Open Responsibilities

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie could admit that she was already feeling pretty stressed and the semester had barely gotten underway, but with the added pressure of the quidditch captain role she was feeling it. It didn’t help that she had had to really fight her parents on the role. They had wanted her to quit quidditch entirely, but she had decided and fought to not, so not only did she need to do well in all of her classes but she needed the quidditch season to go well also. She was glad she had Lars with her, who would be able to captain along side her, she felt he had a much more calm demeanour and where she was likely to stress a lot about not winning he would be able to offer more encouragement. However, it wasn’t much of a calming thought to Minnie when that really was what she was stressed about. It was light stress, but she knew she needed to manage it properly. She knew she was putting too much pressure on herself, but it was so difficult for her to not do so. She was sat in the great hall, breakfast had long since finished but she still had a plate of untouched food and a now very cold coffee beside her. She had books and notes piled around her and ranging from books for the semester to books about quidditch strategy. Perhaps she was overwhelming herself just by having them all open and considering the task she had with them. But it didn’t really matter, she wasn’t thinking about that, she was only thinking about how much work she would have to do that semester. ​

 

[Eric Holland]

Eric had been in a bit of a grumpy mood since his talk with Kas, well.. his fight, really. He had managed to restrain himself a bit, but he was still pretty angry with his friend. But he couldn't talk to anyone about it, especially not Connor who would probably be hurt or upset about the whole thing. When he'd realized that his friend and his brother were in the same dorm, he had kind of assumed Kas would look after his brother for him. Instead, he had been messing with him and bullying him a bit. It wasn't like Eric minded when Kas was a bit of a jerk, but he couldn't allow it when it concerned Connor. His brother was sensitive. The boy was hanging around a bit after breakfast, not feeling like going back to the common room. He spotted a familiar form at the Ravenclaw table, surrounded by books. Before he really knew what he was doing, he headed over to Minnie. At least talking to her might take his mind off of things. He picked up one of the books surrounding her and looked at the back. "After blanket forts, have you moved on to book forts?" He asked her, trying for a joking tone, but maybe leaning a bit more towards mocking because of his bad mood.

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie was concentrating, she needed to maximise her time, if she didn’t she’d fall behind and it would all come apart at the seams. She was therefore startled when she heard a familiar tone, and looked up a little in surprise at it, and then her surprise gave way to a little frown. His tone had been a bit sharper than she was used to. It was more what she’d first known his tone to be like. They were friends….or something...he didn’t need to speak to her with that mocking tone. It did unfortunately put her immediately on edge and on the defensive, ”Well, I realised that blanket forts were not a good use of my time, but book forts are,” she tried to keep her tone light, but she knew that she’d failed. ”I don’t mean to be rude Eric, but I have like….” she looked at her watch, ”thirty minutes to get some work done before I need to go to the quidditch pitch,” she knew she was being a little rude, her tone was more dismissive than she really wanted it to be and it was laced with far more stress than she had wanted. As much as she had been friendly with him, she didn’t want him seeing that she was stressed, she already knew his opinion on that sort of thing, knew how he felt about her parents. ”You know how I feel about falling behind,” she tried to finish with a little joke, tried to finish with something that wasn’t as harsh, but his mocking tone had perhaps hit a nerve with her stress and she couldn’t help her own tone. ​

 

[Eric Holland]

Eric was a little surprised by the tone in Minnie's voice as she told him blanket forst were not a good use of her time. And he was even more surprised by how much that statement hurt. She might as well have said that the time they built blanket forts last year had been a mistake, or that spending time with him was a waste of time. in fact, she probably was saying that, just couching it in some nicer words than that. Eric scowled, crossing his arms, feeling dismissed by her comment about Quidditch. "I forgot you're all important now, sorry your highness." He snapped at her. "Or can I only talk to you when no one is around to see?" He added, thinking back to the time they had built that fort together. He had thought it was nice, but maybe Minnie regretted it. And now she didn't want her friends to see him near her, he bet. "I don't know how you feel about falling behind, I know how your parents feel about it." He added sharply. "Your own opinion is a mystery." He said, wanting her to feel hurt just like he was.

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie knew she should’ve taken a moment to let the comment slide. She knew Eric had a harsh tone, but she had so much on, and so much that she needed to get done, and she hadn’t needed him mocking her for it. Her reaction had come without her thinking about it. She looked away from him as he snapped at her. She wanted to just let it slide, to apologise and assure him that she hadn’t really meant it, but his tone was just having the opposite reaction, she was questioning what she was doing, her parents were just waiting for her to fail, it just..”If you’re going to snap at me, I’d rather we didn’t talk at all,” she retorted, finally glancing back at him, her anger bubbled at the surface, her frustration over having so much that needed done and just not enough time for any of it. She thought of them building the blanket fort, of the simple fun they’d had, the first piece of real fun, unrelated to school or quidditch that she’d had that entire year. But they were beyond that, and she didn’t have time for any fun, she didn’t have time for any of that. She shouldn’t have risen to it, and Minnie couldn’t help the light flash of hurt at his words. She glanced away from her, and hated herself for feeling tears come to her eyes, why did he always manage to make her cry? Though at least while she was hurt, all she felt was anger towards him. ”God Eric, I’m sorry my parents have fair expectations of me at school and follow it, I’m sorry no one expects you to do anything but punch people,” she replied sharply every word of it a lie, she met his gaze and tried to steal herself to not let go of the anger ”Are we done here?” ​

 

[Eric Holland]

Eric's hands clenched into fists as she told him straight to his face she didn't want to talk to him at all. She just confirmed what he had been thinking already, and it was clear she thought he wasn't worth her time. But he wavered at the look of hurt on her face, realizing that maybe he had been a bit harsh with her as well. Could... he make this better? Maybe he could try to say something? But Eric had never been good at fixing situations, he just tended to make it worse. But at Minnie's next words, he was glad he hadn't tried to say anything nice. It was clear she thought he was completely stupid. He wanted to kick or punch something, but he knew that would just prove her point. "Yeah, I think we are." He said instead, through gritted teeth. Then he turned around and stormed away from her, more deeply hurt than he would ever admit.

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie knew it was a mistake to say the moment she had said it, but she was frustrated and annoyed by his words, he hadn’t need to say anything, he hadn’t needed to bring up her parents. She’d reacted, in the way that she always did when someone pushed back, admittedly it was only really Eric who pushed back, at least at school. Minnie felt like they were just back at square one, back to whenever they’d met and it had just dissolved into arguments, how often their interactions had resulted with her in tears - still resulted in tears. It had seemed like lately they’d turned a leaf but she'd just thrown that all away. She watched as he retorted and just stormed away. She blinked a few times rapidly as she watched him leave, furiously trying to get herself back on track. She wanted to go after him and apologise but she didn’t, her frustration kept her rooted to the spot as her heart ached. She looked back at her books and wiped quickly at her eyes, she just had to focus on the work she had, had to focus on the revision she had, focus on pretending like nothing happened and then focus on being better so she would be able to run the quidditch practice, knowing that if anyone looked closely enough they’d for sure noticed that Minnie was crying. ​