Open Here We Are Again

[Evelynn Burrows]

Open after Teigs posts with Mara

In comparison to last year, Evelynn now felt pretty good to be back at school. She had managed to deal with her grief and had actually started feeling like herself again over the break. Okay, maybe she wasn't entirely the same as she used to be, but how could she? Nevertheless she had made a huge improved in comparison to the previous year, when she pretty much kept herself seperated from everyone else. That included her friends. Right now the only thing she could hope for was that after shutting them out last year they would actually still want to be her friends, to hang out with her. So she had sent out on a quest to find them. Or at least a couple of them. One would be a good start as well. They had been back at school for a couple of days now, but classes hadn't started yet and she hadn't spend a lot of time in her dorm so hadn't even gotten a proper chance to talk to some of her dormmates. Figuring the best place to run into some of her friends at the moment might be at the student lounge Evelynn made her way there. She hadn't even properly made her way into the room yet when she already spotted a familiar face. Slightly nervous about what reaction she might get the fifth year walked over to her friend and came to a stop in front of her and smiled. "Hi."

 

[Mara Zephyr]

Mara was writing yet another letter to Ford. He was travelling so much that by the time he got her letters he was already in a different place and she so admired him for it. She simply could not wait to be out in the world and she was going to make him take her to all the really cool places because she wanted to see them too. She usually wrote her letters in the student lounge, mostly because she thought it gave her a lot of room to work and she could move about. There would be some pretty hefty exams this year that she wasn't really looking forward to, but Ford had done them, so could she! She wasn't really expecting to be disturbed by anyone, mostly because people avoided talking to her when she was writing a letter because she had a habit of reading out what she'd written to get a second opinion and then ignoring any feedback anyway, so this was a rare occurrence. When she turned, she was so surprised she dropped her quill. "Evelynn!" She'd barely seen a hair of her friends head at all last year (which was an incredible feat given they were dorm mates and all) and to see her now was crazy. She was glad for it, but she wasn't sure what her friend was wanting. Were they still friends even? She hoped so! "Oh my gosh! I'm so happy to see you, I was worried about you sooooooo much. Are you okay now? Is everything good?" She asked, rapid-fire, barely giving Evelynn time to breath let alone answer her questions. Mara just needed to know they were still friends and everything was fine.​

 

[Evelynn Burrows]

Evelynn chuckled when Mara dropped her quill. She obviously hadn't expected to see her. She couldn't blame the girl tho, as she had made hersels as invisible as she possibly could the previous year. At least she could put the troubles of her friend being angry at her or not wanting to see her away, as her friend seemed pretty happy to see her. It also sounded like they would still be friends. "I'm sorry." She started, giving her friend an apologetic look. "About just.. not being there last year. And kind of shutting you out, I guess." It was the best way she could describe her fourth year at the school. She had thought she had been pushing people away, but in reality they hadn't even gotten a chance because she had been avoiding them best she could. Not just her friends, but anyone really. "I'm fine, a lot better at least." She smiled as she calmly answered when Mara was finished. "I just- Are we still friends?" Evelynn decided to come right out with the question. The way the other girl had responded had made her think that yes, they were but she needed to hear her friend say it. To be sure of it. If she had her friends back, then she was a little bit closer to being her own self and getting back into the swing of it all.

 

[Mara Zephyr]

Mara watched and listened as Evelynn tried to apologise and explain a little bit about why she was apologising. To be perfectly honestly Mara had been a bit upset about Evelynn not being around and even in the dorms, where Mara would have felt sure Evelynn would have to talk to her, she'd never seemed to be around. For a while, she thought her friend had disillusioned herself or something, only that was impossible because they hadn't learned that spell yet. She smiled at Evelynn, really just glad that her friend was okay and that she had someone back in her life that she'd been missing. "Oh! Of course we are! Yes, I was going to ask you, I thought maybe I'd done something and you were mad at me or something and that was why you were avoiding me!" Everyone else avoided her most days. It didn't help that she told anyone who would listen about how much she wanted to get out of the school and travel. It wasn't that she wanted to leave her friends, per say, just that the world was so big, she had to start somewhere soon if she wanted to see it all before the age of 25. "I'm so happy you're doing better," she said, standing up and raising her arms for a hug. "I'm gonna hug you now, okay?" She said, going in for a hug she hadn't really realised she needed until she suddenly got the urge to hug Evelynn.​

 

[Evelynn Burrows]

Evelynn could only hope that Mara hadn't been too upset with her ghosting the girl for an entire school year, but the smile on her face pretty much said enough. At least for now. "Oh no, you didn't do anything wrong! Where would you even get that idea?" She exclaimed, wondering if she perhaps had not been the only one to avoid the girl. She would be lying if she said she'd be surprised by it, Mara could be a bit much at times. Evelynn used to get a little bit annoyed by her talk of leaving and her brother from time to time, but she didn't show it. Mara was her friend and if that was what made her happy then so be it, she had gotten used to the endless stories by now. "I think I can handle that." She chuckled when her friend announced she was going to hug her now and gladly hugged her back. Evelynn couldn't remember the last time she hugged anyone other than her sister. And even that didn't happen a lot. Faye tried her best to take care of her, but she wasn't that great with emotions. After the hug she sat down next to Mara, eyeing the paper on the table for a second. She knew all too well her friend had probably been writing another letter to her brother, but she wasn't feeling like asking about it at the moment. "So, did I miss out on anything important last year?" She asked instead, hoping that her friend would discuss things that happened to her last year rather than immediately starting about her brother as per usual.

