain, and although Vanity was still expecting the boy to come to his senses and dump Emery any moment, she also figured she should probably make use of the situation while she could. After some digging, he found out Emery's boyfriend also had a younger sister who was in her year. Vanity figured that she might be cool as well, and it might be a good idea to befriend her. Or at least, to see if she was good enough for the attempt. Vanity made her way over to the Gryffindor table at lunch time and took a seat across from Marama. "Hi, I'm Vanity. Our brothers are dating, which is weird, right? But I figured I'd get to know you." She said, trying for a sweet smile.

 

[Marama Te Rangi]

Marama had never really seen much point in school gossip, but it had definitely been strange in the last year, hearing it directed to her brother. She had always thought that... whatever the weird thing he had going on with Emery was, it was none of her business - she couldn't quite tell what Rāwhiti saw in Emery as a friend, but they seemed happy at least. But now they were dating, and there had been plenty of gossip about it. For her part all that she really cared about was that her brother was happy, and judging by how much of the holidays he had spent mooning over Emery and begging to floo over to their house, that was definitely the case. So she did her best to ignore the chatter around the school and mind her own business, focusing on her own life. That was, until Vanity sat across from her. She knew, of course, that Vanity was Emery's sister - it was hardly a common surname - but somehow she hadn't put together that this meant the two of them actually had something in common, not a fact she had ever expected to be true. "Oh, for sure!" She answered with a cheerful smile, not quite able to keep the surprise from her face and voice. There was never anything wrong with being friendly, but she couldn't quite set her preconceptions about Vanity's reputation aside. "It is pretty weird, right? I never really got their whole.... thing."

 

[Vanity Mettlestone]

Vanity watched Marama closely as she responded. She was pretty enough, she supposed, though she could definitely do with a few more accessories or a better hairstyle. But she knew some people liked the more casual look. Vanity raised her eyebrows slightly when the Gryffindor described it as weird. She agreed, but she hadn’t expected that the other girl would say it. She wondered what she made of Emery, Vanity guessed he didn’t make any effort to be less off-putting even to his boyfriend’s siblings. ”Right?” She agreed. “They’re so different. And they don’t even like the same things. At least, I doubt your brother is a gobstones fanatic like mine.” She rolled her eyes. “And Emery hates quidditch, you should’ve heard him when I joined the team.” Vanity left out the fact that she had mostly joined the team just to piss him off, she didn’t need to know that.

 

[Marama Te Rangi]

Marama laughed at Vanity's observations, relaxing a little. There was a tone to the other girl's voice she didn't love, but it wasn't like she was actually saying anything bad. "Oh yeah Rāwhiti never really got into Gobstones, he always used to think it was boring when we were kids. He does actually know how to play now, but I'm pretty sure he does it wrong with Emery just to annoy him." She shrugged, grinning slightly. "But yeah, I can't picture your brother ever voluntarily going to a Quidditch match. No offense." She added quickly with a small laugh. "Nothing wrong with that, just doesn't seem like his thing. They've got such opposite obsessions, but I guess they bonded over being weirdly intense about their things."

 

[Vanity Mettlestone]

Vanity laughed softly, shaking her head. "He's right, it is boring. And no one should be as into it as Emery is." She said, having no problem reinforcing how weird Emery was, because he was weird, and surely this girl could agree. If she had to make fun of her own brother to make a friend, she wouldn't lose any sleep over it. "It really isn't his thing, he never goes to my matches anyway." She said, though she knew he went to his boyfriend's, which was honestly a little insulting. "So is your brother very intensely into Quidditch then?" She asked curiously. Maybe Marama had a good point, but at least Quidditch was fun, Vanity could understand being intense about it, even if she herself wasn't.

 

[Marama Te Rangi]

Marama giggled, begrudgingly agreeing with Vanity though she wouldn't put it quite so bluntly. "I mean, it's fine if you've got nothing better to do, I guess?" She shrugged. She winced a little when Vanity said Emery never went to her matches. "Ouch, that sucks." She couldn't hold back a small laugh at the Slytherin's next question though. "He owns figurines of every player the Kea and Macaws have ever had, his whole room is full of them. He's got folders full of collectible cards and a snitch signed by Blake Van Houten. People think he's really cool just because the thing he's a dork about is sports, but he's still a giant dork."

 

[Vanity Mettlestone]

Vanity shrugged, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "It's fine, I don't really care." She said breezily. It had stung a bit at first, but if Emery chose a boy over his siblings it just meant he was a bad brother and it had nothing to do with her. Vanity smiled slightly as Marama explained how obsessed her brother was with Quidditch. It did seem a bit... extreme, but honestly, it was still a way less weird thing to be obsessed with than gobstones. "Alright, but at least people know who Blake van Houten is." She said, wondering idly if that snitch was locked away somewhere secure. It would be cool to have. "Emery's always talking on about people no one has ever heard of, and he has so many gobstone sets... like ones in glass cases because they're so rare or vintage, I can't even breathe near them without him getting mad." She said with an eyeroll, neglecting to admit that she had stolen plenty of his gobstones over the years. "So I think he still wins the giant dork award."