Open Reflecting

[Caro Taylor]

Caro couldn't help being a little frustrated with her life. All of her club activities were fun and great, but nothing she did to make herself popular seemed to work. She had helped throw an awesome party last year, and everyone just remembered it as Lizzie's party. She had gone blonde, and Sophie was the only one who had even noticed. As sad as she was about Sophie's breakup it was a little gratifying not to be the only one without a boyfriend anymore, but even then, Sophie had other friends, and Caro had nothing and nobody. She tried and tried and tried and just didn't seem to get any more popular. Glumly, Caro couldn't help but wonder if anyone would ever see her as anything but Lizzie's boring sister. Peering at her reflection the shiny glass covering an empty portrait, Caro wondered if she hadn't done enough to her hair. Maybe she should go even blonder? That might be an idea for next year, when Lizzie wouldn't be around to overshadow her anymore. She could have super bright hair and look super fun, and then everyone would want to be her friend. Caro contemplated it as she stared into the glass of the empty frame, running her fingers through her hair idly. She would look good as a platinum blonde, right?

 

[Norton Gillespie]

Norton was doing his best to stay positive, it was different being at school without his twin, certainly there was a certain level of emptiness that he found difficult to fill, but, that was all the more reason to keep an overly positive attitude. He needed to just stay happy and everything would work out a lot better, it would be easier, take his mind off it all. The teen was wondering around the school, having just done some of his amazing new prefect duties and entirely all happy about what else was in his life. The teen stepped on to the corridor and spotted a girl in his year, he knew her vaguely, she wasn’t a hufflepuff, she was in slytherin maybe. He knew that she was on the monthly and the yearbook but that was all he really knew about her. Norton was also sure that she hadn’t been blonde before, but had he ever spent enough time glaring at her to know. ”Hey! When did you go blonde?” the boy asked as he made his way over, a light and friendly tone in his voice and a little bounce in his step. ”Caro right? I’m Norton, I’m in hufflepuff,” the boy said proudly, but he was almost identifying his house so that she would know who he was a little better, ”You probably knew Gilly a little better, she was in slytherin like you!” his attitude was light and positive and there was a rather large smile on his face as he said it. ​

 

[Caro Taylor]

Distracted by her thoughts, Caro didn't really think anyone would be talking to her. That was, until they mentioned going blonde. Looking over, Caro was surprised to see Norton actually talking to her. He was popular, on the Quidditch team, and Caro didn't think anyone like him had ever really talked to her, her whole time at school. Her heart sank a little at his comment, but he hadn't addressed her as Lizzie's sister, and that was something. "Um, yeah, I dyed my hair a year ago..." She said a little awkwardly, but smiled quickly, not wanting to put him off if he was actually talking to her. "Yeah, I know who you are. Congratulations on making Prefect." She said with a bright smile, hoping to make a good impression. She nodded at his comment about Gilly. "Yeah, we were roommates. Did she transfer out or something? I haven't seen her this year." Caro had never been friends with any of her roommates, but that didn't seem worth mentioning now that someone was actually talking to her.

 

[Norton Gillespie]

Norton frowned a little, had he maybe just not noticed that about her? He didn't know her very well, he only knew her from the classes that they shared. he and Gilly had never really talked about the people who had been in her dorm room, in the same way he had never talked about the ones in his. "I must not have noticed! I'm sorry Caro! It looks good though!" He made sure to apologise because he did feel bad about getting that wrong, it was pretty bad of him to have not noticed that before. He smiled at her congratulations, "Thanks! I like it a lot!" the boy replied with a proud expression on his face, of course he liked it a lot, it was fun and he was so proud of himself to get it. "She did transfer out, she's studying from home now!" the boy replied, he left out the finer details of why she might be and was mostly just glad that Caro had remembered his sister at all, he would be sure to let Gilly know. Maybe she might come back, "I did tell her that Hogwarts is better, but sometimes you just gotta let Gilly do," he added, it was clear that he disappointed about his lack of sibling in the school, but he just had to keep his chin up about it. "Do you have siblings?"​

 

[Caro Taylor]

Caro smiled quickly at Norton's apology, shaking her head. "It's fine!" She said brightly, cheered up by the compliment. "I've been thinking I should dye it even lighter, do you think that would look good?" She asked, running a hand through her hair again. Caro's mind was already somewhat made up on the issue, if this much change hadn't been enough for anyone to really notice, but she was curious about what Norton's opinion would be. She nodded, pleased to finally have an answer for where Gilly had gone. "I see." Caro said with a shrug. "Well, I hope she's having fun at home." As much as Caro had never really bothered to get to know any of her roommates, she did hope for the best for Gilly. Unfortunately then, Norton asked Caro's least favourite question. She nodded, lips tense as she tried to figure out how to respond. It was almost a relief that he didn't think of her as just Lizzie's sister, but the second Caro said her sister's name, she knew that was what she would become. Norton played Quidditch, there was no question that he knew Lizzie. "I have a sister." She said slowly, hoping he wouldn't pry further or make the connection.

