In A Bad Mood

[Bree Devine]

Bree stormed down the corridor. She was in a bad mood. It was just one of those days where the little things that normally wouldn't be a big deal ticked her off. She broke a lot of stuff, which made her even more angry. She had broken her favorite pair of shoes (limited edition and no longer available), lost her favorite shirt, and had been finding more and more things that wanted to make her day worse. Was it even possible to make her day worse? She figured that at the rate things were going, there had to be something.

As she stormed down the corridor, she was ready glare at anyone who dared to look at her. But nobody was there, so she decided to just look at the ground. She was too busy paying attention to her feet pounding on the ground to notice someone else in the corridor. She banged in to them and fell to the floor. She got up immediately, dusting off her clothes. This day kept getting worse. Now she had a headache, a bruise on her stomach, and a huge bruise on her dignity.

She grunted, and was about to turn around to walk away when the student opened their mouth to say something. She decided to hear what they had to say. And if the student wanted to fight, she would beat the pants off of them. She clenched her fists.

 

[Rue Undersee]

Normally, under the circumstances, Rue would simply have mumbled 'sorry' and left it at that. But this wasn't normal circumstances. Rue had decided to try being bad, a rebel. Having failed at being good, what could possibly hurt?
As the girl came striding towards her, looking at the floor, Rue walked towards her, elbows sticking out. She crashed into the girl - who fell flat on the floor. For a moment, her sensitive instinct took over and she nearly helped her up. But instead, she took a step back and laughed. Her heart was thumping. What was she doing? This wasn't Rue, this was a crazy girl with no feelings.

Just as she was about to apologize, the girl stood up and glared at her, fists clenched. This wouldn't do. In a split second, Rue chose to stand her ground and make the girl pay. She had to choose what to say, which was a struggle. There was an awkward silence before Rue said, 'Idiot, should have looked where you were going.' And flicked her slightly curly hair out of her face. Did she look fierce? She certainly felt like a lion ripping up its prey, but she might not have looked like it. Inside she was panicking like mad. She wanted to run away, say sorry, and she was confused. Suddenly, she fell - but not literally - and slumped down by the wall.
'I'm sorry.' She whispered, head in her hands. 'I thought I would be good at being bad, but I'm not good at ANYTHING!' Rue suddenly shouted, bashing her head against the wall so hard it made her dizzy. She put her hands on the floor, steadying herself. Then she realising how fast she was breathing. All of this, plus the fact she was nearly crying, made Rue think. A panic attack? This time, Rue took a breath in and rested against the wall. The world slowed down, and so did her breathing. It was over.

Well, nearly over. In relief, Rue burst into baby tears, making an idiot of herself. The girl wasn't the stupid one, she was. Through the blubs, she managed to say, 'Sorry, Sorry.' Her voice wobbled and her body shook. She was scared of herself, scared that maybe she was nasty. A horrid girl, and always had been. But she put it to the back of her mind. She had never been horrible before, and she never would be again. 'I'm not like that, really.' She hoped the girl would accept her apology and understand.

 

[Bree Devine]

For a moment Bree thought that she would have to fight this girl. This day was going great. Then when the girl started to apologize, she loosened her hands. The girl looked like she felt really bad. Normally, Bree would have just walked away, but with the day she was having she had to make someone feel better. Maybe that would change her day. It was her only hope. If she just left the girl then people would tease her and she would feel all alone. Or something like that. She tried to think of something to say.

"It's fine," she said, giving as much of a smile as possible with the events of the day. "You must be good at something. And trust me, you don't want to be good at being mean. I am most of the time and look what's happened, everything's going wrong. But I guess I deserve it. I'm Bree. Do you think you can rub some niceness on to me?"

Before she knew what she was doing, she gave the girl a friendly hug. What are you doing?! You don't even know this girl, one second you were ready to punch her, the next you're hugging her. Don't become such a softy. Hugging people, she thought. You never do this. What is this bad day doing to me? Even as she thought all this, she kept hugging the girl. The girl needed it. Bree felt her eyes becoming watery. She wasn't going to cry. She stopped herself, as hard as it was. Now she had made a girl feel horrible about herself. Was this what happened when people had bad days? Or was it just her?

 

[Rue Undersee]

Surprisingly, as Rue was somebody who kept to herself, she cautiously hugged the girl back, and then realised it was Ok. 'Thank you.' She said, her voice muffled. 'I'm sorry for being such a prat.' Rue clamped her hands over her mouth. 'Sorry!' The look on Rue's face could only be one that needed to be forgiven. Rue slowly pulled away from Bree. 'I'm.. Rue.' She paused as she normally would when telling a stranger her name, and then held out her hand slowly, trying to be formal. She pretended she was stretching, and put her hand back by her side. You don't need to be formal, Rue, I don't care what your parents taught you. And brighten up! Talk to the girl! Rue had never been good at making conversation. Not without adding umpteen er's and um's in her sentances. That made her feel silly, and so she didn't bother to talk, much to her parents frustration.
This is not about your parents.. They sent you here, so forget them!But Rue couldn't forget. She loved them once, before the incident. They helped her, made her confident. That's how she should have been now.
But after that day, Rue thought she would never be able to talk without being frightened. She felt she couldn't trust anybody anymore.

But this was different - She felt she COULD trust this strange stranger who had suddenly hugged her. She took a big breath in, and for the first time in 3 years spoke a long sentance without hesitating. 'If you're not busy, we could always go to the library to study?' She smiled. It was an achievment not to say 'um' once in a sentance. She put her serious face back on quickly - Bree would obviously think she was a loony, smiling at herself in a daydream.
'I mean, I don't want to disrupt anything you're doing, but it could be fun, and I havn't had fun for ages.' She smiled again. She was on a roll.

 

[Bree Devine]

Bree wiped her eyes after the hug was broken. She was a little startled. She had never really seen this soft side of herself, she was usually tough and confident. She was a little nervous about it. "Just got something in my eye, somehow in both of them," she said, trying but failing to smile. "Okay, I was about to cry. I've had a bad day.... not to mention a bad life... I would understand if you want to know more about it, you would just have to tell me about yours." She hated her step-mother. Her mother had died when she was five and her father just went off and married another woman. The woman who sent her to Beauxbatons. They lived in New Zealand, but her step-mother wanted her as far away as possible, as soon as she was old enough to go to magical school. And apparently her father had to go along with anything she said. She had just gained the habit of being confident and tough. The tears had just built up inside of her and had to come out at some point.

She smiled a little at Rue's suggestion. "That sounds great, actually. The only thing I've been doing today is having a horrible time, something I'd rather not do. Studying is better than a horrible time. I haven't had any fun for a long time either."