Closed Homework Help

[Gwen Goodwin]

Gwen was glad ot be back for the second year, but she hadn't exactly missed the lessons or the homework. She didn't mind some subjects, but others were just so boring. Gwen had been trying to focus on her Charms homework, but even though she liked the subject generally, it was so boring. Her mind wandering, Gwen's gaze moved away from her book and she looked around. She spotted one of the Ravenclaw girls nearby and paused, staring at her for a moment. Ravenclaw also had Charms this year, and Gwen would bet her favorite earrings on this girl being done with the homework already. She pondered it for a moment, trying to recall her name. Julia? Something like that. After a moment, Gwen abandoned her own book to move over to the ravenclaw. She gave her a small tap on the shoulder, an apologetic smile on her face. "Hi, Julia, right?"

 

[Giulia Alcott]

Giulia didn't think there was much worth in pretending she was happy to be back at Hogwarts, but there wasn't much to be gained by moping around being miserable either. At least she had a small handful of friends here now, and her English had improved since last year, though she didn't think she would ever be truly fluent. It did make studying difficult though, and Giulia had taken to spending extra time in the library, trying to catch up to her classmates who weren't having to struggle through every lesson. With a Charms book open on one side of the desk and an English to French dictionary on the other, she was slowly making a good amount of progress, pleased that this was coming faster than it had last year. Giulia was so absorbed in her work that she didn't notice someone coming near until they were touching her on the shoulder, near jumping out of her skin at the touch. "Ou-yes!" She said quickly, switching between languages as she tried to pull herself out of the translation. She knew the pretty Slytherin from her classes, though Giulia didn't know what Gwen would want with her - girls like Gwen didn't talk to girls like Giulia, no matter what country you were in.

 

[Gwen Goodwin]

Gwen smiled kindly as the girl switched from French to English. "French is so cute." She said. "I'm so jealous you can speak it so well." She sighed. "I'd love to go to paris one day." She said dreamily. Then she shook herself, looking over at what Giulia was doing. She was surprised to see she was working on the same homework Gwen had been working on. She guessed she had been wrong about Giulia and felt a bit irritated. She quickly masked it. "I was just going to ask you if you had finished this assignment yet." She said with a sigh, gesturing at the paper. "It's so hard. I'm not smart like you." She said with a sigh. "I don't even know where to begin!"

 

[Giulia Alcott]

Giulia faltered when Gwen complimented her French, not quite sure what to do with the compliment. She spent so much time feeling self conscious about her bad English that she hadn't really considered how much English speakers liked French. She wondered if it made her seem... cool, even, to some people. Nobody had ever thought she was cool before. "Paris is beautiful." Giulia agreed, pleasantly surprised to have something familiar to talk about with Gwen, of all people. "I grew up not far from Champs-Élysées..." She added, testing if the simple sentence would impress Gwen. She was surprised yet again when the Slytherin brought up homework, glancing down at her notes and quietly moving a hand to cover up the dictionary. If Gwen thought English came naturally to her, so much the better. "Oh, I can help you..." She offered quickly, hiding the dictionary as she shuffled a few parchments around. "I understood it fairly well."

 

[Gwen Goodwin]

Gwen smiled at the girl as she spoke some French to her, as if Gwen could understand it. She didn't know if she was trying to be rude, but probably not. Gwen beamed. "So cute." She repeated. She glanced down at the work Giulia was doing, trying to see if she was doing a decent job. It seemed to be fine. "I mean, that's soo nice of you but I don't think I'll understand even if you explain," Gwen said, frowning slightly and adjusting her hair. "And I don't want you to waste your time, you know?" She added hesitantly, pretending to think it over. "What if... you let me see what you did when you're done? I promise not to copy it exactly, but it would help me sooo much." She said, giving her the big pleading eyes that usually worked on her mum.

 

[Giulia Alcott]

Giulia beamed back when Gwen said her French was cute. She had never thought her language was cute before, but this could turn out to be a serious advantage when it came to making friends with English speakers. She listened when Gwen talked about the homework, giving the Slytherin a pitying look. She had never really noticed how Gwen did in classes before, but she assumed someone as popular as her must be clever. But what if she secretly wasn't? Helping with her homework could be an easy way for Giulia to make some friends, and she smiled sweetly at the Slytherin's question. "Of course you can look, I can explain for you as well, how I did it." She added, hoping Gwen would be even more grateful.

 

[Gwen Goodwin]

Gwen inwardly bristled at the look Giulia gave her and she had to hold in the urge to tell her she wasn't stupid. But if she wanted the Ravenclaw to take pity on her, she had to endure this for a moment. Gwen beamed at her. "Great!" She said brightly. "When you're done, could you just give it to me so I can look? I have some things to do now." She said, not wanting to sit here while Gwen explained everything to her. She understood how to do it, she just didn't want to. "Thanks so much!"

 

[Giulia Alcott]

Giulia had thought she knew how this interaction was going, but as soon as Gwen spoke she recognised the change in demeanour all too well. It seemed that mean girls were mean girls no matter what side of the world you lived on. She bit back a huff of frustration, figuring it was better to be on Gwen's good side than not. "Sure." She said stiffly, not managing to fake the cheeriness of her voice from before.

 

[Gwen Goodwin]

Gwen frowned a bit at the change in Julia's demeanor. She hadn't said anything wrong, had she? She paused, then briefly put her arm around the girl and squeezed. "Thanks so much!" She repeated. "We'll hang out at lunch sometime, okay?"

 

[Giulia Alcott]

Giulia returned the side hug, but her stomach was roiling with frustration now. There were Gwens everywhere, and she knew exactly how this would go, knew she didn't have much choice in her own role in this. "Sure." She said, already knowing Gwen wouldn't follow through. Mean girls were all the same.