 

[Norton Gillespie]

Norton looked at her and focused on her hair, ”I think it would be cool!” the boy said to her, ”But what if you had blue or purple hair, that would be amazing!” he knew that she probably wasn’t dying her hair for the purposes of wacky colours but he thought not giving in to the opportunity would be a bit of a waste. He would do that with his hair if he ever dyed it, but Norton just hadn’t done so. He might think about it, and spray his hair for halloween but he’d never dyed it. ”Do you like having a different hair colour?” He was curious, he’d never done that with his hair, so he would be curious about other people and what they did with their hair. The teen was glad that she didn’t push the idea of his sister and where she had gone, he didn’t particularly feel in the mood to talk about it or answer more questions about it. The teen was also figuring that Caro’s reluctance to say more than a sentence about her sister might also mean she didn’t want to talk about it, ”Sisters are fun! I miss mine, but we’re twins so maybe that’s why. I told her to just get involved with stuff and she’d be happier, but she never wanted to,” the boy said, basically just talking to Caro about his sister even if she didn’t want to discuss hers and even if he hadn’t entirely wanted to discuss his. ”You’re part of clubs right, the Monthly or something?” He didn’t know Caro that well, but he’d read the monthly and frequently seen her name on it, so he had to assume she worked on it.​

 

[Caro Taylor]

Caro paused to consider Norton's comments about her hair. She had temporarily coloured the tips for her Halloween costume last year, but she had never considered any unnatural colours on a permanent basis. "I don't think I'd like that." Caro said after a moment. "I don't really like unnatural hair colours. The whole punk thing is kinda tacky." Caro knew some people thought it looked cool, but she just didn't see the appeal of looking like an angsty clown all the time. She nodded in response to his question, trying a bright smile. Maybe if she was more cheerful people would like her more. "Blondes have more fun, right?" She joked, but even to Caro it sounded a bit fake. She did really like her hair, but the enthusiasm was difficult to maintain. Caro didn't know how Lizzie kept it up. She listened as Norton talked about Gilly more, relieved that he hadn't pried about her own sister. "That's a shame." Caro commented, feeling a little guilty now. Maybe she should have made more of an effort to get to know her roommates. Norton's next question distracted her though, and she nodded. "I'm the Head Photographer for the Monthly." She said, unable to keep the pride out of her smile. "I work on Accio too. Do you do any clubs?"

 

[Norton Gillespie]

Norton had never dyed his hair, he had never really considered it, but maybe it was something he could explore. The boy pulled at his own strands of hair and smile, "Do you think I would suit being blonde?" he asked with a little smile. he didn't think blonde had more fun but he chuckled at the statement with a smile. He could at least find it funny and maybe it would be interesting to go a little blonde. Maybe...."I certainly already have a bunch of fun constantly, but maybe I could have more," he joked back with her. He didn't think he could go any of the wacky colours, he liked them on others but he liked his curly mop of hair, he didn't think it would suit him to change his hair too much. but he could get behind it a little, he'd gone a bit blonde or well, platinum white for a halloween costume, so maybe going blonde wouldn't be too much harder. It would be just a little more permanent. As she told him about what she did, he was pretty impressed, "WOW!" he exclaimed, "That's so cool, you must have so much fun, both the monthly AND accio! Which is better? How did you get into photography? Whose the worst person you've taken a picture of?" the boy asked these questions in exceedingly quick succession. "I'm on the quidditch team and I'm part of the brotherhood, but not in any cool capacity, but I don't mind, taking part is fun and quidditch keeps me so annoyingly busy that I don't have time. Gotta stay in shape for the smooth flying, do push ups to keep my hitting arms strong," he did a little fake flex of his arm muscles before laughing hard, "I bet everyone hates quidditch players, cause they're so involve in quidditch but like it's so much fun!"​