Closed Stormy Nights

[Jasper Night]

Jasper wasn't sure why he was here. Well, because his dad had dragged him over to meet his new cousins. Well, they weren't new cousins as in babies, rather cousins he had never known about before. They were really Jasper's second cousins, he was fairly sure he had heard his dad say something like that. Because they were new to the area because they would both be going to Hogwarts soon, Jasper's dad had decided they should meet and Jasper should make them feel at home and be their friend at school. Jasper hadn't been thrilled about this from the moment it had been made clear to him that they were girl cousins. He already had two of those! Rory was cool, but so much older than him, and Sophia was boring. He only had one boy cousin, and he was even more boring than Sophia because he never wanted to go on any adventures with Jasper. Arkose was kind of like having a girl cousin too, as he only wanted to take care of Sophia's pony.

But he had still been willing to give this whole thing a go. He wanted these girls to look up to him, and figured he could maybe boss them around a bit when they were at school. It wouldn't be bad not to be the youngest anymore, and surely his knowledge of Hogwarts would make these girls look up to him. But now that they were all gathered at the park on the playground, it was just awkward. Jasper's dad and the girls' mum were talking at one of the picnic tables far away, and the kids were really just standing around and looking at each other in turn. Jasper looked between both girls, frowning. His dad had explained some of it to him, especially that something bad had happened to one of the girls, but Jasper hadn't really paid enough attention. So now he had really no clue what had happened. He'd also assumed the two of them would be close, but they seemed almost more wary of each other than of him. He'd also thought they would be friendly, as everyone else in their family was. They didn't look very friendly. "So." Jasper started, pointing at them both in turn. "You're sisters, right? Are you twins? You don't look like twins."

 

[Shale Night]

Shale didn't want to be here. She didn't really want to be anywhere, to be honest, but had she been forced to make a list of places she would prefer to be, this would be very far near the bottom. One obnoxious cousin had been bad enough, but now she was all the way on the wrong side of the world, forced to contend with even more cousins, and it was already clear that this boy was no improvement on Eggy. Shale stood, silent and sullen, with her arms folded, determined not to be the one to break the silence. There was apparently no better option though, as when the new cousin spoke he immediately said something stupid. Scowling, Shale shook her head firmly. "We're cousins." She snapped, not wanting to be closely associated with her pretentious cousin at all. "I barely even know her."

 

[Aegerine Night]

For once in the short time they'd known each other, Aegerine was entirely in agreement with her insufferable cousin. She, too, did not want to be here in the slightest, had no interest whatsoever in meeting more horrible cousins, and would really rather be just about anywhere else, even if that somewhere else was with Muddy. She refused to indulge her mother’s pathetic quest for familial connection, which had already forced her to the far side of the world. She also had no intention of breaking the silence first; she wouldn't lose any unspoken competition with Shale, and nor did she actually want to talk to this irritating, overenthusiastic boy. She stood silent and disinterested a little distance from Shale, not wanting to be associated with her. Apparently, however, such an association was inevitable, since their second cousin was extraordinarily stupid. Someone must have told him about them, and evidently he had entirely misinterpreted whatever had been said. Aegerine was saved from having to actually enlighten him by Muddy’s quicker response, so she merely rolled her eyes at the asinine boy. “What a preposterous assumption,” she said contemptuously. “Have we really come all this way to find that our antipodean family is full of imbeciles?”

 

[Jasper Night]

Jasper held up his hands in fake surrender as the first girl snapped at him, pretending to be intimidated by her scowl and harsh voice. "Well, excuse me. It's confusing, as you both seem to have the same mum." He said with a shrug, nodding his head at the blond woman who had accompanied them both. Maybe he should have paid more attention to what his dad had said, but he wasn't going to admit to that."Okay, whatever, you're cousins." He said, then he looked at the second girl who also seemed very annoyed with him. He snorted. "Did you eat a dictionary on the way here?" He asked her with a laugh. She was using really fancy words, but to Jasper it only made her sound like she was trying to sound more grown up than she was. "Did it taste good?" He asked with a wide grin.