|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 7:44 pm
Wisp stared. Then Wisp screamed. It was not a sound of shock or horror: it was the normal scream of a teenage girl who has just seen something incredibly cool, and thankfully the mirror was already down on the ground or she probably would have dropped it already. The ribbon of rainbow still connected the mirror to her, the end culminating in the brooch at her waist: she made another small shrieking sound.
"Oh my GOD," she said. "Oh my GOD is that a world painter thing?!"
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 7:55 pm
"No," said Ophelia, wiping her palms on her shirt. "It's... Well, I'm not sure what kind of a thing it is. Let's just get this thing moved and then I'll explain," she sighed, grabbing hold of the mirror again, this time from the top of the frame. Now that she was in the air, it was much easier to maneuver and lift it. Everything was lighter when you were defying gravity.
With the help of the rainbow thing, she managed to get the mirror settled in the attic. Done with that task for the moment, she landed.
"Don't tell anyone else I can do that, okay?" she asked.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 8:10 pm
"Cross my heart and hope to die," the blonde girl recited gravely, checking her bangs in the mirror before flopping bonelessly down to the attic floor. "Stick a needle in my eye. -- You couldn't do that before, right? Otherwise you would've told me. I just, wow, congratulations, you must be wicked excited."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2008 8:35 pm
Ophelia flopped down across from Wisp (note to self: GET. A. RUG.). "Okay," she said conspiratorially. "It's a Never-never thing. Faith, trust, pixie dust. Have you ever read Peter Pan?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 2:22 am
"Noooo, but I did see the movie," said her friend, "the Disney one -- the really old school slap-up creepy kind of racial values one, right? I was like yo, this be wack but it was also kind of awesome? So have you been snorting fairy dust?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 5:17 am
"The book's better," said Ophelia offhandedly. "And I haven't been snorting it. It's not a drug thing."
"Okay," she declared. The way she said it made it clear this was the beginning of a story. "So, like, three days ago I painted this place called Never-never and he taught me how to fly and I would teach you except I haven't got Tink anymore because I left her with him as collateral for a promise that I wouldn't grow up that I have obviously violated now, and not even intentionally."
She looked down and fiddled with her necklace. It had a rather unusual charm on it - a slightly tarnished thimble.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 5:36 pm
Wisp noticed the thimble immediately, as Ophelia probably thought she would -- say what you would about her blonde friend, she had a keen eye for detail, and immediately reached out to poke the chain a little. "It's okay, I'll be able to fly by myself eventually," she said, though this sounded a bit like sheer optimism. "Okay so you promised him you wouldn't grow up which is KIND OF a creepy promise but, and now you did, and -- you'll still be able to fly, right? I mean you just DID."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 7:41 pm
"It wasn't a creepy promise at the time," shrugged Ophelia, continuing to fiddle with the thimble. "I guess you had to be there." She blushed bright red at that, but continued.
"Yeah, I can still fly. It was the first thing I tried out right after I grew, just to make sure I could still do it. It's got to be a pretty useful skill, right? I just don't want to tell my dad, because he'll ask weird questions, and he's already in a bad mood because I've got to take World Painter exams next month. Anyway."
She trailed off and pressed the thimble to her lips, thinking.
"Never mind, it's not important."
But she said it in a way that indicated that she sort of wanted Wisp to ask. Because, like, you couldn't flat out declare that you had kissed Peter Pan, but if the conversation went there on its own then it was totally okay to gossip.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 11:28 pm
Wisp took the bait, hard. She made a little whining noise like a dog being denied a chew toy and tilted her head, reaching out to pat Ophelia anxiously on the hand as though that would make her want to tell her friend more. "Please tell me," she coaxed, "I swear I will so find it important, please please please. I'll tell you a secret. Actually. I don't have a secret but if I had one I'd tell you it. Please. I bet it's important."