 

[Mara Zephyr]

Mara was so happy to have Evelynn back to her normal cheery self. She had missed her friend the past year and had wanted so desperately to talk to her with little success so now to have her back was such a miracle and she was very glad of it. She waved her hand in front of her face to ward off the question like it didn't matter and smiled. "Ah, the girls get a bit funny sometimes," she said, in reference to her friends saying she drove them all mental. She wasn't sure why they would say that, all she did was talk constantly about her brother and his adventures, but, it was cool and she wanted to be just like him, what was wrong with that? Traveling the world and meeting really cool people sounded like such a great life to her. She was so glad when Evelynn agreed to the hug and enveloped her friend tightly in a hug that she was sure was crushing both of them a little, but she'd really missed Evelynn. They sat down and Mara grinned at her letter holding it up for Evelynn's inspection. "Ford's in New Zealand right now!" She told her friend happily, always glad of an opportunity to talk about her brother. "I can't wait to get out and see the world, he promised to take me to all the cool spots and I had to miss his graduation because I was too busy to go and see it and I was so crushed!" He'd graduated last year after all, and she was so sad she'd missed it. "You didn't miss much, just Ford travelling around and seeing all the things I want to see and I'm going to go everywhere all before I'm twenty five, I'm sure its doable, especially with magic, we can have all the creature comforts and then when we're finished we can roll it all up into a ball and put it in our pockets!" She told Evelynn happily.​

 

[Evelynn Burrows]

Evelynn frowned at her friends response. She had a feeling the girl was making things seem less bad than they actually were, but she also thought that perhaps she didn't really want to talk about it. If she did, she would. Right? She nodded and forced a small smile on her face when Mara did what she was afraid she'd do: start talking about her brother the very second she had finished her question. She couldn't blame her, but she was slightly annoyed that her friend still put everything her brother did before anything she did herself. If she could she would probably literally put him up on a pedestal. "That's nice." Evelynn smiled. She wanted to tell her friend to let it go, but she had only just reunited with her so that might not be the right idea. At least not yet. If she'd keep talking about her brother Evelynn couldn't be sure about how long she'd be able to keep her mouth shut. She had always been able to put up with Mara's stories, but after what she had gone through it had somehow become more annoying. Perhaps she had learned how important it was to focus on yourself and not just on others. "But what about you? What did you do?" She asked her friend, hoping against all odds that she would actually share something about herself without immediately relating to her brother again.

this is bad i apologize

 

[Mara Zephyr]

Mara nodded as Evelynn told her it was nice about what her brother was doing. Of course I was nice, he was living the absolute dream! Mara couldn't wait to get out there herself! Though she knew she still had a few more years and unfortunately she had to focus on her OWLs at the minute, but everything else didn't matter. All she cared about was her future plans, finishing her NEWTs well enough to get some decent grades so she could justify taking time off to travel the world, she wanted to see it all before she was twenty five. She had to start soon! "He writes me a letter from every country you know!" She told her friend, excited to have someone to shared this with. The only exciting thing about her was Ford after all, she'd constantly introduce him to her friends telling them everything about him because she knew he was going to be great one day. She wasn't sure what his plans were after he finished travelling because they never got to that part, but she was sure it would be something equally exciting. He was excellent with spells. Way better than she would ever be that was for definitely sure! Mara waved her hand dismissively at Evelynn as she asked what she specifically had done. Nothing important so it didn't need to be addressed. "Been writing Ford mostly! All about what he's doing. See he met these two guys in a shop and they were just talking to him about stuff, but he's pretty sure there was something going on because he said there was like a bit of tension and stuff, so he was telling me about that. And one of them was a Professional Quidditch Player! But I didn't recognise the name, maybe you do? Ares Jeffreys?" She thought her brother had said he played for a New Zealand team, which might have been why she didn't recognise him, she only paid attention to the American teams. Though, really only one in particular, Fitchberg Finches were her favourite team of course. "The other guy worked at the Ministry of Law or something, how boring." She couldn't think about working in an office ever.​

 

[Evelynn Burrows]

Evelynn knew it had been a long shot to hope that somehow Mara would stop talking about her brother and actually pay attention to herself for once. She tried her best to smile at her friends next words and she wondered if Mara would even be paying enough attention to her to recognize that it wasn't exactly a genuine smile. Losing both her parents at once had made Evelynn realize how important it was to actually live life. To try her best in school, do things she likes and she cares about. All her friend did was talk about her brother. All. Of. The. Time. Ofcourse she didn't have anything fun to say about herself because she didn't do much except for talking about her brother and basically living her life through his letters. "Yeah, I recognize that name." She responded plainly which might give away that something was off because normally she would've been excited to hear about quidditch players and she did know the guy. Evelynn had tried her best to stay nice to her friend because after all she had ditched Mara for a year, but she didn't seem to have the same patience with her that she used to have. "Mara." She put her hands on the girl's shoulders as she looked at her, already mentally preparing herself for her friends reaction to what she was about to say. "I'm going to say this because we're friends, okay?" She continued, waiting for some kind of response before she moved on. "You need to stop only ever talking about your brother. I know you look up to him and I know he's doing awesome things, but it gets old and honestly people get tired of it."

