I'm More Than Just a Picture

[Odette Madison]

Odette had been furious, she had been angry, and now she just felt annoyed. The more her anger cooled down, the worse she felt, so a part of her wanted to fuel it. Within the same week Hayden and Margo had dropped her. Or to be more accurate, make her drop them. Now she didn't really have anyone she actually felt close to left. Beaubelle was around, but the girl was boring and plain. And Jessica was a wannabe, a silly one at that. Neither of them would get her any more than Hayden or Margo had. And they would just leave her as well. But she had no energy for more anger, and just needed a distraction. She had wanted to go flying, but for once hadn't felt like it. The Quidditch match had been lost without her hitting a single bludger, and that was just another thing to fuel her bad mood. Sitting at the edge of the lake, Odette occupied herself by throwing stones into the water. She wasn't trying to make them skip, just tossing them in. It was strangely helping her feel a little better, though not much.

 

[Jessica Matthews]

Jessica didn't normally like to traipse around outside in the grounds, but sometimes it was an easier way to find people than sitting for long periods in the student lounge, or wandering around the corridors hoping her friends weren't one step ahead or behind her. Down here by the lake she could see anyone who wandered into her line of sight however far away they were, and all she had to do was squint for a moment with her hand over her eyes to try and determine if she knew them. But so far no one was standing out. Well, that wasn't true, Jessica thought as she drew closer to the girl ahead of her who'd been throwing rocks into the water. She hadn't meant to give her anything more than a passing glance - there was always something so oddly satisfying about watching other people's strange behaviour - but she stopped short as for the first time she actually saw the girl's face. The dark hair, the weird angry rock throwing... none of this matched up with what she knew about... "Odette?"

Immediately Jessica wanted to pull the word back into her mouth. She sounded surprised, shocked even, and she knew the older girl would have definitely heard her. She needed to head this disaster off before it actually became one. "Hello!" She called again, easily conjuring a cheery smile as she picked her way down to where Odette was sitting. "Your hair is so different, I thought it was strange I hadn't seen you around yet - but I suppose I must have and just never realised. It looks nice!" Jessica smoothed down her skirt somewhat nervously, hoping that she had managed to placate the older girl. She determinedly ignored the urge to glance out at the spot in the lake where the most recent stones had sunk. "How have you been?" The question sounded slighly uneasy - she still looked up to Odette, and so was genuinely concerned to see her like this... it seemed so unlike her.

 

[Odette Madison]

Odette was imagining the face of Charlotte in the spot where she threw her rocks. Briefly she tried to imagine her father's face instead, as he was the real root of her problems. Her problem was that she had no idea what he looked like. The closest approximation would be Matthew, and she felt a little bad imagining throwing rocks at him. Sure, the boy was annoying and nosy and had to learn to leave her alone, but she had a feeling he only meant well. Which was ridiculous. But he wasn't a Hufflepuff for nothing. She was nothing like him, and she wondered if he had expected her to be. Charlotte was a lot more similar to her, as much as she hated to even think that.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice. She hadn't seen Jessica yet this year, and wasn't really feeling like keeping her company right now. The shock in her voice as she called her name told Odette the girl didn't approve of her new look, though she'd never have the spine to tell her that to her face. While she was on the subject of similarities, she understood Jessica fairly well. She remembered trying to charm and please people in her first year, before she had started to learn that it made no difference. The world would spit you out even if you tried to appear sweet and nice. At least, it had in Odette's case. "Thanks." She said shortly at the compliment about her hair. Jessica was a friend, sure, but she wasn't really close. Not like Margo had been until Odette chased her off. She wouldn't feel less lonely talking to the girl. She threw another rock and it splashed a bit of water onto her shoes. Once she would have minded. But now she didn't care. She glanced at Jessica. "I've been great. Can't you tell?" She smirked, wondering how the girl would react to that. She didn't offer any more information or ask the same question in return. She wondered how long it would take for Jessica to leave with some polite excuse.

 

[Jessica Matthews]

Stopping a little way away from Odette, Jessica felt sort of... confused... about how to react to Odette's reaction to her. The other girl had sounded almost snappy when she had replied to Jessica's compliment about her hair, and she hoped she hadn't said anything wrong. Did Odette not like her hair as it was now? It was different, that was obvious, but Jessica didn't think she looked bad. She was kind of impressed with the older girl actually, she never would have had the nerve to dye her own blonde hair dark like that. What if it never returned to quite its original colour? But all opinion of hair aside, Jessica could tell that there was something... wrong with Odette today. The other girl had never spoken to her in such a way before, particularly her second statement - had Jessica done something wrong? She couldn't think of anything... unless this was coming back to the hair again, and the fact that she had taken so long to notice.

She wanted to sit next to Odette, but taking a look at the spot the other girl was currently occupying, Jessica really didn't want to do that. Plus, she didn't want to get splashed thanks to the rocks that were still being thrown into the lake. So instead she hovered awkwardly, alternately twisting her fingers in her skirt and then clasping them together to stop looking so nervous. She wasn't nervous... she only wished she knew the right way to respond to Odette in order to stop her being so... in order to get the conversation back to familiar ground. "Well, I guess... if you've been good, that's good to hear. It's been a while." She eyed the older girl, her mind intensively clicking around the sudden social puzzle she'd been thrown. "I've never seen you out here before. Do you come out to do... this... a lot?" It was strange to think that she had been friends with Odette for a couple of years now and yet... didn't seem to know such a small thing about her as that.

 

[Odette Madison]

Odette could tell her behavior and appearance were unnerving the younger Slytherin, and she couldn't say she disliked that. She wanted people to notice she was different, that she was hurting. If it took a different hair color and angry attitude to achieve that so be it. Jessica wouldn't say anything bad to her, she was sure. As she glanced at the girl, she noticed she looked nervous. She sighed softly. "I don't come here very often, just sometimes." She said shortly. "Look, is there anything you want?" It was rude to ask, she knew, but she didn't really feel like polite chit-chat. She wondered if this would make Jessica leave too, just like all the others. It wouldn't really matter at this point. She almost wanted her to, just so she could add it to the things she was angry about.