They were teenage girls. World Painter exams were one thing: secrets were SO another.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 2:31 pm
Still turning the thimble between her fingers, Ophelia leaned in closer to her friend and smiled. "Okay, okay, okay," she conceded. "So I went to Never-Never, and while I was there I met this boy - he was a bit older than me when I was there, he's probably a bit younger than me now. It's weird. Don't think about it too hard. Anyway. Peter Pan, like the story book character? Except real. He taught me how to fly and showed me around the island. I got gum in my hair, which is why it's short now - it grows on trees in Never-Never - Dad had to cut it out - and he gave me this thimble, yeah?"
She held up the thimble and paused to breathe. She was quickly picking up Wisp's ability to talk a ten miles a minute - it was infectious.
"Apparently someone told him once that a thimble's called a kiss, which is kinda silly, right?" she asked. She lowered her voice conspiratorially - this was the juicy part. "So I had to correct him, yeah?"
She waggled her eyebrows as if to ask, 'are you on this train of thought, or did I leave you at the station?'
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 10:35 pm
Wisp was not only on that train of thought, but she had immediately picked up season tickets; she squealed and immediately fell away on her back, stretching out her legs in a bit of a dead bug impression. Apparently this was the only appropriate teenage girl response to what she had just been told: her excitement over something that had not happened to her was gratifying. "Ohmygod," she said. "YOU DID NOT. Oh wow, mad props. What was it like? Is he cute? How much are we talking about here on the scale? Like was it mouth to mouth or was there a little, you know -- "
She herself tried to waggle her eyebrows, though it was less an are you on board? and more a bizarre eyebrow dance.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 1:32 pm
Ophelia laughed, intensely amused by her friend's reaction, and then shrugged. "It was pretty innocent. Just mouth to mouth. Not any 'you know'. Come on, this was before I grew! I'm not that much of a skank."
She giggled. It was sooooo nice to be the same age as Wisp again. She felt incredibly silly gossiping like this, but at the same time she felt incredibly mature.
"Yeah," she nodded, "He was cute. But he's in Never-Never and I think he'd be pissed off if I went back any time soon since I broke our promise so fast."
"Anyway," she said, changing the subject. For good measure, and because she decided she liked the word, she said it again: "Anyway, you've got to have something cool to tell me! You were a teenager for like two whole months before I caught up to you!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 7:03 pm
There was still a little bit of giggling and pink sparkle-motes coming from her friend at the teenage excitement of I Kissed A Guy And I Liked It -- it was probably something they were both going to have to put up with until they were a little bit older. Her streaked yellow hair was all over the floor, not obviously caring whether Ophelia vaccuumed or not. At first she looked thoughtful; then, drumming her fingers on the floor, Wisp's expression changed.
"Okay well," she said, "this is a secret too, but the difference between my secret and your secret is that your secret is cool and mine is a complete bummer."
Wisp propped her head up on one hand, still tapping her fingers on the floor. The pink sparkles all abruptly fell, and she sighed -- a louder noise too than she expected, and she tapped her chest. "I went out on a double-date with Iggy, right? Because like, I was totally in love with Iggy ever since I was a kid, and I was so terrified through the whole thing and I was like, okay this is it! and I told him and..."
She made a grimace. "He was all, 'I completely don't feel that way about you,' and he was kind of nice about it but I was still like, it was the worst. So. Don't tell anyone, Phelly, because NOBODY knows and I'd die." (Except her mother, Irelia, Jace, Iggy and probably Antony.)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 7:23 pm
Ophelia looked sympathetic and then poked at the pink sparkles that were now littering her floor - what was that? "I don't know Iggy," she said with a frown, "But is he some kind of stupid or something?" she asked. Wisp was pretty and nice. How could a guy not even be remotely interested in her? It just didn't make any sense.
"Hey, there are other fish in the sea, right?" she asked. "I won't tell a soul."
She held out a hand, little finger raised. "Pinky swear, yeah?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 7:29 pm
This cheered up Wisp immensely. "Pinky swear," she promised, and they linked their little fingers in the solemn age-old teenage vow. She reached out and a bit guiltily crushed one of the pink sparkles underneath a fingertip -- it was immediately rendered down into pink powder, which she tried to surrepticiously blow away. "When you're right, you're right, Phel."
Then she said, completely changing the subject: "We should have a room-warming party! Let's go make popcorn!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