 

[Mara Zephyr]

Mara nodded as Evelynn agreed that she'd heard the names before. Of course she had, how could she not have? Honestly Mara had been meaning to try out for Quidditch this year, but the time had just absolutely gotten away from her and so that hadn't happened. Still, she could't wait to pass all of her exams and move on and join Ford far away across the globe in New Zealand. She was sure he was having an absolute blast. Well, she knew he was, because he told her so in his letters. She smiled up at Evelynn as she said her name, not realising that the tone was not an especially happy one. Mara copied her friends stance and also put her hands on her friends shoulder. "Evelynn." She said with a grin. "Of course we're friends!" She wasn't quite sure where this talk was going, but Evelynn seemed serious so Mara pulled a serious pouty face to try and match the vibe, only it came out more as if she were mocking Evelynn than actually trying to be serious, so when Evelynn kept talking, Mara's demeanour dropped further and further into the floor and her arms very slowly dropped from Evelynn's shoulders. Honestly, she shouldn't have been all that surprised. She should have known that Evelynn was just like all the others. It really was just a matter of time. Feeling overwhelmed and upset, Mara took a deep breath and moved out from under Evelynn's hands. "I... see," she said slowly, biting her lip to keep the hurt from her voice. Mara had nothing else to talk about. All of her hobbies were stupid, apparently, and whenever she told people about how cool and amazing her wonderful big brother was, they didn't see that she was just trying to get them to like her. She thought maybe if they knew all about Ford, they'd want to come travelling with her too and she could see the world with her friends and not just her brother, because they couldn't travel together all the time. "Sorry, I... guess I'll leave you alone then." She said, stepping back away from Evelynn and preparing to leave the lounge.​

 

[Evelynn Burrows]

Evelynn wasn't too happy about doing this, but she felt like the girl had to understand that there was more to her than whatever her brother was doing. It felt even worse when Mara seemed so happy and her words would probably not go down well with her. She knew that the girl looked up to her brother and had always found him cool, but it was almost as if Mara didn't understand that there was so much more to her than just her brother. "I'm sorry." She said softly when the other girl looked noticably upset, although this was what she had expected at least. "No, please don't." Evelynn shook her head when Mara got ready to turn away. She had just gotten her friend back and although she knew this had to be said at some point and it would hurt her she wasn't going to lose her again. "Look, I like hearing stories about your brother, I do, I think it's cool." She tried to explain herself to her friend. "But I think you are cool too. You are my friend, not your brother." Evelynn continued, somewhat struggling to find the right words to make Mara understand. After all, she didn't become her friend because she loved hearing all about her brother. Sure, it was good to see Mara looking up to him but it also felt like she was trying to live through him. "I like hanging out with you." She said with a small smile. "And I feel like we could have even more fun if not everything was about your brother."

 

[Mara Zephyr]

Omg! I'm sorrrryyyyyy​

​

Mara really didn't know what to say because she hadn't been expecting her best and only friend to turn on her like this. It was... a lot to take in really. And she wasn't sure how she was still standing with the knowledge. Mara turned back to look at Evelynn as she tried to get her to stay, but what was the point, she clearly wasn't wanted. The realisation stung a bit more coming from Evelynn, because of all the girls, Evelynn had always been the one she'd felt closest to. She liked her a lot, and it was her admiration of Evelynn that had initially made her start questioning her sexuality. Of course she was glad she'd never said anything now, because look at the outcome. Mara tried not to look at Evelynn, but she couldn't help herself as she kept talking, because she didn't hate Evelynn, it just stung that she didn't think as highly of her as she thought of Evelynn, and so she bit her lip and looked at her friend as she talked about wanting her to talk more about herself. "You want to talk about me?" She asked, biting her lip and she frowned. She'd never really thought about it before because Ford was always the super cool one. With his duelling and his adventures, Mara had always looked up to him and wanted to tell everyone she ever met all about him. She looked down at the parchment in her hand and folded it into her pocket, sighing. She wasn't sure she knew how to just be herself. She always assumed people just didn't like her, but maybe it was because of what Evelynn said, that she never let them get close enough to get to know her because she always talked about Ford and what he wanted to to, not what she wanted to do. She took a deep breath in through her nose and let it out through her mouth. "You're right... I'm sorry." She said, sighing deeply. "I over reacted." She could see that, getting defensive was her specialty after all. It was how she coped with things usually. Defensive and Dismissive, that was Mara. She wasn't near as confident as Ford. She smiled lightly. "I like hanging out with you too, Evelynn... I'm sorry I talk about... no, you know what, I'm not even going to say his name." She said, smiling slightly as she let the tension drop from her shoulders. She hoped her friend wasn't too mad at her.​